If someone you know or indeed if you suspect you are having a heart attack, timely and sensible first-aid can make a major difference in the final outcome. First call for immediate help. If you are alone, dial an ambulance or your

When muscles suddenly contract or when they stretch unusually far or abruptly or if you slip or lift something in an awkward position, you may cause a muscle to become strained or “pulled”. Muscle strain may be mild and last a few days, or moderate causing small muscle tears and more extensive pain, swelling and bruising.

To feel dizzy is an awful experience. Your head swims, you are wobbly and woozy, and you clutch for support. The eyes, inner-ear apparatus, sensory receptors of the joints, muscles of the neck, trunk and the legs must be in

The prostate gland is a rounded mass of muscle fibres and small glands, which sits immediately below the urinary bladder, and surrounds its outlet. It produces most of the fluid in semen, the milky-colour fluid that nourishes and transports sperm during ejaculation. The urethra, the tube that transports urine from the bladder out

Triglycerides are a form of fat that float in our bloodstream. Or are stored in fat tissue and add to inches that nobody enjoys. Their main function is to supply fuel to the body so that it may do its chores. You can’t do without them, but you mustn’t allow them to grow to abnormal levels.

Bunions develop when the pressures of bearing and shifting your weight fall unevenly on the joints and tendons of your feet. This imbalance in pressure makes your big toe joint unstable, eventually moulding the parts of the joint into a hard knob that juts out beyond the normal shape of your foot.

Gout is one of the oldest recorded diseases in medical history. It is a metabolic disease associated with too much uric acid in the blood. This can be caused either by the excess production of uric acid or by decreased excretion of it. It can lead to two complications: gouty arthritis and urate stones in the kidney. Of these, arthritis is more common

Would it occur to you not to swallow a tetracycline capsule, or the cipro-floxacin or ofloxacin antibiotic pill with a glass of milk? Or to avoid alcohol if you are taking a certain medicine for amoebiasis? Or not eat citrus fruits, pickles, and other acidic foods if you are taking erythromycin? Probably not! However, these are just some of the food-medicine interactions that you should stand guard against.

In this day and age most of us travel by air. Yet as you fly at that extraordinary speed, some thousands of feet in the air, your body needs to gear up. Else, you run the risk of developing a bad ear, blocked nose, itchy eyes, queasy stomach, and on a more severe note, blood clots in the circulation. Follow these simple measures to safeguard yourself.

A wear and tear arthritis which can affect any joint in the body, osteoarthritis is a common disease in the middle and later years of life. You can ease much of your osteoarthritis-related discomfort by adopting a healthy lifestyle and using simple self-care techniques, but if the disease has set in your doctor may recommend a combination of medication, self-care and exercise. In some cases, surgery may be necessary.