Smart Guidance

The Role of Personal Development, Challenging Mindset, and Healthy Mind and Body in Your Success

2019-03-04T11:43:00.001+05:00

Life is filled with challenges and we never know what kind of challenges are going to take place in our lives. However, the research shows that if a person is visionary and undertake appropriate action with proper calculations then the door of achievements are opened. Primarily, in order to be unstoppable, you need to understand your personality, because once you understand your personality then you will start reaching on the path of achievements. There are numerous requirements to be unstoppable and one of the most imperative requirements is self-improvement. Evidently, people do not focus on their own personality, skills, and preferences; conversely, they want to change the world. It is vital to understand that before changing the world you need to improve your personality. Once you improve your personality and develop mandatory skills to be successful, then you will be able to change the world. Thus, self-improvement is necessary to be unstoppable, and the most imperative part of self-improvement is self-awareness.

A Linkage of Better Health and Challenging Approach in Actions

In addition to this, as per the understanding of successful people, consistency is a highly effective technique to be successful and unstoppable in your career journey. Despite all kinds of challenges of life never stop actions, as well as do not try to seek excuses to get rid of challenges. Besides it, despite the fact that the importance of challenging approach cannot be ignored but until and unless you are not fully aware of your personality you will not be able to beat challenges of life. Therefore, self-improvement along with self-awareness is a first and major step to go on the path of success and achievements. Furthermore, in order to acquire a challenging approach in your life, you must have better health because health is a decisive factor to gain courage that road to success and prosperity. As a result, challenging approach and good health are interlinked with each other.

Calculated Risk-taking to Gain Success and Prosperity

Besides it, according to research and observation fear is one of the biggest enemies of your success, before undertaking big decisions you must have a power of risk taking and decision making. Taking risks indicate your confidence, whereas, fearful personality refer to weak personality, thereby, in order to be standout in the crowd you must have a power of decision making and risk taking. Fear to failure stop you to take actions, and it is vital to understand that action-oriented approach can help in achieving valuable things in your life including, experience, challenging mindset, and understanding to tackle challenging situations and so on. According to my observation, people who do not take risks they want to stay in comfort zone, conversely, risk-taking people come out from their comfort zone and adopt challenges that become a cause of success and prosperity in their lives. However, here I want to clear that risk-taking should not be based upon your emotional feelings and excitements; conversely, a calculated risk-taking is the best step to gain success and prosperity in life.

Mentally and Emotionally Strong to be Successful

According to my understanding, mentally and emotionally strong people easily handle challenging situations, thereby, in order to develop challenging behavior you need to obtain better mental and emotional health. Usually, motivational speakers do not emphasize on health and only talk about psychology. Whereas, the reality is completely different a person who is healthy at the level of mind and emotions he or she will be able to handle every kind of challenging situations easily. I assure you that if you are mentally and emotionally weak then you may suffer in handling challenging situations, this is why you have to evaluate your personality whether you are mentally strong or weak. Consequently, this aspect of your personality can play a major role in success and prosperity. As a result, in order to be unstoppable you must have to improve your personality through self-awareness, and without wasting time on excuses you should try to improve your personality from every aspect including, health, experience, psychology, and others so that you will be able to unstoppable in every field of life.

Gonorrhea as a Communicable Disease, symptoms, transmission, Demographics, and Treatment Plan

2019-02-27T22:51:00.002+05:00

Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases are known as infectious diseases or transmissible diseases. These are the diseases that may take place due to numerous causes such as infection, presence, and growth of the pathogen or biological agents in an individual. Furthermore, communicable diseases spread from one person to another through a variety of ways such as breathing, coughing, contact with blood or bodily fluids, sexual intercourse and fecal/oral transmission. The prevention of communicable diseases is necessary to bring health and wellness in society, according to statistics, the prevalence rate of communicable disease is increasing all across the world (AMELI, 2015). Gonorrhea is one of the sexually transmitted infections that can affect both men and women because this infection may occur in the genitals, rectum, and throat. It is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Signs and Symptoms of Gonorrhea

There are numerous symptoms of Gonorrhea, however, the symptoms of gonorrhea are different in men and women. As far as men’s symptoms are concerned, men may develop symptoms like inflammation of the penile urethra, burning sensation while urinating, and discharge from the penis. On the other hand, women may have symptoms such as vaginal discharge, pain in lower abdomen, pain with sexual intercourse, and inflammation of the uterine cervix. In general, both men and women suffer from fatigue or feeling or tiredness. Rarely, gonorrhea may lead to skin lesions, joint infection, endocarditis, and prostate cancer. However, one more thing is imperative to understand regarding the symptoms of Gonorrhea that it may be presented as asymptomatic. Therefore, a patient should take it seriously and consultation with a doctor is the best option to obtain expert advise (Piszczek, St. Jean & Khaliq, 2015).

Mode of Transmission

Gonorrhea can spread through sexual intercourse with an infected person through vaginal, oral or anal sex. It is transmitted by contact with exudates from mucous membranes of the infected people. Also, it can be transmitted through mother to child during pregnancy or during childbirth. The baby can develop gonococcal conjunctivitis if they had contact with the mother’s infected canal. It can also spread through contaminated objects such as body fluid from infected persons. In addition, it is possible that once a person got infected by Gonorrhea, he or she is more likely to infected again.

Complications and Treatment

Gonorrhea encompasses numerous complications if it is left untreated, then this infection can spread into the uterus and fallopian tubes that cause pelvic inflammatory disease resulting in scarring of the tubes. Furthermore, it may lead to complications in pregnancy and infertility. In men, gonorrhea can cause epididymitis that becomes a source of inflammation around the tubes in the testicles can carry semen. Apart from this, gonorrhea can also cause other potential complications such as infection of skin, joints, and eyes. Antibiotics can be used to treat gonorrhea. Injectable ceftriaxone is one of the most effective antibiotics given in combination with azithromycin or doxycycline. Infected eyes may be treated with proper personal hygiene and medications. Partners should use condoms and other precautions in order to prevent spreading the infection.

Demographic of prevalence

In the US, gonorrhea is the second most common STD’s, however, chlamydia remains the top leading cause of STD’s. In 2017, 555,608 cases of gonorrhea were reported in the US, and with the passage of time, the rate of cases are increasing because of unawareness and unsafe sexual practices. Comparatively, the rate of gonorrhea is higher in males approximately 19.3% whereas in females it is 17.8%. According to the CDC, at least 2 million people in the US get infected with bacteria and at least 23,000 die each year (CDC, 2016).

A treatment plan to Remove Gonorrhea

There are two kinds of treatment processes to get rid of Gonorrhea infection, one is pharmacological treatment process, another is a non-pharmacological treatment process. Every patient must give priority to pharmacological treatment because it is a sensitive issue and it can develop numerous other health problems if left untreated. Therefore, if any symptom takes place which I have discussed above, immediately you should consult with any credible Urologist because a specialist provides an accurate treatment through proper diagnosis. As a result, the considerable option is prescribed treatment of specialist instead of self-medication, because this infection cannot be treated without having proper antibiotics (Suay-García, Pérez-Gracia, 2018). However, if symptoms are not chronic then here I want to mention some non-pharmacological options to treat Gonorrhea which are as follows.

· Coconut oil is one of the best options to treat Gonorrhea naturally because this oil is naturally anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral. Thereby, this oil can help in reducing the risks of Gonorrhea.

· Garlic is also an effective natural remedy to treat Gonorrhea because it contains antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal properties. Furthermore, it is an immune boosting herb thereby, to treat Gonorrhea garlic should be taken daily.

References

AMELI, J. (2015). Communicable Diseases and Outbreak Control. Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine, 15(1), 20-26. doi: https://doi.org/10.5505/1304.7361.2015.19970

CDC. (2016). Gonorrhea - 2016 STD Surveillance Report. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/Gonorrhea.htm

Hill, S., Masters, T., & Wachter, J. (2016). Gonorrhea – an evolving disease of the new millennium. Microbial Cell, 3(9), 371-389. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.09.524

Piszczek, J., St. Jean, R., & Khaliq, Y. (2015). Gonorrhea. Canadian Pharmacists Journal / Revue Des Pharmaciens Du Canada, 148(2), 82-89. doi: 10.1177/1715163515570111

Suay-García, Pérez-Gracia, B. (2018). Future Prospects for Neisseria gonorrhoeae Treatment. MDPI Journal, 07(02), 49. doi: doi: 10.3390/antibiotics7020049

Gastroesophageal Re-flux Disease’s Symptoms, Diagnostic tools, and Treatment Plan

2019-02-25T23:52:00.000+05:00

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a digestive disorder which refers to the upward movement of stomach content into esophagus, caused by the less functionality of lower esophageal sphincter. The food passes from the esophagus into the stomach and the lower esophageal sphincter prevents its backward flow. It occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter becomes weak and cannot prevent the upward flow of the stomach acid or food content. The backward flow of acid or stomach content causes irritation and sometimes inflammation of the esophageal lining which is termed as heartburn. The major risk factors for GERD are obesity, slow stomach emptying, pregnancy, and hiatal hernia. A hiatal hernia is a bulging-up of the stomach which is thought to have a contribution in casing the weakness of lower esophageal sphincter.

Associated Signs and Symptoms

GERD is a digestive complication in which irritation of esophageal wall occurs with acid reflux from the stomach due to weakening lower esophageal sphincter. The upward flow of stomach acid causes multiple symptoms which include heartburn, dysphagia, and food or liquid regurgitation (Badillo, 2014). It can also exhibit respiratory symptoms such as chronic cough, worsening asthma, and laryngitis (Badillo, 2014). Acid reflux at night aggravates the symptoms which can cause sleep disturbances. The acid reflux from the stomach causes burning pain in the chest due to the irritation of esophageal wall which is termed as Heartburn. Swallowing difficulties arise with the backing up of acid from the stomach; it usually occurs in severe cases. Chronic cough and asthma can be induced directly when acid approached the airways or indirectly by neurologic inflammation. The acid reflux can cause the irritation of nerves present at the esophageal end which mediates the bronchial reactivity and decreases expiratory flow (Ates & Vaezi, 2014).

Screening Assessment Tools

Screening of the patients' symptoms is required before conducting further diagnostic testing to prevent excessive tests. A comprehensive history of the patient's present illness is a first step in assessing the nature of the disease. Through the patient’s history the onset of heartburn, swallowing difficulty and food or liquid regurgitation can be helpful in determining the disease. Physical examinations regarding the presence of physical symptoms such as chest pain, chronic cough, and laryngitis can also assist a healthcare provider in assessing the root cause of the present illness. Furthermore, the diagnostic testing of the patient is required for the final evaluation of patient condition.

Recommended Diagnostic Tests

For the diagnosis of GERD, ambulatory acid probe test is performed to measure pH or amount of acid that flows into the esophagus from the stomach during a 24-hour period. X-ray is done after swallowing barium liquid which coats the lining of throat, stomach, and intestine, which enables the healthcare provider to observe the problems in the organ. Endoscopy of the esophagus and the upper part of the stomach is performed by inserting a tiny camera through a long and thin tube, to inspect the inner lining of the digestive tract for possible damage. Manometry is another process through which the rhythmic muscle contractions of esophagus are observed (Katz, Gerson & Vela, 2013).

Pharmacological Treatment Plans

The treatment provided for GERD is based on reducing acid production, acid neutralization and controlling the movement of the lower esophageal sphincter. For these purpose antacids, H-2 receptor blockers and proton pump inhibitors are recommended (Katz, Gerson & Vela, 2013). Antacids neutralize the acid, while H-2 receptor blockers reduce the acid production. Proton pump inhibitors also decrease the acid production, therefore, when the acid backs up into esophagus it becomes less irritating. However, in severe cases, laparoscopic surgery is recommended to prevent reflux by wrapping the stomach around the esophageal sphincter.

Non-Pharmacological Treatment Plan

Nonpharmacologic interventions require modification in lifestyle and eating habits, here I want to share important steps regarding lifestyle changes to reduce the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease which are as follows:

First of all, maintaining a healthy weight is necessary, thereby, if you are obese then you need to reduce your weight.
Secondly, you have to reduce the production of acid, the production of acid can be reduced through consuming ginger, vegetables, banana, melons, oatmeal, and so on.
Avoid alcohol and smoking, from your lifestyle these all both things are unhealthy for your gastroesophageal reflux diseases, and consumption of these things can produce extreme adverse effects. Besides it, avoid junk and spicy food, chocolate, caffeine, carbonated beverages, because these all foods increase the acid and ultimately lead reflux in the stomach (Ness-Jensen, Hveem, El-Serag & Lagergren, 2016).
A small meal is the best option to reduce the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease because a large meal may enhance the pressure of the stomach and because of pressure reflux occur in the stomach.
Do not lie down after having a meal, and most importantly, dinner should be consumed three hours before going in bed.

These lifestyle changes may help you in preventing and improving gastroesophageal reflux disease.

References

Ates, F., & Vaezi, M. (2014). Insight into the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and asthma. Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 10(11), 729–736. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5395714/

Badillo, R. (2014). Diagnosis and treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease. World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 5(3), 105. http://dx.doi.org/10.4292/wjgpt.v5.i3.105

Katz, P., Gerson, L., & Vela, M. (2013). Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 108(3), 308-328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ajg.2012.444

Ness-Jensen, E., Hveem, K., El-Serag, H., & Lagergren, J. (2016). Lifestyle Intervention in Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Clinical Gastroenterology And Hepatology, 14(2), 175-182.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2015.04.176

Arthritis Diseases, Epidemiology and its Treatment Options

2019-02-24T19:53:00.000+05:00

Arthritis is one of the painful diseases for affected people, however, in order to be fully aware of this health problem. You must understand that arthritis is not a single disease, in fact, it includes more than 100 diseases that affect joints and several other connective tissues of the joint. Arthritis causes painful inflammation and stiffness of the joints. There are several kinds of arthritis including, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Gout and childhood arthritis and so on. In the United States, the most common type of arthritis is Osteoarthritis. However, any person may become a patient of arthritis because of several risk factors such as Genetics, lifestyle, obesity, and environment (Shi, Dai, & Xu, 2015).

Epidemiology of Arthritis

According to health statistics in the US, from 2013 to 2015 approximately 54.4 (22.7%) million adults suffered because of arthritis. The research shows that arthritis disease is more likely to increase after crossing 40 years of age, and women are mostly affected than men. On the other hand, in children, the most common type of arthritis is Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). However, the prevalence of arthritis varies by state. The adults in Hawaii have 17.2%, in West Virginia, it is 33.6% in 2015. In the US from 2013-2015, 7.1 % of people aged 18 to 44 years have been diagnosed. 49.6% of cases of arthritis were diagnosed in people above 65 years of age. Furthermore, it has been observed that arthritis is more commonly experienced by women than men. 26% in women and 19.1% in men was reported from 2013-2015. Also, 4.4 million Hispanic adults were diagnosed with arthritis. It has been estimated that 78 million (26%) of US adults ages 18 years or older will be projected to have doctor-diagnosed arthritis by 2040 (Barbour, Helmick, Boring & Brady, 2014). Arthritis is one of the leading cause of disability and pain in the US. While the prevalence of Osteoarthritis has been doubled over time, the prevalence of Rheumatoid arthritis has declined.

Treatment Options for Arthritis Patients

You must remember one important point that arthritis cannot be treated only through lifestyle changes, or by using only natural remedies, conversely, a patient needs a proper treatment by consulting any expert of orthopedics. However, I must say healthy diet plan and a healthy lifestyle can assist in decreasing the associated health risks of arthritis. The best option is to consult any credible specialist of bone health so that you will obtain proper guidance, as well as specialist, will monitor your disease and manage health risks appropriately. Before initiating treatment process, primarily, an orthopedic specialist emphasizes on the diagnosis of the disease, once a genius arthritis condition is diagnosed then treatment process is carried out. According to the condition of patient numerous treatment options are available, for instance, in several cases, advanced therapies and medication both can be prescribed simultaneously to treat arthritis patients. In addition to this, a credible and honest physician not only provides treatment but also encourage patients for the self-management of disease. It is vital to understand for arthritis patients that by increasing their physical activities they can manage and prevent arthritis.

Natural Process to Decrease the Symptoms of Arthritis

According to dietitians, an arthritis patient should add several nutritious foods in the daily diet to obtain ease from a disease.

Vitamin C is an important source to stop the progression of arthritis, and for consuming vitamin C rich fruits you can have, pineapple, kiwi, strawberries and citrus fruits.
Broccoli is a natural remedy for the treatment of arthritis, and garlic has an anti-inflammatory effect to decrease the symptoms of arthritis.
Fatty fish is another food to reducing inflammation, specifically, salmon and tuna both have healthy effects to treat arthritis.
Walnuts are high in omega 3 fatty acids that decrease the symptoms of arthritis, according to numerous experimental studies, having walnuts played an effective role in providing ease to arthritis patients.

Furthermore, in order to decrease the symptoms of arthritis and to prevent this disease, other than above-mentioned foods several other foods may be added to produce healing effects for the arthritis patients.

References

Barbour, K., Helmick, C., Boring, M., & Brady, T. (2014). Vital Signs: Prevalence of Doctor-Diagnosed Arthritis and Arthritis-Attributable Activity Limitation — United States, 2013–2015. MMWR. Morbidity And Mortality Weekly Report, 66(9), 246-253. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6609e1

Shi, D., Dai, J., & Xu, Z. (2015). Update on basic and clinical aspects of osteoarthritis. Annals Of Transnational Medicine, 03(10). doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2305-5839.2015.06.13

Verhoeven, F., Tordi, N., Prati, C., Demougeot, C., Mougin, F., & Wendling, D. (2016). Physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Joint Bone Spine, 83(3), 265-270. doi: 10.1016/j.jbspin.2015.10.002

Causes and Symptoms of Iron Deficiency Anemia and Diet Plan to Fight with

2019-02-23T13:21:00.001+05:00

According to the World Health Organization’s study, iron-deficiency anemia is one of the most common health problems all across the world, specifically; this health problem is prevalent in developing countries. There are more than 400 types of anemia present, among them, the most common types are sickle cell anemia, Aplastic anemia, hemolytic anemia, vitamin deficiency anemia, and iron deficiency anemia. As far as iron-deficiency anemia is concerned, this health issue is caused by a deficiency of iron that happens when the body lacks the ability to store iron needed for the production of normal red blood cells (RBC) (Desalegn, Mossie & Gedefaw, 2014). Due to the inefficiency of iron to support RBC production, the rest of the body gets deprived of the amount of oxygen required. When the body has sufficient iron as per requirement, the rest of the iron travels to the cells and stores in the form of ferritin complexes, mostly involving the cells of bone marrow and liver. Since iron is considered as an essential component of the hemoglobin, it is important for the production of red blood. When iron is not enough to be used by the body, the body starts using stored iron ferritin (Govus, Garvican-Lewis, Abbiss, Peeling & Gore, 2015) producing red blood cells normally, when this stored iron is also depleted due to the excessive usage by the body, blood formation starts to deplete, eventually leading to iron deficiency anemia.

Most of the people don’t realize that they are suffering from this condition even when they experience symptoms for years. Moreover, the women of childbearing age generally suffer from iron-deficiency anemia; the most common cause of this condition in these women is the heavy menstruation or pregnancy. Sometimes, medical conditions such as stomach ulcers, polyps in the colon or intestine can cause internal bleeding to happen ultimately cause iron deficiency anemia (Coad & Pedley, 2014). Furthermore, certain medical surgeries can affect the normal ability of the intestine to absorb the iron; celiac disease or surgery such as gastric bypass can limit the absorption of iron, even when your diet involves a large amount of iron intake, they become the reason for iron deficiency (Freeman, 2015). People with iron-deficiency anemia may experience fatigue, leg cramps on climbing stair, poor performance, light-headed, headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath and fast or irregular heartbeats (Judd & Antaki, 2014).

Foods to Fight Iron-deficiency Anemia

In order to fight and beat iron-deficiency anemia, you need to be attentive and extra-ordinary careful in terms of diet. Here I want to share highly nutritious foods to fight against Iron-deficiency Anemia.

Dark Leafy Green Vegetables

Dark leafy green vegetables are highly recommended diet by the dietitian to fight iron-deficiency anemia. Spinach is one of the important sources of iron, and Spinach is high in oxalates. This is a compound that helps in prevention for the absorption of nonheme iron. Likewise, Kale is also a dark leafy Green vegetable, and it is also an effective source of iron and high in oxalates.

Vitamin C Rich Citrus Fruits

Vitamin C is an effective source for the absorption of iron in your stomach. If you eat dark leafy green along with vitamin C citrus fruits such as oranges, strawberries, grapefruits, will help you easily recover deficiency of iron. Furthermore, vitamin C citrus fruits help in boosting the immune system which is necessary to fight with diseases and health problems. As a result, a combination of dark green leafy vegetables can help in fighting iron-deficiency anemia.

Red Meat

People who are suffering because of iron-deficiency anemia, they must intake red meat daily such as, beef, mutton, and others. However, as I mentioned earlier that for the absorption of iron vitamin C is necessary, thereby, in order to maximize your iron absorption vitamin C citrus fruits and consume beef or mutton as well, so that you will easily able to recover from iron-deficiency anemia.

Nuts and Seeds

According to dietitians, numerous nuts and seeds are high sources of iron. Specifically, some nuts and seeds can help you in fighting iron-deficiency anemia such as almonds, cashews, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and more. You can eat these nuts and seeds in breakfast to improve your productivity for the whole day. Furthermore, the addition of these nuts and seeds in your diet will help not only to recover from iron-deficiency anemia, but it is also a healthy diet for your mental health.

References

Bruinvels, G., Burden, R., Brown, N., Richards, T., & Pedlar, C. (2016). The prevalence and impact of heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia) in elite and non-elite athletes. PLOS ONE, 11(2), e0149881. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149881.

Coad, J., & Pedley, K. (2014). Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in women. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 74(sup244), 82-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00365513.2014.936694

Desalegn, A., Mossie, A., & Gedefaw, L. (2014). Nutritional iron deficiency anemia: Magnitude and its predictors among school-age children, southwest ethiopia: Acommunity based cross-sectional study. Plos ONE, 9(12), e114059. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114059

Freeman, H. (2015). Iron deficiency anemia in celiac disease. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 21(31), 9233. http://dx.doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v21.i31.9233

Govus, A., Garvican-Lewis, L., Abbiss, C., Peeling, P., & Gore, C. (2015). Pre-altitude serum ferritin levels and daily oral iron supplement dose mediate iron parameter and hemoglobin mass responses to altitude exposure. PLOS ONE, 10(8), e0135120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135120

Judd, S., & Antaki, F. (2014). A Rare Finding on Evaluation for Iron Deficiency Anemia. Gastroenterology, 146(1), e8-e9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2013.08.003

Tobacco Addiction is like a Slow Poison

2019-02-21T14:03:00.001+05:00

Smoking is one of the deadly habits among youth, and day by day, this habit is increasing in society, even this habit shaped into a lifestyle. According to statistics, approximately 6.4 million young people suffer premature mortality because of smoke-related diseases. Along with this, more than 350 teenagers try smoking, and ultimately, they become regular smoker due to its addiction.

Smoking and its Negative Impact on your Health

If I evaluate the tobacco addiction in the light of medical studies, a cigarette contains nicotine, and nicotine is a highly addictive drug, and it is most likely to affect your brain. Furthermore, there are numerous health issues are associated with smoking such as lung cancer, bronchitis, dull vision and eye-sight, anxiety and irritability, cardiovascular diseases and so on. Basically, tobacco contains carbon monoxide that you inhale through cigarette; it contributes to a lack of oxygen and even makes the heart work harder.

Avoid Smoking to Live a Happy and Healthy Life

The numbers of studies revealed that smoking in the early period damage several parts of the brain. Furthermore, the presence of nicotine in cigarettes stimulates persistent change in the neural connectivity of brain namely: nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex, and according to physicians, smoking may affect several areas of the brain because it is the overuse of nicotine. You must remember that these all areas of the brain regulate your emotions, and overuse of tobacco can be detrimental for emotional stability. Therefore, you should quit smoking as early as possible to start a happy, healthy and productive life. Furthermore, if you love sports and athletics, you never try smoking because it leads to impaired lung function and wheezing, and because of the smocking your stamina will down and it will affect your athletic performances (Harvey & Chadi, 2016).

Recommendations for the US Government to Overcome Smoking Addiction

The government of the United States should undertake a strong action to implement tobacco policy for its prohibition in public places. In addition to this, the Government and healthcare departments should initiate awareness campaigns to control the smoking habit of the young generation. Besides it, there are numerous strategies can be applied to overcome this menace of society. According to my understanding, the most effective strategies are individual counseling, motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). As far as therapy is concerned, healthcare professionals can use this therapy to assist teenagers in clarifying their goals and beliefs related to smoking. On the other hand, counseling session would take not more than 3 to 5 minutes to perform. These approaches should be practiced by highly qualified and trained physicians (Harvey & Chadi, 2016). Most importantly, in order to cease smoking from the habits of youth, taxes should be imposed on tobacco products so that it will be less affordable. Furthermore, the companies of tobacco must print smoking-associated health warnings on the packages of cigarettes because warning will draw the attention of smokers to leave this unhealthy habit. Above all, to discourage smoking, it should be banned at public places such as schools, child care centers, parks, hospitals, and cars transporting minors so that people will not easily smock in the public places (Harvey & Chadi, 2016).

References

Harvey, J., & Chadi, N. (2016). Preventing smoking in children and adolescents: Recommendations for practice and policy. Paediatrics & Child Health, 21(4), 209-214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pch/21.4.209

Harvey, J., & Chadi, N. (2016). Strategies to promote smoking cessation among adolescents. Paediatrics & Child Health, 21(4), 201-204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pch/21.4.201

An Action Plan to Treat or Prevent Congestive Heart Failure

2019-02-19T12:56:00.003+05:00

Heart failure is one of the common diseases and the leading cause of death in all across the United States. Heart failure (HF), sometimes referred to as congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic progressive condition occurs when the heart muscle does not pump enough blood to the body. The most common causes of CHF are hypertension, coronary artery disease, alcohol abuse, and obesity. HF is a life-threatening clinical condition that requires prompt medical attention. Apart from the pharmacologic therapies for CHF, there is a wide variety of nonpharmacologic treatment such as weight control, ventilatory support, ultrafiltration, diet and nutrition, drug counseling, physical activities, and other lifestyle modification therapies (Shah, Pellicori, Cuthbert & Clark, 2017).

Proposed Health Services/Interventions for CHF Patients

Heart failure has become a significant public health problem with an increased incidence and prevalence. The burden of HF effects the individuals, their environment, and overall society. Pharmacological treatment only does not found to improve the morbidity and mortality rates associated with chronic HF. There is still a lot to gain from nonpharmacological therapies and appropriate health management in order to improve the quality of life and patient outcomes. Some of the interventions or services that can be provided to CHF patients are as follows:

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over to improve their health. This can be achieved by a variety of interventions such as education, behavioral and lifestyle modifications, dietary counseling etc. The CHF patients in this study are advised to follow the basic principles of health promotion and illness prevention to prevent disease progression and its severity.

Education A Cost-Effective Intervention

Patient education is the foremost important intervention for the management of heart failure. In order to prevent the severity and progression of the disease, the patients should be well informed and educated about the factors that can accelerate the progression. This is the most cost-effective intervention as patients in this intervention acquire assistance in relation to decision making, behavior control, acquiring knowledge and skills(Zamanzadeh, Valizadeh, Howard & Jamshidi, 2013). The education given to the patients about the disease-illness helps them to adopt self-care behaviors which can potentially assist patients to effectively manage this chronic condition and prevent worsening of the disease. Education should be provided by considering their cultural values and practices.

Behavioral and Lifestyle Modifications

Apart from educational intervention, another cost-effective intervention includes behavioral and lifestyle modification interventions or self-management interventions. The patient needs to change their lifestyle behaviors in order to prevent disease progression and to promote health and well being. The patient may need to learn behaviors such as cease smoking and alcohol consumption, restrict their sodium, cholesterol and fluid intake, exercise regularly to prevent weight gain, and other behaviors that increase the risk of disease progression. The concept of self-management is that the patients must experience some sense of control(Toukhsati, Driscoll & Hare, 2015). Not only these patients should change their nutritional or dietary habits and maintain their body mass index, blood pressure, but they should also evaluate these implemented interventions and monitor them in order to assess the effectiveness of these interventions.

Regular Assessments/Monitoring

Despite educating the patients with appropriate and adequate knowledge about the disease and its severity, another role of population health nurse is to assess their vitals on daily basis in order to prevent the severity of the disease. Measurements include BMI, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, assess orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, examine pitting edema, observer jugular venous pressure and distension, review chest x-ray and lung exam results, ascites, Measure BNP, NT-pro BNP levels, use echocardiography and conduct the hemodynamic evaluation with cardiac catheterization. Population health nurse should assess and monitor these vital signs in order to prevent risk and disease severity. This is an important step in managing patients with CHF and is significant in the process of risk and disease, and care management.

Exercise Training in old Patients with CHF

Many kinds of research have revealed that regular aerobic training increases exercise capacity and cardiac systolic function of patients with CHF. This is strongly recommended in such patients to improve left ventricular ejection fraction and quality of life. In CHF patients, dyspnea and fatigue limit the ability to perform physical ability and aerobic exercise which leads to progressive deconditioning. Therefore, it is significant to improve exercise capacity especially in elderly with chronic HF(PI & HU, 2016).

Risk Management and Care Coordination

Apart from non-pharmacological treatment for CHF, there is a wide variety of therapeutics that are being used by the patients with CHF. They use diuretics, beta blockers, and other drugs that have adverse effects and can cause serious risks and comorbid conditions such as electrolyte imbalance. Regular monitoring and risk management is required when managing and dealing with CHF patients. Care coordination is yet another significant factor when dealing with CHF patients. The care coordinating team of the hospital can support and help provide the quality care to the patients based on their needs and demands. This is because older age is the age where great attention is required by the physicians. Also, the family and guardians of the patients may be advised to follow the care plan for them and provide emotional and physical support to the patients. This is another significant role played by the family members because they should know and understand the severity and progression of the disease and its associated desired treatment and services given to the patient.

Disease Management

Heart failure is the most common diagnosis at hospital discharge in patients over 65 years. Also, the risk of death is greater in the elderly. Hence it is important for patients to manage their disease as suggested by the healthcare professionals. According to my observation, several disease management, health promotion, and disease prevention programs can be developed and implemented in which one of the main tasks to address is the complexity of care for heart failure patients. Heart failure can be occurred due to several reasons such as age factor, multiple comorbid conditions, and side effects of the drugs. Disease management involves educating and informing patients about the disease and ways or strategies to control it effectively. Through these programs, CHF patients will understand and follow the management process and care plan for managing the disease (Moertl et al., 2017).

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier that congestive heart failure is a prevalent disease in the elderly group. This population is unique with other multiple comorbid conditions in addition to cognitive, and functional changes. Health care professionals need to be equipped with evidence-based knowledge, facts, and tools to provide quality care and assure excellent comprehensive care not only by addressing the heart failure issues but the individual as a whole. By implementing several important interventions/services to such population, the disease will be managed not only in the individual but the whole population. By applying population health and disease management techniques, the rates of morbidity and mortalities associated with CHF with be reduced which will ultimately improve patient outcomes and their quality of life.

References

Ariosto, D., Harper, E., Wilson, M., Hull, S., Nahm, E., & Sylvia, M. (2018). Population health: a nursing action plan. JAMIA Open, 1(1), 7-10. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooy003

Moertl, D., Altenberger, J., Bauer, N., Berent, R., Berger, R., & Boehmer, A. et al. (2017). Disease management programs in chronic heart failure. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 129(23-24), 869-878. doi: 10.1007/s00508-017-1265-0

PI, H., &HU, X. (2016). Nursing care in old patients with heart failure: current status and future perspectives. Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, 13(5), 387–390. doi: 10.11909/j.issn.1671-5411.2016.05.019

Shah, P., Pellicori, P., Cuthbert, J., & Clark, A. (2017). Pharmacological and Non-pharmacological Treatment for Decompensated Heart Failure: What Is New?. Current Heart Failure Reports, 14(3), 147-157. doi: 10.1007/s11897-017-0328-x

Toukhsati, S., Driscoll, A., & Hare, D. (2015). Patient Self-Management In Chronic Heart Failure — Establishing Concordance Between Guidelines And Practice. Cardiac Failure Review, 1(2), 128. doi: 10.15420/cfr.2015.1.2.128

Zamanzadeh, V., Valizadeh, L., Howard, A., & Jamshidi, F. (2013). A Supportive-Educational Intervention for Heart Failure Patients in Iran: The Effect on Self-Care Behaviours. Nursing Research and Practice, 2013, 1-7. doi: 10.1155/2013/492729

Natural Options to Cure or Prevent Osteoporosis

2019-02-17T12:22:00.002+05:00

Osteoporosis is a condition that weakens bones; it develops slowly over several years. However, this weakness or diseases is mainly found in women who are being 50 years of age or more. There are numerous common symptoms of osteoporosis including, chronic pain, bone fracture, the stooped posture of the body and so on. The osteoporosis is developed through a reduction in skeletal mass caused by an imbalance between bone re-absorption and bone formation (Sozen, Ozisik & Calik Basaran, 2017). Despite the fact that in several conditions of osteoporosis, proper medical treatment is necessary to obtain relief, however, here I want to discuss important lifestyle changes and diet selection to cure or prevent osteoporosis which are as follows.

Importance of Calcium and Vitamin D for your Bone Health

Calcium is one of the necessary minerals that your body requires on the daily basis for numerous functions of the body, and it plays a main role in strengthening the bones. Furthermore, calcium assists in the functioning of your heart, nerves and several other functions of the body. Unfortunately, in today’ busy lifestyle neither we are aware regarding the daily consumption of calcium nor we add calcium-rich foods in our diet. Thus, because of the low supply of calcium to your body and bones, several areas of the body are affected, thereby, in order to strengthen your bones you need to have calcium-rich diet daily. Along with calcium, vitamin D and other important sources are also important to cure or prevent osteoporosis (Kling, Clarke & Sandhu, 2014).

Important Diet Additions for the Osteoporosis Treatment

Dairy Food
Fish
Ashwagandha
Green Leafy Vegetables

Dairy Food

Dairy food is utmost necessary to fulfill the dietary requirements of calcium such as milk, butter, yogurt, cheese and so on. These dairy foods provide not only calcium to your body but it also serves vitamin D, protein and other nutritious sources. Thereby, by adding the appropriate quantity of dairy food in your diet you can improve your bone health. As a result, to cure or prevent osteoporosis naturally, you need to have proper dairy food in your diet because it will assist in overcoming the weakness of your bones (Sahni, Mangano, McLean, Hannan & Kiel, 2015).

Fish

Fish is one of the best dietary sources of calcium coupled with vitamin D, and the combination of calcium and vitamin both are essential for bone health. Therefore, in order to cure or prevent osteoporosis, you need to have fish at least once in a weak. Along with calcium and vitamin D, fish is an important source of Omega 3 fatty acid that is necessary for your brain health. As a result, the addition of fish in your diet not only strengthen your bones but it also provides nutrition to your brain (Sahni, Mangano, McLean, Hannan & Kiel, 2015).

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is an Indian herb, and it is highly beneficial for bone health. Most commonly, people are unaware of the health benefits of this herb. This herb aids bone healing and forms new bones, and it is effective to treat osteoporosis condition. Thereby, you must have one teaspoon of ashwagandha's powder in the morning or before sleeping in the night. This herb will provide the ultimate strength to your bone.

Leafy Green Vegetables

Leafy green vegetables are an extremely healthy diet for bone health because it is a rich source of organic calcium. Basically, osteoporosis patients need new bone development and maintenance of bone density and strength. Thus, leafy green vegetables will provide proper calcium to your body, however; in order to cure or prevent osteoporosis, you should add leafy green vegetables in your diet such as Kale, Spinach, mustard green, and more (Sahni, Mangano, McLean, Hannan & Kiel, 2015).

Foods to Avoid for the Treatment and Prevention of Osteoporosis

Soft drink
Overuse of Meat
Avoid overuse of salt and caffeine
Raw foods vs. Processed foods

Soft Drinks

According to several kinds of research, most of the soft drinks and carbonated waters contain phosphoric acid that can increase calcium execration in your urine. Furthermore, soft drinks encompass extra-ordinary sugar and lack calcium which is an extreme danger for your bone health. Therefore, in order to improve your bone health and to get rid of osteoporosis, avoidance of soft drinks is necessary (Testa G & Lucenti L, 2015).

Consume Red Meat in Moderation

According to the World Health Organization, over-consumption of meat in your diet can leach calcium from your bones, thereby, over-consumption of meat is not good for your bone health. Conversely, if you consume red meat in moderation then dietitian and orthopedics allow, however, in severe cases of osteoporosis you should avoid red meat as much as possible.

Avoid Over Use of Salt and Caffeine

Overuse of salt and caffeine is extremely dangerous for your bone health. Evidently, in current lifestyle people eat too much fast food and consume caffeine several times in a day by having tea and coffee. In order to stay fit and to keep your bones healthy, you should reduce the use of salt in the diet as well as cut caffeine as much as possible (Testa G & Lucenti L, 2015).

Raw Foods vs. Processed Foods

You should add raw fruits and vegetables in your diet instead of process foods because raw foods provide sufficient supply of nutrition, vitamins, and minerals. Raw foods are taken in natural form whereas; processed foods are also healthy but no longer in a natural state. However, for gaining better bone health as well as overall health you should always prefer raw foods rather than processed foods (Testa G & Lucenti L, 2015).

Lifestyle Changes to Improve your Bone Health and to Cure Osteoporosis

Sunlight
Physical Activities, Exercises, Cardio
Avoid Depression, Stress, and Anxiety
Yoga and Mental Peace Exercises

Sunlight

Lack of vitamin D is one of the major causes of osteoporosis, thereby; in order to get rid of osteoporosis, vitamin D is needed in sufficient quantity. Orthopedics commonly recommends the sunlight for the patients of osteoporosis because it provides a sufficient supply of vitamin D to the body. Therefore, I recommend you to gain exposure of sunlight every day between 11am to 3pm; it will increase your vitamin D that is extremely important to keep your bones healthy.

Physical Activities, Exercises, and Cardio

Being physically active you can acquire multiple advantages in terms of health. With the help of physical activities, exercises, and cardio you can obtain not only good bone health but it also effective for treating and preventing osteoporosis. According to orthopedics, physical activities, exercises, and cardio provide multiple advantages to your body such as, muscle strength, coordination, and balance that can lead to improving your overall health. Therefore, enhance your physical activities in the daily lifestyle to improve your bone health, as well as to cure or prevent osteoporosis (Kang, Jeong & Choi, 2015).

Manage your Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety both are major causes of mood disorder and keep you sad and depressed. As long as you are depressed your overall health will suffer. Therefore, the management of depression and anxiety is necessary to stay healthy and positive. However, in order to manage your depression and anxiety, you must have a proper understanding of emotional intelligence so that you will be able to manage your depression and anxiety. In addition, you should participate in those activities which are supportive and make you happier because happiness will improve your overall health including bone health. Thus, management of depression and anxiety of your life is pre-requisite to improve your bone health and to cure or prevent osteoporosis (Kang, Jeong & Choi, 2015).

Yoga and its impact on your Bone Health

Yoga is a highly effective exercise for making your body posture accurate and healthy, and this exercise is helpful to strengthen your bones. Usually, people carry out Yoga for the relief of back pain but this exercise produces healing effects in your overall health. Therefore, in order to improve your bone health, body posture, respiratory system, mental health, you should take out time for the Yoga (Kang, Jeong & Choi, 2015).

References

Kling, J., Clarke, B., & Sandhu, N. (2014). Osteoporosis Prevention, Screening, and Treatment: A Review. Journal Of Women's Health, 23(7), 563-572. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2013.4611

Kang, J., Jeong, D., & Choi, H. (2015). The effects of trunk stabilization exercise on bone density after menopause. Journal Of Physical Therapy Science, 27(12), 3869-3872. doi: 10.1589/jpts.27.3869

Sahni, S., Mangano, K., McLean, R., Hannan, M., & Kiel, D. (2015). Dietary Approaches for Bone Health: Lessons from the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Current Osteoporosis Reports, 13(4), 245-255. doi: 10.1007/s11914-015-0272-1

Sozen, T., Ozisik, L., & Calik Basaran, N. (2017). An overview and management of osteoporosis. European Journal Of Rheumatology, 4(1), 46-56. doi: 10.5152/eurjrheum.2016.048

Testa G, P., & Lucenti L, A. (2015). The Importance of a Correct Diet in Preventing Osteoporosis. Journal Of Osteoporosis And Physical Activity, 03(03). doi: 10.4172/2329-9509.1000160

The Most Nutritious Foods for your Mental Health

2019-02-15T19:22:00.000+05:00

Emotional and Mental health plays a major role in your overall health, and being an emotionally healthy person you will get progress in all fields of life. Evidently, despite being healthy at the physical level people possess low emotional intelligence which reflects emotional weakness. According to my observation, emotional health is one of the most imperative elements to stay happy and healthy. In a modern day living, our lifestyle is filled with multiple kinds of challenges. Mainly, people who are self-made and spending a hectic life in the daily routine, they must add healthy food in their diet so that they will be able to execute their responsibilities in an appropriate manner. As we all know that food is the main fuel of our body, and daily consumption of food plays a key role in our development and performance. Therefore, here I want to recommend highly nutritious foods to improve your emotional and mental health so that by adding that food in your diet you will easily compete in a present competitive environment (Wattick, Hagedorn & Olfert, 2018).

Fish

Fish is highly nutritious meat for the health of the brain and overall body. Mainly, it is the world’s best source of omega 3 fatty acids which provide power to your brain and eyes. By having fish you will nourish your central nervous system including, brain, spinal cord, and several muscles of the body. In addition to this, Fish is a well-balanced diet for your heart health as well as it assists in regulating your blood pressure. Therefore, in order to be strong emotionally and mentally, having fish once in a week is incredibly important to fulfill the nutritional needs of your brain.

Berries

Emotional health requires a brighten-mood to enjoy every moment and to beat stress from your life. Berries are considered as mood-boosting food, thereby, adding berries in your diet are imperative to empower your brain. Most notably, blueberries are one of the healthiest fruits of the world, and it is highly rich with anti-oxidants which is necessary for your short term memory and overall brain health. Thus, adding blueberry in your diet will improve your mood and bring happiness which is effective to beat stress and to be strong emotionally. In addition, you should intake raw fruits and vegetables instead of processed fruits and vegetables, because having raw food is beneficial for mental health (Brookie, Best & Conner, 2018).

Walnut

Walnut is a super plant source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and this dry fruit is highly supportive to improve your brain functioning as well as to reduce depression symptoms. In order to improve your mental and emotional strength, you need to add walnuts in your breakfast diet. According to research and observation, breakfast is the best time for having walnuts because it empowers your brain which is necessary to execute responsibilities of your daily life.

Apple

Dietitians usually ignore the importance of apple to improving mental and emotional power. Apple is one of the richest sources of antioxidant and fiber, and by adding an apple in your daily diet you will witness a clear improvement in your brain functioning. In addition, because of fiber and iron Apple is beneficial for providing energy and beating weakness of body. Therefore, start having one apple in a day because it is a famous quote that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”.

Besides these above-discussed foods, several other foods can help in improving your mental and brain health. However, according to my evaluation, Fish, berries, walnuts, and Apple, these four must be added to be strong emotionally because these foods will provide the ultimate strength to your brain.

References

Brookie, K., Best, G., & Conner, T. (2018). Intake of Raw Fruits and Vegetables Is Associated With Better Mental Health Than Intake of Processed Fruits and Vegetables. Frontiers In Psychology, 9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00487

Wattick, R., Hagedorn, R., & Olfert, M. (2018). Relationship between Diet and Mental Health in a Young Adult Appalachian College Population. Nutrients, 10(8), 957. doi: 10.3390/nu10080957

Control Your Hypertension through Proper Awareness

2019-02-14T22:44:00.001+05:00

Hypertension is one of the common diseases in present society, thereby, in order to control or prevent from this disease, you must have a proper awareness so that you will be able to obtain better health. Here I want to discuss important elements for your guidance regarding hypertension. Basically, hypertension (high blood pressure) is a chronic medical disorder in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. It may be developed by multiple factors through structural and functional microvascular and macrovascular alterations (Yannoutsos, Levy, Safar, Slama & Blacher, 2014). It is a state of great psychological stress that can lead to severe complications and increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. Hypertension may take place for years without the onset of symptoms. However, damage to blood vessels can occur and detected even without symptoms.

Two Important Elements to Control or Prevent Hypertension yourself

1. Awareness

2. Lifestyle Changes

Guidance about Essential and Secondary Hypertension

Hypertension is commonly classified into two main types such as primary or essential hypertension and secondary hypertension. As far as essential hypertension is concerned, it is the form of hypertension with no identifiable cause, most commonly it affects 95% of hypertensive patients. Conversely, secondary hypertension is another type of hypertension caused by an identifiable underlying primary cause. It is less prevalent than primary hypertension affects only 5% of hypertensive patients. Primary hypertension remains somewhat mysterious whereas secondary does not as the direct cause of high blood pressure can be identified in this type (Gupta-Malhotra et al., 2014). Primary hypertension is known to be a consequence of environmental and genetic factors. Environmental factors may include smoking, high intake of salt and alcohol etc. Also, the small effects of numerous common and rare genetic variants have been identified. On the other hand, secondary prevention can be caused due to many illnesses such as chronic renal diseases, narrowing of the kidney arteries, metabolic disorders, use of birth control pills, obstructive sleep apnea, adrenal gland tumors, thyroid problems and some illegal drugs such as cocaines. Insulin resistance, common in obesity and a component of syndrome X (metabolic syndrome ) has also been found to be associated with hypertension (Gupta-Malhotra et al., 2014).

Risk Factors of Hypertension

There are numerous risk factors associated with the medical condition of hypertension. Age is the most identifiable risk factor and the risk of high blood pressure increases with the progress in age. Secondly, family history can be another risk factor as it tends to run in families. Obesity is yet one of the most common risk factors. The more you gain weight, the more blood you need resulting in increased pressure. Other common environmental risk factors may include less physical activity, smoking, high intake of salt and alcohol, less intake of potassium, stress and other chronic illnesses such as diabetes. Moreover, insulin resistance which is common in obesity and a component of metabolic syndrome found to increase blood pressure. Some of the risk factors of adult essential hypertension include low birth weight, maternal smoking and lack of breastfeeding (Liu et al., 2017). Kidney disease affects fluid and electrolyte volume resulting in excess pressure in the arteries. Metabolic disorders produce hormonal fluctuations which lead to changes in blood pressure. Furthermore, smoking causes narrowing of the arteries, the hormones releases in stress such as epi and norepinephrine also narrow the arteries leading to hypertension.

Disease Progression

As I mentioned earlier that a variety of risk factors are linked with hypertension such as age, gender, obesity, and anxious behavior. In addition to this, environmental factors may also contribute to cellular changes which lead to tissue and organ damage if left untreated. A variety of cells of the immune system and cytokines have been shown to be involved in the mechanism of hypertension. The severity of hypertension has been found to be due to dysfunction of the thymus which modulates the development and maturation of lymphocytes. Studies have shown that aging is associated with the loss of thymus function and gradual atrophy. Thymus dysfunction leads to the imbalance of T lymphocytes and changes the secretion of T β4. T lymphocytes and macrophages cause infiltration in the kidneys. The aggregation of inflammatory factors and immune system response in the renal vascular injury may lead to hypertension. In conclusion, Angiotensin II may affect the function and expression of the thymus through the downregulated expression of the Antihydrogen Trap (ATRAP), this is then followed the changes in T cells balance which causes endothelial dysfunction and target organ damage including fibrosis, thereby leading to hypertension. The elevation of arterial pressure can be complicated by metabolic changes and damage in the blood vessels, brain, kidney, retina, heart, and other target organs (Dai et al., 2018).

Criteria to Prevent Hypertension

It is a recognized fact that health care providers and physicians play a key role in treating hypertension. However, you can also obtain prevention from hypertension by acquiring proper awareness regarding lifestyle, diet, exercises and other important elements. Healthcare providers also recommend a healthy lifestyle to prevent hypertension. Most importantly, you need to develop a healthy lifestyle behaviors such as, increased physical activity, less intake of salt in the routine diet, maintain weight and prevent obesity, add fruits and vegetables in diet, limit the use of meat, quit smoking and alcohol consumption as well as reduce stress, anxiety and try to remain peaceful. These are all the effective lifestyle change strategies to control and prevent hypertension and its complications (Fang, Ayala & Loustalot, 2015).

References

Dai, X., Hua, L., Chen, Y., Wang, J., Li, J., & Wu, F. et al. (2018). Mechanisms in hypertension and target organ damage: Is the role of the thymus key? (Review). International Journal of Molecular Medicine. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2018.3605

Fang, J., Ayala, C., & Loustalot, F. (2015). Primary Care Providers’ Recommendations for Hypertension Prevention, DocStyles Survey, 2012. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 6(3), 170-176. doi: 10.1177/2150131915568997

Gupta-Malhotra, M., Banker, A., Shete, S., Hashmi, S., Tyson, J., & Barratt, M. et al. (2014). Essential Hypertension vs. Secondary Hypertension among Children. American Journal of Hypertension, 28(1), 73-80. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpu083

Yannoutsos, A., Levy, B., Safar, M., Slama, G., & Blacher, J. (2014). Pathophysiology of hypertension. Journal of Hypertension, 32(2), 216-224. doi: 10.1097/hjh.0000000000000021

Smartphone Addiction and its Linkage with Sleep disorder

2019-02-14T13:23:00.000+05:00

In the urban lifestyle use of smartphones is very common; in fact, the current generation is extremely addicted to Smartphone and this habit is producing several kinds of adverse in terms of health. In order to improve your health and to live a happy and healthy life, you should not ignore the health risks of the smartphone. Specifically, the use of smartphones in bed lead to a sleep disorder, and sleep disorder is a source to develop numerous other diseases. Evidently, people do not consider this habit as a serious threat to their health and unaware of its serious consequences. According to mental health specialists, smartphones should not be used in bed because it may develop insomnia which can produce several other diseases (Rod, Dissing, Clark, Gerds & Lund, 2018).

Insomnia and its Impact on your body

Before conducting research on the relation of smartphones and insomnia, we need to understand this disease and its adverse effects on your health. Basically, insomnia is a sleep disorder, and because of this disease, a patient faces difficulties in falling asleep. However, it can be acute or chronic, and insomnia may develop several other diseases. In addition to this, there are two stages of insomnia one is primary and another is secondary. In the primary stage, a person may have sleep problems that are not directly associated with any other health problem. On the other hand, the second stage of insomnia possesses numerous health problems such as asthma, depression, heartburn, and pain. Therefore, it is vital to understand that having proper sleep is necessary to improve your overall health because it assists in reducing stress, controlling blood pressure, keeping the heart healthy, improving memory, and bringing happiness in life. Most importantly, with the help of sleep your body repairs itself, and while sleeping your body make white blood cells that help in the healing process. Conversely, when you do not get enough sleep your immune system got weak and not able to protect the body from infection and diseases. Therefore, having proper sleep is pre-requisite to live a happy, healthy and progressive life (Khan, Nock & Gooneratne, 2015).

Improve your Sleep order

According to several research studies, 10pm to 2pm is an effective period to have a proper sleep, because while sleeping in this timing a person obtains maximum health advantages. Whereas, sleeping late night produces extra-ordinary adverse effects on your overall health. Therefore, 10pm is a perfect bedtime, however, after reaching in bed smartphone must be ignored so that you will be able to have a proper sleep. Besides it, use of the smartphone in bed leads to stress, depression and anxious behavior because after spending a hectic life your mind needs relaxation, in contrast, by engaging with mobile you do not get proper sleep and ultimately, the results take place in the form of stress and anxiety in your life. The numbers of researches diagnosed that blue light of smartphones disrupts the production of melatonin, and it is a hormone that regulates the body’s sleep cycle. Consequently, smartphone plays a leading role in your sleepless night and ultimately develop fatigue in your body. As I mentioned earlier that the sleep disorder may develop not only fatigue but several other health risks are also associated with this problem such as depression, anxiety, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and so on (Yoshimura et al., 2017). Therefore, before going in bed, keep the smartphone away from your access so that you will not start using it in bed easily.

References

Khan, M., Nock, R., & Gooneratne, N. (2015). Mobile Devices and Insomnia: Understanding Risks and Benefits. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 1(4), 226-231. doi: 10.1007/s40675-015-0027-7

Rod, N., Dissing, A., Clark, A., Gerds, T., & Lund, R. (2018). Overnight smartphone use: A new public health challenge? A novel study design based on high-resolution smartphone data. PLOS ONE, 13(10), e0204811. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204811

Yoshimura, M., Kitazawa, M., Maeda, Y., Mimura, M., Tsubota, K., & Kishimoto, T. (2017). Smartphone viewing distance and sleep: an experimental study utilizing motion capture technology. Nature And Science Of Sleep, Volume 9, 59-65. doi: 10.2147/nss.s123319

6 Signs that Reflect your Emotional Weakness

2019-02-13T12:29:00.001+05:00

Self-awareness is an integral part of emotional intelligence, and it is necessary for your growth and development in all areas of life. In order to be self-aware, you must have an understanding of your emotions so that you will be able to develop a clear perception of your personality. A self-aware person holds a clear perception regarding his or her beliefs, emotions, strengths, weaknesses and more. Even, self-awareness is supportive not only to understand your overall personality but also effective to understand other people by which you easily gain an idea that how people perceive you, and what kind of attitude and response should be expressed from your side in any situation. Thus, self-awareness will make your personality completely unique, special and influential in the social circle which is a good sign to gain value in society. Conversely, people who possess emotional weakness they cannot obtain the desired value and considered as less-influential in society. Here I want to discuss the 6 signs of Emotional weakness so that you will try to overcome weaknesses of your personality.

1. Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem is an optional attitude, and the low self-esteem people always evaluate their personality critically. Thus, they are found unhappy and unsatisfied with their lives. If you are also a low self-esteem person so start avoiding critical evaluation of your personality, and never use negative words for your personality. In contrast, appreciate your achievements and try to overcome your weaknesses instead of critical evaluation of your personality.

2 2. Prefer Staying in Comfort Zone

Staying in a comfort zone refers to emotional and mental weakness. There are numerous researches revealed that healthy and positive people keep them flexible with change, whereas, emotionally weak people always prefer living in a comfort zone. Undoubtedly, change is difficult in several conditions, but if you are strong mentally and emotionally then you will enjoy a change in your life.

3 3. Afraid of Confrontation

Emotionally weak people possess fear before engaging in any confrontation, even, in those cases where confrontation is necessary. Because of low self-esteem and emotional weakness they always underestimate themselves. I also acknowledge the difficulties of confrontation, but in several cases, to maintain your self-respect you should confront for your rights. Whereas, emotionally strong people easily evaluate the scenario where confrontation is necessary or where it can be avoided. However, ignorance of confrontation in all kinds of scenario refers to an emotionally weak personality.

4 4. Lacking Courage to Say “No” Gracefully

The courage to say “No” comes from the clarity of your mind. If you are absolutely clear about your priorities and understand where you need to stop and saying no to someone for protecting yourself from harm then this process becomes easier and straightforward. Evidently, confusion of your mind leads to these kinds of issues and eventually, you are exploited because of low courage to saying no. Therefore, in order to become emotionally strong bring clarity in your mind, and make a final decision of saying no to anyone gracefully.

5. Having Difficulties in Understanding Feelings of Other

People with emotional weakness do not understand the feelings of others which create extraordinary problems in the socialization process. If you do not have the ability to understand the emotions and feelings of others its mean that you are weak in socialization and lack of social skills. Therefore, increase your exposure and start socializing as much as possible because with the help of socialization you will practically observe the feelings of others. Thus, this practice is necessary not only to improve your social skills but also communication skills.

6. Worried Behavior

Emotionally weak people always keep worrying and easily get depressed because of their over-thinking behavior. Even in the perfect circumstances of their life, they possess anxiety regarding their future. These kinds of behavior indicate emotional weakness, thereby, if you also possess a similar behavior then avoid thinking through getting busy in physical activities. Physical activities and socialization will assist you to overcome stress, depression, and anxiety, whereas, isolation and physical in-activities will enhance over thinking, and stress in your life.

Develop Emotional Intelligence to Live a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Life

2019-02-12T16:36:00.004+05:00

Emotional intelligence is one of the most effective abilities to understand not only your emotions but also to recognize the emotions of others. Furthermore, it assists in developing a distinguished personality to live a happy and prosperous life. Presently, behavioral experts, social scientists, and physicians also accept the importance of this practice to improve health as well as to upgrade the standard of performance at work. The criteria of emotional intelligence can be used to improve your life from multiple aspects including, health, personal development, and relationships develop and so on. There are numerous researches revealed that as long as you are emotionally balanced and fit automatically your physical health improves, and ultimately, because of emotional intelligence you bring improvement in your professional performance as well (Brackett, Rivers & Salovey, 2011). However, before applying the important tools of emotional intelligence in your life you need to understand this approach deeply. Basically, in order to provide in-depth guidance regarding emotional intelligence Daniel Goleman represented five important components in his book which are as follows.

11. Self-awareness

22. Self-Regulation

33. Motivation

44. Empathy

55. Social Skills

Self-awareness

According to Daniel Goleman, Self-awareness is a fundamental and primary requirement to develop emotional intelligence. However, before creating a self-awareness of your emotions you need to conduct a proper assessment of your physical health, emotions, strengths, weaknesses and more. Once you become fully aware of your emotions then tackling emotional issues will be easier such as, depression, anxiety, and worry behavior and so on. Conversely, mental health plays a key role in your overall health because if you are completely fit at the level of mind, it contributes positively to overall physical health. It is a recognized fact that poor emotional health leads to several health issues, and people who do not understand their emotions, they are most likely to face mental and physical health issues. Therefore, in order to bring improvement in physical health and professional performance you need to enhance self-awareness so that you will be able to cope with emotional issues which may occur in your daily life (Cejudo, Rodrigo-Ruiz, López-Delgado & Losada, 2018).

Self-Regulation

Another important characteristic of Emotional intelligence is self-regulation, basically, it refers to self-control and discipline in your personality. In order to obtain success in any field of life, you must have proper control over your emotions, feelings, and behavior, besides it, while dealing with other people you must have skills to an understanding of their psyche. As a result, with the practical application of self-regulation, you can develop self-control that will support in executing your all important responsibilities in a most appropriate and efficient manner. Above all, self-regulation enhances your control over your emotions and by controlling emotions you can tackle every kind of challenging situation of life. Evidently, people who do not have proper control over their emotions they are failed in tackling tragic situations of life, for instance, if your loved one passes away then it can be disastrous for your whole life. In this situation, if you have self-regularizing skills it will support in beating sadness, depression, and anxiety. As a result, this is a highly effective practice to get proper control of your life in your hands (Afolabi & Balogun, 2017).

Motivation

Healthy and successful people always possess a self-motivated behavior, and as long as you are motivated you acquire betterment and progress whether in your health or in your personal and professional life. Even, motivation is an important source of happiness, and by keeping yourself motivated you put enthusiasm, and efforts while delivering any performance or executing any work. Therefore, in order to stay healthy and positive motivation is necessary; however, motivation is acquired through understanding emotions and by developing a positive and hopeful behavior. Above all, the motivation requires burning desire in your mindset, because burning desire leads to motivation which assists in performing appropriately and efficiently. Thus, motivation itself encompasses several elements which must be added to bring control over this emotion because as long as you are motivated you will deliver your best performance in every field of life (Kumar, Vineeth, Mehta, Maheshwari, Nidhi, 2013).

Empathy

The fourth important component of emotional intelligence is “Empathy”. It is an ability to understand the feelings of others and without developing this ability you cannot get competency in emotional intelligence. However, in order to develop this ability, you need practical experience as well as observational skills because this process requires a sense of development to recognize the emotional states of others. By developing this ability you will be an expert in managing relationships, the understanding psyche of others as well as diagnose and treat behavioral problems of people. With the help of this ability, you can improve the performance of your business because you will be able to understand the demand and psyche of consumers. Likewise, it is an effective tool to improve your health as well because once you understand the emotions and psyche of others then you will handle every person in accordance with his or her mindset. As a result, no one will be able to make you sad and you will have the understanding to tackle all kinds of people. Nevertheless, you must have proper awareness of emotions and several kinds of behavior (Abe, Niwa, Fujisaki & Suzuki, 2018).

Social Skills

Daniel Goleman described social skills as an influential component of emotional intelligence. Social skills refer to communication skills and it is one of the imperative requirements to build relationships with others. For instance, you are running a business organization; in this case, you must have social skills because you may have to interact with customers, employees, and others. Thereby, social skills will play a decisive role in building positive relations in your professional settings, whereas, the lack of social skills lead to failure in relationship development. It is a recognized fact that to acquire customers as well as to retain employees, an owner must have effective communication skills. Consequently, social skills refer to the practical implication of emotional intelligence because these skills are an integral part of overall emotional intelligence (Kumar & Devi, 2016).

Important Associated Points with Emotional Intelligence

Visionary understanding
Resiliency development
Avoidance of Negative Feelings
A source to live a balanced life
An instrument to improve your health and to enhance productivity at work

Poor Emotional Health and its Adverse Effects on Overall life

Poor emotional health is highly detrimental for the overall life, because if you are not aware of your emotions then you are most likely to face depression, anxiety, and worries in your life. A person who has poor emotional health he or she cannot fight with the challenges of personal and professional life. I suggest you that in order to handle all kind of stressful and challenging situations of life, you must have an understanding of your emotions so that you will respond accurately and calmly to overcome those problems of a stressful situation. It is evident that breakups of love relation, death of loved one, challenging responsibilities at work, these all situations bring upsets in life and if you are not aware of your emotions then you may go into depression which produces adverse effects for your mental health. Therefore, you need to obtain proper awareness of emotions as well as a resilient behavior to overcome all problems of life. Consequently, by applying emotional intelligence you will maintain not only better health, but also you will have an ability to handle all kinds of challenging situations of life (Cejudo, Rodrigo-Ruiz, López-Delgado & Losada, 2018).

References

Afolabi, O., & Balogun, A. (2017). Impacts of psychological security, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on undergraduates’ life satisfaction. Psychological Thought, 10(2), 247-261. doi: 10.5964/psyct.v10i2.226

Abe, K., Niwa, M., Fujisaki, K., & Suzuki, Y. (2018). Associations between emotional intelligence, empathy and personality in Japanese medical students. BMC Medical Education, 18(1). doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1165-7

Brackett, M., Rivers, S., & Salovey, P. (2011). Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Personal, Social, Academic, and Workplace Success. Social And Personality Psychology Compass, 5(1), 88-103. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00334.x

Cejudo, J., Rodrigo-Ruiz, D., López-Delgado, M., & Losada, L. (2018). Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship with Levels of Social Anxiety and Stress in Adolescents. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 15(6), 1073. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061073

Kumar, D., & Devi, S. (2016). EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN RELATION TO OCCUPATIONAL SELF-EFFICACY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS. International Journal Of Information Movement, 01(04), 85-103. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308415168_EMOTIONAL_INTELLIGENCE_AND_SOCIAL_SKILLS_IN_RELATION_TO_OCCUPATIONAL_SELF-EFFICACY_OF_SECONDARY_SCHOOL_TEACHERS

Kumar, Vineeth & Mehta, M & Maheshwari, Nidhi. (2013). Effect of emotional intelligence on the achievement motivation, psychological adjustment and scholastic performance of secondary school students. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. 39. 60-67.