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Vitiligo - white patches appears on the skin

Vitiligo is otherwise known as leukoderma and is a condition in which white patches appears on the skin. Medically it is known as achromia a...

Dandruff removing using alternative medicine

Dandruff is a common scalp condition marked by white flakes on the scalp and that also causes itching. This is mainly caused due to the yeast-like fungus found on the scalp without causing problems. But if we neglect these infections then there is mild inflammation that produces dead skin cells. Later when we apply oil on heir these dead cells mix with the oil and clump together and make them appear white in color over your head and flaky. If you are suffering from this intense dandruff problem then it is high time to tackle then once and for all.
Symptoms of Dandruff:
  • Falling of scales from the scalps
  • Itching on the scalp and redness

Causes of Dandruff:
  • Destruction of normal health, incorrect food intake and constipations
  • Usage of harsh shampoo
  • Exposure to cold and general exhaustion
  • Emotional tensions
  • Over use of hair styling products and chemical like gel, hairspray
  • Exposure to extreme temperatures
  • Scalp fungus infections

Treatment:
If you're looking for a permanent cure for dandruff, you must focus on stopping the skin shedding in your scalp. This can be achieved only by flaking a natural response to a fungus which feeds in your hair's natural oils. So, in order to get rid of dandruff once and for all, you'll have to use the right treatment along with minor adjustments in your lifestyle, diet. Below are few natural measurements for dandruff treatment:
  • Always keep the hair and your scalp clean to avoid accumulation of dead cells
  • Brush and clean hair daily to improve blood circulation to avoid dead cells
  • Usage if fenugreek seeds
  • Treatment using lime
  • Try usage of green gram powder
  • Treatment using Beet
  • Treatment using snake Guard
  • Use essential oil massages like the tea tree oil
  • Apple Cider Vinegar and Biotin are good home remedy for dandruff treatment

Other alternative solutions for dandruff treatments are:
  • Diet – Diet plays an important role in treatment for dandruff. Include fresh juices for about five days a week and take three meals a day of juice fruits. But try to avoid citric fruits, banana and tinned fruits. We should always maintain a well balanced nutritious diet in our life style. Along with this try to avoid strong tea or coffee, pickles refined or processed food items from your diet.
  • Hot steam bath would be a better way of treating dandruff naturally. You need to massage your hair with hot oil and then wrap a hot damp towel. While keeping for few minutes, wash them off nicely.
  • Combine two tablespoons of vinegar and six tablespoons of hot water. Take a cotton ball and apply the above made combination with it on the scalp. Keep this overnight and wash off your hair next morning.
  • Take some beetroot juice and add a few drops of vinegar. Dab this on the scalp.
  • Another effective method to treat dandruff would be to combine 2 tablespoons of fresh apple juice with 2 tablespoons of warm water. Dab this on the hair and keep it for 10-15 minutes before rinsing. Do this for once or twice a week to cure dandruff.
  • Mix olive oil and almond oil in equal proportions. Leave it for about 5 minutes. Once a burning sensation is felt, wash the hair.
  • Conditioning the hair using cider vinegar after shampooing also acts beneficial in removing dandruff.
  • Heat 300 grams of coconut oil with 3 grams of black pepper. Strain this decoction. Once cooled, apply this decoct on the hair and the scalp overnight.
  • Washing the hair with green gram powder in curd twice a week would also cure a person from dandruff.

Acupuncture - a Chinese way of alternative medicine

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a Chinese way of medical therapy that treats patients by insertion and then manipulation of needles in to the body parts. It typically encompasses the traditional Chinese medicine and the prime part of its practice and therapy. This practice always drags us to the prehistorically times but it has supporters who claims that this practice relieves pain, infertility, treats and prevents diseases. Acupuncture upholds the normal body health and also used as the remedial purposes.
Evidences have proved that Acupuncture has been effective in relief of pains due to nausea and it is agreed that this is safe when administrated by well experienced practitioners by using sterile needles. The basic thought brought out by Acupuncture therapy is that disease is caused by an imbalance in the body systems or to say due to some blockage or stagnations.
The following are the common practiced Acupuncture therapies:
  • Needling
  • Medical acupuncture
  • Moxibustion
  • Sonopuncture
  • Acupressure
  • Acupuncture point injection
  • Cosmetic acupuncture


This traditional Chinese medicine is based on a pre-scientific pattern of medicine that developed over several thousand years which inculcates the study of anatomical systems. The anatomical system parts the body's organs into "hollow" and "solid" organs. It is believed that solid organs are related, and hollow organs are related, and that there is a balance between the two "systems" of organs which is important for one’s health. TCM also associates the organs of the body to the stars, planets and astrological beliefs to explain the observed fact of the persistence of health and illness in the human body.

Clinical Practices:
The needles vary from half an inch to several inches in length and depth of insertion together with the way in which they are twirled and vibrated, effects the treatment. Acupuncture sets out and corrects any imbalance that is in the body or in the mind and restore harmony and equilibrium, thus eradicating the causative factors of the sickness. The tip of the needle should not be made too sharp to prevent breakage, although blunt needles because it may cause more pain.
Traditional diagnosis
The acupuncturist decides which points to treat by observing and questioning the patient in order to make a diagnosis according to the tradition which he or she utilizes. In TCM, there are four diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiring, and palpation. Examination of the tongue and the pulse are among the principal diagnostic methods in traditional Chinese medicine.
Acupuncture is dominant medicine which aids in intensification of the immune system and serves to prevent disease and control pain. It increases both the ability to function and quality of people’s lives. Acupuncture is well developed whole healthcare system based on natural energetic laws. Counting back to over 3,000 years as a primary healthcare system in China, acupuncture is widespread in Asia, Europe, and now the U.S.
Working of Acupuncture therapy:
Acupuncture uses instinctive laws and energetic principles with the application of needles, energy, and pressure to specific functional parts of the body. Each point provides a specific function in the body in regulating the free flow of central energy for health and wellbeing. The Acupuncturist opens or closes specific gates or points grouped along certain lines of energy flow called Meridians, which go deep into the body. Vital energy then is strengthened or sedated, monitored, and balanced to achieve the desired result.
Effectiveness of Acupuncture:
  • Studies indicate that acupuncture influences the central and peripheral nervous system.
  • Acupuncture affects sugar, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in the blood, the functioning of the gastrointestinal system and the activity of the endocrine system.
  • Acupuncture works with the body, strengthening and balancing energy.
  • It improves circulation and allows the body to heal itself more quickly and more completely.
This practice is again very much prevalent in our country which should be considered as a variation of acupuncture cure looking at the remarkable similarities in the nature

Wegener Granulomatosis -inflammation of blood vessel

Wegener Granulomatosis
Wegener Granulomatosis is an inflammation of blood vessel that affects the lungs, kidney and other major organs of the body. If not taken proper prevention and treatment it is a life-threatening disease. However this requires a long term immune suppressant treatment. The disease was discovered in 1936 by the physician Dr. Friedrich Wegener. Reports states that Wegener's granulomatosis affects small and medium-sized vessels, it is formally classified as one of the small vessel vasculatures in the Chapel Hill system. Wegener's granulomatosis usually affects young or middle-aged adults. Although it is uncommon in children, it can affect people at any age.
Symptoms of Wegener Granulomatosis:
This syndrome usually shows no specific nature of symptoms. Generally the patients show the first signs of Rhinitis. Other progressive symptoms are:
  • Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis
  • Nose bleeding, loss of hearing,
  • Underlying bone destruction and loosening of teeth
  • Conjunctivitis
  • bronchial stenosis
  • Arthritis
  • Feeling fatigue and weight loss along with fevers
  • shortness of breath
  • skin nodules or ulcers
  • Chest pain
  • Cough, with or without blood
  • Voice change, wheezing, or shortness of breath caused by inflammation of the trachea

Other possible symptoms include:
  • Eye inflammation or bulging, with or without loss of vision
  • muscle pain
  • Rashes or skin sores
  • Kidney inflammation

Causes:
The major cause of Wegener's granulomatosis is not known. Wegener's granulomatosis is a rare disorder in which blood vessels become inflamed, making it hard for blood to flow. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. Wegener granulomatosis is typically suspected only when a patient has had baffling symptoms for a long period of time. Lab findings of patients with Wegener's granulomatosis include urine tests that detect protein and red blood cells in their urine and x-ray tests of the chest and sinuses detects abnormalities resulting from lung and sinus inflammation
To the presence of Wegener granulomatosis your doctor may suggest one of the following:
  • Bronchoscopy with biopsy
  • Kidney biopsy
  • Nasal mucosal biopsy
  • Open lung biopsy
  • Skin biopsy
  • Upper airway biopsy

Other tests that may be done include:
  • Bone marrow aspiration
  • Chest CT scan
  • Chest x-ray

Treatment:
Medicines used to treat Wegener's granulomatosis include:
  • Azathioprine
  • Cyclophosphamide
  • Methotrexate

The critical part of these medicines are that they may cause serious side effects and it is recommended that you should carefully discuss your treatment plan with your doctor, before intake of these medicines.
Other medicines may be prescribed, including:
  • Bisphosphonate  to prevent bone loss caused by prednisone
  • Folic acid or folinic acid
  • methotrexate Trimethoprim to prevent lung infections
  • Glucocorticoid drugs
  • Cytotoxic drugs

Some patients do require a low dose of prednisone to sustain remission. The ideal duration of treatment with the other immunosuppressive medications is uncertain. Indeed many patients who have milder forms of WG can be treated without cyclophosphamide; being able to achieve remission with agents such as methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil or rituximab. The treatment used for Wegener Granulomatosis has also been successfully applied to other vasculitic diseases.
However, due to the increased risk of developing serious infections, these drugs suppress the immune systems and can also result in reactions like eight gain, cataracts, brittle bones, high blood pressure, diabetes, and changes in mood and personality. Because the medicines used to treat WG can have serious side effects, patients are monitored closely by their doctor. The dosage of medicine is adjusted as needed throughout the course of treatment.

Symptoms of Wolman disease

Wolman disease is a lysosomal acid lipase deficiency. This is a rare genitival disorder due to the lack of LAL enzyme. This Lipase enzyme is most important in once body to break down the certain lipids in the cells and the lack of these enzyme leads to the deposition of fats in Liver, gut and other major parts of the body to cause the Wolman disease.
Lysosomes function as recycling centers within cells breaking down a number of unwanted materials to digest particular nutrients, such as certain fats and carbohydrates. When these enzymes are defective or missing altogether because of genetic mutations, LSDs develop as a result of abnormal build-up of material in the body's cells. This disease is typically present later in childhood or even in adulthood.
The complications of Wolman disease progress over time, eventually leading to life-threatening problems such as extremely low levels of circulating red blood cells, liver dysfunction or failure, and physical wasting. The affected infants with Wolman disease cannot survive beyond the first year of their life.
Symptoms of Wolman disease:
The signs and symptoms of Wolman disease usually appear shortly after birth, typically in the first few weeks of life. Affected infants may have the following:
  • Feeding difficulties with frequent vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Swelling of the abdomen
  • Enlargement of the liver and spleen
  • Failure to gain weight or sometimes weight loss
  • low muscle tone
  • low blood iron
  • x-ray reveals calcified adrenal glands

Causes Wolman Disease:
Wolman disease as stated above is typically caused due to the lack of LAL gene. This can be name as a genitival disorder. Wolman disease may go undetected sometime; this clearly states that there are no such clinical measures to inform in the medical literature about how common this condition is. Both the community of males and females are equally affected with this disease. Recently greater frequency of an abnormal LAL gene has been established in the Iranian-Jewish population.
Treatments:
Currently we are in the progress of finding a better and approved treatment for Wolman disease that clinically stops or reverse the abnormalities in patients with Wolman disease. Researchers are on their way of investigating therapies called hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), also known as bone marrow transplant, to try to prevent the disease from getting worse.
Stem cell replacement, which requires the child to be hospitalized and treated with very strong medicines before and after the procedure, has its own significant risks and potential benefits
The recent researched has claimed the following effectiveness due to the Stem cell replacement therapy:
    • The healthy cells produced by the new marrow contain sufficient levels of lysosomal acid lipase required to breakdown cholesterol and triglycerides.
    • Individuals with Wolman disease treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation have shown improvement of existing symptoms and avoidance of additional complications such as liver failure.
    • HCST for Wolman’s disease at present is associated with a high risk of serious complications.

The other alternative treatment would be the Gene therapy where in the defective gene present in a patient is replaced with a normal gene to enable the production of active enzyme and prevent the development and progression of the disease in question. Once the permanent transfer of the gene is given that will be able to produce active enzyme at all sites of disease, then only this form of therapy is theoretically lead to a "cure”. However, due to the technical difficulties, the resolution for the gene therapy is stagnant under its way.
As of now if the adrenal glands are not functioning well, medications can be given to replace the hormones the glands usually make. IV Nutrition can be given intravenously rather than through the digestive system. Recent clinical tests stated that the Bone marrow transplant caused remission in one patient. Blood transfusion can be given if anemia develops in the patient. These treatment measures can be processed for Wolman Disease.

Rare Disease Day 2011

We recognize rare disease day. Rare disease day held on the last day of February to raise awareness for rare diseases and improve access to treatment. Please share your experience and make them feel who are suffering from rare disease as it is a common disease.

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"The information provided on this blog may or may not be relevent. All the information are
collected from various sources and websites. Please take advice from registered medical
practitioner before trying the treatment explained in this blog. We will not take any
responsiblity."