Antibiotics for a Cold Should be Better Controlled

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A close acquaintance that went to a Doc with clear symptoms of a common cold got treated with antibiotics recently which prompted this missive. They had taken the antibiotics for four days without any relief. SURPRISE! SURPRISE! In one huge recent study, of almost 200,000 patients with colds, about half were given unnecessary antibiotics.

The cost of the appointment and antibiotics were certainly a waste! Antibiotics can control bacteria and yeasts, not viruses. The reasons for not prescribing are much more important than money. The dreaded bacterial resistance to antibiotics results from overprescribing because bacteria in our bodies adapt by becoming resistant and when these outlaw bugs do cause infections they do not respond to the normal medicines. This can allow people with resistant strains to infect others in hospitals and even doctor’s offices with potentially fatal bugs.

Blood Clots – Don’t Avoid the Symptoms

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I was asked by a friend to explain how an acquaintance had died suddenly from a blood clot. This is overwhelmingly due to blood clots in veins below the waist forming a clot which breaks loose and lodges in the lungs. The name is venous thromboembolism (venous thrombo=clotting, embolism=traveling). It is an important and deadly condition.

The number of people having clots form in their legs is estimated at 900,000 per year and the pulmonary embolism results in estimates of up to 100,000 deaths yearly. The causes were described by one of the most famous physicians of the 19th century; he was Rudolph Virchow (1821 to 1902), a German pathologist. He described the three predisposing factors: Slowed circulation, increased clotting…

The Ballyhoo About the Flu is True: Just Don’t Let the Flu Get You

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Flu is the nickname for the illness caused by the too often times deadly influenza virus. The Flu is often considered to be just another “cold” and is dismissed as inevitable.  And since one has recovered completely so many times from colds it seems just another nuisance. However, last year 80,000 Americans died because of those microscopic guys, not to mention the severe illnesses they cause. And about 80% of these deaths are in the elderly. The death toll is not accurate because Flu may not appear on the death certificate.

The best defense against the flu clearly is to get vaccinated, yearly…