3,000 Pills Later - A Nutraceutical Experiment - TIME Video

The TIME magazine writer John Cloud took over 3,000 vitamins and supplements in a span of 5 months to see how his health would change. He was taking 28 pills a day. The results may surprise you.

He gained weight. His HDL increased but nobody was sure why. His vitamin D level increased but the follow-up level was done in June when he was spending more time in the sun anyway. That was all.

References:
Nutrition In a Pill. TIME.

Marathon-associated ailments: “too hot,” “too cold,” “too dry,” “too wet” and “wobble and fall down”

According to the NYTimes, the most common and potentially life-threatening marathon-associated ailments are “too hot,” “too cold,” “too dry,” “too wet” and “wobble and fall down”. These translate into heat stroke, hypothermia, dehydration, low blood sodium and collapse, respectively.

The medical professionals at this year's NYC marathon had ice-water dunk tanks to treat runners who developed high fevers. Handheld i-Stat machines enabled them to analyze the chemistry of the runners’ blood, then dispense the right amounts of intravenous fluids, salts and sugar.



Understanding the Heart Hazards of Marathon Running - Video - TIME.com.

References:
Doctor Prepared for the Worst at Marathon. NYTimes.
Faces at the Finish - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.
Running With the Elites - Slide Show - NYTimes.

New CPR Guidelines - Hands Only - Use "CAB" Instead of "ABC" While Singing "Stayin' Alive"

The American Heart Association is adopting new cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) guidelines that do away with mouth to mouth resuscitation and focus on chest compressions. Do fast, forceful compressions; the beat of "Stayin' Alive" is the right pace - 100 beats per minute. Queen's "Another one bites the dust" was rejected as an alternative song choice.

Currently, this recommendation only applies to laymen CPR. The professional rescuers (EMTs, doctors, etc.) should use the previous approach with a compression-breathing (ventilation) ratio of 30:2.

However, “chest compression only” CPR is recommended if the rescuer is not trained (for example, in dispatcher assisted CPR) or is not willing to give rescue breaths. The aim is now to compress the chest to a depth of 5-6 cm (rather than 4-5 cm). This recommendation is based on several studies showing that deeper compressions were associated with improved short term outcomes.


Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows Matthew McConaughey the new way of doing CPR on Larry King Live.


Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive.

References:

New CPR is spelled C-A-B. CNN.
New international guidelines on resuscitation. BMJ, 2010.

Related reading:

Dangers of unrecognized heart disease: Husband dies while giving wife CPR (both found dead, age 60, 59) http://goo.gl/LZ39U
British Heart Foundation is urging people to forget "mouth-to-mouth" during CPR: 'no kissing, just hard CPR'. BBC, 2011.

"Professional Guinea Pigs" in Clinical Trials - TIME video

Human subjects are paid in Phase 1 clinical trials to test the toxicity levels of new drugs. Some make a profession out of it, but researchers worry about health risks.

References:
Clinical Trials: Professional Guinea Pigs. TIME.

Blast from Europe's medieval medical past: leeches

From TIME:

Another blast from Europe's medieval medical past are medicinal leeches. Similar to bloodletting, leeches were utilized to draw out the "bad blood" that medieval physicians believed caused many of their patients' ailments.

In modern medicine, however, leeches are used in reconstructive surgery to provide a vacuum effect that helps stimulate blood circulation. This process is crucial to help kick start blood flow into, for example, a reattached finger.



Covered by sucking leeches! BBC video.Miichael Palin experiments with a traditional Russian health therapy in Estonian capital Tallinn by allowing a doctor to cover him in sucking leeches. Fascinating video that is definitely not for the faint hearted! Taken from BBC travel documentary, Palin's New Europe.

References:
Leeches are making a comeback as medical helpers. Chicago Tribune, 2011.

Top 10 Unusual Medical Treatments. TIME.

PubMed: "Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches" http://bit.ly/IKOrY

Top 10 Bloodsuckers: Leech. AnimalPlanetTV.

Cheap fast food "enticing people to eat more because they think they're saving money when they're really buying heart disease"

"Fake foods are more affordable. It's enticing people to eat more because they think they're saving money when they're really just buying heart disease."

References:
10 Questions for Jillian Michaels. TIME, 2010.