It’s called the silent killer for a reason. Many people who have high blood pressure either don’t know it or don’t treat it and suffer not a single symptom until something catastrophic such as a heart attack or stroke occurs. Dr. Patti Olusola, a Family Medicine Specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center answers questions regarding diagnosing and treating high blood pressure in this post to Health Connection.TV.

What is high blood pressure? (first question)

What causes high blood pressure? (skip to 0:34)

What are the symptoms of high blood pressure and why is it called the “silent killer?” (skip to 1:02)

What happens to people who have high blood pressure who either don’t know it or don’t treat it? (skip to 1:30)

How is high blood pressure treated? (skip to 2:06)

Are medications for treating high blood pressure well tolerated? (skip to 2:40)

What is the connection between salt and high blood pressure? (skip to 2:53)

What are some of the salty foods that we eat that might surprise us? (skip to 3:24)

Can children have high blood pressure? How does it affect them short and long term? (skip to 4:04)

If one has high blood pressure, how helpful is it to use a blood pressure monitor at home and how accurate are the readings? (skip to 4:59)

If using a blood pressure monitor at home, how frequently should a reading be taken and what time of day is best? (skip to 5:51)

Will there ever be a vaccine for high blood pressure? (skip to 6:38)

One of the diseases we begin to worry about in the fall and winter is pneumonia. For most people, pneumonia is an uncomfortable, sometimes temporarily debilitating disease that runs its course on its own. For others, however, pneumonia can cause severe complications and can even be life-threatening. U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler pulmonologist Dr. David Coultas answers questions here regarding pneumonia.

What is pneumonia and how serious is it? (first question)

What are the symptoms of pneumonia? (skip to 0:54)

What is the “walking pneumonia?” (skip to 1:39)

How do you treat pneumonia? (skip to 2:12)

Is there a vaccine for pneumonia? (skip to 2:59)

Are people on acid reducing medications more susceptible to pneumonia? (skip to 3:40)

What are the chances of contracting pneumonia? (skip to 4:48)

What can be done to reduce the chance of getting pneumonia? (skip to 5:04)

How is pneumonia transmitted? (skip to 5:59)

Because of clinical trials, deaths from heart disease have dropped by over 40 percent, AIDS is no longer an automatic death sentence and cancer drugs can now attack the root cause of the disease. Now at the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler, a new treatment is clinical trial that could prove just as revolutionary in fighting the devastating effects of diabetes. The U.T. Health Science Center’s Dr. David Shafer discusses this clinical trial in this edition of Health Connection.

What exactly is a clinical trial? (first question)

Why are clinical trials important? (skip to 0:59)

Tell us about the Type 2 diabetes clinical trial now underway at the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler. (skip to 2:08)

What specifically are you looking for in this trial? How is the treatment being studied different? (skip to 2:54)

How does one qualify to participate in the trial? (skip to 4:06)

Why is Type 2 diabetes so difficult to control for so many people? (skip to 5:10)

How does one obtain more information on this clinical trial or other clinical trials being conducted at the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler? (skip to 5:53)

They’re unsightly, they’re uncomfortable and they seem to come at the worst times. The hives affect nearly all of us at one time or another and they affect some of us nearly all the time. The U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler’s Dr. Jonathan Buttram talks about the hives in this post to HealthConnection.TV.

What are hives and how do you know if you have them? Are they difficult to diagnose? (first question)

What is the difference between a short episode of hives and chronic hives? (skip to 0:37)

How do you treat short-term hives? (skip to 1:15)

What about people whose necks turn red and splotchy when they are nervous – is that hives? (skip to 1:37)

Is there any way to prevent a nervous skin reaction? (skip to 2:31)

If you have red, splotchy welts, how do you know if it’s hives or something more serious that might require a trip to the emergency room? (skip to 2:31)

Why do some individuals have chronic hives? (skip to 3:30)

How do you treat chronic hives? (skip to 4:30)

Are there serious, long-term effects attendant to having chronic hives? (skip to 5:27)

Can chronic hives go into remission? If so, are they likely to come back? (skip to 6:33)

Other than medication, what can people with chronic hives do to reduce the likelihood of an episode? (skip to 7:00)

Vitamin D3 may be the most talked-about vitamin of the decade. Low blood levels of vitamin D have been associated with asthma, cancer, depression, heart disease, diabetes and even weight gain. The U.T. Health Science Center’s Dr. Ryan Menard talks about vitamin D in this post to HealthConnection.tv.

How important is vitamin D to our health? (first question)

How serious is a vitamin D deficiency? (skip to 1:30)

Why have we heard so much about vitamin D in the news lately? (skip to 3:00)

What are the symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency? (skip to 3:38)

Should I be taking vitamin D supplements and are they safe? (skip to 4:48)

How much vitamin D should I take? (skip to 5:20)

Is it possible to take too much vitamin D? (skip to 6:17)

What other ways can I increase my vitamin D? (skip to 6:49)

Can vitamin D help with weight loss? (skip to 8:15)

Prior to World War I, nearly 30 percent of all homes were infested with bed bugs. Widespread use of pesticides such as DDT all but eradicated bed bugs for nearly 50 years. But with declining use of pesticides and the elimination of DDT, bed bugs have staged a comeback and are reported in all 50 states. There is even an iPhone app that allows users to track bed bug sightings. Dr. Jeffrey Levin of the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler discusses bed bugs in this post to healthconnection.tv.

What are bed bugs and where do they come from? (first question)

What do bed bugs look like? (skip to 1:03)

Why are we hearing about bed bugs now? (skip to 1:33)

How do I know if I have bed bugs in my home? (skip to 2:36)

How is an infestation of bed bugs treated? (skip to 3:31)

What are the signs and symptoms of bed bug bites and how are they treated? (skip to 5:24)

Are bed bugs like ticks or mosquitoes, can they spread more serious disease? (skip to 6:35)

Is there anything to be done to prevent an infestation on one’s home? (skip to 7:16)

How can I check to see if a hotel I am staying in has bed bugs? (skip to 8:35)

Celiac disease is a digestive disorder in which damage to the small intestine interferes with the absorption of food. Persons with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Persons with celiac disease that eat gluten-containing foods damage small structures in the small intestine called villi, resulting in an inability to absorb nutrients from food no matter what food the individual eats. The U.T. Health Science Center’s Dr. Monte Smith discusses diagnosing, managing and treating celiac disease in this installment of Health Connection.

What is celiac disease? (first question)

What causes celiac disease? (skip to 1:27)

What are the symptoms of celiac disease? (skip to 2:14)

How is celiac disease diagnosed? (skip to 2:56)

How is celiac disease treated? (skip to 3:57)

What types of foods are off-limits in a gluten-free diet? (skip to 4:33)

Is there any way to prevent getting celiac disease? (skip to 5:25)

Does celiac disease run in families? (skip to 5:55)

What happens when celiac disease is left untreated? (skip to 6:33)

What are the long-term effects on the body from celiac disease? (skip to 7:58)

Aside from diet, are there any other ways to manage celiac disease? (skip to 8:32)

Assuming the patient complies with dietary restrictions, can he or she expect a normal lifespan? (skip to 9:13)

With advances made in recent years in understanding genetics, it is now possible to administer tests to help determine an individual’s susceptibility to cancer and to possibly ascertain the best courses of treatment for those that have certain cancers. But with this technology comes a list of questions regarding the timing, accuracy and even the ethics of testing individuals for susceptibility to disease. The U.T. Health Science Center’s Dr. William Hyman discusses these issues in this edition of Health Connection.

What is genetic or gene testing? (first question)

What is the relationship between genes and cancer? (skip to 0:31)

How are diseased cancer genes identified? (skip to 1:05)

How accurate is genetic testing as a predictor of cancer? (skip to 2:26)

What types of cancer susceptibility can be identified using genetic testing? (skip to 3:21)

Who should have genetic cancer testing done? (skip to 4:15)

How is genetic testing for cancer performed? (skip to 5:10)

What does the future hold of genetic testing as a tool to diagnose cancer? (skip to 5:44)

Are there ethical questions attendant to genetic testing? (skip to 6:40)

In addition to having a profound impact on the quality of a woman’s life, menopause can set the stage for other problems, such as diabetes, heart trouble and osteoporosis. The latest studies on hormone replacement therapy suggest that the benefits of HRT in many, many cases offset the risks. The U.T. Health Science Center’s Dr. Ralph Turner discusses the latest on menopause therapy in this edition of Health Connection.

What’s new in menopausal medicine? (first question)

What are the benefits to hormone replacement therapy by age group? (skip to 2:06)

With respect to hormone replacement therapy, what are the risks in absolute numbers? (skip to 3:02)

What is the Women’s Health Initiative and how do we interpret it? (skip to 4:36)

What if a woman who has been on hormone replacement therapy but stopped now wants to resume? (skip to 6:10)

What is new in the area of bio-identical hormones? (skip to 7:24)

What other organs may benefit from the early use of menopausal hormone therapy? (skip to 8:45)

Although we might not immediately think of it as such, the heart is a muscle and like all muscles, it needs regular exercise and good nutrition in order to stay healthy. U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler cardiologist Dr. Dudley Goulden talks about ways to maintain a healthy heart.

We don’t usually think of the heart as a muscle like the muscles in our arms and legs. Why is the heart called a muscle? (first question)

What actually happens to the heart muscle during a heart attack? (skip to 1:03)

How does congestive heart failure affect the heart muscle? (skip to 1:50)

What does the term “weak heart” mean? (skip to 2:50)

What do things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol actually do to the heart muscle itself? ( skip to 3:24)

How does cigarette smoking or other nicotine exposure affect the heart muscle? (skip to 4:50)

How does aerobic exercise change the heart muscle? (skip to 5:46)

What aerobic exercise do you recommend? (skip to 6:34)

What changes in nutrition will help bring about a more healthy heart muscle? (skip to 7:13)