A Prescription for Healthy Living

Heartburn is often described as a painful, burning sensation that occurs mid-chest, behind the breastbone. The effects of heartburn are most often felt after eating a large meal, or one of the “trigger” foods mentioned below. Episodes of heartburn may also be accompanied by a bitter taste in the throat and the mouth.

What causes Heartburn?

At the end of the esophagus, the tube that spans from the throat to the stomach, is the sphincter, a muscle that opens and closes, allowing food and drink to pass. A normally functioning sphincter closes tightly after this passage takes place. A weakened sphincter does not close completely or quickly enough; therefore, contents from the stomach are able to pass through on their way back up through the throat. This is also known as reflux. If you experience symptoms of heartburn only following a large meal, you may have indigestion, but if symptoms occur regularly, then you may have a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease. It is important to have this condition evaluated because some heart conditions can mimic symptoms of heartburn and reflux. Seek immediate medical attention if your heartburn and reflux symptoms are accompanied by excessive sweating, palpitations and/or shortness of breath.

Managing Your Heartburn

There are many lifestyle changes that can be made in order to alleviate episodes of chronic heartburn. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Avoid beverages containing caffeine

- Avoid such foods as chocolate and peppermint

- Avoid acidic foods such as tomatoes and tomato sauces

- Avoid lying down following a meal. Do not eat a meal late in the evening.

- Heartburn is known for being worse at night. If you experience worsening symptoms at bedtime, elevate the head of your bed. This can be done by placing lifters underneath the top half of the bed. Do not use many pillows to sleep on, as this might make things worse by increasing the pressure on the stomach

- If you smoke, now is a good time to quit. Smoking is an irritant and can induce more frequent or worsening episodes of heartburn.

- If you drink alcohol, limit the amount of your intake as alcohol is also a known catalyst for heartburn.

- There are a number of prescription-strength over-the-counter medications that are safe and effective to address occasional episodes of heartburn. Among these are omeprazole, lansoprazole, ranitidine and famotidine. Most of these medications are recommended to be taken one hour prior to eating.

- Eat meals that are low in fat and high in protein

- Do not wear tight clothing

If you experience any of the following symptoms, contact your doctor as further evaluation and diagnostic testing may be necessary:

- Difficulty or pain upon swallowing

- Vomiting blood (may have the color and texture of coffee grounds)

- Stools may be bloody or black

- Heartburn that occurs more than three times a week

Remember to always inform your doctor of the medicines, both over-the-counter and prescribed, that you are presently taking as certain medicines may cause or aggravate heartburn symptoms.

Troubled by Incontinence?

You are standing in this long line waiting for your turn to check out with the groceries for tonight’s dinner when it hits you! You have to go to the bathroom NOW! You have to just leave everything and run! It could be a little embarrassing!

Understanding this problem can give you a hand up on finding solutions. Urinary incontinence can be caused by a number of reasons which include:

- For women, thinning and drying of the urethra or the vaginal skin after menopause

- For men, prostate problems

- Weak muscles in the lower urinary tract

- Damage of the nerves that control urination

- It could be a side effect of some medications

- Being overweight, as it seems to increase the pressure on the bladder

- Urinary tract infections

- Some diseases like diabetes and multiple sclerosis

There are five types of incontinence:

Stress Incontinence: Caused when the urine leaks due to a sudden pressure on the lower stomach as in coughing or sneezing. It’s more common among young female athletes or after menopause.

Urge Incontinence (Overactive Bladder): Usually found in people who have diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease or Multiple Sclerosis. Healthy people can be affected.

Overflow incontinence: The uncontrollable leak of urine. It could happen if the urine flow from the bladder is blocked or narrowed. A common cause for this blockage may be the enlargement of the prostate gland. Diabetes could also cause overflow incontinence.

Reflex Incontinence: Related to problems in the central nervous system. It happens to patients with Parkinson’s disease or stroke; brain tumor or a spinal cord injury can also cause this.

Functional Incontinence: Patients with Functional Incontinence have nothing wrong except reaching the bathroom on time due to a mental or a physical impairment.

Mixed Incontinence: As the name suggests it’s a “ mix” of both stress and urge incontinence, so the patient could have weak muscles and the bladder is overactive.

There are a few things that may help with certain types of incontinence:

Stress Incontinence could be treated with exercise. Pelvic Floor Exercise or Kegel Exercises may help strengthen the muscles to prevent urine leak. The trick is to make sure you are using the right muscles, if you use the abdomen muscles it could it make it worse. Just try to stop or even slow your urine flow without using your stomach or buttock muscles, squeeze your muscles and hold for a count of 10 then relax for a count of 10, then repeat it up to 20 minutes three times a day.

Bladder training may also be a solution: Schedule set intervals to attempt to urinate, whether you feel the urge or not. When you feel the urge to go before it’s time try to breath slowly and think of something else. Bladder training is not followed at night time.

Dietary control options:

- Avoid spicy food

- Avoid citrus fruits and juices

- Don’t each much chocolate

- Try to not consume much Caffeine

Sometimes , it’s a tougher case of incontinence than can be controlled by the mentioned measures; in this case the doctor will have to prescribe a medication or it might even require a surgical intervention.

Considering this concern is very private and urgent in nature. Please seek the help of a physician and stay consistent in your efforts to control the problem, don’t give up – there are likely drier days ahead!

Nothing sounds better than taking a hot shower and going to bed after having a long, nerve-wracking day at work. Likewise, nothing sounds worse than going to bed and not being able to slumber knowing that you have to wake up in only a few hours to go right back to work. About one out of every five patients have a sleeping disorder. For some reason, the ratio seems to keep getting higher all the time. The most common sleeping disorder of all is Insomnia.

There are many reasons for not being able to sleep enough or even to sleep at all. In fact, some of the more usual reasons that people cannot get to sleep can emerge as medical troubles.

- Depression is one of the main factors that’s always related to Insomnia.

- Medical problems like pain and neurological troubles

- Heart disease and breathing problems.

- Urinary troubles with a frequent urge to void.

- Stomach disease might make it hard to fall asleep.

- Nasal congestion and sinus pain with other symptoms.

- Bipolar disorders and anxiety

- Stimulants like Caffeine of Theophylline

- Smoking affects sleep just like caffeine because of the Nicotine.

- Chronic distress

No matter what reason, Insomnia could have consequences that include being irritable, feeling tired or fatigue and memory problems. Going through all this before the doctor finally prescribes the magic sleeping pills makes it very easy to become dependent upon. But the side effects of sleeping aides could outweigh the benefit. Some of the side effects are amnesia or memory problems, dizziness, headache, nausea, and depression. Sometimes though a sleep-aid could be the only thing helping the patient, there are some goals that could be set to improve sleep habits such as:

- Try to go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day

- Avoid all stimulants during the day like Caffeine and Nicotine.

- Exercise regularly

- Don’t make it a habit to drink alcohol to help you sleep

- Don’t go to bed unless you are ready to sleep. If you are still up after 30 minutes, then get up and do something like reading or listening to music for 20 minutes before you go back to bed. You can do this as many times as it takes until you feel sleepy.

There are some over-the-counter sleep aids that’s proven to help many people like antihistamines, especially Diphenhydramine. It’s used mainly for allergies, but it’s also used as a sleep aid. Do not take any pills until after talking with a health provider to make sure it does not interact with any other medication. Also, the aid could affect a pre-existing health condition, especially in elderly people.

Another over-the-counter supplement is Melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone in the brain that controls sleeping activities.Taking Melatonin has helped many Insomnia patients, but it interacts with some medications like blood-thinners, immunosuppressant, some diabetes medications and birth control pills. Also,some patients complained of retina damage after taking too much of it. Valerian is another supplement used to help Insomnia patients.

Valerian is a plant that is used to help treat many diseases one of which is insomnia. It seems to help many people with sleep disorders and it doesn’t have the” hang over effect” that other sleep aids have. It’s believed to help with anxiety. Patients with liver disease should be very careful taking it and should consult with a physician before taking it. Valerian interact with some medications like allergy medications, Cholestrol medications, some anti-fungal medications and some cancer medications.

It’s always advisable that you try to adjust your sleeping habits before trying any medicines.

Have a good night!

This weather sure does call you to the beach! There’s no better time to basque in the sun, laying out, soaking up the rays to get that bronze tan… Nothing beats a refreshing swim when it’s hot outside. The downside is when you get that sunburn and it ruins everything. In fact, even the tan you were going for isn’t especially healthy.

A Sunburn is, as the name suggests; a burn. It’s caused by the ultraviolet radiations (UVA and UVB). Your skin has a protective pigment called Melanin. When the melanin in the skin cannot adequately keep up with protecting you from the UV rays, you get burned. The darker your skin, the more melanin you have, so more fair skinned folks are at higher risk for burn.

The common symptoms of a sunburn include:
- Redness and swelling
- The area with the sunburn feels warm or hot
- Pain
- The skin starts to peel
- Sometimes fluid-filled blisters appears
- In severe cases, fever, chills, nausea and vomiting , fainting could happen

The complications from sunburn, don’t end at the red skin. Sunburn can increase your risk for skin infections. Sunburn is also a primary factor in premature aging, and worse of all skin cancer.

I see some raising eyebrows asking: so how can we protect out skin from sunburn?

- Avoid the sun during the peak hours of 10 am till 2 pm
- Always wear a hat and a sunglasses
- Use sunblock between 15 to 30 SPF. The higher the SPF the better protection it gives you. Choose a waterproof sunblock to avoid losing your protection from swimming or sweating, and reapply every 2 hours.
- Always use a lip balm with at least SPF 15
- Some medications increase your sun sensitivity like certain antibiotics, even over-the-counter herbs may cause photosensitivity, such as St John’s Wort.

Tanning beds are not as innocent as you might think. Recent studies shows that they could cause skin cancer.

Finally, even if it doesn’t seem to be sunny outside you should take all the above precautions. In fact, the clouds may block many of the sun’s rays, but the UV rays still get through.

If it should happen that you get a sunburn, there are few things that you can do to help your skin heal sooner and hurt less.

- Over-the counter anti-inflammatory and pain medications such as Ibuprofen and Aspirin could help with the pain.
- Cool compresses of milk and water can soothe and moisturize the skin.
- Aloe-based lotions or gels can improve healing and even avoid peeling.

Definitely avoid any perfumes or bath salts when you have a sunburn as it may sting or even make it worse. Also, do not use topical anesthetic medications.

Enjoy the sun! Just remember that it’s better to be safe than sorry, and don’t forget your sunblock, hat and sunglasses before you go to the beach! Have a nice time!