What is Scoliosis?

Reports state that as many as twenty five percent of the population may suffer from scoliosis. This condition is a deformity or curvature of the spine, that may or may not cause discomfort, depending on how badly the spine is curved. With scoliosis, the spine usually either curves in the shape of a S or what is generally called a C-Curve.

Females are more likely then males to develop scoliosis, and most times the cause remains unknown. Although having poor posture may worsen the condition over a lengthy time, it is not solely to blame for a curvature of the spine. Muscular diseases such as MS can cause the spine to be curved over time.

Treatment for scoliosis depends on each individuals case. If the spine is becoming badly curved, a brace may be used to help hold it in a more natural position. Surgery is an option for some patients. In this type of surgery, the vertebrae are fused together to prevent the spine from twisting and to correct unhealthy posture. Although many with scoliosis seek treatment from a chiropractor, research suggests that this may not be a very successful way to treat the condition.

Most physicians will not normally suggest treatment for a very slight case of scoliosis, especially if the patient is not suffering from any negative symptoms, such as back pain. For young children or teens, a back brace may be prescribed to be worn at night to help correct bad posture. Patients can have scoliosis with as little as a three percent curve in their spine and may not realize the condition even exists. For those with a higher rate of curvature, back pain may begin to be a problem. If a parent feels their child may be suffering from scoliosis, the family physician can do several tests to see if it exists, and if so, how far along it has progressed.

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What is Lupus? Signs and Symptoms of Lupus.

Lupus is a disease that affects the body’s immune system, along with affecting the skin, the joints, the blood and often times the kidneys. Because it is an autoimmune disease, it causes the body to attack itself, including tissue and cells. Damage to organs is not unheard of with those affected by Lupus.  Each case is treated in a different manner, due to the fact that some individuals have very slight symptoms, while others suffer greatly.

Of the four different varieties of lupus, the one known as discoid lupus is in general, the one that affects the skin most often. This type of lupus generally appears as a rash that is present on the neck, face and/or scalp. Many patients that have this type of lupus may also suffer from ulcers that develop in the nose or mouth. Sensitivity to light can also be present.

A second type of lupus is commonly referred to as drug induced lupus. This type is caused when the patient has been taking a particular medication, two of which are procainamide and hydralazine.This type of lupus is rare, with only a small number of people suffering from or being diagnosed with it. Thankfully, most patients stop having symptoms shortly after the medication is stopped.

Systemic lupus is one of the more dangerous types of lupus. It tends to affect the blood, the nervous system, the kidneys, the lungs and heart. It may also affect the joints. Systemic lupus affects each individual in different ways. Some may have a flare of the disease, then be in remission for quite some time. Others may have ongoing problems.

The rarest form of lupus is referred to as neonatal lupus, which mainly affects newborn babies that are born to mothers that have systematic lupus. In the worse case scenario, the infant may be born with a heart or liver defect.

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Are Pet Owners Healthier?

Almost everyone now knows that watching a tank full of fish swimming peacefully can lower a humans blood pressure. The same affect can be obtained by petting and speaking to a calm dog or cat. Many question if owning a pet can actually improve their health, and the answer is most generally “yes”. Unless you suffer from severe pet dander allergies, a bad case of asthma, or a severe case of animal phobia, owning a dog or cat, or even a few fish in a small aquarium, can help your physical and emotional being.

Why is this? When petting an animal, holding it on your lap and even speaking to it, the levels of dopamine in the brain increase. Dopamine is a natural chemical in the brain that acts as a calming agent. Seratonin levels can also be increased, which leaves us with a feeling of contentment and happiness. Research has also proven that in many cases, owning a pet can increase the body’s ability to fight off illnesses. As stated, people with severe allergies are unfortunately unable to partake in this type of natural health benefit.
Emotional health can also be positively affected by owning a pet. Researchers found that children that grow up in a home that has at least one friendly pet, such as a cat or dog that they are partially responsible in caring for, tend to show more compassion as adults. Another research study showed that children that grew up with pets in the home are less likely to develop respiratory ailments such as asthma, as adults. Keep in mind these studies are not meant to be used as tools with children that have already been diagnosed with asthma or allergies, as owning a pet for those children, may make their symptoms worsen.
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Health and Food Safety

More and more consumers are figuring out that many of the food products we buy and consume are unsafe. In the past, most our foods were grown in our country, by farmers that were still utilizing the farming practices of their grandparents. Times have changed. Food products such as meat producing animals are being fed contaminated feed. The fruits and vegetables that used to be so healthy for us, are currently doused in chemicals that are used as pesticides. The upswing of food born illnesses has many consumers wondering if modern technology is helping or hindering our health where food is concerned.
Outbreaks of food born illnesses are recorded and tracked by the government. Yet many times a patient will show up at the emergency room complaining of symptoms of food poisoning, only to be told they have a stomach virus and sent home. Only in the more severe cases are most patients tested for a food born illness. Unless an epidemic has already been noted, many cases of these types of illnesses will go unreported.
One of the more common food born illnesses is salmonella. Symptoms of this condition can include stomach pain, diarrhea and nausea. Fever may also be present. Salmonella is caused by eating undercooked meat products. Most patients can recover if they receive the proper treatment early on, but for those with weakened immune systems, young children or the elderly, the condition can prove to be fatal.
E. coli seems to be being diagnosed more often then ever. This is a bacteria normally found in animal feces that comes in contact with meat products. It can also be caused by watering methods that are not regulated for safety, such as watering the young plants with water that contains sewage. Symptoms of E.coli can include severe diarrhea with very painful stomach cramps. Often times there is blood in the stool.
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Women and Heart Attacks

Heart disease has become the number one killer of women and although most people know the basics symptoms of a heart attack, most women do not realize that in females the symptoms may differ greatly. The classic symptoms of a heart attack may include chest pain, pain that radiates to the arm or jaw, shortness of breath, breaking out in massive cold sweats, nausea and a feeling of great heaviness in the chest. These symptoms can be felt by both males and females alike, yet the symptoms in women can differ, which causes many women to not seek necessary treatment as quickly as their male counterparts.

Some of the symptoms a woman might experience when having a heart attack include feeling as if you have the flu. Nausea, fever and cold sweats are often times reported by women that have had a heart attack. Shortness of breath is felt by many also, along with becoming very tired. Being dizzy or faint is reported, along with a feeling of a very fast heart beat. The heart may feel as if it is thumping out of the chest. Many women also report that they felt pain in their back and a feeling of having heartburn or acid reflux. A tightness in the chest and a back ache were also often stated.
Many women do not realize that certain medical factors may contribute to having a heart attack. One factor is being overweight. Other contributing factors can include having diabetes, suffering from high blood pressure, smoking, having high cholesterol levels in the blood, a history of family heart disease, suffering from headaches and even food allergies. All of these or any of them alone or combined, can increase a woman’s chance of having a heart attack.
Some ways to reduce a woman’s chance of having a heart attack include losing weight if necessary, stopping smoking, exercising on a daily basis, eating a healthy diet and having regular check-ups with your doctor.
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Participating in Medical Research, The Pros and Cons

If you suffer from a disease or condition, you may be asked to volunteer to be included in a medical research study for new medications or procedures. Deciding to participate in a study is not something that should be taken lightly. There are a variety of questions that should be asked beforehand, along with doing your own research before applying to be a candidate in a research study.
Many patients that volunteer for these types of research studies have a disease or condition that has not been eliminated by the normally prescribed medications for that specific disease. They become desperate to find a medication that will allow them to live a normal lifestyle and help them feel better. Many times it pays off, yet other times they are in the group that is chosen to receive a placebo drug instead, and will not have any positive or negative effects from the study trials.
Most studies give half of the volunteers the actual  medication that the research is being done on, and the other half of the group receives a placebo drug. After the required amount of time, both groups are asked to list any side effects they felt they had because of the new medication. Most times the volunteers are not told whether they received the medication or a placebo until after the study is finished. Data is collected and the outcome of both groups is entered in the research information.
Helping others that suffer from the same condition or disease is another reason many people will agree to participate in a new drug research study. The need to be part of a team that is trying to find a new drug that will eliminate the side effects of the disease prompt many to volunteer.
The decision to participate in a research study should be thought out and not made in a hasty way. Volunteers are allowed to ask questions, so don’t be afraid to ask if you have concerns about the side effects or risks that you may encounter.
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Latest Research May Help Those Suffering from Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s Disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that is being diagnosed more often now then ever before. At the current time, there is no known cause for the disease, nor any cure. There are several treatment options available that may relieve some of the symptoms, although many of the drugs that are prescribed for Crohn’s, work for some patients and make others worse, so it often takes trying several different treatment options to find the drug that is most effective. 

Some of the symptoms of Crohn’s Disease include, weight loss, diarrhea, weakness, lack of appetite, bleeding in the bowels and severe intestinal cramping. Depending on where the disease is located in the intestines, the patient may suffer from malnutrition and be extremely underweight, which in turn can cause more health problems. Anemia can be quite common in those suffering from Crohn’s, due to internal bleeding and the inability of the body to absorb much needed calories, vitamins and nutrients from the food they consume.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease are two diseases that cause the patient to have relapses and ongoing medical issues. The two disease’s cause inflammation, which affects the intestines and colon. Over a million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, with a lesser amount being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

Recent studies have shown that probiotics may offer as much relief from the symptoms of Crohn’s Disease as the often prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs, without the harsh side effects that most of the drugs have. Scientists are currently trying out a new type of probiotic that is normally found in yogurts and cheese.

Researchers have genetically developed the new version of the probiotic and are currently testing it in patients that have Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis and even colon cancer. When tested in lab mice that had several different types of colitis, the new probiotic was given and the mice showed improvement within thirteen days. In most, the progression of the disease was stopped in approximately ninety five percent.

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Upcoming Changes in Medicine and Diagnosis

How can you expect health medicine to change over the coming years? Currently if one is feeling sick, they would proceed as follows. They would make an appointment to see the physician. The doctor would ask for a list of symptoms and signs of the ailment. This may be such things as a sore throat, fever, or an intense pain in one legs, etc. Then the doctor would use these symptoms collectively to make an educated guess on the patient’s health issue. While medical experts and doctors know that certain symptoms such as a runny nose or coughing equal a common cold, there are many symptoms which could be evidence of any number of illnesses. A sore throat could mean merely drainage from the nasal cavity or strep throat or even something sever as cancer. The severity of an illness much be learned through guess work.

Doctors will prescribed medicine that they feel best fit the patient’s ailments, but until the medication has been consumed and has had time to take affect, its effectiveness is not realized.

These and other such procedures take time and effort both on the part of the doctor and the patient.

With the study of the human genome and genomics, the world of health medicine can say farewell to such guesswork. As genes and their relationships to diseases and sicknesses are better known, medical experts will be able to tell exactly from error genes what difficulties may be ailing a patient. For example, if a list of symptoms could mean a wide range of problems, a quick gene test could be conducted on a patient to find out the exact diagnosis.

Not only will the diagnosis process be quicker and more exact with improvements in genomics, but treatments will be gene-tailored to fix the error genes and thus the health issue as a whole. The study of the human genome will revolutionize medicine and human health.

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Simple Definitions

With much jargon being thrown around the science community and medical world, it can be confusing even for the educated individual to decipher exact meanings of particular words. To better understand the break-throughs in current science, one must have a basic understanding of vocabulary and its interrelations with science today.

What is genomics? It is the study of genes, which are the basic code in living things that influence character and behavior. While genomics is a broad picture science it includes many fields such as microbiology. As scientists study the relationship of genes with one another and how their environment plays a key role in their function, many important discoveries that will help human life will be made.

What is Bio Technology? This is becoming an ever-popular field and is often mentioned. It is the use of organic material and the use of bioprocesses to produce products. The oldest known bio technology is that of brewing beer, in which grain is manipulated to produce alcohol through natural processes and chemical interactions.

What is the human genome? This is a human’s gene-make-up or the physical genes that compose a human’s genetic code. The Human Genome Project conducted by the United States gave rise to the field of genomics and increasing spotlight to the human genome, as the identification of the wide array of human genes was revealed.

These are just a few simple definitions of vocabulary words circulating throughout the news and scientific conversations. As you learn more about the exciting study of genomics and its affects on the field of science and health medicine, you will have a better understanding and grasp of what it all entails. This will help you make better sense of studies and information relevant to these topics. You can expect to hear more and more on these topics in the future.

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Genomics’ Influence on the Medical Industry

What is genomics? How did this science come about? What is the future of genomics?

Genomics is the knowledge and understanding of genes and their specific functions on a large scale. Genes are the smallest unit of heredity and fully influence a person’s physical characteristics and thus a person’s lifestyle. From simple traits such as eye color or hair color to the complicated risks of susceptibility to breast or colon cancers, genes have a gigantic impact on human life.

Genomics was born through the Human Genome Project (HGP). This project was launched and sponsored in the United States as a combined effort between the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. This study was conducted to identify each human genes and its role and function. As a result of this information, fields of medicine and science are racing forward in new ways that will alter history. The entire field of medicine is benefiting from this new understanding of gene material. The medical industry is building on the foundation of resources and technology offered through the availability of genetic information. Educating physicians and the public at large about genes will improve the overall health of Americans as medical experts are better equipped to prevent, diagnose, monitor, treat and possibly cure a wide range of diseases and illnesses that now plague the public arena.

All diseases whether a result of heredity or acquired through exposure to environmental factors have their roots in genes. This means that sicknesses can all be detected within the genes themselves. As a result of the HGP, researchers are now able to identify error genes that are the cause or potential cause of illnesses and diseases. This ability to pin point exact “problem” genes will enable medical experts to better approach and address medical and health issues.

Ultimately, through the information now available due to the HGP, disease prevention and the curing of diseases will be possible for the many thousand diseases that inflict humans.

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