Posts Tagged ‘Long Periods’

Food additives and hyperacidity in children

A news article says a scientific study has showed that food additives cause hyperacidity in children. Is this study a reliable one? If so, can we say that food additives is the cause of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

The scientific study that was the subject of the news item you read was conducted by a team led by Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at England’s University of Southampton.

It was a well-designed and well-controlled research project whose results were published in a recent issue of the Lancet, a highly reputable medical journal. Thus, the findings of the study are very credible and reliable, to say the least. (more…)

Help heel pain

Tyrone M. Reyes, M.D.

Rising in the morning, you put your feet on the floor and immediately feel a sharp pain inside your heel. Or after exercising your heel aches and swells. Or your heel hurts anytime you stand up after sitting for a while.

These pains are typical of plantar fasciitis, a common foot condition. It’s caused by the inflammation of the fibrous tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot. This fibrous band of connective tissue is the plantar fascia that attaches your heel to your toe bones (see diagram). Although it’s not dangerous, plantar fasciitis can curtail your activities and alter your gait, which can cause foot, knee, and back pain.

Some other causes need to be ruled out, including pain due to a pinched nerve in your back or at the level of the ankle or foot, a stress fracture, or chronic conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis. But in most cases, pain on the bottom of the heel is due to plantar fasciitis. The plantar fascia has a lot to do with supporting your foot. It acts like a shock-absorbing bowstring that supports the arch and keeps the foot from collapsing. The trouble comes if there’s too much tension placed on your foot’s “bowstring.” The result can be microscopic tears in the fibrous plantar fascia tissue, inflammation and piercing pain, or an aching or burning sensation in the heel. Usually, the problem is gradual, affecting only one foot. (more…)

Obesity in children

by Dr. Eduardo G Gonzales

I drive my eight-year-old grandson to and from school everyday. I can’t help but notice that many of his classmates – boys and girls, are overweight. I know obese adults are at high risk for many diseases. What about obese children, do they also have health risks? Please write about obesity in children. – Bert A., Quezon City

Obesity has become so increasingly common that it is already considered a global epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO); and the problem is not limited to first world countries alone. In the Philippines for example, a considerable percentage of the population is overweight.

Particularly alarming is the growing number of children who are overweight. Studies show that children who are fat when they are between four to 11 years old frequently carry the condition to adulthood. If present trends continue, today’s generation will be the first to have a lifespan that is shorter than their parents because overweight children are — as you suspect — susceptible to a myriad of health problems.

What causes obesity in children? Rarely, it is the product of a genetic disease, but in general, it is simply the result of too much intake of fatty and sugary foods coupled with sedentary living over a long period of time. Children need extra nutrients and calories because they are still growing physically. Nevertheless, if they consume more calories than they require for their daily activities and normal physical growth and development, they become overweight. (more…)

Help heel pain

by Tyrone M. Reyes, M.D.

Rising in the morning, you put your feet on the floor and immediately feel a sharp pain inside your heel. Or after exercising your heel aches and swells. Or your heel hurts anytime you stand up after sitting for a while.

These pains are typical of plantar fasciitis, a common foot condition. It’s caused by the inflammation of the fibrous tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot. This fibrous band of connective tissue is the plantar fascia that attaches your heel to your toe bones (see diagram). Although it’s not dangerous, plantar fasciitis can curtail your activities and alter your gait, which can cause foot, knee, and back pain. (more…)

Conventional Therapy for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer that is localized is typically treated with radiation therapy or radical prostatectomy (excision of part or all of the prostate gland). This operation is performed through incision in the perineum, into the bladder, or through the urethra. Libido is typically unaffected by prostatectomy but some 30% of patients become impotent after the procedure.

A more common complication following a radical prostatectomy is the development of urinary incontinence. When disease has significantly progressed beyond this stage, or when the patient is very old or in poor health, these treatment approaches may not be used. These patients may be treated with irradiation, hormone therapy, or the surgical removal of the testicles. One of the hormonal therapies, oral diethylstilbestrol, has been given to prostate cancer patients in doses of 1 to 3 mg/day and has demonstrated some success over long periods of time. Long-term use of such estrogen therapies increases the risk of developing thromboembolic (blocking of a blood vessel by a thrombus) complications.

Additional adverse effects caused by estrogen therapies can include breast tenderness, breast enlargement, nausea, vomiting, loss of sexual desire, impotence, and water retention. Short-term use of agents such as high-dose diethylstilbestrol diphosphate can lead to substantial relief in patients within days. A variety of agents are used to decrease testosterone levels circulating in the body. These agents include flutamide, cyproterone acetate, ketoconazole, aminoglutethimide, and analog agents of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone. Surgical removal of the testicles is sometimes performed when the disease has advanced or when hormone therapy has failed. The use of local radiation therapy has been found to be effective in relieving pain associated with cancer metastasis into the bones. Local radiation therapy can also help limit disease to the prostate.

Chemotherapy has generally not been effective once hormonal therapy has failed. It is also associated with severe adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, lowered blood and immune system factors, and hair loss.

Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy

While BPH and prostate are not the same condition and are not believed to be related to each other, they have do have many common factors. As mentioned previously, both produce elevated PSA levels and a variety of problems relating to urination. In addition, both are believed to develop from hormonally-related factors. BPH occurs in more than half of all men in their 60s, and in as many as 90 percent of all men in their 70s and 80s.

BPH may develop from the growth of cells from the relatively increased levels of estrogen that occur in men as they age. Another line of thought states that the testosterone-derivative DHT2 is involved with the increased cellular growth associated with BPH. The drug called finasteride (Proscar), a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor has reduced the size of the prostate in some patients, resulting in improved urination. BPH does not increase the risk of developing prostate cancer, and these two conditions develop in different parts of the prostate gland.

Source:Prostate Cancer Fund,(a special program of Project Cure Foundation) P.O. Box 96673, Washington, D.C. 20090-6673 • 1-800-716-2152. Photo courtesy of medicalcenter.osu.edu

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