[dropcap]O[/dropcap]bstetrical complications are reproductive disorders during pregnancy, labor and delivery that endanger the mother and unborn infant.
Complications may result from prolonged constipation, malnutriton, hormonal imbalance, infection, systemic disease such as diabetes, obesity, tumors of the uterus, medication adverse effects, drug abuse, smoking, and alcohol abuse.
What Is Dementia?[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ementia is the term used to describe a group of symptoms that show significant deterioration of an individual’s intellectual and social abilities.
The deterioration in intellectual function is progressive and is characterized by memory and cognitive impairment involving deficits in reasoning, judgment, abstract thought, comprehension, learning, use of language, and task execution.
Some types of dementia can be reversed, while most types of dementia are degenerative or nonreversible.
Q: What causes dementia?
A: There are many differing causes of dementia. Here are some causes according to nonreversible and reversible:
What Is Depression?[dropcap]D[/dropcap]epression is a mood disorder characterized by absence of cheerfulness, dejection, and loss of interest or pleasure in living, making the person dysfunctional and unable to cope with or perform tasks of daily living.
More than a feeling, this negative psychological status can range from mild to profound and can involve other parts of the body, causing physical problems such as poor digestion, constipation, weight gain or weight loss, mentrual irregularities in females, and impotence in males.
Q: How is depression identified?
A: According to the American Psychiatric Association, depression is a psychic condition that lasts for more than a month and involves four or more of these symptoms:
Grief or sadness at the loss of a loved one or a similar event or remorse for sin is normal. However, depression that is prolonged usually involves imbalances of nerve chemicals called neurotransmitters. Imbalances can result from health disorders such as hormonal imbalances, low blood sugar, stress, drug side effects, or nutrient deficiencies.
What Is Gluten Sensitive Enteropathy?Gluten sensitive enteropathy is active celiac disease characterized by inflammation of the small intestinal mucosa that results from an inherited immunologic intolerance to ingested gluten.
Q: What does the inflammation do to the mucosa in the small intestine?
A: Inflammation is a cell level immune response to gluten that has these effects on the mucosa:
Relationship between active celiac disease and gut microbiota. Results of a study investigating intestinal microbiota (normal bacterial residents) in patients with celiac disease suggest that with lower levels of the genus bifidobacteria, celiac patients have an imbalance in the intestinal microbiota even while on a gluten-free diet. This fact could favor the pathological process of the disorder. The concentration of bifidobacteria per gram of feces was significantly higher in healthy subjects (2.5 ± 1.5 x107 CFU/g) when compared to celiac patients (1.5 ± 0.63 x108 CFU/g).6
What Is Peripheral Neuropathy? [dropcap]P[/dropcap]eripheral neuropathy is a syndrome involving damage to one or more peripheral nerves characterized by impaired nerve transmission. Peripheral nerves are nerves of the body outside the brain and spinal cord. Q:…
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]utism and learning disabilities constititute a non-progressive psychiatric syndrome appearing in childhood characterized by withdrawal from communication with others often accompanied by repetitive or primitive behaviors.
Primary gastrointestinal pathology may play an important role in the inception and clinical expression of autism.
Autistic children often manifest complex biochemical and immunological abnormalities.1 Following are four main features involving the digestive tract:
1) Brain dysfunction from an abnormal gut. Common characteristics of hepatic encephalopathy (brain dysfunction caused by liver disease) and a form of autism associated with developmental regression and immune caused gastrointestinal pathology (abnormal) in an apparently healthy child, have led to the proposal that there may be similar mechanisms of toxic brain dysfunction caused by gluten and casein proteins.
Gluten in wheat and casein in cow milk are called exomorphines because they act like morphine (opioid) in the brain. Aberrations in opioid biochemistry are common in autism.
2) Characteristic intestinal pathology. Many autistic children with gut symptoms have ileocolonoic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia and inflammation of the intestinal lining. The colon lesion consisting of a mucosal infiltrate of yo T cells and Celiac Disease8+ T cells and crypt cell proliferation is enhanced significantly, and the basement membrane is thicker than in normal or disease groups. Neutrophil and eosinophil mucosal infiltration and absence on colonic epithelium of HLA-DR antigen suggests a T-helper -2 dominated immune response.
The corresponding small intestinal lesion also shows a distinct inflammatory reaction in which immune-mediated epithelial cell damage is predominant and blood anitibodies of the IgG type colonizes with complement.
3) Intestinal permeability abnormalities. A subset of children with autism were found to display increased immune reactivity to gluten, the mechanism of which appears to be distinct from that in celiac disease. The increased anti-gliadin antibody response and its association with gastrointestinal symptoms points to a potential mechanism involving immunologic and/or intestinal permeability abnormalities in affected children.2
4) Secondary dysbiosis. Anaerobic dysbiosis develops in the colon caused by fermentation of the overload of undigested food arriving from the small intestine. Billions of microbes in the colon normally breakdown undigested food, however, in autism, the process is dysfunctional and produces byproducts that are toxic to the brain resulting in encephalopathy.
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]olic acid deficiency anemia, also called folate deficiency anemia, is a macrocytic anemia characterized by defective DNA synthesis of red blood cells that results from a lack of folate in the body.
Q: How does folate deficiency cause anemia?
A: Folates are a family of B vitamins and folic acid is an active form.
Folate is required for the formation of both red and white blood cells in the bone marrow and for their maturation.
Also, folate serves as a carrier in the formation of heme, which contains iron, and is the non-protein part of the hemoglobin molecule.1
Red blood cells provide oxygen to body tissues. When there are not enough red blood cells or when they cannot properly carry oxygen, the condition is called anemia. In folic acid deficiency anemia, the red blood cells are abnormally large. Such cells are called macrocytes (macro size cells). They are also called megaloblasts (mega size cells) as seen in the bone marrow where they are produced. This is why this macrocytic anemia is also called megaloblastic anemia.2
Tests that may be done to determine folate adequacy are complete blood count (CBC), red blood cell folate level, methylmalonic acid level, and homocysteine level. Folic acid deficiency anemia shows a decrease in red blood cell folate and/or serum folate levels and normal plasma methylmalonic acid level with elevated homocysteine blood level. These levels distinguish folic acid deficiency anemia from vitamin B12 deficiency anemia.3
What Is Apathy?[dropcap]A[/dropcap]pathy is an abnormal emotional state that is characterized by indifference to things which others find interesting, moving or exciting, and diminished motivation to perform regular daily activities.
The neural mechanisms of apathy are postulated to involve the brainstem and forebrain circuits that regulate goal-directed behavior.1
What Is Infertility In Females?[dropcap]I[/dropcap]nfertility in females is characterized by failure to conceive after one year of intercourse.
This condition can be frustrating and emotionally upsetting to the parents trying to conceive.
What Is Miscarriage?[dropcap]M[/dropcap]iscarriage, or spontaneous abortion, is a reproductive failure characterized by loss of an unborn baby before the 20th week of pregnancy.