What Causes Constant Nose Bleeding?

                                                  

A nosebleed or epistaxis is described as a relatively common occurrence of hemorrhage from the nose, usually noticed when the blood drains out through the nostrils. The most common and generally harmless type of nosebleed is known as anterior which originate from the front of the nose; the second more severe type is called posterior, originating from the back of the nose and usually requires medical attention. In some severe cases blood can travel up the tear duct and emerge from the eye and travel down into the stomach. There have been very few cases of deaths caused by severe nosebleeds.

Most nosebleeds can be self-treated. A person suffering from a nosebleed should sit down and lean slightly forward. The head should be kept above the heart to lessen the blood flow. By leaning forward the blood will drain out of the nose instead of down the back of the throat. Lean backwards may result in the swallowing of blood. To stop the nosebleed the soft portion of the nose is held together between the thumb and index finger for a few minutes; applying an ice pack to the bridge of the nose can also help.

Causes of Constant Nose bleeds

Nosebleeds are generally caused from dryness, nose picking, blunt trauma or other injury, nasal infections and congestion, allergies and colds, dry or cold climate temperatures. The dividing wall at the front of the nose called the nasal septum, consists of thin, flat cartilage and bone, separating the nostrils and nose into its two sides. The septum easily bleeds when impaired in any way. If a person is constantly having nosebleeds it means that some factor may be interfering with the blood clotting or there is some form of constant irritation. In most cases frequent nosebleeds may be due to some underlying condition such as a bleeding disorder, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia or leukemia. Constant nosebleeds causes are

Medications

Consistent use of certain blood thinning medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen and warfarin will result in regular nosebleeds.

Nasal Conditions and Dry Nasal Passages

Continuous picking or irritation of the nasal cavity will cause nose bleeds and the irritated blood vessels may not get a chance to completely heal. As such persons with dry nostrils, colds and allergies will also have frequent nose bleeds; an injured nasal membrane will have constant nosebleeds. The use of cocaine (as in the case of drug abuse) will lead to regular bleeding in the nostrils.

Hemophilia

Hemophilia is a hereditary bleeding disorder that results from abnormal blood clotting. Persons with hemophilia will experience longer bleeding time from injuries and internal bleeding. People born with hemophilia have little or no clotting factor which is a protein need for normal blood clotting. These proteins work with platelets to help the blood clot.

Low Platelets

Platelets are one of the components of the blood along with white and red blood cells. They play an important role in clotting and bleeding. If a person’s platelet count is severely low for example less than 20 per micro liter, it can potentially manifest as increase bleeding when a person is cut or injured or during menstruation, or spontaneous bleeding.

Von Willebrand’s Disease

Von Willebrand disease is the most common hereditary coagulation abnormality. It is a bleeding disorder that affects the body’s blood clotting abilities. Person with the disease may have low levels of a certain blood clotting protein (called von Willebrand factor) in their blood, or the protein doesn’t work the way it should.

Nutrients that work together—and that you should eat together

                                        

Nutrition guidelines can make things look very cut and dry. They tell us to get this amount of that vitamin and that amount of this mineral. Separating out nutrients this way makes the guidelines relatively easy to understand. And this kind of thinking probably helps us avoid diseases of nutritional deficiency, such as scurvy (not enough vitamin C) or pellagra (not enough niacin).

But most nutrients don't fly solo. They interact—sometimes they join forces, other times they cancel each other out. You have probably heard before that eating vitamin-rich foods is better for you than taking a vitamin supplement. One reason why this is true is that food contains a mixture of nutrients that interact with one another in each mouthful.

The following is a list of nutrients that work in pairs. It's just a sampler, and far from a complete catalog. But hopefully it will help you when you're choosing what to eat.

Vitamin D and calcium

Like most nutrients, calcium is mostly absorbed in the small intestine. Calcium is important because it strengthens bones, but the body often needs vitamin D's assistance to absorb the nutrient. Vitamin D also has many other benefits throughout the body.

There's debate these days about whether to raise the daily intake goal for vitamin D. Right now, the official nutrition guidelines recommend that adults get 1,000 milligrams (mg) of calcium and 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily. For older adults, the recommended daily allowance is a bit higher: 1,200 mg of calcium starting in your 50s, and 600 IU of vitamin D starting in your 70s.

To give you an idea of how much that is, an 8-ounce glass of milk contains 300 mg of calcium and, because of fortification, 100 IU of vitamin D.

Sodium and potassium

Sodium is one essential nutrient that most Americans consume more of each day than they need (mostly in the form of salt).

Excess sodium interferes with the natural ability of blood vessels to relax and expand, increasing blood pressure—and increasing the chances of having a stroke or heart attack.

But potassium encourages the kidneys to excrete sodium. Many studies have shown a connection between high potassium intake and lower, healthier blood pressure. According to the current guidelines, adults are supposed to get 4,700 mg of potassium and 1,200 mg to 1,500 mg of sodium daily.

To meet these criteria, you need to follow general healthy eating guidelines. To increase potassium intake, load up on fruits and vegetables. To decrease sodium intake, cut back on cookies, salty snacks, fast foods, and ready-made lunches and dinners.

Vitamin B₁₂ and folate

Vitamin B₁₂ and folate (also one of the eight B vitamins) form one of nutrition's best couples. B₁₂ helps the body absorb folate, and the two work together to support cell division and replication, which allow the body to replace cells that die. This process is important during times of growth in childhood, and throughout the body of adults as well. Cells that line the stomach and the cells of the hair follicle, for example, divide and replicate often.

Good food sources of vitamin B₁₂ include:

•	meat
•	eggs
•	milk

Natural sources of folate include:

•	leafy green vegetables
•	beans
•	other legumes

Nutrition guidelines recommend 2.4 micrograms of B₁₂ and 400 micrograms of folate daily. This can usually be achieved easily by eating a reasonably well-balanced diet.

However, vegans—people who don't eat meat and other animal-based products—may have B₁₂deficiencies. And people who eat poorly or drink too much alcohol may have folate deficiencies.

Folate deficiencies can be corrected with multivitamins or folic acid pills. For a B₁₂ deficiency, you can get injections every few months or take a pill daily.

Deficiency in either or both vitamins may cause a form of anemia called macrocytic anemia. B₁₂deficiencies can also cause mild tingling sensations and memory loss.

Zinc and copper

Copper and zinc don't work together—they actually compete for places to be absorbed in the small intestine. If there's a lot of zinc around, copper tends to lose out and a copper deficiency may develop.

One way the knowledge of the copper-zinc interaction has been put into practice is in treating people with an eye condition called macular degeneration. Some people with the condition are prescribed a special vitamin-mineral combination, called AREDS. The combination has been shown to slow down progression of the disease, which can cause blindness. The AREDS pills include 80 mg of zinc, enough to cause a copper deficiency, so 2 mg of copper were added to the pills.

Niacin and tryptophan

Niacin is one of the B vitamins, although it rarely goes by its B-vitamin moniker, B3. The daily niacin requirement is 16 mg for men and 14 mg for women. Niacin deficiency causes pellagra, a disease that causes a bad rash, diarrhea, and dementia. Tryptophan, an amino acid, is a source of niacin. So one way to avoid niacin shortfalls is to eat foods that contain a lot of tryptophan, including chicken and turkey.

44-Year-Old Man With Blood In Urine Discovers He’s A Female With Period Pain

Chen, a married Chinese man with stomach aches and blood in his urine, was told by doctors he was actually a menstruating female. Gender isn’t always as clear-cut as black and white. Shades of gray exist among men and women who don’t quite fit into a single gender. A 44-year-old married Chinese man found out he too wasn’t exactly all male when bouts of stomach pain and blood in his urine sent him to the doctor for an unexpected diagnosis. The Chinese man, identified by his surname Chen, discovered he was actually a female experiencing menstrual cramps, after a CT scan revealed he had a uterus and ovaries. “He was wearing men’s clothes and had short hair so we didn’t think that he would be a female at the beginning,” said the Chief of the First People’s Hospital of Yongkang, according to Shanghaiist.com. The doctors proceeded to treat Chen like a male patient, until the CT scan and a chromosome examination showed he not only had female genitalia, but a pair of XX sex chromosomes, suggesting Chen was genetically female. He learned his feelings of constant fatigue, accompanied by a swollen face and legs were all due to him being on his period throughout his life. Although doctors have not confirmed whether Chen is a hermaphrodite or intersex, he does have two types of genitalia — a penis and a uterus with ovaries. Typically, people who are intersex do not have a reproductive or sexual anatomy that fits the definitions of female or male, says the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA). However, there are cases of people who are born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types, such as a boy being born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like a labia. Chen claims he has enjoyed an active sex life with his wife of 10 years, but doctors doubt this since his genitals are different from other men, and he did not possess an Adam’s apple. People who are intersex sometimes don’t find out they have intersex anatomy until they reach the age of puberty, find themselves an infertile adult, or die of old age, and are then autopsied. According to the ISNA, people live and die with intersex anatomy without anyone (including themselves) ever knowing. Not only was Chen diagnosed as a female after 44 years, but doctors also found the married man suffered from the genetic disorder — congenital adrenal hyperplasia — where the adrenal glands produce more or less of the hormones that shape the development of genitals and secondary sex characteristics such as body hair. Doctors found it unusual Chen possessed little facial hair. Since Chen has lived his entire life without adequate hormone treatment for his genetic disorder, his adrenal glands developed benign tumors and were removed, the Daily Mail reported. Furthermore, genetic testing conducted by doctors at First People’s Hospital of Yongkang confirmed Chen is a woman, biologically. It is not known whether the man wants to change his gender identity. Chen’s case isn’t the only one seen in China. Last year, an unidentified 66-year-old man learned his abdominal pain was due to an ovarian cyst, revealing he is genetically a woman. The patient was found to have a rare combination of Turner syndrome and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which has interfered with the development of reproductive organs and secondary sex characteristics, the South China Morning Post reported

10 Signs You May Have Kidney Disease

Major risk factors for kidney diseases include high blood pressure, diabetes, a family history of kidney failure and being age 60 or older.

While the only way to know for sure if you have kidney disease is to get tested, there are a number of physical signs. Sometimes people attribute these physical symptoms of kidney disease to other conditions. This is because those with kidney disease tend not to experience symptoms until the very late stages, when the kidneys are failing or when there are large amounts of protein in the urine.

Here are 10 possible signs you may have kidney disease:

1. You're more tired, have less energy or are having trouble concentrating. A severe decrease in kidney function can lead to a buildup of toxins and impurities in the blood. This can cause you to feel tired, weak and can make it hard to concentrate. Another complication of kidney disease is anemia, which can also cause weakness and fatigue.
2. You're having trouble sleeping. When the kidneys aren't filtering properly, toxins stay in the blood rather than leaving the body through the urine. This can make it difficult to sleep. There is also a link between obesity and chronic kidney disease, and sleep apnea is more common in those with chronic kidney disease.
3. You have dry and itchy skin. Healthy kidneys do many important jobs. They remove wastes and extra fluid from your body, help make red blood cells, keep bones strong and work to maintain the right amount of minerals in your blood. Dry and itchy skin can be a sign of the mineral and bone disease that often accompanies advanced kidney disease, when the kidneys are no longer able to keep the right balance of minerals and nutrients in the blood.
4. You feel the need to urinate more often. If you feel the need to urinate more often, especially at night, this can be a sign of kidney disease. When the kidneys' filters are damaged, it can cause an increase in the urge to urinate. Frequent urination can also be a sign of a urinary infection or enlarged prostate in men.
5. You see blood in your urine. Healthy kidneys typically keep blood cells in the body when filtering wastes from the blood to create urine. However, when the kidneys have been damaged, these blood cells can start to "leak" out into the urine. In addition to signaling kidney disease, blood in the urine can be indicative of tumors, kidney stones or an infection.
6. Your urine is foamy. Excessive bubbles in the urine -- especially ones that require you to flush several times before they go away -- indicate protein in the urine. This foam may look like the foam you see when scrambling eggs, as the common protein found in urine, albumin, is the same protein as in eggs.
7. You're experiencing persistent puffiness around your eyes. Protein in the urine is an early sign that the kidneys' filters have been damaged, allowing protein to leak into the urine. This puffiness around your eyes can be due to the fact that your kidneys are leaking a large amount of protein in the urine, rather than keeping it in the body.
8. Your ankles and feet are swollen. Decreased kidney function can lead to sodium retention, causing swelling in your feet and ankles. Swelling in the lower extremities can also be a sign of heart disease, liver disease and chronic leg vein problems.
9. You have a poor appetite. This is a very general symptom, but a buildup of toxins resulting from reduced kidney function can be one of the causes.
10. Your muscles are cramping. Electrolyte imbalances and cramping can be caused by impaired kidney function. For example, low calcium levels and poorly controlled phosphorus may contribute to muscle cramping.

Be sure to mention any symptoms you're experiencing to your healthcare practitioner. Request simple urine (ACR) and blood (eGFR) tests for kidney disease if you're at risk.

WOMEN'S HEALTH: protect your fertility

What is female fertility?

Female fertility is a woman's ability to conceive a biological child. You and your partner might question your fertility if you've been trying to get pregnant with frequent, unprotected sex for at least one year — or at least six months if you're older than 35 — with no success.

What causes female fertility problems?

Various medical issues can contribute to female fertility problems, including:

• Conditions affecting ovulation
• Conditions affecting the uterus
• Blockage of the fallopian tubes, often caused by pelvic inflammatory disease — an infection of the female reproductive organs
• Endometriosis — a condition in which tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus (endometrium) grows outside the uterus

Age also plays a role in female fertility. Delaying pregnancy can decrease the likelihood that you'll be able to conceive. An older woman's eggs aren't fertilized as easily as a younger woman's eggs — and might not develop normally even after fertilization occurs.

What can you do to promote female fertility?

Healthy lifestyle choices can help you promote fertility. For example:

• Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight or significantly underweight can affect hormone production and inhibit normal ovulation. Maintaining a healthy weight can increase the frequency of ovulation and likelihood of pregnancy.
• Prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Sexually transmitted infections — such as chlamydia and gonorrhea — are a leading cause of infertility for both men and women. To protect yourself from STIs, practice safe sex. Limit your number of sexual partners, and use a condom each time you have sex — or stay in a mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who isn't infected.
• Eat a healthy diet. Although there isn't enough research to suggest a specific diet to promote fertility or increase the chances of conception, a healthy diet still counts. Good nutrition — including a daily prenatal vitamin that contains folic acid — is an important part of preconception care and will serve you and your baby well during pregnancy.
• Schedule regular checkups. Regular visits to your health care provider can help you detect and treat health conditions that might threaten your fertility.
• Manage stress. Some research suggests that stress can lower the odds of conception. Although more research is needed to show the impact stress might have on female fertility, it's wise to minimize stress and practice healthy coping methods — such as relaxation techniques — when you're trying to conceive.

What's off-limits?

Healthy lifestyle choices count here, too. To protect your fertility:

• Don't smoke. Smoking ages your ovaries and depletes your eggs prematurely. If you smoke, ask your health care provider to help you quit.
• Limit the amount of alcohol you drink. Heavy drinking is associated with an increased risk of ovulation disorders — and some research has shown that even light drinking might reduce the likelihood of conceiving. If you'd like to get pregnant, consider avoiding alcohol completely.
• Curb caffeine. Although the evidence is mixed, some research suggests that too much caffeine might increase estrogen production or decrease estrogen metabolism. To protect your fertility, consider limiting the amount of caffeine in your diet to 200 milligrams a day — about the amount in two 8-ounce (240-milliliter) servings of coffee.
• Be wary of vigorous physical activity. Physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle — but too much intense aerobic activity can harm female fertility by inhibiting ovulation and reducing production of the hormone progesterone. If you have a healthy weight and you're thinking of becoming pregnant soon, consider limiting your aerobic exercise to no more than seven hours a week. If you're overweight, ask your health care provider how much aerobic activity is OK.
• Avoid exposure to toxins. Exposure to various chemicals or pollutants can harm your fertility. Agricultural workers, hair stylists and certain other groups might be at risk of menstrual disorders. Others at possible risk of reduced fertility include dental assistants exposed to high levels of nitrous oxide, anyone exposed to elevated levels of organic solvents — such as dry cleaning chemicals — and industrial workers exposed to drugs or chemicals during the manufacturing process. Share any concerns you might have about exposure to toxins with your health care provider.

What's the bottom line?

If you're thinking about becoming pregnant and you're concerned about the impact of your lifestyle choices on your fertility, consult your health care provider. He or she can help you identify ways to improve your fertility and boost your chances of getting pregnant.

Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure or hypertension is a very serious condition that may lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure among other life threatening conditions. It is important to seek medical advice once you are stricken with this condition. Because of the complications that may arise from this disease any desire to self-medicate should be avoided. Before using any natural home remedies be sure that these will not interfere with any of the recommendations and medications prescribed for you by your doctor. Some of these remedies have been found to work however you will still need to maintain regular check-ups to ensure that your elevated blood pressure levels are controlled. A few of these natural remedies are highlighted below.

Remedies

• Garlic has been found in a number of studies to have a positive effect on blood pressure. It may lower moderately high levels of blood pressure. It can be taken by directly eating the cloves or adding it to food to make consuming it much easier. It can also be taken as a supplement or powder. Regardless of how the garlic is ingested it is important to consult your doctor about taking this type of natural remedy. It has a similar blood thining effect like aspirin and therefore may reduce your body’s ability to form blood clots. Garlic may also interfere with other medications therefore you must be careful not to take this supplement without the supervision of your doctor.
• You may use hawthorn herb which has been found to help lower blood pressure. It does not appear to interact with other medications but it is still important to ask your doctor about the feasibility of taking this herb.
• Fish oil supplements have been linked to a decrease in blood pressure levels. These can be bought over the counter however, do not take these capsules without first consulting your doctor.
• Reduce your salt intake by cooking with less salt and avoiding heavily salted foods. This does not require much effort and is an important part of maintaining healthier blood pressure levels.
• You should make modifications to your diet to include healthier foods and less fats. Try to eat a lot of green leafy vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Avoid eating large portions of red meat and dairy. Choose low fat milk and only use the egg whites when cooking. Eat fruits that will provide you with vitamins and minerals like bananas, oranges and apples.
• Exercise regularly. Performing at least 30 minutes of exercise per day will improve your general health and help lower your blood pressure. You should focus on doing more aerobic exercises which will include cycling, swimming, jogging and running.
• Practice different types of relaxation techniques that may include yoga and meditation. This will help to reduce stress which is considered a major factor in promoting high blood pressure.
• You may also take folic acid supplements that have been shown to have some benefits. Alternatively you can increase your intake of green leafy vegetables like spinach and also beans, peas and sunflower seeds which are all natural sources of folic acid.