Senior Care Partners

Archive for December, 2011

Derived from the nectar of the flowers that grow on the Manuka tree, native to New Zealand, Manuka Honey is gaining ever increasing worldwide recognition for its healing properties. There are many ways in which Manuka Honey can be used, particularly for topical use on the skin. There is growing anecdotal evidence that Manuka Honey is effective for therapeutic use, even against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA. Manuka Honey has shown great promise in the treatment of wounds, leg ulcers and burns.

The use of Manuka Honey for wound care is the area receiving the most attention from researchers. It is important to know that all honey has some antibacterial activity that is effective in the treatment of wounds, primarily due to the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The additional healing properties found in bio-active Manuka Honey (such as UMF and methylglyoxal) make it even more suitable for medical use. Not only can Manuka Honey destroy existing bacteria in an infected wound, but it also creates a protective barrier over the wound area, preventing more bacteria from entering.

With the range of antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins, trace elements and sugar, Manuka Honey has a positive nutrient effect on newly regenerating tissue in a healing wound. Equally important in regard to new tissue growth in wounds, is the process of changing dressings. Wound dressings containing Manuka Honey create a moist healing environment that prevents direct contact between the dressing and newly formed tissue so that damage or disturbance to it is reduced from the changing of dressings.

More serious wounds such as Leg ulcers are a frustrating occurrence that can detrimentally affect mobility if worsened. The same healing properties that make Manuka Honey effective for the treatment of wounds also apply to leg ulcers. There are many anecdotal reports indicating that active Manuka Honey is effective in treating leg ulcers that were not responding to conventional treatments. It has also been noted that Manuka Honey is successful at reducing the malodor associated with leg ulcers and chronic wounds.

Manuka Honey’s effectiveness in healing and preventing infection is also helpful for the treatment of burns. A reduction of pain associated with burns has also been reported, due to the anti-inflammatory properties present in Manuka Honey. As part of Manuka Honey’s ability to keep a wound area moist and its positive nutrient effect on tissue regeneration, it also helps to reduce scarring by lifting scabs and dead tissue, allowing the burn or wound to heal flush with the surface of the skin.

Hair loss can be a very unpleasant experience for any person. Men are more prone to this problem than women and usually get male pattern hair loss that is characterized by hair thinning and balding that starts in the crown and hairline areas and progresses towards partial or complete baldness. It may be not the worst thing to happen from the physiological point of view since hair doesn’t play any significant functional role in the health of a person. However, hair loss can trigger serious psychological discomfort because it affects a visible portion of a person’s body and can seriously affect a person’s image. Since hair loss is still considered to be a sign of bad health the person experiencing it can automatically be regarded as ill and get treated respectively. That’s why so many men a desperate to find an effective solution for hair loss problems and weight in on all the possible options, the most popular of witch are hair transplantation and Propecia treatment course.

Hair transplantation has become one of the most promising and effective methods of dealing with hair loss when it was introduced as compared to all the semi-medical treatment options that were available in the past. Hair transplantation involves surgical removal of hair from one part of the body and its inception in the area of hair loss. This technique requires high qualification from the doctor performing transplantation and can be rather costly if you are looking to do it in a professional clinic. Besides, there’s always a risk that the hair that’s been transplanted will fall off too and you will need another pricey procedure to restore its previous state. Still many men choose this treatment option because it is more effective than most herbal and semi-medical preparations for hair loss and was the only medical solution for a period of time.

Propecia, on the other hand, was the first medication to be actually approved by the FDA for the treatment of hair loss in men. Before it was introduced to the market there were no prescription medications to use for hair loss and even the causes of the problem haven’t been studied well. However, after people started using Propecia and observed its effectiveness there were more studies undertaken on the nature of hair loss in men and it was discovered that it’s triggered by the excess of a specific androgen in the bloodstream that Propecia helps controlling. Thus, unlike hair transplantation. Propecia targets the exact cause rather than effect when dealing with hair loss. Yet, the drug also has its limitations and is not for everyone.

Hair transplantation can be used by both men and women whereas Propecia is prescribed solely to men and shouldn’t be even handled by women because it may cause serious hormonal changes. Propecia has higher effectiveness rates and is much cheaper than transplantation surgeries but you will have to take it for a really long time in order to stop, reverse hair loss and sustain the effects you’ve achieved. So it’s highly recommended to consult with your doctor about the both options in order to choose the one that’s more appropriate in your situation.

Sinus infection symptoms can vary, as well as the degree to which each symptom can manifest from person to person. But what are some of the more common symptoms? Well, headaches are among the most common, particularly those that start to flare up first thing in the morning, with pain in the forehead and between the eyes. Fever, weakness and fatigue are some others. Other sinus infection symptoms in the more drastic cases can also include ear infections and sore throats, and coughing. When this is the case, certainly one problem is causing others, and there is a need to see an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Often, such doctor visits can lead to a successful treatment – other times, the treatment may fail. It is at these times that people often turn to seeking out other options. What is the most sought after alternative option when people suffer from sinus infection symptoms? They turn to natural cures, herbal medicine, and things of that nature. You see, naturopathic medicines don’t just primarily focus on relieving the symptoms – they focus on eliminating the cause.

What’s more is that such remedies can be easily put together, and from natural sources that are readily available and inexpensive. One of the most obvious benefits of using natural “home remedies” that you may here the most raves about is the fact that you can avoid the unhealthy side effects that most laboratory-created, chemical medications can make our bodies fall prey to. Sinus infection symptoms are more than enough, aren’t they?

Often, such side effects from non-natural medications can produce peripheral ailments and illnesses that just compound our already troubled health. And what happens from there? We get more prescriptions for other potentially unhealthy medications. Those who are health conscious and care deeply about what goes into their bodies are turning to natural remedies more and more, educating themselves for a much more natural way of healing.

Normally, wounds are no big deal; clean it, possibly add a few stitches, and cover it up. Unfortunately, not all wounds are that easy, and some hurt much more than just the flesh. That’s where expert wound care hospitals come in. They use a variety of techniques to ensure their patients get the best of care and heal as well as possible.

Antibiotic Therapies

One of the most serious complications when dealing with wounds is infection. This risk only gets worse the longer the wound is open; a serious risk for those with large wounds or those with healing difficulties. When a damaged area becomes infected, it stops the healing process and can even cause poisoning and death. Wound care hospitals take a variety of different measures to ensure the antibiotics do their job and prevent or eliminate infection.

Advanced Wound Dressings

Some damage, like burn victims and those recovering from extensive surgery, can be particularly hard to deal with. The professionals employed at wound care hospitals have been specially trained to treat these bad injuries. They know exactly how to care for them, how to wrap them, and what to be cautious of. In many instances, this requires far more education and time than regular emergency or family physicians have.

MIST Therapy With Ultrasound

A relatively new technique known as MIST therapy uses low frequency sound waves from an ultrasound to stimulate the cells surrounding a wound. This encourages them to repair themselves and reproduce at a faster rate speeding up the healing process. Studies on this therapy have shown 53% of all injuries to decrease in size by approximately 26%. Such a significant decrease in size translates to faster recovery — very important to those dealing with these types of extensive injuries.

Bio-Engineered Skin Substitutes

In some cases such as burns, waiting for the skin to cover the wound is just not feasible. Most often, this is because the damage is too large and waiting for the skin to cover the area would take far too much time putting the patient at risk for infection, or it would leave a large scar. In these instances, wound care hospitals use bio-engineered skin substitutes to help improve healing.

Negative Pressure Therapy

By holding the wound in a subatmospheric pressure chamber, the negative pressure keeps the wound moist, stimulates the cells surrounding the wound, decreases the risk of infection by controlling bacteria, increases tissue growth, and reduces swelling that can cause permanent nerve damage. The result is less risk of complication and a faster healing time.

These are, of course, just a few of the techniques and technologies used by wound care hospitals. Other services such as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Growth Factor Therapy, physiotherapy and many other treatments may follow. The type of treatments you need, and how the health care professionals approach your wound, will depend on your particular situation.

The sole purpose of wound care hospitals is to heal the wound as quickly and as completely as possible while minimizing the risk to the patient. However, this involves the entire wound. For those suffering with injuries such as extensive burns, amputations, and healing complications, the health professionals employed in these facilities can often mean the difference between life and death.

Aside from taking medication, you can relieve the pain from arthritis by other methods. If you have arthritis, you know how painful it is. You can take these 3 steps to cure the pain.

Weight loss

Did you know that you should carry less weight if you have arthritis? Experts have said that if you carry 10 pounds of weight, your knees feel like they’re carrying 30 pounds. Therefore, you have to understand that your knees take a lot of stress even when you think it’s not much.

You should also try to lose weight, especially if you are obese. Your own body weight can contribute to knee pain too. Losing weight is within your control. This makes arthritis easier to combat.

Exercise

Before you go running 10 miles a day, you must know that not all exercises are suitable, especially the ones that cause high impact on the joints. Instead, you should stick to low impact exercises like cycling and swimming. It is still possible to lose weight through exercise. So you should never use joint pains as an excuse.

Waking up in the morning

Any arthritis sufferers will feel the most pain when they wake up in the morning. This is because you had been resting at night all the time. When you get out of your bed, you have to do it slowly and very carefully. The best thing to do is to stretch your muscles to relieve the stiffness and achiness for a full 20 to 30 minutes. Take it slow and really use that half hour period to stretch. It makes a lot of difference. The point of this is to get your joints lubricated. Make sure you breathe too.

The symptoms of epilepsy vary depending on what kind of seizure the person has. Possibly the simplest way of explaining this is to give an overview of what the different kinds of seizure would look like to an observer and feel like to the person experiencing them.

Partial seizures are often called ‘petit mal’. To the outside observer, the signs of this are not obvious ones. In the simple partial seizure the person first has what is famously called an ‘aura’. This is actually the first part of the seizure activity. There is no loss of awareness however, which can make it seem like a separate phenomenon. The aura is not necessarily a set of lights shimmering in front of the person. It is equally likely to involve a sense of numbness or tingling in some part of the body. Alternatively, there may be a compulsive twitching start in the face of some other familiar part of the body. It can be very unpleasant, like nausea or increased heart rate. However, the aura has also been described as ecstatic and may come in the form of hallucinations that are considered by the person to be worth the pain of the seizure that will inevitably follow.

The next type of epileptic seizure is the complex partial seizure. To the observer, the epilepsy symptoms are obvious and disturbing. In this type of seizure the person does lose consciousness and they can proceed to behavior that is so odd and out of character that they can be a danger to themselves and others. This behavior can involve taking off clothes, doing strange random actions, walking around and mumbling. The variety is endless and quite individual and these seizures can last from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

The more common conception of an epileptic seizure is of someone having a ‘fit’. This is the generalized tonic-clonic seizure, or ‘grand mal’ beginning with a sudden cry and a fall. The stiffening of the body that starts the process is called the tonic, the spasms and jerking that follow is called the clonic. This can look quite alarming, especially if the person manages to bite their tongue and blood appears. It usually lasts for only about 2 minutes, which can feel like an eternity if you are the onlooker. The person usually needs some care and reassurance when they come around as they are likely to feel confused and extremely tired after the epilepsy symptoms pass.

Finally there is a general group of tonic and myclonic seizures. The myoclonics involve significant muscle jerks, causing the person to spill what they are holding or even to fall off the chair. Among the tonic disorders here are two types of ‘drop’ attack, so called because they cause the person to fall to the ground if they happen to be standing. The ‘tonic’ causes the person to go rigid, while the ‘atonic’ predictably causes the person to lose all tone and also fall for that reason. In none of these last seizures is there any noticeable loss of consciousness.