Here's To The Health And Happiness Of Your Elderly Dependents!

Health Topics.People often get their priorities wrong in society today. So concerned are the majority with material objects, they often neglect their own health. Unfortunately this a sad consequence of the materialistic world in which we live. However, there are some exceptions and we should all take pride in that. If you care for another individual in any way then you are obviously one of those special people. Caring for a relative can be extremely rewarding and enhance your life significantly. However, it can also bring a significant amount of worry and stress, especially if the individual in question is elderly and infirm.

There are many elements of life to consider for the individual that you care for that we often take for granted in our own lives. Health is indeed one of them, and perhaps the most important consideration of all. Here is your quick guide to safeguarding the health of elderly relatives under your care.





DIET- It is extremely important that you make sure that elderly relatives are fulfilling all of their nutritional requirements on a daily basis. As they can be extremely vulnerable and prone to illness, a healthy diet is paramount in ensuring that they continue to be as healthy and happy as possible. Firstly, any diet should be low in fat and salt. Both dietary substances can slow down recovery from any illness if consumed in large amounts. Salt and fat are both absorbed into the blood and make circulation sluggish. Too much fat can also block the arteries. Instead, you should focus on making sure that the individual gets plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to provide essential vitamins and minerals for tissue regeneration as well as plenty of fibre to ensure that bowel action is regular.

MENTAL STATE - You should do all you can to make sure that your elderly relative is happy and comfortable in his or her surroundings. You are in control of his or her everyday life, but establishing a routine can help to make it look like that is not the case. This also alleviates panic and stress.

PHYSICAL BEING - You should encourage the senior in your care to get regular health checks to make sure that everything is functioning correctly. Any changes in health should be noted and checked out on at least a six weekly basis. This regularity will soon form part of a routine, which would afford the senior in question a level of comfort, but it would also lead to any illnesses and diseases being diagnosed very quickly. This can significantly improve the long-term health of any individual and alert you to anything that may need to be observed in the future.

EXERCISE - A senior may not be physically able to exercise on a daily basis, but getting twenty minutes of gentle exercise tow or three times a week will make them fell infinitely better than if they were to get no exercise at all. Shopping can be considered exercise if he or she is walking around the supermarket. Other similar activities that get the individual out of the house, such as walking a dog or gardening, are also exercise and can improve health in the long term. These activities will all stretch out joints and alleviate stiffness and immobility. It will also improve general health because it gets the juices flowing!




Health

Seasonal flu vaccinations hit record number

More in U.S. have been vaccinated than ever before by this time of year

ATLANTA - More Americans have been vaccinated against seasonal flu this fall than ever before by this time of year, federal health officials said Friday.

Sixty million people have gotten the winter flu vaccine — probably because they’re paying more attention to flu warnings in general, thanks to swine flu. It’s an unprecedented number of seasonal flu shots for October; most usually aren’t given until later in the fall.

Part of it is due to supply: There are already 85 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine available, a much larger amount than usual for this early in the fall. Most years, roughly 100 million doses are used during the season.

But a big factor probably is that swine flu — also known as the 2009 H1N1 virus — is drawing attention to public health warnings that seasonal flu is also a deadly illness than can be prevented through vaccinations, said Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There’s been a heightened awareness in the American public due to H1N1 this year,” said Quimby.

Meanwhile, swine flu is more widespread now than it’s ever been, and has resulted in more than 1,000 U.S. deaths so far. Flu illnesses are as widespread now as they are at the winter peak of normal flu seasons, said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.

“Many millions” of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate he gave at a Friday press conference. The government doesn’t test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn’t have an exact count.

Frieden updated some other estimates, too, saying there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

Nearly 100 swine flu deaths in children have been reported, CDC officials also said.

Forty-six states now have widespread flu activity. The only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and South Carolina. There are at least two different types of flu causing illnesses; tests from about 5,000 patients suggest that nearly all the flu cases are swine flu.

This year’s seasonal flu vaccine won’t protect against swine flu; a separate swine flu vaccine is needed. Vaccine production takes several months, and the work on seasonal vaccine was already well under way when swine flu was first identified in April. It was too late for the swine flu virus to be included in the seasonal doses.

Because of swine flu production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine doses would be available by mid-October. As of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor’s offices and other providers across the country, CDC officials said.

“It’s frustrating to all of us. We wish there were more vaccine available,” Frieden said.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn’t been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained. “Even if you yell at them, they don’t grow faster,” Frieden said.

He added that 5 million new doses became available in the past week, and vaccine should be more plentiful soon.

by Associated Press

Spell In ICU For Terminal Patients 5 Times More Likely In US Than In England

In the US, patients who die in hospital are almost five times more likely to have spent some time during their last hospital stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as equivalent patients in England, according to a new study by researchers from both countries.

The study is the work of lead author Dr Hannah Wunsch, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Columbia University in New York, and colleagues, and is published in the 1 November print issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Wunsch and colleagues also found that terminally ill patients over the age of 85 were 8 times more likely to spend time in the ICU during their last hospital stay than their counterparts in England.

Wunsch explained in a statement that:

"Evaluating the use of intensive care services is particularly important because it is costly, resource intensive, and often traumatic for patients and families, especially for those at the end of life."

"We found far greater use of intensive care services in the United States during terminal hospitalizations, especially among medical patients and the elderly," she added.

She and her colleagues wanted to pursue the study because despite wide concerns about the cost and provision of end of life health care, few studies have compared how this is done is different countries.

So they decided to compare England and the US because the two countries have similar life expectancies and demographics, but widely different healthcare systems.

For example, England has one sixth of the number of ICU beds per head of population compared to the US, and responsibility for decisions about medical care appears to lie predominantly with doctors, whereas in the US it lies mostly with patients or their surrogate decision-makers.

Wunsch said that England provides universal health care through the National Health Service (NHS) and spends much less per head of the population on intensive care services than the US.

"The use of intensive care in England is limited by supply to a greater degree than it is in the US, and there are consequently implicit and explicit decisions regarding who gets those limited services. We wished to examine what different decisions are made," said Wunsch.

For the study she and her colleagues got the English data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics database, and the US data from all hospital discharge databases of seven states (Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington).

When they compared the data from England and the US, they found that:

    * Of all hospital discharges, only 2.2 per cent in England received intensive care, while in the US the equivalent figure was 19.3 per cent.

    * The rate of in-hospital deaths among those who received intensive care was almost three times higher in England than in the US (19.6 versus 7.4 per cent).

    * However, when they looked at overall deaths, only 10.6 of hospital deaths in England involved the ICU, whereas the equivalent figure in the US was 47.1 per cent.

    * Among patients over 85 years old, only 1.3 per cent received ICU care in England compared with 11 per cent in the US.

    * The rate of ICU services among young adults and children was about the same in both countries.

The researchers concluded that:

"Despite similar overall hospitalization rates in England and the United States, there were marked differences in terminal hospitalizations, with far greater use of intensive care services in the United States, especially among medical patients and the elderly population."

However, Wunsch urged people to be careful about interpreting these results, "as the differences in mortality for ICU patients likely reflect the higher severity of illness of patients admitted in the first place in England".

She said that the figures do raise the "interesting question of how much intensive care is beneficial. Doing more may not always be better," she added.

While the researchers established there are important differences in how the US and England use ICU services, they did not set out to find out what impact they have. Surveys have suggested that most people would prefer not to die in hospital, however many still do and questions about use of intensive interventions remain unanswered.

Wunsch said:

"Whether less intensive care for very elderly patients who are dying is a form of rationing, or is actually better recognition of what constitutes appropriate care at the end of life warrants further research."

"These findings highlight the urgent need to understand whether there is over-use of intensive care in the US or under-use in England," she explained.

In an accompanying editorial, Drs Theodore Iwashyna and Julia Lynch wrote that future studies should investigate not just the origins but also the implications of these differences:

"Faced with a provocative finding of cross-national difference, the scientific community faces a choice between at least two paths," they wrote.

One path is to carefully unpack the origins of these differences and find out some general truths about the evolution of critical care systems. The other path is to observe what happens in hospitals, imagine new ways to organize care and "generate the equipoise necessary for careful interventional studies of such interventions," wrote Iwashyna and Lynch.

"The first path helps us shape national policy levers. The latter path helps us redesign care organizations to bring change to patients. Both are necessary," they urged.

by: Catharine Paddock PhD

US swine flu deaths surpass 1,000

ATLANTA – More Americans have been vaccinated against seasonal flu this fall than ever before by this time of year, federal health officials said Friday.

Sixty million people have gotten the winter flu vaccine — probably because they're paying more attention to flu warnings in general, thanks to swine flu. It's an unprecedented number of seasonal flu shots for October; most usually aren't given until later in the fall.

Part of it is due to supply: There are already 85 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine available, a much larger amount than usual for this early in the fall. Most years, roughly 100 million doses are used during the season.

But a big factor probably is that swine flu — also known as the 2009 H1N1 virus — is drawing attention to public health warnings that seasonal flu is also a deadly illness that can be prevented through vaccinations, said Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There's been a heightened awareness in the American public due to H1N1 this year," said Quimby.

Meanwhile, swine flu is more widespread now than it's ever been, and has resulted in more than 1,000 U.S. deaths so far. Flu illnesses are as widespread now as they are at the winter peak of normal flu seasons, said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.

"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate he gave at a Friday press conference. The government doesn't test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn't have an exact count.

Frieden updated some other estimates, too, saying there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

Nearly 100 swine flu deaths in children have been reported, CDC officials also said.

Forty-six states now have widespread flu activity. The only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and South Carolina. There are at least two different types of flu causing illnesses; tests from about 5,000 patients suggest that nearly all the flu cases are swine flu.

This year's seasonal flu vaccine won't protect against swine flu; a separate swine flu vaccine is needed. Vaccine production takes several months, and the work on seasonal vaccine was already well under way when swine flu was first identified in April. It was too late for the swine flu virus to be included in the seasonal doses.

Because of swine flu production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine doses would be available by mid-October. As of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers across the country, CDC officials said.

"It's frustrating to all of us. We wish there were more vaccine available," Frieden said.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained. "Even if you yell at them, they don't grow faster," Frieden said.

He added that 5 million new doses became available in the past week, and vaccine should be more plentiful soon.

By MIKE STOBBE

Pregnancy Weight Harder to Lose for Obese Women

We all know how important it is to be healthy while you are pregnant, but even more so for women who are obese. Given the high rate of obesity, new guidelines have been issued recommending that the heavier a woman is, the less weight she should gain during pregnancy.

In research that was made public today, Kaiser Permanente confirmed that women who are obese and gain more weight than they should during pregnancy are much more likely to keep the weight on after giving birth. Nearly three out of four women that participated in the study gained more than 15 pounds during pregnancy and, on average, these women retained 40 percent of the extra weight a full year after they gave birth.

Dr. Kimberly K. Vesco, M.D., said, “Younger women and first-time mothers were the most likely to gain too much weight. The extra weight increased the risk for complications like hypertension, diabetes, preeclampsia, C-sections, and birth injuries.”

Approximately half of the pregnant women in the United States today are either overweight or obese, which is up from about 25 percent four decades ago. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) that is 30 or more, and for most women that means carrying at least 30 extra pounds for their size. Normal weight is considered to be a BMI of 18.5-24.9, and overweight is considered to be 25-29.9. For example, a woman that is 5-foot, 2-inches tall who weighs approximately 135 pounds would be considered at the upper limit of the normal range (BMI = 25), and at 165 pounds she would be considered overweight (BMI = 30). A woman that is 5-foot 7-inches tall would be considered normal weight up to 160 pounds (BMI = 25) and considered obese at 195 (BMI = 30).

A total of 1,656 women that had a BMI of 30 or over at the beginning of their pregnancies were enrolled in this newly published study. The women were then followed for up to 18 months after their delivery.

Some previous studies suggest that infants that are born to obese women, who don’t gain much weight during their pregnancy, will have fewer delivery complications and better outcomes than the infants that were born to women who gained more weight than is recommended. The Kaiser research team began recruitment for a study to examine whether very obese women and their infants fare better when they gain no weight at all during pregnancy.

Victor Stevens, Ph.D. and the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research senior investigator, said that the “Healthy Moms” study, which was funded by a $2.2 million dollar grant from the federal government, will include women that are between 50 to 100 pounds above their normal weight at the start of their pregnancy. He stated, “These are not women with just a few pounds to lose. These are women who are carrying so much extra weight that it is a risk to themselves and their baby.”

Half of the women who were recruited for the study will receive standard care, which includes a single counseling session that will discuss nutrition and diet. The other half of the women will receive more intensive counseling to help teach them strategies for healthy eating and they will be able to attend weekly support sessions designed to reinforce positive behaviors. Those women will also be give personalized eating plans that will restrict their calorie intake to about 2,000 a day. The main goal is for these women to be within 30 percent of their pre-pregnancy weight after they deliver.

Stevens said, “The new IOM guidelines call for gaining no more than 20 pounds, but for women who are very obese this may not be the best advice. We want to see if outcomes are better if these women gain no weight or even lose some weight.”

By: Allie Montgomery

Frustration looms as H1N1 vaccines run out

Yessica Maher of Los Angeles, California, feels let down. She had wanted to get the H1N1 vaccine for herself and her children, but that's proving to be difficult.

Her doctor is out of the vaccine, and so is the pediatrician. Her two older sons were not eligible for the nasal spray version because of asthma, and she was told the shot would not become available until perhaps November. Her youngest son, 2, goes to a preschool where there was recently a diagnosis of H1N1.

"I feel that the government and health officials, they knew this was big when it first started, they know the size of our population before it started, and they didn't make leaps and bounds to make sure it was available to everyone when they would need it," she said. "It shouldn't be a supply-and-demand thing."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that production of the vaccine is slower than expected. While the CDC had hoped for 40 million doses by the end of October, the real numbers will be about 30 million doses because of manufacturing delays, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Public health departments across the country are quickly running out of H1N1 vaccine and don't know when the next batches will arrive.

"We wait by the door every day to see if vaccine is going to come," said Erin Sutton, spokesperson for the Virginia Beach Health Department in Virginia. "With the overall delay from the manufacturing company, [it] has caused a great deal of frustration and problems."

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll based on interviews with 1,038 adult Americans found that 49 percent of people said the swine flu vaccine is safe, while 43 percent said no. The poll of 1,038 adults was conducted by telephone October 16-18 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. iReport.com: Getting the vaccine

But not everyone who wants the H1N1 vaccine can get one.

 The East Metro Health Department near Atlanta, Georgia, gave out all of its approximately 6,000 doses of the FluMist version between Saturday and Tuesday, and has "no idea" when more will arrive, said Suleima Salgado, public information officer for the district.

People generally aren't complaining about the lack of vaccine, however, she said.

"We were pretty proactive about educating them and letting them know that it was slowly coming in bits and pieces," she said. "We just encouraged them to be patient, and as it continues to come, we'll continue to distribute it."

Public health departments have been flooded with calls from people wanting to know where they can get the vaccine. Michelle Peregoy, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health, said the department gets about 700 calls a day.

In Ventura County, California, the H1N1 hotline was ringing every 2 minutes Wednesday, said Mary Leu Pappas, who teaches nursing and volunteers with the hotline.

She typically gets asked where the vaccine is available and why certain people can't get it. Some older people want to know why they are not in the priority group, and Pappas explains that this age group may be less likely to become critically ill because of prior exposure to influenza outbreaks of decades past.

In some cases demand has outstripped supply, although more vaccine is on the way, Peregoy said.

"We're definitely seeing a lot of the school clinics that have been scheduled postponed until the local health departments get additional shipments," Peregoy said.

In Virginia Beach, there isn't enough staff to administer vaccines in all schools, so only public schools are getting them, Sutton said. However, the public health department is making separate opportunities for children in private schools and day care centers to get vaccinated. But at the moment, there is no vaccine available in the community.

Polk County, Iowa, ran out of the vaccine last week, but is holding another vaccination clinic on Sunday.

"Until the size of our shipments increase we need to focus on the people who are at the greatest risk of becoming hospitalized [if infected]," said Terri Henkels, Polk County Health Department Director, in a statement.

Priority groups for the vaccine include pregnant women, caregivers and household contacts of children younger than 6 months, people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years, and anyone ages 25 to 64 with existing health problems. Health care and emergency medical services personnel in contact with high-risk patients, or patients with flu-like illness, are also on the list.

"We know there will not be enough of the H1N1 shots for everyone who wants one," she said.

 Montgomery County, Maryland, is also focusing on the priority groups, although no one can actually be turned away for not being in those groups, said Mary Anderson, public information officer for the health department. iReport: People wait in line for vaccine in Silver Spring, Maryland

The people who did walk away from clinics Wednesday without a vaccine were those looking for an injectable version, of which only 249 had been available. They showed "a mixture of resignation, sprinkled with frustration -- concern just wondering when we'd be getting more injectable. And we don't know," she said.

The county has a little more than 3,000 doses of the nasal spray vaccine left, and no injectable vaccines.
For those who have gotten the vaccine, it's a relief.

"I feel much better, safer, glad I took another step," said Cameron Harrelson, 16, of Baxley, Georgia, who contributed a video about his experience to iReport.com.

By Elizabeth Landau

Master Lu's Health Center New Online Store

It has been a long time since we have put a blog post. Things have been busy and also some of our staff has been out of town. Well we are back in full force. There are some new things going on at Master Lu's Health Center.

The most important thing that we would like to announce is our new online store. The website for the store is www.luhealthcenter.com/luhealthstore On the website you can buy Master Lu's videos and herbs. The videos are Tai Chi, Tai Chi sword, two man Tai Chi, and Qi Gong. They are great videos to learn more about Tai Chi and Qi gong. Right now, we have only one herbal formula in our herb section it is Master Lu's Hair Formula. Master Lu's Hair Formula is a great formula for hair loss and thinning. It helps with improving the liver and kidney and promote blood circulation. The formula is specific for hair, but it can be used as a general health formula.

Please check out Master Lu's Health Center store at www.luhealthcenter.com/luhealthstore

Thank you!

All About Vitamin A

Vitamin A was given the first letter of the alphabet for a name because it was the first vitamin to be discovered. It was found that vitamin A has a large number of uses in the body including keeping eyes healthy, aiding cell growth and also helping boost the immune system. However, vitamin A is not only absorbed directly but it is also created by the body by converting beta carotene into vitamin A.

Vitamin A itself is found in a number of foods such as eggs, milk, liver and meat. Beta carotene that the body can convert into vitamin A is found in many fruits and vegetables, especially the red, orange and green coloured ones. The most important point to remember that consuming too much pure vitamin A can be toxic. It is essential not to exceed the recommended daily allowance for vitamin A. The actual recommended allowance of vitamin A varies depending on a person’s age, sex and other factors. While the actual amount of vitamin A consumed may be toxic if the recommended daily allowance is exceeded, there is a far higher limit to how much beta carotene can be consumed. Therefore it is advisable to concentrate on obtaining the greatest amount of beta carotene which the body can then convert to vitamin A, rather than consuming vast quantities of pure vitamin A rich foods. For your health and disease.


Many people will remember being told that eating lots of carrots helps you to see in the dark and that is down to the vitamin A that is produced from the high levels of beta carotene that are found in the vegetables. Other foods which have high levels of beta carotene that can be converted to vitamin A include tomatoes and dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach. Beta carotene is not only used to form vitamin A, but it is also a powerful antioxidant in itself. None of the beta carotene that is absorbed is wasted as any excess after conversion to vitamin A has taken place is used to fight the harmful free radicals within the body. Vitamin A also helps fight infections and illnesses by helping tissues that line various parts of the body, including the eyes, mouth, nose, throat and lungs, to grow and also to repair them if they are damaged to prevent infection. Children also need plenty of vitamin A to help their bones and teeth to develop properly.



Health, Vitamin

NAILS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.

Introduction:

Health and Disease. The nails are present at the end of each finger tip on the dorsal surface.The main function of nail is protection and it also helps for a firm grip for holding articles.It consists of a strong relatively flexible keratinous nail plate originating from the nail matrix. Under the nail plate there is a soft tissue called nail bed.Between the skin and nail plate there is a nail fold or cuticle.Normal healthy nail is slight pink in colour and the surface is convex from side to side.Finger nails grow 1 cm in three months and toe nails take 24 months for the same.

Importance of nails in disease diagnosis:

The colour ,appearance,shape and nature of the nails give some information about the general health and hygiene of a person . Nails are examined as a routine by all doctors to get some clues about underlying diseases.Just looking at nails we can makeout the hygiene of a person.The abnormal nail may be congenital or due to some diseases.The cause for changes in the nail extend from simple reasons to life threatening diseases.Hence the examination by a doctor is essential for diagnosis .Some abnormal findings with probable causes are discussed here for general awareness.


1) Hygiene:-

We can make out an unhygienic nail very easily .Deposition of dirt under the distal end of nail plate can make a chance for ingestion of pathogens while eating.If nail cutting is not done properly it can result in worm troubles in children.When the worms crawl in the anal orifice children will scratch which lodges the ova of worms under the nails and will be taken in while eating.Prominent nail can also complicate a skin disease by habitual scratching.Sharp nails in small kids cause small wounds when they do feet kicking or hand waving.

2) Colour of the nails:-

a) Nails become pale in anaemia.

b) Opaque white discolouration(leuconychia) is seen in chronic renal failure and nephrotic syndrome.

c) Whitening is also seen in hypoalbuminaemia as in cirrhosis and kidney disorders.

d) Drugs like sulpha group,anti malarial and antibiotics ect can produce discolouration in the nails.

e) Fungal infection causes black discolouration.

f) In pseudomonas infection nails become black or green.

g) Nail bed infarction occures in vasculitis especially in SLE and polyarteritis.

h) Red dots are seen in nails due to splinter haemorrhages in subacute bacterial endo carditis, rheumatoid arthritis, trauma, collagen vascular diseases.

i) Blunt injury produces haemorrhage and causes blue/black discolouration.

j) Nails become brown in kidney diseases and in decreased adrenal activity.

k) In wilsons disease blue colour in semicircle appears in the nail.

l) When the blood supply decreases nail become yellow .In jaundice and psoriasis also nail become yellowish.

m) In yellow nail syndrome all nails become yellowish with pleural effusion.

3) Shape of nails:-

a) Clubbing: Here tissues at the base of nails are thickened and the angle between the nail base and the skin is obliterated. The nail becomes more convex and the finger tip becomes bulbous and looks like an end of a drumstick. When the condition becomes worse the nail looks like a parrot beak.

Causes of clubbing:-

Congenital Injuries

Severe chronic cyanosis

Lung diseases like empyema,bronchiactesis,carcinoma of bronchus and pulmonary tuberculosis.
Abdominal diseases like crohn's disease,polyposis of colon,ulcerative colitis,liver cirrhosis ect...

Heart diseases like fallot's tetralogy,subacute bacterial endocarditis and ect..

b) Koilonychia:-

Here the nails become concave like a spoon.This condition is seen in iron deficiency anaemia.In this condition the nails become thin,soft and brittle.The normal convexity will be replaced by concavity.

c) Longitudinal ridging is seen in raynaud's disease.

d) Cuticle becomes ragged in dermatomyositis.

e) Nail fold telangiectasia is a sign in dermatomyositis ,systemic sclerosis and SLE.

4) Structure and consistancy:-

a) Fungal infection of nail causes discolouration,deformity,hypertrophy and abnormal brittleness.

b) Thimble pitting of nail is charecteristic of psoriasis ,acute eczema and alopecia aereata.

c) The inflamation of cuticle or nail fold is called paronychia.

d) Onycholysis is the seperation of nail bed seen in psoriasis,infection and after taking tetracyclines.

e) Destruction of nail is seen in lichen planus,epidermolysis bullosa.

f) Missing nail is seen in nail patella syndrome.It is a hereditary disease.

g) Nails become brittle in raynauds disease and gangrene.

h) Falling of nail is seen in fungal infection,psoriasis and thyroid diseases.

5) Growth:-

Reduction in blood supply affects the growth of nails. Nail growth is also affected in severe ilness. when the disease disappears the growth starts again resulting in formation of transverse ridges.These lines are called Beau's lines and are healpful to date the onset of illness.




Health, Disease