Got gout? Here is what to eat and avoid

Got gout? Here’s what to eat and avoid

Clare Collins, University of Newcastle

Historically called the disease of kings, gout was common among wealthy gents who could afford to eat and drink to excess. These days it doesn’t just affect the rich: rates of gout have been increasing globally since the 1960s. It now affects around 70,000 Australians a year and is more common in men aged over 70.

Worldwide, the prevalence is highest in Taiwan (2.6% of the population and 10.4% of Indigenous Taiwanese) and among the New Zealand Maori (6.1%).

Gout is a painful condition that affects the joints.
joloei/Shutterstock

You get gout when your metabolism of purine – a chemical component of DNA which is made in the body and found in some food and drinks – gets out of kilter.

Purine is broken down in the liver, producing uric acid as a byproduct. Uric acid enters the bloodstream, travels to the kidneys and is excreted in urine. If uric acid can’t be cleared, blood uric acid levels rise.

Once uric acid rises above 0.42 mmol/L (millimoles per litre), crystals can start to form in tissues and joints, particularly in toes and fingers. This can culminate in sudden and excruciating joint pain, called an acute gout attack.

Healthy diets play an important role in managing gout or reducing your risk of the disease. Cherries, dairy products, coffee and vitamin C have shown benefits.

Foods that are high in purine or that increase uric acid metabolism should be limited. These include red meat, seafood, sugar-sweetened drinks, fruit juice, foods high in fructose, and alcohol.

Foods to eat more of

Cherries

Bioactive components in cherries lower uric acid production in the liver and improve excretion via the kidneys. They also have anti-inflammatory properties.

Cherries deliver multiple benefits.
Karol Franks/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

In a study of 633 gout sufferers followed for a year, those who had eaten cherries in the past few days were 35% less likely to have an acute gout attack than those who hadn’t.

Similarly, a four-month trial found those who consumed cherry juice had significantly fewer attacks.

Milk

Milk promotes uric acid excretion. Having two or more daily serves of dairy, especially from reduced fat and skimmed milk, confers a 42-48% lower risk of gout compared to less than one serve.

Coffee

A number of studies have shown that coffee is associated with a lower risk of gout. Coffee is a diuretic and therefore increases urine production. Coffee’s chlorogenic acid promotes uric acid excretion, while the chemical xanthines lower uric acid production.

A 12-year study of more than 45,000 men found those who drank four or more cups of coffee a day had 40-60% lower risk of getting gout than those who didn’t drink coffee.

Interestingly, even drinking decaffeinated coffee conferred a lower risk of gout.

Vitamin C

Take with caution.
anat chant/Shutterstock

A large review of 13 studies found taking vitamin C supplements (about 500 mg a day for around a month) led to a small reduction in blood uric acid of 0.02 mmol/L.

But one word of caution before you start popping vitamin C: high intakes increase the risk of kidney stones.

Things to cut down on

Meat and seafood

High intakes of red meat (including liver, kidneys and other offal) and seafood (shellfish, scallops, mussels, herring, mackerel, sardines and anchovies) are associated with a greater risk of gout because of their high purine content and impact on uric acid production.

Foods that contain yeast, such as Vegemite and Marmite, are also high in purine.

Sugars

Go easy on the syrup.
PROStijn Nieuwendijk/FLickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Fructose is a “simple sugar” found in honey, fruit, some vegetables and sweeteners. Fructose increases purine metabolism, raising blood uric acid levels.

Avoid sweeteners high in fructose such as honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, golden syrup and palm sugar. Check your tolerance for fruits, vegetables and other foods high in fructose.

Uric acid levels tend to be higher in people who regularly consume sugar-sweetened drinks. Those drinking one to two sugar-sweetened soft drinks a day are almost twice as likely to have gout as those who drink only one a month.

When it comes to whole fruit, results are not clear. While one study found a higher risk of gout with higher fruit intakes, another found a lower risk. The opposing results are partly confounded by the variation in fructose content of different fruits.

Alcohol

Beer is high in purine and increases uric acid.
Eugene Romanenko/, CC BY-NC

The effect of specific alcoholic beverages on blood uric acid levels varies. Beer is high in purine and increases uric acid more than spirits, while moderate wine intake appears neutral.

Non-drinkers have been shown to have lower uric acid levels than those who drink beer or spirits. The more they drank, the higher their uric acid levels.

In a meta-analysis of 17 studies involving 42,000 adults, the relative risk of gout for those with the highest alcohol intakes was almost double compared to non-drinkers or occasional drinkers.

Ten tips for beating gout

If you have gout, use these nutrition tips to lower your risk:

See your GP to check or monitor gout risk factors
Drink up to four cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee a day
Have two to three serves of reduced-fat or skim dairy foods daily (for example, milk on cereal, milky coffee, custard or yoghurt)
Eat cherries regularly (fresh or frozen). Add to breakfast cereal and snacks, or mix with yoghurt
Avoid fasting and feasting. Both increase purine turnover and blood uric acid
Manage your weight by trying to prevent weight gain. If you are overweight, try to drop a few kilograms
Avoid foods high in purines (offal meats, sardines, anchovies, yeast spreads, beer) and rein in the portion size of foods with a medium purine content
Cut out soft drinks, sports drinks and fruit juice. Aim for two litres of water daily (or enough so your urine is the colour of straw)
Limit alcohol, especially beer and spirits
Manage your fructose by avoiding honey, brown sugar and corn syrup solids (check food labels). Eat fruit and vegetables with a low to moderate fructose content. Avoid those that are very high in fructose, except for cherries.

Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Where did Zika virus come from and why is it a problem in Brazil?

Explainer: Where did Zika virus come from and why is it a problem in Brazil?

Amy Y. Vittor, University of Florida

From October 2015 to January 2016, there were almost 4,000 cases of babies born with microcephaly in Brazil. Before then, there were just 150 cases per year.

The suspected culprit is a mosquito-borne virus called Zika. Officials in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica have suggested that women delay becoming pregnant. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised pregnant women to postpone travel to countries where Zika is active.

Countries and territories with active Zika virus transmission.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The World Health Organization says it is likely that the virus will spread, as the mosquitoes that carry the virus are found in almost every country in the Americas.

Zika virus was discovered almost 70 years ago, but wasn’t associated with outbreaks until 2007. So how did this formerly obscure virus wind up causing so much trouble in Brazil and other nations in South America?

Where did Zika come from?

Zika virus was first detected in Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947 in a rhesus monkey, and again in 1948 in the mosquito Aedes africanus, which is the forest relative of Aedes aegypti. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus can both spread Zika. Sexual transmission between people has also been reported.

Aedes aegypti. Emil August Goeldi (1859-1917).
via Wikimedia Commons.

Zika has a lot in common with dengue and chikungunya, another emergent virus. All three originated from West and central Africa and Southeast Asia, but have recently expanded their range to include much of the tropics and subtropics globally. And they are all spread by the same species of mosquitoes.

Until 2007 very few cases of Zika in humans were reported. Then an outbreak occurred on Yap Island of Micronesia, infecting approximately 75 percent of the population. Six years later, the virus appeared in French Polynesia, along with outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya viruses.

How did Zika get to the Americas?

Genetic analysis of the virus revealed that the strain in Brazil was most similar to one that had been circulating in the Pacific.

Brazil had been on alert for an introduction of a new virus following the 2014 FIFA World Cup, because the event concentrated people from all over the world. However, no Pacific island nation with Zika transmission had competed at this event, making it less likely to be the source.

There is another theory that Zika virus may have been introduced following an international canoe event held in Rio de Janeiro in August of 2014, which hosted competitors from various Pacific islands.

Another possible route of introduction was overland from Chile, since that country had detected a case of Zika disease in a returning traveler from Easter Island.

Most people with Zika don’t know they have it

According to research after the Yap Island outbreak, the vast majority of people (80 percent) infected with Zika virus will never know it – they do not develop any symptoms at all. A minority who do become ill tend to have fever, rash, joint pains, red eyes, headache and muscle pain lasting up to a week. And no deaths had been reported.

However, in the aftermath of the Polynesian outbreak it became evident that Zika was associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a life-threatening neurological paralyzing condition.

In early 2015, Brazilian public health officials sounded the alert that Zika virus had been detected in patients with fevers in northeast Brazil. Then there was a similar uptick in the number of cases of Guillain-Barré in Brazil and El Salvador. And in late 2015 in Brazil, cases of microcephaly started to emerge.

At present, the link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly isn’t confirmed, but the virus has been found in amniotic fluid and brain tissue of a handful of cases.

How Zika might affect the brain is unclear, but a study from the 1970s revealed that the virus could replicate in neurons of young mice, causing neuronal destruction. Recent genetic analyses suggest that strains of Zika virus may be undergoing mutations, possibly accounting for changes in virulence and its ability to infect mosquitoes or hosts.

The Swiss cheese model for system failure

The Swiss cheese model of accident causation.
Davidmack via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

One way to understand how Zika spread is to use something called the Swiss cheese model. Imagine a stack of Swiss cheese slices. The holes in each slice are a weakness, and throughout the stack, these holes aren’t the same size or the same shape. Problems arise when the holes align.

With any disease outbreak, multiple factors are at play, and each may be necessary but not sufficient on its own to cause it. Applying this model to our mosquito-borne mystery makes it easier to see how many different factors, or layers, coincided to create the current Zika outbreak.

A hole through the layers

The first layer is a fertile environment for mosquitoes. That’s something my colleagues and I have studied in the Amazon rain forest. We found that deforestation followed by agriculture and regrowth of low-lying vegetation provided a much more suitable environment for the malaria mosquito carrier than pristine forest.

Increasing urbanization and poverty create a fertile environment for the mosquitoes that spread dengue by creating ample breeding sites. In addition, climate change may raise the temperature and/or humidity in areas that previously have been below the threshold required for the mosquitoes to thrive.

The second layer is the introduction of the mosquito vector. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus have expanded their geographic range in the past few decades. Urbanization, changing climate, air travel and transportation, and waxing and waning control efforts that are at the mercy of economic and political factors have led to these mosquitoes spreading to new areas and coming back in areas where they had previously been eradicated.

A woman walks away from her apartment as health workers fumigate the Altos del Cerro neighborhood as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Soyapango, El Salvador January 21, 2016.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters

For instance, in Latin America, continental mosquito eradication campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s led by the Pan American Health Organization conducted to battle yellow fever dramatically shrunk the range of Aedes aegypti. Following this success, however, interest in maintaining these mosquito control programs waned, and between 1980 and the 2000s the mosquito had made a full comeback.

The third layer, susceptible hosts, is critical as well. For instance, chikungunya virus has a tendency to infect very large portions of a population when it first invades an area. But once it blows through a small island, the virus may vanish because there are very few susceptible hosts remaining.

Since Zika is new to the Americas, there is a large population of susceptible hosts who haven’t previously been exposed. In a large country, Brazil for instance, the virus can continue circulating without running out of susceptible hosts for a long time.

The fourth layer is the introduction of the virus. It can be very difficult to pinpoint exactly when a virus is introduced in a particular setting. However, studies have associated increasing air travel with the spread of certain viruses such as dengue.

When these multiple factors are in alignment, it creates the conditions needed for an outbreak to start.

Putting the layers together

My colleagues and I are studying the role of these “layers” as they relate to the outbreak of yet another mosquito-borne virus, Madariaga virus (formerly known as Central/South American eastern equine encephalitis virus), which has caused numerous cases of encephalitis in the Darien jungle region of Panama.

There, we are examining the association between deforestation, mosquito vector factors, and the susceptibility of migrants compared to indigenous people in the affected area.

In our highly interconnected world which is being subjected to massive ecological change, we can expect ongoing outbreaks of viruses originating in far-flung regions with names we can barely pronounce – yet.

Amy Y. Vittor, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Florida

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Not all psychopaths are criminals – some psychopathic traits are actually linked to success

Scott O. Lilienfeld, Emory University and Ashley Watts, Emory University

Tom Skeyhill was an acclaimed Australian war hero, known as “the blind solider-poet.” During the monumental World War I battle of Gallipoli, he was a flag signaler, among the most dangerous of all positions. After being blinded when a bomb shell detonated at his feet, he was transferred out.

After the war he penned a popular book of poetry about his combat experience. He toured Australia and the United States, reciting his poetry to rapt audiences. President Theodore Roosevelt appeared on stage with him and said, “I am prouder to be on the stage with Tom Skeyhill than with any other man I know.” His blindness suddenly disappeared following a medical procedure in America.

But, according to biographer Jeff Brownrigg, Skeyhill wasn’t what he seemed. The poet had, in fact, faked his blindness to escape danger.

That’s not all. After a drunken performance, he blamed his slurred speech on an unverifiable war injury. He claimed to have met Lenin and Mussolini (there is no evidence that he did), and spoke of his extensive battle experience at Gallipoli, when he had been there for only eight days.

You have to be pretty bold to spin those kinds of self-aggrandizing lies and to carry it off as long as Skeyhill did. Although he never received a formal psychological examination (at least to our knowledge), we suspect that most contemporary researchers would have little trouble recognizing him as a classic case of psychopathic personality, or psychopathy.

What’s more, Skeyhill embodied many elements of a controversial condition sometimes called successful psychopathy.

Despite the popular perception, most psychopaths aren’t coldblooded or psychotic killers. Many of them live successfully among the rest of us, using their personality traits to get what they want in life, often at the expense of others.

A cell row is seen at the Security Housing Unit (SHU) during a media tour at the Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, California.
Robert Galbraith/Reuters

All psychopaths are criminals if you look for them only behind bars

Psychopathy is not easily defined, but most psychologists view it as a personality disorder characterized by superficial charm conjoined with profound dishonesty, callousness, guiltlessness and poor impulse control. According to some estimates, psychopathy is found in about one percent of the general population, and for reasons that are poorly understood, most psychopaths are male.

That number probably doesn’t capture the full number of people with some degree of psychopathy. Data suggest that psychopathic traits lie on a continuum, so some individuals possess marked psychopathic traits but don’t fulfill the criteria for full-blown psychopathy.

Not surprisingly, psychopathic individuals are more likely than other people to commit crimes. They almost always understand that their actions are morally wrong – it just doesn’t bother them. Contrary to popular belief, only a minority are violent.

Because researchers tend to seek out psychopaths where they can locate them in plentiful numbers, much research on the condition has taken place in prisons and jails. That’s why until fairly recently, the lion’s share of theory and research on psychopathy focused on decidedly unsuccessful individuals – such as convicted criminals.

But a lot of people on the psychopathic continuum aren’t in jail or prison. In fact, some individuals may be able to use psychopathic traits, like boldness, to achieve professional success.

A profoundly disturbed core

The very existence of successful psychopathy has been controversial, perhaps in part because many scholars insist they have never seen it. Some say the concept is illogical, with others going so far as to term it an oxymoron.

Successful psychopathy is a controversial idea, but it’s not a new one. In 1941, American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley was among the first to highlight this paradoxical condition in his classic book “The Mask of Sanity.” According to Cleckley, the psychopath is a hybrid creature, donning an engaging veil of normalcy that conceals an emotionally impoverished and profoundly disturbed core.

In Cleckley’s eyes, psychopaths are charming, self-centered, dishonest, guiltless and callous people who lead aimless lives devoid of deep interpersonal attachments. But Cleckley also alluded to the possibility that some psychopathic individuals are successful interpersonally and occupationally, at least in the short term.

In a 1946 article, he wrote that the typical psychopath will have often:

outstripped 20 rival salesmen over a period of 6 months, or married the most desirable girl in town, or, in a first venture into politics, got himself elected into the state legislature.

Charming, aggressive and looking out for number one

In 1977, Catherine Widom published a study about “noninstitutionalized psychopaths.” To find these individuals, she placed an advertisement in underground Boston newspapers calling for “charming, aggressive, carefree people who are impulsively irresponsible but are good at handling people and looking out for number one.”

The individuals she recruited exhibited a personality profile similar to those of incarcerated psychopaths, and about two-thirds of them had been arrested.

What’s the difference between the psychopaths who get arrested and the ones who don’t? Research from Adrian Raine, now at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted in the 1990s sheds some light.

Raine and his colleagues recruited men from temporary employment agencies in the Los Angeles area. After first identifying those who met the criteria for psychopathy, they compared the 13 participants who had been convicted of one or more crimes with the 26 who had not. Raine provisionally regarded these 26 men as successful psychopaths.

Each man gave a videotaped speech about his personal flaws. Raine and his colleagues found that the men they considered successful psychopaths displayed significantly greater heart rate increases, suggesting an increase in social anxiety. These men also performed better on a task requiring them to modulate their impulses.

The bottom line: having a modicum of social anxiety and impulse control may explain why some psychopathic people manage to stay out of trouble.

Some psychopathic traits might aid success.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The psychopath at the stock exchange

More recently, some researchers, ourselves included, have speculated that people with pronounced psychopathic traits may be found disproportionately in certain professional niches, such as politics, business, law enforcement, firefighting, special operations military services and high-risk sports. Most of those with psychopathic traits probably aren’t classic “psychopaths,” but nonetheless exhibit many features of the condition.

Perhaps their social poise, charisma, audacity, adventurousness and emotional resilience lends them a performance edge over the rest of us when it comes to high-stakes settings. As Canadian psychologist Robert Hare, the world’s premier psychopathy expert, quipped, “If I weren’t studying psychopaths in prison, I’d do it at the stock exchange.”

Our lab at Emory University, and that of our collaborators at Florida State University, are investigating whether some psychopathic traits, such as boldness, predispose to certain successful behaviors.

What do we mean by boldness? It encompasses poise and charm, physical risk-taking and emotional resilience, and it is a trait that is well-represented in many widely used psychopathy measures.

For instance, in studies on college students and people in the general community, we have found that boldness is modestly tied to impulsive heroic behaviors, such as intervening in emergencies. It’s also linked to a higher likelihood of assuming leadership and management positions, and to certain professions, such as law enforcement, firefighting and dangerous sports.

Want to be president? Having some psychopathic traits could help

There’s one job in particular in which boldness may make a difference: president of the United States.

In a study of the 42 American presidents up to and including George W. Bush, we asked biographers and other experts to complete a detailed set of personality items – including items assessing boldness – about the president of their expertise. Then, we connected these data with independent surveys of presidential performance by prominent historians.

We found that boldness was positively, although modestly, associated with better overall presidential performance. And several specific facets of such performance, such as crisis management, agenda setting and public persuasiveness, were associated with boldness too. This may be something to keep in mind the next time you see presidential candidates talk about how bold they’ll be in the White House.

Theodore Roosevelt, the boldest of them all.
National Archives and Records Administration

In an interesting coincidence, the boldest president in our study was the one who said he was proud to share a stage with Tom Skeyhill. Theodore Roosevelt was described by a recent biographer as possessing a “robust, forceful, naturalistic, bombastic, teeth-clapping, animal-skinning, keen-eyed, avalanche-like persona.”

The boldest presidents were not necessarily extreme or pathological on this dimension, but boldness was markedly elevated relative to the average person.

Although boldness was tied to some successful actions, we generally found that other psychopathic features, such as callousness and poor impulse control, were unrelated or negatively related to professional success.

Boldness may be associated with certain positive life outcomes, but full-fledged psychopathy generally is not.

Where’s the line between success and criminality?

Could psychopathic traits be adaptive? Few investigators have explored this “Goldilocks” hypothesis. Moreover, we know surprisingly little about how psychopathic traits forecast real-world behavior over extended stretches of time.

The charm of the psychopath is shallow and superficial. With that in mind, we would argue that boldness and allied traits may be linked to successful behaviors in the short term, but that their effectiveness almost always fizzles out in the long term. After all, Tom Skeyhill was able to fool people for only so long.

Scott O. Lilienfeld, Professor of Psychology, Emory University and Ashley Watts, Ph.D. Candidate, Emory University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

causes, symptoms and cures of typhoid fever

Explainer: causes, symptoms and cures of typhoid fever

Lucille Blumberg, University of the Witwatersrand

In response to media reports about the death of a patient from typhoid fever in Johannesburg, the provincial Guateng health department put out a statement to place the incident in context. The Conversation Africa’s editor Caroline Southey asked Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases, about typhoid fever.

What is typhoid and how would I know I’ve got it?

Typhoid is an illness caused by infection with a specific bacteria called Salmonella typhi. It has its origins in humans, not animals. It is found in the faeces of infected persons and spreads to others through faecal contamination of food and water. This occurs in situations where there is poor hygiene related to food preparation, where there is poor sanitation with inadequate ablution facilities and where drinking water is drawn from informal water sources. Hand hygiene after ablutions and before food preparation are critical in preventing the transmission of the bacteria to other people.

The danger with typhoid is that the symptoms are quite insidious, not specific, and mimic those of other infectious diseases. Symptoms include fever, headache, abdominal pain, cold shivers, hot sweats and loss of appetite. Symptoms usually increase over a number of days.

Importantly the symptoms are not specific and overlap with other infectious diseases like malaria, tick bite fever and meningitis. Malaria is the number one infectious disease to be considered when someone presents with a high fever because it really needs emergency treatment. But the possibility of typhoid needs to be considered in any patient who presents a high fever, particularly in areas where typhoid is more prevalent or where there are concerns about sanitation and water.

How do you get it?

Typhoid is transmitted through handling food and water if there is poor hygiene or poor sanitation. The most obvious source is where ablution facilities and drinking water are not separate and where water and sanitation is inadequate. The best protection against it is to wash your hands after going to the bathroom. And to avoid fresh produce from areas known to have cases of typhoid. Informal water sources for drinking should be avoided, or alternatively the water should be boiled before drinking.

How prevalent is it?

Typhoid affects about 21.5 million people a year, nearly all living in developing countries. It is endemic to Africa, South East Asia and South America, occurring all the time though there is much less of it now than 30 years ago. In Africa there are several thousand cases every year.

There is always a higher risk in places where the quality of water is poor and where sanitation isn’t optimal. There have been large-scale outbreaks in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Contaminated water was identified as the reason. A small town called Delmas in the north east of the South Africa’s Mpumalanga province experienced a number of large outbreaks of typhoid fever in 1995 and 2005 but no outbreaks have been reported since Rand Water took over the domestic water supply. There was an outbreak in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare in 2012 which is ongoing with 4000 cases having been diagnosed to date. A number of South African cases have over time been linked to this outbreak.

Typhoid is a notifiable disease. This allows the origin of cases to be investigated and also that authorities can be alerted if there is an increase in cases. In addition, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa has a laboratory-based monitoring system. This includes monitoring for antibiotic resistance.

In South Africa an alert was put out when four cases were reported over a two-week period in the greater Johannesburg area. This was a little higher than usual and prompted a follow up investigation, especially given that one of the patients died.

Is there a cure?

In the pre-antibiotic era, people were terrified of getting typhoid fever. Then it carried a mortality of 5% to 20%. But today it is treatable. Antibiotics can be used although there are resistant strains in certain parts of the world.

It is something that needs to be treated early although it doesn’t carry the same high risk as malaria.

You need to get quite a high dose of the bacteria to become infected. And it’s not that easily transmitted. For example, you can’t get it by being next to somebody. You only get it if you eat or drink something that’s been contaminated.

But in situations where sanitation conditions are poor, and where fresh water isn’t available it can spread very quickly. That’s why there’s always the fear of an epidemic.

We are nowhere near such a situation now. The response to the one death in Johannesburg was prompted by media reports and we wanted to pre-empt concerns people might have. As the institute we get reports of between 110 and 120 cases of typhoid in the country a year.

A vaccine is available and can be considered for travellers to high risk areas, but the vaccine efficacy is only around 70%.

Lucille Blumberg, Deputy Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and a member of the joint staff, University of the Witwatersrand

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Why that fever could be cerebral malaria?

By Dr. RACHNA PANDE

For some lay people, any pain in the body anywhere is malaria. This shows that people know that malaria is a common sickness. People generally associate malaria with fever, chills and body ache, but are not aware of the other different ways it can manifest.
Of all types of infections caused by malaria, the deadliest is cerebral malaria. It is caused by the species of the malaria parasite called plasmodium falciparum.
The parasite passing through its asexual phase of multiplication in the human body tends to parasitize the red blood corpuscles in the blood vessels. They multiply there and rupture the blood cells, releasing parasites in the blood stream. Through blood it can affect the brain.
The typical intermittent fever of malaria may not be always present in case of cerebral malaria. Sensation of chills may also not occur. There may be just sudden onset of high fever. Very high fever if present can be deleterious for brain, particularly in case of children. A person with cerebral malaria can become unconscious suddenly, go in to coma and die suddenly with no high fever before. Neurological complications like sudden paralysis of one or more limbs can occur. Compression and irritation of the brain substance can lead to convulsions which pose a risk for respiratory arrest.
Slight cough, flu like symptoms and or mild diarrhea and vomiting may also be present at the beginning.
Acute anemia can develop due to rupture of blood cells, necessitating blood transfusion at times.
The affected person may develop acute hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels in the blood), which adds on to the unconsciousness. Acute renal failure and liver failure are yet another complications of cerebral malaria, which occur due to damage of blood vessels supplying these parts.
Sudden accumulation of fluid can occur in the lungs as complication of cerebral malaria which causes respiratory distress. Respiratory distress is further aggravated by metabolic acidosis. A bed ridden very sick person is also at risk of aspirating water drunk or his own saliva or expectoration as he is unable to bring it out. This results in aspiration pneumonia which also causes breathing difficulty and cyanosis.
All these complications are potentially fatal. But if diagnosed and treated promptly cerebral malaria is a curable condition and the person recovers fully.
Diagnosis is established as per WHO criteria of thick and thin blood films. This disease needs to be differentiated clinically and with due investigations from other infections causing coma and neurological complications like typhoid fever, meningitis and HIV encephalopathy. Treatment is by anti malarial drugs.
Chemoprophylaxis (using anti malarial drugs) for cerebral malaria is the same as for other forms of malaria. But over all prevention is much better than chemoprophylaxis. This includes using insecticide sprayed mosquito nets, insect repellants both for the house and local application on body to prevent mosquito bites. Keeping the surroundings clean is useful for prevention of all illnesses including malaria. Particularly open ditches and cess pools of water should not be allowed as they provide breeding ground for mosquitoes.
The efforts made by government of Rwanda are laudable for control of malaria. Already it is way ahead of other African countries in controlling this deadly disease. The only thing needed is for the people to be more aware and make full use of the prevention and treatment measures provided by the government.
Dr. Rachna Pande is a specialist in internal medicine at Ruhengeri Hospital

Kigalihe.com

Originally published in The New Times Rwanda

How to tell you are prone to a stroke attack

By SOLOMON ASABA

Each year, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke. Approximately six million of these die and another five million remain permanently disabled in the aftermath of the sickness. Those who survive without challenges would be lucky because when disability strikes, damage is gross. Globally, stroke is labelled the leading cause of disability, after dementia but is there any chances of surviving?
“With an attack from a stroke, chances are that you may die instantly and if you don’t there is a likelihood of impairment in movement, speech, vision among others,” says Dr Ruhamya Nathan, a cardiologist at King Faisal Hospital.
A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is blocked or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. The result is a loss in blood flow to the brain and consequentially there would be a loss of oxygen supply too. It is this drop in oxygen supply to the brain that causes injury to brain cells that eventually die.
Dr Ruhamya, who is a senior consultant in cardiovascular diseases, equates stroke to heart attacks because the two conditions are caused by similar reasons.
“Don’t be surprised every time a stroke is referred to as a brain attack. A heart attack occurs when there is limited supply of blood to the heart, and in the event of a stroke, supply of blood is limited to the brain,” he explains.
Types of stroke
According to experts, there are two types of strokes that include; transient ischemic attack (TIA) and hemorrhagic.
In a transient ischemic attack there is a temporary interruption in the blood flow to a part of the brain. While, most TIAs last only a few minutes, they account for 80 per cent of all strokes and warning signs of a TIA are the same as the warning signs of a stroke. Sometimes TIAs are referred to as “warning strokes” as they may be an indication that a full, far more serious stroke is about to happen.
On the other hand, during a hemorrhagic stroke, an artery in the brain bursts.
Hemorrhagic strokes could be intracerebral hemorrhage, which happens when a blood vessel in the brain leaks blood into the brain or subarachnoid where bleeding occurs under the outer membranes of the brain and into the thin fluid–filled space that surrounds the brain. Such a hemorrhage can cause extensive damage to the brain and is the most lethal of all strokes.
Currently, stroke is the second leading cause of death in ages above 60 and fifth in people aged 15 to 59 years.
Especially in the developing world, incidence of stroke is soaring but most countries in the developed world are not in the green zone either. Close to 1.3 million people in China have a stroke each year and 75 per cent live with varying degrees of disability as a result of stroke, according to the World Heart Federation.
Warning signs
Knowing the warning signs of stroke and seeking immediate medical help can improve the outcome of the stroke, however most care-takers and victims are unlikely to distinguish such symptoms from ordinary ailments.
Jacqueline Uwase’s family has suffered the tragedy of a stroke. While her sister constantly complained about headache, the whole family blamed it on fatigue
“It was always hard to determine whether it was just minor headache or a serious condition. All we always said was that she was tired and advised her to take rest. Now she is in a comma,” says Uwase.
Symptoms of stroke appear suddenly and often there is more than one at the same time, but all strokes happen fast.
According to the World Health Organisation, the most common symptom of a stroke is sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg, most often on one side of the body.
Other symptoms would include confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding speech; difficulty seeing with one or both eyes; difficulty walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination; severe headache with no known cause; fainting or unconsciousness.

A chat showing how a stroke attack occurs. (Net photo)

Causes
Dr Harold R Golberg, a specialist in cardiology in US, told Health Times in an interview that risk factors towards strokes in sub-Saharan Africa are many but hypertension remains the commonest.
“Hypertension is often silent, meaning there are no obvious signs that the blood pressure is elevated. On some occasions elevated blood pressure can manifest itself with headaches as a warning that the blood pressure is elevated, but certainly not always,” says Golberg.
He also adds that a set of other non-communicable diseases are responsible for predisposing people to stroke in the developing world.
“Focus of attention of health organizations should include non communicable diseases such diabetes, obesity among others,” adds Goldberg.
Likewise, stroke is a risk factor for coronary heart disease and strokes are assumed to be common in women than men.
Dr Evariste Ntaganda, the head of cardiovascular diseases at the Ministry of Health, explains that since coronary heart diseases and stroke share many factors resulting form life style habits, the public ought to avoid such habits.
Factors such as “bad” cholesterol levels, low HDL “good” cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, physical inactivity, and being overweight or obese are predisposing factors to these lifestyle diseases,” says Dr Ntaganda.
Unfortunately, studies published in the Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry, suggest that use of anti-retroviral agents is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly myocardial infarction.
According to the journal, anti-retroviral drugs can lead to premature atherosclerosis by inducing elevations in cholesterol and triglyceride levels, insulin resistance although experts believe further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of anti-retroviral agents on the risk of stroke.
In the event of stroke, however, medics advise that patients seek immediate medical attention. A particular type of stroke can only be identified through a CT scan or an MRI that provides images of the state of the brain.
Recovery during stroke is also possible, but in the event of an attack, experts also advise for close monitoring of patients because patients with depression may be less complaint with treatment.
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Things you can do to prevent a stroke
Regardless of your age or family history, a stroke doesn’t have to be inevitable. Here are some ways to protect yourself starting today.
– Lower blood pressure: High blood pressure is a huge factor, doubling or even quadrupling your stroke risk if it is not controlled. High blood pressure is the biggest contributor to the risk of stroke in both men and women. Monitoring blood pressure and, if it is elevated, treating it, is probably the biggest difference women can make to their vascular health.”
– Lose weight: Obesity, as well as the complications linked to it (including high blood pressure and diabetes), raises your odds of having a stroke. If you’re overweight, losing as little as 10 pounds can have a real impact on your stroke risk.
– Exercise more: Exercise contributes to losing weight and lowering blood pressure, but it also stands on its own as an independent stroke reducer. One 2012 study found that women who walked three hours a week were less likely to have a stroke than women who didn’t walk.
– Drink—in moderation: What you’ve heard is true. Drinking can make you less likely to have a stroke—up to a point. Studies show that if you have about one drink per day, your risk may be lower. Once you start drinking more than two drinks per day, your risk goes up very sharply.”
– Take a baby aspirin: The landmark Women’s Health Initiative study found that women over age 65 who take a daily baby aspirin lower their stroke risk. Aspirin helps by preventing blood clots from forming.
– Treat atrial fibrillation: Atrial fibrillation is a form of irregular heartbeat that causes clots to form in the heart.
Those clots can then travel to the brain, producing a stroke. Atrial fibrillation carries almost a fivefold risk of stroke, and should be taken seriously.
– Treat diabetes: Having high blood sugar over time damages blood vessels, making clots more likely to form inside them. Use diet, exercise, and medicines to keep your blood sugar within the recommended range.
– Quit smoking: Smoking accelerates clot formation in a couple of different ways. It thickens your blood, and it increases the amount of plaque buildup in the arteries. Along with a healthy diet and regular exercise, smoking cessation is one of the most powerful lifestyle changes that will help you reduce your stroke risk significantly.
Don’t give up. Most smokers take several tries to quit. See each failed attempt as bringing you one step closer to successfully beating the habit.

Originally published in The New Times Rwanda

Kigalihe.com

Eating well – it’s more than just what you eat

Jane Ogden, University of Surrey

As the new year rolls on and people consider the resolutions they have already broken, we’re being flooded with advice on what to eat. The US has released its revised dietary guidelines, Public Health England has launched their new sugar app and there are endless new books, TV shows, magazine articles and blogs advising us on how to lose weight, stay healthy, avoid disease and live longer. Although the health experts’ views on how to achieve these goals may differ, they have one thing in common: they only focus on what to eat. But eating well is about much more than what you eat, it’s about when, where, why and how you eat as well.

When to eat

We live in a culture where being busy is valued. We’re too busy for breakfast, too busy for lunch and too busy for a proper meal in the evening. And so the traditional three-meals-a-day structure of our lives is disappearing and people are getting fatter and fatter as more snacks are consumed than ever before. But if we have specified meal times then we will eat these meals and nothing else in between as we’ll remember “I’ve had that meal”.

Where to eat

Not only are meal times disappearing, designated meal places are also on the way out. And so people eat in the car, at their desks, walking down the street or on the sofa in front of the TV. Yet much research shows that eating on the go or eating when distracted can make people eat more as they aren’t focusing on how much food they’re consuming. It can also make people eat more later on as they “forget” that they’ve eaten. But if you have a designated café, table or common room then the meal becomes an event; the food is the focus; the meal box can be ticked as “done” and you become not only more full there and then, as you’re thinking about eating, but you also remain full in the gap until the next meal as you know that the meal has taken place.

Why to eat

If you ask people why they eat they tend to say “I’m hungry” or “I enjoy eating”. But for the majority of people food is far more complicated than that. Eating is about regulating emotions. We eat when we’re fed up, bored or in need of a treat.

It’s also about social interaction. So we eat more at a birthday dinner or festive celebration than during a simple night in, and it’s about communicating who we are to the rest of the world.

Imagine a first date – what would you cook? A roast dinner might be too maternal, beans on toast too student-like and oysters too desperate. Food can talk and it’s used to show the world the kind of person you are. But as a result people lose track of hunger and food fills many more roles in their lives than just preventing hunger.

We need to rediscover the feeling of hunger; learn that it feels nice to be hungry before a meal and that this hunger goes away once we have eaten. We also need to learn other ways to manage our emotions and other ways to socialise that don’t revolve around food. And this is helped by planning not only what to eat but also when and where to eat. And it’s also helped by planning how to eat.

We use food to show the world what kind of person we are
www.shutterstock.com

How to eat

Fullness is a perception, like pain or tiredness. So, in the same way that a headache hurts less if we drag ourselves off the sofa and into work to be distracted by our colleagues, we feel less full if we’re distracted when we eat. And so we eat more because we haven’t properly processed that we are eating. But if we eat at a designated time in the day called “a mealtime”, at a designated place called a “meal place” and tell ourselves “this is a meal” then this mindful approach to eating can make us feel fuller after meals and this fullness can sustain us until the next meal.

Dietitians, nutritionists and celebrity chefs are right to focus on what to eat. But eating well is also about when, where, why and how food is consumed. And if we can eat well then we can feel full again and food can be put back in its rightful place so that we can start to eat to live, rather than live to eat.

Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology, University of Surrey

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

What are allergies and why are we getting more of them?

Adam Collison, University of Newcastle; Elizabeth Percival, University of Newcastle; Joerg Mattes, University of Newcastle, and Rani Bhatia, University of Newcastle

Allergies are reactions caused by the immune system as it responds to environmental substances that are usually harmless to most people. They may occur in response to a range of different material (called allergens), such as food, pollen, dust mites, animals, insect stings, or medicines.

An allergy can affect different parts of the body. Allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, for instance, affects the nose and eyes, while eczema affects the skin. Food allergies affect the gut, skin, airways, lungs, and sometimes the entire body through the blood vessels.

Other conditions such as asthma, which affects the lungs, and eosinophilic oesophagitis, which affects the tube from the throat to the stomach, are closely related to allergy. But they have slightly different underlying causes.

A range of reactions

While most reactions are only mild to moderate in severity (and can be treated with antihistamines), some can be life-threatening and require emergency medical treatment. The most severe, systemic allergic reactions are known as anaphylaxis. People with known severe allergies should have an emergency management plan that includes an adrenaline auto-injector for emergency use.

We can confirm whether someone has an allergy by doing a skin-prick testing or a blood test that checks whether their immune system has produced antibodies to an allergen. If the immune system has developed antibodies, it will remember the allergen as a potential threat and is likely to mount a strong immune response on subsequent exposure.

The likelihood of someone having an allergic reaction from future exposures to the allergen is determined by taking their clinical history and these test results into account.

Allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, affects the nose and eyes.
parrchristy/Flickr, CC BY-SA

In the case of food allergy, if the probability of an allergic reaction is low, people are given a food challenge. This is when increasing amounts of the offending food are administered while the person is closely observed for any signs of an allergic reaction. Of course, it can result in a reaction.

Allergies are becoming more frequent in Australia and the rest of the western world. One in three people in Australia will develop allergies at some time in their life. One in 20 will develop a food allergy and one in 100 will have a life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis .

Hospital admissions for anaphylaxis doubled in the ten years from 1994 to 2004, and were five times higher in children under five years old over the same period. This suggests the development of allergy in early life is increasing at a faster rate than in adults.

Children are more likely to develop allergies to eggs, dairy products or peanuts, while adults are more likely to develop an allergy to seafood.

Possible reasons why

The reasons for the rising number of allergies are not fully understood, but here are six theories.

1) Decreased exposure to infections or microbes – or both – in early life could lead to an increased risk of allergy. This is commonly referred to as the hygiene hypothesis, first suggested in 1989. Research showing children who have close contact with pets or livestock and those who come from larger families are less likely to develop allergies have indirectly supported the hygiene hypothesis.

2) Delayed introduction of allergenic foods, such as eggs and nuts, until later in childhood could also have an impact. This is one of the most recent theories resulting from the LEAP study, published in 2015. This randomised trial for early life peanut consumption in a population at increased risk of developing peanut allergies demonstrated that exposure to the nut early in life is protective against developing the allergy.

A child with a nut allergy only has a 20% chance of the allergy resolving by the time she reaches adulthood.
Aoife Mac/Flickr, CC BY-SA

3) Different methods of preparing foods can impact the degree to which they invoke an allergic response; roasting peanuts, for instance, greatly increases allergenicity while boiling reduces it. This may in part explain difference in incidence of in peanut allergy between certain countries.

4) Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk to develop allergies. Several studies show that the further away you live from the equator (hence your lower level of sunlight exposure, which is needed to make Vitamin D) – or low vitamin D blood levels increase your risk of developing allergies. But the value of vitamin D treatment for preventing allergies has yet to be demonstrated.

5) Allergies may develop after exposure to allergens, such as dairy products or nut oils in skin moisturisers, particularly on inflamed sites, such as eczema.

6) Altered gut bacterial species due to low-fibre diets and widespread antibiotic usage may alter the body’s immune function and create an allergy.

Whether your allergy improves over time often depends on the type of allergy you have. A child with eczema, for instance, will often find her eczema improves by the time she’s a teenager. But some people will have eczema even into their adult years. In contrast, a child with peanut allergy only has a 20% chance of the allergy resolving by the time she reaches adulthood.

While we have treatments for the symptoms of allergy, we do not yet have a cure or the ability to prevent them from developing in the first place. We also don’t have a good test for predicting food allergy, unless we feed the person the suspected food allergen. For now, the best you can do is to manage your allergy.

Adam Collison, Post Doctoral researcher – Experimental and Translational Respiratory Medicine Research Group, University of Newcastle; Elizabeth Percival, Staff Specialist General Paediatrician at John Hunter Children’s Hospital, Newcastle, Australia. Conjoint Fellow & PhD student, University of Newcastle; Joerg Mattes, Professor&Chair of Paediatrics | HMRI, University of Newcastle, Australia | Senior Staff Specialist Paediatric Respiratory&Sleep Medicine | John Hunter Children’s Hospital, Australia, University of Newcastle, and Rani Bhatia, Senior Staff Specialist in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at John Hunter Children’s Hospital Newcastle NSW Conjoint Lecturer in Paediatrics , University of Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

More than 20,000 stillbirths worldwide are avoidable

Sasha Petrova, The Conversation

Around 20,000 late-pregnancy stillbirths could have been avoided globally, according to research published in The Lancet medical journal today.

Author Vicki Flenady, from the Mater Research Institute at the University of Queensland, and colleagues concluded these reductions would occur if all high-income countries achieved stillbirth rates equal to the best-performing countries.

The findings were part of The Lancet’s Ending Stillbirth Series, which consisted of five papers estimating stillbirth rates in each country, numbers that could be avoided and new revelations on how they could be prevented.

How countries perform

Nordic countries occupied the top three places for lowest rates of stillbirths worldwide. In Iceland, Denmark and Finland, 1.3, 1.7 and 1.8 stillbirths occurred per 1,000 births respectively in 2015.

Australia came 15th in the world rankings, with 2.7 stillbirths for every 1,000 births. This compared to New Zealand in 10th place, with 2.3 for every 1,000.

“We estimate conservatively that 200 families every year in Australia would be spared the tragedy of a stillbirth in the last three months of pregnancy if we could get our rates down,” said Dr Flenady.

Among several ways in which to lower rates, the study authors called on the international community to acknowledge the burden of stillbirths, address actions needed to prevent stillbirths with appropriate care, and monitor stillbirths with a consistently agreed target.

Late-gestation stillbirths are those at 28 weeks or more, which is the World Health Organisation’s recommended cut-off for international comparison.

Dr Flenady and her team estimated there were 2.6 million stillbirths globally in 2015, equating to around 7,200 every day. This number hasn’t changed since The Lancet published a similar stillbirth series, with a call to action, in 2011.

“It’s probably even more than that, because we are limited by the fact that to compare across the globe we can only focus on stillbirths after 28 weeks. They’re often not counted below that,” said Dr Flenady.

She said about 50% of stillbirths occurred before this period, which, if included as official data, would bring the 2.6 million up to around 5 million.

The research showed while stillbirth rates have fallen marginally since 2000, these are failing to keep pace with falls in childhood and maternal mortality rates.

Authors estimated 98% of stillbirths happen in low and middle-income countries. But they also remain a problem for high-income countries where substandard care contributes to 20% to 30% of all stillbirths.

Another 30% remains unexplained, which is the basis for the authors’ call for all high-income countries to implement national perinatal mortality audit programs.

Knowing the risks

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Griffith University David Ellwood said many health providers still underestimated risk factors, including the increase in age of mothers and more people with obesity, contributing to stillbirths.

“There’s a delicate balance involved in not stigmatising women who are overweight and obese. Getting the balance right between treating people as human beings and recognising they have a health problem is a difficult balancing act,” he said.

“There is also an element of lack of awareness. I think there are some people who probably don’t appreciate the fact that those risk factors are there and there is a role for better education for health care providers.”

Dr Flenady said the research also showed disadvantaged women in high-income countries had double the stillbirth risk of women in higher socioeconomic brackets.

“Women who can’t understand English are at a real disadvantage,” she said, calling for access to culturally sensitive health care.

“Some groups in Indigenous communities are smoking in pregnancy, up to 60%, whereas around 16% to 17% do so in the general population. We’ve got to provide them with support to stop smoking, ideally before pregnancy.”

Another paper in the series estimated 60% to 70% of grieving mothers in high-income countries reported clinically significant depressive symptoms one year after their baby’s death.

If these figures are extrapolated to the 2.6 million women who had a stillbirth globally each year, an estimated 4.2 million women are living with depressive symptoms after stillbirth.

Data from 18 countries also suggested congenital abnormalities accounted for only 7.4% of stillbirths, dispelling the myth that all stillbirths were inevitable.

Sasha Petrova, Editor, The Conversation

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Garlic, the miracle herb

(Photo: The New Times ) Garlic is well known as a natural health remedy that has long been used to treat various ailments. It is extremely easy to source in most countries and can be consumed cooked or fresh. It is most easily included in your food or can be eaten on its own. You don’t need to limit yourself to fresh garlic either. Garlic powder or dried garlic flakes are just as effective and super easy to keep in the cupboard for everyday use.
It is recommended that adults consume no more than one clove two or three times a day, and that children have one quarter to one half a clove, once or twice a day.
As you will see from the list below, as well as being a tasty addition to almost every cooked dish, garlic has some amazing abilities to help in our everyday lives. When used for medicinal purposes, garlic can help to treat a wide variety of ailments as well as making your dinner taste amazing.
If you’re keen to find out how garlic can be used to assist in your health, below are its health benefits;
Garlic has been found to assist babies to gain weight while they are in the womb: Next time you have a baby prepare to have garlic breath. Except if you have a history of large babies in which case maybe you want to skip the extra doses?
Garlic strengthens the immune system as well as helps to fight chest infections, coughs and congestion: In extreme cold weather patterns, garlic is a great food to boost your immune system and ward off colds and flu. An old folk remedy is to eat a clove of garlic that has been dipped in honey at the first sign of a cold.
Garlic contains high levels of iodine which makes it a very effective treatment for hyperthyroid conditions:
Treatment with garlic has been shown to greatly improve this condition.
Scurvy is treated by vitamin C and garlic contains good levels of vitamin C too.
Popular folklore says that garlic cures impotence: Impotency has long been thought to benefit from doses of garlic, and treatment continues in many communities to this day. Why not try treating yourself with garlic for several months before you head off to the doctor for that viagra prescription?
Cardiovascular disease can be reduced by ingesting garlic: LDL cholesterol is no friend of garlic and the aortic plaque deposits that gather on the walls of your body’s veins can be reduced with the use of garlic too. Studies have shown the amazing benefits of taking garlic in relation to heart disease.
Fungal and bacterial vaginal infections are toast when treated with garlic: When crushed or bruised, garlic releases Allicin which is a sulphuric compound that is a natural antibiotic. WWI soldiers even apparently used crushed garlic on infected wounds suffered in battle. If you decide to take garlic in tablet form be sure to use powdered capsules. The processes used to create garlic tablets destroy the Allicin that is present.
Garlic is a great source of vitamin B6 which is needed for a healthy immune system and the efficient growth of new cells: Vitamin B6 can also assist with mood swings and improve your cheery disposition!
Garlic can aid in the prevention of multiple types of cancer: Bladder cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer and stomach cancer have all been shown to have their tumors reduced when treated with garlic.
Vitamin B6 is said to have cancer fighting abilities.
Garlic regulates blood sugar as it enhances the level of insulin in the blood: This may assist in the control of diabetes. Seek medical advice if you believe the use of garlic could help your condition.
A word of warning about consuming too much garlic; in large doses, garlic can be detrimental to your health and you should never take more than the recommended dosage. Also be aware that the properties of garlic actually get into your bloodstream which is why it is so effective in so many ways. What this does mean, however, is that when you sweat, garlic will leave your body through your pores. Many people who eat larger than normal amounts of garlic report increased body odor.
Also consider another area of your health when you choose to consume more garlic than your friends and family. If you are the only one taking increased doses of garlic, chewing a sprig or three of parsley after each garlic dose is recommended to combat the lovely aroma of garlic breath!
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More health benefits of garlic
Treats acne: This herb may not be found in acne products’ list of ingredients, but it can serve as a natural topical treatment to get rid of blemishes. Allicin, the organic compound in garlic, has the ability to stop the damaging effects of radicals and kill bacteria, according to a 2009 study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. In its decomposed form — sulfenic acid — allicin produces a fast reaction with radicals, which makes it a valuable herb for treating acne scars, skin diseases, and allergies.
Treats hair loss: A head full of hair that smells like garlic could help in the treatment of hair loss. The herb’s extremely high sulfur content contains keratin, the protein hair is made of. This stimulates fortification and growth. A 2007 study published in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venerology and Leprology found the use of a garlic gel added to the therapeutic efficacy of topical betamethasone valerate for alopecia areata treatment can be effective to induce hair re-growth.
Originally published at the New Times Rwanda