Salt: Time to Shake the Habit

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Salt: Time to Shake the Habit


A very important study was published today in the New England
Journal of Medicine (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/7/590)

This landmark study proves that excess salt is a killer, and a major one.
The good news is that we can now prevent major catastrophes simply
by eating less salt.

By eating less salt, about 44,000-92,000 fewer Americans would die
each year!

How much less?
The average adult male American eats 10 grams of salt (4000 mg of sodium) a day.
The average adult male American eats   7 grams of salt (2800 mg of sodium) a day.
The amount we need to drop is 3 grams of salt (1200 mg of sodium) a day.

If we dropped our intake that much, what impact would that have?
If the country dropped 3 grams of salt (1200 mg of sodium) a day
it would reduce heart disease as much as if:

• 50% of the country stopped smoking
• the country dropped its BMI by 5%
• everyone went on a statin to treat high cholesterol

If the country dropped 3 grams of salt (1200 mg of sodium) a day 

it would reduce strokes even more dramatically.

The Challenge

The challenge is that most of the salt we eat is not from shakers, but from 

processed foods.  

The Solution

To drop about 1/3 of all your salt intake, and save some lives

we need to:

1. Read the labels on foods that we purchase- don't buy items with high salt.
2. Aim for eating no more than 2000mg of sodium a day.
3. Get rid of salt shakers in the home.

BOTTOM LINE:

Salt now is proven to cause thousands upon thousands of strokes, heart attacks,

and deaths.  It now ranks with tobacco and obesity as one of the top problems

we can do something about, a problem solved that could save yours and many

other lives.

So let's eat less salt and live longer.

Dr. Arthur Lavin

*Disclaimer*
The comments contained in this electronic source of information do not constitute and are not designed to imply that they constitute any form of individual medical advice. The information provided is purely for informational purposes only and not relevant to any person's particular medical condition or situation. If you have any medical concerns about yourself or your family please contact your physician immediately. In order to provide our patients the best uninfluenced information that science has to offer,we do not accept samples of drugs, advertising tchotchkes, money, food, or any item from outside vendors.

Pandemic Waning

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The H1N1 Pandemic May not be Coming Back


The World Health Organization announced recently that 
the incidence of H1N1 infection in the world continues to decline, with
no early indicators of a spring return of the infection.

As we all know, Cleveland, Ohio had a very widespread
epidemic of H1N1 disease in the fall of 2009, but recently
H1N1 infections have dropped to nearly zero.


If it does not return this spring, that would end a year of 
intense attention on H1N1, an end that I welcome.
It will be nice not to have to worry about it anymore.


Further, if the H1N1 infection does not recur until next fall, 
the management of the risk of such infection will be far easier,
since H1N1 will be part of the flu vaccine for 2010-2011.


The other news was that the H1N1 pandemic was mild.
It caused as many flu infections as seasonal flu, but only
half the fatalities.  


It is too early to pronounce the threat from H1N1 virus completely
over, but we can say that the threat is clearly smaller, and fading
rapidly.


Dr. Arthur Lavin

*Disclaimer*
The comments contained in this electronic source of information do not constitute and are not designed to imply that they constitute any form of individual medical advice. The information provided is purely for informational purposes only and not relevant to any person's particular medical condition or situation. If you have any medical concerns about yourself or your family please contact your physician immediately. In order to provide our patients the best uninfluenced information that science has to offer,we do not accept samples of drugs, advertising tchotchkes, money, food, or any item from outside vendors.

Drugs for Fever before A Shot

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Drugs for Fever before A Shot


People have been giving their infants and children drugs to 
reduce fever for many years.  The practice seems quite
natural at this point.  


But we would like to remind everyone that every drug
that does something sought can do something unintended, too.


Given that, we always recommend not giving your child
any drug, unless the need justifies the risk.


This rule is important to keep in mind when trying to decide
whether to give your infant a drug to prevent fever prior to 
getting a shot.  The most commonly used drugs are 
acetaminophen and ibuprofen.


So let's see what the chance of getting a fever is with and 
without these drugs. It turns out that if you are getting one of the
shots in the first series of shots, all the shots for children 
under 7 months of age are in a first series, your chance of
getting a fever after any of these shots at all is 66%.
If you get the drug before the shot, about 42% of children still
get a fever!


For booster shots, the comparable numbers are 58% and 
36%, respectively.


That means acetaminophen and ibuprofen have a 66-74% 
failure rate in attempting to prevent fever after a shot.


That is a very high rate for a drug to fail, and makes the case
for not using drugs before shots to prevent fever, since they 
are more likely to fail than work.


There were also some reports that use of these drugs drops the 
level of antibody produced by the shot, although the level remains
protective and adequate.  


So now we have three reasons not to use fever drugs before
routine vaccinations:

1. These drugs fail more often than succeed in preventing fever.
2. They appear to block antibody formation, at least to a small degree
3. They carry the risk of side effects

Bottom Line:

We recommend that you do not use fever drugs prior to 

immunization with the exception of unusual medical 

reasons to do so.

Dr. Arthur Lavin

*Disclaimer*
The comments contained in this electronic source of information do not constitute and are not designed to imply that they constitute any form of individual medical advice. The information provided is purely for informational purposes only and not relevant to any person's particular medical condition or situation. If you have any medical concerns about yourself or your family please contact your physician immediately. In order to provide our patients the best uninfluenced information that science has to offer,we do not accept samples of drugs, advertising tchotchkes, money, food, or any item from outside vendors.