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Show Psge 23 - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah. SUNDAY, August 12. Utah Medical That - A SALT LAKE CITY tl'PIi Utah firm has employed microfilm technology in a product designed to speed emergency medical treatment for people suffering from accidents or ailments. Lifesaver Medical Record Inc. a card to carry in form wallets, purses or m dog-taaround the neck. Both the wallet-sizecard and the dug tag contain chips of microfiche that reveal vital medical information, insurance data, names of and the patient's regular physician. The card also can contain microfiche of baseline electrocardiograms giving doctors vital information about the patient's normal is marketing d n Women Need More Calcium Than Men Do SEATTLE (UPI) - Cards Desiqned fo Save Lives ID heart rhythm. By JANICE PERRY next-of-ki- im the EKG) would be important," said Dr. Kurt Bernhei-sel- . He is an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Utah, medical center. a regional "A lot of times when we're looking at an electrocardiogram and it shows a lot of abnormalities, we say, 'Gee, I wish I knew what his previous EKG looked like Salesman Rick Robbms said the card can be invaluable to emergency medical personnel, whether they be paramedics at a roadside wreck or emergency room doctors aiding an apparent heart attack victim. The card lists known health conditions, medications the patient is taking, allergies and other S H it 1' V K I II V Special iliCiiiCal CCr.diliGrj. as use of a pacemaker, insulin pump, contact lens and the like Doctors recently have become aware of the need to provide prompt treatment within the first hour of a traumatic injury. After that time, the patient's chances of a complete recovery drop significantly. nosp.al oeicre, Robbms said the Lifesaver card helps tell emergency personnel what an unconscious patient can- In addition. Litesaver Medical ha embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign with large firms, offering a significant savings when cards are bought in bulk. Coi ations would pay up to about $8 apiece for the cards, compaied to $2U purchased individually. A rucT.i Anient an Medical .epuii jays theu- aie 4a million Americans with chronic and debilitating conditions capa fe a chart, would medical piovice cack-grvmn- Because Liu microfiche information is too small to read with the nakea ee, the firm is selling hand-helmagnifiers to paramedics for toadiide use. d Bernheisel said the card might not be most useful when a person is in extremely critical condition "We might not have lime to puil out the microfiche and run it down somewhere ilo be viewed i." he said. But Bernheisel noted that ever, when a patient has been in the i ast week Women . probably is not authorization worth the plastic on which it is imprinted. "A blanket authorization probably doesn't do much good," said emergency room Di. Bob Bolte. It's probably more gimmick than substance and it probably wouldn't change the way we'd behave. Tf it was a situation, then we'd treat the child, and if not, we'd bend over backwards to find the parent." But Bolte said he found the concept of microfilmed medical information exciting and said it could be invaluable to the emergency-room physician. Robbms said Lifesaver Medical will issue cards in the languages oi the countries in which companies operate in case their executives fall ill in those nations. The dog tag cards also could prove helpful lor youngsters who become ill or injured in the absence of their parents. Bobbins said The cards contain emer - s who don't like milk can minimize risks of hip and other bone fractures later in life by turning to d in quicker time not. gency treatment authorizations for children. But legal counsel for Primary Children s Medical Center, a regional children's hospital, said the ble of causing or complicating an Those people, the ree:r.erger.c port says, should carry a signal device to alert medical personnel. Some people have conditions that can cause emergencies such as seizures, diabetes, heart and othdisease or hemophilia ers have problems communicating with emergency room personnel due to a language barrier, age, deafness or a mental handicap it often takes a iu an r. .1 to incite end the Liiesaver cara :;..r.Ui i' t. i o v i s i) I v i to save during our Annual Family Coat Sale food alternative calcium-ricsources or supplements, suggests Dr. Susan Ott. Ms. Ott, the attending physician at Harborview Medical Center's Metabolic Bone Diseases Clinic, should know. "I just don't like the taste" of milk, Ms. Ott said. But you won't find the physician going without her daily calcium requirements. She is white, female and of northern all factors European descent that make her susceptible to osteoporosis, or "brittle bone dish ' ." "JJ': uv -- . v v - j7 j - ; ease." "I have a bottle of calcium supplements at my bedside and I try to take them every day," said Ms. Ott, whose grandmother is afflicted with the disease. Osteoporosis, which literally means "porous bones," is a disorder In which the bone tissue decreases because of a loss of calcium. As the bones become thinner and fragile, "spontaneous" fractures may occur as a result of something as simple as opening a window or catching a shoe heel in a grate, "Anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of white women over 65 have ome degree of osteoporosis," Mi, Ott said, Of the patients referred to the Harborview bone clinic, about 60 percent are there to undergo evaluations for the disease. Osteoporosis usually affects the forearms and spine of women first, with hip fractures occurring later in life, Eventually, weakened bones in the spinal column, compressed by body weight and gravity, may collapse, causing a spine compression fracture. This can result in loss of height, a humped back and pain, "Some women have lost three or four or even six Inches," Ms. Ott said, At the Harborview clinic, the density of a patient's bones can be measured through a new technique, called dual beam photon absorptiometry, Ms. Ott said. The method shows how severe a patient's bone loss Is and also can be used to determine the effectiveness of possible treatment, she added. Ms. Ott, who also performs research on osteoporosis through University Hospital at the University of Washington, said doctors have a lot to learn about the disease. "We don't know as much about osteoporosis as we do about hundreds of other diseases," Ms. Ott said. So far, researchers have discovered that race and sex are bigger factors than calcium intake in determining whether someone will get osteoporosis, Ms. Ott said. "If a black person doesn't get much calcium, it doesn't harm her that much," she said, noting that people with darker skin have thicker bones. Women are much more likely than men to get the disease because "the female hormone isn't as good as the male hormone at building bones," Ott explained. In addition, Ms. Ott said, "women have smaller bones to start with and they're easier to fracture." Women who have a lot of children also are likely to be afflicted with the disease later in life, since they lose a lot of calcium through nursing, Ms. Ott said. Because the disease appears to be regulated by hormones, Ms. Ott said researchers believe estrogen can help reduce the effects of osteoporosis in some women. Ms. Ott offers two simple prescriptions for women of all ages to help prevent or lessen the effects of osteoporosis get enough calcium and exercise. Studies indicate women need at least 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day to maintain their bone mass, Ms. Ott said, although the average woman consumes about 500 milligrams. Teen-ager- s women need and 1,200 S JZr- -. J f' i f ' Iff 4 - v 1 1 ; A M a .'4f '.- ,44- y tw - - -r , ; n - A A I t W V v v - t - mmmTTS r: : . ' UJkaaaMBMr. v ? . I ; i f. J" : ; ' lis ZP j6,l' " " & . J f'ik til tia a outerwear for men, women, juniors and children You II save on every raincoat, trenchcoat, parka long and short wool coat, new contemporary fur (m Fashion Coa's) and genuine leather outerwear in our stock tor everyone in the family Ana we nave the famous names like London Fog' Cranos. Flemy and more. Save in these departments: . 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