10
votes
Accepted
Aspirin for prevention of heart attacks?
This is a good and pragmatic question.
Just to give some insight, the benefits of aspirin in high risk patients (with acute or previous vascular disease or some other predisposing condition) are ...
- 2,322
9
votes
Accepted
Preventing thrombosis during long distance travels
I had the same concern and asked my family doctor. He showed me the recommendations from the American College of Chest Physicians.
Below you can find an extract:
VTE = Venous Thromboembolism (...
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7
votes
Accepted
Increase immunity to common cold and cough
The "common cold" is a syndrome that is characterized by signs and symptoms of upper respiratory infection: sneezing, itchy or watery eyes, rhinorrhea, cough, and sinus congestion. Malaise (the ...
- 201
7
votes
What is the correct brace position for car accidents?
There is no brace position because you will not have warning of a car crash. Think about it. If there was warning, why would there be a crash? The driver would use the warning to avoid the crash. ...
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7
votes
Preventing thrombosis during long distance travels
If you are overall healthy, I don't think it would be wise to go so far as to use an antithrombotic drug; as that will also thin your blood and may cause other issues.
There are a variety of dietary ...
- 864
7
votes
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Heart Attack Risk Score calculation
I think you are looking for the the risk score assessment tool based on the Framingham Heart Study.
It predicts a person’s risk of having a heart attack in the next 10 years.
It takes into account ...
- 905
7
votes
Accepted
Parkinson's Disease and Pesticides
Yes (ish), this meta-analysis proved a strong correlation between exposure to pesticides and likelihood of developing Parkinson's. Note, there is no direct X level of exposure leads to Y likelihood, ...
- 1,083
7
votes
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Why is a (simple) mask not recommended for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients?
TL;DR: please WEAR A MASK!
(unless your nearby hospitals are out of it, in which case give your masks to them and stay at home)
The link you mentioned provides the reason that the CDC likely has in ...
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7
votes
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Are betadine mouthwashes really effective against COVID-19?
Are betadine mouthwashes really effective against COVID-19?
In vitro (test tubes/culture plates) studies do show that providone iodine does kill viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 after sufficient ...
- 8,795
6
votes
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Preventing diabetes mellitus
Generally, Diabetes Mellitus is categorized into Type 1, Type 2 and Gestational diabetes.The type that you are concerned with is type 2 in which genetic factor plays a major role.
Type 2 diabetes ...
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6
votes
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Can dog bites cause Echinococcosis?
Dog bites are the most common type of animal bites. Only 5% of dog bites lead to local infection.
No, echinococcus can't be transmitted through dog bites. Pathogens which can be transmitted by the ...
- 905
6
votes
Who should take statins for prevention of heart disease and stroke?
I can offer a UK perspective on this, using guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE): Cardiovascular disease: risk assessment and reduction, including lipid ...
- 2,331
6
votes
Occasional medical tests and imageries
Screening tests such as "blood tests and imaging" have two costs and one benefit:
the cost (dollars and possible health problems) of the actual screening, which can in some cases be free
the cost (...
- 3,744
6
votes
Occasional medical tests and imageries
Great answer above. This is to add on to it:
Making a decision on whether to recommend screening tests for the entire population is different from deciding whether to screen an individual patient. ...
- 5,693
5
votes
Morning nausea after Chemo
Yes, you should be looking into getting help.
Nausea during chemotherapy is very common, and should be treated. But nausea in the morning 9 years after chemotherapy? That is not at all normal.
There ...
- 8,795
5
votes
Accepted
Is rabies contagious?
Yes, rabies is most definitely contagious.
The most common route of infection is from the bite of an infected animal, which introduces virus-laden saliva to the victim. It's also possible, though ...
- 2,423
5
votes
Accepted
What would happen if a person used Flea medicine on themselves?
Many of the active ingredients in flea and tick powders are harmful to humans, or suspected of being carcinogenic, or have effects on the nervous system.
The Humane Society has a page on OTC flea and ...
- 6,524
5
votes
Accepted
How can I prepare my body for a trip by boat and don't get motion sickness?
Motion sickness is a complicated process, and as you've noticed, different people are affected to different degrees.
People can and do become habituated to vertigo-inducing motion, but it takes a ...
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5
votes
What should I check before taking protein supplements?
Usually, protein supplements (e.g., whey protein) are used by athletes and body-builders.
Because isometric exercise like body-building increases the diastolic blood pressure in short-term 1, it is ...
- 471
5
votes
If tissue and kitchen paper masks achieve 90% of the filtering function of a surgical mask, why the CDC is not recommending them?
This is an early paper on the efficiency of different fabrics for virus filtration. (Lots of testing as gone on since then.) However, it nicely illustrates breathability, the other factor to consider ...
- 8,795
4
votes
What blood tests are worth doing for a healthy 30-year-old male?
The best place to find this answer is the US Preventive Services Task Force. They are an "independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine" who make ...
- 102
4
votes
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What stretches are worth doing for a healthy 30-year-old male to prevent tendon injuries?
If the purpose is to prevent tendon injuries, then stretching is not really an effective solution.
This article took a look at nearly 2000 articles in Embase and PubMed, and distilled down to 10 ...
- 6,524
4
votes
Accepted
What steps can I take to prevent a seizure from occurring?
I have found following peer-reviewed paper which provides a review of the nonpharmaceutic conservative interventions for the prevention of seizures:
Wolf P. The role of nonpharmaceutic conservative ...
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4
votes
Which blood test results would most indicate further testing for cancer?
Short answer? Most likely none.
Better answer? What you are asking is what we health professionals call "Screening tests", which are by definition highly sensitive but relatively non-specific routine ...
3
votes
Any way to tighten up a loose tooth?
If the mobility of the tooth is due to trauma, the prognosis is incertain in permanent teeth. This paper, is very well detailed as to different levels of trauma. Mobility usually occurs after the ...
- 231
3
votes
What are the dangers of sitting on a public toilet seat?
First you have to consider how diseases are transmitted. STDs are usually skin to skin or warm body fluid to an open sore. Diseases like influenza, ebola, etc can't go through your skin. They require ...
- 194
3
votes
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Disinfecting laundry — that of a likely COVID patient, or of any other possibly-infectious individual
Edit: COVID and your laundry
In April, a Texas biomedical scientist published an article about COVID and clothing. She suggested that, during the COVID pandemic, it's usually fine to just do laundry ...
3
votes
Accepted
Just learned the previous two owners of the house I bought died of cancer, should I be worried?
Currently, about 20% of people die of cancer. As our ability to cure things that aren't cancer gets better, that number will only go up.
If you compute the probabilities, it turns out that for ever ...
- 1,970
3
votes
Medical procedure to sever the brain's ability to communicate with the heart?
I believe the term you're looking for is cardiac sympathetic denervation (CSD). This is a fairly non-technical explanation of the procedure. It can be left side only (LCSD), right side only (RCSD), or ...
- 9,324
3
votes
Why isn't paracetamol routinely combined with n-acetylcysteine?
Several combinations between analgesics and other compounds could be interesting for medical treatment and used in pain treatments, however, the logic isn't only effectiveness. For a medication to be ...
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