Posts Tagged ‘Appearance’

What is the importance of maintaining a good posture?

Most of us lack good posture. A good posture has a lot of importance as it improves your appearance, makes you look taller, enhances your self confidence and self assurance, prevents aches and pains. Bad posture is one of the main cause for back pain. The three spinal curves i.e. neck, upper back and lower back needs to be kept in balanced alignment.

Sitting affects the back more than standing. Standing demands five times more on the spine and muscles lying down. To keep the spinal curves aligned, the muscles are needed to be strong and flexible.

- Poor posture can narrow the space between vertebrae and hence increasing the risk of compressed nerves.
- Poor posture increases wear on joints and can contribute to osteoarthritis.
- Bad posture can cause your pectorals contract and shorten if you sit bent over a desk all day. The back muscles lengthens and gets weakened making it difficult to lift the chest which is important for good posture.
- Contracted chest muscles contribute to shoulder injury, sore neck, back pain and fatigue.

Poor posture includes rounded shoulders, protruding buttocks and abdomen, arched lower back, head pushed in forward position. To improve poor posture and maintain a good posture,one thing that is most important is to maintain a healthy weight. Keep in mind the following points:

- The footwear that you wear while standing or walking plays an important part for maintaining a good posture.
- You should imagine as if a wire is attached to the top of your head pulling it upwards.
- Avoid standing or walking with an extreme curve in lower back.
- Tighten the abdominal muscles and flattening your stomach and hold for few seconds.
- Stand evenly balanced on both feet.
- While sitting, sit firmly back with shoulders against chair, chest lifted and upper back straight.
- Equal weight should be put on both buttocks.
- Thighs should be horizontal while sitting.
- Feet should be flat on floor while sitting.
- While working at desk, do not loo directly down at your work.
- While driving, seat should be positioned so that the wheel could be reached easily as well as brake, accelerator and clutch.
- Take a break if you are sitting for a long time.
- The mattress should be comfortable, not too hard but it should not sag. Early morning back pain is a sign of a poor posture.
- Lifting or carrying too heavy objects can cause poor posture.

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Common Warts : causes, prevention, types and treatment.

Warts are growth on the skin that is caused by a virus. They are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The appearance of warts can differ based on the type of wart and where it is located on the body. Most warts are well defined, with skin thickening. Warts can affect any part of the body but they attack warm, moist places, like small cuts or scratches on the fingers, hands, and feet. Warts are usually painless unless they’re on the soles of the feet or another part of the body that gets bumped or touched all the time.

Warts are infectious. They can get transferred to other person if he or she tries to touch the wart or if the person uses towels or other objects that were used by a person who has warts. Genital warts can be transferred during oral, vaginal or anal sex. Usually, warts disappear on their own but this can take long time. Children, pre-teens and adolescents are the more likely candidates for having a wart show up on the body.

Common warts may be of several types :
- Dome-shaped warts: They may appear on the back of knees, toes, and fingers.
- Filiform warts: They appear on the face like single long stalks. They are the same color as your skin.
- Plantar warts: These warts appear on foot. They look like hard, thick patches of skin with dark specks.
- Periungual warts: They are found under nails or around them. They appear as rough bumps with an uneven surface and border.
- Flat warts: They usually appear on the legs or face. They are often in large quantity. They are small, have flat tops, and can be pink, light brown, or light yellow.

Prevention of Common Warts

- Wash hands and skin regularly.
- Use soap and water to clean the area where there is a cut or scratch because open wounds are more susceptible to warts and other infections.
- Soak the wart in warm water and removes dead skin on the surface of the wart.

Treatment for Common Warts

- Apply salicylic-acid preparations which are available as drops, gels, pads, and plasters on warts. Apply the acid every day for many weeks.
- Applying liquid nitrogen freezes the wart. To completely remove a wart, liquid nitrogen treatments may be needed every 1 to 3 weeks for a total of 2 to 4 times.
- Applying cantharidin as a paint on the wart. Pain and blistering will be experienced in about 3 to 8 hours.
- Warts on the skin can be removed by burning the wart, cutting out the wart or removing the wart with a laser. These treatments are effective, but they may leave a scar.
- Warts can be “suffocated” by covering them with duct tape or other nonbreathing tape, such as electrical tape.

Genital warts are more likely to come back because there’s no cure for the virus that causes them and because warts are more difficult to control in a moist environment.

Basal Cell Carcinoma – Type of skin cancer

There are a number of different types of skin cancers depending on the type of skin cell from which they arise. Each kind of skin cancer has its own distinctive appearance. Certain skin cancers also tend to develop in specific areas of the body.

BASAL CELL CARCINOMA : This cancer is the most common type, and is the type of skin cancer that 90% of US citizen are diagnosed with.
- Basal cell carcinoma arises from the basal cells in the bottom layer of the epiderrmis – stratum basale.
- Basal cell carcinoma does not metastasize like the other skin cancers, but can still badly damage the area they occupy.
- It resembles a small nodule that is red in color, and located on the face, hands, or sometimes the torso. Occasionally, these nodules appear on the trunk of the body, usually as flat growths.
- Basal cell carcinoma can lead to the loss of organ function on such external organs as the ears or eyes.
- Although most cases of basal cell carcinoma are caused by the sun, other exposures can have the same results. Arsenic, severe burns, tattooing, vaccinations, and radiation can all cause basal cell carcinoma.

The variety in which basal cell carcinoma can appear makes for hard diagnosis. It can hide itself in the form of a mosquito bite, wart, rash, or cyst. For these reasons it is important for one to see a physician if any area of sun exposed skin looks unusual or has had prolonged pain.