Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) is a naturally producing hormone in the body of women when they become pregnant. As revealed by a physician from UK in early 1950’s, the HCG hormone is either injected or given as oral supplements, also known as HCG diet, which helps people lose weight quickly.

As a part of HCG diet when HCG hormone is taken either through injection or as oral supplement, it works as an appetite suppressant and as a result individuals on HCG hormone supplement can maintain a low card diet of as low as 500 calories a day without experiencing hunger. In simple language, they can eat very less food and still not feel hungry.

HCG side effects

Of late, there has been a lot of attention towards HCG side effects. Here’s what we found as most common side effects after researching into this topic further.

• Frequent headaches
• Feeling of discomfort or uneasiness
• Depression
• Swelling of feet and hands
• Abdominal pain and swelling
• Nausea after eating (common in pregnant women)

Bed bugs are small parasitic insects that live by feeding on the blood of warm blooded animals and humans. Bedbugs are fairly active during night and often goes unnoticed when sucking blood.

In the picture, you see a bed bug biting and sucking blood which is getting filled in its stomach.

How to get rid of bed bugs?

There are several ways in which bed bugs can be infested. We list them below so that while you try to get rid of them, you unknowingly do not infest them at the same time.

1. Bedbugs are picked up while on way back to your home from hotels, temporary accomodations, places where bedbugs are already present etc. As soon as you come back home, do not sit on your bed without changing clothes and also while changing do not put them on your bed.
2. Use of pesticides such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is considered to be an effective pest control mechanism.
3. Plants such as black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) and Pseudarthna hookeri is used.
4. Use of steam on areas where bedbugs are infested.
5. Spraying of alcohol or bedbugs is effective in killing them.
6. A bed can be isolated by applying petroleum jelly around the bed and the bed is left unused for few days which starves the bedbugs and kills them.

Shingles, also known as Herpes zoster, is a viral infection caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person had chickenpox, the virus does not get eliminated from the body but remains in the dormant state for a very long time. Sometime soon after a person is treated and free of chickenpox, the virus causes shingles mainly characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a limited area of the body. Often the chickenpox virus remains dormant in the body for decades altogether and becomes active only when the immune system of the body weakens.

Shingles symptoms

Symptoms of shingles appear in phases. In the first phase of symptoms, a person feels uneasiness, has fever and headache. In the second phase, there is a strong itching and pricking sensation on the skin along with mild pain. In some cases, there is extreme pain along with itching.

In a later stage, skin rashes appear on skin in various parts of the body. The parts of the body where the rashes most commonly occurs are face, eyes, hands and neck but can usually appear anywhere.

Shingles treatment

There is no cure for shingles but shingles is treated to shorten the duration and reduce pain and further complications. Shingles treatment includes the following:

• Patients are treated with Analgesics which contains calamine.
• Various antiviral drugs such as acyclovir, valacyclovir and famciclovir.

Shingles prevention

A live vaccine for VZV, marketed as Zostavax is considered to be an effective preventive medication.

Heart palpitation is a condition which causes you to become aware of your own heartbeats. It could be termed as an abnormality of heartbeat. Heart palpitation is a common situation that everyone experiences but when it happens frequently, it’s more likely a problem that should be investigated by a doctor.

Causes of heart palpitation

The most common causes of heart palpitation are alcohol, smoking, caffeine, panic attacks and drugs. The unusual causes of palpitations are ectopic beat or otherwise known as cardiac ectopy and diseases. Heart palpitation also occurs during blood loss, while exercising that creates shortage of oxygen in the body, an injury resulting in excessive pain and when anti-depressants are consumed.

Symptoms of heart palpitations

A person experiencing heart palpitations is not aware of anything happening in the surrounding but fully aware of only his own heartbeats. Some symptoms of palpitations are either momentary or prolonged. Common symptoms are shortness of breath, dizziness, pain in arms and legs that lasts for more than few hours and blackouts that requires medical examination.

People who have been experiencing blackouts or near blackouts, should take it seriously and consult a doctor immediately as blackouts often indicate presence of a heart disease.

Diagnosis of heart palpitations

It’s not easy to diagnose palpitations. When you visit a doctor you may not be experiencing palpitations and you will not be able to reproduce the conditions under which palpitations occur to you. In most cases, ECG and blood tests are conducted for diagnosis. Some patients are recommended longer ECG monitoring which usually lasts for 24 hours or longer and a certain type of ECG monitoring device is used to record the abnormal cardiac rhythm for further analysis. ECG is particularly helpful in findings a heart murmur or an abnormality of heartbeat that could point to the probable diagnosis.

Treatment of heart palpitations

The treatment of palpitation depends entirely on the underlying causes. Some patients experience palpitations when they consume anti-depressants. In this case, the treatment requires lower consumption of anti-depressants. Likewise, some patients experience palpitations when they consume coffee and hence the treatment requires caffeine intake reduction. Depending on the blood test results, the required treatment is given to the patients.

If palpitations occurs with blackouts or near blackouts, it should be taken seriously and a doctor must be consulted immediately.

What makes you think that the world will end on 12/21/2012? I can’t think of any reasons that could really end the world on the said date. Although, I can’t claim to have any ability to predict the future, I am of firm belief that the world possibly can’t end on the given day and you should not worry about it.

Alright! Let’s consider the possibility of world ending on December 21, 2012 and think of reasons that could actually make it happen. Mentioned below are some of the causes that having the potential to end the world or at least wipe out a majority of human population.

1. Global warming – The rate at which the global climate has been changing over last few years could have a major impact on the world but not to the extent that it will end the world on December 21, 2012. The impact is not going to end the world on December 21, 2012 only but will create problems for man kind to be able to lead a healthy life in near future.
2. Natural disasters – Earthquakes, volcanoes, Tsunamis, floods – all of these have the potential to create large disasters but none of them have what it takes to end the world.
3. Wars and Nuclear Bombs – This is a remote possibility and I am confident that even if any country decides to bomb all reachable destinations with its entire inventory of nuclear bombs, the world will still survive and man kind will not end.
4. Global financial crisis – We are yet to fully recover from the current financial crisis but a much worse crisis in 2012 would still not end the day on December 21, 2012. Financial crisis could make it difficult for us to survive but for sure will not end the world in a single day.

Ok, we had enough of the reasons that could possible occur in 2012 and the chances of all of them occurring in 2012 is likely but the world will not end in a single day. While I say that, I am thinking about those things that could really end our world on December 21, 2012. Mentioned below are some of the factors that could potentially end the world in a single day, although the probability of them happening in 2012 is less than 0.0001% or 0%.

1. Space invasion – Do you think earth could be invaded by aliens? Possibly a war with them in 2012 and they dropping a bomb on December 21, 2012 on our planet and our planet getting destroyed in no time. I can’t imagine that happening. Do you?
2. Deterioration of Earth’s magnetic field – Recently read about it somewhere and scientists all over the world are confident that it is not going to happen in near future at least. But if something were to go wrong with earth’s magnetic field, I am not sure if scientists would know what to do. Imagine all sea water floating in air if it really happens.
3. Asteroid – Otherwise also known as planetoids could possibly hit our planet and result in ending the world. We might be able to know about any asteroid coming towards earth much in advance and will be able to handle that.
4. Sun will switch off – We know a lot of how Sun works but there are things beyond our knowledge. If something happens to Sun, it could trigger end of mankind and life on planet earth. Something I can’t think will happen in next hundreds of years.

Conclusion: Earth will not end on December 21, 2012 but possibly it could be the starting day or perhaps the year when life threatening problems with begin. What’s your say?

Since last year I started having a breathing problem. Whenever I am in a cold area, such as office or home or in car with AC on, my nose seems to develop congestion and I start running short of breathing. I am also having to start using my mouth to breath whenever I feel that I need more air. Also, I can’t speak for more than couple of minutes but if I do, I run out of breath in almost no time.

A CT scan revealed that I had Ethmoid Sinusitis and Deviated Nasal Septum. I was shocked to know this! I never had any problem since my childhood, then how come I develop this problem now? I understand the deviated nasal septum part of the problem as over 80% of people have this but it doesn’t affect them in anyway until the sinuses are affected.

It took me couple of days to figure out how it all started. It was back in late 2007 when I moved to a different part of the building of my office. There used to be a AC duct right on top of my head. Initially, for several months, I had no problem with the cold air blowing on my head and face throughout the day but as time passed by, it had its impact on me. After almost 10 months of sitting in the same seat, I started facing some breathing problems after an hour I entered into the office. My nose was getting almost blocked and I was finding it very difficult to breath with my nose. I had to use my mouth very often to breath in and make myself comfortable. A month or two after that I got cold and when the cold was gone, the congestion remained and that’s when I visited an ENT doctor. The rest is history.

If you have recently developed similar problems or have started to experience breathing problem in last few weeks, here are my suggestions for you to avoid this problem from becoming into a serious issue in future. Make sure that you follow as much as you can, otherwise it can turn into a problem that will require clinical correction and long term medication.

1. Inspect the area where you sit in the office and try to change your seat. Choose an area where the cold air coming from the AC duct doesn’t hit your head and face directly.
2. If you can’t change your seat, starting wearing a cap and cover your head with it. If you can’t wear cap all the time, at least use it when you are at your desk.
3. In most offices, the conference rooms are usually much colder than the other areas of the office. Try to go early for meetings and occupy a chair that is not under the AC duct.
4. If you drive a car and use AC, change the direction of the blower such that it doesn’t blow cold air directly on your face. An hour of drive with AC blowing cold air on your face is more than enough to create an impact.
5. Try to avoid milk and milk based products for couple of months. On days when I don’t have milk in my breakfast, I have less congestion. The elements in milk produce strong anti bacteria agents in the body that help body produce mucus in the nose. Avoiding milk for sometime will be best for you.

All the above suggestions, except the last one about avoiding the milk, may be followed by anyone to avoid such breathing problems in future. If you have experienced this problem before and are cured now, please do let us know about the treatment you had followed. It will be helpful to our readers.

Initially I couldn’t believe about the benefits of yoga nidra until I experienced it myself. After I tried this CD for 20 mins and came out of nidra (sleep), I felt as if I had rested for several hours. I was relaxed and my mind was calm than before. The benefit of yoga nidra lasted for the entire day and I could feel the difference as I was very relaxed.

Yoga nidra is much more than a deep relaxation. It’s an experience that touches and awakens all parts of your being. If you don’t have access to a yoga school or yoga classes near your home and would like to experience yoga nidra, this relaxation audio CD by Swami Janakananda Saraswati is a must for you. This CD is also popularly known as saraswati yoga nidra meditation CD.

The CD contains two relaxation audio tracks, a short one (20 mins) and one long (45 mins). Both these tracks has Swami Janakananda’s voice which will guide you through yoga nidra and the background music of both these relaxation tracks have nature sounds like sound of birds, animals, sea shore etc., that will help your mind stay focused into listening to these tracks.

If you deal with stress on a daily basis, you definitely need this CD. It’s currently available on Amazon for only $14.

What is concentration? – It’s the ability of a person to stay focussed on a goal, deliverable or something that the person is trying to achieve. So, to improve your concentration, one thing that we must immediately do is remove all those factors that affect our concentration. That’s the first tip towards improving your concentration. Let’s now read the other ways to improve memory and concentration. These tips will be effective not only for adults but improve concentration in children also so that you will not have to send them to a concentration camp or rely on drugs.

Stop multi-tasking

People often take pride in their ability to do multitasking and still deliver. These are some exceptional people who have the skills to keep their focus intact on their goals and objectives. But then everyone is not alike. So, to begin with – work on only one task at one time. Do not let anything come in between your task and your goal. Until the task is completed, you shall not take another task otherwise you lose attention and since attention is the key to concentration, you will lose your concentration. Having said that, it’s not possible for everyone of us to avoid multitasking. In such cases, keep a written list of tasks and look at them several times a day but not while you are working on them. This will help you gradually improve your memory and concentration.

Over a period of time, when you concentration improves, you will notice that your ability to multi-task and still maintain your attention on every task also improves.

Keep the stress away

One of the important factors that affects a person’s ability to concentrate and remember the tasks is stress! There are many ways to stress management. One of the easiest way to relieve stress is listening to music of your liking. Music helps you lose stress. If you have a MP3 player, load it with soft music and carry it wherever you go. Whenever you feel stressed, listen to music for few minutes and then continue with your task. Another way of losing stress is by exercising. Exercise helps you lose stress.

It’s all in the mind

Don’t feel like doing a task? Do you want to postpone a task for tomorrow? It’s all in the mind. Just think through these words “It’s all in the mind – I can do this task and I will do it now“. Repeat those words in your mind for 3 times and immediately begin with your task. If you are unable to concentrate for more than 10 mins, take a short break and talk to yourself. Tell yourself about the benefits of doing the task. This will increase your mental concentration, motivate you and keep you going with the task until it’s completed.

Mind exercises are great

They not only improve your memory but also enhance your ability to maintain focus on a particular activity. The mind exercise is quiet simple – Close your eyes, visualize a pencil, pen or any other object of your choice and keep visualizing it till you can. I recommend against visualizing very large objects. You can even think about people whom you like. Once you have decided the object that you are going to visualize in your mind, visualize it and stay focussed on that object only. Don’t let anything come in between.

Other simple mind exercise is trying to empty your mind by not thinking of anything. It’s a very simple mind exercise but very beneficial to not only your mind but your overall health as well.

There are several other ways to increase your concentration. Some of the popular ones are meditation, exercising and maintaining a task list. The tips that we mentioned above are easy for anyone to follow and we hope they will be of a great help to you. Please feel free to communicate with us and tell us what you think, use the comments form below.

FDA recently approved a new drug called Savella that will offer pain relief to the patients suffering from Fibromyalgia disorder. There is no cure to Fibromyalgia, but those suffering from Fibromyalgia experience intense pain that prevents them from functioning properly. Savella is similar to some drugs that are used for the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. Savella is a dual-reuptake inhibitor that preferentially blocks the reuptake of norepinephrine with higher potency than serotonin (in-vitro), two neurotransmitters thought to a play a central role in the symptoms of fibromyalgia. Savella is the only product approved for the management of fibromyalgia that used this complete responder analysis as its primary endpoint.

via press release

Adolescent depression, also known as teen depression, occurs in teenage years and often involves feeling of hopelessness, lack of confidence in self, lack of motivation, loss of interest in friends, family and society. Symptoms of adolescent depression are often not understood by many parents and if treatment is not offered in time, depression can turn into a serious disorder.

Symptoms of adolescent depression

The following are the common depression symptoms that are easy to diagnose so that help can be offered in early stages of teen depression.

• Lack of confidence, motivation, energy and interest in daily activities.
• Unsual temper – you might know when your son or daughter start reacting for even minor issues.
• Staying locked in their rooms and not making contact with family members and friends.
• Change in appetite – they either eat more or very less (something you can notice easily).

Other depression symptoms are change in weight, quick reaction to criticism, ignoring parents and close friends, angry mood, easily frustrated etc.

What causes depressions in adolescent

There are both direct as well as indirect causes of depression in teens. Some of the causes of depression in teens are as follows:

• Depression is caused by the influence of sex hormones in teens.
• Strong conflict of opinion with close friends and family members can lead to depression.
• Excessive criticism by friends and family can lead to severe depression.
• Teens undergo normal maturation process and due to the stress associated with it, depression is caused.

Adolescent depression treatment

Let whatever the cause be, depression can be treated by either medication or therapy or both.

Medication mostly involves antidepressant in small doses. Some antidepressant are not approved for use in children and teens. You may want to consult the doctor about potential side effects and risks of using antidepressant to treat your teen. Therapy is used in situations when depression has been caused because of conflicts with family members. Psychotherapy often helps to a large extent and treatment can be delivered without any medications.

Consult a doctor immediately if you spot any of the above symptoms in your teen.