Health Care Clinic Blog

In recent years, a new trend had seen in many countries, an alarming trend, specifically amongst teenagers in the form of sharing prescription medication. Because of this, many different studies have been performed to determine the extent of the problem so it can be addressed and resolved. The results of these studies were even more alarming than the fact that prescription medication sharing occurs at all.

Studies have already found that more teenage girls, than boys are doing this. Why is not quite known, but over 13% of teenage girls say they have either taken someone else’s prescription, or have given their own prescription to someone else. The sharing of prescriptions start out innocently enough most times. Someone has a friend who’s in pain or “stressed out” and another friend offers up what they take to relieve them of the same problem.

The girls claim they share their meds with a friend because she takes the same meds and is out at the time needed, or a parent uses the same meds and they don’t feel that sharing is bad because the medication is the same. It’s still not understood why girls do this more than boys, other than girls seem to go through more “growing pains” than boys do.

Even though the intention of sharing the medications with friends starts out innocently enough, it can still be a costly mistake because doses may be different for one person and not the other. Even vitamins should not be hared with others because what works for one may cause health problems for another. For example, if medicine is prescribed to work with that person’s own chemistry. Another person’s chemistry may be different and if given the same type of medicine, could cause a terrible reaction with another person’s chemistry.

A really dangerous medication is a teratogenic prescription. This medication causes birth defects and if a girl who doesn’t know she’s pregnant yet, it can cause serious damage to the child she’s carrying. Many teenagers are turning away from the street drugs such as crack, heroin, pot, and even crystal meth because they can use their parents painkillers to get high from, and they can usually get these for free. It’s starting to become a very serious problem for our teenagers today. They’ve even given themselves like Generation  X.

Many home medicine cabinets are full of all kinds of different prescription drugs. With mom or dad suffering from anxiety, migraines, depression, and back pain, these kids have a huge choice on what to take today. If you have a teenager in your home today, sit them down and talk to them about this. Don’t accuse, but talk to them about the dangers of using someone else’s prescription drugs. Many teenagers are ending up in emergency rooms today from taking someone’s meds. They have different reactions, but many teenagers fall into unconsciousness and sometimes never wake up again, or causing brain damage so server that the ability to learn anything ever again is gone.

For more on drugs information

Menstruation is the periodic discharge of blood and other materials from the reproductive organs of women. A menstruation cycle usually lasts around 28 days, but different women can have different menstruation cycles. When a baby is not conceived in the womb, the lining of the uterus is removed during menstruation and pregnancy is one time when menstruation does not take place.

What Happens During the Menstrual Cycle?

The menstruation cycle does not just take place during the period when you are bleeding. It is an ongoing process, which different things happening during every week. By understanding what happens during each week of the menstruation cycle, you can better understand what stage of the menstruation cycle you are in at any time.

• Week 1. Week 1 is considered to start from the first day of bleeding. After the bleeding has stopped, women may be more energetic and have less vaginal mucus.
• Week 2. The mucus becomes wetter in the lead-up to ovulation.
• Ovulation. This occurs somewhere around day 14 on the ovulation cycle. The mucus is very wet. Breasts may be tender. There may be mood swings and cramps.
• Week 3. The mucus production slows down and the moods start to become more normal again.
• Week 4. This is the pre-menstrual phase. PMS symptoms may start, which can include bloating, cramps, headaches and mood swings.

Menstrual Symptoms

Many women experience some symptoms relating to the menstruation cycle. Menstruation symptoms may at any time from ovulation to the middle of their period of bleeding. These symptoms are known by the term, PMT or PMS, and are caused by hormonal changes. Some of these symptoms may include:

• Bloating
• Mood swings
• Depression
• Feeling irritable
• Abdominal cramps
• Acne
• Headaches

Menstruation Products

There is a wide range of menstruation products that help people through their periods and throughout the entire menstruation cycle. Menstruation products can be divided into the following categories.

• Products that absorb the blood and other menstrual discharge. Two of the most popular methods for absorbing menstrual discharge are tampons and pads. You can also find natural menstruation absorbers, such as cloth pads.
• Products that help with PMT and other menstruation symptoms. This includes drugs that may be bought from a chemist, but also includes alternative menstruation products. There are many natural therapies and tablets that are designed specifically to help with symptoms caused by menstruation.
• Products that help with recording the menstruation cycle. These are often used by women who want to conceive or as an alternative contraception method. These products include diaries and special testing devices so that women can see what stage of the menstruation cycle they are in.
• Products that change or alter the menstruation process or that work as a contraception method. Oral contraception pills fall into this category. Some women with irregular menstruation may need to take medication or other natural methods to help keep their menstruation cycle regular.

Skin allergies, or allergic contact dermatitis, are allergies of skin that occur when a substance that a person is allergic to touches the skin. The symptoms caused by this will appear suddenly and may disappear within half an hour after the attack. Inflammation can occur after being on contact with an item or substance that present no harm at all to people who do not suffer from this allergy.

Symptoms of Skin Allergies

People suffering from skin allergies may experience the following symptoms during an allergy attack:

• Skin rashes
• Blisters on the skin
• A sudden immobility (only in rare cases of extreme allergies of the skin)
• Scaling of the skin
• Hives (a rash looking like raised welts on the skin that itch and occur in batches

The symptoms are mostly experienced on the hands as they get in contact with items and substances all day long, during work or at home.

Types of Skin Allergies

The term eczema is sometimes interchanged with another skin allergy condition; dermatitis. Eczema is actually an advanced type of dermatitis with more serious results.

Allergic contact dermatitis

This skin allergy rash occurs when the skin touches an object or substance that it is allergic to. The symptom (a rash or itch) usually occurs within 30 minutes after touching the object. Inflammation of the skin can occur and the skin must not be scratched or covered with anything when this happens.

Eczema

This is a skin condition causing a red rash and itching on the skin. Eczema skin symptoms can cause a lot of discomfort and the disease is most likely to affect children. Eczema affects approximately seven in a thousand people and most of these patients are children aged between two months and five years old.

Eczema is a form of dermatitis in an advanced stage and can cause blisters and scabs and oozing liquid from the skin. A cure for eczema must be determined by a doctor and experimenting with over the counter treatments that offer relief is not advised when the condition has been diagnosed, especially not with children. Conventional allergy therapies seem to have no to little effect on eczema.

Hives

Skin hives are a type of skin rash that is usually harmless. Caused most of the time by an allergy this rash looks like circular raised welts on the skin that can go red and itchy. The hives will show up in batches and can appear all over the body. Hives can be different in size, ranging from very small to a few centimetres in diameter.

Diagnosis of Skin Allergies

Skin allergies are usually diagnosed by checking for skin rashes, the appearance of skin infection and itchy skin on the usual areas of the skin being mainly the face and chest but possibly also other areas. The doctor will probably check your family history with you to find out if any other relatives have the same problems. He will also review the following with you:

• Your diet, to make sure that there are no food allergies involved.
• Allergic tendencies (do you have more sensitive or allergic reactions).
• Prescribed drug intake that may affect the skin.

The doctor might decide to perform a blood test for skin condition called a radioallergosorbent test (RAST. A small amount of your blood is taken after which the blood is mixed with the suspected allergen. Antibodies developing in the blood are a sign of a skin allergy.

To further determine your diagnosis a skin lesion biopsy might also be performed during which a small piece of skin is removed and examined in a laboratory, where it is tested for symptoms of skin allergies.

Cellulite if often portrayed as an ailment, a horror, a get-rid-of-now affliction.  One does not have to make an effort to read an article about the horrors of cellulite, there are enough, slap-on-the-face advertisements in almost each women’s magazine that one comes across. Let us see what cellulite is.

Cellulite is defined as “A fatty deposit causing a dimpled or uneven appearance, as around the thighs and buttocks.” This is just the dimpled appearance caused by fat pushing against the skin. This dimpled appearance is also known as “peau d’orange” or orange skin in French.

Cellulite does not distinguish between sexes and what looks great on babies is horrifying on adults. To make matters worse and make you feel wretched, actresses continue to flaunt their near perfect bodies in magazines and posters.

Creams, lotions, and potions abound to rid our legs and thighs of any dimpled areas. What many people forget is this simple solution for cellulite: EXERCISE!In most cases, regular exercise such as biking or walking will rid you of cellulite and tone your legs and bottom. People obsess over the result, not the cause, of poor health. This is not to say that everyone should expect a perfectly toned  body at any age, but certainly keeping oneself healthy is an optimal choice. Keep in mind that cellulite is NOT a disease and not an unhealthy characteristic of the body.

Simply walking every day will do more for your self-confidence and overall feeling of health than any quackery cream or lotion or electric muscle stimulator. If you read about cellulite in medical research, it is simply fatty tissue that is not unhealthy itself (unless you have too much body fat overall) and no different from ordinary fat.

There are plenty of offers like topical products, devices, supplements or spa treatments that claim to help you get rid of cellulite. You need to be very careful when choosing the correct product. Generally they are not effective and their safety record is nothing to write
home about. The most suitable way is to follow a regular and hard exercise regime coupled with carefully choosing to eat food that are low in fats. Everyone may have a
different problem area. You must realize that every individual is different and many a times we inherit a body pattern.

For the people concerned with cellulite the U.S. National Library of Medicine has the following recommendation:

*~Diet comprising of fruits, vegetables, and fiber
*~Lots of fluids
*~Regular exercise routine
*~Normal weight with no yo-yo dieting
*~No smoking - for reasons more than one.

Michael Jacobson aptly coins the phrase junk food in 1972 as slang for foods of useless or no nutritional value. Their contents are rich in sodium salts and/or sugar and fats which provide high calories yet useless in value. A quick look at junk food facts tells us junk food and diet does not go hand in hand. Perhaps this is the reason why junk foods are also called as empty calorie foods. Of late, junk food producers claim to have made improvements to nutrition junk food can provide.

Nevertheless, junk foods are popular because of their simplicity to manufacture, consume and of course, their taste. People have their own notions about a certain food being listed as junk. However, chocolates, burgers, pizzas, potato wafers and fries will surely find their way into everyone’s list.

Why Junk Food And Diet Is So Appealing?

The Time Factor:

Junk food addiction is so high because of its simplicity. They are easy to prepare and are very tasty. Junk foods such as potato wafers and Cheetos® do not even need cooking or heating. You prefer to eat them when you watch TV. You save yourself a lot of hassles and time when you are in a hurry eating pizzas and burgers as they are served at your door step hot and ready to eat.

The Taste Factor:

If time constraint is one reason that pushes you to eating junk food, great taste also, to an extent influences you to opt for junk food. But junk foods get their taste owing to lavish usage of oils, salts and/or sugar. Once you are caught in junk food addiction, you find it hard to think about the loss of nutrition junk food pushes you into.

Junk Food Advertising:

Foods prepared out side the home and restaurant foods have a great attraction for food buffs. One estimate tells us Fritto Lays is selling a billion bags of Cheetos® per year. It is an altogether different story that junk food advertising has a major role in this.

Why Does Junk Food Lead To Adverse Effects?

If ingredients make junk foods appealing, it is the same reason that makes them health hazardous too. The fat contents, barring a few manufacturers, have high cholesterol levels. Secondly, the sugar and sodium salts have their effects on health. High calorie content with sugar can lead to obesity. Cholesterol and salt are known to setoff blood pressure, stroke and heart diseases in a chain. Excessive salts can affect functioning of kidneys too.