Cause

Pneumonia is usually caused by a virus, but can be caused by a germ.

Clinical features

The most striking features of pneumonia in children are a moist cough and a high fever. Sometimes the child is short of breath too and may complain of sharp pains in the chest on breathing deeply. Younger infants may just look very ill and breath rapidly, without having any other symptoms.

Investigations

Pneumonia can usually be diagnosed on clinical grounds, but your doctor may suggest a chest X-ray to confirm the diagnosis. Sputum and blood tests may also be helpful.

Treatment

Some types of pneumonia are due to bacteria which are responsive to antibiotics. It is difficult to distinguish between a viral and a bacterial pneumonia, so sometimes antibiotics are given just to be safe. If the illness is relatively mild, your child can be treated at home with oral medication, bed rest and paracetamol to lower the fever. Use a humidifier in your child’s room to make his breathing easier. Also make sure that your home is smoke-free.

If your child is very ill, admission to hospital may be advised, so that antibiotics can be given intravenously or by injection. Once treatment is commenced, recovery is usually rapid and complete.

When to see your doctor

• if your child has a cough and a high fever;

• if your young baby is listless and breathing rapidly;

• if there is no improvement after 3 days on antibiotics.

Take your child to hospital immediately if his lips look blue.

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Some of the couples in the clinic invented their own opportunities to understand about impairment and sensory compensation and enhancement. One couple taped large wads of cotton under their arms and behind their knees, just enough to restrict movement. They wondered together about a time when their own movements might be restricted by the aging process. Some couples extended the sensory deprivation and compensation opportunity outside of the lovemaking sessions to daily living, with one partner wearing the blindfold or cotton all day while being helped by the spouse. There is a big difference between seeing and perceiving, “knowing” and experiencing, and super marital sex depends on a depth and range of adaptive sensuality, a sex strong enough to survive the most catastrophic of times. If we are able to learn this lesson and teach it to our children, we have provided them with an important love legacy. The next chapter discusses love education for super relationships.

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SCORING: 3—ALWAYS 2—USUALLY 1-SELDOM 0—NEVER

1. I feel responsible for the sexual experience. Whether the interaction is good or bad depends on me.     

2. Once I ejaculate, I have to rest. I feel less energetic and have to recuperate.

3. When I begin to feel very good sexually, I know I am getting very close to “coming” or’ ‘climaxing.” The better it feels, the sooner I know I will come.     

4. It is better if my wife is relatively still during the act of intercourse. If she moves too vigorously, it tends to make me come sooner.     

5. When I ejaculate, I feel a few strong throbs in my penis at the time of ejaculation.     

6. I seem to come much sooner when I have not had sex for a long time.

7. I feel a numbness or insensitivity in most of my body just after I come. This is particularly true in my genitals.     

8. I need to take a PON (post-orgasmic nap) or even a POS (post-orgasmic sleep) after I come.     

9. I notice that my wife really seems to get much more intensely involved in her orgasms than I do in mine. She seems to almost be “gone”.

10. I feel that ejaculation is essentially the same thing as orgasm. If I don’t ejaculate, then I know I haven’t come.     

11. My orgasms are essentially the same no matter. what type of sex I am having (coitus, oral sex, masturbation). Whatever the source of stimulation, I essentially come the same way.     

12. I have noticed as I get older that my orgasms are less intense than they used to be. The throbbing is less intense and there are fewer of them.

13. I have sex mostly at night. It sort of allows me to release the tension so I can sleep.     

14. My sexual patterns with my wife are essentially “turn-taking.” I try to help her have an orgasm before I try to have mine.     

Before I come, I feel as if I would have loved to have sex all night. After

15 I come, I seem to lose interest.     

I usually get to the point that no matter what happens, there is nothing I

can do to stop my ejaculation. Even if all stimulation is stopped, I ejaculate

anyway.    

17 I try so hard to time my ejaculation that I cannot ejaculate at all during intercourse.     

18 I am a quiet person during sex. I might moan or groan, but I do not intentionally say much.     

19 If I have masturbated, I tend not to want to have intercourse several hours after I have masturbated.    

20. When I am having sex, everything seems to be focused in my genitals. I notice very little about any stimulation to any other part of my body.

TOTAL POINTS    

If you score thirty-five or more points on this test, it is very likely that you are experiencing the physiological reflex of orgasm emphasized by the first three perspectives of sexuality but are not experiencing psychasm, the ability to enjoy a full emotional and cognitive dimension to the sexual experience. The idea is not to replace the quest for orgasm with a quest for psychasm. The idea instead is to open up new options for sexual interaction free of the artificially imposed limits of a mechanical, gender-assigned model of sexual intimacy.

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Eliminate envy and jealousy from your mind They are totally useless and severely paralyse your intellectual capacity. Try an unconditional love instead. Do not shout about love. Just replace all those nasty negative feelings in your own mind, for yourself.

Learn to listen to your own higher mind – listen to the silence between thoughts. The best information and advice, tailored exclusively for you at any given instant is there. All talented people without exception access such a state naturally. All their ideas spring from there.

No words could possibly describe the connection with your own higher mind. In comparison to the language of your higher mind, our spoken and written languages are actually quite a primitive form of communication.

For example, the higher mind can communicate a book, musical symphony or a scientific discovery, with all the minute details in a “flash” lasting only a second or two. It may take many days or even years to “consciously” reconstruct and translate such messages into text, music or mathematical formulae, which others can then understand. Many people experience the state of euphoric joy, just by remembering such an instance of connection with their own higher mind.

Your higher mind does not only communicate books and science. The above was just one example. In fact it can help any of us in all imaginable aspects of our lives. We just need to learn to listen.

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The liver has an enormous reserve of function and a great capacity to regenerate itself, so it can stand a lot of abuse.

Worn-out red blood cells are broken down in the liver, their iron content stored for future use and the pigment excreted in the bile.

Bile acids are formed and are present in the bile, which enters the gut and is necessary for the proper digestion and absorption of fat.

The bile runs down two ducts, one from each lobe of the liver. These ducts join and then a small side channel leads to the gall bladder. This hollow organ lies tucked under the liver and stores and concentrates the bile.

The gallbladder contracts, usually under the stimulus of a fatty meal, and the concentrated bile flows back into the common bile duct and down to run into the duodenum or first part of the small bowel. At the point where it enters the duodenum, it is joined by a duct carrying digestive juices from the pancreas.

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They may produce certain vitamins which the host absorbs and uses.

The type of diet influences the type of bacteria present.

Some of these may act on the breakdown products of meat and fat in the diet and form cancer-causing substances.

Perhaps a high fibre diet, because of the bulk it produces, tends to dilute these cancer-causing chemicals — carcinogens — or else limits the contact between them and the bowel wall by hastening their progress through the gut.

A study in the U.S. shows a link between beer consumption and death from bowel cancer.

How beer drinking can lead to large bowel cancer is not clear.

Bowel cancer can occur in the young although it becomes more common after the age of 40.

Bleeding is the earliest and commonest sign.

Although bleeding may often be due to piles, all cases of bleeding need investigation, to exclude the possibility of cancer, as the two conditions may co-exist.

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Before such modem prostaglandin inhibitors were developed, it was not unusual to hear of women who became addicted to laudanum—a tincture of opium—to relieve their pain. Others tried nonmedical treatments like hot sweat baths with massage, hoping to perspire out the disease. The rundown, or “salt glow,” following the bath was concentrated in the abdominal area to stimulate blood Bow to the area. “Galvanism,” a less fearsome cousin of shock treatment, applied electrical current to the area to reduce pain. Along with the staple family recipes for healing that were handed down generation to generation, liniments, douches, decoctions, poultices, and brews were available from doctors, mail-order catalogs, pharmacies, and quacks.

Modern pharmacology can manufacture drugs from synthetics, plants, minerals, whatever, but turn-of-the-century cures relied on plants. Although few women nowadays partake of hemlock tea (made from the leaves and inner bark) to “tone the uterus,” there is a renewed and growing interest among women with endometriosis in drug-free therapies that are as young as TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, a form of biofeedback and stress control) and as old as acupuncture. Some of these therapies require the ministrations of experts on an individual basis; others, like dietary changes and stress management, can be, in general, incorporated into the daily lives of most sufferers of the disease.

Are these therapies effective? Let’s examine them, starring with the 5.000-year-old practice of acupuncture.

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The claims made for cosmetic creams, milks and lotions bear little or no relation to their actual effect. When it comes to misleading the public, however, the cosmetic manufacturers pale in comparison with those involved in the business of ‘treating’ hair disorders. It is so lucrative a business that they do not hesitate to risk prosecution. A fine is a drop in the ocean compared with their profits, and if forced to close down they merely open up again under another name. Legally there is nothing to prevent anyone at all from setting up a ‘hair clinic’ or becoming a hair specialist’ or trichologist’. Whatever their title, their methods are similar. A few hairs are taken from the scalp and examined by the practitioner, who wears a white coat; scientific apparatus and coloured lights are usually evident in front of the client. This plays an important part fin setting the scene. A form is then filled out, making it all respectable and lastly, of course, a diagnosis is made, the aim being to Induce the client to embark on a course of ‘treatment’, the results of which are ‘guaranteed’. As a rule these courses involve a series of about 12 ‘treatments’

costing between $300 and $400 (payable in advance) plus various products which are sold to the client to be used at home. The tragedy is that we have allowed the public to remain so misinformed that they accept the claims made by these people. This is also partly due to the fact that the most common scalp problems have no satisfactory medical cure. The sporadic successes achieved by these businesses have two simple explanations: firstly, hair growth is cyclical, and periodically large amounts may be lost, frequently to be replaced again; secondly, spontaneous natural resolution is common for many scalp and hair disorders. Some people will always exploit basic human desires, and the desire to appear attractive to others is especially vulnerable to exploitation. Hair, unfortunately, has lost most of its biological functions and has assumed a significant aesthetic and sexual role. The psychological importance of hair is often not fully appreciated until either lost or occurs in excess.

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1. Look to scientific research for the basis of claims, and ensure the eating plan is not actually a danger to health.

2. Sort through the claims and promises for the actual strategies required.

3. Assess if it requires anything special to make it work, including pills, potions or machdnes.

4. Assess its consistency with recommended food selection guides and the use of locally available foods.

5. Assess the promised rate of weight loss.

6. Assess the energy level and macronutrient composition and compare this with national recommendations.

7. Ensure that it is nutritionally adequate in micronutrients, and not reliant on supplements.

8. Assess the cost of the plan, particularly for long-term implementation.

9. Ensure that it is sustainable, incorporating commonsense food selection and regular, appropriately chosen physical activity.

10. Refer to an appropriately qualified health professional if unsure.

11. Reject any diet promoting a specific food or drink as a fat ‘burner’.

12. Consider only those eating plans which are likely to be adhered to for extended periods without alterations to physical nutrient profiles.

13. Be aware that liquid meal replacement diets without an accompanying activity program should only ever be used for the very obese and with appropriate professional supervision.

14. Discourage dieting in favour of healthy eating plans.

15. Keep in mind that diets of less than 1200kcals per day should not be used except under strict professional supervision and only in cases of extreme and life-threatening obesity.

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Doctors classify excessive heavy bleeding (menorrhagia) as the repeated loss of more than 80 ml of menstrual blood in each menstrual cycle. If this volume is lost consistently during menstruation, women can become anaemic, lethargic and prone to sickness. While this is a concern for health reasons, the social impact is often more worrying still, with the added burden of possibly creating financial difficulties. Some women find they need to plan their activities carefully to minimise the embarrassment of bleeding accidents, or they may take time off work coping with the problem or trying to find out the underlying cause. Kath’s experience of heavy bleeding coincided with a very hot summer. After a couple of bleeding accidents when she ‘flooded’ on her way to, or at, work she took the precaution of wearing dark-coloured clothing that would disguise any such episode, as well as using tampons and sanitary pads of increased absorbency. A number of colleagues unwittingly added to her embarrassment by making disparaging comments about the inappropriateness of her clothing given the sweltering heat. Initially Kath tried to shrug the comments off and joked about getting dressed before the lights came on. But one day she decided enough was enough and, when quizzed about her clothing, she simply said, ‘I’m having a hellish time with my periods at the moment and, believe me, I’ll be celebrating when I can wear white again.’

In normal day to day living, measuring how much blood is lost in a menstrual bleed is virtually impossible. When careful studies are conducted, however, women are found to lose about 35 ml of blood (less than a quarter of a cup) in a cycle on average. Clearly, the 80 ml marker of menorrhagia is set quite high.

The diagnosis of excessive heavy bleeding is usually based on a joint assessment by women and their doctors. Factors taken into account include the number and degree of saturation of pads and/or tampons, the duration of bleeding, and the presence or absence of clots and flooding. This assessment is subjective and various research studies suggest that women may think they are losing more or less blood than is revealed by a careful analysis of sanitary products. In one study, for example, while 59% of women with concerns about menorrhagia were losing more than 60 ml of blood in most cycles, another 20% had average losses of less than 35 ml. Younger women in particular seem to be more likely to regard moderate blood loss as heavy. Reassurance about bleeding patterns, if this is appropriate, or information about how to better organise and cope with tampon and pad use can result in management of the problem without drugs or surgery.

A specific cause for heavy bleeding may never be found, although there is usually much speculation about possible reasons. Fibroids are thought to be the culprit in about a quarter of cases, while in others polyps, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries, abnormalities of the body’s blood-dotting mechanism, chronic liver or kidney disease, ectopic pregnancy, pelvic inflammatory disease, and side-effects from hormone therapies and intra-uterine contraceptive devices are implicated. Where possible, likely causes should be avoided, removed or treated.

Where there is no explanation for recurrent heavy blood loss, doctors usually describe the bleeding as ‘dysfunctional’. Drug therapies or removal (resection) of the endometrium are the usual strategies in trying to correct the problem. If these approaches do not work, a hysterectomy may be the last resort.

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