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Sometimes you can look at a rural property and fall in love with it. There can be a beautiful stream burbling through a valley with a small stand of trees and a white picket fence – all the elements artists draw into the dream home. Although exurbs are not as picturesque, they can also be on the edge of “civilization” with real countryside just a few minutes away. Under normal, the realtor’s drum will be beating location, location, location. You will be encouraged to view on a summer’s day when everything is in apple-pie order. But before you buy into this version of the American Dream, you should do some serious investigating. You should start with a little history about the area. Does this stream suddenly produce flash floods as heavy rain washes down from the distant mountains? Do those valley sides offer a secure grounding for the trees or will mudslides bring the hillside down to your porch through the fence? Then, no matter where you live, there’s the really important question. Where is the local fire department located?

Have you noticed the big debates both at federal and state level over the deficit? Sorry, silly question. It’s an unavoidable issue and we’ve seen cuts made to all public services. For the most part, this has closed local parks, libraries and reduced the number of teachers in our schools, but left the law enforcement and fire departments untouched. Except out in the countryside, the volunteer departments now suffer loss of equipment and support for training. In the fringes of cities, smaller departments are being shut down and consolidated. This is bad news on the insurance front.

Every area of the country is given a rating based on the local fire department’s Insurance Services Organization rating. If your fire department gets a low rating, this means a low premium rate. So how does the rating system work? It all comes down to the efficiency of the service the department offers to the local community. Let’s say the department is centrally located and can get to all the homes within the immediate area within just a few minutes. This would be wonderful if it also had a crew on the premises, just waiting for the alarm bells to ring, and that crew could take out the latest in fire fighting technology. The fire fighters arrive and they are able to attach the hoses to local water mains with good pressure. This puts out the fire before it can do serious damage to the property. Read the rest of this entry »

Long-term use of certain corticosteroids in high doses may cause eye damage. Glaucoma and cataracts are both serious concerns, but how concerned should you be? Should you avoid corticosteroids altogether? Find out the risks below to determine whether it would be wiser to use drugs and monitor the situation closely, as doctors say, or to seek other treatment.

Glaucoma Risks

Glaucoma is a disease characterized by increases of pressure within the eye. There is usually no pain, though pressure is uncomfortable sometimes. It can cause blindness.

As fluid pressure increases, the optic nerve can become damaged. This nerve is essential to working vision. It is hard to detect glaucoma before damage begins, so everyone should get regular eye examinations.

There are many types of glaucoma:

• Secondary glaucoma – occurs as a complication of other conditions and/or medications
• Open-angle glaucoma – fluid builds up because the flow through the eye drain is too slow
• Angle-closure glaucoma – fluid builds up suddenly because of a blockage, causing immediate increase in pressure as well as horrible pain, nausea, vision disruption, and eye irritation; blindness may occur in just days

Secondary glaucoma is the one that corticosteroid users get. Otherwise, glaucoma can occur in anyone, though it is most common in African Americans over 40, Hispanics over 60, people with heart or eye diseases, and those with a history of glaucoma in their families.

How likely are you to get glaucoma if you are on corticosteroids?

Not very likely. It only happens to a small percentage of people. Using it in high levels for many years makes it more likely, but not probable. However, if you also have irritable bowel syndrome, it may be risky to take corticosteroids for very long.

Doctors typically recommend that anyone with severe autoimmune disorders take corticosteroids and have their eye checked regularly for pressure to prevent an issue before the nerve is damaged.

Glaucoma is a permanent condition and will not go away just from ceasing corticosteroid use.

Cataracts Risks

Corticosteroid use over a long period of time may cause certain parts of the body to age earlier. With the eyes, this may result in cataracts.

Most people, should they live to old age, will develop at least one cataract. They develop when proteins clump together in the lens, which makes them opaque (unable to be seen through). Read the rest of this entry »

A British doctor is acting the role of a pioneer. By specialism, he’s a cardiologist so one of his routine tasks is to insert a stent into blood vessels in the chest leading into and out of the heart. A stent is a cleverly designed support tube that’s inserted into a blood vessel affected by artherosclerosis. This is a disease caused by eating too much carbohydrate. Additional platelets precipitate out of the blood and build up on the walls of the vessels. The first symptom is a rise in blood pressure, which is caused when the deposits narrow the vessel. One day, the Brit had an inspiration. Since one of the more common reasons for erectile dysfunction is artherosclerosis affecting the penile artery, would it help to insert a stent into that artery?

In such situations, there’s no point in asking the question unless you’re prepared to find out the answer. When he mentioned the experiment to some of the men attending the urology department, he had a lot of volunteers. If men delay treatment, the hardening of the artery is not reversible. So, no matter which erectile dysfunction drug you take, it’s not going to help. Erections only return when the artery can dilate properly. Doctors estimate there’s a critical moment when the blockage of the artery reaches 70%. That’s the cut-off for the erectile dysfunction drugs to work. It’s still possible to force an erection using a vacuum pump but the pump is clumsy and kills all spontaneity. So, for all practical purposes, about 30% of men will find their erectile dysfunction a permanent condition.

The test to discover whether the surgery will be effective is simple. A dye is injected and its progress monitored by X-ray. If it shows seriously reduced flow through the penile artery, the procedure is likely to help. There’s no need for a full anesthetic. The stent is inserted through the arteries in the groin. Once in place, the results have been impressive with men reporting no residual discomfort and, when stimulated, a hard erection up to twelve months after the procedure. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something rather unfair about the very idea of an adverse side effect. You take a pill expecting it to cure your illness or disorder, and you suddenly discover you are allergic to it. Instead of instant happiness, you find major problems with your breathing, your skin may blister. Overall it can feel like a heart attack. Well, that’s the extreme version. The majority take drugs without anything adverse happening. Obviously, the FDA would not approve a drug if it produced health-threatening effects in any significant number of people. So don’t read this as one of those articles warning you of a dramatic loss of vision or an increased risk of suicide. We don’t go in for alarmism here. Nevertheless we do want to talk about those drugs were there’s evidence of an effect on sexual performance.

The best documented are the antidepressants. This is a difficult area of cause and effect. When men are depressed, they often feel less interested in sexual activity. If your libido drops, erectile dysfunction is one of the first consequences. The reason is a mind/body link. If you do not feel sexually stimulated by the situation, no erection appears. Many men also report erectile dysfunction when they take some of the standard antidepressants, but separating out the contribution of the drug as opposed to the loss of libido is difficult. In this case, the solution is not to add one of the three erectile dysfunction drugs to the mixture. If you are genuinely depressed, the new pill is not going to help you feel in the mood. You have to wait until your depression lifts. Then you can reduce the antidepressants and experiment with sex again.

The moral of this story is always to consult with your doctor if you are taking any drugs. It’s possible the erectile dysfunction is a side effect of the medication. If so, the doctor will either want to change the dosage or change you to a different drug. One of the big unanswered questions revolves around painkillers you take on a regular basis over long periods of time. Aspirin, for example, is useful in reducing the risk of heart attacks. Whenever you go into a home, the odds are you will find one of the over-the-counter painkillers or one of the anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). We all take these routinely if there’s a minor problem. A new report in the Journal of Urology suggests a risk to men who take a painkiller over long periods of time. Now let’s be clear. At present there’s no evidence any of the OTC painkillers or NSAIDs do cause erectile dysfunction. Some of the stronger opiate drugs have been linked to poor sexual performance. A lot more research is required. Read the rest of this entry »