Lone Star Family Health Center News

Millions of Americans are affected by hernias every year. Since June is National Hernia Awareness Month, it is time to start the conversation about what hernias are, whether they are dangerous or not, and what you can do to treat them.

A hernia is any protrusion of an organ or tissue through the surrounding muscle or connective tissue (fascia) that usually contain it. There are different kinds of hernias. They can occur in your abdomen and even in your groin. How we classify and describe each type of hernia is dependent on the specific location of the hernia. Some examples of hernias include hiatal hernia, umbilical hernia, incisional hernia, femoral hernia, and inguinal hernia. Sometimes you can tell if you have a hernia and other times, you may be asymptomatic or not be able to tell at all.

If you could only keep one of your five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing), which would it be? Most of us would say sight. Seeing a baby’s smile, Conroe’s lush green trees, the words in this newspaper, or the faces of loved ones are treasures we would fight desperately for if our vision were threatened.

Hearing loss is a self-explanatory term which means that an individual will require more sound energy than the normal to be able to hear. Hearing loss is occasionally profound or total, and an individual will not be able to hear any sound or voice no matter how loud the source is. Hearing loss is unfortunately very common and can affect any age, but it is more likely in childhood and above age 65. About 2 to 3 out of every 1000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears. One in eight people in the United States (13%) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears, based on a standard hearing examination.

Have you heard or read that chocolate is good for you? Some studies suggest that dark chocolate is a source of antioxidants and may have an impact on “bad” cholesterol. Still some people should not eat chocolate, for example those who are allergic to chocolate. Of course, if you can eat chocolate, that does not mean that you should go all out and eat lots of chocolate every day. It is loaded with calories and it is SO easy to overeat.

Four months ago, I met a patient, “Linda”, who was no different from most of the people I care for in clinic. Like many Americans, she suffered from a constellation of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. We agreed on making a series of lifestyle changes and starting medication. In a few weeks, she would have another appointment to see how things were going.

The day before her appointment with me, Linda had a splitting headache. It was so bad she felt her arm go numb, and she had some trouble speaking. It did not go away with Tylenol, but after a few hours most of the pain was over hand she could speak. She figured things would get better by the morning, and if not, she could ask me.

Since we have just finished with Autism Awareness Month, I thought it would be appropriate to review Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a range of developmental conditions that affect a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Though estimates vary, it is thought to affect close to 1 in every 54 children in the United States. It appears that the incidence of Autism is increasing due to multiple factors; one is thought to be due to more awareness of the disorder and better screening methods.

Vaping always seems like a new fad just coming to the market, even though it has been around for over a decade. Why people vape has remained the same: trying to quit smoking, peer pressure, a perceived lower cost alternative to smoking, or adopting a more health-conscious way of smoking. Here I will address a few things that you may not know about vaping and e-cigarettes.

How do you turn a newborn with all its promise into a 30 year-old addict living on the street?

The workday has wrapped up and you’ve picked up the kids who seem to be in a mood. Tripping over toys in your home’s entryway you remember dinner still needs to be cooked and now the kids are fighting. Nothing you’ve made for dinner seems to interest them, and after wrestling them to bed you pick up the paper to read this article's headline.

As part of our daily existence, we occasionally feel abdominal discomfort. We all know the feeling: a feeling of general abdominal discomfort, bloating that can make you feel very nauseated, bothersome and embarrassing flatulence, and perhaps a need to have bowel movement at an uncharacteristic time. We pass it off as the food we had last night, perhaps a minor stomach bug, or some interpersonal stress. Usually, the symptoms resolve on their own, and occasionally it may require some over the counter medication. But nonetheless, we only live with the symptoms for a short time. However, sometimes these symptoms can persist for weeks or even months, and you may be told you have irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.

In the year since COVID-19 has upended life as we know it, it has become increasingly evident that certain individuals are more at risk of severe infection than others. While some people become afflicted by the virus and experience no symptoms, others are struck with such severe shortness of breath that hospitalization and in the worst-case scenario, mechanical ventilation is necessary.

There is not a straightforward way to know which individuals will experience more severe disease, but an association has emerged between critical COVID-19 and chronic illness. Certain medical conditions predispose people to experiencing more significant complications from a COVID-19 infection. These include obesity, diabetes, cancer, kidney, and lung diseases, among others. As such, if an individual or a group has one or several of these chronic medical conditions, they are at especially high risk. With this in mind, it becomes important to recognize that there are communities in which these medical conditions are more prevalent; thus, these have the greatest risk of morbidity and mortality from this pandemic.