Breast cancer is one of the biggest women killers not only in the US, but in other parts of the world. To avoid breast cancer women are often advised to examine their breasts regularly and immediately contact their physician if they find any change or some other problem. But you must keep one thing in mind that a self-exam can never prove an alternative of a physician’s check or a mammogram.

However, self-exam is a good practice and you need to know about how to do it. Usually some days after period, breasts are not swollen or tender and it is the best time for self-exam. If you notice any of these following signs, you must consult your doctor: Read the rest of this entry »

Acne is often considered a problem that is hard to get rid of, but if you take good care of your skin and clean it in a regular proper way, it becomes quite easier to avoid as well as get rid of this nagging problem.

Here are some tips that can be very handy if you are willing to make the most of them.

1. Use a quality face wash, which suits your skin condition, and wash your face after waking up, before going to bed and after such workouts as make you sweat heavily.
   
2. Try to wash your face in such a way as no area of it should leave unwashed. Areas like below jaws, forehead and hairline must be washed in a proper way. Read the rest of this entry »

A review of existing data shows that people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have no help with some well-known inhalers to improve their life spans.

Contrarily, they may increase the risk of pneumonia (one of the biggest killers in the US) in these patients.

However, without doctor’s recommendation, patients with COPD must not avoid using these inhalers as these devices prove beneficial in a number of cases, said Dr. M. Bradley Drummond, the lead author of the review.

Dr. Drummond, who is a fellow at the pulmonary and critical care medicine division at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, says: “Aside from well-known benefits, there are some possible risks and the review is about balancing them.”

The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Nov.26 issue.

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According to some experts, hot temper bosses make working environment stressful as well as they may be a risk factor for their employees’ heart health.

In their study that includes 3,000 employed men, researchers from Sweden found that there was a strong link between the risk of heart attacks and other heart diseases, and bad leadership. This risk goes up if the employee works under this boss for long time.

The study has been published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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It’s an often expressed idea about medicine that if you have high blood pressure, the steps you take to lower it will have a dramatic impact on your risk for heart disease, stroke and more.

But a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says that almost 70 percent people with high blood pressure are not doing enough to control it.

Dr. Keith Siller, who is medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Care Center at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, says: “High blood has links with stroke and heart disease, it’s a treatable and preventable condition, but unfortunately majority of people are not doing a good job for controlling it.”

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Children often have to suffer from ear infections, as they are quite common among them.  There are several factors that become the cause of ear infections in children. However, there are some other factors (environmental as well as beyond anyone’s control) that may increase your child’s ear infection risk.

Here is the list of some common risk factors for ear infections in children:

1. Frequently being exposed to cigarette smoke
2. Having a family history of ear infections, or have frequent colds or ear infections before.
3. To have such allergies as cause congestion Read the rest of this entry »

When it’s about weight loss surgery, there are numerous choices available these days including classical Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, laparoscopic and robotic adjustable gastric banding. You may have read a lot about lap band and how adjustable gastric banding works, but here the question is which weight loss surgery can prove the best for the patients with very high BMI.

Here we need to define what we really reckon when we talk about a particularly high BMI. Usually it is reckoned that obesity starts with a BMI (Body mass index) of 30 and counts as morbid obesity at 40 and at this point most doctors have to consider a surgical solution for this problem. Almost all forms of weight loss surgery are generally suitable for patients with a BMI in the 40s if they don’t have some co-existing medical condition. However, when BMI begins to cross the limit of 50s, the choices begin to become limited and the risk of gastric bypass surgery rise sharply.

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There may be some noticeable skin conditions in a new born and most of them do not affect them much later in life.

Here is the list of skin changes that may occur in your young infant matures:

1. There is often a soft, fine hair called lanugo cover the baby’s skin, however, this covering should disappear after a few weeks.
2. A newborn’s skin can be peeling, cracking or splotchy, but it’s normal for the baby and improves with the passage of time. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction:

Herb, salvia divinorum belongs to mint family, found abundantly in Mexico. The plant can grow up to three feet in height and has large green leaves, square stems and white flowers with purple calyces. This plant can also be cultivated successfully outside of this region. Salvia divinorum has already been used by the Mazatec Indians for its divination and healing properties. The most potent ingredient of salvia divinorum is known as salvinorin A. Neither salvia nor its active ingredient has been approved for medical use in the U.S.

Pharmacology of salvia

Salvinorin A, or divinorin A, is the ingredient, considered to be liable for the hallucinogenic effects of salvia. Chemically, it is a neoclerodane diterpene found concentrated in the leaves than stems. Although many chemicals have been isolated from the plant but none of them have shown any psychoactive property.

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An infectious disease expert says that dangerous bacteria that were normally found in soil and water are on the increase in hospitals worldwide.

Mathew Falagas, who is director of the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Science in Greece, says that Acinetobactor baumannii accounts for almost 30 percent of drug-resistant hospital infections and it is more resistant that MRSA superbug.

Falagas, who is also a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, says in a telephone interview, “A baumannii infections are on increase in various hospitals worldwide. As these bugs are resistant to most agents and that’s why these infections are difficult to treat.”

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Casting doubts on government health recommendations that infants and new mothers should avoid eating peanuts, a new study says that eating peanuts early in life may help to avoid developing peanut allergy.

In their study, the researchers looked at the occurrence of peanut allergy in 8,600 Jewish school-age children in Israel and the UK. Then they analyzed data on peanut consumption by infants ages four to 24 months.

The researchers found that the prevalence of peanut allergy among the U.K students was 1.85 percent while it was 0.17 percent among the Israeli children. The researchers also found that almost 69 percent Israeli children started eating peanuts at nine months of age while these rates were only 10 percent among the British children.

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It is quite for the health of you and your baby to watch what you eat during pregnancy.

Caffeine is well known as a stimulant and when it is consumed during pregnancy, it is given across the placenta to your baby. A baby’s metabolism cannot process the stimulant like an adult’s metabolism.

The best thing you can do for your baby during pregnancy is to consume as little caffeine as possible, says the American Pregnancy Association. It also provides some additional information in this connection:

1. Caffeine can stimulate your heart rate and increases your blood pressure that both are considered harmful during pregnancy.
2. Urine output increases because of caffeine and it can lead to dehydration.
3. It can cause changes in your baby’s movement patterns and sleep.
4. It’s a general view that caffeine is just found in coffee or sodas, but the truth is that it is found in many foods and you need to check labels to look for caffeine content.