Healthy Fitness and Diet

Archive for March, 2010

To start us off, let’s take in a simple statistic. The National Institutes of Health currently estimates the US economy loses more than $100 billion per year on healthcare expenses, lost productivity and lost earnings caused by chronic pain. People in serious pain cannot go to work and take up time in the healthcare system. By a curious coincidence, the estimated cost of the healthcare reform currently working its way through the Washington mill is less than $100 billion per year. That’s why more than 75 millions Americans could do with a reversal of the current approach to pain. All the main lobbying power going into efforts to block reform supports the idea of maximum profit for minimum effort. That means doctors peddle pills as the first response treatment and discourage those in pain from seeking access to proper support services. OK, so just what are these “proper” support services?

Pain is a symptom of an underlying health problem. It can be an injury or the result of a disease. The first step is therefore a full diagnostic exercise to positively identify what is causing the pain. It’s no use trying to guess whether you do or do not have, say, a herniated disk. There are tests that can say definitively what the problem is and so point directly at the recommended treatment. In the case of a herniated disk, this would be a steroid injection and physical therapy. As with any service, it’s a case of matching resources and needs. Once you have a diagnosis, you can say whether a hospital should perform surgery or apply one of the other interventional procedures. Fully informed decisions can be made on which drugs to use and at what dosages. As it is, patients are left as a continuing experiment to try different drugs at different dosages and report back on pain levels. In appropriate cases, there can be reference to physical therapy or, sometimes more effective, psychological counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy and support services. All this before we get to the alternative therapies including acupuncture. Why all these different options? Because, people are complicated and do not fit into convenient treatment boxes. Everyone deserves to be treated as an individual with the right treatment given by the appropriate specialist.

Progress to persuade hospitals and clinics to set up pain management services is slow. These for-profit organizations do not believe they make a sufficient return on the cost of labor to justify creating a comprehensive department, bringing all the specialisms together. Change will only come when the politics of healthcare advances past the question of capitalism and makes the patient the center of attention. Until then, the best we can hope for is good medication. When it comes to the relief of moderate to severe pain, we are fortunate to have tramadol available. This is an opioid and so offers much the same level of relief as the opiates but with fewer adverse side effects. If you cannot prevail on your health insurance company to pay for “proper” pain management, you can console yourself with the best of the medications. Buy tramadol, write to your congressman and hope better days will come on the pain management front.

What causes arthritis?

In the majority of cases chronic pain is experienced by people who have been diagnosed with arthritis. And treating the condition is not as easy as it may seem. Doctors account over a hundred medical conditions linked to arthritis, which affect joints and surrounding areas. In fact, arthritis falls second after heart diseases as the primary cause for work incapacity and disability. And even the simplest everyday activities can become really hard to do because of the pain you get with arthritis.

Usually arthritis arises when there’s excessive joint wear and tear. As the body ages naturally there’s more wear to the joints than in a younger body. However, excessive use of certain joints can lead to arthritis at earlier stages of life, and one of the primary causes of such use is excessive weight. The main rule here is the better you treat your body and pay more attention to your health, the less likely you will develop arthritis.

Ways to avoid or decrease your chance of arthritis:

There are strategies you can employ to avoid the severe onset of arthritis, but the main thought here is that you have to treat your body just the right way well ahead before you are likely to develop the condition in order to relieve it.

Here are some tips on how to minimize the risk of suffering from chronic pain caused by arthritis:

Keep your weight within a healthy range. Having extra weight means you’ll have excessive wear and tear in the joints, especially in your legs and in your back.

Follow a regular exercise program. Having low physical activity will weaken your muscles, which will make the joints sustain a lot more pressure than with strong muscles. Having stronger muscles will lift the pressure from your joints and prolong their usability. But be careful to not over exercise and try to fit your weekly program into a single day. The main idea here is to distribute the pressure evenly, and by doing too much physical activity you risk of damaging your joints.

Try to make as little repetitive movements as possible. Such movements are the primary source of wear and tear to joints, so try to diversify your activities and avoid repeating the same motions without a need.

Follow a healthy dietary regimen and keep your hydration levels normal. Having enough water in your body provides the necessary lubrication and substance circulation, while healthy foods provide all the needed elements to keep the joints in a good shape for a longer period of time.

If pain strikes

Following the above mention tips will help you prevent the development of arthritis, but what if the pain suddenly strikes? One of the most effective ways to cope with chronic pain is to buy Tramadol. Tramadol is one of the most effective medications for strong chronic pain and many doctors recommend it when dealing with arthritis. However, you should take it exactly as prescribed by your doctor and not exceed the recommended dosage. Learn more about Tramadol before using it to make sure you’re treating pain effectively and with no risk to your health.

One of the better short stories dealing with alien invasions is The Screwfly Solution, written under a pseudonym by Alice Sheldon. It assumes aliens would find it too much trouble to use military force to wipe us off the face of the Earth. They would prefer to let us die out. Curiously, this builds on and anticipates many of our own uses of chemicals that induce impotence or infertility. Without any help from aliens, humans are doing their best to reduce their own numbers. One of the most common of the modern chemicals is Bisphenol A (BPA) which is used to harden plastic products and make epoxy resin. You will find it in hundreds of different types of container used to store or carry food. It’s also used to coat the inside of drinks cans and to harden the plastics used in the manufacture of sports equipment, cars and some medical devices. In other words, it’s hard to avoid eating food stored in it and touching things made with it.

There’s now a small mountain of evidence out of China that workers exposed to high levels of BPA suffer loss of libido, erectile dysfunction and impotence. This adds to all the other evidence of health problems now being considered by the FDA including behavioural changes, early onset of puberty in girls, obesity and cancer. Next year, it’s due to announce whether the use of BPA is to be limited in the US. The FDA already accepts that babies and children are potentially most at risk – a fact disputed by the manufacturers. Indeed, in many countries, baby bottles made with BPA have been banned. This latest evidence out of China is clear evidence of reproductive problems in adults. But, before panicking, we need to see the Chinese evidence in context. All these workers were exposed to significantly higher levels of BPA than would be encountered in the real world. No matter how many cans of soda and beer you drank, you would not consume the same amount of BPA. Nevertheless, BPA does leach into food and drink from its packaging. In November, Consumer Reports published the result of tests showing BPA in the majority of the brand-name canned foods on sale in US stores. This included juice, soups, vegetables and fish. According to industry experts, the evidence to date is no more than suggestive of a link between BPA and impotence. We will have to wait for the FDA to complete its review for the government’s view.

Until then, men should seriously consider avoiding the use of anything made with BPA, and stop eating and drinking out of cans. You should consider switching to bottled beer. This is the precautionary principle. You avoid the potential danger until you have clear evidence it is safe. Once you have reduced your intake of BPA, this should reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction. If you do have problems, use cialis – now the leading brand in many countries. This comes in two different versions. One giving you thirty-six hours of sexual response, taken as needed. The other taken once-daily gives response round the clock. There is no better drug on the market for giving completely natural and hard erections whenever you are sexually stimulated. Buy cialis and find out why it has become the top brand.