Remedies | Health and Hospital Resource

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: Illegal drug trade, Narcotics Anonymous, Substance abuse

How To Prepare For A Stay In The Hospital

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A stay in the hospital can be an overwhelming and stressful experience. After all, it takes a lot of courage to turn your healthcare over to the professionals and give them permission to provide treatment. However, there are some simple things you can do to make your hospital stay a lot easier to bear.

First of all, remember that even though you’re in the hospital, you still have the right to have some degree of control over your medical care. If you have any questions about what kinds of procedures are being done to you, and what their purpose is, don’t be afraid to speak up. This will ensure that you are fully aware of the different elements of your medical care.

Keep a list of any medical allergies and medications that you are taking so that it will be easier for you to fill out forms at the hospital. And, make sure you have someone who has agreed to act as your emergency contact during any hospital stays.

Also, if you have the luxury of having a bit of time to prepare for your hospital stay, try your best to get all your affairs in order beforehand. If you have any pets, children or elderly people living in your home, make arrangements so that they will be well taken care of in your absence.

Finally, pack a bag of items for your hospital stay, and if you’re permitted to do so, include some of your favorite items from home. Small but meaningful tokens of familiarity from home will be very beneficial to provide comfort during times when you are scared, confused or in pain.

Filed Under: Health Care, Remedies Tagged With: Health care, Hospital, Medicine

The Repercussions of Food Addiction

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As addictions go, using food to meet emotional needs may seem less damaging than other types of addiction, such as using drugs or alcohol. However, food addiction does its own damage. Emotional binge eating can cause weight gain and aggravate other health issues, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Understanding Food Addiction

When a person engages in emotional eating, he or she uses food as an escape. Unpleasant emotions such as boredom, anger, pain and frustration are sometimes mitigated temporarily by a bowl of ice cream or a bag of potato chips. The temporary enjoyment relieves other forms of discomfort. However, the temporary relief leaves behind its own torment. Guilt about the additional calories can compound the emotional issues that led to the binge eating in the first place.

Food Addiction and Health Issues

The challenge of food addiction is that most people who resort to food to feel better emotionally reach for fatty and sugary foods. Chocolate, ice cream, fries and pizza are common comfort foods that are high in fat and calories. Many comfort foods are high in cholesterol, leading to heart disease and other health issues.

Combating Food Addiction

Dealing with food addiction requires facing the emotions that caused the binge eating. Listening to comforting music, writing in a journal or taking a stroll around the block are effective activities for calming the mind and avoiding food. Once the underlying emotional issues are addressed, a desire to overeat is usually diminished. Consciously choosing to engage in a form of exercise, such as biking, aerobics or running also helps to reduce emotional stress.

Filed Under: Health, Remedies Tagged With: Food Addiction, Repercussions

Preventing the Spread of Viruses, Germs and Bacteria

The viruses and bacteria that cause many colds and flus are everywhere. However, they are most predominantly found in your household. In fact, your house is the worst place for viruses, germs and bacteria. That is because you are in your house for the majority of the time which causes these things to float around the room and cause you to inhale them or catch them by other means. Here are some things that you can do to prevent infections at home and reduce your chance of catching diseases or illnesses like the common cold and flu.

Wash Hands. You should wash your hands regularly. It is recommended that you use warm water and soap to really kill any germs and bacteria that could be living on your hands. To really get rid of the germs and bacteria wash your hands for 20 seconds and clean with water afterwards.

Covering Coughs. Covering your colds and coughs could prevent bacteria, germs and viruses from becoming airborne. It is recommended that you cover your coughs with a paper tissue instead of your arm or your sleeve as this will allow you to get rid of it when you are done coughing.

Disinfect Areas. Doing a regular disinfection of the area will allow you to kill any germs, bacteria or viruses that are living in the area. Common things that are used to kill these items include bleach, warm water and store brought items that are intended to kill the germs, bacteria and viruses. You should be cleaning every surface area but the ones that are commonly used are the most important. Make sure you clean telephones, computers, toys, books and remote controls as these are used a lot and probably hold a large amount of germs and bacteria.

Filed Under: Health Care, Remedies Tagged With: Bacteria, Common cold, handwashing

The Alzheimer’s Prevention Method – Curry Powder

When looking for why certain diseases or illnesses happen to certain individuals many researchers will turn to places that do not have as many cases of that illness or disease. This is exactly what researchers and scientists did with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Alzheimer’s is a disease of the brain that can cause a number of problems ranging from mental to physical. Typical symptoms include memory loss, coordination problems, difficulties with critical thinking skills and behavioral problems. Alzheimer’s is a very serious problem that can affect not only the patient with the illness but those that surround them. Researchers and medical professionals have been looking for a way to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s for a number of years. Recently they turned to one of the countries that does not have a high amount of this disease to see what might cause them to not suffer from Alzheimer’s.

Medical researchers and health care professionals turned to India to see why India has a low population of those that suffer from this neuroinflammation disease. It was discovered that those in India consumed a large amount of curry. Curry powder contains a high amount of turmeric. Turmeric is an antioxidant that is believed to be both an anti-inflammatory component as well as a fat dissolving component. It is believed that this component resulted in less beta amyloid plaques on the brain which causes the brain to become inflamed and suffer from Alzheimer’s.

This medical finding resulted in medical professional running a medical trial on those that showed symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The medical trial gave people up to eight mg of turmeric a day for four months. This resulted in lower inflammation in those that took the turmeric than those that did not.

Filed Under: Health Care, Remedies Tagged With: Alzheimer's disease, Curry powder, Disease

Nurses Are More Likely to Smoke Than the General Population

An Italian study that was recently published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (January issue) found that more than half of an 800 nursing student study were smokers or former smokers. This alarmed many healthcare experts, since healthcare professionals who smoke experience much more difficulty discouraging their patients to smoke if they themselves smoke. Heathcare professionals must understand the health risks associated with smoking in order to adequately describe them to their patients.

The alarming study found that 44 percent of new nursing students were current smokers. This is double the number of the percentage of current smokers in the general population. Furthermore, twelve percent of current non-smokers were former smokers. 75 percent of the students who were smokers had at least one parent who is a smoker. Nearly half of these students had at least one sibling who smoked.

63 percent of the students in the study were female. 85 percent were Italian. The other students came from countries like Ecuador, Albania, and Peru (all developing countries). The Italian students were all definitively younger than their immigrant counterparts. The average ages for the Italian students was 23 (regardless of gender). The average ages for the foreign students were 31 for the men and 28 for the women. 53 percent of the male students smoked and 39 percent of the female students smoked. 37 percent smoked five or less cigarettes per day. Four percent smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day.

54 percent of the non-smokers had at least one parent who smoked. 22 percent of the smokers came from a household with two smoking parents. 14 percent of nonsmokers came from a household where two parents were smokers. While 47 percent of both the current smokers and former smokers had siblings who also smoked, only 25 percent of non-smokers had siblings who were smokers.

Filed Under: Health, Remedies Tagged With: Journal of Advanced Nursing, Tobacco smoking

How Are Smoking Habits Transmitted?

Do certain factors play a part in our smoking habits? Who is more likely to smoke? Does our family life have anything to do with our choices later in life?

A reserach group in Europe’s findings show that smoking habits start at home. According to the group’s findings in a research study involving two-parent households, men are more likely to smoke if their father did wile women are more likely to pick up smoking if their mother did. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to affect men if their mother smoked. Likewise, it doesn’t seem to affect women if their father smoked.

These findings were published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. The research team extracted their data from the British Household Panel Survey from the years 1994 to 2002. This data source was selected because the British Household Panel Survey included details about tobacco consumed in the household in addition to other products.

The team found that if both parents smoke, the probability that their son will smoke is 24 percent. If neither parent smokes, the number drops to 12 percent. If both parents of a daughter smokes, her probability for smoking is 23 percent. IF neither parents of a daughter smoke, her percentage of smoking falls to the same number as a son, 12 percent.

The data changes in single parent households. Since single parent households are usually headed by women, both genders were influenced by their mother’s smoking in a single parent household. If his single parent mother smokes, a son’s probability of becoming a smoker is 32 percent. If a daughter’s single parent mother smokes, her liklihood of smoking is 28 percent. Both percentages are significantly higher than the figures in two parent households.

In a two parent households, it did not seem to affect sons if only their mother smoked. Likewise, it doesn’t seem to affect daughters if their fathers smoked.

Filed Under: Health Care, Remedies Tagged With: British Household Panel Survey, Cigarette

Stem Cells Could Repair Your Heart

Can we repair our heart using cells from our own heart? That’s what researchers wanted to find out in a study published in the February issue scientific journal of the American Heart Association, Circulation. The study showed that scientists were able to rebuild a damaged child’s heart in the laboratory by using heart stem cells from children suffering from congenital heart disease.

About the Study

The person who headed the study was Sunjay Kaushual, M.D. and Ph.D. surgeon from the Children’s Memorial Hospital’s Division of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s assistant professor of surgery. Kaushal mentioned that thanks to modern advancements in medicine and surgery, children born with congenital heart defects are now living longer. However, they all may eventually fall prey to heart failure. However, Kaushal now believes that thanks to this project, data shows that a patient’s heart stem cells can be used to rebuild their own heart. The children who were unfortunately born with congenital heart defects like cardiomyopathy can live longer lives with a lower risk of heart failure.

Study Procedure

Researchers took cells from patients aged anywhere from 13 years to newborn babies who were undergoing regular congenital cardiac surgery. As to be expected, the most amount of stem cells came from newborns. Stem cell amounts decreased greatly as the patients grew older. The biggest concentration of stem cells was found to be in the heart’s right atrium (the upper right chamber in the heart). The cardiac stem cells proved effective at rebuilding a damaged heart. Heart stem cell studies have been done before, but those studies focused on adult patients. This is a landmark study because it’s the first study to focus largely on children with heart congenital defects. This is particularly important because heart disease and failure occurs for different reasons in adults and children.

Filed Under: Health, Health Tips, Remedies Tagged With: American Heart Association, Stem cell

Start Yearly Mammograms at age 40, not 50

When should women begin making the commitment to have yearly mammograms? The data is incredibly varied and controversial. Most women nowadays either do not recognize the danger they face by not screening for breast cancer or have no idea how often or when to schedule mammograms. Luckily, a recent enlightening study was published that may help women navigate the complicated amount of varying information available regarding breast cancer screenings.

Who did the Study?

R. Edward Hendrick, Ph.D., a University of Colorado School of Medicine clinical professor of radiology and Mark Helvie, M.D. the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center director of breast imaging. The two researchers published their findings in the American Journal of Roentgenology (Febuary issue).

Two Conflicting Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations

The two sought to compare two differing recommendations published by the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force and the American Cancer Society. The task force recommends that women undergo screenings every other year for women from 50 to 74. The American Cancer Society, on the other hand, recommends that women undergo yearly screenings starting at age 40 and finishing at age 84. So which is correct?

Which is a Better Strategy?

The two found that the American Cancer’s Society overwhelmingly saved more lives than the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force. By using six model scenarios, the two utilized the same data that the task force used to find their data. The two found that beginning yearly mammogram screenings at age 40 reduces 40 percent of breast cancer deaths. Using the task force guidelines, breast cancer deaths were only reduced by 23 percent.

Overall, the American Cancer Society’s guidelines saved 71 percent more lives than the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force’s guidelines.

Other Considerations

The two did consider the negative side of mammograms, like screening exam pain and the fear and anxiety caused by falsely positive results. The two researchers found that women will experience a false postive response every ten years.

Filed Under: Health, Remedies, Women's Health Tagged With: American Cancer Society, BreastCancer

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: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Paclitaxel