Crohn s disease - symptoms and treatment

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Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract. The disease is also called granulomatous enteritis, colitis, regional enteritis, regional ileitis, ileitis, or terminal ileitis and it causes ulcerations of the small and large intestine. The disease can affect the digestive system anywhere from the mouth to the anus, but distinctively affects the terminal ileum as well as demarcated areas of large bowel. The disease is named after the American physician, Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884–1983), who described the disease in 1932.

Crohn’s Disease Symptoms

Crohn's disease symptoms may include:

• Chronic diarrhea & disrupted digestion: It becomes difficult for the patients in the acute phase of the disease to eat and/or digest food.
• Painful and debilitating inflammation
• Fistulas of the colon
• Hemorrhoids
• Lipid absorption problems
• Anemia: Persistent rectal bleeding may lead to anemia.
• Bruising of the shins.
• Fever, pain and psychological damage in many cases
• Crohn's disease in children may cause delayed development and stunted growth.

Crohn’s Disease Treatment

Crohn's disease treatment may include medication, surgery, dietary advice and Helminthic therapy (current research).

- Medication Treatment

Acute treatment: steroids are used in the initial stages. Long-term steroid therapy is discouraged because of their side effects. Corticosteroids like prednisone are traditionally used medications. The side effects of steroids may include insulin resistance and frank diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), glaucoma, osteoporosis, severe psychological issues etc.

Chronic treatment (Steroid-sparing): The treatment may include Salicylates - 5-ASA derivates - 5-aminosalicylic acid compounds such as sulfasalazine (Azulfidine®, Salazopyrin®), mesalamine (Pentasa®, Asacol®), olsalazine, and balsalazide. Immunomodulating drugs such as azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate are given mainly in moderate-to-severe cases. Infliximab (brand name Remicade®) is given in patients with therapy-resistant or fistulating Crohn's. Adalimumab (brand name Humira®) has been used in patients who show allergic reaction to infliximab. The drugs like thalidomide are under study trials.

- Surgery

In the case of widespread intractable Crohn's colitis, the colon and rectum (protocolectomy) are removed by the surgery ileostomy. Surgery is generally avoided, as this does not cure the disease. Crohns disease can recur at the site of the anastomosis or ileostomy.

- Dietary Advice

Crohn’s patients should avoid the following foods and liquids:

• Dairy foods
• High fiber foods should be avoided during flare-ups.
• Hot spicy foods
• Alcohol & caffeine
• Foods containing saturated fats, found in meat and dairy products. However some fats such as in fish oil may actually be helpful.
• Products containing corn or gluten, those made from wheat, oats, barley, or triticale
• Foods, such as soy, eggs, peanuts, tomatoes
• Gas-producing foods such as cabbage family vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts), dried peas and lentils, onions and chives, peppers and carbonated drinks
• Foods that may irritate the intestine (particularly the cabbage family vegetables)
• Simple sugars
• Dried fruits or high-sugar fruits, such as grapes, watermelon, or pineapple
• Sorbitol (an artificial sweetener)

Beneficial Foods:

• Fluids to keep the body hydrated and prevent constipation
• Fruits may be protective
• A high protein diet with lean meats

Advice:

• Eat small frequent meals
• Prebiotics such as psyllium may help in the healing process.
• Probiotics may also be helpful in aiding recovery of the intestines.

- Helminthic Therapy

Recent studies have come up with a promising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis treatment. Helminthic therapy is a new treatment that has shown impressive results in clinical trials. It argues that the absence of intestinal worms (due primarily to higher hygiene standards) from the human intestinal tract may cause the immune system that is not evolutionary adapted to this condition, to over-react causing inflammation and other negative effects, and that reintroducing helminths through ingesting eggs of a certain species (which is not dangerous to humans) can help down regulate and normalize immune responses.

Helminthic therapy like the fecal bacterio therapy induces a characteristic TH2 white cell response in the diseased areas which seems to be the key in achieving and maintaining remission, and may prove to be of key significance in further research.

sleep work play 8482 at home program helps people with allergic asthma communicate better about their condition

Millions of Americans share their beds with enough dust mites to trigger an allergic asthma attack in susceptible people. In fact, two million times a year those symptoms are severe enough to cause a trip to the emergency room. In an effort to help allergic asthma sufferers reduce their exposure to allergens in the home, Andrew Dan-Jumbo of TLC's While You Were Out has partnered with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) on an educational campaign called "Sleep Work Play™ at Home."

As part of the "Sleep Work Play at Home" campaign, asthma and allergic asthma sufferers can enter an essay contest to win a personal "at home" consultation with Andrew and a $500 gift certificate for supplies to manage exposure to allergens in the home. Contestants can enter online at sleepworkplay. com by Thursday, July 13, 2006.

Sleep Work Play™ aims to improve the dialogue between patients and physicians by helping patients to explain their experience with asthma symptoms.

At the Web site, you can find a questionnaire designed to help patients better assess the impact allergic asthma has on daily functioning. By asking three simple questions, Sleep Work Play helps allergic asthma patients understand that interruptions of sleep, work, school or play are not inevitable aspects of their disease and that improved communication with their doctor can lead to better asthma management.

Mimi Gilles, one of 10 million Americans who suffers from allergic asthma, attests to years of interruptions in her sleep, work and play. Rushing to the ER because of an asthma attack became an accepted intrusion in her life-she even considered herself lucky when the hospital visits were limited to only once per month.

However, Mimi finally found relief from her allergic asthma symptoms by discussing another treatment option with her doctor. "Until you know there is another way to manage your illness, you don't know there's anything different about how you have been living," Mimi reflects.

If you are being treated for asthma and have tried reducing allergens in your home, but are still affected by symptoms, speak to your physician about a new treatment plan.

Typical rashes

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Rash in short: is an acute and widespread temporary reddish eruption on the skin. A rash can develop in individuals that are sensitive to a particular drug, prescription or nonprescription. The rashes are characterized by itching of an intensity that can interfere with sleep or normal activities. The rash results from the entire body reacting to the drug itself and usually develops early in treatment rather than after the drug has been taken for a period of time.

Rash is a change in the skin which affects its appearance and or texture. Most often a rash is localised to one part of the body, but other times it can have an affect on the entire body. Rashes can cause the skin to change color, become bumpy, dry, itchy, swell among other things that can result in alot of pain. Because of the wide array of rash symptoms treatments also vary widely. A proper diagnosis should look at all of the visual and physical symptoms of the rash, and also what the possible cause of the rash was. Often times the area in which the rash exists can tell alot about it's condition, and where it is going. Rashes are often times associated and a result of diseases. For example, measles with cause a rash, that begins a few days after the fever begins.

The most common causes of rashes today are: allergies, (ex. allerfic reaction to: foods, animeals, dyes, medicines, insect stings, etc), skin contact with an irritant, infection or reaction to a vaccine, skin diseases such as eczema or acne, autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis, cancer or other disease, pregnancy and, exposure to sun or heat.

Heart diseases statistical comparison between us and africa

Cardiomyopathy is a rare heart muscle disease over the world, but not in Africa where it is one of the major causes of heart failure, according to experts that reviewed all available cardiomyopathy studies performed in Africa, along with all the information about the causes and types of heart muscle disease in Africa, where 10 per cent of the world's population lives.

A 10 per cent to 17 per cent of cardiac problems found through autopsies in South Africa and Uganda, and 17 per cent to 48 per cent of heart failure diagnoses in many parts of Africa are due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is an enlargement of the entire heart, explain researchers.

In the United States, 4 to 8 per 100,000 people are affected by DCM, but African overall incidence is unknown, because the corresponding studies have not been made yet.

Researchers' findings show that Peripartum cardiomyopathy has a very high incidence throughout Africa and Nigeria. This illness can cause heart failure and it develops between the last month of pregnancy and the first five months after childbirth.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy incidence in the US is 1 in 15,000 deliveries; meanwhile the incidence in South Africa is 1 in 1,000 cases.

DCM is caused by various factors, under generally accepted African theory. These include untreated high blood pressure, infective and toxic agents, inappropriate immunologic reactions, nutritional deficiencies, and genetic factors.

According to experts, it is important to do more research to understand the underlying reasons for Africa's high cardiomyopathy rate, and prevent or reduce it.