Stress and Acne: Are They Related???

Here in modern world, stress is the most common problem a person would have because it leads to so many other diseases the list of which would never be complete. It influences health in a large spectrum of ways. Recently in a study it has been found that it can flare up an acne reaction in an already acne prone patient. Although the exact mechanism is not know, it increases the receptors in skin for different stress hormones. These hormones increase the sebum production. Eventually sebum mixes with dead skin and block the pores leading to acne cyst or comedone formation. The study was done on few college students (around 20-22) with acne during exam period and increased acne pimple was noted.

Stress doent lead to new acne formation, but flares up the old ones. These acne cant be treated only with stress relieving unfortunately, but some anti acne cream like benzoyl peroxide etc or isotretinion tablet for resistant cases are used.

Stress: How It Affects Sex Life

Stress is a major problem in this modern era, especially with our hectic work environment. Stress can affect many aspects of our life and cause many illnesses like insomnias, stomach problems, mental problems. Not only these but stress has major effect on sexual life also.

How does stress affect libido:

When we are under stress our body releases different hormones like cortisol, adrenalin which prepare our body for fight or flight reaction. Cortisol has many effects on our body one of which is decreased libido that is decreased desire for sex.

Apart from physical stress there is mental stress which is more common now a days and is increasing more and more. Mental stress can be related to work, money, how to pay your monthly electricity and phone bill and more importantly your Internet and Cable Tv bills :D.These stresses lead to low mood and ultimately to depression. In this case you are not able to concentrate on what you are doing, and also you loose interest in almost everything else which you enjoyed earlier including sex.


What to do??

Hmm... this is a difficult part as there are thousands of solutions available and still remain ineffective as they entirely depend on individual ability to cope with stress. Its only you who can relieve your stress. Others can only give advices. As of me all I can say that you can relieve your stress by doing something which you like, something which cheers you up even in sad mood, whichever activity it is, it will surely make you stress free. Rest all those yoga, excercises and everything else depends on you, if you wanna do it... do it, if dont then no harm done. I hope i helped. Enjoy life..:)

Earwax: A Common Problem

Excessive earwax production is a fairly common problem in day today life. It may cause some hearing loss if it gets impacted, may cause infections, irritation in ear.

Ear wax is made up of secretions from sebaceous gland ( which are present in the outer 1/3 rd of external auditory canal), cerumin, hair, dird, desquamated cellular debris. It plays a protective barrier role in ear canal. It lubricates the ear canal and entrapes any foreign material that happens to enter the ear canal.

 Normally a small amount of ear wax is produced which later dries up and is expelled out of ear due to movements of jaw. But in some people there is higher production of wax than normal which forms a plug. It may later dry up and form a hard impacted mass.

These people may complain of decreased hearing (as impacted wax causes a hearing loss of 30db), ringing in ear. They might develope some sort of infection.

Dont use ear buds to clean these impacted wax ( infacted ear buds should usually be avoided in general) as it may push the wax further inside the canal.

Do consult your doctor. He may advice to go through a procedure called Syringing in which luke warm water is injected in the canal an when water comes out it takes the wax plug out with it.

In case of hard impacted wax plug which is hard to remove by syringing it is softened by sodabicarbonate ear drops, hydrogen peroxide, liquid paraffin, or olive oil. Paradichlorobenzene 2% ear drop is available commercially.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: Dos and Donts

GERD gastroesophageal reflux disease, this disease is fairly common in the population particularly in obese people. This disease usually occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter tone is decreased leading to reflux of acid from stomach to esophagus. Few symptoms of this disease are heartburn, belching, asthma, acid reflux in mouth, bad teeth. I am not going to discuss about the whole disease here i am going to give a few lifestyle modification advices which will help you to reduce the symptoms.

Dos:-

• Elevate the head end of your bed to around 20-30 degrees. This helps to keep the food in the stomach due to gravity during sleeping.
• Divide your meals in several small parts during the whole day rather than taking one large meal. E.g. youcan divide your lunch into four separate meals 2hrs apart.

Donts:-

• Dont go to bed immdiately after a meal.
• Dont eat a heavy meal as it will not allow the lower esophageal shincter to close properly.
• Dont drink tea, coffee or eat chocolates too much as these affect the normal physiology of lower esophageal sphincter and reduce its force of contraction.
• Dont drink lots of water just after the meal. You should wait for atleast 45 mins to drink water after meals.
• Do not smoke or atleast try to quit as nicotine also decreases lower esophageal shincter tone.

Hope this information helps you keep yourself  heathy . Do read some other articles on the blog.

Dos and Donts in Kidney Stones

While many patients suffer from kidney stones in the world and are prescribed for medications no dietary advices are given to these patients like which food will increase the process of stone formation and will lead to recurrence of kidney stones after their removal and which diet leads to decreased stone formation even spontaneous dissolution of the stones. So here is an advice on dietary modifications in kidney stones.

Dos:-

• Drink plenty of water around 8-10 glasses per day
• Eat fruits and vegetables rich in citrate (vit C) as they lead to decrease precipitation of calcium oxalate like orange juice and coconut water rich in potassium and other electrolytes
• Drink Cranberry Juice as it decreases the chances of urinary infections due to stones which can be disastrous
• Eat fruits rich in vit B6 like banannas

Donts:-

• Avoid soyabeans and nuts
• Avoid vegetables like cauliflower, brinjal, tomatoes, beatroots, dark leafy vegetables
• Avoid nonvegetarian food like red meat, fish
• Avoid dairy products
•  Avoid carbonated drinks like coca cola, pepsi etc as they are rich in oxalates leading to stone formation

This dietery modification usually helps to reduce kidney stone formation i  patients who are prone recurrent stone formation. Also after the removal of kidney stones the contents of stones are analyzed and dietary modifications are adviced according to that.