Don’t Go To Surgical Doctors To lose You Body Weight Read Why
Weight-Loss-Surgery

Weight loss surgery helps people with extreme obesity to lose weight. It may be an option if one cannot lose weight through diet and exercise or has serious health problems caused by obesity. There are many types of weight-loss surgery, known collectively as bariatric surgery. There are different types of weight loss surgeries. Exactly what your surgeon will do when you get weight loss surgery depends on what type of surgery you’re getting. Weight loss surgery works in three basic ways:

Restricting how much food your stomach can hold at any time. This is ‘restrictive’ weight loss surgery. Gastric banding is a restrictive type of surgery.
Preventing your digestive system from absorbing all the nutrition in the food you eat. This is ‘malabsorptive’ surgery. Gastric bypass is a malabsorptive surgery in which a small pouch is created which empties directly into the small intestine. To make this work, the small intestine is severed. The doctor connects one end of it to an opening in the new stomach pouch. This way the food bypasses most of the stomach and the first part of the small intestine. That makes this surgery both restrictive and malabsorptive.

All types have risks and complications, such as infections, hernias, and blood clots. Gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries are done when diet and exercise haven’t worked or when a person has serious health problems because of weight. Gastric bypass surgery is done to help lose excess weight and reduce the risk of potentially life-threatening weight-related health problems, including:

Gastroesophageal reflux disease
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Severe sleep apnea
Type 2 diabetes
Stroke

Gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries are typically done only after one has tried to lose weight by improving diet and exercise habits. In general, gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries could be an option if:

Your body mass index (BMI) is 40 or higher (extreme obesity).
Your BMI is 35 to 39.9 (obesity), and you have a serious weight-related health problem, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or severe sleep apnea. In some cases, you may qualify for certain types of weight-loss surgery if your BMI is 30 to 34 and you have serious weight-related health problems.

But gastric bypass isn’t for everyone who is severely overweight. One has to meet certain medical guidelines to qualify for weight-loss surgery after an extensive screening process to see if you qualify. One must also be willing to make permanent changes to lead a healthier lifestyle. The candidate may be required to participate in long-term follow-up plans that include monitoring nutrition, lifestyle and behavior, and other medical conditions. As with any major surgery, gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries pose potential health risks, both in the short term and long term.

Risks associated with the surgical procedure can include:

Excessive bleeding
Infection
Adverse reactions to anesthesia
Blood clots
Lung or breathing problems
Leaks in your gastrointestinal system
Death (rare)
Once a person qualifies for gastric bypass or other weight-loss surgeries, the health care team gives instructions on how to prepare for the specific type of surgery. One may need to have various lab tests and exams before surgery. There may be restrictions on eating and drinking and which medications one can take. The person may also be required to start a physical activity program and to stop any tobacco use. You may also need to prepare by planning ahead for your recovery after surgery like arranging for help at home if needed.

After gastric bypass and other types of weight-loss surgery, the patient is generally not allowed to eat for one to two days so that the stomach and digestive system can heal. Then, one needs to follow a specific diet for about 12 weeks. The diet begins with liquids only, then progresses to ground-up or soft foods, and finally to regular foods. There may be many restrictions or limits on how much and what one can eat and drink. There will be frequent medical checkups to monitor health in the first several months after weight-loss surgery. There may be a need for laboratory testing, blood work and various exams.

One may experience changes as the body reacts to the rapid weight loss in the first three to six months after gastric bypass or other weight-loss surgery, including:

Body aches
Feeling tired, as if you have the flu
Feeling cold
Dry skin
Hair thinning and hair loss
Mood changes

Gastric bypass and other bariatric surgeries can provide long-term weight loss. The amount of weight loss depends on the type of surgery and change in lifestyle habits. It may be possible to lose half, or even more, of the excess weight within two years. In addition to weight loss, gastric bypass surgery may improve or resolve conditions often related to being overweight like gastroesophageal reflux disease, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and diabetes. Gastric bypass surgery can also improve the ability to perform routine daily activities, which could help improve one’s quality of life.

Losses Of Body Organ Donations For Others Life – “Docters Research”
organ-donation

Organ donation is when a person allows healthy transplantable organs and tissues to be removed, either after death or when alive, and transplanted into another person. Common transplantations include: kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, bones, bone marrow, skin, and corneas. There are a lot of myths about organ donation. Lets find out the truth.

1. Myth: Organ and tissue donation mutilates the body.
Fact: Donated organs are removed surgically, which doesn’t disfigure the body. The donor’s body is clothed for cremation, so there are no visible signs of donation. After eye donation, an artificial eye is inserted, the eyelids are closed, and no one can notice any difference. After bone donation, a rod is inserted where the bone has been removed. With skin donation, a very thin layer of skin similar to a sunburn peel is taken from the donor’s back.

2. Myth: Religion bars organ donation.
Fact: Most religious beliefs permit organ donation or leave it to the individual’s discretion. If you’re unsure of your faith’s position, clarify this from your religious leader. None of the religions object to organ donation and transplantation. On the contrary, religions endorse the act of giving and what bigger form of giving can there be than giving life.

3. Myth:The donor’s family is charged for donating organs.
Fact: A donor’s family is never charged for donating organs. If a family believes it has been billed incorrectly, it should immediately contact the local organ procurement organization and rectify matters.

4. Myth: Anyone can be an organ donor.
Fact: Surgeons harvest organs from patients with strong and still beating hearts. Surgeons don’t want vital organs from donors who are completely dead and whose hearts have stopped beating. Few medical conditions automatically disqualify one from donating organs. The decision to use an organ is based on strict medical criteria. It may turn out that certain organs are not suitable for transplantation, while other organs are fine. At the time of death, only medical professionals can determine whether a prospect’s organs are suitable for transplantation. Some diseases rule out donation including active cancer, active HIV or active infection. For a person with a history of hepatitis, more information would be required at the time of death. Persons with Hepatitis C may still donate organs to a patient who also has Hepatitis C.

5. Myth: I’m under age 18. I’m too young to make this decision.
Fact: That’s true, in a legal sense. But your parents can authorize this decision. You can express to your parents your wish to donate, and your parents can give their consent knowing that it’s what you wanted. Children, too, are in need of organ transplants, and they usually need organs smaller than those an adult can provide. There’s no defined cut-off age. Organs have been successfully transplanted from donors in their 70s and 80s. At the time of death, only the doctors can decide whether the organs are suitable for transplantation.

6. Myth:Only the heart, liver and kidneys can be donated.

Fact: Other organs such as the pancreas, lungs, small and large intestines, and the stomach can also be transplanted. Moreover, tissues such as skin, bone, heart valves and tendons can be donated too.

7. Myth: If the ICU doctors know I’m an organ donor, they won’t work hard to save me.
Fact: If you are admitted in a hospital – sick or injured, the priority is to save your life. Organ donation can only be considered after brain death occurs. Moreover, the medical team treating you is distinct from the transplant team.

8. Myth:What if I recover from brain death?
Fact: This doesn’t happen. The standards to determine if a person is brain dead are very strict and people who have agreed to donate their organs are given additional tests to confirm that they are truly dead.

9. Myth: When awaiting transplant, the rich and famous get priority.
Fact: What really counts is the severity of illness, time spent waiting, blood type and other important medical information. The organ allocation system is blind to wealth or social status. Factors such as race, gender, age, income and celebrity status are never considered when determining organ recipients.

10. Myth:Having a donor card is all that’s required to become a donor. I don’t need to tell my family that I want to be a donor because it is written in my will.
Fact: While a signed donor card and a driver’s license with an ‘organ donor’ designation are legal documents, organ donation is usually discussed with family members prior to the donation. To ensure that your family understands and respects your wishes, it’s important that you tell them about your decision to donate life. By the time your will is read, it will be too late to recover your organs. Informing your family now is the best way to ensure your wishes are carried out.

(Dr.Sonia Lal Gupta is a neurologist specializing in Headache Medicine and Strokes. She is practicing at Metro Multispecialty Hospital, Noida and MP Heart Clinic, New Delhi. She is also the co-host of NDTV’s weekly health segment “Doctors on Call”.)

New Diesease Discovered ADHD ‘Brain Disorder’ By Doctors
resized_ADHD brain disorder

PARIS: People with ADHD have slightly smaller brains than those without the condition, according to a study released Thursday which insisted it is a physical disorder and not just bad behaviour.

The largest analysis to date of the brains of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder found “structural differences” and evidence of delayed development compared with non-sufferers, researchers reported.

“The results from our study confirm that people with ADHD have differences in their brain structure and therefore suggest that ADHD is a disorder of the brain,” said the study’s lead author, Martine Hoogman of Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

“We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is ‘just a label’ for difficult children or caused by poor parenting,” she said in a statement.

The results of the study, which involved 1,713 people with ADHD and 1,529 people without the condition, were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Most often diagnosed in children, ADHD is blamed for severe and repeated bouts of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsiveness that can cause problems at school or home.

The symptoms can persist into adulthood.

The causes remain in dispute, and some specialists say ADHD is nothing but an excuse for using drugs to subdue children with difficult personalities or bad parents.

Drugs for treating ADHD, such as Ritalin, have been blamed for side effects including weight loss or gain, liver damage and suicidal thoughts.

For the latest study, Hoogman and a team analysed the MRI scans of people aged four to 63, suffering from ADHD or not.

Emotional control

They measured overall brain volume as well as the size of seven regions thought to be linked to the disorder.
The volume overall was smaller in people diagnosed with ADHD, as were five of the brain regions, the team said.

“These differences are very small — in the range of a few percent — so the unprecedented size of our study was crucial to help identify these,” Hoogman said.

“Similar differences in brain volume are also seen in other psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder.”

The regions affected included the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of emotion.

Previous studies which associated changes in brain volume with ADHD had been too small to be conclusive, the team said.

The differences observed in their study were most prominent in children, but also present in adults with the condition.

The findings suggest that delays in the development of several brain regions were characteristic of ADHD, the researchers said.

They found no difference between people who were taking or had taken ADHD drugs, and those who had never taken such medications — suggesting that the brain changes were not caused by psychostimulants.

In a comment on the study, Jonathan Posner of Columbia University said it was an “important contribution” to the field of ADHD science.

He said further research was needed to determine the effects of medication on the brains of people with ADHD, and how they develop as people get older.

NEW YORK: Cancer patients are more likely to die from their disease if they have reduced kidney function, warns a new study, adding that the risk is most dramatic for patients having urinary tract cancers and breast cancer.

The research also found that the correlation between cancer mortality and kidney disease remained high even in patients with a mild to moderate reduction in kidney function – also known as early stage chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Of 3,654 predominantly white individuals who were followed for the study, those who had CKD were found to be at least 1.3 times more likely to die from cancers that those without CKD.

The correlation was most dramatic among those CKD patients who had urinary tract cancers (2.5 fold increase in cancer deaths) and among women with breast cancer, who were almost twice as likely to die from their disease if they had CKD. “People with chronic kidney disease are more likely to develop urinary tract cancers. But as for breast cancer, we suspect it could be a matter of under-treatment,” said lead researcher Germaine Wong from the University of Sydney in Australia.

“For example, we already know that women with CKD are less likely to be screened for cancer as a whole. So, their cancers may be more advanced before they receive treatment,” said Wong.

Wong and her team will continue to validate their findings in other population cohorts while conducting a study to predict the benefits and costs of screening for cancers in CKD patients.

“Cancer in a patient with CKD is a bad prognosis.

Hopefully we can work towards screening in patients with CKD so that prevention measures and monitoring can be initiated early and lives can be saved,” said Wong.
“Like cardiovascular disease, cancer is becoming a major cause of death in people with chronic kidney disease,” said Wong.

“Sadly, intervention to improve outcomes in patients with CKD and cancer is limited and more work is needed to find out the reasons for the increased risk and the poor prognosis for CKD-cancer patients,” said Wong.

Previous research by Wong and her team already established that patients with chronic kidney disease are at increased risk of developing cancer.

The latest research shows that patients with CKD are also more likely to die from cancers when compared to patients with normal kidney function.

“This research supports the National Kidney Foundation’s recommendation to screen at-risk individuals for kidney disease,” said Joseph Vassalotti from the US National Kidney Foundation.

“Early detection will ensure patients are aware of their condition and the increased risks that cancer and cardiovascular disease pose to those with CKD,” said Vassalotti.

The study was published in the Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Stress From Work May Also Cause Of Mind Stress

Stress From Work May Also Cause Of Mind Stress
Secretary bad day
A stressed business woman looks tired she answer telephones in her office
]TORONTO: For men, prolonged exposure to work-related stress has been linked to an increased likelihood of lung, colon, rectal and stomach cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a new study has warned. Researchers, including those from Universite de Montreal in Canada, assessed the link between cancer and work-related stress perceived by men throughout their working life.

On average, the study participants had held four jobs, with some holding up to a dozen or more during their working lifetime. Significant links to five of the eleven cancers considered in the study were revealed. These links were observed in men who had been exposed to 15 to 30 years of work-related stress, and in some cases, more than 30 years. A link between work-related stress and cancer was not found in participants who had held stressful jobs for less than 15 years, researchers said.

shedu body

The most stressful jobs included firefighter, industrial engineer, aerospace engineer, mechanic foreman and vehicle and railway-equipment repair worker. For the same individual, stress varied depending on the job held. Researchers were able to document changes in perceived work-related stress.

The study also shows that perceived stress is not limited to high work load and time constraints. Customer service, sales commissions, responsibilities, the participant’s anxious temperament, job insecurity, financial problems, challenging or dangerous work conditions, employee supervision, interpersonal conflict and a difficult commute were all sources of stress listed by the participants.

“One of the biggest flaws in previous cancer studies is that none of them assessed work-related stress over a full working lifetime, making it impossible to determine how the duration of exposure to work-related stress affects cancer development. Our study shows the importance of measuring stress at different points in an individual’s working life,” researchers said.

The results obtained raise the question of whether chronic psychological stress should be viewed as a public health issue, they said.
However, these results are as yet unsubstantiated because they are based on a summary assessment of work-related stress for a given job, researchers said.

There is now a need for epidemiological studies based on reliable stress measurements, repeated over time and that take all sources of stress into account.

The research was published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

Some Foods To Save your heart & for healthy life
12-tips-heart-disease

20 Foods That Can Save Your Heart


1/21
Fresh Herbs

When you add these to foods instead of salt and fat, you’re making a heart-healthy choice. They add flavor without the bad stuff. Spices and other foods are delicious ways to eat heart-smart.


2/21
Black Beans

Mild, tender black beans are packed with heart-healthy nutrients. Folate, antioxidants, and magnesium can help lower blood pressure. Their fiber helps control both cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Add beans to boost soups and salads.

Prep Tip: Rinse canned beans to remove extra salt.


3/21
Red Wine and Resveratrol

If you drink alcohol, a little red wine may be a heart-healthy choice. Resveratrol and catechins, two antioxidants in red wine, may protect artery walls. Alcohol can also boost HDL, the good cholesterol.

Tip: Too much alcohol hurts the heart. Don’t have more than one drink a day for women or two drinks for men. It’s best to talk to your doctor first. Alcohol may cause problems for people taking aspirin and other medications.


4/21
Salmon: Super Food

A top food for heart health, it’s rich in omega-3s. Omega-3s are healthy fats that may lessen the risk of heart rhythm disorders and lower blood pressure. They may also lower triglycerides and curb inflammation. The American Heart Association recommends two servings of salmon or other oily fish a week.

Cooking Tip: Bake salmon in foil with herbs and veggies. Toss extra cooked salmon in fish tacos and salads.


5/21
Tuna for Omega-3s

Often cheaper than salmon, tuna also has omega-3s. Albacore (white tuna) has more omega-3s than other tuna varieties. Try grilling tuna steak with dill and lemon. Reel in these other sources of omega-3s, too: mackerel, herring, lake trout, sardines, and anchovies.

Health Tip: Choose tuna packed in water, not oil, to keep it heart-healthy.

Heart


6/21
Olive Oil

This oil is a healthy fat made from smashed olives. It’s rich in heart-healthy antioxidants. They may protect your blood vessels. When olive oil replaces saturated fat (like butter), it can help lower cholesterol levels. Try it on salads and cooked veggies, or with bread.

Taste tip: For the best flavor, look for cold-pressed and use it within 6 months.


8/21
Almonds

Slivered almonds go well with vegetables, fish, chicken, and desserts. They have plant sterols, fiber, and heart-healthy fats. Almonds may help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol. Grab a small handful a day.

Taste Tip: Toast them to boost their creamy, mild flavor.

You know that exercise and a good diet can keep your heart healthy. But what else can you do to keep your ticker going strong? Here are five key things you need to do every day to help your heart work most efficiently. Incorporate these habits into your lifestyle and your heart health will be the best it can be for you.

1. Eat healthy fats, NOT trans fats

We need fats in our diet, including saturated and polyunsaturated and unsaturated fats. One fat we don’t need is trans fat, which is known to increase your risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke over a lifetime. This is because trans fat clogs your arteries by raising your bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and lowering your good cholesterol levels (HDL). By cutting them from your diet, you improve the blood flow throughout your body. So, what are trans fats? They are industry-produced fats often used in packaged baked goods, snack foods, margarines and fried fast foods to add flavor and texture.

Tip: Read the labels on all foods. Trans fat appears on the ingredients list as partially hydrogenated oils. Look for 0 percent trans fat. Make it a point to avoid eating foods with trans fat.

2. Practice good dental hygiene, especially flossing your teeth daily

Dental health is a good indication of overall health, including your heart, because those who have periodontal (gum) disease often have the same risk factors for heart disease. Studies continue on this issue, but many have shown that bacteria in the mouth involved in the development of gum disease can move into the bloodstream and cause an elevation in C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the blood vessels. These changes may in turn, increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Tip: Floss and brush your teeth daily to ward off gum disease. It’s more than cavities you may have to deal with if you are fighting gum disease.

3. Get enough sleep

Sleep is an essential part of keeping your heart healthy. If you don’t sleep enough, you may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease no matter your age or other health habits. One study looking at 3,000 adults over the age of 45 found that those who slept fewer than six hours per night were about twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack as people who slept six to eight hours per night. Researchers believe sleeping too little causes disruptions in underlying health conditions and biological processes, including blood pressure and inflammation.

Tip: Make sleep a priority. Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep most nights. If you have sleep apnea, you should be treated as this condition is linked to heart disease and arrhythmias.

4. Don’t sit for too long at one time

In recent years, research has suggested that staying seated for long periods of time is bad for your health no matter how much exercise you do. This is bad news for the many people who sit at sedentary jobs all day. When looking at the combined results of several observational studies that included nearly 800,000 people, researchers found that in those who sat the most, there was an associated 147 percent increase in cardiovascular events and a 90 percent increase in death caused by these events. In addition, sitting for long periods of time (especially when traveling) increases your risk of deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot).

Tip: Exerts say it’s important to move throughout the day. Park farther away from the office, take a few shorter walks throughout the day and/or use a standing work station so you can move up and down. And remember to exercise on most days.

5. Avoid secondhand smoke like the plague

Studies show that the risk of developing heart disease is about 25 to 30 percent higher for people who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work. According to the American Heart Association, exposure to tobacco smoke contributes to about 34,000 premature heart disease deaths and 7,300 lung cancer deaths each year. And nonsmokers who have high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol have an even greater risk of developing heart disease when they’re exposed to secondhand smoke. This is because the chemicals emitted from cigarette smoke promote the development of plaque buildup in the arteries.

Tip: Be firm with smokers that you do not want to be around environmental smoke—and keep children away from secondhand smoke.

Follow these five tips and you’ll be doing your heart a favor. You’ll feel better and be able to stay active with a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Talk to any eye doctor, and they will tell you that dry eyes are the most frequent complaint that they hear from their patients. The National Eye Institute state that this painful condition mostly occurs because your tears are not of the correct consistency and evaporate too quickly (1).

In most cases, dry eye syndrome can be managed and terminated successfully. However, depending on the cause and severity, it may not be entirely curable.

Common Causes Of Dry Eyes.

There’s not a single cause as for why dry eyes happen, but one of the most common reasons includes an imbalance in the tear-flow system. According to Mayo Clinic, tear flow can be effected by the wind, smoke, and dry air (2).

Although dry eyes can affect anyone of any age, it is more common in women than in men.

The chances of developing dry eye syndrome increases as you age, with NHS UK estimating that one in every three people over the age of 65 will experience problems with dry eyes (3).

Some other common dry eye causes include:

Wearing contact lenses.



Hormonal changes in women including the menopause or pregnancy
Medical conditions including diabetes, thyroid disorders and vitamin A deficiency
Certain drugs such as antihistamine, birth control pills, and anti-depressants
Infrequent blinking as a result of staring at screens for too long
Laser eye surgery
If left untreated, dry itchy eyes can lead to ulcers, an increased risk of serious infections, and, in extremely severe cases, permanent loss of vision. While the loss of vision due to dryness is uncommon, it’s just not worth taking any chances.

Having dry eyes can make performing certain tasks such as using a computer, driving or reading for an extended period of time a difficult, painful and generally miserable experience.

14 Home Remedies For Dry Eyes
Common dry eye conditions are a pain. While you may be tempted to reach for the nearest eye drops, you’re not doing your eye any favors. Eye drops mask dryness instead of treating the underlying cause. They’re also costly and contains a slew of chemicals. Instead, give these simple remedies a try.

1. Staying Hydrated Is Vital.



Dry eyes could be a signal that your body is dehydrated, and you’re not drinking enough water. Prevention Magazine states that drinking plenty of water will help to keep the mucous membranes around your eyes moist (4).

While the recommended daily amount of water is 8-10 glasses, you may have to drink more hydrate and relieve dry eyes. Hydration is especially important if you’re regularly drinking coffee (a diuretic), or live in a dry and windy climate.

To stay hydrated:

Ensure you’re drinking 8 + glasses of water regularly throughout the day.
Remove excess salt from your diet.
Reduce your intake of caffeine, high-protein foods, and alcohol

2. Wash Your Eyelids For Relief.

While we don’t always think about our eyelids, keeping them clean will help them function properly. Developing a regular cleaning routine is essential to reduce irritation and eye inflammation.

When you clean your eyelids, you’re removing debris and oils from around the eyelashes. This helps decrease the quantity of bacteria forming around the eyelids and relieve red itchy eyes.

To use:

Wet a cloth with warm water.
Apply the cloth to your eyes for 5 minutes.
Use a mild, eye-safe soap or cleaning solution and lather it in your hands.
Use your fingers to gently massage the soap onto your closed eyelids.
Carefully rinse your eyelids and pat dry.
3. Try A Warm Compress
According to Health Line, using a warm compress not only provides relief to sore eyes, but it can help to release some of the oil in your eyelids’ glands and, in turn, improve the quality of your tears (5).

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE A WARM COMPRESS:

Boil some water and leave it to cool until it’s a warm temperature.
Soak a clean flannel or an eye pad in the warm water.
Gently place the flannel or pad over the eyes for around 10 minutes.
Reheat the compress when you find it becoming cold by soaking it in the warm water and reapplying to your eyes.
4. Coconut Oil Eye Salvation
Is there nothing coconut oil can’t do? Due to its composition of fatty acids, coconut oil can play a key role in helping to reduce the symptoms of dry eye syndrome by acting as a moisturizing agent for your eyes. You can also use coconut oil as a lubricant that fights eye inflammation.

All-natural lubricating eyes drops don’t exist yet, to here’s what you can do:

Soak a cotton ball in coconut oil.
Place the cotton ball directly on your closed eyelids.
Leave there for 15 minutes.
Repeat at regular intervals throughout the day.
5. Use Castor Oil
In 2002 a study was published in Ophthalmology which established that castor oil eye drops are an effective and safe way to treat meibomian gland dysfunction, one of the causes of dry eyes (6).

The ricinoleic acid in the oil works as an anti-inflammatory agent. This helps relieve itching, irritation, burning and pain associated with dry eye syndrome. The oil can also help reduce tear evaporation.

When using this home remedy, ensure to buy a pure and organic cold pressed castor oil.

Using an eye dropper, place one drop of castor oil in each eye
To keep your eyes moisturized and to reduce redness, repeat the process twice daily.
6. Always Wear Sunglasses
If your dry eyes are caused by your environment – say you live in a hot, dry climate – sunglasses can dramatically improve your condition. And if you’re going to wear them anyways, pick a pair sunglasses that blocks 100 percent of the sun’s UV rays.

The National Eye Institute says that dark sunglasses with side shields are particularly good at helping to slow tear evaporation from the eye surfaces (7).

Consider investing in special sunglasses if you live with chronic dry eye syndrome. If not just using ordinary wrap around shades whenever you go outside will protect your eyes from wind, dust, and other irritants.

7. Blink Your Way Back To Health
Not blinking enough is one of the main causes of dry eyes. And, because of our exposure to screens, most of us aren’t blinking as much as we should be. Blinking maintains the right amount of moisture in the eye surface, while also cleaning and moisturizes all the parts of the eye.

The brilliant blog All About Dry Eye claims that under normal circumstances, your blinking rate is an average 4 seconds, about 15 times a minute. When staring at a bright screen our blinking rate decreases by up to 70% (8)!

How to do it:

Close both of your eyes, pause for 2 seconds, then open them.
Close your eyes again, pause 2 seconds and then squeeze them tightly together for 2 seconds. Open them again.
Repeat every 20 minutes several times a day until your symptoms improve.
8. Introduce More Omega-3 Into Your Diet
If you’re not getting enough essential fatty acids in your diet, especially omega-3 fatty acids, this could be a leading contribution to your dry eye syndrome. A study conducted in 2013 and published in the International Journal of Ophthalmology concluded that omega-3 fatty acids have an effect on dry eye syndrome (8).

What omega-3s do is help stimulate tear production and produce higher quality tears. The fatty acids such as those found in fish oil are excellent for dry eyes.

To cure your eyes, include foods high in omega 3 fatty acids into your diet. Good sources include fish oils, ground flaxseed, chia seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, and walnuts. You can also take omega-3 supplements.

9. Look Into Acupuncture
Acupuncture relieves dry eyes by increasing tear secretion and stability, reducing tear film break-up, and preventing ocular damage.

Research published in the Chinese Journal of Practical Ophthalmology finds acupuncture effective for the treatment of dry eye syndrome (9). Investigators discovered acupuncture radically improves the outcomes for patients using lubricant eye drops for dry eye syndrome. Patients receiving acupuncture plus eye drops had a 76.92% total effective rate. Patients receiving only eye drops had a 53.85% total effective rate.

After getting trusted recommendations, check the practitioner’s training and credentials then ask how likely it is to help your condition and how much it will cost. Finally, tell your doctor you’re considering acupuncture before going through with it.

10. Invest In A Humidifier
Central heating has the tendency to dry out the air in your home which in turn, will cause dry sinus tissue and dry out your eyes. By using a humidifier, you can add some moisture back into the air. Having more moisture in the air means that your tears will evaporate more slowly. This is especially important during the winter (10).

Do your research before purchasing a humidifier and take the following into consideration:

The size of the unit
Cool mist humidifier or warm mist humidifier?
Cleaning and maintenance
Cost
Opening your windows for a few minutes on cold days, then longer in spring and summer will also help keep the air moist.

11. Cut Down On Screen time.

Cornea specialists report that dry eyes have reached epidemic levels, chiefly due to the amount of time spent in front of screens. It’s possible, however, to manage dry eyes and prevent them from reoccurring by making a few changes in terms of the position and location of your computer. It’s particularly important to cut down screen time for kids.

Here’s what you can do:

Move your computer monitor from the window to avoid glare or superfluous light.
Make use of adjustable shades, blinds or curtains to control the light during the day.
Adjust the height of your monitor so that the center of the screen is 5 to 9 inches below your horizontal line of sight.
Adjust the display settings so the brightness of your monitor matches the brightness of your surroundings.
12. Turn Away From Tobacco
All About Vision states that tobacco smoke is a known eye irritant, and worsens dry eye — even among second-hand smokers — particularly for those wearing contact lenses (11). Furthermore, people who smoke are nearly twice as likely to have dry eyes.

To improve eye health, throw away the cigarettes. If you think you will need help in quitting permanently, try these remedies. It’s also a good idea to schedule an eye exam. It’s also important that you tell your family and friends you are quitting, and that in the future you will need to avoid second-hand smoke. When it comes to smoking, it’s best to just say no.

13. Give Your Eyes The Luxury Of A Massage

Regular massaging your eyelids stimulates the tear glands and helps in preventing dry eyes. It will also improve the blood circulation to the eyes and relax the muscles around them. This is great for relieving digital eye strain.

Here’s to give yourself an eye-boosting facial massage:

Put a few drops of olive oil or coconut oil on your fingertips.
Gently rub the oil over your closed eyelids and around your eyes.
Massage for a couple of minutes.
Place your palms over your eyelids and cover them completely for another few minutes.
Don’t rinse the oil off your eyelids. It will be absorbed by your skin.
Repeat 2 or 3 times a day.

14. Go To Bed Earlier To Benefit Your Eyes

Dry eyes may be caused by sleep deprivation, so a deep sleep can really work wonders. Sleep provides your body with the time that it needs to heal itself. Moreover, your eyes, just like your body, require 7-8 hours rest a night to be in peak condition. By depriving yourself of sleep, you’re doing your eyes no favors.

The importance of sleep cannot be stressed enough. To get all the sleep you need, switch off the TV, put down your phone and get to bed earlier. If you’re used to not having enough sleep, try to get 7-8 hours a night for a week. No excuses. You’ll notice how much better you feel overall, and the condition of your eyes will improve dramatically.

Your eyes are, without question, one of the most important parts of your body. They shouldn’t be neglected, especially when it’s so easy to take care of them using these simple, inexpensive remedies.

Unless you’ve been living in a news vacuum, you will not have failed to miss the A&E crisis that has been dominating the headlines. It’s a double edged sword – on the one hand the media is a great way to highlight an issue, but on the other hand the focus is often so narrow it fails to give the bigger picture.A&E targets are a very visible part of the health service. They’re a crude measure of how well one cog in the huge NHS machine is doing. But the fact remains; the pressures A&E departments are facing – overwhelming demand in the face of under-staffing and under-resourcing – are being played out in every setting, be it in hospitals, in general practice or at home.
As Chief Executive of the RCN, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my job is speaking to nurses. Their dedication to patients, and their thirst for knowledge and expertise so they can achieve more is palpable. Time with them reminds me of why I chose to enter the profession myself. But the sad truth is, far too many encounters with those on the frontline must also include the omnipresent, negative aspects of modern day nursing. Words like ‘crisis’, ‘breaking point’ or ‘unsafe’, are often found in eye-catching headlines, but they describe the grinding reality of daily life for many of our nursing staff.

A community sister recently got in touch and told us about the massive knock-on effect of A&E nurses being told to discharge patients before they are fit, just to free up beds. This, along with more people choosing to be cared for at home, has had a huge impact on health and social care professionals working in the community.

Her story is typical of the stress and strain community and district nurses are experiencing. She said she and her team of nurses have to see up to 20 patients in a 7.5 hour working day. A day which also includes travelling time and completing paperwork. She and many of her staff have been sick with stress-related illness because they cannot cope with what is being asked of them. They are worried that being under such pressures will cause them to make mistakes. But in her own words, which nobody can dispute, she finished by saying the NHS is “an amazing health system which should be cherished”.

The solutions, like the problems, are complex. There are currently 24,000 vacant nursing posts across the country and one piece of recent research estimated there could be 36,000 by 2030. Having the right number of nurses will not fix the NHS but it will certainly help.

Since the Government announced the withdrawal of student funding for would-be nurses last year, we are already hearing of a 20% drop in applications for graduate nursing courses. And the 1% pay cap on salaries is not helping to encourage people into nursing and is making existing nurses reconsider whether they can even afford to continue.

If the NHS wants to achieve a clean bill of health, we need to ensure there is adequate staffing, funding, resource and education. The health of the nation is at stake.

HIV is often mistakenly assumed to be a young person’s condition, and something that will shorten your life, so people still react with surprise when they meet an older person living with HIV.

These damaging misconceptions are masking the reality of the HIV epidemic in the UK – the over 50s are now the fastest growing group of people living with HIV.

People living with HIV can now live as long as anyone else, thanks to incredible medical advances. Meanwhile, new diagnoses among the over 50s have doubled in the past 15 years, with changing dating and sexual patterns and a lack of sexual health information reaching older people.

Today, one in three people with HIV in the UK is over 50. At the age of 51, I am one of them (just!).

When I was diagnosed in the 1990s, HIV treatment had just become available – but people didn’t know how effective it was going to be. I thought I maybe had ten years of productive life ahead of me.

Thankfully, this was not the case, but I know from experience that re-adjusting to the idea of living into old age, when you had accepted this was not going to happen, takes a complete resetting of your mindset. So for someone diagnosed in the 1980s, before treatment was even discovered, one can only imagine the upheaval as they adjust to a future they never believed they would have.

Many hadn’t expected to live beyond a couple of years and as a result, are now less likely to have savings or pensions, and many others have become socially isolated. A friend of mine who is living with HIV in older age was recently diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, such was the turmoil he faced as he started to emotionally process everything he’d been through over the past decades.

So this is the first time we’ve seen people grow older with HIV on such a scale. Thirty years after the AIDS crisis took so many precious lives from us, it is extraordinarily positive to see this progress – but there are a lot of unknowns facing those of us growing older with HIV.

We don’t know what the long-term impact of taking decades of anti-retroviral therapy will be on older people. We don’t know how HIV will interact with other conditions associated with old age. What are the implications of HIV and age-related dementia, for example? We don’t know – we are the guinea pigs.

We also don’t know if the health, social care and welfare systems are ready to support this fast-growing ageing population. I fear they are not.

Terrence Higgins Trust has recently surveyed 240 people over 50 who are living with HIV. Our groundbreaking report, out today – Uncharted Territory – has captured the reality of what it means to be part of the first generation of people to grow old with HIV.

And what we do know is this: poverty, loneliness and social care are major concerns for older people living with HIV.

Nearly six in ten (58%) over 50s living with HIV were living below the poverty line. Meanwhile 82% were experiencing moderate to high levels of loneliness – three times more than over 50s in the general population. A quarter of respondents said they would have no one to help them if they ever needed support with daily tasks, and 88% hadn’t made financial plans for their future care needs. This paints a worrying picture.

In our research, we also heard how older people with HIV have been turned away from care homes or treated unfairly. One lady living with HIV in a care home was encouraged to spend as much time as possible in her room to avoid contact with other residents. When she did leave her room she was only allowed to sit on one chair and the television remote was wiped down with antibacterial wipes after she’d used it.

This is shocking and a real cause for concern, as more and more of us grow older with HIV and require social care. A major shift in awareness and training for social care staff is needed, to ensure they have the skills and knowledge to support the increasing numbers of people growing older with HIV.

As I look ahead to my own old age, I don’t just want to survive, I want to thrive, I want to work, and grow old disgracefully. I don’t want to be constrained by my HIV status or discriminated against in my place of care.

This report should be a wake-up call to governments. The issues faced by people growing older with HIV can no longer be ignored, as the challenges of poverty, loneliness and social care grow more acute. The time for action is now – we must get ready to support people with HIV to live well in later life, while facing the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

We know this is a population that too often feels forgotten by society. In our report, we have now heard their voices and captured their realities of living with HIV in older age.

We now have a duty to amplify these voices – and to ensure our GPs, our care homes and our communities are listening.

Essential Points How You can enjoy treats in a healthy way
Feed-Treats-For-A-Reason

Treats are everywhere we turn. You’ll be pleased to hear that cakes, biscuits and desserts can be part of a healthy and active lifestyle, as there’s no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods – it’s everything in moderation.

Treats have the ability to totally tip our weekly balance in the wrong direction, so it’s important to be mindful when making your choices.

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION
There are always times throughout the year that we fancy treating ourselves (think Christmas, birthdays and weekends, to name just a few), and there’s nothing wrong that, but the rest of the time it’s important to focus on eating balanced, nutritious meals. Start by getting this under control and you’ll feel much better about allowing yourself the occasional treat.

Eat the rainbow: Eating foods in a variety of different colours, shapes, sizes and flavours is a great way to ensure that you keep a healthy, balanced diet. The best way to achieve this is to try to include every colour of the rainbow
Game of thirds: Ensure that each meal contains one-third veg and fruit; one-third carbohydrates, and the final third split between protein and dairy. Lastly, foods high in sugar and/or salt should only be eaten occasionally – this is where treats fit in
Control cravings: The best way to help you choose veg and fruit over other treats is to make sure you have them within easy reach when you’re in need of a snack. Keeping a bowl of fresh fruit at home or in the office, or keeping a supply of dried fruit or nuts in a container nearby will help you to choose healthier options (just keep an eye on your portion control)
UPGRADING YOUR TREATS
It can be easy to consume a large volume of calories with little nutritional value, so embrace healthier alternatives, where possible.

Upgrade the nutrition: Veg and fruit are delicious, perfectly packaged alternatives to other treats high in added sugars, fats and salt. They’re great for when you’re on the move, at home or as part of a packed lunch – and will help you reach your 5-a-day target
Embrace frozen berries: Another good alternative is to keep a supply of frozen berries in the freezer. Frozen berries work wonderfully with yoghurt – either in a bowl or blitzed up into frozen yoghurt
Handy homemade dips: whiz up homemade dips, such as skinny homemade houmous or pea & yoghurt dip to take your veg to the next level
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TREATS
When the healthier options just won’t cut it, by all means indulge in the traditional treats of cakes, biscuits and desserts. If you have a healthy diet, the occasional treat is nothing to worry about – just check these tips to make sure that you’re not overdoing it!

Check your portion sizes: Serve treats and desserts on small plates, and ice cream in a skinny glass or mug instead of a bowl
Make your own: Making your own treats is a great option, as that way you know exactly what’s gone into them (and you can choose their size). Why not invest in smaller kitchen equipment, such as mini-muffin tins or small ramekins, for bite-sized versions of your favourites?
Aim for 20% or less: Treats should only make up a small part of our daily calorie intake. The Government recommends around 20% (with breakfast making up 20% and the remaining 60% split equally between lunch and dinner)
Make it an occasion: Enjoy your treats! If you’re going to indulge, try to make an occasion of it, rather than snacking on the go or straight from the tin. This way, you’re more likely to be fully aware of what you’re eating
Be mindful: Take your time to enjoy your treats by putting down your fork or spoon between bites. Remember, it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to signal to your brain that you’re full – so waiting a while will help stop you going for that second serving.
As with anything in life, balance is key. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying your favourite treat occasionally, so appreciate it for what it is and don’t feel guilty – just keep these tips in mind to help you enjoy a happier and healthier lifestyle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eretia is head of nutrition at Jamie Oliver, while Laura Matthews is away on maternity leave. She is passionate about educating people about food and showing them that eating healthily is easy. She was very sporty in school and her interest in nutrition arose when she realised that what we eat has an important role to play in physical performance. Her motto in life is “we are what we eat”.

Acne can strike at any age. Although it’s more common among teenagers, and sometimes in women going through menopause, acne affects 17 million people in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Acne surfaces during times of hormonal imbalance. When glands produce more oil than normal, skin pores get clogged, allowing bacteria (and pimples) to grow.

Pimples come in many different forms and depths, including blackheads whiteheads, cysts, and nodules. To banish these troublemakers, research has long pointed to topical medications such as benzoyl peroxide, antibiotics like tetracycline, and oral drugs that contain vitamin A, such as isotretinoin (Accutane) which is for moderate to severe acne. Alternatively, some seek more natural treatments such oral vitamin and mineral supplements. Do natural remedies also work? And if so, which ones?

Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a possible remedy for acne, but you need to make sure you’re getting it the right way.

Vitamin A oral supplements don’t work the same as topical vitamin A, according to clinicians at the University of Michigan. In fact, they caution against the supplement, as it can do more harm than good. Because the vitamin is fat-soluble, it builds up in your body, and a high intake of more than 10,000 international units (IU) can be toxic. This is especially true during pregnancy, so women who are planning on becoming pregnant should check with their doctor’s before starting any supplements.

But as a topical medication, vitamin A can help with your acne. Most topical medications chemically alter the vitamin into a retinoid which you can apply to the skin. According to the Mayo Clinic, retinoids are the most effective treatment for acne because of their ability to regenerate and heal the skin rapidly, so that you quickly have fresh skin.
Popular retinoid brands — in the order of least side effects — include Tazorac, Differin, and Accutane. You can get them only with a prescription.

Pregnant women should not take retinoids. The substance also weakens your skin’s natural UV protection, so people should take care to avoid long exposure to the sun and use sunscreen.

Zinc
Zinc is a mineral that can also help with acne. You can take it as an oral supplement or as a topical treatment.

A recent review of the past studies on the topic found that zinc can decrease oil production in the skin, and can protect against bacterial infection and inflammation.

You only need small amounts of zinc in the body. The Institute of Medicine’s recommended daily allowance (RDA) for adults is 8-11 milligrams (mg). There is some evidence that a relatively safe dose of 30 mg can help treat acne. High amounts of zinc may be harmful. Some people have reported becoming ill from taking too much zinc, and excessive zinc intake can lead to a copper deficiency.

Topical lotions that contain zinc can also help with acne. One study found that applying a lotion of 1.2 percent zinc acetate and 4 percent erythromycin twice significantly cleared the skin.

Myths and Truths
We’ve talked about how vitamin A and zinc can help your acne, but you’ve also probably heard of vitamin E as a possible remedy as well. Acne’s relationship with vitamin E isn’t as well studies as with vitamin A or zinc. However, in a recent study, acne sufferers were shown to have vitamin E, A, and zinc deficiencies. So it wouldn’t hurt to make sure you get your daily recommended intake of the vitamin E, 15 mg.

Tea tree oil may also be able to help with your acne. In one study, 30 people used tea tree oil gel for 45 days, and another 30 people used a placebo. Those who used the gel saw greater improvements in their acne
Tea tree oil is a good alternative to benzoyl peroxide, a well-known ingredient in acne creams. It has similar effects, wiping out bacteria and decreasing oil production. Both are available over the counter, but tea tree oil seems to cause less side effects like itching, burning, and peeling.

Acne and you

Acne results from plugged hair follicles. Oil, dirt, and dead skin cells on the surface of your skin clog your pores and create pimples or small, localized infections. Treatments work to clear away bacteria and dry up the excess oils that lead to acne. Different acne treatments include lifestyle remedies, topical medication, oral medication, and medical procedures.

The treatment that’s right for you depends on your individual condition. If you have mild to moderate acne, such as whiteheads or blackheads, your treatment should be relatively easy. However, if you have cystic or inflammatory acne, your treatment may be more challenging. Cystic acne is one or more large, painful, red cysts under the surface of your skin. Your doctor or dermatologist can help you figure out what type of acne you have.

Many people with mild acne or pimples can manage their condition with lifestyle changes. Oil is a major cause of acne, so keeping your face clean and your hair away from it is important, especially if your hair tends to be greasy. Oils from your hair and face also build up on your bedding. Changing your pillowcase daily or weekly can help prevent this buildup.

Wash your face two to three times per day with lukewarm water and a gentle cleanser that’s not abrasive. Don’t scrub your skin too hard. This can aggravate your skin even more. Also, try not to use skin care products that can be irritating, such as scented lotions or oil-based makeup. Choose moisturizers and sunscreens that are labeled “noncomedogenic.” This means that the product won’t clog your pores.

These adjustments can go a long way in helping you resolve mild acne. If you need something a little stronger, your doctor may suggest you also use topical or oral medication.

Healthy habits
Wash your face gently two to three times per day.
Avoid scrubbing your skin.
Keep your hair clean and out of your face.
Change your pillowcase often.
Use unscented and noncomedogenic makeup, lotion, and sunscreen.

Topical medications are lotions, gels and creams that you apply to your skin. You typically apply a thin coat on your skin in the morning and before bedtime after washing your face. Some are available over the counter, and others require a prescription.

OTC acne products usually contain the active ingredient salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. These substances reduce the amount of oil your body produces. They also fight inflammation. These effects help treat existing blemishes and prevent new ones from forming.

Prescription topical medications can help when OTC products aren’t strong enough. These acne gels or creams may contain tretinoin (a retinoid drug that comes from vitamin A), a stronger version of benzoyl peroxide, or an antibiotic called clindamycin. These may do a better job of killing bacteria when your acne is moderate to severe.

Oral medications

Oral medications for acne are also called systemic treatments because they are absorbed throughout your entire body. They’re only available with a prescription from your doctor. These drugs are commonly used to treat moderate to severe acne that doesn’t respond to topical agents. The three types of systemic drugs used to treat acne include:

Antibiotics
Your doctor may prescribe a daily antibiotic pill, such as tetracycline. It can help fight bacteria and infection from the inside out. Antibiotics are commonly used with topical medication when gels and creams alone don’t improve your condition.

Birth control pills
Regulating hormone levels can help improve acne for some women. However, you should not use birth control pills during pregnancy. If you’re pregnant, ask your doctor what you can do to banish breakouts.

Isotretinoin
Isotretinoin is a strong drug in the retinoid family. It reduces the size of oil glands so that they make less oil. It also helps regulate skin cell turnover so that the cells don’t block the release of bacteria and excess oil from your pores. Isotretinoin is mostly reserved for people with severe cystic acne. Your doctor may prescribe it when other acne drugs haven’t worked. However, the side effects can be severe, so it isn’t for everyone.

Though not prescribed as commonly as medication, a few medical procedures may be used to treat severe acne. These procedures can all typically be performed in your doctor’s office. They may be painful and in some cases cause scarring. Health insurance plans don’t always cover them, either. You should confirm that your health insurance will cover these procedures before you schedule them.

Drainage and extraction
During drainage and extraction, your doctor manually drains large cysts that form under your skin. They remove fluids, dirt, pus, and dead skin inside the cyst to reduce infection and pain. Your doctor may inject antibiotics or a steroid into the cyst to speed healing and reduce the risk of scarring.

Laser therapy
Laser therapy may also help improve acne infection. Laser light helps reduce the amount of bacteria on your skin that causes acne.

Chemical peels and microdermabrasion
Chemical peels and microdermabrasion remove the top layer of your skin. In the process, whiteheads and blackheads are also removed.

sunburn
Home Remedies for Sunburn:

Summer’s here, and that means it’s time to head outside and soak up the sun. But along with the all those hours spent outdoors during the summer season, there usually comes one inevitable thing: sunburn. Fortunately for all of us, there are plenty of household items you can use to cool the burning, itching, and peeling that come with damage from the sun.

Keep reading to learn about home remedies that can help heal and soothe your skin.

Cool Water:

Sunburn, basically, is inflammation of the skin. One of the easiest ways to treat inflammation is to cool down the affected area. An effective way to immediately help sunburn, even while you’re still outside, is to hop in the water, whether it’s an ocean, lake, or stream. Dipping in and out throughout the day can help keep sunburn from worsening. Be wary of pools, as chlorinated water can irritate the skin more. You should also avoid directly applying ice. Although it may look appealing when your skin is burning, it could actually cause even more damage to your extra-sensitive sunburned skin.

Baking Soda & Oatmeal:

Throwing a few heaping tablespoons of baking soda into a bathtub full of cool water and soaking for about 15 to 20 minutes helps minimize sun damage. Adding a cup of oats to the bath also soothes irritation and helps the skin retain its natural moisture.

Don’t scrub your skin, either in the bath or after getting out. Dab yourself dry with a towel — don’t rub.

Aloe Vera:

If you don’t have an aloe vera plant in your house, you should get one. The gel inside this succulent plant has been used for centuries for all sorts of ailments, from upset stomachs to kidney infections. It’s also the sunburn relief most commonly found over the counter.

Breaking off a chunk of the plant and applying the gel directly to the skin provides immediate, soothing relief from the sting of minor sunburn. If you can’t get your hands on a plant, try a 100 percent aloe vera gel (not an aloe-based lotion or ointment). You can find these gels in most pharmacies.

Chamomile Tea:

Chamomile tea can be soothing to your spirit, but it can also soothe your sunburned skin. Brew the tea as you normally would and let it cool. When it’s ready, soak a washcloth in it and apply it to the affected area.

If you are allergic to pollen, you shouldn’t use this treatment. It may cause an allergic reaction in your skin.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Utah in the US found that individuals with symptoms that put them at increased risk for heart disease could be more likely to have shoulder problems, including joint pain and rotator cuff injury.

“If someone has rotator cuff problems, it could be a sign that there is something else going on. They may need to manage risk factors for heart disease,” said Kurt Hegmann from University of Utah.

Repeated physical stress is most frequently blamed for aggravating shoulder joints and the muscles and tendons that surround them.

Think about a pitcher who throws a baseball 100 times a day. While physical exertion can certainly be an irritant, accumulating evidence points other factors that could also be at play.

Previous research found that people who had an increased risk for heart disease also had a tendency towards carpal tunnel syndrome, Achilles tendinitis and tennis elbow, all musculoskeletal disorders.

The current study adds shoulder problems to the list and takes the connection one step further. The more heart disease risk factors that each of the study participants had racked up – including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes – the more likely they were to have had shoulder trouble.

As many as 36 participants with the most severe collection of risk factors were 4.6 times more likely than those with none of the risk factors to have had shoulder joint pain.

They were also nearly six times more likely to have had a second shoulder condition, rotator cuff tendinopathy.

Participants with mid-level heart risk were less likely to have had either shoulder condition, at 1.5 to three-fold. Shared trends bolster that there could be a relationship between heart risk and shoulder problems, but researchers will need to follow up with a prospective study to prove cause and effect.

It may seem like physical strain would be at least just as likely to cause shoulder pain but data from the 1,226 skilled labourers who took part in the study suggest otherwise.

Ergonomists carefully monitored airbag manufacturers, meat, processors, cabinet makers and skilled labourers.

Every forceful twist, push and pull was factored into a strain index assigned to each worker. However a more straining job did not translate to an uptick in shoulder difficulties.

Nor did more time spent doing other physical activities.

“Cardiovascular disease risk factors could be more important than job factors for incurring these types of problems,” said Hegmann.

Health – Hospital Patients May be Increase The Risk Of Infection


infection-risk

If the previous occupant of a hospital bed received antibiotics, the next patient who uses that bed may be at higher risk for a severe form of infectious diarrhea, according to a new study.

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) diarrhea causes 27,000 deaths each year in the US Hospital patients taking antibiotics are particularly at risk for it, say the authors of the study. Antibiotics disturb the normal healthy bacteria of the gut so a C. diff infection can take hold.

The new study shows that “antibiotics given to one patient may alter the local microenvironment to influence a different patient’s risk” for C. diff infection, the researchers wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Other studies have also demonstrated that antibiotics can have a ‘herd’ effect – in other words, that antibiotics can affect people who do not themselves receive the antibiotics,” said lead author Dr. Daniel Freedberg of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Freedberg and his colleagues studied more than 100,000 pairs of patients who sequentially occupied a given hospital bed in four institutions between 2010 and 2015, not including those who had recent C. diff infection or whose prior bed occupant was in the bed for less than 24 hours.

More than 500 patients, or less than 1 per cent of the total group, developed a C. diff infection as the second bed occupant.

The infections were 22 per cent more likely when then previous occupant had received antibiotics.

Other factors about the previous bed occupant were not associated with C. diff risk.

People can be carrying C. diff organisms without having any symptoms, Freedberg told Reuters Health by email. When these colonized patients receive antibiotics, C. diff may expand within their gut microbiome and start shedding more spores, which means more spores on the bed, the bedside table, the floor, and other areas, he said.
“The next patient who enters the room is thus more likely to be exposed to C. diff spores,” he said. “It’s not easy to sterilize the room/bed between patients because C. diff spores are extremely hardy. To be killed, they need to be soaked in a bleach-containing cleaning agent for an adequate amount of time.”

About half of patients in acute care facilities take antibiotics on any given day, said Kevin Brown of the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, who was not part of the new study.

“That’s a huge portion of patients that could be involved in spreading the infection,” Brown told Reuters Health by email.

But the increased risk is modest, Freedberg added.

“There was a 22 percent relative increase in risk for C. diff with the prior patient’s antibiotics but there was a four-fold increase in risk related to the antibiotics received by the patient him- or herself,” he said.

Other patients, such as other antibiotic user patients within the ward, could have contributed increased risk as well, Brown said.

“Doctors (and patients) should avoid antibiotics in situations where they are not necessary,” Freedberg said. “Too often, antibiotics are prescribed without clear indications.”

“I think this evidence needs to be taken just as an association that needs further exploration,” said Jack A. Gilbert of Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, who was not part of the new study.

“While it would be tempting to use these results to change policy, there are so many uncertainties here that such a move would not be advisable.”
© Thomson Reuters 2016

Connection Between Obesity & Arthritis – Docters Experiments
obesity-arthritis

MUMBAI: Various studies have linked rising cases of arthritis with obesity which occurs due to poor lifestyle, food habits and lack of physical exercise, according to medical experts.

On the occasion of ‘World Arthritis Day’ observed on October 12, experts said arthritis, a disease of joints, is an autoimmune disorder and has been on the rise in last decade.

Most severely affected by osteoarthritis are the knee joints, which may even require replacement.

Bangalore-based Obesity Surgery expert M G Bhat said,

“Various studies in Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School have demonstrated the connection between obesity and arthritis. In fact every 2-3 of 10 patients we see for obesity-related issues, also come with arthritic problems. Also, weight-bearing joints like knees and hips undergo extra strain in case of obese patients, worsening their condition.”

According to a study by Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US, around 1 in 3 obese people suffer from arthritis, whereas about 2 out of 3 Americans are either overweight or obese.

With poor lifestyle, food habits, lack of physical activity etc, instances of obesity have been on a rise, directly affecting the number of arthritic patients.

Director of Mumbai-based AXIS Hospitals and Orthopedic Surgeon Umesh Shetty said a large number of patients suffering from arthritis and other related problems are either overweight or obese.
“Half the patients who come to me for knee replacements or other arthritic problems are either overweight or obese. We prefer and guide them for a non-surgical treatment as first line of treatment if the cases are not severe and help them to facilitate losing weight,” Dr Shetty told PTI.

“Weight loss can reduce stress on weight-bearing joints and therefore, limit further injury and delay the progress of arthritic condition,” he said.

Obesity causes excess fat in the body which releases inflammatory chemicals that may play a role in increasing instances of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Experts believe inflammatory chemicals like cytokines can impact different body systems.

According to studies quoted by Arthritis Foundation, a USA-based NGO, about 70 per cent of people with gout are overweight and 14 per cent are obese, and therefore, obesity also puts a person at a higher risk of developing gout apart from osteoarthritis.

“In order to control excess joint stress and inflammatory chemicals, it is advisable to keep the fat in control among all people and in particularly those who suffer from osteoarthritis,” Mr Bhat said.

“We advise such patients to undergo treatment with a qualified physiotherapist for strengthening their quadriceps and hamstring muscles so as to reduce the weight-burden on the knee joint. We also recommend non-invasive physiotherapies like ultrasonic therapy for knee joints, TENS (Trans Electrical Nerve Stimulation) etc,” Dr Shetty added.

In cases of arthritic patients also suffering from obesity, as a first line of action doctors suggest them to improve joint care through rest and exercise, maintain an acceptable body weight, control pain with medicine and other measures and achieve a healthy lifestyle in order to delay the progress of arthritis, he said.

Latest Anti-Body Therapy May Can be helpfull to treat HIV
hiv-testing

BERLIN: Scientists have developed an effective treatment strategy against the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in rhesus macaques, an advance that may lead to a new therapy for HIV infection in humans.

Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) infects different primate species and is regarded as the origin of the HIV.

In the study by an international research team, including scientists from the German Primate Centre (DPZ), SIV-infected rhesus macaques were treated with an antiretroviral drug for 90 days and in addition they were treated with a specific antibody for 23 weeks.

After finishing this therapy, all macaques showed sustained control of the infection as almost no SI viruses could be detected in the blood and gastro-intestinal tissues. The CD4+ T cells that are essential for the immune system were present in sufficient numbers in these tissues.

Two years after finishing the treatment the viral load remained low, the immune system intact, and the rhesus macaques healthy.

The strategy offers a new and promising approach to the therapy of HIV infections in humans, researchers said.

Antiretroviral therapy is currently the most frequently used treatment of HIV infections. The drugs effectively block the proliferation of the HI viruses in the infected cells and thus delay the onset of the disease.

However, these drugs have to be administered permanently since their discontinuation would immediately lead to virus rebound in the body.

“The aim of the study was to find a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of infections with immunodeficiency viruses, which would permanently prevent the proliferation of the viruses even after only temporarily application,” said Lutz Walter, head of the Primate Genetics Laboratory at DPZ.
The focus of the study conducted in the US under the leadership of scientists from the Emory University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was on the MHC class I genes as well as the genes of the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR).

Both gene families are essential for a functional immune system as well as for immunological identity of an organism.

The antibody that was used to treat the macaques is a primatised variant of the therapeutic monoclonal antibody that is known as Vedolizumab and has been available since 2014 in the US and Europe.

It is administered to patients to treat chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis where the CD4+ T cells also play an important role.

The scientists are seeking to test the new treatment strategy in clinical trials with HIV patients. A phase-I clinical trial is already underway in the US.

The aim is to find out whether a combination of antiretroviral therapy with Vedolizumab has the same effect in humans, researchers said.

“We have good reasons to believe that the therapy will work similarly in humans. It would be a breakthrough for the future treatment of HIV patients,” said Walter.

The study was published in the journal Science.

Patch Of Skin can be helpfull for children
patch-of-skin

WASHINGTON: A wearable skin patch may help children who are allergic to peanuts by delivering small doses of peanut protein, according to a new study that calls for the therapy to be further explored.

The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that nearly half of those treated with the Viaskin Peanut patch for one year were able to consume at least 10 times more peanut protein than they were able to prior to treatment.

The biggest benefit came for those from 4 years old to 11 years old. Participants older than 12 didn’t see as much of an effect, the study found.

The therapy works by training the immune system to tolerate small amounts of peanuts, said Dr Daniel Rotrosen, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, which is funding the ongoing clinical trial.

“Other recent advances have relied on an oral route that appears difficult for approximately 10 to 15 percent of children and adults to tolerate,” Rotrosen said.
While the trial found the immunotherapy treatment to be “potentially effective,” it cautioned that the study is limited. Further investigation is needed to find out if “the modest clinical changes noted will be enhanced after a longer duration of therapy,” the study said.

Those long-term results should be available in the future because the trial is continuing.

The Viaskin Peanut patch hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Birth Control Pills Effects For Pragnant Mothers
pillsbirth

NEW DELHI: Apart from obesity, birth control pills and additional factors such as smoking, high blood pressure or diabetes may put women at increased risk for the most common type of stroke, health experts suggest.

Oral contraceptives increase the risk of ischemic strokes, caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain.

“Women who take birth control pills are slightly at higher risk of stroke as a result of the high estradiol content in these contraceptive pills, which also increases the risk of blood clots,” Vipul Gupta, Additional Director, Neurointervention Surgery, and Co-Director, Stroke Unit, Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, said.

“The risk also increases for a woman during pregnancy as the increased blood pressure puts stress on the heart. Also migraine can cause chances of stroke three times up in women,” Satnam Singh Chhabra, Head Neuro and Spine Surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, added.

Women who smoke are also advised against taking birth control pills as this may increase the risk of a stroke.

Stroke is a serious medical emergency causing premature death and disability. It occurs when blood flow to an area of brain is cut off; brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die.

“A stroke occurs when blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly cut off. The brain cells in the immediate area begin to die because they stop getting the oxygen and nutrients they need to function,” Mr Gupta explained.

Apart from the ischemic stroke, there is the hemorrhagic stroke caused by a blood vessel that bursts and bleeds into the brain.

“Rheumatic heart disease and atrial fibrillation in younger females is emerging as major cause of strokes,” MG Pillai, Head of the Cardiology Department at Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai, said.

When brain cells die during a stroke, the abilities controlled by that area of the brain such as memory and muscle control are lost.
The treatment for stroke may also depend on its type. An ischemic stroke in many cases can be reversed through medicines but only if it is detected within three hours of its occurrence. Treating a hemorrhagic stroke involves finding the cause of bleeding in the brain and controlling it.

“Depending on the damage and overall health of a patient, one can regain the lost abilities to some extent through rehabilitation and medicines,” Satnam Singh Chhabra explained.

Unlike ischemic strokes, hemorrhagic strokes aren’t treated with antiplatelet medicines and blood thinners because these medicines can worsen the bleeding.

Advanced scans, such as CT angiography, perfusion imaging and MRI are also done to evaluate the site of blockage and quantify the extent of the brain that can be salvaged.

Gains can happen quickly or over the time depending on various factors like the area of the affected part, how much is affected and the patient’s motivation. The most rapid recovery usually occurs during the first three to four months of a stroke.

“The cure for a stroke depends on the amount of area damaged. If the damage is fatal then it may take months to heal and if the damage is normal, the patient may recover within a week or two,” Kishan Raj, Consultant Neurologist at IBS Hospital, Faridabad, explained.

According to experts, 80 per cent of all strokes are preventable. This starts with managing key risk factors, including high blood pressure, smoking, atrial fibrillation and physical inactivity.

Strokes are life-changing events that can affect a person both temporarily or permanently.

After a stroke, successful recovery will often involve specific rehabilitative activities such as speech therapy, physical therapy to help a person re-learn movements and coordination along with occupational therapy to help people improve their ability to carry out routine daily activities.
Posted on January 19, 2017
Categories Dieseas & Conditions, Uncategorized
Tags Birth Control Pills Effects For Pragnant Mothers, blood, health, risk, women
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