by Leigh Ann Otte, managing editor
In our blog post about Twitter this week, we’re linking to interesting health articles and blogs, so even if you’re not on Twitter, you can benefit.
For those of you on Twitter, we thought it would be interesting to see who we tweeted about the most in June. We’ve included a few of the posted links. Enjoy!
Some People We Retweeted Most:
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Pop quiz:
Answer:
Much has to do with your body having time to adapt, otherwise called acclimatization. It takes between eight and 12 days for your body to acclimate to higher temperatures so when those hot days hit, you’re not ready. The body acclimates to heat by: (more…)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Summertime comes with lots of tips on how to stay cool. But for you how-stuff-works buffs out there, here’s the science behind why those tips work.
First, some basics on your body and heat.
Now, here are the whys behind some of the dos.
(more…)
I always dread seeing chainsaw injuries. It is never a clean cut. Even if the blade barely nicks the skin, it causes a nasty, dirty, macerated laceration leaving an ugly scar. Of course the less you use the saws the more likely you are to get cut when you do, but experience is not immunity. I have seen bad cuts in old pros. Most of the time the the saw kicks back so fast and with such force you can’t stop it, and it cuts really well through flesh.
The CDC has good tips for preventing injuries. Mostly take your time and stay focused on what you are doing. Remove excess debris and wear goggles. Keep your body out of the way of a kickback as best you can. Have a partner within hollering distance and know where the limb will fall. If you are helping, stay clear of danger. You may think “duh”, but once I saw a patient (more…)
Lawn mower accidents can be pretty devastating. They can mangle a hand or foot, or injure an eye. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons released these tips to avoid lawn mower injuries this summer. Even though they are simple and obvious, they are worth a read. Every year I see someone who has something in their eye thrown from a lawn mower and occasionally I see more serious injuries due to rocks.
Often I see someone with a mangled finger or hand who tried to remove debris from the blades before they had completely stopped, or gets a bare foot or toe caught underneath. I know of children being killed when they fall off the larger tractor type mowers.
Invariably the victims say they feel so dumb, but really they just had a lapse of judgement.
Read these tips and keep them in the back of your mind.
H1N1 influenza documented cases in the U.S. are closing in on 7000 but the CDC is reporting fewer new cases. Good news, but there are several caveats.
Usually you can multiply by 10 to get a reasonable estimate of the total actual cases since not all are reported and documented by the CDC. My understanding locally is the health department is now only interested in documenting new cases which require hospitalization.
In the 1918 pandemic, which killed 500,000 in the U.S and 50 million worldwide, the first wave was mild and died down in the summer. By fall it had mutated into a deadly virus.
The CDC will probably suggest getting the usual flu vaccine early this fall so you can get a second H1N1 immunization a few weeks later.
An interesting sideline is H1N1 has only infected a small percent of U.S. people over age 65. Speculation is these seniors were infected by a distant H1N1 relative some time before 1957 and have a few antibodies left to fight off the current virus.
I only practice part-time but have not seen any swine flu cases. Have any of you?
If you have ever seen Steve Martin’s dentist protrayal in “Little Shop of Horrors”, or Lawrence Olivier asking Dustin Hoffman, “Is it safe?” in “Marithon Man”, you know my initial reaction of a dental appointment. Once I get there, it is not nearly as bad and dentists are trying their best to make the visit comfortable if not downright please.
We asked dentists for their thoughts on trends and one is making the visit more enjoyable. I never thought I would put spa and root canal in the same sentence, but see our article on The Modern Dentist.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Inflammation used to be easy to detect. There was redness, pain and swelling. Nowadays it’s not as easy. It has been implicated as a major culprit in chronic diseases such as heart, cancer and stroke. Read our newly posted article on why this is so, how to detect and treat it.
Is It Really Swine Flu?
The pork lobby has a good point in not calling the new H1N1 flu virus the swine flu. It is not a strain that usually circulates in pigs. Rather, it contains a combination of one gene usually found in birds (avian flu), two from pigs and one from humans. This is why some are suspicious it was an experimental laboratory virus that got into the general public.
Another point is, you are absolutely not going to get this virus from eating pork. Of course, this is true of any flu past or future. It just doesn’t make scientific sense.
The fact is, however, this is a brand new strain and humans have no immunity. (more…)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Remember the avian flu scare a year or two back? A few people had caught a flu from chickens, which usually was just contagious to other birds. If it ever mutated more and spread from person to person (rather than just chicken to person), look out. It would be a new strain—people would have no immunity—so it would it hit hard and fast: a pandemic.
Most of us thought a particular strain of avian flu was never a serious threat to humans … but that one, down the road, might be.
That event may be happening in Mexico, except pigs are the carrier, hence it’s swine flu. (more…)
