The literal meaning of the word ‘Arthritis’ is - inflammation of one or more joints. Joint, as we all know, is an area of the body where two different bones meet. The function of the joint is to move the body parts connected by its bones. Medical name for joint pain is ‘arthralgia’. Arthritis can manifest itself in more than 100 forms. Arthritis could be because of wear and tear of cartilage. This form of arthritis is called osteoarthritis. Arthritis can also be because of inflammation resulting from an overactive immune system. This form of arthritis is called rheumatoid arthritis.

The ends of bones in a joint are covered by a smooth tissue of cartilage. The cartilage gives ‘cushioning effect’ . In the absence of cartilage, there would be friction in bone-on-bone contact. A fibrous envelope, called the synovium, encloses the joints. Synovium produces a fluid that helps reduce friction and wear and tear of joint. Ligaments connect the bones and keep the joints stable. Joints are powered by muscles and tendons. Muscles and tendons also help joint to move.

Arthritis is the most common chronic illness in the US. Arthritis affects men and women, children and adults. Worldwide, approximately 350 million people have arthritis. This figure for US is 40 million, of which over a quarter million are children. Number of Americans suffering from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is 21 million and 2.1 million respectively. Arthritis shows slight gender bias, with 60% of sufferers being women. More than half of arthritis sufferers are under 65 years of age.

Causes

Different forms of arthritis have different causes. Causes could be injury( leading to osteoarthritis), abnormal metabolism, inheritance, infectious,.. In some cases the cause of arthritis may be unclear. Arthritis is a rheumatic disease. Rheumatic diseases are illnesses with differing features, treatments, complications, and prognosis. The reason all rheumatic diseases are under one category is that they have a tendency to affect joints, muscles, ligaments, cartilage, tendons. Many rheumatic diseases have potential to affect the internal body areas.

Treatment

Anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen are available over the counter and can be used for controlling pain and inflammation in the joints. There are prescription medications too. These are prescribed after taking into consideration the type of arthritis, its severity, and the patient’s general physical health. It’s not safe for patients with ulcers, asthma, kidney or liver diseases to take anti-inflammatory medications. When the patient’s pain becomes unbearable, doctors may give injections of cortisone into the joint. This helps in bringing temporary relief from pain and swelling. A word of caution here: repeated, frequent injections into the same joint can damage it and thereby cause undesirable side effects. For lubricating joint, one may also resort to viscosupplementation or injection of hyaluronic acid. This is generally performed in the knee.

For relieving stress and strain on arthritic joints one may take recourse to canes, crutches, walkers, or splints. One should also learn methods of performing daily activities that are less stressful to painful joints. For decreasing stiffness and strengthening the weakened muscles around the joint one should take help of certain exercises and physical therapy.

Alzheimer’s is associated primarily with memory lapses that occur with advancement in age. In addition to memory lapses, persons may experience physical or verbal outbursts, emotional distress, restlessness, hallucinations or delusions. Some amount of memory loss, with advancement in age is normal and is not a sign of Alzheimer’s. In fact there is a very thin line of separation with memory lapses that are ‘normal’ and those that signal Alzheimer’s. So if you fear someone elderly in your family to be suffering from Alzheimer’s, it is best to consult a doctor.

Alzheimer’s has acquired its name from the name of a German doctor with similar name who first described it in 1906.

Cause

Like machinery, our body also undergoes wear and tear with time. It is common for thinking to slow down and have occasional problems remembering certain things. However, in some cases brain cells start ‘failing’. This manifests itself in serious memory loss, confusion amongst other symptoms.

The brain is a network of 100 billion nerve cells( neurons). These nerve cells communicate with each other. Nerve cells are assigned special jobs. Some may be involved in thinking, learning and remembering while others are engaged in seeing, hearing , smelling. Brain cells operate like tiny factories. They are involved in the work of taking in supplies, generating energy and throw out waste material. Brain cells are also involved in the job of processing and storing information. For smooth functioning of the brain, it needs coordination amongst cells and large amounts of fuel and oxygen.

In persons affected with Alzheimer’s, parts of the cell’s factory face problems in running well. Experts are still not sure about the site where the problem starts. Different parts of brain are interrelated. So problem in one part interferes with normal functioning of other parts too. Finally, the cells die.

Symptoms

Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells. This leads to problems with memory, thinking and behavior. These problems could be severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. With time, Alzheimer’s gets worse and is fatal. Today about 5 million Americans are suffering from this disease. Alzheimer’s has emerged as the sixth leading cause of death in US. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a general term for loss of memory and other intellectual abilities that interfere with daily life.

Treatment

Sadly, there is no ‘cure’ as such for Alzheimer’s. Still there are drugs that slow the advancement of Alzheimer’s and help in checking deterioration of symptoms. Treatment for Alzheimer’s is divided into two categories: “cognitive” and “behavioral and psychiatric”. Former affect memory, judgment, language, planning, concentration and other thought processes. Behavioral and psychiatric symptoms affect the way the patient feels and acts.

Contrary to popular belief, Cancer is not one disease. It is a CLASS of diseases in which a group of cells exhibit following traits:
1) Uncontrolled growth i.e. growth and division beyond normal limits.
2)Invasion i.e. intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues.
And in some cases,
3) Metastasis i.e. spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood.

In fact, it is because of above three properties that medical fraternity is able to differentiate cancer from benign tumors. Benign tumors are self-limited,
do not invade or metastasize. Barring exceptions like leukemia, most cancers form tumors.Cancer can affect people of any age. However, the risk for cancer tends to increase with age. Cancer is responsible for about 13% of all deaths. Cancer is not limited to humans alone and can affect other animals and even plants!
Intake of carcinogens such as tobacco smoke or exposure to radiation, chemicals or infectious agents causes abnormalities in the genetic material of
transformed cells. Other sources of genetic abnormality could be through errors in DNA replication or it could be inherited.

Treatment

Treatments available for cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy and other methods. The choice
of therapy is decided by the location and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease, as well as the general state of the patient. Many experimental cancer
treatments are also under development.
The reason why doctors hesitate to resort to surgery is the propensity of cancers to invade adjacent tissues. Drawback of chemotherapy is its toxicity to other
tissues in the body. Radiation also has the limitation that it causes damage to normal tissue.

Surgery: This is used for small cancers. Sometimes entire organ has to be removed.

Radiation: Radiation therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated (the “target tissue”) by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible for these cells to continue to grow and divide. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue. So we see that radiation therapy is not without its side-effects. Hence, it is given in many fractions, allowing healthy tissue to recover between fractions. Radiation is generally resorted to while treating solid tumor, including cancers of the brain, breast, cervix, larynx, lungs, pancreas, prostate, skin, stomach, uterus,…

Chemotherapy: In this method, doctors try to treat cancer with the help of “anticancer drugs”. These drugs try to interfere with cells’ ability to multiply. The
interference could be in form of not allowing duplication of DNA or separation of newly formed chromosomes. However, the drugs target all rapidly dividing
cells. Still it is used because cancer cells cannot repair DNA damage while while healthy cells can do so. This therapy is also known to damage bone marrow.

Targeted therapies: Targeted therapy, which first became available in the late 1990s, has had a significant impact in the treatment of some types of cancer, and is currently a very active research area.

Immunotherapy: Here, effort is made to increase the patient’s immunity to diseases and thus enable him to fight the disease on his own.

Hormone therapy: By providing or blocking certain hormones, growth of some cancers can be retarded. This therapy is used in cases like breast and prostate

cancers. In addition, removing or blocking estrogen or testosterone may be resorted to.

If you or a loved one has even one of the following symptoms, call an ambulance right away. Tell the correspondent that you think a stroke has occurred.

Weakness or paralysis: Loss of strength of one arm or leg or one side of the body.
Numbness: Loss of feeling or “pins and needles” on one side of the body.
Lack of intellectual capacity: Trouble understanding what someone is saying.
Vision problems: Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes or sudden double vision.
Problems with balance and coordination: Sudden change in balance and difficulty with coordination.
Headache: Sudden, explosive, severe headache.

Notable Facts:

Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke.

Getting more fiber is associated to less rigorous strokes, according to the findings of a Boston study of 50 men and women. Consumptions of both entirety fiber and insoluble fiber were reciprocally linked to stroke severity. The average fiber intake in the study wasn’t even high, only 10 grams a day, which is less than half the Daily Value of 25 grams a day.

A stroke can take place when:

A blood vessel carrying blood to the brain is blocked by a blood clot. This is called an ischemic stroke.
A blood vessel breaks open, causing blood to leak into the brain. This is a hemmorhagic stroke.
If blood flow is stopped for longer than a few seconds, the brain cannot get blood and oxygen. Brain cells can die, causing permanent damage.

Stroke dangers

High blood pressure is the number one reason that you might have a stroke. The risk of stroke is also increased by age, family history of stroke, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease.

Certain medications increase the chances of clot formation, and therefore your chances for a stroke. Birth control pills can cause blood clots, especially in woman who smoke and who are older than 35.

Men have more strokes than women. But, women have a risk of stroke during pregnancy and the weeks immediately after pregnancy.

Cocaine use, alcohol abuse, head injury, and bleeding disorders increase the risk of bleeding into the brain.