Saturday, July 20, 2013

Chadwick's Sign (or why your cervix might be blue)

Sore boobs, nausea, mood swings, fatigue - no, these are not lyrics to a clever rap song (that I'm aware of), rather these are classic symptoms of early pregnancy. If you have these symptoms, possess functional female reproductive organs, and have had vaginal intercourse with a sperm-bearing partner in the recent past, you could always pee on a stick to find out if there is an embryo inhabiting your uterus. But, wait, there's another early pregnancy indicator that you might not be aware of: Chadwick's sign!

Under usual circumstances, the cervix is pink (cervical pink, now there's a new crayon color just waiting to be invented). With pregnancy, blood flow to the uterus dramatically increases, resulting in the cervix developing a bluish tint. This color change is referred to as Chadwick's sign, which can appear as soon as 6 weeks after conception . Ok, ok, so maybe this is not the most convenient way to gauge whether you might be pregnant, unless you are hypermobile, or have an exceptionally curious partner, but still, it's quite fascinating. Plus, cervical self-exams are completely possible (more info available at: http://www.beautifulcervix.com/participate/).

A woman's total blood volume actually increases 30-50% during pregnancy, so it's no wonder that this can make your cervix a little blue.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Normal Blood Pressure: It's Vital


You can't get through a trip to the doctor without having a blood pressure cuff wrapped around your arm. It doesn't matter if you were at the same office three days ago or if you are coming in for an obvious case of poison ivy - your arm will not be escaping the cuff. Someone will slap that sucker around your biceps, pump it up to give you a nice squeeze, mysteriously listen to your elbow through their stethoscope (it's weird when you think about it), and then mutter some numbers that may or may not be good. If you're lucky, you'll hear something to the effect of: "118 over 72".

Everyone knows that a normal blood pressure is essential to being healthy, but what exactly is blood pressure? What do those numbers actually tell us? Why is blood pressure important enough to be a VITAL sign? Why does everyone freak out when the numbers start to creep up, even slightly? And why, oh why, is high blood pressure associated with so many terrible things (heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, death... you know, those kinds of terrible things). 

To appreciate the importance of blood pressure, we must first understand: 1) pressure and 2) what happens in your body during a single heart beat. Don't be intimidated and stop reading. This isn't going to include crazy diagrams or calculations (it could but that's already been done). 
  • Pressure: this is a word we all use and understand, but let's dissect (pun gleefully intended) the meaning as it relates to blood pressure. Pressure, in the world of physics, is a calculation based on the amount of force that is being exerted on a given area. Your blood pressure is the amount of force applied to the walls of your arteries as blood flows through them. Why two numbers? Let's talk about your heartbeat first...
  • When your heart beats, it contracts, pumping blood out of your heart to circulate throughout your body. During the fraction of a second between heartbeats, your heart is relaxed and refilling with blood.The contraction phase of the heartbeat is referred to as systole and the relaxation phase is termed diastole. Hence, your systolic blood pressure (top number) is the pressure exerted on your artery walls when your heart is contracting. Your diastolic pressure (bottom number) measures the pressure while your heart is relaxed.
Now that you understand what blood pressure is measuring, it probably makes intuitive sense why high blood pressure (also called hypertension) can be so damaging to your body. First of all, if your blood pressure is too high, it is causing your heart to work harder than normal. Second, the increased pressure can damage your blood vessels and to organs such as your kidneys. Damage caused to your blood vessels can include tears, which are prime areas for build up of plaque, thus causing narrowing of the vessels, in turn leading to stroke or heart attack. High blood pressure can even lead to rupture of blood vessels, as occurs in an aneurysm (basically the pressure can cause an artery to explode... BAD NEWS). 

Unlike low blood pressure, which is symptomatic (dizziness, fainting, etc), high blood pressure is usually asymptomatic until it causes one of the aforementioned terrible things to happen. This is why it is incredibly important for high blood pressure to be treated as soon as possible. Click here for more information on prevention and treatment of high blood pressure. 

So, next time you get your blood pressure measured, don't think "oh not this again" but be grateful for the opportunity to catch high blood pressure before it gets out of control. It's vital!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Dental Floss: Your Daily Biofilm Demolition

We've all heard that flossing should be part of our daily oral hygiene routine, but why?? Less than half of us (in the U.S.) actually follow this recommendation. I suspect* it has something to do with the following:

1) Flossing is fundamentally strange and appears to be more an act of masochism than one of self-care. If a dentist were to describe flossing to someone unfamiliar with the practice it would go something like this: "Now, I want you to take this string and force it between your teeth. Then slide it all the way up into the space between your gum and tooth. Don't worry if you have a mouth full of blood, that will go away after you get used to it. Repeat that for every tooth in your mouth" Ummm, that's supposed to be good for me?

2)  Flossing, from the perspective of the human eye, offers little instant gratification. On occasion, a visible food particle might get removed but mostly there isn't much to see. Should you skip a day, or even a week of flossing, you likely won't notice any difference. Fail to brush your teeth and you'll have retched breath. Skip bathing and soon you'll be oily and stinky. But hey, nobody has to know that you were tired and skipped flossing last night, right? And then you skipped the night after, and the night after...

As you can probably guess, this post is not about why you should never floss. Here's the deal: flossing is actually incredibly important but its daily impact occurs on the microscopic level. With an understanding of this impact, you may learn to appreciate the power of dental floss.

We all have mouths full of bacteria - some are helpful and others can lead to the development of cavities, gum disease, and other oral health maladies. Our teeth are prime real estate for the formation of biofilms, which are communities of bacteria that adhere to surfaces and surround themselves with tough, protective matrices. Just like other organisms, bacteria find safety in numbers and are able to accomplish greater feats as a team than on their own. On a daily basis, biofilms begin to form on your teeth within minutes after brushing. Go ahead, feel your teeth right now - notice that slimy quality they have? That, my friend, is a biofilm referred to as dental plaque. The longer these bacterial communities are left undisturbed, the tougher they become. When we brush, the biofilm foundations are damaged and the bacteria are prevented from advancing too far in their building efforts (do you really want bacteria building sky scrapers and condos on your teeth?). There are crevices in your mouth that a toothbrush can't reach, such as between your gum line. Though you can't see this with your naked eye, flossing is like a dynamite explosion to the plaque taking up residence between your teeth and gums. Without this daily demolition, plaque continues to build up and eventually hardens into dental tartar (also called calculus, but not the kind you learn in math class), which can only be removed by the scraping of  professional dental instruments (a far more terrible and awkward experience than flossing). If not removed, dental plaque and tartar can contribute to a wide array of periodontal disease, not to mention an unsightly and malodorous smile.

There you have it, the truth behind why you really should slide that string between your teeth every day.

*This suspicion is based purely on my personal reflections and observations and is not (to my knowledge) backed by a reputable source of scientific data. If someone would like to turn this into a testable hypothesis, please be my guest.