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

Women who experience it might not think so, but morning sickness may be a sign that the pregnancy is going well. In fact, some studies have shown that women who vomit during pregnancy are less likely to miscarry or deliver prematurely than women who do not. However, doctors caution that while typical morning sickness—usually limited to the first two or three months of pregnancy—is reasonably beneficial, women who have an excessive amount of morning sickness may be at high risk for small babies. If your morning sickness goes on and on after the first two or three months, make sure you tell your doctor.

Even though typical morning sickness is a good sign, it is still something most expectant mothers would rather do without. While that may be out of the question, there are some simple tricks you can employ to make morning sickness less discomforting.

1) Eat several small meals throughout the day instead of two or three large meals. Eat your largest meal of the day at noon rather than in the evening.

2) Don’t eat fried, fatty foods. It takes the body a long time to digest fried foods, meaning that they sit in the stomach longer.

3) Drink plenty of fluids.

4) Eat a dry saltine cracker in bed before you get up in the morning. You should try to keep a carbohydrate in your stomach at all times.

5) Eating a snack at bedtime may also help alleviate early morning sickness.

6) Consult your doctor about taking large doses of vitamin B6. A recent study at the University of Iowa indicates that women with severe morning sickness experience much less nausea and vomiting when taking up to 76 mg of vitamin B6 every day.

Researchers say that even though B6 is found in many foods, getting 75 mg a day would almost certainly mean taking supplements. Medical experts caution pregnant women not to exceed the RDA for vitamin B6 (2.6 mg a day) without first consulting their doctors.

7) Ask your doctor if you can quit taking iron tablets. The tablets can cause nausea.

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Many psychopharmacologists suggest that Prozac (or any other antidepressant) be continued for three or four months after a single initial episode of depression has been alleviated. A smaller number of expert psychopharmacologists believe that the medicine should be continued as long as six to eight months.

In the case of recurrent unipolar depression, Prozac should be continued indefinitely to prevent future depressive episodes, if episodes occur yearly.

Similarly, patients who have suffered from bipolar manic depression (lithium treated) must be continued on Prozac for longer periods of time. In these instances, Prozac plus lithium may be used in the acute depressive phase, in the subsequent continuation phase for several months, and finally in the maintenance or prophylactic phase, often for years or a lifetime, to prevent future depressions from breaking through, if lithium alone does not prevent future depressions as well as future manic episodes.

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The modern theory of depression hypothesizes that mood disorders are caused by imbalance in the number of small amino acid molecules, called neurotransmitters, that travel between nerves across the so-called synapses in the brain. Synapses are the spaces between two successive nerve fibers.

According to this theory, known as the biogenic amine hypothesis, the three major neurotransmitters located in brain synapses are: norepinephrine (NE), serotonin (SE), and dopamine (DA). The regulating mechanism is a complex one. It includes a process called uptake, whereby some of the neurotransmitter molecules in the synapse are absorbed back into the original nerve endings, where they either degenerate or are repackaged and sent back out again. Sometimes, as a result of genetic and environmental factors, this process produces imbalances in the amount of neurotransmitters in the synapses. An excess of one or more of the neurotransmitters is thought to lead to mania. A deficiency is thought to result in depression.

Most of the scientific investigations of Prozac have focused on depression, with the result that Prozac has received FDA approval for use in major depression. It has not been approved for anxiety disorders because enough data haven’t been accumulated from scientifically conducted trials. Furthermore, from the data so far, the trend may not support using Prozac for primary anxiety disorders.

Nevertheless, when patients suffering from major depression and the milder form dysthymia are treated with Prozac, symptoms of anxiety typically lift along with the other symptoms of depression. To date, a limited number of studies indicate that

Prozac does not seem to be useful for General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) but it is therapeutic for panic attacks and the secondary anxiety seen in major depressive disorders and dysthymia. Once the depression is relieved, the secondary disorder tends to disappear as well.

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Masked depression refers to depression that is hidden behind physical complaints for which no organic cause can be found. The physician’s tendency is usually to dismiss these patients as hypochondriacs or to label them as anxious and prescribe minor tranquilizers to calm them down or stimulants to pep them up and get them out of the office as quickly as possible. Masked depression (also known as depressive equivalent, latent depression, hidden depression, overlooked depression, or disguised depression) is potentially one of the most frustrating and therefore serious of mental disorders for the patient, since if not diagnosed correctly and treated properly, the patient is likely to “doctor hop” for years, trying the patience of one physician after another. As Freud himself noted, physical complaints can dominate the clinical picture and lead one to believe that the disorder is strictly physical rather than emotional. In these instances, a succession of M.D.s may never address the patient’s despair. In the worst case, the patient will give up and commit suicide.

Since the underlying illness is depression, Prozac, like other antidepressants, can often be used effectively, although little research has been done on Prozac’s effect on masked depression per se. Because the new antidepressants (of which Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Effexor are examples) have fewer side effects, it is most likely that patients with masked depression will be responsive to these drugs as they have been to the older antidepressants. The critical issue is to make the correct diagnosis of depression, since it is hidden to the patient and often the doctor fails to detect it as well and attempts to treat it as a medical condition.

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About 3% to 4% of the population experiences major depression. Manic depression occurs in another 1% or 2%, and another 5% of the population suffers from one of the other forms of depression, including dysthymia, chronic treatment-resistant depression, and depression secondary to medical or other psychiatric disorders. All told, about 10% of the population is afflicted by depression in one form or another, with women about two to five times more likely than men to be affected. Manic depression, however, afflicts men and women equally.

In a usual depression, most people tend to lose weight and have difficulty sleeping, whereas the distinctive feature of atypical depression is that patients tend to gain weight and to sleep more than is normal. They also tend to be extremely anxious, histrionic, sensitive to rejection, and strongly reactive to environmental factors. Major depression typically does not have these latter symptoms.

The symptoms of atypical depression have traditionally responded best to Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors, but studies now suggest that Prozac and probably other SSRIs may also be effective in treating this disorder.

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The difference is basically one of degree. The DSM-IV defines hypomania as “a distinct period of

sustained elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting throughout four days.” Mania is a longer, more intense version of the same thing. The manic mood is not just elevated but “abnormally and persistently elevated,” and it lasts at least one week—twice as long as a hypomanic episode.

In addition, a person in a manic or hypomanic state would be expected to have at least three of the following symptoms:

o excessive self-esteem or grandiosity

o reduced need for sleep

o excessive talkativeness, telephoning, spending

o extremely rapid flight of thoughts along with the feeling that the mind is racing

o inability to concentrate, easily distracted

o increase in social or work-oriented activities, often with a sixty- to eighty-hour work week

o poor judgment, as indicated by misguided business decisions, sprees of uncontrolled spending, or an increase in sexual indiscretions.

Again, the difference between mania and hypomania is one of degree. While both states might be described using terms such as those listed, hypomania can simply seem like a more productive, active period, whereas a full-blown manic attack seriously impairs functioning and often requires hospitalization. Manic people are out of control: they can hurt themselves and others. But those who are hypomanic can also exercise poor judgment. Some patients make excursions from a pleasurable (or sometimes irritable) hypomania to a shockingly destructive mania, affecting everyone and everything around them.

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Since the male-menopause has become a recognizable and diagnosable crisis condition many inaccurate theories and judgements have been circulated under the guise of being fact, each sounding like professional judgement from the pages of a medical textbook. This may not matter with simple ailments where a little embroidery improves the seriousness of tone and the quality of sympathy, but with the male-menopause all the myths do is increase misunderstandings and make less sense of what is potentially a serious matter.

Most popular myths centre on a man’s sex life — or, more precisely, the apparent lack of it.

This may sound chauvinistic but many of the myths are probably put about by women. Not, one suspects, however, because of feminist need to establish equality but because to many women the term male-menopause conjures up visions of impotence and leads them to hope and expect men to have a similar sort of climacteric to theirs. After all if a woman has one why not a man too?

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Even though the lymphatic vessels are much longer than all the red blood vessels together, our knowledge of the white bloodstream is still very limited. The lymphatic vessels, which are much finer than those of the red bloodstream, are distributed throughout the entire body. In contrast with the blood, the lymph flows only in one direction and the fluid is returned to the bloodstream after its task is completed. The body can be divided schematically into four parts in the form of a cross, starting at the navel. Each of these four fields more or less corresponds to a lymphatic network, with a centre located at the right and left side of the groin area and in each of the armpit regions. Smaller centres are also located below the lower jaw, at the right and left side. Leading to these centres, the lymph glands form little nodes, which reach their maximum size in the centre itself.

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If you buy the sauerkraut in a health food store instead of making if yourself, presuming it was made with very little salt, sprinkle a teaspoonful of one of the two powders over the sauerkraut, mix it well and let it stand for another day before eating it raw. Even though this quick method of making a calcium preparation is not quite as effective as the first method, the result is still better than proprietary calcium tablets. Incidentally, you can also mix a pinch of eggshell or oyster shell powder into salad dressings if you prepare these with lemon juice. The citric acid will dissolve some of the natural calcium in the shells, making the mineral more easily assimilate

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Furthermore, it is of great importance to influence the patient psychologically. The glandular functions must be in good order, and this depends a great deal on his state of mind.

It is also important to stimulate the skin. Give the body a daily brush massage and afterwards apply a good skin oil containing natural herbal ingredients that stimulate the function of the skin.

That good bowel movement is necessary should go without saying. Indeed, proper functioning of the bowels and the kidneys is essential for the cure of practically any disease.

Lung patients who take this simple advice to heart will benefit greatly from their rest cures and will surprise their doctors by their speedy recovery. Always remember that it is important to try and rectify deficiencies and weaknesses anywhere in the body and not just one organ. It is then understandable why recovery is faster than usual.

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