posted by admin on Dec 23
Loss of Appetite and Weight
Lack of appetite and consequent loss of weight are other common symptoms of cancer, especially in older people. These may be due to poor appetite, resulting in less intake of food. Moreover, cancer tissues burn excessive energy of the body. Vomiting and diarrhea, wherever present, also accounts for less absorption of food. Sometimes, the loss of weight occurs so slowly that it is hardly noticed.
Natural Remedies: The use of orange and lime are extremely valuable in controlling loss of appetite. They stimulate the flow of digestive juices, thereby improving digestion and increasing appetite. The use of garlic is also beneficial as it stimulates the digestive tone and improves appetite.
Nausea and Vomiting
Nausea and Vomiting are common symptoms after chemotherapy or radiation. Sometimes, they are so severe that they become unbearable.
Natural Remedies: Ginger juice can help in the treatment of this condition. A quarter teaspoon or 15 drops of fresh ginger juice, mixed with half a teaspoon each of fresh lime and mint juices and a teaspoon of honey, constitutes an effective medicine for this purpose. The juice of red beet is another effective remedy for vomiting. About half a cup of the juice, with equal quantity of water, may be taken twice daily. Adding half a teaspoon of lime juice to this juice will increase its medicinal value.
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posted by admin on Dec 13
After you have been diagnosed with RA you will wonder what course or natural history your arthritis will follow. Will it continue in the same way it started, or will additional, or different, joints become involved in time? The answers to these questions are as different as the persons asking them. In some cases, indeed, the way arthritis starts allows physicians to predict the course it will follow, but this is not true in every ease.
The following four general courses that RA can follow were described before current treatments (or therapeutic strategies) had been developed, and therefore they reflect the untreated natural histories of RA. Keep in mind that what follows are four potential courses of untreated RA. The actual course of any given individual’s RA may vary from any of these four courses.
1. Spontaneous remission. The person who develops signs and symptoms of RA and then, with little or no medication (generally only non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, called NSAIDs), becomes symptom-free, is said to have gone into spontaneous remission. Remission may be described as a period of time during which there is no evidence of active disease or illness, in this case, RA.
During remission from RA, blood tests, such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, often produce normal results. Generally it is estimated that 20 percent of all RA patients will have a spontaneous remission, but more than 50 percent of these will have a recurrence of RA in the future. Thus, in reality, probably only 5 to 10 percent of untreated patients have a permanent remission. The majority of people with RA require continued treatment.
Patients and physicians often wonder how long they should wait for this potential spontaneous remission before starting stronger medications designed to bring on a medically induced remission (these medications are called DMARDs, or disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs). The optimal period to start DMARDs varies from case to case, but most rheumatologists would begin if there was any evidence of impending joint damage and certainly if joint damage was visible on x-ray films. This is particularly important since it is now generally believed that these drugs are most effective if taken early in the course of arthritis.
2. Remitting. Some people with RA have a series of flare-ups of arthritis followed by a return to normal health between attacks. A person who has remitting arthritis may not need remission-inducing medications if there is no ongoing joint damage and if joint function returns to normal between flare-ups. The attacks themselves, when the arthritis is active, are commonly treated with NSAIDs. Attacks that occur very frequently or that are very lengthy may begin to affect the person’s life-style, and then the person with RA and the physician may decide that DMARDs should be taken.
3. Remitting progressive. The third possible course of RA is one in which the person experiences a pattern of flare-ups without a return to normal health between attacks. Joint damage over time is a distinct possibility in this course of RA because some inflammation remains in the joints between attacks. In this case, DMARD therapy ought to be a serious consideration.
4. Progressive. In this course, the person experiences a gradual increase in pain, swelling, and joint damage over time. Usually this progression occurs very slowly, but some people experience a rapid loss of function. Early treatment with DMARD therapy in an effort to halt progression of arthritis is recommended.
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posted by admin on Dec 9
Drugs, however, not only create other diseases, but seem to be erratic in dealing with relapses associated with highly emotional environments and difficult life situations. In Introduction to Psychopharmacology (Lader, 1980, p. 58) we read that assessment studies on maintenance therapies (antipsychotic medication which suppresses chronic symptoms such as hallucinations) show that ‘drugs made a demonstrable difference to patients in low EE homes.’ An EE home is one where the closest relative at the time of the schizophrenic’s admission was low on the number of critical, hostile or emotionally overcharged comments. ‘Life events also seem important and tend to cluster in three weeks immediately before, relapse.’ Drug maintenance therapies seem relatively ineffective in preventing such event-related relapses, especially when life events are major.
There are other problems connected with medications besides their inefficiency. Many patients go off ‘meds’ not only because they found something of value in even the most nightmarish mental conditions, but also because they cannot tolerate either the drug’s effects or the social implications of being drugged. These patients are disturbed about the overall effects drugs have or do not have on their, lives.
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