Adventure Ausrama Blog

A great deal of research is going on into solving the problem of Alzheimer's disease. It is a major issue with the number of elderly people increasing in most countries. Though young people can suffer from the illness it is perceived as a disease of the aged. While most work has been done on the chemical and molecular structure of the brain, it seems that a simple treatment has been there all along. The University of Queensland has stumbled onto ultrasound as an effective treatment. First successful on mice, it is now being rolled out for humans. Waves of ultrasound break up neurotoxic amyloid plaque. The cause of the illness is still there, but the damage done is reversed. Some old memories could still be lost. However, new ones will be kept. This will reduce the need for resources in caring for the elderly who will able to function on their own. In tests, mice were capable of solving problems that had beaten them before. Decision making is the most important

People are becoming complacent. They believe that governments will take care of contagious disease. or think that severe sickness will not come close to them. They are wrong, Cases of Ebola in the US and Europe have shown we are all in danger. Even governments are not supporting the crisis in Africa by giving money. All Westerners seem to be selfish, living their own lives in the quest for more pleasure, not accepting the truth.  Ebola is a terrible disease with no cure. Disease is creeping up on us. Antibiotics no longer work. Syphilis for example, is at its highest level ever in Australia. We don't seem to care. More people are getting AIDS everyday.  Expensive long term treatment is the only answer for those who become ill. The way we live is the greatest problem. Societies seem to brush it under the carpet. However, AIDS and syphilis are mostly spread by gay men, yet cultures are increasingly making gay practices legal.  Everything seems to be okay today

It seems Mankind hasn't moved far away from its ancient existence - living in a literal "bath" of disease.  All other living things live in hostile environments, if not from predators then from a plethora of diseases.  Antibiotics are losing their efficacy.  They no longer work.  There are only a few that are effective against hospital acquired infections (HAI).  Furthermore, it will be a shock to many that there is still no real treatment for fungal infections.  Once you suffer from fungal problems you have to keep on applying various ointments. Australia has reached a dangerous point in regard to HIV.  Last year new HIV infections rose to their highest point in 20 years.  Because younger people are experimenting with sex, this is the group contracting the disease at the highest level.  Infections have been increasing since 1999.  It is now at a rate of 24 per cent a year, from 10 per cent in 1999. Despite attempts to destigmatize the way HIV is contracted,

After a great deal of research we still do not know what mental illness is and what causes it.  There seems to be only general ways of categorizing individuals suffering mental problems.  Each person's illness tends to be unique.  Some people are on extremely high levels of medication.  Indeed, many have to rotate medications because the drugs lose their effectiveness. It is no wonder spending on the treatment of mental illness has not increased in the last twenty years.  Reforms carried out have not improved matters at all.  When sufferers attempt suicide they are kept in the mental health section of public hospitals, given medication and sent on their way a day or so later.  There is usually a little talk with them, but they are thrown out to deal with life's problems, alone. Nearly half of Australia will have mental problems at some time in their lives.  This is a frightening statistic.  Furthermore, there is discrimination.  In OECD countries Australia is near the

When is human advancement and achievement not necessarily so? When improvement leads to deleterious side effects. There are theories that protection of children from the environment by medication and physical intervention causes such things as hay fever and autism. These are only theories and not proven. Another issue is the massive intake of carbohydrates humans have taken into their bodies over the last ten thousand years. We have not evolved to digest the diet. For most of our evolution we lived on meat and fruit with tubers in small amounts.  Societies have changed a great deal. There are now strong indications that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by people keeping the environment too clean when children are toddling around. "Good" bacteria and viruses do not get into our bodies. It should be noted that the rate of Alzheimer's is rising only in wealthy nations. Lack of microbes could also be increasing strokes. This seems to be an insurmountable prob

Why does Australia have the highest rate of food alergy in the world?  This is a question that should be answered.  Managing the problem is important.  Research is needed to find out why this is the case. People in developing countries are rapidly catching up with the Western world as they adopt a "modern" food consumption style.  Clearly we are eating the wrong kind of food.  Refined products and those with artificial food flavoring, coloring and preservatives must be responsible.  Humans have eaten natural food for over 99 per cent of evolutionary time.  The way we live has also changed.  Children today are protected from the natural environment.  Only a small minority of Western children actually play outside, where there are are natural flora and fauna so they can build resistance. Food allergy has increased more than alergies such as asthma.  Only northern Europeans evolved to be able to digest milk.  It is no wonder that mixed race citizens and even those of general

Research shows that capitalism is bad for us. Since the 1970s there has been an increase in mental illness of adults and children. Indications are that it is due to capitalism because the rise has been noted in English speaking capitalist countries and not in non-English speaking non-capitalist nations. An average 23% of Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians suffered from mental illness in the last 12 months, but only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and Dutch which have more restrictive trading systems. Selfish Capitalism has massively increased the wealth of the wealthy, robbing the average earner to give to the rich. But there is no "trickle-down effect". Real wages have decreased in the US over the last three decades. Governments have reduced tax payments of the rich, placing responsibility for payment on low income earners. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/   http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http:

It is now common knowledge that the propensity to get high blood pressure is genetic. A billion people in the world suffer from it. Persistent high blood pressure ultimately leads to heart disease and stroke. The genetic work is complicated. Sixteen new genetic variations have been identified. These genetic factors can be counted: the greater the number people have the more likely they are to suffer from high blood pressure. There are three kinds of genetic variants predisposing hypertension. One regulates blood pressure. Another affects pulse. The third type controls arterial pressure. It appears that the modern diet has happened too fast for humans to stop the selection of these gene variants. Children are now suffering from this complaint. The variants will only be "selected-out" if these children do not reach child bearing age. This is a hard fact to accept, but this is the way natural selection works. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tys

Disabled people have poor health generally. A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have made this "Discovery". It is only common sense really. Living with a permanent disability has to be tough and a drain on the body's resources. The stress of living makes these people dependent on cigarettes and food, so they tend to be overweight. On a scale of health, the greater the disability the worse the general health. Living with constant pain is a problem 40 per cent of them face. Only four per cent of other Australians suffer constant pain. Having a disability is not the only problem. Nearly 70 per cent of the group have up to four other chronic health conditions such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, mental illness and arthritis. Ninety nine per cent knew they were ill compared to 31 percent of the rest of the population who said they were in poor health. The Government crackdown on disabled people

Pharmacists should stay out of health treatment and do what they do best - glorified clerks. They have no training in curing disease. Their education is solely based on chemical analysis. They are scientists not physicians. Ask their advice and they tell you what is written on the packet. Now the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is saying pharmacists are qualified to treat people with mental illness. They may "give" drugs to such patients but they do not prescribe them. Heaven help us if they get involved will-nilly in advising those with mental disorders. Having someone continually talking in your ear about how to take your prescription medicine it not going to help one recover. Doctors need direct contact with a patient to give the greatest assistance. Having a pharmacist in the middle is only going to mess things up. A mental patient is already stressed. Saying pharmacists will reduce medication errors is implying that they have qualifications to oversee physi

It is no wonder China is experiencing a rise in mental illness: production line work is the most demoralizing you can do. Oddly, it is the executives in China's industry who are committing suicide. This could be due to party officials being "given" jobs running large modern businesses, Party work is much different than running a company. Mental illness is shockingly high in China with 17.5 per cent of the population suffering from the malady. The issue is - Why has the rate risen so quickly in China? Of course, a little thought will inform: the largest nation in the world has adopted the Western economic system rapidly. The system was just "dumped" on the people who were told the old ways were bad. The old ways provided guaranteed employment and generous pensions, even housing was a given. My, how things have changed. The Western "disease", the industrial strike, has occurred in recent times. In the past this state of affairs would have been "stom