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High Blood Pressure and Wound Healing

by Wound Care Clinic in Cardiology

The Dangers of High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure and wound healing do not go together. Hypertension or high blood pressure is a measurement of how hard your body has to work to pump and circulate blood through the arteries. There may be no symptoms of high blood pressure, but a severe condition can bring on severe headaches, fatigue and weakness, blurry vision and even nausea or vomiting. Unmonitored symptoms can sometimes lead to heart failure.

High blood pressure, or hypertension causes blood to move through the heart’s pumping chambers less effectively, with increased pressure in the heart, which robs your body of oxygen and nutrients.

To compensate for reduced pumping power, the heart’s chambers respond by stretching to hold more blood. This keeps the blood moving, but over time, the heart muscle walls weaken and are unable to pump as strongly.

High Blood Pressure and Wound Healing

What happens when high blood pressure and poor circulation continue? This reduces much-needed oxygen flow to the cells through the veins and capillaries, which regenerates and heals the cells.

Many times the kidneys react to continue high blood pressure by causing the body to retain water and sodium. (This is why you always hear to reduce the salt in your diet). The resulting fluid buildup in the arms, legs, ankles, feet, lungs, or other organs, can lead to congestive heart failure.

What Can You Do?

  • Lose weight. If you are overweight, losing as little as 10 lb by eliminating extra sugar and breads may lower your blood pressure. It may also allow you to reduce blood pressure medication.
  • Drink plenty of water.  Keep a cup of water with you wherever you go – in the car, at the house, or when walking.
  • Eat healthy foods. Try to eliminate drive-through meals and eat foods high in fiber to include fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s also important to eat foods rich in potassium. These include dark leafy greens like spinach, white beans, bananas, yogurt, fish, avocados and fresh mushrooms.
  • Get active. We encourage walking for physical activity, which can lower blood pressure. Walk a trail, in your neighborhood or at an area school track.
  • Don’t smoke. Nicotine temporarily increases blood pressure and heart rate with each use. Smoking also causes the arteries to tighten up, which further complicates the condition.
  • Drink less alcohol. It has been proven that alcohol increases blood pressure. Drink these beverages in moderation, or eliminate them altogether.
  • Cut back on salt. Eating less salt can help prevent and control high blood pressure. There are many flavored spices to experiment with in your food flavoring, which offer an alternative.
  • Manage stress. Blood pressure usually increases when people are under stress. Relaxation techniques, including progressive muscle relaxation and meditation, yoga, and walking are proven methods to keep calm.

Remember, healing the body is something that can’t take place in our clinic with a few procedures – we have a partnership with each of our patients and are here to encourage them in positive behaviors while working in tandem with their physician.

Smoking and Wound Healing Do Not Go Together

by Wound Care Clinic in Smoking

Smoking Prevention to Heal Your Body

Smoking and wound healing do not go together. Why? Because just one puff of a cigarette can further restrict much needed oxygen and blood traveling to the place of injury. We all tend to associate cigarettes with lung disease, but did you know that smoking affects every cell in your body? Even one cigarette limits oxygen flow throughout the body.

One of our Nurse Practitioners here at the Wound Care Clinic can often be heard telling patients, “When you are smoking a cigarette, it’s just like you are putting it right in your wound.” What a visual!

What Your Body Needs to Heal

Oxygen is the basis for wound healing and it all begins at the cellular level; smoking deprives the body of the much-needed oxygen required to repair and build cells. Oxygen also kicks off energy production and to put it simply, helps to prevent infection in open wounds and is the foundation for rebuilding of the skin tissues.

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking narrows the blood vessels that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles. Just visualize smoke traveling inside your veins to your most needed body parts – fingers and toes. Fingers and toes keep us independent and not dependent on canes, wheelchairs and scooters. By the way, smoking also affects the walls of the vessels that carry blood to the brain (carotid arteries), which can cause strokes.
What Can You Do?

Having the desire to stop is the first step to living a smoke-free life. The next step is action and one of the best resources we have found is on Web MD, which offers 14 suggestions on getting through the first days of withdrawal and behavior modification.

 
New Phone Apps to Help

We just discovered a free iPhone app called Quit it Lite, and Quit Now is on the Google Play Store. 

Both reveal personalized facts:

    • How much money you have saved since your last cigarette
    • How many cigarettes you did NOT smoke
    • Helps you define your own goals
    • Shows the tar you did NOT consume
    • Shows you the benefits of quitting
    • The time – days, hours and minutes since your last cigarette

Healing the body is something that can’t take place in our clinic with a few procedures – we have a partnership with each of our patients and are here to encourage you in positive behaviors while working in tandem with your physician.

Beware of Heating Pads During Treatment or Post Surgery

by Wound Care Clinic in Recommendations

Beware: The Danger of Heating Pads

Beware of heating pads – they should never be used near an open wound or after surgery. The temporary relief causes unseen damage. Many times burning under the skin can occur, without seeing the visible signs first.

Unfortunately, the staff at the Wound Care Clinic sees many patients who have burned themselves with heating pads. In many cases, the patient falls asleep because of the comfort of the warm heat. Other times, the patient cannot feel the skin burning because of neuropathy.

Second and third degree burns can be caused from heating pads, which not only will extend the healing process, but also further complicates the treatment needed. Electrical burns can damage the skin, extending to underlying deep tissue and cause even more pain. Reports of patients falling asleep all night with heating pads and ending up in the emergency room are true. This excessive heat your body does not need burns, leaving behind scars and pain.

Heat and Ice Packs

Extreme caution is extended for the heat/ice packs that can be microwaved. These plastic packs can cause immediate burning to the skin if overheated.

What We Recommend

We only recommend natural fiber products like cotton or wool to keep your feet warm (although wool does a better job). To keep your body warm, many fleece products provide well-insulated heat.

How Can We Help You?

If you have any questions about a chronic wound that is slow to heal, please contact our healthcare team. We will be glad to work with you with a referral from your primary care physician. Contact us.

Controlling Blood Sugar for Optimum Healing

by Wound Care Clinic in Diabetes

Control Blood Glucose

Controlling blood sugar is vital for wound care. High blood sugar levels tend to stiffen arteries and cause narrowing of the blood vessels, which slows down post-surgical and chronic wound healing. This reduces vital blood flow and oxygen directed toward the affected area(s), which the body uses during the natural healing process.

If the chain reaction continues, diabetes can develop (if not already onset). Without sufficient nutrients and oxygen, wounds will continue to take a long time to heal, and the condition could rapidly deteriorate if not monitored closely.

Healing of Aging Skin

Changes to the skin through the natural aging process cause some slower healing but, combined with a bad diet and high blood sugars, it could lead to more problems. According to the hospital of geriatric medicine at Johns Hopkins, “With aging, local blood supply to the skin decreases, epithelial layers flatten and thin, subcutaneous fat decreases, and collagen fibers lose elasticity. These changes in aging skin and the resultant lowered tolerance to hypoxia may enhance pressure-ulcer development in older persons.”

Improve Healing

Consuming a healthy diet while striving for good nutrition will aid in regulating blood glucose levels, and including essential vitamins and nutrients will help speed up the healing process.

Staying away from packaged foods that are full of sugars, salts and preservatives is the best way to optimize the body’s healing process. Eating the proper portions of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamin C are also essential factors. Consulting with a registered dietician who specializes in diabetes (even if you have not been diagnosed) is one of the best ways to get an individualized nutrition program.

Another way to improve healing is through exercise, which lowers blood sugar levels while helping with weight management. Even walking can help improve Cardiovascular health, which is vital for maintaining good circulation for both the healing of existing wounds and prevention of future wound development.

The wound care clinic team coordinates patient care with primary care and other health care professionals to help prevent and treat chronic and slow-healing wounds.

Why do some wounds take so long to heal?

by Wound Care Clinic in Recommendations

There are many variables to consider when analyzing slow healing wounds such as age, status of health, lifestyle, nutrition, or post-surgery. Non-closing wounds are known as ulcers, and when located at the lower leg, feet, or ankles, even walking can extend the healing process due to frequent pressure.

Poor blood flow to the wound can also prevent sores from healing quickly and could be a signal of diabetes or another chronic disease. If a patient is a smoker this also slows down the healing process, since smoking keeps damaged cells in an inflammatory state, while being deprived of much needed oxygen.

Steps of the healing process

Natural wound healing involves several steps. Right after an injury, the body increases blood flow to the trauma area. This is when a wound becomes red and warm, while allowing white blood cells and platelets to get to the spot. Platelets activate blood clotting or coagulation and prevent further bleeding. At the same time, phagocytes, called scavenger cells remove damaged or dead cells.

Oxygen and other nutrients produce new skin, including new blood vessels. Connective tissue fibers or collagen are developed, and then small muscle cells are produced. At this stage the edges begin joining together so the wound can close.

Speeding up the healing of wounds

Barriers to wound healing include diet and poor nutrition. According to Wound Care Centers and Health News.org, protein is the most important part of your diet when trying to promote wound healing. Energy, or calories from carbohydrates and fats, amino acids, antioxidants and minerals – especially zinc are also important.

Protein helps repair the damaged tissue from your wound and adding more protein than usual to the diet has been proven to help the healing process. This means two to three servings of protein a day with each meal containing at least two to three ounces of meat. One cup of beans or two tablespoons of peanut butter are alternatives (but not too much peanut butter if weight is a problem because of the fat). On the other hand, when not enough daily calories are consumed, the body may convert more of the protein ingested to energy instead of healing.

In addition to lifestyle changes, The Woundcare Clinic of Savannah offers advanced therapies to help speed the healing process.

We recommend you consult your physician for specific nutritional recommendations based on your condition(s). If you live in the Savannah or Hilton Head area and have any questions about your wound care management, please contact us.

New Method for Wound Healing: Electrical Stimulation

by Wound Care Clinic in Electrical Stimulation

E-Stimulation: An Effective Modality to Facilitate Wound Healing

From Today’s Wound Clinic, May 2012

Every action in the body, from the cellular level to the level of gross motor function, begins as an electrical impulse. When it comes to chronic wounds, electrical stimulation (ES), one of several biophysical technologies, is known by those healthcare providers who employ its use to be one of the most cost-effective, therapeutically efficacious tissue repair and wound healing accelerators in the industry today. By restoring the natural electrical potentials necessary for cellular activities that have become stalled, ES re-establishes and intensifies healing processes.

There has been substantial research regarding the effects of ES on the cellular and physiological mechanisms that enhance wound closure and healing. This article does not attempt to describe the evidence in detail; rather, the authors summarize the overall effects of ES on chronic wounds in an effort to familiarize clinicians with this under-used efficacious treatment modality.

Types of Electrical Current

There are three types of electrical current that assist in wound closure and healing: direct current (DC), alternating current, and pulsed current (PC).

The majority of clinical trials using ES currents for wound healing have used PC delivered in either monophasic- or biphasic-pulsed waveforms, whereby current is delivered to the wound via a number of pulses per second (pps).

There are three variations of PC that have been reported to augment chronic wound closure and healing.

They are:

• high-voltage monophasic-pulsed current, frequently referred to as hi- volt pulsed current (HVPC);

• low-voltage monophasic-pulsed current; and

• low-voltage biphasic-pulsed current (LVBPC).

LVBPC is employed in transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).

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Wound Care President Becomes Chair of Local Chapter of American Diabetes Association

by Wound Care Clinic in News

Paula Kreissler, President of the Wound Care Clinic -ESU, is the newest Chairperson of the Leadership Council for the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association. Kreissler has an extensive fundraising background and plans to use her experience to help increase funds and visibility of the organization in Savannah. The position with the ADA is a natural fit for Kreissler since many patients at the Wound Care Clinic are diabetic.

The staff at the Wound Care Clinic-ESU is working to educate the public about diabetes which is the 5th leading cause of death by disease in the United States. Diabetes claims over 225,000 lives a year. In Georgia, there are 750,000 people who have diabetes. Approximately 249,000 diabetics don’t even know they have the disease. The most common form of diabetes, Type 2, can be prevented by maintaining a proper weight, improving nutritional intake, and increasing physical activity. A patient who is diabetic often develops a loss of sensation (neuropathy) to the feet and legs. With the lack of sensation, the patient often ignores a wound until it worsens or becomes infected. The diabetic disease process slows the healing process of these wounds and the patient develops a chronic diabetic ulcer. If the wound does not heal, the wound can lead to amputation. Treatments at the Wound Care Clinic-ESU often prevent amputations. Paula Kreissler has already worked as a volunteer with the Savannah chapter of the ADA. She was one of the sponsors for Savannah’s Walk for Diabetes on November 4th. The Wound Care Clinic – ESU team was the number two team, raising over $4000 for the ADA. She’s also traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for stem cell legislation to help find a cure for diabetes. Kreissler plans to work with existing fundraisers like Kiss a Pig, and add others to help increase the revenue and help find a cure for diabetes. She also plans to participate in the Diabetes University on January 27, 2007, sponsored by the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association. This is a half-day education program with sessions and exhibits for everyone affected by diabetes. The theme is “Educate Yourself — Improve Your Health.” Before working with ADA, Paula Kreissler spent a lot of time and energy with NO/AIDS Task Force in New Orleans, LA to reduce the spread of HIV infection, and provide services for HIV-affected individuals. She also volunteered with the United Way and March of Dimes.

The Wound Care Clinic-ESU sees physician-referral patients and accepts Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, as well as treating those from the underserved or uninsured populations. The facility is staffed with medical professionals headed up by Family Nurse Practitioner, Melanie Finocchiaro, APRN, BC with Debbie Hagins, MD as a collaborative physician. The Wound Care Clinic – ESU, Inc. is located at 815 East 68th Street, Suite 2, in Savannah, Georgia 31405. It offers standard treatment for wound care along with electrical stimulation and ultrasound as additional therapies to enhance wound closure.

Paula Kreissler Traveled to Chicago for National Leadership Council Meeting of ADA

by Wound Care Clinic in News

(SAVANNAH, GA) Paula Kreissler, the Leadership Chair for the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, traveled to Chicago this month to attend the National Leadership Council Meeting for the ADA. She was one of 16,000 people from all over the world at the “67th Scientific Sessions” sponsored by the ADA.

The three-day event began Friday, June 22nd with an opening reception. There, the more than 200 ADA leadership council members gathered to meet and greet one another. It was also an opportunity for them to network. The following day, Kreissler and the others heard from Stewart Perry, the Chair of the board-elect for the National Leadership Council. They also received updates from the interim ADA CEO and heard from the ADA Secretary and Treasurer.

One of the highlights of the event, Kreissler says, was hearing from Dr. Richard Kahn, the Chief Scientific and Medical Affairs Officer for the ADA. He talked about the advancements in diabetes research and gave an update on the possible treatments for diabetes. He also talked of the staggering numbers in the research area. So far this year, more than $24 million has been raised for research, compared to a total of $40 million last year.

“Those numbers are huge. Research is so important when it comes to diabetes. We’re learning more and more about it every day and those funds are crucial to learning more about the disease.” Kreissler says.

In addition to the updates, Kreissler also got some other important information.

“I think the biggest benefit was seeing how other chairs run their organization. Now, I can take what I’ve learned and make suggestions to Savannah’s Leadership Council of the American Diabetes Association.”

In addition to her duties for the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, Kreissler is also the President of Wound Care Clinic – ESU, Inc. in Savannah. Many of Wound Care’s patients are diabetic. Kreissler says her jobs of running Wound Care and being the Leadership Chair “just seem to go hand in hand.”

The American Diabetes Association is the nations leading non-profit health organization providing diabetes research, information, and advocacy. Founded in 1940, the ADA conducts programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reaching hundreds of communities. The mission of the association is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of the people affected by diabetes. To learn more, log on to diabetes.org.

Wound Care Clinic – ESU, Inc. is Proud to Announce Grand Opening of the Newest Location in Pooler

by Wound Care Clinic in News

(SAVANNAH/POOLER, GA) Paula Kreissler, President of Wound Care Clinic – ESU, Inc., is proud to announce the grand opening of the newest Wound Care location in Pooler. The event is slated for September 6, 2007, at 11:30 a.m.

“We are so excited about this new office,” says Kreissler. “Our Savannah location just got too busy, so this new office will be good not just for us, but our patients too… especially those that live in the Pooler area.”

Perhaps the most advantageous are those patients who will no longer have to make the 20-30 minute drive into Savannah. It might sound simple to the ordinary driver, but for those with a non-healing wound, this new location will make treatment much more convenient for the nearly two dozen patients who live in and around the Pooler area. This new location also has other conveniences. Each of the five treatment rooms is very spacious, with a bed and chair in each room. This not only contributes to physical comfort but also emotional and mental comfort as well.

“We’ve been told a number of times by our patients that our office doesn’t actually feel like an office,” says Wound Care’s president, Paula Kreissler.

“When you have a condition of any kind, you what to be comfortable where you’re being treated. Our Savannah office has a feeling of “home,” and we’re striving to do the same thing in our Pooler location.”

Wound Care patients, employees, and business associates will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. To help with the ribbon cutting will be Pooler Mayor Mike Lamb. Also expected to attend is Senator Regina Thomas.

Wound Care Clinic – ESU Inc. Raised Money for the American Diabetes Association

by Wound Care Clinic in News

(SAVANNAH) Paula Kreissler, President of Wound Care Clinic – ESU Inc., and her team of more than 40 people raised the most money at the American Diabetes Association’s “Step Out to Fight for Diabetes Walk” held in mid-October. The contest doesn’t officially end until December 3rd, so Kreissler and her crew are still pulling out all the stops to raise even more money to fight diabetes.

“So far, we’ve raised more than $7,000,” says Kreissler.

“It felt so good to know our team raised the most money, but it feels even better to know that we’re still raising money until the deadline and each and every penny is going toward the fight against diabetes.”

Diabetes is America’s fastest-growing disease, affecting 21 million children and adults in the United States.

Formerly known as America’s Walk for Diabetes, Step Out to Fight Diabetes is the sole fund-raising walk of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Step Out to Fight Diabetes is a one-day walk in more than 200 cities nationwide. Motivated by their drive to defeat diabetes, participants reach their fund-raising goals by asking friends, family, and co-workers for donations.

This year, the event drew a large contingency of teams, comprised of families, friends and corporations, all walking and raising money in support of ADA.

Kreissler, who also serves as the Leadership Chair for the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, says she asked any and everybody to support the ADA and her team. They, along with the other teams, pulled through, and so far, they’ve raised $7419.00.

The American Diabetes Association is the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization providing diabetes research, information and advocacy. Founded in 1940, the American Diabetes Association conducts programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reaching hundreds of communities.

To learn more about the ADA or diabetes, log on to diabetes.org.

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