Posts Tagged bodies
The relationship between Allergy and the Psyche
Doctors of old had very little by way of hard science with which to diagnose and treat disease. They were, by our standards, severely disadvantaged. Recent advances in medicine have provided us with some very real benefits in terms of what we can now achieve for many of our patients. However, the enormous strides we have made in research have brought a few problems of their own. One of these is our fondness for reductionism: the practice of dividing something up until it’s small enough to study. We start off with noble desires to study a complex being, such as the human body, but it proves impossible to study in all of its complexity. To get around this problem we decide to divide the complex being into several smaller parts. Thus we invent arbitrary divisions between one organ and another, and between one system and another. Then we discover that the organ or system being studied can itself be further divided and reduced. In this way, we delve ever deeper into the mystery of biological life, until we eventually reach the molecular level. At this stage, and in spite of all our genius, we have still managed only to touch the tip of the iceberg.
There are, of course, many good arguments for a reductionist approach to research. It has led to some very exciting discoveries, and it has increased our knowledge base beyond recognition. For this reason, we have now divided the practice of medicine into many different specialities; and further divided specialities into subspecialties. One of the consequences of all this medical science is that we too, as a society, tend to think in reductionist terms. We think of our bodies as being divided into separate organs and systems, and we tend to forget that every single organ and system in the body is inextricably linked with the next.
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Teenage Eating Disorders
Teenage eating disorders are becoming one of the most talked about ailments in today’s scenario. They may develop in response to difficult life experiences arising during puberty. These disorders may also be found in cultures where it is fashionable to be slim and trim.
The most common eating disorders are known as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa but other food related disorders are also found like binge eating disorder, body image disorders and food phobias.
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Diabetes In Children
Diabetes in children is also known as juvenile diabetes, but more commonly known as type 1 diabetes. It is the most common form of diabetes in children with ninety to ninety-five percent of carriers being under 16.
Juvenile diabetes is caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin. It is an autoimmune disease, which means the bodies own defense system attacks the body’s tissues or organs.
In the last 30 years the number of juvenile diabetes had increased three times over and in Europe and the US we are now seeing type 2 diabetes in children for the first time.
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