Travel Preparations

Summer is fast approaching, and we often get questions about travel abroad.

The idea here is to have a great time, but also be able to avoid or deal with health-related problems that may arise.

First, don't forget the basics.

• Bring things you already use such as spare glasses or contact lenses, sunglasses and prescription medicines you normally take. I suggest you bring controlled substances such as sedatives and pain-killers in the original pharmacy-issued containers. You might also want to make sure that such medicines are legal to possess on entering the countries in which you will be traveling.
• Bring normal first aid supplies such as lip balm, insect repellent, eye drops, band-aids, athlete's foot cream, Neosporin, and Tylenol or Advil.
• Pack for the kind of activities you will be doing. Rick Steves has a lot of great advice on this!

Feel free to see us if you have further questions or concerns. Also, we can help you with specific medical needs such as:

• Hepatitis shots
• prescription medicines to prevent malaria
  
• Tetanus shots
• prescription medicines in case of travelers' diarrhea
• prescription medicines for "jet lag"
• prescription medicines for flying-related panic attacks

Travel Med is a good resource for those unusual immunizations that doctor offices and public health departments do not carry, such as yellow fever vaccine. They have a Sacramento location at:
4250 H Street, Suite 4
Sacramento, CA 95819
916/254-2100

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have a lot of information for travelers, including specific concerns about your destination.

Also, don't forget to check the U.S. Department of State for information on travel such as passport requirements and crisis situations in your destination.

Bon Voyage!

Preventing Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are a relatively common problem, and a very painful one to have.

Lifetime risk of ever having one in both men and women is 5%. Fortunately, the risk isn't higher since passing a stone can be more painful than childbirth (or so every female patient who has had both has told me).

80% of stones contain calcium. Out of these, 80% are made of a chemical called calcium oxalate.

Happily, these kinds of stones may be prevented by some dietary suggestions:

• avoid high protein, high salt diets
• avoid Pepsi, Coca-Cola, tea and iced tea
• avoid excessive cheese and dairy products in your diet
• drink lemonade regularly (or, 8-10 ounces of lemon juice in 64 ounces of water)
• drink "reverse osmosis" water such as Aquafina, Dasari, or Alhambra instead of tap or well water
• if you take calcium supplements, use the ones that contain calcium citrate and not calcium carbonate (such as TUMS, RolAids or "natural" calcium)

(h/t Dr. Kash Desai, a local urologist)

Discount Prescription Drug Program

While the rest of California is participating in the economic recovery (jobs, home prices; that sort of thing), unfortunately the Sacramento area is not.

A patient recommended this website for a California discount drug card. He tells me it's pretty much as billed: no application or registration, and accepted in many local pharmacies.

Check it out if you'd like to pay less for prescription medications.