Few give much attention to the feet until they start to play up but that probably applies to the rest of the body as well.

The foot has 26 bones, 19 muscles, 33 joints and over 100 ligaments.

It is a complex, strong, supple structure which supports us through life, yet we squeeze it into shoes which are too tight and designed by the whim of fashion rather than for comfort.

Management of problems of the feet mainly rests with the medical profession.

The general practitioner sees and deals with most problems, referring the more difficult, or those which require operation, to an orthopaedic surgeon.

In the past, chiropodists confined their practice to cutting toenails and paring corns and calluses.

They have now changed their name to podiatrists and have more training in all aspects of feet problems. Increasingly, people are going directly to podiatrists when feet start to ache.

Let us look at a few of the common foot problems.

*357/71/1*

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Posted by admin on May 15th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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Most infections of the urinary tract in women are located in the bladder and urethra and, although they cause great discomfort, they are not serious, infection is more dangerous when it involves the kidney. Infection in the kidney has usually spread upwards from the bladder.

Although little girls and elderly women do suffer from bladder infection it is usually a problem of sexually active women.

Symptoms come on suddenly and involve discomfort in the lower abdomen, frequency in passing urine, and burning or scalding usually at the end of the stream. There may be precipitancy, the feeling that the urine is going to come away, and the desire to pass water again straight after the bladder is emptied. Occasionally there is incontinence, when control is lost, or there may be blood in the urine.

Fortunately, these symptoms may settle down without any treatment, or the old-fashioned trick of drinking barley water works, as does any treatment to make the urine alkaline in reaction.

*107/71/1*

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Posted by admin on May 15th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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The well-known Russian physiologist Tarkhanov wrote: “The time will come when it will be a disgrace for a man to die less than 100 years old.”

There is extensive research going on in Russia on the prolongation of life. Russia is concentrating heavily on the preventive aspect of medicine. Russian medical scientists consider the prevention of disease and prolongation of life as their ultimate goals.

One of the Soviet scientists engaged in research on longevity is I Dr. Olga Lepeshinskaya. In her book Life, Age and Longevity, she states that the normal life span of the human beings should be not : less than 150 years, if they would observe the elementary laws of I health. Everyone who feels old before he reaches 100, she says, is j suffering from premature old age. And she claims that premature old age, like other diseases, can be prevented; it also can be successfully treated after it appears. How? Her recipe is simple enough:

sound, simple, natural nutrition;

plenty of physical work, recreation and rest;

a cheerful, optimistic outlook on life.

Here are some Russian longevity secrets, nutritionally speaking:

Food processing and refining is not as advanced in Russia as it is here; Russians still eat largely natural, unprocessed, unrefined I foods.

There are very few additives allowed in food processing or manufacturing; all artificial colorings and flavorings are totally prohibited.

Russians eat very little meat compared to Americans. Only 25 percent of their protein intake is acquired from animal sources j (in the United States it is 71 percent).

There are fewer devitalized foods and condiments available: no chewing gum, no Coca-Cola, no TV dinners.

Add to this less polluted water, virtually unpolluted air, no lead allowed in gasolines, more fertile soils, considerably less use of patented nonprescription drugs, and the great popularity of outdoor sports, hikes, bicycle tours, swimming, etc., and you can see why Russians are achieving better health and longer life. Their mortality rate is 7.6 per thousand against 9.4 in the United States and they have seven times more people reaching 100 years of age than has our country.

Here are a few other longevity points based on Russian medical discoveries and the experience of 21,000 Russian centenarians:

Russian scientists believe that vitamin C is the long-sought Fountain of Youth. They encourage Russians to collect wild rose hips and cultivate hip-bearing “vitamin roses” in their backyards for a plentiful supply of Vitamin C.

Russian scientists believe that vitamin E plays a vital role in staying younger longer and preventing premature aging. They prescribe vitamin E for the youthful function of sex glands and the healthy function of the reproductive system. At the Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Science, experiments with vitamin E have shown that it has an emormously beneficial effect on the diseases of old age, specifically in combination with vitamin A. The rejuvenating property of these vitamins, aside from their direct effect on sex glands, is explained by the fact that they strengthen the ability of the tissues to absorb oxygen, restore impaired circulation in blood vessels, especially in the small capillaries, and help to restore the normal permeability of the blood vessels.

Studies of Russian centenarians show that almost all of them use lots of honey in their diet. Russian doctors encourage people to eat honey; they also prescribe honey as medicine and use it in hospitals, at bedtime, to induce a deep, restful sleep.

Russians eat enormous quantities of sunflower seeds and use unrefined cold-pressed sunflower oil. Sunflower oil is rich in vitamin E and essential fatty acids, the deficiency of which is definitely linked with premature aging. Sunflower seeds are also an excellent source of complete protein, B-vitamins, and minerals, especially zinc, which has been recently found to play an important role in the growth and maturity of the gonads, the sex glands, and is also directly linked with the health of the prostate gland. Zinc has been pointed out as an active agent in most so-called virility foods, such as oysters, raw nuts, sea foods, onions, etc. Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are very rich in this mineral.

Russians eat great amounts of raw onions and garlic, both considered by many nutritionists to be important life-prolongers.

Russian people eat lots of fermented foods; sour bread, sour pickles, sauerkraut, sour milk, kefir, yogurt. It has been demonstrated that fermented lactic-acid foods have an extremely cleansing and revitalizing effect on the digestive and assimilative tracts, and also have a direct curative effect, especially on the degenerative diseases. It could be, therefore, said that these foods have a rejuvenating effect.

*127\58\2*

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Posted by admin on May 8th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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The successful biological program for bringing blood pressure down and keeping it low must include the following proven measures:

Repeated 7- to 14-day fasts on fruit and vegetable juices, plus vegetable broth.

Lacto-vegetarian diet, high in natural raw fruits and vegetables and low in animal protein.

Continuous practice of undereating and keeping slim.

Exclusion of salt, coffee, and alcohol.

Exclusion of white sugar, white bread and all refined and

denatured foods.

Inclusion of special food supplements:

Vitamin E—take one to two tablespoons of wheat germ 0ji each day. Add raw wheat germ to your diet. Take vitamin E capsules, 300 to 600 International Units a day. Note: because vitamin E increases the strength of the heart beat, it may sometimes elevate the blood pressure temporarily. In case of severe hypertension, start with 100 I.U. and gradually increase to 600 I.U. a day.”

Vitamin C—take rose hips in powder or tablet form, or other natural vitamin C supplements, amounting to 1,000 to 1,500 mg. of C a day, and 20 to 100 mg. of rutin or mixed bioflavonoids.

Choline—take 2 tbsp. of lecithin each day. Supplement your diet with brewer’s yeast, rich in B-vitamin complex.

Potassium—eat lots of green leafy vegetables, potatoes (boiled or baked in their jackets), and other vegetables. Avoid salt. You may also wish to discuss with your doctor the advisibility of supplementing your diet with potassium salts in tablet form.

Garlic—take odor-free garlic and parsley tablets before each meal.

Regular walking and deep breathing exercises.

Dry brush massage morning and evening.

Elimination of possible emotional causes of disease.

The biological clinics in Europe and in the United States have records of thousands of cases of high blood pressure completely cured by the application of the treatments as outlined in this chapter. These treatments are safe and harmless and can be applied by yourself in your own home, if your blood pressure is not too high. In cases of severe hypertension it may be wise to show this chapter t0 your doctor and ask him about the advisability of undertaking this program of treatment under his supervision.

*101\58\2*

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Posted by admin on May 8th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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Iris signs, from which a disease state can be diagnosed, are differentiated

(a) By their colour

(b) By their shape

The shape of iris-signs varies considerably, and in the early stages of study easily produces difficulties of interpretation. I will here attempt to write fully and exhaustively on the description of each type.

1. Lines: One has to differentiate white and dark lines; short, long and zigzag lines. Short white lines are usually found lying in contiguity one with another, and are signs of inflammation affecting the organs concerned. Long white lines are those which are not limited to one organ area, but run over several areas. They are indications of neuritis with pain, or of neuralgia. They begin in the iris-wreath, or even at the pupillary margin, and run towards the outer border. If these lines run in zigzag fashion, the patient will be found to complain of cramp-like pains. Such a zigzag line in the heart area is the sign of a cardiac neurosis (or irritable heart = D.A.H.). The patient will complain of the occurrence at times of severe palpitations. If one finds in the point of a zigzag line small black dots, then a danger of paralysis of the affected organ is indicated. (Nerve paralysis.)

Dark lines in an organ area are indications of nervous weakness.

2. Flakes and Clouds: These are always white to yellow-white. They appear as signs of an acute or chronic inflammation of the mucuous membranes (catarrh). The signs are usually seen in the form of small flakes directly around the pupil (inflammation of the gastric mucous membranes), or in the form of larger flakes or clouds in the mucous membrane zone (Minor zone 5), in the sectors for lungs, thorax, peritoneum, frontal sinus, etc.

3. Wisps: can be white, yellowish or dark. They are larger than clouds and flakes, and not so intensely indicated. They take in the entire organ area (e.g. as in uterine catarrh), or an entire zone (e.g. the muscle zone in general muscular rheumatism). White wisps are signs of an extensive tissue-inflammation.

Dark wisps appear when the indicated organ has become weak in reaction (often observed in the area for uterus). White wisps become yellowish in the transition to the chronic state, and in the course of time even brown. They appear as brownish or brown depositions in the superficial iris layer, and largely conceal the true basic colour of the iris. There are irides which are almost completely covered with this brownish deposit, and patients with such irides are persons who incline to stiffness and gout. In such cases the predisposition is hereditary, but these brown deposits are also to be seen as such in acquired conditions.

4. Lacunae: signs of weakness. Lacunae appear wherever the iris fibres diverge in small or large arcs and thus expose the second darker iris layer. They are indications of organic weakness. One must differentiate:

(a) Open lacunae—when the iris fibres do not again converge towards the outer iris rim and join up. These signs signify that the defect is still in the early stages, not yet closed, and that therapeutics have yet to influence it.

(b) Closed lacunae, when the iris fibres reunite towards the outer rim of the iris, thus forming an oval sign. A closed lacuna is the sign of a completed disease process. Closed lacunae may be acquired, as well as inherited.

There are many variously shaped lacunae, which all have a special meaning. Angerer and Schnabel have written on them in great detail.

5. Honeycomb signs: are lacunae in which small white lines provide a honeycomb appearance by running lengthwise and across within the lacunae. These indications suggest contraction of the organ (atrophy), with hardening and scar-tissue formation.

6. Black dots: and also oblong or jagged small black lines, suggest tissue-disintegration, loss of substance, ulcers. Where ulcers are healed, a fine white line surrounds the black sign—the

so-called healing ring.

7. Transverse signs: or ‘adhesion’ signs, are very fine white lines which run obliquely across the iris structures. They are also referred to as ‘cobweb’ signs. They are indications of adhesions and agglutinations, and are often found in the pleural area and in the caecal area. If the transverse signs are covered with a small white cloud, then an acute inflammation is indicated, and the patient complains of pain.

8. Radii Solaris: are radiating furrows in the iris tissues which are wider at the base and taper towards the outer rim. They can commence either at the pupillary margin or at the iris-wreath, and radiate towards the scurf rim. If one is seen in the brain area, then as pointed out by Angerer, a cerebral weakness is indicated. If appearing somewhere in the remaining iris area, it indicates that the organ in which sector it appears is affected by nerve weakness.

9. Wedge signs: are small black signs which are directed with their bases towards the

iris-wreath. If such a sign is seen in the heart area, then the possibility of sudden death occurring must be considered. If appearing in the kidney areas, then a condition of contracted kidneys is indicated.

10. Contraction rings (Nerve rings)—earlier called ‘Cramp-rings’—are concentric interruptions of the iris fibres which are especially seen in the second and third major zones. Three or four of these rings are often to be seen lying next to one another. They indicate circulatory disturbances in the tissue, and disturbance of lime metabolism. Interruptions in the continuity of the nerve ring indicate cramp-like pains in the organ sector concerned (gall-bladder, uterus, heart, legs, etc.).

With these contraction rings one must also consider the zone in which they appear. If they lie in the blood zone, then there will be disturbances in the large blood and lymph vessels. If they lie in the bone and skin zones, then one must expect to find disturbances in these organ systems.

11. Local dilatations and contractions of the iris-wreath and the intestinal zone. Contraction of the iris-wreath towards the pupil signifies a pressure or compression from outside affecting the intestine, e.g. from a tumour or swollen or displaced organ. Dilatation of the iris-wreath in round arcs, suggests a flabby state of the intestines. Pointed and jagged dilatations suggest colicky pains.

12. Dark skin zone: indicates a suppressed excretion. A milky-white scurf rim (arcus senilis) is a sign of arteriosclerosis.

13. Signs of death: imminent:

(a) A black wedge-sign in the heart area

(b) Completely solid black scurf rim

(c) A perpendicular-oval pupil

14. Besides the iris signs described, one must also consider whether the iris rim displays a normal circular form. In severe organic diseases the iris rim is flattened in the appropriate organ area. Pupillary deformations are also of great diagnostic importance. I would here refer to the very informative work of Schnabel: Ophthalmo-Symptomatology.

*11\78\2*

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Posted by admin on April 29th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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How long. A mistake that is all too easy to make is to assume that because a child acts well, he or she is well. Taking a child off medication too soon can cause relapses and complications. The symptoms of an illness can subside long before the illness itself is over. The child’s earache goes away, the fever drops, the appetite returns to normal, and the parent thinks the child is well again. In fact, the healing process may barely have begun. Strep infections, for example, require ten straight days of antibiotic treatment. Some infections – urinary tract and ear infections, for instance – often take even longer, even though the symptoms may disappear in a day.

Therefore, instructions such as “Give for ten full days,” “Continue for two weeks,” “Give until finished,” are not just so many words. They are precise and necessary directions to you from the doctor. Consider such an instruction not as a request, but as an order.

How to. It’s best to let your child find out early that taking medication is just one of those things children have to do now and then. It is one of those situations in which you are the boss and the child doesn’t have a choice in the matter.

Every parent needs to know how to give a child medicine, and the parent who reports to the doctor that “my child just won’t take your medication” is forcing the doctor to resort to another method of treatment which may be less effective. In extreme cases, a child who cannot be medicated at home must be hospitalized so that the appropriate medications can be given by professionals.

A young child, approached in a reassuring and matter-of-fact manner, will usually accept medication without any trouble. There are ways in which you can make it easy for both you and the child.

Liquid medicine can be given directly from the spoon (after carefully measuring) – in fact, many medications designed for children are specially flavored so that they are not unpleasant to taste. An alternative method is to use a non-glass medicine dropper to squirt the liquid slowly into the child’s cheek. If you use this method you must be very careful not to direct the stream of liquid forcefully against the back of the throat and down the windpipe.

If the medicine doesn’t taste good, give the child a sweet treat afterwards to take away the bad taste (or disguise the medicine in a little stewed apple, ice cream, or juice). If you do this, however, make sure the child takes the entire portion.

Some infants and toddlers will accept medicine in the form of chewable tablets, or even regular tablets or capsules that can be swallowed whole. However, do not give pills and capsules to even a cooperative child under the age of five. Small children can easily choke to death on a bulky pill. If the medication for the young child is not available in liquid form, mash tablets or empty the contents of capsules into a small quantity of juice or food before giving them to the child. Again, you must watch to see the child gets the whole dose.

After the age of five or six your child can probably swallow tablets or capsules whole. You can help the child learn how to do this by taking advantage of occasions when he or she needs a nonprescription remedy – aspirin for a slight headache, perhaps. If the child is willing, show him or her how to put the pill on the back of the tongue and swallow it with a drink or with a half-teaspoonful of ice cream, stewed apple, or jelly. Whenever a child is taking a pill, watch to be sure the medication goes down smoothly and the child is in no danger of choking.

A final word: don’t ever try to fool a child into taking medication by saying it’s “a sweet” or “just like sweets.” Very many cases of drug poisoning have occurred in children who helped themselves to medications that looked or tasted like sweets. Many doctors even discourage the use of children’s vitamin pills that are sweet-flavoured, brightly coloured, or shaped like cartoon characters. Such products blur the distinction in the child’s mind between sweets and drugs and the child may make a tragic mistake.

*257/84/5*

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Posted by admin on April 28th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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Anaemia occurs when there is too little hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin is the substance that carries oxygen in the blood and gives the blood its red color. Normally, hemoglobin is contained within the red blood cells (RBCs). A child can be anemic because there are too few RBCs, because each RBC contains too little hemoglobin, or as a result of both conditions.

There are more than 30 types of anaemia, each with its own cause and treatment. The most common is iron deficiency anaemia. Anaemia can occur at any age. Some forms run in families; others are acquired.

Among the most common causes of anaemia are a poor diet that does not include enough of the nutrients needed to manufacture hemoglobin (iron, protein, folic acid, vitamin Bi2, and copper); the loss of blood by internal or external bleeding; a failure to absorb nutrients, even though they are eaten; the formation of abnormal (short-lived) RBCs; an inability of the bone marrow to produce RBCs fast enough; and the too-rapid destruction of normal RBCs within the body. In addition to the many diseases that are forms of anaemia, many other illnesses can produce anaemia.

Signs and symptoms

Most cases of anaemia produce no symptoms. However, tiredness, shortness of breath, rapid pulse, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes) may be clues. If a child looks pale, check the nail beds, the inside of the eyelids, and the membranes inside the mouth for additional colorlessness. Also watch for these possible causes of anaemia: vomiting of blood; blood in the stools (red or tarry-black bowel movements); excessive menstruation; a grossly inadequate diet; chronic diarrhea; and exposure to poisonous substances.

If you think your child might have anaemia, see your doctor. The presence and type of anaemia can only be determined by laboratory tests. Periodic examinations and a medical history taken by a doctor can help detect anaemia early, an important factor in treatment. If one family member has anaemia, watch for symptoms in other family members.

Home care

Never attempt to treat anaemia yourself. The wrong treatment can be harmful and will make a proper medical diagnosis difficult. All children should receive a balanced diet to prevent anaemia caused by lack of proper nutrition.

Precaution

Iron overdosing is the second most common poisoning among children in this country. If iron supplements are prescribed by your doctor, keep them out of the reach of children. Some iron medicines are sweet, and children might mistake them for candy.

Medical treatment

To evaluate your child for anaemia, the doctor will give your child a physical examination, take a medical history, and test for simple total blood count. Your doctor may also need to take a reticulocyte (young RBC) count, platelet (a blood element that aids in clotting) count, and measurements of iron and of the iron-binding capacity in the blood. More extensive testing, if necessary, will include hemoglobin electrophoresis, sickle cell test, urinalysis, test of stools for hidden blood, examination of bone marrow, test for poisons, examination of the child’s parents’ blood, X ray of the intestinal tract, and blood chemistries. These tests will determine the type of anaemia.

The treatment prescribed may include adding supplementary iron and vitamins to the diet, a change in diet, and-though rarely-a blood transfusion. Iron or vitamin injections also are rarely called for and, if given, are administered for the first one or two doses only.

As treatment proceeds, be sure additional tests are scheduled to check on the effectiveness of the treatment. The proof of proper treatment is in the cure.

*11/84/5*

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Posted by admin on April 28th, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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Home Free after 30

The United States may have a smaller proportion of J men joining the club of octogenarians than Japan, where w life expectancy is much longer than it is for most other folks on the globe. But studies show that if we can make it to the big eight-oh, we end up outliving 80-year-olds in Japan and many European countries.

If you want to increase your chances of making it into your seventies and beyond, the doctors from the esteemed Framingham Heart Study-a Massachusetts community-based health study of more than 10,000 men and women that has been in progress for more than 30 years-have a very simple prescription for men to follow-. Smoke less, keep your blood pressure in check, and exercise to strengthen your lungs and lower your heart rate.

Among 747 healthy 50-year-old men whom researchers began studying more than two decades ago, those who had lower blood pressure, smoked fewer cigarettes, and had lower heart rates and better lung function-both associated with cardiovascular fitness-were significantly more likely to see their 75th birthday than those who did not.

The Outer Limits

So what’s the longest you can expect to live once you’ve successfully navigated past childhood diseases, car crashes, and chronic diseases? Experts agree that you probably won’t live as long as the oldest people on record- about 120.

The only authenticated case of a man who’s ever reached this remarkable milestone was Shigechiyo Izumi, a Japanese man who made it to The Guinness Book of World Records for living 120 years and 237 days. More remarkably, Izumi continued to work until he was 105.

“Thousands of individuals will be able to make it past 100,” says Dr. Olshansky. “But our inherited program for growth and development leads inadvertently to a biological limit on life.” Evidently, that’s the price we pay for being a sexually reproducing species.

*3/36/5*

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Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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Many of the features of OSA are not a direct result of snoring per se but are a consequence of obstructive events during sleep which cause blood oxygen levels to drop to dangerously low levels. The absolute priority given to the body’s need for oxygen can be put into perspective when we consider that a healthy human can survive without food for several weeks, survive without water for days, but will die within minutes of oxygen deprivation. Not surprisingly, snoring is the most prevalent symptom of OSA, occurring in about 95% of patients with the syndrome. A cluster of other symptoms is also very common and will be found to a greater or lesser extent depending on the number of apnoeas experienced in a night and the severity of oxygen deprivation.

Sleepiness

The patient with OSA is classically prone to daytime sleepiness, often found slumped in front of a television or at the table during a dinner party. Most alarming are those patients who seek help after falling asleep behind the wheel of a car or while operating dangerous machinery. The tendency to fall asleep during the day is attributed to poor quality sleep at night caused by arousals associated with each obstructive event. Anyone who has observed a patient with OSA will be aware of the repetitive nature of airway obstruction and the resulting sleep fragmentation. Airway collapse is followed by increasing respiratory efforts to overcome the obstruction and to relieve intolerably low blood oxygen levels (hypoxaemia). The degree of sleep disturbance probably relates to the severity of the apnoeic period; some patients experiencing a mild arousal from REM to NREM states, while others will be fully awakened by such an episode. Sufferers of advanced OSA are caught in a cruel cycle. The relentless process of obstruction and arousal many times a night leaves the sufferer sleep deprived, lethargic and irritable. He cannot help trying to make up for lost sleep at every opportunity yet it is sleep which sets in motion events such as loss of upper airway tone which in turn result in obstruction and arousal.

Personality changes and memory loss

Memory deterioration and an inability to concentrate are symptomatic of sleep apnoea. The reasons for this are not completely understood but it is suggested that they result from the cumulative damage of perhaps many years of hypoxaemia during sleep. The disturbed sleep patterns of OSA are also likely to result in such impairment, and there is little doubt that both hypoxaemia and sleep fragmentation contribute to the problem of impaired memory and learning ability. As a consequence of the social readjustments that have to be made and the behavioral and personality changes which may arise, these people may be seen in the first instance by Psychiatrists for treatment of depressive illness.

Physiological changes

The behavioral changes which become increasingly apparent to spouse and friends are accompanied by potentially serious physiological changes, particularly to the heart and circulatory system. Some of the changes occur rapidly in response to each of the many obstructive events during sleep. Blood pressure, for example, is normally slightly lower at night than during the day, but in OSA blood pressure rises during apnoeic periods. There can also be quite startling changes in heart rate when the hypoxaemia associated with obstruction induces a slower heart rate (bradycardia) followed by an increase (tachycardia) when normal breathing is resumed. Apnoea may also be associated with irregular heart beats or arrhythmias, which are potentially life threatening.

Superimposed over the transient yet dramatic changes which occur during sleep are several long term and persistent abnormalities. Blood pressure often remains high and may be the first measurable symptom observed at an initial consultation. Increased blood pressure and other changes to the blood circulatory system also affect the heart which may become enlarged in an effort to overcome the harmful effects of hypoxaemia on the cardiovascular system.

*11/51/5*

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Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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‘Illness behaviour’ is the term used to describe the way we respond to abnormal body signs and symptoms. Obviously this involves concepts such as how a particular person monitors his or her body and its functions, defines or interprets his or her symptoms, takes action and uses the health-care system.

‘Health behaviour’, in contrast, refers to patterns of response to health, when the person has no specific symptoms. This is an especially useful concept when thinking about prevention because a lot of prevention is done by an individual who is well at the time. Examples of such activities are regular medical and dental check-ups, screening and soon. A lot of research has been done on people’s views and beliefs in this area but the best is the Health Belief Model, which looks at the way an individual assesses the likelihood of a problem having serious consequences. It is really a sort of psychological cost-benefit analysis in which people do things according to how important they consider the consequences of not doing them. So it is that we weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of factors as different as wearing a seat-belt, exercise, nutrition, medical check-ups, clinical examinations, careful driving, sanitation and personal hygiene. According to the effect we perceive each factor as having on our lives (for good or bad) we make decisions about how to maintain our health.

Unfortunately, doctors and their patients tend to see health and illness rather differently Doctors are trained to identify illnesses and to treat them as individual entities, whereas their patients see health as a more global matter which governs their overall sense of well-being. Symptoms and other frank signs of illness are seen by patients in the context of how they interfere with the business of living. In other words, illness to most people has a lot to do with feelings.

Many studies show how people’s feelings influence their sense of physical well-being. People who complain of poor physical health are often depressed, feel neglected, have a low morale, feel alienated and are less satisfied with life than those not reporting poor physical health. Also, it is clear from many studies that psychological ill health and distress lead to a very much greater use of all kinds of health services. So psychological factors influence not only people’s views of their health but also how much they actually use health services.

The way we react to illness varies considerably with our personality type and from culture to culture. Some people are stoical in the face of illness, others matter-of-fact, and yet others hypochondriacal. Some people go straight to the doctor with the most minor of symptoms and others are reluctant to trouble him or her with even quite severe problems. The same person over quite a short time-span can react and behave in very different ways. Most studies of illness show that women go to doctors more readily and more frequently than do men. Just why this should be is not known. Perhaps there are real sex differences in many diseases (i.e. they are in fact more common in women); or women may have a lower threshold of tolerance to symptoms; they may be more likely to accept a symptom and seek help for it; they may be more interested in health; they may be more concerned that they keep well because of the considerable pressures on them to run and maintain family and home life; or they may be culturally conditioned to running (in a little-girl-like way) to an authority figure to sort out problems quickly. Whatever the reason-and it might be that none of these is correct-the difference is apparent very early. Studies have found that young “girls use child-driven school health-care systems more than do young boys. Wherever the truth lies, repeated research has shown that much of the disability associated with physical and mental illness is not the result of illness itself but rather the way the person responds to the condition and the way it is managed. For example, a lot of the aggressive behaviour previously seen with schizophrenia has been shown to be a result of the way that schizophrenics were dealt with by the authorities rather than as a part of the disease itself.

There are quite dramatic social and cultural differences in the way individuals and groups define illness and respond to it. Studies carried out in the US have shown that Jewish and Italian patients, for example, have been found to respond to pain in an emotional way-tending to make much of it-whilst the English and ‘Old Americans’ are more stoical and clear-headed about it. Irish patients more frequently deny pain. Whilst Jews and Italians appear to react similarly to pain, their underlying cultures are different. Italian patients seek relief from pain and seem satisfied when the pain is relieved, but Jewish patients seem to be more concerned about the significance of the pain for their future health. So pain relief may be what Italians need most but reassurance about the future may be what is most needed by Jews. Clearly this kind of information is essential if one is to plan any kind of preventive health programme.

*11/72/5*

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Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under General health
Tags :: General health

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