Posted: under General health.
Tags: General health
It takes only one bite from an infected mosquito to acquire the disease, so travellers to countries where malaria occurs should take adequate precautions.
It is wise to have mosquito netting on the doors and windows of houses and hotels, netting over the bed and to use insect repellent on exposed skin.
Most of these need to be replenished every two to three hours. Long sleeves and trousers should be worn and it is also advisable to stay indoors at night as the mosquito bites only at night.
There are several drugs which can be taken regularly while in the malarious area and these should prevent the disease in most cases.
Chloroquine is the most widely used drug for the prophylaxis of malaria. Two tablets are taken on one day each week and this is continued all the time in the malarious area and for four weeks on leaving the area.
Unfortunately, the falciparum strain of Plasmodium has developed resistance to chloroquine in some countries. This has happened in some parts of Africa, and in most parts of the Pacific and Papua New Guinea and other drugs for prevention may now be required.
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May 15 2009
Posted: under General health.
Tags: General health
To use an analogy, it is like a machinegun firing across a lot of trenches at soldiers who keep bobbing up to shoot. Those who raise their heads frequently are more likely to get hit than those who only bob up occasionally.
Cancer cells which are dividing rapidly are therefore more likely to be damaged by these drugs than the normal body cells which divide much less frequently. Nevertheless the drugs do damage normal body tissues. To further the analogy, the few remaining cells which haven’t been killed by the machinegunning effect of the drugs may later be picked off by the sniper type effect of the body’s own defence mechanisms.
Immunotherapy may also be employed in the treatment of cancer. This involves improving the body’s own immune system of defence so as to attack the foreign cancer cells.
The idea of meditation in improving the treatment of cancer lies in the theory that this improves the body’s immune response.
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May 15 2009