The blog is about health and gives useful information on health and disease.

One of the ways in which events can go wrong is when a nerve cell loses some of its inputs from other cells because of damage to these other nerve cells. If inhibitory terminals are lost, then the cell will become over-excitable, and begin to switch on, or fire inappropriately, driving other nerve cells with which it is connected on the downstream side to similar activity. This may result in more and more nerve cells being incorporated into the abnormal pattern of discharge.

The biological background of an epileptic seizure is therefore an abnormal discharge of nerve cells in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain. The normal, quiet, and integrated function of nerve cells is interrupted as they are forced through the contacts they make with and receive from others into a paroxysmal discharge. Different types of seizure are a reflection of different patterns of paroxysmal discharge. If the seizure discharge spreads throughout large areas of the brain, then consciousness may be lost. If the discharge of nerve cells is confined to the temporal lobe of the brain (more or less above and in front of the ears), amongst those cells concerned with memory, the paroxysmal discharge may result only in a distortion of memory so that the sufferer perceives that he or she has experienced ongoing events before—the phenomenon of deja vu.

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About 1-2 percent of the population exhibits a failure of pigmentation in patches of the skin which, as a consequence, appear unnaturally white. While in a few cases, the lack of pigmentation is generalized, the white patches are usually only a few inches across and occur on the parts of the body that are most exposed. The face (especially around the mouth and eyes), neck, chest, armpits, elbows, and knees are most affected.

Treatment, which, the American Family Physician (33#5:137) reports, is often unsatisfactory, includes repeated exposure to ultraviolet light after the patient has been given psoralen, a drug that sensitizes skin and makes it more reactive to sunlight. Before this, however, the eyes must be examined by an expert since the retina may also be involved in this pigment disturbance and could be injured by the psoralen-light reaction. Some parts of the skin may pigment more deeply and permanently than others in response to treatment. Skin that does not darken can be hidden with cosmetics or, alternatively, the surrounding skin can be lightened with

Eldoquin or Artra creams to blur the edges of the patches and make them less noticeable.

It is essential that anyone with patches of de-pigmented skin be seen by a dermatologist, since there are other conditions, including some types of poisoning and serious infection, that resemble vitiligo but that urgently need very different treatment. Moreover, anyone with vitiligo should undergo very careful medical examination, because in some cases there is an associated major illness, such as an autoimmunity (in which the tissues attack themselves), diabetes, thyroid disease pernicious anemia, myasthenia gravis, or melanoma. The relationship with melanoma is intriguing since a melanoma is a cancer of pigment-producing skin cells. However, having vitiligo does not mean that one is likely to develop a melanoma; the reverse is true and about 20 percent of melanoma patients also have vitiligo. Furthermore, the occurrence of vitiligo in someone who has had a melanoma removed sometimes heralds the development of recurrent melanoma tumors elsewhere in the body (i.e: in the liver).

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Symptoms

Oral herpes: multiple painful ulcers of mouth membranes or eyeballs, painful, red, swollen gums, swollen lymph nodes in neck, fever, fever blisters near the lips.

Genital herpes: painful ulcers and blisters on genitals.

Home care

For oral herpes give aspirin or paracetamol to relieve pain, and have the child eat bland foods.

An older child can rinse the mouth with a mild salt solution or be treated with triamcinolone or local anesthetic ointments.

Apply antibiotic ointment to fever blisters to prevent cracking and lessen the possibility of further infection.

For genital herpes, warm soaks help relieve inflammation and pain.

Precautions

-    In the case of herpes of the eyeball, consult an eye doctor promptly.

-    If a baby contracts herpes, get prompt medical attention.

-    Keep adults or children with herpes isolated from babies.

-    A pregnant woman with genital herpes can infect her child as the infant passes through the birth canal during delivery.

Herpes simplex is a highly contagious disease caused by herpesvirus hominis types 1 and 2. It is commonly known as canker sores (when it occurs in the mouth) or fever blisters (when it appears near the mouth). The infection is transmitted by direct contact with an infected person.

The type 1 infection (oral herpes) is common before the age of four but can occur at any age. Once contracted, the virus continues to live in the body for months or years, sometimes for the person’s lifetime. When the person’s resistance is lowered, (for instance by fever, sunburn, exhaustion, or emotional stress), the “sleeping” virus is reactivated.

Infection with the type 2 virus is genital herpes and, like oral herpes, it is contagious and often recurrent. It is usually transmitted sexually when the lesions (blisters) are present. A baby born to a mother with genital herpes can contract the disease while passing through the birth canal during delivery. In this case there is a 50 percent chance that the infant will be severely damaged or die.

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