PSEUDO-INSOMNIA

Posted on May 8, 2009 by admin

Insomnia is a subjective feeling and is influenced by many factors. The main component of insomnia is the distress felt as a result of not being able to sleep. People who say they are suffering from insomnia may in fact be getting enough sleep. But why do these people say they are not sleeping? It is because of the distress they feel when they are not able to fall asleep when they want to. These people who get enough sleep biologically and yet complain of insomnia, we call ‘pseudo-insomniacs’. ‘Pseudo’ means imposter.

(I) Feeling of distress. The difference between short sleepers and insomniacs is that the former sleep only a few hours at night, but feel well and function well the next day, whereas insomniacs invariably are miserable, feel distressed, became impatient of not sleeping, feel frustrated, and have little confidence in their innate ability to fall asleep even when they feel very sleepy. There are some people who can play cards all night without much sleep or attend wild parties well into the morning and yet feel no distress at all. However, these same people, when they are in bed and if they want to sleep and yet fail, will be so distressed and worried that they keep turning in bed and try all sorts of ways to make themselves sleep. Of course, the more they try to sleep, the more they cannot, which is the law of reverse effect. Hence they lose confidence in their innate ability to sleep and take sleeping pills.

(2) The expectation of more and better sleep. People are trained to sleep a certain number of hours a day when they are very young, and this magic number of hours stays in their subconscious, which has led them to think that a good sleep means sleeping eight hours or more. If they ever fall short of this, they become dissatisfied and distressed. They call themselves insomniacs.

(3) The facts of NREM sleep. During NREM sleep there are no thoughts and no memory. The only way to convince ourselves that we have in fact been sleeping is either to remember our dreams or to look at the clock before and after sleep. NREM sleep is like general anaesthesia—there is a blank in our continual awareness. These pseudo-insomniacs do not remember their dreams. They are not aware that they have slept as no one can ‘feel’ NREM sleep. It is difficult to convince them that they have had a normal sleep, as they expect to feel something when asleep.

(4) Frequent awakenings in the night. In the sleep laboratory it has been shown that we normally wake up many times in the night Most of the awakenings last only a few seconds and we fall back to sleep, not remembering them in the morning. If these awakenings last longer we feel distressed and, if they are all added up in the morning and remembered, we tell ourselves that we have had a bad night of broken sleep. The distress of lying awake in bed even for a few minutes will be remembered and exaggerated in the morning, even if there was actually many hours of sleep. This is the power of exaggeration when we are stressed.

(5) Natural insomnia sets in with age. As we grow older we need less sleep. Ian Oswald in Edinburgh reported an interview of 2500 people of different ages. Over 20 per cent of the elderly who were interviewed said they slept less than five hours each night As we grow older we need less and less sleep. However, even if we need less sleep, we are not contented, as the distress of lying in bed and not sleeping is unbearable to a lot of us. In contrast, there are a lot of older people who are completely satisfied with only three to four hours sleep at night They do not complain of insomnia and they do not take sleeping pills.

Hence a large proportion of people who think they have insomnia are in fact experiencing pseudo-insomnia. In fact these people are healthy, and if they are tested in the sleep laboratory they are found to have a normal sleep profile. They are imposters.

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HELPFUL TRAINS OF THOUGHT FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY: CONCENTRATE ON THE FEELING OF CALM

Posted on April 29, 2009 by admin

Now we can consider more specific measures for the relief of the mental symptoms of anxiety. We include in this all the various forms of mental disquiet which anxiety brings to us: tension, apprehension, restlessness, and all the strange variations of feeling which bring us to know that all is not well with us.

We use trains of thought which are most appropriate to our own particular circumstances. But we must always remember that the procedure is effective only when we are first thoroughly relaxed, and have let ourselves regress into this primitive type of uncritical thinking.

Concentrate on the Feeling of Calm-If apprehension is a prominent symptom, as it often is, we can proceed like this:

Relaxed.

Whole of my body relaxed.

Relaxed and calm.

Calm all through me.

Calm in my face.

Calm in my mind.

Remember that it is not just a matter of repeating these ideas over to ourselves in our mind. We do it slowly, easily, comfortably, and really experience the feeling of each idea in turn.

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BIOLOGICAL MEDICINE AND ARTHRITIS

Posted on April 29, 2009 by admin

At this point I wanted to direct Dr. Essen to the .specific area of arthritis.

“What is your experience in Vita Nova with arthritis, and how effective are biological methods in the treatment of arthritis?”

“First, we must acknowledge that the conventional, symptomatic drug approach to arthritis has failed to show positive results. Accordingly, patients are left without any alternative. In fact, they are told that there is no alternative.

“But there is an alternative, and sometimes a very effective one, without toxic drugs. This alternative is biological medicine.

“Biological medicine is very adaptable for treating diseases of the rheumatic type because of their systemic and metabolic nature. The biological treatments help restore the normal metabolic rate, normalize the functions of the vital organs, assist the body in elimination of toxic wastes from the system—in short, rebuild and restore the patient’s general health. Although I believe that dependable scientific conclusions must be made first after ten years of observation (our clinical work here started only seven years ago), our preliminary impression is that biological methods are of supreme importance in the management of arthritis. As you know, we do not specialize in arthritis only—patients come here with all imaginable ills. But we have treated a sufficient number of patients with arthritis already to be able to make the statement that biological treatment will give them a chance either for a complete recovery or, in most cases, a definite improvement in their condition.”

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EPILEPSY: THE FACTS-STOPPING ANTI-EPILEPTIC MEDICATION

Posted on April 28, 2009 by admin

Children with epilepsy and their parents, and adults with epilepsy obviously want to know when it is sensible to stop anti-epileptic medication when they have been free of seizures for two or three years. What risks of recurrence do they have, and should they stop the drugs very slowly, or does the speed with which they do this matter very much? 20 years after diagnosis, 50 per cent of a community sample will have been free from all seizures without anti-epileptic drugs for at least five years, and many will have abandoned their drugs far earlier. What advice can be given?

First of all, it must be recognized that many people are anxious about the possibility of recurrence of seizures, not least because if one occurs, a driving licence regained will be lost again for one year. However, it seems sensible to try and avoid potential adverse effects from very long-term use. In children, there may be anxieties about continued medication and potential effects on cognitive function and learning. Women in their child-bearing years may be anxious about the possible effects of anti-epileptic drugs upon the prenatal development of their babies.

Factors which indicate a significant risk of relapse of seizures on stopping anti-epileptic drugs include the epilepsy syndrome (juvenile myoclonic epilepsy being particularly likely to relapse), and the duration of epilepsy, the number of tonic-clonic seizures so far, and the need to take more than one anti-epileptic drug before control was established. All these factors, if present, suggest ‘difficult’ epilepsy, so it is not surprising if seizures recur if anti-epileptic drugs are stopped.

The EEG may occasionally be helpful about deciding when to withdraw drugs but only in children, in whom it has been shown that the presence of persisting generalized spike-wave activity makes relapse more likely. The evidence is much less impressive in adults,

Top curve: probability of completing a period of five consecutive years without seizures. For example, six years after diagnosis 42 per cent of patients have been seizure free for five years.

Middle curve: the probability of being in remission, at any time, for at least the past five years. The difference between the top and middle curve is due to relapse after achievement of a five-year remission. For example at 20 years after diagnosis 70 per cent of patients are currently free from seizures and have been for five years and a further 6 per cent have had at least one seizure-free period of at least five years’ duration, but have subsequently relapsed.

Lowest curve: the probability of being free of seizures for at least five years whilst not taking anticonvulsant drugs.

In summary, 20 years after diagnosis 50 per cent of patients were free from seizures without anticonvulsants for at least five years. A further 20 per cent continue to take anticonvulsant medication and have also been free of seizures for at least five years. Seizures continue, in spite of medication, in 30 per cent. Data from Dr J.F. Annegers and colleagues.

But it may be assumed that a markedly abnormal EEG, by indicating widespread nerve cell abnormalities, makes it rather more likely that further seizures will occur. However, the finding of any abnormality does not imply that seizures necessarily will recur, and the absence of any abnormality does not guarantee that seizures will not recur. For this reason, many specialists do not carry out an EEG before stopping treatment, but decide on the basis of the type of seizure or epilepsy syndrome that the patient has and the interval that the patient has been seizure-free.

It is generally felt, if a decision is made to withdraw anti-epileptic drugs, this should be done gradually over about two-three months or so. This is particularly important for phenobarbitone and for the benzodiazepine group of drugs (for example, diazepam or Valium and clobazam frizium) of drugs; in patients taking these drugs, abrupt withdrawal may precipitate a burst of seizures, rather like what is known to happen in someone who suddenly stops drinking after many years of abusing alcohol.

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ARTHRITIS BEATEN TODAY-CMO: THE IDEAL PROGRAM, CMO AS A PREVENTIVE, AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Posted on April 28, 2009 by admin

The question comes up continuously. If taken before any signs or symptoms of arthritis actually appear could CMO act as 2 preventive?

The answer is: Probably.

And that could turn out to be true as well for many other autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia, lupus, Crohn’s disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, etc.

Not many doctors, therapists, or researchers give much thought to when the arthritic process actually begins in an individual. They’re focused primarily on treating the disease or looking for new medications to combat it.

A person doesn’t really become aware of the fact that the arthritic process has taken hold until the symptoms become rather obvious. Even the little joint pains that sometimes appear from time to time early on in the process are usually ignored. It isn’t until the pain starts to come quite regularly, or until the joints begin to swell or stiffen, that the disease is recognized for what it is. By then it’s too late to think of prevention. It’s time to look for relief, a treatment, a cure.

However, consider this. We can very frequently identify the events or circumstances that may eventually bring on arthritis considerably later in life. Sometimes the symptoms of arthritis may appear quite soon, within a year or so. Sometimes they may not show up for several or even dozens of years.

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PUNCTURE WOUNDS IN CHILDREN: SYMPTOMS, PRECAUTIONS, TREATMENT

Posted on April 28, 2009 by admin

 

Signs and symptoms

The presence of a puncture wound usually is obvious. The important aspects of the diagnosis involve determining whether the puncture has penetrated into a deeper structure (a joint, the abdominal cavity or chest cavity, the skull, or a tendon), whether it contains a foreign body (broken needle, wood or glass splinter, or shred of clothing), and whether it is infected.

Home care

Wash the skin surrounding the puncture with soap and water and apply a non-irritating, non-stinging antiseptic such as solution – not tincture – of Merthiolate antiseptic. Be sure your child has been immunized against tetanus within the last five years. Make sure that the object that made the wound is intact and has not broken off at the tip. Inspect and feel the wound to determine if a foreign body can be detected under the skin. If no foreign body is present, cover the wound with a sterile bandage and inspect it twice a day for signs of infection (redness, discharge, swelling, increasing pain, and tenderness). Soak the wound frequently in warm water to help keep it clean. If there is a foreign body in the wound, take the child to a doctor.

Precautions

• Puncture wounds in the abdomen or chest can be very serious. Take your child to a doctor.

• Punctures of a joint may cause infectious arthritis within hours. The knee joint is particularly susceptible; a puncture near a joint, especially the knee, should be seen by a doctor. Any signs of infectious arthritis (redness, swelling, increasing pain, inability to move the joint through its full range of normal motion) should be considered a medical emergency.

• Do not remove an object from a puncture wound, not even if it is a knife blade, a nail, a splinter of wood or glass, or a needle. Let your doctor remove it. You might cause further damage if you try to remove the object yourself.

• If a puncture wound remains tender for more than one or two days, it should be seen by your doctor.

Medical treatment

A puncture wound cannot be cleaned properly, even by a doctor. Your doctor will try to determine if any foreign bodies are present by feeling the wound or by X ray. If there is anything in the wound, it may need to be removed surgically; or the doctor may wait and observe the wound for awhile, perhaps instructing you how to soak it in Epsom salts solution for five to 10 minutes four times a day. Antibiotics will be prescribed if the wound is infected, and a tetanus toxoid injection will be given if the child’s immunization is not current. If a wound has penetrated a joint, the abdomen, the chest, the skull, or a tendon, your doctor will hospitalize the child and explore the wound surgically.

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LESSONS IN RUBBERSHIP

Posted on April 23, 2009 by admin

Nobody ever said that using a condom comes naturally. How can you enjoy yourself if you’re fighting the Trojan War? Here, courtesy of Dr. William Kassler of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are the seven habits of highly effective and safe lovers.

Use latex. If you run across one of those old lambskin artifacts, don’t use it for safe sex. It’s porous enough for the virus to get through. Use latex or polyurethane condoms, which is what you’ll almost always find in stores these days. Keep the lambskin version as a museum piece.

Stay current. That date on the package isn’t the vintage. It’s the last possible day you can safely use what’s inside. Latex corrodes. So if your long-forgotten college stash of rubbers suddenly turns up, with a Cold War-era expiration date, put them in the same museum case as your lambskins.

Beat the heat. Heat will break down latex. That eliminates two favorite storage places for your condom supply-your wallet (body heat will do it) and anywhere in your car on warm days. Under the radiator or tucked in a lampshade are probably bad ideas as well.

Open with care. It’s understood that sometimes the actual extraction of the condom from its packet is necessarily performed in an atmosphere of, shall we say, urgency. But try to stay calm. If you start ripping at the wrapper with your fingernails or teeth or Swiss Army knife, you can inflict a surface wound on the condom itself that will defeat the purpose of using it. Take a deep breath, count to five, and gently tear. See how easy it can be?

Don’t dawdle. Guys who thrust away and then don the condom just before ejaculating are, to put it generously, unclear on the concept. For one thing, your pre-ejaculate fluid can infect your partner if you’re HIV-positive. And vaginal secretions can carry HIV to you. Put the condom on before there’s any genital contact.

Roll with the flow. Condoms roll one way. So if you start to roll it the wrong way, you just turn it around and roll it the other way, right? Not if you want to protect your partner. You’ve already moistened what’s now the outside of the condom, and the whole idea is to not exchange fluid. Throw it away and unroll another one.

Lube it right. Use water-based lubricants like K-Y Jelly or Astroglide. But don’t use oil-based lubricants like Vaseline. They can break down the latex.

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FERTILITY PROBLEMS: FIBROIDS AS FEMALE MEDICAL PROBLEM

Posted on April 23, 2009 by admin

Fibroids, which are non-cancerous growths, are given different names depending on where they grow:

• Submucosal fibroids grow on the inside of the womb and extend into the uterine cavity.

• Intramural fibroids grow within the uterine wall.

• Subserol fibroids grow on the outside of the womb, in the lining between the uterus and the pelvic cavity.

The main symptoms of fibroids are extremely heavy periods. If the fibroid is submucosal, then the mechanism that stops menstrual flow may not operate effectively. Menstrual flow is stopped by muscular contractions of the womb and fibroids can interfere with this.

Diagnosis

Fibroids can be diagnosed in several ways. Often they are picked up on a simple internal examination. If the fibroids are small, then a pelvic ultrasound can be used and this is often done to confirm the diagnosis from the internal examination.

Medical Treatment

If the fibroids are preventing pregnancy and they are not too large, they can be removed surgically, leaving the womb intact (myomectomy).

Recently, a new technique has been developed called arterial embolisation. Fibroids have their own blood supply and the theory is that, if that blood supply is cut off, the fibroids will stop growing and may even shrink. Embolisation is performed with a laser and it can make some fibroids shrink to one-third of their original size.

Natural Treatment

The natural treatment for fibroids is the same as that for PCOS and endometriosis

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MEMORY LOSS PREVENTION

Posted on April 23, 2009 by admin

•     There is nothing we can do about ageing but we may prevent the effects of ageing, and some measures will undoubtedly help keep memory alive longer. A lively mind in a healthy body definitely helps.

•     There is a lot of interest at the moment in choline in the diet. Lecithin is a major dietary source of choline and is especially plentiful in egg yolk. Doctors first became interested in choline because it is the precursor of acetylcholine which is essential for the flow of nerve impulses in the body. Studies have found that extra choline in the diet increases levels of acetylcholine in the brain and may help memory. In one study a 10 g dose of choline significantly improved memory and recall in normal, healthy people. Those whose memories were poorest at the start of the experiment were helped most. Lecithin can be bought in health-food shops, as can choline.

A study in Texas gave lecithin to people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (a form of mental deterioration that includes memory loss) and then re-tested their memories. Although their memories did not return to normal there was a definite improvement which lasted for 6-18 months. Choline and lecithin are totally safe to use-in one study there were no side-effects even when the subjects took 20-25 g a day.

•     If you have too much to remember you will have to accept the fact that you will need to rely on tricks and devices if you don’t want to forget things. Learn to improve your level of concentration and to make a positive effort to link the new thing to be remembered to something else you already know. Make lists. Write notes for yourself. Use other people to remember things for you and then enlist their help. Use modern technology to store information you don’t have to carry in your head. Research has found that it is easier to remember pictures than words, so it can be helpful to create an image in your mind with which to link the new thought you want to memorize.

For example, if you want to remember to fill up the car with petrol and to buy some eggs think of the eggs floating in petrol. Similarly, when trying to remember names, link the person’s name to what he or she does. So Mrs. Garden who is a nurse would be remembered by a visual image of her with patients in beds in her garden, and so on.

•    Cut down on or stop smoking, drinking and taking drugs. A study in Los Angeles divided twenty-three habitual smokers into two groups. One group was asked to smoke a non-nicotine cigarette, while the others smoked normal cigarettes. Both were then tested on their ability to recall a list of seventy-five items. The non-nicotine group recalled an average 24 per cent more words than did the ordinary smokers. In another study smokers and non-smokers were given a dozen colour photographs of people and told their names. After 10 minutes the non-smokers fared better at matching the names and the faces than did the other group.

•    A study in Oklahoma tested the memory of young and middle-aged people before and after drinking alcohol. The results showed that even moderate drinking produced memory impairment. Certain medications, even some obtainable without a prescription, cause memory loss.

Some tranquillizers, and tablets for high blood pressure, cause memory problems, so if you think your tablets could be the cause, talk to your doctor. Don’t just stop them to find out.

•     Tiredness can seriously affect short-term memory. Most people find that their memory is best early in the day and gets less good as the day wears on. This is only true for short-term memory, though-the reverse is true for long-term memory.

•     Getting in the right mood can help memory. It has been found that happy events are better recalled in happy situations and moods, and vice versa. In one study, subjects were asked to remember two lists of words, one while they were happy and one while they were sad. People who were sad during recall remembered about 80 per cent of the word lists they had learned when they were sad, compared with only 45 per cent of the words learned when they were happy. On a practical level it can be very helpful to re-create the mood of the event you are trying to remember.

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ENDOMETRIOSIS: ACUPUNCTURE, ACUPRESSURE, SHIATSU AND REFLEXOLOGY

Posted on April 22, 2009 by admin

TO HELP MANAGE PAIN

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment which is thought to restore energy flows in the body, thereby alleviating pain and allowing healing.

Acupuncture usually involves placing fine, sterile, stainless steel needles in specific locations on the body depending on the site of the pain. The needles may then be manipulated and rotated by hand or stimulated electrically.

The depth of the needle penetration, the number of points on your body that are stimulated and the duration of treatment will vary according to the symptoms.

Acupuncture is a simple and safe procedure if practiced by a properly qualified medical practitioner.

There may be a little discomfort during the treatment and you may experience slight bruising where the needles have been inserted.

Many doctors practicing acupuncture now use single or disposable needles to eliminate the risk of infection.

Some women suffering from endometriosis have gained significant relief from their pain with the use of acupuncture.

Acupressure

Acupressure originated in China as a first aid technique. It is based on the same principles as acupuncture but the acupuncture points are stimulated by finger pressure instead of needles.

Acupressure is easy to learn and can be performed by yourself or by a friend. It can be used for the relief of symptoms such as menstrual cramps and can also be a means of strengthening and balancing your body’s deep energies for the well-being of your body and mind.

Shiatsu

Shiatsu is a form of acupressure. It is an ancient Japanese art of applying pressure to acupuncture points and is combined with oriental massage. With regular use it is believed to improve your health by increasing the flow of energy through the body.

Shiatsu should be pleasurable, not painful. Once the correct technique has been learnt from a qualified person it is possible to have a friend give you a massage or even to do it yourself.

Reflexology

Reflexology is again similar to acupressure and is derived from the belief that discomfort and pain arises from blockings of the body’s vital energy.

It is believed that every organ of the body has a corresponding point on the foot. To treat problems affecting a particular part of the body, the appropriate point is located on the foot and then manipulated and massaged. This massage results in a stimulation and improvement of the energy flow to the affected organ and therefore brings about pain relief.

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