Tag Archives: illness

Arthritis

Handling Pain from Arthritis

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Handling Pain from Arthritis
Nestler

Arthritis is an inflammation of the joints, the junctures where
the ends of two bones meet. This common disability comes in more
than 100 forms but for many sufferers, all they really want to
know is how do I get arthritis pain relief.

Some detective work on the part of the sufferer may be called
for. By determining when the symptoms pop up, it may be possible
to manage some of the suffering. Pain in a joint may be felt
during or after use, or after a period of inactivity. Discomfort
may signal a change in the weather or be felt during it.

Although there’s no cure for arthritis, available treatments can
relieve pain and help you remain active. At the first signs of
the illness, treatment should begin. Rest and easy exercise such
as swimming may be effective starting points along with some
over the counter medications to ease the pain and improve joint
functioning.

Among the treatments your doctor may suggest are medication,
self-care, physical therapy and occupational therapy.
Occasionally surgery is recommended; some individuals seek
relief from various forms of alternative medicine.

Medications include both topical and oral medications. Topical
medications come in the form of sprays, gels, creams and
ointments. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications may be sufficient
to treat milder arthritis, but stronger prescription medications
also are available.

OTC pain relievers such as acetaminophen can relieve pain but
does not reduce inflammation. Taking more than the recommended
dosage of acetaminophen can cause liver damage, especially if
you consume three or more drinks of alcoholic a day.

Acetaminophen can also affect other medications you may be
taking, so be sure to inform your doctor if you’re taking it.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) work in two ways.
They relieve muscle pain and fight inflammation (such as from
rheumatoid arthritis). NSAIDs have risks of side effects that
increase when used at high dosages for long-term treatment.

Discuss with your doctor before using other medications such as
COX-2 inhibitors, and others which have different side-effects.
Antidepressants, apart from their antidepressant qualities,
especially tricyclics, can help reduce chronic pain. Some people
with arthritis also experience symptoms of depression.
Antidepressant medications can treat the sleep disturbance that
can accompany arthritis. Occasionally, your doctor may suggest
injecting a joint space with a corticosteroid, which can offer
some pain relief and reduce inflammation. In addition, how well
you live with arthritis often depends on your behaviors and
attitude. If you actively manage your arthritis, you may be able
to gain control over your pain.

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Mental Health

What Are the Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder?

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From historical figures to celebrities to everyday people, there are many people with bipolar disorder. Whether one hears of these people on television or in real life, the question often arises as to how they know they have bipolar disorder. So, what are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?

Since there are two distinct parts of bipolar disorder, there are also two separate sets of symptoms of bipolar disorder. These symptoms of bipolar disorder many times reflect opposites from the manic to the depressive sides of the illness.

The most obvious of the opposites in the symptoms of bipolar disorder is level of energy and activity. In depression, the person will feel a loss of energy and suffer from fatigue. That person may even appear to be slow. On the other hand, the manic person will have an increased level of energy and much more than usual activity.

Degree of self-esteem is another of the symptoms of bipolar disorder. A depressed person feels unworthy or is guilt-ridden. A manic, though, is so full of him- or herself that he or she has unreasonable ideas of him- or herself or even delusions of grandeur.

This loss of self-esteem may be what leads the depressed person to be indecisive, and overblown self importance that urges the manic to become reckless. Neither the depressed person nor the manic one sees these decision-making processes as symptoms of bipolar disorder. But that is exactly what they are.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder differ from the depressive to the manic mostly because the general themes are different. In depression, everything is slow, dull, small, introverted, and hopeless. In mania, things are overblown, huge, fast, outgoing, and full of impossible dreams.

Some symptoms of bipolar disorder seem, on the surface, to be similar. For example, The poor concentration of the depressed person may appear similar to the distraction of the manic person. They both, in fact, have trouble holding a thought in their heads. This happens for different reasons, though. The depressed person has fewer thoughts but just cannot focus on any, while the manic person has excessive thought and goes rapidly from one to the next.

Sleep cycles vary in both depressed people and manic people. This is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder which cause trouble for both. The depressed person may not care whether he or she sleeps or not, sometimes sleeping for long periods and sometimes not bothering to go to bed. The manic person will most surely feel little or no need for sleep. He or she may go without sleep for days.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder which vary the most from depressives to manics happen at the far ends of the spectrum. A person who is extremely depressed is likely to think dark thoughts about death, suicide, and even plans to commit suicide. The person who is manic enough can have strange thoughts such as delusions, and bizarre perceptions such as auditory and visual hallucinations.

If a person is truly bipolar, he or she will display some, if not all, of the symptoms of bipolar disorder on both the depressed and manic sides of the line. Because this illness is so serious and can have life changing consequences for the person with it, it is important to recognize the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Children's Health

High Blood Pressure in Adolescents

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High blood pressure is a condition where the blood pressure is more than normal. It is also known as hypertension. Heart pumps out blood, so that oxygen can reach to different parts of the body via blood. The pressure with which heart pumps blood is known as blood pressure. The blood pressure comprises of two measures, the systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the larger figure and represents the pressure within the artery of the heart, when contractions take place which pump blood to different parts of the body. Diastolic pressure is the pressure within the artery of the heart, when the blood is filling in the heart and it is at rest. Both the pressures are measured in millimeters of mercury or mmHg. High blood pressure is abnormal increase in systolic pressure or diastole pressure.

Blood pressure is measured by putting a blood pressure cuff on the arm and placing a stethoscope on the chest. There can be very little variation in blood pressure depending upon the time, emotional moods, age, gender, weight, height, physical activity, stress and other illness such as heart disease and kidney disease. Children and adolescents become anxious when they visit the doctor. This is also an important factor which affects the blood pressure and the readings taken get tampered because of it. That is the reason why many blood pressure readings are taken in order to determine whether the adolescent has high blood pressure or not. The nurse may even ask the adolescent to calm down while taken the readings. Time gap is given between each reading, so as to give time to the adolescent to calm down. Emotions can also affect the blood pressure reading.

An infant will have a normal blood pressure reading of 80/45, where as an adolescent will have a normal blood pressure reading of 110/70. Therefore, age, gender, and height are important factor when determining the normal blood pressure level. Adults will have a higher blood pressure than the infants and teenagers. Also, boys have a higher blood pressure when compared to girls and tall people have a higher blood pressure than short people. An adolescent is said to have high blood pressure when the blood pressure is more than the blood pressure of ninety percent people of his/her age, gender and height.

There are many risks associated with hypertension or high blood pressure. The risk of developing coronary heart disease increases proportionally. The arteries will develop greater resistance towards the blood flow, because of which the heart will pump blood harder. Stroke is also another risk. Adolescents who have had high blood pressure as a child, develop harmful effects on the blood vessels and heart till the time they turn twenty.

The causes of high blood pressure can be classified as primary and secondary. If the causes are definite, they are primary and if the cause is linked to some illness, it is secondary. Primary causes are high blood cholesterol levels, smoking, stagnant lifestyle and overweight. Secondary causes are obesity, immobility due to chronic illness, prescription drugs, intense pain due to burns or cancer and illegal drugs. High blood pressure can develop due to hereditary reasons.

Hypertension is diagnosed by blood test and urinalysis. The kidney function will also be checked, along with blood cholesterol levels. Family history check is another important factor. Adolescents eating habits, exercise levels, activities in school and home will also be studied thoroughly. High blood pressure is dealt with by weight reduction, healthy diet, and increase in physical activity. If hypertension is due to illness, the illness is treated first. These treatment measures will decrease the systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. It will also strengthen the heart and decrease the level of cholesterol in blood. This also helps to keep heart diseases at bay. The good thing is that only one percent of the adolescents, who have high blood pressure, need medication to bring back the blood pressure to normal.

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Mental Health

Finding Out Early On About Alzheimers

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Alzheimers is an extremely debilitating disease. Presently, there are no known cure or treatment for this irreversible threat to a mature person’s mental and personal health. Once a person has been diagnosed with Alzheimers, the duration and course of the disease will vary from five up to twenty years.

Within the course of the disease, the sufferer will go through a whole range of deterioration from slight short term memory loss to the loss of normal bodily functions that cause complications and infections that then turns into death.

While the prospect of Alzheimers disease is truly grim, there continues to be steady breakthroughs from experts that help hope persist that eventually, prevention and cure for Alzheimers may be found. Before that though, there are lot of questions to be answered and the race to find the cure continues.

Despite this, it is important to take note of the early signs of Alzheimers, for friends loved ones and yourself. Taking note of the early signs of Alzheimers will help everyone involved prepare and understand all that is entailed in arranging for care and what to expect as the illness progresses.

It is important to be on the lookout for early signs of Alzheimers if you or someone you care for is nearing the age of 65 or if there is known cases al Alzheimers in the family.
Below are some early signs of Alzheimers to look out for.

Downscale

While memory loss is commonly mentioned as the one of the early signs of Alzheimers, it has been noted that unexplained and sudden weight loss usually occurs within individuals who suffer from Alzheimers. They have found that the weight loss happens way before any actually memory loss begins.

If you or someone you care about begins to lose weight unexpectedly, consult your doctor for probable cause and if there are no reasons found then you should have tests for Alzheimers done.

Forgetfulness

The most common early sign of Alzheimers is the loss of short term memory. More often than not, at the very early stages, this short term memory loss often goes unnoticed so it is important to pay close attention and see if it is normal memory loss or is it an early sign of Alzheimers.

While everyone will forget something once in a while, but Alzheimers sufferer never recall back what has been lost. So pay attention for peculiar incidences of short term memory loss that result in the distress, however much slight, in everyday routine.

Disability

Alzheimers will rob one of the ability to do the things that used to come second nature to them. It is as if the individual with Alzheimers can no longer remember or are familiar with tasks or actions that used to be part of their everyday routine. Watch out for this telltale sale that is quite an indicator included in the early signs of Alzheimers disease.

More Changes

Another early sign of Alzheimers is the increasing problem of communication. Often, people with Alzheimers will have a difficult time communicating because they begin to lose their ability to handle language. They begin to forget simple words and terms and their sentence construction begin to be difficult to understand.

There can also be a change in behavior or mood that is not normal for the person with Alzheimers disease. Over and above moodiness, a person with Alzheimers can switch moods or behavior without reason.