Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms

Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are variable, affecting tissues outside digestive system and having an important mark on person’s self esteem; many times patients suffering from this disease are very depressive and unable to perform their activities. When we mention inflammatory bowel disease symptoms we have in mind Chron disease and ulcerative colitis.

Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms list

Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are represented by digestive symptoms and non-digestive symptoms:

•  diarrhea is the most frequent and annoying symptom among the inflammatory bowel disease symptoms; some patients may have numerous watery stools,
• constipation: this is an often symptom in rectitis, (patients with ulcerative colitis complain of constipation, because this disease affects the rectum at the onset),
• abdominal pain- it is one of the frequent inflammatory bowel disease symptoms, it can be diffuse, or located in the iliac fossa (Chron disease affects, more frequently, the terminal ileum, which is the most distant part of the small intestine, located in the right iliac fossa, while ulcerative colitis affects rectum in most of the cases),
• stool with blood-it is a common finding among inflammatory bowel disease symptoms,
• weigh loss because of the diarrhea, which stops the intestine to absorb nutrients,
• fever, it is the response of the body to the inflammation of the intestine,
• abnormal communication among different parts of the intestine, or among intestine and urinary bladder or vagina (in medical practice this condition is called fistula),
• intestine stenosis (it is one of the inflammatory bowel disease symptoms known as Chron disease)-meaning a narrowing of the intestine lumen,
• blood cells abnormalities: anemia (low number of red blood cells and hemoglobin), a large number of platelets (a condition that predisposes to blood clots),
• deficits of vitamins and other nutrients, due to diarrhea, which favors malabsorption,
• intestine perforation,
• digestive cancer.

Non-digestive inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are represented by different medical conditions: liver disease (cholangiocarcinoma, primitive sclerosing cholangitis), arthritis, myositis (these patients need treatment with cortisone, which can determine, as an adverse effect, myositis), renal failure (due to dehydration), oral ulcerations, stomatitis etc.
How do we diagnose it? Once there is a clinical suspicion, a colonoscopy and intestine biopsy are needed in order to confirm the inflammatory bowel disease and also to distinguish between the two forms of inflammatory bowel disease (for each disease, there is a different histological pattern, the macroscopic aspect and the lesions location are criteria used to confirm which one of the inflammatory bowel disease is responsible for symptoms).
What is the treatment for this disease? Depending on whether there are complications, inflammatory bowel disease can be treated with cortisone (there are schemes of treatment starting with increasing doses of cortisone, which will be diminished gradually once the disease is under control), anti-inflammatory agents (like sulfasalazine), immunosuppressive medication (if the first two types of drugs are not effective) or surgery if there are complications like fistula, stenosis or intestine perforation or if disease can’t be controlled with medication.
What is the evolution of the inflammatory bowel disease? Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms have a fluctuanting evolution; there are periods with symptoms, followed by “free” periods. There are medical scales which can estimate the severity of the disease, using indices like red blood cell sedimentation rate, heart rate, body temperature, numbers of stools per day.

If any of the inflammatory bowel disease symptoms occur do not treat yourself and call a doctor.

Left sided heart failure

Left sided heart failure is the term used to describe the incapacity of the left heart to supply tissues with blood. Left heart has two chambers known as left atrium and ventricle, which communicate thorough the mitral valve. The left atrium (the left upper chamber of the heart) receives oxygenated blood from the lungs, through pulmonary veins and this blood will be delivered to left ventricle (the lower left chamber). The whole amount of blood is pumped by left ventricle in the aorta (which is the main artery of the body) and then into the less large arteries that supply all the tissues and organs (kidney, liver, digestive organs, brain, limbs). Imagine blood flowing in the arteries as a liquid passing through a tube (pipe) and all the factors and interactions between them, which have great influence on the amount of blood that in the end each tissue will get and also the influence on the whole organism: e.g. blood consistency (a viscous blood will allow clots to appear), pressure that blood develops on arterial wall, the influence of arterial walls pressure on blood flow etc.

What is the cause for left sided heart failure?

Left sided heart failure is caused by different pathologies:

• congenital heart diseases,
• heart attack (the ischemia determines cardiac cells to die and a part of the heart is no longer functional),
• coronary heart disease (a chronic ischemia of the heart tissue, a chronic deprivation of oxygen will determine tissues changes in order to adapt to the new condition and in the end cardiomyopathy and left sided heart failure)
• high blood pressure forces the left heart to increase its labor and force, and the only way this can be possible is to increase number of muscle fibers (but the numbers of vessels will remain unchanged, so the same number of vessels will supply a larger number of muscle fibers, which will determine heart ischemia with all the consequences that result from this condition) and increase inside pressure (this pressure will act on heart walls to and will press the vessels which won’t be able to fill enough and this will lead to ischemia)
• another cause of left sided heart failure is heart valves pathology: leaking valves (an amount of blood remains in the heart chambers creating a blood deficit in the tissues and forcing heart, at the next contraction, to throw in the aorta a larger amount of blood, this means a greater labor, which in time will lead to left sided heart failure) or narrow valves (the heart muscle must defeat the obstacle represented by the narrow valves),
• heart muscle infection will determine cardiomyopathy and left sided heart failure,
• excessive alcohol consumption will determine dilated cardiomyopathy and left sided heart failure,
• thyroid dysfunctions,
• heart muscle disorders,
• major cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beats).

What happens in the systemic blood circulation, when there is a left sided heart failure?

Left sided heart failure

Compromise of left ventricular function will result in poor systemic circulation: muscle weakness, cool extremities, fatigue, low tolerance to effort, fainting, chest pain, palpitations, rapid heart beats, dizziness, confusion, memory impairment. Backward failure of left ventricle results in pulmonary congestion (blood will remain in the pulmonary veins creating a great pressure and determining shortness of breath, first on exertion and then at rest), hypoxemia (low level of oxygen in the blood), cyanosis (blue coloring of the extremities, because of the hypoxemia), tachypnea (increased rate of breathing), pulmonary edema (because of the great pressure in the pulmonary veins, the fluid from the blood will go through veins walls into the lung). Valvular heart disease may occur due to the increased pressures in heart chambers and pulmonary veins. Another symptom of left sided heart failure is paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (sudden and severe breathlessness attack during night, several hours after going to sleep).
If you have signs of left sided heart failure please call an MD for medical advice.

Reperfusion injury

Reperfusion injury has been defined as myocardial tissue blood supply after a period of ischemia. Whether reperfusion merely  accelerates the damage that would have occurred during the initial ischemia  or whether there is a additional injury caused by reperfusion itself is still researched. Although the crucial role of reperfusion injury in revascularization procedures has bees recognized, the etiology and pathogenesis of this phenomenon remain unknown.
Myocardial ischemia accompanied by reperfusion injury followed by complete normalization if it took 5 minutes, by diastolic and systolic dysfunction if ischemia took 15-20 minutes and without return contractile function if ischemia took more than one hour.
The most common cause found in patients who died after reperfusion is hemorrhagic infarction. In myocardial infarction of less than 3 days the cellular response is present throughout the myocardial infarction, in contrast to the distinct zones seen in the non- reperfused myocardial infarctions. Reperfusion itself may produce injury.

The mediators of reperfusion injury

Reperfusion injury

One of the mediators of reperfusion injury is oxygen free radicals. The possible role of reactive oxygen species in reperfusion injury has evolved from our knowledge. They elaborate enzyme systems that rapidly detoxify superoxide and peroxide. The metabolism of reactive oxygen also has damaging effects. The investigators of this event have suspected that even physiological quantities of peroxide may inhibit the aerobic oxidation of pyruvate and thus restrict cellular ATP formation.
Another mediator of reperfusion injury is endothelial dysfunction and microvascular injury. Recent reports indicate that endothelium-dependent relaxation  of coronary microvessels is markedly impaired after ischemia with reperfusion. This microvascular endothelium dysfunction may be caused by blood products or myocardial metabolites that are released during the reperfusion period or by oxygen free radicals.
One of the oldest hypotheses about reperfusion injury involved calcium overload. Other mediators involved in reperfusion injury are altered myocardial metabolism and endogenous protective mechanisms.
There are some cardiovascular risk factors influence reperfusion injury. This are  hypercholesterolemia, very high glucose and hypertension.

Pharmacological methods to attenuate reperfusion injury

There are a number of pharmacological methods for attenuate reperfusion injury. In the treatment of myocardial infarction, restoration of coronary flow as soon as possible is a very important thing to prevent and reduce myocardial necrosis and ischemia. By this treatment ensure a reduction of mortality,  complications and a good prognosis in infarction. Early myocardial reperfusion injury prevent necrosis; in this way systolic and diastolic functions are established and are preventable fatal arrhythmias. In the early hours of  infarction,  reperfusion injury offers the greatest benefits: higher thrombus lysis.
Anti-ischemic therapy and lytic therapy has an important role to reduce myocardial energy demand. There are three revascularizations methods: trombembolitic treatment,  coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass. To thrombolytic treatment add anticoagulant and antithrombotic treatment and GP IIb/IIIa blockers. Thrombolytic agents currently used are streptokinase, tissue plasminogen activator and urokinase.

Conclusion for reperfusion injury

In conclusion the beneficial effect of fast recanalization may be offset by reperfusion injury.

Heart Symptoms

 












Heart Symptoms that affects millions of people
Heart attack, coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, heart palpitation – each type of heart disease may have the same symptoms, and can appear together or individual.
How the heart looks like and how does it work?
Heart has 4 chambers: right and left atrium, and right and left ventricles. Between the atrium and ventricle are the mitral valve and tricuspid valve which regulates blood flow in one sense from atrium to ventricle. From left ventricle starts Aorta and from right starts the pulmonary artery.  On the outside, heart has its own vessel named coronary artery and coronary veins, which gets blood with oxygen to the heart muscle and makes it work well.
Heart symptoms causes:
Atherosclerosis
Stress
Alcohol
Drugs
Caffeine
Smoking
Diabetes
Obesity
Family history
Sedentary life
Anemia
Hyperthyroidism
High blood pressure
Heart symptoms and mechanisms:
Chest pain (angina): appears because some of the heart coronary artery is partially blocked by atherosclerosis or spasm correlated with anxiety and fatigue.
Heart attack: appears because one of the principal heart coronary artery is totally blocked and stops blood flow to the heart muscle making that part of heart to die. Heart symptoms are: sensation of imminent death, chest pain with irradiation to the neck, both arm, medial part of the left arm going to the last two fingers, or upper part of the stomach, more than 20 minutes, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, syncope, swelling.
Heart palpitation: appears because the heart electrical system is over stressed and decreases the heart ability to pump blood to the organism and itself. This is correlated with abnormal levels of electrolytes, caffeine, anemia, illicit drugs, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and hyperthyroidism.
Heart symptoms inside valves: appears because blood can go back in lungs or in liver causing edema (water accumulation), shortness of breath, chest discomfort, weakness, palpitations, fatigue.
Heart failure: appears when heart muscle is overworked, in situations like diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, arrhythmias, and obstructive sleep apnea. Symptoms are: tiredness, shortness of breath, edema, swelling in ankles and legs associated with superficial lesion.
Fluttering heart symptoms : angina pectoris, rapid heartbeat or a feeling that heart just stopped shortness of breath, syncope, fatigue, anxiety.
Heart symptoms related to sex:
Heart symptoms in children : one of the first heart symptoms in children is cyanosis (blue color of the extremities like fingers from hand and feet, mouth, ears, nose), chest pain, edema, syncope, palpitation.
Heart symptoms in women : in comparison with men, the chest pain appears only on 30% of women, the rest of women have no chest pain. Most women accused indigestion, sleep disorder, weakness in the left arm, shortness of breath, fatigue, sweat, anxiety, pain in the upper part of stomach.
Heart symptoms in men : chest pain irradiating to arm, neck, upper part of stomach, fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, nausea, vomiting
When to call the doctor:
Chest pain is more than 5 minutes after you take under tongue nitroglycerin (be very carefull that nitroglycerin is still valid, if you are not sure put it on your tongue and if it stings  it may be ok), if chest pain does not decrease you can take another nitroglycerin after 5 minutes, maximum three doses, after you must call an ambulance.
Chest pain associated with sensation of imminent death, irregular heart beating, sweating, nausea or vomiting, high pressure levels.
Heart palpitation associated with angina, fatigue, syncope, anxiety.
A respiratory infection plus tachycardia (fast heart rate over 90 beats per minutes when still), palpitation, shortness of breath while you are resting or during easy daily activities, insomnia or needing to sleep more than usual, confusion, headaches, nausea.

Heart symptoms diagnoses:

Diagnosis can be made by medical doctor after some tests like:
Electrocardiogram which registers the heart activities.
Stress test: this test registers the heart activities to.
Chest X-ray
Echocardiogram: doctors can see all the cavities and valves of the heart, or if there are some clots.
Coronary angiogram: doctors are running a catheter into the heart to see blocked coronary vessels and other heart symptoms.
CT heart scan: can visualize heart anatomy.
MRI heart scan: shows how heart is working and a lot of heart symptoms .

Heart symptoms treatment:

Treatment is prescribed by doctors and can include:
Nitrates for chest pain.
ACE helps heart to pump blood better, in case that a part of the heart is injured. It can reduce some heart symptoms like blood pressure.
Beta blockers are used in heart symptoms like chest pain, tachycardia (cardiac frequency over 90 beats per minute), and decrease blood pressure, preventing a heart attack.
Digitalis reduces heart rhythm and chest pain.
Calcium channel blockers are used to decrease blood pressure and in chest pain, because they relax blood vessel muscle.
Diuretics are used in blood pressure by decreasing fluid in the body (edema).
Antiplatelet drugs stops blood clots from forming, and this should be used by all the people with risk factors like obesity, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, chest pain, smokers.
Thrombolytic agents are given in the forth hour after a heart attack, for breaking up a blood clot in a coronary artery, making the blood flow again.
Blood cholesterol- lowering agents decrease bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) levels in the blood, lowering the risk for  clots in blood vessels.

Heart symptoms prevention:

Because heart attack and stroke is the first killer in the world, a lot of people are asking what to do to avoid them. Here you can see some advices:
Stop smoking, one cigarette can move a blood clot which produce and heart attack or stroke, and chemicals are affecting you blood vessels and heart, leading to the atherosclerosis.
Exercise at least 30 minutes per day, and you can reduce the risk of heart disease and helps you to control weight, blood pressure, lower cholesterol and diabetes value.
Have a good diet by eating foot which contains low fat, cholesterol and salt and a lot of vegetables, fruits, fish, and cereals.
Avoid psycho stimulants like drugs, caffeine in excess.

Taking this advices you can avoid  bad heart symptoms and you can enjoy a good life.

Heart attack arm pain

Heart attack is a disease that sometimes can be fatal and some trivial symptoms such heart attack arm pain must make the patient to address to the doctor.
Heart attack is a condition in which the oxygen-rich blood flow is reduced or completely stopped, due to obstruction of an artery from the heart. Thus, after the obstruction occurs necrosis (premature death of cells or tissues) of a part of the heart. The most common reasons of heart attack are the excess of cholesterol in the body, obesity and stress.

Heart attack arm pain symptoms

Onset symptoms of heart attack may be different in women than in men. If symptoms of heart attack are not recognized in time the patient could die. Chest pain is the most common heart attack symptom that occurs in both men and women. Chest pain may occur both at rest and during exercise. There is no relationship between exercise level and a heart attack. Pain is initially located in the heart and spreads to the arms, neck and back.  As pain is higher and irradiation more distant, heart attack is more serious.

Heart attack arm pain

Heart attack arm pain occurs as discomfort in one or both arms, especially on the medial side of the arm.  Pain may be felt also in the last two fingers, the patient felt as numbness or tingling. Heart attack pain lasts longer than half an hour and the pain from angina pectoris (is a medical term used for temporary chest pain that occurs when the heart does not receive enough blood, but does not cause irreversible damage) takes a few minutes (2-5 minutes). Heart attack arm pain intensity in older adults is lower than in other because their heart structure shows changes. This makes patients to not go to the doctor and a possible heart attack to be discovered much later.
Heart attack arm pain can also be a symptom onset of heart attack. Heart attack arm pain especially in the left arm is the most common symptoms in women.  In addition to heart attack arm pain, women may also accuse shortness of breath (feeling like patient can’t get enough air), loss of appetite, asthenia, adinamie (patient feeling tired),   coughing or heart flutters. Sometimes the symptoms or signs as heart attack arm pain may occur suddenly and it can also develop slowly even hours or days before a heart attack occurs.
Heart attack pain does not disappear at rest or after administration of vasodilators      (for example nitrate administration). It may decrease in intensity, but reappears after a few minutes. Usually pain recedes to the administration of opioid (morphine, mialgin). But after the administration of opioid the pain may persist, but with lower intensity.
Sometimes arm pain may have another cause than heart attack. Heart attack arm pain appears from the shoulder to the finger tips, is continuous and lasts over half an hour. Stress or attack panic may cause chest pain with radiation in left arm. Other causes of arm pain may be arthritis, muscle cramps or spasms, damage to the nerve or to the disc or bad circulation of blood.

In conclusion, patients with cardiovascular risk who have pain in the arm must go to the doctor or call an ambulance immediately because it can be a heart attack arm pain.

High triglycerides symptoms

Triglycerides are a form of blood fat and high triglycerides symptoms can occur at any person who have increased their level.

High triglycerides symptoms specifics

Triglycerides are the main components of vegetable oil and animal oils. Triglycerides from plasma are derived from food fats and carbohydrates. Calories ingested in a meal and not “burned” or used immediately by tissues, are converted into triglycerides and transported to cells to be stored as fat. Triglycerides and cholesterol can not dissolve in the blood circulating throughout your body with the help of proteins that carry lipids. Triglycerides play an important role in metabolism as energy sources. Excess of plasma triglycerides is called hypertriglyceridemia. High triglycerides levels usually do not causes symptoms so patients with hypertriglyceridemia do not go to the doctor for this problem. But sometimes can appear high triglycerides symptoms. People with high triglycerides (over 200 mg/dl) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. People with diabetes or who are obese are also likely to have high triglycerides.

High triglycerides

The most common causes of occurrence of high triglycerides symptoms are the unhealthy food that individuals consume in daily life. One of the high triglycerides symptoms are eruptive xanthomas. These are deposits of lipids that appear on the skin especially on the skin around the eyes, elbows and knees in triglyceride levels over 1000 mg/dL. They often appear in groups and may cause pain at acute levels. Another high triglycerides symptoms is acute pancreatitis. Pancreas is an organ located in the abdominal cavity and which is behind the stomach. It has two functions: exocrine and endocrine function. Exocrine pancreas produces enzymes for digesting fats, proteins and carbohydrates, so they can be absorbed by the intestine.
If levels of triglycerides are very high for an extended period of time, high triglycerides symptoms may be abdominal pain because of liver or spleen enlargement.They can be discovered at a routine abdominal ultrasound. Doctors must seek the cause of hepatomegaly or splenomegaly.
High triglycerides symptoms can be treated by non-pharmacological methods or with drugs. Non-pharmacological methods refer mainly to lifestyle changes. First, if the patient with high triglycerides symptoms consumed excess alcohol, he must reduce alcohol to lower triglyceride levels. Patients should also reduce the consumption of fatty foods (butter, cream, margarine, bacon but other foods that contain high levels of fat). Another method of non-pharmacological treatment of high triglycerides symptoms refers to the practice of physical exercise. Patients with hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia may be overweight and then doctors recommend them to lose weight and thus decrease of triglycerides and cholesterol levels.

Treatment of high triglycerides symptoms

Doctors may also prescribe drugs to disappear high triglycerides symptoms. These are gemfibrozil or nicotinic acid. Gemfibrozil is a medicine that lowers blood cholesterol levels and that decreases the production of triglycerides from the liver. Nicotinic acid may also lower cholesterol and triglycerides levels.

 Conclusion

When patients go to the doctor for high triglycerides symptoms, they should be treated because in time can lead to several complications.

Rapid heart beats after eating -worry or not

Rapid heart beats after eating - what should we be worried about?

Rapid heart beats

Some people experience rapid heart beats after eating and this can create an important discomfort as they begin to be afraid or avoid eating in order to prevent these irregular heart beats to occur. Others are worried they might have a heart disease that causes palpitations and sick medical help. In the next part of the article we will find out what is the meaning of these palpitation and how can we prevent them.
After a meal, the digestion process requires more blood in the stomach and intestine and that’s why the heart has to pump more blood in these organs. The process consisting in increasing the amount of blood in the abdominal area after a meal is very important as it helps the body to assimilate food. This routine activity can determine palpitations, because heart has to work harder then usually. Until now, heart palpitation after eating seems to be a normal manifestation that can occur during a daily physiological process of our body.
Along with palpitation, after eating there are other manifestations that can also occur:

• nausea
•  dizziness-it occurs because cerebral blood flow is reduced, as the stomach needs more blood then usually in order to digest the food.
•  fatigue or even exhaustion (the blood will accumulate in the digestive system, while other organs and among them, the brain, will receive a smaller amount of blood)
• chest pain after eating- many times, patient with coronary disease (chronic heart ischemia determined by deprivation of oxygen) can have a chest pains after eating
•  sweating
• insomnia-if you sleep immediately after a meal, you may have problems to fall asleep. Because during night digestion and digestive secretion used in this process are diminished, you may get indigestion with abdominal discomfort, nausea and vomiting.
•  shortness of breath-the stomach is full of food and presses against diaphragma, restricting lung expansion during breathing
•  abdominal discomfort-if we eat too much or meals which are difficult to digest

If we experience rapid heart beats after eating should we seek for medical help?

Even if sometimes, heart palpitation after eating it is a normal manifestation, there are other causes for this condition, which need to be evaluated and treated. The answer is yes, if we experience heart palpitation after eating we should pay a visit to our doctor and check if there is something wrong.
What is the cause for heart palpitations after eating?

•  sudden consumption of food after a long period of starvation. This is often seen in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, when after a long time of not eating, they start the consumption of food, the level of blood sugar increases rapidly, followed by increased secretion of insulin, which can create arrhythmia and also decreases blood sugar. The rapid decrease of blood sugar will stimulate the secretion of adrenaline, which will stimulate heart activity and create palpitation (it is like when you hurry up a person and it is obviously that in some point she will do mistakes)
•  hiatal hernia– a small portion of the stomach protrudes into the chest through diaphragm (the muscle that separates chest from abdomen and looks like a roof). This condition is usually associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease and may lead to chest pain and palpitations.
•  obesity- usually these persons have a diet with lot of sugar and caffeine, with a sedentary lifestyle and they can experience palpitation and chest pain. Their body has a lot of fats and these fats will deposit on the blood vessels wall, blocking them and generating heart disease (coronary arteries disease-with deprivation of blood and oxygen in the heart tissues). Also, the heart has to work extra hard to pump blood into their stomach.
•  hormonal imbalance could be a possible cause of heart palpitation after eating. For example hyperthyroidism (a thyroid disorder with high level of hormones) determines heart palpitation, tachycardia, chest pain, shortness of breath etc.
•  Severe anemia can affect heart and determine tachycardia (rapid heart rate) or irregular heart beats. Because there is a small number of oxygen carriers, heart will try to pump the blood faster and faster in order to satisfy the tissues need for blood and oxygen. In the same time, heart needs oxygen for itself, working harder with less oxygen it is a very good condition for palpitation to occur. Persons that avoid eating meat, can have anemia, as the meat is the main source of iron.

How can we treat rapid heart beats after eating?

Preventing heart palpitation after eating should first start with a moderate diet and by this we mean to eat moderate amounts of food at regular intervals. It is not advisable to eat one meal after we starved ourselves an entire day. Regular meals in small proportion, regular exercise, losing weight and periodically check of the hormones level (since hormonal imbalance can determine heart dysfunction) are the solution to this medical issue.

Pinched nerve symptoms

Pinched nerve symptoms may result after injury or damage to a nerve and can occur in any part of the human body. Pinched nerve may result from direct pressure or compression on a nerve. Nerves are some organs that transmit information from the brain in our body and from our body in the brain. Nerves are distributed throughout entire the body and they are of two types: motor nerves and sensory nerves. Motor nerves allow the brain to send information to the body and command organs of the body. Sensory nerves transmit information from the body to the brain for processing and then to give an answer. Thus, patients may feel pain, numbness or burning feeling. This may be some pinched nerve symptoms.

Pinched nerve symptoms and locations

Pinched nerve symptoms depend on the location of nerves in human body. These appear in the part of the body that is affected. There are some pinched nerve symptoms that are common regardless of the nerves. This are pain (patient feels pain in the region innervated by that nerve), burning feeling (patients complain of burning sensation in the affected region) and change in symptoms based on body position (if the patient changes position the pain may disappear). Another pinched nerve symptoms are fecal incontinence (patient can control the stool) and urinary incontinence (inability to control urination). Also may appear decreased sensation in the affected area or numbness (patients feel affected region with tingling, feel that region asleep) and weakness (loss of strength). Feeling of weakness may occur in the whole body or a part of the body.

Other locations of pinched nerve symptoms

This may occur in the upper limb and can be caused by carpal tunnel syndrome (compression of the median nerve) or by cubital tunnel syndrome (compression of the cubital nerve). They are two nerves that innervate the upper limbs. Sometimes the pain may be to the neck and then the pinched nerve symptoms appear in the arm. If the nerve affected is in the low back, the pain can usually down to the leg. Usually can identify which nerve is affected because of where the pain occurs. One of the affected nerves is the sciatic nerve and this is a disease called sciatica.
When a person has some of the symptoms that have been discussed above, he must go to the doctor to diagnose a possible pinched nerve. The doctor will begin by asking the patient about the symptoms, work history and family medical history. Then the doctor will exam the affected part of the body involved for more information. Depending on these results the doctor can do additional tests.  If the pain is on the back or in the neck, the patient must make an X-ray of the spine for a possible differential diagnosis of arthritis.
Pinched nerve symptoms may be treated with rest or ice applied to the affected region. Various medications can be used for treatment of pinched nerve. Anti-inflammatory medications may reduce the inflammation. Another treatment for pinched nerve symptoms is physical therapy and as an extreme solution is surgery
Pinched nerve symptoms may persist and can give severe complications. These are peripheral neuropathy, carpal tunnel syndrome or cubital tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow (commonly found in tennis players and that is a condition in which the outer part of the elbow becomes painful).

              In conclusion pinched nerve symptoms may appear in different situations and patients with  this condition can be totally recovered.

What is cardiovascular disease?

We read very often about cardiovascular disease, about heart failure, heart attack, stroke and many other disorders, but we don’t know for sure what is cardiovascular disease, why and how it occurs and what changes occur in our body. Next, we will try to explain what is cardiovascular disease in the society of nowadays and how much did medicine advanced in this research field.

What is cardiovascular disease

A question that scientists succeeded to answer but failed to cure.

Nowadays, when more and more people are suffering from heart disease we may wonder what is cardiovascular disease and why is it the first cause of death in most of the countries. We invest millions of dollars on research, looking and testing a lot of drugs, we even found out what is causing AIDS (and we succeeded to transform it in a „chronic” disease) and many other disease with strange names. But all the time there is a new disease, a new virus or bacteria that gives us trouble to treat and sometimes it feels that the more drugs we discover, the more diseases occur. Even so, the most frequent cause of death are
cardiovascular disease, a group of diseases that seem to be entirely understood, with lots of article and medical research, that could make some wonder what else is left to discover. The truth it is far from being so, as with the medical treatment we have at this moment we can only slow down these disease and not cure. Even the prophylaxis of cardiovascular disease is not very promising as we live in the century of unhealthy foods, McDonald’s food, alcohol consumption, smoking, stress, sedentariness and we spend all out time watching TV and working on computer.
After we established how important these diseases are, now let’s finally find out what is cardiovascular disease.

What is cardiovascular disease? A group of disorders that affect heart, brain and blood vessels.

The most frequent cardiovascular diseases:

• hypertension: high blood pressure affects both brain and heart as it can determine bleeding (stroke) or small infarcts in the brain and also determine or worsen heart failure. Beside heart and brain, hypertension also affects eyes and kidneys.
• heart valve disease: valves fail to close or open properly and in time they can cause heart failure,
• irregular heart beats can cause fainting, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue or even heart failure,
• other heart tissues disorders: infection, metabolic disorders that affect heart (different disorders that can determine deposits of some substances in heart tissues like iron, copper etc)
• strokes: a blood cloth can block one of the brain blood vessels and make a variable brain area to die or a blood vessel may break and let blood flow into the brain (this usually occurs in patients with hypertension or with blood vessel malformations).
• atherosclerosis: fat deposits in the blood vessels wall that in time can determine strokes, heart attack, chest pain, arterial disorder with legs pain during walking and even during rest, in advanced cases, neurologic symptoms: dizziness, fatigue, fainting, drowsiness, memory and concentration dysfunction etc.

Now that we found out what is cardiovascular disease, let’s see how is treated. As we’ve seen, it is easy to answer what is cardiovascular disease, but is difficult to treat it. Treatment has two parts and two partners: the patient and the doctor. The patient should respect a healthy diet, with no salt, fats and sweets, attend regular exercise (jogging, running or any kind of sport), no smoking or alcohol consumption, keep a normal weight, control blood pressure and blood sugar. Doctors have a large number of drugs they can use, the purpose of this treatment is to slow down the disease and treat other disorders that may worsen cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, high level of fats in the blood, infections, irregular heart beats etc. It is also important to prevent other cardiovascular events from happening, that’s why antiplatelet medication like aspirin is prescribed in patients that are suffering from cardiovascular disease.
We hope this article can offer a brief answer to the question what is cardiovascular disease and why this medical problem is so important in nowadays society.

Flu symptoms in adults

Flu symptoms in adults- different faces of the same disease

In the last years more and more people complain from flu symptoms and every year new vaccines are elaborated. People started to be very worried about flu symptoms in adults especially after the outbreaks of avian flu and AH1N1 virus, even if the “common” flu virus could cause death too. Because of the large number of people vaccinated, contradictory opinions about the efficiency and possible complications coming from the vaccination began to appear  and the result was that many people refused the vaccine.
People also searched for ways to strengthen the immunity system and they choose to use different types of medication based on plants. In clinical practice, because of the large number of patients that died even if they had no risk factors associated, doctors started to treat pneumonia with antiviral and antibiotic medication. But the more the antiviral medication is used, the more the risk of developing resistance to this treatment increases.

Next we will talk about flu symptoms in adults and its complication.

Why are we so concerned about flu symptoms in adults? For many of us, flu is just a common disease; we all had it at some point and as some use to say it lasts 7 days if you treated or one week if you don’t. But are flu symptoms in adults so insignificant that doesn’t worth talking about? This is a false idea among us that flu symptoms in adults are common manifestations. The truth is that in some people flu symptoms in adults can be as devastating as cancer or heart disease.
The main flu symptoms in adults:

• fever-some wrongly believe that fever is determined only by bacterial infection. It is a wrong idea, both viruses and bacteria can determine high fever and they can disseminate to other organs through blood,
• shivers- the feeling of body shaking
• sweating-the body tries to lose some water in order to decrease the temperature,
• headaches
• rhinorhea-water discharge from the nose as we call it
• cough-first it can start as a dry cough, but  in a few days expectoration can appear, considering that even viral infection can determine a secondary bacterial infection,
• sore throat with pains that increase while trying to swallow
• severe aches and pains in muscle and joints
• generalized weakness and fatigue, feeling the need of lying down,
• being unable to eat,
• nausea and vomiting.

Flu symptoms in adults usually last a few days (about a week), but in some cases other complication can occur:

• pneumonia- a flu symptom in adults that seems simple to deal, can  get complicated with a lower respiratory tract infection like pneumonia. In patient with reduced immunity as are those suffering from AIDS, these infections can be fatal, even if for many of us it can be a common disorder.
• invasion of the virus in other organs through blood flow, which leads to a condition called septicemia, one of the worst flu symptoms in adults and an important threat to patient’s life,
• meningitis-if the viruses reach the nervous system, they can determine meningitis, which is an infection of the tissues layers that cover the brain and are called meninges.
• shortness of breath or fast breathing, bluish skin color (the blood hasn’t enough oxygen)
• neurologic symptoms: dizziness, drowsiness, confusion
• fulminant myocarditis
• pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the pulmonary arteries) seems to be linked to the infection determined by AH1N1 virus,

Complications are more common in people suffering from respiratory, cardiac disease obesity and of course, those with diminished immunity (like patients with AIDS).
As we saw, flu symptoms in adults can be common or can be very serious, depending of the aggressiveness of the virus, the immunity system of the host, the risk factors associated, but it is important to remember that it can be fatal (about 40.000 people died every year, in USA, in the past 20 years, because of the flu).

Stents in the heart

Stents in the heart are small medical devices (small mesh tubes) used to treat narrowed arteries (arteries are blood vessels that carry blood from heart to the tissues). The procedure of placing stents in the heart is called angioplasty. Angioplasty alone, without stent placement is associated with a high risk of recurrence of the arterial blockage, in months or years after the procedure. That is why placing stents in the heart solved this disadvantage of the angioplasty, maintaining blood vessels opened and avoiding heart surgery. The risk that the arteries will renarrow is 10-20%  in the first year after angioplasty, while in the absence of a stent the risk is twice as much.

Stents in the heart are usually made of metal mesh or fabric (these ones are used in larger arteries). Some of these stents contain a special substance that prevent blood from coagulating and are called drug-eluting stents.

How are stents in the heart placed? 

Doctors use a balloon inside the artery to compress the plaque (deposits of fats in the arteries wall, also called atherosclerosis) and widen the passage (the arterial lumen through which will flow blood). After this, they place the stent in order to maintain the passage (the artery lumen) opened.

How do we prepare patients before placing stents in the heart?

Patients should be well informed about the stents in the heart procedure, about the risks and the special precautions. These are a few questions u must always ask your doctor about:

•  Why is it performed?
•  How is it performed?
•  What are the risks and precautions of this procedure?
•  Is there any other alternative?
•  What happens if I refuse this procedure?
•  Always sign a consent paper.

Why are stents in the heart placed for?

The purpose for stents in the heart placement is to keep the arterial lumen opened and allow blood to flow, in this way tissues will receive enough blood and the symptoms of ischemia (oxygen deprivation) will be relieved.

• For carotid arteries blockage: fat deposits in carotid arteries wall (also called plaques, they are a manifestation of the disease named atherosclerosis) can determine neurologic symptoms like dizziness, fainting, headache, memory and concentration problems and in severe cases even stroke.
• For coronary vessels (blood vessels that supply blood for heart tissues): a special tube called catheter is introduced in the femoral artery (the main artery of the lower limb) and it is conducted in the arterial system until it reaches the coronary arteries. In that moment, a special substance is pumped into the catheter in order to view the arteries and the blockage. This catheter has a tiny balloon on its tip, which is inflated in the narrowed area, compressing the atheroma (the plaque of fats from the artery wall that blocks blood flow) and enlarging the lumen. After this a stent may be placed to keep the lumen opened.
• For kidney or leg arteries, aneurysm of the aorta.
  

What are the common precautions after placing stents in the heart?

•  blood clotting precautions: in order to prevent blood clotting, patients with stents in the heart have to take antiplatelet medication (aspirin, clopidogrel)
•  if the stent is made of metal, than the patient can’t have MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
•  avoid vigorous effort early after the stent placement procedure.
  

What risks are related to stents in the heart?

•  restenosis- blood vessel becomes blocked and narrow again, despite the angioplasty procedure
•  about 1 or 2 percent of the patients with a stented artery are at risk of developing a cloth at the stent site; the consequence of this complication can be a heart attack. This complication is more frequent in the first year after stent placement and can be prevented by antiplatelet medication (like aspirin, clopidogrel).
•  bleeding at the site of the catheter insertion into the skin
•  damage of the blood vessel produced by the catheter
•  irregular heart beats
•  infection or allergic reaction (due to the substance used to view the arterial lumen)

Stents in the heart brought a significant contribution in cardiology, saving and improving life in patients with heart attack and coronary disease.