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Tag: Health

  • Norovirus Sickens 172 on Princess Cruises Ship

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sunday that 172 passengers of a U.S.-based Princess Cruises ship touring the Pacific have been infected with Norovirus.

    The ship in question, the “Crown Princess,” had a similar outbreak in April, when over 150 passengers became infected. The vessel also had a Norovirus incident in December, 2012, when 102 passengers were infected.

    Norovirus, which kills roughly 200,000 annually, is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in humans. The fatalities occur in mostly third-world countries, and children, the elderly and those who are immunosuppressed are at the highest risk.

    Symptoms of Norovirus include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and at times loss of taste. The disease is spread through the fecal contamination of food and water, via person-to-person contact and can be aerosolized by way of vomiting and the flushing of toilets. Many norovirus outbreaks have been traced to food that was handled by one infected person.

    Here is a clip concerning Norovirus:

    While severe illness is uncommon in developed countries, an infected person will likely feel fairly sick for a few days. There is no specific treatment for Norovirus, though a patient should remain hydrated.

    The CDC reported that 158 of the 3,009 passengers on the Crown Princess were infected, along with 14 of the 1,160 crew members. The ship is presently docked in Los Angeles and Princess Cruises is deep cleaning the vessel under the advisement of the CDC. A CDC employee will assess the progress Sunday.

    The Crown Princess is a Grand-class cruise ship at 951 feet long, and can hold 3,080 passengers and 1,201 crew members. The ship presently travels the Caribbean for the Winter season, and Europe for the Summer season. Its godmother is Martha Stewart.

    The Crown Princess is scheduled to head to Mexico on November 29.

  • Glenn Beck Gets Human With Startling Health Revelation

    “Rush Limbaugh says he does the show with half his brain tied behind his back,” Glenn Beck said. “With me, it’s actually been true. But now, it’s back online.”

    Glenn Beck is not universally loved. The man has churned out some of the most derided theories and accusations during his days at Fox News and in his own productions.

    These include:

    – Suspicions that Google is spying on conservatives, including him, for the “U.S. Government”.

    – The existence of “System X” in public schools, which includes sensors in students’ desks and MRI machines that gather information to allow people to be controlled by one political party.

    – The “government coverup” of the involvement of a “Saudi national” in the Boston Marathon bombing.

    – The U.S. government is seizing land through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to set up a new “land-backed” currency in America.

    – There are many more. And these kinds of things finally drove Fox News to sack Beck in 2011 to salvage their deteriorating reputation as a news agency.

    Lots of people roll their eyes and dismiss Beck nowadays. But the man has now come forward with a tale that even his most ardent opponent should pause before making light of.

    “While I was at Fox, the pain would get so bad that my camera crew, our executive producer Tiffany and I, had worked out hand signals so they would know when to take the camera off of me,” Beck said on his online show. “We didn’t know at the time what was causing me to feel as though, out of nowhere, my hands and feet, or arms and legs would feel like someone had just crushed them, set them on fire or pushed broken glass into them.”

    Beck had a condition that took years to diagnose and decipher. It was not only incredibly painful, it sometimes rendered him immobile.

    “Most afternoons my hands would start to shake, or my hands and feet began to curl and eventually — if I didn’t stop and rest, I began to curl into a fetal position,” Beck said. “This has baffled some of the best doctors in the world. It has frightened me and my family, and I didn’t know what was happening.”

    The condition not only affected him physically, but severely debilitated his memory. Oddly, it also enabled him to function on very little sleep each night. But the odd mix of symptoms was crumpling him. Beck considered abandoning his career and giving attention to his family, fearing that his death was approaching quickly.

    “We were all in the kitchen as a family,” he recounted, “and I had an attack. … I saw the faces of my children, and the idea that I would someday not remember them, nor would I remember my soon-to-be-born grandchild, hit me like a bag of bricks. And we looked at each other and I asked, ‘What am I doing? Maybe we should all move up to the mountains and spend all the time I have left together.’”

    Beck eventually found doctors who were able to get to the root of his condition.

    “After a few short visits, they found that I had several things going on, from an autoimmune disorder to adrenal fatigue. They also found the connection to everything that was going on, and for the first time gave us hope that we could reboot my system — not just stop it, but reverse things,” Beck said. “Me never having to sleep was finally understandable. The last sign of adrenal failure is a hyperextension of your adrenal glands. In other words, I didn’t need sleep.”

    “But now that I had blown out my system, all I could do is sleep,” Beck continued. “My immune system was looking at these natural hormones as an infection and so my body was trying to kill its most basic functions.”

    The good news — and it is good news when anyone finds a way out of their suffering, whether you like or agree with them or not — is that Beck is improving.

    Beck now declares, “After months of treatment and completely changing the way I eat, sleep, work and live, along with ongoing hormone treatment and intensive physical therapy, I have reversed the process. Some of the physical scars will be with me for the rest of my life … but my brain is back online in a big way.”

  • Glenn Beck Reveals His Health Battle For First Time

    Glenn Beck is revealing to the public the extent of his health problems.

    On Monday, November 10, while speaking to TheBlaze TV, the former Fox News host opened up about his illness. While most knew that Beck had been having some health issues, no one knew just how extreme they had become.

    “It has baffled some of the best doctors in the world,” Beck told the network he founded in 2011. “It has frightened me and my family, as we didn’t know what was happening.”

    Beck described some of his symptoms that threatened to keep him from working. He said he had trouble with vocal cord paralysis, memory loss, eyesight problems, intense pain, and seizures.

    “I was told by doctors just this last spring … that I could no longer work the way I had been working because it was literally killing me,” he said.

    “While I was at Fox, the pain would get so bad that my camera crew (God bless them), my executive producer Tiffany and our director, Sarah, worked out hand signals so they would know when to take the camera off me,” Beck explained. “We didn’t know at the time what was causing me to feel as though, out of nowhere, my hands or feet, or arms and legs, would feel like someone had just crushed them, or set them on fire or pushed broken glass into them.”

    After undergoing countless tests, Beck and his family moved from New York to Texas where he sought help at a local rehab facility called Carrick Brain Centers. That is where Beck finally received his diagnosis: an autoimmune disorder, adrenal fatigue, and Addison’s disease.

    Beck had to completely change his way of life, but is now recovering from the debilitating symptoms. “After months of treatment and completely changing the way I eat, sleep, work and live, along with ongoing hormone treatment and intensive physical therapy, I have reversed the process,” he said. “Some of the physical scars will be with me for the rest of my life … but my brain is back online in a big way.”

  • Amber Vinson Cleared Of Ebola, Gets A Kiss From George W. Bush

    On Friday, November 7, Amber Vinson got the all-clear. She was one of the two nurses who contracted Ebola after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, who got the disease while he was in Liberia. This marked the end of the feared Ebola outbreak in Dallas, and to celebrate the occasion, former president George W. Bush visited Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to pose for a photo op and he even hugged Vinson and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

    “I appreciate the way the hospital and its professionals are sharing lessons learned in a way that helps the broader United States health care community respond to this terrible virus,” Bush said in a statement. No further cases of Ebola have been reported in Dallas since Duncan, Vinson, and fellow nurse Nina Pham caught the disease. Duncan passed away on October 8, a week after being diagnosed with Ebola.

    — Bonnie Moon (@bonniemoon) November 7, 2014

    — CNN Newsource (@CNNNewsource) November 8, 2014

    In an interview with CNN, Vinson said she wondered how she caught the disease despite following protocol. “I have no idea. I go through it almost daily in my mind: what happened, what went wrong. Because I was covered completely every time. I followed the CDC protocol. I never strayed. It is a mystery to me,” she told CNN’s Don Lemon.

    Vinson was criticized for boarding commercial flights after treating an Ebola patient, despite showing no symptoms. After treating Duncan, she flew to Ohio for the weekend to plan for her wedding with Derrick Murray. She was diagnosed with Ebola when she got back to Dallas.

    Her engagement ring as well as the binder containing her wedding plans were incinerated during a hazmat clean-up that was meant to stop the spread of the disease. However, it was revealed by Dr. William Schaffner that some bleach would have destroyed any trace of the virus from her jewelry. 

    — Good Morning America (@GMA) November 8, 2014

  • Kaci Hickox: Judge Rules In Favor Of Nurse Over Quarantine Lawsuit

    Kaci Hickox, the nurse who made the news after a very public battle with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Maine Governor Paul LePage over Ebola quarantine laws, has reached a settlement with the Maine government that allows her to travel freely as long as she monitors her health closely.

    The Maine judge in charge of the case sided with Hickox and ruled that because she has exhibited no symptoms and is not contagious, she should not be isolated and her movements should not be restricted. In his ruling, the judge also slammed “misconceptions, misinformation, bad science and bad information” that has been circulated to the public regarding the disease.

    Hickox’s troubles began when she returned to the United States last month after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. She was placed under mandatory quarantine after showing signs of elevated temperature. The mandatory quarantine was an effect of Gov. Christie’s new policy that anyone showing symptoms of Ebola, including high temperature, should be isolated despite the fact that the disease is not airborne.

    In an interview with CNN, Kaci Hickox said, “We know that Ebola is not transmitted as easily as many other diseases and that self-monitoring and even an enhanced version, which is what most states in the US are going to now, this will work”.

    Kaci Hickox’s legal battle happened after transferring back to her hometown of Maine where Gov. Paul Lepage tried to keep her quarantined for the duration of the disease’s 21-day incubation period.

    The nurse fought back against the unnecessary quarantine that was imposed on health workers, and said in the interview that “the biggest reason that I fought is because I, you know, felt so much fear and confusion, and I imagined what my fellow aid workers were going to feel if they came back to this same situation.”

  • Nina Pham Reunited With Bentley After The Dog’s Ebola Quarantine

    On Saturday, November 1, Dallas nurse Nina Pham was reunited with her dog after its 21-day quarantine on suspicion for Ebola infection. Pham, who had contracted Ebola while caring for a patient and successfully recovered from the virus, met her dog Bentley again at Hensley Field, the decommissioned naval air base at which it was being quarantined.

    Pham was apparently overjoyed to see Bentley, whom she called “one of my best friends,” and said she was “excited to take Bentley home so we can start picking out his gifts for his two-year birthday party next month” in a short statement she made on Saturday.

    Pham and Bentley were separated when the Dallas nurse tested positive for Ebola on October 12, leaving the King Charles Cavalier spaniel’s fate uncertain. Pham was reportedly brought to the National Institutes for Health in Maryland, while Bentley was cared for by the Dallas Animal Services. Dogs are supposedly not known to be carriers of the Ebola virus, but because it was uncertain whether they could transmit it from someone affected by it, Bentley was placed under a quarantine of 21 days and given twice-daily check-ups by veterinarians in hazmat suits.

    While Pham was cleared of the virus and released on October 24, Bentley was still under quarantine until November 1. The dog underwent tests for Ebola, the last of which happened on Thursday, October 30. Bentley tested negative for Ebola at all times, which meant he could go home at the end of his quarantine.

    “He’s such a joy, you can’t help but love this little guy. I can’t wait to see him on talk shows when he’s all healthy and out of here,” said Dr. Cate McManus, operations manager of Dallas Animal Services in an interview with CNN.

    Pham said that getting Bentley back “just feels like Christmas literally,” and that being with her dog was one step closer to her “feeling whole again.”

  • Diabetes Awareness Month Kicks Off

    Diabetes Awareness Month Kicks Off

    Diabetes Awareness Month kicked off today as events across the nation were held to raise awareness of diabetes and the prevention of it.

    For example, one of the largest diabetes awareness walks in the nation was held today in Philidelphia.

    It was a cold and rainy day, but that didn’t stop the thousands of brave supporters who came out to walk a mile and try and help raise diabetes awareness. Those participating and watching were able to get valuable diabetes information and were also treated to a free concert when the diabetes awareness walk was over.

    “I’m so proud of the people that showed up today, despite the bad weather,” said one of the walkers.

    “It feels wonderful to be so supported by such a wonderful community.”

    Ann Meredith, the executive director of the American Diabetes Association, said, “Today, Philadelphia is officially declaring its independence from the diabetes epidemic.”

    Epidemic is definitely a fitting description.

    29.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many people are still unaware that diabetes can sometimes be delayed or even prevented.

    According to the CDC website,

    “Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugar to build up in your blood.”

    Type 2 diabetes can be sometimes be prevented or delayed by losing weight, eating right, and maintaining a good exercise program.

    Hopefully, Diabetes Awareness Month will help to spread the word about how important diet and exercise is to maintaining a healthy life!

  • Google Works With Nanoparticles To Detect Disease

    Google’s Google X unit is reportedly working on a system for disease detection involving nanoparticles that float around in the bloodstream.

    The effort is led by the Life Sciences department of Google X, which is run by Andrew Conrad. Steven Levy interviews him about the effort on Medium. Conrad explains:

    So this nanoparticle platform we’re talking about essentially does the following: You take a capsule chock full of the nanoparticles, and they absorb into your body and into your bloodstream. These nanoparticles are two thousand times smaller than a single red blood cell. They’re tiny. They’re so little that they can pass through parts of your body, they go through the blood, they go through your lymph system, they just walk around. They’re essentially very benign particles—-there’s already lots of FDA approved nanoparticles for imaging and stuff like that, because they’re simply made out of an iron oxide core, like you take in a One-A-Day Plus Iron pill. And they’re decorated with proteins and amino acids and DNA to make them bind to certain things…The trick is decorate them with smart molecules on their surface so they do smart things.

    …

    You can use these nanoparticles to detect rare things like a cancer cell or you can use them to measure common molecules. For example, in one case we put a coating on the nanoparticle that finds sodium — it’s a super common molecule but very important in renal disease. When a sodium molecule comes into the nanoparticle, it causes the nanoparticle to fluoresce light at a different color. So by collecting those nanoparticles at your wrist, where you have a device that detects these changes, we can see what color they’re glowing, and that way you can tell the concentration of sodium. In another case, by having a magnet at your wrist you can tell whether the nanoparticles are bound to cancer cells. This allows us to let these messengers walk around Paris, bring them all back to a central location, and ask them what they saw, what they did, what they encountered. And imagine that is the way in which we’re trying to understand the culture of the French.

    Definitely check out the full interview.

    Google X Life Sciences is made up of 100 researchers. It’s the same unit behind the Baseline Study revealed back in the summer, which involves the collection of genetic and molecular info from thousands of people with the hopes of getting a better picture of human health.

    All of this is in addition to the separate company Google has created called Calico, which is trying to cure the ailments associated with aging.

    Image via Google

  • Samantha Power Visits Ebola-Stricken Countries To Drum Up Health Care Support

    US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power has flown to West Africa to encourage international support for the fight against Ebola. Power traveled through Guinea on Sunday and landed on Monday in Sierra Leone. She also plans to visit Liberia before flying to Brussels in Belgium, meeting health care workers, volunteers and public officials at every stop.

    According to NBC, more foreign medical workers will need to travel to West Africa in order to beat the disease, but restrictions in the US have made some health care workers think twice about helping the efforts to stop Ebola. “The last thing we want is to stigmatize people. There is a category of people that we need to be effective in persuading to come, who are kind of hanging back and wondering,” said Power.

    Power is currently checking out the situation in West Africa so that she can drum up more international support for the fight against Ebola. “In visiting the three affected countries and getting a detailed grasp of the gaps I hope to use my knowledge of those gaps to shake the trees and really push other countries to do more,” Power said. She also plans to make a stop in Ghana to visit the United Nations Ebola response mission, which is coordinating global efforts to stop Ebola.

    Powers revealed that many countries who expressed support for the fight against Ebola and commended the US for its role in it have yet to send their own contingents of medical workers to help out in West Africa. “You have countries at the UN where I work every day who are signing on to resolutions and praising the good work that the US and the UK and others are doing, but they themselves haven’t taken the responsibility yet to send docs, to send beds, to send the reasonable amount of money,” she said.

    The fact that Power was sent to these countries even if she was a member of the US President’s cabinet means that people who want to help shouldn’t be afraid, she added.

  • Android Wear Update Lets You Leave The Phone At Home

    Android Wear Update Lets You Leave The Phone At Home

    Google announced a new update for Android Wear, its wearables operating system, as well as a new watch from Sony.

    The update enables Android Wear support of watches with GPS sensors, which means you won’t have to have your phone close by to do things like track your route, distance, and speed or listen to music while you’re running or biking. You can store music on your watch, and listen to it via Bluetooth headphones while your phone is back at home.

    Google names Golfshot and MyTracks as apps that are already taking advantage of the update. Google Play Music is supported too, of course.

    Google also gives us an update on Android Wear device availability:

    Starting today you can pre-order the Sony SmartWatch 3 from Verizon Wireless and it’s coming soon to Google Play. SmartWatch 3 is the first Android Wear watch to include a GPS sensor—perfect for enjoying today’s updates. It has a transflective display that improves battery life and is really easy to read in sunlight, so it’s a great fit for staying, well, fit.

    Of course, Android Wear offers a range of shapes, styles and sensors to help you find the wearable that’s right for you. The LG G Watch, the Samsung Gear Live, and the Moto 360 will all be updated to include the new music functionality over the next few days.

    As Google continues to update Android Wear, and more devices make their way to availability, it’s going to be interesting to see how it competes with Apple Watch, which is on its way next year.

    Image via Google

  • Proposition 46 Debate Heats Up in California

    In November Californians will have the opportunity to significantly change medical malpractice law in their state.

    Proposition 46 would raise California’s cap on non-economic damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits. The state’s cap is currently $250,000, set in 1975 by the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act. If voted into law, Proposition 46 would raise the cap to around $1.1 million, matching inflation growth over the past 39 years and requiring the cap to grow with future inflation.

    The law would also require doctors in California to undergo drug and alcohol testing. The results of the tests would be sent to the California Medical Board and positive test results would require disciplinary action from the board.

    Proposition 46 is being pushed largely by trial lawyers and consumer advocates throughout California. Though the law would not raise California’s attorney fee percentage cap, it would indirectly raise lawyer’s fees through larger pain and suffering judgments.

    According to the Los Angeles Times, proponents of the law argue that the current cap on pain and suffering damages hasn’t prevented large malpractice awards inflated by un-capped medical expense and lost wage claims. What is has done, proponents argue, is make lawyers hesitant to take on medical malpractice cases in which patients’ economic losses are low.

    On the other side of the issue the medical community in California, including the California Medical Association, is opposing Proposition 46. Doctors are afraid that such a large jump in the pain and suffering judgment cap will cause medical malpractice insurance rates to skyrocket, possibly increasing medical costs and shrinking the number of patients that practices can take on.

    Those fears are not unfounded, as rating agency A.M. Best warned this week. The agency surveyed California companies and determined that malpractice insurance rates and malpractice claims are both expected to rise significantly if Proposition 46 is passed.

    The debate over Proposition 46 is heating up as election day draws near. Both sides of the debate are focusing on different aspects of the law. Proponents of the law are highlighting its drug testing provisions while opponents are framing the bill as a payday for lawyers. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader this week criticized former California Governor Jerry Brown for failing to support Proposition 46.

  • Ebola In Ohio: Family Defends Nurse That Contracted Virus

    Amber Vinson, the second nurse from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas to contract the Ebola virus, has reportedly been getting negative comments about her recent trip to Ohio. Vinson flew from Dallas to Cleveland on October 10 to plan her wedding and flew back to Texas on October 13. Although she was not showing symptoms for Ebola at the time of her trip, about 153 people in Ohio are being monitored by officials because they came into contact with her, and the state seems to have been put on edge.

    An Ohio store called Coming Attractions Bridal Shop was reportedly visited by Vinson during her trip, and its owners are now feeling the effects of the stigma brought by the Ebola virus. Donald and Anna Younker had their shop treated by ultraviolet ray machines on Sunday, October 19, in order to convince customers that their shop was safe. “I’m hoping that this will ease everybody’s mind that if there’s anything floating in my store that it’s gonna be gone,” said Anna. She has also been placed under monitoring for three weeks by the Health Department for coming into contact with Vinson as she waited on her at the shop.

    Meanwhile, Vinson’s family issued a statement on Sunday in reaction to the negative comments Vinson was receiving about her travel while infected with Ebola. “To be clear, in no way was Amber careless prior to or after her exposure to Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan. She has not and would not knowingly expose herself or anyone else,” said the statement.

    Vinson’s family claims that the nurse did not feel symptoms when she traveled to Ohio and had been in contact with Center for Disease Control and Protection officials before she flew back to Dallas. The statement then went on to clarify that Vinson complied with health officials’ request that she monitor her fever once she reported it, and that she had been cleared by them to travel back to Dallas in order to be treated at Texas Presbyterian Hospital, where she worked.

  • Ebola Travel Ban May Do More Harm Than Good

    Some US lawmakers are calling for a travel ban on people from West African countries most affected by the Ebola virus in the attempt to safeguard Americans from the disease. However, experts are advising against the Ebola travel ban, saying that it would make the disease harder to control in different ways.

    One proponent of the Ebola travel ban is Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, where two nurses have been infected by the virus after treating a patient with Ebola. “Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it’s certainly how it got to Texas in the first place,” said Perry.

    Experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claim that the Ebola travel ban could hurt efforts to control the disease in West Africa and prevent an outbreak in the US. “When some commercial flights stop going into those countries, our people are delayed going in, our people are delayed going out… it does not enhance our ability to stop the epidemic,” said Tom Skinner, spokesman for CDC.

    White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday, October 16, that President Barack Obama was not considering an Ebola travel ban. Earnest said that people traveling from West Africa have been subjected to several screenings prior to travel and upon landing in the US.

    “Now, if we were to put in place a travel ban or a visa ban, it would provide a direct incentive for individuals seeking to travel to the United States to go underground and to seek to evade this screening and to not be candid about their travel history in order to enter the country,” said Earnest. He added that this would make it harder for authorities to monitor individuals who could potentially carry the disease and undermine efforts to contain the Ebola virus.

    Although President Ronald Reagan prevented people with HIV/AIDS from traveling to the US in 1989, a ban that was repealed in 2009 by President Obama, the US has not yet imposed a travel ban on people from a certain country due to an epidemic.

  • Arthritis Symptoms? Four Ways To Possibly Experience Immediate Relief

    Arthritis symptoms are said by sufferers to worsen as the weather gets colder.

    If you find your symptoms have worsened as the weather cools, then you’re no doubt seeking ways to greatly reduce or relieve pain as soon as possible.

    It’s believed that if you do one or more of the following, you should experience some relief from arthritis, if not see a vast improvement in overall physical function.

    YOGA

    Yoga is used for everything from weight loss to stress reduction.

    It only makes sense as this ancient practice is scientifically proven to promote mental, emotional, and physical wellness.

    If you suffer from arthritis, there are reportedly multiple benefits to taking up yoga.

    Note: there are certain types of yoga to avoid, as they may prove too strenuous for arthritis sufferers.

    Stick to hatha, anusara, iyengar or nidra forms of yoga.

    NUTRITION

    Believe it or not, what you eat can have a profound effect on your joints.

    For instance, it’s believed that a protein found in dairy products can contribute to arthritis pain. Other items to cut back on include fried foods, sugary snacks, and refined carbs.

    Instead it’s recommended that you add fatty cold water fish like salmon and mackerel to your diet.

    MASSAGE

    When it comes to relief for aching muscles and joints, even self-massage is a preferable form of treatment.

    In fact a 2006 study published in Archives of Internal Medicine found that arthritis symptoms such as pain and stiffness improved following a massage session, as did the individual’s range of motion.

    Though regular massage sessions have been known to reduce painful arthritis symptoms, it is still recommended that you contact your doctor to determine if regular massage is right for you.

    CAYENNE PEPPER

    It is believed that using cayenne topically can help reduce symptoms of pain suffered by those with arthritis.

    The reason for this is that the pepper contains a high amount of capsaicin. When applied to the skin, this substance is said to cause a brief stinging sensation as it targets the nerves.

    Relief comes from capsaicin’s ability to intefere with a chemical known to send pain signals to the brain.

    The fact is there is no permanent solution to arthritis. However, these tools are felt to greatly reduce symptoms immediately while helping to improve one’s quality of life. Applying these tips regularly might help you see amazing results.

    Do you have any other tips to share with frequent arthritis sufferers?

  • Weight Loss: Faster Diets Are Good Too, Shows Study

    American adults are more obese than ever and still growing larger. It’s a problem that millions struggle with and one that helps make weight loss a billion-dollar industry.

    Though fad diet books are immensely popular, slow and steady weight loss has long been recommended by health professionals. Now new research is showing that quick-loss diets might actually have some merit.

    The study, published today in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, pitted current dietary guidelines against more rapid weight loss techniques. Researchers found that obese people are more likely to lose a substantial amount of weight if that weight is lost rapidly.

    The study looked at 200 obese adults who were put on either a 12-week diet of 450 to 800 calories per day or a more gradual 36-week diet. Participants on the 12-week diet were more likely to reach the 12.5 percent weight loss goal of the study. Those on the 36-week diet were more likely to drop the program early.

    “Global guidelines recommend gradual weight loss for the treatment of obesity, reflecting the widely-held belief that fast weight loss is more quickly regained,” said Katrina Purcell, co-author of the study and a dietitian at the University of Melbourne. “However, our results show that an obese person is more likely to achieve a weight loss target of 12.5 percent weight loss, and less likely to drop out of their weight loss program, if losing weight is done quickly.”

    Purcell and her colleagues suggested that the small amount of carbohydrates seen in quick-loss diets could help promote satiety. The study’s authors also hypothesized that ketone production resulting from low-calorie diets could be influencing the greater weight loss seen in the study.

    As for the canard that diets simply don’t work, the study did find that dieters are likely to gain back weight after ending a diet. Whether weight is lost quickly or slowly, dieters were found to have regained an average of around 71 percent of their lost weight three years after the diet ended.

  • Amber Vinson Contracts Ebola, Virus Spreads In The US

    The second nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas has reportedly been identified as Amber Vinson. After treating a patient diagnosed with Ebola who later died, Vinson herself came down with the virus, making her the second nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas to be infected; the first was Nina Pham.

    Vinson had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew from Liberia to the US with Ebola and died on October 8, while he was at the Dallas hospital.

    According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vinson complained of a fever on Tuesday and was subsequently isolated. Preliminary tests reportedly showed that Vinson was positive for Ebola, but confirmation testing is under way. Health and Human Services reportedly said that Vinson will be transported to Emory Universal Hospital in Atlanta, which is equipped to handle Ebola. Vinson is said to be ill but in stable condition, and the CDC is apparently monitoring the three people she came into contact with before going into isolation.

    — NBC News (@NBCNews) October 15, 2014

    Vinson flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, said the CDC. She reported having a fever of 99.5 degrees before boarding the flight, which Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of CDC, said was reason enough for her not to have boarded the commercial flight. Authorities are now monitoring the 132 passengers on the flight with Vinson, although Frieden said that their exposure to Ebola was “an extremely low likelihood.”

    — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 16, 2014

    “She did not vomit. She was not bleeding. So the level of risk of people around her should be extremely low,” said Frieden.

    — CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) October 16, 2014

    Meanwhile, Vinson’s relatives are also being closely monitored by authorities in Ohio. Police have reportedly taped off the home of Vinson’s mother on Stonegate Trail in the Stonegate Reserve housing development in Tallmadge, according to 3WKYC. Up to seven police cars were seen in front of the home, and police are reportedly restricting access to the neighborhood.

  • Nina Pham Reportedly “Doing Well” After Contracting Ebola Virus

    The nurse who contracted Ebola from a Liberian patient is reportedly “doing well” while receiving treatment at the Texas hospital for which she works. Nina Pham is the first person to contract Ebola on US soil after attending to Thomas Eric Duncan, who had unknowingly brought the virus to the States when he flew back from Liberia. Pham is currently being treated for Ebola at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas and recently gave an update on how she was feeling.

    “I’m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers. I am blessed by the support of family and friends and am blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world,” Pham said in a statement released by the hospital on Tuesday, October 14.

    Wendell Watson, spokesman for Texas Health Resources, also reported that Pham was in good condition as of Tuesday evening.

    Pham attended Texas Christian University in Dallas and graduated with a degree in nursing in 2010. Just two months before she contracted Ebola, Pham had received certification in critical care nursing, which deals specifically with life-threatening problems.

    “Knowing Nina, she’s one of the most meticulous, thorough, effective nurses. She taught me infection control and hand hygiene and protocol. I learned so much of that from her,” said Jennifer Joseph, who had trained under Pham at the hospital.

    On Sunday, officials said that Pham had “extensive contact” with Duncan while he was being treated for Ebola at the hospital. President Barack Obama has reportedly called for an investigation into why Pham had contracted Ebola with strict protocols in place to halt the spread of the virus.

    “The hearts and prayers of everyone at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas are with Nina Pham, and we are working tirelessly to help her in this courageous fight. The doctors and nurses involved with her treatment remain hopeful, and we ask for the prayers of the entire country,” Texas Health Resources CEO Barclay Berdan added in a statement.

  • Genetic Testing Guidelines Issued For Muscular Dystrophy

    Genetic Testing Guidelines Issued For Muscular Dystrophy

    Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is well-known as a disease that progressively weakens muscles, leading to muscle spasms, difficulty walking, and eventually difficulty breathing. What many people don’t know is that MD is actually a group of diseases, each of which can have different effects on the human body. Doctors are still discovering and classifying new forms of MD.

    This week the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) issued guidelines meant to differentiate between MD disease types in preparation for genetic testing. The guidelines, published in this week’s Neurology, use symptoms, physical exams, lab tests, family history, and ethnicity to determine which genetic tests doctors should perform.

    According to the guidelines’ lead author, Dr. Pushpa Narayanaswami, MD can often be difficult to diagnose. The guidelines should help doctors determine MD subtypes, leading to better treatments and avoiding unnecessary tests.

    “Looking at a range of clinical signs and symptoms – such as which muscles are weak and if there is muscle wasting or enlargement, winging out of the shoulder blades, early signs of contracted limbs, rigidity of the neck or back, or heart or lung involvement – can help doctors determine which genetic test to order,” said Dr. Anthony Amato, senior author of the guidelines and a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This in turn can shorten the time to diagnosis and start of treatment while helping avoid more extensive and expensive testing.”

    According to the guidelines MD treatment should take place at facilities that specialize in the disease. No cure for MD yet exists, so the guidelines also suggest that MD patients inform their doctors of treatable symptoms such as shortness of breath or irregular heartbeat and that they seek out safe exercises.

    “Before this publication, there were no care guidelines that covered both limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and distal MD and were based on the evidence,” said Julie Bolen, team lead on the guidelines and a member of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “We hope that this guideline will fill that gap for both the people who live with these rare disorders and the health care professionals who treat them.”

  • Ebola in Boston Dismissed by Health Officials

    A suspected Ebola patient in Boston was cleared this week as fears of the disease have begun to rise in the U.S. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center officials told The Boston Globe on Tuesday that the patient does not have the Ebola virus and is in “good condition.”

    The patient, who had been to Liberia, had come into the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates facility in the Boston suburb of Braintree on Sunday complaining of a headache and muscle aches. In a statement the hospital revealed that “out of an abundance of caution” the proper authorities were notified and the patient was transferred to Beth Israel. The Harvard Vanguard facility was closed briefly but re-opened on Monday.

    Dr. Anita Berry, the head of the Infectious Disease Bureau of the Boston Public Health Commission told The Boston Globe that the patient was at “very low risk” of having Ebola according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) risk assessments. Barry stated that Bostonians shouldn’t be too worried about Ebola, pointing out that Americans are at much greater risk from the flu.

    The Ebola scare in Boston was heightened on Monday when a hazmat crew boarded an Emirates airplane at Boston’s Logan Airport to remove five people with flu-like symptoms. According to The Boston Globe none of the patients had been to West Africa and were later declared Ebola-free.

    Fears about the Ebola outbreak have grown in the U.S. over the past few days following the diagnosis of a Dallas healthcare worker with the disease. The nurse was infected while treating Eric Duncan, a Liberian who died of Ebola last week. Duncan had traveled from Liberia to the U.S. in mid-September and became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the current Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency, prompting a coordinated effort to contain it. According to WHO statistics over 4,000 people – most in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea – have died during the current outbreak, making this the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

  • Facebook May Soon Wade into Healthcare

    Facebook May Soon Wade into Healthcare

    When I say preventative care applications and health support communities, you say … Facebook?

    Facebook, eternal tracker of all things you, is planning a move into the healthcare realm. That’s the word from Reuters, who quotes the omnipresent “people familiar with the matter”. There are three of them this time.

    Apparently it’s serious, as Facebook has already held meetings with “medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps,” according to Reuters.

    Right now, Facebook is reportedly looking into jumpstarting various support communities to address health issues – all of which would work nicely with Facebook’s existing graph of course. The company is also looking into “preventative care” applications.

    Both Apple and Google are already steps ahead of Facebook in terms of nudging their way into this field, so Facebook would surely be playing catch-up. But Facebook boasts something neither Apple nor Google can – a fully functioning social graph with over a billon active users. People are already discussing their medical issues on Facebook – anyone who spends even a few minutes a day scrolling their news feed knows that.

    One of the hurdles for Facebook is obvious – privacy concerns. Many people have a problem trusting Facebook with their birthday – much less their intimate medical details.

    But Facebook apparently has a plan. Going on the fact that many people don’t even know Facebook owns Instagram, Reuters says that “the company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name, a source said.”

    Image via Facebook

  • Fall Allergies: Tips To Treat Them

    Fall Allergies: Tips To Treat Them

    Allergies can be horrible in the fall and since allergy symptoms can mimic cold and flu symptoms, it is important to treat them and prevent them if possible.

    Allergies can be hard during any season, but this year they seem to be affecting more and more people and causing more severe symptoms.

    Dr. Oswaldo Henriquez, an ear, nose, and throat specialist and an assistant professor at Emory School of Medicine said that he has already seen a lot of people in his office this season for allergy related issues and he thinks he will see a lot more patients before fall allergy season is over.

    “Here in Atlanta we definitely see a lot of people that come with symptoms in the fall time,” Henriquez said. “And it just kind of depends on which kind of pollen they’re allergic to. Or what kind of fungal spores and things like that.”

    Henriquez said that allergies are often worse in the fall because sufferers let their guards down and don’t realize that there are a variety of allergens still in the air and ground.

    The best way to avoid allergy symptoms is to stay inside when possible and avoid known allergens. Since you obviously can’t stay inside all of the time, there are several other things you can do.

    Try different over-the-counter medications to find one that works for you. You can also try nasal sprays to help with dryness and congestion. Dr. Henriquez said that he feels that nasal sprays are the best option but you need to be careful about which one you choose.

    “There are small ones that give you a small volume of saline, and then we have the bigger ones that are sort of like a power-wash of the nasal cavity. And those are, in some folks might be enough to give you some relief,” said Henriquez.

    If you can’t get relief with over-the-counter medication or nasal sprays, he suggests asking your doctor for a prescription antihistamine.