The Health Blog

Lower back pain plagues Americans to the extent that 80% will suffer from it at some time in their lives.  It is one of the most common reasons people visit the doctor.  For many, the problem is more than a passing incident; they need physiotherapy.

Physiotherapy of different types can be used to treat lower back pain.  Acupuncture is fast becoming an important method for the relief of such pain.  The doctor has the patient lie face-down and inserts the acupuncture needles across the back.  The doctor then finishes the procedure for lower back pain.  Pain relief after a series of treatments usually lasts months.

Massage is also used for lower back pain.  The massage used must be done by someone well-versed in the treatment of lower back pain.  A massage done by an untrained person may do more harm than good.

These methods are called passive therapies, or modalities.  They are done to the patient and not by the patient.  There are other modalities that are commonly used.  Heat and ice packs are a well-known form of passive physiotherapy.  They can be used separately, or they can be used alternately by a person who is suffering from acute lower back pain.

A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) can be used as another modality for lower back pain.  The patient will feel the sensation of the stimulator instead of his pain.  If the TENS unit seems to work well for him, he will be sent home with one to use at his convenience.

There is a great need for immediate intervention for children with Down syndrome.  Physiotherapy does not fix the problem; development will still be slowed.  However, it can address problems that are unique to Down syndrome children.

Early Down syndrome physiotherapy focuses on four problems that are common for these children.  One is called hypotonia.  This means that the child’s muscles lack tone.  That is why, when you lay a Down syndrome child in his crib, he will flop out like a rag doll.  Hypotonia needs to be treated because it affects the ability of the child to learn motor skills or to support himself correctly.

Another problem that can be helped by Down syndrome physiotherapy is laxity of the ligaments.  The ligaments are so loose that they do not support the bones adequately.  In infancy, it can be seen in the way they lie down with their legs splayed apart.  In later years, their ankles and other joints will be loose enough to cause support problems.

If you’re working on a weight loss plan, one of the most difficult times of year can be the holidays. Around Christmas and New Years, the parties and meals you’ll attend will include foods that are high in fat and calories and low in nutrition. Fortunately, by following these five tips you can stick to your weight loss plan even as visions of sugarplums dance in your head.

First, avoid the alcohol. Cocktails and beer are usually served at holiday parties, but they can be full of calories. When you drink, you also have a decreased will power when it comes to saying no to other holiday foods and your appetite will be stimulate, so you’ll eat even more than you normally would eat at a party. Having one drink on a special occasion may be fine, but don’t overdo it every time you head out to celebrate the season.

Another great tip to stick to your plan during the holiday season is to show up fashionably late after you’ve already eaten a meal. If you do this, you won’t feel pressured to eat an entire meal of junk foods or snack on cookie or hot chocolate. Of course, showing up late may be insulting at smaller parties, so make sure you are not rude to the party host.

Use the holidays to get outside as well. You can play in the snow if the weather allows, which actually burns tons of calories. Walking up the hill to sled and having a snowball fight are great ways to get your heart pumping as well as work off those candy canes.

If the weather isn’t cold or snowy, use your time to head to the mall. When gift shopping, make a number of laps around the mall and take the stairs instead of the escalator. Keep this in mind at parties as well—get up and move around as much as possible. Christmas caroling is also a great way to stay off of your rear. This will allow you to do some walking while spreading the holiday cheer.

Lastly, avoid gifts of food. Of course, you can’t tell people what to buy for you, but if you find yourself with a bunch of brownies or boxes or chocolates, why not share the love? You can take these products into work or even donate unopened items to your local food bank. These tips keep you staying slim, every as you’re surrounded by goodies.

The idea to stop smoking might seem really great, but what are you actually going to get out of the process?  For many people there are some benefits that are immediately obvious.  Of course, your clothes and house will smell a lot better, and if you have been a car smoker, your car will start to smell better as well.  However, if you dive beyond these shallow reasons, what can you really expect to gain by quitting?  The issues of money and even your health are far greater than any minor smells that cigarettes can give off.

One of the biggest benefits is the savings of money.  Consider that a one pack a day habit can easily rack up a bill of $35 a week, $150 a month and finally $1,825 in a year.  This adds up to an enormous amount that is really hard to play down.  It is important to be really honest with yourself about how much your cigarettes are costing you, if you are attempting to slash your budget, quitting smoking can go a very long way towards freeing up a lot of money.

While the money is obviously nice to save, there are huge benefits to your health as well.  For example, research tells us that as little as 20 minutes after you stop smoking you will be able to see a difference in your health.  If you consider that quitting smoking can help you reduce your risk of heart problems, stroke, high blood pressure, lung cancer, and even breathing complications you have just located a plethora of reasons why smoking really is good to avoid.  The research that tells us smoking is bad has proven that just a short period of time after quitting is able to reverse many of the harmful effects that cigarettes have caused, no matter how long you have been a smoker.

Most people can readily agree that the idea to quit smoking is rather terrifying.  Giving up the comfort that smoking can provide is not easy, nor can it be done instantly.  Struggling to quit requires a lot of honest talks, not only with yourself but also with your family.  There are three major struggles that you will encounter as you are working to quit smoking.  Being fully aware of these struggles will help you to create a plan to quit smoking for good that can help you to overcome these difficulties and emerge in better health as a non-smoker.

Struggle number one is going to find you looking temptation right in the eye.  There is simply no other way to put it.  Everywhere you look cigarettes and more cigarettes.  The number of people who smoke is astonishing, and when you are trying to stop smoking it seems like the number is quadrupling around you.  While it is nothing more than your mind playing tricks on you, it can still be rather difficult to overlook all of the temptation and still stick to your plan to quit smoking.

Anytime you find yourself overwhelmed by temptation you need to walk away.  If you are at your job and cannot simply walk away, you need to develop a stress relieving strategy to fall back on which can help you to ignore the cigarettes that you see.  To really help you avoid temptation you need to work at finding a place where you can eat your lunch away from the smokers and other temptations.  Always be on the lookout because they are around, and if you slip up they will be there to lure you back into smoking rather quickly.

Now, that was gross! Some may say, but as a medical student, hearing that makes me thrilled and amazed. How can it even be possible to remove an appendix through the mouth? As a medical student, I was used to removing the appendix through a small abdominal incision and laparoscopic surgery. Just recently, an experimental surgery of removing the patient’s appendix through the mouth was performed by some US surgeons, first of such surgery in the US.

Last week, surgeons at the University of California San Diego’s Center for the Future of Surgery performed the highly experimental operation, which involved guiding surgical instruments through the mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach with a tube-like device known as a flexible endoscope.

Jeff Scholz, a 40-year old former Marine of San Diego, was the first person in the U.S. to try the surgical procedure. He reported that he felt very little pain after the surgery and he recovered within a few days.

The procedure is known as Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). It is less invasive that laparoscopic surgery because only one small incision is needed to insert a small camera in the belly button to complete the surgery vs. three incisions required for a laparoscopic procedure.

The procedure’s safety is of major concern. Researches are further needed to prove the safety of NOTES.

Source:  WebMD

A study conducted by Oceana found high mercury levels in fresh tuna, swordfish and sushi, they tested from a variety of grocery stores in 26 different cities across the US.

Oceana found out that:

• Mercury levels in tuna were much higher than the FDA data suggest
• One-third of sushi tuna samples exceeded the FDA “action level” of 1 part per million
• Nearly 90 percent of seafood counter attendants either did not know the FDA advice about mercury in fish, or gave a wrong interpretation of this warning
• Two-thirds of swordfish tested were above the FDA “action level”, which would permit the administration to remove these fish from sale
• Sushi tuna samples, on average, contained higher levels of mercury than fresh tuna samples from Oceana’s grocery stores and the FDA’s data on fresh tuna
• Average mercury levels in sushi tuna were higher than king mackerel, a fish the FDA advises women of childbearing age and children to avoid due to high mercury levels

Sinusitis is the inflammation of the sinuses, thus doctors and previous medical literature treats this medical problem with antibiotics. However, a new study found out that antibiotics and steroid sprays do little to cure sinus infections.

The latest study, published in December in The Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at 240 cases. The subjects were assigned to four groups for different treatments: a full amoxicillin course for a week along with 400 units of steroid spray for 10 days, just the spray, just the amoxicillin or just a placebo. The treatments were no better than placebo, a finding shown in studies of children. The reason is not entirely clear, but researchers suspect that antibiotics may not be very good at reaching the sinuses. NY Times

Their recommendation? Take ibuprofen, perform steam inhalation or use salt water to flush the nasal cavity. Treatment is more of symptomatic.

Reuters - More than 100 students and teachers from a school in Bangladesh have been admitted to hospital after suffering convulsions, police said on Saturday.

The cause of their sudden illness was being investigated.

The victims fell ill at Adiabad School and College near Narshingdi district town, 55 km (34 miles) northeast of the capital Dhaka, a police inspector said.

Twenty-three people died in Bangladesh in 2004 from a mysterious disease later diagnosed as an encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain caused by a viral infection. Dozens more were infected with the disease, which some had feared was bird flu.

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.

Recently there have been a scare about the possible transmission of an extremely resistant strain of tuberculosis to fellow flight passengers of a known patient with this disease. The whole world was scared about the news, should we be scared, too? Medical News Today answers all your questions about this disease:

1. How can an ordinary TB transformed into XDR-TB?

TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard, or first-line, anti-TB drugs. If these are misused or mismanaged, multidrugresistant TB (MDR-TB) can develop. MDR-TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects. If these drugs are also misused or mismanaged, extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) can develop. Because XDR-TB is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, treatment options are seriously limited and so are the chances of cure.