All about Headaches

We have all suffered from headaches during some point of our life. However headaches can be of different kinds. They can have their own set of symptoms, and may happen for unique reasons. Sometimes they can be more complicated than most people realize. It is important to figure out what type of headache is causing you pain, that helps in correct treatment.

Did you know?

There are 150 different types of headaches.

Some of the most common ones are listed below:

Tension headaches: Also called as stress headaches or chronic daily headaches they are the most generic type among adults and teens. They cause mild to moderate pain and come and go over time. Some symptoms include headache upon awakening, chronic fatigue, irritability and disturbed concentration.

Migraines: This affects and disturbs the lives of many adults. They cause pounding and throbbing pain. They can last from 4 hours to 3 days and usually happen one to four times per month. Migraines can run in families . Along with the pain, people also have other symptoms like sensitivity to light, noise, or smells, nausea, loss of appetite and upset stomach.

Mixed headache syndrome: Also called transformed migraines, this condition is a mix of migraine and tension headaches. Both adults and children can have it.

Cluster headaches:Cluster headaches are intense and feel like a burning or piercing pain behind the eyes. It’s the least common but the most severe type of headache. They tend to happen in groups, appear suddenly and are characterized by severe, debilitating pain on one side of the head and are often accompanied by a watery eye and nasal congestion on the same side of the face.

Sinus headaches: With these, you feel a deep and constant pain in your cheekbones, forehead, or bridge of your nose. They happen when cavities in your head, called sinuses, get inflamed. The pain usually comes along with other sinus symptoms, such as a runny nose, feeling of fullness in the ears, fever, and swelling in your face.

Hormone headaches: Women suffer from these  due to changing hormone levels during their periods, pregnancy and menopause.

Chronic progressive headaches: Also called traction or inflammatory headaches, these get worse and happen more often over time. They make up less than 5% of all headaches in adults and less than 2% of all headaches in kids. They may be the result of an illness or disorder of the brain or skull.

What causes Headaches?

The pain you feel during a headache comes from a mix of signals between your brain, blood vessels and nearby nerves. Specific nerves of the blood vessels and head muscles switch on and send pain signals to your brain.

Getting a Diagnosis

The first step is to talk to your doctor about your headaches. It is important to give detailed descriptions like things that cause headaches, make them worst and what helps you feel better. Sometimes, doctors may suggest a CT scan or MRI to look for problems inside your brain that might cause your headaches.

If your headache symptoms get worse or happen more often despite treatment, do visit our specialists at KDAH https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/ to get  a complete diagnosis.

Bones play crucial roles in our body – they provide structure, protect organs, secure muscles and are a storehouse for calcium. It’s important that during childhood and adolescence we build strong and healthy bones through a good diet and an active lifestyle. As time passes and we age, we are at risk of developing osteoporosis. It is a condition that causes the bones to weaken and become brittle. This can result in painful fractures of the hip, wrist or spine. Early prevention can reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis and other degenerative bone diseases.

Why is bone health important?

Your bones are continuously changing — a new bone is made and an old bone is broken down. When you are young, your body makes new bones faster than it breaks down old bones and your bone mass increases. You reach the peak of bone mass around the age of 30. After that the remodeling of bones continues but you lose slightly more bone mass than you gain. Your likelihood to develop osteoporosis depends on how much bone mass you attain by the time you reach 30 years of age and how rapidly you lose it after that.

Our skeletal system is composed of 206 bones and plays one of the most important functions in the body: to provide overall structure and to protect all the organs. However, the care and maintenance of this powerhouse is often neglected or completely forgotten.

How to take care of your bones:

• Understand osteoporosis risk factors
  This disease of the bones causes weakening of the bones. Various factors like age, gender, family history, race, body type, menstrual history, and personal lifestyle and history can make certain patients more susceptible to osteoporosis. Get yourself checked.
• Test bone mineral density
  A quick and painless test, called a DEXA scan, measures bone strength.
• You need calcium
  A diet low in calcium contributes to diminished bone density, early bone loss and an increased risk of fractures. A calcium enriched diet ensures bone strength and minimizes osteoporosis.
• Vitamin-D requirements
  Vitamin D too plays a major role in preventing and minimizing osteoporosis, but most patients are deficient in the same. Vitamin D helps absorb calcium in the gastrointestinal tract and transfers it to the bones (reabsorption).
• Follow a Healthy Diet
  Consult a nutritionist and follow a diet that helps protect bone density. A diet rich in vegetables, fruit, legumes and moderate consumption of dairy works well.
• Exercise always works
  Choose an activity you enjoy and build a regular fitness regime. Jogging, walking, dancing, hiking, playing volleyball or tennis is good for your bones and also promotes overall physical and mental health.
• Say no to Tobacco and excessive alcohol use
  Smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis by reducing blood flow to the bones, slowing the production of bone-forming cells and impairing calcium absorption. Excessive alcohol consumption makes you more prone to bone loss than those people with minimal alcohol intake.

What affects the bone health?

As you age, your bones become thinner and lose their density. Over time, you become more prone to injuries. The thinning of bones is called osteopenia and it can be halted with some precautions.

Some dietary changes for Healthy Bones:

• Follow a calcium rich diet consisting of dark leafy green vegetables, broccoli, parsley, sweet potatoes, almonds, dried figs, fortified tofu and soy milk.
• Check with your doctor and start calcium supplements if needed. Most individuals need it as the need for calcium increases as you age.
• A Vitamin D deficiency is connected to an increased risk of fractures. Sun exposure without sunburn is the main and most natural way to get Vitamin D. Expose the face and arms to sunlight without sunscreen for about twenty minutes two to three times per week.
• Refined sugar, alcohol and caffeine are acid-forming foods that weaken the bones by depleting them of calcium and other minerals. Reduce intake as much as possible.

We at KDAH have a specialised centre of excellence dedicated to bone and joint heath. Our team of specialists assists patients with timely diagnosis and immediate action. Do visit the below link for further details:

https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/departments/centresofexcellence/centrefor_boneandjoint.html

What is Hypertension?

Blood pressure is the force of your blood against the blood vessel walls. Having high blood pressure also called as Hypertension means that this force is higher than it should be. Hypertension is a serious disease that can, over time, damage the blood vessel walls and increase a person’s risk of heart attack, stroke and other conditions.

In Hypertension the arterial blood pressure raises to high level from the normal level (120/80 mmHg). In the medical world it is called as a silent killer as it does not show any clear symptoms. It is divided in two types (primary or essential hypertension and secondary hypertension) on the basis of its causing factors.

The primary hypertension is more common type however its causes are unknown. Whereas, causes of secondary hypertension are kidney damage, adrenal gland over-activity, sleep apnea syndrome, tumours, recreational drugs, thyroid gland dysfunctioning, pregnancy-related conditions, over or wrong medications, alcoholic drinks, bad food and etc.

Causes

Most of the time, doctors cannot find a specific cause of hypertension. Certain factors increase the risk of developing hypertension, including obesity, excess alcohol consumption, excess salt intake, smoking and having diabetes. Aging also increases the risk of hypertension because blood vessels become stiffer with age.

Being under stress can also increase your blood pressure temporarily. Certain medical conditions and medications can also raise blood pressure, and this is known as secondary hypertension.

Symptoms

People with high blood pressure usually have no symptoms, and so patients can have the condition for years without knowing it. However, severe hypertension show some symptoms of headaches, sleepiness, palpitation, blurred vision, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, ringing sensation in the ears, breathing difficulty, irregular heartbeat which may lead to even coma.

Although many patients may not have symptoms at first, over time, high blood pressure can lead to “wear and tear” on the body. For example, high blood pressure can stretch and damage blood vessels, which in turn, can increase the risk of health problems.

Diagnosis

High blood pressure is diagnosed from a blood pressure test. Typically, doctors place a blood pressure cuff on the arm, which has a gauge that measures pressure in the blood vessels. As a person’s blood pressure can vary depending on a number of factors, including the time of day, a doctor will usually check blood pressure several times and different appointments before diagnosing someone with high blood pressure.

Treatment & medication

The goal of the treatment is for patients to keep their blood pressure in the normal range — below 140/90 mmHg. For patients who have diabetes or chronic kidney disease, doctors recommend that they keep their blood pressure under 130/80 mmHg.

Lifestyle changes that can help lower blood pressure include eating a healthy diet — such as a diet that cuts down on salt, and boosts fruit and vegetable intake — increasing physical activity, reducing weight, and quitting smoking. In addition, stress relief practices, such as meditation or other relaxation techniques, can also be helpful in lowering blood pressure.

The number of people living with hypertension is predicted to be 1.56 billion worldwide by the year 2025. The increasing prevalence of the condition is blamed on lifestyle and dietary factors, such as physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use, and a diet high in sodium usually from processed foods. World Hypertension Day is celebrated every year on 17th of May to raise the public awareness about the hypertension, its preventive measures and complications.

Get yourself checked today for any Blood pressure related concerns at https://www.kokilabenhospital.com

As we come close to Organ Donation day on 13th August 2016 let us understand how it is done. All you have to do is register for Organ Donation. Let us all come together and work towards increasing Organ Donation numbers in India.

Organ Donation in India

Each year, hundreds of people die while waiting for an organ transplant. We need to change the mindset of people to change these numbers. There is a shortage of organs, and the gap between the number of organs donated and the number of people waiting for a transplant is getting larger. Transplants have successful outcomes and over the coming years the need for transplant is expected to rise steeply.

However not everyone is eligible to donate their Organs. Unfortunately, in India, a large number of people die due to road accidents. Organ Donation is rare in these cases. As organs need to be transplanted as soon as possible following the donor’s death, they can only be donated by someone who has died in the hospital. Usually, organs come from people who are certified as brain dead while on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit.

This makes us realise that even after pledging our Organs a small percentage of people qualify as Organ Donors, depending on the circumstances of their demise.

How does Organ Donation Work

Transplants post brain death have to be done immediately to ensure the organs remain suitable for transplantation. However, for this to happen you must have expressed your consent towards Organ Donation or your family has to give their permission. Once family consent is received, consent from the legal authorities is obtained and the organ procurement organization is informed. In the meanwhile the donor is maintained on a ventilator and stabilized with fluids and medications. The recipient is identified for the transplant and a surgical team is readied to arrive at the hospital for removal of Organs and tissues. The donors body is surgically closed and handed over to the family.

Some key Reasons for Shortage of Organ donors in India:

• There is a major lack of awareness about organ donation in India,and recent surveys reveal that people would come forth with their wish to donate if they had received more information.
• A major reason for the shortage of organs is that many people have not recorded their wish about organ donation or discussed it with their families.
• Myths and misconceptions about organ donation discourage potential donors from making the decision to donate organs or tissue after death.

Make a difference after you have left the world

The act of organ donation has the ability to comfort grieving families. It is always difficult to lose a loved one. Many grieving families of organ donors draw comfort from the fact that their loss may help to save or improve the lives of others. Most of the donor families agreed to donate organs because they felt that it was the only positive outcome from their loss.

Let us all pledge towards Organ Donation. Our Team at KDAH is working hard towards maximum registrations for Organ Donation. Have you taken a decision yet? Click on the below link to register:

https://organdonationday.in/index.php/