Health Blog

Children also suffer from stress in their daily lives. The bully at school may not sound like much of a problem to you, but your child may lie awake at night worrying about him. Children are often not consciously aware of their stress levels, and may need to be actively encouraged to relax. This does not mean that your child has to stand on his head and practise meditation (although this is one option). There are very simple and effective ways of helping a child to relax. These include cuddling, talking over problems, a warm bath, a warm drink, a bedtime story, or releasing excess physical energy by playing sport or dancing to music. Older children can find the time before exams particularly stressful. They may benefit from learning specific relaxation techniques, or perhaps yoga or meditation.

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For extensive cancer pain, some doctors recommend injection of morphine into the covering around the spinal cord through a small plastic tube which can be left in place (epidural injection). This can result in better pain relief for less side effects, but has some drawbacks such as the risk of infection, inconvenience, and the need for a practitioner who is experienced in placing the tube correctly.

Another specialised method for relieving cancer pain is destruction of the pituitary gland by inserting alcohol, ice cold probes or radioactive substances into it via the nose (see page 00).

The pain relief is not achieved through producing remission of the cancer. This method may therefore be recommended for any cancer pain, not just that due to a type of cancer which could be dependent on the hormone balance in the body. I would not agree to it for myself because I believe that it is too unreliable and temporary in its effects and that the side effects are too great for the benefits. However, you must weigh up the situation for yourself if it is recommended for you. I definitely wouldn’t try it before trying painkillers as I have described.

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Wash with water, plenty of it and keep it up. If it is an acid burn, a weak solution of bicarbonate of soda in water will neutralise the acid. If it is an alkali burn, like caustic soda, vinegar and water will neutralise this.

For the eyes: Wash out with large amounts of water for 10 mintues before doing anything else. Do this at once where you are. Only after you have washed the eye for 10 minutes do you take the patient to the doctor. SUNBURN

This is often worse than you think, particularly in children. As treatment, allow plenty of rest; plenty of cooling fluids; moist compresses to the affected areas. Soothing creams, especially those containing a local anaesthetic, are helpful.

Ask your chemist at the beginning of summer what cream to use. Calomine lotion may be used. If major blistering occurs, see your doctor. PREVENTION OF BURNS

It is important for parents to consider prevention in relation to the safety of children.

NEVER let a child play with matches.

NEVER leave children in the car with matches in

the glove box or cigarette lighter in the dashboard.

DON’T have handles of pots and saucepans projecting from the stove. Little hands do reach up. Keep cups with hot tea and coffee in the centre of the table, not along edges!

NEVER run the hot tap in the bath by itself. Always have the cold one on as well; and do not leave small children in the bath by themselves. They could turn on the hot water.

Pay attention to the night attire your children wear. No night dresses — they look pretty but burn so easily. Tight-fitting pyjamas for boys and girls are best. WOOL IS BEST, it burns slowly. Cotton and flannelette are dangerous, and synthetics melt.

Be responsible . .. demand that your retailer stocks only approved, fire-resistant nightwear.

Check such things as radiators to see that they are adequately guarded. New products, initially, are often unknown quantities so far as safety for children is concerned. Sometimes their dangerous features are not recognised by the manufacturers until a few accidents happen.

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The stone may lead to attacks of colic, severe pain usually felt under the ribs on the right and radiating around to the back and across to the left.

Colic usually develops when one of the smaller stones attempts to move from the gallbladder down the duct which leads to the bowel. Smaller ones may enter the duct and then become jammed.

When this happens, there is a back pressure along the ducts and bile builds up in the liver and overflows into the blood and tissues, producing the yellow color known as jaundice. The larger stones are unable to enter the duct.

The diagnosis of stones may be suspected but an X-ray is necessary to confirm their presence. This is a cholecystogram.The patient usually has a preliminary plain X-ray. Only stones containing a lot of calcium will be visible on this film.

The person is given some tablets to take in the evening and an appointment is made for the next day. The tablets contain a radio-opaque dye which, excreted by the liver, passes in the bile into the gallbladder where, like the bile, it is concentrated and outlines this organ.

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These drugs are often taken by athletes to build up muscle tissue and improve performance in weightlifting and related sports. Women who take these may find that they have a virilising effect which interferes with their periods and leads to an increase of body hair.

Some forms of the contraceptive Pill contain one hormone which, when broken down in the body, forms androgen and women on the Pill can develop both acne and excess facial hair. Other forms of the Pill are more oestrogenic and can reduce both acne and facial hair.

The drug phenytoin, widely used in epilepsy to control convulsions, may lead to an increase in body hair in some women. The exact cause is unknown, although an increase in the activity of androgen or an over-sensitivity of the hairs to hormone is believed to be the reason.

Most women with hair problems do not consult their doctors, relying on self-treatment or the care of beauty salons or those who specialise in the removal of hairs. Those who do seek medical advice are usually concerned there might be a serious underlying reason for the hirsutism or because of a severe emotional reaction.

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Now we come to the question which hangs on every patient’s lips, although some never dare to actually ask it: ‘How long will I live?’

Many patients avoid asking this question because they fear the answer so much. In my experience, most patients actually imagine that things are worse than they really are. Thus the answer may come as a pleasant surprise. Whether or not this is so for you, I believe it is always easier to deal with facts than with the products of your imagination. In any case, you cannot possibly make the best decisions for yourself if you don’t know what difference various treatments are likely to make to the length of your life.

This question is also hard to answer, partly because no one can look into the future and tell you exactly what will happen to you as an individual. Many doctors use this as an excuse to avoid giving any answer at all. However, they can tell you what is average or likely, what is possible but unlikely and what is so unlikely as to be a miracle if it happens. I believe that the following is the least you need to find out from your doctor in order to make the best possible decision about treatment. Firstly, it is possible that any treatment could completely cure you, that is, that you could live as long as if you hadn’t ever had the cancer? Secondly, what is the median length of life for each possible anticancer treatment, and also if you have no anti-cancer treatment at all? The median (or average) length of life is the time between diagnosis or starting treatment and when half of the patients have died. Thirdly, what is the chance that you could live for five years? (This is called the five year survival time.)

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‘It must be in my genes.’ Before we talk more about food, let’s look at the role genetics plays in weight control. There are many overweight people who tell us resignedly, that:

• ‘well my mother’s/father’s the same’,

• ‘I’ve always been overweight’,

• ‘it must be in my genes’.

Research shows us that this comment has much truth behind it A child born to overweight parents is much more likely to be overweight than one whose parents were not overweight. It may sound like an excuse, but there is a lot of evidence to back the idea that our body weight and shape is at least partially determined by our genes.

Much of our knowledge in this area comes from studies in twins. Identical twins tend to be similar in body weight even if they are raised apart. Even twins adopted out as infants show the body-fat profile of their true parents rather than that of their adoptive parents. These findings suggest that our genes are a stronger determinant of weight than our environment (which includes the food we eat).

It seems that information stored in our genes governs our tendency to store kilojoules as either fat or as lean muscle tissue. Overfeeding a large group of identical twins confirmed that within each pair, weight gain was similar, however the amount of weight gained between sets of identical twins varied greatly. From this, researchers concluded that our genes control the way our bodies respond to overeating. Some sets of twins gained a lot of weight while others gained only a little, even though all were overconsuming an equivalent amount of kilojoules.

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In a comprehensive review of the issue in 1991, Dr Andrew Prentice and his associates at the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre in Cambridge, identified the physiological outcomes of slimming. These included: energy sparing adaptations, alterations in fat and lean body mass, altered energy substrate handling, changes in appetite, health related outcomes such as fitness and glucose tolerance, altered hormonal status, and altered fertility. These changes with slimming may also be moderated by a number of influences including genotype, degree of obesity at the onset of slimming, rate and duration of weight loss, composition of the slimming diet, use or non-use of exercise in the slimming regime and the influence of drugs if these are used.

Since many of the physiological adjustments are dependent on changes in body composition, we will first examine that before considering the adaptations themselves.

Counteracting body composition changes. Exercise is usually promoted as a means of reducing FFM losses to a minimum. Prentice and his colleagues cite eleven studies which were carried out to 1991, nine of which show exercise to be effective in reducing muscle loss. There have been many more since. However, it is likely that the more restrictive the dietary regimen, the less likely FFM losses will be reduced by exercise.

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Fat cells exist in all parts of the body with four exceptions: the eyelids, parts of the oesophagus, the brain and the penis. The main location of concern to the weight watcher is subcutaneous fat, which is stored below the lower surface (dermis) of the skin. This gives skin its ’rounded’ or cushioned feeling when pinched.

On some parts of the body subcutaneous fat is thicker, and fat cells more numerous, than on others. The abdomen, as we’ve seen, is a site of greater adipocyte size and numbers in men; the buttocks and gluteal region more so in women. Women also tend to store more fat around the triceps than men, and this area is harder to pinch using traditional skin fold measures, in some women. The female breasts are almost entirely composed of fat and connective tissue, the former serving as an extra energy reserve during pregnancy and lactation. The extra energy requirements of breast-feeding have been estimated at between 300—400 kcal per day.

Harvard University’s Dr Rose Frisch, who is an expert in female body composition and fat stores, claims that subcutaneous fat stores in the hips and buttocks, as well as the breasts, also help to augment food supplies during pregnancy. Says Frisch: The main function of the 16kg of stored female fat, which is equivalent to 600MJ [about 140 000 kcal], may be to provide energy for pregnancy and for about 3 months lactation’. Intra-abdominal fat stores on the other hand may be less functional and may interfere with liver function leading to different disease risks.

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Use only small, fresh, hard cucumbers. Place them in cold water overnight, then dry them well.

Place cucumbers in a wooden barrel, or a large earthenware or glass jar. Place a few leaves of black currants, cherries, mustard seed and dill branches in with the cucumbers.

Boil up a sufficient amount of salt water, using about four ounces of sea salt for five quarts of water. Let water cool down, then pour it over cucumbers. Cover with linen canvas, place a wooden board over it, and on the top a clean heavy stone. There should be enough salt water to cover the board. Keep container in a warm place for about one week, then move to a cooler place. Pickles are ready for eating in about three to four weeks. Every second week or so remove the stone and die covers and wash them well first in warm then in cold water, then replace them. Keep the top of the water clean from foam and mildew. When pickles are ready for eating the] can be placed in glass jars and kept in the refrigerator.

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