Medicrit – Medicare

Archive for December, 2008

An alarming percentage of Americans are overweight or obese, and this number is growing everyday. One major health concern for people who are overweight is diabetes. Carrying extra pounds is a serious risk factor for developing this condition. Diabetes can be treated but not cured and can be fatal if ignored. The best way to combat diabetes is to prevent it from developing, and losing extra weight essential if you hope to keep diabetes at bay. Many people are turning to weight loss supplements for help, but what they often do not realize is that most of these diet aids are not helpful in warding off diabetes. In fact, some of them may actually be harmful if you have already developed the disease.

A good number of diet supplements contain high doses of sugar or sugar-like substances such as fructose. These ingredients can cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, which increases your risks of developing diabetes. More health-conscience consumers are looking for diet pills that are made of natural ingredients and contain little or no sugar.

Acai Berry weight loss supplements are often composed of 100% Acai extract. The Acai Berry is naturally free of sugar (it gets its sweet flavor from the natural berry-flavored pulp), and as a result it can cause rapid weight loss without affecting your blood sugar or increasing your chances of developing diabetes.

For this reason, lots of diabetics and people with risk factors for developing diabetes are using Acai products to help them drop unwanted pounds. The antioxidants contained in Acai supplements also help your body defend itself against cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses.

Astigmatism is quite a difficult concept to explain to patients and students. Searching over the internet is unlikely to lead to a satisfactory simple definition. In relatively simple terms, what it means is that the optical system focuses lines oriented in one direction at a different point to those in all other directions. In optics, these directions are called meridians. If the optical system is circular the meridians are analogous to the lines of longitude of the earth where the optical centre is the North Pole and the lines extend around the globe to the other pole.

In astigmatism, some of these lines are more tightly curved than others. The lines with the highest and lowest curvature are called the principal meridians and in regular astigmatism, these are always at 90 degrees to one another. An example of a shape which would have this effect when made as a lens is a barrel. Imagine that the optical centre is at one point on the widest point of the barrel. Lines drawn out at each clock hour would each have a different curve – the most curved would be the meridian which goes around the barrel and the least curved would be the meridian heading towards the top and bottom of the barrel. In its extreme form the barrel becomes a cylinder and the up and down meridian has no curve at all – this shape, as a lens, is termed a cylindrical lens.

You can immediately see from this analogy that the meridians can only take values from 0 to 180 degrees : 190 degrees is the same as 10 degrees.

In ophthalmology, when we consider astigmatism, we do so in one of two ways. An optical element can be described either as the sum of 2 cylinders such as 10D x 90 degrees + 20D x 0 degrees or as a sphere (normal lens) plus cylinder – in this case 10D + 10D x 0 degrees (called the sphero-cylindrical form). These forms are easy to interconvert and both completely describe the element provided that it displays regular astigmatism. Transposing the spherocylindrical form is a trivial task- in this case it is 20D – 10D x 90 degrees. Just remember that the amount of cylinder always stays the same.

The spherical equivalent of a sphero-cylindrical lens is equal to the sphere plus half the cylinder. This is the best approximation to the lens by a spherical lens only As a basic check of your arithmetic remember that when you transpose the cylinder, the spherical equivalent always stays the same. Also, if you add thin lenses in contact with one another, the spherical equivalents always add algebraically.

Addition and subtraction of thin lenses in contact with one another is easy if the principal meridians of the astigmatism are aligned. In that case, the spheres and cylinders just add together. For example, take two lenses

* 0 + 1 x 90 degrees
* 3 +2 x 0 degrees

transposing the second one we get

* 5 -2 x 90 degrees

adding together now is

* 5 -1x 90 degrees

checking the spherical equivalents we have 0.5 + 4 from the combination and the result is also 4.5D

It gets much more tricky when you have to add lenses together that are not aligned You might guess that you can use vector addition from high school physics but try this :

* 0 + 1 x 90 degrees and
* 0 + 1 x 0 degrees

Vector addition would yield 1.4 by 45 degrees but the correct answer is 1D sphere.

To understand what is going on here, have a look at the top half of this diagram I have illustrated the addition of a 2D x 0 degrees (blue) and 2D x 45 degrees (red). Along the x axis is the meridians and the y axis shows the power for each meridian. The green line is the net power. Obviously if those sine waves were 0 degrees and 90 degrees they would be completely out of phase and add to a straight line (the sphere) of 2D. ; The matrix mathematics to solve directly is hinted at below.

Any lens can be considered to be a matrix like this and if multiple lenses are in contact, the matrix elements just add up. You then need to pull the three parameters out the matrix and solve for S, C and theta. This is basic first year university mathematics.

Luckily for you, i have created an on-line calculator to add or subtract lenses. Feel free to leave comments on the blog if you find it helpful. And if there are any engineers who can expand the scope of this article to include elements not in contact with one another, please drop me a line.

Marc Sarossy is an Ophthalmologist and Affiliate member of the IEEE. He has interests in the mathematical analysis of biological signals – especially those related to the eye. He consults from his clinic in Broadmeadows Melbourne.

Marijuana is an illegal drug. This drug is derived from the marijuana plant and is a mild sedative and hallucinogen.

Various countries throughout the world and some states in the US have legalized its use for medical purposes leading to an increase in popularity. There are many people who have got easier access to this now.

Frequent use of marijuana is proven to cause mental stress and illnesses in the long term. There are many other harmful effects of the long term usage of this drug.

Deciding to quit smoking marijuana is a good decision but it is not easy to break your normal routine. If you smoke both cigarettes and marijuana, it is difficult for you to stop both the habits as it can have adverse withdrawal symptoms for your body. Your body can react in an unexpected way and there are be immediate mental illnesses resulting from withdrawal. The withdrawal symptoms can be dangerous for your health.

There are many things you can do to quit smoking marijuana apart from using medications. You can stop going out with the friends who regularly use this stuff. You can be in touch with your non-smoker friends and try to get their support in your efforts.

There is no other power greater than your own will power. You should stay away from smokers and try to quit your habit. Eating foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids is good for you. Fish is rich in the omega 3 fats and you should consume more fish to counter the mood swings in yourself.

You should also be sufficiently motivated. Consume a lot of fruits and vegetables. Fruit juices will also help. Regular exercise can also be very beneficial to help you stop smoking marijuana.

Living with generalized anxiety disorder is pretty a tough job. This is because you constantly feel anxious giving your mind stress all the time. In this condition you feel anxious without any substantial reason and may lead to excessive anxiety. There are few generalized anxiety disorder symptoms which are bound to get noticed in people suffering from this condition. These are:

• Concentration problems
• Restlessness
• Feeling a lump in your throat
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Staying asleep
• Excessive sweating
• Shortage of breath
• Stomach problems
• Headache
• Diarrhea and many more

If a person is suffering generalized anxiety disorder then he may experience worry frequently and will remain anxious for most of the times. This condition can begin at an early age and the signs and symptoms can grow further if not treated on time. There can be many reasons which can give way t this problem. Some of the risk factors include:

• Childhood adversity- Children who witness some traumatic and shocking events are bound to get a deep impact of the entire event and may get suffered from generalized anxiety disorder.
• Illness- Illness like having a cancer can make you anxious for sure. Worrying too much about your future and finances and relationships can lead to this problem.
• Stress- A chain of stressful events in life making you believe that life has given you hardships only can lead to Generalized anxiety disorder. Stress can also be related to any illness or any other miserable thing in life.
• Personality- People with weak mental stability are more prone to get suffered from this anxiety condition.
• Genetics- According to few studies, genetic component also plays an important role in generalized anxiety disorder.

As soon as you witness the symptoms, you should visit your doctor for effective treatment. If you child has started worrying about school, earthquake, household chores, war, airplane flights, then you should believe that your child is either suffering from generalized anxiety disorder or on the verge of it.

General anxiety disorder symptoms should be diagnosed properly to get the exact cause of the condition. Sometimes the anxiety problem is based on past experiences of life which can be cured by some medications or therapy. So don’t waste your rime by seeing your child in pain. Go get medical care immediately.

Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Unknown attacker has breached the perimeter.

Histamines, the foot soldiers of your body’s immune system, rush to the front lines, desperate to keep you safe. They gather in your throat, tightening its muscles in order to block entry. They gather in your eyes, trying to wash the intruder away in a flood of tears. And they gather in your sinuses, prepared to forcibly expel the attacker with a tremendous sneeze.

Your body doesn’t understand that this is a false alarm. Harmless substances such as pet dander, dust, and pollen are viewed as a threat because you have an immune system disorder. Your body is being maddeningly overprotective.

It’s kind of like “little dog syndrome.” Little dogs can sometimes feel so weak and vulnerable that they begin to perceive everything as a threat to their wellbeing, and they become aggressive. This is what’s happening with your immune system. This overprotective dynamic is created because your immune system is weak and therefore feels vulnerable.

The best option is to avoid those things that cause you to have an allergic reaction. But sometimes that’s not possible. How do you avoid the airborne allergens that cause hay fever or cedar fever? You can take steps to minimize your contact, but unless you want to live in a bubble, it’s not practical to think that you can avoid them altogether.

You need to strengthen your immune system to, in essence, build its confidence. Once it’s confident, your “little dog” immune system will be better equipped to take those allergens in stride. The allergens will become more of an annoyance than a full-blown threat. The histamine foot soldiers will always be at the ready – there’s no cure for allergies – but you can take them out of red alert status.

My top five tips for natural ways of strengthening your immune system:

1. Get plenty of vitamin C. Our bodies can’t produce vitamin C on their own, and yet, we rely on this hardworking vitamin to stimulate the production of the white blood cells that are so vital in our fight against disease. That means we have to get our vitamin C from dietary sources such as citrus fruits, melons, tomatoes, and leafy green vegetables.
2. Exercise regularly, doing something you enjoy. You don’t have to go out and run a marathon, if the mere idea of it makes you cringe. You don’t have to lift weights or swim across Lake Austin pulling a party barge in your wake. Do something fun, and do it often. In addition to the immunological benefits of exercise, you’ll get the immune booster shot that laughter provides.
3. Sleep 7-9 hours per night. In today’s rush-rush world, a full night of sleep is a rare and precious commodity for many people. Allergy sufferers in particular should prioritize sleep for its rejuvenating properties. Think you’re on edge if you haven’t gotten enough sleep? Imagine how that histamine foot soldier on the front line feels. Trigger happy, ready to jump at the slightest shadow.
4. Drink lots of water. Water is by far the most valuable tool in the natural health toolbox. In addition to keeping your body lubricated, water literally flushes impurities out of your system. That means there’s less work for your immune system to do, and a relaxed immune system is a healthy immune system.
5. Visit your chiropractor. That’s right, I said chiropractor. Your immune system is inextricably linked with the health of your central nervous system. When your spine is out of alignment – even by a miniscule amount – stress is put on your nerves, which can cause a host of problems, including making your immune system more prone to dangerous overreaction. Your chiropractor will make a series of gentle adjustments to bring your body back into proper alignment.

With these natural health methods of boosting your immune system, you may find you no longer have to rely on drugs to get you through the day. No more chemicals in your body, no more drowsiness. And no more feeling as though your body is at war with itself.

Dr. Eric Murphy is a Doctor of Chiropractic who operates Murphy Family Chiropractic, Round Rock, Texas, serving the Austin area. With nine years of post-secondary education and numerous certifications in healthcare and nutrition, Dr. Murphy helps patients past acute pain and then guides them into a life of wellness.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Eric_Murphy

Cystitis is also known as inflammation of bladder which is caused due to bacterial microbes. This infection hampers the functionality of urinary bladder. The bacterium responsible for the disease adheres to the bladder walls and leads to several urinary problems like painful urine flow, fever, abdominal pain, frequent or urgent need to urinate etc.

Hence, the infection requires immediate attention and medication. However, women are most prone to the infectious disease. They suffer from bladder infections due to the given below reasons.

1. Sexual Intercourse: Sometimes, the bacterium enters inside the urethra during the sexual intercourse. The bacterium situated near the penis can move towards the urethral opening during the sexual encounter. Hence, it is advisable to urinate after the sexual intercourse to flush the bacterium from the urinary system.

2. Contraceptives: The continuous use of contraceptives like spermicidal, condoms or diaphragm increases the risk of occurrence of cystitis. Hence, you should refrain from them as much as possible.

3. Menopause: Several women suffer from bladder infection during the stage of menopause. The decreased oestrogen level leads to increase in pH level of the urine, which facilitates the infliction of urinary infections.

4. Inadequate Urine Pattern: Many people suffer from cystitis due to the inability to empty the bladder completely. The concentrated urine in bladder acts as a breeding ground for bacterium which leads to bladder infections. Hence, the inadequate urine secretion leads to recurrent UTI which needs immediate attention and treatment.

5. Medical history: A health ailment or injury adds on to the probability of the infliction of bladder infection. Some people suffer from the infection due to abnormalities in urinary organs which restrict the adequate functioning of the urinary system.

Hence, you should keep these risk factors in your mind and try to avoid them through proper precautions in order to prevent the recurrence of cystitis or bladder inflammation.

Hair loss can become a big problem, especially in today’s world where appearances count for the greater part of everything. And if hair loss and appearances weren’t enough of a burden to people, the cost of having treatment for hair loss is sure to crush them. There are so many clinics and specialists out there offering their own version of hair loss medications and treatments that even the folks who can afford these exorbitant prices usually try three or four different medications and treatment before finding one that can help stop the hair loss. Luckily, there are some very natural and inexpensive ways that can help stop your hair loss.

Because the normal amount of hairs the average person loses on a daily basis is accepted as 50-100 hairs, many shampoo and conditioner products are formulated for people who lose an abnormal amount of hairs a day. Many of these products contain Keratin which is the protein found in hair, and helps to strengthen hairs from the roots. These products also contain essential minerals that nourish the scalp, and some of these shampoos and conditioners even offer extra moisturizer to keep the scalp from flaking, which is one common way many people lose too many hairs. The great thing about these products is that they can be incorporated into your everyday grooming routine rather than having to spend hours in clinics or treatment centers.

Another way to really care for your hair is to watch your diet. Now while there isn’t any specific diet to prevent or stop hair loss, it has been reported that adopting a healthier, natural lifestyle generally improves the state of the entire body. For instance eating disorders like Anorexia and Bulimia can cause many people who suffer from these disorders to lose abnormal amounts of hair, but when these suffers changed their eating patterns, hair loss was reduced dramatically. Also, people with a low iron supply in their blood are encouraged to eat foods with more iron since it is one of the minerals needed to maintain the entire body so with the right amounts of minerals in the body, there is a general, noticeable improvement in vision, circulation and hair growth.

Vitamins are also great ways to naturally reduce or stop hair loss. Since the body needs vitamin E and A to produce strong, healthy hair, supplementing any diet with vitamins are sure to help reduce or stop hair loss and keep the entire body functioning as it should. These vitamins can be obtained from the foods you eat and from fruits, or can be bought in capsules and taken orally, which many people prefer since it is easier to take one capsule a day rather than specially preparing food or fruit.

Essential oils have never ceased to amaze humans with their healing properties, which is no wonder why so many people use them as a massage therapy for hair. This has a few advantages. Firstly, it has been recorded that massaging the head and scalp at around the same time everyday can improve circulation and lessen tension in the head which will make hair grow and grow faster. The second advantage is not only massaging the scalp and head, but doing so with essential oils like balsam, bergamot, geranium, cypress, eucalyptus, rosemary, rose wood and sandalwood, all of which have properties that replenish and moisturize hair, create a mild heat that improves circulation and diffuse its minerals and vitamins over the scalp. You will also love the aromatherapy too!