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Bleeding From Digestive Tract

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Bleeding can occur in any part of the digestive tract and should always be investigated because there may be a serious underlying cause. In some cases, only small amounts of blood are lost over a long period of time and go unnoticed. In other cases, severe, sudden bleeding from the digestive tract may result in blood being vomited or passed out of the anus in the feces. You should seek medical help if you notice any bleeding.

Bleeding in the digestive tract is a symptom of a disease rather than a disease itself. Bleeding can occur as the result of a number of different conditions, some of which are life threatening. Most causes of bleeding are related to conditions that can be cured or controlled, such as ulcers or hemorrhoids. The cause of bleeding may not be serious, but locating the source of bleeding is important.

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The digestive or gastrointestinal (GI) tract includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine or colon, rectum, and anus. Bleeding can come from one or more of these areas, that is, from a small area such as an ulcer on the lining of the stomach or from a large surface such as an inflammation of the colon. Bleeding can sometimes occur without the person noticing it. This type of bleeding is called occult or hidden. Fortunately, simple tests can detect occult blood in the stool.

Possible causes:
The causes of bleeding in the digestive tract include inflammation of or damage to the tract’s lining and tumors.

Bleeding from the upper tract, which includes the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, may occur when stomach acid damages the lining of these organs. This is a common complication of the gastroesophageal reflux and peptic ulcers. Severe bleeding is sometimes due to enlargement of veins in the esophagus, which may be a complication of chronic liver diseases.

Most cases of bleeding from the lower digestive tract, which includes the colon, rectum, and anus, are due to minor disorders, such as hemorrhoids or a fissure caused by straining to defecate. However, bleeding may be a sign of colorectal cancer. Diverticulosis and other disorders of the colon can also lead to the presence of blood in the feces.

Symptoms:
The symptoms vary according to the site and the severity of the bleeding. if the bleeding is mild, blood loss may go unnoticed, but it may eventually cause symptoms of anemia, such as pale skin and shortness of breath. Severe bleeding from the esophagus, stomach, or duodenum may cause:

· vomit containing bright red blood or resembling coffee grounds.
· light-headedness.
· black, tarry stools.

If there is a heavy loss of blood from the lower part of the tract, there will probably be visible blood in the stools. When there is severe blood loss from any part of the tract, shock may develop. Shock causes symptoms that include fainting, sweating, and confusion and requires immediate hospital treatment.

What might be done?
Minor bleeding may be detected only during an investigation for anemia or screening to detect colorectal cancer. If the bleeding is severe, you may need intravenous fluids and a blood transfusion to replace loss blood. You will be examined to detect the location of the bleeding, usually by endoscopy through the mouth.

Treatment for bleeding depends on the underlying cause. For example, peptic ulcers are treated with antibiotics and ulcer-healing drugs, but colorectal cancer needs surgery. It may be possible to stop bleeding by a treatment done during endoscopy, such as laser surgery, making open surgery unnecessary. Treatment is usually successful if the cause is identified and treated early.

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Informations about A to Z Digestive Diseases

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies

Source:http://www.charak.com/DiseasePage.asp?thx=1&id=81

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News on Health & Science

To Be Healthy, Work Up a Sweat

To be healthy, you really do need to break into a sweat when you exercise, say experts.

Official advice that 30 minutes of gentle exercise a day is enough to improve your health has been revised by the scientists who first developed the international fitness guidelines. Members of the American College of Sports Medicine are concerned the advice is being misconstrued.

Some may take this to include a mere stroll to the car. People should do at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, like jogging, three days a week, they say.

There is confusion about what is the ideal amount and intensity of exercise to improve health. All agree that regular exercise is essential. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said 30 minutes of gentle exercise each day could be enough to sustain a minimum level of fitness.

Recently, researchers at Queen’s University, Belfast, found walking for half an hour on just three days a week gave similar fitness and blood pressure benefits to walking for 30 minutes five times a week.

The sports scientists, however, say this advice is misleading and could encourage people to do too little exercise. “There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation.

Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health, while others believe that the light activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health,” they told Circulation , the journal of the American Heart Association.

Their original recommendations in 1995 were quickly adopted by the WHO. They now stress that adults need to top up their routine activities, such as casual walking and housework, with structured exercise.

This should include vigorous (jogging) and moderate aerobic exercise (a brisk walk), as well as twice-weekly activities, such as weight training, which maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance.

People can do short bouts of exercise to count towards their weekly goals, but these must last for at least 10 minutes. They say that even more exercise than this may have further benefits.

However, research has also shown that too much exercise can be damaging to the body. Professor Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, told The Guardian that it was difficult to give ‘one-size-fits-all’ advice.

“People who are very overweight would have to do an hour of exercise a day just to maintain their weight if they aren’t going to change their diets,” he said.

Source: The Times Of India

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Health Alert

Killers in packs

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Smoking was once considered macho, high-class and sophisticated. James Bond, Fidel Castro and socialites smoked publicly and elegantly. Now smoking has sunk way down in the etiquette scale and is socially unacceptable. Smoking in public places such as offices, trains and movie theatres is banned in many countries including India.  Cigarette packets carry the warning: “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. Yet, there is no serious effort to implement a 2004 law banning the sale of cigarettes to minors. As a result, 7-8 per cent of teenagers in India use tobacco, as cigarettes, beedis or as chewing tobacco.

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Cigarettes are made up of finely shredded tobacco leaves and stem rolled in a special kind of paper. When smoked or chewed, tobacco provides the body with a rush of nicotine and around 600 other addictive, harmful and cancerous chemicals. These produce elation and euphoria. Eventually, the intervals between “fixes” become shorter and the number of cigarettes smoked increases.

Addiction to tobacco is both genetic and environmental. A preconditioned individual reared in a conducive environment will eventually become addicted.

As the tobacco smoke enters the lungs, it paralyses the cilia. (These are small hair-like projections from cells lining the airways and are responsible for removing foreign particles.) The smoke can then settle in the interior of the lungs, causing destruction and difficulty in breathing. Attempts to clear the material are futile and result in hacking and unproductive cough. There are repeated bacterial and viral infections. Oxygenation becomes insufficient. The person may go into heart failure and become permanently breathless.

The build up of toxins can eventually lead to cancers — in the lung, urinary tract, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach and blood (acute myeloid leukaemia).

In those who do not develop cancer, tobacco damages several organs. The teeth become yellow, plaque ridden, loosened from the sockets and may eventually fall. Conversation becomes difficult because of halitosis (bad breath). The bones weaken leading to early osteoporosis.

New evidence shows that the chemicals in tobacco alter the body metabolism, precipitating glucose intolerance and the changes associated with the metabolic syndrome X. Diabetes sets in, and the lipid levels are altered. Atherosclerotic plaques build up in the blood vessels, leading to heart disease, paralysis, stroke and vascular disease. The blocks in the peripheral vessels cause pain while walking and numbness, burning and tingling in the limbs.

The IQ (intelligence quotient) falls and the smoker’s cognitive skills decline faster than in non-smokers. This makes early dementia a very real possibility.

Women who smoke during pregnancy place themselves and their foetuses at great risk. They tend to have small babies. Also, there is a much higher incidence of abnormalities of the digits in the child. Fingers and toes may be more or less than normal or stuck together.

Non-smoking men and women who live in close contact with smokers suffer all the ill effects of smoking without the pleasures of addiction. Passive smokers are the single largest international group of victims of substance abuse.

More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol consumption, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. Smoking causes diverse and silent deaths — an unpublicised form of slow suicide. The others diseases and causes of death receive far more media publicity.

Giving up smoking is not easy. As with all other addictions, it involves reconditioning of the body and the mind. Quitting has to be abrupt and overnight. There is no slow, weaning process.

Face-to-face interactive counselling on a one-is-to-one basis is very successful in motivating people to quit.

Medication to counter the urge to smoke is available in India. The sustained-release bupropion SR is a non-nicotine drug that supposedly reduces the craving by affecting the same chemical messengers in the brain that are activated by nicotine. It is expensive, the dosage has to be individualised, and it has to be taken for a prolonged period. Motivation and persistence are usually lacking in smokers, and thus the medication has not been a success in India.

Nicotine gum is available in some of the larger cities.

Most young smokers are convinced that they have the willpower to quit whenever they want to, but in reality 90 per cent are still smoking five years later. Many sincerely believe that complications will side step them and affect others!

It is never too late. Smokers who do manage to quit get a second lease of life. On average, they live longer and are healthier than those who continue the habit.

If you want to stop, grit your teeth and “just do it”.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Pediatric

Breastfeeding infants for at least six months is best!

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We know that  breast  feeding is best,   but what is the bottom line for nursing mothers? What length of time provides maximum health benefits for infants? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that breastfeeding continue for at least twelve months. But not all women are able or willing to reach the twelve-month goal. According to the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), approximately 70% of women in the United States breastfeed alone or in combination with formula at the time of hospital discharge. The rate drops to about 33% at six months, with even lower rates for low-income and African-American families. Parenting guides and books suggest that breastfeeding longer is better. Doctors tell mothers that breastfeeding for a few weeks is better than not breastfeeding at all.

But how long is long enough? In 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) changed its recommendation from exclusive breastfeeding for four to six months of age to exclusive breast feeding for at least six months. The term “exclusive breast feeding” means exactly that: the infant receives only breastmilk. No supplemental formula, water, other liquids or solid foods are provided.

Of course, vitamins, minerals or necessary medicines are included in this guideline.

Even after the WHO released its recommendation, there was still some lingering debate and confusion regarding the optimal length of breastfeeding. This confusion arose in part from the lack of information about the comparative health gains of different breastfeeding time frames. Most research studies were not specifically designed to clarify whether breastfeeding for three versus four or even six months really mattered.

Breastfeeding Duration Is Important

New findings support growing evidence that the length of time is important. The WHO recommendation is correct   six months seems to be the magic number.

Researchers from the University of Califonia-Davis Children’s Hospital, the University of Rochester and the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Health Research studied a nationally representative sample of 2,277 babies.

These scientists compared five groups of infants. The first group included formula-only babies. The other groups of infants were fully breastfed (using formula on a less-than-daily basis) for different lengths of time: less than one month, one to four months, four to less than six months and six months or more. Infants fully breastfed for six months or more were less likely to suffer from pneumonia, ear infections, and colds than infants breastfed for four months. These health gains continued throughout the infants’ second year.

Researchers in 2003 reached similar conclusions regarding breastfeeding duration effects. They compared the benefits of three and six months of exclusive breastfeeding in a sample of 3,483 infants. Babies exclusively breastfed for six months had a lower risk of developing gastrointestinal infections. In addition, exclusive breastfeeding did not cause any negative side effects such as iron deficiency during the first year of life.

Additional Benefits

These two recent studies complement the large body of evidence indicating that breastfeeding has important benefits for children, mothers, and society. Besides protection from upper respiratory and gastrointestinal effects, the benefits of breastfeeding for infants include:

* Fewer infectious and non-infectious diseases

* Reduced risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, allergies and asthma

*Reduced likelihood of becoming overweight and obese children

*Lower incidence of skin disorders

Mothers who breastfeed also experience positive health effects such as less postpartum bleeding, an earlier return to pre-pregnancy weight, and a reduced risk of ovarian and pre-menopausal breast cancers. Families with breastfed infants save thousands of dollars on formula and medical care. Society benefits, too. Fewer trips to physicians and hospitals reduce overall healthcare expenditures. Reduced rates of absenteeism and increased morale can translate into huge savings for large corporations as well as small businesses.

Breastfeeding Barriers

Given the overwhelming amount of research pointing to the benefits of breastfeeding, why do only one-third of American women continue to nurse their infants for six months? Certain characteristics are associated with breastfeeding. Women who fully breastfeed tend to be older and more educated. Mothers who smoke, are single and do not participate in childbirth education classes are less likely to exclusively breastfeed.

The most commonly reported reasons for bottlefeeding are:

* Father’s negative attitude toward breastfeeding

*Uncertainty regarding how much breastmilk is consumed by the nursing infant

* Return to work

Other factors influencing rates of breastfeeding include:

*Negative attitudes of healthcare professionals

* Ready availability of formula

*Nipple pain and irritation

* Time constraints

* Embarrassment

* Lack of confidence

* Concerns about dietary or health practices

Mothers indicate that receiving more information from prenatal classes, TV, magazines, and books would increase the likelihood of initiating and maintaining breastfeeding. According to lactation specialist Charlotte Burnett, BSN IBCLC from Truman Medical Center Lakewood (Kansas City, MO), much of the educational process targets dispelling common myths about breastfeeding.

For example, many women believe that they are completely unable to eat beans, spicy foods, chocolate, junk food or drink soda while breastfeeding. Other women  seem to think they should not even start to breastfeed if they are planning on returning to work or school in six weeks,   says Burnett.

Obtaining more family support would also help increase rates of breastfeeding. If a mother or sister didn’t or couldn”t breastfeed, a new mother may have less confidence and desire to breastfeed, reports Burnett. Even if a mother chooses to nurse, detrimental family comments an undermine this decision. Burnett”s clients have heard comments such as,  Just give him a little real milk or She wants to breastfeed so much. Are you sure you shouldn”t just give her a bottle?

To complement education and family support, the International Lactation Consultant Association states that supportive, breastfeeding-friendly communities are imperative to increase national rates of breastfeeding.

This may be one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome. A huge barrier is the free formula that companies give away. We are trying to change a culture,  reports Patricia Lindsey-Salvo, a lactation specialist who runs the Breastfeeding Center at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

In 2001, the Department of Health and Human Services released a   Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding   as part of the Healthy People 2010 initiative. This document detailed a comprehensive national breastfeeding policy with a goal of increasing the number of new mothers who breastfeed to 75%. The document also calls for expanding the proportion of women breastfeeding at six months to fifty percent, and twenty-five percent at twelve months.

So What Should a Mother Do?

So what does all of this research and information mean for a mother? Get as much information as you can before deciding to breast or bottle-feed. Discuss problems or concerns that are likely to affect your breastfeeding goals with a lactation consultant or sympathetic pediatrician. Share information with your family and friends, and surround yourself with encouraging and supportive voices. Nurse your infant as long as possible, aiming for at least six months. “The evidence is rolling in every day about the benefits of breastfeeding,” reports Lindsey-Salvo.

Source:www.kidsgrowth.com

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Beating those bugs(Lice)

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Lice infestation is universal. Head lice have co-existed with humans for two thousand years. They have been observed in the sarcophagus of well-preserved Egyptian mummies, in tombs that also contained fine-toothed combs to remove head lice. They do not pay heed to social, economic or geographic boundaries. A millionaire’s  offspring as well as the child of a slum dweller can both be seen scratching their heads. Closer inspection may reveal lice scurrying along hair shafts, or white nits (eggs) closely attached to the hair.

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Infestation is a social stigma. The child is perceived as “dirty” and the parents are seen as negligent caretakers. Neither of these statements, however, is necessarily true. Lice can survive submersion, oiling, shampooing and extremities of temperature.

Head Lice or Pediculus capitis (which literally translates to “lice of the head”) have not changed or evolved much. They are still small, brown insects with a tough outer coat and tapering legs adapted to cling tenaciously on hair shafts. They can survive huge climatic variations and lay dormant for up to 10 days. They cannot fly or jump; they move from one human being to another by crawling along the hair as heads move into close contact, or by walking along walls, floors, furniture and bedding. They are also very fastidious and host specific   they can survive only on the scalps of human beings, and not on other animals.

Head lice themselves do not cause disease. But they cause intense itching which can interfere with sleep, concentration and efficient functioning. The scratching can cause secondary bacterial infection. This, in turn, can lead to painful enlargement of the lymph nodes in the neck.


In traditional societies, people found a way around this problem. Some families regularly went on pilgrimage. Their houses were cleaned and then locked. Unable to obtain a human blood meal, the lice starved to death within 10 days. And at the pilgrimage site, the whole family was tonsured. Thus, no hair meant no lice!

Bug-busting fine-toothed combs are readily available. They are safe and effective. The hair should be well oiled and all the tangles removed before combing. Most of the lice slip off with this treatment. The action has to be repeated every alternate day for two weeks till no lice are seen.

Chemical lice treatments are also available. They contain pyrethroids, permethrin, lindane or malathion. These compounds may be available as lotions or shampoos. The treatment must be repeated after 10 days.

About 17 per cent of lice are resistant to insecticides. Repeated treatment, using higher-than-recommended doses will not work. In fact, they may even be harmful and signs of toxicity may appear.

A combination of insecticide treatment followed by bug-busting combing is very effective.

Lice reproduce efficiently and explosively. Each couple can produce 100 eggs in a lifetime. Each egg hatches after eight days and the little bug develops into an adult in around 10 days. Unless the eradication treatment is repeated every 10 days, new lice will repopulate the hair.

After some time lice may reappear. This may be due to reinfection from another person or repopulation from lice that survived the original treatment.

If lice have gravitated to the eyebrows and lashes, they should be very carefully manually removed. Chemicals should not be applied.

Natural compounds are advertised for lice treatment. Some are neem-based. There may be others that contain organic pesticides in unregulated and dangerous doses. Before applying them, please read the fine print carefully.

Egg white and motor oil do not have any action on lice. On the contrary, they may cause hair loss.

Kerosene kills lice and nits. But it is also a dangerous, highly inflammable compound and therefore should not be used.

“Lice” is actually a generic term that loosely refers to head lice. Insects from the same family, called Pediculus humanus or body lice, can also be found on the body (not the head), in areas where there is overcrowding, homelessness and poor hygiene. These lice cause itching, particularly around the waist, groin and upper thighs. There may be an allergic reaction that aggravates the itching. The skin may eventually become discoloured. Secondary bacterial or fungal infection may occur.

Unlike head lice, body lice can cause typhus and relapsing fever.

Regular bathing, clean clothes and application of lotions or creams containing pyrethroids, permethrin, lindane or malathion will kill the lice.

Crabs or pubic lice (Pythiriasis pubis) are usually spread through sexual contact. They can also spread through infected bedding. These lice cause intense intolerable itching in the genital area. They also respond to the lotions and shampoos containing pyrethroids, permethrin, lindane or malathion.

It is possible to get rid of all types of lice provided the cycle of reinfestation is broken and good personal hygiene maintained.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

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