Dr. Krishnaveni

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) is a common infection in the female reproductive organs like the ovaries, the uterus and the fallopian tubes and also the inside of the pelvis. If left untreated for a long time, PID can lead to severe problems like pregnancy complications, infertility and cancer. 

• Causes: Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) like chlamydia and gonorrhea produce vaginal bacteria which travel to the interior organs and cause PID. Having unprotected sexual contact with someone who has an STD is the most common cause of PID. Moreover, medical processes like abortion, miscarriage, childbirth, insertion of contraceptive devices can also lead to bacterial infection. Having sex with a number of people, or having sex before the age of 20, or having had an STD in the past, also increase the chances of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. 
• Symptoms: The disease may show only minor symptoms or it may not show any symptom at all. When it does, the common symptoms are pelvic pain, discomfort while urinating or having intercourse, difficulties with menstruation and unusual fluid discharge from the vagina. 
• Associated symptoms: High fever, nausea, vomiting, indigestion, exhaustion, shivering and fainting. 
• Diagnosis: A pelvic examination is conducted to check for abnormal bleeding from the cervix (the opening of the uterus), fluid discharge or severe pain in the uterus, fallopian tubes or in the ovaries. Swabs taken from the cervix and the vagina are tested for STDs or other possible bacterial infections that may cause PID. An ultrasound or a Computerized Tomography (CT) scan is conducted to make sure that the symptoms are not being caused by other disorders like appendicitis or other kinds of infection in the reproductive organs. A pregnancy test is also done to take the necessary precautions to protect the fetus from the adverse effects of the infection. 
• Treatment: The treatment procedures of PID vary depending on the type of bacteria that caused the infection in the specific case. Antibiotic medication is used to treat the condition. In case of severe complications, the patient has to be hospitalized.

A healthy libido is as important as any other function within your body. However, as much as it is a physical function, a lot of it has to do with the most important sexual organ, the brain. If you or your partner is both physically and emotionally not in the right place, your sex drive suffers. This can create physical and emotional problems in your life. Some of the tips to help increase your sex drive are mentioned as follows.

1. Getting the right amount of sleep: One of the major causes of low sex drive among men and women is the lack of sleep. Between household chores as well as office work and family commitments, the first thing that gets compromised on is sleep. Low sleep results in the drop in testosterone in both men and women thus, drastically lowering sex drive. This is the hormone primarily responsible for sex drive in both men and women. Ensure that you get at least 8 hours of sleep daily to maintain a healthy sex drive.
2. Think and talk sex: Mostly women and men to some extent as well tend to put talking about sex in the no go zone. This along with the mundane discussions about household life tends to lower libido as well. Ensure that you put in some sex talk to keep the spark alive as this would keep your libido levels and the physical attraction levels high.
3. Overweight and obesity is toxic for your sex drive: Excess fat and being overweight is a big libido killer in both men and women. Obesity and high body fat percentage inhibits testosterone production, thus, denting your sex drive. It is very important that you try to lose a few pounds and set goals to become fit as this will work wonders for your libido.
4. Meditate and relax: When you are stressed, cortisol levels in your blood are increased as the adrenaline glands go into overdrive. This is one of the most common and major sex drive killers. It is thus, very important that you practice mediation and other relaxation techniques to ensure that stress levels are down which will help in boosting libido.
5. A healthy diet: This is possibly one of the most important components in your life which determines how the physical side of libido is managed. Certain foods may kill your libido such as cheese and other dairy products, fried fatty foods, carbonated sodas among others. Some of the foods that are good for your libido would be ginger, watermelon, lettuce, and eggs.

If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

Impact of drinking water in plastic bottles

We store water in all sorts of plastic bottles, jugs or containers. It can be low grade or high grade, but plastic is plastic! This is a very harmful daily practice as plastic containers carry lot of chemicals and bacteria. 

Let’s see the harmful effects of drinking water in plastic bottles:

1. Harmful substances: Apart from harmful chemicals in plastic, water when get stored in plastic bottles also produces harmful substances like fluoride, arsenic and aluminium which can be poison for human body. So, drinking water from plastic bottles would mean drinking slow poison that will slowly and steadily deteriorate your health.

2. Dioxin production: Plastic does melt in hot environment. And we, often store water in plastic bottles while driving and so many times leave it in the car where it is in the direct exposure of sun. Such heating releases a toxin called Dioxin which when consumed can accelerate breast cancer.

3. BPA generation: Biphenyl A is an estrogen-mimicking chemical which can lead to lot of health problems like diabetes, obesity, fertility problems, behavioural problems and early puberty in girls. It’s better not to store and drink water from a plastic bottle.

4. Liver cancer and reduced sperm count: Because of presence of a chemical called phthalates in plastic, drinking water from plastic bottles can also lead to liver cancer and reduction in sperm count.

5. Vitamin based bottled water: Nowadays, we get water mostly in plastic bottles and to increase its health content, manufacturers make it vitamin-enriched to attract buyers. But this is even more harmful as it carries health-harming additives like food dyes and high fructose corn syrup.

6. Impact on immune system: Our immune system is immensely affected when we drink water in plastic bottles. The chemicals from plastic bottles are ingested and tend to  disturb our body’s immune system.

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