Archive for December, 2011
Alzheimer’s Disease – Symptoms and Diagnosis
Posted by admin in Alzheimer's Disease on December 24, 2011
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Alzheimer’s is a progressive, degenerative disease and another form of dementia which affects the memory, thinking and behavior and eventually loses control in reasoning, planning, language and perception. Dementia is serious disorder that affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurogenerative disease. Well-known case of this disease is the US president Ronald Reagan. This disease is named after the German physician Aloi Alzheimer who first explained this disease. In US Alzheimer’s is the seventh leading cause of death and there is no cure for the disease at present. This disease begins slowly and in course of time the symptoms get worse. The patients even forget how to brush their teeth and comb their hair.
In any type of dementia, memory loss is an important feature for the diagnosis. The rate of development or advancement in each person differs from each other. If the diseases advance quickly, it will continue to progress rapidly and if it is slow advancement of the disease, it will continue on a slow pace. The old people have greater risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease and it is not a part of normal ageing. Family history is also a risk factor. In addition to old age and family history, there are other factors also such as:
(a) Very old blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart diseases.
(b) History of head injury or damage.
(c) High levels of homocyteine.
(d) Being a female or as a women live longer than men, they are more prone to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Two types of Alzheimer’s disease are early onset and late onset. Symptoms appear before 60 years in early onset.
The exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known but it is thought to be depending on genetic and environmental factors. Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed by its distinguishing symptoms and by excluding other causes of dementia. The time span of the disease may vary from five and 20 years according to the age in which it got affected.
Symptoms
Symptoms include:
(a) Repeating statements and sentences.
(b) Mislaying items.
(c) Forgetting names of familiar objects and people.
(d) Change in personality such as less spontaneity apathy and also have the inclination to retreat from social interaction.
(e) Lose of interest in things enjoyed before.
(f) Difficulty in performing tasks which takes time such as balancing checkbook and playing complex games.
(g) Mood change.
More obvious symptoms can be seen in the advanced stage of the disease. They are:
(a) Lose of memory in current events.
(b) Forget their self and events in their life.
(c) Cannot choose proper clothing.
(d) Dejected, nervous and fantasy.
(e) Difficulty in performing task such as preparing meals and driving.
During the last stage the patient cannot survive with out the assistance until death. The symptoms are:
(a) Does not understand language or cannot communicate.
(b) Cannot recognize the members of the family.
(c) Cannot do the daily basic things like eating, dressing and bathing.
Age is a factor
Alzheimer’s disease occurs around 50% of persons over the age of 85 but it is not normal as people lived over 100 years of age never developed Alzheimer’s disease. It normally occurs in people above the age 70. One of the risk factors of this disease is the advancing age. The frequency of the disease increases as the population ages. There are very rare cases of Alzheimer’s disease at 40s and 50s i.e. 2%-5% of patients. Half of these patients with early onset disease are because of gene mutation and the offspring of the patient with early onset disease is also at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Late onset of Alzheimer’s disease is due to a common form of gene located on chromosome 19. But in majority of patients no specific genetic risks are identified.
Patient with Down syndrome will develop the brain changes of Alzheimer’s disease by 40 years of age. Those who have Alzheimer’s disease will mostly from other diseases such as heart disease or some other health problem rather than Alzheimer’s disease.
The increased frequency of this disease is in women led to the research about the role of estrogen hormone. More recent studies show that estrogen should not be prescribed to post menopausal women to decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Treatment of Pornography Addiction
Posted by admin in Pornography Addiction on December 23, 2011
Addiction to any substance or habit is considered a wrong thing in our society. When a person needs some thing to consume orally or visually and cannot do without it or feels restless with it, it can be termed as addiction. Pornography addiction too is one of them. Though not exactly dangerous, but surely can have disastrous results on the addicted well being, health, relationships and most importantly his life.
Symptoms of porn addiction:
Sex and addiction is a lethal combination when it comes to relationships and growing up. Watching porn movies or flipping through the pages of a porn magazine is something that most of the kids during their adolescence must have done. If not then they surely must have spoken about it to their peers. Now, the question is what is porn addiction? Well, in simple terms, addiction to pornography is a behavioral problem in which one is compelled by his urges to
watch porn on an extremely frequent basis. Some of the symptoms are:
==>> Spending a lot of time in watching porn and neglecting important tasks at hand.
==>> Mood swings such as anger or irritation when one is unable to view porn.
==>> Hiding the fact from your spouse that you watch porn on a frequent basis.
==>> Inability to put an end or minimize the habit of watching porn.
==>> Watching porn at public places, offices, during sleeping time, while traveling; in short practically all the time.
Treatment of porn addiction:
One must understand that people addicted to pornography must be treated at all costs. At the same time, the addicted person must also face the truth about the fact that he is addicted to pornography and needs help. Treatment to sex or porn addicts is possible only when they too come out clean and want to genuinely get treated. People should talk to someone very close but not a spouse. It has been noticed that spouses are often critical of the entire situation. Pornography addiction victims should try to get help from qualified medical practitioners and agencies to get help in form of complete abstinence from porn channels. These channels can be internet, late night adult movies or even magazines.
Anti porn agencies have access to qualified medical professionals and they follow a step by step approach in treating porn addicts. This includes methods like counseling, gradual decrease in the amount spent in watching porn, negating thought about watching porn by indulging them in other creative activity etc.
Getting Acupuncture for Fertility
Acupuncture for fertility is slowly gaining popularity. For couples who would want to conceive, this can be an alternative to look into. With alternative medicine also gaining ground these days, it’s not surprising to find people who would actually consider acupuncture as a means of becoming fertile.
Using acupuncture for fertility has become promising because this traditional form of medicinal relief uses pressure points on our body. By targeting these pressure points, it is believed that blockage of veins and other toxins will be cleansed out. People with fertility issues often have a blockage in their fallopian tubes so the promise of being cured through acupuncture has been tapped.
To this day though, there is still some debate over how effective the method is truly to help couples finally conceive. So it is advisable that you talk it out first with your doctor. Tell him that you and your spouse plan to undergo acupuncture to help you try to have a baby so that he can also give you a better go signal to try doing this.
When you get into the acupuncture method, there are also some things you have to change. You might be asked to take in some herbal medicines alongside the acupuncture. Also, some necessary diet might have to be followed to make sure the entire procedure becomes effective for you.
It helps to prepare ahead of time. You can ask around for referrals from your own networks especially if you are still on the lookout for good acupuncture services. You should also consider getting a professional who has been duly certified to conduct the procedure. Keep in mind that this isn’t something you are just doing for relaxation. You need to make sure you are under an expert’s hands.
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