May 8th, 2009
There is no simple and accurate test which can be used to detect endometriosis. The only reliable way to diagnose the condition is by observing the implants during a minor operation known as a laparoscopy.
The diagnosis usually involves several stages which may include some or all of the following:
Reporting your symptoms to a doctor
Giving a history of your symptoms
Having a physical examination
Having an ultrasound
Having a laparoscopy
Taking a biopsy during a laparoscopy.
An early diagnosis is important as endometriosis is generally thought to be a progressive condition in which treatment is more effective in the early stages. If the progression of the condition can be stopped, or at least slowed down, then the likelihood of developing long-term complications such as infertility, adhesions and chronic pain is reduced.
For many women the road to a diagnosis is often long and it is not uncommon for women to see several doctors regarding their symptoms over a number of years before a diagnosis is made. In a survey conducted by the Endometriosis Association (Victoria), the average time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis was over six years.
The long delay in diagnosis experienced by many women is partly due to the fact that endometriosis is often difficult to diagnose, especially in the early stages. The symptoms are easily confused with several other conditions and some doctors are not fully aware of the range of possible symptoms. In addition, a pelvic examination often appears normal.
Unfortunately, the diagnosis of endometriosis is also sometimes affected by doctors’ attitudes to the symptoms. Many doctors do not take women’s and teenager’s symptoms, such as period pain, seriously. Like many people in our community, they tend to assume that period pain is normal or psychological.
Doctors often do not consider a diagnosis in women and teenagers who do not conform to the traditional stereotype of women with endometriosis. Consequently teenagers and women under the age of 25, women who have had children and women from lower socio-economic backgrounds are often simply not considered for a diagnosis.
*31\83\2*
Categories: Women's Health |
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April 29th, 2009
Weight loss can be caused by a number of physiological and psychological disorders, and if unexplained weight loss occurs, a medical practitioner should be consulted.
Intended weight loss for health or other reasons involves a number of factors. There are many theories regarding weight loss which encompass genetics, food intake and exercise. There is some evidence of a genetic predisposition to obesity and variations in metabolic function. There is also evidence, however, that while some people weigh considerably more than others but have the same food intake, those who weigh more do less exercise.
Most nutritionists agree that effective weight reduction involves a long-term change in eating patterns and behaviour and a gradual but significant increase in exercise. Fad or crash diets used for a short period actually reduce the amount of muscle and water in the body and weight is rapidly regained once the diet is discontinued.
Approaches to gradual weight loss include lowering fat and kilojoule intake while increasing the amount of fatburning exercise. Fat content is reduced by eliminating junk foods and refined sugar and reducing dairy products and fatty meats. Lowering the amount of fat in the diet should correspond with an increase in the intake of fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains. Drinking around 8 glasses of water a day is also recommended. Exercise involving at least three 20 minute periods per week will increase the metabolic rate and burn fat.
*80\69\2*
Categories: General health |
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April 29th, 2009
Life is difficult. This is how M Scott Peck begins The Road Less Travelled, one of the most successful books of all time. As he points out, this statement is one of the great, inescapable truths, which has been emphasized by philosophers since the time of Buddha. Hard work, losses, injustices, illness and poverty are among the problems that are part of our human condition. Despite these difficulties, however, the capacity of the human spirit to rise above such difficulties time and again has repeatedly been observed. Victor Frankl survived one of the greatest horrors of our modern era or, perhaps, of all time – the Holocaust – and went on to write his classic inspirational work, Man’s Search for Meaning in which he emphasized our capacity to find significance and value even in the most horrible of circumstances. He regarded such an ability to preserve a sense of purpose and meaning as essential to survival.
Depressed people lose their capacity to see meaning and significance in their lives. A religious person when depressed may feel cut off from God, a particularly distressing loss at a time when spiritual comfort may be most deeply needed. In such a spiritual void, the depressed person may naturally feel that there is very little purpose in living.
Related to our ability to find a sense of meaning and purpose in life is our capacity to enjoy ourselves and have fun. We can see this ability at play even in the midst of all sorts of difficulties. Poor people retain their ability to celebrate, as anyone can see who has walked through the impoverished neighbourhoods of some European town during the festival for a saint or at carnival time. Even very hard-working people take time out for recreation. When difficult times let up, even for a short interval, the ability to have fun pops up again like the crocuses that sprout their shoots and flowers after a long winter.
All of these normal abilities are the opposite of what we see in depression. Even in the midst of plenty – enough money, good physical health, supportive friends and family — the depressed person is unable to have a good time. This inability to enjoy life can come on insidiously and it may take a while to realize that you are not enjoying life as you used to. Sometimes this recognition is triggered by returning to a place you’ve been before or an activity you used to relish and realizing that you don’t have the same feelings or enthusiasm for it that you enjoyed before. Sometimes friends will ask you what the matter is. You just don’t seem to be enjoying yourself as you used to. Suddenly or gradually you realize that nothing feels like fun anymore. As one of my patients put it, depression is like an unwelcome guest that follows you around your house and just won’t go away. The formal clinical term for this state is anhedonia, which means the inability to experience pleasure. Life feels dreary. Sometimes this dreariness is experienced through the senses. Colours seem less bright than they did before. The world may look grey or dark where formerly it was full of vivid colours. Whatever it is that you may have loved -music, dancing, films – now feels like a drag. In this way, depression is like a thief that robs you of the joy of living. This is another reason not to delay in treating it and reclaiming the ability to experience joy once again.
If nothing seems like fun anymore and life seems dreary, and this has been going on for more than a few weeks, consider the possibility that you may be clinically depressed.
*53\75\2*
Categories: Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
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April 28th, 2009
First on the list is natural gas. The case of Ellen Sanders is an extreme example of what natural gas can do to susceptible people. Many more people are less dramatically, but just as insidiously, affected by this product.
The use of the word “natural” in this context is misleading. Natural gas comes from the earth, but by and large it has lain there, trapped, for millennia. It is only in the past century that man has tapped this resource and brought himself into physical contact with it. Thus, natural gas is highly unnatural as far as the human body is concerned—a substance with which the body has no physiological method of coping. Synthetic chemicals are also added to this “natural” product, such as the one used to give it its characteristic “skunky” odor.
A leaking gas line is, of course, a life-threatening hazard: each year over a thousand people die of gas poisoning in the home. An equally serious threat, in my opinion, is posed by the day-in and day-out inhalation of minute quantities of this same poisonous substance by the chemically susceptible.
We have been convinced by skillful advertising and public relations that natural gas is not only natural, but “safe” and “clean.” Yet studies at the University of California and elsewhere have shown that the carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide levels in a vented kitchen become as high as in Los Angeles during a smog attack, when an oven has been heated to 350°F. for one hour. If the kitchen does not have an exhaust fan, these levels climb to three times the Los Angeles smog level in the same period. Few people would not be susceptible to such high levels of indoor air pollution.
There are individuals, however, who are kept in a perpetual state of illness by far lower levels of the same poisonous substances. The gas which emanates from normal pilot lights or escapes from a well-saturated stove is often the main source of a patient’s illness.
Given a choice, then, everyone should choose an electric range over a gas range. The first rule of prevention in this field is to minimize one’s exposure to utility gas.
Since changing the stove might very well entail some expense, it is advisable to test oneself for reactions to the gas range first. This can be done by temporarily removing the range from the house, if at all possible. (A shut-off stove is better than a connected one but still disseminates gas into the environment.) Electric appliances such as a hot plate can be substituted for the range while the test is under way.
After the gas stove has been removed for a week or so, it can then be returned. The reader should keep a symptom diary, in which changes (positive or negative) in his condition can be noted. Both the removal of the gas stove and its reintroduction may be accompanied by changes in health. In cases in which the stove is definitely incriminated as a cause of symptoms, it should be permanently removed.
Although there may be some expense involved in making this change, it is a worthwhile investment in health. Several thousand patients have been guided in removing their gas ranges on the basis of such positive tests and not one has complained about the cost or reported being dissatisfied with the change.
*104\110\2*
Categories: Allergies |
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April 28th, 2009
When musicians suddenly increase the duration and intensity of practice or playing they risk getting the overuse syndrome, a disorder that causes pain, weakness, and loss of function in certain muscles, the Lancet (2:728) reports. Playing string instruments causes this problem to occur in the upper limbs, but, with wind instruments, it is the lips, tongue, throat, and chest that are affected. In severe cases, stiffening and deformity may occur, with arthritis in the joints of the hands, arm, or spine.
To avoid the problem, musicians should not play continuously for long periods. Parents and teachers of children learning to play an instrument should not insist upon unbroken hour-long sessions of practice. Sporting activity and exercises that extend the range of motion of the spine and strengthen the muscles are helpful. Any repertoire that brings on pain or discomfort should be abandoned.
Lastly, supporting devices that take the weight of an instrument off the musicians’ arms can make a considerable difference. If partial resting fails to alleviate the pain and tenderness, the musician should give up playing completely for many months, until all of the symptoms have disappeared altogether. Other activities (e.g: writing or turning taps) that also bring on the symptoms must be abandoned, too. Medical care is necessary.
Only after the symptoms have cleared completely can the musician safely resume playing, starting with one minute twice daily and extending the time very gradually. Since the overuse syndrome can be so disabling and difficult to overcome, music performers need to be alert to the danger of playing for too long.
*182\143\2*
Categories: General health |
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April 28th, 2009
Symptom: Extra sounds made by the heart that are known not to indicate an abnormality
Home care: No home care is required for an innocent murmur.
Precautions:
- Believe your doctor’s assurance that innocent murmurs are normal.
- Do not make the mistake of over-protecting a child who has an innocent murmur; it is not necessary.
- Try not to be alarmed by the long medical names given to innocent murmurs.
- Most innocent murmurs disappear by the time the child is a teenager.
A heart murmur is an extra sound made by the heart as it pumps. A heart murmur may indicate abnormalities in the heart, or it may simply be a normal sound caused by turbulence as the blood rushes through the heart. The sounds that do not indicate heart disease or abnormalities are called “innocent murmurs,” “insignificant murmurs”, or “functional murmurs.” They are perfectly normal. Some experts believe that almost every healthy child has at least one innocent murmur, and if the child will stay still long enough in a quiet room a doctor will eventually be able to hear it. Other experts put the figure lower, at half of all normal children. As the child grows, the extra sound or sounds usually become increasingly hard to hear. By the time the child is a teenager, the murmur usually disappears, or becomes so quiet it cannot be detected. Only 15 to 20 percent of innocent murmurs continues into adolescence or adulthood.
*99/84/5*
Categories: General health |
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April 23rd, 2009
Carbohydrates include sugars and starches. They are an important source of energy and are all eventually broken down in your body into the simple sugar, glucose. There are two types of carbohydrate – complex and simple. Complex carbohydrates include grains (such as wheat, rye, oats, rice, barley and maize), beans and pulses (such as lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans), and vegetables. Simple carbohydrates include white and brown sugar, honey, fruit and fruit juice.
To optimize your health, you should eat plenty of unrefined complex carbohydrates. This means choosing brown whole meal bread, brown rice and brown pasta, instead of the refined white versions which have been stripped of essential vitamins, minerals, trace elements and valuable fibre content. (In order to digest these refined foods your body has to use its own vitamins and minerals, thus depleting your stores.)
Simple carbohydrates, in the form of fruit and dried fruit, certainly have a place in a healthy, balanced diet. But it’s important, for your health and fertility, to maintain a steady blood sugar level. For this reason, you should avoid sugar, honey and undiluted fruit juice, which can all produce a sudden rise in blood sugar, followed by a sudden fall.
Soya
Soya is being studied extensively around the world for its effectiveness in lowering cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular disease. It also appears to have an important role to play in balancing male and female sex hormones. Scientists believe that hormonal imbalance and over-exposure to chemicals that have oestrogen-like qualities may be one reason for the rapid increase in breast and prostate cancers over the last couple of decades. Crucially, this hormonal dysfunction and overload are also implicated in the menstrual and reproductive problems that affect fertility.
Soya is classed as a phyto-oestrogen, which means that it contains substances that act like hormones. These phyto-oestrogens fit into oestrogen receptors in the breast and block them, effectively shielding the body from exposure to oestrogen which is believed to be one of the major causes of breast cancer. Studies of Japanese women, who traditionally eat a great deal of soya, suggest that it may protect them from this disease.
Oestrogen is not only implicated in breast cancer but is also believed to play a part in causing other problems like endometriosis, fibroids, and heavy and/or long periods – all of which can affect female fertility.
Some women have problems conceiving because the second half of their menstrual cycle, just after ovulation, is shorter than it should be. This ‘luteal phase defect’, as it is known, means that there is not enough progesterone at the right time to maintain a pregnancy. Scientists have found that if they add soya to a woman’s diet it can lengthen the cycle by 2.5 days.
For all these reasons, it’s well worth adding soya to your diet – perhaps in the form of soya milk and tofu (soya bean curd, often used in Oriental stir-fried dishes). However, you need to ensure that the soya used to manufacture these products is not genetically modified, so buy organic.
So, for optimum health, you should eat plenty of:
• Essential fats (nuts, seeds and oily fish)
• High-fibre foods (fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds)
• Complex carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, pulses and vegetables)
• Non-GM organic soya
*27/73/5*
Categories: Women's Health |
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April 23rd, 2009
Every day, 17 people go to their death after going to work. Each year, more than 6,000 people are killed on the job-92 percent of whom are men. And you thought your home life was stressful?
As you might expect, those at greatest risk for dying on the job are men who work in the great outdoors, where the whims of Mother Nature often become a factor, says Guy A. Toscano, economist in the Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. Fishermen and loggers have it the worst by far. While the national average for deaths on the job is 5 out of every 100,000 workers, these out-doormen die at rates 20 to 30 times higher- losing more than 100 workers and, in some years, even rates as high as 150, out of every 100,000 on the job. “Truck drivers, farmers, and construction laborers have occupations that have high fatality rates as well as high numbers of job-related fatal injuries as well,” says Toscano.
But as bad as those figures sound, things are actually better than they used to be. Back in 1912, when we knew (and some would say cared) less about job safety, between 18,000 and 21,000 workers a year lost their lives while earning their daily bread. By 1995, with a work force more than triple in size producing 13 times as many goods and services, occupational deaths had decreased by more than two-thirds. “We have become more aware of safety issues in society at large,” explains Michael Buchet, manager of the construction division and the labor division at the National Safety Council in Itasca, Illinois. “In industry, we’ve been encouraging safer workplace practices and are pushing for training, training, and more training.”
That said, after decades of progress, it seems harder to make gains in workplace safety these days, Toscano says. “We’ve clearly hit a plateau in that the number of fatal occupational injuries has held steady at the 6,000 to 6,500 mark for the past five years,” he says. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t make any more progress. But it does mean that safety professionals have to be willing to work harder to recognize risk and promote safety measures.”
*108/36/5*
Categories: General health |
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April 22nd, 2009
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is, as the name suggests, connected with the bone structure. In general terms it might be described as a degenerative joint disease where the degenerative factor is with the articular cartilage and structure of the bone. The changes in bone structure can in fact include new bone formation. Unfortunately, this new growth may occur in the form of spurs, or appear in areas which should be occupied by cartilage. In simple terms a ’spur’ might be described as an abnormal projection of bone.
Osteoarthritis would tend to be associated more with elderly people but it is not restricted to this group. It can also set in as a consequence of bone injuries resulting from sporting activities or accidents. It has several possible causes. One is natural wear and tear during the ageing process of the body. This may start at quite an early age but not give trouble until later in life. Another cause is a breakdown of the lubrication of the joint causing excessive wear. In the case of sporting activities it can be the result of repeated impact shock on the joint. With increasing age the bones become suffer and less elastic. They tend, therefore, to give a sharper impact on the joint cartilage. It may be seen from the above that an overweight person might stand a greater risk of developing osteoarthritis simply because of the extra weight on the load-bearing surfaces of the joints.
Gouty-arthritis
Gout or gouty arthritis is a condition in which painful inflammatory attacks, mainly in the feet, knees, or wrists, occur, as a result of the precipitation of crystals of sodium urate. This occurrence, probably resulting from hyperuricaemia (the presence of an excessive amount of uric acid in the blood), is pre-eminently a disorder associated with the male. When present in females it is mainly in the post menopausal groups.
It is believed that heredity can play a part in gouty arthritis. However, it is not necessary to panic if we happen to have a picture of an ancient relative in a wheelchair with a heavily bandaged foot! There is evidence to suggest that gout is associated with over indulgence in food and alcohol. In earlier times over-indulgence was usually associated with affluence too, but like most diseases the causes are not limited to one well-defined feature and people who live in moderation can also suffer attacks. An interesting feature which relates to our topic of the sea and to gout is that involving Polynesian people and diet. A significant increase in the incidence of gout amongst the New Zealand Maoris and other Polynesian people has occurred with the change in their basic diet of seafood and vegetables to our diet of meat, processed breads, sugar, etc.
*2/48/5*
Categories: Arthritis |
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April 22nd, 2009
THE CCK STORY
One of the best-studied gastrointestinal peptides is cholecystokinin, or CCK. After you eat, the small intestine releases this hormone, which stimulates pancreatic secretion and gallbladder contraction. It also sends satiety signals up to the hypothalamus. Women who have bulimia may have a malfunction in their CCK system. In one study, bulimic women tested before a meal had the same amount of CCK as normal women. Yet after eating they had a significantly smaller increase in CCK than did normal women. They also reported fewer feelings of fullness than the normal women did. Treatment with tricyclic antidepressants not only reduced their bingeing, but also helped their CCK levels return to normal.
This important new research doesn’t necessarily mean that a faulty CCK system causes bulimia. But decreased CCK, and thus the decrease in satiety signals, may reinforce a woman’s urge to keep eating.
Such findings have led to a revolution in the way we think about the digestive system. As one expert put it, rather than being a passive system, the gut now appears to be a “great sensory sheet extending from the mouth to the small intestine.” This sheet is exquisitely sensitive not only to the presence of food, but to its exact chemical composition as well.
THE BIOLOGICAL THERMOSTAT
Think of the thermostat in your home. You set the dial to maintain a constant temperature of, say, seventy-two degrees. When the furnace has put out enough heat, the thermostat switches it off for a while. If someone leaves the front door open and cold air rushes in, the thermostat kicks on again, staying on until the temperature returns to the desired level.
Your body works in a similar way. Earlier, I used the term homeostatic to describe how your body tries to maintain its equilibrium. The biological “homeostat” responds to changes in the environment to keep your metabolism working on an even keel.
Currently, one of the most exciting fields in medicine involves research into the fascinating and complex ways the body responds to such signals. We are beginning to learn that a number of subsystems work together to control eating as well as other types of behavior.
These subsystems operate on the feedback principle: Signal A activates process B, which in turn sends signal Ñ to shut off signal A. These signals are carried by hormones or other chemical messengers that activate nerves or stimulate other responses. Many of these processes are triggered, not just internally, but by physical and social cues from the outside world. Just about anything, from contact with other people to the amount of daylight you receive in a twenty-four-hour period, can affect your body’s function—your homeostasis.
The concept of feedback is important to eating disorders for several reasons. For example, your body tries to keep weight at a constant. If you start weighing too much, your metabolism speeds up to burn off the excess pounds. Conversely, should your weight drop, so will your metabolism, to conserve dwindling energy supplies.
Another series of feedback loops involves your body’s cravings for certain nutrients and its response to the nutritional content of the food you eat. Studies on animals (and simple observation of humans) show that at times we prefer to eat carbohydrates, for example, and at other times we choose protein-rich foods. The menus we choose can have a tremendous impact on our moods and our behavior.
*39/35/5*
Categories: Weight Loss |
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