Jammed: Full into Capacity

You may have received an e-mail about an unusual way of delaying symptoms of a stroke patient by merely pricking his fingers. According to NY Times, e-mails containing this claim have been circulating recently, which might mislead people and result to delay of the treatment. The e-mail says:

“Help the victim sit up to prevent him from falling over,” the message states. “Then sterilize a needle and use it to prick the tip of the person’s finger. After a few minutes, the victim should regain consciousness.”

According to a Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of Duke Stroke Center, forcing a stroke victim to sit up is never a good idea because it can cause drop in blood pressure. In fact, the patient should be remained in a supine position.

Pricking the victim’s finger is also a bad idea, not only because it is futile, but because doing so can delay medical treatment, which is the only thing that can help.

A stroke patient should be treated promptly and without delay to avoid more threatening complications.

Thousands of messages containing fraudulent medical information spread in the internet through e-mails and websites. The sad truth is, they may have also mislead thousands of people. I was once told by one of our preceptors that internet information is never that reliable because most of these are not published. But we can avoid getting the wrong medical information from the internet if we know what to do.

1. Never believe in information contained chain letters. Chain letters are now becoming popular as an avenue of spreading misleading information. These “facts” stated in these letters have no scientific basis.

2. You can also do your part by not spreading it. Usually, these chain letters contain a conscience-bugging statement such as “You will greatly help the humanity if you are going to spread it.” Don’t be bothered by that. You might cause greater threat to the humanity if you spread them.

3. Evaluate the medical information you get over the web. Search more.

4. Read medical journals. Reading medical literature might be boring at some point becuase of the complicated terms it uses but these journals are well researched.

5. Know the author of the article. If you doubt the information he provided, you can contact him if there was address provided.

We are surrounded by frauds, that’s a fact. But we can always avoid being fooled, if know how. Education is the key to stop this misleading information. Read more and learn more!

[tags]Health, health articles, health tips, chain letters, chain e-mails, stroke[/tags]

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