EXERCISE PLAN FOR HEALTHY BONES: STRETCHING

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

Stretching relaxes the mind as well as the body, so you get the benefit of stress reduction as well as better balance and coordination, increased range of motion, reduced tension, fewer injuries, greater body awareness, and improved circulation. No matter what else you do in the way of physical activity (or even just everyday motions), stretching will make it easier for you. That’s all generally good for you, plus it will decrease your chance of falling, and so your risk of fracture, no matter what your bone density. Stretching after exercise will also lessen later soreness and stiffness—thereby making exercise more pleasant and easier to stick with.Many of us are stuck with old stretching habits picked up long ago, and odds are they are, at best, not maximally effective. At worst, they could be making you less flexible and more prone to injury. Whatever you do, no bouncing! Just about every weekend jogger I see stretching is bouncing up and down trying to get that nose a little closer to the knee with each bounce, but in reality that’s the worst possible approach. The muscles knot up tighter with each rebound, and the rapid pace doesn’t allow the muscle to stretch at all before it is contracted again.If this sounds like you—or if you have only dim memories of high school gym class lessons in stretching to go on—I recommend taking a stretching class or checking a recent book or video out of the library to update your technique. I favor “active-isolated” stretching, or AI in fitness parlance, which holds that to stretch a muscle, it must be relaxed. Relaxing a muscle requires contracting the muscle or muscles that work in opposition to it. That is, to stretch the hamstrings (back of the thigh), you should be in a position that relaxes them by requiring contraction of the quads (front of the thigh.) In AI, you hold each stretch for just two seconds, but repeat it, slowly, several times. This is the best kind of stretching to use pre-exercise.You should devote 15 to 20 minutes at a time to stretching to cover all the major muscle groups. For the benefit of your bones, be sure to stretch your back and hips well. The abdominals and thigh muscles all participate in rotating your hip, so they should be targeted as well. Make stretching a regular part of your routine, and you should be able to see a difference within three weeks.The second most common stretching mistake—after The Bounce—is using it as a warm-up. The best pre-exercise warm-up is to simply do the exercise you will be doing at a much slower rate to ease the muscles into it. If you are doing just a stretching workout, you will need to warm yourself up a bit first—walk briskly around the block or march in place for a few minutes, swinging your arms— to get your muscles warm before you stretch them. Or try stretching after a warm shower. The best time to stretch is as a cool-down after another form of exercise, when your muscles are already warm and easier to stretch. Then you may want to use a longer, larger stretch than AI techniques provide, with slow progression.*119\228\2*

Comments (0) Jul 27 2011


HELPING YOUR CHILD COPE WITH EPILEPSY: IS YOUR CHILD DISABLED OR HANDICAPPED? “CAN / LET MY CHILD GO OUT AND PLAY?”

Posted: under Epilepsy.

Of course! You not only can, but must let him go out and play, go on trips, sleep at a friend’s house. “But suppose he has another seizure?” That’s a risk you have to take. A careful analysis of risks is an important part of raising any child. It is a particularly important part of raising a child with the uncertainties of epilepsy. It is the crucial ingredient in avoiding overprotection. His ability to run around and his intelligence are the same as before the seizures. Most children with epilepsy are neither retarded or learning-disabled. For most such children, the only impairment is that, from time to time, there may be a seizure. For 99.99 percent of the time your child is the same as always.”BUT ISN’T HE DISABLED?” The answer is NO! He can still run and play, go to school, sleep over at a friend’s house. There is virtually nothing that a child who has had a few seizures cannot do. “Can he ride a bike?” Sure. The chances of having a seizure while riding his bike are very small; he is only minimally at greater risk than before his seizures. “Can she swim?” Absolutely, but her swimming must be supervised, just as every child’s swimming must be supervised. “Isn’t there a higher risk that she could drown or have a seizure in the water?” Yes, but only a slightly higher risk, since she has had only occasional seizures and may never have another one. Technically, your child may have a disability. He or she may fit the government definition that enables a person to obtain special services if the seizures interfere with education or work. But having a disability is very different from being disabled.A handicap is often superimposed by society, parents, friends, or schools. A person can also impose it on himself.We find that the best approach to a child who has had several seizures, who has now been labeled “epileptic,” is for you to gain a realistic acceptance of your child’s limitations (if any) and to focus on his potential. This requires a conscious effort to put aside your anxiety and concern about all of the things that could happen. This is not an easy thing to do. It requires acceptance of the fact that there are risks inherent in rearing any child and that most children with epilepsy, especially those whose epilepsy is controlled, face only slightly greater risks than other children.Children who have severe, or intractable, epilepsy and those who have additional impairments such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, or learning disabilities also require realistic acceptance. It is equally important that these children, too, be encouraged to reach their full potential, and that additional handicaps not be superimposed.*187\208\8*

Comments (0) Jul 17 2011


HOW BLOOD PRESSURE IS MEASURED

Posted: under Cardio & Blood- Сholesterol.

Blood pressure is most often measured in the large artery in your upper arm with an instrument known as a sphygmomanometer. This piece of equipment consists of a squeeze-bulb pump, an inflatable cloth-covered rubber cuff, and a measuring device with a pressure gauge. The gauge measures millimeters of mercury (expressed as mm Hg). Some physicians use a sphygmomanometer in which the pressure is read from the height of an actual column of mercury. More common are sphygmomanometers employing a readout dial that has been calibrated against a mercury column standard.The word sphygmomanometer was derived from two Greek words: sphygmo, referring to pulse, and manometer, referring to a measuring device. Measuring blood pressure isn’t a new idea. The modern sphygmomanometer was invented in 1895. Other more primitive devices to estimate blood pressure existed before that.To measure your blood pressure, the special cuff is wrapped around your upper arm and inflated with air until the flow of blood in your arm is temporarily stopped. As the air in the cuff is released gradually, an examiner listens with a stethoscope over the artery inside your elbow for the first sound of blood flowing through the artery. The number on the gauge at the first sound indicates the maximum pressure produced in the artery each time the blood is forced from the heart into the large blood vessels. This pumping pressure is known as the systolic pressure. More air is released slowly from the cuff. Within seconds all the pumping or beating sounds stop. At the time the sounds become inaudible the number on the pressure gauge indicates the resting or minimum blood pressure, known as diastolic pressure.While both are important, your diastolic reading is more significant than the systolic, because the systolic level lasts only a short period, after which the pressure begins to fall rapidly toward the diastolic level. Your diastolic reading, taken when your heart is pausing, shows the lower but longer duration of pressure to which the heart and arteries are exposed. The higher the diastolic pressure, the higher the pressure against which the heart must work in order to eject blood into the general circulation. It is this increased heart effort and increased pressure within the arteries and arterioles that may ultimately cause accelerated and more severe atherosclerosis in the arterial system of the body and damage to the brain, kidneys, heart, and other vital organs.
*14/151/5*

Comments (0) Jul 03 2011


HOW CAN HIV/AIDS BE PREVENTED?

Posted: under HIV.

HIV/ AIDS can be prevented in four main ways:
Being in a mutually faithful sexual relationship. If this is not possible, then correct and consistent use of condoms for every sexual act, irrespective of the type of sex is essential.
Checking all the blood and blood products for HIV infection before transfusion.
Avoiding drug abuse, especially injectable drugs. Sterilised needles and syringes should always be used for injections, especially intravenous injections.
Reducing the risk of mother-to-child transmission by giving appropriate treatment to a pregnant women who has HIV infection.
What are the benefits of using condoms?
Condoms greatly reduce the risk of getting infections such as sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/ AIDS. They also prevent pregnancy. More than seventy-four per cent HIV infections in India are due to heterosexual route. Up to thirty-six per cent people attending special clinics for sexually transmitted diseases have been reported to have HIV infection. Thus, correct use of condoms for every sexual act is important for preventing sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infection. Many people use condoms only with non-regular sexual partners or when they are not sure of the ‘health’ and ‘hygiene’ of the partner.
This type of inconsistent use can increase the risk of getting infections. Anyone who has multi-partner sexual behaviour needs to use condoms for all sexual acts, including with the married partner.
*28\288\2*

Comments (0) Jun 28 2011


HEALTHY BONES, HEALTHY BODY: HOW BONE GROWS

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

Bone is constructed from calcium and other minerals crystallized on a soft matrix (a sort of 3-D frame) of collagen and other proteins. The combination of organic and inorganic materials makes bone both rigid and strong. (Unlike calcium alone—think of how easy it is to snap a piece of chalk, which is made primarily of calcium, in half.) Blood vessels run throughout bone. In the center of each bone you find marrow, where blood cells are made.
Your skeleton is made of two kinds of bone. About 80 percent of it is cortical bone, which is hard, dense, and stiff. It makes up the outer shell of most bones, and the long bones in your arms and legs, and most of your hip bones. It is designed to withstand quite a bit of stress. Spongy trabecular bone is found inside of cortical casings, in the vertebrae, at the ends of the long bones in your limbs, and in parts of your hips.
As bones age, cells called osteoclasts seek out old or damaged parts of the bone and dissolve them, which is called resorption. Resorption dissolves crystallized calcium and other minerals in your bones, returning them to the blood. This leaves small spaces, and cells called osteoblasts create new bone to fill them in. In forming new bone, calcium and other minerals are taken from the blood and crystallized in the bone. The continuous cycle of formation and breakdown is known as bone remodeling. When all goes well, this is a constant tit-for-tat for many years, with the osteoblasts (builders) staying just ahead of the osteoclasts (dissolvers) to produce bone that is growing and getting denser—or maintaining good density.
You lose and gain bone this way throughout your lifetime. Remodeling is orchestrated by various hormones, and in later chapters you will see how important maintaining natural levels of hormones is to the health of your bones. Throughout childhood and into young adulthood, bone formation outpaces resorption, so you get taller as your bones get longer, for one thing, and your bones also get wider and denser. But the neat teamwork of osteoblasts and osteoclasts comes uncoupled somewhere around age 35, and bone breakdown can then outpace bone formation— and that’s the rub. If the osteoclasts are busier dissolving bone than the osteoblasts are busy making it, your bones actually get holes in them. That’s osteoporosis—literally, porous bones. Thin bones like that are brittle and fragile, so they fracture easily. Osteoporotic fractures can cause disfiguration, chronic pain, immobility, and even death.
Officially, osteoporosis is divided into two categories. Type I, which is postmenopausal osteoporosis, mainly affects women between 50 and 65, and usually involves trabecular bone more than cortical bone. Type II, which is “age-associated,” and the bane of older people, typically involves loss of cortical bone equal to that of trabecular. Osteoporosis known to be caused by a medication or disease is known as secondary osteoporosis.
Osteomalacia, or soft bones, known as rickets in children, is a related concern, occurring when minerals don’t crystallize on the bone matrix properly (often due to lack of vitamin D, which you need to make use of the calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium— not to mention vitamins A and E). With osteomalacia, you don’t have enough calcium and phosphorus forming into bone, but that alone is not the same as osteoporosis. Osteoporosis involves lack of other minerals as well, along with a decrease in bone matrix. For healthy bones, both bone mass and bone quality are key. Osteomalacia can be a precursor of osteoporosis.
Another precursor is osteopenia, which means simply low bone mass: density that is lower than normal, but not low enough to lead to fractures. This is a warning sign that osteoporosis— which does lead to a high rate of fractures—is on its way unless you take action. Far too often, the first sign of osteoporosis (or the first one that gets read, anyway) is a fracture that is spontaneous or results from a minor impact, especially in the hip, wrist, or spine. Most victims don’t even realize they are in danger until they are already at a crisis point. The second goal of this book, after prevention, is awareness. You won’t be able to protect yourself and keep yourself healthy unless you know you are at risk.
If you know their significance, there are other signs that your bones are already in trouble. Bad back pain, especially in the lower back, or other bone pain, is a common symptom, as is a decrease in height. Deformity is also a signal, particularly kyphosis—dowager’s hump or hunchback— resulting from multiple fractures in the vertebrae that cause the vertebrate to become wedged together and the spine to collapse. Several other signs, especially if clustered together, may be pointing toward osteoporosis: leg and foot cramps, especially at night, extreme fatigue, large amounts of plaque on the teeth, periodontal disease, loss of teeth, brittle or soft fingernails, premature graying, and heart palpitations. Especially in the case of these more amorphous associations, you should rule out everything else before you pin the cause on osteoporosis or low bone density. Don’t panic because you need your teeth cleaned more than every six months: you might just have a super-conscientious dentist, or need a better brushing/flossing routine, or you just have a lot of plaque.
*14\228\2*

Comments (0) Jun 15 2011


IBS AND EVERYDAY POISONS: THE CUP THAT CHEERS – THE WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME

Posted: under Gastrointestinal.

While it is acknowledged that there is a definite alcohol withdrawal syndrome, much of what is written about it does not give a true picture. For example, the physical effects of alcohol withdrawal are usually said to be over in three weeks. Some of them have not even started then – the muscle spasm may not appear until the sixth or eighth week.
Alcoholism is often treated as a psychological, sociological or moral problem. No doubt problems in these areas can co-exist but since the nutritional treatment approach is so successful, the primary cause must be physical. The failure of the conventional treatment methods for alcoholism must be because so many professionals refuse to see the condition as the disease it so patently is. Everybody agrees it is characterized by loss of control and excessive drinking, but this is often the last thing in the world the sufferer actually wants. What is happening in his body that keeps him in this state?
*46\326\8*

Comments (0) Jun 02 2011


ASSESSING RISKS AND BENEFITS AFTER A SEIZURE: WHETHER OR NOT TO USE MEDICINE – HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW AND EVALUATE THE RISKS OF THEIR SIDE EFFECTS?”

Posted: under Epilepsy.

The first decision you face may be whether to treat your child after a first seizure.
At one time, physicians believed that a single seizure was the first sign of epilepsy, and that a person who had one seizure would inevitably have more. Therefore, after the first seizure they prescribed medication to prevent the recurrence that was “bound” to occur. Today, we, like many other physicians, do not believe this.
We have learned that after a single seizure of unknown cause the chance of recurrence may range from 10 to 50 percent, depending on a number of factors. Children with a first seizure and a normal EEG appear to have a low risk of recurrence. Children with an abnormal EEG may have a much higher risk of recurrence.
“/ don’t even know the names of the medicines! How do you expect me to know and evaluate the risks of their side effects?”
Ask your doctor about the medicines. We will discuss the various medications and their side effects in detail later. But here is one example of decision-making with one medication commonly used in children, phenobarbital. Phenobarbital is a very safe anticonvulsant, but a frequent and often ignored side effect in children is a negative effect on learning or on behavior. Of young children who take this medicine, 20 to 40 percent will become hyperactive, or incur personality or sleep problems. When carefully evaluated, there may also be some subtle effects on the child’s intelligence and ability to learn.
To decide whether or not to start phenobarbital, it would be useful to list the pros and cons of the decision. Such a list might look something like this:
If you start your child on medication there is:
• a 30 percent chance of the child’s having another seizure;
• a 10 percent chance of a rash developing that will require discontinuing medication and a small chance of a severe allergic reaction;
• a 20 to 40 percent chance of hyperactivity or behavior problems developing from the medication;
• an unknown chance of learning problems developing.
*43\208\8*

Comments (0) May 20 2011


THE CARBOHYDRATE ADDICTION: CARMEN’S STORY (A CLASSIC CARE)

Posted: under Diabetes.

Carmen K. wasted no time. “I’m a carbohydrate addict.” she assured us, on the phone, even before- her first visit to the Center. “I’ve been one all my life.”
Carmen had been referred to us by a cousin who had been following the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. She called us because she had just seen her cousin for the first time in several mouths.
“She looked wonderful,” Carmen told us. But it wasn’t the success of the diet so much as its identity that excited Carmen. “When she used the term ‘carbohydrate addiction,” I almost jumped out of my seat. I mean, I know that I’m one.”
We made an appointment to see Carmen. She was so eager that she arrived a half hour early for our meeting. She was about fifty-five. Her hair was dark, but streaked with gray. She was burdened with about forty extra pounds.
“Something goes haywire in my body when 1 eat bread or pasta or desserts,” she said. “Instead of feeling satisfied, I feel. I don’t know, kind of dissatisfied. Not complete. 1 can feel full. 1 can even feel stuffed, but I don’t feel satisfied. And two hours later. I’m .starving.”
Carmen poured forth in detail virtually all the classic signs of carbohydrate addiction. The consumption of carbohydrates seemed to let loose an uncontrollable hunger in her. “It’s not even that I’m enjoying it that much, it’s just that I can’t stop.”
She recognized the addictive: character of her problem as well. “I remember seeing a TV special where they said something about a drug addict taking drugs at first for the good feelings. Later, they said, the drug addict wants a fix to avoid the feelings of withdrawal. I feel like that’s me. ‘
She had the symptoms, so we gave her the Carbohydrate Addiction Test. We weren’t surprised to find that she fell into the severe addiction range.
We put her on the diet, and it worked. Her weight dropped, steadily and pleasurably, about a pound and a half a week. She told us she planned and shopped specifically for her Reward Meals. “I have an eating plan that 1 can live with for the rest of my life. It doesn’t feel like a diet at all.”
As of this writing, she has kept her weight off for four years. She moved to Florida and reports that she now wears shorts “for the first time in years.’
*13\236\2*

Comments (0) May 12 2011


ALL ABOUT THE NORMAL MENSTRUAL CYCLE

Posted: under Women's Health.

‘I’m worried about Kim’ perturbed mother said, as she came into my surgery. ‘She is now 11, and has had only one period. It only lasted a few hours, and that’s all. I’m sure she is not pregnant.’
‘At 11 I would hope she isn’t pregnant,’ I replied, facing perturbed mother whose wrinkled brow indicated her concern. Kim, on the other hand, seemed happy enough, and barely took notice of what was being discussed.
‘But virtually no periods, and 11, going on for 12,’ perturbed mother continued. ‘She’ll be 12soon. Most of her friends have been menstruating normally for years… or so they say.’
‘So they say,’ I emphasized. ‘In fact, a careful check may indicate that quite a few are in a similar position to Kim. Normally, menstruation starts anywhere from 10 years—occasionally 9 years—up to 16 or 17; sometimes it is even later. So, I wouldn’t worry too much about your daughter. We’ll check her out anyhow, just to make sure everything is okay.’
This episode is commonplace in the everyday life of family doctors. With today’s emphasis on sexual development and keeping up with one’s peers, mothers and daughters take sometimes enormous interest in appearing ‘normal’, like the other children, of having whatever the others have, be it a regular menstrual cycle, attractive chest dimensions, athletic prowess, or whatever.
This is no crime, although the competition can frequently throw added stress on the hapless person who is battling to keep pace. In turn, this can often mitigate against reaching goals already reached by others—rather than the reverse. It is well known that menstruation is influenced (perhaps more than we realize) by emotional situations. Stresses, tensions and anxieties have a deleterious effect.
*12\45\4*

Comments (0) May 04 2011


THE EXTERNAL FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS

Posted: under Women's Health.

The next obvious female characteristic and the external part readily visible from the exterior is the area of vaginal entry. When a woman is standing upright, this is usually only partly visible. Where the bony pelvic bones meet at the front—called the symphysis pubis—is a rounded protuberance, called the mons veneris. This is variously interpreted as the ‘Mount of Venus’ and ‘love mountain’, because of its obvious close relationship to the main source of pleasurable love-making. It is covered with pubic hair, usually short and curly. Although the hair is usually black, redheads and brunettes often have pubic hair of a fiery red, a colour that can shock doctors who have usually seen everything a hundred times over.
Text-books on women’s complaints sometimes go to great pains to say how the upper margin of the pubic hair is horizontal in women. In men it rises to an apex, frequently extending to the level of the navel. Nobody is sure of the significance, or importance, of this. Maybe it will become increasingly important in theatricals, as productions such as Hair give patrons greater and greater glimpses of the stars in full-frontal nudity; in a flash the discerning patron would know the player’s sex— although there are other and easier ways to be sure.
Bikini-wearing women should be grateful for this limited hair growth. Even so a perpetual perennial question from sparsely garbed females every summer is how to get rid of obvious pubic hair that sticks out embarrassingly from their flimsy beach gear. The more hair growth the greater the problem. Incidentally, electrolysis is the usual answer for small amounts; depilatory creams (or waxes) for temporary removal of larger areas.
The vaginal entry is guarded externally by the vulva. This is made up of several structures. The labia major (‘large lips’) are two large full folds which tend to meet in the midline. They are covered with pubic hair on the outer part but not on the inner fold. In childhood and in older age, they contain little fat material and are less obvious than during a woman’s reproductive years.
When gently parted, the labia minor (‘small lips’) are exposed. These are delicate skin folds which contain little fat and are rich in blood and nerve supplies. Above and towards the front, the small lips split to encompass another interesting little organ called the clitoris. One part extends over the upper part of the clitoris, forming what is called the prepuce; the other joins directly under it to form the frenulum. There is no need to remember all these names, although a lot more will be said later about the clitoris.
Lower down, the small lips again join to form the fourchette. During childbirth, this area is nearly always torn as the new baby wiggles its way out.
The cleft between the small lips is called the vaginal vestibule, and is really the entrance into the vaginal canal. Just below the clitoris is a small, barely discernible opening called the external urethral meatus. This is the outside opening of the urethra, a tube that pipes urine from the bladder to the exterior. It is an important little structure, for irritation can easily force germs along its length, giving rise to urinary tract infections.
Nearly every bride suffers from the unpleasant condition popularly known as ‘honeymoon’ cystitis. Mechanical irritation of the outside outlet, plus enthusiastic and frequent intercourse (usually maximum at this happy time), can force germs from the outside into the bladder, giving rise to infections. Often these can destroy an otherwise happy honeymoon —as many brides remember with a heavy heart (and many grooms with a sense of hurt pride and annoyance).
A desire to urinate often, a burning and scalding when it does occur, an uneasy feeling that the bladder is not emptied, the desire to void again, and high fever—these are some of the horrid symptoms of cystitis. We’ll talk more about it later (plus what to do) when discussing urinary infections.
*3\45\4*

Comments (0) Apr 26 2011


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