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Smoking Provokes Migraine Attacks
Smoking Provokes Migraine Attacks
Tobacco can precipitate headaches, specifically migraines, according to
a study in Spain that found that smokers have more migraine attacks and
smoking more than five cigarettes a day can trigger such headaches.
The influence of tobacco as a precipitating, non-causal factor of
migraine attacks has produced contradictory data in scientific
literature. The limited research before this work was published in The
Journal of Headache and Pain indicated that smoking could improve
migraines by reducing anxiety, one of the factors that triggers an
attack.
"This study is groundbreaking in Spain, as there are few studies on this
topic, and all are very biased," said Julio Pascual, a neurologist who
is one of the study authors. "This is due to the complexity and need for
prior training of the participants."
One advantage of this study is that the sample used, 361 medicine
students from the University of Salamanca, were fully aware of what a
migraine is. The experts, who inquired about the presence or absence of
migraine and whether they smoked, guaranteed the reliability of the
results obtained, as most surveys for this type of study are done over
the phone, randomly and in people without knowledge of the illness.
The results showed that 16 percent of the students fulfilled migraine
criteria, while 20 percent smoked. The tally of smokers was higher (29
percent) in those who also were migraine sufferers. Migraine frequency
in the smokers who have migraines was clearly higher than in those who
were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.
"Smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the
prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers
and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes
consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks," Pascual said.
Be Social for
Better Health
Say hello, get socializing, and be happy. Medical researchers have
established a direct link between a buoyant, outgoing personality, and
better health.
Extroverts, particularly those who are happily engaged in their everyday
lives, have dramatically lower blood levels of an inflammatory chemical
linked to clogged arteries, heart attacks, and strokes, according to a
study at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y.
"The 'life force' is linked to [a] body's ability to withstand stress,"
the study said, suggesting that extroverts have a "survival advantage"
over their less engaged peers.
The study took the important first step of finding a strong association
between one part of extroversion and a specific, stress-related,
inflammatory chemical.
They are talking simple, happy stuff, essentially. The potentially
damaging levels of the inflammatory chemical interleukin-6 can retreat
in a person who has " 'dispositional energy,' or a sense of innate vigor
or active engagement with life," the study said.
It followed 103 adults older than 40, gauging their personalities with a
standard psychological test and measuring levels of interleukin-6 in
their blood. Those who were involved heartily in life had measurably
lower amounts of the inflammatory chemical. The study revealed that this
tendency was particularly pronounced in older women.
"If this aspect of personality drives inflammation, dispositional energy
and engagement with life may confer a survival advantage," researchers
say.
Potentially, you might apply techniques developed to treat depression
like 'pleasurable event scheduling' to patients with low dispositional
energy, where you get people more involved in life by filling their time
with things they enjoy as a therapy.
Welcome to the newly redesigned XLPharmacy Health Blog and Health
Videos, a collection of up-to-date Monthly Health Articles, News, and
Health Videos. In each current months issue XLPharmacy Health
Blog / health news provides a wealth of up-to-date medical news and videos we hope
you find helpful and informational. At XLPharmacy we care about you
and your family and we believe that everyone should have fast and
reliable access to affordable high quality medications in order to
maintain a healthy lifestyle. Staying in touch with the latest in
health news is only part of what we do. Be sure to stay
up-to-date by reading and watching XLPharmacy's health blog, news,
and health videos so you don't miss a single issue, video or health news
story in today's ever-changing world of health care. XLPharmacy
Health Blog and Health Articles will discuss everything from
Medicare to Social Security, Weight loss, Cancer to New Cancer
tests, Erectile Dysfunction and Medications like Viagra for Sexual
Health, Herpes, HIV, AIDS, Smoking, Women's Health, Mental Health
and so much more...(check our coupon code to the left)
New
articles are added all month long....
Featured Article - Blood Pressure
Pill Helps "Kick the Habit"
Pill Hits Smokers’ 'Delete Button
A pill that many patients use now to control blood pressure also may
help smokers kick the habit once and for all by erasing memories of
smoking, researchers say.
The pill, propranolol, is a standard beta blocker that has the known
side effect of causing memory loss. In this case, the side effect is
being thought of in terms of the old joke about computer software
design, as in, “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!”
A trial is under way at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine
how effectively the beta blocker pill, in combination with nicotine
replacement therapy, could be as a “delete button” to erase memories
and habits connected to smoking.
The trial is taking place because standard nicotine replacement
therapy helps break the physical addiction to nicotine but doesn’t
stop the craving or desire to smoke. Such craving is triggered, it
is believed, by the release of the brain chemical dopamine, which is
a neurotransmitter intimately involved in emotional response, in
feelings of pleasure and pain, and also in short-term memory.
Dopamine fools the brain into believing nicotine is essential to it.
Cues that trigger smoker’s memories — and thus the desire to smoke
—often are things like that first cup of coffee in the morning or a
glass of wine in the evening. Researchers believe that, every time
we recall memories of smoking, or any other memory for that matter,
the memory is changed slightly, and when the brain “re-files” it,
the memory is recommitted in slightly different form.
Beta blocker drugs disturb this process, interfering with the
emotional aspects of the memory. In other words, smokers will
remember that they always smoked with that first cup of coffee, but
they will forget to an extent the pleasurable associations connected
with smoking while drinking coffee.
The study at Massachusetts General involves 50 subjects who have
smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for the previous three months.
They are being given replacement therapy in the form of nicotine
patches, which will be followed up with six weeks of taking either
the beta blocker propranolol or a placebo.
A leading researcher in the field, Dr. Paul Kenny of The Scripps
Research Institute, said, “It is a very exciting concept. The theory
is that it blocks or erases memories associated with smoking.”
One out of every five adults in the United States still smokes,
according to the Centers for Disease Control. If this study finds
propranolol helps people "kick the habit" of smoking like we hope it
does, there are a few staffers around here who we know will be
definitely giving it a try. The replacement therapy up to this
point has not worked for any of them, and this story most certainly
gives those hard-core smokers hope they will one day be able to kick
the expensive and even more abusive effects of smoking on their
health.
Featured Article -
More Sex May Help Damaged Sperm
Men with fertility problems need to have
more sex to father a baby
Men with fertility problems need to have more sex to father a baby,
some doctors are now saying. In a recent study of Australian
men with damaged sperm, doctors found that having sex every day for
a week significantly reduced the amount of DNA damage in their
patients' sperm. Previous studies have linked better sperm quality
to higher pregnancy rates.
The research was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European
Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
The study looked at men who had damaged sperm. They told the men to
have sex every day for a week. After seven days, the doctors found
that there was a 12 percent decrease in the amount of damaged sperm
in 81 percent of the men.
On the other hand, many fertility experts suggest men abstain from
sex before their partners have in-vitro fertilization to try to
elevate their sperm counts.
There are other things a man can do to increase the sperm quality:
Don't
smoke
Drink
moderately
Exercise
Get more
antioxidants
Sperm that
are in the body too long have a higher chance of DNA damage, so
experts think sex helps reduce the damage when it gets the sperm out
of the body.
Some experts said that, although this new research is promising, it
doesn't prove that daily sex for men with fertility problems will
actually produce more babies, rather it may only be one piece of the
puzzle.
Instructing couples with infertility problems to have more sex could
stress their relationships this may add even more anxiety and do
more harm than good.
Current
Month's Story - Soy
May Reduce Damage Caused by Smoking
Soy May
Reduce Damage Caused by Smoking
If you can’t quit smoking, maybe
you should at least increase the
amount of soy in your diet, if a
new study saying soy could curb
respiratory problems is any
indication. The Asian super-food
can reduce the risk of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
and other respiratory problems,
the study says.
Soy, which is found in many
Japanese foods, including tofu,
natto, miso soup, soybean
sprouts, and soy milk, has long
been associated with a reduction
in cholesterol and the symptoms
of menopause. The new study,
however, is the first to show a
connection between soy
consumption and a reduction in
the risk of developing COPD, a
deadly lung disease.
In a recent study completed at
the Curtin University of
Technology, Australia,
researchers polled 300 patients
with COPD and 340 age-matched
control subjects about their
intake of soy.
Soy consumption was found to be
positively correlated with lung
function and inversely
associated with the risk of COPD.
It has been suggested that
flavonoids from soy foods act as
an anti-inflammatory agent in
the lung, and can protect
against tobacco carcinogens for
smokers.
Smoking is the biggest cause of
COPD, a lung disease that
includes emphysema and chronic
bronchitis. Long-term smoking is
associated with 90 percent of
cases.
More than 12 million Americans
have COPD, and another 24
million have impaired lung
function, indicating that COPD
may be under-diagnosed. The best
preventive measure of course is
not to smoke.
Current Month's Story -
'Trojan Horse' Therapy Kills Cancer Cells
'Trojan Horse' Therapy Kills Cancer Cells
Australian researchers are set to begin human trials of a tiny nano-cell
that acts as a "Trojan horse" against cancer cells, a breakthrough
they say may curb the need for debilitating chemotherapy.
The technology could eventually allow cancer sufferers to receive
treatment as outpatients, rather than being hospitalized for lengthy
bouts of chemotherapy, according to the researchers.
The research, outlined in the journal Nature Biotechnology, has the
potential to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment and make it
cheaper.
The technology allowed medics to target cancer cells without
damaging healthy tissue, a major problem with existing chemotherapy
treatments and essentially you need to get the drug directly inside
the cancer cell and not slug the body.
While researchers have been working on using nano-cells against
cancer for at least five years, the Australian researchers said the
latest version had proved 100 percent effective in treating cancers
in mice which were resistant to conventional chemotherapy.
The cells were loaded with anti-cancer medications and deployed in
"waves" to combat cancers. The first wave of Trojan horses goes in
there and disables the resistance mechanisms inside the cancer cell.
These cancer cells are totally receptive to repeated waves of these
Trojan horses. They can send in these nano-cells again and again and
each time they can load them up with different types of armaments
against cancer.
The cells will be tested on long-term cancer patients at three
Melbourne hospitals this year. The researchers have stated that the
nano-cells used less drugs than conventional treatments, making them
cheaper to administer, and that the targeted treatment also means
they have less side effects than chemotherapy.
Cancer treatment effectively can change to literally an outpatient
therapy, where the patient simply comes in once or twice a week.
You can receive the treatment in a very short period of time and you
can go about your normal life and not have any of these horrific
toxic side effects.
Sauté ground beef and onion in oil until beef is no longer pink. Add
rehydrated TSP, tomato sauce, green chilies, chili powder, garlic
salt and pepper; mix well. Bring mixture to boil, reduce heat and
simmer 15 minutes.
Prepare each serving as ordered. Wrap tortilla in clean towel and
microwave at HIGH (100% power) 20 to 25 seconds. Place tortilla on
serving plate, spoon 1/3 cup filling in center of each tortilla. Top
with 1/4 cup shredded lettuce and 2 tablespoons each tomatoes and
cheese. Fold in half. Serve with 2 oz. (1/4 cup) salsa. Makes 24
tacos.
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