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Vocal Cord Paralysis:What you need to know

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on June 4, 2018 0

Vocal Cord Paralysis is a distressing problem. An early checkup can be lifesaving. It may also help your doctor find a more serious underlying health problem. Both vocal cords or only one may be paralyzed. The left is more commonly affected than the right.

What are the symptoms of Vocal Cord Palsy?

[bctt tweet=”Are you hoarse for more than two weeks? #Healthwealthbridge” username=”misra_amrita”]

The symptoms may be varied. But the most common presentation is hoarseness. There may also be

Change in quality of voice
Forced whisper
Weak voice
Difficulty breathing
Noisy breathing
‘Severe persistent acid reflux
Haemoptysis or a cough stained with blood
Sore throat
Earache may be present. An important nerve which supplies your voice box also has a branch supplying the ear. Interestingly if the branch in larynx or voice box is irritated the ear starts to pain.

Significant info: A referred earache may be a serious complaint.

Types of Paralysis

Abductor
Adductor

Abductor Palsy: Vocal cords are like the cords in your Casiomini

Your vocal cords need to move, in order for you to breathe or speak. When you eat, they need to close properly so that the food from the food pipe cannot enter inside. Abductor palsy is when the vocal cords cannot be opened properly. The main problems that can occur are stridor or noisy respiration and respiratory obstruction which may need a tracheostomy.

Adductor Palsy: Vocal cords have problem closing but no difficulty breathing. Reflux is a major problem in this case and can persist even after treatment.

Major causes of Vocal Cord palsy

Malignant diseases: Bronchial carcinoma:50%
Thyroid Carcinoma
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Glomus tumor
Lymphoma Others
Nonsurgical neck trauma causing a hematoma in the neck can create pressure o the nerve and paralysis.
Post surgery involving Food pipe /esophagus, Lung, Heart, Thyroid and also post endotracheal intubation due to any cause.
Idiopathic often attributed to Post viral neuritis: Influenza, Epstein Barr Virus, Cytomegalovirus
Neurological: Multiple sclerosis, ALS, Parkinson’s, Head injury
Neuropathies associated with Diabetes, alcoholism, GB syndrome
Inflammatory causes like Tuberculosis of lungs, Syphilitic aortitis Common previous days)
Certain Drugs like cisplatin, vincristine

What your doctor will do and probably advice

A detailed history
Examination of the entire system with special stress on Neck, Thyroid, Chest
Local examination of Voice box or larynx
Clinical: Indirect laryngoscopy
FIbreoptic Laryngoscopy
Panendoscopy
Radiology: CT scan from Base of the skull to diaphragm sometimes CT head too.
Flow volume loop study

Is vocal cord paralysis curable?

If the cause is reversible (like drug neurotoxicity ) then vocal cord palsy may have excellent results after stopping the offending drug.

Treatment of Vocal Cord palsy?

It is multifaceted and may need life support if not treated on time.

Those due to drugs causing neurotoxicity, are often reversible after discontinuing the causative agent. Pyridoxine and pyridostigmine have helped in early recovery (within 1–2 weeks) of vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy in a case series of patients. The cases of this drug causing peripheral neuropathy are more common in pediatric age group than adults.

Treatment of cause.
Treatment of symptom which may or may not include tracheostomy depending on the airway.
Speech therapy.
Patient counseling to cope with living with hoarseness and associated symptoms.

REFERENCE
1)Stell and Maran’s Head and Neck Surgery

2)NICE research articles

3)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045940/

4)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20532679/

Thankful Thursdays:Silent Gratitude what good is it?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on May 31, 2018 37

The prompt this week is interesting .It’s about silent gratitude.Its about when you don’t acknowledge your thankfulness.

Does it work?
Does just feeling thankful work?
If you feel thankful in your heart and say something else with your lips ,is it bad?
Why do you think Thank you is a golden word?
When at school we were taught the three little Golden words

Please ,thank you

and sorry

These 3 together can open all doors for you.
When you dont say thank you ,you deny the universe something.

When you dont say thank you,you stop your chances of getting more of the same.

Do you thank your help ?Do you thank your friends?Your spouse and children?
When you say thank you people feel appreciated.When someones having a bad day, an unepected thank you will help boost them up.
Appreciation is the best way of positive reinforcement.

If you want people to do what you want thank them for their work.
If you want to get along with people,the right way ,thank them .

My daughter listens to new chores easily ,when I thank her for her earlier good behaviour.

It’s the little angels birthday on the 23rd of February and she is turning five!Thats something I am very thankful for.Thank you God for always blessing me.

Thanks Mayuri for always coming up with brain teasers as prompts.

The super creative and energetic Shalini of Shalzmojo.in is our #ThankfulThursdays winner this week .Read her winning post here.
We love you Shalini.

Congratulations Shalini !Ypur creative spirit and enthusiasm is inspiring.Love all that you are doing on your blog .Sending you loads of love and best wishes

Shalini also has a fun book review guest post offer on her blog.check out the goodies here

Our #ThankfulThursdays team has #Womanpower

Meet Tina ,Me(Amrita).Deepa,and Mayuri

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Casio Stimulus to my kid’s Development: #CasioMini Review

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on May 31, 2018 17

Casio – Stimulus to my kid’s Development

I am a Bengali and Bengali parents love training their kids in the creative field. Music lessons, dance lessons, art lessons were all part of my childhood journey. While I enjoyed singing and learning to play the harmonium, I never liked the part about sitting down quietly while playing the same. I could have never imagined that I could achieve any certification in the music field but my mother who was also my teacher encouraged me at every step.

Time has flown so quickly and now I am donning the hat of a wife and a mother. It is a dual responsibility and I try my level best to fulfill the same with utmost care and love. Being a parent, you need to always observe the likes and dislikes of your child so that you can help them when they are growing up. When my daughter was around two and a half years old, I heard her humming a nursery rhyme.

It was a great moment for me and I immediately asked my husband if we could enroll her for music classes. He knows that I have taken preliminary musical training and hence encouraged me to take up the responsibility of teaching music to our daughter. Since I had lost touch with music, especially the keyboard which was an integral part of my childhood, I started re-learning the same. I would have lost touch with the Casio Mini Keyboard if not for my daughter.

This was the best thing that happened since along with singing rhymes, my daughter also learned to play the keyboard from a very young age. Now, she is six years old and I teach her music in an incremental fashion so that she enjoys as well as learns music.

Phonological awareness – A basic part of language skill?

While I did know the ability of music to improve the understanding of phonetics, it was when my daughter started reading early; I realized the role it has played in her language and vocabulary development. Research says that teaching music helps children learn faster. Maximum age of
brain plasticity is first 1000 days of life (around three years). But the sensitivity of the brain to
learn from listening to music may stay up to the age of 11 years.

Casio – Stimulus to my kid’s Development #CasioMini

Musical Keyboard – More than just a Keyboard

Keyboard training not only became a source of joy and creativity, but it also made my daughter more confident and helped in maintaining brain plasticity.

Many areas of our brain need to work together to understand and reproduce
music and this is what I saw when I started playing music with my daughter. Learning to play the keyboard helped in improving her cognitive skills. Music also helped in the development of her primary language skills as well as second language reading and writing skills.

Some of the benefits of learning music at an early age were not known to us but the results started showing up with each passing day. Early music training developed her speech processing
skills, which in turn resulted in better phonological perception and improved reading skills.

How did my daughter learn to play the Casio Mini keyboard?

The Piano Apps on her tablet
Instructional DVDs
YouTube videos.

Takeaway:

We could see the necessary results since we made music learning fun. In a nutshell, music is not only a source of joy but something that helps in the improvement of your child’s cognitive reserve. To achieve these amazing results, you need to actively participate daily for a few minutes and then your daughter would keep on practicing on her own.

Looking back, I realize that the important decision of buying a musical instrument, specifically the Casio Mini Keyboard changed our lives as well as my daughter’s life forever. I am sure that when she grows up, she would fondly remember the days that she spent on the keyboard and I would remember the keyboard as a stimulus to my daughter’s overall development.

Baby First Baby Soap & Powder Review: What Mommy wants

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on May 28, 2018 33

I studied very hard for most of my life to become a doctor .

Then one day I become a Mommy .I realized life will never be the same again .

I always choose skin care products carefully ,as I have sensitive skin. But for my baby I am obsessive.I do intensive googling and brainstorming with my husband ,to choose only the best product for my baby.

3 Things I always do before using any new products:

Read reviews online and product label/Product description.
If I don’t know about any component,I check several scientific research articles about the ingredients.
Use it on my skin after skin testing.
If these steps don’t raise any worries the product is used on baby after skin testing

I was asked to try the BABY FIRST soap and powder .Both the products went through all these steps ,before I was satisfied enough to write a review

(Disclaimer :this is a sponsored post ,written after using the products under review. All opinions are mine .Use products on baby after proper skin testing and consultation with your doctor.)

BABY FIRST BABY POWDER

Ingredient:

It is FDA approved product and has Aloe vera extract, corn starch and talc.Aloe vera extract has 75 potentially active constituents like vitamins, enzymes, minerals, sugars, lignin, saponins, salicylic acids and amino acids.(Ref) .Aloe vera helps in moisturizing the skin and acts as an antiseptic agent.Aloe vera has 6 antiseptic agents. They all inhibit action of fungi, bacteria and viruses.Recently, the novel anti-inflammatory compound called C-glucosyl chromone was isolated from Aloe vera gel extracts.(Ref)

Mucopolysaccharides in aloe extract , bind moisture to the skin. Aloe also stimulates fibroblast production,which in turn produces collagen and elastin fibers.This makes skin elastic and reduces redness.

The corn starch and talc protect against frictional injury due to clothes and diaper..It’s very fine and soft to touch.Easily absorbed and leaves behind a delicate baby fragrance .It’s perfect for hot humid climate where the baby needs to be kept comfortable and avoid getting itchy.

The package:

I loved the grip of the baby powder plastic bottles .The 3 finger grip on either side ,makes it very easy to hold . It prevents slipping even if you are in a hurry.The mandatory cute baby pic makes this product easily recognizable.

The powder is available in a convenient 100gm pack.

BABY FIRST BABY SOAP

The baby soap is totally animal fat free made up purely of vegetable fat. It also contains vitamin E making it perfect for the tender skin of your little angel .It cleans gently while bathing ,with a soft foam without drying .

Best parts it is FDA approved and does not contain any unnecessary ingredients. The baby soap packaging I felt could be better .
Overall a great experience using both the products .Definitely recommended .

The soap is available in 100gm,50gm and 25 gm packs.

Have you used Baby first Baby powder and soap?

If you haven’t used it ,what did you like best about the products?Let me know in the comments below.

Guest Blogging for mompreneurs :Dos and donts(List of 200+guest blog site)

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on May 28, 2018 36

Google likes fresh content.But what with writing , researching getting images tailored for the log and sharing on social media writing every day can seem difficult if not downright impossible.

That’s why most big websites have an option of guest posting .Guest posting on sites with good domain authority will help you improve your site’s value in Google eye.

How does that happen?

Generally guest posts are allowed one link in their author bio .This link is to their blog and may be to their twitter handle .

So that’s great right ?

Yes , it’s great .But the main problem is people get into two minds about guest posting .

Shouldn’t they write to increase their own blogs content ?

Yes you should .But in early days of your blog your traffic and regular readers may not be enough to do justice to your content.That’s when guest posting on authority sites help .

What do you look for when you guest post?

What’s the DA of the site ?Check ahref .It should definitely be better than yours .Previously alexa was a big deal.But nowadays its importance is being re evaluated .But still definitely look at the Alexa of the site you want to guest post at.

Whether the blog is in my niche?

Is my audience here ?

Check buzzsumo for most shared content for that blog.You will get an idea what kind of topic does well there.

What should you do then ?

Write an amazing post on a well researched topic with preferably a wonderful tailor made opt in ready for the audience which comes from the other site .

Do not use churned content.This is the most important thing to remember.You want to make a great impression on the audience and the blog owner .Using second-hand content is the best way to put people off.

Guest Blogging for mompreneurs :Dos and donts(List of 200 + guest blog sites)

Should you allow guest post on your site ?

Guest posts on your site can be perfect for the times you want to go on a vacation .

What should you know before accepting a guest post ?

1)Whether the author is using this guest post as a sponsored post ?

2)If it has a link to a site which sells something or a brand page be careful about allowing them to post on your site for free.It will appear as a sponsored post .

3)Is it original content ?

None of us like churned content.

There’s a reason why Ezine article directories are no longer popular.Having a lot of duplicate content on your site is plain bad news for your site’s ranking and authority. While it’s great to trust people to be honest,you have to be careful with your baby ,hubby ,family and blog .

Do you want your good name to be under scrutiny ?

Even worse Google may give you a penalty for having such content on your site .At worst you may be blacklisted ?

So what should you check before accepting guest posts for your site ?

Does it fit your audience interest?

Is it original content ?

Plagiarism checker free tools are available online .

You can also use copyscape to check the content after privately publishing it .

Also don’t forget to use Google to check whether content is copied?

Just type the title in the search bar and see what Google throws up .

Then read through at least some of the posts to see whether your guest post is inspired or churned?

Sometimes the plagiarism checker can’t tell if the language is changed keeping the content same.Believe me these things happen.It has happened with me!Professional churners know exactly what to do.

Also some people may offer you authorship and money for guest posting on your site .Again it may look lucrative but don’t forget to check.Why would someone guest post and give you authorship ?

That’s because their names may be blacklisted by Google .Content churning can make google search results of poor quality .That’s why Google actively stops that by penalizing sites and authors who does that .

Simple Rules for guest posting on my site

I never accept churned , duplicate content .No amount of money will help you with this one , so don’t try it.

Check the niches specified for my blog . I accept guest posts on health,wellness, lifestyle , parenting , travel and blogging tips targeted for women.

I accept only well written and researched articles with proper references cited(depending on topic).

Only submit articles ,whose copyright you have.

After publishing on my site all rights are mine.

For sponsored posts please mention upfront.

For guest posts linking back to paid content and service pages, terms and conditions vary.

Write to me at dramrita@healthwealthbridge.com with your website link, your bio and a few words on why you think my blog is a good fit for you. Don’t forget to send me links to other guest posts you have done.

Get the 200+ list of Guest post sites by clicking here

What do you think of guest posting on your site and others?

Comment below to let me know.

Thankful Thursdays:Thankful for Love

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on May 28, 2018 17

Did you know , Love has healing power?

There’s something about love.Just something few understand and even fewer get.Love is deeply interlinked to our health and well-being. People can die of a broken heart!

There’s real science to back up this claim.I wrote about how being social is good for your mental health.

The same holds true for love.Loving is great for your emotional well-being. But be careful .It needs to be balanced and reciprocated for – health benefits.

I am thankful for love in my life .

Love for The Almighty .

Love for this beautiful life.

Love for my daughter ,my family.

Love for nature and books.

Love for learning and challenges.

Love for serving.

Love for sharing.

Love for always trying .

Love is like air.You really can’t live without it.

When all your wishes come true ,everything becomes empty if you can’t share with someone you love.

That’s the beauty of love.

The truth of the universe.God loves us and that’s why he wanted us to feel love. That’s one emotion which can only be expressed by someone, who has loved.

To be loving is good .

To have loved is great.

But to have experienced reciprocation in your love …that’s something to be thankful for this #ThankfulThursday.

Have you ever loved,deeply madly with abandon?

Comment below to let me know and link up your love posts .

Meet team #ThankfulThursdays