Costco Connection - September 2011

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.