Boston health officials investigating severe infections from “medical tourism”

Boston health officials are investigating some reports of severe infections in patients who took a trip to the Dominican Republic for cosmetic surgery.

Mycobacterium abscessus, a bacteria that is not easily battled with antibiotics, and can take months of treatment to vanquish was believed to infect at least two patients in Boston, and another in Worcester.

The patients were part of a group that went to the Dominican Republic during the summer for surgeries and started having health problems, including abscesses and drainage from their surgery sites, earlier this fall, said Dr. Anita Barry, director of the infectious disease bureau at the Boston Public Health Commission.

Other patients in the group who live in Maryland, Connecticut, and New York have also been infected, she said.

Health officials are anxious for the reason that so-called “medical tourism” has become a major industry in many Latin American countries.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approximation that 750,000 people from the United States travel abroad every year seeking low cost medical care.

“We became aware because one of the out-of-state people knew someone in the Worcester area, who was having similar post-op problems,” Barry said. “That person knew someone in Boston who was having the same problems, and that person told us about a second Boston case.”

The germ can be spread by means of contaminated medical equipment, medical supplies, or poor surgical techniques.  Severe pain and swelling are the effects of the infection, and frequently does not show up until some weeks after surgery.

The infection is not contagious to other people, but is serious and needs to be treated, Barry said.

“We’re trying to get the word out that if you are going overseas for surgery, you have to find out how many infections this place has had, and also find out how many people have died having medical procedures in this place,” Barry said.

The commission suggests that patients thinking about surgery in another country talk with their primary care provider regarding the procedure at least four to six weeks before going trough traveling, and secure copies of all medical records associated to the surgery and medical care provided abroad prior to going back home.

Exercise ‘can be as good as pills’

A study has found that exercise can be as good a medicine as pills for people with conditions such as heart disease.

British Medical Journal or BMJ’s work looked at hundreds of trials linking almost 340,000 patients to assess the merits of exercise and drugs in avoiding death. Physical activity challenged some heart drugs and proved that it is better than stroke medicine. According to the researchers, the findings suggest exercise should be added to prescriptions.

Experts emphasized that patients should not ditch their drugs for exercise – but, they should use both in tandem. Lesser and lesser adults at present get enough exercise.  No more than a third of people in England do the suggested at least 2.5 hours or more of moderate-intensity activity, like cycling or fast walking, every week.

In contrary, while that is happening, prescription drug rates continue to rise. In 2010, there were averages of 17.7 prescriptions for every person in England while 11.2 in 2000.

For the study, scientists based at the London School of Economics, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine trawled medical literature to find any research that compared exercise with pills as a therapy. They recognized 305 trials to incorporate in their analysis.  Such trials looked at managing conditions like existing heart disease, stroke rehabilitation, heart failure and pre-diabetes. They found exercise and drugs were comparable in terms of death rates when they studied the data as a total.

Although there were two exceptions, drugs called diuretics were the clear winner for heart failure patients, while exercise was best for stroke patients in terms of life expectancy. Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said that although an active lifestyle brings many health benefits, there is not enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions about the merit of exercise above and beyond drugs.

“Medicines are an extremely important part of the treatment of many heart conditions and people on prescribed drugs should keep taking their vital meds. If you have a heart condition or have been told you’re at high risk of heart disease, talk to your doctor about the role that exercise can play in your treatment.”

Dr Peter Coleman of the Stroke Association said exercise alongside drugs had a vital role that merited more research. “We would like to see more research into the long-term benefits of exercise for stroke patients. “By taking important steps, such as regular exercise, eating a balanced diet and stopping smoking, people can significantly reduce their risk of stroke.” “Moderate physical activity, for example, can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 27%.

Natural cold and flu remedies for children

Homemade medicines are a lot cheaper, safer and easy access. It was always been a debate whether or not chemical medications are good for the heath or have no side effects on the body especially on children. Over the years, there have been many recalls on several drugs due to inadequate or worse non-existent testing procedures.

This is a major burden to parents when their children become ill. Little did they know that there are other medications cheaper and safer. Here are some tips:

This is something good for children and adults’ alike, homeopathic medicines can be found at most health food store in quick dissolving tablet form.

· Belladonna- 6C: Best and helpful for fevers that come on unexpectedly, and it is also good for clear runny nose. Belladonna is helpful as well in easing headaches and inflamed red sore throats.

· Pulsatilla-6C: When nasal discharge is thicker and children are acting clingy and weepy try using this because this is good for it. What’s more is it is helpful for earaches that are less intense.

· Chamomilla- 6C: For irritability and digestive issues, this homeopathic remedy is very good for those sicknesses. And also this is a great help to ease severe pain associated with teething, earaches and gas pains.

*these following guidelines are your medicine cabinet’s must haves. | source: springhill jounal

Without alcohol and other additives, onion and honey cough medicine is a wonderful homemade alternative. Be certain to use good honey; local, organic, raw honey is the finest as it will help to prevent allergies too. The benefit of both honey and onion is that it reduces bronchial constriction because both have anti-bacterial properties and onions contain a compound that. Any onion color will do, chop it and place in a jar, and cover the onion bits with honey. The next day, discard the onion pieces and save the liquid.

This next tip has been used to promote health for centuries now. Honey and cinnamon, this mixture can aid at the first sign of cold and has proven to boost the immune system whether separately or together. To get rid of the cold, just mix one teaspoon of honey with a teaspoon of cinnamon, your colds will be gone in couple of days.

This may sound a little unrealistic for some but definitely true, the healing power of touch. This healing power can be in the form of hugs, kisses, cuddles or even light placement of the hands on areas where there is pain and discomfort. Many studies can back-up that healing touch can reduce pain, boost the immune system, lower stress levels and promote relaxation and healing.

Aside from being cost effective and easy to prepare, natural cold and flu remedies have higher success rate. Homeopathic medicines act to cure the imbalances that preceding to sickness and can be used to stop the illness altogether. They are better than the commercial. Over the counter medicines simply mask the symptoms, or antibiotics that are shown to lower the immune system and decrease resistance. It is also a good fraud prevention, no will never get scammed. Go for alternative medicines.

Why Haven’t Electronic Health Records Made Us Healthier

Fact: Before the web about 20 years ago, roughly 4,000 people from 200 companies congregated in San Diego for a conference to talk about the future of health-care information technology.  This was long before the technology of the WEB begins, when computers in physicians’ offices were used only for scheduling and billing patients and paper charts bulged out of huge filing cabinets.

It was one of HIMSS’s or Information and Management Systems Society’s first big conferences.  Several physicians, technologists, visionaries, engineers and entrepreneurs shared one idealistic goal, a goal to use information systems and technology to fundamentally change health care. The intention was not just to improve the old system but a future that looked a lot like we were being promised throughout the economy as it sped into the Internet era.  The aim is for the computers enabling improvements in the practice of medicine to make it safer, higher quality, more affordable and more efficient, all in for one same goal, to make the people healthier. A company that was called Allscripts was then built not long after the said conference.  Its focus was electronic prescriptions.  The old joke about impossible to read doctor’s handwriting was after all no joke, because according to The Institute of Medicine, about 7,000 Americans were dying each year from paper prescription errors. The first fully electronic prescription using Allscripts system was transmitted by an innovative physician named Azar Korbey of New Hampshire.  As of today about 600 million prescriptions out of 1.5 billion in the U.S. are written electronically, this is according to industry source SureScripts.  This is a considerable development but there is more to do but it is safe to say electronic prescribing is saving lives.

Rivals have a common goal, Allscripts, Cerner and Epic, to make all physician practices and hospitals digital.  So the next phase was electronic health records.  These competitors found ways to automate a complicated clinical encounter. The goal seems didn’t seem to be unattainable although putting PCs on every desk was only the first step in the information revolution.  And it all started when these PCs were then connected to the Internet and developed “apps”, everything changed.  Consider Amara’s Law: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

The whole process has been hard, from zero to getting nearly half a million physicians using electronic records, required a tough effort.  Rewording Churchill, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is it, perhaps, the end of the beginning of the electronic health revolution. There had been many critics and disbelievers trying to knock the value of the investments in the system, pass judgment on the government’s stimulus, and doubted the return on investment.  An open letter to president Obama by David Kibbe, a physician and technology advisor to the American Academy of Family Physicians, says that electronic health records are “notoriously expensive” and “difficult to implement.”  Disagreeing about subsidies, Kibbe wrote: “Nor is there conclusive evidence that the use of EHRs improves patient care quality.” More people now understand that making digital records work is critical to fixing health care.  The annual HIMSS conference held last week in New Orleans is expecting 35,000 people and 1,000 vendors to focus on that task.

“The impact of IT on health care over the past decade has so far been modest,” this is concluded by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concluded in a recent report.  The key words: so far. Investors and the industry would be wise not to underestimate what’s coming. It is nothing short of an explosion in innovation and creativity, facilitated by open systems and connectivity. The technology can fix itself; this is was what the council has found out. “The ability to integrate electronic health information about a patient and exchange it among clinical providers remains the exception rather than the rule,” this is what the report saying right now and this is exactly what need the change. The job on getting all the physicians on board is still on going, while the CDC reported in December that 73% of physicians now use electronic health records, up from about a third two years ago.  This means a great progress yet there are still many physicians using paper. Next step is to get all the records connected to each other, this means the industry, through HIMSS and the government, through the Office of the National Coordinator, are pushing for interoperability. For the time being, the existing systems that were already installed needs improvement.  This is because they are not user-friendly, and this claim is from someone who spent 15 years developing and selling them.  With the development of the new iPad and other mobile apps, this will help the industry to do better and it will.  Electronic health records today tend to be “information retrieval” tools and we have to vitally change it.

Human health will be improved once records are open, connected, and more user-friendly, we can start to add intelligence to the network that will help doctors, nurses, care coordinators and patients all do a better job. Health care in next to no time will be overflowing with similarly exciting start-ups producing apps that alter everything.  We actually see it is starting to happen; ground-breaking companies like dbMotion are linking dissimilar systems across health care organizations.  Other innovators, like Humedica recently acquired by OptumHealth, they are learning how to mine data for insights that will help physicians and care coordinators keep track of large panels of patients. Medical apps that dial into electronic health records at last are starting to be seen everywhere. This will impact cost and quality in very significant ways like an example is a wireless scale can notify a nurse when a congestive heart failure patient gains weight indicating dangerous fluid retention.  Or just look how convenient this will be, wearing a device that allows your vital signs to be remotely monitored all the time, rather than at a once-a-year doctor visit. “Technology, properly applied, is indistinguishable from magic.” It is the “applied” part of that dream we are still working on. But I’m confident we’ll get there. A connected system will help patients take responsibility for their health. Strong teams of physicians, nurses and caregivers will use an intelligent network to make their results better and their jobs easier. It does sound like magic. And we are getting closer each year. Just take a walk around HIMSS and you’ll see the future.—Arthur C. Clarke

How can Not Sleeping Affect your Health

One night without sleep can make you feeling tired the whole day and yawning will probably annoy you and the people around. How about two nights of no sleeping or three? It will surely make you cranky and restless. But just a week of not enough sleep can radically change the activity of human genes. – Springhill group

According to a new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, just one week of abnormal, insufficient sleep is enough to dramatically alter the activity of human genes.

University of Surrey in England conducted a survey and the experiment discovered that lack of sleep, at least less than six hours a night will affect the activity of over 700 of our genes.


The genes that will be affected are associated with controlling response to stress, immunity, and inflammation.

Furthermore, the research demonstrates that insufficient sleep reduces the number of genes that normally peak and fall in expression during a 24-hour period from 1,855 to 1,481.

After a week of pitiable sleep the number of genes influenced by sleep deprivation is seven times greater.

Obesity, cognitive impairment, heart disease are just few of the complications of not having enough sleep.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, sleep deprivation and sleep disorders affect from 50 to 70 million people in America thus making sleep disorders very common. But until recently, scientists were unaware how gene expression patterns were modified by poor sleep. These ‘gene expression’ patterns offer critical clues on the possible molecular mechanisms that connect sleep with total health.

26 volunteers were followed; they were exposed to a week of sleep deprivation and a week of sufficient sleep. Each week, blood samples were collected and were controlled for the effects of light, activity, and food during the week of insufficient sleep.

The genes affected by poor sleep were linked to circadian rhythms, metabolism, and sleep homeostasis.

Macromolecular metabolism, gene-expression regulation, chromatin modification, inflammatory responses, immune responses, stress responses, these are the biological processes that the investigators found as being affected.

“This research has helped us to understand the effects of insufficient sleep on gene expression. Now that we have identified these effects we can use this information to further investigate the links between gene expression and overall health.” says Derk-Jan Dijk, Director of the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey.

This study was made possible by a team up of researchers completed by sleep and circadian rhythm experts in functional bioinformatics and genomics, and physiologists.

The biological processes recognized may be involved with the negative results of poor sleep on health and stress the links between sleep homeostasis, circadian rhythmicity, and metabolism.

“The current interest in sleep and circadian rhythms as determinants of health and disease is a vital area of research. By combining our expertise in sleep and ‘genomics’ (the study of the full complement of our genes), we are starting to make breakthroughs that will have an impact on our understanding and treatment of poor health arising from insufficient sleep.” says Colin Smith, Professor of functional genomics at the University of Surrey.

Do Infections Speed Up Alzheimer's? Springhill medical group reported>>

“An increase in brain inflammation, such as that caused by age, diabetes and obesity, is known to increase risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Now scientists at UK's Southampton University are about to start a three-year study, using brain tissue generously donated by people who died with Alzheimer's disease, to see if inflammation caused by infections such as those of the urinary tract or chest, also speeds up progress of the disease.” – medical news today

In an announcement released on Wednesday, study leader Delphine Boche, Lecturer in Clinical Neurosciences at Southampton, says: "Many of the known risk factors for Alzheimer's, like age, obesity and diabetes, increase inflammation in the brain and we think that infections could be another risk factor." "There is already evidence that the immune system is on high alert in people with Alzheimer's and we think that an extra trigger, like an infection, could tip the balance and make immune cells switch from being protective to harmful," she adds.

alzheimer's brain

Alzheimer's Research UK has already put £300,000 into the project. The money is part of the charity's £20m investment in leading dementia research in the UK.

The study started in January 2013, and will add to the growing pile of evidence that shows how the immune system is implicated in Alzheimer's disease. The Southampton team believes that in Alzheimer's, the immune system goes beyond its role as protector of the body and starts causing damage, like it does in an autoimmune disease.

For their study, Boche and colleagues will use brain tissue generously donated by people who had Alzheimer's disease when they died. With reference to donors' medical records, the researchers will compare the brains of those who had infections when they died with those who did not.

They will be particularly interested in immune cells known as "microglia", which go around mopping up cellular debris. They will use fluorescent tags to label the cells in the brain, and look at them under the microscope. The team will be looking for signs that infection causes distinct changes in microglia in people with Alzheimer's. Boche says they believe the microglia may produce chemicals that are harmful to surrounding cells and make Alzheimer's worse.

"The findings could have important implications both for our understanding of the disease and for the management of healthcare in the elderly," says Boche, adding that she and her team are "incredibly grateful to Alzheimer's Research UK and their supporters for providing us with the funds to make the research possible".

The hope is the findings will increase understanding about how to delay the progression of Alzheimer's, a disease that affects over half a million people in the UK. Eric Karran, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, says: "Slowing the progression of Alzheimer's could have a huge impact on families and allow people more valuable time with their loved ones." "Only by understanding the factors that drive the disease, can we develop new and innovative ways to slow it down," he adds. Last year, several new studies helped with funds from the charity, showed that inflammation plays an important role in Alzheimer's, and the charity expects this latest project will build on those results.

In June 2012, scientists in the US reported the results of a small trial where a group of Alzheimer's patients treated for 3 years with an immunotherapy drug showed no symptom decline over the treatment period.

Springhill Group: Treat Childhood Obesity

You may find fat kids cutie ones but they may be starting to suffer from obesity.  Obesity is a serious medical condition that often leads to serious diseases.  Childhood obesity often carried out until adulthood, more health complications may occur.  And obesity plays a significant role in causing certain so called ‘adult ailments’ in our children such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Childhood obesity is usually caused by eating too much and not getting enough exercise.  While there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, studies show the primary cause of children being overweight is due to lifestyle issues such as eating more calories than is needed to support their growing bodies, daily activities and metabolism.


All experts agreed that obesity is a health risk that may result to the following health problems for children.

Hypertension
Type 2 Diabetes
Orthopedic
Sleep
Depression
Asthma
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Height and BMI
Heredity
Signs of stress of weight on lower limbs and joints
Absence of logical thinking

How to treat obesity in children:

 If your child has a weight problem you should a consult a doctor or nutritionist.  A healthy eating plan is strongly suggested. This is also to make sure that no serious health problems have developed.  Some parents delay this action in the hopes that the problem will just go away but this delay can cause more complications and illness and I will get worse.

Not only obesity can cause many health problems but it can also cause variety of emotional problems.  Their being obese can lower their self-esteem.  So do not make them feel bad more about themselves, they had enough from school instead just need to help them by developing healthy eating and exercise habits, and lots and lots of moral support.

You should be aware avoiding making their weight as an issue, if you will encourage him to focus on his weight tendency is that their self-esteem will suffer more rather it is best to show them how maintaining a healthy weight will lead to extra energy and fewer health problems.

Express your unconditional love. Remember to make them fell loved no matter what.  Overweight children need support, acceptance, and encouragement from their parents.


This is probably the most important and maybe the best solution.  Be a good role model. Parents are responsible for putting healthy foods in the kitchen at home, as well as leaving unhealthy foods on the grocery store shelves.  You cannot really blame the kids because you maybe is the problem.  Practice what you preach!  After all you are the one responsible of what food to put in the table.


Do not set food as rewards and put realistic goals.  It is also better if you will spend time together exercising, in this way he will be more excited to do it because he is with you.  Make them feel that you are together with this.

Warning! Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to your Health!

Article from the Springhill Group

Did you know that the leading cause of premature death in the United States is no other than cigarettes?  A preventable death but it claims almost half a million lives each year.  To the extent that the government required larger and more prominent warnings on cigarette packaging and advertisements as part of the strategy to help consumers quit smoking and prevent young people from starting.  But despite of this it seems like tobacco users are not conscious about it.

The effects of cigarette smoking to human health are really serious and in fact deadly.  There are approximately 4000 chemicals that are present in the chemical composition of cigarette and hundreds of which are toxic.

 Smoking effects on the human body are destructive and widespread.  The ingredients in cigarette affect everything from the internal functioning of the organs and target the efficiency of the body’s immune system.  Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Here are some facts cigarette smoking can cause you.  Toxic ingredients in cigarette smoke travel throughout the body, causing damage in several different ways.    Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing affected cells from carrying a full load of oxygen.  Cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) in tobacco smoke damage important genes that control the growth of cells, causing them to grow abnormally or to reproduce too rapidly.  The carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene binds to cells in the airways and major organs of smokers.  Smoking affects the function of the immune system and may increase the risk for respiratory and other infections.  There are several likely ways that cigarette smoke does its damage.  One is oxidative stress that mutates DNA, promotes atherosclerosis, and leads to chronic lung injury.  Oxidative stress is thought to be the general mechanism behind the aging process, contributing to the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and COPD.  The body produces antioxidants to help repair damaged cells.  Smokers have lower levels of antioxidants in their blood than do nonsmokers.  Smoking is associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation, another damaging process that may result in oxidative stress.  Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled.  It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.

Due to these facts, it is now known that cigarette smoking is deadly.  An estimated 443, 000 deaths, or nearly one of every five years, each year has been noted in United States alone.   It is more than the deaths caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.   Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.  An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

This is very bothering.  That is just some of the diseases that one can get from cigarette smoking.  Smoking can also increased heart heath risks, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer not to mention infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

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