Allergy Associates - Health Alerts

Offerings by George A. Sprecace M.D., J.D.: (Scroll down or click here for More Relevant Offerings)

"TRUE, TRUE...AND RELATED". Good advice, especially about the Obstructive Sleep Apnea, of which there is an epidemic, most often undiagnosed. GS

Mayo Clinic - Aspirin not a joke!

Dr. Virend Somers, a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic who is lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 A.M. and noon, Somers said. Having one during the night, when the heart
should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame.

1. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. The reason: aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life" therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the aspirin would be strongest in your system.

2. FYI, aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest for years, (when it gets old, it smells like vinegar). Please read on.

Something that we can do to help ourselves - nice to know.
Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue. They work much faster than the tablets.

Why keep aspirin by your bedside? It's about Heart Attacks: There are other symptoms of an heart attack besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating, however these symptoms may also occur less frequently. Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.

The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep, did not wake up. However, if it occurs, the
chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep.

If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.

Afterwards:
- call 911
- phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by
- say "heart attack!"
- say that you have taken 2 aspirins.
- take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and...
- do NOT lie down.

This Summer season there is another bad actor out there: Swine Flu, otherwise known as H1N1 Influenza. It can be tested for by ordering an Influenza A test which, if positive, is further tested for Swine Flu virus. But now that is not enough. Tick-borne diseases must also be sought (requiring specific testing) when the patient presents with a "flu-like illness". Please do not dismiss such symptoms and "tough it out". Consult your physician; and share this information with him or her. All of these illnesses are more or less treatable. And all of them can produce serious consequences if not diagnosed and specifically treated in timely fashion.

GS

One of the most common dangers encountered by all of us who, especially in the summertime, stray to the shore, or the hills, or just to the golf course is the possibility of being struck by lightning. One can survive, but dying is often not the worst of it. A very informative article on the subject appears in this month's issue of Field and Stream" entitled "Thunderstruck", by Keith McCafferty (p32). Unless I'm wrong, you don't know all that you should know in order to protect yourself and your family from this threat from the skies, even from the blue skies.

Physicians and their patients are in tough times partly because, in a mis-guided and paternalistic effort to shield their patients from the turmoil, physicians in the 1980's and early 1990's did not keep their patients informed and did not seek their political help. They also had this quaint idea that politicians and legislators gave a damn about their points of view and input. We all learned otherwise. So, in addition to all the warnings I have been sharing since the late 1970's (see other relevant categories on this web-site), here are some more that may make a real difference to the most altruistic of your physicians.