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We’ve been told our entire lives to drink “plenty of water.” Not everyone realizes, however, that it’s possible to drink too much water.

In January 2007, Jennifer Strange, 28, a Sacramento-area mom of three, died at home of water intoxication after competing in a radio station’s contest. The winner would be whoever drank the most water without going to the bathroom (“hold your wee for a Wii”); the prize, a Nintendo Wii video game system, which Jennifer wanted for her kids.

The bulk of the blame lies with the radio station; station officials were reportedly aware that someone had previously died of the same cause in a hazing incident, and they reportedly didn’t take Jennifer seriously when she complained of feeling ill. Still, this story should serve as a cautionary tale for all of us.

So how much water is enough, and how much is too much? It’s not known for sure how much Jennifer drank, but drinking too much water can lead to water intoxication as well as hyponatremia, a related problem resulting from the dilution of sodium in the body.

Posted by Lisa J. | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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No one likes to be the butt of jokes and humiliated by being laughed at. But for some people, the fear of being laughed at is so debilitating it can cause isolation. This fear is known as gelotophobia - a disorder that was not named until 10 years ago. Willibald Ruch of the University of Zurich said that studying the negative effects of being laughed at is something entirely new.

A person with gelotophobia can hear a stranger laughing and they automatically assume the stranger is laughing at him or her. With extreme cases of gelotophobia, the affected person can break out into a sweat, have heart palpitations, trembling or even freeze up in social situation.

Ruch and his team of colleagues surveyed 23,000 people in 75 countries and found that gelotophobia was present in each nation. They found it affects between 2% and 30% of the population.

You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.

Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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Some of the latest research in Switzerland on male breast cancer shows that the disease is often treated at a late stage and is not caught early. We don’t often associate breast cancer with men but it is as real for them as it is for women.

Dr. Marina Garassino of the University of Study of Milan, Italy and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 146 men, about 62 years old on average, who were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Garassino stated in a phone interview with Reuters Health that one third of the males studied were in the advanced stages of breast cancer by the time they were diagnosed. He said for females with breast cancer the “presentation is advanced in less than 10 percent.”

Garassino says that doctors may play a role as much as patients in delayed diagnosis of male breast cancer. He says that physicians may notice that there is a breast lump but do not relate it to breast cancer. The male patient may also notice the lump early but does not think that it is a tumor leading to the cancer diagnosed at a late stage.

Male breast cancer is a hormonal dependent disease and if it is treated early the prognosis my be better than what it is in women.

All of the men studied received surgery to remove their cancer. A total of 48 men received radiation treatment; 100 received chemotherapy or hormone therapy; and 42 received no additional treatment after their surgery.  The 10-year survival rate for men with earlier-stage breast cancer was 47%.  Men who were diagnosed at a late stage had a 10-year survival rate of 44%.

“The message for men,” Garassino said, “is this: if you have a lump in your breast, go immediately to the physician. Don’t wait, because you may have a tumor.”

source

You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.

Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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I have panic attacks from time to time and what is scary about having these is that I never know when one will hit. There are certain situations that will cause me to have panic attacks but it doesn’t happen every time that I am in that particular situation. For me it’s unpredictable and that can be very frustrating. I find that I am also more likely to have a panic attack when I haven’t been able to sleep. How do you know if you are having a panic attack? Here are some of the symptoms:

• Heart starts pounding really hard
• Sweating regardless of the weather outside
• Shaky, out of control feeling
• Gasping for breath
• Numbness in the hands and feet

One symptom I often experience when having a panic attack is a disoriented feeling. I feel as though what is going on around me isn’t really happening. It’s a weird feeling and hard to describe.

Women are twice as likely as men to have panic attacks but scientists aren’t sure why that is. It may be due to genetics and the fact that women are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. The hormonal changes in women can also be a reason for panic attacks - particularly during adolescence, pregnancy and menopause.

Dr. Lilian Gonsalves, vice chair of the department of psychiatry and psychology at the Cleveland Clinic, says some scientists think that hormonal fluctuation may upset the balance of chemicals in the brain that modulate fear and anxiety, triggering a panic attack.

While some women start having panic attacks during late adolescence, many others don’t have issues until they reach perimenopause. This is the period that can occur years before menopause where a woman’s hormones fluctuate wildly. Hot flashes and lack of sleep are two symptoms of perimenopause.

For those who suffer from frequent panic attacks, they are at a higher risk for depression, substance abuse and suicide. Some research also indicates that women who have repeated attacks are at higher risk of death. This is why it is so important to be treated promptly for repeated and/or frequent panic attacks.

There are different medications available to help those who suffer from panic attacks. Different medications work differently for each person. It may take a combination of medications, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, to help some patients. Cognitive behavior therapy is also used to treat panic attacks. Typically a combination of the two is used for best results. CBT uses relaxation exercises to help people learn how to deal with panic attacks and what causes them.

Many people find that drugs help control the problem until they can find a behavioral therapy that works, after which drugs may no longer be necessary. It’s often advisable to avoid caffeine or alcohol, which can bring on symptoms in some people. Research has also shown that regular exercise and activities such as yoga may reduce the severity and number of attacks.

It may take six to eight weeks for antidepressants to take full effect but many patients may start noticing some relief after just two weeks. For those who don’t respond well to antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications (about 20%), doctors have likely missed an underlying medical condition that is causing the attacks.

Source: Newsweek

You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.

Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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• I posted a couple of weeks ago here and here about my terrible bout with insomnia. After those two nights without sleeping, I did finally sleep the next night all night. But then the night after that (which would have been Thursday night), I only slept about three hours. We were leaving that Friday to take our son away for the weekend to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA. I really, really wanted to have enough sleep because I wanted to be in good shape for him for the weekend.

Another Update On My Sleep Issues

• It has been debated for years by doctors whether or not ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia are one & the same, closely related or completely different illnesses. What has fueled the debate even further is that approximately 70% who are diagnosed with one of the illnesses also have been diagnosed with the other.

ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia - Are They the Same, Related, or Different?

• Ethex Corporation notified healthcare professionals of a voluntary recall of a single lot of morphine sulfate 60 mg extended release tablets (Lot No. 91762) due to a report of a tablet with twice the appropriate thickness. Oversized tablets may contain as much as two times the labeled level of active morphine sulfate. The lot was distributed by Ethex Corporation under an ‘Ethex” label between April 16th and April 27th of 2008.

Voluntary Recall of Morphine Sulfate 60mg Issued by Ethex Corp.

• One of my own personal biggest issues with Fibromyalgia has been the weight gain and my body’s resistance to lose it. When I am having a severe flare of ME/CFS where I am bedridden for weeks or months, I will usually lose about 20 - 25 pounds. But once the flare is over and I start to recover the weight comes back on and then some.

Weight Gain & Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS

• The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is now recruiting male and female patients ages 18 to 75 with chronic and/or recurrent major depression, for a trial titled Combining Medications to Enhance Depression Outcomes (CO-MED). (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00590863)

NIH Depression Drug Trial Now Recruiting

• This is a great video I found on Lyme Disease. It is very informative and definitely portrays the seriousness of the illness.

Lyme Disease Video

• Getting diagnosed is like buying a lottery ticket hoping to pay off your mortgage when on welfare. You need to do it, but it’s not a matter of skill, but of pure luck. And when you have bad luck, like I do, then you know what I mean.

Guest Blogger Post: Getting Diagnosed Is An Uphill Battle

You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.

Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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Typically when we read about obesity, it is reported how bad being obese and overweight can be for your heart. But there is one instance, according to a recent study, where obesity may offer some protection after stenting. The researchers found that obese patients who had stents placed in diseased arteries had a lower incidence of adverse cardiac events than their normal-weight counterparts.

Dr. Ahmed A. Khattab of the Segeberger Kliniken in Bad Segeberg, Germany, and colleagues note in a report in the American Journal of Cardiology that continued research and larger randomized trials need to be conducted to confirm whether or not these findings bear the same results as they did in the
small studies using drug-eluting stents.

Khattab’s team analyzed the outcomes at one year for 607 patients with coronary artery disease who were treated with stents that release the immune-suppressing drug sirolimus. The group included 176 normal weight patients, 289 overweight patients, and 142 obese patients. At 30 days, the incidence of adverse cardiac events was 3.4 percent in the normal weight group and 3.1 percent in overweight patients, compared with just 2.8 percent in obese patients.

At the one year mark, the combined totals of incidence of death, heart attack stroke and repeat stentings were higher in the normal weight patients and overweight patients (10.8% vs. 11.8%) versus the obese patients, at only 7%.

You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.

Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
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