Surgery, Radiology & Anesthesia

Cottage cheese thighs: everyone knows what cellulite looks like. Dimpling is only cute on a baby. Cellulite is the bane of many women. No matter how much weight they lose, or how much exercise they do, the cellulite is still present.

So what is cellulite? Cellulite is fat that is deposited in pockets just below the surface of the skin. It occurs around the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Because it is very close to the surface of the skin, cellulite leads to a dimpled appearance. It is estimated that 89% of women have cellulite to one degree or another. See the insert below to look at a picture of mild cellulite.

Did you realize that within a very small section of skin, you have various nerve cells. Some cells only ‘light up’ or work when you apply pressure. Some are sensitive to temperature. Some are sensitive only to pain. The nerve cells which are sensitive to pain are called nociceptor cells.

Currently, no drug works directly on nociceptor cells; but on nerve pathways which lead to the nociceptor cells. Or a drug may work on all the different types of cells, not solely nociceptor pain cells. Or a drug may totally anesthetize you, in which case you are paralyzed, unconscious, and pain free.

Although anorexia is often thought of as a "teenage disease," it can start much earlier, or much later. According to ANRED, Inc., eating disorders usually appear in bright, attractive young women between the ages of twelve and twenty-five, although there are both older and younger exceptions. At least ten percent (10%) of the people with eating disorders are male, possibly more.

Harvey Woehlck, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, recently led a study regarding people who smoked within 24 hours of having surgery.

The study found that people who considered themselves smokers, and who smoked within 24 hours of surgery, had more markers of restricted blood flow to the heart than those who considered themselves nonsmokers, prior smokers, or chronic smokers, who did not smoke before their surgery.

"CT scans ... are equivalent to 100 to 400 X-rays at one shot," said Christopher Portier, associate director of the National Toxicology Program. "... That might not be a risk-free exercise, and people need to be reminded of that."