Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
2:42 AM
General Info about Female Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual activity incorporates interpersonal relationships, each partner bringing unique attitudes, needs and responses into the coupling. A breakdown in any of these areas may lead to sexual dysfunction.
The American Psychological Association (APA) classifies female sexual problems as -
a. Mental disorders - loss of sexual desire or arousal,
b. Discomfort during intercourse,
c. Diminished blood flow to the vagina,
d. Trauma-related aversion to sex,
e. Inability to achieve orgasm.
2:40 AM
There is a burgeoning need, in recent times, to impart sex education to our teenagers. During adolescence,not only do the hormones work overtime, but there are physical changes too that are taking place in the body structure; particularly so in the sex organs, making the teenager curious to explore these changes. Added to all this, there is often an impulsiveness to indulge in what is forbidden combined with the absence of adequate wisdom to control these impulses.The 'sexual arena' is in constant focus among the teens; in the absence of proper guidance, this can result in more harm than good.
Let us try to analyze the reasons that point towards sex education for the teens-
Adequate guidance would always help prevent teenage pregnancies.
It stresses on the role of abstinence and contraceptive methods, including the use of condoms.
Besides teenage pregnancies being a health hazard, adolescents are mentally unprepared to handle pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.
With sex education, teenagers will be better equipped to understand the repercussions of teenage pregnancy on their health as well as that of the fetus. They will recognize the importance of pre- delivery care and the consequences of hiding a pregnancy.
Sex education will help teenagers appreciate the negative impact of teenage pregnancy on their education, and consequently on their future, so that they would take necessary steps to avoid it.
Sex education would go a long way in helping to control AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea, non-gonoccocal urethritis, pelvic inflammatory disease and syphilis, to name a few.
Sex education to the teens is the responsibility of every parent and teacher. It is better for them to get the right information from their peers rather than getting misinformation from other sources like friends, magazines or websites.
Enlightening a teenager is the best preventive policy to tackle the growing health problems in this age group. They need to understand very early that “it is better to be safe than sorry.”
When we look at all these facts together with the severe social stigma been attached to unwed teen pregnancies in India and else where, it is not difficult to understand why sex education programs for teenagers are so much required.
In the year 2002 the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had asked the schools to incorporate the subject of sex education in schools across the country, but in reality there are more schools that are hesitant about educating their students about sex than the schools, which had gone ahead with the inclusion of the topic. Sex education as a subject is yet to be accepted as a normal part of the school curriculum, and the problem is not only in India alone.
The main debate for the subject had centers around the question about the benefits of teaching children about contraception. And yet research had shown that comprehensive sex education programs, which teach the children about the benefits of both abstinence and contraception, had been quite effective in making the young adults take better decisions about sex that had affected their health the least.
Let us try to analyze the reasons that point towards sex education for the teens-
Adequate guidance would always help prevent teenage pregnancies. It stresses on the role of abstinence and contraceptive methods, including the use of condoms. Besides teenage pregnancies being a health hazard, adolescents are mentally unprepared to handle pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood. With sex education, teenagers will be better equipped to understand the repercussions of teenage pregnancy on their health as well as that of the fetus. They will recognize the importance of pre- delivery care and the consequences of hiding a pregnancy. Sex education will help teenagers appreciate the negative impact of teenage pregnancy on their education, and consequently on their future, so that they would take necessary steps to avoid it. Sex education would go a long way in helping to control AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea, non-gonoccocal urethritis, pelvic inflammatory disease and syphilis, to name a few.Sex education to the teens is the responsibility of every parent and teacher. It is better for them to get the right information from their peers rather than getting misinformation from other sources like friends, magazines or websites.
Enlightening a teenager is the best preventive policy to tackle the growing health problems in this age group. They need to understand very early that “it is better to be safe than sorry.”
When we look at all these facts together with the severe social stigma been attached to unwed teen pregnancies in India and else where, it is not difficult to understand why sex education programs for teenagers are so much required.
In the year 2002 the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had asked the schools to incorporate the subject of sex education in schools across the country, but in reality there are more schools that are hesitant about educating their students about sex than the schools, which had gone ahead with the inclusion of the topic. Sex education as a subject is yet to be accepted as a normal part of the school curriculum, and the problem is not only in India alone.
The main debate for the subject had centers around the question about the benefits of teaching children about contraception. And yet research had shown that comprehensive sex education programs, which teach the children about the benefits of both abstinence and contraception, had been quite effective in making the young adults take better decisions about sex that had affected their health the least.
2:03 AM
Burns
What are burns?
- Injuries due to heat/ chemicals/ electricity/ radiation
- Common heat injuries due to fire, hot liquids, steam
- Burns due to heat / chemicals - through skin contact
- Severe burns affect muscles, fat and bones
- Older people/ children - particularly vulnerable
- First, second and third degree
- Categorization depends on severity of tissue damage
- Check extent of burn before deciding self treatment
- Seek help if burn is over a couple of inches in diameter, or
- If it involves large sections of the hands, feet, face, groin or buttocks, or a major joint
- Injuries are superficial / mild
- Swelling& redness of the injured area
- Pain develops
- No blisters seen
- Burned area becomes white on touch
- Takes 3-6 days to heal
- Remove patient from heat source
- Remove the burnt clothing
- Run cool water over burnt area
- Gently clean the injured area
- Gently dry
- Apply anti biotic such as Silver Sulphadiazine
- Use a sterile bandage to cover burns
- Take tetanus vaccination, if required
- Burns extends to middle skin layer, dermis
- Swelling, redness and pain observed
- Burnt area may turn white on touch
- Blisters develop, that ooze a clear fluid
- Scars may develop
- Restricts movement, if injury occurs at joint
- Dehydration may occur
- Healing time varies, depends on extent of injury
- Clean the affected area thoroughly
- Gently dry
- Apply antibiotic cream over affected area
- Make the patient lie down
- Keep burnt body part at a raised level
- Skin graft may be required
- Physical therapy may be essential to aid mobility
- Splints may be used to rest affected joints
- Hospitalization is essential
- Damage occurs to all 3 skin layers
- Destroys adjacent hair follicles, sweat glands, nerve endings
- Lack of pain due to destroyed nerves
- Injured area does not turn white on touch
- No blisters observed
- Swelling occurs
- Skin develops leathery texture
- Discoloration of skin observed
- Scars develop
- Crusty surfaces (Eschars) develop-impairs circulation
- Dehydration occurs resulting in shock
- Symptoms may worsen with time
- Disfigurement may result
- Healing depends on extent of injury
- 90% body surface injury results in death
- 60% injury in elderly, fatal
- Requires immediate hospital care
- Dehydration treated through intravenous fluid supply
- Oxygen is administered
- Eschars are surgically opened
- Periodically run clean cool water over burns
- Nutritious diet helps to heal quickly
- Regular monitoring essential
- Mental Depression treated by anti-depressants
Install smoke alarm in your home
Employ 'children friendly' safety measures at home
Avoid synthetic clothing while cooking
Carry out fire drills at home and work place
12:02 AM
12:00 AM
7:53 PM
By Jill Dougherty, CNN
November 19, 2009 2:24 p.m. EST
Muslim women pray Sunday outside Mecca's Grand Mosque.
Muslim women pray Sunday outside Mecca's Grand Mosque.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Health officials fear Hajj could help spread H1N1 virus
* Muslims from all over the world travel to Mecca for Hajj
* Authorities offer advice on how to minimize risk
* Hajj will provide real test for disease detection, official says
(CNN) -- For many Muslims it's the journey of a lifetime: making the Hajj pilgrimage. Almost 3 million faithful, together, in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. But this year, the Hajj could become an incubator for the H1N1 virus.
At a Muslim community center in Duluth, Georgia, American Muslims pray and prepare for the Hajj. Lateefa Khan is here with her husband, Zakerullah. She has mixed emotions. They are leaving their children behind but say they look forward to the worship.
"It is very exciting. An amazing experience," Khan says. "I am looking forward to worshipping, focusing all my time on worshipping."
Khan will take precautions to avoid H1N1, also known as swine flu, at the Hajj. They'll carry hand sanitizer and will be "frequently washing our hands, trying to stay as clean as possible."
The Khans, along with a number of people at the center who are going on the Hajj, also are getting H1N1 inoculations.
Video: Preventing H1N1 at the Hajj
RELATED TOPICS
* Swine Flu
* Mecca
Dr. Asif Saberi gives them a short lecture on how to prepare and encourages everyone to have their shots at least seven days before traveling. He says the Saudi government is doing a lot to protect pilgrims, but "the magnitude of the problem is the magnitude of the numbers of people who attend the Hajj."
When it comes to using hand sanitizer and wearing masks, Saberi says he encounters confusion about religious dictates and flu prevention. According to Muslim beliefs, for example, men in a state of pilgrimage should not wear any stitched items or touch alcohol. So what about wearing face masks or using alcohol-based sanitizers?
"One of the basic principles on which shariah (Islamic law) is based is the protection of the health," he says. "So if protection of the health is of such paramount importance, then the ritualistic significance of not wearing stitched clothes on your body is subservient to the need to maintain good health. And therefore wearing a mask is important. Using the sanitizer, which prevents this disease from spreading to others, is important."
Saudi Arabia has been preparing for the influx of millions of pilgrims. It won't turn away anyone who wants to come to the Hajj, but it is urging other countries not to let children younger than 12, people older than 65 or pregnant women make the pilgrimage.
The Saudi health minister went on television with his daughters, publicly getting their H1N1 flu shots, part of a campaign to alleviate fears about the vaccine.
The kingdom also is using sophisticated technology -- thermal screening equipment at entry points and mobile devices to document suspected cases of the flu.
Dr. Ziad Memish, assistant deputy to the Saudi health minister and co-author of a paper on Hajj and H1N1 published in Science magazine, said the government consulted 25 international experts, who joined with 25 Saudi experts, to discuss how to prepare.
"We had the team inspect the airport, the seaport, the regional lab that tests for the influenza," he said. "And then we had a review of all the evidence regarding the different strategies that should be used to prevent the spread of the disease during the mass gathering of the Hajj.
"We have relied on a collaborative program with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where they are helping us setting up a system that was used in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and I think the system has already been tested and it is working perfectly well."
In Washington, Louise Gresham, director of health security and epidemiology at the Nuclear Threat Initiative -- which also works to reduce global biological threats -- looks at a report tracking the spread of H1N1 in the Middle East. Gresham describes the risks:
"Picture, if you can, that 1 million people will come together in a single mosque at any given time during the Hajj. Picture that crowding over an extended period of time, and that's a test. A test not just for each individual pilgrim, but it is a real test for disease detection."
The Nuclear Threat Initiative supports a groundbreaking surveillance system in the Middle East, called the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance. It brings together public health leaders and representatives from academic institutions and private health care facilities in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It was started seven years ago, during the height of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"They actually started writing a plan for food-borne disease outbreaks, but they started a pandemic preparedness plan," Gresham says. "When H1N1 came along, this put them in a perfect position, because they were practiced, they were rehearsed and they had built great, great trust."
As part of this cooperation, Israel is supplying Gaza and the West Bank with H1N1 vaccinations for those who make the religious journey.
That trust, plus international cooperation, will be crucial in protecting pilgrims.
For those like Fayzah Abu Ayadah, faith outweighs fear.
"Even if we die there, it is not important," the Palestinian says. "The important thing is to go for the Hajj."
7:51 PM
Added On November 19, 2009
Saudis take serious measures to prevent the spread of swine flu during the Hajj. CNN's Isha Sesay reports.
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8:52 PM
A Chinese woman receives a free shot of the A(H1N1) vaccine at a hospital in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning province on October 29. Photo: AFP
Two people died after they were inoculated with the swine flu vaccine in China, health authorities reported, amid wariness among the Chinese about the quality of the shot.
Deng Haihua, spokesman for the health ministry, said in a statement posted on the website late Friday that authorities had been notified of the deaths in the past two days, but he gave no personal details of the victims.
Preliminary results of an autopsy on one of the victims revealed the patient suffered a sudden death due to heart issues and experts had ruled out a link to an allergic reaction to the vaccine, according to the statement.
Deng said final results had yet to be announced, and an autopsy on the second victim was underway.
But he sought to play down the news amid public concern -- a survey published by state media in October revealed that over half of Chinese did not plan to be vaccinated as they were unsure about the safety of the shot.
"Specialists say that it is unavoidable that several serious adverse reactions will happen amid the more than 10 million people who have received the vaccine, and the 20, 30, 150 million who will in the future," Deng said.
China has so far reported 43 deaths from A(H1N1) influenza and more than 65,900 cases of the disease, according to the health ministry.
10:23 PM
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Being obese or overweight can hike risk of type 2 diabetes by a factor of 90
- Exercising and eating a healthy diet help keep off excess weight to prevent or delay diabetes
- A myth about diabetes is that sugar causes disease; eat a balanced diet.
Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes; another 57 million have prediabetes, a precursor to the disease. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that if the diabetes epidemic continues, one in three Americans will develop it in his or her lifetime.
That's especially bad news for women, because the disease can affect both mother and child during pregnancy, and women with diabetes are more likely to have a heart attack (and at a younger age) than women without diabetes. Along with the worries about diabetes, there's a lot of misinformation (like skinny girls can't get the disease, or eating too much candy causes it), which is why we've gathered expert answers to the most common questions.
What's the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It's most often diagnosed in patients under 18, but it can strike at any age. Type 1 diabetics need insulin to manage the disease.
In type 2 diabetes, the body loses its sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that helps muscles absorb and use blood sugar. Traditionally, type 2 diabetes was diagnosed in older people. But with the rise in obesity, it's now being diagnosed at younger ages, sometimes even in children. Some traditionally thin populations are also being diagnosed with the disease as well. Type 2 is generally treated with changes to diet and exercise habits, as well as oral medication or insulin.
How will I know if I have diabetes?
Diabetes may cause no symptoms at all, but some signs include frequent thirst and hunger, having to urinate more than usual, losing weight without trying to, fatigue, and crankiness. If you're concerned, get your blood-glucose level checked, says Deborah Fillman, a registered dietitian and the incoming president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators. A fasting blood-sugar test measures the amount of sugar in your blood after not eating for at least eight hours. Normal is 99 mg/dL or below. Prediabetes is 100 to 125, and diabetes is 126 and above.
My father has diabetes. Does that raise my risk?
Yes. Having a family member with diabetes raises your risk of developing type 1 by about 5 percent and type 2 diabetes by more than 30 percent.
I've read that belly fat is a diabetes risk factor. Should I worry about my muffin top?
Yes. Excess fat around your midsection is linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. (Type 1 diabetes has nothing to do with obesity). In particular, the visceral fat wrapped around your internal organs can pose a problem, and it increases insulin resistance (the problem in type 2 diabetes) more so than fat in other parts of your body.
Being obese or overweight in general can hike your risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 90 times. Why? Overweight bodies may just be too big for their pancreases to keep up, says researcher Dr. John Buse, director of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Diabetes Care Center.
Can diet or exercise really prevent diabetes?
Yes, exercising and eating a healthy diet helps you keep off excess weight, which can prevent or at least delay diabetes. If you already have diabetes, doing aerobic exercise and resistance training helps by encouraging the muscles to take up more blood sugar.
Over the short term, it may even reduce the amount of blood-sugar-lowering medication you need to take. Long term, exercise helps lower the risk of complications like blindness and nerve and kidney damage by helping you better manage blood-sugar levels. On the diet front, a recent study found that type 2 diabetics who ate a Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fish, fruits, nuts, and olive oil, lost more weight and went longer without blood-sugar-lowering medication than those on a low-fat diet.
Could my sweet tooth lead to diabetes?
One of the oldest myths about diabetes is that sugar -- or a sweet tooth -- causes the disease. Says Riva Greenberg, a patient advocate and the author of 50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life, "A lot of people still think you get diabetes from eating too much candy."
Not true. Nor is it necessary for diabetics to avoid all sugar. Eating a well-balanced diet rich in whole grains, protein, veggies, and fruit -- and low in fat, cholesterol, and simple sugars (which cause blood sugar to spike) -- is a healthy plan for everybody.
I'm skinny, so I can't get diabetes, right?
Being overweight is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but 20 percent of people who get it are slim. "The number of type 2 diabetics is growing, especially in thin Asian populations," Greenberg says. Asian populations have higher concentrations of visceral fat, which may be a contributing factor, Buse explains.
If I had gestational diabetes that went away, should I worry?
Unfortunately, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes increases substantially -- between 20 percent and 50 percent. (Gestational diabetes occurs when hormones that help a baby's placenta develop interfere with the mother's insulin, resulting in higher blood sugars. It occurs in about 4 percent of U.S. pregnancies each year.) Your personal odds depend upon other factors like ethnicity, genetics, and weight. Losing weight after you've had a baby can help limit your risk.
6:53 PM
Green tea extract has been found effective in preventing oral cancer, say researchers at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre.
Green tea is rich in polyphenols, which have been known to inhibit carcinogenesis in preclinical models.
"While still very early and not definitive proof that green tea is an effective preventive agent, these results certainly encourage more study for patients at highest risk for oral cancer," said Dr Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's senior author.
"The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive - in prevention trials, it's very important to remember that these are otherwise healthy individuals and we need to ensure that agents studied produce no harm," Papadimitrakopoulou added. During the study, 41oral leukoplakia patients were randomized to receive either green tea extract or placebo.
"Collecting oral tissue biopsies was essential in that it allowed us to learn that not only did the green tea extract appear to have benefit for some patients, but we pointed to anti-angiogenic effects as a potential mechanism of action," said Dr Anne Tsao, assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study''s first author. "While preliminary because our patient population was so small, this gives us direction for further study," Tsao added.
The study also showed that of those taking green tea at the two highest doses, 58.8 per cent had a clinical response, compared with 36.4 per cent in the lowest extract dose and 18.2 per cent in the placebo arm.
"While these are encouraging findings, much more research must be done before we can conclude that green tea may prevent oral or any other type of cancer. It's also important to remind people that this trial enrolled very few participants who, at the highest dose levels took the equivalent of eight cups of green tea three times a day," said Papadimitrakopoulo.
"We need to further understand if green tea offers longer-term prevention effects for patients."