INSAF

Home monitoring makes sense if you have high blood pressure. Your blood pressure changes from hour to hour, sometimes even minute to minute. It jumps around so much that you are more likely to get a good sense of your blood pressure if you check it at home rather than in the doctor's office. Just a few of the things that can influence your blood pressure: standing up from a chair watching an exciting show on television eating a meal listening to soothing music stress the time of day In fact, the American Heart Association (AHA), American Society of Hypertension, and Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association urge people with high blood pressure, or at high risk for developing it, to become blood pressure do-it-yourselfers. There are many good reasons to follow their advice. Taking your blood pressure at home allows you to: •   Find your real blood pressure. The measurement your doctor or nurse takes is just a single frame from an...

“ Stand up straight.” That’s timeless advice we’ve probably all heard at one time or another. It’s worth heeding. Good posture is important to balance. By standing up straight, you center your weight over your feet. Good posture also helps you maintain correct form while exercising, which results in fewer injuries and greater gains. Good balance has many payoffs. If you love tennis, golf, running, dancing, skiing, or any number of other sports or activities, working on balance strengthens your abilities. Not an athlete? Just walking across the floor or down the block requires good balance. So does rising from a chair, going up and down stairs, toting packages, and even turning to look behind you. Poor posture isn’t necessarily a bad habit. Physical reasons for poor posture include: • I nflexible muscles that decrease range of motion (how far a joint can move in any direction). For example, overly tight, shortened hip muscles tug your upper body forward ...

By Dr. PJ Prakash High intake of salt results in high body weight because salt makes our body retain water. United States Salt Intake and Risk of High Blood Pressure Common salt found in the food is composed of two minerals – sodium and chloride. These minerals also help maintain the electrolyte balance in the blood vessels that maintains the blood pressure. While there are no adverse effects of high chloride content reported, high levels of sodium have been related with an imbalance of electrolyte activity resulting in a high blood pressure. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is an important risk factor for both heart attack and stroke. Salt Intake and Weight Management High intake of salt results in high body weight because salt makes our body retain water. On the other hand, low salt intake may result in weight loss as it causes our body to expel water. Water takes away excess sodium through the kidneys. So a...

Approximately 15 million people in the U. S. have food allergies, including 1 in 13 children. The most common food allergies−peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish−affect 90 percent of all food-allergic reactions in the United States. Testing can help to determine if one is allergic to a certain food or if the symptoms are caused by something else. A family history of food hypersensitivities may increase the likelihood of having the susceptibility, and should be discussed with a physician or allergist before testing. When one’s immune system attacks a food protein mistaking it as a threat, it is called an allergic reaction. The food protein attacked by the body is referred to as an allergen. Frequent symptoms of allergic reactions include itching or swelling in the mouth, vomiting, hives, abdominal pain, and tightening of the throat or trouble breathing. A more serious type of reaction is anaphylaxis, a dangerous and potentially fatal reaction to an allergen...

Medications make a difference — generally a positive one — in the lives of many people. Insulin keeps blood sugar under control, cholesterol-lowering drugs can reduce the chances of having a heart attack, and thyroid medication can restore a normal hormone level. These are but a few examples. At the same time, all drugs carry side effects, and can interact with other medications. For many medications, one or more side effects affect balance. And that can increase your chances of taking a fall. How? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common problems include vision changes, dizziness or lightheadedness, drowsiness, and impaired alertness or judgment. Some medications may damage the inner ear, spurring temporary or permanent balance disorders. How do I know if this is a problem for me? Some of the commonly prescribed medications that can affect balance include: •  antidepressants •  anti-anxiety drugs ...

          Gene therapy: not just for mice. Bradbury J Genetic traits like a bulbous nose or balding give some people reasons to moan about what they inherited from their parents. But more serious genetic flaws can cause debilitating disease. Now, Italian researchers have come up with a way of treating one such inherited disease and reversing another using a promising new method of gene therapy. The idea behind gene therapy is to replace a faulty gene with a shiny new version that works properly. Modified versions of viruses, which have been sculpted by millions of years of evolution, perfectly penetrate human cells. They act as couriers delivering DNA payloads to defective cells and ensure it is stably inherited. This deceptively simple idea, though, has been challenging to achieve in practice. The first commercial gene therapy product, Glybera , only received regulatory approva...

In a nutshell, dementia is a symptom, and AD is the cause of the symptom. When someone is told they have dementia, it means that they have significant memory problems as well as other cognitive difficulties, and that these problems are severe enough to get in the way of daily living..... Too often, patients and their family members are told by their doctors that the patient has been diagnosed with “a little bit of dementia.” They leave the doctor’s visit with a feeling of relief that at least they don’t have Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There is great confusion about the difference between “dementia” and “Alzheimer's disease.” The confusion is felt on the part of patients, family members, the media, and even healthcare providers. This article provides information to reduce the confusion by defining and describing these two common and often poorly understood terms. What is the difference between Alzheimer's disease and dementia? “Dementia” is a term th...