The Health Wisdom Blog™ (by OrganizedWisdom)

Your Summer Fix-It Kit: Health Answers to Bites, Sunburns, Sprains, and More!

Ah, summer! It's the season we associate with fun and outdoor activities, but it is also peak season for mishaps and accidents. Good thing OrganizedWisdom is ready with WisdomCards to help you get to the bottom of any seasonal snafu!

• Sprains
• Sports Injuries
• Sunburn
• Mosquito Bites
• Bee Stings
  
• Other Insect Bites and Stings
  
• Lyme Disease
  
• Concussion
  
• Broken Bones

The Healthcare X-Prize: Giving Health Industry an Incentive to Innovate

We are entering an unprecedented season of change for the United States health care system. Americans are united by their desire to fundamentally reform our current system into one that delivers on the promise of freedom, equity, and best outcomes for best value. In this season of reform, we will see all kinds of ideas presented from all across the political spectrum. Many of these ideas will be prescriptive, and don’t harness the power of innovation to create the dramatic breakthroughs required to create a next generation health system.

We believe there is a better way.

This belief is founded in the idea that aligned incentives can be a powerful way to spur innovation and seek breakthrough ideas from the most unlikely sources. Many of the reform ideas being put forward may not include some of the best thinking, the collective experience, and the most meaningful ways to truly implement change. To address this issue, the X PRIZE Foundation, along with WellPoint Inc and WellPoint Foundation as sponsor, has introduced a $10MM prize for health care innovators to implement a new model of health. The focus of the prize is to increase health care value by 50% in a 10,000 person community over a three year period.

The Healthcare X PRIZE team has released an Initial Prize Design and is actively seeking public comment. We are hoping, and encouraging everyone at every opportunity, to engage in this effort to help design a system of care that can produce dramatic breakthroughs at both an individual vitality and community health level.

Here is your opportunity to contribute:

1. Download the Initial Prize Design
2. Share you comments regarding the prize concept, the measurement framework, and the likelihood of this prize to impact health and health care reform.
3. Share the Initial Prize Design document with as many of your health, innovation, design, technology, academic, business, political, and patient friends as you can to provide an opportunity for their participation

We hope this blog rally amplifyies our efforts to solicit feedback from every source possible as we understand that innovation does not always have a corporate address. We hope your engagement starts a viral movement of interest driven by individual people who realize their voice can and must be included. Let’s ensure that all of us - and the people we love - can have a health system that aligns health finance, care delivery, and individual incentives in a way that optimizes individual vitality and community health. Together, we can ensure the best ideas are able to come forward in a transparent competition designed to accelerate health innovation. We look forward to your participation.

This post was written by Scott Shreeve, MD in behalf of the X PRIZE Foundation. Special thanks to Paul Levy for both demonstrating the value of collaborative effort and suggesting we utilize a blog rally for this crowdsourcing effort.

Best Wisdom of the Week: heart disease facts, overactive bladder devices, Farrah's story, and more!

It is time to highlight some of the best new WisdomCards we added to our collection last week. Our WisdomCards are hand-crafted, doctor-approved research summaries to help you find the health information you're after. Here's a sampling of what our hardworking Guides created last week: 

• What are the different types of lipids in the blood?  Guide Carolyn answers that question, while Guide Misty has WisdomCards on heart disease facts and the genetics of high blood pressure. Guide Catherine offers a WisdomCard on peripheral artery disease treatments, and Guide Jacky has written on congestive heart failure warning signs.

• No one wants to talk about it, but overactive bladder is a real problem.  Guide Jacky has written WisdomCards on overactive bladder in women, risk factors for overactive bladder, and devices to help with overactive bladder.  Guide Kenyotta has also added a WisdomCard on urinary incontinence medications.

• Have you heard of a retinal migraine?  What about a transformed migraine?  Kenyotta created WisdomCards on both these types of migraines.

• In the news this week, Guide Susan created a WisdomCard on Farrah Fawcett's reality special, and another on the possibility of autism recovery.  And Guide Melinda wrote a WisdomCard on Natalie Cole's kidney transplant.

Want more? You can always find the newest WisdomCards right on the OrganizedWisdom homepage!

New Slideshows: Headache Cures, Pain Remedies, Skin Beautifiers, and More!

Sometimes the best way to get up to speed on a subject is to skim the surface, before diving deep. Our newest slideshows are helpful overviews of highly searched health topics -- and in each one, you'll find plenty of related WisdomCards when you're ready to learn more: 

• Celebrities with Arthritis
• 10 Quick Headache Cures
• The Most Common Allergies in the U.S.A.
• 30 Natural Ways to Fight Pain
• 25 Cheap and Easy Ways to Soothe Your Skin
• Best and Worst Foods for Sensitive Stomachs
• 12 Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure

Best Wisdom of the Week: arthritis and insomnia in children, ADHD in adults, high blood pressure and pets, and more!

It's time to highlight some of the best new WisdomCards we've added to our collection this week. Our WisdomCards are hand-crafted, doctor-approved research summaries to help you find the health information you're after. This week our hardworking Guides were super busy: 

• May is Arthritis Awareness Month, and children get arthritis too.  If your child has arthritis, you will want to see Catherine's WisdomCard on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis treatments, as well as Jacky's WisdomCard on JRA and physical therapy.

• Speaking of kids, they can also suffer from insomnia -- so check out Jacky's WisdomCards on insomnia in children and insomnia prevention. 

• ADHD is generally considered a children-only condition, but Jacky has created a WisdomCard on how to diagnose ADHD in adults, while Kenyotta sheds light on ADHD myths.

• Judy has put together another whole deck of WisdomCards on migraines this week, so be sure to take a look: migraine prevention, migraines and caffeine, vestibular migraines, migraines and blurred vision, and migraine diary.

• Would you recognize the physical symptoms of high blood pressure?  Jacky put together a WisdomCard to answer that question, plus more: high blood pressure and pets (hint: pets are good!) and tips to help you remember to take your hypertension medications.  Kenyotta also has information on high blood pressure treatment, and Misty has a WisdomCard on the effects of high blood pressure.

• Trouble breathing? Misty can help you understand the differences between COPD vs. asthma. While Catherine put together WisdomCards on the causes of chronic bronchitis, the symptoms of bronchiectasis, and the prognosis of COPD.

• Chronic pain sufferers looking for alternative treatments need to check out Misty's WisdomCards on using biofeedback for chronic pain, as well as massage and acupuncture for fibromyalgia. 

Want more? You can always find the newest WisdomCards right on the OrganizedWisdom homepage!

Best Wisdom of the Week: controlling high blood pressure, migraines in children, iPod allergies, and more!

It's time to highlight some of the best new WisdomCards we've added to our collection this week. Our WisdomCards are hand-crafted, doctor-approved research summaries to help you find the health information you're after. See what our hardworking Guides found this week: 

• How do you tell the difference between the cold and the flu?  Guide Catherine did a great job helping you sort out which one has hit you.  

• Do you have questions about high blood pressure?  Guide Catherine shares information about high blood pressure risk factors, while Guide Jacky offers tips on how to control high blood pressure, and Guide Kenyotta tells you about breathing exercises to reduce high blood pressure and about beta-blockers and high blood pressure.   

• Migraines were on the mind this week, too.  Guide Judy researched migraines and smoking, as well as migraines in children and teens. 

• Ever heard of oral allergy syndrome?  What about an iPod allergy?   Do you wonder what the difference is between lactose intolerance and a milk allergy or how do you diagnose lactose intolerance?   Guides Misty, Jacky, Carolyn, and Kenyotta researched all these and more this week.

Want more? You can always find the newest WisdomCards right on the OrganizedWisdom homepage!

Quiz Yourself: Test Your Wellness Wisdom on Swine Flu, COPD, and Migraines!

We're always excited to introduce new quizzes on OrganizedWisdom. Taking a quiz is a fun way to test your knowledge of a subject -- and learn a thing or two in the process. OrganizedWisdom quizzes go one better and direct you to WisdomCards filled with hand-picked lists of the very best health resources, so you can keep gathering information when you're done!

Take a quiz break today and see how you score:

• Swine Flu Quiz
• COPD Quiz
• Migraine Quiz

You can find more OrganizedWisdom quizzes here.

Swine Flu Take Home Lessons: OrganizedWisdom's Medical Director, Dr. Pearlman, Shares Expert Wisdom from the ER About Swine Flu (H1N1)

In the U.S. each year, millions of people are infected with the influenza virus and over 100,000 are hospitalized. According to the CDC, approximately 36,000 deaths were attributed to seasonal influenza last year. The new strain of influenza A (H1N1), known in the media as swine flu, reminds us that influenza can have significant consequences.

It's apparent that the new strain of influenza causes the same type of initial symptoms as seasonal flu: high fevers, headaches, body aches, cough, and nausea. Fortunately, most cases are relatively mild and resolve within several days. However, just like seasonal flu, H1N1 also has the potential to cause severe disease, especially in elderly people, children under the age of 2, pregnant women, and those who have underlying lung or heart problems. In these individuals, the complications of infection can be severe, including pneumonia and respiratory failure. 

In the ER, we've received hundreds of phone calls and visits from anxious people who worry about exposure to influenza. Fortunately, even those who have presented with flu-like symptoms have had mild cases and have required only very basic supportive care. While influenza is in the media spotlight, it's great to see such a strong focus on infection control practices and preventive measures. Influenza is transmitted from person to person in the same manner as the common cold and we can all help to limit its spread within our communities.  Although it may seem elementary and a bit redundant at this point, basic precautions like proper hand washing and coughing or sneezing into your elbow or tissue are simple and effective ways to help reduce transmission of the influenza virus. In addition, those with mild symptoms are encouraged to stay at home until symptoms resolve to avoid infecting others who are at higher risk for severe disease and complications.

On a closing note, here's a great video about coughing and sneezing etiquette. Enjoy.  

 

Sleepless? Dr. Michael Breus Shares His Expert Answers to Common Sleep Disorder Questions!

Between swine flu panic, economic turmoil, and information overload it's possible that you, like many Americans, might be losing precious sleep.

Of course, sleeplessness itself is genuinely something to worry about, as it can increase your risk for hypertension, among other illnesses. 

Well, help is on the way. OrganizedWisdom just found answers to some of the most common sleep disorder questions from sleep specialist Michael Breus, Ph.D., and his helpful book Beauty Sleep. It's all part of our new OrganizedWisdom Expert Answers series where we seek out professional advice to address the most highly searched real-life FAQs!

Read Dr. Breus' words of wisdom and start sleeping better tonight:

1. Is sleep debt reversable? Can I bank sleep for later?
2. Does the amount of sleep we need really decrease as we age, or is it hearsay?
3. Can I get physically sick from lack of sleep?
4. Is a high-end mattress worth it?
5. Can I actually smell in my sleep? I've seen products that claim to help me stay asleep with special scents. Is that true?
6. Is melatonin safe to take every night?
7. I sleep a lot more during the winter months and have a harder time feeling motivated in general. What's going on?
8. Is it ever okay to keep a small stock of sleeping pills in the medicine chest just in case?
9. Is it ever okay to use alcohol as a nightcap?
10. Is it okay to let my body sleep as much as it wants during a vacation?

Best wisdom of the week: swine flu, COPD and Viagra, how to survive a heart attack, and more!

It's time to highlight some of the best new WisdomCards we've added to our collection this week. Our WisdomCards are hand-crafted, doctor-approved research summaries to help you find the health information you're after. See what our hardworking Guides found this week: 

• Swine flu is of course the big news this week.  OrganizedWisdom has been covering the news, and also answering your most important questions.  Among our swine flu coverage, Kenyotta answers everyone's top question: How is the swine flu transmitted?  Melinda researched the symptoms of the swine flu, and since it's also allergy season, Susan found out how to distinguish between the swine flu and allergy symptoms.   

• Talking about allergies, Melinda also researched how to allergy-proof your home, and Judy looked into allergies and air conditioning. 

• Our Guides also researched many details of COPD this week.  Susan wrote about COPD and smoking, COPD and breathlessness, and COPD and heliox, while Kenyotta covered COPD and oxygen,  COPD in women, why you shouldn't ignore a chronic cough, and using Viagra for COPD (yes, really!).  Catherine also shed some light on what is involved in chest physical therapy. 

• Guides were also busy researching heart disease and high blood pressure. Melinda covered such important topics as heart disease causes and how to survive a heart attack. Jacky shared details on living with heart disease and tips to prevent high blood pressure.  Among those tips is following a high blood pressure diet, which Kenyotta uncovered for you along with alternative treatments for high blood pressure.

Want more? You can always find the newest WisdomCards right on the OrganizedWisdom homepage!