Therapeutic Light Used to Repair Skin Damage

There is a procedure called LED photography that exposes skin to therapeutic light to repair sun damage without causing pain or taking much time. The procedure uses light that stimulates collagen and elastin production. It has fewer side effects than using lasers or peels, even though the results aren’t as fast.

Common Causes of Strokes

Most strokes happen when clot blocks blood flow to the brain. Strokes can also happen when a blood vessel bursts in the brain. High blood pressure encourages strokes because it can cause a buildup of arterial plaque, which can cause blood clots.

Birth control pills and hormone therapy increases the risk of having a stroke. Hormone therapy for menopause symptoms has less estrogen than birth control pills but still increases the risk of stroke a little bit.

Sleep apnea is a condition that interrupts the breathing process while a person is asleep. It raises blood pressure and the risk of having a stroke.

Other things that increase the risk of stroke include blood clotting disorders and having migraines with auras. Auras are visual changes that happen before having a migraine.

The risk of having a stroke can be cut in half just by lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol. If a female has high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, or diabetes, then she should be very cautions when taking birth control pills so that she can lower the risk of having a stroke.

Alcohol Bad for Hormone Therapy

A recent Danish study has found that drinking alcohol can have a negative effect on people that are on hormone therapy. The recent study showed that hormone therapy users that had one or two alcoholic drinks each day greatly increased their risk of breast cancer. Alcohol could prevent the estrogen in the therapy from being fully metabolized and that would cause a higher blood level of estrogen, which could influence the risk of breast cancer.

New Ways to Treat Asthma Symptoms

Soon, people that suffer from asthma can be able to wear sensors in their pockets that monitor the quality of the air and finds environmental causes of their attacks. The sensor’s tests will be used by researchers to find common things that trigger asthma problems.

Scientists have also found that proteins in air passages might indicate different asthma subtypes. This could possibly lead to more targeted therapies.

There is a new drug called Pitrakinra that blocks the body’s response to allergens and does a good job at reducing asthma symptoms. Clinical trials are currently being done on the drug.

Better Help for Long Term Depression

For people taking antidepressants to fight depression, it may not be the best idea to stay on them a long time after the symptoms of depression have eased. If medications have relieved the symptoms, it is better to move to cognitive therapy.

Even though it is recommended that patients keep using antidepressants up to 2 years after symptoms are relieved, 60 percent of patients have a recurrence of depression symptoms during that time while taking the medication. Of the people who stopped taking the medication and tried cognitive therapy, only 8 percent experienced symptoms of depression again within 2 years.

Why to Avoid Retail Therapy

A new study has found that people that are feeling down or gloomy are more likely to make big purchase decisions that they will later regret. These people are willing to pay up to 300 percent more for an item. Researchers say that sadness causes people to feel worthless and they often overspend as a way to feel better about themselves. The high that the person feels from overspending is short and they feel sorry about the purchase later, also known as buyer’s remorse. It is good advice not to go shopping while feeling down.

Doctors Using Nintendo Wii Games for Physical Therapy

The Nintendo Wii is widely becoming a form of physical therapy. Stretching and lifting exercises that help sick and injured people can get painful, repetitive, and boring. Nintendo Wii games require body movements that are similar to traditional therapy exercises. Most patients are so into the games that they don’t realize that they are doing physical work.

The most popular Wii games in physical therapy are the sports games, such as baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis. Users that play the games would use a wireless controller that would direct the movements of the animated athletes and characters on the screen.

Music Therapy for Good Health

Research has shown that good music can be good for your health. It can dull pain, release stress, lower blood pressure, better your mood, and cure insomnia. There are certified music therapists that treat heart disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases using music therapy.

Researchers found that listening to music for an hour each day can decrease 20 percent of your pain. It can also decrease the need for pain medication before and after surgery. This music therapy works by stimulating the release of pain-masking endorphins in the brain.

Brain music therapy can help insomnia. People suffering from insomnia who listened to classical piano created in response to their own brain waves improved their sleep quality in only 4 weeks. This type of therapy boots the levels of melatonin, which is a brain chemical that is linked to sleeping.

Music therapy can also help depression. Music can decrease depression symptoms by up to 25 percent. Researchers found that listening to New Age music decreased the levels of the stress hormone cortisol and classical music lowered blood pressure. Another study found that listening to your favorite workout songs during exercise can fight off fatigue so that you can workout longer and won’t feel so drained afterwards.