How Salt Affects Blood Pressure

How Salt Affects Blood Pressure: Salt (sodium) is essential to our bodies. Normally the kidneys control the level of salt. If there is too much salt, the kidneys pass it into urine. But when our salt intake levels are very high, the kidneys cannot keep up and the salt ends up in our bloodstream. Salt attracts water. When there is too much salt in the blood, the salt draws more water into the blood. More water increases the volume of blood which raises blood pressure. Salt Sensitivity : Some people are more sensitive to salt than others. In some people too much salt will cause their blood pressures to rise, in others there will not be as large a change. About half of people are salt sensitive. African-America­­ns, the elderly and people with diabetes are more often salt sensitive. If you have high blood pressure, you can always benefits from decreasing your salt intake. The Salt Intake Recommendations­­: You need about 500 milligrams of salt everyday for your body to function. Most people take in about 10 times that amount daily. The recommended amount of salt for people with high blood pressure is about 1500 milligrams a day. Any reduction in your salt intake will help. Lowering Your Salt Intake: Processed foods use salt as an additive. Almost 80% of the average person's daily salt intake comes from processed foods. If we ate only natural foods and limited the use of table salt, we would be able to eliminate excess salt in our diets. Foods to Avoid: Salt can hide in many processed foods. Try to eat mostly produce, fruits and fresh meat. Avoid condiments, pickles, ham, bacon, salsa, cheese, cold cuts, olives, broths, anything canned, and anything processed. The list can go on and on. You need to check the sodium content on food labels and think twice about anything with over 100 mg per serving. A few of these items are okay everyday, but not too many. Culled from facebook page of centre for women and youth development foundation by oghogho Omoekpen.

CANDIDA - THRUSH - YEAST INFECTION - VAGINITIS.

CANDIDA - THRUSH - YEAST INFECTION - VAGINITIS. A yeast infection is one of those infections that makes every woman and female teenager grimace with discomfort and embarrassment. Millions of women around the world are diagnosed with yeast infection every year and half of all women will get yeast infection in their lifetime. Once you have yeast infection it will normally make many things unpleasant, including those night time pleasures. Although yeast infection is more prevalent among women and teenage girls, it can also infect men, children and babies. Yeast infection is also known by the common terms thrush, candida and vaginitis. Yeast Infection is a fungus that normally exists on the skin in small numbers and generally causes no problems. Everyone has yeast infection fungi on their skin and mucous membranes (special skin areas often involved in food digestion and elimination - such as in the mouth, the anus, vagina, penis, etc.) The yeast becomes an infection when the fungus breeds up. That is, when the fungi - the individual reproducing units - reproduce much faster than they die off. CAUSES. There are many causes of yeast infection. Essentially though, it's something that happens to the body that allows the normal yeast infection to take over. Areas of the body most likely infected by Candida: The yeast infection symptoms mainly appear on the mucous membranes. The mucous membranes are the membranes which secrete or produce mucous and normally line the passageways of the body which connect to the outside world - the mouth, throat (the pharnyx, the esophagus), intestines, the urinary bladder, anus, vagina and penis - they can all suffer from a yeast infection. It can also occur in the navel, on the breasts, the armpits, around the mouth, around the male or female genitalia, or within any fold of skin that doesn't see the light of day all that often. Yeast infection symptoms can also occur on the skin, on the finger or toe nails, or on the bottom. Yeast infection can also enter the blood stream and infect the organs of the body. When the yeast infection does this, you are said to have a "systemic yeast infection". The yeast infection starts when the fungus finds an environment with good conditions and not a lot of competition. At that point it changes from a relatively harmless unicellular organism into an invasive multicellular organism and starts reproducing as fast as it can, wherever it can. Yeast Infection will affect any area where conditions are good for it, but will fail to affect areas that aren't susceptible or that it can't get to. In other words, you can have vaginal candidiasis without getting oral candidiasis along with it, and vice versa. So it may be safe to kiss, but not have intercourse and vice versa. Yeast Infection Symptoms: The symptoms of a yeast infection are fairly unique. Somewhere on the body develops either white plaques, or starts emitting a white, cheesy or curd-like discharge. In addition, you'll usually experience yeast infection symptoms of serious itching, burning, redness and inflammation on and around the infected site. If the yeast infection is on exterior skin, the usual symptoms also include red, patchy sores with a distinct border that also itch and burn like mad. A... The Symptoms of a yeast infection of the vagina and vulva include: A discharge from the area which is either whitish or yellowish in color. Inflammation of the area - swelling, redness, Squishy, whitish stuff may adhere to the vagina walls aka lining. There may be a nasty smell from the vagina. The Symptoms of a yeast infection of the penis include: Occasionally a discharge will be noticed from the tip. Irritation of the penis head. Redness of the penis head. Pain in the penis head. Yeast Infection Symptoms in the Mouth and Throat: Whitish or whitish blue patches in the mouth or on the tongue. Tongue may have inflammation - swollen and red. Probably be difficult or painful to swallow. Will probably itch. Cracks around the corners of the mouth are common in oral yeast infection Treatment and Cure: A doctor will either prescribe an antifungal medication or recommend one of the over-the-counter preparations. There are quite a few antifungals out there, and they come in mouthwash, cream and tablet form in order to kill the infection wherever it is. While you might be able to defeat a case of candidiasis without these medications, you run the risk of turning it into a recurring infection, which then becomes a lot harder to treat. REFERENCES USED :Walsh TJ, Dixon DM (1996). "Deep Mycoses", in Baron S et al eds.: Baron's Medical Microbiology , 4th ed., Univ of Texas Medical Branch.

Health Minister task Nigerians on environmental sanitation

Minister of Health, Prof. C. O. Onyebuchi has called on Nigerians to imbibe the culture of environmental sanitation in order to stem the tide of malaria infection in the country. The Minister gave this advice in Abuja at an occasion to commemorate the 2013 World Malaria Day celebration. Delivering his key note address, the Minister said that malaria remains a major public health problem in Nigeria adding that it has continued to be a major threat to human capital development component of the Transformation Agenda as well as other national and international development goals. He said that President Goodluck Jonathan has approved at the Federal Executive Council meeting that the Ministry should engage in other interventions aside from distributing nets adding that focusing on the environment is key to reducing the incidence of malaria. He said: “If we do simple things like keeping the environment clean, we don’t need the nets”. He said that his Ministry is embarking on indoor residual spray, it is also going to do larviciding which Federal, State and local Governments will be part of it. He explained that the World Malaria Day celebration is designed to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to raise awareness and increase the knowledge on malaria control adding that the occasion provides as an opportunity to celebrate the successes achieved in malaria control in the past one year and to advocate for support for more resources and commodities that will make the fight against malaria more effective. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria”, while the slogan is ‘’Time is now”. Prof. Chukwu said that investments in malaria control have created unprecedented momentum and yielded remarkable returns in the past years stressing that in Africa, malaria deaths have been cut by one third within the last decade; continuous investments in malaria will ensure continuous decline in the incidence of malaria. In his goodwill message, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo who was represented by WHO country representative, Dr. Gama Vaz said that over the past decade, countries in the African Region have made commendable progress in the prevention and control of malaria. He said the World Malaria Report 2012 indicates a 33% decrease in malaria deaths in Africa adding that during the same period, an estimated 1.1 million malaria deaths were averted. He said that increased domestic and external funding is needed to ensure that adequate quantities of commodities, including enough long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets, Insecticides, Rapid tests, microscopes, reagents and anti-malarial drugs are accessible and used rationally. He said that integrated delivery of anti-malarial actions with maternal and child health, immunization, hygiene, sanitation and improved housing programmes must be expanded in order to defeat malaria stressing that strong political commitment, strengthened regional cooperation and multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration are critical.