Archive for April, 2008

Pulmonary hypertension is the rare form of lung disorders, which usually begins with blockage of arteries of your heart.

As a result of this narrowing of your tiny arteries, the resistance for the blood to flow through lungs increases and therefore it increases the pressure on your heart.

Pulmonary hypertension is not curable but there are several treatments to reduce the symptoms of this disorder [Treating pulmonary disease].

The manifestations involved in pulmonary hypertension appear to be subtle in the early stages and they might not be clear for several months or sometimes it takes years to identify the disease.

If the disease progresses, then it can be possible for you to identify pulmonary hypertension with these evidences:

1. Primarily, you can notice that you are short of breath only when you are involved in any physical activity. But, as the disease reaches the advanced stage, then you might be in short of breath most of the times, even when you are at rest.
2. You can experience a severe pressure or pain in your chest portion.
3. Swelling in your legs, ankles and ultimately swelling in your abdomen can be noticed.

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Pericardium is the thin lining which will always protect your heart. Protecting this protective lining of your heart is very much important in order to prevent certain acute or chronic heart diseases.

When this protective layer gets rubbed or if comes in contact with the outer layer of your heart repeatedly, then it results in pericarditis.

Inflammation to this protective layer, pericardium, can result in pericarditis.

It is mostly associated with irritation or swelling of the protective layer that surrounds your heart and as a result you can experience chest pain [Heart conditions responsible for endocarditis].

Infection to the protective layer is the main cause for pericarditis

In general, the two layered pericardial sac that surrounds your heart usually contains with small amounts of lubricating fluid. When this sac of protective layer becomes infected, this inflammation of the pericardium results in friction between layered sac structure and the outer layer of your heart. As a result, you can experience a chest pain and several other signs of pericarditis.

The main cause for pericarditis is very hard to determine and in most cases doctors fail to determine either the exact cause for the infection or fail to suspect any viral infection.

Does your child frequently suffer with ear ache? This can be because of otitis media, inflammation in the middle ear of your kid.

This inflammation usually begins with infections responsible for cold, sore throat or any other breathing or respiratory problems.

Otitis media is the most common ear inflammation in children. It is believed that almost 75% of children suffer with this otitis media every year.

It is also considered as the most common cause of hearing loss in children. Although this inflammation in ear is usually seen in infants, it can also affect adults very occasionally.

Does this inflammation results in hearing loss?

The 3 tiny bones present in your middle ear mainly carry sound vibrations from the ear drum to your inner ear. If any kind of fluid accumulates in your ear, these sound vibrations fail to reach your inner ear efficiently and as a result your ability to hear is lost gradually.

Usually this type of hearing loss is not permanent. However, if otitis media takes place frequently, it leads to damage of various parts in your ear like eardrum, hearing nerve and also to the bone of your ear. As a result of this damage to main hearing parts of your ear, you can lose your hearing ability for ever.

Eating contaminated food can be very dangerous for you and it usually results in several gastro intestinal infections such as viral gastroenteritis.

Several types of viruses are responsible for causing gastroenteritis, which mainly include astro viruses, rota virus, and noro virus. These viruses usually result in vomiting and diarrhea, when they enter into your stomach.

Viral gastroenteritis is often known as stomach flu, though it is not caused by any influenza viruses.

You can easily identify this viral gastroenteritis with watery diarrhea and also vomiting. If you are affected with this viral infection, you can also experience severe headache, fever and also severe abdominal cramps.

Contaminated food and drinks are suspected as main culprits!

Food that gets contaminated through the hands of food preparers or handlers can be the main source for the virus to transmit. Especially, if they do not wash their hands properly after using bathroom can increase the chance for the spread of disease.

Uncovered food or certain other beverages, which are handled in an improper way, are also responsible for making a clear path for the virus to enter into your body.

Do you want the kind of body that burns fat even in your sleep? There is a simple solution to this - just rev up your metabolism.

If you already know that, then it’s okay. But are you following the mandatory things to make sure your internal fat burning furnace stays on for 24 hours?

Nutrition tips to rev up your metabolism:

1. Have three full meals a day and also include 2-3 snacks. Balance is the key. Consume enough proteins, lots of fruits and vegetables and a small amount of fat. If your balance is out of whack, you are going to be out of whack too. With proper practice, you will achieve the right balance [Boost metabolism naturally].

2. Purchase foods that can remember where they came from. Avoid consuming processed junk or convenience foods.

3. Prepare nutritious meals that can be stored for few days. Keep enough food in your refrigerator or cooler at your work and also at home. Purchase a box of nutrition bars or power bars to eat when you are extra busy. Store them in your gym bag, desk drawer and coat pockets.

Neuralgia is a sharp severe pain that usually takes place along a nerve or group of nerves.

The pain of neuralgia usually reoccurs in irregular periods. Most of the times this stabbing pain is brief or concise, but it can be serious sometimes.

In which particular areas of skin, this pain is more prominent?

Neuralgia usually occurs because of the irritation caused by the damaged nerve. You can experience different types of nerve pains depending upon the reason for the irritation or damage to the nerve. The pain is felt in that particular areas of skin that is supplied by damaged and irritated nerve. Basically there are two most common types of neuralgia, which you can experience.

Trigeminal neuralgia:

In this case, the affected nerves of your body become more sensitive to touch, temperature and also to pressure sensation, especially in the facial areas from jaw to fore head. This particular nerve disorder is responsible for short episodes of unbearable pain.

You can experience the stabbing pain for normally less than 2 minutes and takes place only on one side of your face. This is most uncommon type of neuralgia and only 5 individuals out of 100,00 can experience this particular type of nerve disorder.

Can you imagine, even your bone present deep inside your skin gets infection, known as Osteomyelitis. Pus producing bone infection can be either chronic or acute.

Even though it remains in one location, it is quite capable to spread through out your bone marrow, a covering membrane of your bones.

An infection can reach your bone by traveling through blood stream or by spreading from nearby tissue. These infections can also start in your bone itself, when your bone is directly exposed to germs causing infection, through any traumatic accident.

Long bones such as leg and also upper arm bones are usually affected with this osteomyelitis. Some of the other bones, which can be infected with this bone infection can include bone of your spine, foot, pelvis and also collar bone.

Identifying osteomyelitus – A tough task!

If you have osteomyelitis, you can feel severe pain at the areas where the bone is infected. You can also experience fever, chills, nausea or you can also have a general feeling of not being well. Skin that covers the infected bone can become red and swollen.

Have you ever heard about “water in the lungs”, also called pleural effusion?

In general, very few amounts of pleural fluid are present in the pleural spaces of your lungs. This fluid is not detectable by your regular health check up or by any routine methods.

When this accumulation of fluid is high in between pleural spaces, then it can lead to several heart or lung disorders such as pleural effusion.

Pleura are the thin membranes that are normally lined to your lungs and also inside your chest cavity. These membranes contain fluids that act as lubrication and also help in the respiration process.

When the accumulation of pleural fluid is more inside these spaces, then it can interfere in the normal functioning of your chest and lungs and results in pleural effusion.

Pleural effusions are very common and according to the estimation given by national cancer institute of United States, approximately 100, 000 are diagnosed with this disorder every year.

Depending on the reason for the accumulation of the fluid, the excess fluid in your pleural spaces is distinguished as either protein poor called transudative or protein rich also known as exudative. These two categories of fluid are very helpful for the physicians to determine the main causes for pleural effusion.

Bacterium that causes Lyme disease is Borrelia burgdorferi. It is commonly caused by the bite of ticks.

This bacterium enters through the Ixodes ticks when it bites an infected animal and then they are transmitted to the person. This further leads to Lyme disease.

In most situations, the Lyme disease is reported to be seen in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and Pacific coastal areas of the USA.

How Lyme Disease Can Be Identified?

It is illustrated that the symptoms of Lyme disease can be mostly seen in three stages (not in all cases).

In the first stage of Lyme disease, after one to two weeks of tick bite, a circular skin rash (erythema migrans) appears, but in some cases, it develops after thirty days of tick bite. This erythema migrans looks like a “bull’s eye” with red spot. This red spot is again surrounded by clear skin. Intensifying red rash surrounds the clear skin again.

In darker skin tone people, this rash cannot be seen, but a bruise like appearance can be seen. Commonly, this rash resolves on its own mostly in about 30 days.

Are you aware of Kawasaki disease? It is the common inflammatory disease in children, which usually affects almost 80% of total kids, who are aged between 2 to 5.

Though the exact cause for this health condition in children is not clear, some of the researchers consider it as an autoimmune disorder, which is mainly stimulated by an infection or any over exposure to environmental toxins.

However, in most of the cases, Kawasaki disease affects children less than 4 years of age, but very rarely it can also affect young infants and also adolescents.

It is often believed that children with Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of developing Kawasaki disease.

Do you think Kawasaki disease is contagious and hereditary?

Though, many doctors and researchers believe that Kawasaki disease is caused by a viral infection, it is neither contagious nor can be hereditary.

It is quite uncommon that more than one kid in a family develops this inflammatory disease. It is also believed that very few kids, less than 2%, can have another attack of this disease in their life.

If the illness continues for more than 2 weeks, then you can notice the peeling of skin on the fingers and also toes of the affected individual.