- Ingrown Hairs
No doubt at some time or another you got rid of some hair only to be greeted with redness and irritation a few days later. Yes, lovely ingrown hairs. Rest assured there are some things you can do to prevent getting ingrown hairs, or say goodbye to them.
What Can Men and Women Do To Prevent Ingrown Hairs From Shaving?
Prep and soften skin and hair. Prior to shaving, use a gentle scrub which will both remove dead skin for a cleaner shave, and help point hair out of the skin for it to be properly shaved. Shave after you have been in the shower for a bit, not right away, since the steam and heat will soften the hair.
Use a new blade, or try a different kind altogether. Old blades are both dull and can introduce bacteria into freshly shaved skin. Some skin types simply do not respond well to standard blade shaving. If you are still having ingrown hairs or razor bump/burn challenges, switch to a high quality electric razor.
Watch your pressure and technique. Press gently with the blade as too much pressure removes excess surface skin. Shave with the grain, as shaving against the grain will cause both skin irritation and point hairs back into the skin causing a bump. Try and avoid shaving over the same area too many times, as each stroke removes skin cells and can cause unnecessary irritation.
Tags: Ingrown Hairs- Prevention and Treatment
Category Genel |
Self-Care at Home
Symptomatic treatment for hemorrhoids can be done at home.
Warm Sitz Baths
- Sitting in a few inches of warm water three times a day for 15-20 minutes may help decrease the inflammation of the hemorrhoids.
- It is important to dry off the anal area completely after each Sitz bath to minimize irritation of the skin surrounding the anus.
Dietary Changes
- Increased fluid intake and dietary fiber (roughage) will decrease the potential for constipation and lessen the pressure on the rectum and anus during a bowel movement, minimizing further swelling, discomfort, and bleeding. Dietary fiber supplements may also help bulk up the stools
Stool Softeners
- Stool softeners may help but once hemorrhoids are present, liquid stools may cause inflammation and infection of the anus. Your health care practitioner and pharmacist are good resources to discuss their use.
Activity Suggestions
- Individuals with hemorrhoids should not sit for long periods of time and may benefit from sitting on an air or rubber donut available at most local pharmacies.
- Exercise is helpful in relieving constipation and in decreasing pressure on the hemorrhoidal veins. Individuals should be encouraged to have a bowel movement as soon as possible after the urge arises. Once that urge passes, stools can become constipated and straining with a bowel movement may occur.
Over-the-Counter Medications
- Many creams, ointments, and suppositories are available for symptom relief and may be used for comfort. However, they do not “cure” hemorrhoids. Often they contain a numbing medication or a corticosteroid to decrease inflammation and swelling.
Category Hemorrhoids |
The most common symptom and sign from hemorrhoids is painless bleeding. There may be bright red blood on the outside of the stools, on the toilet paper, or dripping into the toilet. The bleeding usually is self-limiting.
Bleeding with a bowel movement is never normal and should prompt a visit to a health care practitioner. While hemorrhoids are the most common cause of bleeding with a bowel movement, there may be other reasons to have bleeding including inflammatory bowel disease, infection, and tumors.
Prolapsed Internal Hemorrhoids
Prolapse of an internal hemorrhoid occurs when the internal hemorrhoids swell and extend from their location in the rectum through the anus. A prolapsed internal hemorrhoid:
- can be felt as a lump outside the anus;
- can be gently pushed back through the anus, this may resolve the problem of prolapse but does not fix the hemorrhoid itself;
- may enlarge and swell even more if they cannot be pushed back;
- may become entrapped, which requires medical attention.
Hemorrhoids may also cause pruritus ani or itching around the anus, and a constant feeling of needing to have a bowel movement.
Thrombosed External Hemorrhoids
Thrombosed external hemorrhoids are a painful condition. These occurs when a blood clot develops in the hemorrhoid causing swelling and inflammation.
- When a blood clot occurs in a hemorrhoid, the hemorrhoid will become even more swollen. This swelling leads to increased pain.
- The pain is usually worse with bowel movements and may increase with sitting.
- Thrombosed external hemorrhoids often need medical care and treatment
Category Hemorrhoids |
What are hemorrhoids?
Hemorrhoids are swollen veins in the anal canal. This common problem can be painful, but it’s usually not serious.
Veins can swell inside the anal canal to form internal hemorrhoids. Or they can swell near the opening of the anus to form external hemorrhoids. You can have both types at the same time. The symptoms and treatment depend on which type you have.
See a picture of hemorrhoids 
.
Many people have hemorrhoids at some time.
What causes hemorrhoids?
Too much pressure on the veins in the pelvic and rectal area causes hemorrhoids.
Normally, tissue inside the anus fills with blood to help control bowel movements. If you strain to move stool, the increased pressure causes the veins in this tissue to swell and stretch. This can cause hemorrhoids.
Diarrhea or constipation also may lead to straining and can increase pressure on veins in the anal canal.
Pregnant women can get hemorrhoids during the last 6 months of pregnancy. This is because of increased pressure on the blood vessels in the pelvic area. Straining to push the baby out during labor can make hemorrhoids worse.
Being overweight can also lead to hemorrhoids.
What are the symptoms?
The most common symptoms of both internal and external hemorrhoids include:
- Bleeding during bowel movements. You might see streaks of bright red blood on toilet paper after you strain to have a bowel movement.
- Itching.
- Rectal pain. It may be painful to clean the anal area.
Internal hemorrhoids
With internal hemorrhoids, you may see bright red streaks of blood on toilet paper or bright red blood in the toilet bowl after you have a normal bowel movement. You may see blood on the surface of the stool.
Internal hemorrhoids often are small, swollen veins in the wall of the anal canal. But they can be large, sagging veins that bulge out of the anus all the time. They can be painful if they bulge out and are squeezed by the anal muscles. They may be very painful if the blood supply to the hemorrhoid is cut off. If hemorrhoids bulge out, you also may see mucus on the toilet paper or stool.
External hemorrhoids
External hemorrhoids can get irritated and clot under the skin, causing a hard painful lump. This is called a thrombosed, or clotted, hemorrhoid.
How are hemorrhoids diagnosed?
Your doctor can tell if you have hemorrhoids by asking about your past health and doing a physical exam.
You may not need many tests at first, especially if you are younger than 50 and your doctor thinks that your rectal bleeding is caused by hemorrhoids. Your doctor may just examine your rectum with a gloved finger. Or your doctor may use a short, lighted scope to look inside the rectum.
Rectal bleeding can be a sign of a more serious problem, such as colon, rectal, or anal cancer. So if the first exam does not show a clear cause of your problems, your doctor may use a lighted scope (sigmoidoscope) to look at the lower third of your colon. Or your doctor may use another kind of scope (colonoscope) to look at the entire colon to check for other causes of bleeding.
How are they treated?
For most external hemorrhoids, home treatment is all you need. This includes slowly adding fiber to your meals, drinking more water, and using over-the-counter ointments for a limited time to stop itching. You also may use stool softeners. The same home treatment can be used for most internal hemorrhoids.
If your internal hemorrhoids are severe, you may need other treatment. The doctor may tie off the hemorrhoids with rubber bands or scar the tissue around the hemorrhoids. These treatments reduce the blood supply to the hemorrhoids so that they shrink or go away.
Surgery to remove hemorrhoids may be done if other treatments don’t work.
Healthy habits can help you prevent hemorrhoids or keep them from getting worse. Eat foods that have lots of fiber, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Also, drink plenty of water, and get plenty of exercise.
Category Hemorrhoids |
WEDNESDAY, July 27, 2011 (Health.com) — Many radiologists rely on specialized computer software to pinpoint suspicious areas in routinemammograms. But in a large new study, the technology failed to improve breast cancer detection and also increased a woman’s risk of being told she had an abnormal mammogram when she was, in fact, cancer free.
The study analyzed 1.6 million mammograms taken at 90 radiology facilities in seven states between 1998 and 2006. The findings, which appear online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, extend and confirm the results of a controversial 2007 study from the same research team that cast doubt on the value of the technology, known as computer-aided detection (CAD).
“Women should probably understand that CAD is probably being used to interpret their mammogram and that it’s probably not helping detect breast cancer earlier,” says Joshua J. Fenton, MD, the lead author of both studies and an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine, in Sacramento.
Routine annual mammograms are widely recommended for women 40 and older. The breast X-rays can detect cancer at an early stage, when it’s most treatable, but they aren’t perfect; they miss up to 20 percent of breast cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Having two radiologists interpret a mammogram has been shown to improve the detection rate. In recent years, studies have found CAD software—which scans mammogram images and highlights areas that may require a closer look—to be just as effective in detecting cancers as a second pair of eyes.
Vijay M. Rao, MD, chair of the radiology department at Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, says that in light of the new evidence, radiologists should use more discretion in interpreting CAD results. “Is it a legitimate pair of eyes? Is it really doing the job that the radiologists want it to do?”
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first CAD software in 1998, after a series of small clinical studies found that CAD could boost breast cancer detection without causing an unacceptable number of false-positives, cases in which doctors mistakenly identify benign abnormalities as cancerous.
CAD is now used in roughly three of every four screening mammograms, according to a 2010 analysis of Medicare data published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Medicare pays doctors an additional $12 per mammogram for CAD over and above the reimbursement for the mammogram itself, which ranges from about $80 (for conventional film-screen mammograms) to $130 (for newer digital mammograms).
In the new study, which included more than 680,000 women, the researchers examined film mammograms because too few digital mammograms were conducted during the study period to allow a thorough analysis. (Breast X-rays produced on film must be converted to digital images before they can be analyzed by the computer software.)
The detection rate for noninvasive breast abnormalities improved at radiology facilities that adopted CAD technology, but, crucially, the rate did not improve for invasive breast cancers, the dangerous type that invade healthy tissue in the breast or other parts of the body.
Moreover, in facilities that began using CAD the percentage of women with abnormal mammograms who were accurately diagnosed (a measure known as “positive predictive value”) dropped, from 4.3% to 3.6%.
Rates of false-positives and “recalls”—being called back for further testing—increased slightly after facilities implemented CAD. However, the biopsy rate declined over time regardless of whether CAD was used.
In a similar study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, Fenton and his colleagues reported that CAD reduced the accuracy of mammograms and led to a higher rate of false-positives.
The new investigation shared the same overall design, but the researchers addressed criticisms directed at the earlier study by including a larger number of CAD screens and by excluding mammograms interpreted in the first three months after a facility adopted CAD, when radiologists were becoming accustomed to using the technology.
Despite these improvements, it’s still unclear from the new study whether individual radiologists used CAD correctly, or even whether they used it at all, says Carol H. Lee, MD, chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission, and a New York City–based breast-imaging specialist.
“It makes me think that we as a medical community need to further evaluate the use of CAD,” says Lee, who does not use CAD in her own practice. “But I don’t know that just based on this study that we should abandon this technology.”
The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, an Arlington, Va.–based trade association that represents medical imaging developers and manufacturers, said in a prepared statement that other recent studies have demonstrated the benefits of CAD. Women should have access to the “right scan at the right time,” the association said, whether it’s mammography with CAD or another imaging technique.
In an editorial accompanying Fenton’s study, Donald A. Berry, PhD, chair of the department of biostatistics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, says economic incentives—including the use of CAD as a defense in malpractice suits—”may stoke its continued proliferation.”
Researchers and device companies should work to make the software better, but in an experimental setting and not while exposing millions of women to a technology that may do more harm than good, Berry writes.
Category Breast Cancer |
Narcolepsy is a rare disorder characterized by chronic, excessive attacks of drowsiness during the day, sudden extreme muscle weakness (cataplexy), hallucinations, paralysis while sleeping, and disrupted sleep during the night. Attacks of drowsiness may persist only a few minutes or last for hours, and may vary in frequency from a few incidents to several during a single day. Although the exact cause of narcolepsy is not known, many researchers suspect that genetic factors play a role in the development of the disorder.
Category Sleep Library |
Restless legs syndrome is a condition caused by uncomfortable sensations in the legs that produce an intense, often irresistible urge to move the legs. This can lead to sleep disturbance and severe fatigue that interferes with daily activities.
These sensations are described as “pins and needles,” prickling, creeping, crawling, tingling, and sometimes painful. They most often occur in the evening when the person is attempting to relax or sleep. Moving the legs can temporarily relieve these sensations.
The cause of this syndrome is often not known. Certain drugs (such as antidepressants), pregnancy, or iron deficiency or related anemia can trigger it.
Restless legs syndrome can be treated with drugs such as those that increase the brain chemical dopamine (levodopa or dopamine agonists), pain medications (opioids), or anticonvulsants (gabapentin) to control leg movements and assist with sleep.
Category Sleep Library |
What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea means that your breathing often is blocked or partly blocked during sleep. The problem can be mild to severe, based on how often your lungs don’t get enough air. This may happen from 5 to more than 50 times an hour.
This topic focuses on obstructive sleep apnea, which is the most common type.
A less common type of apnea, called central sleep apnea, can occur in people who have had a stroke, have heart failure, or have a brain tumor or infection. Even though this topic isn’t about central sleep apnea, some of the treatments discussed here may also help treat it. Talk with your doctor to find out more about central sleep apnea.
What causes obstructive sleep apnea?
Blocked or narrowed airways in your nose, mouth, or throat can cause sleep apnea. Your airway can become blocked when your throat muscles and tongue relax during sleep.
Sleep apnea can also occur if you have large tonsils or adenoids or a largeuvula. During the day, when you are awake and standing up, these may not cause problems. But when you lie down at night, they can press down on your airway, narrowing it and causing sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can also occur if you have a problem with your jawbone.
In children, the main cause of sleep apnea is large tonsils or adenoids .
Sleep apnea is more likely to occur if you are overweight, use certain medicines or alcohol before bed, or sleep on your back.
See pictures of normal and blocked airways during sleep.
What are the symptoms?
The main symptoms of sleep apnea that you may notice are:
- Not feeling rested after a night’s sleep.
- Feeling sleepy during the day.
- Waking up with a headache.
Your bed partner may notice that while you sleep:
- You stop breathing.
- You often snore loudly.
- You gasp or choke.
- You toss and turn.
Children who have sleep apnea:
- Nearly always snore.
- May be hyperactive or have problems paying attention during the day.
- May be restless during sleep and wake up often. They also may have problems with bed-wetting.
But children may not seem very sleepy during the day (a key symptom in adults). The only symptom of sleep apnea in some children may be that they do not grow as quickly as most children their age.
Should you worry about sleep apnea?
If you have sleep apnea, you may not be sleeping as well as you could. And you may be more likely to end up with serious problems such as:
How is sleep apnea diagnosed?
Your doctor will probably examine you and ask about your past health. He or she may also ask you or your sleeping partner about your snoring and sleep behavior and how tired you feel during the day.
Your doctor may suggest a sleep study. A sleep study usually takes place at a sleep center, where you will spend the night. Sleep studies find out how often you stop breathing or have too little air flowing into your lungs during sleep. They also find out how much oxygen you have in your blood during sleep. You may have blood tests and X-rays.
How is it treated?
You may be able to treat mild sleep apnea by making changes in how you live and the way you sleep. For example:
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
- Sleep on your side and not your back.
- Avoid alcohol and medicines such as sedatives before bed.
If lifestyle changes do not help sleep apnea, you may be able to use an oral breathing device. These devices help keep your airway open while you sleep.
If you have moderate to severe sleep apnea, you may be able to use a machine that helps you breathe while you sleep. This treatment is calledcontinuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP (say “SEE-pap”). Sometimes medicine that helps you stay awake during the day may be used along with CPAP. If your tonsils, adenoids, uvula, or other tissues are blocking your airway, your doctor may suggest surgery to open your airway.
Category Sleep Library |
Everyone has a “bad night” once in a while. Dogs barking, the wind howling, or overeating may make it hard to sleep. It is estimated that 35% of adults have occasional sleep problems, which can have many causes.
Insomnia
The medical term for difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep is insomnia. Insomnia can include:
- Trouble getting to sleep (taking more than 45 minutes to fall asleep).
- Frequent awakenings with inability to fall back to sleep.
- Early morning awakening.
- Feeling very tired after a night of sleep.
But insomnia usually is not a problem unless it makes you feel tired during the day. If you are less sleepy at night or wake up early but still feel rested and alert, there usually is little need to worry. Fortunately, home treatment measures successfully relieve occasional insomnia.
Occasional insomnia may be caused by noise, extreme temperatures, jet lag, changes in your sleep environment, or a change in your sleep pattern, such as shift work. Insomnia may also be caused by temporary or situational life stresses, such as a traumatic event or an impending deadline. Your insomnia is likely to disappear when the cause of your sleep problem goes away.
- Short-term insomnia may last from a few nights to a few weeks and be caused by worry over a stressful situation or by jet lag.
- Long-term insomnia, which may last months or even years, may be caused by:
- Advancing age. Insomnia occurs more frequently in adults older than age 60.
- Mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, or mania.
- Medicines. Many prescription and nonprescription medicines can cause sleep problems.
- Chronic pain, which often develops after a major injury or illness, such as shingles or back problems, or after a limb has been amputated (phantom limb pain).
- Other physical problems, such as asthma, coronary artery disease, orchronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
- Alcohol and illegal drug use or withdrawal.
- Cigarettes and other tobacco use.
- Drinking or eating foods that contain caffeine, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, or soft drinks (for example, Coke, Pepsi, or Mountain Dew).
Sleep apnea
Sleep apnea is one of several sleep disorders. Sleep apnea refers to repeated episodes of not breathing during sleep for at least 10 seconds (apneic episodes). It usually is caused by a blockage in the nose, mouth, or throat (upper airways). When airflow through the nose and mouth is blocked, breathing may stop for 10 seconds or longer. People who have sleep apnea usually snore loudly and are very tired during the day. It can affect children and adults. See pictures of a normal upper airway during sleep and a blocked upper airway .
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that has distinct symptoms, including:
- Sudden sleep attacks, which may occur during any type of activity at any time of day. You may fall asleep while engaged in an activity such as eating dinner, driving the car, or carrying on a conversation. These sleep attacks can occur several times a day and may last from a few minutes to several hours.
- Sudden, brief periods of muscle weakness while you are awake (cataplexy). This weakness may affect specific muscle groups or may affect the entire body. Cataplexy is often brought on by strong emotional reactions, such as laughing or crying.
- Hallucinations just before a sleep attack.
- Brief loss of the ability to move when you are falling asleep or just waking up (sleep paralysis).
Parasomnias
Parasomnias are undesirable physical activities that occur during sleep involving skeletal muscle activity, nervous system changes, or both. Night terrors and sleepwalking are two types of parasomnias. Sleep can be hard for people who experience parasomnias. While “asleep,” a person with parasomnia may walk, scream, rearrange furniture, eat odd foods, or pick up a weapon.
Parasomnia can cause odd, distressing, and sometimes dangerous nighttime activities. These disorders have medically explainable causes and usually are treatable.
Restless legs syndrome
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a condition that produces an intense feeling of discomfort, aching, or twitching deep inside the legs. Jerking movements may affect the toes, ankles, knees, and hips. Moving the legs or walking around usually relieves the discomfort for a short time.
The exact cause of restless legs syndrome is not known. The symptoms of restless legs syndrome most often occur while a person is asleep or is trying to fall asleep. The twitching or jerking leg movements may wake the person up, causing insomnia, unrestful sleep, and daytime sleepiness.
When a sleep problem or lack of time keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness may occur. While almost everyone experiences daytime sleepiness from time to time, it can have serious consequences such as motor vehicle accidents, poor work or school performance, and work-related accidents.
Sleep problems may be a symptom of a medical or mental health problem. It is important to consider whether a medical or mental health problem is causing you to sleep poorly. Treating a long-term sleep problem without looking for the cause may hide the real reason for your poor sleep.
Use the Check Your Symptoms section to decide if and when you should see a doctor.
Category Sleep Library |
Although several high-profile celebrities have sought treatment for sexual addiction, the diagnosis tends to elicit eye rolling and sarcastic reactions (“Right, I’m a sex addict too”). Because, really, who doesn’t love sex?
To some, saying you have a sex addiction is a bit like saying you’re addicted to the gym or eating cookies; it’s an innocent exaggeration. Add in the fact that many experts aren’t convinced either—sexual addiction is not formally recognized in the bible of psychiatry, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—and the diagnosis smacks of a philanderer’s last-ditch grasp at redemption.
While sex may indeed be akin to drugs in its ability to bring on seriousrelationship wrecking and life-altering (not in a good way) behavior, it is not supported by the same hard evidence that proves addiction, says Charles O’Brien, MD, the chair of the substance-related disorders work group for the American Psychiatric Association, which will publish the DSM-V, the fifth version of the manual.
“Drugs activate [an addict’s] brain’s reward system directly, like getting food or water,” says Dr. O’Brien, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. “It could be that there are some similarities in those people who are called ‘sex addicts,’ but it hasn’t been studied or demonstrated.”
Sexual behavior that might elsewhere be called addiction will instead fall into a new DSM category called hypersexual disorder. Many of the symptoms are similar to what mental health providers consider sex addiction.
But until larger studies are conducted by evaluators who don’t have a hand in providing treatment, there just isn’t enough proof. “Good evidence that it should be classified with addictions doesn’t exist,” says Dr. O’Brien. “Established professionals won’t use that term.”
Still, addiction therapy and rehab programs are booming, and patients swear by their treatment. Despite the debate over the diagnosis, sex addiction counselors say there are distinct differences between the sexually addicted and people who just love sex.
Category Sexual Health |
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