Health Blog

Like B6 and folate, vitamin B12 protects the bones against the effects of homocysteine. Levels in your body generally decrease with age, so as you get older you should pay more attention to this nutrient.
what (else) is it good for? Forming red blood cells; protecting nerve fibers; forming DNA; cell division.
foods rich in vitamin B12: Beef, liver (especially beef liver and liverwurst), fish (especially flounder, herring, mackerel, and sardines), seafood (especially clams), blue and Swiss cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, eggs, tempeh, miso, soy sauce, and nutritional yeast.
recommended daily dose: 1,000 meg (1 mg). Since in food it comes mainly from animal sources, strict vegetarians should take nutritional yeast. Absorbing vitamin Bi2 requires a special protein, which some people don’t produce. (Consult with your doctor if you are experiencing signs of fatigue, tired or weak muscles, loss of concentration, and tingling of the feet.) In those cases, you may need periodic Bi2 injections, or a supplement that dissolves in the mouth, where absorption is easier than in the stomach.
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Mouth reactions usually start within a few days of treatment. You can minimise the problem by taking steps to protect the lining of your mouth from infection or any other irritation. If you are having drugs that are likely to cause mouth ulcers (or actually have caused them on previous treatments) ask your doctor for supplies of antiseptic mouth wash and anti-thrush medication beforehand. Use each of these about four times a day from when your mouth first starts to feel sore until it feels quite normal again. Avoid very hot foods or drinks and keep any dentures out of your mouth as much as possible.
The anti-thrush medication is important because thrush is the most common type of infection in this situation. You may have seen it in babies’ mouths. It forms white patches which look a bit like dabs of paint. If a patch is gently scraped off, a raw surface is left. A commonly affected site is under a dental plate. The anti-thrush medications come in syrup or lozenge form. If you are using the syrup make sure you swish it thoroughly around your mouth and keep it there for at least two minutes before swallowing it. It is important to swallow these medications because the thrush can spread down into the throat. Symptoms of this can include soreness and difficulty swallowing.
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Breastfeeding and Birth Control
“Can I breastfeed my baby?”
Yes. While all of the anticonvulsants are found in breast milk, they are usually in such low concentrations that they do not affect the baby. However, if you are taking phenobarbital or phenytoin and the baby becomes too sleepy, then the baby’s blood level should be checked. If the level is too high, breastfeeding might be stopped for a few days.
“What about birth control?”
Anticonvulsants increase the metabolism of birth control steroids and make them less effective. Therefore, if you are using birth control pills, particularly the “mini-pill,” and are taking anticonvulsants, you might have a higher chance of becoming pregnant. You should discuss this with your physician.
“Will My Child Be Normal?”
“Since I have seizures, are there any risks of my child developing epilepsy?”
Yes, there is a small risk of your children developing epilepsy. The risk of epilepsy in the child whose mother or father has epilepsy is about twice as great as when neither of the parents has epilepsy but still relatively small. The risk of anybody’s child having epilepsy is i to z percent. Because you have epilepsy, your child has a 3 to 4 percent chance of having epilepsy.
“If I have a child will he or she be normal?”
No one can give you a warranty on your child. Some abnormalities are not detectable even by our most sophisticated prenatal and intrauterine screening. Some major problems are acquired at birth or are a consequence of later infection or trauma. Some genetic diseases cause epilepsy. Some risks are associated with anticonvulsants. There are some risks if you have previously had epilepsy.
If you are unwilling to take any risk, then you should probably not have a child. If you are willing to take a small risk, then you, as well as most people with epilepsy, can have healthy and normal children.
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Barbara was thirty-one and desperately wanted to have a child. She had recently been placed on phenytoin because of a single seizure. She had a dilemma. Should she get pregnant with the risks of medication to the fetus or should she stop the medication with the risks of a seizure to herself and the fetus? Although she realized that the risks of phenytoin (Dilantin) to her baby were small, she could not accept the guilt of potentially causing a problem. She was also fearful of having a seizure while she was pregnant and of possibly injuring the baby. She was much less concerned about the potential effects of a seizure on her own active life.
We suggested a way out of her dilemma. Since she had only had a single seizure, the chances of her having another seizure were approximately 30 percent. If her medication was slowly discontinued, she could wait three to six months and see if another seizure occurred. After that time the risk of recurrence would be even smaller and she could become pregnant with greater security. If she had another seizure, then she would know that she needed an anticonvulsant medication and might try one with less potential risk to the fetus.
If you become pregnant while you are on anticonvulsants, you should be reassured that at least 80 to 90 percent of the babies will be normal. Pregnancy is not a good time to stop taking the medication or to switch to another drug, unless it is necessary for your seizure control.
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Willow relates to the soul quality of accountability for one’s actions.
In positive Willow state the person takes full responsibility for his actions. He does not try to find a scapegoat, if anything goes amiss. He would rather proclaim himself a “master” of his fate than a “victim” of his fate. He goes along doing his job having confidence in the existence of inter relation between one’s inner thoughts and the external events—Good thoughts attract helpful allies and negative thoughts attract negative events. Dr. Edward Bach wrote “One trace of condemnation against ourselves and others is a trace of condemnation against the Universal Creation of Love to flow through us to others”.
However in the negative WILLOW state the person faces life with bitterness and resentment for one and all. He always blames somebody else for all his misfortunes and bad spots in life. If he cannot find any person on which the fault could be thrust, he would blame luck or even God for his ills.
If, however, another person comes to grief, the willow person is the first to pronounce that the other person was himself to blame for the happening. He does not sympathise with a fellow being in his misfortunes but feels an inward happiness.
If his colleague gets a promotion, he feels dejected. If the neighbours child stands first in his class and is rewarded, he feels sour. He cannot tolerate the sight of other neighbours trouping in to congratulate the child or his parents.
If somebody does some favour to the Willow type, he does not thank him. He receives that favour as a right: He is so ungrateful. He always wants.to get and never wants to give anything In return – not even a word of approbation or even a simple Thank you”. He feels that whatever he has got and whatever he gets now from any quarter is much less than what he deserves. So where is the question of thanking. For any progress in life, self -appraisal is necessary. In negative Willow state, there is no self appraisal, no introspection to locate the cause of failure, but only one effort to put the blame for failure on anybody else’s shoulders.
He feels his value is not appreciated. His fortune eludes him and inferior people get appreciation. As a patient. He blames the doctor for his slow recovery, and attributes all his failures and sufferings to the faults of others.
He does not like anything. He has aversion to food, aversion to his wife and aversion to his family members. When natural love turns into hatred, WILLOW relieves. He is always complaining, always dissatisfied, never smiles, is never happy and has nothing but contempt for others.
The intensely selfish attitude of the Willow type person alienates all the people who initially felt friendly and helpful to him and he is left isolated and alone within the confines of an invisible wall of negativity. The negativism of the Willow type person does not harm only himself. It affects almost every body who comes in contact with him. It vitiates the very atmosphere in which he moves. He disseminates nothing but sadness, bitterness and ungratefulness about him.
Nobody takes his criticism seriously, because it is his habit to criticise. His children do not care for his reprimands, because they have grown used to it. Moreso because they have had never a word of approbation from him. Unconsciously he inhibits the proper development of his children by his ever nagging temperament.
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Once a person consults a physician about a positive HIV blood test, the results of that test become part of the person’s medical record. Simply excluding the results of HIV blood tests from a medical record is not possible: the results are too important a part of the medical record. But these results, if made public, may conceivably affect a person’s job, housing, insurance status, personal relationships, and social standing. The obvious questions are, Who has access to this information? And how is it guarded? The answers to these questions differ for different institutions, different states, and sometimes even for different physicians.
In general, medical records can be reviewed by certain medical personnel. Various authorities also have the legal right to review medical records: third party payers (such as insurance companies), professional review groups, and the like. Although this sounds alarming to someone worried about breach of confidentiality, the actual number of cases in which confidentiality has been breached is nil. The reason is that the people who have access to medical records are well aware that they have ethical as well as legal responsibilities to prevent unnecessary or
unwarranted disclosure.
Similar rules apply to health departments that maintain such information. All people with AIDS are reported to health authorities by law. Some states require reporting everyone with a positive blood test. To our knowledge, reporting to state or federal health authorities has never once been the source of inappropriate disclosure of the information.
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Most people are concerned whether the results of an HIV test are confidential. Tests can be done either anonymously or confidentially. In anonymous testing, the person tested cannot be identified in any way. In confidential testing, the person tested can be identified, but the identification is considered confidential medical information.
Anonymous or Confidential Testing-Anonymous testing means there is no possibility of connecting a result, positive or negative, with an individual person by name, address, social security number, or hospital number, or by any other means. The name of the person being tested is never taken. The person is simply given a number, and the results are provided for this specific number without being linked to the person in any way that permits identification. Anonymous testing essentially guarantees that only the person tested will know the results. There are two drawbacks: First, in many areas, anonymous testing is not available. Second, important medical decisions cannot be made on the basis of anonymous tests, so tests must often be repeated in order to get necessary documentation.
Confidential testing uses a name, social security number, or other mechanism to identify a specific individual. The results of virtually all laboratory tests done in medicine are confidential, although many health care facilities have special provisions for HIV blood tests because of the sensitivity of the results. Test results called confidential are considered privileged medical information that is an important part of the medical record; such results are available to nonmedical people only by subpoena.
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Like B6 and folate, vitamin B12 protects the bones against the effects of homocysteine. Levels in your body generally decrease with age, so as you get older you should pay more attention to this nutrient.
what (else) is it good for? Forming red blood cells; protecting nerve fibers; forming DNA; cell division.
foods rich in vitamin B12: Beef, liver (especially beef liver and liverwurst), fish (especially flounder, herring, mackerel, and sardines), seafood (especially clams), blue and Swiss cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, eggs, tempeh, miso, soy sauce, and nutritional yeast.
recommended daily dose: 1,000 meg (1 mg). Since in food it comes mainly from animal sources, strict vegetarians should take nutritional yeast. Absorbing vitamin Bi2 requires a special protein, which some people don’t produce. (Consult with your doctor if you are experiencing signs of fatigue, tired or weak muscles, loss of concentration, and tingling of the feet.) In those cases, you may need periodic Bi2 injections, or a supplement that dissolves in the mouth, where absorption is easier than in the stomach.
*89\228\2*