Cold Sores

It never fails. Every time you have a big meeting coming up or an important presentation to give, you develop an unsightly cold sore on your lip. You wake up with a small cluster of tiny, harmless-looking, white blisters, which quickly explode into a painful sore the size of Rhode Island.
True cold sores, the ones that occur on the lips, are caused by the herpes simplex virus.
Herpes viruses presumably lie dormant in certain nerve cells pf the body lifelong, until something like stress, strain, a cold, or excessive exposure to the sun causes them to manifest. In case of herpes simplex virus I, it happens to be on the lip.
Although many use the terms “cold sore” interchangeably, they are different.

6 WAYS TO FOIL COLD SORES

COVER IT WITH A PROTECTIVE PETROLEUM-BASED PRODUCT.
This will protect it from infection and help it to heal a little quicker.

REACH FOR ASPIRIN, ECETAMINOPHEN, OR IBUPROFEN.
These sores can be quite painful because they are in an area that tents to be easily and continually irritated. An over-the-counter painkiller can greatly reduce this discomfort.

AVOID SALTY OR ACIDIC FOODS.
Things like potato chips or citrus fruits can further irritate cold sores and add to the pain.

APPLY AN OVER –THE-COUNTER ANESTHETIC.
Putting a local anesthetic ointment containing benzocaine on the cold sore can help numb the pain temporarily.

PROTECT YOUR LIPS FROM THE SUN.
Applying sunscreen to your lips may help prevent sun-induced recurrences of cold sores. Look for a sunscreen, designed especially for the lips, that has an SPF of 15 or higher. Some colored lipsticks now also contain sunscreen.

KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.
One important thing to keep in mind with cold sores is that they are extremely contagious. While you have a cold sore, avoid kissing and sharing cups, towels, or other such items. And wash your hands frequently.

Bites

Bites can range from itchy to painful to life threatening. And you needn’t live out in the widerness to run the risk of getting one. In fact, one of the most dangerous kinds of bites can be inflicted in your very own home. Many bites can be treated at home, although others, like a human bite, require an immediate visit to the doctor or emergency room. The trick is distinguishing the dangerous from the benign.
The following is a guide to treating the most common types of bites, as well as a few tips on how to avoid getting bitten in the first place. Of course, if you have had a run with a creature that you suspect is dangerous, whether or not it is discussed here, don’t attempt self-treatment.

ICE AN ITCH.
Itchy mosquito bites may benefit from ice-cold compress. Ice decrease the inflammation and stops the pain and itching. icing the bite for 20 minutes at a time every few hours. The same goes for nonpoisonous spider bites, which can also leave an itchy welt.

TRY AN OLD FAIL-SAFE
When you had a mosquito bite as a child, your mother probably used calamine lotion- a thin, chalky, pink liquid-to stop the itch. Sold over the counter ( and quite economical, too, compared with alternatives such as hydrocortisone).

GIVE AN ANTIHISTAMINE A TRY.
Over the counter antihistamines can also help an itchy bite, since the itch is really a mild allergic reaction. Antihistamines should not be used by sensitive individual, pregnant women, people with allergies to ingredients in the products, or those who are taking conflicting medications. Check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are in doubts.

RECOGNIZE THE SIGN OF A SEVERE REACTION.
The bite from a venomous spider can cause a severe allergic reaction. It is important, therefore, to recognize the signs of an allergic reaction before it is too late. Symptoms of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, include difficulty breathing, hives all over the body, and loss of consciousness. Anyone experiencing these warning signals should be rushed to the nearest emergency room.

DON’T PANIC IF YOU’VE BEEN BITTEN BY A TICK.
Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness that can cause chills, fever, headache, and other complication, has received lots of play in the media of late. But not all ticks carrying tick will transmit it to you if you happen to be bitten. Generally, a tick must remain on the skin for 24 to 48 hours in order to transmit the organism that cause Lyme disease.

REMOVE TICKS WITH CARE.
To remove a tick from your skin, graps the insects mouthparts with tweezers as close as possible to your skin and slowly pull straight upward. Do not attempt to pull the ticks body or head, as it may break off, leaving the mouthparts underneath your skin.

STOP THE BLEEDING.
If an animal bite has caused severe bleeding, apply pressure ti the area with the palm of your hands. If the wound is large, tie a scarf, towel, or T-shirt tightly around the site to create pressure over a larger area.

DON’T TREAT A PUNCTURE LIKE A SCRATCH.
A bite that leaves a scratch but doesn’t really break the skin may simply be washed with soap and water, then covered with an antibacterial cream or ointment. Observe the animal carefully. With wild animals, if the animal is particularly placid- for example, if you can walk up to a squirrel and feed it-there’s something wrong with that animal its sick. Calling a doctor or veterinarian to find out if there have been any reported outbreaks of rabies in wild or domestic animals in your area.

GET A TETANUS BOOSTER.
If you’ve been bitten by a wild or domestic animal and the bite has broken the skin, its probably wise to contact your doctor to see if you need a tetatus booster shot ( whether or not you need one depends, in part, on the type of wound and the timing of your last tetanus shot.)

DON’T GET BITTEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Perharps the most sensible way to treat a bite is in advance – before you get bitten, stay away from wild animals, even if they let you approach, and don’t pester snakes, spiders, bees, or anything else that looks threatening.

KNOW YOUR LOCAL FAUNA.
Its best to keep abreast of the insects and animals in your area, so that you know what to watch out for. For example, you may live in an area where there has been an outbreak of rabies among domestic animals or a large number of lyme-carying ticks. You should know if rattlesnakes, poisonous spiders, or scorpions are likely to take up residence around your neighborhood. If you live in an area, such as the southwest, that is home to poisonous snakes and scorpion, learn how to recognize them by sight and avoid them like the plague.

Boils

Yesterday you noticed a slight redness on your arm, but thought you had simply bumped it against something. Today, the red spot has turned into a painful, red, swollen lump that looks and feels awful. Chances are, what you’re looking at is a boil. Most boils occur when a hair follicle is infected with staphylococcus, a bacteria that is present in many ares of the body and is often carried on the skin.
Boils can occur on any part of the body that has hair follicles, which would exclude the lips, palms, and soles of the feet. Boils are more common in men than in women and tend to occur most often on the neck, waist, buttocks, and thighs. Most boils are caused by some sort of trauma to the hair follicle, which allows staph bacteria to set up shop.
Unfortunately, there is not too much you can do to treat a boil once it appears. The treatment for a boil is drainage, so if you can get it to drain on its own, you probably won’t need antibiotics. Most boils simply need to run their course.


8 WAYS TO FOIL BOILS


HEAT IT UP
Apply warm compresses to the boils a few times a day. This home remedy is designed to help the boil come to a head and open up or be absorbed internally. The way you do this to run a washcloth under warm( not hot) water and put it on the area for five minutes, three to four times a day. The heat increases the blood supply in the area, which better enables the body to deal with the toxins and clean out the infection. A warm bath or a heating pad will do the trick as well.

DON’T BURST THE BUBBLE
If the boil comes to a head, resist the urge to break it open yourself, especially if it is located on your nose or cheek. If it’s coming to a head, you don’t have to poke it with anything. You just keep soaking it in warmth, and it will spontaneously drain. Picking at the boil and trying to force the infection out only makes it worse.

GIVE IT A GENTLE SQUEEZE
When the boil does finally rupture, squeeze it gently to get the remaining pus out. Don’t force it- just sort of help it along by milking it a little bit. Once the boil rupture, it usually dries up and goes away in a couple of days.

COVER IT UP
Put a bandage over the boil once it ruptures. This will keep the draining fluid from getting all over your clothes and will also protect the opening from becoming reinfected.

SKIP THE SOLUTIONS
Avoid over the counter solutions that claim to draw out the fluid. These preparations only tend to further irritate the skin. Drawing ointment are meant to irritate the boil, causing it to form pus at a faster rate than it normally would. The pus accumulation then increase the pressure inside the boil and causes it to burst and eventually drain on its own. But the increase pressure created by these ointments also forces the pus and bacteria down deeper into the skin and possibly into the bloodstream.

USE AN ANTIBACTERAIL SOAP OR SOLUTION
If you’re especially prone to boils, wash your skin with one of these solutions regularly. Betadine solution and deodorant soaps have antibacterial in them and work rather well. These soaps and solutions are available without a prescription.

CHOOSE MOISETURIZER WITH CARE
Avoild oil-based moisturizers, which have a tendency to clog the hair follicles and leave them prone to infection.

LOOSEN YOUR COLLAR
Tight-fitting clothing can rub against and irritate hair follicles, increasing the chance that a boil will develop. Opt for looser-fitting garments whenever you’ve had a boil before.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS) has become one of medicine’s most recent mysteries. First dubbed the Yuppie flu in the 1980’s by the media because it seemed to strike the young and the ambitious, especially woman, the condition continues to perplex and frustrate patients, physicians, and researchers.
CFS sufferers are plagued with a debilitating fatigue that can persist indefinitely. Their fluilike symptoms-fatigue(lack of energy), malaise(feeling bad),muscles aches, sore throat, low-grade fever, and swollen lymph nodes-often continue long after what they though was merely a bout with the flue, mononucleosis, or some other infectious illness. Depression, a common companion to many chronic conditions, can accompany the other symptoms of CFS.

20 COPING STRATEGIES

ESTABLISH A PARTNERSHIP WITH YOUR HEALTH-CARE TEAM.
Interview your doctor and see if its good match. Ask when he’ll take phone calls, when he returns them. Trust your intuiton. Learn about your illness, too, and don’t be afraid to ask question.

DO WHAT TOU CAN FOR YOUR BODY.
Practice the basics of healthy living” Eat a nutritious diet, get enough rest, and participate in a mild exercise programs, even if its just a five-minute walk.

GRIEVE FOR WHAT YOU’VE LOST.
You have to accept the fact you have a chronic illness. Learning to live with chronic illness that means giving up who you used to be and accepting who you are now.

LET YOURSELF FEEL YOR FEELING.
You have to go through the feeling of loss, of grief, anger, sadness when you learn you have a chronic illness.

DON’T BLAME YOURSELF.
Its not your fault you’re sick. Were programmed in this country to believe we can overcome anything if we work hard enough. You can’t let yourself feel guilty because you have this illness.

FIND SUPPORT.
It really helps to talk to other patients. A CFS patient and president of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association of Minnesola in Minneapolis. You don’t have to explain a lot of things, and you can’t go through this feeling totally alone.
You might also want to consider seeking professional counseling, since depression often accompanies any chronic condition.

SPEND YOUR ENERGY WISELY.
Several patients talk of using their precious stores of energy like coins froma piggy bank. You carefully ration every ounce of energy.

SET REASONABLE GOALS.
If you’re having a bad day, maybe your goal shouldn’t be to get groceries, but to take a shower, get dressed, make a sandwich, and do the dishes.

BE ENERGY EFFICIENT.
I sit down on a stool in the kitchen, I don’t stand. When i take laundry down to the basement. I take a book or the newspaper along and I say down there on a couch, so I don’t have to go up and down the stairs several times. Get a handicapped parking stickers; have your groceries delivered; hired someone to clean the house.

SCHEDULE REST PERIODS.
One woman I know takes what she calls’power naps’ lunches so she can get through the day at work. It’s critical that you schedule rest before and after activities.

SET PRIORITIES.
Make a list of what you must do, would like to do, and what doesn’t matter. When all your living must be done in a few hours a day, and with only a small amount of energy, you begin to realize what is truly important.

LEARN TO ADAPT.
Maybe you’re too sick to go to a movie, but you can ask a friend to bring over some Chinese food and watch a movie on the VCR. People who really love you don’t care if you cook them a gourmet meal or send out for fried chicken.

KEEP WORK AND HOME SCHEDULES ON THE SAME CALENDAR.
You don’t want to have a big meeting with your boss and a birthday party for your three-year-old scheduled on the same day.

REALIZE YOU HAVE LIMITS.
Remember that everyone-even healthy people-cant do everything. Try to be realistic about what you expect from yourself.

HAVE FUN.
Keep your social outlet. Maybe you cant entertain your friends the way you’d like but that doesn’t mean you don’t have something to share with them. If you have three hours of energy-work two of them, but spend one having coffee with a friend or taking a short walk. Keep the balance in your life

DON’T IGNORE YOUR SEXUALITY.
You may have to schedule sex when you feel good. Night is not the best time-you probably feel better at lunch or in the morning before you get out of bed.

KEEP A JOURNAL.
You don’t have to write in it everyday but it will help you see the patterns. You’ll realize how awful you felt on the darkest days, but that you moved past that and felt good again.

REMEMBER YOU STILL HAVE CHOICES.
Exercise your choices. Those feeling of control help fight any feeling of depression.

KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR.
The movies I watch, the books I read, are more upbeat these days. I’m dealing with enough difficulty and pain on a day to day basis.

LIVE FOR TODAY.
CFS patients are living with the unknown, and living with the unknown is frightening because it reminds us were out of control. So maximize the known. If you feel good, then enjoy today.

Chapped Lips

If puckering is painful and pursing is too much to bear, you’re probably suffering from chapped lips. Harsh winter weather, dry indoor heat, a habit of constantly licking your lips-all of these factors can help dry out the skin of your lips by causing the moisture in the skin to evaporate. The result; Rough, cracked, sensitive lips that leave you little to smile about.
Protect your lips from chapping is not only important for appearance and comfort, but for health. Cold sores, bacterial infection, and other problems are more likely to strike lips that are already damaged by chapping.


7 TIPS FOR SMOOTHER LIPS.

DON’T LICK YOUR LIPS.
The repeated exposure to water actually robs moisture from the lips, causing them to become dry.

USE A LIP BALM.
Numerous products are available over the counter. Pick one that you like so you’ll use it frequently. Most lip balm products are waxy or greasy and work by sealing in moisture with a protective barrier.

TRY PETROLATUM.
Plain old petrolatum is good, too.

WEAR LIPSTICK.
If you look at old men and old women, you’ll see a difference in their lips, especially the lower. Be careful of cosmetics made outside of the United States, however, since the purity of such products may vary.

SCREEN OUT THE SUN.
The sun’s ultraviolet rays can damage and dry the sensitive skin on your lips. Indeed, the lips are a common site for the skin cancer. Your lips don’t contain melanin (the pigment or coloring, that can help protect skin from the sun) and they sunburn easier.


CHECK OUT YOUR TOOTHPASTE.
An allergy-to your toothpaste or mouthwash-could be to blame for the rough, red skin on your lips. Try switching brands of toothpaste and going without the mouthwash for a few days to see if the problem clears. Rinse well after brushing.

WATCH WHAT PASSES BETWEEN THEM.
When your lips are chapped, they’re more sensitive, and certain foods can irritate them. Holding off on pepper, mustard, barbecue sauce, orange juice, and alcoholic beverages to give your lips a break as they heal.

Chafing

Does your skin-or your clothing-rub you the wrong way? If so,you’re probably suffering from a condition called chafing. While ehafing is rarely a serious problem, nothing can take the spring out of your step like sore, irritated, chafed skin.
Chafing is a condition in which the skin’s normal balancing act is disturbed. Normally, the body constantly sheds the skin cells, a few at a time and replaces them with a new skin. During chafing, persistent friction against the skin rubs off more of the skin’s outer layer than the skin is able to replenish.
Target zones for chafing includes the upper, inner thighs; under the arms; beneath the breasts in women; and surprisingly, men’s nipples.

6 WAYS TO SNUB THE RUB


KEEP YOUR CLOTHES CLEAN.
This is especially important for the outfits you job or exercise in. Dirt and sweat can accumulate in fabric and act as an irritant, a mild cleanser, and wash clothes frequently.

GO EASY ON THE BLEACH.
Bleach can irritate chafed skin. I’ve seen this particularly in people who do martial arts. They will often wash their uniforms in bleach and may not wash the bleach out thoroughly enough. Avoid bleaching your clothes, or at least make sure the bleach is thoroughly rinsed out.

RINSE YOUR SUIT.
The chlorine used in swimming pools can also irritate chafed skin, so after a swim in a chlorinated pool, be sure to rinse off your suit and your skin.

SPRINKLE WITH POWDER.
Powder, applied to chafed areas during the day or before a workout, can act as a buffer and cut down on friction. Using powder may prevent a mild case of chafing from progressing into a more serious one. If you’re chafed in the groin area and you’ve had a fungal infection such as jock itch in the past, an over-the-counter antifungal powder may be in order.

DAB ON SOME CREAM.
Applying 0.5 percent or 1 percent hydrocortisone cream, you can apply the cream during the day or, if you find that too messy, you can put it on only at night. Using soap and water to wash off the cream, as that can further irritate chafed skin.

GIVE YOUR UNDERARMS A BREAK.
Hold off on deodorants or antiperspirants-or at least use them sparingly-if your underarms are chafed. Until the condition clears, don’t shave or trim the hair in your armpits. These practices will only further aggravate the skin.

Chapped Hands

Suffering from dry skin is bad enough. But sometimes dry skin gets so bad it becomes chapped skin-red, rough, scaly, and even cracked and bleeding. The hands are common victims for such distress, taking the abuse we dish out each day as we wash them over and over, subject them to harsh chemical and cleaners, and expose them to the elements.
Wherever you’re a postal carrier, a cannery worker, a bartender, or a new parent changing diapers countless times a day, your hands are probably getting left high and dry.
Unfortunately, the constant wetting and drying that out skin undergoes during the course of an average day can remove the protective oils that help seal in moisture. It can also damage the skin by drying it out.


PROTECTING AND REPAIRING DRY CHAPPED HANDS.


WEAR GLOVES OR MITTENS OUTSIDE.
Your mother probably used to tell this each time you made a move to the door in winter. Well, she was right again. Keep your hands covered to protect them from cold, windy,dry weather.

DRESS YOUR HANDS FOR WORK.
Wear vinyl gloves as much as practical. When you’re washing dishes, scrubbing the tub or otherwise exposing your hands to chemical and cleansers.

PROTECT AGAINTS SUNLIGHT.
The sun’s ultraviolet rays damage the skin and only worsen dryness and chapping. So be sure to wear a sunscreen with a sun protection factor(SPF) of at least 15 on all exposed skin when you’re going outdoors in daylight.

SMEAR ON THE PETROLATUM.
Petrolatum, or petroleum jelly, is the most effective for treating chapped skin, agree the experts.One way to get results without getting petrolatum all over everything. You might
Also consider doing this before you sit down to read the newspaper or watch television.

USE MOISTURIZER.
If you don’t like the greasy feel of petrolatum, use a product you do like.Among the products recommended by dermatologists. Eucerin, Nivea, Lubriderm, Moisturel, and Aquaflor.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT LANOLIN.
As for lanolin, an ingredient that some people say is highly allergenic.

LEAVE THE MAGIC INGREDIENTS ON THE SHELF.
In other words” you don’t need something with vitamin A, E, or C or mink oil”

GIVE YOUR POCKETBOOK-AND YOUR HANDS-A BREAK.
“The higher the price, the less likely its useful”.