Healthline Blogs
Dr. Paul Auerbach is the world's leading outdoor health expert. His blog offers tips on outdoor safety and advice on how to handle wilderness emergencies.
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Jun 20 2011
Biphosphonates, Osteoporosis, and Bone Fractures
X-ray of a fractured femur boneMy 86 year-old mother, who is generally in good health, slipped and fell recently and suffered a fractured femur. She was unfortunate to have suffered the accident, but had the good fortune to be discovered quick...
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Jun 16 2011
What to Do in the Case of Serious Food Allergies
An EpiPen (an epinephrine auto-injector)An allergic reaction in an outdoor setting can rapidly become a life-threatening emergency. While most of us think of food allergies as annoyances, they can be quite serious or even life threatening. Itch...
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Jun 14 2011
Snakebite and Snake Venom Information
Eastern coral snake, photo courtesy of Norman Benton, CC-BY-SA 3.0The Wilderness Medical Society held its annual meeting at Snowmass last summer July 23-28, 2010. There were numerous terrific educational sessions. In a series of posts, I am goi...
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Jun 06 2011
Artificial Breathing in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
The compression stage of CPR.Recent guidelines recommend that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) be done with compressions only, eliminating the requirement for the untrained rescuer to attempt to breathe for (ventilate) the victim. This effe...
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May 19 2011
Update on Vaccine Against Meningococcus
One of the most feared infectious diseases for outdoor travelers—particularly children and young adults—meningitis caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus). The infection can appear in outbreaks, most commonly abroad, part...
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May 16 2011
Stopping the Bleeding
The Combat Application Tourniquet Dr. Brad Bennett provided an excellent workshop at the 2010 Wilderness Medical Society annual meeting in Snowmass, Colorado on how to manage severe bleeding, based on his work with the Committee on Tactical Com...
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May 09 2011
How to Avoid Needing Search and Rescue
This post is a continuation of the search and rescue (SAR) advice offered by Dr. Aaron Billin in a lecture he presented at the 2010 Wilderness Medical Society annual meeting. Dr. Billin recommends that anyone heading out to the backcountry s...
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Apr 21 2011
Smart Phones and Crisis Mapping
Crisis Map of Haiti, 2010, via the OpenStreetMap projectI’d like to use this post to mention a new concept for wilderness medicine that was introduced to me at the Wilderness Medical Society annual meeting this past summer in Snowmass by Satchi...
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Apr 11 2011
Rescue Essentials: The Outdoor Gear You Need
Wilderness medicine folks are often considered to be “gearheads.” That is, we love to try out new outdoor equipment, whether it is for our activities, search and rescue, or personal safety. Improvisation is important, but it’s better to have wh...
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Apr 04 2011
Environmental Microorganisms and Childhood Asthma
This past week, there was discussion on the internet about an article entitled “Exposure to Environmental Microorganisms and Childhood Asthma” that was written by Markus Ege, MD and colleagues (New England Journal of Medicine 2011;364:701-709). ...
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