2021-2022 Influenza (Flu) prevention

Who should receive the Flu vaccine:

All persons aged ≥6 months who do not have contraindications should be vaccinated annually. Vaccination to prevent influenza is particularly important for persons who are at increased risk for severe illness and complications from influenza and for influenza-related outpatient, emergency department, or hospital visits. The following groups of individuals have higher risk for medical complications attributable to severe influenza who do not have contraindications. The list is not in any order of preference.

• All children aged 6 through 59 months;

• All persons aged ≥50 years;

• Adults and children who have chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (excluding isolated hypertension), renal, hepatic, neurologic, hematologic, or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus);

• Persons who are immunocompromised due to any cause (including but not limited to immunosuppression caused by medications or HIV infection);

• Women who are or will be pregnant during the influenza season;

• Children and adolescents (aged 6 months through 18 years) who are receiving aspirin- or salicylate-containing medications and who might be at risk for experiencing Reye syndrome after influenza virus infection;

• Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;

• American Indians/Alaska Natives; and

• Persons who are extremely obese (body mass index ≥40 for adults).

Our offices have been fully stocked with the injected (shot) form of the vaccine for patients of all ages. Please contact us for an appointment for your 2021-22 Flu Vaccine.

To Urgent Care or Not Urgent Care

No one likes being sick. It always happens right after your doctor's office is done for the day. What do you do? Call 911? Go to the nearest urgent care center? Go to the local emergency room? Call your own doctor? 

The answer is, it depends. On What? Well, the severity or acuity of the situation and your ability to make a reasonable decision. If you having severe pain, a heart attack or a stroke, something similar then 911 is clearly the number one choice. The rest of the time, calling your doctor's general office number first is reasonable. While some doctor's offices have something called an answering service, our office's phones are forwarded to Dr. Yee's cell number directly. Depending on the time of the day or night, Dr. Yee may answer the call directly. If he does not then the call will go to his personal voicemail. When you get there, please leave your name, your phone number, the reason for Dr. Yee to call urgently. By doing this, you may be able to avoid and unnecessary visit to urgent care center because Dr. Yee may be able to advise you that you can wait until the next day or two to be seen. The final decision is always yours. 

The Benefits of Strength Training

According an article in Internal Medicine, there are multiple benefits to strength training that is beyond just building muscles and improving strength. Regular strength training help prevent sarcopenia, the gradual and natural loss of muscle mass. The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends strength training for all ages, starting as young as 6 years of age. In addition to prevention of muscle loss, strength training also provides contributes to something known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, more commonly known as “afterburn” that continues with calorie burning until the body is back its resting state. Other benefits include boosting energy and mood, reducing anxiety, improving sleep, glucose control in diabetics, protecting bone health, and even lowering cancer.

For more details on the above points as well as how to start a simple strength training program, please read: https://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/article/4268?uic=ZZDBF40010942441D3979580EC95E362A1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=All%20Evening%20Aug27&utm_term=Daily%20Update%20All%20Specialties%20with%20Sailthru%20Activity

And as always, you can always schedule an appointment with one of two doctors for consultation to see whether this is right for you. You can find all the information about us on our website: http://www.yeegroupmedical.com

The Risks and Benefits of Vitamin D Supplementation

Vitamin D has been a hot topic over the past few years. Some recent studies have suggested lower levels of vitamin D are linked to greater risks for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). It seemed completely reasonable that supplementing vitamin D to lower these risks. While this may be true in patients with chronic kidney disease, it seems that there is more to it than this. 

We all know the benefits of Vitamin in bone health and strong teeth. Vitamin D, however, does not prevent type 2 diabetes. While Vitamin D does not prevent cancer, it can prolong the life of those who have cancer. Because sunlight is the main source of vitamin, the cancer preventing benefit of sunscreen does not diminish the production of Vitamin D in the skin. 

Can excessive Vitamin D supplementation lead to toxicity? The answer is yes. Vitamin D is necessary in the metabolism of calcium. When excessive supplementation leads to super normal levels, high calcium levels (hypercalcemia) can develop and lead to acute kidney injury, lethargy, constipation, muscle weakness, excessive urination, headache and confusion, and even comatose state.

If you have enjoyed the information, please feel free to forward this to others who might be interested so that they can sign up to be on our contact list.

Weight Management and Sculpsure

When our clients come for consultation for Sculpsure laser body contouring, if desired, we also provide the necessary support for a better overall health for our clients. The first step is to make sure that our clients are in good health. We provide the counseling on nutritional and exercise support. We refer our clients to registered nutritionist in hospital systems who will provide scientific and evidence based information. We offer advice on appropriate exercises so client can strengthen their bodies as well. For those who are willing to step up further, we refer our clients to a registered nutritionist who is also an exercise physiologist. This dedicated professional will provide intensive counseling sometimes on a one-to-one basis. The reason for this is that weight management is a process. Weight management is not the end of the process.

Once our clients have made some progress, we then have the discussion on the use of the Sculpsure laser body contouring.

Of course, we have clients who are ready for Sculpsure. We will do the consultation and prepare the ones who will benefit the most from this and start treatment right away.

Whichever client type you are, give our office a call and we will schedule you for a consultation and start you on the road to better self.

FollowMyHealth

FollowMyHealth is our patient portal that allows patients to:

• Make or Change Appointments 

• Requesting Prescription Refills

• Communication with Staff via Secure Emails

• Viewing and Printing Lab Results

• Viewing Your Height, Weight and Blood Pressure

• Receiving Upcoming Appointment Reminders

• Staying Up-To-Date on the Latest News from Our Offices

To sign up for FollowMyHealth, please see one of the office staff.

All you need is a valid email address so that we can send you an invitation to join FollowMyHealth.

Sculpsure & Vectus

We are very excited about these two new services that we are offering in our Wyckoff, New Jersey location. We added these two technologies from Cynosure (Sculpsure and Vectus) during the early part of 2019. Dr. Yee and his staff are fully trained with both machines in March and started seeing patients shortly after. 

Essentially, the machines uses FDA approved lasers to direct energy to safely eliminate adipose tissue and hair follicles. In the case of Sculpsure, the adipose tissue (fat cells), the destroyed cells are removed by the body and excreted naturally. It is recommended that patients receive two separate treatments to the same area 6 weeks apart. Most patients will see the maximum change by 12 weeks, or 6 weeks after the second treatment. The very nice benefit of laser body contouring is that the individual's life is not affected at all. One can resume all activities, including exercise, work and leisure, as soon as the treatment is done.

Laser hair removal follows a similar principle. Hair follicles are destroyed and the body eliminates them. However, because there are many immature hair follicles in the skin, these will grow and produce new hair. Therefore several treatments 4-8 weeks apart are necessary. Also, because the laser is directed at a more superficial area, sun exposure 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after treatment should be limited. Sunscreens with a SPF of 35 or above is recommended.

If you have questions, feel free to call for a consultation or send us a message via our website.

Seeing Your Own Doctor

At Yee Medicine & Pediatric Associates, Drs. Yee and Psalidas are the only two doctors providing all medical care to you and your entire family. When you make an appointment to be seen, you can be certain that you will see one of the two. This is because they have set schedules in the office in Englewood and because Dr. Yee is the only one who sees patients in the Wyckoff location.

So there is no need to go an urgent care center or one of those big practices and see someone that you don’t know even when it is for routine care. We accept same day sick visits as well as walk ins and will accommodate your needs as much as possible.

In addition to English, Dr. Yee also speaks Cantonese and Spanish while  Dr. Psalidas also speaks modern Greek. Most of our administrative staff a fluent in Spanish and can provide the necessary translations when necessary.

We accept most insurances, including Medicare, NJ family care HMO plans, union plans, commercial plans...

For details on our staff, services and vision, please check look at the rest of our website.

We look forward to serving your medical needs.

Botox for Chronic Migraine

What is chronic migraine? Chronic migraine is defined as having migraine type headaches for more than 15 days total per month for at least 4 hours per day. The headache days do not have be in consecutive days.

What treatment is available for you? If you meet the above criteria have tried different types of medicines for the management of these headaches and have not achieved satisfactory results or cannot tolerate the effects of the medications prescribed, Botox may be an option.

BOTOX® is the first and only FDA-approved preventive treatment for Chronic Migraine. It's also the only treatment for people with Chronic Migraine that can help prevent headaches and migraines before they even start. When effective, Botox can reduce the number headaches by greater that 50%.

For more information, click on this link to get to the manufacturers' official website for more information