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Anusol – Treatment for Piles

October 24, 2012 by

Piles or haemorrhoids are swellings that occur on the lining of the lower rectum and anus. They are classified into four different grades. These are:

Grade 1 – Grade 1 piles are small swellings that develop on the inside lining of the rectum, and cannot be felt or seen from outside the anal opening.

Grade 2 – Grade 2 piles are larger and may be pushed out from the anal opening by stool.

Grade 3 – Grade 3 piles are small, soft lumps that hang out of the anal opening, but can be pushed back inside.

Grade 4 – Grade 4 piles are large lumps that develop from within the rectum, but permanently hang out of the anus.

There are also external piles that develop on the outside edge of the anal opening.
The symptoms for piles can vary. Small piles (Grade 1 & 2) are usually painless. But bleeding may occur, especially while going to the toilet. Larger piles (Grade 3 & 4) can be painful. Mucous discharge, irritation and itching may also occur.

The exact cause of piles is not known. However, there are several risk factors that are known to increase chances of the occurrence of this condition. They include:

1. Constipation
2. Pregnancy
3. Ageing
4. Hereditary factors

Constipation is considered to be one of the main causes of piles. So the treatment for piles, especially Grade 1 & 2 revolves around dealing with constipation. To minimise the symptoms of Grade 1 or Grade 2 piles, you should eat plenty of fibre to avoid constipation. Having lots of drinks will also help to soften stool and make it pass easily through the anus. In addition, you should avoid straining while going to the toilet. Grade 3 and 4 piles may require banding or other surgical procedures to completely cure them.

Aside from the above-mentioned treatment measures, using creams, ointments and suppositories can help treat symptoms of all forms of piles. One of the most popular topical medications for piles is Anusol. It comes in the three types of application.

Anusol cream, Anusol ointment and Anusol suppositories. Each of the products from the Anusol range is highly effective in easing the symptoms of piles, including pain and swelling. It also contains an emollient that helps to protect sore skin, and an antiseptic to minimise the risk of infection.

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Filed Under: Exercise, Family Health, News, Weight Loss

Careers in Food Science

July 3, 2012 by

Food Science Jobs with Yourfoodjob.com

In these daunting economic times, finding a good job is a challenging task. This is particularly the case for people who use traditional job hunting methodologies such as reading through newspaper or blindly sending resumes and hoping for the best. Fortunately, residents of the United Kingdom (UK) have an easier and highly effective way for searching for jobs. They can easily find technologist, laboratory, and food science jobs with yourfoodjob.com. This is among the best websites that post numerous job listings that specifically target residents, and other persons who want to work in the UK. People whose job-seeking ventures have hit a brick wall should consider this website.

Benefits of Online Job Search

In ancient times, the principal source of job information was in newspaper classifieds. Therefore, many individuals, especially those who could not afford to buy newspapers daily were at a disadvantage. Moreover, the need for people to hand in their application details to offices that were located hundreds of kilometres from their home areas confounded the problem. However, with the advent in internet technology, job seekers can now process fast job applications through the Web and thus, enhance their chances of being shortlisted. For instance, they can easily find food science jobs with yourfoodjob.com and get details of prospective employers or send their applications directly from the website. This simplifies the application process and enables people to apply for several jobs over a short period.

Characteristics of the Best Job Sites

Although there are many job portals that people can choose, they should make sure that they use reputable ones. Good job websites must contain detailed listings and offer excellent customer services. This ensures that candidates find the right types of jobs that suit their qualifications. Moreover, they should avail user accounts that job seekers can use to upload their personal and educational details and experience. For example, those who want food science jobs with yourfoodjob.com can create online resumes and thus, expose their skills and abilities to prospective employers. Decent job sites should also have the following attributes:

Categories

While looking for jobs, people should be able to make stringent searches that produce only jobs that require their skill sets. For instance, they should make queries such as job names, areas, and even job sectors. This increases their chances of getting all listings on a particular topic. A query that looks for food science jobs with yourfoodjob.com will produce all available jobs in this category.

Job Alerts

Many people cannot visit their job sites often. Thus, good portals should have a strategy for accommodating such candidates. The most promising method that many job sites adopt is issuing job alerts. After people have specified contact details such as email addresses, the site should send them job alerts as new listings become available. This enhances the chances of getting the right types of jobs straight into their inboxes.

Although there are many UK job sites, people should make sure that they choose reputable ones. They should be simple, navigable, have a comprehensive job listing. This ensures that candidates get their dream jobs over a short time span. One of the most high profile jobs available through Yourfoodjob.com is Jobs with Mars Chocolate UK ltd Mars Jobs.

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Filed Under: Diets, Food Science, News Tagged With: ,

What is Creatine?

May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

What is creatine? This is a form of nitrogenous organic acid occurring naturally in vertebrates whose major role is to assist in distribution of energy to various body cells especially the muscles. This role is achieved through increased formation of ATP i.e. adenosine triphosphate.

Biosynthesis

Creatine is produced naturally by your body from amino acids especially in your liver and kidney after which it is distributed via blood for it to get used by your muscles. The highest percentage i.e. 95 percent of the total creatine contained in your body is located in your skeletal muscle. The manufacture of creatine in your body occurs from glycine, L-aiginine and L-methionine. The enzyme GATM i.e. (L-arginine: glycine amidinotransferase, EC 2.1.4.1) refers to a mitochondria enzyme which catalyzes the creatine`s biosynthesis first rate-limiting step and is mainly expressed in your pancreas and kidneys. The second enzyme in Guanidinoacetate N-methyltransferase, EC: 2.1.1.2 is mainly expressed in your pancreas and liver.

The Phosphocreatine System

Creatine synthesised in your kidney and liver, is transported via your blood and is utilised by tissues requiring high energy levels e.g. the skeletal muscle and brain, via an active transportation system. Your skeletal muscle contains 2-5 mM of ATP which would make your muscles to contract for a few seconds. Fortunately, when the demand of energy by your body is very high, the phosphagen system smoothly re-synthesises both ADP and ATP with phosphocreatine`s help via a reversible reaction with enzyme CK i.e. creatine kinase. Your skeletal muscle contains 20-35 mM or more of PCr concentration. Additionally, in most of your muscles, the ATP CK regeneration capacity is usually high hence not being one of the limiting factors. Although the ATP cellular concentrations are limited, it is difficult to detect changes since ATP is replenished continuously and efficiently from huge pools of CK and PCr. Creatine is capable of increasing PCr muscle stores, potentially increasing your muscles capability to regenerate ATP from ADP for it to meet high energy demands.

Uses as a supplement

Creatine supplements are mostly used by sprinters, athletes, wrestlers, bodybuilders as well as other people who may wish to tone up their muscles. This is achieved through consumption of creatine 2-3 times the quantity that could have been gained from a diet containing high protein contents.

Synonymous with muscle growth Creatine supplement is made from amino acid, which in its part is naturally produced from the body in the kidney, liver, and pancreases. This therefore shows that Creatine is not a steroid but a product that is readily available in the body but in small quantities and therefore the need for supplementation.

One the greatest health benefits of Creatine supplement is the fact that it increases the size of the muscle tissues and therefore the overall strength of a person. Creatine supplement also speeds up the healing process from injuries while acting as a buffer of excess lactic acid in the body. By increasing energy levels and eliminating excess fat in the body, Creatine supplement increases the endurance level of the body. Lastly, Creatine supplements increases the water retention ability of the muscles thereby enabling a person grow bigger within the shortest time possible, which explain why it is so popular with bodybuilders.

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Filed Under: Diets, Exercise, Exercise, Health Supplements, Weight Loss Tagged With:

Personal Trainer Qualifications

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Today people have become more health conscious than ever before. New businesses like gyms, nutritionists and personal trainers have started booming and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. In order to become a personal trainer you will need to obtain qualifications from a certified training provider.

What is a Personal Trainer?

A Personal Trainer is a person who advises and outlines the fitness plan of an individual. Their job is to motivate clients and push them to achieve goals in fitness they will also decide the fitness plan for them and give them feedback on their progress.

Many fitness centres and gyms hire personal trainers for clients and these companies are on the rise. Hence, the demand for personal trainers is also increasing and one needs to have certain qualifications to be able to qualify as a personal trainer.

Personal Trainer Qualifications

Several gyms and universities offer a certificate course or full-fledged courses for aspiring personal trainers. These courses are of different levels and duration starting from basic, advanced and total immersion. All of them have a different curriculum designed according to the industry.

One such course covers the anatomy of the different parts of the body, psychology, nutrition for normal people and for people involved in sports, marketing and weight management as well.

 

After one has qualified from these courses, a personal trainer has to register with a government body in order to be legitimate.

Considering the fact that the fitness industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the UK, personal trainers are in great demand currently. One can go on to specialise in nutrition while some can be Pilate’s instructors, there are numerous opportunities in many different specialised areas. Many companies hire personal trainers either on a fixed salary along with benefits while some choose to work on a per hour basis or some do both.

In either case, this industry is going to grow and personal trainers need to be qualified enough to be ahead of the competition.

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Filed Under: Exercise, Exercise, Weight Loss Tagged With: ,

Strange but true: 14 year old girl benefits from gastric band surgery

November 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A 14 year old girl became the youngest person in the UK to have weight loss surgery, after undergoing gastric band surgery in Belgium four years ago. Teenager Katie Hill weighed more than 18 stone and was a size 26 before she had the operation. Before the treatment she was incredibly unhappy and had tried a string of diets without any success.

Katie’s story

Most teenagers enjoy spending time with their friends, but for Katie Hill life was miserable because of her size. At 18 stone, she was more than double the weight of most of her friends and she confided in her mum about just how unhappy she was with the way she looked. Katie had tried a series of diets but had not been able to lose weight. Katie’s mum, Juliet, decided to take her daughter to a private clinic in Belgium for gastric bypass surgery, a step which received criticism from doctors and members of the public at the time. People suggested that weight loss surgery was a drastic step, especially as Katie was so young, but her mother stuck to her guns and now, four years later, Katie credits the operation with saving her life.

Four years after her operation, Katie appeared in the national press, showing off a svelte size 8 figure, having lost more than 10 stone. Her mum said that she had thought long and hard about the decision but she had to act to save her daughter.

Gastric band surgery

The number of gastric band procedures carried out in the UK has increased significantly in recent years. The number of teenagers having gastric band surgery on the NHS has quadrupled over the last 4 years and there have been suggestions that children as young as 11 years old will soon be treated for obesity by means of weight loss surgery.

The rise in gastric band procedures has caused controversy, especially as the NHS budget is being stretched more than ever. Some critics believe that more money should be invested in educating children and parents about healthy eating and exercise, in order to reduce the amount of money spent on procedures such as gastric band and gastric bypass surgery.

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Filed Under: Featured, Weight Loss Surgery Tagged With: , , ,

Increased Weight Loss Through Transoral Gastroplasty

April 1, 2010 by

Transoral gastroplasty is an innovative procedure that can take over the Gastric Sleeve procedure. Transoral gastroplasty is also known as TOGA. The best thing about this procedure is that it does not require any incision on your abdomen. This is a surgery without an incision made on your skin.

This weight loss surgery procedure is done under general anasthesia and it usually takes about two hours to complete the procedure. The individuals who have undergone this procedure have shown to lose about 35-40% of their excess body weight. This is a good amount of weight loss that one can achieve without undergoing an invasive surgical procedures as was once thought.

Now we will see how transoral gastroplasty is performed. The patient is prepped and then general anaesthesia is given. The respiratory system is secured through an intubator. Once everything is secured, the surgeon then passes the endoscope through mouth and with the help of that and the stapler starts the stapling process in order to make a gastric sleeve.

Before stapling, the stomach is inflated with carbon dioxide or air so that the surgeon can have the maximum area to staple the desired areas of the stomach to create a pouch. A small pouch is created that makes the individuals feel full. This curbs their appetite and individuals do not overeat.

The difference between the traditional gastric bypass surgery and transoral gastroplasty is that in the traditional one, the surgeon reaches the stomach by performing incision on the abdomen and then perform the stapling. In transoral gastroplasty the surgeon performs the procedure with the help of an endoscope.

The criteria that surgeons have marked for individuals wanting to go through transoral gastroplasty is they should be between the ages of 16 and 60, not suffering from any life threatening diseases, GI disorders, as well as have failed different diet and exercise regimen.

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Filed Under: Weight Loss, Weight Loss Surgery Tagged With: ,

Antiobesity Medications Versus Weight Loss Surgery

April 1, 2010 by

Weight loss is a billion dollar industry. There are a lot of over the counter supplements, diet programs, drugs, weight loss procedures available to help treat obesity. Weight loss surgery is the last resort to achieve the desired weight loss results. Weight loss is a step by step program that should be followed under the strict guides of your physician.

Why should your weight loss plan be developed by your physician? Your physician has the most knowledge with regards to the right foods that you need to eat, the exercise plans you must follow, the weight loss drugs or supplements that can help you lose the weight in the most effective manner.

Along with your physician, a nutritionist and a physical trainer will make an ultimate team to help you through the entire process. This article will focus on the antiobesity medications, which help lose weight gradually. These drugs have different mechanism of actions and your physician can make the right choice for you.

The antiobesity medications prescribed by your physician are Reductil and Xenical. These medications must be taken under the supervision of your physician. It is important to follow all the different set of guidelines set so as to get the best results. These medicines work through by lowering down the amount of fat being absorbed by the body.

Our bodies produce hormones known as ghrelin and leptin. These hormones are responsible to inform our body as to when we are feeling hungry or full. These anti obesity drugs also function by acting on these hormones that make us feel full and hence decrease the amounts of carbs that we take.

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Filed Under: Weight Loss, Weight Loss Surgery Tagged With: ,

What Other Benefits Are There Apart From Weight Loss

April 1, 2010 by

Weight loss surgery offers a lot of benefits. It is not only the weight loss but also a host of other problems that are addressed through bariatric surgery. Those individuals who are willing to undergo bariatric surgery would find this article really interesting. Let us see go through the benefits one by one.

Insulin resistance in the body occurs due to being overweight, which ultimately leads to diabetes mellitus type 2. This problem either decreases to a great extent or eliminated by undergoing weight loss surgery.

Another very serious issue that is life threatening is sleep apnoea. Apnoea means lack of breathing. This condition occurs due to increased weight gain. In this condition, the respiratory passages are blocked and the flow of air through the respiratory system is interrupted. It has been reported that individuals suffering from sleep apnoea can feel dizzy or even fall asleep while driving. This puts the lives of many at risk. Weight loss surgery can remedy the problem of sleep apnoea.

Vertebral disorders are very common among people with increased weight. After losing weight through gastric band or gastric bypass surgery, people have reported improved posture, decreased or no back pain, as well as better breathing.

A good number of gallbladder diseases are also linked with increased weight. Individuals undergoing weight loss surgery are categorized as low risk individuals to suffer from gallbladder disease.

Heart disease, hypertension as well as high cholesterol levels are also remedied to a great extent through gastric band surgery.

It is just a very short list of problems that are remedied through weight loss surgery. It is highly advisable that you consult your physician to know the pros and cons associated with weight loss surgery.

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Filed Under: Weight Loss Tagged With: ,

Basics About The Bariatric Procedures, Gastric Banding / Gastric Bypass

April 1, 2010 by

Gastric bypass and gastric banding surgeries are also known as bariatric surgery. The word “Bariatric” means to perform surgery on the stomach to reduce its volume. The weight loss procedures are opted based on the results that are desired. Gastric banding is considered safer as it is reversible, whereas gastric bypass involves removal of the part of stomach and intestines.

Through both the gastric bypass and gastric band, about 30 mL of the stomach volume is reduced. This means that an individual who goes through this procedure will eat less food to make them feel full. This in turn will decrease the food intake and lower the calories consumed. This allows an individual to lose weight at a much faster pace.

The benefits associated with gastric band and gastric bypass surgery is to lose weight, correction of diabetes, as well as correction of sleep apnoea. A lot of people who have undergone these procedures have noted a marvelous improvement in their health status.

If we compare gastric bypass with gastric band surgery, we will see that the gastric bypass is a more invasive procedure and is irreversible. Gastric band surgery is not that invasive , but does pose risk that are not life threatening.

It is highly advisable that before you opt for any such procedure, you should do a complete homework in terms of understanding the pros and cons of these procedures and whether this is something that you really want. It would be a good approach to consult your family doctor and ask for his advice on this matter.

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Filed Under: Weight Loss, Weight Loss Surgery Tagged With: ,

What can Gastric Bands Do?

January 18, 2010 by

A Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, also commonly referred to as a lap band, is a type of inflatable silicone item that is usually placed around the top most portion of the stomach in some kind of laparoscopic surgery. It is usually implemented in an attempt to treat obesity of any kind. Gastric bands are considered by some to be an extreme form of weight loss surgery, but, in some cases, the options for weight loss are relatively limited. However, gastric bands are not used for just anyone because there are a certain number of risks that accompany this obesity surgery.

Gastric bands are only used to treat those patients with a body mass index, or BMI, or 40 or higher. Though, patients with a Body Mass Index of as low as 35 may also undergo the surgery in the case which that particular patient has some other condition which can prevent weight loss to some degree (these include diabetes, apnea, hypertension, GERD, or metabolic syndrome).

The use of gastric bands also comes with a certain amount of risk, including gastritis, which can cause diffuse discomfort or other pain. If this becomes severe, it can also result in a painful ulcer formation which can heavily complicate the digestive process. Some other conditions that may result in the use of gastric bands include Erosion which may be the result of the band slowly migrating through the wall of the stomach to where it is on the inside of the stomach. Though this usually occurs silently, it can display many painful symptoms while it occurs, which can prompt immediate medical attention.

If the gastric band causes bleeding, it may require immediate, severe surgery to correct before internal bleeding occurs. Though these risks are evident, they may be worth it to get the potential weight loss that will occur as a result of the use of a gastric band.

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Filed Under: Weight Loss, Weight Loss Surgery