Weekly ArticlesHere are some interesting articles about subjects such as headaches, stress, snoring problems, and sleeping, to offer even more enlightening information. this articles will be updated weekly, enjoy! Date: 07/26/2008 ‘Food Clock’ May Override Master Sleep Clock in Times of Duress
New animal research suggests the body's biological clock, which regulates sleep cycles based on the rise and fall of the sun, can be overridden in extreme situations by an internal “food clock.” The finding is based on work with mice and has not yet been tested among humans.
But early indications are that, when faced with starvation, the animals automatically adjust their wake-sleep schedule to adapt to the best time to access food.
“In the wild, where starvation is a common threat, this must have evolved as a way for animals to lock onto a new food source, when necessary, to avoid starvation,” said study author Dr. Clifford Saper, chairman of the department of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Saper and his team reported the findings in the May 23 issue of Science. They noted that for animals and humans alike, the body's main clock is centered among a group of cells in the brain's hypothalamus region.
Referred to as the “suprachiasmatic nucleus”, this circadian clock is triggered by visual cues gleaned from the light-dark cycle. Such signals, in turn, activate cells that regulate sleep-wake cycles.
The authors speculated, however, that this standard “master” system could be overridden in situations of extreme duress - such as starvation.
To test this theory and locate a possible “food clock,” the researchers focused on mice genetically altered to lack a gene integral to the master biological clock.
After implanting the mice with transmitters to record body temperature and movement within plastic cages regulated for light and temperature, Saper and his colleagues then restored full light-clock function only to isolated parts of each mouse's brain throughout a rotating series of food deprivation experiments.
Successive two-week long tests were conducted in the context of both a normal light-dark cycle and then a constantly dark setting. The result: The researchers uncovered the existence of a “feeding clock.”
This clock, they noted, kicked into gear and effectively overrode the main light clock after just a single cycle of starvation followed by a re-feeding.
The food clock, they concluded, actually hijacked the mouse's circadian rhythms and shifted its sleep-wake cycle to accommodate the need to be awake when food became readily available - irrespective of the animal's light environment.
Among other things, the discovery of an animal food clock could theoretically lead to an improved method for dealing with jet lag among frequent travelers.
For example, Saper pointed out that while a time zone shift of 11 hours typically burdens our master light-dark clock with a week of difficult jetlag adjustment - resetting just in time for the trip back home - careful manipulation of a food clock could potentially render the shift painless and immediate.
“The punch line for humans is that this second clock may be a way for us to control our biological rhythms in shift work or when we travel,” he observed. “In other words, it is possible that by fasting during a trip to Japan, then eating a hearty meal when you get there, you may be able to reset your clock much more quickly to the new time.”
Ralph Downey III, chief of sleep medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital in California, described the research as thorough and interesting.
“It provides valuable insight into other possible clocks that time our behavior and time our sleep,” he noted. “And it provides a little more complexity to our biology in terms of why we do things when we do them.
So, we can see that there's a master clock, but interconnected with that clock are other clocks - other spinning wheels. And while under normal circumstances the master clock works nicely, in extreme situations, the master clock can be overridden, which is a very adaptive thing that makes a lot of sense from an evolutionary perspective.”
While equally intrigued, Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, director of the Stanford University Center for Narcolepsy, cautioned that the current research with animals still needs to be replicated in humans.
“However, this work opens up the idea that while there certainly is a central light clock, and clearly light does 90 percent of the regulatory job, other factors may come into play,” he said. “In fact,” Mignot added, “I would say that in most cells in your body, you have a clock, and most of the time, these clocks talk to each other.
Because the body is always prepared to anticipate different changes that should happen at certain times of the day.
So, I wouldn't be surprise if there's a clock in your skin to anticipate light in the day, and a clock in your kidneys, so you are prepared to go the restroom. It's not just about being tired. It's pretty much every function that's regulated by the time of the day.”
Date: 07/19/2008 Teenage stress: a social problem Nguyen Van Tho
Nguyen Anh T., who is in the eighth-grade, lives with his parents and a younger sister. His family is stable, yet he often feels tired, angry and does not want to go to school.
At primary school, T. was a good student, but his performance has suffered since he started secondary school two years ago and his mother gave birth to his little sister. He said the move to the new school made him feel tense and bored as he could not socialize with new friends and teachers.
The new addition to the family brought up feelings of abandonment. T. became more worried and nervous and the stress has prolonged until now.
T. is just one among an increasing number of teenagers who suffer from anxiety due to pressure from study, relationships with teachers, friends and family.
Good environment Vietnamese students are often crammed with too much knowledge from long school hours and extra-classes. Stress levels peak during examination periods. Some feel bored and worried because they cannot answer teachers’ questions, or they have conflicts with friends.
Teenagers also have to cope with pressure from society and parents desires for good grades and careers. This adds to their own worries about their future and success. Hai A., 19, for instance, often feels nervous, worried and even has insomnia, making her tired and hot-tempered.
She is studying for her university entrance exam for the second time. She failed the exam last year, while most of her friends passed it. This plus her family’s expectations has made her nervous.
Her mother, meanwhile, often cites her friends who have passed the exam as examples, putting more pressure on A. It is not unusual for A. to study day and night without rest; all of which has led to her current condition.
Psychologists, teachers and parents should help teenagers understand that there is no need to be too worried about poor performance or being unable to answer a question. Students need to know that teachers only want students to be more active in class and will help them correct their mistakes.
School administrators and teachers should be mindful not to overload the curriculum and establish a good environment for students.
Adequate instructions Conflicts in the home are a common cause of emotional distress for young people. Hoang Minh H., 20, is studying medicine at a college in southern Dong Nai Province. She often has thoughts of suicide and has symptoms like insomnia, loss of appetite and tension.
She has been diagnosed with stress. Born in an underprivileged family, H. often sees arguments and fights between her parents. Her father is an alcoholic and would have preferred a son rather than his daughter. Her mother is short-tempered and too busy to talk to H. Differences in psychology and age always exists among family members. Teenagers feel uncomfortable in the home with family members whose characteristics, hobbies and habits are not compatible.
They, for example, may become angry just because someone is using the rest room or television too long. Another pressure is parents’ expectations. They often expect their children to do too much and set standards that are too high.
This sometimes conflicts with the children, who want to be themselves and demand a little self-indulgence. They are faced with a dilemma as they don’t want to neither obey nor disobey their parents rules and arrangements.
Children first should be taught how to accept that everyone is different. The point is that they need to ignore trivial differences to avoid unnecessary family conflicts.
Making concessions to other members does not mean teenagers are weak; on the contrary they are strong enough to give way to others. Regarding rules and arrangements, parents should discuss these with their children to reach a better understanding of each other.
Teenagers, meanwhile, should accept the rules of their family, to avoid the chaos that ensues when everybody does what they want. They should recognize the rules as a sign of family love instead of getting angry with them.
Date: 07/12/2008 Sleep Helps Curb Cravings Diana Walker
There are several separate studies that point to a connection between important hormones and proper sleep. You can increase your fat burning capabilities and reduce your cravings by getting enough sleep.
Two specific hormones are linked to both eating habits and sleep. Ghrelin is in charge of telling your body that it is hungry, and Leptin tells your body when to stop eating. When these hormones are in balance, you’ll feel hungry when you should and stop before you are entirely full.
However, if these hormones are unbalanced, you can imagine the kind of chaos it can cause in your system. You’ll feel hungry even if your body has no need for food, and you’ll overeat as well.
To make matters worse, people who are tired will normally reach for “stimulating” foods full of calories, sugar and fat. This is literally a recipe for disaster. Lack of sleep reduces the levels of leptin in your body, which makes you crave carbohydrates.
On top of that, going without sleep interrupts your body’s ability to use carbohydrates properly. This raises the levels of glucose in your body, which produces higher insulin levels and increased body-fat storage.
The bad news doesn’t end there. Sleep deprivation reduces the growth hormone as well. Growth hormone is a protein that helps your body balance fat and muscle. Without it, your body may be storing more fat than necessary.
When you have higher fat levels, you’ll crave more high fat and high calorie foods to maintain that fat level. Sleep also has an impact on your cortisol levels, which can affect your weight. Cortisol is the stress hormone and can cause you to feel hungry even when you aren’t.
When you go without sleep, you are putting your body into a state of unnatural stress. This increases cortisol levels and increases hunger at the same time. If you’ve been trying to lose weight, or even just eat better, you may have been puzzled why cravings keep coming back
When you take a look at all of the problems associated with not getting enough sleep, the solution becomes clear: sleep more. Studies also show that just a slight reduction in your amount of sleep can have a drastic impact on your body.
With just a few hours shaved off a normal night of sleep each night for a week, there’s a loss in the ability to process glucose. Insulin levels also get raised to the point where you may enter a pre-diabetic state. Sleeping enough each night is vital to reducing your cravings.
If you normally sleep less than you should, then you should gradually increase the amount of sleep that you get each day. It can be hard to go from sleeping 5 hours a night to a full 8. Try adding an hour to your sleep schedule each week.
You’ll reduce your cravings for food and help your body work properly. Date: 07/05/2008 Sleep Deprivation Shuts Down Your Brain
He found that the brain literally shuts down for a few seconds as a result of sleep deprivation. Okay one minute -- shut down the next.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Dinges identified several areas of the brain that "frequently faltered" in the sleepy subjects, but not in those who had enough rest. "Imagine you are sitting in a room watching a movie with the lights on," he said.
"In a stable brain, the lights stay on all the time. In a sleepy brain, the lights suddenly go off." Dinges noted that the sleepy person switches back and forth between complete wakefulness and sudden brain shutdown.
You've probably experienced this phenomenon if you've ever been in a conversation with someone who seemed perfectly coherent until he nodded off mid-sentence, only to fade back in a few seconds later and pick up where he left off.
Or, perhaps you've found yourself nodding off at the wheel of your car when just seconds earlier you felt alert. And that's the issue that has the researchers concerned -- the fact that brain fade-outs can compromise safety. In fact, the report, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, specifically expressed concern about people who drive when exhausted, noting that a four-second brain lapse could spell disaster.
Certainly, it is scary to consider that those commuters zooming past you on the highway might be sleep-deprived. But it's equally scary to realize that some of the professionals whom you entrust with your well-being -- doctors and nurses, for example -- routinely pull all-nighters.
It's hardly news that medical residents work long hours. A 2005 study by Brown University and the University of Michigan found that doctors on "heavy duty," with an average of only 3.5 hours of sleep, functioned at the same level as if they had consumed three to four vodka cocktails.
Earlier concerns about impaired functioning in sleepy residents led the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to set a new policy limiting residents to an 80-hour work week -- which, as we just learned from the latest study, won't help much.
It's incredible to think that an 80-hour cap on hours worked per week represents a big cutback. And even with the new regulations, the fine print leaves plenty of room for trouble. The 80-hour limit can be averaged out over four weeks, so residents might have a 100-hour shift one week, and a mere 60-hours the next.
Plus, the new standards prohibit working more than 30 hours non-stop in one shift -- but a 30 hour shift, by definition, requires an all-nighter, and that means your doctor might be performing medical procedures while in a drunken-like stupor, fading in and out of consciousness.
Not comforting, is it? And the long hours put in by doctors are just the tip of the iceberg in the medical community.
According to the International Council of Nurses, "In a large number of hospitals nurses report the existence of a documented policy that imposes mandatory overtime."
A study by the University of Pennsylvania Medical School found that 81 percent of nurses aren't able to leave work at the scheduled time. Because of the nursing shortage, twelve-hour shifts are becoming the norm, and many nurses routinely work double shifts.
This spells trouble for both nurse and patient safety. A study last year published in Medical News Today found that about 67 percent of the nurses reported at least one episode of drowsy driving after working overtime.
This same study found a strong link between working long hours and making medical errors such as delivering the wrong medication or writing wrong information in a patient chart.
At least in some places, nurses are getting fed up. A few weeks ago, the nursing staff at a Veteran's Administration facility in Illinois staged a protest in response to a contractual requirement that they work overtime.
Certainly, the long hours put patients at risk. As the executive director of the Illinois area nurse's union, Henry Bayer, said, "An exhausted worker is a safety hazard waiting to happen. A lot of the accidents that happen are when they are on overtime."
No wonder so many patients go into the hospital only mildly ill and never come out. No wonder the statistics are off the charts for prescribing errors.
The upshot is that you'd be well advised to get plenty of sleep yourself in order to keep yourself healthy and out of the hospital, where dozy nurses and drowsy doctors abound, with their brains flickering on and off...like the lights in a prison during an execution by electric chair. Date: 06/28/2008 Sleep Apnea Puts People at Risk for Heart Trouble while Flying People suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to experience higher psychological stress and therefore heart problems during air travel, new research shows. Obstructive
sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway,
usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat
collapses and closes during sleep. Actually, the Greek world
“apnea” literally means “without.” According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep apnea is very common, affecting more than twelve million Americans. Risk factors include being male, overweight and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children.
Worrisome
is the fact that around 80 percent of men and 93 percent of
women with sleep apnea are unaware they have this disorder,
despite the fact that it can have significant
consequences. Untreated,
sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other
cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain,
impotency, and headaches. Now a
new study by Australian researchers, called “Effects of
Commercial Flight Simulation in Patients with Obstructive
Sleep Apnea” showed that sleep apnea endangers peoples’
lives during air travel. Lead
author Leigh Seccombe, MSc, of Concord Repatriation General
Hospital in Sydney and colleagues investigated the
physiological response of 22 patients with severe OSA and
without lung disease, to a simulation of an aircraft cabin
and compared the results to that of 10 healthy
subjects. More
exactly, the researchers looked at the participants’
ventilatory response and at the amount of oxygen circulating
in their bloodstream during the simulation. The
study found that people with OSA had lower levels of oxygen
in their blood before and during the simulated flight. Also,
these people experienced higher heart rates, physiological
stress and demand for oxygen than healthy people. "Patients
with OSA, without lung disease, are more likely to develop
significant hypoxemia [low blood oxygen] and have increased
oxygen demands during flight,” the study
concluded. Seccombe
noted that if the results of this study are typical “half of
the patients with obstructive sleep apnea would require
supplemental oxygen in-flight [for those with lung disease]
are strictly followed.” She also
said that she and her colleagues decided to look at this
issue, as obesity is in a continuous raise among Americans,
thus boosting the number of people with OSA. “We
addressed obstructive sleep apnea because it is becoming so
much more common as obesity increases and there are greater
numbers of obese passengers on commercial flights,” Seccombe
said, as quoted by the New York Times. The findings of the study were presented on Sunday, May 18th, at the American Thoracic Society’s 2008 International Conference in Toronto. 06/21/2008
One woman woke up with a paintbrush in her hand, having painted her front door in her sleep. People have set fire to their kitchens while trying to cook, cursed their bosses on the phone and crashed their cars into trees -- all in a sleeping-pill-induced haze and with no memory afterward.
A flurry of such cases prompted the Food and Drug Administration last year to require that Ambien, Lunesta and other "sedative-hypnotic" drugs carry strong warnings. But that scarcely damped enthusiasm.
U.S. sleep-aid prescriptions grew 10 percent last year, according to IMS Health, thanks in part to generic Ambien.
Now, an analysis of adverse-event reports filed with the World Health Organization suggests that some side effects of this generation of sleep medication, which made their debut in the 1990s, may be nearly as problematic as the older generation, including Halcion, which was banned in some countries.
Through March 2007, the WHO's international drug-monitoring center received 867 reports from 24 countries of people encountering amnesia, often coupled with confusion, agitation and other behavior disturbances, while taking the newer sleeping aids, called nonbenzodiazepines (NBZs).
That compares with 1,032 such reports with the older class of benzodiazepines (BZs), even though they have been on the market for decades longer.
"The older pills are much more likely to cause daytime sedation, addiction and withdrawal symptoms," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, chief of biological psychiatry at Duke University Medical School and the lead author of the study, presented Monday at the American Psychiatric Association conference in Washington.
But, he says, the reports of amnesia and erratic behavior appear to be similar with both kinds of drugs. "We still don't have a good handle on how common these events are -- some people may be particularly vulnerable," he says.
A spokeswoman for Sanofi-Aventis, which makes Ambien, the leading brand-name NBZ, says the company cannot comment since it hadn't seen the report. She adds that somnambulism occurred in less than 1 in 1,000 patients in clinical trials, and wasn't necessarily caused by the medication.
Doctors aren't certain what prompts some people to eat, walk, make phone calls or get behind the wheel in their sleep.
But some speculate that sleep drugs may act on brain circuits unevenly, leaving the parts that govern automatic behaviors running while shutting down the centers of judgment. "It's like the parents are away and now the little kids can do whatever they want to," says Dr. Doraiswamy.
As with most dreams, the events aren't stored in the brain's memory circuits, hence the amnesia. Psychiatrist Carlos Schenck at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center has studied some 40 cases of Sleep-Related Eating Disorder, and found that it's more common in women than men, and often accompanies a mood disorder.
Some patients have consumed inedibles like buttered cigarettes and woken up gasping for air with their mouths full of peanut butter, a sleep-eating favorite. Experts all recommend trying nondrug means to combat insomnia -- such as exercise, stress reduction and avoiding caffeine.
But if you must resort to pills, there are ways to minimize the risks:
Get into bed immediately. Sleeping pills can work in 10 or 15 minutes. Never take more than the maximum dose. Never mix sleeping pills with alcohol. And never take them if you're planning to drive.
"We've had some cases where people are leaving a party and they're afraid they're going to have insomnia, so they take one before they get in the car," says Mark Mahowald, medical director of the Minnesota sleep center.
He also cautions against taking a sleep aid if you're the sole caregiver for a child or are expecting a phone call. In fact, a ringing phone may trigger a sleepwalking event, so unplug it if possible. Stash your car keys in an unusual spot, suggests William C. Head, an Atlanta attorney who has defended sleeping-pill users who went on unplanned drives.
06/12/2008 Air Travel Taxes Hearts of People with Sleep Apnea By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter
When it occurs, people can't get enough air through their mouth or nose, and the levels of oxygen in the blood may drop. "Falls in oxygen in flight are important but may not be the only important change that occurs," said lead researcher Leigh Seccombe, a senior scientist in the Department of Thoracic Medicine at Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney.
"They may not be the only factor separating normal subjects from those with obstructive sleep apnea." People with obstructive sleep apnea clearly have increased metabolic demands during air travel, Seccombe said.
"For many who have heart or other vascular disease, this may place them at increased risk of cardiac events such as heart attack or arrhythmia, but the extent of that risk is uncertain," she said. Seccombe said the researchers performed the study, because obstructive sleep apnea is becoming much more common as obesity increases.
The findings were expected to be presented Sunday at the American Thoracic Society's 2008 International Conference, in Toronto. For the study, Seccombe's team compared oxygen levels and breathing patterns in healthy people and 22 people with severe obstructive sleep apnea during a simulated flight.
The simulator replicated the oxygen and pressure levels found in the passenger cabin during commercial airline flights. The researchers found that people with obstructive sleep apnea had lower levels of oxygen in their blood before and during the simulated flight.
They also found that those with obstructive sleep apnea increased their breathing intensity at about the same rate as healthy people during the simulation. However, while it's normal for the rate of breathing to increase as air pressure falls, people with obstructive sleep apnea experienced higher heart rates and more demand for oxygen, compared with healthy people, the researchers found.
"Half of the patients with obstructive sleep apnea would require supplemental oxygen in-flight if current guidelines for those with lung disease were strictly followed if these results are typical," Seccombe said. "In patients with obstructive sleep apnea or other cardiac or vascular disease, it might be wise to have a lower threshold for giving supplemental oxygen until more results are available."
Dr. Ronald D. Chervin, who's with the Michael S. Aldrich Sleep Disorders Laboratory at the University of Michigan, said he agreed that people with obstructive sleep apnea have a greater risk for heart problems during long airline flights, though there has been little research on the topic.
"I suspect that part of the problem may arise from co-morbid conditions, and especially obesity, which can compromise ventilation and perhaps account for some of the investigators' findings of differences between groups," Chervin said. 06/05/2008 A Sleeping Disorder can Lead to Bigger Problems Robert Kokoska
It is estimated that
almost 80 million Americans and 20 million Europeans suffer
from acute sleep disorders, characterized by
If you can´t sleep long enough to get a good rest or if you experience a poor quality or inadequate sleep pattern, then you´re suffering from Insomnia or "no sleep" symptoms.
The loss occurring due to direct and indirect insomnia is estimated at about $50 billion, and such a heavy loss can not simply matched by the emotional trauma being faced by the person with acute sleep disorders.
For a long time,
Insomnia was perceived to be a symptom and not a disease or
a disorder, but as the more advanced evidences suggest,
Insomnia appears to be much more than just a sleep
disorder.
Insomnia may also
occur as an inherited genetic trait or due to some illness;
however, new facts suggest us that Insomnia often manifests
as a result of many combinations of physiological and
environmental parameters.
Such low intensity Insomnia is easily treatable and often lasts one or two months. On the other hand, longer term or Chronic Insomnia is often very serious and may occur as a result of a combination of various parameters, which are medical, physical and/or psychological.
Treating chronic insomnia is often very difficult and usually depends on a combination of medications, education on behavioral and cognitive techniques. Sleep disorders of a serious nature are also assumed to be precursors of future onset of depression.
Sleep disorders could be damaging to your health and personal life, due to its hidden effects as it can impair the whole body mechanism.
Consequences of not getting enough good sleep can be very serious, and include daytime tiredness, bad mood, low level depression, psychological distress, and difficulty in concentrating, as well as being at increased risk for physical injury, and permanent illness.
Though there is
several sleep disorder medication available, a definite
treatment method can only be prescribe after a detailed
medical diagnosis. Most common treatments include
medication, behavioral and cognitive therapy and relaxation
training.
Cognitive therapies
are prescribed in case of severe cases of Insomnia and
include manipulation of attitudes and beliefs that may/will
contribute to poor sleep. Sleep disorders of extremely
chronic nature, usually take a long time to cure and needs
active participation from the patient. 05/27/2008 Kids need good sleep Dr RK Anand
This is typically seen in sleep-deprived individuals who lapse into several seconds of daytime drowsiness resulting in inattention in school and while driving.
How much sleep is
enough?
about 14 hours between three and 12 months (11 hours at night and three hours in two naps during the day); 12 to 14 hours between one and three years (one nap for two hours);
11 to 12 hours between three and six years (no nap by age of five years); 10 hours between six and 12 years and nine hours after 12 years.
For parents, an occasional late night is allowed, but they must get enough sleep too. Parents who follow the dictum of ‘early to bed, early to rise’ set the right tone for healthy living. Children must be helped to go to bed early. Do set an example for this healthy habit.
Once you get used to the freshness of the early morning, you will never want to miss it. Although it is ideal that a child goes to bed early, this routine may have to be changed occasionally if the father comes home from work late in the evening and leaves early in the morning.
In such a case, one may have to consider making the child sleep during the day. For healthy sleep habits:
To introduce the concept of gratitude, his mother Anshu used to say the following common prayer before Armaan went to bed: “Thank you God for the world so sweet,Thank you God for the food we eat,Thank you God for the birds that sing,Thank you God for everything!”
05/20/2008 How to Manage Your Hormone Headaches
Mary K. Betz
All too often many women will have an odd response when asked if they have headaches. “No I don’t have headaches, just my normal monthly one.” Well I am here to tell you that headaches are not normal, monthly or otherwise.
Headaches that occur monthly during the menstrual cycle are menstrual migraines. Menstrual migraine is due to the increasing and decreasing levels of estrogen in the brain during this time.
Women have up to five (!) estrogen receptor sites in the brain and with all of them busy binding and unbinding estrogen, well this creates one heck of a headache. Many female migraineurs say that this headache can be the worst headache they have ever had.
Like other migraines the headache symptoms are pounding, throbbing pain, sensitivity to light and sound and nausea. Unlike other migraines the symptoms are all magnified to the point where the headache may be disabling.
Not only is she nauseated, but vomiting may also occur. Menstrual migraine is now taken seriously by the medical profession unlike years ago when most women were told “It’s all in your head”. No kidding.
This type of migraine is now being studied with its own
research and much is being learned, especially on how to manage
these headaches. OK, now what? Well there are some new options
on how to manage these migraines.
Again, new research points to increasing the dose slightly
during the menstrual week to ease the headache and then
reducing the regular level after the menses is over.
05/08/2008 Disabling migraines demand attention
"I keep thinking, if I could take a stick and jab it into my eye socket, I could knock out the place where the migraines live," said Cox, who lives in Stafford County. Although extremely painful, migraines are not uncommon.
According to the National Headache Foundation, 30 million Americans experience migraines. Women are hit with the severe headaches three times as often as men. Most migraine sufferers are between the ages of 15 and 55.
In some cases, the cranium-crushers disable their victims for hours or even days, spawning such side effects as nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
While the hit-with-a-baseball-bat kind of pain can make a migraine sufferer wonder if the condition is life-threatening, that is hardly ever the case, said Fredericksburg neurologist Paul Colopy of Neurology Associates.
"Statistics show that only a very small fraction of persons have a structural-lining abnormality, tumor or aneurysm," Colopy said. What migraine victims do have is debilitating head pain that keeps them from working, taking care of their loved ones and enjoying life.
The Origins of Pain
Migraines result when the balance of adrenalin and seratonin--which regulates body temperature, mood, sleep and appetite--are out of balance, says Carol Foster, a Phoenix-based neurologist and author of "Gotta Headache? Lifestyle Changes to Help You Conquer Migraines." Some things that can trigger an episode are:
¨ Hunger, exhaustion or dehydration ¨ The weather ¨ A change in routine ¨ Bright light ¨ Smells such as cigarette smoke or perfume.
Twenty-two-year-old Amanda Sale's headaches started when she was in middle school. Back then, she had no idea they were migraines. "I thought it was a normal headache and that everyone had them," said the Spotsylvania County resident.
Exercise and Virginia's heat and humidity set off the pounding in Sale's head. "In the summer, I get migraines every single day of the week," she said.
Cox, of Stafford, said her migraines are triggered by hormones, routinely arriving two to three days before the start of her menstrual cycle. For Amanda Reynolds, the culprit is stress.
When the Spotsylvania resident recently discovered that 700 pictures on her digital camera's memory card were erased, a killer headache immediately set in. "The whole hour I spent trying to get them back, it got worse and worse," Reynolds said. "By the time I stood up, I was dizzy and ready to fall over." 04/28/2008 Disabling migraines demand attention BY MARCIA ARMSTRONG FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR
Tracey Cox knows when she's about to have a
migraine.
First comes the aura. Then an odd feeling of disconnectedness. Very soon after that, a blinding, wish-you-were-dead headache takes up residence somewhere between Cox's ear and her eye.
"I keep thinking, if I could take a stick and jab it into my eye socket, I could knock out the place where the migraines live," said Cox, who lives in Stafford County.
Although extremely painful, migraines are not uncommon. According to the National Headache Foundation, 30 million Americans experience migraines. Women are hit with the severe headaches three times as often as men. Most migraine sufferers are between the ages of 15 and 55.
In some cases, the cranium-crushers disable their victims for hours or even days, spawning such side effects as nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. While the hit-with-a-baseball-bat kind of pain can make a migraine sufferer wonder if the condition is life-threatening, that is hardly ever the case, said Fredericksburg neurologist Paul Colopy of Neurology Associates.
"Statistics show that only a very small fraction of persons have a structural-lining abnormality, tumor or aneurysm," Colopy said. What migraine victims do have is debilitating head pain that keeps them from working, taking care of their loved ones and enjoying life.
THE ORIGINS OF PAIN Migraines result when the balance of adrenalin and seratonin--which regulates body temperature, mood, sleep and appetite--are out of balance, says Carol Foster, a Phoenix-based neurologist and author of "Gotta Headache? Lifestyle Changes to Help You Conquer Migraines."
Some things that can trigger an episode are:
hunger, exhaustion or dehydration the weather a change in routine bright light smells such as cigarette smoke or perfume.
Twenty-two-year-old Amanda Sale's headaches started when she was in middle school. Back then, she had no idea they were migraines. "I thought it was a normal headache and that everyone had them," said the Spotsylvania County resident. Exercise and Virginia's heat and humidity set off the pounding in Sale's head.
"In the summer, I get migraines every single day of the week," she said. Cox, of Stafford, said her migraines are triggered by hormones, routinely arriving two to three days before the start of her menstrual cycle.
For Amanda Reynolds, the culprit is stress. When the Spotsylvania resident recently discovered that 700 pictures on her digital camera's memory card were erased, a killer headache immediately set in. "The whole hour I spent trying to get them back, it got worse and worse," Reynolds said. "By the time I stood up, I was dizzy and ready to fall over." | ||||||
|
Stress has become a major issue for
teenagers, warns Nguyen Van Tho, Director of the National
Psychiatric Hospital II in the southern town of Bien
Hoa.
Your key to solving the cravings problem may
lie in taking a quick nap. Recent studies show that the
link between sleep deprivation and weight gain may be
greater than previously thought.
Some people seem able to function after
pulling all-nighters, but a new study shows that they're
probably not 100-percent "there." Researcher David Dinges
of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
followed 24 adults after normal rest, and then again after
they missed a night of sleep.
Flying on commercial flights may put people
who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea at greater risk of
cardiac stress, Australian researchers report. Sleep apnea
is a common condition in which breathing stops or becomes
very shallow.
inadequate or poor quality sleep. No matter
how hard these people try, they simply can´t get enough
sleep!
Inadequate and poor sleep can lead to
scholastic backwardness, ill health, tiredness,
depression, irritability, aggression and danger to life.
Studies on sleep-deprivation indicate that even if a
teenager is not drunk, he may endanger his own life and
that of others, because of ‘micro-sleeps’ while
driving.
Tracey Cox knows when she's about to have a
migraine. First comes the aura. Then an odd feeling of
disconnectedness. Very soon after that, a blinding,
wish-you-were-dead headache takes up residence somewhere
between Cox's ear and her eye.
