Gestation Diabetes (Diabetes During Pregnancy)

When you are pregnant, you are not just "eating for two." You also breathe and drink for two, so it is important to carefully consider what you give to your baby. If you smoke, use alcohol or take illegal drugs, so does your unborn baby.
First, don't smoke. Smoking during pregnancy passes nicotine and cancer-causing drugs to your baby. Smoke also keeps your baby from getting nourishment and raises the risk of stillbirth or premature birth. Don't drink alcohol.
There is no known safe amount of alcohol a woman can drink while pregnant. Alcohol can cause life-long physical and behavioral problems in children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. Don't use illegal drugs. Using illegal drugs may cause underweight babies, birth defects or withdrawal symptoms after birth. Even smoking during pregnancy can cause many Problems like tumors and abortions. Smoking is injurious to your child. Many Medicine are known to have teratogenic effect and are contraindicated during Pregnancy.For a pregnant woman, pregnancy substance abuse is twice as dangerous. First, drugs may harm her own health which interferes with her ability to support the pregnancy. Second, some drugs can directly impair prenatal development. During pregnancy, virtually all illegal drugs pose a danger. Even legal substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs are dangerous to expecting women

Health Risks Associated with a Drug Abuse Mother

• Poor Nutrition
• High Blood Pressure
• Rapid Heart Beat
• Low Weight Gain
• Low Self-Esteem
• Preterm Labor
• Sexually Transmitted Disease
• Early Delivery
• HIV/AIDS
• Depression

Health Risks to a Drug Abuse Mothers Child

• Physically Abused Baby
• Pre-maturity
• Low Birth Weight
• Infections
• Small Head Size
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• Birth Defects
• Stunted Growth
• Poor Motor Skills
• HIV/AIDS
• Learning Disabilities
• Neurological Problems

• Sedation Dilated or constricted pupils
• Inebriation Tremors
• Euphoria Track marks or abscesses/injection sites
• Agitation Inflamed/eroded nasal mucosa
• Disorientation Increased pulse and blood pressure
• Prescription drug seeking behavior Hallucinations
• Suicidal ideations/attempt Nystagmus

• MCV over 95
• Elevated MCH, GGT, SGOT, Bilirubin, Triglycerides
• Anemia
• Positive urine toxicology for drugs

• Frequent hospitalizations
• Gunshot/knife wound
• Unusual infections (cellulitis, endocarditis, atypical pneumonias, HIV)
• Cirrhosis
• Hepatitis
• Pancreatitis
• Diabetes
• Frequent falls, unexplained bruises

What is HELLP syndrome?

HELLP syndrome is a rare but serious illness in pregnancy. This illness can start quickly, most often in the last 3 months of pregnancy (the third trimester). It can also start soon after you have your baby. HELLP stands for Hemolysis, E levated L iver enzyme levels and a L ow Platelet count. These are problems that can occur in women with this syndrome. Women with HELLP syndrome may have bleeding problems, liver problems and blood pressure problems that can hurt both the mother and the baby.

Who gets HELLP syndrome ?

We don't know the cause of HELLP syndrome. We also don't know who will get it. Any pregnant woman may get this illness. Most women who will get HELLP have blood pressure problems before they get HELLP syndrome. (But you can get HELLP syndrome even if your blood pressure is normal.) You're more likely to get HELLP syndrome if you're white and over 25 years of age. You are also more likely to get it if you have had children before or if you had a problem with a pregnancy in the past

How can I tell if I have HELLP syndrome ?

If you have HELLP syndrome, you may feel tired. You may have pain in the upper right part of your belly. You may have bad headaches and nausea or vomiting. You may have swelling, especially in your face and hands. Rarely, you may notice bleeding from your gums or other places.Because many healthy pregnant women also have these symptoms late in pregnancy, it may be hard to know for sure if you have HELLP syndrome. Your doctor may order blood tests if you have these symptoms or if your blood pressure is high.

How is HELLP syndrome treated ?

The first order of treatment of HELLP syndrome is management of the blood clotting issues. If fetal growth is restricted, urgent delivery can be required. If the HELLP syndrome develops at or after 34 weeks of gestation or if the fetus' lungs are mature or mother's health is in jeopardy, urgent delivery is the treatment.

After delivery, the mother's status is monitored closely. The HELLP syndrome can be complicated by liver rupture, anemia, bleeding, and death. The HELLP syndrome can also develop during the early period after delivery of a baby.

Women with a history of HELLP syndrome are considered at increased risk for complications in future pregnancies. 

Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics and Africa , and caused by four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. The geographical spread is similar to malaria, but unlike malaria, dengue is often found in urban areas of tropical nations, including Puerto Rico , Singapore , Taiwan , Indonesia , Philippines , India and Brazil . Each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyper-endemicity) can occur.

Infection

Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti (rarely Aedes albopictus ) mosquito, which feeds during the day.

Symptoms

This infectious disease is manifested by a sudden onset of fever, with severe headache, muscle and joint pains (myalgias and arthralgias-severe pain gives it the name break-bone fever or bone crusher disease) and rashes. The dengue rash is characteristically bright red petechiae and usually appears first on the lower limbs and the chest; in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

Other symptoms include:

• Fever
• Bladder problems
• Constant headaches
• Severe dizziness
• Loss of appetite.

Some cases develop much milder symptoms which can be misdiagnosed as influenza or other viral infection, when no rash is present.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of dengue is usually made clinically. The classic picture is high fever with no localizing source of infection, a petechial rash with thrombocytopenia and relative leucopenia.

Treatment

The mainstay of treatment is supportive therapy. Increased oral fluid intake is recommended to prevent dehydration. Supplementation with intravenous fluids may be necessary to prevent dehydration and significant concentration of the blood if the patient is unable to maintain oral intake. A platelet transfusion is indicated in rare cases if the platelet level drops significantly (below 20,000) or if there is significant bleeding.

The presence of melena may indicate internal gastrointestinal bleeding requiring platelet and/or red blood cell transfusion.

It is very important to avoid aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; these drugs may aggravate the bleeding tendency associated with some of these infections. Patients should receive instead paracetamol preparations to deal with these symptoms if dengue is suspected.

 What is edema?

Edema means swelling caused by fluid in your body's tissues. It usually occurs in the feet, ankles and legs, but it can involve your entire body.

It is caused by water that gets trapped in the tissues of your body. Edema usually happens in the feet, ankles and legs. It also can affect the face and hands. Pregnant women and older adults often get edema, but it can happen to anyone.

What causes edema?

Causes of edema include

• Eating too much salt
• Sunburn
• Heart failure
• Kidney disease
• Liver problems from cirrhosis
• Pregnancy
• Problems with lymph nodes, especially after mastectomy
• Some medicines
• Standing or walking a lot when the weather is warm

How do I know if I have edema ?

Your doctor can tell by examining you whether you have edema. The skin over the swollen area may be stretched and shiny. Pushing gently on the swollen area for about 15 seconds will leave a dimple. If this happens, your doctor might want to do tests to see what is causing the edema.

What can I do to treat my edema ?

Edema cannot be cured. The only way to treat edema is to treat the condition that is causing it. The following are some things you can do to keep the swelling down:

• Put a pillow under your legs when you are lying down.
• Wear support stockings, which you can buy at most drugstores. Support stockings put pressure on your legs and keep water from collecting in your legs and ankles.
• Do not sit or stand for too long without moving.
• Follow your doctor's orders about limiting how much salt you eat.

Your doctor might want you to take a medicine called a diuretic (say: di-yoo-ret-tik), which is also called a water pill.

Infectious parasitic disease of the tropics transmitted by mosquitoes, marked by periodic fever and an enlarged spleen. When a female mosquito of the Anopheles genus bites a human who has malaria, it takes in with the human blood one of four malaria protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. This matures within the insect and is then transferred when the mosquito bites a new victim. Malaria affects around 300-500 million people each year, in 103 countries, and in 1995 around 2.1 million people died of the disease. The disease can be lethal sometimes, spl P. Falciparum is very common a big danger. The parasite transimitted by mosquitos is called Plasmodium which is actually the culprit causing Malaria by spreading in Human Body. The Fever episodes are marked by chill that most of the patient experience.  

Infection

Inside the human body the parasite settles first in the liver, then multiplies to attack the red blood cells. Within the red blood cells the parasites multiply, eventually causing the cells to rupture and other cells to become infected. The cell rupture tends to be synchronized, occurring every 2-3 days, when the symptoms of malaria become evident.

Symptoms

Symptoms of malaria include fever, shivering, arthralgia (joint pain), vomiting, anemia (caused by hemolysis), hemoglobinuria, and convulsions. There may be the feeling of tingling in the skin, particularly with malaria caused by P. falciparum. The classical symptom of malaria is cyclical occurrence of sudden coldness followed by rigor and then fever and sweating lasting four to six hours, occurring every two days in P. vivax and P. ovale infections, while every three for P. malariae. P. falciparum can have recurrent fever every 36-48 hours or a less pronounced and almost continuous fever. For reasons that are poorly understood, but which may be related to high intracranial pressure, children with malaria frequently exhibit abnormal posturing, a sign indicating severe brain damage. Malaria has been found to cause cognitive impairments, especially in children. It causes widespread anemia during a period of rapid brain development and also direct brain damage. This neurologic damage results from cerebral malaria to which children are more vulnerable.

Severe malaria is almost exclusively caused by P. falciparum infection and usually arises 6-14 days after infection. Consequences of severe malaria include coma and death if untreated-young children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable. Splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), severe headache, cerebral ischemia, hepatomegaly (enlarged liver), hypoglycemia, and hemoglobinuria with renal failure may occur. Renal failure may cause blackwater fever, where hemoglobin from lysed red blood cells leaks into the urine. Severe malaria can progress extremely rapidly and cause death within hours or days.In the most severe cases of the disease fatality rates can exceed 20%, even with intensive care and treatment.In endemic areas, treatment is often less satisfactory and the overall fatality rate for all cases of malaria can be as high as one in ten. Over the longer term, developmental impairments have been documented in children who have suffered episodes of severe malaria.

Chronic malaria is seen in both P. vivax and P. ovale, but not in P. falciparum. Here, the disease can relapse months or years after exposure, due to the presence of latent parasites in the liver. Describing a case of malaria as cured by observing the disappearance of parasites from the bloodstream can therefore be deceptive. The longest incubation period reported for a P. vivax infection is 30 years. Approximately one in five of P. vivax malaria cases in temperate areas involve overwintering by hypnozoites (i.e., relapses begin the year after the mosquito bite).

Treatment

There are several families of drugs used to treat malaria. Chloroquine is very cheap and, until recently, was very effective, which made it the antimalarial drug of choice for many years in most parts of the world. However, resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to chloroquine has spread recently from Asia to Africa , making the drug ineffective against the most dangerous Plasmodium strain in many affected regions of the world. In those areas where chloroquine is still effective it remains the first choice. Unfortunately, chloroquine-resistance is associated with reduced sensitivity to other drugs such as quinine and amodiaquine

Obesity can't be fought by dieting. In fact when you diet well you still have chance to fast fight overweight. It all depends on what you eat.

Food that you eat has energy counted as calories which if not used will pile up in your body as fat. So food should certainly meet your energy needs which depend on your daily habits. In short you should eat only that much calorie that much you need to work with our body. Now sportsmen would certainly need more energy and so more calories.

There are some important points which if you follow would help you reduce weight:

Take light breakfast -don't eat something heavy early morning

Never skip breakfast : Many overweight people eat late at night then wake up not hungry and skip breakfast. This is a recipe for overeating.

Cut down on your tea cups : If you often take Tea -take care it has sugar full with calories which is making you fat. Cut down on number of cups you take everyday.

Don't eat late night -best time would be to have your dinner before 9 if you go to bed at 11-11:30.

Eat as much vegetarian food as you can : Never limit your vegetables. Veggies have so few calories and are so full with nutrients and fiber that you should eat them at every meal, every day.

e.g.: 1 cup each of broccoli + baby carrots + yellow squash+ cauliflower +cucumbers + spinach+ mushroom + red peppers + tomatoes = 200 calories! I am sure you can't eat it in one serving.

A small cheeseburger = 400 calories. Just think yourself!!

Drink water and not calorie drinks : Liquid calories don't seem to register as extra caloric intake in the body. So cultivate a taste for water. Juices, soda, Energy Drinks all have very high calories which are not counted by body as food so in next meal you wouldn't eat less and yet have over calories which get stored as fat. Remember Soda or sweet tea makes you fat .

Eat more fruit .

It's a myth that Fruits make you fat; no body gets fat even after eating too many fruits.

People get fat from eating too much fried food, fast food, sugar drinks and processed food. Eat fruit every day, every snack, every meal if you can. Eat it in place of a sweet snack, or halve your dessert.

Take care of fat you take : olive oil and plant oils are better then ghee and make you take less fat.

Boiled potato is better then fried potato chips.

What more helps you decrease your weight?

• regular light exercise
• jogging
•  morning walk
• Moving your body using any chance that you get like climbing stairs.