Omega 3- Fatty Acids and Hearing Loss

November 6, 2014

Omega 3- Fatty Acids and Hearing Loss

A belief among the Mediterranean communities is that fish is good for the sense of hearing. What is not clear is the question as to how true this exactly is. So the whole suggestion simply remains a myth.

Yet it is common to find that the people living in such communities where fish is a staple food; communities where fishing is practiced as a tradition for survival; experience very rare cases of hearing problems. In fact there are some of these traditional communities where hearing problems are non-existent.

We know in our highly rated civilization that accumulation of wax in our ears may impair our hearing. We are aware of the effects that high pitched sounds may have to our ears. On this regard you see folks who work in studios or DJs who are constantly exposed to loud banging music always having advanced sound condensing appliances on their ears.

omega-3-fatty-acids

Digital appliances companies like Sony, Samsung and the rest do all they deem possible to create gadgets with very intense sound processing mechanisms; all in the name of protection of the hearing organ. That is why the very big headphones are greatly expensive. They condense the sound better and are thus recommended for safely listening to audio signals.

We are also aware of the kind of foreign objects that our ears should not be subjected to. Though there are other factors we know about that are rather hard to control should they affect us such as infections or tumors.

Another common myth, which is actually true, is that old age causes hearing loss. But how exactly? This condition is referred to as presbycusis.

Nutritional component

Looking at hearing problems from the above mentioned angles in isolation may be superficial. There is a great role played by the nutritional component in our sense of hearing that cannot be ignored. Folic acid, vitamin D, as well as vitamin B-12 are said to be key determinants of a healthy sense of hearing. Latest accumulated evidence point to the Omega 3 fatty acids as being central to the protection of the hearing system.

Studies have lately indicated that those who eat fatty fish are unlikely to suffer hearing loss, which takes us back to the Mediterranean mythology mentioned earlier. Such fish are known to be rich in the essential omega-3 fats suggesting that those who consume them take in the fats in their large quantities.

Prior research has indicated how these omega-3 fatty acids actually decrease the risks associated with cardiovascular infections while improving the fertility in both women and men. They have also been established to improve mood and prevent certain forms of cancer. The exact mechanism by which these omega-3 fatty acids prevent hearing loss and ensure a general healthy sense of hearing is yet to be established.

Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids

omega-3 As has already been indicated, you can easily obtain these fatty acids by simply observing a diet well supplied with the fatty fish. That way then you get assured of a better life free from hearing problems.

That does not however mean that you should now become careless about the kind of environmental conditions and external objects you expose your ears to. The general health measure must still be put into consideration. Such things as loud music or expressly high environmental sounds may easily cause mechanical damage to your ears even if your system is well supplied with omega-3 fatty acids.

Another way that may be easier for those who are not good fans of the fish yet, is taking some fish oil supplement containing the omega-3 elements. Even an added advantage when you opt instead for fish oil supplement is the safety that comes along with it. The oil has been processed and any possible contamination that could be found in fresh fish has been gotten rid of.

So then, if you are even remotely concerned about what happens to your sense of hearing then it is time to consider making the fish part of your diet or going for the fish oil prescriptions available in many parts around the world.

Omega 3- Fatty Acids and Hearing Loss

The Power of Pumpkin

November 5, 2014

The Power of Pumpkin

Existing in a variety of sizes, tastes and colors, pumpkin is one of the most powerful yet easily ignored types of food throughout the globe. In the Americas in particular, folks more often use it as a core component in celebration of the Halloween festivities.

For many youngsters in this continent, pumpkin is more of a tool for the celebrations and place it at the heart of this liturgical spree. Despite the worldwide variety of items of celebration used during the Halloween festivals, to these teen-agers curving the squash is their only activity.

There is no measure to the extent of what these people and their likes the world over are missing. Reasons are different for not taking this form of gourd seriously. To some people it just ‘not that tasty’. In other parts of the world too, especially those places which often experience heavy rains and that are characterized with marshy conditions; the pumpkin often blossoms but is mostly watery and less tasty- giving the 21^st century typicals all the reason to dislike it.

If only they knew the power of the pumpkin. If only they could fully understand the complete nutritional value that the gourd contains. I highly doubt if in their correct states of mind they would throw away even the curved remains from the Halloween merriments.

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Nutritional values

If English acknowledges ‘super-food’ as a naming word, then pumpkin deserves that merit. It is not just the meat we are talking about here. We are actually referring to the whole thing, the whole pumpkin thing. Perhaps you are aware of the meaty part of it and a little about how valuable it is said to be.

Well, you know little. The seeds are no less important that the yummy body. In fact, they have far more content in small concentrated volumes than you might have ever fathomed. Those seeds alone produce a nutritious oil with intense flavor and when mixed with olive oil or honey, no culinary additive could taste better. It gives you a delicacy of a salad dressing. Hidden in that delicious taste is a wealth of essential minerals; essentially Zinc, omega-3 fatty acids as well as carotenoids.

No one knows this secret better than the Austrians. They consider the pumpkin seed oil with high regard and add it to several varieties of dishes. Nothing leaves it out, not even the ice cream!

The seeds aside, Pumpkin flesh is a rich source of high fiber. It is also high in vitamins E and C along with minerals including potassium and magnesium. This form of gourd has an astounding amount of carotenoids in different varieties. One thing you might as well marvel about: it is just one of the richest natural sources of these crucial phytonutrients.

Medicinal value of the pumpkin

pumpkin For centuries the seeds of this culinary product have been used to alleviate various functional gastrointestinal disorders, the well-known disorder it has cured over time being the Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

The oil extracted from these seeds help in controlling the levels of cholesterol in the body, get rid of intraintestinal parasites and maintain good prostate health. It is also instrumental in dealing with depression given that it contains considerable amounts of the L-tryptophan.

The mineral Zinc is useful to persons with brittle bones while the oil also prevents kidney stones.

Considering that pumpkin contains rich amounts of carotenoids, it is essential for the prevention or dealing with cancer cases. Not only that, this dietary component is also associated with lower risks of other life threatening diseases such as blindness, heart disease, and cataracts. This is due to the fact that pumpkin has both of beta-carotene and alpha-carotene in rich amounts.

With the alpha-carotene you are assured of protection against a number of cancers while it keeps you young by guarding against aging.

The two forms of carotene when converted into vitamin A inside the body, the product plays a fundamental role in immunity as well as growth and development. The possibility of buildup of cholesterol in the body is prevented by the beta-carotene as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent and antioxidant. This helps with protection from heart attack and stroke.

Good thing is, with the diverse variety of pumpkins around the world, you do not have to struggle with the species that do not go well with your taste glands. There are certain varieties that are quite delicious, when admittedly certain other varieties are not. So, go for the sweet one, and have your nutritional as well as medicinal benefits in one piece. The butternuts are a great preference if you are among those who consider the taste a priority.

The Power of Pumpkin

Combatting Cold Sores during the Holiday Season

November 5, 2014

Combatting Cold Sores during the Holiday Season

Cold-sore-triggers Holiday seasons are the time to come together among several families. Those married couples who work far apart are able to join together with the rest of their families at home or take the time out to go camping or just touring around.

The main idea here is coming together. For many fathers whose jobs are highly involving, this is the time to show your kids that daddy love.

You want to carry your kids around, peppering them with kisses often- time for cementing that paternal bond!

The problem is that it becomes hard to combat infectious diseases at such moments. If a research was to be done to assess the situation, hardly would anyone want to have such diseases during the holiday seasons. Reason is simple: it becomes so difficult to control them.

How do you show your love when you cannot mingle freely with them? How will you put them close when at the same time you wish to protect them from contacting the infectious virus you are fighting? At the end your entire liberty is stifled and you find yourself at a fix, especially in the Western cultures where the show of affection is mostly through close body contact.

Menace of the Herpes Virus

Infection by the herpes simplex virus in the middle of your holiday season may be catastrophic. Hanging around your family with your lips, mouth and/or your gums full of sores may not be very comfortable. You will be experiencing painful small sores on the same organ you wish to use to demonstrate care to your loved ones.

The most difficult part is that a person suffering from the herpes labialis can easily transmit these viruses through simple act of kissing or even from sharing the same cup of coffee or glass of a drink. Adults will generally transmit the herpes virus to their spouses and siblings through the simple body fluid– saliva.

If not approached carefully, an entire small family may end up being infected with the virus within a very short span of time.

Treatment and control

Good news however, is that this infection is curable. It has varieties of treatments available that can temporarily alleviate its symptoms. A number of over-the counter creams may be used to control the virus so you do not have to make a mess of your holiday season. With such a cream option you can be certain to get well just right before commencing the holiday celebrations with your family.

cold-sore

Considerable amount of caution is necessary when dealing with this viral disease. Stress is one of the most dangerous conditions that may antagonize recovery from cold sores in your holiday period. Stress usually releases harmful toxins that impedes the body’s normal workings.

As a patient of cold sores you are likely to suffer anxiety that is related to the attack whose effects are likely to overwhelm the immune system. This way the body may respond to healing process ineffectively. It is thus recommended that you avoid by all means actions or circumstances that may increase such stress levels or that may make you depressed.

The idea is: keep calm and give room for your immune system to perform its work. It will be easier that way to gain full recovery on your efforts to combat the condition.

Combating cold sores also involves ingesting essential nutrients including vitamin E, vitamin C as well as Zinc oxide. Vitamin C may always have adverse side effects and should therefore be consumed under clear instructions from your physician.

Meanwhile, it is highly recommended that you exercise as much as possible and change your eating habits to favor the fight against the disease. Nascent oxygen is one essential requirement and adequate exercises will help you with just that.

Combatting Cold Sores during the Holiday Season

Effects of Benzodiazepine

October 4, 2014

Sedative and Euphoric Effects of Benzodiazepine

Benzodiazepines are drugs that have been used in hospitals to curb pain, as anti-anxiety and for sedation. However these drugs are can be abused as they are rewarding in higher doses. For this reason many people have used these drugs for all the wrong reasons. What happens when you take these drugs depends on the dosage. When used as prescribed the work as anti-anxiety and for sedation but when abused they result in even more grave side effects.

Benzodiazepines are glycoproteins with an affinity for benzodiazepine receptors which act as specific binding sites for gamma aminobutyric acid shortly known as GABA. The GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. Many scientists have proposed various action mechanisms but despite all these proposed action mechanisms, the exact sites and mechanisms of actions of these drugs is still a mystery unraveled.

The mechanism of action of these drugs is often based on this belief that these drugs affect CNS by interacting with a macromolecular protein complex in the neuronal membrane which includes GABAa receptors, high-affinity benzodiazepine receptors and chloride channels. The scientists are still working to find more about the mechanisms of action of benzodiazepines in the CNS but until now we can dwell more on their effects in the body and how to safely use them.

Occupation of the benzodiazepine receptor increases the affinity of the GABAa receptor for GABA. GABA potentiates the direct opening of the chloride ion channel, allowing an increased influx of chloride into the neuron. The inward shift of chloride ions hyperpolarizes and stabilizes the membrane, resulting in a net inhibitory effect on neuronal firing. Benzodiazepines alone have little effect on chloride ion channel permeability and depend upon the presence of GABA in the synapse for their actions.

Some of benzodiazepines are very similar in their chemical structures but their potency differs greatly and so is the rate of absorption and other pharmacological parameters. The potency of a benzodiazepine is correlated with its affinity for its binding site, the benzodiazepine receptor. In therapeutic use, the benzodiazepines, while differing in potency, have similar pharmacologic profiles.

It is believed that there are different types of benzodiazepine receptors in different areas of the CNS which produce the various pharmacological actions of the drugs. As the dose of benzodiazepine is increased, anxiolytic effects are first produced, followed by anticonvulsant effects, a reduction in muscle tonus, and finally sedation and hypnosis.

Clinically, benzodiazepines are used in the management of anxiety disorders, insomnia, seizure disorders, skeletal muscle spasticity, alcohol withdrawal, panic disorder and as premedicants prior to surgical or diagnostic procedures. Benzodiazepines have also been used in the management of nausea and vomiting associated with emetogenic cancer chemotherapy.

When taken benzodiazepines get widely spread in the body and accumulate preferentially in lipid rich areas such as the CNS and adipose tissue. The more lipophilic agents have the fastest rates of absorption and onset of clinical effects. Benzodiazepines and their metabolites are highly bound to plasma proteins. Steady state plasma concentrations of benzodiazepines and their metabolites are reached after about 5 elimination half-lives, typically, a few days to 2 weeks after initiation of therapy. The higher the concentrations of benzodiazepines in the plasma the higher their sedative and euphoric effects. For sedative purposes the concentrations of benzodiazepine in the plasma are much lower than the concentrations of benzodiazepine in plasma that would evoke euphoric effects. This shows that that a person may have euphoric feelings after using higher doses of benzodiazepine than the doses needed for sedative purposes. However, the higher the doses of benzodiazepines the danger it beckons for higher doses may result in intoxication or even delirium which is characterized by ataxia, amnesia, stupor, impaired consciousness, nystagmus.

Mortality hazards of the use of Benzodiazepine

The benzodiazepines are clinically useful but that does not mean that they are free from any side effects. The use of benzodiazepines within the prescribed doses foe sedation and sleeping disorders may give relief and a reason to celebrate but as I have written earlier, these drugs are prone to abuse and as commonly abuse of any drug will always give rise to undesired effects. Though it has not been perceived to be as dangerous as other drugs of abuse such as opioids and ‘bath salts’ that can cause death instantly due to overdose, the side effects of benzodiazepine can lead to death in one way or another. These side effects include; dependency, withdrawal, rebound symptoms, daytime sedation, confusion, cognitive deficits, ataxia, dysarthria, diplopia, and vertigo. The use of benzodiazepines have been linked to motor vehicle accidents especially in the elderly. Benzodiazepines are often used in patients undergoing dialysis for their sedation effects. However a study done in japan where these drugs were used widely in dialysis patients showed that benzodiazepine use may be associated with an increased mortality risk.

Benzodiazepine increased rise of falls in Elderly

Benzodiazepine has also been found to increase falls in the elderly leading major fractures. The long term use of these drugs is also associated with nocturnal falls and still the elderly still fall victims. Rise in falls is one of the problems that can be linked to the effects of the drug on the elderly.

Finally, you need more information to stay away from dependence on alcohol and drugs as these have crippled societies and that is why here at AWAREmed we are dedicated to finding the best solutions to addiction and dependence on substances. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is always in the mood of helping any patient to be addiction free. Do not hesitate to call on her for help in managing any sort of chronic pain or any type of addiction as well as other diseases.

Sedative and Euphoric Effects of Benzodiazepine

Endogenous Opioids

October 4, 2014

Endogenous Opioids and Opioid Receptors

The term opioids are not new to many, it has been heard as the media is always abreast with all information about these opioid drugs which to the public are known mostly for the wrong reasons. People have got misinformed about these drugs so much that when you tell a layman that these drugs are used in hospital then to him you will something much worse than an alien. However to the medical fraternity these opioids are essentials that are hard to survive without. That said and left, back to the topic; Endogenous Opioids is a new term to many and if your prediction is as right as mine then you are hearing it for the first time. What does it really mean? The endogenous opioids are opiate-like substance, such as an endorphin, produced by the body. If you thought that you can live without these endogenous opioids then you need to wake up from your momentary slumber. Every day of our lives we face pain of all sorts even the most insignificant pains needs the actions of these opioids to give you peace.

Today, the endogenous opioid system is one of the most studied innate pain-relieving systems. The endogenous opioid system consists of widely scattered neurons that produce three opioids: beta-endorphin, the met- and leu-enkephalins, and the dynorphins. These opioids act as neurotransmitters and neuromodulators at three major classes of receptors, termed mu, delta, and kappa, and produce analgesia. The endogenous opioids works in the same manner as the narcotic opioids in that they bind to the same receptors and they also have both good and negative effects. There might be all sorts of information out there that you can lay your hands that may speak well of the opioids but the bitter truth is we all depend on despite the negative light they have been portrayed in.We are all naturally dependent on opioids for our emotional health. Both narcotics and internally generated endogenous opioids exert their action on the body by interacting with specific membrane receptor-proteins on our nerve cells.

There are three large pro-compounds that are produced by the body and these are: proenkephalin, prodynorphin, and pro-opiomelanocortin. However, endorphins can further decompose to small fragments, oligomers, which are still active. Oligomers pass the blood-brain barrier more readily. Enzymatic degradation of small-chain endorphins is accomplished by dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase, enkephalinases, angiotensinases, and other enzymes. This limits their lifetime in the unbound state.

Presynaptically opioid receptors inhibit transmission of excitatory pathways. These pathways include acetylcholine, the catecholamines, serotonin, and substance P. Substance P is a neuropeptide active in neurons that mediate our sense of pain. Endogenous opioids are also involved in glucose regulation. Opioid receptors are functionally designated as mu, delta, kappa among others. These categories can be further sub-classified by function or structure. Decoding the human genome has allowed the genetic switching-mechanisms that control the expression of each opioid receptor to be determined at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level.

Opioid-driven inhibition of neuronal excitability is mediated by the activation of a variety of potassium channels in the plasma membrane. The disparate subjective and behavioral effects evoked by activation of the different categories of opioid receptor are typically not the outcome of different cellular responses, but reflect the different anatomical distributions of each receptor. Unlike kappa opioid receptors, however, both mu and delta opioid receptors internalize on exposure to agonists. Activation of any type of opioid receptor inhibits adenylate cyclase, resulting in a fall in intracellular cAMP and diminished action potential firing. This causes a reduced flow of nociceptive information to the brain. Conversely, opioid addicts undergoing withdrawal suffer elevated cAMP levels and enhanced protein kinase A activity, resulting in increased neurotransmitter release.

Role of Mu receptors in addiction

The Mu opioid receptors are the gateway to addiction. This is because they mediate positive reinforcement following direct or indirect activation. In an experiment where mice without mu receptors were used, it was found that the morphine’s analgesic and addictive properties are abolished in these mice. This shows that mu receptors mediate both the therapeutic and the adverse activities of opioids. The mice that were lacking mu receptors were found to lack of morphine-induced analgesia, reward, and dependence. The mice had increased sensitivity to pain. This shows that the mu receptors play a critical role in addiction. These mu receptors function as switches upon direct or indirect reinforcement of opioid abuse. Mu-opioid receptors are a key molecular switch triggering brain reward systems and potentially initiating addictive behaviors. The lack of mu-receptors abolishes the analgesic effect of morphine, as well as place-preference activity and physical dependence. This receptor therefore mediates therapeutic analgesia and adverse activities of morphine.

Opioid withdrawal symptom

endogenous opioids When a person has been using the opioids for some time, he will become physically adapted to the drugs so much that when he stops abruptly he will experience the symptoms of withdrawal. Withdrawal is not only faced by opioid user only but also other sick people who are on other drugs as well. However to limit the withdrawal symptoms, there are some factors that come in handy. One of these factors is the pace and how you exit from using these drugs. Your doctor will be of help in helping you by developing safe exit strategies that will limit the withdrawal symptoms.

Finally, you need more information to stay away from dependence on alcohol and drugs as these have crippled societies and that is why here at AWAREmed we are dedicated to finding the best solutions to addiction and dependence on substances. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is always in the mood of helping any patient to be addiction free. Do not hesitate to call on her for help in managing any sort of chronic pain or any type of addiction as well as other diseases.

Endogenous Opioids and Opioid Receptors

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