Mid-Life Fitness Crisis

Article:

Men who turn into mid-life fitness fanatics may actually be HARMING their health!

• MAMILs (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra) are on the rise
• They exercise vigorously to lose weight and stave off heart attacks
• New evidence shows there is a threshold that, if passed, can be dangerous
• A new study shows that middle-aged men who run marathons are at much greater risk of cardiac arrest.
  
  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2501428/Men-turn-mid-life-fitness-fanatics-actually-HARMING-health.html#ixzz2kRLGzq9B
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• When Back Pain is a sign of serious illness

Herbal alternative for anxiety:

Herbal Alternative for Anxiety


Benzodiazepines are a class of drug that enhances the effects of GABA to produce a calming effect. They are typically prescribed as an effective treatment for anxiety and insomnia. They are not without problems however, as they can interfere with one’s ability to work, or a person can develop an intolerance to them, become dependent on them, and even experience withdrawal symptoms when trying to discontinue therapy.

A possible alternative to this type of medication is the herbal extract passion flower. In a small double-blind, randomized trial, the effectiveness of benzodiapenes was compared to that of passion flower. The study focused on 36 patients with generalized anxiety disorder for 28 days. Half the group took passion flower extract plus a placebo, and the other half of the group took the benzodiazepine plus placebo. By the end of the study, both groups had a 68% reduction in their anxiety levels, as measured by the Hamilton scale. The primary difference in the two treatments was that it took four days for the group taking the drug to feel a 30% reduction in anxiety, but it took the passion flower group seven days to reach that same level of success. It was only over time that both treatments had an equal effect. However, the primary benefit of the passion flower was that it did not impair one’s ability to work effectively, thereby making it a more practical treatment for the long term, without any side effects.

References:
"Passion flower in the treatment of generalized anxiety: A pilot double-blind randomized controlled trial with oxazepam" in the June, 2012 issue of Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics.

Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer-Early detection

When you were 15, chances are, revolutionizing medicine wasn't among your after-school activities. But for 15-year-old Jack Andraka, it's par for the course. The high school sophomore recently developed a revolutionary new test for early-stage pancreatic cancer. This, before he could legally drive a car.(article)

Stop Stretching!

 - or at Least Stop Stretching the Lower Back Into Flexion and Rotation!

The evidence about stretching is a bit hazy, but certainly points in a particular direction. Stretching does not do what we used to think it does. I'll refer you to the Save Yourself blog by a skeptical PT, Paul Ingraham.

He is sometimes a bit over the top and may throw out the baby with the bathwater, but I basically agree with what he is saying about stretching.¹ To quote: "In a nutshell: Stretching just doesn't have the effects that most people hope it does. Plentiful recent stretching research has shown that it doesn't warm you up, prevent soreness or injury, enhance performance, or physically change muscles. Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven."

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Earwax Removal

I ruptured my right eardrum back around 1986 while I was down about 60 feet deep in a freshwater quarry during scuba diving training in PA. This put an abrupt end to my hopes of becoming a dive master unfortunately.

Actually I never did get an official diagnosis from a doctor, lacking any medical insurance at the time, having been fairly broke since college graduation about three year's earlier. All I remember is that I felt a sharp pain in my right ear and then blood was flowing out of it and I then became somewhat - though not completely - deaf in that ear.

The bleeding eventually stopped, but my hearing came back about 50% and remained about that level in the years that followed. Years became decades. A few weeks ago I became completely deaf in that same ear, drastically affecting my daily life. I got sick of saying "what?" all the time, so I went to a FNP (family nurse practitioner) during a visit to my adopted home town of Nashville, TN recently on unrelated business.

I had originally stopped by an M.D. office in the same strip mall, but judging from the opulence of the waiting room itself and the attitude of the receptionist, they obviously were so dependent on insurance that I immediately got the sense I was about to incur a huge doctor bill if I were to go through the whole nine yards of bullshit they were about to hand me in the way of exams, tests, MRI's and the like. I said thanks, but no-thanks and cruised one door down to a FNP's office, with which I had no previous experience, but had heard good things about.

It was called the Xai Family Medical Clinic". A paper sign on the door read, "walk-ins welcome". I had a feeling this was the right place for affordable care! A slightly built Asian man was the only one on duty. He was the nurse!

I informed him of my lack of insurance and he said, "no problem. We charge $65.00. How is that?" I said that would be fine. He then had me fill out a short one-page health history and promptly brought me back to the examination room. He gave me a short bio of his resume. It turns out that he had worked all over the world and had ten year's experience as a nurse! This made me feel better.

He also said that he had some experience working on ears. Good enough for me. Anything beats myself sticking a tweezers in my ear in the bathroom mirror, trying to pull out whatever it was that had been blocking my ear canal for a good two decades plus!

He then brought out a big plastic syringe, a jug of water and a curved plate for me to hold under my ear. This should be interesting.....

He told me that "this will probably hurt". I said, "okay fine". He then inserted the narrow tip of the syringe into my ear and proceeded to irrigate it with a fair amount of water pressure until it spilled out of my ear and into the curved plate, along with some small red chunks. "Blood clots" he said. Yes, it did hurt, a lot, but I was ready to go for broke at this point. I was glad at least, to see something come out of my ear.

After about four more irrigations he had managed to dislodge a number of chunks of debris from inside my ear canal. He said that the rest was in too deep and needed to be softened up first before I would be able to make more progress. He then prescribed this over the counter product and said that I would probably need to treat with it three days in a row before I completely cleaned the ear canal.

Needless to say, this stuff worked like a charm! I picked some up at Walgreens and treated it again the next day, excited that the FNP had actually found something in  my ear. I put the drops in and laid on my side on the couch for about 20 minutes. I could feel the stuff bubbling deep inside my ear. I then got up and used the provided rubber syringe over the sink to force a jet of water deep inside my ear canal. I was encouraged when several large red chunks washed out of my ear. After a while nothing further came out, so I put things on hold until the next night.

Night number two was discouraging because I only managed to dislodge some small chunks-nothing major. I still had no hearing in that ear. Perhaps I should use 15 drops instead of the recommended 10 drops of Debrox? I also made a mental note to use hot water next time for the irrigation process.

Night number three came and I anxiously applied 15 drops of Debrox to my sore ear canal and laid down for 30 minutes this time. Then I went to the sink where I drew very warm-almost hot water from the faucet and sucked it up with the syringe. I stuck the tip deep in my ear canal and squeezed- pretty hard. The hot water rushed into my ear, but it hurt so good, because several large chunks came out of my ear and suddenly......I could hear, clear as a bell too, for the first time since 1986.

Blood clots in my ear since the mid-1980's.....

The Real Cause of Heart Disease

"While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone." Read more here

Prevent Alzheimer's

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy

Researchers say the ketones found in coconut oil have slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in some people and may actually prevent it.

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