REPORTING POINT 3-06
HEALTH NEWS
“Live healthy...live well”
Dedicated to providing pertinent information on health, fitness, and nutrition to foster a culture of wellness among Southwest Airlines flight crews and their families.
by Larry Kline
SWAPA Voice Mailbox 4337/email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net
Past issues of “Health News” are available at http://health.theballfamily.org. It includes a search engine, just enter a key word to find past articles. LK
SLEEP MORE, WEIGH LESS – research shows that not getting enough sleep can increase the appetite and slow down the body’s metabolism, causing weight gain. Sleep deprivation appears to increase your production of cortisol, a hormone that helps regulate the appetite. Insufficient sleep may also interfere with the body’s ability to burn off carbohydrates causing spikes in the blood-sugar level and putting the body into fat-storage mode. You need seven to eight hours a night. Men’s Health 4/03.
HOSPITAL ROULETTE – each year, as many as 100,000 people die in U.S. hospitals due to medical errors. These errors include anything from nurses giving the wrong medication to doctors operating on the wrong organ. Additionally, nearly two million people pick up infections in hospitals every year and 90,000 die of these infections.
Pennsylvania recently became the first state to publicly report the toll hospital infections take, saying that more than 11,600 patients got infections while in hospitals in 2004. Those hospital infections led to an additional 1,500 deaths, many may have been caused simply by staff failing to wash their hands.
Many consumer groups, including Consumers Union, feel reporting hospitals’ infection rates will spur hospitals to improve efforts to prevent infections. Medicare includes information about surgical infections on its Hospital Compare website.
The Pennsylvania report showed infections struck 7.5 patients per 1,000 and likely underestimates the true number because not all the state’s 173 hospitals reported data. .
CHOOSING A HOSPITAL
From September through May, teaching hospitals offer some of the best medical care available. Teaching hospitals typically employ leading researchers who have developed and use the latest advances in medicine and technology. These teaching hospitals are also staffed with medical students, interns, and residents. Every June, when the academic year begins, they all move up a notch in the hospital hierarchy – that is when they are going to be in a new position and learning new things and basically training on the patient – a new “lance” physician. So while you should start your search with a list of the local teaching hospitals (see www.aamc.org), do not schedule surgery at one of them during the summer months.
NURSE STAFFING
The more nurses, the better. In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that nursing shortages were directly associated with medical errors and deaths. The reason is that overworked and rushed nurses are more likely to make mistakes. For every additional patient the average nurse has to care for, that hospital’s mortality rate rises. Go to the American Nurses Credentialing Center at www.nursingworld.org.ancc and click on “Magnet recognition” for a list of hospitals that meet standards for both quantity and quality of nurses.
QUALITY CONTROL
To find out how a hospital treats or mistreats its patients before you actually become one, log on to www.jcaho.org and use the “quality check” to search hospitals. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) rates hospitals. If a hospital passes JCAHO’s accreditation, it means that hospital is working toward protecting the patient – those with the highest scores have the lowest rates of medication errors and hospital-acquired infections.
THE EMERGENCY ROOM
If you experience an emergency during regular working hours, have someone call your primary-care physician to contact the E.R.
The fabric –upholstered chairs in the waiting room can harbor many bacteria and viruses from previous patients. These chairs cannot be cleaned and wiped off so they have been exposed to urine, vomit, and lice. Try standing or if sitting, seek out a vinyl chair, which has a better chance of being cleaned occasionally.
Once you get to see the attending E.R. physician, call attention to every symptom you are experiencing, even if it is something that is seemingly minor., like sweating. Heavy perspiration is actually a heart-attack symptom that many people don’t think to mention, and telling someone about it can cut down on the E.R. waiting time. Even feeling anxiety will shorten your waiting time as it can be a preliminary sign of a cardiac problem.
Tend to suffer in silence? Reconsider, as all JCAHO accredited hospitals require E.R. nurses to ask patients to rate their pain levels. A person with severe pain would be treated more quickly, as the pain could be a symptom of an emergency in the making.
While the sheets on an E.R. gurney are changed after every patient, the mattress is there to stay. Combine that with the fact that some nurses use mattresses as pincushions to hold their used hypodermics. Because of the body heat of patients on the beds, these mattresses are a great medium for growing bacteria. Request a couple extra sheets to put an additional barrier between you and the mattress.
Anytime a nurse or physician’s assistant comes to start an IV, change a bandage, or check sutures, the nurse or P.A. should be wearing gloves – new gloves. Ask the attending professional to don a new pair of gloves before touching you. Also, for anything more severe than stitches or a sprain, ask to see the attending physician
In an E.R., some drugs (such as local anesthetics) come in vials that are intended for multiple doses – on different patients. The vial is labeled as either multiuse or disposable. With multiuse vials, the protocol is for the rubber seal on the vial to be swabbed with alcohol between uses, but some workers occasionally forget. Serious blood-borne illnesses, such as HIV, could be passed to the patient.
PREPARING FOR SCHEDULED SURGERY
One week before scheduled surgery, begin drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water every day. People tend to shy away from fluids because they are sick and in pain and their thirst center is “off.” But if you are dehydrated, surgery can cause blood-pressure complications and make one more susceptible to infections and shock.
Cease taking herbal supplements prior to scheduled surgery as many herbal supplements can cause surgical complications such as slower wound healing, medication interactions, lower blood pressure, and an increased risk of prolonged bleeding.
AVOIDING INFECTIONS
Avoid being handled by anyone with artificial fingernails as the artificial nails can harbor up to 44 percent more bacteria than those without artificial nails.
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that a doctor’s stethoscope can transit infectious microorganisms. Ask if it can be cleaned with an alcohol-based gel.
Don’t touch yourself anywhere you have stitches or have an IV running into your body. Many hospital-acquired infections are from organisms that are already on the patient’s body. Since you may forget or touch your incision while you are sleeping, rub your hands with antibacterial hand gel several times a day and before going to sleep.
SURVIVING THE HOSPITAL ROOM
According to the Centers for Disease Control, urinary-tract infections account for up to 40 percent of all hospital-acquired infections. Contaminated catheters cause a great majority of these infections. Nurses may put a catheter on a patient’s sheet while prepping the person’s body. Even though the body site is sterile, the catheter would then be contaminated. Ask for a condom catheter which is a tube that goes over the penis, rather than being inserted.
Question everything. When there are two people in a room, nurses can get patients mixed up, especially if they have not met the patient before. Simply saying, “Remind me what the medicine is and what it is for” works because it is nonconfrontational.
The body temperature drops during the first hour of anesthesia, which in turn limits the flow of oxygen to the surgical site and increases the chance of infection. One study in Lancet showed that patients with lower body temperatures had three times more surgical-site infections than those who went under the knife warm. Two hours before surgery, cover up with blankets or turn up the room temperature slightly.
Once you are fully conscious and have your physician’s ok, get out of bed and move around – even if you’d rather rest. When you are lying down for long periods, mucus collects in the lungs. If it builds up, the lungs won’t be able to expand fully, which will increase the chance of pneumonia. One of the biggest causes of infection is not getting enough movement in the lungs.
Your main strategy is to:
1. Wash your hands
2 Use antibacterial soap
3 With your physician’s permission, start a course of antibiotics prior to surgery
4 Don’t shave (shaving causes small cuts that can harbor bacteria and viruses – let the hospital staff shave you 30 minutes prior to surgery to minimize infection risk.)
5 Keep warm prior to surgery
6 Be sure the physician’s stethoscope is clean
7 Avoid a catheter if possible. Men’s Health 10/03, USA Today 7/13/05.
CLEAR-SKIN DIET – greasy foods and chocolates have long had a reputation for causing acne, but according to research from Colorado State University, highly refined breads and cereals are a primary trigger of pimples. When you eat highly refined carbohydrates, the blood sugar spikes, increasing the body’s production of pore-clogging hormones. In parts of the world where people don’t eat refined carbohydrates, acne is almost nonexistent, so the evidence against refined carbs is pretty compelling. Even as an adult, limiting the amount of pizza, bread, and soda in the diet can reduce the chances of an occasional outbreak. Men’s Health 4/03.
VITAMIN E FOR YOUR EAR? – new research from Israel shows that vitamin E may help prevent and even reverse hearing loss. Researchers treated test subjects suffering from sudden hearing loss with either bed rest and steroid shots, or rest, shots, and 400 milligrams of vitamin E twice daily. Most of those who supplemented with E recovered 75 percent or more of their hearing, compared with just half of the people who received the standard treatment. The scientists believe that the vitamin may help repair oxidative damage that loud noises inflict on the delicate structures of the inner ear. Men’s Health 1/05.
JUST ONCE A MONTH – you are 43 percent less likely to have a stroke if you eat a single serving of fish just once a month. Journal of the American Medical Association.
IT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH- you don’t have to become a vegan to benefit from eating vegetarian foods. According to a Canadian study, adding just a few vegetarian foods to the diet could significantly lower cholesterol levels. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto had test subjects add several servings of foods like whole grains, nuts, beans, and tofu to their diets each day. One month later, the LDL (bad) cholesterol levels were nearly 30percent lower than when the trial began. The study’s author believes that changing your diet can be just as effective as taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. Men’s Health 4/03.
“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” Satchel Paige.
“You can be about as old as you choose to be.” Steve Spurrier
FISH = BRAIN FOOD – eating fish at least once a week is good for the brain, slowing age-related mental decline by the equivalent of three to four years. Recent research, published in Archives of Neurology, adds to growing evidence that a fish-rich diet helps keep the mind sharp. Previous studies found that people who ate fish lowered their risk of Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. For the study, researchers measured how well test subjects did on simple tests, such as recalling details of a story. The participants, all 65 or older, took the tests three times over six years and filled out a questionnaire about what they ate. Those who ate one fish meal a week had a 10 percent slower decline in thinking than a control group; those eating two fish meals a week showed a 13 percent slower decline.
TRUE BLUE – half of all the Viagra available on the internet could be fake, according t research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference. Viagra’s manufacturer, Pfizer, advise buying online only from pharmacies that require a doctor’s prescription, are certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and list a U.S. address. Also be suspicious of low prices as real Viagra costs $8 - $12 per pill. Men’s Health 1/05.
From the Flight Surgeon:
"A Letter to My Southwest Airlines Family Members"
by Joe Battersby, D.O.
FAA Medical Examiner
(note – Joe wrote this letter to thank the pilots for their generous gifts to Margaret, Mary Jane, and him. – LK)
(Mary Jane and Joe in their new SWA leather jackets)
