Diverticulitis

Diverticulitis, the word looks scary but it's not hard to pronounce di - ver - tic -u -LI - tis. What is it?

Imagine a pimple, a pore on your face which becomes infected and swells. Now imagine that pimple happening alongside your large intestine. As people age, small sacs or pouches, (like pores in the skin) form along the intestine. The sacs are called diverticula and the condition is called diverticulosis. If digested food (feces) becomes trapped in these pouches and becomes inflamed, it's called  diverticulitis.

No one really knows what causes these small sacs to form but it's very common with more than half of Americans over age 60 having diverticulosis that can be seen during a colonoscopy. There are usually no symptoms for diverticulosis (sacs only). Diverticulitis is a different story and can often start suddenly with

• Tenderness or pain, usually in the left lower side of the abdomen
• Bloating or gas
• Fever and chills
• Nausea and vomiting
• Not feeling hungry and not eating

That sounds a bit like GERD or even the flu. I'd guess the first two items, tenderness and bloating are the symptoms to watch for. Pain on one side of the abdomen could be appendicitis, potentially very serious. See your doctor!

Treatment for severe cases may require hospitalization. Or your doctor may suggest:

• Rest in bed and possibly use a heating pad on your belly for the pain
• Take pain medicines
• Drink only fluids for a day or two, and then slowly begin drinking thicker liquids and then eating foods
• Antibiotics.

Fiber is recommended - think of it as the equivalent of washing your face for pimples. But too much fiber may make one gassy so find the right balance.

Once you have the sacs you have them for life. Traditionally diverticulosis patients are recommended to avoid food items that may become trapped in the gut sacs like coarse grains, nuts, coconut, corn and popcorn, dried fruits, skins on vegetables and fruits, and seeds from tomatoes, strawberries, pickles, and cucumbers. However the Mayo Clinic reports that current research has shown that these foods aren't associated with an increased risk of diverticulitis. So the cause remains a mystery.

For more information see...
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diverticulitis/DS00070

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/diverticulitis-topic-overview

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001303/

Don't Kiss That Chick!

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns that while baby chicks are cute, they can also be a source of Salmonella infection, especially for children. Since 1990, more than 35 outbreaks of Salmonella have been associated with live poultry. "It is important to know that infections from live poultry can occur at any time of the year, not just during the spring" said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, a veterinary epidemiologist at CDC. 

A chick or duckling may look perfectly normal and clean still carry Salmonella germs in their droppings and on their bodies (feathers, feet, and beaks) and make people sick with diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and/or abdominal cramps. Sometimes, people can become so sick from a Salmonella infection that they have to go to the hospital. Young children, elderly persons, and those with weakened immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When this occurs, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics.

Bottom Line

What should you do?

• Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching live baby poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available. Adults should supervise hand washing for young children.
• Don’t let children younger than 5 years of age handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other live poultry. Don't give live baby poultry as gifts to young children.
• Don't snuggle or kiss the birds, or let them touch your mouth.
• Keep live poultry outside and away from human food.  Don’t eat or drink in an area where the birds live or roam.
• Don’t clean any poultry equipment, such as cages, inside the house.

You ate what?

CDC research shows outbreaks linked to imported foods increasing.

Foodborne diseases from imported food appeared to rise in 2009 and 2010, and nearly half of the implicated foods were imported from areas not previously associated with outbreaks.

During the five-year period of 2005-2110, 39 outbreaks and 2,348 illnesses were linked to imported food from 15 countries. 17 of the outbreaks occurred in 2009 and 2010 alone. Overall, fish (17) were the most common source, followed by spices (6) such fresh or dried peppers. Nearly half of the problem foods came from Asia.

As much as 85 percent of the seafood eaten in the United States is imported, and depending on the time of the year, up to 60 percent of fresh produce is imported.

Bottom Line

“As our food supply becomes more global, people are eating foods from all over the world, potentially exposing them to germs from all corners of the world, too,” says the CDC. 

Nor any drop to drink

If you followed the advice from earlier this week, you'll have stored one gallon of water per person per day for at least 3 days. But what if you didn't and disaster has struck? If water supplies run low, never ration water. Drink the amount you need (1 or 2 quarts) and try to find more for tomorrow. You can minimize the amount of water your body needs by reducing activity and staying cool.

Municipal tap water can become contaminated during floods, power outages, etc. When in doubt follow these two steps: 1. Clarify the water with a filter or fine cloth. 2. Disinfect the water by boiling or adding 2 drops of unscented bleach per liter/quart of water. Wait 30 minutes for bleach to kill bacteria. Never drink water contaminated with toxic chemicals or heavy metals.

Do you know the location of your incoming water valve? You’ll need to shut it off to stop contaminated water from entering your home if you hear reports of broken water or sewage lines. To use the clean water in your pipes, let air into the plumbing by turning on the faucet in your house at the highest level. A small amount of water will trickle out. Then obtain water from the lowest faucet in the house.

Did you know your hot water tank holds 30-60 gallons of water? When desperate for water, turn off the water heater to prevent it from operating empty and let it cool before draining to prevent scalding. Open the drain valve at the bottom tank, discard the first few gallons if they contain rust or sediment. Add 5-7 drops of chlorine bleach per gallon of water, stir, and wait 30 minutes before use.

As a last resort, use the water in the reservoir tank of your toilet (not the toilet bowl!). Be sure to boil it or apply bleach. A more appealing source of water is the liquid in canned fruits & vegetables. Swimming pool/hot tub/water bed water may be used as "gray water' for washing but not drinking due to chemicals they contain.
Bottom Line

Wouldn't you rather have stored bottle water at home rather than some of the desperate choices above?


P.S.
Today's title comes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

As Idle as a painted ship, upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

Fight Bad Breath with Hydrogen Peroxide?

“A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.”
-John Steinbeck

In our home we always keep a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide for cuts, especially cat scratches. Even after washing with soap & water, the cat scratches I get from our two furry friends will turn red and leave a scar unless I apply Hydrogen Peroxide (H.P.) because cats have really dirty toenails. It never occurred to me that H.P. could have other uses. The label on the bottle suggests using it as a mouth wash? Yuck!

H.P. is a powerful germ killer and whitener. BargainBabe.com lists many ways for putting this to use:

1. Soak your toothbrush in H.P. to keep it germ free
2. As a mouthwash it kills the germs that cause bad breath (but will my tongue forgive me?).  May also help against gingivitis (gum disease).
3. Makes a toothpaste when mixed with salt and baking soda
4. As a cleaner for kitchen counters, cutting boards, lunch boxes
5. Dilute 1/4 cup of H.P. with a sink of cold water to wash fruits & vegetables
6. Dilute it even more (1 part in 32) when watering plants to stop root rot
7. Dab on pimples
8. Soak feet in H.P. for calluses & corns & foot fungus
9. Use 1 cup instead of beach to brighten white clothes when washing (it's a main ingredient of OxiClean)
10. Spritz on hair to bring out natural highlights?
11. Fights mold on the shower walls and curtain

Bottom Line

See more ideas at BargainBabe.com like killing fungi in your fish tank (without killing the fish I hope). Please try these at your own risk. I'll vouch for cuts but have yet to try out the other suggestions above.

When to toss Leftovers?

"Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!’"
– George Carlin

Question: "When do I throw out leftovers"?

TasteOfHome.com has a simple answer, "If in doubt - throw it out". 

Don't rely on taste or smell or looks. Food may contain an unhealthy level of bacteria yet give no clue after several days.

A more detailed answer is, "it is best to eat leftovers within 2 days. Some items may still be safe after 3-5 days."

Raw foods from potentially dirty environments have a higher risk of contamination. These include fresh poultry & fish & other seafood (shrimp, scallops, squid, and shucked clams, mussels, and oysters). Don't keep these items in a fridge for more than a day (two at most).  Fresh (raw) ground meat and chopped meat (stew chunks) are equally at risk with more surface area exposed for bacteria growth.

Cooked foods will usually keep for 3 days (5 at most).

There are some foods that are are designed/created for a slightly longer shelf life:
hard cheese: 3 to 4 weeks
soft cheese: 1 week
yogurt: 1 - 2 weeks

Advice for Storing Leftovers

Begin with a clean container with an airtight seal. For items still hot, use shallow containers or divide the food into smaller portions so the center of the leftover can cool quickly. Some experts suggest waiting until steam has stopped rising from food before putting it into the refrigerator so that you don’t heat up your refrigerator. But don't wait too long.

"If food has been left out for longer than 2 hours, don’t put it back in the refrigerator, and don’t keep it for later. It’s not safe to eat." - TasteOfHome

"If food is left at room temperature for more than two hours, (one hour in hot weather) bacteria can grow to harmful levels, making it unsafe to eat." - European Food Information Council

Other experts discourage cooling leftovers on the kitchen counter but instead recommend putting warm leftovers quickly in the fridge. Bacteria are like Golilocks and love warm food (not too cold and not too hot) and grow quickly at a temperature that's "just right". My mother is a stickler when it comes to food safety. My wife & I were surprised when she took the hot bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken we had purchased for a picnic, transfered it to tupperware, and then put that in a cooler with ice, because it would take us a few hours to reach the picnic site.

P.S.
The quote at top comes from a George Carlin routine called Ice Box Man which I recommend.

What is food Poisoning?

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."
-Bombeck, Erma

Despite the name, food poisoning does not mean that someone has slipped hemlock or arsenic into your meal. Food poisoning usually means that you ate something containing an infectious agent like a virus, bacteria or parasite. But it can also mean poisoning in the real sense if you consumed a toxic agent like a poisonous mushroom or pesticide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are more than 250 known diseases that are caused by "bad" food. In the United States each year 1 in 6 people (48 million) become sick from a food-borne illnesses resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.

Common symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, fever and chills that occur within 30 minutes to 48 hours after consuming a contaminated food or drink. Most food poisoning is not serious and will run its course in 24-48 hours.

When to Seek Medical Care

Contact your doctor if

• You have a sick child under age 3
• You cannot keep any liquids down
• You cannot keep down prescribed & necessary medicine because of vomiting
• You are pregnant
• Symptoms last for more than two days
• You have a low-grade fever
• Symptoms begin after recent foreign travel
• There is an outbreak where others who ate the same thing are also sick
• You have a weakened immune system (HIV/AIDS, cancer/chemotherapy, etc)

Go to the nearest emergency room if:

• The sick person passes out, becomes dizzy & lightheaded, or has problems with vision.
• You have a fever higher than 101 F (38.3 C) along with the abdominal symptoms
• You have sharp or cramping abdomen pains do not go away after 10-15 minutes (might be appendicitis which can be deadly)
• Your stomach or abdomen swells
• Your skin and/or eyes turn yellow (possible liver failure?)
• You are vomiting blood or having bloody bowel movements
• You stop urinating, have decreased urination, or have urine that is dark in color
• You have problem breathing, speaking, or swallowing.
• One or more joints swell or a rash breaks out

Bottom Line

No food is every germ free so illness is not caused by consuming a single bacteria but rather from eating something with a concentration of infectious agent too numerous for the body to defeat quickly. When you buy deli meat or cook a meal, the food is safe. But as the leftovers sit in the fridge the few bacteria multiply, slowly to sure, but surely. If the leftover is completely reheated to 160 F or so the new bacteria are killed. But if you eat a week-old item cold, like cold cuts in a sandwich, then your stomach may be in for a rude shock.

When you really gotta go

“You do live longer with bran, but you spend the last fifteen years on the toilet”
-Alan King

I was surprised when I looked-up "Diarrhea" on WebMd and it described it as, "very common and usually not serious. Many people will have diarrhea once or twice each year." That may be true in America but in developing nations diarrhea has been the #1 cause of deaths in infants due to dehydration. Today campaigns to educate mothers about Oral Re-hydration Solution (a mixture of salts, sugar, and water) has knocked diarrhea down to the #2 slot for infant mortality with pneumonia as the current top killer.

I was also surprised by the once or twice a year claim. But then I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome which the article does mention as an exception. I learned that many things can cause diarrhea like chewing gum. Gum?!

"dietetic candy" or "chewing gum" diarrhea, in which a sugar substitute, such as sorbitol, is not absorbed by the body but draws water from the body into the bowel

Other causes include:

• "Stomach flu": a virus that infects the gut, usually lasts for two days
• Infection by bacteria (food poisoning)
• Infections by other organisms
• Eating foods that upset the digestive system
• Allergies to certain foods
• Medications
• Radiation therapy
• Diseases of the intestines
• Malabsorption
• Hyperthyroidism
• Some cancers
• Laxative abuse
• Alcohol abuse
• Digestive tract surgery
• Diabetes
• Competitive running
• Following constipation, especially for people who have irritable bowel syndrome [I'll vouch for that]

Treatment

For a mild case, just let it run its course. Or use over-the-counter medicines like Pepto-Bismol, Imodium A-D, and Kaopectate. Follow the instructions on the package.

In addition, drink at least six 8-ounce glasses of fluid per day like fruit juice without pulp, broth, or soda (without caffeine), chicken broth (without the fat), tea with honey, and sports drinks.

Instead of drinking liquids with your meals, drink liquids between meals. Drink small amounts of fluids frequently.

Bottom Line

"Contact your doctor if you have prolonged diarrhea or a fever that lasts more than 24 hours. Also see your doctor promptly if vomiting prevents you from drinking liquids to replace lost fluids." - WebMD

Preventing Foodborne Disease this Holiday Season

"Holidays are the best. I couldn't imagine being from a small family."
-Kim Kardashian

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one out of six Americans (48 million people) will get sick, 128,000 will be hospitalized, and 3,000 will die from foodborne diseases this year. (See A Fatal Cantaloupe?) So far in 2011 the CDC has investigated 65 outbreaks of food illness.

Evidence shows that preventing illness begins with the basics. Stay safe during this holiday season by following these safety tips:

• Clean. Wash hands, cutting boards, utensils, and counter tops.
• Separate. Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood separate from ready-to-eat foods.
• Cook. Use a food thermometer to ensure that foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature: 145°F for whole meats (allowing the meat to rest for 3 minutes before carving or consuming), 160°F for ground meats, and 165°F for all poultry.
• Chill. Keep your refrigerator below 40°F, and refrigerate food that will spoil.
• Report suspected illness from food to your local health department.
• Don't prepare food for others if you have diarrhea or have been vomiting.
• Be especially careful when preparing food for children, pregnant women, those in poor health, and older adults.

Bottom Line

For more information see

• “Check Your Steps”
• CDC Food Safety
• Foodborne Illness
• It’s Turkey Time

A Fatal Cantaloupe?

"Acting in 'Star Wars' I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad, and I didn't even know who the cantaloupes were."
- Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

Who knew that cantaloupes could be deadly? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says 72 people across 18 states have fallen ill with listeriosis, traced back to contaminated cantaloupes. The fruits come from Colorado's Rocky Ford region and were shipped between July 29 and Sept. 10. Thirteen people have died.

The illness and death were caused by the bacteria listeria which causes diarrhea, muscle aches and fever. The disease primarily affects older adults, pregnant women, newborns, and adults with weakened immune systems. Listeria monocytogenes is found in soil and water. Animals can carry the bacterium without appearing ill and can contaminate meats and dairy products. When Listeria bacteria get into a food processing factory (like the cantaloupe factory), they can live there for years.

Listeria is killed by pasteurization and cooking so you're most likely to catch it from ready-to-eat foods like hot dogs and deli meats which were contaminated after factory cooking but before packaging. Unlike most bacteria, Listeria bacteria can grow and multiply in some foods in the refrigerator so it's recommended that you eat your sliced deli meats within a few days of purchasing - old meat could make you sick.

Bottom Line

How can you protect yourself from listeria?

• Thoroughly cook raw food, such as beef, pork, or poultry to a safe internal temperature. See http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2011/09/is-it-done-yet.html
• Rinse raw fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running tap water before eating.
• Keep uncooked meats separate from cooked foods and ready-to-eat foods. Avoid cross-contamination by washing hands, knives, counter tops, and cutting boards after handling and preparing uncooked foods.
• Do not drink raw (unpasteurized) milk.
• Consume perishable and ready-to-eat foods as soon as possible. Don't assume the fridge will keep it safe for weeks.

Post Irene: Act Now to stop Mold!

"Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don't worry...I'm here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you."
-Charlie Brown to Snoopy

ConsumerReports.org notes that mold can be a serious problem after flooding. We were lucky at my house with less than an inch of water in our garage and basement but even that small amount can result in lots of mold.

"To prevent mold from growing and spreading after a flood, you have to act fast—within 24 to 48 hours."

• Dry out wet areas ASAP. Open doors and windows and use fans or dehumidifiers speed up drying time.
• Anything porous or absorbent that was wet for a day or two is a problem. If you can thoroughly clean it with detergent and dry it, do so soon. Otherwise the item should be tossed. Even dead mold can cause allergic reactions.
  
  "Porous, noncleanable items include carpeting and carpet padding, upholstery, wallpaper, drywall, ceiling tiles, insulation material, some clothing, leather, paper, some wood and wood products, and food." 
• Temporarily store damaged or discarded items outside the home until insurance claims can be processed. If you leave them in the house these items will spread mold everywhere.

There are mixed opinions on using chlorine. Detergent is safer to use and nicer on the environment but if you experienced flood water from a river, run-off or ocean, then use chlorine. Flood waters may contain human waste and other contaminates - so go with the extra cleaning power of chlorine.

Bottom Line

"If you think a serious mold problem is developing, consult a professional mold remediation service. You should also consult an expert if people who live in your home have health issues or are immune suppressed.

If the floodwaters have affected your heating and air conditioning you'll need help from a qualified professional."

Chicken Pox

“When the itch is inside the boot, scratching outside provides little consolation”
-Chinese Proverbs

"Rachel got poison ivy on her brain. The only way she can scratch it is to think about sandpaper."
-Steven Wright

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some good news about chickenpox. Since the government first recommended the new pox vaccine for all children starting in 1995, deaths from chickenpox have fallen from 105 in 1990 to just 14 in 2007. Almost all the deaths were adults who suffered complications like skin infections, swelling of the brain and pneumonia. Severe cases are more common among teens and adults who get it for the first time late in life.

About 8 to 9 of every 10 people who are vaccinated are completely protected from chickenpox. In addition, the vaccine almost always prevents against severe disease. If a vaccinated person does get chickenpox, it is usually a very mild case lasting only a few days and involving fewer skin lesions (usually less than 50), mild or no fever, and few other symptoms.

"The disease is spread by coughing and sneezing (highly contagious), by direct contact, and by aerosolization of virus from skin lesions." Aerosolization? Sounds like the virus can leap off the skin and become airborne. I wonder if the pox pustuals rupture like a burst pimple?  My only exposure to chickenpox was at age 8 so my memory of the disease is patchy (but I do remember the itching and still bear a scare from one pox bump I scratched too much).

Bottom Line

All children and adults without evidence of immunity to varicella need the vaccine. Evidence of immunity includes any of the following:

• Documentation of two doses of varicella vaccine
• Blood tests that show you are immune to varicella or laboratory confirmation of prior disease
• Born in the United States before 1980, excluding health-care workers, pregnant women, and immunocompromised persons.  These individuals need to meet one of the other criteria for evidence of immunity.  
• Receipt from a healthcare provider of a) a diagnosis of chickenpox or b) verification of a history of chickenpox
• Receipt from a healthcare provider of a) a diagnosis of herpes zoster (shingles), or b) verification of a history of herpes zoster (shingles).

You do NOT need the chickenpox vaccine, if you meet any of the above criteria for evidence of immunity.

Black Plague

They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses
- Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 1375)

You may remember from history lessons that "The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. ... The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% – 60% of Europe's population" (Wikipedia) Did you know that the Black Plague was not a one-time occurrence?

There have been three major outbreaks of plague. The Plague of Justinian in the 6th and 7th centuries is the first known attack on record, and marks the first firmly recorded pattern of bubonic plague. [Some credit this for the downfall of Rome] From historical descriptions, as much as 40% of the population of Constantinople died from the plague. ... After 750, major epidemic diseases did not appear again in Europe until the Black Death of the 14th century. The Third Pandemic hit China in the 1890s and devastated India but was confined to limited outbreaks in the west.

What I thought was medieval and gone is still around. Los Angeles in 1924-25 experienced a rat-borne epidemic where plague was spread from rats to fleas to people. New Mexico has seen 262 human cases of bubonic plague between 1949 and 2010 with fleas from rodents, squirrels, prairie dogs, chipmunks, and occasionally rabbits.

An early telltale sign of the plague is swollen, painful lymph nodes known as buboes. Without treatment, the illness can infect the blood (known as septicemic plague) and finally the lungs. At this point, the infection becomes known as plague pneumonia, or pneumonic plague. The mortality rate increases considerably at this point. - LA Times

Here is a description of the plague from the 1300's,

"In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg...From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. As the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves."
- Giovanni Boccaccio

Bottom Line

Always, always visit a doctor if you find swollen bumps. It probably won't be plague but it could be a sign of a serious internal infection or hernia or advanced stage of cancer that needs immediate and aggressive treatment. Do not delay - in the case of bubonic plague 80% of those who die, will die within eight days.

Don't eat that armadillo!

"Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white; Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning: wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy"
Leviticus 13:24-25, KJV

The New York Times says, "Armadillos Can Transmit Leprosy to Humans, Federal Researchers Confirm."

'Using genetic sequencing machines, researchers were able to confirm that about a third of the leprosy cases that arise each year in the United States almost certainly result from contact with infected armadillos. The cases are concentrated in Louisiana and Texas, where some people hunt, skin and eat armadillos."

This is good news for doctors who have been puzzled by U.S. Leprosy cases in individuals who had NOT traveled to leprosy hot spots around the world like India, Brazil, Africa, and the Philippines. The microbe that causes leprosy is a fragile one; it won't grow in petri dishes and survives only a week or two in moist soil. So researchers had been stumped tracking the U.S. source. But in retrospect the answer is not surprising. Leprosy only survives in two animals: humans and armadillos. Researchers have long used armadillos to grow the disease for testing.

According to the Times,

Leprosy now joins a host of other infectious diseases — including flu, H.I.V./AIDS and SARS — that are known to have jumped from animals to humans. Flu is thought to have first crossed to humans from migratory waterfowl several hundred years ago. H.I.V./AIDS first crossed from a chimpanzee about 90 years ago.

Ironically the disease may have first spread from humans to armadillos five hundred years ago. There are no traces of leprosy in the New World before Christopher Columbus.

Bottom Line

Left untreated, leprosy can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Contrary to folklore, leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, although they can become numb or diseased as a result of infection; infection results in tissue loss, so fingers and toes become shortened and deformed as the cartilage is absorbed into the body. Until recent times (1940s), leprosy was incurable and slightly contagious, so those infected (lepers) were shunned or forced to live in leper colonies. It is sometimes called the oldest known disease and there are many references to it in the Old and New Testaments. The Law of Moses required lepers to call out "Unclean, unclean" to warn others from touching them.

Today the infection is readily cured but it's important to catch it early before nerves are permanently damaged. Before the armadillo link was discovered, southern doctors never considered leprosy as the cause for the numb fingers their patients reported. Leprosy just made no sense if the patient had never traveled outside the U.S.

The return of HIV

"And there's no guarantee that if you get HIV and you take these triple therapies, or whatever comes along next, that they're going to be successful for you."
- Elton John

The Tennessean.com reports that health officials are seeing a surge in new HIV cases with young adults because they no longer fear the disease. Many people think the war against AIDS ended in the mid-1990s when a "cure" was found.

“I remember holding the hands of people dying of AIDS in my 24 years of being in this field, but the young people I talk to have not held the hands of folks dying with AIDS,” said Harris [a health educator]. “They don’t have a reality of this virus.”

With a lack of fear for HIV, “Behavior is back to where it was in 1980,” says a public health official where youth are seeking for and advertising unprotected sex.

Between 2005 and 2009, the number of Tennesseans 15 to 24 years old newly diagnosed with HIV jumped 32 percent, state health department figures show.

And the disease is not "cured."

While medical advances have largely turned what was once a death sentence into a chronic manageable disease, there is no guarantee that infected people can just take a pill and keep on living. How well medications work depends upon how soon HIV is detected and what mutations of the virus exist. ...
Almost one of six newly diagnosed people in 2007 was infected with a form of the virus that was resistant to at least one class of drugs used to treat HIV. One percent had mutations of the virus that were resistant to all three classes of drugs.

Bottom Line

If you have kids tell them that HIV is not "cured" and can still be fatal.

Heart Disease

“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.”

Yesterday I talked about cancer, the #2 killer in America with 559,888 deaths in 2006. The first place award goes to Heart Disease (more formerly known as Cardiovascular Disease or CVD) with 831,272 deaths in 2006 (34.3 percent of all deaths or 1 of every 2.9 deaths). What exactly is Heart Disease?

• Coronary heart disease: caused by atherosclerosis (ath"er-o-skleh-RO'sis), the narrowing of the coronary arteries due to fatty build ups. Partial blockage results in chest pain and total blockage cuts off blood to the heart muscle and results in a heart attack.
• Stroke: blood to a portion of the brain is cut off by a blood clot or a burst blood vessel.
• Heart Failure: occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to support other organs. The heart may still be beating but with insufficient strength.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recognizes the following risk factors for Heart Disease:
* high cholesterol
* high blood pressure - It's called the "silent killer" and greatly increases the likelihood of heart attack or stroke. 90–95% of the time the cause of high blood pressure isn't known but it is often treatable.
* smoking
* being overweight
* lack of exercise (people who are sedentary are almost twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as are people who exercise regularly.)
* African American women have the highest risk for death from heart disease
* Male pattern baldness, hair in the ear canals, and creased earlobes are associated with a higher risk for heart disease in white males.

On the positive side:

* People who eat beans at least four times a week have a lower level of heart disease (19% lower) than people who eat beans less than once a week.

Bottom Line

Heart attack and strokes can strike suddenly with no warning. They either kill outright or leave a person confused as to what just happened. Many don't recognize the symptoms. See:
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2010/11/stroke.html  (Stroke)
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2010/03/chest-pain.html (Heart Attack)

Heart failure is often a gradual process and does have symptoms which include—

• Shortness of breath during daily activities.
• Having trouble breathing when lying down.
• Weight gain with swelling in the legs, ankles, or lower back.
• General fatigue and weakness.

See http://www.medicinenet.com/edema/page3.htm (Edema)
and http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4585 (Congestive Heart Failure)

Where in the world is ....?

“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything”

-Albert Einstein quotes

Each year the TED conference hands out TED prizes to individuals with an idea that can change the world. One winner talked about tracking disease epidemics world-wide with data from Google and other sources. Now it appears that that dream is alive and well.

Check out HealthMap at http://healthmap.org/en/. 

"HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization)."

The home page is a bit overwhelming with all outbreaks from the past three days. Hover the mouse over any pin to see the name of the disease.

I find the display more interesting when a single disease is searched. The default is the past 3-days but you can change this up to one month with the Advanced search options. I selected Typhoid in the past month and found cases in Algeria, China and Kyrgyzstan.

Bottom Line

This is a great resource for keeping an eye on swine flu or any other illness that you are concerned about.

Whooping Cough

"We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough." - Henry David Thoreau

Many years ago my sister lived in Watertown, NY, on the north-western edge of the state near the Canadian border. I'm glad she's not living there now since this region is experiencing an epidemic of Whooping Cough with some 300 cases to date.

Whooping cough, formally called Pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable, violent coughing. It is spread through the air by tiny droplets when a patient coughs or sneezes. The coughing is extreme and can make it hard to breathe; often a deep "whooping" sound is heard when trying to take a breath. It is a serious disease and the infection usually lasts 6 weeks.

Pertussis used to kill 5,000 to 10,000 people (usually children & infants) in the United States each year. Now, a vaccine has reduced the annual number of deaths to less than 30. But today parents are skipping the vaccine and the disease is returning. In 2004 the number of whooping cough cases spiked past 25,000, the highest level it's been since the 1950s.

Whooping cough begins like the common cold about a week after exposure. But 10 to 12 days later the coughing fits begin, they can last for more than a minute, and the patient may turn red or purple from lack of air (the "whoop" is a desperate gasp to breath!) Vomiting may also result from a coughing fit. Fits usually occur in groups, with multiple episodes every hour around the clock.

These extreme symptoms can be fatal with infants who rarely "whoop". Instead they gasp for air with a reddened face and may actually stop breathing for a few seconds during particularly bad spells or they may choke on vomit.

Treatment - antibiotics such as erythromycin are effective if Whooping cough is caught early BEFORE the coughing begins, but when diagnosed too late, the antibiotics will reduce infectiousness but not the symptoms. Infants younger than 18 months need to be monitored to ensure breathing and may need to be hospitalized. Curiously, cough mixtures, expectorants, and suppressants are usually not helpful and should NOT be used. Most cough mixtures loosen the mucus in the lungs to encourage coughing - with whooping cough the patient is already coughing too much and too frequently so the last thing you want is more coughing.

During recovery, let your child rest in bed and use a cool-mist vaporizer to help soothe irritated lungs and breathing passages. Be sure to follow directions for keeping it clean and mold-free. In addition, keep your home free of irritants that can trigger coughing spells, such as aerosol sprays, tobacco smoke, and smoke from cooking, fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves.

Kids with whooping cough may vomit or not eat or drink much because of frequent coughing. So offer smaller, more frequent meals and encourage your child to drink lots of fluids. Watch for signs of dehydration, too, including thirst, irritability, restlessness, lethargy, sunken eyes, a dry mouth and tongue, dry skin, crying without tears, and fewer trips to the bathroom to urinate (or in infants, fewer wet diapers)

Bottom Line

During a pertussis outbreak, unimmunized children under age 7 should not attend school or public gatherings, and should be isolated from anyone known or suspected to be infected. This should last until 14 days after the last reported case. Remember that the first symptoms do not appear for a week to 10 days and two weeks for the severe coughing. In rare cases it can be 21 days from infection to symptoms. So people may be infected and not know it.

All children should be immunized before the sixth birthday and given a booster shot between ages 11-12.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pertussis
http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/whooping_cough.html
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Pertussis

Polio Almost Eradicated

"Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio.” – 1950s

Polio is another ancient disease that has been known since prehistory; Egyptian paintings show healthy people with withered limbs and children walking with canes. The disease was once called infantile paralysis, based on its propensity to affect children. While now rare in the Western world, polio is still endemic to South Asia and Nigeria. In 1988 a global effort to eradicate polio was begun by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and The Rotary Foundation. These efforts have reduced the number of diagnosed cases by 99%; from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to 1006 cases in 2009.

Curiously occurrences of polio spiked in the early 20th century to epidemic proportions. The cause: modern sanitation and an odd trait of polio. The disease is bacterial and spread by the “fecal-oral” method which is as awful as it sounds. Persons shit out the disease, which contaminates waters or food, which is then consumed. But what happens next depends upon the age of the victim. The effects of polio are worse the older you are when you contract it. A child might develop a deformed limb while an adult loses the ability to breathe and needs an iron lung. Infants under six months can beat the disease and become immune for life. With modern sanitation providing clean water and food, infants were no longer exposed to polio on a regular basis. Instead the first exposure was occurring later in life with more serious results.

In the United States the polio epidemic began around 1900 and peaked in 1952 with 58,000 cases reported, 3,145 deaths, and 21,269 left with mild to disabling paralysis. In 1977 there were 254,000 persons living in the United States who had been paralyzed by polio as a child. Future president FDR was infected in 1921 and paralyzed from the waist down. Later as President he created the March of Dimes Foundation to raise money to fight polio and a “great race” began to find a cure.

Today there is still no cure but on April 12, 1955 Jonas Salk completed field trials and presented to the world an inactive variant of polio that was 90% effective in immunizing individuals by teaching the body how to produce antibodies to fight a future polio infection. Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker", and the day "almost became a national holiday." Salk had developed a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" Sadly Salk was not awarded the Nobel Prize. It went instead to others who learned how to grow the polio virus in embryonic tissue so that enough virus culture could be collected to be studied.

You might remember being given a sugar cube to fight polio in grade school. In 1955 Dr. Albert Sabin produced a live-virus vaccine that was placed on a sugar cube and eaten, rather than injected. This was far easier to distribute than Salk’s vaccine but made doctors nervous – could they be infecting persons with a weak constitution? Fortunately the Sabin vaccine was found to be (mostly) safe and by 1967 became the preferred method. Today the preferred method has switched back to injections as being safer.

Bottom Line

Support the effort to make polio the second disease to be eradicated from the Earth. Inoculate your children. Until the disease is 100% dead it is not safe to skip the shot. An infected immigrant could give your child paralysis for life with a contaminated hot dog or other prepared food.

In the early 1900's Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) infected 53 people as a cook. She was a healthy carrier of typhoid fever who refused to recognize her own role in spreading the disease and who refused to cease working as a cook. She was forcibly quarantined twice by public health authorities and died in quarantine after 23 years of confinement.

Tuberculosis

“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted”-Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In the early 1900s, Tuberculosis (TB, also known as consumption) killed one out of every seven people living in the United States and Europe. It was a scourge of mankind and quite common amongst the rich and the poor. It can be found in the bones of cavemen and the bodies of Egyptian mummies. US Presidents who survived TB include George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Franklin Pierce. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of FDR, died of TB as did the poet John Keats, the Bronte sisters, Anton Chekhov, Frederic Chopin, and many others. We don’t hear about it much today because a vaccine was discovered in the 1940’s and for awhile it looked like TB would go the way of Smallpox and become eradicated in the world.

With the disease rare but not gone, counties neglected TB control efforts and it has started to creep back. Moreover the treatment for TB requires six to 12 months of drugs. In some parts of the world (like Russia), persons stopped taking the drugs when they felt better but before the disease was 100% gone from their body. This has resulted in drug resistant strains of TB that are now difficult to cure. About 1/3 of the world may be infected with TB (in a latent form) with 1.8 million deaths each year from the active form.

TB usually infects the lungs and this version is contagious and spreads through the air with coughs, sneezes, and normal breathing. You don’t want to be on an airplane with recirculated air when a passenger has TB. People with active TB disease are most likely to spread it to people they spend time with every day. This includes family members, friends, and coworkers or schoolmates.

TB may travel from the lungs through the blood to other parts of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. Symptoms depend on where in the body the TB bacteria are growing. TB in the lungs may cause:

•a bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer
•pain in the chest
•coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs)

Other symptoms of active TB disease are
•weakness or fatigue
•weight loss
•no appetite
•chills
•fever
•sweating at night

Bottom Line

When someone nearby has a really bad cough, it may be more than the flu. Are you inoculated against TB?

Strange but True?

Wikipedia suggests the possibility that TB inspired the vampire myth. People with TB often have red, swollen eyes (which creates a sensitivity to bright light), pale skin, extremely low body heat, a weak heart and coughing blood, suggesting the idea that the only way for the afflicted to replenish this loss of blood was by sucking blood from others.

Resources

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/general/tb.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/faqs/qa_introduction.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/pamphlets/TB_infection.pdf