Archive for the 'Cardio & Blood-Cholesterol' Category
What is a normal blood glucose level?
Normal blood glucose levels after an overnight fast in a person over the age of 1 year are 70 to 100 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter). A deciliter is one-tenth of a liter, or about one-half cup
Levels higher than 140 mg/dl measured on two separate occasions are considered indicative of diabetes
Signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus
The American Diabetes Association estimates that 5 to 7 million Americans have diabetes but do not know it. Mild
diabetes may produce no symptoms for years. People who are older than 40, are overweight or obese, and have a family history of diabetes have the greatest chance for development of type II diabetes.
Signs and symptoms of type I diabetes usually appear relatively suddenly:
Increased thirst
Increased volume and frequency of urination
Weight loss despite increased appetite
Fatigue
Signs and symptoms of type II diabetes usually develop more gradually and may be subtle. They include any of the above signs and symptoms (except weight loss) and the following:
Frequent or slow-to-heal infections, particularly vaginitis, skin or gum infections, or bladder infections
Blurred vision
Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
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read comments (0)HYSTORY OF HEART MEDICINE: EARLY BYPASS SURGERY
Author: admin
Some surgeons were working on the complementary problem of getting rid of dangerous obstructions. There are two ways of doing this. Either you can break through or widen the blockage, or you can attempt to bypass the obstruction by providing an alternative route for the blood to follow. It is the difference between picking your way through a traffic jam or turning off into a side road to rejoin the main highway later on. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Professor Alfred Blalock of Johns Hopkins University in the USA investigated this second strategy, developing a technique for linking together (anastomizing) main blood vessels. In 1944 this painstaking research and imaginative clinical application reached its high spot when the bypassing method was used to alleviate one of the severe congenital defects which cause what is popularly known as a ‘blue baby’. Why ‘blue’? Well, normally bright-red oxygenated blood is pumped from the heart to the rest of the body, but sometimes a child is born with one or a group of defects that allow unoxygenated blood to get into the system instead. Thus the body, instead of receiving freshly invigorated blood, is supplied with blood lacking in oxygen and characteristically very dark purplish-red in colour. This gives the skin a blue tinge. The less oxygen, the bluer the baby.
First attempts at a ‘blue baby’ operation
The ‘blue baby’ Blalock operated on in 1944 had a constriction of the pulmonary valve and an opening between the ventricles. He decided that the blueness would be reduced if he could link up a main artery in the aorta straight to the pulmonary artery; in other words, create a ‘shunt’. It would be only a partial correction of the defect but, if it were successful, the child should be able to live a normal, healthy life.
That, at least, was the theory, but Blalock knew very well that the technical problems were formidable and the uncertainties many. Not only was the actual surgery itself very intricate, but the patient was very young. Could a child survive this major assault on its heart? What would be the effect on the aorta, from which he was going permanently to ‘borrow’ a blood vessel? Then there was the perennial problem that faced all heart surgery – time. The projected ‘blue baby’ operation was likely to take at least 30 minutes, during which time the blood-supply to the lungs would be stemmed. What would this do to the lungs themselves? A lot of questions and a life, not to mention the fortunes of heart surgery in general, hung on this operation.
The relief and excitement when it succeeded were immense. Immediately a great many children would reap the benefit but, perhaps just as important, the cardiac surgeon became a specialist in his own right, and taken his rightful place within the surgical mainstream.
Getting to the heart of the matter
Up until the 1940s, surgeons were really working around the heart, rather than within it. Throughout the rest of the 1940s a variety of new avenues were explored to correct defects inside the heart, building on the long-awaited successes of Blalock and others. As an alternative to the bypassing of a narrowed pulmonary valve, Thomas (now Sir Thomas) Holmes Sellors managed, in 1947, to alleviate the obstruction by operating on the valve itself, and approached the problem of narrowed mitral valves by breaking the obstruction with dilators introduced into the heart.
This was the period of closed-heart surgery: all of these heroic efforts to improve the heart and circulatory system were hampered because the surgeons were having to work ‘blind’. It was still impossible to undertake profoundly intensive procedures within the heart for the simple reason that it could not be isolated from the rest of the body for long enough to allow the surgeon to do his job. Without some artificial pause in the heart’s natural activities, there was little chance of being able to carry out sophisticated surgery.
The long-term answer was, of course, to develop machines that would take over the heart’s work for long periods in the operating theatre. Before that, however, we used what now seems a rather crude method of buying time, ‘borrowed’, so to speak, from the winter habits of certain animals. It was the clinical equivalent of hibernation.
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THROMBOSIS
Author: admin
Recurrent deep vein thrombosis is a bad sign and may relate to the presence of cancer somewhere within the body. The thrombosis of superficial veins in the leg is not considered to be a sinister event and is treated via the use of a surgical stocking, continued activity and perhaps half an aspirin a day.
Deep vein thrombosis poses a more difficult problem because thrombosis in the deep veins of the calf has a propensity to break loose and lodge themselves in the arteries of the lungs. Large thrombosis in the pulmonary circulation is very dangerous and can lead to sudden death.
To prevent such an eventuality people with deep vein thrombosis are placed in hospital and put on a Heparin drip. It must be said that Heparin does not dissolve a blood clot. It stops the clot from extending further. Once the clotting process has been neutralized the patient is placed on an oral anticoagulant called Warfarin. This drug continues for a further three months and is then ceased gradually. Occasionally daily aspirin begins where the Warfarin leaves off.
Home Remedies
Sitting all day with the calf compressed is a risk factor for the appearance of deep vein thrombosis. When doctors ask you to elevate your feet for whatever reason don’t put the weight of your legs on the calves. Put the weight on the bony part of your heels. A stool or a chair is an excellent piece of furniture well suited to the exercise.
Never go to bed after a hospital surgical procedure. Surgery makes the blood sticky. Get up! Walk about and don’t stop moving till it is time to go home. If the surgical wound hurts to much to mobilize; bed rest is not the answer. Ask for some Pethidine in a drip and walk around with a drip stand on wheels. Lying in bed is a recipe for disaster.
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HOW MUCH BLOOD DOES THE HEART GET AND NEED?
Author: admin
The heart is actually a pampered organ so far as the blood supply is concerned. It has provisions for blood supply of more than three times than it maximally requires. The tubes or arteries supplying blood to the heart are so big, compared to the size of the heart, that with even 70% blockage of the tubes the heart can still get adequate blood supply. Thirty per cent of open tube is good enough to ensure that even at the highest speed of running there will be no dearth of blood to the heart muscles. When the coronary heart disease patients lead a wrong life-style it results in deposition of fatty substances, which lead to reduction in supply of blood to the heart muscles. Those who lead a reasonably healthy life-style may also have blockages up to 30% to 40% but will never come to know the deficiencies. Only those who consume wrong and excessive food and lead a very sedentary life and have a high level of stress can develop 70% blockage. This used to take about 30-40 years of reasonably wrong life-style to get a heart disease a few decades back.
But today, with the worsening life-style and no guidance from the health providers, this 70% blockage takes about 10-15 years. The destruction or closure work of the heart arteries proceeds at a greater speed. As a result we now see many young heart patients in 30-35 years of age.
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HOW MUCH BLOOD DOES THE HEART GET AND NEED? The heart is actually a pampered organ so far as the blood supply is concerned. It has provisions for blood supply of more than three times than it maximally requires. The tubes or arteries supplying blood to the heart are so big, compared to the size of the heart, that with even 70% blockage of the tubes the heart can still get adequate blood supply. Thirty per cent of open tube is good enough to ensure that even at the highest speed of running there will be no dearth of blood to the heart muscles. When the coronary heart disease patients lead a wrong life-style it results in deposition of fatty substances, which lead to reduction in supply of blood to the heart muscles. Those who lead a reasonably healthy life-style may also have blockages up to 30% to 40% but will never come to know the deficiencies. Only those who consume wrong and excessive food and lead a very sedentary life and have a high level of stress can develop 70% blockage. This used to take about 30-40 years of reasonably wrong life-style to get a heart disease a few decades back.But today, with the worsening life-style and no guidance from the health providers, this 70% blockage takes about 10-15 years. The destruction or closure work of the heart arteries proceeds at a greater speed. As a result we now see many young heart patients in 30-35 years of age.*8/283/5*