What do you need to know about temporal arteritis?

We often see our elder suffering from a severe headache on temples and sometimes even scalp. Although young people don’t fell this headache is strange or something else, it’s quite normal for them. But it’s not normal for the elder people. Considering their age this headache on the temple is not a mere case of a headache. It is something else; it may be temporal arteritis that they are suffering from.

Temporal arteritis is an elderly disease in which the blood supplying temporalartery become damaged or inflamed. These arteries blood vessels carry oxygen from the heart to the head, brain and the rest of the body. In the state of temporal arteritis, these vessels become swell and narrow, and this swelling slows the blood flows through arteries. Since this condition occurs in the temporalarteries, it’s called temporal arteries.

Our body has large or medium-sized arteries that run along both sides of the head. Usually, temporal arteritis happened in these arteries, the cell of these arteries looks huge under the microscope. That’s why it’s also known as giant cell arteritis or cranial arteritis.Temporal arteritis is also associated with Polymyalgia Rheumatica.                                                                                      

The temporal arthritis is very common among the elder people; young people usually don’t suffer from this disease. So they can take a breath of relief.   According to a very recent report of the American College of Rheumatology, people who50 or over the age of 50 are more likely to develop the condition than younger people.

Young people have a situation to calm down, whereas older people have a matter to worry since the rate of this temporal arthritis is increasing dramatically, according to The journal Arteritis & Rheumatology states that around 228,000 people in the United States are affected by the temporal arteritis. Women are also more likely than men to have temporal arteritis. It is most prevalent in people of northern European or Scandinavian descent.

Why people suffer from temporal arteritis?

Medical science has not fully understood why some people develop temporal arteritis. Although there are some hunches about the disease, the actual reason of temporal arteritis is still in the darkness. It is also unclear why a particular group of people is more vulnerable than others.

Aging can be a risk factor, but it’s not clear why? There are some other speculations like the place where the patient lives, environment, genetic factors, viruses, allergic reaction and sometimes hyper-sensitively towards some drugs.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute state that this can sometimes be the case, adding that the possibility that a recent or ongoing infection “may prompt the attack.”

Complication and symptoms that people develop

 A temporal arteritis is a form of vascuitis. Since temporal artery stops blood supplying, Patient can develop many serious conditions in this disease, however, the major complication is the blindness. Here are some other symptoms of the temporal arteritis.

• Tender temples
• Fever
• weakness
• Mouth-related pain, especially affecting the jaw
• Pain affecting the tongue, throat, or face
• Pain or swelling on top of the head, or scalp
• Blurry or double vision.
• A severe headache
• Muscle pain in the head

Treatment of temporal arteritis

There is no cure for temporal arteritis; however, doctors use some medication & methods to minimize the tissue damage.

Generally, doctors prescribe medicine like aspirin and oral corticosteroids

Doctors advised some self-maintenances as a part of the treatment. The measures are given below.

• Quitting smoking
• Calcium and vitamin D supplements
• Regular bone density check
• Checking sugar level
• Walking or doing some yoga
• Checking body temperature

How to choose best handy equipment for self-maintenance

When it comes to self-maintenance a smart patient should choose the best tool.  You can get calcium or vitamin D supplements in any nearest medical store or even you can order online.

As far as the concern of checking sugar levels there are a lot of varieties of glucose meter on the market. You can good and cheap glucose meter in the market.

But the problem is checking body temperature, you must be thinking how can measuring body be a problem. Scientists have invented the thermometer a long time ago, that does not make any sense.

However, a normal thermometer can measure body temperature with accuracy. But, it is not necessary these normal thermometers are always 100 percent accurate.

Temporal arteritis is a serious disease; you cannot afford to neglect your health. Tocheck body temperature you can use temporal artery thermometer.

What is temporal artery thermometer?

A temporal artery thermometer is one kind of thermometer which uses the infrared principle report temperature. But need be cautious and find the right temporal artery. It is also called forehead thermometer, it offers rapid, non-invasive temperature readings. You can use it even on a 3 months old infant.

How does it work?

It is really easy to use, first of all, turn it on and press it in the middle of the forehead and scan all the side. And when you see it you’ll get a correct reading.

Which one to buy?

 There are a lot of advanced technical temporal artery thermometers available in the market. But exergen temporal artery thermometer is the best and promising one. This exergen temporal thermometer is a product of The U.S.A based company Exergen Corporation.

Why should you choose Exergen temporal thermometer?

Exergen temporal thermometer has some really amazing feature to consider. Here these are given below:

• Gentle stroke of forehead captures naturally emitted heat
• red LED lights and soft beep indicate correct scan
• Arterial Heat Balance computes the correct temperature
• It can measure temperature over 105 C
• Safe and easy to use

Conclusion

But there are some temporal thermometers draw criticism for being hard to use properly. There is nothing to worry once you master the basic swipe-and-read technique. And learn to compensate for variables like a sweaty foreheada temporal thermometer is so easy to use that you can even use it on a sleeping child.