adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Health

Trying to kick a nagging cough? It often just takes patience and time, physicians say – CBC.ca

Published

9 months ago

 on


A niggling, nagging cough. They’re unpleasant, aggravating and — unfortunately — all too common after various viral infections.

Research suggests “post-infectious cough,” referring to symptoms lasting between three and eight weeks, impacts up to a quarter of adults after an initial respiratory infection like a cold, flu or COVID. 

So how do you kick that kind of lingering cough for good?

In many cases, it’s just a matter of patience and time, suggest a trio of physicians in an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on Monday.

“Most of the time the cough will resolve on its own without any medication or treatment, but it can last a lot longer than you think,” said one of the article’s authors, Vancouver-based family physician Dr. Kevin Liang, in an interview with CBC News.

Liang, a clinical instructor in the department of family practice at the University of British Columbia, said patients often seem worried about their long-lasting coughs, thinking they still have their initial infection.

LISTEN: Got a lingering cough? Here’s what you need to know: 

The Current8:46Lingering cough? Here’s what you need to know

Are you dealing with a nagging cough that just won’t go away? Respirologist Dr. Nicholas Vozoris says if you’ve been sick recently, it could just be a post-infectious cough. He explains what you can do to ease the annoyance — and when to check if it’s something more serious.

But that’s usually not the case, he stressed.

What’s actually happening is that a preceding infection triggers an “inflammatory cascade,” Liang and his colleagues wrote, which then increases bronchial sensitivity and mucus production, while reducing mucus clearance.

In other words: Inflammation leads to more snot in your nose and more sensitivity in parts of your lungs, and that combo causes your body to cough — over and over.

And there’s no quick fix, Liang said.

Length of lingering cough matters

The question of how to combat an irksome cough is an old one.

For years, physicians divided up coughs into two categories: Acute, as in short-term, and chronic, referring to any cough lasting beyond a few weeks. But more recently, guidance started to shift toward a third category of “subacute” coughs that last just three to eight weeks — short enough to resolve, but long enough to be highly annoying.

One study, published nearly two decades ago, evaluated nearly 200 patients with lingering coughs, and found the most common cause of a “subacute” cough was simply a prior infection, not a more serious, ongoing health issue.

That’s the same conclusion in the new CMAJ article. But the Canadian physicians’ peer-reviewed practice suggestions also stressed that it’s important for clinicians to consider other possibilities.

For someone’s lasting hacking to be deemed a post-infectious cough, doctors need to confirm an earlier respiratory infection. They also need to rule out other health issues that can trigger similar symptoms, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or pertussis, a condition better known as “whooping cough” for the distinctive whoop sound it can lead to.

WATCH: Why two friends in Halifax signed up to catch whooping cough: 

These friends signed up to catch whooping cough and live in isolation

1 year ago

Duration 5:04

An exclusive look at a lab where Canadians are getting sick on purpose to help scientists study whooping cough — and one day develop a new vaccine. 

Certain red flags — and a cough lasting beyond eight weeks — should also prompt more follow-up, the physicians wrote.

Symptoms such as coughing up blood, difficulty swallowing and hoarseness, or a history of recurrent pneumonia or being a long-time smoker, can mean there’s another health issue at play.

In those cases, a lasting cough “may be a manifestation of something that needs treating more aggressively,” noted pulmonologist Dr. Imran Satia, who runs a cough clinic through McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. and wasn’t involved in writing the CMAJ article.

If someone’s cough keeps getting worse, or if a patient has a fever, challenges breathing or constant wheezing — those are other signals that someone may have another underlying health condition, he said.

“There is significant nuance in how to manage this,” Satia stressed, since a persistent, longer-lasting cough can be a symptom of conditions as diverse and serious as lung fibrosis, lung cancer, heart failure or tuberculosis. “It is important that these are not missed,” he said.

But in straightforward cases where a previous viral infection has led to a lingering cough, physicians agree they usually resolve on their own.

Cough syrup poured into a spoon.
Codeine — an opiate-based painkiller — is found in certain cough syrups, and when taken at high doses, it’s linked to drowsiness, headaches, slowed breathing and even nausea and vomiting. (Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

‘No evidence’ treatments help

The catch is that it does take time. And there’s “no evidence” that treatment options help, the authors wrote in their CMAJ article.

The systematic research the group cited was published in the British Journal of General Practice in 2018 and looked at six randomized controlled trials featuring hundreds of patients with subacute coughs — which suggests there are no clear benefits to any treatment.

“Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials evaluating inhaled corticosteroids, bronchodilators and oral agents for post-infectious cough concluded there is no evidence of benefit,” the CMAJ writers noted.

“Most trials found cough symptoms improve without medication, highlighting the self-limiting nature of post-infectious cough.”

Commonly-offered options such as inhalers and codeine can be expensive, Liang added, and they can come with “nasty side effects.”

Codeine — an opiate-based painkiller — is found in certain cough syrups, for instance, and when taken at high doses, it’s linked to drowsiness, headaches, slowed breathing and even nausea and vomiting.

Most inhalers, meanwhile, are the main type of therapy for chronic lung diseases such as asthma and COPD, rather than short-term cough concerns.

Antibiotics also don’t work; they’re used to combat active bacterial infections, not viral infections or post-infection inflammation. (Physicians also fear they’re being prescribed far too often, leading to rising rates of drug resistance, where bacteria evolve to evade our existing medications — causing untreatable infections.)

Satia agreed those options don’t make sense for run-of-the-mill hacking. “There is not much evidence to suggest that inhaled steroids, bronchodilators, antibiotics or steroids will help reduce cough and make you feel better.”

So is there anything people can do to mitigate weeks-long post-viral coughs?

In a lot of cases, Liang said patients’ hacking flares up at night, so he often recommends propping up a few pillows rather than sleeping flat in bed. But beyond that, it’s mostly just a waiting game.

“At the end of the day it really is time, ultimately, that is what is going to stop and solve that cough.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Health

What’s the greatest holiday gift: lips, hair, skin? Give the gift of great skin this holiday season

Published

1 week ago

 on

October 31, 2024

By

Give the gift of great skin this holiday season

Skinstitut Holiday Gift Kits take the stress out of gifting

Toronto, October 31, 2024 – Beauty gifts are at the top of holiday wish lists this year, and Laser Clinics Canada, a leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare, is taking the pressure out of seasonal shopping. Today, Laser Clincs Canada announces the arrival of its 2024 Holiday Gift Kits, courtesy of Skinstitut, the exclusive skincare line of Laser Clinics Group.

In time for the busy shopping season, the limited-edition Holiday Gifts Kits are available in Laser Clinics locations in the GTA and Ottawa. Clinics are conveniently located in popular shopping centers, including Hillcrest Mall, Square One, CF Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Rideau Centre, Union Station and CF Markville. These limited-edition Kits are available on a first come, first served basis.

“These kits combine our best-selling products, bundled to address the most relevant skin concerns we’re seeing among our clients,” says Christina Ho, Senior Brand & LAM Manager at Laser Clinics Canada. “With several price points available, the kits offer excellent value and suit a variety of gift-giving needs, from those new to cosmeceuticals to those looking to level up their skincare routine. What’s more, these kits are priced with a savings of up to 33 per cent so gift givers can save during the holiday season.

There are two kits to select from, each designed to address key skin concerns and each with a unique theme — Brightening Basics and Hydration Heroes.

Brightening Basics is a mix of everyday essentials for glowing skin for all skin types. The bundle comes in a sleek pink, reusable case and includes three full-sized products: 200ml gentle cleanser, 50ml Moisture Defence (normal skin) and 30ml1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum. The Brightening Basics kit is available at $129, a saving of 33 per cent.

Hydration Heroes is a mix of hydration essentials and active heroes that cater to a wide variety of clients. A perfect stocking stuffer, this bundle includes four deluxe products: Moisture 15 15 ml Defence for normal skin, 10 ml 1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum, 10 ml Retinol Serum and 50 ml Expert Squalane Cleansing Oil. The kit retails at $59.

In addition to the 2024 Holiday Gifts Kits, gift givers can easily add a Laser Clinic Canada gift card to the mix. Offering flexibility, recipients can choose from a wide range of treatments offered by Laser Clinics Canada, or they can expand their collection of exclusive Skinstitut products.

 

Brightening Basics 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut, available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.

Hydration Heroes 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut – available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
Continue Reading

Health

Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

Published

2 weeks ago

 on

October 24, 2024

By

 

LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

X

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

___

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Pediatric group says doctors should regularly screen kids for reading difficulties

Published

2 weeks ago

 on

October 23, 2024

By

 

The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.

New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.

The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.

Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.

Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.

“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”

McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.

But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.

The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.

He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.

“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.

“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.

McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”

McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.

He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.

“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending