If radiation is recommended to you for control of symptoms, I suggest you read Chapter 6 carefully. Aspects to consider are discussed in detail there. In brief though, the usual cost versus benefit balance must be weighed up. How seriously are the symptoms interfering with your day-to-day life? What other ways are there of treating [...]

I believe that one of the most valuable roles of radiation in cancer treatment is palliative — the control of symptoms. Here, the aim is not to cure or completely control the cancer, but simply to treat some of its symptoms. As a rule, the doses needed for palliative treatment are much less than for [...]

One in five Australian children suffer from asthma, which makes it the most common chronic medical condition affecting children in this country. It is one of the main reasons for children missing school, and a very frequent reason for parents seeking medical advice. Both parents and children need to have a good understanding of the [...]

It’s really a strange type of thing. I want to do it, I enjoy it, but my penis doesn’t seem to be enjoying it as much as I do or it used to. HUSBAND WITH DIABETES More than two million men in the United States have diabetes. Approximately half of these men have problems with [...]

INTEREST: This term is the “thinking” dimension of sex. It can take place in the total absence of any genital response. We all think about sex, some times more than other times. I found that when I asked about interest, not physical arousal or “wanting to do it,” just interest, couples had difficulty answering. They [...]

Very little attention in the medical literature is paid to the functioning of a perfectly healthy mind in a perfectly healthy body. I highlighted the mind here with a reason. To be exact, conventional medicine largely ignores the mind as the ultimate manager of all functions of the body, and therefore ignores the role of [...]

Once the diagnosis is established, a decision must be made about treatment. Small stones are often left and observed, trusting they will be passed. Bigger stones or those obstructing the ureter must be removed. A large staghorn calculus may have destroyed some kidney tissue and may be impossible to remove. In these cases, the whole [...]

Sometimes the back pain comes from narrowing of the spinal canal with subsequent pressure on the nerves. Degeneration of the disc can lead to its becoming thinner and disrupting the normal anatomy, so that the small joints slip and press on the nerves as they pass through a gap between the joint and the vertebral [...]

Laparoscopics are most often conducted at a hospital or clinic where the patient normally it put under general anesthesia. General anesthesia is the best agent for women undergoing laparoscopics, although a number of patients may benefit from local anesthesia along with a common analgesic like Demerol or Valium, the alternate choice sometimes preferred by doctors. [...]

Dermatitis is a pattern of skin inflammation which may follow contact with an injurious substance or may develop without any apparent external cause. The recognition of skin disorders is essentially a visual art. It requires experience to distinguish what is dermatitis or eczema from what is not; disorders that might be confused with dermatitis or [...]