Posts Tagged ‘cold’

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Cold Humidifier

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Cold humidifiers are popular among parents. The more common name for these is cool mist humidifiers. When looking to purchase a cold humidifier there are three types to consider.

The first is an ultrasonic humidifier. This machine creates cool mist by the means of vibrations. This humidifier is not very popular because it leaves behind white. The next is an evaporative humidifier. It works by transmitting moisture into the air by fan. Finally, and most common, is the impeller humidifier. The impeller humidifier flings water at a diffuser breaking the water into fine droplets that enter the air.

Cold humidifiers are sometimes more popular than warm mist humidifiers because they are safer to use with children. At times the warm steam let off by warm mist humidifiers burns a child. If a child puts his or her face or hands near a cool mist humidifier, the cool mist will not harm them.

Not only is it safer to use with children, but it is energy efficient. Whereas a warm mist humidifier uses energy to boil and send out the steam, cold humidifiers only use electricity to fan the water.

There is one major danger with the cold humidifiers. Due to the lack of heat, the water in the tank is susceptible to breeding dangerous bacteria.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that ultrasonic and impeller humidifiers can dispense harmful microorganisms and minerals into the air. If breathed in, these bacteria may cause serious lung infections.

To prevent any dangers be sure to clean your cold humidifier as suggested by the manufacturer. Most machines require simply cleaning procedures. A good tips to follow is clean your tank every day with soap and water. Empty the tank and fill with a small amount of soap and water. Wash the entire tank, rinse and refill for use.

Be sure to use only distilled water in the tank. Tap water contains certain minerals that need to be filtered out. Unfortunately cold humidifiers do not filter the minerals from the water because they lack heat. The minerals can also lead to breathing problems.

Cold humidifiers should only be used when needed. Too much moisture can cause problems. A good way to monitor your home’s moisture is to purchase a hygrometer at your local hardware store. Ideally your home should be at 30-50%, 60% or higher can result in the growth of mildewScience Articles, mold and fungi.

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Babies: How to Treat Your Baby??s Cold

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Your baby??s cold can be just as hard on you as it is on her.??? But you can help ease your baby??s discomfort and keep the infection from worsening by ensuring she gets sufficient rest and liquids, which would include breast milk or formula if she??s less than four months old.??? Older babies can have a little water, and by six months she can begin drinking juices.

To relieve congestion, try squeezing some over-the-counter saline solution drops into each nostril, then suctioning with a rubber bulb syringe after a few moments to remove the mucus and liquid.??? This works well about fifteen minutes prior to a feeding if it??s difficult for your baby to breathe nasally while nursing. A bit of petroleum jelly to the outside of your baby??s nostrils can help reduce irritation.

Sitting with you in a steamy bathroom while the hot water??s on in the shower for about 15 minutes, or using a cool-mist vaporizer or humidifier to increase the moisture in your baby??s room should also help provide some relief for her.??? A warm bath could also work, and might provide her some additional comfort.???
Sleeping at a slight incline may also help relieve postnasal drip. However, don??t use pillows in her crib to accomplish this; the risk of suffocation is too great.??? Try placing a couple of rolled up towels between the crib springs and mattress, or you might also want to try allowing her to sleep in her car seat in a slightly upright position.

Be sure to contact your pediatrician at the first sign of any illness in an infant less than three months old, especially in instances of a fever of 100.4 degrees or if she has a cough.??? Your pediatrician can give you guidelines about what constitutes a fever in older infants.??? If baby??s symptoms don??t improve within five to seven days, her cough worsens, she??s wheezing or gasping (possible pneumonia or respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV), or tugs at her ear (possible ear infection)Free Articles, your pediatrician should also be notified immediately.???

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How to Get Rid of Cold Sores by Relaxing and Unwinding yourself

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Cold sores are also known as the fever blisters. Herpes simplex viruses cause cold sores through viral infection. These viruses attack the skin and nervous system of the body. Viruses lay dormant in the body and when they are triggered, they become active. These herpes viruses cause infections in the human bodies. Viruses attack the nervous system of the body even when they are latent. Triggering activates them and their presence is indicated by blister around mouth. These blisters can be painful as well as watery and can occur on mucous membranes and genital areas.

Once the body gets attack by viruses, they remain in the body for lifetime and therefore are hard to flush out from the body. Once you treat them, the virus’s retreats back into the nerve cells. Some times these viruses remain dormant and get activate eventually and cause new cold sores to appear. Since these viruses are, permanent we cannot remove them but we can try to decrease the chances of future outbreaks. To get rid of cold sores you have to keep control over the triggers.

In the cold and flue, body easily triggers the viruses and therefore one need to get cure as soon as possible from the cold and flue. This will restrict the cold sores. Another reason of cold sores is stress. In the stress immune systems of the body weaken, this allows the viruses to come in activation state and can cause the blisters. Therefore, one has to try to keep the stress away.

Many of the peoples are very sensitive to cold sores when spends more time outside in the sunlight. The peoples affected quickly by cold sores when they suffer with sunburns. Therefore, simple remedy is to apply good sunscreen lotion particularly to lips that defense against the sun causing blisters. Cold and wind also causes the cold sores and therefore to protect the skin one has to apply sunscreen lotion while going outside.

Pregnancy period and menstruation period triggers the viruses in the body. In this stage body suffers from the hormonal changes and therefore body can trigger the hormonally induce cold sores.

Hence, to reduce the cold sores efficiency one has to take proper rest. Adequate amount of sleep keeps the person stronger and healthier than the person who takes minimum amount of sleep. Along with the rest proper nourishment of the body with nutritious is necessary. Proper intake of proteins and nutrition plays important role in healing process.

To keep body healthy and protected from the cold sores antioxidants are important. Peoples who frequently outbreaks the blister are vitamin B deficient and therefore they need to include the external supplement of antioxidants and vitamins. Amino acids, lysine also shields the body from cold sores. However, these are helpful in healing the blisters one has to consume them in doctor’s recommendation.

Relax and unwind yourself, as this will keep your body away from the disease.

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How to Get Rid of Cold Sores Fast Enough

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Cold sores can occur due to herpes simplex virus of type I.These virus are highly contagious and once contracted will stay in the body for life time. Viruses enter through the mouth and then attack the nerve tissues. From nerve tissues, they travel for ganglia through nervous system. In the ganglia, viruses lay dormant in the body and when favorable conditions occur activates in body.

Presence of the blisters can be observed through slight iteration on lips or face, bumps under the skin that try to grow to push and nudge at your pores. These blisters will appear for around three weeks. After this period, blisters will again go in dormant phase. This process goes on continuing. You can get rid of cold sores in many ways with the help of home remedies as well as professional remedies.

However, before getting rid of it, you have to identify the blister and you have to be sure about cold sores. As many of the peoples get confuse cold sores with canker sores. Cold sores blisters are red and pussy where as the canker sores are small white bacterial infections in the mouth. Next step to get rid is recognizing the blister and avoid triggering virus. Causes of out breaking the blisters vary from person to person. Blister will appear because of stress, anxiety, salty and acidic food, pregnancy or menstruation, overexposure to extreme weather and health problems like cold or flue.

To avoid the spreading of the blister you have to clean cold sores. Use hot and soapy water and clean wash cloth to cleanse the blister and its surrounding area. While cleansing avoid rubbing it may cause further irritation and infection. To avoid skin to skin infection avoid touching the cold sores. After cleaning cover, the cold sore with petroleum jelly based creams. These crรจmes are beneficial in healing the cold sores by sealing the herpes viruses. This will minimize infection and irritation. For this you may use pain relief ointments like Neosporin.

Any infection can decrease with proper consumption of healthy diet, herpes simplex infection also cures. To reduce the infections try to include notorious and healthy food. Along with the proper diet exercise and adequate amount of sleep is also necessary. Therefore, you have to supplement your diet with vitamins, antioxidants, nutrition’s, exercise and sleep.

All these remedies will help reduce the infection but if cold sores persist for more than two weeks with some home treatments on, then one have to seek medical advice. Physicist may prescribe certain tablets that will cure the blisters and decrease the pain and irritation.

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How You Can Diagonise Cold Sores Fever Blisters

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

The cold sores that are also known as the fever blisters are a skin disease that generally affects the lips, or the other parts of the mouth. They appear in clusters and these clusters contain small and tiny blisters. They make the skin appear red in color and it also become quite painful. It appears inflamed after some time, if the infection increases.

They are very troublesome because of the pain that they cause. In addition to this they look very bad and therefore the patients feel embarrassed, when these begin to appear on the mouth.

These are infectious and they can spread to the nearby region. This happens when they break due to some stress and ooze out a clear fluid. But once they break and this fluid comes out, they disappear after some days. The average time that this takes is around 7 to 10 days.

This is an infectious disease and it occurs because of the herpes simplex virus, which is abbreviated as HSV. In this there are two types the HSV-1 and the HSV-2.

The infection occurs when the skin comes in to contact with these viruses. This virus can spread through the infected person because of his sneezing, contact with the sores or the infection of the common usage things in the house.

This is an infection which all the people face in their life. Therefore the virus is very common. However the effects are observed only in some 20 % to 40% people. The others resist this virus and therefore the virus remains inactive in their body. Generally the symptoms i.e. the development of the blisters appear due to the stimulus as sunlight or stress, etc.

When the infection occurs the patient may experience sore mouth, fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, etc. If the children get infected by this, they may have drool prior to the surfacing of the cold sore. The fever blisters are seen during the later stages. They develop, then break, and dispose out clear fluid. After this a crust is formed on the region. And eventually, this crust disappears.

It would be best to diagnose the cold sores fever blister and prevent it. For this you should visit the doctor during the beginning stages of the cold sores. Generally as they disappear on their own after sometime, if they are not severe you can wait until they go away.

But simple treatments are available for the cold sores fever blisters. These prove to be very useful as if they occur in greater number, which can make them clearly visible, they may cause embracement and discomfort. You can use the creams, ointments, or also the antiviral medicines. Some of the antiviral medicines are the acyclovir, famiciclovir, etc.

The only difference is in the healing time that these medicines would make which is just 1 to 2 days. However, they are useful, as they would avoid the pain and the spreading of the blisters to the other regions.

However, the virus that causes this cannot be removed form the body completely and therefore these occur regularly. But if they occur quite often or they occur too severely, then you can reduce them by using the medication.

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This Could be the Best Home Remedy for Cold Sores

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Cold sores are also called as the fever blisters. When the herpes simplex viruses attacks the body blisters or cold sores shows there presence. These viruses may attack the body in childhood or during encounter with infected persons. Often virus lay in the body in a dormant stage. Some times cold sores may come on genital organs and near finger areas. Once the viruses attack the body, it becomes a hard task to flush them out of the body. Therefore, we cannot remove them totally but we can shield our body from infection or reactivation.

To reduce or decrease the reactivation or infections try to avoid the triggering of the blisters. To reduce the pains of the cold sores apply ice on the blisters for about five to ten minutes for each hour. This remedy will be more effective when applied for the upcoming blisters as ice prevents the further growth of the cold sores. Another way to prevent the further growth of the cold sore is the application of tannic acid. Tea bags contains adequate amount of the tannic acid and this will stop the further growth of the cold sores. To reduce the growths apply a tea bag for about five to ten minutes each hour at the beginning of the sores.

If cold sores already out braked then press a warm tea bag on the cold sore for about 20 to 30 minutes. Continuous application for five days helps in disappearance of the sores. Along with the external application, one has to concentrate on daily diet. To keep check on the cold sores infected peoples have to avoid acidic and salty food. These foods will increase the paining of the blisters.

High intake of arginine food like peanuts, chocolates, peas, grains, oatmeal, seeds and whole-wheat products should be avoided. Along with this high intake of coffee also affects the cold sores. Regular diet need to be supplemented with vitamins and nutrition’s. Particularly vitamin B complex and folic acid are helpful to reduce the paining of the cold sores. These certain remedies are helpful to reduce the pain of cold sores but you can follow certain things that will prevent you from reactivation of the blisters.

To avoid the contamination or infection the infected person must not share there cups, towels, and other things and cosmetic with the normal person. Skin to skin touch also spreads the infection and therefore kissing or sex should be avoided. Long exposure in the sunlight increases the pains and infection of the cold sores therefore while going outside person has to apply sunscreen lotion to body particularly to the lips, as they are the delicate as well as sensitive part of the body.

Some small things are important to shield the body from viruses. After an attack, you need to replace the toothbrush.

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Why You Should Use Cold Sores Lysine to Lower Your Fever

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

The cold sores lysines are a very common occurrence and many types of drugs and creams are used against them. However, these do not offer complete protection from cold sores. There is always a danger of reoccurrence of the cold sores. Therefore it is better if the patients use the natural substances that will help in prevention of the cold sores.

There are several things that can help in the prevention of cold sores. These include the substances derived from or occurring in plants and animals. One of them is the amino acid lysine.

Lysine is an amino acid which is present in the normal human body. Our body derives it from the diet that we consume. It cannot be synthesized in the body and therefore it has to be taken only externally.

Intake of supplements of lysine can be very useful during the cold sores. If the patients take high dosage of lysine, it aids in restricting the cold sores. However it is useful only when it is taken in the form of high doses.

It actually retards the growth of the herpes virus through replication and therefore the cold sores slow down. Due to this property it reduces the frequency of the occurrence and outbreak of cold sores.

In addition to the above mentioned properties if it is taken along with supplements such as zinc, vitamin c with bioflavonoids, etc, then its effectiveness increases and it works faster.

The herpes virus that is responsible for the producing the cold sores requires an amino acid Arginine, from the human body, for its growth. However when the patient takes lysine supplements, the lysine suppresses the metabolism of Arginine. Without Arginine the herpes virus becomes inactive and it cannot replicate.

You can consume the foods that contain lysine naturally or you can also take the artificial supplements providing lysine. As the lysine is an important amino acid and is required for the protein synthesis in the human body, people should ideally, consume foods that are rich in the lysine contents. These foods are the vegetables, fish, chicken, cheese, milk, brewers yeast, beans etc. You can also use these, during the time of infection. However during the infection remember to avoid food items that contain Arginine. For example you should avoid nuts chocolate, whole wheat, coconut, oats, caffeine etc. Only then supplementing the body with lysine can be useful.

However it is better to use the artificial dosage of the lysine during the infection. This is because the lysine is required in more amounts for it being effective. Therefore you should always consume dosage per day, containing more than 1250 mg of lysine. Therefore, you should take two tablets of lysine per day containing 625mg lysine each.

It is better to use the lysine supplements instead of using the antiviral drugs for the prevention of the cold sores. This is because as this occurs frequently, the use of these drugs again and again can cause harm to the body on the other hand, the use of the lysine is safer because it is an amino acid that is useful to the body. However it should not be consumed in excess at a single time. In addition to this the other advantage is that they are cheap. Any person can use them with out any problems as allergies, etc.

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How to Manage Cold Sores Nose Infections

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

The cold sores are the disease that will generally affect mouth and the nose. The cold sores are a viral infection and it causes small sores on the mouth nose and other parts of the body. The herpes simplex type 1 is responsible for the infection of the mouth and nose.

It infects the lower part of the nose or sometimes the infection also reaches in the nose. In the nose it affects generally the nostrils. In these disease sores are developed on the skin bellow nose and also inside the nose. These sores are small in size however they grow in the form of groups and therefore they can be painful. The skin where the infection occurs becomes red and appears as inflated. After some time of occurrence of the infection the sores grow in size and finally they burst i.e. they break open and dispose out a clear fluid. This may happen because of mechanical stress as touching with the finger etc. When this happens a curst is developed in the area of the infection.

However after this, the sores disappear themselves without doing anything. Therefore they may disappear even without the need to take medication.

As the sores appear in groups containing a large number of sores, the nose becomes very painful. They also cause itching. If they appear bellow the nose they are visible externally and therefore they cause embarrassment for the patient.

The infection occurs when the patient comes in to contact with the germs i.e. the herpes. They spread from the infected person to the other people. This happens when they sneeze or through the common use of things like towels, napkins, etc. it also occurs because of the touching the sores with the hand or other body parts.

Once the virus herpes simplex enters the body of the patient it may remain inactive for sometime. However due to some stimulus as cold or some other chemical stimulus also it may give rise to the sores on the skin. Therefore they occur commonly during the cold season and so called cold sores.

They can occur to people of any age from children to adults. However, in some 20 to 40% people though the herpes enters their body it remains inactive. It is not able to grow and create the symptoms of cold sores in them.

The remaining ones show the symptoms of the infection externally.

The complete cure from the infection is not possible. The virus remains in the body for ever though it may become inactive for sometime because of the cure methods. Therefore the cold sores occur frequently throughout the life of the patients.

The sore disappear naturally after their occurrence. This takes a time of about two weeks. Many types of creams and antiviral medicines are available in the market. However these will only reduce the time of healing by about 3 to 4 days. However they give immediate from the pain that these sores cause.

Using the natural substances as the lysine, zinc vitamin c etc can help in reducing their occurrence. In addition to this it has been found that the amino acid Arginine is rerqired by the virus for their growth and therefore the patients should avoid eating foods containing Arginine.

Also it is important that though the sores may cause itching they should never be scratched or they will spread to the nearby region

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Steps That You Can Follow in Preventing Cold Sores

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Cold sores are also known as oral herpes and occur because of the viral infection. Attack of herpes simplex viruses causes the cold sores. These viruses enter through the mouth and attacks on the nerve cells. Viruses then travel towards the ganglia by the use of nervous system. In the ganglia these viruses rest and eventually with favorable conditions is activated. Attack of the viruses will be permanent and do not leave the body; therefore it is hard to remove them. Consequently, to stay away from the infection you need to prevent it.

If you find rash that is turning in to blisters around the area of mouth then these blisters are of the cold sores. These blisters eventually turn in to dry slab. This is the first symptom of the infection. Blisters will appear for period and then again disappears. This cycle will continue for moths and years. Reappearance of the blisters depends on the triggering. Therefore, to prevent the blisters we need to keep control over the triggering. If skin is itching, irritating, and tingling, then you have to understand the signals of the blisters. On such skin, apply antiviral cream. To apply the cream first you need to wash your hands. Do not apply cream with hands instead of using hands prefer cotton buds for application.

However, this step seems to be extra precautionary but you have to follow them. Usually viruses attack the body with low immune systems. Therefore, to defense virus body need to be with strong immune system. Tiredness, stress or other illness are the major reasons of low immune. Hence, healthy life can go a long way to prevent blisters out breaks.

Beside these entire if you are already suffering with the infection then you have to take precautionary steps to avoid spreading the infections. However, this disease is not dangerous but is embarrassing. You can prevent spreading of the infection by avoiding kiss. The people suffering with the infection try to avoid kiss or should not engage in oral sex. Rubbing and itching spreads the infection to non-affected area. Therefore, do not touch the cold sores and other area of the skin. In case of touching the blisters, immediately wash the hands to avoid the infection. Not only in these cases but they need to adopt the habit of regular hand washing.

Do not try to hide the cold sores with make up because chemicals use in the cosmetics infects more. To prevent the infection never share the cosmetics mainly lipsticks. Not only the cosmetics but also the persons try to avoid sharing of food, drinks or towels. Regular application of antiviral cream helps in healing and decreases the contamination of the viruses. Herpes simplex viruses are contagious during out breaking but can spreads infection before and after out breaking period. They spread infection in the reproduction period also.

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Cold Medicines are Killing our Teenagers?

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Today I discovered a killer of our teenagers and would like to share it with you. It should not be a surprise to learn that there is a thriving subculture on the Internet that gives out advice and information on just about anything you can think of. However, this day I would like to discuss something called robotripping. It means taking over the counter cough and cold medicines to get high.

I am told that one in ten messages passed on the internet between teenagers are about drugs. These sites tell our teens, what to take, where to get it, how to take it, how much to take and what other things to take with it to make it better.

Let me tell you how this all started. I had a cold with a bad cough. I bought some cold medicine, three different kinds and put them on the counter in my bathroom. My teen son had his own bathroom and to be honest I didnโ€™t think a thing about leaving the medicine out.

Anyway, I took the medicine and it made me feel icky so I quit taking it and tried new stuff. To make a long and miserable cold story short, I got better. That weekend I was cleaning up and saw the bottles. But I noticed the cough syrup was almost gone and so I opened the other bottles and sure enough all the pills were about gone.

Now I knew that taking cough syrup to get high had been around for years, but surely my son would not do that!? I went to the computer and started to look it up. It scared me. I found that kids were taking it in such large quantities that at the least they were damaging their livers and at the most they were dying. Yes DYING.

I was aghast and angry. My sons and I talk of everything. Surely this could not have been going on right under my nose and without me knowing? So I waited. You know the โ€œMomโ€™s waitโ€ vacillating between anger and fear. While I waited I read up on it and learned.

Then I read this:

*A dissociative drug which reduces (or blocks) signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain, typically to the physical senses. Such a state of sensory deprivation and dissociation can facilitate hallucinations, and dreamlike states of mind which may resemble some psychedelic mind states.

My son was escaping and hallucinating and I missed it? How can that be? I learned that there are over 250 products with DXM in it and the drug companies that make it donโ€™t want it regulated even if it will keep our teens safe. I learned that is a real addiction just like any other drug but that it was worse in a way because it was legal and easy to get.

As I read the list of symptoms: restlessness, confusion, dizziness, double or blurred vision, slurred speech, impaired physical coordination, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, rapid heart beat, drowsiness, numbness of fingers and toes, and disorientation. DXM abusers describe different “plateaus” ranging from mild distortions of color and sound to visual hallucinations and “out-of-body,” feelings of detachment from the environment and self, sensations, and loss of motor control. I became panicky and ready to fight this with him all the way to health!

He came home; I tried hard not to attack. I had done the self Mom talk and I was ready. Calmly I asked, โ€œAre you robot tripping?โ€ He laughed and said, โ€œIf you mean am I robotripping, no I am not, I am not that stupid, why? You been on the internet again Momโ€ So we talked about the missing medicine and found out it was one of his friends (who is now in treatment).

All I can say is that day I found a killer of our teenagers. It is important to communicate and keep aware of your home and what is going on in your world. Even the smallest of things can be an important clue to a problem.

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