Combating Dermatitis In another big advance, dermatologists have learned to control allergic skin inflammation, or contact dermatitis. For 14 years, Renate Charbonneau, a hairdresser in Milwaukie, Oregon, suffered unknowingly from chemicals in acid permanent-wave solutions. They caused severe eczema on her hands. Cortisone ointment relieves the pain, she says, adding, “By avoiding the acid perms [...]
The overall function of the kidneys is to maintain the normal composition and volume of the blood. This is accomplished by four interrelated activities. (1) Wastes of metabolism are excreted. These include urea, uric acid, creatinine ammonia, sulfates and other products of metabolism, and toxic substances. (2) The amounts of fluid and electrolytes that are [...]
Of all the tasks of childhood, there is perhaps none that raises more anxiety for parents or causes more dread than toilet training. What should be the most natural thing in the world often turns into a dramatic struggle between parent and child. The more the parents want their child to be trained, the more [...]
There are some new operations for reconstructive surgery that are “one step” and do not require lengthy or multiple hospitalizations. Take some time first, and then consider that possibility if you think it might be helpful. As with the tubes they put in men’s penises for erection, there is no “need” to do so. Such [...]
William Masters and Virginia Johnson observed the sexual behavior of 382 women and 312 men for a total of 10,000 individual sexual-response cycles. Their courageous and pioneering work not only provided long-needed medical knowledge about sexuality, but allowed the public and medical acknowledgment that sexual problems were a part of many, if not most, sexual [...]
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, has struck terror into many of the population and may well have caused many people unnecessary worry. First described in 1981, there have been around 6000 cases since in the United States. Unfortunately, nearly 70 per cent of these are dead within two years. The high risk groups in [...]
How would you like to be really fit? … “Fit for what?” you may ask. Physical fitness may mean different things to different people. To the doctor, it may mean freedom from disease. To the weight lifter, it may mean muscle mass. To a football player, it may mean the ability to play 100 minutes [...]
A new generation of doctors has grown up, unskilled in difficult forceps deliveries, but knowledgeable and skilled in caesarean section. Naturally, when complications arise, this is the procedure they will use and also teach. Previously, a caesarean section was done in the “classical” manner. The incision in the uterus or womb was straight up and [...]
There was a time when folks lived far from towns and doctors were few and far between. Often, in the depths of winter, isolation was made absolute by deep snow or raging floods. Sickness did not conveniently or kindly delay its visitation until these obstacles had passed. Rather, it seemed to prefer to wait until [...]
The margin of the pupil, pars iridica retinae, in its dilatation, colour, shape and plasticity, is a reflection of the central nervous system. One which is of delicate appearance, of reddish-brown colour and with a uniform edge, is to be regarded as normal. To enumerate the varieties of individual form and colour is beyond the [...]