Another tool for important tasks

I have a hammer. I also have an air compressor and a few nail guns.

So, which tool should I use to hang a picture on a wall?

On the other hand, I once had the need to place a piece of cedar siding around 24 feet above the ground. One hand held the siding, but using a hammer is a two-handed operation. Now which tool should I use?

So I see the importance of health professionals with more tools to do the important work of treating stroke patients. Check out the story on the FDA approving a clot-picker use with tPA:

Two Trevo clot retrieval devices were approved Friday by the FDA for use in conjunction with tPA thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Getting serious about salt? We consume more than you might think

We've heard it before: too much salt in American diets. And since salt is a contributor to high blood pressure - the leading cause of strokes - too much can be serious.

Now, the FDA has issued new guidelines to target the sodium hiding in our diets:

Too much salt can raise blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as many research studies have demonstrated. "Experts at the Institute of Medicine have concluded that reducing sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day can significantly help Americans reduce their blood pressure and ultimately prevent hundreds of thousands of premature illnesses and deaths," Susan Mayne, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a statement.

Time to stop smoking - now

Today is the Great American Smokeout today - and I hope someone you know stops smoking. Smoking is a known stroke risk and is bad for you in so many ways.

And just in time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unveiled graphic warning labels for cigarettes:

The new labels. . .are part of a proposed rule-making. The FDA will accept public comment on the 36 proposed labels, and expects to choose nine of them by June to make final. By Oct. 22, 2012, manufacturers will no longer be allowed to distribute cigarettes for sale in the United States that do not display new graphic health warnings.

Public health officials are hoping that the new labels will re-energize the nation’s anti-smoking efforts, which have stalled in recent years. About 20.6 percent of the nation’s adults, or 46.6 million people, and about 19.5 percent of high school students, or 3.4 million teenagers, are smokers. Every day, roughly 1,000 teenagers and children become regular smokers, and 4,000 try smoking for the first time. About 400,000 people die every year from smoking-related health problems, and the cost to treat such problems exceeds $96 billion a year.

“When the rule takes effect, the health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes,” said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

As graphic as the suggested labels are, they can't compare to the lives that cigarettes and other tobacco products have destroyed. A puff on a cigarette isn't worth permanent disability or death.

(Image from FDA)