September
National
Cholesterol
Education
Month
When to take your child to the ER
By Dr. Neal Shipley
THE NATIONAL HEART, Lung
and Blood Institute reports that
heart disease is the No. 1 killer
of women and men in the
United States. Each year, more
than a million Americans have
heart attacks, and about a half-million people die from heart
disease, according to the
National Institutes of Health.
IT’S IMPORTANT FOR parents to
understand that children are not
just little adults. Early on in life,
their immune systems are less
capable of fighting off infections.
A “minor” injury or infection to
an adult might have serious con-
sequences for a small child. Doctors have to look
carefully for signs of serious illness that might be
different from adults. One way to approach this
is to think about the ABCDEs:
can’t walk or won’t move part of his or her body;
if he or she has abdominal pain with fever and is
vomiting or having diarrhea to the point that not
enough fluids can
be retained, then
you should take
your child to the
hospital right away.
High blood cholesterol is
one of the major risk factors
for heart disease. The higher
your blood cholesterol level,
the greater your risk for developing heart disease or having
a heart attack.
“A” stands for Airway. Anything that blocks
or interferes with a child’s or infant’s airway
could be an emergency. So if a child is choking
on something, then you should call 911 and get
your child to the emergency room.
“B” stands for Breathing. If your child is having difficulty breathing, appears to be struggling
to get a breath or has either an unusually rapid
or unusually slow breathing rate, then he or she
needs medical attention right away.
“E” stands for
Environmental
Exposure. This
represents a broad
category of injuries
that includes accidental poisoning,
electrical shocks,
burns, frostbite,
heat-related illness
or trauma—any of
which could be serious and warrant immediate
medical attention.
COMSTOCK
Your age, gender and
genetic makeup can affect
your blood cholesterol levels,
but you have no control over
those factors.
Here are the variables
you can control to reduce your
blood cholesterol:
“C” stands for Circulation and also for
Consciousness. If your child is bleeding and you
can’t control the bleeding with direct pressure,
then he or she needs to go to the hospital. If
your child is unconscious, has a high fever, is
confused, acting strangely or “not him- or herself” or is limp, lifeless and hard to arouse, he
or she also needs the ER.
The bottom line is that while the ER is certainly meant for emergencies, I always tell parents to trust their instincts when it comes to
their children—they know them best. If your
child looks sick to you, then he or she probably
is sick and should be seen by a doctor. C
• Diet. Reducing the
amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet helps lower
your blood cholesterol level.
“D” stands for Disability and also for
Dehydration. If your child has had an injury and
An emergency physician for more than 17 years, Dr.
Shipley is board certified in emergency medicine and
internal medicine (http://urgentcaremanhattan.com).
• Weight. Being overweight is a risk factor for
heart disease. It also tends
to increase your cholesterol.
Losing weight can help lower
your low-density lipoprotein,
aka LDL (bad) cholesterol,
and total cholesterol levels, as
well as raise your high-density
lipoprotein, aka HDL (good)
cholesterol, and lower your
triglyceride levels.
A connection for stroke victims
IT IS ESTIMATED THAT more than 800,000
Americans suffer strokes each year. This unfortunate statistic also means about that many caregivers are “born” each year as well. Moreover,
more than 28 million people are in the sandwich
generation, taking care of their parents while raising children.
• Physical activity. Not
being physically active is a risk
factor for heart disease. Regular
physical activity can help lower
LDL cholesterol and raise HDL
cholesterol levels. It also helps
you lose weight. You should try
to be physically active for 30
minutes most days.
For more information about
blood cholesterol and your lifestyle, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
—David Wight
Stroke Caregivers group on Facebook and then
launched www.mystrokecaregiver.com. The web-
site provides helpful hints for caregivers looking
after a loved one after a stroke. It has weekly blogs
of caregiving topics, videos of exercises and tips
for taking care of the stroke
patient’s daily life, and eventually,
Rodriguez hopes, will offer finan-
cial awards to caregivers, allowing
them to take much-needed time off.
“We all need to figure out the
best ways to do this since I believe
it will become more prominent in
the future,” says Rodriguez.
“Already I have had many other
stroke sites wanting to partner
since we are all working toward a
common goal.” But the site offers more
than just information, she adds. It pro-
vides communication. She says, “In the past
few months I have had several people who
wanted a phone consultation since their time in a
doctor’s office is limited. The information on the
Web is great. However, there are times you just
need to talk to someone.”—T. Foster Jones
l
m
Five years ago, Audra Rodriguez’s
mother had a massive stroke and was
left without the ability to speak or use
her right side. She still is unable to
speak; however, she is walking with
a cane and able to understand
when people talk to her. “I
have been taking care of
her with my own family [4- and 5-year old girls]
for almost five years,” says Rodriguez,
a Costco member in Gainesville, Virginia. The
experience, rather than overwhelming her, motivated her to do more.
PHOTODISC
A physician assistant, Rodriguez decided to
help other people in her situation. She started a
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