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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
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So that all may hear
Rethinking mental disorders
When women go in for ovary removal
Ayurveda & You
Health Notes
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So that all may hear
Hearing aids, unlike eye glasses, cannot be fitted to the detailed accuracy/correction of the individual impairment. Even a pure tone audiogram, though important diagnostically, does not help greatly in fitting a hearing aid. That many cases of old age deafness are intolerance to minor variations to loudness, accounts for their inability to tolerate hearing aid, may be as little as 10 decibel. So, the people who choose to buy an aid should insist on an adequate trial at home for quite some time. Proper history of deafness and an examination of the ears by an ENT specialist prior to the use of a hearing aid is a must. There are so many causes of deafness and the treatment is prescribed accordingly such as in cases of diabetes, hypertension, vitamin deficiency, thyroid disorder, etc. Some people are very sensitive to high noise leading to nerve deafness. Here prevention is a better tool. The onset of deafness is generally very insidious and progress slow. A good deal of what is usually regarded as deafness in old people is really due to the fact that they do not comprehend what is said as well as they did during their childhood, youth and middle age, i.e. there is loss of discrimination. This means that it is difficult to understand what is being said though the sound is audible so, aids are frequently not tolerated. A person may remark that he can no longer hear birds whistling while raising the voice because of his inability to understand. Tinnitis, meaning the ringing of various types of noises in the ear, may or may not be accompanying deafness. When present it is equally annoying. Usually, it means the cause of deafness is active and the problem is slowly progressing. These days so many hearing aid centres have come up in cities selling products of top companies such as Widex, Siemens, Resound and Oticon. The hearing aids available are of different sizes for use in the ear canal or around the ear. Fitting of the aid mould in the ear canal, the frequent changes of a bit costly battery cells, switching on and off after every use, protection from dampness, frequent standardisation on the computer from the audiologist, etc, are some of the daily hazards of a hearing aid. So, comforts and discomforts of the aid go hand in hand. A man fitted with a hearing aid should be taught lip reading by the audiologist concerned to give better understanding of the speech. Sadly, this factor remains ignored. Patient satisfaction is still a far cry despite fast-spreading commercialisation. The writer is a former CMO & Head, ENT Department, Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16,
Chandigarh. |
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Rethinking mental disorders
Where exactly does the difference lie between extreme human behaviour and a psychiatric illness? The question is being asked because as a US encyclopaedia of psychiatry is rewritten for the first time in more than a decade, controversy is already raging about what goes into it, and what gets thrown out.
Critics say that the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM, as it is commonly known) will lead to an explosion of healthy Americans being prescribed powerful drugs. Patients' rights groups are angry that it will lead to more people being stigmatised as mentally ill. "The conditions that we grew up thinking were in the normal spectrum of human behaviour sadness, disappointment, anger are now considered a psychiatric or psychological disorder. It has become part of a national epidemic," said Alex Beam, a newspaper columnist and author of Gracefully Insane, a book about the history of McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts. The controversy over the DSM, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), shows just how political mental illness has become in America. And with good reason. At stake is not just the mental health of a nation, but also billions of dollars for insurance companies, doctors, researchers and pharmaceutical companies. The most serious claim made by critics is that psychiatrists are increasingly churning out new syndromes at the behest of their funders in the pharmaceutical industry. The claim is rejected by the APA, which insists that those with a vested interest, such as drug and insurance companies, have no influence on the process. The DSM is arguably the most influential mental health publication on the planet. It is used by doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, researchers and insurers all over the world. First published in 1952, it is at the heart of mental health research, planning, policy and treatment in the US. The definitions included in the new edition the first complete revision since 1994 will determine who gets diagnosed as mentally ill, who receives powerful drugs, who is confined to a psychiatric institution instead of being imprisoned, and if and how much insurance companies will pay for treatment. DSM diagnoses are routinely used in US court cases, employment background checks and child-custody cases. Pharmaceutical companies also use the manual as a guide to which psychiatric conditions exist, and for which they can develop drugs. Proposed additions to this, the fifth edition of the manual, include: "hypersexual disorder" for those experiencing severe problems with sexual fantasies, urges or behaviours; "temper dysregulation with dysphoria", which refers to children throwing acute temper tantrums; and "psychosis risk syndrome", a condition attributed to eccentric or marginalised teenagers. In the past, the DSM has been mocked for proposing to include conditions such as nicotine addiction, road rage and pre-menstrual tension. Dr William Narrow, research director of the task force working on the new edition, DSM-V, says it will lead to more effective treatment of the mentally ill. He said, "The revisions will help mental health professionals to make more accurate and consistent diagnoses." Critics include Dr Allen Frances, the editor of the previous edition of the manual, who described the new proposals as "reckless". In an editorial in Psychiatric Times, Dr Frances described the proposals as "a wholesale imperial medicalisation of normality that will trivialise mental disorder and lead to a deluge of unneeded medication treatment a bonanza for the pharmaceutical industry but at a huge cost to the new false-positive 'patients' caught in the excessively wide DSM-V net.'' Even small changes in wording can have serious implications. If requirements for diagnosis are too stringent, some who need help will be left out. If they are too loose, healthy people will receive unnecessary, expensive and possibly harmful treatment. Dr Frances describes how his panel inadvertently contributed to three "false epidemics": attention deficit disorder, autism and childhood bipolar disorder. He says: "We felt comfortable that our relatively modest proposals wouldn't cause problems, but evidence shows that our definitions were too broad and captured many 'patients' who might have been far better off never entering the mental health system." The DSM contains a detailed listing of every psychiatric disorder recognised by the US healthcare system and defines how each is to be diagnosed. Its most recent edition, the 943-page DSM-IV, lists more than 300 separate disorders. The proposed revisions are the result of more than a decade of work by hundreds of experts across the US. The Independent |
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When women go in for ovary removal
Washington: Most women scheduled for gynaecologic surgery to address non-cancerous symptoms are not worried about the effects of the procedure on their sex lives, according to a new survey.
On the other hand, a surprising 37 per cent of women planning to be sterilized did express concern that they might have less sexual desire after the operation even though that surgery does not affect hormone levels. Among those in the study who were having reproductive organs surgically removed, fewer than 15 per cent expressed concerns about sex. Women scheduled for ovary removal were more likely to expect to lose sexual desire and enjoy sex less after surgery than were women scheduled for hysterectomies. Most women were not very concerned, and among any women who do have these worries, I think we can reassure them that they dont necessarily have to fear a detriment to sexual function, said Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, a clinical associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. ANI
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Ayurveda & You
Called atasi in Sanskrit, Linum usitassimum scientifically and alsi in common parlance, flax is cultivated as a cash crop throughout the dry areas of India. Starting with Acharya Charak of the ancient era to the later day scholar Pandit Bhava Mishra, numerous ayurvedic masters have studied the health benefits of its seeds, nowadays famous for its oil and other derivatives.
Flax seeds are sweet and bitter in taste, heavy, unctuous and hot in effect. With a bitter post-digestive outcome, they allay the vata but aggravate the pitta and the kapha. Flax seeds have been described as expectorant, anti-inflammatory, wound-healer, absorbent, diuretic and aphrodisiac. The chemical constitution of flax seeds consists of 20 to 40 per cent of mucilaginous matter, soluble and insoluble fibre and fixed oil besides other nutrients like B vitamins, carbohydrates, protein and minerals such as potassium, calcium, iron and magnesium. Flax seeds and their oil have been used in numerous ways for their medicinal properties for generations. According to the modern viewpoint, a high content of alpha linolic acid (ALA) present in the flax seeds, which is a type of omega 3 fatty acid, is largely responsible for many of its salutary effects on human body. Flax seeds have been found to help reduce LDL, the bad cholesterol and the triglycerides besides helping control hypertension. They have high nutritional and antioxidant value and are being recommended as a supplement to fight the problems of menopause, skin diseases, diabetes, various malignancies, constipation and heart disease. Flax seeds are additionally beneficial to combat various types of arthritis, edematous diseases, cough and cold, bronchitis and conditions involving premature aging and low immunity. Due to the presence of a good amount of omega 3 fatty acid, flax can be recommended in diseases concerning the nervous disorders and senile degeneration. Apart from its systemic benefits, the poultice made of flax seeds, suhaga and wheat flour is a trusted home remedy to ripen boils, for carbuncles and hair follicle infections besides aiding to get symptomatic relief in arthritic conditions. The high concentration of natural fibre in flax seeds make them a dependable remedy to manage constipation and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Though flax seeds can be simply chewed and taken with sufficient quantity of water, the best effect comes if these are consumed in pounded or semi-crushed form. Taking once a day, one or two teaspoonful of these pounded seeds mixed in a bowl of curd followed by a glass of water is also a recommended way to achieve their stool regulator and other effects. With regard to their long-term usage and other health benefits, flax seeds have definite advantages over its oil known as linseed oil. Nevertheless, moderation of quantity and certain other precautions must be followed. Experts are of the view that the seeds heated on low fire and then crushed have a shelf life of two to three months. Though the use of flax seeds is generally safe in all seasons, these are not recommended to small children and to persons having an innate unsuitability to things which are hot in effect. The writer is a Ludhiana-based
senior ayurvedic physician. E mail - yourhealth@rediffmail.com
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Health Notes
London: A British charity has said that a wider knowledge of first aid techniques could save thousands of lives each year. According to the St John Ambulance charity, which is focusing a new campaign on five health emergencies which account for 150,000 deaths each year in England and Wales, including heart attacks, choking and severe bleeding, believes that if confident first aiders were present on more occasions, many lives would be saved.
The charity is offering a free pocket which it feels will boost the survival chances of many more patients. This view is backed by the World Health Organisation, which also says "bystander first aid" can make a difference and should be encouraged, reports The BBC.
ANI Mild exercise effective in critically ill patients Washington: In a new study, Johns Hopkins experts have shown that the use of prescription sedatives goes down by half so that mild exercise programmes can be introduced to the care of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Curtailing the use of the drowsiness-inducing medications not only allows patients to exercise, which is known to reduce muscle weakness linked to long periods of bed rest, but also reduces bouts of delirium and hallucinations and speeds up ICU recovery times by as much as two to three days, the paper concludes. Mild exercise, the experts say, with sessions varying from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, should be performed by patients under the careful guidance of specially trained physical and occupational therapists and can include any combination of either leg or arm movements while lying flat in bed, sitting up or standing, or even walking slowly in the corridors of the ICU.
ANI Obesity deadlier than smoking Sydney: A study has found that obesity has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of premature death and illness in Australia. Experts say that the federal government is woefully unprepared for a tsunami of weight-related health problems. According to the president of the Public Health Association of Australia, Mike Daube, who is also the deputy chairman of the government's National Preventative Health Taskforce, fat is rapidly becoming the biggest public health challenge Australia had to face. New figures from Western Australia, which are expected to reflect across Australia, show the contribution of excessive weight to ill health has more than doubled in just six years, and by 2006 accounted for 8.7 per cent of all disease. Tobacco's role has fallen by a quarter, and now causes 6.5 per cent of illness and early death. ANI |
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When deafness in a person becomes so marked that ordinary conversation cannot be heard and day-to-day normal hearing ability is hampered, some aid to hearing is required commonly in the elderly people.