Heart energy
The heart is the main worker of the human body. If we draw an analogy, the faucet in the kitchen must be turned on for more than 40 years in order to pass as much water as the amount of blood pumped through the heart of a person with an average life expectancy.
Every day, the heart spends so much energy pumping blood that it would be enough to drive a truck more than 30 kilometers. During life, the heart produces an amount of energy comparable to the energy expended by a spacecraft when flying to the Moon and back.
How to distinguish a cough with coronavirus from other diseases
Is it possible to distinguish a “coronavirus” cough? kp.ru talked about this with the chief pulmonologist of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, head of the department of pulmonology of the medical faculty of Sechenov University, Doctor of Medical Sciences, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Avdeev.
HOW OFTEN DOES COUGH OCCUR WITH CORONAVIRUS?
— Sergei Nikolaevich, do you always have a cough with coronavirus?
- No. Cough occurs in approximately 30 to 50% of patients with COVID-19. That is, in more than half of cases with coronavirus there is no cough. At the same time, there are many other diseases that are in no way related to coronavirus infection, in which a person coughs. So, if you have a cough, this is not a reason to go get tested for COVID.
— Can we suspect coronavirus based on some features of the cough?
- No we can not. This is a normal dry cough, no different from a cough caused by other viral infections.
— Doctors say: if you have coronavirus not in severe form, stay at home and only when shortness of breath begins, call a doctor. But many people got used to, just starting to cough, drinking syrups, breathing over boiled potatoes, and so on. What if it’s coronavirus, won’t we aggravate the disease in such ways?
- No, it is unlikely to get worse from such procedures. But you are unlikely to help yourself cope with this infection if you are treated with vapors from boiled potatoes or other inhalations. The main recommendation is not to leave the house anywhere. Because today, in most cases, coronavirus infection is treated at home.
— Nowadays, with acute respiratory infections, people once again try not to call a doctor.
— In my opinion, there is a rational grain in this. The more contacts we have, including in medical institutions, the greater the risk of contracting coronavirus infection. Therefore, if someone has an acute respiratory infection in a mild form according to the usual scenario for non-severe respiratory diseases, it makes sense not to go anywhere and get treatment on your own.
WITH BRONCHITIS AND ASTHMA - AT RISK ZONE?
— Is coronavirus even more dangerous for people with bronchitis or asthma than for others? Maybe it makes sense for them to somehow additionally protect themselves?
— In fact, those most at risk of contracting coronavirus infection are not those who have bronchitis or asthma, but people suffering from diabetes, obesity and arterial hypertension. For all patients who are on some kind of maintenance therapy, it is very important to continue to use it without changing it in any way. Take the same medications and in the same dosages as prescribed by your doctor.
As for additional measures to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, they are well known to everyone. This is self-isolation and hygiene. They are effective and beneficial for all people.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE LUNG IN ASYMPTOMIC DISEASE
— They say that up to 60% of infected people experience this infection asymptomatically. What happens to the lungs?
— There may be slight changes in the lungs. For example, mild pneumonia is possible. This is an amazing situation; this has never happened before in medical practice, but a patient with coronavirus infection can suffer mild pneumonia without symptoms and recover. And this is already an irrefutably proven fact.
— Can such pneumonia turn into a severe form?
— If pneumonia remains asymptomatic, how can it become severe? As a rule, such diseases proceed according to a favorable scenario. I think many Russians have already suffered from coronavirus infection and didn’t even notice. Antibody-based methods for studying this infection will soon be widely available, then we will understand how many people we actually have had COVID. If we are talking about a mild course of this disease, then pneumonia can go away and leave almost no traces in the lungs. I am sure that this is exactly what happened to many Russians.
- But if pneumonia takes on severe forms, will we notice it by fever and cough?
- No, shortness of breath comes first here. In severe cases of the disease, this is the very first warning sign that you need to consult a doctor as soon as possible and decide on further treatment.
LUNG DAMAGE AFTER CORONAVIRUS: TEMPORARY OR FOREVER?
— Is it possible to get sick with coronavirus without damaging your lungs at all?
- I think yes.
— Is it even possible to recover from coronavirus?
— The vast majority of patients are cured.
— I have heard the opinion that even those who seem to be cured of coronavirus still have serious lesions in the lungs: fibrosis that does not resolve, changes in the structure of the lung tissue. Is it so?
Silence of the heart
The average adult's heart beats 72 times a minute, 100 thousand times a day, 36 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times throughout a lifetime.
However, the heart beats rhythmically, which means that in addition to beats, there are also pauses in the cycle. So, if you add up all the pauses between heartbeats in one average human life, it turns out that our heart is “silent” for about 20 years. It is also interesting that the heart stops when you sneeze.
Another fact that cannot be explained from the standpoint of physics. Fluid can flow from higher to lower pressure, but in our body this law is constantly violated. When measuring pressure in the aorta and femoral artery simultaneously, blood from the aorta, where the pressure is lower, flows into the femoral artery, where the pressure is higher.
Chronic non-allergic rhinitis
It is often associated with the anatomical features of the structure of the nasal cavity, curvature of the nasal septum, hypertrophy (thickening) of the mucous membrane. All this leads to constant nasal congestion, especially pronounced in the morning.
The natural process of cleansing the nose is accompanied by morning sneezing; the dry crusts coming off further irritate the mucous membrane, and the process may be delayed.
What to do? Contact an ENT specialist; you may need an endoscopy of the nasal cavity and sinuses and a CT scan. A possible treatment option is removal (cauterization) of excess mucous membrane, correction of the nasal septum.
Heart and ecology
Recent research from Harvard Medical School, the results of which were published in the journal Science Dayly, has proven that one of the most negative factors for heart function is poor ecology.
The study examined medical data from 107,130 women from 1986 to 2012. Analysis of the data (comparing geographic location) showed that in 523 cases of sudden cardiac arrest, living within 50 meters of a road increased the risk of such death by 38% compared to living 500 meters from the road.
Thus, today we can already say that it is possible to reduce the likelihood of coronary heart disease - just move to the village.
Irritation of the mucous membranes by chemicals
Sometimes people complain about bouts of frequent sneezing, as they say, “the whole entrance.” If this happens, call the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor; epidemiologists and hygienists should join the investigation.
There are cases in history when residents responded in this way to an emergency release of a toxic substance at a nearby plant, a leak of chemicals from a landfill, or an accident at a thermal power plant.
What to do? If your neighbors start sneezing at the same time, contact the regional office of Rospotrebnadzor or call environmentalists. Most likely, some kind of chemical has leaked.
"Broken heart"
The heart is one of the strongest muscles of the human body, but even the heart cannot always cope with the misfortunes that befall a person. In difficult circumstances, our “engine” has its own self-defense system. Thus, one of the heart conditions may be stress cardiomyopathy, characterized by a sharp and severe decrease in the activity of the heart muscle. This syndrome is often confused with myocardial infarction.
Stress cardiomyopathy (as the name suggests) is most often caused by severe emotional distress, which is why it is also called “broken heart syndrome.”
Unlike a myocardial infarction, there is no blockage of the coronary arteries, but the release of adrenaline helps protect the heart from overstimulation, paradoxically “pausing” the heart.
What happens when you sneeze
The human body is a very complex and complex mechanism. One little-studied process is sneezing.
According to background information, sneezing is a sudden and sharp exhalation of air through the nose or mouth, which is a protective reaction to external irritants.
This protective reflex is characteristic of both humans and animals. In some cases, sneezing is a symptom of respiratory and allergic diseases. When sneezing, the speed of exhaled air is about 160 km per hour.
The most interesting thing is that a person cannot sneeze while sleeping.
When you sneeze, the airways are deeply cleansed. The process itself affects the functioning of the circulatory system, thereby changing the pressure inside the chest.
During the research, scientists found that when you want to sneeze, a tickling sensation appears in the nose, you take a breath, close your eyes, contract the intercostal muscles and exhale sharply. At this moment, the eyes reflexively close, and the neck and head are thrown back.
Heart in weightlessness
NASA recently conducted a study that yielded very interesting results. It turned out that in a state of weightlessness the heart not only weakens and decreases in volume, but also... becomes rounder. During the experiment, NASA cardiologists studied the hearts of 12 astronauts working on the ISS.
Analysis of the images showed that in conditions of weightlessness the heart is rounded by 9.4%. However, upon returning to Earth, the heart returns to its normal shape within six months and resumes “earthly” activity. To imagine the decrease in heart activity, it is enough to say that lying on a bed for a month and a half is equivalent to working in zero gravity for a week.
Onset of a respiratory viral disease
The nasal mucosa is the first barrier to microbes entering our body. It is known that influenza viruses and respiratory viruses take hold in the first few hours after infection and begin to actively multiply on the nasal mucosa.
It is not for nothing that many infectious disease specialists advise that during a flu epidemic, upon arriving home, immediately rinse your nose. Replication (multiplication) of the virus leads to the destruction of epithelial cells of the nasal mucosa, such an irritating effect inevitably causes a reflex reaction in the form of sneezing.
What to do? Wash your hands well, try not to touch your face and eyes, and rinse your nose after visiting public places. Take antiviral drugs as prescribed by your doctor.
The air is too dry
It becomes like this when the air conditioner is running or the batteries are too hot in the cold season. During a day spent in a dry room, dry, dense crusts form in the nose. They irritate the nasal mucosa and a response occurs in the form of a sneeze. Trying to remove crusts leads to even more irritation.
What to do? To make the indoor air less dry, it is recommended to use humidifiers. You can moisturize the nasal mucosa with nasal oils.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy is accompanied by serious hormonal changes. Often, under the influence of hormones, hypertrophy of the nasal mucosa occurs, which causes periodic congestion and sneezing attacks, which have not been noted before. Fortunately, pregnancy is temporary, and after childbirth the mucous membrane returns to normal and the sneezing stops.
What to do? If sneezing during pregnancy greatly interferes with your life, you can try a folk recipe for combating sneezing: press your index finger on the point located directly under your nose, above your upper lip.
