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Healthy Tips

Proper Disposal of Rx Drugs

Most households have medicine cabinets or cupboards that hold the family’s prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Many of these medicines may be unused or expired. With the rapid increase in the number of teens abusing prescription and OTC drugs in recent years. It is important to clear out your cabinets and monitor remaining amounts regularly. click & see

To help you do this, the Office of National Drug Control Policy recently issued Federal guidelines on the proper disposal of your unused and expired medicines:

Take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers and throw them in the trash.

Mixing prescription drugs with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and putting them in impermeable, non-descript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags, will further ensure the drugs are not diverted.

Flush prescription drugs down the toilet only if the label or accompanying patient information specifically instructs doing so.

Take advantage of community pharmaceutical take-back programs that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for proper disposal. Some communities have pharmaceutical take-back programs or community solid-waste programs that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for proper disposal. Where these exist, they are a good way to dispose of unused pharmaceuticals.

There are many other ways you can protect your teen and keep your teen from abusing prescription drugs:

1. Educate yourself and your teen about the risks.
2. Keep track of your medications.
3. Talk to friends, relatives and school administration.
4. Follow directions carefully.
5. Discard old or unused medications.
6. Monitor your teen’s time online.
7. Be observant.
Find other ways to relieve stress and have fun.
For more information, visit TheAntiDrug.com.

Source:ParentingTips@TheAntiDrug.com

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Health Alert News on Health & Science

Food may be like a drug for some

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 The same brain circuits are involved when obese people fill their stomachs as when drug addicts think about drugs, a finding that suggests overeating and addiction may be linked, US researchers reported on Monday.

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The finding may help in creating better treatments for obesity a growing problem in the US and elsewhere.

“We wanted to know why, when people are already full, why people are still eating a lot,” said Dr Gene-Jack Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.

“We were able to simulate the process that takes place when the stomach is full, and for the first time we could see the pathway from the stomach to the brain that turns “off” the brain’s desire to continue eating.”

Wang and colleagues tested seven obese volunteers who had been fitted with a gastric stimulator a device that tricks the body into thinking the stomach is full.

They used a PET scan to see which parts of the brain activated when the stimulator was activated. “We thought the activated area (of the brain) must be in the satiety centre,” Wang said. “We saw a lot of activity in all areas of the brain, especially in the hippocampus.”

The gas stimulators also sent messages of satiety to brain circuits in the orbitofrontal cortex and striatum, which have been linked to craving and desire in cocaine addicts.

“This provides further evidence of the connection between the hippocampus, the emotions, and the desire to eat, and gives us new insight into the mechanisms by which obese people use food to soothe their emotions,” said Wang.

(From the news published in The Times Of India)

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