A Dose of Health

Last week I found a dual use for my blood pressure cuff. Okay, let me back this up a bit.

Quite some time ago I bought a blood pressure cuff. I can’t remember why. It might have been when my Mom was sick or when someone in the house was running borderline high blood pressure. For whatever reason, I have one in the house.

It came in handy the other week when my daughter (who tends to be a bit of a complainer) complained about being ‘wheezy.’ She’s made the school team a few weeks ago and the squad is required to run a few miles a day.

Dr. Mom to the Rescue

Not knowing whether or not she wanted to get out of running, or if there was really something wrong, I whipped out my handy dandy blood pressure cuff and placed the stethoscope portion of it on her chest. Adorning my Dr. Mom personality, I had her take deep breaths.

After her first breath, I snatched the stethoscope from my ears and asked, “What did you say?”

She said that she didn’t say a thing.

Hmmm, with one eyebrow raised, I put the stethoscope back on and asked her to repeat the breathing process. Again I heard it. I wasn’t sure if she had swallowed a clarinet or was making  whistling sounds when I wasn’t looking.

I had her try it. She took a deep breath and then looked at me with her mouth hanging open and eyebrow raised. She heard the clarinet too.

Real Doctor to the Rescue

Off to the pediatrician’s office we went. After a nebulizer treatment, an inhaler and some antibiotics, she’s now better (a week later). Diagnosed with a bronchotic spasm, it seems to be much better now (much to her chagrin as she now has to run several miles a day).

My trusty blood pressure cuff served two purposes. It not only told me that my pressure didn’t go through the roof when I heard my daughter’s bronchiole orchestra, it was able to diagnose the cause of her wheezing.

So, when stocking your medicine cabinet with things like band aids, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol and ace bandages, why not add a blood pressure cuff to the supply list. It’s multi-purpose, relatively inexpensive and sure does come in handy.

If you do opt to get a blood pressure cuff, opt for the old fashioned kind with the stethoscope attachment. I’m not so sure the newer digitized cuffs are designed to detect lung issues.

Back in the old days, aluminum foil was used to wrap just about everything.  Kids went to school with their lunch box fully packed with sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil.  Pickles were wrapped in aluminum foil and so were the homemade snacks.  Just about everything we carried in our lunchbox was wrapped in aluminum foil (balled up aluminum foil was a great source of entertainment).

In addition to stuffing our lunch boxes with aluminum foil and later throwing the aluminum foil balls around the lunchroom, my parents also used the product more traditionally in cooking.  After the hot roast came out of the oven, covering it with aluminum foil was a perfectly acceptable way to keep it protected.

When the roast was cool enough to touch, it went into the fridge.  I never remember seeing small black holes in the aluminum foil or traces of dissolved aluminum foil on the meat (ahh, the good old days).

New and Improved Aluminum Foil

I don’t know if I was living in my childhood fantasy, but I never remember my mother complaining about the aluminum foil dissolving.  Now a days I find that I cannot use aluminum foil to cover foods.  It appears to melt when it spend too much time in contact with
food.

My first response was to purchase a thicker, heavier grade of aluminum foil.  That didn’t work, because it dissolved onto the food too.  Seeing that my first line of action didn’t work, I decided to see if other folks on the internet had the same problem.  Imagine my surprise when I found that aluminum foil dissolves when it comes into contact with acidic foods.

Check out these links:

• Acidic Foods in Contact with Aluminum Foil: A Cause of Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s Disease?
• Ask A Scientist

Although my research indicates that eating food with dissolved aluminum foil on it is perfectly safe, I’d rather not.  I’ve spent time cutting off the ‘melted’ portions of aluminum foil from my food.  I now wait until the food is cool enough and use plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Aluminum

There appears to be a correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and aluminum  toxicity in the brain.  Although, these sites do not point to aluminum foil as the cause of the toxicity, they do mention items like antiperspirants containing aluminum, aluminum utensils and self-rising flour which contains aluminum, just to name a few (Here’s another site: Alzheimer’s and Aluminum, Is there a connection?) .

My Conclusion

There may not be a connection between aluminum foil and Alzheimer’s disease.  Additonally, according to my limited research, it may be ‘perfectly safe’ to eat food with melted aluminum foil; however, in my book, I’m not doing it.  I already had a calcified brain scare.  No sense in eating aluminum to create some other unwanted health condition.