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Patient’s rights

1. You have the right to be called by your surname. If you are called by your first name, you have the right to call the doctor by his—it keeps the relationship on even ground.

2. You have the right to be interviewed with your clothes on. You should not have to give your history and symptoms while you’re in stirrups or sitting on an examining table, wrapped in nothing but paper.

3. You have the right to be notified of all test results-abnormal and normal-in a timely fashion. Some doctors will choose to mail you a note, others will call you or even ask you to come back. But you shouldn’t have to chase down your M.D. or the report.

4. You have the right to your 15 minutes with the doctor. That means—barring an emergency—there are no interruptions, no phone calls, no extraneous people walking into the room.

5. You have the right to be seen within a half hour of your appointment. Making you wait for an hour or more is unconscionable—it sends the message that the doctors time is more valuable than yours. If your physician is delayed, there should be an apology and an explanation—or I believe you should not have to pay the bill.

But a patient can’t expect these courtesies without being part of the team. Here’s your part of the bargain:

Doctor’s rights

1. Your doctor has the right to know the truth about your habits. Admit to the alcohol  and  cigarettes.  Tell  him about the herbal medications and over-the-counter products you are taking. They can affect treatment.

2. Your doctor has the right to know if you’re confused. Ask questions. And if you feel uncertain about a diagnosis or treatment, ask for a second opinion. A good doctor won’t mind.

3. Your doctor has the right to know if you aren’t going to follow his advice. Just say so. It is frustrating, even dangerous, for a physician to believe that you’re going along with a certain regimen when you’re not.

4. Your doctor has the right to expect you to be on time. If you’re running late, call the office. Nothing irritates an M.D. more than waiting for the 5:00 p.m. patient only to have her arrive at 6:00—or not at all.

5. Your doctor has the right to see only the patient who made the appointment. Don’t bring another family member for a quick checkup. The choreography  of our  day is  complicated; throwing in an extra exam may seem like a shortcut to you, but it can derail an entire office schedule.

Approximately eighty percent of young adults are experiencing acne dilemma. Acne is just a short-lived problem. However, the scars that acne left could be carried all through out their lives if not treated immediately. People say that acne scars cannot be deleted. But that is not true. There is a hope for acne scars nowadays. Examples are the collagen injection, laser treatments and using your own fats to cover up scars.

Before going into details of all these treatments, let’s try to look into the causes of acne scars to be able to know why a scar is left behind when the acne heals. Generally, the reason why there are scars after wound are healed is because of the damaged tissue. If there is a damaged tissue, the body tries to heal the wound to protect it from further infections. In cases like acne, skin pores are covered with excess oil or dead skin hindering the secretion of the natural oils. It will create a perfect place for bacteria to stay that will irritate the skin layers and will soon lead to acne. First symptoms of acne are itchiness that’s why we tend to rub or pick it. Such action will irritate the sensitive skin tissues that will oftentimes result to wounds or aggravated acne. Thus, when it heals the scar will be left behind.
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It is normal to shed hair every day and the truth is we loose between 100-125 hairs on any given day. Hair that is shed falls out at the end of growth cycle. At any given time 10% of our hair is in what is called a “resting phase” and after 2-3 months resting, hair falls out and new hair grows in its place. Some people, however, experience more hair loss than is normal.

As we get older, both men and women experience some hair loss. It’s a normal part of the aging process. Called Androgenetic Alopecia, it accounts for 95% of all hair loss. Which is why most people should consider using something like Provillus. Androgentic Alopecia often runs in families and affects some people more than others. In men it is often referred to as Male Pattern Baldness.

It is characterized by a receding hair line and baldness on the top of head. Women, on the other hand, don’t go entirely bald even if their hair loss is severe. Instead, hair loss is spread out evenly over their entire scalp.
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Motion sickness is a condition that occurs in some people when boating, flying or driving. It is estimated that as many as 80 percent of the population has experienced motion sickness at some time. Most people suffer only mild to moderate symptoms. For example, they may have a feeling of uneasiness or a slight headache in mild cases whereas they may experience nausea, dizziness, sweating, vomiting, disorientation and an inability to function in stronger cases. The motion of a boat on the ocean often causes the most severe symptoms. Natural therapies and valuable self-care techniques go a long way in controlling and even eliminating symptoms of motion sickness.

Motion sickness often begins in the inner ear, which is responsible for the body’s sense of balance. Projecting upward and posteriorly from the vestibule in each ear are three rings called semicircular canals that are filled with fluid. When your head and body move in an atypical manner, the fluid inside these canals moves in patterns that are not typical of our normal “feet on the ground” sense. When your head experiences constant, pronounced movement, this fluid stimulates the nerve fibers that monitor balance, causing dizziness, nausea, sweating and vomiting.

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Cholesterol is a material that is derived from animal fats in food and that is also produced by the body. A certain amount of cholesterol is essential to health-it forms two per cent of the weight of the brain, for example—but too much cholesterol builds up in the arteries and may play a part in causing coronary disease or stroke. Most doctors advice moderating the animal fat content of our diet as a wise precaution. And this applies to lean men as well as plump ones.

Cholesterol-rich foods include fat meats, pork, sausages, egg yolk, butter, cheese, pastry, cream, meat drippings, and other animal fats. So it is wise to avoid too many of these foods and to trim away the visible fat from your meat. Since eating vegetable fats will actually reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood, try to include in your diet some vegetable oils (such as corn, sunflower, and olive oil), fish oils, or polyunsaturated margarines.
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I was diagnosed with diverticulitis almost 30 years ago, and I’ve also been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and short bowel syndrome. I’ve done research, but everything I’ve found stresses the need to have a high-fibre intake. I’ve had to drastically reduce my fiber intake on medical advice because of constant diarrhoea.

answer:
Diet plays a major part in the management of diverticular disease. When you have a flare-up, you will be advised to reduce fibre for a month or so, but once symptoms settle down, it is advisable to gradually resume a high-fibre diet. New thinking suggests that changes in the balance of bacteria in the bowel might contribute to chronic low-grade inflammation, and this is almost certainly the case after a lot of antibiotics. Treatment with therapeutic probiotics is the latest direction in preventing recurrence of diverticulitis. Probiotics are also being used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

What is the difference between nuclear cataracts and cortical cataracts?

answer:
A cataract is a clouding or opacity of the lens in your eye, which is normally clear. It comes from the Latin word cataracta, meaning waterfall, because having a cataract has been likened to looking through a sheet of water. It is considered a common, if not normal, part of aging. As cataracts progress, they can cause blurred vision, sensitivity to glare, increased nearsightedness and distorted vision.The terms “nuclear” and “cortical” cataract refer to the position of the cataract on the lens. The nuclear cataract occurs in the center of the lens, while the cortical cataract starts as wedge-shaped spokes around the periphery of the lens. Higher risk groups for cataracts include people with diabetes, people who have taken corticosteroids over a prolonged period, heavy drinkers, those over-exposed to the sun and smokers.

I have a question about that memory-enhancing natural drug. Can it be taken by anyone or only people who are experiencing memory loss? I am a 28-year-old woman, and I would like to know, as my mother is suffering from dementia. I would also like to know if memory loss is hereditary and if anything can be done to prevent it.

answer:
This is unlikely in someone so young, although Alzheimer’s disease does have a familial association.

There are actually several “natural drugs” for memory, if you mean that in the sense of naturally occurring substances that improve memory. The major one, so far as dementia is concerned, is ginkgo biloba.

A number of experimental double-blind and clinical studies have been done during the past dozen years on standardized ginkgo biloba extract in dementia. (The extract is actually a registered drug in Germany for the treatment of brain dysfunction.) The studies are virtually unanimous in documenting improvement in such parameters as short-term memory, attention, basic learning rate, cognitive efficiency, performance speed, problem-solving, vigilance, mood and sociability. People without dementia who take ginkgo also report improved mental function.

Ginkgo appears to work by increasing blood flow to the brain. It also enhances glucose utilization, the brain’s energy source. In addition, it has membrane-stabilizing and antioxidant effects. The usual dose of the extract, standardized to contain 24 percent ginkgo flavone glycosides, is 40 mg three times a day.

Ginkgo may help delay deterioration in early stages of Alzheimer’s dementia, but the consensus is that it’s not much use later on. For full-blown Alzheimer’s, we turn to a second “natural drug,” acetyl-L-carnitine.

Acetyl-L-carnitine is a form of L-carnitine, an amino acid found in meat, and available as a nutritional supplement. Carnitine changes to acetyl-L-carnitine through the action of an enzyme that is woefully lacking in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims.

Acetyl-L-carnitine has been the subject of double-blind clinical studies in Alzheimer’s patients, with somewhat spotty results. Acetyl-L-carnitine reportedly improves behavior, memory, verbal fluency, attention, name learning, logical intelligence and digit recall, among other measures—or at the very least, it slows the progressive deterioration of such cognitive functions.

Acetyl-L-carnitine may help Alzheimer’s sufferers in at least two ways: It is a precursor to acetylcholine (a brain chemical involved in memory), and it acts as an energy carrier at the level of the cells’ energy factories (the mitochondria) where it is involved in fatty-acid metabolism. The dosage in these studies ranged from 2 to 3 gm a day.

A third natural substance, phos-phatidylserine (PS), has been receiving favorable attention recently. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 72 adults, a daily dose of 300 mg of PS with phosphatidic acid was given for three months. The PS group showed improved memorization of information, memorization of numbers and visual memory. This group also appeared not to experience depressed moods during the winter months.

I’ve heard that in a man older than 50, the body begins to produce a toxic hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone), a by product of testosterone. This hormone causes the prostate to swell up, which, in turn, produces uncomfortable symptoms such as multiple trips to the bathroom at night. I’ve heard that saw palmetto berries suppress DHT and help shrink the prostate. Is this true? I can say that saw palmetto has really worked for me.

answer:
You’ve got it mostly right. Saw palmetto extract has been shown in more than a half-dozen double-blind clinical studies to improve urine flow, decrease frequency of urination, lessen urinary discomfort and aid in more complete emptying of the bladder. It’s arguable, however, whether the prostate actually becomes smaller.

Saw palmetto is so good that I recommend it to my middle-aged and older patients with prostate symptoms. I also prescribe it to help maintain a healthy prostate. I find it works best when combined with certain amino acids, vitamins, herbs, bee pollen and zinc.

Saw palmetto extract reportedly blocks DHT activity, but is DHT really guilty as charged? It seems odd that the prostate enlarges just at the age when a man’s overall male hormone levels drop. Odd, too, that tissue samples of enlarged prostate glands don’t show unusual levels of DHT.

Some researchers believe that estrogen causes an enlarged prostate in older men. Estrogen, which is always present in a man’s body, assumes more influence as male hormone levels decline. To play it safe, I sometimes suggest a man increase his consumption of soybean products such as tofu, soy milk or soy protein powder because the genistein in soy will control estrogen.

Anyhow, DHT is a normal (physiological) form of male hormone, not a “toxic hormone.” It is necessary for normal male development. Unfortunately, it also promotes male-pattern baldness. I have been wondering whether a saw palmetto scalp tonic would actually help grow new hair.

Scientists say there’s no sight as sad as the corpse of a beautiful theory, slain by one ugly fact.

The ugly fact is that a high lysine/low arginine diet promotes atherosclerosis, which is a form of arteriosclerosis. Individuals on a diet high in  animal-protein, with lysine three to four times higher than  arginine, have an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Those who  eat vegetarian diets, with scarcely more lysine than arginine, have a reduced risk of heart disease.

The answer lies in the ratio between insulin and glucagon, two hormones that control blood sugar. Proteins like casein (milk protein), with high lysine levels, cause a high insulin-to-glucagon ratio, at least in people with high cholesterol. Soy protein, with relatively more arginine, causes that ratio to decrease. Lysine and branched-chain amino acids increase serum cholesterol; arginine and glycine reduce it.

Consume a vitamin C on a daily basis is important. Other antioxidants, including vitamin E, carotene and CoQ10, must be taken concurrently with vitamin C to protect arteries.