Insect Bites - Animal Bites causes infections and diseases

Insect Bites

An insect bite produces a small puncture in the skin, and infection may be introduced when the insect carries organisms in its mouth or excrement. Tick fever, or Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is similar to European typhus fever, is transmitted by the bites of ticks. In Mexico and southern United States, a type more closely related to European typhus is transmitted by lice, ticks, and mites living on rats. 

Malaria and yellow fever are carried by certain mosquitoes. While most of the United States is free of malaria, in parts of the South it has not yet been eliminated completely through destruction of mosquitoes chemically or elimination of stagnant ponds and other places where the mosquitoes breed. If you live in or visit such areas where malaria may be a threat, protect yourself against mosquitoes with a repellent salve, make certain that screening is adequate, and if necessary use mosquito netting over the bed at night. 

You can be immunized against yellow fever, and although the disease has been eliminated in much of the world, immunization is worthwhile if, for example, you travel to parts of South America or Africa which are near jungles where the yellow fever mosquito still flourishes.

 Animal Bites

Any animal bite that penetrates the skin should be thoroughly washed with soap and water and treated by a physician. Rabies, or hydrophobia, a viral disease affecting brain and nervous system, is transmitted by the bite of dogs and other domestic and wild animals harboring the virus in saliva. If possible, a biting dog should be caught and studied by the health department.

 If the dog is infected, or if it dies within 10 to 14 days, the bitten person must receive Pasteur treatment or the new serum to prevent rabies, which is a 100 percent fatal disease. If the bite is on the head, neck, or face, treatment should be started at once, without waiting to see if the dog dies, since the virus, when introduced at these sites, can reach the brain quickly.

The rabies virus travels along nerves to the brain, so the farther away the bite the longer the trip to the brain. In bites on the foot, it has taken as long as a year for rabies to develop. Unless the dog is caught and found to be free from the disease, Pasteur treatment or the new serum must be given. All warm-blooded pets-cats, dogs, monkeys-now can be vaccinated periodically against rabies by a veterinarian. 

No pet owner should neglect this precautionary measure. If a dog must be shot because of viciousness, it should be shot in the body so the undamaged brain can be studied in a health department or police laboratory. Any dog that is acting queerly should be examined by a veterinarian. 

Meats and anti-biotics to animals

Meats may carry any of several diseases. Uncooked pork sometimes contains living parasites that produce trichinosis. For protection, pork should always be cooked thoroughly; any pinkness means inadequate cooking. For roast pork, an hour to the pound at 350 degrees is safe. Brucellosis (undulant fever) may be acquired from pork, beef, or un- pasteurized milk. 

Raw fish and raw beef may contain tapeworms. Al- though the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects meats, you cannot always be certain they are still pure by the time they reach your table. Thorough cooking of all meats and fish is the best precaution. Diseased rabbits cause tularemia, a serious disease that may be contracted not only by eating but even in the course of skinning and pre- paring rabbits. Improperly canned food can be dangerous. Bacteria, growing in such food, can produce poisoning.

Botulism is a severe form of food poisoning which often leads to fatal paralysis. The food and canning industries are extremely careful to avoid food contamination; botulism is usually the result of improper home canning. If you like to can food, boil for at least three hours or steam-cook it under correct pressure. Boil again for 15 minutes before eating. It's important to buy pastries from a clean, reliable bakery and to refrigerate them promptly when you get them home. 

Bacteria thrive on custard fillings such as those in éclairs unless the pastry is properly handled and refrigerated. Frozen foods can be healthy and tasty. But the home freezer can be a source of danger if food is not frozen correctly. Most meats, poultry, and fish can be quick-frozen and kept safely for extended periods. Vegetables, bread, and cake are also popular freezer items.

But many foods, such as concentrated fruit juices, should be used as soon as thawed and should not be refrozen. Some down-to-earth pamphlets about frozen foods and freezing equipment have been produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are available from the Department in Washington, D.C., without charge; they are well worth having.

The pamphlets include the following titles: Freezing Combination Main Dishes Home Care of Purchased Frozen Foods Home Freezers-Their Selection and Use Home Freezing of Fruits and Vegetables Home Freezing of Poultry Venereal Diseases The two major ones are syphilis and gonorrhea, spread mainly by sexual contact, although syphilis has been known to be spread also by kissing. These diseases are discussed elsewhere in this book. 

WHEN TO EAT? TIMING MATTERS

WHEN TO EAT

Meal patterns generally are dictated by custom, work schedule, and personal preference. Most people eat a light breakfast, moderate lunch, and hearty evening meal. If you have a preference, however, for more but smaller meals, there is certainly nothing wrong with eating that way. 

In fact, we believe that, where feasible, more but lighter meals are desirable since they are easier to digest and put fewer loads on the body. The fact is that there is a limit to what the body's chemistry can take on at any one time. 

One can add to a fire a reasonable amount of wood The Food You Eat I 53 or coal and have a vigorous flame. But if too much fuel is added, the fire huffs and puffs, smokes and smolder’s inefficiently.

So, too, with the body when it is burdened with dealing with a big evening meal,

 For example, Quite possibly, too, if a large amount of fat or cholesterol is consumed at one sitting, the body may not be able to metabolize it completely, and it may overflow into vital areas such as the arteries. 

When obesity is a problem, the practice of eating five or six small meals daily may be helpful. There are fewer tendencies to overeat when smaller portions are taken more often-and fewer tendencies to indulge in snacks. When you know you will be eating again in two hours or so, the temptation to snack is not so great. 

HOW MUCH TO EAT - A word about food

FOOD CAUSES

It is better to eat no more than eighty per cent of your capacity. A Japanese proverb has it that eight parts of a full stomach  ache sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor."

So one of the Zen masters is quoted in the book Three Pillars of Zen (Beacon Press, Boston, 1967)

The advice is relevant. That Americans generally consume too many calories for the amount of physical energy they expend is a matter of record and of increasing concern as the energy expenditure tapers off even more. Every five years, the National Research Council, which serves as scientific adviser to the United States government, publishes recommended dietary allowances.

After recommending, in 1963, a cut of 100 calories per day for men and women, it recommended another 100-calorie reduction in 1968. In its calculations, the Council uses a "reference" man and woman-each 22 years old, weighing 154 pounds and 127 pounds respectively, living in a mean temperature of 68 degrees, and engaging in light physical activity. 

Such a man, the Council now figures, needs 2,800 calories a day; the woman 2,000. The Council also recommends that caloric intake be cut below these levels with age-by 5 percent between ages 22 and 35, by 3 percent in each decade between 35 and 55, and by 5 percent per decade from 55 to 75.

This brings the figure for the woman, for example, to 1,900 by age 35, to 1,843 by age 45, to 1,788 by age 55, to 1,699 at 65 and to 1,614 at 75. These, of course, are general guidelines, leaving room for individual variations, and your physician may well have suggestions of value for you. It is a measure of good health, and a contribution toward maintaining it, to reach and keep a desirable weight. 

For that, an effective balance between food intake and energy output is needed. If you are currently at ideal weight (see table on page 61), your intake and output are in balance---which is fine if you are getting adequate amounts of exercise. Exercise, of right kind and in adequate amounts, is a vital element in health for many reasons (see Chapter 8). If you should need to increase your physical activity, you will need to increase intake to maintain desirable weight.

How Your Food Causes illnesses and remedies

THE FOOD YOU EAT IS THERE 

someone food or class of foods with special value for preventing disease? The science of nutrition has much to offer for health but it does not take the form of a panacea food or food combination. The one fact that stands out most clearly as new advances are made is that except for certain specific problems-disease states for which special diets have been definitely established as helpful-the healthiest diet has two basic characteristics: it is balanced and it is varied.

NEW REASONS

FOR BALANCE AND VARIETY One of today's most exciting research stories have to do with investigations into the role of trace elements in health and disease. It has long been known that an amount of iron that would bulk up no bigger than a couple of nails stands between us and suffocation, for iron is an essential part of the blood substance hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to body tissues. But it now seems that many other elements in minute amounts-each constituting at most 1/10,000 of body weight and very often far less- may play significant roles.

Recent studies have suggested that lack of adequate zinc in the diet can delay wound healing and may be a factor in diseases of the arteries. In one investigation, zinc supplements were given to some Air Force men who had undergone surgery. Their surgical wounds healed in less than half the time required in other men who had had the same surgery but did not receive zinc supplements. The results not only demonstrated zinc's role in speeding healing; they suggested that the diet of these airmen may well have been Zinc-deficient.  

Building General Health as Preventive Therapy In a later study, investigators treated with zinc supplements a group of patients who had skin sores that refused to heal. Of the 17 patients in the group, 11 were found to be deficient in zinc, and in all 11 the chronic skin ulcers healed with zinc treatment. The remaining was not zinc- deficient, and although they received the same treatment, their wounds still did not heal. Although the relationship between zinc deficiency and hardening of leg arteries that can block circulation and cause gangrene is not clearly established, some patients who were deficient in zinc and had advanced degeneration of the arteries have shown improvement with zinc therapy. 

Human body reactions to Medicines and Foods Vs Medicines

REACTIONS TO MEDICINES

It may seem unbelievable but there are more than 250 diseases that can be caused by the very medicines designed to treat and cure illness. You may well ask, "Why is this possible?" The reasons are not difficult to understand. Over the past twenty-five years or so, many hundreds of new com- pounds have been developed for treating and preventing disease. Many are powerful and complicated substances.

Their very effectiveness depends upon their great potency and complexity. In some instances, trouble has come unexpectedly because a powerful A Special Word about medicine taking new agents was not tested fully under every conceivable circumstance. Thus, for example, thalidomide seemed to be an excellent and harmless tranquilizing agent in most people, but when it was used by pregnant women it had terrible effects on their unborn children. Another reason for drug-induced illness is that human beings do have tendencies to develop allergic or sensitivity responses. These vary considerably, just as they do for foods. One person may eat eggs until the hens scream for mercy-and enjoy them with impunity; another person, allergic to them, cannot eat one without developing some upset.

And so with other foods

Because of sensitivity problems, a medicine that is highly beneficial for 95 percent of the population may cause trouble, even potentially serious trouble, for the remaining 5 percent. A good example is penicillin, clearly a lifesaving drug. It has, indeed, probably saved well over a million lives since its discovery. But it also has caused severe sensitivity re- actions in scores of thousands of people and has taken the lives of thousands.

As you may have noticed, physicians today inquire carefully about possible previous sensitivity reactions to penicillin before administering or prescribing it. Just as some people, after repeated exposure, become allergic to rag- weed pollen or to poison ivy, so some, after being helped once or even several times by an antibiotic, may develop allergic reactions to the com- pound. Usually the problem is mild-skin rash, hives, or slight fever- and disappears once the drug is stopped. Occasionally, however, there are anaphylactic, or shock like, reactions which are life-threatening, and these can be overcome only if heroic measures-adrenaline and other injections-are used in time.

Still considered the single most valuable antibiotic,penicillin is a major allergy producer because it has been so widely used. It is estimated that 10 percent of Americans have become sensitized to the drug. Still another reason for undesirable reactions is that no drug is 100 percent specific-hitting the bull's-eye, so to speak. In the course of countering the problem for which it is being used, it may produce other effects, and these have to be reckoned with. Consider, for example, the gastrointestinal upsets-cramps, diarrhea, sore mouth, rectal itch-which may occur after use of many antibiotics.

They can come about because of an upset in the natural germbalance in the body. Many harmless bacteria are always present in the gastrointestinal tract. Some, in fact, are essential to digestion; some manufacture vitamins. When a potent antibiotic is introduced to fight infection, it may also decimate this normal bacterial population. Moreover, these friendly bacteria serve another purpose in the body.

Modern medicines and Health Issues

Modern medicines serve a purpose and very often can provide relief for minor problems. In themselves, they are generally safe as long as the dosage recommendations on the package are not exceeded. It's important to keep in mind, however, that such medications, as any others, may produce undesirable effects in relatively small numbers of people who happen to be particularly sensitive to them.

So if you notice any such side effects as rash, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances, or others, which seem to follow use of a particular medication, you may well have sensitivity to that particular medication, and no matter how popular it is with other people, it is not for you. If in doubt, you should check with your physician. Absolutely vital when you prescribe for yourself is the need to keep in mind that you may be making a mistake in diagnosis, treating the wrong illness, or masking minor and superficial symptoms while an underlying serious problem gets worse.

For example, a "simple" head cold may really not be simple when there is fever, sharp pain in the chest, sputum discoloration, rapid breathing, or nausea; it may, in fact, be a serious bronchial infection or pneumonia. If you do treat yourself, never continue to do so for more than a day or two unless you are certain there is steady improvement-and if your symptoms get worse or change, don't wait even that long before consulting your physician. 

How Blood tests helps in finding Urinary problems

Today there are sensitive blood tests for this; they measure the amounts in the blood of certain chemicals, called enzymes, released when the heart is damaged. Urine tests are helpful in detecting kidney disease and other urinary tract disorders and may provide clues to problems elsewhere in the body, such as diabetes. Today, radioactive isotope scanning is a sophisticated and vast new area of testing, useful for the detection of disorders in many different organs. Such scanning is based on the fact that certain chemical elements tend to be deposited in specific organs, and these elements can be made slightly and briefly radioactive; then their distribution in the body can be established with scanning instruments that can pick up their radio-activity and record it on film or paper.

Abnormalities become visible as areas of increased or decreased radioactivity. Scanning now can be used to pick up thyroid problems; brain tumors and abscesses; liver cancer, cysts, and abscesses; lung clots; bone tumors; kidney tumors, cysts, and abscesses; and many more abnormalities including those of the pancreas, spleen, parathyroid glands, and the heart as well. Judicious use of tests has always distinguished the best physicians. It would be a simple matter, of course, for the physician to just order, indiscriminately, a whole battery of tests-at considerable cost of time and money for the patient.

Rather than this, physicians have been selective, using the patient's case history and their personal examinations as guides, determining, from them what problems if any the patient might be likely to have, and, when justified, using supplementary tests to explore these problems. 

STETHOSCOPE EXAMINATION FOR HEART PROBLEMS AND TO AVOID HEART ATTACK

STETHOSCOPE EXAMINATION

The stethoscope has a small cone which concentrates and slightly amplifies internal body sounds while excluding external noise. One of its major uses is in the detection of heart problems. The heart produces two distinct sounds-e-Iubb-dup, lubb-dup, lubb- dup-which are related to the closing of the valves inside the heart. The rate, rhythm, pitch, and intensity of these sounds, which can be studied with the stethoscope, provide indications of the health of the heart. The stethoscope can pick up any abnormal sounds-for example, a rubbing scratchy noise which may indicate pericardia, an inflammationof the outer coating of the heart.

With it, too, the physician can detect murmurs-audible vibrations produced by blood flow-and can distinguish among various types of them. There are murmurs associated with different kinds of congenital heart defects. Others are produced by over activity of the thyroid gland and disappear when the gland condition is corrected. A fever or anemia may produce a heart murmur which disappears when the anemia or fever is over- come. In addition-and worth special note here-there are innocent murmurs. Unfortunately, many people worry needlessly after being told at some point, perhaps during an insurance examination, that they have a murmur even though reassured it is "innocent." The fact is that innocent murmurs are unrelated to any physical problem and are quite common.

They can be found in as many as 15 percent of normal healthy adults and in an even higher percentage of normal healthy children. Such murmurs are more readily detectable in children because they have thinner chestwalls. And some authorities are convinced that if there were sensitive enough instruments, slight and innocent murmurs could be found in all people. Your physician has been trained to understand the significance of various types ofmurmurs, to distinguish carefully among them, and to heed those which tell him of existing or possibly brewing trouble.

Let him examine you and if he finds a murmur tell you exactly what it means. If he can report that it is innocent and no reason for worry that is exactly what he means. In addition to its value in studying the heart, the stethoscope often is useful in revealing characteristic sounds of asthma and of the lung disorder emphysema. Applied to the abdomen, it is often helpful in gastrointestinal problems; it may, for example, aid in diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. With the stethoscope, too, it is sometimes possible to detect blood vessel problems-the existence and location of an obstruction in an artery, for example.

Patient History and Physical Examination can be Physician’s tool to Prevent Diseases

Patient History and Physical Examination can be Physician’s tool to Prevent Diseases

One patient who experienced a slight change in urination-dribbling a little during the night- passed it off as a joke, kidding with his wife that somehow, though he was still a young and vigorous man, he had entered second childhood. He had actually developed an enlargement of the prostate gland. A year of delay made the operation he needed more difficult and led to a complication, kidney infection, caused by backing up of urine. In reporting symptoms to the doctor, don't grope for medical words; use simple English. Many diseases have strong psychological aspects, and symptoms may recede the moment you are in the doctor's office. Still, tell the doctor you have the symptoms even though it may seem silly to talk about them when they are not immediately present. You can be certain the doctor will understand the phenomenon.

THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION 'Even as he shakes hands with you, an alert physician may pick up some clues. Are your hands warm and moist, with a fine tremor? These characteristics may suggest over activity of the thyroidgland. If the hands are cold and the skin is coarse and puffy, the thyroid could be under- active. Red fingertips may signal some abnormal flow of blood in the heart; flushing of the nail beds in time with the heartbeat may indicate another type of heart problem called aortic regurgitation. As he observes the body, the physician can learn a great deal. The color of lips and ears may indicate possible anemia.

The Promise and Nature of Preventive Medicine

 One leg is slightly shorter than the other-enough in some cases to account for a backache problem. He may note leg swellings traceable to a heart problem, and any enlarged glands, tumors, or abnormal pigmentation resulting from internal disease. In his examination, the physician will be looking to see if the body is symmetrical. Lack of symmetry is almost always a sign of some dis- ability or disease. If the left side of the neck looks different from the right, it may be because of a tumor which is pushing out on that side. If the thyroid is not symmetrical, it may be because of a benign tumor which has enlarged one lobe ofthe gland. In the retina at the back of the eyes, small blood vessels-arteries and veins-lie are almost naked, devoid of covering material.

And there, very quickly, with an instrument called the Ophthal-mo-scope, the physician by looking through the pupil of the eye can detect any blood vessel changes which may provide clues to diabetes or kidneydisease. Women need a breast examination for any tenderness, abnormal lump, or nipple discharge. During a vaginal examination, a smear of cells for the "Pap" test is usually taken; this is a test to detect early cancer in the area. Both men and women should have a rectal examination to detect any local disturbances. With an instrument, the Sigmoido-Scope, the physician can see and check the lower portion of the colon for any growths.

As a patient, you can help greatly by insisting that the physician do a thorough inspection, by reassuring him that you have no squeamishness. Some doctors feel that patients’ are resistant to rectal andgenital examination and omit these vitally important checks. 

How a Patient History Can be used in Preventive Health Care? follow 1000 posts

It is not essential that you have a detailed knowledge of modern examining and testing procedures. But some awareness of the basic, long-established methods and tests and the newest x-ray and laboratory tools, and what they can do, will be useful.

THE CASE HISTORY

The patient's history, always an invaluable guide in disease diagnosis, is equally valuable in prevention. We have mentioned earlier, in passing, some of the reasons. Occupational data-facts about the work you do and possibly the circumstances under which you do it-may reveal some hazards, physical or psychological, to which you are exposed. An account of family health-the illnesses of parents and grandparents, their longevity, the state of health of brothers and sisters-can provide clues to hereditary strengths and weaknesses.

Your own past illnesses are 'an. important part of the record. Some childhood episodes of illness, if severe, may have left a mark. Rheumatic fever, for example, may strike a child at 15 or earlier and may produce some heart damage. Yet, very often, the effects of the heart damage are not felt until age 35, 40, or even later. A record of the rheumatic fever incident may be of vital importance in accurate diagnosis of a heart condition. 

The case history-which includes what the patient reports about present problems-sometimes, provides the first indication of onset of a serious illness. For example, angina pectoris (chest pain) is associated with coronary heart disease. In coronary heart disease, the coronary arteries feeding the heart muscle become narrowed. There are sophisticated techniques now-including x-ray movies of the coronary arteries -to show up the narrowing. But in some early cases, angina may occur before there are sufficient changes to show up on the x-ray studies.

If in taking the history the physician determines that there have been angina episodes-perhaps after some sudden unusual exertion, perhaps upon leaving the house on a particularly cold morning-he can confirm the anginadiagnosis by giving the patient some nitroglycerin tablets to take when the next incident occurs; and if there is immediate relief of pain, the diagnosis is virtually 99.9 percent certain. During history taking, be accurate, don't make wild guesses, but do report things you may think are only minor, like a sense of just not feeling well. It's important to indicate any change because it may be an early warning of something potentially serious. 

How does a preventively minded physician function? Follow 1000 posts in the series

You can expect that in working with you he will get to know you thoroughly-past medical history, family medical history, job, working habits, living habits-so he can weigh any possibility that you-as a member of a specific group based on heredity, environment, age, sex, color, personal habits-may face certain specific health hazards.

In his regular periodic examinations, he will follow your health progress in general and will be alert for the slightest early indication of anything wrong in any area of special risk for you. He may, in fact, from time to time use special tests to make certain all is going well in a special risk area.

During your visits, he will be concerned, of course, with any physical complaints and also with any mental or emotional problems (job, marital, and others), since these can affect health.

He will be interested in any changes in your habits and their possible effects, for good or ill, on your health. From time to time, he may have suggestions for an alteration, perhaps minor, of diet, exercisepattern, sleep, relaxation, etc.

As he regularly checks you, alert for earliest indications, even pre-indications, of possible trouble, he will be prepared to intervene without delay. Rather than wait, say, for obvious symptoms of diabetes to develop-especially if you belong to the group with greater than average probability of developing the disease-he will intervene to try to correct, if they appear, the very first changes that could possibly lead to diabetes.

As medicine has been practiced generally to now, it has been the patient who, in effect, has turned up after making a self-diagnosis. It has been the patient who has decided, "I think I am or may be sick or becoming sick," and then has sought help.

How it will be the preventively minded physician who increasingly will be able to tell the patient, "You are about to become sick and we are going to take a few measures in advance so you won't actually develop the sickness." 

Prevention is better than cure, Nature care series 1000 posts

"To CURE sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always"-so the physician's role was described in the fifteenth century. So it remained until this century. Comfort he did because there was little else he' could do. More progress made in a few decades than in thousands of years before.

And while some of this progress as seen in heart Surgery, brain surgery, antibiotics, hormonal treatments-even more basic advances were made at the same time.

                

Medicine began to penetrate the mysteries of psychic disease and to gain understanding of the interrelationships of mind and body. It explored the influence and mechanisms of heredity in disease. It established the mechanisms of body chemistry and of inborn chemical error. It allied itself with many other sciences-drawing, for example, from physics and biochemistry new electronic equipment and test tube procedures for detecting and monitoring disease. 

The crystal ball may seem less glamorous than the wonder drug and the miracle in the operating room. But medicine has been developing a kind of scientific crystal ball that promises to make far greater inroads on disease that can be rubbed to see the portents for the individual patient and used to help guide him around the health-hazards he faces. Preventive medicine becomes inevitable as the new diseases and conditions started to occupy the human being. The speed of medical inventions is defeated by the newly accumulated diseases and abnormal conditions.

Hence the preventive medicine has gets its importance against the conventional method of finding the diseases and cure them. Vaccines are a part of preventive medicine, but nowadays the whole concept of preventive medicine changes and prevention is better understandable to prevent the diseases without any medications to avoid the side effects and its consequences.

Read the coming posts to understand how to prevent almost all ailments in our life. We will take up the writing on body parts as well as case to case of diseases and how to prevent better without medicines. A complete 1000 page guide ensures covering all aspects of body illnesses and conditions in human ailment. Starts from headache to diabetes, muscle pain to heart attack, How to avoid viral diseases? also will be taken care during the writing.