Men's Health Blog

TREATMENT OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:57:55 +0000

Although there is no way to prevent or medically treat Alzheimer’s disease, experimental drugs and procedures are feverishly being tried. If an experimental treatment is available to your relative, check the reputability of the procedure and the qualifications of the researchers doing the study with the National Institute on Aging. As I mentioned earlier, the NIA coordinates research on Alzheimer’s disease. Then ask the researchers doing the study to carefully describe any risks of the treatment. While you might think (with some reason) that anything is worth a try, consider the possibility that the treatment might have a side effect that either is life threatening or makes things worse. Hopeless diagnoses such as Alzheimer’s disease render people vulnerable to dangerous or expensive quack remedies. So be on special guard against being victimized. If your relative is enrolled in a legitimate experimental study, be careful not to get your hopes up too far. At most the substances being tested purport to slow up the inexorable course of Alzheimer’s disease or improve the patient’s capacities a bit. No one claims to be able to restore everything that has been lost.

Several classes of drugs are now being tested on humans. The most intensively explored are medications that have the potential to stimulate the brain’s production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. (The controversial drug THA, now undergoing clinical tests, is in this category.) For more than a decade scientists have known that a striking deficiency of this important neurotransmitter is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

One reason progress in developing a memory-stimulating pill has been slow is that drugs that might be effective have trouble penetrating the blood/brain barrier, the sheath protecting the brain from anything foreign. Another roadblock is that a memory-enhancing drug has the best chance of being effective when the disease is in its beginning stages and the neural destruction is not too far advanced. However, it is precisely at this time that Alzheimer’s disease can be so difficult to diagnose accurately.

The best way to keep informed about medical breakthroughs is to join the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association, an excellent national organization begun and run by families of people with the disease. In addition to sponsoring research, serving as advocates for victims and their families, and setting up most of the support groups for care-giving families, the ADRDA publishes a newsletter that summarizes the most promising recent research. Becoming a member of this organization will also help you keep your feet on the ground. To be newsworthy, those tantalizing newspaper accounts of promising new leads sometimes tend to err on the “important breakthrough” side; the truth is we are not very close to finding a real cure for this tragic disease.

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GENERAL HEALTH

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TESTS TO EXPECT

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:57:11 +0000

Because diagnosing dementia can be so tricky, if you suspect a relative may have Alzheimer’s disease, bypass your family doctor. Visit someone with special training – an internist, a neurologist, a psychiatrist, or a psychologist who is trained in geriatrics. Preferably, get your relative evaluated at a hospital-based geriatric center.

Visiting a center is preferable to seeing any sole practitioner for several reasons: experts from several disciplines will collaborate in making the diagnosis,- procedures and diagnostic tests are more likely to be state of the art; the fee may be less prohibitive (Medicare will pay for most of the cost in any case, because dementia has been reclassified from a psychiatric to a neurological disorder); and if your fears are justified and the problem is dementia, you will be thoroughly briefed on your options and on what to expect.

We would imagine that any humane doctor would sit down with a family and carefully explain the situation after delivering a diagnosis of this magnitude. Not true! In the University of Michigan study of family members most people gave shocking accounts of how they were told the facts. Some said that the curt words, “He will gradually deteriorate, becoming completely helpless,” were delivered in a waiting room or an elevator. Or the same diagnosis might be heedlessly offered while the patient was standing right there. Not only were families understandably bitter about this insensitivity, they were left ill equipped to understand the problems they would eventually have. Of the 289 People in this study, only three said their doctors had called a family conference to thoroughly explain what the diagnosis meant.

A history of the problem. Because a pattern of insidious development is a major clue indicating dementia, a primary diagnostic tool is a careful medical history. When you visit, be prepared to describe exactly what has been going on. How long have you noticed the problems? Have the symptoms gotten progressively worse? What difficulties were there to begin with, and what occur now? Did any event – an illness, a loss such as widowhood, or a fall – predate the problems?

You will be asked about current and past illnesses, depression, the medications your relative is taking. Because chemical toxins can cause memory problems, you may be asked about long-term exposure to chemicals.

A complete physical and neurological examination. A thorough physical examination will be done. Urine will be tested,-blood will be drawn; neurological and memory tests may be administered. Particularly if the impairments are subtle, a psychologist may administer a battery of neuropsychological tests. These tests, winch can be invaluable in the differential diagnosis of dementia, are somewhat like the paper-and-pencil measures of abilities we get in school.

Measures of brain function. An EEG, a CAT scan or a PET scan may also be given. The EEG (electroencephalogram) measures the electrical activity of different areas of the brain Electrodes are attached to the scalp, and a machine traces brain waves.

The CAT scan and PET scan, also safe, painless procedures, provide pictures of the brain. The CAT scan is like an X-ray in three dimensions. A computer generates a picture of the brain’s mass. The PET scan measures the brain’s consumption of glucose. By using this newer, only occasionally available test, doctors can tell which areas of the brain are functioning well (metabolizing glucose normally) and which are not (areas where glucose consumption is abnormally low).

The CAT scan can rule out other reasons for mental changes such as brain tumors. When the PET scan shows extensive areas of low glucose metabolism, it can confirm that dementia is severe, but neither test can prove the existence of a condition such as Alzheimer’s disease. Although both techniques are wonderful for diagnosing other neurological conditions, neither allows the direct examination of the brain cells that is necessary to positively diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

Luckily, despite the difficulty of absolutely proving a person has dementia, if you do visit a center staffed by knowledgeable professionals, you can have confidence in the diagnosis you get. When researchers followed two hundred patients evaluated at a geriatric clinic specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia for a year, they found very few diagnostic mistakes. If a person had been diagnosed as having dementia, over time that diagnosis was almost always confirmed.

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GENERAL HEALTH

STRESSES IN CHILD’S LIFE: ILLNESS IN PARENTS

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:57:20 +0000

Young children may become distressed by any acute or prolonged illness in one of their parents. Some will entertain a fantasy that the parent may die. Parents need the child to visit. Often the presence of grandparents or other members of the extended family provides important continuity and security for the child during this period.

There are many other family stresses that can influence children at any age. These include any changes in family routine, financial stresses, loss of employment, arguments, a parent who is absent from home for periods of time because of work or any other reason, and so on. If there is tension in the family, children will invariably pick it up, no matter how hard the parents try to keep it from them. It is best to be honest at all times, and explain the circumstances to the child, in terms he can understand. Stresses can also act to bond the family together, so the outcome is not always bad.

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OBSTACLES TO PAIN RELIEF – INTRODUCTION

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:42:57 +0000

Let’s now stop assuming that you have plentiful supplies of any painkiller and get onto the most common obstacle to good pain relief. As I have already indicated, the usual reason for people suffering from poorly controlled cancer pain is that their doctor fails to prescribe enough of a strong enough painkiller. Because all strong painkillers are available only on prescription, you are completely dependent on your doctor(s) to supply them. If you are in hospital, you are dependent both on the doctors and on the nurses for access to painkillers.

What can you do if you are denied access to enough painkillers to give you continuing pain relief? First of all, I’ll remind you that the usual reason for doctors and nurses limiting supplies of painkillers is not cruelty or sadism, but sheer ignorance! So you may be able to overcome your problem by telling your doctors and nurses some of the things you have learned here. I’m sure I don’t have to warn you to try to be diplomatic about this— we all know how doctors hate to feel that their authority is being undermined in any way!

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WHIPLASH – SYMPTOMS

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:11:03 +0000

There is no bone damage, but the ligaments around the vertebrae (spinal bones), are stretched or even torn.

Subluxation or partial dislocation of the small joints between the vertebrae bones may occur.

This may cause pressure on the nerves as they leave the spinal cord. Damage to the intervertebral discs may also occur.

The vague symptoms of giddiness and blurred vision are due to involvement of the sympathetic nervous chain which runs in the neck alongside the vertebrae.

This forms part of the autonomic nervous system which governs the involuntary actions of the body, such as control of the blood vessels, the blood pressure, digestion, the action of the heart and the ability of the eye to vary the amount of light entering it.

Doctors differ in their approach to treatment of this condition. Some rely on anti-inflammatory drugs, such as are used for arthritis. Others refer the patient to a physiotherapist.

Manipulation is often employed by both doctors as well as chiropractors.

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FOOD POISONING – CASES

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:01:35 +0000

The bacteria are usually excreted in the faeces and contaminate food by being transferred to the hands after using the toilet and then to the food being handled. Contamination of water supplies from human excreta is the main method of spread of other bowel infections, such a cholera.

Gastro-enteritis, where there is usually nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and sometimes fever, may be due either to bacteria or viruses.

Most cases in babies and small children are believed to be due to the Rota virus, discovered only in recent years.

Most stomach and bowel infections are shortlived and spontaneously settle within a couple of days. Antibiotics are widely prescribed for these but, in most cases, are unnecessary and may even be dangerous.

Those cases which are severe or do not rapidly settle should be investigated usually by examination of a stool sample so the specific agent causing the disease may be identified and proper treatment used.

The old name of “ptomaine poisoning” came from the belief that food poisoning was due to the action of ptomaines, toxic substances produced by bacterial decomposition of protein.

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DYSMENORRHOEA – INTRODUCTION

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:05:06 +0000

Pain with periods is called dysmenorrhoea.

tbe commonest form is primary dysmenorrhoea wmeh occurs in the absence of any abnormality of the pelvic organs.

Occasionally pain can be the result of some inflammatory process and then the treatment is directed to that cause.

We are not certain why women suffer from pain with periods, but it is certainly a common symptom and affects at least 50 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 24. Pain does tend to get less and to disappear as they get older.

For some time we thought that the cause was somehow associated with ovulation or due to a tight neck of the womb or cervix.

For some years the contraceptive pill has been prescribed for severe dysmenorrhoea or painful periods.

This works in a large number of women but the older higher dose pills appear to be more effective than the new lower-dose pills.

Sometimes this pain is associated with fluid retention and women note that for several days prior to their period they feel bloated and may gain several pounds in weight.

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EXPRESSIONS USED TO DESCRIBE AIMS OF TREATMENT – POTENTIALLY CURATIVE TREATMENT (PART 1)

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:35:49 +0000

Potentially curative treatment, or treatment with curative intent, are truthful expressions that are sometimes incorrectly shortened to ‘curative treatment’. This last term wrongly implies that all patients having the treatment will be cured. Potentially curative treatment is treatment that is capable of completely and permanently curing a cancer. Some potentially curative treatments actually do cure most of the patients having them, others cure only a small proportion. If your doctor tells you that a proposed treatment is potentially curative, make sure you find out what the chance of cure by it is. You need to know this to weigh up the benefit against the cost. If there is only a five per cent (one in twenty) chance of cure you might be less prepared to accept its cost then if it is a ninety-five per cent (nineteen in twenty).

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THE G.I. FACTOR: ANSWERED QUESTIONS

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:50:12 +0000

Does the area under the curve give a true picture of the blood sugar responses? Why not use just the peak value?

The area under the curve is thought to reflect the sum total of the glycaemic response, not just the one time point given by the peak. Statisticians recommend use of the area under the curve. There is a very close relationship between the area under the curve and the peak response. That is, if one is high, the other is high and vice versa.

What about resistant starch? What effect does it have on the G.I. factor of a food?

Resistant starch is the starch which completely resists digestion in the small intestine. It cannot contribute to the glycaemic effect of the food because it is not absorbed. Resistant starch should not be included in the 50 gram carbohydrate helping which is the standard for G.I. testing because all of this 50 grams should be available carbohydrate, that is available for absorption in the small intestine.

Resistant starch is not viscous like some forms of soluble fibre that delay absorption in the small intestine and flatten the blood glucose curve. Hence the mere presence of resistant starch in the food will not affect the G.I. factor of a food. Bananas and potato salad both have relatively high amounts of resistant starch but the G.L factors of these two foods are very different. Potatoes have a high G.L factor and bananas an intermediate one.

The difficulty that arises in testing is determining the true available carbohydrate content of food which is high in resistant starch. If the amount of resistant starch is underestimated, it will produce a falsely low G.L factor.

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WEIGHT TRAINING OR NOT?

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:13:35 +0000

Currently there is controversy in health circles about whether weight-training or resistance training (RT) has benefits for fat loss and fat loss maintenance, either independently, or over and above that which may be achieved through aerobic exercise.

Resistance training is a standard form of fitness training in most commercial fitness centres. Yet it is a mode of exercise that has not been extensively studied in conjunction with fat loss. From a commercial perspective it might be seen as important because it is a means of maintaining a membership in a commercial centre. However, scientific research carried out to date holds no definite answers on the role of resistance training for fat loss, or indeed to indicate that it may be more relevant to use this than another less vigorous activity. Several studies show an increase in metabolic rate with resistance training in obese people, but other studies show no effect. Some show decreases in body fat levels while others do not. To date there has been little if any conclusive research comparing the two forms of activity over a set period of time in a homogeneous group of individuals.

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