Ask a Librarian! Our librarians will help you research a specific health topic
	Conditions InDepth A reference guide to more than 100 health and medical conditions
	Conditions InBrief An excellent reference source for understanding illnesses and injuries
	Is your child sick? How to relieve your child's symptoms at home (En Espanol)
	Are you sick? Helping you answer health questions when your doctor is not available (En Espanol)
	Be well Keep you and your family healthy
	Drug information Information about hundreds of prescription and non-prescription drugs
	Complementary therapies Objective, science-based information on natural medicine
	Diagnostic procedures Quick view reference for many procedures
	Procedures InMotion Animated introductions to a variety of screening, diagnostic, and treatment procedures
	Health headlines Today's top health news
	Medical Dictionary Definitions for more than 55,000 medical terms
	Podcasts on health Helping to keep you and your loved ones healthy

Interactive tools

	Behavioral health screening tools See if you or a loved one might need help with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, stress & more
	Health Calculators Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist-to-Hip Ratio, Calories Burned and Activity Calculator
	Anatomy Explorer Did you know there are 206 bones and well over 600 muscles in the human body?
	Condition Explorer Our Health Condition Explorer shows you conditions that affect each part of your body
	Drug Checker If you take multiple medications, consult the Drug Checker to be sure they're not interacting with each other

Your Health transcript -- Edition 20

Greetings and welcome to the 20th edition of Your Health. I'm Neal Linkon, Aurora's manager of Web Communications, and it's hard to believe we've done this many already, and thanks to all of our listeners, both for listening and for your excellent suggestions and comments. If you want to share anything with us, please do so at internet@aurora.org.

In this edition we'll learn more about computer assisted knee replacement surgery. If you've got a sleepwalker at home, you have my sympathies.  So we'll talk about whether it's really true that you should never wake them. We'll also learn about fainting, and why it can be a sign of something a lot more serious.

If you or somebody you know needs knee replacement surgery, you should know there's a better way.  Either way, it's major surgery, but by using a computer, doctors can improve the outcome in many ways. Our Robin Barry talked with Dr. Joel Cler, an orthopedic surgeon in Oshkosh, about the many advantages of computer assisted knee replacement surgery.

<Interview transcript not available>

To learn more, go to www.Aurora.org/computer.

If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night to find someone sleepwalking around the house, you know that it's an unnerving experience. My roommate in college was a sleepwalker, and it was one of the strangest experiences of my college years, which is saying something.

But should you wake the person up? Some people argue that waking sleepwalkers will confuse and anger them, possibly endangering the person doing the waking. Others believe that sleepwalkers should be woken up because they may harm themselves if left alone.

Family history is usually what determines whether a person will be a sleepwalker. Common triggers, such as sedatives, medications, or fever, will often only affect those people who are predisposed to sleepwalking. About 18% of the population is prone to sleepwalking, and sleepwalking is common in children (especially those whose parents were sleepwalkers when they were young). Most children who start sleepwalking at an early age outgrow it by the time they reach adolescence. However, if children start sleepwalking after age 9 it is likely that they will continue into adulthood.

The idea that sleepwalkers should not be woken up is a widely held belief. Some people think waking the sleepwalker will increase his or her risk of a heart attack. However, most believe that the person doing the walking is at a greater risk for harm.

Research on similar forms of sleep pathology has found that some people do get aggressive when woken up from the non-REM (rapid eye movement) phase of the sleep cycle (which is when sleepwalking occurs). One study attributed 20 cases of murder and 30 criminal offenses to “sleep drunkenness,” a condition similar to sleepwalking. Other studies also caution against waking up sleepwalkers because of possible resistance and violence.

The myth that a sleepwalker should be left alone had its genesis in an ancient belief that the soul leaves the body during sleep, and if a sleepwalker is woken up they will be a body without a soul. Metaphysical reasoning aside, the presumption that sleepwalkers will exhibit wildly disturbed behavior when awakened is largely unfounded. Although some people may become aggressive, researchers have found that most of the time sleepwalkers are simply confused, disoriented, scared, or embarrassed. Waking a sleepwalker should be done as gently as possible to avoid such responses. I wish I had known that before I hit my roomie with a bucket of cold water.

Other than that not-recommended approach, it is difficult to wake a person who is sleepwalking, and many sleep experts recommend gently guiding the person back to bed instead. Sleepwalkers most likely will not remember the incident in the morning. It is important to get the person to go back to sleep in his or her bed because sleepwalkers often engage in activities that should require full attention, and thus are dangerous to do while partially asleep. Such behaviors include leaving the bed and walking down stairs, eating, drinking, cooking, and even driving a car. Therefore, leading the sleepwalker back to bed, and waking him or her if necessary, is the safest option.

Although it is possible that waking a sleepwalker could be met with resistance or aggression, it is highly unlikely that the person doing the waking will be harmed. Instead, the sleepwalker could unknowingly jeopardize his or her own health if not deterred and helped back to bed. It is difficult and often unnecessary to wake a sleepwalker, but doing so may be the best option if the person refuses to return to bed with gentle guidance.

If you've ever been with anybody who fainted, it can be kind of scary. It's usually over fairly quickly, and you can help the person by having them lie down briefly with their feet elevated. But fainting can be a sign of a bigger problem, so please call 911 if you or somebody you know has fainted and have any of these additional symptoms:

• Still unconscious after 1 minute has passed
• Difficult to awaken or acting confused
• Very weak (can't stand)
• Chest pain
• Difficulty breathing
• Lips or face are bluish
• Heart is beating irregularly or very fast
• Heart is beating too slowly, generally less than 60 beats per minute
• Any bleeding (including vomiting blood, blood in stool, or vaginal bleeding)
• Black bowel movements
• If they suffer from muscle jerking or shaking during the fainting spell
• History of heart problems or congestive heart failure
• Pregnant or possibly pregnant
• Any head or face injury
• If they also have signs of dehydration (e.g. no urine in more than 12 hours, very dry mouth, lightheaded, etc.)
• If the fainting occurred during exercise
• If they are older than 50
• If their face is suddenly very pale
• Fainting twice in one day

Otherwise, the person who fainted should lie down with his or her feet elevated for 10 to 20 minutes. The reason is that simple fainting is due to temporarily decreased blood flow to the brain. Drink some fruit juice, especially if you have missed a meal or have not eaten in more than 6 hours. In hot weather, drink several glasses of cold water and apply a cold wet washcloth to the forehead. For fainting associated with prolonged standing, eat more salty foods and drink more fluids every day. If there is any possibility of pregnancy, obtain and use a urine pregnancy test from the store.

And remember to call your doctor if you pass out again on the same day or if you are pregnant.

To learn more or to get help with other common illnesses and injuries, go to www.Aurora.org/HouseCalls.

That's all for this edition of Your Health. Please let us know if we can help you in any way or if you have any suggestions or feedback regarding this program. You can contact us at internet@aurora.org.  I'm Neal Linkon, and thanks for listening.

To listen to this podcast

• Click on to subscribe to our podcast through iTunes.
• Click on   below to sign up to listen later on your iPod or MP3 player.
• Click below to listen on your computer.

Your Health, Edition 19 (11:12)

What is a podcast?

A podcast is an audio program that you can listen to on the Web site, or subscribe to using free software, such as iTunes, to play back on your iPod or MP3 player.

Podcast software automatically detects new programs and downloads them to your portable media player when you sync it up to your computer.