Learning About Acupuncture

For those people who are not aware, acupuncture is a technique that makes use of disposable needles to be able to cure different types of pains in a person's body. The needles are expertly inserted in different locations in a person's skin known as meridians; pricking these meridians will cause the pain from the body to be eliminated immediately, allowing the person to feel more relieved.

A lot of people who are interested in the techniques used in acupuncture are probably wondering about the overall cost that they would have to endure just to be able to get the amazing benefits from it. For starters, people should not think about the acupuncture cost as only the exact amount that they would have to spend for it. Rather, people should take into consideration both the amount and the benefits that acupuncture will be able to give them in the long run.

However, to give people a better idea about the specific amounts that they need to spend, they should know that for the first visit, they will be billed with an amount that is quite expensive. The good news is that the acupuncture cost for the first session will not be as expensive as the succeeding sessions that people would have to attend to; first-timers should be ready to shell out 75 up to 100 dollars for the first session. The reason why the first session costs more than all the other succeeding ones is because this usually lasts the longest; having said this, people should expect their first session to last for at least an hour.

In addition to this, the succeeding sessions would cost people from 50 up to 70 dollars; because following sessions are cheaper, people should also expect that these will last for around thirty up to forty minutes. Even though these costs have been specified in this article, it does not mean that they will not change; as a matter of fact, the costs would definitely depend on the clinic that one would go to. Aside from this, people will also be able to encounter various clinics that are offering different types of discounts that would really be an advantage for their budget. The only thing that a person needs to do to be able to locate these discounts on acupuncture is to do a little research from different websites online. Truly, the time spent on finding these discounts will be worth it once a person realizes how much money he/she was able to save in the process.

What people should know is that many are actually attracted with the mentioned acupuncture cost because compared to the other treatments that are available in the market this is considered to be a lot cheaper. More importantly, acupuncture is not only more affordable for a lot of people, but it is also more reliable when it comes to treating the different ailments of people who are suffering from different things. This type of treatment can really be tried by anyone who is interested and curious at the same time about its overall and long-term effects on a person's body.

Acupuncture Healing Success

The first known and recorded therapeutic success of traditional Chinese medicine that soon became one of China's achievements was during the extremely effective interval of war from different states and countries. According to the history of China's, a physician named Pien Cheuh used acupuncture to treat a Governor of the State of Kuo. The acupuncture treatment with the use of natural herbs has revived the governor from a severe coma. Soon, the physician was then awarded with prestige. In ancient China and up to these days, this celebration is considered in favor of the support, acceptance and popularity of any form of treatment.

How Does Acupuncture Work According to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Modern Science?

Through scientific experiences and natural encounters, the use of such particular factors like pressure points on the epidermis of our skin were proven to be of great help and value in treating particular illnesses.

Interruption of the circulation can lead to psychological problems, emotional illnesses, and physical diseases, such as inability to conceive, allergies, heart diseases and many more. We have channels or programs called meridians that run through our bodies. They are usually in comparison to estuaries operating through the entire body system in order for the cells to be taken care and for the tissues to be nourished. The circulation of energy will then be supported and be flowing back.

These meridians can be affected by needling specific factors or points around areas of our bodies, also known as traditional Chinese remedies. Traditional Chinese treatments have a natural way of treating patients. By needling the acupuncture points, the circulation of the energy gets "unstuck" and is permitted to circulate in a free, effective and more balanced way.

The acupuncture points are certainly a great product of an incredible number of specific findings. Because of this, the different varieties of acupuncture were then developed and each of them were designed a name based on their type of procedures and treatment qualities.

Do The Needles Used In Acupuncture Hurt?

The concept of having needles trapped into the pores of our bodies' epidermis brings about heavy thoughts and ideas of discomfort for most people. We should know that these acupuncture needles used for treatment are extremely fine. Mostly everyone encounters the acupuncture needles diversely. Usually, people explain feeling a very minor discomfort sensation from almost nothing at all, to feeling of a single hair brought out from the scalp.

Alternative Healing Therapies

The human body is a miraculous thing. It can survive serious injuries and recover from great illnesses. In the "old" days, people relied on "Alternative Healing Therapies", known to them as home remedies to heal illnesses. Today, as a culture, we have come to rely so heavily on modern medicine that we often forget how capable are our bodies are of healing all on their own with, a little help from nature.

Lately, people are becoming aware of the damage pharmaceutical overuse can have. Because of this, more people are turning to alternative healing therapies. In nearly every home there seems to be a small pharmacy worth of alternative remedies.

What Are Alternative Healing Therapies?

Alternative Healing Therapies, also called complementary healing therapies, are types of health treatment outside the realm of modern medicine. These range from basic massage to acupuncture and aromatherapy. While the methods used in alternative healing vary greatly, they all follow one basic principle. All types of alternative healing therapies seek to assist the body in healing itself in the least invasive and damaging ways possible.

There are many types of Alternative Therapies. You can easily become certified in some of them such as; massage, aromatherapy, meditation, and acupressure. Others, like acupuncture and holistic dentistry require professional training for which you earn a degree. Most types of alternative healing therapies are improved by use of one or more of the others. This is why you often see massage therapists who also practice acupressure and aromatherapy.

Alternative Healing Therapies are Safe and Natural

Since Alternative Therapies rely mostly on natural methods and ingredients, there is very little risk of side effects or damage to the body. However, as with any outside influences on the body, users of alternative healing therapies should proceed with caution when introducing any new elements into their body.

This means being aware of any potential risks or side effects associated with the herb or product they are using as well as any allergies or sensitivities that they may have. Use herbs, oils, supplements, and other outside influences sparingly. Even the best things can be harmful when used in excess.

Meditation, Massage, and Guided Imagery

It may seem odd to think of something like meditation or massage as a type of therapy. To a culture so dependent on modern medicine the idea of meditation as a form of therapy may seem odd. However, both meditation and guided imagery have been proven time and again to assist the body in healing itself. This is due to the fact that the body is more capable of healing when it is relaxed. The same is true of a positive mindset. Whether it is a broken bone or a serious illness, the human body will always heal faster and more completely if it is happy, well rested, and relaxed.

Herbalism and Natural Therapy

Throughout history, we have used plants to help our bodies heal. This is called herbalism and it is one of the most widely used. Modern medicine was born out of herbalism and many medicines are still created using the properties of plants. Because of this, herbalism is one of the forms of alternative healing therapy that requires the most research and caution. It should be used sparingly and alongside other less invasive forms.

A Better Way To Heal

In the end, most types of Alternative therapies are still safer and less invasive than modern medicine. The human body is an amazing thing, capable of great healing. Sometimes, all it needs is a little help. Often times, alternative therapies can provide just the right amount of help without the dangerous risks and side effects so often found in modern medicine.

Rice consumption and health

Carbohydrate-rich foods lead to the formation of blood sugars after digestion (e.g., glucose, fructose), which are then used by the liver to synthesize liver glycogen. Liver glycogen is essentially liver-stored sugar, which is in turn used to meet the glucose needs of the human brain – about 5 g/h for the average person.

(Source: Wikipedia)

When one thinks of the carbohydrate content of foods, there are two measures that often come to mind: the glycemic index and the glycemic load. Of these two, the first, the glycemic index, tends to get a lot more attention. Some would argue that the glycemic load is a lot more important, and that rice, as consumed in Asia, may provide a good illustration of that importance.

A 100-g portion of cooked rice will typically deliver 28 g of carbohydrates, with zero fiber, and 3 g of protein. By comparison, a 100-g portion of white Italian bread will contain 54 g of carbohydrates, with 4 g of fiber, and 10 g of protein – the latter in the form of gluten. A 100-g portion of baked white potato will have 21 g of carbohydrates, with 2 g of fiber, and 2 g of protein.

As you can see above, the amount of carbohydrate per gram in white rice is about half that of white bread. One of the reasons is that the water content in rice, as usually consumed, is comparable to that in fruits. Not surprisingly, rice’s glycemic load is 15 (medium), which is half the glycemic load of 30 (high) of white Italian bread. These refer to 100-g portions. The glycemic load of 100 g of baked white potato is 10 (low).

The glycemic load of a portion of food allows for the estimation of how much that portion of food raises a person's blood glucose level; with one unit of glycemic load being equivalent to the blood glucose effect of consumption of one gram of glucose.

Two common denominators between hunter-gatherer groups that consume a lot of carbohydrates and Asian populations that also consume a lot of carbohydrates are that: (a) their carbohydrate consumption apparently has no negative health effects; and (b) they consume carbohydrates from relatively low glycemic load sources.

The carbohydrate-rich foods consumed by hunter-gatherers are predominantly fruits and starchy tubers. For various Asian populations, it is predominantly white rice. As noted above, the water content of white rice, as usually consumed by Asian populations, is comparable to that of fruits. It also happens to be similar to that of cooked starchy tubers.

An analysis of the China Study II dataset, previously discussed here, suggests that widespread replacement of rice with wheat flour may have been a major source of problems in China during the 1980s and beyond ().

Even though rice is an industrialized seed-based food, the difference between its glycemic load and those of most industrialized carbohydrate-rich foods is large (). This applies to rice as usually consumed – as a vehicle for moisture or sauces that would otherwise remain on the plate. White rice combines this utilitarian purpose with a very low anti-nutrient content.

It is often said that white rice’s nutrient content is very low, but this problem can be easily overcome – a topic for the next post.

4 Departments in Your Health Care Organization That Must Adhere To Universal Precautions

Infectious pathogens in the blood can be transferred from one person to another causing bloodborne diseases. Other body fluids like semen, vaginal discharges, amniotic fluid, saliva, etc. can also cause such infectious diseases. And prior to proper testing, it is impossible to know which blood samples are infected. Therefore, it is best to assume all samples as potentially infected and handle them with the utmost care. And as such, basic precautionary measures that should be taken by your health care employees while handling potentially blood and body fluids are known as universal precautions.

There are four main departments in the hospital that must strictly adhere to the universal precautions, as discussed below.

· Laboratory: It is mainly the hospital laboratory that deals with blood samples on a daily basis. This place is filled with chemicals, sharp instruments and equipment, and uncountable blood samples that are likely to be infected. There is maximum risk of employees contracting bloodborne diseases here. It is mandatory for your health workers to wear protective clothing like gloves, gowns and eye gear at all times. Other personal protective equipment like foot covers and face shields must also be worn depending on the work being done. All these equipments are important as they keep your skin protected from pathogens and also from dangerous chemical splashes.

· Housekeeping: The housekeeping department in your health care organization will not just be responsible for sweeping and swabbing but also for the decontamination of work areas and for proper disposal of fluids and sharp instruments. All housekeeping workers must be given gloves, aprons and gowns to wear while cleaning work stations, floors, walls and furniture. All necessary precautions must be properly followed to prevent spread of infection.

· Laundry and Linen: Special care must be taken by your employees working in the laundry and linen department. They must wear gloves and protective gowns at all times. Dirty linen must be segregated into separate bags with stained clothes folded in such a way that the dirty part in inside. Transfer of dirty linen from wards and operation theatre to laundry must be done through a separate route where patients and others are not present. It is recommended that the worker changes his gloves while dealing with used linen.

· Nursing Department: It is the nurses who majorly deal with the patients. They are involved in drawing blood, giving injections, changing beds and patient gowns, etc. All these activities involve a small chance of infection spread. While using needles and sharp equipments they must be careful to avoid getting pricked accidentally. All needles and sharp instrument must be disposed off in special sharp containers. They must always wear gloves that are in good condition and follow correct practice of hand washing while dealing with patients. Nurses must be alert in cases of fluid spills which are very dangerous.

Understanding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

When it comes to hospital medical transcription, transcribers do not just translate audio to text; there are also some legal matters that have to be put into consideration when working. As a transcriber, weather you are working at home or at a transcription company, it is important to take note of the HIPAA. The HIPAA act or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a law that protects all individuals when it comes to the privacy of their medical records. Information that is exchanged during the entire transcribing process is considered private and should be disclosed to anyone else. Sometimes, some information is disclosed by accident without the knowledge of the transcriber.

There are some ways and tips in order that this information is kept private and away from the public eye during a hospital medical translation process.

Keep your work station private

When you are working at home for a surgery medical transcription company or a hospital medical transcription company, a lot of information be shared between you are and your client. Make sure that your computer or workstation is locked away from the prying eyes of your house-mates. It is important that they have no access to your computer or any file or folder that contains all this information. Most home based transcriptions working on a hospital medical transcription would have a separate computer for transcribing purposes alone; if the latter is possible it is probably the best option when it comes to protecting all private date.


Avoid discussing work details with others

It is also important that you avoid talking about patient transactions with others. It is human nature to share thoughts, especially experiences regarding work to others; but as much as possible avoid doing so. Information shared to other people has a high chance to be shared again to others. Never disclose specifics such as names of patients, what they are going through, which hospital they are in, and other specific details concerning a single person or to a specific institution. Aside from verbal communication, avoid posting such details on on-line social medium websites such as twitter and face book as well as forums and public message boards.

Make sure that a HIPAA contract exists between your employer and you

Last but not the least; make sure that there is a contract between you and your employer. A contract will make you understand more the scope and detail of a HIPAA medical transaction and what actions should be avoided so as not to break the law. If there is no such contact between two parties suggest that a contract be made by the employer so that both parties will understand the importance and privacy of all information exchanged during the entire process.

Evasive Action to Overbearing Healthcare Reform

With the June 28, 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in declaring the Affordable Care Act constitutional, very important personal decisions need to be made by Joe and Jill Citizen as to how they will deal with the changes as it relates to their conscious health decisions. For instance, in order to keep the plan as cost effective as possible steps may be implemented to limit doctors in the types of treatments they can provide their patients. Is this something Joe and Jill Citizen is ready to contend with?

In the likelihood of that type of scenario affecting millions of people, there lies enormous potential for aware and free-thinking individuals to take more responsibility for their own health and well being. Preparing for the worst is, if not should be, a natural-born instinct for every human being. We prepare for bad weather by having candles or flashlights on hand should there be a power outage, going to a cellar in case of a tornado, having road salt and snow shovels on hand before the blizzard of the decade hits. Wouldn't it make sense, in the case of our health, to make preparations as well? In fact, one would say that it makes much more sense to take em>preventative measures to ensure our good health endures for as long as humanly possible.

The looming threat of being denied a critical medication or procedure to provide a work-around for a current ailment is a frightening prospect, even more so if your life depends on it. Scientific study has shown that many of today's sicknesses and diseases could easily be prevented with proper nutrition. Much of these findings were derived from the field of animal husbandry which, these days, is very big business. And as in any business if you have damaged product (diseased animals) your customers will not buy and you go out of business. One can quickly understand why reversing the sickness and disease in livestock would be very important to that particular business. The same applies to human health only with greater consequences if you, the product, is damaged due to nutritional deficiency.

Take, for example, the debilitating disease arthritis. For over 50 years those in the business of animal husbandry have been curing arthritis in their livestock with natural trace minerals found in the mineral blocks scattered in fields all over the world. Does it not make sense that the same concept of supplementing the diet with essential trace minerals would apply to the arthritic joints of human beings? We can readily see, in this example, the great benefits of taking preventative steps to curtailing the painful prospect of degenerative arthritis. It would be hard to believe that a free-thinking individual would prefer to wait and see if the care they may require would be granted or denied based on the cost effectiveness to a health care program. What factors would determine if treatment should be granted or denied? Age? Weight? Tax revenue generation of the patient?

Answering the call to take control of our personal health situations can be an intimidating concept to many people but it could not be more critical than it is at this moment. With certain aspects of the health care changes being put into place, the old proverb "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," couldn't be more true.

The 2012 Arch Intern Med red meat-mortality study: The “protective” effect of smoking

In a previous post () I used WarpPLS () to analyze the model below, using data reported in a recent study looking at the relationship between red meat consumption and mortality. The model below shows the different paths through which smoking influences mortality, highlighted in red. The study was not about smoking, but data was collected on that variable; hence this post.

When one builds a model like the one above, and tests it with empirical data, the person does something similar to what a physicist would do. The model is a graphical representation of a complex equation, which embodies the beliefs of the modeler. WarpPLS builds the complex equation automatically for the user, who would otherwise have to write it down using mathematical symbols.

The results yielded by the complex equation, partly in the form of coefficients of association for direct relationships (the betas next to the arrows), have a meaning. Some may look odd, and require novel interpretations, much in the same way that odd results from an equation describing planetary motions may have led to the development of the theory of black holes.

Nothing is actually "proven" by the results. They are part of the long and painstaking process we call "research". To advance new knowledge, one needs a lot more than a single study. Darwin's theory of evolution is still being tested. Based on various tests and partial refutations, it has itself evolved a great deal since its original formulation.

One set of results that are generated based on the model above by WarpPLS, in addition to coefficients for direct relationships, are coefficients of association called "total effects". They aggregate all of the effects, via multiple paths, between each pair of variables. Below is a table of total effects, with the total effects of smoking on diabetes incidence and overall mortality highlighted in red.

As you can see, the total effects of smoking on diabetes incidence and overall mortality are negative, but small enough to be considered insignificant. This is interesting, because smoking is definitely not health-promoting. Among hunter-gatherers, who often smoke tobacco, it increases the incidence of various types of cancer (). And it may be at the source of many of the health problems suggested by analyses on the China Study II data ().

So what are these results telling us? They tell us that smoking has an intermediate protective effect, very likely associated with its anorexic effect. Smoking is an appetite suppressor. Its total effect on food intake is negative, and strong. As we can see from the table of total effects, just below the two numbers highlighted in red, the total effect of smoking on food intake is -0.356.

Still, it looks like smoking is nearly as bad as overeating to the point of becoming obese (), in terms of its overall effect on health. Otherwise we would see a positive total effect on overall mortality of comparable strength to the negative total effect on food intake.

Smoking may make one eat less, but it ends up hastening one’s demise through different paths.