Category Archives: General Health

Know Your Count – keep track of the remaining doses!

Asthma is a chronic disease of the lungs which causes breathing difficulty. The symptoms of the disease are shortness of breath or rapid breathing, chest tightness, wheezing, coughing, among others. In the United States alone approximately 25 million people are living with asthma. Just recently The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) together with Teva Respiratory conducted a survey among 590 asthma patients. The survey revealed that half of them have had situations when they needed their rescue inhaler, yet, it was empty. Many people had had to go to emergency room while others had to go without treatment.

“Each year, asthma attacks account for nearly two million emergency room visits in the U.S.,” said Mike Tringale, Senior Vice President at AAFA.

Now AAFA together with Teva have launched a “Know Your Count” campaign that is addressing exactly this issue – urging patients with asthma to know the count of remaining doses in their rescue inhalers. To help promote the cause, also Kristin Chenoweth has joined the campaign as a spokesperson. “I have struggled with asthma for more than a decade and am excited to be part of the Know Your Count campaign” said Kristin Chenoweth, Know Your Count spokesperson. “As a singer and actress, my schedule can be quite hectic at times and I simply can’t afford to let my asthma symptoms slow me down. To ensure I’m prepared in the event of an asthma attack, I count on my rescue inhaler with a dose counter to help me keep track of my remaining doses. It is my hope that by sharing my personal experience, I can encourage patients to know their count when it comes to asthma management,” she said.

You are invited to learn more about the campaign and asthma safety at www.KnowYourCount.com.

Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser.

Head Lice Management And Treatment at Home

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Head lice is a common phenomenon among school-aged children. This is according to a national survey carried out recently on behalf of Sanofi Pasteur, which also revealed that most moms are very ignorant of the whole occurrence. This has led to many question marks on pediatricians who would like to educate these young women about head lice.

According to a remark by one family nurse practitioner, Susan Catchings, “Head lice are common, so it is important for moms to get smart about the facts. A family doctor, pediatrician or other healthcare provider can help treat infestations.”

The study, conducted by Harris Poll, also concluded how moms feel frustrated when one of their own is infested by lice. This is because they have no sure knowledge of how they can deal with it or prevent it from spreading. However, CDC has let out some guidelines to advise and educate them about it. They have advised home fumigation, laundering of linens using hot water and avoiding insecticide sprays.

A promising treatment option for moms to consider, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February 2012, is the Sklice treatment option (Lotion, 0.5%, learn more at www.Sklice.com).

Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser.

New Advancements in Chronic Pain Management

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It has been estimated that chronic pain affects 1.5 billion people around the world. In U.S. alone the number is around 100 million. While there are no effective treatment options, there are ways to relieve the pain, some options being more effective that the others. Treatment options for chronic pain vary from over the counter meds to physical therapy, prescription drugs as well as surgery. Additionally there is also SCS which has shown good results in relieving pain.

What is it?
It’s a reversible therapy that send electrical impulses along the spinal cord, masking the pain message that travels to the brain. The pain message is replaced with soothing, tingling sensation. SCS can be used for chronic pain in limbs, also pain associated with failed back surgery, low pack pain and so on. For more information where and how it can be used see www.ControlYourPain.com. And there’s also a new Precision Spectra SCS System available, system that has more contact points and more power sources than any SCS system below, making it more flexible and give physicians more choices to treat the pain.

What are the causes of chronic pain?
In the U.S. roughly 1/4 of the people suffer from chronic pain due to diabetes, another 1/4 due to heart disease and stroke, another 1/4 have frequent back pain and roughly 1/10 have due to cancer. However, for many patients, the chronic pain becomes a disease in its own right soon after.

Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser.

Low Blood Pressure Symptoms

Symptoms of Low Blood Pressure:

Symptoms of low blood pressure may include:

Blurry vision
Confusion
Dizziness
Fainting
Light-headedness
Sleepiness
Weakness.
When there is insufficient blood pressure to deliver blood to the coronary arteries (the arteries that supply blood to the heart’s muscle), a person may develop chest pain or even a heart attack.
When insufficient blood is delivered to the kidneys, the kidneys fail to eliminate wastes from the body, for example, urea (BUN) and creatinine, and increases in their levels in the blood occur.
Shock is a life-threatening condition where persistently low blood pressure causes organs such as kidney(s), liver, heart, lung, and brain to fail rapidly

Is low blood pressure good or bad for your health?

People who have lower blood pressures have a lower risk of stroke,heart and kidney disease. Athletes, people who exercise regularly, people who maintain ideal body weight, and non-smokers tend to have lower blood pressures. Therefore, low blood pressure is advantageous as long as it is not low enough to cause symptoms and damage to the body organs.

Signs of Low Blood Pressure:

The doctor will examine you and try to determine the cause of low blood pressure. Your vital signs (temperature, pulse, rate of breathing, blood pressure) will be checked frequently. The common question which doctor will ask are:

What is your normal blood pressure?
Have you had any recent illness, accident, or injury?
What other symptoms do you have?
Have you been eating and drinking normally?
Did you faint or become less alert?
Do you feel dizzy or light-headed when standing or sitting after lying down?
What medications do you take?

Tests for Low Blood Pressure:

Complete blood count (CBC), including blood differential
ECG (to detect Pericarditis, abnormal heart beats, heart attck)
Urinalysis
Blood and urine cultures to check for infection
X-ray of the abdomen and chest.
Blood electrolyte measurements may show dehydration and mineral depletion, renal failure (kidney failure), or acidosis (excess acid in the blood).
Cortisol levels can be measured to diagnose Addison’s disease.
Ultrasound examinations of the leg veins and CT scans of the chest can detect deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
Holter monitor recordings are used to diagnose intermittent episodes of abnormal heart rhythms. . A Holter monitor is a continuous recording of the heart’s rhythm for 24 hours that often is used to chart intermittent episodes of bradycardia or tachycardia.ECG may miss if abnormal rhythms occur intermittently
Patient-activated event recorder. If the episodes of bradycardia or tachycardia are occasional, a 24-hour Holter recording may not capture these sporadic episodes. So a patient can wear a patient-activated event recorder for up to four weeks. The patient presses a button to start the recording when he or she senses the onset of an abnormal heart rhythm or symptoms possibly caused by low blood pressure. The doctor then analyzes the recordings at a later date to recognize the abnormal heart beats.
Echocardiograms are examinations of the structures of the heart using ultrasound. Echocardiograms can detect pericardial fluid, the extent of heart muscle damage from heart attacks, diseases of the heart valves.
Tilt-Table tests are used to evaluate patients having postural hypotension or syncope due to abnormal function of the autonomic nerves. During a tilt-table test, the patient lies on an examining table with an intravenous infusion administered while the heart rate and blood pressure are monitored. The table then is tilted upright for 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Heart rate and blood pressure are monitored every few minutes whether he develops postural hypotension or not.

Next> (3) Low Blood Pressure Treatment

Get a Shot, Give a Shot

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This flu season you have the chance to help children in developing countries to get the much needed vaccine simply by getting a shot yourself. You can do this by getting a vaccine at Walgreen locations around the U.S., more specifically at any Walgreen pharmacy, Healthcare Clinic at select Walgreens and Duane Reade pharmacy in NY. Every shot you get will get one shot to children in developing countries. And so up to 3 million vaccines will be donated by Walgreens to United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign.

The partnership between Walgreens and the Shot@Life movement is an international effort to give better access to much-needed health care services to children in countries who wouldn’t have access to it without it. The Shot@Life campaign also tries to create awareness of the need to make those vaccines available to parents around the globe and educate as well as empower Americans to advocate for decreasing childhood deaths through the use of vaccines. At this point, based on statistics, 1 in 5 children around the world lacks access to life-saving immunizations.

“With the growing need for life-saving vaccines such as polio and measles in developing countries, we’re proud to work with the UN Foundation on this important cause that provides access to vaccine for children in need, creates greater awareness and furthers our mission to help people get, stay and live well,” said Harry Leider, M.D., Walgreens chief medical officer.

Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser.