Speed Mtabolism Up

Back pain is not only painful, it’s expensive. The average back-pain sufferer—or his or her insurer—spent about $1,600 on it in 2007, including about $1,150 for doctor visits and $450 for medications, according to a recent report for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Altogether, the 27 million people who experienced the pain that year spent more than $30 billion seeking relief.

Unfortunately, the AHRQ study doesn’t tell us if the patients got their money’s worth. But it’s likely that a good deal of them found little relief. Others probably would have gotten better on their own. And sometimes all it takes is removing your wallet from your back pocket. That’s just how back pain is.

It is a notoriously tricky condition to diagnose and treat. Research suggests that people respond differently to the various treatments, which include exercise, medications, surgery, and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and spinal manipulations. An article in the July 29th New England Journal of Medicine, for example, found that while acupuncture may be helpful for some, it hasn’t proven itself more effective than sham acupuncture in trials. And people who get either real or sham acupuncture tend to fare better than those who get no treatment at all.

Use our treatment Ratings (available to subscribers) to see when treatment might be necessary, and when it’s best to simply wait the pain out. When treatment is needed, the Ratings can help make sure you get the most for your health-care dollars.

—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor

If you need help treating your back pain, take a look at what worked for our readers and what to consider if you're considering surgery.  

If your child wears contact lenses, he may be at risk for serious eye infections, especially if they are kept in the eyes too long between cleanings. Contact lenses are at the top of the list of all medical devices that cause injury and send kids to the emergency room, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Of the 70,000 emergency-room visits over a two-year period caused by medical-device injuries, 23 percent of those (33,779 cases) were from contact lenses, according to researchers for the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The majority of the cases were reported in adolescents ages 11 to 21, and injuries included contusions/abrasions, conjunctivitis, and hemorrhage.

It’s hard enough for adult contact lens wearers to adhere to all the advice from an optometrist on proper contact lens care, so imagine how tough it might be for your child to remember all the dos and don’ts. That’s reason enough to supervise your child’s use of contact lenses. The FDA has the following safety tips to share with your child:

• Wash your hands before touching eyes and handling contact lenses. 

• Rub and rinse your contact lenses as directed by your eye-care professional. 

• Clean and disinfect your lenses properly according to the labeling instructions. 

• Do not "top-off" the solutions in your case. Always discard all of the leftover contact lens solution after each use. Never reuse any lens solution. 

• Clean, rinse, and air-dry your lens case each time lenses are removed. 

• Do not expose your contact lenses to any water: tap, bottled, distilled, lake, or ocean water. Never use nonsterile water (distilled water, tap water or any homemade saline solution). Tap and distilled water have been associated with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a corneal infection that is resistant to treatment and cure. 

• Remove your contact lenses before swimming. There is a risk of eye infection from bacteria in swimming pool water, hot tubs, lakes, and the ocean.  

• Replace your contact lens storage case every 3 to 6 months. 

If your child experiences eye discomfort, unusual redness, burning, or any other symptom of irritation or infection: 

• Remove your lenses immediately and do not put them back in your eyes. 
• Contact your eye-care professional right way. 
• Don't throw away your lenses. Store them in your case and take them to your eye-care professional. He or she may want to use them to determine the cause of your symptoms. 
• Report serious eye problems associated with your lenses to the FDA’s MedWatch reporting program.

—Ginger Skinner, Web associate editor

If walking is not an option, but you’d still like to leave your car at home, consider a bicycle commute to work. The U.S. Department of Transportation recently released new data from the Federal Highway Administration's 2009 National Household Travel Survey that shows both bicycling and walking trips have increased 25 percent since 2001. We just finished testing bicycles and included a few that are marketed as commuter bikes, which typically have fenders and a rear rack. Truth is, you can use just about any bike for commuting by adding fenders, racks, and even saddle bags.

So, how do you choose the best type of bike to ride? Think about the route you will travel. If there are hills, be sure the bike has a very low gear (a third chain ring), which makes it easier to pedal up an incline. The bike should also be relatively lightweight. Look for fittings so you will be able to add things like racks (to put your stuff), water bottles (to keep you hydrated), and fenders (to keep you clean).

Don’t forget about safety since you won’t have the protection of a car. Start with a properly fitted bicycle helmet. All helmets sold in the U.S. must pass the Consumer Product Safety Commission standard, which includes impact resistance, retention strength, and other requirements. Paying more for a helmet might get you a better fit, lighter weight, more vents, or snazzier graphics. Be sure to make yourself as visible as possible; a reflective vest is a good idea. Also, equip your bike with reflectors in the front, rear, wheels, and pedals. They are required by the CPSC standard, but are often removed and forgotten. So you can see approaching traffic behind you, a bicycle mirror can easily be added. There are many types available. Some attach to your helmet, others to the bike frame or handlebars. You might have to try a few before you find one that works best.

—Rich Handel, project leader and guest blogger, Consumer Reports

To find out which bikes are best for your wallet and your riding style, see our Ratingsof 14 bikes (available to subscribers). And get more free buying advice and information on features on our sister site, ConsumerReports.org.

You reported in April that mineral oil can lower vitamin D levels. Do olive or other oils pose the same risk? —C.L., Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

No, because they don’t interfere with the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients in the gut. Unlike animal fats or vegetable oils, mineral oil—which is made from petroleum—isn’t digested by the body; rather, it passes unabsorbed through the gut and out the bowel, taking with it any of the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) that have hitched a ride.

In contrast, vegetable or fish oils and their dissolved vitamins are digested in the intestine and absorbed into the body. In fact, cod-liver oil is an excellent source of vitamin D, and many vegetable oils contain vitamins E and K.

Find out why you need vitamin D and how to get your vitamin D from food.

Recently, Professor Noam Sobel, electronics engineers Dr. Anton Plotkin and Aharon Weissbrod and research student Lee Sela of the Weizmann Institute’s Neurobiology Department, have invented a device that could allow persons with disabilities to navigate wheelchairs or communicate simply by inhaling and exhaling through the nose. In addition, this sniffing technology could be useful in assisting health surgeons or pilots perform certain procedures as their nose could act as a third hand.

How exactly can our breaths achieve such feats? “The new system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates these into electrical signals.” Testing was completed with volunteers and quadriplegics and results proved to be very promising. The subjects were able to manoeuvre a wheelchair or play a computer game with as much ease and precision as with a mouse or joystick.

Sniffing is a precise motor skill that is controlled, in part, by the soft palate […] the soft palate is controlled by several nerves that connect to it directly through the braincase. This close link led Sobel and his scientific team to theorize that the ability to sniff — that is, to control soft palate movement — might be preserved even in the most acute cases of paralysis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) lent support to the idea, showing that a number of brain areas contribute to soft palate control. This imaging revealed a significant overlap between soft palate control and the language areas of the brain, hinting to the scientists that the use of sniffing to communicate might be learned intuitively.

From this theory, a device that measures changes in air pressure was created with a sensor that fits into the opening of the nostrils. Furthermore, an alternate version that diverts air into the nostrils was produced for patients on respirators. Interestingly, roughly 75% of those on respirators could control and operate the device.

Still, the most striking is that individuals with locked-in syndrome, a state in which their cognitive functions are intact but their bodies are completely paralyzed so that they are “locked” inside their bodies, were able to communicate effectively with their loved ones on account of this new invention. Finally, these patients were able to share their thoughts and feelings with their families for the first time in a very long time.

“One patient who had been locked in for seven months following a stroke learned to use the device over a period of several days, writing her first message to her family. Another, who had been locked in since a traffic accident 18 years earlier wrote that the new device was much easier to use than one based on blinking. Another ten patients, all quadriplegics, succeeded in operating a computer and writing messages through sniffing.”

Moreover, wheelchair navigation can be done effortlessly with this technology. A certain number of inhales or exhales instruct the chair to navigate in certain directions. Two successive sniffs will make the wheelchair advance forward and two exhales will reverse the chair. One inhale followed by an exhale will steer to the left, while an exhale followed by an inhale steers to the right.

Consequently, the technology has received such acclaim that four of the research subjects are still using the device to communicate. Researchers’ claim that this system is fairly inexpensive to manufacture, not to mention easy for people to learn and operate in comparison to other types of similar technology already in use. Yeda Research and Development Company are currently looking to develop and distribute the technology to the general public, therefore it may not be long until this technology is put to good use.

Invention Enables People With Disabilities Communicate and Steer a Wheelchair by Sniffing

© www.mentalhealthblog.com

Gallbladder nausea Pathology of the gallbladder is acute and chronic cholecystitis and it’s also accompanied by gallbladder nausea. Acute cholecystitis is an inflammation of the gallbladder wall with the entrance of germs. The disease can develop as a background of cholelithiasis, and in the absence of stones. Women are more affected than men. Gallbladder disorders Gallbladder [...]

Diarrhea is the condition of frequent loose or liquid bowel movements. It is most common in developing countries and major cause of death. Diarrhea is too frequent with poorly formed stools which precipitate often with excess of water in feces. Acute diarrhea is the common cause of death. It is most common cause of death [...]

Acid reflux cures Goal for Acid reflux cures is to treat the symptoms like esophagitis, prevention or elimination of complications of the disease, and improving quality of life of the patient. Treatment of acid reflux may be conservative and surgical. Effective anti reflux treatment is for change of lifestyle; particularly smoking cessation, diet correction, and [...]

A group of European researchers carried out a study to find that avoiding meat is a good way to maintain a healthy weight. The research involved studying 400,000 adults and revealed that eating meat was proportional to weight gain. Processed meat like ham and sausages was the worst suggesting that high-protein diets won’t work in [...]

A latest study in Denmark added to the doubts on efficiency of acupuncture to stimulate labor in women past the due date. The study was carried out on 125 expected mothers who had already crossed the due dates. The women who underwent two acupuncture sessions had no increase in chances of going into labor in [...]