The Health Blog

According to medical experts, the Pill, if used properly, has a success rate of about 99 percent. However, more than 8 percent of women in their first year on the Pill become pregnant. Doctors say that many failures are simply due to missed doses, but that drug interactions can also lower the Pill’s success rate. These experts recommend that if you are taking the Pill—especially if it is a low dose formulation— you consult your gynecologist before taking certain drugs including the following:

1) Adrenocorticoids— this is a cortisone-like medicine which is commonly used to treat an assortment of ailments.

2) Antibiotic and antibacterial drugs— these include ampicillin, bacampicillin, chloramphenicol, neomycin, penicillin, tetracycline, rifampin, and sulfa drugs.

3) Anticonvulsants— including carmazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone, and valproic acid.

4) Antihistamines and Decongestants— this includes those found in many over- the-counter cold remedies.

5) Cholesterol-lowering drugs.

6) Headache remedies— including prescription drugs.

7) Mineral oil

Sedatives and tranquilizers— including barbiturates, chlordiazepoxide (Librium) and diazepam (Valium).

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The exact cause for Alzheimer’s disease is not known. This disease effects the portions of the brain that are responsible for memory, thinking, and physical functions. It usually affects older people and is fatal in a period of a few months to 5 years.

What Many People Don’t Know About Alzheimer’s Disease:

Aluminum

Many autopsy studies have revealed high amounts of the metallic element aluminum in the damaged brain areas of Alzheimer’s patients. This could mean that these people have too much aluminum in their diet or that they are unable to metabolize it properly.

Another study revealed that young patients who received abnormally high doses of aluminum begin to show signs of senility! A report in The Lancet shows increased Alzheimer rates among people who drink water with high concentrations of aluminum.

Some doctors warned that cooking with aluminum pots and utensils can be dangerous. Aluminum cooking pots when mixed with fluoridated water could increase the amount of aluminum in your food. It does this by increasing the solubility of aluminum in the water used to cook the food.

Some natural occurring waters or treated waters contain large amounts of aluminum. This could result in increased aluminum in your body. Therefore, it could pay you to have your water tested.

Some doctors are convinced that there is an increased risk for Alzheimer’s if you have high amounts of aluminum in your body.

Smoking

A recent study reveals that cigarette smokers have four times the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease. The reason for this is not known. The best advice is to quit smoking entirely. You could lessen your chances of get Alzheimer’s as well as many other ailments.

Diagnosis

A London University study reported that many doctors gave wrong diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease in about half of their cases. Other diseases can cause similar symptoms. Alzheimer’s disease can only be correctly diagnosed by a doctor who is thoroughly experienced with the disease.

Cancer is one of the most frightening words in the English language. This disease comes in many forms and is one of the deadliest afflictions of mankind. Cancer frightens people because it is very deadly, there are no sure cures, it can be very painful, and many people contact this disease.

Doctors cannot pinpoint any one single cause of cancer. But recent medical research has shown that a number of enviromental and diet factors can increase the risk of contacting cancer.

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Some recent medical studies suggest that nutrition plays a vital role in your overall state of mind. Researchers say that a deficiency in B vitamins and certain amino acids may result in depression. Some cases of depression, resulting from low levels of the B vitamin, folic acid, have been successfully treated with folic acid supplements. While the link between vitamin B deficiency and depression is not conclusive, the evidence suggests that proper levels of folic acid can help ease mild depression in some people. If you think you may have a vitamin B deficiency, consult your doctor.

Good dietary sources of folic acid include lima beans, liver, whole-grain products, asparagus, oranges, and green, leafy vegetables.

The 100% “Natural High” Without Drugs Or Alcohol

Although it may be hard to believe, there are substances in your brain which, when released, can provide you with a natural high— without drugs or alcohol. Back in the 1970s, scientists discovered that molecules similar to morphine were produced in the brain. The substances, called endorphins, are released during vigorous physical exercise. They also help relieve pain. This may explain why some athletes, injured during a contest, can continue playing without pain. These natural substances also help control responses to stress and can even improve mood. Many athletes experience a sense of well-being after a strenuous physical workout— a “natural high” brought about by the release of endorphins in the brain.

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While you can never go wrong drinking water with your meals, some experts believe that wine is perhaps the healthiest choice. Studies indicate that wine has several possible healthful benefits including prevention of heart disease, increasing good HDL blood cholesterol, and killing bacteria and viruses. Wine has also been shown to contain chemicals which may prevent cancer in animals.

Some studies indicate that the people of France, who drink wine regularly with their meals (and consume foods high in fat) experience fewer instances of heart disease, and are generally healthier than the majority of Americans. While the studies are not conclusive proof that wine is the healthiest drink to have with your dinner, the evidence does suggest possible benefits.

Of course, there are potential dangers when consuming alcohol, so moderation is the key.

If you experience hearing problems, such as a hearing loss,, good dietary sources, of vitamin A include liver, milk and dairy products, carrots, apricots, cantaloupes, and oranges.

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There are many different causes for back pain. However, in most cases, those people afflicted with back pain can trace it to one of four common causes:

1. Being out of shape— this is probably the most common cause of back pain. The muscles that support the spine include the abdominals, the back extensors, and the hip and thigh muscles. These muscles become weak and stiff without regular exercise, and pain in the lower back is usually a consequence.

2. Being overweight— carrying around excess weight can cause back pain because it increases the amount of pressure on the spinal disks, which provide cushioning between the vertebrae. Since most overweight people have flabby abdominal muscles which can not support excess weight, the back muscles become overburdened. This causes inordinate stress in the lower back, resulting in back pain.

3. Bad posture— when you walk with slumped shoulders you alter the natural curve of the back and cause stress for the muscles that serve as a girdle to support the spine. In order for the spine to receive proper support, your posture must be good, with your head and shoulders relaxed rather than thrown back and your buttocks should be tucked under slightly and your stomach held in firmly without straining.

4. Tension— anyone who experiences an excessive amount of stress is also susceptible to back pain. While most people can’t eliminate all the stress from their lives, they can cut down on the risk with some simple relaxation techniques and by exercising.

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Society’s prejudice can lead to rejection and social isolation. One thing you should not have to take into consideration is the risk of being harassed or bashed in the street or in your home, targeted only because of your sexual preference. Violent anti-gay crime is thought to have increased (this can only be an estimate because the police hadn’t looked closely at the reasons for the crimes until recently). Most of the gay bashings in Sydney are the work of groups of teenage boys, and it is thought that many do it as a reaction to a fear of their own feelings. Many of the most harmful adverse attitudes come from those who are themselves uncertain about their sexuality. ‘Could it be that even in older age groups this unresolved sexual confusion is the basis of homophobia? Could it be that the ‘phobia’ is actually of the ‘homo’ within?

Part of the answer is to educate young people about sexuality and about violence. One of the old arguments against teaching young people about sexual orientation is that they might be convinced to ‘turn’ if they know about the options. Paul had a number of relationships with both men and women but decided he was gay in his mid-twenties. ‘Believe me, if I could have changed I would have. I had every reason to change. You don’t choose to feel different. You don’t choose -to feel excluded, or risk being beaten up at school, or to be alienated from your family. I tried so hard to fit into what they wanted me to be but it was just impossible.’

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Why do we always have to be so negative? What exactly are you supposed to be saying ‘no’ to? A kiss? … A hug? … Stroking each other to orgasm? … Penetration? If people are not aware of their options, they think that any sexual activity at all is out of bounds and that one thing necessarily leads to another. It makes much more sense to know how to say ‘yes’. You may decide on a non-sexual friendship. You may decide to delay intercourse until later in the relationship, or to wait until some future relationship.

There are definite benefits in delaying penetrative intercourse. It can give you the time to develop the communication and emotional and physical intimacy so necessary for a fulfilling relationship.

Not rushing into intercourse enables you to build your sensual skills gradually, learn to use your hands and your lips, get to know the sensitive parts of your partner’s whole body, learn how to move your body in ways that stimulate your partner. These skills are known as foreplay, but it’s probably time we dispensed with that term too. When we use the term ‘foreplay’ it presumes that it is a prelude to something else. ‘Before’ what? Before intercourse. The usual descriptions of the reasons for ‘foreplay’ are to get the woman wet enough for easy penetration. If that was the case then they could call lubricating gel ‘foreplay in a tube’. ‘Foreplay’ has traditionally been seen as a means to an end, rather than a totally satisfying experience in its own right. This is all tied in with the notion of ‘we didn’t go all the way’, which in other words means that the encounter was somehow incomplete because it did not involve the penis ending up in the vagina.

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Some girls faced with longterm unemployment see pregnancy and motherhood as a career option, without thinking through the implications on the rest of their lives. They need to be shown the unromantic reality of coping twenty-four hours a day with the responsibility of a baby, and all the restrictions that it entails.

Certainly another big factor has to be lack of anticipation. Unprotected intercourse often happens when it is unplanned, yet taking a condom along to a party means admitting that you are expecting intercourse. Interestingly, a recent British study showed that eighty-five percent of sixteen- to twenty-year-old males now believe that girls should carry condoms, so that attitude appears to be changing.

Adolescent health workers tell me that one of the reasons girls give for having unprotected intercourse is that they want to find out if they can conceive. It’s a way of testing their womanhood. By the time they find out that they are in fact fertile, they don’t want to know anymore. But it’s a bit late. They are then faced with the harsh reality that they are going to have a baby or an abortion.

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Is it possible that this framework of isolated family units creates the environment where child sexual assault is more 1ikely to occur?

The perpetrator is far less likely to be some psychotic stranger than someone in their own family or a person well known to them. Perpetrators of child abuse look just like any other men and women. They may be fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, babysitters, mothers, uncles, nextdoor neighbors or family friends. They may use bribes, threats or physical force to involve the child in sexual activity and keep it a secret. But no matter how well kept the secret is, like any crime there are clues for those who are prepared to look.

As a community, the first step in protecting children from sexual abuse is to acknowledge that it happens. Sexual abuse is not a phenomenon of the nineties, or the eighties, or even lust of this century. What is relatively new is our awareness of it. But it takes more than just knowing about it. We have to believe that it happens and, most importantly, believe the child who reports or even hints at abuse. When you are dealing with children you realize that they do not always use the same words to describe their bodies or their feelings as an adult would. A child may say something like, ‘When Gary gives me a bath he hurts my bottom’ or ‘I don’t want Joe to come over anymore.’ You may not get very many chances to pick up on these clues because the fear of what might happen if they ‘tell’ means that it takes all the courage they can muster to try to let you know. This fear of what might happen will frequently hold back disclosure of sexual abuse for many years. Even when a child does reveal sexual abuse, they may be so terrified of the repercussions, like parents’ anger or distress, rejection by other family members and the threat of their family disintegrating, that they retract the story.

The clues may be even more subtle than this, particularly if the child is frightened of direct threats of what will happen if they ‘tell’. This fear will not necessarily be in anything the child says. Happy, secure children never consider, and certainly do not attempt, suicide, so any child who talks about killing themselves must be taken seriously. The alarm bells should immediately ring that abuse is a possibility.

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Quite early on, children work out that people come in two different varieties: boys and girls.

Ask a small child what makes boys different from girls, and most of them will tell you, ‘Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina.’ Not a bad start. The problem is that the anatomy lesson usually stops there. ‘Penis’ becomes a useful expression to mean ‘the thing that makes a bump in a boy’s swimsuit’ … no mention of scrotum, testes or epididymis.

‘Vagina’ ends up meaning anything covered by a girl’s underpants, or just ‘not a penis’. How many parents, at any time, have sat down and told their daughters exactly what a vagina or a vulva is; that they also have a clitoris, labia, a uterus and so on? This explains why so many boys and girls grow up without even having words to describe their body parts, because no one has ever talked about them. If that is the case, they certainly have not been encouraged to investigate for themselves either. It is not uncommon for a girl in her teens to find out for the first time that the vagina actually goes somewhere, when she tries to work out what to do with a tampon.

There was a great uproar after I presented a segment on television showing on a live model (in close up) exactly where the clitoris is, and explaining how it works. A few days later I was interviewed by a popular talk-show host in front of a live audience of predominantly middle-aged women. He questioned the need for the live model. I explained that for many people, diagrams were like reading a road map. It doesn’t give you a great idea of the landscape. I spent years learning anatomy from atlases in books and from cadaver specimens. It wasn’t until I got into an operating theatre and saw the real thing that it all made sense. Traditional sex education has relied too heavily on the imagination of its target audience. Too much gets lost in the translation. The host also questioned whether the segment we had shown was valid at all, saying that at least half of the viewing audience out there would know all about the clitoris anyway. He was genuinely astonished by the reaction from the studio audience. That reaction was spontaneous and almost unanimous. A murmur of ‘No we don’t!’ rippled through the group.

This whole incident just goes to show how easy it is to assume that, where sex is concerned, just because someone doesn’t ask doesn’t mean they aren’t interested.

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