By Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

I’ve been chomped by a tick multiple times, as have most people who regularly tramp in the outdoors. It’s creepy — the tick drops onto your skin, burrows in painlessly, and sucks. Its anticoagulant can cause tick paralysis, and these arthropods carry all sorts of infections: Colorado Tick Fever (a virus), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (parasite), Tularemia (a bacteria), and the more commonly known Lyme Disease.

Oh Noooo! …Tips for Treating & Avoiding Travelers’ Diarrhea

By Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

After an all-night flight to Santiago, Chile, last year, I passed out a pack of AMK’s Fresh Bath Travel Wipes to everyone in our group right before hitting the tarmac. It was rejuvenating.And, the antibacterial properties actually do more than refresh, they function to prevent the most common travel related illness – travelers’ diarrhea.

The Risk of Travelers Diarrhea (TD) is higher than malaria: it is the most common affliction when heading overseas. According to the Centers for Disease Control, TD affects 30-50% of all travelers to high-risk areas. That’s 50,000 people per day and 10 million per year. TD is essentially food poisoning, which occurs when consuming food or water that is contaminated by bacteria, parasites, or viruses. It gets on your food or hands, and then down your gullet.

HYPOTHERMIA: THE COLD HARD FACTS ABOUT WINTER’S DEADLY KILLER
By Christopher Van Tilburg, M.D.

Rescue mission for a lost snowboarder: a bitter-cold, raging midnight storm high above timberline. That was the scene of my first search and rescue call to Oregon’s Mount Hood as a young doctor. After another team located the snowboarder, I scurried from the tempestuous black night to the ski patrol room, where I examined a shivering, huddling young man. He clutched a blanket draped over soaked ski clothes, and held a steaming cup of hot chocolate, too scalding to drink. Fortunately, the snowboarder had been found. But from across the room I could see he suffered from hypothermia and dehydration.

By Doug Abromeit – Director of the Forest Service National Avalanche Center

Avalanches typically kill more people in the mountains in the West than any other natural disaster, and the winter of 2007-2008 was particularly grim. Last year 36 people died – the worst on record. Two of those people were killed by avalanches off of house roofs, one was killed in a ski area and thirty-three were killed doing their thing in the backcountry — snowboarding, skiing, climbing or riding a snowmobile.

BACKCOUNTRY GRUB: WHAT’S SAFE TO EAT AND DRINK?

Christopher Van Tilburg, M.D.

In October, a solo climber on Washington’s 12,276-foot Mount Adams fell on Suksdorf Ridge, and broke his ankle. It’s just what every climber fears: being alone on a high mountain with a disastrous injury. Unable to walk, he dragged himself down the snowfields. After five days and nights, he was found at 6,200 feet suffering from frostbite and dehydration. He survived on creek water and an eclectic mix of creepy crawlers: ants, centipedes, spiders, mushrooms, and berries.