Month: September 2016

New and Affordable Way of Testing Blood Sugar

One of the most important ways of managing diabetes is checking blood sugar multiple times a day. Blood sugar is very easily affected. Food, exercise, mood, not being active, dehydration, change in hormone levels, alcohol, as well as illness are all factors that affect blood sugar. Blood glucose meters and testing strips can get quite expensive for those suffering from diabetes. A typical Type 1 diabetic can spend up to $4,000 a year just on glucose test strips. Medications, visits to doctors, annual tests, and even healthy food that is imperative to managing diabetes can get very pricey and expense can grow even higher to those without insurance. Doctors are also quick to prescribe newer medications for managing diabetes such as Levemir, Humalog, and Apidra that are incredibly expensive.

A new way of testing blood sugar could ease the cost for many diabetics in the very near future. A copper based sensor could soon be available to test glucose levels from body fluids other than blood, such as sweat and tears. This new copper sensor would be a cheaper and simpler alternative for monitoring blood sugar. Those that grew up pricking their finger to check blood sugar are now seeing new methods of testing such as the popular medical device that can be inserted under the skin. This technology however, remains expensive since it uses precious metals such as platinum and gold.

Copper mixed with polystyrene used in a sensor could easily detect glucose in salt-based fluids. Professor Yamauchi of Japan’s National Institute of Materials Science said, “Copper based glucose sensors have been intensely studied as copper is low cost, superior in performance, and very conductive.” The sensor has been built by researchers at University of Wollongong’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials and can quickly and accurately detect blood glucose. Hopefully in the near future a copper based sensor will be a cheaper and more effective method for testing blood sugar in diabetics.

Congress To Provide $1.1 Billion For Zika Efforts

Back in February of this year, President Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion for the fight against the spread the Zika virus in order to protect the health and safety of Americans. The request included ramping up surveillance efforts, controlling the mosquitos spreading Zika, accelerating research into new vaccines, as well as helping other countries already battling the virus. Even though Zika’s funding bills passed both the House and Senate in May of this year, they did not meet the President’s level of funding.

Zika virus time liine
Zika Virus Time Line

After months of back and forth, Congress finally agreed to allocate $1.1 billion to help fight against Zika. The delay of the funding was due to disagreements over funding being allocated to Planned Parenthood and whether the funding should be considered “emergency” spending. Since Zika virus can be sexually transmitted and can harm pregnant women, reproductive health and family planning needs to be included in the Zika response. The CDC has stated that the primary strategy in reducing Zika-related pregnancy complications is family planning. World Health Organization Director General said in a statement, “The response now requires a unique and integrated strategy that places support for women and girls of child-bearing age at its core.” Many felt that Congress was attacking women’s healthy by eliminating funding for family planning services which would affect over 4 million people in the Zika response bill.

The president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said, “Immediate efforts to improve access to contraception and prevent pregnancy will help us avoid the long-term affects associated with the Zika virus.” Republicans finally agreed to set aside the extreme provisions that would have specifically blocked Planned Parenthood providers from receiving critical funding.

The new deal that has been approved in Congress will include $396 million for a Zika virus vaccine and better diagnostic testing, $394 million for the CDC for mosquito control and surveillance, as well as $66 million for the health care of people affected in Puerto Rico and other US territories. In total, the FY2016 Zika supplemental bit will provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding. Combined with the funds already reprogrammed by the Administration for Zika response activities, the total available resources to respond to Zika virus will now be $1.7 billion.

 

 

How To Manage Diabetes

Diabetes Kit
Photo: Pixaby

Below are some suggestions on how you can control your diabetes. Please note, these are only suggestions and you should consult with your medical professional prior to executing any of the tasks below.

Exercise at Least 30 Minutes a Day

This can include easy exercises such as taking a brisk walk, riding a bike, doing floor exercises while watching TV, and taking the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator, taking your dog for a walk, cleaning your home, and parking at the far end of the parking lot are all ways to incorporate exercise into your day.

Regular physical activity helps to manage diabetes and it can be as simple as running errands and briskly walking to the post office during your lunch break.

Choose Healthy Food

Blueberries and rasberries
Photo: Pxphere

Selecting nutritious foods and balancing what you eat with activity level helps keep sugar levels as close to normal as possible.

Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, one rule of thumb is to keep your consumption of produce as colorful as possible.

This adds variety and different nutrients to your diet. Be sure to choose non-starchy veggies such as spinach, broccoli, and green beans in your meals. Include fish, lean meats such as skinless chicken and turkey and use low-fat cooking methods such as roasting, poaching, and baking. Choose healthy oils for cooking such as olive, avocado, and canola oils. Eat fruit for dessert instead of high calorie sugary and fatty foods that contain little nutrition.

Check Your Blood Sugar

Your doctor or health provider will explain how often your blood sugar should be checked and how to test it. Alongside checking your blood sugar, be sure to take the medicine you are being prescribed by your doctor and know why and how to take it. Let your health provider know of any herbs or supplements you take as they could interfere with your medication and blood sugar.

Yearly Tests

Doctor talking to patient in a hospital
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Those with diabetes need to have a blood or urine test each year to check how well their kidneys are working. A dilated eye exam should also be done every year by an eye doctor.

Cholesterol needs to checked once a year as well. Total cholesterol should be less than 200mg/dL. LDL (bad cholesterol) should be less than 100mg/dL and HDL (good cholesterol) should be greater than 40mg/dL for men and greater than 50mg/dL.

A1C Blood Test

This specific blood test measures A1C, average blood sugar, which should be less than 7 percent. This test should be done two to four times a year for those with diabetes.

Foot Exam

At each health care provider’s appointment, it is important to take off your shoes and socks and learn how to check feet for cuts, breaks in the skin, or ingrown toenails. Your doctor needs to know if there are any changes in the color or shape of your feet as well as any pain or numbness.

Quit Smoking!

Smoking Inhibitor
What keeps you from quitting?

Smoking can be a death sentence to even the healthiest of us. Just one story here to make the point, but as you might imagine, the horror stories about smoking are extraordinary!

There was a bar bounce, 6’8″ tall, super healthy, but had to have his cigarettes. The consequence let him to many hospital stays in his later years of which he had to be under care 24×7. He passed at too your an age.

Those that wish to stop smoking should call the NYS SMoker’s Quitline (866-697-8487). You don’t have to stop cold turkey unless you can, but a gradual decrease in smoking should not be out of the question.

Mental Health

Depression
Photo: Pixaby

People with diabetes are at higher risk for depression, be sure to talk with your healthcare team about any questions, problems, or feelings you may have.

First Treatment Approved for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and How You Can Help!

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe and disabling condition that typically affects boys. The disorder of progressive muscular weakness develops in young children and worsens quickly. Affected individuals lose the ability to run, walk, move their arms and hands, and eventually breathe. Patients typically die in their 20s or 30s.

DMD is caused by a mutation or error in the gene for dystrophin, which is an essential protein involved in muscle fiber function. It affects about 1 in every 3600 male babies born.

However, there is now an FDA-approved drug for this disease.

“In rare diseases, new drug development is especially challenging due to the small numbers of people affected by each disease and the lack of medical understanding of many disorders,” Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “Accelerated approval makes this drug available to patients based on initial data, but we eagerly await learning more about the efficacy of this drug through a confirmatory clinical trial that the company must conduct after approval.”

But it’s not without controversy. The drug Exondys 51, developed by Sarepta Therapeutics, was tested in 12 boys in a trial. Ten of those boys were able to walk distances beyond what untreated patients would. They also tolerated the treatment for years without serious side effects. Common side effects were balance disorder and vomiting.

But when the FDA chose to approve the drug, it went against the recommendation of an advisory panel that voted against approval because there is a lack of hard evidence that Exondys 51 works.

Exondys 51 works in patients with a specific mutation in the DMD gene that is amenable to exon 51 skipping, according to Sarepta. An estimated 13% of people with DMD have mutations that can be addressed by Exondys 51.

As a condition of the FDA’s approval, Sarepta must conduct a clinical trial to confirm the drug’s clinical benefit.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) applauded the FDA’s approval.

“For our families, therapy options can’t come soon enough,” Valerie A. Cwik, MD, MDA executive vice president and chief medical and scientific officer, said in a statement. “MDA is eager for this treatment to get into the hands of those whom it can help, forever grateful to our partners, supporters, and, most importantly, our families, who all helped turn hope into a treatment that can change the course of Duchenne.

Donations for this debilitating disease can be made to EndDuchenne.org.

Zika Might Spread Through Bodily Fluids

A new possible and worrisome route of transmission for the Zika virus may be through contact with bodily fluids. The first person to die from Zika virus infection was an unidentified elderly man of Salt Lake City, Utah. The man caught the Zika virus while traveling abroad to a Zika infected area. He also suffered from another health condition when he died this past June. This particular case of Zika has been puzzling researchers since the virus mysteriously spread from the elderly man to his son.

Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how the virus spread. The man’s son helped take care of his dying father in the hospital and hugged his father according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report. The report also stated that the father had an extremely high level of the virus in his blood when he died. No other family members or health workers working with the Utah man have contracted the virus. Even though his son has recovered from the Zika infection, it is uncertain how he contacted the virus since he did not travel to any Zika affected areas or had sex with anyone who did according to the CDC report.

Currently, Zika virus has been found in blood, urine, semen, and saliva. Zika virus mostly spreads to people that have been bitten by an infected Aedes species mosquito. An infected mother can also spread Zika virus to her fetus during pregnancy. A person infected with Zika can also spread the virus to his or her sexual partners. Zika might be spread through blood transfusion as multiple reports of these cases in Brazil are being currently investigated. This new case of the Utah man’s son might prove to be a unique new way the virus can spread which may be through bodily fluids such as blood but also sweat or tears.

Health Tips for People with Diabetes

It has been predicted that the number of people with diabetes by the year 2050 would amount to 48 million. The prediction is solely based on the number of people suffering from the disease at the present moment. However, the good news is that with the right care and treatment, diabetic patients can live a regular life. But if proper care is not taken, diabetes can further lead to various other medical conditions; with blindness and kidney failure just two of the dangerous consequences.

So, if you are a diabetic patient, take charge of your health and create a lifestyle that will allow you to live a long and healthy life. Here are some suggestions to do just that*

Daily Blood Sugar Test

A person with diabetes has fluctuations in their blood sugar level. So in order to maintain it, they should keep a regular check. Thanks to technology and medical advances, we now have devices that allow us to check our blood sugar level within seconds. Anytime you find your sugar level to be out of proportion, better take measures immediately.

Watch What You Eat

Diabetic patients cannot be as careless with their diet as other people. Their weight plays a huge part in helping them maintain their health. Obesity is a diabetic’s worst enemy, and it could lead to some bad consequences. In fact, losing some weight can have such a positive effect on the body that a patient can even go without insulin for a long time.

Working Out Could Be Your Savior

The healthier you try to stay, the more at bay you’re diabetics will stay. Eating healthy and following an exercise plan will help you stay fit and healthy. Physical activities, like walking or jogging, help in stabilizing the sugar level in the blood. Therefore, daily exercises could lead to even better results.

Consume Fiber

Eating food with fiber will not only help you with keeping your blood sugar level stabilized, but will also lower the risk of heart diseases and help you with losing weight. So, it’s a win-win situation at all costs. Make sure to increase your fiber intake by consuming fiber-rich vegetables, beans, whole grains and nuts.

Ditch The Sugar

This one might be the most challenging of all measures, especially for those diabetic patients who are a little too fond of sugary delights. You’ll have to skip on all the desserts and drinks containing sugar. However, drinking water, coffee, and tea are okay, as long as neither of them contains sugar.

See Your Doctor Regularly

If you keep taking these measures, then you’ll realize you are actually getting along with your diabetes. However, don’t make the mistake of ignoring your doctor’s appointment. A regular checkup will help you learn how good you are doing. Also, a doctor will be able to tell you more preventive measures in accordance with your medical history.

We understand how being diagnosed with a disease like this can affect your physical and mental condition but, there are only ways to deal with it. Either you let the disease control your health or you let your health control the disease. The choice is yours.

*Note: The suggestions on this page are for information purposes only and should not be followed prior to consultation with an experienced medical professional.

Unusual Diseases You Might Not Know About

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a disease is “an illness that affects a person, animal, or plant : a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally”.

Most people are familiar with diseases such as cancer, diabetes and parkinson’s, there are numerous illnesses that many have not heard of.

Erotomania

No doubt all of us have gone through a feeling when we think that the other person loves us madly the way we do but it isn’t so. When it comes to Erotomania, it is something different. This disease takes infatuation entirely to a next level.

This type of disease makes an individual think that a high profile person such as a celebrity is madly in love with them and pulling out all stops to make contact with them. The scariest part of this disease is that the patient’s feeling can be very overwhelming. This delusion is really difficult to break as the person remains unconvinced, no matter how hard you try to convince them.  

Erotomania is different from the illness attributed to John Hinckley, the shooter of Ronald Reagan. In this case, this person was obsessed with actress Jodi Foster, but had no illusion that she was not obsessed with him. According to psychiatrists, Hinckley was suffering from narcissistic and schizoid personality disorders.

Walking Corpse Syndrome

Do not misunderstand this type of disease with its colloquial terms. It is not a disorder where dead people rise and walk all along. It is a belief by an individual that they are dead and do not exist in the world any more. This type of feeling usually occurs when one is extremely depressed or has gone in a shocked state because of a tragic incident.

Also, this can happen due to drug psychosis. Often this illness is misunderstood by Capgras Syndrome, where individuals believe that someone else has replaced their life as a duplicate. Walking corpse syndrome is a mental disorder that does not let a person recognize themselves. Hence individuals affected with this disease convince themselves that they are dead.

Pica

Pica is a kind of disorder in which people are forced to eat things that do not have any food substances such as paint or wood, or any nutritional value. This disease has further four types, including Geophagy, eating soil, dirt and clay, Trichophagia, consuming hair and wool, Coprophagy, consuming feces, Hyalophagia, eating glass, and Urophagia, consuming urine. This type of disease can be very dangerous to health as an individual consumes elements that must not be consumed by hum

Overview of Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease is one of the most common and widespread diseases in the world. In the US, it affects over 25 million adults, while many more are at risk of developing CKD because of family history or having faced other kidney problems. Chronic diseases refer to those which develop over a longer period of time and it is only when significant damage has been done that they start to show symptoms. CKD is no different.

Before going into the causes and symptoms of this disease, let’s first look into how our kidneys function so we better understand the science behind the disease as well.

kidney anatomy

Function of the kidneys

Kidneys are one of the vital organs of the body and are located right beneath the ribcage, towards the back. They are connected with the bladder by way of thin tubes called ‘ureters’. The main role that our kidneys play in the body is that of cleaning the blood. They filter the blood by removing waste products and excess fluids, sending them out of the body through urine. It is the ureters that take the waste products from the kidneys to the bladder and subsequently, out of the body. The kidneys perform this function because of millions of nephrons, which are the kidneys’ very own filters.

Dysfunction in the kidneys and their filtering centers (the nephrons) increases the amount of waste products in the blood because they are not being filtered and excreted at the same optimal rate that a healthy kidney should do.

Causes and symptoms of CKD

The main causes of chronic kidney disease are hypertension and diabetes. In diabetes, the blood sugar level goes beyond the safe limit putting vital organs at risk, kidneys being one of them. In hypertension, the blood pressure against the blood vessel walls increases considerably. Kidney failure is one of the leading outcomes of hypertension, in addition to heart attacks and strokes. Both hypertension and diabetes, leading to chronic kidney disease, point towards unhealthy lifestyle manifested in poor eating habits mainly. But it is not the only cause in all the cases. Often, factors like family history and some birth defects such as solitary kidney also lead to slow progression of kidney disease.

Some of the common and apparent symptoms of chronic kidney disease include persistent tiredness, significantly weakened eyesight, loss of appetite, swelling in feet and ankles mainly, trouble in sleeping, and notable increase in the number of times you need to urinate in a day. High blood pressure as a cause of kidney disease often results in internal bleeding in the eyes as well. If unchecked for dangerously long time, it can result in brain damage as well.

Treatment methods

CKD, in most of the cases, ends up in chronic kidney/renal failure. Although the ultimate solution is kidney transplant, there are various reasons why it cannot be done immediately. The short term solution is putting the patient on dialysis, which performs the function of the kidneys; cleansing the blood. Depending on the condition of the patient, its frequency can be anywhere between once and thrice a week.

If there is any other disease or infection in the body, it is difficult to conduct transplant because the donor kidney has chances of being rejected by the body. In order for the kidney to be accepted in the body, immune system has to be suppressed, which is not possible in the presence of an infection. It is only when the body has been cleared of all kinds of infections and other deficiencies that immune system can be suppressed by means of immunosuppressant medicines and the foreign kidney be accepted by the body’s own defense mechanism.

 

Nursing Homes for Alzheimer’s Afflicted Patients

Old WomanNo matter how close you are to your loved one, eventually most people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease do require the additional care provided at a nursing home. This is because the disease worsens with time, requiring 24/7 surveillance. Nursing homes ensure that the people suffering from Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia are secure and in good, well treatable environment.

It may feel like being stabbed by a thousand knives at once having to leave behind an Alzheimer patient in a nursing home, but it is the only appropriate solution for the advanced stage of the disease. Knowing that you are making the right decision for your loved one. Below are some suggestions on how to find the appropriate nursing home for Alzheimer’s afflicted patients.

Types of Nursing Homes

With the progress of the disease, there are increase physical and mental challenges individual caregivers have to tackle (at home) with each passing day. Therefore, the nursing homes are a safe haven where the patient will obtain the proper healthcare and treatment. There are two basic types of nursing homes available for people suffering from Alzheimer’s:

  • Basic Care: This type of care covers personal care such as dressing, bathing, using toilets, laundry, eating and simply moving around the place.
  • Professional Care: The professional care requires the services of skilled professionals such as nurses, occupational and physical therapist who will monitor the health condition of the afflicted individual. The professional healthcare specialist will provide treatments.

Services Provided at Nursing Homes

Even though the services at different nursing homes vary, you will commonly discover the following facilities being provided:

  • Emergency services round the clock for critical situations
  • Lodging and boarding services
  • All sorts of personal care along with supervision
  • Fun filled activities to keep the patient engaged

What should you look for in a nursing home facility for people suffering from Alzheimer disease?

Fees and Insurance

The fee structure for nursing homes is quite high for long-term care facilities, but you must analyze the differences in the levels of services offered on different packages. Find out about billing structures, acceptance of medical insurance coverage and the exact services that are a part of the quoted fees.

Facilities and Level of Care

Taking a deep look at the facilities is also extremely crucial. Your quest for the best nursing home should not end until you have discovered an Alzheimer’s care facility that will completely provide all the services that you think that your loved one will require. Level of care should never be compromised upon. Knowing the visiting schedule is also important.

Assessment and Admission Requirement

Find out if there is a designated waiting period before the admission of the patient. Find out how the care plans of individuals are devised—are they the same or are they customized? How often an assessment is conducted to determine the services that a particular resident requires?

Atmosphere

Visit the nursing home prior to the admission and meet other patients. Looking at their condition will let you know whether the rights of the residents are violated or not. If you can manage to talk to volunteers and staff, it would help in shaping an opinion.

Medical breakthroughs That are Changing the World

Diseases, especially those that affect one’s physical abilities to get around and prevent us from living our lives in a normal fashion can have a dramatic effect on their entire well-being. In fact, some illnesses hamper the ability of people to manage just the basic things in life, such as eating by themselves and walking without assistance of any kind. Fortunately, there have been some major medical breakthroughs in recent times. By allowing them to live their life to the fullest, these medical breakthroughs are changing the game for many. What are these medical breakthroughs?

Pill Cam Colon

Imagine a pill that you can swallow with a camera that can view the entire colon, without sedation or radiation. This is not science fiction. This is a scientific fact. The Israeli company Given Imaging has developed such a device that has been successfully tested and is currently being used for potential colon cancer patients.

BrainGate’s Brain Sensor

In mid-2015, BrainGate, a technology company, implanted a brain sensor into the brain of a woman who had been paralyzed for the past fifteen years. After the brain sensor was implanted, the woman was able to drink coffee without any assistance. So how does this brain technology work? BrainGate’s cognitive apparatus records electrical signals after mining the neurons of brain activity. Once this is done, the sensor translates the signals into movement commands.

Diagnosis of Cancer via Dogs

This may sound a little absurd, but research has proven dogs can naturally diagnose cancer. Recently, four dogs including two German shepherds, an Australian shepherd, and a Labrador retriever were tested by a group of German scientists. In order to identify the presence of lung cancer in the surveyed individuals, each dog was made to sniff the breath of over two hundred patients.

The success to failure ratio was 71:29. Furthermore, the dogs were asked to identify the presence of breast cancer, colon cancer and bladder cancer in the surveyed individuals. Once again, the dogs had an over 70% success ratio. Therefore, there was enough evidence for the German scientists to conclude that dogs can naturally diagnose cancer.

Cardiac Output Monitor

Another invention from Israel that is used for the prevention of sepsis, a blood infection that is responsible for one in four hospital deaths and is listed as one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.

Cheetah Medical uses sensors to monitor the movement of blood from the heart to the body’s organs which enables medical professionals to more efficiently diagnose and treat patients.

Technology for Migraine Pain

Today, technology is putting forth new ways of relieving headaches including severe headaches such as migraines. For many people, drugs do not do the job. Therefore, there is a growing need for alternative ways.

Fortunately, the FDA has taken the demands of migraine patients into consideration and has approved two migraine gadgets: Cefaly and SpringTMS. Cefaly is worn across the forehead for about twenty minutes each day while SpringTMS is a gadget held at the back of the head where the pain exists. Both these gadgets significantly relieve migraine pain.

There you have it—the three major medical breakthroughs that are changing the lives of many people. However, there are many other medical breakthroughs that are helping people to overcome their diseases.