Wednesday 29 February 2012

What is Aphasia? Is any treatment possible?


What is Aphasia?

Aphasia is a communication disorder. It is caused by some damage or injury of language parts in brain. It is extremely common in old citizens, mainly due to attack of a stroke. Aphasia has an effect on the capability of the person to understand or use dissimilar words though it does not harm his intelligence. People with aphasia can have trouble in communication and also in finding the "precise" words or clearly mentioning their thoughts. They can face troubles in writing words, understanding discussion, written or reading words and using numbers. Aphasia usually happens suddenly. It may also the result of head injury or stroke. It may also develop gradually with diseases like brain tumor, infection or dementia. Aphasia may also occur with speech disorders like dysarthria of speech.

Causes

Aphasia is usually rooted in damaged language area of brain caused by brain stroke. In stroke the blood does not arrive at a brain part. Brain cells turn out to be dead without the normal blood supply because it carries oxygen and also important nutrients. Some other brain damage causes comprise brain infections, Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, stern blow on head as well as other conditions, which affect the brain.

Symptoms

The primary symptoms of aphasia are:

Trouble in speaking, struggle in finding appropriate word or term; making use of inappropriate and strange words during the conversation, troubles in understanding what other people are saying

Diagnosis

Usually, Aphasia is initially diagnosed by the physician, who is treating the brain injury, generally a neurologist. The physician firstly carries out all the required tests. If there is chance of having aphasia, the patient is further referred to speech-language pathologist, who performs complete assessment of communication capabilities of the person. The assessment comprises convey ideas, person’s speaking abilities, writing abilities, language writing abilities and understanding.


Types of Aphasia

There are numerous types of the aphasia on hand.  Each type has its individual damaging effects to patient. Most common varieties of aphasia include as follows:

Anomic Aphasia
In anomic aphasia, the patient has difficulties in finding the word, which is called, Anomia. In this case the patient develops inability to find correct words for speaking and writing.

Expressive Aphasia
In expressive aphasia, the patient knows what he or she wants to speak but find difficulty in communicating with others.

Global Aphasia
This is most persistent of the aphasia types. It is generally seen after stroke. In global aphasia, patient finds difficulty in speaking and understanding words. Also patient is not able to write and read.

Primary Progressive Aphasia
It is a progressive disorder. With primary progressive aphasia, the patient loses ability to write, read, and talk. There is no treatment obtainable for treating primary progressive aphasia. People having prime progressive aphasia can correspond all the way through gestures.

Receptive Aphasia
In receptive aphasia, patient can hear a voice, but cannot realize the meaning. So usually patient with receptive aphasia have to utilize figurative language.


Treatment

In most of cases, language recovery is not speedy enough. Several people with aphasia experience partial recovery, with a little language skill reappear after brain injury, but originally, fraction aphasia still remains. In circumstances like this, speech-language therapy might prove quite helpful. Factors which cause the improvement enormously are cause of brain damage, level of brain injury, region of brain damaged, individual’s health and age factor. Some other factors take account of individual’s health motivation and educational level.


Wednesday 22 February 2012

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Irritable Bowel Syndrome
 
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder in which, the patient suffers from abdominal pain and cramping, changes of bowel movements and other symptoms. Other names of the IBS include mucous colitis, Irritable colon, Spastic colon, and Spastic colitis. IBS is different from the IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) that incorporates Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease. In the IBS, the bowel structure is not uncharacteristic.



Causes

Unfortunately, it is not clear why the IBS develops. Sometimes, it happens after intestine infections, also known as the post infectious IBS. The brain and intestine are connected with each other. The signals are interchange between the brain and the bowel. These signals have effects on bowel function as well as its symptoms. The nerves become more active with stress, and as a result, the intestines become more sensitive. IBS can arise at any age; though it usually starts in the teen age or in early adulthood. It is usually more existing in women than men, in fact the ratio is 2:1. Surveys say that in the U.S., 1 out of every 6 persons is suffering fro IBS. It is probably the most frequent intestinal problem, which forces the patients to visit a gastroenterologist.

Symptoms

Symptoms are generally moderate to severe. Mostly, the people have moderate symptoms. Symptoms are usually differing from one individual to another. The major symptoms of the IBS are abdominal fullness, pain, bloating, and gas that are available for at least 3 days every month for the last 3 months. The pain and other symptoms can frequently reduced or disappear after the bowel movement or occur when there is some alteration in how commonly you have bowel movement.

People suffering from IBS may switch between the diarrhea and constipation, with mainly having one or more. The people having diarrhea, frequently have loose and watery stools. They can frequently have urgent necessity to have the bowel movement, which may be hard to control. Those, who suffer from the constipation, may have hard time while passing the stool with less bowel movement. They may frequently need to strain or may feel cramps having the bowel movement. Usually, they do not make any stool or barely a small amount. For a few people, symptoms can get worsen for some weeks or one month, and then reduce for a while. People having IBS can also have loss of appetite.
  

Signs and Tests

Generally, the doctor can diagnose the IBS from the symptoms, with some or may be no tests. Eating the lactose-free diet for around 2 weeks may help the doctor to check for possible lactose deficit. No tests are accessible to diagnose IBS. The tests may be performed to eliminate the other problems are blood tests to see if the patient has anemia, as well as stool cultures to verify in case, there is some infection.
Some patients need to undergo colonoscopy. In colonoscopy, a bendable tube is inserted via anus to examine colon. You can require the test if:

  • Symptoms instigates later in the life over the age of 50
  • You have the symptoms like bloody stools or weight loss
  • You have the abnormal blood tests like low blood count

Other diseases, which may source similar symptoms, consist of:

  • Celiac disease
  • Colon cancer (This cancer hardly ever causes the typical IBS symptoms, except symptoms like blood in stools, weight loss, or the abnormal blood examinations are present)
  • Ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease


Treatment

The main purpose of the treatment of IBS is easing the symptoms slightly. Lifestyle changes can support in some cases of the IBS. For example, normal exercise with better sleep habits may reduce anxiety and support in relieving bowel symptoms. Dietary adjustments may also be supportive. However, no precise diet is recommended for this disease because the condition differs from one individual to another.

However, one can follow these things, which might help:

  • Avoid foods and drinks that stimulate intestines like colas, tea, or caffeine
  • Avoid heavy meals
  • Increase fiber in the diet because it will advance the constipation although may make bloating inferior
  • Consult your doctor before using any over-the-counter tablets

No drug works for every person. The medications your doctor might try include:

  • Anti cholinergic medications like hyoscyamine, dicyclomine, belladonna, and propantheline, to control spasms of intestine muscle
  • Bisacodyl to treat the constipation
  • Loperamide to treat the diarrhea
  • Tricyclic antidepressants in low doses to relieve the intestinal pain
  • Lubiprostone to treat constipation symptoms
  • Rifaximin as antibiotic

All these treatments may assist in cases of depression and severe anxiety.


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