It turns out that if you have recurrent rhinosinusitis (inflammation of the nasal and sinus linging) and you are using nasal saline irrigation every day, you could end up causing more acute infections in the long run, say researchers. In fact, you could be increasing your chance of infection by 60%.

Doctors aren’t saying that you should never use saline irrigations and they can be helpful over short periods of time, but they fear that consistent, long-term usage disturbs the balance in the nose and sinuses, causing other problems. While the mucus in the nose can be irritating, it’s also the body’s first line of defense against infection. If the mucus is constantly being removed, we are removing that defense.

Researchers studied 68 patients who had a history of recurring rhinosinusitis and who used nasal saline irrigation regularly. A second group of 24 patients also participated. The first group used nasal irrigations twice a day for one year and then stopped for another year. The second group used nasal irrigation once a day, also for a year.

After studying the number of times the patients experienced rhinosinusitis, the researchers found that there were 544 cases while the patients were using the irrigation, with an average of eight episodes per year. On the other hand, only 204 cases were noted in the year without irrigations – about three per year.

The group that didn’t discontinue treatment had a 50% higher rhinosinusitis rate than the group that did stop using the saline.

This study was presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting.

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Post from: Blisstree

Don’t Use Nasal Saline Irrigation Every Day

There has been a suspicion that there is a connection between depression and osteoporosis, but studies have been small. To address this, researchers from Hebrew University researchers looked at data from all studies analyzed them to see what they could find. The results of their meta-analysis were gathered from 23 studies, which studied 2,327 people with depression and 21,141 without depression.

According to this news release, Connection between depression and osteoporosis detailed by Hebrew University researchers, the connection is clear.

[D]epressed individuals have a substantially lower bone density than non-depressed people and that depression is associated with a markedly elevated activity of cells that breakdown bone (osteoclasts).

[The researchers] found that the association between depression and bone loss was stronger in women than men, especially young women before the end of their monthly period. This connection was especially strong in women with clinical depression diagnosed by a psychiatrist, but not in community studies, in which women subjectively identified themselves as being depressed using self-rating questionnaires.

Osteoporosis is a devastating disease. It affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over 50, throughout the world.

The authors of the study say that women and men who are diagnosed as clinically depressed should be monitored for osteoporosis. What would be interesting would be to know if these people take antidepressants and if this may affect the development of osteoporosis.

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Post from: Blisstree

Depression and Osteoporosis Connection

The lens gets cloudy when the protein bunches up together in the lens. The light or image can’t pass through the lens, leaving a cloudy spot. As the cataract gets larger and becomes more set, the color changes and you can see a yellowish or brownish tint when you look at things.

According to Thomas Kohnen of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and his colleagues, many as 10 million people around the world live with cataracts. However, what used to be impossible to treat may now be treated  not only surgically, but with day surgery. The damaged lens is removed and replaced with an artificial lens. As a result, this type of surgery is now the most common in the world, Dr. Kohnen says.

It is possible to have both eyes develop cataracts, but surgery is usually only done one at a time. Some people, who have more complicated eye issues, may not be able to have a simple surgery and will have to undergo other procedures.

If you think you may have cataracts, see your eye care specialist as soon as possible. There are things that you may be able to do before having to undergo surgery.

Symptoms of cataract include (Source: National Eye Institute):

• Cloudy or blurry vision.
• Colors seem faded.
• Glare. Headlights, lamps, or sunlight may appear too bright. A halo may appear around lights.
• Poor night vision.
• Double vision or multiple images in one eye. (This symptom may clear as the cataract gets larger.)
• Frequent prescription changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses.
• These symptoms also can be a sign of other eye problems. If you have any of these symptoms, check with your eye care professional.

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Post from: Blisstree

Cataract Surgery: Most Common World Wide

A recent study from Loyola University looked at 519 junior tennis players. The researchers found that tennis players who focused only on the game were more likely to not be able to play because of injuries or other medical reasons. This was more prevalent among boys than girls. The players were also 5.4 times more likely to withdraw from a tournament for medical reasons if they had been injured or ill before.

The most common injuries are:

• ankle sprains
• hip injuries
• knee cap instability
• stress fractures in the spine
• wrist tendinitis
• rotator cuff tendinitis

There are different reasons why this may happen. One is the repetition of the same movements again and again, but there is also the overload of the heavy competition schedule.

You can read more about this study and the types of injuries in this article from the Loyola University Health System: Young Tennis Players who Play Only One Sport are More Prone to Injuries.

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Post from: Blisstree

One Sport Only May Hurt Young Athletes

Hugh Laurie

Save the Children is an organization that works to improve the health of children all over the world, including North America. In April of this year Save the Children Artist Ambassadors Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Laurie helped establish World Pneumonia Day, which took place on November 2, 2009. The goal of the day was to mobilize efforts to fight pneumonia, a neglected disease, that kills more than two million children under the age of 5 each year worldwide.

“I work on a TV show that features the unusual, the bizarre, the unique. But the cases on House are brightly-colored minnows compared to the leviathan of pneumonia,” said actor and Save the Children Artist Ambassador Hugh Laurie. “It’s so big, you couldn’t make a TV show about it. But you could change it. So could I. We can and must change it.” (Source)

Gwyneth Paltrow

“We have what it takes to prevent and cure childhood pneumonia. Yet the disease tragically claims more than two million babies and toddlers every year,” said actress and Save the Children Artist Ambassador Gwyneth Paltrow. “We can stand on the sides and continue to watch this tragedy unfold or we can step in and change the ending. World Pneumonia Day gives everyone the chance to
act.” (Source)

Why are children susceptible to developing pneumonia? All around the world, millions of children are malnourished and don’t have access to basic health care: two things that can decrease the incidence of pneumonia significantly.

U.N. agencies say pneumonia is responsible for one in four child deaths, more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Every 15 seconds a child dies of pneumonia. More than 98 percent of these deaths occur in 68 developing countries. (Source)

The people who run the Save the Children  organization developed a game to help people learn what they do and don’t know about pneumonia. How much do you know?

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Images: ZumaPress.com and Save the Children

Post from: Blisstree

Pneumonia Kills Children Too

Over the years, not much notice was taken until the 1980s when a doctor in the United Kingdom, Lorna Wing, noticed children with similar characteristics and she named what she saw as Aspergers syndrome. Since then,  the disorder was studied more, and in 1994, Asperger syndrome was labeled as an autism spectrum disorder. With that, it was officially recognized in the “bible” of the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual).

Asperger syndrome is not the same as autism, although it is in the same family. The NINDS has a good description of what Aspergers is. Having a separate diagnosis is important to many people because it helps give the disorder an identity, rather than lumping it in with something else: autism. That being said, there is now a movement among some psychiatrists to take Aspergers out of the DSM-V (fifth edition) and put it under autism spectrum disorders.

For parents who fight for rights for their children with Aspergers, this is like lumping all of cancer under one category, said Margot Nelles, who founded the Aspergers Society of Ontario, Canada, in this CBC article, Psychiatrists debate Asperger’s label.

What do you think? Should the doctors leave it as is or are they right to want to put the disorders together?

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Post from: Blisstree

Remove Aspergers as a Diagnosis?

Several years ago, some doctors made a claim that the vaccines given to children caused autism. As some parents of children with autism wanted to be able to identify a specific cause for their children’s disability, they latched on to the theory that there was a connection between the vaccines and autism. The problem is, the very doctor who made this claim first has come out to say that he was wrong. That his research was wrong. Sadly, this is still a strong belief in some sectors and many people avoid vaccines for fear of exposing their children and themselves to the imagined risk.

In the most recent issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, scientists reported the results of yet another study showing that vaccines with thimerosol do not raise levels of mercury in children. In fact, they found that premature babies, those who are smallest and most vulnerable, showed very minimal levels of mercury after receiving childhood vaccines.

What is particularly interesting is the finding that children appear to have mercury in their body *before* having vaccinations:

The purpose of the study was to find out how much mercury from a vaccine containing thimerosal stays in a child’s body,” said Dr. [Michael E.] Pichichero [Director of the Rochester General Research Institute, Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY]. “What we found was that blood mercury levels before vaccination were often detectable, even at a level similar to many children after the vaccination. By just breathing the air, mothers were passing to their unborn infants some slight amounts of mercury. The mothers did not eat fish that contains mercury, so in the United States and other countries where fish is consumed by pregnant women the levels of mercury would be presumably even higher. After the babies were given vaccines containing thimerosol, their blood levels of mercury did rise to very low levels and then fell rapidly to baseline levels by day ten after the vaccination following the vaccination.”

Are you going to be vaccinated? Are your children?

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H1N1, Vaccines, and Mercury

There is more than one type of pneumonia – it can be caused by viruses or bacteria, the most common causes, but also by other means. For example, someone who develops aspiration pneumonia got it by getting  vomit, food or drink into their lungs instead of their stomach.

It’s not always obvious if you have pneumonia. You may just not be feeling well. But signs and symptoms of pneumonia include:

• cough
• yellow-green phlegm (mucous)
• shortness of breath
• feeling very tired and unwell
• chest pain
• fever

Can you prevent pneumonia? The best way to prevent pneumonia is to avoid getting sick, as much as possible. This means:

• Wash your hands often
• Cover your mouth when you cough
• Don’t smoke
• Eat a healthy diet
• Exercise regularly
• Drink alcohol in moderation
• Get enough sleep

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Image: iStock.com

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Post from: Blisstree

November 2: World Pneumonia Day

COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It’s a respiratory disease that could be virtually eliminated from the world if we would stop smoking altogether. Imagine that. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis fall under the COPD umbrella.

According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute,

COPD is now the 4th leading cause of death in the United States and also causes long-term disability.

The number of people who have COPD is on the rise — more than 12 million are currently diagnosed with it. And it is estimated that another 12 million may have COPD but not realize it.

The typical person with COPD is over 45 years old and who either smokes or has smoked. Other people who have it may have a genetic risk factor or have been exposed to something in the environment.

Symptoms:

• Chronic cough
• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing
• Inability to take a deep breath
• Excess sputum production

If you believe you may have COPD, see your doctor. A test called a spirometry, will tell you what your lung capacity is. It’s a simple test that requires you to breathe into a tube as hard as you can and as long as you can. That’s it.

Treatment

There’s no cure for COPD but there are medications on the market that may help you breathe easier.

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Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

COPD Awareness Month: November

According to the American Diabetes Association:

• 24 million children and adults in the United States live with diabetes
• 57 million Americans are at risk for type 2 diabetes
• 1 out of every 3 children born today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue

Unfortunately, not everyone who is diagnosed with diabetes takes it seriously. Diabetes is a disease that is more than just high blood sugar (glucose) levels. It’s a chronic illness that can cause blindness, kidney disease, nerve problems, even sores on the feet that may become bad enough to need amputation.

Diabetes is a very serious illness.

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes. Both these names didn’t describe the disease properly and now it is called type 1.

This type of diabetes is not caused by bad eating habits or lifestyles. Usually, it shows up only in children but young adults may be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as well.

People with type 1 diabetes cannot make insulin, which is needed to help break down the sugar in your body. Without the insulin, the blood sugar level rises dangerously and can cause death.

You can’t take insulin by mouth; it must be injected into the body. Someone with type 1 diabetes must take daily injections for the rest of their life.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset or non insulin-dependent diabetes. As with type 1 diabetes, neither of these names adequately described the disease, so now it is known as type 2.

It used to be that only adults developed type 2 diabetes. For some, it is inevitable and they develop it because of their body make up. However, a huge number of people with type 2 diabetes developed it because of poor lifestyle choices. These include unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, and generally not caring for their health.

Usually, type 2 diabetes can be controlled with oral medications (pills) because the body is still making insulin, it just can’t use it properly. However, many people with type 2 diabetes do end up taking insulin eventually.

Gestational Diabetes

Sometimes, pregnant women develop diabetes during their pregnancy. Although this is true diabetes (not enough insulin to care for the blood sugar), it usually goes away after the baby is delivered.

There is some research that shows women who had gestational diabetes may be at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on in life.

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Post from: Blisstree

November Is Diabetes Month