Optimal Cholesterol Levels

Optimal amounts of cholesterol (in one dL of the blood) are:

• Total cholesterol: less than 200 mg
• LDL cholesterol: less than 100 mg
• HDL cholesterol: more than 60 mg 

Foods to Avoid or Limit to Lower Cholesterol

continue reading Diet to Lower Cholesterol in Vegetarians

What Is Fungemia?

Fungemia is the presence of fungi in the bloodstream. Fungemia caused by a yeast Candida is called candidemia. Fungemia can cause life threatening infections of internal organs, like heart valves or brain, so it is important to recognize it and treat it promptly.

Symptoms, Risk Factors, Causes

Fungemia should be suspected in a patient with extensive skin burns, lowered immune system (like in AIDS or cancer, including leukemia) or after abdominal surgery, receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics, and having fever, brain fog, itchy skin, non-healing wounds or unusual discharge. Sometimes symptoms may appear weeks or months after invasion of fungi into the blood.

continue reading Fungemia, Candidemia – Definition, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Lymph nodes of the armpit are known as the axillary lymph nodes. They are usually not palpable (felt by touch) but may sometimes become swollen, hard and/or painful. This can arise from a host of possible causes ranging from minor injuries to infections and even cancer. Apart from the armpit itself, disorders or diseases of surrounding organs may also cause axillary lymph node swelling.

continue reading Causes of Swollen Armpit Lymph Nodes

What Does “Immune” and “Immunity” Mean?

Immune in medicine means “protected against infection”. Immunity means resistance against certain infections.

What Is Infection and Who Develops Infectious Disease?

Infection is an invasion of harmful microbes in the body. It depends on aggressiveness of microbes and our immunity, if a particular infection will cause a disease or not.

continue reading Human Immune System

What Are Microorganisms?

Microorganisms (Latin micro = small) are living beings so small (< 40 µm or 0.04 mm) that they are not visible by the naked eye. Microorganisms related to human health include certain bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.

Synonyms: microbes, germs, bugs.

Types of Microorganisms

Microorganisms can be, according to their characteristics, divided into several groups:

• bacteria, viruses, certain fungi and parasites
• pathogenic (capable of causing disease), non-pathogenic, and opportunistic (causing disease when they have an opportunity, like in people with low immune system)
• acellular (without cell, like viruses), unicellular (bacteria, yeasts and certain parasites), or multi-cellular (molds)

continue reading Microorganisms – Types, Harmful Effects on Human Body, Pictures

What Is Infection?

An infection is an invasion and multiplying of pathogenic microbes in the body tissues in which they are not usually present (1). Pathogenic means capable of causing disease. Infection does not always cause a disease.

Definitions of Infection-Related Terms

A colonization is the usual presence of non-pathogenic and even potentially pathogenic microbes on the skin, in the nose, mouth, bowel, penile or vaginal mucosa, as a part of normal human flora, in the amount not harmful for the body – this is not an infection. An example is the presence of Lactobacilus acidophilus bacteria in the colon.

A contamination is the presence of germs which do not multiply, for example, in a contaminated (not infected)wound. Infected or septic wound contains multiplying microbes. Contamination also refers to presence of pathogenic microbes on medical equipment, in the water, food etc.

continue reading Infection – Definition, Causes, Transmission, Symptoms, Signs

What Is Sepsis?

Sepsis (Greek sepsis= putrefaction, decay) is an exaggerated response of body’s immune system to an infection, like severe pneumonia or cellulitis, which has spread to the blood; it is also called blood infection. If treatment does not start promptly, sepsis may be deadly.

NOTE: Bacteremia, viremia, fungemia or parasitemia refer only to a presence of microbes in the blood, which by themselves rarely causes any symptoms, while sepsis is always a serious condition with detectable inflammation in the blood and obvious symptoms. Check what septic means.

continue reading Blood Infection or Sepsis – Causes, Symptoms, Signs, Treatment

What Is The Heart

The heart (in Latin cor; in Greek kardia) is a muscular organ that pumps the blood through the vessels, supplying the body cells with oxygen and nutrients. Together with the brain, the heart is the center of one’s personality and emotional life.

Location of the Heart

The heart lies in the middle of the chest, between the right and left lung, behind and slightly to the left of the breastbone (Picture 1).

Picture 1. Heart lies behind the breastbone (sternum)
(source: Wikipedia.org)

continue reading Heart Disease Types and Symptoms; Physiology, Pictures, Video

Septicemia Is Not Clearly Defined

A term septicemia may cause a lot of confusion; for some it refers to bacteremia (presence of bacteria in the bloodstream) and for others it refers to sepsis (bacteremia + blood inflammation). Since a term septicemia is still widely used, a reader should be aware of its two possible meanings in different health articles.

Blood Poisoning Is Not An Appropriate Term

To ad to the confusion, a term blood poisoning is often used as a synonym for septicemia (or sepsis). Poisoning can be caused by substances other than those released by microbes, while sepsis is always caused by microbes, so a term blood infection is preferable as an informal name for sepsis.

Autoimmune disorders are those diseases that occur as a result of the body’s immune system attacking different cells, tissues, organs or the entire body. The body has a number of mechanisms to prevent the immune system from attacking its own tissues but under certain conditions, these self regulating mechanisms may fail, leading to an autoimmune disease.

continue reading Types of Autoimmune Diseases, Causes & Blood Tests