Dr Ford Brewer - PrevMed

In assessing sleep apnea, oximetry (measurement of oxygen) is a major focus. According to breathing authority Roger L Price, oximetry and blood gas measurements are over-used, while capnometry (measurement of CO2) is ignored.

Overbreathing is a critical and common root cause. We demonstrate capnometer use.

The ASCEND and ASPREE trials have thrown us a lot of curves. At the end of the day, I think we won't hear many recommendations in the future for aspirin for CV prevention. And the docs that never recommended omega 3s are all saying, "I told you so" regarding omega 3s." But not so fast. I don't think the story is over just yet.

Janice Derrickson, EdD MPH PT, liked the CDC Facebook Page. So she gets posts from the CDC for self-care.

Based on the CDC recommendations, Janice decided to get the new Shingles shot Shingrix. She tells why she did it, how she considered the facts, how she engaged her doctor and short-term symptoms from the vaccine reaction.

This is part 3 of a series on Shingrix, the new vaccine for Singles. In a new practice for the FDA and CDC's ACIP, they actually recommended this new vaccine over the existing competitor, Zostavax. This was despite an absence of post-market safety experience. Why? This is a huge improvement in long-term efficacy of preventing this important and devastating public health problem which causes disability, pain, and death.

This is part 2 of a series on shingles and the new vaccine, Shingrix. Shingles are not just a mild, itchy rash that happens in the elderly. It is actually associated with heart attack, stroke, blindness, and significant disability. The FDA and CDC ACIP recently reviewed this vaccine. In a debated split decision, they took a new course of recommending a new vaccine over existing vaccines, despite incomplete post-market safety experience.

Hypertension is a significant root cause of many disease processes. It is usually a silent condition and occurs without symptoms. Other than monitoring our own blood pressure there is no way to know if we are at risk.

About John Lorscheider - John is a frequent contributor. He’s also a PrevMed patient. Like most of us, John’s family and personal history include significant cardiovascular risk.

John came from a technical background and spent his entire career in providing engineered fluid process systems and equipment to industry, as well as performing root cause failure analyses for his customers.

His own study and research made it clear he wasn’t getting the whole story about prevention from his docs. They just didn’t know. So he’s been in several roles of running prevention medical groups to help further the science.

The NIA (National Institute of Aging) and AA (Alzheimer's Association) recently formed another policy group. The purpose is to include the biomarkers and new biological models in research and disease development.

Recognized biomarkers include beta-amyloid and tau. It's recognized now that these happen 20 years earlier than dementia.

Comorbidities or related diseases include PART (Primary Age-Related Tauopathy), ARTAG (Age-Related Tau Astroglipathy), and CART (Cerebral Age-Related TDP-43 with Sclerosis)( also known as hippocampal sclerosis).

The Lancet recently published a plea to improve diabetic neuropathy screening. 60-80% of diabetics that have developed neuropathy DON'T KNOW IT.

Help your doctor out. Don't depend on Fasting Glucose or HgA1c to rule out prediabetes. Request an OGTT - Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, or a full Insulin Survey.

And if you have prediabetes or diabetes, make sure your doc is screening routinely for eye disease, kidney disease, AND NEUROPATHY. Neuropathy screens can be done using a tuning fork or pinprick. Perhaps the best screening tool is a 10g monofilament ( fishing line).

Andexxa is the first FDA- approved Factor Xa Inhibitor Antidote. This video goes into detail about why the DOACs, or NOACs ( New Oral Anticoagulants) and why they are less dangerous than the old-school treatment, Coumadin ( or Warfarin). However, only half of those on blood thinners take the NOACs (Eliquis or Xarelto). That's because there are antidotes for Coumadin (plasma or Vit K).

That's why an antidote for the Factor Xa Inhibitors is so important.

A viewer (Songforguy1) asked if the flu vaccine -or other vaccines - could elevate CRP ( C REACTIVE PROTEIN). We cover an article in VACCINE magazine in 2015.

934 women in a community study in the Philippines were studied. CRP was taken at the time the flu shot was given. CRP was given again 3 days later. There was a 30% increase in CRP. The p-value was less than .001, indicating that the probability of seeing this value at random was less than 1 in 1000.

They did see a smaller increase if the patient already had fever or signs of infection. But the CRP started out at higher rates in those cases.