Health and Beauty tips

Parasites on the skin are small insects or worms that burrow into the skin, live there and lay their eggs. Some parasites live in the skin for part of their life cycle; others would be permanent residents. There are many types of parasitic skin infections that require clinical care by a healthcare professional.. Listed below are the most common ones:

• Creeping eruption is a skin infection caused by hookworms, which normally are found on dogs and cats. The parasite spreads to humans through skin contact with the eggs found in dog and cat feces on the ground. Characterized by severe itching, the infection usually appears on the feet, legs, buttocks, or back. Creeping eruption may be treated with liquid thiabendazole and other topical treatments.
• Body lice spread through direct contact between people, or through contact with their bedding or clothing. Treatment of this infection includes using lice-killing shampoo or lotion applied over the entire body.
• Scabies is an infestation of mites. This highly contagious infection often spreads through skin contact between people or when they share towels, bedding, or clothing. The infection is characterized by small, red bumps and intense itching that becomes seemingly unbearable at night. Scabies is treatable and usually all members in a family are treated at the same time. Treatment may include applications of prescription creams and lotions, such as permethrin and lindane solutions and oral antihistamine medication. In addition, it is important to wash all clothes and bedding in hot water and dry in a hot dryer. Clothing and other objects that cannot be washed (i.e., pillows, stuffed animals) should be placed in a plastic bag for at least one week.

Pancreatitis simply means inflammation of the pancreas. Located in the upper part of the abdomen, behind the stomach, this gland plays an important role in digestion producing digestive juices and digestive hormones.

Most cases of pancreatitis develop as a result of environmental and genetic factors. Mumps and other viral infections, tumors, and the use of certain drugs, including steroids, thiazide diuretics, and oral contraceptives, have all been associated with pancreatitis. Nevertheless, long-term alcohol abuse remains a leading cause of both acute and chronic pancreatitis in industrialized nations.

Acute pancreatitis usually begins with pain in the upper abdomen that may last for a few days. The pain may be severe and may become constant—just in the abdomen—or it may reach to the back and other areas. It may be sudden and intense or begin as a mild pain that gets worse when food is eaten. Other symptoms may include swollen and tender abdomen, nausea, vomiting, fever and rapid pulse. Severe cases may cause dehydration and low blood pressure. The heart, lungs, or kidneys may fail. If bleeding occurs in the pancreas, shock and sometimes even death follow.

Severe acute pancreatitis usually requires a hospital stay. If complications develop, the patient may be admitted to the intensive care unit. Treatment goals include controlling the pain, allowing the pancreas to rest and restoring a normal balance of pancreatic juices.

Because the pancreas goes into action at any food intake, the patient won’t be able to eat or drink for a few days. Instead, he/she’ll receive fluids and nutrition through a vein (intravenously) or be fed through a tube that’s been passed into the stomach and intestine so that it goes past the pancreas. Longer term treatment includes therapy for alcohol abuse, chemical dependency or smoking if these factors play a role in developing pancreatitis. A team approach involving a chemical dependency counselor and a psychologist trained in cognitive therapy may be the most helpful.

When gallstones block the pancreatic duct, doctor may recommend a procedure to remove the stones. The patient may eventually need surgery to remove the gallbladder if gallstones continue to pose problems.

Mild cases of acute pancreatitis generally improve in a week or less. Moderate to severe cases take longer.

A cataract is clouding of the lens of the eye, which impedes the passage of light. The exact cause of cataracts is unknown. Aging may play a role, but the condition also occurs in some newborns whose mothers contracted German measles during pregnancy. Diabetes, glaucoma, and detachment of the retina, injury to the lens, prolonged use of certain drugs (including steroidal drugs such as prednisone), and high doses of radiation (for example, from prolonged exposure to X-rays) may also trigger the condition. Other risk factors include cigarette smoke, air pollution and heavy alcohol consumption.
The main symptom of cataracts is painless blurring of vision, occurring most often in only one eye. During the initial stages of development, cataracts can cause the person to experience glare in bright light, since the clouded lens scatters, rather than focuses, incoming light. As the condition progresses, the lens becomes milky white, and vision continues to worsen.

When symptoms begin to appear, you may be able to improve your vision for a while using new glasses, strong bifocals, magnification, appropriate lighting or other visual aids.

Think about surgery when your cataracts have progressed enough to seriously impair your vision and affect your daily life. Many people consider poor vision an inevitable fact of aging, but cataract surgery is a simple, relatively painless procedure to regain vision.

Cataract surgery is very successful in restoring vision. In fact, it is the most frequently performed surgery in the United States, with more than 3 million Americans undergoing cataract surgery each year. Nine out of 10 people who have cataract surgery regain very good vision, somewhere between 20/20 and 20/40.

During surgery, the surgeon will remove the clouded lens and in most cases replace it with a clear, plastic intraocular lens (IOL). New IOLs are being developed all the time to make the surgery less complicated for surgeons and the lenses more helpful to patients.
In the vast majority of cases, surgery for cataracts is without complications. Restoration or substantial improvement of vision usually results after surgery. If vision remains unimproved, a disorder that was not detected due to the presence of the cataract may be the cause.

Amnesia is a temporary or permanent memory loss. People with amnesia have difficulty learning new information, and/or they have difficulty recalling previously learned information. They may be disoriented and confused. Their memory deficit causes problems for them either at work, in school, or in social settings. Amnesia affects both men and women and occurs at any age.
Causes of amnesia can include external trauma (such as a blow to the head), internal trauma, such as stroke, exposure to a toxic substances such as carbon monoxide, inadequate diet, brain tumors and seizures. There are some general types of amnesia:

• Anterograde. This form of amnesia is a result of brain trauma, which is characterized by the inability to remember new information. Although victims can recall events prior to the trauma with clarity, recent experiences and short-term memory disappear.
• Korsakoff Syndrome. It is known as inability to record new memory along with a defect in recent memory, usually accompanied by storytelling of fabricated events. It can be caused by head injury, stroke, encephalitis, deficiency of vitamin B, cancer of the brain, or poor blood supply to memory tissue in the brain. However, heavy drinking of alcohol, with resultant brain damage, is commonly the cause.
• Psychological Amnesia. Amnesia of psychological origin is very uncommon. A person disappears from home, job, and family, travels to a new place and assumes a new identity — all without being aware that anything has changed. After days or weeks the “awakening” occurs, the person becomes their old self, and wonders what happened. There is no memory of the period of amnesia. This type of amnesia is caused by anxiety. When the person is faced with high emotional stress or pain, the mind forgets the anxieties and everything related to them in order to protect itself.
• Retrograde. In some ways, this form of amnesia is the opposite of anterograde amnesia: the victim can recall events that occurred after a trauma, but cannot remember events before the trauma.

Treatment depends on the cause of amnesia and is handled on an individual basis. Psychotherapy can be helpful for people whose amnesia is caused by emotional trauma. For instance, hypnosis may help some patients/clients recall forgotten memories. Sometimes it is appropriate to administer a drug called Amytal which helps some people recall their lost memories. The use of hypnosis or Amytal has become controversial when it is used to help a patient recall repressed memories, especially if these memories are associated with sexual abuse. After recalling memories of abuse, some patients have filed suit against the alleged perpetrator of the sexual abuse. The validity of memories recalled under these treatment situations is being questioned and tested in the courts.
Hospitalization is usually not necessary to treat amnesia unless the person is at risk for harming himself/herself.

Amnesia is only preventable in so far as brain injury can be prevented or minimized. Common sense approaches include wearing a helmet when bicycling or participating in potentially dangerous sports, using automobile seat belts, and avoiding excessive alcohol or drug use. Brain infections should be treated swiftly to minimize the damage due to swelling. Victims of strokes, brain aneurysms, and transient ischemic attacks should seek immediate medical treatment.

Addison’s disease is a rare endocrine or hormonal disorder that occurs in all age groups and afflicts men and women equally. It occurs when the adrenal glands do not produce enough of the hormone cortisol and, in some cases, the hormone aldosterone. The disease is also known as adrenal insufficiency, or hypocortisolism.

Formerly, the cause of this disease was often tuberculosis or a fungal infection. However, in recent years, the disease is more likely to be idiopathic (of unknown cause).
The symptoms of adrenal insufficiency usually begin gradually. Characteristics of the disease are chronic, worsening fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of appetite and weight loss. About 50 percent of the time, one will notice nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Other symptoms include low blood pressure that falls further when standing, causing dizziness or fainting, and skin changes with areas of hyperpigmentation, or dark tanning, covering exposed and nonexposed parts of the body. Addison’s disease can cause irritability and depression. Because of salt loss, a craving for salty foods also is common. Hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, is more severe in children than in adults. In women, menstrual periods may become irregular or stop.

Treatment of Addison’s disease involves replacing, or substituting, the hormones that the adrenal glands are not making. An additional steroid drug may be prescribed to promote retention of salt, and thereby water, so that the low blood pressure of severe Addison’s disease can be avoided.

The outlook for patients receiving hormone treatment is excellent. Continued medical supervision is necessary to prevent emergencies caused by a sudden withdrawal of treatment or by an increased need for hormones because of infection, injury, surgery, pregnancy, or other stress on the body. It is important to avoid infection, but should infection occur, it is necessary to treat it as soon as possible. At all times, patients should carry a card or wear a bracelet describing the condition and the need for cortisone. It is also critical to take the medication exactly as prescribed and to be monitored by a physician who can adjust the dosage as the need arises.