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Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness that will cause mood, energy and intellectual processes to cycle.Between 3% and 5% of Americans have bipolar disorder. That is about 4 million people. Bipolar disorder used to be called “manic depression” because that term described the most severe cases. The term bipolar was adopted in a effort to describe how this disorder has symptoms that range between two “poles”.

The symptoms of Bipolar disorder vary along a spectrum in which the symptoms can be very different from one person to the next. Two people with bipolar disorder can look and act very different. Symptoms can varies from one hour to the next, from one day to the next, one week to the next, or they can cycle over a period of months.

Many people with this disorder can go undiagnosed for years. In rare cases, there are distinct manic episodes followed by an episode of pure depression. People are more likely to go see a doctor when they are depressed and so many people are misdiagnosed and are told they suffer from depression. As result, they are treated for depression with little or no benefit.

Symptoms of a Depressive Episode

• Persistent sad, down or empty moods
• Feeling helpless, hopeless and pessimistic
• Feelings of guilt or being worthlessness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in ordinary activities
• Decreased energy, a feeling of fatigue or of being “slowed down”
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
• Restlessness or irritability
• Sleeping too much or excessively
• Loss of appetite and weight loss
• Increased appetite and weight gain

In a depressed phase of bipolar disorder, a person can have great difficulty thinking. These people tend to thinking more slowly. In a deep depression that will often stare off and seem disconnected from others. There is a loss of creativity and they have difficulty seeing the relationship between events, feeling and thoughts. They tend to remember depressing times and can’t remember better times. The depression tends to deepen and become worse before it changes. The slide into depression is emotionally painful as the person realizes that their life feels less interesting, less rewarding and less meaningful. Nothing seems to matter. Desire and motivation tends to slip away. They tend to isolate and come to feel like they can’t do anything to feel better. They believe their situation won’t change, will be this way forever and that their situation is hopeless (even when it is not). They forget about things in life that matter. Many depressed people try to fight their depression by involving their self in stimulating and high risk behavior or drug and alcohol abuse. Depressed people are drawn to and find momentary relief using stimulants like cocaine, meth, tobacco and amphetamines. This can include drugs like Adderall and Ritalin that are used to treat attention deficits.

Treatment of a bipolar patient during a depressed phase with an antidepressant can in 8 to 15% of individuals, cause a severe reaction. The reaction can include increased irritability, low frustration tolerance, hyperactivity, anger, aggression, suicidal behavior, and even violence. In some cases, a depressed person will become extremely manic.

Manic symptoms are high energy and accelerated states. Giving people an antidepressant (a type of stimulant) can trigger in some people a manic episode on top of a depressed mood. The rapid onset of a mixed phase of depression and mania can cause people to lose control and become very impulsive, reckless, self-destructive or dangerous. Their behavior can be very unstable and reactive.

Pure manic episodes are rare. They can last hours or many weeks. There is seldom a set pattern. The severity and duration is never the same.

Symptoms of a Manic Episode

• Increased energy, activity and restlessness
• Racing thoughts and rapid speech
• Denial that anything is wrong
• High risk behavior
• Impulsiveness or reckless behavior
• Excessive “high” or moderately positive feelings
• Poor sleep or decreased sleep
• Unrealistic beliefs in one’s ability
• Poor judgment
• A sustained period of behavior that is different from usual behavior
• Increased sexual drive
• Abuse of drugs and alcohol
• Provocative, intrusive, or aggressive behavior

Technorati Tags: Bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, Paranoia

This notice is to advise relief workers and other personnel traveling to Haiti to assist with the humanitarian response following the January 12th earthquake near Port-au-Prince. Conditions in the area remain hazardous, including extensive damage to buildings, roads, and other infrastructure.

Before You Depart for Haiti

Recommended Vaccines

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A number of vaccines are recommended for travelers to Haiti. See your doctor before you travel to make sure you have had all necessary vaccines.

• Routine: Be sure that you are up to date on vaccines such as measles/mumps/rubella (MMR), diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT), polio, seasonal and H1N1 flu, and varicella. It is especially important to have a current tetanus shot.
• Hepatitis A or immune globulin (IG): Even if your departure is imminent, one dose of hepatitis A vaccine provides adequate short-term protection for healthy people. For long term protection, a second dose is required 6–18 months after the first dose, depending on the brand of vaccine used.
• Typhoid: There are 2 vaccines available for typhoid prevention. The injectable vaccine may be preferable to the oral vaccine in cases where travel is imminent. The  oral vaccine requires refrigeration and 4 tablets taken every other day over one week.
• Hepatitis B: If your departure is imminent, the first in a 3-dose series (day 0, 1 month and 6 months) may provide some protection. An accelerated dosing schedule may be used (doses at days 0, 7, and at 21–30 days with a booster at 12 months).

Insect-borne Diseases

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Malaria

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Malaria occurs in all parts of Haiti. Ways to prevent malaria include the following:

Click here to read to rest of this CDC article

Technorati Tags: Haiti Earthquake, Haiti Relief

By Brenda Goodman

Technorati Tags: arthritis, Drug Recall, Tylenol arthritis, Tylenol Arthritis Recall

Dozens sent money to fake federal agents after being told they would be prosecuted for buying medicine from foreign countries online or by telephone, the FDA reports.

By Diane C. Lade

Reporting from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. - Extortionists posing as federal agents have taken as much as $31,000 from frightened people who thought they would be prosecuted for purchasing their medications from outside the country, federal regulators say.

The Food and Drug Administration has received 75 to 100 reports nationwide recently of people receiving calls from individuals claiming to be FDA special agents or law enforcement officials, the agency said this week. The targets were told that buying drugs online or over the phone was illegal and that if they did not immediately pay their “fine,” they would be arrested, jailed or deported, the FDA said.

Several dozen people sent the money, usually through a wire service, to an address in the Dominican Republic, FDA spokesman Tom Gasparoli said. Most paid about $1,000 to $5,000, although some sent much more.

Click here to read the rest of this article

Technorati Tags: Canadian Prescriptions, Medicine Scam, Online Prescriptions

Accelerated approval process used in flu vaccine approval

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Fluzone High-Dose, an inactivated influenza virus vaccine for people ages 65 years and older to prevent disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and B.

People in this age group are at highest risk for seasonal influenza complications, which may result in hospitalization and death. Annual vaccination remains the best protection from influenza, particularly for people 65 and older.

Fluzone High-Dose was approved via the accelerated approval pathway. FDA’s accelerated approval pathway helps safe and effective medical products for serious or life-threatening diseases become available sooner. In clinical studies, Fluzone High-Dose demonstrated an enhanced immune response compared with Fluzone in individuals 65 and older.

Click here to read the rest of this FDA seasonal flu press release

Also

H1N1 Swine Flu Update

Technorati Tags: flu vaccine, Season flu

by David B. Schulman M.D., F.A.A.D.

There is a true epidemic of skin cancer in America. One million cases of skin cancer will occur this year in America. Lifelong sun exposure is increasing for Americans as we spend more time outdoors and the sun’s rays are becoming more intense with our loss of ozone. The use of tanning booths is a new way to further damage our skin and raise our risk for skin cancers. There are three common forms of skin cancer and we are seeing dramatic annual increases in the number of these skin cancers. Melanoma, which is the most aggressive form of skin cancer, is now the most common cause of cancer deaths in American women under forty years old.

Basal Cell Carcinoma The most common and least aggressive form of skin cancer is basal cell carcinoma. This is the most common cancer in America and happily it causes nearly no fatalities. This cancer is most common on light skinned people and thirty percent of Caucasian people in America are expected to have a basal cell in their lifetime. The great majority of basal cell carcinomas will occur on the head and neck. Though this form of cancer almost never enters the bloodstream or the lymph system, it may be locally invasive. Basal cells do grow by local extension and over time can erode and invade not just skin, but other important areas down to muscle or bone. There are more aggressive forms of basal cell carcinoma that will infiltrate and extend below the surface more than above the surface. These tumors are especially dangerous for the surrounding tissue. Basal cell tumors often appear as pale or translucent patches or raised bumps on the skin with fine blood vessels in them. They may grow for months or years without detection. The often ulcerate and bleed as they grow, but otherwise have no symptoms like itching or pain. The tendency towards growing basal cells is inherited and many patients report at least one family member with a history of basal cell. Patients will often have more than one basal cell in their lifetime and I have seen patients who have had dozens of them. Darker skin tends to get fewer basal cells but one of the first lesions I had in my new practice was an African-American women with a basal cell on the leg. She is fine and nearly everyone who has this is fine. With early detection and removal this should simply be a speed bump on the road of life.

Click here for the rest of this article from South Charlotte Dermatology

Technorati Tags: Basal Cell Carcinoma, Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma

A very large, 30-year study of just about everyone in Scandinavia shows no link between cellphone use and brain tumors, researchers reported on Thursday.

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Even though mobile telephone use soared in the 1990s and afterward, brain tumors did not become any more common during this time, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Some activist groups and a few researchers have raised concerns about a link between cellphones and several kinds of cancer, including brain tumors, although years of research have failed to establish a connection.

“We did not detect any clear change in the long-term time trends in the incidence of brain tumors from 1998 to 2003 in any subgroup,” Isabelle Deltour of the Danish Cancer Society and colleagues wrote.

Deltour’s team analyzed annual incidence rates of two types of brain tumor — glioma and meningioma — among adults aged 20 to 79 from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 1974 to 2003. These countries all have good cancer registries that keep a tally of known cancer cases.

This represented virtually the entire adult population of 16 million people, they said.

Click here to read the rest of the article from FoxNews.com

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Technorati Tags: Cancer, Cellphones

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli scientists have discovered a way to create beating heart cells using human skin cells reprogrammed to become stem cells. The findings could lead to advances in disease research, and could in theory be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues.

Lior Gepstein IsrealNN.com photo

Published in the latest issue of Circulation, the findings by Professor Lior Gepstein of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology could make it possible to clinically repair damaged human hearts.

Such an application is at least 10 to 20 years away, says Gepstein, but the process can already be utilized for in-depth study of genetic diseases and the development of personalized drugs for irregular heartbeats and other inherited disorders.

Transforming our cells through reprogramming

The team’s work is based on the research of Japanese scientists followed by other groups, who generated “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSCs) from adult mouse and human skin cells. The iPSCs can be turned into almost any type of body cell - something that experts previously thought possible only with embryonic stem cells - and could, in theory, be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues.

Taking a patient’s own cells and turning them into iPSCs for use in tissue repair and regeneration would also eliminate the risk of rejection by the body.

Gepstein and his team from Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Rambam Medical Center used reprogrammed iPSCs derived from healthy human subjects’ skin cells with the characteristics of pluripotent embryonic stem cells. They were then able to convert them into heart cells with all the necessary properties such as expression of heart-related genes, spontaneous electrical activity, mechanical contraction, and response to various hormones such as adrenaline.

According to Gepstein, the rejuvenation of human cells and their transformation into iPSCs can be accomplished with almost any human cell.

Making heart headlines

Nearly eight years ago, Gepstein and colleagues made headlines by creating beating cardiac tissue in the lab from human embryonic stem cells. In 2007, he teamed with the Technion’s Dr. Shulamit Levenberg to create tiny blood vessels within the tissue. This breakthrough could eventually make it possible to implant the tissue in a diseased human heart.

The findings could also someday lead to advances in research on diseases caused by single-gene mutations. The list of these diseases includes familial arrhythmogenic syndromes leading to irregular heartbeat and sudden cardiac death, cardiomyopathies that weaken the heart muscle, and several neurodegenerative disorders.

Certain challenges exist, however. One hazard of using iPSCs as well as ordinary embryonic stem cells is the possibility that the cells will begin to divide wildly and turn cancerous. As a result, “it will be years before they are used clinically,” says Gepstein. While animal studies could eventually lead to clinical work, scientists would first have to learn how to make large amounts of the iPSC-derived heart cells, he concludes.

Technorati Tags: Heart Cells, Stem Cells

By Gabrielle J. Melin, M.D.

Depression can zap your confidence.

Some days you may feel like you can’t even follow through with the smallest of tasks. Being grateful can do wonders for your mood.

This doesn’t have to be elaborate or detailed. I suggest that you write down three things each day that you’re thankful for. This can be three sentences or three words, the simpler the better. Keep paper or a journal by your bedside and jot in it daily. This can be at bedtime or in the morning, whichever works best for you.

What’s so nice about jotting down why you’re being grateful is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort and is very powerful. Looking back over what you’ve written can help you to evaluate and learn where you’ve been and who you have become. This is a simple, reasonable goal that you can accomplish. This will build up your sense of positive self worth. You can do it, and you deserve to invest in yourself.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Mayo Clinic article

Technorati Tags: Being Grateful, depression, Giving Thanks