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Dr. Hitaishi Weerakoon appeals Help fight the “mystery disease (MS)

Dr. Hitaishi Weerakoon, President Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Association of Lanka, in an interview with Health Watch yesterday made an appeal to the public and private sector institutions organisations, the media, and the general public for help to fight the ‘Multiple Sclerosis’ (MS) disease which is also referred to as the “Mystery Disease” the cause of which is not known yet, and a cure has not yet been found has a social stigma attached to it in this part of the world owing to the way it affects the nervous system of the victim.

Therefore most families try to hide it. With the result a disease which can be kept under control goes out of it, with serious consequences to the victim, and the family.

This is why she was making this appeal as it is very important to educate the public on this properly and to


Dr. Hitaishi Weerakoon

 get their cooperation to get this false stigma attached to the disease removed from society, and get the affected to seek advice and available controlling treatment from the doctors.

Dr. Hitaishi said, though a doctor, she’s also a victim of this “Mystery Disease” and with medication she was keeping it under control, and devoting her whole time to fight it, with hope and determination.

This is why she formed this association (MSAL) which is affiliated to the International Federation of the MS Association based in UK.

Speaking about the disease in Sri Lanka she said, so far there are 25 diagnosed patients.

They are all in the Association Cooperating in fighting the disease. She would like the Neurologists and other doctors when they come across these patients to inform them about this Association, so that they may decide on their own to join it. She could be contacted on Tel: 2698722.

E-mail: [email protected]

Postal address: 144, Vipulasena Mawatha, Colombo 10.

Support for patients

She said Multiple Sclerosis, could strike suddenly and happen to anyone. It happens irrespective of age or gender, be it bread-winner or winsome dependent, causing a breakdown in the family structure and affecting the offspring psychologically, financially and in every area of development and education.

MS affects its victims in various ways - a patient could gradually become incontinent, blind, lame, or paralyzed - or numerous other symptoms may become evident. Some symptoms, such as walking difficulties are obvious to other people.

Other symptoms such as pain or fatigue are not, and are often referred to as hidden, invisible or silent symptoms.

Once diagnosed, MS stays with the person for life, but treatment and specialist care can help people to manage many symptoms well. Although its cause is not known and a cure has yet to be identified. Therefore these patients need support.

If this disease is diagnosed at its very inception the patient has a chance of escaping its tentacles. The Association has been established in order to create awareness and also provide support by way of physical and emotional therapy and medication for patients.

Since its inception in February 2006, the Association had built a membership including numerous patients, supportive family members and doctors.

What happens in MS?

MS is an autoimmune condition. This means that the immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes its own tissue for a foreign body, such as bacteria, and attacks it.

In MS, the immune system attacks the myelin surrounding the nerve fibres. This damage to myelin disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres. The messages can slow down, become distorted, pass from one nerve fibre to another (short circuiting), or not get through at all. As the central nervous system links all bodily activities, many different symptoms can appear in MS, depending on which part of the central nervous system is affected.

Symptoms MS is unpredictable. It varies from person to person and can result in a wide variety of symptoms, none of which is unique to MS.

People can have different symptoms at different times and although some are very common, there is no typical pattern that applies to everyone. Some of the common symptoms are:

* An overwhelming sense of tiredness.

* Balance problems: walking difficulties, problems with co-ordination.

* Visual problems: blurred or double vision, temporary loss of sight in one eye or both.

* Numberness or tingling: commonly in the hands or feet.

* Pain: sometimes mild, sometimes severe.

************************

Advice to MS Patients on Diet

Upon discovering I have MS, the first changes I made was to my diet. It wasn’t drastic. I try to keep a balanced diet so my body gets all the nutrients it requires. The key is to eat and drink in moderation.

Eat Least: - Fats, Oils, sugar, salt (use them sparingly)

Eat Most: - Meat and alternatives (Meat, poultry, fish, beans lentils - 2-3 servings)

Vegetables and fruits (Vegetables 2-4 servings Fruits 2-3 servings)

Rice and alternatives (Rice, bread, cereal, noodles 5-7 servings)

Note: - If you are suffering from specific conditions relating to depression, osteoporosis, bladder concerns, and bowel management, discuss with your doctor or dietician on how to develop a suitable dietary plan to manage your condition.


Former SLMA President Dr. Dennis J. Aloysius On Drug Regulations

The current drug regulations stipulate that all doctors’ prescriptions should be generic, and the prescribing doctor may also write the name of brand, if it is considered desirable.

My view is, doctors have the right to prescribe what they think is best for their patients. They prescribe certain brands because they perceive that they are safe, effective of dependable quality and cost effective.

They also prescribe brands to improve compliance because of palatability, dosing interval and adverse effects.

Generic or brand name prescribing

Should a doctor’s prescription be written using generic names or brand names or both ? A prescription is an explicit instruction and it basically means, “doctors orders. “The doctors “orders” should be precise, embody no ambiguities and unnecessary frills. The views that are propounded are that

* if 2 drugs contain the same chemical ingredients in identical amounts they are therapeutically equivalent.

* Since generic drugs are cheaper to produce and are marketed at lower prices, generic prescribing must be made mandatory. Unfortunately chemical equivalence and therapeutic equivalence are two very different things.

If however 2 chemically equivalent drugs are shown to be bioequivalent then one could presume that they are therapeutically equivalent.

However generating bioavailability data is expensive and had pitfalls. For example it uses “heathy average volunteers” to gather data on blood levels. There is a world of difference between healthy individuals and persons who are ill. In addition an “average person” is statistical fiction and “healthy” and “volunteers” are pharmacological misconcepts.

Drugs like T S Eliot’s “cats” drugs have 3 different names namely chemical generic and brand. It is the chemical name and not the generic name that is unique to a drug.

The medical profession view should be that a doctor should prescribe the generic variety only if he is convinced that these generics demonstrate therapeutic equivalence, quality and safety AND they have an identifiable mark to guide the pharmacist otherwise he should prescribe brands.


Combination therapy reverses diabetes in mice: study

An experimental new combination therapy has reversed type I diabetes in mice, thanks in part to a novel focus on combating insulin resistance in this form of the disease, US researchers said Monday.

Insulin resistance has long been a recognized feature of type II or late-onset diabetes, but has only recently been identified as a component of juvenile or type I diabetes.

With this study, investigators have shown for the first time that treating inflammation related to insulin resistance as well as the autoimmune component of the disease can successfully reverse the disease, if it is caught early enough.

“We believe this is the first study to show inflammation in insulin sensitive tissues plays an important role in this disease,” said Terry Strom, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the paper. Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s own immune system attacks the pancreatic cells that produce the hormone insulin which regulates blood sugar.

The result is that the patient cannot produce enough insulin of their own, and has to supplement with synthetic versions of the hormone, typically by injection.

The condition raises an individual’s risk for a host of complications, including heart disease, blindness and nerve damage.

In this experiment, investigators treated newly diabetic mice with a cocktail of three substances that prevented the body’s own T-cells from destroying the pancreatic cells that produce insulin and also eliminated the inflammation that impaired the ability of tissues in the muscles, fat and liver to metabolize insulin properly.

The mice were treated for a period of 14 or 28 days, and within five to seven weeks, 95 percent of them had normal blood sugar levels and were able to control their blood sugar for 300 days.

In contrast, the untreated diabetic mice became hypoglycemic and most died within seven weeks even with insulin treatment.

The results suggest any therapy that hopes to arrest the development of diabetes in humans must not only tackle the T-cell disorder, it must also restore insulin responsiveness in tissues affected by an inflammatory disorder.

Otherwise, the body’s remaining insulin-producing beta cells have to work twice as hard to regulate blood sugar levels.

“The remnants of the beta cells have to work overtime to try and maintain blood sugar levels,” explained Strom.

Strom said that clinical trials of the treatment in humans would begin within 12 months.

AFP


Sight first project

Lions Club of Borella conducted a free eye camp at the Hathbodiya Viharaya, Kirulapone recently for those with eyesight defects who cannot afford the cost of spectacles or any requisite surgery.

A hundred and twenty-seven patients were examined and 117 were provided with specially calibrated spectacles.

Ten patients needing cataract surgery were donated Intra Ocular Lens for surgical treatment at the Eye Hospital.

Dr. Manel Pasqual eminent Eye Surgeon volunteered to provide her specialised services. Dr. Manel is the wife of Lion Mahesh Pasqual, District Governor of the Lions District 306 B2.

The camp was organised by Lions Chintaka Ranatunga and Siri Jayaratne.


Twenty million women undergo unsafe abortions every year - UNFPA

* Approximately 70,000 women die from complications related to unsafe abortions.

* Thousands more suffer from infections, haemorrhages, and other health conditions which can result in death, infertility and chronic pain.

* Worldwide, unsafe abortions account for 13% of all maternal deaths.

* In some countries, up to 60% of all maternal deaths are due to unsafe abortions.

The risk of death associated with unsafeabortion in developing countries is high

Africa 1 in 150

Asia 1 in 250

Latin America 1 in 800

Europe 1 in 2600

Developed countries 1 in 3700

Less developed countries 1 in 250

Availability of legal abortion varies throughout the world

* 40 per cent of the world’s population live in countries where induced abortion is permitted on request.

* 23 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries where abortion is permitted for social or socio-medical indications.

* 12 per cent of the world’s population live in countries where abortion is permitted to avert a threat to a woman’s general health and sometimes for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

* 25 per cent live in countries where abortion is permitted only if the woman’s life is in danger.

Illegal abortions are more likely to be unsafe and more likely to result in death

* While in developed countries mortality from legal abortion averages 0.6 deaths per 100,000 procedures, in less developed countries unsafe abortion results in as many as 1,000 deaths per 100,000 procedures.

If all women who said they wanted no more children had access to safe, effective contraception

* Maternal deaths would drastically decrease.

* The number of abortions and deaths from unsafe abortions would decrease.

(Sent to Health Watch by Doctors’ Wives Association, Sri Lanka)


High-intensity walking beneficial for elderly

High-intensity walking helps elderly adults keep their blood pressure in check, maintain thigh muscle strength, and increase their exercise capacity, according to results of a study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

“The rapid growth in the elderly population in many countries has highlighted the importance of exercise training to decrease the likelihood of disability and age-associated disease, promote independence, and enhance quality of life,” Dr. Hiroshi Nose and colleagues from Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan, write.

Moderately paced walking (about 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles per hour) is thought to protect against disability and is recommended for middle-aged and older people.

However, such walking may not be intense enough to improve aerobic exercise capacity.

To address this issue, the researchers randomly assigned 60 older men and 186 older women to one of three groups: no walking training, moderate-intensity walking training, and high-intensity walking training. The groups were studied for 5 months.

Patients who engaged in high-intensity walking, which included several short intervals of high-intensity walking interspersed with intervals of low-intensity walking, showed greater improvements in blood pressure, thigh muscle strength, and exercise capacity than did patients in the other groups.

The results provide further support for the adoption of an active lifestyle, Dr. James Levine, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, comments in an accompanying editorial. “The longer a person is active, the better, regardless of what form the activity takes.”

“We are designed to walk all day long, and (this) article suggests that we should,” Levine concludes.

SOURCE: Mayo Clinic

Proceedings, July 2007.

REUTERS


Low cholesterol diet improves blood flow in fetus

Consuming a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet during pregnancy seems to have a beneficial effect on blood flow in the fetus, Norwegian researchers report.

Dr. Tore Henriksen, of the University of Oslo, and colleagues used a special ultrasound test to examine how the type of diet consumed during pregnancy affects circulation in the fetus.

The study included 290 nonsmoking, pregnant women, between 21 and 38 years of age.

As dietary cholesterol consumption dropped, the blood in the fetus appeared to flow more smoothly, according to the report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Exactly how this occurs is unclear and requires further study, but the authors suggest that it may involve certain anti-inflammatory effects associated with a drop in LDL cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol, in the mother.

SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, June 2007.

REUTERS


Help them to ease the burden

Daily on my way to work I see schoolchildren with arched backs carrying heavily loaded schoolbags. it’s a sour sight for eyes in early hours of the morning, but how could we avoid this mishap?

A year six child has an average of eight to nine subjects to study with almost the same number of recommended text books. If six subjects are taught daily, students are expected to carry around five textbooks and five notebooks-a total of ten in all!

One does not need logic to realise that this heavily laid schoolbag itself might be the key reason for children to dislike schooling. Here are several suggestions on how to help these unfortunate children.

Use a single partitioned book to take down notes of all the subjects taught. Introduce a low cost locker or use the classroom cupboard for safekeeping of textbooks that need not be carried home daily.

If boiled, filtered water is provided at schools, the heavy drinking bottle could be replaced by an empty cup. The schoolbag should be a twin compartment, one with an inbuilt rigid panel resting over the back of the child.

The upper compartment should be packed with the heaviest items and the lower compartment with lighter ones. Then when the shoulder straps are well tightened, the centre of gravity will act straight down the spine, the concept used in bags meant for mountaineering! This will put a stop to all sorts of back problems.

If arrangements can be made with the teachers, the number of subjects taught per day can be limited, and specified dates can be given for textbooks usage.

The educational authorities can revise the textbooks layout so that books can be partitioned and be given in separate terms.

So parents, do some thinking and help your loved ones ease that schoolbag burden.


Health Watch

Medical crossword

No. 26, consolation prizes

At the above crossword draw held on July 25 at Apollo Hospital Auditorium the following won Rs. 1000.00 consolation prizes each offered by Parkway Health Care Services (Singapore)

Entry No. 77 Lakshmi Samaranayake (73 years), 146/4 Havelock Road, Colombo 5

Entry No. 75, R.P.P. De Zoysa (67 years) 171, Dolosbage Road, Gampola.

Entry No. 84:- Doreen de Silva (77 years) No. 5, Dharamaratne Avenue, Rawathawatte, Moratuwa

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