Healthbeat by Deirdre Cox Baker

Got a headache? Most of us are used to walking into a drug store to review a vast array of merchandise before we decide which over-the-counter medicine might work best. The actual choice could be based on packaging, national advertising campaigns, or what Mom did, years ago.

Pharmacists now ask us to talk to them first.

According to the American Pharmacists Association in a recent Pharmacy Today survey, pharmacists believe that 83 percent of consumers purchase over-the-counter products that they actually recommend.

The survey also reveals that on average, pharmacists counsel 31 patients per week about over-the-counter medications.

I’m just not sure that’s true where I shop. Every time I’m in a drug store, there’s a long line at the counter and the last thing I want to do is wait until a pharmacist isn’t busy. They are constantly busy. I bet some local stores see hundreds of patients a week at the very least.

However, they might find opportunity to speak to 31 of them in a week’s time. I can appreciate that a pharmachist is the only local professional who can speak authoritatively on a specific medication.

The survey is available on the Web.

The child who wets the bed isn’t lazy, a doctor said, but may have a problem within the brain.

Bedwetting embarrasses children and can be a cause of social issues — think sleep-overs. The problem is often misunderstood by parents, said Dr. John Kryger, a pediatric urologist with American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wis.

Bedwetting may be simply out of the child’s control.

“A large part of the problem is a delay in the maturity of the central nervous system and interaction between the child’s brain, sleep patterns and the bladder-control center,” he said. “Practically every bed-wetter I see is a deep sleeper, and when children go to sleep, brain patterns change and may affect bladder control.”

Some 15 percent of kids still wet the bed at age five, but the rate declines 15 percent every year to the age of 18, Kryger said. It is also often an inherited trait.

Suggestions to help:

1. Don’t drink fluids one hour before bedtime.

2. Reduce caffeine intake.

3. Cut back on food consumption so the bowel doesn’t press against the bladder and affect the urine capacity.

4. If all else fails, an alarm may be attached to underwear as a way to teach the child’s brain to awaken when the bladder is full.

5. Some prescription drugs are also available.

I started getting tummyaches as a little kid, about as far back as I can remember. My sisters used to brew me a cup of tea to help me feel better.

Maybe that’s when I picked up the hot-tea-in-the-morning habit. As an adult, and for many years, I would be one of the few morning tea drinkers in an office, sometimes the only one. It’s actually kind of an obsession … one time my husband and I were travelling by car, and I insisted on stopping in Dyersville, Iowa, to get my morning tea. The place didn’t have any. The poor person on duty had to hear it from me on how that was a horrible oversight.

It’s only the past few years that tea has been touted for it’s cancer-prevention effects. Green and black teas have 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables, by one estimate, according to this article.

Green, black and oolong teas all some from the same tea plant but are processed differently. The world’s big tea-drinking countries, Japan and China, have less heart disease and don’t have some of the cancers found in the Western World.

It’s nice to have a personal obsession evolve into a healthful habit.

During this month of hearts, it appears that Feb. 20 is National Woman’s Heart Day. Who knew?

Not I, who, beyond having what is hopefully a healthy heart, also tries to be pretty well versed in topics of the heart.

There’s a national non-profit foundation dedication to the prevention of heart disease called “Sister to Sister.” This foundation boils all the suggestions of heart health into three subject areas:

1. Get screened and memorize those numbers. The basic tests to identify personal risk factors includes: A check of your blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides, Body Mass Index, or BMI, waist circumference and family history.

2. Take action on what you learn. Lifestyle changes such as exercising more and eating right can decrease heart risks by as much as 82 percent, Sister to Sister reports.

3. Don’t do it all alone. Get a support network together of women friends and family members to put you on track to success.

Heart disease kills more people in the United States than anything else, including cancer. Heart issues account for one-third of all deaths combined. Women are more likely than men to die from coronary disease.

It’s my most likely cause of death. My father died of a sudden heart attack 20 years ago, and my doctor points out that it’s in my own interest to exercise regularly, eat right, and take active steps to control my ticker. It’s working so far, or at least low blood pressure would seem to indicate so.

But I know how hard it is to try to follow a heart-healthy lifestyle. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s “The Heart Truth” program might help. It involves supermodel Heidi Klum and the Coca-Cola Co. Find out information about a jewelry charm that Klum designed for a promotion, the Red Dress Charm Sweepstakes, at this Web site: DietCoke.com. The red charm, by the way, also reflects the dress that Klum will model during the Academy Awards telecast on Feb. 22.

Facts:

1. One in four American women dies of heart disease.

2. Mid-life is a time when women tend to develop factors that increase their risk for heart disease, and having just one risk factor doubles the risk of heart disease

3. Heart disease doesn’t stop developing — unless treated, it gets worse.

4. Many women can lower their risk of heart disease risk as much as 82 percent by leading a heart healthy lifestyle. This means: Eat right, be physically active, don’t smoke and maintain a healthy weight.

Tips:

Go for the whole grains: Eat at least 3 ounces daily of whole-grain foods like cereals, breads, pasta and rice.

Get hooked on fish: Eat Omega 3 rich fish such as salmon (yum!), trout and herring at least twice a week.

Load up on produce: Enjoy colorful fruits and vegetables. Fiber, vitamins and minerals are great for your heart. I find the fresh assortment is a tad limited this time of year so I just bought a bag of frozen blueberries, my favorite. I’ll write about how the frozen type works out. 

Go nuts: Choose modest portions of foods with unsaturated fats such as vegetable oils, nuts and seeds. 

Focus on fiber: The fiber in oatmeal, barley, fruits, vegetables and beans is good for your heart.

“For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.”

These are the words Lou Gehrig spoke 70 years ago to a packed house of Yankee baseball fans. Tears flowed as one of the best in the sport said good-bye to his hometown followers. He died two years later, falling to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. It was little understood in 1939 but now is well known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

Major League Baseball announced Tuesday a new charitable campaign — 4 Diamond ALS Awareness — that pairs up with four leading ALS organizations to find a cure. This disease destroys the nerve cells controlling muscles, ultimately causing complete paralysis. Average life expectancy is 3-5 years after diagnosis.

A campaign highlight comes July 4 this year, when each Major League Baseball team will host an on-field reading of Gehrig’s farewell address. This will be done during the Seventh Inning Stretch. All players will wear a campaign patch on their chest and there will be stadium promotions.

ALS partner organizations include: The ALS Association, ALS TDI, MDA/Augie’s Quest, and Project ALS.

To read more about this campaign and to see about possibly attending a game on July 4, check out this site.

Erectile dysfunction in men increases with age, but when it happens to younger men it could also indicate more serious problems like coronary artery disease.

So says the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research in the February issue of “Mayo Clinic Proceedings.”

If erectile dysfunction, or ED, happens to men younger than 49 years of age it is associated with a marked increase in future heart health issues. But if ED happens to those over age 70 it’s of little importance in indicating problems to come, the study concludes.

Younger ED sufferers may be ideal candidates for cardiovascular risk screenings and medical intervention. There may, in fact, be a “window” of curability in which cardiac disease in this age group could be slowed or halted medically.

This study reflects common sense to me. ED indicates blood flow issues in a man, and that would reflect how his heart actually works. Older men logically have more health problems as their bodies age.

But the Mayo study could yet help Baby Boomers sort out personal health and medical concerns. For more information go to this Web site: www.mayoclinicproceedings.com