Why mother should be cared and not be blamed for a miscarriage?

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortions is a painful experience for an expecting mother as well as the farther at any stage. Even a very early stage miscarriage, specially in first pregnancy leads to psychological stress lasting for several months though physically recovers quickly. Although the nature of the miscarriage is understood well in medicine, there are cases in our society where the mother is still blamed by the family members for not being cautious. This article is intended to provide a better understanding about the event and beyond.

The reason for most of the miscarriages is genetic abnormalities of the fetus. However they randomly occur by chance and do not mean that the parents have bad genes.  The body itself identifies these abnormalities and work towards to expel the fetus.  Other reasons include hormonal problems, problems of the womb and infections that may not be prevented by the mother. More than 30% of the pregnancies ended up with miscarriages, however many mothers never know it as most of them are occurred in very early stages. Up to 75% of the miscarriages are occurred in first 3 months of the pregnancy.

However some lifestyle factors such as high caffeine/coffee intake, uncontrolled diabetes, high impact physical activities in first trimester have shown to increase the risk.

Early pregnancy miscarriage has very low health risk to the mother and most of the time invasive medical treatments such as “dilate and curettage” are not needed except watchful waiting. The body resolves it naturally expelling all the pregnancy products from the body (i.e. fetus, placenta, sac). However sometimes the natural process leaves some tissues in the womb making an incomplete abortion or abortion does not occur during the expected time posing a risk for infection. In such cases medical intervention is needed. It is highly advisable to see a medical practitioner if an expecting mother is bleeding or experiencing an abortion.

An abortion can be diagnosed by an ultrasound scan, checking the expelled tissues and pregnancy hormone levels. Following are the common types of miscarriages.

Empty sac: where the gestational sac is developed normally but the fetal development is arrested (no fetus or heart beat can be detected even at 8 weeks of gestation).

Complete miscarriage: Development of the fetus and sac arrested and tissues completely expelled.

Missed miscarriage: Fetal development has been arrested (died) but not yet expelled. If the abortion does not start soon should be surgically removed to prevent infections. However surgical procedures should be minimized if possible because of the possible damages to the womb.

Another important aspect is the psychological status of the mother. Peers and family members should help her to get rid of the emotional pain convincing it is not her fault and assuring the higher chance of healthy pregnancy in future.

Presentation on chronic diseases

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Coronary heart disease and risk factors

Coronary heart disease and risk factors
(literature review of my Research Project do not copy without permission)
Introduction

Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of death and disability in developed countries and the rates are rapidly increasing in developing countries. About 13 million Americans have CHD and 1.5 million get a myocardial infarction (MI) each year, and about 450 000 die of CHD each year.

CHD is mainly caused by atherosclerosis, a process which alters endothelial function, by causing structural and functional obstructions in arteries. The risk of getting CHD is associated with hypertension, obesity, inactivity, diabetes, smoking, dietary factors, elevated homocysteine concentrations, elevated lipoprotein levels and some unchangeable factors such as age, male gender and genetics.

Atherogenesis is a long-drawn-out process which starts from the childhood. Cholesterol filled fatty steaks develop on the intima of the arteries which gradually enlarge and harden over the time, obstructing blood flow to the heart. These are called atheromatus plaques and the process is accelerated through exposure to the risk factors. Plaques may rupture, and the thrombus that forms to repair the damage occludes the artery resulting angina pectoris (chest pain due to low blood supply to heart muscle) or in severe cases myocardial infarction (death of heart muscle).

Although some risk factors are fixed, mortality and disability from CHD can be successfully controlled by modifying environmental factors. Therefore it is necessary to understand in-depth, how risk factors increase the risk and how they are controlled. Other than that studies about protective effects of different food items and life time patterns are essential to minimize CHD risk.

Un adjustable risk factors of CHD

Age
Likelihood of developing CHD dramatically increases with the age in both sexes. Age related degeneration and structural changes in arterial walls, cumulative effect of lifetime exposures of arteries to plasma lipoproteins, repeated damages to the arteries, age related increase in arterial pressure and alteration in endocrine functions, altogether accelerate the atherogenesis in older age.

Gender
Gender bias characteristics of CHD favors women by occurring, CHD in women 10-12 years later than in men. This raises the mean age at death from CHD in females and contributes to their greater longevity.
The reason for gender gap is suggested as higher estrogen levels in pre-menopause women, which acts protectively against CHD by lowering LDL-cholesterol and increasing HDL-cholesterol levels. However after the menopause, women’s blood cholesterol levels begin to rise and CHD risk comes closer to men’s. To avoid that estrogen replacement therapy is widely practiced in menopause women; although it is still controversial about some cancer risks.

Heredity
Hereditary and genetic variations such as, race, elevated homocystein levels and abnormalities in lipoproteins and their metabolism too affect the CHD risk in different extents. Studies found certain ethnic groups including, African Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and some Asian Americans and children of parents with heart diseases have increases risk of developing CHD.


Modifiable risk factors of CHD.

Increased arterial pressure
Hypertension or increased arterial pressure is a key factor which associates with the development of atherosclerosis, though this process does not develop on the venous side of the circulation. A systolic blood pressure >140 mm Hg and a diastolic blood pressure >90 mm Hg, or both in resting position, is universally considered as hypertension.
Constant exposure to increased arterial pressure can damage the arteries and rupture the atheromatus plaques, thereby the thrombus formation take place and lead to MI by occluding coronary artery.
Arterial pressure of adults is categorized as below.
____________________________________________
Categery Systolic Diastolic
Hgmm Hgmm
____________________________________________
Normal <120>160 >100
____________________________________________

Arterial pressure can be successfully controlled through dietary and behavioral modifications, such as antihypertensive medications, salt restricted diets, physical activities and stress reduction.

Hypercholesterolemia
Elevated lipoprotein levels in blood are another critical factor for CHD. It is found that CHD is uncommon in societies with mean serum total cholesterol concentrations <> 160 mg/dl and HDL-< 35 mg/dl.
Other than LDL, Triacylglycerol (TAG) and Lipoprotein (a) are the other lipoproteins which increase the CHD risk.
Many dietary surveys and experimental studies showed a reduction in LDL, TAG and total cholesterol levels and increase in HDL levels in modified and some traditional diets. A crossover study done by Rndeau et al, 2001 found a significant increase in HDL2 in hypercholesterolemic men during lean fish diet.

Smoking
Smoking is a well established risk factor for CHD and many other non communicable diseases.

Physical inactivity
Follow-up studies showed increased risk of getting CHD amongst sedentary people than in people who are physically active. Physical activities clearly showed a decrease in LDL cholesterol and an increase in HDL cholesterol. It improves overall function of circulatory system and it is more effective than dietary modifications.

Diabetes Prevention

Diabetes Prevention

Complications of untreated diabetes

Fatigue and physical weakness

Kidney failure

Heart attack

Poor vision or blindness

Muscle breakdown

Frequent infections

Gangrene leads to amputation

Complications of treated diabetes

Physical weakness

Drug related nutrient deficiency

Drug related tissue damage

Progression of insulin resistance

How to prevent

• Weight management: keep body mass index (BMI) below 25 kg/m²

BMI = weight in kilograms
(height in meters)²

BMI of a person weighing 52kg and 1.63m tall = 52/1.63*1.63= 52/2.66 = 19.55

• Reduce abdominal fat: Abdominal exercise such as curls ups after 20minutes of aerobic exercise will reduce abdominal fat and further strengthen abdominal muscles giving a good shape.

Welcome to the Health is Wealth

The Intention

Today many people acquire lifelong degenerative diseases than any other time in the past. But most people do not know most of these incidents can be prevented or delayed if lifestyle changes are made. Lifelong degenerative diseases need lifelong medication and have to confront many side effects of both the disease itself and the medication. Productivity and the quality of life dramatically reduce due to the complications and the necessary restrictions of the disease.

Our intention is to prevent wide range of lifelong diseases by way of possible lifestyle modifications.

Why should we try to prevent?

It is true many of these disease conditions have effective treatments but life will never be the same as before.

• Most of these conditions are lifelong and have to undergo life long drug therapy

• Long term drug therapy causes many complications such as physical weakness, organ or tissue damage, toxicity, alterations in the body mechanism etc.

• High health cost for treatments, management and follow-up tests

• Considerable time waste for treatments and personal care

• Psychological distress of being diseased

• Confronted with restrictions and avoidance for normal lifestyle habits such as foods, physical activities, job opportunities, family life etc.

Diseases that can be prevented or delayed by lifestyle changes

Diabetes

Heart diseases

Hypertension

Glaucoma

Cancers

Tooth decay

Gum disease

Osteoporosis

Osteoarthritis

Kidney diseases