April 20th, 2009
One of the most unexpected features of this trial was the extent to which other symptoms cleared up during the diet. These symptoms – such as epileptic fits, hyperactivity and aching limbs – were generally assumed to be unconnected with the migraine. Yet in the majority of children, they disappeared during the initial stages of the diet, and reappeared when incriminated foods were eaten. So too did symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, flatulence, mouth ulcers and vaginal discharge. The atopic symptoms – rhinitis (runny nose), asthma and eczema – only cleared up in about half the children, suggesting that unidentified airborne allergens were playing a part. The only major symptoms not to clear up in any of the children were those due to permanent nervous-system damage.
One interesting feature of this trial is that four of the five researchers involved were highly sceptical about the importance of food at the outset. The exception was Professor John Soothill, who wished to set up the trial and persuaded the others to assist him. Their report of the. experiment records that they ‘embarked on this study believing that any favourable response, such as that claimed to substantiate the dietary hypothesis, could be explained as a placebo reponse. The positive double-blind controlled trial… provides clear evidence that a placebo response was not the explanation.’
Migraine in adults may not be the same as migraine in children and there is a danger in extrapolating from one to the other. But positive results have been obtained in other trials assessing elimination diets in adults with migraine. In these trials, 60-70 per cent of patients responded to the elimination diet and were later able to identify culprit foods that provoked their migraines.
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Categories: Allergies
Tags: Allergies
April 9th, 2009
A simple test of fingertip blood vessels may be an accurate and non-invasive way to help identify people who have the earliest stages of atherosclerosis, according to a Mayo Clinic study.
“Atherosclerosis tends to affect all of the blood vessels in the body, and is not just limited to the arteries of the heart,” says study leader Dr. Amir Lerman, a Mayo Clime cardiologist. “We found a strong correlation—the fingertip test was very sensitive in identifying patients with early heart disease.”
Lerman’s study, which included 94 patients who had chest pain, compared the results of a noninvasive fingertip probe (called Reactive Hyperemia Peripheral Arterial Tonometry, or RH-PAT) with invasive catheterization to determine the extent of dysfunction in the cells that line blood vessels.
This layer of cells, called the endothelium, protects blood vessels from injury and also helps them expand and contract in order to maintain proper blood flow and blood pressure. Endothelial dysfunction indicates the early stages of atherosclerosis and heart disease.
“In this group of patients with chest pain, the noninvasive test was very sensitive in identifying those with early heart disease,” notes Lerman.
“The next step is to extend the research to broader populations of patients who may not yet have symptoms,” he says.
“Because this is a simple test that takes only about 20 minutes, we hope it could become another screening tool to help us identify and more effectively treat patients with heart disease,” Lerman says.
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Categories: General health
Tags: General health
April 9th, 2009
. Some pesticides contain estrogen-like compounds. Eat organic food whenever possible…and peel or wash all fruits and vegetables.
Eat a low-fat diet. There is reason to believe that an extremely low-fat intake (less than 20% of calories from fat) is protective.
Exercise. Women who exercise aerobically for more than three hours a week have a lower risk of developing breast cancer.
What about mammograms? They do not prevent breast cancer, but they reduce the risk of death from breast cancer by helping to find tumors in their early, treatable stages.
Hibiscus flowers may help your heart in the same way as red wine and tea—with antioxidants that help control cholesterol levels and reduce heart disease, according to Chinese researchers.
They found that rats fed a hibiscus flower extract had significantly reduced cholesterol levels in their blood.
“Experiments have shown that compounds extracted from red wine and tea reduce cholesterol and lipid buildup in the arteries of rats,” says lead researcher Chau-Jong Wang, of Chung Shan Medical University in China. “This is the first study to show that hibiscus extract has the same effect.”
Hibiscus is used in folk medicine to treat hypertension and liver disorders. It is also used to make popular soft drinks in various countries around the world, the researchers note.
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Categories: General health
Tags: General health
April 9th, 2009
The bottom line? There is simply no definitive evidence that bras cause breast cancer, fortunately, there are other
things women can do to reduce their risk…
• Eat more soy foods. Tofu, tempeh, miso and soy milk all contain plant estrogens (phytoestrogens). These weak hormones inhibit the body’s own production of estrogen, which may provide the “fuel” for breast cancer growth.
Neither soy oil nor soy sauce contain significant amounts of phytoestrogens.
Eat cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and kale affect estrogen metabolism in a beneficial way.
Think twice about estrogen-replacement therapy. It’s reasonable to use estrogen temporarily to treat hot flashes and vaginal dryness. But in general, long-term estrogen therapy is not a good idea. Estrogen can increase the risk of breast cancer.
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Categories: General health
Tags: General health
April 9th, 2009
There’s a good chance that the lump was benign. Grismai-jer was pregnant when the lump was found, and hormonal changes during pregnancy are known to cause lumps.
After interviewing more than 4,000 women with and without breast cancer, the authors concluded that wearing a bra for more than 12 hours a day significantly increases the risk for breast cancer.
Unfortunately, this “finding” was unwarranted. Their study was conducted in a haphazard manner—without adherence to fundamental principles of scientific research. For example, no effort was made to ensure that the women in the two groups were similar in age, family history, medical history and other known risk factors for breast cancer.
The study was of such poor quality that it would have been disqualified from being published in a reputable medical journal. I’m afraid that’s why it was packaged as a paperback book and directed at consumers instead of doctors.
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Categories: General health
Tags: General health
April 9th, 2009
The average American spends 90% of his/her time indoors, so improving indoor air quality is the first step in preventing and treating allergies, here’s how…
Use a negative-ion generator. These units work by emitting negatively charged ions that attract positively charged pollen particles. The charged particles then stick to walls or furniture instead of remaining airborne. As an alternative, use a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. These units remove 99.7% of allergens. Any brand of ion generator or HEPA filter is fine—as long as the model does not produce ozone, which irritates the mucous membranes. Use it in any room where you spend a lot of time.
typical cost: Ion generator, $150…HEPA filter, $150 to $400.
Add moisture with a warm-mist humidifier. Even in humid parts of the country, indoor humidity in the winter months can fall below 20%. The humidifiers sold in hardware and household-goods stores work well. Get a model that automatically turns on when humidity falls below the optimal range of 35% to 50%, and use it in your bedroom and office.
good brands: Slant/Fin and Bionaire.
typical cost: $75 to $125.
Install a high-grade furnace/air-conditioning filter. The Filtrete model by 3M traps most particles, including pollen.
typical cost: $15-$35.
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Categories: General health
Tags: General health
April 7th, 2009
Family planning doctors find, whether they like it or not, that they are often dealing with deep and difficult emotions. In the same way that much bereavement counselling may go on in family planning consultations, so it is a time when depression may first be noticed. It has been suggested that some degree of depression, at least that described as the ‘baby blues’, is a normal and healthy adaptive aspect of the transition involved in becoming a mother (Gulbrandsen, 1992). More long-lasting depression is often missed and the degree of disorder may be hard to assess. The family planning doctor, whether in general practice or in a clinic, needs to look carefully for signs of clinical depression as the patient may not complain spontaneously. The routine visit for a repeat prescription for contraception is an important opportunistic moment for screening for such illness.
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Categories: Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction
Tags: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health
April 7th, 2009
Medicine, and in particular contraception, is an intrusive business. In contraceptive work doctors frequentiy pick up echoes of dissatisfaction with a bad experience in the past. Either partner may have been to a genitourinary clinic, which can heighten their fear of infection, and often adds an extra sense of guilt to those who are not completely happy with their sexuality. Women may have had an unexpected instrumental delivery. These experiences leave scars, sometimes of an unexpected kind.
Mr F. is a hard-working electrician who often worked late. He said, ‘I wouldn’t like her to have a coil, she’d find it too embarrassing.’ He is a man who keeps an awkward distance from medical events when he is wanted. When his wife has migraine, or grandmother’s blood specimen needs taking to the laboratory, he is always too far away to help. Later he told me about his wife’s delivery. She needed stitches and he hoped to get out of the delivery room, but somehow he ended up holding the baby. The midwife and his wife said what a pair they made in the low chair across the room, but all he was thinking of was the doctor’s hand inside his wife, particularly as at the same time she was smiling. ‘No, no-one is going to give her a coil, thank you.’
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Categories: Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction
Tags: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health
April 7th, 2009
A simple question about the type of contraception she was using brought an angry flood of tears and an outpouring of the story of how awful it was, and why she was childless. Although she had married on the understanding that neither of them wanted to have children, underneath she had been sure that if she changed her mind it would be easy enough to persuade her husband to think differently as well. As the years passed she began to realize that she did want a baby but found she was unable to sway her husband. She was angry that he persisted in his rebellion against the family life that she now desired; angry that he had been made redundant from his job; and angry that he should expect to have sex with her when it was so painful.
Her immediate anger at the hospital staff was quickly reflected in the speed with which she jumped at the subject of childlessness, almost as if she was saying, ‘Someone should have warned me that I would not be able to change his mind about babies, even after 10 years of marriage.’
Because she was unable to share her ambivalent feelings about motherhood with her husband, her fears of both having and being without a baby were sublimated into a physical pain associated with intercourse, so that their ‘mutual penetration’ became intolerable and inaccessible.
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Categories: Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction
Tags: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health
April 7th, 2009
Very young girls provoke strong reactions in doctors and others, especially if they emphasize their youth by coming to the clinic or surgery in school uniform. They may come on their own, in which case they are usually showing a degree of maturity in taking their own decisions. Often they are brought by someone else, and then the doctor has to try to assess the real needs and wishes of the girl herself.
A 13-year-old girl came to the clinic with her mother. Mother did all the talking, saying that her daughter was in a relationship with a 22-year-old man who had two young children. Mother thought her daughter should go on the Pill as she foresaw intercourse occurring. The doctor felt pity, anger and anxiety as she noticed that the girl was small and thin, her face pinched and hard-looking, trying to look older than her age. The doctor managed to see the girl alone and said, ‘I wonder what you expect from this visit?’ The girl replied, ‘I expect I’ll get stuck on the Pill’. This made it easier for the doctor to say what was uppermost in her mind, that the girl had choice. Slowly, as the consultation continued and with the doctor trying to respect the girl’s feelings and treat her as a responsible person in her own right, the girl changed, her face softened and she allowed herself to look her age. She said that she did not wish to decide anything that day, and certainly did not want to take any pills.
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Categories: Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction
Tags: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health
