Category Archives: Detoxification

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (Hbot) Helps In Addiction Recovery

July 25, 2015

How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (Hbot) Helps In Addiction Recovery

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) was reportedly used to treat 340 patients with severe cases of alcoholism, drug addiction, and narcomania during the post-intoxication periods. Out of the 340, 223 were alcoholics, 68 were drug addicts, while 49 were hard narcotic users. This is according to various medical reports released a decade after the new millennium. These figures no doubt brought a new sense of hope to many drug users, especially those on various drug addiction recovery programs and their physicians alike about the so called HBOT. Any wild guesses would suggest naturally they did ask the question; so what about it? Well..

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a natural healing process of the body through 100% oxygen inhalation. HBOT involves taking in pure oxygen under increased and controlled atmospheric pressure. It is an established treatment for decompression sickness and hazardous effects of deep-sea diving among others. Most notable of the other medical conditions where HBOT may be recommended include serious infections, air bubbles in the blood vessels, stubborn wounds that come about as a result of diabetes or radiation related injuries as well as long term treatment option for drug addiction.

Brief History of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT); And How it Works

History of hyperbaric oxygen therapy dates back to 350 years ago. The first (HBOT) chamber was erected in the year 1662. Use of HBOT however properly began mid in the 18th C. It was first tested by the military in the 1930s, precisely to find out its significance in deep-sea diving and aeronautics. Serious studies however began later in the 1960s against a number of medical conditions. These activities have continued to date but more important is the fact HBOT has been found to have long term positive effects on addiction recovery. Check out this: www.awaremednetwork.com for the timelines.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1 ATM. People take in approximately 21% oxygen at the sea level. In a hyperbaric chamber however they breathe in 100% oxygen, usually because the pressure is increased to about 3 times that at sea level. Blood vessels therefore carry more oxygen, providing about 15-25 times more oxygen to the rest of the body organs and tissues. Oxygen is said to have abilities to heal naturally. Increasing volume of oxygen supply therefore promotes faster healing of various medical conditions as earlier mentioned. This always comes with a number of health benefits.

Effects of HBOT on Patients’ Health

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment has a positive effect on the patient’s physical and psychological status during treatment sessions and could as well persist for a given period of time after treatment depending on the duration of exposure. Those with co-current symptoms and other initial status often experience sedative and bio-energizing effects. Various psychopathological examinations indicated the patients experienced faster decline of mental disorders, which brought about a further reduction in the duration of time spent while getting relevant treatment. Also, the parameters of central hemodynamics stabilized and myocardial status recorded further improvement. Such favorable attribute of HBOT were largely thought to be as a result of the anti-hypoxic detoxifying and bio-energetic effects of HBOT Treatments.

Normally, oxygen is supplied via red blood cells. Under intense pressure however oxygen dissolves into all other body’s parts and fluids including; the plasma, lymph, and into the bone and transported to areas with low oxygen uptake, normally because of damaged body cells or the blood vessels. This extra oxygen reach to all the body parts, including the damaged parts therefore is essential in aiding enables the body parts to develop its own healing mechanisms. Increased amount of oxygen also greatly boosts the white blood cells to kill bacteria even faster, thereby reducing swellings and rapid formation of new blood vessels in the affected areas.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on Addiction Recovery

Increased levels of oxygen supply to the brain can also improve the brain’s ability to function. This is particularly significant in addiction recovery because as indicated hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps in neuroplasticity. This is the brain’s ability to recover from damage. Addiction distorts normal neuron pathways, that is, drugs often lead to formation of new neuron pathways that identifies and recognizes the substance. Since the brain has a natural recovery mechanism, and that HBOT has the ability to increase that mechanism, it is therefore a great way of treating drug addiction.

Other than recovering from brain damage, many addicts on rehabilitation programs where this particular method of treatment is used confess they become more alert and that they are able to think much more clearly during or after treatment. Effect of the same on the patients’ physical strengths is substantial, and also they exhibit healthier skins. In addition, many of these patients claim they feel healthier at the end of their sessions than when they start.

In order to achieve better results, many physicians have also reported combining hyperbaric oxygen therapy with amino acid therapy. While further researching on the possibilities of using HBOT in addiction treatment Dr. Kenneth Blum discovered two amino acid formulations, which were; “Mental Clarity and KB 220Z”. Later he said what he and his colleagues found were that the Mental Clarity component improved rational functions while KB 220Z calmed strong cravings addicts have for drugs.

Finally as mentioned earlier in this article, HBOT has had a long history with addiction treatment. Most of that has been controversial. Please sign up for this year’s August integrative addiction conference to get up to date information about HBOT. Visit http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com. The link also contains information about how you may sign and participate in the August Integrative Addiction Conference plus a full list of the speakers lined up for the event.

How Oxygen Therapy (Hbot) Helps In Addiction Recovery

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Young U.S. Women Are The New Face Of Heroin Use

July 23, 2015

Young U.S. Women: New Face Of Heroin Use

Heroin use in the United States (U.S) like in other parts of the world has been predominantly men. The few women found in this category have been those in the inner city, rich and spoilt. However this is fast changing. Within this past decade heroin use has hit a staggering 62%. In 2005 heroin use was reportedly slightly over 1.6% in every 1000 Americans, aged 12 and over. In 2015 however the percentage went up somewhere above 2.6% per a similar number in U.S.

The rate of heroin use doubled that of men in a similar period. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage gradually increased from a mere 0.8% back in the year 2002 to 1.6% women alone. According to the report, the face of heroin use has changed from a stern faced man in the city unexpectedly to a young beautiful woman in the suburb. The report also indicated heroin-related deaths have hit of 300 percent.

heroin-addiction

Increasing Heroin Use in Women a Result of Pain Killer Prescriptions

The report pointed out different groups in the U.S. that have never been known to use heroin have been lured into the same in more recent times. It indicates a leading group of increasingly heroin users are women, those with higher incomes and private insurance. In as much as the net of heroin use reportedly caught indiscriminately across gender and societal status, many experts agree women have become more vulnerable to the increasingly available substance. Dr Dalal Akoury of Integrative Addiction Institute notes there is more than a double increase in number of heroin-related cases of addictions among women than men lately as opposed to some years back.

The increase of heroin use among women has however been attributed to increased pain killer prescriptions for a number of related complicated medical conditions over time. Various experts argue this happened gradually over time. “I suspect it’s been a more of a gradual thing, because more women have been exposed to pain medication for various problems. They have developed first an opiate addiction then have moved on to heroin,” said Onsrud, a consultant on Addiction Services at the Mayo Clinic.

Form Heroin Task Force to Fight Increasing Use

Various authorities argue the war on heroin use has been in existence for some time, with a few successes however it has continued to increase. In La Crosse County, the officials noticed heroin use was getting out of hand and decided to face it head-on. They formed the little known La Crosse County Heroin Task Force.

“We noticed heroin use had increased as early as the year 2010-2011,” said Al Bliss, then the task force coordinator. However he noted even at that, a lot more still has to be done. “I think we’ve made some end roads at decreasing availability of heroin but it still remains a problem,” added Bliss.

The task force coordinator also said in order to curb the menacing heroin problem, communities needed to form programs more or less similar to the Heroin Task Force so as to get like-minded people working together at attaining a single determined goal. “We need to further educate the community in offering help, treatment, and preventive care; and to conduct a lot of awareness in order to address the comprehensive problem of drug abuse,” he said.

Heroin Use

Substance Addiction Increasing Heroin Use

In a separate interview, Dr. Akoury echoed Mr. Bliss’s earlier observations; she said people suffering from substance abuse are more likely to form a habit of popping in pills. She added they are more susceptible to heroin use. A number of studies and medical reports also support this claim. One commonly cited study indicates alcohol and cigarette smokers have a higher chance of about 5 times their fellows who do not. The CDC report actually indicated 96% of heroin users used at least one more addictive drug. Also, that 61% of the heroin users used at least three more addictive substances.

In conclusion Dr. Frieden, director of CDC empathized with the current state of heroin use. He said: “It is heartbreaking to see injection drug use making a comeback in the U.S.” He said solving the heroin issue boils down to preventing addiction in the first place by hunting down the primary cause, which according to him were opioid prescriptions. “It also means; increasing access to rehabilitation including medications such as methadone or suboxone, cracking down on heroin sales, and increasing use of naloxone to reverse overdose. These are the traditional basics to deal with addiction, hence also key in combatting heroin use,” quickly added the CDC director

For the latest about heroin use in the U.S and the rest of the world please sign up for this year’s August Integrative Addiction Medicine Conference. http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com is the link to catch with speakers lined up for the event among other possible attendants participants

White Young U.S. Women, New Face Of Heroin Use

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RESTORING NEUROTRANSMITTERS KEY IN WAR ON DRUGS

July 17, 2015

Restoring Neurotransmitters Key In War On Drugs

The history of the largely popularized terms; War on Drugs is a long one. It began in the 1960’s when scientists still conducted research on the medical value of substances such as; marijuana, psychedelics, opium, and Coca. At the time many of these substances were not illegal. However these substances became symbols of political rebellion, youthful dissent, and other social political upheavals. Most of them therefore top on the list marijuana were banned henceforth. Various American Presidents have made history in the dance, War on Drugs. The most popular one is President Nixon, who declared a war on Drugs in the year 1971. He dramatically placed marijuana on Schedule One, the most deterring category of the addictive substances. Since then the battle against drug use has undergone through several twists and turns till to-date. However the most important and yet challenging bit of it is rehabilitation of the victims, or better their say recovery.

Restoring Neurotransmitters, New Approach to War on Drugs

It is highly unlikely doing the same thing every day will yield different results. For a long time detoxification has been used to treat addiction. This is the introduction of cleaning agents in a patient’s blood, to wipe off addictive substances. In many occasions however, the victims have fallen right back into addiction and the process started a whole new. Or aren’t there people who have spent so much time in Rehab facilities with no improvement?

Well time is ripe for a different approach to the war on drugs. There are scientific breakthroughs to that effect. One such was the astonishing revelation of neuroplasticity. This is the brain’s ability to recover from loss of memory or to maintaining normal functioning after incidents of accidents or other activities that might lead to an injury or damage of neurons. Adoption of neuroplasticity in rehabilitative treatment has been a great step in the war on drugs. For more information about it click on http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com. However today we shall discuss a different scientific breakthrough more like neuroplasticity, restoring neurotransmitters.

War On Drugs

Supporting Research on Neurotransmitters and War on Addiction

In a common medical study often alluded to, there were animals placed in a cage for some time and their behavior observed. The animals were provided a bowl of water, and another containing alcohol. The animals had a choice between the two. It was observed they chose different bowls depending on their health at each given time. Most of the time they were denied food, nutrients for that matter, they would drink from the alcohol containing bowl. Other times they were provided proper nutrition and they would drink from the water containing bowl. Continued provision of good food saw them drink the water and avoid the alcohol. Soon they never took in alcohol. At another, yet a commonly cited study, addicts underwent traditional rehabilitation methods of detoxification and were keenly observed for a period ten years, after which only about 5% managed to completely, abstain.

Proper Nutrition Key in War on Drugs

These study observations led scientists to a world of possibilities. Proper nutrition greatly assists in restoring neurotransmitters, which in turn helps in recovery. What then are neurotransmitters? They are chemical messengers’ neurons use in communication. They enable the nerve cells send and or receive electro-chemical signals within the brain and with other parts and organ systems of the body. They are therefore very well capable to regulate all functions of the body including: movements, sleep, wake, emotions, hearing, feelings of touch, response, and mental processes; cognitive thought.

The role of neurotransmitters therefore is underscored very important. Deficiencies are not good for our health, certainly not for those in rehabilitation. Addiction is a major neurotransmitter imbalance. It is an advanced symptom of neurotransmitter deficiency. The symptoms include the following: alcoholism, caffeine, sugar, sex, gambling, carbohydrate, nicotine, tobacco and marijuana addictions. Types of neurotransmitters include: serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, acetylcholine, and glutamate. Too little or too much of any or all of these is not good for recovery. Improper diets, environmental toxins, chronic stress, candida overgrowth, and genetic inheritance are top among causes of disparity.

War On Drugs

Neurotransmitter Restoration Prime in War on Drugs

Restoring neurotransmitters therefore is as important a recovery exercise in the war on drugs as are the other therapeutic methods. The following are simple ways of restoring neurotransmitters:

  1. Identify nutritional deficiencies. Neurotransmitters are majorly created through amino acid assimilation. There is need therefore to take in more protein containing foods with less of complex carbohydrates. Caution however has to be taken against foods containing fat and cholesterols as they are health hazards in other ways. Click on awaremednetwork.com for any further information on nutrition.
  2. Learn stress management skills. For the record take a walk in the sun, enjoy a beautiful view of the landscape, the horizon, take in deep breathes, listen to music, and accept the present.
  3. Exercising is another great way of restoring Enough exercise in itself leads to the production of endorphins, which as earlier stated are neurotransmitters. Exercising also aids in proper digestion of foods and creation and assimilations of in this case, amino acids.
  4. Maintain a balanced hormonal level in the body. Neurotransmitters work hand in hand with body hormones, glands and enzyme secretions. You may have to discuss this with your physicians. They might recommend a number of DO’s and DONTs that you will observe in order to restore your transmitters.
  5. And yes, actively start controlling use of addictive substances. Other than the known hard drugs, you should be able to reduce use of sugars, caffeine, and chocolate among others. Also reduce environmental toxins around your home or place of work.

Once again click on http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com for more information on these and the August Integrative Addiction Medicine Conference, by the way, you should sign up for that. You will also get to know a whole list of experts lined up for the event. One of those is Dr. Dalal Akoury of Integrative Addiction Institute and the founder of International Organization of Integrative Cancer Physicians.

RESTORING NEUROTRANSMITTERS KEY IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

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Fetal Cells: Enhanced Efficiency And Effectiveness For Wound Healing.

June 4, 2015

Fetal Cells: Enhanced Efficiency And Effectiveness For Wound Healing

“Extensive burns and full thickness skin wounds can be devastating to patients, even when treated. There are an estimated 500,000 burns treated in the United States each year. The overall mortality rate for burn injury was 4.9 % between 1998 and 2007 and medical costs for burn treatments approach $2 billion per year,” Owan TE, Hodge D.O., Herges R.M, et al. (2006).

These statistics could as well be over 11 million injuries per year as claimed by some medical reports. Other than burns, full-thickness chronic wounds also claims a large number of patients and despite technological development of therapeutic approaches, healing rates remain way below 50 % of success.

Patients with the non-healing chronic wounds are as well estimated at about 7 million per year in the US alone. Yearly costs on the other hand continue to rise, the figure is currently approaching $25 billion. Patient survival is reportedly inversely proportional to the amount of time required to recover from such a chronic wound and to stabilize.

wound-healing

Those with severe burns of between or more than 15–20 % total their body surface area are also likely to go into shock without rapid treatment. In addition, without sufficient and or rapid fluid resuscitation, patient conditions deteriorate and mortality rates increase steeply.

Inadequate therapeutic programs often result in long-term patient complications including open wounds, prominent scars, prolonged pain, high temperature sensitivity, loss of feeling to touch and or itching.

Patients who suffer from such burns and or chronic wounds benefit from prompt treatments that result in appropriate closure and or protection of the wounds. Burn patients in particular, who receive delayed treatments, are usually subject to prolonged therapeutic care that has long-term negative physiological side effects.

Recent medical advancements have been made to handle wound healing; however, the generally accepted and practiced treatment approach still remains an autologous split-thickness skin graft. This involves extracting a piece of skin with the goal of removing stem cells from a minor surgical site on the patient’s body, stretching the skin, and re-applying the graft on the burn or chronic wound.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the body that majorly bear two specific characteristics. They have the capacity to replicate themselves indefinitely and have the ability to replace and or repair nearly all body tissues as directed.

Stem cells extracted from the amniotic fluid, (AFS) are reportedly a very rich cell source for use in regenerative therapy due to their high proliferation capacity, immune-modulatory activity and multipotency.

AFS also have the capacity to modulate inflammatory responses and secrete therapeutic cytokines. Because of these characteristics, AFS cells have been explored for treatments in wound healing and skin regeneration among similar therapeutic care.

These attempts have over time been backed by relevant scientific studies that increasingly indicate AFS cells are effective in accelerating healing of skin in embryonic environments and more recently in treating wounds in adults. More scientific evidence also points to the fact delivered cells are often temporary, that is, do not permanently integrate into final skin tissue.

Instead, they hide a portfolio of effective growth factors very vital to the skin regeneration and angiogenesis, suggesting a trophic ability of enhancing skin and or wound healing.

These initial pieces of scientific studies suggest delivery of AFS cells have the potential to be an effective cell treatment for enabling wound healing and should be considered for clinical trials and use in treating skin wounds in patients.

While this treatment indicates the ability to yield a reasonably good therapeutic outcome, if the wound is extensive, the number and size of donor sites may be limited, making autographs difficult to use in cases that require rapid and or aggressive measures to save the wounded patient’s life.

Alternatively, allografts may be used but the option suffers a critical need of immuno-suppressive drugs so as to prevent body immune rejection of the graft. This limitation has thus caused the creation of noncellular dermal substitutes, which most often comprises a polymeric scaffold.

They include skin regeneration template and Biobrane among others. Even though such polymeric scaffolds result in improved wound healing, they are costly to produce and more often result in relatively poor temporary outcomes.

Recent developments in tissue engineering have also led to more complex biological skin parallels that may yield more suitable alternative wound care options for patients. These include: cellularized graft-like products such as dermagraft, Apligraf (Organogenesis), and TransCyte, (Advanced BioHealing) among others.

The products are commonly polymer scaffold patches that are planted with human fibroblasts and cultured in vitro prior to their application. Unfortunately, these grafts are also expensive to produce, and as allografts, can suffer from the same immunological setbacks mentioned earlier.

Intergrative addiction Conference

This topic can go on and on. It is actually very interesting but it would not be possible to include everything in one article. However more information can be found at www.awaremednetwork.com. Dr. Dalal Akoury M.D., M.P.H., who is also a family physician and has many years of experience in integrative medicine will be of great assistance.

Also, do not miss an opportunity to learn and interact with various professionals during this year’s Integrative Addiction. For more information about the upcoming conference, visit http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com. The conference will also deliver unique approaches to telling symptoms of addiction and how to assist patients of addiction.

Fetal Cells: Enhanced Efficiency And Effectiveness For Wound Healing.

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EPCs Role in Cardiovascular Diseases

June 4, 2015

Endothelial Progenitor Cells Role in Cardiovascular Diseases

EPCsCurrently, regenerative medicine is on focus with hopes that it can be used in treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The circulating endothelial progenitor cells have been shown to possess an ability to form mature endothelial cells that can be useful in the process of vascular repair as well as neoangiogenesis. In preclinical studies, it has been shown that the circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have the potency for cardiovascular regeneration. With this said, it is god to admit that there is still a lot needed to be done in this area to show the effectiveness of the regenerative activities of these EPCs. Here we look at how the EPCs relate to cardiovascular diseases.

Endothelial Progenitor Cells are biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases

Just like other stem cells the circulating endothelial progenitor cells have the ability to proliferate, migrate, and differentiate into mature endothelial cells. First discovered from the human peripheral blood, the EPCs were shown to incorporate into sites of physiological or pathological neovascularization. Ever since the EPCs were discovered, a lot has improved in the understanding of the blood vessel formation. There is a growing body of evidence that EPCs helps in providing postnatal vasculogenesis mechanism for neovascularization and vascular remodeling.

These cells have also been shown to possess diverse physiological functions and helps in the recovery process of myocardial ischemia and infarction, limb ischemia, wound healing, atherosclerosis, endogenous endothelial repair, and tumor vascularization. Earlier clinical trials have proved that EPC therapy is safe and feasible for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Plus, the circulating EPCs are also considered as biomarkers for coronary and peripheral artery disease. In spite of the medicinal abilities of these EPCs, there is still a lot to be done in order for the mechanism by which these cells work can be fully understood and be applied.

Despite the haze that still clouds the mechanism with which the EPCs work, it has been shown that EPCs locating to damaged tissues and organs proceeding vascular regeneration do not only help in the formation of the neovasculature but also produce a variety of proangiogenic cytokines and growth factors thus promoting proliferation and migration of pre-existing Endothelial Cells and activating angiogenesis to contribute to vascular regeneration. it is suggested that the EPCs owes their ability to contribute to vascular regeneration to the presence of cytokines and other secreting pro-angiogenic factors in them such as VEGF, stroma derived factor (SDF)-1α, angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1), hepatic growth factor (HGF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, and eNOS/iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase). Thus, EPCs can mediate tissue-protective effects and contribute to neovascularization via direct vasculogenesis in ischemic tissues and indirect production of proangiogenic factors to pre-existing endothelial cells.

Research has shown that there are reduced numbers of EPCs in clinical conditions like diabetes mellitus, heart failure, chronic kidney disease and hypertension. In such conditions these EPCs also become impaired and malfunctioning. It has also been shown that the number of peripheral EPC is significantly reduced and their functions impaired in patients with established coronary artery disease and stroke. In contrast the number of EPCs has been found to be on the increase in patients with acute coronary syndrome such as acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina since they are mobilized from the bone marrow into the bloodstream.

The levels and migratory capacity of EPCs is also highly reduced in those suffering from hypertension with coronary artery disease. Besides, the concentration of circulating EPCs is considerably reduced in refractory hypertension as compared to healthy subjects. Imanishi T and his colleagues reported that EPC senescence is augmented in both experimental hypertensive rats and patients with essential hypertension, which may be related to telomerase inactivation. The team found that the hypertension-induced EPC senescence may affect the process of vascular remodeling.

Another researcher, Delva P in his research; Endothelial progenitor cells in patients with essential hypertension, reported that there was no alteration in the number or functional activity of EPCs in 36 patients with essential hypertension. Some research studies have also demonstrated that the numbers of EPCs are decreased in pulmonary hypertension while others that the number of EPCs are increased or remain normal in pulmonary hypertension. With these available literature that are somehow conflicting there isn’t a clear relationship between EPCs and hypertension

EPCs and Heart Failure

EPCsTo show the relationship between heart failure and the number of circulating EPCs, Valgimigli M and his counterparts tested the level of EPCs in patients suffering from heart failure and they discovered that EPC mobilization occurred in heart failure and showed a biphasic response, with elevation in early stages while depression in the advanced stages. The increased EPCs was shown as a replication of a functional bone marrow response to diffuse and severe endothelial damage during the early stages of heart failure but an additional and significant increase of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) counteracted and overwhelmed the elevation of EPC mobilization in advanced disease phases by exerting a possible suppressive effect on hemopoiesis.

conference

With the above findings, it is clear that there is a relationship between the EPCs and the cardiovascular diseases. For more information about bone marrow transplant and stem cell transplantation, visit www.awaremednetwork.com Dr. Dalal Akoury, a doctor with years of experience in integrative medicine will be able to help. Don’t hesitate to check on http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com  and learn about the upcoming Integrative Addiction Conference 2015. The conference will dwell on unique approaches to telling symptoms of addiction and how to help addicts.

Endothelial Progenitor Cells Role in Cardiovascular Diseases

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