Perhaps the greatest punishment for man would be to make him bed ridden. Dependency more than the sickness makes the patient mentally weak. This deteriorates his condition more than the illness itself. Imagine your plight if you would have to wait for someone’s help to change your position, getup, drink water and even using the bathroom. Many diseases today cause this kind of a dependency. What worsens the condition of these patients is that they are prone to a more brutal situation…they are susceptible to form bed sores! These are ugly looking sores which are infectious holes which run deep till the bones and other visceral organs surrounded by redness and soreness.

Why are bed sores formed?

Many people shift in their chair during meetings, fiddle with the radio when driving, turn a dozen times in their sleep. Every day, without thinking, they make hundreds of subtle postural adjustments that help stave off problems arising from inactivity. But for people immobilized by paralysis, injury or illness, those problems — including bedsores — are a constant threat.

Bedsores, more accurately called pressure sores or pressure ulcers, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure — usually from a bed or wheelchair — cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of your body, especially the skin on your buttocks, hips and heels. Without adequate blood flow, the affected tissue dies.

Although people living with paralysis are especially at risk, anyone who is bedridden, uses a wheelchair or is unable to change positions without help can develop bedsores. They’re especially common in areas that aren’t well padded with muscle or fat and that lie just over a bone, such as your spine, tailbone (coccyx), shoulder blades, hips, heels and elbows. Because your skin and the underlying tissues are trapped between bone and a surface such as a wheelchair or bed, blood flow is restricted. This deprives tissue of oxygen and other nutrients, and irreversible damage and tissue death can occur.

Other causes of pressure sores include:

§ Friction. Frequent shifts in position are the key to preventing pressure sores. Yet the friction that occurs when you simply turn from side to side can damage your skin, making it more susceptible to pressure sores.

§ Shear. This occurs when your skin moves in one direction, and the underlying bone moves in another. Sliding down in a bed or chair or raising the head of your bed more than 30 degrees is especially likely to cause shearing, which stretches and tears cell walls and tiny blood vessels. Especially affected are areas such as your tailbone where skin is already thin and fragile.

The patient may not even realize the development

Many a times the paralyzed patient has a poor nervous system and is unable to sense of discomfort or pain which signal the development of bed sores. This may make the identification of initial stages of the bed sore difficult. However if the care taker is aware enough the initial stages may be caught. For this purpose, the following stages in the development of bed sores are discussed:

§ Stage I. Initially, a pressure sore appears as a persistent area of red skin that may itch or hurt and feel warm and spongy or firm to the touch. Stage I wounds are superficial and go away shortly after the pressure is relieved.

§ Stage II. At this point, some skin loss has already occurred — either in the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, in the dermis, the skin’s deeper layer, or in both. The wound is now an open sore that looks like a blister or an abrasion, and the surrounding tissues may show red or purple discoloration. If treated promptly, stage II sores usually heal fairly quickly.

§ Stage III. By the time a pressure ulcer reaches this stage, the damage has extended to the tissue below the skin, creating a deep, crater-like wound.

§ Stage IV. In the most serious and advanced stage, a large-scale loss of skin occurs, along with damage to muscle, bone, and even supporting structures such as tendons and joints. Stage IV wounds are extremely difficult to heal and can lead to lethal infections.

Treatment for bed sores:

Specific treatment of a bed sore is determined by your physician and based on the severity of the condition. Treatment may be more difficult once the skin is broken, and may include the following:

• removing pressure on the affected area

• protecting the wound with medicated gauze or other special dressings

• keeping the wound clean

• transplanting healthy skin to the wound area

• medication (i.e., antibiotics to treat infections)

Tags: medicine, blood pressure, herbal, alternative, Ayurvedic

If your stool is dry and hard, you will probably have troublesome morning time. You have cramps and pain in the rectum which worsens as you pass the stool. It becomes painful and strenuous to pass stool which often comes in lumps when you have constipation.

Everybody faces this problem at some point of their life time due to many factors like a change in regular diet, lack of taking enough fluids, lack of fiber rich diet and change in bowel movements. Lack of exercise, a habit of using laxatives or IBS can be other reasons. Some medicines also cause constipation. Some people, especially, have the habit of resisting the urge to go to toilet and end up having a constipation the next day. Anatomical causes include problems with the colon and rectum or with intestinal function (chronic idiopathic constipation).

If you are constipated you probably have very less of bowel movements. Constipation is usually accompanied with bloating, abdominal pain with a feeling of incomplete emptying. However, constipation is not a disease. But remember that it can lead to complications like hemorrhoids, chronic prolapse etc.

There are some things you can do at home to prevent constipation.

1. Drink water! Intake of sufficient fluids will aid both your digestion process and also the bowel movements.
2. Take control of your diet than let diet control you. Include a lot of fiber, whole grain foods and fresh vegetables in your meals. Eat 10 grams of bran cereal in one serving. But do not try to have a lot of fiber in one day. Increase the quantity of fiber intake slowly and gradually. Take less of sweets, animal fats and dairy products.
3. Try not to depend on laxatives if the constipation is mild. Take warm milk or eat a banana before going to bed in the night. Orange is yet another fruit you can relish at this time.
4. Now you have a better diet plan! Now it is time to get some physical activity. Get regular exercise and feel the difference. Even a 20 minute walk a day will do.
5. Relax! Give some time off to your bowel movements and never resist the urge to go. Take care of your children if they have constipation and teach them to go when they feel like passing stools. Children mostly ignore their natural urges and get constipated.
6. Try using mild laxatives like Magnesia for a few days. Some people like castor oil, fenugreek, flaxseed, or psyllium as laxative.
7. Products containing bulk-forming agents should not do any harm. But always drink extra water to prevent bloating.
8. Natural remedies like Triphala works well for most of the people. Tripahala is a herbal mix made of Amalaki (Emblica officinalis), Bibhitaki (Terminalia bellirica) and Haritaki (Terminalia chebula) which serves as an internal cleanser. It not only helps you with constipation but also increases your appetite and promotes digestion.
9. It is wise not to give laxatives or enemas to small children without your Doctor’s recommendation.

Consult your doctor without delay if your stool becomes extremely thin or is leaking, if you severe rectal pain while passing stool or if you have rectal bleeding.

-Aparna K V

Tags: alternative, diabetes, Ayurvedic, homeopathic, herbal

Of late, to my bewilderment, many Indian women I come across in the USA seem to be under treatment for thyroid.  Thyroid diseases fall under the category of autoimmune diseases. I read about the thyroid problem in women extensively.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system attacks itself by mistake. When I looked for more information I found that thyroid disease and systemic lupus erythematosus are the most common autoimmune diseases found in women. The latter sounds so terrifying that I did not read any more on it. However, Thyroid disease in women of childbearing age was my subject of concern.

The thyroid gland is one of the most important glands in the body and plays an important role in the body’s metabolism. It also secretes hormones like thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), and calcitonin while regulating body heat and bone growth. The thyroid gland works together with the pituitary gland.  For some reason, untreated thyroid problems are quite common in women following pregnancy.  A good number of women suffer from thyroid problems at some stage of their life time or other.  Any problem with the thyroid is usually seen in weight loss, fatigue, memory loss, depression etc.  Hashimoto’s disease, or hypothyroiditis and Graves’ disease are two types of thyroid diseases found more in females than males.  While in the former, the thyroid gets destroyed by the immune system the latter is a medical condition in which excessive amount of thyroid hormone is produced.

A change in the