I Have a Headache

I Have a Headache!

Really. Not a great big skull-splitting headache. Just one of those little low-pressure guys. And I know why. It’s because I’ve been thinking too much. I really need to try to cut back on that.

Actually, my headache is not the result of just thinking – it’s due more to what I’ve been thinking about. I can normally go for months and months and months without any perceptible twinge of intracranial discomfort. No problems at all. Well unless I decide to chance it and watch more than one reality show in a week. Then I’ll notice a bit of distress. But apart from that, life is good and the old gray matter just keeps cruising along in the smiley mode.

But today is different. Here’s what happened. I decided to do a bit of research on healthy living to include diets (not necessarily to lose weight) and supplements. In the course of doing this, I naturally came across a pile of information related to what foods to avoid and what other foods or supplements could potentially prevent physiological malfunctions. A big pile of information. A gigantic pile of information! A super-mega-humungo pile of information! (Are you beginning to get a clue as to why I have a headache?)

In an attempt to turn all of this into a positive, beneficial experience, I need to pass along what I’ve learned. So here it is.

I’ve learned that:

Everybody – that’s EVERYBODY – has an opinion about what works and what doesn’t. About what’s good and what’s bad for you.

There are as many folks who disagree with other folks opinions as those who agree.

The phrase “studies have shown” can be translated to “the studies that I agree with have shown”. Let’s try this… studies have shown that there are probably way too many studies.

We are thinking entirely too much about the possible effects of weird stuff like d-chromo-anti-lycoperene beta 4 and how it binds to the interceptural neural hair follicles to create left ear moles. Or something like that.

There are more dietary supplements which are guaranteed to be “ultimate solutions” to all of our health problems than there are galaxies.

For only $79.95 we can all receive the “secret” to a long, happy, healthy life.

They eat guinea pigs in Peru. (I don’t recall how I stumbled onto that one…)

Passing gas in the bathtub is not bad for your health. (Actually, I didn’t find that one. I just instinctively knew it.)

There is something either in tropical ocean waters or equatorial jungles that will solve your problem.

Veggies and fruits are good for you. Whole-grained foods, too. Duh…
As I did my research, I thought about growing up in the Midwest. I thought about all the old folks I knew that lived long (like up into the 80’s and 90’s) healthy lives. Shucks, they didn’t know about all of these wonderful dietary discoveries we’ve made in the last 50 or so years. They obviously didn’t have a clue that their health could have been improved dramatically by taking one of the thousands of supplements that we have available to us today.

Instead, these old farm folks just ate what they had – including lots of red meat, greasy fried potatoes and eggs, butter, lard, and a gob of other “unhealthy stuff” – and worked their buns off to make a living.

The conclusion seems to be pretty simple, doesn’t it? Farm food (“natural food”?) – no matter what it is – is probably very good for you. So is hard, physically demanding work. Instead of worrying so much about what causes or cures what, maybe we should just focus mainly on eating a good, balanced diet of wholesome “farm-type” foods and get a whole bunch of exercise. A good vitamin supplement probably wouldn’t hurt either. Who knows – it might even help prevent headaches…


Gene Simmons

Magnetic Therapy for Pain Relief

Magnetic Therapy for Pain Relief

Magnetic Therapy is making a comeback worldwide, companies are selling magnetic underlays for all sizes of beds, and they come in Cotton or Genuine Sheeps Wool.

There are small sized units, to fit on the wrist, fit on the waistband of underwear, belts to fit around your back, your knees or just about anywhere that you are likely to suffer pain. Some ladies are using a magnet that fits on the waistband of underwear at the front, when they are suffering menstrual pain, and they swear that it eases the pain.

It has been claimed as a drug free alternative for insomnia, headaches and migraines, by sleeping with a magnetic pad in the pillow, it reacts on the Pineal Gland which is in the center of the brain and responds to a magnetic field.

Magnetic Therapy, is not new, it has been around for about 3000, years, it was supposed to have started at that time in India. The red dot worn by some Indian women on their forehead, was originally made from a magnetic powder. It was put on a important nerve point midway between the two eyes, an area that some believe is the third eye, it supposedly calmed down the brain and reduced stress, thereby keeping the ladies looking beautiful.

Magnets work on the circulatory system by making the blood flow faster and at the same time refining the blood. This helps the body to dispose of waste and toxins. A number of health problems are frequently due to a sluggish circulatory system and magnets appear to overcome a lot of these problems.

Science has shown that by placing a magnetic field next to the body, a bioelectric activity occurs. At the cellular level, it is the trace elements of Iron and Potassium in the blood that are drawn to the magnetic field causing a mild effect in the blood stream.

A large number of people feel heat when sleeping on a magnetic underlay, this is quite normal, this increases vasculation, oxygenation, balancing of energy flow and stimulation of the Lymphatic System.

Magnetic Therapy today is being used to treat many illnesses and painful conditions, it is a Natural Therapy, that really has no adverse side effects, you should increase your intake of pure water, to help the waste and toxins flush from the body, you might feel a little hot, but if you are in a cold climate, this is probably a beneficial side effect.

Scientists are researching the therapy and the benefits of treating colds and flu arthritis, reduction of stress and nervous problems. It has even been tried on people with partial damage to the spinal cord.

A number of famous people are using Magnetic Therapy, including Hollywood Stars and even one ex US President. Magnets have become an interest to the medical world. The powerful effects of healing through magnetism on thousands of patients, has caused some doctors to have another look at the situation.

Magnets themselves of course don’t heal anything; they stimulate the body into healing itself.

The body has a Natural Healing system installed at conception, this is the Immune System, but if it does no harm, why not give this system a bit of a boost along. The Immune System has quite a struggle in our modern day, fighting the effects of Chemicals, Pesticides, Herbicides gasses and a million other things that we eat, drink and breathe daily.

Alfred Jones

Pain Relief Drugs 101

Pain Relief Drugs 101

Ever given a piece of thought to how actually one feels that a part of his/her body is paining? Majority of the response to this question will be in the negative. And ironically it is one piece of information that a person should be aware of.

Whenever a part of our body is hurt, the pain makes that part ache but the actual sensation is felt in the brain. There are various kinds of receptors in our brain and each is attributed with a different type of sensation. The process can be explained as follows. Every time part of our body is damaged, the damaged tissue releases chemicals – called prostaglandins – making the pain more acute. These chemicals on coming in contact with the cells in the damaged tissue, with the help of enzyme called cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2), further release chemicals. Also, these prostaglandins react with the nerve endings to send signals to the brain where the sensation of the pain is felt.

One importance of pain that can be highlighted here is that they keep reminding a person of the hurt, so that till the time injury is healed they are more careful about it. Pain can also result without a direct injury being caused, for example arthritis. Thankfully because of the advancements of the medicine, various types of medications are available to deal with different types of pains felt. A wide range of medicines start right from one as mild as Aspirin to something as strong as Narcotics, which should be only taken through a proper prescription of a medical practitioner and thus, it becomes necessary to take such medicines with highest degree of caution as every medicine has its own kind of side effects.

One of the most common pain relievers is Acetaminophen (popularly also known as paracetamol , and has established its 30 years of usage. It can also be used for curing fevers in children and adults apart from relieving pain.

As against acetaminophen, Narcotics are also used to cure pain but is adopted if no other medicine is able to effectively affect a patient, even though it is the greatest pain reliever than any medication prescribed. This is due to the numerous side effects that are associated with it, which includes chemical dependence. There are various types of Narcotics (OxyContin, Demerol, Hydrocodone) and have their own set of side effects. One of the most peculiar features of Hydrocodone is that it can even cause death.

There are various cautions that one should adopt while undergoing a pain relief medication, as many risks are associated with it. Primarily one should make the doctor aware of the medicines that are normally taken by the patient in the normal course for ordinary pains or any other thing as they can react with the pain relievers to cause side effects. Also, it should be told to the doctor if the patient is already associated with any disease apart from the on for which the doctor is consulted. Another thing to be kept in mind is that the pain relievers taken by the patient should not be stopped without consulting his doctor.

So now knowing this every one has a reason to take utmost precautions. God bless us all.


Mansi Gupta

Choose Back Surgery As A Last Resort

Choose Back Surgery As A Last Resort

For years I have suffered from low back pain. For years I have tried just about everything for the pain except having back surgery. From physical therapy, traction, chiropractors, steroid injections, drug therapy, biofeedback tactics, stretching and anything I could think of to relieve the pain. Through the years of suffering from pain it would have been very easy on several occasions to go under the knife and have back surgery in an attempt to help my back and the pain associated with it.

After seeing several doctors, after a few MRI's, after a CT scan, and a discogram, the general concessus by most physicians was that back surgery was needed. In order to get pain relief from my herniated disc, most doctors told me that surgery was the way to go. I still was not convinced. I heard the horror stories, I talked to the people who had back surgery who told me whatever you do don't do it. I saw the people who had back surgery who could barely walk, walking with a Cain. I thought to myself they are hurting worse than they was before. I might be in pain, but at least I can walk without using a walker or a cane.

Some of the people that I had talked to that had surgery, needed follow up surgery to either repair mistakes made in the first surgery, or to do things they simply did not do in the first surgery. To me this didn't sound very good at all. After talking to a lot of people about this, I think I only found one person that had a successful operation. So I made up my mind not to have surgery for the time being. I started doing excersises that stretched and streghthen muscles to take pressure off the disc's and nerves that cause the pain. I did a lot of mind over matter tactics telling myself that IM too young for surgery, and that I didn't even need surgery. I was a single man with a daughter, and just the work I would miss during the recovery time from having surgery would be devastating within itself. So I was determined to put it off as long as possible. I then told my personal doctor that I had decided not to have surgery. He in turn referred me to a pain management physician.

After seeing the pain management physician, he also advised me that I should have surgery. I told him at my age, and after thinking it all through, and talking to people who have had surgery, I had decided not to have back surgery until I couldn't stand it anylonger. I told him as long as my bladder is still in control, and the pain is bearable, I will be putting it off as long as I can. This physician didn't seem to like this. He put me on a low dose pain medicine program for a few months, but when I told him that I had decided against surgery, all the sudden he stopped prescribing pain medications.

I could not believe this, it seems for deciding against back surgery, my punishment was to stop giving me the medication that did give me the little relief that I desperately needed. So I felt like I was trying to be pressured into having back surgery. I told myself this is my back not theirs, they don't have to live with what happens in a failed back surgery. So to all of those people that are told they need back surgery, think twice. Don't get bullied into having a surgery that might make your life miserable. Remember, its your back, and you have to live with what happens. So only choose back surgery as a last resort.


Robert Gould

Buy Your Pain Medicine Online

Buy Your Pain Medicine Online

Don't loose time from work to make a doctors appointment. Don't sit around in a doctors office all day just to get prescriptions for the medications you know you already need. No need to make those follow up appointments that you might forget about, and if you do you then run out of medication. Now you can get all you pain medication legally online. More and more people all the time are finding alternative ways to obtain their medication they need each month, and this is another alternative people are choosing to take.

For people like me who hate going to the doctor anyway this works perfect. There was always something about going to the hospital or a doctors office that I found creepy. Now days those days are over. You can get online in the comfort of your home or office, you can get a same day consultation with the Physician. A consultation is when you talk directly to the physician over the phone. You go over your medical history, what other medications you are taking, he also asks if you are allergic to any medications. He goes over your chronic pain condition, goes over your medical records that you have already faxed in along with your ID ahead of time. After the consultation he writes you a prescription and forward it to a US Pharmacy for same day filling, and next day delivery.

Along with your consultation you get an additional two refills plus up to three different medications per consultation. So you could get three medications with two refills on each one. This has proven to work very good. This works great for the person who cant leave work to go to the doctor each month. Works great for the person who knows already what medications they need each month. Why pay a doctors visit just to sit around in a doctors office all day missing work. I have always thought that was kind of a waste of time and money anyway. With this method you get total privacy. Your spared the embarrassments that come along with a doctors appointment. With this type of online service you get your medications shipped to you overnight to your home or office.

With today's skyrocketing healthcare costs and the fact people cannot afford to miss work once a month to get their prescription paid medication, this alternative way is the wave of the future. I myself am a chronic pain sufferer and use this type of service. I have also found that the physicians are more compassionate to people suffering in pain to the traditional office visits. If you haven't already learned by now, chronic pain sufferers are treated differently than other people complaining of a medical condition.

With this type of service you are actually treated like a human being. I high recommend this to anyone who wants the proper pain medication needed to treat your pain, who wants the convenience of having it delivered to your front door. Anyone who wants a more pain free life, able to do the things you couldn't do before because of the pain, I would highly recommend this to anyone suffering from chronic pain for a better quality of life.


Robert Gould

How To Live In Chronic Pain

How To Live In Chronic Pain

Living in chronic pain is one of the most difficult things that I can think of. Everyday millions of Americans struggle with this issue. People of all ages young and old alike are finding themselves in this position. The sad thing about someone who lives in chronic pain is that their pain will most likely not be treated properly, therefore leaving the person to suffer. Its a sad fact that chronic pain goes grossly undertreated. People who live in chronic pain seeking treatment from the medical community in general are greeted with not to welcoming arms. It appears for various reason that people seeking relief from their pain are cast in a different light than other people who seek medical treatment. This is due to several reasons. First of all doctors these days simply will not treat someone long tern with chronic pain, unless of course your suffering from cancer. Not all chronic pain sufferers have cancer.

Some medical conditions as Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Arthritis, Herniaated discs, complications from failed back surgery, to any other conditions that causes great pain on a regular basis. Its really a shame and a sad statement that you have to have cancer to get the proper treatment needed for pain. Other reason people don't get the proper treatment is some physicians are ill equipped to treat a chronic pain sufferer. Other and more frustrating reasons are that Physicians are just plain scared of the government when writing prescriptions for narcotic medicine. This reason alone is probably the biggest one. The government has scared doctors away from treating people who truly suffer from pain.

If a person has a true medical condition that falls under chronic pain, and there is nothing you can do to help the patient, than pain medication should be available for everyone in that situation. As long as there is a medical condition, as long as patients abide by the guidelines that doctors require, and as long as doctors keep proper documentation, a physician has nothing to worry about. Most doctors just don't want to bother with the whole thing, for them its too much of a hassle. I would like to tell all these doctors to walk a day in the shoes of a chronic pain suffer and they would change their tune real quick. Also a lot of clinics and pain management programs in hospitals and such, have actually shut down business. But most have not shut down business due to the lack of people hurting in pain, they shut down and closed their doors due to them not making any money. This is another sad fact that making money comes first before helping people who suffer from chronic pain. I thought physicians took an oath to help people, not to shut their doors if they don't make money.

Fortunately, there are online U.S. Physicians that are willing to help people in pain. This has been a godsend. Without these type of physicians and pharmacies, people would simply just have to suffer and go without the proper medication needed to comfort their pain. Its a shame a country with the best medical care on the planet, will not treat people in pain properly. Sure there are those and always will be who manipulate the system, trying to get pain mediation for recreational use, but that's easy to weed out if the medical community was serious about treating people in pain. People who truly suffer in pain needed pain medication. Its that easy, but people are not getting it. I would recommend chronic pain sufferers to find a reputable online pharmacy who has U.S. Physicians and Pharmacies that treat people in pain. For this seems to be the only way people in pain get the proper medications needed. I have always wished that the people who are not interested in helping people in pain, or simply who don't help people in pain, I wish they would walk a painful mile in my shoes. Maybe then they would realize that pain is a real thing and people need real help.


Robert Gould

Multiple Sclerosis - What are the Effects?

Multiple Sclerosis - What are the Effects?

What is multiple sclerosis?

Multiple sclerosis is a central nervous system disorder characterized by damage to the messages transmitted to and from the brain. These messages generally control the way the body works. Thus, any damage can cause problems with vision, memory, balance and movement. It may also affect the ability to feel sensation, pain and vibration.

The human body is serviced by an extensive system of nerves that control the way the body functions. These nerves are protected by a fatty substance called myelin which insulates them from damage. If a person suffers from multiple sclerosis, the myelin is damaged thus blocking the impulses from the brain.

Symptoms of multiple sclerosis

The early symptoms include loss of vision, loss of balance, weakness, and numbness. These symptoms are not universal to all sufferers. In fact, some people suffer little more than intense fatigue while others may be so affected they may become paralyzed.

The term 'sclerosis' means scarring and anyone looking at the brain or the tissue of the spinal cord sees what looks like intense scarring.

The damage in multiple sclerosis is thought to be caused by an unusual reaction to infections. The immune system produces white blood cells that destroy dangerous bacteria or viruses. However, in cases of multiple sclerosis, the white cells attack healthy tissue like myelin and nerve cells. This is called an auto immune response.

What are the types of multiple sclerosis?

There are four main kinds of multiple sclerosis, with symptoms varying in severity. These are:

* Benign Relapsing/remitting (RRMS).
* Secondary progressive (SPMS).

Primary progressive

People with benign multiple sclerosis may have the occasional attack while feeling perfectly healthy at other times. They suffer only a mild disability or no disability at all though medical examination shows evidence of multiple sclerosis damage to the brain. The lack of disability is because the damage may be in places in the brain that do not cause obvious disability or the damage is minimal.

More than fifty percent of sufferers start with relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis in which they may suffer relapses two or three times a year with partial or complete recovery at other times. However, due to the gradual death of nerve cells and the myelin, the symptoms may get worse and more frequent. This takes them into the stage of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS).

In secondary progressive multiple sclerosis or SPMS, the disability increases as there is a progressive loss of nerve cells. During this stage, the sufferer no longer has relapses and remissions and the disability becomes progressively worse.

There are some people who become more and more disabled without ever having relapses and remissions. This type of multiple sclerosis is called primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

How is it diagnosed?

Our bodies fight infection by producing white blood cells, a natural disease fighter. However, in people with multiple sclerosis, the protective covering of the nerve fibres (myelin) is also attacked by these white blood cells. One of the tests done to diagnose multiple sclerosis is a lumbar puncture. In this test, cerebrospinal fluid is extracted from the spine through a hollow needle and is examined for signs of this disease.

The hidden signs of multiple sclerosis can also be detected using an MRI (magnetic resonance image). This uses a combination of radio waves and magnetic fields that provide a detailed view of the brain and spinal cord. By using this, the lesions in the myelin can be detected.

Treatment and outlook

At this time, multiple sclerosis is incurable, although thre is research taking place globally in an effort to find a treatment that will slow down the progression of this illness. In the meantime, there are a number of options which may make life more bearable. Some doctors prescribe ACTH, a steroid that accelerates the healing actions of the body.

Though there is no scientific evidence that special diets are beneficial, anecdotal evidence suggests that diets such as gluten free diets or those low in animal fats do help. Many multiple sclerosis sufferers seek out alternative therapies to relieve their symptoms. This may include acupuncture, homeopathy, and yoga.

For each person, the answer may be different and, though multiple sclerosis has no cure, it is important for the sufferer to find a positive way of living with this illness.

Anne Wolski