Health Information Snippets
Healthy and wise beats wealthy anyday!

Multiple sclerosis – what is it?

In short, multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammation of the central nervous system ie your brain and spinal cord. Nervous tissue is divided into grey matter or white matter. Multiple sclerosis affects the white matter. People with multiple sclerosis develop plaques (patches) on the white matter (this is where myelin – the conductive sheath surrounding the nerves is damaged or lost) and this affects the conductivity of signals passing through the spine and brain. So symptoms of multiple sclerosis will vary between people if only because if different parts of your nervous system is affected, then different parts of your body will be affected. This is why multiple sclerosis is often very hard to diagnose and pick up.

Multiple sclerosis symptoms – general

Sufferers can experience one or more of the following :

• numbness
• tingling
• pins and needles
• muscle spasms
• vision problems
• speech problems
• urinary control problems
• sexual disfunction
• breathing problems
• coordination and balance problems
• intense fatigue
• depression

MS symptoms vary in severity between individuals, note that it’s a progressive disease and not something that you can ‘stop’. Some people will end up in wheelchairs, others only get such mild symptoms that they never even get diagnosed till at post mortem.

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There are a few general rules to follow if you’ve been to the doctor and they’ve told you that you need to lower your cholesterol. Doctors on the whole will attempt to get you to try the following first before putting you on any of the statin drugs (cholesterol lowering pills) :

• they will tell you to try to lose some weight if you are overweight. People who are overweight tend to have higher cholesterol levels than those who are in the ‘ideal weight range’. This is sometimes NOT the case though so don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you are thin, that you don’t have an underlying choleterol problem. Weight loss would probably involve going on a diet (see other points) and starting yourself on some form of exercise program. Don’t give yourself a hard time by starting straight into it. Give yourself time to build up slowly. Best to start by going to a qualified fitness instructor who will assess your fitness level and start you on a program that suits you and then build from that
• Eat less high fat and high cholesterol foods. This is easier said than done. Start by learning to read labels on foods. ‘Reduced Fat’ does not necessarily mean it’s low in fat. It just means it’s lower compared to the original – so if the original had 50g of fat to start off with, then 30g would qualify as a ‘reduced fat’ type of that particular food – that’s still a HUGE amount of fat to consume so read carefully. To complicate matters even more, there are also saturated fats (which are bad for you) and unsaturated fats (which are generally good for you). So all fats are NOT created equal. Saturated fat foods include most of your animal fats – eg all your dairy products, red meats and to a certain extent white meats (eg poultry) although less so, some vegetable fats eg like palm oil and coconut oil. High cholesterol foods can be low in saturated fats but you should try to limit these as well eg liver is low in saturated fats but really high in cholesterol. In general, organ meats, full fat dairy products, egg yolks are high in cholesterol.
• So if you are to eat less high cholesterol saturated fats, you are to substitute them with low cholesterol unsaturated fats. These are commonly termed polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats and they include your fish oils (Omega3 fatty acids), olive, canola, sunflower, corn, cottonseed oils. Be careful to read labels – if the polyunsaturated oil has been ‘hydrogenated’ then it means it’s been converted to saturated fats so don’t be fooled into thinking that just because it’s polyunsaturated it’s fine to consume.
• Increase your fibre intake and the amount of complex carbohydrates in your diet – all your cereals (avoid refined versions and go for the ‘original’ eg brown rice instead of white, wholewheat bread instead of white bread), fruit and vegetables are low in cholesterol and hight in fibre

See other diets

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What’s an allergy?

We’ve heard it bantered around but what is an allergy? Is it any different from an intolerance? ie When someone says ‘I have a dairy allergy’, is it any different from someone with ‘lactose intolerance’?

Allergies develop as the body’s immune system reacts to different proteins we are exposed to (whether it’s via inhaling them, ingesting them, touching them or being exposed to them inadvertently eg via a bee sting). The triggers (these proteins) are called allergens. What happens in an allergic reaction is that the body reacts to these allergens as potential ‘threats’ and therefore unleashes antibodies (principally IgE – immunoglobulin E) in an attempt to counter them. It’s believed that allergic reactions in the past were reserved primarily for parasitic infections eg like worms, protozoa. However, in our increasingly ‘clean’ society where we’ve pretty much eradicated worms and the like from our system, scientists believe that we’ve therefore rendered that part of the immune system ‘unemployed’ and in so doing it’s started to pick out other protein elements to ‘attack’. Children living in rural communities have a much lower incidence of food and dust allergies – living in less ‘hygienic’ environments seem to be ‘good’. Whilst it’s not as simple as that, it is a likely explanation as to why children and adults living in urban city environments seem more likely to be allergic to something in some form or another. The hypothesis is that if you give the immune system something else to worry about (ie worms, bacteria, protozoa), then it’s less likely to pick on something like a food item or dust mites instead.

Allergy symptoms

Allergy symptoms can be seasonal – if you’re allergic to grass pollens then the symptoms will appear to subside in the cooler months only to be full blown unbearable in the warmer months.

• Sneezing and runny nose
• Runny and itching eyes
• Wheezing, chest tightness and difficulty breathing (asthma type reaction)
• Headaches
• Skin rash, hives, welts (urticaria)
• Swelling
• Difficulty swallowing
• Feeling faint
• Sneezing
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea

Allergy symptoms vary depending on the type of allergic reaction it is – food allergies would result in the vomiting, diarrhea (not always but it is common) which can extend to full blown anaphylactic reactions where the body pretty much shuts down (severe drop in blood pressure), difficulty breathing as the throat swells so much that you can’t breathe, wheezing. Adrenaline is usually administered in these instances and the patient is rushed to hospital.

See other medical symptoms.

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Yeast infections – candidiasis

Yeast infections commonly afflict men, women and children alike. You would hear it spoken of as ‘thrush’. Yeast infections are the result of Candida albicans and the medical symptoms of the disease varies with the site of infection and the individual.

Yeast infection symptoms in women

Vaginal thrush is the most common yeast infection in women, typically women with yeast infections will have :

• a white cheesy discharge from the vagina
• itching around the vagina
• irritation in the vaginal area
• pain during sexual intercourse
• a burning sensation when urinating

Yeast infection symptoms in adults and children (primarily infants)

1. Oral thrush is the one of the ways yeast infection can manifest itself. Often what women will find is that if their breast feeding child has oral thrush, they may find that their nipples may get a dose of it too and they may require treatment as well. Symptoms of oral thrush include :
   • white patches on the tongue and mouth area – a lot of people think that it looks like milk curds but unlike milk curds these cannot be wiped off. If you try to wipe these patches off, the underlying area will start to bleed and painful oral lesions will take their place.
   • irritability and food refusal (more likely in infants and children as their mouth becomes too sore for them to want to eat or drink) – care should be taken to ensure that they receive adequate fluids and soft foods in the meantime to prevent dehydration.
2. Yeast infection in the nappy area or skin folds – typically occuring when the area remains moist for long periods of time eg in nappy rash – these appear as flat red rash spots which cause pain and discomfort. If your baby has these spots or a bright red nappy rash then it’s time to visit your doctor.

Yeast infection symptoms in people with depressed immunity

People with HIV or on immune suppressive drugs often will get yeast infections in their internal organs including the gut resulting in painful ulcers. Dehydration and poor food absorption is common in these circumstances. Candida in some cases can spread via the blood stream into your brain resulting in behavioral changes and other nervous system signs (this isn’t common in people with a healthy immune system but can happen with people who have a depressed immune system).

See other medical symptoms

To what extent would you go to prove a point? Well, Nobel Prize winners in Medicine for 2005 Barry Marshall and Robbin Warren drank a concoction of bacteria causing stomach ulcers to prove to the scientific world that it was indeed a bacteria called Helicobacter which caused stomach ulcers and not the level of stress that you had in your life which resulted in it. And as if to have set a trend in live human testing, Dr Speers and his colleague did the same with hookworms. They wanted to see how the body reacted to an hookworm infection and so they placed hookworms on their skin – which then migrated into the lungs and then into their stomach – they also swallowed a little pill camera to monitor the worm’s activity and the body’s responses to the hookworm. What they discovered was that hookworms actually results in an allergic reaction in the body which is similar to that of asthma and other allergic conditions. All this in their pursuit of a better understanding of Crohn’s disease. In the meantime however, whilst a simple pill would’ve eradicated the hookworm from their system, the 2 doctors have reportedly said that they’ve grown rather fond of their parasites and have opted to ‘keep’ them – what some people will do for their science and to prove a point will never cease to amaze me…