Author Archives: NurseBridgid

Sodium: Is how much you ingest bad?

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For years and years and years HCPs have been telling you to cut out sodium as much as you can from your diet, and I feel like it is everywhere that people know they shouldn’t eat too much sodium, but, why?  And some ways to make sure you aren’t being duped into eating more sodium than you have intended!

SaltmillWhy is too much sodium bad?

Sodium is necessary for your body to thrive because it helps with a lot of the body processes like muscle contraction and relaxation (like with one of the most important muscles: our hearts), so it helps with blood pressure and also functions in our brains. But too much sodium can lead to a body retaining too much water, increase our blood pressure (due to the extra fluid retention related to the sodium), but this puts you at a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes.  For something that is a pretty attainable, lowering your sodium intake, it’s a great way to he healthy and protect your heart.

Where is sodium lurking?

If you are healthy with no medical issues, you can take in up to 2300mg of sodium per day (that’s about a teaspoon of salt) but if you have chronic kidney disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, or are over 50 years old, the suggested daily amount of sodium is 1500mg (which is not very much at all).  Sodium is in almost everything, and if it is pre-made or pre-packaged, the sodium content is usually unbelievably high!  So, if you are on (or should be on) a sodium restricted diet, there are some things you should skip or use sparingly:

– Pre-made foods from stores ( both fresh AND frozen, unless they are labelled as low sodium, but read the labels to be sure)

– Canned foods (even veggies/beans are loaded with sodium as a preservative; I have been buying dry beans and giving them a super soak, much healthier and no sodium added!)

– Condiments (including various spices!)

– Processed meats

– Fast foods

– Processed snack foods (potato chips, cheese curls, etc.)

– Cheeses

– Soups (even low sodium still has a lot of sodium, so I tend to make my own and not add any salt!)

And remember that fresh foods like fruits and veggies naturally have sodium in them, so even though you might think that you are not eating any extra sodium, you might be. Plus, always read the labels to be sure how much sodium is present in various foods! Many different beverages, including some bottled waters have sodium in them, so your best bet at sticking to a low sodium diet, is to reach for foods labelled as “low sodium”, reading package labels, shy away from beverages other than water, and don’t add any salt to your foods when you are cooking!  Plus, half the battle is being aware of how much sodium you should be taking in, and making an effort to stick to it.

And, if you do splurge, make sure to drink a lot of water, and get some exercise to help flush that extra sodium out of your system.

Yours in Good Health

B

A Gentler Chemotherapy?

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I know that almost everyone fears cancer for tons of reasons, but the first thing that people always think of are the treatments: chemotherapy, radiation, and the horrible side effects. Breast cancer will be diagnosed in over 230,000 women in the US in 2013, and over 39,000 will die from the disease, and it is one of the top killers of women worldwide annually. With numbers like that, and previous treatment options, the fear is real. Since we have first started treated cancer, the goal was to kill the cancerous cells, prevent them from growing, spreading, and replicating, which meant that some of our healthy cells were eradicated as well.  Depending on the type of cell that was being targeted, there are unwanted side effects, like loss of hair, nausea, vomiting, and pain as the most notable, and that is what makes people most fearful of cancer: the treatment.  There is some good news though for women that suffer from non-hormone receptive, and aggressive forms of breast cancer; a new chemotherapy that works WITH your body and not against it!

KadcylaWhat is this new treatment?

It is a drug that has just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is a completely new type of drug that specifically targets the cancer cells and leaves the healthy ones alone, so there are almost none of the harsh side-effects related to the death of healthy cells and the normal functioning of your body. As with any medication there are side effects such as nausea, fatigue, low platelets, impaired liver function, etc.  It is called Kadcyla, and it is the mixture of three medications, one is a well-known and widely used chemotherapy agent, but one of the medications added binds the other two together, and is an antibody that keeps all of the medications bound, until it find the specific type of cell that it is looking to kill off, then the medications are released on those specific cells and it helps to slow growth and kill off the cancerous cells. It was showed to increase people’s lives by over 6 months as compared to other chemotherapy agents, which may not seem like that much, but when you aren’t vomiting constantly, feeling miserable, and losing all of your hair, it is a better quality of life, which is something you cannot put a price on.

What type of cancer does it treat?

It does seem almost too good to be true, but Kadcyla treats HER2 (Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor-2) specific cancers, which is a large number of breast cancers. It is mainly for breast cancers that are aggressive, with metastatic disease (cancer cells have spread to other areas of the body), that have not responded to other hormonal treatments. Especially while it is newly approved, they will have strict treatment guidelines, but as more trials are done on the drug, there may be more options for treatments and a wider array of patients may benefit.

So, while this drug is not targeted at a huge number of cancer victims, this very moment, it is a huge breakthrough in the treatment of cancer that it can help to target tumor specific cells and bypass the healthy cells, preventing most of the horrible side effects that make people miserable during their treatments. Now that this has been created and approved for use by the FDA, other drugs can be created using this technology for other types of cancer cells; we are one step closer to curing cancer altogether!

Yours in Good Health

B

A Secret to Healthy Eating: Cheating!!!

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I was asked by a few readers about how I am able to eat healthy all the time, and how I have such willpower to forgo sugar laden or fatty foods all the time, and I realized that if that is the way I have portrayed myself, I need to apologize! I am a regular person, and I have the same cravings as anyone else….probably the strongest cravings for skittles and chewy candy of anyone on the planet! Yet, I still do consider myself a healthy person, because while I do give in every now and again, the rest of my diet is really clean, organic, and I make pretty decent choices (lean proteins, veggies, fruits, and lots of whole grains .)

How do you stay healthy amid cravings?

It is so easy to be having a stressful day (or a hormonal day!) and have your body tell you “eat massive quantities of chocolate (or insert most intense craving here)” so you find that food, eat it, and your brian is happy for a millisecond, then you feel slow, sluggish, gross, and sometimes regret eating it. Whereas, if you reached over that candy bar and grabbed some nuts, or a yummy (healthy) salad, you eat your healthy option and you feel light, satiated, and stronger for skipping that craving! Why wouldn’t you skip that craving? I get it though.  I have hungry hungry hippo days where I feel like I want to consume everything in front of me….including people’s appendages, if they aren’t careful.  But on those days, I do what almost everyone who eats healthy or is trying to lose weight does: I have a cheat! Now, a cheat day is what can separate those happy with their waistlines from those who aren’t; a cheat day is not when you give into your cravings ALL day, it is merely when you give yourself a little treat, a serving sized treat, not a couple of king sized Snickers bars and an entire bag of potato chips!

Hot Chocolate All day today I honestly felt like I could kill for chocolate, and despite being offered (close enough to smell) my favorite chocolate chunk cookies, I held strong, I stuck to the lunch I brought to work, ate my healthy dinner, and after getting a little work done, my big treat was a cup of hot chocolate.  It satiated my chocolate craving, it was warm and cozy on a cold night, and it helped to alleviate my stress as I drank it while cuddling with my puppies, doing my nightly mental recap on the day. It was low-fat, and it satiated my craving, plus it was a special treat for accomplishing all I needed to do today, and I only ended up drinking half of it, because a whole cup is usually too much for me, so there is no guilt whatsoever! So, it is a cheat, but it is also a treat for sticking to my diet and a job well done; if you can’t pat yourself on the back, no one else will!

Also, if you are really super craving something, have a snack like an apple (full of fiber but sweet) or a handful of nuts (if you are a salt craver) and drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes. Sometimes you can trick your body to hit those sweet/salty receptors and stave off that craving with a healthy snack…then it is merely dealing with the mental part of it, where you just want to nosh on your favorite snack! Plus, sometimes cravings mean that you are missing something from your diet, like when I am craving spinach, I clearly have not had my fill of green leafy veggies, so that craving I feel like I can go over the top with. That being said, If you don’t give yourself that cheat, then you will end up splurging later…like I tend to do with veggies that I am craving, but I keep it in check and stick to serving sizes with things that are not as good for me.

Plus, I get my daily exercise in, and when I step it up and have much harder workouts, I know I have a caloric deficit, so a “fun size” serving of skittles won’t knock me over the edge or ruin my diet for the day. On days that I don’t work out, you are hard pressed to find me giving myself a “cheat” simply because I haven’t burned off those extra calories.

And remember, that you can do whatever you want with your daily calories, if that means eating three candy bars, french fries, or healthy meals throughout the day, it is your choice how to live and eat. I understand the cravings, but I urge you to see try the other side of eating because at the end of the day you need to feel good about yourself and your choices; seeing food as fuel and taking emotion out of it gives you a whole new outlook and it feels great. Try healthy alternatives to fatty snacks (see a cup of hot cocoa, or baking sweet potato french “fries”) and ditch the guilt at the door.  And the best? Having a friend that also opts for a healthy lifestyle that will urge you to snack/eat healthier instead of telling you to go for it with the bad food…but who also knows you gotta give in sometimes (just in moderation!)

Be healthy, makes choices that make you feel good, and allow you to live your life positively.

Yours in Good Health

B

 

Can your kitchen be the source of disease?

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I am totally behind going “green” and making changes in my own house and at work to be more Eco-friendly.  I really do believe that it is important to live a lifestyle without wasting natural resources frivolously; it isn’t a way to show that you have money, to be wasteful with natural resources is just pointless, and truly lazy. There are tons of products on the market that have cleaning agents with less abrasive or fewer harsh chemical agents in them to clean your home, and in an effort to be green, people are using sponges and dish rags/towels in lieu of paper towels, or the equivalent, to clean up a pretty nasty mess, and opting to clean and reuse those sponges or towels. It’s great for the environment, but are we putting ourselves at risk for hidden viruses and bacteria in those reusable materials?


SpongesWhat can be lurking?

When cooking with meat and eggs, there are a risk for E. coli and salmonella that can hide out in crevices of wooden cutting boards, in the little holes in your sponges, and in the fabric of dish towels.  Between lots of moisture and food sources, it really makes for a perfect breeding spot for viruses and bacteria: dark, moisture filled places with bits of food for the bacteria to feed off of, is their own little heaven! With ideal breeding spaces, these bacterial can grow into the millions in 24 hours time, and the more bacteria present, the bigger the risk that you will get infected by them.  Just think that every time you swipe your sponge over your counter, you are leaving a trail of bacteria that you can’t see.  Yikes!

How do I prevent that?

Old school bleach, which I know is horrible ecologically speaking, is really fantastic at killing off those nasty bacteria, quickly and effectively! And many studies have shown that the “greener”the product, the less effective it is at killing off E. coli and salmonella. But there are some tricks you can use to help rid your kitchen of these nasty bugs:

– Use white vinegar (which smells horrid) on your counter tops and then follow with hot, soapy water to cut the smell and help wash away the bacteria. (bacteria are fickle and need the perfect temperature to grow, they don’t like places that are hot, so hot water can help to kill them off!)

– Make sure that your sponges are clean by changing them out weekly.

– You can extend the life of sponges by getting them moist and zapping them in the microwave for 2 minutes a day to kill off most creepy things living in there.

– Wash dish rags and towels frequently in hot water cycles, especially if they are used to clean up raw meat/egg spills (or wiping your hands after touching such items).

– You can also always add vinegar to the wash to help kill off bacteria

– If you use a dishwasher with some frequency, toss your sponge into the dishwasher every time you run it, and it will come out fresh and clean and bacteria free!

So, white vinegar can do a pretty good job on killing off that bacteria, and following it with the hot soapy water (using a sponge free of bacteria) can help to decrease your risk of infection and cut down on spreading those nasty little bacteria all over your clean kitchen surfaces. Bleach really is the best way to kill off the bacteria because you spray some from a bottle, a quick swipe of your sponge/rag and the bacteria are eradicated, but for those that are intensely eco-friendly, white vinegar, hot soapy water, bacteria-free cleaning tools, and elbow grease are your friends! Next time you grab your green cleaning product, read the label to see what the active ingredient is, you may be wasting your money, as white vinegar is under a dollar for a liter!

Yours in Good Health

B

Another reason to know the source of your food…

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There have been numerous times that we have consumed products and then found out there were different additives or harmful substances present, which is usually due to a lack of adherence to regulations, or knowingly contaminate the product to make a larger profit.  This has recently become a rather hot issue is because of contaminated found in the UK, Ireland, and a few countries in the EU.

horse meat

What was the contamination?

Some rather large quantities of commercially sold hamburger (“beef”) meat in Ireland was tested for DNA, per regular testing standards, and meat that was labelled as beef was found to actually have the DNA of pigs and horses present.  The meat was found to have come from suppliers in France and Ireland that have then supplied major retailers such as Tesco (for Americans, Tesco is like Stop & Shop, Winn Dixie, or Ralph’s, a pretty major chain of grocers) which produces its own foods.  Since the contaminated meats were found at one source, they were traced back to the sources and the issue was found to be much more widespread.  Tesco products such as Bolognese sauces, lasagna, and other products have been contaminated with horse meat.  Not only is the pig and horse meat contamination an ethical issue for many people, but there are also certain religious groups (such as Muslim or Jewish groups) that don’t eat porcine products due to beliefs, which makes this a huge issue.

One of the other issues is that the horse meat was found to have phenylbutazone (also known as bute) present in it.  Phenylbutazone is a non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is used for short-term pain control in animals.  It has been banned in both the US and the EU due to issues of aplastic anemia which results from suppressed bone marrow, so your white and red blood cells are not adequately produced, to properly clot or fight off infection. Even ingesting these meats, which were found to be up to 60% horse meat that was contaminated with phenylbutazone, which can be absorbed by humans and cause this bone marrow suppression and anemia.

Up to 16 countries in the UK and EU that have been affected by this meat contamination, not to mention that these suppliers also sent contaminated meat to large fast food retailers such as Burger King in the UK/EU, thus numerous people have been exposed to these different meats and the phenlybutazone. If you think you have been exposed, you should go to see your Healthcare Practitioner (HCP) and get assessed, but you should know that they are currently making the statement that ingesting these small amounts of the drugs through horse meat is presumed to not have an impact on your health, but it truly is unknown. If you feel unwell, and have been at risk, it is best to see your HCP and get checked out, especially if you have any other medical issues.  For a list of affected foods check here.

Another reason to eat local and support local agriculture when you can, you know what kind of meat and the source!

Yours in Good Health

B

Should I take Vitamins?

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I am asked frequently who should take vitamins, and by frequently, I mean on a daily basis.  And there are certain subsets of people who should take vitamins, and for others it’s a complete waste of money.  Many times people tend to take more vitamins and supplements than is really necessary.

Should I be taking vitamins daily?

Vitamins and other supplements can be really pricey, and not really worth the price tag. Most of the vitamins and supplements that you find are not FDA tested to ensure that the claims on the labels actually match what is inside of the product, even commercially sold vitamins, are not approved.  Most of the time, if you really need to be on a vitamin supplementation, your Healthcare Practitioner (HCP) will write you a prescription for it, then you know that the amount of supplement you need is what you are actually getting.

Truly the only people who should be taking vitamin supplementation are people who have a malabsorption disorders:

Chron’s disease, Irritable Bowel Disorder (IBD), Celiac Disease, lactose intolerance, severe food allergies, bariatric surgery (gastric bypass), pancreatic insufficiency, hypothyroidism, Addison’s disease, among other issues.

Also, if you are pregnant, you should be taking prenatal vitamins, folic acid, and iron supplementation to ensure that your fetus is getting adequate nutrition, and your HCP will order these for you so they are FDA approved supplements.

vitamin veggies
If you have a truly poor diet, where you really don’t eat fruits and vegetables,even in juice form, and eat fast food on the regular, then you should probably take vitamins, but if you eat a regular diet, get in fruits and vegetables, then you really don’t need to take any sort of supplementation. It’s just a waste of money. Most of the vitamins and nutrients that are found in supplements can be added to your diet through adding a few fruits and or veggies a day to your diet. I think of my morning smoothies as my vitamins: jam-packed with 4 different fruits, of various colors, which basically gets me all I need for the day (but good thing I add in other fruits and veggies during the day.)

I’m not saying you all have to be smoothie converts, but it actually ends up being cheaper for you to add some fruits and veggies to your diets, and ditch the pills!

Yours in Good Health

B

 

Go away Nemo: Blizzard Safety

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For all those, like me, who are affected by the blizzard, a few ways to keep yourself safe:

1. Please do not stray too far out in the blizzard alone, with poor visibility, it is easy to get lost especially in poor lighting.

2. The same goes for your animals, off leash, they can easily get lost with poor visibility, especially with poor lighting. My two dogs are so small they are below the snow line…making this blizzard a real treat for bathroom breaks!

keeping them on leash ensures their safety....

keeping them on leash ensures their safety….

3. When shoveling, take breaks: the exercise when shoveling is a lot more exertion than people think, and it is easy to strain muscles and/or exert yourself to the point of heart attack (we see a lot of cardiac arrests during snow storm shoveling).  So please take breaks, and ask for help, or if you have a plow, do a favor for someone who might not be able to shovel themselves out.

4. Be careful with snow blowers: they can get clogged up, sometimes requiring you to pull out rocks, branches, etc. but make sure that the motor is off, and even though it isn’t as exerting as shoveling, take breaks! Being exhausted and operating any sort of motorized equipment is as unsafe as being under the influence of alcohol, so please be safe and take breaks as you can.

5. If you have chronic medical conditions, or are unwell, have a plan to get to medical assistance if necessary, and emergency services are up and running with the help of the National Guard, but they need to be safe getting to you, so times may be slightly delayed, so keep that in mind.  If you have someone driving you to the hospital, give yourself time and drive safely to get there.

6. Please be mindful of driving bans, it’s for your own safety!

7. Use common sense, it seems fun to go out and do crazy things in the snow, but temperatures are cold, visibility is low, snow drifts are higher than expected, and transportation is really difficult right now. So, if you have to get your crazies out, bring a cell phone and a friend, and let people know what you are up to/when you are going. Especially if you have been drinking to pass the time (remember to eat and to hydrate well!)

8. And a general winter warning: Don’t go skating on ponds unless it is posted that it is safe to do so.  Many times ponds/lakes appear more frozen than they are!

9. To stay healthy? Remember you don’t need a gym to get exercise when you get stir crazy, you can always rock out with some yoga, jumping jacks, burpees, squats, etc. there’s way to keep moving even when confined to your home.

Otherwise, enjoy the snow, have fun, and hopefully we will all be able to escape our homes safely soon enough!  Remember: Helping someone out is a good feeling, so if you are fit and have the means (a plow/snow blower), help someone who might be completely snowed in and unable to get themselves out.

Yours in Good Health

B

Do you have Fordyce Spots?

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There are spots that occur on different places of the body, and cause a lot of stress when they are found under your belt.  I get a LOT of questions and pics sent to me with people very concerned that they have various Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), depending on what they have recently performed an internet search on. Some should cause some serious concern and some are benign.  Fordyce spots can occur inside your lips on your oral mucosa, or on the shaft of your penis, or on your labia.  I totally understand the freak out that it might be genital warts, or something else, so you should go get tested and assessed, but this is a little information to ease your worry before you get your results!

What are Fordyce Spots?

They are small, painless bumps that are 1cm to 3 cm in size and they can either be skin toned, white, or a little pink/red in color.  As I stated before, they are commonly found in on the inside of the lips, on the shaft of the penis or scrotum, and on the labia, and they are really a common occurrence, but occur more with age. Usually you only notice them when you see or feel them, but at times they can be a little itchy. They occur because the sebaceous glands, the oil glands associated with hair follicles normally that secrete sweat and oils, instead of being inside of the epidermal layer (deeper in the skin) are more superficial, and close to the outer layer of skin, making them very visible. These glands fill with oil, and there is no hair shaft for them to leave the skin, so they are basically little oil filled cysts. That’s it. They are not known to lead to a disease or are not a sign of cancer or any other virus/disease, but they just tend to be a visual disturbance for some people…and their partners.

fordyce 2fordyce 1

What can I do if I have them?

If you go to your Healthcare Provider (HCP), and get diagnosed with Fordyce Spots, they will give you some options for treatment, if it really is bugging you from a cosmetic standpoint, because they are not detrimental to your health in any way. And, they usually go away without treatment on their own. But healthy diets including Vitamin A, B, D, E, and K can usually help them from forming, and go away faster when you have them, so basically, if you get Fordyce spots, take a multivitamin daily and it can help to prevent them.  Good hygiene including exfoliation and moisturizer can help to decrease them from forming (so that your body doesn’t produce excess oil; this works on both the lips and the genitals), and there are some reports that people with either eat more garlic or take garlic supplements have a lower rate of the spots.  Your HCP may prescribe Trentinoin cream, which is a cream that can basically makes the cells replenish faster, so you ave never skin cells forming, which can prevent the skin from getting clogged up with oils. But, again, the only treatment you may need is time.

All of this being said, you do need to get checked out by your HCP if you do have any new skin issues, especially in your genitals, and you are sexually active, you really need to make sure that it is something benign and not Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in the form of genital warts, herpes, or any other Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI). Get yourself checked out to be on the safe side, but also realize that every bump isn’t contagious or infectious!

Yours in Good Health

B

An alternative sweetener and a yummy fruit?

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This may sound a little too good to be true, and not everyone will be a fan, but there is a fruit that is grown locally in Peru that is full of nutrients, and can be eaten as a fruit, then when dried, used as a sweetener.

What is this fruit?

The fruit is called lucuma (or a lucma at times.)  It’s full name is the Pouteria lucuma, and is primarily grown in Peru and Chile as they need to grow in altitudes between 1,000-2,400 meters, and in warmer weather.  They can sometimes be called “eggfruits” because the flesh of the fruit is the consistency of a hard-boiled egg, but don’t let that turn you off from trying it, because the flavor has been described as everything from caramel to maple, sweet potato to pumpkin. I know, not what you normally expect from a fruit, and due to the consistency (I am a very tactile eater) I don’t want to jump right in with a spoon, but it is quite tasty added to smoothies, and in ice cream (on its own as a flavor or when mixed with vanilla.) Yum! And besides its unique flavor, it is full of vitamins and nutrients: calcium, Vitamin A (beta carotene), Vitamin B3, iron, and zinc. And as an added bonus?  It has fiber and antioxidants in it!

lucumaHow is it used as a sweetener?

When the flesh of the lucuma fruit is dried, then ground into a powder, it still contains all of those vitamins and nutrients, and because of the inherent fruit sweetness (fructose), it is still sweet when dried and ground.  It is a low glycemic index food, which means it adds the sweetness, but it does not have a huge impact on your bodies insulin levels (with a surge up then crash like sugar.) It is a different kind of sweet than straight sugar cane sugar, so it cane take some getting used to, but I quite enjoy the different flavor that it has, and if you are looking to cut out sugar from your diet but still have some sweet in your life, it is a great option!  And it is an option for diabetics too.  And you can use it in anything that you would normally sweeten: smoothies, ice cream, coffee/tea, and when baking!

These fruits can be hard to find outside of Peruvian/South American specialty stores, but if you are lucky enough to find one, give it a try.  And, you can find lucuma powder at any health food store and many organic stores.  Try it and let me know what you think!

Yours in Good Health

B

Canker Sores: How to prevent and treat them

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Everyone has suffered from a painful little oral lesion: the canker sore. These dreaded little lesions can pop up and cause some serious oral pain, and most often they appear out of nowhere and really put a damper on ingesting most foods and beverages for a few days (at least).  So, a little helpful info on these horrible ulcers to prevent them and how to treat them if you do get them.

What are canker sores?

They are little round or oval oral ulcers  with a white or yellow inside and a read border. They are also known as aphthous ulcers that are usually found on the soft tissues inside of your mouth (inside of lips, cheeks, tongue, base/roof of mouth), and they can cause a lot of pain when eating and drinking. They usually heal all on their own in a week or two, and they are not contagious to other people.  Canker sores are not the herpes simplex virus as some people tend to think.  If you have a canker sore that is really large or not healing, you should speak to your Healthcare Practitioner (HCP) about it, because they really should heal on their own, and if it’s not healing, it might not be a canker sore!

canker sore

 

What are the symptoms?

As stated above they are usually pretty small round ulcers that can have a white/yellow middle and are usually red around the border of the lesion and they are normally pretty painful.  Some people feel a tingle the day before they occur, but I must say, I don’t think I have every felt a tingle…I just feel the pain when they arrive.  There are some cankers known as major canker sores and they are much larger and deeper and can take up to 6 weeks to heal. And there are also cankers sores that can occur and they are in clusters of small little ulcers, and they make take three or four weeks to heal.  By far, the most common type of canker sore is the one I first described and are called minor cankers.

However, there are a few symptoms that you may have, and you should see your HCP about:

– Non-healing ulcers OR new ones occur before the others heal (constant cankers)

– Really large cankers

– Canker sores that spread onto the outside of your lips

– Extreme pain, causing you real discomfort, and causing difficulty eating/drinking

– If you have a fever or any other symptoms along with the canker sores

What can cause Canker sores?

– Highly acidic (like citrus) or spicy foods, a burn (from hot food), teeth grinding, or anything else that can cause swelling/inflammation

– Food allergies or sensitivities can lead to inflammation, then the sores can form

– Hormonal shifts (women, you may notice an increase in canker sores when you are about to menstruate. Another reason being a woman is awesome!)

– Emotional stress

– If you are immunosuppressed due to a chronic disease (such as HIV/AIDS) or are on medications to suppress your immune response, you may get more canker sores than most people.

– Also, people with certain chronic diseases are more at risk: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Chron’s disease, or Behcet’s disease.

How can I treat/prevent them?

So, know that we know what causes them, we can try to prevent some of the stuff that causes them, and/or preferably treat them!  Avoiding spicy foods or highly acidic foods (like citrusy foods) and sometimes adding folic acid, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and zinc can help these ulcers from occurring. But, once you have them, or know you are going to get one, especially if they are major canker sores, your HCP can order you for a mouthwash that has the steroid dexamethasone in it to help decrease the inflammation and aid with the pain, and in some cases they may also add an antibiotic rinse (depending on the suspected cause). You can create a mouthrinse of your own using water with a teaspoon of baking soda in it to ease the pain. You can use orajel, or other over the counter (OTC) oral pain relievers, or dab some Milk of Magnesia on it twice a day to seal the ulcer and to help with the pain and allow the ulcer to heal on its own. Some histamine-2 blockers, like pepcid, may help to prevent the inflammation and prevent the ulcers form occurring, if it is related to any sort of allergy or sensitivity, which means that you can also swish liquid Benadryl orally, as a mouth rinse, and it can help to ease the symptoms as well. And if you have recurrent canker sores that cause you trouble with eating and drinking, and nothing else works, they may cauterize (burn) the sore to help decrease healing time, but the procedure can be quite painful and is a very invasive treatment.

There are plenty of ways to ease the discomfort of these little ulcers, but if you eat something that tends to cause them, use one of the at home oral rinses (baking soda or benadryl) to help and prevent them from occuring.  And remember, if they are really large or not healing, you should get checked out by your HCP.

Yours in Good Health

B