Archive for April, 2011

Back to Nature – 3 Herbs Help Alleviate Back Pain

April 5th, 2011
Shubhanyu Jain asked:




After years of fiddling with allopathic medicine to ease back pain, scientists have now found that nature comes to help – again.

Researchers including Joel Gagnier, ND, of Canada’s Provincial Medical Centre in Windsor, Ontario reviewed 10 studies with a total of 1,567 adults suffering from acute, sub acute or chronic lumber pain. Gagnier and colleagues confirmed the studies’ methods and results, and put out their findings in The Cochrane Library.

What They Found

Devil’s claw

The analysis showed that daily oral administration of 50 or 100 milligrams of devil’s claw appeared to reduce back pain more than placebos, which are nothing but sugar pills given to a group in place of the real medication to figure out if the effect observed is due to the power of suggestion or the actual effect of the medicine.

White willow bark

Daily oral doses of 120 or 240 milligrams of white willow bark’s active ingredient, salicin also appeared to have a positive effect on back pain.

Cayenne

Tested as a plaster applied to the skin, it, too, had a seemingly encouraging effect on back pain. These plasters equaled – but did not surpass – results for a homeopathic gel.

Study Quality

Gagnier and colleagues call the evidence for devil’s claw “strong” as compared to “moderate” for white willow bark and cayenne plasters.

The review, however, expresses concern about the quality of some studies. The team also found possible disagreement of interest in six of the studies which may have biased those studies’ results.

All studies were short, enduring up to six weeks, so long-term results are unavailable. Gagnier and his team suggest that additional high-quality studies are required, while noting that herbal medicines may vary in preparation and content.

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What Every Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Should Know About Anti-TNF Drugs

April 5th, 2011
Nathan Wei asked:




Patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have poor prognostic factors or rapidly progressive disease are considered to be candidates for early treatment with biologic drugs such as TNF-inhibitors.

These drugs are targeted therapies that act on tumor necrosis factor, a cytokine, to block its action in the immune response that is out of whack in patients with RA. Cytokines are chemical messengers that are produced by cells to permit signaling among each other.

TNF-inhibitors may be used in conjunction with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS) such as methotrexate, although they may also be used alone.

Since their first use approximately fifteen years ago, much information has become gleaned from clinical experience as well as clinical research trials.

About one-third of patients with RA treated with anti-TNF drugs fail to respond. This failure of response is called primary treatment failure.

And another significant percentage of patients lose response over time. This phenomenon is termed secondary treatment failure.

Patients with primary treatment failure are generally switched to another anti-TNF drug with a different mechanism of action.

Patients who experience secondary failure can have their dose of drug increased either by increasing the amount of drug given or by decreasing the interval between doses of drug.

Anti-TNF drugs do come with potential serious side effects that must be monitored for.

These include an increased risk of infection as well as a possible increase in risk of cancer reoccurrence (although this is highly speculative). TNF-inhibitors can also increase the risk of tuberculosis.In addition, an increased incidence of other fungal infections such as histoplasmosis and coccidiodomycosis has also been noted.

Other potential side effects include a risk of neurological syndromes that mimic multiple sclerosis and injection site reactions.

Options for patients who have developed failure to TNF-inhibitor treatment include switching to either abatacept (Orencia) or rituximab (Rituxan).

Abatacept acts to block the activation of T-cells which are felt to play a significant role in the immune response.

Rituximab acts by depleting B-cells, which are also felt to be a significant contributor to the role of RA progression.

Another drug that is waiting in the wings is tocilizumab (Actemra). This drug inhibits the action of interleukin-6, another cytokine that has multiple effects on the immune system. Actemra has many desirable effects but because interleukin-6 is so ubiquitous, it also has some undesirable effects as well. These include elevation of liver enzymes as well as elevation of lipids.

Other drugs that have even different mechanisms of action include the various protein kinase inhibitors such as the Syk and JAK inhibitors that are currently being studied. These drugs have multiple effects on the immune system and are attractive because unlike anti-TNF drugs, protein kinase drugs are taken orally. However, they too have potentially undesirable side effects that must be accounted for.

The current buzz is the development of biomarker profiles that will potentially allow customized therapies for RA patients. By biopsying the synovium (lining of the joint)and identifying the biomarkers that are present within the synovium, it may be possible to “customize” the correct drug or combination of drugs that will get a patient into remission.

This will provide a much more targeted approach to treatment and may potentially lead to a cure for this devastating disease.



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Fruits For Diabetics – What Are the Fruits Recommended For Diabetics

April 5th, 2011
Murali V asked:




Fruits for diabetics can aid in the general wellness of the patient with diabetes. However, there are certain steps to make sure that the fruits to be consumed would not raise the general blood sugar level of the person with diabetes. The following are easy means to determine whether the fruit to be eaten would be beneficial or neutral or harmful to a diabetic patient.

In the drive to lower blood sugar, there are several methods that may be employed, though not all of them are in the vast realm of diet. Your blood sugar range is directly dependent on the ways and means that you employ to control it; and controlling it is of utmost importance, because you can even go blind if your glucose levels spike.

Diabetes bad food includes those that have high glycemic indexes for glucose- which includes those foods that are high in saturated fats and uncontrollably high amounts of sugar in any of its forms- from milk sugar to fruit sugar. Which brings us back to our main concern- what kinds of fruits can a diabetic eat?

Fruits for diabetics are usually those fruits that have high fiber content and have low sugar content. If we take these criteria and apply it, the first fruit that would come to mind would be the high and mighty avocado. But beware; this fruit has a lot of calories in it- so if you want to quaff a particularly large avocado, make sure that you would be able to regulate your calorie intake the rest of the day.

Mangos, currants and apples are also good sources of nutritional fiber- and their sugar index is from low to mid-high. Do not be afraid of eating apples, oranges and bananas. Now more than ever do you need a strong immune system? lowering blood sugar can be achieved by having more fiber in your body and through exercise.

Diet for high blood sugar should consist not only of fruits that have been mentioned above but also plenty of bitter and dark green vegetables- these are chock full of the necessary nutritive elements that would help regulate your blood sugar as your medication also does its job. Our aim here is not only to use fruits to lower blood sugar but also to obtain over all health.

What we can recommend for the long run, alongside a fixed diet with lots of good fruits in it is for a diabetic low carb diet that will help ease the burden off stressed body systems. Fruits for diabetics can only achieve so much- what is needed is a comprehensive approach that would be able to safeguard all possible routes of relapse and infection. These are two of the worst enemies of diabetics worldwide, and it is only through conscious effort can they be defeated by the lone diabetes warrior.

All in all, fruits for diabetes is only one of many ways that you can combat the dreaded disease.

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