Family Health.

[rangi15]

Pseudogout.

Pseudogout is a form of arthritis characterized by sudden, painful attacks of swelling and warmth that can affect one or more of your joints for days or weeks. Pseudogout typically occurs in older adults and most commonly affects the knee.

Pseudogout is so named for its similarity to gout. Like gout, pseudogout causes sudden, severe pain in a joint, triggered by crystals in the joint lining. But unlike gout, which usually affects the big toe joint, pseudogout usually affects the large joints of the arms and legs. And pseudogout is caused by a different type of crystal — calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystals.

It isn't clear why CPPD crystals form in your joints and cause pseudogout. Treatment focuses on relieving pain, and pseudogout improves on its own. Some people experience recurring pseudogout attacks.

Pseudogout is a common term for a condition called calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease. In actuality, pseudogout is just one feature of this larger disease. Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease can also cause calcification of joint cartilage (chondrocalcinosis) and joint degeneration, though you won't necessarily experience all of these manifestations.


Signs and symptoms

Pseudogout most commonly affects the knees. Other joints that may be involved include the ankles, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders.

If you have pseudogout, you might experience:

Swelling of affected joint
Redness
Warmth
Severe joint pain

Causes

Pseudogout occurs when CPPD crystals collect in the lining of your joint (synovium). The crystals form in the cartilage in and around your joints. It isn't clear why this occurs. CPPD crystals migrate to the synovium and cause inflammation, which leads to the signs and symptoms of pseudogout.

Nearly half of all people 85 and older have CPPD crystals in their joints, though most won't experience signs and symptoms of pseudogout. Why some people with joint crystals experience pseudogout and others don't isn't known.


Risk factors

Several factors are known to increase your risk of developing CPPD crystals that can increase your risk of pseudogout, including:

Older age. Older adults are more likely to experience pseudogout because CPPD crystals are more commonly found in the joints of older people.
Joint trauma. Trauma to a joint, such as a serious injury or a joint replacement surgery, increases your risk of developing CPPD crystals in your joints.
Genetic disorder. Families can pass predisposition to CPPD crystals through their genes. People with familial chondrocalcinosis, the name for the inherited condition, tend to develop signs and symptoms of CPPD crystal disease earlier in life.
Excess iron stored in your body (hemochromatosis). This inherited disorder causes your body to store excess iron in your organs and the tissues around your joints. It's believed the iron in your joints leads to the development of CPPD crystals.

When to seek medical advice

Make an appointment with your doctor if you experience sudden, intense joint pain and swelling.


Screening and diagnosis

Pseudogout signs and symptoms mimic those of gout, so your doctor may first suspect gout. Tests can rule out gout as a cause of your signs and symptoms.

To determine whether pseudogout is causing your pain, your doctor may order:

Analysis of joint fluid. Your doctor inserts a needle into your joint to extract a small sample of joint fluid for analysis with a microscope. He or she looks for CPPD crystals in the fluid.
X-rays. X-rays of your knee can reveal other conditions caused by CPPD crystals, such as crystal deposits in the joint cartilage (chondrocalcinosis) and joint damage.
Your doctor may want to rule out other causes of joint pain and inflammation, such as infection, injury and rheumatoid arthritis.


Complications

The CPPD crystal deposits that cause pseudogout can also lead to joint damage. Bones in the affected joint or joints can develop cysts, bone spurs and cartilage loss. Further damage can lead to fractures and death of bone cells (avascular necrosis). Joint damage associated with CPPD crystals sometimes mimics the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.


Treatment

Treatment of pseudogout aims to reduce the pain and swelling. Pseudogout eventually improves on its own. No treatments can rid your joints of the CPPD crystals that lead to pseudogout.

Treatments to relieve the pain and inflammation of pseudogout include:

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), naproxen (Aleve) and indomethacin (Indocin). NSAIDs can cause stomach bleeding, high blood pressure and decreased kidney function, especially in older adults, so discuss these risks with your doctor.
Colchicine. This medication reduces inflammation in people with gout, but it may also be useful in people with pseudogout who can't take NSAIDs. Side effects include stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. In rare cases, bleeding can occur.
Joint aspiration and injection. To relieve pain and pressure in an affected joint, your doctor inserts a needle and removes some of the joint fluid. Then he or she injects a corticosteroid to decrease inflammation and an anesthetic to numb your joint. Joint aspiration and injection is useful if you have only one or two involved joints.
Rest. Keeping your affected joints still in addition to taking medications may relieve pain and swelling. Your doctor may recommend limiting your activity for two or three days.
If your pseudogout is caused by joint trauma or a disease such as hemochromatosis, you may find relief when those conditions are treated first.


Prevention

If pseudogout attacks occur more than once or twice a year, you and your doctor may consider medication that may prevent attacks from occurring. Low doses of colchicine, a drug commonly used to prevent and treat gout, may reduce the number of pseudogout attacks you experience. Side effects such as stomach problems can occur in people taking colchicine. Discuss the benefits and risks of colchicine with your doctor.

Ref: Mayo Clinic Health - www.mayoclinic.com

[shootportraits]

rangi15: Thank you, I enjoy reading all your Family Health post.

[rangi15]

Instant Breakfast - Prevention Not Cure.

In the time you spend each morning calibrating your hair gel, you could be doing something more important, with a much better payoff: eating breakfast. Mom was right (and it's okay to admit it): Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

It keeps you slim: Breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight than breakfast skippers, and successful dieters are also more likely to be breakfast eaters.

It keeps you healthy: Eating breakfast may reduce your risk of serious illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, and it strengthens your immune system so you're more resistant to common ailments like colds and the flu.

It keeps you sharp: Memory and concentration get a boost from breakfast. A study on children found that kids who eat breakfast score higher on tests and are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and hyperactivity. It should help you at the office, too.

The Perfect Meal
You say you eat breakfast? Good boy. Even so, it's likely you're doing it wrong. "Most men make the mistake of eating too little in the morning, and then get so hungry they go overboard and eat a giant meal later in the day," says Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., a nutritionist in Irvine, California, and author of Stealth Health.

A typical breakfast is just a couple of hundred calories, mostly in the form of simple carbohydrates that spike blood-sugar levels and leave the body starving for energy a couple of hours later.

Even a classic fiber-rich breakfast — say a cup of raisin bran with blueberries and skim milk — provides less than 300 calories and only about 10 grams of protein. An ideal breakfast needs to be much larger — between 500 and 600 calories. And it needs to be packed with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, including at least 20 grams of protein and at least 5 grams of fiber. That will give your body a high-quality, long-lasting, steady supply of energy to help you through the morning.

Here's how to hit those numbers. Each of the following meals tastes great and can be made in minutes.

Blueberry Smoothie With Toasted-Cheese Sandwich
Prep time: 4 minutes 2 slices whole-wheat bread 1/2 c Kashi Go Lean Crunch! cereal 1 c fat-free milk 1 c frozen blueberries 1 1-oz slice Cheddar cheese Pop the bread into the toaster. Dump the cereal, milk, and berries into a blender and liquefy. Stick a slice of Cheddar between the warm slices of toast and nuke the sandwich in a microwave for 15 seconds. It tastes grilled—but isn't.
Benefits: "The cheese and milk in this meal are essential for building and maintaining new muscle," says Christine Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition at Georgia State University. "The whole grains in the bread and cereal will help lower cholesterol, and the minerals in the milk and cheese will help keep blood-pressure levels down." Per meal: 509 calories, 26 grams (g) protein, 75 g carbohydrates, 14 g total fat, 12 g fiber


Grab-and-Go Breakfast
Prep time: 1 minute 1 medium apple 1/2 pint fat-free milk 1 bran Vita muffin 1 pack Skippy Squeeze Stix peanut butter Slice the apple, grab the milk, muffin, and peanut butter, and go. Squeeze the peanut butter out of its pack onto your apple slices as you eat.

Benefits: Vita muffins (vitalicious. com) contain 100 percent of your recommended intake of several important nutrients, including vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, and E. Foods high in monounsaturated fats — like peanut butter — may boost testosterone levels. This meal should help you burn energy more efficiently and lift more weight at the gym.
Per meal: 506 calories, 20 g protein, 87 g carbohydrates, 12 g total fat, 15 g fiber

Minute Omelette with Toast
Prep time: 2 minutes 1 egg 3/4 c frozen spinach, thawed 1 slice Canadian bacon, diced 2 slices whole-wheat bread 1 Tbsp almond butter 1 c Welch's grape juice Stir together the egg, spinach, and Canadian bacon and pour onto a plate coated with nonstick spray. Microwave for 1 minute or until the egg is fully cooked. Toast the bread and eat it with the almond butter. Chase everything with grape juice.
Benefits: Monounsaturated fat in the almond spread will help prevent spikes and drops in blood sugar, which can leave you feeling tired or crabby. Grape juice gives you an antioxidant, called resveratrol, that not only helps lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels but also helps improve bloodflow to the heart.
Per meal: 540 calories, 25 g protein, 73 g carbohydrates, 19 g total fat, 8 g fiber


Two PB-and-Banana Wraps With Milk
Prep time: 2 minutes 2 Tbsp peanut butter 2 Eggo Special K waffles 1 medium banana 1/2 pint fat-free chocolate milk Spread a tablespoon of peanut butter over each (briefly microwaved) waffle. Divide the banana between them and roll each to make wraps. Wash down with chocolate milk.


Benefits: Eggo's Special K waffles supply complex carbohydrates, which break down slowly in the body and stimulate the production of serotonin, a calming brain chemical. The banana is packed with potassium — a heart protector.

Per meal: 570 calories, 23 g protein, 90 g carbohydrates, 16 g total fat, 7 g fiber

The Santa Fe Burrito
Prep time: 4 minutes 2 eggs 1 c Santa Fe frozen mixed vegetables (black beans, peppers, and corn) 1 flour tortilla 1/2 c low-fat shredded Cheddar cheese 1/4 c salsa Mix the eggs and vegetables and spread the mixture on a plate coated with nonstick spray. Cook in the microwave for 1 minute, stir with a fork, and microwave again until the eggs are cooked and the vegetables warm. Pile onto a flour tortilla, top with shredded Cheddar cheese and salsa, fold, and eat.
Benefits: "Without protein, guys can lose muscle mass quickly," says William J. Evans, Ph.D., a professor of geriatrics, physiology, and nutrition at the University of Arkansas. This meal is packed with it.
Per meal: 530 calories, 36 g protein, 53 g carbohydrates, 18 g total fat, 6 g fiber


Black-Cherry Smoothie and Peanut-Butter Oatmeal
Prep time: 4 minutes 1 c R.W. Knudsen black-cherry juice 1 c frozen strawberries 1 c frozen unsweetened cherries 2 Tbsp protein powder 2/3 c oatmeal 1 Tbsp peanut butter 1/2 c fat-free milk Blend the cherry juice, frozen fruit, and protein powder until smooth. Microwave the oatmeal according to the directions on the package. Stir in the peanut butter and milk.

Benefits: Men who ate at least one serving of whole-grain cereal (like oatmeal) a day had the lowest risk of dying of any cause, including heart disease, according to a 5-year study of 86,000 doctors. Cherries and strawberries are natural sources of salicylates — the active ingredient in aspirin — making them ideal for relieving stress-induced morning headaches.

Per meal: 600 calories, 27 g protein, 100 g carbohydrates, 11 g total fat, 10 g fiber

Almond-Butter-and-Raisin Sandwich With Smoothie
Prep time: 1 minute 2 Tbsp almond butter 2 Eggo Special K waffles 1 Tbsp raisins 1 Stonyfield Farm smoothie Spread the almond butter on the waffles. Sprinkle the raisins over one waffle and top with the other. Wash down with the smoothie.
Benefits: Whole-grain waffles help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and improve your body's processing of insulin and glucose, a benefit that can reduce your risk of becoming diabetic.

Per meal: 600 calories, 21 g protein, 86 g carbohydrates, 22 g total fat, 7 g fiber.

Ref: Elizabeth Ward, Men's Health.

[rangi15]

Foods To Cut Down On.

Overdoing a number of our favorite foods at this point in your life can not only aggravate some menopausal symptoms, but increase your risk of post-menopausal disease. And because of the complex way foods interact, certain substances can undo some of the benefits of any healthy additions you make to your diet.


Sodium

Caffeine

Sugar

Fats and cholesterol

Alcohol and smoking


Sodium

Sodium plays an essential role in our bodies. It regulates blood pressure and transmits nerve impulses. But most of us get more than enough from dietary sources, so using a lot of salt is unnecessary and can be harmful. There is an as yet unconfirmed belief that excessive salt contributes to high blood pressure—which is a health risk as you age. And there is definitely a link between salt and osteoporosis. In fact, excess sodium leeches calcium from your digestive tract before it can be used by your bones, literally pulling it into the kidneys, where it's eliminated from the body.

Unless you prepare meals carefully, using only fresh ingredients, you probably get plenty of sodium from a variety of sources. These include baking soda, baking powder, canned and cured foods, prepackaged and convenience foods, potato chips, condiments, and flavor enhancers such as MSG. The easiest way to avoid eating too much salt is to remove the salt shaker from the kitchen table and stop cooking with salt. In addition, cut back on salt-cured and smoked foods, such as sausages, smoked fish, ham, bacon, bologna, and hot dogs.

Americans are conditioned to use salt. Your family might protest for a week or so, but they'll be surprised how quickly they adjust to the real taste of food.

Caffeine

If you're a heavy coffee drinker—and most American women are—now's the time to cut back on caffeinated coffee or eliminate it from your diet altogether.

A stimulant also found in soft drinks, chocolate, and tea, caffeine is used by most people to overcome fatigue and work harder or faster—thus, the traditional "coffee break" mentality in American business. At menopause, however, coffee and other caffeinated beverages can increase the number or intensity of hot flashes. Caffeine also has been implicated in breast changes such as fibrocystic disease, in osteoporosis, and in a rise in serum cholesterol associated with heart disease. Despite our affection for coffee, it's difficult to make a case for caffeine use at menopause.

Warning: If you're used to drinking five or six cups of coffee or caffeinated soft drinks daily, eliminating caffeine too quickly can trigger withdrawal symptoms. These range from headaches and nervousness to drowsiness, nausea, and constipation. To avoid caffeine withdrawal, switch gradually to decaffeinated drinks over a period of several weeks.

Sugar

Fluctuating hormones affect blood sugar levels and can cause cravings for sugar. Refined sugars—those found in your sugar bowl and in candy, cakes, pastries, cold cereals, syrups, and a nearly endless variety of processed and prepackaged foods—are packed with calories and little else. They make it easy to gain weight, but contribute nothing of value to your nutritional status. Sugar also suppresses the body's use of calcium and phosphorus. And too much sugar can cause a vaginal discharge that can contribute to recurring vaginal and urinary-tract infections.

In general, you can suppress a craving for sweets by keeping your protein levels steady. Also, be sure to stock your pantry with healthy alternatives. Fresh and dried fruits contain the natural sugar fructose along with fiber. A small serving can quench a sugar craving and serve as a natural laxative to aid your digestive system. Scientists believe that fruit may also help protect against stomach and colon cancers. Today's grocery stores carry nearly every variety of fruit year-round—from the mundane to the sublime. Indulge your taste buds while treating your body to good nutrition.

Fats and cholesterol

Prior to menopause, estrogen helps suppress the buildup of fat along arterial walls that often results from intake of too much saturated (animal) fat and cholesterol. But as menopause drives down your estrogen levels, this extra protection vanishes, leaving you prey to the arterial buildup that often ends in cardiac disease, heart attack and stroke.

Some experts have suggested that high rates of breast cancer may also be due to the excessive amounts of dietary fat, though some evidence casts doubt on this assertion.

Although a modest amount of fat is a recommended part of our diet, it is easily obtained from meager amounts of lean meats, nuts, fish, and poultry. Fats can be used sparingly to add taste to a menu—for example, a dab of avocado to garnish a salad or a spoonful of peanut butter on whole-grain toast. But otherwise, spare your heart by reducing or eliminating your intake of butter, rich sauces and gravies, fatty meats, and whole milk and ice cream. Bake, steam, or broil your food instead of frying it in fat. And serve eggs and organ meats sparingly. Though they add iron and protein to your diet, they have extremely high concentrations of cholesterol. For more information, see "What to Do About Fat."

Alcohol and smoking

Numerous studies have confirmed the negative effects of alcohol and smoking on a woman's health at midlife. It may be confusing to hear that moderate amounts of alcohol can reduce the risk of coronary disease in women by raising "good" HDL cholesterol levels and improving other lipid levels. At some point, however, too much alcohol can increase the risk of high blood pressure, while limiting its use can bring blood pressure down. Heavy drinking is a risk factor for osteoporosis, and may aggravate hot flashes. Due to its high sugar content, alcohol even promotes weight gain. Most experts agree that minimizing or eliminating your alcohol consumption, including beer and wine, boosts your overall health at midlife and beyond.

As for tobacco, lung cancer now causes more deaths in American women than breast cancer. Heavy smokers also tend to have an earlier menopause, which has been linked to higher rates of heart disease and osteoporosis.

Several new studies have confirmed that cutting out smoking even in midlife or old age—cuts your chances of developing heart disease and cancer of the lung, mouth, esophagus, kidney, stomach, and colon. It also helps the heart, lung, and circulatory systems and reduces the impact of emphysema or chronic lung disease. By giving up cigarettes, you'll unquestionably improve the health of your heart and lungs and decrease your risk of developing osteoporosis. (For more, see "What Smokers Need to Know About Diet.")

Remember that variety and moderation are the keys to good nutrition during this exciting, though occasionally turbulent, period. At midlife—as in your younger years—you are what you eat. Embrace a healthy diet for its boost to a robust heart, strong bones, and radiant skin. Maximizing your intake of nutritious foods and minimizing your reliance on empty calories will prepare you to appreciate the joys of menopause without suffering its sorrows.

Ref: Thompson Healthcare.

[sanabs]

Glad we have someone to share thier knowledge on food and the body. I hpe people make good use of the free info.

I wish people will stop spamming us lol! If u have something u want to share why not create your own thread instead of spamming everyone. What has electronics got to do with food

[ValueForYou]

Amen Sanabs... I've said something to them in the dog forum as well as another one... I don't think they will see our posts though because they only go to every forum once to say their non-relative piece then move on. It's all sad but oh so true.

[elsphit]

Sleep on time is the best way of taking care of our health, because it gives more power or energy when we wake up in the morning. and our whole body is functioning will including our mind. the best way to maintain our health care.

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