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Showing posts with label blood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood. Show all posts

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Acupuncture For Psoriasis

Using acupuncture to help psoriasis can be unusual and, indeed, this is an ancient Chinese practice is not used for the treatment of psoriasis in China. Since this condition is relatively rare in China, there should be no need to use it. As science and nature has not found a cure for psoriasis and some swear by the use of acupuncture to soothe the sores and lesions of psoriasis, perhaps this is a natural alternative to try.

The severe psoriasis affects approximately 2% of the population in the United States and Australia. In addition, about 20% of the population suffers from mild to severe condition. In addition, thousands of new cases reported each year to psoriasis, a significant problem throughout the world. The exact cause is unknown, but it is known that this condition does not apply to only the top layer of skin, it is very likely to be related to malfunction of the immune system that causes some cells to become overactive and produce sores and related harm the condition.

Acupuncture is used to thin, long needles are inserted into the body at certain points of the "network" signal paths, which correspond to the problem area. This may or may not include the treatment of the affected area, when we are trying to solve the problem. The signals are transmitted via acupuncture techniques for which they are careful placement of needles into the body.

While practicing Western acupuncture practice of law in the treatment of psoriasis, there is little clinical evidence to support it. This may be due to individual differences in how psoriasis occurs in one person over another. Unfortunately, this is a matter of trial and error in an attempt to calm down and deal with the disease.

If you are looking for a quick recovery to look elsewhere because you will need several sessions to see if acupuncture for psoriasis works for you. The good news is obviously that there are no side effects, unless of course you have an aversion to needles that can bring your blood pressure up or cause an anxiety attack! If this is you, you may be relieved to know that the practice is now often done by means of electrical currents and small probes instead of needles. This more modern technique said to be as effective as the use of needles.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Blood Banks Also Need Viagra Dose

It’s hard to argue with blood transfusions. Each year, nearly 5 million Americans receive them, and for many patients it’s a definitively life-saving therapy. There is, of course, a risk in transmitting diseases like hepatitis and HIV through transfusion, but modern operations can all but eliminate that threat. Curiously, however, there have been persistent observations about another problem with blood transfusion: In some settings, blood transfusions worked less effectively than expected, but no one knew exactly why. Now two groups at Duke University may have found the reason: the loss of the molecule nitric oxide from stored blood.

Nitric oxide is one of those "big" molecules. Its first biological effects were described in the 1970s, and in the 1980s it was determined that the gas contributes to the normal dilation of blood vessels. This led to an avalanche of research, a 1998 Nobel Prize for its discoverers, and, most famously, the creation of Viagra. (For those of you who are wondering, nitric oxide is not laughing gas. That’s nitrous oxide. Mixing up the two could presumably cause some very undesired results.)

In papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two teams at Duke showed that the nitric oxide normally found in red blood cells disappeared within a few hours of the blood being processed for transfusion. When animals in lab studies received transfusions of the nitric oxide–depleted blood, their blood vessels did not dilate to normal levels, decreasing the amount of blood—and oxygen—that gets delivered to muscle and other tissue. Replacing the nitric oxide, a relatively simple procedure, made the transfused blood effective at expanding blood vessels and delivering more oxygen.

This is the kind of study everyone likes. It answers a question that has been bothering people for a long time, the answer makes sense, and the potential solution is straightforward. If this work can be duplicated in other animals and then in humans, it could go a long way toward making blood transfusions a safer and more effective option for patients who need them.
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