Archive for March, 2008

Lack of pigments, which are mainly responsible for adding the color to various organs of your body can mainly lead to several vision and also skin problems.

One among those several problems is albinism.

Melanin plays the major role!

Albinism is considered as group of disorders, which mainly results from lack of production of melanin pigment in your body.

The color of your skin, hair and eyes mainly depends upon the production of melanin pigment in your body. This melanin pigment also plays a vital role in the development of certain optical nerves of your body.

Most common types of albinism mainly results in hypo-pigmentation, in which you can experience either absence of pigment in skin, eyes and also hair or you can have lighter pigmentation.

This can be due to the absorption of ultraviolet light. Most people with albinism usually become more sensitive to sun exposure and are more prone to develop skin cancers.

Albinism is a rare form of disorder found in very few individuals. There are almost 10 common types of this condition, in which one of the most severe forms include oculocutaneous albinism, which can mainly affect your skin, eyes and also hair.

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Graves’ disease, the most common form of hypothyroidism, mainly occurs when your body’s immune system erroneously attacks your thyroid gland and leads to over production of thyroxin hormone.

Once if the disorder is properly diagnosed, it becomes quite easy to treat the disease.

This abnormal immune response mainly affects the tissue present behind your eyes and also some other parts of your skin.

The higher levels of thyroxin hormone in Graves’ disease can significantly increase your body metabolism and makes your body a host for different health conditions.

In certain peculiar cases, Graves’ disease gradually decreases or it can completely disappear after several months. If the condition of Graves’ disease is left untreated, it becomes a great source for developing severe complications in your body and in certain rare cases, it can even cause death.

How does it affect on your pregnancy?

It is very important for a pregnant woman with this health condition to be euthyroid before planning to conceive.

In fact, you should plan for pregnancy only if your graves’ disease is considerably under control, as the rate of birth defects or miscarriages is highly significant in females who are left untreated with this kind of thyroid problem.

Bed wetting, commonly known as night time enuresis, can be a very frustrating problem for both parents as well as children.

Many children can stop bed wetting, but they need the help of their parents and doctor too.

Don’t be in the misconception that bed wetting is an indication for bad toilet training. It is just a stage of development in your child.

Night time enuresis is most common in children who are below 6 or 7 years of age. Children cannot establish bladder control at this particular period of age, so it is not at all a cause for concern in you.

If your child continues to wet the bed after 6 or 7 years of age or develops bed wetting after achieving night time dryness, then try to treat the problem with lots of patience and understanding.

Don’t ever try to scold or punish your kid for wetting the bed, as it can lead to feeling of guilty and depression in your child. So, try to tackle this condition with more patience.

How to take care of your children if they develop bed wetting?

Developing this habit of night time enuresis can be a sign of anxiety or mental stress, which your child might be experiencing.

If there are any problems seen in the vagina or cervix during the pelvic examination or if there is any abnormal Pap smear, colposcopy is performed to know the reason of abnormalities.

Colposcopy helps the physician to closely examine the genitals, vagina, and cervix. Colposcope is an instrument used for this procedure.

This instrument consists of magnifying lens and light to look for the abnormalities of cervix and vagina.

The magnifying lens magnifies the image so close that the physician can be able to see the tissues of vaginal wall and cervix clearly. If the physician finds anything suspicious, a small sample of tissue will be taken from the cervix for biopsy for additional information.

You might feel painful with some pinching and cramps during the time of taking biopsy sample.

Colposcopy to see any problem in cervix!

The physicians suggest colposcopy when they find any abnormal cells in Pap smear test or if they see any problem in the cervix or vagina during pelvic examination.

With the help of this colposcopy, the physician can be able to see the changes in the tissue like tissue color, structure, and its pattern and abnormal blood vessels.

If you have experienced any painful cut on your finger, then you can easily understand all about anal fissures.

Confused! Just like a tiny cut on your finger, anal fissure is a small tear at the edge of anus.

If you have any cut on your hand or finger, it becomes very difficult for you to use your hands.

Similarly, if you have anal fissures, you can experience difficulty in your usual bowel movements.

Every time when you have a bowel movement, the anus becomes more stretched and the fissure tends to reopen leading to cause more pain. Not all, but some of the anal fissures are chronic and takes more time to heal.

Anal fissures are quite common in infants whose age is between 6 to 24 months and these fissures rarely develop in older kids. It is also possible that these anal fissures can develop in adults making it more difficult for the affected person during normal bowel movements.

Anal fissures and hemorrhoids! Are they same?

Do you think anal fissures are similar to hemorrhoids? Then you are mistaken. Having anal fissure is different from hemorrhoids.

Panic disorder is a serious condition of anxiety disorder that takes place at any time and any where irrespective of sex or race of a person.

Mostly teens and persons of early adulthood are more prone to this panic disorder.

It has been estimated that almost 75% of the total population gets affected with this panic attack.

How can you identify panic attack?

A panic attack is a sudden or abrupt surge of fear that usually occurs without any warning sign or symptom or any particular reason. It is far more than a strong feeling of being stressed out that can be experienced by most of you. Certain symptoms of these kinds of panic attacks include:

1. Feeling difficulty in breathing, you can feel as if you are not able to get enough air to breathe.
2. You can experience terror which is almost paralyzing.
3. Hot flashes or sudden chills.
4. You can also experience tingling feeling in your fingers and toes.

Is it mind, body or both which causes panic disorder?

Body: There can be a genetic tendency of anxiety disorder in some persons. Some of you can have a family history of panic disorder or some other emotional disorders like depression [Depression Treatment].

World Tuberculosis day is on March 24th. Each year, this day is celebrated to raise awareness about the threat presented by tuberculosis around the world. Many people believe that Tuberculosis is a disease of past and there is no threat for us today.

The reason for this belief is in United States, the TB occurrence is declining. However, Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. Although, tuberculosis can be treated with medications and proper medical care, it still takes life of 2 million people approximately every year.

World Tuberculosis day 2008 is about celebrating the lives and stories of people affected by TB: men, women and children who have taken tuberculosis treatment; doctors, researchers, nurses; community workers – any one who helped towards the global fight against tuberculosis.

While it is a disease associated with poverty, close living and working conditions, anyone can contract tuberculosis, whether male or female, rich or poor, young or old. Once the person is affected with TB, it places burden not only on that person, but also on family, friends, community and society.

Most of the times ovarian cancer is called as silent killer as it does not show any kind of symptoms or manifestations of cancer till it reaches to the advanced phase of cancer.

Most of the women, almost one third of the total population, can suffer with some or the other type of cancer in their life time and almost one half of this percentage are experiencing cancer in their ovaries.

Identify the cancer in early stages in order to avoid complications

The early symptoms of an ovarian cancer are very mild and difficult to identify. Some of the early signs of ovarian cancer which can help you to identify the abnormality in the growth of ovarian cells are given here.

Whenever you notice these abnormalities, immediately consult the doctor for proper prevention of cancer.

• Experiencing abnormal bleeding.
• Swelling in the abdomen which is often accompanied with a pain.
• An abnormal or unusual feeling of discomfort in the pelvic region.
• Unusual indigestion problem, formation of gas or bloating that is not giving any relief even after the use of antacids.
• Severe pain during sexual intercourse.

Did you observe any white patches on your skin? Then you might be suffering from vitiligo?

Vitiligo usually takes place as a result of loss of melanin pigment in your skin.

Any one of you can have a chance to get affected with this skin disorder. It specifically doesn’t affect any person with particular race or sex or age.

Vitiligo usually takes place when the cells of your skin, which are responsible for melanin, stops the formation or production of the pigment in your skin.

As a result, an irregular white patch slowly starts growing on your skin with small areas and spreads into larger areas as the time passes.

There is no cure for this skin disorder and the main aim of the treatment is to reduce or stop the progression of pigment loss. For some cases of vitiligo, treatment is not essential. Certain self care tips like applying cosmetic creams and using sunscreen lotions can be helpful to improve the appearance of your skin.

Various types of therapies are available for the treatment of vitiligo. Depending on the type of therapy used for vitiligo, treatment duration varies from 6 to 18 months. The type of treatment also depends on the number of white patches present on your skin.

People with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may be overwhelmed with persistent unappreciable thoughts or images.

If anyone in the family is suffering from OCD, then there is a 25% chance of having this disorder in one of the immediate family members.

Unwanted thoughts are obsession and repetitive behavior is compulsion. So, both combined together is obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsession and compulsion are related to each other.

For example, if individuals are obsessed by the dirt and germs, they will develop the compulsion of washing their hands repeatedly.

Afraid of social embarrassment makes people to comb their hair in front of mirror repeatedly and sometimes they cannot even move away from the mirror if they caught by the mirror.

Another example of obsessive compulsive disorder is if people are obsessive about intruder, it will become compulsive for them to lock and relock their doors many more times before going to bed.

If a woman is obsessed with a fear that she might contaminate her baby, she will never touch her baby.

They constantly check the things repeatedly before feeling secure enough to go to bed such as: Is the stove off? Is the alarm set? Is the door locked? Is the television turned off? Etc.