Primary Treatment For Cold And Cough

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Are cold symptoms making you feel miserable? Here are 12 cold remedies you can use right now -- at home -- to feel better.

Cold Remedy #1: Drink plenty of fluids to help break up your congestion. Drinking water or juice will prevent dehydration and keep your throat moist. You should drink at least 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses of water daily. Include fluids such as water, sports drinks, herbal teas, fruit drinks, or ginger ale. Your mother's chicken soup might help too! (Limit cola, coffee, and other drinks with caffeine because it acts like a diuretic and may dehydrate you.)

Cold Remedy #2: Inhale steam to ease your congestion and drippy nose. Hold your head over a pot of boiling water and breathe through your nose. Be careful. If the steam burns your nose, breathe in more slowly. You can buy a humidifier, but the steam will be the same as the water on the stove. Moisture from a hot shower with the door closed, saline nasal spray, or a room humidifier is just as helpful to ease congestion.

Cold Remedy #3: Blow your nose often, but do it the proper way. It's important to blow your nose regularly when you have a cold rather than sniffling mucus back into your head. But when you blow hard, pressure can carry germ-carrying phlegm back into your ear passages, causing earache. The best way to blow your nose is to press a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other.

Cold Remedy #4: Use saline nasal sprays or make your own salt water rinse to irrigate your nose. Salt-water rinsing helps break nasal congestion while also removing virus particles and bacteria from your nose. Here's a popular recipe:

Mix 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in 8 ounces of warm water. Fill a bulb syringe with this mixture (or use a Neti pot, available at most health foods stores). Lean your head over a basin, and using the bulb syringe, gently squirt the salt water into your nose. Hold one nostril closed by applying light finger pressure while squirting the salt mixture into the other nostril. Let it drain. Repeat two to three times, and then treat the other nostril.

To avoid exposing yourself to other bacteria and infections, it's important to watch what you put in your nose. According to the CDC, if you are irrigating, flushing, or rinsing your sinuses, use distilled, sterile, or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution. It’s also important to rinse the irrigation device after each use and leave open to air dry.

Cold Remedy #5: Stay warm and rested. Staying warm and resting when you first come down with a cold or the flu helps your body direct its energy toward the immune battle. This battle taxes the body. So give it a little help by lying down under a blanket to stay warm if necessary.

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Laughter Best Medicine

10 Advantages of Laughter

''Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.''

Laughing is an involuntary reaction to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter can arise from such activities as being tickled, or from humorous stories or thoughts, Most commonly, it is considered a visual expression of a number of positive emotional states, such as joy, mirth, happiness,relief, etc. On some occasions, however, it may be caused by contrary emotional states such as embarrassment, apology, or confusion ("nervous laughter") or courtesy laugh. Factors such as age, gender, education, language, and culture are determinant factors as to whether a person will experience laughter in a given situation.

And laughing makes us feel good for a reason. The physiological effects on our body do some pretty amazing stunts. Here are some examples:

1. Manage your hormones.

Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, adrenaline, dopamine and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the efficiency of T-cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.

2. Nice internal workout.

A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for the heart. Laughing 100 times is the equivalent to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike!

3. Physical release.

Have you ever felt like you had to laugh or you’d cry? Have you experienced the cleansed feeling after a good laugh? Laughter provides a physical and emotional release.

4. Positive frame of mind.

Laughter brings the focus away from anger, guilt, stress and negative emotions to them alongside other “mere distractions.” It will make you cheerful and put you in a positive frame of mind.

5. Change your perspective.

Researchers found that our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a “threat” or a “challenge.” Humor can give us a more light-hearted perspective and help us view events as “challenges,” thereby making them less threatening and more positive.

6. Social benefits of laughter.

Laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you laugh more. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can diminish their stress levels, and possibly improve the quality of social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!

What’s even better is that the more you smile, the more others will too. Seeing a smile creates what is termed as a “halo effect,” helping us to remember other happy events more vividly, feel more optimistic, more positive and more motivated.

7. Fight illness better.

People who are optimistic (who are out there laughing!) have stronger immune systems and are actually able to fight off illness better than pessimists.

The research is very clear — this is not some social science generalization — there is a link between optimistic attitudes and good health. And it has been measured in a variety of ways. Overall, scientists have found that optimistic people are healthier. Their biological makeup is different and they have a more robust immune system.

8. Live longer.

According to some recent research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, elderly optimistic people, those who expected good things to happen (rather than bad things), were less likely to die than pessimists.

In fact, among the 65-85 year-old study participants, those who were most optimistic were 55 percent less likely to die from all causes than the most pessimistic people. What’s more, after researchers adjusted the results for age, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity and other measures of health, the optimists were 71 percent less likely to die than the pessimists!

9. It feels like eating 2000 chocolate bars.

That’s right — according to The British Dental Health Foundation, a smile gives the same level of stimulation as eating 2000 chocolate bars. The results were found after scientists measured brain and heart activity in volunteers as they were shown pictures of smiling people and given money and chocolate.

People have long been drawing attention to the fact that smiling increases happiness both in yourself and those around you, so it is good to receive the backing of this scientific research.

10. It costs absolutely nothing.

It doesn’t cost a cent and it is highly contagious.

A recent research showed that pre-school-aged children laugh up to 400 times a day, but by the time we reach adulthood, we laugh a mere 17 times per day on average! Here are some strategies to help you raise your laughter level:

HOW TO USE LAUGHTER

TV and movies: There’s no shortage of comedies out there, both at the theater and in the aisles of the video stores, as well as right on your TV. While wasting your time watching something slightly humorous may actually frustrate you, watching truly hilarious movies and shows is an easy way to get laughter into your life whenever you need it.

Laugh with friends: Going to a movie or comedy club with friends is a great way to get more laughter in your life. The contagious effects of laughter may mean you’ll laugh more than you otherwise would have during the show, plus you’ll have jokes to reference at later times. Having friends over for a party or game night is also a great setup for laughter and other good feelings.

Find humor in your life: Instead of complaining about life’s frustrations, try to laugh about them. If something is so frustrating or depressing it’s ridiculous, realize that you could “look back on it and laugh.” Think of how it will sound as a story you could tell to your friends, and then see if you can laugh about it now. With this attitude, you may also find yourself being more lighthearted and silly, giving yourself and those around you more to laugh about. Approach life in a more mirthful way and you’ll find you’re less stressed about negative events, and you’ll achieve the health benefits of laughter.

“Fake it, till you make it!”: Just as studies show the positive effects of smiling occur whether the smile is fake or real, faked laughter also provides the benefits mentioned above. So smile more, and fake laughter; you’ll still achieve positive effects, and the fake merriment may lead to real smiles and laughter.

WARNINGS

A small stomach ache can result.

Don’t force your laugh.

Laughing invokes feelings of happiness and joy. Instead of being all gloomy and frustrated because there is no perceived solution, laughing lifts us up out of our pool of problems and plops us on solid ground where we can gain some new insights. Don’t forget to LOL (laugh out loud) frequently!

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Best Treatment For Hypertension

Hypertension

Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure, sometimes called arterial hypertension, is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressurein the arteries is elevated.^[1] Blood pressure is summarised by two measurements, systolic and diastolic, which depend on whether the heart muscle is contracting (systole) or relaxed between beats (diastole) and equate to a maximum and minimum pressure, respectively. Normal blood pressure at rest is within the range of 100-140mmHg systolic (top reading) and 60-90mmHg diastolic (bottom reading). High blood pressure is said to be present if it is persistently at or above 140/90 mmHg.

Hypertension is classified as either primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension; about 90–95% of cases are categorized as "primary hypertension" which means high blood pressure with no obvious underlying medical cause.^[2] The remaining 5–10% of cases (secondary hypertension) are caused by other conditions that affect the kidneys, arteries, heart or endocrine system.

Hypertension puts persistent strain on the heart, leading to hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease if untreated. Hypertension is also a major risk factor for stroke, aneurysms of the arteries (e.g. aortic aneurysm), peripheral arterial disease and is a cause of chronic kidney disease. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure is associated with a shortened life expectancy. Dietary and lifestyle changes can improve blood pressure control and decrease the risk of associated health complications, although drug treatment is often necessary in people for whom lifestyle 

Signs and symptoms

Hypertension is rarely accompanied by any symptoms, and its identification is usually through screening, or when seeking healthcare for an unrelated problem. A proportion of people with high blood pressure report headaches (particularly at the back of the head and in the morning), as well as lightheadedness, vertigo, tinnitus (buzzing or hissing in the ears), altered vision or fainting episodes. These symptoms, however, might be related to associated anxiety rather than the high blood pressure itself.

On physical examination, hypertension may be suspected on the basis of the presence of hypertensive retinopathy detected by examination of the optic fundus found in the back of the eye usingophthalmoscopy. Classically, the severity of the hypertensive retinopathy changes is graded from grade I–IV, although the milder types may be difficult to distinguish from each other.Ophthalmoscopy findings may also give some indication as to how long a person has been hypertensive.

To prevent high blood pressure, everyone should be encouraged to make lifestyle modifications, such as eating a healthier diet, quitting smoking, and getting more exercise. Treatment with medication is recommended to lower blood pressure to less than 140/90 in people younger than 60, and less than 150/90 in people older than 60.

Treating high blood pressure involves lifestyle changes and possibly drug therapy.

Is Your Blood Pressure in Check?

Lifestyle Changes to Treat High Blood Pressure

A critical step in preventing and treating high blood pressure is a healthy lifestyle. You can lower your blood pressure with the following lifestyle changes:

• Losing weight if you are overweight or obese.
• Quitting smoking.
• Eating a healthy diet, including the DASH diet (eating more fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy products, less saturated and total fat).
• Reducing the amount of sodium in your diet to less than 1,500 milligrams a day if you have high blood pressure. Healthy adults should try to limit their sodium intake to no more 2,300 milligrams a day (about 1 teaspoon of salt).
• Getting regular aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking at least 30 minutes a day, several days a week).
• Limiting alcohol to two drinks a day for men, one drink a day for women.

Drugs to Treat High Blood Pressure

There are several types of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, including:

• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
• Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)
• Diuretics
• Beta-blockers
• Calcium channel blockers
• Alpha-blockers
• Alpha-agonists
• Renin inhibitors
• Combination medications

Diuretics are often recommended as the first line of therapy for most people who have high blood pressure. 

However, your doctor may start a medicine other than a diuretic as the first line of therapy if you have certain medical problems. For example, ACE inhibitors are often a choice for a people with diabetes. If one drug doesn't work or is disagreeable, additional medications or alternative medications may be recommended.

If your blood pressure is more than 20/10 points higher than it should be, your doctor may consider starting you on two drugs or placing you on a combination drug.

High Blood Pressure Treatment Follow-Up

After starting high blood pressure drug therapy, you should see your doctor at least once a month until the blood pressure goal is reached. Once or twice a year, your doctor may check the level of potassium in your blood (diuretics can lower this, and ACE inhibitors and ARBs may increase this) and other electrolytes and BUN/creatinine levels (to check the health of the kidneys).

After the blood pressure goal is reached, you should continue to see your doctor every three to six months, depending on whether you have other diseases such as heart failure.

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Chagas Disease Treatment , Prevention ( Kissing Syndrome )

Chagas Disease Treatment , Prevention ( Kissing Syndrome )

SUMMARY

Kissing offers many health benefits, but may also transmit a small number of disease-causing agents such as bacteria and viruses. Colds, glandular fever (kissing disease), herpes infection, warts, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease may all be transmitted by kissing. However, the risk of disease from kissing is small and kissing can be good for physical and mental health.

How disease is spread-( Transmission )

In Chagas-endemic areas, the main mode of transmission is through an insect vector called a triatominebug. A triatomine becomes infected with T. cruzi by feeding on the blood of an infected person or animal. During the day, triatomines hide in crevices in the walls and roofs. The bugs emerge at night, when the inhabitants are sleeping. Because they tend to feed on people's faces, triatomine bugs are also known as "kissing bugs". After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. Triatomines pass T. cruziparasites (called trypomastigotes) in feces left near the site of the bite wound.

Scratching the site of the bite causes the trypomastigotes to enter the host through the wound, or through intact mucous membranes, such as the conjunctiva. Once inside the host, the trypomastigotes invade cells, where they differentiate into intracellular amastigotes. The amastigotes multiply by binary fission and differentiate into trypomastigotes, which are then released into the bloodstream. This cycle is repeated in each newly infected cell. Replication resumes only when the parasites enter another cell or are ingested by another vector.

Rhodnius prolixus

Rhodnius prolixus is the second most important triatomine vector of the Chagas parasite due to both its sylvatic and domestic populations in northern South America as well as to its exclusively domestic populations in Central America. It has a wide range of ecotopes, mainly savanna and foothills with an altitude of between 500 meters to 1,500 meters (0.31 miles to 0.93 miles) above sea level and temperatures of between 16°C to 28°C (61°F to 82°F). Sylvatic R. prolixus, as virtually all Rhodnius spp., is primarily associated with palm tree habitats and has a wide range of hosts including birds, rodents, marsupials, sloths, and reptiles.

Rhodnius prolixus is also known as the kissing bug because it feeds on people's faces.

Diseases can be spread from person to person in a number of ways:

• Contact spread – some diseases are spread directly from person to person, for example during kissing, or indirectly when you touch a contaminated surface or object.
• Droplet spread – infected droplets from the nose and throat can usually travel around one metre before they drop onto a surface. Sometimes infected droplets can also linger in the air. Infection occurs when the infected droplet is inhaled or someone comes into contact with a contaminated surface or object.
• Airborne spread – some infected particles from the nose and throat can remain in the air for a long time because of their tiny size. They are called droplet nuclei and can be inhaled directly into the lungs.

Signs and symptoms

The acute phase lasts for the first few weeks or months of infection. It usually occurs unnoticed because it is symptom-free or exhibits only mild symptoms that are not unique to Chagas disease. These can include fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting. The signs on physical examination can include mild enlargement of the liver or spleen, swollen glands, and local swelling (a chagoma) where the parasite entered the body.

The most recognized marker of acute Chagas disease is called Romaña's sign, which includes swelling of the eyelids on the side of the face near the bite wound or where the bug feces were deposited or accidentally rubbed into the eye. Rarely, young children, or adults may die from the acute disease due to severe inflammation/infection of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or brain (meningoencephalitis). The acute phase also can be severe in people with weakened immune systems.

If symptoms develop during the acute phase, they usually resolve spontaneously within three to eight weeks in approximately 90% of individuals.Although the symptoms resolve, even with treatment the infection persists and enters a chronic phase. Of individuals with chronic Chagas disease, 60–80% will never develop symptoms (called indeterminate chronic Chagas disease), while the remaining 20–40% will develop life-threatening heart and/or digestive disorders during their lifetime (called determinate chronic Chagas disease). In 10% of individuals, the disease progresses directly from the acute form to a symptomatic clinical form of chronic Chagas disease

Prevention And Treatment

There are two approaches to therapy, both of which can be life saving:

• antiparasitic treatment, to kill the parasite; and
• symptomatic treatment, to manage the symptoms and signs of infection.

Antiparasitic treatment is most effective early in the course of infection but is not limited to cases in the acute phase. In the United States, this type of treatment is available through CDC. Your health care provider can talk with CDC staff about whether and how you should be treated. Most people do not need to be hospitalized during treatment.

Symptomatic treatment may help people who have cardiac or intestinal problems from Chagas disease. For example, pacemakers and medications for irregular heartbeats may be life saving for some patients with chronic cardiac disease.

To kill the parasite, Chagas disease can be treated with benznidazole and also nifurtimox. Both medicines are almost 100% effective in curing the disease if given soon after infection at the onset of the acute phase. However, the efficacy of both diminishes the longer a person has been infected. Treatment is also indicated for those in whom the infection has been reactivated (for example due to immunosuppression), for infants with congenital infection and for patients during the early chronic phase. Infected adults, especially those with no symptoms, should be offered treatment. The potential benefits of medication in preventing or delaying the development of Chagas disease should be weighed against the long duration of treatment (up to 2 months) and possible adverse reactions (occurring in up to 40% of treated patients).

Benznidazole and nifurtimox should not be taken by pregnant women or by people with kidney or liver failure. Nifurtimox is also contraindicated for people with a background of neurological or psychiatric disorders.

Additionally, specific treatment for cardiac or digestive manifestations may be required.

Achievements

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Music therapy for Alzheimer's disease

Music therapy (MT) is one of the most common treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).The effectiveness of music therapy can depend on the quality and length of treatment as well as other factors.Some of the most common effects of MT are improved social behaviors, like interpersonal interactions and conversations. Overall, MT improves social behaviors by reducing wandering, restlessness, and agitated behaviors.

Music memory preservation

Music-related memory consists of multi dimensions that include “abstract objects (compositions, notes), emotions as represented in music, physical sources (instruments), and symbols (musical notation). Music memory appears to be spared brain function in the early stages of AD as cognitive functions deteriorate. Some studies propose that music memory is preserved in patients with AD to allow for holistic encoding and heighten arousal to improve attention and memory. Understanding the structure of music memory more insight into the development of Alzhiemer’s disease and why music therapy is effective.

Structure of music memory in Alzheimer's Patients

Some studies believe that there are different types of music memory similar to memory not related to music. As a result, the various forms of music memory can be differentially impaired by AD; therefore, music memory is not totally unforgettable in Alzheimer's patients. Furthermore, some studies support the idea that music memory is a distinctive domain separate from verbal or visual memory.^[11] A synthesis of studies proposes that long-term music memory consists of two forms: explicit and implicit function. Numerous studies have suggested that the episodic memory becomes significantly impaired in AD.

Types of music therapy for Alzheimer's Disease

Music Therapy is a type of treatment and interventions used to create soothing, stimulating environments to improve to enhance pro-social behavior and reduce agitated behaviors.MT demonstrates that AD patients can continue participating in structured music activities even when their functioning level continues to deteriorate. Individuals in the final stages of Alzheimer’s also benefit from the use music therapy, because it has sedative and comfort purposes.There are several different types of music therapy for patients with Alzheimer’s. For example, some daily interventions of music include playing an instrument, singing, listening to recorded music, movement to music. Most types of music therapy are effective at alleviating and reducing agitated behaviors and refocusing attention.

Playing instruments

Instruments are often implemented in MT for Alzheimer’s patients that have musical backgrounds, because in many cases procedural musical memory is still preserved. As a result, some patients with AD retain the ability to play instruments, such as the piano. Some studies suggest for people with minimal guitar experience to implement MT that involves playing easy instruments. A study utilized the Autoharp and Omni, which are simple instruments that Alzheimer’s patients without musical background can use as a music therapy to stimulate and soothe

Differences in effects of AD in musicians and non-musicians

What happens when a musician gets Alzheimer’s disease? There are collective studies that contain evidence for differences between musicians and non-musicians in brain structure and functions in certain regions of brain. Also, studies have shown differences in brain plasticity due to stimulation of learning or practicing a musical instrument. Furthermore, whether musician or not, all types of people with Alzheimer’s, can benefit from the use of music therapy. However, in the early stages, there appears to be no substantial difference in the affect of AD on the brains of musicians and non-musicians. Although there appears to be more obvious preservation of musical abilities in people with AD who have had prior musical experience, patients with minimal music experience may also demonstrate relative preservation of music memory, especially procedural musical memory

Famous musician, Glen Campbell, whom suffered from Alzheimer's.

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