Coeliac disease is a condition of malabsorption due to a disorder of the small bowel. It has been shown to be caused by the action of gluten present in cereals.
The exact cause is uncertain but may be due either to some immunological disturbance or to the absence of a specific enzyme which prevents the complete breakdown of gluten so that a toxic substance is formed, damaging the cells forming the wall of the small intestine.
It tends to run in families, but in identical twins the abnormality has been reported only in one of the pair. It occurs in about one in 4000 and may start at any age although it is more common in children.
In childhood, it usually starts soon after gluten is added to the diet. At this stage, the child may produce loose stools, become pot-bellied and may develop anaemia, general wasting, irritability and failure to thrive.
Although the disease has been recognised in Europe for many centuries, it was only in 1950 that Dr W. K. Dicke, of Utrecht, Holland, discovered an effective treatment. He found that the elimination of wheat gluten from the diet of, children with coeliac disease produced a full clinical remission.
Later, the glutens of rye, barley and oats were also regarded as dangerous to these children, but the evidence concerning barley and oats is still controversial.
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Symptoms
Severe itching
Small red dots or black/gray lines on skin
Home care
Give nonprescription antihistamines to relieve itching.
Follow the doctor’s instructions for treating the scabies, and make sure that all family members are treated at the same time.
Launder the infected child’s undergarments, bedding, and towels to destroy the mites.
Precautions
- If mites attack the skin around a nursing mother’s nipples, scabies can occur on the baby’s face.
- Secondary infection can occur when the child scratches.
- Consult a doctor before using any medications for scabies.
- Consult a doctor before applying any medication to the face of a baby with scabies.
- Lindane ointment, which is sometimes prescribed to treat scabies, is poisonous and should be kept out of the reach of children.
- If treatment does not clear up scabies, the person may be re-infested; consult the doctor.
- Scabies is easily transferred from one person to another, and all family members should be treated at the same time.
Scabies is a skin infection caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabei, a crawling insect barely visible to the eye. These mites burrow under the skin to lay eggs. The eggs hatch quickly and continue to tunnel for two weeks until they mature. Mature mites congregate around hair follicles, mate, and begin the cycle all over again. Scabies is easily transmitted to others and can be spread by direct human contact. It is rarely spread by animals.
The infestation of the mites typically occurs in between the fingers and- toes, on the palms of the hands and undersides of the wrists, in the armpits, at the waistline, and, in males, on the penis. Because mites may also attack the skin around a woman’s nipples, scabies sometimes occurs on the face of a breast-fed infant.
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• There is little doubt that most westerners are fat because they eat the wrong foods rather than simply because they eat too much. By consuming too large a proportion of one’s calories as fat, sugar and refined carbohydrates, we absorb too much of the food we eat and end up fat. The answer is to eat much less fat, little or no sugar, and much more unrefined carbohydrate in the form of cereals, whole meal-flour products, fruit and vegetables. Such foods are naturally slimming because they are so bulky that it is difficult to over-eat them.
Eating such bulky foods may mean eating six smaller meals a day rather than two or three big ones, especially in the early days as you get used to large, bulky meals instead of fatty, sugary, condensed ones.
• Trouble with obesity often starts in the cradle when mothers give their babies cows’ milk formula instead of breast milk. Studies of the arteries of young children killed accidentally have found that breast-fed children have much less atheroma (the sticky material that blocks up arteries and causes heart attacks in later life) than do bottle-feds. Also, many mothers add sugar to the formula and so accustom a baby to expect sweetness from early on. Bottle-fed babies on average grow up to be fatter than do breast-feds but the reasons for this are obscure. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of oral satisfaction compared with the ‘comfort sucking’ a breast-fed baby enjoys-which makes the baby bottle-fed to a schedule more likely to turn to food for solace later in life. Breastfeeding exclusively for at least 4-6 months is undoubtedly the best start in life when it comes to obesity. And don’t be put off by the podgy breast-fed babies you see. They lose their baby fat as they are weaned but the bottle-fed baby often does not.
Exercise is thought to play a part in controlling the body’s metabolism though no one is quite sure how. Fairly vigorous exercise is known to stimulate the metabolism (so that you consume more calories doing the same things) and evidence suggests that this raised metabolic rate continues for a day or two after the exercise stops. Many slimmers find that exercising fairly vigorously two or three times a week helps keep their appetite down.
Several studies have shown that fat people tend to eat less than do thin ones. Obese people, and men in particular, are likely to consume a lot of alcohol, though, and this is very fattening. The real problem for most fat people is inactivity. One Dutch study found that fat people ate less because they were physically less active and therefore used less fuel. Yet they still continued to eat more than they burned off: result-obesity. This research group concluded that the main preventive against obesity is to take regular exercise.
• However you decide to lose weight make your principle ‘slow but sure’. Short-term, rapid weight loss on fancy diets usually depends on losing water rather than body fat. It has taken you years to get fat and it will take many months to get slim. Aim at a 21b loss every week after the rapid loss of the first week or two. Remember that the idea is not to eat less of the same foods but to eat more of bulkier foods, and to take more exercise.
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