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:…
What Is Insomnia?[dropcap]I[/dropcap]nsomnia is a distressing sleep disorder that includes inability to fall asleep, inability to stay asleep, and inability to get deep sleep depending on the type of insomnia.
Q: What are the types of insomnia?
A: There are two types of insomnia: primary or secondary which have different causes.
1. Primary insomnia is characterized by sleeplessness due to reduction of synthesis of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) in the central nervous system (brain) required for sleep, especially melatonin. Melatonin is produced during the night hours by the pineal gland from tryptophan, an essential amino acid derived from food.
Neurotransmitters are released when the axon terminal of a presynaptic neuron (nerve cell) is stimulated and acts by stimulating or inhibiting a target nerve cell.
2. Secondary insomnia has many causes. It can be a feature of malnutrition, lack of exercise, heartburn, mental disorders such as dementia and psychosis, emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety, guilt, worry, many conditions that involve itchiness, pain, disability, and a side effect of certain medications.
What Is Chronic Muscle Pain And Tenderness?[dropcap]M[/dropcap]uscle pain and tenderness, also called myalgia, is a disorder of muscle tissue.
Muscle pain that is ongoing or chronic can result from a variety of disorders, infections, overuse, injury, as an unwanted effect of certain medications, toxic substances, celiac disease, and certain nutritional deficiencies.
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]iffuse alopecia is characterized by abnormal hair loss or baldness.
Hair loss usually develops gradually and may be patchy or all over (diffuse). The average scalp contains about 100,000 hairs. Roughly 100 hairs are shed from the head every day.
Diffuse baldness not related to male pattern or heredity can be related to aging, nutritional deficiencies, some froms of dermatitis, radiation, endocrine disorders, especially thyroid hormone imbalance and diabetes, and undue stress.
Q: Can sudden stress cause hair loss?
A: A sudden physical or emotional stress may cause one-half to three-quarters of the hair throughout the scalp to shed. Other causes that need to be evaluated include use of common medications such as birth control pills, blood thinners, and anti-inflammatory pain drugs, and continued exposure to environmental chemicals such cleaning products.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]eborrhea dermatitis is a recurring inflammatory disorder of sebaceous glands characterized by scaly patches of skin, often with bumps.
Seborrhea dermatitis results from the body’s inflammatory reaction to invasion by pityrosporum yeast that naturally inhabits the scalp and skin.1 Inflammation is the normal response to tissue injury and germ invasion.
Pityrosporum is a yeast that is commonly present worldwide. Its development depends on various factors that predispose to pityriasis versicolor, a chronic and mild superficial yeast infection. These infections usually are asymptomatic without itching or pain and without cellular and/or antibody responses.2
Q: Why are the sebaceous glands particularly affected by this yeast?
A: Pityrosporum yeast is an organism that needs oil produced by sebaceous glands to grow. If conditions permit, this yeast invades the superficial layer of skin and hair shafts to reproduce, causing infection. Such conditions include weakened skin due to nutritional deficiencies, excessive build-up of oil on skin, and altered immunity due to systemic disease such as psoriasis.
In adults, areas of skin that are the most affected have the greatest number of sebaceous glands especially the scalp, back, underarms, and the face including the eyelids, eyebrows and side folds of the nose.
All ages are subject to seborrhea dermatitis, and males have a higher occurence than females.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ngina pectoris, or simply angina, is a coronary syndrome characterized by an oppressive substernal pain (pain under breastbone) or pressure brought on by exertion and relieved by rest that results from failure of coronary arteries to deliver adequate oxygen to heart tissue due to ischemic heart disease.
Q: Why do coronary arteries fail to deliver adequate oxygen to heart tissue?
A: Coronary arteries are the blood vessels that serve the heart. In angina, these vessels fail to deliver adequate oxygen to heart tissue because they are narrowed or blocked by fatty buildups, called atherosclerotic plaques or by a blood clot which impair their ability to carry adequate blood that carries the oxygen. Diseased coronary arteries cannot deliver adequate oxygenated blood pumped by the heart to its own muscle cells.
The heart is a muscular organ that is working all the time without rest, so it needs a constant supply of oxygen. When heart muscle has to work harder, it needs more oxygen. Lack of oxygen causes pain which makes the affected person stop activity and rest.
Angina can be stable or unstable. Unstable angina is much more serious and can be life-threatening.
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]oronary artery disease (CAD), also called ischemic heart disease, is a gradual narrowing of medium and large arteries of the heart by fatty buildups, called atherosclerotic plaques.
It is characterized by slowly developing interference with blood flow to heart tissue itself, resulting in oppressive chest pain called angina and, ultimately, thrombosis (clot) causing heart attack.
The heart is a muscular organ that is working all the time, so it needs a constant supply of oxygen. Oxygen is brought to the working heart tissue by the coronary arteries with each beat of the heart. When heart muscle has to work harder, it needs more oxygen delivered to itself. Lack of oxygen causes pain.
In fact, failure of diseased coronary arteries to deliver adequate oxygen to heart tissue is the most common cause of angina pectoris – substernal pain (under breastbone) or pressure brought on by exertion and relieved by rest.
Thrombosis, or clot formation, occurs when blood cells within a narrowed artery can no longer get through. Trapped, blood cells pile up and block the artery thus triggering a cascade of events called heart attack. Coronary arteries that are narrowed by atherosclerotic plaques can rupture causing injury to the coronary blood vessel resulting in blood clotting which blocks the flow of blood to the heart muscle. Blood clots may form, partially dissolve, and later form again and angina can occur each time a clot blocks blood flow in an artery.1
Q: How does coronary artery disease develop?
A: Coronary artery disease slowly develops from this combination of events:
Dysfunction of epithelial cells that line the inside of arteries cause the vessels to stiffen, and subsequently
Accumulation of lipid (fat) in smooth muscle cells beneath the inside lining of arteries and in foam cells cause buildup of fatty deposits on the inside walls progressing to fibrous plaque formation.
Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), so-called bad cholesterol, and oxysterols play important roles in the development of atherosclerosis. OxLDL triggers the immune system to produce autoantibodies against oxLDL that are detectable in serum. These antibodies are called anti-oxLDL. Anti-oxLDL antibody and oxysterol concentrations are associated with coronary artery stenosis. Oxidative stress may be greatly increased in unstable angina.2 and Chronic inflammation in the general population is a major risk factor for ischemic heart disease.
The pathophysiology of atherosclerosis is, clearly, different in women when compared to the men. The women have a higher risk of blood coagulability making them at high risk for the blood clot formation. In a large number of women endothelial dysfunction, small vessel size and diffuse atherosclerosis have been identified as causes of ischemia without evidence of blockade in the coronary arteries.3
Also, atherosclerotic plaque in women is less fibrotic and contains more lipid filled foam cells, implying greater potential for reversibility but also potentially greater vulnerability for plaque rupture and thrombosis.4
Who is Affected in the General Population?
Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death in developed countries despite significant progress in primary prevention and treatment strategies.
It is the leading cause of death in women, as well as an important cause of disability.
Older patients are at particularly high risk of poor outcomes following acute coronary syndrome.5
Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, making cardiovascular risk assessments and potential interventions or treatments imperative for patients with celiac disease.6
Sources:Diffuse alopecia is characterized by abnormal hair loss or baldness.
Diffuse alopecia is characterized by abnormal hair loss or baldness.
What Is Irritability?[dropcap]I[/dropcap]rritability is a mental state characterized by negativity and excessive response to annoyance.
Irritability can be a feature of many diseases, malnutrition, and side effects of certain prescribed medications and over the counter drugs.