Tag: inflammation

Antidepressants And Their Side Effects

Antidepressant medications can often help depression sufferers. However, they do have side effects and some can be dangerous. Before starting any antidepressant medication, it is a good idea to consult with your doctor so you can weigh the benefits and the risks. Sometimes antidepressant meds are not the solution because of the side effects.

Depression is most often caused by lower levels of serotonin in the brain. Antidepressants raise these levels back to their state of normalcy. While it is true that there are many studies that contradict the theory of depression being caused by a chemical imbalance, they have yet to figure out exactly what is the cause.

Serotonin levels cannot be measured, so researchers do not know what a normal level is. All they know is that something causes the serotonin levels to decrease and there are drugs to reverse this. Some studies have shown that moods and depression do not always worsen when the individuals serotonin levels are reduced. Also in question is the fact that antidepressants take several weeks to start having an effect, yet it only takes a few hours for the same medications to raise serotonin levels. It would make sense that a depressed person should feel better in a few hours, not a few weeks.

Researchers are starting to realize that depression involves more than a chemical imbalance in the brain. While lower serotonin levels appear to be one of the causes, they are also finding that elevated stress levels, inflammation, nutritional deficiencies, shrinking brain cells, suppressing immune systems and abnormal activity in the brain are surfacing as causes. There are also many psychological and social factors that have an effect as well.

Antidepressant medication has proven to be effective when treating depression. It has also shown to cause side effects in approximately 50% of the people that take them. Medication should only be prescrib3ed when the symptoms of depression are severe. In most cases of mild depression, exercise, changes to diet, and therapy can work just as effectively.

The most prescribed types of antidepressants are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). These medications are commonly known as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Luvox, and Lexapro. SSRIs are responsible for increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

Serotonin is responsible for regulating mood and helps with pain, sleep, digestion, and mental clarity. Due to these roles, SSRIs come with a large range of side effects such as nausea, anxiety, insomnia, decreased sex drive, sweating, sleepiness, dizziness, dry mouth, headaches, and weight gain/loss. The most common of these side effects are lowered sex drive, sleepiness, insomnia, and nausea. These side effects usually go away within a few weeks. Sometimes though, they remain and even can get worse.

Some of the newer drugs on the market such as Wellbutrin and Effexor are called atypical antidepressants because they affect other neurotransmitters as well as serotonin. The side effects of these drugs are less severe and include nausea, fatigue, weight gain, nervousness, and dry mouth.

Regardless of which medication path the doctor prescribes, always weigh the benefits against the risks to make sure the chosen medication is right for you.

Essential Asthma Info

Do you have an asthma condition or allergy? If you do, you need to know what it is all about so that you can effectively prevent it from negatively affecting your life.

The causes of asthma may vary from one individual to another and because of this, some asthmatic individuals experience mild or severe attacks.

How can you tell if youre having a severe asthma attack? You need to take immediate action if youre already experiencing difficulty in breathing. This happens because of the low oxygen level in the extremities and the lips.

The only way to properly address your asthma symptoms is to consult first an experienced medical professional. By undergoing a thorough check up, you will be able to treat your asthma allergy effectively. Several tests are usually conducted to confirm if an individual has asthma. A qualified doctor is the only one who can identify the cause of your asthma allergy and after that, he or she will give you the best treatment option.

Oftentimes, a certain substance is used to treat the allergy. This substance decreases the inflammation of the respiratory systems lining. Such medications decrease chemicals which cause the narrowing and inflammation of the bronchioles and bronchi lumen. You cant just administer the asthma medications without the doctors advice because you might compromise your health and safety, especially in the case of acute asthma.

On the onset of the asthma attack, you must consult a doctor immediately. Even if youre unsure about your condition, a medical check up can clear your mind and suspicions. Certain substances and chemicals can cause the attack and once these things are identified, you can avoid the asthma attacks. Such chemicals or substances are also called triggers. If you hardly know anything about asthma, this article can help you in some way. However, you cant just rely entirely on this information source especially if youre having severe attacks. Again, try to schedule an appointment with your doctor.

If it is already confirmed that you have asthma, you must follow your doctors instructions and prescriptions. Try to avoid the asthma triggers so that you can also stay away from the attacks. Asthma can also cause death in some cases. When left untreated, your asthma can get worse. Severe asthma attacks can be very difficult to handle without the help of a medical professional.

There is loads of information about asthma online. You can only make use of them after youve consulted a doctor. Asthma information is quite valuable especially to asthma patients. If you want to prevent or avoid this condition, prevention is still the best cure. Besides, medical costs are continuously increasing every year, including that of the asthma treatments. If you dont experience any asthma attacks, then you wont have to spend anything on the medical costs. There are also ways to prevent asthma. If the doctor has already identified the asthmaggers, you should stay away from them as much as possible.

Living a healthy lifestyle is probably the best way to prevent asthma attacks. You must learn to live the right way. Try to monitor your diet. You should eat only healthy choices of foods and stay away from foods which also trigger the attacks. Having adequate knowledge can really help you in treating and controlling asthma. Dont allow asthma to control your life; consult your doctor about it.

Discover The Truth About Lower Left Back Pain

Many people immediately associate lower left back pain with any muscle strains or injuries to the area. With how common muscle injuries are to the lower back, it’s no wonder that that’s everyone first assumption. The problem is, not all lower back pain is caused by muscle sprains or strains. It can be dangerous and even downright deadly to immediately assume that’s the cause and not seek treatment right away.

Most lower back pain associated in the center of a person’s lower back is probably caused by some sort of strain or inflammation in the area. If you’re having lower left back pain, or even lower right back pain, you seriously need to sit up and take notice. Don’t dismiss it as having slept oddly the night before or being a little stiff after sitting at your desk at work all day.

Back pain that’s located more on one side over the other could signal a potentially life threatening situation known as a kidney infection. Chances are, by the time someone is feeling lower left back pain from a kidney infection, the kidney infection has been going on for awhile. Kidney infections can cause permanent damage to a person’s kidney. In a worst case scenario, a kidney infection can cause a person’s kidney to stop functioning entirely. That can result in the need for dialysis and a potential kidney transplant later than life. Often times, kidney infections are accompanied by a fever. Sometimes, the fever can spike extremely high, very quickly.

Kidney infections can be caused by bladder or urinary tract infections. If you’re prone to them, you really need to immediately seek treatment if you have lower left back pain. Bladder infections can be asymptomatic. That means, you can have one and never know it because you don’t feel it. Bladder infections can cause kidney infections by allowing bacteria to go into the kidneys. That’s why any lower left back pain really should be evaluated by a doctor to see if it’s the beginning stages of a kidney infection.

Another potential cause of lower left back pain could be a pinched nerve. Many nerves branch out over our entire body from the spinal cord. They run through muscle, around blood vessels, even through spaces between our bones and joints. If a muscle becomes inflamed, it can cause nerves to rub up against the bone, effectively causing the nerves to become pinched between the muscle and bone. If bones become misaligned, it can cause nerves to pinch between the bones. Any sharp, stabbing pain in your lower left back needs to be treated by a doctor. There are different treatments for pinched nerves than muscle strains so it’s important you are getting the proper treatment for your lower left back pain if you want to avoid injuries in the future.

As you can see, there are many different causes and treatments for lower left back pain. The important thing is to get proper treatment for your particular injury.

Existing Treatment For Celiac Disease

Instead of going round and round, Im going to tell you now: theres no existing treatment that could cure Celiac disease. Theres no one medicine that can help eliminate the symptoms. Theres no one operation that can solve the problem.

However, there are ways to manage the disease. The symptoms are bad and can be dangerous, but with proper measures, you can live a normal life without any complications or problems. The basic, and probably the best, way to manage the disease is through your diet.

Celiac disease is a digestive condition that is caused when you eat the protein gluten. So this means eating food like bread, pasta, pizza crust and other foods made or containing wheat, barley or rye can easily cause the condition. What happens is that gluten damages the villi inside the small intestines. Since the villi are responsible for the absorption of minerals from the food we eat, without them the body will not be able to get the necessary nutrients and minerals it needs. So you can see where this can lead to when not managed correctly: severe malnutrition which can then cause other serious ailments resulting from the bodys lack of nutrition.

Why some people develop gluten intolerance is still not known. The disease was earlier thought as a condition only affecting people in Europe. But recent studies have shown that the disease is not dependent on the age and ethnicity. One thing is certain though, the condition is inherited. The condition can arise at any time but usually is triggered by the consumption of gluten.

Removing the gluten in the diet is the key to reduce the inflammation in the small intestines caused by the disease. The effects can be noticed weeks after the change in the diet. If you have been suffering from the symptoms of the disease and have been diagnosed with celiac disease only recently, you might need to take vitamin supplements to recover from the nutritional deficiencies. The difficulties of diagnosing celiac disease lie on the fact that the symptoms and conditions resemble other digestive conditions or allergic reactions.

Those with celiac disease have to understand that they need to be on a life long gluten free diet since the inflammation of the small intestines can be triggered again. So a commitment to a lifestyle change is needed for them to be free of the symptoms of the disease.

A gluten free diet simply means avoiding food products that contain, are made and/or have been prepared from wheat, oats, barley and rye. This means reading carefully food labels and making sure that the food you will be picking up from the supermarket shelves are gluten free. Fortunately, there are products today which are gluten free. You can come up with alternative dishes as well.

Aside from the grains, you should start avoiding bear and alcohol products as well. Food made from brown rice syrup, cake flour, and caramel can also trigger the disease. Anything creamed or breaded which includes vegetables. Fried chicken has been found to set off the disease as well.

Other foods to be avoided include pastas, salad dressings, gravies and sauces prepared from tomato and meat, soft cheeses, dips, stuffings, herbal teas and even flavored coffees. It is especially important that you consult a proper dietitian to help you create a list of food that you can and cannot eat.

This is really the only existing treatment for celiac disease. Once the gluten is removed from the diet, the intestines villi will start to heal and grow back. This may take several months to years depending on the amount of damage caused by the disease and the age of the person who contracted it. The healing process will take longer for older people.