The number of children suffering from eating disorders are on the rise. Change in eating habits, stress, depression, low self-esteem, lack of control in life, anger and loneliness are some of the causes of eating disorders. Some genetic disorders could also be a reason for eating disorders.

Eating disorders may lead to several health conditions which may arise in case of abnormal eating patterns. The common modes of eating disorders in children are as follows:

Anorexia
Children who are affected with anorexia think they are very overweight in spite of actually being very thin. Anorexia affected children consume less than a thousand calories per day.
The treatment for anorexia nervosa generally includes a mix of mental treatment and regulated weight gain program. The best ways to deal with anorexia are:

1. Psychological Treatment: Different psychological treatments can be used to cure anorexia of different stages in children. They include cognitive analytic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy and focal psychodynamic therapy. A family's response is also an important psychological factor. Proper encouragement and effort should be provided.

2. Weight gain program: A weight gain program will guide an anorexic child to improve his diet habits and slowly gain weight. A patient is monitored carefully; the traits are recognized and a diet pattern is given, which is ideal for him.

Bulimia
Bulimia nervosa is another category of eating disorder. The main characteristic of this disorder is overeating in the highest level. Binge eating is observed, followed by attempts by the affected individual to lose weight. A bulimia affected child is constantly trapped in the cycle of overeating and then thinks about losing weight.

In spite of not liking the idea of binge eating for the fear of getting obese, a child affected by bulimia cannot follow this and continues binge eating. Later, they take extreme measures to lose weight. The primary methods to deal with bulimia are:

1. Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy or talk therapy includes examining the bulimia and related issues with an expert. It has been proven that psychotherapy restricts the symptoms of bulimia. The three modes of psychotherapy include, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Family-based therapy and Interpersonal psychotherapy

2. Medications: Medicines such as anti-depressants can be taken by bulimia patients along with psychotherapy. Prozac is one medicine that can be taken.

3. Proper diet plan: For bulimia affected children, having a proper balanced diet is very important. A diet expert should be consulted, who will make the most essential food pattern for the child. Undertaking a weight-loss program is also vital.

Binge eating
Similar to bulimia, binge eating includes out of control eating in huge quantities in a short period of time. The food is not vomited out, and binge eating causes obesity. Intense emotions are experienced in binge eaters. Binge eating in children can be treated with behavioral therapy, medications and psychotherapy.
Eating disorders are quite common in children who are yet to gain maturity. 

These disorders may lead to severe health consequences, which may affect a child physically and psychologically. A proper treatment is also essential to deal with these disorders.

How to Treat Eating Disorders in Children

Parkinson s disease is a disorder involving the nervous system. It can start with a mere tremor of one hand and advances to slow movement and stiffness. The face might show little no symptoms in the beginning but the speech might become slurred. With every passing day, the condition worsens. This condition has no permanent cure but the symptoms can be improved with proper medication.

What are the symptoms?
Some unmistakable symptoms include the following:

A sudden shaking of the limb. A sudden tremor of the hand is a very common symptom of this disease.
A stiffness of the muscles that can limit the range of motion and sharp pain.
The posture of the body might get compromised. Often balancing problems are witnessed among many patients.
There could be problems with speech leading to soft, slurry or quick speech. The speech in some cases can become monotonous devoid of inflexions.
Parkinson s disease can lead to slow movement and makes performing of simple tasks difficult.
Patients often find writing very difficult
What are the possible causes of Parkinson s disease?

Specific genetic mutation can lead to Parkinson s disease in folks who have a family history of Parkinson s disease. Certain variations of the gene increase the risk of this disease
Exposure to certain environmental factors or certain toxins can trigger Parkinson s disease in an individual.
Certain cells in the brain known as Lewy bodies can trigger Parkinson s disease.
A certain kind of protein cells within the brain known as alpha-synuclein can trigger the Parkinson s disease in an individual
What are the risk factors?

Heredity: Having an immediate family member or a close relative suffering from Parkinson s disease can increase the risk of getting this disease in an individual
Age: Although not a prime risk factor, but an individual over the age of over 60 have an increased risk of getting this disease
Toxins: Exposure to pesticide or certain herbicide increase the risk of Parkinson s
Sex: Men are more likely to get Parkinson s disease than women
What is the medication for Parkinson s disease?

Carbidopa-levodopa: This is a natural chemical that gets passed to the brain and is converted to dopamine by the body. The benefits of this medication might reduce with increased symptoms.
Carbidopa-levodopa infusion: A popular drug in this category is known as the Duopa. It is administered directly into the small intestine in the form of gel through a feeding tube.
MAO-B inhibitors: Drugs from this group include rasagiline and selegiline. This is a powerful medicine. Many patient experiences hallucination during the initial days of consuming these drugs.
Anticholinergics: This medication is mainly used to counter tremors of the limbs in the early stage of the Parkinson s disease.

Parkinson's Disease - What Are The Risk Factors?

When it comes to the brain and the iq, is bigger the better? does size really matter? is there really a connection between the size of your brain and intelligence? with the help of findings by neurologists 
And scientists, we seek to find out!

1. Ailments and the brain: scientists have found that children with autism have a brain that has grown in a disproportionate manner in the very first year of their life. This prevents the child from making connections with normal behaviour. On the other hand, children and adolescents who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or adhd have shown signs of having a much smaller brain size. Many scientists have shown that the size of the brain shrinks as we age, and this does not have any visible effect on our cognitive abilities.

2. It's all relative: the size of the brain does not really have a bearing on the way a person's cognition gets shaped. Even large mammals like elephants and whales are finally hunted and tamed by humans who have smaller brains in comparison. The brain is made up of billions of neurons which need to function properly. It may be seen that scientists consider the brain mass in relation with the rest of the body so as to speculate about the cognitive abilities of the person. Why is this required? large animals need a well functioning and proportionate brain size to control and run their organs with proper cognition for satisfactory results, which is what we humans seem to have done.

3. Neanderthal brains: historically, the earliest man or the neanderthals are said to have had larger brains than we do. These people are believed to have brains that are at least 10% larger than the brains that we have in our modern times. The shape of their brain was different too. They were also heavily muscled people which had a bearing on the size and shape of the brain and bodies as well as the lean tissue within the brain. They also survived very successfully for a period of over 200, 000 years, which obviously points to some form of elevated cognition, as per many scientists.

4. Animals: while animals with small brains like lizards and reptiles do not perform too well on iq tests, the animals with bigger brains like elephants and dolphins perform much better. But the medium sized brains of monkeys, lemurs and other animals are said to perform in the best manner. The correlation between the body size and the brain does not seem to hold good here, as per various researches.

So the verdict as per medical science and research stands divided!

Is There an Association Between Brain Size and Intelligence?

Speech therapy helps in improving the speech, understanding the language skills, and also help in communicating in non-verbal ways such as listening and taking turns. Speech therapy treats various kinds of communication and swallowing problems.

Children with Cleft Palate are diagnosed with an opening in the upper tissue palate in the mouth. This condition causes Velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) which results in excessive airflow from the nose while speaking. Although it can be corrected with surgery, the patient will still be affected by VPD.

Speech therapists help in this condition by assisting the patient with speech and language skills. The speech therapy for such a patient can be categorized as auditory feedback and articulation practice.

Auditory Feedback

Before involving the patient with any speech therapy, it is essential for the patient to understand the difference between normal voice and nasal voice output.

For this purpose, the child is instructed to use a tube to listen to the voice of the normal person. To understand the difference, one end of the tube is then held near the ear of the child and the other is held near his nasal and then he is instructed to make sounds so that he understands the nasal voice.

After this understanding, the different approaches to speech therapy starts.

Articulation Practice

This is usually where speech therapy begins. In this practice, the different type of condition is understood that relates to different speech organs. The understanding of different vowels, consonants and related sounds is taught to the child for making the speaking sound less nasal.

Some of the methods for achieving these sounds are:

Pharyngeal Plosives: This sound is produced when the tongue is moving backward. The practice of making  ng  sound, and dropping the tongue and producing  k  sound.

Pharyngeal fricatives: When the tongue retracts but is not able to make contact with the pharyngeal wall is when this sound is produced. The speech therapists make the child learn the techniques of making sounds of  t ,  ts ,  ch , or  sh , and provide feedback for learning the proper positioning of the tongue.

Nasal Plosives: This sound usually occurs when the tongue is positioned improperly and it obstructs the vocal tract. A speech therapist may make the child yawn so that the back of the tongue is pushed down, and feel as the mouth stretches.

Palatal-Dorsal Productions: It occurs due to the malocclusion of the teeth. Practicing sounds like  t ,  d ,  n ,  k ,  g , and  ng  often helps in such condition.

Take Away
Cleft Palate is generally developed due to improper growth while the child was in the womb. The difficulty of producing proper sounds when there is excessive airflow in the mouth can be overcome by training and practicing certain sounds, as instructed by a speech therapist.

 Cleft Palate - How Efficient Is Speech Therapy?

Anorexia nervosa is a type of eating disorder, which falls under the category of psychological disorders. The patient becomes extremely thin and has an unreal perception of body weight. This unreal perception involves a fear of becoming fat. The primary symptoms are fasting, an aversion for food, obsessive thought about weight loss etc.

Here are the usual treatments for anorexia nervosa according to the progression of the disease.

Medications: The first thing your doctors will do is prescribe medications to make sure that the patient has come back to a health condition, which is stable. This is because anorexia causes heart problems, depression and osteoporosis among other physical complications. The doctor will be giving separate medications for all of them. Once you start feeling better, the doctor will stop giving you medications. Sometimes medication also has to be given for malnutrition or starvation if the disease has set in far too deep.
Counselling: The primary type of counselling, which will take place is nutritional counselling. Dietitians can help you with this, as they teach healthy eating patterns and know how to make you follow it therefore, this is a crucial part of the recovery process which should not be neglected.
Therapy: Firstly, therapy and counselling are different treatment procedures. The main difference between the two is the focus of the treatment. Therapy is done by psychologists who help deal with what causes your hate of eating and try to eliminate these mental issues while counselling is done by counsellors who are there to help sort out your eating disorders. 
Nutritional rehabilitation: This is a more serious form of counselling. The counsellors generally try unconventional methods at this stage to make sure that you are eating properly and will eat properly in the future. This is because by this stage the progression of the disease is more serious and weight has to be gained immediately.
Starvation treatment: By this stage, nutrition has to be given in the form of fluids and you will be having severe health problems all of which need medication.

Anorexia Nervosa - 5 Ways it Can be Treated!


5 Ways To Remove Stress Instantly

Feeling the blues once in a while is natural for the kind of hectic lives we lead. But feeling stressed and burned out deeply affects on our body, mind and soul. When you feel stressed, you need to take measures that can help you cope up. Something as simple as saying ‘I love you’ in the mirror once in a morning turns around the way you approach your day.

Try these stress reducing tips to rejuvenate yourselves immediately.

1) Meditate- Its the best way out. It eases anxiety, which is the culprit behind those stressed out moments. All you have to do is just close your eyes, focus your attention on positive thoughts or repeatedly chanting 'Om' which has a vibrational impact. Don’t let negative thoughts distract you.
2) Inhale Deeply- There are several occasions when you might not be able to mediate. In such a case, simply start to inhale through your nose, bring it to your abdomen and let it make way through your body slowly. Deep breathing can also reduce the instances of blood pressure.
3) Laugh Out Loud- Laughing can reduce cortisol, a hormone  responsible for stress. You can watch your favourite comedy show, a sitcom or simply look for a few videos online.
4) Listen To Music- Simple but effective. Listening to music can lower your blood pressure, heart rate as well as anxiety. Go ahead and create a playlist of your favourite songs or music. And if you fancy, try to sing on the top of your lungs too!
5) Exercise- Exercising has too many incredible benefits. One of them is easing depression and anxiety. Deal with stress by exercising a few minutes every day. Ideally, 30 minutes a day is what you should aim for.



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5 Ways To Remove Stress Instantly

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