Read on to learn how your everyday habits can lead to heart conditions and how you can take active steps to minimize your risk factors.

1. Eating habit

What you eat and in how much quantity has a direct impact on the health of your body's blood pumping mechanism. According to the Framingham Heart Study, a longitudinal study that has helped scientists understand the development and progression of heart disease and its risk factors since 1948, the higher your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for heart disease. Following a diet low in saturated fat reduces your cholesterol levels. One such diet program known as the Pritikin Program that focuses on unprocessed or minimally processed straight-from-nature foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, starchy vegetables, lean meat and seafood, has been found to be effective in preventing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and obesity. It is important not just to eat the right stuff but also to watch the amount of your intake. It is common knowledge that obesity increases the risk of heart disease so maintaining a healthy weight is very important to achieving a healthy heart. Read more about this at the Healthbase website.

2. Drinking habit

Although research has revealed an association between moderate alcohol consumption and lower risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), experts believe that drinking more than 2 alcoholic drinks per day increases a person's risk for high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. It should also be kept in mind that moderate drinking is not risk free. Alcohol consumption can lead to several other chronic illnesses like cancer, liver cirrhosis, and trauma.

3. Smoking habit

Cigarette smokers have a higher risk of developing several chronic disorders including fatty buildups in arteries called atherosclerosis, which is a leading cause of death from smoking. Many studies have shown that cigarette smoking is a major cause of coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack. Studies also show that cigarette smoking is an important risk factor for stroke. Women who take oral contraceptives and smoke increase their risk of stroke many times. Smoking also creates a higher risk for peripheral arterial disease and aortic aneurysm. Also, about 22,700 to 69,600 premature deaths from heart and blood vessel disease are caused by other people's smoke each year. So, by smoking you harm not only yourself but also your innocent neighbors.

4. Exercising habit

A sedentary lifestyle with complete physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke and is linked to cardiovascular mortality. Regular physical activity helps control blood lipid abnormalities, diabetes and obesity. Aerobic exercises such as brisk walking, jogging, skipping rope, bicycling and dancing can help reduce blood pressure and are good for your heart when done regularly for 30 minutes or longer every day or on most days. Even moderately intense physical activity such as walking for pleasure, gardening and yard work are beneficial for the heart when done regularly on a daily basis.

5. Behavioral habit

Anger and uncontrolled stress can lead to high blood pressure which in turn increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke. Anger and stress management techniques can be helpful in reducing your stress level and, therefore, your risk factor for heart disease. Some examples of reducing your stress level are practicing yoga, meditation and laughter therapy.

Prevention is much better and much less expensive than cure. Cardiac treatments like CABG (coronary artery bypass graft), cardiac valve repair, cardiac valve replacement, bypass surgery, double bypass surgery, triple bypass surgery, quadruple bypass surgery, heart transplant, and so on can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It takes discipline and perseverance to incorporate changes into your daily habits but it is not impossible to do so. So talk to your physician today about how to change your habits and your lifestyle for a healthier heart.

The author works for Healthbase (www.healthbase.com), a medical tourism facilitator that connects cardiac and other patients to high quality surgical and non-surgical healthcare and dental care abroad for a fraction of cost in the US, Canada and UK.

Injuries are an inevitable part of playing any sport, be it tennis, squash, football, baseball, hockey, cycling, golf or any other. Just like defeats don't stop an athlete from moving on, physical injuries should not prevent you from playing sports because there almost always is a way to treat the injury and even major injuries can now be treated affordably through medical tourism.

TYPES OF INJURIES

Sports injuries may range from bruises and muscle strains, to fractures and head injuries. The most common sports injuries are:

Ligament sprains and muscle strains

Swollen muscles

Knee injuries (torn meniscus, runner's knee or patellofemoral pain syndrome, jumper's knee, articular surface problems, problems with the kneecap)

Knee ligament injuries (torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), torn medial collateral ligament (MCL))

Shoulder injuries (rotator cuff tears, glenoid labrum tear)

Tendon injuries (Achilles tendon injuries, DeQuervain's syndrome or washerwoman's sprain or mother's wrist)

Pain along the shin bone (shin splints)

Bone fractures (scaphoid fracture, hip fracture)

Dislocations (shoulders, fingers, knees, wrists, elbows)

Spine injuries (herniated disk, sciatica, lumbar spinal stenosis)

TREATMENT OPTIONS

To accelerate the overall healing process it's important that the initial phase (inflammatory phase) of the injury be minimized with the initial treatments. Treatment often begins with the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) regime to relieve pain, reduce swelling and speed healing. Other possible treatments include pain relievers, keeping the injured area from moving, rehabilitation and sometimes surgery.

SURGICAL TREATMENT OF INJURIES

Surgery is recommended when the more conservative methods of healing and physical therapy have failed to relieve pain and restore normal function. Based on the site and extent of injury and evaluation by your doctor, the surgical approach used could be traditional or laparoscopic (keyhole).

The most common surgeries to treat sports-related injuries are:

Knee replacement (total or partial)

ACL repair or reconstruction

Meniscectomy

Arthroscopic surgery (knee arthroscopy, shoulder arthroscopy, spinal arthroscopy, wrist arthroscopy, ankle arthroscopy, hip arthroscopy)

Tendon repair surgery

Laminectomy or laminotomy

Discectomy or microdiscectomy

Bone fracture repair surgery

Hip replacement

Hip hemiarthroplasty

Birmingham hip resurfacing

Spinal decompression surgery

MEDICAL TOURISM AND SURGERY

If you are insured, your insurance may cover the cost of surgery. But if you have to pay for the surgery out of pocket it may cost you a fortune to have the surgery in the US. Therefore, Americans are increasingly shopping for surgical care in other countries - medical tourism - where the cost of surgery is much less while at the same time the quality offered is superior to what is available in the US.

When William Nilsson, an uninsured American, sustained knee injuries while playing football and tore his knee ligaments while playing golf, he resorted to an Indian hospital to get a total knee replacement surgery so he could return to his sports hobbies. Assisted by Healthbase, a medical tourism facilitator based in Boston, he managed to have his surgery for $6,500. The same surgery in the US would have cost him between $30,000 and $40,000.

Similarly, Daniel Biggs broke a tendon in his hand when playing golf. He had his tendon repair surgery coordinated by Healthbase in Panama for which he paid $5,500 - a price that was a mere 20% of what he was quoted in the United States.

These are just two examples of the hundreds and thousands of people traveling overseas to seek affordable health care for sports-related injuries as well as non-sports related conditions. Countries such as Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and India are popular medical tourism destinations for such treatments.

Price differential is the leading factor for the popularity of medical tourism. Other benefits of using medical tourism are access to high quality and immediate care. You may find more information about affordable medical tourism on the Healthbase website.

The author works for Healthbase (www.healthbase.com), a medical tourism facilitator that connects patients to high quality surgical and non-surgical healthcare and dental care abroad for a fraction of cost in the US, Canada and UK.

Back pains are as common as headaches. Most back pains disappear on their own with some rest and / or medication. Some may stay longer but can still be managed with conventional treatments of medication, therapy and back building exercises. But, there are a few types of back pain that are so chronic that they render the person disabled. Such chronic conditions necessitate surgery so as to improve the person’s condition.

There are different reasons that cause backaches. In this article we take a look into conditions caused by compression of the structures that form the spinal column, and the surgical solutions to these spine problems .

Conditions associated with spinal compression are: disc herniation, sciatica, spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis. To relieve pressure on one or many pinched nerves of the spinal column caused by the compression, spinal decompression surgery in its different forms - discectomy, laminectomy and foraminotomy - is employed. Let us start with a description of each of these conditions followed by an understanding of the surgical options.

CONDITIONS

Disc herniation: Discs or disks are pads of cartilage between two adjacent vertebrae (i.e. spinal bones) that separate the vertebrae and provide cushioning to them. When the disc herniates (moves out of place), the soft gel inside pushes through the wall of the disc putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerves that are coming out of the spinal column thereby resulting in a severely painful condition. Disc herniation can occur in any disc in the spine - cervical (neck), thoracic (upper back) or lumbar (lower back) region. Disc herniations occur especially in jobs that require lifting, but can also occur from jobs that require constant sitting.

Sciatica: Sciatica refers to pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the leg caused by injury to or compression of the sciatic nerve located in the back of the leg. Sciatica is a symptom of another medical problem, not a medical condition on its own. The sciatic nerve controls the muscles of the back of the knee and lower leg and provides sensation to the back of the thigh, part of the lower leg and the sole of the foot. Sciatica may be caused by degenerative disc disease (DDD), pelvic injury or fracture, piriformis syndrome (a pain disorder involving the narrow piriformis muscle in the buttocks), slipped disk, spinal stenosis, tumors, etc.

Spinal stenosis: Affecting mainly middle-aged or elderly people, spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal in the lumbar (lower back) or cervical (neck) region that results in compression of the nerve roots. It may be caused by osteoarthritis or Paget’s disease or by an injury that causes pressure on the nerve roots or the spinal cord itself.

Spondylolisthesis: Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a vertebra in the lower back slips forward and onto a vertebra below it. The slip usually occurs between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. In adults, it is most commonly caused by a degenerative disease such as osteoarthritis. Other causes are stress fractures (caused during gymnastics), traumatic fractures, and bone diseases.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Depending upon the underlying reason behind the above conditions, surgical decompression might be used to help relieve the pain. Surgical spinal decompression can take the form of a diskectomy, a laminectomy, or a foraminotomy.

Spinal discectomy: Diskectomy or discectomy is the removal of all or part of the affected disc. Spinal discectomy can be done in a few different ways:

Microdiscectomy or microdiskectomy: This is a minimally invasive way of carrying out the discectomy procedure so that the bones, joints, ligaments or muscles of your spine are not touched resulting in faster healing and recovery.

Lumbar diskectomy: Lumbar discectomy, as the name implies, is performed to address conditions of the lumbar spine or lower part of the back. It may also be part of a larger surgery that also includes a laminectomy, foraminotomy, or spinal fusion (fusing the vertebrae together to stop motion at the painful joint).

Cervical diskectomy: Cervical discectomy is performed to treat conditions of the cervical spine or the neck region of the spine. It is most often done with laminectomy, foraminotomy, or fusion.

Spinal laminectomy: A laminectomy is the removal of a small portion of the arch of the vertebra to increase the size of the spinal canal to alleviate the pressure on the spinal cord and the pinched nerve. Laminectomy is most commonly performed to treat spinal stenosis. It is usually done along with a diskectomy, foraminotomy, and spinal fusion. Laminectomy can be done either using the conventional open method or using the minimally invasive method.

Spinal foraminotomy: A foraminotomy is the removal of bone and other tissue to expand the openings for the nerve roots to exit the spinal cord. Foraminotomy, which be performed on any level (region) of the spine, takes pressure off of a nerve in the spinal column and allows it to move more easily. The procedure is commonly performed as a minimally invasive procedure.

Spinal decompression surgery is successful in relieving pressure and pain in 80% to 90% of patients. When your back pain is getting the better of you, a decompression surgery can greatly help improve your quality of life.

As for Jill Misangyi, she feels her life after surgery has taken a total turn around for the good. She is off all pain medication and is back exercising building muscle. Her 16 years of painful prolonged waiting for surgery at an NHS hospital in Canada are wasted but she considers herself lucky to have found out about Healthbase and affordable medical tourism in India. She now has a second chance at life.

The author works for Healthbase (www.healthbase.com), a medical tourism facilitator that connects patients to high quality healthcare in USA and abroad for a fraction of the typical cost of care in US, Canada and UK.

But, this convenience comes with its share of baggage. Problems of the back are all too common, sometimes resulting from your lifestyle habits, sometimes caused by illnesses and injuries, and at other times due to other reasons. Treatment options for back pain range from conventional methods to surgical means. Read more about treatment options at Healthbase.

Anatomy of the spine

Your back and neck contain the spinal column or vertebral column which is made up of 33 individual bones called vertebrae and runs down from your skull to your pelvis. Between the vertebrae are circular pads of cartilage (connective tissue) called discs that are responsible for cushioning the vertebrae when you jump or run.

The spinal column can be divided into four regions (from top to bottom):

The 7 vertebrae at the top constitute the neck region or cervical spine

The next 12 vertebrae make the upper back or the thoracic region

The next 5 vertebrae are the lower back or lumbar vertebrae

The last group of bones at the base of the spine are fused together into what is known as the sacrum and coccyx

The lumbar region (low back) is where most of the pain is felt as it supports the weight of the upper body.

Types of back pain

When you have a backache, the pain may originate from the muscles, nerves, bones, vertebral joints, discs or other structures in the spine or the spinal column.

Most back pains are temporary and can be managed with rest and / or medication. Your physician may also prescribe therapy and regular back exercises to keep the pain at bay and your back in shape. However, there are some cases of back pain that are severe or chronic and require surgical invervention.

Spinal osteoarthritis

One cause of such a chronic long-term back pain is spinal arthritis or osteoarthritis of the spine. It is the mechanical breakdown of the cartilage between the vertebral joints in the back portion of the spine leading to mechanically induced pain.

In spinal osteoarthritis, the joints become inflamed and pain may be felt when performing even the simplest of activities like standing, sitting or walking. Over time, bone spurs i.e. small irregular growths on the bone, also called osteophytes, typically form on the vertebral joints and around the spinal vertebrae which may become so large as to cause irritation or entrapment of nerves passing through spinal structures and result in spinal stenosis (diminished room for the nerves to pass).

Classification of spinal osteoarthritis

When stiffness and pain are in the lower spine (lumbar spine) and sacroiliac joint (between the spine and the pelvis), it is classified as lower back osteoarthritis or lumbosacral arthritis. When the stiffness and pain are in the upper spine, neck, shoulders, arms and head, it is classified as neck (cervical spine) osteoarthritis or cervical spondylosis.

Causes of spinal osteoarthritis

The most common causes of spinal osteoarthritis are repetitive trauma to the spine from repetitive strains caused by accidents, surgery, sports injuries and poor posture. Other risk factors include aging, gender (more common in post-menopausal women), excess body weight, genetics, and associated diseases (like infections, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.).

Spine fusion surgery

For spinal arthritis, the only effective surgical treatment is spine fusion surgery which stops motion at the painful joint. In fusion, one or more of the vertebrae of the spine are united (fused together) using bone grafts so that motion no longer occurs between them.

Spinal fusion surgery is used to treat:

a fractured (broken) vertebra e.g. spondylolisthesis

deformity e.g. scoliosis or kyphosis (spinal curves or slippages)

pain from painful motion

instability

some cervical disc herniations (fusion together with discectomy)

weak or unstable spine caused by infections or tumors

If you need a spine fusion surgery and are uninsured, check out the medical tourism option that enables you to receive top quality surgery at a substantially discounted price.

About the author: The author works for Healthbase (www.healthbase.com), a medical tourism facilitator that connects patients to high quality healthcare in USA and abroad for a fraction of the typical cost of care in US, Canada and UK.