There are steps, which can be undertaken by a student during the process of improvement of his/her “being awake” condition in class. It is important to remember that all human reactions are specific and strictly individual, that is why everyone has to choose only those methods, which can be the most helpful and effective for reducing fatigue and sleepiness in class.

First of all, it is necessary to find out the most probable reason of extra-sleepiness during the lessons. If the reason is not satisfying sleep at night, a student needs to improve quality of night rest and/or reserve more time for sleeping at night. Scheduling time for going to bed, reducing the amount of evening meals, meditation, reading or having a bath before going to bed are the most practical ways for this.

If everything seems to be ok with night sleep, some other strategies can be used in class. If the lecture is interesting, the best way to stay awake is vivid participating in it, asking questions and making notes. If the lecture is boring, the best advice is to go in for passive physical activity. A student can slightly move his feet, fingers, head, etc. Even chewing a gum can work when trying to stay awake.

There are other little tactics for the strategy of staying awake during the lessons. Some students report that deliberate focusing or concentration on some detail of the surrounding (like teacher’s mimics, a class-mate’s earring and so on) can work as a sort of self-training.  Also, it is absolutely possible to count on class-mates, who can help to remain self-conscious and not to sleep in class.

If it is allowed by school administration, having some light bite or drinking at the lesson can also reduce sleepiness. Some people feel sleepy after having caffeine, the others, on the contrary, feel extra active. That is why a student has to find out own individual reaction on caffeine, and if it has tendency to refresh his mind, a small bottle of Cola before the lessons will be good for remaining in tonus.

In order not to sleep during the lessons, some smart students even use a technique from traditional Chinese medicine, which is called acupressure. It means massaging or stimulation (with a finger or a thumb) of special points on the body, located on so called meridians. Such stimulation works very well and really helps to reduce sleepiness to a great extent and feel more alert during the lessons.

If the above strategies do not bring to expected results, it can be helpful to consult a doctor. In the hardest situations, when a student displays the signs of some sleeping disorders (for example, narcolepsy), it is necessary to inform the lecturer about this problem and ask for his permission, for example, to get up during the lesson and refresh your blood circulation doing some easy movements.

For many students it is really difficult to adjust their biological clock to the schedules of the schools. “Owls” are usually sleepy in the mornings. At the same time “larks” feel energetic and workable, but they go sleepy by the afternoon. Nevertheless, sleepiness is not a proper life-style, especially for those students who are concerned about their future and who want to achieve success and recognition.

The main contraindications for employing manual therapy are problems with blood circulation, high pressure or troubles with heart. Besides, massage may not be recommended for those Parkinson’s disease carriers, who had recent bone fractures or injuries. Finally, massage may not be suggested for patients with cancer, because fastened blood circulation may create favorable environment for cancer to expand. The other contraindications for massage are skin damages, allergic reactions, wounds or large burns on skin, infections, severe forms of diabetes and problems with joints.

According to a recent research, conducted by the Touch Research Institute in Miami, it is evident that symptoms of PD are reducing after manual therapy and muscle exercises. During the 5 week research 16 Parkinson’s disease carriers were treated twice a week with 30 minutes of massage and progressive muscle relaxation exercises (like tightening and relaxing, etc.). By the end of the session patients reported about serious improvement in daily functioning, decrease of sleep disturbances, and medical specialists of the Institute discovered fall of stress-hormone levels of all the patients. “These findings suggest that progressive muscle relaxation exercises may increase dopamine levels, which have been associated with both a progression of the disease and a slowing of the disease,” researchers commented.

Massage is a very effective tool for all the disorders, connected with muscle-skeletal system, including Parkinson’s disease. It is very important to select a qualified and well-experienced massage therapist, who can offer several types of manual therapy and find out the most efficient for particular cases. If massage is applied correctly and in moderate doses, the symptoms of PD will soon begin going less critical, and patients will feel more relaxed, more comfortable, more energetic, calmer and morally healthier.

The other types of bodywork can be applied depending on the specific characteristics of every case. Many therapists recommend doing regular daily exercises, which will help to develop better mobility, improve motor function and blood circulation. Yoga and meditation may help to improve daily mood and inner condition of a Parkinson’s disease carrier; these treatments are useful when fighting with depressions and melancholy. Acupuncture is a very good treatment for tremors and shaking.

PD is one of rather spread diseases; it does not cause death by itself, but can result in lethal forms of pneumonia or aspiration pneumonia. Some people live with Parkinson’s disease for about 30 years. There are many famous people, who are sick with PD and who try to pay attention of the society on problems of Parkinson’s disease carriers. The most famous sufferer of Parkinson’s disease is Michel J. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in very early age of 30. Worldwide known politicians Adolph Hitler and Mao Zedong, Mohammed Ali, Salvador Dali, actors Jim Backus and Edward Winter, and many others were among Parkinson’s disease carriers.

Drug therapy can be employed for improvements in two directions. Firstly, drug treatment is directed on compensating lack of dopamine with L-dopa (levodopa) or dopamine simulators like pramipexole, pergolide, bromocriptine, etc. But such therapy is usually accompanied with unpleasant and dangerous side-effects, like nausea, vomiting, hypotension, visual hallucinations, jerky movements, or others. That is why long lasting drug treatment can bring to serious neurotic or psychotic disturbances. Besides, drug treatment can be used to fight against extra anxiety and depressions, which frequently become very bothering for individuals suffering from PD. In many cases using antidepressants and tranquilizers is strictly recommended by therapists.

Other therapies are also effective treatment for PD. Herbal therapy can be implemented as using dried, alcohol or glycerin extracts of different herbs, first of all, Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), Gotu kola (Centella asiatica) or Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna). Homeopathy can be helpful as the therapy, which helps to increase content of Causticum, Plumbum metallicum, Zincum metallicum, Argentum nitricum in organism of an individual with PD. Rich and correct nutrition is extremely important. People with PD have to control the amount of proteins in their food, but such elements, like fatty and amino acids, vitamins C, B and B6, choline and glutathione, which stimulate function of the brains, must be always present in food intake of PD carriers.

One more effective form of treatment individuals with PD is bodywork, including exercise, massage, yoga, and other techniques. Manual therapy is one of the safest and most reliable methods of treatment. It helps to relieve tension in muscles, improves circulation of blood and blood pressure, improves functioning of lymph system, helps healing injures of soft tissues and eases pain.

Thus, aging and getting old are the principal risk factors of Parkinson’s disease, as these factors are linked to certain damages of brain structure. There are also some additional factors, like frequent usage of some tranquilizers, some drugs with aluminum, inorganic iron, carbon monoxide, or other chemicals, long-term exposure to environmental toxins and harmful chemicals, drug usage, and many more. All these factors can provoke early symptoms of the diseases from Parkinson’s disease group.

There is no special medical test, which can directly identify Parkinson’s disease, although some lab tests may help to exclude the probability of wrong diagnosis. To diagnose this disease doctors have to carefully examine medical history, to interview patient and his/her family, and to support their hypothesis with usual medical tests, like blood pressure test, genetic test, brain scans (to check out activity of dopamine cells), X-rays, etc.

As a rule, above mentioned signs of Parkinson’s disease start appearing when 60-80 per cent of dopaminergic cells are lost. Within the time, the level of dopamine in the brain will go on decreasing; this will bring to damage of principal functions of human body and affect abilities and senses of the person. In order to avoid complications, individuals with Parkinson’s disease require a lot of care and attention, which must be focused on maintaining of emotional balance, stability and proper self-perception, and on avoiding worsening of the disease by attacks of Parkinson-related depression.

Characteristic physical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are the following: rigidity in face and tremors in hands, bradykinesia (slow movements), akinesia (inability to start movements), hypophonia (problems with speaking), extreme tiresome and weakness in muscles, lack of balance and poor coordination abilities, slowness in speech and breathing, unconscious closure of an eye, constipation, difficulties in swallowing, and many others.

Psychological and sensory signs are memory losses, cognitive disturbances, depression (it happens in every second case), sleep disturbances, anosmia (poor sense of smell), contrast sensitivity or other disturbances of sensory system, dizziness, and others. In some complicated situations Parkinson’s disease carriers may demonstrate more difficult psychological symptoms, like panic attacks, anxiety and dementia, along with failures of functioning of bowel and bladder. As a rule, symptoms progress gradually and slowly.

The incidence of Parkinson’s disease in the United States is approximately 1 per 625 persons, or about 500,000 people. Annually about 50,000 new cases of Parkinson’s disease are registered in our country. Parkinson’s disease affects men slightly more than women, mostly after age 55-60. The probability to suffer from Parkinson’s disease is growing with age, as statistic indicates: only 10% of people with Parkinson’s disease are under age 45-55 and more than 30% of people with Parkinson’s disease are above 75-80. In many cases symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are shown as one-sided or asymmetrical, but not always.

Parkinson’s disease has a range of related diseases, called Parkinson-Plus diseases, which include Secondary Parkinsonism, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Shy-Drager Syndrome, Striatonigral Degeneration, Corticobasal Degeneration, Olivopontocerebellar Degeneration, and others. Interesting, that the diseases from Parkinson’s disease group are less common in big cities and urban territories, at the same time they are much more spread in Europe, less spread in Asia and Far East, and rather rare in African continent due to resistive ancestry.

The key point of this topic is to find out correct flexible strategy and behavioral approach to a child affected by AIDS. Some children need extra attention and care, but some of them do not want to be differed from their peers. Besides, parents or teachers of such children must always keep in mind excessive vulnerability of such children and their unusual mental reactions on issues of friendship, separation, loss, self-esteem, etc. The most common problems of such children are difficulties with socialization and suicidal thoughts.

Social help and concern about the problem of children with AIDS have to develop in two main directions. First of all, it is necessary to make everything possible to prevent further spread of this infection on children and young people. This may include helping women to avoid HIV infections, helping children to avoid its medical transmission and transmission through drugs or sex. Such work has to be carried out on multileveled basis: personal, in families, or in the community in general.

The second one is helping those children and teenagers, who are already infected. It is a very serious issue, because overwhelming majority of such children is orphaned and vulnerable, or they as being grown up in families below the poverty line. Recently many different international organizations, like UNICEF, are arranging special programs and networks of care, aiming to protect and satisfy the needs of children affected by AIDS.

Epidemic of HIV/AIDS does not slow down its expansion. This terrible disease considerably reduces the flow of social progress of our society and reverses the years of global development in health, economy and social life. Children and young people are in the main risk group. Specialists estimate that thousands of children and teenagers are getting infected every day, so they may not have possibility to become adult in good health, to form proper family and to give life to new healthy generation. That is why in our times, the problem of children with AIDS is one of the most important and critical for our society.

In the majority of cases, children get infected with AIDS from their mothers during pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding. Also, many children can get infected through blood transfusion or (rarely) when sharing the needle of same medical injectors. According to the reports of the experts, every year about 400,000 children get infected by this virus. At that, every one of seven people who die of AIDS is a child, and every hour, about 30 little boys or girls die of this terrible disease. This are the effects of growing occurrence of AIDS in children.

Treatment and taking care about the children affected by HIV require a lot of courage and efforts. The main medical treatment of children with AIDS is most commonly focused on prevention of getting “opportunistic infections”. Due to extending variety of medications for such infections, the amount of children’s deaths caused by these diseases (first of all, pneumonia) is recently drastically decreasing. However, the situation is certainly remaining very serious, especially in the developing countries like the ones mentioned above.

It is very important to take all necessary precautions against transmission of HIV from affected children to other people. Also, it is quite necessary to inform the members of the surrounding community (like school teachers or parents of close friends) about such disease of the child. Of course, children affected by AIDS must always remain under intensive supervision of pediatricians and other special doctors. Also, it is crucial to undertake all necessary precautions to prevent HIV mother-to-child transmission and eleminate the possibilities of children being infected by this terrible virus in medical setting.

Finally, another very important way of reducing the occurrence of AIDS in children is educating them and especially giving young people as much as possible information about such risk factors as drug abuse or sexual health. It is possible to achieve by launching extensive informational programs in schools, involving mass media, social establishments, and so on.

Biologically, HIV attacks so called CD 4 + T-cells of human body’s immune system, and then progressively damages or completely destroys them. Therefore, it drastically decreases or terminates the ability of human organism to resist infections (which are called “opportunistic infections”) and even certain types of cancer. That is why the people who have AIDS may get infected by such bacteria and viruses which usually do not cause any disease for healthy people. And very often in such cases prognosis for AIDS carriers can be life-threatening.

AIDS was first reported in summer 1981 in the USA as an unknown disease, called “manly cancer”. For the first year about 1600 cases were diagnosed, which resulted in 700 deaths. In 1983 American Center for Disease Control introduced the term AIDS. In 1984 Dr. Robert Gallo in collaboration with the specialists of Institute Pasteur of France discovered HIV as a cause of AIDS. As the amount of deaths was increasing (in 1987 there were 71,000 of registered cases of AIDS and 40,000 of lethal cases), medical scientists started intensive research work, directed on creating a cure for AIDS.

Unfortunately, there is still no cure for this disease, so numerous biologists and medical researchers continue their efforts, studies and experiments. It was discovered that AIDS can not be transmitted by usual contacts, like sharing the meals or towels, using the same phone or swimming pool, doing handshake, and so on. Nowadays the problem of prevention of further spread of this terrible epidemic is extremely topical, especially in the regions of Sub Saharan Africa, Caribbean and Asia, where the amount of infected people exceeds 8% of the population, and the number of deaths runs into millions.

When talking about the things I would like to improve from the point of physical fitness and nutrition, I need to mention, first of all, urgent necessity to shape my body better than I did before. I need to improve my body image and to strengthen my muscles, especially on the legs and hands. That is why it would be great to continue my training sessions in a gym or sport saloon. Or, alternatively, I can do some serious physical exercises with dumbbells at home, but visiting sport saloon is always more effective: it motivates, stimulates and challenges much better.

As to nutrition, I would like to give up my habit to have quick meals and easy snacks. It is supposed to be healthier to eat well-cooked and well-boiled dishes, like soups, stews, etc. But, unfortunately, frequently we do not have much time for cooking because of our busy daily schedule. Besides, it is important not to eat fast or on feet, or not to read when eating, but sometimes I do. I think, I will try to schedule for my having meals, will eat more regularly and slowly. Also, of course, I need to think about vitamins in my daily meals, especially in spring time, and eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. That is how I can make my nutrition more optimal and healthy.

Finally, I dream to master some basics of yoga practices. I find it very useful for fitness and health: meditation and relaxation techniques of yoga help to normalize blood pressure, decrease headaches and help to avoid insomnia. But also they help to lower levels of stress and anxiety, to improve mental well-being and find good harmony of body and mind. It is possible to learn some yoga techniques in special courses, and I am seriously thinking about talking one in the nearest future.

Personally I started thinking about the issues of health and fitness some years ago, and I tried to figure out for myself, how to change my daily schedule and make some efforts to improve my physical fitness in the most effective way. First of all, I started visiting sport saloon three times a week and worked especially on the muscles of my back and shoulders, because my spine was not in too very good condition after all these days of studying. It was a great revelation to me, because even after one or two months of regular workouts I started feeling a lot better, my muscles became tighter and my shoulders grew considerably stronger. Thus, I made my body more athletic and really stronger.

Besides, I started thinking about optimal nutrition. Once in a summer camp I had a friend, who had some sort of eating disorder. He was eating a lot, and such visual example made me recognize the necessity to control the amounts of my daily meals. First of all, I stopped eating much of bread and bakery. Second, I tried to have my evening meal before 7 p.m. and not to go to bed with the full stomach. Third, I started controlling the amount of fats in my meals. I knew that such a strategy could work only within some long period of time, that’s why I followed such regime for some years. Finally, I started feeling better and lighter; I do not feel any heaviness and, moreover, I never feel any desire to line my stomach and, possibly, spoil my digestion.

(to be continued)