Danger Ahead

There have been some disturbing developments with antibiotic resistant bacteria.

A woman died in Nevada in September of this year....and they tried 26! different antibiotics, with no success, to save her.  Virtually every single thing we have on the shelf.

There's another strain of bacteria that only respond to colistin...an antibiotic that destroys your kidneys.

When dealing with antibiotics, please, please, please follow these tips:

• Don't take antibiotics for viral infections.  They don't help.  Antibiotics only work on bacteria.  Your doctor won't, generally, prescribe antibiotics for viral infections, but if you demand a pill, they might go ahead and rip off a prescription to shut you up.  Don't do it.

 

• When you take an antibiotic, take them all.  Even if your symptoms all disappear, you need to finish the whole course and be sure that all the bacteria hiding in you gets killed.

 

• If your body disagrees with antibiotics...stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, etc. then try looking here for advice from the Cleveland Clinic.

 

Stay healthy, my friends!

Volunteers!

We are truly fortunate to welcome three new individuals to our volunteer service....Thomas, Rachel and Zach have all signed on in the last few months.

But we can always use more.  Emergency Services all over the county, and particularly small volunteer outfits like ours, are struggling to keep up with the coverage.

At its worst, when you call 911, there's simply no one to help you...like this area of Connecticut, where 26% of their calls went unanswered!

Happily, one way or the other, that hasn't happened to us, but we're not so flush that we can't use more folks to help.  


And it doesn't take a huge commitment....as little as a few hours a month.  Sign on as a driver and, if you like it and want to do more, we'll provide EMT classes.  

The easiest way to get started is to simply ride along with us a couple times.  If you don't like it, then no harm, no foul...just walk away with our thanks for taking a look.

But if you DO like it, there's a whole new world just waiting for you.  

For your New Years resolution, please consider volunteering with Southern Jasper County Ambulance Service.  Its good for you, its good for your community.

We can be reached by simply emailing SJCAS101@gmail.com.

Good luck and I hope to see you soon!

Sleep - how to!

As we discussed in the last post, a good night's sleep can be critical for your physical and mental health.

But be careful.  This article from NPR talks about the dangers of using commonly prescribed sleep medication.  That stuff isn't good for you!  You don't need it.

Here's some advice from lifehacker on how to get better sleep without that stuff.  Just simple lifestyle changes.

And if you can't sleep longer, maybe you can sleep better.  Ninety minute increments is one key.

If you can't swing seven or so hours a night, you might get some of the same benefits with power napping.  Although its uncertain if that lends as much to your health as a good night's sleep.

If you're technologically oriented, there are other resources for drug-free sleep at night and power naps.  One that I like (and use) is pzizz.  A really interesting (free!) app for ios or android.  And no, I'm not a paid sponsor...I just find it handy.

So use the links above.  Get some rest.  You deserve it.

Sleep - What you don't know can hurt you

Sleep.  

You need it.  


Your brain needs it.

According to the CDC, insufficient sleep is both a public health crisis and an "epidemic" in America.  Whether its stress, lifestyle or simply trying to keep up with the job and home, we don't get enough sleep and that's bad for our brains.


When we sleep, the brain is "detoxified".  The beta-amyloids associated with Alzheimer's are decreased.

Additionally, lack of quality sleep, whether from apnea, insomnia or simply lifestyle, increases stroke risk.

It's been suggested that one of the single most important things you can do for your health is to get a nightly dose of good, quality sleep.

Try it!

Indiana ranks 45th in the country for Mental Health

Not good....you can read about it here.

But, from the article, "Both Flora and Courtney say there’s a stigma around mental illness in Indiana, but communities are slowly starting to treat the problem as a health issue — as opposed to a moral one."

So that's encouraging.

Free CPR class for the community

30 June 2016

18:00 Eastern

(6 p.m.)

Southern Jasper County Ambulance Service is hosting a free 'HeartSaver' CPR class for the community.

Come to the ambulance station and join us.

You'll be glad you did!





If you have questions, please feel free to contact us via sjcas101@gmail.com
 

Hope.

Its a long, long way away, but there's some hope on the Alzheimer's front.


This article from Nova Next explains a recent article published in Nature on using light to stimulate the recovery of memories in mice.

Yes, recovering the memories of mice is a long way from dealing with Alzheimer's in people, but these mice develop the same amyloid protein clusters, or plaques, that are indicative of the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

And, in a disease this devastating, this cruel, any news is good news.

How to: survive your first heart attack

This is important stuff, right?

AARP (of which I'm a dues paying and proud member!) recently posted an outstanding article on surviving your first heart attack.



It's reasonably short.

It's written in plain english.

And it's well worth your time. 



Find it here: http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2016/heart-attack-hospital-er.html

No, really.  Go do it.  Do it now.

Technology...

When we think about technology and EMS, we often think of what goes on in the back of the ambulance.

But, as this article points out, there are some very interesting developments related to actually finding patients.  

 A new company, RapidSOS, is also engaged in developing a robust set of protocols that, when you signal for 911 service from your cell phone, will try to get the location to 911 dispatch using gps, text, cell networks, 4g, whatever type of connection they can make.

Very exciting tech that isn't about what happens after the ambulance finds you...its all about the "finding you" part.

Sometimes you win!

Kudos to SCCAD, St Charles County Ambulance District, in Missouri.

In one shift, implementing CCR protocols, they revived TWO patients.

TWO!

read about it here or here.

Even one revival under CPR/CCR is a huge win...but two?  Back to back?  In a single shift?

Wow.

When it hits you, you feel no pain

 Ah, my friends, how many times have we talked about music?

Its good for you.

Its even better when you're playing it...and yes, singing in the shower counts!

Here's a study where they took blood tests before and after musical performances.  They found actual changes in genes that support neural growth and flexibility.

So get out that old trumpet from high school.  Dust off that sheet music.  Pump up your brain while having a real good time.

Strong to the finish, baby!

(from my daughter, the nurse nonpareil)  Make sure you get enough magnesium in your diet.  

Apparently, a magnesium deficiency is a challenging thing to identify.  Almost all of the magnesium in your system is in your bones and organs and only trace amounts are in your blood.

And, while it's hard to identify a magnesium deficiency with a simple blood test, there are hundreds of bio-chemical processes that require magnesium to function.  Its estimated that only 25% of the adults actually get the minimum daily requirement for magnesium in their diets.

In the meantime, sodas, coffee, tea, alcohol and sugar all leech magnesium from your system.  I mean, come on!  You don't stand a chance!

Here's a fact sheet worth reading from the NIH.

As always, its best to stay away from supplements.  Your body is designed to properly deal with excess vitamins and minerals when you get them from a food source, but you mess up the machine when you start slamming pills.  

So eat your spinach.  Your white beans, your fish.  

Smart people doing smart things. For you.

Even with Enhanced 9-1-1 service, getting the location to send assistance can be a problem.

Some smart people have been working on the problem and are trying to make it as bulletproof as possible.

RapidSOS is a startup that's trying to make sure that, no matter where you call from, if you have the tiniest bit of signal, they can send the right people to assist.

Here's a short article from the Smithsonian about the effort.

 
While I'm at it, let me plug, once more, medic alert jewelry*.  The faster we can figure out what's wrong with you, the faster we can help.  

Serious underlying medical conditions?  Allergies to foods or medicines?  Those are important things for emergency personnel to know.  Do what you can to help us help you.  And stay safe out there.

 

Health Care

Is there anyone that doesn't believe that health care in our country could use some work?

We have the best medical schools in the world...we educate the entire planet's doctors...but we still pay more than any one else for our health care with poorer outcomes than any other first world nation.

AARP (of which I'm a proud and dues paying member!) had a great article in their recent newsletter about this.  They found some of the most respected people in medicine and asked them each to make one single suggestion they thought would make the most difference.

It's really worth the 15 minutes it'll take you to read it....you can find it here.

If you know what's good for you...

...and it IS good for you.

You don't have to sit funny...you don't have to chant...you don't have to join some strange religion.

Its easy and I promise you'll like it.

This study from  Harvard, called "Eight weeks to a better brain" shows, conclusively, that meditating rebuilds your gray matter in as little as 2 months.

Try it.  You can thank me later.

Here's some links to check out for the beginner:

5 tips for beginners

a beginner's guide

Its easy.  Its free.  It's good for you.  What's not to love?

Vitamin K

While anyone using blood thinners is all too aware of vitamin K and its influence on blood clotting, the general population is a little less informed.

Recent tragedies at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have brought vitamin K and its use for newborns, into the spotlight.

There's no question that newborns simply don't have the intestinal flora to make vitamin K within their own bodies.  At issue is whether the vitamin K shots given routinely after delivery are more dangerous than the bleeding newborns can experience without the ability to clot.

This is a particularly good article weighing the benefits and dangers of vitamin K shots.  Its long, but if you're a new parent or expecting, its well worth your time to read to understand the issues.

Its all about the response time.

There's a maxim in EMS about the "golden hour".  

In general, across a broad spectrum of traumatic (and some medical) issues, EMS has 1 hour from inception until Emergency Room arrival and that every minute after that hour degrades the patient possibility for a positive outcome.  

The concept has been, for the most part, proven to be inaccurate, but it still lingers in EMS training and in EMS methods.  

In Dubai, they're trying to address the issue with 160 mph first responder sports car.

As this article points out, “Overemphasis on response-time interval metrics may lead to unintended, but harmful, consequences (e.g., emergency vehicle crashes) and an undeserved confidence in quality and performance,”  but it's GREAT for PR.

Coffee.

Coffee.  

You need it.  

Well, maybe you don't, but I do!

Here's a fascinating (and short!) article from Scientific American about the evolution of caffeine producing plants...arabica, robusta, tea, chocolate...



So how DO you get your caffeine fix?  Coffee?  Chocolate?  Soda pop (ick)?  Energy drinks (double ick!)?  Tea?

Oh...and did you know that black tea is nothing except oxidized green tea?  Just like rust is oxidized iron....black tea is oxidized green tea.   And Oolong is half oxidized.

Its thought that the practice started because black tea will retain it's flavor much longer, making it suitable as a trade item.

Enjoy!

8. Active social life.

Last, but not least, in our list of 8 things you can do to improve your overall wellness is to lead an active social life.


As this article points out, if stress is the villain of the story, then an active social life is the hero.

An active social life has been shown to delay dementia, Alzheimers and other age related disorders.

Whether volunteering in your community, taking adult ed classes at a school, bowling, bingo, square dancing, joining a writer's or reader's group, it's good for you.

And no, I don't think playing farmville on facebook is quite what the researchers have been looking into...

7. Reduce stress

We've written before about the value of optimism and meditation. 

It's long been known that some stress, acute stress, can be good for you.  

We evolved to run from giant predators.

But chronic stress, long term stress, is terrible for you. It accelerates aging, contributes to dementia and Alzheimer's, increases the severity of cardiovascular disease.

Eliminating chronic stress is one of the most successful methods you can adopt for increasing your overall health.

Exercise, meditation, gratitude practice:  there are a lot of mechanisms to help you deal with stress.  Find one that works for you.