Common Cause of Cardiac Arrest: Pulmonary Embolism
Far more people die every year from a pulmonary embolism than you think.
These blood clots in the lungs may cause cardiac arrest, and often, the cause of death is listed as just that—cardiac arrest.
When a person dies, their heart stops.
When a person’s heart stops, they die (when they can’t be resuscitated, of course).
But what causes cardiac arrest?
In many cases, it’s a pulmonary embolism — a most unrecognized lethal medical condition.
“Yes, it is often an unrecognized killer, frequently because the picture may be dominated by coexisting conditions such as those that are associated with slowing of blood flow to many parts of the body, especially the veins of the lower extremities,” says Morton Tavel, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, and author of “Health Tips, Myths and Tricks: A Physician’s Advice.”
Dr. Tavel continues, “The variety of predisposing conditions can include debilitating diseases forcing prolonged bed rest, post-surgical states and congestive heart failure.”
A pulmonary embolism originates from a blood clot in a vein (usually in the lower leg, but it can also be behind the knee, the upper leg or pelvic area).
Every year in the U.S., 60,000 to 100,000 people die from a PE
In about one-fourth of all cases, sudden death is the first symptom.
Dr. Tavel’s medical research includes over 125 publications, editorials and book reviews in peer-reviewed national medical journals. He was formerly director of the cardiac rehabilitation program at St. Vincent Hospital in Indiana. mortontavel.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: Freepik/8photo
Source: cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/data.html
PVCs: DANGEROUS or BENIGN? LOOMING HEART ATTACK or NOTHING?
PVC stands for premature ventricular contraction.
It creates the illusion of an extra heartbeat, especially if there are two or three in a row.
And sometimes, it feels as though the heart has skipped a beat. This makes some people believe they’re about to have a heart attack.
Frequent premature contractions can produce tremendous anxiety.
“A PVC is a premature ventricular contraction, which means the beat is originating in the ventricle, not the atria (normal site of origin),” explains Yaser Elnahar, MD, a cardiologist with Hunterdon Cardiovascular Associates in NJ.
“Rare [occasional] PVC’s are very common and are not dangerous.
“Frequent PVC’s or runs of PVC’s can be very dangerous or even fatal when it becomes ventricular tachycardia.
“If a person has frequent premature ventricular contractions or runs of PVC’s, the cardiologist usually tries to make sure there are no blocked arteries as the cause. If the arteries are fine then we look for other causes.”
Below are links to articles about PVCs with answers from cardiologists.
Do you experience heart palpitations that literally go on for hours?
Does this occur on an almost daily — or even everyday — basis?
Dr. Pilar Cohen discusses the very unnerving nature of daily heart thumps that last hours.
Do you lift weights or do some form of strength training?
If so, have you felt your heart flutter or go ba-boom during a set?
It’s one thing to have heart palpitations prior to a big lift — the anxiety of performing the lift safely, or, the excitement of possibly pulling off your personal best in that deadlift — can make your heart flutter.
But what if you’ve been detecting palpitations in the midst of a weightlifting set? Dr. Ronald Scheib discusses this problem.
Ever notice that sometimes when you have a PVC episode, it makes you cough?
There’s actually a reason for this; it’s not your imagination, and it’s explained by Dr. Sameer Sayeed.
PVCs are frightening because they can make you think you’re about to have a heart attack.
Or, they can make you wonder if your heart’s going to stop beating any moment, and the fluttering is just its way of conking out, kind of like a car engine sputtering before it goes dead.
But let’s get to the bottom of this. Can a premature ventricular contraction cause a heart attack?
Or can a palpitation be a warning that a heart attack is coming?
Dr. David N. Smith discusses PVCs and heart attacks.
Dr. Elnahar has publications in the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation, the Journal of Clinical Medicine and Research, Reports in Medical Imaging, and more.
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/Hriana
Why Brain Damage in CTE Worsens Decades after Athlete Retires
The brain damage of CTE begins during the athlete’s career, yet mental symptoms don’t start showing until years later when the athlete is much older.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) starts developing years, sometimes even decades, after the football player retires, but why?
CTE refers to a progressive damage to the brain that continues to occur—even after the athlete leaves his sport–and all those hits in the head–far behind.
You’d think that the most damage to the athlete’s brain would be whatever damage was present at the time of his retirement–when he may very well still be in his 20s—and that the “damage” stays at that level (provided the athlete never receives a hit in the head again).
But oddly, that’s only the beginning for some retired football players and boxers. The snowball continues rolling down that hill–it gets bigger and bigger. Why is this?
What are the answers?
“The short answer is we really do not know why,” points out neuropsychologist Kenneth Podell, PhD, FACPN, and co-director, Houston Methodist Concussion Center, concussion specialist for the Houston Texans and Houston Astros.
The focus here now isn’t why the symptoms of CTE start surfacing years after the last blow to the head. This is about why the brain damage continues getting worse.
The devastating symptoms are delayed “because cell death in the brain can take years to occur, and must reach a critical level of damage or threshold before they clinically express themselves,” notes Dr. Podell.
Why does the snowball of CTE keep getting bigger?
The concussion or slams to the athlete’s head are the primary mechanism. The snowball, so to speak, is the secondary mechanism.
“The primary damage in CTE, at least one of the thoughts,” begins Dr. Podell, “is that the head hits and concussions damage the tau proteins that act like structure bridges or a lattice that supports the microtubules (channels that transport information down the length of an axon or nerve cell) for communication with other nerve cells.”
Dr. Podell further explains, “Without the proper support and lattice, these microtubules will start to break down (secondary damage) which can take longer to occur.”
Conjecture of CTE
“Again this has to be proven as definitive,” says Dr. Podell. “We simply do not understand why CTE occurs and if it continues developing after the athlete retires.”
Brain injury experts believe that a genetic component just may be involved in CTE, but this doesn’t explain why this catastrophic damage keeps getting worse after the insult has ceased.
“It could be that all of the damage to the brain was done at the time of the insult and it simply takes years for it to express itself, or — that CTE itself actually worsens over time.”
Dr. Podell continues: “Or it simply can be a cascading effect [think of that snowball]. The only way to quantify CTE would be through a brain autopsy.
“Techniques are currently being developed for positron emission tomography scanners to image CTE in living people, but we are not at a point to do serial quantification.”
The progression of CTE may also be influenced by aging and genetics, but to what extent? This is not understood.
Furthermore, many retired athletes or football players with CTE are in their 40s and 50s.
Although the symptoms can be subtle at first and therefore overlooked for years, this certainly does not explain the progressive feature, given the absence of continuing concussions or serious hits to the head.
Autopsies of the Victims
Postmortem examinations of CTE patients reveal a pathological accumulation of plaques and tangles in their brains.
“We really have not advanced the science enough to know the cause of the disease course/progression of chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” says Dr. Podell.
Dr. Podell is a board certified neuropsychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of patients who have sustained any type of brain injury or disease.
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: Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy
Lose 100 Pounds with Three Strength Training Exercises
You need only three strength training exercises to drop 100 pounds of unhealthy body fat.
There’s nothing gimmicky about what I’m going to tell you. If you’re a hundred pounds overweight, or weigh 450 pounds (think of losing 100 pounds three times), you can lose 100 pounds with the following three exercises, PLUS a controlled, clean diet:
Deadlift
Squat
Bench press
If you were to employ only these exercises and nothing else as far as structured exercise, I’d recommend a three-times-a-week regimen, such as Mon/Wed/Fri or Tues/Thurs/Sat.
All the muscles in your body will get trained with the deadlift, squat and bench press.
These three exercises emphasize large muscle groups, though the small ones like biceps and triceps DO get worked. So do the abs!
To lose 100 pounds with these three exercises, follow this formula:
1) Do five sets of each for all three training days.
2) Take one minute of rest (no longer) between sets, and 2-3 minutes in between exercises.
3) Set the resistance so that it’s possible to do eight repetitions but impossible to do more than 12. If you can do more than 12, increase the resistance. If you can only do seven reps, decrease.
Point 3 is tricky because it will be impossible to take only one minute of rest and keep pumping out an 8-12 rep max using the SAME weight load.
For example, suppose your first bench press set is 11 reps for 95 pounds; you absolutely cannot do any more.
Rest one minute. Your second set at 95 pounds might be eight or nine, but it’s more likely you’ll only be able to do seven reps.
This falls out of the eight to 12 range. In anticipation of this, you’d have to quickly reset the barbell to a lighter weight before the minute was up.
It’s easier to do this if the 95 pounds are loaded with two 10-pound plates and a five-pounder on each side, rather than a 25-pounder on each side (when using a standard Olympic bar which weighs 45 pounds).
Because then you can just slip off the five-pound plates to lighten the barbell; you’ll be able to press 85 pounds within that 8-12 rep range.
If you take off TOO much weight, you’ll feel like you can go beyond 12 reps.
What Exactly Are the Deadlift, Squat and Bench Press? They Are Shown Below
Preparing for the deadlift. Freepik.com
Midpoint of the deadlift. Freepik.com
Completion of the deadlift. Freepik.com
Squat. Depositphotos.com
Bench press. Depositphotos.com
Why is the 8-12 rep range so important for losing 100 pounds?
It’s time under tension. If you don’t do enough reps, the muscle cells won’t be subjected to a long enough tension.
When enough tension is imposed on them, they are forced to develop “metabolic machinery.”
The acquisition of this machinery within each muscle cell, and the sustenance of it, requires energy. This energy is pulled from stored body fat.
If the time under tension goes for too long (more than 12 reps), the focus will be on fewer fast twitch muscle fibers and more on slow twitch.
Slow twitch is designed for endurance. If you can do more than 12 reps, the weight is too light to incite optimal acquisition of metabolic machinery.
If you must struggle to get within the 8-12 range, the weight is heavy enough to maximize metabolic machinery.
This doesn’t mean that a few sets here and there can’t be a 6-7 rep max or 13-14 rep max.
There will be times you’ll mis-judge how much to reduce the resistance, for example, and you’ll find yourself barely getting in six reps, or finding that 12 weren’t all that hard. It’s okay to periodically make this miscalculation.
But the general protocol is the 8-12 rep max to build up that metabolic machinery which will accelerate your resting metabolism.
Furthermore, the one-minute rests will amplify this effect. Longer rests will take you further out of range, and your muscle cells will develop more contractile proteins rather than metabolic machinery.
If the shift is on contractile proteins, you’ll get stronger faster; there’s less development of the metabolic innards and instead, an increase in contractile proteins.
Enough of the science—just trust me: Do the deadlift, squat and bench press, as I’ve described, and you’ll lose 100 pounds (as long as you eat sensibly—no gorging on pizza after your workouts).
Morbidly obese people will have a challenge learning the back squat (free barbell across back), so I recommend using the Smith machine until you lose enough weight to begin learning the free barbell squat. The goal is to hit parallel with excellent form!
The deadlift is easier for a morbidly obese individual to learn, but this exercise demands flawless form.
The bench press is the easiest because you lie on a bench, but for best results and safety, you should use good form.
You can lose 100 pounds with these three exercises by following the protocol described in this article.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Can IBS Cause Ribbon Stools?
You’ve heard that colon cancer can cause ribbon stools, but IBS can also do this.
“Ribbon stools are not uncommonly seen with IBS, although excluding other causes, such as anatomic problems, inflammatory disease, etc., would be prudent,” says Michael Blume, MD, a gastroenterologist at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore.
The exclusion process should also include colon cancer, even if you’ve had irritable bowel syndrome for years. IBS does not protect against colon cancer.
How does IBS lead to poops that are shaped like ribbons?
Dr. Blume says, “This usually occurs because if there is spasm in the colon, it may give one the sensation that there may be some obstruction and cause a change in the caliber of the stool.
“When one’s colon goes into spasm, as often occurs in IBS, the muscles in your large intestine constrict.
“Remember that you have muscles in your intestines, also, although they are somewhat different than the ones in your arms and legs that you voluntarily control.”
The type of muscle in your GI tract is called smooth muscle, and the muscle that enables you to bench press a barbell or comb your hair is called skeletal.
Dr. Blume says that when the intestinal muscles constrict, “they cause the diameter of your large intestine to become narrow, and when this occurs, one’s stools may appear narrow.”
It can still be unnerving, though, when you see ribbon stools in the toilet bowl, even if you’ve been diagnosed with IBS.
But if you’ve never had a colonoscopy yet have been diagnosed with IBS, you need to undergo a colonoscopy.
It’s not impossible for someone to hear, “You’re too young to have colon cancer, so you don’t need a colonoscopy; this looks like IBS. So don’t worry about the ribbon bowel movements.”
For a true diagnosis of IBS, all other possible causes of thin narrow stools — no matter how remote — should be ruled out.
Different causes have different treatments. Plus, people in their 20s can get colon cancer.
- 5.1% of U.S. colon cancer cases are in people 35-44.
- 2% are in people 20-34.
- 0.3% are under 20.
Source: The Surveillance Epidemiological and End Results Program
If all you have is IBS causing your long pencil stools, all it takes is a colonoscopy to set your mind at ease.
In practice for 25+ years, Dr. Blume treats over 65 conditions including abdominal pain, appetite loss, blood in stool, celiac disease, colon cancer, esophageal and liver disease, gas and IBS.
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: myupchar.comen
Can IBS Cause Nausea after a Bowel Movement?
Ever feel nauseous after a bowel movement and you have irritable bowel syndrome? Could there be a connection?
“The mechanism of IBS is abnormal motility in one form or another (constipation or diarrhea); hence, after a bowel movement when the intestinal tract is contracting (perhaps in an exaggerated fashion because of IBS), nausea may set in,” says Dr. Saad Habba, MD, an attending consultant physician (gastroenterologist) at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ.
“Nausea is not a result of colon (large intestine) motility abnormality. It is a result of upper gastrointestinal tract dysfunction.
“Because IBS may affect the whole intestinal tract, it is therefore not surprising that nausea may occur.”
Symptoms Associated with IBS Besides Diarrhea, Constipation and Nausea
• Pain and cramping in the abdomen. May occur in the middle and/or lower stomach, but rarely occurs only in the upper stomach.
• Harder than normal stools but without constipation.
• Mucus in the bowel movement.
• Excess gas.
• Bloating or a little swelling of the abdomen.
• Food intolerance. What this means is that certain foods trigger or make the IBS symptoms worse. Which foods these are will vary from one person to the next.
• Poor sleep.
• Anxiety and depression. What’s interesting about these two is that they are a chicken-and-egg situation. Which comes first? Anxiety or depression can result from the disruptions that IBS causes in a person’s life.
On the other hand, anxiety or depression have been known to cause symptoms similar to IBS.
The One Symptom that Irritable Bowel Syndrome Never Causes
IBS, which is a medical condition of exclusion, never causes blood in the bowel movements.
When blood is present, it’s either red, maroon or black. If it’s black it’ll look like hot tar. If you see blood, see your doctor.
If you have nausea before a BM, and then you end up having a lot of diarrhea which immediately resolves the nausea, this may not be irritable bowel syndrome. It may be microscopic colitis – which is often misdiagnosed as IBS.
Dr. Habba pioneered the concept of IBS being a wastebasket diagnosis and collection of different entities rather than a true single medical condition. He’s been presented and published in 26 national and international medical journals and symposia.
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
Can Bloody Mucous Be Caused by Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
Do you have IBS and have noticed what looks like blood in the mucous that comes out with your bowel movements?
“One not uncommonly sees mucous in the stool with IBS, but not blood,” says Michael Blume, MD, a gastroenterologist at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore.
“Your colon normally produces mucous, mostly to act as a lubricant.
“When your colon gets somewhat irritable, it makes more mucous, and one may see it in the stool. It may look scary, but usually is not dangerous.
“Bleeding, however, is not a sign of IBS, as a rule, so when one sees bleeding or bloody mucous, it would indicate that there may be some other problem going on, and should prompt that person to seek medical attention.”
Blood in the mucous could be finding its way there simply because the mucous is part of the stool movement.
If it’s truly blood in the mucous, there’s likely blood somewhere else in the bowel movement — quite possibly imperceptible to your naked eye.
Red is easier to see when it’s mixed with something white or cream colored.
If you have IBS, it’s not impossible to develop an unrelated condition that causes blood in your stools.
The blood may just happen to get mixed with the mucous, making it easier to see.
If you’re worried about any symptoms, make an appointment with your gastroenterologist.
In practice for 25+ years, Dr. Blume treats over 65 conditions including abdominal pain, appetite loss, blood in stool, celiac disease, colon cancer, esophageal and liver disease, gas and IBS.
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/Zetar Infinity
How Many Days Can an IBS Attack Last?
An IBS flare or attack is no picnic and can last for many days.
“Some attacks can last for a few hours, some days,” says Michael Blume, MD, a gastroenterologist at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore.
Dr. Blume continues, “IBS attacks can be of variable duration and are different from person to person.”
Irritable bowel syndrome should be diagnosed only when all other possible causes have been ruled out.
“IBS is not an all or nothing disorder,” says Dr. Blume. “Some people have very mild symptoms, some very disabling symptoms. Many people with mild or sporadic symptoms do not even seek medical attention.”
They may simply attribute their symptoms to something they ate or stress.
Symptom Range Varies with IBS: Sporadically to Days on End
“The same goes for duration of symptoms,” says Dr. Blume. “There are some people who have very sporadic symptoms that last for a short period of time. Other people have constant symptoms, and there is everything in between.
“A person with symptoms occurring infrequently and for short durations may choose to treat their symptoms with episodic therapy, if they choose to treat the symptoms at all.
“Someone with frequent or long-lasting symptoms may benefit from taking medications on a regular basis.
“We tend to use symptom duration and symptom frequency to help make decisions as to how to best treat these symptoms.
“It is also important to remember that IBS is not a medically dangerous condition, although it can be at times quite painful, and often socially incapacitating.
“A decision to treat these symptoms at all should depend on how much these symptoms are bothering that person, and how much it impacts quality of life.”
So as far as duration (days, weeks, months), irritable bowel syndrome is a no-size-fits-all condition.
In practice for 25+ years, Dr. Blume treats over 65 conditions including abdominal pain, appetite loss, blood in stool, celiac disease, colon cancer, esophageal and liver disease, gas and IBS.
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/CHAjAMP
How to Reverse the Harm of 3 Hours’ Non-Stop Sitting
There’s a way to undo some of the harm of prolonged sitting for three hours.
If you’re sitting at your computer for three hours, but get up three times during that session and walk for five minutes, this will make a big difference when compared to not leaving the chair once during that three hours.
A study from Indiana University says that the three, five minute walks, even if done slowly, can reverse the harm that the prolonged sitting can do to the arteries in the legs.
Excessive sitting is linked to a myriad of insults including higher cholesterol, fat gain, blood clots, back pain, heart disease and increased mortality over the short term.
The earliest studies of prolonged sitting grabbed my attention and I purchased a treadmill desk, but if you don’t have such a device, at least get up three times in three hours and walk for five minutes.
The Problems in the Legs
The IU study says that prolonged sitting causes muscles to become slack, reducing their ability to efficiently pump blood to the heart.
The result is blood pooling in the legs, which can adversely affect arteries there.
Population-based evidence links prolonged sitting to a number of chronic conditions and also links breaking up the sitting time with some relief of harmful effects.
However, “there is very little experimental evidence” of this, says lead IU study author Saurabh Thosar in the paper.
The study shows that prolonged sitting leads to impairment of endothelial function in the leg arteries.
What only 60 Minutes of Continuous Sitting Can Do to the Legs, even Though You Won’t Feel It
Just one hour of continuous sitting will impair the function of the main artery (femoral) in the legs, say the IU researchers…by as much as 50 percent.
But the study subjects who got up the three times to walk five minutes experienced no drop in the arterial function.
When did the study subjects take the walking break? At the 30 minute mark, 1.5 hour mark and 2.5 hour mark. They walked 2 mph.
Sitting Disease: The “New Smoking”
Sitting for prolonged periods day in and day out is now considered as hazardous to one’s health as smoking.
And as you’ve just read, even three hours is harmful.
Prolonged habitual sitting is strongly linked to an assortment of health ailments.
Tips on Breaking up Sitting Time
• Do not finish all your housework before a planned sitting marathon.
Instead, let it accumulate.
This will give you an excuse to get up every hour or less (less is better) to be on your feet as you do household tasks.
• Some tasks that you can save up for a sitting marathon include: watering the plants, emptying or loading a dishwasher, taking out the garbage, replacing a furnace filter, folding laundry, vacuuming, dusting, going through the snail mail, ironing and picking up toys, hanging a picture and food preparation.
• You can also pace about to some music or perform some standing yoga poses.
Freepik.com
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140908083748.htm
Left Lower Sharp Stomach Pain in Elderly, Hurts to Touch
Does an elderly family member have a lower left, sharp pain in the abdomen that hurts upon touching?
If so, take this person to the emergency room.
This is what happened to my father.
The pain greatly intensified if he rose from a seat and began moving
What made him decide to visit the ER was a sensation of fecal impaction, even though he’d been having bowel movements. The diagnosis was diverticulitis.
For the two weeks preceding the ER diagnosis, my father had noticed a suppressed appetite. Diverticulitis can cause this.
About two weeks after he began losing his appetite, he awoke from the middle of a nap with chills, and didn’t think anything of this, other than why didn’t my mother notice this and put a blanket on him (he didn’t appear cold while he slept on his side).
However, unable to truly nap, he took to sitting before a heater for quite a while. This is very uncharacteristic of my father.
That’s when he told me his stomach was upset, and that lately he’d been feeling some bloating. A little while later that day, he felt feverish. His temperature was just over 100.
A fever is another classic symptom of diverticulitis. Oddly, his temperature returned to normal after several hours. We thought it was a transient “bug.”
A week later, my mother called me, asking if I could drive him to the ER. He was having sharp pains in the lower abdomen, but also pain (though not sharp) in the upper left side and lower middle.
He was convinced he had fecal impaction (severe constipation), and had been experiencing this sensation for a few weeks, trying to solve it with laxatives, but they weren’t working.
A blood draw revealed an elevated white blood cell count, which indicates infection.
The doctor kept pressing (palpating) his lower left abdominal area, and he’d jerk and wince from the pain. Diverticulitis was suggested as a possible cause, but a diagnosis wasn’t made at that point. A CAT scan was ordered.
“You have diverticulitis,” the doctor said some time later. The treatment was antibiotics and a temporary change in diet.
Though young people can get diverticulitis, one of the risk factors is increased age.
Lower left belly pain in an elderly person, especially if it really hurts to press on the area, should never be tolerated, even if you think it’s probably diverticulitis.
This condition can lead to a rupture, which requires emergency surgery.
