SofLens Daily Disposables Lenses For Sensitive Eyes

Monday, June 29, 2009 19:59

I have extremely sensitive eyes, and when I wore contact lenses, I bounced from one disposable contact lens to another in search of a pair of contacts I could wear comfortably all day long.  Of course, this was more than a couple of years ago, so their were fewer options for people who had trouble wearing traditional soft contacts.  Thankfully, new innovations in contact lenses are becoming available all the time, and if I were still wearing contacts today, Bausch and Lomb SofLens daily disposables would definitely be on my list of lenses to try.

One of my biggest problems with wearing contacts was how dry my eyes felt by midday, let along by the end of a long day at school or work.  SofLens daily disposable contact lenses combat dryness by using a unique slow-release moisture formula which works with your natural tears to create a moist feeling all day long.  They are thin, so they feel more natural on your eye, and they were rated higher by patients for end-of-day comfort than other leading brands.

If you try SofLens contact lenses, you won’t be sacrificing vision or price for comfort.  SofLense daily disposables utilize High Definition™ Optics, which improve your vision by reducing halos, blurriness and glare that are common at night with other disposable lenses. Plus, they do all this at price that is similar to 2 week disposable lenses.

If you’re having trouble finding a comfortable pair of contact lenses, you can even receive a certificate for free trial pair at the SofLens webpage!

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Save on Cord Blood Banking Through June 28

Friday, June 26, 2009 16:17
Posted in category Other Stuff, Pregnancy

I’ve been asked by a number of parents what I think about cord blood banking, and honestly, while we’ve considered banking cord blood for our kids, the cost has always been an issue.  If you’re expecting right now though, Cryo-Cell is offering a $725 discount on their U-Cord service, which saves you about 45% off the regular processing and testing fee of $1595, if you use the promotional code HOT between now and June 28, 2009!

Why Bank Cord Blood?

Cord blood, unlike bone marrow, is easy and painless to remove, without risk to either mom or baby.  Cord blood is less likely to contain latent viruses that pose a risk for transplant patients, and banked cord blood is readily accessible when it is needed.

Cord blood is a 100% match for the baby it comes from, and has  a 1 in 4 chance of being a match for a sibling.  Cord blood cells can be used to treat certain types of cancer, anemia and immune deficiencies.  In the future, medical scientists  hope to be able to treat many more diseases using cells from cord blood.

One thing to keep in mind when banking cord blood, is the fact that in many cases, cord blood from a healthy baby can be a useful treatment for a sibling, but it cannot be used as often in the actual child that it came from.  This is because many of the diseases currently treated with cord blood have genetic components, and if a child has one of these diseases, the cells in their cord blood often have the same genetic defect.  This doesn’t mean that cord blood is never useful to the child it was collected from, but that the chances are less likely in certain diseases.

Why Choose Cryo-Cell?

When you are banking cord blood, you want to choose a storage facility that will be in business for years to come, not a fly-by-night operation.  Cryo-Cell, which is one of the world’s largest cord blood banks, has been in business since 1989 and has been storing cord blood since 1992.  In addition, Cro-Cell stands behind their freezing and storage process, and has a $50,000 payment guarantee if cells from their bank fail to engraft after a transplant.

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Do ADHD Drugs up Risk for Cardiac Deaths in Kids?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 20:56

In short, we don’t know.

Yesterday, a study was released online in the American Journal of Psychiatry which demonstrated an association between stimulant medications used to treat ADHD, and sudden death in kids.  The headlines generated by the release of this study are downright scary, but as parents, the question is, how worried do we need to be?

First of all, lets look at what the study did, and what it actually found.  Researchers performed something called a case-control study, meaning that they found cases where healthy kids between the ages 7-19 suffered sudden deaths, and compared them to a control group of kids in the same age range who had been killed in auto accidents during the same time period.  Then, they looked at medical examiner records, toxicology findings and/or death certificates to determine if these subjects had taken stimulant medications immediately prior to death.

The study included 564 children who had died sudden deaths, and 564 controls.  Researchers found that 10 of the kids in the sudden death group had been taking stimulant medication, as compared to two kids in the control group.

The FDA has issued a statement saying that:

Given the limitations of this study’s methodology, the FDA is unable to conclude that these data affect the overall risk and benefit profile of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD in children.

What this means, is that while more data analysis will be done, there are specific weaknesses in the study that need to be addressed.  For instance, medication use was determined by looking at medical records related to the deaths.  Children who died sudden, unexplained deaths may have been more likely to have thorough investigations into cause of death than the children who were killed in auto accidents.  Because of this, more information may have been collected about their medication use.  Also, the fact that the deaths were sudden and were not caused by trauma may have impacted the degree to which parents remembered and reported medication use after death.

Since the overall rate of stimulant use in each group was so small, relatively minor errors in the recording of medication use could have a major impact on study results.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what in the world you’re supposed to do with this information.  So far, the FDA is recommending that parents not not stop stimulant medications without talking with their child’s doctor about their specific case.  This conversation should probably include the overall risks and benefits of ADHD medication, and any specific risk factors for heart disease that your child may have.  Of course, if you’re child experiences any chest pain, shortness of breath or fainting while taking a stimulant medication, they should be seen by a doctor immediately.

The FDA recommends that doctors prescribing stimulant medications for ADHD should get a detailed history about their patient’s personal and family history of cardiovascular disease, and do a detailed physical exam, focusing on the cardiovascular system.  If there is any concern about heart disease risk, an echocardiogram or elctrocardiogram should be considered for screening purposes.

Reference: Gould, Madelyn S., Walsh, B. Timothy, Munfakh, Jimmie Lou, Kleinman, Marjorie, Duan, Naihua, Olfson, Mark, Greenhill, Laurence, Cooper, Thomas.  Sudden Death and Use of Stimulant Medications in Youths. Am J Psychiatry, Published online 15 June 2009.  doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09040472

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