Archive for December, 2007

Fats - What are they and what are their types

Fats are always a needed factor in out body. Total fat content in human body is about 27%. They help in increasing nutrient absorption, transmission of nerve impulse, maintaining cell membrane integrity, gain in weight, and also sometimes responsible for certain heart diseases.

Where is fat generally stored?
In men, fat is stored in the middle of the body, in the stomach region, whereas women store fat around their pelvis, thighs and butt regions.

Fats are generally good and bad fats when fatty acids are classifieds.

Bad fats include the Saturated fats and the Trans fats.

Migraine - Introduction, symptoms and cure

Migraine is a neurological disorder, which is mostly confused with headache by people who don’t have correct knowledge about it. Headache can be cured very easily by some mild dose of drug but migraine patients need special care and treatment.

When a person is suffering from migraine, he is in such a condition where he can not perform regular activities for a certain period. They become very much sensitive to light, sound and smell stimuli. Other common symptoms seen are nausea, vomiting and blurred vision. Migraine can last from a few hours to a week time. All the manifestations that can be observed in migraine patients are -

• Sensitivity to sound, light and smell
• Blurred vision

5 Natural Ways to Control High Blood Pressure

When a high blood pressure patient visits a doctor, the most common treatment that is given for that is drugs of some composition that helps in levelling the blood pressure. And the patient is also given various ways of diet control methods by which the regular heart beat and adequate blood pressure is maintained.
But usage of drugs is not always good as they may cause side effects, and also dietary control can lead to hypervitaminosis or also deficiency of vitamins to some extent is some food intake is controlled.
Here are a few ways by which you can very well maintain and control your high blood pressure:

Necrosis - Focal death of tissues

Necrosis is defined as focal death along with degradation of tissue by hydrolytic enzymes which are liberated by the cells. Necrosis may be caused by various agents such as hypoxia, physical and chemical factors, microbial agents and immunological injury.
Irreversible cell injury can be caused by -
1. Cell digestion by lytic enzymes
2. Denaturation of proteins
These changes can be particularly seen by changes in the nuclear and cytoplasmic characteristics. The cytoplasm appears homogenous and eosinophilic. The nuclear changes may be condensation of nuclear chromatin(pyknosis), may undergo dissolution(karyolysis) or fragmentation(karyorrhexis)

Morphologically there are 5 types of necrosis seen in humans, which include:

Gangrene - Necrosis with superadded putrefaction

Gangrene is a form of necrosis of tissue with superadded putrefaction.This is a type of coagulative necrosis that occurs due to ischaemia(e.g. in bowel, limb etc.).
Gangrene is classified into 3 types -
1. Dry gangrene
2. Wet gangrene
3. Gas gangrene

Dry Gangrene is a form of gangrene that occurs in the distal part of the limb due to ischaemia. One of the typical examples of a dry gangrene is on the toes and feet of an old patient due to Atherosclerosis.
Some other causes of Gangrene foot are Thromboangiitis obliterans(Buerger’s disease), Raynaud’s disease, trauma, Ergot’s poisoning.
Dry gangrene is usually initiated at the toe region which is farthest from the blood region, and contains very less blood where invading bacteria to grow into the necrosed tissue. This gangrene slowly grows slowly upwards and reaches a point where the blood supply is adequate enough to keep the whole tissue viable.
A “Line of separation” is formed between the gangrenous part and the viable part.

Tumor risk increase due to heavy cell phone usage - Studies

According to an Israeli study, published by American Journal of Epidemiology, there is an effect on the parotid gland causing tumor if a regular cell phone user uses phone near the ear for more than 22 hours a month. The person’s risk of developing a tumor increases by 50%.

Agence France-Presse reported that the study said the tumor risk was even greater in people who fall under categories like usage of cell phone on a single ear side, non-usage of hands-free devices, and people in rural areas. The research was done on 402 benign and 58 malignant parotid gland tumor patients in the time period of 2001-03 in Israel, and for the age group of 18 years or older. The risk factors depends mostly on the conditions like the rural area users etc. For regular mobile phone use, regardless of duration, the risk estimates for malignant and benign tumors were 0.7 (95% confidence interval: 0.4, 1.3) and 0.9 (95% confidence interval: 0.5, 1.5), respectively. The risk factor does not depend on the type of phones used, and also the time period for which it is used.