Physical Therapy Rehabilitation

The abuse of prescription pain medications is at an all-time high. A recent White House study reported a 400 percent increase in the number of people admitted to treatment centers and emergency rooms for abusing prescription pain drugs. The increase was tracked during the 10-year-period from 1998 to 2008 and it spans every gender, race, education and employment level, and all regions of the country. A government representative from the Substance Abuse program said, “The non-medical use of prescription pain relievers is now the second-most prevalent form of illicit drug use in the Nation”

A battle has been raging for some time between potent natural remedies and addictive drugs and medicines. This is mostly due to the lack of easily understood knowledge about which natural options have been proven effective. In 400 B.C. the “Father of Medicine” Hippocrates said to his students “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”. Mother Nature has provided us with two natural remedies for pain and insomnia that are backed by scientific studies as well as the test of time – calcium and magnesium.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) fact sheet on magnesium says that the mineral is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, and supports a healthy immune system. Calcium is needed to form bones and teeth and is also required for blood clotting. It helps lower colon cancer risk, helps control high blood pressure, and acts as an effective insomnia remedy.

Headaches are a common source of pain. Studies have shown that people with migraine headaches have low concentrations of magnesium in their body. The word “cephalalgia” literally means head pain or headache. In a German study of eighty-one migraine patients published in the journal Cephalalgia, 42 percent of the people taking oral magnesium reduced both the duration and intensity of their migraine attacks. They also reduced their reliance on medications to control migraines.

Adelle Davis was one of the first nutritionists to base her recommendations on scientific studies. In her book “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit” she says, “Calcium is a pain killer par excellence. One physician tells me that he uses no painkillers but injects calcium into the veins of patients suffering even excruciating pain and that relief occurs almost immediately.”

In a recent study of 497 women, calcium was shown to be an effective pain reliever. The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was called “Calcium Carbonate and the Premenstrual Syndrome: Effects on Premenstrual and Menstrual Symptoms.” Within two to three months, the women who were supplemented with 1200 mg of calcium daily, were able to reduce their pain symptoms by 54%, while the women not on calcium actually experienced an increase in pain.

In addition to pain relief, Adelle Davis also recommends calcium as an insomnia remedy. She says: “A calcium deficiency often shows itself by insomnia, another form of an inability to relax. The harm done by sleeping tablets, to say nothing of the thousands of dollars spent on them, could largely be avoided if the calcium intake were adequate.”

Regarding the use of nutritional remedies containing calcium and magnesium for relief of pain and remedying insomnia, certain formulas are more effective than others. The combination of minerals included and the presence of co-factors in the product are key. Formulas should contain a 2 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium. The original research on this recommended ratio appeared in 1935 in the Journal of Physiological Reviews and was made on the basis of long-term metabolic studies in men and women.

The war between natural remedies and toxic medications can be won in our very own medicine chests by keeping some powerful forms of calcium and magnesium nearby.

When most people are asked about their health, they only consider the physical side and usually declare themselves to be just fine. However, the truth is that health is much more than just about how the body is doing; there is also the mental aspect. The problem however is that most people don’t know how to recognize or deal with a mental disorder, and thus choose to ignore it?when in fact there are probably more mental illnesses and disorders than physical ones.

One of the most common mental disorders is depression, and it can pretty much affect any person, of any race, class, gender or social status. What exactly can be qualified as a depression? Well, the most popular definition is that it’s a certain mood in which the person affected is aversive to everything, having negative thoughts and feelings of loneliness, sadness and hopelessness. A lot of people heavily underestimate the effects of depression, seeing as how it can eventually lead the person on a downwards spiral to self-loathing and nihilism. This is where things start to get dangerous, as suicide starts to look more and more like a viable option to escape from this horrible world.

In most cases, there is a multitude of factors which led the person to a depressive state. Among all the factors, psychologists and researchers have noticed a recurring one: sleep. And so, for years now the government’s top medical researchers have been working on the connection between sleep and depression and they’ve yielded some interesting results.

As it turns out, most people who are depressed also have a lot of trouble sleeping. Now it has been known for a long time now that sleep is extremely important to every human being, as not only it keeps them sane, but it also keeps them from dying. But apart from that, sleep is a state in which the body needs to be for a certain amount of time every night in order to recover not only physically, but also mentally from the daily obstacles that had to be overcome. If a person is deprived of the sleep that they need, they are eventually going to start feeling week, tired, and eventually aversive to most things around them. As you can imagine, this can go on for years at a time, and you can probably imagine what being in that state of mind can do to a person?that is make them depressive.

To sum things up, keep in mind that there is a definite connection between sleep and depression, and getting the hours of sleep that you need will do its share to make you feel rejuvenated every morning. If you don’t want to resort to sleeping pills, there is a variety of natural remedies which are designed to provide their users with a good night’s sleep. However, you should also keep in mind that there are various other factors such as your physical health, sex life and your routine on which you are also going to have to work on if you hope to keep depression at bay.

Most of us know that sleeping often isn’t easy. With the plethora of remedies available on the internet, we scour the online market to stock up on sleeping pills, relaxation techniques and hypnotic videos in the pursuit of a better night’s rest. But perhaps the most prevalent new trend in the search for sleep, boasted by a growing barrage of retailers, is to make the switch to a memory foam mattress, in the hopes that it will aid with alignment, comfort and support as companies promise that it will.

So what is this new technology, exactly, and what does it do? Memory foam is made from visco-elastic polymers and is comprised of billions of small, open cells that expand and shrink in response to temperature and pressure. When you lie on a memory foam mattress, air flows slowly between these cells, giving them time to gently give to the contours of your body, distributing weight evenly across the mattress. This can reduce localised pressure, assist circulation and encourage a more comfortable sleep.

But the challenge with purchasing memory foam products – mattresses, toppers and pillows alike – is that quality and price do not always make choosing the right retailer an easy task.

One outstanding up-and-coming mattress manufacturers today is Clouds Memory Foam, who have had massive success across the UK and Europe. Just after their start in April 2011, Clouds’ smash hit discount voucher, for a 60% mark-down on their Super Deluxe Mattress, began a snowball of Clouds’ success in several countries.

Initially, however, Clouds was subject to some negative reviews from fearful customers who were afraid the Groupon deal could have been a scam. But after sorting through some early kinks in logistics, Clouds has prevailed with the high quality of their products. Clouds’ products are made from130mm of high resilience polyurethane RX33/120 base foam and 70mm of VC55 memory foam. All of their products are covered with a washable, advanced temperature controlling soft fabric, to battle the reputation that memory foam has for overheating sleepers in the night. The high resilience base layer of high density foam provides support and comfort while the cover encourages airflow and regulates temperature.

Cutting out overhead fees by making their bedding products to order and delivering them straight to their customers, Clouds Memory Foam has managed to uphold the quality of their bedding with a price that falls far below worthy competitors.

With their ever-enlarging customer base, Clouds is now expanding to the US and Canada, and is making a variety of luxury bedding necessities such as duvets, pillows, mattress toppers and beds. Such rapid growth, quality products and great pricing deals make Clouds Memory Foam a reliably strong competitor in the race to the perfect mattress.