Tit Bits

HOW TO AVOID INSOMNIA


  1. Drink a hot milk beverage at bed time.
  2. Participate in stimulating daytime activities.
  3. Arise at specific early hour each morning, regardless of the previous night's sleep.
  4. Try not to worry if unable to sleep because anxiety can cause or aggravate insomnia.
  5. Abstain from or decrease consumptian of beverages containing caffeine or alcohol, particularly in the evening.
  6. Avoid heavy meals several hours before bed time.
  7. Avoid naps during the day.
  8. Perform light exercise such as taking a Leisurely walk before bed time.
  9. Avoid strenuous exercise before bed time.
  10. Designate a specific time for sleep.
  11. Relax by engaging in activities such as reading in bed, watching television, or listening to relaxing music.
  12. Minimize external stimuli.
  13. Use dark shades over the windows to keep out light; wear ear plugs to keep out noise

Source : Handbook of Non - Prescription drugs (American Pharmaceutical Association)


FACTS ABOUT COMMON COLD

  1. More than 200 different known viruses cause cold-like symptoms; the rhinovirus (af 40 per cent) is the most common.
  2. The highest speed at which particles expelled by a sneeze have been measured is 103.6mph.
  3. Out of every 100 patients consulting their GP about 24 will be there because of an infection of the upper respiratory tract.
  4. Research has shown that the incidence of colds is higher among the better educated.
  5. In 1785, Louis XVI of France decreed that all handkerchiefs must be square.
  6. You cannot sneeze with your eyes open.
  7. Research has shown that two units of alcohol a day will significantly decrease your chance of catching a cold, but only if you are a non-smoker.
  8. On an average, everyone on earth has iwo colds a year.
  9. The liquid most effective for treating the common cold has been shown to be chicken soup, which helps even if diluted 200 times.
  10. Colds vanished almost completely from Sarajevo during the harshest period of the recent war, possibly because stress enhances the functioning of the body's defences.
- (Sunday Tlmes dated 7th July 98)

OTHER TIPS
QUIT SMOKING TODAY AND HAVE A HEALTHY HEART

Smoking
Smoking is one of the °Big° risk factors, Almost 40% of deaths are from coronary heart disease are linked to smoking. incidence of heart attack and sudden death are proportionally higher in young smokers. The recovery from heart attack is usually slow and incidence of complications like fatal arrhythmias is more in smokers.

Rule of the thumb
Never ignore a chest pain if you are a smoker. Smoking contributes to angina, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke in more than one way. Nicotine, carbonmonoxide and other substances damage the arteries lining. Cholesterol clings to damaged area, leading to build up of the plaque and narrowing of the arteries. Smoking also causes arterial musculature to contract, further reducing blood flow to your heart. Smoking and exercise or any event demanding more oxygen supply to heart do not go together. Smokers must avoid unaccustomed exercises, angers, and stressful situations.

Warning
Smokers have a higher risk of developing sudden fatal arrhythmias or sudden death during heavy, unaccustomed exercise or emotional outbursts.

Rule of fhe thumb
Risk of heart disease is directly related fo the number of cigarettes you smoke each day and how long you have smoked.

Remember
Even smoking one cigarette is harmful for a heart patient. Four cigarettes a day increase your risk of heart attack by 50 %. One pack a day triples your risk. If you smoke two or more packs a day, you are trading a minute of your life for a minute of smoking.

- Taken from TIT-BITS


WHAT TO DO IN SELF-LIMITING DISEASES

    After a certain time they subside on their own. Medication has no role. It is taken ,just for symptomatic relief:
  • The most common diseases in this category are viral infections , like flu; ,the common cold,influenza, measles; mumps; chicken pox and viral hepatitis (a type of jaundice). .
  • How much time it takes to recover, varies from disease to disease and depends on the person's own body resistance:
  • The passage of time is the only remedy. It is very well said about common cold, "If you treat it, it lasts for seven days If you do not treat it, lasts for one week." People keep changing from medicine to medicine and from one Doctor to another but the disease takes its own sweet time to subside.
  • Usually, a self limiting disease starts with mild symptoms, which keep increasing in severity till it reaches it's peak. The patient takes some treatment,without any relief.
  • He goes to another Doctor and then to the third.By that time the symptoms start disappearing and the disease subsides naturally.The patient may think that the medicines given by the last Doctor have worked.
  • Do not take any medicine without the consent of your family doctor .He is the person who knows best about you.
  • Different viral infections take different time periods to subside. For example, viral infections like influenza may take 3-7 days, measles and chicken pox and mumps may take 1-2 weeks. You should take rest and some symptomatic medication:
  • The time factor is very important and is the only treatment which works in all self limiting diseases.
    Caution
  • lt you are told by the family doctor that it is a viral infection, you should be patient and wait till it subsides, instead of over drugging yourself and changing one doctor to another.
  • Only the common type of jaundice is self-limiting (Viral Hepatitis). People keep trying various spiritual treatments for this and some gimmicks also, like putting on wood garlands, drinking holy water, etc. One should be careful before taking such treatments.
  • Jaundice can be due to causes other than a virus, and these types may not be self-limiting. If you continue to try varied methods you may lose time in getting a proper diagnosis.
  • Other causes of jaundice could be several allopathic medicines, some cancers or cirrhosis of the liver. All these diseases are potentially serious.
- Taken From My Doctor December'94

PLEASURE WITH CARE
ALCOHOL
60 minutes after three or more alcoholic drinks, glasses of wine or bottles of beer, your blood alcohol level can increase enough to make you Intoxicated . Twenty-five drinks in an hour can kill you.

CAFFEINE
Five or six cups of coffee-or 12 cans of cola-can make you anxious, restless, jittery. Forty cups can create symptoms that mimic severe mental illness or even a heart attack.

CARROTS
Eating more than five to six carrots per day for several months can turn your skin orange because of Betacarotine pigmentation But it's not dangerous.

CREDIT CARDS
Carrying a wallet stuffed with too many credit cards can cause an irrtation of the nerve that runs down the buttocks into the thigh, and can cause creditcarditis.

FIBER
If you eat more than six bowls of high-fiber cereal at one sitting, you may have a bad stomachache.

HEAT
Exercising vigorously in 90° F heat can raise your body temperature to 103° or higher, causing headaches and diffculty breathing.Do not exercise outdoors on very hot days. If you must, drink about a half a glass of water every 10 to 15 minutes while you're working out.

H0T TUBBING
It is risky to drink liquor while you're in a hot tub because alcohol inhibits the body's temperature-regulation system. The hot water could raise your body temperature to a dangerous level and even cause your blood pressure to plunge. Should that happen, you could pass out and drown.

MUSIC
Music too much loud music destroys the tiny hairs in the ear canal that register sound waves.The louder the music the less time this takes.

PLAYING POOL
Playing pool for eight hours straight can produce a sharp pain in your cue-pushing shoulder. Apparently the syndrome is caused by the extension and rotation of the shoulder required by the game-an action that can compress veins of the upper chest against the first rib, causing a pain-producing blood clot.

PUSH-UPS
Doing as few as 20 to 30 push-ups a day on a hard surface may cause "push-up palsy," a numbness of the hand caused by pinching the nerve that runs through the palm. If you do a lot of push-ups, get yourself a padded mat.

SALT
Your body needs a mere 500 milligrams of salt-per day. When you begin to approach 20 to 30 grams per day, you get to a level that may put you at risk for high blood pressure, arterial damage and even stroke.

SLEEP
Sleeping more than ten hours a night may shorten your life. A study of a million adults found that the mortality rate for long sleepers was One and a Half to 2 times greater than the rate for people who slept seven to eight hours. Major causes of death were heart disease, cancer and suicide.

SODA
Six to seven cans of regular or diet soda or cola daily can cause havoc on your teeth. It is not just sugar but also citric and phosphoric acids, commonly used flavor enhancers, that are to blame. The soda's acidity will, over time, erode tooth enamel.

SPINACH
Eating more than three cups of spinach a week may weaken your bones. Researchers found that a compound called oxalate in spinach blocks absorption of calcium, which in turn may result in weak, fracture-prone bones when you hit your later years.

TELEPHONING
For those with sensitive skin, eight hours on the telephone can lead to listening in dermatitis, an irritation of the skin on the cheeks. The constant friction between the phone and the skin combined with perspiration and dirt from hands and the telephone receiver provides a healthy breeding ground for bacteria. The rash is common among telephone salesmen (and probably serves them right).

TOOTHBRUSHING
Too-vigorous brushing can lacerate the gum tissue and cause bleeding. Repeated rough teeth-cleaning will permanently wear away enamel and cause gums to recede. Always use a soft Brush.

VACATION Most men begin to crave stimulation as they approach two weeks of a very relaxing vacation. If they don't get it, then the lack of stimulation creates the kind of stress they were often fleeing from in the first place. "You'll develop symptoms of stress-tension, headache, in some it's fatigue. You actually burn out from vacation,"

VITAMIN A
A dose of 50,000 international units of vitamin A is toxic to humans.

WATER
A normal man needs 6 to 8 glasses of water per day 60 to 80 glasses of water can reduce kidney's ability of excretion resulting in water intoxication.Nausea,lightheadedness and seizures can occur.

- Taken From:How A Man Stays Young