The truth is finally here
Perhaps we were all misinformed. Was there really a report that the Earth was round? Did it come out about the same time as that mad suggestion the Earth goes round the sun? It gets so confusing about what is true and what is theory. Science is supposed to be ahead of the game but. . . All of which brings me to a key fact about the effectiveness of medical treatment. Since the beginning of time, a significant part of every successful treatment has been the so-called placebo effect. This is where the patient so strongly believes the treatment will work that any treatment will be successful. Even though the patient is given a completely inactive pill, liquid to drink or cream to rub on to the affected area, the patient is still cured. It is the classic demonstration of mind over matter. People simply will themselves better. For example, acupuncture is used as an anaesthetic for major surgery in China. Patients lie with their eyes open and needles sticking into them while surgeons cut them open. They talk about the weather with the nurses. In the West, there is recent research showing acupuncture to be successful even though needles are stuck into the wrong points in the body. All it takes is a strong enough belief that the acupuncture will be effective.
This is a simple way of saying a society must trust its doctors. If physicians are to command respect and so inspire confidence in the treatments they prescribe, they must be seen to be in touch with the latest science. Their words must be full of truth. If they seem out-of-date or behind the times, why should we trust them when they tell us to favor a particular treatment? People vote with their feet. When it comes to something important, we all choose to see the people who are thought to be the best in their field of expertise. We want the best. This makes the most recent pronouncement of the American College of Physicians all the more worrying. This October, they felt sufficiently certain of the science to be able to issue a general advisory notice to all their members. From now on, ACP members are to act on the basis that erectile dysfunction should be treated with viagra.
So, all you poor patients can relax now. You no longer have to wrestle with your consciences as ACP members prescribe vacuum tubes and hormone injections for your ED. All that uncertainty whether to follow this advice has gone. Your doctor will now officially be allowed to prescribe a little blue pill to resolve your problem. Have all these leaders in scientific thought been hiding under a rock for the last ten years? What are they thinking? How can it inspire confidence in the medical profession to make a formal announcement today about something patently obvious to the rest of the world for the last ten years? This is an incredible moment in time. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth has finally come in from the cold. It’s official. Buy viagra with confidence. It is better than all the old hormone treatments and other silly pieces of equipment that occasionally appeared in the bedroom. Pop a pill and your ED is gone!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Comments
Tags: Acupuncture, American College Of Physicians, Anaesthetic, Beginning Of Time, Belief That, Classic Demonstration, College Of Physicians, Confidence, Doctors, Earth Sun, Latest Science, Major Surgery, Medical, Medical Treatment, Mind Over Matter, Misinformed, Needles, Nurses, Placebo Effect, Pronouncement, Weather
The noble analgesic
Pain is the most undesirable feeling people experience. The only thing that brings people to the physicians is pain. Mostly, people visit the doctor for getting relief from pain because of different reasons. Pain might differ from moderate to severe, according to the origin and severity degree of the origin.
Some pain might be a natural part of life. It may need taking care to handle and get relief. Some times your pain might be so bad and strong, that it becomes truly hard to handle and manage. In such cases, the only solution to problem is taking a very strong painkiller. Pain extirpating and management is an inherent thing for possessing and at fully enjoying the healthy life without needless sufferings. Pain effects are only negative for living. They retard mental stamina, body strength, general health and our overall peace.
To get rid from the pain we are usually using some treatments, such as painkillers, exercises and meditation.
While some painkillers might bring alternative harmful side effects, people are still going for this option frequently as it brings prompt solution. They go for pain reducing medicaments such as Tramadol. This treatment is an efficacious painkiller, with a method of action pretty much identical to those of the drugs (narcotics). It is the generic formulation of a painkiller known as Ultram. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) name of this medication is rac-(1R, 2R)-2-(dimethylaminomethyl) -1-(3-methoxyphenyl)-cyclohexanol. It is used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain of different sources.
This medicine is the typical synthetic opioid used for treating different kinds of pain. It possesses possible arrangements on the serotonergic, noradrenergic and GABAergic body systems. The medicine is the German Grunenthal GmbH pharmaceutical company’s valiable present to the humankind for pain eradication. This analgesic is also marketed under such trade name as Tramal. It is offered in both intramuscular and intravenous forms, that might be injected respectively to muscles and veins. You can also find it in oral preparations.
It is found as Tramadol hydrochloride (hydrochloride salt) which is commerced under Ultram brand name in the United States of America. Another form is Ultracet obtainable right next to acetaminophen. The dosage for consumption differs with pain degree occurred in the patient’s body. It has more or less ten percents of morphine’s effect, when injected by IV/IM channel. Oral dosage varies from 50 to 400 mg daily, sometimes even up to 600 mg daily in certain cases of severe pain.
As it is N- and O-demethylated to five separate metabolites, Tramadol endures hepatic metabolism by the way of cytochrome P450 isozyme CYP2D6. The most adverse of its side effects include drowsiness, vomiting, sweating, respiratory depression, and nausea. While many physicians refer this medicine to pain relief, in many cases according to the Ultram’s prescription, Tramadol “may encourage physical and psychological dependence of morphine-type”.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Comments
Tags: 1r, Body Strength, Cyclohexanol, Different Reasons, Eradication, Gabaergic, General Health, Grunenthal Gmbh, Health, Humankind, Mental Stamina, Noradrenergic, Opioid, Pharmaceutical Company, Prompt Solution, Pure And Applied Chemistry, severe pain, Sufferings, tramadol, Tramal, ultram
The FDA changes the warning notices
Many people think the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role is limited to licensing new drugs and medical devices, but it actually has a post-marketing role as well. Doctors and hospitals all round the US are required to report any and all adverse side effects to drugs. It’s not uncommon to find that drugs can pass through clinical trials involving only thousands of participants, but show side effects when millions start taking them. Obviously, many problems come from those who abuse the drugs in one way or another but, every now and again, serious problems emerge over time. Once a pattern emerges, the FDA can either change the labels on the drugs to give stronger warning to patients or, in the worst cases, withdraw the licenses for the drug to be used. Since withdrawal can have a dramatic effect on the manufacturer, the FDA prefers to improve the level of warnings unless the problems are too severe to ignore.
Doctors have been aware of the problems of serotonin syndrome (sometimes also called serotonin toxicity) for some years. It’s a potentially serious adverse side effect when people ingest too much serotonin. Perhaps it’s better to think of this as a form of poisoning caused when people take excessive dosages of one drug or mix different drugs together. The effects fall into four main classes:
- a change to metal status - you may become agitated, hallucinate or, in extreme cases, fall into a coma;
- the body may start to function erratically and your blood pressure rises, your heart races and your body suddenly loses or retains heat;
- loss of physical co-ordination; and/or
- nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
In some cases, the result has been death, e.g. the high-profile case of Libby Zion in 1984 which produced a change in the law of New York limiting the working hours for medical postgraduates and requiring their close supervision by senior physicians at all times. Thus, the FDA is not reacting to a new problem, but merely increasing the visibility of the warning notices as it affects all drugs containing serotonin.
In this instance, the warnings affect tramadol in the following ways. It always has been the case that an overdose of any of the opioid painkillers can cause this syndrome. Fortunately, this particular problem is relatively uncommon. Even those in the most severe pain understand the risks of exceeding the safe dosages are too dangerous to justify. Accidental overdose is almost unknown. So the most common problem arises with interactions between tramadol and other drugs with a serotonin content. The most dangerous combinations come with the classes of antidepressants called serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), tricyclic antidepressants, and triptans. The syndrome can arise even though you take the safe prescribed dose of the painkiller. So the warning is not so much about the painkillers themselves, but to alert people not to self-medicate. Since the rise of the online pharmacy industry, too many people have been buying drugs without a prescription - that means without talking through the risks with a doctor. Obviously, a doctor with access to a person’s medical history would immediately identify the dangers and either change the dosages or change the drugs. When people rely on recommendations from friends or the information they glean from the internet to decide what drugs to take, they can be putting themselves at risk. Hopefully, this new warning will prevent problems and keep people safe.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Comments
Tags: Adverse Side Effects, Blood Pressure, Clinical Trials, Dramatic Effect, Extreme Cases, Food And Drug, Food And Drug Administration, Heart Races, Heat Loss, Labels, Libby Zion, Medical, Medical Devices, Nausea Vomiting, New Drugs, Ordination, Postgraduates, Profile Case, Toxicity, Visibility, Vomiting And Diarrhea
Never lie about having acne
Medicalization is a wonderful word. It means the process of taking a natural condition and convincing people that it’s a disease to be treated and cured by the medical profession. Once a condition is medicalized, the pharmaceutical industry can sell drugs, doctors and hospitals can charge fees. The cash registers just keep on ringing up the profits. Once this happens, there’s a kind of bandwagon effect. The condition suddenly becomes a lot more serious. It’s now a disorder or disease. For health insurance companies, it’s a pre-existing condition.
Now there’s a funny thing about health insurance companies. They are never shy about coming forward with new reasons for not paying out on their policies. One of their classic excuses is the “disclosure” rule. The law sounds quite reasonable. If you are sitting in your office and never get to meet the person applying for a health plan, you have to rely on the honesty of what the person says when you decide whether to write the policy. It’s a sad fact that some people are less than honest when they apply for policies. They forget the heart problem and declare themselves fit and healthy. Insurance companies therefore need the right to rescind the policy - to cancel it if the applicant failed to disclose information needed to assess the risk.
So now we come to the case of Otto Raddatz who, courtesy of his sister, became a famous victim after his death. She testified to a Senate committee about what happened and the story, in suitably dramatic form, was later picked up by President Obama in support of his campaign for healthcare reform. The facts are easy to state. Here was a man lining up to get surgery for cancer. The hospital appointment was booked when, surprise, the insurance company decided to rescind the policy. Why? Because Otto had failed to disclose the fact he had acne as a teen! This was a serious pre-existing condition and likely an indicator he would get cancer later in his life. His failure to disclose it justified rescission. Well, fortunately, his sister was an attorney and she got the state attorney general on the job. Six weeks later, the insurer reinstated the policy and Otto got his operation. This gave him six more years of life.
It’s sometimes odd to see how the world works. The medical profession goes to great trouble to convince everyone that acne is a disease. The pharmaceutical industry sells us accutane which is an almost always effective treatment, clearing the skin and restoring beauty during the first period of treatment. And then insurance companies accept this medicalization and require people applying for policies to disclose acne as a pre-existing condition. This is a logical and predictable progression. If doctors say acne is a disease, it must be a pre-existing condition and everyone should disclose it when they apply for health insurance! Do not be deceived! The Illinois attorney general does not fight for everyone. Otto was lucky that his sister was an attorney with the right political connections. So never lie about having acne! The risk of rescission is real. And while you have acne, rely on accutane, the sure-fire way of solving the problem.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Comments
Tags: acne, Bandwagon Effect, cancer, Disclosure Rule, Fact That Some People, Funny Thing, Health, Health Insurance, health insurance companies, health plan, Healthcare Reform, Heart Problem, Hospital Appointment, Insurance, insurance company, Medical, Medical Profession, Medicalization, Obama, Pharmaceutical Industry, Raddatz, Sad Fact, Senate Committee, Wonderful Word
New research finds natural limits to the effectiveness of opioids
Once formed, habits are extremely difficult to break. It seems easier to go on as you have before and don’t change anything. This can become a serious problem when science gets in the way of the habits. If you look at the world of adverts in print and the media, you will see opioids recommended as the sure-fire drugs to use as painkillers, no matter what the pain. It carries on in the venerable tradition of the slogan, “Beecham’s Pills cure all ills”. The idea of a panacea - one pill to rule them all, as The Dark Lord of Mordor might have said - has been around since the beginning of time. This is fair game for the marketers to use when talking to the public, but the same thinking has entered the training manuals for the medical profession. Sit in lectures for student doctors and you will hear the same story that opioids are the first line of defense when it comes to moderate to severe pain. Once you have the source of the prescriptions in on the group think, the habit is almost impossible to break.
The monitoring and review process put in place after a drug is released into the market is designed to catch any unexpected side effects. If evidence of problems emerges, the FDA can require the manufacturer to change the warnings on the label or, in the worst cases, withdraw the drug from the market. But this monitoring process is not designed to catch the drugs that are ineffective. If no-one has an adverse reaction when taking it, no report is filed with the FDA. It’s safe so who cares whether it works. All this brings us to the Cochrane Collaboration. This is a non-profit group where researchers sift through and analyze existing published medical research to see whether there are any consistent patterns - what might not be apparent in one clinical trial involving two hundred participants might be identified when you compile the results from fifteen different trials, each involving two hundred participants. Two recently published Cochrane Reports have concluded that opioids should not be routinely prescribed to patients even with severe pain from hip and knee osteoarthritis.
In both Reports, the independent conclusions were that the adverse side effects outweighed the benefits and that tramadol, as the leading opioid, was no more effective than the strongest NSAIDs. The first Report consolidated the results from ten trials involving a total of just over 2,250 participants and concluded that there was little pain relief and minimal improvement in mobility. With higher dosages, one in twelve participants experienced adverse side effects. The second Report consolidated the results from eleven trials involving 1,020 participants and found little difference between the effectiveness of tramadol and the placebo. This leads to a somewhat controversial conclusion. That doctors should not routinely prescribe opioids for the treatment of hip and knee osteoarthritis. There should be a careful discussion of treatment options including weight loss, physical therapy and exercise, and a detailed explanation of all the adverse side effects to be expected. This new research does not change the general acceptance of tramadol as an effective painkiller. All it does is confirm that there is no such thing as one pill to cure all ills.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Comments
Tags: Adverse Reaction, Adverts, Beecham, Beginning Of Time, Clinical Trial, Cochrane Collaboration, Consistent Patterns, Fair Game, Ills, Marketers, Medical, Medical Profession, Medical Research, Panacea, Profit Group, severe pain, Slogan, Student Doctors, Training Manuals, Unexpected Side Effects, Venerable Tradition
