Although hepatitis is more widespread in developing countries, cases do occur in Australia. It is also a health risk for those travelling overseas.

Cause

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by infection with various viruses. These are hepatitis A (infectious hepatitis), hepatitis B (serum hepatitis) and non-A non-B hepatitis.

Investigations

The diagnosis of hepatitis can be confirmed with blood tests.

Treatment

If your child’s symptoms are severe he may need to be admitted to hospital for nursing care. A child with hepatitis A usually improves after 2 weeks, while hepatitis B can be a prolonged illness. There is no cure for hepatitis so treatment is directed to relieving symptoms and includes rest as well as a special diet free of fatty foods.

Prevention

Good hygiene and proper sewerage are critical in the prevention of hepatitis. If you are travelling overseas with your child to areas where there is a high risk of exposure to hepatitis, an injection of human immunoglobulin can be given to help avoid infection with hepatitis A. A specific vaccine is now available against hepatitis B. This involves blood tests and three injections over several months — discuss this with your doctor.

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Depression: I mentioned earlier that there is a direct relationship between feelings of loneliness and isolation and serious depression. The sexual needs of the developing person cry out for direction and understanding, for discussion and focus. Adolescent suicide is dangerously increasing, in part because sexual feelings in our young people are not tolerated and have few safe avenues for expression.

There are many myths about teen depression and suicide. If they threaten it, they won’t do it. If they are active andjnvolved, they won’t do it. If they are doing well in school, they won’t do it. If they come from a good home, they won’t do it. These statements are false. If you are worried, there is reason to worry, so reach out now. It is éîã just depressed people who kill themselves. Agitated, afraid, worried, insecure, hyperactive people kill themselves, too. Healthy sexuality is a key part of making it through the stress of young adulthood. Wrong turns on the love maps of these young people can result in death through sexual experimentation gone wrong. Some adolescents hang themselves to cause a high related to lack of oxygen while masturbating, failing at the last moment to control the lack of oxygen. This cause of death is known to all clinicians, but is not often talked about. The sexual problem, called asphyxiophilia, is one of the so-called paraphilias, problems with relationships and loving sexuality. We might hear the comment, “He never said anything at all to me about being really that upset,” after a young person has killed himself, because what he might have said was not something we wanted to hear or were too uncomfortable to allow him to tell us.

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True False

1. Women do not ejaculate.

2. Most women have orgasm in intercourse.    

3. Women take a longer time to respond than men.    

4. Women have sexual fantasies less often than men.

5. Women are less turned on by visual stimulation than

men.

6.    The more lubrication of the vagina, the more aroused the woman is.

7.    Women can go on and on. They do not have a re-

fractory period.

8.    Women relate sex and love together while men tend

to be able to separate the two.

9.    Women prefer one partner and are not interested in

variety.    

10.    Women do not like oral love but might do it if their

partner really wants it.

All of the answers to this quiz are false because each myth is based on the premise that men and women respond completely differently, and this is not necessarily true.

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Your mind-body system remembers every damage you did to it in the days gone by. If some healing in the past has not been perfect, because of other emergencies in your body (and mind), some of the damage remains unrepaired.

When you purify your body and mind, resources within your body become available, enabling repairs which are long overdue .

The effect of this can be quite’ amazing. Many people on various detoxification programs (oxygen therapies, fasting) observe symptoms of their past diseases in quick succession and in reverse order. Basically, you can expect to re-live every serious disease you experienced in the past. Don’t be frightened. This is healing. Your body is just fixing things which are long overdue. Symptoms are usually very mild, and they last only an hour or two. Many active people do not even notice such symptoms, because they are so mild.

I would like to give you just one example drawn from my own personal experience. At the age of 7 I had a severe ear infection, which was very painful, took a long time to heal and doctors injected me with lots of antibiotics. At the age of 42, during fasting I experienced the symptoms of this disease, accurate in every minute detail. I was astonished, because the situation was restored so perfectly, that I remembered not only my feelings from childhood but also the taste and even the smell of antibiotics I took at that time. The experience lasted only for a few hours.

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The disorder usually begins in early adult life but may occur in children or in the elderly. It is often associated with other disorders, such as overactivity of the thyroid gland, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.

The muscles become progressively weaker as they are used during the day and seem to recover overnight.

When we wish to use muscles, we send an impulse down the nerve to the muscle. At the nerve ending, a chemical, acetylcholine, is released and this stimulates the muscle to contract.

In myasthenia gravis, the supply of acetylcholine appears to run out with repeated use and the muscles become progressively weaker. The supply appears to build up with rest. Sometimes the muscle become permanently weak.

The drug neostigmine, or its derivatives, is used to overcome the lack of acetylcholine and, if given several times a day, can control the symptoms. The disease tends to remit and relapse but, occasionally, is rapidly progressive and may be fatal.

In some, removal of the thymus does seem to lead to remission but the operation is still controversial.

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Eating Chinese food may not only leave you still hungry after an hour or two, it may give a few individuals severe headaches and other symptoms.

What has been called the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome comes on usually within half an hour to an hour of eating out at a Chinese restaurant. The symptoms are believed to be caused by monosodium glutamate or MSG which is often added to Chinese cooking.

Those who are sensitive to this substance react by developing feelings of pressure, tightness and burning over the face, neck, shoulders and chest. It is usually associated with a severe throbbing headache.

The symptoms are frightening and many sufferers experiencing their first attack believe they have had a stroke.

They seem to develop only when a sufficient quantity of MSG is taken on an empty stomach. Hence, it is often the soup eaten at the beginning of the meal which causes the problem.

So, if you are unlucky enough to be sensitive to MSG and still be partial to Chinese food, miss out on the soup or have a small snack before you go to the restaurant — or change and learn to like Italian cooking.

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Remember, if you find it impossible to get the information you want from your practitioner, there are alternatives. Every patient is entitled to a second (or third, or more) opinion. This may be from doctors or any other type of practitioner. You may quite happy with your practitioner’s experience and technical skill but find that he or she is no good at communicating. This is sufficient reason to ask for another opinion. If the problem is with a medical specialist, you may be able to get the information through the doctor who referred you, or ask to be referred to another specialist. The referral can be from your local doctor or the first specialist. After seeing the second (or third, or more) practitioner(s) you are entitled to choose whichever one you prefer for your continuing care. You can always go back to the first one if you wish. Don’t feel silly about doing this if, in the end, that is what you prefer.

This sounds easy on paper but, of course, we all know it’s not. It takes courage and determination to ask for a second opinion. Many practitioners will try to talk you out of it because it is inconvenient—they may even see it as insulting. Stick to your guns. You are that important. You deserve the best. You’re not there to protect your practitioner’s ego.

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The B.C.C. is a tumour arising from the cells of the basal layer of the epidermis. The abnormal cells leave their normal position and invade the dermis. It is a relatively innocent cancer, as it does not usually invade blood vessels and spread to distant sites. If left untreated, however, it will quietly spread to the surrounding skin and erode underlying tissues, such as bone. Hence, in the past, these cancers have been called ‘rodent ulcers’.

Causes. Unlike most S.C.Cs, B.C.C.s are not usually preceded by an obvious pre-malignant lesion. Although prolonged sunlight exposure is an important factor in their causation, other factors must be involved also. B.C.C.s are much more common in sunny climates and in light-skinned individuals, and two-thirds occur on the head and neck. However, one-third occur in relatively protected sites, such as on the body, eyelids, and behind the ears. It is therefore thought that regional factors must also be involved.

Features. Patients often describe how they have noticed a spot which, although it is not troubling them, does not go away; it may bleed or crust over, but will never quite heal. The appearances are varied. Most typically, it is a small pearl-like nodule with fine blood vessels overlying it. Sometimes it looks like a very small erosion of the skin, or an ulcer. Overlying it. there may be a small crust. Occasionally it appears like a red scaly plaque with o scalloped margin.

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