Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Bahaya Mie Instant Bagi Kesehatan Kita
Manfaat Mendesah
Bisa jadi desahan petenis cantik asal Rusia Maria Sharapova adalah yang terbilang cukup fenomenal. Karena konon desahan yang bunyinya mencapai 101 desibel itu bisa merusak konsentrasi lawan main. Sebenarnya untuk apa orang mendesah?
Ternyata mendesah itu penting seperti bisa mengatur sistem pernapasan dengan volume oksigen yang lebih besar, suara desahan juga membuat bisa membuat orang merespons cepat hal-hal yang tak terduga, menghilangkan stres hingga membuat gembira.
Ternyata mendesah itu penting seperti bisa mengatur sistem pernapasan dengan volume oksigen yang lebih besar, suara desahan juga membuat bisa membuat orang merespons cepat hal-hal yang tak terduga, menghilangkan stres hingga membuat gembira.
Sakit kepala sehabis menangis
Ketika seseorang menangis dalam waktu lama maka tidak hanya menyebabkan mata bengkak tapi juga merasa pusing atau sakit kepala. Kenapa orang sakit kepala setelah menangis?
Intensitas menangis yang panjang bisa menyebabkan ketidaknyamanan fisik termasuk mata merah, perih, mulut kering dan sakit kepala.
Intensitas menangis yang panjang bisa menyebabkan ketidaknyamanan fisik termasuk mata merah, perih, mulut kering dan sakit kepala.
Antara Kopi dan Diet
Banyak diantara kita terbiasa minum secangkir kopi untuk memulai aktivitas se hari-hari, tetapi jika Anda pernah bertanya-tanya apakah kopi akan berakibat lebih buruk di banding baik, Anda tidaklah sendirian.
Para dokter telah lama berbeda pendapat apakah kopi baik bagi Anda atau tidak selama bertahun-tahun. Beberapa penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kopi dapat memicu keguguran pada awal kehamilan dan mendorong serangan jantung. Penelitian lain menunjukkan bahwa kopi dapat memperbaiki penampilan mental dan menyembuhkan sakit kepala.
Para dokter telah lama berbeda pendapat apakah kopi baik bagi Anda atau tidak selama bertahun-tahun. Beberapa penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kopi dapat memicu keguguran pada awal kehamilan dan mendorong serangan jantung. Penelitian lain menunjukkan bahwa kopi dapat memperbaiki penampilan mental dan menyembuhkan sakit kepala.
Cara Berkelit dari 6 Situasi Lapar
RASA lapar yang terjadi pada jam-jam tertentu menjelang waktu makan merupakan sesuatu yang wajar. Tetapi, bagaimana bila di luar itu perut Anda juga ’merintih’?
"Setelah latihan aku selalu merasa sangat lapar. Karena itu, aku makan banyak sekali. Latihanku menjadi sia-sia."
Keinginan untuk makan banyak setelah latihan dapat dihindari dengan mengkonsumsi camilan tinggi karbohidrat (buah-buahan atau lontong isi) dalam porsi kecil kira-kira satu jam sebelum latihan. Atau camilan seperti itu dapat Anda makan segera setelah Anda selesai berlatih. Kalau cara ini belum dapat mengatasi masalah Anda, mungkin bukannya pola makannya yang harus diubah, melainkan pola latihan.
"Saat berada di rumah pada akhir pekan, aku sulit sekali ’menyumpal’ mulutku."
Hindari rasa lapar berlebihan (dan penumpukan lemak berlebihan) dengan tidak terlalu membatasi makan Anda sepanjang minggu. Stabilkan asupan kalori setiap hari. Dan imbangi dengan berolahraga secara teratur sepanjang minggu atau saat akhir pekan. Kesibukan pada akhir pekan dapat menurunkan nafsu makan.
"Seminggu sebelum menstruasi, aku makan dua kali lebih banyak daripada biasanya."
Masalah ini dapat diatasi dengan makan makanan yang mengandung karbohidrat yang berasal dari zat pati - seperti roti, pasta, beras, dan kentang, dalam porsi kecil tetapi sering. Makanan seperti itu akan meningkatkan kadar energi yang menurun. Dengan demikian, kadar serotonin akan meningkat dan akhirnya nafsu makan Anda terpenuhi.
"Aku cepat sekali merasa lapar, tidak peduli apapun dan sebanyak apapun aku makan."
Usahakan untuk makan perlahan-lahan. Nikmati setiap suapan yang masuk ke mulut sebelum Anda memasukkan suapan berikutnya. Kalau Anda makan terlalu cepat, otak tidak memiliki cukup waktu untuk memberitahukan bahwa perut sudah kenyang. Akibatnya, Anda merasa harus makan lagi.
"Aku selalu ingin makan lebih banyak saat merasa sedih atau stres."
Makanan memang dapat segera ’mengobati’ perasaan yang sedang terluka. Untuk mengatasi rasa lapar emosional, coba tentukan dahulu perasaan seperti apa yang sedang Anda alami sekarang ini. Kemudian, pikirkan cara untuk mengurangi efek negatifnya pada Anda. Misalnya, belajar untuk mengatakan ’tidak’ saat Anda diminta untuk melakukan begitu banyak pekerjaan di kantor daripada Anda memendam kemarahan yang menggelora di dalam hati.
"Setelah bangun tidur di pagi hari, aku tidak merasa lapar. Tetapi, pada tengah hari, perutku keroncongan."
Sarapan memang merupakan makanan paling penting dalam sehari. Tetapi, kenyataannya, ada beberapa orang yang tidak dapat makan pada pagi hari. Bagaimanapun juga, Anda tetap harus makan pada pagi hari. Anda dapat memilih buah-buahan dan yogurt atau roti isi telur.
Makanan seperti ini menggabungkan karbohidrat sebagai enerji dengan protein, sehingga kadar gula darah Anda akan stabil untuk waktu lama. Hal ini akan mencegah Anda makan berlebihan pada tengah hari. Tetapi, bila kondisi ’tidak ingin makan pada pagi hari’ ini baru terjadi sekarang serta Anda juga mengalami gejala-gejala seperti berat badan yang bertambah tanpa penyebab yang jelas, tangan dan kaki terasa dingin, atau lesu, ada baiknya Anda memeriksakan diri ke dokter.
"Setelah latihan aku selalu merasa sangat lapar. Karena itu, aku makan banyak sekali. Latihanku menjadi sia-sia."
Keinginan untuk makan banyak setelah latihan dapat dihindari dengan mengkonsumsi camilan tinggi karbohidrat (buah-buahan atau lontong isi) dalam porsi kecil kira-kira satu jam sebelum latihan. Atau camilan seperti itu dapat Anda makan segera setelah Anda selesai berlatih. Kalau cara ini belum dapat mengatasi masalah Anda, mungkin bukannya pola makannya yang harus diubah, melainkan pola latihan.
"Saat berada di rumah pada akhir pekan, aku sulit sekali ’menyumpal’ mulutku."
Hindari rasa lapar berlebihan (dan penumpukan lemak berlebihan) dengan tidak terlalu membatasi makan Anda sepanjang minggu. Stabilkan asupan kalori setiap hari. Dan imbangi dengan berolahraga secara teratur sepanjang minggu atau saat akhir pekan. Kesibukan pada akhir pekan dapat menurunkan nafsu makan.
"Seminggu sebelum menstruasi, aku makan dua kali lebih banyak daripada biasanya."
Masalah ini dapat diatasi dengan makan makanan yang mengandung karbohidrat yang berasal dari zat pati - seperti roti, pasta, beras, dan kentang, dalam porsi kecil tetapi sering. Makanan seperti itu akan meningkatkan kadar energi yang menurun. Dengan demikian, kadar serotonin akan meningkat dan akhirnya nafsu makan Anda terpenuhi.
"Aku cepat sekali merasa lapar, tidak peduli apapun dan sebanyak apapun aku makan."
Usahakan untuk makan perlahan-lahan. Nikmati setiap suapan yang masuk ke mulut sebelum Anda memasukkan suapan berikutnya. Kalau Anda makan terlalu cepat, otak tidak memiliki cukup waktu untuk memberitahukan bahwa perut sudah kenyang. Akibatnya, Anda merasa harus makan lagi.
"Aku selalu ingin makan lebih banyak saat merasa sedih atau stres."
Makanan memang dapat segera ’mengobati’ perasaan yang sedang terluka. Untuk mengatasi rasa lapar emosional, coba tentukan dahulu perasaan seperti apa yang sedang Anda alami sekarang ini. Kemudian, pikirkan cara untuk mengurangi efek negatifnya pada Anda. Misalnya, belajar untuk mengatakan ’tidak’ saat Anda diminta untuk melakukan begitu banyak pekerjaan di kantor daripada Anda memendam kemarahan yang menggelora di dalam hati.
"Setelah bangun tidur di pagi hari, aku tidak merasa lapar. Tetapi, pada tengah hari, perutku keroncongan."
Sarapan memang merupakan makanan paling penting dalam sehari. Tetapi, kenyataannya, ada beberapa orang yang tidak dapat makan pada pagi hari. Bagaimanapun juga, Anda tetap harus makan pada pagi hari. Anda dapat memilih buah-buahan dan yogurt atau roti isi telur.
Makanan seperti ini menggabungkan karbohidrat sebagai enerji dengan protein, sehingga kadar gula darah Anda akan stabil untuk waktu lama. Hal ini akan mencegah Anda makan berlebihan pada tengah hari. Tetapi, bila kondisi ’tidak ingin makan pada pagi hari’ ini baru terjadi sekarang serta Anda juga mengalami gejala-gejala seperti berat badan yang bertambah tanpa penyebab yang jelas, tangan dan kaki terasa dingin, atau lesu, ada baiknya Anda memeriksakan diri ke dokter.
Batu Ginjal dan Larangannya
Kandungan mineral yang terdapat pada beberapa jenis makanan bisa memicu terbentuknya batu ginjal. Namun beberapa jenis makanan yang lain bisa mencegahnya. Apa saja?
Fungsi ginjal adalah menyaring kotoran di dalam darah, untuk dibuang bersama air kencing. Batu ginjal terbentuk ketika kotoran-kotoran dari makanan tersebut mengeras dan membentuk kristal di ginjal maupun saluran kencing.
Pembatasan makanan tertentu efektif untuk mencegah terbentuknya kristal tersebut. Berikut ini adalah beberapa diet yang disarankan bagi penderita batu ginjal
1. Perbanyak minum air putih
Air adalah diet paling penting untuk mencegah batu ginjal, karena komponen pembentuk batu ginjal menjadi lebih mudah luruh bersama buang air kecil. Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk buang air kecil sekitar 2,5 liter dalam sehari, sehingga harus minum lebih banyak dari jumlah tersebut. Jika cuaca panas atau sedang banyak aktivitas, konsumsi air harus diperbanyak supaya lebih sering buang air kecil.
2. Batasi kalsium
Biasanya tubuh tidak akan menyerap kalsium melebihi yang dibutuhkan. Namun pada kondisi tertentu misalnya hipercalciuria, kelebihan kalsium dibuang melalui ginjal dalam bentuk air kencing. Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk membatasi asupan kalsium maksimal 800 mg/hari untuk pria dan 1.200 mg/hari untuk wanita.
Kalsium banyak terdapat pada sayuran hijau, susu dan berbagai produk olahan berbahan susu. Kalsium pada susu lebih mudah diserap usus dibandingkan pada sayuran hijau.
3. Batasi oksalat
Bersama kalsium, oksalat (asam yg mengandung satuan COO2) dapat membentuk kristal penyebab batu ginjal. Oleh karena itu, penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk mengurangi atau bahkan menghindari sama sekali makanan yang banyak mengandung oksalat. Di antaranya adalah bayam, strawberry, cokelat, gandum, biji-bijian dan teh.
Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk membatasi konsumsi oksalat tidak lebih dari 50 mg/hari.
4. Batasi garam dan protein nabati
Membatasi konsumsi garam natrium dapat mengurangi jumlah kalsium yang dikeluarkan lewat ginjal. Oleh karena itu jika yang terbentuk adalah batu kalsium, maka konsumsi garam natrium sebaiknya dibatasi antara 2.500-3.500 mg/hari.
Sementara protein hewani bisa memicu beberapa jenis mineral di urine untuk membentuk batu ginjal. Karena itu penderita batu ginjal harus menggantikannya dengan protein nabati.
5. Perbanyak serat tidak larut
Ada 2 jenis serat yakni serat yang larut dan serat yang tak larut, masing-masing memiliki fungsi yang sama penting di dalam tubuh. Tetapi dalam hal ini, serat tak larut yang terdapat pada gandum, padi dan terigu bisa mengurangi kadar kalsium dalam urine. Serat tersebut mengikat kalsium ketika berada di usus, sehingga tidak dikeluarkan melalui ginjal.
6. Batasi konsumsi vitamin C
Salah satu hasil metabolisme vitamin C adalah oksalat. Karena oksalat bisa membentuk kristal, maka penderita batu ginjal harus membatasi asupan vitamin C.
Fungsi ginjal adalah menyaring kotoran di dalam darah, untuk dibuang bersama air kencing. Batu ginjal terbentuk ketika kotoran-kotoran dari makanan tersebut mengeras dan membentuk kristal di ginjal maupun saluran kencing.
Pembatasan makanan tertentu efektif untuk mencegah terbentuknya kristal tersebut. Berikut ini adalah beberapa diet yang disarankan bagi penderita batu ginjal
1. Perbanyak minum air putih
Air adalah diet paling penting untuk mencegah batu ginjal, karena komponen pembentuk batu ginjal menjadi lebih mudah luruh bersama buang air kecil. Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk buang air kecil sekitar 2,5 liter dalam sehari, sehingga harus minum lebih banyak dari jumlah tersebut. Jika cuaca panas atau sedang banyak aktivitas, konsumsi air harus diperbanyak supaya lebih sering buang air kecil.
2. Batasi kalsium
Biasanya tubuh tidak akan menyerap kalsium melebihi yang dibutuhkan. Namun pada kondisi tertentu misalnya hipercalciuria, kelebihan kalsium dibuang melalui ginjal dalam bentuk air kencing. Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk membatasi asupan kalsium maksimal 800 mg/hari untuk pria dan 1.200 mg/hari untuk wanita.
Kalsium banyak terdapat pada sayuran hijau, susu dan berbagai produk olahan berbahan susu. Kalsium pada susu lebih mudah diserap usus dibandingkan pada sayuran hijau.
3. Batasi oksalat
Bersama kalsium, oksalat (asam yg mengandung satuan COO2) dapat membentuk kristal penyebab batu ginjal. Oleh karena itu, penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk mengurangi atau bahkan menghindari sama sekali makanan yang banyak mengandung oksalat. Di antaranya adalah bayam, strawberry, cokelat, gandum, biji-bijian dan teh.
Penderita batu ginjal disarankan untuk membatasi konsumsi oksalat tidak lebih dari 50 mg/hari.
4. Batasi garam dan protein nabati
Membatasi konsumsi garam natrium dapat mengurangi jumlah kalsium yang dikeluarkan lewat ginjal. Oleh karena itu jika yang terbentuk adalah batu kalsium, maka konsumsi garam natrium sebaiknya dibatasi antara 2.500-3.500 mg/hari.
Sementara protein hewani bisa memicu beberapa jenis mineral di urine untuk membentuk batu ginjal. Karena itu penderita batu ginjal harus menggantikannya dengan protein nabati.
5. Perbanyak serat tidak larut
Ada 2 jenis serat yakni serat yang larut dan serat yang tak larut, masing-masing memiliki fungsi yang sama penting di dalam tubuh. Tetapi dalam hal ini, serat tak larut yang terdapat pada gandum, padi dan terigu bisa mengurangi kadar kalsium dalam urine. Serat tersebut mengikat kalsium ketika berada di usus, sehingga tidak dikeluarkan melalui ginjal.
6. Batasi konsumsi vitamin C
Salah satu hasil metabolisme vitamin C adalah oksalat. Karena oksalat bisa membentuk kristal, maka penderita batu ginjal harus membatasi asupan vitamin C.
1 year after swine flu, Mexicans split on response
When this city of 8.7 million awoke one year ago to confusing news of a new virus, it sent the world on a wild six-month roller-coaster ride of fear and frantic action.
But after swine flu proved far less lethal than feared, opinion has divided on whether the epidemic was a valuable test-run that left the world better prepared to handle a more lethal avian flu pandemic, or an episode that left the public jaded and weary.
Mexicans are bristling after following initial government recommendations that may have been counterproductive, and question the value of late-arriving vaccines.
But the director of Mexico's National Center for Epidemiology and Disease Control insists the nation — and the world — are better prepared for another, more deadly flu outbreak.
"We as a global community have been very lucky to have this opportunity to do this massive test, practice-run, with a virus," Miguel Angel Lezana said.
He says a deadly flu is coming sooner or later: "We have to be prepared for it."
Within five days of last year's April 23 flu announcement, Mexico City would essentially shut down, streets empty of traffic and almost every business shuttered by government order. Only a few wary, masked silhouettes plied the streets, and a pall of fear and mistrust settled over the city.
One year later, the fear is gone but Mexico still is feeling the human and economic consequences of swine flu.
The pandemic killed 1,185 people in Mexico — out of 17,700 deaths worldwide. Tourism revenues, Mexico's largest source of income after oil and remittances, have yet to recover to pre-flu levels.
Lezana estimates that about half of Mexico's 107 million people have immunity to the virus, either through the vaccine or contracting a mild case of swine flu, giving the country a "herd immunity" that would slow the transmission chain of the H1N1 virus.
But Mexico, like many other nations, is still struggling to give out increasingly unpopular vaccines. About three-quarters of the way to fulfilling the nation's goal of 30 million vaccinations, many here wonder why they should risk the shot's real or imagined side effects at this point.
Carla Gonzalez, a 25 year-old homemaker, says she feels misled by the whole government response.
A flu vaccine, she says, made her sick. And she wonders if the whole emergency wasn't concocted to get people's minds off Mexico's economic and social problems, echoing accusations — mainly from the political left — that the crisis was overblown.
"I won't ever get vaccinated again," Gonzalez said. "We still don't know if this was something real, or something that the authorities manipulated, a deception."
The World Health Organization estimates only 1 in 10,000 people have significant reactions to the vaccine.
The swine flu outbreak persuaded Mexico to develop the capacity to make its own flu vaccines after it had trouble buying enough.
Mexico has slowly acquired the vaccine — even as other nations sell or destroying stocks — to vaccinate about 23 million people so far, even setting up inoculation stands in the Mexico City subway.
One lesson of the epidemic is that information, true or not, flows more quickly on the Internet than through official channels.
Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued acknowledges that the city's vaccination program was affected "by rumors that began to appear on the Internet that the vaccine was bad ... and that sparked a huge fear in the public."
Another unfortunate lesson: Publicly reporting the swine flu outbreak, and energetically pursuing measures to contain it, wound up costing Mexico about 0.3 percent of its $1 trillion GDP, largely in lost tourism income. Tourism has since started to recover, but Mexican officials say some sort of international fund to compensate countries for early reporting of new outbreaks is needed.
If not, "the next time, countries are going to say, 'no, this is going to affect our economy, it's better not to say anything,'" Ahued said.
Recalling the first days of the epidemic when hospitals were filling up with people on respirators, he said the public-health message — avoid infection, and seek treatment early — has percolated into the general population.
It often shows in small ways.
"Now, when you go to a restaurant or some other public place, almost all of them are giving out gel. When the waiter assigns you your table, they offer gel, or there is a bottle of gel at the door," Ahued notes. "There is an improvement in culture and education."
Franciso Santos, 28, followed the government's instructions but now feels deceived. He wore a disposable surgical mask to work as a systems engineer every day at the height of the outbreak, but such masks have since been found to be useless in protecting uninfected people, and may even expose them to greater risk.
Guadalupe Soto Estrada, an epidemiologist at the National University's Department of Public Health, explained that using disposable masks "is sometimes worse, because people take them off and on and touch them, so it is likely the micro-organisms on the mask will be passed onto whatever surface they come in contact with."
Authorities now only recommend masks for infected people, who should probably avoid going out in public anyway.
"I hope next time they (authorities) act with more information and more caution," Santos said. "They alarmed people. ... There was a lot of economic and psychological damage."
Ultimately, Mexico, like most countries, probably will never be able to build enough hospitals to deal with a highly lethal and contagious flu. But in 2009, authorities discovered the answer was to stop people from flooding into hospitals — and potentially collapsing the health care system — by instructing primary-care physicians to give anti-viral medication to anyone who showed multiple flu symptoms, even before any tests were run on them.
The World Health Organization says the virus has now spread to 213 countries, virtually every corner of the globe — proving the disease could not be contained even by banning flights or product imports from Mexico, or quarantining travelers who had passed through here, something several countries did early in the 2009 pandemic. The disease spread anyway.
"This is something we really do not want to see done the next time there is this type of pandemic," Lezana says.
But after swine flu proved far less lethal than feared, opinion has divided on whether the epidemic was a valuable test-run that left the world better prepared to handle a more lethal avian flu pandemic, or an episode that left the public jaded and weary.
Mexicans are bristling after following initial government recommendations that may have been counterproductive, and question the value of late-arriving vaccines.
But the director of Mexico's National Center for Epidemiology and Disease Control insists the nation — and the world — are better prepared for another, more deadly flu outbreak.
"We as a global community have been very lucky to have this opportunity to do this massive test, practice-run, with a virus," Miguel Angel Lezana said.
He says a deadly flu is coming sooner or later: "We have to be prepared for it."
Within five days of last year's April 23 flu announcement, Mexico City would essentially shut down, streets empty of traffic and almost every business shuttered by government order. Only a few wary, masked silhouettes plied the streets, and a pall of fear and mistrust settled over the city.
One year later, the fear is gone but Mexico still is feeling the human and economic consequences of swine flu.
The pandemic killed 1,185 people in Mexico — out of 17,700 deaths worldwide. Tourism revenues, Mexico's largest source of income after oil and remittances, have yet to recover to pre-flu levels.
Lezana estimates that about half of Mexico's 107 million people have immunity to the virus, either through the vaccine or contracting a mild case of swine flu, giving the country a "herd immunity" that would slow the transmission chain of the H1N1 virus.
But Mexico, like many other nations, is still struggling to give out increasingly unpopular vaccines. About three-quarters of the way to fulfilling the nation's goal of 30 million vaccinations, many here wonder why they should risk the shot's real or imagined side effects at this point.
Carla Gonzalez, a 25 year-old homemaker, says she feels misled by the whole government response.
A flu vaccine, she says, made her sick. And she wonders if the whole emergency wasn't concocted to get people's minds off Mexico's economic and social problems, echoing accusations — mainly from the political left — that the crisis was overblown.
"I won't ever get vaccinated again," Gonzalez said. "We still don't know if this was something real, or something that the authorities manipulated, a deception."
The World Health Organization estimates only 1 in 10,000 people have significant reactions to the vaccine.
The swine flu outbreak persuaded Mexico to develop the capacity to make its own flu vaccines after it had trouble buying enough.
Mexico has slowly acquired the vaccine — even as other nations sell or destroying stocks — to vaccinate about 23 million people so far, even setting up inoculation stands in the Mexico City subway.
One lesson of the epidemic is that information, true or not, flows more quickly on the Internet than through official channels.
Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued acknowledges that the city's vaccination program was affected "by rumors that began to appear on the Internet that the vaccine was bad ... and that sparked a huge fear in the public."
Another unfortunate lesson: Publicly reporting the swine flu outbreak, and energetically pursuing measures to contain it, wound up costing Mexico about 0.3 percent of its $1 trillion GDP, largely in lost tourism income. Tourism has since started to recover, but Mexican officials say some sort of international fund to compensate countries for early reporting of new outbreaks is needed.
If not, "the next time, countries are going to say, 'no, this is going to affect our economy, it's better not to say anything,'" Ahued said.
Recalling the first days of the epidemic when hospitals were filling up with people on respirators, he said the public-health message — avoid infection, and seek treatment early — has percolated into the general population.
It often shows in small ways.
"Now, when you go to a restaurant or some other public place, almost all of them are giving out gel. When the waiter assigns you your table, they offer gel, or there is a bottle of gel at the door," Ahued notes. "There is an improvement in culture and education."
Franciso Santos, 28, followed the government's instructions but now feels deceived. He wore a disposable surgical mask to work as a systems engineer every day at the height of the outbreak, but such masks have since been found to be useless in protecting uninfected people, and may even expose them to greater risk.
Guadalupe Soto Estrada, an epidemiologist at the National University's Department of Public Health, explained that using disposable masks "is sometimes worse, because people take them off and on and touch them, so it is likely the micro-organisms on the mask will be passed onto whatever surface they come in contact with."
Authorities now only recommend masks for infected people, who should probably avoid going out in public anyway.
"I hope next time they (authorities) act with more information and more caution," Santos said. "They alarmed people. ... There was a lot of economic and psychological damage."
Ultimately, Mexico, like most countries, probably will never be able to build enough hospitals to deal with a highly lethal and contagious flu. But in 2009, authorities discovered the answer was to stop people from flooding into hospitals — and potentially collapsing the health care system — by instructing primary-care physicians to give anti-viral medication to anyone who showed multiple flu symptoms, even before any tests were run on them.
The World Health Organization says the virus has now spread to 213 countries, virtually every corner of the globe — proving the disease could not be contained even by banning flights or product imports from Mexico, or quarantining travelers who had passed through here, something several countries did early in the 2009 pandemic. The disease spread anyway.
"This is something we really do not want to see done the next time there is this type of pandemic," Lezana says.
Vatican will finance adult stem cell research
The Vatican will finance new research into the potential use of adult stem cells in the treatment of intestinal and possibly other diseases, officials announced Friday.
The project is at a very preliminary phase and it will be years before any clinical treatment might be available, the officials said.
Cardinal Renato Martino said the Vatican fully supports the project because it does not involve embryonic stem cells.
He said he expected the Vatican to help finance the project through its Rome hospital, Bambin Gesu, but the exact amount must still be worked out in future meetings with the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, the project's leaders.
An initial announcement by the university said the Vatican had already agreed to donate euro2 million ($2.7 million) to the research.
The church is opposed to embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos, but it supports the use of adult stem cells.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI said adult stem cell research respects human life, which according to church teachings begins at conception.
The Vatican has drawn criticism for its opposition to embryonic stem cell research. But the Vatican insists there are scientifically viable alternatives and the efforts of the scientific community should go in that direction. Financing this project is part of those efforts.
But while embryonic stem cells are especially prized for their pluripotency — meaning they can morph into any type of cell in the body — adult stem cells are not as pluripotent. For that reason, embryonic stem cells are considered to have more potential for the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's.
Researchers involved in the Vatican-financed project say they want to assess the potential of intestinal stem cells — a relatively new field — for therapeutic use.
"We want to harvest them, we want to isolate them, we want to make them grow outside our body and see if they are pluripotent," said Alessio Fasano, the scientist leading the project and the director of the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research.
"If we reach that phase, if we are able to achieve that goal, then our next step is to eventually move to clinical application," Fasano told the AP before Friday's announcement.
Intestinal stem cells have certain features that makes them appealing for this kind of research, Fasano said.
They are very active cells — the intestine replenishes all its cells every few days — and they are intrinsically flexible — already programmed to generate all the various kinds of cells such as mucus cells or epithelial cells present in the highly complex organ. Furthermore, harvesting them can be done through a routine procedure like endoscopy, Fasano noted.
Fasano said his team hopes to have a first answer on the feasibility of the project within the next two to three years.
The project is at a very preliminary phase and it will be years before any clinical treatment might be available, the officials said.
Cardinal Renato Martino said the Vatican fully supports the project because it does not involve embryonic stem cells.
He said he expected the Vatican to help finance the project through its Rome hospital, Bambin Gesu, but the exact amount must still be worked out in future meetings with the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, the project's leaders.
An initial announcement by the university said the Vatican had already agreed to donate euro2 million ($2.7 million) to the research.
The church is opposed to embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos, but it supports the use of adult stem cells.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI said adult stem cell research respects human life, which according to church teachings begins at conception.
The Vatican has drawn criticism for its opposition to embryonic stem cell research. But the Vatican insists there are scientifically viable alternatives and the efforts of the scientific community should go in that direction. Financing this project is part of those efforts.
But while embryonic stem cells are especially prized for their pluripotency — meaning they can morph into any type of cell in the body — adult stem cells are not as pluripotent. For that reason, embryonic stem cells are considered to have more potential for the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's.
Researchers involved in the Vatican-financed project say they want to assess the potential of intestinal stem cells — a relatively new field — for therapeutic use.
"We want to harvest them, we want to isolate them, we want to make them grow outside our body and see if they are pluripotent," said Alessio Fasano, the scientist leading the project and the director of the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research.
"If we reach that phase, if we are able to achieve that goal, then our next step is to eventually move to clinical application," Fasano told the AP before Friday's announcement.
Intestinal stem cells have certain features that makes them appealing for this kind of research, Fasano said.
They are very active cells — the intestine replenishes all its cells every few days — and they are intrinsically flexible — already programmed to generate all the various kinds of cells such as mucus cells or epithelial cells present in the highly complex organ. Furthermore, harvesting them can be done through a routine procedure like endoscopy, Fasano noted.
Fasano said his team hopes to have a first answer on the feasibility of the project within the next two to three years.
African business takes on malaria
An African bank, communications giant and popular chicken restaurant chain are taking on malaria, saying Friday that their business expertise might be the missing weapon in the fight against a disease that kills 1 million annually.
South Africa's Standard Bank, cell phone company MTN and Nando's restaurants — all in business across Africa — say they know how to get information and services to customers despite Africa's weak infrastructure, and can use their experience to help fight against malaria.
As part of the United Against Malaria campaign, Standard Bank will provide its employees with nets and easier access to treatment, MTN will help deliver nets to areas that are difficult for distribution and Nando's will sell bracelets to raise awareness and funds.
The United Against Malaria campaign is an umbrella for aid groups using South Africa's World Cup as a platform to raise funds and spread messages about malaria treatment and prevention.
Africa is the continent hardest hit by malaria, and this will be the first World Cup held here. Nine of every 10 malaria deaths a year are in Africa, most of which are children.
Tony van der Nest, who directs Standard Bank's health programs, cited estimates that malaria reduces Africa's GDP by at least $12 billion every year. At Standard Bank, he said, work hours lost because some of its 10,000 employees across Africa were sickened by malaria cost the bank 45 million rand (about $6 million) last year.
Standard Bank has pledged to ensure its employees at risk of the disease have bed nets to protect them from malaria-carrying mosquitoes and access to treatment. He said the bank had not yet calculated what that would cost, but believed it would be much less than what it was losing due to malaria illnesses and deaths.
Tshepo Ramodibe, a senior MTN manager, said he believed the goal of halting malaria by 2015 was in reach, now that he is seeing increased cooperation among aid groups, governments and business.
Ramodibe said, however, bed nets sometimes sit in warehouses because aid groups can't distribute them. MTN, he said, has the "execution culture" necessary to get cell phone masts up across Africa, despite bad roads.
Christina Barrineau of United Against Malaria said Nando's, known for irreverent ads poking fun at South African politicians and mores, brought a "cool factor" to the effort that could spread messages further than finger-wagging from experts.
Chris Thorpe of Nando's said starting late next week, his company's restaurants across Africa and around the world would be selling beaded bracelets for about $3, with a dollar from every sale going to the Global Fund a major supporter of malaria, TB and AIDS projects around the world. The goal was to sell a million of the earth-toned bracelets this year, he said.
The bracelets are made by women in impoverished townships in South Africa who are earning about $200 a month from the project, Thorpe said.
Malaria infects some 300 million people every year around the world. Debilitating symptoms such as fever and joint pain keep sufferers from work and school.
Since 2000, when halting malaria by 2015 was declared one of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, progress has been fitful. When it comes to treatment, the United Nations says, "few countries have expanded coverage since 2000 and most patients often receive less effective medicines." The U.N. also has found that across much of sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of children with symptoms who received anti-malaria medication dropped from 41 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2005.
Preventing and treating malaria is no mystery. Simple bed nets, and educating people about how to use them make a "significant contribution to reducing the burden of malaria," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies concluded this year after studies in Burkina-Faso, Togo and Kenya. The U.N. says the number of nets produced worldwide jumped from 30 million in 2004 to 95 million in 2007.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international medical aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, treats more than 1 million malaria patients every year, using sophisticated, easy to use diagnostic tests and a new generation of medication.
South Africa's Standard Bank, cell phone company MTN and Nando's restaurants — all in business across Africa — say they know how to get information and services to customers despite Africa's weak infrastructure, and can use their experience to help fight against malaria.
As part of the United Against Malaria campaign, Standard Bank will provide its employees with nets and easier access to treatment, MTN will help deliver nets to areas that are difficult for distribution and Nando's will sell bracelets to raise awareness and funds.
The United Against Malaria campaign is an umbrella for aid groups using South Africa's World Cup as a platform to raise funds and spread messages about malaria treatment and prevention.
Africa is the continent hardest hit by malaria, and this will be the first World Cup held here. Nine of every 10 malaria deaths a year are in Africa, most of which are children.
Tony van der Nest, who directs Standard Bank's health programs, cited estimates that malaria reduces Africa's GDP by at least $12 billion every year. At Standard Bank, he said, work hours lost because some of its 10,000 employees across Africa were sickened by malaria cost the bank 45 million rand (about $6 million) last year.
Standard Bank has pledged to ensure its employees at risk of the disease have bed nets to protect them from malaria-carrying mosquitoes and access to treatment. He said the bank had not yet calculated what that would cost, but believed it would be much less than what it was losing due to malaria illnesses and deaths.
Tshepo Ramodibe, a senior MTN manager, said he believed the goal of halting malaria by 2015 was in reach, now that he is seeing increased cooperation among aid groups, governments and business.
Ramodibe said, however, bed nets sometimes sit in warehouses because aid groups can't distribute them. MTN, he said, has the "execution culture" necessary to get cell phone masts up across Africa, despite bad roads.
Christina Barrineau of United Against Malaria said Nando's, known for irreverent ads poking fun at South African politicians and mores, brought a "cool factor" to the effort that could spread messages further than finger-wagging from experts.
Chris Thorpe of Nando's said starting late next week, his company's restaurants across Africa and around the world would be selling beaded bracelets for about $3, with a dollar from every sale going to the Global Fund a major supporter of malaria, TB and AIDS projects around the world. The goal was to sell a million of the earth-toned bracelets this year, he said.
The bracelets are made by women in impoverished townships in South Africa who are earning about $200 a month from the project, Thorpe said.
Malaria infects some 300 million people every year around the world. Debilitating symptoms such as fever and joint pain keep sufferers from work and school.
Since 2000, when halting malaria by 2015 was declared one of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, progress has been fitful. When it comes to treatment, the United Nations says, "few countries have expanded coverage since 2000 and most patients often receive less effective medicines." The U.N. also has found that across much of sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of children with symptoms who received anti-malaria medication dropped from 41 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2005.
Preventing and treating malaria is no mystery. Simple bed nets, and educating people about how to use them make a "significant contribution to reducing the burden of malaria," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies concluded this year after studies in Burkina-Faso, Togo and Kenya. The U.N. says the number of nets produced worldwide jumped from 30 million in 2004 to 95 million in 2007.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international medical aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, treats more than 1 million malaria patients every year, using sophisticated, easy to use diagnostic tests and a new generation of medication.
Spanish hospital claims 1st full face transplant
A hospital in Spain says it has carried out the world's first full-face transplant.
The Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona said the patient, a young man, was given an entire new face, including skin, jaws, chin, nose, cheeks, teeth and muscles in a 24-hour operation performed in late March by a 30-member medical team.
The hospital said the patient lost his face in an accident five years ago and has since had to breathe and be fed through tubes.
It said in a statement released late Thursday that there have been 10 partial face transplant operations carried out in the world so far but this is the first involving a person's whole face.
The Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona said the patient, a young man, was given an entire new face, including skin, jaws, chin, nose, cheeks, teeth and muscles in a 24-hour operation performed in late March by a 30-member medical team.
The hospital said the patient lost his face in an accident five years ago and has since had to breathe and be fed through tubes.
It said in a statement released late Thursday that there have been 10 partial face transplant operations carried out in the world so far but this is the first involving a person's whole face.
Scientists spot tantalising clues to mystery of dark matter
Tantalising hints of dark matter — the mysterious substance thought to make up a quarter of the Universe — have been picked up for the first time, in an American laboratory buried half a mile underground.
Scientists working on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), in the disused Soudan iron ore mine in Minnesota, announced that they had detected two events with the signature of the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that are thought to make up dark matter.
If the signals are confirmed by further observations that will begin next year, they would rank as one of the most important recent advances in physics and understanding of the cosmos.
The CDMS researchers emphasised, however, that they were not claiming to have discovered dark matter because there is a good chance that the events were caused by something else.
The probability that the signals were caused by ordinary radioactive decay or cosmic rays is about one in four, they said. A one in 1,000 chance of a random event would be needed to confirm that dark matter has finally been seen.
“In the new data set there are indeed two events seen with characteristics consistent with those expected from WIMPs,” the CDMS team said in a statement. “However, there is also a chance that both events could be due to background particles.
“Scientists have a strict set of criteria for determining whether a new discovery has been made, in essence that the ratio of signal to background events must be large enough that there is no reasonable doubt.
“Typically, there must be less than one chance in a thousand of the signal being due to background. In this case, a signal of about five events would have met those criteria. We estimate that there is about a one in four chance to have seen two background events, so we can make no claim to have discovered WIMPs.”
The nature of dark matter has challenged scientists for more than 70 years. It has been known since the 1930s that the visible matter we can see in stars, galaxies and clouds of cosmic dust accounts for less than 5 per cent of the total mass of the Universe.
Some 25 per cent of the mass is thought to be dark matter, and another 70 per cent to be still more mysterious dark energy. They are known principally from their gravitational effects on galaxies and other normal matter.
The standard explanation for dark matter is that it is composed of particles that barely interact with normal matter, effectively passing straight through the Earth while leaving no trace. This quality — which explains the WIMP acronym — also makes the particles exceptionally difficult to observe.
Several laboratories, including one at Boulby in North Yorkshire, are hunting dark matter using highly sensitive detectors that can pick up very rare incidences where a WIMP collides with a normal atom and scatters particles. All are situated deep underground, to minimise interference from cosmic rays and background radiation.
The Soudan laboratory is currently upgrading its detectors, which should enable it to look for WIMP signals with much greater accuracy.
Pier Oddone, director of the Fermilab physics laboratory near Chicago, which contributed to CDMS, said: “While this result is consistent with dark matter, it is also consistent with backgrounds.
“In 2010, the collaboration is installing an upgraded detector at the Soudan mine with three times the mass and lower backgrounds than the present detectors. If these two events are indeed a dark matter signal, then the upgraded detector will be able to tell.”
Scientists working on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), in the disused Soudan iron ore mine in Minnesota, announced that they had detected two events with the signature of the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that are thought to make up dark matter.
If the signals are confirmed by further observations that will begin next year, they would rank as one of the most important recent advances in physics and understanding of the cosmos.
The CDMS researchers emphasised, however, that they were not claiming to have discovered dark matter because there is a good chance that the events were caused by something else.
The probability that the signals were caused by ordinary radioactive decay or cosmic rays is about one in four, they said. A one in 1,000 chance of a random event would be needed to confirm that dark matter has finally been seen.
“In the new data set there are indeed two events seen with characteristics consistent with those expected from WIMPs,” the CDMS team said in a statement. “However, there is also a chance that both events could be due to background particles.
“Scientists have a strict set of criteria for determining whether a new discovery has been made, in essence that the ratio of signal to background events must be large enough that there is no reasonable doubt.
“Typically, there must be less than one chance in a thousand of the signal being due to background. In this case, a signal of about five events would have met those criteria. We estimate that there is about a one in four chance to have seen two background events, so we can make no claim to have discovered WIMPs.”
The nature of dark matter has challenged scientists for more than 70 years. It has been known since the 1930s that the visible matter we can see in stars, galaxies and clouds of cosmic dust accounts for less than 5 per cent of the total mass of the Universe.
Some 25 per cent of the mass is thought to be dark matter, and another 70 per cent to be still more mysterious dark energy. They are known principally from their gravitational effects on galaxies and other normal matter.
The standard explanation for dark matter is that it is composed of particles that barely interact with normal matter, effectively passing straight through the Earth while leaving no trace. This quality — which explains the WIMP acronym — also makes the particles exceptionally difficult to observe.
Several laboratories, including one at Boulby in North Yorkshire, are hunting dark matter using highly sensitive detectors that can pick up very rare incidences where a WIMP collides with a normal atom and scatters particles. All are situated deep underground, to minimise interference from cosmic rays and background radiation.
The Soudan laboratory is currently upgrading its detectors, which should enable it to look for WIMP signals with much greater accuracy.
Pier Oddone, director of the Fermilab physics laboratory near Chicago, which contributed to CDMS, said: “While this result is consistent with dark matter, it is also consistent with backgrounds.
“In 2010, the collaboration is installing an upgraded detector at the Soudan mine with three times the mass and lower backgrounds than the present detectors. If these two events are indeed a dark matter signal, then the upgraded detector will be able to tell.”
Scientists hail a thoughtful future with ‘brain-to-brain communication’
Ever wanted to read minds? Ever wanted to communicate your thoughts without speaking a word?
It may become possible after claims by British scientists that they have created a system that allows “brain-to-brain communication”, sending messages formed by one person’s brain signals though an internet connection to another person’s brain many miles away.
Christopher James, who worked with colleagues at the University of Southampton, said that his experiments were “the first baby steps” towards technologies that would allow people instantly to send thoughts, words, and images directly into the minds of others.
“This could be useful for those people who are locked into their bodies, who can’t speak, can’t even blink,” Dr James said.
Others have hailed it as the future of the internet, a new way to communicate without the need for keyboards, telephones or even mouths. A decent broadband connection, however, would be essential.
Dr James admitted that we were a long way away from this thoughtful but speechless future. Currently, only a series of binary digits — a sequence of zeros and ones — can be sent between brains.
The scientists used “brain-computer interfacing”, a well-established technique that allows computers to analyse brain signals. Dr James said that his innovation was the transmission of these signals to another person through the internet.
During the transmission two people are hooked up to electrodes that measure activity in specific parts of the brain. The first person generates a series of zeros and ones, imagining moving their left arm for zero and right arm for one.
The first subject’s computer recognises the binary thoughts and sends them over the internet to the second person’s computer. A lamp is then flashed at two different frequencies for one and zero. The second person’s brain signals are analysed after staring at this lamp and the number sequence is picked up by a computer.
It takes about 30 seconds to send four numbers in this way. Dr James said that the next stage was to make the system quicker and simpler.
“It’s not telepathy,” Dr James said. “There’s no conscious thought forming in one person’s head and another conscious thought appearing in another person’s mind.
“The next experiments are to get that second person to be aware of the information that is being sent to them. For that, I need to get my thinking cap on, so to speak.”
He said that his research proved that it would eventually be possible to create a system where people sent messages through their thoughts alone. It would probably require electrodes to be attached inside the skull or even implanted in the brain. Dr James admitted that this opened up many ethical problems.
“How far can you go into someone’s brain? What are the long-term consequences? In principle this is all possible but there are a lot of issues that need to be considered first.”
Experts said that we need not worry just yet. “In 30 years, you’ll think of a message and it will appear on your wife’s mobile phone,” said Dr Ian Pearson, a futurologist who follows trends in advanced computing and communications. “But for that thought to appear in someone else’s mind? That won’t be easy.
“You don’t have to worry about Big Brother recording your thoughts for decades yet."
It may become possible after claims by British scientists that they have created a system that allows “brain-to-brain communication”, sending messages formed by one person’s brain signals though an internet connection to another person’s brain many miles away.
Christopher James, who worked with colleagues at the University of Southampton, said that his experiments were “the first baby steps” towards technologies that would allow people instantly to send thoughts, words, and images directly into the minds of others.
“This could be useful for those people who are locked into their bodies, who can’t speak, can’t even blink,” Dr James said.
Others have hailed it as the future of the internet, a new way to communicate without the need for keyboards, telephones or even mouths. A decent broadband connection, however, would be essential.
Dr James admitted that we were a long way away from this thoughtful but speechless future. Currently, only a series of binary digits — a sequence of zeros and ones — can be sent between brains.
The scientists used “brain-computer interfacing”, a well-established technique that allows computers to analyse brain signals. Dr James said that his innovation was the transmission of these signals to another person through the internet.
During the transmission two people are hooked up to electrodes that measure activity in specific parts of the brain. The first person generates a series of zeros and ones, imagining moving their left arm for zero and right arm for one.
The first subject’s computer recognises the binary thoughts and sends them over the internet to the second person’s computer. A lamp is then flashed at two different frequencies for one and zero. The second person’s brain signals are analysed after staring at this lamp and the number sequence is picked up by a computer.
It takes about 30 seconds to send four numbers in this way. Dr James said that the next stage was to make the system quicker and simpler.
“It’s not telepathy,” Dr James said. “There’s no conscious thought forming in one person’s head and another conscious thought appearing in another person’s mind.
“The next experiments are to get that second person to be aware of the information that is being sent to them. For that, I need to get my thinking cap on, so to speak.”
He said that his research proved that it would eventually be possible to create a system where people sent messages through their thoughts alone. It would probably require electrodes to be attached inside the skull or even implanted in the brain. Dr James admitted that this opened up many ethical problems.
“How far can you go into someone’s brain? What are the long-term consequences? In principle this is all possible but there are a lot of issues that need to be considered first.”
Experts said that we need not worry just yet. “In 30 years, you’ll think of a message and it will appear on your wife’s mobile phone,” said Dr Ian Pearson, a futurologist who follows trends in advanced computing and communications. “But for that thought to appear in someone else’s mind? That won’t be easy.
“You don’t have to worry about Big Brother recording your thoughts for decades yet."
Personal genome sequence is must-have accessory for billionaires, says Knome head
For $70,000 (£42,000), it may not seem like a very good deal: all you get is a polished silver box containing a USB drive on a black velvet tray.
It is the information that is on the drive, however, that counts.
In fact, the data is so valuable that the silver box has become the latest must-have accessory for some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet. So far, fewer than a hundred members of the global elite have managed to get their hands on one — including a handful of Britons, The Times has learnt — and the waiting list is growing by the month.
The USB drive contains a digital version of its owner’s human genome, sequenced and decoded and ready to be browsed on a home computer. It is hoped that such information could soon tell an individual what he or she is likely to die of — and, by extension, what can be done to put off the day of reckoning.
“As recently as 2007, there were only three personalised genomes on the planet,” says Jorge Conde, Chief Executive Officer of Knome, an American company offering the service. “Even last year there were more people who had walked on the Moon than had been sequenced.”
The cost of the procedure is dropping fast, and while $70,000 is a significant expense by even a Wall Street banker’s standards, it seems inconsequential when compared with the $3 billion cost of decoding the very first genome — a project that was completed in 2003, after 13 years. Today the same process takes six to eight weeks. By 2015, says Mr Conde, personalised sequencing is likely to cost under $1,000, and take only days.
For the moment, however, having your own sequenced genome remains the ultimate billionaire’s bragging right — and Knome is happy to indulge in James Bond-style theatrics. The company will dispatch a private doctor to virtually any address in the world to collect the necessary blood sample, while delivery of the silver USB drive is an event in itself. “I’ve been in the homes of a few of my clients, and a lot of them put their USB drives in display cases,” says Mr Conde, 32, who is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Others keep them locked up in safes along with their jewellery.”
The services of Knome and its main rival, Illumina, based in San Diego, are not to be confused with cheaper DNA analysis firms such as 23andMe, founded by Anne Wojcicki, wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin. It uses a saliva-based sample to provide a snapshot of a person’s DNA, rather than a fully sequenced genome. Nevertheless, Ms Wojcicki recently credited 23andMe with discovering her husband’s high risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Many scientists are not as convinced of the argument for expensive personalised genome sequencing — until, that is, a much larger database of genomes is established, and research methods improve. Even Mr Conde admits that the best Knome can offer clients is a guide to the various “unique variances” within their DNA, which could indicate how likely they are to develop certain conditions.
However, Knome says its service is designed to be future-proof. By hooking up a Knome USB drive to a KnomeXplorer computer browser, clients can upload new gene/disease associations as they are discovered. “It’s kind of like iTunes,” says Mr Conde.
Although none of Knome’s clients was willing to talk publicly about the decision to be sequenced — given the Wall Street background of some of the individuals, there are concerns about appearing profligate — the first person to have his genome sequenced by the company is known to be Dan Stoicescu, a Romanian millionaire who lives in Switzerland. He has described himself as a “transhumanist” who believes that life can be extended indefinitely through nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. When asked why he felt compelled to spend $350,000 — the going rate at the time — he said: “I’d rather spend my money on my genome than a Bentley.”
It is the information that is on the drive, however, that counts.
In fact, the data is so valuable that the silver box has become the latest must-have accessory for some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet. So far, fewer than a hundred members of the global elite have managed to get their hands on one — including a handful of Britons, The Times has learnt — and the waiting list is growing by the month.
The USB drive contains a digital version of its owner’s human genome, sequenced and decoded and ready to be browsed on a home computer. It is hoped that such information could soon tell an individual what he or she is likely to die of — and, by extension, what can be done to put off the day of reckoning.
“As recently as 2007, there were only three personalised genomes on the planet,” says Jorge Conde, Chief Executive Officer of Knome, an American company offering the service. “Even last year there were more people who had walked on the Moon than had been sequenced.”
The cost of the procedure is dropping fast, and while $70,000 is a significant expense by even a Wall Street banker’s standards, it seems inconsequential when compared with the $3 billion cost of decoding the very first genome — a project that was completed in 2003, after 13 years. Today the same process takes six to eight weeks. By 2015, says Mr Conde, personalised sequencing is likely to cost under $1,000, and take only days.
For the moment, however, having your own sequenced genome remains the ultimate billionaire’s bragging right — and Knome is happy to indulge in James Bond-style theatrics. The company will dispatch a private doctor to virtually any address in the world to collect the necessary blood sample, while delivery of the silver USB drive is an event in itself. “I’ve been in the homes of a few of my clients, and a lot of them put their USB drives in display cases,” says Mr Conde, 32, who is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Others keep them locked up in safes along with their jewellery.”
The services of Knome and its main rival, Illumina, based in San Diego, are not to be confused with cheaper DNA analysis firms such as 23andMe, founded by Anne Wojcicki, wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin. It uses a saliva-based sample to provide a snapshot of a person’s DNA, rather than a fully sequenced genome. Nevertheless, Ms Wojcicki recently credited 23andMe with discovering her husband’s high risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Many scientists are not as convinced of the argument for expensive personalised genome sequencing — until, that is, a much larger database of genomes is established, and research methods improve. Even Mr Conde admits that the best Knome can offer clients is a guide to the various “unique variances” within their DNA, which could indicate how likely they are to develop certain conditions.
However, Knome says its service is designed to be future-proof. By hooking up a Knome USB drive to a KnomeXplorer computer browser, clients can upload new gene/disease associations as they are discovered. “It’s kind of like iTunes,” says Mr Conde.
Although none of Knome’s clients was willing to talk publicly about the decision to be sequenced — given the Wall Street background of some of the individuals, there are concerns about appearing profligate — the first person to have his genome sequenced by the company is known to be Dan Stoicescu, a Romanian millionaire who lives in Switzerland. He has described himself as a “transhumanist” who believes that life can be extended indefinitely through nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. When asked why he felt compelled to spend $350,000 — the going rate at the time — he said: “I’d rather spend my money on my genome than a Bentley.”
Top scientists share their future predictions
Nothing much is going to happen in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s not counting the diesel-excreting bacteria, the sequencing of your entire genome for $1,000, massive banks of frozen human eggs, space tourism, the identification of dark matter, widespread sterilisation of young adults, telepathy, supercomputer models of our brains, the discovery of life’s origins, maybe the disappearance of Bangladesh and certainly the loss of 247m acres of tropical forest.
As I said, just another decade really.
These days, “just another decade” always means 10 years of future shock. Science, technology and the contemporary mania for change combine to stun the imagination. It is the way we live now, in a condition of permanent technological revolution.
In 2000 — remember? — the internet all but died when the dotcom stock market bubble burst. You could stand on top of the World Trade Center. And mobile phones were just, er, phones. Today, you still get up and eat breakfast, but, outside, it’s a different world.
Next? Well, as Woody Allen said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for the future. But, taking a punt, I reckon the brain is the one to watch. Science has been zeroing in on the 2lb 14oz of grey and white custard-like stuff between your ears for some time now. It’s not been easy. In spite of the evidence of The X Factor, the human brain is very complex custard indeed. But some people are getting very excited.
“By 2020, genetics and brain simulation will be giving us personalised prescriptions for marriage, lifestyle and healthcare.” This is Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain project in Switzerland, an attempt to reverse engineer the brain by building one from the ground up inside a supercomputer.
“We won’t need a psychologist to tell us why we feel unhappy. All we’ll need to do is log into a simulation of our own brain, navigate around in this virtual copy and find out the origins of our quirks ... Computers will look at a virtual copy of our brains and work out exactly what we need to stop our headaches, quiet the voices talking in our heads and climb out of the valley of depression to a world of colour and beauty.”
Gosh. But isn’t there still that pesky problem of other people and their brains? It’s their quirks that tend to get in the way of my happiness. No problem, we can climb inside each other’s brains.
“The big thing for me is being able to link two brains together for communication.” This is Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics scientist at Reading University. “This could have great implications for teaching. Sometimes, no matter how you explain something, it takes forever for the penny to drop.
It would also help to avoid misunderstandings.”
But, eek, what would it be like?
“Well, just like The Matrix with a plug in the back of the head into the brain, or yes, like a Bluetooth earpiece. It would have to be bidirectional, though, so thoughts could travel from you to someone else and back,” says Warwick, who has already implanted a microchip in his own arm so that he can open doors without needing to use a doorknob.
James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule, thinks gene sequencing will be the key to unlock the custard and even stir it. “Disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disease, unipolar depression, obsessive-compulsive disease, attention deficit disorder and autism will finally have their genetic guts open for all to see.”
Some of the most impenetrable and harrowing mental illnesses known to man will, Watson believes, be understandable and maybe even curable.
“The exact location and biological function of the DNA variants causing many depressive disease and related disorders cannot be revealed too soon,” he says.
Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Warwick and Oxford, agrees that brain diseases are the really big nasties. “Some leave sufferers horribly aware as they lose the ability to walk, to talk, to swallow. Others corrupt and destroy the mind, leaving an empty body. Some, such as CJD, are very rare, others frighteningly common. About 700,000 people in the UK have dementia.”
We are seeing more of these diseases because death rates from cancer and heart disease are falling so people are living long enough to develop them. Hope for cures is coming from stem-cell research, genetic and molecular analysis.
“There will be a breakthrough. My hunch is that research on motor neurone disease will provide crucial clues and by 2020 we will know why cells die in some, perhaps many, of these diseases. It could be another decade before we see the impact on health, but by 2020, we must be on the way to this ultimate goal of modern medical science,” says Blakemore.
Meanwhile, sex — you knew it was coming — will be even more recreational than it is now. The pill will continue to be the primary contraceptive device, says its inventor, Carl Djerassi, but sterilisation will be catching up.
“At present, people tend to have children and then are sterilised later on in life. In the future, sterilisation will happen earlier on in a person’s life, with gametes, male and female, extracted and stored in a reproductive bank account... Already we know that male sperm can be frozen for decades, but it is far more difficult to freeze women’s eggs. The problem is not yet solved — this is where research should be directed.”
Baroness Deech, a lawyer and bioethicist, agrees about the freezing thing. Women, she says, will have children later. “Late child-bearing will be assisted by advances in reproductive technology, enabling young women to freeze their eggs in their twenties and postpone child-bearing until it is convenient.”
The other breakthrough that Deech would like to see is “a return to stable two-parent families”. “It should be as acceptable to criticise a man who leaves his family as it is to criticise a smoker,” she says. “We have a great deal of law to protect children from potential abusers, but at the moment we say and do nothing when the greatest harm occurs to children, namely the break-up of their families. In 10 years’ time Britain will no longer be at the bottom of international tables of children’s happiness; marriage rates will rise and divorce fall.”
All very nice but, remember, humans may not be around long enough to enjoy all this. The environment is definitely going to get worse.
“I would love to be able to predict that all tropical deforestation would be halted by 2020,” says George McGavin at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, “but as humans can’t agree on the colour of shite, it is unlikely. My prediction is that the world will lose at least another 100m hectares [247m acres] of tropical forest.”
James Lovelock, our greatest and gloomiest deep green, doesn’t think humans can do much about global warming. It’s just the planet saying that we’ve outstayed our welcome. Nobody knows exactly how bad it will be and how quickly it will happen. But the possibilities are clear.
“As everyone is aware, one of the most threatened of places in the world is Bangladesh, which is in danger of flooding as the sea level rises — and the sea level really is rising. And once Bangladesh floods, there is almost nowhere else for people there to go but India, and it’s difficult to see how things like that could take place peacefully. And it’s things like that, I think, which will be drivers for trouble up ahead.”
Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum and professor of climate science at University College London, says we cannot cut emissions fast enough, so we need to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, perhaps using artificial trees that eat it.
“If it can be achieved, it will allow us to exploit the substantial reserves of oil, gas and coal to sustain society through the inevitably long and hard transition to a low-carbon world, without causing dangerous climate change. If ever there were a technical project that humanity should invest in, this is it.”
Craig Venter, the genetic maverick who first sequenced the human genome, may have one solution. He’s working on making bacteria that excrete diesel, leaving the Saudis wondering what to do with all that oil. “The debate on fuels and energy is blown out of proportion. We are very close to solving the energy needs in a way that will make our children enjoy cheaper and more efficient energy than what we see today,” he says.
We may all be in the same warming, flooded gutter but some of us are looking at the stars. Lord Rees, the astronomer royal and president of the Royal Society, is excited by the fact that we have discovered that most stars seem to have planets, and planets mean life. Possibly.
“Efforts to detect a signal from ‘ET’ are being pursued,” he says. “A new telescope in California, privately funded by the ex-Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, will allow much more sensitive searches than hitherto. I’m enthusiastic about these searches. It would fascinate all of us to detect a signal from space that’s clearly artificial.” Then he adds: “But I’m not holding my breath.”
Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin tycoon, is even more enthusiastic about activity in space in 2020. “Space tourism will have taken off,” he says, Nasa will have a “clear plan to get to Mars with a manned mission” and there will be a space station built on the moon.
“Oh, and before I forget, in 2020 I will be an astronaut along with thousands of others,” he adds.
It’s just another decade of future shock. So it goes. Of course, the real shock will be what actually happens, which is never the same as what people say will happen. But, anyway, the shocking Noughties are over, happy new ... good grief, we haven’t even predicted a name for it!
As I said, just another decade really.
These days, “just another decade” always means 10 years of future shock. Science, technology and the contemporary mania for change combine to stun the imagination. It is the way we live now, in a condition of permanent technological revolution.
In 2000 — remember? — the internet all but died when the dotcom stock market bubble burst. You could stand on top of the World Trade Center. And mobile phones were just, er, phones. Today, you still get up and eat breakfast, but, outside, it’s a different world.
Next? Well, as Woody Allen said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for the future. But, taking a punt, I reckon the brain is the one to watch. Science has been zeroing in on the 2lb 14oz of grey and white custard-like stuff between your ears for some time now. It’s not been easy. In spite of the evidence of The X Factor, the human brain is very complex custard indeed. But some people are getting very excited.
“By 2020, genetics and brain simulation will be giving us personalised prescriptions for marriage, lifestyle and healthcare.” This is Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain project in Switzerland, an attempt to reverse engineer the brain by building one from the ground up inside a supercomputer.
“We won’t need a psychologist to tell us why we feel unhappy. All we’ll need to do is log into a simulation of our own brain, navigate around in this virtual copy and find out the origins of our quirks ... Computers will look at a virtual copy of our brains and work out exactly what we need to stop our headaches, quiet the voices talking in our heads and climb out of the valley of depression to a world of colour and beauty.”
Gosh. But isn’t there still that pesky problem of other people and their brains? It’s their quirks that tend to get in the way of my happiness. No problem, we can climb inside each other’s brains.
“The big thing for me is being able to link two brains together for communication.” This is Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics scientist at Reading University. “This could have great implications for teaching. Sometimes, no matter how you explain something, it takes forever for the penny to drop.
It would also help to avoid misunderstandings.”
But, eek, what would it be like?
“Well, just like The Matrix with a plug in the back of the head into the brain, or yes, like a Bluetooth earpiece. It would have to be bidirectional, though, so thoughts could travel from you to someone else and back,” says Warwick, who has already implanted a microchip in his own arm so that he can open doors without needing to use a doorknob.
James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule, thinks gene sequencing will be the key to unlock the custard and even stir it. “Disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disease, unipolar depression, obsessive-compulsive disease, attention deficit disorder and autism will finally have their genetic guts open for all to see.”
Some of the most impenetrable and harrowing mental illnesses known to man will, Watson believes, be understandable and maybe even curable.
“The exact location and biological function of the DNA variants causing many depressive disease and related disorders cannot be revealed too soon,” he says.
Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Warwick and Oxford, agrees that brain diseases are the really big nasties. “Some leave sufferers horribly aware as they lose the ability to walk, to talk, to swallow. Others corrupt and destroy the mind, leaving an empty body. Some, such as CJD, are very rare, others frighteningly common. About 700,000 people in the UK have dementia.”
We are seeing more of these diseases because death rates from cancer and heart disease are falling so people are living long enough to develop them. Hope for cures is coming from stem-cell research, genetic and molecular analysis.
“There will be a breakthrough. My hunch is that research on motor neurone disease will provide crucial clues and by 2020 we will know why cells die in some, perhaps many, of these diseases. It could be another decade before we see the impact on health, but by 2020, we must be on the way to this ultimate goal of modern medical science,” says Blakemore.
Meanwhile, sex — you knew it was coming — will be even more recreational than it is now. The pill will continue to be the primary contraceptive device, says its inventor, Carl Djerassi, but sterilisation will be catching up.
“At present, people tend to have children and then are sterilised later on in life. In the future, sterilisation will happen earlier on in a person’s life, with gametes, male and female, extracted and stored in a reproductive bank account... Already we know that male sperm can be frozen for decades, but it is far more difficult to freeze women’s eggs. The problem is not yet solved — this is where research should be directed.”
Baroness Deech, a lawyer and bioethicist, agrees about the freezing thing. Women, she says, will have children later. “Late child-bearing will be assisted by advances in reproductive technology, enabling young women to freeze their eggs in their twenties and postpone child-bearing until it is convenient.”
The other breakthrough that Deech would like to see is “a return to stable two-parent families”. “It should be as acceptable to criticise a man who leaves his family as it is to criticise a smoker,” she says. “We have a great deal of law to protect children from potential abusers, but at the moment we say and do nothing when the greatest harm occurs to children, namely the break-up of their families. In 10 years’ time Britain will no longer be at the bottom of international tables of children’s happiness; marriage rates will rise and divorce fall.”
All very nice but, remember, humans may not be around long enough to enjoy all this. The environment is definitely going to get worse.
“I would love to be able to predict that all tropical deforestation would be halted by 2020,” says George McGavin at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, “but as humans can’t agree on the colour of shite, it is unlikely. My prediction is that the world will lose at least another 100m hectares [247m acres] of tropical forest.”
James Lovelock, our greatest and gloomiest deep green, doesn’t think humans can do much about global warming. It’s just the planet saying that we’ve outstayed our welcome. Nobody knows exactly how bad it will be and how quickly it will happen. But the possibilities are clear.
“As everyone is aware, one of the most threatened of places in the world is Bangladesh, which is in danger of flooding as the sea level rises — and the sea level really is rising. And once Bangladesh floods, there is almost nowhere else for people there to go but India, and it’s difficult to see how things like that could take place peacefully. And it’s things like that, I think, which will be drivers for trouble up ahead.”
Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum and professor of climate science at University College London, says we cannot cut emissions fast enough, so we need to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, perhaps using artificial trees that eat it.
“If it can be achieved, it will allow us to exploit the substantial reserves of oil, gas and coal to sustain society through the inevitably long and hard transition to a low-carbon world, without causing dangerous climate change. If ever there were a technical project that humanity should invest in, this is it.”
Craig Venter, the genetic maverick who first sequenced the human genome, may have one solution. He’s working on making bacteria that excrete diesel, leaving the Saudis wondering what to do with all that oil. “The debate on fuels and energy is blown out of proportion. We are very close to solving the energy needs in a way that will make our children enjoy cheaper and more efficient energy than what we see today,” he says.
We may all be in the same warming, flooded gutter but some of us are looking at the stars. Lord Rees, the astronomer royal and president of the Royal Society, is excited by the fact that we have discovered that most stars seem to have planets, and planets mean life. Possibly.
“Efforts to detect a signal from ‘ET’ are being pursued,” he says. “A new telescope in California, privately funded by the ex-Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, will allow much more sensitive searches than hitherto. I’m enthusiastic about these searches. It would fascinate all of us to detect a signal from space that’s clearly artificial.” Then he adds: “But I’m not holding my breath.”
Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin tycoon, is even more enthusiastic about activity in space in 2020. “Space tourism will have taken off,” he says, Nasa will have a “clear plan to get to Mars with a manned mission” and there will be a space station built on the moon.
“Oh, and before I forget, in 2020 I will be an astronaut along with thousands of others,” he adds.
It’s just another decade of future shock. So it goes. Of course, the real shock will be what actually happens, which is never the same as what people say will happen. But, anyway, the shocking Noughties are over, happy new ... good grief, we haven’t even predicted a name for it!
Ten Best Health Websites
Feeling off-colour? Don’t ask Dr Google about your ailment: your search will return page after page of the modern equivalent of snake-oil salesmen and quack medical forums. We’ve selected 10 tried-and-tested sites where you can find genuine medical advice, although you should always consult your doctor if in doubt.
1 NHS.uk
The excellent companion site to the NHS’s phone line focuses on in-depth information and topical guides: hay fever and swine flu are now top of the list. It’s easy on the eye, ad-free and simple to use. It’ll either put your mind at ease or tell you to call a doc, pronto.
2 WebMD.com
America’s top health site boasts 17m users a month and is easy to use — equal parts potential lifesaver and hypochondriac heaven. A great feature is the review of prescription medicines by
3 NetDoctor.co.uk
This long-established site packages videos, forums and advice, as well as the malingerer’s best friend: a description of every ailment (and its symptoms) known to man.
4 MedicineNet.com
Particularly recommended for its photo slideshows, which can, for example, help you identify insects and their bites and give you a masterclass in birthmarks.
5 ExerciseTV.tv
Many sites try to charge for their workouts, but you can get them free here. ExerciseTV is tailored towards, but not exclusively for, women — there are plenty of videos aimed at men wanting to look good in a T-shirt.
6 RealAge.com
You need to register (free) and dodge the occasional question designed to sell you stuff you don’t need, but once you get going this site lets you input personal data before it gives a verdict on how old you “really” are, based on your lifestyle. You need info on your blood pressure and cholesterol levels to hand.
7 MedHelp.org
This claims to be the world’s largest
health “community”, and its forums are among the liveliest online, with topics on almost anything you can think of. Once registered, you can send a question to the site’s resident doctors.
8 ChooseAndBook.NHS.uk
The electronic bookings and referrals system for England promises a choice of at least four hospitals or clinics for any medical appointment. A useful jumping-off point for investigating the statistics of local hospitals.
9 eMC.medicines.org.uk
Mislaid your prescription leaflet and need to know if that swelling on your ear is a known side effect or not? Search the EMC database of 6,500 medicines, all with downloadable PDFs of the original sheets. Also searchable by active ingredient and dosage.
10 MaleHealth.co.uk
A good site run by a charity, the Men’s Health Forum. We dare you to read the vasectomy diary without involuntarily crossing your legs.
1 NHS.uk
The excellent companion site to the NHS’s phone line focuses on in-depth information and topical guides: hay fever and swine flu are now top of the list. It’s easy on the eye, ad-free and simple to use. It’ll either put your mind at ease or tell you to call a doc, pronto.
2 WebMD.com
America’s top health site boasts 17m users a month and is easy to use — equal parts potential lifesaver and hypochondriac heaven. A great feature is the review of prescription medicines by
3 NetDoctor.co.uk
This long-established site packages videos, forums and advice, as well as the malingerer’s best friend: a description of every ailment (and its symptoms) known to man.
4 MedicineNet.com
Particularly recommended for its photo slideshows, which can, for example, help you identify insects and their bites and give you a masterclass in birthmarks.
5 ExerciseTV.tv
Many sites try to charge for their workouts, but you can get them free here. ExerciseTV is tailored towards, but not exclusively for, women — there are plenty of videos aimed at men wanting to look good in a T-shirt.
6 RealAge.com
You need to register (free) and dodge the occasional question designed to sell you stuff you don’t need, but once you get going this site lets you input personal data before it gives a verdict on how old you “really” are, based on your lifestyle. You need info on your blood pressure and cholesterol levels to hand.
7 MedHelp.org
This claims to be the world’s largest
health “community”, and its forums are among the liveliest online, with topics on almost anything you can think of. Once registered, you can send a question to the site’s resident doctors.
8 ChooseAndBook.NHS.uk
The electronic bookings and referrals system for England promises a choice of at least four hospitals or clinics for any medical appointment. A useful jumping-off point for investigating the statistics of local hospitals.
9 eMC.medicines.org.uk
Mislaid your prescription leaflet and need to know if that swelling on your ear is a known side effect or not? Search the EMC database of 6,500 medicines, all with downloadable PDFs of the original sheets. Also searchable by active ingredient and dosage.
10 MaleHealth.co.uk
A good site run by a charity, the Men’s Health Forum. We dare you to read the vasectomy diary without involuntarily crossing your legs.
Emotional rescue for doctors who cannot heal themselves
The steel-framed door tucked between a Tesco and a hardware shop on a busy South London street is neat and anonymous. And for doctors such as John who pass through it, safe in the knowledge that their confidences will be protected, it is the salvation from years, if not decades, of chaotic health battles fought in silence.
John, now in his early 40s, was an accomplished GP until a mix of stress, depression and addiction took control of his life. A decision to start self-medicating — a bit of valium “just to take the edge off work” — spiralled into a dependency almost without bounds. John became the most high-functioning of addicts; a GP who would administer powerful sedatives to cancer sufferers on house calls before heading home to finish off the vial of diamorphine. Five milligrams, as recommended, for the patients — then five times that amount for himself. He would spend the remainder of the evening slumped in the “whatever” euphoria associated with the drug’s more common name: heroin.
The doctor describes his years of alcohol and drug abuse as an exercise in personal and professional self-denial, fuelled in part by a health service that struggles to help its own practitioners when they need it most.
Speaking to The Times about how he came to confront his condition, John struggled to keep his emotions in check. “It was the gift of desperation,” he said, describing how fears of coming to the attention of medical regulators and colleagues — of being seen as “a doctor who couldn’t even look after himself” — fell away with the realisation that it was a simple choice: help or death. “The most important thing was staying alive.”
When John stepped through that unmarked door in South London he joined the Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), the first NHS clinic to offer care and counselling for doctors, and in confidence. John’s ordeal may sound extreme, but it is far from unique. A government review published last year suggested that more than a third of the health service workforce is in moderate to poor mental health. Figures from the PHP’s first year show that 184 doctors and dentists sought help from the service, with some as young as their mid-20s and the oldest a few months short of retirement. Almost half have been women.
Mental health problems were cited by 114 of them, ranging from depression and anxiety to undiagnosed psychosis, eating disorders and obsessive behaviour. A further 67 had addictions, with alcohol the main crutch but also including ketamine, cocaine and heroin. A small number attended with physical problems, such as cancer, deafness and multiple sclerosis.
All had been competent health professionals at some stage in their lives, and all had struggled to access NHS care in a form with which they could cope — be it GPs, dentists, psychiatrists, surgeons or junior doctors.
For Clare Gerada, head of the PHP and a family doctor with expertise in psychiatry and substance misuse, the work has been satisfying — the outreach is working — but a worrying insight into how entrenched the problem has become.
“[The doctors] can be catastrophically humiliated and ashamed at what has happened, but they feel an immense sense of relief to be able to tell their story. It could be for the first time in 20 years — for many of them it has been the first time they have had that conversation. And if they weren’t a doctor it would have been one that they had with their own GP many moons ago.”
The pressures that John felt before joining the PHP last year — both professionally and in his personal relationships, where his partner was expecting a child — are echoed in reports from others in similar trouble. The dentist dependent on tranquillisers who ended up in inpatient rehabilitation after his attempts at forced abstinence brought on a mental breakdown; the junior doctor with psychiatric complaints now back in training; the alcoholic GP petrified at “who will see the referral letter” now teetotal and back treating patients.
On arriving at the surgery, the doctors (known as practitioner-patients in the paperwork) are ushered through to a consulting room immediately. Some initial contact will have been made already, although as Dr Gerada observes, their wariness can make things quite cryptic.
“They can e-mail using hotmail addresses, which are often strange and created just to send [the message], and it might say ‘I am a doctor and I think I’m being chased by dogs’. You might think that’s ridiculous, but we will ring them back and say, ‘We are here’.
“No matter how strange their query is, we will chase them up, because we have learnt that what they are ringing up for is something very serious and very real.”
When doctors such as John — whose name has been changed — book into the clinic, they enter a surgery much like any other, and one that also serves the local community in southwest London. They pass the familiar posters about repeat prescriptions and swine flu reminders to consulting rooms where a two-hour assessment takes place. Problems are discussed and observed, follow-up is arranged and the beginnings of a treatment plan fall into place.
For John, as with so many, the greatest fear about being logged in the system was that he might come under the scrutiny of the General Medical Council, the professional regulator. The GP had managed to stay under the radar in part because of his work as a locum, covering out-of-hours calls over a large, dispersed community. His dependence on opiates between shifts grew rapidly, fuelled by the stress of “stupid amounts of contacts with a very demanding public”.
A patient suffering severe pain from kidney stones might receive between 50 and 100 milligrams of pethadine; John reached a stage where he was injecting 600 milligrams a night. Two years ago his prescribing habits drew the attention of the local primary care trust, which, following post-Shipman protocols, made inquiries.
“I bluffed it,” John said of his success at persuading them that nothing was amiss. When off duty — his locum shifts involved two weeks work, then ten days off — he reverted to alcohol, “maybe two or three bottles of wine a night”.
At one point his mental health deteriorated to the point that he stopped work, telling colleagues that he was suffering from exhaustion. A return to medicine brought the demons back, and two suicide attempts followed.
“It was only at the very end that I really was aware. Doctors are well-educated, you can make up all the excuses you need. I thought, ‘I cannot be in this position. I’m still seeing lots of patients, I’m still getting lots of thank you letters.’ That was the big blindfold. I was still performing and doing a good job, but inside I was really struggling.”
Determined not to risk a six-figure salary and his medical future with a GMC inquiry, John sought help in confidential circles outside the NHS system. Until recently the British Doctors and Dentists Group and the Sick Doctors’ Trust — commendable self-help organisations involving sufferers, survivors and their families — were a desperate doctor’s only route to rescue. Then came the PHP, and a formal programme back to good health.
Dr Gerada is quick to point out that this involves the regulator where necessary — if there is any risk to the practitioner-patient or their patients. A third of doctors arrived as subjects of GMC or General Dental Council inquiries. The PHP team identified 24 “high-risk” doctors; six were advised to contact the regulator and five removed themselves from work. Three quarters of cases remained in, or returned to, their medical careers after contact with the service.
No such help was on hand for Daksha Emson, a woman cited by Dr Gerada as the genesis of her programme. Dr Emson, a psychiatric specialist registrar, suffered from bipolar affective disorder. In October 2000 she stabbed her three-month-old daughter Freya, then herself, doused them both in an inflammable liquid and set it alight. Freya died of smoke inhalation. Dr Emson, then 34, died in a burns unit three weeks later.
An inquiry found that the trainee psychiatrist had not only been failed by the NHS, but also that she had received “a significantly poorer standard of care than that which her own patients might have expected”. She had gone to considerable lengths to conceal her illness because of fears of how the subsequent stigma would have “haunted her work, life and treatment”.
Such stigma is identified by Professor Alastair Scotland, director of the National Clinical Assessment Service, as one of the four “S”s that leave doctors invisible to an NHS that should be caring for them as much as any other citizen. He believes that the PHP has finally provided a means of addressing stress, self-treatment, stigma and system constraints (the problems of accessing the right specialist treatment).
“It is introducing a culture change,” he said. “One of the most important things we want to get across to staff is it’s OK to be human. This lowers the stigma, reduces the stress, makes inappropriate self-treatment less likely and will ensure you get the most suitable care.”
At the PHP this includes all conventional mental health and addiction therapies, such as courses in cognitive behavioural therapy and substitute opiate medication. It can involve regular blood, hair and urine tests to monitor abstinence, and access to a financial adviser to help to rebuild doctors’ chaotic accounts.
Dr Gerada, who was elected last month to be the next president of the Royal College of GPs after pushing doctors’ wellbeing, said that the financial plight of some had been particularly striking. “I have been very surprised at the number of doctors who are effectively homeless. About ten were staying on friends’ floors, and others living in B&Bs or sheltered accommodation.”
So far, Dr Gerada’s clinic has mainly served doctors within the M25, but there are plans for programmes in Newcastle and Wiltshire. As Professor Scotland observes, it has proved to be invaluable service which, after 18 months and appointments for 300-plus doctors, is now developing into a key intervention.
At an average cost of £5,000 per patient — compared with the £200,000-plus spent on training and disciplining every doctor — it is money well spent. “We felt initially it was just tip of the iceberg stuff,” Dr Gerada said. “But now it feels like we are starting to reach doctors earlier in their conditions, which is real progress.”
Progress for John has seen his PHP contacts cut to the occassional meeting, a hair test every three months, and a chance to rebuild his medical career. GMC conditions placed on his doctor’s licence have been lifted, and he now follows a set of voluntary undertakings. Eleven months after going “cold turkey” on opiates, benzodiazepine, alcohol and cigarettes, he has yet to return to general practice, but is working instead on qualifications in counselling and drug misuse “to give something back”.
“The PHP has been just brilliant. They helped me tell the GMC, and they too were very supportive,” he said. “I am happier now than I have ever been. Maybe I should have been able to do it myself, but I needed to hand over the care. I needed that help. If it wasn’t for the PHP I would probably be dead. The PHP and chocolate.”
John, now in his early 40s, was an accomplished GP until a mix of stress, depression and addiction took control of his life. A decision to start self-medicating — a bit of valium “just to take the edge off work” — spiralled into a dependency almost without bounds. John became the most high-functioning of addicts; a GP who would administer powerful sedatives to cancer sufferers on house calls before heading home to finish off the vial of diamorphine. Five milligrams, as recommended, for the patients — then five times that amount for himself. He would spend the remainder of the evening slumped in the “whatever” euphoria associated with the drug’s more common name: heroin.
The doctor describes his years of alcohol and drug abuse as an exercise in personal and professional self-denial, fuelled in part by a health service that struggles to help its own practitioners when they need it most.
Speaking to The Times about how he came to confront his condition, John struggled to keep his emotions in check. “It was the gift of desperation,” he said, describing how fears of coming to the attention of medical regulators and colleagues — of being seen as “a doctor who couldn’t even look after himself” — fell away with the realisation that it was a simple choice: help or death. “The most important thing was staying alive.”
When John stepped through that unmarked door in South London he joined the Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), the first NHS clinic to offer care and counselling for doctors, and in confidence. John’s ordeal may sound extreme, but it is far from unique. A government review published last year suggested that more than a third of the health service workforce is in moderate to poor mental health. Figures from the PHP’s first year show that 184 doctors and dentists sought help from the service, with some as young as their mid-20s and the oldest a few months short of retirement. Almost half have been women.
Mental health problems were cited by 114 of them, ranging from depression and anxiety to undiagnosed psychosis, eating disorders and obsessive behaviour. A further 67 had addictions, with alcohol the main crutch but also including ketamine, cocaine and heroin. A small number attended with physical problems, such as cancer, deafness and multiple sclerosis.
All had been competent health professionals at some stage in their lives, and all had struggled to access NHS care in a form with which they could cope — be it GPs, dentists, psychiatrists, surgeons or junior doctors.
For Clare Gerada, head of the PHP and a family doctor with expertise in psychiatry and substance misuse, the work has been satisfying — the outreach is working — but a worrying insight into how entrenched the problem has become.
“[The doctors] can be catastrophically humiliated and ashamed at what has happened, but they feel an immense sense of relief to be able to tell their story. It could be for the first time in 20 years — for many of them it has been the first time they have had that conversation. And if they weren’t a doctor it would have been one that they had with their own GP many moons ago.”
The pressures that John felt before joining the PHP last year — both professionally and in his personal relationships, where his partner was expecting a child — are echoed in reports from others in similar trouble. The dentist dependent on tranquillisers who ended up in inpatient rehabilitation after his attempts at forced abstinence brought on a mental breakdown; the junior doctor with psychiatric complaints now back in training; the alcoholic GP petrified at “who will see the referral letter” now teetotal and back treating patients.
On arriving at the surgery, the doctors (known as practitioner-patients in the paperwork) are ushered through to a consulting room immediately. Some initial contact will have been made already, although as Dr Gerada observes, their wariness can make things quite cryptic.
“They can e-mail using hotmail addresses, which are often strange and created just to send [the message], and it might say ‘I am a doctor and I think I’m being chased by dogs’. You might think that’s ridiculous, but we will ring them back and say, ‘We are here’.
“No matter how strange their query is, we will chase them up, because we have learnt that what they are ringing up for is something very serious and very real.”
When doctors such as John — whose name has been changed — book into the clinic, they enter a surgery much like any other, and one that also serves the local community in southwest London. They pass the familiar posters about repeat prescriptions and swine flu reminders to consulting rooms where a two-hour assessment takes place. Problems are discussed and observed, follow-up is arranged and the beginnings of a treatment plan fall into place.
For John, as with so many, the greatest fear about being logged in the system was that he might come under the scrutiny of the General Medical Council, the professional regulator. The GP had managed to stay under the radar in part because of his work as a locum, covering out-of-hours calls over a large, dispersed community. His dependence on opiates between shifts grew rapidly, fuelled by the stress of “stupid amounts of contacts with a very demanding public”.
A patient suffering severe pain from kidney stones might receive between 50 and 100 milligrams of pethadine; John reached a stage where he was injecting 600 milligrams a night. Two years ago his prescribing habits drew the attention of the local primary care trust, which, following post-Shipman protocols, made inquiries.
“I bluffed it,” John said of his success at persuading them that nothing was amiss. When off duty — his locum shifts involved two weeks work, then ten days off — he reverted to alcohol, “maybe two or three bottles of wine a night”.
At one point his mental health deteriorated to the point that he stopped work, telling colleagues that he was suffering from exhaustion. A return to medicine brought the demons back, and two suicide attempts followed.
“It was only at the very end that I really was aware. Doctors are well-educated, you can make up all the excuses you need. I thought, ‘I cannot be in this position. I’m still seeing lots of patients, I’m still getting lots of thank you letters.’ That was the big blindfold. I was still performing and doing a good job, but inside I was really struggling.”
Determined not to risk a six-figure salary and his medical future with a GMC inquiry, John sought help in confidential circles outside the NHS system. Until recently the British Doctors and Dentists Group and the Sick Doctors’ Trust — commendable self-help organisations involving sufferers, survivors and their families — were a desperate doctor’s only route to rescue. Then came the PHP, and a formal programme back to good health.
Dr Gerada is quick to point out that this involves the regulator where necessary — if there is any risk to the practitioner-patient or their patients. A third of doctors arrived as subjects of GMC or General Dental Council inquiries. The PHP team identified 24 “high-risk” doctors; six were advised to contact the regulator and five removed themselves from work. Three quarters of cases remained in, or returned to, their medical careers after contact with the service.
No such help was on hand for Daksha Emson, a woman cited by Dr Gerada as the genesis of her programme. Dr Emson, a psychiatric specialist registrar, suffered from bipolar affective disorder. In October 2000 she stabbed her three-month-old daughter Freya, then herself, doused them both in an inflammable liquid and set it alight. Freya died of smoke inhalation. Dr Emson, then 34, died in a burns unit three weeks later.
An inquiry found that the trainee psychiatrist had not only been failed by the NHS, but also that she had received “a significantly poorer standard of care than that which her own patients might have expected”. She had gone to considerable lengths to conceal her illness because of fears of how the subsequent stigma would have “haunted her work, life and treatment”.
Such stigma is identified by Professor Alastair Scotland, director of the National Clinical Assessment Service, as one of the four “S”s that leave doctors invisible to an NHS that should be caring for them as much as any other citizen. He believes that the PHP has finally provided a means of addressing stress, self-treatment, stigma and system constraints (the problems of accessing the right specialist treatment).
“It is introducing a culture change,” he said. “One of the most important things we want to get across to staff is it’s OK to be human. This lowers the stigma, reduces the stress, makes inappropriate self-treatment less likely and will ensure you get the most suitable care.”
At the PHP this includes all conventional mental health and addiction therapies, such as courses in cognitive behavioural therapy and substitute opiate medication. It can involve regular blood, hair and urine tests to monitor abstinence, and access to a financial adviser to help to rebuild doctors’ chaotic accounts.
Dr Gerada, who was elected last month to be the next president of the Royal College of GPs after pushing doctors’ wellbeing, said that the financial plight of some had been particularly striking. “I have been very surprised at the number of doctors who are effectively homeless. About ten were staying on friends’ floors, and others living in B&Bs or sheltered accommodation.”
So far, Dr Gerada’s clinic has mainly served doctors within the M25, but there are plans for programmes in Newcastle and Wiltshire. As Professor Scotland observes, it has proved to be invaluable service which, after 18 months and appointments for 300-plus doctors, is now developing into a key intervention.
At an average cost of £5,000 per patient — compared with the £200,000-plus spent on training and disciplining every doctor — it is money well spent. “We felt initially it was just tip of the iceberg stuff,” Dr Gerada said. “But now it feels like we are starting to reach doctors earlier in their conditions, which is real progress.”
Progress for John has seen his PHP contacts cut to the occassional meeting, a hair test every three months, and a chance to rebuild his medical career. GMC conditions placed on his doctor’s licence have been lifted, and he now follows a set of voluntary undertakings. Eleven months after going “cold turkey” on opiates, benzodiazepine, alcohol and cigarettes, he has yet to return to general practice, but is working instead on qualifications in counselling and drug misuse “to give something back”.
“The PHP has been just brilliant. They helped me tell the GMC, and they too were very supportive,” he said. “I am happier now than I have ever been. Maybe I should have been able to do it myself, but I needed to hand over the care. I needed that help. If it wasn’t for the PHP I would probably be dead. The PHP and chocolate.”
The 10 best fitness websites
If you want to get fit for the new year, you’ll find there’s more to exercise and electronics than simply working out with Wii Fit. You can go online to help you to count your carbs, plan a training schedule and compete with friends. But how to tell the supergyms from the charlatans? Start with our hand-picked top 10.
1 nikeplus.com
Nike+ is a sensor that fits inside Nike trainers and wirelessly sends running data to a paired Apple iPod Nano, Touch or iPhone 3GS. Smart. Even smarter is the fact that your times and distances can then be uploaded to this site, on which you can view goals, share running routes with friends and challenge them to beat your time. The long-distance runner doesn’t have to be lonely any more.
2 bikely.com
Bored of slogging down the local canal towpath? Just type in the area where you’d like to ride and Bikely tracks down a wealth of maps posted by fellow pedallers to help get your cycle fitness regime back on track.
3 menshealth.co.uk
The website of Britain’s top-selling men’s magazine is easy to get into and features training tips for everyone — not just the buff types who adorn its cover month after month. The 15-minute workouts are especially good.
4 djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html
For any fitness fanatic who has yet to assemble a decent workout playlist, this Californian DJ offers free, downloadable dance mixes at everything from 130 to a furious 180 beats-per-minute.
5 gimme20.com
A networking site for healthy, active types that lets you blog, form groups and more. Sharing your fitness woes and triumphs proves surprisingly motivating.
6 dailyburn.com
DailyBurn claims that, on average, its 300,000 members lose 6.2lb of fat. Download its app for the iPhone, and nutritional data for 200,000 products are at your fingertips.
7 fitness.tv
The satellite TV channel is upbeat and fun, and is streamed live on its website. There is also a searchable archive of programmes, but you’ll have to register to watch them.
8 mapmyrun.com
A brilliantly simple website that loads a map of where you intend to run, then lets you use a mouse to draw your route and see how far it is. Then, once you’ve done the run — or any of the 12,000 routes already uploaded — key in some timing details and it will tell you your speed, pace and calories burnt.
9 wildswimming.co.uk
Spun off from the eponymous book, Wild Swimming allows you to add your favourite stretches of water, complete with photos, to maps of rivers and beaches. Regional Facebook groups bring in a community feel to the whole enterprise.
10 gymtechnik.com
If your gym has wi-fi, Gymtechnik lets you use your BlackBerry, iPhone or Android handset as a workout journal. Access pre-planned workouts; keep track of progress; phone for a doctor when you’ve overdone it.
1 nikeplus.com
Nike+ is a sensor that fits inside Nike trainers and wirelessly sends running data to a paired Apple iPod Nano, Touch or iPhone 3GS. Smart. Even smarter is the fact that your times and distances can then be uploaded to this site, on which you can view goals, share running routes with friends and challenge them to beat your time. The long-distance runner doesn’t have to be lonely any more.
2 bikely.com
Bored of slogging down the local canal towpath? Just type in the area where you’d like to ride and Bikely tracks down a wealth of maps posted by fellow pedallers to help get your cycle fitness regime back on track.
3 menshealth.co.uk
The website of Britain’s top-selling men’s magazine is easy to get into and features training tips for everyone — not just the buff types who adorn its cover month after month. The 15-minute workouts are especially good.
4 djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html
For any fitness fanatic who has yet to assemble a decent workout playlist, this Californian DJ offers free, downloadable dance mixes at everything from 130 to a furious 180 beats-per-minute.
5 gimme20.com
A networking site for healthy, active types that lets you blog, form groups and more. Sharing your fitness woes and triumphs proves surprisingly motivating.
6 dailyburn.com
DailyBurn claims that, on average, its 300,000 members lose 6.2lb of fat. Download its app for the iPhone, and nutritional data for 200,000 products are at your fingertips.
7 fitness.tv
The satellite TV channel is upbeat and fun, and is streamed live on its website. There is also a searchable archive of programmes, but you’ll have to register to watch them.
8 mapmyrun.com
A brilliantly simple website that loads a map of where you intend to run, then lets you use a mouse to draw your route and see how far it is. Then, once you’ve done the run — or any of the 12,000 routes already uploaded — key in some timing details and it will tell you your speed, pace and calories burnt.
9 wildswimming.co.uk
Spun off from the eponymous book, Wild Swimming allows you to add your favourite stretches of water, complete with photos, to maps of rivers and beaches. Regional Facebook groups bring in a community feel to the whole enterprise.
10 gymtechnik.com
If your gym has wi-fi, Gymtechnik lets you use your BlackBerry, iPhone or Android handset as a workout journal. Access pre-planned workouts; keep track of progress; phone for a doctor when you’ve overdone it.
Sindrom Takut Penis Hilang
Penis adalah modal utama dalam kehidupan seks pria. Tanpa penis mungkin seorang pria tidak bisa menjalani kehidupan seks dengan baik. Inilah yang menyebabkan sebagian pria mengalami sindrom takut kehilangan penis.
Banyak orang yang belum pernah mendengar tentang koro. Ini adalah kondisi mental yang jarang terjadi. Penderita koro memiliki rasa takut yang irasional, takut alat kelamin eksternalnya mengalami penyusutan atau bahkan menghilang.
Koro sebagian besar terjadi pada pria, yang khawatir bahwa penis mereka akan menghilang. Hanya sebagian kecil kasus terjadi pada wanita, yang takut bagian-bagian tubuhnya seperti vulva dan puting payudara menyusut.
Sindrom ini paling sering ditemui di China Selatan dan tempat lain di Asia Tenggara, terutama Malaysia dan Indonesia. Koro diakui sebagai penyakit menular seksual dalam pengobatan tradisional China.
Sindrom ini dikenal sejak zaman kuno, dengan munculnya serangkaian wabah epidemi pada abad ke-20, yang berakhir pada tahun 1980-an.
Koro paling umum terjadi di kalangan pria etnis China. Selain juga terjadi di penduduk India asli, Nepal dan Thailand. Sejak akhir tahun 1990-an, serangkaian laporan menyatakan wabah ini sering dikaitkan dengan rumor ilmu sihir dan telah menyebar dari Afrika Barat sampai Sudan dan Kongo.
Penderita koro biasanya mengalami kecemasan intens yang tiba-tiba, yang berlangsung selama beberapa jam sampai dua hari. Kondisi ini bisa kronis dan berulang.
Seperti dilansir dari Health24, selain takut dengan penyusutan penis, pencabutan dan penghilangan penis, gejala lain pada sindrom koro adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Persepsi bahwa bentuk dan otot penis berubah
2. Takut dengan kemandulan dan kehilangan daya seksual
3. Takut kegilaan, semangat kepemilikan dan ancaman kematian
Penderita koro dikenalkan untuk mencoba meredakan ketakutan mereka dengan 'menarik penis manual atau mekanis' atau 'menahan' penis mereka dengan menggunakan tali atau semacam alat penjepit.
Padahal pemeriksaan medis menunjukkan tidak ada kasus penyusutan penis yang sebenarnya. Koro hanyalah sebuah fobia atau ketakutan yang tidak rasional, karena tidak ada bukti medis bahwa penis dapat menghilang, kecuali akibat kecelakaan atau pisau bedah.
Namun, hal yang pasti terjadi adalah penis akan mengalami perubahan sejalan dengan bertambahnya usia.
Perubahan seksual pertama terjadi pada usia 30 tahun hingga usia menengah dan tua. Beberapa perubahan yang paling menonjol terlihat adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Penurunan tingkat testosteron alami dengan bertambahnya usia, menyebabkan fungsi seksual pria cenderung menurun juga. Kualitas dan volume sperma lebih rendah, serta penurunan kecepatan, kualitas dan pertahanan ereksi.
2. Yang umum pada pria tua, berat badan dapat menyebabkan penurunan ukuran penis yang terlihat, karena adanya lemak perut yang bisa mengubur batang penis.
3. Banyak pria juga mengalami sedikit penurunan ukuran yang sebenarnya karena usia, baik panjang maupun tebal. Hal ini mungkin terjadi akibat penyumbatan arteri di penis dan akumulasi stabil kolagen relatif inelastis dalam selubung fibrosa di sekitar ruang ereksi.
4. Melemahnya otot kandung kemih, sering disertai dengan pembesaran kelenjar prostat. Hal ini cenderung mengakibatkan penurunan bertahap fungsi urin dan melemahnya aliran urin.
5. Perlahan rambut kemaluan menghilang
6. Usia menyebabkan berkurangnya aliran darah. Hal ini menyebabkan kepala penis secara bertahap kehilangan warna ungunya.
7. Testis cenderung menyusut dari sekitar usia 40 tahun
8. Penis cenderung menjadi kurang sensitif dan dapat menjadi melengkung seiring dengan usia
Banyak orang yang belum pernah mendengar tentang koro. Ini adalah kondisi mental yang jarang terjadi. Penderita koro memiliki rasa takut yang irasional, takut alat kelamin eksternalnya mengalami penyusutan atau bahkan menghilang.
Koro sebagian besar terjadi pada pria, yang khawatir bahwa penis mereka akan menghilang. Hanya sebagian kecil kasus terjadi pada wanita, yang takut bagian-bagian tubuhnya seperti vulva dan puting payudara menyusut.
Sindrom ini paling sering ditemui di China Selatan dan tempat lain di Asia Tenggara, terutama Malaysia dan Indonesia. Koro diakui sebagai penyakit menular seksual dalam pengobatan tradisional China.
Sindrom ini dikenal sejak zaman kuno, dengan munculnya serangkaian wabah epidemi pada abad ke-20, yang berakhir pada tahun 1980-an.
Koro paling umum terjadi di kalangan pria etnis China. Selain juga terjadi di penduduk India asli, Nepal dan Thailand. Sejak akhir tahun 1990-an, serangkaian laporan menyatakan wabah ini sering dikaitkan dengan rumor ilmu sihir dan telah menyebar dari Afrika Barat sampai Sudan dan Kongo.
Penderita koro biasanya mengalami kecemasan intens yang tiba-tiba, yang berlangsung selama beberapa jam sampai dua hari. Kondisi ini bisa kronis dan berulang.
Seperti dilansir dari Health24, selain takut dengan penyusutan penis, pencabutan dan penghilangan penis, gejala lain pada sindrom koro adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Persepsi bahwa bentuk dan otot penis berubah
2. Takut dengan kemandulan dan kehilangan daya seksual
3. Takut kegilaan, semangat kepemilikan dan ancaman kematian
Penderita koro dikenalkan untuk mencoba meredakan ketakutan mereka dengan 'menarik penis manual atau mekanis' atau 'menahan' penis mereka dengan menggunakan tali atau semacam alat penjepit.
Padahal pemeriksaan medis menunjukkan tidak ada kasus penyusutan penis yang sebenarnya. Koro hanyalah sebuah fobia atau ketakutan yang tidak rasional, karena tidak ada bukti medis bahwa penis dapat menghilang, kecuali akibat kecelakaan atau pisau bedah.
Namun, hal yang pasti terjadi adalah penis akan mengalami perubahan sejalan dengan bertambahnya usia.
Perubahan seksual pertama terjadi pada usia 30 tahun hingga usia menengah dan tua. Beberapa perubahan yang paling menonjol terlihat adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Penurunan tingkat testosteron alami dengan bertambahnya usia, menyebabkan fungsi seksual pria cenderung menurun juga. Kualitas dan volume sperma lebih rendah, serta penurunan kecepatan, kualitas dan pertahanan ereksi.
2. Yang umum pada pria tua, berat badan dapat menyebabkan penurunan ukuran penis yang terlihat, karena adanya lemak perut yang bisa mengubur batang penis.
3. Banyak pria juga mengalami sedikit penurunan ukuran yang sebenarnya karena usia, baik panjang maupun tebal. Hal ini mungkin terjadi akibat penyumbatan arteri di penis dan akumulasi stabil kolagen relatif inelastis dalam selubung fibrosa di sekitar ruang ereksi.
4. Melemahnya otot kandung kemih, sering disertai dengan pembesaran kelenjar prostat. Hal ini cenderung mengakibatkan penurunan bertahap fungsi urin dan melemahnya aliran urin.
5. Perlahan rambut kemaluan menghilang
6. Usia menyebabkan berkurangnya aliran darah. Hal ini menyebabkan kepala penis secara bertahap kehilangan warna ungunya.
7. Testis cenderung menyusut dari sekitar usia 40 tahun
8. Penis cenderung menjadi kurang sensitif dan dapat menjadi melengkung seiring dengan usia
Mata berwarna ungu
Iris mata manusia umumnya berwarna hitam, coklat, merah kecoklatan, biru atau hijau. Tapi ada beberapa orang yang memiliki iris mata berwarna ungu secara alami dan menyebabkan mata ungu layaknya memakai lensa kontak.
Mata ungu merupakan kondisi yang sangat langka. Hal ini kemungkinan disebabkan dua hal, yaitu suatu kejadian atau mitos yang menyebabkan mata ungu dan kondisi kesehatan seseorang.
Seperti dilansir dari Buzzle, Kamis (8/4/2010), kemungkinan terjadinya mata ungu alami adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Genesis Alexandria
Genesis Alexandria adalah sebuah gangguan, yang mayoritas orang mengganggapnya hanya sebagai mitos atau legenda. Meskipun adanya gangguan ini tidak dikenal di masa sekarang ini, kondisi seperti ini mungkin telah ada di masa lalu. Di antara gejala gangguan ini, salah satunya adalah mata ungu.
Legenda yang melahirkan kondisi genetik ini adalah beberapa abad yang lalu, di sebuah desa kecil di Mesir. Di sana terjadi kilatan cahaya misterius di langit, yang mempengaruhi semua orang desa, dan menyebabkan mereka memiliki kulit putih pucat dengan mata ungu. Biasanya orang dengan kondisi ini disebut 'manusia roh'.
Orang pertama yang lahir dengan mata ungu sebagai akibat dari gangguan ini, berasal dari Inggris, tahun 1329, bernama Alexandria. Dia melahirkan empat gadis, yang juga memiliki kondisi yang sama, tetapi hidup dengan baik hingga 100 tahun.
Orang yang menderita kondisi ini, selain memiliki mata ungu, juga dikenal memiliki penglihatan yang sempurna. Meskipun kondisi ini tidak normal, tetapi bukan merupakan akibat dari cacat genetik atau mutasi.
2. Albinisme
Albinisme merupakan salah satu gangguan genetik pada manusia, yang ditandai dengan tidak adanya pigmentasi di kulit, rambut dan mata. Hal ini disebabkan oleh perubahan gen, yang mencegah pengembangan melanin, yang memberikan kontribusi untuk kulit, rambut dan warna mata. Kita mungkin telah sering melihat orang dengan kondisi ini.
Selain dari gejala-gejala di atas, salah satu fakta tentang albinisme adalah dalam kasus yang sangat jarang terjadi, orang yang menderita albinisme mungkin juga memiliki mata ungu.
Akibat kurangnya melanin, menyebabkan mata tampak merah, karena semua pembuluh darah yang terlihat melalui iris. Kondisi yang sudah jarang ditemukan adalah refleksi biru kolagen yang lebih kuat di mata. Warna biru dan merah dapat menggabungkan refleksi, dan memberikan tampilan violet atau mata ungu.
Iris memungkinkan untuk menyaring cahaya melalui mata. Sinar matahari bersamaan dengan refleksi di mata, dapat memberikan tampilan ungu pada mata.
Orang yang menderita albinisme memiliki mata yang sangat sensitif terhadap sinar matahari, yang dikenal sebagai photosensitivity.
Mata ungu merupakan kondisi yang sangat langka. Hal ini kemungkinan disebabkan dua hal, yaitu suatu kejadian atau mitos yang menyebabkan mata ungu dan kondisi kesehatan seseorang.
Seperti dilansir dari Buzzle, Kamis (8/4/2010), kemungkinan terjadinya mata ungu alami adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Genesis Alexandria
Genesis Alexandria adalah sebuah gangguan, yang mayoritas orang mengganggapnya hanya sebagai mitos atau legenda. Meskipun adanya gangguan ini tidak dikenal di masa sekarang ini, kondisi seperti ini mungkin telah ada di masa lalu. Di antara gejala gangguan ini, salah satunya adalah mata ungu.
Legenda yang melahirkan kondisi genetik ini adalah beberapa abad yang lalu, di sebuah desa kecil di Mesir. Di sana terjadi kilatan cahaya misterius di langit, yang mempengaruhi semua orang desa, dan menyebabkan mereka memiliki kulit putih pucat dengan mata ungu. Biasanya orang dengan kondisi ini disebut 'manusia roh'.
Orang pertama yang lahir dengan mata ungu sebagai akibat dari gangguan ini, berasal dari Inggris, tahun 1329, bernama Alexandria. Dia melahirkan empat gadis, yang juga memiliki kondisi yang sama, tetapi hidup dengan baik hingga 100 tahun.
Orang yang menderita kondisi ini, selain memiliki mata ungu, juga dikenal memiliki penglihatan yang sempurna. Meskipun kondisi ini tidak normal, tetapi bukan merupakan akibat dari cacat genetik atau mutasi.
2. Albinisme
Albinisme merupakan salah satu gangguan genetik pada manusia, yang ditandai dengan tidak adanya pigmentasi di kulit, rambut dan mata. Hal ini disebabkan oleh perubahan gen, yang mencegah pengembangan melanin, yang memberikan kontribusi untuk kulit, rambut dan warna mata. Kita mungkin telah sering melihat orang dengan kondisi ini.
Selain dari gejala-gejala di atas, salah satu fakta tentang albinisme adalah dalam kasus yang sangat jarang terjadi, orang yang menderita albinisme mungkin juga memiliki mata ungu.
Akibat kurangnya melanin, menyebabkan mata tampak merah, karena semua pembuluh darah yang terlihat melalui iris. Kondisi yang sudah jarang ditemukan adalah refleksi biru kolagen yang lebih kuat di mata. Warna biru dan merah dapat menggabungkan refleksi, dan memberikan tampilan violet atau mata ungu.
Iris memungkinkan untuk menyaring cahaya melalui mata. Sinar matahari bersamaan dengan refleksi di mata, dapat memberikan tampilan ungu pada mata.
Orang yang menderita albinisme memiliki mata yang sangat sensitif terhadap sinar matahari, yang dikenal sebagai photosensitivity.
Sebelum menikah check kesehatan anda.
Menikah merupakan tahapan yang penting bagi setiap pasangan yang sudah menemukan belahan jiwa. Setelah cukup lama saling mengenal satu sama lain, berbagi cerita dan berusaha menyatukan ide-ide. Hubungan akhirnya mencapai titik tertinggi. Tentulah persiapan yang matang untuk menjadikannya sebagai saat-saat yang paling indah adalah layak untuk dilakukan. Waktu, tenaga dan dana yang besar diberikan untuk melakukan persiapan pernikahan. Kesibukan menjelang pernikahan tidak hanya dirasakan oleh pasangan yang akan menikah namun pihak keluarga juga dibuat pusing olehnya.
Namun seringkali ada yang luput dari list persiapan pra nikah. Selain persiapan pesta pernikahan, sudah sewajarnya pasangan mempersiapkan diri untuk menghadapi bahtera rumah tangga yang akan dijalaninya. Pernikahan tidak semudah apa yang diceritakan oleh cerita-cerita dongeng putri ketika masih kecil. Putri yang cantik dan baik hati yang bertemu dengan pangeran yang tampan akhirnya menikah dan bahagia selama hidupnya (“happily ever after”).
Jika dalam istilah menikah itu harus dipersiapkan lahir batin, yang juga harus diperhatikan dan dimasukkan ke dalam list pra-nikah adalah persiapan kesehatan pasangan. Tidak hanya sehat secara fisik yang harus diperhatikan namun juga sehat menurut definisi yang luas. Berdasarkan definisi sehat menurut Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) adalah keadaan sejahtera fisik, mental dan sosial secara utuh dan tidak semata-mata bebas dari penyakit atau kecacatan. Jadi kesehatan pasangan pra nikah penting sekali untuk mendukung tercapainya pernikahan yang langgeng sampai hari tua. Pernikahan yang bisa saling mengisi dan beradaptasi, bisa mengatasi masalah yang dihadapinya dengan bijaksana dan dewasa.
Idealnya tes kesehatan pra nikah dilakukan enam bulan sebelum dilakukan pernikahan. Tes kesehatan pra nikah dapat dilakukan kapanpun selama pernikahan belum berlangsung. Jika pada saat pengecekan ternyata ditemui ada masalah maka pengobatan dapat dilakukan setelah menikah. Berikut ini adalah hal-hal penting terkait tes kesehatan bagi pasangan yang akan menikah:
1. Infeksi Saluran Reproduksi/Infeksi Menular Seksual (ISR/IMS)
Tes kesehatan untuk menghindari adanya penularan penyakit yang ditularkan lewat hubungan seksual, seperti sifilis, gonorrhea, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), dan penyakit hepatitis. Perempuan sebenarnya lebih rentan terkena penyakit kelamin daripada pria. Karena alat kelamin perempuan berbentuk V yang seakan “menampung” virus. Sedangkan alat kelamin pria tidak bersifat “menampung” dan bisa langsung dibersihkan. Jika salah satu pasangan menderita ISR/IMS, sebelum menikah harus diobati dulu sampai sembuh. Selain itu, jika misalnya seorang pria mengidap hepatitis B dan akan menikah, calon istrinya harus dibuat memiliki kekebalan terhadap penyakit hepatitis B tersebut. Caranya, dengan imunisasi hepatitis B. Jika sang pasangan belum sembuh dari penyakit kelamin dan akan tetap menikah, meskipun tidak menjamin 100 persen namun penggunaan kondom sangat dianjurkan.
2. Rhesus yang bersilangan
Kebanyakan bangsa Asia memiliki Rhesus positif, sedangkan bangsa Eropa rata-rata negatif. Terkadang, pasangan suami-isteri tidak tahu Rhesus darah pasangan masing-masing. Padahal, jika Rhesusnya bersilangan, bisa mempengaruhi kualitas keturunan. Jika seorang perempuan (Reshus negatif) menikah dengan laki-laki (Rhesus positif), bayi pertamanya memiliki kemungkinan untuk ber-Rhesus negatif atau positif. Jika bayi mempunyai Rhesus negatif, tidak ada masalah. Tetapi, jika ia ber-Rhesus positif, masalah mungkin timbul pada kehamilan berikutnya. Bila ternyata kehamilan yang kedua merupakan janin yang ber-Rhesus positif, kehamilan ini berbahaya. Karena antibodi antirhesus dari ibu dapat memasuki sel darah merah janin. Sebaliknya, tidak masalah jika si perempuan ber-Rhesus positif dan si pria negatif.
3. Penyakit keturunan
Tes kesehatan pra nikah bisa mendeteksi kemungkinan penyakit yang bisa diturunkan secara genetik kepada anak, semisal albino. Misalnya suami membawa sifat albino tetapi istrinya tidak, maka anak yang lahir tidak jadi albino. Sebaliknya, jika istrinya juga membawa sifat albino, maka anaknya pasti albino.Jika bertemu dengan pasangan yang sama-sama membawa sifat ini, pernikahan tidak harus dihentikan. Hanya saja perlu disepakati ingin punya anak atau tidak. Kalau masih ingin punya anak, ya risikonya nanti si anak jadi albino. Atau memilih tidak punya anak. Pernikahan tidak harus tertunda dengan halangan seperti ini. Yang penting adalah solusi atau pencegahannya.
4. Cek Kesuburan (Fertilitas)
Jika pasangan ingin segera punya anak, perlu menjalani konseling pra nikah. Dalam hal ini dilakukan pemeriksaan dengan tujuan agar kehamilan bisa dipersiapkan dan dijalankan dengan baik. Dibutuhkan riwayat kesehatan dan kondisi sosialnya. Antara lain status ekonomi (bekerja atau tidak bekerja) dan suasana di lingkungan keluarga. Termasuk perilaku-perilaku yang tidak mendukung kehamilan, semisal merokok, minuman beralkohol, dan memakai obat-obatan psikotoprika.Selain itu, perlu juga dievaluasi risiko yang bersifat individual yang mungkin timbul terhadap kehamilan. Antara lain usia (masih reproduktif atau tidak), kondisi nutrisi, aktivitas fisik, level pendidikan, level stres, dan bagaimana hubungan dengan pasangan.
Pemeriksaan laboratorium untuk mengetahui organ reproduksi juga diperlukan. Antara lain, pap smear (jika seorang perempuan aktif secara seksual), rahim, dan status kekebalan terhadap penyakit (rubella, toksoplasma). Ada juga pemeriksaan sel telur jik sebelumnya pasangan yang bersangkutan dianggap infertil (sulit punya anak). Penyebab ketidaksuburan 45 persen disebabkan oleh pria dan 55 persen oleh wanita. Pemeriksaan dengan USG (Ultra Sonografi) bisa melihat apakah seorang perempuan menderita kista, mioma, tumor, atau keputihan. Jika ada kelainan atau infeksi harus dibersihkan dulu karena bisa menganggu proses kehamilan.
Namun seringkali ada yang luput dari list persiapan pra nikah. Selain persiapan pesta pernikahan, sudah sewajarnya pasangan mempersiapkan diri untuk menghadapi bahtera rumah tangga yang akan dijalaninya. Pernikahan tidak semudah apa yang diceritakan oleh cerita-cerita dongeng putri ketika masih kecil. Putri yang cantik dan baik hati yang bertemu dengan pangeran yang tampan akhirnya menikah dan bahagia selama hidupnya (“happily ever after”).
Jika dalam istilah menikah itu harus dipersiapkan lahir batin, yang juga harus diperhatikan dan dimasukkan ke dalam list pra-nikah adalah persiapan kesehatan pasangan. Tidak hanya sehat secara fisik yang harus diperhatikan namun juga sehat menurut definisi yang luas. Berdasarkan definisi sehat menurut Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) adalah keadaan sejahtera fisik, mental dan sosial secara utuh dan tidak semata-mata bebas dari penyakit atau kecacatan. Jadi kesehatan pasangan pra nikah penting sekali untuk mendukung tercapainya pernikahan yang langgeng sampai hari tua. Pernikahan yang bisa saling mengisi dan beradaptasi, bisa mengatasi masalah yang dihadapinya dengan bijaksana dan dewasa.
Idealnya tes kesehatan pra nikah dilakukan enam bulan sebelum dilakukan pernikahan. Tes kesehatan pra nikah dapat dilakukan kapanpun selama pernikahan belum berlangsung. Jika pada saat pengecekan ternyata ditemui ada masalah maka pengobatan dapat dilakukan setelah menikah. Berikut ini adalah hal-hal penting terkait tes kesehatan bagi pasangan yang akan menikah:
1. Infeksi Saluran Reproduksi/Infeksi Menular Seksual (ISR/IMS)
Tes kesehatan untuk menghindari adanya penularan penyakit yang ditularkan lewat hubungan seksual, seperti sifilis, gonorrhea, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), dan penyakit hepatitis. Perempuan sebenarnya lebih rentan terkena penyakit kelamin daripada pria. Karena alat kelamin perempuan berbentuk V yang seakan “menampung” virus. Sedangkan alat kelamin pria tidak bersifat “menampung” dan bisa langsung dibersihkan. Jika salah satu pasangan menderita ISR/IMS, sebelum menikah harus diobati dulu sampai sembuh. Selain itu, jika misalnya seorang pria mengidap hepatitis B dan akan menikah, calon istrinya harus dibuat memiliki kekebalan terhadap penyakit hepatitis B tersebut. Caranya, dengan imunisasi hepatitis B. Jika sang pasangan belum sembuh dari penyakit kelamin dan akan tetap menikah, meskipun tidak menjamin 100 persen namun penggunaan kondom sangat dianjurkan.
2. Rhesus yang bersilangan
Kebanyakan bangsa Asia memiliki Rhesus positif, sedangkan bangsa Eropa rata-rata negatif. Terkadang, pasangan suami-isteri tidak tahu Rhesus darah pasangan masing-masing. Padahal, jika Rhesusnya bersilangan, bisa mempengaruhi kualitas keturunan. Jika seorang perempuan (Reshus negatif) menikah dengan laki-laki (Rhesus positif), bayi pertamanya memiliki kemungkinan untuk ber-Rhesus negatif atau positif. Jika bayi mempunyai Rhesus negatif, tidak ada masalah. Tetapi, jika ia ber-Rhesus positif, masalah mungkin timbul pada kehamilan berikutnya. Bila ternyata kehamilan yang kedua merupakan janin yang ber-Rhesus positif, kehamilan ini berbahaya. Karena antibodi antirhesus dari ibu dapat memasuki sel darah merah janin. Sebaliknya, tidak masalah jika si perempuan ber-Rhesus positif dan si pria negatif.
3. Penyakit keturunan
Tes kesehatan pra nikah bisa mendeteksi kemungkinan penyakit yang bisa diturunkan secara genetik kepada anak, semisal albino. Misalnya suami membawa sifat albino tetapi istrinya tidak, maka anak yang lahir tidak jadi albino. Sebaliknya, jika istrinya juga membawa sifat albino, maka anaknya pasti albino.Jika bertemu dengan pasangan yang sama-sama membawa sifat ini, pernikahan tidak harus dihentikan. Hanya saja perlu disepakati ingin punya anak atau tidak. Kalau masih ingin punya anak, ya risikonya nanti si anak jadi albino. Atau memilih tidak punya anak. Pernikahan tidak harus tertunda dengan halangan seperti ini. Yang penting adalah solusi atau pencegahannya.
4. Cek Kesuburan (Fertilitas)
Jika pasangan ingin segera punya anak, perlu menjalani konseling pra nikah. Dalam hal ini dilakukan pemeriksaan dengan tujuan agar kehamilan bisa dipersiapkan dan dijalankan dengan baik. Dibutuhkan riwayat kesehatan dan kondisi sosialnya. Antara lain status ekonomi (bekerja atau tidak bekerja) dan suasana di lingkungan keluarga. Termasuk perilaku-perilaku yang tidak mendukung kehamilan, semisal merokok, minuman beralkohol, dan memakai obat-obatan psikotoprika.Selain itu, perlu juga dievaluasi risiko yang bersifat individual yang mungkin timbul terhadap kehamilan. Antara lain usia (masih reproduktif atau tidak), kondisi nutrisi, aktivitas fisik, level pendidikan, level stres, dan bagaimana hubungan dengan pasangan.
Pemeriksaan laboratorium untuk mengetahui organ reproduksi juga diperlukan. Antara lain, pap smear (jika seorang perempuan aktif secara seksual), rahim, dan status kekebalan terhadap penyakit (rubella, toksoplasma). Ada juga pemeriksaan sel telur jik sebelumnya pasangan yang bersangkutan dianggap infertil (sulit punya anak). Penyebab ketidaksuburan 45 persen disebabkan oleh pria dan 55 persen oleh wanita. Pemeriksaan dengan USG (Ultra Sonografi) bisa melihat apakah seorang perempuan menderita kista, mioma, tumor, atau keputihan. Jika ada kelainan atau infeksi harus dibersihkan dulu karena bisa menganggu proses kehamilan.
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