Tag: Burns

A Look At Arthritis: America’s Leading Cause of Disability

A Look At Arthritis: America’s Leading Cause of Disability
Larry Denton

The word arthritis literally means joint inflammation, but it is often used to refer to a group of more than 100 rheumatic diseases that cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in the joints. The most common are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and gout. Most forms of arthritis are associated with pain that can be divided into two categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain is temporary. It can last a few seconds or a few minutes but diminishes as healing occurs. Acute pain is associated with burns, cuts and fractures. Chronic pain, such as that felt by people with arthritis, ranges from mild to severe and can last days, months, years or even a lifetime. Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent causes of physical disability among adults. More than 20 million people in the United States, alone, have the disease. By 2030, according the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 20 percent of all Americans–about 70 million people–will have passed their 65th birthday and will be at a higher risk of osteoarthritis. Arthritis limits the everyday activity of 8 million Americans, and this disability creates huge burdens for the individuals, their families, and the nation as a whole. Each year, arthritis results in 9,500 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Control, in 1997, medical care for arthritis (in the U.S.) was $51 billion. This disease affects each person quite differently. In some people it progresses quickly and in others the symptoms are much more serious and painful. Medical practitioners do not yet know what causes arthritis, but they suspect a combination of factors including: being overweight, the aging process, family history, joint injury, and stresses on the joints from work or sporting activities.There is no single treatment that applies to everyone who suffers from arthritis. With your personal input, a medical specialist will develop a management and treatment plan designed to minimize your specific pain and improve the function of your joints. A number of treatments can provide short-term relief. They include: medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, the use of hot and cold packs, using a splint or a brace to protect painful joints, or perhaps using muscle-relaxing massages.In the long-term, pain relief may be found with: new drugs, called biological response modifiers, which reduce inflammation in the joints; corticosteroids such as Prednisone; weight reduction; dietary changes; exercise (swimming, walking and low-impact aerobic exercise); and even surgery to replace a joint that has badly deteriorated. In some instances, nutritional supplements may be helpful. The long-term goal of pain management is to help you cope with this chronic, often disabling disease. You may be caught in a cycle of pain, depression, and stress. To break this cycle, you need to be an active participant in managing your pain. The role you play in planning your treatment is very important. You and your health care providers must work together closely to develop a personalized and effective treatment program. Research has shown that patients who are well informed and participate actively in their own care, experience less pain, make fewer visits to the doctor and lead a much more enjoyable life. About the Author
Larry Denton is a retired history teacher having taught 33 years at Hobson High in Hobson, Montana. He is currently Vice President of Elfin Enterprises, Inc. a business dedicated to providing information and resources on a variety of topics. For an therapy room full of information and valuable resources to assist you in dealing with arthritis, visit http://www.ArthritisAide.com

Nocturnal Eating Syndrome – A Food Related Sleep Disorder

Nocturnal eating syndrome is a sleep disorder that is more common in women than men. It is one of two eating disorders that are related to sleep. The other is called sleep-related food disorder. Nocturnal eating syndrome and sleep-related food disorder are parasomnias

Nocturnal eating syndrome is a sleep disorder that is characterized by compulsive raids on the refrigerator at night. Usually people with this sleep disorder are very light sleepers. When they awake during the night they have an overly compulsive feeling that they will not be able to fall back to sleep unless they eat something. Once out of bed and at the refrigerator, the compulsion to eat makes them gobble down food. People with nocturnal eating syndrome are fully awake and remember eating the food the next day. This syndrome is a combination of a sleep disorder and an eating disorder. Insomnia is also a factor in nocturnal eating syndrome. Treatment for this disorder is usually received from a mental health professional that specializes in people with eating disorders. Improving sleep hygiene can also help with this disorder.

Sleep-related eating disorder also affects more women then men and is a variation of sleepwalking. During an episode of this sleep disorder, a person will eat during partial arousal form a deep sleep. Often they will eat very unhealthy or strange foods that they normally would not eat when awake. During an episode of sleep-related eating disorder, a person might eat frozen pizza, raw cookie dough, peanut butter on fish and even dog food.

Often they are very careless and sloppy and may get burns or cuts while preparing the food. It is very difficult to wake a person during an episode and they have no memory of it in the morning. There does not seem to be a correlation to hunger during a sleep-related eating disorder episode, even if the person has eaten just before bed, an episode can still occur.

Although the cause of food related sleep disorder is not known, several triggers have been identified. Medications such as lithium, a mood stabilizer, and the benzodiazepine receptor zolpidem are two of those triggers. People with mood and personality disorders or psychological problems such as bulimia are at higher risk of developing one of these food related sleep disorders. People suffering from other sleep disorders including insomnia, sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder or narcolepsy are also at higher risk

People with sleep-related eating disorder usually have a history of sleepwalking. Because of this, people suffering from this parasomnina are considered having more of a sleep disorder then an eating disorder. Treatment with prescription medication is often very effective. Antidepressants, dopimine agents, anticonvulsants and opiates are often prescribed. Once sleepwalking is stopped so are the trips to the refrigerator.

Sleep eaters often are overweight because of the high caloric intake at night. The weight gain can lead to other sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. Seeking treatment, either from a medical or mental health professional is essential for good health in the treatment of sleep eating disorders.

MASSAGE FOR YOUNG CHILREN

Countless studies and pediatric research have shown that massage therapy is supremely beneficial for a wide variety of conditions in young children. As a matter of fact, these studies revealed that massage therapy for young children is a crucially important supplemental treatment to conventional medicine. However, these studies further showed that, in many cases, massage therapy on its own works better in relieving symptoms of many disturbing conditions than do medications and other standard procedures associated with Western medicine.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMA), more than twenty percent of all children, from newborns to toddlers and early school year children, are afflicted with eczema at some point in their young lives and roughly the same percentage is true for infants and young children suffering from traumatic burns. For that reason, the pain and suffering of trauma burns and eczema are counted among the most common pediatric skin conditions in the United States. Most studies bring to light the following findings:

* Young burn trauma patients who were treated with a massage therapy sessions for approximately thirty minutes before any kind of medical or nursing procedures, were more relax physically as well as mentally through the process and they, therefore, experienced less discomfort or pain.

It is important to stress here that the massage treatment was applied only to areas which were not affected by burns.

* Young children suffering from eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) who were given massage treatments before and while being treated with skin medications such as emollients and ointments exhibited less apprehension and they were more willing to cooperate. In addition, the physical conditions of their skins dramatically improved as redness subsided, as did lichenification, scaling, excoriation and pruritus.

The therapy in these conditions ideally consists of two phases. First phase to ensure smooth strokes during the massage treatment, the childs body is moisturized with a dermatitis medication. Second phase being very careful to avoid particularly sensitive areas of the body, a series of varied massage techniques is used on the childs face, chest, stomach, legs and arms.

The Childrens Mercy Hospital of Kansas City, Missouri has been using massage therapy to alleviate chronic pain from headaches and migraines in young children and, in the process, also relieving their levels of anxiety and distress, lowering their heart rates, improving their gastrointestinal systems, promoting the release of endorphins and bringing their entire bodies to a state of calmness. And all these positive effects seem to be immediate or nearly immediate.

Applying massage therapies to infants and young children is not at all a newly discovered concept as it has been a daily practice in the Eastern and African cultures for many generations. They understood that the first sense to develop in humans is the sense of touch and that it is essential to health and wellness. Massage treatments for the young members among ancient cultures served to heal, to energize, to calm and to reinforce close bonding and the sense of trust and security.

Having been working zealously on the subject of massage for young children for the past ten or so years, Dr. Tiffany Field and her associates at the Touch Research Institute (TRI) in Miami, Florida insist that, Every child, no matter the age, should be massaged at bedtime on a regular basis.

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