It is a known fact that influenza or for short the common respiratory flu typically peaks in January and February. The illness appears in a range of mild to severe degree. Occasionally hospitalisation will be needed to treat very severe cases. Though surprising, the influenza-related death rate is rather high across the world.

What is the flu?

Flu is actually the short form for seasonal influenza, which is a viral infection that attacks the respiratory system. The flu symptoms often come on suddenly and at first look like the common cold. A runny nose, congestion, sneezing and sore throat are typical.

What are the symptoms?

The typical symptoms will include fever, body ache and muscle stiffness, chills and sweats, headaches, cough, fatigue and weakness.

Influenza and Stomach Flu

The seasonal flu is not in any way similar or related to the stomach flu which is a collective term for an intestinal infection. The stomach flu will result in diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea and vomiting.

Causes for flu

When a person with flu coughs or sneezes, the flu virus travels through the air in droplets when a healthy person inhales the droplets, the virus infects the person too. Even though less likely, the infection may spread by touching objects previously contaminated by a sick person and then inoculate yourself by touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

Who is at risk?

If a person is young and robust with a healthy immune system, the flu will be self-limiting, which means it can resolve with some supportive care. But high-risk people including young children, adults over 65 years, pregnant women, people with chronic illness and people with weak immune systems, can develop serious complications.

Mostly notably, this group of high-risk people can develop pneumonia due to the flu, which can lead to respiratory failure and finally, even death.

How to prevent and protect against the flu?

You can take specific steps annually to protect yourself against the flu attack.

Get vaccination: The flu vaccine is available as an injection or a nasal spray. While the vaccine may not be 100% effective, it is the best defense against flu infection.

Wash your hands: You must practice good hand hygiene which prevents catching the flu and other infections. You can scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer too.

Cover your coughs and sneezes: Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue paper when you sneeze or cough. This prevents the virus from spreading. You can also put your arm up and cough or sneeze into the sleeves and do not sneeze or cough into your hand directly.

Keep away from crowded places: The flu virus spreads easily wherever there is a crowd. These places could be anywhere you go daily like the schools, office buildings and auditorium and even public transportation. You need not be reclusive but avoiding such crowded areas during the peak flu season will lower your chances of catching influenza.

Treatment for flu

Usually, complete rest and drinking plenty of fluids will take care of your flu. Some doctors may prescribe antiviral medications depending on the severity of your illness. If the symptoms are severe and you fall in the high-risk category, then seeing your doctor as early as possible and if need be getting admitted in a hospital will be appropriate to tackle the condition.

It is no more a secret that when and what you eat has a remarkable effect on the outcome of your workouts or exercise. Here are a few well-researched tips on how to maximise your workout benefits.

Have a healthy breakfast

If you are a person who likes to exercise in the morning, it is better to finish your breakfast at least an hour before your workout. Doing so will give you energy and raise your blood sugar. When you do your workout, before taking your breakfast there is all possibility of feeling sluggish and lightheaded when you exercise. A good breakfast will consist of whole-grain cereals, whole-wheat bread, fruits like bananas, some yogurt and a cup of tea/coffee. Emphasis should be on good carbohydrates for maximizing energy.

Control food quantity

Be careful of what you eat and how much of it before you exercise. If it is a substantial meal, then eat it at least three to four hours before exercising. Small meals can be eaten two to three hours before workouts. If you feel hungry, you can have small snacks an hour before your scheduled exercise. At all these meals, be careful about the quantity since too much can make you feel sluggish and eating too less will not give you sufficient energy to stay active during the workout.

Have a good snack

Many people prefer to eat small snacks right before and during a workout. It is always good to do what feels comfortable for you within healthy norms. Snacks just before exercising will not give you an energy boost but they help maintain the blood sugar levels and prevent distracting you due to hunger pangs. You can choose healthy snacks like energy bars, yogurt, peanuts, almonds or light sandwiches with butter.

Eating after exercise

When you have a meal after your exercise, it helps your muscles recover. A meal that contains both protein and carbohydrates within two hours of exercise is ideal. Healthy post-exercise meals include yogurt and fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, pasta with meatballs and chicken with brown rice.

Drink enough fluids

Keeping yourself hydrated before, during and after a workout is essential. It is recommended to drink at least two to three cups of water beforeee a workout and follow it with two to three cups after the workout.

Usually, the duration and the intensity of your workout determine what you should eat and drink and it differs from person to person.It always depends on how you feel during your workout as well as how well you can perform an exercise. The best guide is your body which can help you determine the kind of diet you should follow.

Usually a cold, throat infection or allergic  attack can cause fluids to become trapped in the middle ear. This mostly affects children and the symptoms may include severe pain in the ear or earache and thick yellow fluid coming out of the ears. This sort of condition is called as an ear infection.

What causes ear infection?

The middle ear is a small space that is positioned just behind the ear drum and it is supposed to be well ventilated by the air that passes through the Eustachian tube. When there is not enough fresh air ventilating the middle ear due to fluid retention there, then the Eustachian tube gets clogged, becomes damp, stagnant and warm, which is a good breeding ground for germs. This leads to ear infection.

Symptoms of ear infection

The symptoms may slightly differ in adults and children. The symptoms in adults include earache, drainage from the ear, and feeling of fullness in the ear, muffled hearing, and nausea.

In children the symptoms will be a tugging feeling in the ear, poor sleep, fever, ear drainage, irritability and restlessness, lack of appetite and crying when lying down.

How to prevent ear infection?

Ear infections tend to occur mostly in cold and damp weather like winter and rainy season. It is more common in children due to various possibilities of them catching it easily.

Here are a few tips to prevent ear infection in babies and children.

• Babies who nurse should be breastfed or bottle-fed in an upright position, since it prevents fluids from entering their ear
• Try to prevent exposing a baby to cigarette smoke and other air pollution
• Give your child  immunization shots at the right time indicated
• Babies above 12 months should be weaned away from baby pacifiers, since pacifiers can cause ear infections in children
• Clean the child’s hand and our own hand often with soap and water. This reduces the spread of germs and our child from catching the flu or cold.
• Try as far as possible to keep dirty objects away from a baby’s reach to prevent it from putting in the mouth and causing ear infection.

The Treatment

Ear infections in adults and children are treated with antibiotics. If the doctor suspects that the ear infection is caused due to a virus then an antibiotic may be ineffective and alternate treatment is given but if it is from bacteria then an antibiotic is prescribed as the main medication.

Psoriasis is usually graded based on the area of skin it covers. Doctors also classify it based on how red, scaly and thick the patches are. Other criteria for grading is the extent of damage it does to the quality of your life. Yet some other scales grade psoriasis into two, either mild or moderate to severe.Based on severity, psoriasis can be mild, moderate or severe.  Based on morphology,  the most common type are plaque type, erythrodermic, rupoid, psoriasis, guttate psoriasis, pustular psoriasis.

Based on sites:

Mild Psoriasis

This is the most common type of psoriasis clinically encountered. The mild cases affect less than 3% of the body surface. There are also few lesions scattered on the arms and legs. The scalp is another area that shows fine, silvery scales. This type of psoriasis is mainly treated with topical drugs like creams or ointments.

Moderate Psoriasis

Psoriasis attains the moderate degree when patches cover 3% to 10% of the body area. Once moderate psoriasis spreads, creams and lotions have no effect instead you may need phototherapy or light therapy in combination with prescription drugs. This type of psoriasis can affect the quality of your life to a great extent.

Severe Psoriasis

If the psoriasis infliction covers 10% or more of your skin then you are said to suffer from the more severe type of psoriasis. Here size of the patches does not matter since smaller patches in places like the palms and soles of your feet can be more severe. The treatment in such cases will include biological drugs and other systemic therapy that work on the whole body rather than only the skin. Based on sites affected psoriasis can be clasiified as scarp psoriasis, sebo psoriasis, nail psoriasis, flexual psoriasis, palmoplantar psoriasis.

Erythrodermic Psoriasis

This type of psoriasis occurs in less than 3% of people and is characterised by scales and blisters called pustules that cover almost 90% of the body surface. The skin tends to peel off in large, red sheets. The lesions due to skin peeling off is much painful and very itchy. This type can be deadly and need immediate medical care.

Another type, called pustular psoriasis starts with large areas of the skin turning red and the surface getting filled with pus in quick time.

Psoriasis impacts life

Psoriasis is not only physical disease, but it has a significant impact on your self-esteem and the way you do day-to-day chores. Hence the importance of quality of life in a doctor’s diagnosis. The experts use Dermatology Life Quality Index along with PASI (Psoriasis Area ).