Monday, August 17, 2009

September Health Blog

Natural Health News:
Optimists live longer. Speaking of living longer-a recent study shows both men and women in the US are now living longer.
  • Foods that help lower cholesterol: fatty fish, walnuts, oatmeal, and oat bran, and foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols. Green tea may also lower your bad cholesterol.
  • Gentle and regular exercise can help fibromyalgia and arthritis patients get their lives back
  • Fibromyalgia symptoms: Muscle aching all over or at specific points (neck, back, knee, shoulder); multiple tender/trigger pints (11/18 locations). Risk factors include other inflammatory diseases (lupus, Sjogren's, rheumatoid arthritis). female (80% women), ages 20-50. No known cause.
  • Vibration may help with muscle stiffness, shaking and sleep in Parkinson's patients. Charcot and later Tourette found that vibration helped many Parkinson's patients but this fact was lost as a possible treatment later. A recent study in Germany found significant positive benefits. Tremor and rigidity scores improved by 25 and 24% with whole body vibration (WBV)
  • Thunder God Vine (Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F) may help with rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Mediterraean Diet plus exercise-may help keep Alzheimer's at bay.
  • Psoriasis may be treated at home with Ultraviolet lamps.

10 Things Not to Do with Swine Flu

  1. Don't expect a season flu shot to protect against swine flu.
  2. Don't expect a face mask to protect you.
  3. Don't hold or attend a swine flu party
  4. Don't forget planning
  5. Don't forget to clean with household disinfectants
  6. Don't get complacent
  7. Don't panic
  8. Don't leave home if you have flu like symptoms
  9. Don't rush to the ER. The CDC recommends a trip for any of the following- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, Sudden dizziness, Confusion, Severe or persistent vomiting, Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough. Having a high fever for more than three days is another danger sign, according to the WHO.
  10. If you are a parent, don't forget to teach your kids swine flu protection

Risk Factors For Osteoporosis:

  1. Lactose intolerance
  2. Asthma
  3. Rheumatoid Arthritis
  4. Beast cancer
  5. Anorexia
  6. Diabetes

5 common causes of pelvic pain

  1. Uterine Fibroids
  2. Menorrhagia (vaginal bleeding)
  3. Uterine prolapse
  4. Endometriosis
  5. Chronic Pelvic pain.

Monday, August 3, 2009

August 2009 Blog

Natural Health News:
  • A recent pilot study with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa found chiropractic care helps reduce health care costs and the need for surgery.
  • Obese patients spend 42% more a year on healthcare costs than normal weight counterparts. Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, some cancers and cardiovascular disease. Obesity is higher in hispanics and blacks and women have a higher obesity rate. It is more prevalent in the South and Midwest.
  • Biology News Net, July 30, 2009. Resveratrol {found in red wine and supplements} may be harnessable as a treatment for inflammatory diseases, such as appendicitis, peritonitis, and systemic sepsis, and may also lead to new resveratrol-based drugs that are even more effective, experiments by Scientists from Scotland and Singapore with mice suggest. They also found that resveratrol used a one-two punch to stop inflammation in the mice by preventing the body from creating two different molecules known to trigger inflammation, sphingosine kinase and phospholipase D.

News of Medicine:

  • Stopping smoking after surgery greatly reduces complications and lowers mortality risk in postoperative patients.
  • Antidepressants are effective for various types of chronic pain, such as physical pain associated with depression, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia.
  • Now this one is depressing. They actually found an explanation why smokers are lower in body mass index. There is a fat regulating gene that is up regulated in the body. Now that doesn't mean smoking is a valid weight loss approach. Good news. From the University of Wisconsisn: The recent move by the Obama administration to put tobacco regulation under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration was hailed by leading tobacco experts as another step forward in the 100-year march toward eradicating tobacco consumption in the United States. Tobacco use has declined from 42% of the U.S. adult population in 1965 to 20% in 2007, thanks to taxation, restrictions on advertising, and warning labels, according to researchers Michael Fiore and Timothy Baker of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. To accelerate this trend, the researchers urge regulators to increase excise taxes on tobacco, eliminate nicotine in all tobacco products, ban all cigarette advertising (including sponsorships and other promotional activities), and provide counseling and medication for every smoker who wants to quit. "The progress made in reducing tobacco use over the last 50 years should in no way temper our commitment to further reductions," says Fiore. "If appropriate steps are taken, a tobacco-free nation can be achieved within a few decades."
  • Tick season: seveal serious diseases like rocky mountain spotted fever and Lyme's disease can result from tick bites-especially if frequenting wooded areas or rustic areas with deer. West Texas is not too bad but other areas may be risk factors.

Some Future Thoughts:

  • In addition to nanotechnology assisting in health care there are other possibilities for the future. Vitual physicians (holographs), internet connected lab results: your home blood sugar results fed to the internet, your bathroom scale giving your doctor weight information, blue-tooth/WIFI connections providing heart monitoring in real time. The technology is there in many cases and rapidly developing in others-the main obstacle will be people. Now, I'm not sure you'll ever be able to get an adjustment on line. A major social-technological question for me, is what happens to the role of human contact in the health model? As technology has evolved, doctors are interacting and talking with their patients less and less in many cases and my experience. I often get asked by patients to interpret their test results for them or explain them. Over reliance on technology takes the judgment and thinking out of the interaction-seeing the patient has a lot of important information. One patient, I had for example, had an ear infection and dizziness. She told the doctor she thought she had an ear infection, but because of the dizziness the doctor refused to look in the ear-even when asked-and ordered a MRI. I told her to find another doctor-she did. She had to have drains put in her ears and I gave her some exercises to reposition the little inner ear granules and she was fine. Testing should not replace judgment and examination-another case: $40,000 in testing for dizziness and no results. Patient had to stop driving truck. My treatment $90- treated for that same benign vertigo with exercises due to prior ear issues and some upper neck manipulation-3 treatments and he went back to driving truck. And we wonder why medical care is high.