Tag: AIDS

Preventing High Blood Pressure

If you are battling high blood pressure there are many ways to lower it and prevent yourself from developing it again. The best way to start is without medication if you can help it by making some lifestyle changes.

Do you smoke? If so, this can raise your blood pressure. Try to cut back if not quit altogether. There are many aids that can help you quit smoking. Do you drink quite a bit of alcohol? This will also raise your blood pressure so try to cut back to a drink or two a day.

Do you consider yourself physically active on a daily basis? Getting at least thirty minutes of exercise a day has been proven to lower and maintain a healthy blood pressure level. Do ten minute intervals if you cannot set aside thirty minutes all at one time.

Start a healthier diet. Did you know salt increases your blood pressure dramatically? Limit your intake of salt or substitute it for other seasonings. There are so many different seasonings available you should have no trouble finding one you really like.

Add plenty of vegetables and fresh fruits into your diet. This will also help lower and control your blood pressure. Try to stay away from fatty foods as well.

If you are over weight this could have a major impact on your blood pressure. Losing as little as ten pounds can significantly reduce your blood pressure. Once you lose ten pounds you will see how easily you can lose more and you will notice how much better and healthier you feel. Not to mention your blood pressure levels will decrease.

Do you have a stressful job or life? Try to do away with as much stress as you possibly can. If you cannot avoid all the causes of stress in your life find something that helps you relax and de-stress. Meditation might work wonders for you.

There are certain things you cannot avoid that have an effect on high blood pressure. Your race: African Americans are at a higher risk. If you are older than fifty-five you are at risk as well and unfortunately you cannot make yourself younger.

If you have a family history with high blood pressure, you want to start early prevention. Knowing about your family history will help in cases like this. Even if you do not have high blood pressure now you have the risk of eventually developing it, but that doesn’t have to happen. Early prevention can keep your blood pressure down.

Stay away from drugs and painkillers if possible as they can cause high blood pressure. Some prescription medications can cause high blood pressure such as: nasal decongestants, anorexia drugs, steroids, antidepressants, oral contraceptives and cold medicines.

If you are taking any of these and are having problems with your blood pressure levels, be sure your doctor is aware you are taking them.

Having high blood pressure can put you at a higher risk of stroke and heart and kidney disease so preventing this can benefit your health immensely. Talk with your doctor of any questions you might have or concerns. No question is silly and it is never too early to start taking better care of your health starting with your blood pressure.

Hearing Aid For The Deaf

If you have deafness problems, the good news is that you can remedy it with hearing aids. There are different types around so you just have to find out which one is ideal for you.

But what is a hearing aid? It is simply an instrument that amplifies sound. Since hearing loss is different for each individual, it has to be configured manually to detect sound pitches at all levels.

Here, we will talk about 4 types of hearing aids. These are namely the completely in the canal instruments, the in the canal instruments, the in the ear instruments, behind the ear, open fit or over the ear hearing aid and bone anchored hearing aids.

The completely in the canal instrument or CIC is considered to be the best one around because it is so small that no one will notice that you are wearing it. Each one is custom made and this is designed for people who are suffering from mild to moderate hearing loss.

Next is the in the canal instrument or ITC. This is bigger since it has to occupy the entire ear canal. It is very flexible and designed to manage a wide range of hearing needs.

Then there is the in the ear instrument or ITE. This usually fits into the cradle position of the ear and just like the ITC, can handle a wide range of hearing needs. It is a little bigger than the ITC and is also custom made to shape the patients ear.

The behind the ear is placed behind the ear and connected using a plastic ear mold that fits inside the outer ear. This is only used by individuals who have mild to profound hearing loss.

You also have the Open-fit or Over-the-Ear hearing aids. This is a small plastic case that is placed behind the ear with a clear tube running into the ear canal with a mold inside to hold it in place. The new design helps to reduce the occlusion effect which was seen in other models.

Lastly is the bone anchored hearing aid. Similar to a cochlear implant, the patient has to undergo surgery so that the skull can be used as a pathway for sound to travel to the inner ear. If ever the patient has conductive losses, the BAHA bypasses the external auditory canal and middle ear, stimulating the functioning cochlea.

Should anyone who has hearing problems wear a hearing aid? Not for children below seven years of age because the ear is still growing so it will be too costly to make another one just to fit the patients ear. It is also not recommended for safety reasons because the hearing aid is made of hard plastic and this could be damaged when the child is playing and that could also cause injury to the childs ear canal.

There was a time that deaf people had to cup their hand behind the ear to hear what the other person was saying. The ear trumpet soon followed that until hearing aids were invented. The only problem with that was it was too big and this was usually worn on the chest or body. Fortunately, technology has made it smaller so no one will even notice that you are wearing it until they are up close.

Deaf People Can Benefit From Cochlear Implants

Some people suffer from a deafness problem that cannot be corrected. Fortunately, there is a way to make them hear sounds.

This is where cochlear implants come along. This device is surgically planted and instead of amplifying sounds which hearing aids do, it stimulates the functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with an electric field stimulated through an electric impulse.

This implant consists of many small parts. These include a microphone, speech processor and an RF transmitter. Not that many people have undergone this procedure because it is very expensive and there are still other options available before this will be utilized.

But is it worth the money? Most of the patients who have undergone cochlear implant say so because although you get almost near to normal hearing.

A study has shown that adults who have had cochlear implants benefit almost immediately and their hearing improves quite rapidly after the first 6 months of tuning sessions. This is not the same for children because it will take them more time to adjust to the implant.

The device helps them distinguish different types of sound and understand speech without the need to lip read. In fact a surprising number are able to use the telephone.

The only limitation to cochlear implants is that background noise is still present and this will interfere with the persons ability to understand. When this happens, he or she has to rely more on speech or lip reading instead of this listening device.

This is why doctors say that although there are benefits to cochlear implants, to what degree really depends on the patient. These factors depend on auditory memory, exposure to sound before hearing was lost, shorter period of deafness before surgery, the condition of the cochlea and the auditory nerve fibers.

Once the device has been implanted, the patient has to visit the clinic regularly for the first 6 months to adjust the volume and to make sure that everything is working. If a child was the one who underwent the cochlea implant, they will need to develop their listening and speech skills compared to adults.

So what is the price tag for a cochlear implant? The cost could go from $40,000 to $100,000. This depends where it was performed and who was the specialist in charge of the operation. Money should not be an issue anymore given that most third party health insurance health plants now cover a certain percentage for those who need a cochlear implant.

The cochlear implant is the only device to date that can help people who have permanent deafness problems. In fact, research is now ongoing to see if this can also help people with other types of hearing loss.

In the US alone, 23,000 adults and 15,500 children have received them. Most of the children who had this were between two to six years of age but the age requirement was lowered in 2000 making it possible for even a one year old to undergo the implant.

There is no doubt that someone who is deaf or is suffering from a permanent deafness problem will benefit from a cochlear implant. You might even call it life-changing given that you are given second chance to hear again the different sounds that life has to offer.

The Relationship Of Gilbert’s Disease And Jaundice

Unpopular diseases such as Gilberts disease can be alarming once you are diagnosed with it because you will never know what will happen to you. Upon hearing that you are or you might be suffering from it, it can be hard to accept it because you dont know what to do.

To ease the burden that people with Gilberts disease, doctors try to explain everything about the condition in laymans terms. And one of the easiest ways to understand it is if it is compared to more common diseases that have similarities in it like jaundice.

What Gilberts disease is all about

Gilberts disease was first described by a French gastroenterologist names Augustin Nicolas Gilbert in 1901. Gilberts disease is an asymptomatic (no external symptoms) condition affecting the liver. The condition affect an enzyme in the body called urodine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase or UGT (abbreviation). UGT aids the liver in breaking down bilirubin which is found also in the blood stream.

Bilirubin is the waste product of the hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin is found in the red blood cells that carry oxygen to other cells in the body to complete the cycle of respiration. After the red blood cells successfully brought the oxygen to the other parts of the body, the blood produces bilirubin. The liver cells then collect all the bilirubin produced by the blood, transfer it to the liver to be broken down into the gut, and turned to bile.

This is where UGT or urodine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase comes in, it helps the liver cells process the bilirubin in to bile. Gilberts disease affects the production of UGT, this is because it fluctuates the production of UGT in the body. The fluctuating levels of UGT greatly affect the levels of bilirubin retained in the blood. Bilirubin is orangey- yellow in color, which in turn causes a patient to have jaundiced skin.

What is jaundice?

Jaundice is the condition of the blood that has external manifestations. The two most common manifestation of Jaundice is the yellowing of the skin and in the white of the eyes. Jaundice if one of the most common symptoms or manifestations of different liver diseases and sometimes it may be the cause of some discomfort among patients. The heightened bilirubin stores in the body and in the bloodstream causes jaundice but it usually has no serious effects and it can occur in people more than once in their entire lifetime. Mild jaundice is not always caused by diseases of the liver there are times when it may happen under conditions of over exertion, long term stress, intense fasting, and other bodily infections, but the condition is otherwise shows no external manifestations.

It happens when there is a flaw in the liver that averts from removing bilirubin from the blood, to be converted to glucuronic acid (conjugated) or excreted in bile in this case if the person has Gilberts disease.

Lastly, when there is obstruction of the bile ducts that reduces the stream of bile and bilirubin from the liver into the guts. The decreased conjugation, emission, or gush of bile that can result in jaundice refers to cholestasis: however, cholestasis does not always effect in jaundice.

Jaundice or cholestasis, by themselves, causes just a few problems (excluding the conditions of newborns, and jaundice in this case in newborns is different from most other types of jaundice.) Jaundice can make the skin and the whites of the eyes look sclera yellow. As well, stool can turn out to be light in color, even clay-colored because of the lack of bilirubin that usually gives stool its brown color. The urine may become dark or brownish in color. This takes place when the bilirubin that is building up in the blood starts to be excreted from the body in the urine.

Other than those scenarios there is not much to worry about if you have Gilberts disease, you may experience a jaundiced appearance but you can still enjoy a healthy life.