Most people feel nervous and awkward in pressurized social situations, like job interviews or giving presentations.

It is quite natural to feel self-conscious, shy or nervous in front of others at times.

But, for people with social phobia, common everyday social situations cause extreme anxiety and self-consciousness.

Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a chronic mental health condition that causes an irrational or illogical anxiety or fear of common social interactions.

This social anxiety disorder causes the fear that you’ll embarrass or humiliate yourself. The paralytic self-consciousness and anxiety can prevent you from speaking in public or socializing.

Managing social phobia

When you suffer from social phobia, self-confidence and positive coping skills is the key to improving your quality of life. Here are a few effective ways to manage it:

1. Banish negative thoughts: Eliminating negative thoughts about yourself can help you significantly. Try to see yourself in a more positive light and refrain from self-criticism.
2. Adopt stress management techniques: Stress can increase your anxiety and nervousness about common social situations. Explore different stress management techniques and implement them to improve your quality of life.

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Retinoblastoma, a rare type of eye cancer, mainly affects the retina (light sensing part of eye) of young children under five years of age, but can affect adults too.

It is estimated that approximately 200 to 300 children are diagnosed with retinoblastoma every year and it affects one in every 20,000 children.

Almost 40% cases of retinoblastoma are inherited; 75% of them are affected by only one eye, with 25% of cases affecting both eyes.

Is it curable?

If you detect tumors in the early stages, you have a better chance of saving the eyesight – and sometimes even the life – of the victim. Successful treatment for retinoblastoma depends on the position, size and number of tumors present in the eye. For smaller tumors, here are a few treatment options:

1. Laser therapy: This therapy is mainly used to vaporize the tumors present in the retina. Usually two or three sessions are needed at monthly intervals to completely eliminate the tumors.
2. Thermotherapy: The main process used in this procedure is heat, which is used to destroy the cancer cells present in the retina. Sometimes, thermotherapy is combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy for total elimination.

Do you suffer from recurrent skin rashes? If they are characterized by purple, reddish bumps, they could be caused by an uncommon inflammatory disease of the skin, lichen planus, which is mainly caused by an abnormal immune reaction, provoked by drug or viral infection.

Lichen planus is a curious skin condition which tends to zone in on small areas, rather than mucous membranes and wider areas.

It has been estimated that almost 85% of lichen planus cases disappear 18 months after their occurrence. So, there is no need to worry.

However, if it affects your mouth or genital parts, it may persist longer than usual and cause great discomfort. Here are some essential facts to consider when diagnosing lichen planus.

Don’t confuse lichen planus with other common rashes

Rashes on the skin are common for many types of skin inflammation like eczema and allergies, so there is a chance of confusing them with lichen planus. These clues will help you to identify this specific skin condition absolutely:

1. The major differentiation between lichen planus and other skin conditions is its color. If you notice any rashes that are lilac or violet in color, it is almost definitely lichen planus.

—-Essential measures to get better relief!

A common health condition, joint pain can be triggered by many things. Though it usually results from an injury or sprain, joint pain can also be caused by underlying health conditions like arthritis.

When one or more joints are involved in causing joint pain, it is referred to as arthralgia.

Arthralgia is caused by different types of injuries, infections and is very rarely the result of tumors in your joints.

Regardless of the cause, joint pain can cause extreme discomfort for the affected person and can have a very serious impact on the quality of your life.

But, don’t fret! If joint pain is causing you serious concern, here are a few steps that you need to follow along with regular medication.

1. Give joints enough rest

Plenty of rest for painful joint is essential to get effective relief from the pain. So, try to avoid activities that place stress on a painful joint. Try to limit the activities that involve the use of your joint.

2. Lose excess weight

When the projections or papillae (small bumps on the tongue) are missing in certain areas of your tongue, it results in geographic tongue.

So named because the loss of papillae creates smooth, red patches on the tongue which look like a map or rough terrain, Geographic tongue causes great discomfort and can cause increased sensitivity to hot and spicy foods.

Most sufferers, however, don’t experience any specific symptoms.

Infections that are commonly confused with geographic tongue

Geographic tongue condition is not actually a painful condition, and if you experience any pain, you should bring it to the attention of your physician. However, there are three common conditions which are often confused with geographic tongue:

1. Thrush: Possibly the most common yeast infection involving the surface of the tongue, it can be very painful. When you are affected with thrush, you will notice small, white raised patches on your tongue surrounded by red borders. If you try to scrape off the white patches, they tend to bleed.
2. Glossopyrosis: Burning tongue is another name for this particular infection. While this condition may not alter the appearance of your tongue, it hurts a lot, especially if it is exposed to hot and spicy food. Citrus juices and toothpastes also cause severe burning sensations, a condition which post-menopausal women are more prone to.

For genetic metabolic disorders, a potential approach or treatment is gene therapy. In this technique, the absent or faulty gene is replaced with an effective and working gene.

As a result, your body produces the correct enzyme or protein and accordingly eliminates the root cause of the disease.

Gene therapy is an experimental technique that can be effectively used to treat rare diseases.

The future possibilities of this technique enable doctors to treat any disorder by inserting working genes into patients’ body cells instead of drugs and surgery.

Is gene therapy effective?

Studies are in progress to determine how effective it is. There are a few factors that have kept gene therapy from becoming an effective treatment:

Short-lived nature: Before gene therapy can become a permanent cure for diseases, therapeutic DNA will be introduced into target cells. These therapeutic target cells must remain functional, long-lived and stable.

However, the rapidly dividing nature of cells and the difficulties of integrating therapeutic DNA into a genome prevent gene therapy from accomplishing long-term benefits.

Viral vectors: Viruses are used as potential carriers of genes into the patient’s body. These viruses are responsible for a variety of illnesses, such as inflammatory and immune response as well as toxicity on the targeting tissues.

A sty in the eye usually starts with a small pimple on your eyelid, which, after a few days, gets filled with pus and consequently bursts and heals on its own.

However, an eye sty is absolutely harmless and is believed to be caused by some weakness in your system or blockage of glands by dirt or a refraction error.

The good news is that you don’t really need to run to your doctor to lessen the sting if you discover you do have a sty, as it can be easily cured at home. Here are a few interesting and effective home remedies to choose from:

1. Use tea bags: Tea bags are very effective in the treatment of eye sty infections. Place wet tea bags on the infected eye for at least 8 or 10 minutes. Use it several times in a day to get quick relief.
2. Clean it frequently: Use mild soaps to clean your infected eye. Apply with a cotton cloth and gently clean the root of your eyelashes to prevent the infection from spreading. This can help you to eliminate dirt accumulated on your eyelid and can hasten the healing process.

Esophagitis is a term used to describe inflammation in the lining of the esophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.

If left untreated, inflammation of the esophagus can become very uncomfortable and causes difficulty in swallowing and ulcers or scarring of the esophagus.

In very rare conditions, esophagitis can cause Barrett’s esophagus, which is the main risk factor for esophageal cancer.

Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (commonly known as GERD) often leads to esophagitis.

Infections responsible for inflammation

An infection in the esophagus can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or any other diseases that can potentially weaken your immune system. Common infections that can cause esophagus include:

Herpes: It is the viral infection that basically develops in your esophagus when the immune system of your body is weak. Usually, the herpes virus can be easily treated with anti-virus drugs.

Candida: This is a yeast infection that can be developed in your esophagus. It is caused by the same fungus responsible for vaginal yeast infections. Weak body immune systems are more prone to this particular yeast infection. Like herpes, Candida is easily treated with antiviral drugs prescribed by your doctor.

At best, misconceptions about eating disorders can be hurtful to people suffering from one. At worst, they can prevent you from getting necessary help.

If you suffer from an eating disorder, you probably use food as your weapon to deal with difficult and painful emotions in your life, which leads to plenty of health problems.

If you are serious about your eating patterns and are determined to manage your eating disorder, learn all you can about eating disorders and dispel all the myths.

Common myths associated with eating disorders include:

1. People who are not overweight cannot have eating disorders

It is impossible to determine eating disorders by the size and weight of a person. Bulimics tend to be at an average or even above average weight. Compulsive over eaters are typically overweight rather than under weight.

2. Eating disorders are not life-threatening

If you believe that eating disorder doesn’t cause any serious health problems, think again. Every eating disorder can be potentially life-threatening, and need to be treated as such. 

3. You can’t have more than one eating disorder

When your doctor suspects any abnormal conditions such as cancer in your airways, he’ll recommend you to have a bronchoscopy.

A bronchoscope is a thin viewing instrument used to examine your inside airways for abnormalities.

Two types of bronchoscopes can be used to perform this test: flexible and rigid bronchoscope.

A flexible bronchoscope is often preferred to a rigid one and uses a long, thin, lighted tube to look at your airway. It doesn’t require any general anaesthesia and it doesn’t cause any discomfort.

On the other hand, the rigid bronchoscope is usually used with general anesthesia and uses a straight hollow metal tube to view inside your airways. It is also used to remove large samples for biopsy.

Limited bronchoscopy risks

Most bronchoscopies leave very few after-effects. Your nose and throat may become a little sore for a day or so. You may also feel sleepy or tired for a few hours, and should watch out for chest or throat infections.

In addition, if you have biopsy along with this test, you may cough up a little blood the next day. Even though a rigid bronchoscope scratches or tears your airways, the risks involved are limited. Only 1 in 1000 bronchoscopies can experience serious complications.