Protection Recap : The Week 5 Of Prevention, May 2008

Find below, the coverage of this week's disease prevention tips on Protecting Health. Wish you loads of health and happiness.

1. Protection From High Blood Pressure! (7 tips)
2. How To Prevent Type 2 Diabetes? (3 tips)
3. How To Prevent Back Pain/Backache? (9 tips)
4. Preventing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (8 tips)
5. Prevention From Cervical Cancer (2 tips)
6. Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention (6 tips)

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) or Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) or Venereal Diseases (VD) are acquired when you have sex with an infected person, whether it’s oral, anal or vaginal. Further the infections can be transmitted even by skin-to-skin contact.

To prevent the bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause STDs from infecting a person, I discovered the following measures.

1. Abstain from sex.
2. Have sex only with only with an uninfected partner with whom you have a long-term, monogamous relationship (for both persons).
3. Use Condoms, male or female, for all kinds of sex.
4. Know whether a partner has an STD or has suffered from it earlier or not.
5. Know whether a partner is an intravenous (IV) drug user.
6. Don’t drink alcohol or take drugs when there’s a possibility of sex following it. Because when you are intoxicated the chances of you engaging in high risk sex increase.

In my opinion STI prevention isn’t just about preventing yourself form acquiring them, but also about preventing your partner from getting them through you. I think responsibility is important.

Some common STDs are Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Herpes Simplex, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Syphilis, and Trichomoniasis.

Prevention From Cervical Cancer

Infection by certain types (strains) of Human papillomavirus or HPV is considered to be the leading cause of cervical cancer. Considering only the infection by the cancer causing HPV, I came across the following tips to prevent Cervical Cancer.

• Cervical Cancer Vaccine, this vaccine has been formulated to prevent cervical cancer, precancerous genital lesions and genital warts due to human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16 and 18.

• Practice safe sex, use condoms as they can prevent the virus from infecting you in the first place. Moreover, according to a study conducted by University of Washington, “Women whose male sex partners use condoms consistently -- and correctly -- cut their risk of HPV infection by 70%.”

Learn more about the vaccine here.

As I wrote this post, I felt like seeing the culprit HPV for myself. Here is it, down below.

Preventing Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

For now there isn’t a proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease or AD, however the research continues. While the scientists may not have the final answer yet, they might have gathered some clues about the disease from the research work already completed.

There’s a suggestion that maintaining good health habits may decrease the chances of various diseases, including those that affect the brain. It seems that the best bet lies in going along with the following tips based on what has been discovered till now, and which may be helpful.

1. Lower cholesterol and homocysteine levels
2. Lower high blood pressure levels. How about preventing yourself from High BP?
   
3. Control diabetes. BTW you might even try preventing it.
4. Exercise regularly
5. Engage in social activities (friends, family, etc.)
6. Engage in intellectually stimulating activities.
7. Protect your brain from trauma/injury/jarring
8. Eat a healthy diet.

Hope the scientists and researchers soon hit the jackpot and get an answer. I hope and I hope and I wish and I hope...

How To Prevent Back Pain/Backache?

I’ve experienced it myself and I know how painful back pain can be. But I’m not alone; statistically 80% people have suffered from it at some time in their lives.

The good news to me appears to be the range of suggestions I came across for preventing back pain. Here they are:

1. Undertake physical exercise (after a doctor’s consultation) to strengthen your back muscles, so that the muscles can effectively withstand the load and stresses of our daily activities.
2. Maintain a healthy weight.
3. Eat healthy, and consume right quantities of calcium and vitamin D, as it’s needed to keep our bones healthy.
4. Give up smoking completely.
5. Get enough sleep.
6. Maintain a good posture, keep your back straight.
7. Learn to lift properly. E.g. don’t bend over and then lift, rather when lifting keep your back straight and bend your knees, push rather than pull, etc.
8. If you need to sit for long hours, take frequent breaks in between to stretch. Don’t sit for long at a stretch.
9. Wear low heels or flat shoes.

Important: This isn’t about prevention though. But most resources I went through suggested that back pain shouldn’t be taken lightly as it can be due to several causes such as arthritis, kidney stones, pregnancy, tumors, infections and stress. Hence a person is better off consulting a doctor when suffering from back pain.

How To Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 Diabetes is also known as Adult Onset Diabetes, Non-insulin Dependent Diabetes, and commonly as “Sugar.”

From the resources I consulted, I figured that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or at least delayed by following the following tips.

1. Maintain a healthy weight.
2. Exercise regularly: Moderate level (brisk walking, cycling, etc.), 5 days a week for 30 minuets each day.
3. Decrease your intake of fat and calories.

It seems to me that diabetes is best prevented or kept well under control. The reason is that this condition over time can damage our nerves and blood vessels, and causing other ailments and disabilities as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, nerve problems, gum infections, and may even necessitate amputation.

Quite scary, I’m gonna begin exercising from today itself!

Protection From High Blood Pressure!

The condition of having a high blood pressure (or hypertension) is taken seriously by doctors as it can lead to strokes, kidney problems, heart attacks, it can affect your eyes and even cause death.

As I went about researching the medical condition I came across some very simple steps that you can take to possibly keep the problem at bay. Here’s what I found:

1. Maintain a healthy weight.
2. Eat fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat low-fat foods.
4. Physical exercise (moderate level, viz. brisk walks, cycling, etc.) for 30 minuets each day helps.
5. Decrease common salt and sodium intake.
6. Don’t smoke at all.
7. Consume alcohol in moderation (for men 2 drinks and for women 1 drink a day).

Often when your blood pressure is high you don’t get to know about it, hence to get your blood pressure checked by a doctor might be the right thing to do. The sooner your doctor comes to know of your condition, the better it is, as she can then take steps to treat it.