h pylori symptoms: Şubat 2013

25 Şubat 2013 Pazartesi

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

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Beth Creech describes the first time she used an EpiPen to treat her daughter's severe allergic reaction (National Jewish video):

When to Use an EpiPen

National Jewish Health pediatric allergist Kirsten Carel, MD, explains when to use an EpiPen to administer epinephrine for a severe allergic reaction.

Learn How to Use an EpiPen -- It Could Save a Life

National Jewish Health registered nurse Emily Cole explains how to use an EpiPen, a potentially lifesaving medication for children and adults suffering a severe allergic reaction.

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

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Increased asthma morbidity and mortality is associated with inappropriate home self-management skills. This study included caregivers of 84 children with asthma aged 4 to 14 years, presenting to the emergency department (ED) with an asthma exacerbation. National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines were used to classify home albuterol use as appropriate or inappropriate.

Home albuterol use for the current asthma exacerbation was categorized as:

- inappropriate in 68% of participants
- appropriate in 32%

Incorrect home albuterol use included:

- undertreating, including not giving albuterol frequently enough, and without albuterol at home.
- no spacer
- overtreating
- overreacting
- using a controller medicine for quick relief

Those with appropriate albuterol use were more likely to have their child hospitalized for asthma in the past 48 months.

A significant proportion of caregivers (68%) incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol. Correctly assessing asthma symptom severity and appropriate home albuterol use may be linked to disease experience such as previous hospitalizations.

Incorrect and/or inappropriate use of medications is one of the major causes of difficult to control asthma:

Severe asthma - differential diagnosis and management (click to enlarge the image).

An asthma action plan may help. All patients with asthma should have such action plan.

The asthma action plan shows your daily treatment, such as what kind of medications to take and when to take them. Your plan describes how to control asthma long term AND how to handle worsening asthma, or asthma attacks. The plan explains when to call the doctor or go to the emergency room:

Asthma Action Plans

- Asthma Action Plan, adapted by Dr. Dimov (PDF)
- Asthma Action Plan, with added common medications, not branded for a specific physician (PDF)
- NIH generic Asthma Action Plan (PDF)

References:

Inappropriate home albuterol use during an acute asthma exacerbation. Clayton K, Monroe K, Magruder T, King W, Harrington K. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2012 Dec;109(6):416-9. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2012.09.013. Epub 2012 Oct 11.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23176880

AllergyGoAway.com: How to use an asthma action plan and peak flow meter (videos)

Image source: ProAir-HFA Albuterol Sulfate (US), Wikipedia, public domain.

Shingles Cures Tips - Let's reduce pain and Anxiety from it

To contact us Click HERE

You will have to deal with painful rashes that keep on appearing from time to time whenever you are suffer from it because of Your doctor will be unable to give you a permanent cure of them and will only be able to give you medications that treat your symptoms.

Shingles Treatments are not always the best thing for you because they consist of powerful antiviral medications as well as antihistamines and corticosteroids also might find the side effects of these drugs as hard to bear as the symptoms of them.

Skin Balm is one of the most effective remedies for it which you can easily make out of ingredients easily available at home or at health food stores.

You need good quality olive oil to start with, to which you should add drops of lavender, tea tree oil, geranium and oregano.

Peppermint oil also has excellent pain killing properties. The combination of essential oils helps to kill viruses and bacteria on the skin while the olive oil soothes the itching on the skin and helps to trap in moisture.

It will help prevent you scratching your rashes. This is one of the biggest reasons for a secondary bacterial infection taking place, leading to scarring. This mixture of oils is extremely fragrant and will also help put you in a good mood.

Another simple way of reducing your itching, and therefore your irritation and anxiety, is to apply petroleum jelly to the areas that have rashes.

This is an inexpensive solution to the problem of itching. These tips will help reduce your dependence on medication by giving you lots of comfort and peace of mind.

Day 1285 - It's All In Your Head

To contact us Click HERE

"Many people know about other contributing factors such as heredity, food triggers, lack of sleep, poor posture, etc., but are not aware of any psychological connection.
Headache specialists report that many of their patients resist any discussion of emotional or psychological contributors to their recurrent headaches. Some people fear that pursuing this avenue could uncover evidence of "mental illness." Others feel that the existence of these factors would make their pain less real because it would then be "all in their heads". In just about all cases, neither of these 2 things is true!
Headache is definitely a biological disorder. However, since the body and the mind are interconnected, your emotional and psychological states can have an effect on your overall health, including your headaches. Here's why:
- When your emotional and psychological systems are in good working order, they help to create a positive environment that contributes to the health of your body.
- When these systems aren't working so well...for example, if you feel anxious, depressed or angry on a frequent basis — and especially if you find it difficult to shake these feelings — a negative environment can be created in your body that may contribute to a specific headache episode or create a fertile breeding ground for headaches to occur.
The relationship between anxiety, depression and headache is not fully understood. However, it is known that the brain chemical serotonin plays a role in all of them. Some headache specialists have theorized that these disorders may share a common mechanism in the brain.
Research has shown that some chronic headache sufferers also suffer from depression and/or anxiety. It is important to note that these sufferers' psychological conditions may not be caused by their headaches. Rather, tendencies towards depression or anxiety may be inherent in their personalities or ways of thinking. Or, they may be the result of an intense and prolonged level of stress which may lead to psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression. Regardless of the cause, having frequent headaches and feeling a lack of control over them may cause an existing condition of depression or anxiety to worsen. This situation can easily snowball, creating a vicious cycle of headache and emotional distress.
Unfortunately, emotional and psychological factors are often not considered in the treatment of headache. Doctors (especially those who are not headache specialists) tend to emphasize medical treatment — and rightly so. This is the traditional "first line of defense" and is effective for most headache patients. So is appropriate to start — and, for most, to stop — there. Also, some doctors today are cautious not to focus on psychological factors during the earlier stages of headache treatment — possibly overcompensating for the days when many doctors treated patients as if the pain was "all in their heads."

Doctors who do bring up psychological contributors as a possibility often find that their patients want to avoid psychological treatment, fearing a "mentally ill" diagnosis or having a concern that the presence of these factors would mean that their headaches are not a serious medical problem. This is very unfortunate because nothing could be farther from the truth!"*

*http://www.excedrin.com/psychological-contributors-to-headaches.shtml

It has taken me over three years to write this post.

When the headache started - which now seems all those years ago - I went to see a psychologist about it. The headache had exacerbated to such a degree that I was unable to work and felt completely depressed about my situation. After telling her about the distress that the headache had caused, she looked at me, arms gently folded over her lap, and stated “It must be such a headache having this pain!” and gave a little chuckle. I brushed aside this silly joke, ignoring it and thinking that maybe she had unintentionally let it out. However, when the very same joke repeated itself over the course of the next sessions, I felt hurt, frustrated and angry that a person contending to be there to help could actually end up aggravating a situation. I could bear it no longer and after a few sessions I left. That was the last of any psychological treatment I have undergone.

The possibility of the headache being related to a close friend’s death which took place a few months before the onset of my headache, has crossed my mind more than once. But nearly four years down the line I do not think the headache is related to this, or at least entirely to this. It is possible that I have not yet recovered from the shock of losing such a close friend. I truly believe there is a strong link between body and mind and that a traumatic event can undoubtedly have consequences on one’s body. The passage above taken from a Headache Centre webpage discusses this in further detail. Just today I also came across an article on the BBC website on a similar topic.

The reason it has taken me so long to write anything on this is that I am unable to draw the line between the “it could be a psychologically caused headache ” to a “it’s all in your head” (i.e. fictional). I am certain, from the manner in which this question is usually addressed to me, that by ‘psychological’ the word ‘fictional’ is intended. Does anyone feel the same?

24 Şubat 2013 Pazar

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

To contact us Click HERE

Shingles Cures Tips - Let's reduce pain and Anxiety from it

To contact us Click HERE

Day 1285 - It's All In Your Head

To contact us Click HERE

"Many people know about other contributing factors such as heredity, food triggers, lack of sleep, poor posture, etc., but are not aware of any psychological connection.
Headache specialists report that many of their patients resist any discussion of emotional or psychological contributors to their recurrent headaches. Some people fear that pursuing this avenue could uncover evidence of "mental illness." Others feel that the existence of these factors would make their pain less real because it would then be "all in their heads". In just about all cases, neither of these 2 things is true!
Headache is definitely a biological disorder. However, since the body and the mind are interconnected, your emotional and psychological states can have an effect on your overall health, including your headaches. Here's why:
- When your emotional and psychological systems are in good working order, they help to create a positive environment that contributes to the health of your body.
- When these systems aren't working so well...for example, if you feel anxious, depressed or angry on a frequent basis — and especially if you find it difficult to shake these feelings — a negative environment can be created in your body that may contribute to a specific headache episode or create a fertile breeding ground for headaches to occur.
The relationship between anxiety, depression and headache is not fully understood. However, it is known that the brain chemical serotonin plays a role in all of them. Some headache specialists have theorized that these disorders may share a common mechanism in the brain.
Research has shown that some chronic headache sufferers also suffer from depression and/or anxiety. It is important to note that these sufferers' psychological conditions may not be caused by their headaches. Rather, tendencies towards depression or anxiety may be inherent in their personalities or ways of thinking. Or, they may be the result of an intense and prolonged level of stress which may lead to psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression. Regardless of the cause, having frequent headaches and feeling a lack of control over them may cause an existing condition of depression or anxiety to worsen. This situation can easily snowball, creating a vicious cycle of headache and emotional distress.
Unfortunately, emotional and psychological factors are often not considered in the treatment of headache. Doctors (especially those who are not headache specialists) tend to emphasize medical treatment — and rightly so. This is the traditional "first line of defense" and is effective for most headache patients. So is appropriate to start — and, for most, to stop — there. Also, some doctors today are cautious not to focus on psychological factors during the earlier stages of headache treatment — possibly overcompensating for the days when many doctors treated patients as if the pain was "all in their heads."

Doctors who do bring up psychological contributors as a possibility often find that their patients want to avoid psychological treatment, fearing a "mentally ill" diagnosis or having a concern that the presence of these factors would mean that their headaches are not a serious medical problem. This is very unfortunate because nothing could be farther from the truth!"*

*http://www.excedrin.com/psychological-contributors-to-headaches.shtml

23 Şubat 2013 Cumartesi

Day 1285 - It's All In Your Head

To contact us Click HERE

"Many people know about other contributing factors such as heredity, food triggers, lack of sleep, poor posture, etc., but are not aware of any psychological connection.
Headache specialists report that many of their patients resist any discussion of emotional or psychological contributors to their recurrent headaches. Some people fear that pursuing this avenue could uncover evidence of "mental illness." Others feel that the existence of these factors would make their pain less real because it would then be "all in their heads". In just about all cases, neither of these 2 things is true!
Headache is definitely a biological disorder. However, since the body and the mind are interconnected, your emotional and psychological states can have an effect on your overall health, including your headaches. Here's why:
- When your emotional and psychological systems are in good working order, they help to create a positive environment that contributes to the health of your body.
- When these systems aren't working so well...for example, if you feel anxious, depressed or angry on a frequent basis — and especially if you find it difficult to shake these feelings — a negative environment can be created in your body that may contribute to a specific headache episode or create a fertile breeding ground for headaches to occur.
The relationship between anxiety, depression and headache is not fully understood. However, it is known that the brain chemical serotonin plays a role in all of them. Some headache specialists have theorized that these disorders may share a common mechanism in the brain.
Research has shown that some chronic headache sufferers also suffer from depression and/or anxiety. It is important to note that these sufferers' psychological conditions may not be caused by their headaches. Rather, tendencies towards depression or anxiety may be inherent in their personalities or ways of thinking. Or, they may be the result of an intense and prolonged level of stress which may lead to psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression. Regardless of the cause, having frequent headaches and feeling a lack of control over them may cause an existing condition of depression or anxiety to worsen. This situation can easily snowball, creating a vicious cycle of headache and emotional distress.
Unfortunately, emotional and psychological factors are often not considered in the treatment of headache. Doctors (especially those who are not headache specialists) tend to emphasize medical treatment — and rightly so. This is the traditional "first line of defense" and is effective for most headache patients. So is appropriate to start — and, for most, to stop — there. Also, some doctors today are cautious not to focus on psychological factors during the earlier stages of headache treatment — possibly overcompensating for the days when many doctors treated patients as if the pain was "all in their heads."

Doctors who do bring up psychological contributors as a possibility often find that their patients want to avoid psychological treatment, fearing a "mentally ill" diagnosis or having a concern that the presence of these factors would mean that their headaches are not a serious medical problem. This is very unfortunate because nothing could be farther from the truth!"*

*http://www.excedrin.com/psychological-contributors-to-headaches.shtml

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

To contact us Click HERE

Shingles Cures Tips - Let's reduce pain and Anxiety from it

To contact us Click HERE

22 Şubat 2013 Cuma

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

To contact us Click HERE

Day 1285 - It's All In Your Head

To contact us Click HERE

"Many people know about other contributing factors such as heredity, food triggers, lack of sleep, poor posture, etc., but are not aware of any psychological connection.
Headache specialists report that many of their patients resist any discussion of emotional or psychological contributors to their recurrent headaches. Some people fear that pursuing this avenue could uncover evidence of "mental illness." Others feel that the existence of these factors would make their pain less real because it would then be "all in their heads". In just about all cases, neither of these 2 things is true!
Headache is definitely a biological disorder. However, since the body and the mind are interconnected, your emotional and psychological states can have an effect on your overall health, including your headaches. Here's why:
- When your emotional and psychological systems are in good working order, they help to create a positive environment that contributes to the health of your body.
- When these systems aren't working so well...for example, if you feel anxious, depressed or angry on a frequent basis — and especially if you find it difficult to shake these feelings — a negative environment can be created in your body that may contribute to a specific headache episode or create a fertile breeding ground for headaches to occur.
The relationship between anxiety, depression and headache is not fully understood. However, it is known that the brain chemical serotonin plays a role in all of them. Some headache specialists have theorized that these disorders may share a common mechanism in the brain.
Research has shown that some chronic headache sufferers also suffer from depression and/or anxiety. It is important to note that these sufferers' psychological conditions may not be caused by their headaches. Rather, tendencies towards depression or anxiety may be inherent in their personalities or ways of thinking. Or, they may be the result of an intense and prolonged level of stress which may lead to psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression. Regardless of the cause, having frequent headaches and feeling a lack of control over them may cause an existing condition of depression or anxiety to worsen. This situation can easily snowball, creating a vicious cycle of headache and emotional distress.
Unfortunately, emotional and psychological factors are often not considered in the treatment of headache. Doctors (especially those who are not headache specialists) tend to emphasize medical treatment — and rightly so. This is the traditional "first line of defense" and is effective for most headache patients. So is appropriate to start — and, for most, to stop — there. Also, some doctors today are cautious not to focus on psychological factors during the earlier stages of headache treatment — possibly overcompensating for the days when many doctors treated patients as if the pain was "all in their heads."

Doctors who do bring up psychological contributors as a possibility often find that their patients want to avoid psychological treatment, fearing a "mentally ill" diagnosis or having a concern that the presence of these factors would mean that their headaches are not a serious medical problem. This is very unfortunate because nothing could be farther from the truth!"*

*http://www.excedrin.com/psychological-contributors-to-headaches.shtml

Shingles Cures Tips - Let's reduce pain and Anxiety from it

To contact us Click HERE

21 Şubat 2013 Perşembe

Shingles Cures Tips - Let's reduce pain and Anxiety from it

To contact us Click HERE

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

To contact us Click HERE

Allergists increase Twitter use 470% in one year - 25 allergists reached 250,000 individuals from #AAAAI meeting

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Here are our 2 research posters and abstracts:

Rapid Growth of Twitter Use by Allergists and Immunologists for Professional Purposes: 470% increase (more than 4-fold) in Twitter use by allergists in one year

Nana Fenny MD MPH (1), Vesselin Dimov MD (2), Raoul Wolf MD (2); Section of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (2), Departments of Internal Medicine (1) and Pediatrics, University of Chicago. Published in Annals of Allergy and Immunology, 2012.

Introduction

Twitter is a fast growing social network and microblogging site. Physicians use the medium to educate the public and patients as well as share new studies and garner opinions on new advances in the field from their colleagues.

Aims

- Identify the largest directory of allergists and immunologist on Twitter.
- Evaluate the characteristics of use including medical/allergy specific content.
- Analyze interconnections among allergists.
- Describe and evaluate the response garnered from their followers on Twitter.

Limitations

- Small sample size
- Short study duration

Methods

Comparison of allergists and immunologist use of Twitter during one-year period (May 2011 to May 2012). Descriptive characteristics from the public profile pages of self-identified allergists/immunologists were extracted. Snowball sampling strategy with the search terms “allergists, immunologists, allergy, asthma, wheeze, sneeze”. We also searched Twitter lists compiled by individual users that were identified from the Twitter keyword searches. Accounts representing organizations or physician practices rather than individual allergists were excluded. Protected and non-English language accounts were also excluded. The most recent 20 Twitter updates (tweets) of each individual account were included in the final analysis.

Results

85 self-identified allergists were identified on Twitter in 2012 compared to 18 identified in the prior 2011 study. This represents a 470% increase (more than 4-fold) in Twitter use by allergists in one year. Most allergists were located in the USA (91%), used their personal name (95%) and had a profile picture (84%). There were 66 allergy-related organizations identified on Twitter. 80% of the allergists had more than 50 followers. 64% followed more than 50 users, 79% had more than 20 tweets. 78% of the allergists followed at least one allergist.

Rapid Growth of Twitter Use by Allergists and Immunologists for Professional Purposes: 470% increase (more than 4-fold) in Twitter use by allergists in one year:

Proportion of Tweets by Content

Of the 1307 tweets analyzed:

- 49% were allergy-related
- 12% were general health-related
- 31% were personal communications
- 4% were retweets (post of tweets by other users)
- 52% contained links

We did not find evidence of unprofessional conduct in the analyzed Twitter updates.

Proportion of Tweets by Content:

Conclusion

Twitter, a popular social network and free microblogging service, is being rapidly adopted by allergists, with 470% growth in one year.

Future studies should focus on best practices of Twitter use for patient and physician education by individual allergist and specialty organizations.

References

Lulic I, Kovic I. Analysis of emergency physicians’ twitter accounts.Emerg Med J 2012. Published online 25 May 2012.
Fenny N, Dimov V, Wolf R et al. Characteristics of the Professional Use of the Social Network Twitter by Allergists and Immunologists. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 2011;107, Issue 5, Supplement, Pages A1-A137.
Chreitin K et al. Physicians on Twitter. Journal of the American Medical Asssociation, February 9, 2011 -Vol 305, No. 6 p566-568
Dimov, V, Parks K et al. The utility of an online social network service for professional collaboration and education in allergy and immunology. Annals of Allergy,Asthma and Immunology. November 2009 - Vol 103, A 126
Dimov, V, et al. The utility of weblog to stay current with the new developments in allergy and Immunology. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. November 200Vol 103, A 127

Tweeting the Meeting: Investigating Twitter Activity at the 2012 AAAAI Conference: 25 allergists expanded the educational reach of the 2012 AAAAI annual meeting to 250,000 individuals

Neha Mehrotra, MD (1); Ves Dimov, MD (2); 1. Internal Medicine Residency Program; 2. Section of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, University of Chicago. Published in JACI, 2013.

Background

American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) has increased its efforts to use social media to disseminate medical information from its annual meetings. Microblog service Twitter can be used to accomplish this goal. This study investigated the use of Twitter during the 2012 AAAAI meeting, labeled with the hashtag #AAAAI.

Methods

Twitter search was performed for March 2-6, 2012 (dates of 2012 annual conference) using the search term #AAAAI to gather messages (tweets) posted during the conference. The # symbol (hashtag) is used to mark keywords or topics and is a way to categorize messages, thus allowing messages to be searched and followed by others. Content analysis classified each tweet into 8 categories: fact, reply, status update, retweet, link, opinion, query, and advertisement. The site TweetReach.com searches the extent of exposure data for tweets. This search was used to estimate the number of individuals who read the tweets, a measure of the number of people the information was disseminated to.

Twitter Analysis and Results

The 2012 AAAAI meeting had 5,041 registered delegates and 25 allergists (0.49% of the attendees) used Twitter to publish 2,650 tweets. Their tweets reached 250,000 people based on the results of TweetReach, nearly 50 times the number of people who attended the meeting. Based on the content analysis of the tweets, the most common category of tweet was facts with 1,397 (52.7%) tweets. Additionally, 7.2% (192) tweets were facts that included link to support the information provided. Remaining tweets were broken down into 366 (13.8%) replies, 274 (10.3%) status updates, 219 (8.2%) retweets, 112 (4.2%) opinions, 46 (1.7%) queries and 25 (0.9%) advertisements.

Tweeting the Meeting: Investigating Twitter Activity at the 2012 AAAAI Conference: 52.7% of tweets were facts, 7.2% included link to support the information provided:

Conclusion

A small subset of 25 allergists expanded the educational reach of the 2012 AAAAI annual meeting to 250,000 individuals. A large number of educational tweets were disseminated to the public. The large majority of tweets were factual and professional. Social media, and Twitter in particular, are an effective method of disseminating medical information to health care professionals and the public. A more organized approach and improved participation among attendees could further increase awareness of the new developments in allergy and immunology in cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

Future Research

Future research will be directed at the use of Twitter at the 2013 AAAAI conference to determine if Twitter use has increased/decreased. The content analysis could categorize tweets by topic as well as the previously used categories to identify topics which are most frequently discussed and perhaps gauge the interest of the audience at the conference and worldwide. This information could be used to guide future speakers and lectures topics for upcoming conferences as well as identify areas of interest for potential research projects. The role of Twitter as a tool to collaborate research efforts from multiple institutions could be investigated.

References

1. Desai T, Shariff Afreen, Shariff Aabid, et al. Tweeting the Meeting: An In-Depth Analysis of Twitter Activity at Kidney Week 2011. PLoS ONE. 2012;7:1-9. Available at: www.plosone.org.
2. Twitter. Available at: http://twitter.com.
3. TweetReach. Available at: http://TweetReach.com.
4. Chretien, KC. Physicians on Twitter. JAMA, 2011; 305 (6): 566-8.

Allergists who are planning to use Twitter from 2013 #AAAAI meeting (list open for edit, add your own info)

This is a list of the allergists who are planning to use Twitter to post updates from the 2012 #AAAAI meeting. The list is open for edit, please feel free to add your own info.

The hashtag for the meeting is #AAAAI

The hashtag for the 2013 annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) is #AAAAI

Type #AAAAI in Twitter Search box to find all recent updates from 2013 #AAAAI:

https://twitter.com/#!/search-home

Social media in medicine: How to be a Twitter rock star and help your patients and your practice

I will be presenting a talk and a seminar during the 2013 AAAAI meeting (PDF of the program) on the topic of social media use in healthcare. Feel free to join us, and ask any questions:

Friday, February 22
Course 1212: Technology in the Clinical Practice Made Ridiculously Simple
9:00 am to 12:00 pm, Convention Center, Concourse Level, Room 214BC
10:50 Social Media Tools for Marketing and Communications

Monday, February 25
Seminar 4012: The Use of Social Media in Your Practice
Marriott Rivercenter, Third Floor, Conference Room 10

There will be the fist ever tweetup (meeting) in real life of the tweeting allergists during the 2013 AAAAI and you can sign up here: http://doodle.com/envkn7umm8643uwx

In my personal experience, blogging fits nicely in what I call the Cycle of Online Information and Physician Education (click here to enlarge the image).

References:

The impact of social media on a major international emergency medicine conference -- Neill et al. -- Emergency Medicine Journal http://bit.ly/Ywhstq
PLOS ONE: Tweeting the Meeting: An In-Depth Analysis of Twitter Activity at Kidney Week 2011 http://buff.ly/XmisPw
Tweeting the Meeting: Investigating Twitter Activity At the 2012 AAAAI Conference http://bit.ly/XyugQP - Disclaimer: I am one of the authors.

Day 1285 - It's All In Your Head

To contact us Click HERE

"Many people know about other contributing factors such as heredity, food triggers, lack of sleep, poor posture, etc., but are not aware of any psychological connection.
Headache specialists report that many of their patients resist any discussion of emotional or psychological contributors to their recurrent headaches. Some people fear that pursuing this avenue could uncover evidence of "mental illness." Others feel that the existence of these factors would make their pain less real because it would then be "all in their heads". In just about all cases, neither of these 2 things is true!
Headache is definitely a biological disorder. However, since the body and the mind are interconnected, your emotional and psychological states can have an effect on your overall health, including your headaches. Here's why:
- When your emotional and psychological systems are in good working order, they help to create a positive environment that contributes to the health of your body.
- When these systems aren't working so well...for example, if you feel anxious, depressed or angry on a frequent basis — and especially if you find it difficult to shake these feelings — a negative environment can be created in your body that may contribute to a specific headache episode or create a fertile breeding ground for headaches to occur.
The relationship between anxiety, depression and headache is not fully understood. However, it is known that the brain chemical serotonin plays a role in all of them. Some headache specialists have theorized that these disorders may share a common mechanism in the brain.
Research has shown that some chronic headache sufferers also suffer from depression and/or anxiety. It is important to note that these sufferers' psychological conditions may not be caused by their headaches. Rather, tendencies towards depression or anxiety may be inherent in their personalities or ways of thinking. Or, they may be the result of an intense and prolonged level of stress which may lead to psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression. Regardless of the cause, having frequent headaches and feeling a lack of control over them may cause an existing condition of depression or anxiety to worsen. This situation can easily snowball, creating a vicious cycle of headache and emotional distress.
Unfortunately, emotional and psychological factors are often not considered in the treatment of headache. Doctors (especially those who are not headache specialists) tend to emphasize medical treatment — and rightly so. This is the traditional "first line of defense" and is effective for most headache patients. So is appropriate to start — and, for most, to stop — there. Also, some doctors today are cautious not to focus on psychological factors during the earlier stages of headache treatment — possibly overcompensating for the days when many doctors treated patients as if the pain was "all in their heads."

Doctors who do bring up psychological contributors as a possibility often find that their patients want to avoid psychological treatment, fearing a "mentally ill" diagnosis or having a concern that the presence of these factors would mean that their headaches are not a serious medical problem. This is very unfortunate because nothing could be farther from the truth!"*

*http://www.excedrin.com/psychological-contributors-to-headaches.shtml

20 Şubat 2013 Çarşamba

Epinephrine use with a food allergy attack: A Parent's Experience (video)

68% of caregivers incorrectly treat children's asthma exacerbation with albuterol, most undertreat

To contact us Click HERE

Allergists who are planning to use Twitter from 2013 #AAAAI meeting (list open for edit, add your own info)

To contact us Click HERE
This is a list of the allergists who are planning to use Twitter to post updates from the 2012 #AAAAI meeting. The list is open for edit, please feel free to add your own info.

The list shows the availability of the allergists by date and if they are planning to attend a tweetup (a meeting of people who use Twitter or are following the tweets). If interested in real life meeting during the 2012 #AAAAI, please signup in the Doodle poll below so that we can mutually agree on a time: http://doodle.com/envkn7umm8643uwx

The hashtag for the meeting is #AAAAI

The hashtag for the 2013 annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) is #AAAAI

Type #AAAAI in Twitter Search box to find all recent updates from 2013 #AAAAI:

https://twitter.com/#!/search-home

How to use Twitter to post updates from 2012 AAAAI meeting

See an example of best practice by @MatthewBowdish posted here: http://allergynotes.blogspot.com/search/label/WSAAI (his tweets were summarized in a series of blog posts by me). The tweets were labeled #WSAAI and they reached more than 3,000 people.

I would strongly encourage you to post updates on Twitter from the CME conferences that you are planning to attend in the future. Here is how to do it: Twitter for Physicians: How to use Twitter to keep track of the latest news and scientific meetings, and share information with colleagues and patients.

Allergists reached 250,000 people via Twitter during 2012 AAAAI

During the 2012 AAAAI meeting, the allergists achieved some of the highest usage statistics for social media by any specialty. There are more than 160 allergists on Twitter and 30 of them posted simultaneously from the annual meeting, broadcasting thousands of tweets tagged with #AAAAI. The annual AAAAI meeting was attended by approximately 5,000 people. In comparison, the 30 allergists on Twitter reached 250,000 people (measured by TweetReach.com on 03/04/2012). Here is a map of the location of the allergists:

View Allergists who used Twitter during 2012 #AAAAI in a full screen map

References:

The impact of social media on a major international emergency medicine conference -- Neill et al. -- Emergency Medicine Journal http://bit.ly/Ywhstq
PLOS ONE: Tweeting the Meeting: An In-Depth Analysis of Twitter Activity at Kidney Week 2011 http://buff.ly/XmisPw

Local allergic rhinitis (LAR): how to diagnose and treat

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What is local allergic rhinitis?

Local allergic rhinitis (LAR) is:

- localized nasal allergic response in the absence of systemic atopy characterized by local production of specific IgE (sIgE) antibodies

- T(H)2 pattern of mucosal cell infiltration during natural exposure to aeroallergens

- positive nasal allergen provocation test response with release of inflammatory mediators (tryptase and eosinophil cationic protein)

How common is local allergic rhinitis (LAR)?

As many as 40% of patients previously given a diagnosis of nonallergic rhinitis or idiopathic rhinitis are now being classified as having LAR.

Culprit allergens responsible include house dust mite, grass and olive pollens (in Europe), and many others.

How to diagnose local allergic rhinitis (LAR)?

Nasal allergen provocation test (NAPT) is needed to identify the culprit allergen or allergens. Neither skin prick testing nor serum sIgE antibodies are useful for diagnosis of LAR.

In a certain proportion of cases, local sIgE can be detected, and conjunctivitis, asthma, or both can be associated with LAR.

A nasal allergen provocation test with a single aeroallergen (NAPT-S) is a useful diagnostic tool in patients with LAR, with higher sensitivity than determination of nasal sIgE, tryptase, etc, However, NAPT-S with sequential application of several allergens is a very time-consuming technique.

A new protocol of NAPTs with multiple aeroallergens in one session has proved to be useful, specific, sensitive, and less time-consuming for the screening of patients with LAR. The sequential application of several aeroallergens in one session did not produce any irritant response and showed 100% concordance with the gold standard NAPT-S.

However, at this time, nasal allergen provocation test (NAPT) is not readily available at most allergy or ENT clinics. Most of the clinical diagnoses of LAR are based on history and negative skin and/or blood test.

Diagnostic approach in patients with LAR, source: J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012 Jun;129(6):1460-7:

What is the prognosis of local allergic rhinitis (LAR)?

Good quality studies are lacking. It is not clear if patients with LAR will have systemic atopy in the future.

Further studies are needed for examine the prevalence of LAR, improve the diagnostic methods, and develop therapeutic approaches, including the use of immunotherapy.

How to treat local allergic rhinitis (LAR)?

The management of the typical allergic rhinitis includes the following:

- allergen avoidance
- pharmacologic treatment
- immunotherapy, and education.

Patients with LAR have reported a good response to topical nasal corticosteroids or antihistamines, and oral antihistamines. An important consideration is whether patients with LAR could benefit from specific treatment, such as immunotherapy, and the studies are ongoing.

Treatment Options for  Allergic Rhinitis (AR) and  Non-Allergic Rhinitis (NAR) (click to enlarge the image).

References:

Local allergic rhinitis: Concept, pathophysiology, and management. RondÃ³n C, Campo P, Togias A, Fokkens WJ, Durham SR, Powe DG, Mullol J, Blanca M. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012 Apr 17 (PubMed).
Image source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons license.