What is the reality of pain management?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on February 8th, 2010
For these purposes, we need to start off with a basic definition. Pain is nothing more than a message sent by the affected part of your body to the brain saying you are injured. It’s useful when it first alerts you to an injury or disease. It’s a problem in its own right when it will not shut down and let you get on with your life. Doctors distinguish between two types of pain: acute pain is where an injury or illness can be cured so the pain will slowly fade as the treatment of the cause takes effect, and chronic pain where the injury or disorder will continue to cause you pain over a long period of time. It’s not so hard to remain optimistic and positive when the pain is acute. You know you will get better. It’s a different psychological battle when the pain is chronic. This is life-changing and many people react by feeling some degree of depression.
In an ideal world, everyone suffering from chronic pain would be given personal attention. Specialists from all the different areas of medicine would form a team to investigate your condition and then prescribe the best set of responses. Unfortunately, this is not possible. The career path for physicians assumes the best will become specialists and rise through the ranks to lead a team of specialists. Status will be decided by the number of people in the team or department the doctor ends up running. For pain management to work effectively, this structure of separate kingdoms has to be dismantled and everyone works together in teams centered on individual patient needs. No more empire building and politics. Doctors supply the most effective treatments based on a diagnosis of the underlying cause of the pain. Take back pain as an example. If the hospital works together, the relevant tests can be performed. Let’s assume the cause is found to be a herniated disk. The recommended treatment is a steroid injection and physical therapy. A caring hospital might also throw in some counseling and support to encourage the patient to make the best possible recovery. In this model, diagnosis drives the choice of treatment. In the world now, the doctors first choice of action is a painkiller to relieve your suffering. No doubt this could be seen as caring. In reality, it’s the most cost-effective way of persuading the patient to go home and allows the hospital to claim the maximum amount from the health insurance company. A separate pain management department in a hospital is labor intensive and less profitable. They do exist but only in a few cities.
This leaves pain management in the hands of the pharmaceutical industry. Fortunately, the research and development teams have come up with a world’s best painkiller. It’s called tramadol - one of the so-called opiates which gives you good pain relief without many of the adverse side effects from a full opiate. A vast amount of practical experience proves this drug gives effective relief from moderate to severe pain. If you are facing chronic pain, buy tramadol online and find an improvement to your life. But always remember you should not become dependent on any drug. Ignoring the expense of buying these pills for the rest of your life, there are physical costs in using drugs over long periods of time. There are better ways of managing your pain without drugs.
Strange but true
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on February 8th, 2010
Over the years, we all grow used to headlines that capture the imagination like, “Sticky Buns kill 31 in China” or “Two British ships collide, one dies”. Somehow the English language is capable of creating dramatic images in just a few words, converting a simple story of food poisoning into an epic movie where killer buns rampage through a crowded mall until brought down by Chinese kung fu warriors. But, every now and then, the story is both extraordinary and literally true. “College girl avoids loss of all her limbs”. Medicine is still a fairly inexact science. We all know the names of the big diseases and that there are treatments for many of them. But whether patients get the right diagnosis in time for the treatment to work. Well, that is a different story. Take meningitis as an example. The bacteria responsible live happily in the throats for weeks and months and nothing happens. Then, without warning, something as yet unknown, can trigger them into activity.
The first signs are what seem to be a cold or flu, sometimes with a headache, then developing with fever, vomiting and a rash. But there is no guarantee that these symptoms will appear or in this order. It is often the case that treatment is too late if the rash appears. This is a sign of meningococcemia, a bacterial infection of the blood stream. In some cases, there can be a loss of blood circulation to the hands and feet. At the beginning, they feel cold and, if treatment is delayed, gangrene can set in and there is no choice but to amputate. It is a little like a horror movie. First, surgeons remove the fingers of the affected hand. If that does not stop the spread of the rot, the hand follows, then the arm below the elbow, continuing until there is no arm left. That just leaves the other arm and two legs to go. Amputations occur in between 10 and 20% of cases.
This brings us to Jamie Schanbaum who is a student at the University of Texas in Austin. Early in February, 2009, she felt ill and quickly realised it was something serious. But, instead of going to hospital, she went to bed hoping to sleep it off. This was a crucial loss of time. When she awoke, the bacteria had spread throughout her body. But she has benefited from a new approach to treatment. Patients are placed in an oxygen chamber and given high doses of viagra. Although this drug is most usually associated with the treatment of erectile dysfunction, it works by dilating arteries in certain key areas through out the body. So it has a general effect in improving blood circulation. Changing the air pressure also improves flow. With these two working together, circulation to the affected areas of the arms and legs can be improved and amputations avoided. Years ago, Jamie would have lost all her limbs. Today, comparatively little needs to be removed. Although this is an extreme example of the effectiveness of viagra, it should remind us that it also represents a dramatic way of restoring circulation to the penis and creating hard erections. Different needs are equally well served by this amazing drug.
Aiding your health the smart way
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on February 8th, 2010
Give your health a good tip
Everybody likes to give advices. Very few people want to follow them. But a truly good advice is hard not to follow but it is very difficult to get. When it comes to health problems nobody can advice you better than your doctor. He is the only person you tend to trust and if you get disappointed you blame it on him instead of the medication that failed to give positive results. When it comes to tips that one can really change your life- they are usually very simple. It is something you already know, something you have already heard. Weight loss issue seems to be a universal issue in the world of today. The rules of keeping yourself in a perfect shape are not too complicated - just eat less, exercise your body and avoid stress.
If you look at the problem of obesity from a psychological point of view you will point out different moments for yourself. There are little aspects that you might have never thought about that are very important if you want to stay healthy and slim. The weight loss routine might give a feeling of dreaming but believe us - anything is possible if one works towards it. So let us take a look at the most significant rules one should remember about if wants to maintain the body in good shape and keeping your size 8 for a long time.
1) Fast food throws all he efforts to the bin
When you decide to start the weigh loss program you usually try to get rid of all the food there is in your house. You usually feel like this is the first step you need to take. You may consider that the less food you have in your fridge the more chance there is that you will eat nothing but this is wrong. Starving is not a part of the program. We need to find healthy solutions that won’t affect head or other parts of the body. Not getting enough food when you need to is not a solution. You have to start eating little portions but more times per day. This is how your stomach will not feel empty. You will constantly have something inside. Try to keep yourself away from fast-food. We know it tastes like heaven sometimes and it is very cheap but please think of yourself before doing any of that. Have a snack whenever you are hungry but keep the calories low.
2) A snack doesn’t have to last forever
Snacks can be delicious. We all enjoy our snacks while waiting for the major meal course. But hey, aren’t you supposed to lose weight? So put these chocolate chip cookies down and listen to this. You have a plan. You need to stick to it to obtain a good result. A cookie won’t hurt and an extra cookie every day can give you some extra unwanted pounds by the end of the week, especially if weight gain is something that can typically characterize you. Don’t escape food but try to keep yourself in frames. You don’t have to hold something in your hands constantly. Drop this habit. It will only make you feel better afterwards. Also learn to know your portion. Everybody has one and so do you.
3) Phentermine or obesity?
Phentermine is the drug that reduces one’s appetite and brings the body back to the original shape. It has been on the market since 1959. It ha a strong potential and it is willing to help people that suffer from weight gain and obesity. If you are one of those people and you want diet pills to help you, you have to stick to the plan and start the rehabilitation program. You and Phentermine can make it! Order your Phentermine online now. You won’t regret it!
Beneficial Online Credit Card
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 22nd, 2010
Mostly people will look for credit card especially online credit card by practical and efficient reason. But unfortunately not all online credit cards offered by credit card processing service are beneficial. For that reason people should wisely compare and consider all information regarding how to get beneficial online credit card. A beneficial online credit card should be the one that may help transactions without burdening the user with variety of fees. To know how a beneficial credit card is we should first know all kinds of fees they charge us.
We can find the calculation and percentage of fees in the details they show us. We should carefully read the details as sometimes service providers may try to confuse us by changing the fees name with other better ones and offer some promotions of free-fee which in fact if we calculate well the fees they charge have the same high amount. We also have to pay attention to details of their terms and policies to prevent any misunderstanding related to the credit card usage. There are lots of high risk merchant account on Internet.
The credit card it offers is one of the beneficial online credit card processing we know. Click the above link to get the online credit card right now.
Mead Johnson, Maker of Enfamil, Loses Multi-Million Dollar False Advertising Case Against Store-Bran
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 21st, 2010
This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.
GORDONSVILLE, VA., December 2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula. Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands. PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®. The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.
“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning. “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”
U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer issued his written rulings yesterday following the November 10th jury verdict. Judge Spencer’s written rulings permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making any false statements concerning PBM’s infant formula, including the claims Mead Johnson previously made in Enfamil advertising that “It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development,” and “there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition.” The Court also ordered Mead Johnson to retrieve from the public domain all advertising or promotional materials containing these or any other false claims about PBM’s store brand infant formula.
The details of the decision and the complaint are posted online in full at:
· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/Order_Laches.pdf
· http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/PBM_Complaint_MJ_III_LIPIL.pdf
The nutritional supplements under examination in the case are two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” solely for marketing purposes and touts as promoting infant brain and eye development. PBM’s claim focused on Mead Johnson’s direct mailing to more than 1.6 million parents of an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck next to a clear picture of the same image which suggested that anything other than the Enfamil LIPIL® blend of ingredients is inferior and will result in poor eye and brain development. Other parts of the false advertising campaign consist of statements that only Enfamil LIPIL has been proven to confer visual and mental benefits on infants, and store-brand formulas are a “cut-back in nutrition” compared to Enfamil.
PBM successfully argued that these advertisements were false and misleading especially since PBM store- brand infant formulas have the same nutrients at the same levels as Enfamil. PBM infant formulas are formulated to contain DHA and ARA, and are sourced from the same supplier in amounts which equal or exceed the DHA and ARA in Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL®.
This decision marks the third time PBM Products has sued Mead Johnson for false advertising claims. On the prior occasions Mead Johnson admitted that it made false claims about PBM’s products. It is also the first false advertising case to focus on the issue of DHA and ARA nutritional ingredients in formula, which were introduced into the market in 2003 and have become a staple in recent years by many brands as key components for infant development.
“This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands,” said Manning. “This lawsuit also demonstrates our complete commitment to defending our products and the valuable brands of our retail partners.”
“As a parent and supporter of children’s medical research, I take a personal responsibility in assuring our customers that the products we produce are healthy and nutritionally equivalent to brand names like Enfamil® LIPIL®. It is important, especially now, for parents to know that there are lower priced yet highly nutritious store-brand formulas that will provide the same benefit to their children as any national brand name formula product,” Manning added.
The U.S. infant formula market is estimated at $3.4 billion and the global market is estimated at $7.9 billion.
All of PBM’s formulas, and for that matter all of U.S. infant formulas, are subject to the exacting standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pursuant to the Infant Formula Act of 1980. This legislation vested FDA with the authority to ensure that all infant formula products sold in the United States provide the necessary levels of identified nutrients required for the growth of healthy babies. For more information, visit this FDA link.
PBM Products was represented by the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. Partners from the firm’s advertising practice, Harold P. Weinberger and Jonathan M. Wagner in New York, led the team.
About PBM
PBM is privately owned and based in Gordonsville, VA. PBM companies specialize in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products. For more information, visit www.pbmproducts.com.
Enfamil® LIPIL® are registered trademarks of Mead Johnson & Co.
What is pain management?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 17th, 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.
Erectile dysfunction can be an early sign of heart disease
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 17th, 2010
It’s a sad fact of life that much of the research published in the medical journals is depressing. These scientists spend their lives studying all the different ways in which people can die. There are only a few major breakthroughs each year. The rest of the time, the best you can hope for is a small step forward in understanding the problems. In the case of erectile dysfunction there is a clear trend emerging. In England, Dr Kirby who recently published Sleeping With Ed, has been co-ordinating research into the relationship between men with erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. The current state of the research shows that the first symptoms of erectile dysfunction double the risk of developing heart disease within four years. The reason is easy to state. The usual physical reason for erectile dysfunction is that the artery leading into the penis does not dilate properly. This is a narrow artery. If there is a problem with this artery now, the same problem is likely to affect the larger arteries in the chest and lungs next. erectile dysfunction is a better predictor of heart disease than high cholesterol, high blood pressure or among smokers. The next phase of the research is to begin treating men with drugs to lower the levels of lipids and statins to see whether fewer cases of heart disease emerge. But in the UK, many doctors continue to view erectile dysfunction as a problem of lifestyle and not as the basis of predicting more serious health problems.
In the US, the Mayo Clinic has recently published an important new study demonstrating that heart disease can be slowed or halted by early medical intervention. This means treating all younger men between 40 and 49 who consult their doctors with erectile dysfunction as potential heart patients. So, when you go see your doctor about erectile dysfunction, do not be surprised if a range of tests for heart disease are ordered. For the record, between 5 and 10% of men under 40 are likely to experience erectile dysfunction. It then becomes increasingly common as men age. Between 40 and 60% of men over 70 are affected.
So, this research is good news for two reasons. The first is that, having proved the link, it is now possible to prevent the early deaths of many younger men from strokes or heart attacks. Drugs to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, improved diet and exercise combine in a regime to extend lives. All this is possible because you experience erectile dysfunction. The second reason is that levitra will offer immediate relief to the problem of erectile dysfunction. However, you should not buy levitra on the internet and self-medicate. You need careful guidance on dosage if you do start taking other drugs to control your blood pressure. That said, with proper guidance, there is no reason why, with levitra, you should not cure the erectile dysfunction, and live a longer and more satisfying life as a result.
Are men and women the same when it comes to pain?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 15th, 2010
In these more modern times of sexual equality, it may not be politically correct to talk about differences between men and women. Unfortunately, the medical profession cannot ignore the increasing volume of scientific evidence that there are important differences, particularly when it comes to pain management. In this, it is important to distinguish between biological sex and gender. There are visual tests for the presence or absence of reproductive organs, and lab tests for chromosomes that help to say whether this is a man or woman. Gender, on the other hand, is a list of the social roles society defines for people. This can be complicated when people choose to act or behave in ways considered more appropriate for the opposite sex. As an example of the problem, you only have to look at the complaints that Caster Semenya is not a woman. How can this muscular person from South Africa suddenly beat the word record for the 800m by one second and be a woman?
The last decade has seen a rapid rise in the volume of research into gender differences in the response to pain. There is clear evidence that women are more likely to consult a doctor about pain and to take drugs to relieve that pain. As a result, the national statistics show more women than men suffering from the more common medical conditions causing pain such as arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, etc. In tests involving healthy volunteers, women are more likely to report higher levels of pain than men. This applies regardless of the other factors of age, race, ethnicity and religion. Interestingly, brain scans have shown that pain affects different parts of the brain. In women, the limbic area which also affects emotions is stimulated more than in men.
The speculation is that the differences in brain activity flow from early human development. Men were the stronger group with responsibility to fight to defend the community. This means being prepared to accept pain. Women were expected to respond to danger by nurturing and protecting the young, running away if necessary. Today, men remain less willing to admit to feeling pain and are reluctant to seek medical help. It does not matter whether this is a biological or gender difference, the statistical evidence for this unwillingness to seek help is absolutely clear. But, equally clear is that tramadol relieves the pain of both a macho man and an emotional woman. Even though there may be gender differences, the biological effect of tramadol is the same on a human body. It relieves moderate to severe pain. So, perhaps it is time for all men suffering in silence to overcome the cultural conditioning that threatens their self-esteem if they admit to pain. Once you have clearance from your local healthcare provider that there are no problems in you taking this drug, go online and buy tramadol from the privacy of your own home. This relieves the pain and preserves your image.
Yet another weight-loss reality TV show
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 15th, 2010
It seems the imagination of the folk who work for TV corporations is limited to the same basic formula. Reality shows are big business. If you want to earn the maximum revenue from selling ad space on TV, have a group of regular people running round the world doing silly things in a search for one million dollars or follow a group of families as they compete against each other to see who can lose the most weight. In these shows, the biggest losers are the winners. These are the people who, for some reason, catch the imagination of the public. They become fan favorites and find their public lives transformed with fans approaching them as they walk down Main Street. Actually, for weight loss, this can be a big plus because fans can embarrass people into keeping to a diet. Imagine how a participant in a weight loss show would feel if everyone pointed them out as they bought another donut. This would be a sure-fire way of motivating them to eat only healthy food.
Anyway, ABC has announced a new version of the same-old tired show. It’s to be called the Extreme Weight Loss Show. Note the touch of originality by adding “Extreme” to the title. You can always tell producers are desperate when they start using words like “extreme”. So the hook to convert the ordinary into the extreme is that each of the contestants in this competition must aim to lose an amazing amount of weight: the men must be on a program to lose not less than 200 pounds, the women not less than 150 pounds. Now the writer has a conceptual problem with these numbers. He weighs 170 pounds in total so the idea that someone could lose more than he weighs boggles his mind. Yet ABC expects the world to line up outside its doors in Nashville to volunteer their time and sweat. The lure of the fame or notoriety is just too great. Sorry, perhaps that should be the lure of the extreme cash prizes for the winner is just too great. It’s amazing how many people will humiliate themselves just to earn a dollar.
The show does have a realistic timeframe in mind. It is employing a team of personal trainers who will visit each contestant’s home to bully them into action. No reality show is complete without all those tears of frustration when contestants find their comfortable bubble punctured by aggressive trainers. The cameras will record these sessions and follow the contestants over a one year period. The person losing the most weight wins the prize. This is not unrealistic. It rules out all those who might try to starve themselves into a winning loss, offering a gentle and safe weight reduction approach. But only someone really motivated will keep to a high-intensity exercise program over a year. This is a fair test. Which brings us to phentermine because, when your motivation is running down and hunger is about to send you back into the kitchen for a soda and snacks, this drug steps into that gap in your stomach and sends out the message, “No” to the brain. Buy phentermine and find out why millions of people have lost weight over the last fifty years (and counting).
Is meditation an effective treatment for pain?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 15th, 2010
In a culture caught up in the can-do mentality, the idea of treating pain through the mind is viewed with some suspicion. People have been taught to believe drugs and formal invention by a trained specialist are the routes to an effective cure. This is the American way. If the body is broken, you fix the body. There’s no need for any New Age, touchy-feely talk. Indeed, people who persistently complain of pain but have no obvious injuries or disease, can find themselves attacked as malingerers trying to game the benefit system.
Family, friends and neighbors can rapidly run out of sympathy if you seem to be a freeloader. Against this background, the healthcare service does offer a limited range of counseling and support options. These services are not pushed more agressively because the high number of staff required to run these services drives up the operating costs. The hospital does not make as much profit as from other services.
There is a substantial volume of evidence from research studies around the world to prove a clear link between a patient’s attitude and a patient’s awareness of pain. Those who are relaxed and have a positive outlook on life have lower sensitivity to pain. Those who are anxious, stressed and shading into depression are more likely to experience more intense pain. For patients to get benefits from psychological counseling, they have to invest time and money. This is not an easy cure that might come from the simple act of swallowing a pill. It requires people to make an effort. Put all this together and you see the problem. Because many private health plans do not include the cost of counseling and family budgets are under strain with the current recession, most believe they cannot afford this approach.
The focus is on the cost now, not the cost of drugs spread over years. In the long term, people will save money but it requires investment now. If this means a little extra debt, it’s well worth it. The most recent research published in The Journal of Pain shows that even one hour of meditation training produces a reduction in the level of pain felt. The full range of treatment options are meditation training, distraction and relaxation. The evidence clearly shows that people feel less pain while actually meditating. Even after meditation, the effect of pain relief continues, i.e. people perceive the pain differently. Similarly, people who train their minds to relax or focus their attention on different factors in the environment also experience pain relief. The level of pain remains unchanged. The focus in all three options is to treat the emotional response to it.
None of this denies the valuable role to be played by drugs such as tramadol. As one of the first-choice drugs used by people in pain, there are millions who will testify that it works to relieve moderate to severe pain. It does make sense to buy tramadol and get some of that relief. However, no matter how convenient it is to pop pills, in the long term, meditation is cheaper and better. It’s your choice.