January 2020 - On Call Medical Clinic

Magnesium Is Important To Us

magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral your body needs to work right. It helps with hundreds of important body processes, including those that control how your muscles and nerves work. It helps to keep your bones strong, heart healthy, and blood sugar normal. It also plays a role in your energy level. You can get magnesium in many foods and drinks. But if your doctor thinks you need more, she may suggested that you add supplements.

An adult woman needs about 310 milligrams of magnesium a day, and 320 milligrams after age 30. Pregnant women need an extra 40 milligrams. Adult men under 31 need 400 milligrams and 420 milligrams if they’re older. Kids need anywhere from 30 to 410 milligrams, depending on their age and gender. Talk with your pediatrician about how much your child needs.

Your body uses magnesium to build new bone cells. Research suggests that it may also protect against bone loss, broken bones, and the bone disease osteoporosis. Studies show that women with osteoporosis tend to have lower levels of magnesium than those who don’t.

It is beneficial to help you fight inflammation and help the body fight off viruses and heal wounds. It also helps your heart pump blood. Right levels of the mineral can lower your chances of an irregular heartbeat, heart disease, or a heart attack. Magnesium relaxes the walls of your blood vessels and that can help keep your blood pressure down.

Studies show that magnesium may help to block or lower pain chemicals in the brain and may keep your blood vessels from tightening.

We at On Call Medical Clinic can help when you have minor accidents or illnesses. We are here 7 days a week to help. Our onsite laboratory can help us quickly diagnose your illness and prescribe the right treatment to get you up feeling well soon. Please visit our website at www.oncallclinic.com to learn more about the services we offer.

Pneumonia Not a Laughing Matter

pneumonia

Pneumonia is something you do not want to take lightly. The faster you get treatment, the faster you will get over pneumonia. This is especially true for the very young, for people older than 65, and for anyone with other long-lasting (chronic) health problems, such as asthma.

You should see a doctor or emergency services immediately if you have the following

Have chest pain that is crushing or squeezing, is increasing in intensity, or occurs with any other symptoms of a heart attack.
Have such bad trouble breathing that you are worried you will not have the strength or ability to keep breathing.
Cough up large amounts of blood.
Feel that you may faint when you sit up or stand.
A cough that produces blood-tinged or rust-colored mucus from the lungs.
A fever with shaking chills.
Difficult, shallow, fast breathing with shortness of breath or wheezing.

You should call a doctor if your cough produces the following

Frequently brings up yellow or green mucus from the lungs and lasts longer than 2 days. Do not confuse mucus from your lungs with mucus running down the back of your throat from your nasal passages (postnasal drip).
Occurs with a fever of 101°F (38.3°C) or higher and brings up yellow or green mucus from the lungs (not postnasal drainage).
Causes you to vomit a lot.
Continues longer than 4 weeks.

We at On Call Medical Clinic are here when the above symptoms are a concern. We are available 7 days a week. We have our own on-site laboratory facilities to help quickly diagnose your illness. Our team of trained medical professionals are prepared to help you and your family members.

Please visit our website at https://www.oncallclinic.com/ to view all the medical services we offer as well as skin care services. If you are having any symptoms above and your primary care doctor is not available please do not hesitate to call us at 228 818-5155.

Flu Shots – Get One

flu shot

Flu Shot – Many people question whether they should get a flu shot or not. Many will have an excuse why they shouldn’t have the flu shot.

Well let’s clear up those excuses

I don’t want the shot because it will give me the Flu

This is not true. The flu shot or nasal spray cannot give you the flu. It takes a couple of weeks for the body to be protected from influenzas after receiving the vaccination. So, there is a possibility that you could contract the flu in that timeframe.

It doesn’t really make a difference if I get the flu shot or not.

Again, this is not true. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that vaccinations prevented 79,000 flu hospitalizations and 6.6 million flu-associated illnesses during the influenza season. Complications from the flu can be serious and result in hospitalization, and even death, for some patients. The best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated.

I am not a candidate for the flu vaccine

With rare exceptions, everyone 6 months and older should get the flu vaccine. Pregnant women, those younger than 5 or older than 65 and people with certain chronic medical conditions are at higher risk for flu-related complications.

I don’t need the flu shot because I never get sick

Even if you don’t get sick — or only experience mild illness when you are sick — others might not be as lucky. Infants, the elderly and people with multiple medical conditions or weakened immune systems may not be able to fight off Influenza as well as you do.

Getting vaccinated not only protects you, but also helps protect others who may not be able to fight off illness as well as you.

I heard the vaccine has side effects

Side effects of flu vaccination are generally mild. If you get the flu shot, you might feel achy or have redness or soreness where the shot was given. If you get the nasal spray vaccine, you could get a stuffy nose or throat irritation.

Talk with your doctor to find out which type of vaccine is right for you and make sure to let him or her know if you get any of these symptoms. Often, we can recommend supportive measures to help you through these.

But most potential side effects of the vaccine are nothing, compared to how bad you’d feel if you had to suffer through the actual flu.

We at On Call Medical Clinic hope that this information helped clear up your concerns about having a flu shot this season. If you are not feeling well or had a minor injury and your primary care doctor is not available please remember we are here 7 days a week to help. We have laboratory and x-ray capability at our office, so w can quickly diagnosis your medical issue. Please visit our website at https://www.oncallclinic.com/ to learn more about all the medical services we offer. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call us at 228 818-5155 7 days a week.

Blurry Vision Why?

blurry vision

Blurry Vision- Why could your vision be blurry? We at On Call Medical Clinic would like to provide you some information that may be helpful when this occurs.

You may need glasses. When your eyeball is shaped more like an egg than round, or your cornea or your lens isn’t curved just so, light can’t focus in the right spot. That can lead to seeing clearly only at certain distances (nearsighted and farsighted) and distorted vision (astigmatism). You can often correct these “refractive errors” with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or minor surgery.
Your Eyes may be tired. Have you been staring at a screen or page or focusing on a task for a long time? People tend to blink less often when they’re concentrating like that. And each time you blink, you’re spreading tears across the surface of your eye to keep it lubricated, clean, and refreshed. You may need to remind yourself to blink more often, take breaks, and look around to prevent vision fatigue.
Eye Inflammation. Eye tissue may swell because it’s been bruised or something bad was splashed in it. The herpes virus from a cold sore could move to your eye. Sleeping in your contacts, not cleaning them correctly, or not throwing them away when you should can also lead to infections. Immune system diseases that affect other parts of your body, like psoriasis, IBS, and rheumatoid arthritis, can also cause inflammation in your eye.
Low Blood Pressure. Feeling weak and dizzy, too? Your blood pressure might be too low because you’re dehydrated — maybe from too much activity in the hot sun. Things like some medications, heart problems, poor nutrition, and hormone imbalances could also cause low blood pressure and related blurry vision.
Fluid build-up around your eyes. That can put pressure on the optic nerve and damage it. If you’re also seeing halos around lights, your eyes are very red and hurt a lot, and you feel queasy, you may have acute angle glaucoma. It develops very quickly, and you could lose your vision within a day if it’s not treated. Open-angle glaucoma is more common, but it doesn’t usually affect your vision at first.
Migrate Headaches. About 1/4 of people who have migraines get visual auras, usually before the pain and for less than an hour. These range from shimmering zig-zag lines, sparkles, and flashes to blind spots and tunnel vision. It may seem like you’re looking through water or cracked glass. (You could also have vision symptoms without or after the headache.) If it happens only in one eye, see your doctor in case it’s a serious problem.
You may have Cataracts. That’s a cloudy area in the normally clear lens of the eye. They grow slowly, usually in both eyes, after age 55. But younger people, even kids, can get them, too. Colors may seem faded, it may be harder to see at night, and you may be more sensitive to glare. Special glasses and lens coatings can help you see. Surgery can replace the cloudy lens with a man-made one.
Or maybe it’s getting Older. Starting around 40, you’ll notice it’s harder to focus on up-close tasks like reading. The clear lens inside your eye isn’t as flexible as younger people’s. It’s a normal part of aging. Your eye doctor can help you with reading glasses, contacts, or surgery.

These are some of the causes of blurred vision that you may be witnessing. This information was obtained from the WebMD website. We at On Call Medical Clinic hope this information is helpful. We are here 7 days a week to help when minor illnesses or accidents occur. Please call us at 228 818-5155 if we can help. Please visit our website at www.oncallclinic.com to learn more about us and all the services we offer.

You may need glasses. When your eyeball is shaped more like an egg than round, or your cornea or your lens isn’t curved just so, light can’t focus in the right spot. That can lead to seeing clearly only at certain distances (nearsighted and farsighted) and distorted vision (astigmatism). You can often correct these “refractive errors” with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or minor surgery.
Your Eyes may be tired. Have you been staring at a screen or page or focusing on a task for a long time? People tend to blink less often when they’re concentrating like that. And each time you blink, you’re spreading tears across the surface of your eye to keep it lubricated, clean, and refreshed. You may need to remind yourself to blink more often, take breaks, and look around to prevent vision fatigue.
Eye Inflammation. Eye tissue may swell because it’s been bruised or something bad was splashed in it. The herpes virus from a cold sore could move to your eye. Sleeping in your contacts, not cleaning them correctly, or not throwing them away when you should can also lead to infections. Immune system diseases that affect other parts of your body, like psoriasis, IBS, and rheumatoid arthritis, can also cause inflammation in your eye.
Low Blood Pressure. Feeling weak and dizzy, too? Your blood pressure might be too low because you’re dehydrated — maybe from too much activity in the hot sun. Things like some medications, heart problems, poor nutrition, and hormone imbalances could also cause low blood pressure and related blurry vision.
Fluid build-up around your eyes. That can put pressure on the optic nerve and damage it. If you’re also seeing halos around lights, your eyes are very red and hurt a lot, and you feel queasy, you may have acute angle glaucoma. It develops very quickly, and you could lose your vision within a day if it’s not treated. Open-angle glaucoma is more common, but it doesn’t usually affect your vision at first.
Migrate Headaches. About 1/4 of people who have migraines get visual auras, usually before the pain and for less than an hour. These range from shimmering zig-zag lines, sparkles, and flashes to blind spots and tunnel vision. It may seem like you’re looking through water or cracked glass. (You could also have vision symptoms without or after the headache.) If it happens only in one eye, see your doctor in case it’s a serious problem.
You may have Cataracts. That’s a cloudy area in the normally clear lens of the eye. They grow slowly, usually in both eyes, after age 55. But younger people, even kids, can get them, too. Colors may seem faded, it may be harder to see at night, and you may be more sensitive to glare. Special glasses and lens coatings can help you see. Surgery can replace the cloudy lens with a man-made one.
Or maybe it’s getting Older. Starting around 40, you’ll notice it’s harder to focus on up-close tasks like reading. The clear lens inside your eye isn’t as flexible as younger people’s. It’s a normal part of aging. Your eye doctor can help you with reading glasses, contacts, or surgery.