Health and medical information

Avoid sudden changes in activities. Give your child some time to effect a transition rather than taking him by surprise. If you want him to come in for dinner, don’t suddenly uemanu mat ne drop everyming anu come lmmeuiateiy, men get angry ir he doesn’t do it. Tell him that it is almost dinnertime, and that in 5 minutes he will have to stop playing and come and sit at the dinner table.

Make sure you and your partner are in agreement. Young children are expert at playing one parent off against the other. Work out your rules and strategies, and support each other in sticking to them.

Decide what the rules are in advance, and make sure your child knows them too. The limits of acceptable behaviour may vary according to the parents and the individual attributes of the child. It is very difficult to be prescriptive. Make sure that the limits are reasonable, and focus on behaviours that are dangerous to the well-being of the child, or that you find intolerable. Make sure also that the limits are broad enough to allow your child some freedom. Avoid putting yourself in a situation where you are continually saying no.

Be consistent. While nobody can be consistent all the time and in every single situation, try to keep in mind that consistency about rules makes it more likely that the child will learn what the rules are too. Conversely, children will become confused in the face of inconsistency, and their behaviour may get worse. This is because they may feel insecure and need to continue to test limits in order to reassure themselves that they exist. The perceived absence of rules and limits is very scary for young children.

Be matter of fact about discipline. Don’t scream or lose your temper. Talk to your child in a calm, direct way. Stand or sit close to him, make eye contact whenever possible, and speak to him clearly and simply.

Do not threaten your child with long-term consequences. To be threatened with not being allowed to go swimming with his father on the weekend is meaningless for a young child. Suggest short-term consequences of his continued disobedience — ‘If you don’t stop that now, I’ll put you straight in your room’.

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A headache is probably the most common symptom from which we suffer.

This is not due to the hectic pace of life in the highly developed countries, as our brothers and sisters in the underdeveloped world where the pace of life is slower suffer just as often. Even our ancestors were not free from this common disorder.

The pain in your head may be an “ordinary” headache, not dignified by having a specific name or an associated symptom, occurring along with others in the course of some illness, such as one of the infectious diseases.

Or the pain may be one of the common specific disorders, such as migraine or tension headache.

Headaches are such a common occurrence that it is usually only the severe, the persistent, the recurrent or the bizarre headaches which make us seek medical attention, or it may be the more sensitive, introspective or hypochondriacal of us who bother to take such a symptom for medical evaluation.

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Excessive bleeding from the womb may be due to a condition called metropathia hemorrhagica.

This condition is more common in the forties, although it may occur at any age during reproductive life.

It is due to an unbalanced action of the oestrogen hormone from the ovary which acts on the lining of the womb.

Usually ovulation ceases and there is an excess production of FSH, or follicle stimulating hormone, produced by the pituitary gland.

This is often called the master gland of the body and it lies at the base of the brain and produces hormones which control the other endocrine glands of the body.

FSH acts on the ovaries causing the ovum to ripen and produce oestrogen. Over-activity of this hormone may cause the development of a cyst in the ovary which in itself produces oestrogen.

These often spontaneously disappear and rarely require treatment. The oestrogen acts on the endometrium or lining of the womb, causing it to thicken and to develop a greater blood supply.

Then a drop in the level of oestrogen leads to the onset of bleeding and this may go on and on.

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Inhalation of a foreign body by a child may produce serious symptoms which may endanger life. Parents should not allow small children access to potentially dangerous foreign objects; this includes peanuts (shelled—one of the worst offenders), small objects such as beads, eyes from dolls and teddy bears, buttons and certain foods which are obviously hazardous. Children should be discouraged from running when eating or at any time they have objects in the mouth. Brothers and sisters should be discouraged from feeding junior when playing. It may all lead to trouble.

Often when the foreign object becomes lodged in the upper airway there is considerable coughing, choking and gagging, and emotional and physical distress. There may be inspiratory stridor, which means a wheezing noise when the child breathes in. If a large airway has been blocked, there may be cyanosis (blueness), indicating the child is not receiving enough oxygen.

Treatment

Keep your head. Do not panic. The risk of the child suffocating to death within minutes is usually not high. But prompt action is necessary. The old idea of tipping the child upside down in the hope of the foreign body dropping out is now not favoured by many doctors. Neither is back-slapping. It appears that this may dislodge the foreign body, but it may become re-lodged in a narrower part of the airways making the condition more acute and hazardous.

If a foreign body is not obviously visible (and chances of it being seen are not high), then get the child to the nearest large hospital as a matter of urgency. Telephone the hospital first to explain your problem so they may be ready to help you on arrival. Talk encouragingly to the child. Usually, after the initial stress the child tends to quieten down and the so-called ‘silent period’ ensues.

At the hospital, doctors are equipped with special facilities to both investigate and treat. It is usually fairly straightforward in retrieving a foreign body from the air passages.

An overlooked foreign body may prove serious, and deaths have occurred when they have been left there indefinitely. Local infections which may smoulder on and involve adjoining organs may occur. It is important that if there is any query about the foreign body still being there, full investigation be carried out by doctors expert in this field.

X-rays are available. The doctors also have instruments for peering into throats and air passageways, and these are equipped with devices that can pick up and remove foreign objects.

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Babies sometimes bring up some of their feeds, and find pleasure and gratification from the action. ‘Rumination’ actually means chewing the cud, a natural action in cows who enjoy regurgitating some of their previously eaten meal to chew on it again. It often starts in babies still on liquids, possibly starting when food is brought up with wind. Bottle-fed babies readily learn to regurgitate at will. One merely makes a funnel of the tongue, tightens the abdominal muscles, and presto! Up it comes. The food will be partially dribbled out. Some will be rolled around in the mouth and later swallowed.

Treatment

Most cases are self-curative and require no active treatment. The baby is not vomiting, as many parents believe, and reassurance can be given that baby is not suffering from some dire gastro-intestinal disorder. Ideally, prop the baby up after feeding. Soon after starting solids and cereals the baby will stop the habit.

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Key to maintaining good health, nutrition refers to the relationship between the food we eat and our bodies’ needs. While there are hard and fast rules about the things our bodies require to operate efficiently, confusion often arises from the fact that nutritional needs vary from person to person as a result of physiological and environmental differences. Commercial interests may also exploit our desire for good health and seek to mislead us with exaggerated or even false claims about goodness or dangers of certain foods. A thorough understanding of the essential food groups and their sources, your daily requirements and the pressures of your environment and lifestyle will help you on the road to good nutrition. It is also recommended that any symptoms of dietary deficiency, which can range from marks on the fingernail to lethargy and more serious illnesses, be considered from a nutritional perspective. Your natural health practitioner will be able to help you identify and rectify problems with your diet.

Our basic nutritional requirements divide into five categories: water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats or lipids, vitamins and minerals.

Water makes up about 70% of our body mass. While it is often said that water has no nutritional value, it is essential for cell function, nutrient absorption, temperature control and waste elimination. Most people will die within days if water is withheld.

Starches and sugars are known as carbohydrates. Both are broken down into simple sugars called monosaccharides and stored in the muscles and liver. Providing our most immediate source of energy and assisting with the body’s uptake of nutrients, carbohydrates should comprise about 60% of a normally active person’s diet. Starches are complex carbohydrates and are found in grain foods such as breads and rice, pasta, peas and potatoes. Bulky and often high in fibre, vitamins and minerals, complex carbohydrates are the better source of carbohydrate in the diet. Sugars, particularly refined sugars, have less nutrient value and, because they contain less bulk than starches, are easily overconsumed, resulting in obesity. They are also a major cause of tooth decay. Refined white flour may contain similar levels of carbohydrate to wholemeal flour, but it is low in fibre and therefore of less benefit to your general health.

Proteins are responsible for growth and development and for the repair of body tissue. Made of amino acids, they also form the enzymes and hormones which regulate the body’s chemistry and function. You will obtain protein from meat, fish, eggs, dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, nuts and beans such as soya beans, lentils and haricots. The amount of protein required by the body is a matter of some controversy. Generally, it is thought that 40-60 grams a day is sufficient. Excess protein can be converted and stored as fat.

It may sound like a dirty word, but fat is an essential element of any healthy diet. Also known as lipids, fats allow you to absorb the fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K. Fat provides protection for the abdominal organs and nerve fibres, conditions the hair and skin and helps to keep the body warm. The issue, of course, is what kind of fat you eat and how much. Excess fat or too much of what are known as saturated fats, as opposed to polyunsaturated fats, contain high levels of cholesterol, leading to gallstones, obesity, blocking of the arteries, heart attack and stroke. Saturated fats generally come from animal products such as meat, eggs and dairy foods but beware: palm and coconut oils are also high in saturates. Polyunsaturated fats are mostly derived from vegetable sources like maize, sunflower, sesame and rape seed, and oily fish such as tuna, salmon or trout. Olive oil and some fish oils are known as mono-unsaturated and are better for your health than animal fats.

Under increasing scrutiny is the process of hydrogenation, a food industry technique which saturates polyunsaturated oils with hydrogen usually in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel. Normally liquid, the unsaturated oils become solid when hydrogenised: for example, sunflower oil becomes margarine. The process creates non-natural fat substances which are now thought to act like saturated fats, depositing fatty substances on the organs and making the blood cells sticky. Don’t be fooled by clever marketing. Keep your intake of hydrogenised fats to a minimum.

Although required in tiny quantities, vitamins and minerals are essential for food absorption and body function and deficiencies will affect a person’s health. (For information on specific vitamins and minerals, see individual entries). There are 13 major vitamins, only two of which are produced by the body: Vitamin D is made by the action of sunlight on the skin and Vitamin K is a byproduct of the activity of bacteria in the large bowel. All other vitamins must be ingested and, fortunately, most are readily available in fresh food. Supplementation in the form of tablets is rarely necessary. Remember, however, that the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for each vitamin and mineral is calculated as the minimum requirement for health in ideal conditions. Such conditions rarely exist.

The following is a list of just some of the factors, physiological, environmental and behavioural, which can affect your daily requirements: alcohol, caffiene, smoking, allergies, oral contraceptives, reliance on convenience foods, pollution, pregnancy and lactation, stress, antibiotics and other medication, certain medical conditions, menopause and old age. For these reasons, among others, your medical practitioner may recommend you adjust your diet or supplement your vitamin intake with tablets or tonics from time to time.

Fibre is the next important consideration in your diet. It has no real nutritional value as it cannot be absorbed by the body. Instead it passes through our digestive system as roughage, pushing through waste products and keeping the digestive tract healthy. Both constipation and cancer of the bowel can be avoided with a high fibre diet. Most unrefined cereals and plant foods contain fibre. Eat plenty of unrefined grains and raw or lightly cooked fruit and vegetables. Those who suffer from irritable bowel complaints should choose a source of fibre which will not scour the bowel, such as oatbran.

While you may think you need a chemistry degree to eat well, good basic nutrition comes down to common sense. Make sure you eat at least four serves a day of breads, rice, pasta or potatoes and four serves of fresh fruit or vegetables, including green and yellow/orange vegetables. Eat three serves a day of meat, fish, poultry, nuts, beans, peas or lentils. Have one serve of milk, cheese or yoghurt and keep additional fats, oil and salt to a minimum. The fat and sodium you need should be available from other foods in a balanced diet.

Whenever possible, eat fruit and vegetables raw. If cooking, opt for a technique which preserves the nutritional value of food or uses minimal fat such as steaming, grilling, roasting, stir frying and stewing. Western style frying of foods should be avoided.

Finally, eat three meals a day, vary your diet regularly, keep tabs on your general health to pinpoint any deficiencies and try to eat when relaxed. Fifteen minutes of relaxation before eating will aid digestion and increase your absorption of nutrients.

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Deafness is a partial loss or a complete loss of the sense of hearing. A hearing loss may be slight or severe in one ear or both ears. A child may be born with a hearing loss, or it may develop at any age.

Normal hearing occurs when sound waves pass down the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. Vibrations of the eardrum in turn move the three tiny bones in the middle ear. This motion of the bones transmits the vibrations across the middle ear to the inner ear. In the inner ear, the vibrations are changed to electrical impulses which are carried to the brain through the eighth cranial nerve. The brain interprets these electrical impulses as sound. Damage, disease, or malfunction of any of these structures can result in deafness. Any of the following problems may lead to hearing difficulties.

Ear canal problems that may cause hearing loss include a buildup of earwax, a foreign object in the canal, or swimmer’s ear.

Eardrum and middle ear problems may be caused by an inflammation of the middle ear or a blocked Eustachian tube (the tube that connects the nose and the middle ear).

Inner ear problems may be caused by injuries or infections.

Eighth cranial nerve, problems have several possible causes. A child may be born with a nerve that has not developed properly or that has been damaged before birth. (For example, if a pregnant woman develops rubella, this virus may infect the eighth cranial nerve in the unborn child.) After birth, this nerve can be damaged by an injury or by an infection with a virus (mumps, measles) or with a bacterium (meningitis). This nerve can also be affected by certain medications.

Signs and symptoms

Signs of a hearing loss usually can be seen in a child’s behavior. Suspect a hearing loss if any of the following behavior occurs: an infant over three months old ignores sounds or does not turn the head toward sound; a baby over one year old does not speak at least a few words; a

child over two years old does not speak in at least two-word or three-word sentences; a child over five years old does not speak so that a stranger can understand; a child of any age has learning problems in school; or a child simply does not appear to hear well at home. Any of these symptoms may be caused by a hearing loss, but they also may have some other causes. Every child should be given a professional hearing test before starting kindergarten.

Home care

Home care for a hearing problem depends upon the cause, as well as upon the degree of the hearing loss. If you think your child may have a hearing problem, see your doctor. A doctor can more properly determine if there is a problem and prescribe the best treatment.

Precautions

• Every woman of child-bearing age should consult her doctor about rubella (German measles) immunization.

• Do not put any object, including cotton swabs, into your child’s ear canal for any reason. You may force earwax to become packed into the canal, or you may damage the eardrum.

Medical treatment

Your doctor will examine the ear to determine the cause of deafness. Specialists have equipment to test hearing in children of any age past early infancy. If there is any doubt about the cause or treatment of the hearing loss, your doctor may refer you to a center that specializes in speech and hearing. A deaf child should start special education as soon as the condition is discovered, even if the child is as young as one or two years old.

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Weeds, seeds, stems, leaves, roots, flowers – these are the stuff manly medicine is made from. Really.

For example, there’s a palm seed that relieves prostate enlargement as well as or better than prescription drugs and with fewer side effects. In your spice rack, there’s a seasoning that will lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, fight minor bacterial infections, and help guard against cancer. Chewing certain roots just plain makes you feel more vibrant. It’s true. What’s more, about a quarter of modern prescription medicines in North America are derived or synthesized from natural plant remedies just like the ones we’ve mentioned above – herbal remedies that have been used, in some cases, for thousands of years.

As you’ll learn, herbs can help you live longer, better. We think you should know about them. We are not in any way encouraging you to self-diagnose and self-treat any potentially life-threatening illness. Far from that. But we do believe that an informed man should be aware of his options, including the availability of natural healing compounds that often are effective in guarding against common ailments that attack men. You can find these herbs at your nearest health food store. Many are available in drugstores and groceries. Some may even be growing in your own backyard.

Just what are herbs good for? Here’s a list of ailments and complaints men face that herbs have been shown to help.

Cutting cholesterol, fighting infections. If you want to do both, garlic is your herb. Eating about a clove per day ought to do it, recommends Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., dean emeritus of Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences in West Lafayette, Indiana, and distinguished professor emeritus of pharmacognosy (natural pharmaceuticals). Garlic kills many bacteria, including those that cause ear infections. It reduces cholesterol and keeps blood from clumping and sticking to artery walls, thus avoiding the deadly narrowing of the arteries that can lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks.

Garlic gets its power from a natural antimicrobial ingredient called allicin (pronounced like the girl’s name Allison), which is formed when the garlic is chewed or crushed. So if you’re going to take your garlic raw, you need to chew it, says Dr. Tyler. Of course, taking garlic that way will get you your allicin, but in the process you may lose your Allison. Dr. Tyler recommends getting your garlic the odorless way-through a coated tablet or capsule. Make sure that the label says it yields between 2,500 and 5,000 milligrams of allicin per dose.

Reversing liver damage. Taking lots of prescription medication over the years, drinking too much alcohol, breathing or ingesting too many pollutants of any sort-all of the above gets processed by the liver. Take in too much of this stuff and the liver can wear out or get damaged. An herb known as milk thistle seems to guard the liver and even help reverse some damage, says Dr. Tyler. The active ingredient here is silymarin. In Europe, doctors have been able to effectively counter otherwise often deadly mushroom poisoning by injecting a standardized form of silymarin into patients. An effective formulation of milk thistle herb should state on the label that it contains 80 to 85 percent silymarin, says Dr. Tyler. Follow the dosage instructions on the labels.

One milk thistle no-no: Don’t down a handful of capsules because you’re heading to a party and planning to get smashed, Dr. Tyler says. Taken as an herb, milk thistle is a gentle liver healer, not a poisoning preventive or liver protector.

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The way we think and the attitudes and beliefs we subscribe to have a great influence on our health and the way we look at prevention.

In a stressful world which is full of change most of us have to cope with the problems of growing up, going to school, leaving school, forming relationships, having children, making a home, holding down a job, bereavement, problems with children, illness, and much more besides. Many of these problems are in no way ‘our fault’, yet they can have a profound effect on our health, often reducing our ability to withstand infections and even making us susceptible to killer diseases such as cancer. Several studies have confirmed that stress impairs the functioning of the immune system. The typical responses of individuals to bad luck and stress vary enormously. A few people seem to thrive by overcoming obstacles, but it is probably true to say that more ‘illness’ and ‘disease’ is caused by stressful events in people’s lives than is caused by ‘real’ disease. But as well as these ‘external’ sources of stress and emotional upheaval there are many more ‘internal’-or self-generated-causes and some people are much more likely to be troubled with these than are others.

Some people hold beliefs that are almost bound to make them suffer more than necessary in the hurly-burly of everyday life, and others have personality types that make them exceptionally vulnerable. Both of these can be modified-at least to some extent-and increasingly people are realizing that their personalities have an enormous influence on their health and illness patterns.

Uncertainty is a potent cause of stress in many people’s lives but rational, clear thinking can overcome or reduce many of the stresses associated with uncertainty. For example, if you think you are about to be made redundant you can explore all the possible alternatives ahead of time, perhaps even starting to look into retraining. This positive action will make you feel a lot better and you will be less uncertain about your future because you will at least have explored, and

Uncertainty over a physical symptom is a major source of stress to many people who, often quite wrongly, imagine they have a serious disease. The answer here is to seek a professional opinion, and get the necessary tests done, so that your suspicion is either confirmed or proved wrong, and you can deal with the resultant situation appropriately. We all seem to have difficulty coping with problems which don’t have definite boundaries, yet can do so much better once the problem is defined clearly. Fear of the unknown is a disease-producer, yet so much information is available today that there is no need to fret unnecessarily over all kinds of imagined horrors.

Another source of stress is the inability many people have to make decisions at all. This in itself tears them apart because the very act of choosing one direction in life by definition rules out certain others and such people cannot bear to have any doors closed-they want all their options open all the time and so decide on nothing. In such circumstances it helps to write down the problem in logical steps and then to work out on paper all the possible answers you can see. This is best done with the help of a partner or a friend, but for some people in certain circumstances a professional counselor may be the answer. Often an outsider can see a way through an apparently insuperable problem, partly because he or she is outside the problem that looms so large in the troubled person’s life, and partly because he or she can bring experience from dealing with other similar problems to bear on this particular one. Often an outsider sees a totally new way out of the dilemma that is entirely invisible to the individual involved because of his or her upbringing, education and way of thinking, emotional state, or whatever.

One of the things that makes many people ‘ill’ is coming to terms with the fact that in modern life many problems simply don’t have an answer. Things are so complicated today that the simple answers of our grandparents often can’t be made to apply. Coping with the unchangeable is a sign of emotional maturity and again professional help may be necessary.

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Many of us wouldn’t know if we are getting enough zinc in our diets or not. There are however, a couple of signs that can tell us if zinc is lacking. White spots under the fingernails, premature greying of the hair and slow healing of wounds can quite often indicate a zinc deficiency. Some evidence has indicated that stretch marks can also be caused by a lack of zinc in the diet.

Zinc is a very important mineral and constituent of many enzymes involved in digesting and burning food. It is responsible for the action of over 90 different enzymes within the body. What we must do is include foods that are rich in zinc. Grains and nuts are probably one of the best sources. Zinc is also important for proper sexual development of young children. Recent research has shown it is important to help prevent certain prostate gland problems that may affect men as they grow older. Small signs of deficiency are hair loss, acne, aching joints, low immunity, infections which are slow to heal and fatigue.

Recent surveys carried out by the Australian Government have shown us that zinc can be deficient in many diets. According to this survey up to 80% of women in Australia could be lacking zinc in their diet. This is based on the recommended daily intake. It is very important that we look at a well-balanced diet containing fresh fruit and vegetables of different colours, meats, nuts and dairy products. The Australian soil we are growing our foods in may be lacking this very important mineral.

Supplementation may be the only way we can ensure we are receiving enough in our diets.

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