AIDS Question:Where did AIDS come from?

I believe it is a divine retribution from God against those who have sinned. What do doctors really known about the history of AIDS? Answer:The story begins in Central Africa, where it is now believed a mild form of AIDS has existed for centuries. This mild form (known technically at HLTV one) has been isolated from old stored blood samples dated in the 1950s. From Africa, it spread to Haiti in the Caribbean. Haiti was ruled by a vicious dictator (Papa Doc Duvalier), and many Haitians fled to Africa to avoid persecution. Once ' Papa Doc' and his son ' Baby Doc' were removed from power, these exiles returned, bringing AIDS with them. In the process, it mutated (to HLTV three, now known as HIV) and became more virulent, causing a faster and more severe onset of symptoms. Viruses mutate routinely (eg. different strains of influenza virus every year). There may also have been some movement of the disease directly through Africa to Algeria and France.American homosexuals frequented Haiti because it was very poor, and sexual favours could be bought cheaply. They returned home from their holiday with the AIDS virus, and it has spread around the world from there. The first cases were diagnosed in California in 1981. Fortunately for most of us, it is a relatively hard disease to catch. AIDS can NOT be caught from any casual contact, or from spa baths, kissing, mosquitoes, tears, towels or clothing. Only by homosexual or heterosexual intercourse with a carrier of the disease, or by using contaminated needles or blood from a carrier can the disease be caught. Many people who are not homosexual, promiscuous or drug addicts have been affected by this dread disease, including a number of of Australia' s haemophiliacs, who depend upon blood products to stop them bleeding excessively.

EYES Question:I have just been diagnosed as having glaucoma. My mother had it too. What causes this disease? Answer:Your eyeball contains a transparent liquid that has the consistency of half-set jelly. This liquid is produced by special cells that sit just behind the iris (the coloured part of the eye). There is a slow circulation of this fluid around the eyeball and out through the pupil to the area in front of the iris. Here the fluid is absorbed back into the bloodstream. The fluid in the eyeball is under pressure to maintain the shape of the eye and prevent distottion of the light waves entering the eye. If the pressure of the fluid increases, the light-sensitive cells inside the eye will be damaged and vision will decreasepossibly to the point of blindness.Glaucoma is the disease caused by an increase in the pressure of the fluid in the eye. The most common type of glaucoma has a slow onset over many months or years. The patient may not be aware that there is anything wrong unless a routine test by a doctor detects it. Unfortunately, the first symptom is often deteriorating vision, and by then it may be impossible to reverse the existing damage, but any further damage can be prevented by the correct treatment. There is an hereditary tendency to this type of glaucoma, and anyone who has parents with glaucoma should have their eyes checked every couple of years after the age of 35.

DIABETES Question:What is the difference between the diabetes children get and that suffered by oldies like me? Answer:There are two very distinct types of diabetesjuvenile (type one) diabetes and maturity onset (type 2) diabetes. The juvenile form may develop at any time from birth to the thirties, but the most common is between 10 and 20 years of age. Maturity type can start at any time from the thirties onwards, particularly in obese people, but is more common over 60. Juvenile diabetes is more severe and harder to control. It almost invariably requires injections of insulin once or twice a day for the rest of the patients life, as well as a strict diet. In the mature form, diet and weight loss alone are often sufficient to control the problem, but some sufferers require tablets to be taken regularly, and a small number need insulin injections.Diabetes is caused by either the failure of the pancreas gland in the centre of the abdomen to produce insulin, or a reduced sensitivity of the cells in the body to insulin. The former tends to be the cause in the juvenile form, and the latter in the mature. Insulin is essential for cells to take sugar out of the blood and into the cell, and without it, excess amounts of sugar build up in the blood and the cells are starved of a vital energy source.

HERNIA
Question:I have a hernia in my groin. It looks pretty ugly, but no-one ever sees it, and it causes me only slight discomfort. Why do these occur? Answer:When you were a foetus in your mother' s womb, the testicles were inside the abdomen. Just before birth, the testicles moved through the muscles and other tissue of the lower abdomen to sit in the scrotal sac.Behind the testicles as they migrated to their new position, they left a canal through which the arteries, nerves, veins and sperm tube returned to the inside of the abdomen. In later years, due to heavy lifting, straining at stool, laxity of the muscles, obesity etc. this canal can open up, and allow some of the intestine inside the abdomen to slip down into the scrotal sac. This is an inguinal hernia.