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Health Alert

Knee Care

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The knees are one of the larger joints in the body, supporting its entire weight. It is a hinge joint, like that of a door, capable only of moving forwards and backwards. Attempts to force a door to move sideways or push it open in the wrong direction will result in the door “coming off its hinges.” A similar problem occurs when the knee is forced to move in the wrong direction.

Click & see the pictures:

The knee joint is composed of three bones, the lower end of the femur and the upper ends of the tibia and fibula, articulating with one another. The raw bones do not grate against each other. They are separated by a “joint space” filled with synovial fluid, lined with articulating cartilage and separated by little washers called meniscii. There are ligaments inside the joint holding it in place. Considering the size of the knee joint, these ligaments are woefully inadequate. In the front of the knee is the kneecap or patella.

Click & see: Anatomy of knee :

The knee undergoes constant wear and tear. Our daily activities involve walking and climbing stairs as well as exercising. In a lifetime, the knee joint functions over and above its capacity!

The knee undergoes constant wear and tear. Our daily activities involve walking and climbing stairs as well as exercising. In a lifetime, the knee joint functions over and above its capacity!

Pain in the joint can be acute and occurs owing to injury, infection, or age-(or overuse) related degeneration. The cartilage breaks down, exposing parts of the bone underneath. The raw nerves are exposed and this becomes very painful. Bits of broken cartilage can get trapped in the joint. When that occurs, movement can result is sudden pain and the joint can get locked.

Dislocations and injuries are more common in the young — basketball and football are notorious for causing knee injuries. This is because there are sudden abrupt changes in the direction of movement, which may be against the normal anatomical direction of movement. The player may land awkwardly or fall, bruising and injuring the joint.

The two knees support the weight of the entire body between them. The bones are physically capable of supporting only a certain amount of weight. Obesity causes the knees to degenerate rapidly. Depending on gait and posture, one side may wear out faster than the other. This may result in a bow-legged appearance. Walking is extremely painful and the gait may be crab like. The entire joint may be swollen and painful. Or, the pain may be localised on one side. At times, instead of the whole joint, the area under the patella gets worn down and irregular. As that rubs against the bones underneath, there is terrible pain with movement.

Children seldom develop knee pain without injury or a fracture. Boys can develop pain as part of certain inherited congenital syndromes or birth defects in the knee. The patella may also get dislocated. This is more common in teenage girls.

Click & see :

Infections, acute trauma and fractures result in swollen, warm and tender joints. Arthritis, especially rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, can produce a similar picture. Infection always produces fever. Gout usually affects the big toe but can present itself as a painful knee joint. It may be worth checking uric acid levels.

CLICK & SEE:

Ayurvedic remedies  of knee pain

Ayurvedic Therapy – A Promising Treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis?

Natural Ayurvedic Home Remedies for Knee Pain
Ayurveda for Osteo Arthritis (Knee Joint Pain)

Homeopathy for Knee Pain

Knee Injury Treatment With Six Homeopathic Medicines

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata, Indi

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Health Alert

HEALTH ALERT

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SOME CAUSES OF BRAIN DAMAGE…………………

_CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

1.           No Breakfast  People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

      
2.           Overeating:   It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3.           Smoking :   It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4.           High Sugar consumption:   Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5.           Air Pollution  The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our 20 body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6.           Sleep Deprivation :   Sleep allows our brain to rest… Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells…

7.           Head covered while sleeping :   Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8.           Working your brain during illness :   Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9.           Lacking in stimulating thoughts:   Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10.       Talking Rarely :   Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

 

SOME CAUSES OF LIVER DAMAGE

1.           Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
   
2.           Not urinating in the morning.
   
3.           Too much eating.
   
4.           Skipping breakfast.
   
5.           Consuming too much medication.
   
6.           Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food colouring, and artificial sweetener.
 
7.           Consuming unhealthycooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.

8.           Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to ‘schedule.’

TOP FIVE CANCER CAUSING FOODS:

1.     Hot Dogs……...CLICK & SEE

Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can’t live without hot dogs, buy those made withoutsodium nitrate.

2.     Processed meats and Bacon…...CLICK & SEE

Also high in the same sodium nitrates found inhot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.

3.     Doughnuts…….CLICK & SEE
.

Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, andhydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.

4.     French fries…...CLICK & SEE

Like doughnuts, French fries are made withhydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries.

5.     Chips, crackers, and cookies……..CLICK & SEE


All are usually made with white flour and sugar. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.

Categories
Featured Health Alert

Brain attack (Stroke)

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An elderly person’s worst nightmare is suffering a stroke. It conjures up visions of being confined to bed with the inability to move or speak and, worst of all, loss of bowel and bladder control. A cerebral stroke occurs when blood supply to a part of the brain stops for any reason. Though strokes can occur at any age, they are more common after 65 years. With the increase in life expectancy in India, the incidence of stroke has doubled from 175 to 350 per 1,00,000.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
Although it is uncommon for strokes to occur in young people, it can happen in youngsters born with a malformed blood vessel in the brain, brain tumours or those who suffer severe dehydration. Also, at any age, irregular heartbeats can lead to small clots in the brain called emboli, which can block vessels. The chances of having a stroke increase in those above 65 years if they have diabetes, hypertension, obesity, elevated blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), are smokers, take more than 60ml of alcohol a day and do not have an active life.

Pregnant women can also suffer a stroke because of an increase in clotting tendency . In fact, the number of such women having a stroke has increased internationally. This upsurge has been blamed on older age at first pregnancy, an inactive life prior to and during pregnancy and obesity.

The manifestations of a stroke are giddiness, weakness or paralysis of muscle groups, blurring of vision, inability to speak or loss of consciousness. This is followed by paralysis of a limb, or a side of the body. A stroke occurs when blood supply to an area of the brain is cut off, either as a result of a block or a bleed.
CLICK & SEE
Usually, there are a few warning TIA (transient ischaemic attacks) before a stroke or cerebral attack. There can be sudden blurring of vision, inability to speak or weakness of a limb. These signs are due to spasm of a diseased vessel in the brain or to small amounts of blood leaking. Many people do not take these symptoms seriously since recovery is spontaneous and complete. But appropriate preventive treatment at this point can prevent a full-blown stroke.

In the absence of treatment, TIAs are soon followed by the real thing — a stroke. The devastation caused by it depends on the extent of damage to the brain. This in turn depends on the site and size of the block or leak. Thirty three percent of stroke victims recover, 33 per cent have permanent disability and another 33 per cent die. Cerebral stroke is responsible for 1.2 per cent of the recorded deaths in India.

The most common effect is paralysis of a part of the face or one side of the body. Muscles in the throat and mouth lose co-ordination, making it difficult for the person to swallow and talk. Speech may become slurred and distorted. If the speech centre in the brain is affected the person may understand everything that is said but be unable to reply. Memory loss may make recollection of present events a blur. Quite often though past memories are intact. A person may also lose the ability to make judgements, reason and understand concepts. This makes them appear unnecessarily stubborn. A strange numbness or pricking sensations may occur in the paralysed limb. Since all these effects are because of damage to the brain, they are difficult to treat with medication.

All injuries heal given time and treatment, the brain is no exception. It is capable of rewiring itself so that lost skills are regained to an extent. A person who is predominantly right handed can learn to write with his left hand. Physiotherapy makes the paralysed muscles flexible and stronger. Since a few muscle spindles may be still active, they can be retrained to enlarge and take over the function of the paralysed muscles. The bladder can be trained to empty itself every 3-4 hours. By speaking slowly and using simple sentences, it is often possible to be understood. The brain can be stimulated with puzzles and poetry to enable faster healing.

Better still, try to prevent a stroke. :-

• Keep diabetes and hypertension in control.

• Take medications to reduce lipid levels.

• Take aspirin and clopidogrel, usually prescribed to diabetics and those with high pressure, regularly to prevent a stroke.

Walk, swim or cycle for at least 30 minutes a day.

• Stimulate yourself intellectually by learning new skills and doing puzzles.

When it comes to brain circuits, the correct mantra is “use it or lose it!”

Source : The Telegraph ( Kolkata, India)

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Health Alert News on Health & Science

Bigger the Belly, the Bigger the Risk

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Although obesity has long been known to be a risk factor for heart disease, several studies have found that a high body mass index is actually associated with a lower risk of dying from heart ailments. However, according to a new analysis, the apparent paradox may be explained by the simple fact that BMI is a very flawed measurement.
CLICK & SEE
The study revealed that waist size provides a far more accurate way to predict a heart patient’s chances of dying at an early age from a heart attack or other causes.

CNN reports:
“As in previous studies, a high BMI was associated with a lower risk of death. But researchers found that heart patients with a high ratio of waist-to-hip circumference or a large waist size — greater than 35 inches for women, or 40 inches for men — were 70 percent more likely to die during the study period than those with smaller waists. The combination of a large waist and a high BMI upped the risk of death even more.”

Resources:
*CNN May 2, 2011

*Wall Street Journal May 3 2011 *

*Journal of the American College of Cardiology May 10, 2011; 57(19):1877-86

Posted By Dr. Mercola | May 20 2011

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Health Alert

Fluoride in Water Linked to Lower IQ in Children

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A new study shows that exposure to fluoride may lower children‘s intelligence. Fluoride is added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies...click & see the pictures

More than 500 children aged 8 to 13 from two different towns were studied and tested.  One city had fluoridated water, and the other did not.

PR Newswire reports:
“About 28 percent of the children in the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in the ‘high’ fluoride area … in the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city.”

Resources:
PR Newswire December 21, 2010
Environmental Health Perspectives December 17, 2010

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