Support Groups for People with Bad Habits

There are support groups all over the world for people with bad habits. These groups provide a framework by which the person with bad habits can get better. They are available to anyone who wants to attend. Alcoholics Anonymous is the gold standard for support groups. There people with bad habits relating to alcohol can meet and discuss their bad habits. They can talk about their experiences and share their hopes. They can gain strength by spending time with people whose goal is also to banish their bad habits. Alcoholics Anonymous practices the Twelve-Step program for those whose bad habits have brought them to seek help. The system is designed to guide alcoholics through their despair and into sobriety. It is a rigorous program, but it is worth the work if you come out on the other side without your bad habits. Another group the uses the Twelve-Step program for gaining control over bad habits is Overeaters Anonymous. Contrary to what the name implies, it is not just for people who eat too much. The largest number of members of any one group is those who overeat. However, it is also for those with bulimia or anorexia. It is for anyone who is “powerless over food.” This group holds meetings as AA does. It also uses tests and other tools to help people evaluate the extent of their bad habits and depression. The Twelve-Step program leads them to work on their bad habits from perspectives that are physical, emotional, and spiritual. It has helped many people to gain control over their eating disorders. Yet another group is based on the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is Narcotics Anonymous. It is for people with bad habits with all kinds of drugs. You can be involved in the program no matter what kind(s) of drugs you used. It does not matter if you used a few times or you used constantly for years. The important thing is what you want to do about it. Narcotics Anonymous provides you with a way to deal with these destructive bad habits in your life if you will do the work. There are all kinds of smoking cessation support groups to help people quit their bad habits with smoking. There are groups at medical centers. There are groups at colleges. Some groups meet at community centers. There are even smoking cessation groups that meet online. The websites give quite a bit of helpful information about your bad habits. They often will have a blog where people can compare notes about how their recovery from nicotine is going. Then, there are live chat support groups. There are not support groups for all the bad habits that people have. No one is going to go around smacking your hand and saying,”Do not drum your fingers!” At least, they will not do it as a support group. Yet, for many serious bad habits, there is help. In some cases, you will have to drive across town. In other cases, it is as near as your computer.

Today we’re going to talk about hidden food allergies. The first thing that it is important to understand is that there are different types of reactions to foods that we are allergic to. The most commonly understood and easily detected reaction is called a type 1 reaction or IgE reaction. With this type of reaction it is very easy to detect an allergy to a particular food. The symptoms of a Type 1 reaction are swelling of the throat, hives and an anaphylaxis type of reaction, a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic response. We are not focusing on that today because these allergies are very easily detected. The type of allergy I want to talk to you about would more likely fall into the category of food sensitivities which are the result of an entirely different immuno/ biological process altogether. One that instead of being an immediate reaction may take hours or even days to actually become apparent. This is one of the reasons that most people have trouble recognizing the relationship between the symptoms that they are experiencing with something that they ate days prior (type 3 or type 4 reactions), even though type 3 and type 4 reactions are much more common. In fact only 5 percent of the population is affected by the type 1 so that means that most are affected by the type 3 or 4 allergy which is the “hidden” type. How do you recognize whether or not you or someone you know could be experiencing a type 3 or 4 sensitivity or allergic reaction? The most common way of diagnosing such sensitivities is to undergo an elimination process where diet is severely restricted and then one by one foods are reintroduced into the diet (usually one food per week). This can take months or even years to complete!!! Until now this has been the “Gold Standard”! The news I am about to share with you is LIFE CHANGING!!! Say goodbye to the old gold standard because now there is a very simple in home test which will detect hidden food allergies! I know of a woman who suffered migraines for 18 years. She had been through test after test week after week and the doctors kept saying “there is nothing wrong” as they proceeded to prescribe another medication for her migraines. She spent thousands on these tests; in fact one of them cost her $1,200.00! After much arm twisting she took the in home test (for $99.00) and viola!!! The in home test revealed that she was allergic to foods in the mustard family. She is proceeding with the recommended protocol and I am happy to report NO MORE MIGRAINES! Another woman suffered from severe eczema for most of her life. There were times when she was house ridden for the better part of a week. After taking the in home test, she found out she was allergic to dairy. She is now on her way to living a normal life. Now I am not a doctor nor am I saying that we “cured them”. In fact that would be a felony (Thank you FDA). We simply detected the allergy and gave them the gastrointestinal support they needed to heal. Typically once the GI tract has healed itself; it has been found that the food can then be reintroduced with no further reactions! The strange thing is that this type of test has been used by physicians for years with amazing success but it isn’t promoted widely. This is because most doctors tend to focus on Type 1 allergies instead of the other 2. Let’s look at food allergies and sensitivities a little closer; shall we? In a typical type 1 the food antigens can trigger the mast cell mechanism at any point in their journey through the body. Lip, tongue, throat burning and swelling are most obvious symptoms of this. The antigen may not react in gastro intestinal tract but activate Type 1 responses in blood or target organs, especially lungs and connective tissue. The onset of “immediate reactions” may be delayed hours after eating offending foods. Major symptoms include: flushing, swelling, shortness of breath, fast heart rate, panic, pain, and confusion. What happens when dealing with a type 3 or 4 reaction (hidden sensitivity) is quite different. In this type of reaction the antibodies bind directly to the food particles themselves as they enter the blood stream. Then they form different sizes of circulating immune complex. This complex is comprised of the allergens and the antibodies that reacted to it becoming bound together and then circulating in the blood stream. It is important to understand that in this case there is a delayed reaction of symptoms not seen with the Type 1 reaction. Also unlike Type 1 reactions, type 3 and 4 are usually from a food that you eat OFTEN and even CRAVE. In fact cravings are common as are withdrawal symptoms. The numbers here are huge! It is thought that nearly 60 to 80 million Americans suffer from this type of reaction. What are the symptoms of type 3 %26 4 reactions? There are hundreds of them! (Hold on to your chair.) You know someone who is affected by this. Tinnitus, recurrent ear infections, asthma, dark circles under the eyes (allergic shiners also seen in children reacting to vaccines), chronic digestive problems (diarrhea, constipation and heartburn), spastic colon, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, fluctuations in blood sugar, joint and muscle pain, fluid retention, brain fog and or mental confusion, irritability, eczema and many others. In fact studies have shown that even (temporary) changes in your voice or hoarseness can take place as the result of these reactions! The good news is that they are reversible but a skin test will not detect their presence. How do we end up with these reactions or sensitivities? Lack of breast feeding is one culprit. When breast feeding became unpopular asthma became epidemic. This is largely due to an immunoglobulin deficiency, as human immunoglobulin is not contained in cow’s milk. Food sensitivities of all types are far more prominent in babies who were not breast fed. Let’s think about that… When a baby is born it is meant for that baby to have mommy’s breast milk. The intestine is somewhat porous. All of the foods going through the intestine are being exposed to the blood stream in a way does not take place after weaning, when porous elements of the intestine gradually begin to close. The food that passes through the intestine from that point forward is not directly exposed to the blood as it would be in earlier years. In fact many people who have wheat allergies were fed wheat based formulas when they were infants!! It is also important to note that when genetically modified soy was introduced into the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50 percent and I suspect that many other GMOs are causing allergic reactions among the unsuspecting populace at large. See the GMO Trilogy for more information on the devastating effects of genetically modified food. If you sit back and think or better yet, keep a mental note of this article, I am sure you will encounter someone you know who meets the criteria or has the symptoms mentioned above. I STRONGLY encourage you to let them see this information because it just might CHANGE THEIR LIFE! Stay tuned for next weeks’ “Custom Health 4 You News” Hidden Food Allergies Part 2. Until then… Yours in health and wellness! Tiffane If you want to learn more about hidden food sensitivities and The in home test; The Allertest visit http://www.customhealth4you.com/Allertest.html Tiffane Coe has been healing herself naturally for the past 5 years! She is a staunch opponent of CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and believes that supplements should remain legal without a prescription. Since switching to a mostly organic diet and supplementing she has not been on any form of medication including antibiotics. Her 9 year old daughter is also medication and antibiotic free for two and a half years. To learn more visit http://customhealth4you.com

The answers are complex- it maybe the laser system used, the systems can range from IPL, single wavelength or radio frequency systems. Intense pulse light laser system deliver a range of wave lengths to the skin to put it simply, think of Intense Pulse Light as generalised cluster bombs hitting the skin, these systems are commonly used in beauty salons. The singe wavelength systems, deliver a single wavelength of light to the skin …think of these systems as smart precision bombs hitting the skin, delivering precise single wavelengths to the skin.  Examples of these lasers are Lghtsheer Diodie   (810nm wavelength) Laserscope Lyra (1064nm wavelength) and Alexandrite laser (755nm wavelength). Radio frequency systems, use radio waves with the Intense Pulse Light technology, example of these systems are the syneron laser systems. All these systems have certain advantages and disadvantages, they can treat only certain skin types, treat certain colours of hair and their efficiency varies. Like mobile phones and television sets every year, new laser technology is evolving which purports to give an edge to its predecessors, with respect to laser hair removal. The cost of these laser hair removal systems can vary from £10, 000- £80, 000!  In my opinion as there has been no real head to head clinical trials between the systems, one must rely on the original gold standard the Lightsheer diode laser, which has stood the test of time, delivering speedy treatments and excellent results. Interestingly the Laserscope Lyra Laser system results are compatible to the Lightsheer system. In summary, if the clinic has a decent laser system, and selects to treat clientelle with the appropriate type of hair and colour its technology can treat and use pre-treatment topical anaesthetic followed by ice packs to give post treatment pain relief. There is then no reason why exceptional results cannot be obtained with minimal discomfort. Dr. S.R. Bassi is the lead cosmetic physician at a top Cosmetic clinic in North Nottingham. Visit our website www.selstoncosmeticlinic.com and learn more about laser hair removal and Vaser Lipo the exciting new walk-in walk-out body sculpting procedure.

One of the most common treatments in cosmetic clinics and certain beauty salons is laser hair removal. On reading the forums it is obvious the success of this form of treatment varies greatly. How can this be? The answers are complex- it maybe the laser system used, the systems can range from IPL, single wavelength or radio frequency systems. Intense pulse light laser system deliver a range of wave lengths to the skin to put it simply, think of Intense Pulse Light as generalised cluster bombs hitting the skin, these systems are commonly used in beauty salons. The singe wavelength systems, deliver a single wavelength of light to the skin …think of these systems as smart precision bombs hitting the skin, delivering precise single wavelengths to the skin. Examples of these lasers are Lghtsheer Diodie (810nm wavelength) Laserscope Lyra (1064nm wavelength) and Alexandrite laser (755nm wavelength). Radio frequency systems, use radio waves with the Intense Pulse Light technology, example of these systems are the syneron laser systems. All these systems have certain advantages and disadvantages, they can treat only certain skin types, treat certain colours of hair and their efficiency varies. Like mobile phones and television sets every year, new laser technology is evolving which purports to give an edge to its predecessors, with respect to laser hair removal. The cost of these laser hair removal systems can vary from £10, 000- £80, 000! In my opinion as there has been no real head to head clinical trials between the systems, one must rely on the original gold standard the Lightsheer diode laser, which has stood the test of time, delivering speedy treatments and excellent results. Interestingly the Laserscope Lyra Laser system results are compatible to the Lightsheer system. In summary, if the clinic has a decent laser system, and selects to treat clientelle with the appropriate type of hair and colour its technology can treat and use pre-treatment topical anaesthetic followed by ice packs to give post treatment pain relief. There is then no reason why exceptional results cannot be obtained with minimal discomfort. Dr. S.R. Bassi is the lead cosmetic physician at a top Cosmetic clinic in North Nottingham. Visit our website www.selstoncosmeticlinic.com and learn more about laser hair removal and Vaser Lipo the exciting new walk-in walk-out body sculpting procedure.

Are you considering dentures? Instead of these plates of false teeth, why not consider dental implants? Dental implants have all of the advantages that dentures do not have. While dentures may have been the gold standard for teeth replacement years ago, dental implants are what is being used now. Dental implants consists of tiny metal devices that are affixed to where your teeth used to be. Just like dentures, your original teeth have to be removed and swelling must go down before you can get dental implants. This does not take more than a day or so. If you have dentures already, you will not have to worry about the swelling and can get dental implants immediately. The screws that are used in dental implants are affixed to your mouth with a temporary device such as a bridge. They are then capped with a crown that looks exactly like a tooth. The bridge will hold the teeth in place until the bones in the mouth have made the implants their own. This takes about four months, after which time the bridge can be removed. As the bridge goes on the inside of your mouth and is not visible to other people, no one will know that you have dental implants at all. They will think that you had your teeth fixed. After the four months are up, the bridge can then be removed and you can use the dental implants like you would ordinary teeth. You do not have to worry about eating an ear of corn or biting into an apple and leaving behind a set of dentures, as you might have to do with dentures. Nor do you have to worry about taking the teeth out of your mouth periodically and cleaning them in a cup, as you do with dentures. Are dentures cheaper than dental implants? Yes and no. They may be cheaper in the long run, but dentures do not last forever. You have to get them adjusted periodically. This means every year or so you need a new set. They are not cheap and run in the thousands. As insurance covers some dental work such as dental implants, dental implants make better sense in the long run as you do not have to continue to get them replaced. You have to take care of them as you would any other tooth, but you do not have to get them removed and replaced. Removing your teeth can be embarrassing for some people, especially if they get dentures at an early age. Having bad teeth or missing teeth can be a confidence killer. In some cases, people have such bad teeth that they get an infection that spreads all over their body because of that which is in their teeth. In those cases, the teeth have to be removed. If you have been advised that you need dentures, or just want a straight and healthy looking smile, consider seriously getting dental implants instead. They are the wise investment when it comes to confidence and will end up saving you money in the long run as they do not have to be replaced. You never have to worry about losing them when eating anything hard nor do you have to remove the for cleaning. Dental implants are the gold standard when it comes to teeth replacement.

Since decades, simple urine tests and breathalyzers were used to detect if one has consumed alcohol recently but no method was able to answer if one has taken alcohol last week! This is because, alcohol dissipates itself from the system in a matter of hours, and no one gets to know if you had that kickin’ drink at the party last weekend! But now, to the utter despair of those all-time boozers, the brainy chaps-in-the-labs have come up with a new protocol, which is being tagged as “gold standard of alcohol testing” for this can tell if someone has taken alcohol in the near past! This latest method works on the concept of Alcohol Biomarkers.

Alcohol biomarkers are the physiological compounds that are produced when alcohol is metabolized the by the body. They are used as an indication of consumption of alcohol. Researchers have reported two types of biomarkers - Indirect and Direct. Indirect biomarkers are the traditional alcohol biomarkers, which suggest heavy alcohol consumption by detecting the toxic effects that alcohol may have had on various organs or body chemistry. Direct biomarkers are the biomarkers that are produced as byproduct during the alcohol metabolism. One such direct biomarker is ETG i.e. Ethyl Glucuronide which forms the basis of this latest alcohol detection method which is also known as The ETG test. This test serves as a measure to trace out those individuals who are legally prohibited from consuming alcohol, either by the law or by their employer.

The Alcohol ETG Urine Test is a biomarker test that detects the presence of ethyl glucuronide in the urine samples. Actually, alcohol, when metabolized by the liver, forms ethyl glucuronic acid i.e. when someone consumes alcohol, in the liver, a compound called glucuronic acid reacts with it and forms Ethyl glucuronide as a metabolite. Alcohol dissipates within few hours but ETG particles remains in the system for as long as 80 hours, so a Friday night party can get you in trouble even on Monday morning! In some cases this test can also detect ETG markers even after 5 days of consuming alcohol. This amazing sensitivity makes this method most suitable to be applied in a diverse array of situations to find illegal, long term alcohol consumption. No wonder, since its instauration, the alcohol test has gained wide popularity %26 acceptance all across the globe. Nowadays, this test is also conducted widely in the corporate world to profile the alcohol habits and use of illicit drugs by their prospective employees.

Although this test has been proved to be able to detect alcohol usage for as long as 80 hours but still, it has got some booby traps! This test “can not distinguish in between the beer and the purell” says the director of federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). It doesn’t bother to find out why and how the ETG has been produced or the identity of the real substance abuse which has been metabolized to produce ETG. If it detects ETG, it will simply label you as an inebriate! So, it may get you in trouble for no fault of yours! Moreover, there are no known threshold levels determined for ETG that can distinguish between the incidental exposure and the intentional consumption of alcohol.

Still, if the medication profile of a person is known, this test can greatly facilitate alcohol detection in those individuals who are legally prohibited from consuming alcohol, either by the law or by their employer!

This Article is written by Tarun Gupta, the author of TestCountry Alcohol FAQ, a longer version of this article is located at Alcohol ETG Urine Test, and resources from other home health and wellness testing sources are used such as Digital Alcohol Breath Analyzer Device.

When you suffer from hair loss, you may want a permanent solution. One of the modern technique in solving this problem is hair transplant. Celebrities also seek this treatment which have made this cosmetic surgery so well accepted by the today’s society. In addition, the techniques have improved over the last decades and are suitable for women as well.

The process of hair replacement is a matter of moving some grafts from a donor site to the area that is suffering from baldness. It can help to reverse the symptoms of hair loss or poor hair density. Medical conditions such as androgenetic alopecia, scarring alopecia and other types of permanent alopecia can be corrected through this surgical procedure.

When you decide to undergo hair transplant surgery, the doctor will administer local anaesthetic. Depending on how many hair grafts you need, each session can take from two to eight hours. A ordinary treatment may require an implant of between 1,000 and 2,000 hair follicles. However, some areas may need up to 4,000 grafting.

The advanced hair restoration uses Follicular Unit Transplantation. It is internationally accepted as the gold standard in hair treatment. It uses a strip of hair that is taken from your body. The strip has approximately 1 millimeter of hair that projects from the surface. Each unit will have one to four hairs which resembles the natural growth of hair on the scalp. Then the surgeon will transplant the follicular unit transplants on the balding areas.

Before you can choose this option, you need to make sure that you have enough think and healthy hairs on the back or the sides of your scalp. Otherwise, the restoration cannot be performed.

The cost of surgery can be high. It depends on the amount of grafts required and the size of area that needs treatment. Moreover, the graft comes in various sizes and shapes. It is best that you consult the surgeon first to ascertain the expenses that you need to prepare. Now, financial companies are offering loans for cosmetic surgeries which include hair restoration. If you want to opt for this option but you can’t bear the cost, you can approach the firms for loans.

If you are going weigh the cost of the surgery against hair loss products, you may save money in the long run. You will realize that it becomes affordable although it looks expensive initially.

Hair loss may affect your physiological health. Once you have the hair transplanted, you will notice an improvement in self-confidence and self-esteem.

You can’t find “plugs and corn rows” anymore that were the common feature during the early stage of hair transplant. Now this new transplantation is focused on micro or mini grafting. This treatment provides a natural looking hair. Unlike the plugs, people will not notice any changes on your hair.

In 2006 in the US, the clinical gold standard for insomnia was controlled-release Ambien. Millions of prescriptions a year were and are written. Moving across the Atlantic, the situation is no less “impressive”. According to the latest figures, there are around half a million people in England taking sleeping pills at any one time. The National Health Service records show 820,000 prescriptions are written every month. It is estimated that some 330,000 pills are taken every day. This would make insomnia the most common psychological condition in Britain.

Why is insomnia so common? One explanation is that we now live a 24/7 lifestyle. Television and cable transmit tempting programs into our homes round the clock. We can surf the net, talk or sms on our handphones. We drink too much coffee. We live in an overstimulated world. But why would that lead to what, in real terms, would have to be described as an epidemic? Perhaps it is an age thing. As we all get older, do we need less sleep?

A better explanation seems to be that we have changed our attitude towards sleep. The first step is to distinguish between insomnia as the inability to get to sleep when we want to and sleeplessness where something keeps us awake, e.g. a change in our biological clock after flying to a different time zone. This makes insomnia mainly a psychological condition with insomniacs significantly more likely to be depressed than ordinary sleepers. This means that the more anxious we get about “falling asleep” the more difficult it is likely to become.

Generations ago, people did not take sleep for granted. Indeed, they were often worried about appearing lazy if they slept too much — Leonardo da Vinci pronounced sleep a waste of valuable time, napping about fifteen minutes every four hours. Now we are indoctrinated with the idea that unless we sleep seven or eight hours a night, our worlds will end. Hence, the National Sleep Foundation in the US recommends eight hours, but it is a fact that 70% of the population get less than this. A range of between five-and-a-half and nine-and-a-half hours per night is probably normal. In The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression, Darian Leader suggests that insomnia is usually a symptom of anxiety. Rather than routinely prescribe ambien, he consistently seeks to identify and treat the cause of the inability to sleep.

We could enjoy the peace of the night-time world when everyone else is asleep. The phone does not ring. No-one disturbs us. But the sleep-deprived brain does not function well and, for the majority, nights cannot be used creatively or productively. People are simply too tired whatever time of the day or night it is. Go for long enough without sleep and madness waits for us. This creates a billion dollar/pound industry to produce medications to knock us out. We are not deterred even though there can be withdrawal symptoms to negotiate when we try to stop taking the pills. Ambien is better than no treatment. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a good alternative but often not available. Other than CBT, we are into the self-help world of relaxation techniques. Perhaps this last option recognises that insomniacs are often too busy thinking about “stuff” to get to sleep. If they were bored, they might just drop off. One thing is certain, if you are not going to rely on ambien, the worst thing is to try to make yourself sleep. Like most things, the harder you try to do what should come naturally, the more unnatural you make it and the harder it becomes.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is the “gold standard” of treatment for patients with sleep apnea. The CPAP machine works by using pressure to send air flowing through the nasal passages, keeping the throat from collapsing during sleep—the main reason why individuals with sleep apnea stop breathing periodically throughout the night.

Why is this important? Most of us are aware that a good night’s sleep is essential. REM Sleep, the time during sleep when we dream, contributes to overall health and proper body function. But during a sleep apnea event, the individual leaves REM sleep many times throughout the night to restart his or her breathing. The result is a lack of deeply restful sleep that seriously affects the body’s ability to function.

There are three different types of CPAP machines:

• CPAP: delivers one continuous air pressure

• APAP: adjusts to your need for oxygen by starting out at low pressure, senses raising the pressure during a sleep apnea event

• BiPAP: uses a higher pressure when you inhale and lower pressure when you exhale

CPAP cannot cure sleep apnea, but it does alleviate symptoms such as:

• Snoring

• Nasal dryness

• Headaches

• Irritated eyes

• Daytime fatigue

• Weight gain

• Changes in mood

• Driver impairment

Unfortunately, getting used to sleeping with a mask on your face and air flowing down your nasal passages is not the easiest thing to do. Some patients decide they cannot get used to CPAP and eventually abandon the machine. Although this can be a serious health mistake, here are some of the reasons why patients feel this way:

• CPAP is highly successful when used properly, but many patients have trouble complying with its usage. Only 23% - 45% of patients have success.

• When used as directed, the CPAP success rate is nearly 100%! Unfortunately, CPAP is difficult to stick to, since the individual must commit to wearing a mask over the nose and mouth every night.

• The mask should be worn all night. Some wear if for 4 hours or less each night and never reap the complete benefits.

• Face breakouts, eye and nasal irritation, mouth dryness, runny nose and sore throat can all be side effects of CPAP.

• Patients with allergies, ‘mouth breathers’, and patients who sleep on their stomachs may find CPAP difficult to use.

Patients who have decided CPAP is not the right treatment for them frequently benefit from alternative treatments, such as oral appliance therapy.