September 6th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Tips, True Stories
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Today an elderly physician friend of mine woke up with some very mild abdominal pain. He is a stoic man, and never complains about anything – not even the pain associated with a dislocated/shattered hip and multiple bone fractures from a car accident (he was very nonchalant about that event 2 years ago).
So when I heard that he was going to see a doctor about his belly pain – I knew that something serious was afoot. His doctor ordered an abdominal x-ray series, noted a tumor, and sent him to the O.R. within the hour.
In the O.R. the surgeons found a perforated colon (it must have ruptured minutes to an hour or two prior) without signs of peritonitis. There was a cancerous mass (without metastases) that they were able to remove completely. They washed his peritoneal cavity extensively to remove all fecal matter and potential cancer cells and transferred him to the ICU for observation overnight and IV antibiotics.
So far it seems that my friend will make a full recovery – and there is no evidence of remaining cancer, though we’ll need to be vigilant with follow up.
I can’t get over how lucky he was to have discovered the perforated colon within hours of it occurring, that the surgeons took care of him immediately, and that the cancer seems to have been contained and removed. I don’t know if his “luck” was partially due to his physician’s intuition about his own body, professional courtesy extended to him by peers, or that the Canadian healthcare system is not as burdened in his part of the country (Nova Scotia) as it is in others where there may be longer wait times.
All I can say is that my friend is one lucky Canadian!
September 5th, 2009 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
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A recent research report by Professor Robert Murray (University of Manitoba) and colleagues examined whether nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) may cause cancer. The report was published in the September edition of the journal, “Nicotine and Tobacco Research”, and was based on analysis of the Lung Health Study.
The Lung Health Study recruited 5887 smokers starting November 1986, and 3923 of them were randomly selected to receive an intensive, state-of-the-art stop smoking treatment (group therapy plus nicotine gum). The participants in the original study were followed for 5 years, and 3320 were included in a longer study focusing on lung cancer for another 7.5 years.
The study presents one of the best opportunities of measuring the known exposure to either smoking, or NRT, or both over a 5 year period, as this information was accurately recorded throughout the study.
The study found that 75 participants were diagnosed with lung cancer and 203 with cancer of any type during the follow-up period. Those with the largest cigarette smoke exposure during the study were significantly more likely to suffer lung cancer, but those who used a large amount of nicotine gum were not at any greater risk of suffering from lung cancer or any other cancer examined in the study.
Even though most of the participants were relatively young at enrollment (just under 50) and so had relatively low risk over the immediately following years, around 3.2% of the heaviest smokers developed lung cancer, as opposed to half that proportion in those smoking less. But the amount of use of NRT during the study was not associated with getting cancer.
The results of this study are consistent with the vast majority of human studies, in that they do not find any convincing evidence to suggest that NRT causes cancer.
Murray RP, Connett JE, Zapawa LM. Does nicotine replacement therapy causecancer? Evidence from the Lung Health Study. Nicotine Tob Res. 2009 Sep;11(9):1076-82. Epub 2009 Jul 1.
This post, Does Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) Cause Cancer?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
September 5th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in News
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The Boulder County coroner announced today that the July death of a Boulder teen was indeed due to opioid intoxication from preparation of a poppy pod tea.
Jeffrey Joseph Bohan, 19, of Boulder, was found dead in his friend’s Boulder home about 6 p.m. July 21 after drinking poppy-pod tea the night before with his brother, according to Boulder police.
Investigators suspected the Fairview High graduate, who was going to Colorado State University, died from the psychoactive tea, which is brewed from the plant that produces opium. But they couldn’t be sure until the Coroner’s Office confirmed Monday that Bohan’s cause of death was morphine overdose, and his manner of death was accident.
Here is also coverage from The Boulder Daily Camera.
This marks the second death in Boulder from young adults mixing up decoctions of seeds or pods from the poppy, Papaver somniferum. We reported in March on the death of CU-Boulder student, Alex McGuiggan, in March.
In a subsequent post, we expanded on a commenter’s story of his own efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of poppy seed tea following the death of his own son. Commenter Tom’s site can be viewed at Poppy Seed Tea Can Kill You (http://poppyseedtea.com).
Extracts from poppy pods can contain up to 10% morphine and 1-5% codeine together with several other benzomorphan compounds. Seeds themselves are intrinsically devoid of morphine but the drug can remain on the seeds in reasonable quantities simply from their processing. The Santa Clara County crime laboratory investigating the death of Tom’s son determined that a tea made with the same seeds he used contained 259 µg/mL of morphine.
Depending on the starting material, however, the extract may also contain thebaine, a natural intermediate used for semi-synthetic opioid synthesis that causes intense nausea, vomiting, and even convulsions.
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
September 5th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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When I got accepted into medicine as a last minute add-on due to one of their other applicants turning down the post, I knew how lucky and privileged I was. It was the first step in a very long journey and I wasn’t going to mess it up.
The first year in those days was spent at the main campus and we would only be at the medical campus from second year onwards. Second and third years would be spent on the pre-clinical campus and only from fourth year onwards would we be in close proximity to the big boys. All this I didn’t know when, during first year orientation they bussed us to the medical campus so we could see the preclinical buildings and watch with a fair amount of jealousy when the higher year students walked past. The whole medical training thing was very hierarchical. It didn’t bother me. I had been in a similar system before and had moved up the ladder. I could do it again.
The preclinical campus was a very relaxed place. There were essentially only two buildings (ok, ok there was also the dentistry building but we didn’t go there) with a large grassy lawn between them. There were a few trees providing shade for groups of students lying on the grass and reading or chatting. Our group of first years on orientation clearly didn’t seem to fit in. None-the-less we found a tree to sit under during a short break in the orientation program.
And there I sat in a state close to euphoria with my hopes and my dreams all layed before me. I knew I stood at the beginning of a journey that would lead me to what I one day would be. What I was at that stage was of little significance other than the fact that it was a pointer to what I would become.
I lay under the tree and, as best I could, told my friend who was with me about these thoughts. I then added that I would use the tree as a sort of temporal marker that I could come back to when I was finally what I would be. Then I would stand under the tree and remember that exact moment when I looked into the unknown future with innocent hopes and dreams.
Recently I had the opportunity to go back to the preclinical campus. I remembered that moment so many years ago and was quite eager to stand under that same tree and reflect about the years that had passed and what I had become. On that day, so long ago, I would never have guessed that I would have gone on after medicine to specialise in surgery, so I actually achieved more than I dared dream. I was really looking forward to a moment that would link one specific moment in the past with the present.
The campus was just as I remembered it. The lawn was still there and there were still students sitting in small groups. they just looked so much younger than I remember being. Then Iwent towards the far side of the lawn to have my moment under the tree.
They had cut the tree down! It was gone. Everything else was exactly the same except my tree. Is there nothing sacred?
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
September 4th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Uncategorized
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Michael Kilbourne and colleagues recently published an article entitled “Hemostatic Efficacy of Modified Amylopectin Powder in a Lethal Porcine Model of Extremity Arterial Injury”( Annals of Emergency Medicine 2009;53:804-810). The purpose of the study described in this article was to investigate the blood-stopping ability of a modified amylopectin powder in an animal (pig) model of severe limb bleeding created by an injury to the femoral artery.
Following creation of the injury, animals were treated either with regular gauze with manual compression or with specially modified amylopectin powder and manual compression. Some of the endpoints measured in the study were total blood loss, survival, and time to bleeding cessation.
Post-treatment blood loss in the amylopectin powder-treated group was much less (approximately 0.275 liter) than in the gauze group (approximately 1.3 liters). Bleeding was stopped in approximately 9 minutes in the amylopectin group, and never stopped in the gauze group. 100% of the amylopectin animals survived, and none of the gauze animals survived.
While this study was directed to improve care for victims of major trauma (including wartime situations), the applicability to situations in the outdoors is direct. Many blood-stopping bandages have come to the civilian market, and they are quite useful. I carry them with me whenever I’m going into the wilderness, and often when I cover athletic events as the team doctor. They’re useful for nosebleeds and cuts, not just for severe injuries. Some of the product names include HemCon Bandage, QuickClot, BleedArrest, QR, Celox, and BloodStop. There will undoubtedly be improvements in these products, in particular the delivery systems, be they bandages or powders.
image courtesy of www.instructables.com
This post, Amylopectin Powder’s Amazing Ability Top Stop Hemorrhaging Fast, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
