“National Burn Awareness Week is a window of opportunity for organizations to mobilize burn, fire, and life safety educators to unite in sharing a common burn awareness and prevention message in our communities. On July 13, the House Appropriations Committee approved its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 defense appropriations bill, which provides $10 million in continued annual funding for the Military Burn Research Program. The American Burn Association (ABA), by joint recommendation of the Committees on Burn Prevention and Government Affairs, developed statements to educate the public on the importance of preventing burn injuries and deaths resulting in various ways from military to home oxygen and medical services (oxygen to medical fluids).”

American Burn Association (https://ameriburn.org/advocacy-and-prevention/advocacy/)

This week is National Burn Awareness Week (NBAW) – which is an excellent opportunity to increase burn awareness and prevent fires from occurring! During NBAW, want to bring attention to fire safety and prevention to help lower the number of burn injuries.

Burn Injuries

Approximately every minute, someone in the United States endures a burn injury severe enough to require treatment. Lionel Crowther is one of the many firefighters who was injured while on duty. Crowther responded to what seemed to be a routine garage fire, but within minutes, a flashover occurred. When the fire was cleared, two fire captains had been killed, and Crowther was among four severely injured firefighters.

Prevention

Unfortunately, Crowther’s story is not uncommon, but with an increased awareness of fire safety and prevention, we can lower the number of fire-related injuries and deaths together. NBAW is the perfect time to learn more about fire prevention and what you can do to prevent and prepare for a home fire.

• Smoke Alarms: Did you know that three of every five fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no working smoke alarms? Smoke alarms that are properly installed and maintained play a key role in reducing fire deaths and injuries. They should be installed on every floor and in every sleeping room. Be sure to test them once a month and replace the batteries at least once a year.
• Fire Extinguishers: It is also important to have at least one fire extinguisher on every level, especially in the kitchen. In many cases, fire extinguishers are the first line of defense and often contain or extinguish a fire.
• Escape Routes: Ensure that every room has at least two escape routes in case of a home fire. You may need to purchase escape ladders, especially for second story rooms. Escape ladders are not required by law, but they could be beneficial in case of a house fire. Once you establish escape routes, practice at least twice a year.
• Teach: It is essential to teach the whole family about fire safety and what to do in case of an emergency. This includes making an emergency communications plan, knowing where to meet up outside, and making sure everyone knows how to call 9-1-1.

“CDC states

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.¹
• One person dies every 33 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.¹
• About 695,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2021—that’s 1 in every 5 deaths.^1,2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm)

The heart is like the engine to a car but for us it’s the “pump” for the human body; without the engine the car won’t run and without the pump we won’t live. The normal size of the heart is about the size of your fist, maybe a little bigger. It pumps blood continuously through your entire circulatory system. The heart consists of four chambers, 2 on the right and 2 on the left. The right side only pumps high carbon dioxide levels of blood, after all the oxygen was used by the tissues and returns to the heart in the right upper chamber and leaves to the lung from the right lower chamber. From the lungs it than goes to the left side of the heart now, which is a very short distance as opposed to where the left side pumps the blood. The L side of the heart pumps blood to the feet, brain and all tissues in between with high oxygen levels of blood.   This is why the L side of the heart does more work than the R side since the blood leaving the L side has a longer distance in distributing oxygen. The heart pumps the blood with high oxygen blood levels to reach all your tissues and cells, going to the feet, brain, and to all other tissues in between returning home again to the right side of the heart (upper chamber) to get sent to the lungs again for more oxygen. This is why the muscle on the L side of the heart is larger than the right, it works harder. Every time your heart beats (the sound we call lub dub) the organ is sending out a cardiac output of blood either to the lungs for more oxygen or to the body tissues through the aorta to give oxygenated blood to your tissues and cells. This is the mechanics of how the heart works in our body.

Let’s see what can occur if the heart doesn’t function properly. If your heart is not pumping out a sufficient amount in your cardiac output to either the lungs (from rt. Side) or to the tissues (from the lt. side) than it tries to work harder where it does ok at first but over time weakens. As this weak heart struggles to pump blood the muscle fibers of the heart stretch. Over time, this stretching leaves the heart with larger, weaker chambers. The heart enlarges (cardiomegaly).   If this continues to go on this could go into R or L sided heart failure. When this happens, blood that should be pumped out of the heart backs up in the lungs (L sided failure) or in the tissues (R sided failure). The side the failure is on doesn’t allow proper filling of the chambers on that side and back up happens; so if on the L the fluids back up in the lungs or the R the fluids first back up in the veins which can expand to hold extra blood but at some point dump the extra fluids in your tissues (This is edema in feet first due to gravity).   This is all due to overloading of the blood not filling up in the chambers of the heart to make a good cardiac output of blood and in time the fluid backs up (bad pumping=backup of blood=fluid overload in the lungs (pulmonary congestion) to fluid staying in the skin (first the lower extremities due to gravity=feet which we call edema working its way up the legs.). This condition in time with no treatment will go into congestive heart failure (CHF) to the other side of the heart if not controlled. CHF can range from mild to severe. There is 670,000 cases are diagnosed with this every year and is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 y/o. Causes of CHF are: heart attack, CAD (coronary artery disease), cardiomyopathy, conditions that overwork the heart like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity (These diseases can be completely preventable or at least well controlled).

There is many of us in this world with knowing how our activity/exercise, eating, and habits could be better for health but do little action if any on our own to change it, which is a large part for certain diseases being so high in America (diabetes, stroke, cardiac diseases=high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis to CHF and more). If people were more healthier and more active regarding these diseases alone it would decrease in population creating a positive impact on how our health system with insurance presently (a disaster) with our economy for many could get better. A healthy heart can pump to all parts of the body in a few seconds which is good cardiac output from the organ but when it gets hard for the heart to keep up with its regular routine it first compensates to eventually it decompensates causing ischemia (lack of oxygen to the heart tissue). It’s like any tissue in the body, lack of oxygen=lack of nutrients to the body tissue=STARVATION and with lack of oxygen will come PAIN eventually to death if not treated. Take the heart, if it isn’t getting enough oxygen it can go into angina. That is reversible since it is heart pain due to not enough oxygen to the heart tissue=no damage but if left untreated what will occur is a heart attack=myocardial infarction (MI) and is permanent damage because scarring to the heart tissue takes place that is permanent damage to that area of the heart for life.

Let’s understand what happens to the heart when the organ can become diseased due to bad health habits. If you are eating too much for too long that consist of  foods high in sodium your vessels will narrow in size. By allowing this you increase the pressure in the vessels that increases your blood pressure called hypertension. If you are also inactive you are at risk of obesity which puts stress on the heart and in time causing high B/P. Constantly be in a high B/P and this could cause the vessel to rupture (at the heart=possible heart attack, at the brain=possible stroke, also called CVA with both on high occurrences in our population of the US.).   With bad habits (especially poor diet, inactive, and smoking) you can cause over time atherosclerosis=a blockage in the artery with the resolution surgery (from a cardiac catheterization up your groin or having difficulty in the arm to the heart where an angiogram to an angioplasty with possibly a stent is performed or if the blockage to blockages is so bad a CABG=coronary artery bypass=a 6hr plus operation where diversion of a vein from your leg (donor graft site) around the blockage is done. Smoking can lead to this but it also can cause your vessels to become brittle=arteriosclerosis. Healthy Habits would impact a positive result for all people who have had this diagnosis before but most important be a great PREVENTATIVE measure for people not diagnosed with cardiac disease.  There are 4 things you have no control over heredity, age, sex, and race but healthy habits are sure to benefit you by keeping the odds down of you inheriting, help your age factor, and race a lot can be associated with eating cultural habits.

If you make the decision to live a life that’s healthy for your heart through proper eating, doing healthy habits and doing some exercise or activity with balancing rest in your busy schedule and would like direction or want to expand your diet/exercise/healthy habits then your taking the right step.

Wouldn’t you want less chance of heart disease or obesity or diabetes for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations?  Let’s build a stronger foundation regarding HEALTH in America.

“Metabolism refers to the bodily process of extracting energy from food. Diabetes affects metabolism by reducing insulin levels. This in turn prevents the body from storing the energy it gets from food for later use=storage fat increases.”

Medical News Today (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/diabetes-and-metabolism)

When you eat a meal let’s say breakfast (fasting from the night before) your sugar level in a normal person is about 80.  After the meal in 1hr the sugar level starts peaking as soon as the pancreas senses glucose it starts releasing insulin that does its storage in the different ways previously discussed and by 2 hrs after the meal the glucose level is down again but in people eating 3 large hyperglycemic meals a day you cause these spikes in your glucose levels and are turning on insulin by the pancreas which stimulates up your FAT STORAGE system.  You need to make a change in that diet by eating 6 small low glycemic meals a day (have one meal every 2 to 3 hours).   This shuts down your fat storage.  When eating low glycemic foods like lentils they raise sugar in the body 28% (slightly) as opposed to high glycemic (sugar) foods like pizza, soda, bread, cornflakes.  Your body can handle high glycemic foods occasionally but not daily since it will allow constant high levels of glucose with the pancreas stimulated to frequently release insulin into the bloodstream and this turns on fat storage and converts all extra energy to Fat.   

This extra energy is because the meal was high glucose and what the body needed was used but the excess glucose from the high glycemic meals goes to FAT storage and increases your weight especially if your inactive on a daily basis not including your job unless your a contractor who is on his feet 90 percent of the day.  So what’s the key resolution to weight loss eat 6 low glycemic meals a day= low fat, low carbohydrates, low sugar keeping your baseline glucose at a steady and low sugar level on a regular basis with still treating yourself to occasional high glycemic meals.  Follow this plan and in the first week eating like this I lost 5lbs and in the second week another 5lbs and since 1 to 2 lbs. per week .  Remember don’t start occasional high glycemic meals till you reach your ideal weight that you want to be at.  If you don’t, you put your diet 2-3 days back.

“Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, is important for the regulation of carbohydrates and the metabolism of fat. Insulin stimulates glucose (sugar) uptake from the blood in tissues such as muscles, the liver and fat. This is an important process to make sure that energy is available for everyday functioning and to maintain normal levels of circulating glucose.

In a person who is obese, insulin signals are sometimes lost and tissues are no longer able to control glucose levels. This can lead to the development of type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Body fat distribution plays an important role in the development of obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke and some forms of arthritis. Fat around our abdomen is a higher risk factor for disease than fat stored on our bottom, hips and thighs.”

Better Health Channel (https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/obesity-and-hormones)

The foods we eat that has calories=sugar, starches and carbohydrates are made up of sugar molecules either single or in groups (glucose and fructose for instance).  When food reaches our stomach in time digestion starts to take place where the sugar is broken down in the stomach and the intestines  into individual glucose units.  It turns out glucose is the most common and important one.  The glucose then passes into the liver where 60 to 80 % gets stored=inactive glucose that’s converted to glycogen in this organ.

The remainder of glucose not stored in the liver goes in our bloodstream=active sugar & is ready to be utilized by the body where it is needed by many organs.  It’s used as the principle source of energy (brain for energy, the muscles for both energy and some storage, liver for more glucose storage=that’s converted to glycogen, and even fat tissue using it for triglyceride production).  Glucose does get sent to other organs for more storage.

Insulin plays an important role in the glucose being distributed throughout the body.  Without insulin the glucose would not pass through your blood cells to go in the the cell otherwise it would go nowhere causing the glucose to build up outside the cell which happens in a diabetic and the primary problem of diabetes=hyperglycemia.  When the glucose goes in the cell hyperglycemia does not happen unless it is due to something else causing high glucose; like a drug such as dexamethasone or glucocorticoids.

When digestion occurs a process happens which is the BREAKDOWN of the sugars , released into the circulatory system which gives you extra glucose, than the pancreas senses that and releases insulin, the insulin allows sugar to pass into the blood cells & to be stored somewhere or utilized by the body (without this process hyperglycemia would occur like in a diabetic).   When the glucose in the blood reaches the liver a cell sensor picks it up and allows the glucose to go into the organ where glucose is stored as glycogen=inactive glucose.  Insulin plays a key role in multiple parts of your metabolism.  Insulin allows protein synthesis, fat synthesis and cell growth to occur in the body.  Now understanding how the body works lets understand how this has anything to do with controlling obesity. Learn about this in Part 2 tomorrow.