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Archive for January, 2010

A cold is a contagious viral disease in which the virus attacks the lining of the nose and throat causing inflammation.

It is most common during the cold winter months and affects children and adults of all ages. Most people will catch a cold two to four times a year. Sneezing is caused by the irritation of the soft lining of the nose, which is characteristic of the common cold. A single sneeze will generate millions of droplets laden with viruses that can travel through the air and contaminate any surface on which they land making the surface infective for about 24 hours.

If possible, stay away from people with colds. Do not touch your nose or eyes after being in physical contact with somebody that has a cold. For example, if a person with a cold blows or touches their nose and then touches someone else, that person can subsequently become infected with the virus. Additionally, a cold virus can live on objects such as pens, books, telephones, computer keyboards, and coffee cups for several hours and can thus be acquired from contact with these objects. This is possibly the most common way of catching a cold. Usually a common cold causes no serious trouble and symptoms will clear up in one to two weeks. There has been considerable controversy about whether or not there is an effective way of treating an ordinary cold to make it go away quicker.

Even more controversy has been generated about whether or not Vitamin C has any effect on the course of common cold. A group of practitioners, including this author, believe that the ubiquitous antioxidant through its enhancement of the immune status does have an effect on getting a cold in the first place and possibly how long it lasts for as well. Some recent studies concluded that dietary vitamin C intake was inversely related to heart disease risk, but not supplemental vitamin C. This may also be true for the common cold.

Since a cold is caused by a virus , antibiotics are not appropriate. Children with a cold should be allowed to get plenty of rest. Coughs and colds in children will usually go away on their own in a few days.

As so many different viruses can cause a cold and because new cold viruses constantly develop, the body never builds up resistance against all of them. For this reason, colds are a frequent and recurring problem. Many people with a cold feel tired and achy. The common cold is the most frequently occurring illness in the world, and it is a leading cause of doctor visits and missed days from school and work.

Does it have anything to do with exposure to cold weather? A new theory to explain the seasonality of colds and flu has put forward the idea that our noses are colder in winter than summer and that cooling of the nose lowers resistance to infection.  However, although the common cold usually occurs in the fall and winter months, the cold weather itself does not cause the common cold. Rather, it is thought that during cold-weather months people spend more time indoors in close proximity to each other, thus facilitating the spread of the virus.

A cold is very different from the flu although many people fail to distinguish the two. They are caused by different groups of viruses. Cold symptoms tend to appear over the course of two days whereas flu symptoms are more abrupt and appear within hours. A cold usually causes the nasal passages to become blocked, which does not necessarily happen with flu.

Corona viruses are believed to cause a large percentage of all adult colds. They induce colds primarily in the winter and early spring. The same viruses that produce colds in adults appear to cause colds in children. The relative importance of various viruses in pediatric colds, however, is unclear because of the difficulty in isolating the precise cause of symptoms in studies of children with colds.

Although many people are convinced that a cold results from exposure to cold weather, or from getting chilled or overheated, researchers have found that these conditions have little or no effect on the development or severity of a cold. On the other hand, research suggests that psychological stress, allergic disorders affecting the nasal passages, and menstrual cycles may have an impact on a person’s susceptibility to colds. Seasonal changes in relative humidity may also affect the prevalence of colds. Cold weather may make the nasal passages’ lining drier and more vulnerable to viral infection.

To reduce the symptoms and discomfort from common cold saline drops or nasal decongestants, such as ephedrine sprays or drops, may help with a bunged up nose. Glycerin, honey and lemon can be used in children under two. There are lozenges, mouthwashes or sprays which can be used to numb a sore throat. There is no way of identifying the nature of the virus infection from the symptoms as these are very similar across the whole range of viruses. Now research shows that we can actually have more than one cold at a time!

Researchers call it human rhinovirus, or HRV. During the cold season there are almost 100 different viral strains circulating, so it is possible to pick up more than one strain at a time and current research shows that two strains can recombine to create a new strain! Have a “Happy Cold Season!”

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In the last fifty years there have been major advances in health care with the introduction of organ transplantation, joint replacement, heart surgery techniques, and effective therapies for cancer and hypertension. However, proposals are being constantly offered to assure and improve the performance of doctors cheap amoxil and to protect the safety of patients. Patients place a amoxil online large amount of trust in their doctors, and the doctor/patient relationship is regarded as sacrosanct.

The medical profession does not share the same arms-length business to consumer relationship as that of any other business like a mechanic or an estate agent for example. The nature of the relationship is much more intimate, where the patient is relying on the doctor to tell them what they need and they in return disclose confidential information. Doctors are strictly regulated to protect confidentiality. Their hands are tied, and except if they are forced by law, cannot disclose confidential information about their patients.

Take a closer look at this relationship. Would you, as a patient, tell a doctor you are meeting for the first time your innermost secrets? Not likely! For a while, the doctor is on trial and can only gradually gain the confidence of the patient by the way he allows the relationship to develop. My professor told me on my graduation day that I had only become a technician and would become a doctor only on the day a patient asks to see me and no other doctor. It took 5 years to reach that point! It was the proudest moment of my professional life. A patient came in and was offered the option of seeing my boss who had far more experience than I had. She politely insisted she would rather see me.

Some of the latest proposals ostensibly created to protect patients and ensure higher standards of delivery have actually eroded the relationship. Patients are becoming more litigious and are now allowed to make issues public. Doctors are wary of taking decisions, in the best interest of the patient, which they would automatically have taken before, because of the fear of being sued later in the light of new developments or hypotheses. In this situation, lawyers and insurance companies may make great profit; but who is losing out? The patient!

Patients need to have hope. It is a priceless commodity for them. Hope comes when patients feel something can be done for their illness and they will be actively involved in their treatment, armed with knowledge that has been provided by their doctor. Hope is born when a physician looks into a patient’s face and a human connection is established and hope deepens when a patient feels free to talk and a doctor listens carefully. Most of the time a patient arrives with apprehension, maybe even fear. If a doctor succeeds in removing the fear by providing knowledge not only about what may be wrong, but also about a way forward to rid the patient of their condition, the patient is usually happy to follow the doctor s instructions and plan. With today s conditions, the doctor no longer has the time, or the inclination to invest time, to get to the root problem of the patient and design individual solutions.

The medical drama that occurs between doctor and patient has to do with a patient’s willingness to believe that a doctor can and wants to help him. That faith has great impact, independent of the natural course of an illness or other physiological interventions.

We hear many complaints about doctors and healthcare, but what complaints do doctors have about their patients? What can the patients learn from knowing what those complaints might be? Some patients are difficult, nasty, obnoxious or disruptive. They may be angry, and fairly so, due to previous experiences either with the same doctor or another one. Some patients place unrealistic responsibility on their doctors. A doctor asks an obese patient to lose weight to help control her diabetes. She doesn’t but returns time and again for more drugs or knee surgery or and gets upset when her doctor can no longer fix things for her. Doctors have a lot of frustration from patients like these. Some patients demand treatments doctors are unwilling or unable to provide or prescribe. Sometimes such treatments may not be in the patient s best interest.

Finally, the doctor/patient relationship is a two-way street that is becoming clogged up. We owe a duty to unclog it and restore faith in the system.

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As we start not only a new year but a new decade it is time, in my opinion to begin in earnest the search for true wellness. The closing days of the last decade brought some degree of indulging in excesses of food and drink that is bound to leave a mark on the body and compromise health to a smaller or larger degree depending on the scale of indulgence.  We have studied and learnt so much about disease that we seem to have built a cathedral for disease states. We must now turn the wheel round and look at what it is to be well rather than ill. What then is wellness?

Wellness can be defined as the presence of balance between the mind, body and soul that results in a state of overall well-being. These three entities are sometimes referred to as the Wellness Triangle. Most of the time our attention is focused on the body and it is the most frequently discussed part of the Wellness Triangle. However the two other legs of the tripod are equally important and on occasions can manifest changes in them through changes in the body. All three are essential to overall wellness because while your body is a temple and should be treated as such your mind actually controls what is manifested in the body and the soul or spirit is that indefinable third part without which the other two will fail to function effectively.

 The soul part of the Wellness Triangle is the trickiest to describe and write about. The soul is the spiritual reality of a person, which does not die when their body dies. It moves to another plane of existence, which we cannot understand while we are on earth. The soul does not live in the body but is connected with it in a way that is not explained. This connection begins at the moment of conception. While it may be macho or “with it” to refuse to acknowledge the presence of an undying soul continuing streams of data show that patients who have one form of belief or the other survive life threatening conditions like heart attack and cancer far more frequently than those who do not believe in anything.

Wellness is an achievable goal; sometimes you just need a guide to point you in the right direction. Make sure you keep the Wellness Triangle in mind as you pursue your wellness goals. As your efforts focus on total wellness you will see that it is achievable!

Steps to total wellness

Step 1   Nutrition: There is an overused adage that says “you are what you eat”. It is nevertheless quite true. Eating a healthy diet is the first step in moving away from illness towards total wellness.  A balanced diet contributes to a Healthy Lifestyle. A balanced diet also means that you will be giving the body a complement of nutrients that it requires to be able to repair and heal damage and at the same time build new cells to replace old, aging ones. In this wise, the more colourful your amoxil cheap food is the better it is. The brilliant colours of fruits and vegetables that you consume indicate many different nutrients are getting into the body.

Step 2   Exercise: Regular exercise is the next step towards total wellness. The body was not built to be sedentary for long periods of time. The more active you are, the healthier you would be. This is because the body needs to balance the energy that is going in and coming out. If more energy enters the body in the form of the food you eat at least an equal amount of energy needs to go out if the body is to remain in balance. Where there is more input than output, the body will store the excess energy as fat and that would signal impending trouble for the body. Where energy output outstrips input, there would be weight loss which may also be detrimental. During exercise, you will add more muscle mass. As you add muscle, your body will burn more calories. Running, walking, swimming or jumping rope are great cardio exercises. Weight training is essential for reshaping your body.

Step 3   Meditate: Meditation feeds your soul. Meditation can improve your concentration, decrease stress, decrease muscle tension and build self-confidence. Stress leads to many problems including lack of sleep, feeling overwhelmed and overreacting amoxil to unexpected problems. Anything that you deeply enjoy can be a soulful activity. For some, being in nature, listening to a loved one or writing poetry are soulful acts. In this wise, I will urge you strongly to find faith. Something you fervently believe in. This should be something that could become the very centre of your being.

In conclusion, remember that what you eat will directly affect how you feel, so fuel up on healthy food. Everything you do should reinforce your goals for Total Wellness. When you eat properly you are reinforcing your exercise goals. Similarly, when you meditate you are reinforcing your goals for your soul and body. I wish you a healthful 2010.You now can You now can buy diltiazem

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