Archive for the “General health” Category
PREVENTIVE MEDECINE: WAYS TO LOWER BLOOD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 | 10:34 pm• Eat less cholesterol. This is somewhat contentious because various studies conflict on whether or not it is worth while restricting the intake of such foods. Egg yolks, butter and liver are especially high sources. The NACNE report on healthy eating recommends no curtailing of cholesterol-rich foods but anyone eating a lot of any of these three and who has high blood cholesterol would probably do well to cut them down or out.
• Polyunsaturated oils used for cooking or as spreads also have an effect on blood cholesterol levels. In one study in Minneapolis twenty-four healthy volunteers were put on a high-cholesterol diet. When polyunsaturated fats were added both total cholesterol and the harmful LDL component fell. HDL remained high. Of the oils tested, un-hydrogenated soya oil and corn were best. Other studies have found that corn flour oil has similar effects.
• Yoghurt may be helpful. One researcher believes that the special bacteria used to ferment yoghurt also produce a substance which blocks cholesterol production in the liver. Eating yoghurt has been found to reduce cholesterol in the blood. Milk (even skimmed) raises blood cholesterol, however.
• Chromium has been found to lower cholesterol levels in rabbits fed on a cholesterol-enriched diet. The rabbits fed with chromium also had only half as many plaques on their coronary arteries as did rabbits in the control group. In humans, brewer’s yeast (a rich source of chromium) raised HDL levels in one study.
• Vitamins Ñ and E are valuable too. In a study of forty people with coronary artery disease carried out in India it was found that those whose diets were supplemented with 2 g of vitamin Ñ had an average drop of 12 per cent in their cholesterol levels. In a UK study vitamin Ñ was found to raise the helpful HDL cholesterol fraction. The researchers found that many heart-disease patients had both low vitamin Ñ and low HDL levels. A dose of 1 g vitamin Ñ a day brought both levels up towards normal.
Vitamin E also raises HDLs. A daily dose of 800 Ø increased the HDLs of forty-three volunteers and had the greatest effect in those whose HDLs were lowest to start with.
• Get plenty of exercise. When carrying out the vitamin E study the researchers noticed that joggers and long-distance runners in their sample had very high HDLs before supplementation with the vitamin. Several other studies have found that exercise helps keep cholesterol at normal levels. Even moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk, seems to be effective.
• Stop smoking. A Swedish team found that smokers tended to have low HDL levels. When a group of smokers gave up they all experienced ‘rapid and pronounced increases in HDL concentrations’. The levels rose by an average of 29 per cent within two weeks and remained high throughout the observation period.
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(posted in General health)
SKIN, CRACKED, RED, AND DRY ON HANDS AND FINGERS
Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 5:35 amDescription and Possible Medical Problems
Advertisements for hand creams and moisturizers make a big deal out of the great things these products will do for your hands. You’ve seen the before-and-after pictures: the red, scaly skin in the “before” shots; the baby-soft, smooth skin that looks almost too good to be true in the “after.” Oh, yes, and the smile.
Sometimes the advertisement mentions in tiny print that the photos were not retouched; of course you can assume that all the other ads that don’t mention this fact do play around with the photos to make the hands in the “after” picture look almost too good to be true.
Your hands probably start to become dry and cracked in late fall and then stay that way for the rest of the winter, due to the dry air and cold.
Though they don’t reflect on the state of your health, dry, cracked hands can be painful.
Treatment
When your hands become dry, red, and cracked, you probably wish someone would come along and retouch your hands the way it’s done in the before-and-after pictures. In the real world, of course, it’s not as easy as that, but it does come close.
Most people slather on hand cream when their hands become dry. And that’s good—but you can go one better by putting moisturizer on your hands after you wash them, while they’re still damp. This will help keep your hands moisturized by sealing the water into your skin and forming a protective layer between your hands and the elements. Some people also wear gloves whenever they go out, which is another way to protect your hands.
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(posted in General health)
BODY SIGNAL ALERT KNUCKLES, PAINFUL, STIFF, AND SWOLLEN: TREATMENT
Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 5:34 amRheumatoid arthritis is manageable to a certain extent. If you think you have rheumatoid arthritis, you should see your doctor, who will do a blood test to determine if you have an antibody called rheumatoid factor in your system.
If you do have rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor will work with you to design ways of coping with the disease. The best program for rheumatoid arthritis includes rest and non-weight-bearing exercise such as walking, as well as certain medications you can take when the pain becomes severe. This medication may include aspirin, which reduces the inflammation and eases the pain, and corticosteroid drugs such as prednisone.
In-rare cases, your doctor may suggest cytotoxic drugs, which are used to treat cancer, or a procedure called plasmapheresis, in which a pint or so of your blood is taken out and put through a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the blood cells. The cells are then combined with new plasma and returned to your circulatory system. The purpose is to give the immune system an extra boost at a time when it may really need it.
The most important thing to do, however, is to learn to accept the disease and to do whatever’s necessary to treat your symptoms when the disease does flare up.
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(posted in General health)
BODY SIGNAL ALERT HANDS, NUMB: TREATMENT
Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 5:32 amIf you think you have carpal tunnel syndrome, I recommend a conservative initial treatment, including rest, splinting, hot soaks, and antiinflammatory medication. If these initial methods don’t work, injections of corticosteroids will help relieve the swelling of the flexor tendons.
Too many people—and doctors—opt for surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, but I feel this should be viewed as a last resort. Surgery should generally be reserved for cases that fail to respond to conservative measures. The standard operation involves cutting the transverse carpal ligament, which creates more room in the tunnel for the tendons and median nerve that pass through it. Some surgeons go for a synovectomy, which opens up the sheath that surrounds the nerve, though I think it’s unnecessary. Opening up the transverse carpal ligament is usually enough to relieve the pressure on the nerve.
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(posted in General health)
ALL ABOUT BLOOD PRESSURE READINGS
Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 5:30 amHowever, I believe that having you rest and lie down before a blood pressure reading doesn’t provide for an accurate reading, either, because it doesn’t reflect the true state of your health. After all, how many of us are that relaxed in the course of a normal day? The many stresses of modern life, including poor diet and lack of exercise, are, after all, the major causes of high blood pressure. In fact, I always have a patient come back to the office at least twice before I start her on any medication, unless that first blood pressure reading is dangerously high.
Even though most people view having their blood pressure taken as a routine procedure during a checkup, they remain surprisingly unfamiliar with the numbers of their reading and what they mean. There are two numbers that are used to measure your blood pressure. The upper, or larger, number is called the systolic pressure, and it refers to the pressure your blood is exerting on the arteries whenever your heart beats. In a healthy person, the systolic pressure should not be above 140. The lower number is called the diastolic blood pressure, and refers to the pressure that is exerted on your arteries between heartbeats. This number should not be above 90. A normal reading is considered to be 120 over 80. A borderline reading is 140 to 150 over 90 to 100. If, however, your blood pressure is 150/100,1 view it as a serious risk that you will need to address immediately with a combination of diet, drugs, and relaxation techniques.
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(posted in General health)
BLOOD PRESSURE, ELEVATED (HYPERTENSION): DESCRIPTION AND POSSIBLE MEDICAL PROBLEMS
Thursday, April 9, 2009 | 5:27 amIn some social circles, it may seem at times as if the primary topic of conversation is blood pressure, most often that it’s too high. But high blood pressure really is a major health problem in America because it can lead to a number of other serious diseases. Simply put, high blood pressure is a condition in which blood moves through your arteries at a pressure that is too high for good health.
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor will want to determine the length of time your pressure has been elevated, to get an idea of its severity. The signs your doctor will look for include changes in the blood vessels of the eye, which may affect your vision, an enlarged heart, and an elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level, which shows that the kidney has been damaged due to the elevated pressure. A routine blood test will also detect the other serious risk factors that aggravate high blood pressure, such as elevated cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
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(posted in General health)
HYPOGLYCEMIA AND CAR ACCIDENTS
Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 5:47 amNow that diabetics are being taught to keep their blood sugar levels under tighter control with more frequent injections of regular insulin, the American Family Physician (30#4:189) reports, more car accidents are occurring as a result of hypoglycemia, an excessively low blood sugar level.
The nonwarning type of hypoglycemia is the most dangerous since it occurs suddenly and without the usual premonitory symptoms, such as hunger, faintness, sweating, tremor, etc. Without warning, the diabetic person begins behaving in a robot-like, purposeless manner and may convulse and lose consciousness. Many people who have had such reactions while driving have made U-turns and crashed head-on at high speed into the oncoming traffic. Medications (such as aspirin, sulfa-drugs, phenylbutazone, and beta-blockers) and alcohol make such reactions much more likely to occur.
To minimize the possibility of hypoglycemia while driving, diabetics can check their own blood sugar levels at home with a Glucometer, which is reported to be more accurate than Chemstrips. If the glucose level is below 200 mg, the situation can be quickly dealt with by taking a sugary drink and some food. On long trips, it is recommended that diabetics test the blood sugar every two hours, even if they are feeling well.
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(posted in General health)
EFFECTIVE SUNGLASSES: WHAT YOU MUST ASK FOR
Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 5:41 amWhen buying sunglasses, look for those that filter ultraviolet (UV) light, the tumor-producing component of sunshine, and thereby block its entry to the eyes. This helps to prevent cancer of the iris, the colored tissue that surrounds the pupils. UV light is now also thought to be a causative factor in some eye diseases formerly attributed to “aging.”
Thus, the We stern Journal of Medicine (144:454) reports, the cumulative effect of UV on the retina over a period of several decades seems to be a major factor in the development of macular degeneration, one of the most common causes of failing vision, even blindness, in the elderly.
While passing through an eye, however, much of the UV in a sunlight beam gets filtered out by the lens, which, in this way, serves as a shield for the retina. Not surprisingly, therefore, the lens bears some of the brunt of repeated and prolonged exposure to UV, becoming discolored and opaque as the result. Known as cataract, this lens condition produces progressive visual clouding until all that can be sensed is the difference between darkness and light.
Fortunately, these bad effects of UV light upon the retina and lens can be prevented with sunglasses that filter UV from sunlight, thereby stopping it from even entering the eye. However, many sunglasses don’t filter out enough UV light to protect us properly, even when their manufacturer states that they are “UV absorbing.” By itself, that claim can be misleading since any glass or plastic blocks at least some UV.
To properly protect the eyes, we need sunglasses that block out light of all wavelengths below 400 nm (nanometers). As a rule of thumb, lenses that can do this should be dark enough not to let you see your own pupils when looking in a mirror. Glasses that merely block out UV wavelengths below 350 are not good enough. Actually, there is now an instrument that enables professionals to determine if sunglasses can absorb UV sufficiently. This is why you ought to go to an eye professional when purchasing a new pair.
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(posted in General health)
COFFEE AND CHOLESTEROL
Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 5:36 amReports about coffee and its effects upon the level of cholesterol in the blood have been alarmingly contradictory, j Some researchers find that coffee, even in moderate amounts, raises cholesterol blood levels and thereby increases the risk of both heart attack and stroke. Others are unable to see any of these effects. Now, according to the Lancet (2:1283), there may be an explanation for these conflicting results.
The conflict began with a study by researchers in Norway in which they found that coffee drinking raised the blood levels of both cholesterol and fat. Furthermore, they discovered, the effect grew stronger the more cups of coffee the subjects’ consumed. In light of that, the New England Journal of Medicine (308:1454) said that heavy coffee drinkers probably at least incur double the risk of coronary artery disease. However, researchers in this country were unable to confirm these conclusions.
A new report says that the difference may lie in the variations in the methods by which the coffee was prepared for drinking. If coffee is made by boiling (as it was in the Norwegian study), there is a cholesterol-raising effect. In contrast, when our coffee is prepared by filtration (as it usually is nowadays in the U.S.A.), no bad effect on the blood cholesterol or the cardiovascular system is to be seen. Possibly, however, when we percolate coffee, although this is not proven, we may be producing at least some of the same undesirable effects as we would do if we boiled it.
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(posted in General health)
BLOOD PRESSURE—TREATMENT: SIDE EFFECTS OF DIURETICS
Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 5:31 amFor more than 30 years, the Thiazide type of diuretics (water pills) have been the most widely used drugs for high blood pressure, but their safety is now in question. According to Geriatrics (39#1:40), there is a side effect of diuretics that can happen so gradually that it can quite easily be overlooked. By excessively reducing the body’s salt and water content, these medicines may also be reducing the blood volume so much that the blood pressure sinks dangerously low. Persons with extreme salt and water loss are likely to experience weakness, giddiness, and confusion, and may even faint and fall down, injuring themselves, when they suddenly try to stand. This effect, however, can be reversed by reducing the dose or giving some extra salt.
More recently, it has been discovered that some people taking a thiazide develop heartbeat irregularities, some of which are serious or even fatal. This risk, too, according to Drug Therapy (18#8:49), can be eliminated if the doctor gives some extra potassium and magnesium by mouth to prevent drug-induced depletion of these minerals from the body.
Most recently, thiazides have been found to increase cholesterol levels. Even worse, perhaps, is their effect on the “bad” LDL type of cholesterol, which increases by an average of 10 percent. Since no way of reversing this undesirable effect has been discovered, many doctors now use other diuretics instead.
Anyone whose cholesterol level is usually in the 150-180 mg range probably need not worry. But, for those with levels above normal, thiazide medication probably should be replaced.
However, a high blood pressure that rises out of control because of discontinued medication is more immediately dangerous than a high cholesterol level. One should therefore never discontinue or alter the dosage of a thiazide without the prescribing physician’s consent.
Actually, anyone who is taking a diuretic ought to monitor his blood pressure at home, taking his own readings or getting someone to do it for him. The doctor should be asked ahead of time about the lowest level that is safe, and, if the pressure falls below that, he should be told about it right away.
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(posted in General health)