Dr. Carstensen Express Medicine

Earl J. Carstensen, MD

Adult Primary Care

Health Tips

COLDS—WESTERN MEDICINE

BACKGROUND
About 30 million Americans are coughing, sneezing, and blowing their noses while you read this. What's wrong with them? They have the common cold usually lasting 3 to 7 days. Three to four colds a year are average.

SYMPTOMS
Sneezing, runny nose, low fever (<101o F), sore throat, fatigue and dry cough.

HOW DO WE GET COLDS?
Viruses cause colds. We pick up cold viruses by touching infected person's hands, towels, telephones, money, etc. Touching our eyes or nose infects us. Cold viruses also travel on coughs and sneezes.

PREVENTION

Hand washing six times a day equals 45% fewer colds according to a recent study!!!
Avoid touching your nose and eyes.
Minimize touching infected people or their things, especially the first 2-3 days, the most contagious stage.
Keep fit with regular sensible exercise and nutrition. Eat and sleep well.
Don’t infect others: Use a handkerchief or tissues when you sneeze, cough, or blow your nose.
Humidify in your bedroom in the winter.
Fall Influenza shots reduce colds by 30%.

SELF-CARE TIPS.

Your immune system will defeat colds. Allow time. Get adequate rest. If you regularly exercise, “listen to your body”, cut back if you’re fatigued.
Sleeping with your head elevated reduces night-time coughing from sinus drainage.
Tobacco smoke and extremely dry or cold air are irritatants to avoid.
Hydrate well with 4-6 glasses of fluid daily.
Generic Tylenol, Advil or Aleve work well for fever, muscle aches and pains.
Humidifiers, steamy showers/baths and warm moist facial packs 3-4 times a day thin mucus. Roll a paper cone, place the small end near nostril, the wide end a steam source and breath. Adding sage or eucalyptus to the water—a handful of the whole leaves or a teaspoon of the essential oil—often is additionally soothing.
Nasal & sinus washings 4-6 times a day with ‘contact lens’ solution (much less costly than nasal saline spray) or “NeilMed Sinus Rinse” kit (http://www.unimedprod.com) available at WalMart.
Chicken soup contains cold germ fighters and soothes irritated membranes.
Evidence strongly suggests AVOIDING ZICAM. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2007-08-01-zicam_N.htm?csp=34
Herbs: Echinacea or the Chinese herb ‘astragulus’ often shorten a cold. Take every six hours, begin at first sign of a cold.

SORE THROATS

Add ½ teaspoon or the contents of 1 capsule of goldenseal herb to the salt water solution and gargle every 2-3 hours.
Drinking an herbal tea called “Throat Coat” every 1-2 hours often helps a sore throat

Internet—Friend or Foe?

It depends. Correct information solving a problem is always friendly. Incorrect information is ‘foe-ly’ or folly…maybe even harmful, perhaps deadly. Incorrect information might cause action or inaction resulting in avoidable harm.

“Doctor” derives from the Latin docere meaning ‘to teach’. Physicians should teach. Patients should learn. Patients should also teach physicians--describe carefully, clearly, thoughtfully what is wrong, how it is affecting one’s life. Patients should be actively involved. Excepting the emergency—rare in primary care—your health is your ship. You are the captain.

The Internet is a powerful and accessible information tool. Tools magnify power. Depending upon how used, tools can accomplish great harm and good in a short time.

I avidly use the Internet. Few patients leave my office without pertinent information. This takes more time per patient. Added value usually means added effort.

It's likely that the internet has instructions adequate to fly a large airliner. Would that be a good idea? Some will counter, “Yes, but medicine is different--simpler, less risk than flying an aircraft.” Is it? Medication errors alone hospitalize 2 million patients yearly, cause 100,000 deaths—more than auto accidents.

Yes, the correct information for the problem is a few key-taps away…knowing what keys to tap is the issue.

Data comprises information, information leads to knowledge. Wisdom guides and determines the outcome of knowledge use. I believe that decisions we make together will likely always be better than those you or I make separately—with or without the internet.