Understanding Gallstones:
Causes
According to Harvard Health Publications, 80 percent of gallstones are made of cholesterol. The other 20 percent of gallstones are made of calcium salts and bilirubin.
It’s not known exactly what causes gallstones to form, though there are some theories.
Too much cholesterol in your bile
Having too much cholesterol in your bile can lead to yellow cholesterol stones. These hard stones may develop if your liver makes more cholesterol than your bile can dissolve.
Too much bilirubin in your bile
Bilirubin is a chemical produced when your liver destroys old red blood cells. Some conditions, such as liver damage and certain blood disorders, cause your liver to produce more bilirubin than it should. Pigment gallstones form when your gallbladder can’t break down the excess bilirubin. These hard stones are often dark brown or black.
Concentrated bile due to a full gallbladder
Your gallbladder needs to empty its bile to be healthy and to function properly. If it fails to empty its bile content, the bile becomes overly concentrated, which causes stones to form.
Symptoms
Gallstones can lead to pain in the upper right abdomen. You may start to have gallbladder pain from time to time when you eat foods that are high in fat, such as fried foods. The pain doesn’t usually last more than a few hours.
You may also experience:
nausea
vomiting
dark urine
clay-colored stools
stomach pain
burping
diarrhea
indigestion
These symptoms are also known as biliary colic.
Asymptomatic gallstones
Gallstones themselves don’t cause pain. Rather, pain occurs when the gallstones block the movement of bile from the gallbladder.
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 80 percent of people have “silent gallstones.” This means they don’t experience pain or have symptoms. In these cases, your doctor may discover the gallstones from X-rays or during abdomen surgery.
Complications and long-term risk
Acute cholecystitis
When a gallstone blocks the duct where bile moves from the gallbladder, it can cause inflammation and infection in the gallbladder. This is known as acute cholecystitis. It is a medical emergency.
The risk of developing acute cholecystitis from symptomatic gallstones is 1 to 3 percent.
Symptoms associated with acute cholecystitis include:
intense pain in the upper stomach or mid-right back
fever
chills
appetite loss
nausea and vomiting
See a doctor immediately if these symptoms last more than 1 to 2 hours or if you have a fever.
Other complications
Untreated gallstones may cause complications such as:
jaundice, a yellowish tint to your skin or eyes
cholecystitis, a gallbladder infection
cholangitis, a bile duct infection
sepsis, a blood infection
pancreas inflammation
gallbladder cancer
Risk factors for gallstones
Many risk factors for gallstones are related to diet, while some factors are uncontrollable. Uncontrollable risk factors are things like age, race, gender, and family history, which can’t be changed.
Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/gallstones#risk-factors
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What is Panchakarma?
An ancient cleansing and rejuvenation program, panchakarma is a series of individualized therapeutic treatments that clear ama (toxins) and excess doshas (subtle energies) from the deep tissues of the body. According to ayurveda’s ancient texts, panchakarma can both prevent and cure disease, and it is particularly successful with chronic illnesses that allopathy hasn’t conquered, such as allergies, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and migraines. On a deeper level, panchakarma can increase an individual’s sense of clarity and inner peace. That’s why yoga practitioners have used it to improve the quality of their spiritual practices for centuries.
Although Joe had never done yoga before, he was willing to give panchakarma a try. He could afford the $2,000 fee, and the treatments were luxurious. Every morning for five days, he was slathered in warm aromatic oil by two massage therapists standing at the left and right side of his body, mirroring each other’s strokes. He then sat in a square white fiberglass steam box for a sweat treatment. Next he rested face-up on a table as a technician poured a thin, continuous stream of warm oil between his eyebrows from a copper vessel, then dusted his body with a sweet-smelling mixture of sandalwood-rose powder and chickpea flour. By the end of these treatments, Joe’s mind was quiet and his muscles had melted into profound relaxation.
According to ayurvedic theory, these preparatory procedures liquefy the body’s impurities and push them toward the gastrointestinal tract. Joe’s main panchakarma treatment, which began on the third day, was a mild daily enema with herbs specific to pitta and liver function to help the impurities exit his body. In the afternoons and evenings Joe rested, took gentle yoga classes, and attended lectures on ayurveda.
“Panchakarma had a profound emotional, physical, psychological effect on me,” he says. “By the end of the program I felt ten years younger.” Hoping for scientific proof, Joe tested the efficacy of panchakarma through blood work. “I asked my lab to do a basic blood chemistry profile and a hepatitis C viral load test the day before I started panchakarma and then a few weeks after my treatments were over,” he says. The results were impressive: The first profile revealed that Joe’s viral load was in the low range at 297,086 virons per milliliter, but that an abnormal number of his liver cells were dying daily. After panchakarma, his viral load decreased by over 100,000 virons per milliliter, and his liver cells returned to normal.
In the weeks and months that followed, Joe’s energy gradually improved, and some of his excess pitta symptoms, such as irritability and itchiness, began to subside. Inspired, he began to follow Lad’s road map to health: eating a diet of bitter, cooling, protein-rich foods (avoiding hot, spicy, sour fare); taking pitta-pacifying herbs; reducing his intake of alcohol and coffee; self-administering mild oil enemas; exercising moderately; and practicing specific asanas.
At Lad’s suggestion, Joe returned for panchakarma every few months for four years. Each time that Joe repeated his pre- and post-panchakarma blood work, the tests showed a substantial decrease in his viral load and a rebalancing of his liver enzymes. And it wasn’t just panchakarma that affected his blood chemistry. In December 1999, he intentionally abandoned all of Lad’s lifestyle advice for 60 days, then repeated the blood tests. His viral load skyrocketed to over 1,500,000 virons per milliliter and his liver cells began dying off again in abnormal numbers. That was enough to convince Joe that the lifestyle changes had a profound effect on his health. (One month later, after another five-day panchakarma treatment, his viral load plummeted by 1,100,000 virons per milliliter and his liver enzymes normalized yet again.)
Joe returned to his ayurvedic lifestyle, and although his HCV symptoms didn’t subside immediately, his fatigue, digestive problems, and hypoglycemia disappeared over the course of three years. Then his restless legs syndrome faded away. To this date, Joe has gone to panchakarma 17 times and tries to follow his road map with an attitude of moderation. “I know what’s good and bad for me, and I try to make good choices more than 50 percent of the time,” he says. “My viral load has stayed in the low to medium-low range for the last four or five years, and my liver enzymes have all stayed within the normal range. I have not been able to clear the virus, but I’m completely symptom-free. None of my Western doctors have admitted it’s possible that panchakarma and ayurvedic lifestyle changes could produce such dramatic results, but I have the empirical data to prove it.”
Cleansing in a Toxic World
Many ayurvedic experts believe that even healthy people need regular panchakarma treatments today because our environment is so polluted. According to research cited by Maharishi Ayurveda, up to 100,000 synthetic chemicals (including PCBs, dioxins, and pesticides like DDT/DDE) are used in modern industrial and agricultural processes. Traces of these chemicals pervade our food, water, air, and even our own bodies, and some are associated with allergies, reproductive disorders, certain types of cancer, and other diseases.
Scientific research suggests that many environmental toxicants are fat soluble and become lodged in the lipid layers of our cells. In a two-month longitudinal study conducted in 1998 at the Raj Maharishi Ayurvedic Health Spa in Fairfield, Iowa, panchakarma helped lighten the body’s toxic load of all 18 participants by reducing the level of several fat-soluble pesticide compounds, including beta-HCH and certain PCBs, by an average of approximately 50 percent compared to controls.
Panchakarma can slow the aging process and enhance vitality.
According to the ayurvedic tradition, panchakarma has a host of other benefits. As Lad explains, “panchakarma removes free radicals, balances cholesterol and triglycerides, regulates blood pressure, and introduces antioxidant enzymes into the body. And because it’s a wonderful source of stress management, panchakarma can even prevent heart attacks, stroke paralysis, and cancer.” Panchakarma can also slow the aging process and enhance vitality and mental clarity. It’s a “cleansing and rejuvenating program for the body, mind, and consciousness,” he says.
How Does Panchakarma Work?
First, an ayurvedic practitioner determines whether you are strong enough to withstand a cleansing regimen, and rules out contraindications such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, and (for women) pregnancy and menstruation. Then he or she assesses your current body-mind state (vikriti) and compares it to the unique ayurvedic constitution with which you were born (prakriti). Both your prakriti and vikriti are a unique blend of the three doshas—vata, pitta, and kapha—and numerous factors can disrupt their delicate balance. As Lad explains, “The wrong diet, habits, and lifestyle, along with seasonal changes, repressed emotions, and stress factors can…change the balance of vata, pitta, and kapha… which affects agni, the gastric fire, and produces ama, or toxins.”
Ama clogs us on all levels and, when left unchecked, becomes the breeding ground for disease. Described in ayurvedic texts as cold, heavy, wet, and sticky, it develops from environmental toxins and internal toxins generated by poorly assimilated food. If you have high cholesterol, hardened arteries, tooth tartar, a coated tongue, joint pain, body odor, or excess mucus, you have the physical symptoms of ama. Energetically, it lurks in the system as fatigue; mentally, ama creates dullness, irritability, and greed. According to ayurveda, panchakarma addresses the root causes of disease by removing years of accumulated ama (along with excess vata, pitta, and/or kapha) and fine-tuning your agni. The job of your ayurvedic practitioner is to tailor a program to rebalance your body and mind.
Traditionally ayurveda recommends doing panchakarma at the junction between each season to clear out impurities generated during the previous season and help you transition smoothly into the next. Lad says that early spring is always a good time to do panchakarma because it can help reduce your sensitivity to pollen and prevent colds.
Panchakarma is a three-stage process that typically lasts for three to ten days in Western ayurvedic clinics. The preparatory phase begins with internal oleation, during which you will drink increasing amounts of ghee (clarified butter) in the early morning and afternoon to lubricate the body’s subtle channels, or srotas. Next, your ayurvedic practitioner will ask you to go on a “sensory diet,” avoiding TV, loud music, drastic weather conditions, strenuous exercise, travel, and sexual activity for the length of your treatment. You’ll also be asked to avoid sugar, caffeine, and alcohol, and to eat light, warm, cleansing dishes like kitchari (basmati rice and mung dal cooked with spices and ghee). As Lad explains, “During panchakarma, your agni, or digestive fire, becomes low. Kitchari is the best food to eat because it is easy to digest, burns ama, detoxifies the body, and balances the doshas.”
The next step is external oleation. Each day, you receive a deep ayurvedic massage that softens and saturates your body with nourishing herbalized oils tailored to your needs. Then a gentle stream of oil is dripped onto your forehead to release mental and emotional strain. These procedures liquefy deep-seated ama in the body’s seven tissues, or dhatus. A daily therapeutic sweat treatment (often in the form of a steam bath) further loosens impurities and dilates the srotas, so the ama and excess doshas can move toward the gastrointestinal tract. Within three to seven days, your ayurvedic practitioner will sense that your excess doshas and ama have become “ripened” and are ready to be released via your main panchakarma treatments.
Traditionally, panchakarma comprises five main procedures, or karmas, that your practitioner can choose from, but since Westerners often find vamana (therapeutic vomiting) and raktamoksha (blood purification through herbs or mild bloodletting) too unpleasant to try, only three are common in the States. Nasya involves putting medicated drops of herbalized oil or powders into the nose to treat diseases of the head, including colds, toothaches, and migraines. Virechana uses strong purgatives to cleanse the small intestine and cure excess pitta problems such as hyperacidity, colitis, and skin diseases. But basti (medicated enema) is perhaps the most profound. According to an ancient text called the Charaka Samhita, basti provides a full 50 percent of panchakarma’s benefits. The colon is the seat of vata, and when this dosha is out of balance, it plays a key role in the development of disease. Recognizing that the colon provides nourishment to the entire body, just like roots for a tree, Charaka wrote, “Basti works from head to toe.” It treats all vata disorders, including constipation, back pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, and impotence.
After your main treatments are over, your ayurvedic practitioner will guide you through “post-procedures” to help you reap the full benefits of panchakarma. Because your digestive system (agni) rests during panchakarma, it’s important to transition back to your regular diet slowly and carefully. If you overload your agni with heavy foods, you’ll generate new ama and the disease process will start all over again. You’ll also need to protect the delicate state of your nervous system by gradually easing into your regular, workaday life. Your practitioner will send you home with your own road map to healing.
As Lad explains, “The purpose of panchakarma is not just to get well but to purify and strengthen the body so that future diseases will not occur.” That’s why he recommends doing rasayana (rejuvenative herbal therapy) once you’ve regained your strength. He offers a metaphor for ayurveda’s philosophy of cleansing and rejuvenation: “If you want to color your shirt, wash it first, then dye it so the color will shine. Your body is the shirt, panchakarma is the washing, and rasayana is the dyeing.”
Source: https://yogainternational.com/article/view/what-can-panchakarma-do-for-you
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NEEM : Kills cancer cells?
Many North Americans have never heard of it, but could an evergreen tree from India offer powerful health benefits… including the ability to fight cancer? The Neem Tree – whose biological name is Azadirachta indica (also known as Indian Lilac) – is an evergreen tree that belongs to the mahogany family. While neem is often used to make furniture, this tree also offers powerful anti-cancer and healing benefits.
Neem grows freely in the tropical and semi-tropical regions of India and the Indian subcontinent, including Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. A. indica can also be found growing in Africa, the Americas, Australia, and the South Pacific islands. Its fruits and seeds are the source of medicinal neem oil.
In the ancient Indian language Sanskrit, the neem tree is called “Aristha” or “reliever of sicknesses.” In the Vedas (a large body of texts originating in ancient India, which make up the oldest known scriptures of Hinduism), neem is known as “Sarva Roga Nivarini” meaning “One that cures all ailments and ills.”
Neem is referred to as the “Miracle Tree” and because of its tremendous medical properties, the neem tree is also considered to be a “village pharmacy” in India. Extracts of neem leaves, twigs, bark, seeds, and flowers are integral components of many traditional remedies in the Indian medical system of Ayurveda. These remedies date back, by some accounts, nearly 5,000 years.
More than 60 different biologically active neem tree compounds have been identified and used for a wide variety of health and medical applications. Some of these include nimbin, nimbolide, azadirachtin A, nimbidiol, quercetin, and nimbidin.
The Many Uses of Neem
According to Ayurveda, the neem tree offers numerous health benefits. Let’s take a look at the specific uses and health benefits offered by various parts of the neem tree.
Neem Leaves
Neem leaves are reputed to possess antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal, and anti-malarial properties – which is why their extracts are used to treat skin infections, acne, boils, burns, and many other skin problems.Some traditional uses for neem leaves include:
he Anti-Cancer Benefits of Neem
Excitingly, naturally-occurring bioactive compounds obtained from various parts of the neem tree have been shown to induce “apoptosis” or programmed cell death in different types of tumor cells in laboratory conditions. Some of these compounds stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells better. Neem compounds may also prevent cancer development by generating high levels of antioxidants and carcinogen-detoxifying enzymes.
Overall, neem compounds show impressive anti-cancer potential against many human cancer cell lines and animal models for human cancers. Among these are colon, stomach, pancreas, lung, liver, skin, oral, prostate, and breast cancers.
Anti-Carcinogenic and Anti-Mutagenic Effects of Neem
Over the last two decades, cancer researchers have convincingly shown that cancer formation as a result of exposure to certain specific mutagens and pro-carcinogens can be prevented by neem extracts.
As a result, these extracts and bioactive neem compounds may one day play a key role in the future development of chemopreventive anti-cancer agents.
Neem Stops Cancer Cell Growth and Migration
Researchers in India, Europe, and Japan have shown that bioactive compounds present in neem bark, leaves, and seed oil could be used to treat a wide variety of cancers.
For instance, a recently published study showed that nimbolide – a bioactive neem compound – was able to induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells, to the extent that the size and number of cancer cell colonies was reduced by 80%.
Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a genetically driven process that happens naturally all the time in the body. It’s a safe way to get rid of diseased and dying cells without affecting nearby healthy cells and tissues.
Anti-cancer practitioners are also trying to eliminate cancer cells by inducing apoptosis selectively in them, without affecting normal cells. In this regard, neem is an excellent choice as neem extracts as well as purified neem compounds have been shown to cause apoptosis in cancer cells.
Nimbolide also reduced the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to migrate and invade other areas of the body by an astonishing 70%. Migration and invasion – known scientifically as “metastasis” – of cancer cells to other areas of the body is the main reason why pancreatic and other cancers are so lethal.
Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal of all, with 94% of patients dying within the first five years of diagnosis, with no conventional treatment in sight.
One of the most promising aspects of this study was that nimbolide did not harm healthy cells. In other words, using nimbolide to treat pancreatic and perhaps other forms of cancer in the near future may not result in the toxic side effects that chemotherapy and radiation typically do.
Neem Potentiates Anti-Cancer Drugs and Protects Against Their Toxicity
Neem preparations have been shown to potentiate (enhance the effect of) the actions of anti-cancer agents. They also provide protection against the life-threatening side effects of some of these very toxic drugs.
For instance, Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) are well-known anti-cancer drugs with devastating side effects, especially because they also massively kill normal blood cells. Normally, another drug known as granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) is given along with these two anti-cancer drugs to try and minimize their toxic side effects.
Interestingly, pretreatment with neem leaf preparation (NLP) has been found to protect blood cells in laboratory mice treated with Cisplatin and 5-FU. This means NLP could potentially be a safer and cheaper substitute than granulocyte colony stimulating factor. GCSF is not only expensive, but is also known to promote angiogenesis and tumor development on its own!
Neem Enhances the Actions of Detoxifying Enzymes
Extracts of neem leaves have been shown to enhance the actions of so-called “phase-II hepatic enzymes” such as Glutathione S-transferases and DT-diaphorase. Both these enzymes are known to be involved in detoxification of chemical carcinogens.
Additionally, neem leaf extracts enhance the activity of various liver antioxidant enzymes. Amongst these are glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase, which are known to help in detoxifying the body.
Neem: Bioimmunotherapy Against Cancer
Boosting the body’s own immune system to target specific health risks is known as bioimmunotherapy. Anti-cancer practitioners have begun to incorporate this strategy to fight cancer. Recent studies show that neem may exert some of its anti-cancer effects by enhancing the body’s immune response.
Recently published peer-reviewed studies carried out at the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata, India, showed that a bioactive protein from leaves of the neem tree prevents cancer cells from growing in mice by doing exactly this. Instead of targeting the cancer cells directly, this protein – known as Neem Leaf Glycoprotein (NLGP) – acts on immune cells present within the tumor’s immediate surroundings, known as the “tumor microenvironment”.
Normally, immune cells attack and destroy cancer cells. However, as some tumors grow, immune cells in their microenvironment become “enslaved” by cancer cells. In a bizarre role-reversal, these immune cells now begin to promote the growth and proliferation of cancer cells in the tumor instead of fighting them.
In a dramatic twist straight out of a thriller, NLGP seemingly returns immune cells in the tumor microenvironment to a more normal state. It makes them hostile again to cancer cells and prevents them from growing any further.
A good example can be found in one group of cancer-killing immune cells known as the CD8+ or “killer” T cells. When triggered by NLGP, the number of these T cells was seen to rise significantly, helping to restrict cancer growth. What’s more, these killer T cells also showed a greater cancer cell killing capacity when compared to killer T cells that were not treated with NLGP.
A Word of Caution About Neem
Various parts of the neem tree and its extracts have been used by humans for medicinal purposes for hundreds of years.While the uses of neem seem limitless, precautions need to be taken and neem products should be used with care. Indiscriminate consumption of higher than necessary doses may sometimes cause unpleasant side effects.
Some people are allergic to neem compounds – leading to itching, swelling of the mouth and throat, wheezing, and breathing difficulties. In very rare instances, some neem compounds may also damage the liver and kidneys.
Therefore, it is always advisable not to medicate yourself with any products containing neem extracts or neem compounds. Always consult a trustworthy alternative healthcare provider first, and be sure to apply or consume these products under properly qualified supervision.
Conclusion
The neem tree has been a source of safe and powerfully effective solutions for human health problems for many hundreds of years. Over the past few decades, modern scientific researchers have purified some of the active ingredients from this ancient “reliever of sicknesses” – and they are gradually beginning to understand their healing mechanisms.
There is now compelling scientific evidence that many neem compounds possess promising anti-cancer properties. In the near future, combinations of bioactive neem compounds, either on their own or given along with anti-cancer drugs, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy seem likely to become a reliable standard treatment of choice for many cancer patients.
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Source: https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/neem-tree-miracle/
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Lumbar Discectonomy.
What is a lumbar discectomy?
Lumbar discectomy is a type of surgery to fix a disc in the lower back. This surgery uses smaller cuts (incisions) than an open lumbar discectomy.
Your backbone, or spinal column, is made up of a chain of bones called the vertebrae. Your spinal cord runs through the spinal column. The bones help protect the cord from injury. Discs sit between each vertebra to provide cushioning and support. Large nerves called nerve roots lead from the spinal cord through small holes in the bones called foramen. These nerve roots send and receive signals to and from the body. The signals are sent to and from your brain through the spinal cord.
Sometimes the outer wall of one of these discs may dry out and weaken with age or injury. When this happens, the soft, inner part of the disc bulges out. This is called a herniated or bulging disc. This bulging disc can press on the spinal cord and cause symptoms such as pain, tingling, or weakness in a nearby part of the body.
During a minimally invasive lumbar discectomy, an orthopedic surgeon takes out part of the damaged disc. This helps ease the pressure on the spinal cord. Your surgeon can use different methods to do this. With one method, your surgeon inserts a small tube through the skin on your back, between the vertebrae and into the space with the herniated disc. He or she then inserts tiny tools through the tube to remove a part of the disc. Or a laser may be used to remove part of the disc. Unlike an open lumbar discectomy, the surgeon makes only a very small skin incision and does not remove any bone or muscle.
Why might I need a lumbar discectomy?
You may need this surgery if you have a herniated disc in your lower back that is causing symptoms. The symptoms may include weakness, pain, or tingling in the back area and in one of your legs.
Lumbar discectomy can’t be used to treat all cases of back pain. And not everyone with a herniated disc needs a lumbar discectomy. Your healthcare provider might advise the surgery if you’ve tried other treatments but still have severe symptoms. Other treatments to try first include physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medicines.
Talk with your provider about the risks and benefits of minimally invasive surgery compared to open surgery. Minimally invasive surgery may lead to less pain and faster recovery. But not all surgery centers can use this method.
What are the risks of a lumbar discectomy?
Every surgery has risks. Risks for this surgery include:
Infection
Excess bleeding
Blood clots
Injury to nearby nerves
Reaction to anesthetic agents
Only short-term (temporary) relief and need for another surgery
Your risks may vary depending on your age and your general health. Talk with your provider about the risks that most apply to you.
How do I get ready for a lumbar discectomy?
Ask your healthcare provider how you should plan to prepare for your procedure. Ask if you should stop taking any medicines ahead of time, like blood thinners. Do not eat or drink after midnight the night before your procedure.
Your provider may order other imaging tests of your spine, such as an MRI.
What happens during a lumbar discectomy?
There are several options for the surgery. Your surgeon can help explain the details of your procedure. It may take about 1 hour. Here is an example of what you might expect:
You will receive a local anesthetic so that you won’t feel any pain or discomfort during the procedure. And you will still be awake. Or you may have general anesthesia and sleep through the procedure.
A healthcare provider will carefully watch your vital signs during the procedure. This includes things like your heart rate and blood pressure.
Your surgeon will make a small incision on your back, at the level of the affected disc.
During the procedure, your surgeon will use a special type of X-ray to make sure of the correct location.
Your surgeon will first insert a wire into the intervertebral space. Your surgeon will push a slightly larger tube over this wire. Then your surgeon will push a second, larger tube over that one. He or she may even push a third tube over the second one. This will gently push apart the tissue down to the vertebra. Finally, your surgeon will remove all except the largest tube.
Your surgeon will put special small tools through this tube, including a camera and a light.
Your surgeon will remove the herniated part of the disc using small tools. He or she will also do any other needed repairs.
The tools and tube are removed.
A small bandage is placed to close your wound.
What happens after a lumbar discectomy?
The surgery is usually an outpatient procedure. This means you can go home the same day. You will probably need to stay for a couple of hours after the procedure. Make sure you have someone who can drive you home.
Your healthcare provider will give you instructions about how you can use your back. You might need to limit lifting or bending. Your provider might have you wear a back brace for a limited time after the procedure. Most people can go back to work within a week or so. You may need physical therapy after surgery to help strengthen your back.
You may see some fluid draining from your small incision. This is normal. Tell your provider right away if there is a large amount of drainage from the incision site. Also call your provider if you develop a fever or if you have a lot of pain in the area.
Sometimes the procedure causes slightly more pain for a while. But you can take pain medicines to ease the pain. Usually this goes away quickly. Your pain should become less than it was before your surgery.
Make sure to follow all your provider’s instructions and keep your follow-up appointments.
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Is coffee Healthy?
Yes, go ahead and grab that cup of joe, or two, or more. Doing so may improve your health and help you live longer, suggests new research.
In an observational study involving close to 20,000 individuals, people who consumed at least four cups of coffee daily had a 64% lower risk of early death compared to those never or rarely consumed coffee.
The reduction in risk was more significant once people reached the age of 45, suggesting that it may be even more beneficial to consume coffee as we get older.
These findings echo the recent results of another large observational study, which found that coffee drinkers appear to live longer, regardless of whether they consume regular or decaf coffee.
Coffee has also been shown to reduce the risk of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, liver disease, colorectal cancer, Alzheimer’s and skin cancer, too.
“Coffee is loaded with antioxidants,” said Joe DeRupo, a spokesman for the National Coffee Association. “Many are naturally occurring antioxidants found in the coffee bean, while others are created during the roasting process. It’s these compounds that science links with positive effects in reducing the risk of several diseases.”
Some of the compounds commonly found in coffee “have been related to better insulin sensitivity, liver function and reduced chronic inflammation,” said V. Wendy Setiawan, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and the lead author of one of the recent studies on coffee consumption and longevity.
Cup of caution
While coffee consumption may appear to be healthful for many, others should proceed with caution. Pregnant women, for example, should cautiously limit their intake of caffeinated coffee.
If you have any heart conditions, you should also limit your coffee and caffeine consumption. “Caffeine is an aggravator and accelerator of one’s heart rate,” said Dr. Vince Bufalino, a spokesman for the American Heart Association and senior vice president and senior medical director of Cardiology-AMG, Advocate Health Care, in Naperville, Illinois. “Those with atrial fibrillation (commonly known as irregular heartbeat) or hypertension should limit their caffeine intake. One to two cups daily is probably fine, but if you are sensitive, you should restrict all caffeine.”
Keep in mind that decaffeinated coffee still contains caffeine. An 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee can contain anywhere from 75 to 165 milligrams of caffeine, whereas decaffeinated coffee contains an average of 2 to 7 milligrams per cup, depending on which study you read.
Add low-fat milk and skip the cream. Cream contributes about 50 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon. Low-fat milk has fewer calories and will help to offset calcium losses (a tablespoon has only 6 calories, but 19 milligrams of calcium).
Avoid sugar in your coffee. A teaspoon of sugar contains 16 calories. It may not sound like much, but if you add two teaspoons to your brew and drink a few cups per day, the calories add up.
Choose filtered coffee if you have high cholesterol. Unfiltered coffee, like the kind made from a French press, retains compounds known as cafestol and kahweol, which may contribute to increased cholesterol levels in some people.
If you have trouble falling asleep, it’s best to avoid coffee and all sources of caffeine in the evening or close to bedtime.
Instant coffee – not so good
Caffeine causes a short but sudden increase in blood pressure. Research has not shown that drinking 3-4 cups of coffee a day increases the risk of kidney disease or increases rate of decline of kidney function. However, moderating how much coffee you drink is a good idea.
Other researchers found that five cups of instant coffee daily could result in a small but significant increase in cholesterol (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 1995). Drinking a few cups of instant coffee is not likely to change your cholesterol dramatically.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/29/health/coffee-healthy-food-drayer/index.html
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Necessity of Protein, Carbs and Fat in body
Protein
Proteins in food are broken down into pieces (called amino acids) that are then used to build new proteins with specific functions, such as catalyzing chemical reactions, facilitating communication between different cells, or transporting biological molecules from here to there. When there is a shortage of fats or carbohydrates, proteins can also yield energy.
Fat
Fats typically provide more than half of the body’s energy needs. Fat from food is broken down into fatty acids, which can travel in the blood and be captured by hungry cells. Fatty acids that aren’t needed right away are packaged in bundles called triglycerides and stored in fat cells, which have unlimited capacity. “We are really good at storing fat,” says Judith Wylie-Rosett, EdD, RD, a professor of behavioral and nutritional research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrates, on the other hand, can only be stored in limited quantities, so the body is eager to use them for energy. “We think of carbs as the [nutrient] that’s used first,” says Eric Westman, MD, MHS, director of the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at Duke University Medical Center. “We can only store a day or two of carbs.” The carbohydrates in food are digested into small pieces—either glucose or a sugar that is easily converted to glucose—that can be absorbed through the small intestine’s walls. After a quick stop in the liver, glucose enters the circulatory system, causing blood glucose levels to rise. The body’s cells gobble up this mealtime bounty of glucose more readily than fat, says Wylie-Rosett.
Once the cells have had their fill of glucose, the liver stores some of the excess for distribution between meals should blood glucose levels fall below a certain threshold. If there is leftover glucose beyond what the liver can hold, it can be turned into fat for long-term storage so none is wasted. When carbohydrates are scarce, the body runs mainly on fats. If energy needs exceed those provided by fats in the diet, the body must liquidate some of its fat tissue for energy.
While these fats are a welcome source of energy for most of the body, a few types of cells, such as brain cells, have special needs. These cells could easily run on glucose from the diet, but they can’t run on fatty acids directly. So under low-carbohydrate conditions, these finicky cells need the body to make fat-like molecules called ketone bodies. This is why a very-low-carbohydrate diet is sometimes called “ketogenic.” (Ketone bodies are also related to a dangerous diabetic complication called ketoacidosis, which can occur if insulin levels are far too low.) Ketone bodies could alone provide enough energy for the parts of the body that can’t metabolize fatty acids, but some tissues still require at least some glucose, which isn’t normally made from fat. Instead, glucose can be made in the liver and kidneys using protein from elsewhere in the body. But take care: If not enough protein is provided by the diet, the body starts chewing on muscle cells.
(Image: Representation only)
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