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Facts about Intestinal colic

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 | health with No Comments »

Colic in babies can be something that just relegated as part of the development process and the hardships of child caring; but in horses, it is a different thing. Colic in horses is an emergency case. In fact, this is one of the worst nightmares of horse lovers and horse owners. This is because despite treatment, most horses will not get better, especially those who do not respond to therapy so well.

Colic is a term used to refer to abdominal pain that results from problems in the digestive organs and system. Often, colic is caused by obstructions and impactions in organs such as liver, intestines, bladder, uterus, ovaries and kidneys. Colic can also be associated with the stimulation of the nerve endings within the intestinal walls.

Other sources of pain are distentions in bowel movements. Intestinal colic may also be the result of inflammations in some parts of the body, impactions and twistings. It may also arise from rectal problems brought on by trauma in breeding in mares, manipulation of the rectum as well as some neurologic disease. Strangulations caused by lipoma may also cause intestinal colic.

The gastro-intestinal tract is made up of a series of parts appended in one long tube. The esophagus itself, where the food starts to go down, is three feet long. This empties to the stomach and then to the small intestine, which is 72 feet long. This may seem quite long when you imagine it inside the body of a horse; it does not extend straight out but are placed in stacks with twists and turns. This is perhaps the reason why problems in the intestine are so common in horses. Unlike in humans, horses have narrower tubes, which make it more likely for them to develop obstructions and impactions in these areas.

And because they have no way of relieving the pressures in their stomach and abdomen such as with vomiting, their pain tends to build up until, the pain is just too much for them to bear. Problems in small intestines tend to be more common in the southeast parts of the country than the other areas. Often, this is the consequence of feeding horses with Bermuda grass hay that is most common in those parts.

Some of those affected may respond to therapy. They are given conservative therapy as treatment. Others, whose cases are more severe, may need surgical interventions to treat their problems. The challenge for doctors is to know the difference between those who needs interventions and those who need surgery.

Often, severe cases wherein obstructions cannot be removed without the help of a surgeon?s hands will have to undergo surgeries. Examples of these cases are those that have displacement or torsions in various parts of the intestines and those with small incarcerations in the intestines.

Below are some signs that surgery is already needed to treat intestinal colic: severe pain in the abdominal areas, rectal remains that are not normally seen, and long durations of painful episodes despite medical therapy.

Surgeries done to treat intestinal colic may be categorized as complicated or uncomplicated, depending on the severity of the problem and how the body responds to other means of treatment. If for instance, the bowel has adequate blood supply, the problem can be corrected without going through a complicated process. Otherwise, segments will have to removed and examined.

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Maximising Manhood and Beating Male Menopause, Believe You Can

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 | health with No Comments »

When a man reaches the age of 45, he started to worry of the next stage-death. Subsequently, his fear of being the next in line among his friends or relatives who had passed away drives him to do some silly things. And his tendency is to find more exciting things to venture on, just so he could hide the inactiveness and hormonal changes he?s feeling inside.

That stage in man's life is called male menopause or andropause in medical terms.

Loss of vitality and fluctuation of virility level are the primary symptoms of andropause. This is due to the changes in production of the male sex hormones. In most cases, this predicament occurs at the age of 45 up to 55. But before the occurrence of andropause, there comes the mid-life crisis.

Dr. Malcolm Carruthers, the author of the book Maximizing Manhood: Beating male menopause explained the difference and occurrence of mid-life crisis and andropause.

These two distinct stages among males are often confused as one. In its real essence, these two are linked with each other since mid-life crisis happens between 35-45 years old right before the andropause period.

However, andropause comes early depending on how bad a man reacts to his mid-life crisis. Or, that it could be delayed if he had sustained a healthy and active lifestyle before this period.

Other signs of andropause include the abnormal drop of energy level, becoming more irritable, loss of sex drives and depression. Although some would consider these instances normal due to aging, you can still do something to overcome these effects. In medicine, andropause had grown to be a problem rather than a stage in life. For this reason, medical science has formulated solutions to this crisis.

Testosterone replacement therapy is formulated to relieve the symptoms of andropause among men. TRT comes in capsule, cream, implant or hormone patch forms. There are also claims for the efficiency of pills that contain male hormones and which can also relieve the symptoms of andropause. For those where neither of these works, pellet implant is also advisable. Testosterone pellets are implanted under the skin of the buttocks. The choice of which depends on how your body reacts to it. See which will work for you best.

The crisis in man?s life called andropause is neither inherited nor natural for all men. Unlike that inevitable period among women called menopause, andropause can be beaten.

According to Carruther?s study, there are external factors affecting the declination of testosterone level. Commonly, men living a healthy lifestyle decline in testosterone level by 1% yearly when he reaches the age of 40 to 70. This decrease of testosterone is more manifested among the unhealthy men.

Another factor which triggers the symptoms is stress. Both psychological and physical stresses which resorted to too much alcohol and cigarette consumption had aggravated the symptoms.

In most cases, effects of malnutrition or nutritional deficiency are accounted to andropause. Symptoms such as anxiety, loss of memory and low sex drive could be due to aging or deficiency of chromium.

So examining it closely, not all men could suffer the effects of andropause. Such crisis is a big insult to a male body. And staying healthy, especially as you age, is a powerful weapon to overcome male menopause.

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