What is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the ligament that connects the heel to the base of the toes, formerly called “a dog’s heel” in the UK, is a painful inflammatory condition caused by too much wear to the plantar fascia of the foot or biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation of the foot.
The pain becomes evident during day time. This is because the fascia or the tissue contracts overnight while you sleep. Although there may be times when you won’t feel any pain, it is only a temporary thing. After standing up for long periods or getting up from a long time of sitting down, the agonising pain may strike once more.
There are several factors which can cause plantar fasciitis and these are as follows:
1) Overdoing strenuous physical activities
2) Moving heavy objects
3) Arthritis
4) Diabetes
5) Abnormal foot mobility
6) Poor quality of footwear

Foot problems like plantar fasciitis can affect both feet, but it usually happens on just one foot. Normally the illness develops very slowly and only become obvious once the intolerant heel pain is felt. However, this illness definitely has several symptoms, which you should take a tab on so that you can prevent it from becoming a major medical condition. These are the following symptoms associated with this illness:

1) A stabbed-like feeling on the bottom of your foot
2) A progressive heel pain experienced as soon as you wake up and walk to go about your early morning activities or even after doing exercise
3) Heel pain experienced after standing for a long period of time or when getting up from sitting down for over a time
4) Some swelling observed in the middle part of your heel

Once you experience these symptoms, it would be wise to note how often they occur and then proceed to consult your doctor.

As you seek medical attention, your doctor will first verify all the symptoms, which you may have experienced. The podiatrist will also point out to you the tender areas found on your foot. This is necessary so that other factors causing heel pain can be ruled out. Other than physical examination, your podiatrist can also schedule a foot X-ray or even an MRI to see if you have got a stress fracture.

Treating plantar fasciitis is actually quite simple. All it takes is proper discipline and close monitoring of treatment regimen issued by the doctor.

For self-care treatments, here are the usual recommended procedures:

Night splint: This is usually done by enclosing your foot up to your calf within a splint as you sleep. The purpose of this is to hold your foot tissues as well as your Achilles tendon so that it can be stretched overnight.

Orthotics: This is an arch support, which works by distributing the pressure absorbed by your feet evenly on all areas.
Physical therapy: Rehabilitative exercises can strengthen your leg muscles and help make your heel and ankle more stabilized to absorb pressure.
However, in the event that your plantar fasciitis is diagnosed as severe, here are other medical approaches, which you may undergo to alleviate pain and treat the foot area.

Corticosteroids: your podiatrist will suggest this medicine if other forms of treatment are not efficient in treating it. This works by injecting a couple doses within your fascia area to alleviate pain. At times, iontophoresis can also be conducted instead of injecting corticosteroids. By this procedure, the medicine gets to be distributed within the fascia area by means of electric current gently induced to relieve pain.

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy: This method uses sound waves as a means of stimulating the healing process of the affected area. If the plantar fasciitis has been diagnosed as a chronic illness, this is the treatment method being adopted.

Surgery: When one undergoes surgery for planta fasciitis, the plantar fascia is removed from the heel bone. This is the final option and is only turned to when other methods can no longer take away the heel pain and the condition becomes too severe to handle.

November 11th, 2010

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Why Should People Take Fish Oil

Are you concerned about your health? Many people suffer from life-debilitating problems, such as horrible arthritis, chronic fatigue, migraines, allergies, depression, and high cholesterol. Doctors try to put a band aid over these problems by prescribing medication after medication, making you so drugged up you don’t know your left from your right. Plus, many medications prescribed by doctors can be addictive, and you really do not want to become dependent upon them.

Maybe you don’t have any life-debilitating issues, but you just haven’t been feeling yourself lately. You feel a bit tired, or maybe your memory is shot. You just don’t feel as mentally sharp and together as you used to feel. It is time to find a solution; one that is safe and natural, but also effective. Omega three fish oils are here to help!

You may be wondering, Why should I trust omega three fish oils to make a difference in my health? Well the answer is that there are many different natural cures out there for many ills of man. Of course, we all know that if you can cure something naturally that is the better way to go rather than prescription medication. Natural supplements and other remedies are free from toxins and heavy metals. Also, they will not leave you addicted and reliant upon them to feel good, leaving you a slave to paying for medications just to feel okay.

This leads us back to the question of why you should choose omega fish oils supplements over any other natural cure. Well, as stated, there are many different things out there that you can try. However, it is important to choose something that has been around for a long time and has proven results. Omega three fish oils are just this. They have been around for a very long time, and there have been proven health benefits. The right kind of fish oils can help prevent heart disease, maintain good cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and give relief to migraines, depression, diseases, and joint pain.

So you may choose to dabble in other natural or prescribed treatments, which are your choice. If you want to try something that has survived years of scrutiny and has proven results, try omega three fish oils, and you will not be disappointed. Within a matter of months, you may be able to reduce any other medications you are on and will feel relief from a variety of ills!

September 13th, 2010

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Cochlear Implant Update

New breakthroughs in medical science have given us new ways in which we can prevent certain illnesses or to help recover what has been damaged. The topic of hearing loss and hearing medical advancements is no exception. There has been the rise of surgery, implants and therapy over the years to ease and stop hearing loss. Among these, the popularity of cochlear ear implants has yet to be outweighed by other procedures. Cochlear implants cannot replicate the performance of a natural ear.

What the implants do is that they can stop hearing loss and allow the individual to start to hear better without other interfering sounds. Cochlear implants are useful to those who were not born deaf and those whose hearing debilitation has occurred after they have developed a significant capacity to speak and listen. People who get the most out of the Cochlear implants often use their memory of familiar sounds in addition to using the sounds that are heard through the implant to communicate. When should one insert the Cochlear implant? This question is probably the most sensitive and critical. Many experts have said that it is best to schedule an implant as early as possible for children, preferably before they reach the age of four years old. Besides the timing, an important factor to consider is which ear should be on the receiving end of the implants. This is a decision usually taken by the surgeons who are doing the work as there are many factors of balancing sounds and balancing the left and right ears. During the surgery the patients are kept under general anesthesia while the surgeon inserts the Cochlear implant behind the ear. The normal time for surgery is around 3-6 hours and there is no contact with the brain tissue. Recovery has been shown often times to be swift. The patient normally can start recognizing sound after a few weeks.

November 17th, 2008

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Hearing Loss

About Adult Incontinence


Incontinence means the inability to control one’s urination. It affects everyone regardless of age, gender or form of employment, however, incontinence is more common among adults, women and those performing heavy work.

Adult incontinence is the most common among other cases of incontinence. This usually happens when a person reach an age where he can no longer control his urination.  When a person suffers incontinence, he or she normally experiences unwanted urination, leading to wet underwear, pants, or one’s bed.

After knowing what adult incontinence is, the next thing to know is the various types of adult incontinence. First on the list is stress incontinence. This occurs when a person coughs, sneezes, laughs, doing heavy works, or any activity that tends to put pressure on one’s bladder. As a result of this stress related activity, the pelvic muscles become weak, and as such, it affects the performance of one’s bladder, making it unable to contract or tighten. The best way to prevent stress incontinence is to find the time to rest one’s body from a hard day’s work. Also, one must not push himself when lifting heavy objects or doing heavy activities.

Another type of adult incontinence is urge incontinence. This happens when a person has trouble in controlling his bladder when certain circumstances are at hand. For example when a person is sleeping, normally, one cannot voluntarily tighten his bladder, but the bladder itself contracts and prevents the urine from going out of the body. However, a person suffering from incontinence has a tendency of urinating while sleeping, because the bladder’s wall is affected. Other instances of urge incontinence are drinking water, listening to water running, or when the temperature is cold. In these cases over night adult diapers offer a great solution

Another is overflow incontinence. This happens the bladder is full and the urine thereafter overflows and leaks. Normally, a person can prevent the leak of urine by tightening the passage of the urine until one reaches the bathroom. However, when a person is suffering overflow incontinence, the urine just leaks and the person suffering from incontinence cannot stop it. Overflow incontinence may occur because of an enlarged prostate, weak bladder muscle, urinary stones, tumors or nerve damage from diabetes or any other disease.

Finally, we have what is commonly called as functional incontinence. This functional incontinence occurs when external obstacles, physical disabilities and other reason in preventing a person from immediately going to the bathroom when needed. An example of this incontinence is when a cripple cannot himself proceed to the bathroom unassisted or a person in comatose. In this incontinence, an adult diaper is required to be worn by the person suffering from it, or if said person is capable of going to the bathroom, he must be assisted. Nonetheless, adult diapers are very convenient.

No matter what type of adult incontinence one belongs, the results are the same, unwanted urination. As such, it is highly recommended that a person see a doctor when

January 11th, 2008

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