What is sudden cardiac death (SCD)?

Sudden cardiac death is an unexpected death due to cardiac causes occurring within 1 hour of symptom onset in a person in whom no previously life threatening heart condition was diagnosed. Typical SCD victim is an adult collapsing without obvious reason during regular activity and dying in few minutes from a heart failure. Over 300,000 persons dye in US each year from SCD. More than half of all heart deaths are due to SCD. SCD has a peak at 45-75 years of age, children are rarely affected (1).

Most cases of SCD are related to ventricular fibrillation or other arrhythmias.

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The common cold is also known as acute viral nasopharyngitis. It is a viral infection that affects the upper respiratory tracts, particularly the nose, throat, and other parts that are located in the same area of the body. There are actually different kinds of viruses that can make up the common cold, meaning there are different kinds of common cold infections, which is why the common cold occasionally recurs. Although it is not really considered as a serious disease, intensification of the common cold may lead to a severe illness called pneumonia.

The common cold is often confused with influenza, which is a more serious type of viral infection that affects not just the respiratory tract but extends to other parts of the body as well. The common cold may lead to a lower immune system, allowing other viruses to enter the body, if not treated properly. The common cold is considered the most common illness that occurs yearly in adults and children. Children are more inclined to having common cold because their conditions at school and other public places exposes them more the viral infection, and their immune systems are not as high as those of adults.

continue reading Infectious Diseases - Common Cold to Flu

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks and weakens the immune system, the amazing way that your body resists and fights infection and disease. In order to fully understand HIV and AIDS, you should understand your immune system, how it works, and how it is affected by the virus.

Your immune system includes your spleen, which filters your blood, your lymph nodes, which filter the fluid in your lymph system, your bone marrow, which produces the cells of your immune system, and your thymus, which produces white blood cells. The immune system is in a state of constant alert against invaders or intruders such as parasites and bacteria that can make you ill or even kill you. It is able to detect if a particular cell belongs to your body or not. If it is part of your body, then the cell will be left alone; if it is not, your immune system will act swiftly to destroy or neutralize the “alien.”

continue reading Prevent HIV rather than curing it!

Overview:

Colon Cancer is the hyperproliferation of abnormal cells or cancer cellular mass in the actual colon. As the word cancer implies, colon cancer is a malignant and metastasic condition the may evade other organs.

Our colon is a muscular, tube-shaped organ measuring approximately 4 feet long. It goes on from the end of your small intestine to your anus, perverting and whirling through the abdomen (belly).

Cancer is a malignant tumor that spreads and affects other organs. Once cancer reaches the blood vessels or lymph nodes, it evades the nearby organ then and if the abnormal proliferation of cells is left untreated. Cancers are a life-threatening condition because of their uninhibited growth. They overpower and devastate healthy cells, tissues, and by taking their space, oxygen, and nutrients. Most colon cancers are adenocarcinomas—tumors that grow from the glands lining inside the colon wall. Oftentimes, colon cancer is referred to colorectal cancer since the rectum is the end point of the colon

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The Special K Diet

Special K refers to the breakfast cereal from the Kellog Company made of lightly toasted rice and wheat or rice only fortified bran. It is one of the healthy breakfast cereals in the market. Kellog initiated an advertising campaign to sell the cereal to women as a special weight loss diet. Weight loss generally comes from the reduction of calories in the daily food consumption. Since 1957, it now comes in several kinds and flavors even in complete snack, meal or nutrition bars to replace snacks or a full meal.

As a full meal, some assert that Special K is a weight loss diet in itself and may even be advertised as such with some subtlety but this is not supported by scientific research and weight loss, if any, comes as a natural consequence of limited carbohydrate consumption. It is not a healthy meal if taken by itself for a long time. Other foods such as oatmeal, whole grain wheat bread or fruits will have the same effect. Nevertheless, Kellog challenged people desirous of weight loss to follow the plan replacing two meals with Special K cereals and snacks of fruits or vegetables of Kellog snack bars without relying on appetite suppressing pills, physical exercise or energy supplement.

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Overview:

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States as of the 2007 survey. It is an actual umbrella term for a host of different diseases which actually affect the heart. There are different diseases of the heart, and the most common types are the following:

1. Coronary heart disease - this disease is caused by the accumulation of atheromatous plaques inside the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium: This affects the heart itself;

2. Ischaemic heart disease - this a disease of the heart itself, manifested by decreased blood supply to the organ;

continue reading Everything You ever wanted to know on Heart Diseases

INTRODUCTION

Refractive or Laser Eye Surgery (LES) is a laser reshaping of cornea thus changing its focusing power (1). For patients with moderate refractive errors this ambulatory procedure is a quick way to get free of glasses or contact lenses. The cost of LES can vary widely but it is rarely under $1,000 per eye (2).

REFRACTIVE ERRORS

Light from observed object penetrates through the cornea, lens and viscose liquid of eye globe, refracts and focuses on retina as an image. In farsightedness (hyperopia) where the eye globe is too long, light focuses in the front of retina and detected image will be blurred. In nearsightedness (myopia), eye globe is too short and light focuses behind the retina. In presbyopia (farsightedness of the aged) the lens becomes rigid and cannot refract light efficiently, so light from near objects will focus behind the retina again. In astygmatism blurred vision is caused by irregularities in corneal or lens shape. (3)

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About 5% of permanent hair dyes users develop allergy, mostly as an allergic contact dermatitis with redness and itching in the head area, but systemic reaction with involvement of the whole body skin and other organs may appear in severe cases (1). Hand dermatitis affects considerable percent of hair-dressers (2). The main cause is substance PPD. 

PPD (4-ParaPhenyleneDiamine, C6H8N2)

PPD is widely present on the market since 1909 and it is still used in over 2/3 of permanent hair dyes. Commercial hair dye product typically comes in two bottles: the one with PPD based dye (non-oxidized and thus colorless) and the other with oxidizer or developer, usually hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In the hair dying process initially the peroxide is used to break down the natural hair pigment melanin, then the PPD is used to replace melanin. When PPD reacts with peroxide it becomes partly oxidized and colored and it is this form which may cause allergy. Fully oxidized PPD does not cause allergy, so PPD sensitive persons can wear fur coats dyed with PPD safely (3). PPD can also be found in some dark colored cosmetics and temporary tattoos. In France, Germany and Sweden PPD was banned as a hair dye because it was thought to be too dangerous for health. (4).

continue reading Hair Dye Allergies

Early remedies to sight problems

All the way through the olden times, human race has researched a lot of ways to get better vision with peripheral help and devices. The path to discovering ways of vision correction has been a lengthy one, in the midst of numerous societies contributing to its growth all along the way. Record manuscripts disclose that at the same time as early as 460BC myopic slaves were put up for sale at a price cut - visualization shortcomings condensed their worth for the reason that there was no method to correct it. Formerly, Romans grieved the commencement of presbyopia, because it meant they had to fall back on their slaves to read. Around 1000AD the earliest recognized vision help emerged in the type called a reading stone - a goblet ball that may possibly be arranged next to reading matter to enlarge the letters. It wasn’t a lot more than a magnifying glass, but during those days it was news.

Glasses and Contact Lenses

While spectacles and lenses have presented several people with a sound quality of living, however they still have restrictions. Bifocals have enhanced throughout the use of contemporary frivolous lenses and mincing techniques - such as specs and reading glasses. And the modern day designers have improved the gaze of spectacles to the position that at the moment certain kinds of outlines are a requisite style statement. Although for a lot of means, eyeglasses are incredibly inopportune. And for a number of people they do not offer the excellence of sight preferred.

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MRI is a non invasive method used to render images of the inside of an object. It is mainly used in medical imaging to demonstrate pathological or other physiological alterations of living tissues. It is also used for detecting rock permeability to hydrocarbons and as a non-destructive testing method to characterize the quality of products such as produce and timber.

In the early years MRI was referred to as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging – NMRI. Magnetic resonance imaging was developed from knowledge gained in the study of nuclear magnetic resonance. The word nuclear has been associated with ionizing radiation exposure and that is not used in MRI. So the prevent patients from making a negative association between MRI and ionizing radiation the word was removed.

continue reading MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging