Categories
Ailmemts & Remedies

Arrhythmias

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The heart, workhorse of the body, beats more than 100,000 times a day, pumping life-giving blood through thousands of miles of arteries, capillaries, and veins. Irregular heart rhythms — or arrhythmias — can disrupt this process and require careful medical evaluation…..click & see

Symptoms
Heart palpitations or pounding heartbeats.
Fluttering in the chest or neck.
Fatigue, light-headedness.
Shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting spells.
Often there are no symptoms; your doctor may find an arrhythmia during a routine exam.

When to Call Your Doctor
If you notice frequent irregularities in your heartbeat or suddenly become light-headed, dizzy, or weak.
If someone suddenly loses consciousness, or has severe chest pain or shortness of breath — call an ambulance right away.
Reminder: If you have a medical condition, talk to your doctor before taking supplements.

What It Is
Arrhythmias are abnormal rhythms of the heart. They may be as fleeting as a single missed beat, or they may be more serious, causing the heart to beat irregularly or unusually fast or slowly for extended periods.

What Causes It
For many people with arrhythmias, the cause is unclear. However, some cases can be traced to a heart condition, such as coronary artery disease, a heart valve defect, or in rare cases, an infection of the heart. Thyroid or kidney disease, certain drugs, and imbalances of magnesium or potassium in the body can contribute to arrhythmias. Abnormal rhythms may also be induced by a high intake of caffeine or alcohol, heavy smoking, and stress.

How Supplements Can Help
It’s important to remember that some arrhythmias can be serious. The supplements listed in the chart are meant to complement — not to replace — standard treatments. Never discontinue a heart drug without consulting your doctor first. All the supplements can be used together, but your doctor should determine which ones you should take and in what order. They may work within a week, but often need to be used long term.
Magnesium supplements often benefit people with heart-rhythm disorders, many of whom are deficient in this mineral. Magnesium is vital for coordinating the activity of nerves (including those that initiate heartbeats) and muscles (including the heart). According to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 232 people who had frequent arrhythmias significantly reduced their likelihood of abnormal heart rhythms after just three weeks by increasing their intake of magnesium and potassium.

Also valuable is hawthorn, an herb that has been used as a heart tonic for centuries: It increases blood flow to the heart, making it beat more strongly and restoring rhythm. Coenzyme Q10 also helps steady heart rhythm and may be particularly useful for people who have previously suffered a heart attack or have another form of heart disease.

In addition, fish oils are being extensively studied for treating heart ailments; early results strongly suggest that they are effective at relieving arrhythmias. In a recent study from Denmark, 55 heart attack survivors were given capsules of either fish oils or olive oil (placebo). After three months, those receiving the fish oils did significantly better on heart tests, indicating that they were less likely to suffer from serious arrhythmias.

Other supplements may stabilize heart rhythm as well. Some recommend the herb cactus grandiflorus; it is often used with hawthorn. The trace mineral manganese, which promotes healthy nerves, and the amino acids taurine and carnitine increase oxygen supply to the heart. Taken as a tea, pill, or tincture (30 drops three times a day), the herb astragalus has been found to contain various substances that stabilize heart rhythm. Doctors also occasionally prescribe potassium supplements to prevent arrhythmias, though for most people, eating fresh fruits and vegetables is a better way to get adequate supplies of this mineral.

What Else You Can Do

Reduce or eliminate caffeine and alcohol.

Supplement Recommendations
Magnesium
Hawthorn
Coenzyme Q10
Fish Oils
Cactus
Manganese
Amino Acids
Astragalus

Magnesium
Dosage: 400 mg twice a day.
Comments: Do not take if you have kidney disease.

Hawthorn
Dosage: 100-150 mg 3 times a day.
Comments: Standardized to contain at least 1.8% vitexin.

Coenzyme Q10

Dosage: 50 mg twice a day.
Comments: For best absorption, take with food.

Fish Oils

Dosage: 1,000 mg 3 times a day.
Comments: Take only if you don’t eat fish at least twice a week.

Cactus
Dosage: 25 drops tincture 3 times a day.
Comments: Known as night-blooming cereus; may cause diarrhea.

Manganese
Dosage: 20 mg every morning.
Comments: Often included in multivitamin and mineral formulas.

Amino Acids
Dosage: 1,500 mg L-taurine twice a day; 500 mg L-carnitine 3 times a day.
Comments: For long-term use, try a mixed amino acid complex.

Astragalus
Dosage: 400 mg twice a day or 3 cups of tea a day.
Comments: Supplying 0.5% glucosides and 70% polysaccharides.

Ayurvedic Recommended Product:  Arjunin 
Ayurvedic Recommended Therapy:  Virechan

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

 

Source:Your Guide to Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs

Categories
Therapies

Chiropractic

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Chiropractic is a branch of the healing arts which is based upon the understanding that good health depends, in part, upon a normally functioning nervous system (especially the spine, and the nerves extending from the spine to all parts of the body). “Chiropractic” comes from the Greek word Chiropraktikos, meaning “effective treatment by hand.” Chiropractic stresses the idea that the cause of many disease processes begins with the body’s inability to adapt to its environment. It looks to address these diseases not by the use of drugs and chemicals, but by locating and adjusting a musculoskeletal area of the body which is functioning improperly.

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The conditions which doctors of chiropractic address are as varied and as vast as the nervous system itself. All chiropractors use a standard procedure of examination to diagnose a patient’s condition and arrive at a course of treatment. Doctors of chiropractic use the same time-honored methods of consultation, case history, physical examination, laboratory analysis and x-ray examination as any other doctor. In addition, they provide a careful chiropractic structural examination, paying particular attention to the spine.

The examination of the spine to evaluate structure and function is what makes chiropractic different from other health care procedures. Your spinal column is a series of movable bones which begin at the base of your skull and end in the center of your hips. Thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves extend down the spine from the brain and exit through a series of openings. The nerves leave the spine and form a complicated network which influences every living tissue in your body.

Accidents, falls, stress, tension, overexertion, and countless other factors can result in a displacements or derangements of the spinal column, causing irritation to spinal nerve roots. These irritations are often what cause malfunctions in the human body. Chiropractic teaches that reducing or eliminating this irritation to spinal nerves can cause your body to operate more efficiently and more comfortably.

Chiropractic also places an emphasis on nutritional and exercise programs, wellness and lifestyle modifications for promoting physical and mental health. While chiropractors make no use of drugs or surgery, Doctors of chiropractic do refer patients for medical care when those interventions are indicated. In fact, chiropractors, medical doctors, physical therapists and other health care professionals now work as partners in occupational health, sports medicine, and a wide variety of other rehabilitation practices.

Source:ChiroFind.com

Categories
News on Health & Science

Fish Oil Linked to Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

A substance found in fish oil may be associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias, researchers reported.

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The scientists found that people with the highest blood levels of an omega-3 fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, were about half as likely to develop dementia as those with lower levels.

The substance is one of several omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fatty fish and, in small amounts, in some meats. It is also sold in fish oil or DHA supplements. The researchers looked for a reduced risk associated with seven other omega-3 fatty acids, but only DHA had any effect.

The study, in the November issue of The Archives of Neurology, used data from the Framingham Heart Study to follow 899 initially healthy participants, with a median age of 76, for an average of more than nine years.

The scientists assessed DHA and fish intake using a questionnaire and obtained complete dietary data on more than half the subjects. They took blood samples from all the participants to determine serum levels of fatty acids.

Ninety-nine people developed dementia over the course of the study, including 71 cases of Alzheimer’s disease. The average level of DHA among all the participants was 3.6 percent of all fatty acids, and the top 25 percent of the population had values above 4.2 percent. People in this top one-quarter in DHA levels had a 47 percent reduced risk of developing dementia, even after controlling for body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, smoking status and other known or suspected risks. Risk reduction was apparent only at that top level of DHA — those in the bottom three-quarters in DHA level showed no detectable difference in risk.

People who ate two or more servings of fish a week reduced their risk for dementia by 39 percent, but there was no effect on the risk for dementia among those who ate less than that.

The finding that DHA alone reduces risk, the authors write, is consistent with earlier data showing high levels of DHA in healthy brain tissue and low levels in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Ernst J. Schaefer, the lead author of the study, was cautious in interpreting the results.

This study doesn’t prove that eating fish oil prevents dementia, he said. “Itâs an observational study that presents an identified risk factor, and the next step is a randomized placebo-controlled study in people who do not yet have dementia.” Dr. Schaefer is chief of the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University.

The study was financed in part by Martek, a concern that manufactures DHA, and one author received a grant from Pfizer, France.

Eating fish is not a guarantee of having high levels of DHA. In fact, fish intake accounted for less than half of the variability in DHA levels. Other dietary intake and genetic propensities probably account for the rest. Dr. Schaefer pointed out that the kind of fish consumed is important. Fatty fish, he said, is best, and frying will cause DHA to deteriorate.

Supplements may be an additional source of DHA, but an editorial in the same issue, by Dr. Martha Clare Morris, an associate professor of medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, points out that there are no published human studies of the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. The Food and Drug Administration does not endorse DHA or fish oil capsules, but recognizes doses of up to 3 grams a day of fish oil as generally safe. High intakes of fish oil can cause excessive bleeding in some people.

Dr. Morris writes that there are few human studies examining the effect of mercury intake from eating seafood, and it is not known if the risks of eating fish outweigh the benefits.

But, she adds, epidemiological studies consistently show positive health effects from fish consumption on mortality, cardiovascular risk factors and, now, dementia

Source:The New York Times

Categories
News on Health & Science

Synthetic marijuana helps cancer patients

LOS ANGELES: A synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana, a legal treatment for nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, also helps symptoms like pain, anxiety and depression, according to research presented on Friday.

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“The findings show how great the potential is to improve the quality of life for cancer patients,”said lead investigator Dr Vincent Maida of the University of Toronto.

The 139-patient study involved a drug called nabilone, sold under the brand name Cesamet by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

It has been available in Canada for years, and was approved in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for patients who have failed to respond adequately to conventional anti-nausea treatments.

The drug is part of a class known as cannabinoids that are similar to the active ingredient found in naturally occurring cannabis, or marijuana.

But Cesamet, as with similar drugs such as Solvay SA‘s Marinol, is designed to target specific cannabinoid receptors and does not carry the toxic effects associated with smoking marijuana, Maida said.

Source:The Times Of India

Categories
News on Health & Science

Getting a Grip on the Winter Blues (SAD)

It is that time of year again, when despite the ratcheting up of festivities for the holidays, fully one person in five in the United States ratchets down. The cause is a now well-known but still infrequently treated disorder, winter blues or SAD, for seasonal affective disorder.

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There are several remedies to help those affected by SAD escape an affliction that leaves many wanting to climb into bed, put their heads under the covers and not come out until spring. Indeed, some experts refer to SAD as a form of hibernation.

The problem typically starts gradually as the days become shorter in late summer or fall and peaks in midwinter in regions where there may be just 9 or 10 hours of daylight, if that.

For the estimated 14 million severely affected American adults, SAD can send them into a tailspin that makes it difficult if not impossible to fulfill daily responsibilities and derive any joy from life. An additional 33 million people are less severely affected but may experience declines in energy, cheerfulness, creativity or productivity in the dark days of winter.

The most commonly used treatment is exposure for up to several hours a day to high-intensity artificial light, in an effort to simulate the longer days of summer when people with SAD function at top speed.

Jet Lag and Circadian Rhythm
Dr Alfred J. Lewy, a psychiatrist who has been studying the biology behind SAD, describes it as a form of jet lag, a concept he proposed 20 years ago. He recently published experimental evidence that he says attests to the validity of this theory. If true, this would make SAD a disturbance in the circadian rhythm, the 24-hour pattern that normally aligns the sleep-wake cycle with all the other bodily rhythms. Dr. Lewy suggests that with the delayed dawn and shorter days of fall and winter, the rhythms of people afflicted with SAD drift out of phase with the sleep-wake cycle, as if they had traveled across many time zones.

With jet lag, recovery occurs over a matter of days, and the circadian rhythm once again becomes synchronized with day and night. “In people with SAD, this adjustment takes five months,” Dr. Lewy said.

If his theory is substantiated by further research, it may one day be possible to treat SAD with tiny daily doses of time-released melatonin, the substance in the brain that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin naturally increases in the evening, causing sleepiness, and falls off as morning approaches. The idea would be to tailor the administration of melatonin in a way that realigns the out-of-sync circadian rhythm in people with SAD, just as tiny doses (much smaller than those typically sold in health-food and drug stores) of melatonin can be used to speed recovery from jet lag.

In his study, conducted with three colleagues at Oregon Health Sciences University, Dr. Lewy identified two types of SAD patients. About two-thirds required morning light or evening melatonin to correct their body clocks. The remainder needed evening light or morning melatonin to put their body rhythms back on track. Currently, there is no commercial source of time-release low-dose melatonin that could be used, with or without light therapy, to help people with SAD.

Current Remedies
Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, a native of South Africa who discovered his own serious problem with SAD while a resident in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in 1976, has become an expert in diagnosing and treating the problem. His knowledge and experience in helping himself and countless patients afflicted with SAD are summarized in “Winter Blues: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder,” whose revised edition the Guilford Press published this year.

Dr. Rosenthal aptly describes SAD as “an energy crisis.” Patients are not depressed in the usual emotional sense, but rather feel as if their batteries have run down.

The symptoms of SAD do mimic those of serious depression. Patients say they have to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, even after 10 hours of sleep, and force themselves to perform necessary chores. They feel leaden and would just as soon not see anybody or do anything. They find it difficult to concentrate and think clearly and quickly.

Sex drive often dwindles markedly but is often replaced by an insatiable appetite for carbohydrates — breads, pasta, potatoes, rice and sweets — that results in weight gain. Many people with SAD have two wardrobes, the one for winter being two sizes larger.

The most common remedy is light therapy. But not just any light. Patients are advised to sit in front of a specially designed light box that emits about 10,000 lux from a fluorescent bulb, most often in the morning for at least 45 minutes. Some patients require hours of light therapy each day to ward off the symptoms of SAD, which may mean having one light box at home and a second at work.

Among commercial sources for these light boxes is the Center for Environmental Therapeutics, which sells them for $200. Its Web site, www.cet.org, is a useful source of information about SAD.

Among other light-enhancing suggestions from Dr. Rosenthal are planning a winter vacation in a sunny climate or relocating to someplace nearer the Equator, where the days are longer in winter. (But, he cautions, first be sure you can tolerate the summer there.)

Helpful Machines and Therapies
For those who remain in northern latitudes, Michael and Jiuan Su Terman of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University, who have conducted pioneering studies of SAD remedies, suggest considering a “dawn simulator.” This device gradually turns on a bedroom light every morning while you are still asleep, helping ease SAD symptoms by making the body think that it is experiencing the early sunrises of summer.

This might also help people who do not have SAD but who hate getting up in the morning when it is still dark out.

The Termans have also found another helpful gadget, a negative-ion generator. They showed that sitting in front of a machine that emits negative ions at a high rate for 30 minutes every morning was as effective as sitting in front of a light box for the same time. The generators are available for $165 from the Center for Environmental Therapeutics (Michael Terman is the president of its board). The advantage of this device is that it can be used while sleeping.

A third approach that has proved effective is cognitive behavioral therapy, when used with or without light therapy. Kelly J. Rohan of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., (and currently of the University of Vermont) found that this therapy, a brief form of psychotherapy that helps people change negative thoughts and behaviors, was as effective as light therapy in a study of 23 patients with SAD.

And unlike light therapy used alone, cognitive behavioral therapy helped prevent a relapse of SAD symptoms the next winter.

Dr. Rosenthal also recommends eating a diet relatively high in protein and low in carbohydrates and performing regular physical exercise, which is especially helpful if it is outdoors in the morning or, if indoors, in front of a light box.

Source:The New York Times

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