Indications-Anticonvulsants are of benefit in the treatment of neuropathic pain, particularly the shooting lancinating components of neuropathic pain.
Action-The anticonvulsants suppress the spontaneous neuronal discharges and neuronal hyperexcitability which occur after nerve injury.
Drugs-The anticonvulsant drugs used frequently in the treatment of neuropathic pain are carbamazepine, sodium valproate and clonazepam. The dose is the same as used for anticonvulsant therapy, although there is no data relating blood levels and analgesic activity. The dose is increased step-wise until a response occurs or toxicity ensues. Serum levels can be checked and, if there is no response when the levels are in the therapeutic range for anticonvulsant therapy, the drug should be stopped. There is considerable lack of
cross-resistance between the drugs and treatment with a second anticonvulsant is sometimes successful.
Side effects-The side effects of the different anticonvulsants are similar, with gastric intolerance (nausea and vomiting), sedation, ataxia, dizziness and confusion being the most common. Carbamazepine may also cause leucopenia and the white blood cell count should be checked periodically.
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Posted by: admin on December 12th, 2010 Filled in: Pain Relief-Muscle Relaxers
Posted by: admin on December 6th, 2010 Filled in: Weight Loss
Free radicals spoil things. They can destroy cell membranes, the protective covering surrounding our cells. Once the membrane integrity has been breached they go even further, right into the very centre of our cells, the nucleus. The nucleus is like the software in our living cellular computer. Free radicals are like a computer virus. They can seriously damage our DNA, the very plans to our entire body, and every single organ (mutagenesis). They can sctamble messages. They can cause our cells to reproduce in a crazy, out-of-control fashion, become cancerous and malignant (mitogenesis). They can tap into out immune system so that we no longer can fight off various invaders. They are serious trouble. They spoil our cells, our skin, our eyes, brains, hearts and blood vessels. And free radicals love fat. Fat gets them even more excited on a molecular level. Fat gets them to jumping and bashing into things, upsetting the natural balance and creating even more free radicals as they tear around our systems.
Free radicals have been implicated in many cancers, heart disease, cholesterol buildup, premature ageing of the brain or senility, stroke, immune-system decline, vision problems and blindness, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, wrinkles, liver spots, and the list goes on, and on, and on.
Free radical damage is cumulative and builds up over time and age. The older we are, the more free radical damage we sustain. The younger we are, the less free radical damage we sustain. Let’s get younger.
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Posted by: admin on September 28th, 2010 Filled in: General health
It must be realized, that the amount of the Vitamin in fruits and vegetables varies greatly with the season of the year, the variety of the fruit or vegetable, its age and even the portion which is eaten — for example, a greater concentration of the vitamin is usually found in or next to the skin than in the pulp of the fruit, but in such vegetables as potatoes and spinach the vitamin remains constant throughout the growth period.
Recommended Dietary Allowances (R.D.A.) of ascorbic acid -Vitamin C for Australians — 1965 revision
Aged 18 to 75 years Aged 18 to 75 years Pregnant — 4 to 9 months Nursing mothers V% to 1 year
Men Women
Infants
Children 1 to 3 years
Boys 3 to 11 years 11 to 14 years 15 to 18 years
Girls 3 to 11 years 11 to 14 years 15 to 18 years
30 milligrams 30 milligrams 80 milligrams 100 milligrams 30 milligrams 30 milligrams 30 milligrams 40 milligrams 50 milligrams 30 milligrams 40 milligrams 50 milligrams per day per day per day per day per day per day per day per day per day per day per day per day
Although the Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin C varies in different countries from 30 to 60 milligrams a day, the actual needs of the body vary widely from person to person and with the circumstances of their life.
For some unknown reason women seem able to get along well with less than men.
This small amount of Vitamin C will certainly prevent scurvy from developing, but much more is needed in order to resist and combat infections and the poisons that abound in our environment; to meet demands of stress or injury; to hasten healing of wounds; to prevent arthrosclerosis and thrombosis and to ensure strong bones and teeth.
Dr Albert Szent-Gyorgi who, in 1928, first separated actual Vitamin C from the plant and animal tissues in which it occurs — for which he received a Nobel Prize — has this to say about the optimum amount of Vitamin C to take for good health.
‘As to ascorbic acid, right from the beginning I felt that the medical profession misled the public. If you don’t take ascorbic acid with your food you get scurvy, so the medical profession said that if you don’t get scurvy you are all right. I think this is a very grave error. Scurvy is not the first sign of the deficiency, but a pre-mortal syndrome (a condition just before death) and for full health you need much more.
‘I am taking, myself, about 1 gram a day. This does not mean that this is really the optimum dose, because we do not know what full health really means and how much ascorbic acid you need for it.
‘What I can tell you is that you can take any amount of ascorbic acid without the least danger.’
The optimum intake of ascorbic acid is not known because it differs with each person and with different circumstances and from day to day.
It is acknowledged that growing boys and girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers need more than others, but elderly people, because of slow absorption, need above average also. Let us take 1000 mg instead of 30 mg as a good daily average to keep normal healthy people healthy and normal in the inevitable exigencies of life.
Linus Pauling agrees with him. He states in his book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold —
‘First, for good health I recommend the ingestion of an adequate amount of ascorbic acid. I estimate that for many people 1 gram to 2 grams (1000 mg to 2000 mg) per day is approximately the optimum rate of ingestion.’ Best taken at intervals during the day.
One of the main features of Vitamin C is that it is non-toxic and large doses can be taken by mouth for long periods without ill effects, and large doses can be injected as sodium ascorbate when occasion demands, such as when the acid itself causes gastric irritation, diarrhoea or frequency and burning of urine. These symptoms occur in some sensitive individuals when too large doses are taken to begin with, or on an empty stomach.
If the dosage is built up gradually for the person who is not used to taking more than 50 milligrams a day — say by 250 milligrams a day for several days, then by 500 mg a day till the desired dose is reached, effects will not be noticed.
Vitamin C must always be taken in relation to a meal. Tablets swallowed whole ‘on an empty stomach’ can pass straight through and irritate the small bowel.
*9/21/7*
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Posted by: admin on September 28th, 2010 Filled in: General health
Extra Vitamin C is now advised before and after surgery as a routine in many hospitals.
The healing of injured tissues, cuts, burns, broken bones with the formation of scar tissue is hastened by ample Vitamin C. When deficient, healing is slow and after surgery sutures will often break down. 8. Vitamin C plays an important role in controlling too rapid oxidation in tissue cells and actually promotes the constant flow of many enzyme reactions especially in such glands as the pituitary, the adrenals and the ovaries; in the brain, the eyes, especially the lens, and other vital organs.
Vitamin C is used up in helping the body to overcome any strain or stress which depletes the adrenal glands.
Taking the ‘Pill’ so upsets the balance of glands in the body that it constitutes a chemical stress. So much Vitamin C is lost that women on the pill often become severely deficient in Vitamin C.
9. The vitamin is also important in digestion and utilization of the food elements — carbohydrates, proteins and fats and in the production of insulin in the pancreas.
When diabetics take their Vitamin C they actually improve the effectiveness of their insulin injections.
10. Vitamin C is also essential to the normal functioning of the nervous system and in stabilizing the chemical processes going on in the brain.
Treatment of mental disorders such as schizophrenia depends on Vitamin C also to overcome the deficiency in Niacin (B3) or of Pyridoxine (B6) and Zinc, that are the root causes of the mental symptoms.
11. Last, but not least, Vitamin C is the great detoxifier. Ascorbic acid neutralizes any poisons introduced into the body but is itself used up in the process.
Dr F. Klenner has proved its efficacy in combating the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, snake bite, the stings of many insects and the deathly black widow spider, even over-doses of poisonous drugs.
Klenner has written records of his cases and details of his exact technique and dosage in numerous papers.
Ascorbic acid has not yet been tried in high doses in Australia for our snake bite or deadly sea wasps.
Vitamin C could indeed be a first line of defense when antivenine or antiserum is not at hand or immediately available. In any case, it could tide a victim over until these antidotes were obtained.
Ampoules of injectible Vitamin C (sodium ascor-bate) for intra-muscular (or intravenous if a doctor was at hand) could save a life as a part of the Emergency Medical Kit used in outlying bush areas and in Lifesaver’s Clubhouses on our beaches. 12. A sufficiency of Vitamin C enables the body to store folic acid which is necessary for normal blood and prevention of pernicious anaemia.
It also plays an essential part in the absorption of iron in the digestive tract and its storage in the bone marrow.
A relative deficiency of Vitamin C is thus one factor in causing both iron deficiency anaemia and pernicious anaemia.
The question is often asked ‘Is synthetic ascorbic acid that you buy at the chemist or health food shops as good as the natural Vitamin C that occurs in fruits and vegetables?’
Yes, ascorbic acid is Vitamin C in its pure form, and is no different from that occurring in natural foods.
However, the ascorbic acid in fruits, vegetables and some other foods is often more effective in the body because in nature it is combined with other vitamins and trace elements that enhance its action.’
Vitamins never occur singly in nature. For example, an orange contains bioflavinoid in its pith and some Vitamin A in its juice. Green leafy vegetables provide not only some Vitamin C but also some Vitamin A and are rich in the B
Vitamins including folic acid. Yeast contains most of the B Vitamins.
Each of the natural products we use are good combines of several vitamins and/or minerals that the body needs in its complex metabolism, and each vitamin improves the action of the others.
The trouble is that vitamins are easily destroyed and by the time we get many foods on our plates much of the vitamin content has been lost. Vitamin C in particular is very quickly destroyed by exposure to the oxygen in the air, by heat, by keeping and by bruising of fruits and vegetables. We can, therefore, not rely on obtaining the amounts of C listed in the food charts.
This is why some synthetic ascorbic acid is advised along with the natural source, particularly as we are subjected to many pollutants and infections. Thus we need far greater amounts of Vitamin C to maintain our health than we can obtain only from our orange drinks, fruits and salads; and so, along with all the Vitamin C rich foods we can conveniently eat in our civilized life, we do need some synthetic ascorbic acid as well.
If we lived, as many native peoples do, in small tropical villages that grow all their own food and eat it as soon as it is picked, we would scarcely need supplements of Vitamin C.
Drs Dettman and Kalokerinos took the opportunity while in Fiji to contact many native villages to discuss their diet and, with the consent of the people, to test the actual food eaten every day for its Vitamin C content. They estimated that the villagers took from 2 grams to 8 grams of C a day — sometimes more — depending on the season.
Dr Dettman testing a day’s appetizing, apparently nutritious meals of packaged, take away and restaurant foods for Vitamin C found 5mg of C only — and that was in a prawn cocktail. Even the fruit salad — evidently cut the day before and stored, or from a tin, had no Vitamin C left in it.
Other researchers — Drs Woodhill and Nobile — found that take-away foods, restaurant dishes and even Meals on Wheels contained practically no C by the time it was actually eaten.
*8/21/7*
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Hysteria, in medical parlance, is an exaggerated, unconscious control by the mind over the body. The word was evolved from the Greek for womb. This is a bizarre mental state with diversified symptoms and signs. In popular use it signifies uncontrollable excitement, or an unreasoning obsession, seizing groups of people. Thus the Salem witchcraft episode in Colonial days was a mass hysteria. Medically we use the term for manifestations which superficially suggest physical abnormalities, but which when carefully studied are found to have no actual physical causes, but usually are evidence of a subconscious attempt to correct some situation that has become intolerable. Perhaps the simplest and best way to give you an understanding of it is to attempt no further definitions but to cite examples. Persons with perfectly good eyes or ears may find themselves blind or deaf. These are the kinds who achieve miraculous cures by a parachute jump or faith cures. Others have areas of the body with no sensations of touch or pain. When these areas are plotted according to the patients’ sensations they correspond not at all to nerve distributions. Thus with “glove” anesthesia, needles may be stuck into the flesh of the hand or wrist without disturbing the patient until a certain level of the forearm is reached. Then suddenly sensation occurs above this line although we are still needling areas supplied by the same ulnar and median nerves which did not function lower down.
Despite the fact that the name hysteria is derived from womb, this demonstration of the power of mind over body is probably equal in occurrence in the two sexes.
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GENERAL HEALTH
Posted by: admin on June 3rd, 2010 Filled in: General health
Americans seem to admire the big-stakes gambler-hero in movies, the guy who risks and wins thousands on the turn of a card. In real life, compulsive gamblers who risk all, despite the odds, are pitied. They are losers, not heroes. Because they cannot stop, they often are broke, in debt, and “borrowing” or stealing money to gamble. Their families are desperate.
In 1991, Parade surveyed men and women chosen at random in the United States to learn how Americans view and use money. Two key questions we asked were these:
• Do you gamble with more money than you can afford to lose?
• Do you bet on something whenever you can?
Of the 900 respondents, 2 percent replied “almost always” to both. We identified them as being in trouble over gambling. Projected nationally, this would indicate that the United States has 3.5 million adult compulsive gamblers. In addition, say other estimates, 1 million high school students and 650,000 college students are also compulsive gamblers.
Of our respondents, 20 percent said they gamble recklessly “often.” Projected nationally, this 20 percent represents the approximately 35 million adults who probably account for most of the 290 billion dollars spent on gambling in the United States last year. Gambling is legal in 48 states. In the more than 30 states with lotteries, 20.8 billion dollars is being spent a year on tickets.
Preventing pathological gambling is difficult in the face of seductive ads promising untold wealth. Lottery posters and TV ads in New York, for example, tempt and urge bettors, saying, “It only takes a dollar and a dream.”
Chances of winning are minuscule, even with casino odds, which take “only” 3 to 5 percent for the house. No system beats the house in the long run. Sure, someone hits the10 million dollars lottery or the 1 million dollars slot-machine jackpot. But for the overwhelming majority who never win, the big win is a carefully nurtured fantasy.
By my projections, gamblers – legal and illegal – are 200 billion dollars in debt. And gambling is growing. There are new casinos in Nevada, Maryland, Atlantic City, and on Indian reservations. As gambling becomes legal in more places, the number of problem gamblers rises proportionally. Americans in 1996 wager twice what they bet in 1982.
Dr. Sheila B. Blume of the South Oaks Hospital psychiatric treatment center in Amityville, New York, has studied compulsive gamblers. “Most are never recognized or treated,” Dr. Blume says. “The sad fact is that we have elderly women playing bingo 7 days a week with money they cannot afford to lose.”
Compulsive gamblers pile up huge debts, according to Valerie C. Lorenz, executive director of the private National Center for Pathological Gambling in Baltimore. She surveyed members of Gamblers Anonymous (GA), a program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous. The study found that the average gambler owed 75,000 dollars.
Ms. Lorenz also found that, in Maryland, gamblers’ losses for 1990 totaled 4 billion dollars. National gambling costs – for losses, wagering dollars “borrowed” or stolen, treatment and missed work – neared 80 billion dollars a year.
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GENERAL HEALTH
Posted by: admin on May 21st, 2009 Filled in: General health
Various marks can be present on a baby’s skin from birth, and most of these will fade with time. Certain types of birthmarks which do not disappear can now be lightened using specialised laser techniques when the child grows older. Your doctor will be able to give you specific advice.
Salmon patches (stork bites)
These are pale pink, flat marks which are seen at birth over the baby’s forehead, on the bridge of the nose, on the eyelids, or on the back of the neck. They are very common and most will fade completely with time, leaving no marks after a year or two. Salmon patches on the nape of the neck take a little longer to fade, and sometimes remain throughout adult life.
Strawberry haemangiomas
These are caused by dilated blood vessels, and are usually small at birth. As the baby grows they may start to enlarge, and take on a raised, lumpy appearance. After a year these marks will start to shrink and most will disappear by the time the child is 10 years old.
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Posted by: admin on May 18th, 2009 Filled in: General health
“Alone? What are you suggesting? That we old people touch
ourselves? That’s sick.”
It isn’t sick and it has nothing to do with mental or physical illness. You might—and many people do—think that it is wrong to masturbate, to stimulate yourself sexually. If you feel it is wrong, then it would not be something enjoyable, and doing things which are not enjoyable is not good for your overall health. But let’s not stop being honest here. The older you get, the less easy it may be to find partners to hold, to kiss, to cuddle, to have sex with if you want. One important option is to maintain sexual self-stimulation if you want to. It is something that people do, children and babies do. It is part of sexual living.
”I just can’t see having intercourse at my age.”
Who said anything about having intercourse? That, too, is an option. We should not just equate sex with intercourse. Touching, holding hands, being close, kissing are important sexual behaviors. All life is a cycle. Our teenagers should learn that all sex is not intercourse. They should be able to touch, to hold, and so should you if you want to. I’m just talking about your rights, not a list of sex assignments.
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Posted by: admin on May 18th, 2009 Filled in: General health
The Misunderstood
If I say faster, he goes so fast it burns. If I say slower, it’s like no movement at all. If I say stop, he keeps going too long or stops too fast. If I say go, he goes wrong. I don’t know. I’m just too fussy I guess.
WIFE
This is the wife who seldom feels understood in her expressions of sexual need. If she wants to be touched faster, she ends up being touched slower. If she wants soft, she gets hard. She feels that “if he really loved me he would know what to do” instead of “if I really love him I will teach and teach until he learns.” It sometimes surprised me how patient couples would be with their children and how impatient they would be with each other. All learning takes time, and sexual learning takes about seventy-five years. Even then, you are just beginning.
The Target
I feel like one of those blow-up dolls. He moves me around like a pillow, does it to me. Next time he wants to do it doggy style, I’ll just bark. Maybe I’ll sit up and beg. Maybe that will please him.
This is the wife who feels that her husband’s pelvic thrusts are “aimed” at her rather than “shared” with her. Wives in this category reported being trapped under their husbands, propped up on top of them, or “attacked” from behind. They did not feel that intercourse was a dance, but more of a sparring match with her being the sparring partner. There was little sense of identity, even in the limited sense of “The Piece” who felt she was just “any woman.” “The Target” feels a loss of personhood.
The Caretaker
I’m the dorm mother—three kids, one husband, two dogs, one gerbil. I like the gerbil best. He puts out less crap than all the rest put together, literally.
WIFE
This wife has abandoned her sexual role and identity in favor of providing what she perceives to be “the rest” of her husband’s needs. She picks up after him, cleans for him, takes his messages, and sees to it that he enjoys his life. She may attempt to provide him with sex as just another of his daily living needs, but primarily she has infantilized her husband to such an extent that she feels she is parenting an adult child.
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Posted by: admin on May 18th, 2009 Filled in: General health
I help my couples calculate a percentage so they can see what could be compared to what actually is. Watch out for the argument that “it is not how much time but quality time that counts.” That argument has never been a valid one, either in raising a marriage or in raising children. Both quality and quantity are required to nurture a marriage to super marital sex.
Divide your total MIMs by the 1,800 weekly available MIMs. For example, if you estimated a total of 180 MIMs for your marriage, after subtraction of the TV penalty factor, you would divide the 180 minutes by 1,800 for a “Marital Investment Quotient” of Þ percent. By the way, if you were near 10 percent, congratulations! The average MIQ of my thousand couples was less than 1 percent!
Actually, only 732 couples provided data for their MIMs, because I did not start using this test until some months into the program. Now that I have used this test with more than 5,000 couples in the clinic, the average is still less than 1 percent.
How do you and your partner compare? Take a look at each item of the test, including the penalty factor for TV, and discuss where MIMs are lost or gained. Does your investment of time reflect your priority for this marriage, or some out-of-control obligatory life-style robbing your marriage of its potential intimacy?
One last point about MIMs. There were thirty-five couples seen in the clinic program who were having affairs with one another. That is, they came to the clinic and, while married to someone else, wanted help with a sexual problem they were having in their affair. While there are several issues to examine in such cases, it is interesting to note that the average Affair Investment Quotient was 83 percent, based on the average available time of 120 minutes together per week. When these people were together, they were together! Being together was their whole purpose. One percent vs. 83 percent. And we wonder why extramarital sex (Type I) is so popular? Of course, I am using these numbers in exaggerated fashion and the mathematics are far from statistically valid. The point is clear, however, that time put in to the American marriage may be far less than needed for fulfilling intimacy.
Bonus: You deserve credit for purchasing this book and reading this far. Add into your calculations any minutes you are spending discussing with your spouse the issues raised. Did your spouse respond when you called to discuss the couple given the second chance? Add that time in, too. Minutes spent in therapy for your marriage do not count as bonus time, but any time spent implementing the suggestions or ideas coming from your therapy sessions give you extra bonus minutes.
You will have to make choices, not just lists. You will have to choose intimacy and super marital sex, because our society places marital time at the bottom of our priority list. You will never find the time. You must make it.
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