Other Therapeutic Areas

Sideropenia represents one of the most significant forms of malnutrition.

Iron is a necessary mineral not only because it forms part of the structure of numerous enzymes that play important metabolic roles, but above all because it is indispensable for the production of haemoglobin, the protein found in red blood cells (erythrocytes) and responsible for transporting oxygen to all organs.

Iron deficiency can cause sideropenic anaemia (from the Greek: sídēros, iron, and penìa, poverty), a disease characterised by a reduction in the number of red blood cells and haemoglobin, which is not always easy to diagnose, especially in the early stages. Symptoms may manifest themselves progressively: headaches, fatigue, pale complexion, hair loss, brittle nails. In some cases, moreover, it can be asymptomatic and therefore only be discovered through laboratory tests performed as periodic monitoring. 

Benign prostatic hypertrophy is a condition that commonly afflicts males over 50 years of age and is characterised by an increase in the size of the prostate gland due to an increase in the number of prostate cells, which cannot be related to the presence of cancerous disease. 

The round prostate gland is located just below the bladder (in front of the rectum) and surrounds the upper part of the urethra (tubular organ responsible for transporting urine from the bladder to the outside of the body). 

An increase in the size of the prostate gland can lead to varying degrees of obstruction of urinary flow through the urethra, resulting in symptoms such as difficulty urinating, the need to urinate often (even at night) and urinary urgency (a sudden, uncontrollable urge to urinate), which can impair quality of life.

Abdominal pain can have various causes and affect different organs and systems. 

One of these is irritable bowel syndrome, a condition that affects one in ten people and worsens the quality of life of those affected. Symptoms, besides stomach ache, include bloating, diarrhoea and/or constipation.

Abdominal pain can also be caused by biliary and renal colic, which, although they have different causes, are united by the intensity of the painful spasms (contractions).

Since abdominal pain may also be due to important causes, both extra (myocardial infarction, myocarditis, heart failure, pneumonia,...) and intra-abdominal (pancreatitis, painful ovulation, perforated ulcers, peritonitis), it is essential that if abdominal pain occurs, one should contact one's doctor for a correct diagnosis.

Migraine is the second most common form of headache and is characterised by intense throbbing pain that usually affects the frontal area or one side of the head. It may occur without premonitory symptoms (migraine without aura) or, in the case of migraine with aura, be preceded by the vision of flashes of light, tingling, difficulty articulating words, and loss of balance.

The exact causes are still unknown, but it is believed that there may be a genetic predisposition. Certain factors have been identified that may trigger the attack in some predisposed persons, such as the menstrual cycle, stress, fatigue and the intake of certain foods, sunlight, certain sounds and smells.

Antibiotics are drugs that through interference with bacterial cell structures can limit the replication of the bacteria responsible for an infectious condition.

Antibiotics possess bacteriostatic and/or bactericidal capacity, i.e. in the first case they slow down the replication of bacterial cells allowing the body to make the immune system's response more effective, while in the second case they have the capacity to kill the bacterial cells that sustain the infection.

Antibiotics, together with vaccines, have had a very important impact on the health of the population, contributing to longer life expectancy and quality of life.

However, bacterial cells, partly due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, have developed a certain tolerance (antibiotic resistance) to the effects of these therapies, limiting the means of treatment against them to date.

A conscious use of antibiotics, as well as a focus on the development of new drugs, is essential to allow a reduction in the phenomenon of bacterial resistance to treatments.

In the same way that antibiotics are the drugs that allow bacterial infections to be controlled, anti-virals are those drugs that allow infections sustained by viruses to be limited.

Zoster, or shingles, is a disease caused by the Varicella zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that is responsible for chickenpox (an exanthematous disease typical of childhood), which, after the first infection that causes chickenpox, remains dormant in groups of nerve cells (ganglia) for up to several years. For reasons as yet unknown, the virus can reawaken, migrate to the skin through the nerve pathways within which it has been dormant for a long time and cause the appearance of a painful rash characterised by the presence of vesicles, typical of Zoster.

This painful rash can occur on any part of the body, is usually unilateral (on one side only), with a sudden break on the median line, and follows the linear course of the nerve.

If this viral infection is not treated early on, there is a high risk that when the first vesicles appear, a painful sensation (post-herpetic neuralgia) will remain, sometimes disabling and poorly treatable.