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Anemia – Low Blood Hemoglobin

Monday, June 20th, 2011

Anemia is defined as low blood hemoglobin concentration. The normal haemoglobin level is between 11.5 to 16.5g/dL for adult female and 12.5 to 18.5g/dL for adult male. The main function of hemoglobin is to carry oxygen to the tissues hence anaemia leads to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in organs and later to a wide range of clinical consequences.

Anemia is not a disease but a symptom of various conditions including extensive blood loss, excessive blood cell destruction or reduced blood cell formation. There are several kinds of anaemia caused by various underlying circumstances and the most common is lack of iron from daily intake. It is a condition when there is not enough healthy red blood cells in the blood circulation to carry oxygen to the tissues. This function is carried out by a protein called haemoglobin. Anaemia usually means not having enough haemoglobin. The normal haemoglobin level is between 11.5 to 16.5g/dL for a female and 12.5 to 18.5g/dL for a male.

Causes of anemia

1.Blood loss (which can be acute or chronic).
*Acute blood loss may be seen in a motor vehicle accident or following surgery. Blood loss of more than 500ml usually warrants replacement.
*Chronic blood loss occurs during excessive menstruation in females, chronic worm infestation and other conditions.

2.Inadequate production of normal red cells by bone marrow.
This may be due to:

*Deficiency of essential factors like iron, vitamin B12, folate and erythropoietin.
*Marked growth spurt in adolescence, causing an increased iron requirement which outstrips the rate of iron absorption.
*Menstruation in females with an average loss of 30 mg of iron each month may lead to an iron deficiency situation.
*Toxic factors: inflammatory disease, liver or kidney failure, medications.
*Hormone deficiency: low thyroid hormone levels.
*Invasion of bone marrow: blood cancers, bone marrow disease.
*Disorder of developing red cells: conditions such as thalassemia.

3.Excessive destruction of red blood cells due to infection or certain medications.

4.Anaemia can also be due to generalised or specific nutrient deficiencies. Besides protein, other few micronutrients are needed to form red blood cells and haemoglobin such as iron, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, copper, riboflavin and folic acid. Thus, lack of any of these micronutrients may lead to nutritional anaemia.

Blood pressure measurement techniques

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Blood pressure is not the same throughout the day. It varies with time of day or night, exercise, excitement or stress. Because of this normal variation it is important to measure the Blood Pressure a few times on different occasions.

If the Blood Pressure reading is consistently equal to or higher than 140 systolic and 90 diastolic or both, then the doctor will diagnose you as having high blood pressure or hypertension.

World Hypertension Day Tuesday Friday 17th May 2011

Blood pressure should be measured in a standard manner and the equipment used must meet certification criteria.

The following blood pressure measurement techniques are recommended :

1.The patient should be seated on a chair with their backs supported and their arms bared and supported at heart level. They should not smoke or ingest caffeine during the 30 minutes preceding the measurement.

2.The patient should rest for 5 minutes before blood pressure is taken. An appropriate cuff should be used. The bladder within the cuff should encircle at least 80 percent of the arm.

3.Measurements should be taken with a mercury sphygmomanometer. A recently calibrated aneroid manometer or a validated electronic device can be used. Finger monitors are not acceptable. Blood pressure devices used for home measurement should be checked periodically by comparing readings with simultaneous readings taken with a mercury device.

4.Both the systolic (SBP)and diastolic (DBP)blood pressure is recorded. The first appearance of sound is taken as SBP and the disappearance of sound is the DBP.

Hypertension or High Blood Pressure

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Hypertension or High Blood Pressure is a silent disease which can lead to many complications and even death threat if not treated. Hypertension is most commonly known as High Blood Pressure. It is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure is elevated. Blood pressure is the force applied against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood through the body.

Blood Pressure

Your heart works like a pump and it contracts and relaxes.The Blood Pressure measurements is in two readings e.g. 140/75

Systolic pressure – the higher number (140 in this example)
Diastolic blood pressure – the lower number (75 in this example)

Hypertension Causes

The cause of hypertension is usually not known even after the doctor’s examination.

However Hypertension can be the result of

*Kidney diseases
*Drugs e.g. steroids, NSAIDs
*Genetic factors
*Alcohol and smoking increases risk of complications of hypertension (including heart disease and stroke)

Hypertension Sign & symptoms

*Most of the time, hypertension does not cause any signs or symptoms.
*Sometimes a person may have non specific symptoms e.g. headache or giddiness.
*Have your blood pressure checked regularly at the nearest clinic. Your doctor will advise you on how often to check your blood pressure.

Complications

The high blood pressure will lead to increased strain of your vital body organs especially brain, heart, kidneys, resulting

in damage. The type of damage will depend on how long duration and how fast the pressure rises.

*Rapid rise blood pressure
*This can cause confusion, drowsiness, fits and even death and must be treated urgently.
*Long term high blood pressure. The prolonged stress of the body organs can lead to the following :-
*heart – leading to heart failure, heart attack and death
*blood vessels – leading to hardening of vessels
*kidney – leading to kidney failure
*eyes – leading to bleeding and damage to the light-sensitive area of the eyes
*brain – leading to stroke

The good news is all the above can be prevented if you seek treatment early.

Treatment

Your hypertension can be managed using

*Non-drug treatment

This would require you to modify your lifestyle such as
*Reduce salt in your diet
*Increased physical activities
*Reduce your body weight if overweight via exercise and dieting
*Stop smoking and alcohol intake
*Stress reduction

Drug treatment

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Has your doctor told you or a loved one that you need to lower your blood pressure? Before you allow your physician to put you on a blood pressure medication, try to lower your blood pressure naturally. Usually through simple lifestyle changes, you can lower your own blood pressure without the need for pharmaceutical assistance.

Here are some of the basic factors that you can’t change which contribute to high blood pressure:

Genetic susceptibility
The aging process
Kidney disorders
Endocrine system disorders
Lead poisoning

However, there are many causes of high blood pressure that can be controlled through lifestyle changes. These include:

Obesity
High salt intake
Certain medications, including birth control pills, diet pills, antidepressants, and decongestants

(Source: eHealthMed.com)

Rather than focusing on what you can’t control, such as your genes, as an excuse for high blood pressure, focus on what you can control and start to rein in your blood pressure naturally. There are two places in particular you should start: diet and exercise.

Step One: Change Your Diet

Are you one of the 63.1% of Americans who are either overweight or obese? If you are, there’s a good chance that your high blood pressure is tied to your weight. If you’re overweight, there’s a good chance that your weight is tied to your diet.

“Changing your diet” does not have to be about crazy crash diets, calorie restriction, or complicated “systems”. Eating right takes mostly common sense and commitment.

There are many different theories in the natural health community about the best way to eat. Some advocate a vegetarian diet; others claim that vegetarian doesn’t go far enough – you should go completely vegan, without even eggs or dairy products. Still others urge us to eat raw foods only, foods cooked under 114 degrees Fahrenheit. Some suggest your diet should be based on Chinese medicine; others prefer Aryuvedic diets; lately there’s been a movement towards “Paleolithic era” diets.

Eeek! Which should you choose?! No matter which type of diet you choose, here are some basic guidelines about diet that you should keep in mind:

Stop eating out, especially fast food: Remember that salt intake is one of the causes of high blood pressure? Well, fast food and other restaurant foods tend to be higher in sodium because processed foods utilize sodium as a preservative. Take ten minutes at night to make your lunch for the next day instead of going through the drive-through.

Eat less more often: Instead of forgetting to eat all day and gorging on junk food at the end of the day, eat smaller meals frequently throughout the day. Three small meals plus three healthy snacks is a good rule of thumb that will keep you from getting hungry and then overeating.
Eat lean meats: Meat eaters should only buy grass fed beef, which is far less fatty than mass-produced beef. Chicken and fish also tend to be better for you than red meat.
Eat less meat: Most experts agree that our diet should ideally be mostly plant-based, because it’s better for the environment and our bodies. About 3 ounces of meat per day is all we should be eating.
Avoid refined carbohydrates: Doughnuts, cookies, cakes, white breads – throw them out. When eating carbs, focus on whole grains. The less processed and fewer preservatives, the better.
Switch to egg whites: If you like a Sunday morning omelet, switch to an egg white omelet instead. Eggs are a great source of protein, but the fat and the cholesterol comes from the yolk.
Limit alcohol intake: Beer in particular is very high calorie – they don’t call it a “beer gut” for nothing!

By avoiding fast food, refined carbs, and junk food gorging, you’ll be consuming less sodium and changing the habits that led to your weight gain in the first place. Don’t be fooled by chain restaurant advertising; even if they say it’s healthy, it’s probably not. Case in point: McDonald’s Crispy Chicken contains a whopping 26 grams of fat!

Step Two: Get Serious About Exercise

If changing our diet is hard, changing exercise habits is probably even harder for most Americans. Between our daily commute to and from work and our mostly sedentary jobs, we spend a lot of our day sitting on our bottoms. When we finally drag ourselves home, we frequently find that we’re so tired all we really want to do is flop onto the couch and watch television for a few hours, leading us to sit on our bottoms some more.

Ironically, our lack of exercise contributes to our lack of energy. By tiring our body through a solid workout, we won’t have as tired a body later in the day.

Exercise, however, is another one of those topics where it seems like multiple “experts” are offering conflicting advice. Not that long ago, for example, the Institute of Medicine issued a report stating that we need an hour of exercise per day in order to be at our optimal health and weight. A few years before that report came out, however, there were other studies saying we only needed about 20 minutes of exercise per day to do the job. Who’s right? How much earlier should we set our alarm clock for?

Multiple studies show that 20 – 30 minutes of moderate, break-a-sweat exercise five times per week can reduce our cardiac risk by 30 – 50% (Source: HeartDisease.About.com). Although this amount of exercise may not be enough to really shed the pounds, it is enough to start to reduce blood pressure naturally. If you combine this recommendation with the dietary recommendations above, you can definitely start to lose weight and reduce your blood pressure.

It Depends Upon You

Ultimately, if you’re overweight or obese and it’s affecting your blood pressure, almost any change to your lifestyle will help. The main requirement is that you pick a lifestyle change and you stick with it. Whether you join Weight Watchers, enter the Body for Life contest, or pick up a book on the Mediterranean diet, the point is to find a lifestyle change that you can consistently maintain.

The hardest part is actually deciding to change. Once you make that decision, though, you’ll be so glad you did – and so will your heart.

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Natural Blood Pressure Reducers

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

In the 1930s, DuPont coined the phrase, “Better living through chemistry”. Today, their early advertising slogan has taken on an ominous, Brave New World tone as we struggle to reduce or eliminate from our bodies and our environments some of the very chemicals we turned to for protection.

Usually, when we think about harmful chemicals, our mind turns to environmental disasters. However, harmful chemicals aren’t always to be found in sprays; sometimes, they are to be found in drugs. In November 2004, during the congressional hearings on the drug Vioxx, Dr. David Graham of the FDA stated boldly: “Today we are faced with what may be the single greatest drug safety catastrophe in the history of this country or the history of the world. In my opinion, the FDA has let the American people down, and sadly, betrayed a public trust” (Source: http://www.oftwominds.com/journal08/Prescription-Drugs.htm). It wasn’t just Vioxx that he was talking about. Graham was also referring to Accutane, Bextra, Crestor, Meridia, and Serevent, some of which are still on the market today.

Considering this information, take a close look at what prescription medications you’re taking. Has the promise of “better living through chemistry” has ever been truly fulfilled? Could you reduce or eliminate some of your medication through a lifestyle or diet change? Here’s one place to get started: blood pressure.

Natural Blood Pressure Reducer

According to the FDA, high blood pressure affects nearly one in three American adults. High blood pressure leads many people to start a prescription medication, and it’s a flagship drug for many pharmaceutical companies.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are many ways to reduce high blood pressure naturally. Start with these nine simple natural blood pressure reducers, and reevaluate after a couple of months to see if you still need prescription medication for your high blood pressure. You might find that a few lifestyle changes allow you to take less medication, or eliminate certain medications altogether.

1. Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise gets your heart rate up and helps you burn those calories. Not only is aerobic exercise good for losing weight (which in and of itself is good for blood pressure), it’s also a good way to make the heart stronger. The heart, after all, is a muscle. When it gets stronger, it pumps more blood with less effort, thus lowering your overall blood pressure (Source: Mayo Clinic, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-blood-pressure/HI00024).

2. Lower Salt Intake

When combined with a healthier diet, even without additional exercise, significantly reducing salt intake can drop blood pressure by several points (Source: eHow, http://www.ehow.com/way_5152534_natural-blood-pressure-reduction.html).

3. Increase Potassium

Potassium can mitigate the effects of salt on high blood pressure. Increase your potassium by eating organic bananas or drinking fresh coconut water.

4. Fish Oil Supplements

A Harvard study showed that people consuming an average of 5.6 grams of fish oil each day were able to lower their blood pressure between 2 and 3.4 points (Source: eHow, http://www.ehow.com/way_5152534_natural-blood-pressure-reduction.html). For vegetarians, crushed flax seeds or flax seed oil, taken relatively in large quantities, can have the same effect.

5. Grape Seed Extract

Meanwhile, on the other coast, a University of California – Davis study showed 300 mg of grape seed extract per day led to a nearly 10 point reduction in blood pressure (Source: eHow, http://www.ehow.com/way_5152534_natural-blood-pressure-reduction.html).

6. Limit Your Alcohol

It’s true that everyone is flocking happily to red wine as the latest health food, but more than one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men will increase blood pressure rather than reduce it (Source: Mayo Clinic).

7. Limit Your Caffeine

Experts haven’t come to a consensus about caffeine and blood pressure yet, but they do know that caffeine raises blood pressure at least temporarily. Some people who are especially sensitive to caffeine may see long-term effects.

8. Stop Smoking

Between losing weight and stopping smoking, you can solve a huge number of health problems. Also, try to stay away from secondhand smoke.

9. Go To Church

Research has shown that people who attend a weekly church service live longer (Source: WebMD & Live Science)! Find a local church near you and start attending!

Ultimately, many of the chronic health problems we see in the west can be solved through lifestyle change. Ask yourself if you really want to risk “better living through chemistry”, or if it’s time to examine your lifestyle more closely, and change a few bad habits.

Photo by Abdullah AL-Naser