Health Blog » Diseases

Symptoms and Causes of Post Nasal Drip

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:09:41 +0000

Post nasal drip is dripping of mucous downwards from back of the nose or throat due to accumulation of mucous in the back of nose most commonly due to rhinitis (inflammation of nasal mucosa). Unless treated appropriately post nasal drip may lead to chronic cough and/or chronic sore throat. Post nasal drip is one of the causative factors for halitosis or bad breath.

What are the functions of nose?

Nose is responsible for warming, moisturizing (humidifying) and cleaning of air we inhale. Nose is also responsible for smell sense. Nasal mucosa produces mucus to perform its functions. Cilia (microscopic hairs) present in the nose help to brush away particles that are deposited from inhaled air and removed to the back of nose, which we swallow involuntarily. When there is excess mucus secretion it drips from back of nose known as post nasal drip.

Urethritis Treatment, Complications and Prevention

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:12:54 +0000

Urethritis is a common health problem among females of reproductive age group. It is also not uncommon among men. The symptoms of urethritis may be troublesome and need appropriate treatment.

Treatment of urethritis:

The main aim of treatment is to eliminate infection and also the cause of infection, prevent spread of infection and to relief symptoms as early as possible. The most common cause of urethritis is gonococcal infection, which should be treated with appropriate antibiotics effective against gonococci, such as ceftriaxone, metronidazole, nitrofurantoin, co-tromoxazole etc. If the infection is due to virus appropriate antivirus antibiotics may be required, but antivirus antibiotics are not always useful. If the inflammation of urethra is due to some irritation of injury, the source of irritation/injury should be eliminated.

Urethritis Causes, Risks and Symptoms

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:50:15 +0000

Urethra is the tube which carries urine from urinary bladder to the outside of the body. Inflammation of the urethra is called urethritis. Due to inflammation of urethra, there is swelling and due to which there is difficulty in urination. Urethritis is more common among females than in males (just like urinary tract infection, which is also more common among females).

What are the causes of urethritis?

The commonest cause of urethritis is infection, which may be due to bacteria (very common) and virus (less common). Urethritis due to infection is divided as gonococcal urethritis (GU) and non gonococcal urethritis (NGU). Gonococcal urethritis is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. NGU is most commonly caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, and less commonly by virus (herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus), and other bacteria (e.g. uropathogenic E. coli, mycoplasma genitalium, ureaplasma realyticum, trichomonus vaginalis etc.).

What Are Vitamin A deficiency Disorders?

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:36:33 +0000

Deficiency disorders of vitamin A mainly involve the eye. Deficiency of vitamin A has become less common, even in developing countries due to use of large prophylactic doses (110,000 micrograms orally to children of 1 to 6 years of age, every 6 months) of vitamin A to infants and availability of vitamin A fortified foods. The vitamin A deficiency disorders include night blindness, conjunctival xerosis, corneal xerosis, Bitot’s spots and keratomalacia. There are also extra ocular manifestations. Xerophthalmia or dry eye is the term, which comprises all the ocular manifestations of the vitamin A deficiency including night blindness to keratomalacia.

Night blindness:

The vitamin A deficiency first causes night blindness or inability to see in dim light. This is common in poor under developed countries and seen mainly in children. The mother first detects the condition when she observes that the child can not see in dark or in the evening. This is due to impairment in dark adaptation, which requires vitamin A. Night blindness increases unless the vitamin A consumption is increased and gets worsened if the child has diarrhea or other infection.

Treatment, Prognosis and Prevention of Rotavirus Diarrhea

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:23:38 +0000

Rotavirus diarrhea/infection is a common problem among infants and young children. The disease also can not be prevented by improving sanitation,which can only be prevented by vaccination.

Treatment of rotavirus diarrhea:

The treatment of rotavirus infection/diarrhea is mainly symptomatic and nonspecific, as there are no effective antiviral antibiotics available against rota virus. Treatment with antiviral antibiotics is not required. The most important symptomatic treatment of rota virus diarrhea is treatment of dehydration. If dehydration is not corrected appropriately patient may die from severe dehydration.

Few Important Aspects about Rota Virus

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:07:52 +0000

Rota virus is a double stranded RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus. It belongs to Reoviridae family. Rota virus has five different species A, B, C, D and E. The first species or rotavirus A accounts for majority (more than 90%) of infections and other species are less commonly involved in human infections.

Rotavirus is unquestionably and undoubtedly most common cause of diarrhea among infants (babies below one year of age) and young children in underdeveloped, developing as well as in developed countries. It is estimated that by the age of five years most children around the globe has been infected by rota virus at least once. But the best aspect of rotavirus infection is that, with each infection the infected child develops immunity and the subsequent infections become less and less severe and by the time the child become adult, he/she rarely get infected and also infections are too mild for adults to cause any problem. Related posts:

How Addison’s Disease Is Diagnosed?

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:50:19 +0000

Routine laboratory investigations may be suggestive of Addison’s disease and include hypoglycemia (severe especially among children due to loss of glucocorticoids glucogenic effects), high blood calcium level, high blood potassium level (due to loss of production of the hormone aldosterone, a cortisol), low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia) etc. In addition there may be increased eosinophils and lymphocytes (both are white blood cells). Increased acidity of blood (metabolic acidosis) is another suggestive laboratory finding in Addison’s disease. Metabolic acidosis is due to lack of aldosterone, which results in loss of sodium in urine and in return retention of hydrogen ions, which increase acidity of body fluid (blood).

If a person is suspected to be suffering from Addison’s disease, it is important to demonstrate low levels of adrenal hormone, despite adequate stimulation of adrenal gland to produce sufficient hormones. The test performed is called “ACTH stimulation” test, performed using synthetic pituitary ACTH hormone tetracosactide, which can be of two types, short test and long test. Related posts:

Causes of Addison’s disease

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:28:16 +0000

The cause of Addison’s disease is adrenal insufficiency. There are three major ways through which adrenal gland produce insufficient cortisol. The three ways are, adrenal dysgenesis (incomplete and inadequate development of adrenal glands), impaired steroidogenesis (despite presence of adrenal it is unable to produce cortisol biochemically), and adrenal destruction (due to some disease process).

Impaired steroidogenesis in causation of Addison’s disease:

For formation of cortisol in adrenal gland, cholesterol is required, which is than converted into steroid hormones biochemically. Any disruption/interruption (such as abetalipoproteinemia) in the delivery of cholesterol may result in impaired formation of hormones (steroid hormones). Some medications also interfere with steroid synthesis enzymes (e.g. ketoconazole) which synthesize steroid hormones and some medications increase breakdown of hormones (e.g. rifampicin, phenytoin) in the liver. Congenital adrenal hypoplasia results in problem in the synthesis of steroid hormones by affecting different enzymes (e.g. 21-hydroxylase, 17alpha-hydroxylase, 11beta-hydroxylase etc.) involved in synthesis of hormones.

Health problems of Underweight

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:44:04 +0000

Underweight may cause several health problems in an individual. Some of the health problems due to underweight may have far reaching consequences and some of the health problems due to underweight are minor.

The following are some of the health problems of underweight:

Underweight can cause growth retardation, especially in growing children. The final height and health of children who suffer from underweight may be less than normal. Due to growth retardation the optimum health may not be possible in the future life and life may not be productive to the expectation.

Underweight causes poor general health and the resistance to infection is lowered as well as there is increased susceptibility to infections like tuberculosis. Due to underweight the natural body immunity is lowered, which increases the susceptibility to infections and lower resistance to infection and due to these effects the incidence of infection is higher in underweight individuals.

Why Plan Diet for Underweight?

admin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:23:22 +0000

Underweight is body weight of 10% to 20% lower than ideal body weight for age, height and sex or if BMI or body mass index is less than 18.5. BMI is calculated by “dividing body weight (in kilogram) by height in meter square. For example if body weight of a person is 50 kg and height is 1.5 meter than his BMI will be 22.22 (50 divided by 1.5 x 1.5 = 22.22).

If a person is underweight than he/she may have several medical problems like growth retardation (mainly in children), complication during pregnancy, increased susceptibility to infection, poor general health and related problems. The main aim of planning diet for underweight is to avoid these complications by bringing the body weight to normal. All the complication of underweight can be eliminated by bringing the body weight of underweight to normal. Related posts: