Have ever you felt the pain in the feet or hands in the morning? If you have, then you must be alert and immediately find ways to overcome them. It may be that you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. This disease can cause permanent disability and even premature death.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the joint tissue. It is possibly also attack other organs. If it is not treated immediately, there will be joint damage and disability, and even premature death. Rheumatoid arthritis is not an independent disease, but rather a group of diseases. But the cause is still unknown.

The disease is caused by many factors. Can be genetic, could also be due to an unhealthy lifestyle. If any family members who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, chances are the child or offspring suffer the same disease. Unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking may like to increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

It is a general think that all of rheumatic diseases are caused by uric acid. Whereas rheumatic disease because of uric acid (gout arthritis) is only approximately 7 percent of the rheumatic diseases. This disease can attack all people, both children and adults. But the most frequently attacked are young adults to the elderly.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that is widespread and involves all racial and ethnic groups in the world.  It usually starts in children before the age of 16 years. Generally, this disease attacks the joints of the fingers, wrists, shoulders, knees, and feet. At an advanced stage, patients will not be able to perform daily activities and quality of life decreases.

Factors Causes and Symptoms

Autoimmune disease occurs because of interference with the normal functioning of the immune system, so that the immune system attack the body’s own tissue. It could also be due to the failure of antibodies to recognize his own body cells and considered a foreign body so destructive.

Rheumatoid arthritis attacks the joints wrapped in a layer commonly called sinovium and cause inflammation of the joints wrappers. Result sinovitis (inflammation of the sinovium) that chronic damage to joint cartilage, bone, tendons and ligaments in the joints. Inflammation causes sinovium out some substances that undermined cartilage cells, causing damage to bone and may result in the disappearance of the joint surface that would interfere with joint motion. If it is not immediately treated, can occur permanent disability.

Rheumatoid arthritis usually causes problems in several joints in the same time.

In the early stages, this disease usually attacks the small joints such as wrists, hands, ankles, and feet. Next it will attack shoulder joint,  elbows, knees, hips, jaw, and neck. Generally, this disease attacks the joints of the fingers, wrists, shoulders, knees, and feet.  This situation will occur in the morning and will disappear in the afternoon.

Other symptoms include fever, decreased appetite, weight loss, weakness, and less blood. Sometimes the patient does not feel the symptoms.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Diagnosis is usually established from the patient history. Diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis can be said positively when the patient is experiencing as described above for 6 weeks.They will also be carried out laboratory and radiology tests to determine the condition of the patient’s joints.

It can also be carried out joint fluid analysis. The doctor will take joint fluid with a sterile needle, and joint fluid will be analyzed whether there are elevated levels of leukocytes or not.

The goal of treatment is to reduce joint inflammation and prevent or slow joint damage that can cause permanent disability. Besides treatment is also intended to prevent muscle weakness. Early treatment is to improve the comfort and maintain the independence of patients in order not to depend on others.

Previously, the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms start to eliminate the pain such as reducing swelling dab pain. Now, treatment is intended to stop the disease in order not to continue, to prevent loss of joint function, and prevent disability, thus preventing premature death. In the future, treatments directed to reduce the disease despite treatment is stopped.

Treatment of this disease is divided into two, namely treatment with drugs and therapies such as physiotherapy, psychological, and surgery. Lack of drug consuming could occur side effects, the use of fairly complex procedures, slow effects, and the failure rate is quite large.

If the various treatments have been carried out and did not succeed and there is a strong enough reason, it is recommended for surgery. Surgery is an option if the provision of drugs failed to prevent and slow down joint damage. Surgery can restore function to damaged joints.

Water is important for the body. If the water needs are met the body will rarely get sick. But an expert say that there are some habits which is considered as a “must be obeyed” in drinking water when in fact it is not necessarily true.

Kidney specialist, Dr Stanley Goldfarb from the University of Pennsylvania who has published research journal of the American Society of Nephrology was quoted as saying Thursday (4/3/2010) says there are false assumptions that circulate in the community about drinking water.

He saw there are five myths about drinking water that are so trusted by the people, namely:

1. Drink 8 glasses each day
Dr. Goldfarb claimed to not know where the standard advice about drinking 8 glasses of water a day.  “Nobody really knows,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb.

According him,  the drinking needs of each person is different, it could be enough for someone but not enough or over for others. The owner of the body is the one who exactly knows how much water his body needs.

2. Drink lots of water can help clean up toxic
Kidneys filter toxins from the bloodstream. Then the toxins goes out through urine. The question is, whether drinking more water can improve renal function? “No,” said Goldfarb. In fact, drinking large amounts of water will likely reduce the ability of the kidneys in filtering. Not much, but surely.

3. Drink a lot equals to healthy skin
Our bodies consist of 60 percent water. So, for people who weight 200 pounds, 120 pounds of it is water. Adding a few glasses of water each day has limited effect. “This is a small part of what is in the body,” said Goldfarb. So it is unlikely this can benefit the body.

A study published in 2007 about the benefits of water to a beauty show that 500 ml of water increases capillary blood flow in the skin. But it is not clear whether these changes are clinically significant.

4. Drink plenty of water to lose weight
“Water is a great strategy for people who want to diet because it contains no calories,” says Madeline Fernstrom of the University of Pittsburgh. So keep your mouth busy even without food and also get a sense of satisfaction. But according to Frenstrom, water is not magic. Other options for zero-calorie diet is to reduce the soda.

5. Easy to dehydrate during exercise
Dehydration will be felt when one loses 2 percent of your weight. In hot and dry places water needs will increase. Marathon runners, bikers and pedestrians need to recognize the signs of dehydration.

American College of Sports Medicine recommends that athletes drink 16 ounces of fluid several hours before starting exercise. But for people to walk in the park, do not need a bottle of water. Goldfarb also suggest, drink only when you are thirsty.

Professor Hiromi Shinya MD, an expert on enzymes who is also a professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, U.S. stressed the importance of scheduling an ideal drinking water.

Like the plants, he said there was a good period for drinking because of excessive watering the plants would make plants become rotten and withered. So that there is an appropriate time period for the body to drink water.

The ideal way to meet the need of water for the body are:

1-3 glasses of waking in the morning
2-3 cups, 1 hour before lunch
2-3 cups, 1 hour before dinner.

Each person needs different drink but make it a habit to drink water 6-8 glasses per day (1.5-2 liters) for adults. If the weather is very hot as the person would need to drink more. Conversely people who have weak digestive systems may experience diarrhea if you drink too much.

Once again the number of water a person needs varies depending on the size of the person’s body and what is considered appropriate for the body.

If you are pregnant and you want to be a healthy mom and want to have a healthy baby, you may have come across the importance of taking prenatal vitamins during pregnancy
to supply you and your baby the nutrients that may be lacking in your diet. One of these nutrients is calcium.

Calcium is very vital to a person especially to expectant moms. Having enough calcium stored in the body would help you prevent osteoporosis and other calcium- deficiency health conditions. During pregnancy, calcium is very essential to the developing baby inside the womb.

The baby in the womb gets its calcium requirements through the calcium stored in the mother’s body. The risk that this may pose is when the calcium is not sufficient to meet the body requirement of the baby and the mother. In the long run, calcium depletion can lead to bone problems to the mother.

The suggested amount of calcium consumption per day is 1200 milligrams. Calcium sources are milk, yogurt, and cheese. Other non-dairy products that can be excellent source of calcium are broccoli, okra and acorn squash.

Aside from aiding in the bone development, calcium supplementation through prenatal vitamins has been proven to reduce the lead exposure to the baby. In a research that has been facilitated, taking the recommended amount of calcium everyday has shown to reduce the lead levels in the blood by 31 percent.

Lead exposure is very detrimental to the health of both the mother and the baby. In fact, lead can be present in the body for 10 years. Some of the effects of lead exposure to fetus and infants are low birth weight, miscarriage, lower motor and visual skills and low intelligence scores. Effects of lead in the body can even be fatal.

If you take milk daily, you may not have problems with your calcium needs. But if you want to skip milk, taking yogurt or prenatal vitamins would be your healthy options. Have a blissful and healthy pregnancy!

Many doctors and researching call the rise in diabetes cases an epidemic of the world. Constant research is being performed to seek out new person with diabetes treatments to control blood sugar and reduce the health related side effects associated with the condition. Medications and alternative treatments are seeing the most progress.

Pramlintide Acetate

A new medication on the market for person with diabetess is pramlintide acetate. This medication is administered at meal time and is used to maintain healthy blood glucose levels by preventing the spikes that often occur after eating. The medication tends to be stronger than other blood sugar control options which mean less medication and more effect. The use of pramlintide acetate is associated with nausea so medication strength is increased very gently. Diabetes patients also reporting losing weight while taking the new diabetes treatment. Pramlintide acetate comes in a pre-filled pen injector.

Exenatide

Another pre-filled injection medication, exenatide is one of the most interesting medications to hit the person with diabetes market. The source of the medication is the saliva of the Gila monster. Only Type 2 person with diabetess are approved to use exenatide. The medication is used to improve the body’s natural ability to produce and excrete insulin. Decreased appetite may be associated with exenatide though the manufacturer is adamant that exenatide is not a weight loss product.

Saxagliptin

An oral medication recently approved by the FDA is saxagliptin. This medications works to control blood glucose levels after meals. The medication is approved for Type 2 person with diabetess only and can be combined with other person with diabetes medications or used as a standalone therapy.

The Combo Diabetes Medications

Several medication combinations have been created for patients who need to take more than one prescription to control their diabetes. The most common combinations include metformin and another prescription diabetes treatment. Metformin is often suggested as the first medication to be prescribed to a newly diagnosed person with diabetes.

Anti-Inflammatory

Recent studies suggest that diabetes, an auto-immune disease, is caused by inflammation in the body. Much of that inflammation was thought to be linked to obesity, but not every patient with Type 2 diabetes is overweight or obese. Other forms of inflammation in the body are now thought to be extenuating factors in the development of Type 2 diabetes. Patients are turning to natural anti-inflammatories to reduce free radical damage to the cells which can cause inflammation.

Under the Skin Blood Glucose Sensors

Small sensors implanted under the skin can communicate current blood glucose levels with a small, handheld device. The device must be kept within a short distance of the implant, but the patient is no longer required to prick every hour or every meal to obtain current blood glucose levels. In some cases, the sensor can communicate with another new diabetes treatment device, the insulin pump.

Insulin Pump

An insulin pump is either attached to the body with an inserted cannula or a skin patch that transmits insulin to the body. The insulin pump is battery powered and programmable. Depending on the activity level, the pump constantly delivers insulin to the body. It acts, almost, like an artificial pancreas on the outside of the body. Some newer pump models can communicate with the blood glucose sensor. The insulin levels will not be adjusted, but the pump will beep if the blood glucose is measured outside of the programmed range of acceptance.

There are numerous benefits of saw palmetto, which makes saw palmetto is considered as one of the most versatile herbal medicines available. Here we explore some of their benefits for your health, so you can decide if you should consider taking saw palmetto supplements.

It is a naturally occurring plant which grows in North America. The plant has been harvested for use in men who are experiencing prostate or urinary tract inflammations in men, but has also been noted to reduce the production of DHT in men who are experiencing hair loss.

Further more the most common type of baldness (alopecia) in males is called male-pattern baldness or androgenic (androgenetic) alopecia. When this condition develops, the hair is lost in a well-defined “M” pattern (hence the name.) Women also suffer from androgenic alopecia; in females this condition is known as female-pattern baldness.

Saw palmetto baldness treatment is said to work by interrupting hormonal signals and therefore reducing the uptake by the hair follicles of a damaging chemical called dyhydrotestosterone (DHT). There are both topical and oral preparations and these can complement each other by reducing DHT locally on the scalp and throughout the body so promoting healthy hair growth.

Saw palmetto is a natural herb which effectively combats hair loss. The medical term for the herb Saw palmetto is Serenoa repens. A small palm which grows in warm climates such as the Southeastern part of United States produces a red fruit. This herb is very popular in Germany. Saw Palmetto lowers the DHT level in our body by obstructing 5 alpha-reductose, thus reducing the development of DHT, which causes hair loss.

Chances are you have heard of saw palmetto. Hair loss is probably the last thing that you expected saw palmetto to be associated with, but as of late there have been many treatments out there that have been designed to alleviate the symptoms of losing hair and help re grow hair and this is just one of them.

When using saw palmetto for hair loss one option is using it as an external treatment by massaging it into the scalp and hair. You can purchase saw palmetto as an oil extract or as an ointment. One of the reasons saw palmetto has been so successful in the treatment of hair loss, particularly when used externally, is that its components are lipophilic in nature. This means they are well extracted into the oil base typically used, and are easily absorbed by the skin, therefore providing a more productive treatment.

It thus helps revive hair follicles, improve hair strength, body and shine, make scalp less sensitive to stress and irritation. So if you are looking for safe products for hair loss Saw Palmetto is one option you should consider first. Although it is not known to help sudden hair shedding but if taken over a period of time it certainly would help prevent alopecia and atleast prolong a condition where a lot of people may go for surgical option such as transplant for restoration of their crown. Taking it alongside some essential vitamins and minerals would help further.