July 2nd, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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New research suggests that people with allergies to molds, pollen, and dust mites but NOT cat dander, may have heightened asthmatic reactions to their usual triggers in the presence of cats. This is unfortunate news for cat owners or anyone who is fond of kitties but has environmental allergens. Researchers note that :
Avoidance of cat exposure would be beneficial to a much wider
population than previously expected. Furthermore, cat allergen levels
were ubiquitous in cat-owning communities, and their results showed
effects of cat allergen exposure at lower levels than generally
regarded necessary to produce a measurable result.
So basically, if you live in a “cat-owning community,” their airborne fluff will probably make your pollen and mold-induced asthma worse. Aside from declining to pet and/or play with them, I doubt that there’s much you can do to completely avoid their dander. But there is some cause for all allergy sufferers to eye cats with suspicion… time to trade in Tiger for Fido?
[View cat allergy cartoon]This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 19th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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This was one of the strangest news items in my inbox this week. Apparently, British cattle are catching tuberculosis from the local badger population. Now, the only thing that I thought the two animals had in common was their coloring… but I guess they must hang out together with sufficient frequency to pass on TB infections.
In fact, one BBC News report suggests that farms with larger hedges had lower rates of cattle TB infections… presumably because the hedges kept the badgers from fraternizing as much with the cows. This finding provides a nice alternative to badger culling, a practice that the animal rights folks do not endorse.
But what does this mean for humans? Well, according to the CDC, cattle TB (caused by a special strain of mycobacterium – M. bovis) has been virtually eradicated in the US due to herd culling and milk pasteurization methods. Cattle TB doesn’t tend to infect the lungs, so it’s less transmissible via droplets and such. So even if you’re in England and Bessy the cow sneezes on you, you probably won’t catch TB. But if you drink Bessy’s unpasteurized milk or cheese products, you’ve got yourself a risky situation. As for badgers – they’re not very affectionate anyway, so I wouldn’t try to befriend them.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 14th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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This is a really gory series of photos (via KevinMD) of what happened to a man’s hand after he was bitten by a spider. The venom created a necrotic reaction that burst open his skin and caused a gaping wound to appear by day 10.
What can you do to avoid a similar fate? Well, first of all, most spider bites aren’t poisonous. It looks like the man in these photos was bitten by a brown recluse spider – a nasty arachnid found in the central to midwestern United States. As their name suggests, these spiders are non aggressive and tend to remain secluded – and they don’t bite unless you disturb them or handle them in some way.
But if you are bitten, there’s no good treatment (no anti-venom). Ice, steroids, and antibiotics can be used to reduce inflammation and protect against bacterial super infections. But basically, the severity of your reaction to the venom depends upon your body’s personal sensitivity. Some people don’t mount a serious response, and others, like the unhappy fellow above, have a violent tissue-ravaging reaction. Scary stuff.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 14th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Tips
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Every once in a while a friend or family member is in a bind and asks me if I can prescribe them some medication. When people have a case of painful otitis externa (external ear infection), some tinea corporis (ringworm), or just need an allergy medicine refill, for example, and can’t get an appointment to see their doctor for weeks, I generally feel badly and offer to prescribe them something to tide them over. I know it’s not right to prescribe medications to folks who aren’t technically your patients, but it just seems worse to watch them suffer with a time-sensitive illness that has a simple cure.
Today I had to look up all the various and sundry treatments for ringworm. According to my Pharmacopoeia (and eMedicine.com) pretty much any antifungal cream on the market is a possible treatment for it… so how is a doc to choose the best therapy? Is it trial and error? Is it pick the cheapest medicine on the list and cross your fingers?
There are times when many different medicines are appropriate treatment options, and the best choice requires a bit of guess work mixed with past experience. Since I can’t find any literature suggesting that one topical treatment is more effective than another, I just chose a common, inexpensive cream. Sometimes medical decision making has its gray areas… Wouldn’t it be nice if everything had one clear answer?
Oh, and if you do have ringworm, keep in mind that 1) you can catch it from your dog – and yeah, Fido could catch it from you 2) you are contagious to others 3) it’s easy to treat with pretty much any anti-fungal cream or lotion (apply twice a day for 2 weeks or so) 4) if you can’t get to see your doctor, using over the counter Monistat may do the trick in a pinch. If your skin is not responding to the cream – better get checked out to make sure it really is a fungal infection and not something else.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 18th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs, True Stories
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Thanks to GruntDoc for posting a link to a heart warming story of a cat rescued by an EMS team in Britain. Firefighters and ambulance crews were called to the scene of a house fire, and fortunately found no people inside. They did, however, find the family pet – suffocating, wet and terrified – and brought the poor cat out to the street where they administered some oxygen. Unsure of next steps, the crew asked for permission to transport the animal to the nearest 24 hour veterinarian hospital. Being that there were no humans in need of the ambulance at that time, they were given permission to call ahead to the animal hospital and hand off the kitty to the vet team, who proceeded to save her life.
Let’s hear it for the compassionate EMS team who took the time to be kind to all creatures great and small…This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
