Risk

Hernias are a common ailment among Americans; more than 4 million people develop the painful condition. And although both men and women develop hernias, female patients may be harder to diagnose. Doctors and patients may not realize the abdominal pain a woman is feeling is because of a hernia. Dr. Hien Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the pain can be mistaken for other conditions with similar symptoms, such as adhesions from prior surgery, endometriosis, fibroids and ovarian cysts.

Forecasters are watching for development of potentially severe thunderstorms across Maryland late Thursday, though the strongest chances for severe weather were expected in Southern Maryland. Warming temperatures are expected to fuel the atmospheric instability, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. Temperatures reached 84 degrees at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary's County by 1:30 p.m., while it was 77 degrees at BWI Marshall Airport. An area of Southern Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore, along with parts of Central Virginia, is expected to have a 15 percent chance of severe damaging wind gusts.

Inside Westminster Abbey, eight 20-foot-tall live trees lined the center aisle during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The trees transformed the space, doing what even the most elaborate floral arrangement could not — providing a natural, living sense of permanence and an air of drama. The move was unexpected, unpretentious and bold. A potted tree on your patio or deck can have the same effect. While not every tree is well-suited for a container, there are a surprising number of options, ranging from crape myrtles to hollies.

Actress Angelina Jolie, who got a double mastectomy to lower her chances of breast cancer, will also have her ovaries removed, according to People magazine. Jolie said in a New York Times editorial Tuesday that she had her breasts removed and reconstructed because she has a gene mutation that makes her risk of breast cancer high. Women with the BRCA1 gene mutation also have a high chance of developing ovarian cancer. There is no test to detect ovarian cancer and women often die from the disease because it is diagnosed in the late stages.

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

SHARK attack is probably the greatest fear for humans swimming and surfing in ocean waters. (Thank Hollywood for that.) But it is not the greatest danger by far, despite the recent public fixation on gruesome injuries and two deaths in Virginia and North Carolina. Drownings, heart attacks and even coral and seashell lacerations produce more deaths and serious injuries than shark bites. The number of reported shark attacks this summer is actually smaller than normal: three worldwide deaths so far in 2001, compared with eight last year.

Smart meters are an insidious, violating and dangerous technology being ushered in at a speed the public cannot fathom ("BGE to begin smart meter installation in May," March 18). They are a health and privacy disaster in the making. Smart meters are currently mandatory, relying on radio frequency radiation or RF/wireless signals. The utility asserts that it will only transmit your personal data two minutes a day. In reality, to maintain the entire mesh network, all meters will be talking with one another 24/7, engulfing our homes and neighborhoods continuously with RF radiation.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently received a gag gift of protective headgear after she suffered a concussion and blood clot near her brain after a fall. While Clinton can now make light of the injuries, a blood clot can be a serious health risk that can lead to death. Dr. James L. Frazier, III, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, talks about the dangers. What causes a blood clot to form in the brain? A blood clot or thrombus can form in the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

Areas south and west of Baltimore are at risk of potentially severe thunderstorms this afternoon. All of central Maryland is under a hazardous weather advisory to look out for storms, according to the National Weather Service's Sterling, Va., office. But there is a particular risk of damaging hail and heavy winds south and west of the city. The best chance for those conditions is between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Stay tuned for any thunderstorm watches or warnings issued later.

Pertaining to the Perry Hall shooting, I have sympathy for both the victim and the shooter. When are parents going to teach their children not to be bullies? In this day and age when bullied victims bring guns to their schools, it would be a good idea not to be a bully. I have absolutely no sympathy for the bullies, but the true tragedy is when innocent victims are in the shooter's path. Every school and every parent should view the documentary "Bully" and then discuss it after.

In a recent letter to the editor ("Fracking is not the answer for U.S. economy," May 7), David Wagenheim relies on outdated and previously debunked talking points in an attempt to convince readers that hydraulic fracturing harms groundwater, notwithstanding statements from organizations like the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ground Water Protection Council to the contrary. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself stood up this past year and tried to set the record straight on this claim, with former administrator Lisa Jackson telling reporters that "in no case" - not one - has the agency found hydraulic fracturing to have an adverse impact on drinking water.

Summer is almost here, and with it likely some blistering hot days. A recent study suggests the elderly should beware when the temperature spikes, because they face an increased risk of winding up in the emergency room short of breath on those days. And that's just a taste of what health problems to expect as global climate change cranks the heat up in many places. Researchers for Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Yale universities reviewed a nationwide health database of 12.5 million older Americans on Medicare and found that increases in outdoor temperatures raise the risk for the elderly of being rushed to the hospital with respiratory disorders.

If indecent exposure laws aren't enough to give adventurous Pimlico infield visitors pause, here's another disincentive: The famous race course lies inside of one of Baltimore's statistical hot spots for gonorrhea. Just in time for the end of national STI Awareness Month (and, unintentionally, in time for the start of the Triple Crown at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday), staff recently added a set of maps to the city's STD page, showing Baltimore ZIP codes' rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2012.

Over two years have passed since firefighter Mark Falkenhan was killed at an apartment fire on Dowling Circle in Towson. His death resulted, in part, from a collapse of the Incident Command System (ICS), when first-arriving units were faced with heavy fire and multiple rescues. ICS is a procedural policy for ensuring that command and control mechanisms are continually utilized during mitigation efforts at every incident. "Command" is assumed by the officer of the first-arriving unit and passed to the responding chief officer upon his or her arrival.

While the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a Senate plan to avoid furloughs of air traffic controlllers, positions responsible for weather observation at BWI Marshall Airport and other airports across the country are at risk. The Federal Aviation Administration is considering cutting what are known as contract weather observers, who supplement automated meteorologic observation at airports around the country. The observers aren't necessarily meteorologists but they can help verify or expand on forecasting data.

America is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis - Baltimore, too. Ten million families are paying more than 50 percent of their monthly income on rent, a severe cost burden that leaves little for food and other necessities. Over 32,000 applicants (and counting) are on the Housing Authority of Baltimore City's waiting lists. Public housing authorities can only do so much. With limited, dwindling public resources, private dollars are needed now more than ever to help create affordable housing.

Chris Carr's balky left hamstring kept him out of his third consecutive practice this week, an ominous sign that the cornerback might not be available for the Ravens' road game against the Tennessee Titans Sunday. In his seventh season in the NFL, Carr has never missed a game, playing in 96 straight regular-season contests and five playoff games. Carr couldn't say whether his streak would continue Sunday. "I don't know," he said Thursday. "I'm definitely going to be smart, but if you look at my history, it would say that I'm playing.

It's nothing compared to the dangers in Colorado, but there is an elevated risk of wildfires in Maryland thanks to dry weather and gusty winds. The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement warning most of Maryland of the dangers. Northwest winds of about 15 mph are expected to gust to up to 25 mph. With as low as 30 percent relative humidity as well, there will be enhanced chances of wildfires sparking and spreading. The risk is elevated across much of the country, with "red flag" warnings in place in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

A doctor might ask for a patient's family disease history, or exercise or smoking habits, but whether they have trouble getting food onto the table or paying energy bills is unlikely to appear on any clinic questionnaire. Those sorts of factors could have just as much, if not more, of an impact on a person's everyday health, argue the founders of a startup out of the Johns Hopkins University. Their company, Healthify, is giving clinics that serve largely low-income populations the means to gather and use that information.

Seismic testing for oil and gas off Maryland and other Atlantic coast states could cause widespread harm to whales, dolphins, sea turtles and fish, as well as to fishing and tourism, an environmental group warned Tuesday. Oceana said the federal government's own environmental impact statement estimates 138,500 whales and dolphins could be injured if seismic "airguns," which generate blasts of noise underwater, are used to explore for oil and gas along the Atlantic coast.  The Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is weighing applications to conduct offshore seismic testing from Delaware to Florida.