Odds and Ends

Because the NFl Pro Bowl is just beginning and playing in the background, let me start with injuries.

Sports Injuries Three things lead to this blurb. Today a running friend mentioned that another friend was out having surgery. Someone said, "oh his knee?" and another said,
" no, his shoulder." Last night my niece mentioned that she had re injured her meniscus and might have to have surgery again. Both of these persons had these issues from tennis. SO I decided to research which sport had the most injuries. It appears to be football, which is exactly why the men in next week's Super Bowl have opted out of the Pro Bowl. Interestingly, the top two sports for injuries are football and basketball and the top injury for both is the KNEE. Otherwise, injuries are definitely related to contact, to improper form, improper equipment, lack of warm up and over use. Over use injuries are probably more common in tennis and running.

Zyprexa Zyprexa is a medication that is considered an anti psychotic and is in the psychotropic class. This means it is a mood altering drug. It is also one of the many drugs in this class that have been shown to cause weight gain. (personally I think we need to educate the patient on weight control if and when prescribing the medicine, but I did not ever see that happen when I worked in the field of psychiatry) Because Zyprexa, made by or sold by Lilly, has been approved for use in adolescents (scare me!) the FDA has now put out a warning about the weight gain and the increase in levels of blood fats. If you are on Zyprexa and develop hyperlipidemia, you are likely to be prescribed ANOTHER drug to treat that condition. That my friends is how polypharmacy gets started. Anyway, the new alert advises that other meds be tried before Zyprexa. We especially do not want our kids on meds for chronic disease conditions before they even graduate high school!

Tobacco and Heart Disease February will bring us heart health month again and I will likely write more about that. In the meantime, I have been studying for a February 4th community presentation on smoking and heart disease. Seriously, I have a great article that was forwarded to me by the author, Neal Benowtiz, MD. I have had to look up about 40 words, repeatedly, and feel like I need another couple initials after my name to understand it. But , I can say that chemicals in the tobacco smoke have a significant effect on hemodynamics, viscosity, thrombosis, and endothelial function. Just kidding - well , I mean it is true, but it means that the blood of smokers is thicker, that atherosclerosis (plaque build up) is activated from the chemicals and that platelets are also activated and clump together, putting smokers at significant risk of thrombosis, or blood clot. Smokers have heart attacks and sudden death at much younger ages than non smokers and are more likely to die during heart surgery. Their stents are more likely to clog and blood flow is likely to become impaired a second time. People who live with smokers have a 30% higher risk of heart disease themselves and only breathe 1% of the smoke that smoker's inhale. Crazy right! And heart disease kills 30% of smokers. The other top diseases of smokers are lung cancer and COPD.

Walking with Weights No doubt you know that weight training should NOT be done at the same time as the cardio portion of your workout, but can be done alternately. Well, yesterday I saw my favorite local really super gorgeous scuba instructor walking on our popular Sarasota Bridge (only hill in town) carrying two 8-10 weights in his hands. I was aghast.

Okay I believe that is it for now...... and for January ... ba bye...