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| Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
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Features |  |
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Health guide
Handy medical record to manage child emergencies
Allergies This is especially crucial if the child is allergic to any medications - penicillin, for example - or other antibiotics. Food allergies can come into play, too, so make a note of anything your child has had a reaction to. Children who have been hospitalised in the past may have developed latent allergies. Often this information can help emergency personnel find a cause for problems such as breathing difficulties and passing out. Medications Your handy medical record should list any medications, including their dosages, that your child is currently taking. Some medications react badly when they are taken together, so the paramedics and doctors need this information BEFORE they give your child anything. You'll need to know when your child took the medication last, and how much was taken. Pre-existing illnesses It is also extremely important for emergency personnel to be told of any health problems or illnesses your child has had. For example, does your child have diabetes or asthma? These pre-existing conditions can have a tremendous impact on the type of tests and treatment administered in an emergency. If your child has one of these chronic health problems you may want to have your child wear some kind of identity tag on a necklace or bracelet. Often, this kind of rapid notification about an illness can help doctors save the life of the child. This is especially true if your child suddenly becomes ill at the daycare, school, or at a friend's house. Don't forget to keep the dates and types of operations a child may have undergone in the past. This may prove to be important to the course of treatment following an emergency. Immunisations Keeping a clear and up-to-date record of a child's immunisations can help doctors do a better job of diagnosing a problem in an emergency. If a child has an infection, for example, it may save the doctors much time to know that the child has had a particular immunisation. Also, be sure to include information about any reaction your child has had following an immunisation. High fever, severe discomfort, and seizures should be noted in your records and discussed with your child's doctor. Height and weight This information can help doctors calculate any dosages of medication that may be needed. Obviously, this can change rapidly! Blood type Although you might consider it crucial to know your child's blood type, it is not a necessary health information despite what people may believe. In a true emergency there is only one type of blood that will be given through transfusion, and that is the universal donor blood: type O negative. Once your child is brought to a hospital, his or her blood will be typed by the staff there, even if you have that information on hand. - Kids Health Safe bottle lamps 'breeze' into tsunami areas A Singaporean family have sent them donations requesting them to make safe lamps and give them free to the needy. They propose to set apart 21,000 lamps for the tsunami survivors, and give them free to small social service organisations doing tsunami relief work with limited funds. The usefulness of safe lamps in tsunami relief work: As described in the next paragraph, kerosene burn injuries cause death, or a great deal of misery if they survive. Therefore, it would be tragic if a few tsunami survivors were to face a second catastrophe, first from water and then from fire! Due to the poor living conditions at present, some may start occupying their new houses even before electricity is supplied and use kerosene lamps. A study involving 487 burn patients admitted to the National Hospital has shown that over 20% of kerosene burns are caused by unsafe lamps used in houses with electricity during power failures, which are quite common even in the Colombo District. Therefore, steps should be taken to ensure that no tsunami survivor uses unsafe kerosene lamps. All would agree thatr they deserve special attention and there is a definite need to protect them from burn injuries Kerosoene Burn injuries: The unsafe lamps topple easily causing huge fires and serious burn injuries. A single moment of inattention is enough to cause a fatal burn injury! In severe burns, there is pain lasting months and later, gross disfigurement. Some lose all fingers and some become blind. When that happens to a mason, a plumber or a fisherman, the already existing poverty is enhanced and the family is doomed. Over 140 die annually from these injuries in our country. Rabies warning over minor bites Experts have warned travellers not to be complacent if bitten by an animal in a country where rabies is common. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they describe how a woman from Greater Manchester died after a nip from an infected dog which left only a tiny graze.
Around 90% of deaths occur in the developing world, particularly in India, where dogs that roam freely are largely responsible. Rabies is rare in the UK, where just 12 cases have been reported since 1977 - 11 contracted abroad and one rare case acquired from a bat in the UK. A woman during her holiday in Goa, India had been bitten by a puppy on a lead. It left a slight graze, but she did not seek medical help, and she had not received a vaccination before travelling. She was diagnosed with rabies and died after 18 days in hospital. Prof. Derrick Pounder, an expert in forensic medicine at the University of Dundee, said people travelling to regions where rabies was a problem had to weigh up whether it was sensible to get vaccinated before setting off on their travels. Vaccination before exposure does not eliminate the need for treatment after infection, but it simplifies treatment and may provide protection after unrecognised exposure. Rabies symptoms Most patients present with furious rabies, a highly disturbed state associated with phobias and severe difficulties breathing However, up to a third present with the paralytic, or "dumb" form of the disease. This can be harder to spot, and is sometimes confused with other conditions. Symptoms include headache, fever, itching, and severe pain in the bitten limb, which may be weakened. Heart disease in women under-diagnosed Cardiovascular disease in women is under-diagnosed and under-treated compared to cases in men, an expert said on Friday. "Many women are unaware that coronary heart disease is their main killer; their biggest fear only about breast cancer," Ghada Mikhail, of North West London Hospitals and St. Mary's Hospital Trust in London, wrote in an editorial in the British Medical Journal. Although the disease kills more women in Europe than men and is a leading cause of death in both sexes worldwide, it is still often thought of, as a male illness. Women account for only 30 percent of participants in most studies and medical trials in cardiology, and healthcare professionals seem insufficiently aware of cardiovascular diseases in women, according to Mikhail. The problem is compounded because risk factors and symptoms for heart diseases differ between men and women. Women with diabetes have 2.6 times the risk of dying of coronary heart diseases than women without diabetes compared to a 1.8-fold rise in the risk among men. Women also have more atypical symptoms such as back pain, burning in the chest, abdominal discomfort, nausea and fatigue than men. Often they need more urgent treatment. "Better awareness and education, earlier and more aggressive control of risk factors, and appropriate access to diagnosis and treatment are desperately needed to tackle this potentially fatal disease," Mikhail added. Olive oil: Pain-relieving powers You have a headache? No aspirin or ibuprofen handy? Try some olive oil - actually, freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil would be best, according to a group of chemists, who've discovered that it contains a compound that mimics the pain-relieving action of ibupfofen. The compound, called oleocanthal, blocks the same pain pathway as ibuprofen, a member of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Paul A. S. Breslin from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia said. According to Breslin and his colleagues, oleocanthal in newly pressed extra-virgin olive oil and ibuprofen (in solution) both produce a strong stinging sensation in the throat, an indicator of a "shared pharmacological activity, with oleocanthal acting as a natural anti-inflammatory compound that has a potency and profile strikingly similar to that of ibuprofen. By their calculations, a 50-gram daily dose of olive oil is equal to about 10 percent of the ibupfofen dose recommended for pain relief in an adult. So, while it won't cure a headache, regular consumption of olive oil might have some of the long-term health benefits of ibupfofen, researchers say. The identification of an ibuprofen-like oleocanthal in olive oil also provides a possible explanation for the well-known health benefits of an olive oil-rich Mediterranean diet. Ibuprofen reduces the risk of developing some cancers and also prevents blood platelets from clumping together, which can block arteries. Ibuprofen has also been shown to reduce levels of an Alzheimer's disease-related protein in mice. Source: Nature Holistic healing - Treatment for arthritis by Dr. Danister L. Perera The management of arthritis is done in multiple phases. It includes correction of dysfunction of digestive fire (AGNI), biotransformation of toxins through the internal use of totally safe and highly potent herbal combinations, anti-inflammatory poultices on the affected joints and specialised and planned Panchakarma measures. The last phase of the treatment includes vitality enhancement procedures. This is done to prevent further attacks of arthritis and to restore and sustain proper health. Because there is much aama in arthritic joints, any dosha accumulation in the digestive tract always tends to return to the joints and exacerbate the condition again. Health can return to the joints only if aama is treated. Effective management of arthritis involves immediate elimination of doshas during exacerbation, and gradual elimination of deep aama during remission. Externally, medicated sesame oil helps loosen stiff joints, clears toxins, nourishes tissues, relieves pain, counteracts the aging process, beautifies the skin, improves circulation, regenerates the nerves. The oil should be applied daily by massaging it into the affected parts. Sesame oil enemas can be taken once a week. A tablespoon of castor oil or triphala can be taken every other day to keep help clear the colon. Diet should be according to the symptoms you have. If you have mostly the vaata symptoms you should follow a vaata reducing diet. Ayurvedic medicine assesses and treats the level of the body's inner intelligence that creates and controls the material structure and functions of the physiology. The organising principle within the body which controls the level of activation and sensitivity of the nervous system is called vaata. Anything that aggravates, or overly activates vaata, will increase the sensitivity and experience of pain in the body. Therefore an important component in treating arthritic pain is to balance and stabilise vaata. Ayurveda treatments in arthritis is a natural approach to Arthritis which: * Strengthens the metabolic pathways that prevent circulatory channels to joints from becoming blocked by impurities. * Strengthens digestion to create nutritional plasma that is pure and easy to assimilate. * Improves the lubrication of joints. * Balances nervous system function and its sensitivity to pain. People can have arthritis for different reasons and need different programs to heal the condition. Your ayurvedic physician or health consultant will not just match treatments to the condition of arthritis, but will individualise the program to the specific imbalances that are causing arthritis in you. This is the value of the ayurveda assessment of balance and imbalance at the start of your program. Some chronic conditions need to be treated in-residence and during your stay the physician or health consultant will use pulse assessment and other Ayurveda evaluation tools to determine balance and imbalance in the body's inner intelligence. This assessment is not an evaluation of the state of cells and tissues but an evaluation of a deeper level of physiological functioning that controls the healing and self-repair mechanisms of the body. Disruptions on this level are the root causes of disorder. * In-Residence Cleansing Treatments- Pancha Karma is the recommended cleansing therapeutic procedure in ayurveda for eliminating the accumulated toxins in the body tissues. It helps to clean and sparkle the channels, which carry the vital fluids and impulses throughout the system. Pancha Karma treatment should be performed by a well-qualified physician to obtain the best results and avoid any unnecessary complications. Genuine Pancha Karma therapy can synchronise and reprogram the body's functions that will restore disorder by physiological conditions. But this treatment should be planned and scheduled by a qualified therapist accredited by the Ayurvedic Medical Council. (Readers are warned to be watchful about bogus Pancha Karma Centres run by unqualified persons claiming to be specialists in Ayurvedic medicine!!) Your ayurveda physician or health consultant will choose specific medicinal oil that is individually prepared for your condition. You will also be instructed in the technique of massage, which includes using specific strokes over joints, ligaments, muscles and different parts of the body. The motion of massage creates heat and friction that enhance circulation and help cleanse the areas of chemical impurities that could be aggravating and hypersensitising nerve and joint tissues. The various herbs that have been boiled into base oil, and the oil itself, are specifically chosen for their vata balancing influence. The oil allows the herbs to deeply penetrate the tissue beds, thereby balancing tissues in the affected areas. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Would you be able to recall vital information about your child's health
in the event of an emergency? Many doctors suggest that parents keep a
record of their children's important health facts handy. This can often help
the medical team make a better and more rapid diagnosis of a problem at a
time when time really counts. 
The University of Liverpool researchers advised travellers to seek urgent
attention if bitten or scratched. Visitors to many countries in Africa,
Asia, the Middle East and Latin America should get vaccinated, before their
departure, they said. 
