28 Apr 09 CHILDREN’S HEALTH: ASKING QUESTIONS, HOUSE CALLS
Asking questions
One of the things you’ll probably have checked out when you chose your doctor was his or her ability to speak language you understand. Doctors, like specialists in any field, are so familiar with their professional language that they sometimes forget how confusing it is to other people. So if your child’s doctor slips into medical jargon that you don’t understand, ask for a translation. Don’t feel uncomfortable about asking, either. You must know what the doctor’s instructions are before you can carry them out, and it’s part of the doctor’s responsibility to make sure you are fully informed about all matters that concern your child’s health.
Sometimes you may find that you understand what the doctor is saying – but you don’t agree with it. In this case don’t hesitate to ask why the doctor has reached a certain decision, or what the alternatives are. If you still don’t feel comfortable with the doctor’s advice, don’t argue. You may get the doctor to agree with your point of view, but this may not be in the child’s best interests. If you and the doctor disagree on a diagnosis or a course of treatment, ask for a second opinion. This means going to another doctor and asking his or her professional advice on the issue. Your doctor may welcome this suggestion – or even make the suggestion before you do. A doctor may be hesitant to assume full responsibility for diagnosing and treating a difficult or unusual case. In such a situation it is common to have two or more consultants working together to determine the best course of treatment.
When you ask for a second opinion, your doctor should be able to suggest names of possible consultants. If you trust the doctor, you’ll trust his or her choice of other professionals. If you don’t, you’ll be looking for another doctor anyway.
House calls
Many people who are now parents remember the days when doctors made house calls. And they wonder why doctors today don’t make house calls. Your modern physician will probably tell you that many wrong diagnoses resulted from examining sick children in their homes without adequate equipment. In the office, the doctor has a professionally set-up medical facility with all the equipment necessary for an accurate diagnosis. So whether or not a doctor makes house calls – and most don’t – should not affect your opinion of his or her competence. If you trust your doctor, and if you’re confident that he or she will always be available in an emergency, you’ve made a good choice.
A final word on the parent/physician partnership – and, again, it’s partly a matter of courtesy. If your physician is taking good care of your child, express your appreciation; doctors like to be thanked, just the same as anyone else. And if you’re not satisfied with the health care your child is receiving, the doctor should know that, too. A physician’s failure to please you may be due to many factors other than professional inadequacy, and if the doctor knows there’s a problem maybe he or she can correct it. If not, your best plan is to find another doctor.
Remember that although the doctor is your partner in caring for your child’s health, you’re still responsible for deciding just who this partner will be.
*252/84/5*
Tags: General Health
28 Apr 09 WHY BABIES CRY
It’s normal for babies to cry. It is, after all, their only way of letting you know they need something. At first it may be difficult to figure out what the baby needs. In a newborn, though, there are only a few things a cry will signify: hunger, needing a nappy change, and needing to be held and comforted. As the baby grows up, he or she will find more reasons to complain: boredom, frustration, loneliness, fear, overstimulation, or maybe being too tired to go to sleep.
Sometimes you and your baby can get into a crying cycle. When the baby cries, you get anxious and nervous. The more the baby cries, the worse you feel, and nothing you do seems to help quiet the baby. The baby senses your feelings, your anxiety in turn makes the baby anxious and uncomfortable, and the child expresses these feelings by crying even more. If you find yourself getting into these cycles, talk about it with an experienced parent or your doctor. They may be able to suggest a solution.
Occasionally, a baby will cry because he or she is in pain. Check to see if you can figure out what is causing the pain. A sick baby may cry but will usually also have other symptoms of illness such as a fever, diarrhea, pulling on an ear, or a runny nose. Generally, a healthy baby will have a strong, loud cry. If your baby’s cry becomes weak, contact your doctor right away.
*6/84/5*
Tags: General Health
28 Apr 09 DIABETES: HUMAN, BEEF AND PORK INSULINS
How are beef and pork insulins made?
Pancreases are collected at the abattoirs from beef or pork. They are quickly frozen and taken in refrigerated vans to the insulin extraction plant of the pharmaceutical company making the insulin. The pancreases are then mixed up with alcohol (spirit) and salt (brine) and acid. The insulin goes into solution in the acid-brine-alcohol mixture and therefore can be separated in solution from the remaining pancreatic pulp, which is washed free of the insulin.
After the insulin is in solution and separated from the rest of the pancreas, it is precipitated out from the solution and is purified and crystallized out as a powder. Bacteria which might cause an infection at the injection site and other impurities are also removed at this stage. The pure insulin is then dissolved in a fluid and bottled ready for use. Further processes may be carried out to combine this pure insulin with protein or zinc or modify it in some other way to produce the various other forms of insulin with a longer duration of action for the modern control of diabetes.
How is human insulin made?
Human insulin is now made by a process which involves genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is a term that describes our ability to take one gene (in this case the insulin gene) and insert it into the genetic structure of another living cell which then acquires the feature of the new gene (in this case the ability to produce insulin). To understand genetic engineering, we need to know about genes and cell DNA. The development of all living cells is governed by the inheritance of their characteristics from previous generations of cells. The inherited characteristics are passed on by genes contained in the cell and the genes are part of a complex substance called DNA. All cells contain DNA. Within the DNA substance of the human islet cells is the gene which produces human insulin.
Human islet cells are not easy to grow in the laboratory, and when they do grow, they do not multiply and produce large quantities of insulin. On the other hand, some cells such as yeast cells and bacterial cells have the ability to multiply very rapidly, so that if they could be given the ability to produce insulin, they could do so in large quantities.
It is now possible to synthesize the gene that is responsible for producing insulin in the human body. One way in which human insulin is produced by genetic engineering involves incorporating the synthesized human gene for insulin into ordinary bakers’ yeast cells. This is the starting point of the process for insulin manufacture, the steps of which are as follows:
1. The gene responsible for producing insulin is first synthesized chemically.
3. The insulin gene is now inserted (by chemical process) into the place that was cut into the DNA material from the yeast cell.
4. Now that the yeast DNA has acquired the human insulin gene, it is inserted back into the yeast cells.
5. The yeast cells are allowed to grow in glucose solutions in large tanks over a period of three weeks. As they multiply and grow, they release insulin into the tank.
6. The insulin is extracted from this solution and the yeast cells discarded.
7. This insulin is purified by a series of processes. No detectable impurities of any sort remain.
8. This insulin is in a pure crystalline form. It may be dissolved as the quick-acting unmodified insulin, or may be modified chemically to prolong its action as cloudy longer acting insulin.
The actual process is of course more complicated than this. For instance, living cells have to make insulin through first producing a larger molecule called pro-insulin which is later broken down to insulin itself. The process of purification also involves a number of steps to ensure the end product is entirely safe.
Other manufacturers use somewhat different processes and may use bacterial cells rather than yeast cells. The end product, of course, is the same as the insulin produced by the human pancreas.
*90/54/5*
Tags: Diabetes
