Blood and iron health care

There is much talk these days about "iron-poor" blood. You will recall that it is hemoglobin-a combination of protein and iron-which carries oxygen. When the number of red cells in the blood is not adequate or the cells do not contain adequate amounts of hemoglobin, the body is not able to get its proper supply of oxygen. Without the oxygen, the muscles and other tissues are not able to burn all their supplies of fuel. The body is unable to get sufficient energy. The condition is called anemia. If anemia is the result of inadequate hemoglobin, the problem may be overcome by good diet-and may be avoided the same way. As noted previously, foods rich in iron include meats, particularly liver, heart, and kidneys; also leafy green vegetables; enriched bread and cereal; egg yolk; potatoes; oysters; dried fruits; peas; beans.

And since hemoglobin also contains protein, good-quality protein foods in the diet help. It should be emphasized, too, that there are other types of anemia and other possible causes. And if you feel unduly fatigued and suspect that you have anemia, don't guess that it may be for lack of enough iron or enough protein or anything else. Find out-let your physician test to determine-exactly what, if any, kind of anemia it is and what should be done about it. There are certain diseases that are great enemies of the heart and circulatory system. They include high blood pressure, hyperthyroidism, rheumatic f ever, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, nephritis, and syphilis.  

How to Guard your heart?

You can guard your heart, too, by avoiding obesity and, if now over- weight, by sensible reducing. If you are overweight, your heart has to work harder routinely, day in and day out, minute after minute. Take your heart seriously-but don't worry about it. If this sounds contradictory, it is really not. Fear can injure the heart; and too many people are more afraid ~f heart trouble than of anything else. Because of their fear and anxiety, they may actually be contributing to the development of heart trouble. Not worrying about your heart simply means this: Have your heart examined at regular intervals by your physician.

If he says your heart is sound, get your mind off it and on to other advice he may have for you on proper nutrition and exercise. We should like to emphasize very strongly here that only a physician can tell whether or not there is really anything wrong with the heart. Pounding of the heart (palpitation) can be alarming, but it is more likely to be caused by nervousness than by a serious organic condition. When your heart suddenly seems to "flop over" in your chest, you may be frightened, but needlessly, for the phenomenon often is due to nothing more than the fact that you have been smoking too many cigarettes or drinking too much coffee. Between medical checkups, you can help yourself and your physician keep your heart in good shape by avoidance of excessive smoking.

 If you must smoke (see the chapter on that subject), cut down as much as possible or, preferably, switch to a pipe or mild cigar. Good diet, with regular spacing of relatively small meals, helps the heart to work at its best, and, as noted in the chapter on nutrition, there is evidence that sound diet may well reduce the likelihood of clogging of the arteries feeding the heart. Good diet also can reduce the likelihood of arterial damage elsewhere in the body, helping to maintain the integrity of the whole circulatory system. Keep your work and social life under reasonable control so that you are not chronically fatigued. If you feel tense and "driven" in our competitive world, talk to your physician. He may have advice that will be helpful; he may suggest little patterns of physical activity to be used at particularly tense moments to reduce the tension; if necessary, he may prescribe medication that may help tide you over a tense period; he may, if advisable, have you talk with a psychotherapist. You may be able, by any or all of these measures, to reduce nervous tension to the point where you can avoid trouble with your heart in later life.

CALORIE COUNT - Weight Control - What Food to take? How ?Much Food to take?

Weight Control  

 CALORIE COUNT 

How do you determine the proper calorie level per day for you? Your physician can help, taking into account your present weight, desired weight, state of health, and normal activities. He may suggest perhaps as few as 1,200 calories per day if you are an adult woman, 1,500 to 1,800 if you are an adult man. These levels are about half those of non-dieters. 

Within these limits, you can diet reasonably happily on a wide variety of foods and obtain all essential nutrients. Or your physician may suggest a reduction of intake level by as little as 300 or 400 calories. It is usually not considered wise to depend upon a reduction of less than 300 or 400, since one or two miscalculations or indulgences may mean no weight loss at all.

Remember that the objective is permanent weight loss, not a flashy quick cut down, promptly followed by a return of the excess pounds. So what if it takes several months or even a year to reach your ideal weight -as long as you will be using a tolerable diet, one you can sustain, retraining you’re eating habits so you can enjoy the new habits and the desired weight level for the rest of your life. 

Always remember that only one-half pound of weight loss per week means 26 pounds for the year, and 1 pound a week means over 50 pounds lost. In setting up your diet, your physician most likely will move in the direction of a little of everything, to assure balance and variety.

He will make certain you get something from each of the four basic food groups (see page 49). He will be thinking in terms not merely of reducing but of general health, of reducing without risk of malnutrition or risk of fomenting heart disease. 

As an example, sample menus for 1,200 calories a day diet might go like this: 

Breakfast: 1/2 small grapefruit; 1 poached egg; 1 slice of toast; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; coffee or tea. 

Lunch: A 3-ounce cooked serving of lean meat, poultry, or fish; 1 serving of vegetable; 1 serving of fruit; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1 glass of skim milk. 

Dinner: A large broiled beef patty; 1/2 cup of asparagus; 1/2 to 1 cup of tossed green salad with vinegar dressing; 1 slice of bread; 1 small pat of butter or margarine; 1/2 cup of pineapple; 1 glass of skim milk. Snacks, if desired, may consist of bouillon or consommé, tomato juice, raw vegetables, coffee or tea, or food saved from meals. 

You may find it convenient to use a mini-pocketbook calorie counter available in pharmacies and food stores. 

For your general guidance, the table lists the calorie content of many commonly used foods   

Heart problems and Sugar intake - Bodily reactions

SUGAR AND THE HEART 

Can consumption of large amounts of sugar be as much of a factor in coronary heart disease as cholesterol? So British investigators led by Dr. John Yudkin of the University of London maintain. They note that over the past 200 years in Great Britain sugar consumption has gone up almost 25-fold, from an average of 5 pounds per person in 1760 to 25 in 1860 and to 120 pounds in 1960. 

A sizable increase in sugar consumption in the United States also has been noted by American investigators. The British workers note that increasing affluence anywhere is accompanied by increased incidence of heart attacks and by diet changes which include greater consumption not only of fat but of sugar.

They point to studies showing that recent Yemeni immigrants to Israel have little coronary thrombosis but those who have been in Israel 20 years or more become prone to the disease-s-and the major change in their diet is increased sugar consumption. 

Among their own studies, Yudkin and his co-workers report one covering three groups of men, aged 45 to 66. Twenty had recently suffered first heart attacks, 25 had hardening of leg arteries, and 25 others had no health problems. The sugar intake of the first two groups customarily had been roughly twice that of the healthy group. 

Not all doctors agree with Dr. Yudkin. Much work remains to be done to identify the mechanism by which sugar in excess may produce artery disease. And a big question to be answered is whether reduction of sugar intake will reduce risk of artery disease. Still, even the possibility that sugar may be involved in this major disease adds another reason why moderation in its use appears warranted. Ordinary refined sugar is what nutritionists call an "empty calorie" substance. 

It provides energy-but no protein, no vitamins, no minerals. It can add to body weight but does not help the body repair itself. Sugar, as contrasted, say, with cereal, puts the body at a nutritional dis- advantage. 

WHEN TO EAT? TIMING MATTERS

WHEN TO EAT

Meal patterns generally are dictated by custom, work schedule, and personal preference. Most people eat a light breakfast, moderate lunch, and hearty evening meal. If you have a preference, however, for more but smaller meals, there is certainly nothing wrong with eating that way. 

In fact, we believe that, where feasible, more but lighter meals are desirable since they are easier to digest and put fewer loads on the body. The fact is that there is a limit to what the body's chemistry can take on at any one time. 

One can add to a fire a reasonable amount of wood The Food You Eat I 53 or coal and have a vigorous flame. But if too much fuel is added, the fire huffs and puffs, smokes and smolder’s inefficiently.

So, too, with the body when it is burdened with dealing with a big evening meal,

 For example, Quite possibly, too, if a large amount of fat or cholesterol is consumed at one sitting, the body may not be able to metabolize it completely, and it may overflow into vital areas such as the arteries. 

When obesity is a problem, the practice of eating five or six small meals daily may be helpful. There are fewer tendencies to overeat when smaller portions are taken more often-and fewer tendencies to indulge in snacks. When you know you will be eating again in two hours or so, the temptation to snack is not so great. 

HOW MUCH TO EAT - A word about food

FOOD CAUSES

It is better to eat no more than eighty per cent of your capacity. A Japanese proverb has it that eight parts of a full stomach  ache sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor."

So one of the Zen masters is quoted in the book Three Pillars of Zen (Beacon Press, Boston, 1967)

The advice is relevant. That Americans generally consume too many calories for the amount of physical energy they expend is a matter of record and of increasing concern as the energy expenditure tapers off even more. Every five years, the National Research Council, which serves as scientific adviser to the United States government, publishes recommended dietary allowances.

After recommending, in 1963, a cut of 100 calories per day for men and women, it recommended another 100-calorie reduction in 1968. In its calculations, the Council uses a "reference" man and woman-each 22 years old, weighing 154 pounds and 127 pounds respectively, living in a mean temperature of 68 degrees, and engaging in light physical activity. 

Such a man, the Council now figures, needs 2,800 calories a day; the woman 2,000. The Council also recommends that caloric intake be cut below these levels with age-by 5 percent between ages 22 and 35, by 3 percent in each decade between 35 and 55, and by 5 percent per decade from 55 to 75.

This brings the figure for the woman, for example, to 1,900 by age 35, to 1,843 by age 45, to 1,788 by age 55, to 1,699 at 65 and to 1,614 at 75. These, of course, are general guidelines, leaving room for individual variations, and your physician may well have suggestions of value for you. It is a measure of good health, and a contribution toward maintaining it, to reach and keep a desirable weight. 

For that, an effective balance between food intake and energy output is needed. If you are currently at ideal weight (see table on page 61), your intake and output are in balance---which is fine if you are getting adequate amounts of exercise. Exercise, of right kind and in adequate amounts, is a vital element in health for many reasons (see Chapter 8). If you should need to increase your physical activity, you will need to increase intake to maintain desirable weight.

Persistent Cough may mean Infection, Obstruction, accumulation of fluid, or in lungs

Coughing may indicate only a minor temporary throat irritation. But a persistent cough may mean infection, obstruction, or accumulation of fluid in the air passages or lungs, and so it deserves medical attention.  

 The Promise and Nature of Preventive Medicine 50 does a cough that developed during a respiratory infection but then persists long afterward. 

Urinary changes: We have already noted that blood in the urine re- quires investigation. Frequent urination may be the result of infection or, in some cases, nervous irritability of the bladder. Frequent and voluminous urination may be an indication of a relatively rare type of diabetes, diabetes insipidus. In older men, the need to get up several times a night for urination may indicate an enlarging prostate.

Difficulty in starting urination may indicate sufficient prostate enlargement to require treatment to prevent backup of urine and impairment of kidney function. Actually, any marked change in the urine-in its volume, color, or number of times it must be passed-calls for medical study. 

Nausea may stem, of course, from a gastrointestinal disturbance, but it may also arise from an infection almost anywhere in the body or from disturbance of the balance mechanism in the ear. If the nausea is mild, you can delay a little before consulting a physician, for it may disappear in a short time and not return. But severe and persistent nausea, or nausea that keeps recurring, calls for medical attention.

Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, may be due to a viralinfection and is especially likely to be seen in younger people. It may signal gallstones, and this is especially likely to be the case for middle-aged women. In older people, it sometimes is due to cancer of the pancreas or to cancer that has spread into the liver from elsewhere. The safe rule is always to regard jaundice as a signal calling for immediate medical attention. In some people with sallow complexion, jaundice may not be readily discernible on the basis of the appearance of the skin; in such cases, look at the whites of the eyes-if they are distinctly yellow, jaundice is present. 

Weight Change-Shortness of Breath- Bleeding Causes and possible diseases in your body- How to prevent it?

WEIGHT CHANGE 

Rapid weight gain in some cases may reflect a need to alter the diet, and this can be important enough to call for medical aid. In some cases, rapid gain may be the result of fluid accumulation in the body because of a heart or kidney disturbance or improper functioning of the thyroid gland. If weight loss occurs on an adequate non-reducing diet, sickness must be suspected. The body may not be utilizing food properly or may be burning it up too fast. Diabetes and hyperthyroidism (over-activity of the thyroid) are among the possibilities the physician will check.

SHORTNESS OF BREATH

This can be an important symptom. It is not always easy to evaluate. In climbing stairs or running, almost everyone, of course, becomes short of breath. Unless breathing difficulty occurs at rest or with only minor activity, you may have only an impression that you are puffing more than you used to do when performing certain activities. This may be an indication that you have become too sedentary, are not as fit or perhaps as light in weight as you once were. But shortness of breath also may serve to indicate the beginning of heart trouble, lung disorder, chest disease, anemia, some forms of cancer, and other conditions.

BLEEDING

Bleeding without obvious explanation requires investigation without delay. Blood in the urine may indicate urinary infection, kidney tumor, or wart like growths in the bladder, for example. The blood mayor may not look like blood; blood can impart anything from a faint pink tinge to a mahogany brown color in the urine. Blood in the stool may appear bright red if the bleeding is low in the intestinal tract or from hemorrhoids. But if the bleeding is from the stomach or upper intestinal tract, bowel movements may be colored black.

The coughing or vomiting of blood calls for prompt action. The fact is that the body sometimes provides only one warning. Don't wait for a repetition of the bleeding. Consult your physician immediately, and the chances are he can establish what is wrong and treat it effectively. Similarly, the woman who experiences unexpected vaginal bleeding between menstrual periods or after menopause should see her physician at once. The problem may be nothing more than a harmless polyp, but it may also be early, still curable cancer. 

How taking body temperature helps to prevent certain diseases?

FEVER

Fever most commonly signals infection or inflammation somewhere in the body. The temperature is likely to be highest during a bacterial or severe viral infection. With a mild infection such as a cold, temperature elevation may be slight and fleeting. When fever is high, there is usually no hesitancy about calling the physician. But there may be other occasions when the physician should be consulted.

First

A few facts about taking temperature

Aspirin and aspirin-containing medications bring down elevated temperature and tend to keep it down for as long as four hours. So for accurate determinations, temperature should be taken before use of such medications or four or five hours afterward. Remember, too, that if temperature is taken immediately after smoking, it may be higher than normal; and conversely, if taken by mouth just after a cold drink, it may be lower than normal. Before taking temperature, rinse the thermometer in cool water and shake it until the mercury falls below the 95-degree mark. If you use an oralthermometer, hold it under the tongue, with mouth shut, for at least three minutes.

A rectal thermometer, after lubrication, should be inserted up to the 98.6-degree line while the patient lies on his side. It should remain in place for three to five minutes. For the average person, mouth temperature normally is 98.6 degrees, and rectal tends to be about one degree higher. When fever is mild-under 100 degrees orally or 101 rectally-and the only other symptom is nasal congestion, a slight cough, or a scratchy throat, there is no urgency about calling the physician. But take the temperature every three or four hours and note the severity of symptoms. If symptoms become worse or if the temperature moves up to 101 orally or 102 rectally, then notify your physician. Always when fever is present it is important to note the accompanying.

How Blood tests helps in finding Urinary problems

Today there are sensitive blood tests for this; they measure the amounts in the blood of certain chemicals, called enzymes, released when the heart is damaged. Urine tests are helpful in detecting kidney disease and other urinary tract disorders and may provide clues to problems elsewhere in the body, such as diabetes. Today, radioactive isotope scanning is a sophisticated and vast new area of testing, useful for the detection of disorders in many different organs. Such scanning is based on the fact that certain chemical elements tend to be deposited in specific organs, and these elements can be made slightly and briefly radioactive; then their distribution in the body can be established with scanning instruments that can pick up their radio-activity and record it on film or paper.

Abnormalities become visible as areas of increased or decreased radioactivity. Scanning now can be used to pick up thyroid problems; brain tumors and abscesses; liver cancer, cysts, and abscesses; lung clots; bone tumors; kidney tumors, cysts, and abscesses; and many more abnormalities including those of the pancreas, spleen, parathyroid glands, and the heart as well. Judicious use of tests has always distinguished the best physicians. It would be a simple matter, of course, for the physician to just order, indiscriminately, a whole battery of tests-at considerable cost of time and money for the patient.

Rather than this, physicians have been selective, using the patient's case history and their personal examinations as guides, determining, from them what problems if any the patient might be likely to have, and, when justified, using supplementary tests to explore these problems. 

STETHOSCOPE EXAMINATION FOR HEART PROBLEMS AND TO AVOID HEART ATTACK

STETHOSCOPE EXAMINATION

The stethoscope has a small cone which concentrates and slightly amplifies internal body sounds while excluding external noise. One of its major uses is in the detection of heart problems. The heart produces two distinct sounds-e-Iubb-dup, lubb-dup, lubb- dup-which are related to the closing of the valves inside the heart. The rate, rhythm, pitch, and intensity of these sounds, which can be studied with the stethoscope, provide indications of the health of the heart. The stethoscope can pick up any abnormal sounds-for example, a rubbing scratchy noise which may indicate pericardia, an inflammationof the outer coating of the heart.

With it, too, the physician can detect murmurs-audible vibrations produced by blood flow-and can distinguish among various types of them. There are murmurs associated with different kinds of congenital heart defects. Others are produced by over activity of the thyroid gland and disappear when the gland condition is corrected. A fever or anemia may produce a heart murmur which disappears when the anemia or fever is over- come. In addition-and worth special note here-there are innocent murmurs. Unfortunately, many people worry needlessly after being told at some point, perhaps during an insurance examination, that they have a murmur even though reassured it is "innocent." The fact is that innocent murmurs are unrelated to any physical problem and are quite common.

They can be found in as many as 15 percent of normal healthy adults and in an even higher percentage of normal healthy children. Such murmurs are more readily detectable in children because they have thinner chestwalls. And some authorities are convinced that if there were sensitive enough instruments, slight and innocent murmurs could be found in all people. Your physician has been trained to understand the significance of various types ofmurmurs, to distinguish carefully among them, and to heed those which tell him of existing or possibly brewing trouble.

Let him examine you and if he finds a murmur tell you exactly what it means. If he can report that it is innocent and no reason for worry that is exactly what he means. In addition to its value in studying the heart, the stethoscope often is useful in revealing characteristic sounds of asthma and of the lung disorder emphysema. Applied to the abdomen, it is often helpful in gastrointestinal problems; it may, for example, aid in diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. With the stethoscope, too, it is sometimes possible to detect blood vessel problems-the existence and location of an obstruction in an artery, for example.

Heart Attack And Other Problems - Percussion Examination

PERCUSSION

Percussion-a simple procedure to Know heart problems in which the physician lays one hand flat on the chest and raps on it with fingers of the other hand-can provide useful information about some internal organs. With it, the approximate size and shape of the heart may be established, for example. The chest is largely occupied by the lungs which, because they are filled with air, produce a hollow sound when the chest wall above them is tapped. 

Over the heart, which is filled with fluid, the sound has changes to a dull note. The physician can begin percussion at a point on the chest known to be over the lungs, moving in the direction of the heart until a dull sound tells him he has reached it. That establishes one point of the heart's position. Other points can be determined by starting the percussion else- where on the chest and moving in toward the heart again. 

Heart Attack and other Issues in Heart are well explained in the following posts, Please follow all the posts to know about the heart and the problems arising. In this modern days pollution and Global Warming create many issues and the human body cannot tolerate the modern day diseases. Though EBOLA is not a heart related virus directly, We could avoid EBOLA if we were followed some principles and hygienic procedures in Our life. In the same way we can avoid heart issues by adopting certain methods and exercises to avoid the issues in Heart. 

Please follow your physician's instructions in the matters and any suggestion given given here is subject to verify your physician.