The sensation of feeling faint and/or dizzy can be a result of either not eating, depersonalisation or hyperventilation, or a combination of all three! The nausea many people feel can result in them not eating. Not just occasionally missing meals, but simply not eating. This is turn will cause feelings of faintness or dizziness, shaking and an overall sense of weakness.

We forget these sensations are a natural result of not eating and put them down to the anxiety, which in turn adds to the cycle. If we don’t eat we can become more vulnerable to dissociation. Attention to diet is extremely important. If you are experiencing difficulty in being able to eat it is important that you speak with your doctor.

If dizziness or feeling faint is a result of dissociation, we can break the dissociated state, or if it is a result of hyperventilation we can adjust our breathing.

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Although tranquillisers were one of the first defences against anxiety, the growing controversy over their use for some of the anxiety disorders means this type of treatment is slowly being withdrawn. The current trend is not to prescribe tranquillisers for anxiety disorders. If they are prescribed, then it is only for a two to four week period (Brayley et al. 1991). While this will lower the risk of possible addiction, it does not solve the original difficulties caused through the limited understanding, treatment facilities and resources for people with anxiety disorders.

We are all aware of the millions of prescriptions written each year for tranquillisers, which in itself should be enough to highlight this problem in the community. It hasn’t. The controversy over tranquillisers should have added further emphasis. It hasn’t. We need to be taught management skills from the beginning. This would enable us to take control of our disorder from the outset.

People who have been taking tranquillisers over a long period of time are in a similar situation. Although there are withdrawal programs, there is still only limited help available. Again, management skills need to be taught and they can be of great assistance during any withdrawal process.

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The what ifs

Getting a diagnosis with an inadequate, or no explanation, brings feelings of unease and disquiet. From these, the ‘what ifs’ are born. ‘What if the doctor has made a mistake?’ ‘What if there is really something wrong which has been overlooked?’. Our fear pushes the anxiety level higher and we do have another panic attack. The cycle of panic and anxiety has begun. We can’t imagine why, if we are only suffering from stress or anxiety, we can’t ‘pull ourselves together’. In fact, the harder we try, the worse we become.

The lack of understanding

The various treatments we try are either partially effective or completely ineffective. The responsibility is thrown onto us. We are not trying to ‘pull ourselves together’, we are ‘obviously getting something out of being this way’, we are ‘weak and have no will power’ or ‘no strength of character’.

Ineffective treatment does not mean we are ineffective people. The lack of understanding and inadequate treatment does make it appear to everyone, including family, friends and doctors that we can’t ‘pull ourselves together’. But what everyone doesn’t realise is that if it were so easy, we would have ‘pulled ourselves together’ long before now. Many of us are living with anxiety and panic attacks as constant companions, and the fear of what is happening to us can’t be brushed aside or dismissed so easily.

Without adequate understanding and treatment we do not know how to effectively control what is happening to us, so we use other forms of control in an effort to ease our situation. Ironically and tragically, many of the controls we use actually become the secondary conditions and help to compound and perpetuate the disorder. This in turn perpetuates and compounds the myth that we are not doing anything to help ourselves.

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Central to panic disorder is the experience of spontaneous panic attacks. The attacks can be a result of a major life stress or a build-up of stress. People may have an attack months after an extremely stressful episode and never have another one. Other people may have intermittent attacks throughout their life, not necessarily at predictable times. A number of people have reported their panic attacks began while using marijuana.

Panic disorder is diagnosed after a person has experienced ‘at least two’ spontaneous panic attacks followed by one month of ‘persistent concern’ of having another one. Although it is not unusual for people who develop panic disorder to have two or more attacks a day and to experience pervasive anxiety in anticipation of having another one (APA 1994). Many people feel as if they are having a heart attack or they may die or go insane or lose control in some way.

Generalised anxiety disorder

Generalised anxiety disorder is diagnosed when a person experiences ‘anxiety and worry for at least six months over particular real life events’ such as marital or financial problems (APA 1994).

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Over-stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system can produce psychosomatic symptoms such as diarrhoea, nervousness, tremors, high blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms. Whereas in the wild, the effect of a burst of adrenaline would be worked off by the strenuous exercise (running for your life) that followed, this does not happen when the adrenaline is generated by an unpleasant encounter with a bank manager or traffic warden. Our instinctive reactions seem to be rooted in the past and they are not always appropriate to twentieth-century living. To make matters worse, adrenaline production is encouraged by smoking and by too much sugar, alcohol or coffee.

Over activity by the parasympathetic can also result in bowel disturbances, or contraction of the bronchi producing asthma, or over-secretion of acid by the stomach eventually leading to stomach ulcers.

A third way in which symptoms can be produced is through mental tension being translated into muscle tension, especially in the muscles of the neck, jaw and head. Prolonged tightening of these muscles can produce headache, and possibly migraine.

In addition there are conditions where the psychological component is only a small part of the story – it can make the symptoms worse but not initiate the illness. This is true of eczema, psoriasis and most cases of asthma Exactly how the mind affects such symptoms is not known, except in the case of asthma where the autonomic nervous system can make the bronchi contract in reponse to anxiety or emotion.

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Some men may appear to be going through what has been called a male menopause when their testosterone levels drop below their normal range; this can result in impotence. In some cases, testosterone supplements have been used; however, they are rarely effective.

Some men who have had prostate surgery are permanently unable to achieve an erection on their own. However, there is a surgical technique in which an implant is placed in the penis to make it erect—all the time.

A man who wants more choice in the matter can use a pump device along with a surgically implanted sac in the penis. Whenever he wants to have an erection, a few squeezes of the hand pump, and bingo! instant erection: the sacs fill with fluid. Afterwards, he pumps again, and the fluid returns to a reservoir in the testicles. A man can also have an orgasm with this technique.

Does this sound too technical or make you squeamish? Another option is to inject the hormone prostaglandin directly into the urethra; this will provide an instant erection. The injection is easy to do and is not at all painful. Some of my patients have found it to be extremely satisfactory.

There is also a medication called yohimbine, which, when taken daily, seems to have the same effects as testosterone and will allow a man to achieve and then maintain an erection so that he can have an orgasm.

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If you have bloody diarrhea, the doctor will do a physical exam, a blood test, and a digital rectal exam to help determine the cause. He may also need to use a sigmoidoscope in order to examine the intestine visually.

Sometimes, however, bloody diarrhea can be caused by bacteria, a virus, or a parasite, frequently resulting from foreign travel and strange food and water. If your doctor suspects that this is the case, he will probably run a series of blood tests as well as a stool test. If the bloody diarrhea is caused by a viral infection, your doctor will advise you to drink plenty of fluids; I advise soup, with additional salt to replace the potassium lost in diarrhea, or Gatorade. For a bacterial infection, he will prescribe antibiotics.

Special Mention for the Elderly

In elderly people, if the blood supply to the bowel is suddenly reduced or even cut off completely, a condition known as ischemic colitis can develop. In this case, the stool will be foul, smelly, and maroon in color. An elderly person with ischemic colitis will also have a fever, and she may quickly go into a state of shock. However, diarrhea can also be caused by a course of antibiotic therapy that has lasted for several weeks, usually after a period of hospitalization, since it can be spread quite easily in hospital wards and nursing homes. This type of diarrhea is caused by the C difficile bacterium, and requires another course of specialized antibiotic therapy.

For this reason, if the bowel habits of an elderly person suddenly change, it’s essential that she see her doctor immediately.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

There may have been some occasions where you’ve suddenly been short of breath—it probably caught you off guard, but chances are you were able to trace it back to a specific cause. Maybe you haven’t had a chance to exercise for a few days—that’s just how long it takes for your body to begin to lose up to 10% of its conditioning—or maybe you’d been feeling under the weather.

If you don’t fit into either of these categories and you are also coughing and have a fever, it could be something else entirely.

When these symptoms appear in a person over 50 who also has emphysema, acute shortness of breath accompanied by cough and fever can be the sign of an acute flare-up of the disease; frequently, this can be sparked by the flu ot pneumonia or even a virus. However, these collective symptoms may also be a sign of bronchitis, heart failure, or lung cancer. People who have emphysema can live symptom free for long periods of time, even years, without problems except for a chronic cough and shortness of breath upon exertion.

When people over 70 complain of shortness of breath with a cough and fever, they may also be confused and disoriented. In rare cases, an elderly person might also experience heart failure.

Treatment

If you have acute pneumonia, your doctor will probably treat you with a combination of oxygen, respiratory therapy, and antibiotics. If you’re under 50, the treatment can be done at home. If you’re over 50, home-based treatment is still possible, although your doctor will first evaluate you closely to see if this is the best thing. If your doctor decides hospitalization would be best, you’ll be given antibiotics intravenously.

If you have emphysema and get pneumonia, your doctor will conduct a complete examination, including a chest X ray, a CAT scan of the chest if needed, and a bronchoscopy or biopsy if a lesion is found. If your doctor determines that you do have lung cancer, a combination of radiation and chemotherapy will be used to treat your condition.

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First, try to determine the cause of the redness and swelling by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Have I recently eaten a new food?

2. Have I changed the brand of a cosmetic I normally use?

3. Have I recently been out in the woods and in contact with a variety of plants?

4. Did I recently scratch or injure the skin on my face in some way and neglect to clean and disinfect it properly?

You can treat the symptoms above yourself by (1) eliminating any suspect food from your diet; (2) not using any new cosmetic on your face; (3) treating the inflammation with calamine lotion and aspirin; and (4) cleaning the red, swollen area. You may also want to try an over-the-counter steroid cream such as Cortaid or an antihistamine such as Benadryl to relieve the itch. Never use alcohol, as it can dry out the skin and make the itch worse. Some people also find a cool bath to be helpful.

If you’ve taken these steps and your skin is still red and swollen, or the condition gets worse, see your doctor. You may have an underlying infection that will respond only to professional treatment and prescription medication.

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The muscle tone of the neck and throat can gradually become lax over the years, but these changes don’t happen to everyone. For those who do experience a weakening of the muscles inside the throat, the voice may change in timbre as the space between the muscles responsible for the vibration of the vocal cords and the resonance of your voice narrows. This really isn’t terrible; you may finally get that deep, husky voice you’ve always wanted. While most people experience no discomfort, sometimes the weakening of these muscles can bring on a scratchy throat that is difficult to alleviate. The lining of the throat may also become drier, especially when speaking, so it may be necessary to drink more water throughout the day, which is never a bad thing. The good news is that the swallowing mechanism was designed to last a lifetime and rarely causes any problems.

The most common concern about the way the neck muscles age is primarily a cosmetic one, since the skin and outside muscles of the neck gradually weaken and lose their tone. This typical aging of the neck is one of the telltale signs of growing older and is the reason why the field of cosmetic surgery has grown by leaps and bounds. Cosmetic surgery of the neck can help to reestablish the sharp angles of youth.

Unfortunately, the effects aging has on the throat and neck are largely irreversible; although they’re frequently touted as effective, neck exercises do little to tone the muscles of the neck. And if your throat muscles are weakening, talking moRe won’t help tone them up. A lifelong regimen of regular cardiovascular exercise and good eating habits is still the best cosmetic defense to help keep every part of your body looking and feeling young.

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