Health and Medicine

 Is Male Menopause Real ? Hormonal changes can affect men physically and emotionally. Menopause is often associated with hot flashes and mood swings in women . So , do hormonal changes with similar symptoms occur in men as they age ?  Male Menopause is rare medical issue . It is a condition that affects older men. It carries set of symptoms that are linked to declining testosterone levels and aging. It is also referred to as andropause , androgen decline in the aging male , late onset hypogonadism and low testosterone. Not every man will experience this . But the symptoms are very real.  There's a reason it's called male menopause because it can produce many of the same symptoms as female menopause. Those symptoms include irritability , weight gain , low sex drive and function , problem in sleeping , depression , fatigue and loss of strength. It may even include hot flashes. Testosterone : Testosterone is the  hormone responsible for the development of male sexual characteristi

Male infertility is common , but remains a taboo issue . Many people think of infertility as a women's issue , when in fact 20-30% can be due to male factor , in other words the man. On Mother's Day , many people take time to acknowledge how hard the holiday can be for women facing infertility. But Father's Day can be painful for infertile men, too , reminding them of their condition , and of the child or children they don't have yet. "We are not able to have a baby. Can you please check what is wrong with my wife(daughter in law) "  This is a common complaint heard from a majority of couples. Traditionally , this presumption held some merit. Upon testing and diagnosis , the male factor was found to be the cause of infertility in only about 15% of total cases. But this has dramatically changed over the last few decades. Male infertility is harder to resolve , In fact , it goes undiagnosed in almost 25-30%cases , which means that even after examination and test

PAINFUL PERIODS IN LOCKDOWN :  Many women have complained of painful and erratic periods in the last three months.The nationwide lockdown resulting from COVID-19 pandemic has affected the menstrual cycles in a mysterious way , bringing unprecendented changes in the flow , duration and pain scale. "Women have faced high-stress levels during lockdown due to uncertainity of life , work , resultant financial crisis, etc. Balancing home and work has also been a problem. Stress hormone 'cortisol' has a direct effect on periods. It can cause  a considerable delay in periods or no periods at all. STress can also raise insulin imbalance in the body which gives way to the secretion of the leptin hormone. This causes cycles to be delayed by 7 to 8 days or more. The reason that women are experiencing painful and erratic periods during the lockdown is sttress, change in sleeping patterns , irregular diet and even excessive exercising. "Cortisol and the hypothalamic pituitary axis

WHAT ANXIETY DID TO THE BODY ? Anxiety is the mind and body's reaction to stressful , dangerous , or unfamiliar situations . It's the sense of uneasiness , distress , or dread you feel before a significant event. A certain level of anxiety helps us stay alert and aware , but for those suffering from an anxiety disorder , it feels far from normal - it can be completely debilitating. TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDERS : ANXIETY DISORDERS : Anxiety disorders are characterized by a general feature of excessive fear (i.e. emotional response to perceived or real threat) and /or anxiety (i.e. worrying about a future threat) and can have negative behavioral and emotional consequences. OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE AND RELATED DISORDERS : Obsessive compulsive and related disorders are characterized by obsessive , intrusive thoughts (e.g.constantly worrying about staying clean , or about one's body size ) that trigger related , compulsive behaviors (e.g. repeated hand-washing , or excessive exercise)

PULSE OXIMETER - COVID-19 Pulse Oximeter measures oxygen saturation in blood.   One  of the answers to COVID-19 is probably at your fingertip , doctor says . With growing experience of dealing with sick people who report to hospitals with breathlessness , experts have recommended the use of relatively cheap device at home that can forewarn you about any impending crisis - the pulse oximeter. The small device , which fits into the palm of your hand , measures the oxygen saturation in the blood in a non-invasive manner. All one need to do is clip the device onto a finger tip , and it will show the Spo2 level (peripheral oxygen saturation) , or the oxygen level in blood. Its role in COVID-19 patient's health monitoring is significant. Silent hypoxia (deprivation of oxygen at the tissue level) has emerged as a major cause of death in COVID-19 patients , said K. Kolandaswamy , former director of public health. Usually , when your oxygen falls below 95% , you will have symptoms , breath

ALZHEIMER'S IN WOMEN : A detailed new brain imaging study , examining a number of cognitively healthy middle aged subject is suggesting lower levels of estrogen in women post-menopause could play a role in triggering brain changes linked to Alzheimer's disease. The research hypothesizes this mechanism may be one of the reason why women suffer from Alzheimer's disease. The research hypothesizes this mechanism may be one of the reason why women suffer from Alzheimer's at greater rates than men. "About two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer's are women , and the general tend to live longer ," says Lisa Mosconi , an author on the new study from Weill Cornell Medicine. However , over recent years many researchers have started exploring potential physiological reasons why there is suck start sex-specific differences in Alzheimer's cases. One novel study last year , for example , pointed to a number of sex-specific genes that could heighten Alzheimer'

Vitamin A in Diabetes : Scientists have recently found that mice with diabetes that received treatment with a vitamin A analog had significantly improved eyesight. New research has shown that a single dose of the chromophore 9-cis-retinal , an analog of vitamin A , can significantly improve reduced visual function in mice with diabetes. The research , which appears in The American Journal of Pathology , may help scientists develop effective treatments for visual loss associated with early diabetic retinopathy. DIABETIC RETINOPATHY: According to the National Eye Institute , diabetic retinopathy is an eye condition that can result in the loss of vision for people with diabetes. In its mid to late stages , the condition occurs due to damage to the blood vessels in a person's retina. People with diabetes are at risk of having too much sugar in their blood. The sugar can cause blood vessels to block , resulting in bleeding. The eye can develop new blood vessels , but these typically do

Antibodies against coronavirus : A few countries , including the U.K , were toying with the idea of issuing some form of a certificate to people who have been infected with novel coronavirus and recovered subsequently , as such people were assumed to be resistant to reinfection. Incidentally this idea was born even before any evidence about how long the antibodies produced in response to infection would last. Now a study published in Nature Medicine suggests that antibodies formed against SARS- Cov-2 begin to decrease in number , just two-three months after infection. "We observed that IgG levels and neutralizing antibodies in a high proportion of individuals who recovered from SARS - Cov-2 infection starts to decrease within two-three months after infection. "Quan-Xin Long from Chongqing Medical University , Chongqing ,China and others write. In contrast , circulating antibodies against 2002-2003 SARS and MERS coronavirus were found to last more than one year. In the case of

Coronil : ICMR i.e Indian council of Medical Research and AYUSH  Ministry have distanced themselves from Patanjali's cure for coronavirus coronil. Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev on Tuesday claimed that Patanjali's Research Institute has invented coronil - an ayurvedic cure for novel coronavirus. At a press conference held at Patanjali's headquarter in Haridwar , Ramdev said that Coronil has been tested in a randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial on Covid-19 patients. We conducted a clinical case study and clinical controlled trial , and found 69% patients recovered in three days and 100 % patients recovered in 7 days "Ramdev said". The Yoga guru claimed that coronil was the first Ayurvedic clinically controlled , research , evidence and trial based medicine for Covid-19. The research was conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Medical Science , Jaipur. However ICMR ,which is the apex medical body and nodal agency for the Covid-19 treatment in India

Fabiflu in COVID-19  As we know the vaccine is still a long distance away and no sign of the coronavirus infections slowing down in the country , homegrown pharmaceutical companies have been given permission to launch generic versions of Remdesivir and Favipiravir , anti-viral drugs that have shown promise in treating Covid-19 patients. Glenmark pharmaceuticles has launched favipiravir under the brand name FabiFlu for treatment of mild to moderate cases of Covid-19 , cipla and hetero labs have received approvals from the Drug Controller General of India to launch generic versions of Remedesivir under the names Cipremi and Covifor respectively. While medical experts have cautioned against seeing these potential drugs as a "magic bullet" against the deadly virus , they can be helpful in reducing the viral load as India continues to post new record highs in infection on a daily basis. Remedesivir and Favipiravir are two of the 130 under experimentation drugs worldwide to treat c

Smoking is injurious to health : Second hand smoking is a mixture of the smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette , cigar , or , pipe , and the smoke breathed out by the smoker. It contains more than 7,000 chemicals , hundreds of those chemicals are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer. Health effects of secondhand smoke include : Ear infections in children More frequent and severe asthma attacks in children Heart disease and lung cancer in adults who had never smoked There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. Even low levels of it can be harmful. The only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke is not to allow smoking indoors. Secondhand smoke is associated with disease and premature death in non smoking adults and children. Exposure to secondhand smoke irritates the airways and has immediate harmful effects on a person's heart and blood vessels. It increases the risk of heart disease by about 25 to 30%. exposure to secondhand smoke also increases the ri

SOALR ECLIPSE : WHAT ARE SOLAR ECLIPSES? A solar eclipse is a spectacular sight and a rare astronomical event. Each one is only visible from a limited area. Today i.e on 21st June many locations will see a rare solstice annular solar eclipse on the same day as the June solstice. This will happen only twice this century , in 2020 and on June 2039. An eclipse of the sun happens when the new moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking out the Sun's rays and casting a shadow on parts of the Earth. The Moon's shadow is not big enough to engulf the entire planet , so the shadow is always limited to a certain area . This area changes during the course of the eclipse because the Moon and Earth are in constant motion. Earth continuously rotates around its axis while it orbits the Sun, and the Moon orbits the Earth. This is why solar eclipses seem to travel from one place to another. TYPES OF SOLAR ECLIPSES: PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSES : It occurs when the Moon only partially obscures the

Breathlessnes : Dyspnea is a feeling of not being able to breathe well enough. Dyspnea is a normal symptom of heavy exertion but becomes pathological if it occurs in unexpected situations or light exertion. It is a common symptom in people who have lung cancer or have cancer that has spread to the lungs. You are also having dyspnea if your lungs aren't getting enough oxygen. People who have dyspnea describe it as difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath. They often compare it to feeling like they are suffocating or being smothered . Often the anxiety and fears can make the dyspnea worse , by panicking you can become more breathless and begin a cycle that is hard to stop. SYMPTOMS : When you have dyspnea , you may feel like : Out of breath Tightness in your chest unable to breath deeply Suffocation It can be acute(sudden dyspnea) or chronic (long lasting dyspnea). Acute dyspnea starts within a few minutes or hours. It can happen with other symptoms like fever, rash, cough. Chr

Problem in Women's : It is also called polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS). Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition that affects a women's hormone levels. Women with PCOS produce higher than normal amount of male hormones. This hormone imbalance causes them to skip menstrual periods and makes it harder for them to to get pregnant. PCOS also causes hair growth on the face and body , and baldness , and it can also cause long term health problems like diabetes and heart disease. WHAT EXACTLY IS PCOS ? It is a very common condition affecting 5% to 10% of women in the age group 12 - 45 years. It is a problem in which a woman's hormones are out of balance , it can cause problems with menstrual periods and make it difficult for her to conceive. The principle feature include no ovulation , irregular periods , acne and hirsutism. PCOS affects woman's ovaries , the reproductive organs that produce estrogen and progesterone , hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle. The ovaries al

Dexamethasone : Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions , including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. The World Health Organisation  (WHO) welcomes that the initial clinical trial esults from the United kingdom (UK) that shoe dexamethasone , a corticosteroid , can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19. For patients on ventilators , the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third , and for patients requiring only oxygen , mortality was cut by about one fifth , according to preliminary findings shared with WHO. The benefits was only seen in patients seriously ill with COVID-19 , and was not observed in patients with milder disease. WHAT DEXAMETHASONE IS USED FOR : As an anti-inflammatory medication , It relieves inflammation in various parts of the body, It is used specifically to decrease swelling (edema) , associated with tumors of the spine and brain, and to treat e

Bone disease : Osteogenesis Imperfecta(OI) is a group of rare disorder affecting the connective tissue and characterized by extremely fragile bones that break or fracture easily (brittle bones) , often without apparent cause. OI can vary from case to case , this may be a mild disorder or may result in severe complications. This disease causes bones to be very weak and break with little or no trauma. OI is also known as brittle bone disease.   There are eight different types of OI , each types have different signs and symptoms. The most common are the 4 types which will be discussed here: Type I Least severe and most common  More fractures will occur during childhood than adulthood Some children may also experience hearing loss Type II More severe  Underdeveloped bones at birth Infants are born with soft skull bones Type III Very severe Many infants are born with broken bones Poor muscular development Curved spine Treatment need throughout the life Type IV Can range from mild to severe

Gait : Walking is the simple act of falling forward and catching oneself. One foot is always in contact with the ground , and within a cycle , there are two periods of single leg support and two periods of double leg support. During running there is a period of time during which neither foot is in contact with the ground , a period called ''double float'' . GAIT CYCLE :  The gait cycle is the time interval or sequence of motions occuring between two consecutive initial contactsof the same foot. The gait cycle consists of two phases for each foot : STANCE PHASE - which makes up 60% to 65% of the walking cycle. SWING PHASE - which makes upto 35% to 40% of the walking cycle. In addition , there are two periods of double support and one period of single leg - stance during the gait cycle. As the velocity of the cycle increases the cycle length or stride length decreases. For eg; In jogging , the gait cycle is 70% of the walking cycle and