Tag: surgery

How Many Acupuncture Treatments Will it Take?

Acupuncture is a well-established and increasingly accepted treatment procedure for pain, for emotional troubles, and for an ever increasing number of physical ailments. More and more traditional physicians are referring patients to acupuncture clinics for a certain set of problems that may be treated more effectively, and without the side effects of medication. Also, individuals may decide to use an acupuncture clinic as the first choice to heal a disease.

The length of a treatment varies widely from person to person, depending on the particular symptoms, the age of the patient, how long the condition has existed, and the environment of the patient. There also seem to be patients that are naturally responsive to acupuncture, when all the other factors are similar. A patient that is responsive to acupuncture may only require one or two visits, as is the case with a number of children. Adult patients that are responsive generally require one to six visits for a particular symptom or set of symptoms. In other cases, up to twenty visits may be required, depending on the severity and length of time the symptoms have persisted. But even some remarkable cases such as recovery from paralysis may come about after a very long series of treatments.

For some conditions, such as for chronic pain, daily treatments are recommended until the pain subsides. The same is true for clients using acupuncture as a means to help stop drug addiction, which require daily treatments in order to keep the cravings at a minimal level. In a few patients, the initial treatment may aggravate the symptoms. A similar possibility is that there is a marked improvement after the first treatment, which may be followed by an aggravation of symptoms at the next few treatments. These should be reported in detail to the acupuncture practitioner, who may revise the locations of needles for the treatment, depending on the particular patient.

It is always a good idea to consider an acupuncture practitioner for whatever health problem you might have. Some problems respond exceptionally well with acupuncture. Acupuncture has a very good success rate for such symptoms as headaches, head congestion, cramps (menstrual, muscular, or intestinal), pain, depression, fatigue, hemorrhoids, and children’s nervous disorders. Acupuncture treatments have frequent success in the following areas, though not quite the same success rate as in the areas above. These include diarrhea, painful menstruation, eczema, gastric problems, kidney and gall bladder malfunction, nervous disorders, palpitations, rheumatism, shingles, autonomic nervous problems, especially following surgery.

There are a number of other conditions that acupuncture can be effective for, and for these a practitioner should be consulted, as new results are coming out frequently. Currently, it is thought that acupuncture is more helpful for symptoms rather than curing such diseases as tuberculosis, infantile paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease. Acupuncture treatments are sometimes surprisingly effective after traditional medicine has been tried without success. Lets look at two simple cases. In the first, a lady suffered with pain in her ankle for three years, and no standard medical treatment helped. Careful observation of her symptoms by an experienced acupuncture practitioner cured her in three treatments. The second case was of a farmer who had a low grade fever (about 100 degrees) nearly every night for a number of months. Regular physicians could not determine a cause, nor a solution. Regular acupuncture treatment was not effective. The acupuncture practitioner then applied the treatments at the optimal time (very early AM, not during the normal clinic hours), and the fever disappeared permanently. I hope this introduction to some uses of acupuncture may help you or someone you know to better health.

Managing Arthritis Pain Calcium and Vitamins

Managing Arthritis Pain Calcium and Vitamins
Steven Godlewski


Arthritis is a complex disorder that comprises more than 100 distinct conditions and can affect people at any stage of life. Two of the most common forms are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. These two forms have very different causes, risk factors, and effects on the body. The most common symptom in both is persistent joint pain. The joint pain of arthritis can appear as hip pain, knee pain, hand pain, or wrist pain, as well as joint pain in other areas of the body.
For most people arthritis pain and inflammation cannot be avoided as the body ages. Joints naturally degenerate over time. Fortunately, arthritis can be managed through a combination of vitamins, medication, exercise, rest, weight-management, nutrition, and, in some cases, surgery. Arthritis is a chronic disease that will be with you for a long time and possibly for the rest of your life. Your treatments will probably change over time and medication may be adjusted. Having a positive mental outlook and the support of family and friends will help you live with arthritis and be able to continue to perform your daily activities.
Before going any further, it is important that you remember to discuss any and all vitamins and supplements with your doctor before adding anything to your diet. Though it is not common, some vitamins and supplements can have adverse reactions with medications you may already be taking. Do not stop taking any prescribed medications without first talking to your doctor.
As an alternative to getting your RDA through diet, many people now take vitamin supplements. The following list of vitamins are known to be especially beneficial to arthritis sufferers:
Vitamin B5 – When grouped together B vitamins work at their peak, B5 specifically being good for reducing swelling.
Vitamin B3 – This vitamin reduces tissue swelling and dilates small arteries, improved grip strength and joint mobility and increasing blood flow. Note that Vitamin B3 is NOT advised for persons with high blood pressure, gout or sliver disorders.
Vitamin B6 – Another B that reduces tissue swelling. B-6 shrinks the synovial membranes that line the weight-bearing surfaces of the joints. It thus helps to control pain and to restore mobility in the elbows, shoulders, knees and other joints.
Vitamin B12 – This vitamin aids in multiple functions. It helps with cell formation, digestion, myelin production, nerve protection.
Vitamin C – This vitamin acts as an anti-inflammatory, relieving pain, and rids the body of free radicals. In addition to reducing inflammation, vitamin C also helps form collagen, the protein “glue” that holds cells together. Collagen is especially important in connective tissue to insure healthy ligaments, cartilage, tendons and the joints themselves.
Vitamin E – This is a strong antioxidant that protects joints from free radicals while increases joint flexibility.
Vitamin K – This vitamin assists with mineral deposit into the bone matrix.
Selenium and Zinc- The antioxidant nutrients such as selenium and zinc might also be effective because of their ability to stop free radical damage to joint linings that in turn causes the accumulation of fluids, swelling and associated pain.
Chondroitin – the key structural component in cartilage and plays an important role in the maintenance of joint cartilage.
These guidelines will help you evaluate supplements to relieve arthritis symptoms. If used under the guidance of your physician, you may find a dietary supplement to compliment your current arthritis therapy regimen. You just need the right information to help you separate potentially useful supplements from the rest.
Copyright 2006 PillFreeVitamins.com

About The Author

Steven Godlewski is a self-made millionaire and is currently working with the staff at PillFreeVitamins.com He has an extensive background in nutrition as well as other health related fields. For more health-related articles see their website at: http://www.pillfreevitamins.com

Facts about How Your Hair Will Look After Hair Transplant

Facts about How Your Hair Will Look After Hair Transplant Surgery

Before you have hair transplant surgery, you might want to know how it will turn out. The truth is that every head of hair is different from all others and you cannot know exactly how it will turn out. However, with a few facts at your disposal, you can get an advance idea of how your hair will look.

1. The more hairs per graft that are used in your hair transplant, the less natural your hair will look. Many doctors still use grafts that contain up to eight hairs. These do not look as conspicuous as the hair plugs of earlier decades, but they do not look as natural as they can, either. Try to find a doctor that uses grafts that contain one to four hair follicles.

These smaller grafts, also called follicular unit grafts, are ideal in restoring a receding hairline. If your doctor uses the follicular unit grafts for your hairline, it will look much more natural than with the larger plug-like grafts. This is important because your hair transplant will be noticeable if the hairline is not done well.

2. Your hair transplant site will be fuller if you have higher density in your donor sites. The density is based upon the number of hair follicles you have in each section of your scalp. If you have a high number of hair follicles per square centimeter than most people, more grafts can be done, so your hair will look fuller.

3. Your scalp laxity will also affect the fullness of your resulting hair transplant site. This refers to the flexibility of your scalp. How loose your scalp is helps to decide how many grafts can be done just as hair density does.

4. Coarse hair will cover more area. When your hair transplant is done, the surgeon will be able to use fewer hair follicles per graft if your hair is coarse. That is because coarse hair provides more coverage. However, finer hair will tend to look more natural, if thinner.

5. Straight hair does not cover scalp like curly hair does. If you have straight hair, you can be sure that your hair transplant surgery will be a challenge to your doctor. Curly hair appears to provide even more coverage than it actually does because it stands up from the head.

6. The way your hair color compares to your skin color will have an effect on the look of your hair transplant. If you have a hair color that is similar to the color of your skin, you are in luck. Your scalp will not betray any lack of coverage that happens to be present.

If, on the other hand, your hair and skin color contrast distinctly hair follicles show up more. If there is even the slightest lack of coverage, it will be evident. Just imagine a very light-skinned person with jet-black hair. This person’s hair follicles will stand out in a very obvious way.

No one ever knows how hair transplant surgery will turn out until they see the results. All of the basic problems can be dealt with if a skilled surgeon is involved. However, knowing the possibilities will make it easier for you to know what questions to ask.

My Intralasik Experience

I wanted to investigate Lasik vision correction for myself, and found that there were several options. After talking it over with a great Lasik physician, I decided on using bladeless Lasik, or Intralasik, or Intralase. I cannot say that I decided that for any great technical reasons, mine were mainly psychological.

The advantage of Intralasik over a traditional Lasik procedure is that a laser is used to make a flap in the eye. Every Lasik procedure needs to make a flap in order for the excimer laser to be able to reshape the corner. In traditional Lasik, the flap is made with a microkeratome, which is “a very small blade, not a scalpel”. Well, maybe to you. Somehow, even though both the laser and the blade made the same flap, the idea of someone taking a sharp object to….. well, you get the picture.

In addition (though there is a lot of argument and debate over this) using a laser to make the flap might (let me emphasize might to be fair to everyone) make the Lasik procedure have less chance of getting other cells underneath the flap. I don’t really understand all of the Lasik arguments with regard to this, but I think you should discuss the various Lasik options with the physician. They do vary in cost also.

Before I talk about the procedure itself, let me give a bird’s eye view of myself as a Lasik candidate. In short, spectacular! Seriously, all of the items for a good Lasik candidate could describe me: a healthy guy in my mid-thirties, with moderate nearsightedness and slight astigmatism, with good results on all eye exam tests (thick cornea, no eye scarring or infections, etc.).

I did visit two different Lasik surgeons to get their independent opinions of me as a candidate, and also their description of their services. One of the Lasik surgeons is on the staff at the medical college in a nearby major metropolitan center, so I was pretty assured that their opinions were valid.

On the day of the Lasik surgery I came in, paid my first payment for the procedure, and had my eye prescription rechecked. I was given post-procedure instructions on eye drops, no exercising (yeah!), and to go to sleep after the Lasik procedure. I was given a relaxant, and the Lasik physician and I went to the surgery suite.

The chair has padded pillows to rest and restrict head movement, and a teddy bear to hold if I wanted it. There was a clamp to hold my eyes open, and a suction ring, and then my vision in that eye went a bit dim. The first Lasik laser made the flap, and I focused on a small light while the other laser made the cornea changes. This took less than thirty seconds, or so I was told.

Mainly I was aware of clicking noises and some pressure, but no pain or real discomfort. After the eye flaps were put back in place, I rested in a recliner for about 20 minutes. I could see more clearly immediately after the Lasik operation was over, but was told not to try and test my eyes for a number of days, and rather concentrate on getting them healthy and healed.

I am surprised and immensely pleased it went so easily, well, and pain free. I would recommend this type of Lasik procedure to anyone.