Word: bowels
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...more intriguing studies, conducted in Australia, found merit in Chinese herbal treatments for irritable-bowel syndrome, a gastrointestinal disorder that strikes 10% to 20% of the population in many industrialized countries and for which conventional medicine often offers only symptomatic relief. The study also showed the lengths to which researchers must go to make sure that the benefits ascribed to herbal remedies are not due to a biased analysis of data, or to patients' expectations--the so-called placebo effect...
...individualized prescription based on his or her complaints. Each prescription was then filled at a different location, where patients were randomly given pills that contained either a placebo of flavored compounds that tasted like herbs but had no medicinal effects, a standardized extract of 20 herbs designed to support bowel function in general, or the individually prescribed herbs. After 16 weeks of treatment, the two groups that received herbal medicines had fewer symptoms and less pain than the placebo group. But 14 weeks later, only the group that received tailor-made herbal remedies still felt better...
...Henry Rice operated at about 3 a.m. Monday, and what he saw wasn't good. "Maybe 95% of the bowel looked questionable," he says. "Sometimes you can remove the bad part, and he can fight off the infection. But this child's whole gut was involved." They stabilized him, able only to watch him over the next few hours, hoping for some improvement...
There was a very slim chance that if enough of the baby's intestines were viable, the doctors could keep him alive long enough to perform a bowel transplant that might save his life. Here, however, the doctor's dilemma is ethical as much as medical. Is it fair to set out on a course of treatment that would involve enormous risk and pain, a year in the hospital at least and a very difficult life thereafter? "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should," explains Dr. Goldberg. "We have to keep a level head and treat...
...more minor yet disturbing point about the novel is the scattering of scatological jokes and references to Coco the dog's bowel movements. In one revolting scene, Coco suffers heat stroke and Reilly must administer a cold-water enema to the dog not once but three times. We are given the details in their full glory, not only about the enemas but of Coco's explosive bowel movements as well. Consider Reilly's deep thoughts about how he must cure Coco's home-sickness: "There are worse things, I suppose, than having to give a dog an ice water enema...