The Health Blog

Home care can help open the sinuses and alleviate their dryness.

• Promote drainage
1. Drink plenty of water and hydrating beverages. Hot tea is often recommended.
2. Inhale steam two to four times per day by leaning over a bowl of boiling hot water (not while the water is on the stove) or using a steam vaporizer with a towel over the head and bowl to prevent the escape of the steam. Inhale the steam for about 10 minutes. Taking a hot, steamy shower may also work. Mentholated preparations, such as Vicks Vapo–Rub, can be added to the water or vaporizer to aid in opening the passageways.

After delivering the baby, the perineum must be kept clean. Lochia may drain for up to four weeks, so pads should be changed frequently.

• Do not use tampons after delivery. Tampons may cause an infection.
• Take a bath or a shower once or twice daily. A sitz bath should be used after every bowel movement. A sitz bath involves sitting in shallow water, only deep enough to cover the hips and buttocks.
• Urinating can be painful after delivery. Squirting warm water over the perineum during urination may ease the pain. When finished urinating, gently pat the perineum dry.
• Cold sitz baths help reduce swelling and discomfort after delivery. Sit in a lukewarm or room temperature bath, and then gradually add ice cubes to the water. This prevents the uncomfortable, sudden sensation of ice water on the skin. Soak for 20 minutes at a time, up to three to four times a day. After the first two to three days, warm sitz baths will improve blood flow to the perineum. Check with your physician before adding medications such as epsom salts to the bath.

As soon as you feel the first symptoms of a migraine attack, drink a caffeinated beverage. While caffeine has been thought to trigger a migraine, once it starts the caffeine will actually help by opening up constricted blood vessels. Make sure you drink plenty water for the duration of the headache. Even mild dehydration can worsen headache symptoms.
A warm shower or bath may help at the onset of the symptoms. If you are not able to take a shower, try putting a cool compress on your head. Sit quietly in a darkened room. This will help ease light or noise sensitivity as well as nausea. A face massage can ease the headache pain and stimulate blood circulation. A warm foot soak is also good for blood circulation.

Some herbal remedies are known to prevent or ease a migraine headache. Dried herbs can be used to make teas or tinctures. Herbal extracts are potent and need to be diluted before use. Capsules come in many herbal combinations and are readily available at most natural or health food stores.

Start with limiting your young girl’s television watching. Of course, this is easier said than done. Studies show television programs and advertising can have a negative effect on viewers. Television shows targeted toward children are mixed with many advertising messages. Some of these messages are very subtle, while other messages are quite clear.

Of course we cannot blame the media for everything. We can, however, realize that too much television may negatively affect our children’s self esteem and confidence. For example, children who learn at a young age that food equals happiness, may have problems with body image later in life. Television advertising and programs present ongoing messages to young children that “things” are the solutions to problems and the route to happiness. These messages only exaggerate feelings of low self worth if a child does not possess all these “things,” or the “right things.”

Incredibly, there are also indications that EPA might increase brain size. Scans have revealed regeneration in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for memory, reason and processing information. This direct impact on the brain could be why EPA has demonstrated such a profound effect on mental functioning and on mood.

Numerous other studies have shown that EPA reduces the risk of sudden death in heart attack patients and possibly plays a significant role in reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. It lowers bad cholesterol and reduces triglyceride levels; it thins the blood and lessens the risk of atherosclerosis. It can improve skin conditions such as psoriasis, acne and eczema, and helps to alleviate the inflammation and pain associated with arthritis and the list just goes on and on.

The World Health Organization listed 10 facts about blood transfusion - how it save and harm lives. This is in commemoration of the World Blood Donor Day 2007 last June 14, 2007.

Fact 1. Blood transfusion saves lives and improves health, but millions of patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. Every country needs to ensure that blood supplies are sufficient and free from HIV, hepatitis viruses and other life-threatening infections that can be transmitted through unsafe transfusion.

Fact 2. In developed countries, transfusion is most commonly used to support medical and surgical procedures and treatment of conditions such as leukaemia, aplastic anaemia, thalassaemia, sickle cell disease and haemophilia. While the demand for blood is increasing, blood shortages are common. More blood donors are needed to replace those that are lost every year due to ill health, retirement and relocation.

Cancer experts have identified a set of health problems that may be symptoms of ovarian cancer, and they are urging women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to see their doctors.

These symptoms, which are found more common in women, include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.

To help you stay awake and alert, follow these suggestions from the National Sleep Foundation:

• Get plenty of quality sleep the night before a long drive.
• If there’s a time that you typically begin to feel sleepy, avoid driving during that time.
• If you’re planning to drive through the night, try to get at least some shuteye between midnight and 6 a.m.
• If driving all day, stop and take a mid-afternoon nap.
• Try to take a break about every 100 miles or so — stop to get gas, walk around, stretch, nap or get some exercise.
• If traveling with a passenger, it helps if he or she is awake, too. Talk to each other to keep yourselves alert.

The world of Jeffrey Modell, the son of Fred and Vicki Modell, in 1987 was a far different world than we have today for patients with genetic Primary Immunodeficiency (PI) disorders and diseases. There were few answers, little hope and no support networks. Jeffrey and his family had nowhere to turn to get answers; no one with whom to talk and not even enough pediatricians with any real clinical experience, with these life threatening disorders. The thing is that no one really knew what a primary immunodeficiency was or how to make a precise diagnosis. They didn’t know how many different kinds of primary immunodeficiencies there were or could even imagine a world with 150 different genetic defects on over 100 genes, but there are at least that many already classified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Primary immunodeficiencies are a broad spectrum of problems with the immune system and not just one disease. These underlying genetic Primary immunodeficiencies ,of the immune system, affect all organ systems and are as varied as there are disorders and diseases, but they all had one thing in common; they were caused by genetic defects either inherited or as a result of the in utero environment; genes replicating in the wrong way before a child was born. Primary immunodeficiencies are congenital; you can’t catch them or become infected by them; you are simply born that way.