On February 9, 2004, the Food and Drug Administration FDA issued a final rule prohibiting the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids or ephedra. It stated that such supplements present an unreasonable risk of illness or injury. FDA also reiterates its advice that consumers stop using ephedra products immediately.

Two thousand years ago ephedra under the name Ma huang was used in Chinese medicine to treat several disorders. Amongst other illnesses, asthma and bronchitis were treated with ephedra. Ephedra comes from a plant that has a few powerful active compounds, of which ephedrine is the most useful.

Ephedra is a shrub-like plant that is found in desert regions in central Asia and other parts of the world. The dried greens of the plant are used medicinally. Ephedra is a stimulant containing the herbal form of ephedrine, an FDA-regulated drug found in many over-the-counter asthma medications.

In the United States, ephedra and ephedrine are sold over-the-counter OTC in pharmacies and in health food stores under a variety of brand names. Currently, ephedrine is widely used as a weight loss drug, as an energy booster, and as an athletic performance enhancer. These products often contain other stimulants, such as caffeine, which may have synergistic effects and increase the potential for adverse effects.

Over the past few years, ephedra has gained much more attention for its side-effects an increased metabolism, plus the thermeogenic and fat-burning qualities that come along with it. This gives the body stimulation and provides energy. Thanks to these qualities, ephedra now has the reputation of being a fat-burner, smartdrug and sports supplement. A reputation that has recently become controversial because of the ban on ephedra products in the United States and the Netherlands.

Studies have suggested that herbal supplements are generally not advised by the established medical community, including continuous warnings from the FDA. The real problem with herbal supplements is not in their effectiveness, but their side effects, which often include drastic increases in blood pressure and heart problems.

Ephedrine alkaloids are amphetamine-like compounds used in OTC and prescription drugs with potentially lethal stimulant effects on the central nervous system and heart. The FDA has received more than 800 reports of adverse effects associated with use of products containing ephedrine alkaloid since 1994. These serious adverse effects, include hypertension elevated blood pressure, palpitations rapid heart rate, neuropathy nerve damage, myopathy muscle injury, psychosis, stroke, memory loss, heart rate irregularities, insomnia, nervousness, tremors, seizures, heart attacks, and death. The agency has proposed to prohibit the marketing of dietary supplements containing eight milligrams or more of ephedrine alkaloids per serving.

Despite its many potentially harmful side effects, ephedrine is for the most part, dangerous only if abused. Nevertheless, it offers a variety of positive qualities in terms of its beneficial effects on particular aspects of the mind and body. One of its more significant qualities is its potential effect on weight loss.

In short, ephedrine has shown promising signs in terms of its generally positive effects on the human body, especially on the reduction of fat and body weight. But research has also shown that is is virtually impossible to achieve weight loss without a healthy diet and regular exercise. Therefore, it seems that the most logical solution to lose weight must involve the proper combination of diet, exercise, and drug interaction. Ephedrine may hold the key to fill in for the drug portion of the equation, but as with practically all drugs, there are risks involved. Whether ephedrine is too dangerous to be sold in OTC products, is still under debate. Ephedrine does have great potential, yet is it worth the risks?

Does your attitude have a connection to your physical and mental health? Up until recently, the answer to that was a strong ‘No’ from a strictly scientific standpoint. However, according to some recent studies, there may be more to it than the obvious. More or less, mental health and personal outlook and philosophy are connected. There isn’t much scientific data to explain how the two are connected, but there is ample proof of the link. However, what about the body? Will people who perceive themselves as being healthier and more lively actually be in a better physical state than others? Unlike the mental health link, there is no definite connection made just yet, but there have been some findings that point to a possibility.

According to a large-scale study conducted by Duke University, there is a link between attitudes and physical well-being. The reports state that the research team did their best to eliminate external factors, such as mental health issues, vices, and hereditary diseases from the final results. The end result of the report makes the claim that, if two people with similar states of physical well-being are taken, the one with a more positive outlook is more likely to have better health in the long-term. The one that has more fear and anxiety about his physical condition is more likely to suffer from some sort of illness or have poorer overall health than his counterpart.

Of course, before taking this into account, people should also eliminate possible factors affecting longevity and health. For example, people who have depression or Thanatos complex may perform acts that can permanently compromise their immune system, possibly cutting their life expectancy. The relationship between diet and vices to physical and mental health also plays a larger role than outlook and attitude theoretically do. Further study is under way, but Dr. Ellen Idler has studied the research data and the implications extensively. She believes that the link is less of a mystical one and more deeply rooted in the principles of cause and effect. According to her theory, the relationship between attitude and longevity is one that is connected to mental health.

In her theory, people who have a more negative outlook are more likely to slip into unhealthy lifestyles. Whether this is subconscious or not would likely vary from case to case, but she believes that negative attitudes tend to eventually lead to negative states of mind. It is known that mental health is connected closely to physical health, with a number of mental disorders either having physical symptoms or side effects. While a negative outlook in life may not necessarily be an act of self-destruction on the person’s part, it may help push the person into an increasingly degenerate lifestyle.

Further study is likely to be needed before any concrete connections are made. There are currently two major areas where the studies are liable to concentrate. First is the theory that a positive outlook is linked to mental health and that is how it affects the physical well-being and longevity of a person. Another, far less accepted theory, is that a positive outlook actually can influence the body in the same way that some people manifest physical symptoms simply by believing that they are ill.

At 41, Brian Place found a lump near his left nipple and dismissed it as a sort of injury from the rough games he had been involved with for most of his life. He thought that the lump was probably a result of a collision with another rugby player. Though his doctor didn’t think much of the lump either, nevertheless, he advised Place to get a mammogram test. When the ultrasound of the breast and a biopsy came out, the diagnosis shocked Place and his colleagues from the Royal Air Force in Britain where he works as a Communications Technician breast cancer.
Staff at his local breast clinic even assumed that Place was accompanying a female patient during his check up. The confusion is understandable. Only about less than 1 of breast cancers diagnosed occur in men. The rarity of breast cancer in men leaves so much room for research regarding the condition. According to Dr. Larissa Korde, staff clinician at the National Cancer Institute’s clinical genetics branch, In women, we have studies based on hundreds of thousands of patients. However, there are no studies of that scale in men. Though much can be extrapolated from research in women, said Korde, it’s a little bit harder to make recommendations for men based on evidence.
One of the surest risk factors to consider is family medical history, that is, for both men and women. At the time of Place’s diagnosis, two female relatives of his had died of breast cancer and a third of ovarian cancer. However, several genes may contribute to breast cancer, such as mutations which are known to increase the possibilities of both breast and ovarian cancers. Although most men might never even meet a man with breast cancer, those who have several relatives diagnosed with breast cancer should be wary for signs of their own breast tumors. Based on studies, certain populations with an unusually high proportion of people carrying BRCA2 mutations may have a higher incidence rate of breast cancer in men, such as in Sweden, Hungary, Iceland, and among Ashkenazi Jews.
There are similarities in the survival rates for men and women as they adjust in the stage of the disease at diagnosis. But since men do not undergo a regular screening like women do, they are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage. The lumps may not always be detected by medical scanning equipment.

Medical treatment usually includes surgery, to be followed by some combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. With men, an additional hormone treatment is necessary because almost all men with breast cancer have tumors characterized as hormone-receptor-positive.
After two years of medical treatment and therapy, Place is now doing well. Two years after his diagnosis, Place is well enough to play contact sports. The mastectomy was successful, and Place has decided to discontinue his hormone treatment due to its side effects like hot flashes which he found to be very unpleasant.
Brian Place is now an active participant in online discussions and support group communities for cancer patients. He tries to answer questions regarding male breast-cancer conditions. Place also gives talks to people who contact him through the U.K. nonprofit Breast Cancer Care. Although there are women who are not yet accustomed to men with breast cancer condition, time and awareness can help address the issue.

The human body is often cited to be a complex machine, with several subsections that are working in conjunction with one another. As such, it can be seen that there is some truth to the traditional Chinese medicine concept of treating overall balance, rather than individual symptoms. Since all the systems are inevitably interconnected, then what affects one aspect of a person’s physical or mental health can also have an effect other aspects. While everyone and their grandmother knows that disrupting one’s sleep patterns or a lack of sleep can have an effect on the body, new research is revealing that there may be more side effects than conventional knowledge is aware of.

Most people are already aware of the more immediate effects of sleep problems, such as insomnia. There is a noticeable drop in alertness and cognitive ability, which can sometimes appear to be cumulative if the lack of sleep is prolonged. Sensory information can sometimes be processed slower than normal. There are also some studies that point to partial temporary memory loss as an effect. The ability to control body temperature is also disrupted, with some people losing the ability to regulate body heat altogether after prolonged periods with disrupted or broken sleep cycles. Significant lack of sleep has also been known to speed up the aging process of the skin, making a person seem older than they actually are.

However, there are even more problems for those with chronic lack of sleep or broken sleep cycles. According to research recently completed by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the metabolism of a person may also be subject to side effects of sleep deprivation. There were profound differences in the metabolic rates of the people who were subjected to controlled levels of sleep deprivation. The results showed that glucose tolerance, one of the key indicators used to determine whether someone has diabetes, changed. Rather than showing a normal glucose tolerance for their age, the sleep deprived test subjects exhibited the tolerance of someone in the early stages of diabetes. The results seem to indicate that the body’s ability to metabolize glucose is hampered by sleep debt.

The results suggest that sleep deprivation may play a role in the onset of diabetes, as well as being considered as a possible factor in the statistic rise of people with diabetes in developed countries. Other effects that the study noted included hypertension, more rapid aging of skin cells, a decreased metabolic rate which may lead to obesity, and various memory-related issues. The study was conducted only on a short-term basis for this type of research, lasting only 16 days. It is speculated that the recorded effects can only get worse if the sleep deprivation period was prolonged.

It is notable that, unlike studies that have come before it, this research team was not interested in the cognitive effects. There has always been speculation on the concrete physical effects of a lack of sleep on the body, but there has never been a study dedicated solely to pursuing what those effects are. The study is actually considered rather timely, mainly because most of the working population spends less than the recommended eight hours of sleep. While the difference of eight hours to the average sleep time of five hours may not seem that significant, the results emerged from test subjects who were subjected to just five hours of sleep per 24-hour period.

Some people may have been nursing a broken spine for a long period of time and not even know about it. That back pain may have been due to a fall during any sports activity such as basketball, skiing, horse-back riding or a football game wherein you’ve been misdiagnosed with only a broken right arm. However, after the injured arm heals, there seems to have developed an intense back pain that made regular activities such as sleeping and moving around too difficult to do. The pain goes on and would never seem to leave you. Aside from the stress and agony it brings, chronic pain can lead to other serious medical conditions.
Acute pain is experienced as a direct response to injury or trauma which comes on suddenly and lasts for a limited period of time. The pain is expected to disappear as soon the injury or disease has been treated. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is pain that persists and last for several moths or even years.
The most common types of chronic pain include back pain, headaches, arthritis, cancer pain, and neuropathic pain, all of are related to nerve injury. Health care professionals always see the identification of the source of pain as the first step to treating chronic pain. It shouldn’t be ignored as it could be a symptom of an injury or unknown disease like Fibromyalgia. It is characterized by fatigue and widespread pain in muscles and joints. This condition may be connected to injury, changes in muscle metabolism, or viruses, though the exact cause is unclear.
Physical and emotional effects can be devastating regardless of the type of chronic pain. A patient’s career, family and future may suffer and get ruined. Some people would even commit suicide in order to put an end to chronic pain.
Chronic pain may goes on for weeks, months, or years and may not always respond to treatment. Without relief, or the hope for relief, it can be debilitating and may become the defining factor in patients’ lives. They lose the ability to eat, sleep, work, and function normally.
Pain varies from person to person, thus, treatment is individualized. Providing as much pain relief as possible and improving function is the goal of pain management. People with arthritis may do well with occasional use of an over-the-counter pain reliever, whereas someone else with arthritis may need a prescription pain reliever and regular aerobic exercise to feel good.
There is more to treatment for chronic pain than medication. It can also involve stress relief and relaxation, physical therapy, improved sleep and nutrition habits.
When chronic pain starts to interfere with the quality of one’s life, it is time to seek professional help. Another reason to seek advice from a specialist is if one is experiencing intolerable side effects from medications.
The fear of becoming addicted to pain medications is always the concern of both patients and their doctors. “Most forms of chronic pain respond to non-opioid drug treatments such as pain relievers, which don’t have addiction potential, aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen, and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. A combination of different types of analgesic medications at lower doses is often more effective than a single high-dose medication.
But in some cases, opioids are prescribed for pain. Opioids are controlled substances that are potentially addictive. But taking doses of opioids to relieve pain as prescribed is not considered as drug addiction. Addiction is the craving for and compulsive use of drugs. On the other hand, physical dependence occurs when a person’s body adapts to the drug. A person who has become physically dependent on a drug must not suddenly stop taking it to avoid withdrawal syndrome. Symptoms can include muscle aches, watery nose and eyes, irritability, sweating, and diarrhea. Physical dependence is considered a normal response to repeated use of opioids and is distinct from psychological addiction.
People suffering from chronic pain need support groups in order to deal with all of the issues regarding chronic pain such as lack of concern, frustration, how to communicate pain to your doctor, and how to maintain relations with your family. Pain may be inevitable, but suffering can be optional.

In dealing with health problems, it is said that prevention is better than cure. While it is certainly not an illness to be cured, the difficult situation of having an unwanted pregnancy can only be avoided in two ways abstinence or prevention.

In 1999, the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health released a fact sheet about unwanted pregnancy. One fact listed there is that yearly, at least eight percent of Canadian women have an unwanted pregnancy. Unwanted pregnancy is a usually a result of ignorance, irresponsibility, or failure to use contraceptives. There are also cases where the contraceptive itself failed. The incidence of unwanted pregnancy has increased and, as a result, caused a rise in the number of reported abortions.

Nowadays, sexual activities are already widely discussed in the media and in public. Sex is no longer a taboo or forbidden topic. From movies to t.v. programs, from magazines to music — sex is already a well-worn topic or subject. The open discussions about sexuality had also exposed women to sex.

Not everyone, however, are aware of the risks or danger in doing it. This ignorance then results to incidents such as unwanted pregnancy. Its victims are mostly young girls who, because of their curiosity, decided to engage in sexual activities. Nowadays, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy has increased to 90 every year, especially in developing countries.

It is not only those who are ignorant who experience unwanted pregnancy, however. A lot of women, though aware of the possible dangers, still engage in unprotected sex. They are those who are embarrassed, restricted by their religious beliefs and have a wrong understanding of the use of contraceptions. Some women choose to be at risk of pregnancy rather than ask and obtain available contraceptives. Others deliberately avoid using protection after being made to believe that using contraceptives is against the right to life. The rest, not knowing enough information about contraceptives and its side effects, fear that using those techniques, medications or devices can be harmful to their health. They fail to understand, however, that a greater risk is involved when women continue having sex unprotected.

Aside from unwanted pregnancy, other dangerous conditions can also result from not using contraceptives and engaging in unprotected sex. For the past couple of years, World Health Organization and the United Nations are concerned with a certain disease or infection that has already killed approximately 25 million people or more. It has infected an estimated amount of 38 million people worldwide that it is considered as one of the most destructive pandemics in history of mankind. This condition famously known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus resulting to an infection of the immune system. This virus is transferred from person to person through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, contamination of hypodermic needles, pregnancy and breastfeeding. Because of this widespread concern, various organizations all-over the world are already promoting the practice of safe sex and use of contraceptives such as condoms. Aside from AIDS, other infections that can be obtained from practicing unprotected sex are sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.

The use of contraceptives, however, does not ensure complete protection from unwanted pregnancy. In 1994, sources such as Globe Watch and Birth Control Handbook indicated that various contraceptives such as condoms, diaphragm, intrauterine devices, fertility awareness, etc., have a failure rate ranging from .04 to 20. Several studies, as mentioned in Wikipedia, also indicate a perfect-use failure rate of birth control methods or contraceptives from .4 to 6 every year. This does not disprove that fact that majority of those who use contraceptives also benefit from being protected against unwanted pregnancy and other dangerous diseases.

As a result, unwanted pregnancies caused by various factors sometimes lead to abortion. A lot of pro-life groups and organizations are recently increasing their efforts in discouraging this practice and educating people, especially women, to engage in safe sex. Not all organizations, though, promote the use of contraceptives because of its ethical issues. Moral and legal aspects of abortion are still debated until now, however, some countries like the United States already allow its practice. Abortion, despited having positive effects, can still be detrimental to a person’s health. It is said to cause breast-cancer and other mental health problems such as Post Abortion Syndrome. Rather than risk the dangers of having an abortion, it is better to just avoid getting pregnant when it is unwanted. Again, prevention is better than cure.