April 2009

PAIN AND DISTRESS: THE AGGRAVATION OF PAIN BY DISTRESS

The little boy is playing. He falls and skins his knees, He screams. In an instant his whole being is overwhelmed with pain. For him there is only pain, his whole body, his whole world. Mother seizes him and holds him to her, kissing him on the cheeks. In a moment his distress is calmed [...]

ENDOSCOPIC EXAMINATION

Q. We hear so much about the endoscope these days. What is it, and what does examination entail? A. The endoscopes suddenly swirled across the medical horizon in the late 1960s, and during the 1970s became the most widely used form of investigation by the gastro-enterologists, the doctors who specialise in disorders of the G.I. [...]

SCIATICA: QUESTIONS YOUR DOCTOR MAY ASK

Once you’ve made an appointment to see your doctor, it’s a good idea to spend a few minutes beforehand jotting some down quick notes about how your symptoms developed, so as to have the answer to any questions you may asked readily at hand. For example, try to recall when you first noticed any symptoms. [...]

VITAMIN D EXCESS

Softening of children’s bones with permanent bowing of the legs, (“bandy legs”), medically known as rickets, was fairly common before World War II. With the discovery that rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency, bandy legs have become rare. Now, with rickets a thing of the past, physicians are beginning to see an illness due [...]

STREP THROAT IN CHILDREN

Signs and symptoms The onset of strep throat is sudden. It begins with a headache, fever up to 40°C, sore and red throat, vomiting, abdominal pain, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. If the infecting organism is rash-producing and the child is not immune, he or she will develop a rash within 24 to [...]

THE NATURE OF STRESS

What is stress? Sky-rocketing interest rates. An unfaithful husband. Problems with the tax-man. Children on drugs. An impossible boss. An unwanted pregnancy. If you believe that such matters are stress, we are not on the same wavelength in understanding what stress is all about. ‘I know what stress is. I can feel it.’ No. You [...]

CHILDREN’S ALLERGIES: THE INTERPRETATION OF SKIN TESTS

A positive skin test may mean that the allergy is caused by the allergen used in testing; by an allergen that may cause allergy at a future date; by an allergen which has caused allergy in the past; or by an allergen which is similar to the one causing the positive test. Or it may [...]

FERTILITY PROBLEMS: SOME STEPS OF THE FOUR-MONTH PRECONCEPTION PLAN

Eating a Healthy Diet This is the most important step because good nutrition is the foundation on which your health is built and the key to increasing your chances of conceiving. Look at what you are eating and drinking, buy organic food where possible, eat a good variety of food (including fish, nuts, seeds, fresh [...]

PREVENTION AND HEALTH: STRESS

Let’s look here at some everyday things that anyone can do to de-stress themselves. Some are preventive, in that they mean that the stress will not continue to plague the individual, and others are more curative. •     Have a good cry. According to one research biochemist crying at times of stress helps remove from the [...]

SELF-HELP PREVENTION: AFTERNOON SLUMP

What is it? Many individuals are familiar with this phenomenon but it is one that the medical profession discusses very little. It takes the form of restlessness, lethargy, depression or dullness, or a mixture of them all, after lunch. About an hour after having had lunch is the most common time but it hits some [...]