What are the signs of premature labour and how to prevent it?

Preterm birth or premature birth refers to the birth of a baby of less than 37 weeks of pregnancy.

The main causes include:

• Precocious fetal endocrine activation
• Uterine overdistension
• Desidual bleeding
• Intrauterine inflammation or infection

This is a process happening gradually over weeks or even months. The exact cause is not yet known.

The signs of premature labour include:

• Cramps or contraction, more than 5 in one hour
• Bleeding
• Urinary tract, bladder or kidney infection, the symptom is pain during urination
• Sudden discharge of clear, watery fluid from vagina
• Intense pelvic pressure
• Low, mild backache

If you have any one of the signs you must contact your gynaecologist immediately.

A pregnant must drink enough water. Dehydration is a cause for contractions and enough fluid intakes can avoid this.

If there is a symptom of infection go to your doctor immediately. A wrong alarm is not bad and preterm birth is not good..

What is a hangover headache?

Hangover is the many unpleasant physiological effects in the next morning after heavy consumption of alcoholic drinks. The most common characteristics are headache, thirst, lethargy, nausea and anxiety, light or noise irritability and restlessness. It is really an uncomfortable and unpleasant mood.

The usual symptoms are dehydration, low blood sugar level, vitamin B1 deficiency and possible acetaldehyde intoxication.

The duration may be up to three days depending on the type of alcoholic beverages consumed in the previous night.

Ethanol causes increased urine production and dehydration is the reason for headache, lethargy and dry mouth and this can be relieved by drinking water or soft drinks. Coffee is not a cure for hangover headache because it increases the production of urine and thus goes with only dehydration. A glass of milk or orange juice – calcium and vitamin C – can also combat the symptoms of a hangover if taken shortly after the consumption of alcohol.

It slows down the gluconeogenesis, the process of forming glucose in the liver from the non-carbohydrate substrates and this causes low blood sugar value. Glucose is the primary energy source of the brain and this causes the hangover symptoms, such as, fatigue, bad mood and poor concentration capabilities. Take fructose from honey or tomato juice which competes with the metabolism of alcohol, prevents the sudden fall of alcohol level in the blood which triggers the morning after headache.

The presence of higher alcohols and the by products of fermentation, causes hangover headache and they could be removed by distilling, particularly in the case of vodka. But it does not mean that you can drink vodka excessively. One drink for a woman, two drinks for a man or a glass of beer or wine or champagne is the gold standard for alcoholic beverages as a social drinking. But, it is better to avoid alcohol because it is not a food that plays a role in our metabolism and causes more problems for the family and society.

It is bad to drink any alcoholic beverage with empty stomach, it can reach the blood stream quickly, thus it reaches in the brain fast and the effects we experience immediately as well as in the next morning are serious.

Red wines have less congener than white wines and the hangover is less with white wine. There are persons who react very negatively with red wine and it can affect them within a short time of 15 minutes after drinking a glass; it is called the red wine headache. These persons must avoid the red wine.

Taking two aspirins before going to bed is not a cure for hangover headache. Aspirin and ibuprofen may irritate the stomach lining.

Caution: Paracetamol, the pain killer can cause severe liver problems when mixed with alcohol.

Exercise - a light jogging can help you to get over a hangover.

Excessive alcohol consumption can reduce the magnesium level in the blood and persons with low magnesium level may experience more severe hangover headache.

Vitamin B1 is mostly deficient in heavy drinkers.

Vitamin B6 can reduce the hangover symptoms.

Drinking Water

Drinking water is an essential food to live. 50% to 70% is the water content of the body and blood contains 95%, liver 90%, bone 22% and fat has 14% water. Women have 5% less water than men.

Water helps to get rid of wastes, regulates temperature and provides a medium for biological reactions in the body. If one doesn’t drink enough water, he could become dehydrated. The symptoms of dehydration include confusion, restless behaviour, absence of tears, dry and warm skin, dark yellow urine, weakness, cramping in the arms and legs and headache. The symptoms of moderate to severe dehydration includes low blood pressure, dry eyes, convulsions, severe muscle contractions in the arms, legs, stomach and back, bloating, rapid or weak pulse and heart failure. 5% drop in body fluids will cause 25 to 30% energy loss and 15% drop causes death. 80% of world’s population suffers energy loss because of mild dehydration.

Healthy adults need between 3 l to 4 l water in a day. Hot weather and physical activity increases the need for more water, 4 l to 6 l. If the colour of the urine is pale straw the fluid intake is normally fine. If it is dark yellow, one has to drink more. Coffee, tea and fruit juices intake could be counted with water intake. Vitamin B2 makes the urine dark yellow.

Health risks can arise from drinking of water contaminated with bacteria, virus, toxic chemicals including environmental poisons and radioactive compounds. It contributes diseases in developing and in developed countries. Water helps to metabolize fat and helps weight reduction. Boiling water can kill most of the bacteria and virus. Chlorine can react with chemicals to form toxic substances.

Recent studies in USA and UK show that a number of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-epileptics, mood stabilizers and female sex hormones are found in drinking water. The found concentrations are very low – in parts per billion or trillion – which are far below the dose of medical dose. The water industry says that their water is safe. But the presence of so many drugs, prescription as well as over-the-counter medicines may have cumulative negative effects of long-term consequences to human health. We have to think of the mostly used drugs like paracetamol and ibuprofen. These can come from human excretions like urine or faeces and do not forget many throw the medicines in the toilets also. From the recycled or ground water these residues come to our drinking water.

The problems with hormones from the oral contraceptives are well known in Western countries.

The filters what we buy to purify our tap water are useless to filter these residues. Two things could help – the purifiers with reverse osmosis technique and the other one is simply distilling water. Rain water after 30 minutes of rain beginning is the most pure water if there is no industrial chimney in that area. The easiest, best and cheap method of purifying water from drugs and medicines is the distillation of water. Young scientists! Develop cheap distilling system which could be used in every house in this world. The cost of this should be distributed in such a way that the industry must subsidise this water distilling units to every home in our world.

If you have kidney problems or undergoing dialysis ask your doctor to know the amount of water to drink.