Male baldness can be a telltale sign of heart disease so if you have coronal baldness (crown/vertex of your head) and frontal baldness you chances are 69% greater that you will have coronary heart disease (CHD) than someone with full head hair. Coronary arteries supply the heart muscle.

Frontal baldness alone is not as tell-tale as crown baldness. So no surprise if your healthcare professional should want to check you for possible cardiac disease. We all know from previous blogs about the risk factors for heart disease, but this is a ‘sign’ you might be at risk. Many decades ago a correlation study suggested another ‘sign’ – the presence of a diagonal crease (fold) on the lobe of the ear to be indicative of heart disease however inconsistent finding were noted in studies since.

Correlation with hair presence or lack of, in a certain pattern was gleamed from a review of studies involving nearly 40,000 men suggests (850 studies, published between 1950 and 2012).

Coronary arteries- the whitish lines on surface of the heart

Point for relevance is if you are a man over 60 with severe baldness you are 32% more likely to develop CHD than a man who retained a full head of hair. Interestingly younger men (aged 60 or younger), a similar association emerged.

Did you know the U.S. government has a “Meaningful Use” program that allows a doctor to claim as a Medicare and Medicaid expense the cost of a tablet device. This is allowed as an indirect way to reduce the paper used for patient records. No surprise we see many physicians with iPads or Chrome Books, tablet computers, and smartphones. Yes they are more convenient and bleeding-edge than laptops, which are cumbersome compared to these devices.

A recent study reported that tablets are progressively prevalent among doctors noting, 80 percent of doctors own a portable device capable of downloading Apps, (only about 50 % of U.S. consumers have smartphones, 5 % own tablets). Your Doc might be in the 19% of physicians using their device in a clinical setting.

It’s not just young doctors who are using tablet technology; the use of these devices is practically same by Docs in practice for over 30 years.

There is always a new App to make it easier for doctors and patients.

 There are medical apps that can: allow medical folks to read EKGs instantly instead of waiting for paper records, lets doctors scan stroke victims’ brains with their tablet device and so many more. Just think of all the drug, lab test and anatomy reference Apps!

 Glaucoma is a disease that damages the nerve fibers carrying images from the eye to the brain.  The nerve is the optic nerve it is like a cable made up of many fibers (like wires). Once damage occurs blind spots appear in your visual field.  As you can imagine it takes time for enough fibers to be damages for recognition of a ‘blind spot’.

Blindness may eventually result. In the USA  it is the leading cause. As I hinted once glaucoma causes damages it can not be reversed. However medicated eye drops and laser surgery can reduce pressure and help prevent further damage. In certain people oral medications are also prescribed to ward off blindness. A simple eye pressure measurement is not enough to recognize glaucoma-you need a complete eye exam. There are many types of glaucoma. Please read more details in Doc’s  article on line at ‘Healthy Living’-”All the Best Articles About Health”.

Smoke even second-hand exposure is a bigger risk for heart disease than High Cholesterol is!

Who would have thought? The risk of clogged arteries is greater from secondhand smoke than from several heart disease risk factors, including high cholesterol*.

The overall prevalence of coronary artery plaque in those exposed to secondhand smoke was 24%, which rose to 26% in those with the highest exposure compared with 19% for the general public .

This first study to demonstrate ‘a dose-response relationship’ between exposure to secondhand smoke and the earliest detectable signs of heart disease in non smokers.

 So you should be upset when some one smokes in your air space!

*Hecht HS, et al “Secondhand tobacco smoke in never smokers is a significant risk factor for coronary artery calcification” J Am Coll Cardiol Cardiovas Img 2013.

New mutated virus from the known H7N9 has been identified in China – yes  a relative of the H5N1 Influenza A subtype, you may recall from ‘avian flu’ outbreak in China from 2006-2008

However features of this bird flu strain make it more dangerous:

-injected poultry do not show signs of illness

-can spreads to other animals, found already in pigs

-spreads to humans, severe pneumonias in those that have contact with injected animals.

-deaths have started to be recorded in China’s eastern province

The good news –  if you can think of any aspect of this as such –  China has already shared with the global medical community the virus genetic sequence. Watch news for more on this mutated virus.