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Bodily Functions (bodily + function)
Selected AbstractsStill going strong: perceptions of the body among 85-year-old people in SwedenINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 1 2008Regina Santamäki Fischer PhD Background., Studies on the lived experience of an aging body are scarce. Aim and objectives., The aim of this study was to illuminate the experiences of the body among elderly people. Design., This study is part of the Umeå 85+ Study, a cross-sectional investigation into successful aging and threats against successful aging. The present study has an explorative design. Methods., The text from 40 thematic interviews with 85-year-olds was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results., Two themes and seven subthemes were developed. The theme: Still going strong encompassed the subthemes of Exercising and being active, Caring for one's body, Standing on one's own two feet and Feeling healthy. The theme: Adapting to a failing body encompassed the subthemes of Not being able to perform activities and manage by oneself, Feeling fatigued and Compensating for bodily decline. Conclusions., The participants felt that the body was still a source of pleasure, in spite of its defects. Assistive devices were important for the maintenance of independence when the body declined. Relevance to clinical practice., When caring for elderly people with declining bodily function, it is important to have appropriate and well-tested equipment in readiness. [source] Experiences of loss and chronic sorrow in persons with severe chronic illnessJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 3a 2007Gerd Ahlström PhD Aims and objectives., The aims of the present study were to describe losses narrated by persons afflicted with severe chronic physical illness and to identify the concomitant occurrence of chronic sorrow. Background., Reactions connected with repeated losses are referred to in the literature as chronic sorrow, which has recently been described in conjunction with chronic illness. Design., A qualitative study with an abductive approach of analysis, including both inductive and deductive interpretations. Method., The study is based on 30 persons of working age with average disease duration of 18 years. The average age was 51 years. All of the persons had personal assistance for at least three months because of considerable need for help in daily life due to physical disability. Each person was interviewed twice. There was also an independent assessment of the deductive results concerning chronic sorrow. Results., The inductive findings show that all persons had experienced repeated physical, emotional and social losses. Most common were ,Loss of bodily function', ,Loss of relationship', ,Loss of autonomous life' and ,Loss of the life imagined'. ,Loss of identity' included the loss of human worth, dignity and a changed self-image. In addition, the deductive findings suggest that chronic sorrow exists in the study population. Sixteen of 30 participating subjects were assessed by both assessors to be in a state of chronic sorrow and there was an especially high agreement with respect to one criterion of chronic sorrow ,Loss experience, ongoing or single event' (28 of 30 subjects). Conclusions., This study shows that persons with severe chronic illness often experience recurring losses. These experiences are consistent with the phenomenon of chronic sorrow. Relevance to clinical practice., Knowledge of the existence of chronic sorrow in persons with chronic illness will enable nurses to support these persons in a more sensitive and appropriate way. [source] Seeing right through you: Applications of optical imaging to the study of the human brainPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Gabriele Gratton Abstract A new set of techniques allows for the study of brain function by near-infrared light, exploiting two optical phenomena: Changes in light absorption are determined by changes in the concentration of substances like oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin, and changes in light scattering occur as a consequence of variations of properties of membranes and corpuscles in the neural tissue. Methods based on light absorption can be used to study hemodynamic changes in the brain, whereas those based on light scattering can be used to study neuronal activity and to provide anatomical information at a cellular and subcellular level. Three optical imaging approaches can be used to study living tissue: reflection, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and photon migration. These three approaches vary in their penetration (from less than a millimeter for reflection to up to 3,5 cm for photon migration) and spatial resolution (from a micron level for reflection and OCT to a millimeter and centimeter level for photon migration). This issue includes a collection of articles reviewing applications of these technologies to the study of brain and other bodily functions in humans. [source] The history of tocolysisBJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 2003Marc J.N.C. Keirse In 1950, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defined prematurity as a birthweight of 2500 g or less and in 1961 as a gestational age of less than 37 weeks. The time in between marks an era in which there was growing recognition of the importance of gestational age at birth and how to influence it. The latter was facilitated too by the development of tocography, which permitted some semi-objective measurement of uterine contractility. Along with it, came a growing interest in agents that could control uterine contractility beyond the earlier classical approaches of hormones and gastrointestinal spasmolytics. Hence, the early 1960s saw much research interest in agents, such as nylidrine, isoxsuprine, and orciprenaline that could suppress uterine contractility as one of their many beta-agonist properties. Subsequently, two approaches would be used to shift the balance towards uterine function over and above the influence on other bodily functions. One consisted of supplementing these drugs with agents, such as calcium antagonists and beta-receptor blockers that were hoped to suppress non-uterine actions. The other was a search for drugs in the same class with greater uterospecificity and more selective binding to uterine as opposed to other receptors. Neither of these approaches has ever fully fulfilled the hopes that were pinned on them, but they resulted in the availability of a large number of agents to suppress uterine contractility. The advent of prostaglandins as regulators of uterine contractility and the ability to suppress their biosynthesis saw another range of attempts to suppress uterine activity. They included aspirin, sodium salicylate, flufenamic acid, sulindac and indomethacin, but some were clearly based on a defective understanding of how uterine prostaglandin synthesis can be influenced. In the meantime, a flurry of other agents came and went, often more than once, testifying to the ingenuity of clinicians in trying to solve a problem that is poorly understood. Some, such as relaxin and ethanol, came and disappeared. Others, such as calcium antagonists, entered the scene as protectors against the non-uterine effects of other agents, went, and re-entered the scene in their own right. Still others, such as magnesium sulphate, came, lingered around, and became credited with effects in preterm labour that do not depend on affecting uterine contractility. Amidst this all arose the term tocolysis, coined in 1964 by Mosler from the Greek stems ,,,,' and ,,,,,,', to epitomise all of this ingenuity. [source] | ||||||||||