Do I have rheumatoid arthritis or chikungunya?

Today, it is common to hear that an acquaintance, friend or family member has arthritis, but it is important to know that there are different types of arthritis. It is generally divided into non-inflammatory arthritis and inflammatory arthritis. The most common non-inflammatory arthritis is degenerative arthritis, known as osteoarthritis. The most common inflammatory arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although at present we see many cases of inflammatory arthritis chikungunya virus, we must be able to recognize other types of inflammatory arthritis, since treatment varies between these.

Infection with chikungunya virus has an incubation period of two to seven days after being bitten by the mosquito. Affected individuals have a high fever, followed by pain and swelling of the joints (arthritis), among other symptoms such as muscle pain, headache and rash. The presentation of arthritis is sudden then start with fever and joints are affected on both sides of the body of immigration way.

Joints commonly affected by the virus are the joints of the hands, feet, wrists and ankles, but has also been reported arthritis in the elbows, shoulders and knees. The fever may last from one to seven days. All symptoms usually resolve before two weeks, but in some cases the signs and symptoms of arthritis may persist for months.

Furthermore, RA is a disease characterized by inflammation of three or more joints on both sides of the body, with a symmetrical pattern, for over six weeks.

The inflammation results in joint pain, numbness mañanero (usually lasts over an hour) and swelling of the same. The joints may be affected are the hands, wrists, cervical spine (neck), elbows, shoulders, knees, ankles and feet. Other extra-articular manifestations include malaise, fatigue, nodules under the skin, anemia, inflammation of the eyes or lungs.

If not treated in time can cause erosions or fusion of joint bones (ankylosis), resulting in destruction of the affected joint, limitation of motion and deformity.

Unlike the clinical presentation of chikungunya virus, the AR is not characterized by a prior viral high fever or rash. Your doctor can differentiate with the clinical presentation and laboratory.

Treatment of RA include anti-inflammatory drugs that prevent progression of the disease and physical therapy. Medications recommended that prevent disease progression are methotrexate, sulfasalazine, hydroxychloroquine, and leflunomide.

Biological drugs, which act by selectively inhibiting inflammatory cells and molecules are also used. The goal of treatment is to achieve remission or low activity of the condition, prevent joint destruction, and help people stay active. Each patient is individual, and if the AR is not controlled with medication, to be replaced by another at the right time.

In contrast, treatment of the early stage of infection with chikungunya virus consists of hydration, and reduce the symptoms with drugs to reduce fever, pain control and inflammation. Recommended medications are acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. You should see a rheumatologist if symptoms persist, or if there is doubt the correct diagnosis.

Asteroid contains nearly $ 200,000 million in gold and water

Potential impact of an asteroid like 2012 DA14 with Earth causes fear these celestial bodies, but the resources inside the home become a "gold mine" worth billions of dollars.

This estimate is the American company that makes Deep Space Industries (DSI) has calculated that the asteroid "rub" our planet this Friday contains $ 65.000 million in water and recovered $ 130.000 billion in metals.

These figures could awaken a "new gold rush" in the not too distant future, he said in an interview with Efe, Stephen Covey, director of research and development and founder of DSI.

Covey said that "space is so vast that there for everyone," but those asteroids that are at a reasonable distance from the Earth will be wanting to stakeholders.

The adventure will not be easy and the high cost, but the chances of these giant rocks, composed of water and metals such as iron, gold and platinum, leading some to believe that the effort is worth it.

These heavenly bodies considered the debris left after the formation of the solar system house "all that our civilization needs to expand into the space and to provide our needs here and increase the wealth of our economy," said Covey.

DSI believed to reach the "playing field" even before it has started really can help "set the rules and make us-and our investors-win."

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will go 27,700 miles from the Earth's surface, a record close in astronomical terms.

However, the asteroid is not a good target because its orbit is tilted relative to the Earth, so much energy is required to "hunt".

The company intends to exploit these asteroids in dragging them into the low earth orbit space, because in a time when NASA aims to bring longer manned, would be like an "oasis" for refueling.

Your goal is to turn the asteroid material in metal components and water collected in the form of ice use it for rocket fuel. All this within a decade.

Covey said the shipment of fuel, water and materials as has been done to assemble the International Space Station (ISS) has a cost of at least $ 10 million per tonne, even using the new low-cost vehicles.

Also, bear in Space "service stations" can serve to extend the life of hundreds of communication satellites that orbit stop when they run out of fuel and are destroyed, creating space junk.

The company, which plans to have its own fleet of space vehicles, already have in your schedule their first mission, in 2015, to make a reconnaissance trip to an asteroid.

First they launched a small satellite explorers on a one way mission, with a duration of between two and six months for possible candidates and study its composition more closely.

The idea is to use technology to research microsatellites ("CubeSats") using electronic components and do not weigh more than a kilo.

Expect to have to fund this mission with investors and clients as the American space agency (NASA) and sponsoring companies.

In 2016 expect to make the first mission with an unmanned spacecraft that could take two to three years to collect samples and bring them back to analyze its composition.

The company, which plans to have at first ships of private space companies, is also designing their own models to create a reusable vehicle that allows bringing into orbit small fragments of asteroids.

The vehicle displayed a kind of metallic tentacle cables deployed to surround the meteorite and drag as if carrying a large bag.

In the not too distant future, some 20 years, Covey predicts that there will be human settlements in different parts of the solar system that make use of large communications platforms and solar power stations.

Currently there are two American companies -DSI and Planetary Resources (in which Google co-founder Larry Page participate) - interested in exploiting these resources.

It remains to be seen whether it is fiction or science projects have mining as a new destination space.

Professor of Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Richard Binzel, agrees that eventually asteroids can be exploited to obtain resources and become points "step transaction" for manned missions to planets as Mars.

However, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, found that DSI effort to approach Earth asteroids "may be decades ahead of his time," and being a little too optimistic. Binzel insisted, however, that "at some point you have to start."

Whistles, straws and bubbles help children to speak better

The first impression of Mary about the alleged successful specialized speech therapy was not good. His son Diego has a significant problem of articulation, low oral muscle tone, always has the mouth open and the tongue between the teeth; sometimes drools and takes everything in her mouth. She wore a long speech therapist observed without much progress and decided to look for another alternative. The evaluation was excellent and when they discussed the results could imply that an oral sensory engine problem was the cause of the problems of your child's speech.

He had very good references of this new therapy and arrived on the first day of it with great expectation, which was disappearing when the specialist put Diego to blow bubbles, blowing a whistle, take a straw and with a tube to bite plastic wheels, after we have spent a small foam at the mouth and a vibrator the size of a pen.

As therapy progressed, the feeling that he had lost his time, money, and worst, hope, seized Mary. However, when she finished therapy and therapist explained why "therapy materials" used, a new sensation in Mary arose: the knowledge that had come to the right place and that was the therapy I needed his son.



A speech therapy with bubbles, whistles and straws? What are we talking about?

To blow a whistle or bubbles a child needs to project the lips outward as if to kiss or say the vowel u, requires that the jaw is stable and that the tongue from falling back to the lips to hold the whistle and not bite and good control of the air flow. These are the same skills needed to produce speech sounds.

The use of oral tactile stimulation with sponges (especially for mouth) and vibration cause increased oral sensation, which will result in increased oral awareness, which is necessary to produce speech sounds, as well as to eliminate the need to put everything in their mouths. It will also prevent the child into your mouth as big mouthfuls of food that can choke and suffocate, which would endanger his life.

The use of a tube to chew, known as "chewy tube", helps children develop good oral tone, mature skill to chew, to tolerate more variety of foods and strengthen the jaw. The stabilization of the mandible support a more accurate speech production.

The increase of some oral sensory-motor skills using these materials in a clinically pre-established hierarchy, helps children to diminish or eliminate the drooling to keep the jaw in place, attach the lips to close mouth and swallow saliva because he feels as well as the development of improved feeding skills (chewing, swallowing); all these previous skills are associated with development of speech sounds.

The approach in speech therapy or oral therapy called OPT placement (English acronym for "oral placement therapy") based on the premise that working with relatively simple objects placed in the mouth, but a hierarchy of difficulty and with a specific purpose, oral sensory-motor skills necessary for the production of speech sounds and safer food are stimulated.

Oral placement therapy was developed in the USA by the speech-language pathologist Sara Rosenfeld Johnson and is currently used in speech therapy centers around the world.



Did it work oral placement therapy Diego?

After mastering a hierarchy of several different whistles and straws, jaw exercise daily at home and to encourage chewing mouth with an oral vibrator with various tips, sponges, brushes and even a material freezes to further increase the tone and oral sensation Diego currently no drooling, no one takes anything in their mouths (which remains closed), chew well and, best of all, has overcome the problem of articulation, which is slightly longer.

Mary saw that once he started working with oral placement therapy, speech of his son began to be clearer and it was easier for him to continue developing the sounds that had not yet developed. No single therapy has been effective, but it has enjoyed Diego because for him it was almost a game.

¿Therapies whistles, straws, bubbles and chew sticks? What are we talking about? From oral placement therapy: a novel and effective approach for children with speech problems.

Adults: Vaccines are not just for kids!

That is, the need for vaccination does not end with childhood! Each year, thousands of adults in America suffer serious health problems, are hospitalized or die from diseases that can be prevented with vaccines such as influenza (flu), pertussis, certain bacterial infections, hepatitis A and B , shingles (herpes zoster) and some cancers, including cervical and liver. Talk to your doctor today to find out what vaccines are recomnedables for you.

Most people do not know that adults need vaccines. Although many know it recommended to get a flu vaccine every year, few people are aware of the need for other vaccines to help protect your health.

The protection provided by some childhood vaccine fades over time, leaving adults vulnerable to disease. For example, cases of pertussis have increased in recent years and more than 41,000 reported in 2012 have learned that the protection granted by the DTaP vaccine against whooping cough, which are given to children, not hard to adulthood so now they are recommended for all adults who receive one dose of Tdap vaccine against the disease.

The adults are also other vaccines may be recommended depending on your age, job, hobbies, travel and health. In addition, they can recommend others if they did not receive certain vaccines as children or adolescents. Check your vaccination records to make sure they have been vaccinated against HPV (HPV for short) and the triple vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR, for its acronym in English). You may also need the varicella vaccine, if you did not get the job or have not had the disease.

Some adults, including the elderly and those with chronic conditions may be at higher risk for serious complications if they get some vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, because in old age increases the chances of developing shingles, the CDC recommends that adults get the shot against the disease at age 60. People with diabetes, heart disease and COPD or asthma, if well controlled, even more likely to have complications from influenza than those who do not have those conditions. To prevent complications, such as pneumonia, people with these chronic conditions should also receive pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.

But those are not the only reasons to keep up with vaccines.

Vaccination of adults is needed because not only protects the person receiving the vaccine, but can also help prevent the transmission of certain diseases to their loved ones and those in the community who are most vulnerable (such as those with weakened immune systems and babies). They do not have a choice, but you will.

Vaccinations are available at doctors' offices and other accessible places like pharmacies, workplaces, community clinics and health departments.

Discover supermassive black hole

A team of astronomers from Mexico, UK, Chile and the United States discovered" might be the most massive black hole in the nearby Universe ", reported the Institute of Astrophysics of Mexico.

This supermassive hole, located in the galaxy Holm 15A, may have a greater mass of 10,000 million times the Sun, and even be comparable to that of our entire galaxy, the institution said in a statement.

Black holes "are more common than we thought," said Dr. Omar López-Cruz, researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) and project leader.

These objects, "very compact and massive," occur because the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light and thus become places where not even light can escape, he said.

Each galaxy, he said, "could have a black hole in the center. Milky Way, for example, can have a black hole roughly five million solar masses," a pairing that follows the "scaling laws" is you say is the bigger the galaxy, the bigger the corresponding black hole.

The germ of the discovery of the researcher and his team, which will be reported in the next two months in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, has its origin in the doctoral thesis of López-Cruz, through which had an initial meeting with Holm galaxy 15A, located in the cluster Abell 85.

Then noticed it was "rare" in the sense that its central part was very flat, but by that time there "had to compare it," recalled the researcher.

The situation changed when another group of American colleagues discovered in 2012, a galaxy which they described as "the flattest seen so far."

Through observations from databases and other radio telescopes, X-ray, optical and infrared, López-Cruz found that the Holm 15A, formed from "eat and devour other galaxies," has "central to most TV and bigger, "18 times the average, and has indicators that have a ultramassive hole.

Moreover, the team is proposing new observations to check if two black holes instead of one, on the theory that "the flat parts of the galaxy are produced by two binary black holes orbiting each other, they begin to disperse nearby stars and deflect the center of the galaxy. "

Thus, the finding reinforces previous astronomical discoveries, such as Dr. John G. Hoessel contributed in 1980, and argued that this galaxy was "special"; a figure that remained as a mere "curiosity" to date.

The investigation of López-Cruz does not end here, since it notes that another galaxy discovered that "marks the breaking of the scaling laws to the proposed time" with the mass of black holes with the properties of the galaxy was related in those found.

In the report the discovery team, plus López-Cruz, Christopher Añorve are Hector Ibarra Medel, M. Birkinshaw teachers and DM Worrall, Wayne A. Barkhouse, Juan Pablo Torres and Veronica Motta Papaqui.

Eight good reasons to eat oatmeal

Eight good reasons to eat oatmeal
Oatmeal is a herbaceous annual crop that was used, initially, for animal consumption. However, due to their large estates, gradually began to integrate into the diets of civilizations and peoples.

He is currently one of the most consumed cereal in the world for decades, and their great nutritional qualities have made ​​it the most complete cereal, and an important part of our diets.

In addition, oats can also be an excellent ally in skin care and because of this, many companies are beauty and health treatments that have decided to include it in their products.

With information from UNAM Foundation, knows the qualities of oatmeal ...

1-bye cholesterol: Oatmeal is high in fiber and vitamins in addition to substances known as beta-glucans, which absorb the cholesterol and bile acids from the intestine.
2-not more pills! It is a great source of protein and vitamins. It can provide essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids and fats, fiber, vitamins B and E, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc.
3-Easy Weight Loss: Oatmeal generates a feeling of fullness due to its high fiber content. Also, you'll lose weight thanks to its slimming properties because it stimulates diuresis.
4-No more tired: This cereal provides carbohydrates that provide energy for a long time, which will keep you feeling tired or sleepy.
5-High in Zinc: Zinc is a mineral that helps in the growth, the immune system and wound healing, as well as in the metabolism of proteins.
6-Great help for people with diabetes: The high zinc content and complex carbohydrates that have oats help stabilize blood sugar and metabolize insulin, a great benefit for people with diabetes.
7-Excellent antioxidant: Oats contain high amounts of selenium, which acts as an antioxidant, plus it protects our bodies from cancer, cardiac disorders and premature aging.
8-is a highly versatile cereal: You can eat cooked or raw oats, ground into flour and even desserts or add to soups.
And you, you're a fan of oats? if you're not invite you just start to consume oats in your daily diet and see positive results for your life.

More children affected by electronic cigarettes

As has flourished electronic cigarette industry has increased the number of children exposed to the liquid nicotine, which is harmful if swallowed or in contact with skin .Liquid nicotine dangerous if swallowed or comes in contact with skin .


As has flourished electronic cigarette industry has increased the number of children exposed to feeding liquid nicotine vaporizers manuals, toxicology experts say.

More than 2,700 people have called this year to poison control offices to denounce the liquid nicotine exposure, more than half of the cases in children under six years, according to national statistics. The figures show a sharp increase from a few hundred cases three years ago.

Electronic vaporizers battery resemble traditional cigarettes work by heating liquid nicotine into an inhalable mist substance. The drug offers flavors of goodies that make it attractive for small, which increases the risk of exposure.

"With children, we witnessed exposure usually occurs when parents or family members leave the spare bulbs," said Ashley Webb, director of the Regional Poison Control Center of Kentucky.

Experts often see an increase in emergency calls from new products, Webb said. The number of users of electronic cigarettes has risen to several million worldwide, and the industry has grown in four years from $ 82 million to 2,500 million in annual sales, of which at least 500 million from liquid nicotine.

Despite the recent increase, the liquid nicotine exposures are still less than half of those attributed to traditional cigarettes, but potentially more toxic, said Robert Bassett, toxicologist in Philadelphia.

"It could be really difficult for a child to eat a whole box of cigarettes, but we are now dealing with this highly concentrated form in which one gathers more than a box of cigarettes in a small amount is swallowed," confirmed the toxicologist.

Bassett provided advice in the case of a 10 month old baby who drank a bottle refill while her mother was back. The child recovered in hours but vomited and her heart beat furiously when he was taken to the emergency room.

The liquid nicotine is not only harmful if swallowed, as their contact to the skin may also be toxic.