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Vulnerable Plaque in Heart Disease

Swelling (inflammation) is the body’s natural reaction to an injury. Inflammation can happen anywhere on the skin, within the body, and even inside the arteries. Scientists are now learning inflammation may play a part in many of the diseases that come with aging, including coronary artery disease.

For many years, doctors have thought that the main cause of a heart attack or stroke or was the buildup of fatty plaque within an artery, leading to the heart or brain. In time, the plaque buildup would narrow the artery so much, that the artery would close off or become clogged by a blood clot. The lack of oxygen-rich blood to the heart would then lead to a heart attack. However these types of blockages cause only about 3 out of 10 heart attacks.
Researchers are finding people who that heart attacks do not have arteries severely narrowed by plaque! Vulnerable plaque may be buried inside the artery wall, and not bulge out and block the blood flow through the artery. This is why researchers began to look at how inflammation affects the arteries, and to see if inflammation could lead to a heart attack.

What they found was that inflammation leads to the development of “soft” or vulnerable plaque. They also found that vulnerable plaque was more than just debris, clogging an artery, that it was filled with different cell types that help with blood clotting.

When this inflammation is combined with other stresses, like high blood pressure, it can cause the thin covering over the plaque to crack and bleed, spilling the entire contents of the vulnerable plaque into the bloodstream. The sticky cytokines on the artery wall capture blood cells (mainly platelets) that rush to the site of injury. When these cells clump together, they can form a clot large enough to block the artery

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Diseases Caused by Smoking – How They Will Affect Your Health

Diseases caused by smoking are many. Studies have been conducted to establish why smoking causes diseases. These studies were able to prove that the ingredients in cigarettes and tobacco products are the culprits. The ingredients can cause cancer and diseases. Some of these ingredients are nicotine, acrolein, tar, nitrosamine, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, radioactive carcinogens, and many more. Below are some diseases caused by smoking.

People who smoke develop lung cancer. And people who don’t smoke can also develop lung cancer. In the United States, 87% of lung cancer cases have been attributed to smoking. People who smoked at some point in their lives have a 1 in 10 chance of developing lung cancer. And it increases to 1 in 6 if they continue smoking. Secondhand smoke increases lung cancer risk by 20 to 30%.

Tar lungs and smoker’s cough are two diseases caused by smoking. Both are attributed to tar in cigarettes and tobacco products. Tar accumulates in the lungs. When accumulation becomes too much for the lungs to remove, tar lungs develops. On the other hand, smoker’s cough develops because coughing is another way for the lungs to remove the tar deposits.

Other diseases caused by smoking include heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, and atherosclerosis. These are caused by nicotine which leads to constriction of blood vessels. Smokers are 5 times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Secondhand smoking increases heart disease risk by 25 to 30%.

Long term exposure to cyanide and carbon monoxide, which are found in smoke, lead to diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. Smokers who consume at least 20 cigarettes a day increase their tuberculosis risk by 2 to 4 times.

Infections are also diseases caused by smoking. Some of these are invasive pneumococcal disease, chronic bronchitis, common colds, and other pulmonary and respiratory infections. Other diseases caused by smoking are periodontitis, halitosis or bad breath, leukoplakia, asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis, and many others.

A fetus exposed to secondhand smoke is likely to be born with low birth weight or small for gestational age. These two smoking diseases predispose the infant to other diseases like jaundice and breathing difficulty. Sudden infant death syndrome is also caused by secondhand smoke. 430 infant deaths in the United States every year has been attributed to this smoking disease. Other diseases caused by smoking in infants are impaired motor skills, cognitive deficits, attention deficit hyperactivity disease, developmental delays, and many others.

These are just some diseases caused by smoking. And all these could lead to death. 2.5 to 10 years is reduced from a smoker’s life expectancy. And each consumed cigarette is equal to losing 11 minutes of your life. Quit smoking now! Choose life!

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Winnebago Mental Health Institute – Its History and Development

If we speak of a primary center for treatment of mental illness in Wisconsin, Winnebago Mental Health Institute or WMHI is the first facility that comes to mind. Located at Lake Winnebago’s west shore, this state facility has about 1300 admissions every year and an average of 250 patients.

The facility was constructed in 1871. Originally named Northern Asylum for the Insane, its name was later changed to Winnebago State Hospital before the name was again changed to Winnebago Mental Health Institute.

Basically, WMHI’s services can be grouped into three areas. The first one is called Adult Service 1, consisting of forensic units. The second area is called Adult Service 2, for adults that are multiply impaired, and those requiring treatment for behavior modification, substance abuse and mental illnesses. The third unit, Youth Services, is for children and adolescents that are multiply impaired and those who are mentally ill and have substance abuse disorder.

The Therapeutic Services Department is responsible in evaluating and assessing the patients. There are 4 divisions of service: occupational therapy, recreational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy. These divisions are responsible in the holistic approach to treatment.

There are various treatment activities in WMHI. One of them is individual psychotherapy. A treatment plan is outlined for each patient to determine the frequency of sessions that he must undergo. A clinical staff writes notes for each visit. The attending psychiatrist meets the treatment team on a regular basis to review the treatment plan.

Another treatment activity is through psychopharmacology. The attending psychiatrist determines and orders the medication according to the individual patient’s treatment plan. Psychotropic medication is used in order to achieve treatment goals and reduce risk of injury and violence.

Group therapy is another kind of treatment, where problems of each patient are shared and solutions are discussed. Other treatment activities include self-help groups, family therapy and community groups.

However, the facility is faced with controversy lately. City inspectors found violations of the hospital. Infractions include failure to protect patient’s rights such as the right to be protected from violent and sexual behaviors of other patients, to have privacy and to be in a safe environment. Other violations include medication errors and failure to correct environmental hazards and infection control in the facility.

Within a period of two years, three deaths and one rape case were reported. These, among other problems, have caused authorities to cite the facility for neglect and lack of attention. Reports indicate that poor supervision and staffing as well as bad judgment in medication caused these problems. Because of this, the government ordered the facility to correct the problems by 2008. Otherwise, it shall lose its federal funding for both Medicaid and Medicare.

With this development, lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill requiring all patient deaths in the facility be investigated. This is to create more transparency and accountability to the taxpayers.

More problems are at hand for WMHI. Hospital officials cite financial loss as the reason why there is not enough staff in the facility. Because of such financial losses, there are not enough employees to maintain hospital safety and provide better service to patients.

Despite these problems that the Winnebago Mental Health Institute has, hospital officials continue to work hard to give quality treatment to their patients.

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