The Kiss of Death
There are lot of unawareness among the masses regarding the transmission of HIV infection through kissing. Freedoctorhelpline number is flooded with queries like, ‘I kissed someone who might have HIV infection. Should I get my HIV status checked?’
Its is important to know that HIV transmission occurs by the following medium only-
-By infected blood, semen or cervical or vaginal secretion coming into contact with mucus membrane or open wound. (Mucus membrane is found in the lining of eyes, mouth, nose rectum, urethra and vagina)
–Injection of infected blood or blood products (Infected needles)
-Transmission from infected mother to baby in womb or via breast feeding.
The transmission does not occur via other body fluids like saliva or tears or sweat. No formal contact like handshake, sharing clothes or utensils or other social activities can facilitate the transmission of the virus.
The HIV virus is found in very small amount in the saliva, but the concentration is not high enough for transmission. Therefore, the chances are quiet rare that virus is transmitted though open mouth kissing (French kiss). If rare cases of transmission through kissing have been found, this is due to open sores/wounds in the mouth through which blood comes in contact with the mucus in mouth, rather than saliva.
Hate HIV,
Don’t hate the victim!
Blood Creatinine level
Creatinine is an excretory product formed from muscles and filtered out through kidneys and passed out in urine. The normal level of blood creatinine is 0.6 to 1.2 milligram per 100 ml of blood.
When the kidneys do not function properly, the blood creatinine level rises. Patients with diabetes or hypertension have greater chance of kidney damage. Many drugs are likely to induce kidney damage. These include antibiotics like ciprofloxacin, vancomycin: analgesics like acetomorphin, aspirin, ibuprofen: antiviral drugs like acyclovir: proton pump inhibitors like omeprazole and pantoprazole: arthritis drug like infliximab; anticonvulsant like phenytoin and chemotherapy drugs used during cancer treatment. This is recommended that a patients with progressive kidney damage must avoid using the above class of drugs.
When the creatinine level rises above 10mg/dl, dialysis is recommended. The main symptoms include tiredness, shortness of breath, confusion and dehydration. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen tests are done during routine health check up. Nephrologists use these test to know about the kidney health and the assess the gradual progression of kidney disease, if any. However, the serum creatinine level may rise temporarily if the body is dehydrated, there is less volume of blood or the person eats large amount of meat or due to some medication.
If kidney damage is indicated, blood pressure must be under control to prevent further damage. The patient can be put on low protein diet to reduce load upon kidneys. This is not possible to reverse the already damaged kidney, but to prevent further loss is of course possible through medication and diet control.
Physical exercise and balanced diet are found to be very helpful in control of hypertension and in turn, prevention of further kidney damage.
This is suggested that all adult above 35 years of age must get serum creatinine level checked at least once every two years, as sometimes the kidney damage progresses silently and the symptoms appear at very advanced stage where the damage is no longer controllable and proves fatal.
Recurrent fever in children
It is often seen that infants and young children show recurrent events of fever. The episode is repeated every now and then getting the parents anxious. In some children, the relapse interval is greater while in others, the fever is repeated at relatively lesser interval.
To understand the cause, first it is important to know about the mechanism of body which causes fever. Our body is programmed to fight against any sort of viral, bacterial or other pathogenic attacks. This ability of body is known as immunity. This is partly inherent since birth but mostly acquired after the birth. One such mechanism of fighting the infection is raised temperature of body what is known as fever. When the pathogen attacks our body, as an immune response, the body increases its temperature so as to make the pathogen inactive or dead. Hence, fever in itself is not any disease. Its just the indication that some pathogen has attacked our body.
Now, a new born baby acclimatizes itself to the environment. During that phase, several pathogenic attack occur, and the body gradually learns to fight against them and minimize their (pathogen’s) future attack. This process of learning is a life long event, but is more frequent during the phase when the child starts going to school. He is exposed to a less protected environment in comparison to his home, where he has spent most of the time till now. Hence, frequent infection and resulting fever are not uncommon and is a process of acclimatization.
Parents need not to worry, unless there are some other symptoms in addition to fever. Generally, fever caused are viral in nature. So, antibiotics, which are meant to kill bacteria, are not of much use in these cases. Hence, better they should be avoided. Fever should be simply treated with paracetamol. In case, the fever doesn’t subside with the latter, a mixture of paracetamol and ibuprofen are found to give the desired result. In case of cough, a general cough-syrup may be administered.
Calcium intake is important for elderly ladies
Very frequently, we get to know about some elderly person in our vicinity having a bone fracture. Have you ever given a thought that why there are so frequent cases of fracture in elderly people in comparison to younger generation? Underlying cause can be explained through the hormonal changes and resulting bone fragility.
After menopause, in elderly ladies, the blood concentration of the hormone estrogen falls. Indirectly, this hormone controls the retention of calcium within the bones and absorption of calcium from blood stream and their deposition in the bone. So, what will be the result? The bone will gradually loose its calcium and become fragile. The initial physical manifestation occurs in the form of joint pain. In the advanced stage, the bone becomes weak enough to bear the load of body and gets a fracture even with a slight load. This condition in which the bone becomes extremely fragile due to prolonged calcium loss is called osteoporosis. The extent of calcium loss is ascertained by a specific test called bone densitometry test.
calcium with vitamin tabs
The amount of calcium which has been already lost from bone is really hard to recover. Medical intervention could just prevent further loss. Earlier the intervention, lesser the loss and better the result. That’s the reason, elderly ladies are prescribed calcium tablets after menopause. Moreover, for optimal result, intake of vitamin D is equally important which is required for the absorption of calcium in bones. Sachets of vitamin D are prescribed to be taken once a week. Alternatively, hormone replacement therapy is also prescribed for the cause.
India, having a population which is still unaware of the concept of preventive health, osteoporosis is emerging as a major challenge. The government should include the program of free calcium distribution to elderly ladies in its primary health care system just like it is following the pulse polio.
Elders are the torch bearers,
Comfort them!
Uterus transplant
Few days back United states performed its first successful uterus transplant. Unlike kidney or liver transplant, this is relatively a newer concept, giving the hope of child birth to millions of ladies suffering from diseased or absent uterus because of which they are unable to conceive.
There is a specific type of infertility known as absolute uterine factor infertility. In this, the uterus is either absent since the birth or is diseased. Due to this, the fertilized embryo fails to get implanted and the lady could not conceive. Today 2%-5% of the population suffers from this type of infertility. Uterine transplant is a potential treatment for this form of infertility. The uterus is taken from a living or deceased donor. Before the transplant, the patient is put on immunosuppressant medicines which prevents the immune mechanism of recipient acting against the uterus. Once the uterus is successfully transplanted, a healing time of at least one year is necessary before pregnancy could be planned. As fallopian tube is not connected to the uterus during the transplant, the patient has to rely on IVF (In vitro fertilization) for conception. As the transplanted uterus is too fragile to bear the load of labor, a caesarian child birth has to be compulsorily performed. After the successful child birth, the uterus is again surgically removed. This is because the patient needs to be continuously administered the immunosuppressant medicines to avoid transplant rejection so long as the uterus is inside.
The uterine transplant offers equal opportunity for male and trans-sexual to conceive and have child. This possibility led to lot many debates regarding the ethical aspect of uterine transplant. Hence, Montreal criteria for ethical feasibility of uterine transplant was written by Ariel Lefkowitz, Marcel Edwards and Jacques Balayla. They advocated that this option should be open just to females with uterine defect and not to males or trans-sexual.
Whatever be the concern of ethical gurus, this technique is definitely, another landmark chapter of medical evolution and opens the scope for transplant of other organs too.
Hair loss/ Baldness
A major population of current youth is suffering from the problem of hair loss and baldness. Frequent runs to several clinics seldom provide the relief. Quiet ignorant about its cause, the sufferer looses hair as well as the money.
hair loss problem
Most common type of hair loss is the pattern baldness or andro-genetic alopecia. Andro- connotes to hormone and genetic signifies the inheritance. Collectively, the term says that the person has a genetic makeup for baldness which gets its physical manifestation due to hormones.
Like most of the other characters, baldness too have a particular gene which one inherits from their parents. Just the presence of gene is not sufficient for the physical appearance of the character. Next comes into play, the hormone, particularly testosterone. The more active form of this hormone is dihydro testosterone. When this hormone reaches the roots of hair follicle of the person with gene for baldness, the former gets destroyed. This results in hair loss and baldness. As the hormone testosterone is present in males in higher concentration, cases of andro-genetic alopecia is primarily a problem of males. However, some amount of testosterone is also produced by adrenal gland in females. Those female patients with gene for baldness and higher concentration of testosterone in their blood may also develop baldness.
hair loss solution
Now the remedy……! If we could just destroy the dihydro testosterone hormone reaching the hair follicles and and damaging them, hair loss could be controlled. There exists a drug named Minoxidil, which can destroy the dihydro testosterone. Of course, if ingested, this could destroy the hormone in our blood stream, but this could result in other side effects like loss of libido and hormonal imbalance. So the better way suggested is direct external application of minoxidil on the scalp. The chemical gets absorbed and destroys the hormone reaching the hair follicles. Thus any further damage is prevented. Moreover, there exists no side effect for this external application. Earlier the intervention, lesser will be the extent of damage. However, the follicles which has already been destroyed before the intervention could hardly be recovered. The loss will be prevented so long as the application of the medicine is continued. If the person, discontinues the medicine, the hormone will again start damaging the follicle resulting in hair loss.
Before falling prey to the broad claims regarding hair regrowth, one should definitely try to understand the science behind and then try the course or spend money.
Make life safe- preserve stem cell
Medical science seems to progress at such a pace that sometimes, it becomes really hard to believe of the latest techniques. One such method is stem cell banking. What a fabulous method to increase longevity and the quality of life. Totally astonishing!
As all of us know that our body develops from a single cell. That single cell has the potential to give rise to any of the different organs like eyes, bone marrow or liver or kidneys. During the embryonic stage, several such cells are present which have not yet diversified for any organs. Such embryonic cells which have the potential to develop into any organ with proper stimulus are known as the stem cells. Several such cells are present in the blood of umbilical cord which connects the mother to the embryo. Usually the umbilical cord is cut and discarded at the time of child birth. The beauty of the thing is that if such cells are preserved at extremely low temperature (cryopreservation), they can be kept alive for infinite time span. Now, medical scientists have got the way to give the cells, proper stimulus and make them develop in the desired fashion. This gives an insight into the treatment of several serious diseases like cancer, thalassemia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart diseases etc. Time seems no far when the scientists could develop a kidney or cornea from his stem cell, if the patient requires transplant. Now stem cell banks are available at all the major cities of India and provides stem cell cryopreservation facility at very nominal cost. Seeing the growth in medical science and the diverse application of stem cell preservation, one should definitely decide to gift their child an additional life which he could utilize, when he finds it short in future.
Stem cell treatments
Give your child an additional life,
Preserve stem cell!!
Breast Cancer —early detection is the key
Breast cancer Awareness!
We all know that “Cancer” is a devastating disease which not only causes immense suffering to the patients and their relatives but also burdens the healthcare system. Tumor that has developed from the cells of the breast is known as Breast Cancer. Cancer starts when the cells begin to multiply in a out of control fashion and it can start anywhere in the body. Cancer can either be localized (benign) or metastatic (spread to distant sites). The process, by which the primary tumor spreads to distant location, is known as metastasis. We should know that nobody dies of breast cancer as long as it is localized but it becomes lethal only when it has spread to the distant organs of the body. At present the ability to treat localized cancers has improved appreciably but metastatic disease continues to be a therapeutic challenge. Some of the risk factors of breast cancer are being a woman, being older than 50 years of age, having a family history of the disease, taking hormonal replacement therapy and having mutation in BRCA 1 and 2 genes.To spread awareness about it we celebrate October as a breast cancer awareness month.
If breast cancer is found and treated early, the five-year survival rate for the disease is 98 percent. Early detection is the best protection which can be achieved through “screening”. Symptoms of breast cancer include change in skin color/texture, change in shape or size of the breast, discharge from the nipple and/ or lump or thickening in the breast. Screening can be best achieved either by a clinical breast exam or a mammogram which is the X-ray of the breast and can detect breast cancer two to three years before a lump is felt.
Know the risk factors for breast- cancer
Be aware of changes in the breast
Get screened because early detection is the best protection!!!
Cataract and Its Treatment
Cataract and Cataract-Surgery
Cataract-surgery is the most common eye surgery conducted worldwide. As cataract is bound to develop with age, this becomes a common cause of vision impairment among senior citizens.
Our eye lenses are made up of protein. As the age progresses, the proteins denature, thus loosing its transparency. This causes foggy vision commonly known as the cataract. This process of de-naturation is speed ed up by several other factors like ultraviolet radiations, cigarette smoking, hormonal imbalance or use of steroid drugs etc. Regular intake of vitamin E, an antioxidant slows the cataract formation.
There always exists a dilemma among the patients regarding the surgery. When should one go for it? The simplest way to decide that is if the vision is impaired to the level that it starts hampering your day today activities, time is ripe for the surgery. Earlier was the belief that surgery should be done only when the cataract gets matured. However, with advancement of medical procedures, maturation is no longer the pre-requisite for surgery. On the other hand, a relatively mature cataract is much more difficult to remove than the less mature one. Moreover, mature cataract increases the chance of getting glaucoma i.e. increased pressure inside the eye balls.
Cataract-surgery is relatively simple process. First step involves the removal of the natural lenses of our eyes. Commonly, this is done by the process of phaco-emulsification. This involves melting up of our natural lenses with the use of a needle vibrating at very high frequency. After the removal, an artificial plastic lens is inserted which restores the normal vision. The entire surgery is performed under local anesthesia and the patient is discharged the same day or the very next day. Usually long distance vision is completely corrected after the surgery and short distance reading glasses are prescribed.
Restore vision…!
Restore life………!
Enigma of cholesterol
Most of us feel that cholesterol are bad for health and try to avoid them. Few of us know that there exists good cholesterol too, which can do miracles for our body. Still fewer know the ways to increase this good cholesterol level in the blood and derive the benefits.
Cholesterol are a specific class of fat which are required in optimal quantity for maintenance of a healthy cell. If the intake exceeds, their concentration will rise in the blood stream causing the formation of plaques and finally resulting in arterial blockages. Those specific types of cholesterol which cause such blockages are the LDL or low density lipoproteins notoriously known as the bad cholesterol. Lower the concentration of LDL, lesser are the chances of arterial blockage and coronary artery disease.
There exists another type of cholesterol called HDL or high density lipoproteins which are popularly called good cholesterol. They carry the LDL away from blood stream to liver and promotes their destruction there. Thus, they act as a mediator to reduce blood LDL level. Higher the HDL, lesser will be the LDL, and lesser will be the chance of arterial blockage and coronary artery disease.
Good Cholesterol Sources
Now, how to decrease the LDL and increase the HDL in blood stream?
To keep a check on the LDL level, one should reduce the daily intake of fat in the form of butter, ghee and other processed dairy products. Vegetable oils used should be on rotational basis everyday. This means olive oil, soya bean oil, mustard oil, sunflower oil etc. should be used one after another on different week days. Regular exercises and yoga are also found to reduce LDL level in blood.
HDL are found to increase with regular exercises. A person more physically active has higher concentration of HDLs in the blood stream. Regular intake of almonds and walnuts increase the blood HDL level. Smoking reduces the HDL level.
Cholesterols are good as well as bad. You can like them; you can dislike them; but you cannot ignore them. So better ;manage them.
Eat healthy….
Live healthy……!
