“Continuous CPR-save a life”

Learn Sarver Heart Center’s Continuous Chest Compression CPR

Every three days, more Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest than the number who died in the 9-11 attacks.

You can lessen this recurring loss by learning Continuous Chest Compression CPR, a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more likely bystanders will try to help, and it was developed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

“This video is worth sharing,” said Gordon A. Ewy, MD, director of the UA Sarver Heart Center and one of the research pioneers who developed this method.

“Work as a team? = Progress in Alzheimer’s research”

What was that word you used?

My Mother always taught us to share, care and respectfully work together. She said that there is strength in number.

Seems that this is true in medical research as well.  Yes, in the land where no one shared data unless they were close trusted collegues.  Sometimes necessity and the overwhelming enormity of the project creates the perfect opportunity to do as mother taught us so many years ago.

Trying to solve Alzheimer’s Disease, the idea for the collaboration, known as ADNI, for Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, emerged about 10 years ago during a casual conversation in a car between life time friends on the way to the airport.

Neil S. Buckholtz, chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch at the National Institute on Aging, was being driven to the airport by his lifelong friend, Dr. William Potter, a neuroscientist at Eli Lilly.

Dr. Potter had recently left the National Institutes of Health and he had been thinking about how to make progress in the  Alzheimer’s drug research.  Research was run in a dark age’s fashion

“… give a drug and hope it does something,” …“What was needed was to find some way of seeing what was happening in the brain as Alzheimer’s progressed and asking if experimental drugs could alter that progression.”

Then he  had a crazy idea -what if we create a world collaboration effort?

The key to the Alzheimer’s project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world.

No one around the world would own the data.

No one could submit patent applications,

though private companies would ultimately profit from any drugs or imaging tests developed

The project would require 800 subjects, some with normal memories, some with memory impairment, some with Alzheimer’s, who would be tested for possible biomarkers and followed for years to see whether these markers signaled the disease’s progression.

The development of reliable and valid measures of Alzheimer’s disease requires such large science with such limited returns on the investment that it was in no one company’s interest to pursue it.

Companies as well as academic researchers are using the data. There have been more than 3,200 downloads of the entire massive data set and almost a million downloads of the data sets containing images from brain scans.

And Dr. Buckholtz says he is pleasantly surprised by the way things are turning out.

“We weren’t sure, frankly, how it would work out having data available to everyone,” he said. “But we felt that the good that could come out of it was overwhelming. And that’s what’s happened.”

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  
http://nyti.ms/crVMcn

“Save your change and use your pen to stop malnutrition”

Starvation kills. Malnutrition and dehydration can eliminated an individuals chance at developing a strong healthy body and mind and can cause death. 200 million children under 5 years of age are affected by malnutrition, with 90 percent living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. And at any moment, at least 20 million children suffer from thedeadliest form of severe malnutrition. Malnutrition plays a huge role in child mortality because the immune systems of these children are less resistant to common childhood diseases. In fact, malnutrition contributes to at least one third of the eight million annual deaths of children under five of five.

Most of the damage caused by malnutrition occurs in children before they reach their second birthday.

This is the critical window of opportunity when the quality of a child’s diet has a profound, sustained impact on his or her health, physical and mental development. Breast milk is the only food babies need for the first six months. After this time, breastfeeding alone is not sufficient and the types of foods introduced into the diet are of paramount importance. Diets that do not provide the right blend of energy including high-quality protein, essential fats, and carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals can impair growth and development, increase the risk of death from common childhood illness, or result in life-long health consequences.

More clean water, protein, fruit and vegetables and less flour will eradicate malnutrition.

Tested strategies to address malnutrition are effective and are showing promising results in Mexico, Thailand, and Brazil, have reduced early childhood malnutrition through direct nutrition programs that ensure infants and young children from even the poorest families have access to quality foods, such as milk and eggs.

Although in Asian and African countries they want to tackle this problem by replicating successful complete food programs, the aid they are sent consists of fortified cereal blend of corn and soy only.  This GMO “food” will fill th ebelly of a starving child, but young child’s hunger, but does not provide proper nourishment.

International donor countries including the USA must end must support programs that don’t supply  the minimal nutritional needs of infants and young children.

Take action today to help Doctors Without Borders to change this food starvation policy,

Give all children a chance to grow up healthy.

Please sign the petition to help change the US policy and give what you can to help.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of
http://www.starvedforattention.org

Image 1. courtesy of  
http://bit.ly/cnz18k

Image 2. courtesy of  
http://bit.ly/aQkswQ

“Benedryl and its’ cousins maybe bad mojo for long term users”

“Researchers … conducted a six-year observational study, evaluating 1,652 Indianapolis area African-Americans over the age of 70 who had normal cognitive function when the study began … ‘[Taking one anticholinergic significantly increased an individual’s risk of developing mild cognitive impairment and taking two of these drugs doubled this risk.’” Reported in Physorg.org.

Why were elderly people allowed to take part in this study?  It disappoints and angers me.

Over the counter (OTC) drugs like Benadryl (or Dimedrol in other countries), Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM, Midol PM and Advil PM and some Unisom products if used regularly can cause decreased brain function in those over 70 years of age.  Other anticholinergic prescription drugs, such as Paxil, Detrol, Demerol and Elavil are are made with the same antihistamine Diphenhydramine like their OTC cousins.

How do these drugs work?

These drugs, called anticholinergics, block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter. The body uses neurotransmitters to speed or slow the transmission of nerve signals throughout the brain and nervous system.

Despite Benedryl being one of the oldest antihistamines on the market it is more effective than even some of the latest prescription drugs. Consequently, it is frequently used when an allergic reaction requires fast, effective reversal of the often dangerous effects of a massive histamine release. Its active ingredient Diphenhydramine works by blocking the effect of histamine at H1 receptor sites. This results in effects such as the increase of vascular smooth muscle contraction, thus reducing the redness, hyperthermia and edema that occurs during an inflammatory reaction. In addition, by blocking the H1 receptor on peripheral nociceptors (pain receptors), diphenhydramine decreases their sensitization and thus reduces itching from an allergic reaction.

The effects of Diphenhydramine the active ingredient in many antihistamine compounds include:

• Mouth/throat – dryness
• Endocrine – change in appetite
• Heart – increased heart rate (tachycardia or hypertension)
• Liver - toxicity in very large doses
• Brain/Memory/Nervous System -  profound drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, short-term memory loss, hallucinations, dizziness, irritability, delirium, motor impairment (ataxia), restlessness, restless leg syndrome, clouded thinking, difficult mood changes, twitching may be delayed until the drowsiness begins to cease, confusion
  
• Vision-visual disturbances, abnormal sensitivity to bright light (photophobia), pupil dilation,  blurred vision at nearpoint owing to lack of accommodation (cycloplegia),  redness, dryness and yellowing of eyes
• Respiration- irregular breathing, decreased respiration
• Skin – itchy skin, decreased body temperature (generally in the hands and/or feet), flushing
• Bladder/Bowel function - urinary retention, constipation, nausea, vaginal dryness,
• Sexual -erectile dysfunction, excitability, decreased libido
• Atypical sensations – sense of heaviness, hearing imbalances

References

Excerpts courtesy of  
http://bit.ly/cmMLF7

Excerpts courtesy of 
http://bit.ly/BpDrf

Image courtesy of     
http://bit.ly/csdX5Y

“To be or not to be stressed out of it-that is the question”

“Fight or flight”, to be stress or not produces in the body a hormonal response (cortisol and other stress hormones), are released within the body, slowing down or halting tissue repair, reproduction, growth and the effectiveness of theimmune system. A decrease in digestive functions of the stomach, intestines and pancreas also occurs.

Anxious feelings initially appear as our entire being prepares to physically either flee or fight . . .but if these anxious feelings are left on, they can worsen and may eventually turn into anxiety and or depressive related conditions. If these stress hormones continue to be released and are not turned off, they most likely will cause adverse physical symptoms, as well, which can lead to chronic physical and emotional distress. Because our stress and social situations have evolved so we cannot “Flee or Fight,” we find ourselves in a state where we “Freeze.” In this state we continue to produce the stress hormones, and often find ourselves not knowing how to respond for fear of losing a job, upsetting a spouse etc., or we may “overreact” with a behavior that does not have much thought to it, often compounding work-related/family or social problems or interactions.

If “fight or flight” response  is left on, these stress hormones released within the body, slow down or stop tissue repair, reproduction, growth and decrease the effectiveness of the immune system. A drop in digestive functions of the stomach, intestines and pancreas will take place.

Stress hormones such as cortisol, GH and norepinephrine are released at periods of high stress. The hormone regulating system is known as the endocrine system. Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system and norepinephrine is believed to play a role in ADHD as well as depression and hypertension.

Stress hormones also rise in the body during  surgery, during grief, poor sleep, and even when a person receives exceptionally good and exciting news. The hormones can stay elevated for 72 hours and then return to their normal level.

Prolonged and protracted stress can create anxiety, depression, hyper-vigilance in a variety of ways. The body was never designed to maintain high prolonged periods of stress. It can bring on physical and emotional pain and disease.

There are many integrated/complementary medicine has many ways to address physical and emotional stress successfully. Natural medicine is not used to just address symptoms, but to use the symptoms to create opportunities for the individual to de-stress, address the challenges of their life and heal.

One modality that is used homeopathy. Homeopathy is a system of medicine that listens to the person’s story, carefully assess the effects of the person’s responses to the stresses in their life and chooses a remedy to fit the person.

Each person is unique and responds to a crisis in a different way so there would be  no reason to give the same remedy to each person.

An example: A family has suddenly lost their only son.

1. Father may refuse to talk about it and be emotionally unsupportive of other family members.
2. Mother may cry around the clock at the about of their lost son.
3. Grandmother may put on a strong face in front of everyone, but cry only when she is alone in her room.

All are grieving, but all need different homeopathic medicines to bring them back to a calmer more relaxed  state of effective being. The medicines do not block or suppress grieving, but allow the person to breathe more freely and express themselves so the healing can begin and their mind and body will not stuff feelings away to make them sick later.

Submitted by M.Wolken, PhD Healthy Living Center

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  
http://bit.ly/cqmwbt

Excerpts courtesy of
http://bit.ly/bjZYS3

Image courtesy of  
http://bit.ly/cpoDV1

“Concussions and their effects on the rise in children and adults”

If the NFL has begun to educate their players on concussion awareness, maybe all sporting enthusiasts should follow suit. In schools at all levels there is no agreed upon care for head injuries. A concussion can change a player’s life and a player’s family lives forever.

Concussions can happen to anyone who injures their brain through a blow to the head; that can result in loss of consciousness. Trauma to the brain when mild can be called mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), mild head injury (MHI), minor head trauma and concussion.

Factors that contribute to increasing the risk of TBI include:
* A previous concussion or head injury
* Sex: being a male
* Specific  age groups: ( 1) Children age o to 5 years, teens, (2) young adults 15 to 24 years of age, and (3) older people over 75 years of age
* Contact sports, such as football, soccer, rugby, hockey or boxing
* Work that involves farming, logging, , or construction
* Traveling by vehicle at a high rate of speed
* Alcohol use
* Lack of sleep
* Medications that cause drowsiness

Symptoms that may appear in a person with a concussion include:

* Listlessness, memory problems or tiring easily
* Irritability, hypersensitivity of the senses, or lack of patience with self or others
* Changes in normal habits: eating or sleeping patterns, behaviors, school performance, decrease motivation
* Decreasing interest in being with friends, playing with favorite toys, activities, or sports
* Loss of new skills, such as toilet training, jumping, bike riding, spelling or reading
* Change in balance, dizziness, visual field disturbances, unsteady walking, ringing in ears

Concussions among high-school athletes occur with alarming frequency. The report from the Government Accountability Office finds that three national databases of concussions among high school athletes are too low. Surprisingly only Texas, Oregon and Washington have enacted laws to meaningfully tackle the issue, the GAO reports. Oregon and Texas require athletes to be removed from play the day of the injury, while Washington gives coaches responsibility for removal.

Just taking an injured person off the field is not enough. All coaches need training to recognize and be able to administer several cognitive tests to test for memory and physical impairment. recovery often takes much longer. The Concussion Clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio estimates 400,000 concussions occurred among 7.5 million student athletes who participated in high-school sports during the 2008-2009 school year.

A recent clinical study by the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington found that more than 80% of student athletes who experienced concussions reported a significant worsening of symptoms over the first four weeks after attempting to return to school academics. Typically when the stress of school activities increases concentration and the ability to remember and respond appropriately overload the brain’s biological software and the result is an increase in post-concussion symptoms. These symptoms would only be exasperated for an individual with learning or behavior challenges.

Next:  how integrated medicine can augment tradition care of TBIs.

Resources
Excerpts courtesy of
http://bit.ly/aJYDIq

Excerpts courtesy of
http://bit.ly/aq7s2g

Image courtesy of 
http://www.picturesdepot.com/

“Communication without words after trauma or disease”

There is a new machine that can help individuals that have lost the ability to speak talk again.

Cathy Wolf  lost her ability to speak, but through a new speech assist machine called the Brain-Computer Interface system, she can communicate again.

Cathy Wolf of Katonah, N.Y., is able to manage only a small amount of muscle movement in her face and neck. Still, she’s helping test an alternative communication system that, it’s hoped, will help her and others with ALS compensate for this loss of voluntary muscle control.

Wolf currently uses the WiViK onscreen keyboard, E-triloquist speech program software and a switch she can operate with her eyebrow. When the time comes, she says, she will use BCI full time.

The Brain-Computer Interface system reads electric currents created by nerve cells talking to each other in the brain. It allows users to control a computer and communicate through e-mail, other computer-based communication systems, or synthetic speech.

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is under development by researchers at the Wadsworth Center, an arm of the New York State Department of Health, in Albany, N.Y. The BCI system — comprising a small laptop computer, an amplifier, a 20-inch monitor and a cap fitted with electrodes — “reads” the electric currents created by cellular activity in the brain, allowing the user to control a computer and communicate through e-mail, other computer-based communication systems or synthetic speech.

Brain signals instead of muscles It’s hoped that BCI will be made widely available for in-home use by people unable to communicate by other means as a result of disease or injury. Although it has potential for use by people affected by spinal cord injuries, stroke or other diseases, Wolf and the four other people currently testing the system all have ALS.

The BCI system is calibrated to the individual, and its use in anyone with advanced ALS requires a caregiver or someone else who can first put the cap containing the electrodes on the user’s head, and then start the system. From there, the user can control everything using brain signals instead of muscles, up to and including shutting down the computer.

In fall 1997, Wolf learned she has ALS. Since then, management of the disease has included a tracheostomy and ventilator, and a feeding tube. Unable to speak, Wolf communicates with her husband Joel and the rest of the world using a WiViK onscreen keyboard; E-triloquist speech program software; and a SCATIR switch that works through detection of a reflected beam of light and which she operates with her eyebrows.

***Compmed’s Director has been arrested****

by the MDA police.

Please help me post bail so I can continue my blogging work for you.

Arrested for a good cause. Please listen to my story and help me post bail.

All money goes to Jerry’s Kids for camp and to further research.
http://bit.ly/cTzj3e

Resources

Excerpts and Image courtesy of
http://bit.ly/dwk5Og

“Your donation can help in Haiti”

Help Haiti:

January 12, 2010:  Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti just outside the capital Port-au-Prince.  Information is still being reported, but we know that the damage is extensive. Homes, businesses, roads and a major hospital have been affected.  This is the worst earthquake the country has seen in its history.

Help Haiti

You can help today
Needed Supplies
First AID: Antibiotic ointments, antiseptic wipes, bleach in tablet form, Band-Aids, gauze+tape, first aid kits, gloves. Pain relievers, tummy aids, antibiotic creams/ointments, liquid bandage,
Flashlights, DRY goods (beans/rice), infant/powder milk, Ensure, gently used or new blankets.
Personal items: toothpaste and toothbrushes, nail clippers, wash/face cloths, non-alcohol or baby shampoos, bar soaps like Ivory
In Tucson , AZ supplies can be taken to
World Care
3538 East Ellington Place
Tucson, AZ 85713-4214
514-1588
www.worldcare.org

Other Options
or in any area supplies can be taken to your local Red Cross or Crusa Roja.

Text:   HAITI to 90999 to Help Haiti.

“High levels of toxic cadmium found in Disney, Walmart and other kids toys”

It is all about how cheap we can make cheap jewelry and toys.

If it works and no one complains about the toxicity level of certain metals used then keep doing it. China’s low-cost jewelry makers, it was an open trade secret: The metal cadmium is shiny, strong and malleable at low temperatures, regardless of its health hazards. And it’s cheap.It is being used now to keep the cost down since lead was banned a few years ago. Profit at all costs above childrens health. Cancer, learning disabilities and permanent IQ loss are some of the known side effects.  Tao Xinyao, a metals expert who works in the Yiwu factory for jewelry maker Neoglory, said she noticed an upserge in the use of cadmium around 2003, when prices of the metal hit a low. Jewelry makers discovered they could work with cadmium at much lower temperatures than they could zinc, the most common nontoxic material, she said.

The Associated Press bought and tested more than 100 pieces of childrens jewelry made in China

and sold at Wal-mart and other retailers around the country.

Cadmium content of a few toys

"Best Friend's" toxic jewelry pendants

Deadly costume jewelry

12% of the cheap jewelry trinkets contained at least 10 %

Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” pendants -25 to 35 %

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer charm – 91 %

Best Friend’s Bracelet charms  – 89 and 91 %

Signs of cadmium overdose

“Acute exposure to cadmium fumes may cause flu like symptoms including chills, fever, and muscle ache

Severe tracheo-bronchitis, pneumonitis, and pulmonary edema. Symptoms of inflammation may start hours after the exposure and include cough, dryness and irritation of the nose and throat, headache, dizziness, weakness, fever, chills, and chest pain.

Inhaling cadmium-laden dust quickly leads to respiratory tract and kidney failure..

Ingestion of any significant amount of cadmium causes immediate poisoning and damage to the liver and the kidneys.

Compounds containing cadmium are also carcinogenic.

Bones become soft (osteomalacia), lose bone mineral density (osteoporosis) and become weaker. This causes the pain in the joints and the back, and also increases the risk of fractures. In extreme cases of cadmium poisoning, mere body weight causes a fracture.

The kidneys lose their function to remove acids from the blood in proximal renal tubular dysfunction. The kidney damage inflicted by cadmium poisoning is irreversible and does not heal over time. The proximal renal tubular dysfunction creates low phosphate levels in the blood (hypophosphatemia), causing muscle weakness and sometimes coma. The dysfunction also causes gout, a form of arthritis due to the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints because of high acidity of the blood (hyperuricemia). Another side effect is increased levels of chloride in the blood (hyperchloremia). The kidneys can also shrink up to 30%.

Other patients lose their sense of smell (anosmia).”

Children as well as adults are susceptible to cadmium poisoning.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_poisoning

Excerpts courtesy of  
http://news.yahoo.com/ap_us/cadmium_jewelry_factories

Excerpts courtesy of   
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/12/health/main6087982.shtml

Image 1. courtesy of  
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/12/health/main6087982.shtml

Image 2. courtesy of  
http://i.usatoday.net/2010/01/11/cadmiumx.jpg

“Rock Rock Rock and your bowels function may improve”

Bowel dysfunction after abdominal surgery is normal, but returns to normal functioning can be faster if you spend time rocking in a rocking chair.

Constipation after surgery can last as long as three to five days. Dr. Massey had observed that patients who rocked in rocking chairs experienced an earlier return of bowel function than those who did not rock. In women recovering from C-section and abdominal hysterectomy, research has  shown

rocking chairs aid surgery recovery

that women who rocked in a rocking chair  recover normal functioning of bowels faster.. Dr. Massey used rocking chair intervention in both male and female abdominal cancer patients recovering from surgeries as well as those patients recovering from gastric, colon, small bowel, pancreatic or liver surgeries.

Patients were instructed to rock for periods of between 10 to 20 minutes for a total of at least one hour a day, and also to walk, adding more time each day as tolerated. They were compared with 32 others who did not rock (but who did walk) who served as a control group.

The results: Those in the rocking group rocked  passed gas (a post-op healing benchmark) 16.8 hours earlier on average than the other group. Postoperative nausea, vomiting, abdominal distention and inability to eatare side effects that can also effect recovery and a patient’s quality of life much later

Seems that rocking stimulates the vestibular nerves in the ear that, in turn, send signals to the reticular activating system (RAS). The ascending reticular activating system connects to areas in the thalamus, hypothalamus, and cortex, while the descending reticular activating system connects to the cerebellum and sensory nerves. The bowel dysfunction associated with abdominal surgery is thought to be a response to the stress of surgery.  Before surgery the the extra drugs given to the patient causes the liver to be over taxed with toxins and the anesthesia used during surgery brings the functioning of the brain and nervous system to such a low function that it is hard for the body to rid itself of its effects.motor nerve functioning and balance.

RAS helps controls motor nerve functioning and balance

Rocking stimulate the activity of the brain and nerves to get back to work. This response thenn mobilizes the nerves of the digestive system and the rocking allows the body to naturally relax and increase its level of endorphins that will maike you feel better and recover quicker.

Other ways rocking helps

1. After knee surgery.

2. Alzheimer’s and dementia, ADHD, autism and sensory disorders.

releive the blues with rocking

3.  Rocking may help relieve arthritis and has been found helpful for varicose veins.

Try rocking first instead of using drugs to relax or to relieve constipation

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  DailyHealthNews@dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com

Image 1. courtesy of  
http://www.garyweeks.com/walnut_rocking_chair.html

Image 2. courtesy of 
http://3dnews.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/rocking-chair.jpg

Image 3. courtesy of  
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/ReticularActivatingSystem1.JPG