Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Any doctor should be able to examine a woman’s breasts looking for lumps and at the same time teach her the technique of self-examination. An internal examination and a Pap smear can be taken.

For most cancers, the earlier they are detected, the better the results of treatment.

This applies to the commonest cancers in women and the means of early detection are available. Mahy women are either unaware of the available facilities or are just not motivated to use them.

Many women suffer discomfort in their bladder. It is usually called cystitis.

Yet it may not be the bladder itself which is involved in this most common of urinary problems.

The kidneys are on the back wall of the abdomen, just below the ribs, and lie one on either side.

They have several related functions concerned with the excretion of waste products and with the salt and water balance in the body. As blood flows through the filters of the kidney, a fluid is collected. As this fluid passes along the collecting tubule in the body of the kidney, some substances are reabsorbed and others are excreted into it.

The resulting fluid, urine, then leaves the kidney by a thin tube, the ureter, and flows down into the bladder, where the urine is stored until passed to the outside through another tube, the urethra.

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Treatments that are found to be active against certain types of cancer are then further tested in Phase III studies. In this phase of research, the aim is to find out whether the new treatment is better than what is already available. Not only completely new treatments but also variations on old treatments are tested—for example, different combinations, dosages or timing of previously available drugs.

No sophisticated research or statistical methods would be necessary if we were looking only for major improvements in treatment. It is a fact that the greatest advances in cancer treatment have been made simply by trying a completely new type of treatment in a series of patients. Here are some examples concerning chemotherapy.

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Does sugar cause diabetes? No. There is absolute consensus that sugar does not cause diabetes. Type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes) is an autoimmune health problem triggered by unknown environmental factors such as viruses. Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent diabetes) is strongly inherited but lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise and overweight increase the risk of developing it. Because the dietary treatment of diabetes in the past involved strict avoidance of sugar, many people wrongly believed that sugar was in some way implicated as a cause of the disease. While sugar is off the hook, high G.I. foods are not. Studies from Harvard indicate that high G.I. diets increase the risk of developing both diabetes and heart disease.

Are rice and pasta equal as carbohydrates? In the general sense that they are both high carbohydrate, low-fat foods with valuable amounts of micronutrients, they are equal. Pasta has a higher protein content than rice but most people eat more than enough protein anyway. Pasta and rice are not equal in terms of the G.I. factors. The G.I. factor of all types of pasta is low, usually between 40 and 50. Rice, however, can have a high G.I. (80 to 90) or a low G.I. (50 to 55) depending on the variety and, in particular, its amylose content. In Australia there are all types of rice available and it is not always possible to identify the variety on the label. Calrose rice has a high G.I. and Basmati rice has a low G.I.

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Summary of main points.

• There is a variety of factors which influence the fat loss response to exercise:

Fixed (age, gender, genetics, race) or variable (climate, diet, degree of obesity, fitness level). Exercise parameters (frequency, amount, time and type) can also alter the fat loss response within this range of influencing factors.

• There are arguments for and against resistance training for fat loss, however resistance training for fat loss probably has limited value relative to aerobic exercise.

The general indications for physical activity for fat loss is becoming clear that general prescriptions, while necessary, are insufficient alone as there is a variety of different responses to exercise within individuals and groups of individuals. One main influencing factor discussed previously is gender, with females having a lower fat loss response to exercise than males. There are a variety of other factors which can also significantly influence prescriptions for exercise for fat loss. These can be divided into ‘fixed’ and Variable’ factors. A third influencing factor is differences in prescribed exercise parameters.

There is a general need for more physical activity in anyone needing to reduce body fat, but the frequency, amount, time and type of activity can vary according to fixed and variable factors appropriate to the individual. While there is no strict science associated with this type of individual prescription at the moment, there are certain guidelines which can assist those working in the area in preparing individualised prescription.

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1. Whatever is being done to reduce obesity is not working and the developed world will be facing an explosion of diabetes and other diseases if obesity continues to increase.

2. Programs to decrease fatness should be markedly different to programs to increase fitness.

3. Body weight is only a surrogate measure of fatness and the term overfatness’ should be used where possible.

4. The aetiology of obesity is complex and it is particularly important to work closely with specialists when dealing with the severely obese.

5. Obesity and overfatness have complex, multi-factorial causes with biological, environmental and behavioural determinants suggesting that any notion of these being due to sloth or gluttony alone are now outdated.

6. Obese individuals need to understand that their degree of overfatness is genetically determined to a significant degree and that achieving a slim body requires a lifelong swim against the twin adverse tides of genes and environment. Realistic fat loss goals need to be set.

7. A population needs to change its environment to reduce the prevalence of obesity. Even small changes spread across the whole population have major influences.

8. There is a need to re-orient thinking about weight control from a simplistic, energy balance approach to a more complex, multi-dimensional, holistic approach involving long term lifestyle modification.

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Probably the most spectacular rejuvenation therapy of all times on a mass scale is the so-called Gerovital therapy. Gerovital is a procaine preparation, the rejuvenating effects of which were discovered by the Rumanian doctor, Professor Ana Asian, M.D.

Professor Ana Asian is very popular in Europe. Thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world travel to her Rejuvenation Institute in Bucharest and receive Gerovital treatments in hyper-modern clinics under doctors’ supervision. Dr. Asian says that she has treated over 40,000 people in her Institute.

Dr. Asian discovered quite accidently that procaine, previously commonly used as an anesthetic agent, had age-retarding property. She injected specially designed doses of procaine, which she named H3, into patients showing signs of degeneration and premature aging, and observed that stiff, immobile joints became flexible, pain disappeared and the patients gained new energy and vitality. Dr. Asian has improved her original H3 formula and uses only Gerovital, which she claims has been demonstrated in tests in Italy and U.S.A. as being superior to pure procaine. Gerovital has been used in Rumania for 17 years, and presently 40,000 persons all over Rumania are under continuous prophylactic treatment with Gerovital. Dr. Asian claims that Gerovital prolongs life and gives more energy, vitality and zest for living to older people. She recommends starting Gerovital treatments for preventive purposes at the age of 40. Between 40 and 60 Gerovital can be taken in tablet form. After 60, when absorbtion ability is diminished, she recommends injections.

According to Dr. Asian, aging processes start when the body’s ability to produce new cells and to replenish the old ones is diminished. Gerovital helps the body to regenerate new cell production, which is the reason for its rejuvenating effect.

I met Dr. Ana Asian in Sweden, in the summer 1968, where she lectured on her rejuvenating method. She is a living advertisement for her drug and her therapy. At 72 she looks as though she is in her late fifties. Her face is quite free from wrinkles and even the skin on her arms is perfectly smooth and firm as on a younger person. I have ‘ also talked with several persons who undertook Gerovital therapy, and they all seemed to be enthusiastic about its revitalizing and j rejuvenating effect.

Although Gerovital treatment is not endorsed by official medicine in most countries, it has an official sanction in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, East Germany, and Rumania.

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High blood pressure is often called “executive’s disease.” The overburdened, high-pressured executives of our competitive society become easy prey for high blood pressure, circulatory crisis, angina pectoris, “nervous breakdown,” and heart attack.

Stress in the form of continuous worry, psychic pressure, fear, emotional strain, constant tension, combined with regular pick-meups in the form of coffee, cokes, cigarettes, and cocktails, will eventually throw the whole system off balance, physically and emotionally. A devitalized diet of over-processed foods adds to the total picture of constant stress. Insomnia, discontentment, restlessness, weak concentration, headaches, chronic fatigue and irritability will be the first symptoms, eventually followed by high blood pressure and cardiac failure. Nature strikes back in revenge for the violation of the basic biological laws. The body raises the blood pressure to cope with the adverse condition of physical and emotional stress.

It has been clinically demonstrated that any form of stress can increase blood pressure. Anger and fear, smoking, many modern drugs such as cortisone and ACTH, even some vitamins (vitamin E) can raise blood pressure. Unexpressed negative emotions or suppressed hostile feelings can cause blood pressure to go up.

It is self-evident that the underlying causes of emotional origin must be corrected before high blood pressure can be treated successfully. Often, a long holiday “away from it all,” free from responsibilities and business pressures, will do more than any drug in the world. This is why European Spas, mineral baths, and reconditioning centers are so effective in restoring the health of tired and over-stressed executives.

If the biological treatments outlined in this chapter are not successful, it would be wise to look for possible emotional causes of high blood pressure and eliminate them in order to achieve a complete recovery.

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

(a) By their colour

(b) By their shape

‘How do the Iris-signs Originate?’ It was stated there that white, dark and black signs can appear:

1. White signs are signs of inflammation or over-stimulation. The whiter the signs, the more acute, inflammatory and painful is the condition of the affected organ. If the condition becomes chronic, then the originally white sign changes to blue-white, dirty-white, yellow or even brown.

The white iris signs show only in blue and grey irides as so brightly white. In brown eyes, the acute state shows only as a lightening of the brown iris tissues, which are then brighter than the background shade, but never quite white.

2. Dark iris signs are signs of under-stimulation, diminished function, and enervation. The iris shows in the appropriate region—grey to dark grey, but yet not black. These signs are always to be seen where the superficial surface layer of the iris has receded to expose the second

layer—vascular layer (= the lacunae and dark wispy signs).

The dark iris-signs denote a chronic disease state of the tissues as suggested above in referring to the yellow to brown signs. The difference between these two groups is to be found in the cause of the actual disease conditions. Above are signs resulting from the deposition of toxic wastes and residues in the tissues. They are indications of a state of tissue which has been described by N. Krack in Erfahrungsheilkunde 5—1961 as follows :

These signs are symptoms of incomplete products of intermediate metabolism which infiltrate into the interstitial connective tissue and there induce degenerative processes, indurations and loss of fluid. This process is progressive, attacks always the connective tissues, and can even encroach upon vascular and nerve fibres.

As against the signs just described, which originate from an excess in the tissues, and which become visible in the iris as deposits. Above: dark iris-signs indicating over-relaxed tissues with tendency to tissue destruction and consequent atrophy.

3. Black iris signs indicate loss of substance. They originate from the destruction of the second layer of the iris, which thus allows the third pigment layer to become exposed.

4. Coloured signs in the iris—also called toxin-flecks—can appear as yellowish-red, rust-red, brown, black-brown, or in all other shades. They lie mainly in the deeper iris-layers. These foreign colourings will be explained later on in this book, but it may here be noted that Dr. Schnabel in his book Iridoskopie has written fully on these different forms and colours. Angerer also treats these indications fully in his work, Handbuch der Augendiagnostik.

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Menstrual problems at different stages in a woman’s life have to be coped with in very different surroundings. You may be at your office desk, standing at the sink at home, or working for an exam in the classroom when you develop a blinding headache or one of the other wretched symptoms we have been considering. Although some of the problems are obviously peculiar to the particular setting, the methods of dealing with them often apply to those that arise elsewhere. You may find some helpful advice even in the sections geared to stages and circumstances quite different from yours — some of the ways of coping with depression, work whether you’re fourteen years old or forty.

At work-When I started to think about this subject, I hardly knew where to begin, for nowadays over half the women in this country are out at work. The jobs they do are so varied and need so many different skills that if I were to deal with all the difficulties that can be caused by painful periods at work, I’d need to write a book and not a chapter. Nevertheless there are some general guidelines. Perhaps the most important of all are to do with safety.

Many women work in factories and workshops handling machinery which is hazardous at the best of times. If, on top of that, your period makes you clumsy and off-balance, you’re in very real danger of having an accident. Dr Dalton’s survey of four London hospitals showed that half the women admitted as emergencies were suffering from periods at the time they were admitted. And in the United States, the Center for Safety Education has discovered that most accidents to women occur in the forty-eight hours before their periods begin. Women are at risk at this time and so are the people they work with.

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Medications

Treating a sick child with medication is a two-way responsibility, and it’s a perfect example of how parent and doctor work together in the interests of the child’s health. The doctor is responsible for making an accurate diagnosis of the child’s condition and prescribing the appropriate drug. But it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure that the drug is administered correctly.

Some doctors estimate that 10 to 30 percent of cases in which medication apparently fails to work occur because the medication didn’t get a chance to work – because it wasn’t given properly. Whenever a doctor prescribes medication for your child, the doctor will also instruct you as to how the medicine should be taken. If you don’t understand, ask. And don’t rely on the scribble on the prescription. Prescriptions are written in a form of medical shorthand that is quite clear to a pharmacist but may not mean a thing to you. So make sure you know, before you leave the doctor’s office or get off the phone, just how to give the child the medication.

How much. The quantity of medication the doctor prescribes for your child depends on the child’s body weight and age. The dosage prescribed for a baby will be much different from that prescribed for an adolescent, even if the drug is the same and given for the same reason. It’s important to give the child the exact amount prescribed, and that means you can’t rely on hit-or-miss measurements. It’s easy enough to give one or two pills, but liquid measures are more tricky. You can’t use a kitchen teaspoon to administer a teaspoon of medication – you could be way off. One tea-spoonful means 5.0 cc (cubic centimeters) of liquid. Half a teaspoonful means 2.5cc – not what looks like half of the teaspoon you use to stir your coffee.

You can buy a specially marked measuring spoon for medication from any pharmacist. Keep it in the medicine chest and be sure to use it any time you’re giving the child liquid medication. If you’ve got a child who insists on taking medication from his or her own special spoon, transfer the medication from the measuring spoon to the child’s spoon after measuring.

Make sure the child takes all the medication. If the child vomits within 20 minutes of receiving medication, you can assume the medication was lost and should give another dose.

When. It’s also important to follow the doctor’s instructions about when medicine should be given. Different medications require longer or shorter periods of time to be absorbed by the body and start doing their work of helping the child get well. Some medications need to be given at very precisely regulated intervals. Make sure you understand the prescription, because “four times a day” and “every six hours” do not mean the same thing.

If the label on the medication tells you to give the medicine four times a day, it means that the child should have four doses within the waking hours at fairly equally spaced intervals.

On the other hand, “every six hours” means exactly what it says. Each dose must be given six hours after the last one, and the child must be awakened at the appropriate time if necessary. This instruction may also appear on the prescription as every six hours “around the clock.”

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