Is the Problem Mental or Medical?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 04:21 Written by Natural Health Team Tuesday, 25 October 2011 04:21

Health Information about Is the Problem Mental or Medical?

You walk into a moderately business office sit down a chair in a well-dressed lobby and wait for your name to be announced. Finally, it comes and you are assessed by an intake worker, finally sent to a therapist a week later, and then recommended to the staff psychiatrist. In this short time, you were diagnosed with Bipolar, Depression, which is an element of bipolar, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

You also have a history of Diabetes, High-Blood Pressure, and Allergies. Now the doctor is not aware of the inflammatory fiber nerve disease underlying the symptoms. You continue to visit the mental health experts complaining constantly of your symptoms, and they begin treating you like a Hypochondriac. (Someone occupied with health issues and most times are exaggerated)…you begin feeling confused, disappointed with the therapist, and decide to go to see a physician that finds a fiber nerve disease, which proves that your complaints are valid.

However, you were already given prescriptions for psychotic and depressive symptoms. You begin taking the medications and suddenly your insurance policy stops payment on the drug Effexor XR. Suddenly, you explode feeling aggressive, wanting to kill, wanting to die, wanting to harm and there is no explanation since these feelings has never occurred to this magnitude before you took the antidepressants prescribed. Now the problem has increased and you are searching desperately for an answer, yet you find nothing. What went wrong you might ask?

Well, Effexor XR is given to patients with depression and bipolar symptoms. Since Effexor is said to target the brain chemicals increasing the Norepinephrine and Serotonin in the brain, it is claimed to eliminate symptoms of depression and bipolar. Now Effexor XR is notorious (once the medication is stopped abruptly) for increasing behaviors including, suicidal thinking, impulsive behaviors, violent outburst and so forth.

The Prescription has caused increase in Blood making it a bad deal for patients with High-Blood Pressure. Now you went to the therapist to fix a problem and your problems has increased dramatically at it is all because of health care, mental health, medical, and so on. You start feeling that it cannot get any worse, but the doctors continue increasing your medicines prescribing Tenormin (Atenolol) for your pain and after prescribing numerous doses of inflammatory prescriptions, which lead to stomach disorders, you are now taking meds to control your stomach. Moreover, it does not stop here. Next, you are given Impramine HCL for pain, Tramadol for pain, and rotated between antidepressants finally prescribed Effexor XR again.

If you are feeling alone you are not, since many times doctors, mental experts, and health care providers make this mistake excessively many times to count. It is ludicrous to go to mental health experts all to find severe complications exploding your life and you are the one to blame, when in reality these experts made a serious mistake. Since the mental health expert obviously had no choice but to eliminate Hypochondriasis, and claim that they were only searching for answers to the problem (making excuses) you finally say I am searching for another mental health expert, since you have no idea what you are doing.

You go to the next office; sit, wait, and when you are called you talk to an intake worker, then a therapist, and finally a psychiatrist. You go through the same procedures wondering if these experts are smarter than the other experts you just left, and soon find yourself on Effexor XR, Impramine HCL, Tramadol, and a variety of other medications.

I told you people what happen before you tell the experts, yet they ignore your cries and tell you to take your medications as prescribed. Are we fixing problems or are we adding to the many problems we face every day. Some mental diagnoses were later proven a medical problem or central nervous interruption that created a series of symptoms delusional to mental health experts, believing that the patient was mentally ill.

Caught in a web of testing and despair we often fight to find a reason that our minds are tricking us into acting out of accordance to the so-called normal. The solution is right in front of them in most cases, yet everyone is turning their heads and looking for another answer.

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The Link Between Mind Health and Body Health

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 01:20 Written by Natural Health Team Tuesday, 25 October 2011 01:20

Health Information about The Link Between Mind Health and Body Health

Does your attitude have a connection to your physical and mental health? Up until recently, the answer to that was a strong ‘No’ from a strictly scientific standpoint. However, according to some recent studies, there may be more to it than the obvious. More or less, mental health and personal outlook and philosophy are connected. There isn’t much scientific data to explain how the two are connected, but there is ample proof of the link. However, what about the body? Will people who perceive themselves as being healthier and more lively actually be in a better physical state than others? Unlike the mental health link, there is no definite connection made just yet, but there have been some findings that point to a possibility.

According to a large-scale study conducted by Duke University, there is a link between attitudes and physical well-being. The reports state that the research team did their best to eliminate external factors, such as mental health issues, vices, and hereditary diseases from the final results. The end result of the report makes the claim that, if two people with similar states of physical well-being are taken, the one with a more positive outlook is more likely to have better health in the long-term. The one that has more fear and anxiety about his physical condition is more likely to suffer from some sort of illness or have poorer overall health than his counterpart.

Of course, before taking this into account, people should also eliminate possible factors affecting longevity and health. For example, people who have depression or Thanatos complex may perform acts that can permanently compromise their immune system, possibly cutting their life expectancy. The relationship between diet and vices to physical and mental health also plays a larger role than outlook and attitude theoretically do. Further study is under way, but Dr. Ellen Idler has studied the research data and the implications extensively. She believes that the link is less of a “mystical” one and more deeply rooted in the principles of cause and effect. According to her theory, the relationship between attitude and longevity is one that is connected to mental health.

In her theory, people who have a more negative outlook are more likely to slip into unhealthy lifestyles. Whether this is subconscious or not would likely vary from case to case, but she believes that negative attitudes tend to eventually lead to negative states of mind. It is known that mental health is connected closely to physical health, with a number of mental disorders either having physical symptoms or side effects. While a negative outlook in life may not necessarily be an act of self-destruction on the person’s part, it may help push the person into an increasingly degenerate lifestyle.

Further study is likely to be needed before any concrete connections are made. There are currently two major areas where the studies are liable to concentrate. First is the theory that a positive outlook is linked to mental health and that is how it affects the physical well-being and longevity of a person. Another, far less accepted theory, is that a positive outlook actually can influence the body in the same way that some people manifest physical symptoms simply by believing that they are ill.

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Health Nutrition And Fitness

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 10:20 Written by Natural Health Team Tuesday, 25 October 2011 10:20

Health Information about Health Nutrition And Fitness

Health, nutrition and fitness are the three interrelated areas that determine an individual’s sense of happiness and well being.

Health involves the physical, mental and spiritual levels of the individual.  A physically healthy person is one who can carry out normal daily physical activities and respond to emergencies with out undo fatigue or pain. The health part of health, nutrition and fitness is achieved through a balanced program of good nutrition, healthy physical activity, continuous education and mental activities, and social and spiritual activities.  Your choices of the food you eat and your physical activities affect both your short term and long term health (how you feel now and in the future).  You may be getting plenty to eat, but if it is not a proper balance of choices from all five of the basic food groups you may be adding fat to your body without generating the energy to burn the calories and energy to the cells to carry out their functions.  Healthy physical activity helps burn off any excess calories you consume, and keeps muscles and joints flexible and strong.  Your efforts of continued education (reading, attending seminars, as well as attending formal education classes), and spiritual activities (social activities, attending devotional services, meditation, etc) provides you with a sense of accomplishment and well being.

An important part of good health is being physically fit and maintaining proper body weight.  Maintaining good health requires following a nutritional diet, and exercising to build and maintain muscles, and to burn of any excess calories.

The nutritional health part of health, nutrition and fitness deals with the food we consume to maintain our health and provide energy to carry on our daily lives.  Nutrition is the process of nurturing or being nourished; the total of all the processes that a plant or animal uses to take in and process food substances to maintain a healthy life.

A healthy nutrition life style requires a balanced diet of food selected from the five basic food groups, fruits, vegetables, naturally calcium rich dairy products or calcium enriched products, whole grains, and protein (lean meat fish, peas and beans).  Other nutritional factors should also be considered.  Most fruits and vegetables are better if they are consumed raw because heating destroys some of the healthy nutrients.  Steaming and broiling food is better than boiling or frying foods.  Preparing fresh fruits and vegetables is better than processed or prepared foods.  The prepared foods generally contain more salt (sodium) than necessary and other flavor enhancing substances.  Some of these additives do not add any nutritional value to the food and may even be harmful to your health.

More nutritional factors to consider are the variety of the fruits and vegetables in our diet.  Nutritional data shows that dark green vegetables (romaine lettuce, kale, broccoli, etc.), and orange vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and summer squash) provides more nutritional value than some of the less colorful vegetables.

Here are even more nutrition facts.  Some foods contribute to burning fat.  Green tea contributes to fat burning by increasing the body’s metabolism and increasing energy level.  Foods high in protein are more difficult to digest so they require more calories in the digestive process.

Good nutrition practices may not be sufficient for some people they may require unique supplements such as CoEnzimeQ10 or others.

Physical Fitness

Physical fitness part of fitness, health and nutrition is the ability to carry out daily activities, enjoy leisure activities and have a healthy immune system to resist disease and infection.  Developing and maintaining good physical fitness requires a balance of good nutrition and varied physical exercise.

There are there elements to physical fitness: specific fitness the ability to perform daily functions related to work or recreation, general fitness the ability to enjoy leisure time and a sense of peace with the environment, preparedness the ability to over come or avoid emergencies.  There also three factors in achieving good physical fitness good nutrition, physical exercise and restful (sleep).  The nutrition maintains the health of the cells and provides the energy to perform the exercises.

Physical exercise may be used to accomplish work to earn a living, participate in athletic events, develop and maintain healthy cardiovascular system, or control body weight.

Physical fitness and how physical fitness is achieved varies depending on individual.  If a person is involved in an occupation that requires vigorous activity and has good nutrition possibly no other exercise is needed to maintain a fit body.  However, even people who are who work hard at their occupation may need additional cardiovascular exercise to keep their heart and blood vessels in optimum condition.

People whose profession does not require vigorous physical exercise special effort is required to achieve and maintain physical fitness.  A good nutritional diet is the obvious starting point.  Some easy things are use stairs rather than elevators, park a little farther from the office or store entrance, throw away the television remote, change channels the old fashion way, and walk to near by offices or neighbors rather than using the telephone.

These efforts will help, but more vigorous physical exercise is needed for good physical fitness.  For cardiovascular health a routine of physical exercise over a period a minimum of 20 minutes three times per week is required. The best and generally most convenient cardiovascular exercise is walking.  Another good cardiovascular exercise is swimming.  Swimming will also help in building and toning muscles.

The other factor in developing and maintaining physical fitness is strength exercise to build and tone muscle and to burn fat.  Strength exercises are good for weight management because they stimulate muscle growth even after the exercise has been completed. This means that the body continues to burn fat for an extended period of time.

Mental health, as it applies to health nutrition and fitness, is the way we think, how we feel and how we act as we interact with our surroundings.  Our mental health contributes to our relations with other people, how we make decision, make choices and how we cope with stress.  People with good mental health are able to control their emotions, feelings and behavior.   Keeping the mind active through reading, playing games, and an active social life contributes to good mental health.

Spirituality can be defined as sensitivity or attachment to religion, or as a state condition of being spiritual.  Some people ignore or overlook the importance of spirituality in relation to health nutrition and fitness, because they relate spirituality only to religion.  Through out history man has struggled with the concept of spirituality.  Basically spirituality is the struggle to become the most perfect person or individual.  The path to achieve this goal may be through seeking external help through religion of some form, or internal through meditation and study of both present and past human interactions.

The above is based on personal study, experiences and observations through out my life.

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Safety and Health in the Workplace – Physical, Mental and Social

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 07:21 Written by Natural Health Team Tuesday, 25 October 2011 07:21

Health Information about Safety and Health in the Workplace – Physical, Mental and Social

Safety and Health in the workplace is more than just accident prevention. A good safety program needs to look at and address all aspects of working conditions. When looking at safety and health in the workplace, we refer to the conditions as occupational in nature. So to identify just what occupational safety and health is, we break it down into separate components. The three overall components to address in your successful Safety Programare physical, mental and social safety.

Maintaining the well-being and physical safety of all workers and building occupants is the physical aspect of a program. Physical safety is critical in the occupational setting. There are hundreds of standards and publications to describe and define how to keep people physically safe at work. There are also hundreds of ways that employers train and educate employees on workplace safety. Physical safety is the first aspect that comes to mind when referring to a safety program. There are many other areas of well-being that need to be incorporate into a safety plan. Ones mental safety is also important.

Workers mental well-being must not be excluded. If people are physically safe, but mentally unhealthy and exhausted, problems are sure to arise. If you were to ask your employees just what is mental safety? you probably would be surprised at the lack of awareness in the area. In fact many employers are unaware of the importance. One of the best ways for an employer to access the workers mental stability is to review the call-ins or absenteeism rate. Sometimes a lack of respect for ones job will result in a lack of caring. When people don’t care, they could put themselves or others at risk for physically injuries.

Another area of mental safety at work is mental health of workers. Be aware of people and the anxieties that they face or are facing. Depression is on the rise and you may have workers that are battling stress and burnout situations at and away from work. Other serious mental health such as bi-polar disorder can negatively impact your work place and put workers in danger. Make sure that employees that may have a mental health condition manage it with a doctors approval. The next area of safety is that of ones social environment.

Some examples of an employee being socially unsafe is that of a hostile work environment. This takes on many forms. A hugely growing social environment is now online. The amount of time that workers spend online is huge. Although we think of online bullying as a teen problem, your company should enforce rules when it comes to just how much access workers have to internet resources. Passing on inappropriate content through emails or other electronic means can become inappropriate and led to socially unacceptable behavior. This topic should be addressed in yearly training.

Another socially unacceptable behavior is harassment. Harassment takes on many forms. Either physical or sexual in nature. Either way, if people feel uncomfortable around others in the work environment, then they are not in a socially safe place.

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Mental Illness in Children: Some Facts and Sources

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 04:21 Written by Natural Health Team Tuesday, 25 October 2011 04:21

Health Information about Mental Illness in Children: Some Facts and Sources

An increasing number of children are experiencing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Depression in children, including elementary age kids, is on the rise. If you search the internet you will find many facts about mental illness in children. These facts tell a story.

* 1 in 10 children have a mental illness that keeps them from functioning in their families, in their schools, and in their communities. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

* An estimated 2.5% of American children suffer from depression. (www.WebMD, “Depression in Children”)

* Depression in children is often undiagnosed and untreated because it is confused with normal childhood or teen behavior. (www.WebMD, “Depression in Children”)

* Half of the lifetime causes of mental illness start by age 14. (National Institute of Mental Health study)

* Approximately 4.1% of school-age kids have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. (National Institute of Mental Health)

* Anxiety disorders often start in late childhood. (National Alliance for Mental Illness)

* An estimated 13% of kids between the ages of 9 and 17 have an anxiety disorder. (U.S. Surgeon General)

* Emergency departments in U.S. hospitals often under-diagnose mental illness in children who are being treated for self-harm. (“Archives of General Psychiatry,” October 2006)

* Only about 21% of children who have mental illness receive treatment. (“American Journal of Psychiatry,” September 2002)

* Untreated mental illness can lead to more severe mental illness and this illness is more difficult to treat. (National Institute of Mental Health)

Young children can – and do – develop mental illness, including depression. Their mental illness may show up as poor school performance, ongoing worry and anxiety, refusing to go to school, hyperactivity and fidgeting, awful nightmares, disobedience, verbal and physical aggression, temper tantrums, and general irritability. Do you think your child has a mental illness? There are things you can do to help him or her.

1. Poor nutrition can change brain chemistry, so make sure your child eats a balanced diet.

2. Observe your child’s behavior over time. You may wish to keep a diary of this behavior for at least a month.

3. Talk with your child about the problem: bullying, self-esteem, things she or he has seen, and personal feelings.

4. Encourage your child to confide in you. Listen to your child’s word choices and for descriptions of feelings. Observe your child’s body language as you listen.

5. Praise your child’s talents and strengths. Don’t overdo it, though, or your your child won’t believe you.

6. Seek professional help if you think it is needed.

Mental illness is treatable and the treatments are getting better all the time. For the sake of your family, your child, and your child’s future, get help for his or her mental illness as soon as possible. While you are doing this, remember to take care of yourself, for the mental illness of one affects all in the family.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson

http://www.harriethodgson.com http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance nonfiction writer for 28 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Her 24th book, “Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief,” written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com. A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will find another review on the American Hospice Foundation website under the “School Corner” heading.

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