Happy Friday all, and welcome to this Halloween-themed weekly waffle!
Halloween as a festival is undoubtedly brimming with fun, BUT it's also overflowing with potential health hazards! I mean, where to start?? Eating your own body weight in glucose-fructose syrup? Running around on slippery, leaf-covered pavements in the dark? The flashing dull blade of the annual pumpkin carve? (can barely watch this one!) And then there's the plastic-heavy (aka highly flammable) costumes? And if this is accompanied by alcohol ... I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
But frankly as subject matter for the waffle, it's almost too obvious, and we've covered it before. May we say that I've officially raised those perils once more for annual consideration, and your dynamic risk assessments, and then we can move on?
Thank you to one of our lovely patients, P.M. for the inspo on this. This week we are riffing more generally on the theme of ‘wearable’ health preservers. Because whilst we spend millions annually on gimmicky, single-use costumes to make Halloween evening go off with a bang, there is one ‘wearable’ item that many of us could and should be wearing all the time. Can you guess which?
If I tell you it's both low tech and inexpensive, that would rule out the likes of Oura and Whoop...
It's more subtle and easy to coordinate an outfit around than a high vis jacket or a buoyancy aid... ;-)
Still it could be genuinely life-saving if your Halloween revelries result in any kind of health emergency, particularly if that emergency means you are unable to advocate for yourself.
I am referring to a medical alert bracelet: a small, engraved bracelet designed to highlight a condition that might affect treatment options in a health emergency. This could include severe allergies or conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, heart conditions, autism or dementia. It could also usefully alert people to key medications you are taking, such as blood thinners, or additional ‘extras’ in your body, such as pacemakers or an organ transplant.
First responders are trained to look for medical alert bracelets early in their assessment of each case, and it’s worth reflecting on how else they would get this key information in a timely fashion if you were, e.g. unconscious, or with people who either don’t know your full medical history or are themselves caught up in the emergency.
In terms of which bracelet to go for, there are plenty on the market that fulfil the brief, but the NHS partners with MedicAlert, a registered charity, and their bracelet links up with a database and helpline service for further information.
A medical alert bracelet might not be the first thing you think of when pulling together your Halloween outfit, but it is well worth considering if you want to remain ‘un-dead’...at any time of year.
Wishing you all a wonderful spooky weekend!
Gemma, Tom and all at Winchester GP
xxx