Dolencias psicosomáticas

¡Estos pacientes! Según estudios publicados uno de cada cuatro vascos que acude al médico tiene dolencias psicosomáticas. ¿Hablamos de hipocondriacos?

Las consultas están cada vez más llena de pacientes con dolencias que tras las pruebas se demuestra que las dolencias no son reales. Se trata de afecciones psíquicas originadas por estados de ansiedad, depresión y por trastornos de personalidad.

La mayoría de expertos coinciden en que existe un estrecho vínculo entre mente y cuerpo, recordemos: mens sana in corpore sano. ¿Estamos ante sanos o enfermedades fantasma?

• "Cada ser humano tiene una parte del cuerpo más vulnerable y que es ahí donde aparece la enfermedad, que tiene su origen en un desequilibrio psíquico". (Nahia San Pedro, psicóloga de AMSA)
  
  
• "Lo primero es entrar en contacto con nuestro cuerpo mediante un proceso de conciencia corporal a través de, por ejemplo, movimientos de baile y auto masaje". (Nahia San Pedro, psicóloga de AMSA)
  
  
• "En alguna ocasión he tratado pacientes con úlceras de estómago con vómitos y sangrado cuyo origen no era orgánico, sino psíquico". (Nahia San Pedro, psicóloga de AMSA)

Lumbalgias

El reposo no es la mejor solución para combatir el dolor de espalda. El reposo provoca el empeoramiento del dolor, el debilitamiento de los huesos y los músculos, se pierde flexibilidad y cada día que pasa encamado le dificultará aún más su recuperación. Más del 45% de las bajas laborales se deben a los dolores de espalda.

La falta de deporte, ejercicio, excesivo tiempo de pie, malas posturas o "sillónball", excesivas horas en el ordenador sin fases de descanso y con posturas incorrectas son algunas de las causas que según los estudios causa la lumbalgia. Así que menos bit y más deporte. ¿Estamos en la era de la informática y los vídeo juegos ante un futuro de males lumbares? ¿Qué relación deporte-sedentarismo existe en la población activa? Tiempos en los que aumenta la obesidad infantil y el sobrepeso en adultos a la par que la afición por el mundo virtual.

Saludos

Este es el bog personal de Pedro Uribarri Garcia

Soy un ser urbano que habita en Getxo (Vizcaya). Trabajo en el área de salud mental y estudio los efectos del ejercicio físico y algunos otros temas con la psicología clínica.

En este blog trataré de reflejar un poco de todo aquello que me gusta y cuales son mis opiniones acerca de ello.

Estos son mis principios. Si a usted no le gustan, tengo otros

¿Tienen los humanos un sistema sensorial oculto? (en ingles)

Humans Have Hidden Sensory System. The human body may be equipped with a separate sensory system aside from the nerves that gives us the ability to touch and feel, according to a new study.

Most of us have millions of different types of nerve endings just beneath the skin that let us feel our surroundings. However, the once-hidden and recently discovered skin sense, found in two patients, is located throughout the blood vessels and sweat glands, and most of us don't even notice it's there.

"It's almost like hearing the subtle sound of a single instrument in the midst of a symphony," said senior author Frank Rice, a neuroscience professor at Albany Medical College in New York. "It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."

Sensitive skin

Our skin, the body's largest organ, seems to have some extraordinary qualities, as another recent study showed skin can hear.

The new finding, detailed in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Pain, could help scientists to understand mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia. The study, and others by the team, was supported by the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies.

The research team discovered the sensory system when studying two patients who were born with very little ability to feel pain — an extremely rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. Other individuals with this condition have excessively dry skin, often mutilate themselves accidentally and usually have severe mental handicaps, the researchers say.

It wasn't their pain-free lives that brought the patients into the lab, but rather excessive sweating.

"Curiously, our conventional tests with sensitive instruments revealed that all their skin sensation was severely impaired, including their response to different temperatures and mechanical contact," said study researcher Dr. David Bowsher, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Pain Research Institute.

"But, for all intents and purposes, they had adequate sensation for daily living and could tell what is warm and cold, what is touching them, and what is rough and smooth."

Surprise results

Bowsher took skin biopsies and sent them to Rice's lab for microscopic analyses of the nerve endings.

"Much to our surprise, the skin we received from England lacked all the nerve endings that we normally associated with skin sensation," Rice said. "So how were these individuals feeling anything?"

The answer: While the patients lacked the usual nerve endings in the skin, Rice and colleagues found sensory nerve endings on the small blood vessels and sweat glands embedded in their skin.

"Apparently, these unique individuals are able to 'feel things' through these remaining nerve endings," Rice said. "For many years, my colleagues and I have detected different types of nerve endings on tiny blood vessels and sweat glands, which we assumed were simply regulating blood flow and sweating."

Rice added, "We didn't think they could contribute to conscious sensation. However, while all the other sensory endings were missing in this unusual skin, the blood vessels and sweat glands still had the normal types of nerve endings."

Visto en: Livescience
By LiveScience Staff