BRACE YOURSELF FROM THE IMPACT OF COLD AND FLU

Cold was common respiratory illness most people felt every moment of their life especially during winter season or sudden changes of weather. This was the most distressing days that we have to handle with care and with dispatch. Getting cold and flu anytime of the day from sudden changes in temperature due chilly weather can affect the biochemistry of the body. 

The susceptibility to cold and flu is greater if the immune system can’t handle with the disruption of the normal condition of the body. Every alteration will mean something is boiling inside the respiratory tract, the starting point of having caught with flu.

Cold was the result of infection cause by virus. Anyone started coughing, sneezing. It can spread quickly by touching other people’s hands or speaking in front of others. The virus were still outside the perimeter of the body continuously enter inside the respiratory tract by just touching the nose, eyes and mouth with contaminated hands.

Cold and flu is fatal to small children and infants if the virus insisted on controlling human mechanism especially if the victim has problem with his lungs. The transmission of the flu virus is easy even kissing the child in the face.

Most common symptoms are stuffy or runny nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat and fever. It may last a week or more. A cold and flu will inflamed the mucous membrane in the nose, throat and mouth. The more serious symptoms are headache, dry cough, chills and body pains.

Children affected will have vomiting or nausea during the period of distress. What is fatal is when it complicates other health diseases that will lead to life-threatening condition. It causes bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia and ear infection, heart disease and episode of asthma.

Coughing disrupted sleep, the fever that come and go, shortness in breathing and the inflame sinus cavity. Common prevention may minimize the impact to health if caught with colds and flu:

-Get flu vaccine during the year to seek immunity from colds and flu.

-Cover your mouth while coughing to prevent the spread of the virus.

-Always wash both hands most often especially if the contamination started to spread in different part of the body especially the respiratory system. Washing it with warm, soapy water for 15 minutes may help get rid the virus.

-Limit your socializing especially if anyone in the group has flu or cold.

-Help he immune system to fight back with the infection by getting enough sleep, physical activity and eating balanced diet.

-Drink many glasses of water or taking juice to loosen the sticky mucus and keep the body hydrated at all times. Virus can’t be killed using antibiotics. To loosen the mucus fully, use anti-phlegm syrup. A stuffy nose can be remedied by nasal decongestant. If cough will not go away, expectorant is the best choice. Sneezing can be stop by anti-histamine drugs. 

Pain reliever is useful in body and muscle pains. Fever can be relieves with acetaminophen medicines like aspirin and paracetamol.

If initial treatment failed, seek medical advice from doctor so that appropriate medical attention can be done to stop the infection in shortest possible time.

THE MANY CAUSES OF DIGESTIVE STRESS

Our digestive system is the caretaker of the food we eat. Every time we eat, the intestines will take the rest. But once the intestines is damage it send distressing signal that something wrong inside the stomach that should be look into deeply to determine the possible cause.

  How the food we eat is handled. The food from our mouth goes down to the esophagus. The food will directly move to the stomach. The normal digestion happened when body’s hydrochloric acid and pepsin (enzyme) started digesting the food slowly.

 The food that stayed in the stomach is now moving to the upper part of the small intestine, the duodenum to continue the digestion and absorbed the nutrients from digested food. The normal process of digestion will be repeated again and again until the human waste (first process) of digestion is completed and evacuated from the system out of the body.  

Our negligence in protecting the digestive system from the many factors that is dangerous to healthy cells was the reason to have an ulcer. The most affected section of the intestines is the mucous lining, the sensitive and delicate portion of the intestines we should protect. 

We are responsible if the lining of the stomach is damage due to our carelessness in following the modern lifestyle putting everything harmful to the stomach. We eat or drink all kinds of irritants worsening the condition of the digestive tract.

Ulcer is a sore or kind of lesion formed in the delicate lining of the stomach (duodenum). The acid and pepsin are concentrated to the area because of digestion.

There are many kinds of ulcers. There are gastric (stomach) and duodenum (duodenal ulcer). Any of these is called peptic ulcer. Ulcer worsens at the age of 30 to 50. Duodenal ulcer was common to men over 60. Stomach ulcer was common to women of the same age. 

Stress and diet makes the stomach to form ulcer. Another reason is the imbalance between digestive fluids (hydrochloric acid) and enzyme (pepsin). The failure of the stomach to defend against powerful irritants or other substances fed inside the stomach will result to the formation of ulcer. The infection of the stomach with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is another cause of ulcer.

Most of the irritants that induces formation of ulcers are:

-Smoking habit. It slows down the healing of irritated lining and induce more recurrences of painful ulcer.

-Unrestricted use of caffeine (tea, coffee, colas) stimulates acid secretion aggravating the pain.

-Over-consumption of alcohol beverages (liquor) that will cause cirrhosis of the liver by damaging the very important body organs. 

-Daily emotional stress of many kinds. It triggers ulcer pain and increase its frequency. 

Physical stresses may also cause development of ulcers in the stomach.

The symptom of ulcer was burning sensation in the abdomen between the navel and breastbone. The pain mostly felt between meals or early hours in the morning. It only lasted several minutes.

Another symptom was vomiting, nausea and loss of appetite. If ulcer worsened to highest level it will bleed. It can only be detected if the stool has blood.  It was the reason why the stool has black or tarry color.  If the bleeding is heavy, the victim was weak and tired. A heavy bleeding will appear during vomiting.

Application of ulcer medication will stop the ulcer to progress more. It heals the wounds, stop the bleeding and relieve the pain. There were many kinds of medicine in the trade designed for prevention, control and relief of ulcer pain. There were acid control, H2-blocker, acid pump inhibitor and protective medicine for mucous lining.

DIZZINESS IS A SIGN OF DISEASE

There’s hollowness in our feeling as we felt dizzy while riding in a transportation vehicles, riding in the ferries wheel, looking down from tall building to the ground. Why we can’t able to hold our feeling to restrain from falling? Why we felt total black-out shadowing our vision, dark and full of fireflies?

It was found that dizziness was the result of unusual changes disrupting the normal feeling of stability. The firmness of our posture give in.  We felt the lightheadedness inside us. We have to hold on to something solid to prevent us from falling down.

Feeling dizzy is a signal indicating disturbance in the structure of our human body by altering the normal balance of movement. Every movements we did, every thought we make were immediately coordinated to the brain. The brain reacted to the nerve impulses from the ears, eyes, neck and limb muscles as well as the joints of arms and legs. Any small failure of the normal function or if the brain failed to coordinate the many nerve impulses it should receive but with alteration, dizziness occurred. There was imbalance and unsteadiness in our movement. We felt we are spinning in circle.

The vestibular system controlled our sense of balance. Any physical movement we make, rolling, jumping, running, turning, climbing, daily twisting and turning, the system is always in the rescue to prevent as from falling and disorganize in our every action. It controlled the obstruction, the harmony of our movement, preventing any mishaps allowing the flow of movement executed based on brain intention.

Dizziness can be felt if the sensory information was distorted. Feeling motion sickness is the result when the brain received conflicting sensory information to act based on body’s motion, position and coordination. The symptoms of dizziness started if there is lightheadedness, tightness of the chest, dizzying spell, nausea, sweating and vomiting.

Some of the known health conditions believed to be behind dizziness was recorded:

-bout of anxiety and stress

-emotional upset

-Ear disorder (tinnitus)

-double vision

-The presence of tumor or cyst

-benign positional vertigo

-acoustic neuroma (tumor)

-transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the brain stem or small stroke

-neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson disease

-low blood pressure (orthostatic hypotension)

When a person suffered stroke, there is lack of blood supply to the brain. There is numbness in some parts of the body. There is tingling and weakness in the limbs or one side of the face. There was temporary blindness. There was distortion in his speech or speech difficulty or slurred speech.

A simple dizziness has a cause. Physician can give the proper insight what lead to dizziness by conducting series of tests. The specific kind of disease will be known and proper treatment can be done.

DESTRUCTION OF HEALTHY CELLS

Many women in the country were suffering from malignant breast cancer. A tumor (lump) growth destroyed the healthy cells and concentrated in the specific area of the breast. Many of them died even with enough attention, powerful medication and other surgical procedures to arrest the enlargement of the cyst.

It was a fact that she can’t accept the horrifying information of the terminal condition she got. Her desire to live normal life is only short-lived and unexpected. The knowledge tortured her day and night every second of her awakening. Her hope was dim and scary. It was not easy to imagine that a healthy body had hidden secret boiling inside destroying healthy cells.

A tumor may be benign or malignant. Malignant tumors threaten life. It has the ability to spread to other parts of the body (invasive) destroying the same. It may also possible that the tumor confine only locally in some areas or to the main site of infection (non-invasive). Breast cancer degree of infection was classified into stages from 1 to 4 from early stage to critical or deadly stage.

The breast was divided into 20 different section. It was termed as lobes. Each of the lobe has many smaller lobules where the milk was manufactured. The lobes and lobules have connections with small tubes, the passageway to bring the milk from the duct to the nipple. If the tumor is benign or not moving, the lining of the lobules has abnormal cells. Even with abnormal cells it is still not a cancer but the victim may or may not have breast cancer but the risk of having one is still there. As preventive measure, it is recommended to have bilateral mastectomy as protection for abnormal cells to go further.

Malignant tumor is the most complicated subject to imagine. The survival rate is zero in most of the cases. She will undergo many kinds of surgical procedures but the end result still the same the hopelessness of the fight. He may use all the resources in her hands and to undergo all kinds of alternative treatments but the disease is a traitor because he may rest for a while but it will silently progress even if enough prevention is being initiated.

Many of cancer patients did not limit their understanding of their disease. They expanded their perception hoping that the cancer will change its course in their favor. Their belief gives them strength. Their fear was always there but hope is in the middle of their prayers. Small sign of recovery give them smile. It may be brief but their hope for total cure is very promising.

Lucky for those with money for their treatment but how about those that did not have any because of their financial restraint, how can they manage their helplessness? You can see fear in their eyes. You can see the hopelessness in their faces. They knew there’s too much at stake. They are willing to gamble anything possible even if there is no assurance for permanent recovery.

Portion of the populations got breast cancers because of family history. Each member of the family especially women should be aware of the higher risk to have one. Even if they were not diagnosed to have any, it is important that constant reference to a physician should be done. Early medical evaluation through series of medical tests is a guarantee that early detection is early prevention and has greater chance for survival. What happen to most women who knew only that they have tumor in their breast when prevention is too late to initiate and the chance to survive is slim.

Body’s mechanism is hard to understand. A healed breast cancer can still recur anytime in its own discretion. It may not be today but maybe tomorrow.

Women’s fate lies on the effectiveness of the treatment. She should not expect too much. Discouragement can be felt especially if there’s no sign of progress. Keeping it always in the mind will only loosen the courage and weaken the spirit to go on.

A miracle sometimes happened to selected few. No one knows the outcome but keeping it alive will mean something to be proud of. Who knows! The hopelessness may turn out to be winning the battle.

OUTBREAK OF SKIN LESION

Pimple is the outbreak of skin lesion due to acne, the known disorder. The skin oil glands makes too much sebum. It is an oily substance that caused plugged pores. It may also cause by the rapid production of a bacteria. Most of the acne lesion can be found in neck, face, chest, back and shoulders.

It is the common skin disease that may cause disfigurement and permanent scarring. Most of the pimples occurred in their early childhood especially during their adolescent years. Both men and women are prone to the disorder. Young men are preferably more affected than women. Women’s acne was related to hormonal change but it slowly reduced as they grow older. Some women still affected with acne at the age of less than 40 of age.

Women were mostly affected by this troublesome health condition. If pimples are severe, women will develop low-self-esteem, has poor body image and feeling depressed.

There were many kinds of skin lesion. Cyst was located deep within the skin. The nodules located deeper in the skin. They were painful and if severe, it cause scarring. 

Pustule (pimples) contains pus and appeared red at the base of infected area. Papule is called plugged pore.  If it stays under the skin is called closed comedo forming white bump or white bead. While the blackheads are comedos that open up and appeared blackish on the surface of the skin. Its black color formed as the air reacts with the excess oil.

What factors triggered acne:

-If there is hormonal change during puberty.

-If there is hormonal change in adult.

-Certain medicines used in depression can cause acne.

-Too much facial make-up.

-Pressure on the skin.

-Family history of acne formation.

During adolescent years, the girls have increased concentration of female hormones (androgen). The glands will become larger producing more sebum.

Hormonal changes in female adult mostly appeared during menstrual cycle that induces acne. Most often, it formed few days before the cycle then disappear after the cycle. It also appeared during pregnancy and during menopausal stage. To keep the face clean, work it with clean water with the used if mild soap that will not irritate the skin, twice a day is enough.

There are many medicines in the trade that can cure acne and prevents further infection. Treatment is effective with the supervision of a dermatologist.

Severe acne infection will result to swelling or redness to the affected area and scarring to the skin. But it can be treated by taking antibiotic pills as advised by the dermatologist. Large cyst that will not respond to treatment will be taken by draining the pus or removing entirely the cyst. Never attempt to pick or squeeze the cyst to prevent infection and only worsen the condition of the skin. It is the necessity to take care the skin and always have better personal hygiene.

There are good points to prevent acne to form:

-Clean your skin in the morning and afternoon. Use mild soap and wash it thoroughly. Don’t scrub the skin harshly, it will bring irritation.

-Don’t let the skin to get sunburned to avoid the risk of skin cancer and premature aging of the skin.

-Use make-up products that can safeguard the sensitivity of your skin. 

The condition of your skin will depend on how you took care of it. Cleanliness is the secret of glowing skin free from irritation and scars. A healthy skin is a healthy life. It can boost your self-esteem and many people will notice you on the street. Take good care of your skin and your skin will take care of you to be known.