Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose

July 7, 2015

Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose: Symptoms and treatment of heroin overdose

Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose is everyone’s in the fight against drug addiction responsibility

Have you ever imagined life without drugs? This is not just intended to drug users but to everyone. The presence of drug abuse in any society is not just affecting the direct users, but also indirectly to their caregivers, family members and friends. Using drugs can only be compared to the body. If the body is healthy there is comfort and contentment all through, however if any part of the body is not well and is in pain the whole body will be suffering from that one condition. In the same way when one member of the family is misusing drugs, he will suffer directly but his family, friends and relatives will equally bear the pain indirectly. Therefore in the interest of offering lasting solution to this devastating problem, acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose would be very important as this will enable caregivers an opportunity to act timely before the addiction get out of manageable levels. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the direction heroin abuse is taking is worrying, currently more than 50 percent of people who use heroin have an addiction to the drug. This calls for an intervention so as to prevent further escalation of the problem. If you are wondering how to get this information, today is your lucky day because you are at the right place where health information is delivered with a lot of professionalism. Doctor Dalal Akoury is a veteran expert in addiction and she will be speaking to us about acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose in human life.

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center which is one of the leading pioneers in natural and holistic addiction treatment formulated by doctor Dalal Akoury, heroin comes in a powder form that ranges from bright white to dark brown that users administer into their bodies either by mixing with water to inject, smoke or snort. Besides that, the other element of heroin is that which is known as the black tar heroin. This type of heroin has some resemblance of a tar. This type of heroin (black tar heroin) is typically injected into the by its users. Doctor Akoury advices that these drugs are very strong and dangerous and therefore when a person exhibits heroin overdose symptoms after using the drug, such individuals needs to seek and get help for the experts immediately. This treatment will be available at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury. All you have to do on your part is to call her today and schedule for an appointment with her for the commencement of your recovery journey. Now that you know where to get help, let us get into the discussion even as you consider making that appointment.

Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose: What is an overdose?

The term overdose medically has been misconstrued by many. Ignorantly you will hear discussions around overdose from people in hospitals or along the streets, and in most cases majority really doesn’t understand what it means. Doctor Akoury says that will occur when someone takes a large amount of a substance. Take note of the singular expression. It is not as many think that it is only the new users of heroin or those who use the drug most frequently. That is a misconception; overdose is an occurrence which can happen to any person. Nonetheless users are at risk of suffering an overdose because they might take a higher dose than intended. On the other hand long-term users of the drug can also suffer an overdose because of the tolerance the person has to the drug. It is however very important to appreciate that majority of people who take heroin cannot get the same rush after several uses as they did in the beginning. In that case, to get that initial rush, the user must take increasingly larger doses. The body adjusts to each new amount, which makes the person take larger and larger doses. When the body can no longer adjust to the increased levels of heroin in the system, it reacts in the form of heroin overdose symptoms. In addition, a user might encounter an unexpectedly pure batch of heroin, so that user injects more of the active ingredient than anticipated. This is sincerely very frustrating and all we can do is to pool together to bring this problem to a manageable levels.

Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose: The future of integrative addiction

In an effort to have everyone on board in the fight against drug addiction, overdose and its consequences, AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, one of the leading pioneers in natural and holistic addiction treatment, will be conducting the first ever Educational, Functional and Integrative Addiction conference tailored for professional including doctors, counselors, nurses and addiction therapists. The conference is schedule for August 23-25 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This new cutting edge in Addiction Medicine and it will be conducted by the most influential group of leading visionaries specializing in the latest advances in natural and integrative addiction medicine, under the theme “The Future of Integrative Addiction”.

We are very passionate about this integrative addiction conference 2015 whose mission is to deliver prevention education awareness options and support to patients including the physicians dealing with addiction globally. Our aim is to empower those physicians to be involved in the determination of their personal best answer for addiction by promoting patient-physicians awareness of a more natural yet still profoundly effective addiction treatment options that result in you thriving while surviving during treatment and recovery. We have prepared a very rich menu for you and throughout the integrative addiction conference 2015 we will be covering topic like addiction as a holistic body ecosystem derangement, the interaction between stress, survivorship, pain and addiction, the genetic and epigenetic influences on the disease of addiction, the role of hormonal imbalance in the disease of addiction, psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration essential to reverse addiction as well as new and future therapies in the horizon for addiction treatment including stem therapy for psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration.

With this rich menu you can’t afford to miss this one in a lifetime health conference. We want therefore to take this earliest opportunity to invite you whole heartedly to come and let us compare our experiences in dealing with this problem of addiction. for further enquiries about the conference, you can send all your queries to the event organizer through the email address or sharon@integrativeaddiction2015.com log in to the event web site for more www.integrativeaddiction2015.com you can also make a direct call to Sharon Phillips the event planner on telephone number 954 540 1896

Acknowledging the presence of heroin overdose: Symptoms and treatment of heroin overdose

Pros and Cons of Suboxone

May 25, 2015

Problems with suboxone treatment, pros and cons of suboxone therapy

There has been an increase in prescription of opioid painkillers in the US, this phenomenon got me worried and backed up by a recent study that verified that the use of safer alternatives to pain management has been on the decline.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness in the medical community about the pervasiveness of pain. This awareness has corresponded to a sharp increase in the use of opioids and abuse with so many people involved in the use opioids for non-medical purposes.

One of the biggest disasters associated with this tremendous use of opioid painkillers is their potential to cause addiction.

Addiction to any drug substance be it medicinal or not is a very serious issue with extremely adverse socio-economic impacts in human populations all over the world. The move to try and help addicts recover from this societal demon is thus a noble one. Many addiction treatment centers have been set up in line with this move. Different medications are today in use in the world over and research is still ongoing with the aim of developing the most effective medication for addiction treatment. One such drug being used today in addiction treatment is suboxone.

What is suboxone?

Suboxone is a brand name for a prescription medication that is a combination of two drugs; buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine belongs to a class of drugs called opioid partial agonists which help relieve symptoms of opiate withdrawal. Naloxone on the other hand is belongs to a class of drugs called opioid antagonists which reverse the effects of narcotics. one of the most powerful narcotics isbuprenorphine is a narcotic, it is so powerful yet it has a potential o be addictive. it was approved for treatment of opioid addiction in 2002 in the United States.

This drug can be combined with naloxone to make Suboxone and be used to help addicts to fight opioids like vicodin, heroin, OxyContin, and hydrocodone. Naloxone has ability to block opioid receptors in the brain and trigger sudden withdrawal symptoms when injected. For treatment, Naloxone is added as deterrent to prevent addicts from injecting Suboxone. When taken as a pill, naloxone is not absorbed into the body.

Problems with suboxone therapy

When it was first released in 2002, suboxone was hailed as a major advance over methadone. But millions of but later there were millions of literature critiquing the use of this drug as it has faults as were thought earlier.

One of the biggest challenges associated with suboxone treatment is its being overprescribed and misused.

Over three million Americans with opioid dependence have been treated with Suboxone. This drug has been successfully used to help addicts but it has high potential of being abused.

A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found a ten-fold increase in the number of emergency room visits involving buprenorphine. Slightly over half of the 30,000 hospitalizations in 2010 were for misuse and abuse of buprenorphine.

How many died from buprenorphine overdoses is unknown, because medical examiners and coroners do not routinely test for the drug.

For a drug addict, the most uncomfortable, painful problem of their addiction is withdrawal. If they can somehow control their urge to delve back into the drug and endure the side effects of withdrawal, then they can successfully complete their addiction recovery and gain their freedom from use of drugs.

Suboxone is so popular with addicts that it has turned into a street drug – to be bartered or exchanged for money, heroin or other illegal drugs. According to one estimate, about half of the buprenorphine obtained through legitimate prescriptions is either being diverted or used illicitly.

Drug makers are well aware of the potential for misuse and abuse. Orexo, the maker of menthol flavored Zubsolv, is selling the tablets in single dose “blister” packaging designed to reduce accidental use by kids. Another maker, Reckitt-Benckiser took its Suboxone tablets off the U.S. market and currently sells Suboxone in individually wrapped film strips. However experts have it that no amount of preparation and packaging can outsmart a determined drug abuser.

The potential for abuse and diversion is however not reason enough to call for a stop in treating addicts with buprenorphine, according to a commentary published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that calls for a “balanced approach” to the drug.

The other major challenge associated with suboxone treatment is that it is causing its own epidemic of addiction. Patients undergoing suboxone treatment could overtime get addicted to the drug and show withdrawal symptoms when they try to get off its use.

Advantages of suboxone

One of the primary advantages of suboxone for addiction treatment is the fact that buprenorphine’s partial agonist quality prevents it from triggering respiratory depression -and thus overdoses.

Its other advantages include:

It isn’t met with stigma as with methadone.
It can often get to a stabilized dose within the first or second day.
It has a better safety profile.
It may be easier to come off than methadone.
It is longer acting than methadone so it may not require daily dosing.
Its side effects are less than those of methadone.

Disadvantages of suboxone therapy

Though suboxone is considered an advance in addiction treatment over methadone, it has its disadvantages. Some of these disadvantages include:

It may fail to fully satisfy cravings or inhibit withdrawal symptoms for those with high tolerance.
Dose adjustments may b more difficult.
It is also likely to cause a precipitated withdrawal.

Addiction is a societal menace for which support is required in fighting. That’s why we at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center are committed to availing help to addicts and offering them a place to call home. It matters not what kind of addiction you are wrestling with, just call on Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) today and begin your journey to victory against addiction.

Problems with suboxone treatment, pros and cons of suboxone therapy

Medical Tourism And Treatment of Addiction

March 11, 2015

The Role of Medical Tourism in Treatment of Addiction

Basically medically tourism can be defined as the act of a person leaving his country to seek medical care in a different country or simply beyond the country’s borders. In the past medical tourism involved patients from third world countries traveling to developed countries in search of qualified medical doctors to treat their diseases. This meant that the patient had good money to spend in treatment in the country he was visiting for medical care. However today medical tourism has taken a new dimension with patients traveling from the developed countries to developing countries for affordable medical care. These patients are evading heavy financial crisis that they may plunge into if they opt to treat the diseases in their own countries where the cost of treatment is higher than in the countries they are visiting.

It is important to appreciate the fact that the patients who leave their countries to come and seek medical attention in developing countries are not destitute. In their countries they may form part of the middle class but they certainly have higher purchasing power than the citizens of the countries they visit for medical attention. They are therefore welcomed in these countries by the governments who view medical tourism as a chance to create more national income from it therefore it is greatly encouraged.

Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is a multimillion business that is known worldwide. However medical tourism if not well managed may result in some problems to the countries the medical tourist visit. Just like the common tourism you always know of, I mean that of adventure and leisure that has both positive and negative impacts on the countries the tourists visit the medical tourism is also a double edged sword. It therefore needs to be well managed for the benefits to be enjoyed. Apart from all the benefits that a country visited by a medical tourist will get, we need to look at the role of medical tourism in treatment of addiction.

Medical Tourism avails effective treatment for addiction

Medical tourism has far many benefits to an addict seeking help. To begin with we know that that the biggest hurdle to addicts in overcoming addiction is the presence of triggers that lie just outside the rehab walls. A change in the environment especially leaving a country to a different provides an addict with an opportunity to evade these triggers that may make him to fall back into drug use. These triggers may include the people they were drinking with or even some type of music that is usually played in bars and other places of leisure as people drink and use other drugs. When a person is receiving treatment in a different country, not only the location changes but also the culture which places learning and adventure at the top of the list while pulling the triggers out of the way of an addict.

The addict will also have access to some of the most unique addiction treatment practices across the world, treatments that have been used for centuries in treatment of addiction and have been proved to be very effective. Without the limits of the addicts country’s borders, a whole new world of variety of effective treatments open up for the addict to explore and choose from, of course with help from highly qualified doctors and healers. An example of a unique treatment of addiction that medical tourism avails for an addict is the Ayurvedic herbal Treatment;

Ayurvedic Herbal Treatments of addiction

Ayurvedic treatments are one of the oldest therapies in the world with its roots in India. It is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit. The primary focus of Ayurvedic medicine is to promote good health, rather than fight disease. But treatments may be recommended for specific health problems. The best thing with ayurvedic treatment is that it is holistic. That is to say that it focuses more on the wellness of the patient other than on treating the patient of the symptoms of the disease. It focuses on uprooting the disease by maintaining the delicate balance of the mind, the body and the spiritual being of the patient.

One of the greatest Ayurvedic theories is that everything in the universe be it living or not are not is connected. Good health is achieved when your mind, body, and spirit are in harmony with the universe. Even the slightest disruption of this harmony can lead to poor health and sickness. A person should therefore coexist with the universe. To begin with you need to appreciate the fact that anything that affects your physical, spiritual, or emotional well-being can cause you to be out of balance with the universe and therefore bring you lots of diseases. Ayurvedic treatment is also known as Ayurveda. Through medical tourism addicts from all over the world have been travelling to India for Ayurvedic herbal treatments. This can be credited to its effectiveness in treatment of addiction. Ayurvedic medicine works through these mediums to help an addict overcome addiction and offer complete healing.

Ayurvedic Diet– through ayurvedic diet, a patient will get lost nutrients restored; ayurvedic healers will tailor a diet aimed at recovery for every patient.

Meditation – this is a crucial part of Ayurveda. Meditation helps addicts in the path of self-discovery and also helps them deal with stress and depression better. It effectively addresses depression which is common in addicts as a withdrawal symptom.

Yoga– this involves a series of exercise and postures that will help in deep purification that is needed in getting drug debris out of the system of the patient. It only improves good health and restores the balance of energy in the body.

Achieving Balance– when a person has recovered from drug addiction, ayurvedic medicine will help him to achieve and maintain the physical, mental, and spiritual health balance.

Finally, addiction is a disease that should be approached integratively just in order to be won. Medical tourism avails an opportunity for an addict to find integrative medicine that may not be in their countries. Here at AWAREmed we are dedicated to offer the best treatment available to addicts. Contact Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) for more help in any kind of addiction you may be wrestling with.

The Role of Medical Tourism in Treatment of Addiction

Estrogen Imbalances Impacting on Addiction

March 10, 2015

The Effect of Estrogen Imbalances in the Disease of Addiction

Hormonal fluctuations affect women more adversely than men. The hormone estrogen plays crucial functions in the life of a woman and its supply should not be interrupted. However as a woman is aging the ovaries stop producing this hormone leading to a fall in the level of this hormone. When the level of the estrogen hormone has floored the duties of this hormone will be unattended to leading to myriads of health problems affecting women. Among other problems a woman will experience the following problems when the level of estrogen falls; vaginal dryness, irritability, low sex drive, mood swings, hot flashes and urgency of urination. Pellet implants have been used to treat migraine and menstrual headaches and have been found effective in dealing with menopause symptoms.

According to an article published in the Holy Hormones journal, Female hormones are potent modulators of brain chemicals, neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. the article reports that when a woman receives the bio-identical hormonal replacement therapy it does not only help with its anti-aging effects but also improves the general quality of life in women as it helps in preventing depression, anxiety and insomnia disorders all of which cause subsequent addiction.

Estrogen Imbalance

Hormonal imbalances cause drug craving

An investigation done at Florida Detox & Wellness Institute on all hormonal and brain chemical imbalance that can cause drug and alcohol craving it was proved that many female patients develop addiction issues because of midlife changes in estrogen and progesterone production. The Institute opines that the reason why these findings have gone undetected is because most addiction treatment centers do not routinely examine the hormones involved in the pituitary-adrenal-ovarian axis.

The involvement of estrogen hormone imbalances in addiction calls for a more integrated treatment to addiction. As opposed to treating only the visible symptoms of addiction, there is need for doctors to integrate spiritual counseling and modern brain science so that the imbalances in the brain chemicals can be corrected making the treatment whole. By evaluating the possible imbalance in the brain and correcting the imbalances by bio-identical hormone therapy, the electrical activity in the brain is balanced and this nullifies the chances of a patient attempting self-medication with drugs of pleasure and alcohol. Clinical studies done at Florida Detox & Wellness Institute have indicated that addicted patients will use drugs and alcohol either to stimulate under-active brain regions or to relax over-active brain systems. The unusual electrical activity in the addicted patient’s brain is typically caused by inherited or acquired biochemical and hormonal deficiencies.

The changes on estrogen levels in midlife causes hormonal imbalance in women and therefore for there to be a successful treatment of an addict there has to be an accurate diagnosis which is based on evaluation of neurotransmitter and hormonal and brain scan research. By normalizing the underlying biochemical and electrical imbalance drug and alcohol craving can be stopped. There is also need to identify the specific brain chemical and hormonal deficiencies as this will allow for more effective diagnosis of the root cause of the patient’s craving, thus eliminating alcohol and drug addictions.

Addictions that are common in the middle age population can be eliminated by correcting hormonal imbalances. As women approach menopause the decline in estrogen takes charge however the decline in progesterone hormone normally begins eight years earlier before estrogen begins to decline. It is important to note that the decline in hormones is a gradual process. The drop in levels of progesterone hormone in women will result in such experiences as anxiety and insomnia. Other clinical studies that were done at the Florida Detox & Wellness Institute have shown that the progesterone decline phenomenon is a common etiology of alcohol and drug abuse, which causes over 40 percent of our addicted middle age females.

The biochemical explanation for the increased anxiety experienced by midlife females is that suboptimal progesterone levels occurring in the presence of normal estradiol levels cause an increase in brain electrical activity. Progesterone essentially is a brain relaxing hormone because it converts to another hormone, allopregnanolone. This metabolite of progesterone, allopregnanolone, activates the same relaxing nerve receptor, the GABA-A receptor, as does Valium, Xanax and alcohol.

Estrogen Imbalance There is need for balance between the GABA activity and the estradiol production in the body. When there is a loss in GABA activity as a result of dropping progesterone levels a person will develop excess electrical activity in both, their central and peripheral nervous system. This phenomenon occurs because estradiol enhances the excitatory brain chemicals, dopamine and histamine. Their excitatory effect on brain electricity should be counter balanced with the GABA effect of progesterone. The new onset progesterone deficient middle aged female experiences newfound anxiety and insomnia that frequently precipitates the need for relaxing medication which ultimately causes subsequent addiction issues.

Women who have low levels of progesterone hormone will begin using alcohol and other drugs to relax their brain. When this happens, alcohol, just like Valium will activates the GABA-A receptor. This will make them drink more of alcohol increasing the units they take as time goes by as the wine will cease to be just a drink to her but a medication.

The effect of estrogen progesterone imbalance as well as other brain chemicals in causing addiction has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt and it is therefore very important for every addiction patient to ask for hormonal evaluation and restoration when receiving any addiction treatment.

Finally, if you are battling with addiction and is interested in the long lasting, effective addiction treatment therapy please call 843-213-1480 or contact Dr. Dalal Akoury is an experienced doctor who will be able to help you.

The Effect of Estrogen Imbalances in the Disease of Addiction

Pain Addiction Continuum

October 2, 2014

Pain Addiction Continuum and How To Deal With It

Pain management is an important part of treatment especially in situations where the patient is to go through intense like during chemotherapy for cancer patients or after going through surgery. Nobody will like to have intense pain maim him for even the least amount of time. People like to be happy and avoid anything that may bring them pain. However in some instances there has to be pain for a much serious health problem to be solved. To manage pain certain drugs are used that helps you to endure the pain, unfortunately most of these are addictive and so as you are using them to manage pain you are at risk of addiction. Opiates are the mostly used drugs in pain management and they work well in ensuring that your pain is moderated if not done away with completely. However effective they are these drugs are very rewarding and before you know it the body may be adapted to these drugs so much that you will feel like you need to take them every time and increase the dosage over a time. Due to their rewarding nature they can be easily abused and a treatment that once began on the right foot may end up being another nightmare in a person’s life hence there is need for actions to be taken to help patients not to be addicted to this pain drugs.

Now back to the point pain and addiction may occur as a continuum or just two different entities. Here we see how pain addiction continuum occurs and how to deal with it. When the drugs are given for pain management you will be using them for just that for quite a time without feeling the intense craving for them. But as time goes by and you are still using them you will begin to have craving for these drugs not only to use them within the specified dosage but you may begging to desire mega doses which is now addiction so pain addiction continuum is rather the changes that takes place in your body demanding for more of the drug and hence dependence on these drugs. The use of opiates in pain management may work well for some people while for others it may not and their treatment may work better if they stopped using the opiates therefore it is important to work with experts in this field who will know when to use and when to stop using these opiates to avoid the dangers of addiction that may come with them. This means that the treatment must have a clear exit strategy from the opiates to help the patient overcome the cravings for more of the pain drugs.

Pain management demands that the doctor must be able to assess the patient well that is before issuing a prescription and during the course of treatment. The doctor should improve patient care by bio psychosocial model assessment of the patient’s past and even present aberrant if any of such exist. All this will help the doctor decide on how best to prescribe the drugs in dosages that will reduce risks to addiction. Today the doctors are aware that pain management drugs poise a great threat to addiction in patients unlike in the past when it was thought that if a patient did not have a history of drug abuse disorder. The risk of getting addicted to the opiates used in pain management is higher and this fallacy and past belief that it had low chances of inducing addiction in patients with no history of substance use disorder has never served this industry. It is quite fortunate that avenues are now opening as the doctors are slowly waking up to the reality of pain addiction continuum and proper exit strategies are being developed to help the cancer patients to evade addiction. The addiction that arises from use of opiates in pain management may be caused by many factors but the biggest culprit is poor management of chronic pain.

Poorly managed chronic pain

Now that we have learnt that there is risk of addition from the use of pain management drugs like the opiates it is better to exercise better management of chronic pain. Today chronic pain is one of the nightmares that many people are fighting every day. These people can use anything given to them to kill that pain without thinking twice and this shows how vulnerable they are. It therefore calls for professionalism in dealing with these people and doctors must find better ways to manage chronic pain in a way that reduces their risk to addiction.

In the past pain had been poorly manage owing to such beliefs that I have discussed above. Patients were put on opiate drugs to kill pain without assessing them and this often led to serious health problems since every patient is unique owing to the fact that they have different history relating to the substance use disorder. There is also need to explore other ways of pain management methods as opposed to singly using the opiates in pain management. Some of the natural pain management methods that work better are discussed here.

Proliferative therapies for pain (Natural)

Prolozone™ Therapy– Dr. Frank Shallenberger pioneered this type of proliferative therapy, Prolozone therapy uses ozone, a naturally occurring form of oxygen with powerful regenerative capacity owing to its extra oxygen atom. It works by increasing oxygen circulation and delivery into the damaged areas. This helps in strengthening ligaments and tendons as well as in rebuilding cartilage in the treated joint.

Prolotherapy– this therapy was pioneered by Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop who had used it successfully to treat his chronic back pain. It is the oldest and most widely used form of proliferative therapy that has been used since the 1930’s.it involves injecting a natural substance such as dextrose to purposefully provoke mild localized inflammation. This increases the blood supply and flow of nutrients to the area, and the body responds by regenerating the damaged structures.

Platelet Rich Plasma Injection (PRP) Therapy -involves the use of the body’s own platelets for treatment of pain. It involves drawing a small amount of blood that is centrifuged to separate out the plasma this creates blood that is concentrated in platelets. The high concentration of platelets in the plasma is rich in bioactive proteins and growth factors that can accelerate tissue repair and regeneration. Today this therapy is become more popular with athletes.

Here at AWAREmed we are dedicated to finding the best solutions to chronic illnesses and that is why Dr.Dalal Akoury (MD) is always in the forefront advocating for integrative medicine since it is only through integrative medicine that a person can be healed wholly. Do not hesitate to call on her for help in managing any sort of chronic pain as well as other diseases.

Pain Addiction Continuum and How To Deal With It

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