All posts by blogger

Meaning Of Dreams In Chinese Medicine

By blogger on

Do dreams carry any meaning? Does it foretell a future event? What do dreams mean, especially recurring unfavorable ones? What about sweet dreams or scarry dreams?

People frequent ask me but I am of not much help as this is not my area of expertise. In fact dreams interpretation is a separate skill by itself.

Recently I read a book on Chinese Medicine and there is a section on how dreams can assist in Chinese medical diagnosis. This is from a section in the Yellow Emperor’s Medicine Classic called the Miraculous Pivot. I find it extremely interesting and I would like to share some of their findings with you.

The classic says that fearful dream is a result of lack of qi in the heart and gallbladder. It can also be due a prolonged illness or excessive anxiety.

Angry dream is caused by stagnation of qi in the liver and gallbladder or hardening of the liver. It can also be due to the presence of gallstones. Conversely, happy dream is due to the smooth flow of qi and indicate quick recovery even if you should fall sick.

Sad dream is due to deficiency of qi in the heart and lung, deficiency of yin in the liver for example with chronic liver disease and tuberculosis. Melancholic dream is due to imbalance in the liver and spleen.

What about dreams where you are continuous striving for something? This is due to reverse flow of qi in the liver and gallbladder and increasing yang in the liver for example with hypertension and poor food digestion.

Floating and falling in dreams are amongst the most common type of dreams. Floating dream is due to excess in the upper part of the body but deficiency in the lower parts like deficiency of the kidneys, excess phlegm or coronary heart disease. Falling dream is due to deficiency in the upper and excess in the lower part. This is often seen in water retention in the kidneys and deficiency of yang in the heart.

What if you dream of looking for food or water? Looking for food dream indicate a weak spleen and deficiency of yin in the stomach. If you dream of looking for water it can imply excessive yang and depletion of bodily fluids for example due to high fever or dehydration.

What about looking for toilet dream? According to the classic this dream is often caused by painful urination, inflammation of the intestines, poor digestion or diarrhea.

Finally what is the cause of the most serious form of dreams, sleep walking? It is most likely due to stagnation of qi in the liver or distractions!

Get Internal Medicine Certification for Better Career Opportunities in Medical

By blogger on

The American Board of Internal Medicine conducts certification exam for physicians who are practicing internal medicine or the sub-specialties. Though the organization is a non-profit, independent physician organization in the USA, it still charges fees for Internal Medicine Certification which is $1,345. Similarly, candidates are asked to pay $2,165 (except for Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology, Transplant Hepatology, Cardiovascular Disease, Interventional Cardiology, and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology) for Sub-specialty Certification Exams.

Candidates doing Sub-specialty Certification Exam in Cardiovascular Disease need to pay $2,310 and doctors willing to get Sub-specialty Certification in Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology, Transplant Hepatology, Interventional Cardiology, and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, etc. need to pay $2,785. The non-refundable Late Registration fee is $400 and fees for International Test Center are $500.

Important Dates For the year the 2011 deadline for the registration is February 1. For the year 2012, it is February 1. Similarly, the last date for late registration which requires a non-refundable late fee is February 2 for the year 2011. The February 2 will be the last date for late registration for the year 2012. Whereas deadline for Late Registration is March 1 for the year 2011, March 1 will be the deadline for late registration for the year 2012. Nonetheless, the deadline date for Cancellation will be June 1 for the year 2011 and for the year 2012, the date will be June 1.

What is Internal Medicine? This is a kind of medicine which is used for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of adult diseases. Thus, the medical professionals involved in internal medicine should not only possess excellent knowledge but also an expertise on internal medicines. The certification exam conducted by the American Board of Internal Medicines asks questions from the following disciplines:

Medical oncology, Nephrology, Pulmonology, Rheumatology, Adolescent medicine, Clinical cardiac electrophysiology, Critical care medicine, Geriatric medicine, Interventional cardiology, Hospital medicine, Sleep medicine, Sports medicine, Transplant hepatology, etc. The comprehensive internal medicine study with the help of study material can help candidates prepare well for ABIM certification. However, once certified, candidates require re-certifying themselves every ten years.

Candidates appearing for internal medicine certification must have successfully completed residency or fellowship training. Medical professionals feel the requirement for internal medicine for the reason that it is considered a mark of excellence in the field and enhances the employability. Nonetheless, the ABIM being the only recognized U.S. board in the specialty of internal medicine; it is recognized widely among medical practitioners.

ATI Medical Education provides Internal Medicine Board Review CD-ROM for candidates doing internal medicine internship. Priced at $199.95 the program/software is auto-installable onto the computer by the insertion of disc. It compatible with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/7 and can be used offline. http://www.medvideoprep.com

Basic medicine fails the children.

By blogger on

In the archipelago of Vanuatu, set in the blue of the South Pacific, the far, northern islands are so remote that the basic supplies for a healthy life are lacking.

For many centuries the people have relied on the herbal remedies from their plentiful surrounds. The community medicine man has dispensed his healing faith. The power of black magic has been blamed for many illnesses.

At long last the people of Motolava Island have a “trained” medical assistant. He has arrived from a nearby island replaced there by a doctor, provided via a charitable organization.

assistant steps into the shack that acts as the local clinic, he is struck by the empty shelves. There are no bandages, no dressings, no ointments, no disinfectants; just a few headache tablets.

He surveys the smiling, laughing children playing in the village. A boy of 8 years has an open wound incurred from a stake in the bush. A 6 year old girl, one of many, is suffering from scabies. A 10 year old limps across the bare earth as if he has always walked in this manner. Mothers cuddle and cajole babies racked with deep seated coughs. Where does he start to make a difference?

As he tours the village with the huts built directly on the hard-packed soil, he sees curled on hand-woven mats a child whimpering with the fever of malaria. With the recent long wet season from December to April, the mosquitoes are severe. This region is renowned for malaria.

The chair of AusAIDs malaria reference group, Professor Sir Richard Feachem, acknowledges that malaria is the biggest killer of children throughout Melanesia. But he has high hopes for a country like Vanuatu where blood tests identified that only 3% of 5000 children tested has been in contact with malaria. Further plans, projects and money are to be provided to make the region disease-free by 2015. But how long will it be before these remote, northern islanders see the benefit? How many more small children will succumb?

These islanders living in no-cash economies are unable to purchase the latest in medicines, to buy chemically treated mosquito nets, to benefit from staff trained in supporting communities.

Harris Arop, the local Secretary for Motolava, suggests that he contacts one group that can help. He uses the villages only solar powered phone to call the capital, Port Vila, and the YouMe Support Foundation.

YouMe Support Foundation, a Child Trust Fund, has been assisting these islands since 2004. It is dedicated to giving the children a chance to lead a healthy life, an educated life, with a high school education within reach.

In response to this urgent request, YouMe Support Foundation gathered 30 kgs of basic medical supplies. Air freight was organised to get these goods there faster, but like many good plans in Vanuatu, things go astray. Meanwhile the boxes sit packed, taped and addressed under the office windows.

Communication and transportation to these outer northern islands is random. Perhaps the flight did not go due to lack of paying passengers, or perhaps there was a priority elsewhere. Shipping cannot be relied upon either; taking months to reach its destination.

Internal Medicine Doctor – Learn All About Them

By blogger on

It sounds scary doesn’t it: internal medicine doctor. Most people hear the phrase, coming from their family doctor’s lips and they panic. It can’t be a good thing to be referred to a medical professional who is known as a doctor’s doctor can it? Actually it’s not as scary as it might sound. An internal medicine doctor is also known as an internist, not to be mixed up with a doctor in training known as an intern.

An internist is highly skilled and trained to diagnosis and treat adult diseases. This is the doctor who specializes in one area of your health and can generally figure out symptoms that can stump your family doctor who does not specialize in one area of the body. Think of Dr. House on the television series and you are on the right page to understand what an internist does.

Your internal medicine doctor will generally not be as vague as Dr. House with a specialty though. Many internists specialize in one subspecialty such as a cardiologist who is a heart doctor or a doctor who only treats infectious disease or geriatrics. There are as many sub specialists as there are diseases and body parts to treat and way too many to list here.

So a referral to an internist shouldn’t be anything to panic you now that you realize that an internal medicine doctor can be someone with the specialty skills and training to treat very specific health issues such as heart disease or infectious disease.

Once you get a referral however you should do your own due diligence to make sure the doctor you have been referred to is the doctor you want to see. A simple check can give you information about your internist’s training, education and skills and help you feel more confident that this is the doctor to help you.

If however you don’t feel the referral is a good match after you have seen the doctor, be sure to contact your family health professional and request the names of a few other doctors as well. You are perfectly within your rights to get a second or even a third opinion if you are unhappy with your diagnose or the treatment options presented to you.

However, you should also remember that an internist is a specialist and they usually know what they are doing and what they are looking at. So if you are getting the same information from your second opinion as you got from your first opinion it may be time to accept a diagnoses and stop looking for a new internist to give you a third or fourth opinion and start working on your treatment plan.

An internal medicine doctor can benefit you by managing your healthcare in a collaborative way with other physicians. To find a good one please see the following: http://www.angieslist.com/.

Advance Market Commitment Encourages Access to Medicine in Poor Countries

By blogger on

The governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, and Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce the first long-term agreements made by pharmaceutical firms to provide increased access to medicine by supplying new, affordable vaccines against pneumococcal disease to the worlds poorest countries.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer Inc. were the first companies to agree to supply pneumococcal vaccines through the Advance Market Commitment (AMC). These vaccines may be available as early as this year at a fraction of the price charged in industrialized countries.

“We welcome GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer Inc. as AMC-supplier(s) and hope that more suppliers will join in soon, in particular emerging vaccine manufacturers from developing countries” expressed Paul Fife, Norway Head of Department.

The AMC was created to stimulate the development, manufacture, and uptake of affordable vaccines that meet the needs of developing countries.

“The AMC demonstrates how innovative thinking about global markets can save lives in the worlds poorest countries,” said Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundations Global Health Program.

In June 2009, the governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Russian Federation, Norway and the Gates Foundation launched a pilot AMC with a collective US$1.5 billion commitment. In addition, GAVI will help fund the total cost of these vaccines by contributing up to US$ 1.3 billion for the period 2010 to 2015.

“Today we have taken an important step forward in harnessing the potential of the pharmaceutical industry. As a result developing countries will be able to better protect the lives of their children at a price that is affordable and over a time frame that will deliver sustainable improvements in global health targets,” said United Kingdom International Development Minister, Mike Foster. “The UK will continue to champion innovative solutions that deliver more health for less money.”

Thanks to these financial commitments, pharmaceutical companies have responded to the incentive and committed to supply millions of doses of life-saving vaccines for ten years at an affordable price an unprecedented achievement providing increased access to medicine for millions of people. The AMC enables developing country governments to budget and plan for their immunisation programmes knowing that vaccines will be available in sufficient quantity and at a price they can afford over the long term.

Pneumococcal disease takes the lives of 1.6 million people each year including up to one million children before their fifth birthday. More than 90 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, where access to medicine is not always available. Pneumonia, the most common form of serious pneumococcal disease, accounts for one in every four child deaths, making it the leading cause of death among young children. It is estimated that the pilot could save approximately 900,000 lives by 2015 and up to seven million lives by 2030.

To learn more about this program and access to medicine, visit Global Health Progress at http://www.globalhealthprogress.com.