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Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal
New Delhi, September 11,2018 :
Home BP monitoring improves control of hypertension and reduces treatment costs. People with high BP are more likely to get it under control if they record their BP readings at home and share them with their healthcare provider. At-home monitoring combined with doctor visits gives providers a better sense of patients’ true blood pressure readings by avoiding white coat HT and masked HT, leading to more individualized treatment and better control of HT. Sixty-seven percent of patients had their BP controlled by their 3rd visit and almost 60% had their BP under control by their sixth visit to the doctor’s office. At the end of the intervention, systolic BP had decreased an average 16.9 mmHg and diastolic BP declined by an average 6.5 mmHg (American Heart Association’s Joint Hypertension 2018 Scientific Sessions, Sept 8, 2018 in Chicago).
HCFI Position Statement on e-Cigarettes: Based on currently available evidence, using current generation e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking cigarettes though health effects of long-term use are not known.
Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) has always supported any smoker who is considering quitting, no matter what approach they use; there is nothing more important that they can do for their health. To help smokers quit, the HCFI recommends that clinicians advise their patients to use DCGI approved cessation aids that have been proven to support successful quit attempts. Many smokers will still choose to quit smoking without the assistance of a doctor and some will opt for e-cigarettes to accomplish this goal.
HCFI recommends that doctors support all attempts to quit the use of combustible tobacco and work with smokers to eventually stop using any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. Some smokers, despite firm doctor’s advice, will not attempt to quit smoking cigarettes and will not use approved cessation medications. These individuals should be encouraged to switch to the least harmful form of tobacco product possible; switching to the exclusive use of e-cigarettes is preferable to continuing to smoke combustible products. However, these individuals should be regularly advised to completely quit using all tobacco products.
The HCFI strongly discourages the concurrent (or “dual”) use of e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes, a behavior that is far more detrimental to a person’s health compared to the substantial health benefit of quitting smoking.
The punch line: Do not start any tobacco product, if you do stop it and if you can’t, shift to less harmful forms.
CDC issues influenza guidance to travelers. The CDC has advised people who have flu symptoms – fever, cough, sore throat, runny/stuff nose, body aches, headaches, chills, fatigue, and sometimes diarrhea and vomiting – to stay home, don’t travel, and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care. Everyone aged six months and older should get a seasonal flu vaccine. Most flu cases are mild and do not need medical care or antiviral drugs, but high risk patients (children younger than 5, adults 65 and older, pregnant women, residents of nursing home or long-term care facilities and people who have certain medical conditions) must contact their doctor.
Odisha doctors launch campaign for “Quack free Odisha”. Worried over increasing number of practicing quacks in the state, a group of doctors have launched a campaign to stop the practice of quacks. The doctors have been demanding the state government to form an anti-quackery law in the state. They have also been creating awareness among the general public through signature and missed call campaign to ‘make Odisha a quack free state’ (ET Healthworld, September 10, 2018).
PAHO launches virtual course on suicide prevention for primary healthcare workers “Preventing self-harm/suicide: Empowering primary healthcare providers” to mark the World Suicide Prevention Day on 10th September. The course, which is free, self-directed and available in English on PAHO’s Virtual Campus for Public Health, seeks to strengthen the capacities of primary healthcare professionals in identifying, evaluating and improving the approach towards suicidal behaviors in patients. Interested parties can access the course from 17th September when the platform is made available to the general public.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
President HCFI
HealthySoch
