How to Protect Your Baby From Whooping Cough

How to Protect Your Baby From Whooping Cough

As a parent, the thought of your baby getting whooping cough, or pertussis, may concern you. But you can take steps to protect your little one, even before he is born.

In order to keep your baby safe, you’ll need to protect yourself and your whole family.

Whooping Cough Is Very Easy to Catch

Pertussis vaccines don’t completely wipe out whooping cough. The protection you get from the childhood vaccine — or from having whooping cough — wanes after a while.

If you’ve had the vaccine, you may still get whooping cough, but not a severe case. In fact, you may mistake it for a cold. And you can still spread it.

“It’s quite contagious,” says Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program. “It makes you cough, which is an effective way for the organism to spread.” Sneezing and even just breathing are other ways to pass it throughout your household.

It’s Very Dangerous for Babies

When a baby catches whooping cough, it can have breathing trouble, pneumonia, and in rare cases, even brain damage or death. Infants aren’t vaccinated for whooping cough until they are 2 months old.

“Most deaths from whooping cough occur in babies under 4 months old,” says James Cherry, MD, a specialist in children’s infectious diseases, “and most of these babies have gotten it from their parents, particularly their mothers.”

The Vaccinations

There are two pertussis vaccines:

  • DTaP is for children under 7 years old.
  • Tdap is for adults and older children.

Both Tdap and DTaP also protect against diphtheria and tetanus.

Get a Vaccine When You’re Pregnant

If you are expecting, protecting yourself protects your baby.

“A woman should get a Tdap vaccine every time she is pregnant,” Edwards says.

Get the shot between weeks 27 and 36 of your pregnancy. It helps you build antibodies to fight whooping cough that you pass on to your newborn, protecting him before he can get his first DTaP shot.

Build a Circle of Protection at Home

All other adults, older children, and caregivers who will come into close contact with your infant should also have a Tdap shot.

The ideal age to get the Tdap shot is 11 or 12 years old. But teen siblings, cousins, grandparents, and caregivers who haven’t already had the shot should get one, at least 2 weeks before being around the baby.

Get Baby’s Vaccines on Schedule

Your baby starts building his own immunity when he gets the first DTaP shot. He should get a total of five doses, one each at:

  • 2 months
  • 4 months
  • 6 months
  • 15-18 months
  • 4-6 years

When kept to schedule, the vaccine is 80% to 90% effective, and will protect the child until he or she is ready for the Tdap shot.

About one in four children get a fever or soreness, swelling, or redness at the site of the DTaP shot, most likely after a later dose. In rare cases, some children have severe reactions to the vaccine and should stop getting it.

Source: webmd

Brisk walking may improve Parkinson’s symptoms

Brisk walking may improve Parkinson’s symptomsGoing for regular brisk walks may improve symptoms among people with Parkinson’s disease and boost their quality of life, according to a preliminary study.

“Exercise is medicine for Parkinson’s,” Jay Alberts, from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in Ohio, told Reuters Health.

“This shows it doesn’t necessarily have to be super high-intensity exercise,” Alberts said. He studies motor function in Parkinson’s disease but wasn’t involved in the new research.

The study included 60 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease who could walk independently without a cane or walker and had no other serious medical problems.

Researchers had the participants walk briskly, at an average pace of 2.9 miles per hour, three times a week for six months. Each walking session lasted 45 minutes. Participants kept diaries of each session and had trainers to help choose walking routes and collect the diaries.

When researchers compared results from a battery of tests conducted before and after the six months of regular walks, they found participants’ motor function, fitness, mood, tiredness, memory and thinking abilities all improved during the study, on average.

At first some participants also tried interval training – alternating every three minutes between slower and faster speeds – but researchers started assigning all new participants to continuous speed walking when knee pain became a problem in the interval group. There were no such side effects in the continuous speed group, according to results published in Neurology.

“We observed seven to 15 percent improvement in various symptoms that appeared to be clinically meaningful,” Dr. Ergun Uc told Reuters Health in an email. He led the study at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

This was only a preliminary study, called a phase I/II trial, but Uc said he has applied for phase III trial funding to continue the research.

One limitation of the current study is that it didn’t include a group of patients who did not walk regularly for comparison.

It’s hard to compare the effectiveness of medications to that of exercise since they probably work in different ways, Uc said. He prefers to think of exercise as supplemental to medical treatment, which patients can explore with guidance from their doctors.

With a doctor’s permission, certain patients may be able to follow the aerobic component of physical activity guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which recommend 150 minutes of aerobic exercise, which should feel “somewhat hard,” per week, he said.

Uc added that people with Parkinson’s disease may be discouraged from exercising due to poor general health, lack of knowledge and appreciation of the benefits of exercise, time constraints, lack of an appropriate exercise environment, depression or fear of injury and falls.

“This is probably one of the hottest topics in Parkinson’s research right now,” said Beth Fisher, who studies exercise and Parkinson’s disease at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She was not part of the new research.

Researchers tend to focus on the physical symptoms of Parkinson’s, like tremor, but non-motor effects are important too, Alberts said.

“This should 100 percent be a part of the treatment program,” he said. “As long as they can do these things in a safe manner and don’t have any other orthopedic reasons (not to exercise), I’m not sure there’s any reason not to recommend exercise.”

“Even if there aren’t motor benefits, there are improvements in mood, fatigue, aerobic fitness – all of these things,” he said.

There will always be debate about the optimal type, amount and intensity of exercise, he said, and researchers will probably never have a precise answer because every person is different. But the aerobic component seems to be the important part, he said.

“I always say, what do you love doing and what can you scale up in difficulty?” Fisher told Reuters Health. “If you love walking and you’re doing it from point A to point B every day outside for x amount of time, how about doing it in less time?”

Source: reuters

10 tips to stay mentally healthy

10 tips to stay mentally healthy

Enjoying mental health means having a sense of wellbeing, being able to function during everyday life and feeling confident to rise to a challenge when the opportunity arises. Just like your physical health, there are actions you can take to increase your mental health. Boost your wellbeing and stay mentally healthy by following a few simple steps.

Connect with others. Develop and maintain strong relationships with people around you who will support and enrich your life. The quality of our personal relationships has a great effect on our wellbeing. Putting time and effort into building strong relationships can bring great rewards.

Take time to enjoy. Set aside time for activities, hobbies and projects you enjoy. Let yourself be spontaneous and creative when the urge takes you. Do a crossword; take a walk in your local park; read a book; sew a quilt; draw pictures with your kids; play with your pets – whatever takes your fancy.

Participate and share interests. Join a club or group of people who share your interests. Being part of a group of people with a common interest provides a sense of belonging and is good for your mental health. Join a sports club; a band; an evening walking group; a dance class; a theatre or choir group; a book or car club.

Contribute to your community. Volunteer your time for a cause or issue that you care about. Help out a neighbour, work in a community garden or do something nice for a friend. There are many great ways to contribute that can help you feel good about yourself and your place in the world. An effort to improve the lives of others is sure to improve your life too.

Take care of yourself. Be active and eat well – these help maintain a healthy body. Physical and mental health are closely linked; it’s easier to feel good about life if your body feels good. You don’t have to go to the gym to exercise – gardening, vacuuming, dancing and bushwalking all count. Combine physical activity with a balanced diet to nourish your body and mind and keep you feeling good, inside and out.

Challenge yourself. Learn a new skill or take on a challenge to meet a goal. You could take on something different at work; commit to a fitness goal or learn to cook a new recipe. Learning improves your mental fitness, while striving to meet your own goals builds skills and confidence and gives you a sense of progress and achievement.

Deal with stress. Be aware of what triggers your stress and how you react. You may be able to avoid some of the triggers and learn to prepare for or manage others. Stress is a part of life and affects people in different ways. It only becomes a problem when it makes you feel uncomfortable or distressed. A balanced lifestyle can help you manage stress better. If you have trouble winding down, you may find that relaxation breathing, yoga or meditation can help.

Rest and refresh. Get plenty of sleep. Go to bed at a regular time each day and practice good habits to get better sleep. Sleep restores both your mind and body. However, feelings of fatigue can still set in if you feel constantly rushed and overwhelmed when you are awake. Allow yourself some unfocussed time each day to refresh; for example, let your mind wander, daydream or simply watch the clouds go by for a while. It’s OK to add ‘do nothing’ to your to-do list!

Notice the here and now. Take a moment to notice each of your senses each day. Simply ‘be’ in the moment – feel the sun and wind on your face and notice the air you are breathing. It’s easy to be caught up thinking about the past or planning for the future instead of experiencing the present. Practising mindfulness, by focusing your attention on being in the moment, is a good way to do this. Making a conscious effort to be aware of your inner and outer world is important for your mental health.

Ask for help. This can be as simple as asking a friend to babysit while you have some time out or speaking to your doctor (GP) about where to find a counsellor or community mental health service. The perfect, worry-free life does not exist. Everyone’s life journey has bumpy bits and the people around you can help. If you don’t get the help you need first off, keep asking until you do

Source: better health channel

5 reasons why Pineapples are good for you

5 reasons why Pineapples are good for you

Summers are here with all their heat, sweat and high humidity levels leaving you exhausted and de-energised. To beat the heat, pineapple is one of the best food packed with anti-oxidants.

Its anti-oxidant properties not just helps fight against diseases like atherosclerosis, heart diseases, and various cancers, but also aids digestion and boosts immune system to save you from this scorching heat.
Here are a few health benefits of this unique fruit:

  •  Pineapple helps in building strong bones as it is a rich source of manganese.
  •  Drinking a glass of pineapple juice can help keep gums healthy and strong teeth.
  •  Since, pineapple is a power house of beta-carotene, it helps in fighting macular degeneration.
  •  It is very helpful in weight-loss as it is a fruit rich in fibres and low in calories.
  •  Eating pineapples also boosts metabolism, provides nourishment to hair, skin and nails.

Source: zee news

Top 10 Tips for New Moms

Top 10 Tips for New Moms

The first year of motherhood is packed with joy, sleepless nights, and more than a few surprises. It seems like absolutely everyone — including books, pediatricians, parents, friends and a plethora of well-meaning bystanders — has an opinion on the right and wrong ways to care for a baby. It’s enough to make a new mom crazy. How do you figure out which advice to take, and which to ignore completely?

Never fear — other moms have been in your shoes, and we collected their insights to help you make sense of it all. Moms on CafeMom.com, the largest site for moms, delved into the question, “What advice do you wish you had gotten as a first-time mother?” Veteran mothers offered up tons of great tips, and we picked 10 of our favorites.

Whether you’re getting ready for motherhood or already in the trenches with your bundle of joy, here are 10 tips to help you navigate the surprises with your sanity intact. Read on for parenting pearls of wisdom

Don’t worry about what other moms are doing too much. Try not to compare yourself: You’ll know if you’re doing all you can for your child, and no one else should judge too harshly. Same goes for when you see another mother doing something differently than you. Remind yourself that everyone is different (mothers and their babies) and you really have no right to say your way is better.

Do your own research, but also trust your motherly instincts! They are there for a reason! If it feels wrong to let your baby cry, then pick them up. If you want to rock your baby to sleep and cuddle them while they sleep, then go ahead. If it feels right, then it usually is right

You don’t need so much “stuff” for a newborn … They outgrow most of it within weeks! Get by with less and put all that money you (or the people who came to the shower) wasted into a savings account for the child. Babies aren’t babies forever!

Baby’s insecurity comes from sensing yours. Stay calm and the baby will be calm.

Source: how stuff works

50% of American adults have chronic diseases: Study

American adults have chronic diseases

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that half of all adults in the USA have at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes, heart disease or obesity.

The study published in the medical journal ‘The Lancet’ also shows that over a quarter of adults have two or more of these conditions.According to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the

majority of these chronic conditions are largely preventable through the reduction of risk factors that falls within individuals’ control such as – tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity (both strongly associated with obesity), alcohol consumption, and uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Compared with other high-income countries, USA is less healthy in areas such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic lung diseases.

The study also found that Medicare enrollees (the majority of whom are over 65) accounted for 300 billion dollars in healthcare spending. And over 90 percent of this healthcare expenditure was accounted for by people with two or more chronic conditions.

Source: zee news

Five best foods for healthy eyes!

Foods-for-Healthy-Eyes

Our eyes dubbed as the light of our body, need special care before they are being damaged. But many of us take this precious gift for granted, though we depend on them more than any other sense.

Remember, when our eyes are healthy, our whole body is full of light. But, when our eyes are unhealthy, our body gets filled with darkness.

Here are five foods that will keep your eyes healthy:Carrots: Carrots are rich in beta carotene (Vitamin A), which is a powerful antioxidant that can help reduce the risk of macular degeneration and cataracts.

Spinach: Spinach is packaged with Vitamin C, beta carotene and large amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin (two nutrients good for your eyes). Studies have shown that these nutrients can reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

Oranges: Oranges are also a rich source of lutein and zeaxanthin that do wonders for your eyes.

Eggs: The yolk in eggs is rich in lutein and zeaxanthin as well as zinc, which also helps reduce your risk of macular degeneration.

Fish: Eating fishes like salmon, sardines, tuna and mackerel will help keep your peepers in tip-top shape. These fishes are rich in 0mega-3 fats, which is good for your visual development, retinal function as well as serve as protection against dry eye.

Source: zee news

Organ transplants: ‘Supercooling’ keeps organs fresh

‘Supercooling’ keeps organs fresh

A new technique can preserve organs for days before transplanting them, US researchers claim. “Supercooling” combines chilling the organ and pumping nutrients and oxygen through its blood vessels.

Tests on animals, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, showed supercooled livers remained viable for three days, compared with less than 24 hours using current technology.

If it works on human organs, it has the potential to transform organ donation. As soon as an organ is removed from the body, the individual cells it is made from begin to die.

Cooling helps slow the process as it reduces the metabolic rate of the cells. Meanwhile, surgeons in the UK carried out the first “warm liver” transplant in March 2013 which used an organ kept at body temperature in a machine.

The technique being reported first hooks the organ up to a machine which perfuses the organ with nutrients. It is then cooled to minus 6C.

Supercool

In experiments on rat livers, the organs could be preserved for three days. One of the researchers, Dr Korkut Uygun, from the Harvard Medical School, told the BBC the technique could lead to donated organs being shared around the world.

“That would lead to better donor matching, which would reduce-long term organ rejection and complications, which is one of the major issues in organ transplant,” he said.

He also argued that organs which are normally rejected, as they would not survive to the transplant table, might be suitable if they were preserved by supercooling.

“That could basically eliminate waiting for a organ, but that is hugely optimistic,” Dr Uygun said. Further experiments are now needed to see if the technology can be scaled up from preserving a 10g (0.35oz) rat liver to a 1.5kg (3.3lb) human liver.

The researchers believe the technology could work on other organs as well.

Dr Rosemarie Hunziker, from the US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, said: “It is exciting to see such an achievement in small animals by recombining and optimizing existing technology.

“The longer we are able to store donated organs, the better the chance the patient will find the best match possible, with both doctors and patients fully prepared for surgery.

“This is a critically important step in advancing the practice of organ storage for transplantation.”

Source: updated news

Older sperm donors ‘just as good’

Older sperm donors 'just as good'

Women should not worry about using sperm from older donors as the success rate is the same as using a younger man’s sperm, researchers say.

The average age of donors has risen in the UK since the right to anonymity was removed in 2005. Doctors said there was concern about the impact on the odds of a pregnancy.

Experts said only older men with the best sperm could donate, so men as a whole should not see the results as an excuse to delay fatherhood.

A presentation at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual conference showed the average age of donors was 26 before the law change and 34 afterwards.

“It is a huge difference,” said Dr Meenakshi Choudhary from the Newcastle Fertility Centre.

“It may concern women, who are already older, who know their chances are lower, that if they go for an older sperm then their chance of a live birth will be further reduced and compromised.”

She analysed data from 39,282 cycles of IVF between 1991 and 2012, concluding that older men had the same success rates as younger men.

Dr Meenakshi Choudhary told : “It doesn’t matter up to the age of 45 years, there was no decline observed in this study.

“Sperm donors are a select group of the population, they are healthy fertile donors who go through a stringent recruitment criteria.

“Based on this we can say that age does not matter as long as the sperm quality is good.”

‘Men not invincible’
Dr Allan Pacey, a lecturer in sperm at the University of Sheffield, said men should not be tempted by complacency.

He told “I think there is a perception out there that men are invincible from reproductive ageing – we just need to look at Charlie Chaplin who was 73 when he had his eleventh child.

“We know that as men go above the age of 40 and go into their fifties, their chances of getting a woman pregnant does reduce as a consequence of age.

“I don’t think you can take this data and apply it uncritically to the general population, the advice would still be you should be trying to have a child before the age of 40 or 45.”

Source: bbc news

Delhi hospital to train Kenya doctors

Delhi hospital to train Kenya doctors

BLK Super Speciality Hospital (BLK SSH), New Delhi and Kenya’s Kisii Teaching & Referral Hospital (KTRH) and Kisii University have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which BLK SSH will provide quality healthcare and training for Kisii University through an observership programme in areas of urosurgery, orthopaedics surgery, plastic surgery and neurology. The hospital will hold class at the university and referral hospital to help in the capacity building of the medical staff.

LK SSH will organize OPDs at Kisii University for providing diagnosis and treatment of renal conditions, laparoscopic surgery, general surgery, gynaecology surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, endocrinology, pulmonary, IVF, organ transplant, joint replacement, oncology, critical care medicine and telemedicine.

Naresh Kapoor, Director – Finance and Strategy, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, said, “This initiative will not only help in providing quality health training under the observership programme, but will also enhance relations between the two countries. It will also give a boost to healthcare tourism between the two nations.”

According to Kapoor, specialist doctors from various departments of BLK SSH will visit Kisii University to provide campus training to medical staff at the university. BLK SSH will also help KTRH and Kisii University to start the facilities of telemedicine centres for offering medical services through tele-connectivity in the field of high-end territory and quaternary cases.

James E O Ongwae, Governor of Kisii Country, said, “I am very happy to extend all support from our government which BLK Super Speciality Hospital will require at the time of imparting training to the medical staff at the Kisii University and running the observership programme. This is a great initiative between both the countries to help in the exchange of knowledge know-how and cultural diversity.”

Source: India Medical Times