Why so many of us avoid going to the Doctor

A lot of us really avoid going to the doctor like the plague. But why? Well, it can bring up feelings of anxiety, fear and stress!

Let’s stop and take a look at the reasons why majority of us avoid visiting the doctor’s office…

24% avoid the doctor because they don’t have insurance
24% avoid the doctor because they are embarrassed about the issue
19% avoid the doctor because it is expensive
18% avoid the doctor because their issue is not covered by health insurance
13% avoid the doctor because they are worries about discovering a condition
7% avoid the doctor because of other reasons

People often lie to their doctors, but what do they lie about?

       -          Eating habits

       -          Exercise

       -          Sex-related issues

       -          Smoking

       -          Alcohol

       -          Drugs

Often it is not the fear or stress that stops people from going to the doctor, but the certain pet peeves that people annoyed…

1. Waiting too long
2. Exposure to germs
3. Paperwork
4. Missing a day or work or other appointments

Because we are living in a digital world, people prefer to go online and google certain topics and symptoms, what are the most popular?

41% Sex-related issues
29% STDS
16% Drugs and alcohol
15% Weight
11% Digestive health
4% Other

Supply Doctor is your one-stop online store for all your medical supplies and equipment. Choose anything from BP meters and disposables to ECGs and ultrasound devices. Call 087 001 0511/2 or email sales@supplydoctor.co.za

7 Things you NEED in your First Aid Kit

Whether you have to care for skinned knees or scraped elbows in the backyard or wrap up a sprained ankle, having medical and first aid materials is essential both at home and on the go. Packaging a first aid kit doesn’t have to be expensive or take up a lot of room in your car or home.

A great online medical equipment and supplies website is Supply Doctor, there is a wide range of first aid equipment to choose from and add to your kit.

Here are some of the must-haves for your first aid kit:

First Aid Manual
Although you may not want to waste space in your first aid kit, a manual is very important. It can offer you helpful tips and guide you on how to treat wounds, clean and bandage scrapes and even stop nosebleeds. Learning how to treat injuries while waiting for professional help can really make a difference.

Assorted Bandages
Whether you need adhesive strips for small scratches or gauze for larger wounds, assorted bandages in your first aid kit is essential. Bandages come in all shape and sizes, so pack a variety in your kit. Also make sure to include gauze rolls, elastic bandages and sterile burn sheets.

Antiseptic and Ointments
When an injury happens, making sure everything is sterile is crucial. Ensure that you have tools to clean cuts and wounds like antiseptic, hand sanitizer and sanitary cloths. Toss in a pair of non-latex gloves to safely apply any antiseptic or ointments during a minor emergency.

Instant Compress
To treat any aches and pains, make sure your kit includes instant heat or ice pack. Instant compresses are recommended to reduce swelling – once the package is broken the compress will retain its temperature for about 20 minutes.

Scissors
A good pair of scissors is a necessity in your first aid kit. In addition to cutting gauze you may need to cut other material like clothing during an emergency. A regular pair of scissors is fine along as they are sharp enough.

Medication
Pain is a big deal, especially to little children, so it’s a good idea to have a children’s pain reliever around to reduce fevers, headaches, sprains and other pains.

Tweezers
This supply isn’t just for plucking stray hairs. Tweezers can come in handy to remove splinters, glass and ticks.

Accidents of any kind are bound to happen, anytime or anywhere. So, it is crucial for you to have a well-stocked first aid kit on hand at all times.

How to Avoid the Flu in an Open Office

Teamwork is a beautiful thing…until it makes you sick. According to a recent study, it takes just four hours for the germs on a contaminated workplace door to spread to the work surfaces and hands of half the employees in the office! Other office germ hot spots include coffee pots, microwaves and refrigerator door handles.

Protect yourself from office germs with our six tips for staying healthy in an open office environment. You’ll be healthier, more productive, and continue to love your co-workers—even through cold and flu season.

For a number of medical supplies, including disposables, light medical equipment and first aid products - Visit Supply Doctor and place your order from the comfort of your own home!

How to stay healthy during allergy season

If you find yourself suffering from sneezing, itchy eyes, and pressure headaches every spring, welcome to the seasonal allergy club. Here are some common questions about pollen allergies — and how to survive them without losing your mind.

How do I know if I have allergies, a cold, or a sinus infection?

It can be tough to tell sometimes. Unlike allergies, a cold or respiratory infection often brings on a fever, so that’s a key indicator. If your nasal congestion clears up within one to two weeks, chances are you had a cold rather than allergies. Seasonal allergy symptoms tend to last three weeks or more, depending on the types of pollen you’re allergic to.

Is it possible to prevent allergies?

You can’t prevent seasonal allergy symptoms from occurring, but you can do things to minimize the impact of the symptoms on your quality of life. Here are some recommended steps you take before and during allergy season:

- Start a steroid nasal spray about four to six weeks ahead of pollen season.

- Stay indoors during peak pollen hours, such as mornings. On high-pollen days, stay indoors as much as possible.

- Do your seasonal cleaning before pollen’s in the air. You may still have to cope with dust allergies while cleaning, but at least you won’t have to deal with dust and pollen.

- Keep windows closed when pollen counts are high.

- Place air filters inside your air conditioning vents to prevent pollen from getting blown into your living space.

- Get a dehumidifier. These devices also filter the air in your home, which may help improve your indoor air quality.

- Remove outer garments outside and shake them off before bringing them indoors. Even though you may not be able to see pollen on your clothing, it’s there.

- Wash pollen down the drain by showering as soon as you get home. Pollen sticks to your hair and skin, so rinsing it off will help keep it out of your bed, carpet, and furniture.

Looking for reliable, cheap medical supplies and equipment that you can order online from the comfort of your own home? Supply Doctor is an online medical supply store that can supply you with anything from disposables and first aid equipment to AED machines and BP metres.\

15 Health Care Quotes From Famous Thinkers

Few topics in our culture today have burned with such fire as health care. TV news programs battle over who has the better plan to lower costs and raise quality daily.

Books and many articles are written and published to voice more opinions, and for people to line up and take sides.

It seems like everybody is rushing to get to the end, urgently goading people to follow their particular plan of escape, and no one can see where they're going.

In cases like this, there is clarity in simple and enduring ideas. So take a time-out from the political and economic world. Instead, let these thinkers remind us of what's really at stake--the person who suffers right in front of us. Each of us is armed already with the power to heal without the need for cash, without the risk of side effects. The human spirit and our connection to each other; that too, is medicine!

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
― Hippocrates

“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.”
― George Gordon Byron

“We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line. There is science in what we do, yes, but also habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing. The gap between what we know and what we aim for persists. And this gap complicates everything we do.”
― Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

“It is very expensive to give bad medical care to poor people in a rich country.”
― Paul Farmer

“Disease is the biggest money maker in our economy.”
― John H. Tobe

“After you find out all the things that can go wrong, your life becomes less about living and more about waiting.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

“Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice”?”
― George Carlin

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
― Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa

“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it”
― Maimonides

“Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“How do you tell the psychiatrists from the patients in the hospital?
The patients get better and leave.”
― Lisa Scottoline, Every Fifteen Minutes

"Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in early stages."
― James Madison

"I'm great at a death bed. I've never given tranquilizers or psychiatric medicine. I've given love and fun and creativity and passion and hope, and these things ease suffering."
― Patch Adams

"To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine."
― Henry Ward Beecher

"If we want to fight people in the world, we should fight them with pillows - pillows stuffed with food, medicine, music...That would be so much cheaper than bombs."
― Alice Walker

Supply Doctor is an online medical equipment and product store that offers a variety of medical supplies, from first aid kits and disposables to ECGs and ultrasound machines.

Medical Supplies for Back and Neck Therapy

Is your back and neck bothering you? You're not alone. Muskuloskeletal issues like back pain and neck pain are very common. A number of things can cause back pain, from practical day to day activities like sitting at the office, carrying the groceries home or even gardening.

Here are some ideas for medical supplies that can help you with your back and neck pain management.

Pillows

You spend one-third of your life sleeping. Hopefully, you're getting a good night's rest, with quality sleep, while you're lying down in bed. That can be difficult though, when chronic pain is present and keeping you awake.

Choosing the right shape and softness for your pillow may help put you in a no-pain position so you can relax and doze off. In addition to the traditional pillow shape, which can easily be found in varying degrees of softness and hardness, there are also special shapes you can try until you find the right one. For example, crescent-shaped pillows may allow the neck angle that feels "just right" for you, while a roll-shaped pillow may help someone else.

Back Support

Does your job require you to sit all day? Or perhaps you have a long commute in your car every day? Sometimes a back support rest can help. These portable supports are back-shaped pads with support in various key places to (hopefully) prevent pain. Back supports are designed to align your spine and correct your posture. 

Not all back supports are placed on the back of your chair, whether it be at your desk or in your car. Some back supports are contoured seat cushions. You sit on them, but they support your spine, coccyx, and pelvis to reduce sitting fatigues and pain.

Hot and Cold Therapy

Heating pads and cold packs now come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and fastening mechanisms. Doctors typically recommend cold therapy to reduce swelling, which causes pressure to build up and manifests as pain. Heat therapy helps with muscle spasm and inflammation caused by tension and stress.

Heating pads are available now as plug-ins, and some are cordless but require you to heat them up in a microwave. You can find heating pad type supplies in the form of body wraps, back pads, shoulder wraps, and other spot target anti-cramp pads.

Ice packs are the same in that they come in many shapes to help you target the pain and swelling. Simple square or rectangular packs are easy to find, but there are also shoulder and neck pads, and some that have straps to keep them in place so that you don't have to hold them. 

Supply Doctor is a dynamic and professional one-stop online store for all your medical supplies, consumables, medical equipment, disposables and more, based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Here’s proof that vegetarians live longer!

For a long time vegetarians have been insisting they are healthier than their meat-eating peers. Now, finally, there's proof that they are not only healthier – they might even live longer.

A new protein-focused study shows eating more protein from vegetarian foods and less from animal foods is associated with a massive reduction in deaths from all causes including cancer and heart disease.

The study was conducted by researchers from America’s Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and followed 131 000 people over 32 years.

According to the study, by replacing a mere 3% of calories from processed meat with vegetarian sources of protein you can cut the risk of a developing a heart attack by 39%. And for unprocessed red meat, the reduction is 18%.

“Eating more plant protein [is] associated with a 10% lower risk of death from all causes for every 3% increment of total calories and a 12% lower risk of cardiovascular death,” the researchers said.

The lead author of the paper, Dr Mingyang Song, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN their findings have important public health implications.

 “They can help refine the current dietary recommendations about protein intake and really get to the point that it is not only the amount, but also the food sources of protein that are critical for long-term health.”

UK based international nutritional expert Patrick Holford agrees with Song. “In this study, having less eggs and more vegetable protein was also consistent with reduced mortality from all causes, including cancer and heart disease,” he says.

“The greatest risk, however, was in people with other unhealthy behaviours and a high intake of red and processed meat and a low intake of vegetable protein. Super-healthy lean meat eaters may not fare so badly. However, the benefit from plant-based protein foods remains a clear trend of this substantial study.”

Supply Doctor has a wide range of equipment, from a number of disposable first aid supplies to affordable hospital equipment. Visit Supply Doctor's website and order online today!

Is a Walker Better than a Rollator?

Walkers and rollators have been around for a few decades now. They have both done wonders for people who want to maintain an independent lifestyle but need a little extra help getting around.

Who Needs a Walker?

More and more seniors want to stay in their own home and they often live alone. Many also have conditions like hip and back problems, arthritis, and severe breathing conditions that inhibit their ability to walk and limit their endurance.

That is not to say that you won't find many seniors in assisted living residences and nursing homes who also use a walker or rollator. They are probably more common in these residences and even then, a walker or a rollator could prolong independence.

What is a Walker?

A walker is a type of mobility aid used to help people who are still able to walk (e.g. don't require a wheelchair) yet need assistance. It is a four-legged frame that allows a person to lean on it for balance, support, and rest.

Walkers are usually made out of aluminium so they are light enough to be picked up and moved easily. They often have comfort grips made of foam, gel, or rubber to enhance the user's comfort.

The tips of the legs are typically covered with rubber caps that are designed to prevent slipping and improve stability.

Types of Walkers

There are different styles of walkers that you should be aware of before you make a purchase.

Here is a list of the most common types of walkers along with the key points that make them different.

It should be noted that some of these features are not exclusive of each other. For example, you can get a "folding walker" with "height-adjustability" included.

> Folding Walkers

Folding walkers are simply walkers that can be folded easily for transport.

The mechanism to fold the walker is typically a two-button system. Push the buttons in and the walker collapses and folds flat so it will fit easily in a car, bus, or plane.

> Height-Adjustable Walkers

Some walkers have a range of pins or buttons that can be pressed to adjust and set the height of the walker so the handles fit you properly. The range of some walkers spans enough height that they can be used for both adults and children.

> Hemi Walkers

A hemi walker allows the user to lean on just one side for support. It is designed for people with little or no dexterity in one arm or hand.

Since it looks like half of a walker, it makes sense that it is about half the weight of a folding walker. 

Hemi walkers are considered more stable than a cane, so they certainly have their niche.

> Walker with Front Wheels

You can also find a walker (folding, height-adjustable) that has a wheel on each of the front legs. The purpose of the wheels is to help you manoeuvre over difficult terrain.

Most designs have 5-inch wheels.

> Rise-Assistance Walker

There are walkers on the market now that have a front handle that slopes lower on the user's side.

When seated in a chair or at the edge of their bed, the user can reach a lower portion of the handle and use it for leverage to pull themselves up.

> Glider Walker with Platform Attachment

This design includes what looks like a low-height walker.

On each side, you will see a pole rising up. On the top of the poles are soft vinyl platforms to rest your forearms. In front of these comfort platforms, you will find handles for gripping.

This design may assist your stability if you prefer to bear your weight on your forearms rather than elbows and shoulders.

Looking for affordable, durable medical supplies and equipment? Including walkers? Visit Supply Doctors online medical supply store and order today!

How to Measure a Wheelchair

When it comes to wheelchairs, there is nothing more important than making sure the chair is a perfect fit for its owner. If any one element of the chair is too long, too short, too wide or too skinny, it can become incredibly uncomfortable, especially over a long period of time. Read the following article to learn how to measure a wheelchair and ensure it will be a good fit for the owner.

1. Measure the width of the person who will use the wheelchair. Take the measurement with the person in the seated position, on a fairly firm surface. This will determine the width of the seat.

      ·         Add approximately 2.5 to 5 cm for slight movement and comfort when sitting. Allow for the thickness of bulky clothing, which could be worn in the winter.

2. Measure the widest part of the subject's chest. This will usually be from directly under one armpit to the other. This will influence the width of the seat back.

3. Measure from the back of the heel to the back of the knee. This will determine the length of the leg rest extension and influence the seat height.

      ·         Add a minimum of 2 inches (5 cm) to this measurement to determine seat height. Unless the wheelchair is going to be foot propelled, the footrest needs that much room for clearance.

      ·         Take the next measurements while the person is sitting down. The arms should be at a 90 degree angle, and the shoulders should be relaxed and neutral.

4. Measure from the back of the hips to the back of the subject's knee. Add approximately 2.5 to 5 cm to determine the ideal seat depth. For an adult, there should be that much space from the edge of the seat to the back of the knee.

5. Measure from the tip of the elbow to the top of the hips. Again, the person should be in a sitting position with both arms at a 90 degree angle. This will determine the height of the armrest in relation to the seat.

6. Measure from the hips to the shoulders. This will determine the height of the seat back.

7. Measure from the hips to the top of the head. This will determine the necessary height of the headrest.

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What Is an Infusion Pump?

An external infusion pump is a medical device used to deliver fluids into a patient’s body in a controlled manner. There are many different types of infusion pumps, which are used for a variety of purposes and in a variety of environments.

Infusion pumps may be capable of delivering fluids in large or small amounts, and may be used to deliver nutrients or medications – such as insulin or other hormones, antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, and pain relievers.

Some infusion pumps are designed mainly for stationary use at a patient’s bedside. Others, called ambulatory infusion pumps, are designed to be portable or wearable.

A number of commonly used infusion pumps are designed for specialized purposes. These include:

• Enteral pump - A pump used to deliver liquid nutrients and medications to a patient’s digestive tract.

• Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump - A pump used to deliver pain medication, which is equipped with a feature that allows patients to self-administer a controlled amount of medication, as needed.

• Insulin pump - A pump typically used to deliver insulin to patients with diabetes. Insulin pumps are frequently used in the home.

Infusion pumps may be powered electrically or mechanically. Different pumps operate in different ways. For example:

• In a syringe pump, fluid is held in the reservoir of a syringe, and a moveable piston controls fluid delivery.

• In an elastomeric pump, fluid is held in a stretchable balloon reservoir, and pressure from the elastic walls of the balloon drives fluid delivery.

• In a peristaltic pump, a set of rollers pinches down on a length of flexible tubing, pushing fluid forward.

• In a multi-channel pump, fluids can be delivered from multiple reservoirs at multiple rates.

• A "smart pump" is equipped with safety features, such as user-alerts that activate when there is a risk of an adverse drug interaction, or when the user sets the pump's parameters outside of specified safety limits.

10 Medical reasons why you might be tired

A variety of illnesses could leave you feeling completely drained. We highlight 10 health conditions that are known to cause fatigue.

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Anxiety

It’s perfectly normal to feel anxious at times, but there are some people who experience constant, overpowering feelings of anxiety, so intense that it affects their daily life. Doctors call this generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). According to the mental health information centre GAD is present in three to eight percent of the general population. Apart from feeling worried and tetchy, people with GAD often also feel extreme exhaustion. Other common anxiety disorders include social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder and more.

Glandular Fever

Glandular fever is a viral infection that mostly affects young adults. Symptoms present as swollen glands in the neck, high temperature (fever), a severe sore throat and excessive tiredness. And while symptoms of glandular fever may clear up within two to three weeks, the fatigue can last for far longer. The British National Health Service (NHS) advises patients to do some light exercise once symptoms have subsided. This helps muscle strength to return. 

Restless Legs Syndrome

Dr Michael J. Breus, Clinical Psychologist and sleep specialist says that for the millions who suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), sleep can be exceedingly difficult and disrupted. RLS is when you get uncomfortable sensations in your legs, sometimes even in your arms such as a tingling sensation, “pins and needles”, and even pain. This usually happens when lying or sitting down. As a result, it affects your sleep dramatically, causing you to feel extremely tired during the day.

Underactive Thyroid

Medically defined, an underactive thyroid also known as hypothyroidism, means that the body produces too little thyroxine. With an underactive thyroid gland, you’re likely to feel tired, gain weight and experience severe muscle aches. To diagnose this condition, doctors usually do a full blood cell count test. Hypothyroidism is more common in older people and also more common in women. Sometimes children and babies are also affected.

Sleep Apnoea

This is a condition where your throat closes or narrows, affecting your breathing while you sleep. These breathing pauses may last for a couple of seconds and sometimes up to minutes, and have a great effect on your sleep. It can cause the oxygen levels in your blood to drop and may bring about excessive snoring. This condition is particularly prevalent in overweight, middle-aged men. Doctors have confirmed that drinking and smoking aggravate the condition, and advise patients to quit.

Anaemia

This common condition is brought about by the lack of iron in the body. Iron is necessary to transport oxygen in the blood and low iron levels are a common reason for feeling rundown. Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) affects about one in 20 men and post-menopausal women, and may even be common in women who are still menstruating. Typical symptoms of IDA include: tiredness, shortage of breathe, heart palpitations and a pale complexion.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a condition that causes extreme tiredness, but whose cause is unknown. Experts believe that it can be brought on by a host of factors including viral infections and psychological stress. There is no test that can diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, therefore a series of tests need to be conducted to rule out other medical issues before a diagnosis can be made.

Coeliac Disease

This disease is a reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat and a number of other grains. NHS reports that in the UK one percent of people have coeliac disease, but many aren’t even aware that they have it. Symptoms include the typical tiredness and diarrhoea as well as anaemia and weight loss. Doctors are usually able to detect whether you have the condition by means of a blood test.

Diabetes

A common condition is diabetes, where there is too much sugar in the blood as a result of the lack of the hormone insulin produced in the body by the pancreas. Symptoms of diabetes are exhaustion, extreme thirst and frequent urination. Your GP can pick this up by means of a simple finger prick blood test. 

Depression

By definition depression is categorised as feelings of extreme sadness and despondency, but apart from these feelings it also makes you feel really drained. It has the potential to make it difficult for you to sleep, or wake you up early which leaves you feeling extremely tired during the day. 

Why laughter really is the best medicine

Cat videos. A tickle attack. Tina Fey doing basically anything.

Chances are at least one of these things has reduced you to a fit of giggles or you can think of something else that’s left your eyes watery and your abs aching. Think about how that felt — did all your muscles turn to jelly and your entire body relax? Did you momentarily forget your annoying day at the office?

However you’d describe the experience, it probably felt great. And there are plenty of reasons why: a good laugh can do everything from soothing tension by taming stress and stimulating circulation to boosting endorphins, the feel-good brain chemicals responsible for that post-hilarity high. A study even found that participants had a higher tolerance for pain after watching funny clips from South Park, The Simpsons, and Friends.

Cracking up is also a great way to bond — studies show it’s 30 times more likely to happen in a social context than when alone. Sharing a joke or a laugh helps us connect on a personal, human level, it builds and strengthens relationships. These strong bonds have been shown to be possibly the most important piece in long and healthy lives. There’s always time for a good joke.

But laughter isn’t just a temporary fix — research shows it has long-term benefits too. Some studies indicate that a sense of humour is associated with enhanced immune function and one study found that depressed patients who took part in a Laughter Yoga group (which is exactly what it sounds like) experienced a significant decrease in depression and a significant increase in life satisfaction, suggesting the laughing practice was at least as effective as group exercise for boosting mental health.

It may not come as a surprise then that laughter plays a pretty important role in health care too. In fact, it’s a sneaky way many doctors get nervous patients to relax and the tactic is often hugely successful.

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Did you know Defibrillators are tied to long-term complications?

Implantable defibrillators devices that detect and correct an abnormal heart rhythm are associated with a high risk of long-term complications, a new study suggests.

•  High rate of complications

"An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is a highly effective treatment option to reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death," said lead researcher Dr Isuru Ranasinghe, a senior cardiologist at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

"However, there is a substantial and persistent risk of device-related complications and re-operations in the years after implantation."

These complications include device malfunction, infection and inflammation.

Ranasinghe said the rate of complications is higher than previously reported. "The continued occurrence of complications long after the initial implantation indicates the need for vigilance and ongoing surveillance of ICD-related complications," he said.

But one cardiologist not involved with the study called the risk of complications "modest" and added that the benefits offered by the devices outweigh the risks.

ICDs are battery-powered devices placed in a "pocket" under the skin to keep track of a patient's heart rate. When an abnormal or chaotic heart beat occurs, the device is meant to shock the heart and restore a normal heart rhythm.

•  Simpler may be better

For the study, researchers analysed the performance of three types of implantable defibrillators – single-chamber, dual-chamber and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices (CRT-D). The investigators found the chances for trouble were greater with more complex devices, especially CRT-D devices.

Compared with simpler devices, CRT-D devices have a 38 percent higher rate of complications, and quadruple the risk for procedures such as battery replacement and upgrades, the researchers determined.

"This is important because choosing a simpler device at the start may help patients by reducing complications and delaying the need to replace the device," Ranasinghe said.

The ICD lifespan is typically up to seven years, depending on when the battery needs replacing, Ranasinghe said.

"More complex devices are more active, and their battery needs replacing earlier, compared with simpler devices," he explained.

"There is considerable debate as to the added benefit of more complex devices compared with simpler, single-chamber ICDs," Ranasinghe said. "Where possible, using a simpler device may reduce the risk of ICD-related harm."

One expert believes the risk of complications is "modest", not significant enough to change current practice.

"Clinical trials have shown that implantable defibrillators prolong life, with benefits that outweigh potential risks," said Dr Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

•  Higher risk for women and blacks

These new findings "further reinforce current guideline recommendations for the use of these implanted devices in patients at risk for sudden death who are eligible and without contraindications," Fonarow said.

For the study, Ranasinghe and colleagues collected data on more than 114,000 men and women aged 65 and older who received an ICD between 2006 and 2010. The patients were followed for three years.

The researchers found that women and blacks had a somewhat higher risk of complications compared to men and whites. In addition, younger seniors – those 65 to 69 at implantation – had more complications than people 85 and older, Ranasinghe said.

Why women and blacks are more susceptible to complications isn't clear and requires further investigation, he said.

"Still, our findings can be used by physicians and patients to make an informed choice when weighing up the risks and benefits of an ICD," Ranasinghe added.

Visit the Supply Doctor website today to order all your medical equipment and supplies. Not only is it convenient and affordable, but you can do it from the comfort of your own home!

The top five simple ways you can improve your health

Whether you're trying to get in shape or simply looking to lead a healthier lifestyle, it only takes a few simple changes to dramatically improve your wellbeing. 

1. Embrace the outdoors

If you want to improve your health, clear your mind and decrease the risk of heart disease, it's important to ensure you have enough vitamin D – and the best source is simply from sunlight. Studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk of heart disease by 64 per cent and can also help to lower blood pressure – so spending just 20 minutes each day outside could help protect your heart. Try adding a brisk walk to your daily activities – you will also be improving your respiratory and joint health.

2. Pack your plate with colour

The more colourful your plate, the more nutritious the food you're eating. If you're watching your sugar levels, try blueberries and raspberries which are lower in fructose but are full of powerful phytonutrients. Search for foods packed with Lycopene such as carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and red tomatoes – it's great for helping to protect you from heart disease, strokes and high blood pressure. Also found in peppers, papaya and even watermelons, Lycopene is in its most usable form when cooked and combined with healthy fats – it does need to be consumed in large supplies.

3. Up your Omega intake

Our body needs a range of healthy fats, especially omega 3 found in oily fish, nuts and seeds. Not only can a diet rich in essential fatty acids aid joint health, it can also benefit brain health, concentration, protect against heart disease, boost the immune system and speed up healing. The Mediterranean diet is packed with fresh fruit and vegetables, alongside fresh fish and plenty of healthy oils – they also eat far less junk food! A diet rich in healthy oils also enables us to absorb and utilise many vitamins and phytonutrients.

4. Stay hydrated

Our bodies are made up of approximately 60 per cent water, essential for flushing out toxins. Staying hydrated can help the blood pump more efficiently, and can also lead to suffering from less aches and pains after exercise. Because our kidneys play a vital role in regulating blood pressure, keeping hydrated and monitoring your sodium intake could reduce high blood pressure significantly. Many people confuse thirst pangs for hunger pangs so often just drinking a glass of water whenever you are hungry can help to control cravings.

5. Reduce stress

Turn off your phone, hide the laptop and find some time for you. Stress is one of the biggest threats to our overall health as it can lower the immune system, as well as making it easier to rely on stimulants such as caffeine and refined carbohydrates such as sugar for an artificial 'feel good' boost.

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Chiropractic: What Is Chiropractic Manipulation?

Chiropractic manipulation, also known as chiropractic adjustment, is a form of alternative medicine. A trained chiropractor applies sudden force to spinal joints to correct structural alignment and improve physical function.

Most often, patients seek chiropractic adjustment to relieve various types of back, neck and head pain, although it has been trialed for a wide variety of conditions.

Chiropractic manipulation has faced controversy and receives a mixed response from health care practitioners. This is predominantly due to a lack of evidence for some of its claims and its metaphysical belief system.

Here are some key points about chiropractic manipulation…

• Chiropractic treatments were first designed in the 1800s
• Chiropractic is the largest discipline within alternative medicine
• According to chiropractic medicine, vertebral subluxations are the root of many illnesses
• The evidence for chiropractic medicine being beneficial for anything other than certain types of back pain is weak
• There are two types of chiropractic practitioners: "straights" and "mixers"
• The treatment they offer is referred to as chiropractic adjustment
• Chiropractic adjustment consists of controlled, sudden pressure being applied to specific regions
• Chiropractic adjustment is safe for most patients.

Chiropractic medicine aims to fix mechanical problems in the musculoskeletal system, believing that these issues affect health and well-being by impacting the nervous system.

It is the largest alternative medical profession. Of all the alternative forms of medical treatment, chiropractic has attained the largest degree of success in regards to its size and visibility.

Between 1972 and 1998, 160 million office visits were made to chiropractors. Today, there are more than 60,000 chiropractors practicing.

Despite the prevalence of chiropractic practitioners, the treatment has not convinced much of the mainstream medical world. The major reason for this rejection lies in the unproven theoretical framework upon which it sits.

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Women: 6 signs you’re having a heart attack

When a heart attack strikes, it doesn’t always feel the same in women as it does in men.

Women don't always get the same classic heart attack symptoms as men, such as crushing chest pain that radiates down one arm. Those heart attack symptoms can certainly happen to women, but many experience vague or even “silent” symptoms that they may miss.

These six heart attack symptoms are common in women:

1.) Chest pain or discomfort. Chest pain is the most common heart attack symptom, but some women may experience it differently than men. It may feel like a squeezing or fullness, and the pain can be anywhere in the chest, not just on the left side.

2.) Pain in your arms, back, neck, or jaw. This type of pain is more common in women than in men. It may confuse women who expect their pain to be focused on their chest and left arm, not their back or jaw. The pain can be gradual or sudden, and it may wax and wane before becoming intense. If you're asleep, it may wake you up.

3.) Stomach pain. Sometimes people mistake stomach pain that signals a heart attack with heartburn, the flu, or a stomach ulcer. Other times, women experience severe abdominal pressure that feels like an elephant sitting on your stomach.

4.) Shortness of breath, nausea, or light-headedness. If you're having trouble breathing for no apparent reason, you could be having a heart attack, especially if you're also having one or more other symptoms.

5.) Sweating. Breaking out in a nervous, cold sweat is common among women who are having a heart attack. It will feel more like stress-related sweating than perspiration from exercising or spending time outside in the heat.

6.) Fatigue. Some women who have heart attacks feel extremely tired, even if they've been sitting still for a while or haven't moved much.

Not everyone gets all of those symptoms. If you have chest discomfort, especially if you also have one or more of the other signs, call for help immediately.

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The 4 most important things to expect from your next physical

Here’s the truth: most of what you know about the annual physical is wrong. A physical matters in ways you may not expect and knowing what to ask and what’s important can make a big difference in your health.

So regardless of what you’ve been told, here is what really matters and what you should expect from your physical:

Most of the physical isn’t actually physical.

In fact, the non-physical parts matter just as much, if not more in some cases. The list of must-check physical issues is actually pretty short: blood pressure, weight, height, cholesterol, and maybe a blood sugar test depending on your specific risk factors or family history. That hammer reflex thing? Utterly useless if you aren’t having unusual or new symptoms.  And the eyes/ears/nose/throat/neck/belly check? They provide little value in determining your overall health status.

No, you don’t need all those blood tests.

It’s true that your provider may order some blood tests, but more testing is not always better. You may be asking, “what’s the harm?” Well, the harm can be pretty significant, actually. The truth is most of the tests available aren’t 100 percent accurate. That means the possibility of a false positive can be a major problem. It’s crucial to understand that you don’t need every blood test under the sun to prove your healthy status.

What matters most is what’s important for your health.

We do have certain guidelines that recommend what we should cover during the physical, but a good provider is one that tailors those parameters to you and your health goals. Building a trusting relationship with a primary care provider who knows you well is possibly the biggest benefit of the time spent in an annual physical. Ideally, you want this relationship to be a long-term one. Even if you don’t see this person often, you want to make sure he or she is someone you trust, who listens to you, and with whom you feel comfortable collaborating.

Cancer screening, cardiovascular risk assessment and immunizations are musts.

These parts of the physical are the high-value items, but many people are surprised to find they don’t necessarily have to be annual. For most women getting a mammogram every other year is fine and despite what many men believe, prostate screening may not even be something they need at all. Once you’ve built that trusting relationship with your provider, they will help guide your choices and keep you up to date on all the important stuff.

Whether you haven’t been to a doctor in years or you’re ready to establish a relationship with a provider, be sure the care you’re getting is customized to fit your needs. Your actual health is more important than checked boxes or outdated guidelines.

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The top 4 most shocking medical stories

This catalogue of medical oddities, miraculous recoveries, open questions and unsolved mysteries is so complex and fascinating, that millions of books and articles have been written about them.

While oddities are not particularly desirable, miracles make us happy and strengthen our faith. 

Unfortunately, many medical mysteries remain unsolved. They are similar to an intriguing puzzle, but with most of the pieces missing. They make us realize how much we still need to learn about something we thought we knew so well: the human body.

Here is the top 4 list of the most shocking medical stories that are both captivating and unbelievable!

Miraculous Recovery after Falling 47 Stories

The Moreno brothers, Alcides and Edgar, were working on a window-washing platform attached to a skyscraper in New York, when the platform collapsed. The 16-foot-long aluminium swing to the roof failed and sent Alcides and Edgar Moreno falling 47 stories, Edgar didn’t survive, but Alcides cheated death.

The doctors performed at least 16 surgeries, after Moreno broke his ribs, both legs and his right arm, plus he badly injured his spine. The medical staff described the victim’s recovery as “miraculous” and “unprecedented.” Doctors predicted that Moreno’s recovery would be complete in one to two years.

Teen Survives 118 Days Without a heart

D’zhana Simmons is literally a walking, talking medical miracle. The brave teenager lived for about four months without a heart, as she a waited a new, functional heart to replace the damaged one. 

Simmons suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), meaning her weak and enlarged heart wasn’t pumping blood efficiently. The surgeons performed an initial transplant, but the heart malfunctioned and had to be quickly removed. Meanwhile, D’zhana was kept alive by a custom-built artificial blood-pumping device.

Allergic to H2O

Whether it’s taking a hot bath, brushing your teeth, cleaning the house, or simply quenching your thirst, water is an essential part of our daily routine. We just cannot live without water! That is why it is a wonder to us that people can be allergic to water.

Alexandra Allen developed a one in 230 million skin disorder – Aquagenic Urticaria. If her skin comes in to contact with water, itchy red welts, lumps and blisters appear all over the body. Showering is a really painful experience for her. Alexandra cannot drink water, coffee or tea, she cannot even eat fruits because they trigger the burning rash on the skin and make her throat swell up, but her body seems to tolerate Diet Coke.

Giving Birth to a Mummy

Zahra Aboutalib delivered a child she’d been carrying for almost half a century. This shocking yet fascinating story began in 1955 when Zahra went into labour. She was rushed to a hospital, but after watching a woman dying on the operation table during a Caesarean section, Zahra fled back to her small village outside Casablanca. After the pains were gone and the baby stopped kicking, Zahra considered him a “sleeping baby”. “Sleeping babies” are, according to Moroccan folk belief, babies that can live inside a woman’s womb to protect her honour.

When Zahra was 75, the excruciating pains occurred again. Doctors performed an ultrasound test and discovered that her “sleeping child” was actually an ectopic pregnancy. What is even more amazing is how Zahra survived and how the dead foetus was accepted by the body just like another organ. 

Generally, this doesn’t happen. If not discovered in time, the growing foetus will eventually strain and burst the organ that contains it. Under these circumstances, the mother has few surviving chances. After nearly five hours, the surgeons successfully removed Zahra’s calcified foetus.

The world of medicine is full of tales of the bizarre from the rarest and mysterious diseases to the oddest medical anomalies. Every so often, doctors encounter a patient with a problem so unusual that tests the limits and mysteries of the human body.

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How to use an AED machine the right way!

An AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is a medical device that gives the heart an electric shock when someone’s heart has stopped and they go into cardiac arrest.

The great thing about an AED machine is that you can use it on children over one year old and adults of any age.

Ambulances have them on board, but using an AED in the minutes before an ambulance arrives can double someone’s chances of survival. So it is up to you to think quickly and find the nearest AED.

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Many public places keep an AED as part of their first aid equipment. Places such as shopping centres, train stations, airports, offices and schools. If you don’t have access to an AED and you haven’t purchased one for yourself yet, then it is time to call the emergency personnel and do ordinary CPR until the ambulance arrives.

So, how do you use an AED device? An AED device is pretty simple to use, and you can use it with no training at all. The machine will analyse someones heart rhythm and then use visual or voice prompts to guide you through each step.

     ´        First, make sure someone has called for an ambulance, and if an AED isn’t immediately available, give CPR until someone can bring you an AED.

     ´        As soon as you’ve got an AED, switch it on! It will immediately start to give you a series of visual and verbal prompts informing you of what you need to do. Follow these prompts until the ambulance arrives or someone with more experience can take over.

     ´        Take the pads out of the sealed pack. Remove or cut through the clothing and wipe away any sweat from the chest.

     ´        Remove the backing paper and attach the pads to their chest.

     ´        Place the first pad on their upper right side, just below their collarbone as shown on the pad.

     ´        Then place the second pad on their left side just below the armpit. Make sure you position the pad lengthways, with the long side in line with the length of their body.

     ´        Once you have done this, the AED will start checking the heart rhythm. Make sure that no one is touching the person. Continue to follow the voice / visual prompts that the machine gives you until help arrives.