Friday 28 August 2015

Danger Of Portable Beds

Danger Of Portable Beds.
Caution is required when using pocket-sized bed rails because they put persons at risk for falling or becoming trapped, the US Food and Drug Administration warns Dec 27, 2013. Portable bed rails glue to a normal, adult-sized bed, often by sliding a sketch of the rail under the mattress or by using the floor for support. People can get trapped in or around the rail, including between the bed-rail bars, between the bar and the mattress, or between the rail and the headboard, said Joan Todd, a chief nurse-consultant at the FDA.

And "Consumers need to realize that even when bed rails are well designed and used correctly, they can propinquitous a hazard to certain individuals - particularly to people with physical limitations or who have an altered daft status, such as dementia or confusion," Todd said in an FDA news release. Between January 2003 and September 2012, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission received reports of 155 deaths and five injuries kin to pocket bed rails designed for grown-up use, according to the news release.

More than 90 percent of the deaths were caused by entrapment. Of the 155 deaths, 129 occurred in colonize aged 60 or older and 94 occurred at home. About half of the victims had a medical circumstance such as heart disease, Alzheimer's cancer or dementia. The FDA has a new website on bed-rail safety that offers information about the what it takes hazards and advice for safe use.

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Preventing Infections In The Hospital

Preventing Infections In The Hospital.
Elderly woman in the street who develop infections while in an exhaustive care unit are at increased risk of dying within five years after their hospital stay, a callow study finds. "Any death from preventable infections is one too many," study superior author Patricia Stone, director of the Center for Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing, said in a university story release. Researchers analyzed data from more than 17500 Medicare patients admitted to comprehensive care units (ICUs) in 2002 and found that those who developed an infection while in the ICU were 35 percent more inclined to to die within five years after hospital discharge.

Overall, almost 60 percent of the patients died within five years. However, the dying rate was 75 percent for those who developed bloodstream infections due to an intravenous fringe placed in a large vein (central line). And, the extirpation rate was 77 percent for those who developed ventilator-associated pneumonia while in the ICU, according to the researchers. Central boundary infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia are among the most common types of health care-acquired infections, the swatting authors noted.

Friday 21 August 2015

Electronic Cigarettes And Risk Of Respiratory Infections

Electronic Cigarettes And Risk Of Respiratory Infections.
Vapor from electronic cigarettes may rise little ones people's risk of respiratory infections, whether or not it contains nicotine, a late laboratory study has found. Lung tissue samples from deceased children appeared to indulge damage when exposed to e-cigarette vapor in the laboratory, researchers reported in a recent issue of the magazine PLOS One. The vapor triggered a strong immune response in epithelial cells, which are cells that family the inside of the lung and protect the organ from harm, said lead writer Dr Qun Wu, a lung disease researcher at National Jewish Health in Denver. Once exposed to e-cigarette vapor, these cells also became more reachable to infection by rhinovirus, the virus that's the supreme cause of the common cold, the researchers found.

And "Epithelial cells are the first line of defense in our airways. "They watch over our bodies from anything dangerous we might inhale. Even without nicotine, this translucent can hurt your epithelial defense system and you will be more likely to get sick". The new report comes centre of a surge in the popularity of e-cigarettes, which are being promoted by manufacturers as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes and a admissible smoking-cessation aid.

Nearly 1,8 million children and teens in the United States had tried e-cigarettes by 2012, the scan authors said in background information. Less than 2 percent of American adults had tried e-cigarettes in 2010, but by stay year the number had topped 40 million, an raise of 620 percent. For the study, researchers obtained respiratory set-up tissue from children aged 8 to 10 who had passed away and donated their organs to medical science.

Researchers specifically looked for fabric from young donors because they wanted to focus on the effects of e-cigarettes on kids. The merciful cells were placed in a sterile container at one end of a machine, with an e-cigarette at the other end. The mechanism applied suction to the e-cigarette to simulate the act of using the device, with the vapors produced by that suction traveling through tubes to the container holding the lenient cells.

Wednesday 5 August 2015

The Epilepsy And Risk Of Sudden Death

The Epilepsy And Risk Of Sudden Death.
Sleeping on your corporation may lift your risk of sudden death if you have epilepsy, new research suggests. Sudden, unexpected undoing in epilepsy occurs when an otherwise healthy person dies and "the autopsy shows no clearly structural or toxicological cause of death," said Dr Daniel Friedman, assistant professor of neurology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. This is a fine occurrence, and the con doesn't establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sleeping position and sudden death.

Still, based on the findings, kith and kin with epilepsy should not sleep in a prone (chest down) position, said lucubrate leader Dr James Tao, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Chicago. "We found that downwards sleeping is a significant risk for sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy, particularly in younger patients under grow old 40". For people with epilepsy, brief disruptions of electrical work in the brain leads to recurrent seizures, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

It's not clear why prone sleeping attitude is linked with a higher risk of sudden death, but Tao said the finding draws parallels to impulsive infant death syndrome (SIDS). It's thought that SIDS occurs because babies are unfit to wake up if their breathing is disrupted. In adults with epilepsy people on their stomachs may have an airway impediment and be unable to rouse themselves. For the study, Tao and his colleagues reviewed 25 in days of yore published studies that detailed 253 sudden, unexplained deaths of epilepsy patients for whom gen was available on body position at time of death.

Thursday 30 July 2015

Current Flu Season Is Deathly

Current Flu Season Is Deathly.
The in vogue flu season, already off to a rude start, continues to get worse, with 43 states now reporting widespread flu action and 21 child deaths so far, US health officials said Monday. And, the predominate flu continues to be the H3N2 separate - one that is poorly matched to this year's vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The division of outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms reached nearly 6 percent by the end of December, approach above the baseline of 2 percent, CDC spokeswoman Erin Burns said Monday.

Flu reaches plague levels in the United States every year, Dr Michael Jhung, a medical dick in CDC's influenza division, told HealthDay matrix week. Whether this flu season will be more severe or milder than previous ones won't be known until April or May. The mob of children's deaths from flu varies by year. "In some years we get the drift as few as 30, in other years we have seen over 170. Although it's the mid-section of the flu season, the CDC continues to recommend that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot.

The reason: there's more than one exemplar of flu circulating, and the vaccine protects against at least three strains of circulating virus. "If you grapple with one of those viruses where there is a very good match, then you will be well-protected. Even if there isn't a great match, the vaccine still provides bulwark against the virus that's circulating". People at jeopardy of flu-related complications include young children, especially those younger than 2 years; people over 65; in a family way women; and people with chronic health problems, such as asthma, heart disease and weakened exempt systems, according to the CDC.

Monday 27 July 2015

Yet Another Winter Health And Safety Tips

Yet Another Winter Health And Safety Tips.
As a potentially record-breaking blizzard pummels the US Northeast, there are steps residents should function to support themselves and their loved ones safe, doctors say. The National Weather Service is predicting anywhere from 2 to 3 feet of snow along a 300-mile passage that stretches from New Jersey to Maine. Wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour are also predicted. "Snow, superior winds and wintry are a rickety combination," Dr Sampson Davis, an emergency medicine physician at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, in Secaucus, NJ, said in a sanitarium news release.

For starters, Davis advises, follow survive reports - and pay attention to the wind chill. "With temperature drops, increased roll chill and inadequate clothing, your body temperature can drop briskly leading to hypothermia, frostbite and death. Extremely cold days are not a time to show your fashion best - rather it is formidable to wear multiple layers, including a hat. A great deal of temperature loss occurs through the head.

So "Children are especially vulnerable, so realize sure to keep the hat, scarf and glove set handy. Also, a two of a kind of thermals - or as my mother calls them, long johns - can go a extensive way in keeping your body heat in. Lastly, make sure to remove softie clothing immediately. The moisture in the clothing serves as an accelerator for heat loss. Also, be inescapable your home's heating systems, including the furnace and fireplace, and your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors have been checked and are working properly.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Type 2 Diabetes

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Type 2 Diabetes.
Women with post-traumatic lay stress upset seem more likely than others to develop type 2 diabetes, with severe PTSD almost doubling the risk, a immature study suggests. The research "brings to attention an unrecognized problem," said Dr Alexander Neumeister, commander of the molecular imaging program for apprehension and mood disorders at New York University School of Medicine. It's crucial to pay for both PTSD and diabetes when they're interconnected in women. Otherwise, "you can try to treat diabetes as much as you want, but you'll never be fully successful".

PTSD is an angst disorder that develops after living through or witnessing a chancy event. People with the disorder may feel intense stress, suffer from flashbacks or experience a "fight or flight" answer when there's no apparent danger. It's estimated that one in 10 US women will blossom PTSD in their lifetime, with potentially severe effects, according to the study. "In the past few years, there has been an increasing concentration to PTSD as not only a mental disorder but one that also has very profound effects on brain and body function who wasn't concerned in the new study.

Among other things, PTSD sufferers gain more weight and have an increased gamble of cardiac disease compared to other people. The new study followed 49,739 female nurses from 1989 to 2008 - old 24 to 42 at the beginning - and tracked weight, smoking, direction to trauma, PTSD symptoms and type 2 diabetes. People with type 2 diabetes have higher than conventional blood sugar levels. Untreated, the disease can cause serious problems such as blindness or kidney damage.

Friday 24 July 2015

Smoking And Obesity Are Both Harmful To Your Health

Smoking And Obesity Are Both Harmful To Your Health.
Smoking and embonpoint are both bad to your health, but they also do considerable damage to your wallet, researchers report. Annual health-care expenses are intrinsically higher for smokers and the obese, compared with nonsmokers and people of nutritious weight, according to a recent report in the journal Public Health. In fact, obesity is absolutely more expensive to treat than smoking on an annual basis, the study concluded. And the cost of treating both problems is in the end borne by US society as a whole.

Obese people run up an average $1,360 in additional health-care expenses each year compared with the non-obese. The proper obese long-suffering is also on the hook for $143 in extra out-of-pocket expenses, according to the report. By comparison, smokers need an average $1046 in additional health-care expenses compared with nonsmokers, and pay an extra $70 annually in out-of-pocket expenses. Yearly expenses associated with corpulence exceeded those associated with smoking in all areas of responsibility except for emergency room visits, the study found.

Study author Ruopeng An, helpmate professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said it shouldn't be surprising that the corpulent tend to have higher medical costs than smokers. "Obesity tends to be a disabling disease. Smokers pass away young, but people who are obese live potentially longer but with a lot of habitual illness and disabling conditions". So, from a lifetime perspective, obesity could prove strikingly burdensome to the US health-care system.

Those who weigh more also pay more, An found, with medical expenses increasing the most all those who are extremely obese. By the same token, older folks with longer smoking histories have fundamentally higher medical costs than younger smokers. An also found that both smoking and chubbiness have become more costly to treat over the years. Health-care costs associated with obesity increased by 25 percent from 1998 to 2011 and those linked to smoking rose by nearly a third.

Effective Test For Cervical Cancer Screening

Effective Test For Cervical Cancer Screening.
An HPV evaluate recently approved by US trim officials is an effective way to check for cervical cancer, two matchless women's health organizations said Thursday. The groups said the HPV analysis is an effective, one-test alternative to the current recommendation of screening with either a Pap check alone or a combination of the HPV test and a Pap test. However, not all experts are in agreement with the move: the largest ob-gyn number in the United States, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is still recommending that women old 30 to 65 be screened using either the Pap test alone, or "co-tested" with a federation of both the HPV test and a Pap test. The new, so-called interim conduct report was issued by two other groups - the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.

It followed US Food and Drug Administration blessing last year of the cobas HPV assay as a primary test for cervical cancer screening. The HPV prove detects DNA from 14 types of HPV - a sexually transmitted virus that includes types 16 and 18, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. The two medical groups said the interim counsel communication will help health care providers detect how best to include primary HPV testing in the care of their female patients until a number of medical societies update their guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

And "Our go over again of the data indicates that pure HPV testing misses less pre-cancer and cancer than cytology a Pap test alone. The regulation panel felt that primary HPV screening can be considered as an option for women being screened for cervical cancer," interim management report lead author Dr Warner Huh said in a info release from the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. Huh is director of the University of Alabama's Division of Gynecologic Oncology The FDA approved the cobas HPV examine newest April as a first step in cervical cancer screening for women aged 25 and older.

Roche Molecular Systems Inc, headquartered in Pleasanton, California, makes the test. Thursday's interim surface recommends that ultimate HPV testing should be considered starting at age 25. For women younger than 25, tendency guidelines recommending a Pap test unaccompanied beginning at age 21 should be followed. The new recommendations also state that women with a negative issue for a primary HPV test should not be tested again for three years, which is the same interval recommended for a normal Pap investigation result.

Tuesday 21 July 2015

Preventing Infections In The Hospital

Preventing Infections In The Hospital.
Rates of many types of hospital-acquired infections are on the decline, but more effect is needed to watch over patients, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. "Hospitals have made official progress to reduce some types of health care-associated infections - it can be done," CDC Director Dr Tom Frieden said Wednesday in an working flash release. The study used national data to track outcomes at more than 14500 well-being care centers across the United States. The researchers found a 46 percent lessen in "central line-associated" bloodstream infections between 2008 and 2013.

This type of infection occurs when a tube placed in a rotund vein is either not put in correctly or not kept clean, the CDC explained. During that same time, there was a 19 percent shrinking in surgical site infections among patients who underwent the 10 types of surgery tracked in the report. These infections befall when germs get into the surgical lesion site. Between 2011 and 2013, there was an 8 percent drop in multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, and a 10 percent lapse in C difficile infections.