|
|
|
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Incontinence
As people age, so do their bodies and their organs. One of the
most embarrassing issues that accompany aging organs is urinary
incontinence. This issue affects approximately 20 million
Americans and 25% of all women. The causes are varied,...
Ayurveda regimen for winter depression.
Long nights, short days, sweaters, warm clothes and chilly
weather make many of us sick and depressed. This depression
which surfaces especially in winter is a Seasonal Affective
Disorder (SAD) and is often called as winter Time Blues or
Winter...
Combination of Thiazide-Type Diuretic and Beta-Blocker may Cause Diabetes
Clinical Question: In patients with hypertension is it safe to combine thiazide-type diuretic and beta-blocker?
Bottom Line: Studies suggest that the routine combined use of a thiazide with a beta-blocker should be questioned in the early...
Treating Chronic Pain and RSD
The goal of treatment is pain control and as much mobilization of the affected limb as possible. An individualized treatment plan is designed during your doctor visit, which often combines physical therapy, medications, nerve blocks, and...
Viagra has Revolutionized the Lives of the Elderly
Many a times you must have seen that inviting look in the eyes of your mate while she is gardening and you are reading that Sunday morning newspaper of yours feeling sexually aroused, so desperate you feel, to see her inviting looks, but instead you...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Placebo Effect Is Not Just Psychological
Copyright 2005 Daily News Central
Patients who believe in the effectiveness of their pain medication will experience greater pain relief, finds a University of Michigan study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Just thinking that a medicine will relieve pain is enough to prompt the brain to release its own natural painkillers, results indicate.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, provides the first concrete evidence that endorphins, the brain’s own pain-fighting chemicals, play a direct role in the phenomenon known as the "placebo effect."
Endorphins behave similarly to opiate drugs, such as heroin and morphine. They bind to receptors and stop the transmission of pain signals along the nerve pathways. Previous studies have shown that the brain responds physically during the placebo effect, but the new study is the first to pinpoint a specific mechanism that triggers the brain's physical response.
"This deals another serious blow to the idea that the placebo effect is a purely psychological, not physical, phenomenon," says lead author Jon-Kar Zubieta, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and radiology at the U-M Medical School and associate research scientist at the Molecular and Behavioral Neurosciences Institute.
The study involved 14 young men who agreed to allow researchers to inject their jaw muscles with a concentrated salt-water solution to induce pain. Brain scans were performed on the subjects to monitor the activity of their brains' natural painkilling endorphins during the process.
Mind-Body Connection Clear
During one scan, they were told they would receive a medicine (in fact, a placebo) that might relieve pain. Subjects reported a lessening of pain after receiving the placebo, and brain scans indicated increased endorphin activity in four areas of the brain known to be involved in the response to, and processing of, pain.
Every fifteen seconds, the subjects were asked to rate the intensity of their pain on a scale of 0 to 100. After each scan, the
researchers asked the participants more questions about their mood, emotions and other aspects of how they felt during the scans.
There were significant differences between ratings given by participants after the scan in which they received the placebo compared to the scan during which they received the jaw injection alone.
"We were able to see that the endorphin system was activated in pain-related areas of the brain and that activity increased when someone was told they were receiving a medicine to ease their pain. They then reported feeling less pain. The mind-body connection is quite clear," reports Zubieta.
Suggestion Triggers Endorphin Release
Another scan was performed in which subjects were administered additional placebo prior to increased pain-induction to discern whether endorphin activity could be stimulated solely by suggestion.
As additional placebo was administered, endorphin activity increased. Researchers then had to increase the amount of salt-water in order to maintain the subjects' pain levels, which they did without their knowledge.
Two-thirds of the study participants were classified as "high placebo responders," experiencing significant endorphin activity through the power of suggestion. This helps explain why so many people report relief after receiving therapies and remedies that provide no actual physical benefit.
This new information may lead to better use of cognitive, or psychological, therapy for people with chronic pain, the authors suggest.
Researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to determine exactly which part of the brain the endorphin activity originated from, cross-registering them with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for the purposes of accuracy.
Rita Jenkins is a health journalist for Daily News Central, an online publication that delivers breaking news and reliable health information to consumers, healthcare providers and industry professionals: http://www.dailynewscentral.com
|
|
|
|
|
| National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health |
| Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ... |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com |
| Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns. |
| www.medicinenet.com |
|
| Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine |
| Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications. |
| medlineplus.gov |
|
| Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Journal Home - Nature Medicine |
| Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ... |
| www.nature.com |
|
| The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ... |
| The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ... |
| content.nejm.org |
|
| eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base |
| eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ... |
| www.emedicine.com |
|
| Open Directory - Health: Medicine |
| the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ... |
| dmoz.org |
|
| the www virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages |
|
|
| Medicine - home |
| Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice. |
| www.md-journal.com |
|
| Institute of Medicine |
| The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health. |
| www.iom.edu |
|
| ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News |
| Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily. |
| www.sciencedaily.com |
|
| Google Directory - Health > Medicine |
| Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ... |
| www.google.com |
|
| the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages |
|
|
| PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal |
| PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ... |
| medicine.plosjournals.org |
|
| Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal |
| Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com. |
| www.priory.com |
|
| Entrez PubMed |
| PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ... |
| www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine. |
| med.stanford.edu |
|
| Medicine OnLine |
| Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ... |
| www.meds.com |
|
|