An article appearing in the current issue of the British Medical Journal dispels half a dozen of the most often repeated winter related myths.

Both doctors and patients alike often accept these myths as true, and this brings the need to investigate these beliefs using the rigors of science.

A team from the Indiana University School of Medicine did an extensive review of medical literature as well as searching the internet to find any evidence for the most commonly held beliefs and discover the truth of the matter.

You Can Cure A Hangover
Drinking too much over the holidays, or any time of year, is thought to be cured by anything from aspirin or ibuprofen to bananas to drinking extra water.

Search the Internet, or talk with an older relative, and you’ll likely hear a few more oddball cures.

Sadly, the evidence doesn’t support any of these, despite the trials that have been done. Avoiding that hangover only comes from drinking in moderation, or not at all.

Eating Late Puts On Weight
Despite being told that you’ll put on weight if you eat late, this myth isn’t supported by the evidence.

A Swedish study found that obese women were more likely to eat at night, but their weight came from the fact that they also took in more calories overall.

Another study found that eating at night wasn’t an issue, but eating more than three meals a day or consuming more calories over the course of a day are the more likely culprits behind weight gain.

Sugar Leads To Hyperactivity
Parents can relax about the sugar in kids’ treats; research has shown it doesn’t cause hyperactive behavior.

At least a dozen randomized controlled trials looking at sugar levels and behavior didn’t find any difference because of higher sugar levels.

Parents also tend to rate their children as more hyper when thinking they had a sugar-laden drink, showing that belief is a big part of the picture.

Wearing Hats In the Cold
We’ve all been told that wearing a hat in the winter helps protect us from losing heat through our heads. Actually about 40-45% of heat is lost from the head, though a new study shows there’s nothing especially troublesome about losing heat from the head in the cold than any other part of the body.

Poinsettia Plants Are Toxic
They’re a staple of the holidays, and a beautiful addition, but many of us hold off on having one at home because of beliefs that the plants are toxic.

Research on rats couldn’t find a toxic level of the plant sap, and of the over 22,000 calls to poison control regarding the flowers in the U.S.; no one died or needed medical treatment.

These beautiful plants, while not the preferred snack for your pet, will deliver no more than a gastrointestinal upset, though you should try and keep plants out of reach if possible.

Continues below…

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Debunking Five Of The Medical Myths Of Winter… continued

Suicides Increase During The Holidays
It’s a stressful time highlighting family dysfunction or loneliness and there’s less sunlight during the day.

Still, there is no good evidence that supports a rise in suicide rates.

In fact the opposite is true, suicides around the world peak in warmer months and are lowest in the winter.There are many other medical myths that we all tend to believe, but as research progresses we will get information that points us in the direction of what really works.

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Sometimes a terrible choice has to be made, one medication over another, prescriptions or food… insanely expensive but still helpful medications that aren’t covered by insurance and may be out of reach.

Here the online health resource WebMD has come up with ten money saving ways to keep those prescription drug costs under control.

1) Consider Generics – Nothing says you must take the name brand medication; often generic drugs are just as effective options. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that heart disease patients often do just as well on the generic form of a medication as they do on the brand name variety.

2) Halving Higher Dose Pills - It’s an extra step on your part, you need to carefully break each tablet, but it can save you money in the long run, especially on medications you must take often. The thing is, both high and low doses of most medications cost the same – so you’re getting the benefit of a quantity pricing. Talk to your doctor about this first to ensure it’s a suitable option for you.

3) Higher Doses Taken Less Often – In some cases, a change in dosing schedule can save you money without impacting treatment. Rather than taking small doses twice a day, ask your doctor about a higher dose taken once daily.

4) Switching From Combo Medications – Separate pills can sometimes be less costly than the combination medications, so talk to your doctor if you’re having trouble paying for the medication. You may be surprised by the options open to you.

5) Shopping For The Best Prices – The cost of prescription drugs can vary from store to store, and are sometimes cheaper if you order by mail or online. Don’t be shy about asking for prices; just as you would any other item you buy. All chain drug stores are selling the same medications – it’s up to you how much you’ll pay in profits to the drug store.

6) Investigating Drug Company Assistance Programs - If you meet certain financial criteria, you may qualify for assistance from a drug manufacturer. There will probably be paperwork and phone calls, but the savings can make the effort well worth it.

7) Looking At Medicare Part D - if you’re 65 or older, or have Medicare as the result of a disability, you can change plans every year from November 15th to December 31st. Don’t do this without some investigation… talk with your pharmacist and take a look at your current plan to see if it’s still meeting your needs, if not, plan for a change.

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If you regularly buy over the counter drugs, don’t waste any more money.

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Ten Ways You Can Save On Prescription Drugs… continued

Storing Medications Correctly – Heat, moisture and darkness can affect the potency of a medication, which means don’t store your medications in the bathroom medicine cabinet. After spending so much to get a particular drug, you won’t want to find it impossible to take because of damage due to how it may have been stored.

9) Don’t Save Medications – Once your condition improves the temptation is to stop taking it and keep the rest around for the future – don’t! This can be dangerous, and end up hurting your health (far more costly than the few dollars) in the long run. Finish your prescribed medication (especially those antibiotics) and go back to the doctor if you feel ill again.

10) Beware Expensive Drug Promotions – Especially those one-time deals. Remember, the incredible deal you get as part of a promotion won’t be there when it’s time to refill the prescription. In the long run, you’ll pay more for the same drug.

It’s important to keep in mind that your doctor and pharmacist are here to help you find a prescription drug that you can afford and that will help your symptoms best. Work with them. Confide financial struggles and see what can be done for reducing prescription drug costs – after all, if you don’t ask, no one can help and things won’t get easier.

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These physicians are drawing on information that for a given medical condition, it’s not unusual for one-third of patients to feel better after being treated with a placebo.

If you believe you will get better, chances are, you will.

“Twenty to thirty percent of the benefit seen in rheumatism drug studies are due to the placebo effect. Real changes in health go along with the belief that patients will get better,” says researcher Jon C. Tilburt of the Mayo Clinic.

Thanks to today’s brain imagery techniques, the theory that thoughts and beliefs affect your psychological state, and cause the body to undergo real biological changes has been shown to be true.

Known to science as the ‘placebo effect’, this phenomenon has long been observed in clinical trials where patients who were taking an inactive compound reported real improvements, more improvement than patients getting no treatment at all.

Placebos can either be a pill made from inactive substances or a sham procedure meant to imitate the real one but with no specific therapeutic activity that a patient accepts as therapy.

Any subsequent therapeutic effect is based on the power of suggestion.

Using a placebo is a strategy if a physician is treating a problem that doesn’t have proven treatments.

Despite the drug companies’ best efforts, new medications take time to develop, test and get to market.

So many conditions aren’t fully understood, or show different symptoms in different people that you can see why treating a chronic problem can be a challenge for your doctor.

According to the American Medical Association, using a placebo without telling the patient undermines trust and compromises the relationship between doctor and patient.

The patient should know if a drug is a placebo, and should never be given a prescription just because they are seen as a difficult or demanding patient.

How do doctors explain a placebo to patients?

The AMA wants physicians to tell patients that placebos help better understand a condition by allowing them to try different medications.

Typically a practitioner will say something about using a medication that’s not often used for your problem, but might benefit you.

If you agree, the doctor doesn’t have to identify which medicine is a fake.

Continues below…

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Store Cupboard Remedies that Really Work…

If you regularly buy over the counter drugs, don’t waste any more money.

You can now easily treat any illness without side effects, using only natural herbs, vitamins and nutrients!

Charles Silverman N.D. Certified Naturopathic and Herbalist Doctor has taken his 18 years research and experience as a naturopathic doctor and condensed it into a home remedy encyclopeida of the most powerful, and more importantly proven, home remedies.

You can eliminate the Flu virus, boost your immune system, and recover faster from colds using these home remedies…

As well as sleep better, look younger and treat any skin problem with your own skin care home remedies and recipes.

Want to know more..? Just click through here
 

Fake Drugs, Real Benefits continued…

If you’re feeling a bit deceived by all of this, the doctors who follow this line of reasoning are quick to point out that they always have the best interest of the patient at heart.

Even so, it’s not surprising patients feel betrayed when they learn that they were given a placebo, a sensitive doctor can explain, “Just because the placebo worked doesn’t mean you’re crazy. You were in distress and thus more prone to reacting to anything with the potential to help.”

It goes to show that the suggestion from an authority figure like a doctor has the power to both heal or hurt.

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Once confined to patients in hospitals or the elderly living in long term care facilities, C. diff has now reached epidemic proportions in these settings. What’s more, virulent cases of C. diff have appeared in otherwise healthy adults, who hadn’t even been taking antibiotics, the usual culprit in these infections.

According to the CDC, the number of C difficile infections doubled between 1993 and 2003, with a sizeable increase coming after the year 2000. The more virulent strain was first identified at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2000, taking the lives of 18 patients.

By 2004, the new aggressive C. diff strain had been seen both in the United States and other nations of the world. Studies showed it produces 20 times more toxin than the older strains.

You’ll come across the little troublemaker everywhere – in the air, water, dirt and both human and animal feces – which is where many people pick up the infection. Now you see why hand washing is so important!

C. diff infection is also especially likely in hospitals or other health care settings where there are lots of people, heavy antibiotic use and patients with weakened immunity.

Once the balance of your intestinal microbes is thrown off (as often happens during treatment with broad spectrum antibiotics) the pathogen can take hold and start to produce dangerous toxins.

These substances attack the intestinal lining, destroying cells and leaving pseudomembranes – telltale patches of inflammatory cells and decaying debris that can be seen on the interior of the colon.

Ironically, the treatment for a C. diff infection is antibiotics, but different medicines than the ones that brought on the trouble in the first place. These drugs wipe out the abundance of C. diff and allow good bacteria to once more take hold in the digestive tract.

Once the good bacteria are in control, damaging C. diff will be kept in check. Sounds sensible and it worked too – until the more virulent strain of C. diff took hold, able to thrive in spite of the drugs doctors use to beat it back.

The idea of bacteria becoming resistant to medications is not new – examples have been reported for the past 60 years.

What certainly is a cause for concern is that the number of organisms, and the number of drugs that they’ve learned to “live” through, is growing all the time.

Many experts believe that with our overzealous use of antibacterials and the like, we put these organisms under intense pressure to develop ways to resist our attempts to be rid of them.

What can you do to protect yourself and your family from a C. diff infection?

Here are some suggestions:

* Wash your hands – use water, antibacterial (regular soap works too) soap and scrub for a good 30 seconds, rinse and dry with a clean towel. Do this before every meal, as well as upon leaving any health care setting or caring for a sick relative at home.

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Protecting yourself and your family from a C. diff infection – continued…

* Eat yogurt with live cultures – especially if you’re being treated with antibiotics, though you should discuss your plans with your doctor first. Live cultures are a more natural way to try and maintain the balance of good bacteria in your digestive system.

* See your doctor - if you have symptoms such as watery diarrhea, fever, pain in the abdomen, nausea or loss of appetite so you can be diagnosed promptly and treated properly.

* Avoid broad-spectrum antibiotics if possible - discuss your treatment options with your doctor. Pharmacists are another source of good, accurate information on medicines and the organisms they are intended to treat.

* Consider probiotics - foods and supplements that are sources of “good” bacteria have shown promise in reducing the length of C. diff infections and are well known to help with diarrhea.

* Use bleach-based cleaners - to clean all surfaces in an area where someone with a C. diff infection has been.

* Hold off on prophylactic antibiotics - a common practice before surgery, this is now being reviewed and reconsidered by many physicians. Talk to your own doctor about the risks and benefits for you.

* Finish antibiotics - just because you feel better, doesn’t mean the bacteria causing the trouble are finished. When you stop a drug too soon, you encourage organisms to become resistant to that drug.

As the media becomes more aware of the dangers of “superbugs” like Clostridium difficile (and others!), the alarming reports will start coming out of the woodwork.

The good news is that hospitals and long term care facilities are finally waking up and working on the problem.

By following the suggestions you’ve found here, especially the one about practicing good hand washing, everyone can reduce your risk of this potentially dangerous infection.

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