Health and medical news Blog
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Chronic glaucoma comes on slowly and insidiously. It is a common cause of blindness and has often progressed to a stage where the vision is markedly impaired before it is noticed by the sufferer.
It becomes increasingly common after 40 and most eye specialists recommend that all those over 50 should have the pressure in their eyes checked each two years, even if the vision seems satisfactory. Three per cent of people over 50 can suffer from glaucoma.
Sometimes, service clubs organise a drive in their suburb where all those over 40 can present themselves for a check on the pressure of their eyes. The condition is so uncommon under this age that there is little point in the routine screening of younger people.
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Tags: General health
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About 100 hairs are shed each day from the average scalp. The normal pattern of cyclical growth of hair may be disturbed by general health factors, either physical or mental. Most women notice their hair becomes thinner and loses its lustre after childbirth and may take a year or two to recover.
Alopecia areata is a condition where the hair is lost in patches. It may spread to involve the whole scalp or even the eyebrows or all the body hair. The cause is uncertain and there are several theories. Some believe it is one of the auto-immune diseases where the body, as it were, develops an allergy to its own tissues and produces antibodies which tend to destroy those tissues.
Women whose male relatives suffer from male pattern baldness may also suffer a more diffuse hair loss. This is more usual after the menopause and is due to the action of androgens or male hormones on the predisposed hair follicles. This may respond to the use of oestrogens.
Diffuse hair loss may also be due to metabolic illnesses such as myxoedema or thyroid insufficiency.
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Tags: General health
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There is no symptom that automatically means you have to go into hospital. However, you may choose to go into hospital for
tests or to have some form of treatment that cannot be done at home. The need for hospitalisation is one of the costs you should
take into account when deciding what tests and treatment to have.
The decision as to whether to stay at home or go into hospital in the final stages should largely be yours. However, a decision to stay at home is practical only if you can rely on a lot of support and cooperation from family and friends. I suggest that, if you do want to be at home, you make some preparations towards this while you are still relatively well. Talk with your family and friends about what you want and find out how much help and support they are prepared and able to give you. Get to know a doctor who will make home visits. Find out whether there is a special palliative care/terminal care/hospice team in your town and ask to be referred to them when the time seems right for that. Keep in mind that, at least throughout Australia, there is a government-subsidised home-nursing service. It is easy and inexpensive to arrange for nurses to visit your home for a particular purpose such as to do dressings, supervise pressure care, help you with bowel or bladder problems or just for a friendly check on how you are managing. Special aids that you might need such as wheelchairs, bedpans, commodes, special bedding, oxygen masks, etc, are often available on loan or hire from public hospitals or through the home-nursing services, so the fact that you can’t afford to buy such things shouldn’t mean that you have to go into hospital.
You may also be able to get financial assistance from your local cancer society, for example, to cover the cost of a nurse or companion to stay with you at times when friends and family cannot manage this.
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Tags: Cancer