Health News. Lots of resources and information

In Older Children (10-15 years). The goals for asthma self-management, for older children should be:
Allow the child to become an ally of the physician.
To make your child live as normal a life as possible.
To increase his confidence in his ability to manage the illness by himself.
A child can achieve this by learning to manage the triggers, thereby controlling the attacks, and by learning to manage his medication.
Making the child an ally of the Physician. An important aspect of self-management is that an asthmatic child should be taught to observe and record the triggers that affect him. Since it is he, more than anyone else, knows what triggers the attack; the sensations that occur during an attack, and what controls the attack. The child should be encouraged to share his experiences with the physician. This will help the physician help the child better.
Leading a normal life. Sometimes, asthma may become the centre of the child’s life. He may find it difficult to do many things like taking part in outdoor activities for fear of triggering an attack. The child should be encouraged to use self-management skills, limit the frequency and severity of the attacks and lead a normal life.
Confidence. A child who takes an active role in his own care will develop the confidence necessary to tackle the disorder. And this is very important to control individual episodes of asthma.
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In my understanding, what we call ‘will-power’ is a function of the reticular activating system of the brain stem. This system is made up of a network of cells and connecting fibres situated in the lower part of the brain where the upper end of the spinal cord meets the brain’s hemispheres. It is the reticular activating system that puts us to sleep at night and wakes us up in the morning. It is this system that is responsible for selective attention, allowing us to concentrate on specific tasks, while excluding other outside stimuli from our conscious awareness.
The reticular activating system is under the executive control of the brain’s frontal lobes, which can direct the reticular activating system to enhance or diminish the level of excitation of different parts of the cerebral cortex, where the learning and unlearning neurons (nerve cells) are situated. (The cerebral cortex is the folded outer layer of the brain’s surface, containing the millions of cells which form the elements of the marvelous computer which is the human brain.)

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Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) virus, an arenavirus, was one of the earliest viruses to be reported as a cause of aseptic meningitis. It accounted for a significant number of cases in early studies but is now rarely reported. It is transmitted to humans by contact with rodents or their excreta. LCM virus most commonly affects young adults in the late fall and winter. Symptoms include malaise, severe headache, photophobia, lightheadedness, and myalgias. A small subset of patients may experience orchitis, arthritis, myopericarditis, or alopecia as late manifestations, hypothesized to be immunologic complications.
Cerebrospinal fluid findings are not different from other causes of aseptic meningitis, although hypoglycorrhachia is seen in up to one fourth of cases. The diagnosis is most often made serologically. Most cases resolve spontaneously, although convalescence may be prolonged. Fatal cases and those with severe neurologic sequelae are rare. Treatment is primarily supportive.
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