Archive for the ‘Fitness’ Category

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Symptoms and Treatment of Anxiety Disorder

Friday, October 1st, 2010

We live in a society where stress is just a part of daily living. With tough financial times and both the job and real estate markets plummeting simultaneously, stress and anxiety in society is higher than ever. If you are suffering from chronic stress, it can feel overwhelming, and it can feel like you are fighting it alone. The fact is that one in four Americans today are suffering from overwhelming anxiety, but the good news is, it CAN be treated.

Anxiety Disorder is a condition that occurs when your stress and anxiety reach levels that are debilitating to your quality of life. In today’s day and age, when you can’t find a job or sell your house, your quality of life is already effected, and these are triggers enough to start you on your way to a more serious condition called Anxiety Disorder. If you are struggling with chronic anxiety and think you may need some help, here you will find the symptoms and treatment of one of the most common mental health problems today.

You are probably familiar with many of the symptoms of anxiety disorder, particularly if you are dealing with overwhelming stress on a daily basis. You may only experience one or two of these symptoms on occasion, and in more serious cases, four or more symptoms on a regular basis. You may find yourself worrying almost all of the time, and this will lead to difficulties in concentrating as well. Feeling irritable and fatigued on a regular basis are also symptoms if you are spending a lot of energy on worry. More serious symptoms will include those that effect your cardiovascular system, such as dizziness and an irregular heartbeat. Sometimes chronic anxiety can also lead to abdominal or digestive troubles that at their best, are awkward and uncomfortable, and at worst, downright embarrassing.

Now that you know what some of the basic symptoms are of chronic anxiety, you can take some comfort in the notion that these symptoms are not permanent. Nobody suffers from anxiety their whole life, and you CAN take control back of your mental health. Self -help techniques such as relaxation, meditation, and yoga are very useful in calming the body and mind when stressed. Sometimes these methods alone are enough to alleviate stress. When these methods do not work, trying prescription medication such as Xanax in conjunction with cognitive therapy works wonders in effectively treating all major anxiety symptoms. (more…)

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Have your heart checked out

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Heart disease is the big killer in the US. According to the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the overall death rate is falling slightly (sorry, all that means is people are living longer), the leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. Put into numbers, it carries off about one-third of us every year. And this is despite all those wonderful drugs to treat high blood pressure, lower those cholesterol levels and keep the heart beating at a steady pace (that’s before they plug in one of those battery-driven pacemakers). However you try and square the circle, we are killing our hearts by refusing to quit smoking, eating too many fatty foods and refusing to exercise. So why drag all these depressing facts in here? Well, the good news for all men is a little known biological fact.

The first symptom of heart disease is a hardening of the arteries. This disease is called atherosclerosis. With high levels of cholesterol in the blood, you get a slow deposit of platelets on the walls of the blood vessels. These harden and gradually obstruct the flow of blood. They also prevent the muscle walls from dilating and contracting. In the early years, the only sign may be a slight increase in blood pressure. But here we come to our little known fact. The artery feeding blood into the penis is one of the smallest in the male body. Who would have thought it. All that blood flowing into the penis to make the erection hard, yet flowing through the smallest artery in the body.

That means the first clear symptom of atherosclerosis is going to be erectile dysfunction. If the muscles walls of the penile artery do not dilate and only permit a slow flow of blood into the penis, any erection that forms is going to be soft. That means you will immediately be treated as a potential heart patient every time you walk into a doctor’s surgery and admit erectile dysfunction. The figures actually show erectile dysfunction appears between two and five years before a stroke or “cardiac event” – a wonderful phrase meaning your heart stopped beating or beat in a way that prevented the blood from supplying oxygen where it was needed. (more…)

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Big problems in China

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

When you start talking about China, you immediate run into massive numbers. It’s hard to imagine it, but the country is edging up to 1.4 billion people. And that’s despite the one-child policy. You remember that. After WWII, the Chinese thought a big population was a good thing but, when the Government saw how difficult it was to feed everyone, they decided big was no longer beautiful and enforced a law limiting each family to one child. This has produced two interesting outcomes. Couples forgot to register the birth of girls, but were proud to announce the arrival of a boy. This has produced an unbalanced population with about 4% more men than women. Many aging families now have no filial children to look after them. Perhaps more importantly, despite the abandonment of the policy, modern couples are no longer planning families. That’s allowing for the fact that, with a shortage of women, there are fewer couples anyway.

Why should this matter? Well, as time passes and the population ages, there will be fewer people around to produce the children to keep China going. Then along comes even more exciting news. According to a research project undertaken by Peking University People’s Hospital, slightly more than 25% of Chinese men currently suffer from erectile dysfunction. OK let’s put this in context. Allowing for a reasonable proportion of these men not being in relationships, or being too old to have children, that’s millions of men who are unable to get their wives pregnant. Now put aside all the old Cold War thinking that, if the US just sits still, China will collapse during the next century and the US will maintain its supremacy. If society begins to break down, there’s no guarantee this will be a peaceful process. Anyway, by the time the Chinese demographic time bomb strikes, the US will be controlled by the majority Latino, Asian and African American population. Their foreign policy may be rather different to the current caucasian view of the world. As an aside, we should note the current birth rate among the white population is falling rapidly with some 18% of adult US males reporting erectile dysfunction. (more…)

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Overuse injuries

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Some people are driven because they are so good, they can earn a living playing sport, dancing or in some other profession based on the ability to move in particular ways. Others are just driven. They know they will never be a top player, but they always want to do the best they can. Whatever the motive, there’s a constant cycle of practice and rehearsal. You can see these people in the gyms and endlessly working through routines to improve their strength or swing, to build up power in the hips and knees, etc. Whatever the required skill, there are repetitive exercises to groove the movement until it becomes an automatic, unthinking response when playing or performing. Except there’s a danger. It’s called an overuse injury. The more you use the same muscle groups, the greater the risk of muscle fatigue and injury. Ask any racquet player or a pitcher about tendonitis in the elbow and you will see the constant fear of an injury that could cut short a career.

In the merely good player, psychological adjustments can be made. It will be painful to take a long rest or, in the worst cases, to stop playing altogether. But it’s not the end of the world – well not completely the end of the world. In the younger player, it can be devastating. Take someone in high school. They are being groomed for the professional ranks. Perhaps this will take them through university on a sports scholarship. Either way, an injury is going to derail the future. Suppose you have a young pitcher. Scouts have already seen him play. Nods of approval have been exchanged. Then tendonitis strikes. In a perfect world, he would take at least a month off. And even when the doctor approves the resumption of training, this would be light and there would be no pitching at full power until the recovery was complete. Except that’s not how it works. To give himself the best chance of being in the first draft or in that scholarship program, he needs results. So, after a week or so, he’s back pitching. He plays through the pain for the greater gain. But there’s a risk. He can fracture his elbow. It’s the same with basketball and volleyball injuries to the knees. Why does this happen? Because, in younger players, the muscles can be stronger than the immature bones. If teens try too hard, they can literally break their bones. (more…)

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The long and the short of it

Monday, September 27th, 2010

The standard approach to the use of muscle relaxants is to use them for the treatment of acute, i.e. short-term, injuries. The idea is to reinforce the need for a complete rest by relying on the sedative qualities of muscle relaxants. This gives the body a chance to begin healing. Then, with physical therapy, you can slowly restore strength and mobility. Because it’s not safe to use these drugs over any significant period of time, their use has been overlooked in the treatment of chronic diseases and disorders. Indeed, there’s been poor coordination between the specialists and the generalists who want to establish pain management as a specialism in its own right. Those who have built their empires on the back of particular injuries or diseases, are reluctant to give up control of patients to a new department that might challenge their authority. The result is long waiting times for people with chronic pain to get effective treatment for the pain.

Speaking at a recent European conference, Professor Varrassi reported the results of a long-running study. About 25% of adults in Europe are affected by some degree of chronic pain. Lower back pain is actually the second most common reason for people to visit their doctor in search of treatment. Yet the average delay between the first consultation and a reference to a specialist pain center is about twelve years. The main reason for this long period is that doctors prefer to continue dealing with their patients even though this may mean nothing more than increasing the potency of the painkillers used. This leads to a constant battle to balance the reality of the pain against the side effects of the opiate drugs most often used. Professor Varrassi strongly argues for a complete reeducation of doctors. The evidence clearly shows there is a strong neuropathic element to chronic pain, and continuing treatment for a physical condition is not going to work. (more…)

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Games as therapy

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

Ask any doctor how to manage acute muscle injuries and the answer will always come back the same. When you have a sprain or strain, the first stage is always rest. There must be a chance for swelling to reduce and for drugs to eliminate any inflammation. Add in the use of ice packs (with care not to cause frostbite) and the careful placement of damaged arms or legs to keep them above the level of the heart and you have everything under control. During this time, muscle relaxants will be used to ensure there’s no real risk of spasms and to give the muscles the best chance of starting to heal. The second phase sees the gradual introduction of exercise. In a perfect world, this will be guided by physical therapists with experience of rehabilitation. There are two primary objectives. First, you have to aim for restoring mobility sooner rather than later. This means tackling the pain. Secondly, you have to rebuild the strength in damaged muscles, tendons and ligaments.

The body’s usual response to a muscle injury is to persuade you not to move with the threat of pain. You know how this works. Even the slightest movement seems to trigger waves of pain that leave you convinced staying frozen in that one safe position is best. Except the body has not read the latest medical books, all of which say that restoring movement is best. Indeed, the longer you stay curled up in a ball, the worst it will be when you do finally make a real effort to move. Muscles lose their tone and joints can slowly seize up. For some, this produces an alarming reality. You can be lying all innocently in a hospital bed one or two days after an accident and suddenly physical therapists are getting you out of that bed. This comes as a shock. Even with painkillers, this is not a “walk in the park”. But you grit your teeth and, slowly, you move with more confidence. (more…)

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The Veterinary Uses of Prednisone

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

There are a wide array of medications that people of all types take every day. But let’s not forget about man’s best friend. Dogs and other nonhuman animals can often enjoy the same benefits of taking those medications as humans do.

The same diseases

Dogs and other pets have to deal with many of the same diseases and conditions that humans do. Autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies, rejected transplant organs, kidney disorders, and even traumatic conditions such as spinal cord injury, anaphylactic reactions, and shock are just a few that we as humans have in common with our best friends. Makes sense that we would be able to treat these diseases in a similar way, seeing as how dogs share over 90% of our DNA.

The same drug

There is a drug that works to suppress the immune system by replacing a corticosteroid the adrenal gland naturally produces. You might wonder why anyone would want to suppress their immune system, but people with the conditions we just mentioned, like autoimmune diseases, want just that. Suppressing the immune system also works to reduce inflammation, bringing relief to asthma and arthritis sufferers. This drug has several serious side effects, but the improvement in the daily quality of life make those side effects worth it to many people, and now, many dogs too.

The body has a natural way of doing things. The liver turns out an active steroid called prednisolone. If one has the right amount of prednisolone in the body-it could be human, dog, ferret, or squirrel body-the adrenal glad will stop making more and the immune system will return to normal operation.

Here’s just a partial list of the conditions affecting pet animals that this drug can help:

  • Asthma
  • Allergies
  • Lupus
  • Arthritis
  • Mononucleosis
  • Kidney disease
  • Pancreas disease

It is also used as a cancer treatment. Especially for leukemia, which is extraordinarily common in cats, this drug is excellent. It is an essential part of treating leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma in humans. (more…)

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Adjusting your Dose of Xanax

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

Most medicines for conditions such as depression, anxiety, and panic disorder don’t come in the perfect dose. Mood altering drugs such as these are not like antibiotics. They have a subtle effect on body chemistry, while also being potentially very dangerous. That’s why doctors tinker and monitor doses so often. They have to figure out just how much (or little) medicine you need for it to do the trick. There are a few reasons for this.

High doses:

  • Increase your chances of experiencing harmful side effects
  • Are more likely to harm your body
  • Make it more addictive
  • Take a longer time to come off of

This does not mean you should settle for the dose at which you feel something. There is very little point in taking a potentially harmful medicine if you aren’t going to get much of a benefit. When you consider that the potential to really help is so high, then you almost have to fiddle with the dose to get the most from it. However, only do so with help from your doctor. Because you could run into some serious health problems, you should talk to the men and women who spent years of hard study on these topics.

Why do you have to tinker in the first place? Because every body is different and everyone’s condition is unique.

Modifying your Regimen

There are essentially two ways to go about this:

  1. Changing dosage size
  2. Changing dosage frequency

It would be too general to say that modifying dosage size increases the effect and increasing dosage frequency makes the effect last longer. In fact, while increasing size usually makes the drugs effect stronger, it might not be the effect desired. It may simply strengthen side effects while not making you any less anxious. However, if they are not the most dangerous side effects, you may want to push on in order to relieve anxiety.

These drugs only stay in the blood stream with effect for a certain number of hours. With dose frequency, the trick becomes controlling the times that the effect of each dose overlaps. Even though you are only taking a few milligrams, if you take the doses 6 times a day, you could have some overlap in which the level of the drug in your body is dangerously high. However, if you can schedule a slight overlap for the times when you feel the most anxiety – say, the first two hours of work – then you can make this work for you. DO NOT TRY TO DO THIS ON YOUR OWN. You have to work with a doctor who is conducting blood tests. (more…)

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Keep your heart healthy

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

This is one of those stories in which science and common sense seem to overlap. It should not surprise us that anxiety may be a contributing factor to heart problems. We’ve seen all too many movies and TV plots where the victim gets all stressed and, clutching his or her chest, then falls over moaning, “My heart is finally giving up my ghost.” or words to that effect. Anyway, there’s new research suggesting the way people are treated if they have an anxiety disorder may change their chances of survival. So, before we continue, here’s a little challenge for you. Just what do you think the relationship is between anxiety and heart attacks?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is increasingly severe worry without any specific cause. So, before you have a stroke or heart attack, the link is less clear. How are we to decide whether you have heart disease because you smoke, or are overweight, or have a poor level of health and never exercise, or have a general level of anxiety in your life? But once you have an “incident”, this will naturally give you a real health problem to worry about. To that extent, the GAD stops being generalized and becomes the entirely understandable fear of death from a further “incident”. Now there really is a choice to be made by the doctors treating you to decide what balance to strike in the treatment for the heart and the anxiety problems. But before the “incident”…

Recent research out of Holland followed just over one-thousand people whose health was less than perfect, but all had a stable heart. Of them 10% had GAD. Over time, the risk of heart attacks was 75% higher for those with GAD. This is not the first time research has shown anxiety as a major contributing cause of strokes and heart attacks but, because of the problems of identifying cause and effect, the results are not yet scientifically convincing. You first have to eliminate all the other contributing factors. Nevertheless, if you are young and have GAD, it may be worth having a full health check-up including your cardiovascular system. Just because these scientists are not convinced does not mean you should not protect yourself against the possibility. (more…)

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Relieving chronic pain

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

Chronic pain is a problem that affects million of men and women all over the globe. This problem is associated with a wide range of medical conditions that require serious treatment and a lot of time for recovery. And it’s obvious that people are looking for various ways to relieve chronic pain effectively. It is estimated that between 50 and 80 million US citizens are dealing with chronic pain problems on a regular basis. If the condition behind pain symptoms is treated at an earlier stage then it will be much easier to relief the pain itself. But if the problem is left untreated, the pain will last for longer periods of time and will be much harder to deal with in the future.

Chronic pain has been in focus of many healthcare specialists for decades, and now there are new techniques and methods for relieving this problem. There are many effective drugs developed and special therapies such as electrical and magnetic stimulation, which are used throughout the world. The choice of treatment method is often linked to the actual cause behind the problem.

Chronic pain can be caused by injuries to muscles, joints and blood vessels. It can also be induced by other health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis or shingles. Sometimes chronic pain is not the only problem, as acute pain attacks can also occur without any evident reason, while chronic pain is not observed. No matter what is the problem you’re suffering from, you should seek medical assistance as soon as possible to find an effective solution for relieving the condition. (more…)

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