Every baby is different.

One thing that is easy to forget is how tiny even the healthiest, heftiest baby really is. A newborn usually is only 45 to 55 centimeters long, stretched out. And very young babies often keep their legs in the pre-birth, folded-up position for several months, which makes the baby seem even smaller. The baby was in that position for many months before birth, and it takes a while to get used to an uncramped environment.

Remember that at birth the baby has left a warm, dark, still, safe environment, been pushed through a narrow birth canal, and been suddenly thrust into light, noise, and a new degree of independence. It’s a difficult adjustment to make, even more difficult than the adjustment you must make as new parents.

There are some other things about a new baby’s appearance that may worry you if you’re not prepared. It is perfectly normal for a newborn baby to be:

• born with a bluish tinge to the skin, which soon turns to pinkish-red;

• born with a slightly lopsided head;

• born with soft spots, called “fontanelles,” above the forehead and at the top of the head.

It is also quite common for a new baby to have jaundice, which gives a yellowish color to the skin and the whites of the eyes. Also, at birth the baby still has a lot of growing and developing to do. Many bones are still unformed; they are made of tough, elastic tissue called cartilage that will gradually harden into bone. The legs are often bowed, and shorter than you’d expect when you compare them to the arms. The head may seem too big for the body. The baby’s face may seem abnormally plump in the cheeks and flat in the nose. The eyes will not move together well and may seem to be crossed. The genitals, especially on a baby boy, may seem abnormally large.

In a few months, the baby will begin to look more like an individual. Movements of limbs, eyes, and neck will become more controlled as muscles develop, and the face will become more alert and expressive.

*1/84/5*

I have heard that common childhood infections can be more dangerous for children with diabetes. Is this so?

No. It is probable that your child will have the usual childhood infections, and that he will become sick in the same way as other children. The main problem that you may encounter is the need to adjust the insulin dose during infection; usually a child’s insulin requirement increases when he is sick. Your doctor will tell you how to do this, and you will be guided by the blood glucose and urine ketones. Be sure to adjust the insulin dose back towards its previous level as soon as the illness is over and the blood tests are normal.

Also during an illness it is likely your child may lose his appetite. It will then be necessary to replace his ordinary meals with emergency fluids and other replacements for the carbohydrate part of his diet. You should consult the dietary section for details.

I want my child to have as good an education as possible, but he wants to leave school early and start earning. Should the fact that he has diabetes influence his decision?

It is always hard to generalize on such an important subject as a career or life occupation for a child. However we should realize that in the long run training and skills gained from education can lead to more interesting and better paid jobs with greater security. A child who is tempted to leave school because he is impatient to be earning may find he is worse off as an adult because of lack of education for advancement and promotion. Having diabetes may make the problem more difficult as he may require time off for illnesses as he gets older; security in one’s occupation is important for a person with diabetes in later life. Certainly skills may be learnt on the job and leaving school to become apprenticed may well be the correct decision for your child. Having diabetes should not affect this.

At all events it is wise to discuss the very important business of employment very fully with your child and perhaps discuss it with his schoolteacher and with his doctor. Sometimes it is helpful to have an interview with a vocational guidance officer who will assess both your child’s abilities and his inclinations. He can then make recommendations and suggestions about the type of work for which he is most likely to be suited, and the best way to become trained for it.

*85/54/5*

Let’s all admit it: Cancer’s scary. It’s the very symbol of death by disease. It has had its way for most of the century.

But times have changed, and so should our attitudes-in this case, from cowering fatalism to bold confrontation. “You don’t have to be cancer’s victim,” says Dr. John Wurzelmann of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. “And you don’t need to be afraid to think about it. There really is a lot of reason to be optimistic.”

To be sure, cancer is still a scourge, still the number two cause of death in the United States. Three of the four most common and fatal cancers (colorectal, prostate, and lung) affect men most often. What’s more, almost all cancers attack and kill men at higher rates than women.

But here’s the rest of the picture. People are surviving almost all kinds of cancer more than they ever did before. Early-detection techniques are better, so more cancerous tissue is being removed before it spreads. Treatment options have expanded.

It’s not just the doctors who got smarter. The rest of us are learning that there are a whole lot of things we can do-or stop doing to keep cancer away in the first place. We’re taking control. As a team of Harvard-affiliated researchers put it in the Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention, “Cancer is indeed a preventable illness.”

*1/36/5*

Medical science has come a long way. Epileptics are no longer possessed by the devil, the insane are not incarcerated for life in neglected prisons, and epidemics are not popularly believed to be a punishment sent from God. Despite this, ailments which have tormented mankind for centuries continue to do so. The influenza virus so clearly isolated and characterized is still capable of inflicting its misery, leaving us virtually powerless to curb its debilitating effects. Comfort can at least be found in the compassion of fellow sufferers.

The community has come to accept our vulnerability to the influenza virus which invariably leads to sympathy from family, friends and employers. The chronic snorer has few sympathizers. He is mostly regarded as a threat to the nocturnal harmony of the home, but more widely regarded as an object of hilarity. Cartoons and situation comedies have long used the spectacle of the noisy snorer, apparently sleeping soundly, quite oblivious to the disruption caused to those in his immediate vicinity.

Below the thin comic veneer of the stereotypic snorer lies a range of sociological and physiological problems. Snoring is the source of acute social embarrassment and marital disharmony. The heavy snorer may also experience personality changes, daytime drowsiness, loss of memory and cardiac complications.

At what point does snoring become a problem and when is intervention indicated? Snorers are often referred to a local doctor by spouses who are frustrated by the interruption to their own sleep. The doctor has to make an assessment based upon the story of both partners. If, for example, the husband is the snorer, his wife is probably the better judge of its severity and of accompanying symptoms such as frequent choking sounds or excessively long periods of time between respiratory efforts. These symptoms in conjunction with a physical examination will help the physician decide on appropriate intervention and whether further tests are indicated. A small proportion of snorers have complications, which may be life threatening, but the majority do not require medical intervention. They nevertheless require in many instances professional counseling, reassurance and a guide to some of the simple techniques available to minimize snoring.

*1/51/5*

The breast is a gland – the mammary gland – which is made up of 15 to 20 lobules of glandular tissue, separated by lines of fibrous material. It is embedded in fat, which gives it its smooth surface and most of its bulk.

The function of the breasts in all mammals is to produce milk for the developing young. Milk production occurs in the lobules, and the milk passes via lactiferous ducts to the nipple. Around each nipple is a pigmented area called the areola, which is lubricated by oily secretions from sebaceous glands in the skin.

Blood is taken to and from the breast through a rich supply of arteries and veins. There is also a system of lymph vessels which drain lymph from the breast. Lymph is a clear fluid which surrounds the cells of the body tissues and contains a large number of disease-fighting cells called lymphocytes. The lymph drains from the surface to deep within the breast, and from there to lymph nodes in the armpit (axilla) and in the chest wall adjacent to the breastbone or the collar bone.

The lymphatic drainage of the breast is particularly important in malignant disease as cancer cells are able to spread via the lymph vessels to other areas of the body, particularly to the axillary lymph nodes of the armpit. However, swollen lymph nodes can also develop in benign conditions, and their presence is therefore not necessarily a sign of cancer.

As a fetus develops in the womb, part of its chest wall turns inwards to form a series of branching ducts. Just before birth, the ducts turn out again, forming the nipple. In girls, at puberty, many small sac-like alveoli sprout from the ends of the ducts and fat is laid down around them. The glandular alveoli develop further during pregnancy and secrete droplets of milk in lactation.

As women get older, the gland tissue in their breasts is gradually replaced by fat, which is why the breasts become softer and tend to droop with age. Eventually most of the ducts and lobules disappear.

Tender nodules may appear as the breasts begin to develop at puberty, and this tenderness may remain for months or even years. But once the breasts have developed, any pain or lump that forms needs to be investigated. It is possible that the early detection and removal of a cancerous breast lump may give a better chance of cure and survival than does treatment of one which has begun to spread to other parts of the body.

*1/39/5*

Concepts of preventive medicine as we think of it today started with the Greeks, although undoubtedly there were simple forms of prevention being practiced worldwide before this. In Ancient China the Yellow Emperor spoke about wholism and preventive medicine:

Sages here do not treat those who are already ill; they rather instruct those who are not yet ill. . . The superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. The inferior physician begins to help when the disease has already developed. He helps when the destruction has already set in.

Two thousand years later Huai-nan Tzu wrote:

The good doctor pays constant attention to keeping people well so that there will be no sickness.

Such concepts were adopted by the Greeks-the first western culture to take prevention seriously. From the very beginnings of Greek medicine efforts to preserve health seemed more important than those to cure diseases. Health, they maintained, was a state in which the various elements and forces of the body were in balance. Disease in this way of thinking was a disorder of this equilibrium. It seemed fairly clear that external (environmental) factors were important in causing a poor balance and the Greeks talked a lot about poor nutrition and physical factors. To the Greek the ideal life was one in which nutrition, exercise and rest were properly balanced. Other important factors were the person’s age, sex, type of constitution and the seasons.

This ecological approach to medicine, which seems so modern today, led the Ancient Greeks to strive to balance their diet, exercise and environmental factors to keep the mind and body in good health. Unfortunately, because this meant a change in lifestyle, few could actually afford to go along with such elegant theories and as a result it was only the middle and upper classes who had the incentives, money and leisure to pursue these goals. Even though few Greeks actually lived like this the concepts continued to influence medical thought for centuries.

In the Middle Ages people began to realize that there was another major dimension to health which had to be taken into account in addition to the Greek notions. This realization came about with the appearance of leprosy as a serious health hazard in Europe. The primary need to do something about leprosy led the society of the day to band together to isolate people with the disease and to clean up the environment, not just for the benefit of individuals but for that of society as a whole. Preventive public health could be said to have been born at this time.

The Church led the way with its insistence that spiritual and physical uncleanliness were linked. The Old Testament, and especially the book of Leviticus, puts great stress on processes such as menstruation and urethral discharges as being unclean and holds that people with such afflictions should be isolated from the rest of society until they have been purified. So leprosy was treated by the Church in a very literal Old Testament way and sufferers were isolated from the community to protect the healthy. Because this disease was untreatable the individuals became socially dead as they were cast out from life.

*1/72/5*

Olive oil: (Olea europea) the oil comes from the fully ripe fruit, green in colour. Contains protein minerals and vitamins, and can be used in 10% dilution with other oils for massage blends. Olive oil is used for treatment of wounds, burns, arthritis, pain, rheumatic conditions, protects against the cold, skin problems, relaxing to muscles and nerves and can be used in cosmetic preparations.

Rosehip seed oil: ( Rosa rubiginosa) it is extracted from the seeds of a rose bush. It is high in linoleic and linolenic fatty acids which is believed to assist in the regeneration and repair of the skin tissues. The oil is extremely beneficial for bums, facial wrinkles, crows feet around the mouth and eyes, and treatment of scars.

Sesame seed: (Sesamum indicum) the oil is extacted from raw seeds, it is dark yellow in colour. Contains vitamin E, B complex, minerals, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. The oil is used as a moisturiser and is suitable for all skin types. It us used in treatments for eczema, psoriasis, rheumatism and arthritis.

Soya bean: (Glycine max) the oil is extracted from the egg shaped beans, and is a pale yellow colour. It is the second best natural source of vitamin-E, rich in lecithin and proteins, vitamins and minerals. Sunflower oil: (Glycine max) it is extracted from the seed, pale yellow in colour. Contains vitamin A, D, B-complex and E, and rich in minerals such as calcium, zinc, potassium, iron and phosphorus. Suitable for all skin types and used in massage oils.

*198\81\8*

Over the course of a year, I’ll see 5,000 or more patients who come to me for treatment. Of all the symptoms my patients tell me they have, malaise, or a general sense that they’re not feeling as well as they could, is one of the most common complaints I hear. Unfortunately, whenever a patient tells me she is feeling weak and unwell, it opens the door to the possibility of every single medical problem on earth. This can be frustrating and overwhelming to the physician as well as to the patient, so if she simply says she doesn’t feel quite right, I ask her to be as specific with her complaints as she can. It’s important to keep in mind that age and activity levels have a lot to do with how people define malaise. For instance, the malaise of a 20-year-old athlete who cannot run 10 miles every day because of an injury is much different from the 50-year-old executive who can’t seem to find the energy to go to work or the 65-year-old grandmother who just feels too tired to do chores around the house.

If you have been feeling weak and out of sorts lately, answering the following questions will help your physician zero in on the possible causes:

1. How long have I been feeling unwell? A week, a month, or longer?

2. Has there been a change in my appetite or thirst? In my urination or bowel habits?

3. Have I gained or lost a significant amount of weight in the last few weeks or months?

4. For women, if I am still menstruating, has my cycle or flow, or both, changed recently?

5. Have I recently had a fever, night sweats, or a physical intolerance to hot or cold temperatures?

6. Have I recently traveled abroad or to a different region of the country?

7. Do I have a symptom such as a rash, arthritic pain, or swollen glands?

8. Do I think I might have been bitten by a tick recently?

9. Have I been undergoing problems in my personal life lately?

10. Do I have a past history of a serious illness that was cured or went into remission? Have I begun to take a new form of medication recently?

11. Has my urine darkened in color recently?

12. Do I have a history of blood transfusion, sharing a hypodermic needle, drug abuse, or even one unsafe sexual encounter?

13. Do I feel a general ache in my bones?

*566\167\8*

A complete medical history and physical exam as well as a series of specific diagnostic tests will help your doctor determine the necessary treatment for your unexplained weight gain.

As with any medical treatment, the risks must be weighed against the benefits when you and your doctor decide about your specific treatment. If your doctor has prescribed steroids to treat another medical condition, you should realize that the short-term use of steroids for a week or even up to a month has not been found to cause any permanent weight or health problems. You’ll lose the extra pounds once you stop taking the steroids.

Water pills, or diuretics, can help reduce a weight gain of a few pounds that comes before menstruation and is caused by water retention—if they’re used judiciously. However, they do not help reduce the body’s stores of fat and are dangerous to use on a reduced-calorie diet since they can cause potassium depletion and dehydration.

Since most cases of weight gain are caused by eating too much and/or moving too little, what I’m going to say next is going to sound boring, but I’m going to say it anyway. If your weight gain is the direct result of too many calories and not enough exercise, you’re going to have to change your lifestyle if you want to lose weight. A sensible weight-reduction plan should include a low-fat, low-calorie diet and regular physical exercise. Your doctor is the best person to advise you about the best course of action for you.

*570\167\8*

In an elderly person, weight loss can have certain causes a doctor would never consider to be a problem in a younger person. For one, your elderly aunt may not be able to obtain nutritious food because she’s unable to make it out of the house to go shopping and there’s no one else around to do it for her. Poorly fitting dentures can make it uncomfortable for her to eat, or she may be experiencing increasing senility due to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, or an underlying infection and has lost her appetite.

As with younger people, I consider weight loss in an elderly person to be serious if she loses more than 10% of her body weight over the course of a month or two. If this happens, I’ll order a blood test to determine if there is evidence of malnutrition. Lower serum protein levels, albumin levels, and lymphocyte counts ate all signs that the immune system is beginning to deteriorate, making an elderly person more prone to infections, bedsores, falls, and other health problems. These can depress the appetite even mote.

The treatment for your elderly relative will depend on the cause. Using Meals on Wheels, taking food supplements, and getting new dentures, as well as possibly going into a nursing home are some of the steps that might be considered by the doctor and the patient’s family.

*574\167\8*

« Older Posts — Newer Posts »

Related Posts:

• VITAMINS FOR HANDS AND FEET
• SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR MARRIED PEOPLE
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: INTUSSUSCEPTION
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: INGUINAL HERNIA
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: HAEMORRHOIDS (PILES), HICCUPS AND
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH CARE/BOWEL DISORDERS: GLARDIA
• CHILDCARE: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TOILET TRAINING
• AIDS – HOMOSEXUALITY
• EXERCISE – GOOD POINTS
• CAESAREAN SECTION – NEW FORM OF ANAESTHETIC