Symptoms

Swelling, pain, and redness of the eyelid Formation of pus and a “head”

Home care

Bathe a stye with warm water several times a day.

Aspirin or paracetamol help reduce pain.

Apply antibiotic ointment to prevent re-infection.

Cysts only require treatment if they are infected; then treat them like styes.

Precautions

-    Do not confuse styes with cysts or insect bites.

-    Styes do not cause redness of the white of the eye.

-    See a doctor if a stye recurs, or if it is accompanied by any of the following: fever, headache, loss of appetite, or lethargy.

-    Washcloths and towels used by the infected child should be kept separate from those used by other family members.

Styes are boils that occur in the oil or sweat glands in the upper or lower eyelids. Styes are usually caused by staphylococcus organisms, and they can spread from person to person through direct contact. Styes tend to occur in crops, because the bacteria in the pus that forms in the stye spread easily to infect other glands in the eyelids,

Signs and symptoms

Styes develop like boils. The area at the edge of the eyelid becomes increasingly red, painful, tender, and swollen. After two to three days, pus forms, and the stye “points”; that is, a yellow head appears at the edge of the lid near the base of the eyelashes. Styes usually break spontaneously, drain, and heal. Occasionally, a stye will heal without pointing or draining.

Styes differ from insect bites and cysts in that they are painful and tender. They occur near the margins of the eyelids, and they usually come to a head. Insect bites itch, are not painful, and do not come to a head. Cysts are lumps or swellings that show through the under surface of the eyelids as pink or pale yellow spots. They usually are not tender. Sometimes, however, they become infected and, like styes, are red, tender, and painful. Unlike styes, cysts persist for some time and do not come to a head.

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•    Have a massage. Emotional and psychological stress produces physical tensions in certain muscle groups, especially those of the neck, back and shoulders. In most stressed people it is possible actually to feel the ‘knots’ in their muscles. In others the area feels ‘gritty’ when massaged. Learn how to massage your partner, or indeed your children. There are lots of good books on the subject. A shower head can be bought that ‘injects’ pulsed water at you and this, and a Jacuzzi or similar bath can be very soothing too.

Undoubtedly at least some of the benefit from a massage comes from simply relaxing and being stroked, but there is also a strong possibility that the person doing the massage will transfer healing forces to your body. Many people have healing powers in their hands which can be transferred to another person by the ‘laying on of hands’ or by massage. This sort of statement used to be ridiculed until the demonstration of these healing fields by Kirlian photography.

•     Have a hot bath. Warmth is almost always soothing but the bath should not be too hot-the water should be slightly above body temperature. Heat in any extreme is another stress – so don’t overdo it. Have a short, relaxing soak. Lie back in the bath, put a rolled-up towel behind your head, close your eyes and relax.

•     Breathe more slowly and deeply. Most of us breathe shallowly, especially when we are stressed. Practice breathing in (taking 7 seconds) and out (taking 8 seconds) for a couple of minutes at a time, especially when you feel stressed. With a little practice you can drop into your stress-reducing breathing very easily at the first sign of stress.

•     Learn to relax.

•     Pray. Increasing numbers of people in the West are turning to prayer as a way of de-stressing themselves but prayers that are said off by heart and with little thought are useless, according to the author of a book on the subject. You have to be conscious of the meaning of the words if prayer is to have a de-stressing effect. Better still, the author suggests, ‘construct your own prayers when under stress’. He finds that the most effective prayers involve the body and the mind as well as the spirit. ‘Don’t just talk to God-write a letter to him. If you are angry with someone, tell God you are angry by putting the person’s picture on the floor and dancing around it.’ The author of the book, Prayer-ways, feels that people need physical as well as spiritual outlets for stress if they are to avoid building up physical symptoms of stress. ‘If you play the piano, guitar or other musical instrument, make a prayer song, then play and sing it to God.’ It is a great stress discharger, he says.

•    Talk to your friends. Many people feel they have no one to whom they can turn when they are stressed and so bottle up all their stress, with harmful effects. Few of us have more than a handful of people to whom we are this close and often it is not our partners or family-they are too involved in our lives in other ways. Social support is a vital element in combating stress yet it is a commodity that is fast being lost in many urban communities. Listening to your friends, as well as talking to them, will also help. Hearing other people’s problems can often help put yours into perspective, and turning your thoughts outwards can itself be a valuable de-stressing manoeuvre.

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What is it?

Ageing is a normal process that starts in our mid-twenties. It is characterized by a decline in cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, a loss of muscle and bone, a thinning and wrinkling of the skin, a stiffening of the joints, a fall in sexual potency (especially in men) and many other more subtle changes. Many, if not most, of these changes appear simply to accompany the advancing years-there is no solid evidence that they are caused by growing old. For this reason it is at least theoretically possible that they can be slowed down, halted or even, on occasions, reversed.

The elderly and the very young are the greatest consumers of health services and the elderly are becoming very numerous. It is estimated that one third of all the people who have reached the age of 65 in the last 2,000 years are alive today! By the turn of the century one person in three will be over 75 and one in thirteen over 85.

The consequences of survival of the elderly on such a scale are so great that as yet few people have grasped them, but it is certain that the physical, mental and social demands of such a vast number of old people will be great and could even be beyond the ability of a decreasing working-age population to sustain.

All of this makes preventive strategies for the elderly vital for the community at large -not just to make life more pleasant for older people themselves (valuable though this undoubtedly is).

There is evidence that although people’s life expectancy is rising actual lifespan is not. On average people are already remaining fitter for longer and have a shorter period of terminal dependency as a result of medical, social and economic changes that have taken place over the last century. The aim of prevention in old age is to prevent illness rather than postpone mortality. As one old lady put it, ‘I want to die old, and healthy.’

But preventing the problems of old age does not just involve preventing illness in the commonly accepted sense of the word, because in the elderly, perhaps more than at any other age, social and other less well-defined factors come into play.

What causes it?

No one knows what causes the degeneration that currently goes hand in hand with advancing age, but we are only too aware of the results and it is these that need to be tackled in any preventive regime for the elderly. The most common specific problems are: iatrogenic disease; depression/anxiety; alcoholism; hypothermia; flu; constipation; tetanus; malnutrition; and high blood pressure. These are brought about not just by the degeneration process itself, but also by a general loss of fitness, and the social consequences of old age in our society.

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Anytime you notice blood suddenly appear in a place where you don’t expect it, it can be startling. If it appears during urination, most of us would immediately call the doctor.

The fact is that when the blood appears in the urine stream can tell you what kind of problem you have. If you see blood when you first start to urinate, it’s often a sign of a sore or infection in the penis, possibly caused by a sexually transmitted disease. If the blood shows up in the middle of urination, you may have a prostate problem. Or, if blood shows up as you’re completing urination, it may mean that the problem is due to a bladder infection. Blood in the urine might be a sign of a bladder tumor or a symptom of an underlying urinary tract infection.

However, the most common cause of blood in the urine, no matter where it appears in the stream, is a kidney stone. The stone causes irritation in the urinary tract, which, in turn, causes bleeding. The amount of blood can be undetectable, or it may be obvious. Another sign of a kidney stone is a pain in the back that radiates into the groin and penis.

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If your doctor suspects that you have gallbladder disease, based on a physical exam and your health history, he’ll do a sonogram to check for the location and size of the gallstone. If, you ate under 50 and have the symptoms of gallbladder colic but not cholecystitis, you’ll need to eat a low-fat diet for the time being. That should keep your symptoms in check.

In time, however, you may need to have a laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed. In this procedure, a small incision is made in the abdominal wall and a special camera-directed instrument cuts the gallbladder and removes it through the incision. This procedure will probably entail a hospital stay of no more than two days.

If your doctot determines that you have cholecystitis, you will probably need to have a laparoscopic cholecystectomy right away.

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Your risk of having breast cancer increases if you fall into one or more of the following categories:

• You have a close female relative who has had breast cancer.

• You’ve already had breast cancer in one breast.

• You have not given birth, or else had your first child after the age of 35.

• Your first period came before the age of 12; menopause came after the age of 55.

• You’ve been exposed to excessive amounts of radiation.

Unfortunately, these risk factors are etched in stone; there’s nothing you can do to change the fact that your chances of getting breast cancer are increased if you answer yes to one or more of the above statements.

Whether or not you are at risk, however, there are some things you can actively do to cut your chances of developing breast cancer. Being overweight, drinking more than a moderate amount of alcohol—more than three drinks a week—and using estrogen replacement therapy for hormonal problems during and after menopause can all increase your risk slightly. However, I feel that the benefits the hormone provides to the cardiovascular system and in treating osteoporosis outweigh this slightly increased risk. Contrary to popular belief, however, breast-feeding does not lower the risk of contracting breast cancer.

In recent years, there has been a question of whether or not the presence of fibrocystic disease in your 20s and 30s will increase your risk of breast cancer later on. The conclusion has been that the disease itself does not significantly increase your risk; however, if some of the cells involved in the disease turn out to be abnormal upon testing, your risk does increase slightly.

In very rare cases, where a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer are almost certain, she may choose to prevent any tumors from ever forming by undergoing a bilateral mastectomy—the removal of both breasts—before a tumor has a chance to grow.

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You may scoff at weekend athletes, those people who sit in the office all day from Monday to Friday and then act as though they’re the star quarterback for their high school football team all weekend. “Come Monday morning, their backs are going to make them very sorry,” you think before going back to your more sedate activities such as walking and gardening.

Don’t laugh! Though Monday mornings may be difficult for the midlife adult who likes being a weekend athlete, any activity—from gardening to turning your head to reaching for a spoon—can cause the muscles in your back to spasm suddenly.

A muscle spasm can be caused by a number of conditions, both preexisting and current:

• You may have strained a ligament or muscle in your back.

• You may have pulled a muscle.

• You may have made a sudden movement, such as a sneeze, that jarred your back or spine, or you may have injured your back previously.

• You may have fractured one of the vertebrae of the spine.

• You may be able to move your back easily, even though it hurts, or your back muscles may have stiffened up to the point where it’s difficult to move at all.

The cause of a sharp pain in your back may be difficult to determine, though it is usually due to overuse of the muscles in the back in some way.

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To treat a pulled muscle in your neck, you should first try to massage the area gently with your fingers, kneading the sore muscle and stretching your neck at the same time.

In addition, try taking an over-the-counter pain medication such as Advil four times a day, as well as applying a moist heating pad three times daily to relieve your discomfort.

If these methods don’t bring relief after a few days, see your doctor He may prescribe a muscle relaxant such as Valium to ease the pain or a stronger nonsteroidal medication such as Naprosyn, Lodine, or Toradol.

And if these don’t help, your doctor will suggest that you see a physical therapist several times a week for additional treatment, which may include hot packs or electrical stimulation. But it’s rare that a pulled neck muscle will bring you to this point, since torticollis usually lasts only about a week.

Tips and Precautions

To prevent a pulled neck muscle in the future, try stretching more before you exercise. It’s also a good idea to spread your exercise out over the whole week and not just restrict it to Saturday and Sunday. This will also help to cut down on your overall injury rate.

You might also try eliminating your pillow at night. Especially if you have been unable to trace the cause of the muscle pull, this may be a simple—and the only—solution.

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It is possible to live comfortably even if one lung has been completely destroyed or removed. But we must have a definite amount of healthy lung tissue in order to breathe adequately. If too much of it becomes infected or destroyed, we eventually succumb because of lack of oxygen. In severe infections of the lungs, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, the person faces an additional danger from the toxins, or poisons, of the germs causing these diseases. The lungs can also be destroyed in other ways. For example, silica and asbestos, if inhaled for a long time, turn the delicate, porous lungs into tough, fibrous masses. Air cannot get through the fibrous lungs, and the person faces suffocation.

In middle-aged and old people, the lungs sometimes lose their elastic, porous quality. The millions of tiny air sacs begin to break down, and the lungs lose some of their ability to absorb oxygen from the air and give off the body’s waste carbon dioxide. This disease, known as emphysema, affects large numbers of people.

Some other less common but potentially serious lung diseases include lung abscesses, bronchiectasis (a chronic infection of the air tubes), sarcoidosis, cystic disease, and various fungus infections.

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Poor posture can be caused by weakness, disease, or deformity involving the muscles, bones, or joints. Some examples are rickets, tuberculosis of the spine, congenital dislocation of the hip, flat-feet, and curvature of the spine. Poor posture can also be due to defective vision or hearing; a child

who is short-sighted or hard-of-hearing may thrust his head forward in order to see or hear better. Clothing that is too heavy or too small may keep a child from standing straight. A bed or chair that prevents him from lying or sitting properly can also be responsible.

Finally, but by no means least important, emotional factors can cause postural difficulties. A shy, unhappy child may slump and hang his head continually. Emotional problems, especially in adolescence, have caused many cases of curvature of the spine.

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