Can Grape Juice Cause or Aggravate GERD?
Don’t you just love grape juice, with its intense sweet flavor, but at the same time it seems to cause or at least aggravate GERD: gastroesophageal reflux disease. (more…)
Middle Age Women Who Sit a Lot at Risk for Future Frailty
If you’re a middle age woman who sits many hours a day, you’re at risk for becoming frail and weak later on, yet this is just SO preventable. (more…)
Do You Suffer from Bloating After Eating? Causes and Solutions
There are many causes of bloating after meals or eating, but you need not suffer with this uncomfortable situation.
To avoid bloating after eating, here are steps to take.
First off, make sure that you notice the bloating only after eating, rather than during times when food can’t possibly be a cause.
There are many medical conditions that cause either a sensation of bloating or actual bloating (e.g., fluid buildup in the abdomen).
But many people feel bloating that is directly related to eating.
“Everyone has different foods that their body may not tolerate well,” says Walter Gaman, MD, FABFM, board certified in family medicine and the author of several award-winning books including “Age to Perfection: How to Thrive to 100, Happy, Healthy, and Wise.”
“Get to know your body and avoid foods that cause distress or bloating.
“For some, this may be dairy, even lactose-free dairy, because of the proteins in the dairy products.
“Others may have issues with vegetables like onions, cabbage or broccoli.”
More Ways to Avoid Bloating After Eating
Avoid carbonated beverages. The carbonation will give you a gassy bloated feeling, even if you sip slowly.
Replace with the best drink you can have with meals: water. This may not seem exciting, but a glass of very chilled water will soon become quite appealing with food.
Freepik.com
Avoid gulping air while eating and drinking. This causes gas in the abdomen.
Avoid talking while chewing. Not only can this cause gas buildup in your stomach, but it’s very unsightly to anyone who’s eating with you.
No conversation is so important that you can’t wait till all the food in your mouth is swallowed before you begin speaking.
Watch per-meal fiber intake. A diet high in fiber is healthy for the gut, but make sure not to cram a lot of your daily fiber quota into one meal. Try to spread it out throughout the day.
Keep a food diary. See if maybe there’s a particular food that you have often that might be making you feel bloated after eating it.
This could signal a food intolerance or allergy. Remove any suspected foods from your diet and see what happens.
Do this one food at a time to accurately keep track. Prime culprits are gluten-containing foods.
Restrict fattening foods. Go easy on the butter and gravy. Cut back or avoid anything with saturated fats.
Exercise after your meal. No, not an all-out gym fest, but do yoga, walking or a neighborhood bike ride for 30 minutes.
Freepik.com/yanalya
Heartburn treatment. If you’ve been diagnosed with heartburn, make sure that ongoing treatment is underway.
Acid reflux can contribute to a feeling of bloating after meals. Keep in mind that acid reflux, if caused by chronic anxiety, can be treated by learning how to manage your stress levels.
Dr. Gaman also advises, “Remember that not all bloating and gas come from beans. A good tip for reducing bloating is to drink some freshly squeezed lemon juice with your meals.” Sweeten it with Stevia, a natural zero-calorie sweetener.
Dr. Gaman is with Executive Medicine of Texas and is with the Staying Young Radio Show 2.0 podcast.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Inspiration GP
Can Gallbladder Removal Cause Heartburn?
Removal of the gallbladder (cholecystectomy) can cause heartburn due to reflux.
It’s even possible to suffer this heartburn up to four months after gallbladder removal.
For some patients, gallbladder removal is the end of troublesome symptoms – as they are perfectly fine after that.
Other patients, though, have continuing problems, and one of these is acid reflux.
In a study by Jazwari et al, 13 out of 37 people who’d had their gallbladder removed were still experiencing problems as far out as four months.
The 13 patients had had abnormal pH levels in the esophagus before their surgery, but following the cholecystectomy their pH level jumped on average by 73 percent.
How did gallbladder removal cause heartburn in these patients?
The conclusion by the study authors was that there was a compromised sphincter.
Scientific Animations, CC/BY-SA/Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
The sphincter is the structure whose job it is to prevent stomach contents (which are acidic) from refluxing up the esophagus.
A weak sphincter will let stomach contents travel up the esophagus, and this is what causes heartburn, upper abdominal pain, coughing and other symptoms associated with acid reflux.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bjs.1800800119/full
Is Estrogen Connected to Microscopic Colitis?
It is suspected by some women with microscopic colitis that estrogen might somehow be involved with this uncommon inflammatory bowel disease. (more…)
Is Walking Enough Exercise to Control Type 2 Diabetes?
Walking may or may NOT be enough to control type 2 diabetes. It depends on how you do it. (more…)
What Percentage of Actinic Keratoses Become Squamous Cancer?
There’s a percentage range of actinic keratoses turning into squamous cell carcinoma, which is why these seemingly harmless skin lesions should never be ignored.
Furthermore, the appearance of very early squamous cell carcinoma can mimic actinic keratosis.
“The lifetime risk of actinic keratosis to progress to squamous cell carcinoma is two to five percent,” says Vishal Madan, MD, consultant dermatologist, laser and skin cancer surgeon, and founder/director of Everything Skin Clinic™.
Dr. Madan explains, “Small flat actinic keratosis may never progress to squamous cell carcinoma, while a tender, thick, hyperkeratotic AK has a higher risk of progression to SCC — especially if there are other risk factors such as immunosuppression, previous history of SCC or severely sun damaged skin.”
The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (Callen et al) states, “Estimates of the percentage of these chromosomally abnormal skin lesions that convert to squamous cell carcinoma vary from 0.25% to 20% per year for an individual lesion.”
The paper continues, “It is impossible to predict accurately in which patient a squamous cell carcinoma will develop.”
The percentage ranges may be broad, depending on the particulars of an investigative study.
Nobody really knows an exact percentage, since studies do not round up people with actinic keratoses and then instruct them never to get these precancerous lesions treated and then follow them for the rest of their lives.
What’s known for sure is that the percentage is small rather than significant, but high enough that people with actinic keratoses should get these lesions removed, even if it takes multiple attempts.
They are removed via either a spraying directly onto the lesion with frozen nitrogen, or a prescription cream applied directly onto the lesion.
“Actinic keratoses must be treated to prevent their conversion to squamous cell carcinoma,” continues the JAAD paper.
If you’ve been diagnosed with actinic keratosis, then it’s a no-brainer: Get them treated — even if they aren’t that visible.
AK’s grow very slowly and may be much more progressed before you even know it.
You don’t want to be in that small percentage whose actinic keratoses transforms into a malignancy.
The cancer will never be melanoma; it’s squamous cell carcinoma.
However…SCC can be fatal – because it will metastasize if not treated.
Don’t confuse SCC with basal cell carcinoma, for which metastasized cases are exceedingly rare – and only then, due to neglect.
Actinic keratosis are extremely common.
This is why many dermatologists have a canister or two of liquid nitrogen sitting on their office desk, ready for use.
You may have a few lesions right now and not even know it. This is why (in addition for melanoma screenings) you should have a clinical skin exam by a dermatologist every year.
AK’s can mimic seborrheic keratoses. Do not self-diagnose. See a dermatologist.
Specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of all skin conditions including melanoma, Dr. Madan has a special interest in skin cancer treatment, including Mohs micrographic surgery for basal cell carcinoma.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: Shutterstock/Dermatology11–
Source jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(97)70265-2/abstract p
Panicking Over a Diagnosis of Actinic Keratosis?
If you’ve just been diagnosed with actinic keratosis, you probably already know that this is precancer and may be panicking. (more…)
Do Children Get Pancreatic Cancer?
If children can get pancreatic cancer, just how many actually develop this disease? And what should parents look out for?
“I have not seen this in my career,” says Robert Saul, MD, a board certified pediatrician for 40+ years and Professor of Pediatrics at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.
Dr. Saul adds, “But yes, children can get pancreatic cancer.”
In fact, even infants can be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer – a disease that can strike at any age.
However, “can” does not mean that parents should worry that their child might have pancreatic cancer.
Certainly, if one’s child is experiencing new and unexplained symptoms, they should be seen by a pediatrician.
Let the pediatrician take it from there, and do not worry about a disease that has an incidence of 0.46 cases per one million people under age 30.
The median age of diagnosis is 70, but one tenth of a percent of cases occur in people under the age of 20. Again, this includes babies.
See the chart below from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program for number of diagnosed cases per age bracket.
The Journal of Pediatric Surgery has covered the phenomenon of pancreatic cancer in children.
In one paper, one particular medical institution had six cases of pediatric pancreatic neoplasms between 1971 and 1991.
So it’s exceedingly rare, but not impossible, for this age group to get this very difficult to treat disease.
The six patients were between three weeks old and 16 years.
There are different kinds of pancreatic cancer. In the case of these young patients, there were one insulin-secreting tumor, one pancreatoblastoma and three solid cystic tumors.
The paper reports that surgery was the only treatment, and that the young patients were all alive on an average of 7.8 years later.
Another paper of the same journal but different issue reports on 58 patients having either an exocrine type of tumor, endocrine type or sarcoma.
The pancreatoblastoma was more commonly seen in kids under 10 years.
About half the 58 patients had metastatic disease, and 44 percent of these entailed the endocrine type.
Don’t Ignore Symptoms
If your child starts having abdominal pain, nausea or fatigue, you certainly do not want to start fearing that he or she might have pancreatic cancer.
It really is just so unlikely.
But DO take your child to their pediatrician to find out what’s behind these or any other new symptoms.
Dr. Saul is the coauthor of “Thinking Developmentally: Nurturing Wellness in Childhood to Promote Lifelong Health,” and author of “Conscious Parenting: Using the Parental Awareness Threshold.” His website is mychildrenschildren.com.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Sources
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002234689290284E
jpedsurg.org/article/S0022-3468(08)00894-4/abstract
seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/pancreas.html
Are Heart Palpitations Normal with Fibromyalgia?
Your fibromyalgia MAY be the cause of your heart palpitations, but not in the way you might be thinking.
Just because fibromyalgia has been known to cause the perception of heart palpitations doesn’t mean that you can’t possibly have a cardiac arrhythmia or some other disorder that’s causing the fluttering or “skipped” heartbeat.
The hallmark features of fibromyalgia are chronic body-wide pain and tenderness. There may also be fatigue and dizziness.
But in fibromyalgia, there is also a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). And the ANS regulates heartbeat.
Many sufferers of fibromyalgia will report that their heart races or pounds after they rise from a seated position.
If all the pulse does is go up, this technically isn’t a palpitation, but rather, merely a sped-up heart rate (tachycardia). Though to the patient, it may be described as “palpitations.”
The tilt table test is very useful in evaluating ANS dysfunction in those with fibromyalgia who report frequent heart palpitations.
Commonly, patients will report tachycardia during tilt table testing. Because it’s triggered by postural changes, it’s called orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
It means that the pulse has risen more than 30 beats per minute after more than three minutes standing upright.
This doesn’t mean that the heartbeat has literally skipped or fluttered. It’s a steady rate, though elevated.
If you perceive a skipped, fluttering or irregular heartbeat from time to time, and just happen to have fibromyalgia, here is something to consider:
“Fibromyalgia presents with varied symptoms, and yes, some patients with fibromyalgia report palpitations, possibly due in part to increased awareness of pain, and associated anxiety in some patients,” says Glenn Meininger, MD, Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology Services for the Baltimore region of the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute.
If you have fibromyalgia, it would still be a smart move to have a cardiologist examine you.
“Palpitations can be benign or less worrisome when they are associated in isolation with anxiety, fatigue, alcohol or caffeine consumption, says Melissa Franckowiak, MD, an anesthesiologist in Lockport, NY.
“They can and do occur as part of fibromyalgia, especially since anxiety and fatigue occur more frequently in fibromyalgia patients than in the general population.
“The most important thing to note is how palpitations change in their symptomatology. Has there been an increase in their occurrence or are they becoming associated with chest pain?
“If there has been a noted increase in frequency, duration of how long they tend to last, or if there has been associated chest pain or shortness of breath with them, especially with exertion, they should be reevaluated.”
And keep in mind that other conditions can cause a jumpy heart such as overactive thyroid, persistent anxiety and high caffeine intake.
Dr. Meininger is board certified in cardiac electrophysiology, cardiovascular disease and internal medicine and is widely regarded as an expert in the use of multiple modalities to treat cardiac arrhythmias.
Dr. Franckowiak is the inventor of two patented medical devices and the CEO of Pneumaglide, providing airway solutions to the surgical services and emergency medical services communities. A fiction writer under the name of Melissa Crickard, she is the author of “The Labrador Response” and “Another Five Patients,” available on Amazon.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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