My Online Journey

It’s a sad fact of life that not enough doctors are coming through their training and entering general practice. The majority reject the longer hours and poor pay in favor of the high status and better paid work in hospitals. The result is towns and cities find themselves without primary healthcare, an accelerating problem as older doctors retire. Those practitioners who remain find time in short supply. When one patient walks through the door for a consultation, tens more wait outside. This makes pain controversial. How much time does it take to distinguish between the genuine patients who need drugs like tramadol to get a better quality of life, and the drug abusers who want to get high or the dealers looking for product to sell on the streets. There is an alarming rate of prescription medication abuse in the U.S. and the physicians don’t have the time to make a proper diagnosis. The best that they can do is to react to the symptoms described by their patients. That means a quick prescription of tramadol instead of a more holistic approach. In a perfect world, the physician would look at the patient as a person losing mobility, under threat at work because the lifting and carrying is too difficult, friendships and marriage under pressure because this is all too stressful to manage. As it is, there is a single irony. Patients come to doctors because they cannot cope. The few doctors struggle to cope because so many people are in pain and need help.

On its site, the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) reports that more people are turning to massage therapy for medical purposes rather than for relaxation. Its most recent survey reports 24% of adult Americans received one massage during 2007 (43% adult women and 25% adult men had a massage during the last five years). But the baby boomers are more committed to massage than the young with an average seven session in the last year. This reflects a general trend. More people now use massage as a component in their wellness programs or pain management strategies. This does not deny the importance of tramadol or other painkillers. They are complementary. Almost one-third of those surveyed used massage for pain relief, injury rehabilitation or the control of migraines, and just over 85% agreed that massage improves health and promotes wellness. This represents a groundswell in favor of physical therapy with 20% reporting that their doctors and healthcare providers had strongly encouraged massage. This is echoed in figures from the registered AMTA members. Almost three-fifths reported an increase in referrals from healthcare professionals. The use of massage therapy in hospitals is also rising with a one-third increase in the number of hospitals nationally offering therapy for pain and stress management. Curiously, 70% also make the service open to their own staff. More than half those surveyed wanted their medical insurers to include massage therapy. If it was better integrated into healthcare, the AMTA believes there would be a significant improvement in quality of treatment for chronic pain and stress. Massage with a judicious use of tramadol is good for you.

On 15th July, the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies Congress began a discussion of the medicinal role of cannabis. It is routinely used for controlling nausea among patients on chemotherapy and for encouraging appetite among AIDS patients. It is now licensed for the control of neuropathic pain in adults suffering from cancer and multiple sclerosis. So medical science has been able to strip away the “unwanted” psychoactive symptoms and use the cannabinoid components to target the specific diseases. Why does this work? Because the human body naturally produces cannabinoids and has cannabinoid receptor cells in all parts. Science is now designing medications that focus on the parts of the body affected by disease and not the central nervous system. So, for example, when the body is injured cannabinoids are naturally released in the affected area and reduce pain. Unfortunately, the effect is very short-lived. Thus, research is now aiming to produce more medications that maintain cannabinoid levels in the affected areas for pain relief and for the control of anxiety and depression. The converse treatments are also working well for dealing with nicotine addiction and obesity. One of the problems with cannabis is that is tends to be addictive and it causes the “munchies”, i.e. it encourages users to eat more. So, medications like acomplia that block the cannabinoid receptors help to reduce addictive behavior and reduce appetite. Acomplia is now a front line treatment for obesity in Europe, second in effectiveness only to the use of gastric bands or surgical bypasses (which reduce weight by an average of 30%). The July conference heard news that one constituent of cannabis, THVC, may offer a better way to reduce appetite than acomplia and, more importantly, may be effective to treat neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Why is more not heard about these advances? Possibly because of the prejudice that cannabis is a drug that should be banned. It is a shame society cannot see beyond a name to the good results science can produce. By coincidence, the French health authority Afssaps also released new statistics confirming the safety profile of acomplia in relation to depression. People with no history of depression show no adverse symptoms. Others only show an increase in depression at the beginning of a course of treatment. This can easily be monitored and compensated for.

There is an unspoken rule that you should never write what is impolitely called “knocking copy”. This is an article that compares and contrasts one product with another, making the other look really bad. We don’t do that here. We are always absolutely fair and never do more than state facts, not opinions. So here is something you can check out for yourself. If you look at the way in which the little blue pill is packaged (can’t think which drug that is), you’ll see it comes in 25mg, 50mg and 100mg. Most men seem to do best with an average dose of 50mg. Levitra, on the other hand, comes in 2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg and 20mg. Most men seem to do best with 10mg tablets but many get perfect results with the lower dosages. Why should anyone care? Well, you’re taking five times less of the same active ingredients to achieve the same results. As a general rule in the world of medication, the smaller the dose, the lower the risk you will experience any side effects. Do many people have side effects? Not that many with either drug but, if you were looking for a reason to prefer Levitra, safety would be top of the list for most.

This last few months has seen all the prices of basic necessities rise. As jobs have come under pressure, the purchasing power of the average household has dropped. Nowhere has the family budget come under greater pressure than with health insurance. All too often, the premiums have been raised (again). This forces yet another tense discussion. Are families to gamble with the health of their children or can other savings be found? Sad to say, this discussion is no longer restricted to low-income families. A significant number of middle class families are also being forced to make ever more difficult decisions. Decisions to delay diagnosis and treatment until the sickness can be classed as an emergency and justify a hospital visit. If people are to stay insured, they must accept the best terms they can afford. Fortunately, online sites such as this allow people to get comparative information from multiple health insurance companies. Making the choice from the maximum possible number of quotes gives the best chance of savings. So how should you approach this task? 1. Before you start, write down a list of all the features you would like to see in your ideal policy. This gives you a shopping list to price as you go along. It will almost certainly be too expensive, but it gives you a good starting point. 2. Always compare quotes on like-for-like policies. If you use several sites to get the maximum spread of quotes, keep notes to ensure you use the same basic set of information about the policy you are seeking, the level of deductibles accepted, and so on. 3. Never make a decision purely on the premium quoted. Although this is the headline you see first, the devil is in the detail of each policy. You have to be determined and read through all the terms (even the small print). It’s vital that you get a clear picture of what is included and excluded, and see what conditions you have to fulfil to make a claim. Even more important is whether you have a right to renew the policy if you make a claim or you are found to have a disorder or disease that is going to be expensive to treat. There is nothing more devastating than to be diagnosed with a chronic illness and then find your insurance premium hiked up to unaffordable levels or renewal declined. 4. If there is anything you do not understand, ask an agent. Before you accept a quote, insurance companies are helpful and explain things. If you delay asking until you make a claim, this only leads to disappointment and dispute. Take the decision to buy on the basis of the best available information. By following this simple set of rules, you’re taking more positive control of your future, and there’s nothing more important than health to give you peace of mind.