Reduce Skin Cancer Risk with Black Tea

Black tea is made from the dried leaves of the Camellia evergreen shrub that is native to southeast Asia. Green tea and oolong tea also come from this plant. In 2007, Partmouth Medical School did a study and found that drinking at least two cups per day of black tea can cut the risk of skin cancer in half.

The tea has polyphenols that could protect the body against UV radiation. Tea has an antioxidant called catechins that can inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Both black tea and green tea has 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables. The antioxidants have a detoxifying effect that protects cells from free radicals. Free radicals can cause damage to cells that can cause blood clot formation, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Studies have shown that when tea extracts are applied to the skin, the risk of skin cancer due to sun damage is decreased.

Lose Weight Before Weight-Loss Surgery

It is found that losing at least a little bit of weight before having weight-loss surgery can reduce the risk of having surgical complications. Medical records of 881 patients who had weight-loss surgery show that the more weight patients lost before surgery, the less likely they suffered from post-operation complications, such as infection, blood clots, and kidney problems. The post-surgery complication rate was almost twice as much in patients who gained weight before surgery than patients who lost weight before surgery.

All of the patients had open Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery where staples are used to create a pouch in the stomach that can hold only a small amount of food at a time. A part of the small intestine is attached to the pouch so that food bypasses the rest of the stomach and part of the small intestine. Some of the surgeons who perform weight-loss surgery mandate that certain high-risk patients lose weight before having the surgery.

Prevent Headaches with Magnesium

Magnesium can be used to reduce muscle tension and spams that can cause headaches. It can also treat and prevent migraines. It is good to use dietary supplements that contain at least 200 mg of active elemental magnesium. Someone with kidney problems should consult a medical practitioner before taking magnesium.

ThermoSuit for Cardiac Arrest Patients

When a person has been revived after cardiac arrest but is still unconscious, cooling the body is the first thing done by emergency staff. Reducing the body temperature would improve the patient's chance for a full recovery. Blowing cold air over the body or using ice packs can take hours to work effectively.

Now, there is a product called a ThermoSuit that can reduce a person's body temperature in about 30 minutes. The product is a plastic suit that is filled with cold water. There are medical centers that are currently using it and say that the survival rate of their cardiac arrest patients has risen from 35 percent to 60 to 70 percent.

Heart Doctor Pioneer Michael DeBakey Dies

Dr. Michael DeBakey, the famous cardiovascular surgeon that pioneered the bypass surgery and inventor of many devices to help people with heart problems, has died at the age of 99 from natural causes at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX. In 1932, while he was still in medical school, he invented the roller pump, which later became the most important part of the heart-lung machine. The machine takes over the responsibilities of the heart and lungs during surgery. He was also the pioneer in the development of artificial hearts and heart pumps to help people waiting for transplants. He had helped to create more than 70 surgical instruments in his lifetime.

In the 1950s, DeBakey was the first person to perform the replacement of arterial aneurysms and obstructive lesions. He had developed bypass pumps and connections to replace parts of diseased arteries.

He had performed more than 60,000 heart surgeries in his career that lasted 70 years. His patients had included the Duke of Windsor, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, Turkish President Turgut Ozal, Nicaraguan leader Violetta Chamorro, President Kennedy, President Johnson, and President Nixon. He was a consultant when Russian President Boris Yeltsin had surgery.

He served as the chairman of the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke during President Johnson’s administration. He had helped to establish the National Library of Medicine and was the author of more than 1,000 medical reports, papers, chapters, and books on surgery, medicine, and similar topics.

In 1953, he performed the first Dacron graft to be able to replace part of occluded arteries. In the 1960s he started coronary artery bypasses. In 1966, he was the first person to successfully use a partial artificial heart. In the 1990s, he helped to create the Michael E. DeBakey Heart Instititute at Hays Medical Center.

Hands Only CPR Now Recommended for Cardiac Arrest

The American Heart Association is now recommending that the hands-only CPR approach be used on adults who have a cardiac arrest. To do this procedure, a person would do rapid and deep presses on the victim’s chest until help arrives and mouth-to-mouth breathing would not have to be done. It suppose to work as well as the standard CPR practices.

If there is a person needing immediate medical attention for risk of cardiac arrest you would call 911 and then press hard and fast on the middle of the person’s chest until paramedics arrive and take over or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm. These actions should only be taken for adults that unexpectedly collapse, stop breathing, and are unresponsive.

Doing mouth-to-mouth breathing is recommended for a child that collapses and adults that suffer from not enough oxygen from near-drowning, drug overdose, and carbon monoxide poisoning. In these situations, mouth-to-mouth is needed to get air into the lungs and bloodstream.

New Medical Treatment for Heart Attacks

It is assumed that if a person is not revived 5 minutes after having cardiac arrest that they are basically dead. Researchers have found that if the body of a person that had cardiac arrest is cooled by several degrees after the heart has stopped beating, the person could survive for up to 15 minutes instead of 5 minutes. Doctors are starting to use cooling blankets that circulate icy water to reduce brain damage and revive people that didn’t have a heart beat for up to 15 minutes. Researchers are trying to develop icy injectable slurry that lowers body temperature within seconds and emergency workers can use it on the spot.