Testing It Up

The A (H1N1) virus is a disease that caused a stir all throughout the world. With many people afflicted with the condition, everybody has to take the necessary precaution. Question is: Who is more susceptible to the disease.

Anyone may actually have the infection. But, there are four groups who are at higher risk from the A (H1N1) virus. These are: the children and elderly; health care providers; people with existing medical conditions; and pregnant women.

Children below the age of 5 and elders 65 years old and above are more susceptible to the condition than individuals in other age groups. This is because their immune systems do not have the required antibodies to prevent the virus from spreading. As for health care providers, the risk is attached to the nature of the job. Since they deal with sick people, their exposure to the condition is increased.

People with medical conditions such as diabetes, chronic pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes mellitus are at high risk of acquiring A (H1N1). Additionally, those with hematological and hepatic conditions are also prone to having the disorder. Pregnant women in their third trimester are not exempted from acquiring the condition as well.

For full version of this article, please visit “Who is at Risk from A (H1N1) Virus?“.

Food allergy is a problem that faces many people today. Scientists agree that this is largely because many of the food we eat are processed to enhance their taste and make them viable for a longer period of time without spoiling. However, processed food can actually be harmful to us because it can lead to the development of food allergies.

Food allergy is a reaction of the immune system to the food that we eat, and this reaction is often seen as irrational. The immune system attacks the proteins from the food we eat to the point that it also attacks the body itself. Just how badly the immune system reacts in this way varies from person to person.

There are two ways of determining if we are allergic to certain types of food. We can do this through elimination testing, which is eliminating a food item that produces negative reactions in our body. However, this is often seen as inefficient. Another way of doing this is by taking a sample of our blood and testing it using a testing panel.

For full version of this article, please visit “How Food Allergy Affects the Body“.

Many people are laboring under the misconception that food intolerance and food allergy is the same. They often interchange these two terms without realizing the difference between them. It does not help that the symptoms that these two conditions show are often the same.

Food allergy happens when the immune system of the body recognizes the proteins coming from the food item in question as dangerous invaders. When you eat a food item that you are allergic to, your white blood cells go on overdrive in an effort to expel the proteins.

On the other hand, food intolerance is a digestive problem. It means that the digestive system cannot absorb the nutrients from a particular food item. When this happens, the digestive system rejects the food item.

When you have food allergies, you have no choice but to avoid the food you are allergic to because your next allergic response can be fatal to you. When you are afflicted with food intolerance, you need to control your consumption of the food items you are intolerant to in order to avoid a negative reaction of your digestive system.

For full version of this article, please visit “Food Intolerance vs. Food Allergy: What Is the Difference?“.

Some rather frightening news has come to light about older shower heads and it isn’t pretty.

Apparently bacteria grows inside the head and the space inside is a great place for it to develop and grow, getting worse.  When researchers tested the germ levels of the gunk that sits inside the head and the water both before and after it went through it they found that the levels of  Mycobacterium avium was at least 100 fold higher than any other bacteria in the water. While there isn’t much known about the microorganism it does pose a threat to patients with illnesses that affect the immune system such as AIDS and lung diseases like emphysema.

One of the larger concerns is that many of these microorganisms (along with pathogens and microbes) are small enough to be breathed in, an issue that becomes twice as worrisome when you consider that the shower makes them aerosolized making it even easier for them to get into the body as we shower.

Researchers suggest that if you’re concerned about these contaminants you should take down your showerhead and look for higher levels of grit and grime. If you find that there’s a lot then it’s a wise idea to buy and install a new head. While healthy people aren’t likely to developed problems, those with lung and immune diseases should skip showers all together taking baths instead.  The study was conducted in an effort to see what household factors could be affecting the health of those that lived there.

For years organs like the appendix, spleen, tonsils and some veins in the body have been considered redundant. But as time has passed and technology has advanced these beliefs have started to change. The reality, as many researchers have begun to realize, is that this once “expendable” organs actually do have a purpose in the body. What are these organs doing? The spleen, as it turns out helps by being another source of monocytes, white blood cells that are crucial to the immune system and tissue repair. Previously, it was though that these cells were only found in bone marrow and accumulated in the blood stream.  In reality the spleen is a much more major source for these cells, holding as much as 10 times as many monocytes as the blood stream. The organ most affected by these monocytes when damaged is the heart, meaning that the spleen is integral to a healthy heart after heart attack. In fact for many the extra monocytes produced and stored by the spleen could be the difference between recovery and laboring health.

Anyone can get sick of the swine flu. There are already thousands of reported cases of swine flu all over the world, with a few hundreds of people dying from it. It does not matter what age, sex or race you are. The weaker your immune system is, the more susceptible you are to the swine flu virus.

How do you know that you are sick of the swine flu? The symptoms of the swine flu are not that much different from the symptoms of seasonal flu and they include fever, chills, sneezing and coughing, muscle pains and a runny nose. You can recover with enough rest even if you stay at home.

You do need to visit a doctor to get prescription for the right medication. There are also instances where you may need to be rushed to the emergency room, such as difficulty breathing, pain in the chest and abdomen, and incessant vomiting.

For full version of this article, please visit “Am I Sick of Swine Flu? When to See the Doctor for Swine Flu“.