Whether a patient has undergone a simple resting ECG or long term event monitoring which often lasts up to 30 days, patients share a similar complaint, skin irritation.  At one time or another  it seems every doctor’s office, scanning service, hospital and cardiologist has received the dreaded patient call claiming they are sporting a blister, raw red skin, or sores.  The question we need to ask ourselves is WHY patients being adversely affected, and WHAT can we do about it? 

In the past we have all found it easy to blame the electrode and assume that it is the electrode itself causing skin irritation, however we have learned that there are other factors to take into account and hopefully moving forward, these issues are given consideration.   Did you ever wonder why there are so many different types of electrodes?  There are literally hundreds on the market today and each possesses a diverse set of properties.  As we know every patient is different and some patients may have special needs.  Electrodes are designed for a specific purpose, to meet these special needs.  With that in mind what we could start asking ourselves is, was it our choice of electrode rather than the electrode itself that is responsible for our patients’ skin irritation.  

Below outlines some examples of patient/procedure types with skin characteristics that may prove challenging when it comes to ECG monitoring.

Also view a variety of Electrodes <Here>

Tim Walton

As I‘ve said before, there is a lot of flim-flam and snake oil in the multi-billion dollar supplement industry. Granted, there is some quality stuff out there, but some others are questionable if not downright dangerous.  A segment that seems to be expanding is the area of supplements for older people/athletes.  We all age, after all. “ Testosterone Boosters”   for men is a HUGE goldmine as is “Joint Repair” supplements overall. I won’t go into those at this time except to say that, in my opinion, over the counter T-Boosters are for the most part B.S. and Joint Repairs, meh, some work, some work a little, and others are hype & placebo.

    But every once in awhile something comes along with seemingly solid science and research behind it that piques my interest.  A Myostatin Inhibitor has just come out on the market under the Name of “Myo-X” by MHP.  Myostatin is a naturally occurring regulatory protein that limits muscle growth in humans.  It’s a fact of nature that as we age, we lose muscle mass.  Now if a mystatin inhibitor is introduced to your system, that process could be slowed down/reversed/delayed.  There is a very good article concerning all of this in the November 2012 issue of Flex Magazine, pg 82.  (With a totally coincidental 3 page ad for Myo-X on pgs. 65,66,67) for a more in-depth explanation.  I know everyone and every company likes to jump on the “latest & greatest” wagon/money train, but this seems very promising to elderly people, people with situations that affect muscle mass such as Aids, and of course, athletes looking for that extra edge.  Call me skeptical, sometimes cynical when it comes to most things in the supplement world, but if this can back up the research and claims being made, it’d be a true breakthrough.  The science behind it makes perfect sense, it has gone through a clinical trial, so I am admitting to being curious and  game enough to give this a go and be a test subject to test its effectiveness.  As of today, I will try this out for the next 3 months and not alter anything else in my usual supplement routine so I can tell whether or not any changes made can be attributed to Myo-X.  I feel that I am pretty much immune to any placebo effects being that I am fairly suspicious/skeptical of most claims put out there.  I’m healthy as a horse (and almost as smart), have no physically limiting factors, over the age of 50, and am an experienced weight trainer.  That last part is VERY important because when you see a lot of the claims and studies done , companies will use untrained subjects who of course made the most gains of their lives after being introduced to a proper weight training/diet/supplementation program for the first time in their lives.  Should be interesting.