Category Archives: Men’s Health

Addiction, Heart Disease, and Stroke

June 23, 2014

Addiction, Heart Disease, and Stroke-Deteriorates Good health

Addiction

Drug addiction has negative effect on human health. It brings with it heart complications, and brain multifunction which leads to stroke

The greatest and most valuable asset one can have on earth is good health. It is one asset that has so many enemies attacking it left right and centre. Because of the great value of health we will be discussing some of its attackers in a bid of being prepared to keep the good health that we all need. It goes without mention that drugs and alcohol addiction has bad effects on our health due to their abilities to affect all the body organs like the lungs, the heart the brain among others. We are going to zero in two organs for the purpose of this article i.e. the heart and the brain of which research has established that there is a direct connection between drug abuse and irregular heartbeat, collapsed veins, bacterial infections, cardiovascular distress, heart attack and stroke. This is a discussion you don’t want to miss and so I take this opportunity to invite you to keep on the link for this fact finding mission.

Heart disease is associated with a collection of abnormalities affecting the proper functionality of the heart. For instance the dysfunction may be in the heart muscle, valves and electric system of the heart or the arteries that supply blood to the heart. The heart has muscles which may develop complications when the heart has been overworked chronically and it is normally common when one has high blood pressure/hypertension. Like the muscle of the arms grows when we lift heavy weights so is the tender muscles of the heart will enlarge when they are under chronic physical stress as seen with alcohol and drug addiction.

The heart receives its blood supply from the blood vessels which are occasionally affected by the coronary artery disease (CAD). It is important to note that the supply of blood to the heart should be consistent since the heart also gets its supply of oxygen to function effectively through this means. A disease in the heart arteries causes inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart which results in heart attacks in many cases and the effect of this is that the portion of the heart muscle tissue deprived of oxygen dies.

Addiction, Heart Disease, and Stroke-Stroke

Like the heart the brain also requires steady supply of oxygen to function normally and so when the arteries supplying blood/oxygen to the heart is either partially or completely blocked, then there will be inconsistency in the supply of oxygen to the brain causing that section of the brain deprived of oxygen to die.

The brain, like the heart, requires a constant supply of oxygen to function. When one of the arteries that supply blood to the heart becomes partially or fully blocked, the brain is deprived of oxygen. This, in turn, causes the tissue in the area of the brain that is not being supplied with oxygen to die. The effect of this will depend vary depending on the part of brain affected and so symptoms like inability to speak, walk, think or talk well will be seen in the victim. Stroke can also occur when the vessel to the brain ruptures or bust the effects of this is the same.

Addiction, Heart Disease, and Stroke

Drug and alcohol addiction create great strain on the body’s organs and organ systems such as the brain, nervous system, respiratory system and circulatory system. There is also a direct connection between drug and alcohol abuse and adverse cardiovascular effects such as irregular heartbeat, collapsed veins, coronary artery disease and bacterial infections that destroy the valves of the heart. Examples of drugs that lead to cardiovascular distress or cause heart disease include:

  • Cocaine
  • Heroin
  • Inhalants
  • Alcohol
  • Marijuana
  • Methamphetamines

Cocaine and crack are short-acting, powerful stimulants that act directly on the heart muscle, the brain’s neurotransmitters, blood vessels, nerve tissue and organ functions. The effects of the drug are immediate, and, depending upon the method of use, the effects can last from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The intensity of the high can increase the heart rate and blood pressure to dangerous levels, which in turn can cause irregular heartbeats and cardiac arrest.

Heart Disease, Stroke, and Addiction Treatment

It must be emphasized that cardiovascular distress can lead to heart attack and stroke. Alcohol and drug addiction are never and will ever be friends with the heart. Addiction to such substances must be treated timely for the valuable asset (good health) to be productive. Research indicates that perhaps the most dangerous time for drug abusers is the withdrawal period because it is during this period that the heart, cardiovascular system and other organ systems are under great stress. It is therefore important that during this time, drug and alcohol withdrawal be treated in a medically supervised drug detoxification center. Drug and alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening and must not be stopped suddenly without the examination and professional medical advice from a qualified and experience doctor.

Proper care should be taken during detox from alcohol, benzodiazepines or barbiturates because users can experience uncomfortable and dangerous withdrawal symptoms which include seizures, heart attack or stroke. A qualified medical doctor should be there to supervised detox program this will help avoid these serious withdrawal symptoms and minimize discomfort during the detox period before drug rehab or alcoholism treatment.

In conclusion I want to give word of hope to those who have abused their bodies through years of alcoholism and drug addiction combining with smoking cigarettes, poor nutrition and lack of proper medical follow-up, all is not lost drug and alcohol addiction treatment is still possible with Dr. Dalal Akoury who is also the Founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. Dear reader if you or anybody you know is suffering from this scourge of addiction you can be of help to them by sharing the recovery program available at this facility where doctor Dalal Akoury and her team of experts are offering exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to victims all over the globe as well to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Come and experience treatment with a difference everyone is welcome to be a part of this truly successful and fast addiction recovery treatment.

Addiction, Heart Disease, and Stroke-Deteriorates Good health

 

 

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Weight Gain

June 19, 2014

Weight Gain-It has become a Global Problem

Obesity

Globalization and modernity has great influence on weight gain and obesity. Natural physical activities is being replaced with gym facilities.

For a long time issues to do with weight has been a concern of the ladies with men taking the back seat. This is no more in the today’s society weight is everyone concern young and old. The kind of life we live today has great effects on our weight it is either we are adding or losing, the great concern is in the gaining because this is where health complication arises. Looking at the new styles of life brought about by modernity we can point out positive and negative development and for sure we are today much cleverer than we were several decades ago have developed immensely in technology. Modernization has for sure lifted millions of people out of poverty, reducing hunger and infectious disease and in turn improving quality of life. While on the other hand the same social and economic shifts that have increased people’s wealth have also increased their waistlines and are driving the obesity epidemic in several countries globally. Obesity is a public health problem that has been for a long time been associated with the western countries but this has over the decades changed and it is now a global problem affecting both poor and wealthy nations almost equally. It is believed that about 500 million adults are obese and 1.5 billion are overweight. These statistics are indeed worrying and it is further complicated with the fact that many poor countries are not only struggling with the burden of obesity but also that of underweight because of malnutrition. The health care professionals have raised their concern on the emerging trend of globalization/modernity is driving overweight problem as a matter of fact overweight has overtaken underweight globally thanks to the many fast food restaurants and supermarkets selling junks. This has completely changed the traditional menu in most households thereby distorting our nutrition and healthy living.

Weight Gain-Modernization Promotes Obesity

At an individual level, obesity results from energy imbalance too many calories in, too few calories burned. But the food and physical activity choices that individuals make are shaped by the world in which they live:

  • The food environment: what type of food is available, how much it costs and how it is marketed influences what people eat.
  • The built environment: buildings, neighborhoods, transportation systems, and other man-made elements of the landscape influences how active people are.
  • New technologies: cars, computers, televisions, labor-saving devices, and many more change what people do for work, transportation, and leisure.

There are three broad global forces which are the major drivers of these changes they include:

  • Free trade
  • Economic growth
  • Urbanization

These macro-level changes are for sure driving the global obesity epidemic and especially in low and middle-income countries. Let us now take a moment and discus them for better understanding.

Weight Gain-Global Free Trade

Globalization has effectively brought with it trade liberalization which has open the market for food market and a varieties of food products which are often high in calories. It has also removed barriers to foreign investment in food distribution and allows multinational food companies and fast-food chains to expand their businesses into new countries thereby introducing high risk and unhealthy feeding habits. The question we need to answer is how does this contribute to weight gain and obesity? We are in agreement that the traditional foods were much nutritious than the processed foods which are for one not fresh and are very rich in calories. These foods are affordable and readily available 24/7 creating laxity in most families consuming homemade food. People have become so busy even to eat at home stuffing their fridges with all sorts of unhealthy food stuff and thanks to this behavior we are getting a lot of calories in our bodies which we cannot burn and so the cycle of obesity continues.

Weight Gain-Income, Socioeconomic Status and Weight

Globalization has open various opportunities and nations of the world are getting wealthier each passing day and knowing that wealth is closely associated with obesity as scale of income goes up so is obesity. Take for example farm workers who were getting minimal income begins to have enough money to jump into the modern habits associated with obesity like watching television, buying processed foods at supermarkets, and eating more food away from home but without proper healthcare and knowledge about healthy foods and physical activity that would help them keeps their weight down, obesity sinks in. However the direct opposite is that when countries graduate to middle and then to high income bracket people will definitely have better access to health care and education which translate into reducing the rate of obesity and unnecessary weight gain.

Weight Gain-Urbanization, Diet and Activity

Today almost more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, compared with just some 10 percent in 1900. This then means that life style has changed drastically to these city dwellers. They are physically under the greater influence of new technology. They are no longer illiterate and are able to access quality health care from the many health facilities available in the cities which can help reduce obesity. Nonetheless in many low and middle income countries, new urban areas develop so quickly that the health care and education infrastructure is never adequate due to the enormous influx of rural urban migration. Besides feeding habits adequate physical activities in urban setups may be lucking due to the fear of insecurity associated with urban neighborhoods. The traditional villages are believed to be much safer and so movement of people is not very much restricted to use of motor vehicles. People can freely walk or do their physical activities outdoors without the burden of insecurity on their shoulders as opposed to the urban centers.

Weight Gain-Speeding up the Nutrition Transition

Economic growth and urbanization lead to predictable shifts in diet, called nutrition transitions. In hunter-gatherer societies, people forage for food. Next they shift to rudimentary agriculture, often enduring famine. As wealth and technology grow and famine recedes, calorie intake rises, leading to overeating and obesity. Globalization has helped move many countries from famine to food sufficiency. But in many low- and middle-income countries, globalization has also accelerated the shift from food sufficiency to Western-style feast—and in turn, to obesity and obesity-related diseases. The effects of globalization as a factor in weight gain and obesity is very interesting and needs to be further interrogated with experience experts who have had similar dealings in the past. Dr. Dalal Akoury has been helping people suffering from obesity globally using very natural means. She is also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility in which exclusive NER Recovery Treatment is administered to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Qualified professional or anybody with problems with weight gain or obesity can be a part of this truly successful and fast addiction recovery treatment.

Weight Gain-It has become a Global Problem

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Obesity Epidemic

June 18, 2014

Obesity Epidemic-Modern Sitting Furniture

obesity

We are using seats everywhere we are without knowing that some of these seat are the source of our health problems like obesity and weight gain

Did you know that the comfort of your living room, office, eateries and the like could be the reason why you can’t have proper control of your weight? Thanks to modernity we can today afford to live a life full of comforts around us. Take for example the kind of seats you use in your house, office, hotels, in your car, buses, planes and locomotives if the pocket allows you would go for the very best that would offer you the maximum comfort. This is the problem begins and for the purpose of this article we will be discussing the possible effects of our desired seat comfort and the endless problem of weight gain and obesity so stay tuned and let us learn together. If you were to carry out a simple research today beginning with your own family you would probably if not definitely find that the seats in our homes and offices are very comfortable, soft and nice looking to sit on, it may be very difficult if not impossible to find firm wooden seats being used in our families today. What we may not know is that these comfortable seats as we call them are a great threat to good health, they are associated with the problem of weight gain and obesity and we all know the problems those suffering from obesity or weight gain goes through. Tracing the kind of life our ancestors lived in relation to today’s life style weight gain was never a problem as matter of facts there was under weight. They were using firm wooden furniture without the arm’s length and back rest which the day’s generation considers uncomfortable, what amazes me is that there was no weight related problem and less incidences of certain types of diseases that to an epidemical proportion affects the industrialized world today.

Obesity Epidemic-The traditional seats

It must be noted that sitting for a significant amount of time on modern sitting furniture result in adverse musculoskeletal changes and studies have found that adverse musculoskeletal changes cause excessive weight gain. I talked of our ancestors but bring it nearer to just a few decades ago and quite recently, even in the western industrialized world, sitting furniture consisted mainly of chairs or benches with a solid seat surface. I strong believe that we are in agreement that just a few decades ago, upholstered sitting furniture’s like the arm chair, sofa and couch were uncommon office furniture let alone household furniture’s. In most societies in the developing world the kinds of furniture used consisted of very simple seats with three leg or four legs without the back or arm rest. These industrious seats like the sofa, couch, armchair, rocking chair or even the chairs fitted with backrest were a luxury that could only be associated with a small population of the rich who could afford them. The true picture is that the majority of the world’s populations were using chairs with a wooden seat and wooden benches, and in the last few decades huge changes have happened.

Obesity Epidemic-Upholstered furniture

Not so long ago, even in the industrialized world, the upholstered furniture was affordable only to rich people. Nowadays, due to the advancement in technology, production and economic prosperity, it is available to a great percentage of the world’s population because of the drastic reduction of their cost. The economic prosperity has come with great changes and diversifications of how we live. We have replaced the traditional sitting furniture with modern ones consisting of chairs with an upholstered seat surface, like sofa, arm chair, couch, etc. if you were to interrogate technology of producing today’s upholstered sitting furniture is vastly different from the manufacturing technology that was used just a few decades ago. As a matter of fact lot long ago all upholstered sitting furniture were made using spring systems. The expensive sitting furniture was made using eight-way hand-tied springs that offer a firmer seat and a sitting position. The less expensive sitting furniture was made using sinuous springs that offers a softer seat. The current technology has tactfully eliminated the use of eight way hand tied spring and sinuous springs in a bid to cut on cost and has resorted in the cheap method of stuffing or padding with soft fuelling, mostly using polyurethane foam which are less costly. Even though a few furniture are still being made using springs these are very expensive and a preserved of the very rich leaving the majority with the upholstery of the cheap sitting furniture consists of high density polyurethane foams wrapped in fabrics that provides far softer seats compared with the sitting furniture that is made by using the spring system. The element of cost has drastically revolutionized the quality of seats in that it is less and less common for chairs to have a firm surface of the seat and most chairs have a soft upholstered seat. This revolution has not only replaced the old sitting furniture with the less costly version of modern sitting furniture’s in households, but also in public places like schools, universities, restaurants etc. chairs with a firm seat surface are replaced with the less costly version of sitting furniture that have a soft upholstered seat. This has really increased the current generation vulnerability to weight gain and obesity and all other complications associated with the two. Obesity Epidemic-Overweight and Obesity Funnily enough the changes that have taken place in the life style and food is not too much in relation to the ones that took place in the sitting furniture revolution. Let’s us get a bit of insight of this aspect even as we try to understand the implications of weight gain and obesity in the whole process. Just not long ago (a few decades) the greater population of people suffering from overweight and obesity came from the bracket of the rich and wealthy people while it is the rich who could afford the upholstered sitting furniture. Nonetheless obesity was rare and morbid obesity was inexistent the reason for this being, the seats of the upholstered sitting furniture were far less soft compared to today’s cheap version of upholstered sitting furniture. What a contrast that:

  • Today the expensive upholstered furniture is made by using the same technology that was used a few decades ago.
  • Today the prevalence of obesity among the poor population is not much different than what was the case a few decades ago.
  • The primary reasons for that is that they still use sitting furniture that is manufactured using the same system that was used a few decades ago.

Things have really changed and today in the developed world the most obese and particularly morbidly obese people are mostly found among the less affluent population.  The primary reason for that is because they mostly use the less costly modern sitting furniture. During the time when sitting furniture was made mainly from wood without upholstering and mostly without back support, at the same time among the poor and the middle class population, obesity was unknown. During those times, the problem among the less poor population was mostly being underweight and not overweight, and severe obesity or morbid obesity was extremely rare. In the developed world, modern less costly sitting furniture is the main factor that has caused the less poor population to be affected with overweightness and obesity to a far greater extent than the rich population. Modern upholstered sitting furniture, particularly cheap versions that includes upholstered chair, armchair, sofa and couch are the main contributing factors for the increased prevalence of overweight and obesity throughout the world.

Obesity Epidemic-Gene

It is known that overweight and obese parents are more likely to have overweight and obese children. The main reason for that is that parents and children use the same sitting furniture. The obesity epidemic is mainly caused by the widespread use of modern upholstered sitting furniture. Particularly, the less costly version of upholstered sitting furniture is the main cause for the obesity epidemic and it is one of the primary factors that are responsible for the higher rate of obesity among the less poor population and regular or increased physical activity is not enough to counteract to the adverse consequences of prolonged sitting on the modern style of upholstered sitting furniture. Dietary intervention for weight management makes the problems worse. As we conclude on this article of great revelation, I want to encourage you that technology has brought with it lots of good and bad things in our lives, weight gain and obesity is just one among many. You and your friends need to seek guidance from the experts, you need not to be obese for you to do this but it is good to be full of knowledge even before the problem knocks on your door step. Taking your time to visit or call AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care who is also the founder will help you clear the air and be equipped with all the necessary information you need to be safe from obesity and weight related problems. And if you are obese then doctor Akoury together with her team of experts will help you get better while focusing on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Obesity Epidemic-Modern Sitting Furniture

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Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation

June 16, 2014

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Drug Addiction

Vitamin

Malnourishment is a serious factor in addiction and proper nutrition is necessary for rehabilitation. Vitamins are very essential.

The debate on addiction is endless and experts are beginning to believe that nearly everything can be addictive depending on how you use the element before you. And that is why careful attention needs to be taken in the prevention and treatment to bring the problem of addiction to manageable levels. In an effort to do this we will be discussing the use of vitamin therapy in rehabilitating the drug addicts. Generally food is a very key component in ensuring the proper functionality of the body. We all need food to give us the energy we need to function. The absence of food is disaster in the waiting and so good nutritious food is very instrumental in rehabilitating drug addicts.

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Malnourishment and Drug Abuse

It is important that we define the word malnutrition for us to have a better understanding of what we are talking about. It is a serious condition that occurs when a person’s diet does not contain the right amount of food nutrients and it is a common side effect among alcoholics and substance abusers. Malnourishment occurs majorly among drug abusers due to the decreased food ingestion and in some cases impaired metabolism and absorption processes. Besides this it is also lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies which can cause many serious health problems. Drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and amphetamine are known to cause loss of appetite because of this drug abusers may stay up for days at a time on a binge and suffer dehydration and electrolyte imbalances as a result.

Malnourishment leads to a breakdown of basic bodily function and vitamin deficiencies. Vitamins are essential to maintaining growth and normal metabolism because they regulate many physiological processes. Fatigue, digestive problems, menstruation issues, tooth decay, aches and pains are often experienced by people who are malnourished. Additionally, people who suffer from malnutrition are vulnerable to infection. The nutrients from food are essential to the functioning of the effectiveness of the immune system. Without a properly functioning immune system one is easily susceptible to disease.

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Vitamin Deficiencies and Drug Abuse

Alcohol consumers or those who take drugs are usually faced with vitamin deficiencies and in some cases are malnourished. These deficiencies usually occur as result of poor nutrition and a lack of good health. Long term, and in some case, irreversible health problems can occur when someone has a deficiency in an essential vitamin or mineral.
Thiamine deficiency is a very serious disorder that occurs as a consequence of poor nutrition and a lack of thiamine, or vitamin B1.

Individuals who suffer from chronic alcoholism are at risk of suffering from a very serious health condition known as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, or Wet Brain Syndrome. Vitamin B1 is essential for brain function and the nervous system, flow of electrolytes in and out of cells, digestion and carbohydrate metabolism. Thiamine is found in many foods such as:

  • Beef
  • Wheat
  • Milk
  • Oranges
  • Seeds and cereals

Majority of people today get the sufficiency of food nutrients they need from the good and adequate food they consume. Since we get these nutrients from food drug abusers may not get this benefit because they tend to neglect their diet and health, with this they are at risk of causing a deficiency in thiamine.

Liver disease is another consequence of poor health and inadequate consumption of essential vitamins. The luck of vitamin A and E in the body is as a result of poor nutrition and this can cause great damage to the functions of the body. The metabolism of vitamin A is affected by alcohol consumption which may end up in the damage to the liver.

Alcohol also affects the amount or quantity of calcium in the body and if this goes for a long time may lead to osteoporosis and other bodily health conditions. Calcium is an important nutrient for many body functions including among other uses:

  • Vascular contraction and vasodilation
  • Muscle function
  • Nerve transmission
  • Intracellular signaling
  • Hormonal secretion along with bone strength

Research has established that chronic alcoholism interferes with vitamin D metabolism and this can result in inadequate absorption of dietary calcium and loss in bone mass and density.

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Vitamin Therapy in Drug Abuse Treatment

Vitamin therapy is the use of high doses of vitamins to treat diseases and conditions. This alternative approach to health care has been found to provide impressive results in some cases for many different diseases, including alcoholism and substance abuse. Evidence has shown that vitamin therapy can aid in reducing withdrawal symptoms, increase the treatment retention rates and improve mental health. This may be because of the chronic deficiencies that some people have as a result of their long term drug or alcohol use and because of the healing properties that specific vitamins, such as vitamin C, have been found to induce.

Chronic depletion of vitamins and minerals should be considered in any health treatment for substance abuse. For alcoholics and drug addicts, nutrients commonly used in vitamin treatment include niacin; B complex vitamins especially B1, B5 and B6; antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E; calcium and magnesium. Each of these vitamins has been found to facilitate a large number of metabolic processes and their deficiencies can be associated with mental disturbances and chronic health problems.

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Adverse Reactions to Vitamins

Experts through various studies have established that adverse effects from vitamin and mineral supplements are incredibly rare and levels of supplementing vitamins required to evoke a reaction are far higher than would be considered practical. Safety studies indicate that adverse effects from short-term use of high dose vitamins used during withdrawal or rehabilitation are negligible. With the exception of synthetic vitamin A, it is most likely that adverse events associated with high doses of a single vitamin are actually caused by resulting nutrient imbalances.

Finally we have been discussing vitamin therapy for rehabilitation drug addicts and it is clear that food nutrition plays an enormous role and so this must be encouraged by all means. While doing this it is also necessary that we seek the services of experts who have been in this discipline for in death understanding.   Dr. Dalal Akoury who is the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is an expert of over two decades and has been offering her exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. With experts like doctor Akoury you will not only recover nutritionally but also physically you will regain yourself completely and live a life full of hope, satisfaction and free from any form of addiction.

Vitamin Therapy for Rehabilitation-Drug Addiction

 

 

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Neurons and Neurotransmitters

June 12, 2014

Neurons and Neurotransmitters-The Brains of the Nervous System

Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters neuron is a specialized nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information to other cells in the body.

The body of a human being is presumed dead when the brain stops functioning. This is because all the functions of the body are controlled by the various segments of the brain. Majorly the nervous system is responsible for the body’s control and communication network. While discharging this function in humans, they do so in three ways and that is to say that they:

  • Senses changes both in and outside the body-the sensory function.
  • Interprets and explains the changes-the integrative function.
  • Responds to the interpretation by making muscles interact and glands secrete hormones or other chemicals into the bloodstream-the motor function.

The nervous system itself has two main parts:

The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord which acts as a control center.

The peripheral nervous system includes all other nerve elements. All these elements connect the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands.

Neurons power their functions

It is important to note that the body of a human being is made up of billions of cells which are ordinarily the basic unit of all living things. This also applies to the single-celled organisms like the bacteria which can perform the basic functions needed to sustain life. These basic functions may include gathering energy from food, reproducing and producing waste materials. Looking at the cells, nearly all of them have three parts which are:

  • An outer wall also known as membrane
  • A nucleus that contains essential chemicals
  • A body of clear fluid called the cytoplasm

Plants, animals and human beings are multicellular meaning creatures with many-cells. Of these cells billions of them are specialize in certain specific functions. For example, some cells would become:

  • Part of muscle tissue and help us to move.
  • Other cells make up organs, glands, blood, veins, arteries, and bones.

Neurotransmitters cross the gaps between neurons

For it to effectively serve its three functions, the nervous systems which includes the vast circuits of delicate cells which are very much elaborately interconnected and in fact the brain, spinal cord and nerves all over the body are all made up of one kind of cell. These are the nerves cells and they are also known as neurons and as had been indicated that the brain of human beings has billions of neurons.  Now the question you need to ask yourselves is does your spinal cord and all the nerves that fan out from the spinal cord to your glands, organs, and muscles.

The specific functions of the neurons are to allow your brain to learn reason and be able to remember things. Through these activities the body responds and adjusts to changes in the environment. These changes are also called stimuli, they will set off impulses in our sense organs like: the eye, the ear and other organs of taste and smell and sensory receptors located in the skin joins, muscles and other parts of the body. Now having listened to all these it is important to note that every time you feel something including the effects of a drug, know that millions of neurons are firing messages to form one another.

Each neuron may have thousands of branches that connect it to other neurons and these branches are called dendrites or axons. Dendrites carry messages towards the cell body while axons carry messages away from the cell body to another neuron. Axons can extend as long as four feet in humans and in some animals even longer.

In the beginning it was believed that axons and dendrites simply run through the body continuously like a wire but letter on a space was discovered between each axon and dendrite. This space in known as a synaptic gap or synapse and it is the space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of the next neuron in a nerve pathway. This gap is negligibly small and it is about one millionth of an inch, it is that small.

Research finding originally believed that electrical impulses jumped these gaps like electricity does across the gap in spark plug but this theory has been ruled out as it is now known that this was never true. It is the chemicals which travel across the gap and not electrical impulses and these chemicals are also neurotransmitters.

A number of chemical building blocks for neurotransmitters such as amino acids come from the kinds of food we eat meaning that our bodies have the ability to manufacture or produce neurotransmitters. Neurons offer a storage package for neurotransmitters known as vesicles which are located very close to the endings of each axon. They (neurons) synthesize some neurotransmitters right in the vesicle while other neurotransmitters are synthesized in the body of the cell and transported to the vesicle. Most of the addictive substances have the ability to change the effects of neurotransmitters on neurons. We will be able to better comprehend how these substances work when we get to know about neurotransmitters and how they act as chemical messengers

Neurotransmitters meet three criteria

Neurotransmitters are molecules-groups of atoms joined by a chemical bond which act as a unit. For them to be called neurotransmitters a molecule must meet the following three criteria:

  • The molecule must be present and evenly distributed in the brain meaning that the molecules must not just concentrate in one segment but must spread out among different types of neurons and across all segments of the brain that have different functions.
  • Chemical criteria that is to say the enzymes which help in creating the neurotransmitter must be available in the brain. An enzyme is a catalyst protein which speeds up chemical reactions within the body. It is also important that these enzymes be available in areas where the neurotransmitters are found.
  • The criterion of mimicry assuming that we inject directly a neurotransmitter into a section of the brain known to contain certain neurons, this injection should be able to imitate the effects of electrically stimulating the same neurons.

Neurons and Neurotransmitters-The Brains of the Nervous System

 

 

 

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