A.
Guidelines for Herbal Drug preparations from fresh plant parts, not necessarily fresh fruits
A. DECOCTION - is prepared by boiling the specified
part of the suggested plant (whole plants, stem,
leaves, flowers, seeds, bark, or roots) as follows:
Pour 2 glasses of water to 1 glass of finely-cut
plant materials (if fresh) or ½ glass of materials (if
dried) in a covered earthenware pot (“palayok”) or
glass or enamel-lined pan (but never use plastic,
metal or aluminum containers or the solution may
become poisonous).
Bring this solution to a boil, then remove the
cover, and continue to boil it for another 15
minutes, or, until the 2 glasses of water originally
poured had been reduced to only 1 glass.
Strain the boiled materials, cool it and
then transfer the tea to a thermos or keep it inside a
refrigerator when not in use.
Add sugar or honey if desired. Drink 1/4
of the tea every 3 hours during the next 12 hours
which is good for that day. Then repeat the
procedure for 3 days; observe for any improvement
during the time and if there is, continue the herbal
medication for 2 to 3 weeks more.
However, if no improvement appears, try using
another specified herb as prescribed and repeat the
whole decoction procedure all over again.
B. INFUSION - is made by pouring boiling water (2
glasses) over 1/2 glass of finely-cut dried materials
or 1 glass of finely-cut materials if fresh, using the
same type of cooking container as in decoction
described in the preceding decoction procedure;
cover the mixture solution for 30 minutes, strain
after cooling and then drink the herbal tea as in
decoction.
C. POULTICE - some plant could be applied directly
on the ailing affected part of the human body. The
fnely-cut materials are softened, crushed until its
juice comes out and then held in place with plaster
or bandage. Flour or gawgaw is mixed hot water to
form a paste which is then spread on a clean
bandage, the plant materials incorporated or added
to this paste and applied directly on the affected
part while still warm and moist.
D. EXTRACT - concentrated preparations are
prepared by macerating or percolating the active
principle and constituents with suitable solvents
like alcohol evaporation of nearly all the solvents
and the adjustment of the residue to the prescribed
standard.
E. JUICE - expressed juice are derived from fresh
fruits, preserved with benzoic acid and allowed to
stand at room temperature for several days before
use. Insipissated juicer are those that are expressed
Page 1
and evaporated.
F. LINIMENT - is prepared by macerating for 7 days
one ounce of the bruised seeds in 1 pint of sesame
oil (from linga plant) or other bland oil and then
strain.
G. OINTMENT - mix 1 tablespoonfull or powder
pounded from its dried leaves or seeds with a little
cooking oil to make an ointment.
H. FOMENTATION - is made by infusing the leaves
in boiling water, in the proportion of 1 ounce to
each pint of fluid.
I. TINCTURE - is prepared by macerating two and a
half ounces of bruised seeds in one pint of proof
spirits and leaving them for seven days in a closed
vessel, occasionally shaking it; the mixture should
then be pressed, filtered, and measured and
sufficient proof spirit added to make one pint.
J. LATEX - is a fluid substance obtained from
incisions made in the stem of the plant which is
then mixed with coconut oil.
K. PLASTER - a preparation for external use for
application of such consistency as to adhere to the
skin and thereby attach a dressing.
L. SYRUP - A liquid preparation of medicinal or
flavoring substance in concentrated aqueous
solutions of sugar, usually sucrose.
M. RESIN - a solid preparation consisting chiefly of
resinous principles of plants.
N. WASHES - pleasantly favored aqueous solutions
with some alcoholic or glycerin present to add in
the solubilization of volatile substance, are often
colored, as in mouthwash.
PROPER USE OF MATERIALS
1. Use only one kind of medicinal plant for any single
preparation of herbal medicines. Avoid the use of
the so-called “PITO-PITO” concoction devised by
some mis-informed people as a cure-all wonder
medicine prepared from a mixture of seven different
plants of which variety and formula are not known
to anyone and maybe changed at will by just
anyone who maybe the latest to devise the
concoction.
2. Users of the PITO-PITO herbal concoction are
innocently exposing themselves to serious risks of
allergies and toxic side effects unnecessarily.
3. Large and tough leaves should be finely chopped or
cut into small pieces (1/2inch x 1/2inch size).
4. Decoctions and infusions should be freshly
prepared. A day’s dose can be prepared and kept in
a thermos or refrigerator.
5. When no specific dose is recommended, take 2 to 4
wineglassfuls of infusion or 1 glass of decoction
 taken four times a day once every three hours for
the next twelve hours for that day.
6. If there are any untoward reactions or side effects,
as may certain to happen if one indulges in the so-
called Pito-Pito herbal mixture solution, stop
medication immediately before the worst may
happen.
7. Stop herbal treatment after 3 days if it is not
effective, try another specified herb and repeat the
procedure. If nothing still happens, you may consult
a physician.
B. GUIDELINES ON THE PROPER USE OF
MEDICINAL PLANTS
A. HARVESTING PLANT MATERIALS
1. Gather leaves when plant is about to bloom;
2. Gather flowers before or shortly after opening;
3. Gather seeds when fruits are ripe;
4. Gather most plant materials during dry season.
B. MATERIALS HANDLING
1. Select and separate specified plant parts (stem,
leaves, flowers, seeds, bark, or roots or
rhizomes), remove dirt, and foreign matters.
2. Wash quickly.
3. If storage is needed for later use, dry them in
well-shaded and well-ventilated place; dry
them until crumbly. If plant is succulent, cut
into pieces before drying.
4. Keep dried plant materials in sealed plastic
bags or airtight bottles or jars (preferably
brown-colored). Store in cool, dry place away
from sunlight; charcoal may be placed inside
bottle or jar to remove moisture.
5. Properly dried and stored materials may last 6
months. Discard moldy and decaying materials.
The Anatomy of the Kidney
Page 2
Nephritis
Nephritis is a disorder characterized by inflammation of
the glomeruli of the kidneys. The glomeruli are tiny
coiled blood vessels through which the liquid portion of
the blood is filtered as it enters the outer structure of the
kidneys. There are about one million of these tiny blood
vessels in each kidney. The fluid from the blood passes
from them into many little ducts called tubules. Water
and various substances are secreted into and absorbed
from the liquid in the tubules. The final product of this
passage of filtered fluid from the glomeruli through the
tubules to the ureters and then to the bladder is urine. It
contains the excess fluid and waste products produced
by the body during normal functioning.
When the glomeruli become inflamed, the
resulting disease is called glomerulonephritis. There
are several forms of this disease. One type is thought to
be caused by the body’s allergic reaction of infection by
certain streptococcal bacteria. Another type sometimes
accompanies infection of the valves of the heart. The
relationship between glomerulonephritis and strep
infections is not fully understood at present, and the
same may be said for nephritis, which is associated with
allergic reactions to certain drugs and to heart valve
infections.
Glomerulonephritis may occur ten days to two
weeks after a severe strep throat infection. For this
reason, any severe sore throat accompanied by a high
fever should be seen and diagnosed by a physician.
Prompt treatment with antibiotics may decrease the
possibility of kidney involvement.
The inflammation and swelling of the glomeruli
cause a decrease in the amount of blood that the kidney
is able to filter. As a result of the slowing down of this
kidney function, the waste products of metabolism as
well as excess fluid accumulate in the body instead of
being eliminated at the normal rate.
In a typical case, a person will develop a severe
sore throat with fever and a general feeling of sickness.
These symptoms will disappear, but after one or two
weeks, there will be a return of weakness and loss of
appetite. The eyes and the face may become puffy, the
legs may swell, and there may be shortness of breath –
all because of the retention of excess fluid in the body.
The amount of urine is small and the color is dark
brown, somewhat like coffee. Abdominal pain, nausea,
and vomiting may occur, always accompanied by
fatigue. In most cases, the blood pressure increases,
leading to headaches.
Although there is a hereditary type of nephritis,
the more common types of the disease have other causes.
When the disease is suspected, the physician examines a
specimen of urine under microscope and looks for red
blood cells. These cells, which usually do not pass
through the walls of the normal glomerulus in large
numbers, do pass through the damages walls of the
inflamed blood vessels characteristic of nephritis.
Evidence of decreased kidney function is also found by
special blood tests.
Nephritis occurs in all age groups. Children
under ten have an excellent chance of recovery, about 98
percent. In adults, from 20 to 50 percent of the cases
may be fatal or may progress to chronic nephritis, which
often leads to uremia and death.
coordinated arrangement of many smaller structures, al
working together
Blood arriving at the kidney from the renal
artery is quickly channeled into finer and finer vessels
until finally it flows into a kind of cat’s cradle or “ball of
wool” structure called a glomerulus (composed of
intertwining, microscopic vessels called glomerulus
capillaries). The entire structure of the nephron is built
around the microscopic glomerulus.

Nephrosis

The Nephrotic syndrome, commonly referred to as

nephrosis, is a disease in which abnormal amounts of
protein in the form of albumin are lost in the urine.
Albumin consists of microscopic particles of protein
present in the blood. These particles are important in
maintaining the proper volume of fluids in the body, and
they have other complicated functions as well. The loss
of albumin in the urine affects the amount that remains
in the blood, and it is this imbalance, together with
other body changes, that results in the retention of Uremia
excess fluid in the tissues, thus causing facial puffiness
and swelling of the legs. Many progressive kidney diseases can eventually lead to
The disease is caused by damaged to the a group of symptoms called uremia. Other diseases,
glomeruli, but at the present time the exact nature of the such as severe high blood pressure, diabetes, and those
damage is uncertain. It may be caused by an allergic leading to widespread damage of kidney tissue, can also
reaction, by inflammation, or it may be a complication cause uremia.
of diabetes. The nephritic syndrome may also appear In this condition, as in acute kidney failure,
because of blood clots in the veins that drain the waste products and excess fluid accumulate in the body
kidneys. and cause the symptoms of chronic kidney failure.
Although the disease is more common among Certain congenital defects in the urinogenital system
children than among adults, it may affect a person of such as polycystic kidney disease, in which cysts in the
any age. The main symptom is painless swelling of the kidneys enlarge slowly and destroy normal kidney tissue,
face, legs, and sometimes of the entire body. There is may lead to uremia.
also loss of appetite, a tired, rundown feeling, and
sometimes abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Recovery from nephrosis varies with age. More
than 50 percent of child patients are completely free of
kidney ailments after the first attack. Adults are more
likely to develop some impairment of kidney function, or
the disease may become chronic, with accompanying
high blood pressure. In some people, protein loss may
continue over the years, although the kidneys function in
an apparently normal manner without any visible
symptoms.

The Nephron

Internal Structure. Within each kidney are over a

million microscopic units called nephrons. The nephron
is the basic functional unit of the kidney – a little kidney
in itself – and is really a superbly engineered and
Page 3
KIDNEY PROBLEMS
I. NEPHRITIS (“Bright’s Disease”) – it is a
condition caused by some streptococcus infection in
 the throat or by scarlet fever where the patient
develops puffiness in the face and swelling in the feet
and ankles, blood and albumin in the urine due to
the damaged kidneys. Inflammation inside the
kidney caused by water, salts, and inflammation
where the kidneys become swollen due to retention
of water, salts, and nitrogen is known as DROPSY.
II. UREMIA – because of the development of Uremia
where the patient loses weight, becomes weak and
tired, headache, restlessness and muscular
twitching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea follows. The
patient may develop an obstruction of the urinary
tract and a failing heart. The patient is suffering
from anemia and should be given a well-balanced,
high-calories diet-and a blood transfusion. The
acidosis should be corrected. DROPSY develops
because the patient is losing large quantities of
proteins from his blood stream.
SYMPTOMS – in the acute form, uremia may attack
without warning. A convulsive
epileptiform fit followed by coma may
be the first manifestation. Sometimes
the coma occurs without a fit and in
some instances mania seizes the
patient.
Inflammation of the kidney may occur in
children during or after another acute infection, with
similar sudden convulsions preceded perhaps by rapid
swelling of the tissues and face. In the more slowly
developing uremia the early symptoms are followed by
shortness of breath, attendant on accumulation of toxic
materials in the body. It is often difficult to distinguish
between failing breath due to heart weakness and that
accompanying the later stages of kidney disorder. The
patient grows apathetic, drifting quietly and gradually
into unconsciousness, and finally may die. Occasionally
fluid accumulates, presses upon the lungs, and affects
breathing. Similarly fluid puncture. Acute uremia is
often relieved by including sweating and frequent liquid
bowel movements with the help of herbal solutions as
prescribed hereunder, both of which tends to help the
body rid itself of excess fluid and liquid wastes.
III. KIDNEY STONES – may appear in any part of the
urinary tract but frequently appears in the kidneys
– from where the similar stones may move down
through the ureter to the bladder. It may be caused
by infection of the kidneys, lack of vitamin A, or too
much Vitamin D, overactive parathyroid glands
and diets high, in calcium oxalate or citrate.
Stones form more readily when the urine is too
concentrated or when infection is present.
Page 4
TREATMENT – if stone is small and
normally passes to the bladder, there is
no need for surgery. The amount of milk
should be reduced in the diet, he should
drink plenty of water and the urine
should be kept acid.
IV. KIDNEY INFECTIONS – germs are carried to the
kidneys by the blood stream or they come from
other organs like the bladder, especially if a stone
or some stricture is present. The whole urinary
becomes inflamed, chills, fever, pain and
tenderness in the side and over the kidney. The
patient should take plenty of fluids to wash away
the germs.
(1) MAKAHIYA – an infusion of the leaves is
remedy for kidney pains.
(2) SABILA – its leaf juice is a tonic and given as
a remedy for kidney pains.
(3) GARLIC – a cure is made by pounding the
juices of 2 or 3 lemens. Leave this concoction
wellcovered during the night, then stir it well
and take 1 teaspoonful every hour.
(4) ACHUETE – the pulp (annatto) surrounding
the seeds is purgative and given in diseases of
the kidneys.
(5) KAMATIS – its fruits is the most extraordinary
corrective for kidneys, being a gentle natural
stimulated which helps to wash away the
poisons which cause disease and contaminate
our systems.
DROPSY, UREMIA OF KIDNEYS
(ANASARCA)
(Dropsy – is the imflammation and swelling of the
kidneys which begins to shrink in size, is greatly
deformed, and can no linger concentrate the urine then
Uremia develops in the kidneys when it can no longer be
able to get rid of unwanted chemical substances thus
resulting in the blood becoming highly acidic and fewer
red blood cells are produced Anemia).
(1) SIBUYAS – the bulbs are most useful in dropsy.
(2) BAUANG – garlic is used in producing diuretic
and aids relieving dropsy and anasarca.
(3) KASOY – its juice from the pear-shaped
receptacle of the fruit is recommended for
dropsy.
(4) KINTSAY – the root is considered diuretic and
is given in anasarca.
(5) BUNGA – the bark is useful in dropsy.
(6) REPOLLO – the leaves of the common white
cabbage when gently bruised and applied to the
blistered surface will induce a free discharge as
when laid next to the skin dropsy of the angles.

Kidney Failure
Acute Kidney Failure – The sudden loss of kidney
function over a period of minutes to several days is
known as acute kidney failure. It may be caused by
impairment of blood supply to the kidneys, by severe
infection, by nephiritis (discussed below), by poisons,
and by various other condition that injure both kidneys.
The body can function adequately throughout a
normal life span with only one healthy kidney, but if both
are impaired sufficiently over a short period of time,
there will be symptoms of acute kidney failure:
production of a decreased amount of urine (oliguria)
sometimes with blood in it; fluid retention in body
tissues, a condition known as edema; increasing fatigue
and weakness, nausea and loss of appetite.
If damage to the kidneys has not been too
severe, the patient begins to have a dieresis, or greater
than normal urine output. When this happens – usually
after one or two weeks of reduced urine output – he is
kept on a restricted diet and reduced fluid intake after
recovery until normal kidney function returns.
Although kidney failure is more likely to occur
in older people because of the decreased capacity of the
body to respond to stress uremia can occur in any age
group if kidney damage is severe enough. The onset of
uremia maybe so gradual that it goes unnoticed until the
patient is weak and seems chronically ill. Voiding
unusually large amount of urine and voiding during the
night are early symptoms.
Sleepiness and increasing fatigue set in as the
kidney failure progresses, and there is a loss of appetite
accompanied sometimes by nausea and hiccups. As the
disease gets more serious, increasing weakness, anemia,
muscle twitching, and sometimes internal bleeding may
occur. High blood pressure is another characteristic
symptom. Because of fluid retention there will often be
marked signs of facial puffiness and swelling of the legs.
Kidney damage that leads to chronic kidney
failure is irreversible and the outlook for the victim of
uremia is poor. The technique of dialysis (discussed
below) has, however prolonged many lives and
continues to be a lifesaving procedure for many.
Dialysis
An effective method of treatment of kidney failure
developed in the 1960s is based on an artificial kidney
that cleanses the patient’s blood if his own kidneys are
not functioning properly. The procedure, known as
dialysis (or hemodialysis), removes dangerous waste
products and excess fluid from the patient’s
bloodstream. It is the accumulation of waste products
and fluid that probably causes the symptoms of acute
Page 5
kidney failure and that can be fatal if no reversed in one
way or another.
Dialysis for Chronic Kidney Failure
For patients suffering chronic kidney failure or uremia,
dialysis is a life-preserving but unfortunately expensive
procedure. The patient must be dialyzed with the
artificial kidney unit two or three times a week, usually
for six to eight hours at a time. Although the technique
does not cure uremia, it can keep the patient comfortable
provided that his diet is carefully restricted and
supervised.
Kidney Stones
Another cause of infection in the bladder and kidney is
obstruction in the urinary tract by kidney stones. These
stones, crystallizations of salts that form in the kidney
tissue, may be quite small, but they can grow large
enough to occupy a considerable part of one or both of
the kidneys. The smaller ones often pass from the kidney
through the ureters to the bladder. From which they are
voided through the urethra. However, obstruction of the
flow of urine behind a kidney stone anywhere in the
urinary tract usually leads to infection in the urine. This
type of infection may lead to attacks of acute
pyelonephritis.
Sometimes the formation and passage of stones
cause no symptoms. However, when symptoms do occur
with the passage of a kidney stone, they can be
uncomfortably severe. The pain that results from the
passage of a stone through the ureter, referred to as
renal colic, is usually like an intense cramp. It begins in
the side or back and moves towards the lower abdomen,
the genital region, and the inner thigh on the affected
side. The attack may last for a few minutes or for
several ours. Sometimes bloody urine may be passed
accompanied by a burning sensation.
Kidney stones are more likely to form in middle-
aged and older people than in young ones. A history of
stones is sometimes found in several generations of a
family, since the metabolic disorders encouraging their
formation have hereditary basis.
Gonorrhea
The second most common STD, gonorrhea, has afflicted
mankind for centuries. Gonorrhea, caused by the
bacteria gonococcus, lives in the mucous membranes of
the body, including the vagina, rectum, throat, or hollow
of the cheek. Cervical, penile, or rectal gonorrhea are
contracted through intercourse; oral sex may lead to
throat gonorrhea. Women may acquire gonorrhea in a
single contact with an infected male; but men face only
about a 20 to 40 percent risk of contracting the disease
from a female.
Untreated, gonorrhea can lead to various
complications. Women can suffer from pelvic
inflammatory disease. In relatively unusual cases
gonococci can enter the blood-stream and cause blood
poisoning. The babies of infected mothers may be born
blind. Gonococci settling in joints may cause arthritis.
Very rarely the disease leads to endocarditis, an
inflammation of the lining of the heart, or to meningitis,
an inflammation that destroys the membrane
surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
Except for PID, men experience most of the
basic symptoms of untreated gorrhea. Thus male
problems can range back pains to sterility.
Diagnosis
Anyone suspecting the presence of gonorrhea should
arrange for a medical examination as quickly as
possible. A test “just in case” may be advisable if, for
example, a sex partner indicates that he or she has
contracted the disease. Women are cautioned against
douching before a visit to a physician or public health
Page 6
clinic; nor should self-treatment with antibiotics be
attempted. In either case diagnosis may become more
difficult.
Syphilis
Historically, syphilis has ranked among mankind’s chief
health scourges. Modern medicine has brought it
largely under control, but it can still be life-threatening.
Syphilis strikes men about three times as often
as women. Approximately half of the male victims are
homosexuals. A spiral-shaped bacterium called
Treponema pallidum causes the disease. Transmittal
takes place during sex with a person in the infectious
stage in which open sores or rashes are typical
symptoms. The Treponema bacteria fill the sores and in
infecting another person invade the mucous membranes
of the genitals, mouth, or rectum. The spirochete, or
spiral bacterium, succumbs to heat, dryness, ordinary
antiseptics, or even soap and water. But it can tolerate
cold and survive freezing and sometimes tertiary stages.
In the primary stage, the victim may have a painless
chancre, or ulcer, that may be small, single, or multiple
and that may look like any common skin ulcer. The
reddish-brown ulcers generally appear between ten days
and three months after exposure to the disease, with a
typical incubation time of three weeks.
The secondary and latent stages of syphilis can
lead to serious complications unless treatment is
undertaken. A month to six weeks after the first ulcers
appear, secondary lesions may develop, taking the form
of a rash or almost any other kind of skin eruption. The
lesions may appear on the trunk of the body, on the face,
the arms and legs, or the palms of the hands and soles of
the feet. The lesions may or may not itch, and they may
not appear at all. The victim may, however, experience
fevers and flu symptoms as well as hair loss. A latent
stage of many years’ duration flows untreated secondary
syphilis. In this stage only a blood test can reveal the
presence of the bacteria in the body.
If still untreated, late or tertiary stage syphilis
follows the secondary and latent stages in about one
case in four. Tertiary syphilis involves the gradual
destruction of the central nervous system, the heart, the
bones, the liver, the stomach, or other organs. The
bacteria can causeparalysis, convulsions heart failure,
insanity, and even death. Attacking the circulatory
system, syphilis can cause an aneurysm, dilated section,
of the aorta just above the heart. The blood flow to the
heart is reduced; a ruptured aneurysm can produce a
fatal hemorrhage. While gummas, rubbery syphilitic
tumors inside organs, may respond to antibiotics in the
late stage of syphilis, damage of the heart valves and
arteries may be irreversible.
Congenital Syphilis
The latent syphilitic condition is not uncommon, and it is
a period of great danger to the fetus if an infected
women, especially a recently infected woman, becomes
pregnant at this time. The fetus can acquire syphilis
through the placenta and be born with congenital
syphilis. Or it can be still-born or die shortly after birth.
Some of the signs of syphilis in an infant born with the
congenital form of the disease are similar to those of
secondary syphilis. Others are very different, more
closely resembling tertiary syphilis. Because of the
hazards to the child, most physicians test the mother’s
blood for the presence of the spirochete during the first
three months of pregnancy and during the last three
months; syphilis acquired during pregnancy is especially
likely to affect the fetus. Treatment of the mother has the
added benefit of treating the fetus.
KIDNEYS
HERBAL MEDICINES
Asparagus root asparagin; Katakataka leaf juice;
Achuete seed Pulp; Carrots eaten raw; Kamatis pulp
juice; Kabling leaf decoction; Lubi-lubi leaf juice;
Dandelion root decoction; Maiz root-leaf decoction;
Bean pod decoction; Kintsay juice extract; Pepino fruit
juice; Lechugas leaf decoction; Kalabasa seed
decoction; Almond ground paste; Abukado leaf infusion;
Bayabas leaf shoots; Strawberry fruit; Eucalyptus leaf
infusion.
URINATION PROBLEMS
A healthy kidney is capable of eliminating any chemical
needed by the body but if a person neglects to take
sufficient water and other fluids, his urine may become
concentrated that it actually burns during urination
which may be due to infection. This may lead to chronic
infections of the kidneys and bladder and other parts of
the urinary tract. When the kidneys fail, large amounts
of albumin appears in the urine and this causes
considerable swelling in the tissues which is known as
DROPSY. Later the blood pressure rises and UREMIA
develops. The kidneys are no longer able to concentrate
the urine and the patient has to urinate frequently. The
volume at night may exceed that put out during the day.
When a stone develops in the kidneys and if fails to pass
the kidney on that side may be damaged. The kidney
continues to produce urine which cannot drain away.
The condition known as HYDRONEPROSIS may then
develop due to the pent-up urine and the ureter and
kidney pelvis become greatly dilated. Unless this is
relieved, the kidney may be destroyed.
Diuretic – a substance to help dispose of excess water by
increasing the amount of urine produced.
Page 7
(1) OKRA – a decoction of the young fruit is most useful
in irritable state of the genito-urinary organs, such
as Dysuria, Gonorrhea and Leucorrhea – in all
cases attended with scalding, pain and difficulty, in
passing urine.
(2) SIBUYAS – a decoction of the bulb is diuretic;
eaten raw, the bulb is diuretic.
(3) BAUANG – Garlic,, fresh and eaten cooked, is
diuretic.
(4) KINTSAY – the root in decoction is diuretic.
(5) ALUGBATI – the roots and its sap are diuretic.
(6) KONDOL – the fruit is diuretic.
BLADDER DISEASES
(1) TUBERCULOSIS OF THE KIDNEY OR
BLADDER – tuberculosis germs reach the kidney
and later the bladder from the lungs through the
blood stream when abscesses are formed in the
kidney which tend to break down leaving raged
cavities which eventually destroys the whole kidney
and ultimately reaches the bladder through the
ureter and also involves the prostrate glands.
SYMPTOMS – urinary burning and irritation; he feels
tired and losses weight.
TREATMENT – the same as that outlined for
tuberculosis of the lungs.
(2) INFECTION OF THE BLADDER – the infection
may be caused by germs from a diseased kidney,
prostrate gland or urethra, a bladder stone,
enlarged prostrate poorly controlled diabetes.
SYMPTOMS – frequency of urination and burning,
chills, fever, bleeding.
TREATMENT – herbal antiseptics and drinking plenty
of water.
(3) STRUCTURES OF THE BLADDER – the outlet
from the bladder becomes narrowed that urine is
difficult to pass. The trouble is caused by bladder,
stones, various infections, gonorrhea, a history of
bleeding, frequency of urination and dribbling.
(4) BLEEDING FROM THE BLADDER –
(Manifested in blood appearing in the urine.)
CAUSES OF:
(a) Injury to either one of the kidney or the bladder
due to car accidents or a bad fall;
(b) Existence of stones in the bladder;
(c) Tumors, inflammation and tuberculosis.
(5) URINARY BLADDER STONES – bladder stones
occur in childhood and even among the very young
but predominantly in males past middle age. Only
 about 20 are found in women. Stones originally in
the kidney may pass down into the urinary bladder
through a connecting tubular structure called the
ureter. But primarily stones in the bladder are due
to several causative factors.
Diet, water and hygienic habit have been implicated.
Statistics show that in over 55 of cases they are
associated with bladder neck obstruction owing to
enlargement of the prostrate gland in men. Some
bladder stones are observed when there is not free flow
of the urine as in prolonged recumbency and in women,
when state are foreign bodies introduced or
unabsorbable sutures placed on the bladder during
operation on the female genetalia. Bladder stones may
form in the presence of tumors, sac in the wall of the
bladder, ulcer or when there is deficiency of Vitamin A
in the diet.
Stones in the urinary bladder may be single or
multiple. The differ in size, shape and composition.
They are complicated by infections which has a tendency
to recur. While bladder stones may be silent in
exceptional cases, the typical symptoms of the conditions
consist of pain and frequency in urination, blood in the
urine and changes in the act of urination. The pain is
aggravated by exercise and movement and is more
pronounced at the end of the urination; it may be
referred to the tip of the pains, to the scrotum, buttocks,
lower abdomen, hip or feet.
Interrruption of the urinary stream may occur
owing to the encroachment of the stone on the bladder
outlet. Involuntary urination and continued painful
erection may take place especially in children.
(1) OKRA – the fruit in decoction is most useful in
bladder difficulties.
(2) NIYOG – its immature flowers and coco water when
fresh are beneficial in bladder difficulties.
(3) GUMAMELA – the dark red petals in the form, of
mucilaginous infusion are most useful in irritable
conditions of genito-urinary tract.
(4) MAKAHIYA – a leaf infusion is most useful in
bladder troubles.
(5) KAPOK – a decoction of the bark, with areca nuts,
nutmegs and sugar candy, is good for stone in the
bladder.
ANTILITHIC – (a remedy against stone in the bladder,
uric acid)
(1) MAKAHIYA – the roots in decoction are prescribed
in cases of stone in the bladder.
(2) KAPOK – the bark, with areca nuts, nutmegs and
sugar candy, is good for stone in the bladder.
(3) KAPE – coffee is a gastric and renal stimulant and
decrease the secretion or urea.
(4) PARAISO – the fruit is a most useful remedy for
urinary affections.
Page 8
LITHOTRIPTIC – (A substance tending to destroy
stones in the bladder)
(1) MORAS – a decoction of the roots is taken
internally as a very effective medicine to destroy
stone in the bladder without the extreme remedy of a
surgical operation.
(2) KINTSAY – a decoction of the entire plant is a
remedy against stone forming in the bladder.
(3) KACHUMBA – decoction of the root is prescribed
from vesicular calculus.
(4) MAKAHIYA – a decoction of the root is given in
gravel and similar urinary complaints.
URINARY TRACT DISEASES
The Urinary Tract
From the ends of the million or so tubules in each kidney
urine drains into larger and larger collecting basins
(called calyces, singular calyx) which drain in turn into
the kidney’s master urine reservoir, the kidney pelvis.
Then, drop by drop, urine slides down each ureter to the
urinary bladder.
Urine is held in the bladder by the contraction of
two muscle rings, or sphincters, one located just inside
the bladder before it meets the urethra, and the other
encircling the urethra itself. When about a half-pint has
accumulated, nerves convey the urge to urinate to the
brain, and the person voluntarily causes the sphincters
to relax, emptying the bladder. (In exceptional
circumstance, the elastic-walled bladder can hold two or
three quarts of urine.) Up to the point where the bladder
drains, the male and female urinary tracts are very
similar, but after the bladder, any similarity stops.
Female Urethra
The female’s urethra, normally about one and a half
inches long, is not much more than channel by which
urine is eliminated from the bladder. Its very shortness
often gives it an undersired significance.

Male Urethra
In contract to the female, the male’s urethra is involved
with reproductive functions. So closely connected are
the male’s lower urinary tract and genital organs that
his urethra (from bladder to the outside) is properly
called the urinogenital (or genitourinary) tract. This is
the reason why the medical specialty known as urology
deals with both the urinary and genital apparatus of
men; but with only the urinary tract of women. The
urologist’s specially does not extend to the female
genital and childbearing organs, which are the concern
of the gynecologist and obstetrician.
However, all the distinctly make sex glands and
organs are linked more or less directly into the eight-or
nine-inch length of the male urethra.
The Kidneys and Blood Pressure
A surprising insight into the critical role played by out
kidneys in almost every body function is provided by the
relation of blood pressure ot kidney function. The blood
in the glomerular capillaries must be at higher pressure
than the fluid around them, so that the fluid and its
dissolved substances can push through the capillary
membranes toward Bowman’s capsule. If blood
pressure in the body falls too low (severe hypotension)
the formation of urine ceases.
On the other hand, if a portion of the kidney is
suffering from anemia due to some disorder, kidney cells
secrete pressor hormones, which serve to elevate the
blood pressure. Thus high blood pressure
(hypertension) may be a sign of kidney disorder.
Cytitis
Infection of the bladder is called cystitis. The symptoms
include a burning sensation when urine is passed, the
frequent need to urinate, occasionally blood in the urine,
and sometimes difficulty in starting to urinate. Cystitis
is rarely accompanied by high fever.
The problem may be recurrent and is more usual
with women than men, probably because the female
urethra is shorter and closer to the rectum, permitting
bacteria to enter the bladder more easily. These
bacteria multiply in the urine contained in the bladder,
causing irritation to the bladder walls and producing the
symptoms described above.
Cystitis should be treated promptly because the
infection in the bladder can easily spread to the kidneys,
with serious consequences. Treatment usually consists
of antibiotics after urine analysis and culture have
determined the type of bacteria causing the infection.
Cystitis and other kidney infections are especially
common during pregnancy because of the body changes
Page 9
that occur at this time. At no time is cystitis itself a
serious disease, but it must be diagnosed and treated
promptly to avoid complications.
Urinary Tumors
Benign and malignant tumors of the kidney are not
common problems. However, anyone with pain in the
midback, blood in the urine, or a mass in the abdomen
should have the symptoms diagnosed. If a malignant
tumor is discovered early enough, it can be removed
with the affected kidney, and normal function can be
maintained by the healthy kidney that remains.
Malignant kidney tumors are most often found in
children or adults over 40, and more often in men than
in women. A tumor of any type can usually be diagnosed
by X-ray studies. Where this technique is inadequate, an
operation is necessary to search for the suspected
growth. About one-fourth of all patients with a
malignant kidney tumor live for more than ten years
after surgery.
A malignant tumor of the bladder is a serious
problem because it obstructs kidney drainage and may
cause death from uremia. The main symptoms is the
painless appearance of blood in the urine, although
sometimes a burning sensation and a frequent need to
urinate are also present. Treatment usually includes
surgical removal of the bladder followed by radiation
treatment of the affected area to destroy any malignant
cells that remain after the operation.
Some malignant bladder tumors grow very slowly
and do not invade the bladder wall extensively. Surgical
treatment for this type, called papillary tumors, is likely
to be more successful than for tumors of the more
invasive kind.
Prostatitis
Called benign prostatic enlargement and must be
treated surgically if sufficient obstruction is present.
For temporary relief, a catheter can be inserted into the
bladder through the urethra, allowing the urine to drain
through the catheter and out of the body. If surgery is
necessary, the entire prostate may be removed or only
that part of it that surrounds the urethra.
Symptoms of benign prostatic enlargement are
quite distinctive: increased difficulty in voiding; an urge
to continue to urinate after voiding has been completed;
burning and frequent urination, caused in part by
infection from urine retained in the bladder.
The cause if benign prostatic enlargement is
thought to be a change during the aging process in the
hormones that affect prostate tissue, but the exact nature
of the change and its effect is not clear. It is likely that
hormone containing medicines will eventually be
developed that will prevent or reverse prostate tissue
growth.
URINATION PROBLEMS
URINATION PROBLEMS
HERBAL MEDICINE
Makahiya root decoction; Sibuyas bulb decoction;
Bauang eaten cooked; leaf-bark decoction; Asparagus
juice extract; Alugbati root decoction; Okra fruit
decoction; Spinach leaf juice; Repollo seed decoction;
Kintsai root decoction; Carrot seed decoction; Sugar
cane juice extract; Banana root juice; Bermuda root
decoction; Corn root-leaf decoction; Kalabasa fruit
pulp; Coconut water; Laurel fruit poultice; Kasoy
pericarp.
Urinogenital System
The parts of the urinogenital tract that produce and get
rid of urine are the same for men and women: the
kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra. To understand
some of the problems that can arise from diseases of the
urinary tract, it is necessary to know a few facts about
the anatomy and function of these parts.
The two kidneys are located on either side of the
spinal column in the back portion of the abdomen
between the last rib and third lumber vertebra of the
Page 10
spine. They are shaped like the bean named after them
but are considerably larger.
Their function is to filter and cleanse the blood of
waste substances produced in the course of normal
living and together with some other organs, to maintain
a proper balance of body fluids. The kidneys to this job
by filtering the fluid portion of the blood as it passes
through them, returning the necessary solids and water
to the bloodstream, and removing waste products and
excess water, called urine. These products then flow
into the ureters, the ducts that connect the kidneys and
bladder.
The bladder holds the urine until voiding occurs.
The duct from the bladder to the urinary opening is
called the urethra. In the male, it passes through the
penis; in the female, in front of the anterior wall of the
vagina.
Disease of the Urinogenital System
Symptoms of Kidney Disorder
 Anuria: inability to produce or void urine.
 Dysuria: pain, often of a burning quality, during
urination
 Frequency: abnormally frequent urination, often of
unusually small amounts
 Hesitancy: difficulty in starting urination
 Urgency: a very strong urge to urinate, often strong
enough to cause loss of urine
 Oliguria: reduced production of urine
 Polyuria: voiding larger than normal amounts of
urine
 Nocturia: frequent voiding at night
 Hematuria: voiding blood in the urine
URINOGENITAL PROBLEMS
(1) ALBUMINARIA – existence of albumin in the
urine.
 ARTICHOKE – (garden artichoke, globe artichoke)
– a decoction of the roots, leaves and glower heads
is helpful to those suffering from nephritis.
(2) ANASARCA
a. Dropsy – abnormal accumulation of liquid in
the cellular tissue:
1. Bermuda grass – decoction of the root is given
in irritation of the bladder, dropsy and
irritation of the urinary organs.;
2. Cogon grass – both a decoction of the root and
inflorescence are used for dropsy.
3. Dandelion – the fresh leaves, eaten as a salad
or in decoction, 20 grams for each liter of
water, taken 2 or 3 spoonful a day, is good for
dropsy.
4. Ginger (luya, dilaw) – a decoction of the bulb
is used for disorders of dropsy while the juice
of fresh ginger is a remedy for dropsy.
5. Horse radish (wild turnip) – the juice extracted
from the rest is useful against dropsy.
6. Lily of the Valley – the whole plant, 15 to 20
grams for 1 liter of water, taken by
tablespoonful every 2 hours is recommended
for dropsy.
7. Parsley – a decoction or the juice of the plant
including the seeds is useful against dropsy.
8. Turmetic – (luyang dilaw)
9. Water Lettuce – its leaves in indusion is given
for dropsy.
10. Asparagus – its decoction of the root, young
shoot and seeds is useful for dropsy, 1 to 2
tablespoonfuls of juice diluted in water.
11. Bean – (Kidney bean) – bean pod tea is
recommended for dropsy.
12. Carrot – an infusion of the blossoms of the
carrot increases the flow of urine and is
beneficial for the kidneys and the urinary tract.
13. Celery (Kintsay) – a decoction of the root is
beneficial for dropsy.
14. Onion – eaten raw, it is recommended for
dropsy.
15. Kalabasa (Pumpkin) – decoction of the seeds
are good for the kidneys and bladder. Eaten
raw, the ripe kalabasa is good for dropsy.
16. Olive – its cold-pressed oil is recommended in
cases dropsy.
Page 11
17. Pinya (pineapple) – the natural ripe fruit or its
juice is useful for dropsy.
18. Kasoy – the fruit of its receptacle is good for
dropsy.
19. Bauang (garlic) – it produces copious diuresis
and is used in dropsy or anasarca.
20. Bunga – the juice of the young leaves of bunga
mixed with oil is found useful in urinary
disorders.
21. Kachunba – the yellow juice of this plant is
used as a medicine for dropsy.
22. Asparagus – its root contains asparagin, a
greenish yellow resin, sugar, gum, albumen,
chlorides, acetate and phosphate of potash
which stimulates the kidneys and imparts a
strong smell to urine. It is given in decoction
for cardiac dropsy.
23. Kolinta – they juice of its fresh bark with milk
is given in anasarca.
24. Repollo (cabbage) – the leaves of the common
white cabbage when gently bruised and applied
exernally and which will promote a free
discharge when laid next to the skin in dropsy
of the ankles.
25. Kapal-Kapal – its root-bark juice applied
externally is useful for anasarca.
26. Saging-Saging (Tikas) – a decoction of the
rhizome is used in dropsy.
27. Siling-labuyo (Spanish pepper) – externally
applied, they are useful in dropsy.
28. Parol-parolan (heart pea) – a decoction of its
roots is used for catarsh of the bladder while
the whole plant in decoction is used for dropsy.
29. Balatong-aso – a decoction of the plant is used
expecially for dropsy.
30. Kapok (cotton tree) – a decoction of its roots is
given for dropsy.
31. Kape (Arabian coffee) – it has been given as a
diuretic in dropsy.
32. Cujete (calabash tree) – the pulp of the fruit is
used in dropsies.
33. Tuba (croton oil plant) – its croton oil is useful
in dropsy.
34. Melon (cantaloupe) – a decoction of the seeds
yield a sweet, edible oil which is diuretic being
useful in painful discharge and suppression of
 urine. The Chinese use its peduncles
medicinally for general anasarca.
35. Higis-manok – its expressed juice is taken
internally in dropsy.
36. Kabal – a decoction of its leaves are used in
dropsy.
(6) AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER
37. Rosal (Gardenia) – the pulp of the smaller fruit
is externally applied in dropsies.
38. Tina-tinaan – its juice is given in some kidney
complaints like dropsy and it is said to
stimulate the bladder and therefore useful in
cases of retention of the urine.
39. Tubang-bakod (Physic nut tree) – its seed
contains a purgative oil which is used as a
remedy in dropsy.
40. Gisol-na-bilog – the juice of the rhizomes of the
plant taken internally acts as a resolvent of
dropsical affections.
41. Patola – the root is decoction is useful in
dropsy.
42. Nino (halon) – the decoction of the root is
good for dropsy.
43. Amoras – a decoction of the leaves are useful
for dropsy.
44. Malunggay – a decoction of the root is useful
for dropsy.
b. Uremia
1. Watermelon – juice of the ripe fruit is useful
against kidney problems, a great help for
dissolving kidney and bladder stones.
(3) ANURIA - absence of urine excretion from the
body.
1. Lubigan (sweet flag) – its rhizome in decoction
is useful in the suppression of urine.
2. Kawayan (spiny bamboo) - a decoction of the
root is administered in cases of anuria.
3. Palai (rice) – its roots and rhizomes, yields a
decoction used in case of anuria.
(4) BALANITIS – inflammation of the glans penis.
1. Alugbati (Malabar night-shade) – the juice of
the leaves together with sugar candy is useful in
balanitis.
(5) ASCITES – an accumulation of serious fluid in the
abdominal cavity.
a. Kapal-kapal (gigantic swallow-wort) – its root-
bark is said to promote the secretions and to be
useful in ascites, anasarca.
Page 12
b. Kapok – a decoction of the root is useful for
ascites.
c. Buboi (cotton tree) – a decoction of the root is
useful for ascites.
d. Soybean – the medical properties of the dried
sprouts of the bean, without hulls, are known to
be curative of ascites.
1. Malbas – a decoction of the leaves is used in the
inflammation of the bladder. An infusion of the
root is useful in relieving strangury and
haematuria. It is also said to be useful in
leprosy.
2. Aroma (cassia flower) – its leaves in decoction
are prescribed for affections of the bladder.
3. Parolparolan (heart pea) – a decoction of the
roots of this plant is useful for catarrh of the
bladder.
4. Adlai (Job’s tears) – a decoction of its seeds are
emollient in inflammatory conditions and
urinary organs.
5. Oregano (suganda) – a decoction of its leaves
has a beneficial effect on the bladder and
urinary organs.
6. Gulaman (Ceylon Moss) – a mucilaginous
decoction and jelly extracted from this algae is a
demulcent and recommended in bladder
problems.
7. Tina-Tinaan – the powdered indigo mixed with
water, is said to stimulate the bladder and
therefore useful in cases of retention of urine.
8. Bagasua (Goat’s foot creeper) – its boiled
tubers, being diuretic, are said to bring relief in
diseases of the bladder.
9. Patolang-bilog – the vine and root, in decoction
is known to be cooling to the blood, and is used
in treatment of hermorrhage from the bladder
and tonic to the genital organs.
10. Kabling-gubat - a decoction of the leaves are
for renal disorders and in the treatment of the
urinary organs including the kidneys.
11. Alagau – its leaves applied externally over the
bladder facilities urination.
12. Linga (Sesame) – both the seeds and oil are
used as demulcents in urinary diseases in
combination with other medicines of their class.
The leaves, which abound in gummy matter,
when mixed with water, form a rich, bland
 mucilage used in bladder troubles, acute cystitis
(inflammation of the bladder) and strungury
(painful or difficult urination).
13. Utong – a decoction of its leaves is used as a
remedy for diseases of the kidneys and the
bladder.
14. Lubi-lubi (garden or common night-shade) –
the juice of its leaves are used to alleviate the
pain in the kidney and bladder.
15. Dandelion – its root is diuretic, tonic, and a
general stimulant to the system especially to the
urinary organs, in the kidneys.
16. Lagundi - a tincture of its root-bark is good for
cases of irritable bladder.
(7) CYSTITIS – inflammation of the bladder
1. Malbas – an infusion of the seeds in decoction
are useful in the treatment of cystitis.
2. Taba-ahas – a decoction of this plant is diuretic
and useful in catarrh of the bladder.
3. Bulak-manok (Goat weed) – the juice of the
root prevents the formation of stone or calculus
in the bladder.
4. Mani (Peanut) - its oil is useful against catarrh
of the bladder.
5. Sansau - in decoction or as an extract of the
root is found useful in advanced stages of acute
and chronic cystitis.
6. Pakuan (Watermelon) – a decoction of the
seeds are used as a remedy in the alleviation of
symptoms due to acute cystitis.
7. Pukinggan – its root-bak in infusion is a
demulcent for irritation of the bladder (cystitis).
8. Saluyut – the leaves in decoction are demulcent,
tonic and diuretic and are useful in some cases
of chronic cystitis.
9. Palutan (many spiked Flacourtia) – its dried
leaves, in decoction, is good for catarrh of the
bladder.
10. Malabulak (red silk cotton tree) – its seeds, in
decoction, are useful for chronic cystitis.
11. Gumamela (Hibiscus, chuice rose) – its red
flowers are administered in the form of
mucilaginous, infusion in cystitis.
Page 13
12. Linga (sesame) – its leaves when mixed with
waste, form a rich, bland mucilage used in acute
cystitis.
13. Gulipas – its seeds in decoction are used for
acute cystitis.
(8) DYSURIA – a painful in difficult urination.
1. Okra – a decoction fo the young fruit is most
serviceable in irritable taste of gevito – urinary
organs such as dysuria.
2. Pasan – na – bilog (saluyot) – are infusion of
the leaves is useful in some cases of dysuria.
3. Dila-dila (prickly leaved elephant’s foot) - the
decocted root and leaves are given in cases of
dysuria.
4. Malakulak (ed silk cotton tree) – a decoction of
the dry young fruit is useful for all forms of
dysuria except those due to mechanical causes.
5. Amapola – its leaves and flowers in decoction
are prescribed in dysuria.
6. Roselle (red serrel) – its roots is boiled in milk
and given for dysuria.
7. Kapanitulot (gandarusa) its root is boiled in
milk and given for dysuria.
8. Bankoro (Indian Mulberry) - the juice of the
over-ripe fruit is recommended for dysuria.
9. Palai (rice) – rice water, which is the decoction
of rice, is an excellent demulcent refrigerant
drink in dysuria.
10. Kiapo (water lettuce) – its leaves are demulcent
and refrigerant and are used in dysuria.
11. Kalachuche (temple flower) - a decoction of the
bark is given for dysuria.
12. Panat panatan (olasiman, gulasiman –
ourslave) – an infusion of its fresh leaves is
applied as a diuretic for dysuria.
13. Talong-pipit (Indian night shade) a decoction
of the plant is useful in dysuria.
14. Balangot – its roots are diuretic and applied in
dysirua.
(9) NEPHRITIS (Bright’s Disease) – inflammation if
the kidneys.
1. Eucalyptus – the infusion of the matured green
leaves is recommended for nephritis.
 2. Kamatis (Tomato) – the juice of the ripe fruit
mixed with celery juice is recommended for
nephritis, taken 2 to 3 cups a day.
3. Banana (saging) - its juice extracted from the
trunk by crushing the chopped plant is
recommended for nephritis.
4. Olive – its cold-pressed oil is recommended for
nephritis.
5. Piña (pineapple) – the natural ripe fruit is eaten
on the juice is drunk as is good in the treatment
of nephritis.
6. Champaka – an infusion or a decoction of its
flowers are useful in preventing scalding in
renal diseases. The flowers, seeds and bark are
prescribed in renal affectous.
7. Bayabas (guava) an infusion if the leaves are
useful in nephritis.
8. Niyog-niyogan – the leaves and fruits in
decoction are useful in nephritis.
(10) ORCHITIS – inflammation of the testis.
1. Kalumbibit (Molucca bean, fever nut) – the
ointment from its seeds, with castor oil, forms an
excellent application to acute orchitis
2. Bitaog (Alexandrian Laurel) – its pounded bark
is applied in orchitis.
3. Parolparolan – (heart pea, ballon vine) – the
whole plant, in decoction, is useful in orchitis.
4. Mana (coral tree) - its dried root is given in
decoction as a tonic for orchitis.
5. Malapako – its mucilaginous leaves are used for
orchitis.
6. Patolang-bilog – its leaves in decoction are
given for orchitis.
7. Makahiya (sensitive plant) – its crushed leaves
made into a paste are applied topically on
testicular or glandular swellings (orchitis)
8. Shakeroot (Indian birthwort) – this plant is
decoction is useful for orchitis.
(11) ENURESIS – involuntary discharge of the urine
while sleeping.
Page 14
1. Pansy (European wild pansy) – a decoction of
the plant is good or bed-wetting.
2. Corn (mais) – its stigma in decoction are useful
in bed-wetting.
(12) URETHRITIS – inflammation of the urethra.
1. Kachumba (Mexican poppy; golden thistle of
Peru) – a lotion made from its root is useful in
inflammatory swelling of the urethra.
2. Kawad-kawaran – the whole plant, in
decoction, is useful in urethritis.
3. Kapok (white silk cotton tree) – an infusion of
its leaves are useful in urethritis.
4. Adlai (Job’s tears) – a decoction of the seed is
prescribed in inflammatory conditions of the
urinary organs.
5. Labuag – a lotion of the leaf and stem are
prepared for urethritis. An infusion is also
prepared as an injection into the urethra.
6. Tulip tree (Fountain tree) – a cold infusion of
its leaves is good for urethral inflammation
(urethritis).
7. Balangot – its roots, in decoction, are diuretic
and are employed against urethritis.
(13) URIC ACID – the acid of the urine (a white,
odorless, tasteless, insoluble diacid.
1. Bean (Kidney bean, bitsuwelas) - bean pod is
recommended for uric acid accumulations.
2. Mandarin (dalandan) – eating the fruit is
useful against crystallized uric acid.
(14) UROSIS – any disease of the urinary system.
1. Sansau – a decoction or an extract of the root
is useful in advanced stages of acute and
chronic cystitis; its infusion have good results.

Kidneys Not Needed In Heaven
JOSE Rizalino Vitug (with wife Carmen) undergoes hemodialusis
at the National Kidney Institute: Waiting for an organ donor.
Finally of potential cadaver kidney donor: God
gave him to us whole, we would like to give him back
complete, without missing parts.
Transplant counselor: Wouldn’t it be great if a
part of him would continue to live and give life to
someone? He does not need those kidneys in heaven.
THAT EXCHANGE may sound harsh, especially if
conducted at the bedside of an accident victim who
has just reached the irreversible condition of brain
death.
Picture an intensive care unit where a family
grieves over a beloved who has just been pronounced
clinically dead (through breathing, courtesy of a
machine). Then picture a team of strangers arriving to
plead with the shocked family to give up some of the
victim’s body parts “so that others may continue to live”
It is almost always an uptight scene. Sparks
could fly with the uninitiated retreating to safer grounds.
Or a lenghthy and sober discussion could transpire but
ending up with no decisions made – and the potential
donor passes on the Great Beyond. Or the exchange
could culminate beautifully with the grieving kin, in an
inspired gesture of resignation and generosity, offering
up whatever it is their dead could leave behind “para
madugtungan ang buhay ng iba.”
THE pager beeps. The message a possible
organ donor, named ____________, a victim of hit-and
Page 15
run, in the emergency room of ____________ Hospital.
Regardless of the time of day or night, transplant
coordinator from the National Kidneys Institute (NKI),
usually accompanied by an NKI doctor, rushes to the
said hospital to meet with the potential organ donor’s
physicians and next of kin. Not a minute to be lost.
The victim, though brain dead, is breathing with
the aid of a respirator. His blood pressure is still good.
Everything is done to ascertain that this person is indeed
a potential donor – that he is really brain dead and has
been declared so. Then the idea of organ donation is
brought up with the family.
When an NKI team (with this writer in tow)
arrives at the Dr. Jose R. Reyes Memorial Hospital after
receiving word about a potential donor, they find 22-
year old E.M., a factory worker, five months pregnant
and brain dead. E.M. fell from a jeepney a few hours
earlier. Her family has been informed of her
irreversible condition so that when Marilou Garcia, a
staffer of NKI’s Human Organ Preservation Effort
(HOPE) explains what organ donation is, they do not
show signs of protest.
The family goes into a huddle. A neighbor joins
in. Their decision: “Hindi na lang ho. Hindi namin
maatim….” Not even the idea of free funeral expenses
makes them change their mind. Neither does the thought
that somebody else’s life could saved.
Garcia is not about to give up. She leaves
behind medicine that will maintain the brain dead
woman’s blood pressure at a certain level a while longer
while her family thinks things over. Twenty-four hours
pass and no word from the family. Sunday Inquirer
checks with the hospital and learns that E.M. had died.
With her pair of kidneys two people could have been
gifted a new life.
The pager beeps at 1 a.m. NKI’s transplant
coordinator and HOPE head Paulette Lumbre rushes to
Hospital. A young man, A.B., Victim of a vehicular
accident, has been declared brain dead. At the hospital
his father sees the NKI people coming toward him. He
knows what he wants because he once worked at NKI.
The terrible pain of losing his son seems to ease up when
he agrees to donate the young man’s kidney. Even his
son’s heart, this father is willing to leave behind, except
that nobody is ready for the offer. In less than 48 hours
two patients with end-state renal disease (ESRD)
received one kidney each. A rare thing happens. One of
A.B.’s kidney almost perfectly matches the tissue type of
one of the recipients.
KIDNEY transplantation in the Philippines has
been going on for almost 10 years but not many people
are aware of the process behind it. Perhaps the secrecy
that surrounded the former dictator’s kidney disease and
transplants had affected public attitude toward this
medical process. And while everybody thinks that one of
Ferdinand Marco’s transplant operations was
performed at the NKI, people will tell you that “there
are no records.”
Then, too, there were gory stories in the past
about trafficking in human organs abroad that made
people suspicious. Horror stories about stealers of body
parts made the rounds. But this is another story that has
had its day. The controversy must have hurt the
transplant proponents.
Had Marcos come out matter-of-factly with his
transplant experience, he would have given the organ
donation campaign a big push. What better proof of the
rightness and effectiveness of the cause than a live
recipient, the president at that? When the ailing dictator
fled the country and the shroud of mystery was lifted
from Malacañang, the dialysis machines found Marcos’s
room only reinforced people’s dread of kidney diseases
and their doubts about the efficacy of organ transplants.
Fact is, Marcos died not of a kidney disease or
of complications form his kidney transplants but of other
complications. Fact is, kidney failure need not mean a
patient is in death’s antechamber.
Baba Loanzon Flores, 42, public relations
consultant of the Manila Pavilion; Marilou Garcia, 33,
of NKI’s HOPE; Maximiano Ronquillo, 41, a swimming
instructor and former commercial diver; Michaela
Credo, 34, double bass player of the Philippine
Philharmonic Orchestra; Arturo Hernandez, 47, former
production supervisor of the Inquirer; Estrella Dumas,
33, store owner; Doreen Fernandez, writer, Inquirer
food columnist and English professor at the Ateneo; Eric
Fermin, taekwondo gold medalist at the ASEAN.
All are kidney recipients. All have gone through
the difficult and expensive process of dialysis. All found
kidney donors (living-related or cadaver) and went
through organ transplantation. All are now leading
regular and, better still, productive lives.
Flores, president of the Kidney Transplant
Association of the Philippines (KITAP), owes her kidney
to her sister. Her date of transplant (DOT in medical
parlance) was October 15, 1987. Before that her life
had consisted mainly of hospital appointments and
dialysis weekly to twice weekly. She seemed destined for
lifetime of expenses, inconvenience and pain.
Flores opted for a transplant after finding a
living related donor. Tests were done to determine the
health and readiness of both patient and donor and the
compatibility of their blood groups and tissue types.
Flores and found a good match in the hospital for 10
Page 16
days. In time her kidney started to functions as though it
was her own. For about a month she avoided crowds to
avoid infection of any sort as transplant patients taking
immunosuppressive drugs are prone to infection.
THE Ma. Corazon Torres y Javier Organ Transplant Foundation was named
after this 25-year-old scholar who died of aneurysm in 1990 while in Spain.
Her two kidneys, heart and lung were donated by her family to four people.
Five years after her operation, Flores has yet to
encounter problems with her “new” kidney. The quality
of her life has dramatically improved. She can eat
anything, do almost anything.
Diver Ronquillo DOT September 1991) feels
new again. His sex life is as great as even :Nadagdagan
pa ng anghang.” Garcia (DOT November 1986)
strongly agrees.
Orchestra musician, Credo (DOT: May 20,
1992) will never meet her kidney donor. He died in a
vehicular accident and Credo received his kidney soon
after. “But I know his name,” Credo says. He was, she
was told, a good and bright boy. She knows the details
surrounding her donor’s death and the kind of family he
come from but requests that details not be mentioned
here. Families of cadaver donors are normally not
allowed to know the recipients to avoid negative
encounters, among possible consequences.
We met Credo last week at the NKI. We mistook
her for a hospital employee as she was walking fast and
wearing a cloth mask (to avoid getting infection). She
had just come from a check-up. Like most kidney
recipients, she can to into great detail – dates, technical
terms and all – about her kidney failure and transplant
experience.
December 1990. Credo thought she was just
suffering from an upset stomach. A medical examination
showed she had a high level of creatinine (protein
waste) in her blood. Her kidneys had contracted.
Losing no time, doctors at the Manila Sanitarium put her
on emergency dialysis. “I’m basically a happy person,”
Credo says, “but I was depressed. The orchestra was
scheduled to play with Lea Salonga and I had to miss
that.”
For a year and five months until last May,
Credo was on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis
(CAPD). This process can be done at home with the
patient doing it herself. A tube that leads to the
peritoneum is fixed on the abdomen. Several times a day
every day, the person dialyzes herself (can be done
anywhere) using several liters of solutions. It is a
cumbersome exercise but it does not restrict the patient’s
movement.
Hemodialysis is another option but it entails
twice weekly visits to the hospital and the use of a
dialysis machine not to mention four hours in a supine
position. Besides its being expensive, it has its risks. In
short, transplants could be the key to a normal life for
those with end-stage renal failure.
Credo wanted a transplant badly but not one
among her next of kin (she has two younger sisters) was
qualified. With AB type blood and a tissue type that
could not find an easy match, she knew it would be a
long wait. Her name was added on a cadaver pool while
day in and day out she religiously went through
peritoneal dialysis.
Credo remained with the orchestra although she
had to take on less taxing work like research, writing
program notes and the like. She could travel, yes, as
long as she brought along her tubes and solutions.
“Last May 15 I left for Dumaguete for a four-
day vacation,” she recalls. She must have been flying
home when a possible match for her, a young accident
victim, turned up. Her family was contacted. (A person
on the waiting list provides all the avenues for contact –
for example, as many relatives and neighbors.) As soon
as Credo arrived, she was rushed to the hospital.
“I thought it wouldn’t push through,” Credo
says, “as they thought I had pneumonia. It was a false
alarm. And my doctor was in Korea.” Less than 48
hours later (harvested kidneys must be transplanted
immediately) she got her new organ. Credo, who is
nicknamed Ella, says a woman similarly named (Ella
Luz Eligio, 37) received the other kidney. IT IS NOT
unusual for two recipients of the pair of kidneys form a
single cadaver donor to make kumustahan or to check
on each other’s condition and even become friends. The
two recipients of a pair do not necessarily match in
exactly the same degree with their donor and may have
different anti-rejection drug regimens to follows the rest
of their lives.
(Useless kidneys, unless with malignancy, are
not removed. The “new” kidney is transplanted up front
in the abdomen. If the kidney is rejected, the patient
must go back to dialysis while waiting for a new one.)
Page 17
On June 3, Credo was released from the
hospital. Because she was not classified as a service or
charity patient, her bill came up to P 220,000/ This she
will pay slowly. Others pay much less depending on
their social status.
RECIPIENTS all: Arturo Hernandez, Michaela Credo and Estrella
Dumas (at far right is transplant coordinator Paulette Lumbre) in
front of Solomon Saprid’s bronze version of the kidney at the NKI.
Before a patient can be classified as
“transplantable” his or her ability to follow expensive
drug (immunosuppressants) regimen for life is
considered. He or she may have to spend as much as P
200 a day for life on drugs alone until new and cheaper
ways are discovered. Still, this could be cheaper and
more comfortable than dialysis. But it useless to
perform transplantation on one who cannot cope with
drug costs and later will reject his transplanted organ.
One other option is death.
IN A COUNTRY sorely lacking in primary
health care there is reason to question government funds
going into expensive and highly specialized medical care
such as the one at the NKI, the Lung Center or the
Philippine Heart Center. This is a valid issue,
considering the deplorable conditions in government-
run general hospitals. But that is another story.
There seems to be no turning back as far as
organ transplantation in the Philippines is concerned.
Kidney specialists are well versed in the practical and
economical advantages of transplants. Transplantation
is expensive from the point of view of hospitals, says a
doctor, dialysis is profitable. From a patient’s point of
view, the costs may not differ much but transplantation
offers quality life.
Kidney transplantation is a lifesaving operation
for people with end-stage renal disease. It is one of two
renal disease. It is one of two renal replacement
therapies, the other being the use of an artificial kidney
or dialysis machine.
Kidneys purity the blood. Just four and half
inches long, the remove waste and normalize the body’s
salt and water content through urine formation. Kidneys
also produce hormones that control blood pressure and
help form red blood cells and good bones. When the
kidneys fail, the body is slowly poisoned by the waste
matter that is retained. This state is called uremia
(urine in the blood). Some consequences are high blood
pressure, anemia, edema. Of course, with all that
poison the cannot be excreted the person would
eventually die.
With the tremendous breakthroughs in medicine,
more people under dialysis are opting for
transplantation. Kidney transplants compared to other
organ transplants are stills the most cost-effective and
successful. And with new and better immunosuppressant
drugs that prevent organ rejection, almost perfect
matching of donors with recipients is no longer a must.
(Too much of the drugs, however, lowers resistance to
infection, the major cause of transplant deaths.)
There are three kinds or organ donors” the
living related (parent, sibling, child), living non-related
(spouse, fiancé, friend, neighbor) and cadaver (who dies
from a brain injury).
In the Philippines, transplants from cadavers
comprise 20 percent; those from the living, 80 percent.
In developed countries where many people carry donor
cards it is the other way around.
Last January the Organ Donation Act of 1991
(R.A. 7071( was signed by President Corazon Aquino. It
authorizes the donation of all or part of the human body
after death for specified purposes. It defines death and
who should declare death; it also defines donees and
legatees. (It defines death as either cardiorespiratory
death or brain. Brain death means death of the entire
brain. In great Britain, their code only requires
brainstem death.) R.A. 7071’s most significant portion
says:
“in the absence of any of the person specified
under Section 4 hereof and in the absence of any
document of organ donation, the physician in charge of
the patient, the head of the hospital or a designated
officer of the hospital who has custody of the body of the
deceased classified as accident, trauma or other medico-
legal cases, may authorize in a public document the
removal from such body for the purpose of
transplantation of the organ to the body of a living
person. Provided. That the physician, head of hospital
or officer designated by the hospital for the purpose has
exerted reasonable efforts, within 48 hours to locate the
nearest relative listed in Section 4 hereof of guardian of
the decedent at the time of death.
Nowhere in the law is it stated that sale of a
kidney by its owner is prohibited. Kidney sellers coming
in for tissue typing pass themselves off to doctors as the
patient’s relative. (Doctors may nor be broken). In fact
Page 18
Filipino prisoners started donating their kidney in 1976!
In India people openly sell one their kidneys.
There is a saying that the God gave us two
kidneys so that the other one could be given away. A
person can live a perfectly normal life with only one
kidney. President Fidel V. Ramos has only one kidney.
This did not prevent him from skydiving.
The Philippines has been conservative a regards
kidney transfers. China is said to be the place for sick
people to go as they have an ample supply of kidneys
harvested from executed prisoners.
Singapore’s organ donation law is based on presumed
consent. There everybody is a potential donor unless
one expressly opts out in writing.
The Philippines has the fourth largest transplant
rate in Asia and NKI is “the single institution with the
biggest number of transplants per year in all of the Far
East. (The first transplantation was performed at the
UST Hospital in 1970 by Dr. Domingo Antonio.) The
NKI has so far done 701 kidney transplants, 167 of them
from cadavers. The rate of success is 90 percent. The
NKI has also done five kidney-pancreas transplants, one
kidney-liver, two bone marrow and five liver transplants.
The Philippines is said to have become a
popular destination for “packaged kidney tours” with
the Japanese paying $150,000 for a package that
includes airfare, hotel, hospital and doctors’ fees.
Transplantable kidneys can go for $200,000. The
Catholic Church frowns on organ sale, though.
Filipinos are a long way from high awareness of
organ transplant donation. Unlike in more developed
countries, organ donor cards are not among the papers
usually found in accident victims here. Perhaps
Filipinos can draw inspiration from a foreigner who met
an accident here. Found in his person was a donor
card. Still, the Filipinos doctors, before harvesting his
kidneys, got in touch with his family. In a matter of
hours two kidney patients received one kidney each.
“Sambong” leaves effective
Cure for kidney stones
Filipino scientists found out recently that the
leaves of the local herb sambong (blumea balsamifera)
can effectively dissolve kidney stones, while those of the
local tree akapulko abounding in the country can cure a
contagious skin disease.
At a press conference, the Philippine Council for
Health |Research and Development (PCHRD) said that
recent studies have shown that sambong leaves, known
as diuretic and muscle relaxant, can actually dissolve
calcium stones in the kidney.
Dr. Ferdinand Rico of the East Avenue Medical
Center said calcium stones are most commonly found in
patients suffering from urolithiasis, or, stone formation
in the kidneys.
While large kidney stones can be taken out with
surgery, small ones are passed out with the use of
diuretics, or drugs which can enhance or increase
urination, like ammonium chloride and thiazide. Tables
of sambong leaves were recently found to be effective
diuretics, aside from being a muscle relaxant.
Rico found out that the sambong leaves can also
dissolve kidney stones by turning them into fragments
when passed out by patients.
Also, a regular intake of sambong tablets can
hasten the recovery of patients after surgery, prevent the
recurrence of stone formation, and prevent the
development of kidney stones among high-risk people.
Dr. Nelia Cortes-Maramba of the University of
the Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) said that
sambong tablets are now available in government health
centers. But patients can prepare their own sambong by
boiling its fresh ro dried leaves in two glasses of water.
For dried leaves boil six heaping tablespoons of crushed
dried leaves to two glasses of water, and drink 80 cc
three times a day.
According to Maramba, 70 per cent of all kidney
stone patients who regularly drink sambong concoction
or take sambong tablets pass out calcium kidney stones
within four weeks.
On the other hand, Dr. Ruby Paz Reyes of the
UP-PGH dermatology division said lotion made out of
akapulko leaves, scientifically called Cassia alata, can
cure tinea vercicolor, or an-an, a fungal skin disease
that causes scaling and reddening.
Reyes said a solution made of akapulko leaves
boild in water can be used as a lotion over the infected
skin. A UP-PGH study showed that akapulko lotion is
90 per cent effective in treating tinea, while sodium
thiosulfate, which is more commonly used for treating
the illness, has a 96.7 per cent effectivity rate.
According to Reyes, patients can boil half a
glass of chopped akapulko leaves, also called bayabasin,
in two glasses of water. The solution can be used for
two days and is applied on the affected areas with the
Page 19
use of cotton. She said the treatment can take place
within two to three weeks.
Kidney Transplant Surgery
Some people suffering from kidney disease may benefit
greatly from the surgical transplant of a donor’s kidney.
The donor kidney may be taken from a live relative or
from someone recently deceased. The organ is removed
from the donor’s abdomen, usually flushed with a salt
solution, and then reattached to a large artery and vein
in the recipient’s abdomen and to his ureter.
The successfully transplanted kidney functions
just as the patient’s own did when he was healthy,
removing wastes and excess fluids from his bloodstream
and excreting the resulting urine through the bladder.
The recipient of a kidney transplant must take special
medication to prevent the rejection of the newly installed
organ by his own body tissues. With proper medical
care, recipients have lived for many years with their
transplanted organs.
Cairo‟s poor offer their kidneys for cash
CAIRO – By the time Ahmed Mohammed Hamuda
reached home it was dusk. He entered the two concrete
rooms he occupies with his seven children, his wife and
elderly parents, and he bent down to pick up his 10-
month-old son.
“How goes it with you?” his wife asked softly,
but he did not answer.
He climbed the steps to the roof of his tiny home
and looked out over the undulating sea of mud hovels
and tapering minarets that make up the slums around
Cairo. The pinkish light of the evening, filtered by the
layers of dust, gave the sky a warm and inviting glow.
It was to have been a big day. Mr. Hamuda had
told his family he had an interview with an America
company. Perhaps soon the baby would drink milk
every day. Perhaps the other children could have shoes.
But there was no American company.
Mr. Hamuda had taken a rickets bus to the
center of the city and spent the afternoon in a laboratory
where technicians has taken five vials of blood from his
arm. With no work and no prospect of work, Mr.
Hamuda had decided to traffic in all he has left – one of
his kidneys.
Like many of the poor in Egypt who are driven
to such desperate measures, he is assured of a market, a
market that relies on live donors and draws Arabs from
throughout the Middle East.
 “I will tell my wife and my oldest son just before
I have the operation,” said Mr. Hamuda, 35, a former
bus driver.
“They will protest, of course, so for now I do not want
them to know. My greatest hope is that this will ensure a
future for my children.”
Several hundred people a year make their way
to the air-conditioned private laboratories that match
prospective donors with patients who need kidneys.
Once a patient and donor are brought together the
dickering begins.
Kidneys in Egypt can sell for $10,000 to
$15,000, for apartments, or for televisions and other
electronic goods.
Official in the Ministry of Health said they
condemned any sales, although the transaction are not
illegal.
“This is immoral,” a spokesman, Mohammed
Abdel Salam, said. “It is against religious law. If it is
being done, it is being done in secret.”
Transplants of other organs are rare in Egypt,
which means that only kidneys are sold on the open
market. But World Health Organization officials,
reached by phone in Geneva, said the sale of organs was
reaching alarming proportions in the Third World,
especially as advanced medical technology proliferates.
“It is a burning issue for us,” said a WHO
official “and we are trying to decide how to deal with
it.”
Some in the Egyptian medical establishment
criticize the laboratories and transplant centers for
tracking in human misery.
“It’s a stinking business,: said Dr. Abdel-
Moneim Hassaballa, a kidney disease specialist who is
chairman of the Arab Contractors Medical Center, one
of the largest hospitals in the country.
The directors of several laboratories and
transplant centers, however, deny any involvement in the
sales.
“We don’t have anything to do with these
agreements,” said Dr. Malaka Fouad, who runs one of
the laboratories. “This is just between the donor and
the patient. We only match them and charge the patient
for the donor’s lab tests. If the patient pays money, or
promises work, for the kidney this is not our concern.
Cairo has six major kidney transplant centers,
which perform about 350 operations a year. All the
centers transplant the organs from live donors into
patients in one five-hour procedure. For religious
Page 20
reasons, it is difficult to obtain organs from the dead.
Moreoever, Cauro’s centers are not equipped to
transplant organs from cadavers, as is done in the
United States and Europe.
June: National Kidney Month
President Fidel Valdez Ramos has declared June of
every year as National Kidney Month under
Proclamation No. 184, and the last week of June as
National Organ and Blood Donation Awareness Week
under Proclamation No. 185.
These presidential proclamations focus on the
importance of an awareness of kidney disease, which
ranks among the top ten of killer-diseases in the country,
and the need for organ (i.e., kidney) donations. Every
year, kidney disease strikes 100 out of every million
people with irreversible kidney failures necessitating
dialysis treatment.
The minimum cost of sustaining dialysis
treatment is P240,000 a year, or P20,000 a month –
clearly beyond the means of most Filipinos. There are
12 dialysis centers in Metro Manila, 6 in the Visayas, 2
in Central Luzon and 3 in Mindanao. The National
Kidney Institute (NKI( has 6 machines for the indigent
provide slot to those who are preparing for kidney
transplants.
Transplants are expensive (costing about
P100,000 when subsidized) but if successful, could give
the patients “a better quality of life.”
Prospective transplant patients must have either
a Living Related Donor (LRD) or a cadaver donor (i.e.,
from a person brought to the hospital whose whole brain
is “dead,” but who is kept attached to a respirator
which keeps his blood circulating and his organs
“alive.”) In case of kidney transplant patients, it is the
“alive” kidney that is transplanted.
The NKI launched its organ retrieval program
to encourage organ donation through its Human Organ
Preservation Effort (HOPE). Through lectures, HOPE
tries to convince the more sympathetic to fill up organ
donation cards.
President Ramos’ designation of last week of
June as National Organ and Blood Donation Awareness
Week, aims to win more support. But even before
campaigns such as this were launched, donors have not
been wanting.
Since 1983, when the National Kidney Institute
started operations, there have been 792 kidneys came
from Living Related Donors, 188 from cadaver donors.
Since the start of this year, 32 transplants have been
done, coming from 22 Living Related Donors and 10
cadavers.
We earnestly encourage potential donors – both
Living Related Donors and the families of prospective
cadaver donors to participate in the organ donation
project.
And as the HOPE bumper sticker admonishes
us, “Don’t Take Your Organs To Heaven…. Heaven
Knows We Need Them Here.”
A Project of the Philippine Coconut Industry
Did you know that whenever you drink buko
juice, you bring into your body the essential elements it
needs like protein, natural sugar, vitamins and
minerals? The buko juice or coconut water is so pure
and natural, it does not contain artificial chemicals you
usually get from other thirst quenchers.
The juice in the young coconut is a great source
of growth hormones and energy as if contains a high
concentration of potassium. While the soft, naturally
sweet and pure white meat of the coconut provides some
protein, fats, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron,
thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. A day’s supply of this
delicious all natural drink helps satisfy your daily
nutritional requirement, hence, buko juice is the ideal
refreshment in a nuthshell. It is the better alternative to
other thirst quenchers – and it is more economical, too!
For every coconut you buy, you don’t just add
“Life” to your life but to your country’s economy as
well.
NOT JUST A REFRESHMENT. A MEDICAL
DRINK, TOO.
Because of the nutritional benefits of buko juice, its
usage is extended to medicine. It is now used for
treatment of certain diseases.
A medicinal breakthrough called “Bukolysis”,
was made possible by Dr. Eugenio V. Macalalag, Jr.,
chief of the Urology Section of the Chinese General
Hospital. His researches proved that coconut water is
effective in dissolving kidney stones, or preventing their
formations. The process involves the endoscopic
procedure of multiple urrethal stenting (MUS) or
tubation (MUT-S), inserting two to twelve uretral
catheters into the kidney ureter up to where the stones
are, and irrigating them with coconuts water from 7-9
month old coconuts (or with buko nectar concentrate
Page 21
pweder (BNCP), for 3-19 days) Daily “Bukolysis” and
renoclysis with BNCP effects approximately 10%
reduction in the size of all types of stones treated. Dr.
Macalalag further suggests that buko juice, when taken
daily could prevent stone formation in the urinary tract,
“Bukolysis”, given its main materials’ availability, is an
economical alternative to the usual surgery which can
amount to around P25,000, while “bukolysis” only costs
1/3 to ¼ as much.
Buco juice can also be used for intravenous
therapy for dehydrated patients because it contains a
high amount of glucose and electrolytes.
The amazing benefits of buko juice can work
wonders for you if you start making it your daily drink.
It may be the only cure you need for your health
problems. And if you have a healthy body, the more you
should maintain it with buko juice. In fact, buko juice is
fast becoming an athlete’s drink.
REFRESHMENT THAT GIVE OTHER
REFRESHMENTS
From the juice and the meat of the coconut, you
can derive other types of refreshments. With buko juice,
you can make your own coco wine. You can also create
buko salad, halo-halo, fruit cocktail or toppings for your
pastry goodies with the coco meat. Then, if you want a
little excitement, you can use the shell for your buko
salad.
Exercising your ingenuity with buko juice will
nor only endear you to your family or friends, but also
make you a budding entrepreneur. You can make
money-making potentials like coco-vinegar, nata de
coco, dried buko, cakes, candies, cookies, biscuits, chips,
ice-cream, coco jam, and many more. The buko fruit
offers a whole lot of benefits that will not only make you
healthy but also economically self-reliant - a truly
fruitful venture.
Every year, close to 5,000 Filipinos of all ages die
Of kidney ailments.
By the
Drug Association of the Philippines, Inc.
Manila Bulletin
Dec. 26, 1989
FIND OUT WHY
KIDNEY DISEASES HAPPEN
Your kidney are a pair of organs located roughly above
the hips along both sides of your back. The kidney serve
the important function of separating water and waste
products from the blood and expelling them as urine.

The three most common groups of primary
kidney diseases are urinary tract infections *UTI),
kidney stones and glomerulonephritis. Of the three,
glomerulonephritis is the most frequent cause of kidney
failure and death.
Rx 1: Know what it is
UTI is caused by bacteria in the urinary tract. Infection
of the kidney is accompanied by back pain, fever,
vomiting and presence of pus cells in the urine.
Kidney stones are aggregates of crystals (uric
acid, calcium, cystine, etc.) in the urinary tract. The
tendency to form stones is mostly inherited. Not
drinking enough water, UTI, dietary excesses and an
inherited predisposition can lead to the formation of
kidney and urethral stones.
Glomerulonephritis is an immunologically
mediated disease of the glomeruli, which are rounded
structures in the kidneys composed of tufts of capillaries
(fine blood vessels). Glomeruli filter water and other
substances from the blood and start the formation of
urine.
There are various forms of lomerulonephritis.
Destruction of the kidneys by glomerulonephritis leads
to uremia, a condition caused by the presence in the
blood of waste products normally eliminated in the
urine.
Uremia requires dialysis (the elimination of
wastes from blood by machine) or a kidney transplant,
or both. Untreated, uremia kills.
Almost 50 percent of people with kidney diseases
never know they are sick because these ailments often
start without any signs or symptoms.
The kidney reserve is so big that the body will
function normally even after a kidney has been
removed. Thus, it is possible for a healthy person to
donate a kidney for transplant.
Even if you have kidney disease, when
deterioration is very slow and as long as your kidney
retain at least 30 percent of their function, you may be
completely unaware that you have developed a kidney
condition.
Rx 2: Recognizing it
UTI is associated with pain on urination,
frequent urination, and pus cells in the urine:
Sometimes red blood cells may be present, resulting in
bloody urine.
Page 22
Kidney stones cause intense pain on urination.
The urine is bloody and may be excessive or scanty, or
completely suppressed. Blood pressure increases and
there is loss of appetite. Diarrhea, nausea and vomiting
may occur.
The urine of a person with glomerulonephristis
carries red blood cells, protein and casts or plastic-like
substances. Other symptoms of glomorelonephritis may
include a swelling of the whole body, or of the face, or
the legs; high blood pressure; and anemia. In the acute
stage, urine may be smoky or bloody and passed in small
amounts.
Laboratory tests are indispensable in detecting
the presence of kidney ailments.
Rx 3: Prevention is best
A urinalysis (examination of urine for blood
cells, protein, sugar, etc.), and blood tests for BUN
(blood urea nitrogen) and creatinine can help determine
the state of your kidneys. To detect kidney diseases
early, medical specialists are advocating legislation to
make these tests mandatory for all school children and
those seeking employment.
Signs of kidney failure cited
From loss of urine, burning sensation,
Back pains, to puffiness of eyelid or face
Each one of us has pair of kidneys. They are
located on either side of the spinal column, at the back
portion of the abdomen between the last rib and the third
lumbar vertibra of the spine. They are well protected by
the muscles of the back. They are shaped like beans but
are considerably larger.
Our kidneys play a vital role in maintaining the
correct internal environment for the different organs to
work efficiently. Their function is to filter and cleanse
the blood of waste substances produced in the course of
normal living and together with some other organs, to
maintain a proper balance of body fluids and
electrolytes.
The kidneys do these by filtering the fluid
portion of the blood as blood passes through them,
returning the necessary substance and water to the
blood stream and removing waste products and excess
water in the form of urine.
The urine formed by the kidneys then flows into
the ureters, the ducts that connect the kidneys and
bladder. The bladder holds are urine until it is filled to
be excreted out during urination. In the male, it passes
through penis; in the female, in front of the anterior wall
of the vagina.
With the vital role kidneys play in the
maintenance of good and efficient bodily functions it is a
must that we know how to take care of them. This
objective can be accomplished by first, preventing and
secondly, by early detection and early treatment of
kidney or genitourinary disease.
The most common causes of irreversible kidney
failure are chronic glomeruloephritis, chronic
phelonephritis, chronic tubuloininterstitial disease
chronic obstruction with/without infection, hypertension,
diabetes.
Usually these disease manifest themselves with
one or more of the following signs and symptoms:
annuria-inability to produce urine: dysuria – pain of a
burning sensation during urination; frequency –
abnormally frequent urination, often of unusual small
amount; hesitancy – difficulty in starting urination;
urgency – a very strong urge to urinate, often strong
enough to cause loss of urine.
Other signs incude oliguria – reduced
production of urine: polyluria – voiding larger than
normal amount of urine; nocturia – frequent voiding at
night; flank or bak oains – may be mild to severe;
hematuria – blood in the urine; proteinuria – presence
of protein in the urine; hypertension – high blood
pressure; edema – puffiness of the eyelid or face;
swelling of both legs; and a symptomatic urinary
abnormalities – no symptoms with abnormal urine
findngs.
When one or more of these are present,
consultation with a physician is a must. The diagnosis
and corresponding treatment should be maintained if
advised by the physician even if all the signs and
symptoms have completely resolved.
The absence of symptoms does not always mean
complete cure of the disease. An indolent disease may
go on without any manifestation and before symptoms
may reappear, the kidneys may have been advancely
damaged.
In the absence of any symptoms, it is also
advisable to have urinalysis, creatinine, fasting blood
sugar, uric acid determination and blood pressure check
at least once or twice a year. Diabetes and hypertension
are commonly a symptomatic and often discovered only
during routine check-up. Other precautions include
avoid too much salt in the diet; drink a lot of fluids (10-
15 glasses/day); refrain from self-medication.
These are simple, easy and inexpensive
measures which may go a long way in taking care of
your kidneys.
„Magic Bullet‟: New kidney removal technique hailed
Page 23
Manageable hypertension sent Ray into the
hospital for surgery to remove a problem kidney, the
cause of his disease. Ten days later he went home with a
seven-inch scar, enough pain medication for the usual
six-week recuperation, and thousands of dollars in
medical bills.
Joe checked into another hospital the same
evening Ray did. Because of a similar problem, he too
was having his kidney removed the following morning.
Three days after surgery, he walked out of the hospital
with some barely perceptible scars, pain medication for
a seven to 10-day recovery period, and substantially
lower medical bills than Ray.
The difference between these two hypothetical
patients is that Ray’s kidney was removed via the
conventional method. Joe was able to have his removed
through laparoscopy – a surgical technique that enables
surgeons to insert a miniature camera into the abdomen
and then operate through several additional tiny
incisions instead of one large of – has brought about a
metamorphosis in medicine. Patients recover faster.
They suffer less pain and need less medicine. Their
scars are barely noticeable. And to cap it off, the size of
their hospital bills drops dramatically.
Gynecologic surgeons have used laparoscopy
for years, with little in the way of public reaction. But
when general surgeons began wielding the laparoscope
to remove gall bladders two years ago, the procedure
catapulted to unparalled levels of popularity.
The procedure is nor in such demand among
gall bladder patients, of whom there are well over half a
million each year, that doctors by the thousands are
investing in the necessary equipment and enrolling in
special training courses. And they’re not stopping with
gall bladders.
A Major New Advance
Las June, a team of surgeons at Washington
University School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital in
St. Louis used the minimally invasive technique to
remove the diseased Kidney of an 85-year-old woman.
It marked the first time that a solid major organ had
been removed through laparoscopic surgery. That
operation took nearly seven hours, much longer than the
conventional surgery, but since then the team has
successfully done three additional laparoscopic
nephrectomies, whittling the time down to four and a
half hours.
“Laparoscopic surgery is much kinder to the
patient than open surgery,” says urologist Ralph V.
Clayman, M.D., who with urologist Louis Kavoussi,
M.D., and general surgeon Nathaniel Soper, M.D.,
composes the team that performs the nephrectomies. “A
lot of the morbidity of surgery is not from the manner in
which we get to organ and the way we leave the scene.
It’s an entry and exit problem, and if we can remove the
organ through several small incisions instead of one
large one, then the course of the patient is going to be
vastly improved.”
Kinder, Gentler Surgery
The perfect example is laparoscopic
cholecystectomy, or gall bladder removal. In the
standard operation, the gall bladder is removed through
a large incision, Soper explains. Patients are
hospitalized for three to six days and restricted from
strenuous activity for three to six weeks, incurring
significant expenses both in hospitalization as well as in
time lost from work. Soper began performing
laparoscopic cholecystectomies in 1989 and has done
more than 280, all but four successfully.
“With the laparoscopic procedure there’s far
less pain, and patients appreciate that,” he says.
“Cosmetically it’s more appealing, using four incisions
less than a half-inch long each rather than the one long
one. But more importantly, hospitalization usually is
reduced to less than 24 hours, and patients can return to
full activity within a week.” The technique is
particularly beneficial for obese patients and the elderly,
he adds, because it’s less demanding physiologically.
Removing the gall bladder with a laparoscope
takes about 90 minutes. Surgeons make the first of the
half inch incisions in the navel. They fill the abdominal
cavity with carbon dioxide gas to gain better visibility
inside the body cavity, then insert the laparoscope – a
long metal tube outfitted – a long metal tube outfitted
with a miniature television camera – and attach it to a
monitor, which they watch to conduct the remainder of
the operation.
Smaller metal tubes are placed in three
additional incisions, one that is a half-inch and the other
two a fourth-inch long. Using these tubes as conduits
for their instruments, the surgeons separate the gall
bladder is freed they deflate it, simply drawing off the
bile with a needle, and slip it up and out through the
navel incision.
Ingenious variation
Removing the kidney with laparoscopy was
Clayman’s idea. “For years I’ve been involved in taking
out large kidney stones, and we’ve devised methods so
that we can take out a kidney stone literally the size of
your fist through an incision no bigger than the tip of
our finger,” he says. “And what’s bothered me, and
some of my colleagues, is that if I can take out a kidney
Page 24
stone that large through an incision that large through
an incision that small, why could I not take out a kidney,
which is also the size of your fist, through an incision
that is no bigger than the tip of your finger? That has
been the goal.
The method he devised, working with Soper and
Kavoussi, is an ingenious variation of the laparoscopic
technique. The surgeons distend the abdomen with
carbon dioxide, make five tiny incisions, out the
television camera in place and sever the kidney from its
surrounding tissue and vessels. Down one of the tubes
they out a specially designed sack and open it inside the
abdomen. They maneuver the kidney into the sack, pull
the drawstring taut so that the kidney is enclosed, then
pull the drawstrings and neck of the sack out of the
abdomen onto the skin. Into the neck of the sack they
insert an instrument called a tissue morcellator,
designed specifically for this operation. The morcellator
not only chops up the kidney tissue but also “vacuums”
it out until the empty sack can be pulled from the
abdomen entirely. They the incisions are closed.
The technique may someday become a standard
for kidney removal as well as for gall bladders.
Clayman comments, “We’ve seen gall bladder removal
all of the sudden reduced from full abdominal surgery to
a procedure that is routinely performed on an outpatient
or overnight basis. These patients are eating the same
evening of their surgery, they go home the next morning,
they’re back to work in a couple of days.
“The same type of scenario could eventually
happen with the kidney,“ he continues. “However, we
need to become better in our techniques - better in our
dissection – and we need some improvements in our
instruments. But I have no doubt that day is coming.”
The video revolution has literally spawned a
transformation in surgical technique, say the
Washington University surgeons. “What you’re seeing
is the evolution of surgery as a magic bullet,” Clayman
says. :medicine is a treatment of systematic illnesses, so
you need to develop medicines that will treat the disease
but not harm the patient. Surgery to a large extent is a
treatment of localized disease, and for year’s we’ve
approached that with a knife, to remove the diseased
organ.
“The problem with traditional open surgery,”
he continues, “is that the incision results in signigicant
morbidity to neighboring tissue. Now, with the
development of the laparoscope, surgery has become a
highly accurate magic bullet, targeting the disease but
sparing the neighboring normal tissue and not harming
the patient at all.”
Kidney donation program of NKI
WITH a small paper mask covering his mouth and nose.
Ernesto Jardeleza, 51, can hardly speak. But he is
smiling with relief and joy because he had just had a
kidney transplant at the National Kidney Institute.
Jardeleza and travelled all the way from Iloilo
to Quezon City after he suffered intermittent pain. His
doctors in Iloilo had advised him to seek further
treatment at the National Kidney Institute.
Kidney specialists at the institute told Jardeleza
that he needed a kidney transplant or else he had to be
under continuous dialysis.
In another room at the NKI, another kidney
patient was waiting for a kidney donor. Ramon Arroila,
35, an architect, was also in the waiting list of patients
needing transplants.
Arriola has been under dialysis twice a week
since March. His doctors had advised a thrice-week
dialysis but because of the prohibitive price of the
process, his family can afford it only twice a week.
Besides, his younger brother is also undergoing
dialysis and is now a kidney transplant patient waiting
for a donor.
What Jardeleza and Arriola did not know was,
while they were waiting in their hospital rooms for the
undetermined date of transplantation, the kidneys that
they would share were being transported from Iloilo.
Led by Rep. Narciso Monfort of Iloilo, NKI
specialists headed by Dr. Filoteo Alano spent more than
three hours before they could convince the relatives of a
“brain dead” woman to donate her kidneys to those
needing transplants.
The donor was no relative of both patients, but
they were happy to know that the kidneys given to them
came from a someone from their own province. The
donor was a “cadaver donor,” a woman in her early
50’s who died of massive brain hemorrhage.
“Magpamisa tayo sa donor ko (Let’s have a
Mass said for my donor),” Arroila was quoted as saying
upon walking up after his operation.
Jardeleza said: “I thank Congressmand Monfort
and my donor who was from my province. It was really
a big help to me.”
Jardeleza and Arriola are only two of the more
than 6,000 Filipino kidney patients awaiting transplants
yearly. Dr. Filoteo Alano, NKI director, said that at
any given time “there are at least 100 patients needing
kidney donations either from live relatives or cadaver
donors.”
Page 25
Although a patient with an end-stage renal
disease (ESRD), a type of kidney disorder needing a
transplant, can survive under constant dialysis. Alano
said what is preventing most people from having a
dialysis “is its very expensive price.”
A patient with an ESRD needs dialysis twice or
thrice a week, costing a total of P20,000 – 30,000 a
month. If the dialysis is stopped, the patient dies within
two to four weeks.
Dr. Enrique T. Ona, another kidney expert at the
NKI, said many kidney patients die “because they can’t
afford the price of dialysis and they have to stop it.”
Most of the NKI patients are in the charity ward
and are subsidized with government funds. (in the
United States and Japan, most kidney patients are fully
subsidized even when they are under dialysis.) Alano
said they are encouraging patients to seek kidney donors
to avoid the expensive dialysis treatment.
A recent study at the NKI showed that 50 per
cent of patients undergoing dialysis, if not given
transplants, die within six months.
But the kidney transplant program is facing
another problem – the lack of kidney donors. There are
two sources of kidney donations. One source is the
living relatives of the patients who may have blood and
tissue types compatible with those of the patient.
Another group of sources is what is medically
called “brain dead donors.” A brain dead patient is one
who is already medically dead but whose heart and
lungs may still be functioning with the help of a
respirator or a machine supplying oxygen to the body.
The kidney you donate may save a life
MY friend’s younger brother needs a kidney transplant
and no donors appear to be forthcoming, so I hasten to
the Transplant Service at St. Luke’s Medical Center to
find out what can be done, not just for my friend’s
brother, but for other patients with the same problem.
Dr. Benjamin A. Balmores, Jr., the Coordonator
of the Transplant Service, first provides some
background information.
Most patients with a kidney problem are first put
on maintenance dialysis, a procedure that removes the
bodily waste that healthy kidneys are supposed to
eliminate.
Hemo dialysis is done twice a week; the
procedure takes four hours to accomplish.
 C.A.P.D (Continuing Ambulatory Peritoneal
Dialysis) is done daily, with four exchanges a day.
Many patients opt for this procedure because it is more
convenient (the patient doesn’t hat to go to a hospital)
and less expensive (by 30 to 40 percent). Since the
procedure is done daily, the patient can be more liberal
in terms of diet.
In both procedures, dialysis fluid is infused into
the patient, and this fluid absorbs the waste from the
patient’s blood.
Can a person with a kidney problem survive
with dialysis only, and not have to have a kidney
transplant? Yes, if he’s 60 years old and above.
Dialysis is opted for because a transplant poses greater
risks when the patient is a senior citizen (he may have
her problems and other complications).
Thus, transplants are advised for those below
60. Children as young as eight years old have
undergone kidney transplant.
Most people with kidney problems reach
the stage where they need a transplant.
Their first option is a kidney donated by an
immediate relative. The more immediate the relation,
the closer the compatibility in terms of blood and tissue
typing, thus the unlikelihood of rejection. The H.L.A.
(Histocompatibility Leucocyte Antigen) typing test
determines the relative compatibility of the donor with
the prospective recipient. However, even kidneys
donated by immediate relatives are sometimes rejected
by the recipient’s body. This can happen even in the
case of twins.
If no immediate relatives can be tapped as
donors, the next step is to go to more distant relations
(cousins, uncles). As you go farther, however, the
incidence of rejection is higher.
Then there are the non-related donors. They
may be living volunteers, or the donated organ can be
“cadaveric,” obtained from centers which have organ
donation programs.
The patient in need of a kidney transplant is put
on a list. A sample of his blood is obtained monthly, so
that, once there is a donor, the doctors can do the H.L.A.
test right away, to determine which prospective recipient
is most compatible with the donated organ.
At St. Luke’s, 31 kidney transplants have been
performed since 1988, and almost all of the organs were
donated by blood relatives (21 were immediate relations,
nine were distant relations, one was an adopted
daughter).
Page 26
Perhaps before the year ends, St. Luke’s will
have its own organ donation center, so “cadaveric”
donations may be availed of there.
Dr. Balmores cites a factor inhibiting organ
donation in this country: “Our conservative culture –
even if a person is already dying, the general desire is to
preserve all organs in the body.”
Very clearly, reeducation is in order. There are
many people out there in need of donated kidneys, not to
mention other organs like the liver and the pancreas,
and the availability of donors is a matter of life and
death to them. It is hoped that more people will get over
their fears and hang-ups, and become organ donors, so
that, even after their death, they can in effect help others
go on living.
How are “cadaveric” donors chosen? When a
person is determinally ill or is dying after an accident,
his voluntary consent, or that of his closest kin, is
solicited. Once it is given, tests are conducted to
determine which organs are healthy. After patient dies,
his body is placed on machines to ensure the viability of
the organs, which are “harvested: within 48 hours, then
matched with the most compatible patient on the list of
recipients.
It is stressed that transplants are not made on a
first0come, first-served basis, but on point of the closest
compatibility.
What if no compatible recipient is found in a
center’s list? The various organ donation centers share
donors with each other, and the proper recipient is soon
located.
Other donors include those who are healthy but
volunteer to donate their organs in case anything fatal
happens to them.
In the case of kidney donors, however, they can
effect the donation anytime. As Dr. Balmores notes.
“Only the kidney can be donated by a living donor,
because it’s a double organ.
Other parts of the body that can be donated after
death are the heart, the lungs, the liver, the pancreas,
skin, bone and the cornea. The last three don’t require
compatibility.
Abroad, organ transplant centers don’t rely
solely on H.L.A, matching to assure the survival of a
grafted organ, and make use of potent immune –
suppressive agents to effect a successful transplant, even
if the H.L.A. matching is not good. However, studies
show that this results only in short-term graft survival
(five years). For long-term survival of the transplanted
kidney. H.L.A. matching is still the more reliable WASHINGTON (UPI) – A new hi-tech technique for
procedure. removing gallbladders involving a tiny video monitor is
a safe and effective alternative to standard surgery for
(Incidentally, H.L.A. typing is also used to settle
many patients, an expert panel concluded Wednesday.
paternity disputes.)
The procedure, laparoscopic cholecystectomy,
Knowing all this, that should my friend’s brother
involves inserting a fiber optic instrument attached to a
do?
miniature video camera and several specialized
First, look for a relative willing to donate on of instruments through tiny incisions in a patient’s
his kidneys to him. Failing that, he can get himself abdomen.
tested and typed, and put on the list of recipients at an
While viewing the gallbladder on an external
organ donation center. He would then wait for the right
television monitor, a surgeon uses the instruments to
donor to make his kidney available to the most
dissect, clamp and remove the gallbladder. The
compatible recipient on the list.
technique was introduced into the United States in 1988
If no compatible donor comes along after a long and has subsequently gained widespread popularity.
time, the patient can look for non-relative donors
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive
himself, get them tested and typed, and hope that one of
and Kidney Diseases, which is part of the National
them is blood and tissue-compatible with him.
Institutes of Health, convened a 14-member expert
How may non-relative donors need to be tested panel, which reviewed the technique for three days.
before finding somebody compatible? Answer: Around
The panel concluded the technique was safe and
10.
effective and offered several advantages over standard
This further underscores the need for surgery, including causing less pain afterwards and a
reeducation, so that more donors come to the fore to shorter recovery period.
help the increasing number of patients who need kidney
“Indeed, it appears to have become the
transplants. Even relatives need to be reeducated, since
treatment of choice for most patient with symptomatic
many of them are scared to “lose” a kidney, and thus (so
gallstones,” said Dr. John Gollan of the Brigham and
they believe) “endanger” their future prospects to lead
Women\s Hospital in Boston, who chaired the panel.
long and healthy lives.
The technique, however, should be performed
Often, Dr. Balmores notes, if the relative is a
only by experienced surgeons and primarily on patients
family man, the objections are raised by his wife, who
who have experienced symptoms of gallstones, the panel
doesn’t want to become a widow “before her time.”
said.
This is a misinformed attitude, of course, but it takes a
lot of explaining to overcome it. More than 20 million Americans have gallstones
and about 1 million new cases are diagnosed annually.
That goes double for non-relatives, particularly
While only between 1 percent and 4 percent of those
those who have no emotional “investment” in the
with gallstones develop symptoms, about 500,000
patients the can potentially help. They have to be
gallstone patients have their gallbladders removed each
convinced that a lot of good can come out of their
year at an estimated cost of more than $5 billion.
sacrifice” and that their own lives need not be shortened
as a result of their donation. The panel recommended against using the
procedure on women in the third trimester of pregnancy
Perhaps the best argument is to point to a
or on patients with abdominal inflammation, severe
successful transplant, how it’s saved and extended the
acute pancreatitis, end-stage cirrhosis of the liver and
life of a productive, creative person, how his “new” life
gallbladder cancer.
has been such a boon to his loved ones and to society as
a whole – and how proud and fulfilled the donor feels
when he sees these wonderful fruits of his selfless act of
Avoid kidney stones
sharing.
(Do you want to help” Call Dr. Benjamin A. Prevention, the most effective option
Balmores at St. Luke’s Renal Unit, 704031 to 37, local “As the socio-economic status of women has risen, so
223). has their risk of forming kidney stones’
Have gallbladder removed on video New York – Each year hundreds of thousands of
It’s a fiber optic, non-surgical procedure people experience the sudden intense pain that results

Page 27
when a “stone” forms in the urinary system and plugs a man in 7 in the United States can expect to experience
passageway transporting liquid body wastes. the pain of kidney stones at least once before reaching
70. As the socioeconomic status of women has risen, so
Capable of bringing even the most stalwart to
has their risk if forming kidney stones.
their knees, kidney stones are a frightening and costly
illness. Despite the excruciating agony they can cause, If they form once, kidney stones are likely to
a pain and said to be worse than any other, they rarely recur. Without effective preventive tactics. About 50
have a serious aftermath. percent to 60 percent of patients will have a second
attack within 10 years, whereas faithful adherence to
About 80 percent of the time kidney stones
prevention can avert a second attack in more than 96
manage to pass through and out of the urinary tract on
percent of cases, experts have written in Patient Care
their own. But when they fail to get through, medical
magazine.
aid must be sought to help them along and prevent
permanent damage to the kidneys. Most kidney stones contain calcium oxalate,
which has led to the mistaken belief that stones sufferers
Thank to several recent innovations, the
must avoid all diary products to keep urinary calcium
treatment of most kidney stones is faster, simpler, safer
levels low. But when faces with a severe dietary
and less costly then when major surgery was the only
shortage of calcium, the body pulls this mineral from the
option. Currently fewer than five percent of stone
bones to maintain levels needed in the blood. To often,
sufferers require surgery,
serious calcium restriction can result in bone loss and
But even the new techniques may present the fractures that accompany osteoporosis,
problems, and their full implications may not be known
In fact, nearly everyone has high levels of
until they have been used for decodes on tens of
calcium in the urine, yet relatively few people form
thousands of sufferers. Thus, prevention remains the
calcium stones. Those who do either absorb far more
most effective option. And prevention of those at risk of
calcium from dietary sources than normal or send more
forming kidney stones means drinking lots of liquids – as
calcium than normal from the kidneys into an excretory
much as eight ounces every waking hours. That is
pathway.
especially necessary in the warm months when much
body fluid is lost through perspiration instead of being Sometimes an underlying disease like an
excreted through the kidneys. overactive parathyroid gland or an overdose of vitamin
D disrupts calcium absorption or metabolism, and some
Experts recommend at least eight glasses a day,
attaacks of calcium oxalate stones are triggered by
or enough to double the usual urinary output to a total
megadoses of vitamin C. But most cases have no known
of more than two liters a day.
cause.
Dr. John S. Rodman of Cornel University
Stones can also form when the urine is
Medical Center says the risk maybe particularly high
overloaded with uric acid,, with may result from a diet
among joggers and other active people who do not drink
overly rich in animal protein.
enough, women who deliberately limit their fluid intake
and travelers who are afraid of the local water supply.
Kidney stones, technically called urinary calculi, When the Kidney Fails
are accretions of crystallized salts and minerals that
form in the upper urinary system, they are known to
have afflicted mankind since before 4800 B.C., the date
placed on an Egytian mummy that was found to have
them.
They seem largely to be a disease of civilization,
since most of those afflicated are adults living in
affluent, industrialized countries. The stones are
associated with a diet rich in animal protein and low in
liquids.
The typical stone patient is a man 20 to 50 years
old. Although internal organs of men and women are
similar, men are three to four times as likely to form
stones as women are. Still, one woman in 20 and one

Page 28
KIDNEY disease ranks among the top 10 killer-disease
in the Philippines. Every year, it brings down 100 out of
every million people with irreversible kidney failure,
also known as End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). There
are 6,000 new cases of those who need dialysis and/or
transplants each year.
Until it quits on you, a kidney is just a kidney:
something that produces and excretes urine but
something you never see, so you don’t care much about
it. But the healthy human kidney performs like a
workhorse. It isolates the body’s poisons, the unwanted
products of metabolism, and filters the five-quart water
content of the blood every 45 minutes. I both you
kidneys conk out, and you do nothing about it, you will
die from uremia within less than a month.
Dialysis is a major remedy for kidney failure. It
works like an artificial kidney by straining the blood
through semipermeable membranes and flushing out
toxic wastes from the body. This technique is called
hemodialysis. Another type, peritoneal dialysis, uses the
abdominal cavity to introduce dialysis solution into the
body. After absorbing toxic wastes, the solution is
drained out.
At present, there are only some 1,200 patients
undergoing dialysis and about 200 on peritoneal
dialysis. The discrepancy between projected and actual
figures is due to the fact that so many Filipinos are poor
and very few can afford dialysis. Likewise, government
and private sector support for adequate and effective
health delivery system is wanting.
Dr. Antonio R. Paraiso, a specialist in internal
medicine and nephrology at the National Kidney
Institute (NKI), explains that if ESRD patients are
dialyzed adequately, they should have at least 50 percent
five-year survival rate. This would then create a
population of 20,000-25,000 on maintenance dialysis.
“To serve 25,000 dialysis patients,” Paraiso
adds, “the country needs to strategically locate over
4,000 dialysis machines offering affordable services.
The Philipine economy must improve, and an effective
health insurance system must become operational.” Tall
order for a country that has only some 140 dialysis
machines, each accommodating only six patients
dialyzing twice a week.
The situation may or may not improve
depending on the implementation of the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office’s recently announced plans
of providing dialysis machines to the different regions of
the country.
But can the people afford it? The minimum cost
of sustaining a dialysis patient is P240,000 a year, or
Page 29
P20,000 a month. In a country where only 0.8 percent
of households are included in the annual income bracket
of P250,000 and over, the cost of treatment, almost as
much as the disease itself, is understandably the main
cause of worry for many patients.
“Dalawang jeep na ang halaga ng nagagasta ko
mula noong 1991 (I have already spent the equivalent
cost of two jeepneys since I started dialysis in 1991).”
Fe Cariño, 43, one-time schoolteacher calculates. A pay
patient, Cariño who manages a farm in Nueva Viscaya,
is on peritoneal dialysis. This allows her to go about her
daily activities almost normally. For P16,000, she had a
dialysis tubing implanted in her belly. Through this
tube, peritoneal dialysis solution is introduced into her
body even as she is moving around. She has had to
return to NKI because over-exertion at the farm had
caused the area around her tubing to bleed. She carries
the dialysis solution bag in a large pocket of her dress.
The same bag serves as receptacle when the fluid is
drained out.
Cariño regularly spend P780 for a box which
contains six bags of the dialysis solution. She has to
administer this solution to herself every six hours.
“Milton,” Janet Balajadia, 23 snaps irritably when
asked about her family’s budget for her treatment.
Attached for four hours, twice a week, to a dialysis
machine at the Hemodialysis Unit of the NKI, she sits
listlessly, missing Cebu and ruing the time she could be
spending at the beach, the food she cannot eat.
Unlike Cariño who was diagnosed in another
hospital to be suffering from H-fever, hypertension,
goiter, ovary and bone trouble, and mystifying “Uod sa
mata” before she sought another opinion and was found
to ber suffering from kidney infection, Balajadia says
she went into dialysis early, when she was 18.
“I got well, the doctor said I was okey.” After
two years, however, she had to return to the hospital
because her kidneys were malfunctioning again.
Although she prefers to be in Cebu, she has to stay in
Metro Manila for her treatment. “The dialysis machines
I tried in Cebu were all old and more expensive. I have
to pay P2,500 per session there, against the P1,550
charged here.”
The majority of dialysis centers are located in
Metro Manila. There are 12, as compared with six in
the Visayas, two in Central Luzon and three in
Mindanao. The NKI itself has 16 machines for pay
patients and four for indigent ones. Some of the
machines for those who are preparing for kidney
transplant.
 While charity patients are partly subsidized by four machines, we can spread out the benefits and treat
the hospital, slots for the dialysis machine are not really 720 people instead of just 24.”
given away for free: the NKI’s medical Social Services
Still, many patients drop out from dialysis
(MSS) section takes care of looking for civic and
precisely because they cannot afford the costs.
charitable organizations willing and able to help
Transplants, although just as expensive (about P100,000
shoulder the costs. In some cases, MSS head Adoraction
when subsidized), if successful could give the patients
Madlangbayan says, they even look for jobs for the
what Paraiso calls “a better quality of life.” Successful
patient’s nearest relative so the latter could help settle
transplant patients are then rehabilitated and are able to
the patient’s hospital bills.
resume their pre-illness activities.
On a voluntary basis, employees of the NKI also
Meanwhile, patients who can still afford it keep
give up a part of their salaries every payday for what
coming back for treatment, wearing blank faces or
they call a Rainbow Fund. Indigent patients who must
shedding tears, possibly not so much because of the
undergo urgent diagnostic procedures in another
discomfort, helplessness and disrupted lives but more
hospital are allowed to dip into this fund, as are those
from the knowledge that from now on, the length of their
who have run out of money for the trip back home.
lives, barring a miracle from God, will depend on how
Paraiso explains that the NKI cannot allow much their wallets contain.
indigent patients to hold on to their slots indefinitely,
since only 24 people would then be able to monopolize
the machines, to the disadvantage of others who also
need to be dialyzed. “If we maximize the use of these

Page 30
 GLOSSARY on Kidneys
1. ABOMINATOR – The existence of albumin in the
urine.
2. ACURE KIDNEY FAILURE – The sudden loss of
kidney function over a period of minutes to several
days. It may be caused by impairment of blood
supply to the kidneys by severe infection, by
nephritis, by both kidneys.
3. ANASARCA – Dropsy-abnormal accumulation of
liquid in the cellular tissue.
4. ANEURISM – Localized dilation of the wall of an
artery, forming a pulsating sac and use
accompanied by pain due to abnormal pressure.
5. ANURIA – Absence of urine excretion from the
body.
6. ASCITES – An accumulation of serious fluid in the
abdominal cavity.
7. ASSYMTOMATIC URINARY ABNORMALITIES
– No symptoms with abnormal urine findings.
8. BLADDER – It is the elastic membranous sac near
the pelvic cavity, used to store urine temporarily.
9. BALANITIS – The inflammation of the glans penis.
10. BUN – Blood tests for blood urea nitrogen.
11. CHANROID – A venereal disease transmitted by a
bacterium, that cause a tender, painful ulcer is
transmissible without sexual intercourse.
12. CHLAMYDIA – A bacterial infection that can cause
sterility in men and women and person at higher risk
of contracting it are under 35 years of age. The
bacteria is spread to adults during sexual contacts
and to babies of infected mothers during birth.
13. CREATININE – A white crystalline substance, an
alkaloid or amino acid, present chiefly in the muscle
tissue of vertebrates.
14. CYATITIS – An inflammation of the bladder.
15. DYSURIA – Painful or difficult urination.
16. EDEMA – Puffiness of the eyelid or face, swelling
of both legs.
17. ENURESIS – Involuntary discharge of the urine
while sleeping.
18. GENITAL WARTS – A wart caused by a virus and
occurring in the anal and genital areas transmitted
Page 31
by sexual contact and by other means. If left
untreated, venereal warts can increase the risk of
penile cancer in men and cervical cancer in women.
19. GLOMERULONEPHRITIS – It is immunologically
mediated disease of the glomeruli, which are
rounded structures of the kidneys compassed of tuffs
of capillaries (fine blood vessels). Glomeruli filter
water and other substances from the blood and start
the forms of glomerulonephritis. Destruction of the
kidneys by glomerulonephritis leads to uremis, a
condition caused by the presence in the blood of
waste products normally eliminated in the urine.
20. GONORRHEA – Contagious venereal disease
transmitted by bacteria gonococcus, lives in the
mucous membranes of the body including the vagina
rectum, throat, or hollow of the cheek. Cervical
penile or rectal gonorrhea are constracted through
sexual intercourse; oral sex may lead to throat
gonorrhea.
21. HEMATURIA – Blood in the urine.
22. HYPERTENSION – High blood pressure.
23. KIDNEYS – They are a pair or organs located at
the rear of the abdomen near the base of the spine,
whose function it ot filter the fluid portion of the
blood in regulating the composition and volume of
body fluid and to dispose of waste in the form of
urines.
24. KIDNEY STONES – Are aggregates of crystals
(uric acid, calcium, cystine, etc.) in the urinary tract.
The tendency to form stones is mostly inherited. Not
drinking enough water, UTI, dietary excesses and an
inherited predisposition can lead to the formation of
kidney and urethral stones.
25. LAPAROSCOPY – A surgical technique that
enables surgeons to insert a miniature camera into
the abdomen and then operate through several
incisions to remove not only diseased gallbladders
but also diseased kidneys/
26. LEUKORRHEA – Whitish, viscid discharge from
the vagina, caused by an organism which produces
an irritating itching condition in women, which
chronic infection may make a woman more
suscepticle to cervical cancer.
27. NEPHRITIS – (Bright’s Disease) inflammation of
the kidney.
28. NEPHRON – One of the basic filtration units of the
kidney, consisting of Bowman’s capsule, a
glomerulus and tunules.
29. NEPHROSIS – Disease of the kidneys
characterized by degenerative lessons of the
renaltubules and loss of protein (albumin) through
the urine.
30. NOCTURIA – Frequent voiding at nigh; flank or
back pains – may be mild to severe.
31. OLIGURIA – A reduced production of urine.
32. ORCHITIS – Inflammation of the testis.
33. PENIS – It is the tubular make organ of sexual
intercourse and excretion of urine, located at the
front of the pelvis.
34. POLYLURIA – Voiding larger than normal amount
of urine.
35. PROSTATE GLAND – A partly muscular at the
base of the bladder around the urethra that releases
a fluid to convey spermatozoa. Enlarged, benign,
prostate results difficulty in voiding and retention of
urine. Cancer of the prostate is common type of
malignancy in older men. It accounts from about
10% of male death in the U.S. It may be present
without any symptoms and is therefore very difficult
to diagnose except with a biopsy from the prostate at
surgery.
36. PROTEINURIA – Presence of protein in the urine.
37. PROSTATITIS – Inflammation of the prostate
gland, characterized by painful and excessive
urination. Acute Prostatitis – severe, relatively
uncommon from prostatitis, marked by painful and
excessive urination, high fever, and a discharged of
pus from the penis.
38. PUBIC LICE – Are whitish, oval parasites usually
remain in the hair of the anal and genital regions
sometimes in the hair of eyelashes and scalp causing
intense irritation and itching. They are commonly
spread by contract for from toilet seats, clothing
towels, bed clothes, combs, or any article of intimate
use.
39. SYPHILIS – A contagious venereal disease
transmitted by sexual contact and congenitally to
offspring of infected mothers. It strikes men about
three times as much as women. Approximately half
of the male victim are homosexuals. Open sores or
rashes are typical symptoms.
40. TUMORS OF THE URINARY TRACT –
Malignant Kidney tumors are most often found in
children or adults over 40, and more often in men
than women. A tumor of any type can be diagnosed
by X-ray studies. About ¼ of all patients with a
Page 32
malignant Kidney tumor live for more than 10 years
after surgery.
41. UREMIA - A condition caused by the presence in
the blood of waste products normally eliminated in
the urine. Uremia requires dialysis (the elimination
of wastes from the blood by machine), or kidney
transplant or both. If untreated, uremia KILIS,
42. URINE – The waste products and excess water
separated in the kidneys and stored in the bladder
eventual elimination from the body.
43. URETHRA – The duct from the bladder by which
urine is discharge and which in males carries the
seminal fluid.
44. URETHRITIS – Inflammation of the urethra.
45. URINALYSIS - (UA) A chemical and microscopic
analysis of the urine to determine for diagnostic
purposes whether it is normally constituted.
46. URINARY TRACT – From the tubules in each
kidney, urine drains into large collecting basins
(calyces) which drain in turn into the kidneys master
urine reservoir, the kidney pelvis. Then drop by
drop, urine slides down each ureter to urinary
bladder.
47. URIC ACID – The acid of the urine – a white
odorless; colorless, tasteless, insoluble acid.
48. URETER – They are either of two narrow, muscular
ducts which convey urine from the kidneys to the
bladder.
49. URINOGENITAL SYTEM – It is urinary and
genital systems, including the kidneys, ureters,
bladder, urethra, vagina and associated parts.
50. UROLOGY – It is that branch of medical science
that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of
diseases of the kidneys, bladder, ureter, urethra, and
the male reproductive system.
51. UROSIS – Any disease of the urinary system.
52. UTI – (Urinary tract infections) Is caused by
bacteria in the urinary tract. Infection of the
kidneys is accompanied by back pains fever,
vomiting and presence of pus cells in the urine.
53. VAGINA – It is the canal in the female leading from
the external genital below the pubis to the uterine.

LIVER
What is the liver? – the liver is the largest gland and one
of the largest organs in the human body. It is located in
the right side of the abdomen, just below the stomach. It
is divided into four lobes or sections. The liver is so
important that if it is damaged, the body cannot continue
to function and death will take place.
The liver produces bile, a liquid substance
needed for digesting fats. The bile is stored in a small
sac called the gall bladder. Bile empties into the small
intestine from the gall bladder through a duct.
Glycogen is stored by the liver, carrying a sugar
called glucose. The liver changes glucose into glycogen
and stores it. When the body needs extra energy, the
liver rapidly changes the glycogen back into glucose
sugar which then travels through the blood stream,
providing energy for the body cells.
The liver may be affected by such diseases as
malaria, hepatitis and dysentery. If these diseases are
Page 33
not cured, the liver cannot get rid of the bile that it
makes and bile then goes into the blood causing the skin
to turn yellow, the color of the bile. This condition is
called jaundice.
Under the circulatory system, the blood on its
way back to the heart, passes through the liver and the
kidneys which remove the waste matter so that it can be
excreted.
LIVER AFFECTIONS
(1) INFECTIOUS HEPATITIS – (Catarrhal Jaundice)
– is a serious condition due to inflammation of the
liver cells caused by a filtrable virus where children
and younger people are involved. The virus is
transmitted by infected food or water; fecal matters
are responsible for spreading the disease. The virus
is tough and can resist ordinary methods of
disinfecting water. The disease comes 15 or 30 days
after exposure by the individual to the virus.
SYMPTOMS – lost of appetite, nausea, weakness,
headaches, fever, chills, diarrhea,
abdominal discomfort, pain, general
lassitude. The skin becomes yellow if
the disease becomes serious. The
jaundice is due to the presence of large
quantities of bile in the blood which
normally should be excreted into the
intestines. But because the liver cells
are sick, the bile passes into the blood
stream and are distributed throughout
the tissues of the body. The liver and
spleen feel large and even the white of
the eyes turn yellow, the skin is itchy.
(2) SERUM JAUNDICE - Poorly sterilized syringe
and needles are responsible for transmitting this
virus and ordinary method of boiling will not kill the
tough virus.
(3) TOXI HEPATITIS – is an acute condition of the
liver caused by a variety of poisons like snake venom
and poisonous mushrooms. Here the central
portions of the liver lobules are largely destroyed.
The symptoms are the same as in infections hepatitis
but more severe. Malnutrition due to insufficiency
of protein in the diet. The liver cells degenerate and
are replaced with the fat and scar tissue.
(4) CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER – when the liver
breaks down under the heavy load it is carrying, the
liver cells die rapidly that they cannot be replaced
just as fast – fibrous tissues then move in and take its
place resulting in the dread known as CIRRHOSIS
of the liver. As the disease progresses, the muscles
waste away. The liver enlarges, the healthy cells
became loaded with fat and eventually die. This
 results in large blood vessels forming under the skin
in the abdomen as the blood tries to open new
channels to by-pass the obstruction within the liver.
Swelling appears in the legs and other parts of the
body.
Causes of CIRRHOSIS (enlarged liver or spleen)
1. Chronic alcoholism
2. Malnutritions
3. Poisoned liver cells
4. Uncontrolled diabetes
5. Brucellosis and other serious infections.
Treatment of CIRRHOSIS:
1. Avoid alcoholic drinks
2. Balance diet
3. Rich diet in carbohydrates, proteins and vitamin
B complex
4. Fluid in abdomen may be treated with herbal
solutions that will eliminate salt and excessive
water from the body.
TIDBITS
(1) Low-density lipoproteins called, LDL’s, pick up
digested cholesterol from the liver and distribute it
throughout the body; high-density lipoproteins call
HDL’s gather excess cholesterol and return it to the
liver for excretion-high levels of LDL’s leads to
heart disease but high levels of HDL’s prevent heart
disease.
(2) Did you know that over 5,000,000 Filipinos walking
around are carriers of HEPATITIS B virus (HBV)
but do not show symptoms; that 10% only will be
able to rid of the ailment because of the high cost of
imported drugs and medicines derived form the
ordinary “mustasa”, “Papaya”, “ikmo”,
“malunggay”, “balete” and so many others
provided they know how?
(3) According to George Nava True treatise on
hepatitis-B virus, DNA is prominently mentioned
and described and defined. The hepatitis B virus is
believed to be cause of up to 80% of all cases of
liver cancer. According to Dr. James Maynard, the
virus is the second most important world-wide cause
of cancer mortality next to smoking. Hepatitis B is
one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. The
virus kills about million people each year due to
liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.
Page 34
(4) Hepatitis-B, which caused chronic liver cancer, is
spreading at an alarming rate and is also epidemic
in some countries. And you will be pleased to her
that one in 10 people treated for the disease contract
it while travelling overseas.
People who should consider a vaccination for
Hepatitis-B include those travelling to high-risk
areas such as China, Southeast Asia and parts of
Africa. Hepatitis-B can also be caught through
sexual contact.
Common in most parts of the world, Hepatitis A
is spread thru person-to-person contact or
contaminated food or water. It causes severe fever
and inflammation of the liver, but an injection of an
antibody called gamma-globulin provides protection
for a few months.
(5) Cancer of the liver – is commonly found to be the
result of metastasis from other parts of the body.
Cancers that originate in the liver (primary cancers)
account for less than 2% of reported cancers.
Primary cancers of the liver happen more frequently
in men than women and appear more frequently
after age 40.
The exact cause of liver cancer is unknown but a
large proportion of cases is associated with
cirrhosis of the liver. The high incidence of primary
liver cancer in Asia and Africa and in the
Philippines is related to aflatoxins in grain and
legumes, such as peanuts; the aflatoxin molds grow
rapidly in warm, most countries where the foods are
not protected against natural hazards of the
environment.
How liver cancer is detected an enlarged liver with
masses of abnormal tissue maybe detected by
laboratory tests which usually reveal alterations in
metabolism that are associated with changes in the
liver cells caused by the cancer growth. A biopsy
test of the abnormal liver tissue may confirm the
presence of cancer.
SYMPTOMS:
1. Weakness, weight loss and pain in the upper
abdomen or right side of the chest.
2. A fever unrelated to any infection may be the
start of liver cancer.
The Liver, Gallbladder, and Pancreas
These three organs all share a common function-
sending digestive substances to the duodenum –
although, except in the case of the gallbladder, it is not
their only function. Lying outside the GI tract proper,
they nevertheless are indispensable in the processes of
digestion and absorption. Digestive fluid from all three
converge like tributaries of a river at the common bile
duct, and their flow from there into the duodenum is
controlled by a sphincter muscle-ring separating the
duodenum and common bile duct.
From the liver, bile drips into the hepatic duct,
which soon meets the cystic duct arriving from the
gallbladder. Converging, they form one duct, the
common bile duct, which meets the pancreatic duct,
carrying enzymatic fluid from the pancreas. Like a
smaller river meeting a larger one, the pancreatic duct
loses its own name at this confluence and becomes part
of the common bile duct, which empties on demand into
the duodenum. When the sphincter of the bile duct is
closed, bile from the liver is forced to back up into the
cystic duct, and eventually into the gallbladder. There it
is stored and concentrated until needed, when it flows
back down the cystic duct.
Glycogen and Glucose
In the liver, sugars from the small intestine are
converted into a special substance called glycogen;
amino acids are made available as needed for building
new cells to replace the cells that are always naturally
dying in a healthy normal body. Glycogen, simply
speaking, is the liver’s solution to a difficult space and
storage problem. The form of carbohydrate the body
can use best is a sugar called glucose, but the liver isn’t
large enough to store the necessary amount of glucose.
The answer is glcogen, a tidy, compact sugar molecule
that the liver can store in great quantities. When a call
comes from any part of the body for glucose, the liver
quickly converts some glycogen to glucose and releases
it into the bloodstream. By this mechanism, healthy
blood sugar levels are maintained.
PANCREAS
This manufacturer of powerful digestive enzymes, only
six inches long, resembles a branchlet heavily laden with
ripe berries. Its important role in digestion is often
overshadowed by the fact that it also manufactures the
hormone insulin. The pancreas cells that manufacture
digestive enzymes are completely different from those
that manufacture insulin.
LIVER
Page 35
Four pounds of highly efficient chemical-processing
tissues, the liver is the largest solid organ in the body.
You can locate it by placing your left hand over your
right, lowermost ribs; your hand then just about covers
the area of the liver. More than any other organ, the
liver enables our bodies to benefit from the food we eat.
Without it, digestion would be impossible, and the
conversion of food into living cells and energy
practically nonexistent. Insofar as they affect out body’s
handling of food-all the many processes that go by the
collective name of nutrition - the liver’s functions can be
roughly divided into those that break down food
molecules and those that build up or reconstitute these
nutrients into a form that the body’s can use or store
efficiently.
The liver also builds up human fats from fatty
acids and glycerol, packs them off to storage, then
reverse the process when necessary by breaking down
body fats into forms that can serve as fuel to be burned
by the body for energy.
In addition to its functions closely related to
digestion and nutrition, the liver also serves as a
storehouse and processor of vitamins and minerals – it
is, in fact, the manufacturer of vitamin A. It can remove
many toxic substances from the blood and render their
poisons harmless. It picks up spent red blood cells from
the circulation and dismantles them; and it continually
manufactures new blood elements.
The liver is also a manufacturing site for
cholesterol, a substance belonging to the class of body
chemicals called steroids. Above-normal levels of
cholesterol in the blood have been linked to hardening of
the arteries and heart disease; but cholesterol in the
proper amounts is needed by almost every tissue on the
body. Some brain and spinal tissues, for example, have
cholesterol as one of their main structural component.
With all these vital chemical activities and more,
the liver might be expected to be a most delicate and
fragile organ. In a sense it is: minor liver damage from
one cause or another is thought to be fairly common.
But what saves our lives (and us) is that we have a great
deal more of it than we need for a normal healthy life.
Before symptoms of a liver deficiency appear, more than
50 percent of the liver cells may be destroyed.
Furthermore, the liver has a great capacity for
regeneration, rebuilding diseased tissues with new liver
cells.
GALLBLADDER
Bile stored in the gallbladder is much more concentrated
and thickening than bile that is fresh from the liver. This
allows the three0inche gallbladder to store a great deal
of bile components. But the thickening process can also
create problems in the form of extremely painful
gallstones, which are dried, crystallized bile.
Fortunately, the entire gallbladder can be removed with
little or no lasting ill effect. All that is missing is a small
storage sac for bile.
The biliary tract is very often plagued by the
presence of stones, either in the gallbladder or in one of
the bile ducts. Gallstones are mostly a mixture of
calcium carbonate, cholesterol, and bile salts, and can
occur either as one large stone, a few smaller ones, or
several very small stones.
When fats from the daily diet enter the small
intestines, the concentrated bile from the gallbladder is
poured into the duodenum via the bile ducts. Bile is
necessary if fats are to be digested and absorbed. If
stones are present in the biliary tract, the gallbladder
will contract, but little or no bile will reach the fats in
the small bowel.
Liver Cancer
Cancer of the liver is commonly found to be the result of
metastasis from other parts of the body. Cancers that
originate in the liver (primary cancers) account for less
than 2 percent of the cancers reported in the United
States. Primary cancers of the liver occur more
frequently in men than in women and appear most
prequently after the age of 40.
Weakness, weight loss, and pain in the upper abdomen
or right side of the chest are among the symptoms of
liver cancer. A fever apparently unrelated to any
infection also may mark the onset of liver cancer.
An enlarged liver with masses of abnormal
tissue may be detected by an examining physician.
Laboratory tests usually reveal alterations in
metabolism that are associated with changes in the liver
cells caused by the cancer growth. A biopsy test of the
abnormal liver tissue may confirm the presence of
cancer. A more direct approach is perform exploratory
surgery for examination of the liver. If the tumor is
located during exploratory surgery and the area can be
excised, part of the liver is removed. Chemotherapy may
also be used. The age of the patient and his general
good health are important in making a successful
recovery.
Page 36
Researchers in 1985 announced a nonsurgical
therapy for liver cancer involving the use of so-called
“radio-labeled antibodies.” To these molecules of
antibodies, the defensive compounds of the body,
radioactive substances are attached. The antibodies
then seek out the cancer cells, and the radioactivity
helps them destroy the cancer. The procedure has been
used experimentally on patients whose tumor were too
large for surgical instruments.
Liver Cirrhosis
Chronic disease of the liver with the destruction of liver
cells is known as cirrhosis. A common cause is
excessive intake of alcoholic beverages along with
malnutrition. However, there are other predisposing
factors, such as inflammation of the liver (hepatitis),
syphilis, intestinal worms, jaundice orbiliary tract
inflammation, and disorders in blood circulation to the
liver.
Victims of cirrhosis are usually anemic and have
an elevated temperature, around 100 ºF. Alcoholics
very often lose weight, suffer from indigestion, and have
distended abdomens.
Accurate diagnosis of cirrhosis depends on
complex laboratory test of liver function. Urine, and
blood. If liver change is not too far advanced, treatment
of the complications and underlying causes can aid the
liver cells in the process of regeneration. In long-
standing chronic disease, liver damage may be
irreversible. Alcoholics who forgo alcohol may be
restored of health, depending on the extent of liver
damage, with a proper diet rich in protein and vitamins.
Successful treatment of liver cirrhosis may
require long hospitalization with drug therapy and blood
transfusions. During alcoholic withdrawal, the patient
may require close medical observation and psychiatric
help. If the patient’s jaundice improves and his appetite
returns, recovery in milder cirrhosis cases is possible.
Jaundice
In disease of the liver and biliary tract, excessive bile
pigment (bilirubin) is recirculated into the blood-
stream. It enters the mucous membranes and skin,
giving them the characteristic yellow pigmentation of the
disease.
Gallstones or tumor that obstruct the free flow
of bile are one cause of jaundice. Other causes include
hepatitis, overproduction of bile pigments with resultant
accumulation of bile within the liver, cirrhosis, and
congenital closure of the bile ducts, the last a common
cause of jaundice in infancy.
Apart from the typical yellow appearance of the
skin, jaundice generates such symptoms as body itching,
vomiting with bile (indicated by the green appearance
and bitter taste), diarrhea with undigested fats present in
the stools, and enlargement of the liver with pain and
tenderness in the right upper abdomen.
Treatment of jaundice requires continued
medical care with hospitalization. Surgery may be
necessary to remove stones in the biliary tract or other
obstructions. If there is bacterial infection, antibiotic
therapy is necessary.
Hepatitis
Inflammation of the liver results in the disease known as
hepatitis, The most common cause is an infectious
process brought on by viruses, jaundice, or high fevers.
Other causes of hepatitis include intestinal parasites,
circulatory disturbances (such as congestive heart
failure), hypersensitivity to drugs, damage to the liver or
kidney or bacterial infection elsewhere in the body.
One common form of this disease is infectious
hepatitis, a highly contagious viral infection that often
attacks children and young adults, especially those who
congregate in large groups. Infectious hepatitis has
been known to break out as an epidemic in schools,
summer camps, music festivals and military
installations.
The virus is spread by food and water
contaminated by feces from infected individuals; good
sanitation thus becomes a vital preventive factor. Whole
blood used in transfusions can transmit the organisms if
the donor is infected. This form of the disease is known
as serum hepatitis or hepatitis - B. With the great
increase in the use of blood transfusions in recent years
in complex surgery, the danger of transmitting hepatitis-
B but infected blood or infect syringes has become
correspondingly greater. Drug addicts are vulnerable
from the used of shared, infected needles.
The incubation period of infectious hepatitis
lasts from one to six weeks – that of hepatitis B is longer
– followed by fever with headache, loss of appetite
(especially for fatty foods), and gastrointestinal distress
(nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation). As the
disease progresses, the liver becomes enlarged and the
patient jaundiced. There may be some pain in the right
upper abdomen.
Page 37
Treatment
Bed rest, preferably hospital isolation, is a necessary
step in the initial treatment stages. Drug therapy with
steroids may hasten the recovery process, which may
take three to four weeks. When discharge from the
hospital, the patient is usually very weak.
Untreated hepatitis causes severe liver damage
and may result in coma resulting from liver failure.
Sometimes death occurs. Several assaults on the liver
reduce the regeneration process and promote cirrhosis.
Persons who may have been exposed to the causative
virus can receive temporary immunity if they are given
an injection of gamma globulin, especially if there is an
epidemic. Recent research directed toward the
development of a vaccine against serum hepatitis has
been very encouraging, and gives rise to the hope that
some day wide-scale outbreaks of this disease may
become a thing of the past.
Research directed toward the development of a
vaccine against hepatitis B, one of three forms of the
disease, resulted in the first genetically engineered
vaccine. Called Recombivax HB, the vaccine opened a
new era in disease prevention.
An older vaccine for hepatitis B was made from
the blood plasma of people infected with the hepatitis B
virus. Because the vaccine derived from human blood,
there was a small possibility that the vaccine could
transmit acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The new vaccine eliminates that danger.
Digestive System
The internist is generally able to treat most
gastrointestinal disorders. The gastroenterologist is an
internist who has special knowledge of disorders of the
digestive tract. Colon and rectal surgeons operate on
the large intestine, rectum, and anus; proctology deals
with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders in this
area. Surgeons and internists specializing in this region
are called proctologists.
Diagnostic Procedures
Examination can me made of the esophagus can be
made of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, and
sometimes of the entire length of the small intestine, by
using a sequence of many fluoroscope, motion-picture,
and X-ray pictures. This is called the gastrointestinal
series, or simply the GI series. So that the internal wall
of the digestive organs will stand out clearly in the
pictures, the patient eats nothing for eight hours before,
and when the examination begins, he is asked to swallow
a glassful of chalky, sticky barium sulfate. The GI series
is one of the first tests administered when an ulcer or
cancer is suspected in the stomach or duodenum.
Gastric analysis is the extraction and study of
stomach juices for clues to intestinal disorders.
A barium enema is the injection via the anus of
barium solution; it usually precedes X-ray examination
of the large intestine for signs of cancer or other
diseases. Stool exams, laboratory studies of the feces,
may also reveal cancer, as well as the presence of
parasitic woms and amebas.
There are a wide variety of slender, hollow
tubular instruments equipped with a light and a lens to
enable the physician to see into the GI tract: the
esophagoscope for insertion by way of the mouth into
the esophagus; the gastroscope for inspection of the
stomach; the gastroduidenal fiberscope for inspection of
the stomach and duodenum. “Scopes” inserted via the
anus include the proctosigmoidoscope for visual
examination of the rectum and lower colon, and the
colonoscope for investigating farther up the large
intestine. These are called fiberoptic instruments
because they transmit light by means of a bunamination
of lymph node tissue) is performed. A lymphangiogram
is used when tumors of the lymphatic system are
suspected. A dye or contrast material visible on an X
ray is injected into a lymphatic vessel, usually one on the
top of the foot. X-rays of the abdomen taken over the
next several days are studied for abnormalities in the
size and structure lymph nodes.
There are numerous other hematological tests,
including radioactive (radioisotope) tests, which are
used in special situations when diagnosis by other means
is inadequate.
HEPATITIS LIVER DISEASE
HERBAL MEDICINE
Alibangbang root-bark decoction; Kalumbibit leaf
decoction; Balatong-aso root decoction; Kangkong
kalabau plant infusion; Malungai pods poultice; Pancit-
pancitan Plant decoction; Talong-burn fruit Dandelion
root decoction; Lagundi flower decoction; Lutos flower
juice; Ikmo leaf poultice; Verbena root poultice; Dilau
rhizome decoction; Kintsay seed decoction; Onion eaten
raw; Tonsoy plant juice; Kalabasa fruit pulp.
LIVER – HERBAL REMEDIES
Page 38
Dita – (Alstonia Scholaris – Linn) – tanitan (Bis.);
lipauen (Ilk.); dita (Tag.) – the leaves are oblong-
obovate, 10 to 20 cm. long 3 to 4.5 cm. wide, rounded at
the tip. The decocted leaves are given for congestion of
the liver.
Alibangbang – (Bauhinia Malabarica – Roxb.) –
kalibangbang (Ilk.); alibangbang (Tag.) – s small tree
reaching of 8 to 10 cm. high, with a yellowish-brown,
checked bark, Decoction of the root-bark is a common
remedy for liver trouble.
Kalumbitbit – (Caesalpinia Crista 0 Linn) – kalumbibit
(Bis.) dauer (Ilk.); Kaumbibit (Tag.) the leaves are
bipinnaet, 1 m. long with rachis armed with stout, sharp
recurved spines. The tender leaves are efficacious in
disorders of the liver.
Bulaklak ng Paraiso – (Caesalpinia Pulcherrima –
Linn); caballero (Sp.); paradise flower, peacock flower
(Engl.) – the leaves are bepinnate, 4 to 8 pairs, 6 to 12
cm. long. A decoction of the leaves is used for liver.
Balatong-aso (Cassia Occidebtalis – Linn) – Andadasi
(Ilk.); sumting (Bis.) – an erect, half-woody herb, 0.8 to
1.5 m. in height. The leaves are pinnate and about 20
cm. long. An infusion of the root is given as a tonix and
diuretic in dropsy and liver complaints.
Abaniko – Belamcanda Chinesis – Linn) – abaniko
(Sp.); black berry-lily (engl.); palma (Sp., Tag.) – an
erect, 0.5 to 1.5 m. high. The seeds are nearly spherical
in shape, with lax and shinning testa. It is given in
pulmonary and liver complains and for purifying the
blood.
Luya-luyahan – (Curcuma Zedoaria – Berg,) –
alimpuyas (Bis.); langkuas (Ilk.); barak (Tag.) the
rhizome is tuberous, fleshy, aromatic and of a pale
yellow color. It is use in pains of the liver.
Pakuan - (Citrullus Vulgaris – Schrad) – sandia (Sp.);
watermelon (Engl.) the juice of the fruit is useful in
hepatic congestion. The fruit is not very high in nutritive
value and is only fair in calcium and iron.
Tinta-tinta – (Eclipta Alba – Linn) – higis-manok
(Tag.); Karimouaya (Ilk.); tinta-tina (Ilk.) an annual
herb with bristly hairs. The fresh plant is applied with
sesasum oil elephantiasis, and the expressed juice is
taken internally in affections of the liver and in dropsy.
Kangkong-kalabau – (enhydra Fluctuans – Lour.)
kangkong kalabaw (Tag.) – it is a prostate, spreading,
annual herb. An infusion of the plant is useful in
torpidity of the liver.
Ampalaya – (Momordica Charanta – Linn) – Amorgoso
(Sp.); ampalaya (Tag.); bitter gourd (Engl.) the fruit is
oblong, cylindric, 15 to 25 cm. in length, ribbed and
wrinkled. The fruit, if given in large doses, is useful in
diseases of the liver.
Talong – (Solanum Melongena – Linn) talong (Bis.,
Tag.); tarong (Ilk.) eggplant (Engl.) – the fruit is fleshy,
smooth, purple, up to 25 cm. long, rounded to oblong or
cylinderic – oblong. The burnt fruit is an excellent
remedy for those suffering from liver complaints.
Lagundi – (Vitex Negundo – Linn) dangla (Ilk.); lagundi
(Tag.) – an erect, branched shrub 2 to 5 m. in height.
The leaves have usually five leaflets which are palmately
arranged. The leaves are applied as a plaster to an
enlarged spleen.
Balete – (Ficus Benjamina – Linn) – a strangling
smooth plant, assuming a tree-form and reaching a
height of 15 m. or more, with drooping branches. The
juice of the bark has a reputation for curing liver
diseases.
Paragis – (Eleusine Indica – Linn) bakis-bakisan (Tag.);
palagtiki (Bis.); parañgis (Ilk.); wire grass (Engl.) – the
leaves are 10 to 30 cm. long, sometimes involute when
dry, 3 to 7 mm. wide, rather flaccid, with the shealths
flattened. The roots, may be used as sudorific, and for
fever and liver complaints.
Gabing-uak – (Monochoria Vaginalis – Burm.) billagut
(Ilk.); gabi-gabit (Bis.); gabing-uak (Tag.) – the leaves,
longpetoiled, oblong-obovate with sharply acuminate
apex and cordate base, 6 to 10 cm. long. The juice of its
root is used for complaints of the stomach and liver.
Malungai – (Moringa Oleifera – Lam) baluñgai (Bis.);
kokompilan (Ilk.); malungai (Tag.) – the pod is 15 to 30
cm. long, pendulous, three-angled, and nine-ribbed. The
pods are anthelmintic properties and are administered
in affections of the liver and spleen, in articular pains,
etc.
LIVER HERBAL REMEDIES
INFECTIOUS HEPATITIS – (Catarrhal Jaundice)
(1) MUSTASA – A plaster of mustard when applied to
the unbroken skin produces a sensation of warmth
followed by a severe burning pain, is used externally
to relieve pain in hepatitis.
Page 39
(2) TINA-TINAAN – The leaves and indigo are useful
in hepatitis. The juice of the leaves of the plant and
indigo in powder form are useful in, mixed with
honey, enlargement of the liver and spleen.
(3) PAPAYA – The milky juice from the unripe fruit is a
remedy for the enlargement of the liver and the
spleen.
(4) HIGIS-MANOK – The leaves and tops, brewed in
decoction, are useful in hepatitis.
(5) PAKUAN – With cumin and sugar, the juice is used
as a cooling drink in hepatic congestion.
(6) KAMATIS – Kamatis stimulates a torpid liver.
They promote the flow of bile and gastric secretions.
(7) MALUNGAY – The juice of the root, with milk, used
in decoction in enlarged spleen or liver.
(8) LUBI-LUBI – A fluid extract of the leaves and
stems is most useful for chronic enlargement of the
spleen and liver.
(9) LAGUNDI – The flowers in decoction are used for
diseases of the liver. The leaves are applied as a
plaster to an enlarged spleen or liver.
LIVER, SPLEEN AND BILE DISEASES
(1) ALIBANGBANG - A decoction of the root-bark is
common for liver trouble.
(2) ABANIKO – The rhizome is solid in markets and is
hard, longitudinal slices with dark brown color, is
given in liver complaints and for purifying the blood.
(3) KALUMBIBIT – A decoction of the young leaves
are useful in liver diseases.
(4) BALATONG ASO - An infusion of the root is given
as a tonic and diuretic in liver ailments.
(5) BALETE - The juice of the bark cures liver
diseases.
(6) MUNGO – A decoction of the seeds are most useful
in affections.
(7) IKMO – A warm poultice of the leaves and coconut
oil is applied for congestion and other liver
affections.
(8) OLASIMAN – It is an alterative pot-herb useful as
an article of diet in liver diseases.
(9) TALONG The burnt fruit is slightly bilious and
useful in liver complaints.
(10) DANDELION – The root is most useful for liver
complaints.
(11) VERBENA – Its roots as a poultice is useful for
liver complaints.
(12) KABALLERO – A decoction of the leaves are
useful for liver disorders.
(13) KANGKING-KALABAU – The decoction of the
plant is useful for torpidity of the liver.
(14) PARAISO – Internally, an infusion of the fresh
leaves has a marked action upon the liver; the
stools often become brilliant yellow in color after
its use.
(15) AMPALAYA – A decoction of the fruit is most
useful in diseases of the liver and spleen.
JAUNDICE
(Jaundice – the sudden appearance of yellow skin, with
the yellowing of the whites of the eyes and darkening of
the urine, is due to a pigment – bile rubinentering the
blood stream which normally is eliminated in the bile)
(1) SIBUYAS – The onion cooked with vinegar, the
mixture is remedy for jaundice.
(2) BALIMBING – Its powdered seeds, in doses of ½ to
3 grams, is good anodyne painkiller) in jaundice;
water infusion is used in jaundice.
(3) ACHUETE – Infusion of the leaves is remedy for
jaundice.
(4) KADIOS – Its expressed juice is given with a little
salt for jaundice.
(5) CARROT – A decoction of the root is a remedy for
jaundice.
(6) DURIAN - Its leaves are used for medicinal baths
for jaundice.
(7) GULAMAN – (marine algae) A mucilaginous
decoction of the plant is a remedy for jaundice.
Page 40
(8) RASAL – There are medicinal uses for the smaller
fruit for jaundice.
(9) PATOLA – Its dried fruit is powdered and made
into snuff for those suffering from jaundice.
(10) YERBA BUENA – A decoction of the leaves and
stem is used in jaundice.
(11) KANDI-KANDILAAN – An infusion of the roots
are taken in great quantities is useful for jaundice.
(12) SAMPALOK – A decoction of the leaves is a
remedy for jaundice.
GALLS BLADDER
What is the gall bladder? – It is a small bag like organ
inside the body, lying close to the liver. It is found in
most animals with a backbone, including human beings.
It stores a greenish yellow fluid called bile which is
produced by the liver and which then flows into
gallbladder.
Bile contains special chemicals that help to
breakdown fatty foods in the small intestine. A special
chemical called a hormone, makes the gallbladder
release the bile into the small intestine as soon as food
passes into it from the stomach.
Gallstone are hard pebble-like lumps that can
cause pain and give rise to jaundice and which can be
removed by surgeons although there are cases where the
whole gallbladder may be removed.
GALLSTONES – the gallbladder is a small muscular
bag located on the underside of the liver in the upper
right-hand part of the abdomen shaped like a pear
whose function is to store and concentrate the bile which
is constantly being produced by the liver. In some cases,
the gallbladder may be filled with many small stones like
gravel. A small stone may find its way down into the
common bile duct, where it may obstruct the flow of bile
and which obstruction may also involve the pancreas.
TREATMENT – There is a certain miracle herbal ten
produced in London, England, and found in natural
health stores in Metro Manila (Shoppesville, Greenhills)
known as the CAMOMILE HERBAL TEA which
incredibly dissolves painful gallstones and amazingly
eliminates the need for surgery. One patient in New
York City says that he avoided surgery by drinking 3
cups of the Camomile Herbal Tea everyday. Within 2
weeks, the pain went away and never returned,
according to Dr. Walter Fenwick of London, England.
BILIOUSNESS
What is Biliousness?
Biliousness – is the congestion of the liver and
which may be decongested with herbal
remedies as follows.
(1) CHICO (Chiku tree, sapodilla) – the fruit soaked in
melted butter all night and eaten in the morning is
an excellent preventive against biliousness.
(2) KAMIAS – a conserve of the fruit is useful in
biliousness.
(3) CARANDA (Christ thorn) – the ripe fruit is
cooling, acid, and useful in bilious complaints.
(4) ANONANG – (soap berry) – the fruit is very
mucilaginous and in larger quantities, it is given in
bilious complaints.
(5) KULANTRO (coriander) – its dried fruit is
generally used in infusion or decoction are useful
in biliousness.
(6) KANGKONG-KALABAW – the leaves in
decoction is antibilious.
(7) PALUTAN (may spiked Flacourtia) – its fruit is
recommended for bilious problems.
(8) ALAS DOCE (brown Indian hemp) – its flowers in
decoction are used the biliousness.
(9) ROSELLE (red semrel) – the fruit as well as the
succulent calyx, a drink useful in biliousness is
prepared by boiling it with water and adding a little
salt, pepper, asafeotida and molasses.
(10) KAMATIS (tomatoes) – the pulp and the juice of
the fruit are invaluable to those who have a
tendency to biliousness as they promote the flow of
bile.
(11) MELON-GUBAT – the tender shoots and bitter
leaves are used as a gentle aperients (laxative) and
useful in biliousness.
(12) TAIÑGA-DAGA – (Indian Sorrel) – its leaves have
long been considered cooling, refrigerant,
antiscorbutic, astringent, appetizing and useful in
bliousness .
Page 41
SPLEEN
What is the spleen? – the spleen is the large organ in
the body that helps filter the body. It weights about 200
grams (7 oz.) and consists of violet-red spongy tissue. It
is located below the diaphragm, to the left of the
stomach, and a little behind it. The spleen helps filter
foreign substances from the blood. It also manufactures
as type of white blood cell called monocyte. The spleen
also acts as a emergency blood supply. It releases some
of the blood, it has stored when the body loses blood
through a hemorrhage. It is not an essential organ and
like the gallbladder when it becomes diseased may be
surgically removed.
Herbal remedies that are useful against splenetic
diseases are:
(1) SIBUYAS (Onion) – cooked with vinegar, they are
given in splenic enlargement.
(2) KINTSAY (Celery) – as an antipasmadic they are
used in liver and spleen diseases.
(3) KAONG (Sugar palm) – the petioles of the plant are
prescribed in chronic paludism with enlargement of
the spleen.
(4) TALONG-PUNAY (Thorn apple) – applying its
leaves over an enlarged spleen is prescribed.
(5) ROSAL (Gardenia) – its resin is given incorpulence
and to reduce enlarged spleen.
(6) PATOLA – its hot leaves applied to splenitis.
(7) AMPALAYA – (Bitter gourd) – the fruit is
considered tonic and stomachic and is useful in
diseases of the spleen and liver.
(8) PATOLANG-OAK – its seeds, in decoction, taken
internally, are useful in hepatic and splenic
obstructions and enlarged spleens.
(9) BANKORO (Indian mulberry) – its fruit is used
internally, in decoction, is useful in enlarge spleen
and liver diseases.
(10) MALUNGGAY (horse-radish tree) – the young
leaves or young pods are administered in affections
of the liver and the spleen, in articular pains.
(11) TUBO (sugar cane) – refined sugar is considered
as a remedy for diseases of the spleen.
(12) LAGUNDI (five-leaved chaste tree) – its leaves are
applied as a plaster in an enlarged spleen.
GALLSTONES – the gallbladder is a small muscular
bag located on the underside of the liver in the upper
right-hand part of the abdomen shaped like a pear
whose function is to store and concentrate the bile which
constantly being produced by the liver. In some cases,
the gallbladder may be filled with many small stones like
gravel. A small stone may find its way down into the
common bile duct, where it may obstruct the flow of bile
and which obstruction may also involve the pancreas.
TREATMENT – There is a certain miracle herbal tea
produced in London, England, and
found in natural health stores in
Metro Manila (Shoppesville,
Greenhills known as the CAMOMILE
HERBAL TEA which incredibility
dissolves painful gallstones and
amazingly eliminates the need for
surgery. One patient in New York
City says that he avoided surgery by
drinking 3 cups of the Camomile
Herbal Tea everyday. Within 2 weeks,
the pain went away and never
returned, according to Dr. Walter
Fenwick of London, England.
(1) MUSTASA – a plaster of mustard when applied to
the unbroken skin produces a sensation of warmth
followed by a severe burning pain, is used externally
to relieve pain in hepatitis.
(2) PAPAYA – with milky juice from the unripe fruit is
a remedy for the enlargement of the liver and the
spleen.
(3) PAKUAN – with cumin and sugar, the juice is used
as a cooling drink in hepatic congestion.
(4) KAMATIS – kamatis stimulates a torpid liver. They
promote the flow of the bile and gastric secretions.
(5) MALUNGGAY – the juice of the root, with milk,
used in decoction in enlarged spleen or liver.
Liver Cirrhosis and Liver Cancer
BRIG. GEN. Alejandro Galido has been described as
having either cirrhosis of the liver, or liver cancer. They
are not the same.
Page 42
Liver cirrhosis is a massive and irreversible
destruction of liver cells, brought about by either
alcoholism or viral hepatitis or toxic drug reactions.
Liver cancer, or carcinoma, is caused by rapid
multiplication of aberrant cells, affecting the rest of the
liver cells by crowding them out. It is also irreversible.
Sometimes cirrhosis leads to carcinoma.
Galido has been described as inconsistent in his
statements, and reluctant or forbidden to face inquiring
reporters. That is probably because his superiors are
beginning to find him an unreliable witness.
What they probably do not realize is that
Galido’s liver disease may have already affected his
mind. He may have a derangement of brain function,
called hepatic encephalopathy, due to loss of liver
function.
This may develop as a consequence of loss of
functional hepatocytes (liver cells) or hepatic necrosis,
increased toxin accumulation or increased brain
sensitibity to various sedatives, transquilizers and
analgesic medications (pain killers).
The increased level of ammonia due to increased
protein breakdown in the body is believed to be an
important cause of hepatic encephalophathy.
 In the first stage (mild) of this disease, he suffers
hypersomnia (sleeping all the time), or insomnia (can’t
sleep at all), or sleep-wake inversion (asleep by day and
awake by night).
At this stage is either euphoric or depressed; has a
shortened attention span, and is irritable. He also is
subject to impaired handwriting and metabolic tremor
(shaky hand).
 In the second stage (moderate), he becomes
lethargic with slow responses. He suffers decreased
inhibitions and inappropriate behavior (he can take off
this clothes in public without realizing it).
He may have ataxia, or inability to coordinate
muscular movements. He may have amnesia, or loss of
memory of past events. He may have asterixis (liver
flap, or flapping tremor of the hand); also slow or
hypoactive reflexes, resulting is slurred speech.
 In the third stage (severe), he suffers
somnolence (sleeping all the time) semi-stupor (close to
coma), and confusion (he does not know what he is
saying or doing). He does not know where he is, is
subject to bizarre behavior, due to increased ammonia
in the blood. He becomes paranoid, angry, and is
unable to compute. The reflexes now become
hyperactive, with uncontrollable eye muscles
(nystagmus), toes spread out when the sole of the foot is
stroked (Babinske reflex), muscles freeze into rigidity.
 In the last stage (come), he ranges from stupor
to unconsciousness, has no more sense of self, with
dilated pupils and muscle spasms causing extreme body
distortion (opisthotonus).
Aflatoxin
Local aflatoxin field test kit develop
If you think that by avoiding banned peanut
butter brands you can now be free from the dangers
posed by aflatoxins, guess again.
Aida R. Aguinaldo, of the Food and Nutrition
Research Institute, an agency of the Department of
Science and Technology, said that apart from peanuts,
crops prone to accumulate aflatoxin include corn, copra,
cassava and their by-products.
Aflatoxin B1, an aflatoxin compound, has also
been proven to metabolize into aflatoxin M1 which
settles in the milk of cattle which are fed with crops high
in aflatoxin.
Aguinaldo, supervising science research
specialist of FNRI’s food quality and safety program,
also revealed that she and her FNRI team in cooperation
with other government agencies have recently developed
the first local aflatoxin field test kit for copra meal.
But just what are aflatoxins and what makes
them so life-threaterning?
“Aflatoxins are a group of secondary
metabolites of molds called Aspergillus flavus and
Aspergillus parasiticus found in agricultural
commodities before and after harvest,” she explained.
In tropical countries, aflatoxins are formed
under natural conditions where temperature and
humidity are conductive to mold growth and toxin
accumulation. This condition is further aggravated by
poor or inadequate drying facilities.
She also cited that the International Agency for
Research on Cancer declared that “sufficient evidence
exists to indicate that aflatoxin is a probable human
carcinogen.” It has been associated with a host of
chronic diseases like primary liver cancer, Indian
childhood cirrhosis, chronic gastritis, and Reyes
syndrome which are prevalent in tropical and
subtropical countries like the Philippines, Thailand,
Hong Kong, China, and Swasiland.
And since aflatoxin is filtered directly by the
body’s liver, the effects of constantly ingesting it are
irreversible.
Page 43
“In animals, aflatoxin’s evidence for
carcinogenicity is sufficient. Imbalance ratio of feed to
livestock weight and reduced productivity (milk, eggs,
and meat) are he most prevalent effects of aflatoxin,”
Aguinaldo added.
Traces of aflatoxin may vary from one crop to
another. But the internationally accepted WHO level
for human consumption must not exceed 20 parts oer
billion (ppb.) Crops with aflatoxin levels exceeding 20
ppb but not more than 50 ppb are only fit for animals.
Any crop with aflatoxin levels beyond 50 ppb should be
discarded.
Aside from serious health problems, Aguinaldo
also mentioned the economic implications that are
bound to happen should aflatoxins go unchecked.
Reduction of sale prices to outward rejection of
agricultural products are likely to result since importers
from advance countries have high standards and
sophisticated methods of detecting aflatoxin.
In fact, FNRI’s aflatoxin field test kit was
developed in the wake of the European Community’s
plan to lower aflatoxin’s acceptance limit in copra meal
for animals from 50 ppb to 20 ppb. Since it threatened a
big portion of the country’s production and present
laboratory methods are time-consuming and expensive,
the FNRI has made extensive studies on aflatoxin
analysis from secondary and principal sources here and
abroad.
Although the testing kit, which uses locally
sourced silica gel absorbent, has only been validated for
copra meal. With modifications, it can also be used for
other foodstuffs. However, method changes and
validation have yet to be done to make the kit user-
friendly.
In a series of newspaper published warnings
issued by Dr. Kintanar of the Bureau of Foods and
Drugs agency of the Health Department, the general
public were cautioned against the consumption of the
PEANUT BUTTER bread spread whether locally or
foreign manufactured as the user is being exposed to the
following disorders.
1. Primary Liver Cancer
2. Cirrhosis of the Liver
3. Gastritis
4. Reynes Syndrome
(Leukemia – cancer of the blood)
Dr. Kintanar stated that the principles involved
is AFLATOXIN. The prohibition is extended to
consu,ption of corn in the cob, cassava, peanuts still
with cover which may safely be eaten provided they are
cooked for the day and no left overs must be eaten the
following day. Any uncooked items may be cooked and
eaten the next day thus avoiding the fungal AFLATOXIN
food poisoning.
LIVER CIRRHOSIS – LIVER CANCER
DOH Destroys contaminated peanut butter
STOCKS of peanut butter found to contain high levels of
aflatoxin, a cancer-causing substance, were destroyed
last week by the Bureau of Food and Drugs.
Manufacturers of two of the three peanut butter
brands found with high levels of aflatoxin, Lily’s and
Henry’s voluntarily brought their stocks to the BFAD
complex in Alabang where these were transferred to
large metal containers and buried within the BFAD
grounds.
Producers of the third brand, Kit & Dale, have
yet to comply with the order to destroy their
contaminated inventory, a BFAD official said.
The BFAD last month warned the public against
using the three peanut butter brands after a sampling
showed them to contain aflatoxin levels higher than the
permissible 20 parts per billion (ppb). Manufacturers of
the three brands agreed to withdraw their products from
supermarkets, grocery stores and other retail outlets.
Studies have determined a strong correlation
between aflatoxin-containing food, like peanuts, corn
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kernels and copra, with the development of liver cancer.
Ingesting aflatoxin does not produce immediate health
effects; it is accumulated in the body and produces long-
term toxicity. The Philippines has one of the highest
incidence of liver cancer in the world.
BFAD Director Quintin Kintanar said
inspectors have also seized stocks of the three brands.
But the cautioned the public that some stocks of Lily’s,
Henry’s and Kit & Dale may still be found in small
retail stores.
Kintanar lauded the “spirit of cooperation”
displayed by Newborn Food Products Inc., makers of
Lily’s Peanut Butter and Ting’s Food Products, makers
of Henry’s, in the BFAD’s concern for the health and
safety of consumers.
BFAD advised peanut butter manufacturers to
be very careful in selecting the peanuts they use.
Peanuts must be properly handled, humidity should be
low and ventilation high during storage and transport to
prevent aflatoxin-producing molds from growing.
BFAD will soon require the registration of all
peanut butter products before these are processed and
sold. At present, manufacturers are only required to
secure a license before they can produce peanut butter.
GLOSSARY ON LIVER DISEASES
(1) LIVER – a large, glandular organ situated just
under the diaphgram on the right side, that
processes blood and regulates its composition, as
by storing sugar and releasing it in assimilable
form (glucose), and that secretes bile.
(9) GLYCOGEN – glucose stored in the liver. When
(2) CHOLESTEROL – a substance belonging to the
class of body chemicals called steroids and are
manufactured in the liver.
(10) FAECES (or stools) – are the material discharged
(3) COMMON BILE DUCT – from the liver, bile
drips into the hepatic duct, which soon meets the
cystic duct arriving from the gallbladder, this
common from the gallbladder, this common bile
duct meets the pancreastic duct which carries
enzymatic fluid from the pancreas.
(11) SPLENONEGALLY
(4) LIVER CIRRHOSIS – chronic disease of the liver
with the destruction of liver cells due to an
excessive intake of alcoholic beverages along with
malnutrition.
(5) RECOMBIVAX HB – the first genetically
engineered vaccine which is a preventive against
Hepatitis-B.
(6) HEPATITIS – an inflammation of the liver most
common cause of which and infectious process
brought on by viruses, jaundice, or high fevers.
(8) GALLSTONES – presence of stones in the
gallbladder, or in one of the bile ducts, which are
mostly a mixture of calcium carbonate, cholesterol,
and bile salts, and can occur either as one large
stone. A few smaller ones, or several very small
stones.
blood needs sugar, the glycogen is readily
converted back into glucose.
from the bowels which consist not only of
indigestible food residues, but also of body
secretions (chiefly from the liver), mucous and
wornent cells from the intestrial lining, and
bacteria that are normally present in the intestines.
– is the abnormal
enlargement of the spleen, an organ lying in the left
upper abdomen that functions as a filter for
damage and aged blood cells. If diseases increase
the number of abnormal cells in the blood the
spleen enlarges. As in POLYCHTHEMIA and
various inherited red cell disorders, such as
sicklecell anemia, thalassemia or hereditary
spherocytosis. Splenic blood drains into the liver
through the hepatic portal vein. Therefore,
cirrhosis and other disease of the liver, in which
resistance to the blood flow is increased, may also
result in splenomegaly.

(7) JAUNDICE – where an excessive bile pigment
(bilurubin) is re-circulated into the blood stream
and enters the mucous membrance and skin, giving
them the characteristic yellow pigmentation of the
disease, Gallstones or tumor that obstruct the free
flow of bile are one cause of jaundice.
(12) LEUKOPENIA – is a deficiency circulating white
blood cells or leukocytes. Leukopenia can result
from increased destruction of leukocytes by the
spleen during the occurrence of such conditions as
rheumatoid arthritis or cirrhosis of the liver.

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