Information on popular complementary and alternative medical topics

Human bites are generally more serious, owing to the bacteriology of the human oral flora and mechanisms of injury. The infection rate of human bites is estimated to be about 10%. Most human bites occur during fights, but approximately 15% to 20% are associated with sexual activity (“love nips”).
Human bites consist of occlusional bites and clenched-fist injuries. A bite wound sustained when human teeth sink into skin is defined as occlusional. Clenched-fist injuries are more serious and occur when one person punches another in the mouth with a clenched fist. This can result in simple cellulitis or lead to septic arthritis or osteomyelitis by direct inoculation of bacteria into the third metacarpophalangeal joint space or bone. The force of the blow can sever a nerve or tendon or cause a fracture. Patients often ignore clenched-fist injuries until these become infected.
The majority of human-bite wounds demonstrate approximately five different microorganisms per wound, with three being anaerobes. The most common infectious organisms isolated from human-bite wounds are S. aureus, Eikenella corrodens, Haemophilus species, and beta-lactamase producing oral anaerobes. E. corrodens, a gram-negative rod, is part of the normal human oral flora. It is the most common organism isolated from clenched-fist injuries. E. corrodens may be susceptible to penicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, doxycycline, or fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin.
Transmission of herpesvirus types 1 and 2, hepatitis В and C, and even syphilis has been documented with human bites. The likelihood of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is very low but remains a possibility.
*127/348/5*

Illness as a result of the preparation component of the anxiety reaction
There are many patterns of symptoms, illness and physical discomfort, caused by the different ways the body prepares itself to deal with the possible threat that the anxiety reaction is warning us of.
We could divide these patterns into three groups, where the symptoms have been caused by:
Over-activity of the sympathetic nervous system. These would include muscle tension and pain, headaches, muscular stiffness and fibrositis, heart palpitations and tremors.
Over-activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, secondary to the sympathetic nervous system’s over-activity. This can cause digestive disturbances and the tendency to faint.
Complex patterns of preparedness, which we can call the as if patterns.

Symptoms from chronic preparedness for physical action
Chronic over-preparedness for physical action that never eventuates, producing chronically tense muscles, can lead to muscle stiffness and inflammation of certain points within the muscles which we call fibrositis. This is a painful condition that we don’t fully understand. We do know, however, that fibrositis occurs in chronically tense muscles, that it is painful and disabling, and that it doesn’t affect trained athletes. Regular muscular exercise seems to prevent fibrositis in a person who suffers from frequent anxiety due to regular overload of the nervous system.
The adrenaline and noradrenalin secreted by the sympathetic nervous system in anxiety stimulate the heart’s pumping action and exert variable effects on the blood vessels. It used to be thought that chronic anxiety might cause chronically raised blood pressure, because it can be demonstrated that acute anxiety will produce a transient increase in blood pressure.
However, the condition known as essential hypertension, the high blood pressure tendency that often runs in families and which causes heart failure, heart attacks and strokes, is now considered by medical investigators not to be associated with anxiety. It is theoretically possible that sudden changes in blood pressure due to acute anxiety might well precipitate a crisis in a patient with essential hypertension, but the primary hypertension (raised blood pressure) is not now regarded as anxiety-related.
While we aren’t sure about blood pressure, we do know that anxiety can certainly produce uncomfortable disturbances of rhythm of the heart beat. These ‘palpitations’ may not be harmful, but they are sometimes disconcerting; they are worse with fatigue and the use of excessive stimulants such as tea and coffee.

*64/129/5*

M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), Malingerer’s Disease or Royal Free Disease
People with M.E. are often diagnosed as having the Irritable Bowel Syndrome – which in effect they have and need to be treated for -but they also need help with other problems. M.E. is a chronic illness which produces bouts of extreme tiredness in the muscles and brain. It can start with an illness like glandular fever or flu; sometimes it is so severe people have to give up work for a time. Sufferers from this condition have been classed as malingerers or hypochondriacs for decades. M.E. was first recorded about fifty years ago, but it has only been in the past few years that there has been a sharing of information among sufferers and doctors. M.E. is often mistaken for nervous illness because the symptoms include anxiety, depression and lethargy. The immune system is also affected and multiple allergies and Candida can be present.
Research into M.E. is being carried out at St Mary’s Hospital, London and elsewhere, but as yet, there are few answers in conventional medicine. However the approach of some complementary therapies has helped many people to recover
completely. The important aspects of treatment are rest, a healthy diet, supplements, fresh air, daylight, and keeping the bowel as clean as possible by preventing constipation, restoring the normal balance to the gut bacteria. Any therapy which promotes relaxation and natural healing is also recommended. Tranquillizers rarely help this condition, they merely add more poisons to a body already struggling hard to excrete the poisons caused by the virus. Sometimes a night-time dose of a sedative anti-depressant is helpful where insomnia is severe and where normal sleep-wake cycles are trying to be established.
*79\326\8*