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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sinusitis (Sinus Infection)


Sinusitis is the inflammation of the sinuses that occurs with an infection from a virus, bacteria, or fungus.

What Causes Sinusitis?
The sinuses are air-filled spaces in the skull which are behind the forehead, nasal bones, cheeks, and eyes. Healthy sinuses contain no bacteria or other germs. Usually, mucus is able to drain out and air is able to circulate.
When the sinus openings are filled up with too much mucus. It makes it easier for bacteria and other germs to grow more easily.
Colds and allergies may cause too much mucus to be made or block the opening of the sinuses.
Sinusitis can be acute or chronic according to their presence. If it is for 4 weeks or less, it is called acute sinusitis, and if it is longer than 3 months, it is called chronic sinusitis.
The following may increase your risk or your child's risk of developing sinusitis:
•    Diseases that prevent the cilia from working properly
•    Changes in altitude (flying or scuba diving)
•    Smoking
•    Weakened immune system.
•    Keeping your head moist after taking shower






Symptoms
•    Bad breath or loss of smell
•    Cough, often worse at night
•    Fatigue and generally not feeling well
•    Fever
•    Headache, pressure-like pain, pain behind the eyes, toothache
•    Nasal stuffiness
•    Sore throat
Treatment
•    Apply a warm, moist washcloth to your face several times each day.
•    Consume fluids to thin the mucus.
•    Inhale steam 2 - 4 times per day (for example, while sitting in the bathroom with the shower running).
•    Massage your sinus.
•    If it is chronic, you need to see your doctor, for the necessary medication.
Prevention
The best way to prevent sinusitis is to avoid or quickly treat flus and colds:
•    Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, which will strengthen your immune system.
•    Reduce stress.
•    Wash your hands often, particularly after shaking hands with others.
•    Don’t smoke
•    Drink plenty of fluids to increase moisture in your body.
•    Take decongestants during an upper respiratory infection.
•    Treat allergies quickly and appropriately.
Sources: MayoClinic, Google Images

Saturday, December 8, 2012

14 SPECTACULAR TRICKS FOR YOUR BODY!!!!


Hi everyone! After a long time, I am here again! Now, I am in the USA as a boarding sophomore. I love my new school and during the time period that I couldn't write on my blog, I was trying to adapt myself to a new environment and everything is going wonderful so far!

Today's topic is "14 spectacular tricks for your body". I found some tricks on the social media, and they are pretty interesting! I edited the information that I found and added some of my comments which are written in RED. I tried some of the tricks and they are very simple but also work well. You can use them in your daily life. So, there we go!

1.) If you've got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear. When the nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the throat that causes a muscle spasm, which cures the itch.

2.) Having trouble hearing someone at a party or on the phone?
Use your right ear. It's better at picking up rapid speech. But, the left is better at picking up music tones.
--This trick also gives us a hint about how our left and right brain work differently.

3.) Next time the doctor's going to give you an injection, COUGH as the needle is going in. The cough raises the level of pressure in your spinal canal, which limits the pain sensation as it tries to travel to your brain.
--I want to add something to here, don’t move your arm while you are coughing, or don’t cough so hard. The needle shouldn’t be broken.)

4.) Clear a stuffed nose or relieve sinus pressure by pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth then pressing a finger between your eyebrows. Repeat that for 20 seconds it causes the vomer bone to rock, which loosens your congestion and clears you up.
--I do it all the time, it really works!

5.) If you ate a big meal and you're feeling full as you go to sleep, lay on your left side. That'll keep you from suffering from acid reflux it keeps your stomach lower than your esophagus, which will helps keep stomach acid from sliding up your throat.
--If you remember, one of my previous posts was about the reflux disease, and I told you that this trick was very beneficial!

6.) You can stop a toothache by rubbing ice on the back of your hand, on the webbed area between your thumb and index finger. The nerve pathways there stimulate a part of the brain that blocks pain signals from your mouth.

7.) If you get all messed up on liquor, and the room starts spinning, put your hand on something stable. The reason: Alcohol dilutes the blood in the part of your ear called the cupula, which regulates balance. Putting your hand on something stable gives your brain another reference point, which will help make the world stop spinning.
--If you are reading my blog, you certainly know that you should NEVER drink too much alcohol that causes the room spinning around you!!! You don’t want to kill your brain cells, do you?

8.) Stop a nose bleed by putting some cotton on your upper gums right behind the small dent below your nose and press against it hard. Most of the bleeding comes from the cartilage wall that divides the nose, so pressing there helps get it to stop.

9.) Nervous? Slow your heart rate down by blowing on your thumb. The vagus nerve controls your heart rate, and you can calm it down by breathing.

10.) Need to breathe underwater for a while? Instead of taking a huge breath, HYPERVENTILATE (the state of breathing faster or deeper than normal) before you go under, by taking a bunch of short breaths. That'll trick your brain into thinking it has more oxygen, and buy you about 10 extra seconds.

11.) You can prevent BRAIN FREEZE by pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much surface area as possible. Brain freeze happens because the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, so your brain thinks your whole body is cold. It compensates by overheating which causes your head to hurt. By warming up the roof of your mouth, you'll chill your brain and feel better.

12.) If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side. That'll wake your hand or arm up in less than a minute. Your hand falls asleep because of the nerves in your neck compressing so loosening your neck is the cure. If your foot falls asleep, that's governed by nerves lower in the body, so you need to stand up and walk around.

13.) Got the hiccups? Press thumb and second finger over your eyebrows until the hiccups are over - usually, in a short while.
--Now, for the hiccups, you should take a huge breath and hold it for 5 seconds. Because hiccups are caused by the sudden cramps in diaphragm, and taking an deep breath and holding it for a moment helps it to make the diaphragm move regularly. I always do it and it works so well! A few days ago, my English teacher was talking about this technique and he was totally right!

14.) Finally, this one's totally USELESS, but a nice trick. Have someone stick their arm out to the side, straight, palm down. Press down on his wrist with two fingers. He'll resist, and his arm will stay horizontal. Then, have him put his foot on a surface that's half an inch off the ground, like a stack of magazines, and do the trick again. Because his spine position is thrown off, his arm will fall right to his side, no matter how much he tries to resist.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Schizophrenia

 Hello people! As you all know we are in the middle of our summer time and I wish you are all using the benefits of summer. Except the people who are living on the Southern Hemisphere :) You should enjoy the benefits of winter, I should say! Well, you are lucky. My favourite season is winter! Anyways, I really miss writing on my blog and now, as you see, I am here. My freshman year is over and I will be completing the rest of my high school education in the USA and I will keep writing on my blog over there.
 Last night, I watched a movie and as an effect of that movie, I am announcing today's topic...(Actually I have already announced it with writing the title.) Today's topic is "SCHIZOPHRENIA"  For too many people, it can be hard to pronounce it...Okay, it is time to learn about schizophrenia:

 WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA?

 Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, mental illness which may cause various bad effects on teenagers, young adults and adults. According to the statistics it is stated that, this mental illness affects men about one and a half times more than women. 

WHAT ARE CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA?

Because of it is a mental illness, schizoprenia is not directly passed from one generation to another genetically. But if someone has the illness in his or her genes, it doubles the risk of having the illness. It is mostly the environment which triggers the illness. The causes of schizophrenia are commonly the psychological damages and bad, unforgettable events. Difficult life circumstances during childhood, like the early loss of a parent, parental poverty, bullying, witnessing parental violence etc. are some of the examples  of those bad events. Repressing the feelings, it always damages the brain and it causes illusions and two seperate, imaginary lives in brain.

SYMPTOMS

A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations, (like hearing voices and seeing things) and he or she will have some disorganized thoughts and speech. Someone who has the illness schizophrenia will have two seperate realities in life. One of it, is the real life going on. And the other is the patients' life in their brains. The patients cannot seperate those two lives and those two lives are both real for them.




  WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS...

  If you know someone who has the symptoms of the mental illness schizophrenia, you should immediately get help from the doctors as soon as possible. It is NOT a kind of an illness which heals itself as the time passes.  Just the opposite. Unfortunately, it might end up with a suicide or a murder. Also people who are near to the patient should support him or her because it is a very hard time for the family of the patient as well as the patient himself.



 ***Here is a video below which is told by a women who had the mental illness schizophrenia.




SOURCES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKLvmB9uqtQ

                                      STAY HEALTHY AND HAPPY EVERYONE!!!
                                             HAVE A GOOD DAY & SUMMER :)
                                                                 GULSEN XX




Saturday, April 21, 2012

Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief



AT LAST!!! Hello everyone! I have just recognized that I really really missed writing on my blog and after a long time, I am here again and it makes me feel very happy!


Today, I am going to write about the relaxation techniques to expel the stress from our precious lives. The reason that I chose this topic is, in last 3 months, I had to make very important decisions about my life and also exam, homework and project triangle created a stressful mood inside my brain. I shared those things with a wonderful person. She gave me an advice and said: “Why don’t you try some meditation therapies Gulsen?” Also it was a very good topic to write about. Well, here it is:
 How do we act when we are stressful? What is our reaction?
-Being Overexcited
Symptoms: Being very angry and being in panic all the time.
Relaxation Technique: The best meditation technique to calm you down is deep breathing or meditation itself.
-Being Underexcited
Symptoms: Being depressed.
Relaxation Technique: Best relaxation technique for being underexcited should stimulate and energize your nervous system, such as rhythmic exercise.
-Being Frozen
Symptoms: Not giving a reaction to anything, being shocked.
Relaxation Technique: It should provide both safety and stimulation of your nerve system to help you. Those techniques might be mindfulness walking or power yoga.
To practice meditation therapies, your setting should have the following qualities:
    A quiet environment
    A comfortable position.
   A point of focus.
   An observant, noncritical attitude.
*Also you can search some meditation centers from internet. There are various institutions about meditation in different spots of the world. In these days, the most popular and common meditation therapy is yoga.
What type of yoga is best for stress?
   Satyananda:
Is a traditional form of yoga. It features gentle poses, deep relaxation, and meditation, making it suitable for beginners as well as anyone primarily looking for stress reduction.
   Hatha yoga:

Is also a gentle way to relieve stress and is suitable for beginners. Alternately, look for labels like gentle, for stress relief, or for beginners when selecting a yoga class.
  Power yoga: With its intense poses and focus on fitness, is better suited to those looking for stimulation as well as relaxation.





STAY HEALTHY & TAKE CARE...
GULSEN XX

Source of the Pictures: Google Images


Saturday, December 24, 2011

Rotavirus Infection

 Hi everyone! Since my school started, I was very busy with the homework assignments and exams. Finally we are in holiday for Christmas and after a long break, I'm here. Today, I will write about an illness which is very dangerous for young adults, but especially for infants and children. It is called "Rotavirus Infection". A few weeks ago, I had the same illness and it was terrible. Even words are not enough to describe it. I stayed in hospital for a few days and they gave me 3 serums.The salt ratio in my body was near to zero and I learned that nearly 500,000 children under five years of age still die from rotavirus infection each year. So directly proportional with my age and being aware of my illness early, I turned into normal in 6 days. After I came home from hospital, I immediately made a research about Rotavirus Infection and I wanted to share it with you. So, here it is:


                                                                              Rotavirus



                       
      The symptoms of Rotavirus Infection are diarrhea, nausea and a low-grade fever 
  
Serums can balace the ratio of salt and water that you lost because of vomiting and diarrhea by dehydration therapy
                                                        


 -Rotavirus is the virus which causes nausea and diarrhea at the same time. It was first discovered in 1973. It is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family of Reoviridae. 


Signs and Symptoms:
If a person has a rotavirus infection. She or he vomits all the time just like seen in food poisoning, has a watery diarrhea and a low-grade fever. The stomach doesn't accept any kind of food or medicine. 


Transmission:
It can be transmitted by  the respiratory route, the foods that we eat and the drinks that we drink, via contact with unhygienic hands and surfaces of objects. So, rotavirus can be everywhere. It usually appears in cold weather.


Treatment:
There is no medicine for rotavirus. First, if you get an antibiotic or an antiseptic for your intestine, (for an example, Ercefuryl) it will not work because it is a virus, not a bacteria. Second, if you get a medicine for nausea or fever again, it will not work because you will also throw it up. The only way to be healthy again is going to a hospital and getting a serum so that it can balance the ratios of water and salt that you lose because of diarrhea and vomiting by dehydration therapy. Also if you are not ill yet, there is a vaccination to prevent the disease. Be careful, Rotavirus causes death and it is everywhere! Please, be careful, be hygienic, be healthy and be happy. 




Here is a video above which is about Rotavirus. Don't forget it, an early detection can always save lives.


Happy New Year and Christmas Everyone! Take care...


Source: Google Images, YouTube