cognitive dysfunction

Cognitive dysfunctions are a category of mental health disorders that primarily affect learning, memory, perception, and problem solving, and include amnesia, dementia, and delirium.

 Causes vary between the different types of disorders but most include damage to the memory portions of the brain.

 Treatments depend on how the disorder is caused. Medication and therapies are the most common treatments; however, for some types of disorders such as certain types of amnesia, treatments can suppress the symptoms but there is currently no cure.

Fibromyalgia

Casstiel says: Fibromyalgia  is characterised by chronic widespread pain and allodynia (a heightened and painful response to pressure).

 Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain,

bipolar disorder (manic depression)

Alberto says:  Bipolar disorder, also known as bipolar affective disorder, manic-depressive illness, or affective psychosis, is a mental illness characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression.

The elevated mood is significant and is known asmania or hypomania depending on the severity. During mania an individual feels or acts abnormally happy, energetic, or irritable.

They often make poorly thought out decisions with little regard to the consequences. The need for sleep is usually reduced.

 During periods of depression there may be crying, poor eye contact with others, and a negative outlook on life.

 The risk of suicide among those with the disorder is high at greater than 6% over 20 years, while self harm occurs in 30-40%.

Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorder and drug misuse are commonly associated.

The cause is not clearly understood, but both genetic and environmental factors play a role. Typically many genes are involved. Environmental factors include long term stress and a history of childhood abuse.

It is divided into bipolar I disorder if there is at least one manic episode and bipolar II disorder if there are at least one hypomanic episode and one major depressive episode.

 In those with less severe symptoms of a prolonged duration the condition cyclothymic disorder may be present. If due to drugs or medical problems it is classified separately.

Other conditions that may present in a similar manner include: drug misuse, personality disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia as well as a number of medical conditions.

Treatment commonly includes psychotherapy and medications such as mood stabilizers or antipsychotics. Examples of mood stabilizers that are commonly used include: lithium and anticonvulsants.

Treatment in hospital against a person's wishes may be required at times as people may be at risk to themselves or others yet refuse treatment. Severe behavioural problems may be managed with short term benzodiazepines or antipsychotics. In periods of mania it is recommended that antidepressants be stopped.

If antidepressants are used for periods of depression they should be used with a mood stabilizer. Electroconvulsive therapy may be helpful in those who do not respond to other treatments. If treatments is stopped it is recommended that this be done slowly.

Most people have social, financial or work related problem due to the disorder. These difficulties occur a quarter to a third of the time on average. The risk of death from natural causes such as heart disease is twice that of the general population. This is due to poor lifestyle choices and the side effects from medications.

About 3% of people in the United States have bipolar disorder at some point in their life.

Lower rates of around 1% are found in other countries. The most common age at which symptoms begin is 25.

Rates appear to be similar in males as females. The economic costs of the disorder has been estimated at $45 billion for the United States in 1991. People with bipolar disorder often face problems with social stigma.

hermaphroditism

Alberto says:  Just recently, I watched over ch 2 TFC channel a guy who was interviewed disclosing that he has two genital organs: that of a male and female. He was claimed to be a hermaphrodite.
A hermaphrodite describes a person who is born with both female and male physical characteristics.

Increasingly, however, intersex is becoming a more popular description when referring to individuals of this congenital state.

A hermaphrodite may be born with both sex organs or may be born with one main sex organ, but possess part of a second opposite organ.

Beyond visible features, other physical characteristics may also cause a person to be defined as intersex, such as the chromosomal differences apparent in Klinefelter syndrome where a male is born with two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome.

Aside from having an ambiguous-looking external genitalia, true hermaphroditism in humans differs from pseudohermaphroditism in that the person's karyotype has both XX and XY chromosome pairs (47XXY, 46XX/46XY, 46XX/47XXY or 45X/XY mosaic) and having both testicular and ovarian tissue.

One possible pathophysiologic explanation of this rare phenomenon is a parthenogenetic division of a haploid ovum into two haploid ova.

Upon fertilization of the two ova by two sperm cells (one carrying an X and the other carrying a Ychromosome), the two fertilized ova are then fused together resulting in a person having dual genitalial, gonadal (ovotestes) and genetic sex.

Another common cause of hermaphroditism is the crossing over of the SRY from the Y chromosome to the X chromosome during meiosis.

 The SRY is then activated in only certain areas, causing development of testes in some areas by beginning a series of events starting with the upregulation of SOX9, and in other areas not being active (causing the growth of ovarian tissues).

Thus, testicular and ovarian tissues will both be present in the same individual.

mild cognitive impairment

Alberto says: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI, also known as incipient dementia, or isolated memory impairment) is a brain function syndrome involving the onset and evolution of cognitive impairments beyond those expected based on the age and education of the individual, but which are not significant enough to interfere with their daily activities.

It is often found to be a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Although MCI can present with a variety of symptoms, when memory loss is the predominant symptom it is termed "amnestic MCI" and is frequently seen as a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease.

Studies suggest that these individuals tend to progress to probable Alzheimer’s disease at a rate of approximately 10% to 15% per year.

Additionally, when individuals have impairments in domains other than memory it is classified as nonamnestic single- or multiple-domain MCI and these individuals are believed to be more likely to convert to other dementias (e.g., dementia with Lewy bodies).

However, some instances of MCI may simply remain stable over time or even remit. Causation of the syndrome in and of itself remains unknown, as therefore do prevention and treatment.

There is no proven treatment or therapy for mild cognitive impairment. As MCI may represent a prodromal state to clinical Alzheimer’s disease, treatments proposed for Alzheimer’s disease, such as antioxidants and cholinesterase inhibitors, may be useful.

gout

Alberto says: What is gout? Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint.

 The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected.

. However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate nephropathy.

It is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood.

 The uric acid crystallizes, and the crystals deposit in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues.

food supplements

Gbex says:There are several main groups of food supplements which can be considered:

* Vitamins and co-vitamins
* Essential minerals
* Essential fatty acids
* Essential amino acids
* Glyconutrients
* Phytonutrients
Several ranges of food supplements are recognised:

* additives which repair a deficit to "normal" levels
* additives which appear to enhance a food
* supplements taken in addition to the normal diet

Many physicians today disagree with the premise that foodstuffs need supplementation, but accept that - for example - added calcium may provide benefit, or that adding folic acid may correct a nutritional deficiency especially in pregnant women.

On a more controversial level, but well founded in scientific basis[citation needed], is the science of using foods and food supplements to achieve a defined health goal.

A common example of this use of food supplements is the extent to which body builders will use amino acid mixtures, vitamins and phytochemicals to enhance natural hormone production, increase muscle and reduce fat.

Moving on from this reasonably accepted usage, there is increasing evidence for the use of food supplements in established medical conditions.

This nutritional supplementation using foods as medicine (nutraceuticals) has been effectively used in treating disorders affecting the immune system up to and including cancers. This goes beyond the definition of "food supplement", but should be included for the sake of completeness.

How to do sit ups

Lawrence says: Most of us search for ways to tone up our abdominal area. However, a lot of us can't or don't want to do basic sit ups. To do the sit ups, you will need to use your abdominal muscles to lift your body off the floor about six to eight inches. If this is hard to do, try imagining that there's an invisible string connecting your belly button with the ceiling, and that every time you lift up, the string is what is lifting you up. You need to keep the string taut and straight, so you cannot bend forward, and you since your belly button is where this invisible string is, you can't use your neck muscles either to do these sit ups.

After a few reps of these you can begin to appreciate that these are indeed very effective sit ups. If you want more of a challenge however, or you just want to vary your routine somewhat to make the most of your need to do sit ups to get a tight stomach, there are variations on this type of sit up which you can do, and which are just as effective.

And one of the variations of these abdomen-tightening effective sit ups, is to simply include an exercise ball into your routine. Sit on the ball with your feet planted firmly on the ground, your legs about shoulder width apart to help you keep your balance. Maneuver yourself and the ball so that it is now underneath the small of your back, or in other words, you need to be lying on the ball with your torso parallel with the floor, and your legs keeping you balanced.

Place your hands behind the head and using the same muscles as earlier, crunch your ab muscles to pull your entire upper body between six to eight inches above the horizontal. To really feel the burn with these highly effective sit ups, when lowering your upper body back down again into position, go below the horizontal line by a few inches, before raising yourself up once more into the crunch. And Voila! you're done!

beware of hepa B

Gbex says: Hepatitis B is an infectious illness caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) which infects the liver of hominoidae, including humans, and causes an inflammation called hepatitis.

Originally known as "serum hepatitis", the disease has caused epidemics in parts of Asia and Africa, and it is endemic in China.

About a third of the world's population, more than 2 billion people, have been infected with the hepatitis B virus.

This includes 350 million chronic carriers of the virus. Transmission of hepatitis B virus results from exposure to infectious blood or body fluids such as saliva and urine, but it doesn't appear in the patient's or carrier's stool as in Epidemic Liver Inflammation A Hepatitis.

The acute illness causes liver inflammation, vomiting, jaundice and—rarely—death. Chronic hepatitis B may eventually cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer—a fatal disease with very poor response to current chemotherapy. The infection is preventable by vaccination.

Hepatitis B virus is an hepadnavirus—hepa from hepatotrophic and dna because it is a DNA virus — and it has a circular genome composed of partially double-stranded DNA.

The viruses replicate through an RNA intermediate form by reverse transcription, and in this respect they are similar to retroviruses.

Although replication takes place in the liver, the virus spreads to the blood where virus-specific proteins and their corresponding antibodies are found in infected people.

Blood tests for these proteins and antibodies are used to diagnose the infection.

the most effective

Gbex says: the most effective way to pump up your muscles is to really attend your muscle training so religiously.

Never attempt to absent from any sessions your physical training instructor tells you to attend to. Getting the most of the training will only take effect after a continuous set of sessions that will expire onky after three months or so.

Get the most benefit from a physical training because the most effective way to gain a well-built physique is to attend and do the training religiously.

How to lose weight fast

Ellen Says:Do you want to slim down fast for that beach vacation or high school reunion? While there are many things you can do to shed pounds, losing weight too quickly, like any sudden change to your body, can be dangerous. While fad diets, diet pills, and fasting may indeed induce rapid weight loss, these methods can cause you to lose muscle and may also injure your heart and other organs fairly quickly. The best solution? Don't go for an overnight miracle. Instead, follow these steps to lose weight rapidly, healthily, and sustainably.

Be confident.You need to believe in yourself! If you want to diet, and you know that it will make you feel better, then you need confidence. Otherwise, the temptation to cheat on your diet will make it harder, and you will not feel better when you do lose weight. Avoid temptations like chocolate, ice cream, and cookies. They may taste good, but there are other foods that taste delicious, too, without being unhealthy. You need to always encourage yourself to achieve the goals that you have set. Learn to evaluate your efforts fairly and objectively. If you fail to achieve your target for the week, find out why is it so. Is it because you have missed an exercise session? Or you have been eating junk food for one of the days? After evaluating, look ahead to next week and try your best to stick to your plan

leg cramps

Apa says: Nighttime (or nocturnal) leg cramps are usually sudden spasms, or tightening, of muscles in the calf. But the muscle cramps can sometimes happen in the thigh or the foot. They often occur just as you are falling asleep or waking up. These painful cramps can last a few seconds to a few minutes.

The things that may cause leg cramps include:
Getting too much exercise or overusing the muscles.

Standing on concrete for a long time, sitting for a long time, or putting your legs in awkward positions while you sleep.

Not having enough potassium, calcium, and other minerals in your blood.

Getting dehydrated, which means your body has lost too much fluid.

Taking certain medicines, such as antipsychotics, birth control pills, diuretics, statins, and steroids.

Flat feet.

Thyroid disease.

Measures to help prevent nighttime leg cramps:
Drink plenty of water and other fluids during the day.

Limit or avoid drinks with alcohol or caffeine. These can make you dehydrated, which means your body has lost too much fluid.

Make sure you are eating healthy foods (especially if you are pregnant) that are rich in calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Ride a stationary bike to condition and stretch your muscles.

Stretch your leg muscles for a few minutes before you go to bed.

Muscle Strains

Ellen Says: Muscle strains can lead to muscle tension, by triggering stress in the muscles of the body. A muscle becomes strained when the tendon or muscle which connects with the bone becomes overextended. This strain triggers the muscles to rip, pull, or tear.

Pulling a muscle is a common expression for muscle strains. Muscle strains usually occur during physical activities when the muscle is tightening rapidly or with sudden great force. Placing ice packs on the injured muscle is the best way to help treat the injury. Some possible causes of muscle tension include the following:

*Failing to warm up properly prior to exercise, sport or physical activity
*Lifting heavy objects often causes muscles to tear
*The muscle has had a history of tearing, and has not received sufficient time to heal properly

Symptoms of Muscle Strain

*Pain in the muscle
*Persistent burning sensation
*Bruised or swollen appearance in and around the injured muscle

Stress!!!!

Ellen Says: Everyone is familiar with stress. We experience it in varying forms and degrees every day. In small doses, stress can actually be beneficial to us. It is only when the stress becomes too great, affecting our physical or mental functioning, that it becomes a problem.

In small doses, stressors can help give us increased energy and alertness, even helping to keep us focused on the problem at hand. This type of stress is good. People may refer to the experience of this type of stress as feeling "pumped" or "wired."

Everyone reacts to stress differently. Each of us has a different level of pressure and anxiety that we can handle without a bad outcome. Only you can assess your level of tolerance to stressful situations. The best treatment for stress is to prevent getting into situations that are likely to overwhelm your ability to cope. This is not always possible because the stressors may often come from outside sources that are beyond your control.

indoor rowing builds great physical power

Gbex says: Indoor rowing primarily works the cardiovascular systems with typical workouts consisting of steady pieces of 20-40 minutes. Like other forms of cardio focused exercise, interval training is also commonly used in indoor rowing. While cardio focused, rowing also stresses many muscle groups throughout the body anaerobically, thus rowing is often referred to as a strength-endurance sport.

Unlike high impact exercises, which can damage knees and the connective tissues of the lower body, rowing's most common injury site is the lower back. Proper technique is a necessity for staying injury free, with a focus on both mechanics and breathing, as correct rhythm, exhaling on the drive and inhaling on the recovery, is a stabilizing force for the upper body. Non-rowers commonly overemphasize the muscles of the upper body, while correct technique uses the large muscle of the thighs to drive much of the stroke. Also, good technique requires that the angle of the upper body is never too far forward, nor too far back, both of which jeopardize the lower back and compression injuries on the knees and hip flexor muscles.

In addition to the high levels of fitness attained, rowing is an intense calorie-burning exercise. Although rowers with less ability and training will burn fewer calories, the ergometer is an excellent tool for use in a weight-loss program.

The standard measurement of speed on an ergometer is generally known as the "split," or the amount of time in minutes and seconds required to travel 500 meters at the current pace. For example, a 2:00 split would correspond to a 2:00 time for a 500 meter race, or an 8:00 time for a 2 kilometer race. The split does not necessarily correspond to how many strokes the rower takes (the "rating") since strokes can vary in power.

facts of body building

Gbex says: Muscle growth is a result of proper protein with carb and protein with fat intake, not one over the other.

Natural or not natural, our bodies have a limit to the amount of protein we can take in, digest and use.

Our body is very adaptive to whatever fuel that we give it.

Eat a lot of fat, get fat, eat a lot of carbs then we'll use them all for energy and if we eat a lot of protein then we'll use it to a certain point.

Maybe it's because carbs are viewed as the enemy and protein is viewed as the good guy, but protein intake is the same day-after-day without a thought.

pump it up...

Gbex says: To maintain a body builder's physique, you must keep yourself on a particularly stern diet.

The meals you consume should be heavy in protein and complicated carbohydrates. Both these are what your body burns the best of when you're exercising.

Foods excellent in protein are fish, meats, milk, cheese and yogurt.

Like all else, the efforts and energies that we put in ensuring that maximum weight loss which is achieved is necessary to gauge our determination in making the right lifestyle choices because these are also the things that we have to push for permanently.

Being fat and overweight is hard because you are forced to deal with the consequences that the society will bring unto you.

Many people are more and more interested in building a lean muscular and athletic physique for several reasons.

You might be interested to stay healthy, to boost your self-confidence and self-esteem or to impress the opposite sex.

Either way, developing lean muscle mass can only benefit you. To achieve your goal, it's not as simple as just doing exercise like weight training or free hand exercises.

You need to pump it up dudes and babes!

benefits of stretching

Gbex says: Stretching both before and after exercise is key to any fitness program. Stretching prior to exercise warms up your body making it less prone to accidents and injuries. Stretching exercises increase joint and muscle flexibility making for a better workout. During the warm-up period, stretches should be held between 15 and 30 seconds.


Stretching following exercise relieves muscle tightness, improves flexibility and cools down the body. After a workout, your body will be able to stretch even further than it did prior to your exercise program. During the cool-down period, stretches should be held between 30 seconds and one minute. It is during these longer stretches that flexibility increases the most.

It is important to breathe normally as you stretch and avoid holding your breath. Concentrate on the stretch itself and on your breathing, relaxing the rest of your body. A mild tension should be felt but no discomfort. Avoid bouncing.


When standing during a stretching exercise, you can hold onto a steady object such as a chair to maintain balance and proper posture. If you prefer not to hold onto anything, keeping your eyes focused on a point of interest such as a painting will help to maintain the proper balance and posture.

One of the great things about stretching is that it can be done anywhere and anytime. YOu can achieve it even by just leaning on your wall inside your room. However, if you are an outward person, you can do stretching exercises in any environment whether working, shopping or going about your daily routine.


Here are some of the benefits of stretching exercises:

• They are calming and relaxing

• Provides a sense of peace and well-being

• Lengthens your muscles

• Helps to prevent accidents and injuries

• Improves tissue flexibility and elasticity

• Increases blood flow

• Makes muscles more supple

• Helps with balance and coordination

• Improves range of motion

• Improves circulation

• Improves posture

• Reduces stress

Stretching both before and after your fitness program is important in maintaining a healthy body. Stretching at other times of the day is a great way to limber up, relax and reduce stress. For peak fitness, be sure to include stretching in your daily routine.

Enjoy folks!!!!

developing leg stamina and endurance

Gbex says: Soccer / Football players will require high levels of fitness that enable them to run long durations with small rapid sprints throughout a 90 minute period or even longer in match finals if extra time awarded.

The statistics prove that the final periods of any football match will show a great importance on the fitness levels of both sides - if your teams too tired to run back to defend, then goals will be going in your net and not your opponents, likewise if you're too tired to chase the ball, then how are you going to score goals?

Football training is a key element in today's modern game, with professional players needing to be of a higher level of fitness in order to keep their place on the team for 90 minutes.

A tired player regardless of their skill ability will quickly become a liability to any team and as such the player will find themselves either substituted or not even in the first 11.

Football players should look at all areas to improve their game, focusing just on skills on the pitch is a big mistake - quality time needs to be in to increasing all round strength and fitness to improve the lifespan of the player and the players ability throughout the game.
Football is a sport that requires a multitude of athletic abilities, aim to make improvements in the following to improve your game:
Explosive acceleration and fast sprinting speed.
Muscular endurance and strength in the lower body.
Muscular balance and high levels of neuromuscular co-ordination.
Body awareness and agility, the ability to know where your body is, and be able to move it.
Discipline to take orders and decisions, as well as putting the team first.
Good flexibility to avoid injury, football players are prone to poor hamstring flexibility.
Correct balance between your quadriceps and hamstrings, as well as strength imbalances between your left and right leg.

physical training builds strength and stamina

Gbex says:It's worth remembering that everyone is different, so advice is exactly that, its something you can choose to put into practice for yourself, however if you feel that the information you have gained is giving you a negative performance then maybe its poor information, or simply not suited for you.

The best way to get better results, is always to learn from those that know, if your looking at improving your sporting ability such as swimming, then look at joining a swimming club. The one that I would join is the one in my area thats winning all the trophies, as its likely that the club has a good coach and also you should be able to swim with better swimmers.

Spend a little time researching whats best for you. If you can, ask the people that you know, that are at the top of their sport or profession for their advice and its likely you won't go wrong.