Let your Kids play, ration the electronic stuff!

Tweet

I have just read a report from the American Academy of Paediatrics, and one of the facts nearly knocked me off my chair. In a recent survey they performed, 90% of children under 2yrs watched some form of electronic media: OK I can understand that the TV may be on in the house and sometimes it is a useful distraction to sit them in front of a screen whilst you go to the "rest room". But then it reported that by aged 3, almost one third of children have a TV in their bedroom!!! I have to admit to being still stunned by this fact! What are we doing to our children?

I think that AAP must be thinking along the same lines because they too don't think that children under 2 should be watching TV either, as the developing brain needs more than an electronic screen to help it learn and problem solve. Here's a list of their suggestions:

• Set media limits for children before age 2, bearing in mind that the AAP discourages media use for this age group. Have a strategy for managing electronic media if they choose to engage their children with it.
• Instead of screens, opt for supervised independent play for infants and young children during times that a parent cannot sit down and actively engage in play with the child. For example, have the child play with nesting cups on the floor nearby while a parent prepares dinner.
• Avoid placing a television set in the child's bedroom.
• Recognize that their own media use can have a negative effect on children.

My advice would echo to the sound of TVs crashing to the ground having been ejected through windows! But although there is a tendency to 21st century Luddite-ism in my reaction, I have to admit that the electronic media does have just a few tiny benefits, although they pale into insignificance when compared to the  unstructured playtime and interacting with family members that helps the developing child understand and thrive in their small worlds.
Source:

Preparing for summer

Tweet

Today, here in Perth, the mercury shot up the scale and reached about 35C, which is unusual for October, but fairly standard for the summer months. In our house, we respond like prodded sea anemones - windows closed, curtains drawn and furtive glances out the window to see if the sea breezes "has come in yet"! As I look out of the window I can also see a vast plume of smoke on the horizon which reminds me of another terrible danger that can threaten in the searing Aussie heat, and that's bush fires!

On a global scale Governments are looking to harness the sun's power to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and in doing so we acknowledge the incredible power of the sun and the energy that it produces via it's massive nuclear fusion reactions. So in some respects, we are already using nuclear energy - AKA renewable energy - via solar panels, wind farms and tidal power. But I'm not heading toward a Green/Nuclear dissertation, but rather towards the fact that the UV radiation from the sun impacts on our skin and our eyes, and it's that time of year when we should be thinking about protecting both of them from the harmful effects of the sun: and in particular we should be training the next generation of little people on how to reduce their exposre to strong sunlight.

• Don't go out into the sunshine between the hours of 10.am and 4pm unless you're wearing sun protection.
• Use an appropriate 30+ sunblock on exposed skin.
• Where possible wear long sleeved shirts and long legged pants.
• Wear a wide brimmed hat
• Wear effective UV protective sunglasses
• Sit in the shade where possible
• Maintain your, and your infants hydration on hot days

The de-cision to protect your skin will reduce the risk of having an ex-cision to remove a cancer later in life!
image

Greens, Genes and Heart Disease

Tweet

Over the years I've often said to patients, you can stop smoking, you can exercise more, you can even lose weight but you can't change the Genes you were given! Well, I may be proved wrong, at least if the researchers at McMaster and McGill universities in the US are proven to be correct in their findings. They have just reported that the gene that is the strongest marker for heart disease can actually be modified by a diet rich in fruit and raw vegetables.

They performed a very large study on over 27,000 people of various ethnic origins and found that those who had a high intake of fruit and raw vegetables and who carried the high risk gene known as 9p21, reduced their risk of heart attacks to the level of those who did not carry the gene. "Our research suggests there may be an important interplay between genes and diet in cardiovascular disease," says the study's lead author Dr. Ron Do. Obviously there is still much more work to be done to find out the mechanisms of how this happens, and no doubt it will take many years before all the mysteries are resolved.

In the meantime, it's back to the Hunter Gatherer scene of eating nuts, berries and raw veggies: now does that sound familiar?

Source: PLoS Medicine
image

Warts and all

Tweet

I was cleaning out some cupboards and came across an old copy of Mrs Lavendars Herbal Book which was probably published about 1920! It's a delicious dip back into time to see what folk were thinking in the time before antibiotics, and when modern medicine was in its infancy.

Regarding warts she writes, " Warts, however, come and go in quite mysterious fashion, really I do not believe that anyone knows the exact causes excepting that often they come from the splash of egg water on the skin"! Well, times have moved on and the electron microscope has shown us that warts are caused by on of the Human Papillomaviruses ( there are over a 100 of them including the ones implicated with cancer of the Cervix), but she was absolutely right when she wrote that they come and go in quite a mysterious fashion.

Papillomaviruses are quite contagious, and yet some people catch them and others don't. For those who do get them, eventually they will disappear of their own accord and will not need any treatment: mind you this can take a couple of years! I use the analogy of a Stealth Bomber: the virus flies under the radar of the body's immune system and causes a thickening of the base layer of the skin to cause the  skin eruption we recognize as a wart - this can take from 2 to 6 months -. Then, for some unknown reason, the virus loses its invisibility and is noticed by the body's immune cells which do their job and destroy it. Hence the reason why people often will say that their wart disappeared over night.

If a wart is thought to be unsightly, then there are various options to removal: although, be warned, they will often return in a nearby location after removal!

First there is the slow, painless errosive method using creams containing corrosive chemicals such as salicilic acid. The key is to persist until a hole has been made in the skin: too many people stop too early and the wart happily returns to its former glory.

Destructive therapy: this can be by electro-cautery, which literally burns them out (under local anaesthetic of course): cryotherapy is another popular alternative when the liquid nitrogen causes a freeze burn to destroy the wart; and laser therapy which vaporizes them.

Topical Immunotherapy is also becoming more popular, but is more expensive and does require prescription medication.

What did Mrs Lavender recommend? She was a great believer in "the juice from the ordinary Dandelion". You had to use it until the wart turned black, and then it was said to drop off. Ah, those were the good old days eh?

image

Kidney Transplants withouth the Immuno drugs?

Tweet

I love smart thinkers!

Kidney transplants were such a big breakthrough for all those with end stage kiidney failure, but the chances of getting an identical match - unless you had a generous twin - were remote. That meant that even with the closest of matches, patients were/are left with the need for life long anti-rejection therapy to protect the donor kidney. But perhpas that all may change!

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a novel protocol for those receiving a donor kidney which may allow them to go "drug free" after a few weeks. What they do is to weaken the recipients immune system with some well directed radiation therapy to the spleen, certain lymph glands and the thymus, and they inject Stem cells from the donor into the recipient at the same time. This results in a sort of "combined" immune response from the recipients "tweaked" immune system that makes it look at the new kidney and say "I see you, but I'm not going to get upset about you being here", and as the lead researcher, Samuel Strober, MD says, "... it casts a blind eye on the foreign tissue of the graft."

Like all good things, this was not an overnight discovery: it took 30 years of mouse research before human trial were started. It's still very early days, but the results are certainly very encouraging.

Why try and avoid immuno-suppressant medications? Well, they are very good at what they do, but they are not a cure and can have very powerful side-effects too such as Diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer!!

As I said at the beginning, I love smart thinkers: but what I admire even more are determined, persistent smart thinkers,

reference material October issue of New England Journal of Medicine
image

Diet, exercise and sex!

Tweet

Now that I've got your attention, I should warn you that women over the age of 50 might like to read a good book or have a hot bath now, because this relates to older men with known cardiovascular who adopt a healthier lifestyle! 

Those who do adopt healthier exercising and eating habits will have a 30% reduction in their risk of developing mild to moderate erectile dysfunction. These finding were reported after a literature review by Dr Stephen Kopecky from the Mayo Clinic in America who was looking at why both Cardiovascular disease and Erectile Dysfunction had a similar risk profile.

Dr Kopecky said: "If you start lecturing a man about his risk of heart disease, his eyes start to glaze over. Everyone knows someone who's had a heart attack, has had a stent, and is back on the golf course in a week or two. But when you tell them the risk factors for heart disease are the same as those for erectile dysfunction and dementia, they are immediately interested. Men don't sit around worrying about heart disease, but they do worry about not being able to have sex and getting Alzheimer's."

So for the older male of the species, this is a real "win win" situation: a reduced risk for heart attacks and an improved sex life! Perhaps the partners of these rejuvenated males may need to spice up more than their their recipes or else offer their spouses a healthy cold bath!

Ref: September 12, 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Image

In the Mood

Tweet

In the past week there have been a couple of events that have reminded me of how people are so important in our lives.

My senior offspring alerted us to a situation where a husband had recently been diagnosed with cancer, their children being of primary school age. His spouse is naturally devastated, and by all accounts not coping too well with daily life. Enter the female psyche - which in these occasions is often far superior to the male variety - with the very basic observations of "Are you eating properly? Do the kids need anything for their school lunches?" Within 24 hours there was a meal roster established to deliver food, and "Mums Mafia" was clicking into gear at the school level to cover for lifts and after school activities.

The other event that moved me was the reporting in the local paper of how Glen Mitchell, an ABC media legend in this part of the world, revealed that he was suffering from Bi-polar disorder and that on one occasion he had driven to a remote area, with a hose pipe, with serious self-harm thoughts in his mind. What changed his mind, and in fact changed his life, was the fact that the local Ranger spotted his car and came over to see what he was up to. He obviously spotted the hose in the back of the car and stayed on to chat to Glen. The two carried on a seemingly normal conversation and eventually Glen went home to his amazing wife Karen. She too spotted the hose and was frantic with worry. The great news is that with a change of medication, Glen has now had one of the best periods of his life for some years, and is now reaching out to help others with similar problems.

It would be wonderful to think that the answer is to simply diagnose a person with a mood disorder and give the right medication, then "Hey presto" all is stable and well and everyone lives happily ever after. But the neuro-biochemistry of the the brain is somewhat more complicated than that, and there are so many variables at play in anyone's life at any one time, that although medication can be a part of the solution, in reality, there are so many other issues to address to ensure that consistent progress is  sustained.

That's where we come back to the common denominator here: PEOPLE.

We need people in our lives who are sensitive to our moods and our needs. My senior offspring was sensitive to the needs of a friend and did something. The Ranger in the park was sensitive to the needs of a struggling stranger and listened: Glen's wife was sensitive all the time and had kept a journal that alerted his treating doctor to Glens real situation - that's what love does: it cares. And I'm not just talking about family and friends being alert to the needs of a mate: the Ranger might have just been doing his job, but he in fact did far more: he showed the rest of us how to be good humans by taking time, by listening and by being a sign that goodness does exist in this often crazy world and thereby offering hope to someone who was lost. There's a lesson there for all of us.
image