WEIGHT LOSS 1

DOC HOW DO I LOSE WEIGHT?

A Simple Guide to your weight loss program involve 2 main components:
1.Control Diet
2.Burn up Calories

Control Diet
1.) Drink More Water

Drinking water 8 to 10 times each day to stay hydrated and healthy. Once you get started, you will begin to crave water.

Start with a glass of water first thing in the morning before you eat. If you really do not like the taste of water, try adding a few drops of lemon or lime to your water but no sugar or sweetener! Ice also helps.

One of the best weight loss secrets is to avoid the sweet drinks and the sodas which are all calorie laden. Instead grab a refreshing glass of water.

Besides flushing toxins and waste material out of your system, drinking water encourages you to build muscle.

Drinking a glass of water after very meaal will help you get in your 8 to 10 glasses of water each day but it can also have other benefits.If you feel hungry after a smaller meal, try drinking water after the meal. The water will help you feel full and prevent further eating.

2.) Eat More Small Meals

Do not skip breakfast each morning even if you will have to go bed earlier 20 mins each night to wake up for a proper breaskfast! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and will contribute to your good health and to weight control.

Eating breakfast is not only good for overall weight loss, it will help you control your diet the rest of the day. You will less likely to eat something sweet and in the bread group if you skip breakfast.

Keep a couple of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge or some high-fiber, low starch fruit around to take for breakfast. Breakfast is the best time to take fruits.

You will feel better and lose weight quicker if you eat a large breakfast and eat a smaller dinner. Try and eat the majority of your carbohydrates earlier in the day, leaving a salad and lean meat protein for dinner.

By eating larger meals during the part of the day when you are most active will help you to feel less hungry throughout the day and stop cravings for unhealthy snacks.

Traditional three-large-meals-a-day plan will not help your body to burn up large meals and any excess will be turned into fat. Many nutritionist believe you should eat six small meals a day. You should cut back on your food consumption at each meal, or else you will be doubling your intake of calories!

Just like eating breakfast will increase your metabolism, so will eating small meals more often. This will also help you reduce the total carbohydrate intake by making sure that your meals are planned and occur regularly throughout the day.

3.) Consider eating a salmon or fish during breakfast

This is one way to work in Omega-3 fatty acids that are good for you and add some variety to your daily diet. After a time you may tire of eating eggs and bacon for breakfast. Eating a salmon or fish will give you the protein and healthy fish oils you need.

4.)Avoid White Foods

Anything which is made from sugar, flour, potatoes, rice or corn - just avoid. Always look for colorful fruits and veggies to substitute for the white foods. Buy broccoli, lettuce, bell peppers, green beans and peas, brown rice in moderation, leafy greens like kale and spinach, apples, melons, oranges and grapes.

Fruits and vegetables are not only colorful but they are also high in fiber, nutrients and important antioxidants. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables will give your diet variety as well as healthy benefits with their fresh vitamins, minerals and fiber. Most people will find some vegetables that they enjoy eating. Vegetarians have food that looks and taste as good as meat .They are actually made out of soya bean and flour.

5.) Choose Protein

Choose protein-laden foods for boosting your metabolism and enabling your body to burn fat rapidly. In addition to burning fat, consuming a protein-enriched diet will help you rebuild muscle after work outs and maintain leanness of that muscle. Wisely choose proteins for your diet. Take great care to pick proteins low in fat so you do not consume extra calories.

6.)Eat more protein at every meal

Eating protein helps you burn more calories. This iss because protein is made up mainly of amino acids, which are harder to breakdown in your body so you burn more calories getting rid of them.

Eating a protein rich snack can help you to lose weight.

Eating protein will also help you feel full so that you have less craving for unhealthy snacks.

BRISTOL STOOL SCALE

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DOC HOW DO I KNOW WHETHER MY STOOL IS NORMAL

Actually many people do not know the definition of diarrhea.

They define the word diarrhea as watery stools where in fact the word diarrhea means any stools which are softer or more frequent than normal.

The researchers at the Bristol University have come out with a scale which is called the Bristol Stool Scale.

According to the Bristol Stool Scale, the seven types of stools
are:
1.Type 1: Separate hard lumps like nuts
2.Type 2: Sausage shaped but lumpy
3.Type 3: like a Sausage but with cracks on its surface
4.Type 4: like a Sausage or snake, smooth and soft
5.Type 5: soft blobs with clear cut edges
6.Type 6: Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool
7.Type 7: Watery, no solid pieces. Entirely liquid.

Type 1 and 2 indicate constipation while type 5-7 indicate diarrhea. Type 3 and 4 are considered ideal stools because they are the easiest to pass.

Avoidance of constipation include:

1. Increase in daily fiber intake to at least 15gm (eg. 1 bowl of bran cereal for breakfast),
fruits and vegetables).
Fibre increases the bulk of the stool allowing easy passage of stools through the large
intestine.

2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day (2 liters). Water reduces the hardness of stools.

3. Regular exercises at least 2-3 times a day especially after meals. Exercise will enhance
intestinal movement.

4. Allow a distraction free period of 15 min a day for bowel movement. The strongest
intestinal movement occurs after breakfast.

5. Do not ignore or suppress the urge to pass bowel movement. This may impair the
sensation to detect initiation of bowel movement leading to constipation.

Avoidance of  diarrhea include:

1.washing your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds after using the bathroom or changing diapers

2.washing your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds before eating

3.disinfecting contaminated surfaces such as counter tops and baby changing stations

4.Avoid eating or drinking foods or liquids that might be contaminated

5.Avoid rapid intestinal movement from stress, irritable bowel syndrome

Please read my blogs on constipation and diarrhea

BIRD FLU

DOC I HAVE BIRD FLU

Bird Flu or more correctly, avian flu is new strain of influenza virus H5N1 which can infect humans.

It has been around for 1987 and was expected to be the next big pandemic to hit the world.

Millions of birds and poultry has been culled all these countries especially in Thailand and China.

Just in December 2011 there has been a few cases found in Hong Kong where culling of poultry has been done .

The number of cases of avian flu in humans in the current outbreak is very small, and almost all have come about by direct contact with infected or dead birds or poultry.

The first outbreak of bird flu occurred in 1987 . Since then the bird flu have claimed at least 306 human lives in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.

Just as recent as December 2011 one woman in Shenzhen which is in southern China died of bird flu(H5N1).

On January 7th 2012 another person also died of Bird flu in Indonesia.

Central to the problem of dealing with bird flu is diagnosis.
A number of upper respiratory infections have similar symptoms—at least at the onset of the illness, including the common cold, seasonal influenza, and bird flu.

Seasonal flu and bird flu have almost identical symptoms:
1.fever,
2.cough,
3.malaise (feeling unwell),
4.nausea,
5.vomiting,
6.diarrhea.

The Multiplexed Respiratory Test, discriminates influenza A from influenza B and identifies the H5-subtype of influenza A (bird flu is “H5N1”) from all other H subtypes.
In addition, it can identify almost all the other common—and some uncommon—viruses that cause influenza-like illnesses.

Preparation to treat a bird flu epidemic:
1. The single most important thing for an epidemic such as avian bird flu is to have well-prepared local health care systems.

2. Regular hand washing, and other beneficial cleanliness custom may save more lives than all other medicines combined.

3. The proper recognition and prizes should be given to those who have come up with effective vaccines for the avian bird flu disease. On the same note, vaccine makers should be given the freedom to make use of state materials needed for the vaccines.

4. Relevant drugs and vaccines for the avian bird flu disease should be bought and sold at fair prices.

5. Make preparations to ensure the continuity of food and power supplies.

6. It is therefore appropriate to have local health authorities ready to be used when the situation calls for it.

7. Encourage the formation of prediction markets about the avian bird flu epidemic.

8. There should be useful information about the progress of avian flu.

This will be especially useful in some Asian countries where the avian bird flu epidemic is expected to be rampant.

9. The World Health Organization should be prepared for such a bird flu epidemic.

During an avian bird flu epidemic, there are also things that should not be done:
1. Tamiflu and vaccine stockpiling have their useful roles.

In addition to the medical limitations of these investments(Tamiflu is losing its effect on most influenza because of their frequent use especially in Hong Kong), other institutional factors, such as transportation, will restrict the ability to allocate these supplies promptly to the persons needing them(healthcare and emergency staff)

2. Quarantines and mass isolations are useless in a bird flu epidemic.

3. In an avian bird flu epidemic  the health authorities must be in full control of the situation

4. It is pointless to block off or isolate the pandemic in its country of origin.It may have spread abroad already. Besides birds are migratory.

5.Public places such as schools and marketplaces should be closed immediately to be on the safe side.

5. People should not obsess over avian bird flu at the expense of other medical issues.

BED BUGS

DOC I HAVE BEEN BITTEN BY BED BUGS

What are Bed Bugs?

A Bed Bug is an insect called Cimex lectularius which is a small living insect that one can hardly see with the naked eye.

Bed bugs can be found in schools, hotels, apartments and houses. They can usually crawl and hide themselves in clothes, quilts, bed covers, pillow, furniture, cracks and crevices in the home.

Bed bugs are usually active at night. They mostly bite at exposed skin area such as face, neck, arms, hands feet etc. leaving swelling and redness at those bitten areas.

Their bites are characterized by itchiness and secondary skin infections.

Bed bugs are very flexible and tough insects because after they eat once in their life  they can spend their whole life span on that single meal.

The Life span of bed bugs is only one year.

Bedbugs can survive as long as up to one year without sucking blood.

The female bug can lay lay eggs three times in their life. and 300 eggs at one time. The eggs hatch in 6-10 days into adult bed bugs.

What are the Symptoms of Bed Bugs?

1.itching which is worse at night

2.rashes and abrasions on the skin due to scratching and secondary infections.

Rashes typically are present on legs and arms, sometimes on the body , seldom on the face. Rarely it may be present on the scalp.

Bedbug bites can not be felt immediately because of a sedative present in the saliva of the bedbug that keeps the blood from clotting and immunes the body for some time.

The process of sucking blood of a host lasts for 4-5 minutes.

The only good thing about these bugs is that they don not carry germs or bacteria that may cause harmful diseases to human body.

How do you confirm the diagnosis of Bed Bugs?

Skin scrapings can be examined microscopically for the Bed Bugs bites.

What is the Treatment of Bed Bugs?

Wash the infected area with an antibacterial liquid and apply calamine lotion afterward.

Pesticides (chemicals to treat Bed Bugs) actually contain mild insecticide :

Benzyl benzoate lotion

Malathion lotion

Gamma benzene hexachloride cream

Permethrin cream

Bathing is followed by application of the insecticide to the whole body from the neck to soles, left for 24 hours.

Treatment of contacts may be required if there is obvious signs of Bed Bugs.

While the Bed Bugs cannot live off the human skin for longer than 24 hours, each treatment with pesticide should be accompanied by washing, in hot water, of bedsheets, pillow cases and any clothes worn over the previous week.

Most people improve within a few days of treatment but it may take 4-6 weeks for the itch and rash of Bed Bugs to go away completely.

Prevention:
Keep your house clean and spray an effective pest control formula to eradicate these bugs completely.