Saturday, October 11, 2008

First Aid Mistakes


Experts Dr. Tom Scaletta and Denise King shared the 10 most common first aid mistakes.

1. Cut Finger - Do not place the wound directly on ice. Wrap the wounded part in a damp cloth. If the patient is going to have a surgery, he's best off with an empty stomach.

2. Knocked out tooth - Don't scrub the tooth hard even if it's dirty (a gentle rinse is OK. Do put the tooth in milk and go straight to the ER; there's a chance the tooth could be reimplanted.

3. Burns - Don't apply ice or butter or any other type of grease to burns. Also, don't cover a burn with a towel or blanket, because loose fibers might stick to the skin. When dealing with a serious burn, be careful not to break any blisters or pull off clothing stuck to the skin.

Do wash and apply antibiotic ointment to mild burns. Head to the hospital for any burns to the eyes, mouth, or genital areas, even if mild; any burn that covers an area larger than your hand; and any burn that causes blisters or is followed by a fever.

4. Electrical Burns - Don't fail to get medical attention for a jolt of electricity (for instance, from lightning, a power line, or home electrical cords), even if no damage is evident. An electrical burn can cause invisible (and serious) injury deeper inside the body. More than 500 Americans die every year from electrical burns.
Do go to the ER immediately.

5. Sprained ankle - Don't use a heating pad.
Do treat a sprain with ice. Go to the ER if it is very painful to bear weight. You might have a fracture.

Click here to read the article

Friday, October 10, 2008

Alternative Treatments for Insomnia


It may be difficult to address insomnia. Here are some alternative methods to treat insomnia:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
According to women to womenCBT methods may combine a number of elements, including education, advice, psychotherapy, stimulus control and sleep restriction. One premise of cognitive therapy is that merely thinking about sleeplessness and all of the problems it causes the next day leads to ongoing insomnia. Through therapy, CBT can teach a person how to develop a more positive outlook on sleep, while simultaneously encouraging better “sleep hygiene,” or behaviors that are conducive to restful sleep, such as turning off the TV and staying out of bed unless you’re sleeping or having sex.

Sleep Restriction Therapy
SRT helps you find your body's threshold for sleep. Ever person has different threshold - it may be 6 hours for some or others may have 8. One way is by depriving yourself of sleep for 24 hours. Once your body is exhqusted, it will now crave for some sleep. This will gradually increase your sleeping time until you find your own threshold.

It is also helpful if you will keep track of your sleep for a couple of weeks and this can be evaluated by the doctor.

Light Therapy
This is also known as phototherapy this method uses specific wavelengths of light for a certain amount of time. This is also used for affective disorder, depression and sleep disorders. Research shows that Using this blue light in the early evening can help people who have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep to sleep solidly throughout the night. This connection occurs because the receptors for the specific blue light in our eyes link directly to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the part of your brain that regulates your circadian rhythm.

Click here to read the article

Thursday, October 9, 2008

FDA's Drug Watchlist


US Food and Durg Administration has released its 20 drugs watchlist:

1. Arginine Hydrochloride Injection (R-Gene 10) - Pediatric overdose due to labeling / packaging confusion
2. Desflurane (Suprane) - Cardiac arrest (heart stops working)
3. Duloxetine (Cymbalta) - Urinary retention
4. Etravirine (Intelence) - Hemarthrosis (blood in a joint)
5. Fluorouracil Cream (Carac) and Ketoconazole Cream (Kuric) - Adverse events due to name confusion
6. Heparin - Anaphylactic-type (life-threatening allergic) reactions
7. Icodextrin (Extraneal) - Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
8. Insulin U-500 (Humulin R) - Dosing confusion
9. Ivermectin (Stromectol) and Warfarin - Drug interaction
10 Lapatinib (Tykerb) - Hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity)
11. Lenalidomide (Revlimid) - Stevens-Johnson syndrome (a deadly drug reaction)
12. NataliNitroglycerin - Skin melanomas (deadly skin cancer)
13. Nitroglycerin (Nitrostat) - Overdose due to labeling confusion
14. Octreotide Acetate Depot (Sandostatin LAR) - Ileus (bowels not moving)
15. Oxycodone Hydrochloride Controlled-Release (OxyContin) - Drug misuse, abuse, and overdose
16. Perflutren Lipid Microsphere (Definity) - Cardiopulmonary reactions (lung/heart problems)
17. Phenytoin Injection (Dilantin) - Purple glove syndrome (discoloration, pain, and swelling of the hand that may lead to amputation)
18. Quetiapine (Seroquel) - Overdose due to sample pack labeling confusion
19. Tebivudine (Tyzeka) - Peripheral neuropathy (tingling or numbness in the extremities)
20. Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) Blockers - Cancers in children and young adults

"This extends our commitment to keep the public and the health care community informed of what we are evaluating," Paul Seligman, MD, MPH, FDA associate director of safety policy and communication, said at the news conference

Click here to read the article

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Hospital Discharges Affected By Admissions


A recent study shows that admission and discharge decisions of hospitals is affected by the capacity if the hospital. According to the results, when hospitals are faced with high demands, patients are discharged earlier during their "peak" seasons compared to their "low" seasons.

According to the study conducted by Rajiv Sharma, Miron Stano, and Renu Gehring used Oregon hospital, patients are dismissed earlier on days when hospitals face high demand were found using methods that are designed to detect discriminatory behavior without the need to control for differences across patient groups in their health status or care seeking behavior. The study did not find evidence of discriminatory discharge behavior.

It is important that despite the demands hospitals should put the health of their patients on top of their priorities instead of the business.It is necessary to upload high standards of quality health care at all times. hospitals should learn how to strike a balance between managing their business and providing quality health care services.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Exercise May Prevent Colon Cancer


Colon is a part of our digestive system where we store our waste materials. Tumors may grow from the walls of the large intestines. This can either be benign or malignant. Malignant tumors leads to colon cancer or colorectal cancer. It is capable of damaging adjacent tissues and organs.

Though this is not contagious, the factors include high fat intake, family history and presence of polyps in the intestines as well as chronic ulcers.

According to study co-author Elliott Coups, of the Division of Population Science at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Cheltenham, Pa., and colleagues, People who get lots of exercise have a 30 percent to 40 percent lower risk of developing colon cancer.

"Sedentary people can greatly benefit from starting a modest exercise program, such as gardening or walking two to three hours a week, according to Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health."

Click here to read the article

Friday, October 3, 2008

Effects of Chamomile


Flowers are one of a kind, they make people around them joyful through their different lovely colors and also amazed the one who gaze by their form and fragrance. People like most when exposed to flowers are that they can make you feel better in a true sense of the word they really can make one individual happy.

Aside from being used as an ornament or decoration some of them are proven to cure illness and also helpful use as herbal medicine. One best example of this is the European herbalist call chamomile which means “the mother of gut”.

If you are suffering from chronic stomach disorders it means or one cause of it is that you have a weak digestive tract. This can be countered with powder which a chamomile can offer. Herbalist also find out long ago that any problem from the mouth to the anus is made better with the regular use of chamomile tea.

Chamomile also consists of bitter elements that stimulate the production of stomach juices needed to break down particle. There are some that do not produce enough bile lack the chemicals needed to digest their food quickly. That’s why it stays in the stomach too long and the result is chronic stomachache but chamomile comes to the rescue by stimulating the production of digestive juices.

Click here to read the article

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Are Vitamin Enriched Beverages Beneficial To Our Health?


When you go to grocery stores and supermarkets you will find a lot of "vitamin enriched beverages" such as Diet Coke Plus, vitamin waters, et cetera. But are they really beneficial for our health?

Over the years, carbonated beverages has been linked as one of the causes for the rapidly increasing levels of obesity in children. Nowadays, you will find a lot of beverages claming to be beneficial to our bodies or an "enhanced version" of the carbonated beverages.

According to Body Ecology Diet, "Adding vitamins and minerals to an unhealthy product like Diet Coke is a marketing tool and a ruse designed to make you and your children think that what you’re drinking is good for you, when it’s not at all."

Meanwhile, Vitamin Waters poses threat as well to our bodies. "Distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water: this is water that has had any and all natural minerals removed from it, and can create a highly acidic condition in your body, leading to severe mineral deficiencies, and even heartbeat irregularities2. The addition of minerals and vitamins of inferior quality does not counter-effect the damage."

These drinks may be more appealing to the public because of the advertising or the taste of the products. However, lets not sacrifice our health over those. Nothing beats drinking or eating naturaly foods and juices. Next time you do your groceries, head our to the fruits and vegetable section first, that's where you'll find foods that will absolutely keep your bodies healthy.

Click here to read the article