Clinical Notes

by
E. F. Block
May 2016

SIDS Prevention

The author was reading the news recently and noticed an article on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and swaddling babies. The article noted that the incidence of SIDS seemed to be higher with babies swaddled and put upon their stomachs for sleeping. This immediately brought to mind the experiences that the author has had in sleeping on his stomach and the possible relation to SIDS. There was a time during the rearly 60's of the lifetime of the author that he wanted to sleep upon his stomach. He would lie upon his stomach and bend the leg at the knee on the same side that the head was facing to ease the twist upon the neck during sleep. Otherwise, the twist to the neck was very uncomfortable after a short while. The need to get up and go to the toilet during the night is often (4,5 times) and according to how much fluid intake the author had inbibed previous to going to bed. When the need to micturate aroused the author from sleep, he noticed that the nostril on the down side was closed and that he was breathing only out of the upside nostril. It would take a minute for both nostrils to be open and breathe through both of them again.

Thus, it seems to the author that this describes the same phenomenon that ocurres with babies that are swaddled and layed upon their stomachs for sleeping. However, the babies have the maximum twist to their neck as their legs are swaddled and are not able to bend a knee. Thus, their downside nostril closes and they only will breathe with one nostril. For the author, this is not a life threatening circumstance. However, it seems that this is so for babies, perhaps because of the newness of their cardio-pulmonary system. Also, their breathing through only one nostril may not be giving them enough lung tidal volume change to ensure that they receive sufficient oxygenation of the blood.

Accordingly, it is suggested that parents do not place their babies upon their stomachs for sleeping and certainly not when swaddled. Additionally, it might be a very good idea to support the position that the baby is placed for sleep with rolled towels or baby blankets so that the baby will not roll upon their stomachs. Let us hope that this tactic will go a long way in assisting the decline of SIDS!

Using LDPE to Cover Wounds

The author has used the low density poly-ethylene (LDPE) of "baggies" to cover wounds on himself and other family members in order to monitor the healing process of wounds. The rationale for doing so follows:

  1. The clear LDPE allow one to closely monitor the healing process by viewing the wound through the covering
  2. the LDPE covers the wound to keep it free from possible contamination and keeps the wound moist in order to aid the healing process
  3. the LDPE is coated with Stearic acid during the manufacturing process to aid in the reduction of stickiness so as to fascilitate the movement of the LDPE over surfaces. The Stearic acid is biologically inert and thus, non-toxic.

The author first applies hydrogen peroxide dropwise straight from the bottle onto the wound. This keratinizes the tissue to stop the bleeding, protects the wound from pathogenic microorganisms and moistens the area. Then a piece of LDPE is cut from a baggie to match the area of the wound. The inside surface of the baggie is applied directly in contact with the wound. Surgical tape is applied to hold the LDPE in place. Usually, a flexible bandage is used to cover the whole to keep anything untward from damaging the wound. The wound healing process is quite visible and cellular elements, i.e. white blood cells, may be viewed easily as they will adhere to the LDPE along with blood plasma. The author has successfully recovered from all wounds with no sign of infection or deleterious effects in using this method.

A Proposed New Direction for Music Therapy

The use of music to achieve a therapeutic goal is well known. What is not well known is the fact that there is no need to hear the music at all! One only needs to be in the presence of the magnetic field generated by the audio coil to achieve the same effect. Thus, the author envisions a table with a series of audio coils or speakers placed on the underside the table in a sliding mechanism in order to adjust to the client anatomy. The magnetic field of the Earth is about 0.45 Tesla and it would seem advisable that the coils would generate the same or perhaps a 1.0 Tesla field? This would need to be determined to yield the best therapeutic effect. A series of experiments could also be done to determine the number of coils to use, their placement and the music supplied to each coil. The client could enjoy a half-hour of simple relaxed silence or the music as desired. Different tables would be necesary to provide either option. It is assumed that coil location would be that of the location of the chakras along the spinal column and the head. Experiments would be needed to be done to determine the correct frequencies to be applied, either as tones or a musical piece, to effect a therapeutic session.

Healing Arts