Change in taste in older people

What is change in taste?

It’s caused by a variety of factors and like most of our senses, the sense of taste tends to decline with age as the taste buds degenerate. This means problems that would cause a bit of a loss of taste in younger people can wipe out what little remains in an older person.
This loss (or distortion) of taste and smell can then take away someone's appetite so that they're less interested in eating. Older people often tend to have a poorer appetite anyway (many exist on tea, toast, biscuits and other snacks) and so quickly lose weight.
Certain illnesses can also cause a change in taste.

Causes and risk factors

Very often, what a person actually loses is their sense of smell - and this is what causes a change in taste (as smell is a major contributor to the sense of taste). Smell is disrupted by conditions that affect the lining of the nose, such as the common cold or chronic rhinitis. More rarely, it's affected by nerve problems, ranging from damage to nerves in the nose, to damage to areas of the brain controlling smell (such as the result of a stroke).
Perhaps the most common cause of taste problems, especially in older people, is problems in the mouth (related to teeth or saliva).
Any condition that results in a dry mouth can cause problems because saliva is essential for taste. Chemicals in food or drink dissolve in saliva and this bathes the taste buds. In a dry mouth, the chemicals never reach the taste buds.
Anything that causes inflammation in the mouth can damage the taste buds. Ill-fitting dentures or teeth and gums full of decay are some of the major culprits. Smoking can also destroy taste.
Rarer causes of taste problems include:

• Damage to the nerves between face and brain
• Stroke
• Brain tumours
• Tumours elsewhere in the body
• Liver disease
• Extreme vitamin deficiencies
• Some medicines and drugs that can cause changes in taste
• Depression and other psychological problems that can alter taste
• Heavy metal poisoning (though this is extremely rare these days

Treatment and recovery

An older person with taste problems should see a doctor to rule out any medical causes, and a dentist to check the mouth and gums. 
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Back curves

How does the spine work?

The spine is the central pillar of the body. It supports the weight of the head and trunk, and provides a protective passage for nerves.
The spine is made up of 33 irregularly shaped bones, or vertebrae. Each vertebra has a hole in the middle through which the spinal cord runs. In between these vertebrae are discs filled with soft material, which act as shock absorbers.
Seen from behind, a normal spine is straight and stretches vertically from the head down to roughly the top of the cleft between the buttocks.
From the side, the spine has two curves: one at the top of the back bending outwards and one in the small of the lower back curving inwards.

What causes excessive curvature?

Excessive curvature of the upper spine is called kyphosis. Typically, the back appears hunched and more rounded than usual.
Poor posture may contribute to its development over the years, but diseases affecting the spine - such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis - are responsible. Children can have kyphosis, but the cause is usually unknown.
Excessive inward curving of the lower back is called lordosis. Being overweight is a common cause. Having a large belly leads to imbalance. To compensate for this - and to prevent toppling forwards - a person will lean backwards.
Weak abdominal muscles or poor posture may also be partly responsible. Having kyphosis may even contribute to lordosis developing.
When the spine curves to the side it is called scoliosis. This occurs most often in the upper chest area or lower back and often there's no obvious cause.
It's more common for women to develop scoliosis and it can run in families. Some babies are born with congenital scoliosis. Rarely, diseases causing muscle weakness around the spine may be responsible, such as muscular dystrophy.
If the legs aren't the same length, this will cause the spine to curve.

What are the symptoms?

Kyphosis and lordosis can cause muscular strain and muscle aches.
Scoliosis, if not obvious from birth, tends to develop during childhood and teenage years, and gradually becomes more visible. Bending forwards makes it more obvious. A person with scoliosis may have an abnormal gait, which contributes to back pain that may be experienced intermittently.
It's important not to ignore the emotional effects of scoliosis, particularly because it tends to appear at puberty when many other body changes are also taking place.

What's the treatment?

In kyphosis and lordosis, physiotherapy can help to strengthen the supporting muscles of the spine and correct poor posture. Where there's an underlying cause, such as osteoporosis, this needs to be treated.
Maintaining an ideal weight is also advisable to avoid further problems.
Treatment of scoliosis also involves physiotherapy to strengthen the supporting muscles of the spine and where a cause is known this must be corrected. Wearing appropriately raised shoes to make the legs of equal length, for example, can help.
When scoliosis is severe or getting worse quickly, it may be necessary for a spinal brace to be worn to prevent further curvature, or to have spinal surgery.
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The common cold

What causes them?

There are more than 200 different viruses that cause colds and this is one of the reasons we get so many.
Top of the list are rhinoviruses, but coronaviruses, adenoviruses and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can all cause colds, too. So, just as your body develops immunity to one type of virus, another that you haven’t encountered before comes along and makes you ill.

How are colds spread?

You may have been taught that 'coughs and sneezes spread diseases', but colds aren't always passed on through airborne droplets or particles.
The most important way they're spread is via direct contact with an infected person. Typically, the person with the cold touches their nose or coughs on to their hand, leaving thousands of microscopic virus particles on their skin.
When they then touch an object such as a door handle, shopping trolley or another human, they leave the virus behind. The next person to touch the object takes the virus with them.
All that's needed to trigger a cold is a dozen or so virus particles. If the person who has picked up the cold virus touches their own nose or eyes, they deposit it in a warm, moist environment where it can thrive.
The virus particles are swept to the adenoids at the back of the throat, where they stick to the cells, invade them and reproduce. Eventually, the cells rupture, releasing thousands of new virus particles to spread to other cells.
This process is remarkably rapid – it takes just eight to 12 hours from the arrival of the virus in your body to release of new virus particles.
Symptoms also develop quickly – within about ten hours (this is known as the incubation period). So, in less than half a day of shaking hands with a person with a cold, you too could have all the unpleasant symptoms.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms are mostly caused by the body's reaction to the cold virus, which triggers the release of chemicals that make the blood vessels leaky and send the mucous glands into overtime.
As a result, the nasal passages become swollen and choked with secretions.
Cold symptoms reach their peak after 36 to 72 hours and include:

• Dry, scratchy sore throat (usually the first sign of a cold).
• Runny nose and sneezing.
• Hoarse voice.
• Blocked, snuffly nose.
• Cough.
• Mild headache.
• Mild fever.
• Generally feeling unwell or muzzy headed.

Symptoms should start to improve after three days and be gone after about seven days (but they may persist for up to two weeks).
As many as one in four people with a cold doesn't develop any symptoms, possibly because their immune system doesn't react to the virus in the usual way.
It's easy to confuse a cold with early flu, but in general flu is more severe and produces a higher fever (above 38oC) and more generalised symptoms throughout the body such as aching muscles, lethargy, shivers, nausea and vomiting.

What's the treatment?

Despite decades of research, there's no simple cure for colds. The antibiotics used against bacterial infections don't have any effect on viruses, and antiviral drugs used for other viral infections aren't useful against the viruses that cause colds.
Most colds resolve rapidly on their own, but there are things you can do to make symptoms less unpleasant.

• Keep well hydrated - being dehydrated can make a cold feel much worse, so drink at least eight glasses of clear fluid a day.
• Use a humidifier to stop central heating from drying out the mucous membranes lining your nose and upper airways.
• Treat nasal congestion using vapour rubs or taking decongestant drugs.
• Take simple analgesia such as paracetamol or ibuprofen regularly to keep on top of pain and fever.
• Cough mixtures may help to suppress a dry, tickly cough, while some, known as 'expectorants' help you to cough up excessive mucus.
• Try anaesthetic throat lozenges or gargle with salt water for a sore throat.
• Anti-histamines such as cetirizine may reduce the runny nose and sneezing but won't improve the cold overall.
• Get plenty of rest, and eat regularly to keep energy levels from flagging.

The benefits of vitamin C supplements for both the prevention and treatment of colds remains controversial.
A recent review of more than 30 studies showed that during periods of intense stress people can half their risk of catching a cold by taking vitamin C. But there's only a very minor effect on the duration and severity of symptoms once someone has the infection.
Some people argue that much higher doses of vitamin C need to be taken.
Many other treatments have been tested. Some, such as the herbal treatment echinacea, may be useful, but there isn't enough evidence yet to recommend these therapies. Inhaling steam has been used traditionally, often with menthol, but whilst anecdotally it helps some people, there is insufficient scientific evidence to assess its value.
Zinc has been shown to reduce the duration and severity of cold symptoms in healthy people if taken within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms. In one study, Zinc supplements taken for at least five months were found to reduce the incidence of colds. However there is no standard recommendation about dose, formulation and duration of use.

What are the complications?

If symptoms persist for over 2 weeks, or if you are increasingly unwell, or develop breathing problems, see your doctor. Serious secondary infections, such as pneumonia, can follow, especially if you actually have flu rather than a cold. Although a cold can cause simple viral congestion of the nasal passages and symptoms of sinusitis, around one in 200 colds is complicated by a bacterial infection of the paranasal sinuses, which may need antibiotic or other treatment.
Among children, colds often lead to bacterial infections of the middle ear but this is much less common in adults.
Colds can also aggravate asthma and chronic bronchitis and in patients with these conditions the cold symptoms may last longer.

Keeping your cold to yourself

You're most contagious during the first three days of a cold, when you shed huge amounts of the virus from your nose.

• Avoid contact with other people.
• Wash your hands frequently.
• Avoid touching your nose and eyes.
• Use disposable tissues and bin used ones promptly.                                                       READMORE:http://www.bbc.co.uk/health

Colour blindness

What is colour blindness?

There are several forms of colour blindness. The most common form is red/green colour blindness, which involves the confusion of red and green. It's passed on through a faulty colour vision gene on an X chromosome as a recessive disorder, so shows up more commonly in men but often carried silently by women. It has two forms:

• Different shades of red appear dull and indistinct
• Greens, oranges, pale reds and browns all appear as the same hue, distinguished only by their intensity

In one rare form of colour blindness, blues and yellows can't be distinguished. In another, all colours are seen in black and white.
Vision itself isn't affected, only the ability to distinguish between certain colours.

The Ishihara test

There are many different Ishihara test plates with coloured dot patterns. In this one, the image on the right shows a background of green dots with two wavy lines made up of red and orange dots. If you're colour blind, you won't be able to see these colours and so you won't be able to pick out the pattern from the dots.
This is the most common test used to diagnose colour blindness, but there are others such as versions that uses one colour of dots to spell out numbers that can be read by someone with normal vision, while colour blind people only see a random pattern.

Causes and risk factors

The retina of the eye has colour-detecting vision cells, called cones, which are necessary to see colour properly. There are three types of cone cell, sensitive to red, blue, or green light. If one or more of these types of cells is faulty, then colour blindness results.
Sometimes colour blindness occurs because of diseases such as macular degeneration or from side effects of medicines.
Stop signsColour blindness needn't stop someone driving, because traffic lights can be distinguished by the position of the light. However, it can be an obstacle to particular careers where good colour vision is important, including pilots, electricians, train drivers and some jobs in the printing, fashion and design industries.
You can't stop colour blindness if it's inherited, but if it's caused by underlying eye disorders or medication then it can sometimes be treated and stopped.
If you have always been colour-blind, it isn't necessary to see a doctor unless other eye problems, for example blurred vision, are occurring. However if your vision has changed and you are noticing colour loss or changes you need to get your vision checked. It isn't necessary to see a doctor unless other eye problems, for example blurred vision, are occurring.

Treatment and recovery

As inherited forms of colour blindness are harmless, no treatment is needed, even if it were possible.
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