Health related information and news from around the world.

The EEG is the principal investigation used in epilepsy. Many patients with epilepsy will have an EEG performed, usually after a clinical diagnosis has been made, and before treatment is started. The EEG detects the brain’s electrical activity by sensitive sensors called ‘electrodes’ which are placed on the scalp; these electrodes detect the normal and abnormal electrical activity of the nerve cells within the brain. Most routine EEGs are recorded with the child or adult awake, but EEGs may be arranged after deprivation of sleep or during sleep (spontaneous or induced by drugs).

All hospitals with neurological or neurosurgical departments and some larger, non-specialized hospitals will have facilities for recording a routine EEG. The procedure is simple and painless and, in the case of a routine EEG takes only about 20-30 minutes to complete. The EEG detects and records the brain’s activity; at no time is there any electrical discharge passing from the equipment to the patient. The EEG should not be confused with electroconvulsive therapy or ECT, which is used to treat depressive illnesses, and has nothing to do with epilepsy.

The recording technician first measures the patient’s head for correct placement of the electrodes, which are then placed according to an international system based on the patient’s head size and on measurements taken from the bridge of the nose, and the bony protuberance at the back of the head. Silver electrodes are fastened to the head with a sticky substance called collodion. Alternative electrodes are gauze pads moistened with a salt solution and secured with a rubber cap. Sometimes the patient’s scalp is gently rubbed beneath the electrodes to reduce the electrical resistance of the skin which improves the recording. Twelve electrodes are used in small infants, 20 in older children and adults. Wires from each electrode are then connected to a junction box (head-box), connected in turn to the amplifiers of the EEG machine by a cable. After amplification, the EEG machine records the signals on tape or disc, or displays them directly by ink-jets, pens, or laser on to paper which moves at constant speed, usually 3 cm/second. It is this paper with the written waves that is known as ‘the EEG’ and which is examined and analysed by doctors. The advantage of recording the electrical signals from the different electrodes on to magnetic tape or disc is that they can be recombined in other ways for subsequent more detailed analysis. They can then of course be displayed on paper again at any subsequent time.

During an EEG the child or adult is asked to lie quite still. This is because movement of any part of the body may obscure, or make it difficult to detect the electrical activity of the brain. The technician also in the course of the recording will ask the patient to open and close the eyes (to look for normal patterns of activity which vary according to whether the eyes are opened or not), to breathe deeply for 3 minutes, and to look at a flashing light. Overbreathing (also called hyperventilation) and the flashing-light test (called photic stimulation) are useful ways of activating or provoking abnormal electrical activity from the brain, and are often important in helping to decide what type of seizure or what epilepsy syndrome a person has.

The appearance of the EEG is dependent upon the age of a patient because the brain is developing and maturing rapidly, particularly from birth to 7 or 8 years of age. Generally speaking, a normal adult EEG pattern is reached by the age of 10-12 years and there is then little change until the age of 60 or 70 years. Doctors who analyse EEGs must have some knowledge and understanding about EEG patterns (normal and abnormal) in infants and children, as well as in adults.

The hallmark or typical EEG finding in a patient with epilepsy between seizures is a ‘spike’ or ‘spike and slow wave’ or ‘sharp wave,. A ‘spike’ is a sudden change in voltage that shows up against the background activities. An example of a very abnormal EEG seen in infants with West syndrome. However, even in patients who have epilepsy these abnormalities are not always seen, and this is why the EEG must not be relied upon to make or exclude a diagnosis of epilepsy. The first 20 minute recording of an adult who has had an undoubted tonic-clonic seizure is normal in 40-50 per cent of cases.

For most people with epilepsy, a routine (20-30 minute) EEG is the only necessary test. However, this is only a short period to record the brain’s electrical activity, and it is unlikely that a clinical attack or seizure will occur in this time. If more information is required, then other types or systems of EEG recording may be performed.

(a) EEG after deprivation of sleep: In this situation a patient is asked to make sure they get only 4-5 hours sleep for two consecutive nights. This encourages the occurrence of seizure discharges. Deprivation of sleep may also lead the patient to drowse or to sleep during the recording, and again this encourages the appearance of abnormal EEG discharge.

(b) Drug-induced sleep EEG: A small dose of a sedative drug may encourage the patient to fall asleep during the recording, and again drowsiness and sleep may show abnormalities which may not be present whilst awake.

(c) Ambulatory EEG monitoring: This is a technique of recording an EEG for not just 20 or 30 minutes but for up to 24 or even 48 hours. The electrodes (six, eight or 12, rather than the twenty electrodes in a routine EEG) are wired up to a small tape recorder (like a Walkman cassette player) which is strapped to the waist. After this the child or adult can leave the EEG department, go home and carry on their normal activities, and then return to the EEG department after 24 hours to have the tape analysed or the tape replaced. This procedure is more likely, by the length of the recording alone, to pick up abnormal electrical activity, and is particularly valuable if the person has a fit or seizure during the 24 hours when the electrical activity is being recorded. The tape can be analysed in a special fast-pace display unit, so the doctor does not have to sit watching the EEG for 24-48 hours!

(d) Depth electrodes: On rare occasions, special depth electrodes are used. These are fine wires inserted under sterile conditions into areas of the brain thought possibly to be the site of origin of seizure discharge. This is an important test in those patients who are being considered for surgical treatment of their epilepsy.

(e) Video-telemetry: This is another way of obtaining an EEG over a longer period of time. In this technique the patient has to stay in a room in the hospital for 24 hours or longer. At the same time as the electrical activity is recorded on the EEG, a video camera records the activities of the patient. In this way it is possible to replay repeatedly both simultaneous video and EEG recordings and observe the pattern of the EEG during an attack or seizure. This provides valuable information on the type of epileptic seizure and from where within the brain the seizure may be starting. If no abnormalities are seen on the EEG during an ‘attack’, then almost certainly the attacks are not epileptic. Video-telemetry is really only of practical benefit if the patient is having frequent attacks, as it is otherwise impractical to keep the patient in hospital attached to expensive equipment on the remote chance that a seizure may occur.

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Even more frightening than the ineffective CMO impostors are some of the new drugs now being researched for arthritis. For example, a biotech firm, the Immunex Corporation of Seattle, is trying to resurrect a failed cancer drug and promote its use for arthritis. The company spent billions of dollars developing a drug that turned out to be a total flop for cancer. Now, in an attempt to try to salvage its investment, it is greedily trying to find a way to cram this very dangerous drug into the anti-arthritis category. We find that unconscionable and immoral.

The Wall Street Journal reports, “Scientists are racing to resurrect a set of experimental medicines that figured in one of the most notorious scientific debacles of the biotechnology industry’s short history… The category of drugs largely failed in treating a lethal blood infection. Biotechnology analysts say the success of these new anti-inflammatory medicines is crucial to the industry, which has been in a research slump of late.”

The article continues, “Researchers worry that the new treatments will cause long-term side effects, harming patients’ immune systems and increasing the risk of contracting other serious diseases. In fact, human tests were recently suspended for one experimental arthritis drug, CE9.1, being developed by IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation and SmithKline Beecham PLC. Researchers at those companies encountered worrisome and unexplained immune system effects with the drug.”

Worrisome, indeed, because these drugs are immunosuppressants that can impair immune response to attacking microorganisms or the formation of cancerous tumours. Many experts are fearful. “I think we could cure rheumatoid arthritis by using a combination of the new

medicines, says Dr. Moreland from Alabama. “The problem is, will you have a viable person left after that?”

Existing immunosuppressants like Methotrexate (also called Rheumatrex) designed for the treatment cancer are altogether too liberally prescribed for arthritis. But it’s no wonder doctors get pushed by their desperate patients into prescribing such horrible drugs. The Physicians’ Desk Reference of pharmaceutical drugs (the doctor’s oversized “drug bible”) contains 4 1/2 columns of fine-print precautions contraindications, adverse reactions, and warnings about the side effects of Methotrexate. It states, “There is a potential for severe toxic reactions.” It is one of the most toxic drugs made. And doctors know it. Yet when suffering patients plead for their doctor to “please, please do something for me,” the temptation to prescribe damaging drugs like Methotrexate or cortisone becomes altogether too strong. We’ve seen livers so badly damaged from Methotrexate and\or cortisone that CMO was completely ineffective for those unfortunate patients.

As an immunosuppressant, Methotrexate also inhibits the action of many of the chemicals that are a vital part of the immune system’s defences against invading organisms that cause serious diseases. This is also true of the new drugs from Centocor Inc., Synergen Inc., and Amgen Inc., as well as IDEC. They inhibit the production or action of protective substances like Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1), which could leave a person much more susceptible to cancerous tumours and other diseases, including those caused by invasive viruses and bacteria.

While the arduous process of conventional drug research drags on, the answer is already available in nature. CMO, the natural immunomodulator, already does exactly what those billion dollar projects are looking for. CMO is already clinically proved to be effective against arthritis. It is most important to understand that CMO is not an immune suppressant. Nor is it an immune stimulant. It is an immune modulator. This natural immunomodulator neither suppresses nor stimulates the immune system. It regulates, normalizes, corrects, and controls only those functions within the immune system that have gone amiss.

It does nothing to inhibit proper immune function or response. It acts only on immune programs that have gone awry. That’s why, in thousands of patients, it has been shown to have absolutely no negative side effects.

The only ‘side effects’ so far encountered have been beneficial: lowering high blood pressure, reducing the need for insulin, reducing the inflammation in the lungs of emphysema patients, correcting the blood sedimentation rate of lupus patients, etc. Those are the kinds of ‘side effects’ doctors love to see.

Moreover, CMO is presented in capsule form to be taken orally. The others, which are drugs rather than naturally derived substances, require either slow hypo- dermic drip infusion or several injections every week. With CMO, however, the benefits seem to be permanent or, at least, long lasting. Once the faulty immune programs are normalized, they seem to stay that way.

Furthermore, CMO works for osteoarthritis as well as rheumatoid. (What those multi-million-dollar scientists don’t seem to realize yet is that evidence suggests that autoimmune misprogramming is involved in just about all types of arthritis.)

Considering the success of CMO in its clinical study, the extraordinary results in practical use by physicians, the absence of side effects, success with thousands of users, and its immediate availability to the public, CMO certainly warrants serious consideration as an option for anyone with arthritis.

Try it. It does more than stop the pain. It stops the destruction of your joints as well. Try it. You’ll wish you’d done it sooner.

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Signs and symptoms

Typical symptoms include fever (low-grade – 38.3°C – or as high as 40.6°C), loss of appetite, and headache. One or two days after the onset of these symptoms, one or more of the salivary glands become painfully swollen; the swelling lasts about a week.

The diagnosis of a typical case of mumps is obvious from the swelling of the parotid salivary gland that lies behind, below, and in front of the earlobe. Only a swelling of the parotid gland has the ear-lobe as its center. Other salivary glands, such as the salivary glands which lie under the edge of the jaw, may be swollen with or without swelling of the parotids. Swelling may occur on one or both sides of the face.

Accurately diagnosing mumps may be difficult if complications of mumps develop before, or sometimes even without, swelling of the salivary glands. If the pancreas or ovaries are involved, the child will have abdominal pain. If the testes are involved, they will be swollen and tender. Encephalitis has symptoms of stiff neck, headache, and fever. In the absence of swollen salivary glands, these other symptoms may be difficult to link with mumps.

Home care

Rest and isolation are recommended until all symptoms have gone. Aspirin or paracetamol may be given to reduce pain and fever. Avoid feeding the child spicy foods.

Precautions

• Routine immunization against mumps is strongly advised.

• If a mother is immune to mumps (because she has had it or has been vaccinated against it), her baby acquires some temporary immunity before birth. This immunity lasts only until the infant is four to six months old.

• In an adult man, inflammation of the testes caused by mumps can result in sterility – the inability to conceive a child. That is why it is important for males to be vaccinated against mumps in childhood.

• Attacks that seem to recur are not due to mumps but to inflammation of the parotid salivary gland, a stone in the salivary duct, or a bacterial infection of the gland. These disorders should be reported to your doctor.

Medical treatment

If complications are suspected, your doctor may order a spinal tap to test for meningitis or encephalitis or blood tests to measure the number of mumps antibodies in the blood. (Antibodies are protective substances that the body produces to fight against disease.) Doctors do not follow any specific treatment for mumps, but may hospitalize a child if necessary to arrive at a diagnosis or to provide supportive treatment.

An unvaccinated child may receive mumps vaccine shortly after exposure to the disease to prevent mumps.

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