Dr. Saroja Ponniyan

If you want a healthier skin, hair and nails then consider adding 1 tbsp of flax seeds to your daily diet.

Your child needs complete care whether it is emotional, psychological or physical. A thorough evaluation of your child’s body and mind is vital at nascent stages. Especially if you observed any complaints by your little one that may require medical help, such as:

1. Frequent headaches
Much like adults, children too can experience headaches that last from 30 minutes to 3 hours. A range of primary or secondary headaches like, migraine, meningitis, sinusitis or tension may affect children due to neurological issues.

2. Blurry vision
If you observe either a vision developmental delay or near-sightedness and farsightedness in your child, it might be related to neurological issues.

3. Slurred Speech
If your child is 7-8 months and is not responding to sounds or cannot babble non-sense words, it calls for a neurological check-up.

4. Motor and Co-ordination Delay
Sometimes babies are unable to perform motor skill activities like crawling, walking or using fingers to grip or hold, such delay requires attention of the parent.

5. Fatigue
Check if your kid has become lazy and decreased his physical activities due to fatigue and tiredness suddenly of late.

6. Abnormal Movements
Common involuntary movements or tics like eye blinking, twitching of nose, grimacing or making sounds is in some cases overlooked. Tourette syndrome is an example of such a tic, which has been evaluated as a neurological issue.

7. Tremors or Seizures
Children are prone to febrile seizures (fits) or tremors along with fever that occur between 6 months and 5 years. These are signs of neurological issues that require an immediate check-up.

8. Numbness in Limbs
Neurological complications in your child’s infancy may also cause joint pain and numbness of arms and legs.

9. Behavioural disorders
A change in behaviour or attitude in your child is noticed if he/she is suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, school problems, sleep issues, intellectual disability or other neural conditions.

10. Weakness
This symptom is tricky in children, as it may be confused with general tiredness by your human eye. It may be unheard of but many children face trouble in performing easy tasks. A neurological exam may identify the source for treatments.

An underlying problem to the nervous system can cause harm or impairment in the normal growth and development of your kid. Early diagnosis helps in correct care, recovery and prevention of long-term problems. You can opt for a routine neurological examination if you find such symptoms in your child. These exams check the functioning of your child’s brain, spinal cord, nerves that come from the brain and spinal cord and offers accurate diagnosis.
 

Most families refer to their newborn baby as their 'bundle of joy'. The news of a child being born brings immense joy to the entire family. However, due to various reasons, a child could be born with some medical abnormalities, which would be known as congenital abnormalities. There are several different types of heart defects that can be congenital. These usually manifest themselves either immediately after birth or in the early years of life. In some cases, the abnormality could be detected on prenatal ultrasounds. In others, it may not be and the family could be caught off guard about the condition. This causes a lot of stress, both for the child, who does not receive regular postnatal care and for the parents immediately after the delivery process.

If the baby has the following symptoms within the first few hours of life, there could be a serious underlying condition, which requires medical attention. The presence and severity of the symptoms would depend on the actual abnormality.

1. The skin is pale gray or blue in color due to excessive venous flow in the system
2. Excessive sweating
3. The child is exerting to breathe regularly
4. Rapid breathing causes added load on the heart accompanied by a grunting noise
5. Flared nostrils i.e. the baby attempts to take in more oxygen with each breath causes flared nostrils
6. Swollen legs, eyes, and abdomen: Fluid retention in the legs and abdomen is quite common, and this could be characteristic of newborns with congenital heart disease
7. Shortness of breath, even during feeding
8. Clubbed fingernails
9. Lethargy and low energy, even with feeding, therefore very poor feeding pattern
10. Chest pain, which may cause the newborn to cry incessantly
11. Low weight gain, as they feed less

In some children, symptoms manifest only during the teenage years or early adulthood. These conditions are not very severe and the symptoms include:

1. Swelling of the hands, feet, and ankles due to fluid accumulation
2. Lowered energy levels, leading to easy fatigue
3. Shortness of breath with even minimal physical activity
4. Inability to exercise
5. Developmental delays and changes in growth milestones
6. Recurrent respiratory tract infections including sinus infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia
7. Endocarditis
8. Pulmonary hypertension
9. Heart failure, where the heart is not able to effectively function and pump blood to all parts of the body.

Some or more of these symptoms should trigger a warning to get the child tested for congenital heart disease. While some would just require a monitoring until severe symptoms develop, severe conditions like holes, abnormal valves, narrowed arteries, and blood vessel abnormalities might require immediate intervention. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a cardiologist.

As a pulmonologist, I see patients with breathing problems on a daily basis. Too often do I hear patients express regret about not quitting smoking earlier. The truth of the matter is that it is never too late! quitting smoking is more important than any medicine a doctor can prescribe in preventing long term health problems. So I encourage all my patients who smoke to try every day to cut back and eventually quit smoking.

Patient who smoke need to be ready to quit smoking. If you are not ready to quit smoking, you should think spend a minute every day thinking about the reason why quitting smoking is a good idea. Once you are ready, you should talk to your doctor about ways to help you quit. Even if you don’t ask, your doctor may ask about ways to help you quit smoking. Just talking about how to quit smoking is more important that a prescription pad, and there is no quick fix to quitting. Although there are medicines than can help people quit, making a plan is the critical first step.

Nicotine is a powerful drug, more addictive than any drug that can be bought illegally. The nicotine found in cigarettes takes between 7-10 seconds to reach the brain. The thousands of other chemicals in cigarettes are just along for the ride, and they are more toxic than anything you can imagine putting in your body. Most people remember their first cigarette, which was probably bad experience. But the nicotine keeps people coming back for more, even though the adverse effects are obvious to even a first time smoker.

Once you are ready to quit, remember a few things:

1. Set a date. The first of the month, someone’s birthday, or the day after a particularly stressful week. Try your best to stick to that date.
2. Get rid of all the matches, lighters, ashtrays, and that last cigarette you have around.
3. Tell your family and friends you are going to give it a shot. Get their support!
4. If you slip, don’t worry, there is always tomorrow. Give it another chance!

Finally, using a medicine that replaces the nicotine, like the nicoderm patch, nicotine gum, or nicotine lozenges, replaces the only thing in the cigarettes that your brain is addicted to. Once you have gotten over those urges, the chances of giving the cigarettes up for good increases 3-fold! using another medicine, like chantix or buproprion, can increase the chances of quitting even more, just ask your doctor.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!