Gastritis: take care of your digestive health

Gastritis

Number of different digestive problem falls under the single umbrella of “Gastritis”. In Gastritis, stomach lining gets inflamed.

GI Tract

Reasons for Gastritis
Reasons for Gastritis are myriads. The main reason for Gastritis is the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or shortly NSAIDs. Various painkillers like naproxen (Aleve) and ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) can cause irritation or inflammation in the stomach lining if taken on regular basis.

Other reasons for Gastritis are:
Smoking and drinking alcohols
Viral infection
Infection caused due to stomach ulcer bacteria named H. pylori
Thinning of stomach lining tissues
More production of stomach acid

Quit Smoking

Risk factors involved in Gastritis
Those who have weaker immune system are more prone to Gastritis.
Gastritis can also be hereditary. If there is family history of Gastritis, then people become more susceptible to Gastritis
Those who are taking pain killers on regular basis to heal pain due to some other medical conditions
Apart from drinking and smoking regularly people who take acidic drinks like coffee
Those who are stressed out for different reasons in their day-to-day life

Heart Burn

Symptoms of Gastritis
Gastritis symptoms vary widely. But knowing the signs and symptoms of Gastritis is very important. Because you can be misguided with different symptoms of other diseases if proper symptom of Gastritis is not known to you. There may be minor or serious both kind of symptoms seen in gastritis.

Symptoms include:
Pain in abdomen
Nausea
Vomiting
Hiccups
Indigestion
Flatulence
Belching Heartburn
Bloating
Feeling full or lack of appetite
Dark stools
Bleeding in stool

Endoscopy

Diagnosis of Gastritis
Gastritis can be diagnosed with the help of clinical history of the patient. It can be diagnosed with the help of an upper Endoscopy, where a tube with the small camera is inserted inside the body to look the problem inside your body.

Treat Gastritis

Treatment of Gastritis
Gastritis can be treated with the means of different techniques depending upon the severity of the problem. This digestive problem is treatable with the help of medicines. Patients can be asked to stop their smoking, drinking and acidic drink consumption.

Good Mood Food

We face stress in our day-to-day life. Not only stress but also tension, depression etc are the common mental health problems in urban life. But do we know that to boost our mood we can include some food in our diet list?

MOOD SWING

Have you ever noticed that you feel very drowsy once you have some rice in lunch or dinner? If your day starts with bread and you find it difficult to open your eyes properly and you have frequent yawning, then these are nothing but the effect of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates have the relaxing effect on our mind.

How mood swing affect our body
Any kind of stressful situation like getting late for office, rushing for important meeting, baby sitting or examination knocking the door etc can give birth to tension. Under these situations, our blood pressure rises up, cortisol hormone secretes giving birth to various heart diseases, and our body starts producing glucose to give us more energy to combat the situation and thus leading to diabetes and obesity. This way mood swing gives birth to different diseases and makes us more weary.

Obesity due to mood swing

Know the mood boosting foods
Carbohydrates are known to be the mood boosting foods. Complex carbohydrates like whole grain breads, whole grain cereals, legumes etc. are helpful to handle our mood swing. Certain starchy vegetables like potato and corn fall under the same category.

Why carbohydrates are good for mood?
Our mood hormone in brain is serotonin. It uplifts our mood, enhances emotional energy, and relaxes any pain. Carbohydrate has the ability to produce this hormone more.

More information
Simple carbohydrates have the ability to produce more serotonin with the release of glucose. Simple carbohydrates are those who fall under the category of refined or processed form like cookies or doughnuts. But it is to know that to make serotonin work; you have to take it in empty stomach and without the intake of protein. But if you add jelly or something more fattening as a topping with the carbs then you will add up more calories to your body leading to sudden weight gain.

PMS solution
If you find it difficult to combat irritability due to the reason of premenstrual syndrome, then you can try out complex carbohydrate foods. Some complex carbohydrate beverages are available in the market for the escape of PMS.

Stress: can we live without it?

In our hectic day-to-day life, while traffic jam is the regular scenario during office hour, who has the ability to keep his heart pumping less and hold his breath patiently? In any awkward situation, while we feel restlessness within our throbbing heart, then it causes stress. It is stress in layman’s term. In medical term, it is an emotional and physical repercussion of the strain, which causes due to sudden changes in a situation related to you.

Life without stress is apparently impossible. Even very calm and patient person having no creases in his forehead muscles can also be the victim of stress. In our life, this symptom is like a part and parcel of everything.



What are the symptoms while your stress level is abruptly high:

Stress has two kinds of symptoms: Mental and Physical

Mental Symptoms caused by stress involve
• Trouble sleeping or insomnia
• Concentration problem
• Irritability
• Tension
• Feeling of tiredness

Physical Symptoms caused by stress involve
• Increased heart rate or palpitation
• Palms Sweating
• Bowel Problem
• Frequent urination
• Numbness in limb
• Muscle pain and strain or cramp in muscle
• Dryness in mouth

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Some causes of stress due to some overburden situation:
1. If you are staying in a joint family. You are working fulltime and so your spouse is. Your baby and your job both require your attention the most. There is some erratic schedule of day-to-day life. There is no spice of life due to overloaded situation of family and work. It might cause stress in a huge amount. In this situation, you are always tied up between work-family demands. You have no time for yourself to laze around or spend some leisure time with own self at least by reading a book.

2. If you are a single parent and divorced with your former spouse. If sharing of responsibility of your children with your spouse is not smooth. If he/she is causing you pain in legal and financial matters upon trivial issues to make your life more complicated. This particular situation might raise your stress level in abundance.

3. If you are living all alone. No one on this earth is there to take care of you. You are likely to bear all your expenses and regular bills. No one is there to lend his/her hand to help you out, not even while you are ill. Your loneliness may lead you as a stressful person.

4. If your work is over-demanding and boss is bossy in an excessive way. It might lead to stress in a high level. Working in a stressful environment and under non-cooperative boss can make your life miserable.

Thus, it is seen that stress is everywhere in our life. But as there is way out for every problem, stress also has different solution. So to enjoy life, make your life stress free.

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What causes stress and how it affects our life?
Stress does not mean it has to be the effect of any unpleasant situation or event.
Stress can be the result of any pleasant surprise like wedding planning, newly born baby or its care, or any new purchase.

Regarding this Stress, many researchers have given different views. But as per "Holmes-Raye" scale, statistic of stress is according to the certain life situations:
• Death of a spouse causes stress up to 100 points
• Divorce rate rises stress level up to 73 points in this scale
• Marriage is the result of 50 points stress
• Pregnancy also gives birth to 40 points of stress.
• Out of over excitement on purchasing a new house might rise your stress level up to 31 points
• Christmas causes stress up to 12 points.

Few more researches show that stress due to over demanding jobs take place in the society. As per Jobs Rated Almanac, top five stressful career options are:
1. President of the United States
2. Race car driver
3. Senior corporate executive
4. Taxi driver
5. Firefighter

As per Jobs Rated Almanac, least stressful career options are:
1. Medical records technician
2. Forklift operator
3. Janitor
4. Forklift operator
5. Florist

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What are stressful situations for you?

Stressful situation varies highly from person to person. Few people are stressful under very common situation. And few are really relaxed even in a highly panicky situation.
So, stress level in human being varies:
• human nature
• upbringing
• family history or heredity
• physical structure
• past experience
• level of perceiving things
• any mental illness

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Given below are few situations where few people are normal and others are not:
• Some people are really cool under over workload, and some are hypertensive under the same situation.
• Some people are very comfortable in social gathering, some are highly reluctant and stressful while to face people.
• Some people are mad at waiter or at poor restaurant service while some are non-complaining about the situation.
• Some people are excessively annoyed at traffic jam, rebuking the signal and watching their watches every now and then, some are highly relaxed, listening music and singing.
• Some people engage themselves in a several festival as an initiator; some are very tensed and stressed out while they are given such responsibility.
• Some people gladly help others in difficult times some are not much comfortable rather stressed out under this situation.
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It means that few people are overtly vulnerable to stressful situation, while few are not.
So, many situation and events cause stress in our life. We just need to know how to handle them and stay happy in our life.

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Stress Signs and how it affects our body

Different people are susceptible to stress in a different way. Stress causes different changes in our life situations. It changes our life to a great extent if it is staying with you for a good period of time. It causes harm in different phases of our life, like:

• Changes in our physical health or body functions
• Changes in feelings and emotions
• Changes in thought process
• Changes in attitude and behavior

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How stress changes our physical health or body functions:
• Dry mouth
• Backache or body ache
• Tiredness
• Muscle cramp
• Breathing problems
• Stomach problems
• Frequent urination
• Dizziness

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How stress changes feelings and emotions:

• Irritability
• Sadness
• Worried
• Tension
• Anger

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How stress changes attitude and behavior:

• Sleeplessness or over sleeping
• Overeating or less eating
• Increased libido or no desire for sex
• Boozing excessively
• Getting doped frequently

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How stress changes thought process:
• Negative thinking
• Forgetfulness
• Lack of concentration
• Helplessness
• Hopelessness

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Now it is a major food for thought how stress affects physical health to a great extent.
Under certain stressful circumstances human body releases “stress hormones” or adrenaline. After pumping out stress hormone, certain changes in body functions occur like:
• Rate of heart beat increases.
• Due to raise in heart speed, more blood goes to our brain and goes up 400 percent more.
• Then digestion functions get upset.
• Tension in muscle goes up.
• Breathing rate goes up and it sends more oxygen to the muscle.

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How stress can cause harm to our health:

• Stress causes irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, chronic fatigue and dizziness, headaches, body ache, and back ache.
• Excessive stress can cause hyper tension, high blood pressure, and that can lead to stroke at any age.
• Stress can affect the immune system by causing harm to your blood cells, which can make you more prone to common cold, allergies, and several other diseases.
• Due to stress, you can feel short of breathing sometimes and it can worsen asthma problem.
• Stress causes certain problems in behavior like lack of confidence and concentration, overeating or binge eating disorder, alcoholism, drug addiction, excessive smoking etc.
• Stress leads to lack of libido in men and women at any age.
• Stress further makes situations worse while people want to give up smoking and overeating but finds it impossible.

Thus, if stress is not cured or treated properly it can be life threatening and it might cause huge problem in your life. So, try to find some solution of your stress and lead a normal, stress free life.

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How to manage Stress

To make your life stress free, you really need to work hard and practice certain things to get rid of this situation. Stress can become life threatening if it is not treated on time. So to get away from stressful life few help from the expert or certain self-help strategy is very much desirable.

Certain therapies and expert support can help you beat the stress:
• Autogenic training
• Conflict resolution
• Cognitive therapy

You can opt for some relaxation techniques like:
• Artistic Expression
• Fractional relaxation
• Progressive relaxation

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At the same time, few things for which you don’t have to go anywhere you can do on your own to beat the stress:


Regular exercise: Getting involved in any kind of physical exercise on regular basis gives you good reason to become stress free. Jogging over a treadmill or swimming at least for an hour is a great relaxation process, which helps you to get rid of stress very easily.



Spa Visit: No doubt after a hectic routine of daily life, while you lie down on a spa bed and any expert masseur relaxes your body muscles with the help of his/her specialized massage, it soothes your nerves and makes you relaxed.


Time spending with nature: Different hues and views of nature make you very enchanted and rejuvenated. It gives you real treat for major relaxation. Thus, spending some quality time in fresh air and speaking your mind with flying birds or passing breeze can be your stress buster.


Hobby pursuing: Your favorite time pass activity can make you extremely refreshed while you’re overtly stressed out with your daily routine. Hobbies like painting, singing, dancing etc. can give you good amount of pleasure to get rid of stress. Many people find their solace in reading books, cooking, gardening etc. So, main agenda is to get relieved from the stress whatever you do and choose as your hobby.


Meditation: There are many meditation centers ready to help you with the definite meditation process. You can also practice deep breathing and meditation at your own place regularly. Meditation keeps stress level low and your concentration goes up.


Some Products: Few products like stress balls, some stress relieving medicines etc. are helpful in beating the stress and those products give you stress free, normal life. In this regard, it is always good to go for natural medicines to get away from stress.

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Some more techniques like both Time Management and Anger management are very much essential to get rid of stress.
Listening to good music can give you good relaxation from stress. Thus, your iPod or MP3 player can be your best friend while you are at stressful situation.

Thus, there are many methods, which you can apply as your stress buster. To make yourself happy, pick and choose any of the techniques and stay stress free.

Who is killing us?

Today’s day-to-day work pressure and running after money for a luxurious life are dragging us to a very common disease called ‘Depression’. It is no more an unidentified and uncommon disease in human life. We are quite acquainted with that very word and also suffering most of us due to this disease.

Depression is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals. Like any serious medical condition, depression needs to be treated. To fight against depression we need to understand the cause behind it. Before discussing the cause, it is to be mentioned that study has shown that it is not just state of mind but also physical changes caused by the imbalance of a certain chemicals i.e. Neuromitters.

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Factors causing depression are listed below:- 1) Trauma and Stress: Few common traumatic situations of the which can not be avoided can bring depression, e.g.- sudden demise of a loved ones, split up of relationships, sudden experience to view any accidental or shocking scenes, sudden falling in financial condition etc. People can also get depressed even on normal has-to-be matters like getting married, passing out from school or colleges, starting a new job.
2) Pessimistic personality: Low level depression which is also known as Dysthymia causes by low-self esteem and negative outlook or thinking.
3) Family History: Depression can be caused due to genetic condition. Research has proved that often depressed mother’s gene can cause depression to her baby.
4) Physical Conditions: Any medical conditions like Cancer, HIV or any non-curable diseases can lead any patient to depression. Sometimes during pregnancy mothers feel depressed due to some hormonal changes.
5) Other Psychological Disorders: Anxiety disorders, anorexia, schizophrenia and especially substance abuse line up with the depression.

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Mood Swing related to Depression: Psychiatrist can detect depression by seeing the major shortfall in patient’s behavior or lifestyle:-
1) Feeling sadness, irritability or tension unnecessarily.
2) Feeling of worthlessness, guilt or hopelessness.
3) Attempting suicide frequently.
4) Change in eating habit or appetite disorder, causing obesity or underweight syndrome.
5) Either restlessness or slowed down in work.
6) Decreased ability to take decisions or loss of concentration.
7) Loss of energy, feeling tired despite lack of activity.
8) Sleeping disorder, either insomnia or sleeping too much.
9) Loosing interest in regular activities and strong feeling of monotony.

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Let us now disclose few terms related to depression :


Dysthymia: People who have it may feel mildly depressed on most days over a period of at least two years.


Seasonal Affective Disorder: It is the recurrence of the symptoms during certain seasons that is the hallmark of this type of depression.


Postpartum Depression: It is a type of depression that can occur in women immediately after delivery. It normally persists just few months after delivery but can continue a year long for some cases. It is, hence, different from “Baby-Blues” which occurs the first few days after delivery and resolve spontaneously.


Bipolar Disorder: It is previously known as “Manic Depression”. The bipolar is now used to indicate 2 poles, or extremes. If the North Pole is mania, then the South Pole is depression.

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Ratio of depression among people: Women are on the top of the list and become depressed double the count of men. It is mainly due to hormonal changes during pregnancy, puberty, menstruation, menopause etc. Risk of depression is lesser in men than women. They are more likely to go undiagnosed. Due to this, suicidal attempt is four times more likely than women. Elderly people, after losing their loved ones become depressed due to loneliness. Other family members attribute the signs of depression as the results of ageing. They become reluctant to take to the consultant. Youngsters of today’s generation face the disease due to their high ambition or failure in love relations.

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Brain transmission during depressive disorder: Human brain is made up of billions of nerve cells called neurons. Neurons send and receive messages from the rest of the body parts by using neuromitters, chemicals of a brain.
When depression happens these chemicals can not deal with the messages correctly, causing miscommunication in between human brain and human body.

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Treatment tips: 1) Start taking anti depressants. Although it takes time to reciprocate but you can feel better within a couple of weeks.
2) Without consulting your doctor, do not discontinue antidepressants once it starts working.
3) It may take long term treatment, but stay adhered to it, it will work.
Some more tips:
• Think positive and be optimistic
• Do not let any external factor to disturb your mind and snatch the peace of your life.
• Be involved in work which interests you.
• Make an effective social circle and discuss something positive and fruitful with them.
• Do not take any drastic step while worried.
• Give yourself ample amount of time to delve deeper into the problem and solve it.
• Do not hesitate to take expert’s help.
• Try meditation and little yoga.

So, after a long discussion here is to conclude that life is yours and life is beautiful. Every one has the right to enjoy it. Be anything causing negative with your life, you make yourself armed to fight against the cause. Almighty has given immense power within us. Life is a mystery. Do not get perplexed. Try solving it, and stay happy. Enjoy!

Eat Healthy, Live long

This article is not only the guideline for what to eat but also about how much to eat. Healthy eating habit gives us more energy for hard work. It improves our immunity to combat any kind of disease. Also of course not to forget, it gives us shapely body and delays our aging process. Thus, discussing about the connection between eating healthy and living long is not an odd topic, rather interesting.

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So let’s have in-depth discussion about the healthy diet plan and one should know how much should be our daily intake.

Healthy diet chart

First we should know what kind of food is healthy for our overall health and how much to take.



Grains: Daily intake of grains should be at least 6 to 8 servings. Whole grain should be served at least 3 times a day. Grains include pasta, bread, cereal, rice etc. Amount of each grain serving should be like 1 slice of bread, 1 serving of rice, ½ cup of cooked or 1 cup of ready to eat serving of cereal, ½ cup of cooked pasta.

You can satisfy your tongue with the small amount of croissants, donuts, muffins etc once in a while.


Fruits and vegetables: Intake of fruit should be 2 to 4 servings and vegetables should be 4 to 6 servings. Fruits and vegetables have immense health benefit for its contribution in fiber, vitamin, and minerals to our body. Thus, taking fruits and vegetables everyday in a fresh, boiled or in cooked form with less oil is good for our health. Fruits and vegetables can be used in salad but use of fat laden toppings like butter, mayonnaise etc should be once in a while.


Meat, fish and nuts: Meat, lamb, fish, and poultry products should be cooked in low oil or steaming them is a better option. It is better to remove all kind of fats from them before cooking, and you can season them with herbs, fat-free marinades and spices. You should take them at least 2 to 3 servings daily.



Dairy products: Take dairy products like low-fat yogurt, cheese, and toned milk at least in 2 to 3 servings. One serving of milk or yogurt should be equal to 1 cup and cheese should not be more than 2 ounces.

You should not discard oil, fats and sweets from your diet. You should take it in moderation


Following this diet chart for a lifetime will definitely show you good result.