| Don't downplay chest pains
My son recently died of a heart attack. I heard people at work and a relative knew he was having chest pains hours before. Apparently, he said it was stress. He was told he should see a doctor, but no one called 911 or offered to take him to the hospital. I understand ambivalence, that at 45 a heart attack seems unlikely, that it might be embarrassing to call 911 and find that it was only indigestion. But heart pain and heartburn have the same symptoms. Medical professionals sometimes are hard-pressed to tell the difference. The consequence of inaction may be deadly. Stuart was acting odd, so I asked him three times if he was OK. Each time, he said everything was OK. On my way to bed, I knocked on his door and asked him again. He said, cheerily, "I'm fine. Good night, Mom." My family tells me he didn't want to worry me! Please, please, don't try to protect your family.
Honolulu Lite
MY DOG Boomer was distressed to learn that the most popular dogs in Hawaii are the ones that wear bows in their hair and can be carried in a shave-ice cup. The American Kennel Club apparently rates favorite dogs in individual states, and the results seem to confirm that when it comes to dogs, Hawaii's one of the more girly-man states. Pomeranians, Malteses, Chihuahuas, poodles ... these tiny doglike objects supposedly are Hawaii's favorites. The good news is that the slightly larger Labrador retriever is supposedly Hawaii's top dog, although I must confess to never actually having seen one on the island. They all must hang out in a Kahala spa or something. ("Buffy, be a good boy and retrieve me a piña colada, will you?") In fact, you don't see many of the dogs listed as Hawaii's Top 10 favorites loping along the streets of Honolulu.
Heavily Advertised Drugs Not Always Best Option
MADISON, Wis. -- The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars a year advertising drugs directly to people, but Consumer Reports said the most highly promoted drugs are not necessarily the best choice. Lunesta is the most heavily advertised prescription drug, but plenty of others get air time, like the acid reflux drug Nexium and the asthma medication Advair. Those ad campaigns are reaching their target audience, according to Consumer Reports' chief medical advisor Dr. Marvin Lipman. Lipman reviewed a survey of 39,000 patients and 335 doctors to see what kind of requests doctors get in a typical week. "Seventy-eight percent of the physicians we surveyed said they've gotten, 'I saw it on TV' requests," Lipman said. The most frequently requested prescriptions were for insomnia, acid reflux, impotence and allergies.
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