Authored by BlueAngel on
Monday, January 12, 2004
Courtesy of Post Polio Newsletter, The Post Polio Network of WA, Inc., June 2002 VOL. 13 NO. 2.
As we get older a number of embarrassing areas don’t work as well as they used to and we may feel uncomfortable talking about it.
BLADDER CONTROL:
Bladder control was often a problem of acute polio and this was the case it may also be weakening now — not that this isn’t a common problem with non polios too.
Your GP can refer you to continence clinics, physios,. And urologists but you might like to try some simple measures first.
Medical conditions like infections, diabetes, stroke, heart conditions, medications, depression, excess weight, prostrate problems for men, previous childbirth and menopause for and even difficulty walking or moving around can be casual factors
Other factors can include alcohol, coffee, tea and cola which can act as diuretics. Artificial sweeteners can also increase symptoms. Along with foods that are spicy and acidic, carbonated drinks, citrus juices and fruits, tomatoes and tomato based foods, chocolate, overeating and constipation can also aggravate bladder control. Restricting fluids can lead to commentated urine tat irritates the bladder and causes dehydration.
So try supplements that help muscle control i.e. carnitine, magnesium, B6 and Potassium. Signs of low potassium include: being prone to urinary tract infections, hot flushes, sweating, heat draining energy, increased muscle weakness, palpitations. We can also get palpitations if potassium is too high — so ask GP for a blood test — needs to be in top half of normal.
PELVIC FLOOR EXE5RCISES:
As well as getting advice from a physio (As the editor, I assume physio means Physiotherapist), try short spells on a mini trampoline (just move weight from one foot to the other—don’t jump) or if you are not steady enough for that try sitting on an exercise ball and gently bouncing. Make sure you have something handy to steady you. Both of these will give you gentle exercise (i.e. internal and external) for all your muscles without wearing you out.
(As my addendum to this article from the Australian Newsletter, I would like to remind people to make sure that their urinary bladder's are completely emptied. One simple way to do this is to bend over to see if you void any more urine. If you don't, then you have emptied the bladder--otherwise, with you're bending over you'll empty the residual that is left.)
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Authored by BlueAngel on
Monday, January 12, 2004
Courtesy of Post Polio Newsletter, The Post Polio Network of WA, Inc., March 2002 Volume 13 No. 1.
Anyone who has ever been in hospital, will remember the strange question, “Have you had your bowels open today?” Whose business is it ! - such an intimate topic — to anyone else but me?
In ancient times — when we were children — there were such things as a Saturday dose of Caster Oil. My Mother, a nurse, was a bit enlightened and we got Milk of Magnesia! People seemed to have an obsession with “being regular”. Dad used “Ford Pills”. If we kids were lucky. we might get “laxettes” (a chocolate aperient). More recent research confirms that yes. the longer the faeces remain in the gut, more water is reabsorbed making it harder to move it along. With stagnation, more toxins are produced by bacteria in the gut and these can find their way into the body causing more problems. So there was some wisdom in “being regular”.
As a nurse, learning how to read “poop” was part of out basic training. Many diseases and other problems were portrayed in the “pot” and a nurse’s duty was the inspection of a used bedpan. My husband had problems breathing if he didn’t empty his bowels two or three times a day. With weak intercostals muscles from polio, he needed abdominal space for diaphragmatic breathing. He had a regime of scrapped apples, and raw cabbage at certain times of the day to make him “go”. In hospital we used to use a variety of aperients, - agarol, senakot, coloxyl, durolax, and glycerine suppositories, soap enemas, as well as dietary measures like hot water, prunes, allbran, figs, grapes, dried fruit, to name but a few. CONSTIPATION In reality, if we have sufficient Vitamin C and magnesium, we will not have any problems with our bowels, too much of either of these (or carnitine) gives diarrhoea. So if we take supplements of both bowel tolerance we need not ever have problems with constipation again. As well, our bodies will have sufficient of both of these for healthy immune, muscular & peristaltic function. In other words, magnesium allows the gut muscles to push it along and Vitamin C makes it softer and hurries it along! WATER The other thing we need, is plenty of water to dilute the internal sewerage so it can flow.— 8-10 glasses of water— not tea or coffee or soda or hard drinks. Plain water! Grandad always had hot water to move him! So what can we learn from our “poop”? A normal stool should be soft, may be formed, effortless to pass and should be medium to dark brown in colour, does not float — but sinks to the bottom of the toilet bowl. Constipation: Diarrhoea: SOME SIMPLE TREATMENTS For vomiting & diarrhoea or food poisoning — boil water for 24 hours — may sip a dessert spoon of white malt vinegar over 5 minutes — or take 60 ml colloidal silver once or twice a day as needed. The table below is a synopsis of ways to inmate a productive regimen to produce the desired results in your health practices.
Hard pellet- like stool, can be an effort or strain to pass; be painful, you can sweat or feel faint.
Frequent, loose, watery stool, may have difficulty getting to the toilet in time.
This article also has a rather long table describing the various colors and consistency of stool which will be included in this newsletter and can be used as the reader sees fit as a pull out.
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Authored by BlueAngel on
Monday, January 12, 2004
Courtesy of Post Polio Newsletter, The Post Polio Network of WA, Inc., June 2002, Volume 13 No. 2 . I will be editing the more informative parts for our purpose of giving the gist of the article.
There are three main strains of poliovirus. They are known as PV1(poliovirus1), PV2, and PV3.
PV1, the most the most common in epidemics, produces the most severe paralysis and is known to be the culprit in WA’s 1948 and 1956 epidemics. It is classified the most severe because more deaths were likely to result. The 1954 epidemic was the PV2 strain and although there were only 5 deaths. However, like many other viruses, there are a number of smaller differences producing substrains if each of them. In fact by the time an epidemic finished, the PV had changed as a substrain from how it had been at the start of the epidemic.
PV2 is more likely to cause meningitis . People with PV2 were often diagnosed as having meningitis and may have gone into a coma, but often the paralysis was less severe.
PV3 was more likely to be found where there were sporadic cases occurring not in epidemics.
There are 12 other viruses that are closely related to polio and can cause paralysis. If they had been discovered before polio vaccines stopped polio they probably would have been recorded as other polio types. At present there is no vaccine for these other types as everything is geared at eliminating the 3 known polio strains. But people are still being paralyzed by these other strains, now called acute flaccid paralysis.
Polio belongs to the Picornavirus family. Rhinoviruses are the common cold,the common cold. Apthovirus is hoof and mouth disease. Hepatovirus causes Hepatitis C. Any of the enteroviruses as well as causing a sore tummy can cause paralysis.
Only humans can catch polio. PV attaches at special receptor sites on the cells that line the gut and the central nervous system which are encoded by a gene on chromosome 19. Antigens HLA3 and HLA7 are believed to increase the risk of paralysis occurring.
Enteroviruses, including PV, enter by the mouth, often from hand contamination from faeces, towels, etc. PV multiplies in the throat first then in the gut. It is resistant to stomach acid and passes through the gut lining to multiply, enters the blood stream and passes thence to various internal organs. Symptoms are as for any flu—fever malaise, headache, nausea, sore throat, tummy upset, muscle aches and in most cases the immune system overcomes it at this stage. From the blood it may pass to the nerves of the brain stem and spinal cord, causing muscle weakness, paralysis, heart and breathing failure.
The incubation period is 3-5 days for minor illnesses and 1-2 weeks for paralysis symptoms. Onset from ingestion of virus can be 3-35 days. So a large number of people may have had a minor dose of Polio without really being aware of it unless it got to the paralysis stage. The more severe the original flu-like illness, the more chance there was of deterioration occurring later in life (fatigue & weakness).
Major polio illness includes aseptic meningitis, polio encephalitis, bulbar polio, and paralysis alone or in any combination of these. Rarely this can lead to cerebral palsy-like and transverse-like symptoms. Less commonly recognized by medicos but familiar to many polio [patients were urinary retention, decreased limb temperature, altered sensation, sweating, sleep, cardiac and blood pressure abnormalities. With cranial nerve involvement there could have been facial, voice and swallowing weakness, blindness and deafness.
Those who had PV2 were more likely to have had encephalitic polio and possible coma (may remember bad headache). Damage to the brain can give poor memory problems, keeping awake, or falling and staying asleep.
Those who had PV3 (i.e. more likely if had polio in non-epidemic years) seem to be more prone to develop Chronic Fatigue or Parkinson's in later life.
Any areas damaged at original polio are likely to cause problems again as we age more.
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Authored by BlueAngel on
Monday, January 12, 2004
Signs & Symptoms of Post Polio Syndrome
Following is a list of some of the signs of post polio syndrome:
Courtesy of Post Polio Newsletter, The Post Polio Network of WA, Inc., June 2002, Volume 13 No. 2 .
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Authored by BlueAngel on
Monday, January 12, 2004
November 19, 2003—Englewood, NJ:
Last evening Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter took to the floor of the United states Senate to announce a resolution proclaiming November Polio Survivors Month and 2004 The Year of Polio Awareness.
“The purpose of Senator Specter’s resolution is to promote awareness of the need for Polio vaccination and Post– Polio Sequalae”, said Dr. Richard L. Bruno Director of The Post-Polio Institute and International Centre for Education and Research at New Jersey’s Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Post-Polio Sequelae (PPS which is also referred to as Post-Polio Syndrome & Late Effects of Polio) are the unexpected and often disabling symptoms of — overwhelming fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle and joint pain, sleep disorders, heightened sensitivity to anesthesia, cold intolerance, and difficulty swallowing and breathing—that occur in 75% of paralytic and 40% of non-paralytic survivors about 35 years after the poliovirus attack.
“Unfortunately those who were stricken with polio before vaccines were developed have not received the proper help they have needed,” said Spector in his Senate speech. “2004 is the fiftieth anniversary of the successful testing of the vaccine that eradicated polio in the US,” said Bruno, who is also the chairperson of the International Post-Polio Task Force. “But the vaccine also caused those not lucky enough to have been vaccinated—those who got polio—to be forgotten. Most doctors —and even many polio survivors—don’t know that Post-Polio Sequelae are real and treatable.”
Specter has been working with Bruno and the International Polio Task Force to draft legislation to educate and to provide needed services to America’s 1.63 million polio survivors. Senator Specter’s announcement, scheduled to be covered by “CNBC’s THE NEWS with Brian Williams” and a story broadcasted about the cause and treatment of Post-Polio Sequelae on November 19th, was made to the general public in November.
“Arlen Specter has become every polio survivors senator, regardless of the state in which they live,” said Bruno. Specter will receive a “David Bodian Memorial Award” from the International Post–Polio Task Force for his work on behalf of polio survivors. The week of November 10th, Bruno presented a Bodian Award was presented to NBC entertainment President, Jeff Zucker on NBC’s “Today Show” in recognitions of NBC’s effort to educate Americans about Post-Polio Sequelae. “Maureen McGovern will also receive a Bodian Award for her special relaxation recording for polio survivors that includes the new song “I’ll Never Know,” about polio survivors slowing their super -stressed, Type A lifestyles.” Bruno. McGovern’s recording also includes Bruno’s relaxation exercise, the “Two Breath Time Out,” from his forthcoming book, How to STOP being Vampire Bait, Your Personal Annihilation Program. Said Bruno, “ I am hopeful that The Year of Polio Awareness, Senator Specter’s legislation, and NBC covering the story of polio survivors and Post-Polio Sequelae will help to make the International Post-Polio Task Force motto a reality, ‘Every child vaccinated. Every polio survivor—and doctor—educated.“
The above article was copied and edited from an e-mail which this editor received November 19, 2003 from the INTERNATIONAL POST-POLIO TASK FORCE at the International Centre for Post-Polio Education and Research @ Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, New Jersey 07631. 201-894-3724/postpolioinfo@aol.
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