Know About Botox
Botox (brand name) is botulinum toxin A (protein in nature), which is made from bacteria (clostridium botulinum, C. butyricum, C. baratii and C. argentinense) that are responsible for botulism, a serious disease. Botulinum toxin has several therapeutic used such as in treatment of muscle spasm, cervical dystonia, overactive bladder and urinary incontinence, migraine headaches as well as for cosmetic purpose (which is most commonly known by non medical persons) to reduce or lessen wrinkles in face, which is a normal process of aging.
Most of the individuals who are not associated with medical profession know that Botox is used for cosmetic purpose, i.e. as anti aging or anti wrinkle medication to reduce facial wrinkles. There are other medical uses of Botox which most people not aware of.
Categories: Health Information, Skin Care Tags: Botox, botulinum toxin A
Some Tests For Diagnosis Of Alopecia
Alopecia is loss of hair from head or body and is fairly common problem, especially among males. There are several causes of alopecia and several different types of alopecia, such as alopecia areata (loss of hairs from patches), alopecia totalis (complete baldness of head), alopecia universalis (loss of all body hairs), and androgenic alopecia (male pattern of hair loss) etc. Alopecia occurring females is usually more troubling (more psychological trouble than physical trouble) to the sufferer than alopecia or hair loss occurring in males and should be evaluated appropriately.
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Infected Hair Follicle Symptoms and Causes
In medical terms, infected hair follicle is called “folliculitis”. Hair follicle infection is a common problem and due infection (by bacteria, fungus etc.) the infected hair follicle become inflamed, red and sometime painful. Folliculitis can occur in any area of skin where hair follicles are present, but common sites of hair follicle infection are legs, bearded area (known as sycosis barbae, when it is due to shaving beard which is a common problem among males), buttocks and scalp. Folliculitis do not occur in areas where hair follicles are absent such as palms and soles of feet.
What are the symptoms of infected hair follicles?
The symptoms of infected hair follicles may vary according to the causative agent, site of infection, e.g. scalp. The symptoms of infected hair follicles include pain, blisters (usually filled with pus), and swelling of the infected area, crust formation (when pus filled blisters break, pus comes out and on drying crust forms).
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Know the Causes of Psoriasis
The causes of psoriasis are not well understood. There may be multifactorial causes of the disease. Currently there are two hypotheses that are well accepted as the cause of psoriasis, namely genetical cause and immunological cause. The genetical cause of psoriasis hypothesis explains the disease as a fault of epidermis (the outermost dead epithelial cell layer) and keratinocytes (the cells which produce keratin and essential ingredient protein of skin cells). Due to genetic fault in epidermis and keratinocytes there is excessive growth and reproduction of skin cells and as a result the skin cell turnover occurs much faster than normal of approximately 28 days, i.e. less than 28 days e.g. 25 days or lesser.
The second hypothesis of cause of psoriasis sees the disease as an immune mediated disease, which results in excess production of skin cells. The T-cells of immune system become active and migrate to dermis which triggers release inflammatory mediators and there is excess production of skin cells.
Quality of Life in Psoriasis
Symptoms of psoriasis, especially severe symptoms of psoriasis can affect the quality of life. The health related quality of life can be negatively affected by psoriasis like other chronic incurable diseases such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and other heart diseases, diabetes, depression etc. The severity and location of the skin lesion determines the affects on lifestyle, by causing discomfort and some degree of disability. For example pain and itching of psoriatic plaques can interfere with sleeping, walking, self care and lead to irritation. Presence of scaly plaques on feet and hands can pose some peculiar problems, such as problems in certain occupations (employment restrictions), playing certain sports etc. Presence of psoriatic plaques on scalp can be embarrassing as flaky plaques can be mistaken as dandruff. In general health care for psoriasis can be time consuming, costly and may interfere with daily routine such as school schedule or employment/job schedule.
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Know Different types of Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a chronic immune mediated relapsing disease of skin and there are several different clinical types of psoriasis. Different types of psoriasis may show different clinical manifestations/symptoms. In general psoriasis is the types of psoriasis are non-pustular, pustular and other types of psoriasis.
Non-pustular psoriasis:
This is further subdivided into Psoriasis vulgaris (also known as chronic stationary psoriasis and plaque-like psoriasis) and erythrodermic psoriasis.
Psoriasis vulgaris:
This is the most common form of psoriasis, which accounts for up to 90% of individuals with psoriasis. In this form of psoriasis there plaque formation occurs, which appears as raised areas of inflamed skin, which have silver color scales.
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