Information on popular complementary and alternative medical topics

There are some medical conditions which produce typical changes in the body and can be recognised at a glance. One of these is a disorder of bone known as Paget’s disease or osteitis deformans.

Sir James Paget, a London surgeon, first described the condition which bears his name in 1877. Its cause is unknown.

It is rare before the age of 40 but then increases in frequency with age. By the age of 90 at least 10 per cent who have reached this age will have developed this condition in their bones.

Any bone of the body may be affected but it is more common in the skull, in the spine, in the pelvis and the leg bones.

The bones are thickened and yet are softer than normal. And when they bear weight the leg bones may bow outwards. Bone is not a stable tissue.

New bone is continually being laid down and old bone is being continually absorbed or removed by other cells.

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With the potent and effective drugs we now have, most of the chronic disorders of mankind can be controlled, if not cured.

Yet there are large numbers of people who do not comply with their doctor’s instructions.

Surveys have shown that more than half of patients with high blood pressure and tuberculosis no longer attend their doctors a year after starting treatment. Of those who continue, less than a third take proper dosages as ordered.

Most patients who drop out are not convinced of the value of continuing. This may be partly the fault of doctors who do not explain fully the nature of an illness or the need for continued treatment. Sometimes it’s because the price the patient has to pay may be too high: not in money terms but in comfort.

Usually, high blood pressure produces no symptoms. But most drugs to control blood pressure have side-effects. It takes a convincing doctor to persuade a patient without symptoms to take a drug which may make him feel uncomfortable.

But this doesn’t fully explain why large numbers opt out and it is irrational for patients to complain that a drug failed to help them when they either didn’t take it or took it in an inadequate dose.

Many of these patients then turn to alternative therapies; they probably are just as lax in following instructions and become just as critical as they are of orthodox medicine.

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