Anxiety - What is an Anxiety Symptom?

Am I having a heart attack? Am I dying? Or is it anxiety? Many symptoms of anxiety mirror symptoms of other illnesses. This is because the “fight or flight” response is triggered in anxiety attacks and the body will respond as if it is threatened. The heart will race; the breathing will become shallow, sweats will breakout over the body to keep it cool in preparation for flight, these are all signs of anxiety, or an anxiety attack. Attacking anxiety back and regaining control over your reflex responses will help reduce the number, frequency and severity of your anxiety symptoms.When an Anxiety Symptoms is Harmful and When it Isn'tThere is a wide range of anxiety symptoms that may be no more than a mild feeling of uneasiness and as intense as extreme fear. In some cases, a little amount of anxiety is good and normal and it may even help to improve a person’s performance. There are features like having heart palpitations or a racing heart as well as a lot of sweating that point in the direction of being an anxiety symptom. Symptoms such as irritability and lack of concentration as well as having strange thoughts and having extreme mood changes are psychological symptoms.Treating Anxiety Stress SymptomsOne may wonder as to what the causes of anxiety symptoms are and who the people at greatest risk are. The answer lies in the fact that anxiety symptoms are a result of anxiety disorders which may occur due to a change in the way amygdale, which is a small organ in the subconscious brain, reacts. This is also known as anxiety switch. For treatment to be effective, there is a need for concentrating directly on these symptoms and the treatment should be aimed at the root causes of any anxiety disorders, which in other words, is an inappropriate reaction of the amygdale.It may be noted that everybody may have experienced anxiety symptoms at some point of time in their lives and most are able to effectively deal with such situations. When there is a lot of unusual rise in the adrenaline levels in the blood it sets off a chain reaction of normal but wrong reactions which results in powerful anxiety symptoms that greatly affect the person afflicted.There are also instances of some people experiencing symptoms when there is no obvious cause and these are known as free-floating symptoms that can be discontinuous in nature or may continue over a longer period of time. Some even have situational anxiety wherein the anxiety symptoms can be correlated with particular situations.One may also wonder whether anxiety symptoms are harmful and the answer is certainly not. They do not cause harm to the person even though they elicit a sense of horror and scare the person but in effect anxiety symptoms are not harmful, being exaggerations of normal body sensations and reactions. It bears repeating that to treat anxiety symptoms, one has to address the root cause, which lies in the amygdale, where anxiety is created and stored as well as sustained.

A Silent Epidemic among Children

Every year, millions of students come face to face with a recurring problem that seems to haunt them more than the proverbial “monster under the bed.” This persistent challenge has been called by academicians and behavioral experts as ---- test anxiety.This form of school-related stress hounds the kindergarten pupil as much as the Ivy League scholar. Test anxiety is when a student becomes so nervous about taking an examination that he can no longer perform well. This is actually a type of performance anxiety that prevents a student from reading and writing the right answers to a test. Sometimes, a little anxiety can serve as a motivation for a student to prepare and study harder for an upcoming examination. But if it already creates a paralyzing effect and disrupts daily routine, it may already be a case that must be referred to the academic supervisor or to the school psychologist.How do our children get test anxiety in the first place? Among the most common reasons for getting “school stress” is the student's lack of discipline and preparation. Knowing that insufficient or no preparation was made to satisfactorily hurdle an examination, a student would naturally feel nervous about taking the test. Another cause of test anxiety is the inappropriate content or level of difficulty of a test. Using the principles of learning, a teacher cannot force a student to learn a specific body of knowledge or learning content that is usually reserved for higher academic levels. The frustration and difficulty of learning a specific lesson may end up discouraging the student. Sometimes, the high expectations of parents can also lead to stress in children. Being young, children also need to play and have fun. An exaggerated emphasis on academics may leave your child feeling left out of games other children play. Too much study may also drive children to eventually disdain the tough of going to school and taking exams. So what can parents do to help their children cope with test anxiety?First, parents should set regular study periods so that their children do not “cram” for the exams. Second, parents must monitor the test results without nagging their children about the scores. The act of questioning them about how well they did in the exam may only cause more test anxiety.Third, it is best for parents to regularly meet with teachers to find out the real score on how their children perform in school. Indeed, school should be fun and it must be the last place for our children to have fear. It should be a place of adventure where they can express themselves without nervousness...where every test would be a chance to show their knowledge, skills, talents --- without any concern except to do their very best.

The Use Of Modern Air Purifiers In Today's Home

Air purifiers are an important part in today’s modern home. Air purifiers will help rid you of awful odours such as pet and stale cigarette smoke. Your rooms will be agreeably aromatic. Additionally, air purifiers scrub the air clean and therefore they are highly recommended for fellow sufferers of Asthma or other allergic conditionsThere are quite a few types of air purifiers on the market. as a general rule, the distinction comes from the way the air is filtered. You can have an air purifier with mechanical filters made of fibres, or filters containing filtering and air purifying substances, for example charcoal. Of late, there are also Air Ionisers that use electrostatic charges to help clean the air.What is important for air purifiers is the type of the fibres it uses. They should meet certain standards in order to “capture” all dust, bacteria, or any other air borne particles. HEPA filtration systems are the best filters you can get however they come with a higher price tag.A charcoal air purifier as its name suggests, contains charcoal filters. In essence, charcoal is a substance that can suck up and deactivate dangerous particles. Charcoal was often used in gas masks during World War II. And in fact, my Grandmother made gas masks for children during that war, they were in the image of Disney’s’ Mickey Mouse to make them easier to get used to.Ionisers enrich the home with oxygen and produces ozone. The oxygen particles practically burn any other particle they meet. For that reason ionisers are very good for people who have pet allergy, dust allergy, pollen allergy. Ozone is the reason that I benefited from spending a few years at the coast… my Asthma improved considerably.There are a huge variety of air purifiers obtainable on today’s market. When thinking about purchasing one, you should consider the cost of the air purifier, and the running costs of replacement filters. Some air purifiers are really cheap to buy outright, but their filters are costly – sometimes filters can cost the same as the purifying device itself. There are filters that can be re-used several times – you can wash or clean them in another way, I have a similar system in my vacuum cleaner – this is a great cost cutter. Air purifiers are not silent; they contain a small motor and fan to move the air through the filters. You should consider in which room of your home you want to place an air purifier, consider if it is noiseless enough for this room. For instance, if you are thinking about an air purifier for your bedroom, it is vital that you pick one that works silently. For shared areas such as the lounge or the kitchen you can afford to have a noisier one. It is also important to consider that some rooms create more air borne particles than others. If buying a filter for your kitchen, you need to make sure it will cope well in this environment.Some air purifiers utilise timers – you can leave them working when you need them too. This is a vital feature to consider when you’re buying an ioniser. Although ozone is harmless, it can be harmful if it reaches certain levels.Ultimately, regardless of the type of air purifier you use, it is vitally important to ventilate your rooms well. When you have let in the fresh air, you can close your windows and turn on your air purifier. This is the best way to keep your homes air fresh, clean and nicely scented.

New Nanoparticle Could Provide Simple Early Diagnosis Of Many Diseases

Most people think of hydrogen peroxide as a topical germ killer, but the medicine cabinet staple is gaining steam in the medical community as an early indicator of disease in the body.

The nanoparticle polymer is made of peroxalate esters. A fluorescent dye (pentacene) is then encapsulated into the polymer. When the nano particles bump into hydrogen peroxide, they excite the dye, which then emits photons (or light) that can be detected (Credit: Image courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology)

Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University researchers are the first to create a nanoparticle capable of detecting and imaging trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide in animals. The nanoparticles, thought to be completely nontoxic, could some day be used as a simple, all-purpose diagnostic tool to detect the earliest stages of any disease that involves chronic inflammation — everything from cancer and Alzheimer’s to heart disease and arthritis.

The research, lead by the laboratories of Niren Murthy at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and Dr. Robert Taylor in the Division of Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, will appear in the October issue of Nature Materials and was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Hydrogen peroxide is thought to be over-produced by cells at the early stages of most diseases. Because there were previously no imaging techniques available to capture this process in the body, the details of how the hydrogen peroxide is produced and its role in a developing disease must still be determined.

The Georgia Tech and Emory nanoparticles may be the key to better understanding the role of hydrogen peroxide in the progression of many diseases and later play an important diagnostic role, Murthy said.

“These nanoparticles are incredibly sensitive so you can detect nanomolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. That’s important because researchers aren’t yet certain what amounts of hydrogen peroxide are present in various diseases,” Murthy said.

The ultimate goal, however, is that the nanoparticles could some day be used as a simple, all-purpose diagnostic tool for most diseases. In the future, the nanoparticle would be injected by needle into a certain area of the body (for instance, the heart). If the nanoparticles encountered hydrogen peroxide, they would emit light. Should a doctor see a significant amount of light activity in the area, the doctor would know that the patient may be presenting early signs of a disease in that area of the body.

The Georgia Tech and Emory nanoparticles penetrate deep tissue and operate at a high wave length, making them sensitive indicators of the presence of hydrogen peroxide produced by any sort of inflammation.

The nanoparticle polymer is made of peroxalate esters. A fluorescent dye (pentacene) is then encapsulated into the polymer. When the nano particles bump into hydrogen peroxide, they excite the dye, which then emits photons (or light) that can be detected in a simple, photon-counting scan.

“It’s using this nanoparticle made of peroxalate esters that allows you to do this three component reaction in vivo. If you were to inject a peroxalate ester and a dye, they would go their own ways once in the body. With the nanoparticles, we can sequester both of these reagents within nanometers of each other, in vivo,” Murthy said.

The goal was to maximize the wavelength of the particles. Wavelength determines the sensitivity in vivo. And if the particle’s wavelength is high enough, it can penetrate the skin and display clearly on a scan.

The research team started with a nanoparticle that was made of dye and filled with peroxide esthers. They later realized that the reverse (a particle made of peroxalate esters and filled with dye) was more effective at imaging hydrogen peroxide, Murthy said.

The group will conduct further tests with the nanoparticles to confirm their safety and effectiveness.