Friday, November 30, 2012

Your Checkup Reminder


January 1st brings in a new year with new responsibilities, new tests, and wonderful new experiences to be had. Everyone wants to get the New Year started off right, and the best way to do that is to call your primary care physician and schedule your regular annual checkup for sometime in January.

This is your yearly checkup reminder. Schedule your checkup today!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

More Treatment Centers Relying on 12 Steps


The 12 step addiction recovery process seems to be getting utilized by more and more addiction treatment centers these days. One of the biggest factors causing this shift from newer processes to the traditional is that recovering addicts that have been treated using the 12 step method tend to have better long term recovery results.

While newer treatment options -- such as holistic and natural treatments -- still show promise, no newer programs seem to show the type of long term healthy lifestyles that patients have shown under 12 steps.

Patients that have taken part in 12 step recovery programs often leave treatment with a renewed outlook on life. This positive view helps to propel them forward in their sobriety without the harsh yearnings for drugs and/or alcohol that many other recovering addicts often battle with. The 12 steps themselves act as stepping stones when an individual encounters a torrent of temptation. By keeping the philosophy of the 12 steps close to them, many recovering addicts are able to live out the rest of their lives without any incidents of extreme temptation or relapse.

Above It All Treatment offers numerous 12 step addiction recovery programs in California and currently has openings for new clients. Visit them online at:
www.aboveitalltreatment.com/

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Drug Rehab Experts, Finding the Correct Program For You


There are literally thousands of drug rehabs and drug counseling programs out there in the United States today. Each one of them has their own specifics as to what they treat, what type of addict they treat, and how exactly those individuals are treated.

With so many options, it can be difficult to know which program is right for you. Add to this that making the choice to get sober is a difficult time for a person, it is quite easy to get overwhelmed by the vast amount of information and options presented.

It is for this reason that many medical professionals and counselors offer up their help in sorting through the different options and bring a sense of direction to individuals seeking treatment and healing.

Many factors are to be considered when weighing treatment options.  First off, what types of substances are at the root of the addiction? For a person addicted to heroin, a heroin rehab might seem like the only choice. However, detox procedures need to be considered and finding a rehab program that combines inpatient treatment with medical detox procedures is key. In that same vein of thinking, a detox program that does not offer further drug counseling programs will not fully tackle the addiction, and can be problematic and even dangerous to the patient.

Outpatient and holistic drug rehabs also exist, and may be suitable for some people, but may not be the right choice for those with sever chemical dependencies, especially when detoxing from alcohol, heroin, or other drugs that carry with them severe or deadly withdrawal symptoms.

There are so many variables to drug rehab programs, and this article barely scratches the surface of those variables. For the health and the safety of the patients and those around them, it is of the utmost importance to speak with an addiction specialist or treatment counselor and discuss all of the open options. If this step is taken, the possibility of a fully successful and lifelong cessation from drugs and/or alcohol becomes a higher possibility.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Rx Drugs, Grapefruit Causes Deadly Side Effects

For the most part, fruits and vegetables can be one of the healthiest things you put into your body. Grapefruit, however, are gaining recent headlines as a potential killer.

Scientists have known for many years that a specific chemical in grapefruit (called furanocoumarins) can dissolve natural enzymes in the stomach which reduce the potency of prescription medicines. Drugs are usually made more potent to begin with, in order to contend with this enzyme. This extra potency can lead to severe side effects and even death.

Researchers have listed 85 prescription drugs that they have proven interact with chemicals in grapefruit. These drugs are prescribed for anything ranging from anxiety to HIV Treatments. 43 of the 85 drugs noted caused serious side effects, up to and including death, and more drugs are being added to that list by the day

"The problem with these grapefruit combinations is that people don't realize how dangerous even one bite of grapefruit could be; even if that bite is taken hours before or after taking [Rx] drugs." says Doctor Heinrich Welson, a general physician from Verde Valley, AZ. "People simply aren't aware that it could cause side effects, and they certainly aren't checking with the pharmacist to see what fruits they can eat on medications."

What it comes down to is that the word needs to get out. People must realize that if they are taking medications, grapefruit is something that they should check with a doctor before consuming.

Nursing Assistants: Low Wages for These Angels?

Nursing Assistants may work in a retirement home, a cancer treatment center, or even in a patient's home. These angels do all the dirty work; cleaning up patients after they go to the bathroom, bathing patients, and feeding patients. On top of all of this, Nursing Assistants also must endure so very tough workdays mentally as well, as many of their patients are terminally ill, severely diseased, or mentally impaired. Sometimes these medical professionals even work until their patients have passed away, and afterwards. Yet still, these professionals are paid much less than any other medical professionals.

Truly an atrocity, the pay scales for this type of work is very skewed, as many of the service centers hiring these professionals try to cut costs anywhere they can. The main cost incurred by nursing centers, is the wages of nurses and assistants. One justification some nursing centers use to answer for the nursing staff's low pay, is that nursing assistants are not required to have as much medical education as say a medical assistant. While this is true, nursing assistants must have a caring heart and a strong will to be able to do this job.

Just as teachers often say that you have to love the job, because the pay isn't much, nursing assistants do the job because they truly do care about their patients, and the love what they do. We owe all of these angels a debt of gratitude.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

How 12 Step Programs Breed Continued Success


There are a number of different types of programs used to treat chemical dependency and addiction, each of them utilizing their own form of guidelines. Christian rehab programs often use the bible's laws of morality and the teachings of Jesus Christ as the groundwork for their treatment, while homeopathic and naturopathic programs use spirituality and and the laws of nature to guide patients along in their journeys. 12 step recovery programs use the twelve steps themselves to work as a rigid structure in which patients can navigate their way to sobriety. The twelve steps are as follows:

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The 12 step method has been touted and heralded for its success for many years now, and many believe that the rigid guideline -- and not the steps themselves -- is the reason. during the path to sobriety, the individual needs structure; not only to keep the mind occupied, but also to draw a clear path to success so that that person can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Above It All Treatment Center in California is a huge proponent of the 12 step program, but also employs other treatment types in its arsenal of programs. Above It All understands that patients battling addiction often feel that they are at a dead end, or "have hit rock bottom." When a patient reaches this point, it is essential to illustrate a way out that not only gives them the initial push towards success, but also escorts them all the way through to sobriety.

To learn more about drug and alcohol treatment programs, and how their structures can offer higher chances of success, read about the program options Above It All offers at:
www.aboveitalltreatment.com/

Post Graduate Work for Medical Professionals

As the construction and housing industries have been in a steady decline from the years of 2008 - 2012, the medical industry saw a boom. More students enrolled in and graduated from medical programs in recent years than any other time in history.

In the past 4 years, many of the graduates from these programs sought jobs in metropolitan areas such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, and Seattle. Jobs were plentiful, and medical institutions were eager to hire a great number of professionals.

That tide is beginning to turn now, with hospitals and practices having more than enough workers to fill the growing need for medical service. In fact, Phoenix especially is now seeing a surplus of medical professionals searching for jobs. This causes confusion for many recent graduates wondering what they are going to do next. Should they go back to school within a different industry, or keep searching for work?

While the metropolitan areas definitely did over-hire recently, the majority of those hires moved from more rural areas into the bigger cities. This influx of work left medical institutions outside of the city with a lack of qualified workers. Using Phoenix again as an example; medical assistants, doctors, surgeons, radiologists, and nuclear-medicine experts were all lured away from equally big medical destinations such as the Verde Valley, Flagstaff, Tucson, Bullhead City, and other smaller cities by the allure of the giant conglomerate medical providers moving into Phoenix. Now, those same smaller markets are needing a restaffing of medical professionals more than the larger cities.

With that being said, if you are a recent graduate, or a veteran in the medical field that is looking for a job, the smaller markets are the direction in-which you should be aiming.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Bay Area Drug Rehab and Dual Diagnosis


In the addiction treatment industry, more and more rehab institutions are beginning to offer dual diagnosis residential treatment programs. This is likely because, as addiction itself is becoming studied deeper, we are beginning to understand that the majority of chemical dependencies are a part of a much larger condition involving multiple issues; these issues could range from depression to post-traumatic stress, and work in-tandem with the addiction to worsen the problem.

New Dawn Recovery Center has four locations within the Bay Area of San Francisco and understands the relationship between chemical dependency and the underlying conditions that provoke or worsen addiction. It is their stance, that in order to wholly treat addictions successfully, all aspects of that addiction, and the factors that provoke it, need to be addressed and attended to.

To learn more about New Dawn Recover, visit their official website at:
http://www.newdawnrecovery.com/

Monday, November 12, 2012

Cosmetic Surgery and Confidence


There is a solid link between cosmetic surgery and confidence through self-image. The fact is that cosmetic surgery can alleviate qualms that patients have with their body image. Once these qualms have been erased, a good majority of patients make conscious changes to their health and lifestyle in order to preserve their newly found self confidence.

Rocklin Cosmetic Surgery performs thousands of breast augmentations, laser liposuctions, and cellulite treatments in Sacramento California, and they wholeheartedly concur with this notion. The change in self-perception is evident when patients come in for their first post-operative checkups; in the short time since the procedure, many patients have adopted a healthier attitude along with a healthier dietary and exercise regimen due to the initial results of the procedures.

Rocklin Cosmetic Surgery stresses the fact that liposuction treatments, though often stigmatized as a "lazy" alternative to exercise, is often the one factor that stimulates healthy change in its patients. Rocklin is an avid believer that cosmetic surgery is very beneficial to its patients mental well-being and that it is a safe and healthy option for qualified patients.

Dr. Efrain Gonzalez is the founder and medical director of Advanced Medical Spa (Rocklin Cosmetic Surgery), and Rocklin services the following cities and areas:

Rocklin, Granite Bay, Roseville, Sacramento, Antelope, Auburn, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Folsom, Lincoln, North Heighlands, Elk Grove, Davis, Yuba City, Woodland, New Castle, Eldorado Hills, Rancho Cordova, Rio Linda, California.

Visit them online at:
http://www.rocklincosmeticsurgery.com/