Health related information and news from around the world.

The changes in blood flow that we have considered so far affect all parts of the brain equally. In older people, arteriosclerotic changes take place in the arteries in the neck and head. There may be a temporary blockage of an artery to one part of the brain by a fragment of chalky deposit or thrombus swept downstream from a larger artery by the flow of blood. Neurologists call these blockages ‘transient ischaemic attacks’. In some of these short episodes, muscle weakness or tingling in one or other limb may slightly resemble partial motor or sensory seizures. However, although focal motor seizures may arise in the scarred brain in the territory of a permanently blocked artery after a stroke, transient ischaemic attacks are associated with transient paralysis rather than convulsions.

In younger people, localized (focal) neurological phenomena occur in migraine. In the first stage of a classical migraine attack, arterial spasm occurs, reducing cerebral blood flow focally. It is unclear whether this is primary or secondary to some depression of nerve cell activity. The occipital area is the region most often affected. This results in a hallucination of distorted vision or flashing lights, rather than the formed visual hallucination which may be part of a partial seizure arising in a temporal lob. Occassionally spasm affects the motor or sensory areas of the brain, producing short-lived paralysis or disturbance of sensation, without convulsions, on the opposite side of the body.

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In Group #1, eleven subjects presenting with mild to moderately severe osteoarthritis and one with reactive psoriatic arthritis were supplied with 16 capsules, two capsules to be taken each morning and evening for four days. Nine reported about 20% to 30% improvement in articulation and inflammation and about 40% to 50% relief of arthritic pain within 36 hours. In these nine subjects improvement continued rapidly for the next 60 hours, reaching a 70% to 80% overall improvement by the end of the four days. Two of the three latter subjects continued to improve over the following week despite the fact that they were no longer taking the capsules.

However, about half of this group experienced the return of some mild arthritic symptoms after about three to five weeks. (Although not included as part of this study, all of the subjects in this group were treated again and their symptoms have not returned.) The patient with reactive psoriatic arthritis also experienced an almost complete reversal of his associated very severe psoriatic skin condition affecting about 20% of his total skin area.

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Symptoms: runny nose, red eyes, cough, fever, rash.

Home care:

Give aspirin for fever and a cough medication for severe cough.

Give the child extra liquids.

Bright light bothers (but does not injure) the eyes; keep the child out of brightly lit areas.

Precautions:

-    A vaccine is available to prevent measles. Be sure that your child receives the proper vaccination.

-    If your child has not been vaccinated, is under the age of three, and has been exposed to the measles virus, call the doctor.

-    When a child has measles, the fever and cough should subside as the rash peaks. If they do not, watch for signs of complications.

-    Earache during measles may indicate a middle ear infection. Consult the doctor.

Measles, which is also known as rubeola, is a highly contagious disease caused by a specific virus. It affects mainly the respiratory system, the eyes, and the skin, and is spread from person to person in airborne droplets of moisture from an infected person’s respiratory system. The incubation period-the time it takes for symptoms to develop once the child has been exposed to the virus – is ten to 12 days. Measles can be passed to other people between the fifth day of the incubation period and the sixth day after the appearance of the rash that is characteristic of this disease.

Measles used to be one of the more dangerous of the childhood diseases, but it is relatively uncommon today because a vaccine is now available to protect against it. Most children are now vaccinated against measles by an injection given at around the age of 15 months. If a mother is immune to measles (because she has either had it or been vaccinated against it), her baby before birth will receive temporary protection against the disease. This protection lasts only three to six months after birth. The reason that vaccination is delayed until the baby is 15 months old (and not given as soon as the temporary immunity acquired from the mother wears off) is that the vaccination is not fully effective in a baby under 15 months. It’s also fairly unlikely that a child under that age will be exposed to measles. It’s important to note, however, that measles is dangerous in a child under three years old, and if an unvaccinated young child is exposed to the virus you should consult the doctor at once. Measles is also likely to be serious in children who have chronic (long-term) diseases.

Measles is considered dangerous mainly because of the complications it can cause, among them pneumonia (infection of the lungs), middle ear infection, and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). Encephalitis occurs in only one or two out of every 1,000 cases of measles, and today death from measles or its complications is very rare.

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