Burnout is more than a buzzword; it affects millions of lives. It is characterized as a syndrome, known to be emanated from chronic work-related stress without proper management. The syndrome brings mental, physical, and emotion-based affects on its victims. Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger initially witnessed the burning out among medical professionals in the 1970s, but over time it has occurred to professionals in all industries. Understanding its five stages may help individuals to recognize early signs, try to mitigate the effects, and provide actionable steps towards recovery.

What is Burnout?

Burnout is distinct from depression, which influences every aspect of life and often involves persistent thoughts of hopelessness or worthlessness. Burnout typically involves limited manifestations to the work environment, although its impact can resonate into other areas.

5 Stages of Burnout

Stage 1: The Honeymoon Phase

This stage is marked with great excitement and hopefulness when initiating a new role, project, or even a dream. Inspiration, energy, and enthusiasm to prove their worthiness are felt here. It is a productively energetic stage where creativity will flow free of resistance. On the other hand, it becomes a burnout foundation stage if over-exhausted and failed to exercise proper self-care toward achievement.

Stage 2: Stress is Introduced

With responsibilities growing, cracks start to show. You may feel more stressed and work consumes most of your time and energy. Anxiety, headaches, and disrupted sleep patterns appear. Productivity decreases, irritability increases, and you have less enjoyment in things that you used to love. This is a critical stage where the appearance of signs may prevent further progression.

Stage 3: Chronic Stress

Chronic stress ushers in frustration, cynicism, and a sense of powerlessness. Your problem-solving abilities diminish, and procrastination or avoidance behaviors may emerge. Emotional symptoms like resentment and apathy combine with physical fatigue. At this point, burnout begins to erode well-being, often leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as excessive alcohol consumption or social withdrawal.

Stage 4: Burnout Phase

By this stage, everything is all-consuming exhaustion. You may be overwhelmed with extreme self-doubt, chronic physical problems such as gastrointestinal distress or migraines, and obsessive thoughts about work problems. Social connections fray as irritability and numbness take over. Friends and family often notice significant behavioral changes.

Stage 5: Habitual Burnout Phase

If untreated, burnout becomes deeply ingrained, which results in permanent mental and physical fatigue. Chronic burnout may precipitate such conditions as anxiety and depression that make it challenging to perform effectively in the workplace and outside of work. Your career could even be lost because burnout compromises your performance and productivity.

Symptoms of Burnout

1. Exhaustion: Prolonged mental and physical depletion of your energy levels.

2. Depersonalization: Cynicism and lack of concern creep into relationships and communication.

3 Reduced Personal Achievement: Your work loses worth, and you may feel you are not up to standards, giving in to frustration and reduced originality.

These signs frequently coincide with physical signs (headaches, muscle pain, sleeplessness), emotional signs (self-doubt, loneliness, unhappiness), and behavioral signs (social withdrawal, outbursts of anger, abandonment of obligations).

How to Heal from Burnout

The sooner people take intentional action to heal from burnout, the sooner they can get out of it. Here's how to get your balance and well-being back: Use weekends and paid time off to get away from work. Do things that recharge your head and body.

• Limit excessive workloads through learning to say no and setting clear limits on work-related communication outside office hours.
• Identify tasks that are truly important and concentrate the energy there.
• Delegate or eliminate nonessential responsibilities.
• Build a support network of colleagues, friends, and family to share your concerns and get perspective.
• Practice regular exercise, healthy eating, and mindfulness practices to maintain physical and emotional resilience.

How You Can Stop Burnout: Prevention

Burnout can be prevented best through being preventive. Cultivating a life that is in balance demands action taken: Fosters resilience by building good habits which include being stress managing; and among these may be through meditation, journaling, or therapy, etc.

• Build habits that help you manage stress effectively, such as meditation, journaling, or therapy.
• Find tasks or projects that align with your values and bring purpose to your career.
• Make time for hobbies, relationships, and relaxation outside of work.
• If workplace culture contributes to burnout, work collaboratively with management to implement supportive policies like flexible schedules or wellness programs.

Burnout may feel overwhelming, but it does not have to be a permanent condition. The stages and symptoms of burnout can be recognized to take control of your mental and physical health. Whether recovery strategies or preventative measures are used, the important thing is to act before burnout sets in.

The takeaway coffee cup in your hand may be releasing a sea of microplastics into your body every time you take a sip, a new study reveals.

Microplastics are essentially fragments of plastic that are between 1 nanometer and 5 millimetres wide and can found in water, soil and the air. Experts estimate that about 2.7 million tonnes of microplastics seeped into the environment in 2020, an estimate expected to double by 2040.

These fragments carry toxic chemicals and can disrupt internal biological processes, leading to inflammation, cell death, organ dysfunction, heart attacks and reproductive issues in humans. Scientists have also found links between microplastics and cancer.

While researchers have long claimed that microplastics can enter the human body through contaminated food and water, a new Australian study suggests it can also enter through hot coffee cups.

Why Are Plastic Coffee Cups Dangerous?

Based on the Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics study, cups made of plastic or with a thin plastic lining can shedding thousands of tiny plastic fragments directly into your drink when filled with hot coffee.

Xiangyu Liu, study co-author and research fellow at School of Environment and Science and Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, said this was due to heat.

The team conducted a a meta-analysis on existing research and analyzed data from 30 peer-reviewed studies. During this time, they focused on how common plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene behave under different conditions, primarily temperature.

As the temperature of the liquid inside a container increased they noticed that the release of microplastics generally increases too. In the studies reviewed, reported releases ranged from a few hundred particles to more than 8 million particles per litre, depending on the material and study design.

Interestingly, 'soaking time' or the amount of time the drink sits in the cup was not a consistent driver, suggesting that leaving a hot drink in a plastic cup for a long time is not as important as the initial temperature of the liquid when it first hits the plastic.

After testing nearly 400 different cups, they found that if someone drinks '300 millilitres of coffee in a cup made of polyethylene per day, they could ingest 363,000 pieces of microplastic particles every year', according to Liu

What Can Be Done To Reduce Risks?

The team recommends using a reusable cup made of stainless steel, ceramic, or glass, as these materials do not shed microplastics for hot drinks. If you must use a disposable cup, its is better to drink out of a plastic-lined paper cup as they shed fewer particles than pure plastic cups, though neither is microplastic free.

They also advise not pouring putting boiling liquids directly into plastic-lined containers. Telling the barista to make your morning coffee slightly cooler before it hits the cup can reduce the physical stress on the plastic lining and lower overall exposure.

A dangerous, drug-resistant fungus has infected more than 7,000 people across 27 US states, including Mississippi, in 2025, federal health data shows. The infection, known as Candida auris, is classified as an “emerging infectious disease,” after doctors and public health experts noted a steady rise in cases since 2019, according to specialists at the Cleveland Clinic.

As of December 20, Mississippi had reported 108 cases of the fungal infection, based on figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here is what you need to know about Candida auris cases in Mississippi.

What Is Candida Auris?

Candida auris is a type of yeast that spreads quickly among patients who are already ill, particularly in hospitals and other healthcare settings, CDC experts say. The fungus can cause a range of infections, from those affecting the skin to severe and potentially fatal bloodstream infections.

Treating it is challenging because the organism can adapt to medications meant to eliminate it, health experts note. C. auris mainly affects people with serious underlying health problems and those using invasive medical devices such as ventilators, feeding tubes, or catheters, according to the CDC.

The fungus spreads through contact with contaminated surfaces and objects and can remain on a person’s skin or other body areas even when no symptoms are present. Experts say healthcare workers and visitors are not considered at risk of becoming infected.

Candida Auris: What Are The Symptoms?

Symptoms of Candida auris are not always noticeable, but when they do appear, they may include the following, according to the Cleveland Clinic:

• Ear infections
• Wound infections
• Urinary tract infections
• Blood infections that spread throughout the body

Candida Auris: How Can It Be Prevented?

The CDC advises healthcare facilities to take several steps to limit the spread of Candida auris, including:

• Regular hand hygiene using alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Isolating patients who test positive for C. auris
• Frequent and thorough cleaning of patient rooms
• Using gloves and gowns while providing care
• Ensuring visitors clean their hands with soap and water or alcohol-based sanitizer

Which US States Have Reported Cases Of Candida Auris?

According to CDC data as of December 20, cases have been reported in the following states:

• Pennsylvania
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Ohio
• Wisconsin
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Delaware
• Georgia
• Maryland
• North Carolina
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Kentucky
• Mississippi
• Tennessee
• Louisiana
• Texas
• Arizona
• Colorado
• Montana
• Nevada
• Utah
• Wyoming
• California
• Oregon

Drug Resistance For Candida Auris Grows

Candida auris, often referred to as a “superbug fungus,” is continuing to spread worldwide and is becoming increasingly resistant to both antifungal drugs and the human immune response, researchers at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation said in a review published in early December.

The findings support earlier CDC warnings that labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat,” making it the first fungal pathogen to receive that classification, as case numbers have climbed sharply in the United States, especially in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The review, published in the journal Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, explains why the fungus is so difficult to control and highlights how outdated testing methods and limited treatment options have failed to keep pace. The research was led by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan of Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey, Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary from the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit, and Dr. Michail Lionakis, head of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health.

In their statement, reported by Fox News, the researchers emphasized the urgent need to develop new antifungal drugs with broad effectiveness, improve diagnostic tools, and explore immune-based and vaccine-related treatments to better protect high-risk patients.

While doctors across the world recommend ensuring that fluoride and other protective minerals make up your toothpaste, your body produces its very own amino acid that protect your entire dental cavity.

Arginine, an amino acid that is already present in saliva, can turn bacteria from damaging to protective in your mouth, a study has found.

When sugars from food are broken down by the many bacteria living in the mouth, acids are produced that gradually damage tooth enamel and lead to cavities. This is known as dental caries. Over time, this acid dissolves tooth enamel and causes cavities.

However, researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark have discovered that regular arginine treatment can significantly reduced the overall acidity levels in the mouth and prevent tooth decay.

Yumi Del Rey, microbiologist at Aarhus, said: ""Our results revealed differences in acidity of the biofilms, with the ones treated with arginine being significantly more protected against acidification caused by sugar metabolism."

How Did The Study Take Place?

The Danish scientists recruited 12 participants with active caries and prepared specialized dentures for the collection of intact biofilms, spanning both sides of the jaw.

Volunteers were then asked to instructed to dip the dentures in a sugar solution for 5 minutes, immediately followed by distilled water (as placebo) or arginine for 30 minutes, one on each side. This was to be repeated three times a day, with arginine treatment done on the same side each time.

Sebastian Schlafer, professor at the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health, explained: "The aim was to investigate the impact of arginine treatment on the acidity, type of bacteria, and the carbohydrate matrix of biofilms from patients with active caries."

After 4 days of this process, the biofilms were developed and the dentures were removed for detailed analysis. The researchers compared dental plaques grown on customized dentures on both sides of each participant's mouth using a special pH-sensitive dye called C-SNARF-4.

How Does Arginine Work?

Biofilms treated with arginine showed a significantly higher pH (lower acidity), altered biofilm structure and reduced harmful bacteria, highlighting the amino acid's potential in preventing dental caries.

Additionally, the team also began to look into how arginine might be reducing acidity, by taking stock of which bacteria and sugars were present in each sample.

Biofilms treated with arginine showed lower levels of a sugar called fucose, while another sugar, galactose, was concentrated towards the outer surface of the biofilm, meaning both sugars were away from the tooth enamel.

After analyzing the DNA of bacteria present, the researchers found that arginine treatment significantly reduced a specific population of Streptococcus bacteria known to produce acid, while slightly increasing other bacterial strains that can metabolize arginine.

The scientists noted that while more research is needed into the arginine's effectiveness, the amino acid could be a promising new addition to oral hygiene products such as toothpaste or mouthwash.