HELP TALK- by Dr. Gayatri Devi on "Ayurveda- A women's best friend for solving menstrual cycle problems"
HELP TALK- by Ms. Deepti Bansal on 'Feel good diet- learn what to eat to loose weight and uplift your mood'
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Signs of a heart attack
1. Chest pain or pressure.This is the most common symptom.But some people especially women, older adults & people with diabetes, may not have chest pain during a heart attack
3. Shortness of brreath
4. Nausea or vomiting
5. Pain or discomfort in the upper back, upper belly, neck, jaw or arms.
6. Feeling dizzy or lightheaded,
7. Fast or uneven heartbeat
The symptoms of a heart attack usually last longer than 5 minutes & do not go away with rest.
When to call a doctor
Call the helpline if you think you may be having a heart attack.Do not wait to see if you will feel better If an ambulance is not an option, have someone drive you to the hospital.Do not drive yourself.
Call a doctor if you have mild chest pain that does not stop or keeps coming back, and there is no obvious cause.
A heart attack occurs when one or more of the coronary arteries are blocked and blood cannot flow through.The coronary arteries carry blood to the heart.They can be blocked when plaque inside the artery breaks open and a blood clot forms.
Many people mistake a heart attack for anopther problem. Such as heartburn or a pulled muscle.It is important to recognize the signals your body sends during the early stages of a heart attack and get help. Quick treatment may reduce the damage caused by a heart attack & may save your life.
When to call a dentist
1. You have signs of a tooth or gum infection such as :
a. Increased pain, swelling, warmth or redness
b. Red streaks on the skin over the area
c. Pus or blood that drains into the mouth
d. Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
2. You have a severe toothache that does not improve after 2 hours of home treatment
3. You have facial pain or swelling
4. You have a painful bump near the sore tooth
5.A toothache keeps you from sleepingor doing your usual activities
6. You have had a toothache off and on for 2 weeks or longer
1. Put ice or a cold pack on the outside of your cheek for 10 to 15 minutesat a time. Put a thin cloth between the ice and your skin.Do not use heat.
2.Avoid very hot, cold, or sweet foods and drinks if they make the pain worse
3. Talk to your dentist about special toothpaste for sensitive teeth.Brush with this toothpaste regularly, or rub a small amount of it on the sensitive area with a clean finger 2 or 3 times a day. Floss gently.
4.Do not smoke or chew tobacco.It can make gum problemsworse and makes you less able to fight infection in your gums
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ways for preventing headaches
1. Reduce emotional stress.Take time to relax before and after you do something that has caused a headache in the past. Try relaxation techniques such as meditation or progressive muscle relaxation.
2. Reduce physical stress.When you sit at a desk, change positions often, and stretch for 30 secdonds each hour. Try to relax your jaw, neck, shoulder, and upper back muscles.
3. Check your neck and shoulder posture at work.
4. Exercise everyday.It can help reduce stress and muscle tension.
5. Get regular massages.Some people find this very helpful in relieving tension.
6. Limit caffreine to 1 or 2 drinks a day. People who drink a lot of caffeine often get a headache several hours after they have their last caffeine drink. Or they may wake with a headache that does not go away until they drink caffeine-withdrawal headaches.
Tracking your headaches
If you have headaches often, keep a record of your symptoms.This record will help your doctor if you need to be checked or treated.It may also help you take control of your headaches.especially if they are migraines.
Write down :
1. The date and time each headache starts and stops.
2. Anything that could have triggered the headache.This might be food, smoke, bright light, stress or activity.
3. Where the pain is.Is it in one spot or all over your head ?
5. How bad the pain is.Rate it from 1 to 10 ( 10 is the worst )
6. Any other symptoms you have, such as nausea, vomiting vision changes or sensitivity to light or noise.
7. ( For women only ) Any link between your headaches and your menstrual cycle, birth control pills or hormone therapy
Just view the following presentation...
I questioned him about his symptoms. He had said that the pain, which radiated from his lower neck to his left shoulder and arm, came and went and wasn’t linked to any sort of neck movement. Even more telling, his symptoms occurred only during the daytime, when he was most active. Since he did not think it was relevant, he hadn’t told the orthopedist. I sent him for treadmill stress test. Sure enough, the test triggered the pain showed that his symptoms were caused by coronary heart disease. He had his operation, all right-but it was angioplasty, not neck surgery.
HELP your Doctor
Most of the time, a complete medical history can lead to an accurate diagnosis-even without a physical exam. But a lot rides on your ability to communicate your complaints to your doctor thoroughly and clearly. Here’s how.
• Make a list and check it twice:
Bringing a list of concerns to each office visit can be especially helpful when it comes to describing symptoms. So start preparing your list a few days in advance, if you can. Don’t make the list too long; you don’t want to put off your doctor with a three-page laundry list. But do be thorough. Omitting potentially important details or even jumbling the order in which your symptoms developed can lead to the wrong diagnosis – which, in turn, could lead to unnecessary testing or inappropriate treatment.
• Speak up:
Since doctors tend to narrow their diagnostic choices very early into the office visit, you need to make your concerns known at the outset, before your doctor jumps conclusions.
• Get Specific:
When describing symptoms, use the most descriptive terms you can. Think of analogies. For instance, don’t just speak of “pain.” Is it dull and aching, as from a toothache; burning, as from heartburn; stinging as from an insect bite; piercing or sharp, as from a knife cut; or pressing, as if someone was sitting on your chest? Does it spread it into nearby area? How often does it occur? How long does it last? Is it affected by position, exercise, sexual activity, emotional upset? What makes it better or worse?
• Don’t minimize your symptoms:
Remarks like “it’s probably just gas” might lead your doctor to the same conclusion. Moreover, minimizing symptom is often a cover-up for the fear that something is seriously wrong. If you worry that your “gas” might signal abdominal cancer, say so. A few reassuring words or an appropriate test could put your mind at ease.
• Seek reassurance:
The week after comedian Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer, I saw several women with lower abdominal complaints who wanted their ovaries checked. That’s not unusual; symptoms often stem from fear of a disease that case, a celebrity. But even if you suspect that’s the cause of your symptoms, you should still take it over with your doctor, if only for reassurance.
• Tell all to someone:
Sometimes one minor symptom triggers a cascade of others that can obscure the initial problem. I recall one women whose lightheadedness, sweating and diarrhea led myriad tests and ultimately to a psychiatrist. Careful questioning finally revealed that the entire alarming sequence was kicked off by a “skipped” heartbeat or two. Once that irregular beat was determined to be harmless, the women’s symptoms, caused by anxiety, promptly disappeared. Occasionally, several symptoms from a syndrome-a constellation of symptoms that point to single underlying problem –and the forest may be missed for the trees. I remember one woman who had a high blood pressure treated by a cardiologist, her backache by an orthopedist, diabetes by an internist, and thin skin by a dermatologist. It turned out that every problem stemmed from an uncommon disorder called Cushing’s syndrome, caused by a benign adrenal-gland tumor. That potentially fatal disease had gone undiagnosed-and untreated-for nearly five years because she had not discussed all of her symptoms thoroughly with one doctor.
• HELP yourself:
For many people, notion of modern medical diagnosis probably conjures up images of assorted high-tech tools, including sophisticated tests, computer analysis, and scanning equipment. To be sure, all those things can play an important role. But today as always, nothing is more important than the patient’s own report of symptoms-and the doctor’s analysis. When you make the most of your half of the equation, your doctor stands the best chance of solving your problems.
Make sure your doctor is measuring your BP properly.Numerous aspects of a BP measurement can affect the accuracy of the reading as well.
Determining if you have secondary high blood pressure : A patient is more likely to have secondary high BP if her high BP develops suddenly in childhood or past the age of 50 or if she is resistant to treatment with drugs.Changes in the shape and pigmentation of the body suggest that high BP is associated with another disease.Also high BP tends to run in families.Thus the doctor should have a specific diagnosis in mind and then do the tests for the diagnosis.
Giving up tobacco and excess alcohol : Both tobacco and alcohol raise blood pressure.Tobacco in any form whether smoked, chewed or snuffed does this. Drinking excessive amount of alcohol, i.e more than 2 glasses of wine for a man or a glass of wine for a woman every night, raises BP.
Reducing salt in your diet : So you do have high BP overall, and you want to bring it under control because you are aware of the damage that itr can do to your body.The easiest change you can make is to take as much salt out of your diet as possible.
Starting an exercise program :If you dont want to lose weight or curb your salt intake you can still lower your BP with exercise. But have to choosean exerciseprogram that you can stick to.Make up a program that starts slow for short distances and builds up until you're doing 45 minutes of exercise three or four times a week. This sounds like a walking or jogging program and that's works best for most people. A walking or jogging program is certainly an attainable goal, but you still have to make yourself do it.
Adopting the DASH Diet : You can lower your BP by the same amount as one of the good drugs of high BP can. DASH Diet requires you to eat a mix of grains, fruits and vegetables and low fat or non fat dairy products, while you reduce the intake of high fat dairy products.The diet also encourages a weekly ration of nuts & seeds.When the program is followed properly, the results are remarkable.People with the highest BP seem to benefit the most. One of the best features of the DASH Diet is that the recommended foods are the ones you eat each day. Combining DASH with a reduction in salt can double the lowering effects on your high BP.If you follow the DASH Diet salt reduction takes place automatically.Thus DASH contains foods that you usually prepare
As you sleep, your body shifts blood and warmth from the back muscles to the kidneys, liver, stomach and other organs that need them all night. When you wake up in the morning, the lack of blood flow and movement in your spine makes it vulnerable to strains and sprains. Face it, your back is just not ready for the day.
To reduce the risk of back strain or injury, stretch before you get out of bed. Lying on your back in a relaxed, comfortable position with your legs extended, slowly raise your arms over your head and lay them on the bed. Gently reach with both arms over your head as you comfortably can. Then, add your legs and toes toward the foot of the bed. Remember to stretch only to the point of mild tension, hold the stretch for ten seconds, and then allow your whole body to relax. Repeat this stretch a few times. For your spine, it’s like breakfast in bed.
2) Give Backaches the boots
Shoes play an important role in the comfort of your back. Flat, thin-soled shoes often increase your back discomfort. Look for shoes with good arch supports and a fair amount of soft material under the heel to absorb the shock created when you walk. If you cannot find a shoe that meets these requirements, look into silicone or rubber shoe inserts.
Woman may experience low-back pain when wearing high heeled shoes – and not without reason. As you remember, the low back should have a slight inward curve to it. High-heeled shoes greatly exaggerate this curve and can compress the facet joints of the spine. Wearing a lower heel is usually a better choice for your back. If you work in an environment that requires you to wear high-heeled shoes, wear a pair of athletic shoes to work and then change into your dress shoes at work. Men need to watch out for a similar problem if they wear boots with tall heels.
3) When you have a choice, Push, Don’t Pull.
Moving heavy objects on a cart are, of course, much less strenuous than carrying them, but even with a cart, you can still hurt your back if you’re not careful. As a rule, it is safer to push an object than pull it. When you push, you use the strength of your legs and your back to move the object; you can really get your weight behind it. When you pull, the tendency is to stand flat-footed and to yank, relying solely on your back without using the leg muscles. Also, the back is often in a poor position when pulling, increasing the risk of a sprain. Next time you have a choice, remember to stand tall, lean into the object, use your legs and arms, keep your head up and push.
4) Eat regularly to maintain your energy.
Some people eat the right kinds of food, but they don’t eat frequently enough to maintain their energy level and keep their back muscles working. The most important meal of the day is breakfast, because as you sleep, the energy stored in your liver is depleted by the brain and other organs. When you wake up, about 95 percent of this reserve is gone. Your muscles and the rest of your body are just about to run out of gas, and weakened muscles can quickly become injured muscles. So eat a good breakfast, and back energy they need for the morning.
Now that you’ve started the day with a full tank of gas, you must maintain your energy level throughout the day. The body actually works better and weight control is easier if you eat meals when you are hungry. You probably are conditioned to think that after breakfast, you should not eat until noon. However, your body may actually need the energy at 10:00am; if you wait until noon you are starving your body for two hours and increasing the risk of a fatigue-related injury. This does not necessarily mean that every time you are hungry you should sit down to a full meal. A slice of whole-wheat bread, a piece of fruit, or some low-fat yogurt may work just fine to keep your energy up and tide you over until you can have a complete meal.
Most people still believe in the three-meal diet, but a normal body should actually consume five or six small meals per day rather than two or three large ones. Research has shown that the routine of smaller, more frequent meals is much more effective in meeting the body’s energy needs and reducing the storage of body fat than the traditional three-meal diet. Just be sure that you choose healthy foods for your six small meals.
Here are some suggestions you might find helpful
Do your homework. Be prepared.
Try to find answers for your questions yourself by doing a google search
Ask focused questions, which relate to your specific problem
Remember that both you and your doctor have the same interests at heart – both of you want you to get better. Work as partners - you are both on the same side!
It’s a good idea to write your questions down. If you can show him that you have tried to answer them for yourself, he will be much happier to answer the ones that have stumped you!
It’s important to not waste your doctor’s time by asking irrelevant questions. These will often end up irritating your doctor, and you will lose his good will. Do understand that sometimes doctors don’t have answers to all the questions. Medicine is an inexact science, and there are still major areas of ignorance. A good doctor will share these with you! ‘I don’t know’ can be a very good answer sometimes!
Remember that the quality of the answer depends upon the quality of the question. Take time and effort to frame your questions well.
Try to be assertive – but not aggressive. It’s not hard to do this, if you are respectful and ask your doctor for permission to ask questions! In case you have lots of questions, request him to suggest a book or website where you can get enough background information about your problem.
Ask if you can email your questions. This way, your doctor can answer your questions at his leisure and you can utilize your personal interaction time more constructively.
It is also important to learn not to ask poor quality questions. Thus, if there are queries about clinic timings, it is best to ask the clinic staff, rather than the doctor. Also, please don’t ask questions on behalf of your aunt or friend – focus on your problems, so your doctor can help you solve them!
If, inspite of your best efforts, your doctor is still upset when you ask questions, then this just means that he is not the right doctor for you – or that you are not the right patient for him. Find another doctor!
Nevertheless, physical activity is a crucial component of good diabetes care. There’s a simple solution. Find something you like to do. Stroll through city streets and parks. Wander through museums or malls with a friend. Go for a bike ride or play volleyball with your kids or grandkids. Go out dancing or put on some music and dance at home.
Just don’t call it exercise!
6. Learn To Live With Murphy’s Law—Diabetics have a triple-barreled right to be angry and depressed. Diabetes is a chronic disease that can last more than fifty years. It requires constant attention and complex treatment, and can have some ugly consequences.
That’s the first barrel. The second barrel is the depression that can accompany progress from one stage of life to another. Depression hits extra hard when you’re an anxious teenage, a worried parent, or a middle-aged person coming to grips with aging.
The third barrel is Murphy’s Law. If anything can possibly go wrong, it surely will.
You can eat exactly the same meal two days in a row. One day it will raise your blood glucose 20 points, one day 100 points. Even endocrinologists don’t always know why, and we diabetics get understandably frustrated that the specialists can’t explain it to us.
That said, recognize the difference between short-term sadness that has a cause you can pinpoint, and longer-term true depression. After all, as American poet Delmore Schwartz pointed out, even paranoid have real enemies.
Still if your blues last more than a week or two, call your doctor.
7. Ban Eating In Front Of The TV—Make this a family rule, and keep it: no eating anyplace except the kitchen or dining room table. Snacks in front of the tube are doubly deadly. Not only are you and your kids zoned out and sedentary, you’re also taking in calories that are almost certainly carbs and fats, (Admit it: Nobody eats celery sticks in front of the boob tube.) And unless you have a dog to police the area for you, those Cheetos in the sofa cushions are the perfect bug-bait.
8. Know Your Neighbors—Because you live alone, get to know your neighbors. Be aware of who their family and relatives are, and get an idea of their normal schedules. Preventing a burglary next door may keep you safe a well
Also tell your neighbors that you have diabetes, and tell them what to do if they don’t see you at the usual times.
Perhaps you have a story to contribute. You need not be a "miracle cure" to contribute here - all you need is the desire to use your experiences to help someone else.
Some of the people have voluntarily come forward to share their experiences with HELP. Their ‘stories’ have helped us to provide better information to other, newer readers. Each of these stories illustrates the way someone was helped to overcome and defy the odds and shows how people have redesigned their lives to be meaningful and fulfilling following what could have been a life-shattering event. Their stories are tributes to the ability of people to triumph over adversity and to succeed when life is at its hardest. You will be amazed at their courage, energized by their achievements, and awed at the miracles they managed to accomplish. Some of these stories will bring a tear, some a smile, but all will inspire you with the knowledge and confidence that ‘ordinary day-to-day miracles’ do happen. Some were born with disabling conditions, others suffered illness, some were injured, and some experienced the ordinary conditions of old age. All of them required help to learn or relearn the skills they needed for the job of living, and with the aid of a good book, a cd, or a HELP Talk, they all found the strength and courage to do so.
Nowadays there are so many tragic and angry stories about healthcare--not just in Mumbai and rest of India, but everywhere. What we are looking for are stories that show the humanity within the medical system… stories of hope that were made possible by services offered by Doctors, Nurses, Emergency Medical personnel or HELP Library.
These stories could also be about those times that a medical professional has allowed compassion to be their guide and have "bent the rules" “gone out of their way” in order for you or your loved one to experience a joyful moment, something meaningful. These events are the sorts of things that never seem to make it into the local newspapers---but we tell our readers and the world and we will never forget them.
We now INVITE you to share your story with us. The best of your stories will be posted on our website – with your permission of course! The best story of course deserves to receive a prize – we will send you a copy of our publication – The Healthwise Handbook – so remember to send us your address.
Your story should clearly and concisely state your experience.
You could avoid the diagnostic test details and mention only the main problem.
Names of Doctors/Hospitals may be avoided to protect privacy.
Nature of research conducted by you to help yourself – this could also include any second opinions, research from books, visits to quacks etc and their effect on the problem.
The story could be in the form of a skit, poem, or plain essay.
You may protect your identity/privacy by writing in the third person.
Have a look at the exhaustive list of titles available, that's not all, you can get a discount of 50% on all of them..
Thursday, September 4, 2008
कसरत! शुरू करने की दस युक्तियाँ....
अगर आपने कभी कसरत नही की तो कोई बात नही.
अभी से आपका स्वास्थय बनाईये और ख़ुद को अच्छा महसूस कीजिये और अच्छे दिखिये.
यही शुरू करने का सबसे अच्छा समय है
छोटे और वास्तविक लक्ष्य के साथ अपनी कसरत शुरू कीजिये
अगर आपने बहुत समय से कसरत नही की है तो फीर कसरत शुरू करने से पहले अपने चिकित्सक से बात करे
पहले छोटी कोशीस से शुरुवात कीजिये. जैसे पहले दो सीढियों से शुरुवात करके फीर उसे बढाइये.
कीसी की सहायता लीजिये
- अपने दोस्त को शामील होने के लिए आप पूछें
- अपने परीवार को बताएये की आपको उनकी भोजन और कामकाज में आवश्यकता होगी क्योंकी कसरत के लीये ये दो चीजे बहुत जरुरी है
अपने निकट संबंधियों - जैसे अपने जीवनसाथी, माता पिता, बच्चे, मित्र और अन्य रिश्तेदारों, के साथ समय बिताएं.
शोधकर्ताओं का कहना है कि भावनात्मक रिश्ते नीभाने से आपको तनाव, उच्च रक्तचाप और अन्य बीमारियों से बचने में मदद मिलेगी.