For another cautionary tale about over-the-counter medications for children, read this story in the (Cleveland, Ohio) Plain Dealer.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control found that incorrectly using over-the-counter medications sends 7,000 children under the age of 11 to emergency rooms each year. Many of the overdoses occurred because the kids took the medicine on their own.

This is the latest piece of evidence against treating children’s colds with OTC remedies. If you’re still not convinced  think about this piece of advice from Dr. Lawrence Quang. He’s a pediatric emergency doctor and the medical director of the Greater Cleveland Poison Control Center.

“If you have (over-the-counter children’s cold remedies ), throw them away,” Quang told the newspaper reporter.

Keeping your hands clean is probably the simplest, and most overlooked, habit for ensuring good health. Simply running your hands under a stream of water won’t work.

Proper hand-washing technique has five steps:

1. Wet your hands under warm water, and soap them well.
2. Rub your hands together for 20 seconds. (Time it by singing a verse of “Old MacDonald had a farm”)
3. Rinse well
4. Dry your hands with a towel
5. Use the towel to turn off the faucet.

If the restroom has a blow dryer instead of paper towels, use your elbow to turn off the faucet. If you can’t wash your hands, clean them with an alcohol-based sanitizer.

We’re in the midst of cold season now, when chills and wind bring coughs and sniffles that invariably hit children.

If your child is a victim, don’t head to the drug store. The Food and Drug Administration warns that children younger than 2 should not receive over-the-counter cough medicine. Even though the agency hasn’t decided whether medicine is safe for children aged 2 to 11, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Substitute a taste of honey.

Researchers found that doses of buckwheat honey worked as well as cough syrup when it came to easing children’s coughs and colds, according to an article in the December, 2007 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Doses were small: a half-teaspoon for children aged 2 to 5, a teaspoon for children 5 to 11 and two teaspoons for children 12 and up. For more information about the study, stop by Dr. Alan Greene’s blog at the New York Times. (registration may be required.)

If you are looking for a natural treatment for nasal blockage, try nasal irrigation. It’s simple; just wash out the nasal passages with a stream of salt water. Such cleansing is widely practiced in India, but is just becoming popular in the United States.

Nasal irrigation doesn’t demand a lot of equipment. A bulb syringe and a bowl of warm salt water work just fine.  Some folks swear by a neti pot, which looks like a miniature teapot. And you don’t have to wait until you’re ill to clean your nostrils. Regular flushing helps prevents colds and sinus infections.

For more precise instructions, watch this video from the Mayo Clinic. To buy a neti pot, visit amazon.com, your favorite natural-foods grocery store or even …Wal-Mart.

Whether it’s winter or summer, cloudy or bright, ultraviolet rays can hurt the skin. The best protection is a liberal dose of sunscreen with an SPF rating of 15 or higher. Use an ounce, which is roughly enough to fill up a shot glass. Apply it about 30 minutes before going outside.

Don’t be complacent if you’re olive-complected or darker. Melanin does protect the skin from sun damage, but anyone can get skin cancer. Certain medications, such as birth control pills, antibiotics like tetracycline and anti-inflammatory drugs like naproxen, also make skin more susceptible to damage from the sun.

For more information about skin cancer, go to the website for the American Cancer Society.

Physicians are finally realizing how much diversity matters when it comes to biomedical research. Take the randomized clinical trial, long considered the most dependable way of determining the effectiveness of a procedure or a medication.

White patients are more likely to be enrolled in the trials than are people of color, a group of researchers found. The team, headed by Dr. John Stewart, IV of Wake Forest University, said the lack of diversity can have serious consequences when it comes to treatments for diseases like breast or prostate cancer.

“Our ability to generalize the findings of surgical trials iis directly dependent on having equitable participation in trials by underrepresented group,” he told a reporter for the New York Times .

Correcting the racial imbalance in the patient pool is even more crucial when one considers how hard certain cancers hit the African-American community. For example, African-American men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world, according to the National Institutes of Health. Black men are also 2.5 times more likely to die from the disease than white men are.

It’s a known fact that the health care system misses or disses African Americans. If for that reason alone, preventative screenings and regular checkups are a necessity. Many diseases can successfully treated if they’re caught in the early stages.

If you’re taking Zetia, or Vytorin, a pill that contains Zetia, speak to your doctor immediately.

According to a story in the New York Times, the drug may actually hurt the patients who take it. A two-year clinical study showed Zetia failed to reduce clogged arteries- a major cause of heart problems.

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that is a component of hormones. Blood tests measure two types of cholesterol: low-density lipoprotein, which builds up on the artery walls, and high-density lipoprotein, which helps prevent clogged arteries.

Dr. Steven E. Nissen, the chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic,called the results “shocking,” the story said. He said millions of people may be taking a drug which doesn’t help them at all – and makes them more susceptible to heart attacks. Nissen strongly urged doctors to prescribe Zetia only as a last resort.

Based on the comments I’ve read, my Jan. 11 posting on Donda West seems to have struck a nerve!

I really think Ms. West’s death is a tragedy and I’m resolved to do what I can to make sure other sisters don’t make the same mistakes she did. So I’m asking all who read and comment to do this: list one step African American women take toward better health. I’ll gather those steps and use them as topics for future postings.

Again, I’m not trying to capitalize on Donda West’s death. But she had accomplished so much that I’m saddened because her life was cut short.  Our hearts go out to the family.

The coroner’s report on Donda West’s death makes for fascinating reading, even though it doesn’t list a single cause for her untimely passing. The report does tell what happened the night she died. The chain of events starts with a decision she made after surgery. Instead of going to a hospital, she decided to go home.

I have to wonder, why?

Did she think she’d be all right? That she could handle the situation on her own? That she didn’t need help? Of course, we’ll never know. But, it seems to me, African American women have a hard time recognizing we have a right to be nurtured. Perhaps we believe the hype: that we’re strong and can bear the burdens of the world if necessary. We’re often the caretakers, perhaps it’s difficult to be cared for.

The autopsy reports reveals a woman who was in severe pain the day after her surgery. Even though she could walk – the report says she was “ambulating” – she was breathing heavily and resting poorly.

I’ll always wonder why those around her didn’t see how weakened she was. Perhaps, because African American women are so often the caretakers, those around us don’t recognize that we need to be cared for as well.

Get details on the Donda West autopsy story.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said several factors contributed to Donda West’s death, including heart disease and “multiple post-operative” factors following surgery.

West, the mother of hip-hop superstar Kanye West, died at home on Nov. on 10, while recuperating from cosmetic surgery. According to the autopsy report, she was a borderline diabetic, and had a thyroid condition. She also seemed have suffered from pneumonia and bronchitis.
My next postings will talk about these conditions, and how they must be taken into consideration when deciding on surgery or other therapies.