July 6, 2022 – Dena Ressler, a New Jersey-based retiree in her 60s, had a “splitting headache” that lasted 3 months. It got here with a cough and shortness of breath. After critical medical circumstances had been dominated out, it was discovered that her headache was stress-related.

“It was constant, scary, and it didn’t go away,” she remembers.

Ressler is a clarinet participant with a band that performs Klezmer music, a conventional style of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. After weeks of ache, she determined to strive acupuncture. And after 3 weeks of standard appointments, the headache disappeared and has not returned.

“Every once in a while, when I’m really tired, I can feel the same pathway of pain in my head – maybe once every month or two – but it’s very slight,” she says.

This wasn’t the primary time Ressler had used acupuncture. Several many years in the past, when she was in her 30s, she had a extreme harm that made her much less capable of get round.

“It took 18 months to get to where I am now – almost fully functional,” she says. “Although I can no longer ride my bike and I still have to be careful not to overdo things, I can do my own yardwork and was able to return to playing the clarinet.”

Scientific Research Supports Acupuncture

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, acupuncture could also be an affordable choice for individuals with persistent ache (together with migraine or tension-type complications), offered the acupuncturist is skilled, well-trained, and makes use of sterile needles.

Chinese researchers not too long ago launched outcomes of a brand new research that checked out 218 sufferers with persistent tension-type complications. Most had had complications for 11 years and had been having a mean of 21 headache days monthly.

Patients had been randomly divided into two teams. One obtained “true acupuncture.” The different group obtained extra superficial “sham” acupuncture. Both teams had 20 periods unfold over 2 months and had been adopted for six extra months.

More individuals within the true acupuncture group, vs. the sham group, confirmed enchancment of their complications: 68.2% of sufferers within the true acupuncture group had fewer month-to-month headache days, vs. 48.1% within the sham group after 16 weeks. At 6 months, the true acupuncture group continued to have fewer month-to-month complications, in comparison with the sham group (68.2% vs. 50%, respectively).

“Tension-type headaches are one of the most common types of headaches, and people who have a lot of these headaches may be looking for alternatives to medication,” research creator Ying Li, MD, PhD, of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chengdu, China, mentioned in a information launch.

Headaches and Women

“This was a very well-done study,” says Shi-Hong Loh, MD, an acupuncturist with places of work in Hoboken and Hackensack, NJ, however it has its limits.

Most individuals within the research had been feminine (74.5% within the true acupuncture group), and Loh feels the researchers didn’t pay sufficient consideration to the position of gender in complications and remedy response.

“In my experience, 95% of people who come to me for treatment of headaches are women,” says Loh, who’s the previous chief of hematology and oncology at St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken. While he’s nonetheless on workers at St Mary, he now has a personal follow in medical acupuncture.

“Women’s headaches are often related to stress in life and are also heavily influenced by hormonal imbalances or changes, such as those that occur during menstruation,” he notes.

The researchers’ collection of acupuncture factors was “OK, but not enough, in my opinion, since women have points in other areas,” says Loh. “If I were treating a woman with a headache, I would have used more points than they did and might treat them differently than I would treat a man.”

How Does Acupuncture Work for Headaches?

According to conventional Chinese drugs, headache is a type of stagnated chi within the physique’s vitality pathways, and acupuncture unblocks the stagnated areas, letting the chi movement freely, Loh says.

“Chi is a vital force that travels in our body through pathways called meridians,” he says. According to conventional Chinese drugs, there are 14 distinctive however linked meridians, every linked to a unique organ. A blockage leads to stagnation, which is the place sickness begins. Placing needles at varied factors alongside these meridians will launch blockages, and finally, the ache will subside.

This mechanism “cannot be understood or examined through Western medical technology, but it works, according to the Chinese medical perspective,” Loh says.

Acupuncture Works for Migraine, Too

A latest research discovered acupuncture to be useful for migraine. Researchers analyzed 15 research involving over 2,000 sufferers and located that seven out of 10 research confirmed much less frequent and fewer intense complications. Four research discovered that acupuncture was simply as efficient as Western medical approaches however had fewer uncomfortable side effects.

The researchers concluded, “Acupuncture can be recommended as an alternative or adjunct to drug treatment for patients suffering from migraines.”

Not ‘One-Size-Fits-All’

Loh says researchers within the research on acupuncture for stress complications used the identical factors for all of the individuals studied. “But according to [traditional Chinese medicine], headaches aren’t ‘one-size-fits-all.’ They have different presentations that require use of different acupuncture points.”

For instance, complications usually contain both the gallbladder or the urinary bladder meridian. If an individual’s headache is on the aspect of the top, it often includes the gallbladder meridian. So Loh then makes use of factors associated to the gallbladder. But if the headache is on the entrance or again of the top, it’s probably associated to the urinary bladder meridian.

Also, “tension headaches are often back-to-front headaches and can be related to poor posture and neck position at work, often having to do with overuse of the computer. So I advise people to pay attention to their posture at work,” he says. And stress “is a universal problem that can also cause headaches, so I also recommend stress management, not only acupuncture, as part of a treatment protocol.”

More details about how acupuncture works, the best way to discover an acupuncturist, and what to search for in an acupuncturist could be discovered on the hyperlinks under.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture-in-depth

National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

https://www.nccaom.org/find-a-practitioner-directory/

Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine

https://www.ccahm.org/ccaom/Find_a_Licensed_Practitioner.asp

The post Dealing With Headaches? A New Study Says Acupuncture May Help appeared first on Healthy and Slim Life.

When you get chemotherapy for breast most cancers, you’ll very probably run low on white blood cells known as neutrophils. Doctors name this neutropenia. It’s a standard a part of going by means of chemo.

With neutropenia, you’re extra prone to get infections and fever. That’s as a result of neutrophils are a part of your physique’s front-line immune response. So with fewer of them out there to combat off threats, you’re extra weak.

Keep in thoughts that neutropenia is a brief aspect impact of chemo – and you may take easy precautions to assist keep away from catching an an infection.

Ways to Help Prevent Infection During Neutropenia

Do these items to assist shield your self:

• Get all of your vaccinations that your physician recommends. This contains the flu shot and the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters. Ask about different vaccines, like these for hepatitis B and pneumonia. If you’re getting chemotherapy, your immune system wants the assistance it doesn’t matter what your age is.
• Wash your arms usually.
• Avoid contact with individuals who to be sick. Do this even when they are saying they really feel OK or aren’t infectious anymore.
• Avoid busy indoor areas. “If you need to go to an indoor place like church or the grocery store, wear a mask and limit the amount of time you’re there as much as you can. I would even suggest wearing a mask if you’re at a crowded outdoor event,” says Jeremy Pappacena, PharmD, a medical pharmacy specialist in hematology and oncology at Allegheny Health Network in Pennsylvania.
• Prepare your meals fastidiously. Cook meals totally. “Avoid having meats on the rarer side or things like sushi or other uncooked fish, and wash and scrub raw fruits and vegetables,” Pappacena says.
• Have the folks assist shield you. Ask relations and others who dwell with you to observe comparable precautions as a lot as potential.

You don’t should take your temperature each day throughout chemotherapy. But should you discover signs of an infection – like feeling flushed or chilled, being wanting breath, or feeling weak or in any other case unwell – inform your physician.

If you develop a fever whereas getting chemotherapy, name your physician instantly and inform them your signs.

“They might tell you that everything is OK, or they might want you to go to your doctor’s office or nearest emergency department,” says Nan Chen, MD, a breast most cancers specialist on the University of Chicago. “If you go to the ED, be sure to tell the doctor there that you are on chemotherapy.”

How Long Does Breast Cancer Neutropenia Last?

How extreme neutropenia is and the way lengthy it lasts varies. It partly will depend on the sort of chemotherapy you’re getting, Pappacena says.

“Most people see their lowest points of neutropenia somewhere around the middle of their treatment cycle,” Pappacena says. “If you’re getting chemo every 4 weeks, then your neutropenia will usually be at its lowest around 2 weeks after the last treatment. It definitely can get worse as treatment continues.”

Treatments for Breast Cancer Neutropenia

The major therapies that medical doctors use to assist shorten neutropenia and shield you from an infection are drugs known as G-CSFs (granulocyte colony-stimulating elements). You normally get them by injection about 24 hours after a dose of chemotherapy.

“If we are giving chemotherapy that has a moderate or high risk of leaving you neutropenic for many days, we will give you G-CSF medication after chemotherapy to bump up your white blood cells,” Chen says.

For most individuals who get chemotherapy that may trigger neutropenia, medical doctors prescribe long-acting G-CSF drugs. With long-acting G-CSF treatment, you solely should have one injection after every chemotherapy remedy. You can both return to the most cancers middle the place you bought your chemotherapy on your injection the subsequent day, or you possibly can self-inject the treatment at residence (or have a associate inject it for you).

A more recent choice for delivering long-acting G-CSFs is known as Onpro. It is available in a package with a prefilled syringe inside a blister pack that’s utilized to your pores and skin (normally in your higher arm). Your well being care supplier prepares an space of pores and skin and applies the on-body injector pack. They will insert a brief needle that delivers the treatment below your pores and skin about 27 hours later.

“Once the injector is activated, it will slowly administer the medication over about 45 minutes,” Pappacena says. “You have to be careful not to accidentally knock it off or take it off too soon so that you don’t get a full dose of the medication. There’s a nice little ‘fuel gauge’ on the package so that you know when the medication is fully dispensed. When it says ‘Empty,’ then you can take it off and dispose of it.”

“If you are uncomfortable with using a needle yourself and don’t want to have to go back to the doctor’s office the next day for an injection, this is a good option,” Chen says.

There are additionally shorter-acting G-CSF drugs that want a number of injections between doses of chemotherapy.

“Those have mostly fallen out of favor with the availability of longer-acting medications that only require one shot,” Pappacena says. “But some patients might have more severe side effects with the longer-acting agents, and for them we might try the shorter-acting drugs.”

The commonest unintended effects of G-CSFs are normally bone and muscle ache and a gentle fever. “Usually, these can be managed by taking a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or even an over-the-counter anti-allergy medication,” Chen says.

Why Breast Cancer Neutropenia Happens

Chemo is robust drugs that doesn’t simply have an effect on your most cancers.

“Chemotherapy works against cancer cells because it is designed to kill cells that are rapidly dividing, like cancer cells,” Chen says. “But some of the healthy cells in your body also divide quickly, including white blood cells called neutrophils that are very important in the body’s defense against infection.”

When micro organism or viruses enter your physique, “neutrophils are among the first cells to respond, quickly dividing to mount an immune response,” Chen says. “So they’re very vulnerable to medications that kill rapidly dividing cells.”

Just do not forget that it’s to be anticipated with chemo. “Neutropenia tends to follow a pretty typical pattern, and your doctor will know how to manage it,” Chen says.

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Bill Sylvester has identified most of his life that his coronary heart may someday give him hassle. His household’s historical past of coronary heart illness goes again at the least three generations. His mom, three uncles, and two grandparents all died of the sickness earlier than age 65.

Sylvester, a 63-year-old customized baseball bat maker in Big Bear, CA, did every little thing he may to outsmart his genes. He didn’t smoke or drink. He exercised and ate a low-fat food regimen.

But ultimately, Sylvester observed heartburn-like signs in his chest, particularly on uphill walks together with his spouse and canines. Over time, it unfold to his neck and arms. In 2015, medical doctors found three partially-blocked arteries and recognized him with coronary artery illness.

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

Coronary artery illness is the commonest sort of coronary heart illness. With this situation, sticky plaque builds up in your arteries and may trigger chest ache, shortness of breath, and even a coronary heart assault. Some individuals react to the prognosis with panic, anger, or numbness, says Naomi Torres-Mackie, PhD, a scientific psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and head of analysis at The Mental Health Coalition.

Still others “go into overdrive mode and dive headfirst into their concerns, working day and night to address it at the expense of their own rest and well-being,” she says.

Sylvester had lived in worry of a coronary heart assault since he was a youngster. That worry escalated when a good friend died of a coronary heart assault in the course of a motorbike journey.

“He was sort of like me. He didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink, he exercised, his weight was good.” Sylvester thought he, too, would possibly die a sudden dying.

Sylvester’s nervousness just isn’t uncommon. About 1 in 3 individuals with coronary heart illness have melancholy and nervousness. Poor psychological well being in flip makes it more durable to heal from coronary heart illness.

It helps to be as form to your self as you’d a good friend. Give your self the identical pep speak, help, and encouragement you’d supply your family members. 

Sometimes you could want skilled assist in case your unhappiness, anger, nervousness, or different feelings linger greater than a few weeks, or in case you’ve had ideas of suicide.

How to Manage Your Emotions

Ironically, Sylvester lastly gained reduction from his fixed fear a couple of sudden deadly coronary heart assault when his physician confirmed that he actually had coronary artery illness.

The prognosis, he says, means “I no longer live year after year wondering if I have heart disease or if I am suddenly going to drop dead from a heart attack.”

Once you come to phrases along with your sickness, it could assist to speak in confidence to shut household and buddies. If you wish to hold your CAD prognosis personal, that’s OK. But sharing the information with others offers them an opportunity to supply worthwhile help.

You can also join with a neighborhood, both on-line or in individual, of people that perceive precisely what you’re going by way of. Look for help teams that target coronary artery illness particularly or coronary heart illness usually. You’ll discover them on social media or by way of organizations such because the American Heart Association. Find a gaggle that helps ease your nervousness and to study new therapies and different helpful data.

A counselor can even enable you to course of your emotions about this new prognosis. One examine discovered that for 1 in 3 individuals who throughout their cardiac rehab additionally had a kind of remedy referred to as metacognitive remedy, which helps you management unfavorable ideas, noticed their nervousness and melancholy enhance for as much as a yr.

Finally, deal with your self each mentally and bodily. And keep in mind the components of your life past your coronary heart hassle.

“Take time to tend to these other parts of yourself so that it doesn’t feel like your diagnosis or medical condition becomes your entire life,” Torres-Mackie says. “This might be a scary new chapter, but you’re still the person you were before the diagnosis.”

For Sylvester, studying as a lot as he may about his illness helped buffer him from the emotional toll of residing with a severe situation.

“It’s a lot less stress and anxiety knowing what my condition is and knowing that the artery is now open again with the help of a stent and that I can resume normal activities,” he says.

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