Sinus Infection - Causes and Treatment

What is a sinus?

Sinus disease is a major health problem affecting more than 30 million people just across America. It is an inflammation or swelling of the tissue lining the sinuses. Healthy sinuses, are filled with air, but as they become blocked and get filled with fluid, germs can grow and cause a severe infection.

Commonly there are four pairs of these cavities each referred to as the:

1.       Frontal Sinus (in Forehead),

2.       Maxillary Sinus (behind Cheeks),

3.       Ethmoid Sinuses (between the Eyes), and

4.       Sphenoid Sinus (deep behind the Ethmoids).

People who have allergies, asthma, structural blockages in the nose or sinuses, or people with weak immune systems are at greater risk.

Causes

Common causes of chronic sinusitis include:

·         Nasal Polyps — These are soft, painless, noncancerous growths on the inner layer of your nasal passages or sinuses.

·         Deviated nasal septum — A deviated nasal septum happens when the thin nasal septum between your nasal passages is moved to one side.

·         Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) — Infections in your respiratory tract, commonly caused due to cold, this can inflame and thicken your sinus membranes and block mucus drainage. One need to be extra careful as these infections are viral, bacterial or fungal.

·         Allergies such as hay fever — Certain types of soreness or irritation caused due to allergies can block your sinuses.

Common Symptoms

o   Nasal stuffiness or congestion

o   Postnasal drip

o   Tenderness of the face (under the eyes or at the bridge of the nose)

o   Bad breath

o   Frontal headaches

o   Discolored nasal discharge

o   Coughing

o   Pain in the teeth

o   Fever

o   Fatigue

o    

Other Common Risk Factors

You're at higher risk of getting infected by chronic or frequent sinusitis if you have:

o   Abnormality in the nasal passage

o   Asthma - highly linked to chronic sinusitis

o   Aspirin sensitivity

o   An immune system disorder

o   Hay fever or another allergic condition

o   Regular exposure to pollutants or smoking

Diagnosis

Primary assessment to diagnose sinus, your doctor will feel for tenderness in your nose & face and look inside your nose.

Other methods for diagnosing chronic sinusitis include:

·         Nasal endoscopy or Rhinoscopy.

·         Imaging studies - CT scan or MRI

·         Nasal and sinus cultures

·         An allergy test

Treatment

The objective of treating chronic sinusitis is to:

Ø  Reduce sinus inflammation

Ø  Maintain your nasal passages draining

Ø  Remove or reduce the common causes

Ø  Lessen the number of sinusitis flare-up

Sinus Infection treatments include:

·         Saline nasal irrigation

·         Nasal corticosteroids.

·         Oral or injected corticosteroids.

·         Aspirin desensitization treatment

·         Antibiotics

·         Immunotherapy

·         Endoscopic sinus surgery

What are common symptoms of menopause?

All women will eventually experience menopause at some point of time in her life. It is estimated that 4 in every 100 women will experience menopause. However, its causes and symptoms are not totally known, as there are numerous signs and symptoms that can cause menopause. The expert study says that, menopause is confirmed when a woman has not had her menstrual period for over a year.

The signs and symptoms of menopause may vary as the women who suffer from them, but there are some commonly observed symptoms, such as hot flashes, irregular periods, and low sex drive. Usually during menopause, the production of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone hormones are interrupted and can therefore, lead to hormonal changes.

These changes in hormonal patterns can cause to the body to react in strange ways; these are commonly known as menopause symptoms. Most symptoms associated with menopause actually occur during the perimenopause stage. Some women go through menopause without facing any complications or unpleasant symptoms. While, some find menopausal symptoms draining, and last for years.

Some of the symptoms that women experience primarily are related to a lowered production level of female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. Its symptoms vary widely due to the many effects that these hormones have on the female body.

Read on to learn more about some of the common and uncommon signs and symptoms of menopause.

Irregular periods

This is typically the first symptom, wherein the menstrual pattern changes. Some women may have periods every 2-3 weeks, while others will not have one for months.

Vaginal dryness

Along with vaginal dryness, one may also experience itching and/or discomfort. Some may experience pain during sex. Vaginal atrophy is inflammation of the vagina as a result of the thinning and shrinking of the tissues, as well as decreased lubrication, caused due to lack of estrogen hormone.

Lower fertility

During the perimenopausal stage, the level of estrogen will drop significantly, and lowering the chances of getting pregnant.

Urinary problems

Women tend to be more liable to suffer from urinary tract infections (UTIs), such as cystitis. Urinary frequency may also increase.

Hot flashes

A sudden feeling of heat usually in the upper body, it then spreads downwards. This can make your skin red and sweaty. The heart rate may suddenly increase, or it might become irregular or stronger than usual. Hot flashes usually occur during the 1^st year after a woman's final period.

Night sweats

Hot flushes that occur at night are called night sweats. Most women experience their hot flashes at night that lasts for a few minutes.

Disturbed sleep

This may make you feel tired and irritable during the day. Sleeplessness is commonly caused by night sweats, but not always. Sleep disturbance may be caused by insomnia or anxiety. Difficulty in falling asleep and staying asleep increase as a woman goes through menopause.

Mood swings

Disrupted sleep is the main cause of mood swings. Studies say that most mood changes are triggered due to poor sleep.

Going further menopause can also lead to increase the risk of developing certain other problems such as weak bones (osteoporosis). Therefore, it is advisable to schedule regular appointments with your doctor so that you can monitor your health and get answers to any question that you have about menopause symptoms.

Causes and Symptoms of bone health deterioration

What causes bone health deterioration?

The human body requires a regular intake of mineral, calcium and phosphate to make and keep your bones healthy.

During your lifespan, our bone continues to both reabsorb mature bone and create new bones. The human skeleton is replaced about every 10 years. Providing, your body has a good balance of old & new bone, your bone remain strong and healthy. Usually, a bone loss appears when more old bones are reabsorbed than a new bone is created.

At times, a bone loss takes place without any known cause. On the other hand, bone loss and thin bone disorder are within families and inherited. In most cases, white, older women are more prone to have bone loss problem. Such disorders, increases their risk of breaking a bone.
Weak or unhealthy bones break easily, without even an evident injury. A Brittle or fragile bones can be caused due to anything that destroys your bone, or restrains your body from making enough bone.

Here are the 3 common causes of bone loss;

Aging
As the person grows old, our body reabsorbs calcium and phosphate from our bone, rather than keeping these minerals in your bones. This makes your bone weaker, and develops Osteoporosis.

An individual suffering with osteoporosis will fracture a bone, before they even know they have a bone loss. This may even lead to serious bone loss condition. It is a commonly observed condition in women over age 50 and men over the age 70, than younger men and women.
In women, a drop in estrogen hormone is the main cause of bone loss. On the other hand, in men a drop of testosterone hormone is the cause for bone loss.

Lifestyle choices
Our body requires calcium and vitamin D and regular exercise to build and keep-up strong bones. It becomes difficult for your body to make new bones if you do not have enough calcium in your meals. Certain lifestyle habits can cause long term effects on your body, such as
Consumption of alcohol - Alcohol can damage your bones by increasing the risk of falling and breaking a bone.

Excessive Smoking

Individual who smoke regularly have weaker bones. Especially in women who smoke after menopauses are at higher chance of bone loss. Younger women with irregular menstrual cycle also have a higher risk of bone loss or osteoporosis.

Being underweight, is linked to less bone mass and weaker bones.

Medical disorder causing bone loss - There are a number of chronic medical conditions that can keep a person confined to bed or chair for an elongated period of time. Inability to walk or exercise may lead to bone loss or fracture.

Medical conditions leading to bone loss are;

Ø  Arthritis

Ø  Chronic kidney disease

Ø  Overactive parathyroid gland

Some medications that treat certain health conditions can also cause bone loss they are;

•           Hormone-blocking treatments for prostate cancer or breast cancer

•           Medicines used to treat seizures or epilepsy

•           Glucocorticoid (steroid) medicines, if they are taken by mouth for several times in 3 months or more

Treatment that causes calcium or vitamin D deficiency can lead to weak bones they are;
•           Weight-loss surgery (Gastric bypass)

•           Cystic fibrosis

•           Individuals with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, are at higher risk for osteoporosis.

Signs and symptoms

There are generally no signs & symptoms of bone loss until a bone breaks. Fractures of the spine, wrist, upper arm, pelvis, and hip are most common. The fractures can be very painful and can lead to long-term disability.

Over the years, there may be a gradual loss in height due to weakened and compressed vertebrae in the spine. Spinal fractures or crumbling of affected vertebral bones can lead to bent-over posture and may cause severe back pain.  

What is a pre-employment physical exam and how it is done?

A pre-employment physical exam is part of the employment screening process for companies. The purpose of physical exam is to ensure that the employee’s health is compliant with any job related requirements for the position they are applying for. The physical exam can be simple & quick or complex & lengthy, depending on the requirements of the job profile. For instance, a worker might be examined to confirm if he/she is good and can perform jobs that require rigorous physical activity.

Nowadays, more and more companies are requiring pre-employment exams in order to shortlist potential employees. This pre-employment exam not only prevents from work injury, but also prevents the company from work related lawsuits, that could have been prevented at the employment stage.

Pre-employment physical exams can only be legally requested after the job has been offered. This ensures that there is no discrimination issue at the workplace. This also shows up the potential worker to do that job.

Basic Checkup list

Pre-employment physical exam starts with a measurement of your vital signs.

The nurse will record your body-weight, blood-pressure, pulse-rate and body-temperature.
You are also requested to mention any medications or supplements you might be taking. Since, some drugs or nutritional supplements may cause drowsiness, nausea and other potential side-effects. If you are hired to handle some high-stress job profile, then the company might also want to know how you handle pressure. The examiner might ask you questions regarding depression symptoms, mood swings, behaviors and your stress dealing technique. People who smoke or have other mitigate habits may not be a good fit for certain jobs.

Alcohol and Drug Tests

Conducting alcohol and drug tests have become common in many corporates, and you may be asked to undergo one in order to get a job. It is important, especially in high-risk jobs, where employees are handling heavy equipment and being drunk can result not only in personal harm but also in harm to other employees and to property.

It is performed in a number of ways such as; breathalyzers, urine tests, blood tests, hair testing and even mouth swaps.

Physical Examination

Besides the basic checkup, your doctor will also check your reflexes, joint health, heart health and respiratory function, hearing issues and pupil dilation. All of these vital checks can help give your physician a more precise portrait of your physical condition.

The doctor will also note any uneasiness, discomfort, pain or swelling you might be experiencing and would want to know it’s caused and when it started.

While submitting, remember the tests performed might change based on:

Ø  Your age

Ø  Your sex

Ø  Accidents/injuries you reported during the interview

Ø  Current or past medical history

The Results

After the examination the doctor will issue a report showing your physical condition. He might add some recommendations or prescriptions, although this is not always required.

The primary goal of performing such pre-employment physical test ensure that the company is aware of any medical conditions or issues you might be dealing with, so you stay safe and work on getting back to optimal health.

Benefits of Using a Staffing Company to Hire

The healthcare sector is one of the booming industries of the recent times. Mainly due to its affordable healthcare solutions and increasing number of community based care and specialties in the industry like geriatrics, informatics and care coordinators. This has given rise to the number of people who can approach basic medical care.

With massive growth and development in the healthcare market, the demand for nurses has also improved. A staffing company performances, recruitment and selection process for organizations that don’t have the time, expertise or resources necessary to manage the staffing processes. Some staffing agencies offer temporary workers, and others give prospective candidates for temp-to-hire arrangements. Despite of the service type, there are certain benefit of using staffing agencies, this includes; expertise, cost, availability of workers and employee retention.

Due to the increasing demand and need to improve the quality of healthcare services, finding and retaining highly-qualified nurses with the right skill is becoming more difficult. In order to, maintain a competitive edge in the hiring process, many healthcare have already turned to staffing agencies. By allowing themselves, to enjoy benefits such as cost saving, scalable workforce, better access to talented employees, efficient hiring process and more engaged employees.

1. Experienced & Skilled Staffing Agency

A hiring manager or the internal staffing specialist may require a lengthy period to find a qualified nurse for the required facility.  However, hiring a staffing agency will provide you with services that will cut down the time & cost an internal HR team will require.

A staffing agency has a vast expertise about recruitment – trends, practices and standards for various industries and gives your hiring team valuable insights of what is currently happening in the nursing job market. They are well versed about where and how to look for exceptional talent, their salary rates and job prospect as well as existing complexities in hiring nurse.

2. Proven Access to Skilled Candidates

As the healthcare industry is booming day-by-day, it is getting difficult to find qualified nurse. Therefore, seeking help from a healthcare staffing agency will help you with better access to more skilled and talented nurses at a much lower cost than, if you do the hiring process in-house. A healthcare staffing agency has a wide range of networks with advanced recruiting process and technologies; they make the hiring process smoother and well-organized.

3. Flexibility       

Many healthcare staffing agencies have come up with the added benefit of having a variety of staffing options such as; contract-to-hire, direct hire, per-diem hire and temporary hire that enables your company to hire the best nurses based upon your staffing requirements.

4. Avoid Bad Hires

A Healthcare staffing agency lessens the risk of recruiting a wrong candidate. A staffing agency ensures, each nurse that they provide are of quality, have the right skill and personality for the job. Healthcare staffing agencies give you the opportunity to discover employee performance, qualifications and work practice over a trial period, by allowing you to estimate if you will give the temporary hire a permanent post in your facility.

This benefit you with a major savings in employment cost such as; investment in time, training and support needs.

5. Saves Time

A healthcare staffing agency can help you to retain much of your time when it comes to using their services. Many a times, a hiring process can consume a lot of time and effort, particularly if you belong in a niche industry where it is difficult to find a specific qualified candidate.

Benefits of Using a Staffing Company to Hire by Health Care on Scribd

Different pain management techniques

Pain management plays an important role if you are suffering from ongoing pain control, particularly if it is a long-term or chronic pain. After getting proper pain assessment, your physician will prescribe you pain medicines, treatment or physiotherapy to help with pain relief.  Patients are advised to check with with their physician regarding any questions about a specific program.

Chronic pain can be caused due to a number of reasons. Some of the commonly occurring conditions due to ageing may affect bones and joints in a way that it leads to cause chronic pain. Other common causes are nerve damage and injuries that fail to heal properly. Other common causes include nerve damage and injuries that fail to heal properly. Certain kind of chronic pain have numerous causes, however it may be caused due to a single factor or due to a combination of factors.

Whether your pain has just come on or you’ve lived with it for years, these following are some of the easy to follow pain management techniques that can bring you relief. Continuous clinical research has be conducted to help determine, which pain management therapies are the most effective in treating back pain and neck pain.

The pain management techniques can be classified in terms of their invasiveness.

1. Some of the non-invasive technique for pain management are exercise, manual technique, behavioral management, physiotherapy, massage, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, hot & Cold therapy, biofeedback therapy, etc.    

2. Other pain management techniques, that includes medications, are purely pharmacologic in nature

·         NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), including ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin

·         Anti-seizure medications, which can be effective in treating pain related to nerve damage or injury

·         Antidepressants, which can improve sleep and alleviate pain

·         Steroids, like dexamethasone and prednisone, to alleviate inflammation and pain

·         Acetaminophen (Tylenol)

3. Pain management techniques that involve invasive techniques, such as injections or operations.

As you are trying out these techniques, it is important to be patient with yourself. If you try them, but if it fails to help you relive the pain, do not be dishearten or lose hope in medical science. Inform you doctor about the same as he may suggest you some alternative medication or treatment to help you overcome this distressful condition. With the right treatment and little lifestyle modification, the pain will get better and you will be able to lead a healthy and pain free life again.

Different Pain Management Techniques by Health Care on Scribd

Common symptoms of osteoarthritis of hip, knees and hands

Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the United State and other parts of the world. It is a condition that causes joints to become painful and stiff by causing difficulty to do daily activities. It commonly occurs when a protective layer of cartilage on the ends of bones wears down eventually.

Although, osteoarthritis can damage any joint bone in your body, but the disorder is most common in your hands, hips, knees and spine.  However, osteoarthritis symptoms can be managed effectively by following a healthy lifestyle, staying active, and following the recommended treatment can help you improve pain and joint function.

At some instances, these symptoms may come and go, which can be related to things such as your daily activity level and even weather conditions. In some serious conditions, these symptoms can be continuous and unbearable. You should see your primary care physician if you have persistent symptoms of osteoarthritis, so that they can verify, diagnosis and prescribe the necessary treatment.

Here are some commonly noticed symptoms of osteoarthritis;

·         increased pain and stiffness when no moment for a while

·         joint tenderness

·         swelling - joints appearing slightly larger than usual

·         constant grating or crackling sound or sensation in your joints during slightest moment

·         prolonged pain and limited range of movement due joints pain

·         weakness and loss of muscle bulk

Osteoarthritis of the hip

Osteoarthritis in your hip joints often causes difficulty in doing activities such as putting on or removing your shoes or get in & out of a car or bed, etc. At times, it may even cause stiffness in

hips when you’re sitting or standing for a long period of time.

Patients with osteoarthritis in the hip often find it difficult to walk due to the stabbing pains. The condition usually develops slowly over the course of many years.

The following are the symptoms of hip osteoarthritis,

Ø  Joint stiffness that occurs as you are getting out of bed

Ø  A sound or feeling ("crunching") of bone rubbing against bone

Ø  Pain, swelling, or tenderness in the hip joint

Ø  Joint inflexibility after you sit for a long time

Ø  Inability to move the hip to carry out daily routine activities

Osteoarthritis of the knee

While ageing is among the top factors causing osteoarthritis of the knee, however young people can get it too. In some cases, it may be hereditary, for others it may be due to some injury or infection or due to excessive weight. This pain can become chronic while walking or using stairs.
Common symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee are:

Ø  Pain and stiffness in knee joints

Ø  Creaking, crunching, & grinding sensation when you move the joint

Ø  Hard or Soft swellings

Ø  Knee muscles become weak or the joint structure is less stable

Ø  Knee movement is not normal or as it would be

Ø  Knees becoming bent and bowed

Ø  Muscles around your knee joint look thin or wasted.

Osteoarthritis of the hand 

Symptoms of Osteoarthritis of the hands may differ from person to person. Many a times it depends upon a specific joint affected. It can be painful and difficult to perform certain manual tasks, such as writing, opening jars or turning keys.

Common symptoms of osteoarthritis of the hand are,

·         Joints pain and stiffness

·         the base of your thumb

·         the joints closest to your fingertips

·         the middle joints of your fingers

·         grinding, grating feeling or a crunchy sound when joints move

·         Fingers become stiff, painful- and swollen

·         Development of bumps on your finger joints

·         Your fingers may bend sideways slightly at your affected joints

·         Development of painful cysts (fluid-filled lumps) on the backs of your fingers

·         A bump at the base of your thumb where it joins your wrist

Common Symptoms of Osteoarthritis of Hip, Knees and Hands by Health Care on Scribd