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6A Daily News – Tuesday, July 30, 2013 Vitality health Wound cleaning tied to faster healing By Genevra Pittman Reuters Chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and pressure ulcers may heal faster when they are cleaned out frequently, a new study suggests. So-called debridement involves removing dead or infected tissue and any foreign bodies or bacteria from slow-healing wounds, such as with a scalpel or special cream. It's traditionally performed when a patient first comes in with a wound, said Dr. Robert Kirsner, a dermatologist and wound researcher from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "The real question is, how often do you have to do this?" added Kirsner, who co-wrote a commentary published with the new study. Close to seven million Americans each year have a chronic wound, from diabetes or other causes. A few small studies have suggested some types of wounds tend to heal faster with frequent cleaning. For their report, James Wilcox from Healogics - a company that runs wound care centers - and his colleagues tried to expand on those data by reviewing the records of about 155,000 patients treated at one of 525 wound centers. Between 2008 and 2012, those patients were treated for a total of 313,000 wounds, including diabetic foot and pressure ulcers, surgical wounds and cuts from accidents or other trauma. The average wound was cleaned out twice. The researchers found that healing time varied by the type of wound, but was typically faster with more frequent debridement. Three nutrients for better sleep By Staff Relaxnews Want a better night's sleep? If you have difficulty getting quality zzzs, it could be linked to a surprising reason: vitamin or mineral deficiencies. This week health website Livescience reported on three common sleep problems and the three nutrients that may cure what ails you. 1. Can't get to sleep: Studies have shown that insomnia is one of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Good natural sources are dark leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, beans and lentils. 2. Difficulty staying asleep: This could be linked to potassium, Livescience reports. Studies have shown that potassium supplements may boost sleeping through the night, but good food sources are beans, leafy greens, avocados, baked potatoes, and to a lesser degree, bananas. 3. Feeling tired during the day: While this could be the result of many factors, namely stress, research has found "a strong correlation" between excessive drowsiness during the day and vitamin D deficiency, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Good vitamin D sources: the sun's rays, but you can find the mineral in food sources such as swordfish, salmon, tuna, and fortified dairy products. A Retirement Community for the Active Senior Citizens EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY Tehama Estates provides the best living environment available to active seniors in Red Bluff, CA. We will show you ways to stay involved in the care of loved ones, and work with you to maintain the highest quality of life. Summer Special 1/2 OFF first month rent! ◆ Independent Living ◆ Private Apartments ◆ House Keeping Services ◆ Three Nutritious Meals Daily ◆ 24 Hour Secure Environment ◆ Warm & Friendly Staff ◆Recreational Programs ◆Scheduled Transportation ◆Private & Formal Dining Rooms 750 David Avenue, Red Bluff • 527-9193 & fitness Choking sends more kids to ER By Genevra Pittman Reuters Each day over the past decade, about 34 U.S. children went to the emergency room after choking on food, according to a new study of a group of nationally-representative hospitals. Researchers found that candy was the most common culprit - although choking on hot dogs, nuts and seeds most often required kids to be hospitalized. "These numbers are high," said Dr. Gary Smith, who worked on the study at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. What's more, he added, "This is an underestimate. This doesn't include children who were treated in urgent care, by a primary care physician or who had a serious choking incident and were able to expel the food and never sought care." The estimated 12,435 children ages 14 and younger who were treated for choking on food each year also doesn't include the average 57 childhood food choking deaths reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually, the researchers noted. Smith and his colleagues analyzed injury surveillance data covering 2001 through 2009. They found that babies one year old and younger accounted for about 38 percent of all childhood ER visits for choking on food. Many of those infants choked on formula or breast milk. Overall, candies caused just over one in four ER trips, followed by meat, bones and fruits and vegetables. Ten percent of children had to be hospitalized after choking. Kids who choked on a hot dog or on seeds and nuts were two to three times more likely to require hospitalization than those who choked on other foods, according to the findings published Monday in Pediatrics. "We know that because hot dogs are the shape and size of a child's airway that they can completely block a child's airway," Smith told Reuters Health, noting that seeds and nuts are also difficult to swallow when children put a lot in their mouths at once. Dr. Ronald Litman, an anesthesiologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said it's hard to tell from this study how many kids are "seriously affected" after a choking incident. "The vast majority of these kids, by the time they get to the emergency room, they've coughed or choked it out," Litman, who wasn't involved in the new research, told Reuters Health. However, he said that he and his colleagues see a few kids every year who have inhaled peanuts and end up in intensive care because their lungs mount an inflammatory response to the fat in the nuts. Smith, also the presi- dent of the non-profit Child Injury Prevention Alliance, said many choking incidents could be prevented with better food design and labeling from manufacturers and with extra precautions taken by parents of young children. "Clearly, rule number one is supervision" when kids are eating, said Dr. James Reilly, from Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. Making sure food is in small enough pieces is also important, Reilly, who has studied choking but wasn't part of the study team, told Reuters Health. For example, he said, grapes should be cut in half for young children, but raisins are probably okay whole. Health law boosts status of alternative medicine By Ankita Rao KHN Staff Writer Jane Guiltinan said the husbands are usually the stubborn ones. When her regular patients, often married women, bring their spouses to the Bastyr Center for Natural Health to try her approach to care, the men are often skeptical of the treatment plan -- a mix of herbal remedies, lifestyle changes and sometimes, conventional medicine. After 31 years of practice, Guiltinan, a naturopathic physician, said it is not uncommon for health providers without the usual nurse or doctor background to confront patients' doubts. "I think it's a matter of education and cultural change," she said. As for the husbands -they often come around, Guiltinan said, but only after they see that her treatments solve their problems. Complementary and alternative medicine -- a term that encompasses meditation, acupuncture, chiropractic care and homeopathic treatment, among other things -- has become increasingly popular. About four in 10 adults (and one in nine children) in the U.S. are using some form of alternative medicine, according to the National Institutes of Health. And with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the field could make even more headway in the mainstream health care system. That is, unless the fine print -- in state leg- PHYSICIAN REFERRAL A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 1-888-628-1948 www.redbluff.mercy.org islation and insurance plans -- falls short because of unclear language and insufficient oversight. One clause of the health law in particular -- Section 2706 -- is widely discussed in the alternative medicine community because it requires that insurance companies "shall not discriminate" against any health provider with a staterecognized license. That means a licensed chiropractor treating a patient for back pain, for instance, must be reimbursed the same as medical doctors. In addition, nods to alternative medicine are threaded through other parts of the law in sections on wellness, prevention and research. "It's time that our health care system takes an integrative approach … whether conventional or alternative," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who authored the anti-discrimination provision, in an email. "Patients want good outcomes with good value, and complementary and alternative therapies can provide both." The federal government has, in recent years, tapped providers like Guiltinan, who is also the dean at the Bastyr University College of Naturopathic Medicine, to help advise the federal government and implement legislation that could affect the way they are paid and their disciplines are incorporated into the health care continuum. In 2012, Guiltinan, based in Kenmore, Wash., was appointed to the advisory council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. Proving that alternative medicine has real, measurable benefits has been key to increasing its role in the system, said John Weeks, editor of the Integrator Blog, an online publication for the alternative medicine community. The PatientCentered Outcomes Research Institute, created by the health law, is funding studies on alternative medicine treatments to determine their effectiveness. Weeks said both lawmakers and the general public will soon have access to that research, including the amount of money saved by integrating other forms of medicine into the current health system. But the challenges of introducing alternative care don't stop with science. Because under the health care law each state defines its essential benefits plan -- what is covered by insurance -- somewhat differently, the language concerning alternative medicine has to be very specific in terms of who gets paid and for what kinds of treatment, said Deborah Senn, the former insurance commissioner in Washington and an advocate for alternative medicine coverage. She pointed out that California excluded coverage for chiropractic care in its essential benefits plan, requiring patients to pay out of pocket for their treatment. Senn thinks the move was most likely an oversight and an unfavorable one for the profession. Four other states -- Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Utah - ruled the same way in the past year. "That's just an outright violation of the law," she said, referring to the ACA clause. Colorado and Oregon are in the process of changing that ruling to allow chiropractic care to be covered, according to researchers at Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care. Some states, like Washington, are ahead of the rest of the country in embracing alternative practitioners. The Bastyr University system, where Guiltinan works, treats 35,000 patients a year with naturopathic medicine. Sixty percent of the patients billed insurance companies for coverage. Guiltinan said a change in the system is not only a boon for alternative medicine doctors, but helps families of all income levels access care normally limited to outof-pocket payment. That's why some alternative medicine aficionados like Rohit Kumar are hoping the law will increase the ability of his family -- and the larger community -- to obtain this kind of care. Kumar, a 26-year-old business owner in Los Angeles, said his parents and brothers have always used herbs and certain foods when they get sick, and regularly see a local naturopath and herbalist. He's only used antibiotics once, he says, when he caught dengue fever on a trip to India. While the Kumar family pays for any treatments they need with cash -- the only payment both alternative providers accept -- they also pay for a high-deductible health plan every month to cover emergencies, like when his brother recently broke his arm falling off a bike. Paying for a conventional health care plan and maintaining their philosophy of wellness is not cheap. "We pay a ridiculous amount of money every month," Kumar said of the high-deductible insurance. "And none of it goes toward any type of medicine we believe in." Even so, he said the family will continue to practice a lifestyle that values wellness achieved without a prescription -- a philosophy that Guiltinan also adopted in her practice.