When the heart is unable to pump blood around the body efficiently, it is known as heart failure. Heart failure can affect either the left or right side of the heart, or in some cases, both sides. The condition can be brought on by a number of diseases including high blood pressure, heart valve disease, blood clot in the coronary arteries and heart muscle disease.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, breathing problems, coughing, fatigue, leg swelling, eczema type rash and accumulation of fluid in the organs or abdominal cavity. Heart failure is usually diagnosed by a combination of medical history along with an examination that will check out such issues as heart sounds, heart rate, heart murmurs, fluid on the lungs, swollen legs, swollen neck veins or an enlarged liver. It can also be diagnosed by means of a chest x-ray, an ECG and blood samples. Doctors can also find out what caused the heart failure by performing additional blood tests so certain viral infections can be spotted, an ultrasound of the heart, a coronary artery examinations (done by injecting a dye into the left and right coronary arteries), exercise testing carried out on a treadmill and by taking a biopsy of a small bit of heart muscle.

Heart Failure

Ways to avoid heart failure include stopping smoking, a change of diet as well as avoiding overeating, exercising more often and getting problems such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol treated in a timely manner.

Hair loss is a problem that many people suffer from. There are different types of hair loss affecting both men and women. Whoever suffers from it, whether male or female, hair loss can lead to many issues with self-esteem and confidence. The main types of hair loss suffered by individuals are detailed below.
Male-pattern baldness is the commonest form of hair loss in human beings and is called androgenic alopecia. Although the term androgenic loosely means “of man genus”, the condition can actually affect women as well as men.

Hair Loss Patterns

The next type of hair loss is alopecia areata and this form involves bold patches that tend to come and go sporadically. One in every hundred people is affected by this, with the main group being young people and teenagers. One in every five cases can be attributed to hereditary reasons.

A problem with the immune system is thought to be the main contributor to alopecia areata and there is no effective treatment available for the condition. In most of the cases though, the hair will grow back within a year. One in every five persons affected with the condition go on to develop hair loss in a more severe form, such as alopecia totalis (no hair on the scalp) or alopecia universalis (lack of hair on the body as well as scalp).

Telogen effluvium is another form of alopecia hair loss which is quite common, and the condition can be described as extensive thinning of the hair rather than having specific bald patches. The hair loss in this condition is usually down to stress or a reaction to medication.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be described as a functional disorder of the body’s gut. There are a few symptoms that could indicate IBS. Some of these include the following: discomfort or pain in the abdomen which tends to come and go but also seems to go away after passing stools; swelling or bloating of the abdomen with more than usual flatulence (passing wind); stools (or faeces) can differ from person to person. Some have diarrhea while some may have constipation, sometimes the stools are small and pellet like, while others they are watery or “ribbony”; nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, fatigue, backache and heartburn are all other symptoms.

The causes of IBS are not as yet very clear. Some doctors believe it has something to do with over-activity of one or many parts of the gut, and this over-activity could cause diarrhea or constipation. Over-activity could be caused by many things, including the nerves or muscles of the gut being overactive; intolerance to some foods; bacteria or infection in the gut; and, reaction to taking antibiotics.

IBS Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Treatments can include eating more fiber in the diet; eating a healthy diet while eating regular meals or avoiding not eating for long periods of time; drinking at least eight cups of non-caffeinated fluids each day while restricting coffee and tea to two or three cups per day.