Medical Minutes

Around here, we take care of our own. We look out for our families, and help our neighbors. So when we saw a way to make our healthcare even better, we all pitched in to do what none of us could accomplish alone. With lots of hard work and ingenuity, everyone in our community – doctors, business leaders, all of us in Bannock County – came together to create new partnerships to help us reach our potential for high-quality care.

Every woman has a different script for her hormones during the perimenopausal years. In fact, your hormones could be doing a number of different things in the years leading up to menopause. Fluctuating hormones often bring about a host of short-term physical symptoms including bloating, irritability, mood swings, lethargy, food cravings, headaches, anxiety, increased stress and more. The good news, once a woman reaches menopause, hormones tend to stabilize. However, in the years leading up to menopause, many women experience a few bumps in the hormonal journey.

Sooner or later, you or someone you know will probably suffer from a heart rhythm abnormality.  Any abnormal heart rate or change from your normal heart rhythm pattern is referred to as an arrhythmia, a problem in the electrical system in the heart.

Most people agree that men and women have many differences. While these differences are often depicted in movies and books through a comedic lens, there is one difference between men and women that is far from funny – the symptoms of heart disease and heart attacks. Not knowing the different ways a heart attack can present in women may cost a life, perhaps your own.

Those unsightly, swollen, bulging and overly visible red and blue veins in the legs that make people uncomfortable about wearing shorts are not necessarily a cosmetic issue. Varicose veins and the less protruding spider veins are very common circulatory conditions. About 50 percent of people aged 50 and older have varicose veins.

Heart disease kills more women than any other disease. In fact, almost 5 times as many women die from heart attacks each year than die from breast cancer. In 2010, 1 in 30 female deaths was from breast cancer, 1 in 6 from heart disease. It is estimated that 345,000 women will have a heart attack this year.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related visits to the emergency departments in the US. According the National Safety Council, falls account for over 8 million emergency visits each year. Statistically, nearly 65 percent of falls happen at ground level, not from an elevation such as a ladder or step stool. Common causes of slip and trip related falls include walking on wet or icy surfaces; loose rug and mats; objects left in pathways, cords, open bottom drawers, obstructed views, uneven walking surfaces, inadequate lighting and weather hazards.