Health related information and news from around the world.

Viral and bacterial infections can cause pneumonia, a condition in which one or both lungs become inflamed. Bacterial pneumonia is generally regarded as more serious than viral pneumonia, although both can be very dangerous to the young and the elderly. Viral pneumonia is often the result of chickenpox or measles.

A cough and shortness of breath are the first symptoms of pneumonia, accompanied by fever and sweating. Acute lobar pneumonia, which affects only one lobe of one lung, causes a dry cough. The sufferer may cough up blood. In the case of bronchopneumonia, usually affecting both lungs, there are sudden chest pains and the sufferer coughs up yellow, green, or brown sputum, sometimes containing blood.

Pneumonia can be a serious condition and a doctor should be consulted if it is suspected. However, some complementary therapies prescribed by qualified practitioners can be helpful. Herbal expectorants can be used to loosen the phlegm, including mullein and thyme. Echinacea, garlic and large doses of Vitamin C and Vitamin A may be recommended to boost the immune system against infection. Fruit or vegetable juice fasts may be recommended, followed by diets which exclude foods which increase mucus production such as dairy products and sweet foods.

*32\69\2*

Fiona is a 60-year-old social worker and mother of three grown children who has been troubled by depression and mood fluctuations for years. Her depressive symptoms have often seemed more physical than emotional. During her depressions she would become fatigued, her arms and legs would feel heavy, her eyelids would begin to droop and she would feel ‘rather sad and tired’, wanting to sleep much of the time. To some extent these problems might have been related to a condition of adrenal failure, known as Addison’s disease, from which Fiona suffers. The steroid replacement that is necessary to control her medical condition has been partly responsible for causing Fiona’s mood swings. Because of these mood variations she has never been able to rely on her ability to cope and has chosen not to work at her profession.

Fiona had been on Prozac (20 mg per day) for six or seven years. Although she credits Prozac for lifting her out of her depression, it left her with a ‘dazed view of the world’. Things did not feel ‘quite real’. Her mind was not clear and she would forget things. Her reactions were delayed and it was hard to keep up with a conversation even though she had previously been an extrovert.

Fiona’s GP wondered to what degree her problems with thinking were due to the Prozac, and brought her off the medication in order to find out. She soon became depressed again, at which time he started her on St John’s Wort (500-750 mg per day). Within two weeks her mood picked up. Her thinking was clearer and she was able to read again. She rates the anti-depressant effect of the St John’s Wort on a par with that of Prozac, but she feels that she is now ‘part of the world again’. With her newfound clarity she has restarted therapy and is contacting old friends and having lunch with them. She has even initiated ‘play groups for adults’, where friends come over simply to do fun things like painting or throwing medicine balls around. These get-togethers remind her of the ‘co-operative games of the 1960s’. T never got to play them then,’ she observes, ‘and I want to play them now.’

*8\75\2*

A slightly different kind of problem was presented by Karen Black. She complained, not just of hyperactivity and restlessness, but of headaches, stomachaches, skin rash, and a peculiar “spaced out” feeling in her head much of the time.

Her history provided a good clue: the symptoms became much worse after the family had moved so that she had to travel for a long time to get back and forth from school. In retrospect, this may have been due to an increased exposure to exhaust fumes. She developed stomachaches and an itchy rash under her armpits. A perceptive doctor advised her to stop wearing synthetic garments, and the rash went away, but the stomach problem and other symptoms persisted.

The family moved again, and now Karen developed a headache whenever she rode in the family car. Her teachers complained that she was in a world of her own, and before the end of the fifth grade the family had to remove her from school entirely and seek home instruction for her.

Because there was a strong family history of allergies, Karen was taken to a clinical ecologist. He diagnosed her as allergic to a variety of foods, including apple, chicken, grape, milk, peanuts, and rice, all of which made her feel “spaced out” on the provocative test.

To get a more definitive answer, Karen was referred to me. Upon fasting, she underwent withdrawal symptoms which, as I shall explain more fully below, are typical for those suffering from this syndrome. On the fourth day of the water fast, she felt sick to her stomach and threw up. Soon, however, she felt better—better, in fact, than she had in a long time.

Deliberate test feedings revealed a very serious allergy to cane, chicken, peanuts, corn, grapes and raisins, beef, milk, wheat, lobster, and peas, and lesser reactions to lamb, yeast, apples, and cherries.

Eating these foods would bring on her old symptoms, including periods of anger or tiredness. She complained of being “spacey” and “down,” although this alternated with irritable periods.

Smelling chemicals made her angry, tired, dull, and almost catatonic. Two consecutive meals of commercial foods contaminated with the “normal” amounts of chemicals made her tired, irritable, with episodes of staring vacantly into space.

The testing was quite successful, and Karen was like a new person upon leaving the hospital. Unfortunately, she went back into a house which was ecologically harmful for her. It had brand new carpeting with a foam rubber pad, both of which are often the source of adverse reactions among those with the chemical-susceptibility problem. What is more, the family’s furniture had been put into storage several months before and appeared to have been fumigated—a common practice among storage companies. All of these factors combined to make Karen’s recovery less complete than it could have been.

Hyperactivity and related syndromes are a growing problem in the United States. Rather than dealing with this problem at the level of environmental causation, orthodox medicine prefers to perpetuate the problem through the use of drugs. Of the 750,000 children seen for “minimal brain dysfunction” (another term for hyperactivity) in 1978, 212,000 were put on medication, and about 75 percent of them, or nearly 120,000 on methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin Hydrochloride).

A child psychologist recently complained that labeling a hyperactive child as in need of drugs eliminates the necessity of discovering the underlying problem which is causing his behavior problems. While the psychologist probably had in mind psychological causes, the same can be said, even more emphatically, about the chemical and environmental causes of this disorder.

*61\110\2*

In recent years, energy policy has become a prominent topic of debate. What is almost never taken into account is the long-term harmful effects of petrochemical fuels on susceptible individuals.

The odors of various hydrocarbon fuels such as coal, gasoline, and natural gas can be a source of chronic illness for certain people. Prolonged exposure to such odors or even to their undetected fumes can result in a full spectrum of diseases.

Some of the worst practices of the past are now gone. In the old days, for instance, when coal was delivered by chute to the basement of one’s house, kerosene was often sprayed on the coal to control dust. It slowly gave off fumes, contaminating the basement or dwelling.

Today, fuel oil and natural gas have replaced coal and wood in most areas. These can give rise to their own set of problems, however. Old oil tanks, for instance, may leak and give off fumes which are almost imperceptible to those who have lived in the house for a while. With oil, there is always the danger of an overflow while the tanks are being filled. If a basement floor has been flooded with fuel oil, the odor tends to remain for several months or even years, despite the best cleanup efforts. This has caused numerous problems for susceptible individuals; in a few cases they have been forced to abandon their homes entirely.

Most fuel-oil installations, whether furnaces or space heaters, give off a characteristic odor. Although they tend to smell worse when they are actually operating, there may be enough odor coming from them even when they are shut down to cause reactions in highly susceptible patients.

Natural gas is advertised as the “clean fuel.” This may be so from the point of view of visible or smog-producing residues, but for the chemically susceptible individual this gas may be the worst form of fuel.

In the early part of this century, most cities were supplied with artificial gas derived from coal. Especially after World War Two, with the completion of a national gas line network, most cities switched to natural gas. From the point of view of chronic disease, it does not really matter whether artificial or natural gas is used, since both can cause problems for those with the chemical problem. Natural gas, however, is delivered at much higher pressures than the artificial product. This, in turn, can cause a serious problem of leakage if the pipes were originally constructed for the transmission of artificial gas. In Chicago, for instance, joints and turns in the old gas line become potential or actual sources of leakage. Gas, being lighter than air, tends to rise from the basement or kitchen into the rest of the house. The greater the amount of piping and the number of outlets, and the more pilots and other automatic devices on gas appliances, the greater will be the probability of leaks.

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of this gas problem is the incredible sensitivity of some people to its presence. Merely shutting off a gas range is not enough to bring relief to such patients. The gas stove must be completely removed from the premises. This is because even a non-working range continues to give off odors from the gas which it has absorbed over the years.

In the course of my practice, I have directed almost 3,000 patients to remove their gas kitchen ranges because I found these people to be susceptible to chemical odors and fumes. This decision was not taken lightly or on the basis of blind hunch but after scientific tests, such as those conducted in the Ecology Unit. To date, none of these patients has complained that the changeover was not worth the cost or trouble.

In many cases, in fact, when the range was removed for the benefit of one member of the family, other members of the family also reported an improvement in health. A gas range was removed from the home of one patient, a girl with persistent headaches. Her mother, who was not a patient, reported an unsuspected benefit, however. While cooking with gas, she had often become highly irritable. She would scream at the children or anyone else who came into “her kitchen.” Since she frequently had a kitchen knife in her hand when she started screaming, this frightened the children and created a bad atmosphere at dinnertime. With the removal of the gas range, her temper tantrums quickly subsided. What had appeared to be a potential “mental” problem was solved simply by removing a hidden environmental pollutant.

In cases in which actual removal of the gas range has been impossible, certain halfway measures have proven useful. They have included increased ventilation of the kitchen; installation of a kitchen door, which is kept closed during the time the stove is on, keeping fumes from reaching the rest of the house; or disconnection of the stove, without actual removal. For many people, such measures are beneficial; for the seriously ill, however, there is no substitute for complete removal of the offending appliance.

*31\110\2*

In popular usage, dysentery is taken to mean any severe form of diarrhea. More accurately, dysentery is an infection of the intestinal tract caused by one of several specific bacteria. Dysentery causes diarrhea, but dysentery is a distinct disease.

The germs that cause dysentery are salmonella and shigella bacteria. (Typhoid bacteria are a type of salmonella.) Dysentery may also be caused by amoebas (amoebic dysentery). Some doctors consider cholera to be a form of dysentery.

Dysentery is the result of eating or drinking food, milk, or water that is contaminated with these specific bacteria or amoebas. It also may be contracted from someone who has the disease or is a carrier of dysentery. (A carrier is a person who has the germ in the body but is healthy.) Complications that may develop from dysentery include arthritis, meningitis, and perforation (ulcers) in the intestines.

Signs and symptoms

The major symptom of dysentery is diarrhea. The diarrhea is often severe and is commonly bloody. The child may have a prolonged high fever (39.4°Ñ to 40.6°C). The child may also be extremely weak and exhausted. Any persistent diarrhea should be suspected of being dysentery, especially if it is severe or bloody.

Home care

Do not attempt to treat dysentery on your own. Whenever diarrhea is severe and bloody, see your doctor. Dysentery must be diagnosed by a doctor and often requires treatment with specific medications.

While waiting to see the doctor, give the child plenty of clear liquids. Liquids are needed to replace those being lost from the diarrhea. Extra liquids will help prevent dehydration (a serious loss of body fluids). Clear liquids that are the most helpful include tea, water, flavored gelatin water, and commercial mineral and electrolyte mixtures.

Limit or eliminate solid foods from the child’s diet. Especially avoid foods with roughage, fruits (except bananas and apples), vegetables, butter, fatty meats, and peanut butter. Do not give the child milk, since milk may further aggravate diarrhea.

Precautions

• Always report severe or bloody diarrhea to your doctor.

• If any diarrhea lasts more than two or three days, call your doctor.

• The younger the child, the more easily dehydration can occur with diarrhea. Infants can become dehydrated rapidly (within 12 to 24 hours after diarrhea begins).

• Do not give anti-diarrheal medications to children, since side effects are common and can be dangerous.

• When traveling, carefully choose sources of food and water. Avoid sources where sanitation may be poor.

• If you suspect dysentery, isolate the child and dispose of stools carefully.

• Practice good hygiene in your own home. Wash hands after treating an ill member of the family. Wash hands carefully before cooking and eating.

Medical treatment

A culture of the stools (with microscopic examination for amoebas and other parasites) confirms the diagnosis. Cultures of the blood and urine are sometimes performed, as well as tests for specific antibodies in the blood.

If dysentery is diagnosed, your doctor may hospitalize your child for treatment and isolation. Specific antibiotics for treating dysentery are available, although they are not always necessary. Diagnosed cases of dysentery must be reported to health authorities.

*56/84/5*

Sex is healthy. Admittedly, that’s hardly a novel notion. But in an age when you have to find ways to make sex “safe,” a little reminder of sex’s essentially salutary nature never hurts.

Keep in mind, though, that “healthy” is one thing, “medicinal” is another. True, intercourse does have its direct health benefits. It is, after all, exercise (though it comes in well below golf and sawing wood on the calorie-burning charts). It has an analgesic effect, reducing pain for several hours after the fact, most encouragingly for sufferers of arthritis. And there’s evidence that ejaculations on a steady, regular basis make for a healthier prostate.

But sex, as far as anybody knows, doesn’t cure cancer. It won’t prevent heart disease. We’d love to report that sex will fend off diabetes forever. But that, as a certain jowly ex-president once said, would be wrong.

Still, it’s wrong only in its overstatement, not in spirit. Sexual fulfillment is a player in the disease-fighting game, not because it cures anything directly but because it’s a morale-booster.

Sex is a motivator and a powerful one, according to Aaron Vinik, M.D., Ph.D., director of research at the Diabetes Institute in Norfolk, Virginia. “The contact that sex provides keeps you functioning and involved,” Dr. Vinik says. “Sexually inactive people become what I call slothful – apathetic and inactive.”

Apathy and inactivity are invitations to disease; they’re the antithesis of the disease-free lifestyle. To defy disease, you need to exchange those two losers for a couple of winners: inspiration and action. A lusty sex life is part of that motivational mix.

“A lot of the depression and withdrawal you see in people with illnesses is because of a loss of sexuality,” Dr. Vinik says. “Sex is important to feel whole, to have a healthy outlook, to maintain vibrancy.”

*64/36/5*

Painkillers

A local anesthetic may have been injected, as a nerve block or into the wound during your operation, to reduce the pain as you regain consciousness. Its effects should last for about 6 to 8 hours. After this, and while you are still in hospital, you will be able to have pain-killing tablets or injections if necessary. Do ask for these injections if you need them, although following lumpectomies at least, regular oral analgesic tablets such as aspirin, paracetamol or Nurofen will probably be enough. Make sure you have some of these tablets at home for the next few days. Painkillers should be taken regularly (every 4 to 6 hours, or as indicated on their container) so that their effect does not wear off before you take the next dose. A dose as you go to bed may help relieve any discomfort and allow you to get a good night’s sleep.

If you have had auxiliary lymph glands removed, your armpit may be sore for a few days, and possibly numb for several weeks or months.

Getting out of bed

Effective pain control enables you to get out of bed and to move around with ease soon after your operation. Movement and exercise are important to avoid deep vein thrombosis and to keep your bladder and lungs working properly.

You should be able to get up and walk about as soon as the anesthetic effects wear off. Once you are fully mobile, you will be able to remove your anti-embolism stockings if you have been wearing them.

Bra padding

Before you leave hospital, you will be fitted with,-a temporary pad to put in your bra if you have lost a part or the whole of your breast. The pad will give some shape to your affected breast, and will also help to protect your wound. It can be worn at night if desired. Once the wound has healed, a more permanent prosthesis will be fitted if you want one.

Shoulder movement

While in hospital, you will only have limited shoulder movement until any drains have been removed, after which your range of shoulder movements should gradually return to normal within 2 to 4 weeks with gentle exercising. You may be visited by a physiotherapist on the day after your operation so that your degree of shoulder movement can be assessed. You will also be advised about exercises to help you regain the normal range of movement of the arm and shoulder on your affected side, and may be given a leaflet explaining how to do them.

There are some very simple exercises you can do while still in hospital to help to relieve some of the stiffness in your arm and shoulder, for example using your good arm to assist your affected arm with upward and sideways movements, and trying to brush your hair with your elbow resting on a table. Once you are at home again, you should try to exercise your arm and shoulder while carrying out your normal daily routine, for example while dusting and doing light housework.

Although the muscles in the chest wall are now not usually removed during a mastectomy unless absolutely necessary, they can become weakened by under-use after this operation, and exercises to help regain muscle strength are also important.

Discomfort following a mastectomy may also cause you to change your posture, for example by leaning towards the side of discomfort or bending forward. You should try to be aware of this tendency and avoid it if possible as good posture is important so that back pain does not become a problem.

*42/39/5*

Use of X-rays, CT scans or ultrasound in diagnosis

CT scans (computerized tomography) and ordinary X-rays are of no value in the diagnosis and monitoring of endometriosis. Ultrasound can have a role in some situations.

Ultrasound involves the use of high frequency sound waves to create an image or picture of the body on a screen or film. Over the last decade it has been used increasingly in the diagnosis and management of a number of gynecological and obstetrical conditions, including the detection of ovarian cysts and determining the age and size of a foetus in early pregnancy.

Ultrasound has a limited role in the diagnosis and monitoring of endometriosis. At present, the machines used are not sensitive enough to detect small implants and adhesions. They can only detect cysts greater than two centimeters in diameter and determine their size and location. Ultrasound cannot determine the nature of a cyst nor can it distinguish it from other types of cysts or conditions.

Ultrasound should not be used as a substitute for laparoscopy to diagnose endometriosis. Its use is limited to confirming the existence of a cyst felt during a pelvic examination and determining its size and location prior to surgery. In some circumstances ultrasound may be used to help monitor the change in the size of a cyst after a laparoscopic diagnosis has been made.

Use of hysteroscopy or D&C in diagnosis

A hysteroscopy is a procedure where a telescope-like instrument is inserted into the uterus through the vagina and the cervix. It enables the gynecologist to examine the inside of the uterus.

A D&C (dilation and curettage) involves dilating or opening the cervix with a series of rods of increasing thickness until the opening of the cervix is dilated to about one centimeter in diameter. A thin spoon-shaped instrument, known as a curette, is inserted into the uterus and some of the lining is gently scraped off” and later examined.

Hysteroscopy and a D&C have no role in the diagnosis of endometriosis as they do not allow the gynecologist to examine the pelvic cavity.

*20/41/5*

Blood pressure goes up with age in most people in most populations that have been studied, but one study reports thirteen small populations where this does not occur and a major study in Kenya in the 1930s found that high blood pressure was hardly ever seen. A study of 1,000 post-mortems in Kenya in 1936 found that only 36 of the deaths were the result of heart disease and there were no cases of high blood pressure. Ii the early 1940s one doctor found 2 cases of high blood pressure over four years-most of those were salaried and prosperous. At this time strokes and angina were still considered to be very rare and serious hypertension was not seen in East Africa until 1953.

Today, hypertension has become a very common disease in East Africa and a review of deaths in hospitals there found that hypertension was responsible for ‘something like 40 t 60 per cent of the heart disease hospital diagnoses’. By 1978 it was the second commonest cause of death among the urbanized Bantu. Research has implicated many factor in this dramatic story but apart from the stresses of urbanization (which are difficult for quantify and are arguably not much greater than the stresses of tribal life), the amount of sail a population eats seems to be crucial. An analysis of the Kikuyu diet in 1930 found that salt was never added to food. The vast majority of the diet was unrefined starch in the form of carbohydrate (72 per cent of calorie: consumed); the rest was made up of fat (9 per cent) and protein (19 per cent). Salt intake started to rise in the 1920s and 1930s, first in urban areas. In places where diets were supervised by Europeans salt use was common.

Western man consumes 6-18 g of sodium (as common salt) daily. Primitive hunter-gatherer man consumes about 0.6 g daily. A recent study of such peoples found that their blood pressure does not rise with age.

Ethnic groups who do not add common salt “to their food have lifelong low blood pressure and no exceptions have been found to this rule. A part of this might be explained by different sensitivity to dietary salt. Genetically controlled salt sensitivity varies considerably both in animals and in man. It is now suggested that most people can tolerate a daily intake of up to about 4 g of salt but that above this level an increasing proportion of salt-sensitive subjects develop blood pressure with age. Above 6-8 g almost all salt-sensitive people will develop blood pressure with age. It is interesting that although fat people so often have hypertension in the West, obesity itself is not the cause-it is the high salt intake that so often goes with the obesity.

This knowledge has led to many trials of low-salt diets to alleviate hypertension. One major study found that reducing salt intake to 3 g daily was as effective in lowering blood pressure as drugs prescribed to another group for the same purpose. Many centers now claim to achieve normal blood pressure in their patients within a few weeks of putting them on a low-salt diet (4 g a day or less) and many people can then stop taking drugs entirely.

*57/72/5*

Kathy Brown is 50 pounds lighter because she stopped carrying cash.

In 1994, at age 40, Kathy weighed 185 pounds. And she knew why: She just couldn’t resist those fast-food drive-thrus around her hometown of Atlanta. In fact, there were few days when Kathy didn’t hit one fast-food joint or another. The greasy breakfasts were her favorites, though she ate more than her share of cheeseburgers and fries, too.

Disillusioned by gaining so much weight, Kathy decided that her fast-food feasts had to end. But giving up what had become an almost daily event wouldn’t be easy. “I knew my weakness, so I had to figure out a way to overcome it,” she says. Her solution was to leave all of her cash at home. She had her bank cards and credit cards to cover other expenses, but no money for the drive-thru.

With fast foods all but gone from her diet, Kathy had to find something to fill the void. Vegetables and bread became her new dietary staples, supplemented by smaller amounts of fruits, dairy products, and other proteins. “I never used to eat vegetables, never. I didn’t even eat lettuce,” she says. “Now, I eat all kinds of vegetables. My problem was that I had never tried them, so I assumed that I didn’t like them.”

These days, a typical meal for Kathy is stir-fried vegetables sprinkled with soy sauce and served over rice, with a baguette on the side. When she craves the convenience of fast food, she reaches for a low-fat frozen entree, instead.

By improving her eating habits, Kathy was able to trim 50 pounds from her 5-foot-5 frame. She’s so confident of her ability to maintain her healthy weight of 135 pounds that she has even relaxed her fast-food ban. She treats herself to whatever she wants, but only once every 2 weeks—on payday.

WINNING ACTION

Detour around the fast-food route. Kathy found a unique way to break herself of the fast-food habit. In addition to traveling without cash (you may want to have some on hand in case of an emergency), you have a couple of other options. When you drive to and from work, use a route that doesn’t pass through the local fast-food district. And stock your glove compartment with nonperishable low-fat foods—pretzels, dried fruit, small boxes of cereal—to tide you over in case you get hungry.

*50\89\8*