med-hints

  Many of my colleagues have doubts. The Stanford University website points out that:   The status of Blastocystis “as a true pathogen is controversial” and the Mayo Clinic site states doctors don’t “fully understand the role, if any, the parasite plays in causing a disease.” The parasite, Blastocystis, is common in countries where drinking water isn’t routinely treated, and NIH researcher C harles H. Zierdt estimated the “ organism has a worldwide distribution and that it infects more than one billion individuals.” A drug called Alinia—nitazoxanide-- “ has (according to the CDC) been shown to be effective in clearing organisms and improving symptoms.”  The agency lists Alinia as treatment option number 3—third choice.  The CDC claims treatment with options one and two “have been reported.” Their website doesn’t state the drugs help or that they don’t help.  A lot of my former colleagues don’t know about Alinia and don’t use it.   from Mayo Clini...

Some of us slouch a bit when we've had a long day and we are tired or careless.  A hunched back makes us look old, puts a strain on our back and can't be good for us.  People  keep their bodies from bending foreward  by paying attention to how they sit and stand.  Some strengthen their back muscles by spending a few  minutes a day p erforming Isometric floor and wall exercises-- and by engaging in workouts that bolster their core muscles.   Sometimes bent posture is the result of partially collapsed discs or of  osteoporotic spinal vertebrae that develop compression fractures..   Our ability and our need to intervene surgically depends, in part, on the affected  person’s general health, age, and the severity of the problem. Spinal stenosis is an "abnormal" narrowing of the canal that contains the spinal chord and/or of spaces between vertebrae where nerves exit..  It develops slowly as a person ages and it more commonly affects ...

  An in-home approach that usually works   People begin to feel an urge to defecate when a hunk of feces slides from the sigmoid colon into the distal rectum.  When the stool gets close to the anal canal the sphincter tightens.  It’s a reflex.  The job of the anal sphincter is to keep stool in.  When someone starts to defecate, stool moves into the anal opening and a reflex causes the sphincter to relax.  an impaction starts when a sphincter doesn't loosen up and allow the stool to move into the anal canal. In most cases the person who is impacted can solve the problem by fooling the anal sphincter.  He or she puts on a disposable glove or shields the index finger with a thin plastic bag.  Then they coat the finger with a layer of Vaseline gel.  Next, the person slides the index finger gently through the anal opening.  They rotate the finger around the inner wall of the sphincter and slowly...