Many parents are horrified when their children pick up head lice. Find out more about them.

What are head lice?

They are re tiny, wingless, parasitic insects that live on the scalp and suck blood, causing severe itching. The good news is that head lice can not hurt your child but they are a nuisance and cause the child irritation.

How can I detect head lice?
Scratching is often the first sign of infestation. If your child is at school you will get a letter informing you if there are head lice at school. If you do get a letter about lice, you should act on it immediately by checking your child’s hair. If your child scratches a lot, especially around the back of the head or the ears, check for lice immediately.

Lice aren’t easy to see: the bugs take on the color of the hair they’re hiding in. In fact, you may never see a louse. It’s common to discover an infestation of head lice based on lice eggs (nits) alone. Nits are also tiny – about the size of sesame seeds – and creamy off-white or pearly white in color.

Head lice do not jump, fly, or swim. They spread by direct contact, ‘walking’ from one hair or head to another. They happen in the best circles, and an infestation does not mean that you or your child has dirty hair, in fact some people say that head lice prefer clean heads.

How do children get lice?
Most children get lice from classmates or a friend or from shared clothes, such as a hat and sharing the same hair brush or even working together over a book, or example, with heads touching.

How do I get rid of lice?
You can buy over the counter shampoos from your chemist or drugstore. To ensure your child remains free of lice and nits, you must remove ALL the nits with a nit comb and follow up with a second shampoo treatment seven to ten days after the first.

Because lice travel easily from one head to another, getting rid of lice and nits right away prevents them from spreading to other family members, allows your child to go back to school quickly, and put your family routine back on track. If your child does have lice you should not send him/her to school until they are fully cleared.

Don’t forget the nits
You have to get rid of the nits, too. Each remaining nit will hatch into a new generation of lice, making it crucial to break that maddening cycle.

After applying the lice shampoo wash with normal shampoo then rinse.
Apply conditioner and leave in the hair, this will help the nits slide off the hair. Use a normal comb to get any knots out of the hair. Then use a steel tooth comb (nit comb) and comb the child’s hair until all the nits are out. Continue to check your child’s hair daily and reapply the shampoo 7-10 days later. This is important even if your child has no nits.

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Metformin tablets

There are two kinds of diabetes, type 1 and type 2. Although there is a description and list of symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, this article is really about Type 2, the most common form.

Type 1 Diabetes
This is also sometimes called juvenile diabetes because it often starts in childhood but not invariably.

This type of diabetes is usually an auto-immune disease where the body’s antibodies start attacking some part of itself, in this case the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. It is thought that in some cases a virus can also affect and damage or destroy these insulin producing cells.

Symptoms

• Increase in urinating as the kidneys attempt to remove excess glucose from the body
• Feeling excessively thirsty to compensate for all the fluid loss by extra urination
• Weight loss because the body can’t access the glucose it needs for energy so starts using fat and muscle
• Feelings of constant hunger because the person is literally starving as the body can’t use the food it is being given

Type 2 Diabetes
This form is sometimes called late onset diabetes and it is becoming much more common nowadays. Although it seems there is a genetic component in whether or not somebody develops it, the most important factor seems to be our modern lifestyle.

Our bodies are not ideally designed to cope with lack of exercise and an excess of fatty and sugary food. Unlike Type 1 diabetes, people with Type 2 are making insulin, it is just that their bodies have become resistant to it and their pancreas cannot make enough to compensate for the resistance.

Symptoms

• Increase in urination, just like in Type 1
• Increased thirst as Type 1
• Tiredness because your body can’t access glucose for fuel
• Changes in vision as blood glucose levels change
• Genital itching because of the excess sugar in urine, various yeast infections can occur
• Infections and wounds take longer to heal because the cells in blood that fight infection don’t work so well when there is excess glucose
• Loss of feeling in feet – this is serious and means that the diabetes is long established. Called neuropathy, it can result in amputation if left untreated and extreme and irreversible damage occurs. If you have this sympton, go to the doctor NOW.

Treatment
Type 2 diabetes is one of the few illnesses where the treatment and results are almost entirely in your own hands. Stick to the rules and get your blood glucose levels under control and you might never need to inject insulin or even take pills.

Depending on how early the diabetes is diagnosed, the doctor will put you on one of three treatments:

• diet and exercise alone
• pills like the Metformin pictured above
• insulin injections

Even if you are on pills or insulin injections, watching your diet and taking exercise will still be an important part of controlling blood glucose levels. Get these right, lose weight if you need to, and it is possible to come off
either pills or insulin injections and still control the diabetes.

Even if this happens, you will still be diabetic and need to remain vigilant about your diet and continue to exercise. If you fall back into bad habits of a high fat, high sugar diet and inactivity, blood glucose levels will soar.

It isn’t all doom and gloom, though. If you have spent years of battling with your weight, diabetes will give you the incentive to lose the excess and the diet to control diabetes will give you the means. Following a diabetic diet, which is really just a healthy diet, will enable you to keep the weight off too.

When you hit the diabetic blues after diagnosis, just think how much better you will feel when you have gone down several sizes and can buy the kind of clothes you could never buy before.

A friend recounts her experience with a poor diagnosis from a veterinarian which caused unnecessary pain for her Dalmatian, Boo. The happy ending shows that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for dogs.

I’d been getting fed up with the veterinary practice I used for a while as they seem to have a lot of newly qualified vets and a very high turnover of staff, so it was rare you ever got to see the same vet twice, even for a follow-up appointment.

On a number of occasions I took my dalmatian, Boo, to them, presenting with what looked like a trapped nerve in his back. Each time, they insisted it was just a pulled muscle, pumped him full of painkilling drugs and sent us away. After a couple of days rest he would seem to improve, but I still wasn’t convinced.

Eventually, I decided to register with a newer vet, just a few minutes further away, who I’d heard good things about. I took him down for his initial appointment – just to check him over for registration with them – and told them about the ongoing problem and said that I always felt it was a nerve thing rather than a muscle thing. He had been starting to show some symptoms again of the problem recurring and, sure enough, when the vet ran his hands down Boo’s back, he twinged when he was touched in the troublesome area, so without a second thought, the vet said he wanted to x-ray him, as he could see Boo obviously had a problem there.

Sure enough, when the x-rays came out, Boo was diagnosed with severe spondylosis – a type of arthritis where the vertebrae form bony spurs which, whilst they’re growing, can pinch nerves. The spurs were almost fused together by this time, which is why he hadn’t been having the problems he’d had previously.

If only the other vets had actually bothered to try and figure the problem out, rather than just pumping him with drugs every time, he wouldn’t have had to go through half the episodes of severe discomfort he did! The new vets referred Boo to an acupuncturist and, if he starts to look like he’s having problems, I give him a call and he does his needles which, surprisingly, Boo loves and he’s as right as rain again!

The acupuncturist now considers Boo an ambassador for the breed as he’s so laid back and mellow. Apparently he was dismayed when informed he had a new, spotty patient, and was expecting no end of trouble from a highly-strung, hyperactive loony.

After the first appointment, he was so impressed with Boo’s behaviour, he said he wanted to try electro-acupuncture on Boo next time, which he would never usually risk with a dalmatian because the last thing most of them want is any more energy putting through them! So now Boo has his needles put in, gets attached to the battery and goes to sleep, with just the tip of his tail wagging periodically. Unfortunately, since he’s standing up, I get the delightful task of supporting his heavy old head (he doesn’t mind having his head propped up even when he’s not asleep – he’s just a bit of a lazy so-and-so), so end up with a dead arm!

Want to read more about a dog’s misadventures with poor diagnosis? Read The Saga of Saffy’s Paw.

Federal studies show that over 70 million people in U.S. households have used illegal drugs! Worldwide the problem is simply immense. Drugs are responsible for a great number of the crimes committed today as often thefts, burglaries, robberies and murders are committed for the sole purpose of financing drug habits!

NOTE: This report is presented only as a source of general information. Nothing in this report is to be considered as legal or medical advice. Consult with legal and medical professionals for the best advice on topics covered in this report.

Alcohol

Alcohol is the most abused of all drugs. It is believed that almost three quarters of the  U.S. population uses alcohol to some extent and in the UK alcohol related crimes have soared after the introduction of 24 hour drinking licenses.

Alcohol enters the bloodstream quickly and affects the judgement and behavior of the user. It affects coordination and response time.

Thousands of teenagers are killed each year in alcohol-related traffic accidents!

Marijuana

Marijuana is the most abused of all the illegal drugs. It is normally smoked in hand-rolled cigarettes,  pipes,  and other suitable devices. It is also ingested by mixing in food and drink.

Marijuana is a mind-altering  drug that causes a state of intoxication. It can affect thinking and judgment and can cause anxiety attacks.

Marijuana use can cause tissue damage, panic attacks, bronchitis, and changes in male hormones. It has more cancer causing chemicals than tobacco!

Marijuana is made from the leaves and flowering tops of the cannabis sativa plant, which are harvested and dried. The mind-altering component of Marijuana is called THC, for short.
The higher the THC content, the more potent the Marijuana.

Hashish

Hashish is a resin that is extracted from the marijuana plant, and is normally smoked.

Cocaine

Cocaine is a white powder that is snorted, sniffed, swallowed, smoked, and injected. The most common method is sniffing  or snorting.

Cocaine may be found packaged in baggies, vials, and similar containers. It is frequently laid out in “lines” on a smooth surface to be inhaled into the nose with a small tube or straw.

Cocaine use may cause runny nose, paranoia, depression, irritability, violent behavior, headaches, and trouble sleeping.

Crack

Crack is a dangerous and deadly form of cocaine. It appears on the street as small white, brown, or tan pellets, rocks, or chips. It is inhaled through a pipe or similar device and is 5 to 10 times more potent than cocaine that is snorted through the nose.

Crack provides a quick, intense, but short-lived “high”, and then results in a need for more of the drug.

Some of the effects of crack use are weight loss, hyperactivity, hoarseness and heart attack. Crack can addict the user faster than any other drug!

Inhalants

Inhalants such as gasoline, glue, spray paints, rubber cement, and other chemicals can cause a “high” when inhaled. They can also cause permanent damage to the nervous system, liver, kidneys, and can lead to various psychological problems.

Steroids

Some athletes inject anabolic steroids in order to improve their physical ability and appearance. Steroid use can cause liver damage, testicle atrophy, aggressive behavior, high cholesterol, high risk  for heart  attack, enlarged  prostate, baldness, depression, and other problems.
- Appears intoxicated or drunk
- Wears sunglasses to hide red eyes
- Starts using incense or other deodorizers
- The smell of Marijuana (some say it smells like burnt rope)
- Presence of drug paraphernalia
- Mood swings
- Failing or dropping grades in school
- Reports of skipping or dropping classes
- Missing complete days in school
- Pays less attention to responsibilities
- Always needing money
- Arrests or tickets for vehicle incidents
- Selling personal items
- Valuables missing from the home
- Spending more time away from home
- Wants more privacy

There are many things that could be considered signs of drug use and abuse. Some could indicate medical or other problems.  Get all the facts. Consult a professional.

How Does it Start?

Dental phobia is often a result of bad, painful childhood experiences of visiting the dentist. If these have not been overcome in childhood and a reluctance to visit the dentist carries on into adulthood, then only toothache is likely to force the person to seek treatment thereby reinforcing the feelings that dental treatment is painful.

I know somebody who was extremely phobic. When she was 7 years old she visited the dentist and had to have a tooth extracted and when she came round from the anaesthetic, she vomited. Three or four years later a dentist told her that if she didn’t keep her mouth wide open, the drill would go down her throat.

After that, she never went to the dentist voluntarily except when she desperately needed treatment.

Dental Phobia Causes Suffering

One effect of not receiving regular dental check-ups is that plaque builds up on the teeth and eventually gum disease occurs.

People suffering from dental phobia can be in agony from the pain caused by gum disease and consequent mouth ulcers, making eating difficult too. If the gum disease is not treated the bone in the gums shrinks leaving teeth loose and these may eventually fall out.

As well as the physical pain, phobic people also suffer from social embarrassment. They know their teeth look dreadful, even worse if they smoke. They often put their hands in front of their mouth when they smile. If their teeth are loose, they will eat carefully and avoid food that might be difficult to bite or chew.

Make no mistake, somebody with dental phobia does not forget about their teeth. They probably spend a great deal of time everyday thinking and worrying about them.

What Can be Done?

There is little that friends or relatives can do to help anybody suffering from dental phobia unless they can get the person to talk about it. Often a mixture of fear and embarrassment will prevent them doing this.

If you are suffering from dental phobia, what can YOU do to help yourself? You can’t forget your fears but you can confront them. The first step is to find a sympathetic dentist. Easier said than done if you are not prepared to ask friends and relatives.

If you really cannot bring yourself to do that, have a look in the Yellow Pages, work out which dentist you will call. Look for the ones that say they are used to nervous or phobic patients. If you can’t do it the first time you look, get the directory out again the next day. Keep getting out the Yellow Pages until one day you have worked yourself up to phoning.

When you phone for an appointment, ask to speak to the dentist you will be seeing. Insist upon it. If the dentist isn’t prepared to speak to you when he is free, try another dental practice.

When you speak to the dentist, be honest, say you are phobic. Tell her that just phoning has brought on a panic attack. Say that your teeth are in bad condition and that you have severe gum disease. Telling the dentist all this will make you feel better because you know that she won’t gasp in horror when she sees your teeth. Actually, no matter how bad your teeth and gums are, the dentist has probably seen far worse so don’t let embarrassment stop you seeking treatment.

When you go for the first appointment, take a sympathetic person with you to hold your hand before you go in and to admire your lovely clean teeth when you come out.

If you are in the UK, I would advise paying to go privately to a dentist rather than using a National Health Service one. You are far more likely to receive all the pain killing options available and to be given more time.

What Can You Expect on Your First Visit

When you arrive for your appointment, the dentist will probably talk to you to gauge the extent of your phobia. This is not the time to be big and brave – be absolutely honest about your fears, that way the dentist can help you.

Then there will be an examination. He will look at your teeth, probably put a finger on each one and try to ‘wobble’ them to see if any are loose. Then an x-ray of your mouth will be taken.

If you can cope on the first visit, the dentist might do a little cleaning. That will give you a tremendous psychological boost because you will leave the dental surgery able to smile freely, maybe for the first time in years.

After that, your dentist will probably want you to visit frequently. This will help to break down your phobia.

Once you confront your fears and see a dentist, you will feel better than you have done in years because you will have given the problem of your teeth and gums to a professional. You won’t have to cope alone anymore.

Copyright © 2001 by Carol Fisher