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Drug facts don’t lie. Designer drugs and academic use especially of Ritalin drugs is on the increase as students and white collar workers go to more extreme lengths to achieve top grades in their chosen careers.

The long term effects of drugs, any drug, is usually a serious downturn in your health, and if you use recreational drugs usually without adequate knowledge of possible side effects and complications, well simply put, you are risking your life.

So what exactly is a recreational drug? Usually it is a prescription drug designed to treat a condition, wrongly used as a stimulant. Such an example is the drug Ritalin, a brand name for methylphenidate which is used to treat ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) in children.

The affects of drugs of this nature is to pump a rush of adrenaline into your bloodstream causing an increase in your blood pressure and pulse rate. Your pupils also tend to dilate.

This can be extremely dangerous, because if you have an underlying cardiac disorder you are at serious risk of a heart attack.

Using such drugs in sport as everyone knows is now very difficult to do because of random drug testing and such sports persons are considered ‘cheats’. How long will it be before such random drug testing has to be introduced before examinations?

Students in particular use the drugs to pull ‘all nighters’, extended periods of study throughout the night prior to examinations. Some actually use them during class because they feel more alert and attentive. Students say they are easily purchased from other students or obtained from classmates who have been prescribed them.

It seems that the traditional caffine used to achieve these ends is less effective, and naturally the temptation is strong to use recreational drugs or study drugs as they are sometimes known.

When asked why do they do it, typical answers are, “It helps me stay awake and stimulates my mind”, and, “I can stay awake in class concentrate on the subject matter”. In law possession of these drugs which have not prescribed to you can lead to a five-year prison sentence and selling them to get you up to 14 years in prison. Students and academics continue to use Ritalin drugs because as another student put it, “It’s easy to buy and very cheap”.

It’s also easy to obtain a recreational drug on the Internet.

I’d be interested to hear what you think. Do you agree with the use of performance enhancing drugs?

The facts don’t lie. As more and more people begin to use recreational drugs, more students are going to find themselves in serious health issues, or perhaps die suddenly. Is your life really worth a better exam result? These are the drug facts painful as they may be.

• Experts warn of dementia ‘epidemic’ – Sleaford Standard – This could be compounded by the effects of increasing use of recreational drugs such as ecstasy, whose long-term effects on cognition are still uncertain.” The experts suggested that laws similar to those taken to curb smoking might be …

• Do we really need recreational drugs? – SyedShahidMD (Syed I H … – Do we really need recreational drugs? – We are discussing Dr Shahid’s Six Principles of health (also known as Preventive Holi…

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An alternative cure to depression

Acupuncture and Depression

Following news which broke yesterday that Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, how can the estimated two million people a year in the UK suffering from depression beat it?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists acupuncture as a recognised treatment for depression, so if you’re feeling fed-up or dejected it can help treat the condition. *Research shows that one in 20 of us visit our GP because of depression, making it a modern day epidemic.

Many people are unaware that acupuncture has a long history of use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders in China. It is now increasingly being used both on its own and in conjunction with other therapies, such as psychotherapy and antidepressants, in the UK.

How can acupuncture help?

Chinese Medicine acknowledges that emotional factors play a part in health and that emotional life cannot be separated from the physical. Acupuncturists talk about seven main emotions: joy, worry/overthinking, anger, sadness, grief, fear and fright. It is human nature to experience these feelings – the real problem occurs when we experience them to an excessive degree or don’t experience them at all. For example, a person can get stuck in anger due to harbouring resentment over many years, which in turn may manifest in physical or emotional conditions such as anxiety, depression, or insomnia.

Neil Quinton, acupuncturist and British Acupuncture Council member explains how it can help: “My experience has shown that acupuncture has a lot to offer people suffering from all kinds of depression. It really can be an effective alternative treatment for the condition. I have seen many patients change their lives and move on from a very difficult period – it’s as though acupuncture acts as a catalyst for change. Because it regulates the body’s functioning and with the interconnectedness of mind and body, patients always find that as they feel better their physical complaints improve too.

Research into acupuncture and depression

o A double blind study was conducted among women suffering from depression. The results found that acupuncture was significantly better in treating depression than either sham acupuncture or no treatment at all (1998, Allen et al)

o A further study (2000) found that acupuncture gave signifcant clinical improvement to depression sufferers. The patients were treated by true acupuncture ten times in two weeks and when compared to sham treatments showed a marked improvement. It was found to be especially good for treating anxiety symptoms (2000, Eich et al)

o A 1998 study at University of Arizona into the treatment of depression in 33 women by acupuncture was fairly widely reported in the acupuncture profession and elsewhere. The study found that 64% of the women experienced full remission of depression following depression-specific acupuncture treatment, appearing to show that acupuncture can provide significant symptom relief at rates comparable to standard treatments such as psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy.

o A 2004 study found that acupuncture was an effective treatment for depression during pregnancy. (University of Stanford)

As with all health care treatments, it’s important to find a registered and qualified practitioner. To find a practitioner in your area call the British Acupuncture Council on 020 8735 0400 or visit www.acupuncture.org.uk

BAcC practitioners are available for interview, expert comment and case histories.

For further press information please contact;

Paul Joseph

Mandate Communications

Tel: 0207 379 5000

About the BAcC:

The British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) has a membership of over 2,800 professionally qualified acupuncturists. It is the UK’s largest professional body for the practice of acupuncture.

BAcC members practise a traditional, holistic style of acupuncture diagnosis and treatment based on a system developed and refined over 2,000 years. To achieve BAcC membership, practitioners must first undertake extensive training in traditional acupuncture (minimum three years full-time or part-time equivalent), which includes physiology, anatomy and other biomedical sciences appropriate to the practice of acupuncture.

What is acupuncture?

Acupuncture is an Oriental therapy that aims to improve the overall wellbeing of the patient, rather than treating specific symptoms in isolation.

Traditional Chinese philosophy states that our health is dependent on the body’s motivating energy – known as Qi – moving in a smooth and balanced way through a series of meridians (channels) beneath the skin.

For any number of reasons, Qi may become unbalanced and lead to illness. By inserting fine needles into the channels of energy or Qi, an acupuncturist can stimulate the body’s own healing response and help restore its natural balance.

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Tags: prozac, depression, treatment of depression, acupuncture

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Well, it looks like the scientists have actually made a real breakthrough at last. It has long been established that cancer cells out live normal cells and have been deemed ‘immortal’.

The process whereby cancer starts has also been known for a number of years. The drug concerned in this breakthrough has been used for a number of years to treat other conditions, and is known to be safe.

Interestingly, the drug, called dichloroacetate has no patent, so any of the major drug companies could manufacture this drug cheaply and quickly.

Cancer is known to start when these cells switch from using oxygen to generate energy, to a method using sugar called glycolysis, which is essentially creating energy anaerobically, or without oxygen. The cells actually do this as a survival trait, (and I’ll be dealing with this in another series of posts relating to cancer).

In the process, the cells mitochondria are turned off, (as the mitochondria are responsible for using the oxygen energy process), to allow the sugar energy process to start.

Unfortunately, the mitochondria are also responsible for the self-destruction of abnormal cells, and once turned off, and cells continue to replicate abnormally. Ironically, the process also creates a waste product, lactic acid. Lactic acid breaks down the cell walls and allows abnormal cells to break away from the tumour. These cells can then travel to any part of the body and create secondary tumours.

Dichloroacetate or DCA, as it is known attacks cancer cells by returning the cells energy process back to using oxygen, by switching back on the mitochondria. This triggers the cells to self-destruct. Previously it was assumed that this was impossible because it was believed the mitochondria in a damaged cell were beyond recovery.

You will also see in further posts that followers of natural cancer treatments have always believed the cells were capable of recovery.

There are a few side-effects to using DCA. It can cause numbness, upset to your gait and pain.

It looks promising, and DCA appears to be effective against all forms of cancer. Hopefully DCA will soon be more generally available.

Tags: cancer, cancer treatments, dichloroacetate

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