Before any stretched are performed, it is wise to undergo a warm up to ensure blood is circulating around your body appropriately. Gentle warm-up moves include moving the joints in circles or doing light activity such as a brisk walk. After around 10 minutes of warming up, your muscles and tendons should feel limber; the sign you are ready to begin your stretching exercises.

Range-of-motion stretches are often recommended, and are essentially about how far you can move your joint. Range-of-motion exercises generally involve moving your joints in all directions you would normally move them. Most stretches should be held for about 30 seconds, and it is important to keep the muscle and joint still, without bouncing, to avoid injury. Stretching to the point when you can feel a slight tightness is recommended by experts. You should notice you are able to stretch a bit further each time as your flexibility increases.

Tandem with stretching, regularly taking Glucosamine supplements will also improve joint flexibility. Studies have shown taking these supplements will help stiffness and relieve joint pains associated with medical conditions such as osteoarthritis. A less stiff or painful joint will lead to increased flexibility. Glucosamine supplements also protect and strengthen cartilage and tissue surrounding joints, particularly knees, hips, spine and hands. This is suitable for a range of flexibility problems.

Stretching everyday combined with daily glucosamine supplement intake will lead to improved flexibility and a wider range of movement to perform everyday tasks, making your life that little bit easier.

Don’t delay – start your new routine today, your joints will thank you for it in later life!

A report from the Washington Post informed that “latest analysis of data has detected what could be a somewhat elevated rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis and death; Bell’s palsy, a temporary facial paralysis; and thrombocytopenia, which is a low level of blood platelets”. That’s quite a number of side effects for people who received vaccinations for swine flu.

Right now, health officials have already submitted directives that seek to observes health workers who have been inoculated with the H1N1 vaccine.

Most alarming above all these “fad diets” are the diet pills available in the market today. These drugs are usually easily accessible over the counter like Leptopril, Stacker 2, Trimspa, and Zantrex 3. Yet, there is still a little information available about the efficacy of these diet pills because there are still many independent scientific studies that need to be done to safely say that these are the ultimate solution to everyone’s perceived weight problem. This is why this paper will try to delve into the world of diet pills and take into account the efficacy of four major diet pills available over the counter in our drug stores today like Leptopril, Stacker 2, Trimspa, and Zantrex 3. What is the history of using diet pills? Are there an increasing number of people under the age of 18 using these products? If so, what are the effects of these pills on their bodies? Are there any harmful effects? How does it affect the middle aged men and women? These are just few of the questions we will try to answer in this paper and in the end, we shall conclude which of these diet pills could be best used to help overweight people maintain their ideal body weight.

The above-mentioned questions will be answered in a four-part research. Stay tuned!

Despite the fact that PTSD was just recently identified as a psychiatric condition, historical medical records indicate people traumatized during the Civil War exhibited “DaCosta’s Syndrome”. PTSD has been observed in people other veteran populations, including World War II, Korean conflict, and Persian Gulf, and in United Nations peacekeeping forces deployed to other war zones around the world. PTSD also appears in military veterans in other countries with amazingly similar findings, which indicates the disorder is by no means culture specific. As specified in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM IV, 1994), the diagnosis of PTSD is assigned when four specific criteria are fully exhibited by any patient. First, the person has to have been exposed to a traumatic event in which he or she “experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others”, and the response has to “involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror”. Second, the event must be persistently re-experienced either through intrusive images, thoughts or perceptions; recurrent distressing dreams related to the event; flashbacks; and/or experiencing intense distress or physiological reactivity when faced with actual or symbolic situations that resemble the traumatizing event. Third, the sufferer must exhibit avoidance responses to stimuli that are reminiscent of the traumatic event and do so through a combination of tactics including avoidance, numbing, reduced interest, lack of recall and/or detachment. Lastly, the sufferer has to display at least two signs of increased arousal which can be manifested by such things as increased irritability, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, exaggerated startle response and/or concentration difficulties. In addition, it is specified that the extent of disturbance must be clinically significant in the extent of distress or psychosocial impairment, and that the duration of disturbance must be more than one month. All of these criteria must be met to assign the diagnosis of PTSD; without one of the four criteria would not be appropriate to tell that the patient has PTSD.

Soldiers who experienced the atrocities of war have the most propensities to develop PTSD. In a study conducted to assess the soldiers who survived the Vietnam War, about 15.2 percent of all Vietnam War zone veterans were found with PTSD and another 11.1 percent with “partial” PTSD. Thus, there was over a 30 percent prevalence rate of PTSD among veterans exposed to heavy combat stressors and among those wounded. Although pre-military and post-military factors also appeared important, the extent and severity of exposure to war trauma appeared to be the most closely associated with PTSD (Kulka et al., 1990). Studies of Haley (1974) and Shatan (1978) separately pointed out that when the soldiers as their patient reported atrocities, therapists have more trouble listening. This could, of course, make patients less likely to report such events. If so, gaining knowledge of the psychological aftereffects of participating could be impaired. Strayer and Ellenhorn (1975) found that participation in atrocities like war brought more symptoms in terms of withdrawal, hostility, and life-outcome maladjustment. Breslau and Davis (1987) commented that participation in atrocities and the cumulative exposure to combat stressors, each independently of the other, conferred a significant risk for PTSD. If left untreated, PTSD would develop into depression that would lead the patient to experience severe psychological problems that would even lead to substance abuse, violence or even suicide.

PTSD can be both treated using pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The most commonly prescribed medicines are antidepressants and minor and major tranquilizers and they are used mainly against conditions that co-exist with PTSD, like depression, generalized anxiety, and alcohol and chemical substance abuse (Solomon et al. 1992, p. 634). Although pharmacotherapy is less often used for symptoms specific to PTSD, several drugs have been found to have a modulating effect on intrusive phenomena, such as nightmares and dream recollections, and symptoms of autonomic nervous system arousal, such as irritability, aggressive outbursts, exaggerated startle response, and hypervigilance. Sedatives are also given to patients who have problems falling or remaining asleep, an arousal effect sometimes associated with PTSD. Even when specific symptoms are alleviated by pharmacotherapy, patients characteristically continue to experience significant distress from other symptoms and their effects, most commonly guilt, social impairment, and somatic complaints. Thus, when drugs are employed, it is usually used to complement psychotherapy. On the other hand, psychotherapies for PTSD fall into three broad categories: behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and psychodynamic therapies (including hypnotherapy).

Indeed, PTSD is not a simple disease that can be easily treated because the patients need to undergo a difficult process in order to free himself or herself from PTSD. It is surprising that each U.S. military venture had brought about a new wave of persons who are directly or indirectly deeply impacted by the trauma of war, as many of our soldiers experienced PTSD after they go home from any war. Minimizing or denying shorter- and longer-term human costs of such wars must be vigorously and repeatedly challenged. This is why the most effective way to reduce the prevalence and incidence of war-related PTSD is to prevent U.S. involvement in “unnecessary” wars. The price of freedom is high enough without unnecessarily adding to the rolls of our nation’s veterans, their families and so many others who continue to be impacted both directly and indirectly by the horrors of war.

Sources:

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA, 1994.

Breslau, N., & Davis, G.C. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The etiologic specificity of wartime stressors”. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144(1987): 578-583.

Haley, S.A. “When the patient reports atrocities”. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30 (1974): 191-196.

Kulka R. A., W. E. Schlenger, J. A. Fairbank, R. L. Hough, B. K. Jordan, C. R. Marmar & D. S. Weiss. Trauma and the Vietnam War Generation: Report of Findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1990.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Black’s Medical Dictionary, 41st Edition. 2006. CredoReference. 30 July 2007 . Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (2006). In Black’s Medical Dictionary, 41st Edition. Retrieved July 30, 2007, from DISPLAYURL “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).” Black’s Medical Dictionary, 41st Edition. 2006. CredoReference. 30 July 2007 . Black’s Medical Dictionary, 41st Edition, 2006, s.v. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),” DISPLAYURL (accessed July 30, 2007). http://www.credoreference.com/entry/5877946

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mosby’s Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, & Health Professionals. 2006. CredoReference. 30 July 2007 .

Shatan, C. “Stress disorders among Vietnam veterans: The emotional context of combat continues”. In C.R. Figley (Ed.), Stress Disorders Among Vietnam Veterans: Theory, Research, and Treatment. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1978.

Strayer, R., & Ellenhorn, L. “Vietnam veterans: A study exploring adjustment patterns and attitudes”. Journal of Social Issues, 31 (1975): 81-93.

Fact is that the most important macronutrients and minerals are well covered in European food composition databases, but fractions of nutrients (such as fractions of carbohydrates) and vitamins are stated less extensively in some countries. Other nutrients are generally present but the data may be lacking for some foods or be available only for raw foods. Also, tables of food composition never include all processed foods available on a national market.

The true range of food items available for consumption is almost impossible to document due to the continuous introduction of new products and variation in recipes. Another issue is that there are differences of analytical data between tables are both actual (due to variability in the composition) and artifactual (Leclercq et al., 2002). Foods, as biological materials, exhibit natural variations in the amounts of nutrients contained. Variability is higher for some nutrients, especially micronutrients. For example, processed foods can be tricky to recommend because there are variations in the composition of ingredients and changes in formulation and production over time. Another crucial point for the comparability of food composition data between countries is that of the definition of foods. The usage of free language can lead to misunderstanding because the same food product could be named in different ways and, on the other side, different products could be indicated by the same name. For example, the name of fishes varies from region to region.

Lastly, the difficulty in constructing food composition databases is showcased in the differences in the description of nutrients. The current terms fat, protein and carbohydrates in food tables still refer, in most instances, to chemically inconsistent, so called “crude” fractions in foods, which do not behave uniformly in digestion and human nutrition and are unreliable for energy calculations. In the case of carbohydrates and fibre, from a nutritional point of view, there would be a need to distinguish between glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, lactose, maltose, oligosaccharides, available starch, resistant starch and dietary fibre. Very few tables reach this level of detail and these substances are aggregated according to varying criteria.

In the UK, the food composition tables are based on the McCance and Widdowson’ The Composition of Foods, 6th edition and the software Diet Plan 6. The UK food tables have limitations because of accuracy of data, time changes, entry of new foods, variations in post harvest values, microwaving/steaming values are not included and most foods are frozen before it is analysed. However, the most practical problem I have encountered of the UK food tables is that it needs to be constantly updated, since there are new foods entering the UK diet each year. Also, a known major source of error in food tables also comes from the estimation of nutrient intakes. For example, calcium intake varies for all people in different ages and gender. For people with lactose intolerance, they should be provided with several options of food sources that do not have dairy ingredients. Making these updates and pairing up the people with appropriate diets can be a gargantuan task that must be balanced in a way that virtually all people can benefit from these food tables.

In constructing food tables for Sudan and Turkey, I would suggest a food composition table that has high calcium because milk consumption in these areas is not common, unlike in Scandinavian countries. Recommending a food table that has different sources of calcium, other than milk, can also be helpful to raise their awareness about the ilk of calcium deficiency. Since these countries are composed mostly by Muslim people, the food tables should also stay away from products that use pork or products derived from it. In constructing food tables, you should not only consider the nutritional values of food, but you should be aware of the cultural preferences.

Source:

Leclercq, C., Valsta, L.M. and Turrini, A. 2001. Food composition issues – implications for the development of food –based dietary guidelines, Public Health Nutrition, 4, 677-82.