What causes depression: How it affects an individual’s life?

Depression is a state of mind where an individual not only affects mentally but physically as well as emotionally. Most of us relate depression with a felling of sad or upset. Well depression is not only related to sadness, it is more than this which affects an individual’s thought process, physical health, feelings and behavioral activities. Those who are struggling with this state of mind may show negativity in them and comparatively lower productivity at their workplace. In some major cases of depression people may lose their social connectivity completely. In some worst cases, this stage may lead to death of the person going to depression. At this stage depression invites many other disorders to occur in your body or life. Some of these disorders are-

Ø  Become alcoholic

Ø  Anxiety disorder state

Ø  Food disorder

Ø  Personality disorder state

Ø  Obsessive-compulsive disorder state

 What can be the causes of depression?

There are not specific reasons that causes depression rather there is lot many reasons that can cause depression to an individual. It may vary from person to person.  The most common causes of depression are-

Brain Structure

Various researches and neuroimaging studies have notified variations in the size and shape in the area of brain that is responsible for an individual’s mood, sleep and appetite. However these studies have not ended up with the conclusions that it is the reason for depression in an individual.

Genetic

Some of the studies have shown the relation of depression to genetics. Therefore, the individuals having first- degree relative have higher risk involved as compare to the one without a family background of this health issue. As per researches done on depression the fact that has come across is ‘there are many genes responsible for this disorder rather than any single gene’.

Psychological factors

Few people are depressive in nature as their way of thinking is quite depressive. They always feel that every time the negative affairs are their blunder, whereas a positive affair is always related to other people.

Neurotransmitters

Our brain consists of various chemicals that are responsible for the regulation of different moods including serotonin and dopamine. When there is any kind of imbalance in these neurotransmitters occurs then the result will be noticed in the form of depression.

Environmental Factors

An individual’s life is a mixture of various events and experiences. The bad or unhappy experiences affect the people most, especially the one with week mental & emotional state. Some people are relative weak that they do not handle these environmental factors and go depressed such as loss of job, any kind of trauma, Problems in relationships, less activity in social networks etc.

What can be the symptoms of depression?

The symptom of depression varies from person to person depending on their age, depth of symptoms and temperament of an individual. However, the common symptoms of depression are-

Symptoms related to mood

·         Sad feeling almost all the time

·         Reluctant interest in the activities throughout the day

·         Feeling of worthlessness without any reason

Symptoms related to behavior

·         Lack of social connectivity

·         Feeling speechless in gathering

·         Loss of efficiency in completing the tasks

·         Always feeing guilt for nothing done by them

Symptoms related to physical

·         Low level of energy

·         Up/down periods of sleep and appetite

·         Sense of irritability all the time

·         Feeling weak emotionally

Symptoms related to psychology

·         Lack of self-esteem

·         Less motivation

·         Feeling hopeless

·         Weaker concentration and memory power

·         Sense of distraction

·         Problems in decision making

How depression affects an individual’s life

Depression might sound a minor problem but it can affect an individual’s life severely. If not treated and managed early it can take drastic transformation. The most of the known effects of depression are-

Ø  Aches in different parts of body especially head and stomach

Ø  High anxiousness

Ø  Deprived coping power

Ø  Problems in family

Ø  Suicidal tendency

Ø  Dissatisfaction in sexual life

Ø  Addiction of pills or alcohol

Ø  Low productivity at workplace

What are the symptoms of Kidney Stones?

The problem of kidney stone may develop in one or both the kidneys. This is a quite common health issue, it happen around 3 in 20 men and 2 in 20 women. Kidney stone develops mostly in people who fall under the age group of 30 to 60 years. It causes extreme pain in the affected area. Sometimes people may not recognize kidney stone until it reaches at maximum level. However if you are aware about the symptoms of kidney stones, you can go to a doctor to start necessary treatment.

What are the symptoms of Kidney Stones?

Very small kidney stones usually does not cause much pain and pass out painlessly while urination. Even this type of small stones may not get detected. The symptoms of kidney stones mainly occurs if the following things happens to you-

· The kidney stone may get stuck to the kidney.

· Slowly it starts traveling towards the ureter (the narrow tube attached to each kidney and the

bladder). The stone causes extreme pain when it tries to pass through the ureter as it is too narrow.

· In some cases, the kidney stones may cause infections.

In the above mentioned cases, the symptoms of kidney stones are-

· You may have a persistent pain in your lower back, it may also occur in the groin. In case of men, they may feel the ache in their testicles & scrotum.

· You may have periods of extreme ache in your back or side of the abdomen or sometimes in the groin. This pain may lasts for few minutes or for hours. 

· You will feel restless and will not be able to lie down or feel stable.

· When the pain starts, you will feel nausea. You will feel like you are sick.

· You need to urinate quite frequently than the normal period of urination.

· You will feel pain while urinating. 

· In some cases you may get blood in urine. This may happen because of the stone scratching the kidney or ureter.

The kidney stone which blocks the ureter may cause kidney infection. The infection may be caused because the waste products do not pass through due to blockage. The symptoms of kidney infection are same as kidney stones. Some of the other symptoms of kidney infections are-

· You may get high fever (100.4F or more).

· You may feel cold and shivering.

· You will feel too weak & tired

· In some cases, you may get the problem of diarrhoea.

· You may feel bad-smell in your urine.

What causes Cancer?

The cancers do not caused by an individual reason. There are various factors that affect the cells to damage or make them divide rapidly and increase the chance of becoming abnormal. One cannot restrict the causes of cancer because there are various factors that can cause cancer to our body. Let’s get more detail on the causes of cancer.

Cell mutation can be a cause of cancer

Generally when the cells in our body divides, the new cells are the same copies of the old cells. Sometimes it may happen in worst scenarios that the new sells are showing little different characters from the old cell. This happens when the process of cell dividing goes wrong and new cells shows different characters from old cell.

This kind of change happens in DNA inside the cell and this is termed as mutation. While most of the cells with mutation will die or not cause any problem, a very few will go on to resulting cancer. 

What causes cell mutation?

The more frequently cell divides, the greater will be the chances of happening mutation. Most of the mutations are impromptu, with no actual reason for the change. However the factors that results mutations are-

· Breakdown of cell DNA

ü Radiation including UV radiation from the Sun

ü Chemicals present in tobacco smoke

ü Substances generate by the body termed as Oxygen Species

· Frequent division of cells

ü Getting older that enhances the No. of times the cell has undergone division

ü The female hormones oestrogen that stimulates few cells in the breast or womb to divide

· Abnormal cells not dying

ü The HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) can help the abnormal cells in few areas of our body to continue live & undergo division.

What includes risk factors in cancer?

The risk factors are the conditions that enhance the chances of getting cancer. Some kind of risk factors cannot be changed (such as the person’s age or family background) and some can be changed (such as the lifestyle risk factors of a person). The risk factors for cancer includes-

· There are many cancers that are more common in old age people.

· Sometimes if a family has faulty genes, it can be passed from generation to generation. It increases the chances of causing cancer.

· Some cancers can be caused from the chemicals in tobacco smoke such as lung cancer.

· Addiction to alcohol can also cause severe cancers.

· Some viruses & other organisms- HPV results most cases of cervical cancer.

· The obesity can also be a reason to certain cancers.

· Unhealthy diet & lack of physical activities enhances the risk factors of some cancers.

What are the Symptoms of Cancer?

Cancer causes various changes in the body, as it grows and finally shows its symptoms. Cancer can affect the body in various ways, for example-

·         It can cause a lump in the affected area

·         It can press the tissues or organs or even can stop them from proper functioning

·         It can also produce substances that can change the body functioning.

The person having cancer may notice the above mentioned changes in his/her body. The symptoms of cancer are the problems which a person can face such as tiredness, notice a lump, fatigue, having pain etc.

 Notifying the symptoms of cancer

There are some cancers that cause symptoms at early stage, whereas others do not cause symptoms until it has grown to maximum. The cancers that detected at early stage are easy to treat. The cancer symptoms depend on the type of it. For example-

·         Symptom of breast cancer can be a lump in breast

·         Symptom of bowel cancer can be noticed from diarrhea or constipation

·         Cough can be a symptom of lung cancer

If you are also facing these problem (cough, diarrhea, constipation or lump etc.), it does not mean that these are the symptoms caused by cancer. Rather you should go to a doctor and do tests to confirm whether the symptom is caused by a cancer or it is just because of normal illness.

What is Cancer?

Our body has billions of cells. When the old cells die, young cells divide to form new cells. This process continues in our body million times in a day. Now you might think that what makes the cancer situation? Cancer happens when some cells in our body shows abnormality, multiply out of control and take over from normal cells in the area.

These abnormal cells don not behave as the normal cells do. These cells grow & divide much faster as compare to normal cells and also live for longer time. Slowly, when the time passes our body creates more & more abnormal cells that begin to outnumber normal cells in the area. These cells increase out of control & form a Cancer.

The Cancer treatments are designed in such a way that it stops or slow down the process of making more & more abnormal cells. These treatments work by removing the abnormal cell, killing these cells from growing & dividing much faster.

Types of Cancer

·         Blood Cancer

·         Breast Cancer

·         Brain cancer

·         Skin cancer

·         Lung Cancer

Different groups of Cancer

·         Solid Tumours

This type of cancer includes quite common cancers such as Breast cancer, Bowel Cancer & Lung Cancer. A tumour is a lump or swelling. It does not mean that all tumours are cancers. The Benign tumours are not cancers, whereas Malignant tumours are cancers.

·         Blood Cancers

This type of cancer affects blood, bone marrow or lymphatic system. This type of cancer does not form solid tumours in the area where it starts. Most of these cancers start in bone marrow where blood cells are generated. Their cells increase within blood. These cells stop the normal blood cells from functioning properly.

Stages of Cancer

Staging of cancer is nothing but to measure the cancer that how far it has spread when it has diagnosed first. Measuring the stage of cancer helps the doctors to do the treatment accordingly. There are different systems of measuring stages of different types of cancers but generally they use these two types-

·         Numbered Cancer Stage System

This system uses stage numbers to identify how far the cancer has spread. These numbered stages are-

ü  Stages 0 (In Situ)

ü  Stage 1 (Localised Cancer)

ü  Stage 2 & 3 (Regional Spread)

ü  Stage 4 (Distant Spread)

·         TNM System

TNM system means Tumour Lymph Nodes Metastases. This helps in measuring the stage of cancer by knowing how far it has spread in the body.

Disposable diapers vs. cloth diapers

There was a time when mothers were using cloth diapers. After some time the disposable diapers came into existence and mothers switch to disposable diapers. These diapers were quite convenient to use. When the time passes some mothers feel that there are few drawbacks of disposable diapers as well. Both the diapers (disposable and cloth) have advantages and disadvantages.

The cloth diapers provide softness to your baby’s skin. It works fabulous until you change when it gets dirty. The baby may get cold if he/she stays for long time in wet cloth diaper because there is no absorbent gel in it. It cannot protect baby’s skin from getting in contact with liquid but yes, it definitely gives soft feeling and comfort to baby’s skin until it gets wet. 

On the other hand, the disposable diapers have the capacity to deal with much amount of liquid because of the absorbent gel present in it. The baby can easily spend some hours in disposable diapers without any kind of discomfort. The disposable diapers protect your baby’s skin from liquid and keep the liquid in depth into the gel layers. It can keep the baby’s skin drier for long time. Now a day, there are breathable diapers available in the market which allows the air flow into baby’s skin. If you are using a particular brand of disposable diapers and your baby gets rashes then you should try some other brand.

Which one is better cloth diaper or disposable diaper?

The disposable diapers are safer in terms of protecting baby’s skin from liquid but some babies may get irritated because of absorbent chemicals used in it. Your baby will feel soft in cloth diapers but it enhances the risk of getting rashes if the baby spends too much time in wet diapers.

Many people think that using disposable diapers are very expensive, hence they prefer to use cloth diapers. This is not true because the costs of using both the diapers are equal. The laundering services costs you almost same as you spend on the purchase of disposable diapers. 

Today the mother prefers to use disposable diapers due to its easy to use quality and it is more convenient for them as well. Cloth diapers are very complicated due to its folds, horrible pins etc. Using disposable diapers are easy to use and easy to remove method. 

In the manufacturing of disposable diapers various types of materials get used such as trees, plastic etc. If we consider the process of washing procedure of cloth diapers (as clean water and energy to be used) then disposable diapers are best. The baby’s skin is very soft and the disposable diapers minimize the risk to infection. During travelling also the disposable diapers are far better than cloth diapers. If you use cloth diapers during travelling then there is a huge problem of laundry service every time.

However every mother has her own experience of using diapers. Some prefer to use cloth diapers due to its softness and some prefer to use disposable diapers due to its liquid absorbent quality.

When my baby starts crawling?

Every parent eagerly waits for their baby to start crawling. Crawling is a very good exercise for your baby’s physical development. It is heart touchy experience for all the parents to see their little one crawling. However at the beginning you might have to push your baby but after some time he can manage it by himself. Crawling is a big achievement for babies as they have taken their first move towards independent mobility.

When your baby crawl, his self-esteem will increased as he is boosted up with positivity to accomplish his journey from point A to point B. Your baby will come across various exciting discoveries during his crawling period. Slowly he starts practicing much tougher movements and learns standing with support, walking and at last running. It is good to have carpet at home because it gives little rest to your baby soft knees due to hard floor. 

When will a baby start crawling?

Generally babies start crawling between 6 to 10 months. However some babies skip the crawling stage completely and directly moved into stage of standing with support, walking and running. You

can encourage your baby for crawling by supervising him to tummy time. Tummy time helps your baby to lift his head and move to look around. This exercise will help your baby to gain strength in his arms, shoulders, neck and core. When a baby kicks his feet through his tummy, it helps in strengthening his hips and legs. You can make your baby ready for crawl by doing various interesting exercises. For example- You can keep your baby’s favourite toy just out of his reach or you can lie down just in front of him and grab his attention and play with him. 

What happens to baby’s development when crawl?

Crawling is a job in which your baby needs physical strength to perform it. Your baby has to use both his mind and body to crawl. Hence it is very important that your baby’s arms, shoulders, neck, back and core are quite strong to support his body weight so that he can maintain balance while crawling. The vision of your baby also plays vital role in crawling. The babies use their binocular vision while crawling which means they make use of their both eyes together to focus on anything while crawling. The mental muscles of your baby also do workout while crawling. The babies also develop navigation and memorizing abilities during crawling period.

Various crawling patterns 

Ø Classic cross crawl 

In this crawling style your baby stand at first on his palm of one hand and knee of opposite leg then alternate to move forward. The alternate usage of arms is sitting up neural pathway to work effectively for moving forward.

Ø Crab crawl 

When a baby crawls in backward or sideways movement, it is known as crab style crawling movement. Crab crawling phase is where in babies crawl until they learn forward movement.

Ø Bear crawl 

This is same as classic crawl style, there is only one difference. The baby keeps his limbs and legs straight which looks like bear. Bear crawling style needs great strength in arms and legs, hence the chances are great that your baby will stand up on his legs quite early.

Ø Bottom scoot

In bottom scoot crawling style a baby sit down on his rear and make use of his limbs to move forward. Many babies crawl in bottom scoot style.

Ø Lopsided crawl movement

If your baby is little stronger on one side as compared to other side (suppose he is strong on right side) then he may crawl little lopsided towards right side while crawling. 

Ø Commando or belly crawl movement 

In this crawling style the baby tries to move forwards but he take support by keeping his belly on surface. In this way he is improving his core strength to lift his belly and slowly will be able to crawl in classic cross way.

Ø One handed crawl movement

There are some babies who do not get interested in moving but still they want to do few things by their own. These kinds of babies develop their own crawling style as per their adjustment known as one-handed crawl. They will start crawling with one arm open and other arm use to grip whatever object they can’t bring by them to leave behind. 

Ø Rolling crawl

When a baby reaches at his desires destination through rolling instead of using his limbs and legs, it is known as rolling crawl movement. The baby may move quite fast through rolling crawl.