Thalassemia- Tied For Life (Part 2)

Hello friends, hope you all are fine and joyful. At start, thank you very much to all of you for appreciating and commenting in my post and also for sharing your thoughts with me. After seeing you excitement and respond, today I am so much happy right now writing the second and the last part of my last topic’s post. As I told you in my last post, today I am going to finish this topic with more informative things. So, without extending and taking more time with the beginning part, here is the final part of the last topic.

 

Symptoms of thalassemia:

Symptoms of thalassemia depend on the number of genes affected and can range from no symptoms at all to severe anemia.

The primary symptoms of thalassemia are a result of anemia, a decreased number of healthy red blood cells. The following are the most common symptoms of anemia. However, each people may experience symptoms differently. The symptoms may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• pale skin, lips, hands or under the eyelids
• increased heart rate (tachycardia)
• breathlessness, or difficulty catching a breath (dyspnea)
• lack of energy, or tiring easily (fatigue)
• dizziness or vertigo, especially upon standing
• headache
• irritability
• irregular menstruation cycles
• absent or delayed menstruation (amenorrhea)
• jaundice, or yellowing of skin, eyes, and mouth
• enlarged spleen or liver (splenomegaly, hepatomegaly)
• slow or delayed growth and development

Patients who carry a single thalassemia gene are said to have “thalassemia trait.” These patients are generally healthy and do not require any treatment.

Thalassemia intermediate causes less severe symptoms than thalassemia major. This can make it difficult to diagnose because it may resemble other forms of anemia.

Thalassemia major causes the most severe anemia and requires ongoing treatment and regular blood transfusions.

Complications:

• Iron overload: People with thalassemia can get an overload of iron in their bodies, either from the disease itself or from frequent blood transfusions. Too much iron can result in damage to the heart, liver and endocrine system, which includes glands that produce hormones that regulate processes throughout the body. The damage is characterized by excessive deposits of iron. Without adequate iron chelation therapy, almost all patients with beta-thalassemia will accumulate potentially fatal iron levels.
• Infection: People with thalassemia have an increased risk of infection. This is especially true if the spleen has been removed.
• Bone deformities: Thalassemia can make the bone marrow expand, which causes bones to widen. This can result in abnormal bone structure, especially in the face and skull. Bone marrow expansion also makes bones thin and brittle, increasing the risk of broken bones.  
• Enlarge spleen: The spleen aids in fighting infection and filters unwanted material, such as old or damaged blood cells. Thalassemia is often accompanied by the destruction of a large number of red blood cells and the task of removing these cells causes the spleen to enlarge. Splenomegaly can make anemia worse, and it can reduce the life of transfused red blood cells. Severe enlargement of the spleen may necessitate its removal.
• Slowed growth rates: Anemia can cause a child's growth to slow. Puberty also may be delayed in children with thalassemia.
• Heart problems: such as congestive heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), may be associated with severe thalassemia.

How serious is it?

Thalassemia major requires ongoing treatment and blood transfusions throughout their lives. In addition, they need ongoing chelation therapy to remove excess iron in the blood that builds up from these transfusions. Milder forms of thalassemia, including thalassemia intermediate and thalassemia minor, require less aggressive treatment or no treatment at all.

                      

Treatment:

Regular blood transfusions allow patients with thalassemia to grow normally and be active. Unfortunately, transfusions result in deadly accumulation of iron in the heart and liver. If the excess iron is not removed then the patients may suffer from a premature death due to iron overload.

Nowadays, drugs designed to remove excess iron (iron chelators) have significantly changed the prognosis of thalassemia. Patients can grow and develop normally, with relatively normal heart and liver functions. Patients are living longer and having families of their own. Medical advances continue and promise to improve the life expectancy and quality of life further for those living with thalassemia.

Current treatments allow thalassemia patients to live relatively normal life, however, a cure remains to be found. And as I always believe and always will that there is still presents of A HOPE which keeps us alive and make us to believe that we can do anything. Like this-

Some Chinese doctors have discovered a new mutant gene for alpha-thalassemia, first of its kind, an advance that enriches the gene database to assist researches into cures for the genetic disease.

  The mutant gene was identified by the end of 2012 before it was added to the Gene Bank database in the US-based National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and made public on October 1, 2013.

There is no effective cure for alpha-thalassemia, and the discovery of the new mutation will help prevention and research into the disease while preparing theoretical basis for future gene therapy.

How can we prevent Thalassemia?

Please share the information with others. Show it to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers or anyone who has origins from areas where thalassemia is common. Be sure to ask your doctor to test you for thalassemia minor. Increased awareness is the key, please do your part by spreading the words.

So friend, hope you like the final part of my post. As the way you share your thoughts and comments last time, hope you shall do that all the time. Keep sharing your thoughts, topics you want to understand perfectly, questions or anything about pharmacy and medical science. Till then stay healthy, be passionate, of course do not forget to keep blogging and share our blog to your friends.

            
  

Thalassemia – Tied For Life(Part 1)

Hello dear friends, first of all a very BIG THANKS and WARM WELCOME to you all. After a very long time i am writing to you all and i could not express you that how much happy and joyful i am right now. OK than, before posting, tell me friends how are you all? Hope that more than fine, more than well and very much joyful & excited more than me, which i always wish for you.

Well, today what i am writing to you, is about one of my friend's condition, who is suffering from this disease. And after seeing my friend's condition and knowing about this disease. I literally thought that we all know about this disease more or less but we do not try to find a cure or prevent or to acknowledge other’s about this disease which is becoming very much severe. I think that, I will do what I always do for people but there are some more friends of mine in my blog who are with a great heart about helping people and who could also help me about informing other’s about this disease as I am. Today my topic is thalassemia and it’s basic information. 

What is thalassemia?

Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder passed down through families (inherited). It is also known as Mediterranean anemia, or Cooley’s anemia. The word ‘Thalassemia’ came from Greek word ‘Thalassa’, which means ‘sea’. This disease originated in the Mediterranean area’s most.

In thalassemia, the disorder is caused by affecting the body's ability to produce hemoglobin and red blood cells. Our red blood cells carry haemoglobin. Haemoglobin, a protein is needed to carry oxygen to all parts of the body, and carbon dioxide to the lungs to be exhaled. People with thalassemia make less haemoglobin and fewer circulating red blood cells than normal, which results in mild or severe anemia and fatigue. Thalassemias are often inherited in the form of autosomal recessive blood disorders. 
                                   

Who’s at risk?          

The defective genes that cause thalassemia are relatively common, especially in people of South Asian, African and Mediterranean descent. Those who have these defective genes but do not experience symptoms are called carriers (this condition is also called thalassemia minor or “Mediterranean anemia”). If both parents carry a thalassemia gene, their patients are at a higher risk of having some form of thalassemia.

Causes and types of Thalassemia:

Everyone has four alpha genes and two beta genes that control Haemoglobin production. Alpha thalassemia occurs when one or more of these alpha genes are missing or damaged. Beta thalassemia occurs when one or both beta genes aren’t working properly.

There are three major types of thalassemia that are classified based on the severity of symptoms: minor, intermediate and major.

• Patients with thalassemia minor or trait (and those that are “silent carriers”) do not experience symptoms or require treatment.
• Patients with thalassemia intermediate need some follow-up care and may require blood transfusions under certain circumstances.
• Patients with thalassemia major need ongoing medical care, including blood transfusions to alleviate severe anemia and chelation therapy to remove excess iron from the blood.

Thalassemia minor and carriers

Silent carrier:

• one alpha gene is missing or damaged
• no symptoms
• no treatment needed

Thalassemia minor (or thalassemia trait): 

                                                 

 

• two alpha genes or one beta gene missing or damaged
• no symptoms or mild anemia under some circumstances
• no treatment needed
• can have child but 50% chance to be affected of that child

Thalassemia intermediate

Beta thalassemia intermediate:

• one or both beta genes are not working properly
• mild to severe anemia
• can be diagnosed early in childhood or later in life
• may need blood transfusions during pregnancy or when very sick

Thalassemia major

Alpha thalassemia major:

• four alpha genes are missing
• most serious and most rare form of thalassemia
• untreated, leads to miscarriage or death of the baby shortly after birth
• may be treated with blood transfusions in the womb if discovered early enough in pregnancy
• babies who survive require life-long blood transfusions or stem cell transplant and extensive medical care

                                                 

Beta thalassemia major (also called Cooley’s anemia, after the discoverer):

• both beta genes are not working properly
• severe anemia
• monthly blood transfusions needed
• chelation therapy is also needed to remove excess iron that builds up in the body due to frequent blood transfusions
• symptoms begin during the first year of life

Other types of thalassemia

• Haemoglobin E beta-thalassemia: This form of thalassemia is more common in patients of South-East Asian descent. It results from two separate genetic defects:
• a defective type of Haemoglobin known as Haemoglobin E
• a defective gene that causes beta thalassemia

• Haemoglobin H disease alpha-thalassemia: This form of thalassemia is most common in Southern China and South-East Asia. In Haemoglobin H disease:
• three alpha genes are missing
• moderate to severe anemia may occur
• frequent blood transfusions may be needed
• genetic counseling and screening may be needed in adulthood, as the risk of having patients with alpha thalassemia major is increased.

• Haemoglobin C thalassemia

o    common in Mediterranean and African populations

o     Haemoglobin C/β^o thalassemia causes a moderately severe hemolytic anemia with splenomegaly

o    Haemoglobin C/β⁺ thalassemia produces a milder disease.

•    Haemoglobin D thalassemia

o    common in north west parts of India and Pakistan (Punjab region).

    

So friends, it is time to say good bye for today. While saying goodbye, I hope you like my post’s one part and it’s second part will be more informative. Till then all of you stay healthy, be passionate and keep blogging.

 

Coffee Mate Creamer Provides Health Dangers

Hello dear friends! A very big hello to all of you.It has been so long since I am posting anything and sharing with you. I really missed posting and sharing with you, missed reading your replies and comments. But today before I post anything, let me first know how you all are doing? Hope all is well. Anyways, whatever the

news from you guys, I just want to wish you all a great and wonderful life, and we are very glad and grateful that you all like our blog spot so much, and would like to give you many, many thanks for appreciating our posts.

Well, me? I am just awesome, awesome exploring the beauty of life and a little busy with the college works.

I am writing today on the side/adverse effects of long term use of the coffee mate creamers, sitting next to my room window, watching the wonderful rain and of course not to forget about my mug of hot coffee, whisked with the coffee mate creamer, hopefully for the last time! And I am sure, while reading my today's post you guys are taking a sip of the same too.

So, this coffee mate creamer, it is a favorite of our all, right? Now, to some of us without this creamer, the taste of the, specially black coffee seems incomplete or bitter. However to some, such as to my younger sister, who is a lactose intolerant. People with lactose intolerance cannot digest the carbohydrate, lactose, in milk due to the lack of the enzyme lactase in their system. So, these people use the coffee mate creamer for a long period of time, even in their teas in addition to coffee instead of milk to add the creamy taste. Also the coffee lovers use it for a long period of their lives.

So, one day, it just clicked to my head that if there are any side/adverse effects of long term use of coffee mate creamer use when I was little concerned about my sister.And guess what fiends, I was not that surprised as I was suspecting the fact to be so that these non - dairy creamers are really bad for the health specially for the heart.But I was surprised to know that these creamers actually do not have any nutritional ingredients in them.

Originally coffee mate creamers were composed primarily of sugar and cream in the 1950s first. But as time passed, the manufacturers replaced the cream and natural sugars with vegetable oils, chemical sweeteners and additional additives, and now these coffee mates even contain corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, enzymes, fl avoids, stabilizers and others that once came from food sources but no longer seems to serve any nutritonal values. That is why the FDA does not list coffee mate as a dairy product, but approved it to be actually safe for general use.

Let us see how the non - nutritional components of today's coffee mate creamer provides the health dangers in the long term use to its regular users :

Processed Sugar :  Simple sugars themselves are observed to aggravate asthma, move mood swings, provoke personality changes, mental illness, nourish nervous disorders, increase risk of diabetes, promote heart disease, grow gallstones, promote hypertension and add arthritis. I n turn these creamers contain refined sugars, which lack minerals and vitamins. As a result they deplete the body's micro nutrients by using them to metabolize themselves into the system. This depletion leads to increased metabolism of  cholesterol and fatty acids  resulting in high blood serum triglycerides, cholesterol,etc. Higher fatty acid storage takes place around body organs and in sub - cutaneous tissues, which leads to promoted obesity.

Vegetable Oil ( Partially Hydrogenated Coconut Or Palm Kernel, Hydrogenated Soybean - Trans - Fatty Acids )  : It causes its bad effects by resulting in high blood cholesterol, thus, causing hardening of arteries which ultimately leads to heart attack. After ingesting these trans - fatty acids, they are incorporated into cells and the cells are hydrogenated. Surprisingly, the body cannot distinguish between cis -  and trans - fatty acids. Hydrogenation of cells leads to increased rates of heart attack, sexual dysfunction, weakened immune system, cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes and obesity.

Corn Syrup Solids : Corn syrup causes diabetes and corn syrup solids are a corn syrup concentrated to contain less than 10% water and the glucose ( dextrose ) content must be at-least 88% of the concentrated syrup's weight. These highly processed substances are very much harmful to human health.

Sodium Casein ate : ( a milk derivative ), though is good for health, is contained in only less than 2%.

Di potassium Phosphate : (Used to moderate coffee acidity ). It's side effects include :

1. Pneumonia
2. Acute renal failure
3. Nausea and vomiting                                          
4. Diarrhea
5. Asthenia ( weakness )
6.Decreased hemoglobin

Mono And Diglycerides :  ( Used to prevent oil separation ). Used for whitening effect and artificial creamy flavor. I t is also found in some pesticides. These are used to prolong product shelf - life, to maximize profits.

Sodium Aluminosilicate Or Aluminium Calcium Silicate :  Side effects include :

1. Constipation
2. Liver disease
3. Renal failure

So, friends. What do you think now? I think, it is not too late to know that one of our favorite routine intakes actually could cause very ill effects to our health in the long term. So, those of my friends who are visiting this post today or some other time, must now think of an alternative to these non - nutritional, health hazardous coffee mate creamers to cream your coffee and teas, and I must aware my sister of these ill effects and also find her some alternatives. However, the following are some of the safer alternatives that you can use in place of your present coffee mate :

1. Those who are not lactose intolerants can use milk and fresh cream, which will be nutritious to your health at the same time while giving your tea and coffee a creamy taste. 

2. Cinnamon and vanilla also give good flavors to your black?white coffee.

3.Almond extracts can also give you a creamy and rich flavor to your coffee.

4. Liquid coconut creams would be very delicious to lactose intolerance people. 

I would prefer the liquid coconut cream for my sister and I am going to suggest this to my sister.

Do not be any more late to replace your non - nutritional coffee mate creamer with any of the above suggested alternatives or with any of your own choice.

So friends, it is time for me to say goodbye today. While going I hope today's post was very much informative to you all and would like to thank me for posting this info today.

Well, you are always welcome to enjoy our posts.

Goodbye to all till my next post, and till then all of you stay healthy, be passionate and keep blogging, and of course, enjoy your coffee!