Swobidu Health

Posts Tagged ‘blood vessels’

If you want to know how to get rid of dark circles under eyes, then it is important to learn all of the non-invasive ways to do so before you consider going under the knife. There are many ways for you to address this problem. The final solution would actually depend on how you got the dark circles.

The dark circles under the eyes for some people may be due to their genetics, or that they have been staying up late at night. It may even just be an allergic reaction. Whichever the case you may have, read on and see how you can get rid of them and enjoy a fresher and younger looking face.

If the dark circles are due to not getting enough rest, what you can do is to sleep with your head on top of two pillows. That way, the blood will not pool beneath the eyes. When you wake up in the morning, place a cold compress on your eyes for about 5 minutes.

You can also get an eye gel or cream that contains caffeine as this helps to compress the blood vessels. Anti-inflammatory creams are also known to be effective, as these can also minimize the dark circles. Gels or creams with green tea extract are said to making the capillary walls less likely to weaken.

Consistently getting puffiness under eyes when you used to not have them may mean that you might be doing something wrong. You can eat more foods and drink beverage that are rich in antioxidants such as dark chocolate, green tea, tomatoes, and so on. You may also need to eat more foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as legumes and tuna in order to help the circulation of blood to your skin. Adding Vitamin C into your diet daily will not only improve the condition under your eyes but also help boost your immune system.

If the darkness under your eyes are due to allergies, antihistamines will do the trick. You may also want to consider getting a cream that triggers the production of collagen beneath your skin, such as one with Tretinoin. Of course, if you want a quick fix, you can simply do the following: apply eye cream as treatment and let it dry, follow-up with a light concealer, and then set it with loose powder.

This is especially common for those who have light coloured skin beneath their eyes. Whenever blood accumulates there due to weaker circulation from not getting enough rest, it will show more easily. Another would be your age, because eventually your skin will not produce as much collagen and would become thinner.

Third would be the allergies because it will cause the blood vessels to swell. To find out what causes the black circles, lightly stretch out the skin. If they become dark, it may be because of age or genetics, and if it does not, it may simply be due to allergies or getting too much sun exposure.

On an average man-targeted website, there’s at least one pop-up promoting the notion of “all night” erections, leading many men to believe that an everlasting boner is something to strive for. In reality, the penis is simply not designed to stay firm for hours. In fact, men with erections that simply won’t go away and are accompanied by penis pain may have an emergency medical condition known as priapism; this condition can cause permanent damage and requires immediate attention to penis care.

Common Causes

A penis is a bit like a balloon, designed to fill up for use and then empty out when the moment has passed. Unlike a balloon, which is typically filled with air, a penis is filled up with blood, and anytime that flow of blood is disrupted, the erection can malfunction. In most cases, priapism occurs when blood can’t leave the penis. Some men, however, experience difficulty when too much blood goes into the penis.

Some diseases cause abnormalities in blood vessels or in the blood itself. Sickle cell anemia and leukemia, for example, can cause these kinds of changes; these diseases have both been associated with priapism. There are times, however, when substances a man puts into his body change his blood flow, and these substances can also cause episodes of unwanted, persistent erections. Common culprits include:

• Blood thinners
• Antidepressants
• Erectile dysfunction medications
• Some illicit drugs

A traumatic blow to the penis or the area around the penis can also cause priapism. When the injury is severe enough to sever an artery or a vein, the blood’s movement is hindered, and the blood can rush where it doesn’t belong or get trapped in the tissues of the penis with no way out.

Getting Better

Priapism is considered a medical emergency, and as a result, men who have erections lasting more than 4 hours are often encouraged to head right to the emergency room in order to get help. It can be an embarrassing visit for men, as they may not wish to discuss their erection problems in front of medical professionals they’ve never met before, and if the penis has been damaged due to a sex-related injury, men may be especially reluctant to talk about the problem. However, avoiding treatment can result in permanent damage to the penile tissue and even lead to loss of function. Men should keep in mind that medical professionals are there to help, and they have been trained to deal with exactly such problems. Rather than judging their patients, they’re likely to want to stick to the facts of the case and develop a treatment plan, so the patient can get better and the doctor can move on to the next person who needs help.

In some cases, priapism can be treated with either oral or injectable medications. These drugs can cause the blood vessels to constrict or expand so that the trapped blood can once again move freely. If medications don’t work, shunting surgery can provide a rapid solution, and healing times for this procedure are generally short.

Avoiding the Problem

The penis is capable of doing some amazing things, but it’s also remarkably fragile, and a small slip could lead to big consequences. Handling the package with care is vital, especially during sex, so the delicate tissues aren’t squashed, torn or broken in the process. Using a penis health formula (health professionals recommend Man 1 Man Oil) may also be helpful for avoiding potential problems before they occur. Targeted penis ingredients such as L-arginine, for example, can benefit penile blood vessels and result in an increase in blood flow. This substance may not be able to prevent priapism altogether, but keeping tissues healthy could be a reasonable step men can take to keep their penile tissues functioning as they should.

The penis is a remarkable feat of engineering. One moment, it’s soft and flat, and seconds later, it’s standing out from the body and throbbing with sensation. When the stimulation has passed, it returns to its soft state once more as though nothing had happened. As many an embarrassed teen knows all too well, an erection comes on whether a man wants it or not, and much of the process is outside of a man’s sphere of control. But knowing how the penis works could help men know their bodies just a little better, and caring for the penis properly can help men to avoid damage that may lead to poor-quality erections.

From Thought to Action

An erection begins in the brain. An enticing thought, an interesting view or an intriguing noise can all trigger the brain to get ready for sex, and when this signal occurs, the brain starts sending a series of messages through the spinal cord to the blood vessels inside the penis.

Those chemical messages tell the blood vessels in the penis to loosen and relax, opening up as wide as they possibly can. These open spaces create a vacuum, and blood from nearby tissues begins to rush into these gaps. The blood winds through big blood vessels until they are full, and then the blood seeps into the tiny vessels that line the spongy interior of the penis. The pressure mounts as the penis fills up, and when a specific firmness point has been reached, other cells in the penis tighten and lock down, keeping that additional blood from leaving the area. Soon, the penis is ready for action.

A Fading Sensation

If left to its own devices, the penis might stay firm for about 30 minutes. That’s how long nighttime erections tend to last in the average man, unless a dream takes a wild turn or the man is awakened suddenly. A sense of firmness during a sexual activity, on the other hand, might only last for a few minutes. The steps to lose an erection are the same, but the implementation is immediate during sex and subtle and slow in other scenarios.

When the brain knows that playtime is over, it sends an all-clear signal to the penis, and the cells that have trapped blood inside the organ are allowed to loosen. Similarly, the blood vessels inside the penis are allowed to tighten back up, and they expel the extra blood from the penis. The firmness begins to fade as blood leaves these tissues, and the whole episode fades away into memory.

Possible Problems

The channels that fill with blood when a man is aroused are spongy and straight. Men who treat their penis roughly during sex or masturbation can do damage to those cells, and they may notice that the penis curves just a little when it’s erect. Those damaged cells are to blame. Proper penis care can keep them from forming, and these steps can also keep existing damage from worsening.

Masturbation techniques involving dry friction and forceful pulling are most closely associated with penis cell damage, as are sex positions that involve bending and contortion. These acts may feel wonderful in the moment, but they can be hard on the penis. Tender, slower, deliberate motions executed with plenty of lubricant can provide intense pleasure without the awkward side effects.

A penis health creme (health professionals recommend Man1 Man Oil) may also be beneficial, as these products can keep the skin of the penis smooth and pliant. Skin like this is likely to move when needed, rather than sticking to deeper structures in a tight, painful cap. These creams may also contain essential vitamins that penis cells need in order to respond to signals from the brain, ensuring that an erection works as it should.

James N. Martin, Jr, MD

By James N. Martin, Jr, MD President, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Up to seven percent of pregnant women will develop preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy-related condition that can affect the placenta, liver, kidneys, blood, brain, and other organs. It is a leading cause of maternal and infant sickness and death in the US.

While the cause of preeclampsia is unknown, high blood pressure is a main contributing factor. normally, blood pressure changes throughout the course of the day—for example, it increases when you exercise and slows when you’re at rest. but when it stays elevated, it can strain the heart and blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke and damage to the kidneys, brain, and eyes. During pregnancy, high blood pressure can also restrict the flow of blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the fetus.

Some women have ongoing (chronic) high blood pressure before they get pregnant. Others may develop high blood pressure during pregnancy, usually after the 20th week of gestation. Women who have chronic or gestational high blood pressure, are pregnant for the first time, have had preeclampsia in a previous pregnancy, are 35 years or older, are carrying more than one fetus, have certain medical conditions such as diabetes or kidney disease, are obese, are African American, or have certain immune disorders such as lupus or blood diseases are at increased risk of developing preeclampsia.

Other symptoms of preeclampsia include increased amounts of protein in the urine, headaches, visual problems, and swelling of the hands and face. Severe preeclampsia may be accompanied by lung, liver, kidney, or clotting complications and seizures (eclampsia).

If you have chronic high blood pressure, it’s important to make efforts to lower blood pressure before pregnancy by losing weight and taking medication as prescribed. Regular prenatal care during pregnancy can help detect preeclampsia early in all pregnant women. at each prenatal visit, a woman’s weight and blood pressure are taken along with a urine sample to monitor any changes. you may be checked more often if your blood pressure is high.

The gestational age of the fetus, the severity of the mother’s preeclampsia, and risks to mother and fetus will be assessed to guide the decision on when to deliver. some women will be monitored to see if the situation improves, or—if the risk to the fetus is greater in the womb than in a special nursery—delivery may be necessary. Women with slightly increased blood pressure who are not near the end of pregnancy may be prescribed bed rest at home or in the hospital.

For more information, the ACOG Patient Education Pamphlet “High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy” is available at acog.org/publications/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Medicine. you can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

August 15th, 2011

Breast Cancer Tumor Suppressor Gene Silenced by low O2

Low oxygen can silence the BRCA1 tumor suppressor gene and contribute to the progression of cancer, according to a paper in the August 2011 issue of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology. Silencing this particular gene is one of the steps on the malignant pathway to breast cancer. The research may ultimately lead to ways of reactivating this and other tumor suppressor genes, in order to thwart cancer, says corresponding author Peter Glazer of Yale University, New Haven.

This study grew out of Glazer’s laboratory’s previous findings that low oxygen stress to cells can cause changes in expression of many human genes, sometimes boosting, and sometimes reducing expression. “We had found a few years ago that hypoxia reduces expression of BRCA1, and so I had the idea to ask whether it could drive silencing of the gene,” says Glazer.

Hypoxia is common in human tumors, partly because newly emerging tumors lack blood vessels. “They become hypoxic because they don’t get enough blood,” says Glazer. As they enlarge, they begin to grow blood vessels, in a process known as angiogenesis. But “that process is never perfect, so tumors have a very variable and incomplete blood supply,” says Glazer. “That makes them more genetically unstable, and helps drive them towards more malignant properties,” he adds, citing earlier work by his laboratory.

The silencing could be a first step towards cancer, but Glazer thinks it more likely is a later step, since without the tumor, the hypoxia that drives gene silencing is less likely to occur, says Glazer.

Understanding the mechanism of reduced expression would open the way to research that could lead to strategies for interfering with the gene silencing. what we know so far: the mechanism for the silencing involves the histones, proteins that wrap around the chromosomes when they are silent, but which unwrap around genes that are being expressed. Glazer showed that the silencing of BRCA1 is accompanied by a change in the histones, called methylation, which is frequently seen when gene expression is reduced.

“We then found that one particular enzyme, called lysine demethylase [LSD1] is manipulating the methylations,” says Glazer. Finding a way to block that enzyme could lead to reactivating BRCA1, he says, noting that this might be done by finding a small molecule that inhibits that enzyme’s activity. Such a drug might reactivate other tumor suppressors as well, he says.

Glazer thinks that cell stress in general caused by hormones or environmental toxins may lead to silencing BRCA1, and he plans to investigate that hypothesis.

(Y. Lu, a. Chu, M.S. Turker, and P.M. Glazer, 2011. Hypoxia-induced epigenetic regulation and silencing of the BRCA1 promotor. Mol. Cell. Biol. 31:3339-3350.)

How Excess Alcohol Depresses Immune Function

Alcoholism suppresses the immune system, resulting in a high risk of serious, and even life-threatening infections. a new study shows that this effect stems largely from alcohol’s toxicity to immune system cells called dendritic cells. These cells play a critical role in immune function, responding to danger signals by searching for unfamiliar antigens within the body that would be coming from invading microbes, and presenting such antigens to T cells, thus activating them to seek and destroy cells containing these antigens. The research is published in the July 2011 issue of the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology.

Earlier studies in mice had shown that excessive drinking of alcohol impaired T cell function, and subsequently that this impairment could be reversed by exposure to dendritic cells (so named for their shape) from non-alcoholic mice, and that poor function in CD4 and CD8 T cells could be improved through exposure to cytokines produced by non-alcoholic dendritic cells. (Cytokines are immune regulatory cells.) In this study, Jack R. Wands and colleagues of Brown University, Providence, RI, compared dendritic cells produced by alcoholic and non-alcoholic mice, which they first removed from the mice.

The result: dendritic cells from the alcoholic mice had a poor ability to activate T cells, while the dendritic cells from mice on isocaloric diets containing no alcohol functioned normally. The researchers found further that the dendritic cells from alcohol-fed mice showed reduced antigen presentation compared to those from control mice, as well as less production of the regulatory cytokines. this research also confirmed earlier results showing that alcohol inhibits cytokine secretion by dendritic cells.

“This research helps us understand why alcoholics are predisposed to bacterial and viral infections, and why they do not respond well to vaccines,” says Wands. Understanding this, he says, will help in the development of ways to improve dendritic cell function in people with alcohol syndromes.

(A. Eden, V. Ortiz, and J.R. Wands, 2011. Ethanol inhibits antigen presentation by dendritic cells. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 18:1157-1166.)

Influence of Breast Milk Vs. Formula and Genetics on Gut Microbiota Composition could Help Prevent Celiac Disease

The autoimmune condition, Celiac disease, afflicts roughly one in 133 Americans. It is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. now a team of investigators from Spain shows that the level of genetic risk of celiac disease influences the composition of infants’ gut microbiota, and confirms earlier studies showing that the type of milk feeding

NOTE: the following is an op-ed piece by Neala Gill, manager, Cardiovascular Health Nova Scotia, Peggy Dunbar, manager, Diabetes Care Program of Nova Scotia and Susan MacNeil, manager, Nova Scotia Renal Program.On Tuesday, May 17th, organizations around the world are raising awareness about the importance of knowing your blood pressure.

Blood pressure pushes blood through your blood vessels. When that force is too high, you may develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. Because there are no warning signs or symptoms, you may not know that you have high blood pressure. this is why it’s called the “silent killer.”

High blood pressure damages blood vessels and significantly increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and kidney disease.

Almost one third of Nova Scotia adults have been diagnosed with high blood pressure. It is more common in some groups, for example 70 per cent of people with diabetes also have high blood pressure. Rates are also higher in seniors and people of first Nations, African, Hispanic and South Asian descent.

The good news is high blood pressure can be prevented, managed and controlled.

Reduce your risk by:– being more active– eating healthier– losing weight– quitting smoking– reducing or managing stress– limiting alcohol– using less salt or avoiding foods higher in sodium– taking medications as directed by your doctor

Have your blood pressure checked regularly, and keep track of your reading. if your numbers are above normal most of the time, you are at risk of developing high blood pressure. Knowing your numbers and how they compare to your ideal blood pressure target is an important step towards preventing or managing high blood pressure.

Your doctor and health care team can advise you on your target blood pressure. Generally, most people should keep their blood pressure below 140/90. People with diabetes or kidney disease should keep their blood pressure below 130/80.

Three provincial programs, Cardiovascular Health Nova Scotia, Diabetes Care Program of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Renal Program, have a shared interest in addressing hypertension because of its link to chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart and kidney disease.

We hope you will help us mark World Hypertension Day by having your blood pressure checked, knowing your numbers and comparing them to your blood pressure target.

Media Contacts: Nicole Brooks                Department of Health and Wellness                902-424-2608                E-mail:

                Neala Gill                Cardiovascular Health Nova Scotia                902 473-7834                E-mail:

                Peggy Dunbar                Diabetes Care Program of Nova Scotia                 902 473-3219                E-mail:

                Susan MacNeil                Nova Scotia Renal Program                902 473-5656                                E-mail: