In an issue of HR magazine, there appears a health article
by Dr. R.D. Gordon of the University of Queensland medical
unit in Australia that hypertension – a disabling and potentially dangerous
condition – can be treated successfully without drugs if the cause can be
pinpointed.
One kind of hypertension is that arising from insufficient
blood reaching a kidney. This is called
renovascular hypertension. It is a kind
of hypertension where precise diagnosis could be difficult. A diagnostic procedure where there is no need
to suspend medication has been developed.
A research project aims at establishing the link between the
blood pressure and the sympathetic nervous system. It involves the investigation of the behavior
of circulating adrenaline as a modulator of the sympathetic nervous system
activity. The adrenaline, according to
Dr. Gordon, is actually the so-called stress hormone which is believed to bring
hypertension by causing the arteries to contract in response to stress.
Dr. Gordon’s theory is that adrenaline may work by
modulating the release of non-adrenaline, another hormone which directly
controls blood pressure. This hormone
comes from nerve endings in many areas of the body, many of which are adjacent
to major arteries. Dr. Gordon suspects
that the action of this hormone might be affected by minute traces of
adrenaline flowing loosely in the bloodstream.
In conducting this experiment, Dr. Gordon measured the
minute quantities of adrenaline and non-adrenaline in the blood of a
patient. The patient is then required to
perform isometric (a method of physical exercise in which one set of muscles is
tensed, for a period of seconds, in opposition to another set of muscles or to an
immovable object) like the raising of the legs stiffly for several times in a
day. These isometric exercises, according to Dr. Gordon, was a stimulus for
sympathetic nervous system activity.
Slimmer is Healthier.
Most people don’t realize all the health advantages of being
slender. Research shows that people who
are from 20 percent or more above recommended weight are more likely to die
from heart, circulatory and kidney diseases, cancer, diabetes, digestive
disorder, and even accidents.
Thinner people, on the contrary, have a lower risk of
trouble from strokes, liver cirrhosis, appendicitis, intestinal obstructions
and hernia.
Tidbits. Geriatrics, the study of aging, teaches many
conflicting theories, one of the most exciting revolving around the eventual
possibility of inserting genes in the DNA, reprogramming their present commands
to die within what is called the normal life span.
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