Monday, July 30, 2012

Kratom - A Guide to Effects and Usuage


Kratom is quite a unique herb because different doses will have very different effects. This is because the active alkaloids in the Kratom plant work both as a stimulant and a sedative. Kratom will have a different effect depending on how much is taken, and the person taking it, and because of this, it is advisable to begin with small doses until you know how your body will react.
Stimulant Level (Low Dose)
At this level, Kratom will help you feel more alert, with more physical energy, and for some people, more sexual energy. Most people will become more talkative, sociable, and friendly, and many find it easier to do hard, boring physical activities. Many will enjoy these effects, but some may find that it makes them uncomfortable and edgy.
Sedative Level (High Dose)
At this level, you will normally be less sensitive to emotional and physical pain; you will look and feel calm, and have a general pleasurable feeling, and may even enter a trance-like state. Some people may experience some sweating or itching, and possibly nausea; however, if you lie down ad relax the nausea should pass quickly.
Many people in this state find that it is pleasurable to lie down in a darkened room and listen to music, and many have even entered the 'waking dream' state, which was popular in the 19th century. These effects will usually last about six hours, and the higher the dose, the stronger the effects will be.
Dosage
The following dosage recommendations apply to Kratom leaves, and not extract. Because people vary in sensitivity to Kratom, and different batches vary quite a lot in potency, these are only rough guidelines, and should begin with a low dose whenever you are using a new batch of Kratom. Some people find that they are very sensitive to Kratom, and even small doses may produce adverse effects such as prolonged vomiting. If this happens to you discontinue use and find an alternative herb.
Begin using Kratom in small doses of between 2-6g, this should produce mild, stimulant like effects. 
7-15g can produce medium stimulant like effects, or sedative effects depending on the person and their tolerance level. 
16-25g produces strong sedative like effects, and is too much for people who are very sensitive to Kratom. 
26-50g is too much for most people and producer very strong sedative like effects.

Are There Any Risks?
When Kratom is taken alone, and not mixed with any other drug or herb, the biggest risk is falling asleep. Because of this you should never drive, or operate machinery after using Kratom. Even if you feel stimulated, you can become sleepy extremely quickly.
Is Kratom Addictive?
While there have been a few reports of people becoming dependent on Kratom after years of daily use, if used responsibly, it is not addictive. If used occasionally rather than daily, there is almost no risk of becoming dependent. But with almost any drug, including coffee, alcohol, and tobacco, if used daily for a long period of time, it can become a habit that is hard to break.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

What Is Prolotherapy and Its Treatments?


The term prolotherapy refers to a special type of treatment for chronic pain on ligaments and around joints. It involves the use of a little sugar solution, which is injected into the affected areas to stimulate the body into carrying out necessary repairs. Concentrated glucose may also be used as an injection.
While some types of treatment aim at curing inflammations, this technique actually leads to localized inflammation. As the inflammations resolve, the pain decreases and stability improves, thereby effecting healing. A series of such injections can maintain the improvements for a long time.
How Does the Treatment Work?
Ligaments usually stretch or strain following a musculoskeletal injury, which makes them painful and hypermobile. Healing usually takes place as the ligaments are restored to their original strength. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and sometimes people end up with lax ligaments. This condition makes it easy to get injured again or may lead to muscle spasms and instability.
While there are different types of treatment for such a condition, including the use of steroid injections, nonsteroidal medications or surgery, these methods generally work slowly.
Prolotherapy works better because it goes directly to the cause of instability, leading to the production of new fibrous tissues and permanent stabilization of the joints. The method creates a mild and controlled injury to stimulate the body to use its natural healing process to develop new tissue. This makes the weakened structure tighter.
Physicians from the Midwest developed the technique more than 50 years ago and have refined it over the years to treat musculoskeletal pain. The physicians discovered that injecting ligaments and tendons with an irritant led to fast and long-term improvement. However, similar treatments can be traced as far back as 500 B.C. For example, Roman soldiers treated dislocations of the shoulder joints using hot branding irons. The resulting scarring helped to fuse torn tissues. The use of injections can be traced to 1926.
Collagen is among the building blocks of connective tissue, and studies have shown that the injections make it change. Different clinical studies carried out have determined that the technique is helpful in treating particular conditions associated with chronic pain.
Types of Conditions Treated
The technique is used in treating chronic pain associated with:
- Lower back pain
- Tennis elbow
- Fibromyalgia
- Plantar fasciitis
- Osteoarthritis
- Tendonitis
- Neck pain
- Whiplash injury pain
- Spider veins
- Varicose veins
- Hemorrhoids
The method can be applied to different parts of the body, such as the shoulders, knees, hands, feet, face, breast and spine.
Different sugar solutions may be used to treat chronic pain from such conditions. The injections use natural substances and anesthetic agents that stimulate the natural healing response. Different substances may be used, and physicians tailor them as per the needs of their patients.
Like any injection, this technique may lead to stiffness and mild swelling. The pain experienced depends on a variety of factors, including the affected structure, solution used and both skill and experience of the physician. However, the mild discomfort disappears relatively quickly.
The treatment is only localized in the concerned area without affecting other areas.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Role of the Large Intestine in Digestion


The large intestine is the last part of the digestive tract. It has three main regions - cecum, colon and rectum. These three regions form an almost rectangular "frame", with the coils and loops of the small intestine inside it.
The cecum is a short pouch that links the small intestine to the colon and is about 5 feet long. Large intestine is connected to the small intestine through the ileocecal valve. Small intestine sends almost liquid digestive waste product to the large intestine.
Colon absorbs most of the water from this liquid product and converts it into more solid form that the body excretes as feces via the rectum and the anus.
Unlike the small intestine, the colon's long muscle does not form a complete tube. Instead, the muscle is concentrated into three bands called taeniae coli. These run the length of the colon and form pouches along the length called haustra.
The muscular movement in the wall of the colon, mix and propel feces along the digestive tract towards the rectum. The movement of feces varies in rate, intensity and nature depending mainly on the stage of digestion.
There are three different types of motions that take place within the colon, they are known as segmentation, peristaltic contractions and mass movement. While peristalsis propels chyme in the forward direction, segmentation moves chyme in both directions. Fecal material travels very slowly in the colon, compared to the small intestine, to allow for water absorption within the colon walls.
Almost all the chemical breakdown of food is completed in the small intestine. And almost all the nutrients vital for the bodily functions are absorbed in the small intestine.
Almost digested liquefied food is called chyme. Chyme passes from the small intestine through the ileocecal valve into the cecum. From there it reaches the first part of the colon, the ascending colon.
The main function of the colon is to convert liquefied chyme into semi solid feces for storage and disposal. Sodium, chloride and water are absorbed through the lining of the colon into the blood, making the feces less watery.
Bicarbonate and potassium are secreted by colon to replace the sodium and chloride. There are also billions of friendly microorganisms that live within the colon. These bacteria live in symbiotic relationship with the body.
The innermost layer of the colon is the undulating mucosa. This layer has the goblet cells in the intestinal glands, which is responsible for secreting lubricating mucus. This mucus helps ease the passage of the feces.
The rectum is around 5 inches long and it is normally empty except just before and during the defecation. Below the rectum lies anal canal, which is around 1.5 inches long. Within the wall of the anal canal are two strong sets of muscles. They are internal and external anal sphincters.
During defecation, peristaltic contractions in the colon push feces into the rectum, which triggers the defecation reflex. Further contractions push the feces along, and the anal sphincters relax to allow them out of the body through the anus.
Billions of microorganisms, mainly bacteria, live in the large intestine. These are called the gut flora. These bacteria are harmless as long as their population is within a certain range and as long as they are confined within the large intestine.
These bacteria produce enzymes which break down certain food components, especially plant fiber cellulose. Humans cannot digest cellulose. This way, the bacteria can feed on the undigested fiber in fecal material and provide nutrients for the body and help reduce the amount of fecal material.
As part of their metabolism, bacteria produce vitamin K and B. They also produce hydrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and methane gases. Most of these gases escape through the anus as flatulence. In addition, the gut flora also help control harmful microbes which may enter the digestive system. They also help the immune system in fighting disease by promoting formation of antibodies and the activity of lymphoid tissues in colonic lining.
At least one-third of the excreted fecal weight is gut flora. The gut flora and body exist in a mutually beneficial partnership.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Hahnemann - Homeopathy


Like many forms of alternative medicine, homeopathy evolved from its founder's disillusionment with current medicine practices. In homeopathy's case, the founder was a German medical doctor named Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann.
Hahnemann was born on April 10, 1755, in Meissen, a small town in Saxony, Germany. He was a brilliant student who showed considerable ability in science and languages. At the early age of twelve, he had already received great respect for these skills from his schoolmaster. By the time he reached twenty-one, he had mastered several languages, including English, Arabic, Greek, and Latin.
Hahnemann's great influence came directly from his roots. His father advised him never to take anything for granted; instead, he should reflect on everyday facts. So Hahnemann began the practice of spending hours on a subject at a very early age. This habit led to his becoming one of history's great thinkers.
In 1775, Hahnemann entered the University of Leipzic. During this time, he supported himself by translating four books from English to German, but his poverty forced him to leave school shortly before graduation. He attended a few lectures at the University of Erlanger, where he presented himself for an MD degree. In 1780, a year after graduation, Hahnemann settled in Dessau, where he opened a medical practice. Here, he published his first medical book and began to turn his attention to chemistry.
Hahnemann became a respected chemist at the Hasseler Laboratory in Dessau. While there, he published many chemical books, then was appointed district physician in the region of Gommern. Despite this prestigious position, Hahnemann became embittered with the way physicians practiced their profession. Barbaric doctors performed dentistry and surgery without sedating the patients. They also applied leeches, engaged in bloodletting, did purgative cleansing of the bowels, and prescribed drugs containing high levels of mercury. The latter caused mercury poisoning. Hahnemann was so disgusted with the medical field that one day he closed his office and abandoned his practice.
To support himself, Samuel Hahnemann applied his linguistic talents to translating medical textbooks. While translating William Cullen's Materia Medica from English to German, he came across a passage that dealt with the curative properties of the bark of Cinchoma succirubra, from Peru. The research claimed that the cinchoma bark, which was chiefly employed to cure fevers, contained powerful, fever-producing properties. The alkaloid quinine, extracted from the bark, also provided a good treatment for malaria. Impressed by this, Hahnemann began to experiment with the cinchona bark. He took two grams of the substance twice a day for several days. To his astonishment, he experienced symptoms similar to those of malaria (intermittent fever and chills). The crude substance had provoked symptoms in him similar to those produced by a parasitic infection. This experiment drove him to begin the proving (a study involving people taking a drug) of other substances. Hahnemann conducted his tests on the healthy, rather than the sick. This would give him a precise picture of the mental, emotional, and physical symptoms of a drug. He observed carefully and noted every detail.
Today, in the Homeopathic Materia Medica, we find a compiled list of therapeutic indication of proven remedies, carefully recorded by Hahnemann and his students.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Natural Remedies For Anxiety - Product Reviews


One of the best ways to reduce anxiety is to determine that anxiety does not control you. It is now the time that you take charge of your mind and use the information in this article and the links provided to learn how you'll be able to accomplish this.
One of the ways that others are accomplishing this is by consistent and daily practice. People are changing their habits by creating realistic goals about their current situation and then making plans to move forward. They are not allowing anxiety,fear, stress and the hundred other things get in the way.
Raw food lovers to even medical doctors are now encouraging the use and purchase of herbals supplements and natural products to overcome anxiety. They realize the old saying, "What you put in, you get out." With the prescription drugs having so many side effects and how they are not actually natural at all, it's no surprise people are walking away from scripts as people in the streets refer as.
Some of the natural remedies for anxiety that people are using range from extracts to daily capsules to regular daily beverages that can be purchased from the local organic shop. These extracts are completely safe as long as you know who the manufacturer is and they supply you with the label of what is in the actual bottle. More and more manufacturers in the health niche are realizing their regular meds or pills aren't doing the trick.
One of the remedies is called the Seven Source Mushroom Extract. It is a small bottle that has a dropper vile built into the lid. You simply drop 10 droplets or more into a cup of water and take daily for 90 days. Then other people are also taking this extract straight up by dropping it on the bottom of the tongues for the direct effect to the blood stream.
I would have to say that the Seven Source Mushroom Extract was good as well as a calming feel came over me for about 1-3 hours. I just was content and working away on my projects after I took it. I realize about 20 minutes later the thing that was troubling me was no longer affecting my thinking. This is very important for those who don't like thinking or worrying about certain conditions that cause the mind to be anxious.
Another remedy that consumers love taking for instant relief is called Kava Kava. This is a powerful herbal supplements for those who are entangled with daily stress,worry and anxiety. If you experience of any these issues, be sure that you only take kava kava for a short period of time. The reason for this is because it can damage your liver if you take it regularly for long periods of times like more than a month or even 2-3 weeks daily.
As you'll come to realize, this world is expanding in the commerce world with more herbal and natural remedies for everyday ailments.