5 Treatments of Sunburn

If you are unlucky enough to look like the photograph, then read on…. Most cases of sunburn can be treated at home.

1.     Water Take a cool shower or bath to help cool down your skin. Sponge the affected areas or apply a cold compress, such as a cold flannel, to the affected area.

Drink plenty of fluids – this helps to cool you down and replace water lost through sweating. It will also help prevent dehydration (when the normal water content in your body is reduced, causing thirst and light-headedness). Do not drink alcohol as this only adds to dehydration.

2.     Moisturiser For mild sunburn, apply a moisturising lotion or aftersun cream. Aftersun cream will cool your skin and moisturise it, helping to relieve the feeling of tightness.

Moisturisers that contain aloe vera will also help to soothe your skin. Calamine lotion can relieve any itching or soreness.

3.     Hydrocortisone cream Sunburn may also be treated by applying 1% hydrocortisone cream to the affected area. This type of cream contains a corticosteroid and is rubbed directly onto the sunburned area to reduce pain and inflammation (swelling).

You should not apply hydrocortisone cream to certain parts of your body including:

·        the face

·        genitals

·        broken or infected skin

            Also, avoid using hydrocortisone cream on children under two years old.

Seek advice from your pharmacist before you start using hydrocortisone cream to treat sunburn.

4.     Painkillers Painkillers can help to relieve the pain and reduce the inflammation caused by sunburn.

Paracetamol can be used to treat pain and control fever. Ibuprofen is a type of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), which can help relieve pain, reduce inflammation and lower a high temperature.

Aspirin should not be given to children who are under 16 years of age. 

  

5.  Severe sunburn Severe cases of sunburn may require special burn cream and burn dressings. Ask your pharmacist for advice. You may need to have your burns dressed by a nurse at your GP surgery.

Very severe sunburn cases may require treatment at your local accident and emergency (A&E) department.

Prevention is always the best cure so remember avoid the midday sun drink plenty of fluids and

10 Reasons Why You Should Have Care At Home

FASTER DISCHARGE FROM THE HOSPITAL

With home care, Clients can come home sooner from the hospital. Since the services of nurses, and therapists can follow up Clients home, they don’t have to stay in the hospital as long.

INVOLVEMENT WITH TREATMENT

Both the client and family members can be more intimately involved with the Client’s treatment at home

SUBSTITUTE FOR HOSPITAL, NURSING HOME or INSTUITIONAL FACILITY

Depending on the severity of an illness or disability , many illness can be managed at home with the right support network.

INDEPENDENCE

Clients may only need support to administer their medications to keep them at home.  Working with the Client on physical therapy and coaching them on their recovery will build independence.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

There are no visiting hours at home. Home provides a place where family and friends can be close to the person at all hours.

COMFORT

Being at home is simply more comfortable for most people than being in an unfamiliar place.

MORALE

Clients tend to have a greater sense of well-being and overall morale when they are in the comfortable surroundings of their own home.

FASTER RECOVERY

Research has shown that recovery can be faster at home than in the hospital, particularly if there is good quality, skilled home health care available to the Client.

COST

Depending on the hours needed, home care can be much more affordable than private hospitals, nursing homes or other institutions.

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10 Weird and wonderful Health Facts

1.    Women have a better sense of smell than men.

2.     Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t.

3.    The human brain has the capacity to store everything that you experience.

4.     Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

5.    Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

6.    The right lung takes in more air than the left.

7.    The average human body contains enough iron to make a small nail.

8.     The average human body contains enough fat to make seven bars of soap.

9.    Pain travels through the body at 350 feet per second!

10. In older people, memory is best early in the morning and then declines during the late afternoon.

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Chocolate Health

Go to the dark side and enjoy your chocolate this Easter

Chocolate especially dark chocolate reduces body mass, prevents blood clots, improves numeracy, may prevent cancer, and doesn’t ruin your complexion.

Read on……

What is chocolate?

Chocolate is made from the tropical evergreen cacao beans. The cacao beans are picked grounded down to powder and then other ingredients are added to give us a variety of flavoured chocolate. The key element in chocolate that provides is goodness is flavonoids. The more processed your chocolate the less flavonoids.

Go to the Dark Side

Consuming flavonoids has been linked to heart benefits. But since flavonoids are bitter, most commercial chocolate goes through processing steps that remove these compounds. Less processed, or darker chocolates, will tend to have higher levels of flavonoids. Your best choice in terms of healthiness is to go with natural, unsweetened cocoa powder.

A small bar of dark chocolate every day can help keep your heart and cardio vascular system running well. Dark chocolate contains antioxidants (nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries). 

A glass and a half

Milk chocolate is not as healthy as dark chocolate, however, it acts as stimulator to the brain, to the emotions, which helps increase stamina. Milk chocolate also contains high levels of potassium and magnesium that provide several vitamins such as B1, B2, D and E. Studies have showed that the nutrients in the cocoa and milk content of milk chocolate aid in glucose release, increase blood flow and enhance intellectual performance.

The health benefits of eating white chocolate are not at all close to those from dark or milk chocolates. White chocolate is made very differently to milk chocolate or dark chocolate and is sometimes not considered as a chocolate at all. However it does contain cocoa butter and milk solids which vitamins and minerals are present.

How do we benefit from chocolate eggactly? (Oh it is Easter; we had to get in at least one pun!)

Two heart health benefits of dark chocolate are:

·         Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol).

·     Lower Blood Pressure: research suggests that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in people who suffer with hypertension (high blood pressure).

Chocolate reduces the risk of diabetes

·         A small study from the University of L'Aquila, in Italy, found that eating chocolate increases insulin sensitivity, which reduces the risk of diabetes.

Chocolate may help in cancer prevention

·         Studies carried out at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University  has shown that a compound called pentameric procyanidin, or pentamer, found in cocoa  can disrupt cancer cells’ ability to spread.

Chocolate can help with your complexion

·         Flavonoids found in dark chocolate protect women’s skin from the sun’s UV rays, according to German scientists. But that doesn’t mean you can skip the sunscreen.

Chocolate away your cough

·         Chocolate cough syrup? Scientists are currently working on a drug to stop your cough that could replace codeine. A component found in chocolate, theobromine, seems to reduce the activity of the vagus nerve, the part of the brain that triggers coughing fits.

Chocolate can help with mental maths.

·         Studies have proved people’s mental mathematical agility is increased after eating chocolate or having a cup of hot chocolate.

Chocoholics Beware !

Remember chocolate has a high sugar and fat content and should be eaten in moderation. Try to choose a dark chocolate over Milk chocolate or white chocolate.

And of course, enjoy……… 

Daffodil Day

The Irish Cancer Society provides a FREE Night Nursing Service to palliative patients who would like to remain in their homes towards the end of their illness.

This vital service provides helps and support to these families and friends who are caring for someone especially in the advanced stages of cancer. The Irish Cancer Society Night Nursing Service is works in conjunction with primary care and follows directions given by the community Palliative Care Team or the community Primary Care Team, i.e., GP or PHN.. The Irish Cancer Society's Night Nursing Service is available to individuals who wish to remain at home. Night nurses will assist the individual by giving one to on nursing care, practical support and reassurance. The main aim is to keep the patient comfortable and free of pain in their last moments. The Irish Cancer Society will provide up to 10 nights of care. 2,015 patients in Ireland accessed the night nursing service in 2011. Families that have been supported by The Irish Cancer Society and their nurses have expressed that the support and the high quality care provided to their loved one was second to none. This is so important to patients and their families in such a difficult time. 

This service is funded by money donated on Daffodil Day in March every year, in addition to other fundraising efforts. To avail of The Irish Cancer Society night nursing service a referral must be made by a health professional who are the following:

 General Practitioner

 Public Health Nurse

 Member of the Community Palliative Care Team

 Member of the Palliative Care Services in hospital

Once the health professional makes the booking, The Irish Cancer Society contacts the local night nurse and arranges the visit. To find out more about our nursing service and how you can book it Contact Freephone 1800 200 700 Or Visit http://www.cancer.ie/how-we-can-help/nursing/home-night-nursing/ Remember to buy your daffodil on Daffodil Day and help continue this vital service.

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Cataracts : Cataracts remain the most common cause of blindnes...

Cataracts : Cataracts remain the most common cause of blindnes...: Cataracts remain the most common cause of blindness worldwide. It is also one of the most common ENT surgeries carried out in Ireland. ...

Cataracts remain the most common cause of blindness worldwide. It is also one of the most common ENT surgeries carried out in Ireland.

Having cataracts is often compared to looking through a foggy windshield of a car or through the dirty lens of a camera. Cataracts may cause a variety of complaints and visual changes, including blurred vision, difficulty with glare (often with bright sun or automobile headlights while driving at night), dulled colour vision, increased near sightedness accompanied by frequent changes in eyeglass prescription, and occasionally double vision in one eye.

Cataracts linked to the aging process, however there are many factors that may lead to development of cataracts at an earlier age. Some of these factors include excessive ultraviolet-light exposure, diabetes, smoking, or the use of certain medications, such as oral, topical, or inhaled steroids.
Unfortunately there is no real prevention for cataracts but it is important for older groups to have regular eye examinations.

There are three basic techniques for cataract surgery:

Phacoemulsification is the most common form of cataract removal. This type of cataract surgery can usually be performed in less than 30 minutes and usually requires only minimal sedation and numbing drops, no stitches to close the wound, and no eye patch after surgery.

Extracapsular cataract surgery is used mainly for very advanced cataracts where the lens is too dense to dissolve into fragments (phacoemulsify) or in facilities that do not have phacoemulsification technology. This technique requires a larger incision so that the cataract can be removed in one piece without being fragmented inside the eye. An artificial lens is placed in the same capsular bag as with the phacoemulsification technique. This surgical technique requires a various number of sutures to close the larger wound, and visual recovery is often slower. Extracapsular cataract extraction usually requires an injection of numbing medication around the eye and an eye patch after surgery.

Intracapsular cataract surgery requires an even larger wound than extracapsular surgery, and the surgeon removes the entire lens and the surrounding capsule together. This technique requires the intraocular lens to be placed in a different location, in front of the iris. This method is rarely used today but can be still be useful in cases of significant trauma.

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