Archive for ◊ July, 2010 ◊

Dr. Charles Hoge, Walter Reed Army Institute o...
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Post-traumatic stress disorder arises out of those who have suffered a traumatic experience such as an accident, a loss, or an act of violence. These sorts of traumas are all to common within the medical field. The post-traumatic stress disorder has numerous effects both short and long term. In the short term, post-traumatic stress disorder can cause numbness, anxiety, disorientation and dizziness. In the long term, it can cause flashbacks, insomnia, extreme reactions to stimuli, and a host of other symptoms which degrade a patients quality of life. These symptoms can persists for months or even years. However, a prompt response by a primary or emergency care provider can help alleviate many of the symptoms.

One of the keys to treating post-traumatic stress disorder is identifying it quickly and providing treatment. Many patients don’t show immediate symptoms. In this case, it’s extraordinarily helpful for the medical institution to prepare a checklist for possible cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. In this case, any patient showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder should either meet with the in house mental healthcare provider and if there is no in house mental healthcare provider then they should be refereed to one. Even so, identifying Post-traumatic stress disorder can remain difficult. Nevertheless, it seems likely that there will soon be some technology to help in the identification of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A new report has been released in the Journal of Neural Engineering where the researchers have used a magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine post-traumatic stress disorder. Magnetoencephalography measures minute brain signals and gives a good picture on when those signals are stimulated. They used the MEG on veterans suspected of having post-traumatic stress disorder and they found that the machine matched 97.3% of the people diagnosed with it through other means and only returned 12.4 % in false positives. Soon enough, we could see medical technology able to positively identify post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centers
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 | Author: admin

Many studies over a number of decades have determined that in recent years, the number of persons incarcerated in the United States due to drug and alcohol addiction has increased dramatically. Between 1985 and 1996, the number of people in state prisons increased by an average of 7.8 percent. The number of regular drug users in state and federal prison is staggering. For example, 62.2 percent of them were incarcerated in state prisons, and 42.1 percent of them were in federal prisons.

The growing prison population of drug users and addicts has caused lawmakers and correctional officials to take notice. Over the years, these people have requested increased funding for alcohol and drug treatment centers in prisons and local communities. As a result, local and prison-based Alcohol and drug treatment centers have increased dramatically across the country.

Types of Addictions

There are many different types of addictions, but the most prominent ones are drugs and alcohol. Some addictions, like alcoholism are legal, while others, like drugs aren’t. But despite the legalities of both addictions, both alcohol and drugs often give people a one-way ticket to prison or jail. Although addictions like gambling and alcohol are socially acceptable in some circles, they still lead to personal and social destruction. Illegal or immoral addictions like gambling are still legal, but often lead to destruction.

Why Quit?

Quitting addiction or remaining addicted is a personal choice. People who are addicted claim emphatically that drugs and alcohol bring relief, so they obviously don’t want to quit. They enjoy it because it brings them some sort of relief. Since many people lose control with their addiction, some type of treatment often becomes a necessity for them. Undoubtedly, addicts pay a high price for their addiction in terms of damaged relationships, jobs, finances, social functions, and more. When under the influence, reality becomes distorted, and addicts get into trouble. On the brighter side, however, help is available from alcohol and drug treatment centers to those who seek it.

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Smoking is a hard habit to break. There are several products that promise to help people quit, but many people go back to their habit eventually. Whether it is gum or a patch, the use of these sometimes becomes inconvenient while the person still craves the cigarette that they had easy access to before. Something like an e-cig, however, has none of the dangers of the real thing, and also poses no danger to anyone else nearby.

Tobacco smoke has long been known to have many health risks, some that don’t show up for many years or even decades. It does not only affect the smoker, but people who are exposed to the smoke. Those who never smoked themselves can have problems later on if they are regularly exposed. The smell it adds to the breath or even people’s clothes can be very undesirable, and cigarette butts and ashes are quite unsightly when thrown around.

An electronic version tastes and feels like the real thing, without the harmful compounds that are inhaled from regular cigarettes. It looks like the real thing too. While a dose of nicotine is provided with each smoke, there is no smell or a single chemical that is harmful to the person using it or to anyone nearby. You can use at home, at a movie theater, or in clubs while socializing.

Don’t expect this to make you want to quit anymore, but it does have some nicotine to avoid withdrawal symptoms. You will at least have a healthy alternative, and if you like the look of having something to smoke, as some people do, then you can do so without inconveniencing, or even jeopardizing the health of, other people. E-cigs are sold in brands that come in kits with colored cartridges, batteries, cases, chargers and more.

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Aspects of the Food Dehydrator
Sunday, July 18th, 2010 | Author: admin

Consumers put variety and options at the top of their shopping list. Normally they want the opportunity to choose color, style, size, features, etc. The food dehydrator shopper would be pleased with the options that are on the market for this product. One consumer may want the dehydrator for one purpose and the next consumer wants it and uses it for a different purpose. Since 1920 when the first food dehydrator was sold, the ingenuity of the American inventor and the need of health conscious people have forced options.

There are the electric dehydrator models and the solar powered dryers using solar energy to create a flow of warm air through the tray. There is the plastic dehydrator and there is the upscale stainless steel model. Home-food dehydrators fall into two structure categories: stackable trays or a rigid box with removable shelves.

Most dehydrators fit on a counter top but the larger models are free-standing. The food dehydrator can be square, round or rectangular. That makes a difference according to what food is processed. The wattage is 500, 600 or 700 because if the food is particularly wet or thick, the high wattage would be attractive.

Then there is fan drying, or convection drying, which relies on heat to accomplish the same end. Convection drying eliminates the possibility of contaminating foods because the fan could pull in dust or other contaminants. Another advantage to convection heating is that it creates a silent operation besides using less electricity. All positive, except that it requires twice the time to dry so the keeping quality lessens. If the dehydrator has levels and only a heater in the bottom for drying purposes, the layers have to be rotated consistently in order to have dried food that is evenly processed. However, if there is a heater and a fan system, the process of rotating trays is eliminated.

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Microchips and Medicine
Friday, July 16th, 2010 | Author: admin

Micro chipThe same technology that brings us computer chips and electronics is also used to improve prescription drugs. Scientists use microfabrication to shrink laboratory experiments and tests onto chips as small as a ladybug. These so-called labs-on-chips are tiny, but they have big implications for the future of medicine.

Computer chips are made by taking a silicon wafer, etching channels for microcircuitry, and coating it with metal to form wires. Successive steps of removing old material and then adding new can make a very complicated circuit. Etching and adding can also be used to make tiny chambers for cells and tiny tubes to add test chemicals. In this way, we can use a microchip both as an electrical device and as an environment for medical testing. Combining electricity, biology, and low cost means that doctors and scientists can perform difficult and expensive electrobiological tests with ease.

A great example of a lab on a chip is the chip-based patch clamp. Before microchip technology, the patch clamp was a wired syringe with an opening small enough to capture just a patch of the cell’s membrane. When a scientist put current through the syringe, she could figure out whether the cell’s membrane was resisting electricity. This helped her to figure out whether the cell was allowing certain chemicals, like calcium ions, to pass through its membrane. Calcium flow issues cause heart problems—this is why the painkiller Vioxx was recalled.

If the cell was immersed in a drug that made calcium pass abnormally, the scientist would find out without endangering patients. But syringe patch clamps are slow—it takes a scientist hours to catch a single cell on the syringe. By contrast, chip-based patch clamps can capture and test 20 cells at once.

By borrowing manufacturing techniques from the computer industry, scientists and doctors are making experiments faster and cheaper—and thus making medicine faster and cheaper for everyone.

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Need A Boost in Your Finances?
Thursday, July 15th, 2010 | Author: admin

Everyone needs extra cash now and again and it is getting easier and easier to find sources for accessing that cash. There are plenty of resources out there, but you need to be savvy about how to find them and use them. When emergencies happen, people often ask family members or friends for money, because they know this is one of the easiest ways to obtain the finances they may need. But sometimes friends and family members are as hard pressed as you are for funds and in these tough economic times it can be difficult to ask them to sacrifice for you and hand over their hard earned money.

However, if you are willing to look around a bit you can find some reliable and wise sources for quick cash on the web. These web sites can explain to you everything you will need to know about their policies and such things as their interest rates, late fees, and any other information you may want before you make a decision. It’s good to research several of these companies before you decide on one. That way, you can find the one that most closely matches your needs, as well as your financial style. You will want to make sure that the web site is safe in terms of obtaining personal and financial information from you and that they will be well protected from hackers and their ilk. When you need emergency cash, you don’t need to feel guilty or desperate, instead just be well informed and find a great source for you to obtain the funds that you need. Nowadays there are so many companies who will bend over backwards to get your business, that you are fortunate enough to have a lot of options to choose from.

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The Only way to Smoke
Friday, July 09th, 2010 | Author: admin

In this day and age, the non smokers of the world are winning a war that they started decades ago. It used to be that people could smoke whenever, wherever and however much they wanted to. People could just puff away, either on the factory line, in their office or in any restaurant or bar. But nowadays, you pretty much have to be in your own home, hiding under a blanket will all of the shades drawn and lots of lights on, in order to enjoy your smoking habit. And if anybody smells the smoke, you may end up having the fire department kick down your door.

Fortunately, this anti smoking Gestapo crap does not have to become something that makes you hate yourself for having a craving for nicotine. While the ideal situation would be to simply quit cold turkey, not every smoker is capable of doing things like that. And if you could count yourself in that group of people, you may need to consider some other alternatives to “just quitting.” One way that a lot of people go about circumventing the anti smoking war is to start using E cigarettes when their cravings come on. After all, it solves all of the major problems that non smokers pin on smokers.

There is no filter to an electronic cigarette. You receive your nicotine without having to throw away anything, so there is no pollution. And speaking of there being no pollution from an e-cig, they also do not send out any smoke. So the people who hate the smell of traditional cigarettes (and their cancer causing properties) will not be offended if you whip out an electronic cigarette and puff away for your own benefit. And it is actually better for your own health to use e-cigs, as the lack of tar means you have far less poisons entering your system.

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