The people involved in establishing the in-patient pain management unit in Melbourne have all worked with chronic pain patients for several years. They have learned that the management of pain must involve a ‘multi-disciplinary’ approach to the patient with chronic pain. In setting up such a clinic, the specialists had become convinced from experience that [...]

Surgical treatment of cancer pain When all else fails, pain management calls for the specialised skills of the neurosurgeon . Surgical procedures interrupt the pain pathways by making incisions into various levels of the nervous system. Thus, cordotomy (in which the pain pathways in the spinal cord are interrupted), removal or destruction of the pituitary [...]

Keep your eyes closed. By controlling your thinking, you can make time seem to slow down. (The following is read progressively more and more slowly, with each word drawn out and with long pauses, i.e. of two to six seconds between the statements.) Tell yourself that there’s lots of time. There’s lots of time between [...]

There is no reason for you to stop taking medication while you are having this treatment. However one of the main reasons for using TENS is to help you to reduce the amount of pain-killers you may be taking. TENS is a method of encouraging your body to produce its own pain killers — the [...]

At present, the only treatment for coeliac disease is to eliminate the foods that contain gluten, namely any food containing wheat, rye, barley or oats. Most sufferers have to avoid all traces of gluten, but some can get away with eating a small amount occasionally, and some do not have to avoid oats, which contain [...]

A recent study found a significant correlation between an increase in carbonated beverage consumption and esophageal adenocarcinoma decades later. In the past 25 years, the number of cases of this cancer has risen by 570% among Caucasian men in the US—the group that consumes the most soft drinks. self-defense: Don’t drink more than 12 ounces [...]

Yes. Because of its beneficial effect on the immune system, it also helps fight infections. Studies conducted in China showed that supplemental selenium lowered the incidence of hepatitis B. In another study, people with Alzheimer’s disease had 40% lower blood levels of selenium than people without the disease. In addition to folic acid and vitamin [...]

No other element or compound comes close to selenium’s versatility of functions. My own research and that of other investigators—conducted on cells in animals and epidemiological studies—suggests that adequate selenium intake helps to reduce the risk of developing most major forms of cancer, including malignancies of the breast, lung, prostate, colon, rectum, stomach, ovary, pancreas, [...]

How else does selenium work in the body? Twenty-five selenoenzymes have been discovered so far, but the functions of only some have been identified. One group of selenoenzymes converts the inactive thyroid hormone T4 into T3, its active form. For this reason, the thyroid gland is particularly rich in selenium. High levels of selenoenzymes have [...]

Ask a health-conscious adult to name the key nutrients that are necessary for optimum health, and you’re likely to hear vitamins, such as Ñ and E, and minerals, including calcium and iron. How many people would name selenium? Not many. Few people are aware of the disease-fighting powers of this essential nutrient. What is selenium, [...]