5 Amazing Treatments of Degenerative Disc Disease

 

Degenerative disc disease is a terminology used to refer to the typical changes of spinal disc that occur to an individual during the aging process. These changes can cause chronic neck pain or low back pain.

 

When a person is young, the discs facilitate bending, flexion and twisting.

 

As a person ages, the discs shrink and begin to lose integrity. Although most individuals who are aged show some signs of disc degeneration, not all elderly people encounter back pain.

 

The region that is most affected by degenerative disc disease is the lumbar region (lower back) and the cervical region (neck region).

 

The discs act as shock absorbers of the spine. When the discs dry out due to age, they are no longer able to absorb shock as required. Wear and tear on the outer part of the disc as a result of routine work can contribute to their degeneration.

 

Furthermore, injuries to the spine can lead to soreness, swelling and instability.

 

The disease can manifest itself through discomfort on the lower back, extreme pain when seated, numbness, tingling, neck pain that may spread to hands, and weak leg muscles.

 

To correctly diagnose the condition, a proper examination is done by a qualified health professional. The doctor will inquire of the circumstances that led to the pain. An MRI scan is usually performed to show the extent of the disc damage.

 

Treatment of degenerative disc disease includes regular physical exercises. The exercises are done to enhance the flexibility and strength of the muscles supporting the spine.

 

Proper exercises boost the blood supply to the back region of the body, therefore, providing vital nourishment to the muscles and joints. The nourishment of the muscles enables the body to get rid of any waste products that may result in inflammation.

 

Other treatment options of disc degeneration involve spinal mobilization, heat and cold therapy, surgery, physical therapy and medications.

5 Shocking Things You Didn’t Know About Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are lumps that look like stones, and they develop in either one or both kidneys. These solid pieces of materials are sometimes excreted in urine, although they are more concentrated in the kidneys.

 

Kidney stones can either travel down the urinary tract or stay in the kidneys. Sometimes, a kidney stone can pass on its own causing little or no pain at all. However, when a large stone gets stuck in the urinary tract, it results in the blockage of urine, leading to bleeding and severe pain.

 

When a kidney stone is located in the urinary tract, the condition is referred to as urolithiasis, but when it is positioned in the ureter, the person is said to be suffering from a ureteral stone.

 

The urinary tract is the drainage system that the body uses to remove extra water and wastes, and it is composed of two kidneys, two ureters, urethra and a bladder.

 

Although a kidney stone infection can affect anyone, men and women alike, it has been established that the percentage of men who suffer from the illness is larger than females. The disease progresses when the crystals that gather inside the kidney accumulate continuously over time without being eliminated. These crystals eventually build up to form a lump.

 

Failure of a person to drink enough water may lead to kidney stones. The use of specific types of medications has also been established as a leading cause of stones that affect the kidney.

 

People having medical conditions known to raise the level of crystals in the urine are also affected by kidney stones. Accumulation of these substances like calcium, phosphorus, and oxalate has been known to generate stones.

 

Other factors that may contribute to the occurrence of the disease include infection by cystic kidney disease, family history, hyperparathyroidism, hypercalciuria, renal tubular acidosis, cystinuria, hyperoxaluria, hyperuricosuria, blockage of the urinary tract, inflammation of the bowel, gastrointestinal surgery and gout.

 

Symptoms of kidney stone disease include pain while urinating, presence of blood in urine, and a sharp pain in the lower abdomen or the back side of the body. Some people may experience vomiting or nausea.

 

However, the individuals who have small kidney stones may not have these symptoms at all. The main reason is that the stones are easily removed through urinary tract when urinating.

 

Proper diagnosis of kidney stones involves the health care provider performing a thorough physical exam. Urine, blood, and other imaging tests are then done to complete diagnosis. The imaging tests may include the X-rays and a computerized tomography (CT) scan.

 

Treatment of the disease is performed by a urologist or a general practitioner. A urologist is a doctor who specializes the treatment of urinary tract infections. The patients with small stones are given medication mainly for pain relief and advised to drink plenty of water.

 

Those with larger stones that are preventing the proper flow of urine are treated using shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy or percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

 

9 Warning Signs of Asthmatic Symptoms

Asthmatic symptoms affect countless people all over the world, although most of those affected are not aware of the condition. Most of the symptoms are not severe and are mainly characterized by inflammation of bronchitis.

 

This inflammation usually results in the production of sticky secretions inside the lungs, which makes the airways of the affected individual inflame, tighten, or end up getting filled up with mucus.

 

It has been noted that different people manifest these symptoms differently, and the symptoms are known to change from one attack to the next. Some of the symptoms can occur to some people when they are suffering from certain viral infections such as colds.

 

Some of the most common asthmatic symptoms include breathing difficulty, coughing during the night, chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath, general body weakness, sleeping problems, allergies and cold infections.

 

If left untreated, asthmatic symptoms can be deadly. It is highly recommended that a person visits a qualified doctor who will be able to perform an appropriate diagnosis. Lack of proper medical attention may result in asthmatic attacks.

 

During these attacks, the symptoms associated with asthma can get worse, so it is important to do regular monitoring of the condition.

 

When performing monitoring, a medical device known as a peak flow meter is usually used to examine if a person is having a change in the peak respiratory flow.

 

Many things are known to trigger the asthmatic symptoms; therefore, it is important to seek medical guidance to be able to know which things can cause an individual’s asthma to go up. Some of the well-known triggers include allergens, which are either from chemicals, dust or animal fur.

 

In case you are experiencing some of the asthmatic symptoms, you should visit a specialist for accurate diagnosis and treatment.

 

The physician will provide you with proper coaching on the signs of an impending attack, and how to cope with the condition during an emergency.

 

 

 

 

5 Little Known Facts About Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis involves the narrowing of the spinal canal, which results in pressure on the spinal cord and the surrounding nerves.

 

Symptoms of this condition include numbness, pain and loss of motor control. The part of the body that is affected by stenosis is determined by the location of the stenosis.

 

When a person if affected by stenosis, his or her spinal canal becomes narrow, therefore, compressing the nerve root. This compression of the nerve root is what causes pain.

 

Most of the people who get the condition are the elderly. Young people who might have been born with a narrow spinal canal or individuals who have their spinal cord injured during an accident may get this condition too.

 

In some instances, arthritis has been known to result in stenosis of the spine.

 

Other causes of this ailment include too much fluoride in the body, deposits of calcium on the ligaments, or tumors of the spine.

 

Spinal stenosis results to low back pain, pain in the legs, clumsiness that is accompanied by frequent falling, numbness and pain when walking.

 

Lumbar stenosis involves the nerve roots in the lower back getting compressed. This leads to weakness, tingling, or numbness that can originate from the low back to the legs and buttocks.

 

Cervical stenosis refers to the spinal stenosis pain in the neck region. This occurs as a result of compression of the spinal cord. The compression of the spinal cord is dangerous as it usually leads to extreme weakness or paralysis.

 

When diagnosing an individual for the disease, a health practitioner does a comprehensive evaluation of the spine. Patient’s medical history is checked followed by a thorough physical examination.

 

To fully understand the location and extent of the nerve comprehension, MRI scan and X-ray are performed. MRI is commonly used for the diagnosis of the stenosis because it uses electromagnetic signals to produce detailed images of the spine. MRI is recommended because it shows more body structures like the muscles, ligaments and nerves.

 

Treatment of stenosis comprises of surgical and nonsurgical methods.

 

Depending on the level of the condition, your doctor may decide to refer you to other specialists like neurologists, rheumatologists, orthopedic surgeons or physical therapists. Noninvasive methods of treatment comprise of the use of medicines to relieve pain and limiting physical activity.

The Truth About Sciatic Nerve Damage

Sciatic nerve damage is the leading cause of pain on one leg and the buttocks. It rarely affects both legs.The leg pain is accompanied by tingling or burning sensation.

 

The sciatic nerve is located at the back of the leg, and its core function is to provide sensation to the back of the thigh, the sole, and part of the lower leg. When the nerve is damaged, the movement of the knee or the entire leg is affected.

 

The sciatic nerve comprises of the nerve roots that exit from the spinal cord to the lower back. The nerve roots go down through the buttocks and then branch into the back of the leg, ankle and foot.

 

This kind of pain that is due to damage of sciatic nerve is referred to as sciatica. Although the symptoms of the sciatic nerve damage are often debilitating and painful, permanent damage to the nerve is a rare occurrence.

 

The symptoms of sciatica often happen when the sciatic nerve is compressed or irritated near its point of origin.

 

Although sciatic nerve injury is caused by a ruptured or bulging disc in the spinal cord, other causes of the damage include spinal stenosis, bone spurs caused by arthritis or a pinched nerve that may result due to injury.

 

The symptoms of sciatic nerve damage may start from the buttocks or back and move down to the leg and foot. The symptoms may be accompanied by the numbness, tingling and the general weakness of the leg.

 

To accurately diagnose sciatic nerve damage, tests such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-rays are performed to decipher the primary cause of the damage. MRI is preferred because it gives detailed information about the origin of the disease.

 

Treatment of damage of the sciatic nerve is mainly noninvasive, and it comprises of taking medicines and doing exercises so as to relieve pain. This is because the symptoms are likely to go away on their own with time.

 

If the symptoms continue, it is recommended that a person seeks the services of a health professional who may recommend physical therapy, steroid injections, muscle relaxants, or even surgery for extreme cases.

10 Valuable Tips on How to Lose Weight Fast

If you were looking for suggestions on how to lose weight fast, then you are in the right place. The tips are as follows:

1. Drink green tea. Green tea has an antioxidant known as catechin that speeds up a person’s metabolic rate leading to weight loss.

 

2. Reduce salt intake. It is a known fact that sodium contributes a lot to water retention in the body. This water retention makes a person look bloated.

 

3. Use spices. According to recent research, eating hot pepper boosts an individual’s metabolism. Capsaicin that is found in cayenne and jalapeno peppers increases the production of stress hormones in the body, something that leads to speeding up of metabolism and the body’s ability to burn calories.

 

4. Get enough sleep. Lack of enough sleep makes a person fat. Individuals who do not have enough sleep have low metabolism hence body’s inability to lose weight fast.

 

5. Exercise. Training the body on a regular basis is good. Doing an evening walk is known to have plenty of benefits because it increases the body’s metabolic rate leading to reduced weight.

 

6. Eat every meal. It is important to understand that skipping meals do not make a person lose weight fast. When a person skips meals, the body tends to slow metabolism so as to conserve energy. When a person eats, the same process of energy conservation repeats itself, leading to a backlog of pounds that are not useful to the body.

 

7. Drink plenty of water. Drinking plenty of water on a daily basis is one of the easiest ways of losing weight fast. The reason is that the body needs plenty of water to metabolize the stored fat efficiently. Inadequate supply of water makes it hard for the body to burn calories. Drinking eight glasses of water each day will make the body systems run smoothly.

 

8. Eat breakfast that is high in proteins. High protein breakfast is recommended because it highly reduces the cravings for food throughout the day.

 

9. Avoid sugary drinks. Drinking sugary drinks and fruit juices is highly fattening. Lessening the intake of these drinks can make a person lose weight fast.

 

10. Drink tea or coffee. Drinking coffee or tea is beneficial to the body. The caffeine that is present in the drinks boosts metabolism making a person lose weight fast

What Everybody Ought to Know About Symptoms of Anemia

To better understand the symptoms of anemia, it is important first to have a general idea of the disease.

 

Sickle cell illness is a defect that affects the red blood cells of the body.

 

The red blood cells are known transport oxygen from the lungs to all body parts using a protein called hemoglobin.

 

Red blood cells are round. This makes it convenient for them to pass without inhibition in the blood vessels, which are usually narrow.

 

The hemoglobin is composed of two main parts namely the alpha and beta.

 

Those suffering from sickle-cell anemia do have mutations in a gene located on chromosome 11, which usually codes for the sub units of beta part of the hemoglobin. This makes the hemoglobin molecules not to form correctly, something that makes the red blood cells to have a concave shape.

 

Due to this irregular shape, the red blood cells get stuck in the body’s blood vessels making it challenging for them to transport oxygen in an effective and efficient manner.

 

Therefore, one of the symptoms of anemia is a lot of pain and extreme damage to the body organs.

 

When some vital organs like the spleen are damaged, the immune function of the body ordinarily becomes compromised; hence, the patient often is exposed to infections frequently.

 

Other symptoms of the disease include stroke, delayed growth, and jaundice which comprises of the yellowing of the eyes and skin that is as a result of liver damage.

 

To diagnose anemia, doctors recommend routine screening of newborns using a simple blood test method.

 

When anemia is not detected using this approach, hemoglobin electrophoresis is done. The test is aimed at determining whether an individual has the sickle-cell disease, or he is just a carrier of the defective hemoglobin gene.

 

People having symptoms of anemia should take medications so as to keep infections at bay.