A doctor came to me asking if I could help him stop smoking. I had steadfastly refused to become concerned with people’s smoking habits. As a psychiatrist I wish to spend my time with those in more urgent need of help. However, he seemed sincere about it, so I agreed. I spent some time showing [...]

The chemical composition of proteins is well known but their biological properties and their full role in the metabolic processes is not too well understood, and perhaps never will be. We know that proteins in the body are in the so-called dynamic state. This means they are constantly being changed from one state to another, [...]

One of the few ways that an average person has of building Capital throughout his lifetime is by house purchase, by payments into regular saving schemes such as with profits insurance policies and personal equity plans (PEPs) and often by a combination of all these. Couples will also usually wish to provide some sort of [...]

Aloe vera, the Mexican healing plant, is the time-honored home remedy for a variety of human ills, but very few doctors know anything about it. For this reason, the journal Cutis (37:106) recently reviewed the plant’s chemical ingredients and pointed out that many of them are medicinally active. For instance, aloe contains an enzyme which [...]

Signs and symptoms The diagnosis of shortness of breath depends on the rate of breathing. To determine, if your child is actually short of breath, count the number of breaths per minute when the child is at rest. The average, normal rate of breathing for newborns is 40 breaths per minute; for one-year-olds, it is [...]

Beverage Allergy Allergy to tea is uncommon; it is usually considered a safe drink. Allergy to coffee and to its substitutes (chicory, peas, cereals, and chestnuts) is possible. Pure coffee may be found in cakes, candy, ice cream, malted milk, as a flavoring in a variety of medicines, and in many patented drinks such as [...]

Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) Like hMG, this drug is also derived from the urine of post-menopausal women (often nuns for ease of collection), and is given as an injection. Because the demand for it has been so high, there is also a genetically engineered form of FSH called recombinant human FSH. This medication does not [...]

What is it? Psoriasis is a common skin condition affecting a million people in the UK and a further 7 million in the US. About 80 million people suffer from it worldwide. It appears as red, raised pustules covered with silvery scales and it can occur on any part of the body, though knees, elbows [...]

Tests for the male partner It is usual for the partner to have a sperm test before the woman undergoes any testing. The reason for this is that a sperm test is a simple procedure and certainly the most convenient of all fertility tests. A sperm analysis is carried out to see if sperm are [...]

Overnutrition Obesity caused by eating too much of the wrong things can result in all kinds of diseases and disabilities secondary to obesity, and the link between cancer and obesity is now too well proven to ignore. It is estimated that one in three Americans are clinically overweight; juvenile obesity is a growing cause for [...]