You are here: Home

Teens missing out on annual checkups

Written by on · Leave a Comment
Advertisements

Harris Interactive conducted a survey among 500+ teens, 500 parents of teens and more than 1300 health care professionals to understand perceptions about teen health. Based on the results revealed by the survey 60 percent of teens can find at least one reason why not to get an annual checkups, with one third of them saying that your doctor should only be visited if you are sick.

The survey was conducted together with the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) and support from Pfizer Inc.

Susan J. Rehm, MD, NFID medical director, said that “NFID has long been an advocate of preventive health. With the drop in annual checkups during the teen years, we wanted to take a look at the attitudes and behaviors of the people closest to teen health to see if we can better understand the reason for the decline.” She continued saying that “If we understand why, we may be better equipped to address those perceptions.” Read more »

Low Blood Pressure Treatment

Written by on · Leave a Comment

How Low Blood Pressure is Treated?

Note: If you have naturally low blood pressure, it does not usually require any treatment.

But if your low blood pressure is causing symptoms, your doctor will try to establish the underlying cause and treat it accordingly.

Medications

If your GP suspects that your medication is causing low blood pressure, they may change it or alter your dose. Your blood pressure should be monitored while you’re taking medication and any changes noted. Tell your GP if you are experiencing side effects from taking medication.

Underlying illnesses or conditions

If your doctor suspects that your low blood pressure is being caused by a any disease, you may be referred to hospital for further tests and treatment.

  • Dehydration is treated with fluids and minerals (electrolytes). Mild dehydration without nausea and vomiting can be treated with oral fluids and electrolytes. Moderate to severe dehydration usually is treated in the hospital with intravenous fluids and electrolytes.
  • Septic shock is an emergency and is treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics.
  • Blood loss can be treated with intravenous fluids and blood transfusions. Severe bleeding needs to be treated immediately.
  • Bradycardia may be due to a medication. The doctor may reduce, change or stop the medication. Bradycardia due to sick sinus syndrome or heart block is treated with an implantable pacemaker.
  • Tachycardia Atrial fibrillation can be treated with oral medications, electrical cardioversion, or a catheterization procedure called pulmonary vein isolation. Ventricular tachycardia can be controlled with medications or with an implantable defibrillator.
  • Blood pressure medications or diuretics are adjusted, changed, or stopped by the doctor if they are causing low blood pressure symptoms.
  •  Pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis is treated with blood thinners, intravenous initially with heparin, and oral warfarin (Coumadin) later.
  • Pericardial fluid can be removed by a procedure called pericardiocentesis.
  • Postprandial hypotension is treated by Ibuprofen (Motrin) or indomethacin .
  • Vasovagal Syncope can be treatedwith several types of drugs such as beta blockers [for example, propanolol (Inderal, Inderal LA)], selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [fluoxetine (Prozac), escitalopram oxalate (Lexapro), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa), fluvoxamine (Luvox)], fludrocortisone (Florinef) (a drug that prevents dehydration by causing the kidney(s) to retaining water). A pacemaker can also be helpful when drug therapy fails.

General advice for Postural Hypotension:

The advice below will help to reduce  your symptoms of hypotension, particularly postural or orthostatic hypotension (where blood pressure falls after a sudden movement).

  • Stand up gradually:particularly first thing in the morning. It may also be useful to try some other physical movements first to increase your heart rate and the flow of blood around your body. For example, stretching in bed before you get up or crossing and uncrossing your legs if you are seated and about to stand.
  • Raise the head of your bed or use extra pillows under your head: this will increase the flow of blood in your body and will also make it easier when you need to get up.
  • Avoid caffeine at night, and limit your alcohol intake: this will help you to avoid becoming dehydrated, which can also cause low blood pressure.
  • Wear support stockings: sometimes called compression stockings, these are tight-fitting elastic socks or tights. They provide extra pressure to your feet, legs, and abdomen, which will help stimulate your circulation and increase your blood pressure.
  • Eat small, frequent meals rather than large ones: this will help you to prevent postprandial hypotension (low blood pressure after eating). Lying down after eating or sitting still for a while may also help.

Prognosis:

Low blood pressure can usually be treated with success.

Complications

  • Shock
  • Injury from falls due to fainting

Falls are particularly dangerous for older adults. Fall-related injuries, such as a broken hip, can dramatically impact a person’s quality of life.

Severe hypotension starves your body of oxygen, which can damage the heart, brain, and other organs. This type of hypotension can be life threatening if not immediately treated.

Calling your health care provider

When you have symptoms from a drop in blood pressure, you should immediately sit or lie down and raise your feet above heart level.

If low blood pressure causes a person to become unconscious, seek immediate medical treatment or call the local emergency number (such as 911). If the person is not breathing or has no pulse, begin Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation(CPR).

Call your doctor immediately if you have any of the following symptoms:

  • Chest pain
  • Dizziness, lightheadedness
  • Fainting
  • Fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Shortness of breath
  • Inability to eat or drink
  • Prolonged diarrhea or vomiting.
  • Burning with urination or other urinary symptoms.
  • Cough with phlegm

How to Prevent Low Blood Pressure?

If you have low blood pressure, your doctor may recommend certain steps to prevent or reduce your symptoms. This may include:

  • Avoiding alcohol
  • Avoiding standing for a long time (if you have NMH)
  • Drinking plenty of fluids
  • Getting up slowly after sitting or lying down
  • Using compression stockings to increase blood pressure in the legs

If you are interested in helping others to diagnose and treat high blood pressure, consider Concordia University online for a healthcare degree and get started today.

Raise Your Hand for Anaphylaxis Awareness

Written by on · Leave a Comment

Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that happens when you are exposed to an allergen. It is estimated that up to 2% of the world population might experience anaphylaxis during their life time. Based on estimates, the condition is the cause of 1500 deaths each and every year.

Actress Julie Bowen, together with Mylan Specialty L.P. recently launched a competitionRaise Your Hand for Anaphylaxis Awareness to make people aware of the condition. They have created a special website www.Anaphylaxis101.com where people can share their personal stories about it and tell why they think the awareness is important. As part of the campaign, four school districts will also be receiving a grant of $15 000 towards educational programs. The competition is open until October 1, 2013. The winners will be selected based on which school districts have the most individuals participating.

How can You Raise Your Hand for Anaphylaxis Awareness? Go to www.Anaphylaxis101.com, sign in and choose your school district in the U.S. Share your personal reasons for raising your hand. Spread the word and invite others to do the same. You can raise your hand once a day every day as they will all count towards the number of raised hands in your school district.

Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser.

When should you consider a laser eye surgery?

Written by on · Leave a Comment

Tired of dealing with glasses? Is allergy season making it unbearable to wear you contacts? Are constant trips to the optometrist or eye doctor starting to take a hit on the pocketbook? Then Lasik might be the best option yet! What does that mean? Well, Lasik is the process of correcting eyesight to 20/20 by utilizing a state of the art laser technology and right now it is the fastest growing trend in eye care. Not only that, the process of obtaining corrective surgery has been enhanced over the last decade to provide you with a safe, efficient, fast, and most importantly affordable procedure. You just have to pay for the surgery once and you never have to mess with corrective lenses again. Read more »

How to get rid of Smell Behind Ear – Odor behind Earlobe

Written by on · 1 Comment

Did you ever rub your finger behind your ear and accidentally smelled your finger and noticed an unpleasant smell, which some people compare it to the smell of Swiss cheese coming behind ears? This is sometimes a very stinky smell behind earlobes, its the smell that actually occurs in oily parts of body if mixed with bacteria. In other words, bacterial growth in oily parts can cause smell.

This is the smell that police dogs use to chase, the smell of a person especially if he has some bacterial issues, not the smell of perfume. Some people have it more prominent than others and there is very little a person can do to resolve this, however we will tell you how to almost get rid of it.

Some people use alcohol, especially few females use to take an alcohol pad and use it often. Mostly others won’t notice the odor behind your ear except you, if you rub a finger there, one can almost always detect some scent. It is almost certainly noticeable only to you, because you are self-conscious about it. Others would have to have their nose behind your ear – unlikely.

The odor behind your ears is due to oil-producing glands. These glands produce an oily fat called sebum. The body produces sebum naturally. Sebum in itself is odorless but its bacterial disintegration produces a smell.
These odors are most prominent in oily areas of the skin like the face, behind the ears, under the arms, around the nipples and at the groin. These are all natural odors the human body produces without will.

Getting Rid of Smell Behind Ears

Lets get to the fix, it is very simple and it will require some days. The fix is to keep the area clean and non oily. Oil will gather all kind of dust and bacteria and stick it in your skin, you need to make the oil go away. For that you need to take a shower daily, two times a day is even better. Keep these points in mind when you shower.

Use shampoo, and when you clean shampoo from hair, kindly remove all shampoo completely from ears, giving them a good rinse with fingers, clearing all the oil along with shampoo.

Often we are left with shampoo bubbles behind ear and we clean it with tower afterwards, but make sure you clean it with water and fingers first.

At-least 3 to 4 times a day, clean your ears completely with wet fingers, don’t let scalp and dandruff appear on your skin. You will see immediate effect after you apply these two simple cures.

For short its

a) 1-2 times shower with 1 time at-least shampoo and clearing shampoo from ear, focus on clearing ear oil.

b) Clean behind the ear with wet fingers and water. This will also help you restrict scalp forming.

Teeth Whitening Home Remedies

Written by on · Leave a Comment

We all once possessed completely white teeth (milk teeth) when we were kids but the whiteness faded away as we aged. This is because of thinning of enamel with age also due to fact that teeth takes up the color of liquids we take like cola, tea, beverages. Everyone wants to have white teeth in order to have confident smile on their faces. As professional techniques are too expensive, here are some of the home remedies which you can use to whiten your teeth. It takes more time than the scaling process,of course,but you will get results if you practice them on regular basis.

images

  1. Brush Your Teeth After Each Meal. By brushing your teeth, you get rid of the dirt and food particles which stains your teeth. This helps in teeth whitening, and also prevents staining of the teeth due to dirt and food stains which get stuck especially around the corners of the teeth.his teeth whitening at home method goes a long way in ensuring that your teeth are left off free of dirt. If you cannot brush your teeth just rinse your mouth thoroughly with water.
  2. Toothpaste with active teeth whitening formula. Toothpastes consist of hydrogen peroxide which is a major ingredient in the toothpaste that helps to brighten the teeth. Gradual discoloration can be prevented by brushing your teeth with this toothpaste.
  3. Use a teeth whitening mixture. You can make this mixture at home. Mix two teaspoons of baking soda with three teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide. Consistency of the mixture should make with toothpaste. Apply the mixture on your teeth using tooth brush and leave it for 5 minutes. Then wash of the mixture using teeth whitening toothpaste or rinse your moth with plain water. Do this once a week to have better results. Avoid swallowing the mixture; if you do swallow accidently, drink plenty of water.
  4. Mix lemon juice with little salt to make a mixture. Apply it on your brush and then brush your teeth with it. Then rinse your mouth with water. You can also use lemon mixture with baking soda ans brush your teeth with this mixture.
  5. Chewing gum also helps in cleaning your teeth. When you chew gum, your mouth secretes saliva which helps to dissolve the particles that were remaining in your mouth. The saliva that secretes from the mouth can help mix up with the dirt in other to clear them away.
  6. Foods that are high in cellulose–a strong starchlike compound found in celery, carrots, and apples–act as natural abrasives, cleansing teeth and removing surface stains naturally,”
  7. Quit smoking and use of tobacco in any form.
  8. Tea and colas are the major cause of tooth stain ,so always rinse your mouth after taking these beverages.

If you are seeking professional advice and treatment, you can head over to www.thedentalclinic.com for more clinical information about teeth whitening.