Blog About Health & Medicine

Archive for April 23, 2009

LIVING WITH DIABETES: ISLET CELLS COULD BE USED

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2:43 am

It is possible to separate the islet cells (which make insulin) from the gland tissue (which makes digestive juice) in the laboratory. This can be done from adult pancreases but is a difficult procedure and only a very small proportion of the adult pancreas consists of islet cells.

Islet cells can be obtained from the pancreas of fetuses obtained in abortion, or new-born babies who die soon after birth. It has been hoped that these islet cells, which can be cultured in the laboratory, can be placed in the body of persons with diabetes and grow there to produce enough insulin to control the diabetes.

So far work in this field has been somewhat discouraging, though there is some encouragement in that the system works well in experimental animals. It is not known yet whether in the human the islet cells could grow in number and function normally after transplantation.

Tissue rejection remains a problem with islet cells as with transplantation of the whole or part of the pancreas. It is likely that this problem of tissue rejection will be solved eventually. Tissue rejection refers to the process in which the body fights against strange and foreign tissues placed in the body, and thus rejects the transplant which can no longer survive.

The major problems may prove to be in the supply of islet cells and whether they can function properly when they are transplanted. There are problems in obtaining pancreas tissue from aborted fetuses – problems that are moral, ethical and practical – and these problems have not been resolved. It is not known whether islet cells will grow and function adequately when placed in a person with diabetes or whether they themselves may be damaged in the same way as the person’s own pancreas cells were damaged when he developed diabetes.

These questions are the subject of a great deal of active research in several world centers including in Australia. It may be many years before they are answered but the possibilities are very hopeful.

*77/54/5*

—admin | no comments
(posted in Diabetes)

MANAGING OUR STRESS: MEDITATION IN OUR LIFE

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2:37 am

In classical meditation it is regarded as important that the meditator should meditate sitting cross-legged in the position known as the lotus posture. In the ashrams of India and the zen-dos of Japan this posture is regarded as essential, and the beginner is told to get his legs as nearly as he can into this position, and to maintain it, no matter how much it hurts, for the duration of the meditation. There is none of this in the meditation that I would advise you to pursue. If we are striving against discomfort and pain, the essential stillness of mind is impossible.

For the type of meditation that I advocate, we must start our meditation in some position of slight discomfort. Then we let our mind run quietly, with as little thought as possible, and we are soon no longer aware of any discomfort. This transcendence of slight discomfort is an essential feature of successful meditation.

It does not matter how we induce the slight discomfort. This will depend on age, and on the physical and mental condition of the meditator. At the start, just sitting straight on an upright chair may be enough to produce slight discomfort. As the beginner becomes more experienced, he will soon learn that he quite easily transcends greater degrees of discomfort. He can then lie flat on his back on the floor, or sit cross-legged on a cushion or pillow, or better still on the telephone book. The meditator may prefer to kneel, either kneeling up, as in a posture of prayer, or kneeling back with the buttocks resting on the heels. If this produces too much discomfort, it can be reduced by placing a pillow over the heels.

The important factor is that the discomfort must never be so great that it is not transcended in the first few minutes of meditation. Furthermore, the discomfort needs to be progressively more severe as the meditator becomes more experienced.

Any idea of meditating while lying comfortably in bed is quite useless. In this case the individual may become relaxed. And of course physical relaxation is a good precursor to meditation, but when lying in bed the relaxation comes from nervous impulses to the brain reporting relaxation of the muscles. This is not what we want. We are seeking a form of relaxation which arises in the brain itself.

In classical meditation the meditator is taught to be constantly aware of his breathing. The breath goes in and out, in and out. The awareness of it means that there is continuing activity of the mind, which means that this process produces a type of meditation quite different from that which I advocate. There is another point. The awareness of our breathing gives our mind something to do, and so reduces the intrusion of thoughts. This makes meditation easier. So those learning to meditate easily fall into the habit of stilling their thoughts in this way. But if we are meditating with awareness of our breathing, our brain never achieves the quiet stillness which is so effective in restoring harmonious function and so relieving stress.

These same principles apply to the technique of visualization. In the last few years there has been a great vogue of visualizing in meditation. The idea is not new to me as I described it in a textbook, A System of Medical Hypnosis.

In this procedure the meditator sees in his mind’s eye the desired result being fulfilled. The person who is under stress visualizes himself calm and at ease in the face of various problems. The technique has become quite widely used with patients suffering from cancer. Of course, while the patient visualizes, his brain remains active, and the therapeutic effect of stillness of mind is never attained.

*87/98/5*

—admin | no comments
(posted in Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid)

INFERIOR PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS TO ESCAPE STRESS: DEPENDENCE

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2:34 am

The way in which we manage our dependence reactions is an important part of successful living, and may become intimately bound up with our reaction to stress. In infancy and childhood we are completely dependent on our parents. In adult life we provide dependence for our own children. In old age our children provide dependence for us, and we learn to accept it.

The dependence that we give our children is not constant. It is variable. We instinctively vary it according to the child’s needs. If something has gone wrong for him, or he is having a tough time, we move closer. When things are going well, and his need of dependence on us is less, we move away so that he comes to learn the self-dependence of adult life.

In our adult life, when things go wrong, we tend to fall back on childhood reactions and patterns of behaviour. Some people, when they come under stress, try to cope with the situation by craving for an intense dependent relationship. The businessman, under stress from problems at work, may become intensely dependent on his wife. The intensity of the dependence may progress to real childishness at home although it is never shown at work.

The relationship reactivates feelings of childhood. He feels more secure, and the symptoms of stress are reduced. And because he feels better, he tends to prolong the over-dependent reaction long after the problem causing the stress has been resolved. The result is that the wife comes to find herself burdened with the emotional needs of another child.

We must be clear about this. It is only the intensity of the dependence reaction following stress that makes it pathological. The giving and acceptance of emotional dependence, when the other needs it, is what man and woman is all about.

*80/98/5*

—admin | no comments
(posted in Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid)

BODILY SYMPTOMS OF STRESS: BUTTERFLIES

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2:26 am

“It is usually just a light movement in my stomach. Light. Like a flutter of a butterfly. But a butterfly is nice, and this is not a nice feeling. Not pain. Not hurting. But disagreeable. Nasty. Worrying. Yes. The worrying part of it is the worst. The tests were all OK. But it is worrying. You can’t get away from that. Then if you feel it, and it’s worrying, you can’t concentrate on what you should be concentrating on. Keep thinking of my stomach.

‘Then sometimes it’s worse. Not just light. But heavier. Stomach turning over. They say your stomach can’t turn over. But I can feel it. Sometimes makes me feel as if I want to be sick. I am sure there is something wrong.

‘When it’s very bad it is really heavy. A weight in my stomach. A weight and I can feel a lump. A heavy lump. There must be a tumour. If you can feel it, for certain it must be there. Cancer does not always show in the tests.”

In stress, the activation of the brain cells may spread out so as to involve groups of cells which control various bodily functions. In this case the autonomic nervous system has become activated. This part of our nervous system regulates the movement of our stomach and bowel. Increased rhythmical contractions of the muscle in the walls of the stomach are felt as a fluttering feeling. If the process becomes further aggravated, ‘here may come about a generalized contraction of muscle in the walls of the stomach. This can be felt as something hard, and gives rise to the feeling of a tumour and possibly cancer.

As in the case of palpitation of the heart, the trouble is made worse by the increased perception of sensation, so that we become aware of movements which would normally not be of sufficient significance to be registered in consciousness.

*42/98/5*

—admin | no comments
(posted in Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid)

Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)