The coronary arteries are small vessels `that fan out over the heart and feed it with blood, enabling the heart to pump an average of five litters of blood to the various organs around the body. When these arteries are damaged or constricted, the heart muscle becomes starved for blood, resulting in crippling chest pain, called angina, and lethal heart attacks.
Damage to these arteries can also occur when smokers inhale, releasing a cocktail of toxic chemicals that is absorbed into their blood. High blood pressure can cause damage as it forces the heart to work harder. A diet high in saturated fat, obesity and lack of exercise also puts you at risk.
Coronary heart disease is an insidious killer that takes years to develop, often striking with little warning. On average, CHD occurs at least 10 to 15 years earlier among Indians than among Westerners. Unlike in the West where many people suffer from a single blocked artery, Indians are often found having a double or even triple artery blockage.
People often come close to dying before they realise that it is not too late to change. Looking after one’s heart is truly a matter of life and death.
Archive for the ‘Disease’ Category
The Silent Killer
A Heart Attack
By exercising you stress your muscles, draining them of energy stores, injuring your muscles a little bit. It stimulates repair and growth and makes muscles a little stronger. Enzymes and proteins from those muscles enter your bloodstream, where they start the powerful chain reaction of inflammation, or decay, then repair, and finally growth. All forms of aerobic exercise release these proteins, which keeps working at your body day and night, especially if you are sedentary.
The arteries which carry the blood are the most exposed to chemical inflammation and decay. The white blood cells which invade your blood vessels suck fat and cholesterol, converting them into Plaque. When this happens in the arteries to your heart, it leads to heart attack. When the arteries to your brain are affected it leads to stroke or dementia, damage to the arteries to your kidneys leads to hypertension.
Diet and exercise help in healing those wounded blood vessels. While you exercise, blood flows through your muscles, picking up the cytokines for growth to all corners of your body. All the joints , bones, organs and even your brain gets a dose of healthy, rejuvenating chemistry each time you sweat.
Getting into better shape cuts out mortality, the good stress of exercise leads to growth. You will feel younger and more vital, than ever.
Cough
Is there a need to see a doctor about your cough or just wait for it to go away.
Most of winter coughs are caused by viral infection of the upper air ways and go within three weeks. If the cough lasts longer then it is suspicious.
When coughs are accompanied by breathlessness then it should ring an alarm. Viral coughs do not generally cause breathlessness, so it could be a more serious infection, asthma or heart problem.
When you cough up phlegm it is a part of normal recovery from a virus and in itself does not mean antibiotics are required. But blood stained phlegm or yellow green phlegm accompanied by a temperature warrant further investigation.
Night time coughing is often a key feature of asthma or it may be a sign of heart failure.
Babies and young children can be quite ill without an obviously troublesome cough. Their rate of breathing is a better measure: if your child has a cough and is breathing faster than normal, then there is a need to see a doctor.
Coughing makes us tired and is a big disturbance to our colleagues. It is better to stay at home and take rest, when it is severe. It is better not to send children to school, when they are suffering from cough. As going out, and exposure to dust only worsens their condition.
Keeping your brain young
You are never too young to start preventing Alzheimer’s disease. The more you stimulate your brain, the better you will fare. To keep the brain fit feast on fruits and vegetables. When you drink fruit or vegetable juice at least three times a week you can know lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables may protect against cognitive decline.
Stay close to friends and family
People with the least contact with friends and family in late life tend to develop dementia than those with the most social activity. Falling out of touch with friends increased risk even more. Your life is full of tiresome schedules , Rush and din that you have lost out on the simple pleasures of life. In the pursuit of your dreams, you left behind those who matter the most. So much so, that today, the one who taught you to walk, walks alone; the one who taught you to talk, has no one to talk to. What better way to cherish those good old moments than to relive them.
Keep moving and raise a toast
Moderate drinkers and those who exercised regularly score better on memory , problem-solving and other mental tasks than those who did not drink or exercise.
Osteoporosis, the crippling disease
Osteoporosis is the loss of bone tissue and the subsequent damage to bone structure. Bones that were once sturdy supports for the body can be reduced to a fragile lacework susceptible to being shattered if you pick up a heavy object, fall or simply twist the wrong way. Women are more affected by the disease than men because men have a larger bones, greater muscle mass and tend to be more active.
Bones are not as solid and impenetrable as we think, it is in fact living tissue that is constantly being shed and replaced. Bones grow throughout childhood and puberty, with much more tissue being added than lost. During the teen years, bones become sturdier by adding mass and increasing density. The process begins to change when a woman reaches her 30s, with more bone being lost than made. This leads to osteoporosis in some women who have not taken measures to maintain strong bones. The disease occurs most of them in women who are small boned or very thin, many others may be in danger without knowing it. Male osteoporosis occurs due to low testosterone levels, caused due to ageing. Men with severe osteoporosis are sometimes treated with is testosterone injections.