Recently released data about the WHO recommended weight-gain guidelines reflecting on obese women were also collaborated by the advice given by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, using BMI ranges set by these two national medical authorities.

It is said that these fresh guidelines are the first major advisory data specifically designed for over-weight women but they can also be used to chart healthy pregnancy for women hoping to conceive as getting in their ideal BMI range before getting pregnant would mean better health outcomes for both mother and child.

Among the chief points these updated guidelines stressed on were facts regarding ideal weight gain for obese, pregnant women ranging from 11 to 20 pounds being normal. The latter figures are now restricted to normal-weight women while underweight women could possibly pack on 28 to 40 pounds during pregnancy, according to the new adjustments for the 3 basic weight categories.

In fact, Dr. Patrick Catalano, Head of obstetrics and gynecology and professor at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio who was part of the committee that developed these new guidelines asserted that the need for a separate set of weight gain guidelines for obese women was felt due to their growing number.

The study centers on the body mass index ranges. (BMI is a ratio of weight to height and a common formula used to measure obesity by health professionals).

Dr. Catalano further offered practical advice for obese, pregnant women: “focus on what you are eating and concentrate on upping activity and exercise levels.” He feels pregnant women who are overweight should be counseled strongly.

Finally, he strongly negates the age-old approach of ‘eating for two’ and recommends this should be completely knocked out for reducing health risks such as high BP, gestational diabetes and still-birth normally associated with overweight pregnant women.

By: Deepanjolie Figg

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When it comes to diagnosing a range of medical conditions it can he a lot harder than you might think and this includes the diagnosis of headaches. Many people for instance who suffer from sinusitis, which is an inflammation of the sinus cavities causing head pain, believe that they have sinus headaches when they are in fact suffering from mild migraine.

For this reason if you are suffering from frequent headaches it is a good idea to talk to your physician and get a proper diagnosis. However, before you do so it is also a good idea to collect together some information to help your physician and this can best be done by keeping a headache diary.

Each time you have a headache you should note down when it starts and ends and describe as accurately as you can just where you feel pain and how severe that pain is. Is it for example a dull and constant pain, or a sharp stabbing pain which tends to come and go. It is also important to note down what you were doing when the headache started and in the period running up to its onset. Food too can play an important part in headaches so you should note down anything that you ate in the hours before your headache started. All of this information will be very helpful to your physician.

For example, one way to differentiate between cluster headaches and a bad case of migraine is by considering the pain which each produces. Both tend to produce sharp pain which tends to pulsate, but with cluster headaches this pain is normally confined to quite specific areas such as behind just one eye or in the region of one temple. Additionally, cluster headaches tend to follow a timetable appearing at the same time each day for several weeks at a time.

Headaches can also result directly from your lifestyle and in some people can be brought on by exercise, while in other people they might be triggered by drinking red wine or eating chocolate or cheese. Stress can also play a part and it is not uncommon for people to experience headaches after they have moved to a new city or changed their job. Here your diary will not only help the doctor to diagnose your headache but will often also provide the basis for recommending a suitable treatment.

In addition to what we might term ‘normal’ or ‘primary’ headaches there are also a variety of underlying conditions which can give rise to ‘secondary’ headaches and sometimes even a detailed diary will not be enough for your physician to make a firm diagnosis. In this case however there are a range of advanced diagnostic tools available.

One such tool is the computer tomography (CT) scanner which uses a series of carefully directed x-ray beams to create a three dimensional picture of the brain. Another commonly used technique today is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which uses the electromagnetic activity within the brain to create a map of the skull.

Even with information provided by the patient and data collected from advanced testing diagnosing headaches is not a perfect science. Nevertheless, if you gather together enough information and pop along to your physician, ninety-nine times out of one hundred he will be able to come up with an accurate diagnosis.

By: Donald Saunders

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The realization hit Natalie like a ton of bricks. Her mother, Joann, had literally died of embarrassment! Joann had noticed blood in her stool almost a year before she was diagnosed with colon cancer. At first she told herself it must have been those beets she ate. Then she thought it was most likely her hemorrhoids, although she had not had a flair-up of hemorrhoids since Natalie’s birth 52 years earlier.

The truth was that Joann was embarrassed to talk with her doctor about private topics such as her bowel habits. She didn’t raise the concern with her doctor until she had bloating, cramping and abdominal pain. This led to the diagnosis of colon cancer that ultimately took her life. Natalie’s brother-in-law, who was a nurse, wondered whether Joann would still be alive if she had told her doctor about the blood in her stool when she first noticed it.

Let’s face it; certain topics are embarrassing to talk about with your doctor. I call them the 5 P’s:

o Peeing

o Pooping

o Paying

o Procreating

o Psychic moaning

Although at first blush the challenge of talking with your doctor about embarrassing medical topics seems simple enough, for some people, it can cause significant suffering.

Hillary, for example, had what’s now called a shy bladder. She had not used a public restroom in over 20 years. She was too embarrassed to talk with her doctor about this; instead, she remained a prisoner to her bladder.

Ed was laid off from work and could no longer afford his asthma medications. Instead of talking with his doctor about it, he decided to do without He wound up in the emergency room with an asthma attack that could have been avoided with regular medication.

Tom had some sexual side effects from his blood pressure medicine. Instead of talking with his doctor and getting a different medicine, he just stopped taking it. The doctors wonder if this might have contributed to his heart attack.

Jerry noticed his loss of appetite and sleeping problems as his caregiver responsibilities for his aging father mounted. He wondered if he might be depressed, but dismissed the thought because real men don’t get depressed.

Imagine how each of these stories might have been different if these individuals who suffered in silence could have talked with their doctors.

Here are 6 tips that can help you talk with your doctor about embarrassing medical topics:

1. Own the embarrassment.

Say to your doctor, “This is a taboo topic in our family, so it’s hard for me to ask. Is it normal to have a funny smell coming from your belly button?”

2. Find the words.

Your doctor speaks a specialized language acquired through years of training. Sometimes patients are embarrassed because they don’t know the “right words” or
have a hard time describing the problem.

Remember that your job is to communicate. You don’t need to know the fancy words to do that. If a patient said to me, “Dad had an operation on the dingle-ball thing at the back of his throat”, I would know just what he meant. And, the patient would seem relieved when I said, “Oh, you mean the uvula.”

The best way to make sure you and your doctor understand each other is to use anatomically correct words. Get a basic anatomy atlas. Use anatomically correct
words with your children.

3. Practice saying the words.

Sometimes embarrassing words can be hard to get out of your mouth. Gertrude, a 90-year-old patient said to me, “You youngsters don’t understand how much things have changed. When I got breast cancer in the 1962, the words ‘breast’ and ‘cancer’ were not uttered in polite company.” Some words are still embarrassing to say. Practice saying these words out loud when you’re alone! That will make it easier to say them at the doctor’s office

4. Find the right person to ask.

You may have an easy rapport with the nurse or physician’s assistant at your doctor’s office. You can bring up the sensitive topic with them. Say, “Trish, could you please give the doctor a heads up. I want to know why I should say no to those steroids my buddies at the gym are offering me. I would love to look like they do.”

5. Find the right way to ask.

Maybe it’s easier for you to drop a note or a cartoon to your doctor rather than ask in person. Find the style that works best for you.

6. Remember that your doctor is there to help you, not to judge you.

Your doctor has heard it all before. I promise! Your doctor will not think less of you for asking an embarrassing medical question; in fact, your doctor with think more of you for overcoming your fear and helping you take charge of your health.

By: Dr. Vicki Rackner

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