Culture and Sensitivity - Ear Swab Test

In most diseases, early detection of the disease is the key to control the symptoms, cure, reduce progression and improve prognosis. This holds true for sexually transmitted diseases too. As soon as there is a mild degree of suspicious of having contracted a sexually transmitted disease, it is advisable to go for a test. Most of the STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) can develop into serious complications over a period of time, ranging from infertility to even death.

Complications: Why early diagnosis is important: When left undiagnosed and untreated, most STDs progress to cause severe damage from sterility to cancer to even death. Listed below are some complications associated with each of the common STDs.

1. Chlamydia: If left untreated, can lead to epididymitis and testicles shrinking and infertility in males. This is a condition where there is pus formation in the scrotum. In women, it can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease which is deep-seated and unable to cure completely. This brings with it symptoms ranging from abdominal pain to uterine infections to sterility.
2. Syphillis: Undiagnosed syphilis can lead to blindness and deafness. It can also be passed onto the newborn and lead to severe disabilities.
3. Gonorrhea: If diagnosed early, it can be cured completely with antibiotics. However, if left untreated, it can lead to infertility.
4. HIV/AIDS: Early diagnosis can help in curtailing the disease. If detected late, then the damage is quite extensive and treatment is both expensive and cannot help restore a lot of functions. 

Symptoms of Sexually transmitted diseases: If there is a doubt of having contracted an STD, then it is very important to get tested for the same. Some of the most common symptoms are listed below.

1. Women: The most common symptoms in women including painful urination, burning sensation, abnormal vaginal discharge (sometimes bleeding), warts, and abdominal pain.
2. Men: Testicular pain, urethral pain, painful urination, pain and inflammation in the prostate, sores, fever, and abdominal pain.

Prevention: Always practice safe sexual practices. When in doubt, refrain from sex until diagnosis and treatment is complete.

Testing for STDs: Some of the standard tests include:

1. 1. Herpes- HSV I & II - 
   2. Testing HIV-- Kits and ELISA available for testing 
   3. Blood test for syphilis antibodies 
   4. Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea - from urine as well as swabs for culture

It is understandable that getting tested for STDs is an embarrassing situation. However, there are options available where anonymity can be maintained when getting tested for STDs. This is a wise choice to make as the risk is not just for the person affected but for the partner and in some cases even for the fetus. Early testing can help prevent complications like infertility and cancer. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist.

In case you have a concern or query regarding gynaecological issues, you can consult a gynaecologist online & get the answers to your questions through online doctor consultation via video call.

What is typhoid fever?
Typhoid fever or enteric fever is a digestive tract infection in which there is fever, headache, and abdominal pain or discomfort. It is very common in developing countries like india.

What are the causes and risk factors?
Typhoid fever is caused by a bacterium called salmonella typhi which is transmitted through contaminated water or food (feco-oral or urine-oral route).

Risk factors include:

• Travelling to areas where typhoid fever is a common disease.
• Being in a profession where contamination with bacteria is likely. Like those working in laboratories.
• Coming in close contact with a person suffering from typhoid.
• Drinking/ eating contaminated water or food.

How will you know if you have typhoid fever?
Signs and symptoms develop gradually over the period of 10-14 days after exposure to the bacteria.
Signs and symptoms include an irregular fever that can go up to 104.9 ˚f (40.5 ˚c), headache, pain in abdomen, tiredness, muscle pain, loss of appetite, nausea, constipation or diarrhoea, skin rash.

How is typhoid fever diagnosed?
Your doctor will do a physical examination and carry out some tests.
Physical findings in early stages include abdominal tenderness, enlarged spleen and liver, enlarged lymph nodes, and development of a rash (also known as rose spots because of their appearance).

Investigations include:

• Blood tests: typhidot test igm and igg antibodies, blood culture to test for salmonella typhi.
• Stool and urine analysis
• Bone marrow culture: it is the most sensitive test, but it is rarely required except in patients who have already received antibiotics and not getting any better.
• Widal antigen test: this test can be done, but there is a longer waiting phase of about 10 days till results can be seen, it is time-consuming and could give false positive results.

What is the treatment for typhoid fever?

• Antibiotics are the only effective treatment option for typhoid fever.
• Due to increased resistance to ciprofloxacin the new drugs of choice are azithromycin and ceftriaxone.
• In some cases, chloramphenicol, co-trimoxazole and amoxicillin may also be effective.
• Fluid intake should be increased to prevent dehydration.

What are the complications of typhoid fever?
If not treated and sometimes even after treatment, there can be serious complications due to typhoid like pneumonia, meningitis (inflammation of meninges of brain), infection in bones (osteomyelitis), intestinal perforation and intestinal haemorrhage.

A doctor needs to be consulted if a person starts developing the symptoms few days after travelling to a place where typhoid is prevalent.

How can typhoid fever be prevented?

• Typhoid fever can be prevented by improving sanitation facilities and drinking clean drinking water.
• Always wash your hands with soap and warm water after using restrooms, before eating or cooking food.
• Maintaining optimum personal hygiene is the key to preventing this disease.
• Travellers should not drink untreated water; avoid adding ice to their drinks and should not eat ice creams or milk products or street foods that are a rich source of the infection.
• Vaccines are available that give partial protection. Vaccines usually are reserved for those who may be exposed to the disease or are travelling to areas where typhoid fever is common.

Serious mental disorders and side effects to varied medicines may cause hallucinations in many individuals. Psychosis and Schizophrenia are the most commonly known causes that may cause this condition. Hallucinations are sensations and feelings that may appear as real to the patient, convincing him or her of the occurrence of things that are not really happening in reality. Hearing voices, seeing people, and experiencing things that no one else can, are some of the ways in which hallucinations work.

Let us find out the varied signs and symptoms of this condition.

1. Hearing voices: One of the most common signs of hallucinations includes hearing voices. You may hear voices from people who cannot be seen or heard by other people around you. In such cases, you may have the distinct feeling of hearing these voices from within or from a source outside your own mind and body. In many cases, you may feel like these voices are trying to talk to you or give you a certain message. Ringing of the ears on a persistent basis may also be experienced in such cases.

2. Visual hallucinations: These hallucinations will make the patient see things. In such cases, the patient may be witness to a scene that cannot be seen by anyone else – a scene that may not be happening in reality. In visual hallucinations, the patient may also see people that other people in the room or the area cannot see. The patient may also see objects and other creatures like insects crawling across his or her hand, and may react with fear or anxiety, when in reality, no such scene may be happening. These kind of hallucinations also cause occipital seizures where the patient will see spots, shapes and rings of brightly coloured lights that may be coming towards him or her, or even encircle him or her.

3. Feeling things: These kinds of hallucinations will make the patient feel things that may not really be happening. For example, these hallucinations will make the patient feel hot during winters or feel a blast of air even when there has been none.

4. Taste hallucinations: In these hallucinations, the patient may get a salty taste from sweet food, or vice versa. These hallucinations make the patient imagine that he or she tastes a certain flavor when in reality, this may not be true. These are also called gustatory hallucination.

5. Olfactory hallucinations: These hallucinations have to do with odd smells that the patient may get a whiff of. In these hallucinations, the patient imagines certain smells like burning, or other odours. Patients may also feel that their own bodies are letting out certain odours which may not be the actual case.  

Delusion vs. Hallucination

A delusion is a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith).

A hallucination occurs when environmental, emotional, or physical factors such as stress, medication, extreme fatigue, or mental illness cause the mechanism within the brain that helps to distinguish conscious perceptions from internal, memory-based perceptions to misfire. As a result, hallucinations occur during periods of consciousness. They can appear in the form of visions, voices or sounds, tactile feelings (known as haptic hallucinations), smells, or tastes.

Delusions are a common symptom of several mood and personality-related mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, shared psychotic disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. They are also the major feature of delusional disorder. Individuals with delusional disorder suffer from long-term, complex delusions that fall into one of six categories: persecutory, grandiose, jealousy, erotomanic, somatic, or mixed. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Psychiatrist.

Bloating is generally the result of not being able to properly digest foods. These not-so-digested foods feel like they’re just sitting around causing discomfort and a general feeling of being stuffed and “gassy”.

It can happen at any age but if it seems to be more frequent as you’re getting older it can very well be because of your stomach’s reduced ability to produce enough acid for proper digestion.

Normally, when we eat cells in our stomach release more acid which is important for so many digestive processes like breaking down foods and activating enzymes. As we age this process can become less efficient and the result can feel like it’s wreaking havoc on the rest of the digestive system.

Unfortunately, this can have wide-ranging effects on all of our digestion abilities “downstream” and that can result in bloating.

Bloating reason #1:

Sometimes our bodies are (or become more as we age) sensitive to the fiber in certain fruits or veggies. This can also occur when we introduce new ones into our diet as it may take a while for our body to get used to them.

Pro tip: try chewing your vegetables more thoroughly, or lightly cooking or steaming raw ones. If a fruit or veggie seems to be consistently related to bloating try eliminating it for a few weeks and monitor your symptoms.

Bloating reason #2:

Decreased stomach acid can reduce the activation of a key protein-digesting enzyme “pepsin”. This means that the proteins you eat aren’t broken down as much and they can pass through your system somewhat “undigested”.

Pro tip: you may consider reducing the amount of animal-based foods you eat and see if that helps you out.

Bloating reason #3:

One thing that can seriously cause bloating is when your digestive system slows down. Then things seem to be a bit stagnant, just hanging around in there a bit (a lot?) longer than you’d like.

Ginger has been found to help with digestion and reduce nausea for certain people. And peppermint is thought to help your digestive muscles keep pushing food through, so it doesn’t stay in one spot for too long.

Pro tip: consider drinking a digestive tea like peppermint or ginger. See my recipe below.

Bloating reason #4:

All this lack of digesting in your stomach and small intestine puts extra stress on the large intestine. The large intestine is the home of all of your wonderful gut microbes that have so many functions in the body. The problem is when undigested food enters the large intestine it can feed the not-so-great microbes. These “unfriendly” bacteria produce waste material and gas as a part of their natural metabolism. The more of these microbes you have in your system (they will multiply if they are constantly being fed by undigested food in the large intestine) the more gas that will be produced in the large intestine.

Pro tip: try eating more fermented foods. Fermented foods contain probiotics which will feed the good bacteria and microbes in your system to keep the bad guys at bay this includes things like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi (as long as these don’t cause bloating for you!). Make sure they’re unpasteurized and contain live cultures. If you cannot tolerate dairy based yogurt and kefir dairy free options are available or you could make your own dairy free versions.

You can also consider taking a probiotic supplement. Just check the label first to make sure it’s right for you.

Bloating reason #5:

With reduced stomach acid you also have a reduction of the “activation” of several of your digestive enzymes (protein-digesting pepsin being one of them). In order for certain enzymes to go to work digesting your food they need to be activated. This usually happens with the assistance of stomach acid.

Pro tip: you may consider trying an enzyme supplement to assist your body in digesting food while you work on reestablishing your own production of stomach acid (a healthy diet and lifestyle can do this!). But before you do make sure you read the labels because some of them interact with other supplements, medications, or conditions, and may not be safe for long-term use.

Conclusion:

You can try the “pro tips” i’ve given you in this post. Maybe you’d prefer working with a practitioner on an elimination diet to get to the bottom of which foods you may be sensitive to? if bloating is a serious problem you should see your doctor or alternative health care practitioner.
 

Many young men have tried Viagra and similar medications but found they do not help very much. Causes of impotence in young males can be varied and an embarrassing problem. However the problem affects millions of men of all age groups and there are many treatment options available. This article will talk about obesity, smoking and lack of exercise which can all result in narrowing of the blood vessels, which is the cause of impotence. Losing weight if necessary, giving up smoking and getting fitter may help reverse the problem.

Why Do So Many Younger Men Suffer From Impotence?

Impotence is a recurring and persistent issue where a man is unable to get or maintain an erection. It may be worth consulting your doctor if a persistent problem as impotence is caused by a variety of conditions.

Causes Of Impotence In Young Males And Solutions

1. Obesity 
There is a strong connection between obesity and impotence. Men that are obese are far more likely to experience erection issues than those of normal weight. Men who are overweight have a higher risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol. Clogged arteries and high blood pressure will worsen with excess weight and this is what contributes to erection issues. Men who return to their normal weight usually regain their sex life.

2. Smoking 
Men who smoke are more likely to develop problems with achieving or maintaining an erection. This is due to blood flow and smoking can cause damage to the blood vessels of the penis. Smokers tend to have reduced or abnormal semen quality and sperm count compared to men that do not smoke.

3. Exercise 
Aerobic exercise and this includes walking, jogging and swimming is helpful for your blood vessels. Studies have found that men who exercised the most were the most likely to have better performance in the bedroom. Exercise can help improve cardiovascular risk factors and will also reduce stress related issues. It is also easy to get started on an exercise program. Exercise can also help your impotence treatment work better.

4. Medicines for Impotence 
There are 3 main prescription medicines which are used to treat impotence in young men: Viagra Cialis and Levitra. You can purchase all of these medicines through an online website but a prescription from your doctor is advised. They all work in the same way, by enlarging the arteries which supply blood to the manhood. This allows enhanced blood flow to the erectile tissue in the penis. An erection can then be achieved and maintained.

5. Other Treatments 
The two main other treatments are vacuum pumps and erection rings. A vacuum pump is a cylinder a man places over the penis. Air is pumped out of the device and this can create an erection. Rings are used to maintain an erection as they restrict blood flow from the penis. The ring is placed around the base of the manhood and can give some men stronger erections and better orgasms. Side effects of using a penis pump can include pain and bruising. The ring should be removed right away if you feel any pain, numbness, or a cold sensation.

6. Psychological treatment 
Counselling or therapy can sometimes tackle stress, depression or performance anxiety issues and can be combined with medication to treat the impotence in the short-term.

Natural Remedies For Impotence 
Whatever the cause of impotence in young males, there are numerous natural remedies for impotence that can help treat this condition. There are many alternative therapies and these can include natural herbs and remedies. Derived from plants and herbs, cultures have used these treatments for many years to treat impotence and other related erection issues.