Medical News

Unfortunately, you may have prediabetes and not know it because you have no symptoms or symptoms develop so slowly you just do not notice.

Symptoms of prediabetes and diabetes include:

a: unusual thirst

b: a frequent desire to urinate

c: blurred vision

d: fatigue for no apparent reason

e: unexplained weight loss

Who’s at risk?

There are many risk factors for developing prediabetes and diabetes. Some you can control, and some you cannot. The risks you cannot control include,family history of diabetes; a child with one parent with Type 2 diabetes has about a 25 percent chance of getting it,and a child with two affected parents has a 50 percent risk belonging to an ethnic group at high risk for diabetes, such as African Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, Latinos,and Native Americans!

The risks you can control are related to your diet and lifestyle, and include:

a: high blood pressure

b: low HDL (the “good”) cholesterol

c: high triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood)

d: eating large portions of high-fat, high-calorie foods and a lot of fast food

e: not getting any exercise

Treating Prediabetes

You would not need to take insulin if you have prediabetes, but you will need to get serious about making some important lifestyle changes. Studies of both kids and adults have now shown that about 58 percent of all Type 2 diabetes may be prevented or at least delayed by eating less and exercising more.

According to a 2004 study of children in Germany, significant weight loss through a healthy diet and regular physical activity can improve by eating smaller portions. Portion size in the United States is way out of control. Most restaurants serve far more food than you should really be eating.

1. Avoid all-you-can-eat buffets and super-sized meals.

2. No fad diets. Aim for eating all kinds of healthy foods in moderation. Choose lean meats, whole grains, and fresh fruits and vegetables; you can have an occasional piece of pie, a small soda, or a bit of chocolate as an occasional treat.

3. Avoid soda.

4. Cut out the fat. Do not eat lots of butter or fried foods and you will eliminate a lot of fat; instead, bake or boil your meat. Drink low-fat milk instead of whole or 2 percent.

5. Eat healthful snacks. Reach for fresh fruits and vegetables; if you do not like cooked vegetables, try eating the same foods your family is eating, but make yours raw. Some kids swear that raw peas, carrots, broccoli, and peppers are much tastier.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, multi system, and inflammatory autoimmune disorder that will bring on an attack to the joints. It is a very crippling and painful condition that can lead to loss of mobility to the pain and joint devastation. Rheumatoid arthritis is systemic and will also affect different tissues through the body, skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs and muscles. Rheumatoid arthritis will affect anyone between the ages of 20 and 40 and can start anytime. A family history is important to the risk. It is three times more common in women than in men and up to four times more common in smokers than non-smokers.

The symptoms will separate rheumatoid arthritis from other types of arthritis because of the inflammation and soft tissue swelling of many joints at the same time. This is known as polyarthritis. The joints are usually affected asymmetrically and then will go on to the symmetrical part as the disease goes on. It is not like the other forms of arthritis like osteoarthrits because the pain will move with the use of the joints that are affected.

As the disease goes on, the inflammatory activity will lead to the erosion and destruction of the joints that will impair their range of movement and lead to some deformity. The fingers and the bones will deviate to the outside and towards the small finger and take on unnatural shapes. Having deformities in patients that are dealing with rheumatoid arthritis will include the Boutonnière deformity, the swan neck deformity, and the “Z-thumb” deformity.

Because rheumatoid arthritis is a multisystem disease, other disease and conditions may form as a result of it. Many of the people that have rheumatoid arthritis will also have anemia. Anemia is a problem of the red blood cells because there are not enough of them and or the hemoglobin and this will cause the lower ability of oxygen to be taken to the tissues. It is a chronic disease and many will suffer from it and splenomegaly or the enlarging of the spleen. Felty’s syndrome and Sjogren’s syndrome which is an autoimmune disorder in which the cells attack and ruin the exocrine glands and produce salvia and tears. Dermological will affect nodules on exterior surfaces. Fibrosis may occur in the lungs at any time or as a result of different treatments.

There are several things for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis. Having stiffness in the morning that goes on for longer than one hour is an example as is the arthritis and soft tissue swelling of more than three out of 14 joints or in the joint groups. Arthritis of hand joints like symmetric arthritis, subcutaneous nodules in specific places, a rheumatoid factor at a level above the 95th place and radiological changes that are suggested of joint erosion and are part of the criteria. There are at least four of these things hat have to be met in order to establish a diagnoses.
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The treatments for rheumatoid arthritis are going to be placed in disease modifying antirheumatic drugs or (DMARDS), anti inflammatory agents and analgesics. DMARDS is known to start durable remissions and delay the disease process, prevent bone and joint damage as well. Anti inflammatory agents and analgesics can help to improve pain and stiffness but do not stop any damage or slow down the disease in any way.

There are some human diseases with no specific signs to notice. But, diabetes is not so. Indeed, the suspected symptoms of type 2 diabetes can be recognized with basic information on diabetes with special note on causes of diabetes. It is regrettable that some people do not posses sufficient knowledge about the warning symptoms of diabetes while a few others don’t care for any of them noticed in their body. The first category of people can get alert when they come to know that they have diabetic symptoms. They can manage diabetes with periodic check ups and diabetes treatment. But it is deplorable that the second category of people cannot be saved from diabetes complications and risks. Be sure, the risk can sometimes be highly fatal. Here we get into discussion on some of the warning symptoms of diabetes.

Getting Fatigue: When your body is not in a position to absorb the glucose from the food what you eat, it makes you feel fatigue. If the glucose is not absorbed by the blood cells, conversion to energy is absent and the body gets very tired when lacking energy. Getting fatigue with hard work can be justifiable for any normal person. On the other hand, even when a light physical activity makes you fatigue, you need to consult a doctor.

Feeling sweetness: Sweet breath cannot be sweet or enjoyable for a diabetic. It will have to be seriously viewed if you feel your breath sweet for no reason. An unexplained feeling of sweetness is not with a normal person. It can probably be a symptom of diabetes which should be diagnosed and treated properly.

Hunger and thirst: Hunger and thirst are very usual diabetes symptoms. Though you eat food as per your schedule, the food intake is not properly utilized means the glucose is not burnt to energy. Instead, unused glucose to the body is stored in the blood stream in the form of diabetic sugar. When the blood gets polluted with diabetic sugar and the body is not rejuvenated, a diabetic experiences thirst and hunger.

Frequent urination: When the glucose is not put to energy conversion process as a whole, the excess glucose not brought for utilization is kept in store for no use. By this time, the kidneys work more but in vain and as a result of this, the excess glucose in fluid form gets away through frequent urination. Though frequent urination is significant for suspecting diabetic symptom, some people ignore this for the simple reason that it is very usual in day to day events.

Dehydration of the body: It can be justified that dehydration follows after frequent urination. However, the body’s dehydration is compensated by frequent drinking of water following diabetic thirst. That way, a diabetic body undergoes the cycle of ‘Frequent urination – Dehydration of the body – Drinking more water – Compensating dehydration and thirst – Again urination’. Though this cycle is a normal process in our body, the ‘Frequency’ is the deciding factor for a person for diagnosing diabetes.

Electric wheelchairs are amazing inventions, especially for the thousands of individuals who have had their lives made better by their advent. Even though all wheelchairs are a godsend, powerized models give those who have previously been unable to get around under their own power the ability to do some of the things they want to do without assistance. You can only imagine what a boost that added independence is to their self esteem. Although it may sound nice to just be able to sit back and let others take care of you, full-time pampering isn’t what these people are after. They want to get back a measure of their freedom and be able to take themselves where they want to go.

For many years I lived near the a federally-run veteran’s facility where many who had served in the military were living out their golden years. On nice days, it wasn’t uncommon to see many of those who were wheelchair bound going for long “walks” in their wheelchairs. They were feeling the sun on their heads and the breeze on their faces, and they were seeing territory they couldn’t see from their residence. You could just see the joy they were experiencing. Electric wheelchairs were empowering them to travel to places they never could have reached in standard wheelchairs.

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal not long ago that told of a thief stealing a motorized chair from the yard in front of a stroke-sufferer’s home. While this was a totally deplorable act, it’s easy to see why the thief was motivated. Power wheelchairs are expensive. The value placed on the stolen chair was $5,000. Of course, tempting as it may be, one of the reasons that the chairs cost what they do is because they are customized for the needs of a particular individual, and it’s highly-unlikely that a stolen chair is going to be an exact fit for anyone else. Besides, what kind of a thief does it take to be willing to steal another person’s freedom?

It’s hard for most of us to understand the need for such personalized chairs. After all, we can plop down in a chair almost anywhere and be at least fairly comfortable. Not so with the handicapped. For one thing, if there are uncomfortable pressure points, many of them are unable to move so as to relieve the problem. They need special back support and leg rests which are often devised just for their special needs. Electric wheelchairs are known for their adaptability to any needs as well as their ability to give their riders the freedom that they need to feel alive.

Have you ever felt like your heart was pounding, you were seating and you suddenly felt a huge panic overcome you to the extent that you thought you were going to die?

This is how it can feel if you are experiencing a panic attack.

Symptoms

Symptoms of panic attacks can vary from person to person and some people will experience symptoms more severe than other people. Here are some of the symptoms that might occur if you are suffering from an attack.

• Racing heart
• Chest pain
• Sweating
• Dizziness
• Feeling of dread
• Tingling or cold hands and feet
• Overwhelming feeling of anxiety
• Shivering or trembling
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling faint
• Upset stomach

During a panic attack you might suffer from just one or two of these symptoms or you may suffer from quite a few. Regardless of how many symptoms you have or the severity of them, one thing is the same for everyone, the feeling is incredibly scary.

Triggers

There might be just one trigger that can set off an attack in a person, or for some people there can be multiple triggers. In fact, for some people, they just can’t identify any particular trigger but rather can have an attack at any time and in any place.

If you are a person that can pinpoint a specific trigger that sets off an attack then you have the advantage of being able to work around that trigger to try and stop the reaction you are having. Some triggers might be possible to avoid completely, while others you just can’t avoid at all and with these you might need to undergo some cognitive behavior therapy to learn how to change your reaction to that trigger.

It is your strong emotions that are overreacting that is causing the reaction you are having and the good news is that you can learn to change those emotions to your favour.

Treatment

There are different treatments available to help with this disorder, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, medication or even natural therapies.

Medication however will only help with the symptoms and not the underlying issue, so I would recommend that if you decide to take medication that you do it in combination with some therapy. If you can learn to change the way you think and change the way your body reacts to some situations, then you should be able to reduce and stop your medication and be free from panic attacks.

Do you really want to lower your cholesterol? Cholesterol itself is not as bad as the media will convey. High levels will easily contribute to heart disease and other health problems. This article will give you a head start and provide five easy ways to lower your cholesterol fast.

1) Drink more Distilled or Spring Water.

When we often times think of water, we understand that it is a highly essential part of our lives. Without enough of it bodily organs cannot function properly and suffer health consequences. The issue, with a concentration on cholesterol, is that without enough water daily your body is not able to flush itself and get rid of excess cholesterol. The one type of water to stay away from drinking is tap. Spring and distilled are by far the best for health reasons. They lack the harmful inorganic materials which frequent tap water systems. You can easily pick up a gallon of distilled or spring water from your nearest grocery store at a cheap price.

2) Think about Medications from your Doctor.

As a medical doctor I get asked many questions concerning medications that help to reduce cholesterol levels. The one thing I tell my patients is that they should not always focus on pharmaceuticals for health. Those drugs will in fact lower cholesterol over time, but they also have various affects on your body. I will admit that there are certain prescription drugs which can be used, and others which are over the counter at local pharmacies. Be sure to explain every detail to your doctor so they can medicate you accordingly.

3) Increase your Physical Activities Outdoors.

Daily exercise is well known to help keep our bodies in shape and functioning properly. It is best for you to get at least 30 to 40 minutes each day preferably outdoors. The reasoning behind the outdoors approach is that you get your sunlight vitamin D as well as fresh air in your lungs. High cholesterol levels will harm your heart, so it is good to exercise to keep the heart and lungs strong. Some people understandably cannot handle hard exercises, so the best thing for them would be slower low impact activities such as swimming or a basic walk.

4) Eat more tasty Oatmeal with Fruits.

Recently there have been commercials focusing on oatmeal as a means to lower cholesterol. The information behind this is that it is soluble fiber. What this does is slow down the absorption of LDL (low density lipoproteins) into your body. Traditionally LDL is considered bad cholesterol. Do not forget that fruits contain water and are great when added to oatmeal. Think of this as a tag team working to fight your high cholesterol levels.

5) Drink Black coffee as opposed to Cream and Sugar.

Each morning I need to have my cup of coffee before I hit the office. Many people do the same coffee routine each day before work or just to jump start their day. I have noticed that there are more who add high levels of sugar and cream for sweetening. The coffee creamers are the main culprits adding to your cholesterol. They contain cholesterol in small dosages, but many people simply add too much to a small cup of coffee. It would be best to try black coffee or even a flavored brand without the added cream and sugar.

These are just a few simple tips to help you cut your cholesterol fast over time. Keep in mind that your body does create a certain level of natural cholesterol for bodily functions. It would be best for you to examine your specific situation and talk to a health professional. Some people love to research and utilize natural methods while others frequent the doctors office with many concerns. However you fell about this topic, make sure you do everything possible to maintain a healthy balance to your life.

Anxiety is more than just a feeling, it involves various symptoms and those suffering from anxiety often mistake their disorder to be a medical illness. Follow these tips to help relieve anxiety.

1. Identify the “trigger” that causes your anxiety – It could have been an unexpected expense or even an injury in the family. If this is the case, you can respond productively to this situation to take some pressure off of yourself.

2. Take a relaxing hot bath – Add some music, and a glass of your favorite beverage. This is the perfect way to forget about everything for the one hour that you spend in the bath tub. Taking a nice hot bath can also increase levels of calmness, hence decreasing the chances we are likely to be stressed.

3. Leave town for the weekend – Take the whole week off of work if you can! This is also another way to take your mind off of things for a few days. Don’t bring your cell phone either, bringing it can be a reminder for all your unfinished tasks. Your tasks can wait.

4. Get a massage – If you have a partner, get a massage from him/her. Getting a massage can be very relaxing and intimate between you and your partner. However it is also quite addictive, although that isn’t always a bad thing.

5. Deep breathing – This is the single most used technique in the world for relieving anxiety. It combats feelings of stress and invigorates the mind/body.

6. Meditation – This is a popular method, because it works. It helps to clear your mind and creates a quiet happy place where you can focus on your thoughts and use this time to sort them out.

7. Spend a full week away from the television – This may be a hard one for many, but it is definitely something that can be done. Television fills the mind with negativity, and gives you a distorted reality, showing you everything in the world that is associated with negative thoughts. Watching things like murders, violence, war, and famines does you no good and certainly does not help to relieve anxiety!

Anxiety is something that nobody should constantly suffer from. With active cooperation and self involvement, using these tips you can help yourself to become stress-free!

Individuals who reach the ages of 40 and above are susceptible to arthritis. Arthritis is the condition of swelled joints that makes it hard to do physical movements in the affected area and sometimes even causes disability. About 350 million people have been struck by this 100 different types of disease and the number is steadily rising.

To be able to control the disease you must have an idea on how it manifests itself in a human body. As mentioned before arthritis has over 100 variants but they share the most common signs once acquired. The symptoms usually include ache and rigidness in the joints that can lead to anemia, inflammation of the colon, hard bowel movement, and ultimately deformed limbs as it slowly spreads throughout the whole body gradually. The usual culprit behind arthritis is mainly genetics which can make you susceptible to be struck down with the disease if you have a family history of arthritis. Weight bearing joints like the knees and the spine are the usual target of arthritis because of the constant pressure being carried by the joints. Hormonal disparity can secrete imbalanced hormone levels that can further inflame the joints.

Management of arthritis seems fairly easy if you know where the joints that are under attack by the malady. There are a couple of solutions to help ease the pain and discomfort brought by arthritis but no direct cure has ever been found yet. So it is important to provide the proper management of arthritis to prevent further damage and pain to the inflicted individual.

Arthritis is usually detected using physical examination and radiography. Some at the late stage can be characterized by the deformity in the limbs and other parts of the body. Studies have shown that arthritis has been around since ancient times and it was proven by samples of ancient blood that rheumatoid factor, antinuclear factor, extractable nuclear antigen. The human ancestors suffered the disease and it does not spare you.

Most people would take in pain killer medications like paracetamol or ibupofren to minimize their pain but arthritis does not go away. You are only treating the symptoms of arthritis and you cannot instantly cure the disease right away. The medication is usually coupled with rehabilitative clinical methods like occupational and physical therapy. In older people, this is especially crucial so that their joints will be exercised.For some extreme cases, an operation called arthroplasty involves joint replacement surgery to alleviate arthritis. along with hip and knee replacements. Some might take other herbal like fish oil or alternative methods like a sauna bath in trying to relieve their pain of arthritis.

Many advances in the medical field and technology has not found the answer to the cure of arthritis. So it is better that you decide to prevent arthritis from ever happening to you. You can do this if you live a healthier lifestyle as studies have shown that regular exercise can strengthen your joints and muscles. Live healthy and you might grow old gracefully – minus the debilitating pain of arthritis.

After so much of fighting for your way and so much of stress, a time comes in your life when you finally get it!

When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere, the voice inside your head cries out – ENOUGH OF IT… ENOUGH! Enough fighting, enough cribbing, enough crying and, enough struggling to hold on!

And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside… you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and… through a mantle of wet lashes, you begin to look at the world through new eyes. A new visions comes to you.

This is your awakening!

You realize that it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that you are not her Prince Charming and she is not your Cinderella either… And that, in the real world, there aren’t ever fairy tale endings! There aren’t beginnings for that matter either! And that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with her and must finish where you are standing right now and, in the process, a sense of serenity is born out of acceptance of present situation.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are and there will, in fact, always be some who will despise who and what you are… and propagate stories about you that you know and they too know, are incorrect. But, what to do…? That’s OK for them. They are entitled to their own views and opinions. You have to learn the importance of loving and championing yourself and, in the process, a sense of new found confidence is born out of self-approval.

You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (… or didn’t do for you!) and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that it’s not always about you… that you were born alone and that you will be put out alone!

So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself and in the process, a sense of safety & security is born of self-reliance. Then you learn about love. Romantic love and familial love. How to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving and when to walk away. You learn not to project your needs or your feelings onto a relationship. You learn that you will not be more smart, more intelligent, more lovable or important because of the woman in your arms or the child that bears your name.

You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would like them to be. You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes and, you stop being controlled by others also. You learn that just as people grow and change, so is it with love too; and you learn that you don’t have the right to demand love on your terms, just to make you happy.

You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity and respect and you won’t settle for less… but you stop hankering for it. You allow only the hands of a lover who cherishes you, to glorify you with his touch and in the process, you internalize the meaning of self-respect. Agreed, those selfish people will continue to make stories about you… continue trying to pull you towards themselves for their own means but, you learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve and, that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people. On these occasions, you learn not to personalize things. You learn that God isn’t punishing you or failing to answer your prayers; it’s just life happening.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted; things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about; a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower!

Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself, by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never ever settle for less than your heart’s desire. You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind, and you make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.

At last, with courage in your heart and with God by your side you take a stand, you take a deep breath and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can. The age of acceptance dawns on you… Finally!
After so much of fighting for your way and so much of stress, a time comes in your life when you finally get it…

When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere, the voice inside your head cries out – ENOUGH OF IT… ENOUGH! Enough fighting, enough cribbing, enough crying and, enough struggling to hold on…

Positive reinforcement of desired behavior goes a long way, but effectively responding to an individual’s challenging behavior requires a certain set of skills and, possibly, a fundamental change in one’s perception. This is not only applicable to students with autism, yet it can be an extremely important factor when attempting to instruct an individual with moderate to severe behavioral challenges. As we will see, this method of interpretation often contradicts standard practices and systems of socialization which seem to be commonplace. First, we will explore these ‘standard practices’ and follow them to their conclusions.

The Path of Least Resistance

I call this practice, “The Path of Least Resistance” because we are all required to make hundreds of complicated decisions about individuals’ behavior every day. These experiences do not rise to the level of severely or even moderately affecting our daily lives. Therefore, we file these occurrences away and ultimately form a conclusion about the disposition of a person, based on these events. The fairness or justifiability of these conclusions is not in question, here. Examining each and every one of these situations in detail, though, would leave little time for anything else and is obviously not required of us.

The Comparison Model

The next practice deals with either justifying or denouncing behavior based on the behavior of another. The classically frustrating question of, “Why can’t you be more like your brother/sister?” comes to mind. Unlike the previous examples of individuals we know little about, these comparisons are usually made in respect to closely known people. In this case, or rather in a particular person’s opinion, they can and definitely have analyzed the behavior of the individual and can make a ‘reliable’ judgment, in their eyes. These comparisons are also made between relatively comparable people; a brother, sister, cousin, etc. On a certain level, these behavioral comparisons are also made on a grander scale and in respect to people we are not intimate with. Here again, analyzing each and every person’s unique history and current situation would be too daunting – so it is less difficult to use the perceived behavioral standard of another, comparable person and then make a determination.

The Result

Both of these practices can detrimentally affect an individual’s ability to objectively analyze someone’s behavior when they need to. If the observer’s reaction to challenging behavior is to form a conclusion on the disposition of the individual based on these actions, further attempts at intervention may seem fruitless. Or, if the challenging behavior is compared to another’s, in order to form an opinion, it could unfairly infer that there is some ubiquitous standard of behavior. This could also inhibit further objective analysis and subsequent efforts at instruction.

Isolating and Identifying Challenging Behavior

Avoiding these generalizations and viewing challenging behavior as a series of events will allow us to point toward a deeper analysis and perhaps discover the root causes of such behavior. A glaringly obvious example of this can be found in the experience of one of my former co-workers with a non-verbal student with severe autism. For our purposes we will call the teacher Linda and the student Ryan. Ryan was transitioned to Linda with the warning that he was ‘displaying challenging behavior,’ the reduction of which was part of his IEP (Individualized Education Plan). Ryan did present a relatively high rate of challenging behaviors, including; crying, scratching, non-contextual vocalizations and aggression. Toward the end of the session, Linda noticed that Ryan was scratching his upper arm in a different and unusual manner. After a visit to the bathroom and a closer look at this area, it was obvious that Ryan was suffering from some type of skin inflammation and he was most likely in pain. Shortly following treatment for this, Ryan’s behavioral challenges subsided from the previous levels.

The fact that Ryan was non-verbal (and that inappropriate scratching was a target behavior) made analyzing this situation difficult but not impossible. His ‘unusual scratching’ could have easily been overlooked as more displays of challenging behavior or attempts at task avoidance. This behavior also could have been brushed aside with comments on his disposition such as “He’s having a rough week” or “He’s just upset today” and so on. Instead, Linda isolated the behaviors of her student and did not assume that they where caused by any obvious factor. This allowed her to discover the apparent root of the inappropriate behavior and make the necessary adjustments. If this level of clarity is maintained and objectively utilized, steps can be taken to reduce challenging behavior based on the behavior, not the individual’s perception of it.