• Antioxidants are beneficial for heart: A study shows that consuming small amount of dark chocolate can reduce the chances of heart diseases caused. Dark chocolates contain antioxidants known as flavanols, these flavanols help control formation of cholesterol. This further helps to avoid blood pressure problems and heart attacks.
• Cocoa is helpful: A study shows that men who consume cocoa have less chances of heart failures compare to men who ate lesser amount of cocoa. Chocolates or any cocoa products can help reduce the chances of heart diseases.
• Reduces blood clots: The main reason for the formation of blood clots is platelet. When these platelets accumulate around the arteries blood clots and plaques are formed. Cocoa beverages are advised by doctors to avoid such health problems in easy and tastier way.

So now you don’t have to kill you craving for chocolates, just open your refrigerator and pull out a piece of chocolate and enjoy it; it’s good for  health!

1. Patients with these types of lung disorders often experience dyspnea, a condition resulting in a feeling as if you are failing to catch the breath. If you have this symptom without being a patient of asthma, then you are likely to be suffering from interstitial lung disease. A patient is more at risk of having dyspnea while performing physical activities.
2. The next most common symptom of interstitial lung disease is cough; however, a patient might not experience this symptom during the initial days of the disease. Cough related to interstitial lung disease is generally dry i.e. it does not cause phlegm production.
3. Patients suffering from interstitial lung disease often experience a high pitched, whistling noise while breathing. This condition is medically termed as wheezing. Wheezing occurs mainly when one exhales. This sign tends to become worse with progression of the disease. As the disease moves to its advanced stage, the wheezing becomes louder and cannot be subsided easily.
4. A chest pain that resembles pains caused by heart problems can be a symptom indicating occurrence of interstitial lung disease. However, instead of arising from the heart, chest pain in an interstitial lung disease patient will begin from his lungs. Another frequently occurring symptom of the condition is nail clubbing, which results in curving and coming down of the patient’s fingernails over his fingertips.

These symptoms should immediately be referred to a physician to avoid further deterioration to the patient’s health.

Cough: A person with asthma mostly develops a dry cough, which is intermittent in nature. This cough bothers the patients mostly during the acute asthma attacks. In case of individuals suffering from cough variant asthma, dry cough is usually a constant symptom. Coughs experienced by COPD patients are productive and chronic. COPD patients often cough up phlegm. According to medical experts, COPD is marked by chronic irritation in the airways, which results in increased production of mucus in the patients’ lungs.

Wheezing: Asthma attacks are often accompanied by this symptom resulting from narrowing of our airways. Wheezing is also common in patients suffering from COPD. The airways of COPD patients get narrowed as a result of persistent inflammation.

Breathing difficulties: Breathing difficulties are observed in both COPD and asthma patients. Asthma patients experience breathlessness only during asthma attacks. The COPD patients, on the other hand, have breathing difficulties as a more persistent symptom.

Chronic fatigue: Individuals suffering from COPD often become victims of chronic fatigue. Persistent obstruction in the airways leaves the body of the COPD patients in a state of chronic deprivation of relative oxygen, which eventually results in reduced energy levels and fatigue.

Headaches during the morning: Many patients suffering from severe COPD experience headache when they wake up in the morning. This symptom however, is not commonly observed among patients with asthma.

Sudden weight loss: Progressive and chronic obstruction of the airways make breathing an exhausting experience for patients with COPD. They need to utilise more energy for maintaining adequate breathing, which can eventually cause weight loss in them.

• Dry gangrene: A condition making the affected skin area black, dry and shriveled.
• Wet gangrene: Wet gangrenes occur due to bacterial infections and are characterized by blistered and inflamed skin. This gangrene type spreads extremely fast.
• Gas gangrene: This is the gangrene type originating from the deep muscle tissues and gradually reaching the skin. Initial signs of gas gangrene include paleness of the affected body part, which slowly becomes purple-red or gray in color. If the area of the body with gas gangrene is pressed gas gets released. Gas gangrene is also a result of bacterial infections.
• Internal gangrene: An internal gangrene can affect organs like appendix, gallbladder or intestines and is caused by blocked flow of blood. The condition is marked by signs like fever and severe pain.
• Fournier’s gangrene: This gangrene type primarily affects men. It is defined as genital gangrene caused by infections.

How will you know that you might be suffering from gangrene? The usual indicators of this disease include lasting fever, a persistent mysterious pain, recurrent sores having foul-smelling discharges, wounds that do not heal, skin turning blue-black and going numb following a pain, skin areas getting hard, cold and pale etc. A person with internal gangrene can also experience symptoms like palpable gas underneath their skin, hypotension and confusion.

Individuals with diabetes or blood vessel disorders like atherosclerosis are the one at higher risk of suffering from gangrene. It is advisable that these patients examine the skin of their feet regularly for change in color and signs of injuries and infections. Once detected, gangrene is mostly treated with antibiotics; the patient might also need to undergo surgery for removal of the dead tissues.

There are many factors that are responsible for the low secretion of thyroid hormone. The most common of them are Lymphocytic thyroiditis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Thyroid destruction (it may happen due to treatment from radioactive iodine or surgery), hypothalamic or pituitary disease, severe deficiency of iodine and intake of certain medications.

People who suffer from low level of hypothyroidism do not develop any symptom. But the symptoms become acute as the disease worsen and most of the patients come at a stage when they experience a decrease in their metabolic rate.  The common symptoms of hypothyroidism are depression, sudden weight gain,  fatigue, intolerance to cold, laziness, constipation, dryness of  skin and hair, muscle cramps, augmented cholesterol levels, decrease in ability of concentrating, indistinguishable pains and aches, swollen legs etc.

When the hypothyroidism reaches an acute state, the patient may develop puffiness around his or her eyes. People suffering from this disease may also suffer from a decreased heart rate and a sudden fall in their body temperature.  In the further serious stage of the disease, patient may go into coma. This condition is more commonly known as myxedema coma. At this stage the patient needs to be immediately hospitalized and needs an immediate injection of thyroid stimulating hormone.

If the disease is not treated at the early stage, it may lead to enlargement of the heart and increases the risk of heart failure of the patient.  There may also be accumulation of fluid around the lungs leading to its serious damage.

• You must be aware of the initial signs of retinitis pigmentosa in order to identify the disease in you. The first signs of the disease include a difficulty is seeing objects in low lights or in conditions with reduced illumination for instance fog or dusk. Patients with this eye disorder also often requires a lot of time for adjusting between illumination and darkness.
• Besides the above mentioned signs, progression of the disease might make the patient experience other symptoms like tunnel vision. As mentioned before, retinitis pigmentosa impairs the patient’s peripheral vision; however, this effect of the disorder mostly remains asymptomatic. If you have the disease, you are also likely to experience signs like difficulty in playing your favorite sport as efficiently as before and view light flashes continuously.
• Whenever you experience one or more of the above mentioned symptoms, visit an eye specialist and get your eyes checked thoroughly. Never be late in consulting a doctor as the retinitis pigmentosa if not treated early might also lead to blindness. Another ill effect of the disease in adults in occurrence of posterior subcapsular cataract. Some other frequently observed retinitis pigmentosa symptoms are: optic nerves with waxy pallor, retinal arteriolar attenuations and bone spicules.
• The eye specialist will ask you to undergo certain laboratory tests for eliminating possibilities of occurrence of other conditions. There are several instances, where infectious conditions like toxoplasmosis and syphilis are mistakenly thought to be retinitis pigmentosa. Some other conditions mimicking this eye disorder include Refsum disease, abetalipoproteinemia, Kearns-Sayre syndrome and gyrate atrophy.
• A test called ERG or electroretinogram is extremely essential for diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. This imaging test is capable of detecting even slight photoreceptor impairment.

Two of the most common indicators of hypertensive cardiomyopathy are chest pains occurring during exercises and breathing difficulties during exercises. The early signs of the condition include weakness, fatigue and cough. The patient might also experience leg swelling, breathing problems while lying flat, weight gain, difficulty in breathing while performing any vigorous activity continuously and breathing difficulties while sleeping. There are also instances when the patient has had decreased appetite and increased urinary frequency (especially during the night) due to hypertensive cardiomyopathy.

Moderate intensity hypertensive cardiomyopathy is characterized by signs like swelling of the ankles, feet and legs, nighttime cough, moderate levels of fatigue, wheezing, fluid retention leading to excessive weight gain, breathing difficulties etc. Severe cases of hypertensive cardiomyopathy are marked by symptoms like abnormal heartbeats or palpitations, fainting, severe shortness of breath, increased pulse rate, chest congestion, severe breathing problems, severe swelling of legs, feet and ankles, persistent fatigue and aggravation of wheezing.

How is hypertensive cardiomyopathy treated? As the disease is caused by untreated high blood pressure, its primary treatment includes use of antihypertensive medications for reducing the blood pressure levels of the patient. Doctors might prescribe some additional medications for eliminating the fluids stored in the patient’s body; this in turn would promote proper heart pumping. The patient is likely to be asked to have a diet low in cholesterol, fat and salt. In rare cases the patient might need to undergo procedures like renal artery stenosis.

We have mentioned earlier that hypertensive cardiomyopathy, if not treated properly can result in congestive heart failures. An individual suffering from such conditions due to hypertensive cardiomyopathy are treated with medications like beta-blockers, diuretics, long acting formulas of nitroglycerin, aspirin, digoxin and ACE inhibitors.

Amblyopia: Amblyopia is caused due to misalignment of the eye causing crossed eyes or due to poor focus of one eye over the other stronger eye. We don’t really know the cause but it is thought to be a developmental problem in the brain that causes this misalignment. If this problem is diagnosed, early glasses may be prescribed or surgery and eye exercises can help tremendously. 

Glaucoma: It is an eye disease that normally affects people who are aging. The optic nerve which is the main nerve in the eye is affected and the eye gets damaged. Major symptoms of the disease are eye pain and redness in the eye. Aqueous humor is the fluid which is responsible for keeping the eyes in shape and giving the required amount of pressure to the eyes. The irregular flow of this liquid creates pressure in the eyes leading to glaucoma. Most patients just ignore this problem considering it a normal part of aging.

Cataract: Cataract is considered among the eye problems that are normally related to aging. It affects vision as there is clouding of the lens and it can occur in either one or both eyes. As you age, eye protein clumps and blocks the light reaching the retina causing blurred vision. Symptoms of cataract include blurred vision, poor night vision and watery eyes. Surgery is possible to remove the cloudy lens and it’s replaced with a clear plastic alternative.

Eye squints: This term used when the eye balls do not look to be in the same direction. It happens due to lack of co-ordination of the extra ocular muscles Surgery is recommended during early childhood to restore normal vision. Glasses are used for proper focusing, and sometimes prism lenses are recommended to provide comfort to people with squint eye problems.

It’s true that the best way of treating gingivitis is taking proper care of the oral cavity through regular flossing and brushing; however, these cleaning procedures alone cannot treat gingivitis. The patient must receive adequate nutrition for strengthening his immune system and fighting the infection. In this article, we have offered some dietary guidelines for patients with gingivitis.

Gingivitis patients should stop taking soft drinks and all kinds of sugar sweetened beverages. Limiting alcohol intake is also necessary; if possible, you should discontinue alcohol consumption entirely.

Include fiber rich, crunchy food items in your diet. Taking soft foods should be avoided as they stick in between teeth promoting bacterial growth.

Gingivitis patients must stay away from processed foods containing added sugar. Such foods might increase their blood sugar levels aggravating the inflammation even further.

Every meal of the day should include plenty of dark green and yellow vegetables. These vegetables are rich sources of vitamin C; it is an essential nutrient for maintaining healthy gum tissues and reducing inflammation, which compromises tissues and bones surrounding our teeth.

Gingivitis patients should have a minimum of 2 servings of any raw vegetable every day. You can choose to have fibrous vegetables like peppers, broccoli, radishes or carrots. Doing so will help in cleaning and stimulating the gums and teeth.