Sinusitis is an infection of the sinuses surrounding the nose. Sinuses are a system of open passages between the bones of the face, which become blocked with thick secretions if infected. Sinusitis occurs predominantly in older children and adults.

Clinical features

Your child may complain of a sensation of fullness or pressure over the area of an infected sinus. There may be pain, and swelling especially under the eyes may be present. The pain is often worse on one side of the face. A thick, green nasal discharge may be present, and your child may complain of nasal secretions running down the back of the throat (post-nasal drip), which may cause irritation and cough.

Investigations

If your child suffers from recurrent attacks of sinusitis your doctor may advise an X-ray of the sinuses in order to confirm the diagnosis of chronic sinusitis.

Treatment

If sinuses become infected antibiotics are the mainstay of treatment. Decongestant spray or drops may be helpful for short-term use only.

• if you suspect that your child has sinusitis;

• if your child has a fever, or is generally unwell with no apparent cause;

• if your child has a cough;

• if sinusitis recurs.

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Surgical removal of the testicle with overgrowing cells is usually the treatment of choice, and there are obvious sexual implications with such a procedure.

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The second perspective was of the “contraceptive” period, when a new freedom was emerging that allowed sex without inevitable consequences. Kinsey taught us what could and was being done, and the romantic emphasis evolved to a naturalistic focus, the categorization of behaviors that fit a time when people wanted to know if they were doing what everyone else seemed to be doing, to be free to enjoy what they were doing anyway.

The third perspective was a time-focus perspective, following the direction of a society that was moving faster and faster, developing a type-A sexual pattern, enjoying their “natural” sex. Masters and Johnson added a medical emphasis to the romantic and naturalistic focus of the first two perspectives, a fix-it, more egalitarian sexuality that fit the emerging feminism of their time. They attempted to replace dysfunction with sexual functioning.

Each of these perspectives emerged from a time, an ecology, as much as it emerged from the creativity of each of these scientists. Now, I suggest, we are responding to a new time, a time that requires a worldview, a systems view of sex, one that heals the disconnection that has taken place, the loss of intimacy in this era of choice.

We have gone full cycle. We are back to fear, the fear of sexually transmissible disease. AIDS has changed everything, and it, too, is a product of our time. We must learn not to think of the “AIDS virus that is transmitted through sexual intimacy.” There is a human immunodeficiency virus, an AIDS-related virus (ARV) that is transmitted through some forms of sexual interaction and through other and some as yet unknown means of transmission. We do not

know how or why some people who are exposed to the virus experience disease of their immune systems when and how they do, but it is likely that overall mental and physical health are as important to this process as the virus itself.

The virus is not the disease. To blame a virus or a specific group of “carriers” is to return to a Victorian fear orientation, that is, the fear of punishment for our sexuality. We must learn that AIDS and all sexually transmissible diseases are diseases of a world system, related to how we all interact and live, to our holistic health. We must learn to cure a system, not a disease, and this is the lesson of the fourth perspective. It is a lesson of hope, not a return to fear and punishment and alienation to avoid divine retribution. It is a hope that we will be able to connect now more than ever and move toward an elective intimacy, an intimacy of faith in loving, not an intimacy of default to disease. Super marital sex is a hope, not a surrender, and the fourth perspective that underlies this form of relating is based on the rules of new physics, of rules that govern all living systems, the rules that come from all four perspectives: Sex is not immoral, sex is natural, sexual problems can be solved, and prolonged and enduring intimacy is the most important of all health-maintenance systems.

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1. Medical Practice and research concentrates on the study of curing diseases, rather than on the study of maintaining perfect health.

2. Medical Practice is BIG business (doctors, hospitals, medical equipment, drugs, pharmaceutical supplies, health insurance, etc.) This business as a whole is not interested at all about people getting healthy. On the contrary, the more people are sick, the better the business.

3. It is in the best interest of medical business to fight, criticise, ridicule, discredit and preferably make illegal any method potentially capable of improving the health of the population.

4. Medical Education and Research are funded to a large extent by chemical and pharmaceutical companies, which are in a position to decide what to teach doctors and what research directions should be funded. Note, that no research can be performed if there are no funds to support it.

5. Centralised Medical Authorities (with members educated in the environment described above) have complete monopoly and also final jurisdiction over our health. These Authorities advise Governments that there will be more sick to treat next year, and it will cost more. They make recommendations, that health insurance should be mandatory, and that the best way to ensure this is to introduce a health tax. Guess who benefits most from such a scheme?

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Dialysis is a procedure where the person’s blood flows through a machine and the waste products are cleared from the blood and passed through a semi-permeable membrane into fluid on the other side. These “artificial kidneys” are expensive.

Australia has been in the forefront in developing the technique of transplanting kidneys, usually taken from previously healthy people who have died suddenly from accidents.

The body has a natural tendency to “reject” this foreign material and so drugs to suppress the body’s production of antibodies must also be used.

In Australia, there are about 1200 patients who have functioning kidney transplants and a little more than that number still on dialysis.

There has recently been an increase in the number of transplants taken from live donors.

One reason is that tissues can now be typed so accurately that, when deemed suitable, the transplanted kidney has less chance of rejection.

Another is that there is an increasingly longer wait for kidneys taken from the dead.

Have you ever thought of becoming a kidney donor? No one wants to take one of your kidneys now but, if you elect to become a donor, your kidneys could be used to help someone with kidney failure, should you die suddenly from an accident.

All that it entails is that you contact the Kidney Foundation in your State and fill out a form and carry a card in your wallet or purse indicating you have chosen to become a donor.

Why not look up the number in the telephone book and ring now while you think of it rather than putting it off and then forgetting?

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By means of a spinhaler, the powder is inhaled into the lungs regularly three or four times a day and appears to prevent the mast cell from breaking down and releasing the broncho-constricting chemicals.

It is of most use in allergic asthma and that asthma brought on by exertion.

Because exercise may cause asthma in some people, they are often afraid of exerting themselves and may avoid sports.

They often overcome this disadvantage by using cromoglycate or by inhaling a bronchodilator drug before taking the exercise and this may prevent any wheeze.

Swimming seems to be the best exercise for asthmatics and of all forms of exercise, to provoke the least asthma.

Most asthmatics or parents need to understand the disease and how best to treat it. In most cases, acute attacks can be managed by the patient himself. If the attack is severe, persistent or recurs frequently, the doctor will need to see the patient.

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Unfortunately, a majority of doctors do not suspect endometriosis when a differential diagnosis seemingly confirms pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or, in some cases, gonorrhea. Cramps, back pain, abdominal tenderness, and other symptoms tend to indicate pelvic inflammatory disease; additionally, gonorrhea left untreated creates a few symptoms that can resemble endometriosis, including abnormal bleeding and severe pelvic pain. However, there is often accompanying fever with advanced gonorrhea (pus from resulting tubal or ovarian abscesses may cause pelvic inflammation), which does not occur in cases of endometriosis. We emphasize this contusion in diagnosis because a majority of doctors suggest the possibility of infection first. Antibiotics, as previously noted, do not help sufferers of endometriosis.

Cysts are a common ovarian abnormality. They vary in content and can be benign or malignant. A simple cyst, which is a fluid-filled sac, can grow on an ovary anytime during the menstrual cycle. A dermoid cyst contains types of skin tissue, is mote solid in character, and grows less frequently. Most ovarian cysts will disappear spontaneously after one or two menstrual cycles and are therefore not much cause for alarm. This is the type of cyst doctors thought Annie had, but such cysts tend not to cause much pain. In Annie’s case, pain was severe.

Endometrial cysts, called endometriomas, grow faster than either simple cysts or dermoids and can cause more pain—the kind of pain Annie was feeling. Endometriomas are also called chocolate cysts or blood cysts, since they are filled with old blood and endometrial cells, and they are deep brown in color. An endometriotic cyst can be very large, even bigger than a grapefruit, or smaller than a pea. Interestingly, smaller cysts can cause more pain than larger ones and may make diagnosis more difficult.

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There are over 1000 species of fleas, small, wingless parasites that live on some animals—dogs, cats, rabbits—and some birds. Fleas will, in the absence of their usual host, feed on man. Some people have specific allergic reactions to their bites; some people also seem to be more attractive to fleas than others! As fleas may be the vectors of typhus, bubonic plague and tularaemia, their control is very much in the interests of public health.

Lice infections are no longer uncommon. Lice may be transmitted to man by animals although this, in fact, happens fairly rarely. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this book, lice will be dealt with in this category. There are three types of louse: head, body and pubic varieties. The wingless female louse lives for about a month, during which it lays several hundred eggs: these are called nits, and are glued to the hair. They hatch in about a week, and are fully grown one week later. They live on blood sucked from the akin. Head lice are most common in children, and are spread chiefly by shared combs, brushes or caps. Itching of the scalp is usually severe with this condition. One per cent gammabenzene hexachloride lotion or malathion, will usually kill the lice. The nits, however, must be combed out with a fine, toothed comb. Body lice are uncommon, except in vagrants. The eggs or nits are laid in clothing, rather than hair. Pubic lice are seen quite often, and may be transmitted via clothing, towels, and sexual intercourse. The main complaint, as with other forms of louse infestation, is severe itching, which is usually followed by infection of the affected area due to scratching. Treatment is best effected with either 1 per cent gammabenzene hexachloride, or D.D.T. powder.

Various mites which infest animals or birds may infect man. These may either cause a severe disease, such as Scrub Typhus which is transmitted by rats, or an allergic response known as papular urticaria. The latter is a common disorder mainly affecting children in the spring and summer months. It is characterized by the development of persistent, extremely itchy lumps. Any biting insect, such as fleas, mosquitos, sand flies, grass mites and bed bugs, may be responsible. Fowl, starling or pigeon mites (dermanyssus gallinae) are common culprits, and these of course may infest other small animals as well as man directly. Consequently dogs, cats, possums and so forth may act as vectors. Commonly, however, humans contract the allergy by handling infected birds, or cleaning their cages, although starving mites, in search of another host after the birds leave the nest, may enter the house through windows, chimneys or ventilators.

Some individuals may be allergic to dogs* or cats’ saliva, and may develop swellings and allergic eczema if licked by these animals. Other allergic manifestations such as asthma and hay fever may also develop. Hypersensitivity amongst humans to bird feathers and eggs is not rare, and may cause asthmatic attacks, hives or hay fever.

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From an appetite perspective, it can be easily seen why the chronic over-consumption of dietary fat occurs with relative ease.

Light drinkers add alcohol calories to food calories resulting in higher energy intakes than non-drinkers. This is not surprising given that alcohol intake does not produce satiety. In fact, alcohol may stimulate appetite. Alcohol also lowers inhibitions and this may lead to over-consumption of readily available, high-fat food. Hence, although alcohol per se may not result in increased fatness, use of alcohol may have this result through its other effects.

This situation is different in heavy drinkers (15-40 per cent of energy intake from alcohol), who appear to bum alcohol inefficiently; in fact, alcoholics who rely on alcohol for most of their calorie intake tend to be thin and malnourished.

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For years endometriosis was tagged the ‘career woman’s disease’. This was based on the unfounded idea that women who delay having children are more at risk of developing endometriosis. Women are made to feel guilty that delaying marriage and having children until after they have established a career has been the cause. You ask yourself if you had started your family earlier would you have developed the disease? Would infertility have been a problem?

What must be remembered is that it is not known if delaying childbirth has any connection with the development of endometriosis. Also remember that many women actually get endometriosis after they have had children.

Other women complain that they feel guilty because they may not have been assertive enough in getting a diagnosis. Having been told by one doctor that nothing was wrong they simply suffered in silence and put up with their pain and symptoms.

Sometimes the assumption is made that stress causes the disease. This may make some women think that if they did not have such a stressful job, did not work so hard or didn’t have a difficult family life, they may not have developed the disease.

It does appear that the symptoms of endometriosis may be aggravated when a person is suffering from stress, but it does not mean that it actually develops because of stress.

Women may feel guilty because they cannot cope in certain situations whereas others cope well.

For those who have had an abortion, used contraception such as the Pill or an IUD, used tampons or had sexual intercourse at an early age, there can be the mistaken belief that this has contributed to them getting the disease.

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