Directory of health resources for healthcare professionals.

Besides eating right, kids need exercise, just like adults. There are ways you can help in this area, too: Set a good example. Let your child see you committed to fitness—and enjoying exercise.Exercise together. Ride bikes as a family. Invite your child to go jogging with you. Spend a Saturday hiking a nearby nature trail or mountain. Sign up for a parent/child dance or martial arts class. Make a weekly date to do an exercise video together. Learn how to in-line skate together. Whatever kind of movement you get excited about, share it. And let your child’s enthusiasm be contagious. Encourage your children’s interest in whatever sports catch their fancy. Resist the urge to focus on winning, and remember the joy of the game and the satisfaction of playing as well as you can. Don’t force your children into a sport (or to continue in a sport). Let them find what suits them.Fitness and exercise is something kids need to do with their friends, too, not just a parent. It has to be Jim, and something they’ll want to do on their own. By all means, spend active time together, but also encourage their independent pursuits.Make it a point to spend time together outside every day, or at least every weekend day, and move. Play catch or tag, chase squirrels, shoot hoops, walk to the playground, pretend you are kangaroos and HOP . . . now, that’s quality time.*18\228\2*

Three special procedures that may be part of the routine EEG— sleep-induction, hyperventilation, and photic stimulation—are called “activation” procedures because they can “activate” patterns of abnormalities on the EEG. Such procedures should be routine with children.”Why do they do the test both awake and asleep?”The EEG looks quite different, depending on whether the patient is awake or asleep. Some abnormalities, spikes for example, may be apparent only in a drowsy or sleep state because sleep changes the organization of brain waves and may allow hidden abnormalities to show up. Some children with epilepsy may have a normal EEG awake and a very abnormal EEG when asleep.”What is hyperventilation, and why is It done?”The technician will ask your child to breathe deeply, thus causing changes in the blood carbon dioxide and usually resulting in slowing on the EEG. Such changes as a consequence of hyperventilating are far more pronounced in younger children than in older ones. They can reveal abnormalities on the EEG. In children with absence seizures, overbreathing can even cause a clinical spell and allow the EEG characteristics of this form of epilepsy to become overt.”What Is photic stimulation?”Flashing lights also may trigger seizures. A special class of seizures is called “photic sensitive seizures.” Using a stroboscopic light, which flashes at frequencies from one per second to sixty per second, the EEG technician can observe whether the child is “photic sensitive,” that is, that the child’s EEG responds to certain frequencies of flashes, with the EEG showing spikes every time the light flashes. Occasionally, “photic driving” can make the brain so active that a real seizure will occur, one similar to episodes that occur under nonlaboratory conditions in a few people, who are then said to have “photic sensitive epilepsy.”*83\208\8*

Drugs are the most widely used and, for most people, the most effective way of controlling seizures. But they are not the only way, and they do not help everybody. If no conventional drug treatment seems to have much effect on the frequency or severity of your seizures, it is worth trying a more unorthodox approach as well. However, this should not be your only form of treatment if you have frequent seizures. Even if anticonvulsant drugs work well for you, you may be able to improve your seizure control still more by using one of these complementary methods.
Anything that affects your own attitude of mind or makes you feel better or happier is likely to improve your seizure control. And so, although there is no real scientific evidence that, say, faith healing or acupuncture or hypnosis can influence seizures, if you feel you would like to try them they may very well work for you. Certainly they will have no harmful effects.
It is worth considering an alternative approach to seizure control if:
•   You have no warning (aura) that a seizure is starting and so cannot use many of the self-help measures;
•    Your seizures are poorly controlled by drugs alone.
If you are interested in trying any of the alternative approaches to seizure control discussed below, get in touch with the British Epilepsy Association (see Appendix) who will help you contact the appropriate centre.
*36\193\2*

In theory you inject a known amount of insulin into your leg, it is absorbed in a standard time and reduces the blood glucose by a predictable amount over a given time. Wrong. Your body is not a machine. Firstly, many people (including doctors and nurses) make errors in drawing up their insulin so that 36 units may actually be 34 units on Monday, 35 units on Tuesday, 37 units on Wednesday, 36 units on Thursday, and so on. Pre-mixing in the syringe may alter the characteristics of your insulins – if you mix, say, Monotard and Actrapid, and do not give it immediately, much of the Actrapid will be converted into Monotard before injection. Mixtures of isophane insulins and soluble insulins are stable (e.g. Velosulin and Insulatard). Then you have to inject the insulin into the subcutaneous tissue below the skin. Not into the skin – that hurts and makes a white bump. Not into the muscle – that hurts and your insulin is absorbed much faster than you expect. Occasionally a trickle of insulin may leak out of the injection hole. The blood supply to the injection site varies – more in hot weather or a warm bath, less in cold water or a cold shower, more when you are exercising – especially if you are using the muscles below your injection site.  The nicotine in a cigarette has variable effects upon your circulation.
Damian, a twenty-year-old history student, came home from a class, took his insulin and had a quick bath before his evening meal. He was found unconscious in the bath sometime later.  He had become hypoglycemic because the hot bath water warmed his injection site and the insulin was rapidly absorbed at a time when he was due for a meal. The insulin also has to break down ready for use. Soluble, regular, clear insulin does not need to do this, but other, cloudy insulins have been treated to slow down their absorption from the injection site. Their crystalline structure may be different or they may have zinc or protamine added. Studies have shown that the amount of isophane insulin left at the injection site 24 hours after a single injection varies from none to 50 per cent of the original dose. There is less variability in the absorption of clear, soluble insulins than of modified insulins. This observation partly explains why some people taking Monotard insulin need to inject it twice a day and others have nocturnal hypoglycemia following a once-daily pre-breakfast injection. Unfortunately, the absorption is not always consistent for one person and may vary from day to day.
Obviously insulin is not the only factor influencing the blood glucose – food, exercise, your weight, general fitness, hormone state, other medication, illness, stress and so on can also affect glucose concentrations.

*14/102/5*

Cardiologists specialize in diseases of the heart that don’t require surgery. Hospitals call on cardiologists in the management of people with heart attacks and other severe forms of disabling heart disease.
Cardiologists have not missed the opportunity to involve themselves in expensive procedural work. To some extent they have entered into competition with cardiac surgeons. Instead of referring patients for bypass surgery, cardiologists now thread balloon catheters all the way from the groin of people with hardening of the arteries to their obstructed coronary arteries. Once the catheter reaches the site of a blockage the balloon is blown up, relieving the obstruction.
In their pursuit of excitement and remuneration many cardiologists forget that studies now demonstrate medical means alone can reverse the plaque of atherosclerosis. Having crossed the line between the medical and procedural specialties, cardiologists seem little disposed to return to less traumatic and less remunerative therapies.

*4/131/5*

Why shouldn’t you be angry? You probably have found it necessary to give up activities that you truly enjoy. Your days are more difficult and complicated than they used to be. It seems that no one really understands the pain and frustration you’re experiencing. You’re frustrated with your doctor because your recovery is not as speedy as you would like it to be. These thoughts are all valid, and they would leave anyone feeling angry. People respond to anger in any one of several ways -and in different ways at different times. They may direct their anger inward, for example; people often blame themselves for their situation and suffer feelings of guilt as a result. Or they may direct their anger toward other people. Sometimes anger is suppressed entirely. Bottled up anger raises blood pressure, increases muscle tension and pain, and drains precious energy reserves.
Some people are angry and don’t know it. Their anger is so well disguised that they fail to recognize it. Each of the following thoughts, or self-messages, contains a disguised element of anger:
“I’m just going to finish this project at my own pace, and if he doesn’t like it, that’s his problem.” “Why would I want to go golfing, anyway?” “What does she know about arthritis?” “He’s just helping me because he feels guilty.” “I’m just not going to take that worthless pill.” “I should have stopped smoking and exercised more often.”
People who make self-statements such as these are angry about their arthritic condition and the havoc it is creating in their lives. One of the dangers of unrecognized anger is that it is often turned against other people, in the form of casting blame, harboring resentment, or engaging in passive-aggressive behavior. This response hurts people who really care about you and only want to help you.
*53/209/5*

Unfortunately, other problems often accompany ADHD. For example, many youngsters with ADHD also have a certain type of learning disability that makes it difficult for them to master language or learn certain academic skills, such as math or reading. ADHD is not in itself a learning disorder, notes the National Institute of Mental Health, but because it impedes concentration and attention, it can exacerbate those learning disorders that accompany it.
Nearly half of all children with ADHD—especially boys— develop a condition known as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), characterized by stubbornness, outbursts of temper, aggression, and a general defiance of those around them. Youngsters with ODD run a much greater risk of getting into trouble in school and later, with the law. Other emotional problems that can go hand-in-hand with ADHD include extreme anxiety, depression, sadness, worry, and tearfulness. While these problems may occur independent of ADHD, they are often secondary effects of the syndrome’s impact on the young person’s development.
In addition, a small percentage of people with ADHD have a rare disorder known as Tourette’s syndrome, which is characterized by uncontrollable tics, twitches, and other facial movements, as well as grimaces, shrugs, hand-clapping, and the barking out of words, often obscenities. Thankfully, Tourette’s syndrome and related disorders can be successfully managed with medication.
Is ADHD found only in one race or group of people?
No. Although researchers have found that ADHD afflicts more boys than girls, more whites than other races and, in all likelihood, more Americans than other nationalities, it is not exclusive to any of these groups. Anyone of any age in any country may show symptoms of this syndrome.
*3\173\2*

Possible causes which either augment the likelihood of developing asthma upon exposure to a trigger, or may even increase the susceptibility to getting an attack of asthma, are classified as contributing factors. They do not cause an allergic reaction, but their presence facilitates an allergic reaction.
Respiratory infections Air pollution Outdoor pollutants Indoor pollutants Cigarette Smoke Self smoking Physical exercise Weather
Emotional stress and psychological trauma Food and chemicals Occupational sensitizers
In an important study conducted in Athens, Greece, Dr Prititis and his colleagues examined the medical records of 974 asthmatic children aged 7-14 years in two children’s referral hospitals from 1975 to 1987. It was found that 68 per cent children had positive SPT (Skin Prick Test or Skin Scratch—Test. A positive family atopy history was more often accompained by positive SPT. Sensitization to grass pollens was noted with higher prevalence in urban areas. The house dust mite, Dermatophagoides Pteronyssimus, sensitisation was more prevalent in coastal areas which have high humidity and are therefore conducive for mite growth. The results supported the notion that there was a correlation between sensitivity to common antigens present in the environment, the kind of allergens and the genetic factor with regard to the development of atopic asthma. Environment significantly influences both the prevalence of asthma and the kind of allergens which trigger an asthma attack. Traditionally genetic factors were considered to be of prime importance in the sensitisation of asthmatics. Nevertheless, according to recent studies, environmental factors may play a more important role than previously thought, both in sensitisation, or in the development of atopic disease.
*19\260\8*

The condom is a strong sheath of latex rubber or other material designed to fit over an erect penis. The condom catches the ejaculate, thereby preventing sperm from migrating toward the egg. The condom is the only temporary means of birth control available for men and the only barrier that effectively prevents the spread of STIs and HIV. Condoms come in a wide variety of styles: colored, ribbed for “extra sensation,” lubricated, non-lubricated, and with or without reservoirs at the tip. All may be purchased with or w out spermicide in pharmacies, in some supermarkets, in some public bathrooms, and in many health clinics. A new condom must be used for each act of intercourse or oral sex.
Condoms help prevent the spread of some sexually transmitted infections, including genital herpes and HIV They may also slow or reduce the development of cervical abnormalities in women that can lead to cancer. Condoms should be used during every act of intercourse or oral sex. They must be rolled onto the penis before the penis touches the vagina, and held in place when the penis is removed from the vagina after ejaculation. For greatest efficacy, they should be used with a spermicide containing nonoxynol-9, the same agent found in many of the contraceptive foams and creams that women use. If necessary or desired, users can lubricate their own condoms with contraceptive foams, creams, and jellies or other water-based lubricants, such as K-Y jelly, ForPlay Lubricants, Astroglide, or Wet or Aqua Lube, to name just a few. However, products such as baby oil, cold creams, petroleum jelly, vaginal yeast infection medications, or hand and body lotions should never be used. These products contain mineral oil and will make the latex condom begin to disintegrate within 60 seconds.
The efficacy of condoms can be compromised, and the likelihood of their breaking during intercourse is increased when they are old or poorly stored. To maintain effectiveness, condoms should be stored in a cool place (not in a wallet or hip pocket), and they should be inspected for small tears before use.
For some people, a condom ruins the spontaneity of sex. Stopping to put it on breaks the mood for them. Others report that the condom decreases sensation. These inconveniences contribute to improper use of the device. Couples who learn to put the condom on together as foreplay are generally more successful with this form of birth control.
*12/277/5*

Women who are already infected or who have a high risk of being infected, and who are contemplating pregnancy or who are already pregnant, should get tested. The reason is that the mother poses a risk to her unborn child. About one-third of all children born to an infected mother will become infected. The best way to avoid this is to prevent pregnancy through effective birth control. Once pregnant, it might be best to consider an abortion. Abortions are far more easily performed early in pregnancy, so pregnant women with HIV infection should consider this option early in pregnancy, and pregnant women with a risk of HIV infection should be tested as early as possible.
People who have been the source of blood exposure to a health care worker also pose a risk to others. That is, if a health care worker was exposed to blood, the person who was the source of the blood should get tested. Note that the major concern is exposure to blood, since no other body fluids are known to transmit the virus in job-related injuries.
Likewise, donors of blood, sperm, or organs pose a potential risk to those who receive the blood, sperm, or organs. These people will also be tested.
*258\191\2*