Welcome to Health Condition and Disease articles category.

You can find informaion on Health Condition and Disease articles and news.

If you’re like most people, you probably associate aging with health disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease or arthritis. But researchers who spoke at a congressional briefing in September 2004 warned that some other, lesser-known diseases are poised to strike older adults with a vengeance: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), urinary incontinence and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

With this in mind, we’ve compiled some suggestions about various natural products that, in concert with an overall regimen of proper diet, exercise and smoking cessation, may lower your risk of suffering these diseases.

Urinary Incontinence

Many of us are soon going to be afraid of a good belly laugh–for fear of wetting ourselves in public. Over 20 million Americans wouldn’t dare strain to pick up their grandchild or sit on someone’s new couch.

But the condition can produce more than just embarrassment. Bladder infections and skin breakdowns are much more common in people with incontinence. And it can lead to depression and loss of self-esteem. Fractures can even result from mad, unplanned dashes to the washroom.

Science hasn’t pinned down the cause and–short of further research into this rarely studied problem–cannot explain why some people suffer from it and others don’t.

Exercise, relaxation techniques and yoga have been shown to help. People with incontinence should also avoid too many drinks containing alcohol, caffeine or carbonation, and they should limit their liquid intake to two liters of fluid daily. Never go to the toilet “just in case.” Avoid constipation. And try to train your bladder to hold more urine.

As for supplements, calcium and magnesium taken together may improve control of the muscles used in urination. And vitamin C, cranberries and blueberries help by preventing bacterial infections of the urinary tract.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Even as the prevalence rates of many diseases that cause death and disability are declining, rates of COPD are increasing. About 15 million people in the United States have it–with twice as many undiagnosed cases suspected–and it’s the second leading cause of disability.

Chronic kidney disease occurs when kidneys can’t eliminate waste or maintain the correct fluid and chemical balances in the body. A normal kidney functions to filter the body’s waste products from the blood through urine. And when that filtering process doesn’t occur properly, the accumulation of the body’s waste can become toxic. African-Americans comprise about 33 percent of all patients treated for kidney failure in the United States, research shows. According to the National Kidney Foundation, diabetes, the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and the leading cause of kidney failure in African-Americans, is more common in African-Americans. Additionally, high blood pressure, the second-leading cause of chronic kidney disease, also appears more often in African-Americans. Other risk factors for kidney disease include a family history, a high-protein/high-fat diet, older age, and long-term use of several medications.

Most people do not have severe symptoms of kidney disease until their condition gets worse. You may feel exhausted, have less energy, have dry, itchy skin, muscle cramps at night, swollen feet and ankles, puffiness around your eyes and feet, and the need to urinate more often, especially at night.

If you have experienced any of these symptoms or recognize the risk factors in yourself, tell your doctor. He or she will most likely perform a test for protein in your urine, and give you a blood test for creatinine, a waste product that comes from muscle activity.

Kidney disease can develop rapidly (in two to three months) or over a longer period of time (30 to 40 years), according to experts. While chronic kidney disease is progressive, and sometimes fatal, there are effective ways to treat and manage kidney disease, including medications, lifestyle changes and diet.

If kidney disease progresses, your doctor may prescribe an artificial means of removing waste–a process called dialysis–or you may be a candidate for a kidney transplant.

Study objective: To assess health-related quality of life (HRQL) in a low-income population of patients with hypoxemia and COPD receiving long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Large, tertiary care, university teaching hospital.

Patients or participants: Thirty-six patients with COPD requiring LTOT (mean age, 63.5 years; mean FE[V.sub.1], 32.1% of predicted; Pa[O.sub.2], 50.2 mm Hg) and 33 control subjects with COPD but no severe hypoxemia (mean age, 63.1 years; FE[V.sub.1], 35.7%; Pa[O.sub.2], 66.5 mm Hg).

Interventions: Patients underwent pulmonary function testing to assess physiologic function and the degree of respiratory impairment. A baseline dyspnea index (BDI) was used to determine levels of dyspnea, and a 6-min walk test was performed to evaluate physical performance and exercise capacity. The St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36) were used to assess health status and HRQL.

Measurements and results: The scores on the SGRQ and SF-36 indicated severe impairment. Patients receiving LTOT showed a trend toward worse scores on most dimensions of the SGRQ and SF-36, but differences between groups were only statistically significant for the physical functioning and social functioning dimensions of the SF-36. Dyspnea, as measured by the BDI, significantly correlated with all questionnaire domains except the SF-36 pain index.

HEART disease is the ultimate destroyer in the Black community, killing more people than AIDS and cancer combined.

According to the American Heart Association’s latest report, “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, 2003 Update” the numbers are stunning: 33.5 percent of Black males and 40.6 percent of Black females succumb to the disease annually.

Medical experts say Black women are 60 percent more likely to die of heart disease than White women are. Black women are more likely to have high blood pressure and diabetes, both of which increase the risk of having heart disease. A gene found in Blacks has been linked to a six-fold increase in the risk of heart disease in Blacks.

Indicators of heart disease are pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, fainting, light-headedness, swelling in the feet, ankles, abdomen and legs, fever, lack of appetite, sweating and nausea.

Doctors constantly stress the steps that could prevent heart disease, including lifestyle changes that center exercise and a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-sodium diet. Additionally, in some cases, doctors recommend the “aspirin a day” therapy. The blood pressure and blood sugar should be kept in check. Consult with a doctor before starting an exercise program to help maintain a healthy weight and reduce stress.

The best mode of combatting heart disease is to reduce the risk factors that can lead to the fatal disease. Your first step is to visit your doctor for a complete examination. Modern technological advances, such as the electron beam tomography (EBT) heart scan, can give you a clear picture of your heart and any clogged arteries that can cause trouble.

Secondly, implementing a healthier lifestyle is in order, especially if you are at risk for heart disease. This means avoiding nicotine and, if you are diabetic, keeping your condition under control. Other vital lifestyle habits include maintaining a diet that is rich in vitamins and antioxidants and low in cholesterol and saturated fat–studies show that the risk of heart disease increases as your total amount of cholesterol increases.

You should also achieve or maintain a healthy weight by exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. This reduces the onset of obesity and reduces your risk of heart disease.

Try to remain as stress-free as possible–experts warn that prolonged exposure to stress and anger can lead to heart attack and stroke.

Our Body’s Intricate Connection To Soil

In the not so distant past, people used to ingest beneficial soil and plant based microbes through the food they ate, food once grown in rich, unpolluted soil. During the last 50 years however, our soil has been sterilized with pesticides and herbicides, destroying most bacteria, both bad and good. Our modern lifestyle which includes antibiotics, chlorinated water, agricultural chemicals, pollution, and poor diet is responsible for eradicating many of the important beneficial microorganisms in our bodies.

Society’s separation from dirt and germs may well be the cause of the growing incidence of a wide range of maladies, according to epidemiologist David Strachan, who first advanced his over-cleanliness theory in 1989 while at Britain’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Only a theory at the time, Strachan’s assertions have since been validated. New Scientist magazine reported, that researchers have recently discovered that microorganisms found in dirt influence maturation of the immune system. The lack of connection with these organisms through soil may be the reason why much of the allergies, bowel diseases, chronic fatigue, and other immune disorders are now reaching epidemic proportions.

Homeostatic Soil Organisms

Nature’s 1st Probiotic

Homeostatic Soil Organisms (HSOs) were first introduced to the public through health care practitioners and natural food stores in a revolutionary product called Primal [Defense.sup.TM]. These non-mutated, probiotic colonies originated from pristine cultures, found in unpolluted soil and plants. Now cultivated in laboratories, HSOs are grown in a substrate of nutrient-rich superfoods containing naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, trace elements, live enzymes, and proteins.

“Unknown organisms make up 99.9% of all microbes in the soil,” notes Jo Handelsman, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin. And one gram of soil–the weight of a packet of sugar–can contain as many as 10,000 species previously unknown to science.

Most periodontal disease arises from, or is aggravated by, accumulation of plaque, and periodontitis is associated particularly with anaerobes such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Bacteroides forsythus, and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. Calculus (tartar) may form from calcification of plaque above or below the gum line, and the plaque that collects on calculus exacerbates the inflammation. The inflammatory reaction is associated with progressive loss of periodontal ligament and alveolar bone and, eventually, with mobility and loss of teeth.

Periodontal diseases are ecogenetic in the sense that, in subjects rendered susceptible by genetic or environmental factors (such as polymorphisms in the gene for interleukin 1, cigarette smoking, immune depression, and diabetes), the infection leads to more rapidly progressive disease. Osteoporosis also seems to have some effect on periodontal bone loss.

The possible effects of periodontal disease on systemic health, via pro-inflammatory cytokines, have been the focus of much attention. Studies to test the strength of associations with atherosclerosis, hypertension, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and low birth weight, and any effects on diabetic control, are ongoing.

Gingivitis

Chronic gingivitis to some degree affects over 90% of the population. If treated, the prognosis is good, but otherwise it may progress to periodontitis and tooth mobility and loss. Marginal gingivitis is painless but may manifest with bleeding from the gingival crevice, particularly when brushing the teeth. The gingival margins are slightly red and swollen, eventually with mild gingival hyperplasia.

Management–Unless plaque is assiduously removed and kept under control by tooth brushing and flossing and, where necessary, by removal of calculus by scaling and polishing by dental staff, the condition will recur. Although gingivitis has a bacterial component, systemic antimicrobials have only transient benefit and therefore no place in treatment. Surgical reduction of hyperplastic tissue by a periodontist (gingivectomy and gingivoplasty) may occasionally be required.

The notion of healthcare providers, patients and care managers electronically accessing patient health information is creating an increasingly compelling vision that promises better patient care, reduced medical costs and an improved work environment for physicians and other providers of care. None of these principals engaged in the delivery, receipt and coordination of care truly benefits from today’s fractured and contentious healthcare model, with patients and their families often bearing the brunt of the expensive, confusing and error-ridden experience. The emergence of more collaborative models, particularly in the area of the management of chronic diseases, will give hope to a beleaguered industry.

The roots of collaborative disease management lie in the challenges encountered in the first generation process experimentation. Like the early stages in development of virtually any “big idea,” progressive thinkers conceived of new models for managing chronic conditions that took advantage of what was known as “best practice” (defined as the best sequence of procedures, therapies and medications, typically for single conditions). The problem, however, was that they also needed to invent a “best process” (defined as the best interactions with the various providers of care and the patient to help ensure compliance with best practice) for managing care and for motivating behavior changes in a relatively ill patient population.

Limited by the financial realities of an unproven model and a skeptical healthcare ecosystem, they faced issues and challenges that continue to affect their relationships and reputations today. To be fair, though, the early innovators created a body of knowledge–in many cases through trial and error–that informs the much more successful choices being made today in the growing field of disease management.

Physician-based disease management efforts often stumbled when trying to coordinate complex, multispecialty care plans that required significant patient contact outside the office setting. Disease management companies, structured to deal almost exclusively with the patient, found physicians resistant to their perceived interference in the doctor-patient relationship, regardless of the appropriateness of the interventions proposed. Patients, caught between an insurer-sponsored disease manager they liked and their doctors, struggled to understand whose message to metabolize.

Q:

My parents are overweight, my father has high cholesterol and two of my grandparents had diabetes. How much good does it do to change my lifestyle if these problems run in my family?

A:

It’s true that many health problems do seem to affect generation after generation. But that doesn’t mean the condition is genetic–and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s inevitable. The fact is, we don’t give our children only DNA. We also give them recipes for living. We pass along tastes for certain foods and ways of eating that can have a major effect on health. Often, what appears to be a genetic trait is actually a set of food habits passed down. Here’s a look at some of the health conditions that commonly occur in families.

High cholesterol We often hear people say, “I have high cholesterol; it runs in my family,” assuming that the problem is out of their control. It’s true that some cases of high cholesterol–perhaps one in ten–really are genetic. The rest are caused by our food choices: Even small amounts of animal-based food products contain enough fat and cholesterol to push our own cholesterol levels up.

The only way to really know if the problem is genetic is to completely eliminate animal products from your diet while also keeping vegetable oils very low. Then, after about eight weeks, see your doctor. If your cholesterol is still too high, blame your genes. If you do have a genetic tendency toward high cholesterol, continuing with this same plant-based diet will minimize your risk.

Overweight There’s no question that genes play a major role in what we weigh. Genes even affect where the weight ends up, such as around our waists or on our hips. Some rare genetic disorders cause massive weight gain early in life too. But most weight problems have much more to do with our food habits than our genes. After all, the tremendous increase in obesity in recent decades has occurred while our genes have remained the same. And people who switch to a low-fat, plant-based diet lose, on average, about one pound per week without needing any sort of rearrangement in their genes.

We can draw an important lesson from Japan’s history with obesity. A rice-based diet kept obesity rates there under 3 percent until fast food outlets and other Western tastes invaded, causing the rates of weight gain to climb. But shifting away from a meaty, fatty diet can reverse this trend–both here and there.

Celiac Disease is a life-long intolerance to the gliadin fraction of wheat and the prolamins of rye (secalins), barley (hordeins) and possibly oats (avidins). The condition is the end result of three processes: Genetic predisposition, environmental factors and immunogically-based inflammation that culminate in intestinal mucosal damage. Sufferers have small intestine inflammation that leads to malabsorption of nutrients such as iron, folic acid, calcium and fat-soluble vitamins. The only effective treatment is strict adherence to a gluten-free diet throughout life, resulting in mucosal recovery.

A gluten-free diet excludes foods made with wheat, rye, barley, triticale, dinkel, kamut and oat flour as well as byproducts made from those grains. Other excluded foods are those that use wheat- and gluten-derivatives as thickeners and fillers, for example, hot dogs, salad dressings, canned soups/dried soup mixes, processed cheese and cream sauces.

Prevalence and Labeling

Epidemiological studies in 1950 first estimated relatively low incidences of Celiac Disease. However, by the 1960s, more specific tests became available and it is now possible to determine accurately the true prevalence. While a biopsy remains the definitive test, antigliadin antibody serological tests have resulted in substantially increased diagnosis rates. Screening with modern serological tests places incidence of Celiac Disease in the U.S. at 1/111.

The iceberg model often is used to explain prevalence (See chart “The Tip of the Iceberg”). Properly diagnosed cases form a small, visible tip while many more “silent” cases exist.

In 1976, the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, Rome) adopted The Codex Standard for gluten-free foods. In 1981 and in 2000, draft-revised standards stated that so-called “gluten-free foods” are described as: (a) consisting of, or made only from ingredients which do not contain any prolamins from wheat or all Triticum species such as spelt, kamut or durum wheat, rye, barley, oats or their crossbred varieties with a gluten level not exceeding 20ppm; or (b) consisting of ingredients from wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt or their crossbred varieties, which have been rendered gluten-free; with a gluten level not exceeding 200ppm; or (c) any mixture of two ingredients as in (a) and (b) mentioned with a level not exceeding 200ppm.

This initiative continues NIEHS’s and EPA’s intent to foster advances in children’s health by supporting innovative, stare-of-the-art Research Centers examining the adverse health effects of environmental exposures among children. Both agencies are interested in reducing environmental risks to children and alleviating the societal burden of environmentally-induced disease/ dysfunction.

Collaborative, multidisciplinary research approaches are required to explore the dynamic interaction of children and the environment. Centers are expected to have fully coordinated programs that incorporate exposure and health effects research to support the development and validations of novel health promotion strategies. A Center should identify a central theme or focus of its research effort so that the proposed projects are responsive to the specific research area of children’s environmental health included in this Center program.

The program emphasizes integration of basic and population sciences while utilizing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. By bridging gaps between basic and clinical research and between institutional researchers and community members, this program aims to improve our knowledge regarding detection, treatment, and prevention of environmentally-induced disease/dysfunction in children.

The long-range goals of this program are 1) to stimulate new and expand existing research on the role of environment in the etiology of disease/dysfunction among children, 2) to develop novel effective intervention and prevention strategies, and 3) to promote translation of basic research findings into applied intervention and prevention methods, thereby enhancing awareness among children, their families, and health care practitioners regarding detection, treatment, and prevention of environmentally related diseases and health conditions.

A spectrum of scientific approaches is expected to create a truly multidisciplinary working environment where basic research can inform clinical research. These may include: 1) mechanistic research including pathophysiology of target-organ system; 2) toxicologic research; 3) molecular and cellular sciences; 4) clinical research; 5) public health research including epidemiology; 6) exposure assessment and remediation; 7) behavioral and social sciences; cost/benefit; and 9) social policy research