What is tuberculosis??????

Tuberculosis has a long, rich history, dating back as far as Ancient Egypt, with evidence of its presence found in the preserved spines of Egyptian mummies.1

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a tuberculosis epidemic rampaged throughout Europe and North America,2 before the German microbiologist Robert Koch discovered the microbial causes of tuberculosis in 1882.

What is tuberculosis?
TB is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. It is the second greatest killer due to a single infectious agent worldwide, and in 2012, 1.3 million people died from the disease, with 8.6 million falling ill.5

TB usually affects the lungs, although it can spread to other organs around the body.
Doctors make a distinction between two kinds of tuberculosis infection: latent and active. In latent TB, the TB bacteria remain in the body in an inactive state. They cause no symptoms and are not contagious, but they can become active. In active TB, the bacteria do cause symptoms and can be transmitted to others.6

About one-third of the world's population is believed to have latent TB. There is a 10% chance of latent TB becoming active TB, but this risk is much higher in people who have compromised immune systems i.e. people living with HIV or malnutrition, or people who smoke.5

TB affects all age groups and all parts of the world. However, the disease mostly affects young adults, and people living in developing countries. In 2012, 80% of reported TB cases occurred in just 22 countries.5

What causes tuberculosis?578
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium causes TB. It is spread through the air when a person with TB (whose lungs are affected) coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs or talks.

TB is contagious, but it is not easy to catch. The chances of catching TB from someone you live or work with are much higher than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who have received appropriate treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.

Since antibiotics began to be used to fight TB, some strains have become resistant to drugs. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) arises when an antibiotic fails to kill all of the bacteria that it targets, with the surviving bacteria developing resistance to that antibiotic and often others at the same time.

MDR-TB is treatable and curable only with the use of very specific anti-TB drugs, which are often limited or not readily available. In 2012, around 450,000 people developed MDR-TB.

Who is at risk?
People with compromised immune systems are most at risk of developing active tuberculosis.

HIV suppresses the immune system, making it harder for the body to control TB bacteria. People who are infected with both HIV and TB are around 20-30% more likely to develop active TB than those who do not have HIV.

Tobacco use has also been found to increase the risk of developing active TB. Over 20% of TB cases worldwide are related to smoking.5

Recent developments on tuberculosis causes from MNT news
Alarming spread of drug-resistant TB threatens global health
The medical aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has published a briefing paper about the alarming spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis, which they refer to as the "biggest threat to global health you've never heard of."
Patients with untreatable tuberculosis 'are spreading infection'
A new study published in The Lancet has found that patients in South Africa with untreatable tuberculosis are being discharged into the community, which, according to researchers, is contributing to the spread of the disease.
Study helps explain how a parasitic worm increases TB risk
Studies have shown that infection with helminths - a form of parasitic worm - can increase susceptibility to tuberculosis in those with a latent form of the disease. Now, new research sheds light on why this is, opening the door to new strategies to prevent the disease.

Symptoms of tuberculosis
While latent TB is symptomless, the symptoms of active TB include the following:

Coughing, sometimes with mucus or blood
Chills
Fatigue
Fever
Loss of weight
Loss of appetite
Night sweats.
Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. When TB occurs outside of the lungs, the symptoms can vary accordingly. Without treatment, TB can spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream:

TB infecting the bones can lead to spinal pain and joint destruction

TB infecting the brain can cause meningitis

TB infecting the liver and kidneys can impair their waste filtration functions and lead to blood in the urine

TB infecting the heart can impair the heart's ability to pump blood, resulting in a condition called cardiac tamponade that can be fatal.

Tips for healthy eating away from home

With today’s hectic lifestyles, most of us end up eating out at least once a week. That could mean grabbing a sandwich from the supermarket deli counter for lunch, ordering take-out for dinner, or splurging on a special meal at a favorite restaurant.

Meals away from home make it harder to control ingredients, calories, and portions. This can be particularly challenging for people with Type 2 diabetes (and for those of us trying to avoid getting this condition). The following tips can help you enjoy eating out without abandoning your efforts to eat well.

Ask how the food is prepared. Before you order, ask about ingredients and how the menu selections are prepared. Try to choose dishes made with whole grains, healthy oils, vegetables, and lean proteins. Meat that has been broiled, poached, baked, or grilled is a more health-conscious option than fried foods or dishes prepared with heavy sauces.

Look for less. Your eyes are the perfect instrument for sizing up portion sizes. Use your estimating techniques to size up the food on your plate.

1 thumb tip = 1 teaspoon of peanut butter, butter, or sugar

1 finger = 1 oz. of cheese

1 fist = 1 cup cereal, pasta, or vegetables

1 handful = 1 oz. of nuts or pretzels

1 palm = 3 oz. of meat, fish, or poultry

Plan on eating half your meal and take the rest home to enjoy for lunch or dinner the next day.

Order an extra side of veggies. Non-starchy vegetables, such as green beans, broccoli, asparagus, or summer squash, will help you fill up with low-calorie choices.

TIPS FOR MORE RESTFUL SLEEP

Many things can make it hard to get a good night’s rest. People who have trouble sleeping often discover that their daily routine — work stress, anxiety, etc. — holds the key to nighttime woes.

There are some simple things you can do to make it easier to fall asleep, and to help ensure that the sleep you get is high quality. One of those is to make your bedroom as quiet as possible. You can reduce or disguise noises that can interfere with sleep by:

using earplugs

decorating with heavy curtains and rugs, which absorb sound

installing double-paned windows

adding “white noise” either by purchasing a device designed specifically to provide this kind of steady hum, running a fan, or purchasing CDs or downloading apps that provide soothing sounds.

hen you wake up in the morning, are you refreshed and ready to go, or groggy and grumpy? For many people, the second scenario is all too common. This report describes the latest in sleep research, including information about the numerous health conditions and medications that can interfere with normal sleep, as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications used to treat sleep disorders. Most importantly, you’ll learn what you can do to get the sleep you need for optimal health, safety, and well-being.

Other ways to optimize your surroundings for sleep include removing the television, telephone, and any office equipment from the bedroom. This gets rid of interruptions and reinforces that the bedroom is meant for sleeping. An ideal environment is quiet, dark, and relatively cool, with a comfortable bed and minimal clutter. Banish reminders or discussions of stressful issues to another room.

Let's do lunch — the healthy way

From fast-food restaurants and delis exploding with high-calorie sandwiches to salad bars stocked with high-fat and high-sugar add-ons, lunchtime can be a minefield of temptation for those trying to eat a healthy and balanced diet.

But a healthful — and enjoyable — lunch can be done. These simple tips can help.

This week-by-week plan will help you transform your eating habits into a program of nutritious and delicious food choices that can last a lifetime. Applying the latest results from nutrition science, Harvard experts take you by the hand and guide you to create an eating plan to improve heart health, longevity, energy, and vitality.

Your meal should include lean protein, whole-grain carbohydrates, and produce. Roughly half of your plate should be vegetables or fruit; one-quarter should be lean protein such as fish, chicken, turkey, tofu, beans, or low-fat cottage cheese; and one-quarter should be whole grains, such as one slice of whole-grain bread, or half a cup of brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, or quinoa. You might include a small amount of healthy fat, such as a tablespoon of oil-and-vinegar dressing on your salad.

Salad can be a good way to go, but you need to be careful. Regular salad dressings, cheeses, and salads that are mayonnaise-based (such as tuna, chicken, and egg salads) can contain unhealthy fats, hidden sugar, and salt — not to mention lots of calories. Here's the trick to a healthy and satisfying lunch salad:

Step 1: Build a vegetable base. Load your plate with leafy greens and raw or grilled vegetables.

Step 2: Add some protein. You might try a few scoops of garbanzo or kidney beans, for example. Beans are an excellent source of fiber — and they're filling! Other good selections include grilled chicken, low-fat cottage cheese, or chopped eggs. But go light on any cheese toppings — just a sprinkle of a strongly flavored variety like feta or Parmesan can deliver flavor with fewer calories.

Step 3: Add a small amount of healthy fat. Sprinkle on the nuts and seeds. They are high in heart-healthy unsaturated fat and healthy protein, give you a feeling of fullness, and help food stay in your stomach longer. You might also opt for a dash of oil and vinegar.

Step 4: Whole grains and fruit make a nice addition to a creative salad. Look for whole grains like barley or bulgur wheat to sprinkle on top. Or add a few slices of fruit.

Checking blood pressure: Do try this at home

Home monitoring makes sense if you have high blood pressure.
Your blood pressure changes from hour to hour, sometimes even minute to minute. It jumps around so much that you are more likely to get a good sense of your blood pressure if you check it at home rather than in the doctor's office.

Just a few of the things that can influence your blood pressure:

standing up from a chairwatching an exciting show on televisioneating a meallistening to soothing musicstressthe time of day

In fact, the American Heart Association (AHA), American Society of Hypertension, and Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association urge people with high blood pressure, or at high risk for developing it, to become blood pressure do-it-yourselfers.

There are many good reasons to follow their advice. Taking your blood pressure at home allows you to:

•  Find your real blood pressure. The measurement your doctor or nurse takes is just a single frame from an ongoing movie. In some people, that snapshot tells the whole story, and is an excellent approximation of their usual blood pressure. In others, it isn't.

Up to 20% of people diagnosed with high blood pressure have white-coat hypertension. This is a temporary spike in blood pressure brought on by the stress of trekking to and seeing a doctor. Still others have what's called masked hypertension—normal blood pressure in the doctor's office but high blood pressure everywhere else.

•  Improve your control. People who check their blood pressure at home tend to be more successful at keeping it under control. It seems that timely feedback helps. Instead of getting a blood pressure reading once every few months under unusual conditions (in a doctor's office), you can get a reading every week or so at home.

Taking the measurements yourself also helps. People who actively participate in their care generally do better than those who take a hands-off, let-the-doctor-do-it approach.

•  Track your progress. You can't feel your blood pressure get better—or worse. Measuring it at home offers vital information about whether your lifestyle changes and the medications you are taking are having their desired effects.

•  Save time and medications. Monitoring your blood pressure at home may mean fewer trips to the doctor's office. If you have white-coat hypertension, it may also mean taking fewer, or no, blood pressure medicines.

•  Run with the right crowd. Of every 100 people with high blood pressure, 70 or more don't have it under control. Checking your pressure at home and acting on the results can help you join the "in" crowd who do.

For example, a study showed that people who checked their blood pressure at home and emailed the results to a pharmacist who offered advice were far more likely to keep their blood pressure in check than those who merely measured it at home or those who had it taken by a doctor every now and then.

Who needs to monitor their blood pressure at home?

Consider home monitoring if you fall into any of these groups:

People with known or suspected hypertension. That includes the whopping 73 million Americans with high blood pressure. It also includes the millions more with type 2 diabetes or chronic kidney disease, who are at high risk for developing high blood pressure.

Pregnant women. High blood pressure is a common, and problematic, side effect of pregnancy.

People who are seriously overweight.

Smokers.

People with a family history of high blood pressure. 

Best exercises you can ever do!!!!

5 of the best exercises you can ever do

If you’re not an athlete or serious exerciser — and want to work out for your health or to fit in your clothes better — the gym scene can be intimidating. Just having to walk by treadmills, stationary bikes, and weight machines can be enough to make you head straight back home to the couch.

Yet some of the best physical activities for your body don’t require the gym or that you get fit enough to run a marathon. These “workouts” can do wonders for your health. They’ll help keep your weight under control, improve your balance and range of motion, strengthen your bones, protect your joints, prevent bladder control problems, and even ward off memory loss. 

What can improve your mood, boost your ability to fend off infection, and lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer? The answer is regular exercise. It may seem too good to be true, but it's not. Hundreds of studies demonstrate that exercise helps you feel better and live longer. This report answers many important questions about physical activity. It will also help guide you through starting and maintaining an exercise program that suits your abilities and lifestyle.

No matter your age or fitness level, these activities can help you get in shape and lower your risk for disease:

Swimming. You might call swimming the perfect workout. The buoyancy of the water supports your body and takes the strain off painful joints so you can move them more fluidly. “Swimming is good for individuals with arthritis because it’s less weight bearing,” explains Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

Research finds that swimming can improve your mental state and put you in a better mood. Water aerobics is another option. These classes help you burn calories and tone up.
 
Tai Chi. Tai chi — a Chinese martial art that incorporates movement and relaxation — is good for both body and mind. In fact, it’s been called “meditation in motion.” Tai chi is made up of a series of graceful movements, one transitioning smoothly into the next. Because the classes are offered at various levels, tai chi is accessible, and valuable, for people of all ages and fitness levels. “It’s particularly good for older people because balance is an important component of fitness, and balance is something we lose as we get older,” Dr. Lee says.

Take a class to help you get started and learn the proper form. You can find tai chi programs at your local YMCA, health club, community center, or senior center.
 
Strength training. If you believe that strength training is a macho, brawny activity, think again. Lifting light weights won’t bulk up your muscles, but it will keep them strong. “If you don’t use muscles, they will lose their strength over time,” Dr. Lee says.

Muscle also helps burn calories. “The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, so it’s easier to maintain your weight,” says Dr. Lee. Strength training might also help preserve your ability to remember.

Before starting a weight training program, be sure to learn the proper form. Start light with just one or two pounds. You should be able to lift the weights 10 times with ease. After a couple of weeks, increase that by a pound or two. If you can easily lift the weights through the entire range of motion more than 12 times, move up to slightly heavier weight. 
 
Walking. Walking is simple yet powerful. It can help you stay trim, improve cholesterol levels, strengthen bones, keep blood pressure in check, lift your mood and lower your risk for a number of diseases (diabetes and heart disease for example). A number of studies have shown that walking and other physical activities can improve memory and resist age-related memory loss.

All you need is a well-fitting and supportive pair of shoes. Start with walking for about 10-15 minutes at a time. Over time you can start to walk farther and faster until you’re walking for 30 to 60 minutes on most days of the week.
 
Kegel exercises. These exercises won’t help you look better, but they do something just as important — strengthen the pelvic floor muscles that support the bladder. Strong pelvic floor muscles can go a long way toward preventing incontinence. While many women are familiar with Kegels, these exercises can benefit men too.

To do a Kegel exercise correctly, squeeze and release the muscles you would use to stop urination or prevent you from passing gas. Alternate quick squeezes and releases with longer contractions that you hold for 10 seconds, and the release for 10 seconds. Work up to three 3 sets of 10-15 Kegel exercises each day.

Many of the things we do for fun (and work) count as exercise. Raking the yard counts as physical activity. So does ballroom dancing and playing with your kids or grandkids. As long as you’re doing some form of aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, and you include two days of strength training a week, you can consider yourself an “active” person.

6 ways you can prepare to age well!!!

6 ways you can prepare to “age well”

You’re probably already doing a lot to ensure that you stay in good health and are able to enjoy your later years: eating right, exercising, getting checkups and screenings as recommended by your doctor. But it also makes sense to have some contingency plans for the bumps in the road that might occur.

With this Special Health Report, you will learn the protective steps doctors recommend for keeping your mind and body fit for an active and rewarding life. You’ll get tips for diet and exercise, preventive screenings, reducing the risk of coronary disease, strengthening bones, lessening joint aches, and assuring that your sight, hearing, and memory all stay sharp. Plus, you’ll get authoritative guidance to help you stretch your health care dollar, select a health plan that meets your needs, prepare a health care proxy, and more.

Adapt your home. Stairs, baths, and kitchens can present hazards for older people. Even if you don’t need to make changes now, do an annual safety review so you can make necessary updates if your needs change.

Prevent falls. Falls are a big deal for older people — they often result in fractures that can lead to disability, further health problems, or even death. Safety precautions are important, but so are exercises that can improve balance and strength.

Consider your housing options. You might consider investigating naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs). These neighborhoods and housing complexes aren’t developed specifically to serve seniors — and, in fact, tend to host a mix of ages — but because they have plenty of coordinated care and support available, they are senior-friendly.

Think ahead about how to get the help you may need. Meal preparation, transportation, home repair, housecleaning, and help with financial tasks such as paying bills might be hired out if you can afford it, or shared among friends and family. Elder services offered in your community might be another option.

Plan for emergencies. Who would you call in an emergency? Is there someone who can check in on you regularly? What would you do if you fell and couldn’t reach the phone? Keep emergency numbers near each phone or on speed dial. Carry a cellphone (preferably with large buttons and a bright screen), or consider investing in some type of personal alarm system.

Write advance care directives. Advance care directives, such as a living will, durable power of attorney for health care, or health care proxy, allow you to explain the type of medical care you want if you’re too sick, confused, or injured to voice your wishes. Every adult should have these documents.