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Showing posts with label Diseases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diseases. Show all posts

Crohn's Disease Treatment

Crohn's disease is a disease that can lead to inflammation anywhere along the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. Compared to a condition known as ‘ulcerative colitis', which can affect only the interior part of the digestive tract; Crohn's Disease can include all the layers of the intestinal wall. The IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease is comprised of two types of diseases-Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Crohn's disease may also be called ileitis or enteritis.

The symptoms of Crohn's disease include:
• Stomach pain and cramps
• Bloody stool
• Mucus in the stool
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Digestive Tract Ulceration
• Fever


Cause of Crohn's Disease:
IBD is known to be an idiopathic disease (disease with no known cause) and Crohn's Disease is also an IBD disease. This disease is known to be hereditary and has been particularly seen in people who hail within the Jewish descent. However, most people with IBD do not seem to have family history of the disease in particular. Some doctors believe that given the nature of the IBD being an auto immune disease, the symptoms of Crohn's Disease are nothing but an allergic response.

This means the body's immune system confuses bacteria and food as foreign substances(antigens) and attacks them. Due to this, the white blood cells begin to collect in the intestines, leading to chronic inflammation and bowel injury. Three factors have been singled out, the immune system of the patient, the environment and of course, the genes.


Blood tests are done to find out the extent of IBD, especially with regard to white blood cell counts and red blood cell. The blood tests an also be used to measure electrolyte levels of potassium and magnesium, to find out if these important minerals have been evacuated due to continuous diarrhea.

Since Crohn's Disease is similar to many types of intestinal disorders like ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome, it can be tough to diagnose the condition. Ulcerative Colitis can lead to inflammation in the upper layer of the large intestine layer. In Crohn's Disease, however, all layers of the intestine can be affected. You may just find a healthy bowel lost among sections of impaired bowel.


Crohn's Disease Treatment
A variety of medication can be used as treatment to Crohn's Disease The medications that are administerd usually fall into two categories: fast acting drugs to put a halt to the flare-ups and maintenance drugs to continuously avoid the flare-up from happening.

Cortisone or Steroids.drugs and steroids together known as corticosteriods—provide very efficient results. Prednisone is a regular generic name of one of the drugs in this group of medications. It is administered in large dose when the disease is at its worst and then the dosage is lowered once symptoms have been controlled; because they can cause a lot of side-effects.
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Immune System Suppressors. Some of the medications in this immune suppressing groups are 6-mercaptopurine or a related drug, azathioprine. Immunosuppressive agents work by thwarting the immune reaction that leads to inflammation. These drugs do lead to side effects like like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea and may reduce a person's resistance to infection.. SO if the Crohn's disease patient is treated with a combination of When of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs, the dose of corticosteroids may ultimately be lowered.

Anti-Inflammation Drugs. Measalamine is one of the drugs that is used to treat patients first to control inflammation. The most commonly used rug is known as . Sulfasalazine. Possible side effects of mesalamine-containing drugs include nausea, vomiting, heartburn, diarrhea, and headache.

Infliximab (Remicade). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave green signal to the Infliximab as the drug for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn's disease that does not react to standard therapies (mesalamine substances, corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents) and as a remedial treatment for open, draining fistulas. There is still additional research going with this drug. Remicade may offer to help people with Crohn's disease.

Antibiotics. If there is a bacterial overgrowth due to fistula, stricture etc, antibiotics are used to treat them. The physician may prescribe one or more of the following antibiotics: ampicillin, sulfonamide, cephalosporin, tetracycline, or metronidazole.

Anti-Diarrheal and Fluid Replacements. Diarrhea and crampy abdominal pain are usually treated when the inflammation reduces but in some cases the doctor may give additional treatment in the form of anti-diarrheal and fluid replacements like diphenoxylate, loperamide, and codeine. Patients who are dehydrated due to diarrhea can be administered fluids and electrolytes.


Surgery is also an option for Crohn's Disease. In fact 70 percent of people with Crohn's Disease go for surgery in the first ten years following the diagnosis. The most common type of surgery is ‘resection' where the impaired part of the intestine is surgically removed.

Heart Disease in Women

Heart disease is the number one killer of women, yet heart disease in women in is harder to detect than heart disease in men. Also unfortunate is the fact that heart disease in women is harder to treat than heart disease in men. Each year heart disease heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined.

Part of reason that heart disease in women is so hard to detect is because the symptoms are likely to be ignored because they may seem like symptoms of other less dangerous problems. For example, a woman who is feeling dizziness or breathlessness in her everyday activities may assume that she is simply out of shape or not getting enough sleep. A woman with upper abdominal pain may think she has indigestion.

Heart disease in women can be missed by doctors even when the woman feels that something is wrong. A study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that heart disease in women is much harder to detect. One third of the women in the study who had heart problems did not show any signs of heart disease through an X-ray.

When a woman has a heart attack, she is more likely to die from it than a man. Each year cardiovascular disease kills 75,000 more women than men. A higher percentage of women will die within the first year after having a heart attack than will men. Not enough studies have taken place so far for scientists and doctors to know all they need to know about the difference in disease in men and women. What is known so far is that women are more likely to have microvascular disease than are men.

Microvascular disease is a uniform build up of plaque along the walls of the arteries. The problem with microvascular disease is that there is no mass that will appear on X-rays and because of that it too often goes undetected. It seems that women may also have plaque buildup on tiny coronary arteries that are too small to show up on an angiogram. It is imperative for women with the symptoms of heart disease to insist on finding a reason for their symptoms.

Cardiovascular Diseases

The cardiovascular diseases are those diseases which are caused by disorders of heart and blood vessels. Coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and failure of heart came under the category of cardiovascular diseases. Most of the western countries face the high and increasing rate of cardiovascular diseases. More people are killed by this disease every year as compare to cancer. A survey concludes that diseases of the heart alone caused 30% of all deaths, with other diseases of the cardiovascular system causing substantial further death and disability. Every 2 out of 3 cardiac deaths occur without any diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

After a survey it was conclude that this is the prime cause of death and disability in the United States and most European countries. A large histological study (PDAY) showed vascular injury accumulates from adolescence and makes primary prevention efforts necessary from childhood. An estimated concludes that17.5 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2005 and this is about the 30 % of all global deaths. 7.6 million out of these were died due to heart attacks and 5.7 million were due to stroke.

Around 80% of these deaths occurred in developing or under developed countries as they have low and middle income. If not step is taken against it then according to an estimate, by 2015, 20 million people will die from cardiovascular disease every year and most of them will be from heart attacks and strokes.

Causes- The cause of cardiovascular disease is a blockage that prevents blood to go to the heart or to the brain. The most important and main cause of cardiovascular disease is build up of fatty deposits in the inner wall of blood vessels. In this particular condition, blood vessels become narrower and less broad and heart doesn't receive the blood. In that case it results to failure of heart.

Reasons- The major reasons of having cardiovascular disease are tobacco, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. An early form of fatty deposits, which is known as fatty streaks can also be found in children. Some children may be younger than 10 years. These deposits get slowly worse as the person gets older.

Helpful tips- If you are obese or overweight then it increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. To maintain an ideal body weight, you should take regular physical activity and eat a healthy diet.