Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental and emotional condition that is characterised by a heavily distorted thought process as well as hallucinations and even extreme fear that borders on paranoia. Let us find out more about this debilitating disease:

Causes:
1. Genetics: genetic factors play an important role in the development of schizophrenia.
2. Environment: possible environmental factors include obstetric complications, the mother's exposure to influenza during pregnancy or starvation. It has also been suggested that stress, trauma even migration can lead to the emergence of schizophrenia. 
3. Neurodevelopmental factors: schizophrenia appears to be a neurodevelopmental disorder. That is changes that cause the illness have been occurring from the earliest stages of development even in utero, and may continue to influence the development of the brain over the first 25 years of life. 

Symptoms: 
This disease has a variety of symptoms include cognitive and emotional ones that can vary in the degree and severity. One of the most common symptoms included hallucinations and delusions where the patient may end up imagining things that do not really exist. The patient may also be gripped by sudden and crippling fear like paranoia, which can be debilitating as far as everyday functioning of the person goes. The symptoms can also interfere with the way a person deals with situations and life skills on a cognitive basis. Withdrawal and hopelessness are also a part of this disease.

Treatment: 
The earliest signs and symptoms must be referred to a psychiatrist. The treatment involves the management of the case of an individual basis along with psychological rehabilitation programs and inclusion of the patient in self-help groups. Housing and employment programs must also be availed so as to keep the patient busy. Also, behaviour therapy will be required in such cases. The mode of counselling should usually be on a one on one basis, although many doctors also suggest that group therapy can help in showing examples of progress so as to encourage the patient to change and get a new lease of life.

Schizophrenia: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Anorexia is one of the most common eating disorders plaguing a large section of today's youth. Anorexia is one such condition which arises as a psychological ailment and then culminates as serious physical manifestations. One of the most prominent preconditions of anorexia is the severe dissatisfaction with your body. The desire to lose weight constantly reigns supreme in your mind. So much so, that all that you can permit yourself to eat and all that you can't pre-occupies your mind entirely. This extensively impairs your social life and threatens your potential in all other aspects of life. This undermines your health and self-confidence tremendously and inflicts a distorted body image complex upon your psyche.

Under the spell of anorexia, you tend to dread even the slightest weight gain and consequently, it builds a sense of self-disgust in you. It can be an extremely stressful and harmful physical condition, gravely affecting your moments of joy and happiness. Drastic diets, excruciating exercising or using laxatives and diuretics could be some of the most common leeways into anorexia. The terror which looms around your weight gain will disable you from acknowledging how thin you are or for that matter, appreciating the body that you have. This may not only jeopardize your normal body functioning but also subjugate you to acute emotional distress and depression. What is worse is that anorexia works in such insidious ways that in most cases, one doesn't even realize the existence of the problem. The first and foremost step to recovery is to avoid anything and everything that may trigger the condition. Other recourses that one may take have been enlisted below.

Realizing the difference between dieting and anorexia-
Anorexia often indicates deeper problems like depression and insecurities and the eating disorder simply emerges as a consequence of the same. Dieting does not entail an austere denial of food to self or completely throttling all of one's hunger pangs. Fulfilling the basic nutritional needs of your body as against starvation is the first step to recovery.

Seeking advice from well-wishers-
If your loved ones seem perplexed about your health conditions, know all of it is well founded. Learn to acknowledge the furzy body images that afflicts you and take proactive steps towards combating them. Share your problems with your trusted ones and learn to adopt a healthier way of living. Join some productive engagement that will keep your mind off such baseless weight obsession.

Anorexia- How to treat it

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

5 Reasons Why People Get Addicted To Drugs

Eating healthy is very helpful for your mental and also your physical well-being. The mind requires nutrients just like your heart, muscles and lungs do. These can be derived from the following ingredients.

Berries: Berries, particularly dark ones, such as cherries, blackberries and blueberries, are a great source of anthocyanins and different flavonoids that can boost your memory. Try to consume these in small portions at least twice a day. You can enjoy a handful in the form of snacks, add them in your cereal or bake them into a dessert like muffins or pancakes. Fresh, frozen or dried berries and cherries can reap you a lot of benefits other than memory boost as well.
Avocados: Avocados are green powerhouse and are stuffed with mono-saturated fats containing both vitamin K and folate. Avocados prevent blood clots in the brain, protect you againsCutaneous Leishmaniasist strokes and enhance the cognitive capacity of the brain, both in terms of memory as well as concentration.
Broccoli: Broccoli contains large amounts of vitamin K and choline. It tends to help keep your memory sharp. It is also filled with vitamin C where just one glass provides you with 150% of your recommended every day consumption.
Coconut oil: Coconut oil fills in as a naturally calming, anti-inflammatory agent. It stiffens the cells in charge of inflammation and aggravation. It can help with memory loss as you age and will kill awful microscopic organisms that are present in your gut.
Salmon: Salmon is a well-known ingredient amongst the most nutritious and healthy food items recommended for the brain. It is highly rich in Omega-3 unsaturated fats and keeps the brain running, gets rid of brain fog and improves memory.Cutaneous Leishmaniasis
Pumpkin seeds: Highly rich in zinc than most seeds, pumpkin seeds supply this highly valuable mineral which is very important for improving memory and thinking abilities. These little seeds are also loaded with stress-busting magnesium, B vitamins and tryptophan that is a precursor to the good mood substance called serotonin.
Walnuts: Walnuts are very well known for a positive impact on the heart s health. Walnuts may likewise enhance the working memory and boost it further. One can take them as a snack at any point in the day, be it to fulfill late morning hunger or add them to cereal or serving of mixed vegetables for crunch. You can also blend them into a vegetable panfry for additional protein.
Different kinds of food products have different effects on the body as well as the brain. To have a healthy body, one definitely needs to have a sound and healthy mind. Eating junk food blocks certain functions of the brain over the years whereas, a healthy diet may help in keeping you physically, mentally and psychologically healthy.

7 Foods that Boost Your Memory!

When you get a compliment'smart thinking or you are intelligent or that was intelligent of you, you definitely feel good. These comments fill us with confidence, admiration and pride and we want it to happen to us again and again. But owing to a busy schedule and long working hours it might not be possible. Having said this, it does not mean that a person cannot stay intelligent throughout. This can be easily achieved by regular meditation. Regular meditation and yoga helps the mind to be more reflective and efficient.

Here are reasons how yoga and meditation lead to an intellectual learning and growth:

 Utilizes the brain: almost everyone uses one half of their brain more and this leads to imbalance. Meditation is believed to sync the left and the right hemispheres, thereby allowing neural connection and great processing power. When logical left and creative right brains start working in harmony, then solving problems becomes easy; and it also increases creativity, deep thinking comes to be known of and concentration and focus magnifies. Highly successful people usually display whole brain synchronization.
 Functional capabilities of brain enhance due to meditation: research backs it that meditation increases the gray matter thickness of the brain regions, thus making the brain smarter, bigger and faster. This is very similar to doing physical exercise which makes the muscles denser and stronger. The increase in functional capabilities of brain is based on the concept of neuroplasticity, which states that our intelligence is not based on genetics and there are some things which can be done to improve the way our brain works. Meditation is a good brain enhancer with an ability to increase intelligence.
 Beneficial brainwave patterns can be seen: meditation can help to guide the brainwaves into beneficial frequencies. The frequencies: alpha, theta and delta when guided can show case a myriad of benefits including idea generation, creativity, cognitive functioning, and intellectual capacity. Meditation helps to transform these beneficial states of mind and help boost the iq.
 Develops intuition and insights: these are generally obtained through listening and developing to the inner voice. Thus meditation forms to be the basic key to tap these latent abilities. The intelligence can be mapped through tests and quizzes and is valuable at each level to stimulate insights and creativity. As per some people, inner intelligence, is considered to be the most important and best success in the world. Successful people including steve jobs have stated that their super revolutionary ideas and business acumen came through their intuition.
 Meditation helps in improving both short and long term memory: the key memory areas hippocampus and frontal lobe show increase in activity during meditation. By stimulating these areas, the short and long term memories are improved.

Can Yoga Improve Your IQ?

The number of people affected by hypertension is constantly on the rise. The most important concern with people developing hypertension is that it is not an isolated issue. It brings with it a host of problems, including higher chances of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney diseases. While there is no definite cure for hypertension, it is definitely possible to control it using the following measures.

Weight control: Greater the body mass index (BMI), higher is the chances of developing hypertension. Check with your doctor to know what the ideal weight is and try to maintain it. If overweight, losing even 10 pounds can make a big difference to your blood pressure.
Diet management: Excessive salt, calories, fat, and sugar are to be avoided. Sodium is one of the main culprits for increasing blood pressure and should be avoided. Include fruits and vegetables that are rich in potassium and magnesium. Reducing salt is another major way to control blood pressure. Fish oils with omega-3 fatty acids are extremely good for the health of the heart and so consult your doctor to include the right amounts in your diet. 
Exercise: A regular workout regimen can reduce the chances of developing blood pressure by up to 40% to 50%. This should not be misinterpreted as the need for vigorous workouts. Even small, regular physical activity daily goes a long way in controlling blood pressure.
Alcohol: While quitting alcohol is the best thing to do, for those finding it difficult to do so, cutting down on it plays a big role in controlling blood pressure. No more than a drink per day for women, and no more than two per day for men are recommended.
Stress management: Stress is one of the major causes for increasing blood pressure, and so managing stress is very important. Whether music or meditation, pick your stress buster and see your blood pressure lowered.
Medications: If you are already on a medication regimen, strictly adhere to the schedule. Consult your doctor before adding herbal supplements or dietary supplements. Taken individually, they may be good for health, but there are good chances of them interacting with your regular medications.
Monitor: Once you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, have periodic check-ups with your doctor to ensure it is within the permissible limits. If beyond limits, immediately correct it.
As noted, hypertension is not an isolated issue and brings with it a whole lot of issues. Controlling it can help control the other issues that would follow and improve the quality of life.


Hypertension: 7 Best Ways to Control it

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