3 lesser known facts about breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is advocated to be the only best thing for a newborn. But while it is the most natural thing to do, it isn't an easy process. It is challenging and full of surprises. Researches throw up facts that surprise all. For example: breastfeeding is like a shield against breast cancer. 
Here are 3 such lesser known facts:

1. The milk contents - ever wondered what your baby thinks of the taste of your breast milk. Well, the fact is that your breast milk is tailor-made for your baby. From the taste to its benefits, it is a full course meal. When the feeding begins, the milk is watery. This is to quench the baby's thirst. Then the consistency thickens and the milk becomes higher in fat content. This meets your baby's electrolyte needs as well as energy requirement. Want to know something more amazing? through the day, your breasts milk's properties keep changing. By evening, it has higher sedating properties and helps the baby's body meet nutritional demands. This should explain that satisfied smile babies have when they sleep right after their feeds.
2. Variation in milk production - it is okay and natural if you feel you are lopsided. Many breastfeeding mothers feel that one breast is heavier than the other since it produces more milk. This is possible and happens a lot. Our body is not perfectly symmetrical between left and right. This applies to breasts as well and shouldn't be worried about. Because of this, milk production can also vary between both the breasts.
3. It causes weightloss - some women are known to lose their pregnancy weight by breastfeeding. Yes, this is also a lesser known fact. Breast milk happens to be a high calorie food which the baby literally sucks off the mother's body. This leads to shrinking of the mother's body.
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3 Undisclosed Facts About Breastfeeding, This World Breastfeeding Week

Scabies is a highly infectious disease, which is caused by very tiny wingless insects called the Human itch mite or scabies mite. The insect lays 1 to 3 eggs daily after burrowing into the skin. A small, almost invisible blister is formed on the area. You might also feel an urge to itch especially at night, which would likely cause a red rash to form on the scratched area. Sides of fingers, in between the fingers, the back of your hands, the wrists, elbow, and armpits are the common areas where scabies affect. It is generally spread when you come in close contact to any infected person or their belongings. Scabies can occur at any age, but is most common among children.

Treating scabies with homeopathy:

Homeopathy, due to its safe and natural medicines are the best alternative in treating scabies. It attacks the infection at the roots and does not let it reappear. Here given below are some of the best homeopathic remedies:

    Sulphur: If you are suffering from a recurrent or suppressed form of scabies, Sulphur is one of the best remedy for you. You might feel an intense urge to scratch the area, which worsens with when washed and exposed to heat. Your skin might be extremely sensitive to air, wind as well as washing.
    Causticum: If you have scabies in the folds of the skin and between the thighs, causticum works well for you. Intense itching, scratching and soreness are some of the symptoms you experience.
    Arsenic Album: The infection occurs in the bend of your knees and it could be dry as well as full of small pustules. You may experience itching and a burning sensation around the area. Application of cold water may also make you feel better. These symptoms are well treated with Arsenic Album.
    Sepia: It is one of the best homeopathic remedy if you have scabies, and scratching the area as much as it feels, would not give you any kind of relief. Your skin might turn pinkish and the condition worsens when exposed to open air. You may also feel better in a warm room.
    Psorinum: You can opt for this medicine if you have any past history of scabies. If your infection has not been properly cured, it can result into internal infection e.g., asthma, heart ailments etc. You might not want to stop itching until your skin starts bleeding. You may feel better if you lie down for some time.

How Best to Treat Scabies with Homeopathy

Women love the fact that breastfeeding can safeguard them from general illnesses such as cold and fever. However, there is a bigger pie to cheer about. Apparently, it has been found that breastfeeding can lower the risk of breast cancer as well. Not to forget, breastfeeding is extremely crucial for a baby. It can help him/her to increase immunity and stay away from major diseases.

Facts from major studies:

A study published in the Lancet, 2002 showed that women who breastfeed for 12 months at a stretch can reduce the chances of breast cancer by a good 4.3 percent compared to the ones who did not breastfeed. The study was performed on over 1,50,000 women and brought enough substance to the theory.
A study conducted on 60,000 women and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that a woman who has a family history of breast cancer can mitigate the risk of breast cancer, if she breastfed before her menopause.
A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that women from African ancestry often develop an acute form of cancer known as the estrogen receptor-negative and triple-negative. Breastfeeding can significantly hedge the risk of developing this form of breast cancer.
A collaborative study published in Annals of Oncology, a famous journal, reported that the chances of developing hormone-receptor negative breast cancer can be negated by 20 percent if a woman breastfed before her menopause.
How does breastfeeding reduce the risk of cancer?
Some researches suggest that women who breastfeed get fewer menstrual cycle compared to the ones who do not. This means low exposure to estrogen for breastfeeding women. It is a common knowledge that estrogen can fuel breast cancer. There is a second theory that suggests that breastfeeding makes the cells of the breasts more resistive to mutation. Therefore, the breast can block cancer.
There is the other factor of lifestyle changes. Women tend to do away with drinking, smoking, eating junk food, and leading an undisciplined life. Once these are given up and replaced with healthy lifestyle practices, the chances of breast cancer automatically come down.

How long should one breastfeed to refrain from breast cancer?
There is no concrete answer to this question. Most studies show that longer the duration of breastfeeding, lower the chances of breast cancer. But, in general, a year of breast feeding is a safe number and can reduce the chance of breast cancer by almost 20 percent, as revealed by many studies. If, however, a woman fails to breastfeed, there is no need to stress. A healthy lifestyle can go a long way in surviving breast cancer.

Breastfeeding - Can It Lower The Risk Of Breast Cancer?

The appendix is a small, finger-shaped pouch attached to the large intestine in the right belly area. It is a vestigial organ as it has no specific role to play in humans, but the organ is still seen, though in a very small size compared to the earlier living beings in the evolutionary chain. Acutely inflamed appendix is the most common cause leading to it removal, often seen in the ages of 10 to 19.

Causes: the appendix gets infected by two main reasons - general infection in the abdomen that reaches the appendix or blockage of the appendix leading to inflammation and swelling within it. The appendix is a blind pouch, and there is a good chance for its blockage from food particles, lymphatic tissue, or even sometimes feces. Some of the potential risk factors for appendicitis include a diet low in fiber, high in sugar, gut flora, and family history.

Symptoms/diagnosis: in adults, the appendicitis has very characteristic symptoms including acute pain in the right upper part of the belly associated with fever and vomiting. However, in children, the pain may not be as tell-tale a sign but is still quite diagnostic of appendicitis. However, presence of the following symptoms together is surely indicative of appendicitis.
1. Right abdominal pain, especially rebound tenderness, where pressure placed in the right upper part of the belly and released leads to excruciating pain.
2. Fever, nausea, and vomiting
3. Abdominal fullness or bloating
4. Elevated white blood count (as with most infections)
Additionally, the younger the child, the symptoms are not very clear, but ultrasound will confirm the diagnosis. The inflamed, enlarged appendix will be visible on the images and could be surrounded by free fluid. Ct scan also can be considered if required to confirm the diagnosis.

Treatment: as noted above, children present with symptoms that do not pinpoint to appendicitis. Treatment usually takes two routes:

If diagnosed as appendicitis before rupture, then surgical removal is the best method to contain its symptoms. Other symptoms like fever and nausea and vomiting usually subside a couple of days after the surgery.
If the appendicitis goes unnoticed and ruptures, then the intestinal cavity can get infected, which is called peritonitis. Earlier, the preferred approach was to control the infection and then go for removal. However, lately, removing the appendix followed by antibiotics to control the infection is the preferred approach.
The prognosis and recovery from appendicitis is very good. Deaths have occurred only in very small infants, where they are not able to pinpoint the area and therefore it can go undiagnosed, leading to rupture and subsequent death.

Early identification is the key to proper identification, immediate treatment, and complete recovery from appendicitis.

Appendicitis in Children

Coughing during the night can really wreak havoc for your sleep and cause inexplicable discomfort in the throat and chest region. Thankfully, you can manage it by soothing your tickling throat as well as sensitive airways before you go to bed at night. 

Drink herbal tea: A mugful of non-caffeinated tea mixed with a teaspoon of honey before going to bed can help you to a considerable extent. This is because any warm liquid has the power to break down the formation of mucus in the throat region and with a bit of honey, the herbal tea becomes even more powerful.
Try to sleep in an inclining position: Gravity is your greatest enemy while combating night-time cough. When you lie down flat on your back at night, all the mucus and dust particles, which you have swallowed all through the day, would accumulate in the throat area and aggravate it making more cough. But you can easily defy gravitational force by piling up some pillows and prop yourself on them while sleeping. You may also keep a wooden block of 4 inches height under your head, which would keep the acids in the stomach so that they don t come up to irritate your throat.
Make sure you use the steam cautiously: When your airways are dry, it can make you cough harder. Therefore, you may find relief if you take a warm shower or a bath before going to bed. But you have to be sure that you don t have asthma as steam can prove harmful for you.
Check the level of humidity: Humidifiers are known to soothe the problem of persistent coughing when the surrounding air is dry. But too much of moisture during the night can also make you cough. This is because dust mites, mold and other allergens thrive well in the damp air and they could conspire to make your cough even worse. So, pick up a cheap hygrometer from a hardware store and see that the humidity level stays within 40 to 50 percent.
Equip yourself at night: Keep all the things from drops to water to cough syrup or anything that soothes coughing at your bedside so that you can help yourself in case you wake up in the middle of the night and start coughing.
By following these few tips every day, you can manage the night time cough and have a good night s sleep without any interruptions.

Night Time Cough - 5 Tips to Manage it

Swelling of the conjunctiva membrane due to an infection is called conjunctivitis. It can affect one or both eyes. The blood vessels get inflamed and the eye looks red or pink. Pink eye is the common name of conjunctivitis.

Symptoms

The symptoms of conjunctivitis are very obvious:

The white part of the affected eye appears reddish because the membrane which is affected is a layer that covers the white.

The affected eye is extremely itchy.

The eyelids get swollen.

It is painful, especially when the surroundings are bright.

A crusty layer may or may not form during sleeping and it can make it difficult to open the eye.

The infection typically affects one eye first and catches on to the other eye within a day because it is highly contagious. People in contact with the affected person are highly susceptible to contracting the infection.

Causes

This highly contagious infection is painful and itchy and needs immediate attention. The treatment is the same no matter what the cause. The main causes are:

Bacterial infection (indicated by sticky secretion).

Viral infection (indicated by a watery secretion).

In infants, it can be the cause of a partially opened tear duct.

Sometimes it happens due to an allergic reaction.

A Chemical reaction.

Immediate Action

Before going to a doctor and getting medicines, some immediate steps must be taken. Here are some things to do to reduce the discomfort and prevent the infection from spreading.

Contact lenses must be removed to prevent further infection. Infected contact lenses must be discarded or disinfected.

Contact with other people must be avoided. Direct physical contact, using the same towel or eye products must be avoided.

Avoiding touching the unaffected eye, it might prevent infection of the second eye.

Using a lukewarm compress can relieve some of the pain.

Using an over-the-counter hydrating eye drop can relieve some of the itchiness and the annoying sensation of having something in the eye.

Treating Conjunctivitis in Ayurvedic Way

Antibiotics have a lot of side effects and it does not sit well with some people. This is why a more natural approach is recommended. Ayurveda helps treat all the symptoms with zero side effects. Ayurvedic treatment is effective because it has everything needed:

Anti-inflammatory properties.

Antioxidants.

Antibacterial properties.

Ayurvedic treatment always works for conjunctivitis and does not cause any side effects. It is best to prevent getting infected altogether though. Using fresh sheets, fresh towels, disinfected eyewear and avoiding touching the eyes before disinfecting the hands can help.

Take Away

Conjunctivitis is one irritating eye infection which is contagious in its nature. However, it can be cured with proper care and ayurvedic treatment. It is always advisable to consult an ayurvedic specialist before going for any of the ayurvedic treatment.



Conjunctivitis - How Can Ayurveda Help?

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