Insomnia

What is insomnia?

Insomnia is where a person is not able to sleep at night. Insomnia can happen to everyone, and is not a big issue, but long term insomnia can cause a loss of concentration during the day and weaken the immune system due to lack of sleep. Most people suffer from the minor form of acute insomnia, and it usually only occurs once or twice under stress or travelling, but some people suffer from more severe cases like chronic, comorbid, onset and maintenance insomnia. These kinds of insomnia can be caused by plenty of reasons and can be quite harmful.

5 types of insomnia:

- Acute

    - Caused by stress, time zones or sudden events

- Chronic

    - Long-term insomnia, usually if a person can't sleep more than 3 days in a week consecutively for 3 months.

- Comorbid

   - A symptom of psychological problems such as depression. Can be paired with arrthritis and back pain making it very uncomfortable

- Onset

    - Can't sleep at the beginning of the night

- Maintenance

    - oftenly waking up or just can't fall asleep

Symptoms:

- Back pain

- Tiredness

- Loss of concentration

- Not able to sleep

Treatment:

- Relaxation

- Light therapy

- Electronic restrictions

- Sleep time adjustments

- Meds

Asthma

What is Asthma?

Asthma is a medical condition narrows and swells your airways. It can produce extra mucus, causing the patient to have a shortness of breath because the airways are blocked. Asthma can vary in severity. It can be very dangerous and kill a person in an asthma attack, which it did to my grandfather; but it can also be very minor, maybe just a small cough and skipping a breath. Asthma is not a condition that can be cured, but over time, you can control it and prevent anything serious from happening. If not controlled, it can go out of hand and cause deadly asthma attacks.

What are Airways?

Airways are pipes or tubes that bring the air to the lungs. Asthmatic airways are usually the bronchioles which are connected to the bronchus and brings air to alveolar sacs, exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen.

4 Categories/Levels of Asthma:

- Mild intermittent

- Mild persistent

- Moderate persistent

- Severe persistent

Causes:

- Allergens (allergic reaction to something)

- Respiratory illnesses (cold/flu)

- Cold

- Irritants (substances in the air that irritate your airways e.g. dust/sawdust/chemicals)

- Medications

- Stress

- Preservatives

- Possibly inherited

Symptoms:

- Coughing

- Difficulty Breathing

- Shortness of Breath

- Wheezing

- Chest Tightness

- Chest Pain

Diagnosis:

- Physical scans (checking how much air is flowing through)

- X-Rays

- Allergy Tests

- Methacholine Tests

Treatment:

- Inhaler

- Oral Medication

- Allergy Medication

Prevention:

- Clean house (prevent dust or mold spores to get into your airways)

- Cover nose and mouth if cold or air quality is bad outside

- Avoid animals that shed a lot of fur

- Use A/C so outside pollen and dirt won't get in

Frostbite

What is frostbite?

Frostbite is an injury in the cold weather. It happens when your skin freezes in the cold and in severe cases, ice crystals gets into your skin cells and they start to die. Frostbite is usually classified into 3 categories, from best case scenario to worst. First, a frostnip is the most common and is a mild form of frostbite. If you live in a place or have been to a place with snow and you get some ice or snow into your glove, you'd probably experience frostnip. The damage of frostnip isn't permanent, although after you go inside and you get warm and cozy, your fingertips will probably heat up, inflame and itch a lot. Then, there's superficial frostbite. This frostbite starts to feel warm and when you get indoors and reheat it, you may get some blisters. Then, the last stage, deep frostbite comes. This is rare if you're just playing in the snow, but can happen for someone trapped in the snow. The skin will now start turning greyish, with probable muscle damage too and definite skin damage. You wouldn't feel cold or pain because your cells are literally dying. After reheating, it would form blisters and the dead skin will turn black and hard. It is possible to die from deep frostbite, but it is really rare and mostly happens when you get infected in the wound. If you die from the cold, it's dying from hypothermia, which is different.

How do you get frostbite?

At 0 to -15 degrees celsius, you get frostbite on the part of the skin exposed in about 30 minutes and under that, it can happen within 15 minutes or quicker. For example, if some snow went into your glove, and you didn't dry the glove and then proceeded to play for 30 more minutes, you would get a frostnip, which would itch and heat up or even inflame a bit.

Symptoms:

- Numbness

- Itch

- Hot and inflamed

- Muscle and joint stiffness

- Hard skin (severe)

- Blisters (severe)

Risks:

Everyone can get a frostbite, but just be careful and try to leave your skin on something cold for a long time.

What if left untreated:

Infection can be caused by bad treatment.

Diagnosis:

- By looking at the skin

- If muscle or bone damage is possible, doctors may do MRI scan or X-Ray

Treatments:

- Painkillers

- Rewarming

- Treating from infection

- Antibiotics (fight infections)

- Amputation (extreme cases)

- TPA (extreme cases)

- Removal of dead tissue