S&A Health Report: Health News You Can Use, Vol. 3

Don't get sick on the weekend. If you decide to have a heart attack or a stroke be sure and have it during a weekday. Recent studies have shown that for either of these debilitating and sudden events your mortality is increased if it happens on the weekend. As it turns out, this has long been known for other diseases such as pulmonary embolism and even cancer.

What is not clear is why care declines on the weekends. Are hospitals understaffed, or staffed by part-timers on the weekend? Are specialists off golfing? It's a mystery. It may be that the delays in diagnosis and treatment initiation lead to poorer outcomes. (Worse than that is going to a rural hospital if you need specialist help.)

Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a thing of the past. Researchers have proven that performing mouth-to-mouth is unnecessary. They showed that the key to surviving a heart attack is receiving chest compressions. If you or a loved one needs "CPR," be sure to skip the "P" (for pulmonary). The results showed that patients who receive just chest compressions had a 22% chance to live (and have a brain) versus only 10% of those who got the traditional combination. This is one of the few interventions where you get a 100% improvement in outcome.

Sadly, it reminds me of when I asked our instructor in my first year of medical school why we "do the breath part of CPR when so much of the air remains in the lungs anyway" (so-called residual volume). The answer I got was typical of the brushoffs unorthodox questions receive in medical school classes – "it just works better that way." Sad, so very sad.

Five million people have alzeheimer's. A recent report projects the numbers of Alzheimer's patients growing as the baby boomers age. 12% of people over the age of 65 have it and 50% of those over 80. Wow, these numbers are staggering. On a more hopeful note... Exciting news presented in Austria described data from a company called Avid that has come up with a molecule that binds to the plaques in the brains of patients. The brains can then be imaged and thus a simple way of diagnosing Alzheimer's is on the horizon. This is important because currently definitive diagnoses can only be made at death via autopsy.

Aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen are dangerous. Moderation in all things and these painkillers are no exception. Scientists have shown that taking these drugs six or seven days a week increases your risk of high blood pressure. The risk increases by 26%-48% depending on the drug. Fifteen pills a week of NSAIDS (ibuprofen is one of these) is enough to cause damage in your vessels. 

Stockpiled drug for bird flu deadly. Tamiflu has been linked in Japan to teenagers jumping from buildings. In a few cases the kids died. Makers of the drug, Roche, already caution against "delirium and self-injury." I wonder what grandpa would do on this drug? The hype about bird flu continues on and on – there must be a political payoff that I'm missing.

More bird flu nonsense. Someone (taxpayers?) has paid money and someone spent it for a report from The Trust for America's Health. The report projects a $683 billion economic loss, 90 million people sickened, and 2 million deaths from bird flu. It projects a length of 18 months and much other nonsense that I can't even write for fear of breaking my keyboard. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is quoted as saying, "the report underscored the importance of investing in preparedness.

The report underscores the need for politicians (read "lawyers") to learn some science (mmm... think what this might do to the global warming debate). The only reason the 1918 pandemic even happened (this is the last big one with which people try and scare you) was because we didn't have antibiotics to fight the secondary bacterial infections that killed people. 

Is your doctor on the dole? The state of Minnesota recently required the reporting of monies that doctors receive from drug makers. The numbers are worse than I could imagine. One doctor, the head of the National Kidney Foundation, was linked to $1.9 million given to the lab where he was a senior researcher. And in 2005, he received nearly $26,000 in speaking and consulting fees. In a New York Times article, one doctor commented about doing lectures for drug companies: "It beats talking to little old ladies about their bowels." Isn't that nice!? And to think he only made $174,000 from 1998 to 2005 on the lecture circuit.

I try to take no more than one or two aspirin or acetaminophen a week. I can't take ibuprofen because it rips my stomach apart. And more importantly, if I have a headache, I try to avoid painkillers and instead get a massage, stretch, or even better roll around on a tennis ball under my back on the floor. (This last tip is the highest-yielding health tip for pain that I know!)

I read the news looking for common sense ideas and common NONSENSE... does it make sense that your body produces cholesterol naturally but that your doctor gives out a drug meant to block the production of the stuff? And they give it out like its candy. Beware.