Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

• if wheezing, cough or shortness of breath persist or become worse despite medication;

• if inhalations are needed more often than every 3 or 4 hours, or one or two inhalations do not immediately make the child better;

• if the child is unable to exercise or play normally, or cannot keep up with other children;

• if sleep is disturbed because of coughing or wheezing;

• if medication requirements are increasing;

• if medication is needed immediately upon waking in the morning or cannot wait until after breakfast;

• if you do not have a clear asthma management plan for the child.

Remember that most children with asthma can lead perfectly normal lives. The aim of treatment is to prevent attacks from occurring in the first place, and if they do occur, to treat them aggressively. If you have any questions about your child’s asthma, make sure you ask his doctor.

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As I said earlier, the HTLV-IH virus is related to, but does not cause, AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and the related disease ARC, AIDS-Related Complex. Both involve the weakening of our immune system. There is still no cure. It is the moral responsibility of anyone who has sexual contact with persons at risk of carrying the AIDS virus to be tested for the AIDS antibody. Persons who are immunopositive, who are tested carefully and with verification, should not exchange bodily fluids during sex until such time as they are proven to be no longer infectious. There is no safe way to have sex and exchange bodily fluids with an infected person. There are, as you have read, many ways to be intimate, to be sexual, including touching, holding, caressing, rubbing, self- and partner masturbation, and sharing of fantasy and sexual imagery. AIDS can be deadly, but it is still relatively hard to catch.

AIDS cases have increased 59 percent in 1986. There are now almost thirty-three thousand verified cases in seventy-four countries, according to the World Health Organization, representing an increase of twelve thousand cases since the beginning of 1986. Cases could increase tenfold in the next five years. I believe that enhancement of our natural immunity, emphasis on sexual intimacy and commitment over time, the use of condoms when sexually active with a new partner or partner who may have been exposed to the AIDS virus, and support, help, and understanding for AIDS patients are all important elements in the battle to survive this health crisis.

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I wish it could feel as good as it does when I am going to come, after I come, but the better it is, the shorter it is. By the time 1 get to feeling really good, there’s not much time to enjoy it.

HUSBAND

“I know when he says he’s coming, that’s about the time he’ll be going.” The wife frowned as she expressed her marriage-long frustration with her sexual relationship. Her husband busied himself straightening the books on the table next to his chair, as if looking for some quick retort to save his self-esteem.

The wife continued, gaining momentum from her newfound freedom to express her concerns openly. “He seems to be trying to get something accomplished. I call him pelvically hyperactive. When they talk about going all the way, I’d really love to, but it’s just that I don’t think he can last long enough to go even halfway.”

The husband laughed at his wife’s sarcasm, but his smile masked the pain evident in his clenched fist. He shuffled his feet on the floor, much as a little boy caught stealing cookies once too often. He smiled at me awkwardly, as if appealing for some form of universal male empathy for our failure to explain to the opposite gender the nature of our sexual enigma. Why does it seem that the better it feels, the sooner it’s over? If we are not coming too soon, we are having trouble coming at all. Why does it seem that we enjoy so little of what we talk about so much? When we come, it sometimes feels that we haven’t been very far at all, not really been anywhere.

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Apart from friendly bacteria, there are other “friends” which live happily in our bodies. Medical science calls them parasites. Their activity in a healthy body is limited to the intestines, which is, strictly speaking, outside the body proper.

In particular, humans are hosts to the “human intestinal fluke” (fasciolopsis buskii). Fluke means “flat” , because it belongs to a family of flatworms. If you eat meat and other animal products, you could have many more parasites like for example Eurytrema, the pancreatic parasite of cattle.

These parasites have to go through certain stages to multiply. A pure and healthy body can predict these stages, expel the eggs before they have time to hatch, and therefore we could live in symbiosis with our “friends”, because their population is limited.

However, very special processes occur if we have certain toxins in our body, called solvents. Examples of solvents are: benzene, all types of alcohol (propyl, wood alcohol), toluene, xylene etc..

The liver, kidneys, and other blood purifying organs in our body are overloaded with requests to process the above solvents, together with other toxins you take with your food, and they are unable to detect and kill tiny little stages of parasites, thereby allowing them to circulate around the body with the bloodstream. In addition, the existence of solvents forces thousands of parasite eggs to hatch prematurely. Flukes in various stages grow and multiply everywhere around the body, attaching themselves to any organ where favourable conditions exist.

Some of the possible consequences are listed below:

propyl alcohol : accumulates in your liver. Adult flukes occupy the liver, but eggs and other stages circulate and grow everywhere around your body, producing excessive amounts of powerful cell growth hormones, forcing your organ cells to divide. This is exactly what our Medical science calls cancer. 100% of cancer patients have propyl alcohol in their bodies.

wood alcohol (methanol) : accumulates in your pancreas and in the eyes. The favourite spot for adult flukes becomes the pancreas. Their activity causes diabetes. 100% of people with diabetes have wood alcohol in their pancreas.

benzene : this extremely toxic solvent (comparable in toxicity* to a radioactive uranium) accumulates in your thymus gland, gradually damaging it. Adult flukes colonise the thymus gland, which, by the way, produces T-cells, identified by our Medical Science to be related to the functions of our immune system. Fluke activity gradually reduces the capacity of the thymus gland to produce T-cells. When the thymus gland cannot produce enough T-cells, our immune system can fail completely. The condition of low T-cells count is what the medical profession calls AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). 100% of all AIDS patients have benzene in their thymus gland. If you have the tiniest amount of benzene accumulated in you thymus, your immune system is impaired and you get sick more frequently.

toluene and xylene: they go to your brain. Adult flukes colonise your brain and you develop Alzheimer disease.

Solvents in prostate: Adult flukes colonise the prostate and you develop chronic prostatitis. In the case of uterus: in the presence of adult flukes you develop endometriosis etc., etc..

The above are just a few examples of the many diseases caused by the existence of various toxins in our body, after our parasite friends have taken advantage of it.

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Any new or exotic disease is sure to catch the headlines and usually, of course, cause worry and concern.

Legionnaires’ disease is no exception. It sounds exotic and conjures up thoughts of desert sands and waving palm trees.

It is now well known in Australia because of recent publicity, yet it is rare and poses little threat to the community.

In 1976, in Philadelphia, the American Legion held a conference. This is an organisation of ex-servicemen, similar to our RSL.

More than 180 members, staying at the same hotel, developed an acute and severe illness, and 29 of them eventually died.

Initially, the cause of their illness was obscure. Poisoning by food or some other agent, was suspected.

We now know what they had was Legionnaires’ disease, a form of pneumonia, or infection of the lung.

Of course, the American Legion is not happy with the name.

And I suppose, had this illness first occurred in Australia under similar circumstances, our ex-servicemen would not be happy if it was known as the “RSL disease.”

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Once the drugs were in clinical use, it was found they could lower the blood pressure in those who were suffering from hypertension or high blood pressure.

This lowering of pressure usually does not occur in those individuals whose blood pressure is normal. When used in high blood pressure, it can reduce the level to normal, yet, in bigger doses, does not drop it too low.

Beta blockers are particularly useful in sexually active men with raised blood pressure because they do not inferfere with male sexual function as do some of the other drugs.

Side-effects are common with all drugs and the hypotensives are notorious for their many different and unpleasant side-effects.

Beta blockers are not themselves free from side-effects. They do not work in all cases of high blood pressure but neither do all other drugs. A major side-effect that limits the use of these drugs is their action on the lungs.

In asthma, there is constriction of muscle in the walls of the bronchial tubes. This bronchospasm causes the wheeze and the difficult breathing. Adrenalin and related chemicals can reverse this spasm and overcome the problem.

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“I feel like someone opened an umbrella in my bladder,” one woman from Wisconsin wrote vividly in a letter to me. “I’ve been to a urologist five times and he gives me antibiotics, but nothing helps. For five or six days a month, all I do is go to the bathroom. It’s worse when I have my period. Then I have blood in my urine, on top of all the pain. What’s really wrong with me?

Many women share Peggy’s problem. They come to their doctors complaining of bladder pain, or of the sensation of needing to urinate frequently. Many of these women are suffering from endometriosis, but they are diagnosed as having bladder infections unrelated to the “career woman’s disease.” Endometrial tissue can implant itself on the bladder and find its way to the kidneys, where it may become a cause of future problems. The intravenous pyelogram (IVP), which is a radiographic visualization of the kidneys, can offer some clues.

In this test, dye is injected into a vein and the dye travels to the kidneys. Under X ray, these outlined organs are picked up Cases exist in which endometriosis has invaded the kidney and leaves telltale indentations. However, even these indentations do not always constitute a diagnosis of endometriosis. A biopsy of tissue around the kidney it required in order to make a definitive evaluation.

Cystoscopy is another technique used to explore urinary tract dysfunction. It employs an instrument called the cystoscope, which is inserted into the urethra, making it possible to view the bladder. As with the laparoscope, the cystoscope has a built-in light source that facilitates viewing (or photographing the area) and is so constructed that doctors may take tissue biopsies at the same time.

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In the past, when there was no effective treatment, the patients were segregated in leprosaria so as to protect those who were not infected. However, no such justification for segregation exists today: for one thing, only about one-fifth of all leprosy sufferers are ever infectious, even prior to treatment; furthermore, those that are infectious can be rendered noninfectious within three weeks of appropriate treatment. Unnecessary segregation lends support to the groundless fears of the general public regarding the infectiousness of leprosy. It also causes many would-be patients to hide their disease, encouraging the spread of other infectious diseases which they may suffer from, such as tuberculosis. Furthermore it reduces the opportunities for medical students, nurses and doctors to learn about the disease.

Gradually, people are becoming more aware that patients with Hansens disease should be treated in general hospital outpatient departments. The most commonly used and effective drug which destroys the germ within about three weeks, is the antibiotic Rifampicin. It is the same antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis, which is a germ very similar to the one causing Hansens disease. Subsequent treatment is with the much cheaper years with Dapsone. Those with the Iepromatous form are treated for life. Equally as important as the drug programme, is the rehabilitation of those with deformities. This involves particular skills of plastic and orthopaedic surgeons, as well as those of occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Specialized footwear has been developed for patients, and considerable research is still proceeding. In fact one of the more exciting research projects in this field involves the possibility of a specific vaccine that would be effective against the disease.

Because of its subtle and very gradual onset, Hansens disease will not be eradicated by the sort of vigorous imaginative control programme which has been so effective for smallpox. It will, however, be eradicated slowly as modern treatment becomes freely available to cooperating patients. Major steps towards this will be the medical exorcism of the word ‘leper’, and the acceptance of patients with Hansens disease into our clinics, our surgeries and our hospitals as unrestricted patients and fellow human beings.

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