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Posts Tagged ‘Clinical Trials’
For some, there are threats everywhere. They fear the world is dangerous and, unless they stay in a constant state of vigilance, their lives will be at risk. In a small number of cases, this gets out of control and tips into paranoia and mental disorder. For the majority, it”s an exaggerated caution because they do not understand how modern technology works. They see how dangerous electricity can be and so are cautious when using powered equipment, particularly when that involves the use of “radiation”. Now there”s a word to get the conspiracy theorists into action. Yet, from a scientific point of view, you cannot escape the fact that television and computer screens give off electromagnetic radiation (EMR), handphones rely on microwave broadcasts, and then there”s light. In coherent form as a laser, it can potentially blind people. As it shines from the sun, we can see our way and, with appropriate protection from ultraviolet, live healthy lives.
The white light we “see” is in fact made up of all the colors blended together. Each color has a property of its own and you may have seen increasing publicity given to light as a treatment for skin problems like acne. When it”s projected from a TV or computer screen, you get both the EMR and light in the visible spectrum, often with a slightly bluish tinge. For the treatment of skin problems, blue and red are used. For the treatment of sleep disorders, blue and green are being used in a series of clinical trials. It”s perhaps slightly ironic, but those who felt an effect from television and computer screens were probably right, except that the effect seems to be beneficial if you want to change your sleeping times.
We know when to sleep because our internal clock is set to match the local daily cycle. If we move to different time zones so that morning is now night, this confuses us and we find it difficult to match local time for sleep. As a trial, a number of people were cut off from the world in rooms without windows or clocks. There was no way for them to tell how much time was passing. The research team kept them awake for fifty hours and then allowed sleep for eight. When awake, half were exposed to blue light, the other to green. All the participants were carefully monitored and it was found that both colors could reset the internal clocks. The only difference between the two groups was that dim blue and bright green lights were less effective. The relevant neurotransmitters and hormones responded more precisely to bright blue and dim green.
So, in all situations where the sleep problem is caused by the body”s circadian rhythms not being properly synchronised to local time, the use of light may well prove the best long-term solution. Although a drug like ambien can and does produce sleep “on demand”, there are always problems if you come to depend on a drug for any long-term solution. Ambien will always help you get needed rest, but the use of alternative methods is preferable. As counseling and therapy is expensive and often not covered by health insurance plans, the development of light treatment may come as a simple and cheap solution to sleep problems.
Acne, Ambien, Bluish Tinge, Broadcasts, Clinical Trials, Computer Screen, Computer Screens, Conspiracy Theorists, Different Time Zones, Electromagnetic Radiation, Internal Clock, Mental Disorder, Modern Technology, Paranoia, Skin Problems, Sleep Disorders, Sweet Dreams, Technology Works, Vigilance, Visible Spectrum
Looking around the journals published so far in 2010, it’s clear the research community is finally beginning to challenge the assumption that America should be medicated. If you listen to the pharmaceutical industry and the doctors who are paid to stand up and promote drugs as the best treatment for any disorder, you will hear a consistent pattern of propaganda. All our products have the FDA seal of approval. The clinical trials show our products are safe and effective. The health insurance industry pays most of the price for our products. Take our pills and get better. Indeed, when it comes to the top-selling sleeping pills, there are record numbers of prescriptions being written by doctors. The reason? Well, its not hard to suspect stress levels are increasing thanks to the recession. Unemployment is high. Credit levels have been reduced, There are foreclosures in every neighborhood. That’s bound to make sleep more difficult. What’s curious about the new records being set in the number of prescriptions is the additional financial burden this places on families when they can least afford it, and the implied assumption that sleeping pills can cure the underlying social and economic problems causing the stress.
The Journal of the American Medical Association reports talk therapy is more effective than sleeping pills. The research team gave the participants sleeping pills alongside therapy sessions and measured which had the better outcome. Because the talk asked why people were finding it difficult to sleep and discussed ways of resolving problems, people with the therapy sessions had better sleep than those on pills. This follows on research testing the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy which teaches people how to change their habit patterns to restore sleep. Therapists encourage people to avoid naps during the day, adopt a set routine for going to bed, and physically change the bedroom to minimize light and noise that might disturb sleep. When combined with techniques to address the cause of stress and relax, CBT has consistently been found to outperform sleeping pills.
When you look at the statistics, there can be little doubt we use too many sleeping pills. Add in the increasing use of online pharmacies which supply drugs without the need for a prescription, and the scale of reliance on sleeping pills is almost certainly worse than we imagine. Why should we care? Because all the sleeping pills on the market can cause dependence. As people continue to take them, tolerance builds and the pills actually become less effective. Increasing the dose confirms the dependence and can lead to unwanted side effects. Yes, ambien is one of the better pills and there are fewer problems with its use, but if your insomnia has been disrupting your life for six months or more, you should consider undergoing therapy first. CBT is clearly the best. To help you focus during this learning period, your doctor may offer the use of a sleeping pill. If you decide to accept, ambien is the best but you should only take it for a few weeks at low dose. The long-term restoration of sleep is going to come from the therapy. Although this is a short-term cost to meet, your life will improve with natural sleep and your finances will be better of without having to buy sleeping pills for the rest of your life.
Ambien, American Medical Association, Clinical Trials, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Consistent Pattern, Economic Problems, Financial Burden, Habit Patterns, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Industry, Journal Of The American Medical Association, Naps, Pharmaceutical Industry, Prescriptions, Recession, Record Numbers, Seal Of Approval, Sleeping Pills, Stress Levels, Therapy Sessions
Whenever you start reading about erectile dysfunction, the first facts that leap off the screen are that this is a physical problem and, as such, there is a treatment or cure. Most of the explanations of why erections fail focus on different chemical messengers, and arteries dilating or contracting. It’s like reading a description of a plumbing system – turn this valve, water pressure builds here, and so on. This type of explanation suits the pharmaceutical companies. If this chemical messenger is the problem, a drug that specifically targets it will solve the problem. Except human biology is not always so predictable. Let’s start again. From the dawn of time, men have sometimes had difficulty in getting an erection hard enough to penetrate a woman. Out of frustration, they have looked around for solutions and, over time, a number of natural substances have emerged as aphrodisiacs. The lists vary from century to century and culture to culture. The substances work because the prevailing mythology predicts they will work. It may be the crushed horn of this animal added to food, or the blood of this animal notorious for its sexual prowess rubbed on to your penis. There are no common denominators. The process that produces the results takes place in the mind. These substances work because the mind believes in them strongly enough.
Starting this article again means making a simple statement. An erection is a response to sexual stimulation. If the mind does not find the activity stimulating, there will be no erection. As proof of this, we need go no further than the thousands of clinical trials for all major drugs on the market. The methods are consistent. You divide the participants into two groups. One gets the real drug. The other gets a placebo, i.e. a fake tablet that looks the same but is made out of chalk or some other inert substance. A placebo cannot have any physical effect but, on average, about one-third of all participants who are given the placebo report an improvement in their condition. They improve because the mind is strong enough to change the biology of the body.
Now we can say something real about a drug like cialis. This is the leading brand for the treatment of erectile dysfunction in many of the markets around the world. It’s reputation is so great that it has even attracted the nickname of the “weekend pill”, i.e. it produces thirty-six hours of sexual responsiveness. There is no doubt at all about the effectiveness of this drug. As a matter of chemistry, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. What completes its performance is the power of its reputation. When men take a drug which has such a good reputation, the chemical action is added to the placebo effect and, with mind and body working together, it produces the best results. Cialis is good and gets better because men believe in it. Now available in two forms, you can enjoy the benefits of this modern aphrodisiac as either the weekend pill, taken as needed, or in a once-daily form to give you an erection on demand whenever the opportunity arises.
Arteries, Chalk, Chemical Messenger, Chemical Messengers, Cialis, Clinical Trials, Common Denominators, Dawn Of Time, Erection, Explanations, Human Biology, Inert Substance, Natural Substances, Pharmaceutical Companies, Placebo, Plumbing System, Sexual Prowess, Sexual Stimulation, Time Men, Water Pressure