Isolated Systolic Hypertension: Causes, Treatments, and More
ConclusionWhat Is Isolated Systolic Hypertension? If you have isolated systolic hypertension, your systolic blood pressure (the top number in the BP reading) is high, but your diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) is normal. Stages of Isolated Systolic Hypertension Normal BP: 120/80 mmHg Elevated BP: 120-129/80 mmHg Hypertension Stage 1: 130-39/80-89 mmHg Hypertension Stage 2:  139 mmHg />89 mmHg Isolated systolic hypertension is more common in older adults. This condition is also more prevalent in men than women. Untreated isolated systolic hypertension can lead to serious health prob...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 11, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Kutryk Tags: Guides Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

Does Blood Pressure Change During a Heart Attack?
Want to know “Does blood pressure change during a heart attack? This comprehensive guide will help obtain a clear picture of the steps to eliminate its chances. When a person is facing the condition of a heart attack, the pressure in their blood vessels can rapidly change and can have devastating consequences if left untreated. However, in some cases, it doesn’t. Therefore, the discussion surrounding BP fluctuations during a heart attack is limited because most doctors don’t use it as an indicator of a heart attack. While it’s possible to see such changes, some other warning signs of a heart attack are...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 11, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Kutryk Tags: Guides Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

An elderly woman with acute vomiting, presyncope, and hypotension, and a wide QRS complex
 Written by Pendell MeyersFamily of an elderly woman with many comorbidities called EMS when she suddenly experienced shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and near syncope. She was alert and oriented and hypotensive with initial BP 70/50. A 12 lead ECG was obtained by EMS and is shown below:What do you think?There is sinus tachycardia (do not be fooled into thinking this is VT or another wide complex tachycardia!) The ECG is diagnostic of LAD occlusion (or even left main occlusion possibly), with the classic pattern of RBBB and LAFB with huge concordant STE in V1-V2, I, and aVL, with reciprocal depression in mo...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - November 11, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs

What Is GHB Anyway?
Let’s face it, there are a whole bunch of street drugs out there that we as EMS caregivers should understand. While we can’t always be expected to identify the exact drug a patient has ingested. We do need to be able to predict a given drugs effect on the body. We should also be able to take a fair guess at the identity of an ingested drug based on our evaluation of the patient’s physical presentation. GHB is one of those drugs that can be hard to nail down based on the physical signs. But it does leave some clues – if you know what your look for. What Is It? : A Multi-Receptor Stimulant GHB is short for ...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 10, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs

Telehealth Visits Can Improve Revenue, But They ’ re No Cornucopia
This article focuses on revenue, because I and other writers frequently cover impacts of televisits on access and care plans. (Still, I haven’t been able to hold back from some other related observations.) What I found is that televisits don’t seem to make a big difference, either positive or negative, on the money clinicians are making. As usual, sites that are already flush with cash and well-endowed with resources can find more cost savings. How televisits improve clinical revenues Obviously, televisits saved the health care system from collapse when COVID-19 was first recognized as a major threat. But as we...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 9, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: AI/Machine Learning Ambulatory Analytics/Big Data Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring Behavior Health Behavioral Telehealth Costs Revenue Telehealth Reimbursement Source Type: blogs

High Blood Pressure and Erectile Dysfunction
Research confirms that high blood pressure and ED are closely linked. But did you know the majority of cases of ED are caused by hypertension? Keep reading to find out more. Experts suggest that “hypertension is sometimes a standalone condition and sometimes it’s associated with other conditions, which also impact erectile dysfunction.” According to the European Society of Cardiology, this likelihood is almost double in men with uncontrolled high blood pressure. Long-term exposure to hypertension and elevated blood pressure damages the arterial wall. This leads to atherosclerosis and the narrowing of art...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 8, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Kutryk Tags: Guides Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

5 Tips For Talking With Your Teen About Using Substances
Raising children is a difficult task that only strengthens when that child becomes a teen. During adolescence, it is a time of discovering who they are, and they will often test their boundaries. This is why it is crucial to talk to your teen before they begin testing their limits regarding substance use. It can lead to very unhealthy behaviors if they begin using drugs or alcohol at a young age and can lead them into dangerous territory. Because of this, it is vital to have a conversation since studies have shown that kids with clear rules about substance use are less likely to get into serious trouble. As a parent, yo...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - November 8, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Erin Falconer Tags: communication depression featured health and fitness psychology addiction family parents substance abuse teens Source Type: blogs

Global Digital Health 100 – The Medical Futurist ’ s Top Choices in 2022
We first published the list of the Top 100 Digital Health Companies in 2017, highlighting the mindblowing growth the sector registered in the previous year. “Global digital health investments totalled more than 8 billion USD in 2016” – we wrote. Looking at the latest data, we better keep our seatbelts fastened: this figure was USD 57.2 billion in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 79%. Digital health is booming, with dozens, hundreds of startups and scale-ups entering the realm each year. While their spectacular promises are loud, failure is silent – unless it happens to one of the tech giants ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 7, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF bioprinting digital health Healthcare wearables top 100 telemedicine digital health companies remote care digital therapeutics Source Type: blogs

What Do Digital Biomarkers Mean?
The spread of wearable digital technologies in healthcare generating big data entailed the appearance of a new type of medical information. They produce actionable insights into the biological state of individuals, just like “general” biomarkers, but are collected through digital tools. Here’s our summary of what digital biomarkers mean and how they will be used in the near future. The appearance of user-generated big data in healthcare In the last couple of years, Fitbit, Jawbone, Apple Health, Withings, Garmin, Sleep as Android, WIWE, MocaCare, Skeeper – in other words, fitness trackers, step count...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 3, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: berci.mesko Tags: Digital Health Research Health Sensors & Trackers Innovation prediction prevention digital biomarkers population health preventive health Source Type: blogs

Understanding The SAMPLE History
The SAMPLE history usually comes up in the first few weeks of EMT class. It’s such a widely accepted standard that it appears in the National Registry medical and trauma skills station as well as the EMT National Standard Curriculum. As far as subjective patient history’s go…SAMPLE is the gold standard. Like anything else in medicine, widespread utilization also comes with widespread misunderstanding. The SAMPLE history is an educational gold standard for a reason. It’s a very effective tool for remembering the major components of a medical history.  It’s also often misused and highly inadequate when taug...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs

Suicidal Evaluation: The DEAD PIMP Assessment
It’s a difficult situation that just about every EMS provider has been faced with at some point. Someone, somewhere thinks a friend or loved-one wants to commit suicide and they call 911. You arrive on scene to find a healthy looking patient who is adamant that they have no desire to harm themselves or anyone else. They don’t want to go with you. And now, you’re faced with a challenging evaluation. This is a situation that experienced mental health professionals can find difficult. You have very little mental health training and you’re being asked to make a complex prediction about the potential future behavior ...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs

Keeping Track of the 2022 Ballot Measures
Walter OlsonLast week I posted aboutelection ‐​related ballot measures in next week ’s vote, and in this post I’ll turn to measures on other subjects.More states are considering cannabis ‐​related measures this year than ever more. All five (Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota) move in the direction of legalization, but with differences in tax and regulatory handling. Chris Edwards has lately looked at thetax implications and Jeff Miron at some ofthe substance ( “More than a century of experience demonstrates that prohibition is a treatment far worse than the ‘disease...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Walter Olson Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 31st 2022
This study used mice to evaluate how their lifestyles - eating fatty foods vs. healthy and exercising vs. not - affected the metabolites of their offspring. Metabolites are substances made or used when the body breaks down food, drugs or chemicals, or its own fat or muscle tissue. "We have previously shown that maternal and paternal exercise improve health of offspring. Tissue and serum metabolites play a fundamental role in the health of an organism, but how parental exercise affects offspring tissue and serum metabolites has not yet been investigated." Researchers used targeted metabolomics - the study of metaboli...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 30, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs