Archive for January, 2008

Candida is the name given for group of yeasts that commonly affect the moist areas of your body like vaginal regions and also alimentary tracts.

These forms of yeast are normally found in lower bowel regions and causes infection to your skin.

The most significant form of this group of yeasts is Candida albicans.

This form of bacteria is present in small numbers in your body and causes no harm for you. It is controlled by the beneficial bacteria and also by your immune system.

When ever this beneficial bacterium is destroyed with harmful antibiotics, then these small numbers of Candida starts growing. When this growth of bacteria exceeds its tolerance level, then it can lead to weakening of your immune system.

Responsible factors for developing Candida:

• Usage of certain oral contraceptives, anti-ulcer drugs, steroids and also long term use of antibiotics can improve the growth of Candida in your body.
• Consuming high sugar contents is also one of the major reasons which will help in the development of Candida in your body.
• In women, during pregnancy, you have more chances for the development of candida bacterium in your body.

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Anthrax is a disease caused due to the Bacillus anthracis bacterium that lives in soil. Most commonly, anthrax occur in animals. Humans can get this when there is a contact with infected animals or tissue from infected animals.

Three forms of anthrax disease that affects people often include:

Cutaneous anthrax:

This is an infection of the skin caused by bacterium.

During this infection, initially skin lesions will form and leads to blisters.

After that, the blister will break down into a black ulcer.

The nearby lymph nodes will also be infected and they will be very much painful.

If this disease is left untreated, it can spread to the blood stream and becomes fatal.

Inhalation anthrax:

This is also called as respiratory anthrax which affects the lungs.

It is due to the breathing the spores of the bacterium bacillus anthracis.

This affects when you breathe in airborne anthrax spores.

This disease develops when anthrax spores enter into the lungs. Antibiotic therapy will help you in preventing the disease.

The chief kind of inhalational anthrax includes hemorrhagic infection of the lymph nodes in the chest. Most of the affected people will have hemorrhagic meningitis.

Cholera is a serious form of bacterial infection which can lead you to death with in hours, if left untreated.

Contaminated water is the main source for cholera to spread.

It is an acute intestinal infection which is mainly caused due to intake of contaminated food or water.

Cholera is an acute illness which is mainly characterized with watery diarrhea. The toxin released by this bacterial infection increases the secretion of water and chloride ions in the intestine and develops massive diarrhea.

This bacterial infection can occur under certain epidemic conditions like poor sanitation, famines, crowding and during war times. The mild form of cholera is associated with a short incubation period of one to five days.

Don’t get confused with diarrhea and cholera

For most of the people, the signs and symptoms of cholera are not exposed and you will never feel any illness and infection, until the disease becomes serious. If you become sick with cholera, then you can experience mild to moderate forms of diarrhea and it is hard to distinguish the diarrhea caused with bacterial infection and with other problems. These are some of symptoms which you can rarely experience when you get cholera infection.

Approximately 20% of the people will get hives.

Unless there are recurring problems with hives, there is no need to worry about hives. Hives is medically known as urticaria.

Hives are formed by histamines and other compounds released from mast cells.

These histamines, which are released from the mast cells, cause the leaking of the fluid from the blood vessels.

This leakage leads to swelling of the skin. Hives can form anywhere in the body, but usually in the palms and soles of the feet.

There are different types of hives, which include:

Acute:Acute urticaria (hives) is sometimes due to allergies. They generally show up in a few minutes after exposure to any allergen and lasts for a few hours to few weeks.

The common causes of acute urticaria include consumption of shellfish, eggs, fish, nuts, dye, derivatives of acids, etc., and medicines such as Amaryl, aspirin, penicillin, sulfonamides, etc. Bee stings can also cause hives.

Chronic: Chronic urticaria mostly is due to autoimmune disease or related to other autoimmune conditions such as thyroid disease.

Crying is a normal process in the life of a baby.

All babies cry some or the other time when they feel hungry, thirsty, sleepy, grumpy, lonely or during a diaper change.

At times, the baby undergoes some strange fussy periods where the baby cries excessively for hours.

It can arise rarely or continuously at the same time every day.

Colic – A trigger for baby’s cry

The cause of baby’s cry extends from very simple reasons to critical conditions. One such condition is colic.

It is one of the most common reasons for a baby cry. A baby having recurring episodes of excessive, inconsolable crying refers to a colic condition. With this condition, the baby usually cries about three hours a day for more than thrice a week. It usually begins in babies at about three to twelve weeks of age.

Colic in toddler - relieve it with simple ideas

Calming a child with colic is mainly a matter of identifying and eliminating a trigger for the colic. The primary triggers for the colic are food, feeding, formula, and medications.

To relieve the baby from colic, experiment some of the following ideas to calm the baby.

The main symptom of lung disease is lungs do not work properly.

There are different types of lung diseases such as obstructive, restrictive and difficulty in moving oxygen from lung’s air sac into your blood.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis – A most common lung disease in pregnant women

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a progressively deadly lung disease that mostly affects women in their child bearing stage.

Diagnosing this disease is very difficult because most of the early symptoms of LAM are similar to other lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis or emphysema.

LAM is characterized by an unusual type of smooth muscle cell that invades tissues of the lungs. As the time goes on, the LAM cells create holes in the lungs thus restricting the lungs from transforming oxygen to other parts of the body and making your breathing a daily battle.

VEGF-D Serum Test:
VEFG is vascular endothelial growth factor and is a main angiogenic growth factor which is produced by malignant cells. VEGF-D Serum Test is clinically helpful diagnostic test for LAM.

Smoking women can be at an increased risk of lung disease:

Smoking offers a greater risk, especially women suffering from COPD. This is the fourth leading cause of death in US.

Night sweats are considered to be the symptoms of other diseases and are not harmful.

They are not a sleep disorder, but night sweats can disturb the sleep and makes you to feel exhausted.

People with this problem can sometimes awake in the middle of the night feeling too cold or too hot.

These are also sometimes called as sleep hyperhidrosis.

Night sweats during menopause and perimenopause!

The most common cause of night sweats in women is menopause.

It is believed that night sweats are a result of decrease in estrogen production during menopause.

Due to hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause, most of the women will experience a form of night sweats.

Menopause night sweats are hot flashes, which tends to happen around 3-4 a.m. Men also tend to suffer from night sweats due to change in hormones.

Women who have undergone chemotherapy are susceptible to have night sweats because of decrease in estrogen with chemotherapy.

Other conditions that can lead to night sweats include:

Idiopathic hyperhidrosis: It is a type of illness in which the body produces too much sweating. However, the cause of sweating is unknown.

When your kidneys are unable to do some of their works, kidney dialysis helps to do the work of your kidneys.

Mainly, the functions of kidneys include: removing waste products from your blood, removing excess fluids, restoring the levels of electrolytes and controlling your blood pressure.

Basically there are two types of kidney dialysis: peritoneal and hemo dialysis. During the day of dialysis you will feel tired. The next day after dialysis, your tiredness will decrease and you get more energy.

You need to have kidney dialysis at least three times a week and 3-4 hours for each time. The good news about dialysis is that the dialysis doesn’t have to last forever for some people. You can also try for kidney transplant, but you need to prepare for lots of tests before you receive the new kidney.

This life saver process helps in cleaning your body and you will get rid of what your body can’t do on its own any more.

Hemodialysis:

Most of the people have a force in their arm where they catch up the dialysis machine. On one side of the dialysis machine the dialystate is going to flow and on the other side your blood is going to flow and after cleansing the blood, it returns to you.

With a great advancement in the field of multiple myeloma research, the survival rate has increased in myeloma patients.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable but effectively treatable disease with various treatment options.

How Multiple Myeloma develops?

Multiple myeloma (MM) is the cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. Plasma cells produce antibodies to fight against foreign bodies. Multiple myeloma develops due to an uncontrolled growth of plasma cells in the bone marrow. It got its name because the tumor cells can develop in multiple bone marrow locations in the body.

It is estimated that, in the United States, about 15000 people are with multiple myeloma. It is slightly more common in men than in women.

Multiple Myeloma - Treatment Options

Treating myeloma is a complex process, as several conditions must be taken into consideration: patient’s overall health, other medical conditions, cancer status, previous cancer regimens, and its result.

Chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, Thalomid (thalidomide), Velcade (bortezomib), and Zometa (zoledronic acid) are currently available treatment options for multiple myeloma.

Chemotherapy:

Prostate health is affected with many situations. Among which, prostate cancer is the most common one.

This affects almost as many men as breast cancer affects women. It is a very problematic condition of having an enlarged prostate.

This can cause frequent trips to the bathroom, particularly during nights.

When your prostate health gets affected, it can block the normal urine flow from the bladder.

As men age, their prostate health will be affected. As they get older, their prostate enlarges because aged men have few orgasms when compared to younger men.

Marital relations more often can cause this organ to contract in size. Sometimes, hormonal dietary supplements can cause risks in your prostate health as these supplements contain testosterone and estradiol.

If that is the problem, a wide range of over-the-counter drugs and prescription supplements help in shrinking an enlarged prostate. You should undergo regular screenings to detect conditions like prostate cancer.

If you notice any changes in your prostate health, before the development of cancer, you can prevent it through effective medications which prevent the cells from becoming malignant. The only key to identify the problem is through regular screenings.