Society MD

Archive for the ‘Medication’ Category

You may wonder if you can battle your depression without psychiatric drugs. These drugs are probably not going to send you into a drug treatment program. In fact, there are many studies that have highlighted the positive effects. There are many different ways of coping with your depression naturally.

• Make sure you get enough sleep. Mood and sleep are related. Try to keep a regular sleep schedule.
• Avoid stimulants such as caffeine. These types of substances will diminish your serotonin level.
• Take multi-vitamins. This is especially important if you do not eat a well-balanced diet. Diet deficiencies are one cause of depression.
• Natural or herbal remedies may help mild to moderate depressions. These remedies include SAMe, 5-HPT or St. John’s Wort. Some studies indicate that St. John’s may be as helpful as prescription medications.
• Use your spirituality as a positive influence. By getting in touch with this through meditation or prayer, you can help depression.
• Exercise more. Start slowly. You don’t need to start with a rigorous exercise right away. You can just start with a walk around the block and increase your routine daily.
• Reduce or avoid alcohol consumption. Not only is alcohol somewhat of a toxin, but it is a depressant so it’s best to avoid it.
• Eat a balanced diet. Studies indicate that eating fish may help your mood.
• Your mood can be affected by your inner thoughts. You might consider reading self help books or even contact a therapist who can help with any negative thoughts and ideas.
• Reduce your stress level. Stress can be emotionally draining as well as physically draining as well. Find ways to control this stress.
• Fight feelings of loneliness by reaching out and helping others. This may be friends, family, or strangers. It will make you feel better — even if it’s just a few minutes of your time.

One of the strangest prescription drugs that you can be given today isn’t a drug at all— say hello to Hirudo Medicianalis, the medicinal leech. Taking a cue from medieval medicine, the FDA has approved leeches as a legitimate medical device.

The decision seems questionable and downright icky when you first see these little medical monsters. Leeches are a type of water-based worm with a suction cup mouth and a battalion of tiny teeth. Their skin is slick and patterned with muted geometric stripes. This pattern camouflages the leech in muddy water, where it lays in wait to engorge itself on the blood of dogs, cattle, and of course, humans.

Employing this slimy parasite in a sterile medical procedure sounds like an idea from a horror movie. Yet when it comes to moving and directing blood, the parasite is nature’s expert. Its saliva contains antibiotics, anaesthetics, and anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting. The leech itself is a suction machine, made to siphon a large quantity of blood. Taken together, these qualities give the leech the power to remove clotted, stopped blood from a wound or an obstructed vein. Modern doctors find that hirudotherapy, or the use of medicinal leeches, is one of the best ways to prevent the onset or advance of gangrene.

But modern hirudotherapy is just starting to hit its stride. Doctors have found that the leech’s saliva is a valuable medicinal discovery on its own. Leech saliva can be harvested without hurting the leeches, and thus collected to treat internal medical problems as well. It is being examined as a possible preventative measure for clot-related diseases like heart attacks, thrombosis, and strokes.

Thanks to their saliva and other medicinal properties, leeches may finally be able to repay us humans for the blood they’ve been stealing over the ages.

More than 23 million people over the age of 12 need help for drug and alcohol addiction. As the number of addicts continues to grow, the need for additional residential drug and alcohol treatment centers grows as well.

Residential drug and alcohol treatment centers focus on two key components necessary to fight addiction: the physical dependency and the psychological dependency. Addicts must first overcome the addiction by removing the drugs and alcohol from their body. There are coping techniques and pharmaceuticals that physicians in treatment centers can provide to aid addicts in the detoxification process. Some drugs take months to fully exit the body, so it’s possible the physical phase of overcoming addiction can take a while. Solving the psychological issues of addiction can take even longer. Addicts must uncover and understand why they turn to drugs and alcohol, and then solve that problem, before they can recover from addiction.

It’s common for people fighting drug and alcohol addiction to seek treatment multiple times before achieving long-term success. For these patients, there is proven success in using residential drug and alcohol treatment centers. These centers help the patient transition from a life of addiction to a life where the patient can function socially in everyday society. Professionals at the center will incorporate individual, group, and family counseling to help the patient make a successful transition.

Long term success for drug and alcohol addiction means that the patient needs long term specialized care. Residential treatment centers offer assistance for patients after they leave the facility, either through accountability partners or even a hotline that the patient can call during times of temptation or emotional stress. Utilizing all services available through these facilities helps increase the odds of success and can help the patient finally overcome addiction for good.

Life is unpredictable. No matter how we plan, prepare, and organize, there are things that come up that we will not have planned on, and will not be prepared for. Having an emergency fund stored away is a good idea, but sometimes unexpected expenses are going to come up, and you might not have enough money in your emergency fund for various reasons. It is during times like this that you might want to consider emergency cash loans. These kinds of loans will get you money fast, but it is wise to know what kinds of fees and restrictions will apply.

Many institutions who offer these kinds of loans will advise inquirers to check into other options first. If you have friends or family that can loan you the money quick, that might be a better option. Emergency cash loans can be used for just about anything that urgently needs to be paid. You can use them to pay your utilities if they are in danger of being disconnected because of missing payments. Accidents happen and medical emergencies are often extremely expensive. House or car problems are also common and can be urgent in many circumstances. Before you opt for an emergency cash loan, make sure that it is right for your situation, and that you will be able to handle paying back the amount borrowed plus interest.

There are many institutions out there besides your bank that can offer emergency loans. Even if you need money fast, take some time to look around and find your best option. Also, it is important to remember that an emergency loan can help you in a time of need, but a loan is not free money. A loan must be paid back. While you might not be able to prepare yourself for every eventuality in life, you can start preparing to pay back a loan as soon as you have taken one out.

A lot of people associate all of autism with a film from the 1980s called Rain Man, in which Dustin Hoffman played an autistic individual who still had some ability to function in the world of “normal” people. While people who are of a neurotypical bent often perceive all people with autism as being able to do one thing well but as having no further use, the story itself is what too many people forget. And while the connection is somewhat tenuous, Asperger’s Syndrome is another type of autism altogether, and deserves to be known for what it is. Too many people will only know it for how it manifests in some people.

Some Aspies (as people with Asperger’s Syndrome, or AS often call themselves) are essentially whiny, socially incompetent people who assume that the world exists only to bend to their whims and their highly specific, often boring interests. And since the writer of this article is also an Aspie, it is with unfortunate authority that such a statement can be made in full truth and seriousness. The fact is, Asperger’s Syndrome is not an excuse for bad behavior, but is a cause for a sort of self aggrandizing irritation with the world.

In a nutshell, Asperger’s Syndrome can be described as the inability to read the mannerisms and social intent of other people. This issue, in combination with tendencies to become obsessed with a particular interest (and think about it obsessively), form emotional connections with objects instead of people, and trust too easily because of an inability to spot dishonorable intent, are reasons why Aspies often find themselves marginalized to the outskirts of the society in which they live. While this turns many of them into whiners, it turns many others of them into high achievers in their respective fields.