Some Frigid Facts

If you think challenges that health care system is facing today are not your problem, think again…..
1. According to one research, 50% of bankruptcies filed in the US were due to medical causes. 75.7% of those that filed bankruptcy due to medical causes had insurance at the onset of illness. Even middle class families often fall prey to financial catastrophe, when sick.
2. In 2004 (the latest year data are available), total health care spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). This is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching 20 percent of the GDP in 2015.
3. More than 25 percent, according to a survey said that housing problems resulted from medical debt, including the inability to make rent or mortgage payments and the development of bad credit ratings
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Screening to Avoid a Fatal Outcome

The journal of vascular medicine published a consensus statement. It says that 15,000 people die from abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture per year. Abdominal aortic aneurysm is the abnormal ballooning of the large artery called aorta that runs in head to toe direction, in the middle of your abdomen. Four to eight percent of the males and 1.5% of females above the age of 60 have aortic aneurysm more than 3 cm in size.
If you have an aneurysm in the abdominal aorta that is more than 5.5 cm in size, the chances of it rupturing is 16% per year. Quite a scary scenario!
A recent study from UK concluded that proper surgical treatment of these aneurysms can significantly decrease mortality. A simple ultrasound of the abdomen can diagnose the aneurysm.
The article under discussion suggests that all males between 60 to 85, and females in the same age group with some cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and other factors, should undergo ultrasound of the abdomen to screen for aneurysm.
They recommend that males or females older than 50 years with family history of abdominal aortic aneurysm should undergo this screening ultrasound. This article makes a convincing argument from the financial point as well. It says that cost-effectiveness of screening ultrasound will be somewhat similar to that of mammogram, a test used to screen for breast cancer in females.
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The significance of TIA

There is a chance that a short lived difficulty speaking or weakness of one side of the body that resolves on its own could be easily ignored or forgotten. This problem called as transient ischemic attack (TIA), however, enormously increases the chances of a full blown stroke in coming days.
The British researchers have published a scoring system in the journal Lancet that estimates the chances of a big stroke after TIA. A 60+ person with a blood pressure more than 140/90 having weakness of one part of the body that lasts more than 60 minutes that resolves on its own, for example, has about 31% chance of having a stroke within seven days following this episode!
So, do talk to your provider if you have any neurological symptoms, however transient.
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Got Headache?

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Too Young For This?

At what age should you starting taking good care of your heart? The younger group of my radio listenership has asked me this question. Taking good care of your heart at a young age is the best investment with potential of great returns in the future. I think it is never too early to start taking care of your heart for the following reasons:
1. Study of heart arteries of very young accident victims has shown fatty streaks, the early stage of atherosclerosis (the process that causes blocked arteries)
2. Some research studies have shown that obese children are at a higher risk of having heart disease during their adult years
3. The key to decreasing the chances of heart disease is physical activity, eating right, abstaining from smoking and heavy drinking, spending free time engaged in physical activity rather than eating etc. These are the life style choices that are easier to get used to at a younger age.
If you are a young person, spend some time learning about heart disease.
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