Firstmed Blog

Surgical hair replacement:
Surgical transplantation should be considered if you are experiencing thinning hair or baldness, hair transplantation is considered a permanent form of hair replacement. Anyone who has permanent hair loss may be a candidate for hair transplantation, including:

* Men with male pattern baldness
* Some women with thinning hair
* Individuals who have lost hair as a result of burns or other scarring injuries to the scalp, eyebrows, or eyelashes

Types of hair replacement surgery:
There are a number of techniques used in hair replacement surgery. Sometimes two or more techniques are used to achieve the best results.

* punch grafts - usually contain about 10-15 hairs
* mini-grafts - contain about 2 to 4 hairs
* micro-grafts - contain 1 to 2 hairs
* slit grafts - contain about 4 to10 hairs each
* strip grafts - contain 30-40 hairs

Complications of hair replacement surgery:
Individuals vary greatly in their healing abilities, and outcome is never completely predictable. Complications such as the following may occur:

* Infection
* Excessive bleeding
* Wide scars, called stretch-back scars
* Bumps that form at the transplant sites
* Unnatural, patchy look may result
* Additional surgery may be required

Surgical hair replacement procedures:
Treatment may be performed at an outpatient surgery centre, or, rarely, a hospital as an outpatient or an inpatient.
Hair replacement surgery is usually performed using a local anaesthesia along with sedation to make the patient relaxed, although general anaesthesia may be used for more complex cases involving tissue expansion or flaps.

Which are the symptoms of a heart attack?

The symptoms of a heart attack may be quite gentle that’s why many people take too long to recognize they need help.
The most common symptoms are a feeling of heavy pressure or deficiency, crushing pain or unusual discomfort in the centre of the chest or a feeling like indigestion. Pain or tightness may extend to the shoulders, neck or arms, or it may affect the jaws or throat, making the person feel like they’re choking. Some people don’t get chest discomfort, and only get symptoms in their arms or throat. Others don’t get pains in their arms, but their arms feel heavy or useless.

The symptoms would usually last about more than 15 minutes. They may stop, or diminish and then return. The person may sweat, feel sick, faint or be short of breath.

Many people having a heart attack won’t admit they are in trouble, or they think it’s not serious.

What should you do?
Make sure the person is resting quietly, sitting or lying down. Get them to take half an aspirin immediately (be aware they are not allergic to it). If breathless, get them to sit up. If they feel faint, get them to lie flat. Call an ambulance. If, for some reason, an ambulance can’t get there quickly enough, drive the person to hospital right away.

If you feel these symptoms yourself, or see the first signs of someone else suffering from them, don’t wait. Medical help is most important in the first few hours. Prompt medical attention can help reduce the amount of heart muscle damage and can help improve the person’s chances of survival.

Cardiac arrest
How do you know if someone has had a cardiac arrest?
The person is unconscious. Their heart has stopped beating. Their skin turns pale or blue. You feel no pulse. What should you do?
Act as fast as possible: get someone to call for skilled help. A person who has had a cardiac arrest won’t survive unless the blood starts pumping and the body gets a supply of oxygen very quickly.

Start CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). CPR involves mouth-to-mouth breathing and external heart massage through the chest.
Call an ambulance: tell the emergency services that someone has had a cardiac arrest.

Normal hair growth:
About 90 percent of hair on the scalp grows constantly. The other 10 percent of scalp hair lies in a resting state that lasts two to three months. At the end of the resting stage, this hair is eventually shed.
But don’t worry shedding is normal; we shed 50 to 100 hairs a day. When a hair is shed, a new hair from the same follicle replaces it and the growing cycle starts again. Scalp hair grows about one-half inch a month.
However ageing results in the slowing of the rate of hair growth.

What causes excessive hair loss?
Most shedding of hair is due to the normal growth-rest cycle, and losing 50 to 100 hairs a day is normal. If you are concerned about excessive loss of hair or dramatic thinning, you should consult a dermatologist. Excess loss of hair may be due to many different causes, including:

* A high fever, severe infection
* Thyroid disease
* Inadequate protein in diet
* Certain medications
* Cancer treatments
* Low serum iron
* Major surgery/chronic illness
* alopecia areata
* Hereditary thinning or balding
* A fungus infection (i.e., ringworm) of the scalp
* Improper hair cosmetic use/improper hair care

Can hair loss be prevented?
Hair loss due to certain causes will regrow naturally. And a dermatologist may treat other causes successfully. There are several causes of hair loss for which there is no successful treatment at present.
Hair can also be replaced by non-surgical methods, such as with medication.

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK after breast cancer, with more than 37,000 new cases reported a year. The incidence of lung cancer is rising. Lung cancer is responsible for more cancer deaths than colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer combined and makes up 25% of all UK cancer deaths. Lung cancer primarily strikes people age 45 and over and unfortunately by the time an individual develops symptoms, spread has usually occurred. As a consequence the 1 year survival rate is less than 5% and surgical resection is the only cure.

Lung cancer is directly related to smoking with 85% of cases in smokers, 5% in passive smokers and only 10% in non-smokers. In 1950 the British Medical Journal published evidence suggesting a link between smoking and lung cancer, followed by the announcement in 1964 by US Surgeon General Luther Terry that smoking causes lung cancer. More than 50 potential carcinogens have been identified in cigarette smoke which can lead to mutations in genes that predispose to the development of cancer.

A number of different factors are related to the development of lung cancer. Firstly, the more cigarettes smoked, the greater the chance is that you will develop lung cancer however it is the length of time that you have been smoking which is the key determinant.

For example if you were to smoke 20 cigarettes a day for 40 years you are at a greater risk of developing lung cancer than if you smoke 40 cigarettes a day for 20 years. However, when you stop smoking, immediately your risk of lung cancer begins to decrease although it takes on average a further 15 years until your risk of developing lung cancer is equal to that of a non-smoker of the same age. 40% of newly diagnosed lung cancers still occurs in ex-smokers illustrating trhe long interval between quitting smoking and a significant reduction in lung cancer risk.

There has been a change in consumption of cigarettes from unfiltered high tar cigarettes to filtered low tar cigarettes which possibly lead to a slight reduction in lung cancer risk however, this is cancelled out in most smokers who aware of this knowledge take more, deeper puffs or smoke more cigarettes. This change also mirrors the change in incidence seen in different types of lung cancer, from squamous cell carcinomas that metastasise very early on to adenocarcinomas.

The risk in passive smokers (those who don’t smoke but are continuously exposed to second-hand smoke) is very difficult to calculate although it has been estimated that a partner of a smoker has a 25% increased chance of developing lung cancer when compared to a non-smoker.

Furthermore, while cigarette smoking is the main risk factor for developing lung cancer, both cigars and pipe smoking carry an increased risk alongside an increased risk of cancer of the mouth or lips.

Finally, lung cancer always used to be a disease more commonly seen in men due to the smoking patterns of the past however, with an increasing prevalence of women smokers, it is now almost as common in women as in men.

The smoking ban in Scotland has produced a sharp drop in the number of people suffering heart attacks, according to figures released yesterday.

A study of nine hospitals found a 17 per cent reduction in admissions for heart attacks since the ban on lighting up in public places was introduced in March last year.

Before the legislation took effect, the annual reduction over the preceding decade had been just three per cent.

The most comprehensive analysis of the effects of the legislation also reported that the quality of air in pubs had improved dramatically and that exposure to second-hand smoke north of the border had dropped by 40 per cent.

Professor Peter Donnelly, Scotland’s deputy chief medical officer, said the figures proved that the ban had produced major health benefits.

He added: “It provides evidence that the legislation is improving the health of everyone in Scotland, including smokers, non-smokers, children and bar workers.

“One of the most important findings is the reduction in heart attacks. We believe that the smoking ban was a large contributory factor to this.”

An international conference in Edinburgh to study the impact of the ban was told that there was no evidence of smoking shifting from public places into homes, and there was a high level of public support for the legislation even among smokers.

Shona Robison, the public health minister, said health experts from around the world had come to Scotland to hear how the ban had benefited the country. “More and more countries are now following suit by banning smoking in public places and I am proud that Scotland led the way in the UK,” she added.

“We want to continue the work to make Scotland a smoke-free society and that is why next month, subject to Parliamentary approval, we will be raising the age of cigarette sales from 16 to 18.”

Other research findings published yesterday showed that bar workers reported fewer breathing problems.

Work by Aberdeen University found health improvements in both smoking and non-smoking bar staff, and found that smokers were smoking less.

By analysing nicotine in saliva, the researchers found that the exposure of non-smoking bar workers to tobacco smoke had fallen by 89 per cent since the start of the ban.

However, Paul Waterson, of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said the anti-smoking legislation remained “bad law”. He said statistics on heart attacks were already improving before the ban and claimed that the same clean air in pubs could have been achieved with technology including air conditioning.

He also claimed that one third of premises in Scotland had been forced to lay off staff, and said sales were down.

A spokesman for Forest, the campaign to defend smokers’ rights, said the anti-smoking lobby in Scotland had “played fast and loose with statistics” since the ban was introduced.

He added that no information had been produced to back up claims of deaths caused by passive smoking.

“There should have been smoking and non-smoking places,” he said.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

While it is true that smoking can give you a lift during the day especially when you are tired, it is also known that smoking can relate to that tired all the time feeling. You may think that feeling run down is a normal part of life and it is true that your energy flows in waves, therefore meaning that everyone has energy peaks and troughs throughout the day. However quitting smoking will add enormously to your energy levels after the first few weeks.

It has been reported that as early as 72 hours after stopping smoking, people’s breathing becomes easier as bronchial tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase. This in turn can be beneficial when quitting as many people worry about weight gain that can happen when people quit. Weight gain occurs as smoking actually is associated with an increased use of energy i.e. smoking increases the body’s metabolism or put another way burns upto 200 calories a day in a heavy smoker. A study done in America showed that as expected there was an energy increase between rest and active states. More relevantly, an increase of energy consumption by 3.6% occurred while at rest in a smoker when compared to a non-smoker. This was shown to be directly due to the effects of nicotine. Therefore, quitting smoking means that in turn the body’s metabolism slows.

However, the extra energy which many people experience can be put to good use increasing your exercise levels, even doing things as simple as going for a brisk walk at lunchtime or in the evening, which not only keeps weight gain one may experience to a minimal but can also improve your general health.

Tobacco (Nicotinia spp) is a broad-leafed plant of the nightshade family native to North and South America. It is thought that the first people to start to use leaves of the tobacco plant for chewing and smoking were the Mayan civilisations of Central America in approximately 1000BC. The Mayans viewed tobacco as something of an all-purpose medicine widely believing that it had some magical powers. The practise of chewing and smoking tobacco is thought to have been gradually adopted throughout Central America, spreading across to North and South America.

In 1492 Christopher Colombus was presented with “certain dry leaves” on his travels alongside fruit and spears. It is recorded that the gifts were accepted and taken back to his ship whereby the fruit was eaten and the leaves thrown away. In the same year, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres were credited as the first Europeans to be seen smoking. Back in Spain Rodrigo de Jerez was imprisoned after his neighbours were frightened by the smoke seen coming outo f his mouth and nose and he was imprisoned for seven years. On his release, smoking was the latest craze in Spain. By 1498, Columbus visited Trinidad and Tobago, naming the latter island after tobacco.

Throughout the sixteenth century, sailors are credited with the global spread of tobacco. It is thought that tobacco was introduced to England by Sir John Hawkins in 1560. However, it was not readily accepted in England and James I (1566-1625) notably published ‘A Counterblast to Tobacco’ in 1604 in which tobacco was described as “an invention of Satan”. He went on to ban tobacco from London alehouses and introduced a tax. However, he later had a change of heart and even introduced a reduction in the tax on tobacco.

The cigar became increasingly popular in England in the 1820s before the advent of the cigarette. The birth of the cigarette is a topic of controversy among historians. While some believe that they were born from beggars in Seville who picked up the cigar ends thrown down and wrapped them in scraps of paper, others think that the first paper-rolled cigarettes were made by Egyptian soldiers fighting in the Turkish-Egyptian war. It wasn’t really until the Crimean war when British soldiers emulated their Turkish comrades rolling their tobacco in newspaper print that cigarettes were introduced to the Brits. It soon became very popular with the first cigarette factory opening in Walworth, England in 1856.

Quite rapidly a smoking culture built up and after World War 1, in the 1920s smoking became associated with a glamorous, carefree lifestyle and it also became socially acceptable for women to smoke. However, The Lancet was already writing about fears of the impact of smoking on one’s health in 1858 and in 1950 the British Medical Journal published evidence suggesting a link between smoking and lung cancer, to be followed by the announcement in 1964 by US Surgeon General Luther Terry that smoking causes lung cancer. By 1965, UK bans cigarette advertisements on television later followed by a ban for advertising cigarettes on radio in 1971. More recently in 2003, the advertisement and promotion is banned in the UK while over in New York, smoking is banned in all public places.

Tobacco can be smoked (usually in the form of a cigarette, cigar or in a pipe), chewed, “dipped” or sniffed in to the nose as snuff. Chewed tobacco is one of the oldest methods of consuming tobacco leaves known. Native Americans in both North and South America are known to have chewed tobacco, frequently mixing it with lime. These days modern tobacco meant for chewing is produced in produced in three forms; twist, plug and scrap.

Often confused with chewing tobacco is dip. In contrast, a small pinch of ‘dip’ is taken from a tin and placed inbetween the lower lip and gums. In this spot, blood vessels are plentifuol and close to the surface meaning that the nictine easily passes into the blood system. Saliva which comes into contact with the dip is very nauseating if swallowed and is commonly spitted out.

These days snuff is a generic term for finely ground tabacco although it initially referred to a dry snuff popular in the eighteenth century. European (dry) snuff was sniffed in up the nose where as American snuff was much stronger and intended to be used in dipping. When snuff was popular, it was placed in a small depression formed by three tendons below the thumb on the back on the hand before it was sniffed. This depression is know named the anatomical snuff box.

Currently, the most popular intake of tobacco is via smoking, with cigarettes leading the way. Cigarettes rarely contain pure tobacco but instead have a whole host of things added. Nicotine is the active ingredient in cigarettes and is what people become addicted to. It does however have limited carcinogenic effects. More than 4000 chemical compounds have however been identified in tobacco smoke, of which at least 43 are known to be related to carcinogenesis. The precise make up of individual makes of cigarettes varies greatly, in particular with reference to nicotine and tar content.

Unfortunately, symptoms of high cholesterol usually are very rare. Blood test is usually carried out to determine the levels of cholesterol. The symptoms are actually from the end-result of high cholesterol for health issues such as coronary disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Each of these health issues will be explained further below:

Coronary Disease – the primary symptom of coronary heart disease is called Angina (also know as chest pain). A feeling of “pressure” or “squeezing” is usually felt by patients. These types of feelings can spread to other parts of the body, such as the jaw, neck or arm. However, these feelings are usually located in the chest region.

Other symptoms include nausea, shortness of breath, sweating, light-headedness or dizziness and heart palpitations. Angina can be directly correlated to coronary heart disease and should be taken seriously. In some circumstances a short period of rest will reduce or eliminate the pains. However, whenever you feel any chest pain or any of these symptoms, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Stroke – there are four main symptoms associated with stroke and it is a very sudden event with little or no warming.

* Patients feel sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm, or leg, especially on one side the body.
* Unable to speak or understand what is going nearby and causes confusion.
* Sudden inability of vision in one or both eyes.
* Dizziness, loss of balance and lack of coordination.

In addition, there are other symptoms related to stroke, they are nausea/vomiting, fever, fainting, convulsions and sometimes more serious coma.

Peripheral Vascular Disease – this disease involves arteries being narrowed or blocked which carry blood around the body. This is very serious because it slows blood down or even stops it from flowing completely. When this happens, there will be numbness and/or tingling in the lower extremities. A cold sensation might be felt and open sores or ulcers on the lower extremities might not heal properly.

Which are the symptoms of a heart attack?
The symptoms of a heart attack may be quite gentle that’s why many people take too long to recognize they need help.

The most common symptoms are a feeling of heavy pressure or deficiency, crushing pain or unusual discomfort in the centre of the chest or a feeling like indigestion. Pain or tightness may extend to the shoulders, neck or arms, or it may affect the jaws or throat, making the person feel like they’re choking. Some people don’t get chest discomfort, and only get symptoms in their arms or throat. Others don’t get pains in their arms, but their arms feel heavy or useless.

The symptoms would usually last about more than 15 minutes. They may stop, or diminish and then return. The person may sweat, feel sick, faint or be short of breath.

Many people having a heart attack won’t admit they are in trouble, or they think it’s not serious.

What should you do?
Make sure the person is resting quietly, sitting or lying down. Get them to take half an aspirin immediately (be aware they are not allergic to it). If breathless, get them to sit up. If they feel faint, get them to lie flat. Call an ambulance. If, for some reason, an ambulance can’t get there quickly enough, drive the person to hospital right away.

If you feel these symptoms yourself, or see the first signs of someone else suffering from them, don’t wait. Medical help is most important in the first few hours. Prompt medical attention can help reduce the amount of heart muscle damage and can help improve the person’s chances of survival.

Cardiac arrest
How do you know if someone has had a cardiac arrest?
The person is unconscious. Their heart has stopped beating. Their skin turns pale or blue. You feel no pulse.

What should you do?
Act as fast as possible: get someone to call for skilled help. A person who has had a cardiac arrest won’t survive unless the blood starts pumping and the body gets a supply of oxygen very quickly.

Start CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). CPR involves mouth-to-mouth breathing and external heart massage through the chest.

Call an ambulance: tell the emergency services that someone has had a cardiac arrest.

My constant trawl through medical archives in search of developments in the treatment of erectile dysfunction occasionally throws out some interesting and useful information. It appears that grapefruit juice can also affect the absorption of the popular erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (Sildenafil).

Researchers in Köln, Germany, conducted a study using 24 healthy, male subjects whose average age was 29 years. The men received a glass of grapefruit juice on an empty stomach and then one hour later another glass of grapefruit juice with Viagra 50 mg. Blood samples were collected over the next 24 hours. A week later the experiment was repeated with water being substituted for grapefruit juice.

Researchers found that the absorption of Viagra increased by 23% when taken with grapefruit juice instead of water. Grapefruit juice also delayed the absorption of Viagra. This latter point is important because Viagra is supposed to be taken one hour before sex, and taking the drug with grapefruit juice may result in disappointment for some users of Viagra.

The grapefruit juice used in this study was white juice and supplied by Döhler-Euro Citrus NBI, GmbH. Other brands, types and doses of grapefruit juice may have different effects. The researchers suggest that the combination of Viagra and grapefruit juice be “avoided.”
Men who use protease inhibitors are usually prescribed less-than-normal doses of Viagra because protease inhibitors can raise levels of Viagra several times greater than normal, which can cause dangerous side effects. Therefore, men who use protease inhibitors and Viagra may wish to also avoid taking Viagra with grapefruit juice.