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Amnesia : Causes, Symptoms, Recovery of Short term memory loss

Amnesia / Short term memory loss

Amnesia is the psychological term used to describe Memory loss.  Amnesia is associated with temporary memory loss or  permanent memory loss. Amnesia affected patients forget what happened in their past life.  Amnesia may come  sudden or slowly, is depends on the etiological factors.

Anterograde amnesia :  The person is incapable of learning new things  and can’t remember the events happened after the attack of Amnesia.

Retrograde Amnesia : Person forgets the past events in their life and fails to recall memories.

Causes of Amnesia

Number of factors are responsible for Amnesia.  Brain damage is the main cause of Amnesia.  Damage caused to memory centers of brain leads to memory loss. Psychological  factors also causes Amnesia is termed as Psychogenic Amnesia.  Degeneration of brain cells in diseases such as Dementia, malnutrition, Drug abuse and other factors leads to brain cell death causes Amnesia.

  • Head injury,
  • Using some drugs,
  • Encephalitis or brain infection,
  • ECT or Electroconvulsive therapy
  • Hysteria or Emotional shock,
  • Cerebral Stroke,
  • General anaesthetics
  • High degree fever,
  • Seizures and convulsions,
  • Consuming alcohol,
  • Traumatic events,
  • Brain surgery
  • Alzheimer’s disease,

Symptoms of Amnesia

Memory loss is the main symptom of Amnesia. Memory loss depends on the severity of causes. Memory loss may be temporary or permanent.  The amnesia affected person may not able to recall what happened in their past or not able to learn the new things from the environment.  The victim may forget ones personal identity such as name, age, residing place etc..

Fails to identify familiar persons or places.  Even the person can’t remember where he is Staying, when does he got an injury,

Confusion in doing daily living activities as the memory power has been reduced because of Amnesia.  After partial recovery the confusion is common.  In this stage the memory is not completely lost but the short term memory is weak and it leads to confusion.

After recovering from Amnesia, affected person can’t remember the events from past Amnesia episode.

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Childhood obesity: causes, diet, treatment of obese children

Childhood obesity

Obesity is considered as most widely spread physical disorder of the human body and has become a vast problem as a obese children. In the modern era, decrease in the physical activity, change in the dietary patter, especially most of the people adopting junk food like bread, chips etc, can increase the risk of obesity and obese children.

Definition

If an excessive fat accumulates in the body it is known as Obesity. A person is considered to be obese children, if the body weight is more than 25 percent in boys and more than 32 percent in girls.

Obese children

childhood obesity or obese children is defined as, if 120 percent more weight compare its height ratio is known as childhood obesity.

Obese children are usually measured by using skin fold measurement, mainly the amount of fat present in the sub scapular region, calf and triceps reason. In this triceps and calf or triceps and sub scapular, or calf alone have been used with children and adolescent to find out obese children. If the skin fold in boys is more than 10-25 and 16-30 in girls is present it is considered as normal.

The problem associated with  childhood obesity are

Obese children has more risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes mellitus, which is increasingly diagnosed in children now days. Type 2 diabetes is previously considered that it is found only in adolescence. Type 2 diabetes is caused due to increased risk of pediatric hypertension.

  • Bulimia: It is an eating disorder, may associated with obese children.
  • Respiratory problems such as restriction in the chest wall, causes breathlessness; airway obstruction, etc were found in obese person or in obese children.
  • Liver may damage in obese children.
  • Sleep apnea: a condition in which there occur a difficulty in breathing during sleeping,
  • Cardiac disorders such as Cardiomyopathy may occur in obese children. Cardiomyopathy is a problem associated with heart muscles, in which there is a need of an extra effort to pump the blood from the heart; obesity increases the risk of coronary heart disease,atherosclerosis, and diabetes.
  • Other body system disorders involve gallstones, arthritis and hernia.
  • Orthopedic problems also associated obese children.
  • Obesity increases stress on weight-bearing joints.
  • Obese children will have low self-esteem, which affects the Child relationship with his/her peer group.
  • Obese children may get psychological problems and affects social relationship as well.
  • Low life expectation is also seen in obese children. etc

Causes of children obesity

If the amount of intake is more than the amount of energy expenditure, the body will store excessive energy as fat. If this process continues more and more fat will get accumulate in our body and that causes obesity. The following are the causes which lead  obesity in obese children.

Genetics/Hereditary : If the parents are having obesity in their family that is the main cause of the obesity in infants and obese children. And some of the genetic disorders that too were the cause of the obese children.

Food : food is the primary factor to cause obesity. Whatever food we select those decide our physical development and our mental development as well. Foods that rich in high fat and sugar rich foods cause obesity.

Sedentary life style : It decreases physical activity of a child, increases the accumulation of fat and other things in the body. The children who spend more time in watching the television, playing video games, spending more time inside the room with less energy expenditure are more prone to develop obesity.
Alcohol intake increases the risk of obesity. Alcohol increases the calories in liquid form in addition to a full diet.

Assessment of obese children

Obese children can be assessed by the estimation of total body weight, measuring skin-fold, and by measuring body weight. If body weight is higher than normal by 20 percent may be considered as obese.

Prevention of obesity

It is the more important responsibility of all the parents to prevent the obesity in its early stage. According to one proverb “Prevention is than to cure”, so it is better to prevent the development of obesity than its cure. The following are the remedies that help you to prevent and cure the obesity in children.

Nutritional therapy for obese children : Principles of nutritional therapy are as follows.

  • Eat regularly.
  • Do not skip meals.
  • Eating regular meals which are low in calories,
  • Avoiding high calorie foods frequently.
  • Measure foods to determine the correct portion size.
  • Avoid concentrated sweets, such as sugar, candy, honey, pies, cakes, cookies, and regular sodas in obese children.
  • Increase the intake of more green leafy vegetables, fruits and adapting to the vegetarian diet will reduce  obesity risk in obese children and keeps the person or child in healthy condition.

Exercise : is an essential part of a weight-control program. Exercise increases energy loss, hence it increases appetite, but in a later stage it has an opposite action. Exercise increases body fat distribution, hence it reduce the waist-hip ratio as exercise is continues. Maintain a regular exercise program for successful weight loss  in obese children.

Behavior Modification: It involves self-monitoring, stimulus control, and rewards.

Drug Therapy: Drugs have been used in the treatment of the obesity but only as adjuncts to a good diet and exercise program. There are two categories of drugs used to treat obesity. They are as follows,

Appetite-suppressing drugs. Eg- Adipex-P, Fasting.
Nutrient absorption-blocking drugs. Eg- Xanical.

Surgery is  performed to reduce childhood obesity

  • Lipectomy : It is performed to remove unsightly flabby folds of adipose tissue in obese children.
  • Liposuction: Here excessive fatty tissue is removed by using the method of suction. The areas involved in this procedure are chin, abdomen, waist and upper thighs of obese children.
  • Gastrointestinal Surgeries: like a Vertical banded gastroplasty- It consist of construction a small pouch with a restricted outlet along the lesser curvature of the stomach in obese children. This reduces the gastric capacity and hence will reduce the obesity in obese children. It’s advantages involves, this procedure is easy to perform , more normal anatomy and physiology can maintained in children.
  • Roux-en-Y: Gastric bypass procedure involves constructing a proximal gastric pouch whose outlet is a Y-shaped limb of small bowel. This reduces gastric capacity, some malabsorption. It has advantage as it helps in large weight loss in obese children.
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Low white blood cell count : causes, symptoms, treatment, precautions

Low white blood cell count

The decrease in the number of white blood cells than normal level is called as low white blood cell count. Leukopenia is the medical term used for low white blood cell count. White blood cells as the components of blood circulates throughout the body and fights against infection, while provides immunity to the body. Children are the more sufferers from this disorder than elder ones.

The white blood cells plays a major role in providing resistance to body. The main component of immune system of human body is white blood cells. When the white blood cells the resistance power of body is reduced and the individual can’t fight against infection. The individual is prone to have recurrent infections which stays for long time. AIDS patients have low white blood cell count and reduced lymphocytes and that is why they will have severe infections.

The inflammatory symptoms such as redness, swelling, pus formation, cough, fever etc develops very poor or may these inflammatory reactions are absent in patients with low white blood cell count as there is no enough white blood cell count to fight against foreign bodies. So seek medical medical help for even small discomfort or infection.

Neutropenia is the term used to indicate decreased number of neutrophils, the component of white blood cell, which leads to low white blood cell count.

The normal range of white blood cell count  in body is 7000 to 11000 cells per cubic mm of blood. The low white blood cell count  less than 5000 cells per Cm can be said as low white blood cell count. The low white blood cell count may vary from medical institutions to institutions. A low white blood cell count in children is not similar to elders and different according to age group. Leukopenia is  also called as low white blood count.

The white blood cells have different component cells which also determines the low white blood cell count. Decrease in any one of component cell also leads to low white blood cell count. The laboratory test determines the number of cells in the given blood sample.

Normal white blood count in adults

  • Total white blood count – 4000 to 11ooo / UL
  • Lymphocytes  – 22 to 44 %
  • Monocytes  – 0 to 8 %
  • Neutrophils  – 40 to 70 %
  • Eosinophils  – 0 to 4 %
  • Basophils  – 0 to 1 %

Causes of low white blood cell count

  • Altered bone marrow function  because of Viral infections,
  • Congenital disorders which diminishes bone marrow function
  • Metastatic cancer and other illness that damages bone marrow
  • Autoimmune disorders which destroys bone marrow cells
  • suppressed immunity due to recurrent infections
  • Some medications also causes low white blood cell count by inhibiting  white blood cells or damaging bone marrow


Specific causes of low white blood cell count

  • Severe allergic reactions
  • Aplastic anemia
  • Chemotherapy for treatment of cancer,
  • Steroids such as prednisone,
  • Use of medications such as  antibiotics, diuretics
  • Immune deficiency disorder
  • HIV infection
  • Destruction of blood cells by spleen
  • Hyperthyroidism
  • Infectious diseases
  • Myelofibrosis
  • Kostmann syndrome, a congenital disorder with low neutrophil production
  • Myelokathexis, a congenital in which  neutrophils fails to enter blood stream form production site.
  • Autoimmune disorders
  • Parasitic diseases
  • Radiation therapy
  • Vitamin deficiency disorders


Facts about low white blood cell count

The low white blood cell count is  found when the laboratory test is suggested by your doctor and test results gives the exact level of low white blood count level in blood or individuals body. The laboratory results gives clear picture about the percentage of low white blood count and this helps the physician to treat the condition and to take any measures needed. Low white blood count is the clear indicator of decreased immune level in the body and the individual is prone to have recurrent infections. Further diagnostic tests such as x – ray, ultrasound scan, bone marrow aspiration, biopsy  are done to assess the condition of spleen and bone marrow. The low white blood count commonly occurs as a side effect of chemotherapy given to cancer patients.


Precautions to prevent infection

The patients with low white blood count should follow the precautionary measures to prevent infection by wearing face masks, avoiding contact with infected person, beware of contagious or communicable diseases, etc. Use face mask to avoid transmission of infection through nose and upper respiratory tract.  practice hygienic measures to prevent infection and protect health.


When to contact  a doctor  about low white blood count ?

  • An elevated  temperature greater than 100.4°F.  you can check temperature with  the help of thermometer.
  • Sudden and recurrent Chills (rigors) or body shakes,
  • Sudden onset of  pain with unknown cause,

When you experience all these symptoms with known low white blood count, contact doctor immediately.

If you experience symptoms such as

  • Sore throat
  • mouth Sores
  • A white patches in  mouth,
  • tongue lesions
  • Signs of a urinary bladder infection  such as
  • painful urination or burning sensation,
  • red blood cells in urine
  • frequent urination than normal

along with decreased or low white blood count, is better to seek medical help as soon as possible to prevent any complications.


Treatment of low white blood count

Low white blood count is treated by relieving from the actual causes. The careful diagnosis helps in assessment of disease condition and treatment is given as per requirement. The medial research  indicates that some foods and food components helps controlling low white blood cell count.

The doctor will prescribe the medications such as

  • Filgrastim
  • Pegfilgrastim
  • Sargramostim

after each cycle of chemotherapy in order to prevent low white blood cell count  for prolonged time. The prophylactic  antimicrobial medications such as Sulfamethoxazole – trimethoprim,   Fluconazole,  Itraconazole   are prescribed to prevent specific infections which occurs with weaken immune system or low white blood count (associated with chemotherapy).

Some  specific foods such as  garlic, foods high in zinc such as oysters, pot roast, dark meat turkey and pumpkin and squash seeds are helpful in boosting immune system of the body and these foods intake reduces the risks of low white blood count. Fruits and vegetables are good for health and stimulates production of antibodies and gives resistance to body. Multivitamin intake is very beneficial with this disord

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Upper back pain : causes and treatment

Upper back pain

“Upper back pain is the pain originated in the upper region of back, i.e. thoracic region” . Pain between neck region and bottom of spine is called as back pain. Improper position, Trauma and sudden injuries causes upper back pain. Upper back pain is the most common complaint by who works at computers and office whole day.

Causes of upper back pain

  1. Muscular strain
  2. Intervertebral joint dysfunction.
  3. Repetitive motions or overuse injuries.
  4. Ligament problem
  5. Improper positioning etc..

Treatment of upper back pain

  • Active and passive exercises
  • Physiotherapy to back region
  • Message with lubricants
  • Acupuncture
  • Joint manipulation
  • Hot and cold compress
  • Analgesics, such as aspirin etc…
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Beriberi : Causes, Symptoms, types, treatment of beriberi

Beriberi

Beriberi is the vitamin B1 deficiency disorder specially thiamine deficiency, resulting in neurological disorders. Nervous system, cardiovascular system, and muscular systems are affected by beriberi or Vitamin b1 deficiency. Meaning of beriberi is  “I can’t, I can’t “. Beriberi is common in Southeast Asia where people uses rice with poor thiamine as staple food.

Types of Beriberi

Two main types of Beriberi which are as follows,

Wet Beriberi

Cardiovascular system is affected with wet beriberi

Dry Beriberi

Nervous system is affected with dry beriberi.

Causes of beriberi

Vitamin B1 – thiamine deficiency is the main cause of Beriberi.

Beriberi is common in patients with  alcohol abuse, because excess alcohol consumption leads to poor  nutrition, and absorption of vitamins and minerals  is very less.

People who consumes diet with less with thiamine, i.e. Polished white rice will get beriberi.

Beriberi is common in people who eat white polished rice ( less in thiamine) as staple food.

Beriberi may also seen in patients after Gastric surgeries.

Genetic beriberi is rarely caused and is due to family history or genetic inheritance. Patients with genetic beriberi, intestines fails to absorb thiamine or vitamin B from foods ingested. The symptoms of Genetic beriberi are usually seen during adult age.

Babies who receive less thiamine containing milk from mother can also affected by Beriberi. Formula feeding infants with inadequate thiamine also can suffer from Beriberi.

Dialysis to treat other diseases, and Diuretics can increase the risk of Beriberi.

Symptoms of Beriberi

  • Weight loss,
  • Loss of appetite,
  • Emotional disturbances
  • General weakness,
  • vomiting,

Dry beriberi Symptoms

  • Nerve damage,
  • Impaired sensory perception,
  • Partial paralysis,
  • Peripheral neural damage,
  • Loss of sensation in feet and legs,
  • Mental confusion,
  • loss of muscle co-ordination,
  • Pain in the limbs,
  • Tingling,
  • Difficulty in walking,
  • Increased amount of lactic acid and pyruvic acid in blood,

Wet beriberi Symptoms

  • Cardiovascular abnormalities
  • Cardiac failure
  • Congestive cardiac failure, are main symptoms of wet beriberi.
  • Weakening of capillary walls
  • Increased heart rate
  • Shortness of breath
  • Awakening at night with sweating
  • Cardiac symptoms becomes fatal, if not treated
  • If not treated beriberi may lead to death.

Treatment of Beriberi

Thiamine Hydrochloride in tablet form or in injection form is given to treat Beriberi. Even with an hour of treatment with thiamine hydrochloride itself the patient recovers from Beriberi symptoms.

  • High doses of thiamine injection,
  • Unrefined cereals,
  • Fresh foods such as  meat, legumes,
  • Green vegetables, fruits , and milk are provided to treat beriberi with rich thiamine supplement.