March 26, 2013

Coughing, Symptom of Asthma

Asthma is a disease of the human respiratory system, which constricts the air passage, normally responding to a "trigger" like an exposure to an allergen, physical exercise, cold air, as well as emotional stress. This narrowing could cause symptoms like breathlessness, wheezing, chest tightness, and coughing. Between asthmatic episodes, most people with the condition feel fine.


This ailment is a chronic inflammatory condition wherin the airways create an increased responsiveness to a particular stimuli, shown by bronchial hyper-responsiveness, increased mucus production, inflammation, and also intermittent airway obstruction. Asthma can be from mild to life harmful, but can generally be controlled using a combination of prescription drugs, inhalers and modifications in lifestyle. People have dedicated to asthma recently because of its rapidly increasing number of individuals, affecting up to a quarter of urban children. Genes can contribute to cases of asthma, but there's not any obvious pattern associated with inheritance found. This is a thoroughly complex ailment that's influenced through many various developmental, hereditary, and the environmental factors, which work  together to  create the widespread condition.

Breast-fed infants have proved to be less susceptible to asthma.The number of people with asthma continues to grow. One in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the U.S. population) had asthma in 2009, compared with 1 in 14 (about 20 million, or 7%) in 2001.1

For the period 2008–2010, asthma prevalence was higher among children than adults.2


In 2008 less than half of people with asthma reported being taught how to avoid triggers. Almost half (48%) of adults who were taught how to avoid triggers did not follow most of this advice.1

It is estimated that the number of people with asthma will grow by more than 100 million by 2025.3

More than half (53%) of people with asthma had an asthma attack in 2008. More children (57%) than adults (51%) had an attack. 185 children and 3,262 adults died from asthma in 2007.1


References :
  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vital Signs, May 2011.
  2.  Trends in Asthma Prevalence, Health Care, and Mortality in the United States, 2001-2010, CDC, May 2012.
  3.  World Health Organization. Global surveillance, prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases: a comprehensive approach, 2007.

March 21, 2013

Tips on How to Protect Your Child as Surfing Online


It can be very surprising to find out that your child has far more info about the things that you simply do being a mother or father. Most of the children have become addicted to the computers and almost all the schools have involved computers as a subject. Nevertheless, earlier letting a child searching online, it is very important to let the child know of the wrong and the right using the internet service.

These principles can be discussed with all the family and will be brought in use with everyone’s consent. Tips on how to protect your kids when browsing on the internet is not a difficult task.

The mother and father may easily put into action some of the thoughts which could clear up the question of how to protect your child when surfing online. Motivate your kids to share their experiences about the surfing of the internet. The parents can also get involved in these kinds of activities with their children, that could also increase the child’s confidence level. The young children ought to be motivated on listing to their scruples in case they just don't feel right just about something, they will inform that to you.

Little easy methods to protect your child when surfing online will prove beneficial and will motivate your child concerning the right usage on this facility. Get him/her to aware of the dangers of searching online. It's the mother or father’s responsibility to teach the child about the basic etiquettes while chatting with other online people.


Advise them that they ought to be polite while communicating to others who are online. It is additionally important to tell them that replicating other people’s work just like music files or even video clips, can be as bad as taking things from the shop.

The most important thing for being remembered about how to protect your child when surfing on the internet is that the child needs to be informed just about not giving his/her personal information like name, school address, home address and even the contact numbers to any person they are chatting with.

Or else, they are able to use any nicknames when they are chatting with their online friends. They could be used to asked to use messenger services like the MSN Messenger where one can chat with people they know.

It needs to be told to the child which whatever is displayed on the internet is not absolutely right and that the child must differentiate between the right and also the wrong. The child should likewise be informed that internet is as true in life and that he/she needs to be careful as exchanging any information.

Throughout the process of the way to protect your child when surfing online, parents of the child must monitor their child’s surfing activity and this can be one by installing the latest software program’s and help do that job easy.

March 20, 2013

What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

According to National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints. It occurs when the immune system, which normally defends the body from invading organisms, turns its attack against the membrane lining the joints.

Inflammation most often affects joints of the hands and feet and tends to be symmetrical (occurring equally on both sides of the body). This symmetry helps distinguish rheumatoid arthritis from other forms of the disease. About 0.6 percent of the U.S. population (about 1.3 million people) has rheumatoid arthritis. 1




Etiology 

The cause of RA is unknown. Genetic, environmental, hormonal, immunologic, and infectious factors may play significant roles. Socioeconomic, psychological, and lifestyle factors (eg, tobacco use, the main environmental risk2 ) may affect disease outcome.

Pathophysiology

Early events in the pathologic process that progresses to uncontrolled inflammation and consequent cartilage and bone destruction are synovial cell hyperplasia and endothelial cell activation. Genetics and immune system abnormalities promote disease propagation.

CD4 T cells, mononuclear phagocytes, fibroblasts, osteoclasts, and neutrophils play major cellular roles in thepathophysiology of RA, while B cells produce autoantibodies (ie, RFs). Abnormal production of numerous cytokines, chemokines, along with inflammatory mediators (eg, tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-a], interleukin [IL]-1, IL-6, IL-8, transforming growth factor beta [TGF-ß], fibroblast growth factor [FGF], and platelet-derived growth factor [PDGF]) has been demonstrated in patients with RA.

At last, inflammation as well as exuberant proliferation on the synovial membrane (ie, pannus) results in destruction of various tissues, as well as cartilage (view the image below), bone, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. However the articular structures are the primary sites involved by RA, other tissues will also be affected.

Prognosis

Outcome in RA is compromised when diagnosis and treatment are delayed. The clinical course of RA is often certainly one of exacerbations and remissions. Approximately 40% of patients with this disease become disabled after ten years, but outcomes are highly variable. Some patients go through a comparatively self-limited disease, whereas others use a chronic progressive illness.



References :

1According to the National Arthritis Data Workgroup, the actual number of new cases of rheumatoid arthritis is lower than previous estimates because of changes in the classification for the condition, as cited in Helmick CG, Felson DT, Lawrence RC, Gabriel S, Hirsch R, Kwoh CK, Liang MH, Kremers HM, Mayes MD, Merkel PA, Pillemer SR, Reveille JD, Stone JH, for the National Arthritis Data Workgroup. Estimates of the Prevalence of Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Conditions in the United States. Part I. Arthritis and Rheumatism. 2008;58(1):15-25.
 2Carlens C, Hergens MP, Grunewald J, Ekbom A, Eklund A, Hoglund CO, et al. Smoking, use of moist snuff, and risk of chronic inflammatory diseases. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. Jun 1 2010;181(11):1217-22. [Medline].