Health Literacy

Archive for January, 2010

This will give you a reality check when it comes to how much cereal or pasta you’re really eating, say Zelman of WebMd.com. An it can help you get a better handle on what a healthy portion should be.

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Source: admin

We keep hearing about new things everyday that affect women’s health and more particularly reproductive health.

Now it would seem that something as innocuous as house dust could be a culprit.

Flame-retardant chemicals in items like lounge suites, electronics, fabrics, carpets, and plastics cause delays in conception, it was found by scientists in Berkley, University of California.

According to this Times report, PDBEs a group of chemicals are found to leech out through dust onto surfaces where they are inhaled and stored in the body.

Women with higher levels of PDBE chemicals in their blood found it difficult to get pregnant than those with lower levels.

Source: pnreddy1

Researchers from Meharry Medical College in Nashville have found that extracts from green tea may be useful in treating uterine fibroids, according to this Web MD report.  According to some estimates, uterine fibroids is a condition that as many as 30% of the American female population may have.

While uterine fibroids, also known as uterine leiomyoma may often be quite asymptomatic, particularly in the earlier stages. However, the symptoms most commonly seen are excessive menstrual bleeding, vaginal bleeding, fatigue and anemia.

A constituent of green tea, namely epigallocatechin gallate is seen to act against uterine fibroids. The reaserchers found that this constituent also called EGCG was seen to kill uterine fibroid cells in rats.

It was noticed that the fibroids, after treatment with EGCG, became smaller and weighed less and it was therefore suggested that EGCG might be particularly useful for long-term use in women with a low fibroid tumor burden to arrest tumor progression and avoid the development of severe symptoms that necessitate major surgery.

Source: pnreddy1

Vaginal infections are of many different types, some being of a sexually transmitted kind, while others are not and some occur due to reasons not clearly understood.

Most women will, at some or other point of time in their lives, probably get a vaginal infection which may range from the mild and easily treatable to the severe and difficult to get rid of.

It is important for vaginal infections to be identified as per its actual type and get treatment in accordance with this rather than self medicate oneself based on self diagnosis or guessing based on the symptoms that a woman may have.

Sometimes, the symptoms of certain vaginal infections could be similar to one another and one could end up taking medication for one infection when one has another.

So, testing to determine which infection is present and taking the correct medication for this is the correct course of action. The most common vaginal infections are:

Vaginal Yeast Infection: The Candida fungus is responsible for a vaginal yeast infection. The symptoms of this vaginal infection are itching, burning or soreness in the vaginal area.

There could be pain during sexual intercourse or when passing urine. Typically there is a thick discharge rather like cottage cheese. This kind of infection could be a commonly occurring one for many women, however if a woman experiences these symptoms for the first time, it is important to get a proper diagnosis and correct treatment.

Bacterial Vaginosis: Rather than an infection, bacterial vaginosis is a disorder wherein the natural balance of the bacteria present in the vaginal area becomes unbalanced and there is an overgrowth of certain less friendly bacteria.

Causes of this are not clearly understood though there are several factors that increase the risk for developing this condition. The common symptoms include a fish like vaginal odor and a frothy discharge that may be gray or white.

Trichomoniasis: This is sexually transmitted disease; an infection that also occurs in men, though the incidence is much higher in women. In women, the common symptoms are a frothy or foamy discharge that is foul-smelling and may be yellowish or green in color.

As you can see from the preceding symptoms of the common vaginal infections, they can commonly being mistaken; one for another. However, their nature and mode of infection are different as are the ways used to treat them. This is the reason that proper diagnosis is required before treatment is obtained.

Source: admin2