Health news blog

The principles outlined above also hold true for children who wake during the night, unwanted habits of the child. The suggestions outlined here should not be considered for babies of less than 6 months, who are not yet into an established sleep pattern, and should be used with caution in those younger than 12 months. Beyond this age group, they are almost always effective in assisting the child to develop better sleep habits.

Waking during the night is not abnormal. What is abnormal is a child who wakes and then demands, indeed has come to expect, attention from his parents in the middle of the night. The problem usually begins because the parents will go to the child soon after he wakes up, rather than let him cry.

There are two ways that parents can deal with children who wake during the night and have learned to expect a feed or cuddle. They can either wean the child from this habit ‘cold turkey’ or else do it by ‘extinction’ over a period of time. Which of these is used depends on the preference of the parents — both are likely to be effective. Parents need to be sure they want to implement the treatment regime, then pick a starting date. Often a relationship with a health professional can be reassuring and supportive during this time.

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There are drugs available which reduce the production of uric acid and others which help the kidney to excrete it. This 24-hour urine test will help the doctor decide which is the most appropriate.

These drugs include allopurinol (to reduce production) and probenecid and sulfinpyrozone (to improve excretion).

Colchicine is still used both to treat acute attacks and for prevention. It can be used with the other newer drugs.

In these days of screening medical tests, we find a number of men with high levels of uric acid who have not yet had an attack of gout.

Some doctors advocate treating them to prevent its onset, but most are reluctant to treat biochemical levels alone, waiting until gout shows itself with an acute arthritis rather than embarking on lifetime treatment.

Sufferers should take heart that proper treatment is available, as gout can be potentially serious as well as painful.

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Of course, following hysterectomy, there is no risk of cancer of the womb, because there is no womb. The possibility that oestrogen may cause cancer of the breast is not supported by the evidence and the risk of clots is so small as not to count when compared to the advantages.

Many women experience depression following removal of the womb, others lose all interest in sex. These side-effects can be prevented if proper care in explaining to women what the operation entails is given before the operation.

This must be given in language the woman can understand. It may need to be repeated, especially if the woman is worried, as she may not take it all in the first time.

Then following the operation repeated counselling may be necessary.

The number of hysterectomies is increasing. This is not because doctors are increasing their incomes, but because of the changing expectations of women.

In the past many tolerated discomfort from heavy periods or pain from many of the pelvic disorders. Now a new generation is not prepared to tolerate these symptoms and demands relief, and, often, operation is the only effective treatment.

Women, being better educated and more insistent on their rights, properly demand operation rather than tolerate severe discomfort.

An added bonus for many women is removal of the risk of pregnancy.

Far from a hysterectomy being a defeminising operation, it can, and should be, a liberating factor in her life, taking away the tyranny of pain, discomfort and ill-health.

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Every baby, infant and child will experience various disorders of the abdomen and gastro-intestinal system. This is inevitable. The ones we have already discussed are among the more common. However, there is a huge list of others. The average child will not be involved in these, but without doubt a certain number of little ones are destined to contract one of them. Diagnosis is often difficult, and even doctors expert in the field of baby care may be hoodwinked and find the exact diagnosis takes time and many tests.

Only a few of the important but less common abdominal disorders are described on the following pages. It is not an exhaustive list of complaints, nor does it give more than brief general information. But it may offer some extra detail if a parent hears of the complaint or wishes to have some added knowledge.

As I have emphasized earlier, this book is intended to be used only as a general guide. It is not a do-it-yourself compendium, and is not intended to be used that way. Whilst many simple ailments may be treated at home by parents, others require proper medical diagnosis and supervision in treatment. Never begrudge money or time spent in having the best possible attention for your child. It may pay handsome dividends and may be life-saving.

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Sandwiches often form the basis of school lunches. It is far better to use whole-wheat or multi-grain bread or milk bread, rather than simple white or brown varieties. (Milk bread has a higher protein component, as protein from milk has been added.)

The fillings should be given careful thought. It is easy to make or marr the value of the sandwich with the contents. High-protein fillings include meat, cheese, and egg. Many ‘health food’ products are now commercially available, such as nut-meat and similar lines which are high in protein. Most of these contain gluten, the protein fraction of wheat. They can be used directly, or in conjunction with other items.

In fact, many sandwiches are far more appetising when they are combined with other products. For instance, any of the above protein items can readily and tastefully be included in a nice, thick, salad sandwich. Salad products give the sandwich a light, crunchy, attractive appearance and sensation when eating.

Use only a small amount of butter. Many mothers will use unsaturated margarine in preference. Adding a vitamin extract, such as Marmite, can upgrade the value of the sandwich.

Some mothers do away with bread altogether. This is replaced by a crisp salad. It is simple to prepare in a plastic, airtight dish and convey to school where it is eaten at the appropriate time.

Rather than include cakes and sweet biscuits, a packet of nuts, raisins, dried apricots (or peach or apple) and sultanas is far better. It is easy to make up a different pack each day—this can contain any one or a combination of the items suggested. Other items can be included that are of nutritional value.

A piece of fruit each day is also a good idea. It is wise to alternate these from day to day if possible, For example, have an orange one day, an apple the next, apricot or peach the next. This will depend on availability and price, but variation will cover a wider range of vitamin requirements. And it will often be more economical than cake and biscuits, which have little nutritive value.

The lunch pack can be broken up into segments that may be used for play lunches and lunch itself. Either let the child decide what to eat and when, or do this by making individual servings. It is so simple to wrap some nuts and pieces of dried fruit and place this parcel on the top, for morning recess.

An easy-to-prepare lunch pack consists of a couple of slices of cheese together with a few short pieces of celery. Or some cheese and a slice of fresh pineapple. There are unlimited possibilities.

The simplest and best beverage is, of course, cold water. When some chipped ice is added, this is the most refreshing drink available. It is far more thirst-quenching on hot days than sugar-based aerated beverages which contain about 420 kJ (100 calories) per glass. The latter frequently increase the body’s heat factor, even though they might be served cold.

Orange and lemon drinks are excellent. But their value can often be destroyed by adding loads of sugar. Freshly squeezed orange juice with no sugar is an excellent, healthful and refreshing drink. It is also high in vitamin C which is essential for good health.

If you encourage your child to buy his or her food, or if it is more convenient, first discuss the basics of healthy eating. Recommend fruits, nuts and dried fruits in preference to sweets and lollies. Meat pies and pastry are nutritionally useless, so try to phase a child out of this unhealthy habit. It is far better never to let it start.

Spending a little time and thought can pay handsome dividends. Why not opt for the sensible way, and prepare your children’s lunches yourself. Enlist their assistance and you can readily teach them the basics of healthful living, and long term good health.

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These small and painful sores in the mouth can result from injury to the inside cheeks, lips or gums. Abrasions caused by ill-fitting dentures or by rough brushing of the teeth are often responsible for the development of ulcers, aided by acidity in the mouth.

When mouth ulcers occur for no obvious external reason, they can indicate stress and poor nutrition. Check” for deficiencies in Vitamins A and B]2, iron, folic acid or zinc. Sudden and severe outbreaks may indicate the presence of the herpes virus. If the problem is persistent, a consultation with a homeopath may help. According to some natural therapists, intolerance to the fluoride in toothpaste or to gluten in the diet can result in recurring mouth ulcers.

To treat, apply a tincture of myrrh, available from most chemists and health food shops. Swill the mouth with sage tea or with a couple of drops of tea tree oil mixed in warm water. At night, drink milk to coat the ulcer and prevent further inflammation.

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A concussion is an injury to the brain. It is caused by a fall or by a blow on the head from a blunt object. In many ways, a concussion is like a bruise of the brain. There is swelling in the brain, and sometimes blood escapes into the brain tissue. Since a concussion is an injury to the brain matter itself, it may occur even if the skull is not fractured. Concussions range from mild to serious.

Most children suffer one or more blows to the head at some time during childhood. Typical reactions to head injuries are immediate crying, headache, paleness, vomiting once or twice, a lump or cut at the site of injury, and sleepiness for one or two hours. These are not the signs of a concussion; they are usual reactions to a blow on the head.

Signs and symptoms

Any of the following are signs of a possible concussion: unconsciousness at the instant of the injury; no memory of the accident or of events that occurred before the accident; confusion (child doesn’t recognize parents or know his or her own name); persistent vomiting; inability to walk; eyes not parallel; pupils of different sizes (note: some children have unequal pupils normally); pupils that do not become smaller when a bright light is shined into the eyes; blood coming from the ear canal; bloody fluid which does not clot coming from the nose; headache that continues to become more severe; stiff neck (the chin cannot be touched to the chest with the mouth closed); increasing drowsiness; slow pulse (less than 50 to 60 beats per minute); and abnormal breathing.

There are two rare forms of concussion in which symptoms do not develop until hours after the injury (called epidural bleeding) or until days or weeks afterward (called subdural bleeding).

Home care

If the child shows any of the signs of a concussion, see your doctor.

If there are no signs of a concussion, or if you are waiting to see the doctor, have the child rest in bed. Bed rest is the most essential treatment for a head injury that does not penetrate the skull. Keep the child lying quietly, with the head on a pillow. Check the child frequently. The child may sleep but must be wakened every hour so that you can check on the child’s condition until he or she feels well. Keep the child in bed until at least one day after the child seems fully recovered. Give only aspirin or paracetamol for headache.

Precautions

• Do not attempt home treatment if there are any signs of concussion.

• Do not treat a head injury at home if the scalp is depressed (pushed in) at the site of injury or if a gentle tapping of the skull produces the dull sound of a broken melon. (These symptoms rarely, if ever, occur without other signs of concussion.)

• Do not give pain killers, sedatives, or any medication stronger than aspirin or paracetamol to a child with a head injury.

Medical treatment

Your doctor may or may not order X rays of the skull. Your child may be hospitalized for observation. A CAT scan may be useful. A CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan gives three-dimensional X rays of the brain. Echoencephalogram, electroencephalogram, and spinal tap tests are sometimes helpful. If the concussion is serious, your doctor may consult a neurosurgeon (a specialist in the brain and nervous system).

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Maybe somewhere deep inside you lurks that crazy thought we all have in our more irrational moments. To wit: Can’t this whole disease-threat thing just go away? Can’t a society that put men on the moon and all of Merle Haggard’s work on CD come up with some kind of high-tech anti-illness potion so that we can go on about our business?

Hang on, we have one for you. Behold our magic pill, guaranteed to significantly reduce your risk of disease. It’s fun to take. It makes you feel good. It’s 100 percent natural. It’s cheap and available.

Okay, we exaggerate a tad-but only by the smallest of tads. It’s not guaranteed (nothing is in medicine). It’s not a pill. And it’s not magic. But fitness through exercise is a proven disease risk-reducer. Go down the list of killers and exercise combats most of them.

In short, a regular fitness program should be the cornerstone of your anti-disease strategy, experts say.

“The numbers clearly show that people who are physically active have less disease,” says Kerry Stewart, Ed.D., a clinical exercise physiologist and director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. “Particularly heart disease.”

Since heart disease is the number one killer of Americans, that’s no insignificant piece of information. Exercise works its wonders directly and indirectly. Directly, according to Dr. Stewart, it improves things like heart function and body metabolism. Indirectly, it works on the risk factors of disease. For example, exercise lowers high blood pressure, decreases your percentage of body fat, and improves your ratio of “good” cholesterol to “bad” cholesterol. All of those things are major factors in heart disease.

But fitness fights more than just heart disease. It’s the treatment of choice for diabetes as well as your best bet to avoid it. And only recently has exercise’s cancer-fighting value come to light, most notably (for men) as a risk-reducer for colon and prostate cancer.

Exercise not only keeps you alive but also keeps your life worth living. “Most of what people think of as ‘growing older’ isn’t,” says Walter M. Bortz II, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and author of Dare to Be 100. “It’s disuse. They don’t understand the power of exercise.”

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Most economists, when asked to express a view on the value of prevention, understandably try to analyze the whole process as if it were an investment. People need and want a certain level of health, after all, not medical and nursing care. This is one useful way to look at preventive services-by spending a penny today we might be able to save a pound (spent on cure) tomorrow. Either because of this future saving or because it raises the individual’s level of health today prevention at first appears to be an attractive investment.

If we really want to know what prevention costs we need to know what ill health costs so that we can see if in financial terms it is worth practicing prevention. But working out what illness costs is not easy. The direct costs of ill health are relatively easy to quantify because they are the costs of delivering a medical care system and this can be worked out. In 1984 the National Health Service cost Great Britain16 billion pounds. But just looking at direct medical costs is not enough. Indirect economic costs include loss of productivity because of days off work, or premature death. These have to be added to the overall figure and more than double it. In the US the total cost of illness as judged in this way comes to about 20 per cent of the Gross National Product. One recent estimate suggests that about half of all these costs are for conditions that could be prevented. So money spent on prevention could reduce the costs both of the delivery of health care and of the number of days lost and working lives cut short.

None of these calculations take into account the suffering of the individual (on which it is impossible to put a price) or the cost to the individual of the loss of work, or other illnesses that occur in his or her family as a result of the original (costed) illness. These things are very difficult, if not impossible, to quantify but are none the less real for that. All of this means that any pure cost-benefit analysis undervalues the real cost of illnesses to society.

Another problem in trying to put a cost on prevention is the difficulty of evaluating a human life in monetary terms. From the economic point of view the value of a person is that contribution he or she makes to the Gross National Product. This clearly falls short because it says nothing of the person’s value to society in other ways and indeed says nothing about his or her value to him or herself. Judging people’s worth by their wages automatically undervalues the unemployed, women and racial minority groups-who on average earn less. If wages were the sole measure of economic value in such cost-benefit analyses then these groups would be allocated very few medical services. Also, non-wage-earning jobs such as being a mother and housewife would not be included at all and special allowances would have to be made.

Another problem in using cost-benefit analysis is that the relationship between benefits and costs is highly dependent on the discount rate. A discount rate is used in calculating costs and benefits to reflect the fact that the value of future benefits is worth less than a similar quantity of benefits today. In other words a pound today is worth more than a pound tomorrow. The choice of discount rate therefore profoundly affects the value given to benefits and costs. The higher the discount rate the less important the benefits that will accrue far into the future become in the cost-benefit calculation. If the discount rate is high, benefits to future generations will be devalued in relation to the more immediate returns provided by other programmes.

Another problem with cost-benefit analysis is that very often in health care the demands for services vary enormously from one group to another. Quite often those who most benefit from a preventive programme are not those who bear the costs. This is especially true in the US where insurance companies pay such a large proportion of medical costs. Unfortunately, a sickness-orientated system such as this encourages people to wait until they are ill (when they know that the claim will be paid) rather than seek to prevent the condition in the first place (for which the insurance companies will not pay). Private medical insurance also tends to encourage the use of health screening systems which in turn produce a number of false-positive results and lead to the consumption of even more medical services quite unnecessarily.

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When you have a sore throat it can affect your everyday life. Every time you want to speak it seems to get worse. It is hard to swallow, especially in the mornings, where you are dehydrated.

One of the old remedies used was two drops of eucalyptus in a teaspoon of honey. This is very effective, but first you need to remove the phlegm and mucus. Phlegm and mucus gather in the throat and can cause irritation. It is also an ideal medium for bacteria to breed in. A good way to get rid of it is to gargle with warm water and salt. Dissolve a couple of teaspoons of salt in warm water, gargle and then spit it out. This will soothe the throat and remove the mucus. Salt is also a very good antiseptic that can kill bacteria on the mucus membrane of the mouth and throat.

The herb slippery elm is very soothing. If you suck on slippery elm tablets, the mucilage in the herb coats the throat, helping reduce inflammation and pain.

Iron phosphate, potassium chloride and zinc are minerals that also have anti-inflammatory properties. These can be found in cold tablet formulas. Usually a sore throat is the sign of more to come. If this is not treated promptly, further upper respiratory infections or the common cold or flu may follow so help build up your resistance by taking the supplements.

SUPPLEMENTS

cold tablets containing 1 tablet 3 times daily

iron phosphate and

potassium chloride

slippery elm suck 1 tablet 3 times daily

vitamin C 2000 mg daily

Echinacea as directed on bottle (extract or dried

herb)

garlic 2000 mg dried herb-enteric coated

daily

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