Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process

August 23, 2015

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: It is possible

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process will not be complete without the engagement of physical activities as a means of addiction recovery treatment.

Our main objective in this assignment is to give you hope and assurance of the possibilities of overcoming all the problems that are associated with drug addiction. As experts from the home of solutions (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center) a facility that was founded by doctor Dalal Akoury (MD) we understand the technicalities involved in the journey of addiction recovery and that is why we want to share with you some of the mechanisms of total addiction recovery process as we progress into this discussion. Therefore it is true that when you’re struggling with drug addiction, sobriety can seem like an impossible goal owing to the addictiveness of the various substances of abuse. Nevertheless it is important to note that drug addiction recovery is never out of reach irrespective of how hopeless your situation seems. Professionally doctor Akoury register’s that in this journey change is possible with the right treatment and support, and couple with professionalism in addressing the root causes of your individual addiction problems. We are actually hear to help you make a difference amidst those challenges you may be experiencing and for that reason we request you to talk to use and never give up even if you’ve tried and failed several times before. Remember that the road to recovery is never a straight line which often involves bumps, pitfalls, and setbacks. Doctor Akoury says that treatment is possible and just by examining the problem and engaging the right gear of change is a step in the right direction meaning that you’re already on your way to addiction recovery.

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: Defeat the obstacle of denial and decide to make a change

According to the experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, for many people who are struggling with various kinds of addiction, the most challenging and toughest step toward addiction recovery is the very first one of making a decision to change. If this is your problem then don’t let it bring you down since it’s normal to feel conflicted about giving up your drug of choice, even when you realize it’s causing problems in your life. Many people have been through that but the most important and interesting part of it is that change is never easy and committing to sobriety involves changing many things, including the following:

Changing the way you deal with stress
Being very selective on who you allow in your life
Being careful with what you do in your free time
Taking full control of your feelings that is how you think about yourself

Like for instance, you may wonder if you’re really ready for all that change or if you have what it takes to quit and it’s okay if you’re torn. Remember that recovering from addiction is a long process, one that requires time, commitment, motivation, and support. And even as you consider your situation, the following tips can help you make the decision.

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: Thinking about change

Keep track of your drug use, including when and how much you use. This will give you a better sense of the role the addiction is playing in your life.
List the pros and cons of quitting, as well as the costs and benefits of continuing your drug abuse.
Consider the things that are important to you, such as your spouse, children, career and health. How does your drug use affect those things?
Talk it over with someone you trust. Ask the person how he or she feels about your drug use.
Ask yourself if there’s anything preventing you from changing. What are some things that could help you make the change?

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: The paramount steps to succeeding in addiction recovery

Having made a decision to seek for help, you must remain focus to your objectives and the following will be very helpful to you in keeping to the goals.

Remind yourself of the reasons you want to change.
Think about your past attempts at quitting, if any. What worked? What didn’t?
Set specific, measurable goals, such as a quit date or limits on your drug use.
Remove reminders of your addiction from your home and workplace. That is to say things which are most likely to trigger the old addiction practices.
Be very free and share with your friends and family that you’re quitting and ask for their support.

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: Explore your treatment options

Doctor Dalal Akoury is of the opinion that once you’ve made the decision to challenge your drug addiction, it’s now time to explore your treatment choices. And she advises that even as you consider the options, it is very important to keep the following in mind:

There’s no magic bullet or single treatment that works for everyone – When considering a program, remember that you are very unique and everyone’s needs are different. Drug addiction treatment should be customized to your unique problems and situation. It’s important that you find a program that feels right.

Treatment should address more than just your drug abuse – Addiction affects your whole life, including relationships, career, health, and psychological well-being. Treatment success depends on developing a new way of living and addressing the reasons why you turned to drugs in the first place. It may have been because of an inability to manage stress, in which case you’ll need to find healthy ways to handle stressful situations.

Commitment and follow through – Drug addiction treatment is not a quick and easy process. In general, the longer and more intense the drug use, the longer and more intense the treatment you’ll need. But regardless of the treatment program’s length in weeks or months, long-term follow-up care is crucial to recovery.

There are many places to turn for help – Not everybody requires medically supervised detox or an extended stint in rehab. The level of care you need depends on your age, drug use history, and other medical or psychiatric conditions. In addition to doctors and psychologists, many clergy members, social workers, and counselors offer addiction treatment services.

Finally and this is very important for everyone, doctor Akoury is suggesting that even as you seek help for drug addiction, it’s also important to get treatment for any other medical or psychological issues you may be experiencing. Your best chance of recovery is through integrated treatment for both the substance abuse problem and the mental health problem which you can obtain from the home of experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. This means when you schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury, she will professionally evaluate your individual conditions and combined both mental health and addiction treatment primarily to deliver your life back to you in totality.

Mechanisms of total addiction recovery treatment process: It is possible

Coexistence Of Pain And Addiction; Pain Cause Or An Effect

July 26, 2015

Coexistence Of Pain And Addiction; Pain Cause Or An Effect

According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heroin use has hit a staggering 63% increase in the United States U.S. Based on the report, use of the narcotic drug was recorded at a low of 1.6% of Americans aged 12 years and above in 2002. A decade later percentage of the American population within the age brackets using the addictive substance increased to an average high of 2.6 each year. The report also pointed out heroin use among the feminine gender shockingly doubled that of men in a similar study period.

Increased Opioid Use Cause of Amplified Addiction

The increase of heroin use among women was however attributed to increased opioid pain killer prescriptions. Women understandably have more related and complicated medical conditions. In related medical reports, abuse of opioid painkillers has increased significantly since the 1990s to this date. Between the period 1999 and 2006, individuals aged 12 and above reportedly used pain medication prescriptions for non-medical reasons; their numbers increased from 2.6 million in 1999 to 5.2 million in 2006. In the latter calendar year, 5.2 million publics self-reported abusing the opiate narcotic prescriptions. According to the reports, close to 5 million of the U.S. populace is affected by opioid pain and addiction related pills, further leading to well over 17,000 deaths.

The abuse has paralleled that of heroin use in a similar period as illuminated above. Over time therefore women have increased opioid pill prescription as a result of pain compared with their counterparts, hence the increase. To understand these reports more clearly and what they mean in the subject pain and addiction, continue otherwise… http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com for related articles and information on an upcoming Integrative Addiction Medicine Conference.

Pain and addiction

Addictive Opioid narcotics Used as Pain Killer

Back to our discussion, opioid is a narcotic pain killer pill medication often prescribed by medical doctors. It is an integration of various narcotic drug substances including: methadone, codein, morphin, Oxycontin, hydrocodone, and heroin; the latter being the most popular of the pain and addiction therapeutic narcotics. The opiate pain relief pill prescriptions vary in level of effects to the body. But most significantly they depress the central nervous system, and reduce rate of body functioning; both physical and psychological pains. While they are often prescribed for prescribed medical reasons to be used within specified durations, mostly to deal with pain and addiction related problems, there are reports extended use of the opioids cause addiction.

Effects and Symptoms of Opioid Withdrawal

Effects of opiate addiction are allegedly far-reaching, or if you may are devastating. Opioid addiction leaves not a single aspect of an addict’s life unscathed. Some of the most common effects of the opiate narcotics addiction include: damage of brain structure and functioning, damage of memory, seizure, bleeding ulcers, liver damage, job loss, incarceration, divorce, domestic violence, child abuse, homelessness, coma, constant overdose, or in extreme occasions deaths. Effects of withdrawal can also be very unpleasant. They vary depending on the period of exposure; quantity of the drug used each time, and the frequency of use. Actually it is advisable withdrawal is at all times done under close supervision of a medical doctor. Common effects include: bone and muscle pains, nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramping, Goosebumps, vomiting, chills, incessant anxiety, compulsive craving for pills, seizure, dilated pupils, fevers, irritation, agitation, and in extreme cases like in the case of effects of addiction coma and suicidal thoughts.

Over the years experts on pain and addiction have long grappled with how best to treat the patients who suffer from chronic pain who are estimated worrying figures of about 116 million Americans. Their concerns originate from conceivable high risks involved with long-term exposure by patients on treatment. Such risks include as highlighted earlier increased drug tolerance and the ardent need for augmented doses, a condition referred to as hyperalgesia meaning increased sensitivity to pain and addiction. On the other hand the health care providers are concerned some patients may reject the opiate narcotics prescriptions for fear of addiction.

There are however no specific statistics to substantiate or rule out such fears, an aspect said to be making the situation even worse. Approximations of addiction among chronic pain addicts vary by huge margins; from about 3% to an estimated 40%. The unevenness is a result of differences in the duration of treatment, insufficient research on long-term outcomes, incongruent of studies results on populations and the aspects measured to assess pain and addiction related drug abuses.

Managing Pain and Addiction

To moderate these addiction risks, it is thought wise the physicians screen patients for latent risk factors, including but not limited to; personal and family histories, mental stability and drug exposure determined over time. Monitoring patients for such signs of abuse is also crucial for the reasons some indicators can also signify multiple conditions hence making accurate assessments challenging. Premature and or frequent pain and addiction opioid pain killer requests for instance could denote progression of the pain related illnesses, drug tolerance, or emergence of advanced other drug problems.

Pain And Addiction

Finally development of operative non-addicting pain treatments is a national health priority. An emergent elderly population and the growing number of wounded military officials serve a clear indication of the urgency of the pain and addiction subject matter. Researchers have in the past few years amplified their quest for alternative medications that can go a long way in alleviating pain but do not necessarily cause addiction. More medical research is however obligatory in order shed more light on effective chronic pain and addiction management, including identifying predisposing factors to addiction that some patients have and further develop preventive actions against drug abuse.

As to whether pain is a cause or effect of addiction, it can be deduced from the above discussion pain is both a cause and an effect of the same. Also, that pain and addiction are coexistent medical phenomena doctors would achieve a lot more positive results when they are simultaneously treated as opposed to inappropriately treating one at the expense of another.

Coexistence Of Pain And Addiction; Pain Cause Or An Effect

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

The Sex Differences and Addiction

May 19, 2015

Women Are More Susceptible To Addiction than Men

Differences In the past drug addiction was not a discussion for women; it has long been known that men are more likely to suffer from drug related consequences than women, while this is true; Men are more prone to become addicted to substances than women. This is why most research studies have been focused on men. In comparison the pace at which women develop dependence and addiction to drugs is quicker than in men. They also get to suffer the negative effects of drugs and other addictions earlier and more severely than men. They show the effects of drugs earlier in their physical conditions, medical conditions and social effects as compared to men. Several studies have also shown that women find it more difficult to quit using their drugs of abuse or quit their addictive behaviors and may relapse easily as compared to men.

There has been a cause for alarm in the rate and pace at which women fall into addiction. It has been documented that women may begin using drugs later than men and may use it less frequently but when they begin using the drugs they take less duration for the addiction to peak than in men. They become dependent on the drug of abuse sooner than men and the side effects of using the drugs set in them earlier in the addiction cycle than in men.

The number of women battling addiction is on the rise

This risk of addiction that has been shown in women has soon changed the trend in research, today researchers are more concerned about women, and they are enrolled in good numbers in research studies as opposed to earlier time when all research studies were all about men. with this change in trend there is hope that more will be unearthed about the differences gender play in addiction and hopefully this will lay ground for giving treatments that will best suit each gender especially women who are now on the rise in issues of addiction.

According to a literature review on Gender similarities and differences: the prevalence and course of alcohol- and other substance-related disorders by Zilberman M, Tavares H, el-Guebaly N in 2003; the number of women abusing alcohol are fewer than men. But the rate at which young women are getting intoxicated on alcohol regularly is on the rise and the consequences of alcohol consumption are more severe on women than in men. it has been established that women become more rapidly addicted to alcohol than men do and brain chemistry become altered in women faster than in men. Generally the effects of drugs and alcohol use weigh down on women earlier and more adversely than in men.

some of the biologically factors that have been identified as likely cause of the differences in the way women are affected by drugs include the fact that women generally weigh less than men since their bodies are made of more fats and less water, fat retains alcohol while water does the opposite; diluting it. So their biological make-up favors alcohol and puts them at risk. Another factor is that they have low amounts of enzymes that help in breaking down the alcohol once consumed so whenever they consume alcohol, they will remain with high amounts of alcohol in their bloodstreams than men. This enzyme is known as alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).

Women and addiction to illicit drugs

Like mentioned earlier, in the past decades researchers prioritized men in their researchers and so there is still need for more literature relating women to drug addictions. Currently, there is clarity in the ways that women and men react differently to alcohol; however there is haze on how women respond to drugs like cocaine, meth as they are abused equally by the genders. However, for cocaine research has shown that women begin using the drug earlier than men; they develop dependence more quickly and have higher chances of relapse after treatment. This difference is attributed to the fluctuations in the hormonal levels that take place during menstruation which intensifies cravings for drugs. This can be blamed on the effects of estrogen on dopamine systems.

In the use of opioid the differences in effects has been drawn from men and women users. Research has shown that women are more likely to become addicted to prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, morphine and methadone since they suffer more to chronic pain. This in return places them at a higher risk of becoming addicted to the opioids than men. However in relation to the pace at which they become dependent there is more that still needs to be done to clearly show the difference.

In conclusion, the physiological and psychological sex differences in response to drugs of abuse are well documented and this is mostly attributed to hormonal interactions between dopamine and estrogen, however there is yet to be an explanation of how the interactions between these two hormones relate to the use of drugs of abuse and their effects in the dopamine systems.

The rate at which women are becoming addicted to drugs is a call for concern. We at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center are committed to giving help to those battling with addictions. Just in case you are affected, feel free to call on Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) for help

Women Are More Susceptible To Addiction than Men

Stem Cell Therapy Used By Pro Athletes to Heal Injuries

March 6, 2015

Stem Cell Therapy Used By Pro Athletes to Heal Injuries

The intriguing medicinal abilities of the stem cell therapy seem to have got embraced by athletes. today there are athletes who are using the stem cell therapy to help heal joint related injuries that they get in the course of playing their games and ultimately reduce their ability to play as well as they ought to. Stem cell therapy seems to be a game changing strategy in treating injuries that would rather be complicated treating with surgery alone. however despite the known benefits of the stem cell therapy and its exceptional relief it offers to patients given that it is the most versatile approach to treatment of diseases, It has not got into mainstream medical treatments for sports medicine and most of the time the teams do not pay for the costs incurred by athletes who opt to get treated through the stem cell therapy needless to mention it is still not recognized in the US. Despite these some athletes have chosen to tap into the immense potential of stem cell therapy to heal their respective injuries.

Chris Johnson, 28 is one of the many of NFL players who have opted to have their injuries a stem cell therapy treatment having heard of the amazing potential of the stem cell therapy when he visited orthopedic surgeon James Andrews in January, 2014 to fix his ailing left knee. Johnson had suffered a torn meniscus while in action for the Titans. When Dr. James Andrews presented him with the idea of stem cell therapy he decided to give it a try.

Knee injuries

“When I tore my meniscus and played the season out, through the wear and tear, I lost a lot of cartilage,” says Johnson, who was signed by the Jets to bring explosiveness to their offense. “When you put the stem cells in, it might be able to help rebuild that cartilage in your knee. Hopefully, it makes your knee better for even more years.” he adds.

Having agreed to have the therapy done, Johnson had stem cells siphoned from bone marrow with along needle from the iliac crest of his pelvis and had these stem cells injected directly on his injured knee. This was done with hopes that the stem cells will not only work as anti-inflammatory agents but also hasten the healing of the knee by repairing the torn meniscus.

Stem cell therapy is popular among NFL Players

Evidently, Johnson is not the only athletes who have used the stem cell therapy to heal his injury. Another Pro athlete, Peyton Manning is reported to have tried a stem-cell treatment in Europe in 2011, which was his final year with the Colts with an aim of fast-tracking his recovery from neck surgery. another athlete, Prince Amukamara, Giants cornerback had a slow-healing broken metatarsal treated with stem cells by a foot specialist in North Carolina after his team’s Super Bowl XLVI run. One NFL linebacker paid $6,000 a pop for a 1-milliliter vial of donated placenta tissue containing stem cells to be injected into each of his beat-up knees this offseason but asked for his name not to be used in this story because he didn’t tell his team’s medical staff. This shows how amazing the stem cell therapy is in view of these pro-athletes.

It is reported that stem cell therapy has become more popular with NFL athletes, as it now stands, of the 32 teams, hundreds of the players have got stem cell treatment for their various injuries. This averages to six players per team which is impressive, however the stem cell therapy is still not a mainstream treatment and it still is somehow a shadow that is not understood by many. however, evidence of the stem cell therapy’s usefulness in treating athletes’ injuries is so far largely anecdotal, NFL teams often will not pick up the bill for players, and the overseas market for treatments not approved in the U.S. makes the whole field seem somewhat taboo but this has not discouraged the athletes which may mean that they have seen some benefits with the therapy.

Knee injuries The sports doctors have been recently pushing for the NFL teams to pick the bills that athletes incur while getting the stem cell therapy and to shun this view of stem cell therapy as farfetched. Dr. Andrews who is an expert in biologics – term refers to substances that are produced in living systems such as humans, animals and microorganisms, rather than manufactured like drugs is an important in this push. it is expected that when the US embraces the stem cell treatment for the athletes then the sport doctors like Dr. Andrews will be able to offer their star-studded clientele more of these treatments more effectively in the U.S. in this agenda the retired NFL players will be studied to prove how well the stem cell therapy works in treating arthritis of the knee, this is a more regenerating approach to treatment of injuries.

“We have had one big revelation in sports medicine over the last 50 years, and that was the arthroscope,” Andrews says. “I’ve been looking for the next wave, and I think the biologics, particularly stem-cell therapy and enhancement of the healing properties, will be it.”

“We’ve been saying that since the new decade of this new millennium, so we’re already behind.” he concludes.

Finally, Stem cell therapy is a promising treatment for orthopedic diseases; you may tap into the unique medicinal properties of the stem cells to help you beat orthopedic conditions. Visit us at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Centre at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) an expert in integrative and regenerative medicine will be able to help.

Stem Cell Therapy Used By Pro Athletes to Heal Injuries

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