The Dangers of Iced Foods
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss the dangers of eating restaurant ice or any ice for that matter! Ice handling is part of food safety training. Without proper ice machine cleaning, your restaurant’s ice maker is at risk from mold, slime, scale, and sediment. Slime and mold form because ice machines provide a damp and dark environment where they can thrive. Yeast and dust in the air provide these growths with an unlimited supply of food to continue to flourish. Ice machines are also susceptible to other biological contaminants that are dangerous to customers, like E. Coli, Hepatitis...
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Olfactory Disorders
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss olfactory disorders, or problems with smelling either good or bad chemicals, foods, fragrances, and the like. Did you know your sense of smell also affects your taste? A damaged sense of olfaction is severely disrupting: the joy of eating and drinking may be lost, and depression may result. There could also be dangers associated with the loss of smell, including the inability to detect leaking gas or spoiled food. More than 2.7 million people in the United States have an olfactory disorder, and this is likely an underestimate. Some people have suggested...
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Meningioma & Hemiplegia
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss both Meningioma & Hemiplegia. Our guest today is Marjorie Turner Hollman, a freelance writer/ editor who loves the outdoors, uses hiking poles to help keep her balance on the trail, and has completed four books in the Easy Walks guide book series. Her latest book, My Liturgy of Easy Walks, is a memoir, meditations on learning to live with a changed life. A native Floridian, she came north for college and snow! She has appeared on Boston’s ABC news show, Chronicle; Boston’s CBS Channel 4; the Boston Globe; local radio and cable TV shows; and been...
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RSV /Respiratory syncytial virus
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss another respiratory virus that has been really hitting hard here in the United States this season. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a contagious virus that is usually mild, but can severely affect the lungs and respiratory airways in older adults While you may not have heard of it yet, RSV is not a new virus and may be more of a health concern than you think—even if you're healthy. And if you're aged 60 or older, you can get RSV. But don’t worry, by coming here you’ve taken a savvy first step toward learning about RSV so you can be informed....
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Winter Safety
PodcastDX
With the winter weather now fully upon us we thought it was a good time to remind everyone about winter safety. Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around 98.6 F (37 C). Hypothermia (hi-poe-THUR-me-uh) occurs as your body temperature falls below 95 F (35 C). When your body temperature drops, your heart, nervous system and other organs can't work normally. Left untreated, hypothermia can lead to complete failure of your heart and respiratory system...
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Food Safety at the Holidays
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss how you can stay healthy during the upcoming holiday season. With COVID 19 ramping up once again along with the Flu and RSV you have enough to worry about when it comes to staying safe and healthy as you travel or gather with family or friends. Food safety shouldn't take a back seat! No one needs food poisoning to the list of risks this winter! We all wish you a very happy safe and healthy holiday. Food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is illness caused by eating contaminated food. Infectious organisms — including bacteria, viruses...
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The Chicago House & HIV Prevention
PodcastDX
On today's show we discuss The Chicago House, founded in 1985 during the height of the AIDS crisis, Chicago House initially served as a housing resource for those living with HIV/AIDS. Over the past three decades, they evolved, remaining steadfast in their roots to provide housing for anyone impacted or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS while expanding their services to empower individuals in the greater LGBTQ+ community. Chicago House empowers persons living with or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS to lead healthy and dignified lives through housing and compassionate, client-centered support services....
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Long Covid and POTs
PodcastDX
Our guest today is Chelsea Weaver, a 31-year-old living in Tennessee. She has a beautiful little girl that is just over 2 years old, a wonderful husband, and they all live on a quiet farm property. Before coming down with COVID, she was a surgical technologist. She used to assist in open heart surgery as well as some other specialties but hasn't been able to function in her career for about two years now. Unfortunately, her COVID symptoms have morphed into Long COVID (specifically POTs or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.) While the global spread...
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Diet, Exercise and Fibromyalgia
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss how food and exercise affect Fibromyalgia with Dr. Michael Lenz. Dr. Lenz is the host of the podcast, Conquering Your Fibromyalgia, where he blends the best of lifestyle medicine and medical management of fibromyalgia and related problems In years past, depression was often ignored as a “real” problem until finally the medical community acknowledged that this mood disorder is a valid problem affecting million and needs to be treated. Now it is time for physicians to step up and realize fibromyalgia is a similarly debilitating medical problem that...
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C-Diff Can Be Deadly
PodcastDX
This week we had the honor to speak with Christian John Lillis. Christian is executive director of the Peggy Lillis Foundation for C. diff Education & Advocacy (PLF), co-founded with his brother, Liam, following the death of their mother from a Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infection in April 2010. PLF envisions a world where C. diff is rare, treatable, and survivable. In pursuit of its vision, PLF is building a nationwide C. diff awareness movement to educate the public, empower advocates, and shape policy. C. difficile or C-Diff is short for the name of the germ that causes the...
info_outlineThis week we will discuss the annual medical checkup or annual physical exam. We will not have a guest on this episode but hope you will learn just as much from the discussion based on the research we have done for this episode.
Annual Physical Exam: The Basics
The physical exam is an essential part of any doctor's visit. Surprisingly, though, there are no absolutes in a routine physical. A good doctor may be thorough or brief, but they will spend time listening to your concerns and providing counseling for your particular complaints and risk factors.
Annual exams usually check your:
History. This is your chance to mention any complaints or concerns about your health. Your doctor will also likely quiz you about lifestyle behaviors like smoking, excessive alcohol use, sexual health, diet, and exercise. The doctor will also check on your vaccination status and update your personal and family medical history.
Vital Signs. These are some vital signs checked by your doctor:
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Blood pressure: Less than 120 over less than 80 is a normal blood pressure. Doctors define high blood pressure (hypertension) as 130 over 80 or higher.
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Heart rate: Values between 60 and 100 are considered normal. Many healthy people have heart rates slower than 60, however.
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Respiration rate: From 12 to 16 breaths per minute is normal for a healthy adult. Breathing more than 20 times per minute can suggest heart or lung problems.
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Temperature: 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is the average, but healthy people can have resting temperatures slightly higher or lower.
General Appearance. Your doctor gathers a large amount of information about you and your health just by watching and talking to you. How is your memory and mental quickness? Does your skin appear healthy? Can you easily stand and walk?
Heart Exam. Listening to your heart with a stethoscope, a doctor might detect an irregular heartbeat, a heart murmur, or other clues to heart disease.
Lung Exam. Using a stethoscope, a doctor listens for crackles, wheezes, or decreased breath sounds. These and other sounds are clues to the presence of heart or lung disease.
Head and Neck Exam. Opening up and saying "ah" shows off your throat and tonsils. The quality of your teeth and gums also provides information about your overall health. Ears, nose, sinuses, eyes, lymph nodes, thyroid, and carotid arteries may also be examined.
Abdominal Exam. Your doctor can use a range of examination techniques including tapping your abdomen to detect liver size and presence of abdominal fluid, listening for bowel sounds with a stethoscope, and palpating for tenderness.
Neurological Exam. Nerves, muscle strength, reflexes, balance, and mental state may be assessed.
Dermatological Exam. Skin and nail findings could indicate a dermatological problem or disease somewhere else in the body.
Extremities Exam. Your doctor will look for physical and sensory changes. Pulses can be checked in your arms and legs. Examining joints can assess for abnormalities.
Male Physical Exam
An annual physical exam for men might also include:
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Testicular exam: A doctor can check each testicle for lumps, tenderness, or changes in size. Most men with testicular cancer notice a growth before seeing a doctor.
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Hernia exam: The famous "turn your head and cough" checks for a weakness in the abdominal wall between the intestines and scrotum.
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Penis exam: A doctor might notice evidence of sexually transmitted infections such as warts or ulcers on the penis.
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Prostate exam: Inserting a finger in the rectum lets a doctor feel the prostate for its size and any suspicious areas.
Female Physical Exam
A woman's annual exam might include:
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Breast exam. Feeling for abnormal lumps may detect breast cancer or benign breast conditions. The doctor will also check the lymph nodes in the underarm area and look for visual abnormalities of the breasts and nipples.
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Pelvic exam: The pelvic exam allows examination of the vulva, vagina, cervix, uterus and ovaries. Routine checks for sexually transmitted infections are often done. A Pap test and HPV test can screen for cervical cancer and help assess risk.