News for May 2009
CHILD’S DISORDERS: HERPES SIMPLEX MOUTH INFECTION (STOMATITIS)
Cause
As well as causing cold sores on the lipss, the herpes type I virus can infect the inside of the mouth.
Clinical features
Your child may complain of a sore mouth, and the lips, gums and throat may also be involved. Younger children may simply refuse food or drink, and drool a lot. The lining of the mouth may be swollen and red, with multiple tiny blisters or ulcers visible. Your child may be irritable and cry a lot.
• if your child is generally unwell or has a fever;
• if your child refuses food and liquids, and has passed urine less often than usual.
Treatment
There is no cure for herpes infections and the mainstay of treatment is the alleviation of symptoms. Paracetamol may help to ease the pain, but should only be given according to directions. Encourage your child to drink as much as possible, and if he is refusing food, give him high calorie drinks (such as milkshakes, lemonade or glucose drinks). A good way of providing additional fluid is to give your child flavoured ice blocks, ice cream or jelly. If your child is used to a bottle, it may be easier to feed him with a cup and spoon until the infection passes. Herpes mouth infections usually clear up within 7-10 days. If you have any concerns, you should see your doctor.
*235\90\8*
Edited: May 21st, 2009
NEWBORN’S APPEARRENCE: HIPS, GROIN AND BOW LEGS
Hips
The hips of a newborn baby are checked very carefully by the doctor to make sure that they are not dislocated.
Groin
Newborn baby girls sometimes have swollen labia, often accompanied by a vaginal discharge which is usually white, but may be reddish. This is due to hormones from the mother which have crossed into the baby’s bloodstream during pregnancy, and which fall to normal levels soon after birth.
Newborn baby boys can have an undescended testicle, a hydrocoele (fluid around the testicle) or a tight foreskin. Erections are also common.
Genitalia often appear to be proportionally large in the newborn period. This is also due to hormonal influence from the mother, and will diminish during the first few weeks.
Bow legs
This appearance is normal in newborn babies and soon corrects itself.
*68\90\8*
Edited: May 19th, 2009
SEXUALITY, ILLNESS, AND HEALTH: NOT FEELING TOO GOOD BUT HAVING NO DETECTABLE HEALTH PROBLEMS
Medical measurement techniques are all vague estimates of body processes that can never be directly assessed. We can only compare somebody response, count of cells, or appearance of body products with some arbitrary numerical standard. When your “count” falls within pre-established limits, then cosmopolitan medicine says there are “no remarkable findings.” (Actually, the human system is far beyond remarkable, a true, infinitely complex miracle.) Even when medicine says you are fine, you may not “feel good.” Too many times, physicians either ignore the sexual dimensions of our health problems or are too uncomfortable to deal with them. Physician Harold Lief reports that the instance of patient report of sexual difficulties is predicted by the willingness on the part of the physician to talk about this important area of life. Another doctor, Richard Green, writes that to ignore sexual health in attempting to treat any health problem is incomplete, even unethical health care. ‘ ‘Not feeling too good” affects and can be affected by our sexuality.
*259\97\8*
Edited: May 18th, 2009
THE JOY OF PERFECT HEALTH: HELPING OTHERS
The motto of this book is a wonderful phrase from one of the public lectures of Master Ching Hai: “We doubt everything and everybody except our own ignorance “.
Have it in mind, when trying to give advice to other people. They may not want it. Always ask if they need help.
Help only people who ask you for it or explicitly agree that you help them.
Even then, watch carefully // they listen to what you say. If they do not listen, it means that they are not yet ready to listen. Or perhaps you are not yet ready to give them advice.
Instead of trying to explain everything in a few sentences, give them this book, and suggest that you could perhaps answer some of their questions after they have read it. You will save a lot of time as well as avoid exhausting discussions and arguments.
If, after reading this book, people still miss the point, there is nothing you can do to help them. They should help themselves first. Their “bowl” is full. Any new information is just causing an overflow.
Note, that it may take years or even decades for some people to understand advice. Some people have to experience themselves consequences of all their mistakes before they understand. It is their best lesson.
Please notice, that in view of what we learned reading this book, “curing” other people does not really help them.
If they do not understand that all their diseases are caused by their own actions and ignorance, they will develop other diseases later on anyway.
It is clear, that it is much better to explain to them how they can heal themselves and never get sick again. The only difficulty in this approach is that they may not want to understand our advice.
*49\96\8*
Edited: May 18th, 2009
IRITIS – INTRODUCTION
The iris is the colored portion of the eye. It acts like the shutter of a camera and its fine muscles open and close the pupil, the small hole in the centre of the iris, to admit more or less light, depending on how bright it is.
Inflammation of the iris or iritis, is not uncommon. It is not an infection. Conjunctivitis, or infection due either to viruses or to bacteria, usually affects both eyes and there is usually the production of pus, rather than just tears.
In iritis, there is pain in the eye, and sometimes around the orbit, even into the nose. There is photophobia, or dislike of light, an excess production of tears, and sometimes blurring of vision.
When the eye is examined, it has a diffuse pink flush around the cornea, the outer edges of the white of the eye are often unaffected.
In conjunctivitis, the eye is more red than pink, with prominent blood vessels and involving the whole of the white of the eye. The colored iris looks a greenish, muddy color and the normal markings on it are blurred. The pupil is often small and reacts sluggishly to light.
*464/71/1*
Edited: May 15th, 2009
ASTHMA – DISCRIPTION
Asthma is a common disorder which causes shortness of breath and a wheeze.
It affects the bronchial tubes carrying the air in and out of the lungs.
Three things happen to these tubes — the muscles in the wall constrict or tighten, the lining is swollen, and there is an increase in the amount of sputum, all interfering with the air flow to the lungs.
The wheeze is most marked in expiration, that is, when the person breathes out. Although there is always some difficulty in inspiration or breathing in, there may be no noisy wheezing.
Asthma is usually associated with allergy and, like the other atopic or allergic disorders of hay fever and eczema, tends to run in families.
Most asthma starts in childhood and, fortunately, many children outgrow it but it can start at any age and, sometimes, persists throughout life.
*209/71/1*
Edited: May 15th, 2009
CAW ENDOMETRIOSIS SPREAD DURING SURGERY?
In her letter to me, a twenty-eight-year-old Grand Rapids high school teacher wrote of her fears about undergoing surgery. It seems that Marilyn’s reservations about having surgery—even though it was tor diagnostic purposes only —win based on a misinformed connection to cancer. She wrote:
“My doctor feels I have endometriosis, but he wants to do surgery to confirm it. I’m worried that if I have surgery, the disease will only get worse. I have heard that endometriosis acts just like cancer. If you cut into it, the disease can spread because (1) some cells can get free from the tumor and infect other organs and (2) the cells arc stimulated Co grow from the oxygen in the air. Is there a way to confirm my endometriosis without the risk of making it worse?”
Marilyn’s questions touch on two important issues involved in understanding and treating endometriosis. The first is the reason tor surgical diagnosis, and the second involves the confusion between the pathology of cancer as one type of disease and endometriosis as another.
A woman’s medical history in combination with her doctor’s clinical findings might clearly indicate endometriosis, thereby making surgical diagnosis unnecessary. But this cannot always be the case. If a doctor is unsure of the diagnosis (especially when endometriosis is at an early stage of growth and docs not yet produce large masses), or if he is unable to determine the nature of the tumor he feels while giving his patient an internal examination, he will want to do a laparoscope Although this is minor surgery (it will be discussed and illustrated in the next chapter), it is for Marilyn and women like her, still an operation wherein something might go amiss.
There has been some documentation of endometriosis spreading as a result of laparoscope but this is rare and is most likely to occur when there is a history of repeated laparoscopics. In these cases, the endometriosis grows internally around the area of incision and implants itself in the scar, and a second or third incision in the same scar could free some cells. In a few cases, women who underwent surgery for hernias were later found to have endometriosis in the scar tissue.
If Marilyn’s doctor feels that laparoscopy is called for, and there is no emergency, he might prescribe the medication Danocrine renders endometriotic cells inactive. Taking Danocrine for a two-month period preceding laparoscopy should be sufficient to halt the growth of Marilyn’s endometriosis, as well as lay to rest her Sears about contamination during the procedure.
Cancer and endometriosis do not have much in common, other than their methods of invasion in the body. Cells of either type may use similar channels to reach internal organs such as the lymph system or the blood, or, after implanting themselves, cells may metastasize, or grow into a cyst or tumor. Endometrial cancer and endometriosis are not the same disease, although it has been found that childless women tend to be vulnerable Co both conditions and that a great percentage of women with endometrial cancer suffer from menstrual irregularities.
*33\43\4*
Edited: May 8th, 2009
SKIN INFECTION: SCABIES
The most common parasitic infestation of man is by the mite Sarcoptes scabei. The mite is less than half a millimetre long, and barely visible to the naked eye. The female is fertilized on the skin surface and then burrows into the skin, depositing eggs on the way. The eggs hatch in four days, the larvae maturing on the surface ten days later. As the life cycle is completed on the skin, the untreated scabies infection will persist indefinitely.
Human scabies has played a modest but not insignificant role in history. Severe infestations have lowered the morale of armies in the field, contributing to major military defeats. The world incidence shows an interesting cyclical pattern which is not completely understood. Scabies is usually transmitted by close personal contact, usually in the warmth of a bed. Indirect spread is relatively rare. The mite cannot survive for more than a few days away from the skin. The connection between promiscuity and scabies is indicated by the very similar age end seasons} incidence of scabies and venereal disease (that is, both occur most commonly in young people in the 16-25 age-group, particularly in the summer months) and the fact that those with scabies are not infrequently found to have venereal disease as well.
The lesions of scabies are mostly a manifestation of allergy to the mite or its products. With a primary infestation symptoms do not appear for weeks after contracting the disease. If, however, a person has been previously affected, he or she will develop spots and itching within hours of contracting the disease. The commonest and most disabling symptom of scabies is an intractable, generalized, unrelenting itch. It is markedly worse at night. Examination of the webs between the fingers, of the wrists, the breast or penis, may reveal the classical burrows where the mite has gained entry. Secondary lesions, however, account for most of what is seen. These consist of various lumps, bumps, pustules, crusts, and scratch marks. Only rarely is the face or neck involved. The areas most commonly involved are the hands, the breasts, the buttocks, and the genitals. Confirmation of infection is by microscopic identification of the mite, its eggs or its droppings. They are usually found in one of the burrows.
Treatment involves the whole family and all intimate contacts. The whole skin below the chin must be treated, not just the areas which appear involved. After a hot bath and scrub, 25 per cent benzyl benzoate emulsion, or 1 per cent gammabenzene hexachloride cream should be applied. Twenty-four hours later, this should be repeated without bathing between times. The clothing and bed linen must then be changed. Normal laundering or hanging up of the clothes for a week will destroy the remaining parasites and larvae. The treatment may if necessary be repeated once after two weeks. Extra applications should be avoided because of the irritant effect of the applications.
Scabies is by no means rare these days. It can be very difficult to diagnose, however, in the well-groomed and well-washed individual who is often. In fact, the sufferer of this complaint.
*60\44\4*
Edited: May 8th, 2009
NUTRITIONAL ASPECTS OF APPETITE CONTROL
The concept of the satiety cascade implies that the effect of any given food will depend on its own unique nutrient composition. This poses a number of questions;
• how do the different nutrients in food contribute to satiation and satiety by suppressing hunger?
• will the suppression of hunger reduce energy intake or cause a compensatory increase at meals eaten later?
• do different nutrients affect fat loss or gain?
Keep in mind that many of our ideas about the nutritional aspects of appetite control come from studies on laboratory rats. These can be far removed from the real world of takeaway pizza, so we need to be cautious when extrapolating these animal findings to humans.
Unlike excess dietary fat intake, which has a clearer relationship to gains in body fat, the various factors that influence appetite may vary greatly between individuals. Let’s look at the evidence for different nutrients.
Myth-information. Meal replacement biscuits are generally high in energy and fat. They would only work if they could control the intake of food later in the day—and they don’t!
*114\186\4*
Edited: May 8th, 2009
FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS IN CASE OF ENDOMETRIOSIS: FRUSTRATION
Before you were diagnosed many questions no doubt regularly crossed your mind, including:
Am I neurotic
Are these symptoms all in my head
Is there anything really wrong with me
Do I have a low pain threshold
Why am I unable to cope with period pain when my friends have no trouble
Why do I have to spend so much time laid up in bed suffering
Will I have to suffer and tolerate this period pain until I reach menopause.
These questions probably bring a wry smile now, but when we consider the difficulty many women with endometriosis had in getting a doctor to acknowledge that something was really wrong, it can be seen that pre-diagnosis is an extremely difficult and emotional time.
Those suffering dyspareunia often ask what causes them to have pain during intercourse. Those who are infertile cannot understand why they cannot get pregnant.
It is common to feel frustrated with your partner, family and friends before endometriosis has been diagnosed because you are unable to tell them what is wrong with you, why you are in so much pain, why you are feeling tired and depressed.
Some women are in pain for just a few days each month and look perfectly well for the rest of the time, and it can be difficult for those close to you to accept that there is something wrong. They may not take your pain seriously or may misinterpret your inability to take part in social gatherings and leisure activities, labelling you as lazy or trying to opt out. Sometimes your pain may have been interpreted as a quest to get sympathy and attention. Some may have accused you of being lazy because your pain has rendered you tired and incapable of doing your usual daily chores.
Students have found that they have been accused of trying to get out of school work, study or exams. Few of us have been lucky enough to escape those days when the pain has disrupted time at work, school or home. Unfortunately, teachers, employers and partners may not be sympathetic to your illness and you feel frustrated and isolated.
There are also times when doctors have frustrated us because they have refused to take our symptoms seriously by saying: ‘It’s a woman’s lot’ or ‘You’ll just have to learn to live with the pain’ or ‘It will get better once you have a baby\ Then there is always: ‘You won’t have any more period pain once you reach menopause’. Not reassuring news!
None of these quotes will be of any comfort to those wanting an answer to a problem that could well plague them for their reproductive years.
Partners too can be frustrating at times. Even those who are understanding and have the best of intentions can drop the odd stinging remark here and there. Some ask if you really love them because you have refused intercourse — yet again — because you are simply in too much pain. Or perhaps you are not in pain and would like to keep it that way for at least one night!
For those women who already have children, endometriosis can put a strain on their relationship. No child likes to see its mother unwell and in pain. For younger children it is difficult to understand why mummy is grumpy and moody; for the older ones it can be annoying when mum is out of action and not available to tend to their needs.
It is important that you continue to seek a correct diagnosis. You know your own body, and you are the best person to recognise if there is something wrong. Do not be fobbed off. Try not to be discouraged. Keep searching and exploring until you have an answer.
And if that means that you have to insist on investigations and tests to reveal the problem, insist!
You must remember that severe period pain, painful intercourse, backache and heavy bleeding are not normal. You do not have to put up with it.
*103\83\2*
Edited: May 8th, 2009