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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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The good,bad and the ugly By SHAVAUGHN MOSS ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: With the World Health Organization declaring a H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic on Thursday after more than 28,000 cases worldwide and 144 deaths reported according to the Associated Press, general practitioner Dr. James Constantakis says this is a good thing. "The swine flu is now a pandemic, which means it's everywhere . . . the good news is that it's still mild and people aren't dying in large numbers — although people are dying from it . . . but people die from the regular flu as well. So far it's not a very virulent strain, and even though it has spread, the good news is the first vaccine is being clinically tested. It was made in Switzerland and they use a different method of making it and aren't using the egg method where they grow the virus on an egg. That takes a long time. They have a different method, so there is hope. September, October is when they think they will be able to really wrap up, so in the meantime what we have to do is survive," said Dr. Constantakis on his show Health Matters on Star 106.5FM. Medical professionals reported one case in the country in recent weeks, in a visitor who arrived in the country, but was returned to their home country the next day. SYMPTOMS OF SWINE FLU According to Dr. Constantakis, headache, sore throat, muscle aches — common flu symptoms can also be symptoms of the swine flu. He says you can sometimes have nausea and diarrhea also, which he said could be confused with gastroenteritis. If contracted, he says there is medication available like Tamiflu which will work to cure H1N1 if you are exposed to it. TRAVEL Dr. Constantakis further says you should not let fear of swine flu stop your family's travel plans this summer, but he did say you should act cautiously. "If the place you're going to has a lot of swine flu, and if they have a big outbreak you might want to avoid it, but if you don't want to avoid it, I would take medication with me, like Tamiflu, [because] you have a 48-hour window in which the medication is effective. If you take it past that, it may not be effective. If you're pregnant I might think a little more about going [to a country rife with swine flu], because if you're pregnant you may be a little more susceptible," he said. With the use of filters, Dr. Constantakis says it is believed that airplane travel is also safe, and that in an airplane you're a lot safer than in a building. "I'm not that afraid to fly — as far as the swine flu goes. I may have other fears, but not the swine flu, so take your medication with you if you're a high risk person, and check to see if the place is riddled with swine flu, then I would avoid it, but I wouldn't put off major plans, and if you're at risk don't." Whatever you decide , he says you should put all those things in the equation. GOOD NEWS "There is a vaccine! It's being tested and can be made in large quantities and will be out in September. And let's keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't come back or combine with the seasonal flu to become a different strain." BAD NEWS Dr. Constantakis says colon cancer is on the rise, because as countries become more developed their diets start to change, and people start consuming more fatty foods, drink alcohol, eat more meats, engage in less physical activity, and become obese "In some countries, colon cancer has gone up 50, 60, 70 percent," he said. He encourages all persons to have a colonoscopy done by the time they are 50 years of age, and to have a Fecal Occult Blood (FOB) test done at least once a year for detection purposes. If having a colonoscopy done gives you the "heebie-jeebies" Dr. Constantakis reminds you that prevention is key, and that when one is performed, you are sedated. "Go when you're feeling good, have a colonoscopy and watch that diet, [because] there is no one good one blood test that will detect cancer." But, he said it is coming. "As a matter of fact they're talking about a test you can have where blood is drawn, sent to the lab and they can check for a variety of different cancers, and that's going to be very early detection. Where we fail with cancer is we come up with drugs that can shrink tumors, but shrinking is not getting rid of — I don't want to hear 'this is a very promising drug, it shrunk the tumor by 90 percent.' That means 10 percent is still there, but if you detect early that gives you a cure. Early detection is really where all our money should have been going in research. Early imaging, early detection is the way to cure cancer." VITAMINS As for vitamin use, Dr. Constantakis, says most people are producing the most expensive urine in the world, which is full of vitamins. "There is a cereal that gives you 100 percent of all the vitamins. Even before you leave the breakfast table you're loaded with vitamins — then you take your vitamin pill, then you drink your vitamin water — what is going on out there is total madness! Dr. Constantakis says all the vitamins people are taking helps the company that makes them, and that those companies are doing very well. "A new study shows that some of these sports drinks that contain carbs and real sugar actually improve help endurance. It turns out that it's the ones that have zero calories that don't really help endurance. So if you want to drink a sports drink, don't stick to one that's zero calories and full of vitamins. "Another [thing] that really bothers me is where they pump oxygen into it, so you drink it you get more oxygen into your system — that doesn't work! That oxygen goes into your stomach and you belch it out, or it passes right through. Please, let's try to keep some uncommon sense in this. So those sports drinks especially with artificial sweeteners do nothing, but help the people that sell them [it's] good marketing. WHY ARE WE FALLING FOR ALL OF THIS Take your little vitamin every day for whatever it's worth. Everything you buy is already fortified with vitamins — milk fortified with Vitamin D, orange juice with vitamin C and it goes on and on. They're putting calcium even in juices. We're overloading, so I'm not going to buy water that has vitamins in it and no calories, because that's not going to do anything for me. Let's not get carried away with lots of vitamins," he encouraged. JAVA DRINKERS ON TO A GOOD THING "They found that people who drink coffee have less type 2 diabetes, less liver cancer, less colon cancer, less Parkinson's [Disease], less stroke, now they're not saying that coffee does it. It might be that coffee drinkers do something else to make themselves healthy, but they do know that statistically people that drink coffee seem to have less of these problems. On the other side if you drink black coffee, and drink more than four cups a day you can run into problems with osteoporosis, [so] put a little cream in your coffee." Dr. Constantakis says that even though coffee is full of antioxidants you can always overdo a good thing. "Two three cups a day might keep the doctor away. And I'm not saying start, but if you do drink, drink without guilt." Monday, June 15,2009