Know More About Your Red Blood Cells

Know More About Your Red Blood Cells

My friend Lilia has her own car now. It is one of her dreams to have one and finally her dream come true. She said she need to have even a cheap car insurance for her car now thus, she get quotes from car insurances online. Talking about cars, our Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes acts as cars in the body too.

Through circulatory system, Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes take up oxygen from the lungs and deliver the oxygen to millions of cells in our body. From our cells, it carries the carbon dioxide back to the lungs for excretion. It only take about 20 seconds for Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes to circulate within our body, isn’t that a great fact? They could be compared to fast cars with great purpose . They should not be caught by any kind of traffic jam or accident or else our body will suffer.

In normal adult, women has 4-5 million of Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes in every microliter of blood while men have 5-6 million of Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes per microliter of blood. And, for every Red Blood Cell (RBC) or erythrocyte it  contains about 270 million of hemoglobin biomolecules. Hemoglobin contain iron that is responsible for the red color of our blood and protein that transports oxygen to cells of our body.

Lack of hemoglobin is called anemia. With anemia, no enough transport system for oxygen to be carried to the cells thus person may suffer from shortness of breath, chest pain, headache, dizziness, and feeling tired and weak. There is paleness in skin too. And, if anemia will take so long, complication may take place like arrhythmia that could damage the heart.

Like cheap car insurance for your car, we need cheap but nutritious food to ensure our red cells for them to function well. Foods that are rich in iron, vitamin C and other nutrients that could keep our Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes healthy for them to function well. Fresh fruits and vegetables are great for our Red Blood Cells (RBC) or erythrocytes.

Some Facts About Pinworms

Pinworms were called so because of its white pin-liked appearance, with a tail that is sharply pointed. Pinworm or seatworm are the common names of Enterobius vermicularis. They are one of the most annoying parasites of human body. This parasite is more common in temperate and cold countries than in warm and tropical areas. Children are more common to parasite from pinworm that has big chance to spread to the whole family in a short period of time. Pinworms or seatworms lay their eggs , hundreds of eggs, in the anal portion of the infected person. It is when the pinworms lay eggs, the host (infected person) feels a very itchy sensation in the anus.

There are lot of ways a pinworm or seatworm could be transmitted. Transmission can be from anus to mouth (oral-fecal route). It is when the infected person touches his anus then without cleaning his hands he touches garments, other things or eat using his bare hands that is infected with pinworm. Having close contact with an infected person could also cause transmission. And the worst thing is it can be transmitted by airborne transmission! Pinworms could also reinfect same host, this is called retroinfection. It is when a pinworm larva migrate back to the intestine and become mature worms there.

Pinworm does not just cause itchiness but could cause anemia, ulceration on the mucosa, hemorrhage, abcess formation and erosion of nerve endings of the intestine, so scary right? If someone of your family feels an itchiness on his anus (usually during sleeping time), talk to your doctor immediately. Laboratory tests called anal swab technique and the usual stool analysis detects and confirm if one is infected with pinworm or seatworm. To prevent from pinworm or seatworm infection, make it a habit to practice personal hygiene at all times.

How Important is Folic Acid to Your Health?

How important is Folic Acid to your health? For healthy individuals like me, folic acid or folate is beneficial in preventing your body from certain cancers, anemia and cardiovascular diseases. For pregnant women, it plays a big role in the development of the fetus, folic acid or folate fights birth defects like neural tube defects.

Folic Acid or folate is another B vitamin. Kids who prefer to satisfy their hunger with fast foods and junk foods that are devoid of essential nutrients, alcoholics, pregnant or nursing women, dieters, women who are taking oral contraceptives, those who have intestinal problems that may cause hindrance in absorption of folic acid, those who are receiving kidney dialysis and those who are taking medications such as cholesterol lowering drugs, sulfasalaline and aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs are people who are at risk for folic acid or folate deficiency.

If you belong to the at risk of folic acid or folate deficiency group and you feel fatigue, forgetfulness, confusion, irritability and you observe paleness of your skin, reddened tongue or your suffering from anemia better consult your doctor. It would be best if you will undergo a laboratory test for folic acid deficiency.

Wheat germ, orange and orange juices, liver, eggs, milk, green leafy vegetables, lima beans and navy beans are great sources of folic acid or folate. Supplements are good but better take it as part of multivitamins because large doses of folic acid or folate could interfere the functioning of vitamin B12 or cobalamin.

The Importance of Vitamin B12

Let us talk about about vitamin B12 or cobalamin this time. Generally, you can get vitamin B12 or cobalamin from meat, fish, eggs and dairy products but liver, beef, tuna and oysters are food that are rich in vitamin B12 or cobalamin.Though food sources of vitamin B12 are so common there are still people that exist who are at risk for vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency. Pregnant women, smokers, alcoholics, drug addicts, people that are taking medications to lower their cholesterol levels, the strict vegetarians, people who have digestive problems (with low stomach acid and, or those who are lacking of intrinsic factor for vitamin B12 absorption), and those who have problem on their small intestine that causes hindrance to absorption of vitamin B12 or cobalamin are people that are at risk for vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency.

If you are one of the people that are at risk of vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency and you feel tingling sensations in your hands and feet as if you are pierced with pins and needles, muscle weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, difficulty in breathing, memory loss, incoordination, disorientation or change in your personality it would be best if you undergo a serum B12 TEST along with test for folic acid deficiency. Deficiency of any of this two essential nutrients have more or less same signs.

Have you heared about Pernicious Anemia? This kind of anemia is due to vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency in which your red blood cells tends to become larger and immature that has less or no capacity at all to carry oxygen to your body thus, patient would feel the signs of vitamin B12 or cobalamin deficiency I have mentioned above.

Those who have been diagnosed of vitaminB12 or cobalamin deficiency and have no absorption problems are advised to take an oral vitamin B12 supplements while those who have absorption problems are usually given with injectable vitamin B12 every month.

Health Benefits of Vitamin B6

Instead of asking what are the health benefits of vitamin B6, why not ask first how important is vitamin B6 to our body? Our body needs vitamin B6 or pyridoxine for production of red blood cells in keeping our nervous system healthy for it to work properly and in helping our body to use the proteins, carbohydrates and fats we consume. Vitamin B6 or pyridoxine is essential in converting amino acid trytophan to niacin (another form of vitamin B). It also helps our body fight against diseases by strengthening our immune system.

Deficiency from vitamin B6 or  pyridoxine may result to weakness, irritability, insomnia, anemia, nervousness, difficulty in walking or even convulsions. Alcoholics, those with genetic defect that prevent their body from using right amount of vitamin B6 and some elderly are the people who is at risk from vitamin  B6 or  pyridoxine deficiency.

And, what are the other  health benefits of vitamin B6 or pyridoxine? It has potential power in treating premenstrual syndrome or PMS and carpal tunnel syndrome. Taking vitamin B6 lessens the harmful effects of diabetes, and has promising effect of eliminating calcium oxalate crystals (one type of kidney stone) in the urine. Some suggests that it helps in preventing cardiovascular diseases. vitamin B6 or pyridoxine also inhibits the growth of skin cancer cells.

You can find  vitamin B6 or pyridoxine in meats, poultry, fish, nuts, whole grains, potatoes, avocados and bananas.