Tag: Risk Factors

Warts And The Immune System

It makes sense that some of the risk factors for acquiring warts can be easily controlled. Simply avoiding contact with those who are already infected with warts is the most logical step to aid in not contracting warts. Not using personal items which belong to infected individuals, and taking precautions while in public areas that may contain the infection are also helpful safeguards. But while those who do not have an adequate immune system are much more likely to develop warts, this is a factor which can be aided in many cases.

Although persons who have medical conditions which negatively affect the immune system do not have much recourse, the majority of healthy people do have the ability to take steps to keep their immune systems at peak state. If one’s immune system is safeguarded, this one factor alone will go a long way in preventing warts. It is unlikely that many people consider their immune system as something over which they have control, but basic good health practices are the strongest influencing factors. Stick to a healthy lifestyle, and you will be much less likely to develop warts.

You may not initially realize the correlation between your diet and warts. You may also not consider your sleep patterns to be a factor. Both are related, because both play an important role in keeping your immune system strong and healthy. If you do not have a proper diet, this will compromise your immune system. In addition, studies have shown that specific dietary deficiencies, such as the lack of adequate potassium, greatly increase a person’s risk of warts.

It is much better to adhere to a healthy diet than to be in the position of having to deal with warts after they occur. It is important to keep in mind that one’s dietary practices have a dual role first, in keeping the immune system strong in general, and also to not end up with the potassium deficiencies that increase your risk of warts.

A proper amount of sleep on a regular basis is also very important in preventing warts. Frequent lack of sleep also undermines the immune system. A weak immune system will open you up to a wide range of potential health problems, and the various types of warts is one of the most immediate and visible.

If you add together the factors of diet and sleep, you will have the two main factors which determine the state of your immune system. For a person who is otherwise healthy, free of any serious medical complications, both of these factors should be easily within your control. To exercise good judgment with nutrition and rest will be one of the most significant factors in preventing warts.

If you do not have a proper diet, or do not get enough sleep on a regular basis, you can lessen your risk of acquiring warts by addressing these problems. To make some positive changes in your lifestyle to reflect more healthy patterns will benefit you in many ways, both currently and in the long-run. Making you less likely to develop warts is just one of the benefits.

What Spinal Cord Injury Patients Can Accomplish with Physiotherapy

Sports injuries and car accidents, among other injuries, can cause spinal cord injury. The range of spinal cord injury is wide. Some of these injuries are fairly minor and will heal well with a limited amount of physiotherapy, while others need physiotherapy for the rest of their lives.

As always with physiotherapy, the first step is evaluation. A plan is formulated that will include therapies specific to the kind of spinal cord injury the patient has. Neck injuries can cause quadriplegia, which requires special treatments.

An important issue in spinal cord injury is the level of the damage. If a physiotherapy program is not followed faithfully, the spine will begin to atrophy below the level of the spinal cord injury. The spine will shrink and the whole body below that point will become weaker as time goes by.

It is important that spinal cord injury patients get exercise of some form. They are prone to osteoporosis and heart problems, among other conditions. If there is a total lack of exercise, these risk factors become even more pronounced.

Physiotherapy for spinal cord injury involves exercising and stimulating the nerves and muscles below the level of the damage. This will allow patients with spinal cord injury to stay in good physical condition where they can. That way, if a cure becomes available, they will not be too weakened to benefit from it.

Every exercise the physiotherapy personnel go through with the spinal cord injury patient should be video-taped. This allows work to go on at home with an example of each exercise. Range-of-motion exercises are done by a caregiver, who moves the limbs so that they will not become set in one position.

For spinal cord injury patients who are not quadriplegics, there is physiotherapy using mats. These mats are raised off the floor, and can be operated by a hand crank or a power system. The physiotherapist will give exercises where the patient lies on the side, back, or stomach and works out or sits up and works out.

There are many restorative therapies in physiotherapy for spinal cord injury patients. These include electrical stimulation, biofeedback, vibrational therapy, laser therapy and other stimulation activities. Aqua therapy is also a physiotherapy method that is conducive to progress in spinal cord injury patients.

With all these therapies, spinal cord injury patients can sometimes restore themselves to earlier functioning. Other times, they can simply keep their bodies from deteriorating as they wait for a cure.

Spinal cord injury research is being conducted constantly. Physiotherapy is one of the fields that are being explored. One study is putting spinal cord injury patients in harnesses over treadmills stimulating walking. They are trying to find a way to help people walk again who had given up hope of doing so.

Physiotherapy gives hope for spinal cord injury patients. It allows them to have the most normal functioning that they are currently able to have. Perhaps when a cure comes outcomes will be even better. However, physiotherapy will probably always be needed for spinal cord injury patients.

Complications Of Diabetes

Just like in any other illnesses, the first thing that people need is to be informed and educated about the disease that may be prone to. In case of diabetes, extensive knowledge about this can help people who are already suffering from it to cope up and manage and can also help those who dont have it yet to be more careful and to avoid the illness.

But, aside from having extensive knowledge on the disease such as its causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, it also pays to know if there would be related complications. This is to prepare ones selfemotionally, physically, and emotionallyabout the possibilities of coping not just with diabetes but other complications related to it as well.

There are certain factors that affect people to be prone to diabetes such as age, heredity and ethnicity. But regardless of the risk factors, the related complications would just be the same. The following are just some of the complications of diabetes that people who are prone to it must pay attention to:

1. HEART DISEASE AND STROKE. Experts say that people who have diabetes have greater risks to having coronary heart diseases and to stroke compared to those who dont have them. In fact, these complications are the lead causes of death among diabetics all over the world. People suffering from diabetes are prone to heart diseases and stroke because the fatty deposits brought by drastic changes in the body can block the arteries and leads to heart attack. Because of lesser amount of insulin in the body compared to regular people, diabetics have higher incidence of blood clotting and can also lead to high blood pressure or hypertension.

2. DIABETIC KIDNEY DISEASE. Among people with diabetes, kidney failure is the most common complication because the blood-filtering units of the kidneys are being damaged. Once the kidney has been damaged, important proteins are being along with urine and eventually, the kidneys wont be able to remove the waste products present in the blood anymore. The good thing is, not all diabetics experience End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESRD) which can be life threatening. To avoid this complication, you must stop smoking cigarettes and always keep the blood pressure under control at all times.

3. DIABETIC EYE DISEASE. This refers to the group of eye problems that diabeticspeople with diabetesmay have as a result of the chronic disease. In worst cases, this set of eye related problems such as diabetic retinopathy, damaged vessels of the eyes retina, cataract, cloudiness in the lens of the eyes, glaucoma, and increased fluid pressure inside the eye that is damaging to optic nerve. All of these, when not treated immediately and now monitored properly can lead to total loss of vision loss or blindness.

4. DIABETIC NEUROPATHY. Those people who are into smoking, drinking, and those who have poor control with glucose are more prone to developing neuropathy compared to those diabetics who are not into these vices and bad habits.

5. GASTROPARESIS. This disorder involves the stomach as a result of prolonged emptying. Studies show that around 20 to 30 percent of diabetics suffering from type 1 diabetes are more prone to this diabetes complication because it severely damages the vagus nerve which is responsible for keeping the food moving through persons the digestive tract. Although it is also diagnosed among those who have type 2 diabetes the cases are comparatively lower.

Kidney Stones in Kids

More and more studies show that majority of the children who are prone to developing kidney stones are those that suffer from underlying medical conditions which increases their risk of developing stones this early. For parents to understand how to deal with kidney stones in case their kids suffer from it, they must first understand everything about the condition. Having a broad understanding of the condition can help parents trace possible causes, identify symptoms, and give immediate response to the child in pain.

Kidney stonesjust like in adultshas different types of stones which can either be “calcium oxalate” which is the most common and caused by too much presence of calcium in the urine, the “struvite stones,” “uric acid stones,” and “cystine stones.” These types vary depending on the levels of the minerals found and their characteristics.

Parents would never know if their children are suffering from kidney stones if they are not familiar with its symptoms such as abdominal or back pain, blood in the urine or hematuria, vomiting or nausea, and the often need to urinate. In younger kids, these symptoms cannot easily be recognized that is why there is a need to undergo laboratory evaluation and tests. Since kidney stones is not common among children, especially to younger ones, it is a must to identify the risk factors present such as:

1. History of the kidney stones. If the family has history on this disease, it is likely that children will become more prone to the condition in the future. Studies show that kids who have history of kidney stones are likely to suffer from the same problem in the next 10 to 20 years of his or her life.

2. Low fluidespecially waterintake. If the child exhibits this habit, he or she is prone to kidney stones because it affects the ideal amount of urine that should be released daily. It should always be remembered that if there were lesser water or fluid intake, the chances of developing kidney stones are much higher because there will be more concentration of substances that leads to faster kidney stone formation.

3. Diet and amount of food intake. This especially those high in animal protein such as beef, pork, lamb, or chicken are likely to develop kidney stones because they have higher concentration of protein which is one of the primary causes of kidney stones. Many experts believe that children who consume too much protein are at risk in developing “calcium oxalate stones” along with problems in terms of intestinal absorption.

Other symptoms to look out for include experience in cystic fibrosis, suffering from urinary tract abnormalities like dysfunction of the bladder or the kidneys, some inherited disorders from the parents, and undergoing medications such as “furosemide,” “allopurinol,” and “acetazolamide” which are known to promote formation of urine crystals that leads to the formation of kidney stones.

Experts say that before, children are lesser prone to kidney stones because they are healthier and more physically active. But, over the years, there has been a constant increase in the number of children that are being affected by kidney stones.

Maybe because more and more kids now are living sedentary lives by being in front of the computer or by eating foods that are high in protein, calcium, and sodium.