Healthy eating habit can help control arthritis
Dr Ashit Syngle

Dr Christiaan Bernard, the famous cardiovascular surgeon who performed the first successful human heart transplant, suffered from arthritis. He once said, “Control your arthritis, do not let it control you.”

Walking is the best medicine. Regular, moderate exercise offers a lot of benefits to people with arthritis. Exercise reduces joint pain and stiffness, builds strong muscle around the joints, and increases flexibility and endurance capacity. It reduces inflammation from arthritis and related conditions and lowers the risk of other chronic problems. It also helps promote overall health and fitness by giving you more energy, helping you sleep better, controlling your weight, decreasing depression and giving you more self-esteem. Furthermore, exercise can help stave off other health problems such as osteoporosis and heart disease.

You’ve got to be moving. But sometimes it is not so easy to get started. The important thing to remember is to start slowly and take it as fun. It is always good to start with flexibility exercises, which are basically stretching exercises. That will improve your range of motion and help you perform daily activities.

Once you feel comfortable, you can move on to weight training and endurance exercises.

Maintain your ideal

body weight

The more you weigh the more stress you are putting on your joints, especially your hips, knees, back and feet. For every 1 lb lost, there is a 4 lb decrease. Just as there are different types of arthritis, there are also different types of pain. Even your own pain may vary from day to day.

Each person needs a pain management plan. What works for one person may not work for someone else. You may need to try several different treatments before you find the one that works for you. Long-lasting pain, as is experienced in the case of osteoarthritis, is different. While it tells you that something is wrong, it often is not as easy to get relief. Managing this type of pain is essential to improve your quality of life and sense of well- being.

One of the best ways you can manage your arthritis is by eating healthy and keeping your weight under control. When you eat right and stay fit, your body is in great shape to battle inflammation as well as keep extra pressure off.

The best way to start down the path of good nutrition and health is to make great choices when you sit down to eat. You don’t have to go on a strict diet to gain benefits from good eating. Just choose the right foods in the right portions and much of the battle will be won. Keep reading for easy ways to make some nutritional changes and for advice on how to stay motivated when the going gets tough.

For most people, all you have to do is choose your food wisely to keep extra weight off. No special diets are required! For example, you should eat mostly fruits, vegetables, wholegrains and high-fiber foods. In fact, two-thirds of your dinner plate should consist of vegetables and fruits like broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots.

Portion control may be the most effective weight-loss strategy around. It beats out exercise, regular physical activity, fat reduction in diet, and eating more fruits and veggies for effectiveness, according to researchers. A study of 300 overweight people who were asked to practice five weight-loss strategies revealed that those who considerable efforts to control portion size were most likely to lose weight.

Don’t drink your calories. Drinking even one sugar-sweetened soda a day can increase the risk of developing high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Manage stress in

healthy ways

Living with a chronic condition like arthritis/rheumatism can lead to emotional problems and significantly impact the quality of life. You may feel angry, frustrated, depressed or helpless because of your medical condition. Resist the temptation to handle stress in unhealthy ways — such as overeating, overindulging in alcohol, or taking drugs — that will only increase stress in the long run. Relaxation techniques like meditation can actually relieve pain.

When you have arthritis, good relations with the right doctor can play a critical role in your treatment, the management of your pain and other symptoms. A good doctor-patient relationship is based on mutual respect and understanding.

Dealing with arthritis can be sometimes frustrating. That is why it is important to have a knowledgeable and understanding doctor.

Above all, you must have faith in yourself!

The writer is a Senior Consultant-Physician and Rheumatologist, Fortis Multispeciality Hospital, Mohali. Email: ashitsyngle@yahoo.com

Nasal bleeding: don’t get panicky
Dr U S Bansal

Apart from breathing, our nasal cavities are mainly concerned with the maintenance of adequate temperature and proper humidity so that the exchange of oxygen and carbondioxide in the system takes place smoothly with the least disturbance to the lungs, a vital organ in our body. This function is performed by a large amount of blood flowing in the nose in the three fleshy masses on either side called turbinates / conches. Nasal cavities have to work hard in severe cold and extremely hot weather conditions and, therefore, there is a feeling of nasal block. Indiscriminate use of nasal drops, especially in children, is harmful as it interferes with the normal physiological functions and flora of the nose.

Bleeding from the nose is a symptom of a large number of widely diverse conditions affecting almost every person in one's life at one time or the other. The main point in the case of nasal bleeding is not to be panicky. Maintain your cool and have patience; cooperate fully with the attending doctor and wait for the outcome, which is positive in most cases. This will help speedy recovery.

In children and young adults, bleeding occurs from the anterior and lower parts of nasal septum (the divider between two nasal cavities). It happens because of frequent picking/fingering with the nose. Bleeding is usually in the form of drops; it will probably stop by itself, or sometimes it may be moderate that needs to be controlled by pinching the nose interior for 10-15 minutes. Then encourage the child to sit forward to minimise the swallowing of blood. After bleeding stops lubricate the area with some ointment or liquid paraffin, etc, for a few days.

Still more important is to prevent the child from picking the nose repeatedly. No lab tests are required. Unilateral blood-stained foul-smelling discharge in children is mainly due to some foreign body in the nose, and it ceases after its removal.

In elderly or middle-aged persons, nasal bleeding is mainly due to high blood pressure. Bleeding may be so heavy that emergency hospitalisation and resuscitation measures are to be taken in the form of nasal packing and also to lower the BP through medication. In such elderly patients, nasal bleeding at times may act as a safety valve to prevent brain haemorrhage, which is very serious and can endanger one's life.

In roadside accident cases, it may be mild-to-profuse bleeding and, therefore, treatment should be given accordingly. In severe injury cases, nasal bones may get fractured and blood vessels get torn, resulting in heavy bleeding. The patient usually reaches hospital when a lot of blood has already been lost. He or she may be semiconscious and may not cooperate in nasal packing, etc. So, fresh blood transfusion is the urgent need. Even then in certain cases the situation may lead to death.

Malignant growth in the nose or nasopharyx and certain bleeding disorders such as haemophilias, thrombocytopaenia and leukaemia may give rise to spontaneous controllable or even uncontrollable nasal bleeding where prognosis is always guarded even with best possible management.

In certain severe systemic diseases like chronic congestive heart failure, renal failure, terminal liver disease, severe anaemias, acute high fever and acute drug reactions, management varies from patient to patient.

Habitual nasal bleeding, though rare, in children and in the case of women during menstrual periods is to be taken as normal.

The writer is a former CMO and Head, ENT Department, Multispeciality Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh.