Archive for the 'Blood Disorders' Category

Did you ever think why are you suffering with diabetes or high blood pressure? There can be a wide range of causes for you to experience high blood pressure or even diabetes.

But, the most common factor, which can increase your risk of high blood pressure and diabetes, is renal artery stenosis.

Renal artery stenosis is the condition where the main blood supplying arteries of your kidneys gets narrowed or blocked because of fat or cholesterol accumulation.

This accumulation of fat or cholesterol significantly impairs the blood flow through kidneys and results in impaired kidney function.

Subsequently, this impaired functioning of your kidneys progresses to severe high blood pressure or diabetes.

In general, each kidney in your body gets it blood flow through an important artery called renal artery that arises from aorta, a major blood vessel of your heart. So, if one of the both renal arteries narrows, it will eventually cause decreased blood flow to the kidney. This narrowing of renal arteries is mainly referred as renal artery stenosis.

Hormonal response!

When the volume of blood flow to your kidneys is reduced, it mainly results in hormonal response in your body. This hormonal system is stimulated as a defense against low blood pressure in your renal system.

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Do you regularly take high doses of corticosteroids?

Then be aware with Cushing’s syndrome! When your body is exposed to cortisol hormone for a prolonged period of time, then it possibly results in Cushing’s syndrome.

It can mainly occur when your adrenal glands, present above your kidneys, makes too much of cortisol.

However, Cushing’s syndrome, also called as hypercortisolism, is one of the most rarely caused health condition and almost 5 in a million people gets it every year.

Adults aged between 20-50years of age, usually becomes the victim of this kind of rare disease. It is also believed that women are more prone to develop Cushing’s syndrome when compared with men.

Role of corticosteroids in Cushing’s syndrome!

Apart from your body’s own production, accumulation of cortisol hormone also takes place due to several external factors like overdose of corticosteroids.

Taking higher doses of corticosteroids for an extended or prolonged period of time also results in Cushing’s syndrome or hypercortisolism. These cortisol medications are mainly prescribed by your doctor to treat many inflammatory diseases such as lupus, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis. Corticosteroids are also used to prevent your body from refusing any transplanted organ.

Do you have high blood sugar? Are you thinking to conceive a baby? When you have high blood sugar or diabetes [Gestational diabetes], then preconception planning can significantly help you a lot in giving birth to a healthy baby.

If you are suffering with high blood sugar, then it is quite common for you to get anxious about the risks and complications associated with your pregnancy. But, don’t worry; here is good news for you.

If you succeed in controlling your blood sugar levels of your body before or during the pregnancy, then it becomes very easy for you to avoid all the odds involved in having a healthy baby.

Ensure healthy body condition before you try for a pregnancy!

Before you try to conceive, consult your personal physician or gynecologist for a simple physical exam. Try to discuss about your interest in pregnancy. If you are on oral diabetic medications, then it becomes necessary for you to take insulin or your will recommend to make out certain changes in your diabetes treatment plan.

So, if you have high blood pressure or any other pregnancy complication, then immediately seek right medical treatment before you try to get pregnant.

Have you ever noticed any twisted group of purple or blue veins on your skin? Those veins are known as varicose veins.

Varicose veins are usually considered as abnormal condition of blood vessels, which can mainly result from weakening of vessel wall. Sometimes, these veins are surrounded with thin red capillaries known as spider veins.

Any vein in your body can become varicose, but usually veins present in your legs and feet are affected often.

This twisting of veins is mainly due to increased pressure in the veins present in your lower body, because of standing and walking upright.

Varicose veins and spider veins are very common condition for most of the people and it can take place in its possible mild form. For most of you, these varicose veins that are medically insignificant in variation can be a cause for cosmetic concern while for others it can result in discomfort and also causes aching pain.

Is it necessary to treat varicose veins?

As varicose veins are primarily a cosmetic concern, they are not recommended any kind of treatment. In certain severe cases, especially those which mainly involve skin ulcers, treatment is required. These varicose veins are repeatedly treated by removing the bad veins beneath your skin. This elimination of veins mainly compels the blood to flow through other healthy veins present in your body.

According to the new report, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels not only are bad for your heart, they may also harm your eyesight.

According to background information in the report published in the May issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, the two conditions appear to increase one’s risk for retinal vein occlusion, a condition that leads to vision loss.

It results from one or more veins carrying blood from the eye to the heart becoming blocked and causing bleeding or fluid build-up.

The Irish study found that people with high blood pressure had more than 3.5 times the risk of developing retinal vein occlusion than those without it.

People with high cholesterol levels had an approximately 2.5-fold higher risk of retinal vein occlusion.

According to the authors, those who treat patients with hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol should be as concerned with the health of the person’s eyes as they are with the health of the person’s cardiovascular system.

Source: Medline Plus

Did you notice any discoloration and numbness of your finger tips and toes when exposed to cold temperatures or even in stress?

This condition is usually referred as Raynaud’s disease, in which the arteries that supply blood to your skin becomes narrow and also limits the circulation of blood in those affected areas like finger tips, toes, nose and also in ears.

Raynaud’s disease is more common in women when compared with others and it is also more common in people who live in colder climatic conditions.

The treatment for this disease usually depends on the severity and also on the presence of associated conditions.

Self care steps to reduce raynaud’s attack!

Here are some steps which will help you in treating raynaud’s disease and reduce the symptoms of raynaud’s attack. These steps help in preventing the numbness of your skin.

• Avoid smoking: Nicotine that is present in cigarettes reduces the temperature of your skin by constricting the blood vessels, leading to raynaud’s disease. Breathing second hand smoke can also worsen raynaud’s disease.

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.

Are you aware of the complications involved in deep vein thrombosis (DVT)?

It has been estimated that almost 200,000 people are facing death every year due to these complications of DVT blood clots.

So, it becomes very essential for every one to be aware with these complications, in order to avoid unexpected death.

Deep vein thrombosis is a very serious condition that can cause severe and permanent damage to your leg.

Whenever there is a formation of an air bubble or blood clot or any piece of fat in your blood vessels, then the flow of blood through the veins gets stuck and if this blockage of blood vessel is due to a blood clot raised from your leg or arms, then it is referred as deep vein thrombosis.

Factors which can increase the risk of DVT blood clots:

There are certain factors which can increase the risk of developing blood clots in your veins. Some of these factors include:

1. Any individual older than 60 years of age is at increased risk of developing these kinds of blood clots in their veins.

Pulmonary embolism is very similar to a blood clot.

When an artery in your lung gets blocked, then the blood flow to the lung through that particular artery gets stopped with the blood flow and as a result you can experience sudden pain in your chest associated with shortness of breath.

These blood clots usually come from smaller blood vessels of your body like legs, arms, heart and even through pelvis.

When a blood clot is formed in your legs or arms, then it is referred as deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

What happens when you have a clot in the blood vessel?

This clot in the blood normally travels through the blood vessels of lungs and continues to reach smaller blood vessels of your body, until it gets stuck in the blood vessels, which are too small for the clot to allow it to proceed further. As a result, the clot gets stuck in your blood vessel and prevents the blood to flow into that particular section of your lungs.

The parvovirus B19 that is responsible for the development of viral infection “fifth disease,” also known as erythema infectiosum, can result in a wide range of severe conditions in people with chronic blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease is a rare blood disorder where hemoglobin S, a blood component that helps RBC to carry oxygen is affected and causes the red blood cells to change shape.

How does fifth disease affect patients with chronic blood disorders?

Patients with underlying sickle cell disease who become infected with the parvovirus are at high risk for aplastic crisis.

This is because the fifth disease virus infects erythroid cells, the cells of the erythrocytic (red blood cells) series of bone marrow and interferes with the production of red blood cells (RBC) as they mature and differentiated all along the erythroid lineage.

The cessation of red blood cells production lasts for about ten days. The condition is harmless and not a problem in patients that are otherwise healthy. However, people with chronic blood disorders (sickle cell disease, hereditary spherocytosis or thalassemia) can have serious worsening conditions such as transient aplastic crisis.