Top Tip Lists for Good Health

A low thyroid function has specific causes, yet the symptoms of this condition are numerous and can be mistaken for symptoms of other disorders, including psychological syndromes. Also, as an individual you might experience and describe your signs of a low thyroid in a unique way that can confuse the issue.

To add to this, a blood test may show that your thyroid hormones are low, but still considered in a normal range, not requiring drug therapy. If this is the case, while frustrating for you, you are lucky, because remedying a couple of simple nutritional deficiencies may return you to a true 'normal'. Review the following symptoms typically associated with a hypothyroid condition:

difficulty losing weight

tired all the time

moodiness

hair loss

loose skin

depression

aching muscles

feeling cold

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

lack of libido

sore joints

memory loss

difficulty concentrating

It is easy to see why this 'low normal' thyroid function can be difficult to figure out. If you are over forty, you may be told that your natural aging process has started. If your dominant symptom is depression, for example, you may be prescribed psychiatric drugs. These will for certain not help your thyroid hormones get up to par. And so on and so on with each symptom - a dominant symptom can be assigned to the wrong diagnosis.

Nutritional factors can be explored here. It is common knowledge that an iodine deficiency can be responsible for a sluggish thyroid gland. Yet, iodine is only part of the nutrition required to manufacture thyroid hormones. If you are deficient in other minerals like selenium, copper, and zinc, and the amino acid L-Tyrosine, just taking some iodine won't help to completely remedy the situation.

Diabetes has been rampant in the recent years. The number one victim is America. The most prolific source is the fast food chains. The fast food lifestyle has not only promoted fast food but also sudden death to many who weren't able to have their diabetes diagnosed and when they finally found out about it, it is already too late.

There are actually three types of diabetes but the approach in treating each type is far different from the other. Misdiagnosis as to what kind of diabetes a person has can be a lethal mistake. Here are the type two diabetes and type one diabetes diet:

Type One Diabetes Diet

Type one diabetes is often diagnosed in children, adolescents and young adults but any age can be inflicted by it. Type one diabetes is characterized by beta cells producing less than the necessary amount of insulin that the body needs, sometimes it produces nothing at all.

Insulin is needed by the body because it is the hormone that facilitates blood sugar and utilizes the blood sugar to be converted into energy for the body to use. Without insulin, the body cannot function because there is no energy to fuel it. The following are the common symptoms type one diabetic patient experiences:

• Being very thirsty

• Feeling hungry

• Feeling tired or fatigued

• Having blurry eyesight

• Losing the feeling or feeling tingling in your feet

• Losing weight without trying

• Urinating more often

Patients with type one diabetes have a schedule for insulin injection and they also have a very specific diet that actually helps them from a having their levels of insulin becoming too high or too low.

We all have to deal with stress and anxiety in our normal, day to day lives. Some days are more stressful than others, and we often get to the point where we don't know how to handle the amount of stress that we are under. Statistics show that at least one out of every seventy five people who inhabit the world will experience at least one major anxiety attack during their lifetime. Studies have also shown that seventy-five percent of anxiety attack sufferers are women between the ages of twenty and thirty years old. These first anxiety attacks often send sufferers to the emergency room, as symptoms sometimes mimic other disorders, such as heart attacks. For some, they will have the one anxiety attack, and may never have another. Anxiety attacks are characterized as experiencing a tremendous fear that strikes you suddenly and with no warning. No one knows exactly what triggers anxiety attacks, but they are very real when they occur.

Once an anxiety attack begins, it usually reaches its peak after about the first two minutes. Depending on the severity of the attack, it can take as long as several hours for all the symptoms to completely disappear. Many of the symptoms accompanying an anxiety attack can be extremely frightening on their own, but coupled with the fear you already feel from the attack itself, can be very overwhelming, especially the first time they occur.

Anxiety attacks can cause any number of symptoms, which can cause fear themselves, let alone the original fear caused by the attack. One of the most common symptoms accompanying anxiety attacks is the feeling that you are suffocating, or can't get enough air to breathe. You may feel like you can't hold anymore air, but that what you have isn't enough, or that someone is actually holding something over your nose and mouth shutting off your air supply. Of course, this is not the case, but that is the way you feel. Frequent sufferers of anxiety attacks have to learn that these symptoms are only a nervous reaction, and not really happening to them. You will not stop breathing, or die from lack or air, and no one is trying to suffocate you, even though it may feel that way.

Every time your heart beats, it's pumping blood throughout your body via the arteries and your blood pressure is the force that is used to pump this blood against the walls of the veins. Blood pressure can spike at times for various reasons, but when it becomes chronically high this is referred to as hypertension and, left untreated, this can lead to other serious health problems such as heart problems, eye problems, stroke, aneurysm, kidney failure, etc.

Anything below 120/80 is considered as normal blood pressure. Between 120/80 and 139/89 is referred to as pre-hypertension (you have an increased risk of hypertension) and then of course hypertension itself - anything above 140/90.

Symptoms

Hypertension is known as one of the silent killers because there are generally little or no symptoms until the pressure is extremely high. It is thought that about a third of people who have it don't know and therefore, it is wise to have your pressure checked regularly and particularly if you have a family history of hypertension.

It is not until your blood pressure is extremely high that you begin to have problems such as headaches, blurred vision, fatigue, irregular heartbeat, chest pains and blood in the urine. If you have any of these symptoms you should consult a doctor immediately because it could mean that you are having what is referred to as a hypertensive crisis, which could lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Causes

In the majority of cases, the cause of hypertension is unknown but the factors that are thought to contribute to high blood pressure are:

Symptoms in asthmatics can vary tremendously between patients with each person having their own unique mix of symptoms including the severity and how often or how frequently they affect the sufferer.

To some asthma is an occasional feeling of tightness in the chest and a cough but for others the attacks can be so severe that they can become life threatening.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by...

oA restriction of the air passages in the lungs causing breathing difficulties due to increased resistance to airflow.

oRapid changes in airway restrictions.

oThe effects can be significantly reversed using drugs that resemble adrenaline, known as the beta2 agonists.

oSignificant reversibility of the restriction problems with steroid drugs.

oSymptom-free periods, where the patient feels and act fine.

oFrequent occurrence of allergies.

oBronchial hyper-responsiveness (air being breathed in) to non-specific stimuli such as cold air or histamine.

The symptoms of asthma include:

oCoughing that may become worse at night or first thing in the morning causing sleep disruption. Sometimes this is the only sign of asthma in a child.

oA wheezing or whistling sound when you breathe, especially when you have a cold or other illness.

oA tightness feeling in the chest, as if someone is squeezing your chest.

oA feeling that you have a shortness of breath.

oFaster or noisy breathing.

Asthma symptoms can be brought,, triggered, by factors including exercise such as running or biking, especially during cold weather, prolonged crying or laughing or when exposed to allergens and irritants.

Hypothyroidism is a condition when the thyroid gland in our body produces less than the required amount of hormone. Hormones play a critical role in keeping you healthy, both mentally and physically. Hormones help the body absorb the food you eat properly, manage physical growth and blood composition, and also govern sex and reproduction. Hormones are also important controllers of your personality and behavioral patterns. As such, hypothyroidism can impact you both physically and mentally. It is therefore critical that you identify the symptoms for hypothyroidism and treat this disorder.

That said, detecting the disorder may not be a simple task. The disorder, in its preliminary stages, may not be very apparent, and symptoms at the nascent stage may be considered normal. The signs become more visible and identifiable only when the condition has worsened. Your day-to-day activities may be severely impacted. For example, you may not be able to concentrate on your work, and you have mood swings for no apparent reason. Let us discuss the various symptoms for hypothyroidism below:

1. Disproportionate weight: You may tend to gain or lose weight all of a sudden without any reason. You may have been leading a normal and a healthy life and as a result, disproportionate weight may really seem surprising to you. In fact, the problem could either make you obese or underweight-which are both undesirable conditions.

2. Mood swings: You may tend to have mood swings very frequently and may feel stressed in very normal situations.

Most important causes for heart diseases

There are many causes for heart conditions, so I will point out the most important of them. Almost all of heart diseases are mainly caused by high blood pressure which will end up hardening your arteries. Another cause will be very bad diets consisting in food based on high level of fat, which will make big amounts of cholesterol build up in the arteries. All these may cause an arterial blockage which will affect the blood flow transporting oxygen and other nutriments to the heart.

A. Types of Heart Diseases

Our heart is located in the chest between lungs, it has four chambers, heart muscle and it acts as a pump, which will push the blood through our body.

Because there are so many types of heart illnesses I will point out only the most common of them

1. Heart diseases affecting heart chambers

Heart failure occurs when heart is not pumping sufficient blood so the body will not get the amount of blood and oxygen that it needs to do day to day activities. This is mainly caused by narrowed arteries which will provide with blood to the heart muscle.

2. Heart Disease affecting heart muscles

If heart muscles are affected we can distinguish two cases. Muscles are stiff, which will determine that more pressure is required for blood to get inside your main organ. Obstructing blood flow out of the heart will be as a result of narrowed or blocked arteries.

B. Symptoms for Heart diseases

Heart condition makes the biggest number of deaths worldwide after cancer. Like I said before there are many causes of heart illness, so this will mean that the number of symptoms will also be high. The most important symptoms for this awful condition are:

Our hands and wrists have a lot of small joints that work together when we move them. When a joint in these is affected by arthritis, is makes it hard for us to move the whole hand or wrist. That being mentioned, it also means that hand arthritis may occur in different and multiple areas.

While hand arthritis is commonly disregarded by many, it is America's leading condition that leads to disability. Arthritis is mostly common to people who are over the age of 40, however, it can also occur to those in their early twenties. Even the healthy ones have the possibility of suffering from hand arthritis.

Below are the symptoms of hand arthritis.

* The first symptom is a mild pain in the joint, experienced as a "dull" or "burning" feeling. The pain increases as one continues to move the affected joint. The pain becomes more and more distinguishable after a few days. The pain is mostly noticed in the mornings. The affected area shows stiffness in the mornings, too.

* The area affected may swell when the joint is moved as it used to be. These joints can no longer handle the same pressure and stress. Swellings indicate that they are being overexerted.

* The joint affected will feel warm. This is because of the inflammation inside.

* Joints near the arthritic joint may be affected, they may become move movable than normal, or they may also affected if the hand is not well taken care of.

* Crepitation, or the "grinding" kind of sensation in the joint affected may be experienced. Damaged cartilages, due to a trauma or disease, will rub against each other.

Do you try to eat well, even diet, but aren't seeing the results you were hoping for? Are you just trying to gain more energy? Do you ever feel like you're not breathing enough?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above you should consider the proven, time-tested weight loss tool called cardiovascular exercise.

I know that it's terribly hard to start walking or jogging when you have so much stress to deal with in your life. I've been through this myself numerous times, but I can always count on the fact that even walking around outside or parking far away from the store can truly increase my energy and metabolism.

For maximum results, balance your meals with a ratio based on 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat; and do 10 minutes of walking, jogging or running on 3-5 days of the week.

We all have tons of work to do. At many times, we can't follow the idealistic command of "get off your fat ass and just do it," so I'm not telling you that. That would be pure hypocrisy, so the advice I give to you is to just take 10 minutes to do cardiovascular exercise next time you want to watch television or talk on the phone with a friend.

If you want to make this weekly exercise easier on yourself, you should take a moment to visit our weight loss forum, over at PhenForum.com. Start your own personal daily progress journal and post whenever your want. Expect nothing less than tons of support from our community of friends with the same goal; healthy weight loss!

You did it! You lost ten pounds! Again! How many times have you lost the same ten pounds on a weight loss program only to gain it back plus two more? Losing weight is simply frustrating!

Fad diets are tempting, but the success rate is low. Before you can lose weight, you need to work on your physical and emotional health and restore your hormonal balance. And, once you recognize what is out of balance in your life and health, you must change your lifestyle to help regain control of your body.

Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?

The first thing you must do when deciding a plan to lose weight is to reexamine why you want to lose the weight. Most women want to lose weight because of how it will make them look and feel in their clothing. While this is important and can affect your emotional well being, it won't do you any good if you are not healthy enough to enjoy the benefits of a thin body.

Being overweight substantially raises the risk of developing many diseases such as diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cardiovascular disease, infertility, hypertension, arthritis, or insulin resistance. If you are overweight more than 20 pounds or your BMI (body mass index) is over 28, you are at a higher risk of developing these conditions. Contact a physician for testing if you feel you show symptoms and have him test your basal metabolic function. This will tell you how efficiently your body converts energy into work.

What are your ideas of a perfect body? How do you want your body to look? After you answer these questions, will the weight loss plan you have in mind really be healthy? Will it make it truly happy?

Symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis are often reflected by feelings of pain, joint stiffness, inflammation and swelling in your joints. This chronic disease is caused by the normal response of your body to infections, injury, wounds, or foreign objects.

Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms are not only felt on the main joints but can also include some of your smaller joints, including those of the writs, hands, feet, ankles, knees, and elbows.

In addition, symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis also extend to complications associated with this disease, as the inflammation can affect your internal organs and other systems of the body. Treatment generally consists of controlling the inflammation to prevent damage to joints or tissues.

Thus, if you have rheumatoid arthritis, your ability to function at the normal level can be greatly impaired. Normal, routine activities such as walking, dressing, cooking, cleaning, working, and even using the restroom can become difficult to achieve. As the condition worsens, many individuals with rheumatoid arthritis find that they can no longer to work. In many cases, the total inability to function can occur as early as ten years after your first detection of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

What distinguishes rheumatoid arthritis from other forms of arthritis? Rheumatoid arthritis is unique because it is classified as an autoimmune disease.

This means that your own immune system is actually responsible for attacking and damaging its own cells and tissues that it normally protects. This happens when an individual's immune system produces unique chemicals and cells that are released into the blood stream. These cells then begin to attack body tissues, causing irreversible damage. When your tissues are being attacked, your body responds by producing inflammation and abnormal growth in the synovium. The synovium is the special membrane that lines each joint.

The word autism has become the common used term for all disorders categorized in the autism spectrum, such as Asperger Syndrome and PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). These, and including autism itself, are similar enough in symptoms that they are easily misdiagnosed-and were in the early days of the discovery of this class of disorder. Symptoms and characteristics of such disorders range from mild to severe and despite an overall basic makeup, will affect each bearer differently.

The most common and respected cause of Autism occurs when there is a mutation of the genes. This disorder can occur in both sexes; however, studies have shown that it affects boys more so than girls. Symptoms of this neural development disorder can appear as soon as 6 months of age and will have 'settled in' so to speak between two and three years of age. The earlier the diagnoses the better capable of preparing the child for integration into a 'normal' life-at least in so far is possible for someone with autism.

This disorder affects a child's perception of the world surrounding them. Not only do they see things differently, they compute and learn things differently as well. There is no cure for this syndrome, at least not one that has been tested true but while remission is not a possibility, functioning in society is. Autism cases range in severity. From mild cases and high functioning autistic, to ones suffering with severe mental retardation, each case is unique to the child diagnosed.

Male genital warts are a very common among sexually active males. Reportedly, the more partners you are with, the increased chance you have of getting them. Genital warts are caused by a virus known as human papilloma virus (HPV). In fact, HPV is responsible for all types of warts. HPV is interesting because some sources report there are more than 40 different types of HPV. Some sources even report more than that. Also you should know the virus can be transmitted by direct or indirect contact. So you may you even know where you got it from.

When it comes to the male genital warts, it's unlike any other condition, because the way you approach your sex life changes drastically. You are faced with many tough decisions when it comes to new sexual partners if you should treat the genital warts. Basically, if you have sexual contact with an infected partner, you'll most likely develop the disease within three months. Now that's something to think about, because you may not even know you have it. This is why the disease is so widespread.

Genital warts in general are different in other warts, because they are generally soft and scaly. Male genital warts have many different looks. The growths can be small or large and they can appear on or around the penis and in the rectal area. If you happen to notice small growths around your genitals, you should see a doctor right away. If it's the genital warts left untreated, they can grow and possibly multiply.

There is no known cure for the strains of HPV that cause male genital warts so this may very well be something in the live with for the rest of life. However there are treatments for the actual warts themselves. Some treatments include over the counter methods such as freezing off the warts or burning off the warts using some type of solution. There are also some inpatient treatments such as laser therapy (which is very expensive). Your best bet is to over the treatments with your doctor most likely, you can try the treatment in your home.

Dyscalculia is a learning disability many children suffer from. It affects the way a person understands basic mathematics. In a nutshell, it's dyslexia with math. Many children who are dyslexic, also have dyscalculia.

So what exactly is dyscalculia, and how can it affect you (or your child?)

People who suffer from this learning disability usually can't perform simple math problems, such as distinguishing the difference between odd and even numbers, telling time, or basic fractions. Shapes can prove difficult as well. Trouble with addition and subtraction, multiplication, and basic division are also signs of the learning disability.

Symptoms include:

- Your child can not write and copy down numbers in the correct order.

- Your child has difficulties recognizing shapes, such as circles, triangles, and squares.

- Your child can not differentiate between even and odd numbers.

- Your child can not tell you the time from an analog clock.

- Your child can not understand fractions.

- Your child has anxiety when it comes to math.

Children can be effected in many ways due to dyscalculia, but some of the biggest ones include the feeling of inadequacy next to their peers (which in turn could cause a domino effect - your child feels stupid, gives up trying, low self-esteem, etc), the inability to get good jobs as an adult (you can not even go to the grocery store without understanding simple math - to be able to quickly add up a grocery cart full of food - let alone get a high paying job), or even graduate college (your child may decide NOT to go to college just because of this).

Well you have a headache and you want to know if it is actually a migraine. According to the International Headache Society, yes there really is such a society, a headache is treatable quite effectively and quite quickly with common headache meds such as aspirins where as a common migraine lasts from anywhere between four-seventy two hours after taking common headache meds then in most cases an over the counter med is advised and if in some cases it lasts longer than seventy two hours then it is strongly advised that you seek out immediate medical attention.

The frequency of a headache is also classified as a symptom but let us explore the migraine specifics more thoroughly.

Symptoms of a migraine... hold on we will get to that; allow me first to start with some important facts pertaining to migraines. Migraines are not all in the mind, they are a biologic headache disorders. Migraines do not have known causes which is why it is so very difficult to diagnose. All sufferers have different symptoms and migraines are not always curable because what works for one may not work for another. Migraines do affect women more than men but it is not linked to gender nor is it linked to age because there have been many cases of babies, kids and teenagers becoming afflicted.

A common migraine is referred to as a migraine without aura and a migraine with aura is known as an Ocular migraine which affects the eyes.

The International Headache Society has certain criteria that they allocate to a headache to be defined as a migraine. Symptoms of a migraine are a headache that must be accompanied by two to four pain descriptors. The pain is restricted to one side of the head, it is not a consistent pain but pulsates, and it is so excruciatingly intense it prevents you from functioning or debilitates you.

Every individual having brain tumors should receive unique and individual brain cancer treatment. The treatment generally depends on the individual's age, general health, and size and location of the tumor.

There are several questions surrounding brain cancer treatment. The nature of treatment, its effects, and the long-term outcomes are some of them. Doctors are best equipped to handle these questions.

Overview of brain cancer treatment

Brain cancer treatment is generally complex. Some treatment plans will require multiple doctors.

1. The medical team usually comprises neurosurgeons, oncologists, radiation oncologists, and a general practitioner. Individuals may also want to include a dietitian, social worker, and physiotherapists.

2. The nature of the treatment will depend on location, size and type of the tumor. Existing medical conditions and age are other factors that need considerations when deciding the nature of treatment.

Brain Cancer Surgery

Most individuals who have a brain tumor are required to undergo surgery.

1. Surgery helps confirm the abnormality seen in the brain scans. Nature of the tumor and method of removal are also determined at the time of surgery. Surgeons will most probably take a sample of the tumor that needs to be removed.

2. When it comes to benign tumors, most symptoms vanish with the removal of the tumor.

3. A modern method for removal of tumors can be performed without a knife and is called stereotactic surgery. The tumor is removed without opening the skull. MRI and CT scans are used to determine the exact location of the tumor within the brain. Radiation beams are focused on the tumor from different directions. Radiation helps destroy the tumor. This method is also known as 'gamma knife'.