Dr. Grimes’ Bottom Line

Are YOU at Risk for Diabetes?

Although the internet is packed with misleading and erroneous medical advice, there certainly are a great number of medically accurate and helpful sites as well. Today I stumbled across an excellent tool to help people quickly assess their risk for DIABETES on the American Diabetes Association website:
The Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test. Their catch phrase is “It’s Fast. It’s Free. It’s Easy.”- and it IS all that!

The numbers of people being diagnosed with type 2 (adult onset) diabetes in this country are staggering. There are nearly 2 MILLION new cases of diabetes being diagnosed each year in … Read more

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Swimmer’s Diarrhea?

Lovely topic, isn’t it? But if you’ve got a persistent case of diarrhea, it’s possible you picked up a parasite called Giardia during a summer swim. Giardia is transmitted by swallowing contaminated water (typically during a swim) or from other fecal-oral transmission (such as poor hand washing after changing baby diapers or using the restroom), or rarely, from contaminated food. Even if you are not a pool-water-mouth-squirter, it is very easy to accidentally swallow water while swimming- especially in a race! And diapered babies are supposed to be limited to a “baby pool” for a good reason, but think how … Read more

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Which Sunscreen Should I Use?

Speaking of melanoma (yesterday’s blog), it’s time for another review about the basics of sunscreens. Which one is the best? Sprays are so fast and convenient- but do they work? Which ingredients matter?

Let’s start with SPF. What does it mean? Sun Protection Factor is a measure of a sunscreen’s ability to protect the wearer against UV radiation from UVB. Note that the sun produces both UVA and UVB, and BOTH cause damage that can lead to skin cancers. Right now, though, the SPF only addresses the UVB protection. So, SPF means that compared to bare skin, the sunscreen … Read more

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Summer Skin Cancer Message

Recently a friend posted a very impactful message on her Facebook page (thanks, Lisa!) that I would like to recommend. The youtube video is called Dear 16 year-old Me, and shows real people who lives have been deeply affected by melanoma, and the message they would love to go back in time and send to themselves (and their loved ones) before they started purposefully sun tanning to “look healthy”.

Many people are unaware that the skin cancer MELANOMA is a very serious cancer. Because it looks like a simple little funny-looking mole on the skin, there is often the assumption … Read more

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Is Swimming Pool Water Safe?

Swimming season has arrived, and patients often ask me about whether or not you can catch this or that disease from a swimming pool or hot tub. First of all, let me assure you that no, you cannot catch STI’s (sexually transmitted infections) directly from a hot tub…as long as all you are doing in the hot tub is enjoying the water. There are, however, diseases that can be contracted from swimming pools – typically from accidentally swallowing the pool water. How does that happen? Easily, especially for kids and adults who play around with getting mouthfuls of pool water … Read more

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Cleaning Ears without Q-Tips

In yesterday’s blog I touched on a pet peeve of mine, asking people to NOT put Q-tips in their ears. Inevitably, the next question is, “but Doctor, if I can’t use q-tips, how can I clean out my ears?”
The answer is two-fold:
Number One- most ears don’t need to be “cleaned out”.
Number Two- when you do have an ear wax build up, flush them out with a bulb syringe.

Ear canals, like many other parts of our body, are self-cleaning. The ear wax (cerumen) is made up of dead skin cells, hair, and other debris that enters the … Read more

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Swim Season! Are Your EARS Ready?

Swim season is fully upon us, and with that comes a couple medical challenges. Today I’d like to focus on swimmer’s ear.

What is swimmer’s ear? 
This typically refers to an OUTER EAR infection caused by fungi or bacteria. The moisture left in the ear after swimming is fertile ground for these organisms to multiply, especially lake water.

What are the symptoms?
Swimmer’s ear is PAINFUL and almost always one sided, despite the fact that both ears had the same exposure. (Differently shaped ear canals and varied amounts of ear wax are to blame for this discrepancy.) Since this is … Read more

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Staying Alive! Hands-Only CPR & AEDs

When is the last time YOU were CPR certified? Most of my friends were first certified during scouting years, then for babysitting as a teenager, then again when they had babies of their own. I know my last few certifications I did online, without benefit of the famous Annie mannequin. Last week, however, I had a recertification training that included an automatic external defibrillator (AED), and now I’m ready to light a fire under everyone I know to head to an American Heart Association (AHA) training!
There are two main messages that I would like to share:
1. You don’t … Read more

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Poison Ivy – Austinites Beware!

It’s nearly summer, and once again, POISON IVY is growing all over down at Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as our Town Lake). There are areas where this climbing plant is well over six feet high! If you are walking or jogging with only two-legged (or wheeled) companions, it’s fairly easy to avoid the plant simply by staying on the trail. However, if you have your favorite four-legged partner by your side, beware that poison ivy can be spread from your dog’s fur to you!

Poison ivy (and poison oak & sumac) all have urushiol- the poison sap- in their … Read more

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Breaking Out in Hives?

Hives – the very thought of these itchy, raised, red splotches make me start to squirm and scratch. With our oak allergy season in full bloom here in Austin, we see the full spectrum of allergic complaints- from sneezing, sore throats, dry coughs and itchy eyes to skin reactions such as hives. The medical term for hives is “urticaria”. These lesions come and go, and often cause a burning sensation along with the itch.

In the previous blog entry about allergic eye problems, I mentioned that histamine (the substance that causes the redness and itch of allergic reactions) is stored … Read more

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