Veetharaaga Homoeopathic Clinic

Diabetes is often considered as deadly as cancer. It is a disease that requires lifestyle changes and diet modifications. It is also a disease that affects almost the entire system of your body. Whether you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, it will do you a world of good to understand the effects of diabetes. Neurovascular damage is one of the most common effects, this means that diabetes will affect the nerves and blood supply of the body.

While Type 1 diabetes makes its presence felt much earlier and is hereditary quite often, Type 2 appears later in life with age and cumulative stress. The effects of diabetes are related to the duration of the disease. Therefore, people with Type 1 diabetes are more likely to have the symptoms early on and need to learn to manage them. Type 2 makes its appearance later, but needs good monitoring for the effects to not surface or prolong the severity of symptoms.

As we all know, all body systems are affected by diabetes, sexual health is no exception. Diabetes decreases blood supply and impacts the nerves in the genitals, thus causing a series of issues right from reduced libido and erectile dysfunction in males to vaginal dryness and painful coitus (perunia) in females.

Listed below are issues diabetic men and women face in terms of sexual health:

In Men:

1. Diabetes reduces testosterone levels, which is directly reflected in reduced libido. Altered nerve function does not provide proper signals to the penis and there is also reduced blood flow to the organ. Both these can diminish the chances of a good erection. Studies have shown that among men who have had diabetes for 10 years, about 50% have experienced erectile dysfunction.Pregnant
2. The affected nerve function also leads to difficulties in reaching a climax. Diabetes in men can additionally cause Peyronie's disease, which leads to a curved penis, and this leads to painful and difficult erections and coitus.

In Women:

1. It leads to reduced sexual desire due to testosterone levels. Vaginal dryness is very common in females with diabetes and therefore, there is a definite decline in the urge.
2. The above mentioned neurovascular damage also prevents women from reaching a good climax, as the nerve supply is affected.
3. Diabetes also increases the predisposition to urinary tract infections, which can lead to painful sexual experience due to additional vaginal dryness and itching.

Finally, as much as it may sound as a cause for concern, it is not. People with diabetes know that making small lifestyle changes can go a long way in terms of onset of symptoms, their severity, and the leading of a normal life. Modifications in diet and lifestyle to include healthy eating, reduced stress, and exercising are very useful. It is also very important to talk to your doctor about how your sexual health has changed with diabetes. It is a sensitive and private topic, but if you are concerned about it, then do not hesitate to seek help.

Most people will give you a blatant NO. And they are quite right to do so. But if you have been a habitual offender who can't unwind without their drink, pregnancy is going to be a big problem. So does the rule stand in all cases? What if you drank when you didn't know you were pregnant yet? What if you had a light drink here and there, will it literally spell disaster? Let's find out.

Contradictory advice everywhere: Most doctors will advice you to stay away completely from alcohol as soon as that first positive emerges in your test. Others may give you a little leeway and let you have an occasional drink. There are friends who'll confess to have cheated during their pregnancy and snuck in a beer or two and say that their kids turned out just fine. There are other friends will scorn on you for even thinking such a thing. Same goes for your relatives. Like all things in pregnancy, random advice will just not work.

How much can you drink? Let's assume that you are confident nothing will happen and want to be adventurous and give it a cautious try. Danish researchers have some good news for you. Some studies have shown that low to moderate consumption of alcohol does not harm the baby. In fact, in 2012, Danish researchers released a highly publicized study that found no major problems in children below 5 years whose mothers had consumed 1- 8 alcoholic drinks a week during pregnancy.

Unfortunately, not all research is made equal. With pregnancy, each mother, each child and progression of each pregnancy is different. It really has to be on a case by case basis and nothing can be taken on face value. Most people will still advise you to completely go off alcohol as there is no "safe" amount during pregnancy. Some women have a larger quantity of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. If a woman with lower levels of this enzyme drinks alcohol, it is more likely to harm her unborn child as the alcohol will remain in her bloodstream longer.

How alcohol can affect your child?
There are a huge number of disorders that can affect your child when in the womb and even after because of alcohol consumption. These disorders are collectively called "Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder". It is characterized by increased risk in miscarriage and stillbirth. It can also result in the baby having low birth weight and increase problems with learning, speech, attention span, language and hyperactivity. Alcohol consumption may also affect a girls and boys differently. While both may turn out to have aggressive and delinquent behaviour, girls are more likely to develop mental health problems too.

If you are unable to give up on alcohol, you need to immediately get professional help to overcome your addiction.

Also note that the term "non-alcoholic" beverage is misleading as they can contain trace amounts of it. Consult a doctor today on which drinks are safe for you.

Acne or pimples is most commonly seen in teenagers and young adults, just around the time the body is undergoing hormonal adjustments. Thus, acne is not simply just a skin problem, but often an indication of internal bodily disturbances. Of course, there are other combination of aggravating factors at play, like genetics, active sebaceous glands and bacterial organisms that reside within the sebaceous glands. 

An otherwise easily treatable condition, acne can result in permanent scars if left untreated, often resulting in low self-esteem, social isolation, depression and even suicidal ideation. 

The skin acts as a window to internal disorders and many individuals with acne are found to have internal hormonal problems like polycystic ovary syndromes or insulin resistance syndromes. Females can have associated excessive hair on the chin, hair loss on the scalp, weight gain, menstrual abnormality and infertility. 

1. Diet does not have a major role in causing acne but cutting down on foods with high sugar content and milk may be useful.
2. Certain medications and creams containing steroids can precipitate an outbreak of acne. 
3. Heavy and greasy cosmetics will aggravate acne.
4. Special soaps, face washes, lotions, and so-called unscientific blood purifiers are of little help. 
5. Acne scars are repaired with newer dermatological technologies and techniques. 

Just like with any other medical condition, each individual is different and will require a unique investigation and treatment plan. This is based on many factors like other current medical conditions, climate, age, sex, skin type and variety of acne. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dermatologist.

Nowadays, drug abuse is a universally condemned action such that selling certain drugs are illegal. Children are not allowed to take drugs until they reach a certain age such as 21 for most states in India. Lots of problems start occurring when you are addicted to a certain drug. It is also nearly impossible to stop since the nerve cells change the way they function due to drugs.

These nerve cells overstimulate the 'reward circuit' of the brain. This means that your brain constantly needs to be 'rewarded' and this reward comes in the form of drugs. There are many reasons why people become addicts and here are some of them.

1. People want to get high: This is perhaps the most common reason why people become drug addicts. The moment they take in one drug, they love the feeling they get so much that they keep wanting to go back to it.
2. People want to fit in: This is also a very common reason. When all your friends and perhaps even your bosses and other superiors are taking drugs, you do not want to feel left out or ostracized by your friend group. This is why many people start taking drugs.
3. Unintentionally taking drugs due to injuries or medical conditions: Sometimes a doctor prescribes a medicine for a certain time period but it does not work or works too well and so you keep taking the drug so that you will feel better. This happens more often than you think.
4. People take drugs to relieve stress: This is another very common reason why people take drugs. You may easily rationalize with them thinking that taking drugs is a good way to relax from work and family pressures. However, the long term effects of taking drugs are much worse than the stress.
5. Boredom from daily life: In young teens and adolescents especially, life can be so boring that they want to try something new and thus resort to drug abuse.

Cyclothymia is a type of a mood disorder which is relatively light or mild in nature. If you are suffering from this condition, then you will experience extreme mood swings for very short periods of time. During these mood swings, you may experience a low period (depressed mood) or a high period when you are extremely happy.

Identification
There is no set or structured pattern for the highs and lows that you will experience during this condition. This feature of the disease makes it more difficult to detect and diagnose. The duration of your mood swings usually last just for a few days but can also be extended up to a few weeks. So, the only sign of identifying this medical condition is that if you are not having a normal mood for an extended period of time then you should consult a specialist doctor to enquire more about the condition.

Symptoms
Though there are no special symptoms of this disorder, the usual signs of mild depression and hypomania can be a possible symptom of Cyclothymia.

Some of them are:

1. Hypomanic symptoms
2. Racing thoughts
3. Minimal sleep
4. Excessive talking
5. Extreme optimism
6. Raised self-esteem
7. Being happy without any reason

Depressive symptoms

1. Hopelessness
2. Unnecessary fear
3. Restlessness
4. Fatigue
5. Concentration difficulties
6. Abnormal weight changes

Remedy
The mood swings that you experience during this situation do not get better with time or vanish automatically. So it is always desirable that you seek some medical assistance from a specialist doctor on seeing the symptoms of either hypomania or depression.

Complications
This does not always hold true but you might also start to experience suicidal thoughts if you also have a bipolar I or II disorder along with cyclothymia. So, if any such thoughts appear in your mind, then you should seek immediate medical assistance.

Insulin is the most common treatment prescribed for people affected with diabetes. Diabetes is condition where high amounts of glucose prevail in the blood for an extended period of time. However, there are some drugs that offer an alternative to insulin in treating diabetes, which are

1. Liraglutide: Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug that causes the body to release greater amounts of insulin so as to facilitate the movement of glucose from the blood to the cells. People with type 2 diabetes generally use this treatment. It slows the digestion process and can cause symptoms of headache and nausea.
2. Pramlintide: It's an artificially produced version of amylin. It is taken by both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients, facilitates slower digestion of food and therefore controls release of sugar in the blood. It can cause tiredness and nausea.
3. Dulaglutide: This treatment is for people affected with type 2 diabetes and it is administered once a week. It causes more insulin to be released and pass the glucose to the cells. It can cause loss of appetite, nausea and abdominal cramps as side effects.
4. Albiglutide: This treatment facilitates pancreas to release insulin and limits the glucagon hormone production. It is used by type 2 diabetes patients who have not taken well to other treatments. The side effects are skin reaction, respiratory tract infection and nausea.
5. Exenatide: It is a drug that causes pancreas to release insulin that facilitates movement of glucose to cells. It is a treatment for type 2 diabetes and it restricts release of glucagon in the body. The possible side effects are acidity, constipation and vomiting.

type diabetes

Arthritis is inflammation of one or more of your joints. Pain, swelling, and stiffness are the primary symptoms of arthritis. Any joint in the body may be affected by the disease, but it is particularly common in the knee.

Knee arthritis can make it hard to do many everyday activities, such as walking or climbing stairs. It is a major cause of lost work time and a serious disability for many people. There are 2 types of arthritis the knee joint in the human body can get afflicted with. They are:

Osteoarthritis 

The form of arthritis which, with increasing pain, slowly wears down the joint cartilages is called osteoarthritis. This form of arthritis usually affects people after the age 40. The symptoms of osteoarthritis include:

1. Severe pain in the knee joints
2. Pain after walking up the stairs and it subsiding once you are on rest
3. Severe pain after the movement of joints for a long time
4. Pain that becomes worse in rainy days
5. Joints becoming stiff after waking up in the morning but they improve in the latter part of the day
6. Pain which also occurs in the thighs and the genital regions coupled with joints swelling and joints getting stiff after rest.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic form of arthritis caused because of the knee joint inflammations. This form of arthritis can occur at any age. Being an auto-immune disease, its symptoms include, but are not limited to:

1. Severe pain in the morning
2. Mild fever accompanying the pain
3. Joints suddenly becoming swollen, red and warm causing, immense pain
4. Sudden stiffness of the joints
5. Pain that increases in cold weather
6. Mild fever, extreme tiredness and weakening of the muscles

Doctors are still doubtful about what exactly causes the disease; but the deformation of the immune system might cause the damage of the joints, causing people who are already suffering from obesity, smokers, and women, in general, more prone to this disease.

When the knee pain is diagnosed as a form of arthritis, the following treatments are suggested:

1. If you are overweight or obese, losing some of those extra pounds can go a long way in reducing the pain.
2. Muscle-stretching exercises are effective in keeping the knee joints flexible.
3. Dry needling, cupping, taping can help to control the pain and keep the joint supported.
4. Prescribed dosage of anti-inflammatory drugs such as Tylenol, Motrin, and Advil or injections of hyaluronic acid might relieve your pain.

If regular treatments do not work, you might opt for knee-replacement surgery and osteotomy (the process of cutting a bone with the help of surgery) which might better the alignment of the knee by transforming the bone shapes.

Physiotherapy for knee arthritis

Physiotherapy treatment is aimed at improving the symptoms of the disease (i.e. knee pain, swelling, stiffness), and you should begin to notice a positive difference within one or a few physiotherapy sessions. The main goals of physiotherapy for your knee arthritis are:

1. Reduce your knee pain and inflammation.
2. Normalise your knee joint range of motion.
3. Strengthen your knee: esp quadriceps (esp VMO) and hamstrings.
4. Strengthen your lower limb: calves, hip and pelvis muscles.
5. Improve your patellofemoral (knee cap) alignment and function.
6. Normalise your muscle lengths.
7. Improve your proprioception, agility and balance.
8. Improve your technique and function eg walking, squatting.

Most people experience prominent side effects on their body and mind the morning following a night of heavy drinking. These after-effects of consuming excessive alcohol, popularly called a hangover, include rapid heartbeat, headache, anxiety, exhaustion, vomiting, dizziness, lack of energy, and body pain.

Drinking too much alcohol (5 to 7 drinks for men and 3 to 5 for women) not only causes a hangover but also can negatively impact your health by damaging your liver, central nervous system, brain and gastrointestinal system. It takes about 8 to 24 hours to cure a hangover completely, but you can try these natural remedies to get quick relief from the symptoms and reduce the recovery time.

1. Have a banana

A hangover is often associated with decreased potassium levels in your body and having a banana will help replenish it as it contains an adequate amount of the mineral.

Directions: you can either have one or two whole bananas or a banana smoothie with few drops of honey to get relieve from most hangover symptoms.

2. Try honey

Honey contains fructose, which helps to neutralize the negative impact of alcohol on your body. Moreover, honey provides relief from the hangover as it also helps digest the alcohol better.

Directions: take 3-4 teaspoons of honey after each hour (post-hangover) till you feel yourself getting better. You can increase the dosage according to the severity of your hangover.

3. Go for a glass of tomato juice

Tomato juice proves to be very effective in curbing the symptoms of a hangover as it compensates for the dehydration caused in your body due to excessive alcohol consumption. Also, due to its fructose content, tomato helps in metabolizing the alcohol present in your body.

Directions: drink a glass of fresh tomato juice or soup laden with 1 tablespoon each of honey and fresh lemon juice. You can have this juice in the morning once and repeat in the afternoon if needed.

4. Drink a lot of water

When it comes to beating a hangover, there is no substitute for water. Drinking water is not only a tried and tested remedy, but is also the most effective way to cure a hangover. This happens because water fights the dehydration of fluids in your body caused by drinking alcohol.

Directions: to keep the hangover at bay, drink one glass of water after each glass or shot of alcohol you consume. If you forget to do this, starting your day with a bottle of water the next morning will help reduce hangover symptoms drastically.

Physical intimacy makes some people very uncomfortable. In some cases, this can be bad enough to be called a phobia. Erotophobia refers to the phobias related to sex while the fear of sexual intercourse itself is referred to as Genophobia. There are many reasons for sexual phobias. It ranges from traumatic events to physical disorders such as premature ejaculation etc. This is also an uncomfortable topic to talk about and hence many people misunderstand it. Here are a few strategies that can help you overcome this fear.

1. Educate Yourself: We are most scared of the things that we do not know. Keeping this in mind, educate yourself about the anatomical structure of the human body including the male and female genitalia. Understand how a sexual experience goes from excitement to plateauing and finally to orgasming. This will make you feel more in command over the situation.

2. Communicate With Your Partner: Your partner may misunderstand your fear of sexual intimacy as not accepting him or her. This can make them feel unloved and lead to relationship troubles. Hence, communicate openly with your partner and share your feelings and emotions. Understand that sex is an emotional activity as much as a physical activity and hence engage in a sexual relationship only with a person you are emotionally comfortable with. If you are feeling uncomfortable at any point, say NO and ensure that your partner understands what you are feeling.

3. Have Fun: Sex is not supposed to be a chore. Lighten the mood and find ways of making the experience enjoyable. Focus on foreplay rather than intercourse itself to reach a state where both partners are relaxed and at ease.

4. Address The Functioning Of Your Body: When it comes to men, erectile dysfunctioning and premature ejaculation are common causes of sexual phobias. Consult a doctor to treat these conditions and make a few lifestyle changes to live in a healthier way. Eating the right food, getting enough sleep and regular exercise can help give you confidence in your sexual abilities and thus treat sexual phobias. Also, avoid drugs that affect your physical functioning.

5. Stay in Control: For women, safety is a big issue when talking about sexual intercourse. To prevent yourself from being emotionally or physically harmed, you must always stay in control of your body. Avoid the use of alcohol or drugs that make you lose control and always keep yourself protected by using birth control or keeping a condom at hand. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a sexologist.

Eyes need as much regular exercise to keep them healthy as any other organ of the body. Eye exercises are usually designed to provide strength to eye muscles, while improving focus, allowing flexible eye movements and helping stimulate the vision centre of the brain. Eye exercises might not necessarily improve eyesight but they help in preventing eye problems and maintaining the correct eyesight level.

Here are 4 eye exercises that can help strengthen the eye muscles and improve your vision:

1. Blinking - Your eyes get strained due to long hours of sitting at the computer or television and you tend to blink less. Whenever you blink, your eyes stay in darkness for a few microseconds that help to keep the eyes fresh, while reducing eye strain.

2. Palming - This exercise involves three steps:

- Taking a few deep breaths before beginning the exercise
- Make yourself comfortable by resting your elbows on your knees and slowly closing your eyes
- Cover your eyes with the cup of your palm, place your fingers on the forehead and the heel of your hand on your cheekbone

This exercise helps in achieving inner peace and calm and also helps in resting your mind.

3. Figure of eight - This exercise helps in strengthening the eye muscles and provides flexibility. In this exercise, you need to imagine a huge eight in front of your eyes. Slowly turn the 8 on its side. With the help of your eyes slowly trace the figure of 8. Repeat it the other way after a few minutes.

4. Near and far focusing - This exercise helps in strengthening the eye muscles and improves the vision of your eyes. It involves the following steps:

- Either sit or stand in a comfortable position for 2-3 minutes
- Bring your thumb about 10 inches in front of your eyes and try to focus on it
- Now try focusing on an object that is about 10-20 feet in front of your eyes
- Try switching between focusing on the other object and your thumb on each deep breath

How to lose weight with fibrous foods?

Body composition is never the same for two individuals with the same body weight and of the same sex. It is vital to view your weight loss in light of your body composition. Since muscle occupies less space in your body than fat, leanness is determined by one's body composition and weight. The term body composition refers to the percentage of bone, fat, muscle and water content in your body.

Irrespective of the body composition you may have, if you're planning to lose weight naturally, having fibrous foods can help you to achieve that optimal body weight. The study suggests that people who have fiber in their diet tend to have healthy body weight. It provides your stomach with a full feeling and stimulates brain receptors to stop eating without adding any extra calories.

What is fiber?
Fiber is basically carbohydrate present in plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. In comparison to other forms of carbohydrates, fiber is not easily digested by the body. As a consequence, it passes quickly through your digestive tract without increasing your blood sugar levels. Additionally, it is the soluble fiber that absorbs water to form a type of gel inside your stomach, leading to a slowdown in the absorption of glucose. Lower levels of blood sugar indicate lower insulin levels, which significantly reduces the chances of your body storing fat.

According to experts, women below 50 years of age should have about 25 grams of fiber every day, and men should have about 38 grams. So, here are some of the high fiber foods that you need to include in your diet:

•   split peas: contains 16.3 grams of fiber per cup
•   black beans: contains 15 grams of fiber per cup
•   lentils: contains 15.6 grams of fiber per cup
•   broccoli: contains 5.1 grams of fiber per cup
•   peas: contains 8.8 grams of fiber per cup
•   raspberries: contains 8 grams of fiber per cup
•   blackberries: contains 7.6 grams of fiber per cup

We all believe that consuming fruit is an uncomplicated task that involves buying, cutting and eating the pieces. But in reality, to reap the benefits, you need to consume it at the right time. By consuming fruits at the right time, it can contribute to boost the detoxification process and help in weight loss and kick-start the metabolism process.

When is the best time to eat fruits?
Fruits comprise of different types of nutrients which offer protection against different types of diseases and infections, lower the chances of heart diseases and hypertension. If you eat fruits without proper knowledge of how to consume it, it can create problems rather than proffer benefits. You should, therefore, try to eat fruits at the following timings.

Empty stomach in the morning
Experts always recommend consumption of fruits on an empty stomach and in between meals. This is because digestion takes place at a fast pace during these times and the enzymes required for digestion of fruits are released easily when you are on an empty stomach. Fruits are high in simple sugars which need long hours to be completely digested by the body. Thus, if you eat fruits on an empty stomach, all the nutrients, sugar and dietary fibers are processed properly in the body. This ensures that your body gets the right quantity of nutrition from the consumption of fruits.

Before and after workout

• Another viable time of eating fruits is before or after exercising. You are free to eat your choicest fruits right before or immediately after working out. The body would easily utilize the sugars derived from the fruits for extracting energy before a workout. It also helps in filling back the energy content of the body if you consume fruits right after workout sessions.
• Eating fruits is a simple process which is known for offering a host of benefits. But there are also numerous myths regarding the timing of consumption of fruits which need to be debunked.
• One such myth is that if you are suffering from high blood sugar, you should consume fruits at least one to two hours before meals. The idea behind the myth is that people with diabetes have digestive issues and eating the fruits separately can improve digestion to some degree. But there is no supportive evidence for the statement.

So, it is advised to eat the fruit as a snack together with protein-packed meals which can aid in digestion. This is also beneficial as smaller amounts of sugar gets absorbed at a time which leads to the meagre amount of rising in blood sugar levels.

With these few factors in mind, you can get the most out of your daily fruits consumption.