Herbal Medicine Center

Archive for May 15th, 2010

One of the things that seems to happen to people when they become famous, is a sense they are somehow better than us in everything. We put them up on a pedestal and “worship” them. If worship is too strong a word for you, then we want to see them as role models. They become our heroes. Yet this can be a problem. Some who achieve fame because they are excellent at one thing may be less than perfect in most of the other things they do. Let’s take the thorny question of homosexuality as an example. Ricky Martin has just formally admitted what was an fairly open secret – that he’s a fortunate homosexual man. Although this has made minor headlines, most people have ignored it. This is interesting given two contrasting examples. Elton John and George Michael came out years ago and continue to sell around the world. Yet Adam Lambert has had almost all his recent TV appearances cancelled because he was seen to kiss a man. Incidentally, this has not prevented his sales from continuing at a high rate. His single “Whataya Want From Me” has sold more than half-a-million downloads and his album is platinum in various countries around the world. This creates a dilemma for artists and their marketers. If someone appears to be creating sales based on a heterosexual fan base with women swooning over their hero, what happens when the man comes out of the closet? In practical terms, the answer is probably nothing changes. Fans buy the music. The fantasy is something the fans add on later.

Not entirely changing the subject, the latest gossip about Roger Clemens comes from country music star, Mindy McCready. Apparently, they have been having sex for years, perhaps even starting when she was only fifteen. This is entirely consistent with his image as “The Rocket”. As an all-time, record-breaking MLB pitcher, fans expected him to rack up the strikeouts and outperform off the field. Like Tiger Woods, the stories about his adulteries have only added to the mystique. However, his image was tarnished first by allegations of steroid abuse, and then by stories he was actually suffering from erectile dysfunction. The two are actually connected because men on steroids often do fail in bed. Whether the naked sex video that is due for release soon will confirm sexual failure is not yet known.

In reality, there’s no reason for athletes to be better than anyone else. We should only expect them to be good at throwing, jumping, kicking or whatever their sport requires. Except there are reasons, not connected with erectile dysfunction, why male sporting celebrities may be munching on erectile dysfunction drugs like cialis during their training sessions. Because these drugs dilate arteries, more oxygen-rich blood is carried to the muscles while exercising. This helps to build up strength and stamina. Their performance on the field improves. For those who prefer to build up muscles using steroids, the cialis also helps to restore erections. When you have a wife and multiple partners, you need these drugs to keep you going. Except, it seems Roger Clemens needed a lot of patient handling. Perhaps he was better at being a sugar daddy. Handing out presents and money keeps your partners happy. Although this would not explain McCready’s loyalty. She has money in her own right.

It’s easy to say we only have one body so everything is connected, i.e. what happens in one part of the body must have effects in other parts. But the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry would prefer us to believe each part of a condition is separate. That way, they can justify the costs of treating each part separately and sell us targeted drugs. This is one of the things making research so interesting because, from time to time, a set of results appears that might simplify treatments down to one from many. Obviously, the for-profit doctors hope we do not notice. Anyway, let’s start with a piece of information everyone knows. No matter how caused, hypertension or high blood pressure is directly linked to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It’s one of the red flag symptoms that suggests urgent preventative treatment to prolong an active life and delay the threatened early death.

Published in 2000, a study analyzed the health records of 22,000 male doctors over a period of eleven years. Men who had a central balding patch were 24% more likely to have a heart attack. If the crown was completely bald, the risk rose to 36%. Continuing the trend, research finished in 2007 looked in detail at 250 men aged between 35 and 65. They screened out the influences of high cholesterol levels, smoking, age, etc. and found there was a strong association between high blood pressure and male pattern baldness. In fact, anyone showing a pressure greater than 120 over 80 was twice as likely to start losing hair as the man with a normal blood pressure.

At present, this is only observational data. A link or correlation is shown but it’s not yet proved. So what can be drawn from these studies? One of the known causes of high blood pressure is changes in the level of hormones. Increases in testosterone and adrenaline can stimulate an increase in pressure. By coincidence, changes in the level of testosterone can also affect hair loss. It’s one of the more likely causes of male pattern baldness. So it’s not unreasonable to assume hair loss is a first symptom of increasing blood pressure and, in time, possible heart disease. Right now, there’s no cause for alarm. Researchers have simply noticed the coincidence. But, if you do detect early hair loss, you might find your way down to your primary care physician to ask for an exam including blood pressure and heart monitoring. Assuming the diagnosis of male pattern baldness is confirmed, you can then start a course of treatment with propecia. If there’s also high blood pressure, you can begin treatment for that. There are no serious interactions between the two sets of drugs. But, and here’s the interesting point, it’s possible that only treating the blood pressure might stop the hair loss. If hair was lost at a high rate by men with a pressure of 120 over 80, reducing the pressure will potentially slow hair loss. If that’s the case, you might treat both conditions for the price of only one drug. While we wait for more research, you should follow your doctor’s directions on the drugs to take and their dosage. Buy propecia online for cheap and effective treatment.

There are many ways to treat bulimia but not very many of them really cure bulimia. Popular treatment is going to the doctors or clinics or a counselor. How helpful are these? Statistic shows that nearly 90% of suffers relapse after attending these kinds of treatment.

What happens to these people is they feel temporary better while they are in the clinic or in a doctor’s room, but lose all sense of self-control around food when they come back home or while on their own and unprotected.

The next way of treatment is group therapy where sufferers are supposed to get ongoing support and help from other sufferers and a group leader. But this way has many flaws and is not helpful either: it can actually become harmful to many sufferers.

The reasons of this are that while in the group there is often a competition for attention. In the group patients often deliberately get worse or engage in more symptoms just to get extra attention from each other or the therapist. This kind of competition always exists in eating disorder help groups but on many different levels. Sometimes it can get out of control and cause a lot of harm to some members of the group, the most venerable ones.

Also, while in the group people learn from each other. And they learn not necessary only the good things. They learn a lot of bad stuff too.

Like say if a young woman has never heard of drinking ipecac to induce vomiting and learns this technique in group therapy. She may try the technique out herself at home; instead of getting positive help she has just learned how to mask her disorder even more. This can also have a detrimental effect on the group leaving the group leader or member feeling responsible for teaching her.

Some doctors prescribe drugs to treat eating disorders but this also does not fix the problem and in the long run even makes things worse.

The only way to cure bulimia in my opinion is to eliminate the reason why people have it. You see what happens is that people understand that their bulimia is slowly killing them and want to stop but they can’t.

It seems like something inside the person is stronger than their own free will and controls their logical thinking. What is this something?

It is basically another part of our brain called the subconscious mind that not only is responsible for people’s feelings, emotions and non-conscious actions that keep them alive, but it can also work against your own free will.

It is the part of the mind that is responsible for our actions when we do something but we don’t know why we did it. The subconscious mind operates on feelings and senses. And very often people can’t even describe it logically because it consists of thoughts and feelings. Sufferers just do what the subconscious mind wants them to do.

So,the main reason people have bulimia lies in the subconscious mind and to stop bulimia one needs to get rid off the subconscious blockages that always keep you being a bulimic against your will.

Subconscious blockages are described by many sufferers as being like voices or senses they have that make them binge and purge.

If someone has a subconscious emotional blockage preventing her/him from stopping their bulimia, they are unlikely to realize it. An example of this is a bulimic who doesn’t realize that they have “broken eye syndrome” – they see in a mirror a different picture from everyone else: basically their own mind is lying to them.

Subconscious blockages cannot be identified and changed at the rational thinking level; this is where most conventional treatments fail: simply because they think logical actions will fix it.

For example, the “broken eye syndrome” gets worse and worse the longer you have bulimia, because the bulimic brain is constantly working on false information and is reinforcing false beliefs. You can talk logic to a bulimia sufferer all day long and it will not help one bit: because bulimia is not logical.

To conclude, identifying and eliminating your subconscious blockages is the best and really the only way you will ever cure your bulimia. There are special programs that help bulimics to do this. You can try to use them to cure bulimia.

Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Women Health Issues Program which covers different areas of Women Health. She is a recognised athority in the eating disorders area. She is an author of many books and a public speaker.learn more about eating disorders at http://www.mom-please-help.com