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SCIATICA: WEIGHT GAIN OR LOSS? IT'S A SIMPLE EQUATION

Apart from the relatively few cases where obesity is caused by a hormonal disorder, most instances of being overweight are simply the result of eating more food than is required to produce the calories needed by the body to sustain its requirements, the excess intake then gradually accumulating in the body, mainly in tine subcutaneous tissues.
If eating more than your body needs brings on weight gain, then it follows from this that the only way either to prevent becoming overweight or losing weight if you already weight too much is the reverse: follow a diet that provides everything your body needs, but no more than that. While exercising, because it makes you burn up extra calories, can make a useful contribution to any weight-losing programme, this is not likely to have a substantial enough effect to really bring down your weight to any great extent. The bottom line - no pun intended - for achieving worthwhile weight loss is regularly to eat fewer calories than your normal daily requirements. There are, of course, hundreds of different diet plans, but the only ones that can succeed are those which cause you to eat fewer calories than your body consumes. Just how many calories someone needs varies considerably, but as a rule of thumb most otherwise healthy people following relatively sedentary occupations will begin to start losing weight when their average daily intake falls below 1,500 calories.
Like so much other good advice, that about eating less is obviously a good deal easier to offer than to follow. The suggestions that follow can, however, help you devise your own slimming plan, one that best suits your own circumstances and therefore places the fewest demands upon you. First, some general guidelines:
Do not be overambitious when planning your diet by seeking to lose a great deal of weight in a short period of time. It's far better to lose only a pound or two a week and to be able to comfortably maintain this rate of loss than it is to try for much greater weight loss and fail because the diet is too demanding. Remember, it took years - possibly decades - for you to become overweight, so don't expect this to be remedied overnight. A little patience can be rewarding.
Eat your meals at regular times and stick to that routine. Snacking is probably the slimmer's greatest enemy.
Within the calories you allow yourself daily, try to have as many of these as possible from food that's solid rather than liquid. Solid food is more satisfying inwardly, and so will increase the length of time before you feel hungry again, thereby aiding you in keeping your calorie intake down.
Foods that contain a good deal of dietary fibre are usually more 'filling', meaning that a smaller amount of them satisfies hunger better. Studies have shown that eating more high-fibre foods can be an extremely effective way to bring about sustainable weight loss. Typical foods high in fibre include vegetables, fruit, and wholegrain cereals.
Calories provided by food come from three basic sources: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. On average, a given weight of fat will contain more than twice the calories found in an equal weight of carbohydrates or proteins - which means that one of the most obvious and sensible ways to cut your calorie intake is by reducing your consumption of foods with a high fat content.
Women starting out on a slimming diet will probably find it easier to stick to it if they begin it during the first two weeks of their menstrual cycle. At this time their oestrogen level will be high and this hormone has an appetite-curbing effect.
Some specific recommendations:
Sugar, of course, is very high in calories, and foods containing a good deal of it should be avoided. What's more, researchers have discovered that table sugar, apart from its calories, can have a second undesirable effect upon would-be slimmers in that it can stimulate them into increasing their overall calorie consumption.
Alcohol is also high in calories, so best avoided altogether or only consumed extremely moderately.
Whole milk is high in fat - a pint of it contains 22 grams of fat. Use skimmed milk which has only half a gram of fat per pint.
Chicken and turkey are both low in fat, providing the skin is removed first. Stripping away the skin removes most of the fat because it is mainly found directly underneath it and will easily come away as the skin is lifted
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WEIGHT LOSS DIET (3 weeks)

HIGH FIBRE WEIGHT LOSS DIET

ZINC

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EPILEPSY AND PREGNANCY

Women with epilepsy are quite often concerned about getting pregnant. There appear to be five reasons for this concern. They wish to know:
if they are likely to hand their epilepsy on to their children;
whether their fits will get worse during pregnancy;
whether it is safe for the baby that the mother should take anticonvulsants drugs during pregnancy;
if there will be any problems in the newborn baby from these drugs;
if they can safely breast feed the baby.
With regard to handing on epilepsy to one’s children – as mentioned earlier, if one parent has epilepsy, the chances of one of the children having epilepsy are no greater than in the population at large. If both parents have epilepsy, it would appear that the risk of a child having epilepsy is about 10 per cent. So in fact the chance of a child inheriting epilepsy, particularly idiopathic epilepsy, is negligible.
As far as seizures during pregnancy are concerned, the situation is not as clear as it might be. There is evidence that for some women, seizure control may deteriorate, while for others there may in fact be no change or even an improvement. A patient told me recently that “she would like to remain pregnant forever” as she had not had a single fit during her pregnancy, compared with six fits in the preceding nine months!
As a general working rule, it is suggested that people who have more than one grand mal fit a month are those who are most likely to have a deterioration in seizure control during pregnancy. The deterioration, if it occurs, is most likely during the first three months of pregnancy. There are a number of theories why this may happen, but none has been proved. It may be of value to check the blood anticonvulsant levels during pregnancy, especially if there is a deterioration in seizure control. The blood levels may fall, necessitating an increase in dosage during the pregnancy.
The main concern for parents is whether the anticonvulsants can harm the unborn baby (foetus). It is known by most people with epilepsy that this is a potential hazard. The effects include physical abnormalities in the baby, a process known as teratogenesis. Abnormalities have been reported in the offspring of mothers on all the commonly used anticonvulsants with the exception of carbamazepine. This is particularly applicable to phenytoin, barbiturates and sodium valproate. Babies born to mothers who have been on carbamazepine have not been shown to have any physical abnormalities, but have a smaller head size than other babies. This has not been shown to be any handicap to the babies who have been followed up for five years.
The risk of abnormalities in the baby is difficult to assess, but it seems to be most common in mothers on polytherapy (receiving numerous drugs), especially if they are on three or more anticonvulsants. The risk in mothers on phenytoin, with or without other medications, appears to be about a 10% chance of the baby showing features of the ‘foetal hydantoin’ syndrome. This syndrome consists of cleft palate, abnormalities of the fingers, possible heart abnormalities and mild mental retardation. Thus, at present, if it is possible, it would seem wise to try to change patients over to carbamazepine before conception. This may not be possible in all patients and, of course, many women will first visit their doctor when already pregnant, at which time there is no purpose in making the change.
Anticonvulsants taken by the mother during pregnancy may have some effects on the baby immediately after birth, as they are transmitted to the baby across the placenta. These include the possibility of a mild bleeding tendency and some drowsiness. In mothers who have been taking barbiturates, the infant may occasionally show features of a withdrawal reaction with irritability, jitteriness and poor sucking. None of these features is [...]

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