April 22nd 2009 · Read More · No Comments
A suspected diagnosis is one that is based on the history of your symptoms and a physical examination only.
The symptoms of endometriosis vary widely and the results of a physical examination are not usually conclusive. Therefore, it is not possible to accurately diagnose endometriosis simply from symptoms and a physical examination. In fact, many studies have shown that there is an error rate of up to 50% when the diagnosis has been made on this basis. Even though symptoms may strongly suggest endometriosis, the diagnosis must always be regarded as uncertain until it has been confirmed by a laparoscopy.
Taking a history for endometriosis involves building up a detailed picture of the nature and history of symptoms.
The nature and variety of symptoms associated with endometriosis means that it is often difficult for a doctor, especially a general practitioner, to readily recognize your symptoms as being attributable to endometriosis. Nevertheless, in most cases the nature, timing and progression of your symptoms should eventually alert your general practitioner to the possibility of a diagnosis of endometriosis and therefore the need to refer you to a gynaecologist.
In general, the medical profession believes that the classical symptoms of endometriosis are progressively worsening period pain, pelvic pain, pain with intercourse and infertility. Therefore, many doctors tend to look for that pattern of symptoms when considering the possibility of endometriosis. Their suspicions will often be increased if the symptoms, particularly pain, are reported to be cyclical, especially if they are more severe around the time of your period.
In order to maximize the chances of being diagnosed it is important that a doctor be given as comprehensive a history as possible of all symptoms. The nature, onset, timing, severity and progression of each of the symptoms should be discussed, even if a particular symptom, such as pain with intercourse, is embarrassing to talk about.
Obviously, it should be easier to alert your doctor to the possibility of endometriosis if you have some or all of the typical symptoms. If you do not have typical symptoms, it is important that you make sure that you continue to report your symptoms to your doctor until she or he investigates them properly or refers you to another doctor for further investigation.
*17/41/5*
April 22nd 2009 · Read More · No Comments
This is the final type of stress-reduction method to be described briefly here. There are many forms and there is no room in this book to describe them in detail. Most are best learned in some kind of formal setting-many local authorities have evening classes on the subject, and there are also private groups, church groups, and many other places one can go to learn.
Before doing any meditation spend a few minutes doing relaxation exercises and deep breathing, which will make you more receptive to your chosen method of meditation. There are many techniques of meditation but they all have in common the conscious attempt to focus the mind on one subject. Concentrating on your breathing is a simple form of meditation. Concentrating on breathing is relatively easy compared with concentrating on an abstract thought or image. The crux of meditation is the clearing from the mind of everyday clutter. Some claim that meditation, if taught well and done properly, will lead to a raised spiritual awareness as well as relaxation but this may not be what you want.
The device or ‘distracting object’ which you concentrate on can be a mental picture, an image, a sound, a word, an idea, an activity, etc. Various forms of meditation have used repetitive chanting or even the repetition of a simple single-syllable such as ‘Om’.
Postures and positions for meditation vary greatly but the most important thing is to stay immobile. Whatever position is adopted it is important to incorporate the meditation into one’s daily routine and so look upon it as an oasis of calm and peace.
As the weeks go by many, if not all, of the signs of stress should disappear and you should feel a lot healthier generally. Also, the positive benefits of any of the activities described in this section will boost your natural immunity to disease and the ability of your body to heal itself when others around you are falling ill.
This is the essence of preventive health-boosting the body’s natural defences so that it can withstand the stresses, infections and cancers that are being continuously produced in all of us, as well as emotional strife, environmental onslaughts and so on. – Many people experience many or all of these yet never get ill. If more of us lived along the lines detailed in this section we could join them.
*55/72/5*
April 22nd 2009 · Read More · No Comments
Jack Zimak and his wife believe in sharing everything, including dinner. This simple strategy helped him take off 40 pounds.
In 1997, at age 33, Jack went for his first physical in a long time. The news wasn’t good. After years of not paying much attention to what or how much he ate, his weight had crept up to 245 pounds.
Worse, his cholesterol level had risen to 240—well above normal. Jack thought of his father, who had died of a heart attack at age 60. He didn’t want to risk the same fate.
“Like everyone, I needed motivation to change my lifestyle,” says Jack, a sales manager from Palm Bay, Florida. “My motivations were my cholesterol, my family history, and my three kids. I wanted to be around to see them grow up.”
Jack’s doctor wanted him to get his cholesterol level down within 2 months, and Jack rallied to the task. He gave up red meat, eggs, dairy products, and fast food. He learned new ways to prepare fish and chicken, instead of frying them. His diligence paid off: When he had his cholesterol level rechecked 8 weeks later, it had dropped to 160. As a bonus, he had lost 15 pounds.
That initial weight loss inspired Jack to make more dietary changes. Mayonnaise was out, mustard was in. Butter was out, replaced by a bit of olive oil or canola oil. Soda and fruit juices were out, water was in.
Restaurants presented a bigger challenge. Jack and his wife, Jen, enjoyed eating out. But Jack knew that the gargantuan portions were no good for his physique. So the two of them got into the habit of ordering one entree and an extra plate. Then they’d split the food between the two of them. “Most restaurants were quite accommodating, especially when I showed them my driver’s license picture so they could see how much weight I had lost,” Jack says.
How much did he lose? A total of 40 pounds in about a year. “My wife took off a few pounds as well,” he reports.
Jack is content at his current weight of 205 pounds, which he has maintained since 1998. To ensure that those extra pounds don’t come back, he and his wife have started a daily walking program. “And we still share our meals when we eat out,” he adds.
WINNING ACTION
Order one meal for two. Restaurant meals are the downfall of many weight-conscious people. The portion-control technique that Jack uses is a great one for a couple of reasons. First, it immediately cut your calories in half. And second, by eating with a fellow dieter, you have a j j* built-in weight-less buddy system.
*48\89\8*
April 20th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
These are commonly seen in pain clinics — particularly injuries that occur in Australian Rules football which are colloquially known as ‘groin strain’.
These injuries occur in otherwise healthy young athletes who continually injure a particular muscle, or muscle group. The injuries are sometimes associated with very little physical evidence and yet are totally disabling.
Treatments Conventional physiotherapy techniques are sometimes ineffective and may even lead to operations which are sometimes inadequate or inappropriate.
In recent years, the application of techniques more commonly used with chronic pain patients, such as acupuncture and TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), have led to an improvement in some.
*72\37\8*
April 20th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
Many pain patients also manage to play a good game of ‘my daughter is killing me’, or ‘my son, husband, wife, mother, father is trying to do me in’, and so on. Family disturbances are common sources for perpetuating pain. The most frequent causes of an emotional crisis are unfaithful spouses and errant children.
It is surprising how often pain patients are addicted to habit-forming drugs. This has become one of the behaviourial games. We have also had patients who have been easily withdrawn from the drug while in the hospital, only to go home and immediately contact three or four different doctors and get narcotics from every physician they can convince about their suffering.
Clearly the role of the chronic pain patient is to seek appropriate professional help and to make all efforts to try to become well again. However, Adelaide pain researcher Professor Issy Pilowsky has identified abnormal illness behaviour as a form of hypochondriasis. This is the condition in which a patient believes he or she is ill, without appropriate medical evidence. The patient is preoccupied with pain symptoms to the exclusion of all else and is convinced of the presence of significant illness or injury and is resistant to all medical explanations and reassurance.
Once a pain associated with tissue damage has occurred, and becomes chronic, the patient becomes filled with self-inflicted negative ideas and thoughts. All family and other stresses and problems are conveniently blamed on the pain! The sufferer may then become oblivious to family and occupational causes of tension, can gratify the need to become dependent or child-like by the adoption of the ‘sick role’ which leads to a legitimate reason for narcotic medication.
*49\37\8*
April 20th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
Motorcycles and Neck Injuries
Motorcycle accident injuries are becoming all too common because often the power of the machine is greater than the skill of the rider. The motorcycle boom has meant that nerve injury to the shoulder is becoming more frequent. On hitting any obstruction, the rider is catapulted forward and hits the road at the speed at which the bike was travelling. While crash helmets have effectively reduced head injuries, the rider’s shoulder often takes the impact, being violently wrenched down and backwards. Damage can often be severe, with painful long-term consequences. This is because the arm is supplied with a network of nerves which leave the spinal cord at the level of the lower neck and upper chest and funnel into the arms. In the most severe of these injuries, the spinal roots are avulsed — or virtually ripped out from the spinal cord. No repair is possible.
*27\37\8*
April 20th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
Sadly medical education is almost exclusively geared to the concept of acute disease. It is directed at treating the patient as an interesting clinical problem in both diagnosis and treatment rather than looking more perceptively at the complex socio-economic-political factors that also affect our health in the 1990s. There are many predisposing influences that create a climate for severe pain to flourish. Anything from a nagging headache, which makes you feel as though your skull is splitting open, to the fear of the night, when the pain of arthritis and spinal pain make dawn seem an eternity away. The general atmosphere of acute nervous uncertainty is destabilising, to say the least, for even the most tranquil of souls. For example, the widespread unease that rapid technological change is out of control, distrust of the competence and motives of political leaders and daily reports of gloom and doom in the news media.
All these factors may have an additional unsettling effect on people who are trying to cope with their pain, be it a migraine or worse. Pain always affects those surrounding the patient — both in the home and the community at large. Family breakdown is a not unusual consequence. Some of the most common causes of pain in Australia involve third parties such as Workcare and Workers’ Compensation insurers and motor car accident insurers. Selecting the top 5 per cent of matriculating students as being eligible for a career in medicine may not be the best selection method. Unfortunately, there is no present procedure to select medical students on their ability to communicate with patients. Intellectual brilliance is not necessarily the sole measure for a secondary school student to become a good medical practitioner.
Since no easy cure can be anticipated with chronic pain patients, the communication skills of the doctor are at a premium.The doctor’s attention often has to be directed at helping the patient cope with disability resulting from the pain, and the side-effects of medications, rather than identifying and treating the underlying cause.
*5\37\8*
April 20th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
The inhalants that cause rhinitis can also cause asthma, the ‘target organs’ in this case being the tubes leading from the trachea to the lungs, known as the bronchi. A variety of airborne allergens may be responsible, see p59-63-
When these allergens trigger mast cells in the bronchi, they cause inflammation of the membranes lining the tubes which become thicker and produce more mucus. This restricts the free passage of air and sets the stage for a full-blown asthma attack. Such an attack occurs when sufficient mediators are released by the mast cells t» make the smooth muscles of the bronchi contract. The bronchi suddenly become much narrower. Stale air inside the lung cannot easily escape, so the lungs have difficulty in drawing in fresh air with its life-giving oxygen. The air whistling through the constricted openings makes the characteristic wheezing sound.
While most asthmatics conform to the general pattern described above there are also milder forms of the disease in which there is no wheezing and no asthma ‘attacks’ as such. In such cases the predominant symptom is a persistent cough combined with some breathlessness.
The only way of telling if such symptoms might be due to asthma is to try out an anti-asthma treatment and see if there is any improvement. If there is, further tests should be made to confirm the diagnosis and try to identify the allergens involved.
Although inhalants are the major culprits in asthma, foods can also play a part. Often there is more than one allergen involved.
*50\180\8*
April 8th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
To obtain a therapeutically balanced preparation, the fresh plant extract of Hypericum perforatum (St John’s wort) is added to the pure product of Symphytum officinale (comfrey). St John’s wort is well known and proven as a remedy for the blood and for wounds, and as such, helps to intensify the effect of Symphytum.
Hamamelis (witch hazel) is, in the experience of the North American Indians, one of the important wound-healing remedies. It has gained a deserved place in modern medicine too.
Sanicle is another tried and proven country remedy, especially indicated for badly healing wounds, cuts and grazes. It has been used by people in the country for centuries. Unfortunately, it is quite rare in many areas.
Solidago virgaurea, also known as goldenrod and woundwort, has also been used to treat wounds since time immemorial. It is anti-inflammatory and speeds up the healing process. Its content of essential oils, tannins and saponins may be responsible for these valuable effects.
*710/28/1*
April 8th 2009 · Read More · No Comments
It is always useful to know what you can do to prevent certain problems from arising and this also applies to preventative measures after surgery. For example, it is advisable to massage the abdomen regularly with Symphosan. This will help to strengthen the stomach muscles and prevent unwanted deposits of fat. At the same time, if every week you take two sitz baths in an infusion of oak bark, the effect of the regular massage will be enhanced. Keep-fit exercises also strengthen the abdominal muscles and the entire front wall. But be careful not to overdo the exercises. Be sensible, too, when practising a sport, whether it be rowing, skiing or whatever. A sensible approach guarantees good exercise that will strengthen, but not strain, the abdominal muscles and wall. Incidentally, if you practise some physical exercise regularly and sensibly, you will be much less prone to hernias in the first place than if you only sit around and do mental work.
For internal treatment, herbs that contain silica, such as horsetail and, especially, Galeopsis, are excellent. And to not forget to take Urticalcin, a biological calcium preparation.
*666/28/1*