Healthcare

In addition to the three main diseases mentioned above, there is evidence that cigarette smoking can cause other pulmonary disorders (see Pulmonary disorders, pp 1846 — 49), delays the healing of gastric ulcers, plays a part in the cause of some cancers of the mouth, voice-box, gullet and bladder, and leads to a degree of skin wrinkling appropriate to non-smokers who are 20 years older. There are other factors about smoking that are worth knowing. For nonsmokers, only about one in five will not reach retirement age; for smokers of over 25 cigarettes a day, two in five will not reach this age. In other words the risk is doubled and it isn’t only that smokers are more likely to die of certain diseases; they are more likely to be disabled by them. Read the rest of this entry »

As the years passed, some of these doctors died; Doll and Bradford Hill investigated the cause of death in each ease. Some of the deaths were from lung cancer and two facts emerged quite clearly. First, there was a very clear relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Second, the chances of dying from the disease increased with: increasing cigarette consumption. Since then a mass of evidence confirming these results has poured in from all over the world. There have been Attempts to finds other explanations of the connection between lung cancer and smoking but none fits the facts as well as the simple explanation that there is something in the cigarette which is it a cause of lung cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Although one generally finds it easy to elicit the reflexes after one has acquired some experiences it is necessary to make sure that the patient relaxes his limbs and that his attention is distracted from the tests. One should strike the tendon and not the muscle, because in the latter case one tests myotatic irritability and not the tendon reflex. For the deep reflexes it is well to place the limb or muscle in the half way position between contraction and relaxation. Read the rest of this entry »

They are essentially phenomena of decerebrate rigidity. The lower extremities are extended and adducted, the forearm pronated the wrist and hand often flexed and generally everted or supinated.

Under reflexes are generally included deep (or tendon and periosteal) and superficial or cutaneous reflexes. To these may be added pathologic reflexes of spinal automatism and other organic reflexes. The value of Read the rest of this entry »