Patients Education

Diabetes

It is a metabolic condition of having higher than the normal blood sugar level. Diabetes is caused by several factors resulting to a number of different types of this condition. Most of the time the main causes come from our lifestyle, the food we eat and in our daily physical activities.

Our body uses glucose or sugar for energy and most of the food we eat is turned into this substance. An essential organ in the body called pancreas is responsible for producing insulin, which helps glucose get into our cells and use it for energy. If you are suffering from diabetes, your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, causing sugar build up in the blood.

By having this sugar build up in your body, this can cause blockages in the normal pathway of the blood circulation, leading to health complications such as kidney failure, blindness, heart disease and amputations in the lower extremity.

Symptoms of diabetes include:

• Increased thirst
• Increased urination
• Increased hunger
• Extreme Fatigue
• Blurred Vision
• Bruises or cuts that heals slowly than the usual
• Weight loss even when you’re eating appropriately
• Numbness in the hands or feet

If you are experiencing just a single symptom, you might consider visiting your doctor and have proper diagnosis for early prevention and treatment.

Cardiac Arrest

A cardiac arrest is the sudden stop in the blood circulation due to the failure of the heart to pump blood. If the normal blood circulation is blocked, the delivery of oxygen into our vital organs is severely affected, causing an abrupt freeze in all functions of our body, resulting in unconsciousness and shallow breathing, which can lead to brain damage or worst, cardiac death.

Causes of cardiac arrest are the following:

• Drug Overdose
• Severe Blood Loss
• Severe high or low blood temperature
• Extreme deprivation of Oxygen
• Heart Attack
• Myocardial Infarction
• Arrhythmia
• Cardiomyopathy
• Pulmonary embolism

With each minute a person is under cardiac arrest before the occurrence of a defibrillator, the chance for survival of the person decreases. If a person is under cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation along with the defibrillator is a proper way to reestablish the pumping rhythm of the heart.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that is indicated by unpredictable episodes of seizures that usually lasts for seconds to few minutes.\

There are certain types of seizures experienced by an epileptic person.

These are:

• Partial Seizures
• Generalised Seizures
• Auras
• Status Epilepticus

Things to do if a person is having a seizure:

• Loosen the person’s clothing, specifically on the neck
• Do not restrain the person as this may result to injury
• Remove sharp object around the person
• Do not insert anything in the mouth as this may also cause injury

If the seizure is longer than the past episodes of seizure, call for medical help immediately.