6 Tips on how to treat conjunctivitis
Conjunctivitis (pink eye or red eye), the redness of the white area that surrounds your iris and pupils can be quite a problem sometimes. Our sight is one of our most precious gifts that we get borne with. Not being able to see well due to itching, burnings and pains of our eyes is quite troubling. Conjunctivitis gives all these symptoms and even though it does not threaten us with loosing our sight it is bothering to the patient in cause.
Here are a few things you can do before you call the doctor:
Red Eye
1. You can try to remove the redness in your eyes by applying 2-3 times a day a bandage with warm water on your closed eyes. You must leave it there for 10 minutes.
2. Sometimes conjunctivitis is caused only by dust, smog and not by bacterium. In this case conjunctivitis might heal by itself and all you have to do it give your eyes a hand. Watch out that your eyes remain clean by removing any impurities that might gather in that area. You can do this with a small cotton tampon and boiled and cooled down water.
3. Use synthetic tears. You can find them in a drug store and they will definitely relief some of your symptoms.
4. Do not reuse towels that have got in close contact with your eyes. If conjunctivitis is caused by bacterium then you can easily spread the infection to other family members too. Wash your face as you normally do and then dry it up with paper tissues that you only use once. It is safer this way.
5. Keep away from pools. As you know the water from inside the pools is treated with chemicals, mostly with chlorine which is quite aggressive on the eyes. It is best that you wear swimming eye-glasses when swimming in the pool as they will protect your eyes from getting in contact with the water.
6. Go to the doctor. You can not know if your conjunctivitis is caused by allergies, dust or by bacteria. Only the doctor can set you up with the best treatment for your situation and advise you what to do next.
Hypocalcaemia, signs, symptoms and remedies
Hypocalcaemia is a group of symptoms that appear when the level of calcium from the blood decreases abnormally. We often hear about women who complain of dizziness, fainting-like sensations and accelerating breathing. After prescribing some calcium all these symptoms disappear.
Calcium is a vital element for both women and men, but it seems that women are most affected by a loss of calcium. In women the risk of hypocalcaemia increases mostly after menopause has installed.
A great quantity of calcium is stocked in the teeth and the bones. The lack of calcium can lead to spasmophilia, which is an acute manifestation, but as well to chronic manifestations like osteoporosis or rachitism. It does not matter how old you are, as hypocalcaemia can occur even if you are young or old.
Calcium also plays and important part in our body’s metabolism: it helps the blood to coagulate; it eases the absorption of vitamin B12 and along with magnesium it plays and important part in the muscular contractions.
The human body needs a daily intake of calcium and we should all focus on consuming milk and all sorts of cheese instead of taking supplements of calcium. Children and pregnant women need more calcium than and adult and this is why they should consume more calcium rich aliments than normally.
Here are some tips on how you can avoid hypocalcaemia:
-eat daily cheese, milk, or yoghurt, green vegetables, bread and whole cereals.
- avoid coffee and give up smoking;
- take a daily supplement of calcium for 15 days a month from September till April;
- eat bee products like honey and propolis.
- take sunbaths during the summer days (but not when the sun is too hot) as they help calcium absorb and fix better in the body;
- eat bananas as they bring to your body potassium which help calcium remain in the organism.
First aid for cuts and other minor wounds
Even though cuts, bruises and scratches are classified as superficial wounds, we should not neglect treating them as we can get ourselves some serious infections that will only complicate something that seemed to be so minor.
Cuts are more frequent during childhood and the first measure of treatment would be cleaning the wound with water or a local antiseptic solution. I recommend pharmaceutical sprays for opened wounds that are painful at touch.
Do not use medicinal alcohol for cleaning up a wound. This substance will only burn the tissues nearby and will cause major discomfort in children especially. You should use oxygenic water as dust, mud and any other impurities that might be found in the wound will clear out better.
Wounds and cuts
Applying bandages must be done only after a careful disinfection of the wounded area. Sometimes, if the wound is not very deep it is best not to cover it up with bandages but let it heal free, at the air. If still you use a bandage, make sure it is compressive over the wound, in such a way that it will stop bleeding, but not too tight as it might stop blood circulation through your arteries and veins, causing a lot of trouble for you later. Any bandage should be changed with a new one daily, and every time it gets in contact with water. Usually after the wounds closes up and there is no more risk of bleeding you can give up using bandages.
In case you have a more serious cut you should use a sterile bandage, of course after washing the area around the cut and extracting any object that might have got inside the wound. Cuts that are deeper than 3-4 mm would be hard to isolate and secure with a bandage and usually request stitches. If you think you might need stitches, you should go to the hospital during the first 6 hours after the cut has been produced, so that the best results in healing your wound can be obtained.
