CHRONIC PAIN ! what is it ?

Chronic pain can begin with an injury or a problem such as a bulging disk in the spine. It can be associated with complex syndromes such as fibromyalgia. Or you may experience it as headaches, back pain, joint pain, nerve pain, or a myriad of other localized symptoms.

What Is Chronic Pain?

About 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, defined as pain that lasts longer than six months. Chronic pain can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous, merely inconvenient or totally incapacitating.

With chronic pain, signals of pain remain active in the nervous system for months or even years. This can take both a physical and emotional toll on a person.

The most common sources of pain stem from headaches, joint pain, pain from injury, and backaches. Other kinds of chronic pain include tendinitis, sinus pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain affecting specific parts of the body, such as the shoulders, pelvis, and neck. Generalized muscle or nerve pain can also develop into a chronic condition.

Chronic pain may originate with an initial trauma/injury or infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain. Some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage.

The emotional toll of chronic pain also can make pain worse. Anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and fatigue interact in complex ways with chronic pain and may decrease the body's production of natural painkillers; moreover, such negative feelings may increase the level of substances that amplify sensations of pain, causing a vicious cycle of pain for the person. Even the body's most basic defenses may be compromised: There is considerable evidence that unrelenting pain can suppress the immune system.

Because of the mind-body links associated with chronic pain, effective treatment requires addressing psychological as well as physical aspects of the condition.

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Have you talked to your family about organ donation ?

IF YOU or one of your children needed a heart transplant, your gratitude to the family that donated one would be boundless. In their hour of greatest despair that family would have consented to an organ donation, a selfless, life-saving choice.

But if the positions were reversed, could you make the same decision? Sadly, the number of donor hearts does not match demand. That means many adults and children die waiting. Every death is the loss of a father or a son, a mother or a daughter.

Part of the problem is that not enough families give their consent. In the UK only 60 per cent agree compared with 80 per cent in many other European countries. That means 4 out of 10 families who are approached in the UK refuse to donate.

Perhaps that’s not surprising. Many people are uncomfortable about confronting their mortality and that of their immediate family. Surveys for the National Health Service show that more than 30 per cent of people have never discussed organ donation, and few are aware how those closest to them feel about it.

The NHS wants to change this. Its organ donation team is encouraging families to talk about organ donation, to think about how they would feel about donation if they needed a transplant and to encourage them to sign the organ donation register at organdonation.nhs.uk.

And of course, the problem is not confined to hearts. People waiting for lungs, livers, kidneys, corneas and so on, vastly outnumber the supply of organs for transplant. At the end of March 2016, there were almost 6500 patients waiting for some kind of transplant.

Even a small increase in the percentage of people agreeing to donate would make a huge difference to the waiting time. Increasing the UK consent rate from 60 per cent to 80 per cent would lead to about 1000 more transplants each year. That’s a great many lives. One of them could be yours.

• For more information on organ donations and transplants visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk

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Obesity Around the World Continues to Rise

A new medical report has found out that the number of obese people around the world has increased by 600% over the past 40 years. The report says that about 12% of the world's population suffers from obesity. Within the next decade 20% of the world's population will be overweight.

The report is based on the body mass index (BMI) , the relationship between height and weight. A normal, healthy person has a BMI of between 20 and 25.  People with a BMI of over 30 are considered to be obese.

It is no surprise that most of the world's obese people live in the wealthy countries of the world. Six countries - the US, Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand account for a fifth of the world's obese people. China and the United States have the highest number of obese in the world. In contrast, the poorest countries have the lowest number of overweight people. In southern Asia and southeastern Asia, for example, 25% of the population are underweight.

Having too many overweight people puts an enormous financial burden on our health system, through rising costs for medication, doctors and hospitals.

Medical experts point out that obesity cannot be treated  with medication and exercise alone. It is also important to change your diet and consume less fatty food and sugary drinks. We also need to  eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and reduce the intake of processed food.

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