headachedrugs
May 9, 2012 | 
Author While new technologies are meant to make our lives more efficient, it doesn’t mean they can’t, quite literally cause pain in the neck and shoulder for some people. Researchers at Harvard looked at students and their prolonged usage of tablets. In an effort to be fair, both the ipad2 and the Motorola Xoom were studied.
The researchers suspected there would be a higher risk of neck and shoulder discomfort in the tablet users as opposed to those students who used desktop or laptop computers. The students using the tablets appeared to have poorer posture due to the head/neck angles they maintained while using their tablets. Several configurations were studied, including the placement of the tablet in one’s lap, as well as the tablet in a case resting on a table. All the tablet arrangements showed a higher risk of neck and shoulder pain when compared to laptop and desktop computer users. Not surprisingly, the tablet brand did not seem to matter…..
Dr. Perry Klass, a primary care doctor, and columnist for the New York Times Health recently wrote about the concern primary care doctors, as well as pediatricians, and obstetricians have in speaking to their patients about depression. ”Like many other primary care doctors I sometimes sense the shadow of depression hovering over the edges of the exam room.” The right questions may be critical in helping the patient get the correct diagnosis, without stigma.
Research into postnatal depression has underscored the importance of following up on parents’ mental health in the first month’s of a baby’s life. However, a parent’s depression can be linked to all kinds of issues, and may endure or appear in the lives of older kids. Often, people who are depressed do not seek out help. Dr. Williams Beardslee, professor of child psychiatry at Harvard medical school says “Untreated, unrecognized parental depression can lead to negative consequences for kids.” These consequences can include lowered school performance, increased visits to the emergency room, poorer peer relationships and adolescent depression. However, when depressed parents get treatment and help with parenting, families are much better off.
There are higher rates of depression in parents whose kids have chronic medical problems. This may also reflect the stress of dealing with the issues surrounding the child. Dr. Jacqueline M. Grupp-Phelan, a pediatric emergency room doctor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said “There is a high burden of maternal depression, and anxiety among moms bringing their kids to the emergency room.” ”It influences their own perceptions of how well they can deal with their kid’s problems.” Dr. Grupp-Phelan believes moms in the emergency room like to be asked how they are doing… it may be the only time they’ve been asked about their depression. ”The last thing in the world we should be doing is blaming parents.” ”We should be reaching out and offering hope.” And there is a lot of hope. Healthy family routines and rituals can be rebuilt, and there is extensive research to show that kids are resilient……… Ny Times Health May 7, 2012
Every time I’m at the grocery store, I am torn deciding if I should be buying organic foods. I try to eat healthy, and wonder if I’m doing more harm than good if I buy non-organics.
Organics are foods that meet the standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Animals can’t be given antibiotics or growth hormone. Farmers can’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides on their fruits and vegetables.
In a 2010 study, researchers analyzed fruits, vegetables and juices consumed by elementary school children and found 11 different synthetic pesticides being ingested. Some experts say the pesticide levels in most people’s bodies were too low for concern. However, other experts disagree. Laura Vanderburg, a biologist at Tufts University says, ”The hormones are incredibly potent. Even if a chemical is present in only trace amounts, it can still be at a level where it’s incredibly biologically active.”
So based on that knowledge, it seems like a wise decision to buy organic when I can. However, ther are certain foods that don’t absorb pesticides or are peeled and aren’t worth the price. These include asparagus, avocados,bananas, broccoli, cabbage, kiwi, mango, onions, papaya and pineapple.
As the weather improves with the arrival of spring, it sometimes gets difficult to stay focused when it’s beautiful outside. This really affects students as they are preparing for final exams of the school year. Here are some tips to help keep your kids focused, and even though these tips are recommended for children, they are certainly applicable to adults as well.
Moving the body motivates the brain. Have them get some exercise before they do their homework. Whether it be riding their bike, going to baseball practice or walking the dog, it’s important they have a chance to move around before sitting down to focus.
Turn off the TV and the computer. The distractions may be too appealing and homework will take a lot longer with attention being pulled in another direction.
Make a list. Everything that needs to get done should be on that list, and it gives a great sense of accomplishment with each item that is crossed off.
Try to avoid conversation during studying. Distracting chatter will make them lose focus and waste time going over material they were only partially absorbing.
Take breaks. Depending on their age, have them take a break every 20 minutes or so. Move around, get a drink, but then back to work. Don’t let them get involved with TV or computer during these breaks.
The journal Headache recently published the results of a study of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers had suffered deployment-related concussions. Soldiers with chronic daily headache, defined as headaches occurring 15 or more days per month, for the previous 3 months were compared to soldiers with episodic headaches occurring less than 15 days per month.
Approximately 20% of the soldiers had chronic daily headache, while 78% had episodic headache. It was noted that the number of concussions, blast exposures, and concussions with loss of consciousness was not significant between the two groups. However, the soldiers with chronic daily headache had significantly higher average scores on the post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) checklist compared to soldiers with episodic headaches.
The study concluded that PTSD symptoms were strongly associated with chronic daily headache, suggesting that traumatic stress may be an important point of headache chronification. A few years back John Rothrock, M.D. and editor in chief at Headache published an article asking the question “Why does migraine become chronic?” While he noted that are not clear answers, he suggested there may be a strong association between chronification and a history of early sexual abuse, and other emotional traumas early in life. It may be possible that PTSD and returning troops with head trauma may also have a link to chronic daily headache. While early emotional trauma (or sexual or physical), or in the case of soldiers the PTSD, may predispose to headache, this is not to say that the headaches are “all in your head”. They are very real, just like diabetes or asthma. These headaches involve many changes in neurological pathways and neurotransmitters.
Painkillers, particularly opioids, have been under attack in the U.S.. The media rails against overuse of pain meds, how regulatory departments do not sanction “bad” doctors enough, how many people overdose and die, etc. etc.. That all has some truth to it; the other side is, what are the pain patients supposed to do? The current environment makes it difficult for doctors to prescribe pain meds; not THAT difficult however. There are a # of reasons why many docs do not want to prescribe pain meds, some legitimate, some not so. The legitimate reasons include the increased scrutiny that prescribing opioids has brought, fear of the state dept. of regulation and DEA, fear of lawsuits, etc.. The non-legitimate reasons why docs are loathe to prescribe include not wanting to put up with diffficult phone calls and difficult patient encounters. Prescribing opioids adds complications, and many docs just say it is not worthwhile. In this environment, I do not really blame them. If a doctor says “I do not prescirbe pain meds, or if I do only 10 at a time”, it eliminates many difficult patient encounters, phone calls, problems with pharmacies, lawsuit possibilities, and fear of state and federal scrutiny. Nonetheless, that leaves the pain patients out in the cold, finding it very difficult to find docs who will prescribe. That is a major problem. Yes, there have been overdoses and overuse, but 90% of patients do not overuse the pain meds, become addicted, or overdose. Should we really punish the 90% because we have a problem with 10% of patients? I think not………..it is not fair………
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Dr. Roger Cady, founder of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Missouri, and a leader in the field of headache and migraine research recently spoke with Head Wise Magazine about the issues surrounding migraine patients. He believes the most common need people have is to understand why they get headaches….
Dr. Cady :
Why am I different than my friends? We go out and we do the same things, and I end up with a migraine and they seem to have no ill effects. When I sit down with patients, I like to make sure they understand that they were born with a brain that is unique and different than the brain of people who don’t have have migraine. The brain of a migraineur tends to be more vigilant, more sensitive to its surroundings. That often brings with it some very positive attributes if the nervous system is well controlled. Successful people in all walks of life live with migraine. Our goal is to learn to manage this nervous system successfully and bring out the good attributes – the positive side of this sensitivity. Then I like to make sure they understand why they get headaches. It’s a relationship between the genetics that nature gave them, and the environment in which those genetics function. Sometimes we think of migraine as being one thing, but a lot of times its many things that are impacting the nervous system simultaneously and putting that nervous system at risk.
Dr. Cady said if he could say one thing to a migraine patient it would be the following….
Migraine is a biologic process. There’s a lot that can be done to help manage it more successfully. Part of this, you, as the person that has this nervous system, need to take responsibility for. A lot of it, the medical system can help you discover and learn how to use. Find a partnership. Work with your healthcare professional and in almost all instances, migraine can become a well-managed and well-controlled disorder…..Head Wise Vol.1 Issue 1 2011 Gary Cohen
Recent research challenges the common belief that problems with nighttime sleep and daytime tiredness are more common in older adults. The study looked at 155,877 Americans…. of those, the people over the age of 80 were actually less likely to have sleep problems versus those between the ages of 18-24. Men over the age of 80 had less than half the frequency of sleep problems as the men aged 18-24. The octogenarian women also had fewer sleep issues than the 18-24 year old females. The study suggests that sleep problems were most closely linked to self-reported health status and depression. The young female respondents were also most likely to report feeling tired during the day. The rates of sleep problems and tiredness dropped after the age of 24 in women, and did climb as women reached their 80s, but they never reached the level seen in the youngest women. The rates of tiredness among men varied little with age, and rose only slightly in the late 70s.
It makes one wonder about the various factors affecting young people and their sleep patterns ……Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter May 2012
When given in high doses, the drug naltrexone has been effective in blocking the effects of heroin and other narcotics in addicts. Because the person does not experience a high on naltrexone, he or she can overcome the addiction to the narcotic. Naltrexone can also help alcoholics stop drinking.
A study just published shows that a low dose of naltrexone can significantly reduce pain in people with fibromyalgia. The research, done at Stanford University School of Medicine confirms earlier, similar findings from Stanford, published in 2009.
When given in low doses, naltrexone works in a different way… it affects the immune system. As a result, naltrexone can offer patients with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, and chronic diseases with immune components like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome some pain relief. In this newest study, women with fibromyalgia were given a daily low dose of naltrexene for 12 weeks, followed by a placebo for 4 weeks. Compared to the placebo, naltrexone decreased the pain in the women by over 48%.
French researchers have recently published results from a study looking at older women, and their vitamin D intakes. After following the women for seven years, the researchers concluded that the women who did not take a daily vitamin D supplement at the start of the study had a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to the women who took one. Potential brain benefits of vitamin D can also be linked to foods rich in the vitamin, such as fish.
Exposure to the sun is an important way our body manufactures vitamin D. However, weak levels of sun in wintery northern climates may not supply the amount of the “sunshine” vitamin we need. Fortified foods, as well as vitamin D supplements can help.
The results of this study suggest that vitamin D is not only essential to our bone health, but to our brain health as well…….The Journal of Gerontology MedScience April 2012
