Dr. Phil- The Superbug Scare- MRSA- Staphylococcus-Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

The Superbug Scare

Could a grave danger be lurking in your home? If you believe the headlines, you know that catching MRSA, also known as the Superbug, can have deadly consequences, but should you be concerned? How can you spot the danger and what can you do to stay safe? Dr. Phil gets to the bottom of these questions and others.

Fatal Infection
Melissa's son, Mark, was just 13 when he went to the hospital and wound up with MRSA. Learn about Melissa’s tragic loss and why she thinks her son’s death could have been prevented.


"He was cheated out of his chance to survive."

________________________________________

Living with a Potential Killer
Nineteen-year-old Stephanie has been battling the Superbug for almost a year. Get a firsthand account of her experience with the disease. Why has she survived?


Find out what advice her doctor gave her that has Dr. Phil shocked and concerned.

Tags: Dr. Phil, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, Staphylococcus aureus, Superbug, cauliflower ear, dead at 17, www.survival international.org, jeremy bentham lost, iceland earthquake, comcast.net, gina carano, malignant, malignant brain tumor, quantum wellness, malignant glioma, elite xc

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Eat to Lose By Selene Yeager, Prevention Magazine

By Selene Yeager, Prevention
The Prevention Reshape Your Body plan incorporates easy food strategies you can follow for life. "Women succeed at weight loss when they get a handle on their portions and eat in a balanced way," says nutritionist Lisa Young, PhD, RD, who dished out the dietary advice for our program. Her three key tips:

1. Get your protein:

Research shows that protein-rich foods such as fish, chicken, low-fat dairy, and lean meats can increase satiety, meaning they help you feel full longer. "Eat them with every meal, especially breakfast, to curb the urge to snack all day long," says Young.Eat early.

2. Have breakfast, even if it's simply oatmeal or a hard-boiled egg. It jump-starts your metabolism and prevents late-day bingeing. Studies have found that dieters are most successful when they start their day with a meal.

3. Get a "hand-le" on portions. "Most of us eat too much—period. To lose weight, you have to eat proper portions," says Young.

Use your hand to measure,
How to measure:


Meat, fish, poultry
3 ounces = palm of hand


Mixed nuts
1/4 cup = 1 layer on palm


Cereal/popcorn
1 cup = 2 cupped hands


Cooked pasta
1/2 cup = 1 rounded handful


Cheese
1 ounce = 1 thumb


Butter/oil
1/2 teaspoon = 1 fingertip

Acne drug linked to depression By Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Use of isotretinoin, the active ingredient in the acne drug Accutane, apparently more than doubles the risk of depression, according to results of a study.

Still, the absolute risk is probably very small, the researchers emphasize.
The study is the first controlled investigation to find a statistically significant link between isotretinoin and depression, Dr. Anick Berard, from CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre in Montreal, and colleagues point out in a report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

"Depression is likely to be a rare side effect of isotretinoin therapy," they wrote. Nonetheless, "current guidelines should possibly be modified to include psychiatric assessments of patients prior to and during isotretinoin therapy."

Berard's team studied 30,496 people from Quebec, Canada, who received at least one isotretinoin prescription from 1984 through 2003. During the study period, 126 of these individuals had a depression-related diagnosis, hospitalization, or treatment.

Based on previous research, the researchers focused on isotretinoin use in the 5 months prior to depression diagnosis (risk period) compared with a 5-month period a year before the diagnosis (control period).

After accounting for potential factors that might influence the results, exposure to isotretinoin was associated with a greater than 2.6-fold relative risk of depression, the team found.
"Because depression could have serious consequences, close monitoring of isotretinoin users is indicated," Berard and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, April 2008.

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Sleep Apnea: A (Not-So-Silent) Killer By Howard Levy, M.D.

Two of the most common complaints I hear from patients are insomnia and fatigue. It should be no surprise that poor sleep causes fatigue. But often such sufferers turn out to have a much more serious condition: sleep apnea.

The word "apnea" literally means "not breathing." People with sleep apnea actually stop breathing for periods of time during sleep. As their oxygen levels fall and carbon dioxide levels rise, their brain eventually becomes aroused enough to wake them up, and they start breathing again. The cycle repeats over and over again throughout the night, resulting in constant interruptions in sleep and feeling tired all day long.

This is actually a life-threatening condition. The most immediate risk is falling asleep while driving or doing something else that requires sharp mental attention.(Get Sharp Mental Attention Naturally- Click Here) Sleep apnea also raises blood pressure throughout the body and in the lungs. Over time, that causes thickening of the lung tissues and permanent lung disease. The elevated blood pressure is also a risk factor for multiple other health problems, including heart attack, congestive heart failure, stroke, and kidney disease.


The most common cause of sleep apnea is being overweight (Find out more about weight loss- Click Here). Alcohol and sedating medications (both over-the-counter and prescription) also contribute to sleep apnea. Sometimes the cause is a neurological condition.


Here are some of the warning signs of sleep apnea:

Snoring. Many, but not all people who snore have sleep apnea.

Pauses in breathing. Ask someone with whom you share a bedroom, or record yourself sleeping.
Pauses often last 2-10 seconds, but they can be even longer.

Frequent awakening. Do you startle yourself awake in the middle of the night, perhaps gasping for air? It may seem like you snored so loudly you woke yourself up, but it's really due to that pause in your breathing.

Unrefreshing sleep. People with sleep apnea still feel tired in the morning because they didn't get much sleep overnight.

Daytime sleepiness. If you're so tired during the day that you nearly fall asleep while driving or doing other things that require concentration, sleep apnea is a likely cause.

Headaches. The low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels overnight, combined with inadequate sleep, can cause severe headaches, especially first thing in the morning.

If any of these symptoms describe you, I urge you to see your doctor. You might need an overnight sleep study, in which you spend a night in a monitored room where your breathing, heart activity, and brain waves are recorded. If you do have sleep apnea, there are ways to treat it, and you'll feel better and live longer once it's under control.



Find out about a natural way to get your sleep apnea under control- Click Here

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Oral Care and Your Heart: What's the Connection? By Howard Levy, M.D.

I admit it. I don't floss every day. I used to not floss at all, and gave typical excuses for this lapse - it hurt my gums, it hurt my fingers, it was inconvenient, and it took too long.


My dental hygienist kept bugging me about it though, so now I try to floss at least twice a week. Now that I've mastered the flossing technique, my gums don't bleed every time I brush my teeth, and the pockets between my teeth and gums have become a little smaller than they used to be.


Truthfully, I wasn't originally convinced that flossing was that important - after all, what's a little gum irritation going to do to me? However, there is evidence that gum disease and periodontitis could have effects beyond our mouths.


Most people have heard by now that periodontitis is associated with an increased risk of heart attack. This risk isn't nearly as high as with diabetes, smoking, hypertension, and high cholesterol. But it is probably at least as elevated as that linked to long-term use of Bextra® and Vioxx® (pain drugs that were removed from the market in large part because they were associated with a small increase in heart attack risk).


The evidence also suggests that periodontitis might contribute to pregnancy complications. Some studies show an increased risk of premature birth and low weight for babies born to others with periodontitis. Other studies did not find any such risk, so we don't yet know for sure if this is a true association.


There is a logical explanation for why heart attacks and pregnancy complications could be related to periodontal disease. Blood tests in people with periodontitis show increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance that has gotten a lot of attention in recent years as a possible predictor of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and a variety of other serious health problems.


The common feature in all of these conditions is the presence of inflammation, which is actually all that an elevated CRP level tells us. We know that inflammation is a major factor in periodontitis, and that inflammation is also important in both heart disease and preterm births of low-weight babies.


What we don't know is whether the possible association between periodontitis and heart disease or pregnancy complications is because of a direct effect of the inflammation in the mouth or of some other as yet unknown problem present in all three conditions.


So the jury is still out on whether preventing or treating periodontitis does anything to reduce your risk of heart attack or improve your chances of delivering a healthy baby after a full-term pregnancy.


I don't know if regular flossing is really doing me any good outside of making my mouth healthier. But it definitely improves my chances of keeping my own teeth into old age. Now that I'm used to it, it doesn't hurt and doesn't really take that much extra time. And I just might live a few extra years as a result, meaning that my teeth have to last even longer!

Which Eggs Should You Be Eating? By Alexandra Guarnaschelli from Yahoo.com

As a kid, I can remember going to the supermarket and grabbing any random cardboard carton of eggs off the shelf. I would run them home (top speed!) to my mother because they were usually going into a delicious coffeecake or batch of corn bread.

Times have changed. Cage-free? Organic? Brown? White? Omega-3s? Help! Here are some tips to help you figure out which eggs you should be eating:

Brown or white? In actuality, color is simply an indication of the breed of hen. Find the freshest egg with the most flavor and let color be a secondary concern.

Extra Omega-3s? Omega-3 eggs come from a hen whose diet has added flaxseed, which yields an egg containing an average of 225 mg of Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E. The countless health benefits for humans make these eggs a tempting purchase. My opinion? Eat a piece of fresh fish -- salmon or sardines or Atlantic mackerel, for example -- and get a pure dose of
Omega-3's. Let eggs be eggs.


Does your egg need exercise? Cage-free and free-range eggs are from hens raised without the confines of a cage, though they may or may not have spent much time outdoors. Organic eggs are from hens that are raised with the most holistic approach: their feed must meet organic standards, they must be raised humanely and sustainably, and they must be given access to the outdoors. Hey, happier hens do lay tastier eggs.


Does local make a difference? Nothing is better than local eggs. They may have a feather or two stuck to them or a slightly imperfect shape and they may or may not be certified organic; however, they have one quality I prize: I know exactly where my food came from and how it came to be! In some cases I can even ask the farmer when the eggs were laid and what they were fed. At $2.20 for a dozen large eggs and all the information I could want about my food, I call it a bargain! I refrigerate the eggs the minute I return from the market.


Is spending more really worth it? I think so. Some parts of your diet are hard to manage on a budget. Beef, for example, can make a costly difference if you're looking to go organic at home.

Eggs are less significant. Try making one evening meal a week where your organic eggs take center stage. Make a huge open-faced vegetable omelet, for example, or try a quick chicken stir-fry and fold in a few eggs during the last two minutes of cooking.

Gut superbug causing more illnesses, deaths By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

The Photo to the left is an actual photo of a magnified image of Clostridium bacteria. Health experts fear infections with a deadly, drug-resistant strain of the bacteria may continue to rise.

-ATLANTA - The number of people hospitalized with a dangerous intestinal superbug has been growing by more than 10,000 cases a year, according to a new study.
The germ, resistant to some antibiotics, has become a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes. The study found it played a role in nearly 300,000 hospitalizations in 2005, more than double the number in 2000.

The infection, Clostridium difficile, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It is spread by spores in feces. But the spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or antibacterial soap.
C-diff, as it's known, has grown resistant to certain antibiotics that work against other colon bacteria. The result: When patients take those antibiotics, competing bacteria die off and C-diff explodes.


This virulent strain of C-diff was rarely seen before 2000.
"The nature of this infection is changing. It's more severe," said Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert who was not part of the study.


There are other factors that play into the rise of C-diff cases as well, including a larger of number of patients who are older and sicker. "And there may be some overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics," said Dr. Marya Zilberberg, a University of Massachusetts researcher and lead author of the study.


The Zilberberg study was based on a sample of more than 36 million annual discharges from non-governmental U.S. hospitals. That data was used to generate the study's national estimates.
The research is being published in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a CDC publication.


Using other scientists' estimates, the study concluded that 2.3 percent of the cases in 2004 were fatal — about 5,500 deaths. That was nearly double the percentage of C-diff-related cases that ended in death in 2000.


Many of the people who died had other health problems. The study did not try to determine if Clostridium difficile was the main cause of death in each case, Zilberberg said.
But earlier research concluded the infection is the underlying cause of thousands of deaths annually, and the problem is getting worse.
C-diff has become an acute health concern in Canada, where it was blamed for 260 deaths at seven Ontario hospitals recently, and 2,000 deaths in Quebec since 2002.


The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology is currently working with U.S. hospitals to study prevalence of the infection and what infection control measures seem to work best.


"This is not a time for alarm, but more a time for educating health professionals to understand this particular pathogen," said Kathy Warye, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based association.