Breakthroughs Today

SOMETIMES we can appreciate how much we let our minds go out of control when a certain weird sickness captures us, such as the so-called “white coat hypertension.” The American Heart Association defines this condition as: “You may have what’s called ‘white coat hypertension’; that means your blood pressure goes up when you’re at the doctor’s office.” A funny name that works as much like the healing effect of an inert substance called placebo, bringing forth the term “placebo effect” into common use. Another term that American doctors coined not long ago was the condition called “pre-hypertension.” By its name alone, you can guess the meaning of this condition as not yet hypertension. This new interim condition came up when... [ Read more. ]  This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu on 4 May 2011.

I USED to know someone working in the Cebu City Postal Office who had psoriasis in the forearms and elbows. The person responded very well to an aloe vera-based skin gel in a matter of three weeks, if my memory serves me well. But since there are many types of psoriasis, I can only assume it was a case of plaque psoriasis, the most common form of the menace. Plaque psoriasis appears as red and white scaly patches on the skin. Rapid accumulation gives it a silvery-white appearance. It is usually graded as mild (affecting less than three percent of the body), moderate (affecting three to 10 percent of the body), or severe (affecting more than 10 percent of the body). Although its cause is yet to be fully understood, many believe that the so-called Koebner response partly triggers it. Koebner response is an irritation resulting from exposure to agents such as molluscum contagiosum (a skin viral infection), warts and toxicodendron dermatitis (an irritation caused by the poison ivy), and