О язве двенадцатиперстной кишки-About duodenal ulcer

So far there have not been any studies to show that statin drags reduce death rates from heart disease in women. The University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative has stated that statins offer no benefit to women for the prevention of heart disease. Yet more and more women are being put on these drags, and women are more likely than men to experience their negative side effects. In the vast majority of controlled, randomized clinical trials done on statins, there has been no improvement in survival rates in women.

According to Dr James M. Wright, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, «combined results of all trials do not support the use of statins by women without heart disease». High blood cholesterol has never proven to be a risk factor for heart disease in women. At every age, women usually have higher blood cholesterol levels than men of the same age, yet women are around 15 years older than men when they have their first heart attack. The General Accounting Office of the US Government has recognized the lack of thorough clinical trials by stating «the trials generally have not evaluated the efficacy of cholesterol-lowering treatment for several important population groups, such as women, elderly men and women, and minority men and women. Thus, they provide little or no evidence of benefits or possible risks for these groups «.

As well as not reducing the risk of heart disease, statins can increase the risk of cancer. Three clinical trials have shown women who take statin drags to have higher rates of breast cancer. In one trial, people with heart disease took 40mg of Pravachol (pravastatin) or a placebo daily. The study found that 12 out of 286 women taking Pravachol developed breast cancer, and only one out of 290 taking the placebo did. This result is claimed to be «not statistically significant», so you don’t hear about it. Only the positive results are published because much of the research is funded by the company that makes the drug. Medical research is extremely expensive to carry out, therefore the drug companies have to make sure they recoup their money.

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Ionising Radiation

This type of radiation – which gives off charged particles called ions – is produced from X-rays. It has the power to change cells and can cause infertility and miscarriages.

The male testis is one of the most radio-sensitive tissues and must be carefully protected during routine X-rays. Studies have shown that even low doses of X-ray delivered directly to the testes can reduce the sperm count temporarily to zero. If the same dose is split up over time, instead of being given in one recovery of the sperm can take up to ten years. Clearly, men exposed to X-rays through their work are likely to have reduced sperm counts.

Non-ionising Radiation

This does not create ions and is produced naturally by the sun. We are exposed to it every day through microwaves, radar, mobile phones, radio waves, televisions, computers, electric blankets, etc.

Mobile Phones

There have been lots of scary stories in the media about the dangers of mobile phones. It has been claimed that they can cause a harmful rise in blood pressure. Other research has found that regular users have more headaches. And there are concerns that mobile phones can cause ‘hot spots’ in the brain, with a possible link to brain tumours. But investigators have stressed that more research needs to be done.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Montpellier in France have found that chick embryos can be damaged by electromagnetic signals sent out by VDUs and televisions. When chick embryos were exposed to mobile phone radiation during the 21-day, incubation period there was a five-fold increase in chick deaths, which suggests that there might be an increased risk of miscarriage in humans. The possible increased risk of miscarriage and the effects on human male and female fertility have not yet been investigated.

Microwave Cooking

The first microwaves went on sale in the UK in 1974 and now almost three-quarters of British households own a microwave oven. A microwave oven heats food by using high-frequency electromagnetic waves, similar to television. The molecules of the food agitate at over 2,000 times per second so that the food heats itself. The idea is that the metal oven is a sealed unit: microwaves cannot penetrate metal so they cannot escape. However, most of the health concerns have centered on the possibility that radiation could be leaking out during cooking and affecting fertility. There are also worries that food cooked in a microwave may be inherently changed in ways we are not yet aware of.

Because microwaving does not use water, vitamins which are water-soluble (like vitamin C) are conserved in the food. For example, potatoes keep 82 per cent of their vitamin Ñ when they are microwaved, as compared to 40 per cent when they are boiled.

But microwaving tends to destroy the fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamins A, D and E. Pumpkin seeds, which have valuable amounts of essential fatty acids, lose 46 per cent of these oils after 10 minutes of irradiation. These essential fatty acids are vital for both male and female fertility.

Microwave cooking also seems to destroy the cell walls of plant foods like vegetables. Studies on microwaved carrots and broccoli show that the molecular structure is deformed, whereas in conventional cooking the cell structure stays intact.

What this means is that the microwave process seems to encourage the production of free radicals (highly reactive chemical fragments which have been linked to cancer, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and premature ageing).

At a time when you are aiming to increase your fertility by optimizing your health, anything that may compromise your health should be looked at carefully.

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Don’t wait for a stroke before you swing into action. In addition to quitting smoking (another huge risk factor), there are several ways you can fight back against brain attack.

Get a neck check. If any of those stroke symptoms sound vaguely familiar, visit your doctor and have him warm up his stethoscope. But after he checks your chest – heart disease, you know-ask him to listen for a bruit (BREW-ee) in your neck. When the carotid arteries on either side of your neck are narrowed by plaque, they make a rushing sound doctors call a bruit.

«It’s not foolproof, but when a general practitioner suspects stroke, he’ll perform one of these. If he doesn’t like what he hears, he’ll send you to a neurologist for a closer look,» says Dr. Penix.

Bring down your blood pressure.

Since guys who have high blood pressure before age 45 are 10 times more likely to suffer a stroke later in life, it’s vital that you bring yours down. «Regular aerobic exercise and weight loss are two of the best ways to begin to lower your blood pressure,» says Dr. Sacco. Try to get 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise at least three times a week. Here are the numbers to shoot for: A reading of 120/80 millimeters of mercury (pronounced 120 over 80) is considered normal. Experts say a reading above 140/90 should be of concern. And when your blood pressure is higher than 160/100, it’s definitely too high.

Play anyway. You don’t need to be diagnosed with high blood pressure to get active, but you can still cut your stroke risk. The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City found that the risk of stroke is 2 1/2 times greater among people who do not exercise. «What impressed us was discovering just how little exercise it took to get these spectacular benefits,» Dr. Sacco says. People who walked 20 minutes three times a week were 57 percent less likely to suffer a stroke. Exercise such as bicycling, swimming, hiking, and tennis reduced stroke risk by nearly two-thirds.

Take a sip-occasionally. Alcohol can increase or decrease your stroke risk, depending on how much you drink. In this same study, occasional-to-moderate drinkers who consumed from one alcoholic drink a month to two drinks a day had a 50 percent lower risk than nondrinkers, according to Dr. Sacco. Alcohol-even grape juice, if you abstain from drinking-is thought to make blood less sticky, reducing the risk of clotting and increasing the «good» cholesterol. But don’t take this as a license to binge. Drinking more than two drinks per day raises your stroke risk and leads to other health problems.

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More than 60 percent of adolescent girls in our society believe they are «too fat.» The difference for the anorexic, however, is the degree of distress this feeling causes, compounded by her inability to perceive her body accurately.

Ironically, her «realization» that she is fat, though distorted and incorrect, produces a tremendous sense of relief. At last she feels she has identified the problem. Now she can begin to manage it: She will diet.

The snowball has begun to roll. Any success at dieting -»Hey, I’ve lost two pounds in five days!»- provides a sense of accomplishment. Feelings of insecurity fade, replaced by a sense of mastery, competence, and self-control. Such emotions reinforce themselves. The greater the feeling of competence, the more she wants to feel competent. Success (weight loss) breeds the desire for more success (more weight loss).

Relief! No longer is she a passive, helpless victim of her inadequacy. Now she’s regaining control over her life.

What’s more, she feels relieved because weight loss reverses maturity. Menstruation stops. She becomes like a child again – physically, at least. Now she can «legitimately» avoid entering into more adult relationships. She reduces the risk of rejection and thus prevents damage to her fragile psyche. Preoccupied with her body, she focuses inwardly, avoiding the need to grow outwardly through interaction with other people.

The devastating effects of starvation are usually obvious. Sometimes, though, parents may be too close to the problem to see what is happening to their daughter until an outsider brings it to their attention.

Even if they fail to notice her weight loss, parents may find their daughter’s eating behavior becoming increasingly strange. She dawdles over her meal for an hour, poking at her food, creating meticulous piles of peas or mashed-potato sculptures. She cuts her food into tiny pieces, nibbles one bite, and then claims she is full. She puts herself in charge of all food shopping and preparation. She bakes cakes and cookies and insists that the family eat every bite, yet eats nothing herself. Eventually her preoccupation with food absorbs every waking moment. She may exercise compulsively for three, four, even five hours a day.

Starvation, though, is an unstable state. Besieged by hunger signals from her body, the girl must constantly resist the desire to eat. The longer she goes without food, the greater her hunger and the greater her preoccupation with eating.

In a weird way, this need for vigilance perpetuates the illness. Each victory over her appetite reinforces her sense that she is at last in control of her destiny. The thinner she gets, the higher her self-esteem; the higher her self-esteem, the greater her desire to be thin.

Sometimes, though, hunger becomes overpowering. The result: an eating binge. Horrified that she has failed, burdened by guilt over her weakness and loss of control, she resorts to drastic measures to purge herself of food.

Briefly, I want to mention that at some point the body, robbed of a supply of nutrients, begins to steal from itself. That is, it «confiscates» essential chemicals stored in certain tissues, such as the protein required keeping muscles strong. Metabolism slows down to conserve dwindling fuel. Usually the anorexic begins to feel very cold; she may experience fainting spells.

Despite these warnings, the girl persists in her behavior, ignoring the pleas of family and friends and resisting the need for treatment. She sees as her enemy anyone who wants her to eat. I can’t count the number of times I have confronted a patient with anorexia-a skeletal figure, pale, trembling with cold – who gazes at me through empty eyes and says, in effect: «Why do they want to take away the one thing that makes me special-my ability to be thin?»

How hard it is to convince these people of the one fact that everyone around them knows: Without treatment, they may die.

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As the head certified athletic trainer at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Stephen R. Nemes Jr. has made a career out of getting student athletes into top shape for their respective sports. Sometimes, that means helping them lose a few pounds, an assignment with which Steve has had plenty of personal experience.

In 1975, Steve, then a college sophomore, reached his top weight of 247 pounds. «I had been heavy even as a child, but I really let myself go once I got to high school,» he says. «I ate a lot of junk, and I didn’t exercise nearly enough.»

At 5 foot 5, he couldn’t conceal his girth. Yet he remained un-fazed by his portliness until one of his professors confronted him about it. «He told me that I might have a hard time finding a job as an athletic trainer because I was so overweight,» Steve says. «Employers wouldn’t view me as a credible candidate.» The professor’s comments left Steve shaken. His dream was to train athletes. He wasn’t about to let his weight get in the way.

Of course, slimming down in a college environment, where junk food is plentiful and watching TV is a popular pastime, presented its own challenges. «My problem was that whenever I had some downtime, I’d sit in front of the tube stuffing myself with whatever I could | 3 get my hands on,» Steve says. «I was overeating and underexercising.»

He made an effort to fill his free time with other activities, like working out, shopping for healthy foods, and studying. «As my weight went down, my grades went up,» Steve says. By the time he j § graduated in 1977, he was 82 pounds lighter.

In the years since, Steve’s weight has fluctuated between 165 and 175 pounds. He tries to stay fit to set a good example not only for the student athletes he trains but also for his family. «I have a little girl whom I want to see grow up,» he says. «She has become my biggest motivator.»

WINNING ACTION

Fill up your downtime. All of us have moments when we just want to lie back and watch the world go back. That’s fine… once in a while. There are plenty of ways to relax without even thinking about food. Get a facial. Play fetch with your dog. Take a class in wreath making or bird-watching. Buy a telescope and watch the stars. You get the idea. Eating is often a response to boredom. If you aren’t bored, you won’t eat.

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