Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Eye infections in babies and children occur commonly, and are very contagious, but they usually respond rapidly to the appropriate treatment.

Cause

The conjunctiva, or lining over the eyeball and inside the eyelids, can easily become infected by a germ (bacterium) or a virus. Infection is more common after initial irritation of the eye due either to an object or chemical that has entered the eye, or to an allergic reaction. Sometimes the child develops conjunctivitis as part of a cold.

Clinical features

Your child’s eye will be red and teary, and will be sore or itchy. Sometimes there will be a greenish, sticky discharge in the eye, which cakes the lids together after sleep. The skin around the eyes may look puffy.

Treatment

Keep the eye clean by washing it gently several times a day with cotton wool soaked in tepid water. See your doctor for the appropriate treatment. If an infection due to a germ is suspected, your doctor may suggest doing an eye swab (see p. 48) in for several days. You may need help in administering these — your doctor or nurse may be able to give you some helpful suggestions.

Conjunctivitis is very contagious, so always wash your hands after touching your child’s eyes, and provide a separate towel for his use only. Wash his hands frequently too, and discourage him from rubbing his eyes. Keep him at home until the infection has cleared up completely.

When to see your doctor

It is wise to consult your doctor whenever you suspect that your child has an eye infection. You should definitely see your doctor if

• the infection does not clear up after 3-4 days, despite treatment;

• your child is also generally unwell.

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Comments (0) May 21 2009

    I dated this girl for a long time, man. She was a fox and everything.

A real fox. But she didn’t get it on or like that. I did all the stuff,

and she was like nothing’, man. She said I didn’t know how to do

it. I felt like a jerk.

FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY

There is one magical way to turn a girl on. Only one person in the whole world knows this magical way. I’ll let you in on the secret. The person who knows is the person herself. There isn’t any one way that is the right way. Everyone is different. Getting turned on is something two people do together. Boys don’t turn girls on and girl don’t turn boys on. Even though the books and some of the guys or girls might brag that there are certain ways to do it, they are just plain wrong. Remember, anybody except your parents or the boy or girl you love who is telling you about what they do in sex is either lying, bragging, or covering up their own ignorance. Talk to your parents. They have proven they know at least a little bit of what they are doing, because you are sitting here talking very maturely about sex. They must have done something right.

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Comments (0) May 18 2009

We don’t have sex very often. You have to be rested when you have sex, and I can’t remember the last time we were rested. By the time we have time, there won’t be much more time. We’ll be too old for sex. We have sex on vacations. That’s the only time we have time or energy.

HUSBAND

Most couples have sex at night, after the house is straightened up, the cat let in, the kids asleep, and everything else is out of the way. Neurohormonally, the best time for sexual interaction is sometime in the late-morning hours when the sex hormones are at their peak. Of course, there is much more to sex than the hormones, but we are more rested and energized in the morning hours.

The argument for having sex at night is difficult to accept. Turning in for a night’s sleep is hardly the time when we are the most rested anyway. Sometimes sex can be energizing, something to share when you are tired, and this would be a good reason to have sex in the morning. Many people have fallen into a pattern of sleeping after sex, resulting in a conditioning process of kiss, hold, have intercourse, go to sleep. After a time, sex means sleep. Wouldn’t it be nice if awakening meant sexuality rather than the obligation to go to work? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could replace the alarm clock with a sexual clock signaling us to intimacy-rather than calling us to the day’s starting line?

One man in the clinic stated, “I never like to have sex in the morning. It gets me tired, and anyway, you never know who else you might meet during the day.” Although he laughed as he shared this idea, it was apparent that he felt sex was de-energizing, a discharge of energy, and he did not want to waste his vital fluids. He also assumed that new or different partners demand more energy than familiar partners. If we view sexual interaction as dependent upon some predetermined amount of available sex energy, our intimacy is determined by a sense of strength and weakness rather than awareness and responsiveness.

The couples who visited the Masters and Johnson Clinic in St. Louis reported an invigoration of their sex life. They stayed in a hotel room, were not working or parenting, and made love at various times of the day. They communicated about sex almost continually. It became, at least for two weeks, a major part of their life-style. I have found that just changing “when” couples relate sexually has major impact on their IQ, their Intimacy Quotient. One wife reported, “I don’t know what it would be like to make love when the sun is out.” Sex may have come out of the dark ages, but still has a long way to go before it comes out of dark bedrooms.

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Comments (0) May 18 2009

Colonic or even a simple enema can relieve your body instantly from many kilograms of toxic waste. Below I describe a simple technique for performing a natural enema.

1. Prepare the equipment for performing the enema. The best units available are types used in hospitals, with a large capacity (2-3 litres) gravity tank, flexible hose and a nozzle to be inserted in the anus. Consult a friendly nurse if in doubt. Other units (enema syringe, see Fig. 1 below) have a simple hand pump which is used to pump water from any container into the flexible hose with a nozzle at the end.

2. Prepare about 5 to 6 litres of water. Use lukewarm (body temperature) water (preferably pure or filtered) for performing the enema. Avoid unspecified chemicals, chlorine, detergents or soap etc. in the solution. If available, add a few drops (3-5) of 3% hydrogen peroxide for every litre of water, (equivalent to 1 drop of 30% of hydrogen peroxide per 2 litres of water). Be very careful not to exceed the specified concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Similar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide occur naturally in the rain water high in the mountains and in some springs (Lourdes, France). Hydrogen peroxide inside your bowel breaks down into pure water and pure oxygen. Extra oxygen is then used to oxidise toxins directly and serves as a safe antiseptic. Some of the free oxygen enters the bloodstream right in the bowel, assisting greatly the surrounding cells in excreting toxins. Never use any chemicals, soap or detergents in the water for enema. The reason is simple: anything you put in will be immediately absorbed into your bloodstream. For example, if you make enema with a wine, you will immediately become drunk. Adding chemicals, soap or detergents to your enema water makes all procedure useless from the point of view of the detoxification: you just add more toxins.

3. Insert the nozzle into your anus and let the water flow in (or pump it in). Try to allow as much water as you can, without causing any excessive discomfort or pain. If you feel pain, stop the flow of water immediately.

4. Try to hold the water inside your bowels for at least a few seconds. It would be best if you could do few steps, jumps and perhaps a few sit-ups whilst still holding the water inside you. But do not force yourself. Do whatever comes easy.

5. Sit on the toilet and let go of the water slowly. Do not try to accelerate the flow of whatever comes out by excessive pressure. You may cause yourself unnecessary discomfort. Do not rush. Let the body take its time to perform the cleansing. To assist your intestines in the transportation and excretion of waste, you can gently massage your stomach with your hands. Wait until all activity in the bowel stops, and you do not feel any reason to sit on the toilet. Clean yourself with a tissue.

6. Repeat the sequence of steps 3-5 two or three times, until clean water comes out from your bowel. Congratulations. You have just relieved your body from the extra burden: a few kilograms of toxic waste. You should find, that you have used most of the water.

The above procedure takes approximately one hour.

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Comments (0) May 18 2009

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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Comments (0) May 15 2009

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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Comments (0) May 15 2009

Symptom

Yellowing of skin and whites of eyes.

Home care

Home treatment cannot be undertaken until an accurate diagnosis has been made.

Precaution

Jaundice caused by a drug will disappear when the child is taken off the particular medication. All other types of jaundice in children are potentially serious and require prompt medical attention.

Jaundice is a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes due to the accumulation in the body of a substance called bilirubin, which is released when old red blood cells are replaced by new ones. Bilirubin is excreted by the liver into the intestine as bile. Jaundice develops when the red blood cells are rapidly destroyed (as in sickle cell and other forms of anaemia); when the liver cannot transform bilirubin into bile; or when bile cannot flow through the bile ducts into the intestine, for example, if the bile duct is blocked by stones, cysts, or a malformation.

Jaundice rarely occurs as a complication of a generalized infection, but it may be caused by some drugs and poisons. The usual cause of jaundice in children over one month of age is hepatitis, which damages the liver cells and interferes with the formation of bile.

Signs and symptoms

The yellow-gold-orange color of the skin and whites of the eyes suggests jaundice. When a child has jaundice, all of the body fluids are stained; the tears are yellow, and the urine is dark orange. However, the diagnosis can be exceedingly complex and depends upon laboratory tests.

Home care

Only after a clear diagnosis has been made can anything be done in the home.

Precaution

Jaundice caused by a certain medication will disappear when the child is taken off the medication. Other causes of jaundice in children are potentially serious and hard to diagnose. They all require a doctor’s attention.

Medical treatment

A child suspected of having jaundice will require laboratory tests to define the reason for the jaundice. Hospitalization is sometimes required.

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Comments (0) Apr 28 2009

•     After the age of 30 or so regular brushing of the teeth becomes more valuable in terms of what it can do to promote healthy gums than in the battle against tooth decay. Brush your teeth at least once a day with fluoride toothpaste, ensuring that you have a good-quality nylon brush. Always brush from gum to tooth and never scrub across the teeth. Work systematically around your mouth so that no area is missed. Don’t forget the inside surfaces of the teeth.

Now return to where you started and, using small circular motions with the brush at the junction of tooth and gum, work around your mouth from tooth to tooth ‘massaging’ the gums gently. If you notice that your teeth trap food between them (this is especially likely with meats) see your dentist to have this area looked at. A piece of food caught between two teeth even for a day or two can make your gum very sore and start up an infection.

•      If you do get a sore gum, don’t panic. Simply start the above routine and within days it should be better. In other words, thorough brushing can actually cure early gum disease, provided your technique is good.

•     Take more vitamin Ñ on a regular basis-1 g a day and double this when you have a sore area of gum. Animal research has proved that vitamin Ñ helps reduce the risk of gum disease, and experiments in Yugoslavia have found that the vitamin can reverse the kind of gum breakdown seen in gum disease. When the volunteers were given as little as 75 mg vitamin Ñ daily for six weeks the cells in the gums became observably healthier.

But vitamin Ñ alone may not be enough-calcium too may be vital. Certainly it is true that calcium deficiency can weaken the jawbone into which the teeth are set, but in addition this is now thought to make the bone more liable to infection. After the menopause women especially lose calcium in large amounts and many a woman first notices loose teeth at this time of life. Repeated pregnancies also cause a substantial loss of calcium into the fetuses. These plus slimming diets that involve eating no milk or dairy products can leave a lot of women calcium-deficient.

One US study used folate (the  vitamin) too with great success. After sixty days of gargling with folate-rich water the subjects’ gums were examined. They had soaked up folate ‘like a sponge’ and were much less inflamed than those of a control group who had been gargling with plain water for the same sixty days.

•     There is some evidence that gum problems are linked to emotions. Trench mouth, for example, is a very rampant type of gum disease. Sufferers have higher levels of the natural steroid Cortisol in their urine than normal. One study found that these patients had experienced more negative, unsettling life events in the previous year than had other people. They also demonstrably had higher levels of anxiety, depression and emotional disturbances. Clearly, preventing these life events is one way to combat at least this cause of gum disease.

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Comments (0) Apr 23 2009

Bile acid sequestrants act by bonding with bile in the small intestine, preventing its normal reabsorption. The liver must now use body stores of cholesterol to replace the sequestered bile, which is eliminated in the feces. Over time this process lowers the cholesterol level in the blood, especially the LDL form, by as much as 20 percent. Bile acid sequestrants come in powder form and are mixed with water, juice, or soup.

The most common side effects are gastrointestinal, including constipation, bloating, heartburn, and nausea. A high-fiber diet or psyllium supplement at each meal usually relieves these symptoms.

Cholestyramine (Questran, Cholybar) and colestipol (Colestid) may also decrease the absorption of certain vitamins (A, D, E, K, folic acid), minerals (iron and calcium), and drugs (digoxin, acetaminophen, phenobarbital, thiazide diuretics, thyroxin, warfarin). If needed as supplements, these should be taken two to six hours before a meal where a bile sequestration drug is used.

Because they reduce LDL significantly, the bile acid sequestrants are only prescribed for patients known to have a high LDL cholesterol level, known as Type 2 hyperlipidemia. They are not used in hyper-lipidemias due to elevations of other forms of lipids, such as triglycerides. After six weeks of taking bile acid sequestrants, your cholesterol level will be measured again to see if the drug is working. The target LDL level is less than 130 mg/dl if you have other risk factors in addition to elevated cholesterol or less than 100 mg/dl if you have actually already had a heart attack. If a bile sequestrant hasn’t done the job after three months, another kind of cholesterol-lowering drug can be substituted or added.

Probucol (Lorelco), although not strictly a bile acid sequestrant, has similar results to cholestyramine and colestipol, in that it increases the excretion of cholesterol in the bile. It, too, should only be used in Type 2 hyperlipidemia. It persists for many weeks in fatty tissues, and should be stopped at least six months before a planned pregnancy.

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Comments (0) Apr 02 2009

Now you are a nonsmoker, should you be a nondrinker, too? Here the evidence is not so clear. Many studies have tried to relate alcohol consumption to heart disease, and the results have often been surprising. So surprising, in fact, that the message has spread that regular drinking of moderate amounts of alcohol might actually be good for the heart, and that total abstention can raise your risk of angina and heart attack.

Sadly, I have to disabuse the reader of that opinion. Although the evidence does suggest that heart attack deaths are more common in teetotalers than in drinkers, the difference, if it truly exists, is very small, and is more than made up for by deaths from other causes that are directly caused by alcohol.

In theory, alcohol should help the heart. Alcohol tends to open up arteries—hence the drinker’s rosy cheeks (and nose!)—so that some doctors have argued that a little alcohol might benefit patients with coronary problems.

However, much depends on how we define “a little,” and on whether the patient can stick to the advice. “A little” can very easily become “a lot”!

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Comments (0) Apr 02 2009