Knowledge is power
With age, we tend to see a lot more of
the inside of a doctor’s surgery, and, says a recent British Medical Journal
survey, we expect too much in the way of cures. In reality, our doctors
might be prescribing drugs that probably won't work, or even suggesting a
surgical procedure that may not be effective.
They do it because that’s what we want from our doctors, apparently.
About half the antibiotics dispensed in the UK aren’t needed. Perhaps the
docs should come out with the truth, but since they are only human, you can
see why they don’t.
However, we, the patients can do something to get to the truth ourselves.
And of course what better way (for laterlife visitors at any rate), than the
internet? Go to
www.besttreatments.co.uk and put yourself fully in the
picture.
And while you’re at it, you can also click on a new site from the British
Heart Foundation for sensible, practical advice on how to protect yourself
from heart disease and get a healthier lifestyle. The address:
www.bhf.org.uk . Yes, knowledge is
power.
The Anti-Jet-Lag-Diet
If you missed an earlier Healthwise
write-up on this diet of fasting and feasting before you go on a long-haul
flight, here’s a chance to see it again. Now you can download details of the
diet from Argonne National Laboratories.
The diet helps travellers adjust their bodies’ internal clocks to new time
zones, and was developed by Dr Charles F. Ehret of Argonne. You have to
start 3 or 4 days in advance, and there isn’t actually any fasting involved,
though the aim is to keep calories and carbohydrates to a minimum on the
fast days.
How to be a healthy traveller
About 80% of holiday illnesses are
stomach related, with diarrhoea affecting 44% of women and 38% of men. Cause
can be bacterial or viral infection, too much rich food or alcohol, stress
or even a change of climate.
Hot, cooked foods, bottled water, unpeeled fruit and raw vegetables are the
basic precautionary rules. No ice cubes, sadly no salads, no food from
street vendors.
Heart attack symptoms: different for men
and women?
Chest pain is the standard warning sign
of a heart attack in men, but it may not be the same for women, says a
report from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The report looked at over 500 women, average 66 years old, who had been
diagnosed with a heart attack.
In 95% of cases, the women reported various warning symptoms before their
attack. The most common, experienced more than a month earlier, were unusual
tiredness, sleep disturbance and shortness of breath. Under a third reported
chest discomfort.
Around the time of the heart attack, the most reported symptoms were
shortness of breath, weakness and fatigue, with only 57% reporting chest
pain. The report acknowledges that you don’t necessarily go on to have a
heart attack a month after being tired, lacking sleep or getting chest
pains. They also point out that chest pain as an indicator for heart attack
is not reliable for women.
Index to
all previous Healthwise editions
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Feeling dizzy
There are lots of reasons for that
lightheaded, dizzy feeling. A fall in blood pressure when standing up
quickly results in a moment’s dizziness, an abnormal heart rhythm has a
similar effect. And when the brain receives messages from ears or eyes that
upset balance, the result can be dizziness or more often travel sickness.
If symptoms are regular and include a feeling of vertigo, deafness,
ringing in the ears, and last for a few minutes or longer, maybe even weeks,
we’re probably talking Meniere’s disease. This can be helped with drugs, and
certainly needs a doctor’s visit.
Older people tend to get inner ear problems which result in dizziness.
Benign Positional Vertigo is the official name for this, and it occurs when
lying down or when the head is tilted backwards. Anyone who gets this should
avoid sudden head movement.
Other reasons for dizziness include a viral infection and interruption of
blood supply to the base of the brain. If symptoms don’t go away quickly or
return with regularity, then it makes sense to see a doctor.
Drinking is good for twins (and everyone else too)
If you take 46 pairs of female identical
twins, and try to sort out their differences, you can come up with some
interesting observations. In this case, it was the drinking habits that were
being watched. One twin per pair drank less than a glass of wine a week, the
other about eight glasses.
The Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in
London measured the bone density of each pair of twins and found that the
drinkers had considerably higher bone density in spine and hip than the
abstainers.
But the alcohol didn’t work in recognised ways, which would be to affect
bone formation. Instead, the researchers conjecture that alcohol acts in
some other way, possibly altering the actual structure of the bone. Clearly,
there is still much to be learned about osteoporosis and how diet affects
it. However, a word of warning: too much alcohol has the opposite effect.
If in any doubt about any of the
information covered in healthwise articles and it's relevance for you, consult your GP.
In edition 52:-
New drug for
asthma
Good news with a
new, once daily asthma inhaler
Goodness in the rind
Citrus peel
can cut cholesterol and heart disease, say US scientists
Taking care of
travelling legs
More
information about DVT for any form of travel over two hours
Bad chair days
Spendiing
too many hours in front of your computer?
Whiter than white
Tooth
discolouration is a tell-tale sign of ageing
Is obesity in the genes
Sometimes the reason for obesity is a
genetic defect.
 Maximise your memory
This work provides detailed instructions, illustrations and sample
exercises that show the reader how to build a system of personalized frameworks for
storing and recalling information on demand.
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