Health News.

Often people with HIV infection are unfamiliar with the large, bureaucratic social service system. They say that getting through the system is a dehumanizing and irritating experience, that the system seems to be geared more toward frustrating than toward helping people. People occasionally become annoyed enough with the system that they give up and forgo their benefits.     Getting through the system requires preparation. In a single, separate file, keep documentation of the following: proof of identity, address, and date of birth (driver’s license, passport, birth certificate); Social Security card; records of income, assets, medical expenses, living expenses, any dependents, anyone living with and sharing expenses with you, record of who is responsible for you. Take this file with you when going to the social services.     Keep another file of every person you talked to at the social services, what date and time you talked to them, what you talked about, what you understood the outcome of the talk to be. Find out the names of the supervisors. If someone sends you away to get more information, ask them to write down what information they want; then, when you bring the information, also bring along what they wrote. Do not try to keep your diagnosis a secret: some branches of the social services will speed up the system if you have HIV infection. Some benefits apply only to those with HIV infection.     Take a friend with you, especially if you’re tired. Some AIDS-advocacy agencies offer social workers, lawyers, counselors, or buddies who will go with you.*212\191\2*

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There are various ways of determining whether you are overweight—none of which are perfect. One of the easiest ways is to compare your weight with the recommended weight on the table from “Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” This table and others like it have been developed based on observations of what weights correspond to the longest life spans in general. However, you must be realistic. If you have never in your adult life weighed what the table shows, the table may not be useful as a realistic goal for you.No height-weight table can take into account individual variations in proportions of fat and lean tissue or the distribution of fat in the body. For example, a weight lifter may be overweight according to the height-weight table, and yet have a very low proportion of body. Men normally have a larger proportion of lean muscle and a smaller proportion of body fat than women. Conversely, an individual may not be overweight according to the tables but may have a low  proportion of muscle and a high proportion of body fat.Some overweight people have most of their excess fat deposited in their abdomens, whereas others have it deposited more in their hips and thighs. These variations may make a difference in cardiovascular risk. People shaped like apples (bigger through the abdomen and smaller in the hips and thighs—the typical male pattern of fat distribution, called truncal obesity) have a higher risk than people shaped like pears (fairly thin in the upper belly with fat accumulated in the hips and thighs—the typical female pattern of fat distribution, called gynecoid distribution). Calculating the ratio of your waist circumference to your hip circumference (divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement) can help estimate your risk. A ratio of less than 0.80 is desirable for women, and a ratio of less than 1.0 is desirable for men.*263\252\8*

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Temporal Arteritis. Temporal arteritis is also called cranial arteritis or giant cell arteritis. People who have temporal arteritis are almost always older than 55. It is twice as common in women as in men. In this disease, the inflammation may involve one or both temporal arteries on the side of the head. Headache and a tender, red, inflamed artery in the temple are clues to the diagnosis, which can be verified by removing a tiny sample (biopsy) of the affected artery. Treatment with corticosteroids controls this disease and prevents complications such as blindness.Buerger’s Disease. One particularly severe form of vessel inflammation is thromboangiitis obliterans, also called Buerger’s disease. In this disease, inflammation obliterates small and medium-sized arteries. It occurs most commonly in men younger than 30 years who use tobacco. Redness and tenderness of superficial vejns of the feet or legs and pain in the arch of the foot or calf when walking suggest Buerger’s disease.Progression of Buerger’s disease can be thwarted by abstaining from tobacco use. People in whom the disease continues are usually those who continue to smoke.Polyarteritis Nodosa.  As the name suggests,   polyarteritis  involves  inflammation (itis) of many (poly) arteries. The areas at greatest risk are the skin, intestines, kidney, and heart, although any area of the body can suffer. Symptoms are often vague: unexplained weight loss, progressive fatigue,   weakness,   and  fever.   The diagnosis is confirmed by removing a tiny sample (biopsy) of the involved part of the body for microscopic evaluation of the arteries. Treatment is a prolonged course of corticosteroids, often supplemented by other medications.*201\252\8*

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