Hypertension: a disease of changing civilization It is being increasingly recognized now-a-days that a mismatch between our ancient physiology and the western diet and lifestyle underlies many so-called diseases of civilization, such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.1Carrera-Bastos P, Fontes-Villalba M, O'Keefe JH, et al. Research Reports in Clinical Cardiology 2011:2 15-35. This makes a compelling case for possible causal role of diet and dietary behaviors in these diseases, with other lifestyle factors, such as physical inactivity, playing a contributory role in addition. Particularly, an inversion of the potassium and sodium concentrations in modern diet is a recent event in human evolutionary history that is believed to contribute to the rising prevalence of hypertension. This might be due to an increasing use of table salt, a high intake of processed foods (with added salt), and the displacement of potassiumrich foods (e.g., fruit and vegetables) by potassiumpoor…
UTIs - so common in the population Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are widely prevalent in the population as one of the most common bacterial infections acquired in community and in hospitals, which makes them an important topic for the consulting physicians.1-4Grimes CL, Lukacz ES. Female Pelvic Med Reconstr Surg. 2011;17(6):272-8.Mazzulli T. The Can J Urol 2012;19 Suppl 1:42-48.Foxman B. Nat Rev Urol. 2010;7(12):653-60.Schmiemann G, Kniehl E, Gebhardt K, et al. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2010 May;107(21):361-7. The clinical spectrum of UTIs is extensive and encompasses wide ranging severity patterns, ranging from asymptomatic bacteriuria, to symptomatic and recurrent UTIs, to sepsis associated with UTI requiring hospitalization5Mody L, Juthani-Mehta M. JAMA. 2014 Feb 26;311(8):844-54. ; the infection being initially identified as upper and lower UTIs based on clinical presentation, and further differentiated as uncomplicated and complicated for ease of management.6Wang A, Nizran P, Malone MA, et al. Prim Care. 2013;40(3):687-706. ,7Wagenlehner FM, Naber KG. Eur…
