Health News Blog provides coverage of current health news.

FRECKLES

Freckles are light brown, flat spots (lighter in colour than moles commonly scattered on the skin of the face, neck, chest and arms in children over the age of 4 years. Children with fair skin and red hair have a greater tendency to develop freckles on exposure to sunlight, and it is thought to be based on heredity. Children (and adults) with freckles are at no greater danger of developing skin cancer than anyone else with fair skin. There is no treatment at all that will lighten freckles. Encourage your child to accept his freckles as a part of him, as something positive and attractive, which makes him special.

ABSCESS (BOIL)

An abscess of the skin can occur in both children and adults. It is an infection caused by a germ (usually Staphylococcus aureus) which invades a skin pore. You will notice a painful, reddened lump which is filled with pus. After several days the abscess comes to a head and either bursts itself, or can be lanced and drained by your doctor under sterile conditions. After it has opened, it will no longer be so painful, and should start to heal. Do not attempt to squeeze the boil yourself, as this is extremely painful and can lead to spread of the infection to other parts of the body, or even into the bloodstream.

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Preparation for admission to hospital is always easier if the stay in hospital has been planned for in advance. If you have a choice, try to have the child admitted to a children’s hospital or one where there is a children’s unit and ward. Most hospitals have a pre-admission program — call and check if the hospital has one. The program will depend on the age of the child, and may include written materials for the children as well as parents, and puppets, videotapes, a tour of the hospital, and so on. If there is no organised pre-admission program, you may want to ask permission to show the child the hospital setting.

Hours during which immediate family members can visit children are virtually unrestricted, although there may be some time during the day where there is a ‘rest period’ for young children. All hospitals will encourage parents to stay with the child and become involved with hospital staff in caring for their child’s needs. Parents should negotiate with the nursing staff how this can best be done. Most hospitals will also encourage parents to stay with their child overnight, either in a bed or lounge next to the bed or else in separate accommodation in another part of the hospital or close by. Children benefit greatly from having their parents present during their time in hospital, and the stresses of hospitalisation are significantly reduced.

Children also benefit from being surrounded by personal items from home. These may include a favourite stuffed toy, photographs, cards, letters, drawings, books, a radio or television, and so on, depending on the age of the child. Some children’s hospitals nave in-house videos, snowing special children s programs, visits from siblings and school friends should be encouraged.

Many supports are available in most hospitals. These include social workers, chaplains, play specialists, teachers (especially for children who require prolonged or repeated hospital admissions), psychologists and other professionals. You should not hesitate to ask the nursing or medical staff about the sort of support services available, and use these services as needed.

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SEXUAL PROBLEMS – DIMINISHED F- AND/OR R-AREA AND DIMINISHED G- AND/OR C-AREA SENSITIVITY

DIMINISHED F- AND/OR R-AREA SENSITIVITY: Somebody turned off the switch on me. I cannot feel much down there at all. I was kicked hard there once when I was a kid, and it was numb for hours. This is something like that. I have almost no feeling.

HUSBAND

In the absence of medical problems, this male problem relates to the parasympathetic mediation associated with cold-running times. When we run cold, we tend to run nonreactively, and our response level to life, to sex, decreases. Seventy-five men reported this problem, and twenty of these men were shown to have a medical problem. The rest had unwillingly and unconsciously anesthetized their genital area. One of the men tried a vibrator, which he strapped to his hand, reporting, “I tried to force some sensation, and it made it worse.” Sexual enjoyment cannot be force-fed; it must be received by an open and balanced life-style free of the learned helplessness of the cold reaction.

DIMINISHED G- AND/OR C-AREA SENSITIVITY: He bought every sex toy in the catalogue. He even tried a Water Pik, and shot water at my clitoris. Nothing. I just don’t feel down there. Then he went after the G spot. I don’t have one of those either.

WIFE

Seventy-five wives also reported diminished G- or C-area sensitivity. Once the women were educated as to the mythology about a magic G spot that swelled when touched and produced ejaculate, they learned that their bodies, all bodies, change from time to time, sexual encounter to sexual encounter. Some then continued to report a lack of pleasing sensations in the genital area.

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We try. We try. He slows down, I try to hurry up. We just seem to miss it. We just cannot seem to come together. It was easier when I faked it. I’m sorry now that I ever told him that I faked it.

WIFE

I wish now she would just fake it. I don’t think we will ever come together like everyone else.

HUSBAND

It is not possible to experience simultaneously any human physiological response. The complexity of genital responses, with all of the associated feelings and thoughts, makes any effort to match them in time not only a wasted effort, but counterproductive to spontaneous intimacy.

The word entropy means to become more diffuse, more distant. It comes from physics, and is referred to as the second law of thermodynamics, meaning that molecules tend to become more and more distant from each other, that the world is becoming more and more “apart.” Neguentropy means the opposite, to come more and more together through a complex series of changes that look singularly as if they signal a falling apart, but really relate to a complex, infinite joining of all elements of the universe.

The world that we can see and touch is governed by the rules of thermodynamics, by entropy. The world of intuition, the world of feelings and awareness beyond see and touch, is governed by the rules of neguentropy. The word’ ‘super” in super marital sex refers to this world, to the “beyond, over, and transcendent” aspects of our life, to being at one with the universe by being at one with our marital system.

Is your own marriage getting closer and closer, seeming to merge into a “oneness” (neguentropy)? Or does it seem that you are becoming more and more distant, somehow parting (entropy)?

The couple in my example scored toward neguentropy. Their pattern of despair unfortunately was becoming solidified, almost unchangeable by the time they came for help. They were forming what I call a compensated marriage, one that gets more and more fixed through their mutually supported personal dissatisfactions. Couples who are fixed are the most difficult of all couples to work with, because they are unable to “breathe,” to expand, and to grow. Attempts to help them grow result in a form of implosion, a cracking of a solidified system that has no room for expansion and contraction.

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Over-breathing and hyperventilation attacks are a common form of psychosomatic illness.

When we breathe, oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide given out. There is a normal balance of these gases in the blood.

In hyperventilation, the breathing becomes deeper and faster. Too much carbon dioxide may be blown off and the level of this gas in the blood falls, altering the acid-base balance and the level of bicarbonate in the blood. This interferes with and lowers calcium levels.

This altered biochemistry produces the symptoms typical of over-breathing — a feeling of giddiness, apprehension, tingling and pins and needles may be felt all over the body and the heart may beat rapidly.

The level of carbon dioxide in the blood provides the stimulus to breathe, not the level of oxygen. When this drops, there is no desire to breathe. The oxygen level then falls and this can lead to loss of consciousness.

Of course, carbon dioxide is building up from the body’s metabolic processes and, when it rises sufficiently, breathing restarts, oxygen is taken in and consciousness regained.

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The most important feature of a depressive illness is the loss, or the fear of loss, of a valued object. The loss may be of a person, a place, an object, an ideal, self esteem, status or it may be part of our own bodies.

Guilt, shame and grief are all emotions associated with depression.

Grief is a normal emotion and it is appropriate that we suffer grief when we are confronted with loss. Grief needs to be expressed and acted through. If repressed, it may cause emotional illness.

It may be mild and short-lived when the object is of little value — such as a few dollars. It may be severe and longer-lasting when the grief is for the death of a loved one.

In endogenous depression the alteration of behavior is thought to originate from unknown causes within the individual’s personality and not as a reaction to loss.

Some cases of depression may be due to altered chemical activity in the brain. We know that certain chemicals, called amines, may be present in altered amounts in depression.

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Small islands of cells, scattered through the pancreas, produce insulin, which passes directly into the blood and is necessary for the metabolism of glucose.

As well, there is some disorder of the sweat glands, so that an excessive amount of salt is lost in sweat.

The child is susceptible to recurrent and persistent chest infections, and also to poor digestion and malabsorption from a decrease of pancreatic enzymes.

Most children now survive to adulthood and can lead relatively normal lives, in much the same way as diabetics can lead near-normal lives, but need to keep their disease under control.

About 20 per cent of all cases present shortly after birth with a bowel obstruction. Another 35 per cent are diagnosed in the first two years because of persistent and recurrent infections.

A further 30 per cent will be diagnosed because of malabsorption. A reduction in pancreatic enzymes means that protein and fat is poorly digested. These children fail to gain weight and also pass greasy and foul-smelling stools.

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The most common type of cancer in men is called squamous carcinoma of the bronchus. ‘Squamous’ tells us that the cancer began in the big flat cells which line the bronchial tubes. This is the cancer we usually refer to as lung cancer but in fact there are also many different types of lung cancer, each starting in a different type of cell in the lung. The same principle goes for every other organ in the body.

It is very important to know exactly what type of cancer a person has. This is because once we know the exact type, we know how it is likely to behave—where it is likely to spread, how slowly or quickly it might develop and what treatment is likely to work against it. For example, the common type of breast cancer— adenocarcinoma— often reacts favourably to changes in the body’s hormone balance. More unusual types of breast cancer, such as one starting in the fat cells of the breast, are never sensitive to hormone balance. The most common type of lung cancer— squamous carcinoma—can be cured in a fair proportion of cases by surgical removal. A slightly less common type of lung cancer — small cell anaplastic carcinoma— is very rarely cured by surgical removal, as it has a habit of spreading through the bloodstream very early.

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For women who still have a uterus, a return to monthly bleeds is usually a complete turn-off. And the further past the menopause they are, the more of a turn-off it seems. Not many 60- and 70-year-olds would willingly go back to all that again. But the interesting thing is that they do, especially if they have, or are at risk of, osteoporosis.

As with most medical treatments, if the benefits of the treatment substantially outweigh the disadvantages, then people will continue with it. At present, the great majority of women who stay on HRT for any length of time are those who have had a hysterectomy; the highest drop-out rate is among those who need to take progestogen and who therefore have ‘periods’ and other side-effects.

Women who have just reached the menopause are usually delighted to see an end to their periods in sight, until the hot flushes come along. Then having a monthly bleed seems somehow less troublesome than coping with the flushes. For those, however, who are only mildly troubled with them, the thought of continuing with periods is probably out of proportion to the small discomfort of the flushes. The decision will be yours.

Many women over 60 seem willing to accept a return to periods once they realise they are likely to be regular, predictable and usually light; in fact they eventually become little more than just ‘spotting’. Perhaps part of the older woman’s aversion to periods is her memory of bulky sanitary towels, belts, even plastic ‘sanitary pants’. Nowadays, every older woman has at least heard of tampons, even if she never quite got round to using them, and advertisements for slim-line sanitary towels that stick on to pants appear regularly on television. You can forget the bulk, the belt, the plastic pants. With tampons and slim pads you would hardly know you had a period. Honestly! Even buying them in shops is not the awful embarrassment it used to be — just pick them off the shelf in the chemist or supermarket and they are discreetly wrapped at the till.

How happily you return to periods will depend on your perception of the trade-off between symptoms and periods, and on your doctor’s attitude to HRT. If he is fairly negative, then he will probably portray periods in a negative light; if he is enthusiastic, his enthusiasm may make you feel altogether better about it.

A comparatively minor disadvantage of being on HRT is the need for regular gynaecological check-ups. Doctors, like policemen, get younger every day, and most older women don’t like the idea of being given a breast and vaginal check-up by a younger male doctor. Yes, he has certainly seen it all before, and yes, he regards the genital area with the same disinterest with which he regards noses and ears, but even so the average older woman (and younger woman too) can find these check-ups embarrassing.

It is worth making two points here: Firstly, you may not need to see a young male doctor. Most GP practices nowadays have at least one woman doctor, so you might prefer to see her. Or perhaps the practice has a Menopause Nurse who specialises in all aspects of the menopause and does these check-ups every day. Failing that, you could go to your local Well Woman Clinic, where all the staff are women, and to which you don’t need to be referred by your doctor. Secondly, the regular check-up really is to your advantage. It will probably include a cervical smear (to detect any possible cancer of the cervix), a breast check (to detect any possible breast cancer or other abnormality), and a check on your weight, blood pressure and, possibly, cholesterol. Conditions that might have developed unnoticed will be picked up early; these regular check-ups really could save your life.

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Deciding between the different sorts of treatment options described in this book will involve weighing up the positives and negatives as you see them. The simple checklist that follows may be of use to you in this decision-making process. It may help to crystallise your thinking or it may suggest gaps in information that need to be filled before you can make a firm decision.

Step 1. Write the name of the treatment that has been suggested to you in the space provided.

Step 2. Following are two lists of possible outcomes. They have been grouped together as possible reasons in favour of a proposed treatment (pro) and against a proposed treatment (con). Space has been left for any additional pros and cons that you may need to include. Read through the lists and place a tick alongside any pro or con that is relevant to you. Leave a blank if that consideration has no importance one way or the other. If you do not have enough information to tick a line or leave it blank, place a question mark next to it to remind you to seek more information on it.

Step 3. Identify the most important pro and the most important con for you (highlighting or underlining them with a coloured pen may be helpful) and compare their importance.

Step 4. Select the next most important pro and con (using a different coloured pen), and then the next most important pair, and so on.

By continuing this process, it should be possible to decide whether the pros clearly outweigh the cons or vice-versa, or whether they are relatively even. If there is a definite loading one way or the other, you will be more certain of the reasons for accepting or rejecting a particular treatment. On the other hand, you may be alerted to questions that you need to have answered before you can make a decision.

You will notice that identical or similar possible outcomes appear in both the pro and con lists from time to time. This helps make the point that, for example, ‘Pregnancy no longer possible’ is a pro for some women at a particular age and stage of life and a con for other women in different circumstances.

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