- If I come up to a person and they're lying down
and I realize that they don't have pulses,
I should immediately start doing CPR.
A lot of people tell you to do them to the beat
of "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees
so imagine like really pumping on somebody's chest singing
♪ Ah ah ah ah staying alive ♪
[cheerful instrumental music]
Hey, I'm Dr. Italo Brown, emergency physician
in Palo Alto, California.
Today we're gonna try to debunk some of the myths
about your health and some of the things
that you've been using on a day to day basis
that might not be so good.
You can't die from a broken heart.
Broken heart syndrome is real.
You could actually die [heart thumps]
from a broken heart.
We got a really nifty Japanese name for it
called takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
The word takotsubo is describing a pot, like a octopus pot.
The heart takes on the shape of that octopus pot.
In these situations where you have intense feelings,
you have stress that is applied instantaneously.
So imagine answering the phone to find out
that a loved one has passed.
It can cause somebody's heart to actually change shape.
The ventricles, or the part that forces blood
around the body can bulb out like a balloon,
and we call that apical ballooning.
When that heart starts to change shapes,
it can lead to something that's not common
or native to the heart,
and that can lead to sudden death.
We tend to follow the same regimen
that we would follow for someone who comes in
with other chest pain-like features,
specifically severe chest pains.
Anyone who has an emotional response, who is sentient,
has the capacity to have this issue.
You should put butter on a burn.
You should definitely not put butter on a burn.
We're not baking bread.
It's probably one of the worst things to put on a burn.
In most pre-hospital management of burns,
we do not recommend using any creams, any lotions,
whatever else is in your refrigerator,
so not put that on a burn.
Those chemicals can actually worsen the surface
that is burned.
The most severe burns that I worry about are ones
that happen to the areas of the face, the hands, the groin.
These burns can potentially damage a lot
of other underlying function
and can lead to long-term dysfunction.
So if that happens,
come to the emergency department immediately.
Depending on the surface area covered,
a burn wound can actually draw water from the body
and leave you dehydrated
so it's important to have adequate hydration,
which is why we admit a lot of folks
who have complicated burns of second degree
or third degree nature.
The most common thing that we say do
is put it under cold water,
and then try to isolate that injury.
Cracking your knuckles is bad.
Cracking your knuckles doesn't necessarily lead to
any bad outcomes.
Most of us where told this as kids
because it was just annoying.
It didn't have anything to do
with the real medical element to it.
The sound that we hear though,
[knuckle cracks]
is something that frightens people or is awkward.
We're usually thinking that that's bone on bone action
when in factuality, it's about the fluid
in between the joints.
So synovial fluid helps to lubricate those joints.
When we crack our knuckles, it's really just an air pocket
being burst and that's what the sound is.
Most folks believe that putting pressure on joints
or consistently cracking these joints will lead to
some form of arthritis,
and that's not necessarily true.
We understand that arthritis is usually a condition
that develops over time,
and whether you crack your knuckles or not,
it can still happen.
When you start to crack other parts of the body and joints,
some of them actually are super relieving.
You know, cracking a hip, that might make someone feel
extremely better and move around a little bit more agile.
When cracking is accompanied by pain,
that may be an indicator to go see your normal physician
and then, in some cases, it may even require an orthopedist
or physical therapy.
I typically don't recommend cracking your neck
because if you're pushing your neck beyond
its normal range of motion,
you might be stretching blood vessels
that are surrounding that and cause a rupture that way.
So it's not so much the cracking sound but it's the motion
and the exertion of force
that can lead to a secondary issue.
I would recommend just stretching
and, you know, crack your knuckles.
Sometimes, you know, you need that. [laughs]
CPR is effective if someone flatlines.
CPR is an extremely useful procedure.
It's part of basic life support.
I think that it's extremely valuable for people to know
how to do basic life support, particularly compressions,
because of all the things that we know,
this actually saves lives.
Flatlining is an absence of cardiac activity
when you look at a cardiac monitor.
[monitor beeps] Most people describe it as
that sound boop with the flatline across.
We're talking about the actual heart electrical activity.
Like CPR is an entire process,
whereas what we're discussing specifically
are chest compressions.
That's the hand over hand applying force
to the external portion of the body to create
that force to drive blood around.
Doing that, compressions, adding ventilation,
or breathing in somebody's mouth or using a breathing aid
to apply oxygen to the lungs,
and then doing this in succession
to eventually bring someone back
or regain pulses, regain cardiac activity.
If I come up to a person and they're lying down
and I realize that they don't have pulses
I should immediately start doing CPR.
And these compressions are supposed to be
about two inches deep and are supposed to be fast,
like rapid compressions.
So I almost expect, in that first compression,
to break through ribs
because you need to create enough force to push blood flow
around the entire body.
A lot of people tell you to do them to the beat
of "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees.
So imagine like really pumping on somebody's chest singing
♪ Ah ah ah ah staying alive ♪
That's pretty much what we do.
Someone who is trained as a first responder
or who has received basic life support training
can initiate CPR.
CPR, when done properly, can actually resuscitate people.
Tilting your head back will stop a nosebleed.
So most people instinctively think to lean their head back
as if their like trying to use gravity to keep the blood
from going down their nose,
but really it's pulling it down the back part of the nose,
the nasopharynx, and that directly connects to your airway
so if the bleeding is so profuse or so brisk
that it's filling up the mouth,
it can compromise your breathing.
That's dangerous.
So we typically tell people to lean forward
and pinch their nose really hard.
With most bleeding, the goal is to apply pressure
to the direct side the bleed.
And because you can't reach into the nose
and actually like tack down the artery,
we usually recommend grabbing the cartilaginous
or the cartilage portion of the nose instead of the bridge.
There are different reasons why nosebleeds can occur.
The most common reason is direct trauma
or irritation of some part of the membranes inside the nose.
So there are like small capillaries there that can rupture.
The main goal is does the bleeding stop
by just applying pressure?
It's completely manageable at home,
however if you start to have like worsening symptoms
like repeat or recurrent bleeds, lightheadedness, dizziness,
if the bleeding is extremely quick,
you need to get in a car and go to the emergency department,
but don't tilt your head back in the car. [laughs]
A migraine is just a bad headache.
This is not necessarily false
but it's poor understanding of the difference
between migraines and headaches.
So when we think about headaches in general,
this is tension in the head,
it can be something that is pounding or pulsatile.
The difference with a migraine, though, is...
So we're talking about multiple hours to days
of unrelenting pain.
The main characteristic is that
this is extremely painful and debilitating.
It stops your normal function of activities,
which is why we treat them so seriously.
When you talk about migraines,
you can have a simple migraine or a complex migraine.
We usually think about complex migraines as having an aura
or other features that are more sensotory to them
besides just the pain element.
You might feel dizziness,
you might feel ringing
in the ears, [bell rings]
or some visual changes, blurry vision.
These things come with complex migraines,
and it can be extremely debilitating.
So if you're at home and you start to feel that migraine
build up a little bit,
I usually recommend that someone goes to a very quiet space
in their home, turn off all the lights,
take their standard medications, and drink some water.
Sometimes caffeine helps.
So people will drink a tall cup of coffee
to help abate some of those symptoms.
Those are simple things that you can do at home
to try to treat a migraine.
But if it ever lasts longer than four to six hours
after you do this, or several days of you trying
these preventative measures, come see us.
Vaping is safe.
This is 100% false.
Vaping is not safe.
We know that vaping is a trendy thing now
that people are doing.
This is electronic cigarettes.
Usually it's got some type of a cartridge
with nicotine as a product mixed in with other products
and compounds so that you can aerosolize it and inhale.
We started to realize that it is so extremely harmful
that it can lead to long hospital admissions and ICU stays.
One of the things that people have traced
the particular hazards of vaping to is vitamin E.
A lot of these compounds that people are putting in
to the cartridge and fluid of a vaping pen
haven't been studied well.
That vitamin E compound has been known to destroy
the small air pockets of the lung know alveoli.
This is where the harm starts.
We call that acute lung injury.
We know that this leads to people having
severe lung dysfunction.
We understand that it also ruins the lung's ability
to actually grab oxygen from the bloodstream
because of that material that's coating the alveoli.
Most people switch from tobacco to this product
because they find that they wanna be less likely to have
lung cancer but still need nicotine
because there is an addiction to nicotine.
That is why it was initially thought as
a harm reduction measure.
It actually increases the type of harm that you can have.
It just shifts it over from one type to another.
'Cause if you do have nicotine addiction
and you need help stopping that particular craving,
there are so many programs that will work with you
to figure out like do you need just counseling?
Is there a need for a medication assistance or patches?
These are known ways to curve the appetite of nicotine.
I don't recommend vaping.
I think that it's harmful.
It think that it is a habit that can lead to someone
losing their life or their ability to breathe freely.
So put the pens down, y'all.
Vicks VapoRub can be used anywhere on the body.
These mentholated topical ointments cannot be used
in every location in the body,
specifically they cannot be ingested.
If you even look at one of the canisters,
it has a warning label that says,
"Do not swallow this."
I know this because I've watched my grandfather,
he used to swallow a nice little dab of Vicks,
as well as rub it all over his chest
and underneath his nose.
He said it helped him fight a cold.
Well, now that I'm a ER physician,
I've heard those same stories,
but they don't always end the same way.
So I don't recommend using Vicks VapoRub in other locations
than already designated by the manufacturers.
I also don't recommend ingesting anything that has
the toxic property camphor.
That's the key element.
You have to read the labels.
Just put it on your chest.
Walk around smelling like you're 78 years old.
It's fine.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
This is one of the most ridiculous things
I've ever heard. [laughs]
If it were that easy to keep doctors away,
I promise you apples wouldn't cost 59 cents,
they'd be far more expensive.
If you're just literally basing it on a Granny Smith apple,
I'm a tell you right now that's not gonna work.
The only thing that I can think of right off the bat
that you can do daily that helps your immune system
is to eat a well-rounded meal,
and that goes for children all the way through older adults.
All the necessary nutrients,
you have all your macromolecules in it,
some serving of fruits, vegetables,
maybe a little bit of grain, some form of protein,
something that's going to give you the building blocks
that your body needs to do the processes through the day
to keep you moving.
[cheerful instrumental music]
I'm Dr. Italo Brown just reminding you guys
take your health seriously.
Be careful about the information
that you hear floating around.
If it sounds weird, if it has some type of odd
little story to it,
chances are it might not be true.
We only have one body.
It's important to know what you put on your body
and in your body.
Let's go ahead and talk to our doctors
and have a good conversation with them,
and you do everything in your power to stay informed.