Parenting Advices

Feeling sluggish, depressed, sensitive to the weather, or gaining weight while on a diet? Anyone with the above symptoms may be suffering from hypothyroidism.

To better understand the condition, it’s best to discuss the organ involved: the thyroid gland. This small and lightweight organ, which sits just below the Adam’s apple, influences many of the body’s metabolic functions. It produces tri-iodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), respectively. The release of the T3 and T4 is triggered by the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone from the pituitary gland situated in the brain. There is a feedback control mechanism that regulates the concentration of the T3 and T4 in the blood and keeps them at a safe level.

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“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” This is according to Hippocrates, Father of Medicine some thousand plus years ago. During those times they really didn’t have the drugs we have today, so what they did was rely on natural and healthy fresh foods to cure sickness. And I’m sure a lot of us have experienced our elders giving us homemade herbal drinks and dishes that don’t taste so good but are very effective in relieving aches, pains, colds, and many other illnesses.

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Like any addiction, smoking can be overcome with patience and perseverance. But first of all, congratulations for deciding to quit smoking. That’s the single most important step. Your family, especially your kids, would be very glad to see you finally standing your ground against smoking.

Nicotine, the drug that is found in cigarettes, is highly addictive like cocaine or heroin. It gives you a pleasant feeling and acts like a depressant that slows down the flow of information between nerve cells. That makes it very hard to quit and stay smoke-free, as your body gets accustomed to effects it gets from nicotine.

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An angiogram is not an operation; it’s an x-ray of blood vessels. In some cases, it’s a procedure to visualize the arteries on the surface of the heart to see if any of them are blocked. When blood flow to heart muscles is diminished, it often manifests as chest pain. The patient’s doctor is justifiably worried that problems with the coronary arteries are creating his new symptoms.

With the usual chest x-ray, you can’t see coronary arteries. They have to be made visible using a special dye. The dye is delivered through a catheter that is guided from a blood vessel in the upper thigh all the way up to the heart. Once the catheter is in position, a dye is injected and it goes right into the coronary arteries. The x-ray is taken at the precise time the dye flows through the arteries. Later, the dye is excreted with the urine.

The angiogram helps to answer these questions: Are there problems in the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle? How many vessels are affected? How bad is the problem?

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