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Archive for the 'General health' Category
Home care
Prevention is the key to home care. Have your child immunized against tetanus in infancy and make sure he or she receives the booster shots necessary to guarantee immunity for life. Be sure to take proper care of wounds, even trivial ones, until they heal.
Precautions
• If a mother has not been immunized against tetanus, her newborn baby is susceptible. If a mother is immune, her baby may be temporarily immune.
• In newborns, the tetanus germ can enter the body through the stump of the umbilical cord. If a baby is delivered at home, be certain that strict antiseptic techniques are employed during and immediately after the birth.
• Be certain that all members of the family have received the initial series of tetanus immunizations and the necessary boosters. In general, clean wounds, such as those from kitchen utensils, require boosters every ten years; dirty wounds, such as those from rusty nails, barbed wire, and others that happen outdoors, require boosters every five years. For example, if your child has a wound from a rusty nail, check to see if he or she has received a booster within the last five years.
Medical treatment
Your doctor will take prompt care of wounds and administer a tetanus booster to a child who has been immunized, or human tetanus anti-serum (a substance containing antibodies to fight tetanus) to one who has not. If tetanus has developed, your doctor will hospitalize your child and order intensive treatment involving anti-serum, antibiotics, sedation, and intravenous fluids. When recovered, your child should be immune to subsequent attack.
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read comments (0)TRAVEL DISEASES: WHAT ARE THEY?
Author: admin
A mixed collection of ailments, most of which are not serious, that afflict travellers, usually to exotic places. Most people are on holiday abroad when they experience these illnesses, but the business traveller (though usually more cautious) is subject to them too, of course. Obviously people are at very different degrees of risk of suffering from sickness whilst abroad. At one end of the scale is the business traveller who stays only in first-class hotels. Such a person is hardly at greater risk than he would be staying at home. At the other extreme is the high-risk traveller who, for example, goes off to live in the bush for long periods.
Most of us go on holiday to do something different from our daily routine, and this is part of the problem-we are well aware of the hazards around us at home, and have learned to live with them, but holidays can present entirely new problems.
The most important preparation from the illness point of view is to be well covered by insurance. Illness and accident can strike abroad just as easily as at home, but outside the umbrella of the National Health Service the British traveller can find him- or herself in expensive trouble very easily. The countries of the European Economic Community provide reciprocal medical cover for each other’s citizens, but outside it bills can mount up very quickly. In order to avail yourself of the reciprocal arrangements you will need to have obtained an E111 form from your local DHSS office because without it you may have difficulty claiming back the money you have paid out for treatment in the foreign country.
Holiday companies can often arrange insurance, but most tour operators offer cover for a sum which is much too small, so it is wise to take out extra cover-multiply your tour operator’s figure by three to be on the safe side.
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What causes it?
• Rejection of the parents by an apparently unloving baby who screams and screams in spite of all its parents do for it.
• A parent who is at the end of his or her tether emotionally and physically.
• Social disadvantage, often a combination of poor housing, poverty, ‘feeling trapped’ and feeling hard done by oneself. Single-parent mothers are more likely to be stressed and feel unable to cope and so lash out at their babies or young children. The very young mother and the unmarried mother are particularly vulnerable too, partly because they are often lonely.
• Stress in the parent caused by physical or psychological illness.
• The parents’ bad relationship reflecting on the child.
Prevention
• Perhaps the greatest single preventive action one can take as a parent is to breastfeed a baby on demand and to be very close to it, keeping it near you all the time and showing it that it is loved and wanted. Such babies don’t cry as much and are less likely to frustrate their parents. Of course, any baby, however well handled or loved, can still drive its parents to distraction but a baby who is comforted as soon as it needs to be, and feels secure, will give much less trouble.
• Get treatment for any medical, emotional or psychological problem you have yourself, especially depression, so that you never get to a state in which you are unable to cope with the strains of a baby because of ill health. Don’t let depression creep up on you-get help as soon as you feel low.
• Talk to the social services, your health visitor or your general practitioner about your bad housing or lack of money. There are many sources of help available -you should not have to fight these problems alone.
• If you feel that being alone with your baby or young child is too stressful, get out and about. Go to a mother-and-toddler group and when your child is old enough, let him or her go a morning or two a week to a group of some kind î that you can have a few hours to yourself, if only to allow you to go shopping alone from time to time. Share child care with other parents by looking after their children sometimes and having them look after yours at others.
• If your relationship with your partner is bad and you are taking it out on the children, get professional help quickly and sort it out.
• If things are getting on top of you and you feel that in spite of all of these preventive measures you will hit your baby if it screams a moment more, just stop what you are doing; have a cigarette; have something to eat; have a bath. In short, do something that is pleasant for you and leave the baby to cry.
If you are really desperate you can phone Parents Anonymous (their telephone number is in the directory). This organization is run by ex-battering parents. They understand the problems, will not report you to the authorities, will give you useful advice there and then, and will help you for the future too.
• Mothers of premature or low-birth-weight children could be assessed to find out what their attitudes to their babies are. Research has found that such mothers have more negative attitudes towards pregnancy, more hostility towards their babies, and less emotional maturity than mothers of full-term babies. Unmarried mothers and those with multiple births (twins etc.) are also more overwhelmed by the whole business of having and caring for a baby. Many of these factors could be assessed professionally and ‘at risk’ mothers given special help.
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The neutrophils and monocyte/macrophages don’t remain in the blood stream for long. Soon, they squeeze through tiny pores in the blood vessels, holes smaller than they are. How do they fit? Through a process called diapedesis, which means pushing small parts of themselves through the pore at a time, much the same way you’d work a half-filled water balloon through a hole in a fence.
When they arrive in the tissue, the monocytes begin to grow, swelling to four or five times their original size. As they grow they become more and more powerful, developing extra energy sources and poison packets. Pretty soon, they’re giant-sized. To match their new stature comes a new name: macrophage, which means “giant eater.”
And giant eaters they are. Neutrophils can only swallow and destroy 5 to 20 antigens before they die of “overeating.” The giant eaters, however can gobble up as many as 100 antigens. And they eat and kill bigger antigens than the smaller neutrophils do. In fact, one of the macrophages’ jobs is to help clear the battlefield by eating up dead neutrophils.
There are still more differences between the two kinds of cell eaters. While the neutrophils are constantly on patrol, most of the macrophages stand guard at strategic points in the body. There they remain, giant sentries, for months or even years, our first line of defense against antigens.
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YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM: CELL EATERS
Author: admin
Imagine tiny eating machines slowly moving through your bloodstream, They send out a limblike projection (pseudopod) which acts like a “foot” to pull themselves forward, then push out another “foot” to pull themselves forward, and so on, as they crawl through body tissue in search of antigens. These specialized white blood cells are called phagocytes.
A phagocyte is a cell eater, a cell that literally eats other cells. Phagocytes engulf antigens and kill them with deadly poisons.
Neutrophils and monocyte/macrophages are both phagocytes. Of the approximately 7,000 white blood cells in a cubic millimeter of normal adult blood, about 62 percent are neutrophils, and 5.3 percent are monocytes. Neutrophils are mature phagocytes, ready to eat bacteria, viruses and other antigens. The immature monocytes, on the other hand, are not very effective: not yet.
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GOOD PAIN, BAD PAIN: TYPES OF PAIN
Author: admin
Some of the different kinds of pains runners get, for example, including shinsplints and tendinitis, can be ambiguous, and it’s important to know how to approach such problems. A shinsplint, for instance, can be a warning of an impending stress fracture, a very serious injury. When in doubt, of course, it is better to be overly cautious.
There will also be times when you will be unable to diagnose your injury accurately because it combines, say, joint pain and tendinitis. In this case, you should see your doctor.
In the first place, people’s individual perceptions of pain vary widely, and such variations can influence both training and treatment. For instance, one question that often gets asked is: Do men and women feel pain in different degrees? I believe that’s a loaded question. For the most part, men and women feel the same degree of pain but may verbalize it differently because of individual past experiences of pain such as childbirth and cultural upbringing. There are some cultures that are more stoic than others vis a vis pain.
However, I do feel that perceptions can differ between novice exercisers and those who have been at it for years. Novices haven’t suffered injuries before and haven’t had to deal with rehabilitation and treatment, so they’re more apt to be obsessed with the pain, while experienced athletes realize that pain goes with the turf; they’re also more likely to give an injury time to heal.
The role of endorphins in combating pain has garnered a good deal of attention in the sports medicine community. One explanation for the role of endorphins has come to be known as the gate theory. Back in the early 1980s, two researchers from Canada and London discovered that there are little “gates” in the brain that pass on the sensation of pain. However, according to the theory, if something else reaches them first, such as the endorphins produced by aerobic exercise, the gates will close and the pain messages won’t reach the brain.
The gate theory is all very neat and logical, but some physicians believe that the concept of endorphins is totally overrated and that the gate theory is really just a framework to help us understand pain.
The lesson, then, is that while your chosen sport may hurt “so good,” it should never hurt “so bad.” The trick is to keep in touch with your body and to understand the often subtle differences in the signals it is sending you, because ignoring them can lead to disaster.
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If your periods suddenly stop, it’s probably not a reason for worry; you’re actually in good company. The temporary cessation of your menstrual periods, also known as amenorrhea, is actually a common occurrence that could be caused by one of a number of factors.
If your periods stop, and you’re in your childbearing years and you’re sexually active, the first thing to do is to eliminate the possibility that you’re pregnant. I’ve seen many 40-year-old women who come to see me when their periods stop. They think they have a serious health problem but are surprised to discover that they are pregnant.
However, if you’re not pregnant and you’re nowhere near menopause, you should see your gynecologist, who will do a physical exam and run a blood test to determine the cause. Amenorrhea is common if you’ve recently lost a lot of weight. If you’re on the contraceptive known as Depo-Provera, you may be one of the 50% of women who suffer from amenorrhea while receiving the quarterly injections. Chemotherapy can also be responsible, as can thyroid disease.
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RASH UNDER BREAST: TREATMENT
Author: admin
A fungus-based rash under your breasts is easy to treat, but without constant attention the rash will have a tendency to reappear.
To treat the rash, buy an over-the-counter antifungal ointment like Zeabsorb, or even cornstarch, to use until the rash disappears. If the rash doesn’t respond to this preparation, see your doctor, who may prescribe a prescription antifungal drug such as Lotrimin or Mycelex cream applied two or three times a day for at least two weeks. If the area is also itchy, your doctor may prescribe a cortisone preparation such as Lotrisone cream two or three times a day for two weeks.
Once the rash has been cleared up with the medication, it’s important to pay special attention to the area so that it does not recur. To prevent future outbreaks, wash the rash-prone area with soap and water at least once a day. Dry well. Then apply talc or baby powder to help keep the area dry as you go about your day.
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In the first few days and weeks after a heart attack, your doctor will primarily be concerned with controlling your heart rate and blood pressure and preventing any more damage to the heart. The high-tech coronary care units in most hospitals are well equipped to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure.
Once your condition has stabilized, the team will use an angiogram or another test, such as an echocardiogram, to determine the extent of the damage and whether bypass surgery is necessary to open the clogged blood vessels that caused the heart attack. Bypass surgery is a course of last resort, to be used when an angioplasty—a nonsurgical technique that uses a tiny balloon to open up a blocked coronary artery—does not do the trick.
If you experience no complications, you will probably be released in a week. After you leave the hospital and recover fully from the heart attack—which takes about a month—your doctor and other medical professionals, such as an exercise physiologist, a dietitian, and a stress manager, will work with you to develop a long-term commitment to changing your lifestyle, which includes attention to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, regular exercise, quitting smoking, and perhaps job retraining if necessary, for instance, if your job involves severe physical or emotional stress. The diet plan I offer my post-heart attack patients is pretty simple: Limit your intake of animal protein, which includes chicken, fish, and meat, and try to eliminate red meat entirely. Substitute low-fat cheese, milk, and ice cream for high-fat dairy products, and refrain from eating fried foods. I also suggest that patients eat no mote than two eggs a week, go easy on the butter and margarine— olive oil is better—and eliminate junk foods such as potato chips; pretzels are better.
Today, fortunately, if a patient has proper rehabilitation and makes the proper lifestyle changes, a heart attack does not mean the end of a productive life. I’ve seen many people, even in their 60s and 70s, use a heart attack as an excuse for a whole new—healthier—lease on life.
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BODY SIGNAL ALERT VOICE, CHANGES IN: TREATMENT
Author: admin
I always take a voice change seriously, since it can indicate the presence of a more serious health problem. When a patient tells me that his voice has changed, I do a complete checkup, including blood tests, a chest X ray, and a visual examination of the throat. If I see polyps on the vocal cords, I’ll refer the patient to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, who will do a biopsy to see if the polyps are benign or malignant. In most cases, regardless of the results of the biopsy, the specialist will recommend that the polyps be removed with laser surgery. Though little medical follow-up is necessary, the patient may want to see a speech pathologist, who will teach him how to talk in normal tones so that the polyps don’t return. If the polyps are malignant, I’ll then refer the patient to an oncologist for further treatment, which may include chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
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