February 23, 2012

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Getting Treatment for Addictions

Addictions to alcohol and illegal drugs are challenging for adults to overcome, but especially so for teenagers. Getting them the help they need is critical to overcoming these obstacles and getting their lives back on track.

The first step in helping a young adult to get help is recognizing the problem early on. Early intervention can catch the problem before it gets too far along and harder to overcome. Parents who are concerned should speak with a counselor who specializes in addiction treatment who can make suggestions on the type of program and interventions can be used to help the young adult. This may include getting involved in an Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous program for teenagers.

Rehabilitation facilities can be another source of treatment for those who have been addicted for an extended period of time. These facilities provide a safe, controlled environment for the teenager to get free of drugs and alcohol. These kind of programs require that the person stay there for a set period of time, anywhere from three months up to a year. During this time, the teenager will have to attend group support meetings, meet with a counselor and possibly receive medical support to help overcome the addiction.

With early intervention and the right treatment, these issues can be overcome and the young adult can start to need a normal life again. It does requires the support of family to be successful, which means taking part in family counseling. This type of problem not only affects the person, but the entire family.

Filed Under: Health, Medication, Remedies Tagged With: , ,

Preventing the Spread of MRSA Through Isolation

Preventing the Spread of MRSA Through Isolation

When staying in a hospital or medical facility there is always a chance that you could catch a staph infection known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. This is an infection that is antibiotic resistant. It usually occurs on the skin, body tissues and body fluids. If a hospital or long term care facility suspects that MRSA is present they will test for the disease right away. Should the tests come back positive the hospital will have to take precautions to prevent MRSA from spreading. Here is a look at the two types of prevention methods that hospitals use there is the contact isolation and respiratory isolation.

Contact Isolation. Contact isolation will involve the hospital staff taking the necessary precautions to avoid spreading MRSA to other patients. This usually includes properly disposing of anything that comes in contact with the infected area as well as limited contact with the patient. Those in contact isolation will have roommates who generally also have MRSA so that they do not pass the infection on to others. Signs will clearly be posted so visitors know the room is on contact isolation.

Respiratory Isolation. Respirator isolation is a severe form of isolation that is usually used when people who have MRSA have the virus in their phlegm which means it can spread easily because the infection is located in the droplets when the person coughs. This type of isolation puts the patient in a room by themselves, the person equipment hospital staff uses and proper disposal of items that come in contact with the patient are taken.

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Preventing Bladder Infections

Preventing Bladder Infections

A common problem that many women and men suffer from is a bladder infection. Bladder infections are painful conditions that can be frustrating and hard to deal with. Bladder infections are caused by a bacterium that has entered the urinary tract system somehow. If not dealt with properly bladder infections could lead to serious medical conditions. Luckily, there are things that you can do to prevent suffering from a bladder infection so you do not have to worry about suffering any serious medication conditions. Here is a look at how you can prevent bladder infections from happening.

Frequent Bathroom Trips. It is believed that holding your urine could cause a bladder infection to form. This is because the body uses urination as a way to filter the body of harmful chemicals and other items. If you are holding it in the bladder you are causing the bacteria to be present in the urinary tract system and could cause infection.

Drink Water. Drinking a lot of water can help the body filter out any bacterium that might be in the system. It is important to try to get in at least eight glasses of water a day to help prevent bladder infections. Make sure that you are drinking enough water for optimum health at all times.

Avoid Chemicals. Using items such as scented wipes and scented feminine hygiene products could lead to bladder infections. That is because the chemicals can lead to the bacteria being agitated and an infection to form. This is also why you should avoid bubble baths as these have chemicals and can cause bladder infections.

Filed Under: Health Care, Medication Tagged With: , ,

The ORAC Chart

The ORAC Chart

A natural way to fight many types of illnesses and disease is to eat a diet that is high in antioxidants. However, when you are in a store how do you know exactly what types of foods are high in antioxidants and which are not? There is a chart that is developed by the United States Department of Agriculture that will help you find all those foods that will help you get the antioxidants that your body needs.

The ORCA chart or the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity chart is a chart that was developed to help consumers and those looking to add vegetables to their diet for medical reasons a way to find out which fruits and vegetables are higher in oxygen and therefore higher in antioxidants than others. The chart that is available will show people certain types of foods and assign it a specific score. The higher the score the more oxidation that is there and those are the foods you should target if you are trying to eat a diet rich in antioxidants. This chart is essential to shoppers and consumers because foods that look like they would be high in antioxidants really are not.

Antioxidants are believed to be a great natural way to treat and prevent certain illness and diseases. It is believed that when antioxidants are given to the body the body acts as a protective barrier and will preserve itself so that it doesn’t break down or become damaged which is what illnesses and diseases do.

Foods in antioxidants are not scientifically proven as a cure or treatment to certain illnesses and diseases but they are believed to help aid in the prevention and potential development of the diseases. Diseases that can be prevented or slowed down include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and neuroinflammation diseases.

Filed Under: Health Care, Medication Tagged With: , ,

Preventing Alzheimer Symptoms

Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease for those that suffer from it and their loved ones. It is a disease of the brain that slowly robs the person of their memories due to a slow shrinking of the brain. While there is no real official medical explanation of why this happens doctors and health care providers believe that there are certain things that you can do to prevent yourself from developing Alzheimer’s or to slow the progression of the disease should you start to notice that it is taking a toll on your life.

Here is a look at what you can do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or to slow the progress of the disease.

Diet Changes. Many experts believe that a lot of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s can be controlled with simple diet changes. This belief stems from the fact that what we take into our bodies could essentially play a role on what happens to us. Diet changes can range from switching to a completely vegetarian diet or adding more juices to one’s diet.

Supplemental Vitamins. Adding essential vitamins and minerals to one’s daily diet could prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. Nutritionists believe that by adding certain types of fats like omega-3 fatty acids and fish oils could help prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. There is also the belief that adding vitamin C which is an antioxidant could help eliminate many of the symptoms that Alzheimer’s patients have.

Exercise. Exercising regularly keeps the cardiovascular system going and can really help to prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Combining exercise with healthy diet and the symptoms could really be pushed back or slowed down a lot.

While there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s there are certain things that you can do to prevent the disease from taking a hold over your life. By making diet changes, adding vitamins and minerals and exercising regularly you will be able to slow the disease down.

Filed Under: Health Care, Medication Tagged With: , ,

New Hope for Spinal Cord Injury Victims

Spinal cord injuries have long frustrated victims and their doctors. While there are many unpleasant aftereffects of a spinal cord injury, two unfortunate occurrences are some of the hardest to overcome: scar tissue development and cytoskeleton destabilization. Scar tissue forms a barrier for the body’s severed nerve cells. The destabilization of the cytoskeleton prevents the regrowth of new cells. A new study based around the drug Texol, a cancer drug, may help overcome both of these terrible aftereffects.

Understanding the Severity of Spinal Cord Injuries

What’s the difference between say, a spinal cord injury and a skin injury? Both involved damaged cells and tissues. However, nerves in topical injuries regrow. The amount of healing time may vary due to the severity of the injury, but the skin will heal. The nerves within the spinal cord, however, will not regrow. The person is often left paralyzed. The reason for this is the cytoskeleton destabilization: the microtubules within the central nervous system are all mixed up and regrowth is not possible. Worse yet, instead of replacing damaged cells with new cells, the cells are replaced with scar tissue.

Where Does Taxol Come In?

“Taxol” is the trade name for a cancer treatment drug. The Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried discovered that Taxol can play a significant roll in healing the spinal cord. It can promote regrowth of the central nervous system’s nerve cells. Science recently published that Taxol can fix the “jumbling” of microtubules so the cells can regrow. That’s great, but remember that pesky scar tissue that prevents new cells from growing? Well, Taxol was shown to be effective at solving the scar tissue, too. Taxol prohibits the same substance within scar tissue that inhibits new cell growth. The scar tissue still forms, which is good because it can protect the injury. However, new cells can still grow and move.. The scar tissue will not completely block new cells.

Filed Under: Health, Medication, Remedies Tagged With: ,

Finding the Best Physician for Your Needs

You need a new doctor. Let’s just say your current physician doesn’t listen to you or doesn’t seem to have the needed time. Perhaps you want an older doctor, or a younger doctor, a man or a woman, or someone who specializes in back problems. How do you find one? And how do you choose?

Here’s some help:

  • Start at the beginning. Narrow your list. For example, if you just don’t want a male doctor, that limits where you start. If you want someone who specializes in back problems, that narrows your list considerably.
  • Check with your insurance company.  Make sure that the physician you have in mind is on the list. Also, check to see the hospital where the doctor does surgery.
  • Find a doctor you can trust. If that means meeting with a few doctors before making your decision, so be it. Ask questions. Let the doctor know you haven’t yet made your final decision. See how you work together.
  • Check the doctor’s credentials. Ask questions about where the doctor went to medical school, what she does to keep abreast of the latest news in medicine, if he is affiliated with any medical associations.
  • How much medical experience does the doctor have? A new doctor will have less, of course, but a new doctor will probably be more aware of the newest advances in medicine.

The best physician for your individual needs will rarely come from a phone book; most often, you will be recommended to that doctor by a good friend, a trusted work associate or a family member. When you have to rely on a phone book, an advertisement or an online website for information, it’s especially good to initiate a personal consultation and check through all of the items on the above list before making your final decision.

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Beyond Medicine—What you can do to get rid of Your Next Headache

You get it every time you are overwhelmed or underpaid. The headache will come upon you when you have a huge project coming up, or your daughter has just informed you she has lost yet another job.

You know its stress causing that heart beat to echo un-mercilessly through your brain. But what can you do?

Here are some tips:

  • Relax. Take a deep breath. Imagine you are making what you need, that the project will be finished on time, that your daughter will get a job soon. Visualization is a great key to increasing productivity.
  • Take a nap. Give yourself 15 minutes to do nothing. Take a short trip to your favorite beach; lounge for a moment in the Caribbean.
  • Try something new. Promise yourself that the next time you feel a headache coming on that you will work on something new whether it be a new craft or a walk around the neighborhood.
  • Talk about what is causing your frustration or write down your feelings on paper. Once talked out or written down, you can move on with your day and the tasks at hand.
  • Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and drinking enough water.
  • Be encouraging. Encourage your daughter that you have high hopes she will get another job soon. Walk through the good points of your current project, and write down the positive reasons why you were given the assignment.
  • Laugh at yourself. If you have messed up at a job interview, laugh at yourself, and keep a list handy of what you did right.
  • Forgive someone. Forgive yourself. Often, it’s the pent up, unreleased stuff that is running the most havoc within our brain.

Headaches are like unruly children that just need some boundaries and taming to function best. Instead of allowing your mind to run wild with negative possibilities, tame it by trying some of the positive tips above.

Filed Under: Health Care, Medication, Remedies Tagged With: ,

Wrongfully Administered Drugs and Hospital Complications

When someone is so ill that it is necessary to be admitted into a hospital is scary enough. Even more so are the results of a study that show almost all hospital patients have no idea what kinds of medication they have been given there. Patients often believe they are getting one type of medication, but in fact are getting something else.

This same study also said that one in five medication treatments were incorrect. Improper dosages and the wrong drugs were the common mistakes made in these cases. Even after they left the hospital, just a small percentage of people could identify the medications that they were taking, and even fewer over 65 years old could do so.

Patients under the full care of medical professionals put their trust in these physicians to care for them, even in cases where there lives could be at risk. In a hospital setting, doctors are extremely busy and usually don’t spend more than a couple of minutes with each patient. Mistakes in administering pharmaceuticals are realized more and more with each study that is done, and some people go as far as to suggest that the hospital is a dangerous environment and should be avoided if possible.

Solutions to the problem range from having requirements for better communication between hospital doctors and patients, to a need to assess patient awareness and increase knowledge of what they are given when in the hospital. Studies like this of course exclude patients with psychiatric conditions or dementia, so the results are quite staggering when it is considered that normally functioning people have no idea what drugs doctors are administering to them.

It is also known that drug reactions account for a significant percentage of hospital deaths, and that drug side effects cause many complications there as well. These side effects also account for many hospital re-admissions. It is clearly evident that something needs to be done to more precisely administer medications to patients as well as increase their awareness of what drugs they are given during hospital admission.

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Filed Under: Hospitals & Clinics, Medication Tagged With: , , ,

Choosing the Right Hospital

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If you need medical care that requires treatment in a hospital, you want to find a hospital that feels comfortable to you. Choosing the right hospital for your situation can impact the level of care and treatment you receive. By making use of modern tools and resources, you can find a top-notch hospital that will result in a positive patient experience.

For the first step, talk with your primary care physician or referring doctor. Most of the time, doctors have privileges at certain hospitals, so they can provide detailed information about how these facilities are run. Your doctor can usually offer feedback about these hospitals based on personal experience, as well as from previous patient comments.

Another factor that will influence the decision-making process is the type of procedure you are having done. Appendectomies and gall bladder removals are more routine surgeries that often take place at local hospitals. If patients need more extensive medical care, such as open heart surgery, neurological evaluation, or cancer treatment, going with a specialty hospital usually makes more sense. Most major cities have hospitals or treatment centers dedicated to these specialty areas.

Friends and family can offer valuable insight, so utilize the word-of-mouth approach in your fact finding mission. People who have spent time at the local hospitals or who work in these facilities can give you the ins and outs on the nursing staff, food quality, cleanliness, and level of service. Getting the inside scoop can help you make a more educated decision.

If you want to gather unbiased data about the area’s hospitals, check with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the agency responsible for safeguarding the health of Americans citizens and ensuring provision of essential human services. Visit their web site www.hhs.gov, which contains a hospital comparison search tool that lets users compare the quality of listed hospitals based on specific search criteria.

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Filed Under: Medication, Medicines Tagged With: , , ,
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