RoadtoHealthBlog

(HealthDay News) — Your blood must clot to prevent deadly blood loss. But when blood has a tendency to clot too much, it results in a dangerous condition called hypercoagulation.

The American Academy of Family Physicians says risk factors for hypercoagulation may include:

• Sitting for extended periods, such as in a car or plane.
• Staying in bed for long periods.
• Having surgery.
• Having some types of cancer.
• Being pregnant.
• Being a smoker.
• Taking certain birth control drugs or hormone replacement medications

Margarine usually beats butter when it comes to heart health. Margarine is made from vegetable oils, so it contains no cholesterol, and it generally has more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat than butter. But not all margarines are created equal, and some may even be worse than butter. Try to find margarine with the least amount of trans fat and less than 3 grams total of saturated fats plus trans fats.

The heart-healthy effects of the famous “Mediterranean diet” may have something to do with components of virgin olive oil that repress genes that promote inflammation, a new study reports.

“These findings strengthen the relationship between inflammation, obesity and diet and provide evidence at the most basic level of healthy effects derived from virgin olive oil consumption in humans,” study leader Francisco Perez-Jimenez of the University of Cordoba, Spain, said in a news release from BioMed Central, publisher of BMC Genomics. The study was published online April 19 in the journal.

Perez-Jimenez and his colleagues studied how a diet rich in so-called phenol compounds — which are found in olive oil, especially extra-virgin types — affected the workings of genes in 20 people with a common condition called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome puts people at risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

By HealthDay

The Esteem implanted hearing system is the first completely implanted system approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults with moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss, a permanent lack of hearing, the agency said Wednesday.

Sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by genetic factors or by inner-ear damage resulting from causes such as loud noise, a viral infection or general aging, the FDA said in a news release.

Three implanted components comprise the system: a sound processor, a sensor and a driver that converts electrical signals transmitted by the sound processor to the inner ear, which perceives them as sounds.

The most severe adverse reactions resulted from the implant surgery, and included facial paralysis (7 percent) and taste disturbance (42 percent). Most of these reactions resolved during the one-year clinical testing of the device, the agency said.

The device is produced by Minnesota-based Envoy Medical Corp. As a condition of approval, Envoy must conduct longer-term studies of the device’s safety and effectiveness, the FDA said.

By HealthDay

The name of the heartburn drug Kapidex will be changed to Dexilant in order to avoid confusion with drugs meant to treat cancer and other conditions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.

The name change by Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals will take effect next month, the Associated Press reported.

Kapidex was approved in the U.S. last January. Since then, pharmacists have repeatedly confused the heartburn drug with the prostate cancer drug Casodex and the narcotic pain reliever Kadian.

Other than the name switch, the FDA said there are no other changes planned for Kapidex, the AP reported.

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- (HealthDay News) — While hearing loss may be present from birth or come on gradually as a person gets older, it isn’t always permanent.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine says temporary hearing loss may be caused by:

• A blockage in the Eustachian tube.
• Allergies.
• Wax buildup inside the ear.
• An ear infection, or an object lodged inside the ear.
• A head injury.
• A perforated or scarred eardrum.
• A reaction to certain medications, such as aminoglycosides, chloroquine, or quinidine.

The first national surveillance system to monitor problems in patients who receive blood transfusions was announced Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitals are being encouraged to join the surveillance network, which will summarize data in order to learn more about how to prevent adverse events such as reactions to blood products, medical errors, and process problems.

The Hemovigilance Module — which is part of the CDC’s Internet-based National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) — was developed by the CDC in collaboration with AABB, an international association representing organizations involved in transfusion and cellular therapies.

“Healthcare facilities that join the Hemovigilance Module will now have a yardstick by which to measure their current safety initiatives and their future efforts,” Dr. Dan Pollock, chief of the branch that leads CDC’s NHSN, said in a news release. “Through this system, healthcare facilities can also see how their performance stacks up to similar facilities nationwide, with a goal of designing the best processes to protect patients’ health and reduce healthcare costs.”

The Hemovigilance Module will be provided at no cost to hospitals and healthcare facilities, the CDC said.

You know some of your muscles are stronger than others. And you know some are tighter or looser than others. Maybe you’ve noticed the muscles in one leg are tighter than the muscle in the other leg for instance.

When a muscle or group of muscles overpowers the opposing muscle(s), you have a muscle imbalance. Think of it as a Tug-of-War that’s been going on for decades in your body without you noticing it.

When your muscles are out of balance they pull your bones and joints out of their normal position and this places them under constant and uneven stress.

For example, the position and curvature of your spine is determined by the amount of balance in all the muscle groups in your thighs, hips and torso.

When muscle imbalances pull your spine and body out of alignment, the level of stress on certain muscles, bones and joints increases.

And even the smallest muscle imbalance can over time pull you out of balance and place tremendous amounts of uneven pressure and wear and tear on your body… especially the vertebrae, discs, spine and its supporting muscles.

These muscle imbalances lead to physical dysfunctions and a life of back pain.

More than 1,400 pounds of Applegate Farms-brand sausage are being recalled because of possible contamination with plastic material, says the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The recall is for 12-ounce packages of “Applegate Farms Certified Organic Fire Roasted Red Pepper Fully Cooked Chicken & Turkey Sausage,” with a “use by/freeze by” date of February 28, 2010, United Press International reported.

The FSIS said the recalled sausages were distributed in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Texas.

For more information, consumers can contact the company — Schmalz European Provisions of Springfield, N.J. — at 800-587-5858, UPI reported.

An ear tube is surgically implanted in a child’s ear to help drain fluid that builds up behind the eardrum, says the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

When fluid builds up in the ear and stays there for a long period, it can cause hearing loss. Ear tubes may also be inserted when a child has frequent ear infections that can’t be prevented with less invasive treatments.

Ear tube insertion is performed under general anesthesia. The surgeon first makes a small incision in the eardrum. The fluid is suctioned out, then a small tube is inserted in the eardrum. Now, air can flow through the ear and fluid can drain from the middle ear, the agency says.

Ear tube surgery is usually an outpatient procedure, so the child can go home the same day. The following day, most children can resume normal activities. The surgical incision usually heals on its own, without stitches. The ear tube commonly falls out after about 14 months.

By HealthDay

Sitting for extended periods can harm your health, even if you get regular exercise, experts warn.

It may be time to rethink how physical activity is defined in order to emphasize the dangers of sitting, Elin Ekblom-Bak, of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, wrote in an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the Associated Press reported.

Guidelines currently recommend the minimum amount of physical activity, but don’t suggest people limit the time they spend sitting.

“After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” said Ekblom-Bak, the AP reported. Genes that regulate the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down, she explained.

Healthy older adults require less sleep and are less likely to feel tired during the day than younger adults, according to a new study.

British researchers looked at 110 healthy adults with no sleep disorders or complaints and found that adults ages 66 to 83 slept about 20 minutes less per night than middle-aged adults ages 40 to 55, who slept 23 minutes less than young adults ages 20 to 30, Agence France Presse reported.

The older adults also woke up more often during the night and spent more time awake after initial sleep onset, the study found.

Even though older adults spent less time asleep and slept less deeply, they were less likely to need a nap during the day than younger adults, said the University of Surrey researchers, AFP reported.

The study appears in the journal Sleep.

People who buy prescription medications over the Internet, especially drugs purporting to treat erectile dysfunction, are playing Russian roulette with their lives, a new study contends.

At best the drugs won’t help you and at worst they could kill you, the review article said.

“You may be wasting your money or you may actually be hurting yourself,” said Dr. Margaret E. Wierman, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and chief of endocrinology at the Denver VA Medical Center, who was not involved with the study.

Counterfeit Internet drugs are a mushrooming problem. Seizures of fake drugs in Europe quadrupled between 2005 and 2007. And the number of investigations undertaken by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration increased by a factor of eight between 2000 and 2006, according to the study, published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

The sale of counterfeit drugs has almost doubled in the last five years, and will hit $75 billion in 2010, according to one estimate, making it one of the more lucrative illicit drug markets.

As many as 2.5 million men in Europe may have taken counterfeit sildenafil (Viagra), the study authors stated.

“It’s a very significant problem and I think there are people who are being injured,” said Dr. Ira D. Sharlip, a spokesman for the American Urological Association and clinical professor of urology at the University of California, San Francisco. “The only way to avoid the problem is not to buy on the Internet.”

Viagra-like tablets bought on the Internet aren’t necessarily any cheaper than the real thing, but they do allow buyers to avoid the shame factor often associated with asking for this type of drug.

“The motivation is the anonymity of buying drugs on the Internet. It’s embarrassing to some men to go to a pharmacy and pick up his Viagra prescription, and it’s also embarrassing for some men to go to a doctor and say, ‘I have erectile dysfunction. I need some Viagra,’” Sharlip said.

The problem of fake drugs isn’t limited to impotence treatments. According to the study, two pregnant women died after they were given injections of a counterfeit iron preparation for anemia, and 51 children died in Bangladesh of kidney failure after taking paracetamol syrup that was contaminated with diethylene glycol, which is often used as antifreeze in cars.

So many things can go wrong with Internet purchases.

“The purity of the medication or the quality of the medication is under no sort of scrutiny or any type of oversight to determine if, first of all, it is the correct medication. And second, if it is correct is it in the correct dosage?” said Dr. Michael Chehval, chief of urology at St. Louis University.

Study author Dr. Graham Jackson, a cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital in the United Kingdom, said: “The first danger is people don’t know what’s in it. Some are just talcum powder or brick dust, while some have a bit of Viagra or Cialis and some chemicals that have nothing to do with it. One batch actually contained amphetamine, which is an addictive drug. Tablets are made shiny with road paint or shoe polish. The content of the medication could be anything.”

In 2008, four men in Singapore died after ingesting counterfeit impotence drugs that had been contaminated with a blood-sugar-lowering agent, the study reported.

And bypassing the involvement of a competent doctor means red flags could be missed.

“Erection problems can be an early warning sign of heart disease or diabetes,” Jackson said. “If you do have a problem and don’t see a doctor, diagnosis of those important conditions can be missed. Men with no symptoms at all who get an erection problem usually are an average of three to five years away from a heart attack. Instead of going to the Internet, they should be going to their doctors to find out if they are at risk and to do something about it.”

Problems also can occur when the impotence drugs actually do contain phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5), the main ingredient in Viagra, as well as vardenafil (Levitra) and tadalafil (Cialis).

“People with underlying heart problems are at risk for cardiac events if they take this class of medication,” Chehval said.

According to the review article, about one-third of men reported sidestepping a health-care professional when buying erectile dysfunction drugs.

“This is a really serious issue. We can fix the erectile dysfunction and we can also fix the chances of getting a heart attack,” Jackson said.

Jackson is editor of the journal and reported multiple ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, which makes Viagra. The review article covered more than fifty studies published between 1995 and 2009 and was conducted by British, Swedish and American researchers.

More information

The World Health Organization has more on counterfeit medications.
By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter

A new animal study suggests that lack of sleep may be linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say. Scientists in St. Louis found that levels of amyloid beta protein levels rose in mice while they were awake, and fell as they slept. And mice who were kept from sleeping had significantly higher levels of the brain plaque than those who slept normally. This protein build-up is linked to the development of dementia, researchers believe.

Awareness and prevention is the key to Bacterial Vaginosis treatment. Prevention includes taking steps and measures with your lifestyle to stop BV from coming back. However, completely treating the situation after you have found out which you have Bacterial Vaginosis, while finding alternative treatments to completely get rid of Bacterial Vaginosis is the beginning to understanding how important Ph levels are in your body and how they act as a warning signal for sicknesses.

There are several methods of treating Bacterial Vaginosis. Two types of treatments include taking oral Bacterial Vaginosis medication, such as through antibiotics or inserting Bacterial Vaginosis medication into the vagina. Both forms of medication work in similar ways, with the goal of killing bad bacteria. Medications such as Rephresh, Enzara and Femanol are some basic brands which work to provide Bacterial Vaginosis relief.

Other alternatives are natural remedies and prescriptions. For instance, yogurts and healthy bacteria can help in fighting the discomforts of Bacteria Vaginosis. There are herbal remedies, foods and most importantly, changes in diet which help to stop the vaginosis from causing irritation. This allows for the reproduction of the healthy bacteria to gain stronger immunity so the levels of health can move back to a normal level. Research concludes that these remedies can help in the cure of this disease.

With any of these types of relief is the need to understand side effects which may occur. For instance, taking oral medications may cause basic side effects, such as nausea. Other problems may also occur, especially if you are taking a mixture of medications. Side effects vary according to body type.

The health benefits of meditation are endless. Research has scientifically proven that meditation is a safe and simple way to balance your physical, emotional, and mental state and its countless values have been known and practiced for thousands of years. More and more doctors are prescribing meditation to cure many stress related illnesses including anxiety, trauma and insomnia. The health benefits of meditation are available to people everywhere.

Research has scientifically proven that meditation is a safe and simple way to balance your physical, emotional, and mental state and more and more doctors are encouraging patients to practice meditation to cure many stress related illnesses.

It is estimated that approximately 90 percent of people with tinnitus have some degree of hearing loss. Therefore, hearing tests are essential before a proper diagnosis of tinnitus may be determined.

Tinnitus may be a symptom of a variety of ear disorders or other medical conditions. Usually it is difficult for doctors to determine the exact cause of tinnitus.

Damage to your inner ear from disease, blockage, noise or lack of nutrients will cause hearing loss. Poor blood flow, fluid from an infection and other factors can cause the tiny hair follicles in your inner ear to die.

The sad truth is most doctors will never know why your hearing went bad. In most cases they just can’t explain it.

Day by day the cells in your inner ear are dying, don’t wait until your hearing is gone forever.

There are natural herbs and supplements you can take that can greatly improve and even restore your hearing. The tiny hair follicles in your inner ear can greatly improve with increased blood flow to them.

You may already know that free radicals have been show to cause disease. They are highly reactive molecules that disrupt the structure of normal cellular components like the ones in your inner ear.

One of the activities of free radicals is to destroy cochlear hair cells, which transmit acoustic information to the auditory nerve. Using the proper antioxidant’s you can fight off these free radicals. Click here to find out more.

The bitter winter cold poses serious health dangers to everyone, but it can be particularly hazardous to children, seniors, and people who suffer from chronic illnesses. Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer information on the cold-related ailments hypothermia and frostbite, giving the causes and symptoms of each condition. They also give advice on how to avoid these conditions, and how to know when it’s time for you or someone you know to seek medical treatment.