Doctorweblog. About Health & Medicine

The active ingredient in evening primrose oil is gammalinolenic acid (GLA), and it is the GLA which gives the oil its cancer-controlling properties. It maybe working in three different ways:
1. Lipid peroxides. What the researchers have found is that when human cancer cells are exposed to polyunsaturated fatty acids in the laboratory, the cells generate large amounts of substances called lipid peroxides, and die.
Several different PUFAs have been tried to see which one is the most effective. GLA seems to be the best PUFA – it is highly toxic to malignant cells, but has no toxic effects whatsoever on normal cells.
It is now known that the majority of human and animal cancers contain low levels of lipid peroxides. There is evidence that lipid peroxides play a role in regulating cell division. In most cancers, the reason for the low levels of lipid peroxides seems to be a low concentration of PUFA substrate, which is needed for the formation of peroxide.
This may on the face of it seem paradoxical, because peroxides have a reputation for always being harmful. However, it now seems as though lipid peroxides, although indeed harmful in some situations, may be physiological regulators of cell division.
Some capsules of evening primrose oil contain Vitamin E as an anti-oxidant. However, studies have shown that Vitamin E in fact inhibits the toxic effects of GLA on malignant cells, so the best treatment for cancer would be large doses of evening primrose oil without the Vitamin E. Ideally, fish oils should also be taken. New clinical trials on cancer are using Efatnol Marine, instead of Efamol on its own.
2.  It by-passes the delta-6-desaturase enzyme block. Cancer is a known blocking agent of the metabolic pathway of linoleic acid. This block occurs at the first step, between linoleic acid and gammalinolenic acid, by inhibiting the delta-6-desaturase enzyme. The GLA in evening primrose oil by-passes this block by starting at the second stage in the metabolic pathway This means that GLA can convert to DGLA and then to prostaglandin El without hindrance.
3. Prostaglandins. Another way in which polyunsaturated fatty acids might be controlling cancer cells is by being converted into prostaglandins. Prostaglandins derived from PUFAs may inhibit the proliferation of human and animal tumour cells, and reverse transformed cells.
Originally it was thought that it was only PGE1 which had anti-cancer properties, but it now seems that other prostaglandins are important too.
It must be stressed that all the above studies are preliminary, and although major clinical trials are planned, there are no results to date.
However, evening primrose oil is already widely used by alternative health centers and practitioners, such as the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, for patients with cancer. In these cases it is used as part of a whole treatment programme, often involving several nutrients and a fundamental change of diet.
It must be emphasized that people with cancer should not treat themselves, but should always seek the advice of a qualified practitioner.
The studies with GLA are exciting, but the situation at the moment is that no double-blind trial has yet shown it to be effective. Until such trials are done, anyone with cancer taking evening primrose oil can only hope it will help them.

*3/60/5*

It is easy to recognize severe hyperventilation: erratic, noisy, rapid breaths where the chest is heaving and the abdomen is barely moving. The person feels the need to take an occasional deep breath and often finds it difficult to breathe out. Hyperventilators sigh a lot.
Chronic overbreathing is not so easy to identify because there is nothing dramatic to see or hear – quiet, shallow rapid breaths with most of the movement from the upper chest.
Breathing Exercises
Make the time to do two half-hour sessions daily. If you are having severe symptoms, panic or agoraphobia, a quick five minutes here and there is not enough. The best times are after breakfast and before the evening meal. Sit comfortably in the chair or, better still, lie on the floor or bed, and loosen tight clothing. As you become more skilled, you will be able to practise abdominal breathing anywhere, even standing in a queue.
Slowly and Gently, Not Deeply and Vigorously.
J   Place one hand on your abdomen and one on your chest. The hand on your chest should stay as still as possible. The hand on your abdomen should go up and down as you breathe; visualize a blue and white boat gently rising and falling in the waves.
2 Breathe out through your nose (don’t force it), and let your abdomen fall gently as you do so.
3 Breathe in through the nose letting the abdomen rise; make the out breath longer than the in breath.
4 Gradually train yourself to breathe between eight and twelve times per minute. (Sometime when you are resting, look at a watch with a second hand and count how many times your chest goes up and down (this is one breath) during half a minute; double it and you will have the rate at which you breathe per minute.)
*101\326\8*

Infants who require treatment more frequently than three times a week consistently have to be given long-term asthma medication including inhaled corticosteroids.
Given an infant’s delicate physiology, such attacks can rapidly progress to respiratory failure. Therefore, it is extremely important to closely monitor such children. Since PEFR measurements cannot be obtained in such infants other parameters have to be carefully assessed.
Acute asthma in infants is managed in the same manner as it is in the older children in the emergency department of a hospital.
Beta-2 agonists by nebulization are the preferred bronchodilators. Sometimes the treatment is not very effective because of   a low dose or because of poor delivery. Salbutamol with a minimum dose of a 1.25 mg should be administered with a mask and treatment should be repeated, as for older children.
Corticosteroids are quite important in infants because of the airway oedema that occurs. In fact they should be given quite early in the course of the attack particularly if the infant fails t completely respond to one or two Salbutamol nebulizations.
*107\260\8*

Family Medical History
Your family medical history is useful for determining possible hereditary aspects of disease or identifying risk factors. For example, if a close family member had a heart attack at a young age, you may have a higher risk of coronary artery disease.
Make a list of any chronic diseases affecting your parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and children.
Social History
Your social history includes information about your life-style or living habits that may have an impact on disease, such as smoking and alcohol use, recreational activities that may influence general fitness, or job-related factors such as toxic exposures.
Review of Organ Systems
Your doctor will review potential symptoms related to each organ system during the medical interview. This review is a checklist for you and the doctor to go through to make sure that nothing is overlooked. For example, someone who complains of chest pain may neglect to mention that he or she experiences calf tiredness when walking a short distance. This information is important to the doctor, because both chest pain and calf discomfort or tiredness can be related to blockage in the coronary and leg arteries, respectively. Items such as this should be brought out during the course systematically reviewing other systems.
*334\252\8*

As we near the end of this article, we are discovering that one key factor has been missing in the treatment of arthritics. In too many cases, a person with arthritis has never had a complete physical examination.
You may doubt that statement and say that you have often been examined thoroughly from head to toe by your doctor. True, but what questions were you asked? Did anyone take a record of your past diet? Did the subject of cod-liver oil come up in the discussion? Were tests made to determine the oil content of your body and of the foods you had been eating recently?
The point we are making is that most examinations for arthritis do not go far enough. They do not probe deeply enough into your background and eating habits—as well as the physical structure and condition of your body.
How can you be expected to become well, if you never really learn the full extent of your arthritis and the mistakes you are making to prolong the disease? Therefore, as a final aid to arthritics, we shall now give you a guide on how to obtain a complete physical examination the next time you visit your doctor. Here are the areas he should examine and the questions you should discuss together.
*68\146\2*

When a child is brought to the hospital, as a first step, the doctor quickly assesses the severity of the asthma by noting the child’s appearance, listening to the chest and taking a breathing test. This evaluation also includes measurement of the oxygen in the arterial blood. Based on the evaluation, a decision whether the child requires intensive therapy under close monitoring in an intensive care unit or whether treatment in a hospital room or ward would suffice.
The treatment consists of nebulized beta-2 agonists after every 1 to 2 hours as well as oral or intravenous aminophylline. The child is closely monitored for signs of increasing severity or improvement. If the child shows improvement within a day or two he can be allowed to go home. However, if the child’s condition deteriorates, he should be transferred to an intensive care unit (ICU) where his condition would be continuously assessed.
*105\260\8*