Anxiety Disorders And Solutions

What Are the Types of Anxiety Disorders?

There are several recognized types of anxiety disorders, including :-

·         Panic disorder: People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy."

·         Social anxiety disorder: Also called social phobia, social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.

·         Specific phobias: A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights, or flying. The level of fear is usually inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.

·         Generalized anxiety disorder: This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.

What Are the Symptoms of an Anxiety Disorder?

·         Symptoms vary depending on the type of anxiety disorder, but general symptoms include:

·         Feelings of panic, fear, and uneasiness

·         Problems sleeping

·         Cold or sweaty hands and/or feet

·         Shortness of breath

·         Heart palpitations

·         An inability to be still and calm

·         Dry mouth

·         Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet

·         Nausea

·         Muscle tension

·         Dizziness

What Causes Anxiety Disorders?

·         The exact cause of anxiety disorders is unknown; but anxiety disorders -- like other forms of mental illness -- are not the result of personal weakness, a character flaw, or poor upbringing. As scientists continue their research on mental illness, it is becoming clear that many of these disorders are caused by a combination of factors, including changes in the brain and environmental stress.

·         Like other brain illnesses, anxiety disorders may be caused by problems in the functioning of brain circuits that regulate fear and other emotions. Studies have shown that severe or long-lasting stress can change the way nerve cells within these circuits transmit information from one region of the brain to another. Other studies have shown that people with certain anxiety disorders have changes in certain brain structures that control memories linked with strong emotions. In addition, studies have shown that anxiety disorders run in families, which means that they can at least partly be inherited from one or both parents, like the risk for heart disease or cancer. Moreover, certain environmental factors -- such as a trauma or significant event -- may trigger an anxiety disorder in people who have an inherited susceptibility to developing the disorder.

What Are the Types of Anxiety Disorders?

There are several recognized types of anxiety disorders, including:

·         Panic disorder: People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy."

·         Social anxiety disorder: Also called social phobia, social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.

·         Specific phobias: A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights, or flying. The level of fear is usually inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.

·         Generalized anxiety disorder: This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.

What Are the Symptoms of an Anxiety Disorder?

·         Symptoms vary depending on the type of anxiety disorder, but general symptoms include:

·         Feelings of panic, fear, and uneasiness

·         Problems sleeping

·         Cold or sweaty hands and/or feet

·         Shortness of breath

·         Heart palpitations

·         An inability to be still and calm

·         Dry mouth

·         Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet

·         Nausea

·         Muscle tension

·         Dizziness

What Causes Anxiety Disorders?

·         The exact cause of anxiety disorders is unknown; but anxiety disorders -- like other forms of mental illness -- are not the result of personal weakness, a character flaw, or poor upbringing. As scientists continue their research on mental illness, it is becoming clear that many of these disorders are caused by a combination of factors, including changes in the brain and environmental stress.

·         Like other brain illnesses, anxiety disorders may be caused by problems in the functioning of brain circuits that regulate fear and other emotions. Studies have shown that severe or long-lasting stress can change the way nerve cells within these circuits transmit information from one region of the brain to another. Other studies have shown that people with certain anxiety disorders have changes in certain brain structures that control memories linked with strong emotions. In addition, studies have shown that anxiety disorders run in families, which means that they can at least partly be inherited from one or both parents, like the risk for heart disease or cancer. Moreover, certain environmental factors -- such as a trauma or significant event -- may trigger an anxiety disorder in people who have an inherited susceptibility to developing the disorder.

Can Anxiety Disorders Be Prevented?

Anxiety disorders cannot be prevented; however, there are some things you can do to control or lessen symptoms:

·         Stop or reduce consumption of products that contain caffeine, such as coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, and chocolate.

·         Ask your doctor or pharmacist before taking any over-the-counter medicines or herbal remedies. Many contain chemicals that can increase anxiety symptoms.

·         Seek counseling and support if you start to regularly feel anxious with no apparent cause.

JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY: A STEP TOWARDS LEADING A NEAR NORMAL LIFE

Dr. Sachin Gupta (M.S., F.I.R.S., M.Ch.(USA)

With over 180 million people in India suffering from arthritis, it is one of the most prevalent lifestyle diseases in the country. The pain, inflammation and stiffness in joints make it difficult for a person affected by arthritis to effectively perform his day-to-day chores and to enjoy simple pleasures of life, like taking a morning walk, climbing stairs or playing with one’s grandchildren. 

While one can exert caution and delay arthritis progression by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including exercising regularly and consuming a balanced diet, it is a physically crippling disease and medicines can only provide symptomatic relief for it. In fact, since a person’s knees take the maximum pressure of body weight, knee joints are more prone to wear and tear and progression of the disease. Mobility is the key to sharing life’s beautiful moments with your family and joint pain can come in the way. Joint replacement surgery is a safe and effective option for treatment for severe arthritis pain.

Unfortunately, in India, knee replacement surgery is treated as a last resort for arthritis treatment due to certain myths around the procedure. An unnecessary delay in the surgery will reduce the quality of your life and deprive you of its precious moments. Some of the most common myths about knee replacement surgery are as under:

Myth: Knee replacement surgery is for old people only.

Fact: Earlier, arthritis was believed to be an old person’s disease. However, it is a lifestyle disease and is increasingly affecting people at younger age groups. Hence, decision about undergoing surgery should be dictated by the stage of arthritis and immobility level of the affected person. If someone is affected by an advanced stage arthritis but delays surgery due to age factor, he/she will lose out on enjoying the most important years of his/her life.

Myth: Knee replacement surgery should be delayed as much as possible.

Fact: The line of medicinal treatment available for arthritis management only provides symptomatic relief to the patient but does not address the physical damage to the joints. Hence, when arthritis starts affecting a person’s life and limits his mobility, knee replacement surgery is the trusted and efficacious treatment option. A decision to delay surgery negatively affects the quality of life of a person before the surgery and increases the recovery period, post-surgery.

Myth: A knee implant does not feel natural.

Fact: Due to advancement in science and technology, now high-quality implants, which allow patients to bend the knee joint to the natural bending of close to 150 degrees, and feel and move in a manner similar to the natural knee joint. Modern materials used for resurfacing of joints are not only strong & durable but also provide the least amount of friction possible. The use of light-weight materials like highly-polished Cobalt-Chrome makes the implant last much longer than before. Also the advent of computer navigated knee replacement has revolutionized the results of knee surgery.  Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) allows surgeons to align the bones and joint implants with an extremely high degree of accuracy. Now the patients can look forward to a faster post-operative recovery and return to normal social and leisure activities.

Myth: All knee implants are same.

Fact: Knee implants are available in different types, shapes and sizes, to accommodate each person’s physiology & lifestyle requirements. It is best to consult a Specialist Joint Replacement Surgeon on the best implant option based on your requirements. Years of research have allowed manufacturers to create high flexion implants that are customized for Asian lifestyles keeping in mind activities like sitting on the floor and other requirements with respect to religion, culture.

Myth: Knee implants last only about ten years.

Fact: The long term success of the surgery often depends on various factors such as: a) Surgeon’s skill and the experience he has in the technique used; b) Material and design of the implants used. Improved quality of implants ensures that your replaced joint lasts longer; c) Robust hospital infrastructure with excellent overall hygiene that eliminates the chances of post-surgical infection, specialized operation theatre equipped with latest technology and a caring paramedic staff; d) The care taken and follow up ensured by the patients themselves. Advances in materials and design of devices can increase the life of knee replacements from 10-15 years to almost 25- 30 years. 

With the advancement in technology, knee replacement surgery has become a simple and less time-consuming procedure. With the introduction of minimally invasive surgical techniques, a person feels minimal discomfort during the procedure and experiences a faster recovery post procedure.

Along with these surgical techniques, new surgical implants have been developed to ensure that patients suffering from arthritis can get back to an active lifestyle post-surgery. These implants can accommodate bending of the knee up to 150 degrees while ensuring additional stability when the joint is bent to this high degree. Modern implants also have a lower rate of wear and tear as compared to older designs, along with smoother movement of joints.

For the long-term success of joint replacement surgery, it is important to choose a skilled surgeon and high quality implants. Your surgeon will be your guide through your entire knee replacement procedure and can help you select the implant that best suits your needs and lifestyle.

Here’s a chance to break the shackles of pain and embrace freedom – Freedom of mobility and freedom of expressing love with your family!

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Dr. Renu Jain(Medical Director, M.B.B.S., M.S.,(Obs. & Gyane), IVF – Specialist GP Shekhawati Hospital And Research Center)
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (say "pah-lee-SIS-tik OH-vuh-ree SIN-drohm") is a problem in which a woman's hormones are out of balance. It can cause problems with your periods and make it difficult to get pregnant. PCOS also may cause unwanted changes in the way you look. If it isn't treated, over time it can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Most women with PCOS grow many small cysts on their ovaries. That is why it is called polycystic ovary syndrome. The cysts are not harmful but lead to hormone imbalances.

Early diagnosis and treatment can help control the symptoms and prevent long-term problems.

Hormones are chemical messengers that trigger many different processes, including growth and energy production. Often, the job of one hormone is to signal the release of another hormone.

For reasons that are not well understood, in PCOS the hormones get out of balance. One hormone change triggers another, which changes another. For example:

The sex hormones get out of balance. Normally, the ovaries make a tiny amount of male sex hormones (androgens). In PCOS, they start making slightly more androgens. This may cause you to stop ovulating, get acne, and grow extra facial and body hair.

The body may have a problem using insulin, called insulin resistance. When the body doesn't use insulin well, blood sugar levels go up. Over time, this increases your chance of getting diabetes.

The cause of PCOS is not fully understood, but genetics may be a factor. PCOS seems to run in families, so your chance of having it is higher if other women in your family have it or have irregular periods or diabetes. PCOS can be passed down from either your mother's or father's side.

Symptoms tend to be mild at first. You may have only a few symptoms or a lot of them. The most common symptoms are:

1.     Acne.

2.     Weight gain and trouble losing weight.

3.     Extra hair on the face and body. Often women get thicker and darker facial hair and more hair on the chest, belly, and back.

4.     Thinning hair on the scalp.

Irregular periods. Often women with PCOS have fewer than nine periods a year. Some women have no periods. Others have very heavy bleeding.

Fertility problems. Many women who have PCOS have trouble getting pregnant (infertility).

Depression.

TREATMENT AND PRECAUSTION-

Polycystic ovary syndrome treatment generally focuses on management of your individual main concerns, such as infertility, hirsutism, acne or obesity.

As a first step, your doctor may recommend weight loss through a low-calorie diet combined with moderate exercise activities. Even a modest reduction in your weight — for instance, losing 5 percent of your body weight — might improve your condition.

Medications

Your doctor may prescribe a medication to:

Regulate your menstrual cycle. To regulate your menstrual cycle, your doctor may recommend combination birth control pills — pills that contain both estrogen and progestin. These birth control pills decrease androgen production and give your body a break from the effects of continuous estrogen, lowering your risk of endometrial cancer and correcting abnormal bleeding. As an alternative to birth control pills, you might use a skin patch or vaginal ring that contains a combination of estrogen and progestin. During the time that you take this medication to relieve your symptoms, you won't be able to conceive.

If you're not a good candidate for combination birth control pills, an alternative approach is to take progesterone for 10 to 14 days every one to two months. This type of progesterone therapy regulates your periods and offers protection against endometrial cancer, but it doesn't improve androgen levels and it won't prevent pregnancy. The progestin-only mini pill or progestin-containing intrauterine devices are better choices if you also wish to avoid pregnancy.

Your doctor also may prescribe metformin (Glucophage, Fortamet, others), an oral medication for type 2 diabetes that improves insulin resistance and lowers insulin levels. This drug may help with ovulation and lead to regular menstrual cycles. Metformin also slows the progression to type 2diabetes if you already have prediabetes and aids in weight loss if you also follow a diet and an exercise program.

Help you ovulate. If you're trying to become pregnant, you may need a medication to help you ovulate. Clomiphene (Clomid, Serophene) is an oral anti-estrogen medication that you take in the first part of your menstrual cycle. If clomiphene alone isn't effective, your doctor may add metformin to help induce ovulation.

If you don't become pregnant using clomiphene and metformin, your doctor may recommend using gonadotropins — follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) medications that are administered by injection. Another medication that your doctor may have you try is letrozole (Femara). Doctors don't know exactly how letrozole works to stimulate the ovaries, but it may help with ovulation when other medications fail.

When taking any type of medication to help you ovulate, it's important that you work with a reproductive specialist and have regular ultrasounds to monitor your progress and avoid problems.

Reduce excessive hair growth. Your doctor may recommend birth control pills to decrease androgen production, or another medication called spironolactone (Aldactone) that blocks the effects of androgens on the skin. Because spironolactone can cause birth defects, effective contraception is required when using the drug, and it's not recommended if you're pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Eflornithine (Vaniqa) is another medication possibility; the cream slows facial hair growth in women.

Lifestyle and home remedies

To help offset the effects of PCOS:

Keep your weight in check.

Obesity makes insulin resistance worse. Weight loss can reduce both insulin and androgen levels and may restore ovulation. No single specific dietary approach is best, but losing weight by reducing how many calories you consume each day may help with polycystic ovary syndrome, especially if you're overweight or obese. Use smaller plates, reduce portion sizes and resist the urge for seconds to help with weight loss. Ask your doctor to recommend a weight-control program, and meet regularly with a dietitian for help in reaching weight-loss goals.

Consider dietary changes.

 Low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets may increase insulin levels, so you may want to consider a low-carbohydrate diet if you have PCOS — and if your doctor recommends it. Don't severely restrict carbohydrates; instead, choose complex carbohydrates, which are high in fiber. The more fiber in a food, the more slowly it's digested and the more slowly your blood sugar levels rise. High-fiber carbohydrates include whole-grain breads and cereals, whole-wheat pasta, bulgur wheat, barley, brown rice, and beans. Limit less healthy, simple carbohydrates such as soda, excess fruit juice, cake, candy, ice cream, pies, cookies and doughnuts.

Be active.

Exercise helps lower blood sugar levels. If you have PCOS, increasing your daily activity and participating in a regular exercise program may treat or even prevent insulin resistance and help you keep your weight under control.

HEALTH BENIFITS WITH BEST AND ONE OF OLDEST SWEETEST LIQUOR- HONEY

HEALTH BENIFITS WITH BEST AND ONE OF OLDEST SWEETEST LIQUOR- HONEY

GPSHRC Trying to discover the health benefits of one of the oldest sweeteners on earth, plus some interesting trivia, some great recipes and a few cautions.

Bees swallow, digest and regurgitate nectar to make honey; this nectar contains almost 600 compounds. We need our bees, so let’s do everything we can to save them and keep them here on this earth.

Honey is so good we have included it in our list of power foods that should be in your kitchen right now.

Health Benefits:

1. Prevent cancer and heart disease:
Honey contains flavonoids, antioxidants which help reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease.

2. Reduce ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders.
Recent research shows that honey treatment may help disorders such as ulcers and bacterial gastroenteritis. This may be related to the 3rd benefit…

3. Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-fungal:
All honey is antibacterial, because the bees add an enzyme that makes hydrogen peroxide.

4. Increase athletic performance.
Ancient Olympic athletes would eat honey and dried figs to enhance their performance. This has now been verified with modern studies, showing that it is superior in maintaining glycogen levels and improving recovery time than other sweeteners.

5. Reduce cough and throat irritation:
Honey helps with coughs, particularly buckwheat honey. In a study of 110 children, a single dose of buckwheat honey was just as effective as a single dose of dextromethorphan in relieving nocturnal cough and allowing proper sleep.

6. Balance the 5 elements: 
Honey has been used in ayurvedic medicine in India for at least 4000 years and is considered to affect all three of the body’s primitive material imbalances positively. It is also said to be useful in improving eyesight, weight loss, curing impotence and premature ejaculation, urinary tract disorders, bronchial asthma, diarrhea, and nausea.

Honey is referred as “Yogavahi” since it has a quality of penetrating the deepest tissues of the body. When honey is used with other herbal preparations, it enhances the medicinal qualities of those preparations and also helps them to reach the deeper tissues.

7. Blood sugar regulation:
Even though honey contains simple sugars, it is NOT the same as white sugar or artificial sweeteners. Its exact combination of fructose and glucose actually helps the body regulate blood sugar levels. Some honeys have a low hypoglycemic index, so they don’t jolt your blood sugar. (Watch this video Sweetener Comparison where I compare stevia, brown rice syrup, honey, molasses and agave, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each.)

8. Heal wounds and burns:
External application of honey has been shown to be as effective as conventional treatment with silver sulfadiazene. It is speculated that the drying effect of the simple sugars and honey’s anti-bacterial nature combine to create this effect.

9. Probiotic:
Some varieties of honey possess large amounts of friendly bacteria. This includes up to 6 species of lactobacilli and 4 species of bifidobacteria. This may explain many of the “mysterious therapeutic properties of honey.”

10. Beautiful skin:
Its anti-bacterial qualities are particularly useful for the skin, and, when used with the other ingredients, can also be moisturising and nourishing! For a powerful home beauty treatment for which you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already.

Different honeys have different flavonoid profiles, depending on the floral source of the nectar.

Types of Honey (most popular)

• Alfalfa
• Blueberry
• Buckwheat
• Clover
• Manuka
• Orange Blossom
• Wildflower

There are at least 40 types – each one has distinctive taste and unique properties.
Darker honey tends to have higher antioxidant levels.
Monofloral honey (honey from a single plant species) usually has the lowest glycemic index (GI). For example, locust honey from the Black Locust tree has a GI of 32. Clover honey, which is used commercially, has the highest glycemic index at 69.

Honey Suggestions:

If you want to get the goodness from your honey, make sure it is pure and raw.
Raw honey contains vitamins, minerals and enzymes not present in refined honey.

Honey Cautions:

• Best not to feed to infants. Spores of Clostridium botulinum have been found in a small percentage of honey in North America. This is not dangerous to adults and older children, but infants can have a serious reaction of illness in the first year. Do not add honey to baby food or use as a soother to quiet a fussy or colicky baby. Most Canadian honey is not contaminated with the bacteria causing infant botulism, but it’s still best not to take the chance.
• Honey is a sugar, so do not eat jars full of it if you value your good health and want to maintain a healthy weight. It has a high caloric value and will put you on a sugar high and low.

To cook with honey or not: There is some controversy about cooking with honey, although I cannot substantiate it from all of my research about honey.

when honey is heated above 108 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes transformed into a glue-like substance that is extremely difficult to digest. This substance is considered a toxin (ama), since it adheres to the tissues of the body and is very difficult to remove.

EARTH DAY

GPSHRC With a pledge to protect the Earth

GPSHRC Wishes -" Happy Earth Day", Earth is home to us we are responsible for it's care and to keep it healthy and clean so, that it can keep us healthy.

Basically Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.

In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honour the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be celebrated on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

Earth Day Anthem (William Wallace)

The "Ode to Joy" melody by Beethoven, the official anthem of the European Union, also is performed on the Earth Day. Lyrics for the Earth Day Anthem set to "Ode to Joy" are as follows:

Joyful joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment

Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch

We make our home a newborn world

10 DAILY HABITS THAT WILL GIVE YOU INCREDIBLE WILLPOWER

Top 10 habits that have been scientifically proven to give you incredible willpower!

1.  MEDITATE

Meditation is the fastest and most effective way to increase your willpower. By meditating you are training the brain to focus and resist the urge to wander. Research shows that after just 2-3 days of practising meditation for 10 minutes, your brain will be able to focus better, you will have more energy, and you will be less stressed. 

2. EAT A LOW GLYCEMIC DIET

When the body takes in food, it creates a chemical known as glucose that travels through the blood stream. This is what the brain uses as its source of fuel to think, create, and exert willpower. So to ensure a healthy stock of willpower, we want to make sure our brain has enough glucose to use as energy.

3. GET ENOUGH SLEEP 

When you don't get enough sleep, your willpower takes the biggest hit. When you are tired, your brain cells are not able to absorb glucose as efficiently as when you are well rested. This means that you begin lose the “power” in your willpower. 

4. EXERCISE 

We all know that exercise is good for our health, but can it also be good for our willpower? In order to find out, researchers found 24 non-exercisers between 18 and 50 to partake in a 2-month study. They were given free gym memberships and asked to exercise just 1x/week for the first month and 3x/week for the second month.

5.  FOCUS ON ONE TASK AT A TIME

focusing on one task at a time, we are making the part of the brain that exerts willpower stronger!

6. PRACTICE MINDFULNESS

We tend to believe that every choice we make throughout the day goes through a process of well-informed decision-making. But 45% of our daily-decision are made completely automatically. From what we decide to eat, what we decide to wear and what we decide to do when we first get to work, our brains are running on autopilot.

7. SELF-MONITORING 

Something odd happens in our brains when we look at ourselves in the mirror. The part of the brain that would say "hey, that's me in the mirror" is not activated. Instead it is a part of the brain that says "I wish I was taller, skinnier, more muscular, etc."

8.  PLAY OFFENCE 

When researchers came across a group of people in the Netherlands who seemingly had unstoppable willpower, they thought they must be saints. They ate extremely healthy, exercised regularly, hardly procrastinated and reported less stress than almost everyone around them.

9. FIND INSPIRATION

We have all experienced the feeling of inspiration at some point in our lives. It may have been from a story in history, a speech by a great leader, or by someone in our own lives. When we become inspired, we get a rush of energy that we feel can take us to new heights. It's almost as if we get more willpower.

10. CHUNKING 

The last and perhaps the most important willpower habit is chunking. Chunking is the process of taking a large task, goal, dream, etc. and breaking it into manageable “chunks”.