Aurra | Health News Aggregator

Pay women who are drug addicts to be sterilized. Good or bad? What about if men can be sterilized (and paid) too? Would that make a difference? What if committing to long-term contraception was an option – how would you feel then?

Does this smack of preserving the ultimate race, keeping quality control of babies, or a smart thing to do? Well, regardless of how you feel about it, it’s already happening in the United States, thanks to Project Prevention.

Project Prevention’s mission statement:

Project Prevention offers cash incentives to women that are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to use long-term or permanent birth control.

Project Prevention is a national, 501 (C) 3 organization that has paid clients in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Our mission is to reduce the number of substance exposed births to zero.

Because every baby deserves a sober start!

The organization has been subject to many criticisms, from accusations of racism to social engineering and yet, it is still here and still receiving donations from people who believe in the cause.

According to an article that appeared last year in the LA Times, the organization, created and directed by Barbara Harris, pays 300.00 for a tubal ligation (sterilization). However, women may get an IUD and receive 75.00 when the device is inserted, another 100.00 when she goes for a 6-month check up, and an additional 125.00 at the end of each year the IUD is in place.

At first glance, it’s easy to look at it through different angles. Drug-addicted mothers who get pregnant often give birth to babies who are also addicted to drugs. The babies are often underweight and sickly. Many end up having medical needs that may not have been present had the child been born of a non-addicted mother. The economic cost of caring for such babies in the “system” is astronomical, but the social cost even more so. Many of these babies end up in a foster system that is ill-equipped to deal with them. The babies grow into older children and often end up being bounced from foster home to foster home, for a variety of reasons. The life can be a horrible one for many who aren’t lucky enough to end up in foster homes that love and nurture them as a child should be loved and nurtured.

By keeping the mothers from getting pregnant in the first place, these babies wouldn’t be born. But that brings the other argument. Who are we to say who should and shouldn’t be born? What if so many of the adults who make an enormous impact on the lives of others now weren’t born because someone else made the decision that their mother shouldn’t become pregnant?

The option does seem to be attractive to many women. According to the organization’s website, over 3,000 women have been paid for either sterilization or long-term birth control.

So, what do you think about it? Good idea? Bad idea?

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Image: iStock.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Not for kids? Really? Excuse me while I go pull my hair out – I won’t have much left after reading about this new product developed and marketed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. What is the product? Dissolvable, flavored tobacco. A smaller company, Star Scientific Inc., is also involved as they have been marketing a similar product for about nine years already.

Now, if you go to the Reynold’s website for the product, www.cameldissolvables.com, you will see that you can’t get in without a huge song-and-dance. You either have to have a special code from one of their products, or go through a lengthy inquisition to determine (and prove) that you are over 18 years old. But, seriously, do we really believe that dissolvable, flavored tobacco strips are for the over-18 year old market?

Star Scientific’s products are available in wintergreen, coffee and tobacco flavors, while Reynolds is is test-marketing dissolvable tablets, strips and a toothpick shape called Camel Orbs, Camel Strips and Camel Sticks in mint and other flavors.

Well, let’s say that FDA has its doubts too. In their letter to the company, they wrote:

Section 907(f) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) to study “the nature and impact of the use of dissolvable tobacco products on the public health, including such use among children” and provide us with a report and recommendations. CTP is concerned that children and adolescents may find dissolvable tobacco products particularly appealing, given the brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products. We are also concerned about the extent to which the high nicotine content and rapid dissolution of dissolvable tobacco products may facilitate initiation of tobacco use, nicotine dependence and addiction in adolescents, and may serve as a mechanism for inadvertent toxicity in children. The report and recommendations developed by the TPSAC should help CTP better understand these issues.

What is particularly interesting is the “brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products.” Who are they trying to kid (no pun intended? Is this product really geared towards baby boomers? People in their 40s? 30s? Hardly likely.

In this article, FDA: Dissolvable Tobacco Appeals To Kids, a representative from Star Scientific is quoted as saying that the goal of flavoring of the product is to make the products taste “less harsh.” It seems that if it tastes harsh and people don’t want to use it, that may be a good thing, no?

What do you think? Is there a place for this type of product?

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

We may be entering a whole new world of home videos if researchers from Indiana University Hospital in the United States have their way. If you were offered the chance to take home a video of your very own colonoscopy, would you? Would you go as far as to pay for one?

The researchers conducted a survey of patients who underwent colonoscopies to see if they would like a video and if they would be willing to pay for one. Currently, videos are done if a procedure is going to be used as a teaching tool, but otherwise, recording is not done. However, since the effectiveness of colonoscopies are one of the tests that depend on the skill of the practitioner, a number of suspicious lesions may be missed during the procedure if it is not recorded.

It turned out that a majority of the respondents said that they would like to have a video recording of their colonoscopy, but the survey didn’t say why they would want it, curiosity? For a second opinion? For future law suits? The researchers also found that it was younger patients who would be more willing to pay for a video recording. Patients who had already had colorectal cancer and/or a family history of colorectal cancer were among those most willing.

What do you think? Would you want a video?

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

And nowwwwwwwww…….it’s winner time here at Healthbolt.

On January 11, I posted this piece, Surgery for Hiccups… (and Contest!). I invited people to submit their solution for curing hiccups or to tell a hiccup story. The most common solution offered was to swallow a spoonful of sugar. Interesting – I wonder why that one is so popular? The next most popular one was to be scared by someone.

So, we received 260 ideas and I used the system at randomizer.org to come up with number at random. that number was 256, which means the winner of the Amazon.com/.ca or iTunes certificate is Tracey Hoey.

Congratulations Tracey! If you don’t receive an email from me within a few days, you can contact me through the site. Sometimes the emails from here get blocked.

I hope that others who visited the site for the first time in order to enter the contest liked what they saw and come back to visit again. And you just never know when we’ll have another contest.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Getting quality health care can be difficult enough for some people, but if you throw into the mix being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transexual, getting quality health care can be even more difficult.

While the actual health issues, such as diabetes, cancer or hypertension, don’t differ from straights, all too often, medical professionals, from doctors and nurses to physiotherapists and nutritionists, don’t understand the cultural issues that affect LGBT patients. In some cases, the professionals may rely on misinformation or myths, or they don’t know where to turn for the information they need. Regardless of the problem, these barriers to adequate healthcare access for their LGBT patients.

According to a press release issued by PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays),

“For many healthcare providers, it isn’t a case of not wanting to be inclusive of GLBT patients, but rather a sense that it isn’t an issue – or, when it is, confusion around how to talk about it – that gets in the way,” said Jody M. Huckaby, Executive Director of Parents, [PFLAG]. To help counter this problem, the organization began a project in 2007 that addressed the issues and has now published the results in a publications called Straight for Equality in Healthcare.

“Making the case for inclusive and competent healthcare for LGBT patients is critical and by providing simple and accessible information to healthcare professionals, we can transform the experiences of LGBT people in the healthcare system,” said Huckaby.  “This guide will create more effective relationships between straight healthcare providers and their LGBT patients and can radically improve healthcare for our community.”

The new Straight for Equality in Healthcare guide was created with the assistance of a diverse committee if healthcare professionals in fields such as primary care, mental health, nursing, and allied health disciplines. Topics include:

•       Why should I care about gay people in my practice?: The case for inclusion.
•       Making a diagnosis: Understanding and identifying personal barriers around LGBT issues and specific steps on how to overcome them.
•       Lidocane for your nerves: Being supportive need not be nerve-wracking. Simple, nonpolitical ways to start signaling acceptance of LGBT people in your practice are outlined.
•       Resources: Basic terminology, sample inclusive intake forms, nondiscrimination policies, and connections to other resources.

For those of you in health care who read this blog, have you considered your care of LGBT patients and their families? I know it’s an issue in many parts of medicine, including obstetrics and palliative care – two opposite ends of the health care spectrum, but very affected.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Ah, the throes of passion, the sounds of a good romp – while they may be sensual and a turn on for you, they may not be quite so much for your neighbors. And then, there’s also a big difference between a squeaking mattress and some extra, um, noise, and the screaming that was going on in Washington, south of Newcastle in northeast England.

It seems that Caroline Cartwright, a woman who lives in that town, has been making so much noise during her sexual activity that not only have her neighbors complained, she was given an eight-week prison term suspended for 12 months. What for? Disturbing the peace. Actually, it wasn’t just the neighbors who complained – according to news reports, even people passing by – and the letter carrier – complained, saying that it sounded like someone was in extreme pain.

Ms Cartwright had already been called before a judge earlier last year when she was served with an anti-social behavior order, although she broke the order almost right away. She even admitted that, saying that she was trying to be quiet, but she couldn’t help what came naturally.

If she does have to go to jail, what will happen if she’s into self-pleasuring?

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Post from: Healthbolt

It’s been a week since I started using my SAD light (My S.A.D. Light Experiment Starts Today) and here’s my update: I think it’s working.

I started using it for half an hour, the first two days on 50% strength, the next few on 60% and starting today at 70%. The first two days, I used it within the first hour of being up and then again for 15 minutes in the late afternoon. Since then, I’ve only done it in the morning, again within the first hour of being up, always for half an hour.

This is the one I have; image from promotional material

I had a few concerns before starting with it. The biggest one was that I was worried the light would give me a migraine. In particular. because the light is a bit off to the side so you’re not looking directly into it – so I braced myself. I am very happy to say: no migraine!

I am also happy to say that after a week, I do feel more energy both in the morning and in the early afternoon – times when I just really begin to fade and *have* to nap. I still get very drowsy in the early evening, but I’m not going to do anything about that right now. I’m more concerned about feeling better during the day.

I do feel better overall; I don’t feel as fuzzy, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I’m going to keep using it as it is still only the end of January and there’s a lot more darkness to come. I’ll keep upping the intensity if I feel I need to, but overall, I am pleased with what I think is happening.

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Post from: Healthbolt

You just never know what your iPhone will do for you – and the next time someone comments on the cost or extravagance of your iPhone, tell them that if you want to try to save a life, there’s an app for that.

apple.com

According to a Yahoo.com story, American film-maker Dan Woolley, who was in Haiti to make a documentary on poverty in that country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was trapped beneath rubble after the hotel he was staying in collapsed. Unable to get help, Woolley was trapped with a broken leg and a bleeding head wound.

Although a fractured leg is serious, a head wound can be much more so. Just remember actress Natasha Richardson’s death after she fell and struck her head while on a ski hill. The bleeding also needed to be stopped. So, what to do?

Using the Jive Media Pocket First Aid and CPR apps on his iPhone, Woolley was able to stop the bleeding from his head wound and treat his leg. Using the alarm function, he made sure to wake himself up regularly.

Now rescued, after 66 hours of being trapped, Woolley likely has some interesting stories to tell.

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Post from: Healthbolt

You know the five-second rule if you drop food? Well, now you have proof of it:

Click on the paper to see.

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Image: iStock.com

Post from: Healthbolt

We have drive through restaurants and drive-through banks. I even saw a story about a drive-through church once, so is it inevitable to have drive-through medical clinics at some point?

Actually, it just may be inevitable but not for the reasons you may be thinking. To me, drive-throughs are the height of excess and laziness. Not that I don’t use them myself, I do use drive-through fast food restaurants when they’re available. I don’t use drive-through banking. I do see how that could have its place with people with limited mobility or who have a sleeping infant in the back seat, but really, do we really need it? No. But, we may need the drive-through clinics.

According to a study published in the online version of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, paramedics and nurses working in a drive-through could help speed up care in a pandemic situation or other emergency and limit cross-contamination between patients.

The study was designed to determine if such a medical clinic was feasible. Mock patients were presented to the staff and carbon monoxide levels in the garage were measured. Researchers also assessed how doctors perceived the drive-through triaged patients.

The patients drove into the garage that had three stations set up for triage. Emergency equipment, including a crash cart and resuscitation equipment for cardiac or respiratory arrests, was available throughout the garage. Nurses screened the patients and if the nurses felt the patients were stable, they were directed to a special lane for the drive-through clinic. If the nurses found that the patients were severely ill, they were sent to the emergency department. At two of the stations, the nurses measured vital signs. At the third station, which was in a heated and draped off area, patients stepped out of the car for a complete physical examination.

If it was determined that the mock patients needed medications, mock drugs and prescriptions were distributed.

The results were positive. The doctors who took part in the exercise were 100% accurate in identifying patients who had to be admitted and those who could be discharged. Carbon monoxide measurements showed that the environment was safe for both staff and patients. Also positive was the amount of time it took to be seen and processed: an average of 26 minutes.

Another thing that weighed in on the positive side was the use of the patients’ vehicles, which acted like private rooms, preventing cross-contamination of contagious illnesses.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to such a set up, including the lack of public bathrooms and the temperature of the environment as air conditioning may not be the norm in indoor parking lots.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

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Images: PhotoXpress.com, MorgueFile.com

Post from: Healthbolt

If you grow or use medical marijuana, here is a conference that may be the place for you and an event for you: the Western Slope Cannabis Crown is up for grabs.  And, there’s even a People’s Choice award that will be given to the most popular of cannabis.

The April 17 and 18 event isn’t the first of its kind, it’s patterned after Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cup but it’s not all just fun and games. The serious side to the competition and the conference itself is education and providing an outlet for medicinal marijuana growers be able to showcase the best marijuana strains to the people who will sell or use them.

The event also will include speakers and information about medicinal marijuana, and is open to the general public.

So, how exactly will the judges tell which marijuana is the best? The scientific way. A laboratory will measure the THC levels, the main active part of the marijuana plant.

In acknowledgment of the earthquake in Haiti, a raffle being held at the event will donate its proceeds to Haitian disaster relief.

The website for the Cannabis Crown is not yet updated, but keep checking for details.

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Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Healthbolt

There’s not much that is more disgusting than walking into a public bathroom to use the toilet and finding it dirty. I’m not sure what it is about public bathrooms that makes some people act like they’ve never been out before, but sometimes, you really have to wonder if they’ve been taught basic courtesy.

Wanting a clean toilet seat isn’t a lot to ask for. If nature is calling, it often calls quite loudly and women don’t have the option of standing like men do. At home, it’s not quite so bad (I hope) but we still want a clean toilet. So, a good cleaning however often you schedule is usually enough. But did you know that, like many other things in life, if you do it too much (or too well), you may be causing problems for people using your toilet? You could be causing someone to develop toilet seat dermatitis. Seriously.

Dermatitis simply means inflammation of the skin (a rash) and researchers wrote a report based on five cases of toilet seat dermatitis, and this report was published in a recent issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.

In some cases, such dermatitis is caused by wood seats that the user may be allergic to, but in other cases, it’s caused by plastic seats that have been subjected to overzealous cleaning by harsh cleaning products. This may happen at home, but is most likely to occur in public bathrooms, like hospitals and schools, where the emphasis is on infection control.

According to this article, Scrubbing Away Germs Can Backfire on Backsides, children were misdiagnosed and lived with toilet seat dermatitis for several months before they were diagnosed. In the United States, this could be because the condition hasn’t been seen for a few decades now, but according to the study’s authors, it is coming back for two reasons: The use of exotic woods for toilet seats and the use of harsh cleaning chemicals.

The treatment usually involves creams (sometimes steroid creams) but may evolve into needing antibiotics, as happened with one girl who ended up developing an infection in the affected area.

If you have a sensitivity to harsh chemicals, the easiest solution is to use toilet seat covers – they will protect your skin from touching the toilet seat.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

If your teen came to you and said that he or she felt that their sex was wrong, that they identified more with the opposite sex, how do you think you would handle it? Of course, such a question isn’t fair because it’s highly unlikely there weren’t any signs earlier in the child’s life.

There have been stories in the news about children trying to attend school as a member of the opposite sex. Parents of these children have been both attacked and praised for their decisions to allow their cross-gendered children to live in the way they feel is right for them. But allowing a child to live as a member of the opposite sex and allowing him or her to have gender reassignment surgery are two different things. One is not permanent, the other is.

So, that begs the question, if you were supportive of your child’s need to change sex, how young would be too young to have a sex change operation?  21? 18? 16? Before puberty?

A family in the United Kingdom has made that decision for their child who will be having surgery to complete a transition into being a girl. The teen, who is 16 years old, has been granted permission by the National Health Trust, who pays for medical and surgical care in the UK, to have the surgery costs covered.

There will likely be a hue and a cry from some people because the UK, as with other countries that have socialized medicine, is struggling with rising healthcare costs and more people needing the care. Some people may feel that if the surgery is privately funded, then “to each his or her own,” but when public money is used, that’s a different matter.

According to this Telegraph article, Teenager set to become Britain’s youngest sex-change patient, this quote likely says it all:

“I know people might say horrible things like the money could be better spent on other things. But this is my life, and it won’t be worth living unless I have that operation.”

What do you think?

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Post from: Healthbolt

Do you have or do you suspect you have Seasonal Affective Disorder? SAD is a disorder that goes beyond the winter blues, just as postpartum depression is more than the baby blues. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “Seasonal affective disorder (“affective” is a psychiatric term for mood), or SAD, describes people who have these clinical depressions only during the autumn and winter seasons. During the spring and summer, they feel well and “normal”.”

Symptoms of SAD include:

• Oversleeping
• Extreme fatigue
• Increased appetite with carbohydrate craving
• Overeating
• Weight gain
• Suicidal thoughts in extreme cases

Treatment

While antidepressant medications may help some people with SAD, light therapy has been found to help others. If you have mild SAD, sometimes making sure you get outside into the sun for a certain amount of time helps but for stronger SAD, light boxes are becoming increasingly popular.

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My light box:

I have depression and I’ve been taking medication for it for the past few years. It’s working quite well and I do wish I’d not fought taking them and started earlier, now that I know how much they can help. But I still find winters and multiple gray days very difficult. So, I’m trying the light box.

Today is my first day with it and I’m using it as the instructions say. Let’s see if it helps me and I’ll keep you updated.

Do any of you use SAD lights? If so, how have they been working for you? Have you been thinking about it? Share your story and maybe we can help each other.

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Image: iStock.com

Post from: Healthbolt

This isn’t to make light of memory loss, but it is really a surprise to learn that “cognitive fluctuations, or episodes when train of thought temporarily is lost, are more likely to occur in older persons who are developing Alzheimer’s disease than in their healthy peers”? This was the finding of a study by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine and the results were published in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology.

Everyone experiences memory lapses, so having them doesn’t mean that you have Alzheimer’s, but the lapses, staring into space, and daytime sleepiness are found more often in people who are developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers studied 511 seniors who were on average about 78 years old. The study subjects were given tests that evaluated thinking and memory skills and family members were also interviewed, along with the subjects, for things like disorganized thinking, staring into space, and daytime sleepiness or lethargy.

After gathering the data, the researchers found that 12% of the subjects had these symptoms and they also found that the subjects who had experienced mental lapses were 4.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the authors,

Those with mental lapses were 4.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Of 216 diagnosed with very mild or mild dementia, 25 had mental lapses; of the 295 with no dementia, only two had mental lapses. In addition, participants with mental lapses did worse on tests of memory and thinking than people without mental lapses.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia among the elderly but having dementia doesn’t mean automatically that someone has Alzheimer’s. Dementia can  have other causes and it’s important that these causes be ruled out as some of them are treatable. Although Alzheimer’s strikes most often after the age of 60, a small percentage of people get what is called early-onset Alzheimer’s, which can strike as young as 50 years old.

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Image: iStock.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Now that New Year’s is a little more than two weeks gone, so are many of the resolutions we’ve made. One of the most common resolutions is to lose weight and, unfortunately, not all of us – men or women – do this in a healthy manner. Another unfortunate situation is that not everyone needs to lose weight and they are at a perfectly healthy weight for their height and body build.

According to the Healthy Weight website,

Healthy Weight Week promotes healthy nondiet lifestyles for children and adults of every size. It helps them move ahead to healthy habits they can live with long term – sound, reasonable habits that allow them to live well and get on with their lives. Eat well, live actively, and feel good about yourself and others.

So, what is a healthy weight?

Most healthy weight calculators on the Internet take your height and weight and give you a body mass index (BMI) that is considered your healthy weight. What these calculators don’t take into account is that some people who are very fit have a heavier weight because of muscle, instead of fat. So, keep this in mind if you use a calculator like this.

To learn about body shapes and healthy weights, you can always contact a dietitian, who will do a detailed analysis of you and your lifestyle, before recommending a weight goal and path to follow, if needed.

The goal of healthy weight week is not to encourage people to lose weight, it’s to teach people how to have a normal relationship with food – to eat moderate amounts at meal times, to not stress over food, to enjoy the food without making it the center of your universe.

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Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Healthbolt

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if a pharmacy provides good service, doesn’t make mistakes and charges fair prices, it is going to get the customers, right? So if it’s so simple, why do some pharmacies have so many problems with patients not being able to pay for their prescriptions, some patients not getting the right prescriptions, and with some staff who just don’t seem to care whether the patient is being served well or not?

They may have to pick up their socks and start to work harder if they are the ones described here because mail-order pharmacies are starting to beat them in accuracy and cost, which is resulting in better patient compliance, say researchers.

According to research by UCLA and Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research, only 76.9% of patients who get their medications from Kaiser Permanente pharmacies took their medications as prescribed two-thirds of the time, while 84.7% of patients who received their medications by mail did.

This article, New Study: Mail-Service Pharmacies Likely To Improve Prescription Drug Adherence, reports that a Federal Trade Commission found that “mail-order pharmacies provide more savings than retail pharmacies and dispense lower-cost generic drugs at roughly the same rate as retail pharmacies.” And, a study published in the Pharmacotherapy: Official Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy found that “dispensed prescriptions with 23-times greater accuracy than retail pharmacies. The mail-service error rate was zero in several of the most critical areas, including dispensing the correct drug, dosage, and dosage form.”

Given this information, would that prompt you to try mail-order pharmacies? If you have used mail-order, how has your experience been?

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Image: iStock.com

Post from: Healthbolt

If you’re of a certain age, you may remember Mood Rings. They were “stones,” worn on a ring, that changed color according to your mood. They’re still around but they were very popular in the 1970s.

Mood rings supposedly worked because there were liquid crystals inside the quartz that react to body temperature. According to the various charts, here are what the colors were supposed to mean:

• violet blue – happy, romantic
• blue – calm, relaxed
• green – average, not much going on with you
• yellow/amber – tense, excited
• brown/gray – nervous, anxious
• black – cold temperature or damaged ring (dead?) (About.com)

So, why might they make a good idea for doctors? According to a new study out of Israel and presented at the International Conference of the Israel National Institute for Health Policy,

physicians’ moods impact the number of prescriptions, referrals and lab tests ordered, as well as the amount of time they spend talking with their patients.

Researchers surveyed 188 physicians about moods, stress and burn out. The doctors were asked to rank their work in five areas according to their moods:

• How long they spoke with their patients
• Medications they prescribed
• Ordering lab studies
• Ordering diagnostic tests
• Sending patients to specialists

When doctors were in better, positive moods, they spent more time with the patients and were less likely to write prescriptions, order tests, or send patients to specialists. Not only did the opposite occur when the doctors’ moods worsened, if they were edging on burn out, this came through in the behaviors.

Although this may sound a Duh Study and overly simplistic, it is an important issue to discuss. The less doctors speak with their patients, the more confusion or discontent can occur. The more the doctors prescribe medications, order tests, or refer to specialists, the more healthcare costs rise.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Everyone has had the hiccups at some point, right? At first, a little funny, a little annoying. And – have you ever hiccupped in the middle of a yawn? During a meeting?

There are many so-called cures for hiccups, such as:

• Pinch the back of your shoulder until it hurts
• Hold your breath and count to 20
• Gargle
• Surgery? (keep reading)

As annoying as hiccups can be, for some people, they don’t go away. The medical term is singultus, although you rarely hear a doctor calling it that. Prolonged hiccups are those that last up to 48 hours, but longer than 48 hours, they are called intractable hiccups. As odd as this may sound, this does need to be treated because they can cause other problems (inability to sleep, difficulty breathing, and so on).

In the United Kingdom, a 25-year-old man named Christopher Sands had been experiencing hiccups for three years. Doctors couldn’t find the cause and couldn’t find a way for Mr. Sands to get relief.

After three years of this, Mr. Sands had an MRI of his brain and a mass was found on his brain stem. Doctors were able to remove about 60% of the mass and the hiccupping seems to have subsided. Whether the results permanent remains to be seen, but as of now, he seems to feel much better: Lincolnshire hiccups man undergoes brain operation.

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And now for a contest!

Do you have a cure for hiccups (or hiccoughs, if you prefer)? Do you have a funny story to tell about hiccups? If so, leave your story or cure here for a chance to win a 20.00 gift card from either Amazon.com or iTunes.

Rules: From now until the end of January 31, 2010 (11:59 p.m.), Healthbolt readers can submit a hiccup story or cure. One entry per person per day, please. Your comment must be related to the topic. Entries such as (but not limited to) “I want to win,” or “Enter me” will be ignored and not eligible for the draw.

On February 1, 2010, using an online randomizer, all eligible entries will be put into the draw to win the prize of their choice.

You must check back here on February 1 to see if you have won. I will try to notify the winner by email (be sure to leave a valid email address in the appropriate text box – no-one will see it but me), but those emails don’t always get through.

So, what’s your story or cure?

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Post from: Healthbolt

Time to open the Duh Study file: Longer Surgeries Mean More Infections, Longer Hospital Stays.

To me, this is pretty obvious. Longer surgeries tend to be more complicated than shorter surgeries. If the surgery is takes long, the body is exposed more. If the surgery is longer and more complicated, it makes sense that it may take longer to recuperate, resulting in a longer hospital stay. Right?

In a study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, researchers reported on their study of almost 300,000 surgeries and the patient outcomes.

The researchers looked at 299,359 surgeries performed at 173 hospitals and found that the number of infections in patients increased up to 2.5% for every half hour longer the surgery was. Surgeries that 2.1 to 2.5 hours had nearly double the risk of infectious complications over surgeries that lasted an hour or less.

Of course, there are other factors that can increase the risk of infection, but even when the researchers took these into consideration (called variables), the rate of infection risk was still higher.

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Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Healthbolt