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

July 23, 2015

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

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

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

heroin-addiction

Increasing Heroin Use in Women a Result of Pain Killer Prescriptions

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

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

Form Heroin Task Force to Fight Increasing Use

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

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

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

Heroin Use

Substance Addiction Increasing Heroin Use

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

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

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

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

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Benefits of A Healthy Microenvironment

June 1, 2015

The Importance Of A Healthy Microenvironment

MicroenvironmentThe environment is one of the most important factors of influence in the disease triad. The environment can be defined as the biological and physical factors and the chemical interactions that influence the life of a living organism. In the case of human beings like you and I, our environment refers to all the living and non living things we interact with and the chemical interactions that influence our lives. The living component of the environment includes all our neighbors, our domesticated plants and animals and the wild animals and how we interact with them. The physical component of the environment includes all non living things that influence our life like rainfall, sun, rocks and many more.

It is therefore clear that the environment which is our surrounding has a direct bearing on our lives. Just how does our environment influence diseases that attack us? In order to effectively answer this question, we need to remember the components of the environment and consider them as possible risk factors for a disease. We are exposed to several risk factors of diseases that are physical, chemical or biological components of the environment. For better understanding, consider an environment with poisonous gas, constant flooding and mosquito infestation. In this risky environment, the chemical component that is a risk factor for disease is the poisonous gas. The physical component that poses risk is the flood and the biological component that is a risk factor to disease is the mosquitoes. The environment also influences alterations in the way we behave in response to the risk factors to which we are exposed.

What is a healthy microenvironment?

An organism exists in a larger environment whose definition is given above. This larger environment is sometimes referred to as macro environment. However at times interest may be only on the immediate surrounding which is relatively small, effectively isolated and characteristically differs from the larger environment. For example if we are to consider a family living in a city environment, the conditions of their house could be different from that of the surrounding. Individual members of the family might wear clothing of different levels of cleanliness. All this makes the micro environment.

At the lowest level microenvironment would refer to the environment in and around the calls that make up our bodies. At the cellular level, our bodies carry out billions and billions of chemical reactions that are aimed at maintaining life. These reactions alter the composition of the environment within and around the cells of the body. Even in spite of all these reactions, the body has to maintain internal conditions that are relatively constant and stable. The body therefore undergoes a process of self regulation that helps it to restore the balance after it is shifted by normal biochemical reactions and daily stresses. A healthy microenvironment is thus one in which the body’s self regulating capabilities function well and thus the environment in and around the cells is well balanced thereby discouraging disease from taking hold.

Maintaining a healthy microenvironment

It is of very great importance for every individual to maintain a healthy microenvironment in order to prevent and control diseases. So as to make this importance stand out, we need to answer the question of how disease takes hold in our bodies.

Disease occurs in our body due to the failure of the body’s self regulating mechanisms due to physical, chemical and emotional strains and stresses pushing this system out of balance.

Some of these stresses include toxicity and poor nutrient intake. A naturally balanced and healthy microenvironment is very hostile to disease factors.

Maintaining a healthy microenvironment not only helps in preventing diseases but also helps in controlling diseases that have already taken hold.

An example of a micro environment in our body is that of bacteria in our gastro intestinal tract. These bacteria benefit us in several ways. They metabolize nutrients that we cannot digest and convert them to important end products. They also control the assembly of gut associated lymphoid tissue, they modulate proliferation and differentiation of the gastrointestinal tract lineages, they train the immune system, and they regulate angiogenesis and modify the activity of the enteric nervous system. Owing to the vast important physiological and immunological roles of these microorganisms, it becomes clear that maintaining a healthy microenvironment within the gastrointestinal tract could go a long way in improving their function and thus boosting the body’s ability to fight disease.

MicroenvironmentAnother example of microenvironment is that of antimicrobials in the mucosal surfaces of the female reproductive system. This microenvironment is effective in protecting the body against bacteria, viruses and fungi. Maintaining a healthy microenvironment in the female reproductive system would thus go a long way in solving the problem of sexually transmitted diseases that have been world’s worst nightmare.

It is therefore evidently possible to control and prevent majority of diseases of mankind through maintaining a healthy microenvironment that boosts the body’s immunological functions. To achieve this, we need to feed on unadultered nutrient rich foods, breath oxygen rich air and drink purified water which will help in providing the needed elements and clearing toxins and thus maintain the body’s microenvironment in a state that prevents disease from taking hold.

For more information about bone marrow transplant and stem cell transplantation, visit www.awaremednetwork.com. Dr. Dalal Okoury has years of experience in integrative medicine and will be of assistance.

Integrative Addiction Conference 2015

While at it, visit http://www.integrativeaddiction2015.com to learn about the upcoming integrative addiction conference 2015. The conference will deliver unique approaches to telling symptoms of addiction and how to assist patients of addiction.

The Importance Of A Healthy Microenvironment

 

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Antibiotics in Foods is a Health Risk

May 2, 2015

Are The Antibiotics In Your Food And Your Meet Destroying Your Health?

AntibioticsThe common adage that whatever you eat affects your health comes in handy here. we are supposed to be eating foods that help in building our bodies and laying a fortress that is not easily passed through by diseases, however with everybody having eyes fixed on the financial gains he can reap from the foods he grows it has become rather common to find that our foods are grown with enhancers that are at the end of the end of the day very dangerous to anybody eating them.

It is estimated that 99 percent of farmed animals in the US raised for food are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the US are used in agriculture. This enough to show you that the meet eaten in the US is highly concentrated in these antibiotics that eventually may turn out to be more dangerous than beneficial to us.

CAFOs are costly to your health

These foods may be easily available and priced affordable but when you take them after some time you will realize that the price at which these foods like pork, beef, egg, dairy and poultry are sold in the supermarket isn’t a true reflection of what they cost you. Most of these animals are raised like inanimate objects; they do not have even space to move, they do not see the sunlight, they do not get a gasp of fresh air and they have no clean place to sleep. theirs is to eat and eat until they are mature to be sold, eating boosters that they may mature faster, but after they are eaten for a long time is when the problems may set in.

The CAFOs are not very beneficial to you. if there is anybody who benefits from the CAFOs then only the farmers of these animals and the few involved in the industry are but the consumers stand at a loss and its quite unfortunate that while CAFOs have mastered the art of growing profits, they’ve overlooked the basic natural laws that govern growing animals and this culminates in huge health risks on those consuming these foods.

When antibiotics are used in an uncontrolled manner as has been used in the US agricultural sector they lead to an antibiotic-resistant disease. Approximately 25 million pounds of antibiotics are administered to livestock in the US every year for purposes other than treating disease, such as making the animals grow bigger faster. this are ways to maximize profits often hidden within these line ‘boosting food security ‘but the bitter reality is that those antibiotics, and even worse, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, are transferred to you via meat and even through the animal manure that is used as crop fertilizer.

According to Dr. Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is even bigger problem than antibiotics simply being left behind in your meat as it’s a practice that is promoting the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease.

“The more you use an antibiotic, the more you expose a bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that resistance to that antibiotic is going to develop. So the more antibiotics we put into people, we put into the environment, we put into livestock, the more opportunities we create for these bacteria to become resistant.” Dr. Arjun advises.

The genes that make the bacteria resistant is often shared by other bacteria, therefore the drug resistant bacteria that contaminate your meat may share these genes with other bacteria in your body making you more susceptible to sickness. Drug-resistant bacteria also accumulate in manure that is used in the fields to grow crops and enters waterways, allowing the drug-resistant bacteria to spread far and wide and ultimately back up the food chain to us. Therefore we are exposed to this risk and it is now more than just eating the beef, the pork or the poultry.

CDC links antibiotic-resistance illnesses to food

AntibioticsIn America alone antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect 2 million people every year. these infections leads to death of 23,000 Americans every year but this is nothing in comparison to the estimation of the UK prime minister David Cameron that by 2050 antibiotic resistance will have killed 300 million people, with the annual global death toll reaching 10 million. This is really a big reason to worry.

CDC has also linked antibiotic-resistant illness to food. The CDC reports that 22 percent of those illnesses are caused by food especially the foods that are sourced from CAFOs.

The composition of your microbiome is somewhat like a fingerprint. It’s unique to you but, unlike your fingerprints, highly impressionable and constantly changing. As reported by Scientific American: “The ecology of the gut microbiome may trigger or contribute to a variety of diseases, including autoimmune disorders and obesity, research suggests. Factors such as early environment, diet, and antibiotic exposure have a lot to do with why people differ from one another in the composition of their microbiomes.”

Generally when your gut flora is unhealthy, then you will be predisposed to many health problems therefore eating these foods that may culminate into antibiotic- resistance illnesses are a big leap into a haven of illnesses that eventually causes many deaths. The CAFOs generally are harmful to your gut health and so are other foods that are genetically engineered to enhance growth and pump in more profits.

There is much more to the foods we eat than just getting full and equipping your body with the needed nutrients. The foods may also cause you diseases. These foods related illnesses need to be treated effectively through integrative medicine. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert at this. Call her on (843) 213-1480 for help.

Are The Antibiotics In Your Food And Your Meet Destroying Your Health?

 

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Yeast Infection And Weight Gain

January 6, 2015

Yeast Infection Can Contribute To Weight Gain

Yeast infection is a common condition in women. Over 75% of women today have experienced at least one type of yeast infection in their lives. Not to say that men don’t get yeast infections. It’s just that women are affected by it more than men.

Today over 70 million Americans have yeast infections. Only 30% of these statistics are men. This clarifies that women are the victims of yeast infection in most cases.

Yeast infections starts with a fungus infestation. The fungus thrives in the gut. It produces toxins into the blood. These toxins are associated with fatigue and dizziness. They affect the thyroid causing a hormonal imbalance.

This hormonal imbalance is what causes cravings for things like sugar and alcohol. Well, it is common knowledge that these two are associated with weight gain.

Antibiotics are very common in our households. What you don’t know is that they cause yeast in your body to over grow. Eating a refined diet may also contribute to an overgrowth of yeast. Refined flour especially wheat flour and sugar feed the bacteria causing them to grow. Another bacteria overgrowth causing factor is the increase in stress hormones in your body.

yeast-infections

What is Yeast?

Normally yeast exists in the human bodies. Candida albicans is the common yeast that exists in our bodies. Yeast infection occurs when there is an over growth of Candida albicans.

It normally exists among good bacteria in the gut. They live together and maintain an optimum balance. The useful bacteria play a role in digestion of sugars and making of vitamins which are useful in human nutrition. Some bacteria form lactic acid which protect the body e.g. guts from yeast infection.

Candida thrives in the body in places like the digestive track, mouth, vagina and skin. It lives in harmony with other bacteria and yeast. Antibiotic are the major triggers of yeast overgrowth. The moment you start taking antibiotics disrupts this harmony and the balance that existed.

The useful and bad bacteria in the body are destroyed. However, antibiotics do not affect the yeast. When good and bad bacteria are destroyed by antibiotics it means the competition is over. Yeast can now thrive and this causes it to over grow.

The growth is facilitated by the refined sugars we take in our diets. They feed the yeast contributing to its growth. The antibiotics destroy even the bacteria responsible for production of lactic acid which counteracts the growth of yeast. The growing yeast therefore affects the tissues of where it thrives e.g. the intestinal walls.

Yeast Overgrowth and Weight Gain

The overgrowth of yeast has direct effect on weight gain. It leads to bloating that causes an increase in belly fat. This affects women most.

A woman may be cutting out calories in her diet and taking only a few yet she still gains weight. This may be hard for people to believe. However, she may be on a diet but the food she is eating containing sugars and carbohydrates may be contributing to this weight gain.

As seen refined carbohydrates and sugars act as food for the yeast. This causes an over growth of yeast in the body. Let’s take a case where she is on antibiotics. These destroy the good and bad bacteria that keep yeast in check. The yeast is therefore able to grow without competition. Adding a carbohydrate and sugar diet to this equation makes weight loss next to impossible even on the stickiest calorie diet.

The build-up of toxics combined with bloating causes a decline in the functioning of thyroid. This leads to a decrease in metabolism which eventually causes weight gain.

Yeast overgrowth creates a strong craving for sugars and carbohydrates. The carbohydrates in the body build up into fat that is stored in the tissues, a major cause of weight gain.

The yeast overgrowth also causes a considerable overworking of the immune system due to toxics. The toxic overload leads to chronic stress. Studies show that chronic cells lead to an increase in levels of cortisol. High levels of cortisol make it difficult to lose weight because of the chronic stress in the body.

yeast-infection

Managing Yeast Overgrowth

Diet: The best way of managing yeast overgrowth is to stay clear of refined sugars and carbohydrates. Also keep away from fermented foods and dairy product. These will only accelerate the yeast overgrowth.

Probiotics: these refer to good bacteria. They boost nutrition. When introduced into the body they enhance the balance of bacteria and yeast that had been lost and yeast growth is minimized.

Avoid Exposure to Chemicals and Medications: chemicals such as pathogens which are found in our homes in form of paints, perfumes, and paints should be avoided. Also stay away from medications such as antibiotics and birth control pills which cause yeast to over growth.

AwareMed is the best place to learn more about yeast over growth and its effect on weight gain. Dr. Dalal Akoury will provide more expert opinion on this and other health issues. This is the kind of knowledge you won’t find anywhere else. Just visit www.awaremednetwork.com and experience change today.

Yeast Infection Can Contribute To Weight Gain

 

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Prefrontal Cortex and Addiction

January 6, 2015

The Prefrontal Cortex Plays Crucial Role in Addiction

Prefrontal cortexThe prefrontal cortex enables us to make rational, sound decisions. It also helps us to override impulsive urges that may trigger reactions that are not in the best of our interests. If acted upon, these impulses urges can cause us to act without thinking. It is the prefrontal cortex that helps you to even maintain sound relationships around you. Each and every day you may be confronted by this impulsive urge but it is the prefrontal cortex that helps us think rationally and help override the impulsive urges. Obviously, this ability to inhibit impulses is very helpful. It enables us to function well in society. It protects us from harm by allowing us to consider the consequences of our actions. However, when the pre-frontal cortex is not functioning correctly, the opposite occurs. Addiction causes changes to the prefrontal cortex. These changes account for two characteristics of addiction: impulsivity and compulsivity.

In the past years, the loss of control over drug intake that occurs in addiction was initially believed to result from disruption of subcortical reward circuits. However, current studies in addictive behaviors have identified a key involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) both through its regulation of limbic reward regions and its involvement in higher-order executive function such as self-control, salience attribution and awareness.in this article we will try to revisit studies that have been done in the past so as to reach an understanding on how the prefrontal cortex is involved in drug addiction. Most studies have suggested that disruption of the PFC in addiction underlies not only compulsive drug taking but also accounts for the damaging behaviors that are associated with addiction and the loss of free will.

In a study where rats were used, it was found that stimulating a specific part of the brain reduces compulsive cocaine seeking. The finding proposes a potential approach to changing addictive behavior. This study and other studies that have been done show that the prefrontal cortex that is involved in decision-making and inhibitory response control is compromised in addiction. Deficits in the prefrontal cortex are involved in drug addiction The Deep-layer pyramidal pre-limbic cortex neurons; is a layer of cells that reach into areas of the brain that have been implicated in drug-seeking behaviors. Activating the Deep-layer pyramidal pre-limbic cortex neurons might reduce the rats’ cocaine seeking.

Medical experts and researchers agree that compulsive drug taking, which brings a myriad of health and social consequences, is one of the most challenging aspects of human drug addiction. In 2011, an estimated 1.4 million Americans age 12 and older were past-month cocaine users. No medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating cocaine addiction. Obviously, cocaine addiction doesn’t affect America alone but the whole world.

Animal model studies

Drs. Billy Chen and Antonello Bonci at NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have been using an animal model of cocaine addiction in a bid to gain insights into the neurobiology of compulsive drug use, trained rats learned to push levers to receive cocaine. When the cocaine doses were later followed by a mild electric shock to the foot, most rats stopped pushing the levers. Some rats, however, exhibited compulsive cocaine seeking by continuing to push the levers in spite of the foot shocks.

In this research, the researchers compared nerve cell firing patterns in the brains of the shock-sensitive and shock-resistant groups of rats. They studied a region of the prefrontal cortex that, in humans, is involved in decision making and inhibitory response control, which are both compromised in addiction. Their analysis focused on deep-layer pyramidal prelimbic cortex neurons because these cells reach into areas of the brain that have been implicated in drug-seeking behaviors. The study appeared online in Nature on April 3, 2013. The scientists found that almost twice as much current was needed to activate these neurons in compulsive cocaine-seeking rats than in the shock-sensitive rats or rats that hadn’t been exposed to cocaine. If these neurons are behind the rats’ compulsive behavior, the team reasoned, and then activating them might reduce the rats’ cocaine seeking behavior.

Prefrontal cortexFor this study the scientists employed a light-based genetic, or optogenetic, technique to activate or inhibit pyramidal neurons in the prelimbic cortex at will. They injected harmless viruses engineered to deliver genes for producing proteins that, once embedded in the neuron’s surface this could induce or inhibit the cells’ activity in response to light of specific wavelengths. Tiny optic fibers were implanted in the rats’ brains to deliver light pulses to the cells. As predicted, activating these brain cells reduced cocaine seeking in the compulsive, shock-resistant rats. Inhibiting the cells in shock-sensitive rats increased cocaine seeking during foot-shock sessions.

“This exciting study offers a new direction of research for the treatment of cocaine and possibly other addictions,” says NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. “We already knew, mainly from human brain emerging studies, that deficits in the prefrontal cortex are involved in drug addiction. Now that we have learned how fundamental these deficits are, we feel more confident than ever about the therapeutic promise of targeting that part of the brain.”, he concluded.

“By targeting a specific portion of the prefrontal cortex, our hope is to reduce compulsive cocaine seeking and craving in patients.” Bonci said as he reiterated that his group is now planning clinical trials to test noninvasive methods for stimulating this brain region in people. Dr. Dalal Akoury of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Center has dedicated her life to helping addicts restore their lives by use of integrative medicine. Call her on (843) 213-1480 for help.

The Prefrontal Cortex Plays Crucial Role in Addiction

 

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