Medicine`

The media is flooded with ads for golf instructors, advice on golf, golfing schools and self-help material. Wherever you look there seems to be somebody at hand to teach you how to improve golf swing and to get the proper golf swing. But first you have to get a few things sorted out before you go about accepting any of these helps offered. Separating The Good From The BadLike any other game, repetitive practice is the best method to improve at golf. You also have to use the correct posture. What the best form is, is the tricky part of the whole exercise. Can you find it and if you did find it how do you go about acquiring, new medicine
, it? What is most saddening is that there are a lot of golfers who call themselves experts and an equal number of unproven techniques. Apply the wrong advice and your swing, whatever you had in the beginning, is bound to take a bad turn. But what are golf instructors there for, if not to correct your mistakes and show you how to get that proper golf swing. Just as it is difficult to get out of bad habits, it is equally important that you do not develop new ones. If you happen to have got bad advice, you will first have to unlearn it before you can get on to the good ones. And to make matters worse, some of these bad advices could cause physical harm putting an end to your golfing ambitions. Finding Genuine AdviceThere is no hard and fast rule to recognize bad advice but some advice should ring an alarm bell. Good advice is good for you and so scout around. Make contact with those players who have had a certain instructor or have benefited from a certain technique. Research the credentials of any instructor, new medicine
, and find out if he plays a good game. Check to see if he has had a formal education in sports medicine. A golf instructor with no training in sports medicine may recommend some training instructions without realizing the potential dangers involved even though they may mean well. Managing The TangiblesFor any training exercise to be effective there should be a goal. What is the goal for a golf training activity? It should not be something like “you’ll have better form” or “your game will improve” or any such vague aim. Goals should be measurable. In golf measurable goals could be the distance travelled by the ball, increased ball speed or accuracy in the flight of the shot. A few of the problems, new medicine
, faced by you might be due to the hardware that you are using. Check to see that the club you are using corresponds to your height. See that you are wearing the appropriate shoes for a game of golf and that they fit properly. Even your clothing should be right. Practice in settings that hinder your movements is also a must because you may come across such situations. Keep Your Attitude Towards The Game HealthyGolf is a game that requires an attitude. It is also a game with a lot of dependency on the psychology of the player. As such your attitude towards the game has to be improved also. Figure out the kind of personality that you are and what your attitude towards the game is. Develop the mental traits that you need to get a proper golf swing. As this is a major stumbling block for a majority of athletes, there is nothing to, new medicine
, be ashamed of. If you follow the advice mentioned you will not only improve your game, you will also improve yourself also in the bargain.

Dr. Coutinho would certainly advocate the use of condoms in helping to control the spread of HIV across the African continent. He gained his MBBCh from Uganda’s premier institution of higher learning, Makerere University during a period that the ‘Pearl of Africa’ was being ravished with the illness. The first AIDS case was diagnosed in 1981 in the United States of America and, new medicine
, one year later in Uganda, which was among the first hard hit countries. It is estimated that over one million people were living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda by December 2001 and nearly another million had died. Makerere University ranks, as one of the largest in East and Central Africa and it is located on Makerere hill, one of the many hills on which Kampala, the capital city of Uganda is built. Dr. Coutinho seen many patients under his care die of AIDS in his native land before he moved to South Africa to obtain a MPH from the University of Witwatersrand. After graduation he spent some time in South Africa working for the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) with responsibility for community services, focusing especially on HIV. In 2001, he joined TASO (The AIDS Supporting Organization) the largest AIDS care organization in sub-Saharan Africa supporting 60,000 HIV+ clients as well as supporting 200,000 children affected by AIDS. The Organisation presently has an annual budget of $6,000,000 to establish services for HIV prevention and care, counseling and, new medicine
, testing, as well as hospital management and palliative care for terminal AIDS patients.

During the years of his education, AIDS became the leading cause of death in southern Africa and the crisis posed by the pandemic is growing worse every day. Over 40 million people are now infected, new medicine
, by HIV/AIDS; 30 million of those are in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 5 percent of the overall population of sub-Saharan Africa. This region makes up one-tenth of the world’s population, but two-thirds of the world’s HIV-positive population and more than 80% of all AIDS deaths occur there. The scope of the problem in some countries is overwhelming. Eleven million African children have lost their parents to AIDS. In Zambia 30 percent of all children are AIDS orphans. In Botswana, nearly 40 percent of the adult population is HIV positive. In 1999, nearly 70% of the 5.6 million new HIV infections occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Various factors have contributed to the current AIDS crisis in Africa, including the following:

- The likelihood that the HIV virus originated in Africa and spread and evolved before preventative actions could be taken. There are many theories to support this including the possibility that a Soviet vaccination programme may have inadvertently caused the original illness

- The inability of African nations to pay for the expensive antiretroviral drugs

- The horrific malnourishment and poor health of many Africans

- A fierce denial by many Africans, including the Presidents of some nations, that HIV actually causes AIDS, that condoms are white man’s way of controlling their population, that sex education is necessary to stop its spread, and that Western medicine or science cannot be trusted to be seen as a fair broker in this event.

In the midst of this terrible pandemic, a beacon of hope now shines out from Uganda. This nation is poor, rural and in sub-Saharan Africa, three factors that should condemn it to being a helpless case in the eyes of the developed world. Yet, without access to anti-retroviral drugs and with limited health infrastructure, this small country has managed to cut its HIV prevalence rate by one third (from about 15 percent in 1991 to about 5 percent in 2001) and slash the number of new HIV cases by 37%. There is no doubt that the rate of infection has declined, new medicine
, and Uganda did this largely through a nationwide campaign focused on the ABC model: abstain, be faithful, use a condom!.

This simple ABC message was disseminated widely through all sectors of society during the late 1980s. By 1990, the percentage, new medicine
, of youth aged 15-19 in Uganda ever having had sex decreased noticeably. In 1989, 32 percent of males and 28 percent of females age 15-19 reported being virgins, while by 1995 these numbers had increased to 55 percent of males and 45 percent of females. The decline is even more dramatic for 13 to 16-year-olds in an after school educational program. In the 1990s, sexual debut among girls in Uganda increased from 16.5 to 17.3 years. This does not look like much, but, new medicine
, it had a profound impact on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and it also demonstrated the huge cultural changes that young girls were able to abstain. For boys, it rose from 17.6 to 18.3 years in the second half of the decade.

For youth, the A of the ABC message, abstinence was probably the most important single message. Many people, including Uganda’s first lady, acknowledged that the B, be faithful, which includes partner reduction, may be overall the most important factor. While C, condom promotion was not a dominant element in Uganda’ s early response to AIDS, (mainly as it affronted the teaching of the Catholic Church), there has been some turn of heart in more recent years and with it, increased condom use. There is a definite beneficial role of condoms when one spouse is HIV positive and the other is not but it must also be seen as an important prevention tool for people who have sex with multiple partners. In Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV is mainly transmitted through heterosexual intercourse. Variances in sexual behaviours across cultures, age groups, and gender usually influenced by culture and social, economic circumstances influence HIV prevention interventions. Dr David Serwadda, a doctor who treated the first AIDS patient in Uganda, says two factors have been key in his country’s turnaround. People have cut down the number of sexual partners and young people are starting to have sex at a later age (15.5 years rather than 14).

Dr Coutinho feels the key factor is individual responsibility. He recently told me that he has lost nine close relatives and takes care of two AIDS orphans. “The disease has touched us all!.”

If we were realistic, not only is no one in Uganda untouched by this horrific illness, but the difference is that there is acceptance in Uganda that AIDS is the cause of death – rather than the myriad of other causes usually listed to obscure AIDS deaths, as happens in South Africa. This openness is in large part thanks to the fact that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has made HIV/AIDS one of his three personal priorities, alongside peace and economic empowerment, for the past 16 years. In an environment where the country’s first citizen speaks about HIV every day, it is no wonder, new medicine
, that the country’s most famous pop star, as well as army officers and an Anglican priest, have felt able to announce to the nation that they were HIV positive.

President Museveni’s commitment has created a climate for a unique partnership between the Ugandan government, civil society, and international donors that has led to the formation of a multi-sectoral AIDS Commission to drive AIDS prevention. Dr Coutinho says it is important that Uganda does not rest on its laurels. There are still many challenges, including new infections in the rural areas and only about 5% of pregnant HIV positive women have access to anti-retroviral drugs that prevent them from infecting their babies.

In most cases of physical illness or disability, the general rule is that without a specific diagnosis of where the pain is coming from, or what is its cause, there is little chance of treating that pain or hastening recovery. When it comes to most back pain treatments, however, no such rule applies.

It’s much more important to see which patient has the disease than which disease the patient has,, new medicine
, to paraphrase the renowned Canadian physician and medical historian Sir William Osier. For back pain patients, the statement is particularly true. Back muscle pain, bone spurs, even pinched nerves can mean significantly different things to different people.

“Symptoms and pathology do not always correlate in back, new medicine
, pain,” says physiatrist Stanley Herring, on the board of directors of the North American Spine Society. Indeed, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that of ninety eight people without back pain, almost two-thirds were shown to have one or more herniated disks or other spinal abnormality when scanned by a technique called magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. You don’t treat the MRI, you treat the patient.

Irregularities in an MRI do not always mean injury; because they don’t show cause, tests can reveal abnormalities with which you were born, but that have nothing to do with your present pain.

Nevertheless, a lot of MRIs, and many other diagnostic tests, are being performed. In 1993, the North Carolina Back Pain Project examined the patterns of diagnostic test use among primary care physicians and the specialty practices of orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors. Researchers found the availability of both basic diagnostic technology (such as X-rays), and of sophisticated imaging tests, new medicine
, (such as computerized tomography and MRIs) “has broadened in recent years,” and, along with it, so have doctors’ tendencies to use them, new medicine
, . According to the study, “the use of imaging for diagnosis appeared to occur too early and too frequently.”

Since then, the pendulum seems to have started toward the other direction. “I think there has over the past five years or so been some movement for physicians to become more conservative in utilization of diagnostic tests,” says Timothy S. Carey, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who coauthored the study “Especially early in the back pain.”

This isn’t the only study that supports federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) guidelines in recommending a conservative approach to diagnostic testing. In its controversial report, accused by some of being more cost-conscious than patient-conscious, the AHCPR divided acute back pain into “red flag” pain that needs a lot of care and investigation; and the pain that needs supportive treatment but will get better no matter what you do.

Red-flag patients might include those who have had serious trauma, such as a fall from a ladder, and require X-rays to rule out fracture; patients with a history of infection, which is a rare cause of back pain; patients with a history of malignant cancer; those with weakened bones from steroids or osteoporosis; and patients who have been in pain for an extended period of time, generally thought to be more than four to six weeks. Worsening neurological findings (say, numbness in the foot on Monday, and weakness in the foot on Tuesday) would also be among the red flags.

In most other cases, “little is lost by delaying diagnostic testing for several weeks to determine whether spontaneous recovery will occur,” concurs the North Carolina Back Pain Project study.

“Over 90 percent will be better prior to six weeks on their own,” says Dr. Carey, adding, “While the good news is chances are it’s going to get better, the fact that it has a good prognosis doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

Qi Gong is an ancient Chinese healing system that uses exercise, visualization, massage and breathing in order to control ones personal Qi and move it throughout the body to re-energize the organs and strengthen the immune system. Breathing exercises are for respiration and oxygen enrichment of the blood. Physical exercises are for cardio health, fitness, new medicine
, and circulation of the fluids through both the blood vessel and lymphatic systems. Mind concentration (visualization) is important so that one can be in a tranquil state and so control the seven, new medicine
, emotions which can disturb the heart and lead to irregular flow of the Qi.

Many of the healing benefits while quite apparent, especially to the practitioner, cannot be proved or disproved by Modern Western Medicine. Consequently, many people will try to dismiss it as a fad or as some kind of airy fairy made up nonsense. Too often however the end results speak for themselves and common sense will prevail. However the existence of Qi and the path that it takes through the human body is quite well documented by Western Medicine as well as by Traditional Chinese Medicine. Some versions of Qi Gong are hard to learn as they can take many years of practice, and require quite a bit of instruction from a qualified practitioner. Others can be learned in just a few sessions and can be performed reasonably well by the new practitioner by themselves in their own home.

One of the easiest and most simple to learn is a system that was created by Professor Martin Liu, a TCM practitioner, now living and practicing in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Liu is the last of the Chinese Imperial physicians. He was the doctor for the last of the Chinese Imperial family as well as some of China’s leading military officials and prominent Beijing Opera stars, before moving to Melbourne. Martin studied for more than seven years at three of Chinas top medical institutes he is currently a research Professor at the center for Acupuncture & Meridian Research in Beijing, a visiting Professor at Jin Lin Army Medical Institute, and runs his own TCM Osteotraumatology and Cancer Rehabilitation Clinic and has been practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 30 years. In the 1990s Martins work led him to discover 120 new meridian points for the treatment of diseases for which he received an award and recognition from the Chinese government. He has since trained over 4,000 acupuncture practitioners. His ongoing research into the relationship between meridians, health and disease has led him to publish several books and papers and have won him numerous awards.

The system that Martin created is called 423 Meridian Qi Gong. The very first person to be treated withthis systemwas Martins mother. In 1989 at the age of 67 she was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, told that surgery was futile and given six months to live. After practicing 423 Meridian Qi Gong for two hours a day, within three months, Martins mother was visibly better and able to walk to a local park to practice. Month after month she continued to practice. Now some 20 years on and aged 87 she still continues to practice 423 Meridian Qi Gong which she firmly believes saved her life.

This method is called “Meridian Qi Gong” because it is a Qi Gong therapy and emphasizes Qi exercises, namely deep and abdominal breathing based on mind concentration. It is also a method of medical health care in which 4 acupressure points are selected as the main points for health protection and strengthening of the immune system. When stimulated regularly by massage or percussion and combined with deep breathing and abdominal breathing, plus appropriate exercises of both upper and lower limbs, its principle of action follows that of traditional Chinese Qi Gong and aims at promoting the bodys’ immune system, activating meridian Qi, invigorating Qi and blood circulation for the prevention of diseases, as well as keeping fit and longevity.

The basic contents of Professor Lius’ system are as follows:

4, new medicine
, equates to the 4 selected acupressure points.

2 equates to the 2 ways of Qi breathing, deep and abdominal breathing.

3 equates to the balanced exercises, new medicine
, on three parts of the body

The primary aim of this system is to prevent disease and illness. It can also be used in conjunction with conventional medicine and fitness/weight loss training.

If you practice 423 Meridian Qi Gong for around 15 minutes twice a day, within two months you will feel stronger and more energetic. In many cases people feel an improvement in their vitality and libido, new medicine
, . After 3 months of regular practice most people feel a significant improvement in their health status. There are currently over 100,000 people using this method and over 95% have experienced significant health benefits. 423 Meridian Qi Gong has been used to successfully treat diseases as diverse as High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Angina, Coronary Heart Disease, Asthma, Insomnia, Headache, Stress, Cancer, Hepatitis, Dyspepsia, Irregular Menstruation, Mental Disorder, Menopauseand many more.

According to a new nine-year study, more men and women under the age of 65 could be suffering strokes. That is US, the baby boomers! Yikes!

After tracking over 7,000 people treated for stroke in a St. Louis hospital, it was discovered nearly half were under the age of 65, and 1 in 4 were under 55. This does differ from National Institutes of Health data, which suggest 3 of every 4 strokes happen after age 65.

The younger patients had mild or moderate strokes, so most were not given rehabilitation. Although the study, published in the September/October American Journal of Occupational Therapy, tracked patients at just one hospital, study author Timothy Wolf of the Washington University School of Medicine says, “This could be a national trend.”

The American Heart Association says research generally shows not enough people get post-stroke rehab and younger victims are the less likely.

We have heard it before, but it is now a reality, we as baby boomers are not invincible and heart disease for our generation is very very real. Below are the suggestions from the American Heart Association. 9 ways in 2009 to avoid heart attacks or strokes by the American Heart Association? Simple…But will you do it??

Stop smoking. If you smoke, quit. If someone in your household smokes, encourage them to quit. We know it’s tough. But it’s tougher to recover from a heart attack or stroke or to live with chronic heart disease. Commit to quit. We’re here to help if you need it.

Choose good nutrition. A healthy diet is one of the best weapons you have to fight cardiovascular disease. The food you eat (and the amount) can affect other controllable risk factors: cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and overweight. Choose nutrient-rich foods – which have vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients but are lower in calories – over nutrient-poor foods. A diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole-grain and high-fiber foods, fish, lean protein and fat-free or low-fat dairy products is the key. And to maintain a healthy weight, coordinate your diet with your physical activity, new medicine
, level so you’re using up as many calories as you take, new medicine
, in.

Reduce blood cholesterol. Fat lodged in your arteries is a disaster waiting to happen. Sooner or later it could trigger a heart attack or stroke. You’ve got to reduce your intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol and get moving. If diet and physical activity alone don’t get those numbers down, then medication may be the key. Take it just like the doctor orders. Lower high blood pressure. It’s the single largest risk factor for stroke. Stroke is the No. 3 killer and one of the leading causes of disability in the United States. Stroke recovery is difficult at best and you could be disabled for life. Shake that salt habit, take your medications as recommended by your doctor and get moving. Those numbers need to get down and stay down. Your goal is less than 120/80 mmHg.

Be physically active every day. Research has shown that getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity on 5 or more days of the week can help lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, new medicine
, and keep your weight at a healthy level. But something IS better than nothing. If you’re doing nothing now, start out slow. Even 10 minutes at a time may offer some health benefits. Studies show that people who have achieved even, new medicine
, a moderate level of fitness are much less likely to die early than those with a low fitness level.

Aim for a healthy weight. Obesity is an epidemic in America, not only for adults but also for children. An epidemic is when a health problem is out of control and many people are affected by it. Fad diets and supplements, new medicine
, are not the answer. Good nutrition, controlling calorie intake and physical activity are the only way to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity places you at risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes – the very factors that heighten your risk of cardiovascular disease. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) can help tell you if your weight is healthy.

Manage diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of diabetes-related death. People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease due to a variety of risk factors, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity and lack of physical activity.

Reduce stress. Some scientists have noted a relationship between coronary heart disease risk and stress in a person’s life that may affect the risk factors for heart disease and stroke. For example, people under stress may overeat, start smoking or smoke more than they otherwise would. Research has even shown that stress reaction in young adults predicts middle-age blood pressure risk.

Limit alcohol. Drinking too much alcohol can raise blood pressure and lead toheart failure or stroke. It can contribute to high triglycerides, produce irregular heartbeats and affect cancer and other diseases. It contributes to obesity, alcoholism, suicide and accidents. The risk of heart disease in people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol (an average of one drink for women or two drinks for men per day) is lower than in nondrinkers. However, it’s not recommended that nondrinkers start using alcohol or that drinkers increase the amount they drink.