Medical Encyclopedia

Joint diseases are any injuries or diseases that affect human joints. The spectrum of joint diseases includes some types of arthritis different in their clinical course: osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, bursitis and some others, as well as rheumatic disorder affecting the joints and connective tissue. No matter what the cause of the inflammation is, a patient usually experiences pain, stiffness, swelling and some redness of the skin about the inflamed joint.

Karela acts as an effective blood cleanser filtering the toxins and eradicating infections which we get from microorganisms inhabiting our body. Nowadays the use of herbal medicines is very popular as an alternative to standard allopathic medicine for a wide range of problems including different types of blood intoxication.

Karela, commonly referred to as bitter gourd, comes from the Indian subcontinent as a special folk medicine used as a dietary supplement to treat one of the most spread diseases of modernity - diabetes mellitus. The main mechanism of action consists in Karela's hypoglycemic effect which manifests itself in regulating glucose levels in the body. Karela helps maintain blood sugar levels to the normal limits by suppressing neural response to sweet taste stimuli. It also contributes to cutting short sugar outflow in the urine. In general, sugar in the urine is atypical and is symptomatic of much higher than normal blood sugar levels that exceed the ability of the kidney to reabsorb glucose.

Karela is known not only as an effective tool in controlling diabetes, but also as a good implement in promoting overall health. For that reason it is used for a wide array of conditions which can and may not necessarily be directly associated with diabetes mellitus.

One of the beneficial effects attributed to Karela is reducing and curing the symptoms of respiratory disorders. Respiratory disorders include diseases of the lungs, pleural cavity, bronchial tubes, trachea, the upper respiratory tract as well as of the nerves and the muscles of breathing. All in all, the diseases of the respiratory system range from mild such as common cold to acute and life-threatening such as bacterial pneumonia. The most common respiratory diseases include asthma - the constriction of hypersensitive airways, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which causes shortness of breath, chronic bronchitis - inflammation and scarring of the bronchial tubes, pleurisy - inflammation of the pleural membrane lining the lungs, lung cancer, influenza, pneumonia and common cold. The typical symptoms of respiratory disorders are shortness of breath, dyspnoea, syncope, cough and chest pain. As soon as they manifest themselves, it is necessary to seek professional medical help.