Posted: under Cancer.
Mouth sores, tender gums, and a sore throat or oesophagus often result from radiation therapy, anti-cancer drugs and infection. If patients have a sore mouth or gums, they must see their doctor to be sure the soreness is a treatment side-effect and not an unrelated dental problem. The doctor may be able to give medicine that will control mouth and throat pain. The dentist also can give tips for care of mouth.
Certain foods will irritate an already tender mouth and make chewing and swallowing difficult. By carefully choosing the foods the patient eats and by taking good care of mouth, one can usually make eating easier. Some suggestions that may help the patient are given here. Patients should:
1. Try soft foods that are easy to chew and swallow, such as:
- Milk shakes
- Bananas and other soft fruits
- Stewed peach, pear and apricot
- Watermelon
- Cottage cheese
- Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese
- Custards, puddings and gelatin
- Scrambled eggs
- Oatmeal or other cooked cereals
- Pureed or mashed vegetables such as peas and carrots
- Pureed meats
- Liquids.
2. Avoid foods that can irritate the mouth, such as:
- Citrus fruit or juice such as oranges
- Spicy or salty foods
- Rough, coarse or dry foods such as raw vegetables, toast, crackers.
3. Cook food until it is soft and tender.
4. Cut food into small pieces.
5. Mix food with butter, thin gravies and sauces to make it easier to swallow.
6. Use a blender or food processor to puree food.
7. Use a straw to drink liquids.
8. Try food cold or at room temperature. Hot and warm foods can irritate a tender mouth and throat.
9. Tilt the head back or move it forward if swallowing is hard.
10. Try sitting up or standing for about an hour after eating if heartburn is a problem.
11. The dentist may be able to recommend a special product for cleaning the teeth if the teeth and gums are sore.
12. Rinse mouth with water often to remove food and bacteria and to promote healing.
13. Ask the doctor about anesthetic lozenges and sprays that can numb the mouth and throat long enough to eat meals.
*7/356/5*
Jan 29 2011
Posted: under Arthritis.
Stage 1 (normal). In this stage, people with RA have no symptoms of arthritis, and their joints appear normal. Some of these people may be genetically susceptible to arthritis. Having the HLA-DR4 gene alone is not sufficient to cause someone to develop RA, however. It is presumed that some unknown trigger initiates the development of arthritis in the genetically susceptible person; that is, an unknown factor triggers the inflammatory process, and other unknown factors keep it going, apparently blocking normal resolution. One theory is that in RA, the communication between cells is disturbed in some way, allowing ongoing inflammation to occur.
Stage 2. This is the stage during which people with RA first have symptoms. Early in the course of arthritis, small lymphocytes migrate to the synovial lining, causing what is called synovitis or “inflammation of the synovium”. The macrophages and lymphocytes continue to promote inflammation by producing cytokines, the chemical signals that are sent from one cell to another. There are several cytokines being studied, and new ones are discovered all the time. We are just starting to appreciate their individual roles and how they help produce the symptoms of RA. Cytokines can induce an increase in the number of blood vessels going to the synovium, and with increased blood flow, the joints become warm. The leakage of cytokines into the bloodstream may also contribute to the fatigue that is so common in RA. Other cytokines are partially responsible for stimulating cells to produce prostaglandins and leukotrienes, both of which are potent producers of inflammation. Continued production of cytokines, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and other substances leads to swelling, warmth, and pain in the joints.
It is also during this stage that В lymphocytes are transformed into another type of white blood cell, the plasma cell, which manufactures antibodies. Antibodies, also referred to as immunoglobulins, are distinctive proteins that the body normally produces to fight against foreign viruses and bacteria. In RA, for reasons that are unclear, the body appears to produce an excessive amount of antibodies. One particular antibody often found in the blood of people with RA is called the rheumatoid factor.
The production of rheumatoid factor exacerbates the inflammatory process.
Stage 3. In this stage there is a marked increase in the number of cells in the synovium, possibly stimulated by the presence of different cytokines. The synovium becomes much thicker, or hypertrophied, and this makes the joint feel doughy or spongy. An increase in the amount of synovial fluid in the joint adds to the stiffness and limitation of motion of the joints. (Accumulation of joint fluid is known as joint effusion.)
With RA there is also an increase in hyaluronic acid, the lubricating substance in the synovial joint fluid. Many people believe that increased hyaluronic acid is responsible for morning stiffness (or morning gelling) and stiffness experienced after sitting for a prolonged period of time without moving (gelling phenomenon).
Joint fluid contains inflammatory white blood cells called neutrophils (or polymorphonuclear leukocytes). (Why lymphocytes reside in the synovial lining and neutrophils appear in the synovial fluid is unclear.) In the joint affected by RA, neutrophils join lymphocytes in perpetuating the inflammatory process. In testing for RA, the physician may remove a sample of fluid from the joints to determine the relative proportions of these cells present. This helps the physician differentiate RA from other forms of arthritis.
A person in any one of the three earliest stages of RA may experience significant joint symptoms including pain, heat, swelling, stiffness, and loss of motion. All of these inflammatory changes are potentially reversible with proper medical therapy.
*8/209/5*
Jan 16 2011
Posted: under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
The ability to keep our emotions under control is a necessary pre-condition for any organized, civilized society. Mutual cooperation and teamwork are only possible when people can delay demands for gratification of their needs and desires, and are able to inhibit the outward display of feelings of resentment or anger. It is important for human beings to be able to control their emotions in situations of emergency and unexpected threat, because the ability to survive such crises usually involves teamwork and co-operation.
In emergency situations we are usually able to call on reserves of will-power to control our emotions enough to cope with the immediate problems which present themselves. Many people have experienced calm in the midst of a crisis, which has enabled them to take clear and decisive action. When the immediate danger has passed, they begin then to experience the fear that was appropriate to the situation.
The inhibitory reserves which allow us to delay the experience of fear and anxiety in crisis situations are only meant to operate in an emergency. However, we know that people under stress and beginning to experience anxiety symptoms from overload can, for a time, use their emergency inhibitory reserves to ignore the nervous system’s alarm signal, that is, the symptoms of anxiety. When these reserves are exhausted, the ability to dampen down unwanted or inconvenient emotions is lost. As a result the person becomes emotionally labile, that is, his or her emotional display can change very rapidly from tears to laughter and back.
Our will-power mechanism also gives us the ability to force ourselves to do things which are not in themselves enjoyable. However, our ability to continue forcing ourselves into unenjoyable tasks has a definite limit. In stage two stress breakdown, the symptom of loss of the ability to motivate oneself to adapt to changing circumstances is caused by the self-starter mechanism running out of energy, like a car battery running out of electric charge. People who experience second stage stress breakdown symptoms will report that they are utterly incapable of forcing themselves to do anything. They seem to have run out of the energy they need to psych themselves into doing things.
Some people, who are beginning to experience stage two, find that whereas they cannot force themselves into tidying up the house, they can do it if they don’t try to do it. Listening to the radio and wandering about tidying up things which happen to be in the vicinity while concentrating on the radio programme, is a method used by some people. Others find they have the ability to help someone else, but don’t have the psychic energy to plan to do the tasks themselves.
*16/129/5*
Jan 05 2011