Author: Glen Roberts

Make Cataract Surgery Choices with Your Doctor

Make Cataract Surgery Choices with Your Doctor - eye surgery

The three types of cataract surgery today are phacoemulsification, extracapsular extraction, and intracapsular phacoemulsification.

Intracapsular phacoemulsification is the type of cataract surgery that is most used. The surgeon makes a tiny incision, and an ultrasound probe is used to dissolve the cloudy lens. Using the same probe, the fragments of the lens are suctioned out. No stitches or eye patches are necessary. Below is an instructional animation video on phacoemulsification.

Extracapsular cataract extraction is done when the cataracts are too advanced to break into fragments. A larger incision is made and the lens is removed whole. Sutures and eye patches are required.

With intracapsular cataract surgery, a procedure not used often, it is necessary to make an even larger incision, the entire lens and the capsule around it are removed together. The lens then will be put in front of the iris.

Once the cataract is removed, one of three types of artificial lens is put into the thin capsular bag where the other lens was located. Some intraocular lenses will block ultraviolet light, some work like bifocals, some are rigid and some are flexible. The rigid ones require stitches but the flexible ones do not.

Monofocal lenses are the most commonly used in cataract surgery. They provide good distance vision that may require eye glasses, especially for reading. The Toric lens will correct distance vision and can also correct astigmatism but vision may still require eye glasses for close tasks. Your ophthalmologist may also prescribe moist contact lenses that offer UV protection for superior comfort.

Multifocal lenses use the latest technology. With these, vision is improved for varying distances, both near and far and in between, but they will not correct astigmatism. It is best to discuss with your surgeon the type of lens that is best suited to your condition.

Intraocular lenses are very durable and can last a lifetime. The lens capsule around it may become cloudy, a situation that can be easily treated by laser to clear it up. Cataract surgery is usually done as an outpatient procedure with a local anesthetic. However, if surgery is not an option for a patient,  vision problems can still be corrected with comfortable contact lenses that define eye color.

Make Cataract Surgery Choices with Your Doctor - color contact lenses

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Common Cause of Untreated High Blood Pressure

PEOPLE WALK AROUND WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE BUT FEEL FINE SO THEY DON’T GET THEIR BLOOD PRESSURE CHECKED

WHAT’S ONE OF THE SIMPLEST THINGS YOU CAN DO TO LIVE LONGER?

Usually, it’s one of the simplest things you can do to help yourself for prolonging your life”. Janet was a bit startled by the sudden exclamation of her doctor. They sat facing each other in the exam room. “I’m talking about blood pressure, Janet!”

WHAT DID JANET’S DOCTOR SAY TO HER ABOUT BLOOD PRESSURE?

They had been exchanging small talk when Janet casually asked the doctor what she could do to be healthy. Being in her 40’s, Janet didn’t think of herself as being unhealthy. Still, she wanted to be proactive. Doc Wilson kept talking. “You know, Janet, it’s such a simple thing, if people would just check their blood pressure from time to time.

The fact is that many people, we’re talking millions and millions just don’t get their blood pressure checked on a regular basis. They figure they feel fine so why rock the boat”. About 65 million Americans are walking around with high blood pressure a.k.a hypertension. And many of them don’t even know it! Almost one billion people worldwide have high blood pressure (a.k.a hypertension).

Doc Wilson was on a roll now, “Medicine has made huge advances in the treatment of hypertension. Even the rich and famous were not spared. I was just reading that one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s doctor wrote”.

“I have often wondered what turn the course of history might have taken if the modern methods for the control of hypertension had been available”.

WHAT DOES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FEEL LIKE?

“The thing is that you can have high blood pressure and still feel pretty good. High Blood Pressure is often silent. Ok, sometimes you may have a headache or slight dizziness but very often you feel nothing unusual”. So why do people have high blood pressure?  “That’s a pretty good question, and amazingly there are a lot of cases, we just don’t know. Oh, sure we know sometimes, but a lot of the time we don’t. Still that’s not the same as not being able to treat it. Most people can get their blood pressure under control with medicine and some other things like weight loss but they can’t get it under control if they don’t even know they have it.”

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE?

About 65 million Americans are walking around with high blood pressure a.k.a hypertension. And many of them don’t even know it! Worldwide, there are almost one billion people that have high blood pressure. What is blood pressure anyway? Your body needs oxygen rich blood all the time. Your heart is the master pump that pumps blood. But blood pressure is more complicated than just the heart.

The pressure is created by the heart but the arteries and channels that carry the blood also exert pressure. An analogy is the way fuel flows in a car. In a car, the fuel is pumped from the fuel pump. When you put your foot on the accelerator more fuel is pumped to meet demand. When you exercise your heart pumps harder to meet demand. The fuel flows through pipes to the parts of the engine.

If the pipes get clogged it is harder for the fuel to be distributed, similarly, resistance in the arteries can force the blood pressure up. If there is a leak in the system the pressure can drop. If you lose a lot of blood the pressure drops and you can go into shock.

Even though we don’t know why most people have high blood pressure (some people do have identifiable factors like kidney problems) we do know many things that affect the pressure. If you are angry, angry at the traffic, angry at your boss and pretty much just plain always angry there’s a good chance it’s showing up in your pressure. Adrenalin gets pumped into your system, the nerves are stimulated. The nerves attached to the artery walls can alter the blood pressure. Anger and stress, especially chronic (long term) anger and stress are correlated with high blood pressure and heart problems.

“Nearly all people that have blood pressures consistently above 140/90, now called the high end of normal, have some treatment prescribed and yet up to half of the patients still have elevated pressures. Why? Because doctors are not aggressive and creative in treating the problem…

Many patients do not follow doctor’s orders and fail to fill prescriptions or neglect to take medicine daily; then the rising weight of Americans, the passion for high-salt processed and restaurant-prepared foods have raised the once-normal pressures of many people to levels that should be treated”.

Weight loss and improvements in diet and exercise habits can indeed help people lower an elevated pressure, but most people can’t adjust their lifestyles enough to normalize their blood pressure. Many people need help from medication and often it’s a combination of medicines.

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What’s One of the Easiest Things You Can Do to Live a Longer and Healthier Life?

Regular blood pressure checks for longer lifeBelieve it or not, a lot of people have high blood pressure but they don’t get their blood pressure checked because they feel alright.

“Having your blood pressure taken may be one of the easiest things you can do to live longer,” a doctor said to his patient, Janet, inside the exam room. He then proceeded to tell her that having her blood pressure checked on a regular basis facilitates timely treatment and control of hypertension.

Over 65 million Americans and approximately a billion people across the globe have hypertension. And sadly, they walk around like ticking time bombs, and don’t even know that they have high blood pressure! Even those who have the means to seek treatment and have access to modern healthcare services fail to do so because they forget to have their blood pressure checked.

What is high blood pressure and what does it feel like?

To put it quite simply, high blood pressure happens when your arteries are clogged, providing resistance each time the heart pumps blood to your blood for distribution to different parts of the body. Resistance in your blood vessels will increase your blood pressure. And when this happens and remain uncontrolled with medicine and lifestyle changes, complications like heart disease and kidney problems.

headache and high blood pressure
You may have high blood pressure but still feel good. Hypertension is often silent and oftentimes, patients report dizziness or the usual headache. The ceiling of the normal range for blood pressure is 140/90 and a lot of people have blood pressures way more than that even after a doctor’s visit. Why? They neglect to follow the prescribed treatment protocol and continue with their diet of salty and processed foods. Stress is also a contributing factor.

The good news for people with elevated blood pressures, according to Janet’s doctor, is that it can be lowered effectively with the help of antihypertensive medicines, exercise, and a healthy diet. ‘The most important things to remember here is that there are things that can be done to normalize blood pressure but these are only possible if people know they have hypertension. This is the reason why you should have your blood pressure checked even if you feel absolutely fine. ” the doctor said.

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Tragedy at the Ballgame

Tragedy at the ball game 28-year-old teacher chokes on a hot dog and a video about what to do when someone is choking: well worth the few minutes to learn to avoid being one of the thousands.

Estimated thousands of people die from choking how to avoid being a statistic?

How could a vibrant young woman choke on a hot dog? Why is it important to know what to do? It could happen to anyone.

Ineffable. That means it can’t be described in words. That seems an appropriate appellation for what happened at the ball game. A lovely young woman, a teacher, Maureen Oleskiewicz, a dedicated Cubs fan out to enjoy herself at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field chokes on a hot dog. It reminds us once again of how precious life is and sometimes how tenuous it can be. Do you know what to do if someone is choking? Do you know what to do if you are choking?

A VIDEO WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU SEE SOMEONE CHOKING AND HOW DO YOU KNOW THEY ARE CHOKING?

And what if you are choking and there’s no one around to help? How can you treat yourself for choking? Here’s a suggestion as depicted on some first aid sites.

choking solutionCAN YOU TREAT YOURSELF IF YOU ARE CHOKING?

  • To perform abdominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) on yourself:
  • First, if you’re alone and choking call 911 or your local emergency number immediately. Then, although you’ll be unable to effectively deliver back blows to yourself, you can still perform abdominal thrusts to dislodge the item.
  • Place a fist slightly above your navel.
  • Grasp your fist with the other hand and bend over a hard surface, a countertop or chair will do.
  • Shove your fist inward and upward.
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Bluberries May Lessen Heart Attacks in Women and What Do Blueberries Have in Common with Viagra?

 

WHAT DO BLUEBERRIES AND VIAGRA HAVE IN COMMON? THEY BOTH INVOLVE INTERACTION WITH THE INNER LINING OF BLOOD VESSELS

Researchers at Harvard have published a study suggesting that blueberries may help women lower the chance of a heart attack. Beginning in 1991, they tracked more than 100,000 women ages 25 to 42 with food-frequency questionnaires every four years through 2009. They found that women who ate more blueberries and strawberries had a lower chance of heart attack. They write, “Blue and red fruits and vegetables have bioactive compounds that can be connected with the decreased risk of MI in middle-aged and young women”.


Heart attacks can happen because of a disturbance to the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels, which can lead to the formation of a clot that results in a heart attack. The inner lining of the blood vessels is surprisingly important in the function of the heart and the control of various body functions. The inner lining of the arteries, the endothelium is surprisingly complex and surprisingly important. The endothelial function includes producing vital chemicals that help to control the body.

“The combination of consuming 2 foods-rich with anthocyanin, strawberries, and blueberries is connected with a lower risk of MI (95% confidence interval, 0.40–1.08, hazard ratio, 0.66) for the ones who intake >3 servings per week and those with lower intake”. They suspect that the chemical in blueberries may impact the endothelium of arteries.

The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that lines the interior surface of blood vessels, the inner lining. The endothelium among other things produces nitric oxide, a vasodilator (makes arteries wider), (nitric oxide is also produced elsewhere) which is a potent signaling molecule, that happens to be a gas and thus can move more easily among cells that can cause widening of the blood vessels,i.e. vasodilation. Widening the blood vessels can be good as when it lowers your blood pressure or bad if it lowers it too much as in shock. It is interesting that drugs such as Viagra work through the nitric oxide pathway.

 

The scientists came to the conclusion that the woman who consumed more than 3 servings of strawberries and blueberries per week- had a lower risk of heart attack than the ones who consumed less.

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Does Long Term Aspirin Use Lower Colon Cancer Risk

CAN USING ASPIRIN LOWER CANCER?

It would certainly be a wonder drug if it was discovered today. Nevertheless, aspirin is still in the headlines almost every week as the results of one study or another seem to shed light on yet another remarkable property of aspirin. Controversy swirls around aspirin with some doctors swearing by aspirin and others swearing at it.

HEART ATTACK PREVENTION BUT CANCER TOO?

Probably the most well-documented benefit of aspirin is a probable effect to lower the chance of heart attack. Sure aspirin isn’t for everybody, say people with ulcers, bleeding problems and some people with asthma for example. Yet, it seems the studies of aspirin benefits just keep rolling in.

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF ASPIRIN

Take for example, “Long-term aspirin effects on Colorectal Cancer Mortality and Incidence: Using Five Randomised Trials”. Gee! The title is almost as long as the whole study!

Basically, the authors looked at four trials in the 1980s and 1990s with cardiovascular (heart-related) outcomes. Even though the studies were about the effect on the heart, the authors looked to see whether the participants in the study had died of colon cancer. There were made four aspirin trials – British Doctors Aspirin Trial, Thrombosis Prevention Trial in primary and secondary prevention- UK-TIA Aspirin Trial,  Swedish Aspirin Low Dose Trial and one additional trial Dutch TIA Aspirin Trial.

WHAT DID THE STUDY SAY?

What the heck are they talking about? Well, what they are saying is they looked at 14,033 people in control or intervention groups. They found that aspirin given at any dosage for an average of 5.8 years lowered the long term colon cancer risk. They suggested the strongest benefit might be in an area that is hard to reach by common diagnosis methods such as colonoscopy.


Several reports have alluded to cancer reduction by aspirin such as a previous study by Harvard scientists.

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Head Concussion Sports Injury You Don’t Need a Head Hit

Concussion and Head Injury in Sports Concussion Even Without Head Hit: In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt Threatened to Ban Football

CHILDREN’S FOOTBALL GAME LATEST SPARK TO IGNITE SPORTS CONCUSSION CONTROVERSY

The NY Times had a shocking article about a little league football game where 5 concussions were diagnosed and yet the game went on. The repercussions from that game are still reverberating. “The whole debate that was fueled even further looks like it won’t be calming any time soon. Head injuries in the National Football League remain the league’s greatest safety concern and the league’s greatest legal liability”.

 

“With the sole purpose of reducing the brain injuries, Ivy League universities set limits on the practice contacts. since young boys’ brains are very vulnerable, the national organization that has hundreds of thousands of children, made its own safety guidelines.  “.


A head concussion is one of the most prominent sports injuries. Diagnosis requires a high degree of suspicion when you suspect an injury. A concussion is a disturbance in brain function. It can be caused by an indirect or direct force that results in shear stress to the head. You don’t need to get hit in the head to have a concussion. Brain injury can happen by rotation or angular force. In 1904, 19 college football players were paralyzed or killed from a spinal cord and brain injuries, President Theodore Roosevelt made threats to outlaw football.


You may or may not pass out. Even though the brain is surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid, protected by the skull and cushioned by the meninges i.e. the linings of the central nervous system, the impact of a concussion can cause brain damage and repeated concussions can cause cumulative damage to the brain.

“Nowadays the coaches are far better educated regarding concussions. Long gone are the days of simply patting on the athlete’s backside and sending them back in the game. Most coaches are realizing now that when the student has a concussion he or she needs to rest, even take a break from the sport or school. The brain needs to allocate all its resources for its healing process”.

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Does Vitamin C Prevent Nitrosamine Formation What are Nitrites and Why are they in Hot dogs and What is the Connection to Cancer?

The Government Has Food Makers Add Ascorbic Acid to Hot Dogs and Cold Cuts to Try and Block Cancer-Causing Nitrosamines

Confusing would be an apt description of the whole controversy swirling around hot dogs, cold cuts and franks and the nitrite and nitrate in them. An article in the NY Times about hot dogs, food safety and cancer says “Don’t count on the hot dog label (and those on franks and cold cuts either) to help much. Those pricey “organic” and “natural” hot dogs often have more of the preservatives nitrate that is linked to cancer as that old-fashioned wiener”. But what are nitrites and why are they in hot dogs and cold cuts and what is the connection to cancer?

DOES VITAMIN C PREVENT NITROSAMINE FORMATION WHAT ARE NITRITES AND WHY ARE THEY IN HOT DOGS AND WHAT IS THE CONNECTION TO CANCER?

Nitrates occur naturally in foods and sodium nitrite is also added sometimes as a color fixative and preservative to prevent the growth of bacteria in meat and fish. In the digestive system, nitrates and nitrites can react to form nitrosamines which are cancer-causing chemicals.

People should be careful when consuming processed meats, as well as reduce the whole consumption since most of the studies link them with colon cancer.

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HE MAY NOT HAVE A GOOD SHORT TERM MEMORY BUT HE HAS A GREAT MIND

An Operation Robbed Him of Some Short Term Memory But He Showed He Was Plenty Smart and Now He Has Graduated College

“A malignant brain tumor, discovered shortly after he began his freshman year at Rutgers University in 1995, robbed Andrew Engel of much of his short-term memory. His drive and intelligence, however, remained undiminished. That is why Engel, who lives in Ellicott City, Md. is not only a degree candidate but an inspiration to many who have witnessed his odyssey.”

The newspapers and radio have carried the story of Andrew Engel, a young man who had an operation for a brain tumor in 1995. The operation removed the tumor but took along a chunk of his ability to remember things. Engel wanted to continue at college and refused to give in.. Engel told National Public Radio’s Robert Siegel that with a team of his doctors, he found a way to study that allows new information to be stored in a healthy part of his brain that is associated with long-term memory.

Now he is graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in Health Administration.

Here are some of the memory techniques Engel used: He employed at least five methods to help retain information long enough for it to become part of his long-term memory. He says most anyone could employ these to improve memory:

  • 1. Reading and re-reading. While at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he would read assignment chapters at least twice.
  • 2.Mnemonic devices: Catchy, easy-to-remember memory aids. For example, he says that if he had a health administration class that required him to remember the 10 reasons hospitals get sued, he would make a ten-character phrase or word such as “basketball,” with each character representing the first word in a sentence.
  • 3. Taking notes, then later reading them aloud or rewriting them using as many sentences as possible.
  • 4.Studying a topic for the entire week, then at the testing time studying again.
  • 5. Typing his handwritten notes onto a computer.

 

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