What Your Eyes Can Tell You About Your Health

Everything from allergies to autoimmune diseases can present with ocular symptoms first. And while red eyes, discharge, itching, light sensitivity or visual changes can be uncomfortable enough to bring patients in to see their optometrists, some symptoms, such as optic nerve or vascular changes, take place inside the eye and can go unnoticed. This is why it's important for adults to have an eye exam every two years. 

'There are so many conditions we can find that don't have symptoms, so coming in every couple of years allows us to look for trends or changes,' explains Craig Meckelborg, an optometrist with FYidoctors in Calgary. Eye symptoms combined with a patient's medical history will alert doctors to possible systemic diseases. For example, Rodovich was a smoker who had previously experienced a 'hypertensive episode' ' a spike in blood pressure ' two risk factors for stroke. (She quit smoking after her stroke.) 

What's more, women are more susceptible to certain conditions that can present in the eyes, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and thyroid dysfunction, says Setareh Ziai, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Ottawa Eye Institute.

Watch for these additional symptoms and talk to your doctor if you have any concerns:

1. Bulging eyes： can be a sign of thyroid eye disease, a condition related to autoimmune thyroid disease that is marked by swelling of the muscles and tissues of the eye and orbit.

2. Pupil abnormalities：where one pupil is larger than the other or where one pupil reacts inappropriately when exposed to light ' could signify an underlying medical problem.

3. Yellow eyes： can signal liver disease. Both hepatitis and cirrhosis can turn the whites of the eyes yellow.

4. Redness, pain and inflammation of the ocular coats： a condition called scleritis, can be a symptom of a number of autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease.

5. Eye spasms, or annoying eye twitches： are caused by contractions of the eyelid muscles due to irritation of the muscle fibres. The underlying cause is almost always completely benign and can occasionally be precipitated by stress, fatigue or caffeine.

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Too Much of A Good Thing: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill You

You’ve heard it a million times—“make sure to stay hydrated”—and if you’re a summer athlete than you’ve heard it even more. There seems to be a fascination with dehydration and the serious risks that come along with it, but you can have too much of a good thing.

According to Andy Blow, co-founder and Sports Scientist at Precision Hydration and a Red Bull High Performance partner, athletes and avid exercisers are most concerned with avoiding dehydration, but in reality over-hydration is actually a much more common problem.

"This can be especially problematic if athletes drink excessive amounts of low sodium fluids over several hours, usually immediately before and during an event and end up diluting the levels of sodium in their blood," says Blow "If it goes unchecked, this can result in hyponatremia, a potentially deadly condition where the brain swells due to having to absorb excess fluid from the blood."

Hyponatremia (also called water intoxication) doesn’t usually happen to healthy young people, but athletes taking in a lot of water in a short period of time run a high risk. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that “hyponatremia occurs in a substantial fraction of non-elite marathon runners and can be severe.”

Athletes competing for hours at a time, especially in the summer heat tend to drink way more than they need, throwing their sodium levels off and creating a big problem. Without enough sodium to regulate fluid levels, the excess water seeps into the cells and causes swelling. When that swelling gets to your brain you need to seek immediate medical help, doctors can reduce swelling using salt water.

Another tricky part of hyponatremia is the list of symptoms and that’s because they mirror symptoms of heat stroke. With hyponatremia, you can be hot, sweaty, you might have a headache and sometimes there is nausea and vomiting—all things you might see in someone suffering from heatstroke. The major way to tell the difference is to know how much water you’ve had.

The best way to avoid over-hydrating, though, is simply to drink when you’re thirsty. If you're getting ready for a fitness event or an intense training session you can increase your fluid intake slightly and start the day before.

"In the final 48 hours before events and big training sessions we advise a lot of athletes to increase their fluid intake by an extra 500-750 ml or so on top of their normal intake with some extra sodium in it to help the body absorb more of this additional fluid without diluting the blood," says Blow.

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It's Not Chlorine That Turns Your Eyes Red in the Pool: IT'S PEE

Picture yourself with your very own backyard pool. There you are, drifting on an inflatable raft, wearing a cute bikini, sipping a fruity drink, wiping the urine from your eyes…wait—what now? Sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes the germs you’re being exposed to on the regular—otherwise how would you leave the house? But the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would prefer you actually learned something about these issues. 

My eyes turn red after swimming in pool

The CDC has teamed up with the Water Quality and Health Council and the National Swimming Pool Foundation for their annual Healthy Swimming Program. They’re seeking to educate Americans about the many possible dangers of pools and what you can do to keep your swim as clean and healthy as possible. “We think that swimming is a really fantastic activity,” says Michael J. Beach, Ph.D., associate director of the CDC’s Healthy Water program. “We want to keep it that way.”

So what horrifying info would the CDC like to share with you? For starters, it turns out that your red eyes after swimming aren’t coming from an irritation to the chlorine. “It’s quite the opposite,” says Beach. “Chlorine binds with all the things it’s trying to kill from your bodies, and it forms these chemical irritants. That’s what’s stinging your eyes. It’s the chlorine binding to the urine and the sweat.” He gives another example of what can happen to you when chlorine binds to urine and sweat in a pool: that cough you get from an indoor pool. The trapped chemical reaction is what irritates your lungs.

According to one research, 60.30% people do pee in swimming pool

And if you think that there are safeguards in pools to shame those sneaky urinators (like dye that's supposed to make pool water change color if someone pees), not so much. “That dye is a complete myth,” says Beach. “It’s about scaring people into not urinating in the pool.”

But that’s not all. Beach explains that there’s been an increase in the number of disease outbreaks at public swimming pools, thanks to adults, children, or babies swimming while they have diarrhea. And yes, it’s much more pervasive than it used to be. “We have a new parasitic germ that has emerged that’s immune to chlorine,” says Beach. “We’ve got to keep it out of the pool in the first place. We need additional barriers.”

Not only children, but adults also

You can’t just blame those diapered toddlers in the shallow end, though. A person doesn’t have to literally defecate in a pool to spread illness—they could just have the germs on their bodies, which is why you’re always encouraged to shower off before you get into a pool. One ailing person might not be enough to do it, but “if you’re talking about thousands of people using the same pool, those germs can really add up,” says Beach.

Blessedly, there are ways to help avoid any of this nastiness. Don't go in pools when you’re sick (to protect others) or have open wounds (to protect yourself). Never ever ever pee in a pool. And don’t think that lakes or oceans are any safer. Yes, they can be vast, giving you the impression that your tiny germs will just be washed away. But: “If you’re swimming next to someone who has diarrhea, there’s no protection,” says Beach. In fact, there was recently a large norovirus outbreak at a lake in Oregon, says Beach—and according to a CDC investigation, health experts suspect that the outbreak began when someone infected with the norovirus swam in (and had diarrhea or vomited in) the lake.

Some even have skin rashes after swimming

Keep it clean, and enjoy yourself out there—assuming you are capable of going to a pool ever again after reading this.

Enjoy your swim!

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Electrocardiogram (ECG)

An electrocardiogram (also known as an ECG or EKG) is a simple, painless test that measures your heart’s electrical activity. Every heartbeat is triggered by an electrical signal that starts at the top of your heart and travels to the bottom.

Heart problems often affect the electrical activity of your heart. Your doctor may recommend an EKG if you are experiencing symptoms or signs that may suggest a heart problem, including:

• pain in your chest
• trouble breathing
• feeling tired or weak
• pounding, racing or fluttering of your heart, or a feeling that your heart is beating unevenly
• detection of unusual sounds when your doctor listens to your heart

An ECG will help your doctor determine the cause of the symptoms and signs and what type of treatment might be necessary.

If you are 50 or older, or if you have a family history of heart disease, your doctor may also order an ECG to look for early signs of heart disease.

Procedure

An electrocardiogram is quick, painless, and harmless. After you change into a gown, a technician attaches 12 to 15 soft electrodes with a gel to your chest, arms, and legs. The technician may have to shave small areas to ensure the electrodes stick properly to your skin. Each electrode is about the size of quarter. These electrodes are attached to electrical leads (wires), which are then attached to the ECG machine.

During the test, you will need to lie still on a table while the machine records your heart’s electrical activity and places the information on a graph. Make sure to lie as still as possible, breathing normally. Do not talk during the test.

After the procedure, the electrodes are removed and discarded. The entire procedure takes about 10 minutes.

Other Options

An electrocardiogram records a picture of your heart’s electrical activity for the time that you are being monitored. However, some heart problems come and go. In these cases, you may need longer or more specialized monitoring.

Stress Test

Some heart problems only appear during exercise. During stress testing, patients have an ECG while they are performing exercise, typically on a treadmill or stationary bicycle.

Holter Monitor

Also known as an ambulatory ECG or EKG monitor, a Holter monitor records your heart’s activity over a 24 to 48 hour period while you maintain a diary of your activity to help your doctor identify the cause of your symptoms. Electrodes attached to your chest record information on a portable, battery-operated monitor that you can carry in your pocket, on your belt, or on a shoulder strap.

Event Recorder

Symptoms that don’t happen very often may require an event recorder. It is similar to a Holter monitor, but records your heart’s electrical activity just when symptoms occur. Some event recorders activate automatically when they detect symptoms; for others, you push a button when you feel symptoms. You can send the information directly to your doctor over a phone line.

Risks

There are few, if any, risks related to an ECG. Some patients may experience a skin rash where electrodes were placed, but this usually goes away without treatment.

Patients who undergoing a stress test may be at risk for heart attack, but this is related to the exercise, not the ECG.

An ECG simply monitors the electrical activity of your heart; it does not emit any electricity and is completely safe.

Preparation

Avoid drinking cold water or exercising before your ECG. Drinking cold water can cause changes in the electrical patterns that the test records. Exercise can increase your heart rate and affect the test results.

Results

If the ECG is routine and there are no pressing medical problems, your doctor will typically review the results of your ECG at a follow-up visit. Otherwise, in cases of urgent medical symptoms or findings, your doctor will be notified of the results, the ECG will be read and you should be informed of the results immediately.

An ECG can help your doctor determine if you are experiencing any of the following:

• heart rhythm problems (heart is beating too fast, too slow, or irregularly)
• heart attack (emergent) or previous heart attack
• heart defects, including enlarged heart, lack of blood flow, or birth defects
• problems with your heart’s valves
• blocked arteries (coronary artery disease)

Based on the results of an ECG, your doctor can then determine appropriate medications or treatments necessary to improve your heart’s condition.

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Pesticides In Produce May Lower Sperm Count By Half

Guys, you may want to be a little bit pickier about your produce. A new study has found a link between pesticides in fruit and veggies and a lower sperm count.

Pesticides in fruit and veggies

The research, published online in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that men who ate the most produce with high levels of pesticide residue had a 49% lower total sperm count and 32% fewer normally formed sperm than men who ate the least amount of pesticide-heavy produce.

Problems with low sperm count

No, that is not permission to skip the salad bar in favor of a burger and fries. "This by no means is indication that people should stop eating fruits and vegetables," says Jorge E. Chavarro, MD, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and coauthor of the study. "But if you were to choose your fruits and vegetables in a way that focused on pesticides specifically—such as either choosing organically grown fruits and vegetables if you can afford it, or choosing fruits and vegetables that are known to have low pesticides—that might be the way to go."

Pesticides are very common

Pesticide exposure—from the environment and people's jobs—has well-documented effects on sperm production, Chavarro says, but this study is the first to examine reproductive effects of pesticide exposure through food. And it's an important risk to understand, considering it's likely the biggest source of pesticide exposure for those of us who don't work in, say, agriculture or as exterminators, he says.

Studies show high residue of pesticides on fruits and veggies

Chavarro and his team analyzed 338 semen samples from 155 men between the ages of 18 and 55. These men were already seeking help with fertility issues at a medical center from 2007 to 2012 and had opted into the ongoing Environment and Reproductive Health or EARTH study.

Infertility cases increase 

Each man filled out a comprehensive diet questionnaire when he first visited the fertility center, reporting how often he ate how many portions of various fruits and veggies. Produce was categorized as carrying high, moderate, or low amounts of pesticide residue according to data from the USDA's Pesticide Data Program.

Because pesticide residue is measured according to how a fruit or vegetable would typically be eaten—for example, when testing a banana, the fruit is peeled; when testing apples, they are washed—simply being a bit more diligent about how your scrub your strawberries isn't the solution, Chavarro says. "Some pesticides do stay on the surface of the fruit or vegetable, and washing does make a difference, but many pesticides get absorbed into the soil and then into the plant through its roots." No amount of washing will rid your produce of pesticides once the plant itself has absorbed them, he says.

Are those fruits safe to eat?

This study is the first to show an adverse reproductive effect related to dietary pesticide exposure, so Chavarro cautions that it doesn't necessarily prove that pesticide residue causes changes in semen quality, nor do those changes necessarily lead to fertility problems. The results will need to be replicated in future research, he says.

Until then, if you're of the "better safe than sorry" camp, look for organic versions of the produce with the most pesticides, or what nonprofit Environmental Working Group deems its Dirty Dozen. (Apples top the list of worst offenders for the fifth year in a row!) Or, stock up on items from the Clean 15, the EWG's list of—you guessed it—produce with the lowest amount of pesticide residue.

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What Is Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C causes about 350,000 deaths each year worldwide — yet many people don't even know they have the infectious disease.

What is Hepatitis?

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, and hepatitis C is liver inflammation caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV).Other types of viral hepatitis include hepatitis A, B, D, and E.

Hepatitis A and E are generally acquired from contaminated food and drink, while B, C, and D are transmitted via bodily fluids. Vaccines are available to prevent hepatitis A and B, but no vaccines exist for hepatitis C and E.

You can only acquire hepatitis D if you already have hepatitis B, so the hepatitis B vaccine can protect you from both B and D infections.

Causes and Risks of Hepatitis C

HCV causes hepatitis C infections. There are six major strains of HCV, or HCV genotypes, and more than 50 subtypes of hepatitis C, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

These genotypes respond differently to treatments, and it's possible to be infected with more than one HCV genotype at the same time.

Hepatitis C is a contagious disease that is transmitted when the blood of an infected person enters the body of someone who isn't infected.

Today, the most common ways this occurs is through: 

• The sharing of needles and syringes for intravenous drug use 

• Accidental needle injuries in healthcare settings 

• During birth if your mother has hepatitis C 

Though less common, it's also possible to acquire a hepatitis C infection by having unprotected sex with someone who has the virus, or using personal care items — including razors and toothbrushes — that have come in contact with blood infected with HCV.

Some factors that increase your risk of hepatitis C: 

• Working in the healthcare setting or another field in which you have regular contact with blood 

• Having HIV

• Receiving a tattoo or piercing with non-sterile instruments 

• Undergoing kidney dialysis for many years 

Though viruses are the most common causes of hepatitis, there are also numerous types of non-viral hepatitis, including: 

• Alcoholic hepatitis caused by prolonged alcohol abuse 

• Autoimmune hepatitis, in which the immune system attacks healthy liver cells 

• Drug-induced hepatitis from various medications, including acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), anabolic steroids, birth control pills, and tetracycline antibiotics 

• Hepatitis resulting from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that develops when large amounts of fat accumulates in the liver of someone who drinks little to no alcohol and who typically is obese 

Prevalence of Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C comes in two forms: Acute and Chronic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 15 to 25 percent of people who become infected with hepatitis C only develop an acute infection, which spontaneously clears from the body within six months. The other 75 to 85 percent of people go on to become hepatitis C carriers and develop a chronic infection, which can last a lifetime and lead to hepatitis C-related liver complications, including chronic liver disease, cirrhosis (irreversible scarring of the liver), and liver cancer.

Men are less likely than women to spontaneously clear an acute infection from their blood, and more likely to develop liver complications from the infection, according to a 2006 article in the journal Gut.

On a global scale, two to three percent of the world's population is living with hepatitis C, and about 350,000 people die each year from complications related to the disease, according to 2012 report in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Any Symptoms of Hepatitis C?

About 70 to 80 percent of people who become infected with acute hepatitis C do not show any symptoms at first, notes the CDC.

Those who do, however, may have: 

• Jaundice 

• Fatigue 

• Fever 

• Dark urine 

• Gastrointestinal issues 

People with chronic hepatitis C, on the other hand, don't normally show any symptoms until the liver becomes damaged.

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