Necrotizing enterocolitis is a disease that causes inflammation of the tissues present in the intestines and results in damaged tissues. It initially affects the inner lining which ultimately results in thickening of the intestine. It may also lead to a hole in the abdomen resulting in bacteria entering the intestine, thus resulting in infection.

Symptoms-
The symptoms of necrotizing enterocolitis are:

You may experience symptoms of bloating in the abdomen
The abdomen may be discolored
You may experience diarrhea and vomiting
You may not feel hungry
There may be presence of blood in your stool
You may have a fever and constantly feel lethargic
Causes-
Lack of blood and oxygen in the intestine causes it to become weak and increases the chances of necrotizing enterocolitis. It may result if oxygen levels drop during a difficult delivery. If the intestines are weak, then they are at a higher risk of getting infected by bacteria. If you have an excessive supply of blood cells in your body or other stomach condition, then it may lead to this disease.

Diagnosis-
Usually the doctor conducts a physical exam to detect the symptoms of this disease. If babies are born with this condition, then they may suffer from weak immune system and problems in blood circulation. The doctor may also recommend x-rays to get detailed images of the intestine in order to probe for symptoms of inflammation and damage.

Treatment-
The treatment of the disease depends on few factors such as:

The child's age
How far has the disease progressed?
Health of your child
It is recommended to stop breastfeeding. Feed the baby through intravenous methods. The doctor may also recommend antibiotics and oxygen support if the child has breathing problems. In severe cases, the child may require surgery to treat this disease.

If the treatment occurs early, then the child may recover. However, complications such as a narrow and damaged bowel may persist. This may cause problems in nutrient absorption in the intestine leading to other disorders.


All About Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Interstitial lung disease includes a large group of disorders like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, sarcoidosis and asbestosis. These cause progressive fibrosis or scarring of the tissues surrounding the air sacs in your lungs. The scarring causes your lungs to stiffen which makes it difficult for you to breath.

What are the symptoms to look out for?

  Dry cough
  Shortness of breath at rest or due to exertion
  Loss of weight
  Loss of appetite
  Weakness
  Chest discomfort

What are the causes?

Normally, your lungs will regenerate tissue to repair any damage. But in interstitial lung disease, the normal repair process does not occur due to injury to the lungs. The tissue around the air sacs gets scarred and thickened, causing difficulty in breathing.

Your lungs may get injured due to long-term exposure to airborne toxins and pollutants like  

  Asbestos
  Silica dust
  Coal dust
  Grain dust from framing
  Radiation
  Indoor hot tubs
  Bird and animal droppings
  Bird proteins from chicken or pigeon

Sometimes, certain drugs can cause chronic damage to your lungs, like-

  Chemotherapy drugs
  Heart medications
  Antibiotics
  Anti-inflammatory drugs

Lung disease can also be caused by autoimmune disorders like-

  Rheumatoid arthritis
  Sjogren s syndrome
  Scleroderma
  Dermatomyositis
  Polymyositis
  Mixed connective tissue disease

Why homeopathy?

Homeopathic remedies are customized according to the effects that the disease has on your body. It will relieve symptoms like sharp pain in the lungs, hemorrhaging in the capillaries and coughing with mucus. It will also slow down the progression of the disease. Homeopathy induces your immunity system to restore the damaged tissues and heal itself. There are no associated side effects of homeopathic remedies to your body. 

Homeopathic medication and therapy also help you to treat the damage from the side effects caused by conventional treatment.

If you visit a pulmonary specialist, he/she will prescribe medications like corticosteroids, medications that will slow down fibrosis and that reduce stomach acid or you might be given artificial oxygen to make breathing easier. The last option is surgery. All of these treatment options will not reverse the scarring in the lungs. In most cases, they do not stop the progression of the disease.

The life expectancy for someone with any of the types of interstitial lung diseases is 3 to 5 years. Homeopathy has proven to be a safe and effective treatment option with no side effects that can slow down the progression of your disease. It is important that you treat it early if you want to prevent severe health complications.

Interstitial Lung Disease - Why Should You Choose Homeopathy For Treating It?

Osteoporosis is a degenerative condition connected with the bones. In this condition, the bones become absolutely brittle and hollow over a period of time. In normal scenarios, bones usually get broken down and repaired over time. They are known as the living tissue of the body. But when the old bone does not get removed due to the lack of new bone creation, this is known as osteoporosis. This disease can affect both men and women. Many women go through this condition after menopause. Let us find out more about the symptoms of this condition.

Causes: There are a variety of things that cause the painful symptoms of osteoporosis. Hormonal changes that affect the sex and thyroid hormones as well as adrenal and parathyroid glands are known to cause this condition. Also, low calcium intake over a prolonged period, especially after childbirth and during menopause can cause this condition in many women. Further, eating disorders where the patient practices severe restrictions when it comes to food intake, can also have a bearing on the person, which keeps the right nutrients from reaching the bones. Steroids and other kinds of medicines that have been used on a prolonged basis in order to treat cancer, gastric reflux, seizures and to cure transplant rejections, can also lead to this condition. Celiac disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel conditions and liver or kidney disease can also lead to osteoporosis.

Fracture: One of the most common symptoms of osteoporosis includes fragile bones that may lead to fractures. Even a minor movement or a fall can cause a fracture as the bones are brittle and hollow. Because the bones are more delicate than usual, these fractures can be triggered easily by an impactful action like a particularly loud sneeze or a persistent cough.
Neck and Back Pain: Compression fractures in the spine are a common occurrence for people who are suffering from osteoporosis. The vertebrae that have collapsed can pinch the nerves radiating from the spinal cord. This can be a very painful condition that goes from tender pain to debilitating sharp pain.
Height: One of the most noticeable symptoms of osteoporosis includes the visible loss of height. A patient suffering from this condition will appear to have shrunk suddenly, in a very mild way. It can cause a condition known as kyphosis, which is basically a stooped back. Owing to this condition, there may be severe pain in the neck and lumbar, or lower back region as well.
Emergency Situation: If you happen to be experiencing debilitating and sudden pain in the hip or wrists or other such areas, then it is recommended to see a doctor immediately as this could indicate a fracture.

Osteoporosis - 4 Common Signs!

Ayurveda is a very old system of medicine, which originated in India. Using herbs found in nature to cure various illnesses, knee pain can also be permanently cured with this method indigenous to India. It reduces knee pain caused by various illnesses including arthritis, inflammation of the cartilage and wearing of the patella among others. Here are some common Ayurvedic remedies, which help reduce knee pain:

1. Alfalfa: Alfalfa is medically known as Medicago Sativa. Alfalfa is excellent for making sure that your joint pain reduces, when taken in liquid form four times a day.

2. Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha is medically known as Withania Somnifera. In the West, Ashwagandha is popularly known as Winter Cherry. Also, it has a lot of therapeutic properties, which include reducing joint pains. 

3. Banyan: The Banyan tree's medical name is Ficus Benghalensis. It has a sap very similar to the form of rubber known as latex is derived from the Banyan tree. The Banyan tree's sap is externally applied over the joints and the pain usually disappears after a few regular applications. 

4. Bishop's weed: The medical name for Bishop's weed is Trachyspermum Ammi. The oil extracted from this herb is usually applied to the knees to reduce the intensity of such knee pains.

5. Celery: The medical name for celery is Apium Graveolens. Celery is not only an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and associated pains in the knees, but it is also helpful in treating gout. It is usually agreed upon that this particular treatment is usually long lasting because of its alkaline nature.

6. Dandelion: Dandelion's biological name is Taraxacum Officinale. It is rich in magnesium and is crucial for the correct mineralization of the bones. This mineralization allows the bones to become stronger and also prevents knee pain.

7.  Garlic: The medical name for garlic is allium sativum. Five to six cloves eaten everyday has proved to reduce knee pains.

8. Ginger: Ginger is biologically called Zingiber Officinale. These can be easily included in your diet and go a long way in curbing knee pain.

Ayurveda and Knee Pain

Tuberculosis is a respiratory disease that is very infectious and usually affects the lungs. It is one of the deadliest diseases that have killed millions of people worldwide. According to WHO, 9 million people get infected with tuberculosis in a year. It is one of the top reasons for death among women aged between 15 to 44 years. Symptoms can range from cough, fever, weight loss and night sweats. Moreover, it is an airborne disease meaning that people having tuberculosis can infect many others around them through coughing, sneezing or sharing a glass or cup.

The main cause of tuberculosis is a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, there are two types of tuberculosis-

Latent TB- In this condition, the bacteria causing TB is present in the body and is inactive. It is not contagious or results in any symptoms.
Active TB- The bacteria causing TB is active and the person carrying it can infect others as well.
Diagnosis
The most common diagnostic test for tuberculosis is a skin test where an injection of PPD tuberculin which is an extract of the TB bacterium is injected into the skin. After 2 to 3 days, the doctor checks the injected site and if there is red swelling, it means that person has TB. Along with this the doctor also uses a stethoscope to gauge the condition of lungs. However, the skin test is not very accurate to know whether a person has TB or not.

Therefore, doctors also use blood tests, x-rays and sputum tests to find out whether a person has TB or not.

Treatments
Tuberculosis can be cured with medications. However, the correct medicines will depend on the type of TB you have and the period of treatment. If you have latent TB, then taking a single TB drug may be enough. But if you have active TB then you need to have proper medicines prescribed by a doctor for at least 6 months. Some common medicines used to treat TB (active) are:

Isoniazid
Rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane)
Ethambutol (Myambutol)
Pyrazinamide
Also, antibiotics and injections are used to treat drug-resistant TB that may take longer to cure.
When taking medications or any sort of drugs for TB, one needs to be careful and look out for any side effects that can occur due to TB medications. As medicines taken for TB can cause:

Dark Urine
Loss of Appetite
Nausea or Vomiting
Jaundice
For people suffering from Tb, it is important to follow the full course of medications and not to skip taking any drugs that have been prescribed your doctor. There is a program called Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), where the heath care helper administers and look after a TB patient to ensure that the correct course and medicines are given to the patient.

Treatments For Tuberculosis - What All Should You Know

What is Addiction?

Addiction is a condition in which individual engages in using a substance or seeking a behaviour which leads to rewarding effects in the brain and it reinforce the individual to repeat the using or seeking behaviour again and again. Addiction develops gradually over a period of time and due to the repetition of same pleasure seeking pattern individual become physically and psychologically dependent on the substance or to any other object at the center of addiction.

People can get addicted to many substances like, alcohol, nicotine, drugs, solvents, etc. In case of these substances, physical and mental dependency both can occur. There are other objects and behaviours which also activate brain reward system in the same way and can make people dependent on them, like gambling, shopping, videogames, watching pornography, etc. But in case of these objects or behaviours, psychological dependency can be more prominent.

It has been seen that there are lots of other mental problems found among individuals suffering from any kind of addiction, like anxiety, depression, personality disorders, psychosis, etc. Individual who is addicted to a substance or an object or behaviour indulge into compulsive pattern of seeking the same inspite of their detrimental consequences. Consequences of addiction can be seen on person s health, personal life, occupational life and social life. Addiction can lead to severe unmanageability in one s life.

Especially when it comes to substances, like alcohol, nicotine or any kind of drugs, we must understand how the tolerance level of the brain develops? Tolerance develops when an individual no longer responds to a substance in the way he/she did at first. So, it takes a higher dose of the substance to achieve the same effect as when the individual first used it. This is why people with substance use disorders use more and more of a drug to get the  high  feeling that they seek.



A blog posted by an alcoholic:

 I always wished I could drink like other people. But I never could. I thought it was the third drink that got me into trouble. If I only had two, then I d be fine. Thing is, once I put that first drink to my lips, I could no longer accurately predict what would happen next. I might go home, but I might not.

You d think if I made it home, then my drinking was a success. Wrong! If I made it home after two drinks, there was an insatiable need raging within me and I was gonna take it out on you.  After all, you re the reason why I had to come home. I would punish my family by being silent, or mean, or emotionally distant.

Looking back, it was never intentional. I didn t purposely choose not to go home.  I didn t leave the house with a suitcase containing a fresh set of clothes, a tooth brush and my cosmetics. Seriously, I was only going out for  a few. 

If anybody can relate to this or can understand this, he or she can understand tolerance, powerlessness and unmanageability.

How to recover from addiction?

To be an addict can t be anybody s choice, but recovery can be one s choice. The first key step to come out of your addiction is developing acceptance. For a person to admit their powerlessness in addiction to drugs or alcohol or to any other object at the center of addiction is a monumental first step to recovery. Powerlessness means the person do not have any control over his/her use of substance. Powerlessness may indicate weakness and helplessness; some may think it fosters a victim mentality. Acceptance starts developing when a person admit that he or she is powerless over the substance or object at the center of addiction and their life have become unmanageable because of that.

Addiction is a disease and recovery is not an easy process. Individuals who are already into the grip of addiction need to seek help. One cannot go through the journey of recovery alone. There is a myth that addiction is a habit and one can get out of it if he or she has the  Will Power . It s actually not true. To get out of the disease you need to develop  Skill Power , like skills to understand your physical and psychological mechanisms when it comes to the substance or the object of addictions, skills to handle cravings, skills to be assertive enough to manage social cues, skills to deal with day to day life stressors, etc. And in this process of developing skills and maintaining your recovery you need help of professionals.

A complete treatment program has three important approaches. First one is psychopharmacological (medicine) approach, second is psychotherapeutic approach and the third one is the 12 step program of alcohol/narcotics anonymous. A combination of psychotherapies along with the basic essence of 12 step program can bring greater outcomes in individual suffering from addiction.

Understanding Addiction And The Key Steps To Recover From It!

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