Americans Don’t Get Enough Sleep

It was designed to be a national meeting of sleep experts with a focus on a wide variety of sleep issues that affect patients.  Normally, these meetings focus on issues like sleep apnea and restless leg, but as the doctors talked to one another it became quite apparent that the major sleep problem in our country today is people just don't get enough sleep.  The pace of life gets faster and faster and people try to cram more and more into every minute of the day.  In fact, as things get more hectic, sleep tends to get short shrift.  People view it as a waste of time.  We have to tell people the importance of sleep and let them know it's critical.  

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

Grapefruit Juice and Medication Interactions

Doctors have warned patients for quite some time that grapefruit juice can interact with certain medications and cause harmful side-effects.  This is particularly common with some blood pressure-lowering drugs and some cholesterol-lowering medications.  Researchers believe they know the reason.  So-called furanocoumarins seem to be the problem.  Grapefruit juice armed with the furanocoumarins can cause these drugs to enter the bloodstream more efficiently, thereby increasing the dose and effect and the potential for undesirable, and even dangerous, side-effects.  Researchers from the University of North Carolina found that once you took the furanocoumarins out, the juice behaved like orange juice. Those marketing grapefruit juice envision the production of a furanocoumarin-free juice, much like lactose-free milk. It's an interesting idea. 

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

Pomegranate Is the Fruit du Jour

The pomegranate was one of the earliest cultivated fruits.  Historical evidence says it was used between 4,000 and 3,000 B.C.  In the past five years, the juice it produces has become very popular.  People think it might fight cancer and heart disease.  Go to a cocktail party and you will hear people having pomegranate martinis.  We bring up pomegranate because it's the fruit du jour.  As is the case with many of these remedies, the truth lies in that it doesn't do everything, but it may potentially help.  Of course, back off on the martinis.

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

What is the Key to Staying Young?

Do you want to stay young?  If you want to stay young, you don't have to use special facial creams or start the latest fad diet.  Believe it or not, you just need to use common sense and care for yourself.  The most important step is eating a balanced diet; plenty of fruits, vegetables, and those types of things.  You want to try to cut back on sugar and pre-processed foods.  The other concept to get down is you don't have to be perfect.  You can have a piece of cake or pie and stop at a fast-food restaurant every now and then.  Just limit the high-risk exposure.  The other major step is exercise.  Once again, you don't need to be an Olympic athlete.  Just get out there and participate.  Make it fun.  If you have fun, you will continue to play, and that is the key.  The best way to achieve success with your diet or exercise is have a reasonable plan and to stick with it.  

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

Women and the Wandering Eye

Researchers say it's more than a wondering eye that might cause a woman to stray. Feelings of lust actually may be rooted in a woman's biology, according to a small study of 38 college women in a scholarly journal Hormones and Behavior. Studies from the University of California Los Angeles and New Mexico suggest an evolutionary tendency toward infidelity during ovulation, which is the most fertile part of the menstrual cycle. The study suggests the propensity is more likely if women don't view their partners as sexy. Along those evolutionary lines, men, more than women, desire a variety of sexual partners, because genes carrying that trait were passed along in men. Women tend to be choosier. Previous research has found that women at mid-cycle report greater sexual attraction to men other than their partners. That's a result of ancestral belief that good looks often equal good genes for offspring.

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

Taking Control of Diabetes

As more people are diagnosed with diabetes, there is a major issue in medicine…trying to motivate people to take ownership of their condition and aggressively attack it to prevent long-term problems like kidney and heart disease.  There are several key things that you can do to help when you are dealing with diabetes.  The first thing is that diabetes is not a cause of adult blindness, kidney failure, and amputation.  That's right.  It's poorly controlled diabetes that's the problem.  If you keep it in check, there is reason for hope.  Also, make a partnership with your doctor.  You need someone to talk to who can understand your condition.  If he or she does not help, find someone who can.  Another key point; make certain you see your eye doctor each year, have a foot exam annually, and talk with your doctor about urine screening and a test called the hemoglobin A1C, which can help monitor how you're doing. 

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.   

The Correct Drug Dosages for Children

Drug dosing is very important in children because children don’t take the same amount of medicine as adults. When the doctor calculates what the child’s going to have, it’s very important that that is evaluated and looked at from the standpoint of not overdosing a child. Children respond very well to medications if given in the proper dosages. That’s why when you see the pediatrician or the family physician and they write the dosage, make sure you look at it and you take it to the pharmacy, and they closely look at it, so there is not a discrepancy.

For more information, please go to www.123MyMD.com.