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Myotonic Dystrophy Awareness: September 15th is myotonic dystrophy (DM) awareness day, so let’s take a dive into this topic and learn about myotonic dystrophy. Myotonic Dystrophy is also known as DM1 or DM2, proximal myotonic myopathy (PROMM), Steinert Disease, dystrophia myotonica types one and two.

Muscular Dystrophy is a group of medical conditions that affect the muscles of the body in various ways, depending on the sub-group of dystrophies. All of the muscular dystrophy types contribute negatively to health muscle development and maintenance. Most with muscular dystrophy will lose their ability to grow and/or maintain muscles that are required for activities of daily living.

This Saturday is the second Saturday in September, which means that it is World First Aid Day! First aid is an important life skill that everyone should have — how to help the sick or injured in an emergency. We’ll discuss first aid here briefly and talk about first aid kits. The Red Cross has a free first aid app that I encourage everyone I know to download so that they have it handy. You can download the app on your smartphone here.

As you could probably imagine, polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disorder that affects the kidneys by way of multiple cysts. Slowly, the cysts overtake healthy kidney tissue and can cause irreversible damage. As the tissue becomes damaged, kidneys lose their functionality and ability to filter waste from our blood. Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) can develop cysts on other internal organs, including the liver — another powerhouse of filtration for our bodies.

Let’s start off by defining what leukemia is. It is a cancer that affects the areas of our body in charge of producing blood cells, namely bone marrow and the lymphatic system. Often, it will involve white blood cells, which are our infection fighting cells. When leukemia is present, the amount of white blood cells may increase, but the quality of those cells are diminished, making the person prone to severe infections. Some types of leukemia can cause reduced platelets or reduced functionality of platelets, which can cause a person to be prone to bleeding disorders, which we will talk about here.

For adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 29, the number increases to 290 losses each year and is more frequent with young men. These losses are made up mostly of leukemia, brain and central nervous system cancers; and bone cancer. Most cancers in the young adult and adolescent age groups consist of cancers with good survivability rates if caught early, including thyroid cancers, testicular cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and melanoma.

September is Acne awareness month, which is important because it can affect your self confidence and it is something that people of all ages. Acne can be mild, moderate, or severe and can be caused by inadequate exfoliation, excess sebum production, hormones, fungal infections, or bacterial infections. The root cause can go even deeper — some people swear by certain diets to help them overcome their acne concerns.

Seasonal allergies tend to act up amidst warmer weather as pollen runs rampant and our lawns continue to be manicured, releasing allergens into the air. When our body comes into contact with an allergen, we release histamines and other pro-inflammatory mediators. The runny nose and water eyes you have are your body trying to rid itself of the allergens. The stuffy nose is from your mucous membranes becoming inflamed and swelling.

Sleep hygiene is loosely a term applied to behaviors and environmental factors that are used to help one fall asleep more quickly and sleep more effectively. Sleep is of course incredibly important for all people, but it is even more important for children as they do a lot of growing and developing.

the Comox Valley has two walk-in clinics and one urgent care clinic. If you find yourself in need of a non-emergent visit, you can go to either of the two walk-in clinics, but be prepared to go first thing in the morning so that you can reserve your spot in line. The wait time is incredibly long as the clinics are operating on a first-come-first serve basis and the doctors can only see 100 patients per day. The clinic will take your information and give you an estimated time of when you should return to the clinic.

Here is a quick list of things that may indicate that your hormones are out of whack: We will start off with the most well-known issue… mood swings. Mood swings can happen because our hormones are out of balance. This can be either directly due to the hormones or from the ripple effect from the hormones causing insomnia or poor sleep quality — most people are irritable if they are utterly exhausted. Imbalanced hormones can also cause a desire to eat foods that aren’t necessarily beneficial for us to eat