May 15th, 2009
The sufferer attempts to manipulate his circumstances and those around him to his own advantage. Suicide attempts may be made and are usually arranged so as not to be successful.
These patients become attached to, and dependent on, their doctors. They may improve a little to encourage him, then relapse or develop new symptoms if he appears less interested or too casual.
Hysteria may occur with, and complicate, real physical or other emotional illnesses. This may be seen with accident cases which are subject to compensation, either from injury at work or on the road.
Some cases of shell shock in wartime were due to hysteria. The soldier may develop marked tremors or withdraw into a passive state, take to bed and require to be fed and washed, and may even lose control of the bladder and bowels.
Improvement occurs when he is removed from the active theatre of war and the symptoms recur if he is to be posted back to active duty.
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May 15th, 2009
When we speak of a person being anaemic, we mean he is pale and the pallor is thought to be due to a lack of blood. Oxygen is carried from the lungs to the tissues attached to the red blood cells. These erythrocytes contain a substance, haemoglobin, which has a high affinity for oxygen.
This haemoglobin, which is a complex chemical, contains iron as an essential part of its make-up.
The red blood cells are made in the bone marrow. There are about five million red blood cells to every cubic millimetre of blood and the average man has about 11 pints of blood in his system.
The red cells have a life of about 120 days and when they are aged, they are broken down by the liver and the spleen. The iron in the haemoglobin is then transferred to the body’s store and can be used again.
A shortage of the element iron will lead to problems with the red blood cells — they will contain less haemoglobin and they will be less in number.
This is the condition known as iron deficiency anaemia.
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Tags: General health
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