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health

My Experience With Antidepressants

Antidepressants are most commonly used to treat depression in people with major depression or depression caused by other illnesses (such as bipolar disorder). My experience began when I was about 19. I had been depressed for a long time and decided to see a psychiatrist. At first I was diagnosed with major depression but later on, another doctor realized I actually had bipolar disorder II.      The first antidepressant I was given was Paxil. It didn't help me at all. In fact, the only thing it did for me was it made me sleep about 18 hours a day. I felt completely apathetic. I wanted to sleep and I would wake up long enough to eat or go to the bathroom but that was about it. I was advised to stay on it for at least a couple of weeks to let it "get in my system". So I took that advice and waited a few weeks before giving up on it completely.      Then I was given Lexapro. I basically had the same problem with it but it also caused me to have some chest pain and I felt like my chest was really…
Score: 1.42

Why You Should Stop Smoking

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, if you're a smoker, stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health. It's one of the best ways to help you live longer and have a better quality of life.      It can be extremely hard to stop smoking though. Author Mark Twain once said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." Perhaps you've tried to quit before and couldn't or maybe you stopped for a while but ended up smoking again. What exactly makes smoking so addictive?      Nicotine is a chemical that is naturally found in the tobacco plant. Believe it or not, it's as addictive as cocaine and heroin. When you have a physical addiction to a drug, you experience very unpleasant withdrawal effects when the drug isn't in your body. It's only human nature to want to avoid discomfort and that's why people that go back to cigarettes.      When you inhale cigarette smoke, nicotine is carried from your lungs to your bloodstream. In fact, nicotine that has been inhaled…
Score: 1.61

How To Avoid Eating Excess Sugar

I have a health condition called PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). I won't go into all the details about it but it puts me at a very high risk for developing type 2 diabetes later on in life. So recently I decided to start eating healthier and to cut out excess sugar from my diet. And from that point on, I've noticed that food companies put sugar in everything. Obviously, if you really want to know exactly what's in your food you should probably cook it yourself from scratch, but unfortunately, we don't all have the time to do that. So if you're concerned about your health like I am and you'd like to stop eating so much sugar here are some tips for how to find it in processed foods.      Sugar is pretty much everywhere these days. Companies even add it to things that you wouldn't suspect because they aren't sweet. But food companies put it in everything from bread to salad dressing. In fact, just the other day I took a look at a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup and the second ingredient…
Score: 1.42

8 Things To Know About The Birth Control Shot

Most people are familiar with the birth control pill, but there are also other birth control options like implants and intrauterine devices. There is also a birth control shot. The shot uses Depo-Provera which is the brand name for medroxyprogesterone. It must be given once every three months. It prevents pregnancy by preventing ovulation. It also causes your cervical mucus to thicken which helps keep sperm from reaching an egg. Here are some things you might need to know about this shot if you're considering using it for birth control.      1. According to Planned Parenthood, the birth control shot is over 99 percent effective when it's used correctly, but in reality, it's closer to 94 percent because women often forget to get the shot. So that means about 6 out of every 100 people using the shot will get pregnant every year. So if you're thinking about going on the shot, you need to remember to make appointments with your doctor regularly to make sure you don't miss a shot. It's a good…
Score: 1.44

Unusual Signs Of Heart Attack In Women

I was an EMT for about 5 years and I learned a lot about heart attacks. When most people think about heart attack symptoms, they think of stabbing chest pain. But that isn't always how a heart attack presents and this is especially true when it comes to women. Women tend to have much less severe signs and symptoms than men. Many people don't know that though, which is dangerous because a woman may have a heart attack and not seek out medical help. Regardless of what's going on with your body, if you think something serious might be going on you should always go to the doctor. But here are some possible signs and symptoms of a heart attack that you should know about. And even though these tend to be more common in women, men can also suffer from these less common symptoms.      1. You might experience chest discomfort but not always in the form of actual pain. Your chest might feel tight or you might feel a lot of pressure. It's easy to mistake this for indigestion or gas but it could be a…
Score: 1.49

Income Inequality - How It Relates to Health

 
Before proceeding to the income inequality, we have to know that what inequality is?      Basically, inequality refers to the unfair situation in society when some people have more opportunities, money, etc than other people. It is an instance of disparity. There are various factors, which we consider when we talk about inequality such as:      ➢ Social Status   ➢ Wealth   ➢ Opportunity for people or groups etc.      Based on the above definition, income inequality is an uneven distribution of income among the population. It is often presented as the percentage of income to a percentage of the population.         Causes of Income Inequality      There are various causes of income inequality like   ➢ Unemployment   ➢ Inflation   ➢ Tax Evasion   ➢ Regressive Tax   ➢ Education and much more.      Development in innovation arguably leads joblessness at all skill levels. It reduces the involvement of human power in various sectors as computerization take holds over it. Jobs involving repetitive tasks have largely been eliminated…
Score: 1.48

Popular Old Wives Tales From My Childhood

Growing up in West Virginia, I spent a lot of time with older people and I've heard a lot of old wives tales. Some of them are funny, some of them are just plain wrong, but surprisingly some of them actually have some truth to them. Here are just a few of the things I've heard.   1. Put a bar of soap in your bed sheets to prevent leg cramps. If that isn't the weirdest and silliest thing I've ever heard, I don't know what is. Despite the fact that there have been no scientific studies to explain how this could work, tons of people swear by it. Some theories include the idea that somehow the soap is releasing something beneficial into the air around the person's legs. If it works at all I would say it's probably just due to the placebo effect. I have to say I've never actually tried it. But then again, I don't really get leg cramps very often. I think I'll give it a try next time I have leg cramps just to see what happens.      2. I've always heard that rubbing liquid soap on a tick that's…
Score: 1.28

Signs And Symptoms Of Gallstones

For several years I had gallbladder attacks quite often because I had gallstones but unfortunately, I didn't have any health insurance so I couldn't afford the surgery to have my gallbladder removed. After suffering for about 5 years I was finally able to get the surgery and I've been doing well ever since. But needless to say, I became very familiar with all the signs and symptoms of a gallbladder attack. Here are some things you should know about them.      Your gallbladder is a tiny organ that sites on the right side of your midsection. It's below your ribs and helps you digest fat. It stores a chemical called bile which is secreted to help with digestion. Whenever you eat something, the gallbladder contracts and sends bile into your intestine. But unfortunately, sometimes this bile can harden into small stones which can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. If you have gallstones they might get stuck inside the duct that leads to the small intestine. This can cause…
Score: 1.26

Tips For Maintaining A Healthy Brain

It's important to stay healthy but most of us just focus on our bodies. But our brains are just as important. There are lots of things you can do to make sure you have a healthy brain. Here are few tips for improving your brain's health.      1. Eat unprocessed foods.   This is a great tip because it's important for your body as well. Try to eat foods like seafood, red meat, eggs, vegetables, nuts, and fruits. It's best to avoid or at least limit foods that are high in grain like corn, wheat, rice, etc. because these foods are low in nutrients and can have negative effects on not just your brain's health but your overall health as well.      2. Drink lots of water.   Plain water is best but if you must have some flavor you can put some lemon slices in it. Your body and brain both run better when they are completely hydrated. Making sure you drink plenty of water will help keep you from getting that foggy feeling and you'll be able to concentrate better too.      3. Avoid refined or simpled…
Score: 1.23

Is It Hashimoto's Disease Or Hypothyroidism?

Photo of a woman with a goiter. (Photo by By Drahreg01 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2688708).    I've recently been feeling pretty bad so I went to a family doctor and she did a lot of tests to see if anything might be wrong with me. As it turns out, I have hypothyroidism. I looked up the symptoms later when I got home and it definitely seemed to match what I had been experiencing. In fact, I've been having many of these symptoms for years. Some of them I never bothered to do anything about simply because they were symptoms that can be related to so many different illnesses. I assumed if I mentioned them to a doctor my concerns would just be brushed off. I also learned that many people confuse the difference between hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's disease. So I thought I'd explain the difference.    First of all, your thyroid is a small butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that controls several important body functions, including your metabolism. It…
Score: 1.39

Should You Take A Multivitamin?

    There's a lot of controversy over multivitamins. Some people think everyone should take them. Others think only certain people should. And many people say they are a complete waste of money. But what's the truth? Well for starters, let's define what a multivitamin is.  A multivitamin is a supplement that has more than one vitamin. So technically, something containing vitamin A and vitamin C could be considered a multivitamin. But generally speaking, it's a supplement with a lot more vitamins than that. In fact, sometimes multivitamins will even have other substances like saw palmetto or ginseng which aren't vitamins at all. But who actually needs to take a multivitamin?  According to doctors, a good multivitamin could be beneficial for you if you meet the following conditions:1. You're at risk for several nutritional deficiencies and can't change your diet to fix the issue.2. The multivitamin you plan to take has a sufficient amount of the vitamins you need to negate the deficiency.3…
Score: 1.32

Why I Had A Bad Reaction While Donating Blood

  I donated blood for the first time about a year ago. Fortunately, everything went well. I didn't have a bad reaction or anything. So naturally, when I went to donate again recently I assumed everything would go okay this time too. But people can and do have negative reactions. It isn't a big deal though but it can be very unpleasant and even a little scary. I've worked in the medical field so I knew these reactions could happen and I wasn't too freaked out when it happened to me. I was a little surprised though. I thought I had done everything that they tell you to do beforehand to prevent it.    Everything started out fine. I don't have an issue with needles or anything like that and the entire process takes about 15 or 20 minutes so just played on my phone the entire time. It wasn't they were almost done taking the full amount of blood they needed that I started feeling bad. At that point, I told the staff what was going on. I started feeling very lightheaded. Then I felt nauseated and…
Score: 1.3

Tips For Better Sleep

  Getting good sleep is extremely important for your overall health. Here are some tips to help you sleep better at night.    1. Avoid blue light at night.  Did you know that light is what makes your body produce melatonin, the hormone that tells your body when it's time to sleep? Blue light, which is a particular type of light produced by the sun, suppresses melatonin production. But our electronic devices also produce lots of blue light which is why a lot of people are finding it harder and harder to go to sleep at night.    So if you are like most people and you watch TV before going to bed or you spend a lot of time on your phone, try turning that stuff off a few hours before bedtime. It can be hard to get into that kind of routine but it's worth it in the long run. You'll start falling asleep easier and faster.    Some people can't bring themselves to part with their devices though so if that's the case, you might want to consider installing a program that will decrease the amount of blue light…
Score: 1.23

Produce vs. Prescriptions: Natural Alternatives to Synthetic Drugs from my Real Experience

Milestones in Medicine   Over the past century, and more recently, in the past ten years, we found ways to fight back many infectious diseases and illnesses. For precautions, there have also been many vaccinations distributed, in order to prevent any more illness outbreaks. You practically need a physical before joining anything sports or work-related. However, despite all of the prescriptions, treatments, and medical procedures, a lot of people still experience health complications.    It doesn’t take a doctor to figure out that too much of anything is bad, deadly even. Water is essential to our lives and our overall health. We can’t live without it. However, if you consume a lot of water in a short time frame, it can be dangerous.            Side Effects of Prescribed Drugs    The outcome of drinking way too much water can dilute the sodium in the body, leading to hyponatremia.   Side effects include headaches, nausea, and other symptoms that can cause the body’s organs to fail and can end up killing…
Score: 1.26

The Mediterranean Diet and The Struggle Against Fat Culture

    Hi, I'm "Penguin" Pete Trbovich, and last I checked, I weigh about 260 pounds. Considering that I only stand about five foot ten, that puts me in the Body Mass Index bracket roughly equivalent to Jabba the Hutt, or just your typical American bucket of lard. News reports the world over agree that Americans as a nation are on average blubbery landwhales. Gosh, what could be the cause of it?  Well, in my case, exercise is a factor. I write for a living. That involves (a) typing, and (b) sitting still for long periods of time. Even if I sprang out of my chair for a set of jumping jacks in between each paragraph, I would not be able to keep up on exercise, and I'd also have to explain to my hourly clients why I'm billing by the hour for jumping-jack time. I can mow the lawn and hike up the bike trail all I want to - Iowa life provides infinite opportunities for healthy outdoor exercise - but there just isn't enough hours in a day to compensate for basically being a professional couch potato.  …
Score: 1.37

Music That Can Help with Depression

by CFC123

Music is a powerful tool. It can make us smile or cry, inspire anger or peace, even create feelings of romance or enlightenment. Music in society channels someone’s emotions and thoughts into a universal medium, relying on complex sociological interconnections that allow two individuals from different walks of life to have two unique experiences with the same song.     The power of music has been used throughout history to soothe life's ailments, and depression is historically no exception. Since depression affects over 17 million adults in the U.S. in any given year, the songs listed below are meant to help find the right direction for depression assistance. Hopefully, you can find what is right for you – and hopefully, you will keep reaching out until you find it.    National Helpline - a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.    “My Sweet Lord” –…
Score: 1.06