Explosions and Blast Injuries A Primer for Clinicians

Explosions and Blast Injuries

A Primer for Clinicians

Key Concepts


Bombs and explosions can cause unique patterns of injury seldom seen outside combat.

•The predominant post explosion injuries among survivors involve standard penetrating and blunt trauma

.Blast lung is the most common fatal injury among initial survivors.

• Explosions in confined spaces (mines, buildings, or large vehicles) and/or structural collapse are with greater morbidity and mortality.


• Half of all initial casualties will seek medical care over a one-hour period. This can be useful to predict demand for care and resource needs.


Expect an “upside-down” triage - the most severely injured arrive after the less njured, who bypass EMS triage and go directly to the closest hospitals.


Background

Explosions can produce unique patterns of injury seldom seen outside combat.

When they do occur, they have the potential toinflict multi-system life-threatening injuries on many persons simultaneously. The injury patrns following such events are a product of the composition and amount of the materials involved, the surrounding environment, delivery method (if a bomb), the distance between the victim and the blast, and any intervening protective barriers environmental hazards. Because explosions are relatively infrequent, blast-related injuries can present unique triage, diagnostic, and management challenges to providers of emergency care.

Few U.S. health professionals have experience with explosive-related injuries. Vietnam era physicians are retiring, other armed conflicts have been short-lived, and until this past decade, the U.S. was largely spared of the scourge of mega-terrorist attacks. This primer introduces information relevant to the care of casualties from explosives and blast injuries. As the risk of terrorist attacks increases in the U.S., disaster response personnel must understand the unique pathophysiology of injuries associated with explosions and must be prepared to assess and treat the people injured by them.



https://www.cdc.gov/masstrauma/preparedness/primer.pdf

The Health Benefits of Thyme

Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine

What are the Health Benefits of Thyme?

Written by Christian NordqvistReviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, PhD, MSN, RN, IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT

Knowledge center

Last updated: Mon 7 November 2016 

 

---

Thyme is an herb with culinary, medicinal and ornamental uses. The flowers, leaves, and oil of thyme have been used to treat bedwetting, diarrhea, stomach ache, arthritis, colic, sore throat, cough, including whooping cough, bronchitis, flatulence, and as a diuretic, to increase urination.
Thyme is of the genus Thymus. The most common type is Thymus vulgaris.
It is native to the Mediterranean.

Contents of this article:

1. History of thyme
2. Forms of thyme
3. Possible health benefits of thyme

History of thyme

Thyme has been used for flavoring and medical purposes since ancient times.

In Ancient Egypt, thyme was used for embalming. The Ancient Greeks used it as an incense in temples, and they added it to bathwater.
The Romans used thyme as a flavoring for cheese and alcoholic beverages. They are also said to have offered it as a cure people for who were melancholic or shy. They are believed to have introduced it to the British Isles.
Hippocrates, who lived around 460BC to 370BC, and who is known today as "the father of Western medicine," recommended thyme for respiratory diseases and conditions. It was grown in gardens and gathered in the countryside.
When the Black Death swept across Europe in the 1340s, posies of thyme were worn for protection.
Scientific research does not support this use, but thyme has been shown to have a range of medicinal properties.

Forms of thyme

The fresh leaves of thyme can be used in teas and in cooking. They are sometimes placed between layers of linen, like lavender, to protect the fabric from insects.
The essential oil of thyme, usually referred to as "oil of thyme," contains between 20 percent and 60 percent thymol.
It is extracted for a range of uses, for example, for scenting soaps and as an ingredient in deodorant. It has been used as an antiseptic, and as an insect repellant. Thymol has been used in meat preservation, and it is often included in the oil used to preserve olives in the Mediterranean.
Unlike the fresh leaves, essential oil cannot be ingested and it should not be used directly on the skin. It should be diluted in a carrier oil, for example, olive oil.

Possible health benefits of thyme

Thymol is one of a naturally-occurring class of compounds known as biocides, substances that can destroy harmful organisms. Used alongside other biocides, such as carvacrol, thyme has a strong antimicrobial action.
One study has suggested that thymol can reduce bacterial resistance to common drugs such as penicillin.

The tiger mosquito

The tiger mosquito is native to tropical and subtropical areas of Southeast Asia. Since the 1990s, it has spread around the world, carrying West Nile virus, Yellow fever virus, St. Louis encephalitis, dengue fever, and Chikungunya fever.
A team at Chungbuk National University in South Korea reported that a combination of thymol, alpha-terpinene, and carvacrol was effective in killing off tiger mosquito larvae.

High blood pressure

Researchers at the University of Belgrade, in Serbia, found that an aqueous extract obtained from wild thyme reduced blood pressure in tests on rats. Rats tend to have similar responses to humans when they have hypertension, so the findings could have implications for humans.

Protecting from foodborne bacterial infections

Thyme is often used with olive oil to preserve olives.

A team at the Center for Studies of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in Portugal studied the antimicrobial activity of essential oils extracted from a range of aromatic plants, including thyme oil.
They reported that thyme oil, even at low concentrations, showed potential as a natural preservative of food products against several common foodborne bacteria that cause human illness.
A Polish study tested thyme oil and lavender oil, and they that observed thyme oil was effective against resistant strains of Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Escherichia and Pseudomonas bacteria.

Colon cancer

A study carried out in Lisbon, Portugal, found that extracts of mastic thyme may protect from colon cancers.

Breast cancer

Oncologist researchers Turkey looked at the effect of wild thyme on breast cancer activity, and specifically how it affected apoptosis, or cell death, and epigenetic events in breast cancer cells.
Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms that do not involve alterations in DNA sequence. They found that wild thyme induced cell death in breast cancer cells.

Yeast infection

The fungus Candida albicans is a common cause of mouth and vaginal yeast infections, a recurring condition often referred to as "thrush."
Researchers at the University of Turin, in Italy, found that essential oil of thyme significantly enhanced intracellular killing of C. albicans, which causes thrush, in the human body.

Prolonging the stability of cooking oils

Lipid oxidation is a serious problem during food processing and storage. It leads to losses of quality, stability, safety, and nutritional value.
Scientists from Warsaw, in Poland, carried looked at whether thyme extract might prolong the stability of sunflower oil at different temperatures. They suggest that thyme might be a potent antioxidant for stabilizing sunflower oil.

Common skin problems

Skin problems are common worldwide. In some countries, herbal preparations are an important form of medicine.

Thyme oil in an antifungal cream may help prevent eczema.

A team at Addis Ababa University, in Ethiopia, carried out a study to assess the therapeutic benefits of a 10 percent chamomile extract cream and a 3 percent thyme essential oil antifungal cream for eczema-like lesions.
They noted that 66.5 percent of those treated with a fungal cream containing thyme essential oil were completely healed, compared with 28.5 percent of those using a placebo.
Results for the chamomile cream were similar to those for the placebo. The researchers conclude, "A 3 percent thyme essential oil cream could represent a relatively economical and easily available opportunity to treat and heal mild to moderate cases of fungal infections," but they recommend further research.

Acne

Scientists from Leeds, in the U.K., tested the effects of myrrh, marigold, and thyme tinctures on the bacterium that causes acne. They found that thyme may be effective at treating acne.
Its antibacterial effect proved stronger than that of standard concentrations of benzoyl peroxide, the active ingredient used in most creams and washes that are recommended for acne. Benzoyl peroxide also causes a burning sensation and irritation on the skin.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies thyme essential oils as "generally recognized as safe for their intended use."
However, anyone planning to make a significant change to treatment for a health condition should first discuss this with a physician.

Written by Christian Nordqvist

 Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266016.php

Axl Rose has a larger vocal range than Mariah Carey And John Lennon could reach more notes than Elton John, Barry White or Bruce Spingsteen

Axl Rose has a larger vocal range than Mariah Carey
And John Lennon could reach more notes than Elton John, Barry White or Bruce Spingsteen

Mariah Carey (L) has a smaller vocal range than Axl Rose (R) Photo: REUTERS/GETTY







By Alice Vincent, Entertainment writer

12:17PM BST 22 May 2014





Mariah Carey has been known to introduce her band by singing at the pitch of their instruments. However, on record, her vocal range isn't as extensive as that of Axl Rose. The Guns N' Roses vocalist has sung notes that span nearly six octaves, from F1 (in There Was a Time), in the second-lowest octave in scientific pitch notation, to B flat 6 (Ain't it Fun), five octaves above it. Rose has a lower baritone than Barry White, and can reach higher notes than Tina Turner and Beyoncé.


Carey, meanwhile, has managed to span the marginally smaller gap between F2 and G7 in tracks Sweetheart, in which her lowest note was recorded and Emotions, which saw her highest.


Prince comes in a close third, after reaching B6 on Daddy pop and the lows of E2 on Daddy Pop, and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler just beats James Brown to fourth place.


The full ranking of 77 musicians taken from Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list and some nominees from this year's Billboard Music Awards has been put together by Concerthotels.com and can be seen below.


The data was gathered by The Range Place, a forum for vocal ability and based on the music recorded in the studio by these artists, rather than live.

The Vocal Ranges of the Greatest Singers. From Mariah Carey's ear-piercing whistle to Barry White's deep bassy growl, compare the vocal ranges of today's top artists with the greatest of all time. (via ConcertHotels.com).

Paul McCartney, David Bowie and John Lennon rank better for range than contemporary divas such as Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, who has a smaller range than Nina Simone and Jim Morrison. U2 vocalist Bono beats both. While Queen's vocally gymnastic former frontman Freddie Mercury had a better range than Elton John, Tina Turner and Bruce Spingsteen, Radiohead and Atoms For Peace singer Thom Yorke has a greater range than all of them.

Six of the top 10 vocalists who reached the highest notes were men (Prince in third place, Rose in fourth, Tyler in sixth, followed by James Brown, Yorke and Mercury), however this could be due to the gender bias in the 100 Greatest Singers list. Carey has sung the highest notes on record, the aforementioned G7, and Christina Aguilera's C sharp 7, recorded in The Christmas Song is in second place.

At the other end of the scale, Rose, White and Bowie take a close run in first, second and third place, reaching F1, F sharp 1 and G1 respectively. The woman with the lowest voice on record is Nina Simone, who recorded an E2 on Ne Me Quitte Pas, the same lowest note of 13 musicians on the list, including Prince, Mick Jagger, Van Morrison and Roy Orbison.

The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks

The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks

In 1951, a young mother of five named Henrietta Lacks visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Upon examination, renowned gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones discovered a large, malignant tumor on her cervix. At the time, The Johns Hopkins Hospital was one of only a few hospitals to treat poor African-Americans.
As medical records show, Mrs. Lacks began undergoing radium treatments for her cervical cancer. This was the best medical treatment available at the time for this terrible disease. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey's nearby tissue lab. For years, Dr. Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all patients who came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in Dr. Gey’s lab. What he would soon discover was that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
Today, these incredible cells— nicknamed "HeLa" cells, from the first two letters of her first and last names — are used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio vaccine.
Although Mrs. Lacks ultimately passed away on October 4, 1951, at the age of 31, her cells continue to impact the world.

https://youtu.be/SPLSp7Tf3bw 

To honor the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, this video highlights her impact on biomedical research and the efforts of Johns Hopkins Medicine to pay homage to her legacy. Learn more at: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henrie..

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who underwent treatment for an aggressive form of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Despite receiving a high standard of medical treatment, Mrs. Lacks ultimately succumbed to this cancer at the young age of 31. However, her extraordinary cells—called “HeLa” from the first two letters of her first and last names—continued to reproduce in the laboratory. This was the first time in history that a human cell line was able to be reproduced in a laboratory setting; and it gave medical researchers the opportunity to improve the human condition by allowing them to better understand, treat, and prevent a wide range of diseases, including the development of the polio vaccine, cancer treatment protocols, AIDS research, and much more.

Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henriettalacks/index.html