Hypertension

Hypertension

Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of arteries as it flows through them. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the body’s tissues.

As blood flows through arteries, it pushes against the inside of the artery walls. The more pressure the blood exerts on the artery walls, the higher the blood pressure. The size of small arteries also affects the blood pressure.

When the muscular walls of arteries are relaxed, or dilated, the pressure of the blood flowing through them is lower than when the artery walls are narrow, or constricted.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is the treatment of a variety of health conditions by hypnotism or by inducing prolonged sleep.

Hypnotherapy is thought to date back to the healing practices of ancient Greece and Egypt. Many religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and others have attributed trance-like behavior to spiritual or divine possession.

An Austrian physician, Franz Mesmer (1734–1815), is credited with being the first person to scientifically investigate the idea of hypnotherapy in 1779 to treat a variety of health conditions. Mesmer studied medicine at the University of Vienna and received his medical degree in 1766.

Hyperparathyroidism

Hyperparathyroidism is the overproduction by the parathyroid glands of a hormone called parathyroid hormone (parathormone). Parathyroid glands are four pea-sized glands located just behind the thyroid gland in the front of the neck. Parathyroid hormone (parathormone) helps regulate the levels of calcium and phosphorus in the body.

Thyroid glands and parathyroid glands, despite their similar names and proximity, are entirely separate, and each produces hormones with different functions.

Hyperparathyroidism may be primary or secondary. It most often occurs in patients over age 30, and most commonly in patients 50 to 60 years old. It rarely occurs in children or the elderly. Women are affected by the disease up to three times more often than men. It is estimat- ed that 28 of every 100,000 people in the United States will develop hyperparathyroidism each year.

Hyperthermia

Hyperthermia involves raising the body’s core temperature as a means of eradicating tumors. The treatment simulates fever. Some therapies actually bring on fever through the introduction of fever-causing organisms, while others raise body temperature by directly heating the blood.

Hyperthermia dates back to investigations begun in 1883 by William B. Coley, M.D., a general surgeon at New York City’s Memorial Hospital. Coley was intrigued by a paper published in 1868 by an American family physician named Busch. Busch’s paper described a patient with an untreatable sarcoma of the face.

Though Busch had been unable to help the patient overcome her cancer, the patient went into remission spontaneously after suffering a bout of the skin infection known as erysipelas. The erysipelas resulted in a high fever ranging from 104°F to 105.8°F (40°C to 41°C).

Huna

Huna is an esoteric Polynesian psychology that claims to use the powers of the mind to accomplish healing and spiritual development. Max Freedom Long, who rediscovered Huna in the 1920s, defined it as a system of religious psychiatry because it contains elements of religion, psychology, and psychic science.

Huna practitioners believe their teachings are ancient and sacred, although at least one writer has claimed they actually have modern origins. In the Hawaiian language, the word huna means “secret” or “that which is hidden,” referring to a tradition of hiding these teachings.

The word is also said to be taken from kahuna,a priest or teacher who was the “keeper of the secret.” Huna has traditionally been passed on through oral communication and in chants rather than in writing.

Huna was outlawed in the nineteenth century by Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. Max Freedom Long, who founded the Huna Fellowship in 1945, spent years decoding the language of Huna knowledge. He published eight books on Huna between the 1920s and his death in 1971. Serge Kahili King, a non-Polynesian kahuna, founded One Order of Huna International in 1973.

Humor Therapy

Humor therapy is the art of using humor and laughter to help heal people with physical or mental illness.

The benefits of humor therapy were acknowledged as far back as the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, which contains verses like Prov. 17:22: “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.”

The earliest historical reference to humor therapy is from the fourteenth century, when French surgeon Henri de Mondeville wrote, “Let the surgeon take care to regulate the whole regimen of the patient’s life for joy and happiness, allowing his relatives and special friends to cheer him, and by having someone tell him jokes.”

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism, or a condition of insufficient thyroid hormone in the body, develops when the thyroid gland fails to produce or secrete as much thyroxine (T₄) and triiodothyronine (T₃) as the body needs.

Because T₄ regulates such essential functions as heart rate, digestion, physical growth, and mental development, an insufficiency of this hormone can slow life-sustaining processes, damage organs and tissues in every part of the body, and lead to life-threatening complications.

Hypothyroidism is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States. Symptoms may not appear until years after the thyroid has stopped functioning, and they are often mistaken for signs of other illnesses, menopause, or aging. Although this condition is believed to affect as many as 11 million adults and children, as many as two of every three people with hypothyroidism may not know they have the disease.