EDmedblog

The apple shape has been found to be much more potentially dangerous with respect to health than the pear shape, because the fat cells around the abdomen release their fat into the bloodstream more readily than other fat cells. A ‘pot belly therefore—irrespective of total body mass—is likely to be more atherogenic (i.e. cause narrowing of the arteries), diabetogenic (i.e. cause diabetes) and possibly carcinogenic (i.e. cause cancer). In contrast, pear-shaped women have been found to have little increased illness risk (with the possible exception of a slight increase in the risk of varicose veins and arthritis). In health terms therefore, it’s not if someone is fat, but where they are fat that is important—filling up of the fat cells around the waist (as is characteristic of men) is much more dangerous than filling up of fat cells on the lower body (as is more characteristic of women).

There is another important form of fat storage which is now thought to be most important as a predictor of ill-health. Visceral fat (sometimes called ‘intra-abdominal fat’), surrounds the organs or ‘viscera’ of the body, such as the stomach, liver and kidneys etc. Visceral fat is thought to be dangerous because it ‘gives up’ its fat into the portal circulation in the bloodstream, which passes through the liver first. This has a variety of metabolic consequences such as increasing the liver’s production of fat particles and inducing resistance to the effects of the hormone insulin.

Visceral fat can only be seen using special medical imaging techniques but it is also highly correlated with total abdominal fat. In other words, someone with a ‘pot belly’ is more likely to have large visceral fat stores than someone who has a low level of total abdominal fat—although it is still possible for relatively lean people to have quite high visceral fat levels, possibly due again to genetic factors. Visceral fat has recently been explained by health researchers as being the best predictor of health risk. It’s likely that in the future measures will be developed to screen for this in health check-ups, just as screening for blood cholesterol is done now.

The health risks of fat shapes combines both BMI (body mass index) and WHR (waist-to-hip ratio) measures. As can be seen, it’s not just the big person who is at risk. A small person with large abdominal fat stores (i.e. a ‘pot belly’ is also at risk).

Myth-information . Although there are identified body fat shapes with varying health risks, there is no evidence that specific diets have special effects for any one particular body shape, hence there is no support for a ‘body shape’ diet.

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A friend of mine in Canada, Mrs. K., had seven early miscarriages during eight years of marriage. She was unimpressed by my repeated advice to try wheat germ oil and vitamin E, because her obstetrician didn’t think it was worth considering. However, when another friend, a veterinarian, told her that this was exactly the treatment he had been using successfully on horses and cows with records of miscarriage, she decided to try. Within three months she became pregnant and, after a full nine-month pregnancy, delivered a healthy boy.

The healthy functioning of the reproductive system is dependent on many factors. Both psychological and physiological causes must be considered. Nutrition is, of course, a most vital factor. Many vitamins and other nutritive substances are directly involved in a healthy sex life. But if there Was one vitamin which could be called the sex vitamin, then it would be vitamin E.

It has been established that vitamin E can prevent miscarriage and stillbirths. Vitamin E is essential for the normal production of sex hormones. It has been demonstrated in animal tests that when vitamin E is deficient, the testicles degenerate and production of hormones is diminished—both sex hormones and pituitary hormones, which stimulate sex glands.2 Vitamin E, being a natural and powerful anti-oxidant, also protects sex hormones from destruction by oxidation. Dr. Evan Shute of Canada, a pioneer in the use of vitamin E for disorders in the reproductive system, has used vitamin E extensively and successfully in the treatment of various disorders from male sterility to miscarriages and menopausal symptoms. In one study he used vitamin E in 153 pregnancies in which there were 122 threatened abortions and 87 threatened miscarriages. 60 percent of the abortions and 86 percent of the miscarriages were prevented by vitamin E treatment. Dr. Shute says that vitamin E deficiency is very common in pregnant women.

Vitamin E has also been found to relieve the symptoms of menopause, or change of life: hot flashes, dizziness, pain, etc. Doses of 150 to 300 milligrams a day are prescribed in such cases. A Hungarian doctor has found that vitamin E decreases pain in childbirth labor.

Vitamin E is, indeed, absolutely essential for the normal function of the reproductive system and a healthy sex life. The best natural source of vitamin E is wheat germ oil and wheat germ. Other good sources are cold-pressed vegetable oils, such as corn oil, soybean oil, and sunflower seed oil. Green vegetables are also good sources, particularly cauliflower, turnips, and spinach. Milk and dairy products are also good sources. You can also buy vitamin E in capsule form at health food stores or drug stores. Doses most often recommended by doctors are between 300 and 600 I.U. per day.

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Totally bald man gets full head of hair!

It happened in Stockholm. The man was totally bald for several years—I mean he had no hair whatever on the top of his head. This didn’t bother him very much, but he also suffered from hardening of the arteries and atherosclerosis, which was a greater reason for concern. The largest hospital in Sweden, Sodersjukhuset in Stockholm, tested new treatments for these diseases. Over one hundred patients participated in prolonged treatments with nicotinic acid, one of the B-vitamins, also called niacin. Our bald man was one of the patients in this test group. After three years of treatment with nicotinic acid he received a vigorous hair growth on his previously bald head and is now the proud owner of a full head of hair.

Nicotinic acid has a widening and dilating effect on blood vessels, particularly on the peripheral capillary system. It would seem that the vigorous hair growth in this case was effected by the increased blood supply through the dilated blood vessels and capillaries in the scalp.

Note: Do not confuse nicotinic acid with nicotine, which is a very dangerous poison and has no relation to nicotinic acid, a B-vitamin.

English doctor cures baldness—unintentionally!

Dr. John Kelvin reported in the British Medical Journal that he treated many patients for blood vessel disorders with the drug composition beta-pyridylkarbinol, derivative of vitamin substance pyridin-3-carbonic acid. The drug was intended to improve blood circulation in the feet and hands. The doctor noticed that some of his bald patients had new hair growth.

“I didn’t connect this new hair growth with the drug I was using until one more of my patients, who had been totally bald previously, walked into my office one morning with a beautiful and well-combed head of hair!” said the doctor.

After this incident was publicized, the English paper reported that the drug stores were stormed by a multitude of men of all ages asking for “the new tablets.”

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The liver, the largest detoxicating organ in the body, has its place at 37′-40′ in the sixth minor zone of the right iris. The gall-bladder, which is both anatomically and physiologically connected to the liver, has its place at approximately 39′ in the fourth minor zone, and in any case in the right iris only.

1. Liver-disturbances-Inflammatory states of the liver register as white or yellowish clouds or wisps in the specified area. In the inflamed state, the liver is swollen as the result of congestion, which is indicated by the displacement of the iris-wreath towards the pupil, and also by the inwardly depressed nerve rings if these exist. At the same location may be seen the small arteries of the sclera, which when apparent, always indicate the existence of an inflammatory disturbance of the organ in the area to which they run.

Where there are inflammation signs in the liver area, one must very carefully consider whether the white signs (clouds or wisps) are present only in the liver area, or whether they are merely part of the total sign commencing at the iris-wreath and extending over the gall ducts to the liver area. In the first case the disorder concerns the liver only, and is due to a disturbance of the detoxicating function of the liver which becomes charged with blood from the organism. In the second case the disturbance arises from a disorder of the duodenum (usually ulcerated), and because of the extending inflammation, leads to gall stasis and inflammation of the gall ducts and liver. Here, therapeutics must first be directed to the duodenal disorder.

Where there are inflammatory processes affecting the liver, and hence a lighter colour in the liver area, there will also be seen signs in the area for spleen—left iris 20′. With such liver disturbances the patient complains of severe flatulence, and signs for this will be seen in the intestinal zone.

Much more often, the sign of inflammation is seen as a darkening of the liver area, and this indicates diminished liver function, leading to more or less severe metabolic disturbances. With this sign, there is usually found a very dark neurasthenic ring, as an indication of portal congestion.

Small dark spots in the liver area are signs of sclerosis, and enable one to diagnose a commencing hepatic cirrhosis. The greater is the darkening of the liver area, the greater is the disturbance of liver function.

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Getting sufficient exercise is a problem for a stay-at-home mother. Going for a walk with a toddler will exercise him, but it won’t do a lot for you except give you a breath of fresh air. It can be a real nuisance to be so tied, especially if you are one of those people who need regular exercise to help cure or prevent period pain. You can do the pelvic rock, of course, almost any time around the house. But that’s not the same thing as going to a disco, for example, or playing tennis or going ice skating, because you miss the company. Some of the new leisure and sports centres provide creches for mothers who want to use the sporting facilities, but they are costly. And so is using a babysitter, unless you belong to a baby-sitting group and help one another for free.

Lack of money-The bad thing about being your own boss is that you’re working without pay. And if you have been used to two salaries, and you suddenly have to learn to cope on one, you probably won’t be able to afford baby-sitters or creches very often, or even some of the food you would perhaps like. There’s really no reasonable answer to that. I could advise you to buy food instead of clothes, but I can hear the, hollow laughter of mothers who gave up buying clothes for themselves when their first babies were born and have been feeling the pinch ever since, despite all their sacrifices. The poverty of the young family in a society where so many women work and earn is a social problem we have hardly begun to consider, let alone solve.

The depression of the miseries is particularly hard to contend with when you are tied to the home day in and day out and you can’t afford outings or treats. Belonging to a group of parents can be a help—you’ll baby-sit for one another free for a start. Some groups run meetings in the evenings as well as during the day, and just to take an evening off now and then will help a great deal. An evening out with your husband is even better, while a week-end away is nicer still. No wonder British Rail’s ‘Golden Rail Breathers’ are overbooked. But I do know how difficult it is to arrange. Once you have children depending on you, you will soon find that nothing is simple any more, not even a short trip to the shops.

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Polio, also known as poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis, is an infection of the spinal cord that can, in 1 to 2 percent of cases, lead to paralysis or death.

Outbreaks of polio do still occur in this country, and infants should receive two or three doses of live vaccine (Sabin, containing types 1, 2, and 3). The first dose should be given at two months, with the second and third doses separated by intervals of six weeks to two months. This vaccine is given by mouth, not as an injection. A booster dose should be given at the age of four to six years. Children who were not immunized in infancy should receive a total of three or four doses, depending on their ages. The Sabin vaccine is undoubtedly safe for children.

Adults who are not immune and who plan to travel to a country where polio is uncontrolled should also be immunized. In fact, all adults should be immunized against this disease. Some medical authorities believe that the risk of an adult being exposed to polio is minimal, and therefore adult immunization is unnecessary. However, too many cases of polio have occurred in adults over the age of 30 to make this argument acceptable.

The Sabin vaccine does carry a slight risk of polio for adults. However, the Salk vaccine (which is a dead vaccine) does not. Adults who are not immune should receive an initial series of Salk vaccine to acquire temporary immunity, followed by a full series of Sabin vaccine for permanent protection.

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Athlete’s foot is an infection of the skin of the feet. It is caused by one of several funguses that grow best in moisture. The mildest cases cause itching, scaling, and cracking between the toes, particularly between the fourth and fifth toes. Athlete’s foot may spread to the sole of the feet as small blisters and scaling. In severe cases it may spread to the ankles and legs. It may invade and deform the toenails. Scratching may cause additional (secondary) infections. The condition is most common during adolescence, but it may occur at any age—even occasionally in infants.

Signs and symptoms

The scaling and cracking appearance of the feet and the itching that accompanies it are symptoms that may indicate athlete’s foot.

Home care

Apply fungicidal ointment once or twice a day (half strength for delicate skin). Or you may use ointments containing undercylenic acid or tolnaftate (available without a prescription). To decrease sweating of the feet, avoid rubber-soled or plastic-soled shoes. Use cotton socks to absorb moisture. White socks may be best since some dyes can irritate the skin.

Caution: Many “incurable” cases of athlete’s foot are not athlete’s foot itself but contact dermatitis caused by the treatment. Contact dermatitis is a skin rash or inflammation caused by some irritating substance. In some people, the ointments used to treat athlete’s foot may cause such irritation; the athlete’s foot fungus is actually cleared up, but the skin remains irritated. If treatment for athlete’s foot does not relieve the symptoms, check with your doctor to determine if the skin irritation is contact dermatitis.

Precautions

• Continue treatment until the skin is completely clear; funguses not completely treated flare up again.

• If improvement is not prompt and lasting, see your doctor; you may have a skin condition that is not athlete’s foot. Many athlete’s foot medications can cause contact dermatitis in some people.

Medical treatment

Diagnosis is confirmed by scraping the skin and then culturing the fungus or identifying the fungus under a microscope. Your doctor may prescribe other fungicidal ointments or lotions or a fungicide taken by mouth. If a secondary infection has developed, your doctor may prescribe oral antibiotics and soaking in a solution of potassium permanganate or aluminum sulphate and calcium acetate.

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Why should I have regular check-ups with a specialist or diabetic clinic?

The aim in care of diabetes is to keep you healthy all the time and to make sure you grow normally. It may be that you feel well but that there are early signs of something going wrong which a doctor could pick up and help you correct before you actually felt ill. It is helpful for your doctor to keep in touch with you, because if any problems do arise with your health, he will then know you and your diabetes well enough to be able to advise you more easily and efficiently. It will also make it easier perhaps for you to discuss minor’ difficulties and problems with him if you see him regularly and know him well.

Diabetes care involves a certain amount of self-discipline and, for some people at least, regular medical supervision helps to develop this. Finally, by attending a diabetic specialist or clinic regularly you will be sure that you will benefit from any new developments in special care for diabetes, because it is part of the job of specialist doctors and clinics to keep abreast of all research and new developments in treatment.

I am an adolescent girl. Will my periods upset my diabetes?

Menstrual periods won’t upset your diabetes, but your diabetes could be a little unstable during the period. This is of no importance and it is usually best to leave the insulin dose unchanged.

I am a teenage girl, and even though I am keeping to my exchanges I am getting fat. What can I do?

It may seem unfair to be getting fat when you are already on a diet. But a diet for a child with diabetes is not designed to make you lose weight, and it may be that you do not need as much food as you used to. You must first ask yourself whether you are being accurate with your exchanges; there is always a possibility that you are being a bit generous with measurements or having an extra exchange now and again without really meaning to. Are you having too much butter or other fatty foods? Are you taking enough exercise, or do homework and television take up most of your leisure time?

If you feel sure you are being careful with your diet, and being as active as you can, yet despite this you are getting fatter, then you should discuss it with your doctor. It may be that you need a reduction in your diet, but you should not cut down the number of exchanges without first consulting your doctor because you will probably need to adjust your insulin. If you get very hungry and find it hard to keep to your diet, the dietitian may be able to suggest more filling foods that will satisfy your appetite without giving so many calories.

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In the game of life, more than half of all men are benchwarmers, says the American Heart Association (AHA). That means that more than 50 percent of men don’t get moving for a minimum of a half-hour a day, three days a week.

That’s a sin, Dr. Goldberg says. “Studies show that exercise may be more effective at heading off an early death than quitting smoking, losing weight, or stopping drinking,” he says. Here are some tips for getting in gear.

Prevent the big “C.” After studying 47,723 male doctors for six years, Harvard researchers found that men who got the most exercise had only half the risk for colon cancer as those who got the least. So, do your colon a favor by exercising for 30 minutes at least three times a week, recommends Dr. Goldberg.

Aim for gains. It doesn’t matter what your fitness level is when you start. It matters that you improve, says Dr. Goldberg. Researchers at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research studied the effects of increasing fitness levels on 10,000 men over a five-year period. Men who improved their fitness level enough to run a minute longer than their original treadmill time also had a lower death rate than those who stayed unfit. In fact, every one-minute increase in maximum treadmill time equaled an impressive 8 percent drop in risk of death.

“You should constantly challenge yourself to improve your fitness level,” says Dr. Goldberg. If your exercise of choice is walking or running, try to increase your speed or your distance every few months, he suggests.

Decline the decline. As you age, it’s likely that your physical performance will decrease over time, and the more that performance decreases, the more susceptible you can be to disease. You can slow that decline simply by exercising more, says Dr. Bortz. After about age 30, people who exercise start to see only a 0.5 percent decline in performance each year, he says. “Unfit folks of the same age see a 2 percent decline. That means the man who exercises will have surrendered only about 15 percent of his vital capacity by the time he’s 65; the non-exerciser, 70 percent.”

The AHA estimates that more than 30 percent of men ages 45 to 54, more than 40 percent of men ages 55 to 64, and more than 55 percent of men ages 65 to 74 have high blood pressure. Making matters worse, about 50 percent of men in this country have cholesterol levels higher than 200 milligrams per deciliter. And that’s just the numbers that have been reported. Many men are never diagnosed.

“There’s just no excuse,” says Ichiro Kawachi, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health. “These are conditions that are easily detected and treated.” Here are some things you can do yourself to minimize the damage.

Burn your arteries clean. Playing half-court hoops for 30 minutes a day can raise your levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol by as much as 6 milligrams per deciliter. A group of Spanish researchers has found that, on average, for every 100 calories you burn a day, your levels of artery-clearing HDL cholesterol rise by about 2 milligrams per deciliter.

Go low. Researchers from several U.S. cities put 459 folks on a low-fat diet chock-full of fruits, vegetables, grains, and low-fat dairy products. After eight weeks, those with high blood pressure saw their systolic pressure (the top number) drop an average of 11.4 points and their diastolic pressure (the bottom number) dip an average of 5.5 points. This may sound like a lot to swallow, but the famous Food Guide Pyramid recommends eating 2 to 3 servings of dairy products, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, 2 to 4 servings of fruits, and 6 to 11 servings of grains every day.

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Blood Sugar and insulin

Testing your blood sugar level is vital, as diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease and ischemic stroke. Even if you are not classified as a diabetic, a higher than normal blood sugar level means you have poor glucose tolerance, or your body does not regulate your blood sugar well. This is a forerunner to diabetes.

Having elevated blood insulin levels may indicate that you have insulin resistance; also called Syndrome X or metabolic syndrome. This is much more likely if you are overweight, especially in your abdominal area. Having your insulin levels checked is a good preview, to see if you are likely to have blood sugar problems in the future.

C-Reactive Protein

This is the most important test you need, as it is the biggest risk factor for coronary heart disease. Even if your cholesterol and triglyceride levels are low or normal, and you don’t have any of the traditional risk factors for heart disease, an elevated CRP level is cause for concern. Your level of CRP should be as low as possible. This is a test that your doctor will often miss. Desirable level: 0.0-5.0 mg/L

Homocysteine

This is another often overlooked test, but is essential to evaluate your true risk of heart disease. High levels of homocysteine in your bloodstream have an abrasive effect on your artery walls, making it more likely that fatty particles and other substances will cling to them. This initiates the development of atherosclerosis. You will have higher blood levels of homocysteine if you don’t consume enough vitamins B6, Â12 and folic acid. They are found in most fruits and vegetables as well as animal foods.

This test must be done in a fasting state. Desirable range: 6.0-14.0 umol/L.

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