Recently I came down with my first case of poison ivy. And it's a doozy. A trip to the doctor last Monday has me on medication that's clearing it up quickly, though. I'll be happy to see it go away completely! Since this was my first case of the scratchy stuff, I did a little research online and discovered that a lot of the things I thought were facts about poison ivy turn out to be nothing but myths.

• Scratching will cause the rash to spread. Technically, this isn't true. The rash is caused by contact with urushiol oil from the poison ivy plant. If your skin still has traces of the oil and you scratch, you could transfer the oil to another part of your body. But, once the oil is gone, scratching will not spread the rash. However, take it from my personal experience, you don't want to scratch. I'm on a heavy-duty antibiotic to clear up the infection I have as a result of scratching.
  
• Poison ivy is contagious. Again, only contact with urushiol oil will cause the reaction. The rash itself is not contagious.
  
• Once allergic, always allergic to poison ivy. Not necessarily. Your sensitivity can change over time.

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I know a lot of people who say that they catch some kind of bug every time they fly. There's no doubt that sharing cabin air and sitting in close proximity to a passenger with a contagious illness ups your risk of getting sick yourself.

What's a person to do when they fall ill before a flight? The right thing to do is to stay put to protect your own health as well as the health of others, but getting out of your ticket can be especially tricky.

Travel columnist Elliot Christopher has four tips for travelers who find themselves suddenly and seriously ill before a flight, tips that might just help you skip your flight without losing hundreds of dollars in fees or non-refundable tickets. It's not always an easy battle to win, but it might not be as hard as you think.

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Four people in the Milwaukee area are confirmed to have contracted measles. A 37-year-old man and three children under 2 years old have been infected and are currently contained to minimize the spread of the disease. Measles is a highly infectious disease that's spread through respiration.

Symptoms include a cough, fever, runny nose, and red eyes. While the symptoms themselves aren't necessarily serious, the rapid spread of the disease to those who aren't protected is a cause for concern. In the US the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) is administered before 18 months of age. But in recent years, parents have voiced concerns over a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The CDC maintains that the MMR vaccine is safe.

One of the Milwaukee measles patients had contact with up to 150 people prior to being contained, so area officials are concerned about a possible outbreak. As a precaution, city officials offered free vaccinations to citizens. A Milwaukee health department representative said that one immunization shot is 95% effective.

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Is it possible to catch obesity like you'd catch a cold, the flu, or pink eye? Yes, say researchers who believe obesity is due, in part, to a viral infection.

Adenovirus Ad36 -- one in a family of about 50 viruses that cause colds, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal problems, and eye inflammations -- could be the culprit in some cases of obesity in humans and other animals. In fact, it's been linked to a 50 to 100 percent gain in body fat in some animals. And 30 percent of people screened for the virus in one study had the antibodies, compared to 10 percent of people of a healthy weight range.

"We can't say that the virus caused obesity in all those people," says researcher Richard Atkinson, emeritus professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "It's still speculation, some say a gross speculation." Still, Ad36 research has led Atkinson to create an obesity research center in Richmond, Virginia where people can pay for tests to determine whether it's food or viral exposure responsible for their extra pounds.

There are too many restrictions on testing right now for Atkinson and fellow scientists to make any convincing human conclusions. But they are pretty convinced by their study on mice and monkeys. What they've learned so far: Animals inoculated with the virus gain weight even when their food intake remains the same. And Ad36 is transmissible from animal to animal.

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Do you ever notice that a negative personality can be contagious? I've seen this in my own family and within my social group. There are some people that are perpetually positive, while others default to a negative point of view on almost everything. It's more than cynicism as well.

A new study has shown that consumers can pick up negative views of a product when friends and those close to them have negative views on those same products to begin with? For example, if you can't stand the Apple iPod's iTunes software and you share that fact with your close friends, they too may come to dislike the software.

The results from this study also show that people with negative perceptions on a certain product can become even more negative when they meet new people that also have negative feelings about a certain product. In the consumer psychology field, this is huge. If you've ever heard the term "word of mouth," this would be the definition of that, big-time.

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I think that this is one of the most interesting subjects I've come across in a while. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published this study that suggests people with obese friends are more likely (57% more likely, in fact) to become obese as well. The same can be said for those whose siblings and spouses gain a significant amount of weight, although the results are less significant (40% and 37% respectively).

Basically the research suggests that obesity is socially contagious. If your friend gains weight, you're more likely to as well as are, according to the study, your friends. So what gives? The researchers believe that it's all about ideas and what we all believe is acceptable as far as weight and health are concerned. If your pal becomes obese, your idea of what is considered a healthy body size will change, making you feel it's more acceptable to be heavier.

The good news is that apparently the same goes for losing weight. So if a buddy (or sibling or spouse) begins to eat healthy, exercise regularly and lose weight, you'll get the idea too and be influenced to life a healthier lifestyle as well.

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No matter how dedicated you are to fitness, you can't go out jogging or pick up those free-weights if you're too busy in the bathroom suffering flu symptoms. It's that time of year again, when cold and flu viruses are running rampant around workplaces -- having a real party bringing down one over-worked & stressed out coworker after another, sidelining even the toughest cookies one by one. While there's no way of avoiding exposure completely, there are many ways to reduce your risk of actually getting sick. And if you play your cards right, you just might make it through the season cold and flu free!

First off, wash your hands often: before and after you eat, after using the restroom, after coughing or sneezing, and any other time they start to feel a little grimy. These are all obvious times for cleanliness, but it's amazingly easy to space it and forget. Now is not the time! haha. It's also not a bad idea to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer handy for some additional "spot cleaning" throughout the day, and keep your workspace clean so you don't re-infect yourself.

It's also really important that you take care of yourself physically. That means eating balanced meals (including breakfast!), making sure you get your 8 glasses of water in each day, and taking frequent rest and stretch breaks whenever you start feeling tense or fatigued. If you have vacation days, go ahead and use them! The time off will help you de-stress and "refuel your tank" so to speak.

And last but not least, avoid sick co-workers as much as you can. And if it applies to you and it's even remotely possible -- quit smoking! At this point it's common knowledge that smoking is bad for your health, and smokers get sick a lot more than non-smokers do.

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