Posts Tagged ‘risk’

For Our Men: Important!!!

August 19th, 2015 Lynn

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in both men and women. Women receive a warning system as they age if there are imbalances, infections and/or inflammation. It’s called perimenopause and menopause. Symptoms vary from women to women and unlike common beliefs, hot flashes, inability to sleep, weight gain are not normal, but rather warning signs. Men, however, don’t receive a warning system per say. Or do they? I just recently listened to an excellent podcast by Dr. Joel Kahn, a holistic cardiologist. What he had to say is extremely important. I urge you to read this thoroughly and to share this with your loved ones.

Don’t wait for chest pain or a mild heart attack to seek help. There are other early warning symptoms that must be explored:

  • Erectile dysfunction is an indication of vascular issues and can be a predictor of heart disease. There’s a strong correlation between erectile dysfunction preceding heart disease.
  • Baldness can indicate clogged arteries.
  • Calf cramps may indicate that blood is not flowing below the heart.
  • A vertical ear crease has been correlated with heart disease.
  • Poor sleep habits (less than 7 hours per sleep per night) increases risk.
  • A poor diet.

If you feel that you or your loved one is showing these risk factors, then please read further.

What tests have been traditionally conducted? An EKG/ECG, which is commonly recommended, recognizes only electrical activity of the heart and identifies latent stages of advanced heart disease. Alllow me to emphasize, an EKG doesn’t recognize early stages and is not enough. An exercise stress test: looks for lesions… but if 40 to 60% of the lesions are narrowed, it will be missed. In other words a stress test picks up the worst of the worst. Cardio lite is nuclear ingested and involves loads of radiation providing great inaccuracies…false positives and missed populations.

It’s important to look at the actual arteries to find out if they are blocked.

There are two extremely important tests that offer early detection of heart disease. The first is a coronary artery scan. This will show if 99% or more of arteries are damaged. There are three main arteries that pump blood in and out of the heart. The heart arteries are deep and small. Calcification (bone like material in arteries also referred to as plaque) contains 20% of calcium and show up easy in XRays. The test involves a cat heart scan (quick and informative) and is available in every clinic across the country. Nothing is injected into the blood stream and the radiation exposure is 1 SMV compared to the cardiolite which is 12-15SMV’s. The ideal result is “0” based on a formula. A result of 1-99 increases the risk of heart disease by 50% more than patients with 0. This test is not necessary to repeat more than every 10 years. The Coronary artery calcium screen costs about $100 to $150 per test but is unfortunately not covered by insurance.

The second is a CMIT test ultrasound of the carotid arteries in the neck under the skin. CMIT stands for Carotid Intima-Media thickness. This neck ultrasound checks the thickness of the artery…compared to age. This is the earliest way to know the age of your arteries (are they older or younger than your chronological age). Based on these results a program can begin and this ultrasound can be repeated 6 to 12 months to monitor. The results will show: less than 25th percentile suggests a low risk, 50 -75th percentile offers average thickness and over 75th percentile in thickness of the arteries suggests the highest risk. A middle aged person is .6 to .7 micrometers. For ever .1mm increase in the CMIT results, the risk for heart disease increases by 10 to 15% and the risk of stroke increases by 13 to 18%. The cost again is not covered by insurance but ranges from $150 to $250. Unfortunately it is not as widely available.
Other necessary tests that are recommended by Dr. Kahn and are widely available are:
1. Advanced Cholesterol panel
2. High Sensitivity C Reactive Protein

Let’s continue to be proactive in health.

“The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining”. 

Be well,

Lynn

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This OTC pain killer that we all have used can cause ADD and even death

March 20th, 2014 Lynn

Fox news, CNN, Huffington Post, Time, CBS are reporting the news that is sweeping the nation about the dangers of a drug that all of us have probably had in our medicine cabinets and consumed at one time or another.  Acetaminophin, found in Tylenol and Excedrin, when taken by pregnant mothers, is showing a 37% increase of risk of their children developing ADD.   According to previous research, acetaminophen can disrupt the body’s endocrine, or hormone, system. Exposure to endocrine disruptors in a fetus may effect neurodevelopment and cause behavioral dysfunction.  The exact mechanism of disruption is unclear, but the correlation appears to be strong.

Acetaminophin has been recommended by the doctors in the past to pregnant woman to address fevers or illness as a safer alternative to other pain killers.  Currently the FDA has made no adjustments to Acetominophin’s risks for pregnant women.

Tylenol, namely, has also been under scrutiny in the past year for its failure to advise that in excess doses or in combination with alcohol, it can cause death. The FDA was warned of the potential of Tylenol with liver failure over 32 years ago but has just recently taken notice.  Annually, there have been on average 150 deaths; some affecting the very young as well as the old. 

Per the site WTOP.com, here are  Major Takeaways about Tylenol:

  1. About 150 Americans die a year by accidentally taking too much acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, federal data from the CDC shows.
  2. Acetaminophen has a narrow safety margin: the dose that helps is close to the dose that can cause serious harm, according to the FDA.
  3. The FDA has long been aware of studies showing the risks of acetaminophen. So has the maker of Tylenol, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson
  4. Over more than 30 years, the FDA has delayed or failed to adopt measures designed to reduce deaths and injuries from acetaminophen. The agency began a comprehensive review to set safety rules for acetaminophen in the 1970s, but still has not finished
  5. McNeil, the maker of Tylenol, has taken steps to protect consumers. But over more than three decades, the company has repeatedly opposed safety warnings, dosage restrictions and other measures meant to safeguard users of the drug.

According to this report, the FDA has failed to present the risks when the risks were under suspicion decades ago.  It’s disheartening to learn that the drug administration that we as Americans put faith in, is not protecting our people. It’s up to us to spread words of concern.  If you do use Tylenol and know of others that would value this information please share.

Be well,

Lynn

Posted in Digestive Issues, Kids Health 101, Nutrition for Seizures, Popular Articles, Womens Hormones Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments »

Should the FluMist be administered on school grounds? Watch this video

September 28th, 2013 Lynn

Last year in October of 2012, two types of flu vaccinations were offered to our children at the Elementary school, in the MPR: an injectable flue vaccination and a nasal spray, also referred to as “flumist”.  According to the center of disease control, the flumist contains weakened live influenza strains.  Because it contains ‘live’ strains there is a secondary transmission risk of 2.4% from one vaccinated individual to one non-vaccinated individual.  There is also a 21-day exposure period  in which the risk of secondary transmission remains.  There were approximately 300 students who participated in the on-site flu vaccinations, choosing preferably the non-injectable flue vaccination.   As a consequence the 2.4% risk of secondary transmission became exponentially increased, 300 fold.   There were students who elected to not receive a flu vaccination, including my two children. 

My spouse watched the children as they were administered the flumist vaccine in the MPR, just prior to lunchtime.  The initial reaction of each individual is to sneeze, thus potentially ‘spreading the vaccine’ throughout the MPR, also known as the lunch room, gymnasium, meeting, gathering room.  Two days following the approximate 300 person vaccination I walked by the front office where I overheard two of the administrators comment that the kids were ‘dropping like flies’.  One of my children, Lainey, became ill on that day.  It began with gastrointestinal issues and shortly thereafter serious ‘flu like symptoms’, followed by a bacterial infection. She missed two full weeks of school. 

My other child has had a history of a severely neurologically compromised system.  I was not advised of the risk of secondary transmission, the length of time for the exposure, nor was I asked for authorization for my children to be exposed to a ‘live virus’ that would be administered on school grounds.

Per the manufacturer of Flumist it is advised:

“vaccine recipients/their  parents/guardians should be informed by the health care provider that FluMist is an attenuated live virus vaccine and has the potential  for transmission to immunocompromised household contacts”.   

Shouldn’t this pertain to “school contacts’ as well?

I received a copy of the community flu clinics 2013 schedule.  It lists all of the locations available throughout the county.  Mammoth Lakes Elementary School is the only school setting mentioned amongst 10 establishments.  I urge the district to not allow the FluMist vaccine to be administered on school grounds.  I also ask that this item be put on the agenda for the next board meeting.

One last comment regarding FluMist,  the first inactive ingredient in FluMist is MSG. So if you any of you experience migraines you may want to avoid it. Secondly it is advised for any individuals suffering from asthma to not take the FluMist.   

Watch this video

 

Posted in Kids Health 101, Nutrition for Seizures, Popular Articles Tags: , , No Comments »

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