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Archive for the ‘Diseases and Conditions’ Category

Treatment

Without treatment to treat Giardia infection, infection is likely to eventually go alone. However, the treatment is useful for anyone who has symptoms and can also help when no symptoms because it can prevent the spread of infection to others. This is especially true for children and people who prepare or serve food.

Can be used multiple medicines to treat Giardia infection, including metronidazole (Flagyl), tinidazole (Tindamax), quinacrine hydrochloride (mepacrine), albendazole (Albenza), furazolidone (Furoxone), nitazoxanide (Alinia) and bacitracin. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no vaccine to prevent giardiasis and medication is not recommended to prevent infection. The best way to prevent it is to continue to travel right habits and follow proper sanitary measures.

Travelers should be especially careful to avoid eating contaminated food and water. It is safer to eat peeled or cooked products, cooking food destroys parasites and cysts. Read the rest of this entry »

Diagnosis

Your doctor will ask about your medical history, if I could have had contact with contaminated water during camping or hiking, and if your water is from wells. If the patient is a child attending day care, the doctor will ask about any recent diarrhea outbreak in the nursery and also review the patient’s symptoms.

Finally, the diagnosis is made by analyzing fecal matter in search of Giardia antigen, a protein produced by the parasites of G. lamblia, or by identifying cysts of G. lamblia or parasites in stool samples. Read the rest of this entry »

Up to two thirds of people infected with the organism does not have any symptoms. When symptoms occur, they can occur suddenly and be obvious or may worsen slowly. Symptoms usually begin one to three weeks after exposure and include:

* Watery diarrhea
* Abdominal cramps
* Inflammation (swelling)
* Nausea with or without vomiting
* Gas (flatulence)
* Floating stools and often smelly
* Weight loss Read the rest of this entry »

Giardiasis is an intestinal illness caused by infection with the parasite Giardia lamblia, who lives in contaminated water. Although the disease occurs more often in developing countries, giardiasis is also a frequent cause of diseases by water pollution in the United States. A person can be infected with Giardia and not realize it until the infection is diagnosed and treated.

In developing regions, it is common that 20% of the population of these countries have ongoing Giardia infections. In the U.S., only 1 or 2 in 10,000 people have Giardia in a year, but the infection is in about 1 in 3 people who have prolonged diarrhea symptoms if they have recently traveled to a developing country. Read the rest of this entry »

Diabetes and insulin resistance

Heart attacks heart represent 60% and stroke by 25% of deaths in people with diabetes. A 1998 study reported that patients with type 2 diabetes and no history of heart disease have the same risk of a heart attack at age seven than non-diabetics with heart disease.

Insulin resistance in the long run, even without type 2 diabetes, appears to have significant harmful effects on the heart. This condition occurs when insulin levels are normal to high, but the body is unable to use insulin to regulate blood sugar metabolism and keep it for energy. In such cases, the body compensates for this by increasing insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia), which in turn increases triglycerides and lowers HDL cholesterol. Normally, insulin stimulates the release of two substances, endothelin and nitric oxide, which are important to keep open the arteries elastic. Insulin resistance can cause an imbalance in these substances. [For more information, see chapter egalenia encyclopedia on Diabetes: Type I and Diabetes: Type II]. Read the rest of this entry »

Sedentary people are at least twice as likely to suffer a stroke compared to those who exercise regularly. Moderate aerobic exercise practiced regularly benefits the heart in different ways.

For example, brisk walking has the following advantages:

- Low heart rate and blood pressure
- Improved cholesterol
- Lowers blood sugar levels
- Open the blood vessels and, in combination with a healthy diet can improve blood clotting factors.
- Reduces stress and improves mood. Read the rest of this entry »

High blood pressure, or hypertension, has proven to be a cause of coronary heart disease for a long time. Blood pressure is classified as:

- Optimum (below 120/80 mm Hg).
- Normal (between 120/80 and 130/85 mm Hg).
- Normal-high (between 130/85 and 139/89). (Some studies indicate that high-normal places the patient at an increased risk of cardiac events and stroke, although others suggest that the risk exists mainly in diabetics).
- Hypertension, or high blood pressure (140/90). Read the rest of this entry »

Snuff

Smokers between thirty and forty years have a heart attack rate five times greater than nonsmokers of the same age group. Cigarette smoking may be directly responsible for at least 20% of all deaths annually, or about 120,000 deaths annually. Cigar smoking can increase the risk of early death from heart disease, although the evidence is more conclusive for cigarettes.

Cholesterol and other lipids

A number of studies have now shown that reducing LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol levels and increase HDL levels (the so-called good cholesterol) improves survival and prevents heart attacks. Depending on risk factors, people should try to reach the following levels of cholesterol: Read the rest of this entry »

The presence of more than one risk factor can be very dangerous, because each one of them can greatly increase the effect of another. This phenomenon, called synergism, all of them all, and much more dangerous than the sum of the parts. The main risk factors are as follows.

Sex

Coronary heart disease is more common in middle-aged men. Women spend on average ten to fifteen years longer than men, suffer from heart disease, but as they age women reach men. In fact, women are more likely to have angina than men. As regards age, survival rates for heart attacks are similar in men and women, but young women are at increased risk of death from stroke than men the same age. The reasons for this are not clear. Read the rest of this entry »