Tag: Doctors

Injection For Tanning-Newest Beauty Fads

One of the newest “beauty” fads that seems to be popping up is the use of injection for tanning. Supposedly, these injections will help promote a rich dark tan without exposure to the sun.

In some cases, since you don’t need to go out in the sun (again, supposedly) they are being billed as a safer alternative to tanning or tanning beds. But are they really safe? Is this really a viable alternative to those of us who like the way we look with a nice glowing tan?

According to the research I did when writing this article I would say no. At the very minimum, there is not enough long term data to definitively say that an injection for tanning is safe.

Whenever you are dealing with chemicals, especially those that are being introduced directly into the body by the bloodstream, it can take a long time for potential side effects to show up.

The longer the use, and the more people using it, the sooner any possible negative side effects will show up. But in the beginning, it may seem like these products are safe when it fact they are not.

As far as I could tell, there is not one governing body, like the FDA for example, in any country that has said that these types of injections are ok and safe.

The research I did interviewed many dermatologists and doctors and everyone of them advised not to use this type of tanning method. To a doctor they stated that it was just too early to know whether or not this would be safe for the long term.

Another thing to take into consideration is since these products are sold exclusively online you don’t know what you are getting. Another real concern these doctors had was just what was in this injection?

With no oversight, the manufacturers could be putting pretty much anything in the injection that they wanted.

This was one of the biggest reasons that all the doctors I saw were against using this product. Just like many illegal drugs are laced with potentially toxic, deadly chemicals, these injections could be too.

The actual injection can vary significantly from one site to another and no one knows what is in the vial of liquid that you will be introducing directly into your bloodstream. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be pale than to shoot some unknown substance into my bloodstream!

The other more conventional tanning methods like sun bathing, tanning booths and even spray on tans are certainly not without risks, but at least we know what those risks are and we aren’t adding chemicals directly into our bodies.

If I were you, I’d stick with the comparatively safe alternatives listed above rather than using pills or injection to get a tan. Better the risk you know about than those you can’t see coming.

Injection for tanning at this stage of the game is a very bad idea in my opinion. We all want to look good and I like the way I look with a tan as much as anyone, but it sure isn’t worth dying over.

Professional Treatments for Warts

Warts cause embarrassment and discomfort. Home remedies and over-the-counter preparations work for some people. However, there are times when it becomes advantageous to call in a professional to treat your warts.

Retinoid cream is prescribed by doctors as an experimental treatment to get rid of warts. It is composed of a substance that comes from Vitamin A, called tretinoin. It has been shown, in research studies, to work well. Eighty-five percent of children who used it had positive results.

Retinoid cream shouldn’t be used on pregnant women’s warts because it’s been associated with birth defects. It can also cause changes in the skin of those who do use it. Skin can become dry, sensitive, swollen, crusted, or blistered. It can become red or have other color changes. If you use it, your skin can become sensitive to the sun.

Rather than slow down skin cell growth, which is what retinoid cream does, contact sensitizers work with the immune system instead. The first thing the doctor will do is to apply a contact synthesizer to your arm or back. This will start a reaction in your immune system.

The next time the contact sensitizer is applied, an allergic reaction will ensue. After that, the substance will be put directly on the warts and it will destroy it by summoning your immune system. Eighty percent of people in one study were helped with this treatment.

A doctor might put Cantharidin on your warts and keep it there with a bandage. After awhile, the wart will have a blister around it. Then, the doctor can lift the warts off and remove it.

Warts can also be frozen off. This is called cryotherapy. There is actually at least one over-the-counter kit for this. If a doctor does it, he will apply liquid nitrogen to the wart. After a blister has formed, you have to wait for about a week. At this time, the wart will fall off.

Cryosurgery uses basically the same ingredients, but the deep freezing gets rid of the warts sooner. Or, the base of the warts can be destroyed by applying an electric needle to it. These are miner surgeries.

Laser surgery can be done to remove warts. It is usually reserved for special cases. A pregnant woman may have no other way to have warts removed. A person may have a great number of warts and they may be very large.

The laser is basically just a beam of light that is highly focused. It can burn off warts and leave surrounding tissue unharmed if done right. It may be done with local anesthesia. Or, if the warts cover a large area general anesthesia is called for.

Once the warts have been removed, there will be a wound. This will be painful for a few days, but it should feel better after that. If you have undergone this treatment, you should watch out for excessive pain that persists. Tell your doctor if you notice pus or run a fever. This method has been shown to be successful on warts sixty-six percent of the time.

Is It A Wart Or Is It Something Else?

The outermost layer of the skin is called the epidermis. As the skin covers all parts of the body, warts can be found virtually anywhere on the body. Unfortunately, there are also a number of other types of growths which can appear on the skin in a similar manner. In order to affect the best means of treatment, it is important to determine whether a particular growth is a wart or whether it is something else. Being able to treat a growth for what it is obviously is relevant in selecting the best treatment; but another important factor is that some types of growths can be much more dangerous than most common warts. In taking both of these points into consideration, the earliest possible diagnosis is essential.

A wart is a benign tumor. As the word “tumor” can lead people to scurry off to their doctors, presenting it in this manner can be helpful. The reason for this is that many common warts, benign in themselves, can easily be confused with the malignant growths that are skin cancers. If you have a wart, or a cluster of them, do not be too hasty to dismiss them as harmless. There is a possibility that it could be a skin cancer, and many types of skin cancer are deadly. The significant rate of deaths from skin cancer is usually attributed to the fact that the cancer is not diagnosed and treated in time, and spreads quite rapidly.

For everyone in general, but most especially people who have had a lot of exposure to the sun, any new growth on the skin should be treated as suspicious and checked by a physician as soon as possible. You may indeed have nothing more than an annoying wart, but prompt medical attention to determine this is very important. Most skin cancers are usually one-hundred-percent curable if they are diagnosed and treated in time.

Another growth on the skin which is frequently mistaken for a wart is the common callous. A callous is a hardening of the skin, usually rough to the touch. Callouses occur in areas where there is the most pressure or friction to the skin, such as the heels of the feet, or the areas of the fingers if the person does a lot of writing or other similar detailed work.

Clavi commonly known as corns are smaller, more localized forms of callouses. They are most common on the feet, especially when one wears improperly-fitting shoes. They can bear a striking resemblance to warts, but they are not contagious to other people and will not spread to other parts of the body.

All types of warts are a problem to those who suffer from them, and can be as much of a problem to anyone who acquires warts from another person or infected surfaces. But in the interest of your health, before making a decision about the best treatment for your warts, it is a very good idea to first know for certain that it is indeed a wart and not any of the other types of growths that can appear on your skin. Although the black spot of the blood supply to a wart is a sign that that’s what it is, for the sake of your own peace of mind it is best that you not try to diagnose it yourself. A physician is the most competent judge as whether a growth is a wart, or whether it is something else.

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale

People experience anxiety in different ways. Some tend to eat to much, while others let this off through smoking and drinking. Unfortunately, not everybody takes this the same way. When a person feels unhappy or loses the appetite to eat, there is a chance that the individual is suffering from depression.

Doctors have not yet been able to measure the degree into how bad depression can get. This is the reason that some scientists have made a self report scale called a depression anxiety stress scale. The objective of the study is to provide scientists and researchers better information to treat this problem.

The scale is divided into three sets. The first is the depression scale which will assess the person’s perception in life and interest in certain things.

The second is the anxiety scale which looks into situational anxiety, autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects and subjective experience of anxious effect.

The third is the stress scale which will look into how long before the person feels stressed. This will look into things that will arouse or upset the individual. This also includes what things makes one nervous or causes difficulty in relaxing.

Each of these are composed of 14 items that is subdivided again into 2 to 5 items which just goes to show how long and extensive the test can be. The person answers each question by answering on a scale of 1 to 4 which will assess how stressed the individual is for the week.

If the person has a hard time answering these questions, there is a shorter version that can be used. Doctors don’t only administer this with people who have anxiety disorders. The test is also given to regular people as part of the comparative report.

The questionnaires to be given out can be done individually or in groups. This is sometimes used in children as early as 12 years of age to determine if stress is caused by work or when this occurs as the individual is growing up.

Large companies who are concerned about the employees sometimes employ the help of social workers to administer the depression anxiety stress scale or DASS on people. These firms should remember that the results of these tests can only be translated by those in the medical field so that recommendations and treatment can take place.

There are two main differences between this test and those used in the past.

The first is that the DASS is that it is based on a dimensional rather than a categorical conception of what the patient may be experiencing.

The second is that it separates the categories into three namely depression, anxiety and stress and treating this separately to give a bigger picture of what is happening to the patient.

This means that classifying a person on the degree of help is far different and that this is often regarded as normal, moderate or severe as written in the DASS manual.

The DASS questionnaire can be downloaded for free from the internet. The person will have to pay $55 or more for the manual to be able to understand the findings of anyone who has taken the test.

The individual can learn more about this by surfing the web or reading up on this in some medical journals to get a better understanding of how this can help treat a patient.