Sometimes it is even hard to get sleep with such body conditions. How to handle yourself to feel positive and energetic during this time?
How to take it easy during menstrual cycle?
Boost your mood: During the period time most women feel depressed, lethargic and anxious. To boost mood, go out and spend time with your best friends. Go for light exercise, don’t skip gym. Do such exercise which you feel comfortable to do – certain yoga or Pilates poses you might not able to do. But going for walk, meditation, breathing, playing simple games to move the body all are healthy and bring back energy.
What to eat? During period time one can feel nausea, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea etc. Avoid fatty foods and heavy snack items. Instead eat fruits, small amount of cheese, butter, brown rice, yogurt, freshly cooked vegetables with less spice. Drink milk or butter milk. These foods fill stomach and same time controls those symptoms that are bothering you.
Taking hot shower: A morning and evening bath /shower will hep to relax the aching muscle. Apply little coconut oil on your tummy and legs. This reduces inflammation and aches in the system.
Maintain hygiene: Wear fresh clothes – change your clothes twice a day. This gives fresh odor and you will not feel dirty. Chane your menstrual pad as often as possible. Don’t allow it to overflow.
Get enough rest: Get good sleep. Some people suggest staying home and resting till you get over with the cramp and body ache. A good night sleep and an afternoon nap should help body to recover and energize. Maintain a consistent sleep timings – this helps body to recover faster than you think. Lack of sleep only increases body pain and aches.
Keep yourself cool: Due to hormonal changes, body will heat during menstrual cycle. Keep yourself cool by drinking plenty of water and if you have AC at home, turn it on or use fans to calm down the system.
Avoid heavy work:Avoid lifting heavy items and heavy work at home. Sometimes, doing heavy lifting during period time, can only increase risk of harming your body. Avoid sitting for longer hours as it can only worsen flow, increase aches and back pain.
Drink plenty of fluid: To get good sleep, drink plenty of fluid including water, cumin water, buttermilk, coconut water, milk, turmeric milk, coriander water, chamomile tea – all these helps body to relax and keeps it anxious free.
Essential oils: Find out the essential oils that can help you to relax – like mixture of lavender, roman chamomile, St John’s wort, ginger and marjoram essential oils with castor oil massage on the body parts that ache will help. Period is a blessing and not a curse. It only helps the body to get rid of unwanted stuffs. To keep body calm and relaxed these above suggestions might help.
In recent years the three illnesses are spreading throughout the world. Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika – all are due to viruses transmitted by mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes are dangerous to people and animals than any other insects in the world. They are the reason for many infectious diseases such as encephalitis, malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika virus, and yellow fever.
There has been recent spread of even more arboviral (Arthropod Borne Viral) diseases to new areas in the world over the last few months.
The Arbovirus that causes dengue, transmitted via Aedes spp. mosquitoes but recently other arboviral diseases have jumped geographic boundaries to infect new areas.
Although dengue is probably the most dangerous of these three viruses chikungunya and Zika are new to countries like America and many people are unaware of these illnesses. Aedes egypti and Aedes albopictus are the two main species of mosquitoes that carry these diseases.
Understanding the symptoms to cure the illnesses, preventing mosquitoes growth and taking other proper precautions like traveling to countries where these three illnesses are spreading – are necessary today.
Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya – What are the differences?
Chikungunya – an alphavirus that in the same family with Eastern and Western Equine Encephalitis viruses. Not related to dengue or Zika virus.
Dengue – a flavivirus, is in the same family with numerous pathogens including Yellow Fever, Japanese encephalitis, St Louis encephalitis, tick borne encephalitis, West Nile and Zika viruses
Zika – another flavivirus that is closely related to dengue and often misdiagnosed as dengue or chikungunya.
The illnesses caused by these three diseases have very similar/overlapping clinical presentation with prominent fever, headache, rash, myalgias (muscle aches) and arthralgias (joint aches).
In fact, serologic (antibodies in blood) surveys have demonstrated that outbreaks attributed to dengue in the past have turned out to be chikungunya or Zika infections.
Dengue and chikungunya are genetically distant relatives but Zika virus is closely related to dengue and often cross reacts (i.e. gives a false positive dengue test) on dengue serology or on some rapid assays that are available at some posts.
Zika virus is another African arboviral illness first seen in monkeys in Uganda in 1947 but has moved onto the front pages recently as it is becoming established in the Americas.
Zika rarely causes serious illness or death.
Four of five people who get Zika virus won’t even know they are sick
Common symptoms of Zika include: fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes, muscle pain, headache
If you are pregnant and contract Zika, you do not have to feel sick to pass the virus to your unborn baby.
Contact your doctor if you have: fever, joint pain, red or itchy eyes, rash
Symptoms typically occur 2–7 days after a bite from an infected mosquito.
There is no specific medicine or vaccine for Zika virus. Treat the symptoms.
Clinical symptoms of Zika disease appear after an incubation period ranging between 3 and 12 days. The disease symptoms are usually mild and short lasting (2–7 days), and infection may go unrecognized or be misdiagnosed as dengue.
Zika is a disease spread by:
Bite of an infected mosquito
Infected woman to child during pregnancy
Infected male to partner during sex
If you are pregnant when or soon after you contract Zika, your unborn baby may develop a severe birth defect known as microcephaly. Microcephaly causes an unusually small head, brain damage, and often death.
Virus serovars are widespread in the tropics and have caused massive outbreaks, it is considered the most rapidly spreading arboviral disease in the world with a 30 fold increase in cases in the last 50 years. It is clearly related to the prevalence of Aedes aegypti in most areas but is carried by other Aedes spp in other areas.
Dengue appeared severely in recent years in: The Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, The Pacific Islands, The Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, Central and South America.
Dengue virus is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics.
As many as 400 million people are infected yearly.
Dengue is caused by any one of four related viruses transmitted by mosquitoes.
There are not yet any vaccines to prevent infection with dengue virus and the most effective protective measures are those that avoid mosquito bites.
Symptoms: Symptoms, which usually begin four to six days after infection and last for up to 10 days, may include Sudden, high fever, Severe headaches, pain behind eyes, joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash (2 to 5 days after onset of fever, bleeding in nose, gums and easy bruising.
When infected, early recognition and prompt supportive treatment can substantially lower the risk of medical complications and death.
Dengue has emerged as a worldwide problem only since the 1950s. Although dengue rarely occurs in the continental United States, it is endemic in Puerto Rico and in many popular tourist destinations in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.
Chikungunya virus was originally an African illness and means ‘that which bends up” in the Makonde language of East Africa. For many years chikungunya was confined mainly to Africa but in the last decade has exploded through Asia and is now moving thru from the Caribbean to Central and South America.
The incubation period of chikungunya disease ranges from 2-12 days, typically 3-7days.
Symptoms include sudden onset of a fever, typically lasting from a few days to a week, sometimes up to ten days, usually above 39°C and sometimes reaching 40°C (104°F).
The fever is associated with severe joint pain or stiffness. A maculopapular (red bumps) rash, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, nausea or vomiting may also be present. Inflammation of the eyes occurs in some.
Typically, fever lasts for two days and then ends abruptly but may be biphasic (resolves and then returns later). Headache, insomnia and an extreme degree of prostration (feeling wiped out and requiring bedrest) last for a variable period, usually about 5-7 days.
The severity of joint complaints in chikungunya may be severe and may persist for weeks, months or years in some individuals. The French have found that 80-90% of patients have some joint complaints at 3 months and 5% develop chronic joint complaints that persist for years.
Deaths from chikungunya mainly occur in elderly individuals with comorbid illness. The one group to be concerned about are pregnant women who may transmit chikungunya to their infant if they become infected just before giving birth, this has caused a small number of deaths in infected neonates.
Be prepared by controlling mosquitoes even before these diseases come to your area.
There are no treatments for any of these arboviral illnesses beyond supportive care and no vaccines are currently approved so mosquito prevention is crucial.
The chances of being infected with these three illnesses can all be diminished by mosquito control.
Aedes mosquitoes live and breed in fresh water near and in homes. Anything that can hold a cup or more of water including birdbaths, tire swings, planters, old bottles, trash cans, even the back of a toilet tank have all been breeding areas.
There is no danger in touching mosquito larva and instructing your family in looking in your home and yard for containers with larva (or potential breeding containers) and dumping them out is a great way to involve everyone in mosquito vigilance.
Controlling mosquitoes in your yard is most important, Aedes generally don’t fly all that far and most biting occurs from mosquitoes born and raised right in your neighborhood.
Use CDC recommended insect repellents containing either 20% DEET, picaridin or IR3535. Use of permethrin spray on and clothing can all diminish the chances of being bitten. Treating lawn furniture, curtains, blinds, clothing and tents with permethrin and sleeping in screened or air conditioned rooms will help diminish bites from mosquitoes.
Always try to wear fresh clothes to school. In a closed class room sweat odor can reach one corner to another.
Change your undergarments every day. This is hygiene practice required for your health.
Make sure your clothes are washed before wearing them. If your school requires you to wear uniform then, after you come back home – hang your uniform in air to remove anysweat odor.
Stay away from cigarette smoke and tell your family members not to smoke in the car and inside home -instead ask them to use designated area. If not your cloth and hair will collect smoke odor.
Shoes:
Sweat gets into shoes easily and your socks also smells very bad if you don’t give attention to it.
Bacteria can thrive in the shoes and socks for longtime as they like moist fabric of shoes and create bad odor.
If you have more than one pair of shoe, use them alternate days. This way shoe that you used will dry properly. Don’t wear wet shoes.
Once you come back home, take out shoe and socks. Wash socks alternate days. Clean shoes as often as possible. Washing, brushing and polishing is needed for all types of shoes. When you take care of shoes properly, not only your feet odor free, also shoes last longer.
If you have washing machine at home, see whether you can wash your fabric shoe using washing machine.
Teeth
Brush your teeth twice a day and floss it almost every day. If not, the particles stuck in between will help in growth of odor causing bacteria. When you speak then your mouth smells.
After every meal rinse your mouth and brush your teeth using your fingers.
Avoid eating heavy onion and garlic before leaving to school.
If you are wearing braces, make sure braces are cleaned. If not, it can harbor odor causing bacteria that release bad odor.
Feet
Wash your feet after your school – wash between toes and use cloth/towel to wipe the water between toes.
Dry feet properly. Don’t wear socks and shoes with wet feet – this harbors bacterium in the shoe.
Avoid walking in cafeteria, class rooms, corridors in bare foot and public places. If not, you might catch fungal infections and can develop warts.
Apply talcum powder to your feet and you can also put little talcum powder in your shoe.
Shirts
Before wearing shirts, make sure the shirt is washed and dried.
Daily don’t forget to wash your underarm pit. If not, your body sweat odor can reach people who are sitting close to you.
If needed use deodorant or anti-perspirant under armpits. Don’t use perfumes as it can cause headache to you and others.
Wear clothes that are meant for each season.
Don’t wear dirty gym clothes to classroom and once you come home take out gym dress and clean yourself.
Take shower everyday using bath soaps.
Hair
Oil and sweat can create odor in your hair. It also makes it dirty and greasy.
Use shampoo to wash your hair. Massage your scalp well to remove dead skin, dirt and the oil. If needed use conditioner.
Wash hair 3 times in a week.
Use a wide toothed comb to comb hair. Avoid combing wet hair.
Use Sun light to dry hair.
Do apply oil to hair to keep it shiny, healthy and growing. Do not use oil in excess. And never use fragrant oil on your hair.
Body hygiene is very important. Just clean odor from the body itself tells others that you are clean and attracts people around you positively.
Image credit: https://www.needpix.com/photo/661759/team-basketball-team-girls-basketball-team-sport-basketball-teamwork-competition-athletes-basketball-court (Free for commercial use)
Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: September 25, 2017
