If your child’s tongue has a patchy appearance which resembles a map, he has what is known as a geographic tongue. This is a condition of unknown cause, in which the tongue has an uneven pattern of blotchy red areas interspersed with smooth patches. It is not painful and does not interfere with taste sensation.

It is not associated with any diseases, nor does it require any treatment. The tongue usually returns to normal, but it may take years.

EARACHE

Earache can be caused by either an ear infection (external or middle ear) or an object placed in the ear.

Clinical features

Earache is usually one-sided and may be accompanied by a runny nose, fever or vomiting. The pain can be quite severe.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the cause of the earache.

When to see your doctor

All children with an earache should be examined by their doctor.

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More severe jaundice, in which bilirubin levels are very high, may require treatment with an exchange transfusion in which your baby’s own blood is replaced by compatible fresh blood but this is not common.

If your born baby has breastmilk jaundice, it does not mean that you should stop breastfeeding. Rather, discuss with your nurse or doctor the possibility of alternating between breast and infant formula feeds.

When to see your doctor

• if your child is unwell, feeding poorly and not gaining adequate weight;

• if your baby develops jaundice in the first 48 hours after birth;

• if the jaundice becomes more noticeable after a week;

• if the jaundice has not disappeared after two weeks.

Prevention

The only form of jaundice which is preventable is that due to Rh incompatibility. The mother is given an anti-D injection immediately after delivery and this prevents complications in subsequent pregnancies.

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isn’t it? I mean, I’m his wife, for God’s sake.”

ANSWER: Fantasies are the most intimate and personal of sexual issues in couples, even more so than actual behaviors. What we think we might like to do or dream about doing seems to threaten spouses more than what actually takes place. No fantasy is sick; only hurtful behaviors are sick. The fantasy you describe is very common. Even though some couples find this hard to do, you may want to buy a few issues of one of the more explicit sex magazines and read the letters to the editor or other sex letters. As strange and artificial as these letters may seem, you will see that some of them are similar to some of your most forbidden thoughts. Rest assured that someone has already had your fantasy. Blocking fantasy by a spouse only raises anxiety and causes withholding of feelings and private thoughts, both of which block super marital sex. Fantasies are related more to how we learned about sex than they are to our feelings about our partner.

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Animals consume large amounts of food, before they become killed for meat. For example, a cow eats about 30 kg of food each day. By the time it is 3 years old it has consumed at least 30 tonnes of food. A cow’s body makes every attempt to excrete toxins. As with us humans, not all toxins become excreted. Those which are deposited around the body are of the worst kind: everything easy to metabolise would have already been excreted. As a result, a 100 kg of meat contains the worst combination of toxins, concentrated from about 30 tonnes of food. Summarising, meat contains hundreds of times higher concentration of toxins, than contained in the initial food the animal has eaten.

Drugs like anabolic steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, and other chemicals are added to animal food to “enhance” the production of meat. Most of such drugs and chemicals are illegal for human use. I would bet, that you would not want to try such food. And yet, resulting animal meat contains hundreds of times greater concentration of worst toxins than the initial animal food.

Animals get sick. You do not know what sicknesses an animal had developed before it was killed for meat. The combination of bacteria and parasite activity in a sick animal produces toxic cocktails you do not want to hear about. The meat from such animal contains a full cocktail, because the animal stopped living before it had a chance to metabolise and excrete any part of it.

Animals have parasites, living in various stages in various parts of their bodies. All parasites have a very complex life cycle comprising many stages. This simply speaking ensures their survival. Meat of course contains parasites in various stages, some of which are very difficult to detect and eliminate, even in the cooking process. You do not want to hear just what animal parasites are capable of doing to your body.

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Because influenza may be a serious illness for an individual and an epidemic can cause many deaths and considerable illness with loss of time from work, some form of prevention may be necessary.

Amantadine is a drug which can prevent infection by the influenza virus if taken regularly. It can also protect against other viral infections.

It does not give lasting protection, only while it is being taken. However, it is too expensive for widespread use for the whole population during influenza outbreaks but may be of value in those particularly at risk and who are not covered by immunisation obtained from the vaccine.

One attack of influenza will produce antibodies which will persist and render the person either fully or partially immune.

However, the A strain of virus has the ability to slightly change its character and so antibodies to a previous virus may not be fully effective against the new virus.

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Appendicitis was a rare condition until the end of the 19th Century. Since then, it has become common and its incidence is increasing following the change in diet in the developed countries.

Appendicitis, like cancer of the bowel, haemorrhoids and diverticulosis, is thought to be due to a modern diet which contains little bulk or vegetable fibre.

Appendicitis was first fully described in 1886 by Reginald Fitz, professor of medicine at Harvard, USA, yet the condition occurred in ancient times and has been found in Egyptian mummies.

Robert Lawson Tait, a surgeon at the Hospital for Diseases of Women in Birmingham, England, carried out the first operation for removal of the appendix six years before Fitz published his work.

The cause of this condition is still uncertain, although diet is believed to play a part.

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It is not so well known, however, that mayonnaise and salad dressing, by virtue of their lemon juice and vinegar ingredients, are strongly acidic and therefore help prevent the growth of bacteria that cause food poisoning. Thus, the sooner that mayonnaise or salad dressing can be added to non-acid foods and salad materials after they are taken from the refrigerator, the lesser is the chance that food will be spoiled by dangerous bacteria.

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Home care:

Isolate the child, and then call the doctor.

When a diagnosis has been made the doctor will order a home care program that includes rest, liquids, and a low-fat diet.

Precautions

-    Hepatitis must be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

-    A child and other family members who have been exposed to hepatitis should be given preventive gamma globulin or hepatitis  immune globulin injections as soon as possible after exposure.

-    Hepatitis  is contagious; isolate the child and practice good health habits to limit spread of the disease.

-    Hepatitis A can be contracted from contaminated water or food, such as shellfish.

-    A pregnant woman can pass hepatitis  to her unborn baby.

Hepatitis is an infection of the liver. Only recently have two viruses that cause hepatitis been identified. Hepatitis A virus causes infectious hepatitis. Hepatitis  virus causes serum hepatitis. Another form of hepatitis can occur as a complication of infectious mononucleosis. Serious, acute complications and long-term progressive (continually worsening) liver disease may occur as a result of hepatitis.

Hepatitis A is contracted from the stools or blood of a person with the disease. The virus is also present in contaminated water and food (for example, shellfish). Symptoms may appear within 15 to 45 days after being exposed to the virus. The patient is contagious from three weeks before the onset of jaundice until one week after onset.

Hepatitis  is contracted in one of two ways: either by close mouth-to-mouth contact or from the blood of a patient or carrier (someone who carries the virus without having the disease). It is usually transmitted by a blood transfusion or by an injection with a contaminated needle (as in drug addiction and tattooing). It can also be passed by a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. Symptoms may appear six weeks to six months after being exposed to the virus. Hepatitis  is contagious during the incubation period (the time between exposure to the virus and the onset of symptoms), and possibly for months and years. Symptoms are similar to those of hepatitis A, but often come on more gradually and are milder. Arthritis and rashes are common complications.

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You’ve likely heard it before, but we’ll tell you again. If you gather all the homicide statistics and extract drug-related homicides, the vast majority of murders are between people who know each other. Forty-four percent of people who are murdered are killed by someone they know.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean that you should start looking at your golf buddies askance, but do be careful whom you make serious acquaintance with, says Jean Î’Neil, director of research and policy at the NCPC. “And certainly use some discretion when it comes to whom you hang out with, even casually,” she says.

The following can help you check for potentially dangerous liaisons.

Inspect the fuse. “Not to liken people to canines, but you know which dogs are likely to bite and which are not by their mannerisms,” Williams says. “People are the same way. If someone is hostile and aggressive or, worse, has acted violently in the past, even if it wasn’t toward you, don’t get involved with them. These are folks with short fuses who are capable of hurting you, too, if you upset them.” If you doubt the seriousness of this situation, consider that 28 percent of murders occur as the result of an argument, according to the FBI.

Just say no. “People who are serious drug users are another group to avoid,” says Williams, “especially if they seem pretty solid until they’re high or drunk and then get mean. That can indicate a dangerous person.” Statistics show that he’s right. Almost half of all violent offenders serving time in state prisons have admitted to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they committed their crimes.

Home, Sweet Home

“Homicide is a public health risk like any other,” says Williams. “Just like you can lower your cancer risk by not smoking, you can lower your risk of homicide by living and hanging out in safer places.” Here’s how to check out your own locale.

Call the police. The simplest way to tell whether a neighborhood you want to move into is safe is by calling the local police and asking for someone in the crime prevention or community affairs office. Also, talk to neighbors and local business owners, says O’Neil. You’ll be able to find out about crime in the town or even on your particular street.

Sign up. Your current or potential neighborhood probably also has a local crime watch group, says O’Neil. These can be useful not just for finding out crime statistics but in curtailing crime as well. Getting involved also introduces you to people in the neighborhood who can keep an eye out for you and your home.

Use your head. Finally, the best way to prevent becoming a victim of homicide is to use your head, says the NCPC. Whether you’re on the street or in your car, you should always be alert to your surroundings. Project a calm, confident attitude. Trust your instincts; if something or someone doesn’t feel right, they probably aren’t. Know the neighborhoods surrounding where you live and work. And by all means, if someone tries to rob you, give up the material stuff, says the NCPC. It’s not worth your life.

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He was fascinated by positive sayings, and he wrote his inspirational mottoes on slips of paper and carried them in his pocket. Everyone who received a message from him also got a slogan: “Chin up,” “Take it easy” or “Tomorrow is another day.”

When World War II broke out, he tried to enlist but was turned down. So he volunteered to work in a government hospital carrying bedpans, making beds, pushing carts through the corridors. He didn’t mind the hard work and long hours, but he felt helpless every time he saw a soldier die. He wanted to help, but what could he do? He had no medical skills, no magic powers. One night he had an inspiration: he would save the men with positive thinking!

The next morning everyone was surprised to see the words “NOBODY DIES IN THIS WARD” written in large, bold letters on the wall. The administration was outraged and wanted to fire Doc, but the doctors and nurses saw what was happening on the ward: the power of positive thinking was taking hold. Patients were sitting up in bed, laughing and talking about the slogan, calling it medicine’s “secret weapon.” Some were even making bets over which of them would live the longest. A new will to live spread like wildfire through the ward. What most thought was a joke became deadly serious in the months that followed.

Each patient in the ward was made to understand that he couldn’t die—Doc wouldn’t let him. He told them they must fight to stay alive, or the magic spell created by the words would be broken. And they lived!

Eventually, of course, some men finally died. But not with the same frequency as before the sign went up.

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