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People who are going through a drug treatment program not only need rehabilitation to get over their addiction, but also the long-term support of their families. This is especially true of individuals who require any medical equipment for a chronic disease or illness, such as diabetes. Family members play an important role in general medicine, by ensuring the patient gets their treatment and takes their medication. With friends and family to help out, patients should do better with a regimen of general medicine practices to achieve optimum health.

Today, health medicine is a first step in treat a variety of disease and chronic illnesses. Many family practitioners use a more holistic approach to diseases than ever before, realizing that lowering the number of medications a patient takes is helpful to their recovery. Patients who need to see a specialist or holistic practitioner for further treatment are referred to the appropriate physician. Alternative medicine is seeing referrals from physicians who have patients with chronic pain, stress related disorders and anxiety.

You should still get your yearly physicals and checkups with your family doctor who practice in general medicine. But seeking out an alternative medical practitioner like an accupuncturist with state-of-the-art medical equipment is becoming the norm. Patients using oxygen, are getting relief from bio-feedback and massage has shown to lower their stress levels. These patients are finding their daily activities are easier and more pleasurable after such treatments.
Whether you use traditional or a more holistic approach to keep your health at your best, is your choice. With proper preventative medical care, vitamins and your dedication to a healthier lifestyle, you can maximize your long-term health potential. Your personal contribution and focus on important health factors like good diet, exercise and plenty of rest will add years to your life. Regular preventative care combined with good personal wellness efforts can help sustain a healthy lifestyle.

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Allergies occur when a person’s immune system overreacts to normally-harmless substances called allergens. Allergens may come into contact with the body in many ways, including airborne particulates, food ingredients, or insect stings. Some of the most common types of allergies are to airborne particulates, such as pollen, dust, mold, and pet dander (usually in the form of shed hair or skin particles.) These allergies can be alleviated in various ways, but one of the most convenient is through the use of an air purifier for the home. These units can be purchased new or used for reasonable prices and at excellent quality. The most effective way to alleviate indoor allergens is to eliminate the source of the allergens—for example, by improving ventilation systems or by weatherizing windows and doors. However, investing in one or more air purification units is a good idea even in well-constructed homes.

Air purifiers come in a range of shapes and sizes, from small standalone units to larger units that work with the ventilation system in the home. Air purifiers also use a variety of methods to purify air, the most common and basic of which is the use of a simple air filter which screens out particulate matter too large to pass through the holes in the filter. However, this technique may still allow very small particles to pass through unimpeded, and many allergens—including some organisms—are tiny. More sophisticated purification methods use ultraviolet light to sterilize the air, removing bacteria and other harmful or allergenic microorganisms. Still another purification method is that of ionization, using electrical charges to produce ions, which then adhere to airborne particulates. The ions are then electrostatically attracted to a collector, and disposed of. Possible drawbacks of air purifiers include noise and rare byproducts, most notably small amounts of ozone from certain types of ionizing purifiers. Ozone itself can be an allergen.

While there are many possible methods of air purification, do not assume that only one may be used at a time. Using several different types of air purifiers will give you the best chance of screening out allergenic substances.

Sleep apnea can be a debilitating condition, robbing individuals of sleep and affecting their waking performance in every area of their lives. But a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device can alleviate apnea, allowing you to experience untroubled sleep. These devices can be bought used from medical suppliers for reasonable prices.

Sleep apnea occurs in two varieties: obstructive and central. Both types involve an interruption in a person’s intake of air while asleep, which causes the body to wake up. Usually, these instances of waking are brief enough that the person does not remember them in the morning, but if they occur frequently enough during the night, they can cause symptoms of sleep deprivation. Sleep apnea usually manifests as excessive snoring, interruptions in breathing patterns while asleep, or as excessive, seemingly-inexplicable fatigue while awake.  Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the muscles of the airway relax during sleep and occasionally block the flow of air. Muscle relaxation is normal during sleep, but does not result in a blocked airway. Obstructive sleep apnea can be caused by obesity, sleeping position, or a genetic predisposition to narrowed airways. Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain’s signals to the breathing muscles become interrupted, usually due to neurological conditions or heart failure. CPAP therapy is effective at treating obstructive sleep apnea, but cannot treat the neurological basis of central sleep apnea.

A CPAP device consists of a mask that covers the mouth and/or nose, and a compressed air pump attached to the mask via a tube. The pump provides a constant stream of air to the sleeper, which increases air pressure in the throat and prevents the airway muscles from falling closed as they relax during sleep.

Because sleep apnea is a chronic condition which lasts indefinitely, CPAP therapy is likewise ongoing. Sleeping with the mask on may be a significant adjustment at first, and you may experience a few minor side effects such as skin irritation and dry nose, but these should go away after a few days. CPAP devices can be bought used, offering you an uninterrupted night’s sleep for a modest investment.

Over the past few years, it has come to pass that robotic surgical tools allow surgeons to operate on patients over the Internet, from thousands of miles away.  This has obviously been assisted by on site medical personnel, to oversee that the devices are working correctly and that all necessary "pre and post" steps are taken (as in, before and after the patient is actually opened up) to ensure that the entire operation goes off without a hitch.  But of course, science is just like the rest of human kind – nothing is ever going to be good enough.  And while this has generally been of some overall benefit to our species and its dominion over the world, it can also lead to some very interesting, potentially very troubling questions that we are all going to ask ourselves sooner than many people would like to consider.

Duke University roboticists (a fancy word for engineers who specialize in robotics, and probably don’t see the Sun very often) are working on the little details of creating robots that do not need to have a physician, in order to perform basic surgeries.  These robots will never have the tremors that a physician might develop, which could lead to an incredibly safe operational record.  They could also be used for training purposes, as they will follow what they are programmed to do every time without failure or issue – a robot will never have a hangover, and it will never "just feel like" doing something erratic that could cause suffering and law suits.  From a technical standpoint, a robot is the perfect surgeon.  But then, it has no actual mind.

The physicality of having a robot that is under the direct supervision and control of a read, bona fide, experienced surgeon is one thing – if asked, most people probably wouldn’t have a problem with that kind of operation.  But how comfortable would you be with the decision making skills of a robot that is given full autonomy to open up your body, conduct an operation, then close you up?  Would you feel comfortable?

It is a foregone conclusion that a nurse that is worth their salary has got a few things on their belt at all times. A few pairs of rubber gloves (just in case) at the ready are a hallmark of an experienced medical professional. And a decent clipboard with a few bits of medical references on it (such as a CM ruler, pupil gauge and blood pressure charts) can be as good as gold to folks in the nursing profession. And obviously, a proper stethoscope would be worth what you paid for it even if it cost ten times what they do. However, there is one tool out there that pretty much trumps the rest.

While you don’t necessarily need a masters degree in nursing to appreciate the complicated tools in the medical profession, one of the simplest ones is also one of the best for a lot of situations that you are inevitably going to find yourself getting into. If you have not yet guessed what we’re talking about, it’s simple, everyday medical scissors. Do you need to clip a baby’s umbilical cord? Snip! Do you need to handle removing a bandage, or resizing it? Snip, yet again. If there is ever a need to cut something (which only happens about ten times in a slow day), a good, sturdy pair of scissors are a godsend for you.

While there are bent ended scissors designed for getting underneath bandages easily, some of the most important features are the materials your scissors are made out of, and whether they have additional attachments to facilitate getting things done a bit more easily. Obviously, you are going to want your scissors to be made out of stainless steel, because there is no room for rust in medicine. And in some very convenient cases, there are attachments on scissors for operations like handling and unscrewing IV tubes.

Sound waves are an incredible thing.  For one thing, they can be used to tell the police when someone is speeding (which might not be convenient if you happen to be the speeder, but it is nonetheless impressive), diagnose just about any kind of illness a person might have, and even take care of malignant growths inside of an internal organ.  These are the kinds of things that one would simply never suspect that the humble sound wave might be capable of doing.  For the most part, we typically just assume that sound waves let us hear things, and leave it at that rather cursory level of accomplishment.  But sound waves can do a whole lot more than just identify the basic goings on in the outside world.

Ultrasound technology has been in existence for decades, but seems to grow more effective with each passing year.  With an ultrasound device known as Doppler ultrasound, these extremely high frequency sound waves can pick up what is going on inside of your body at the very moment that it is happening.  Rather like a cop with a radar gun, this fantastic piece of equipment can tell a trained physician or technician how quickly blood is moving through your system.  This information can be in three dimensions, show the actual movement of the blood (and the organs that move the blood around), and whether anything suspicious or potentially dangerous exists (such as a blockage, blood vessel narrowing or malformed object like a tumor or congenital defect).

Sound waves can even allow a previously barbaric process of removing malignant (cancerous) cells from the walls of a man’s prostate to be elevated into the modern age.  If you are a man whose prostate is under threat, the notion of your own cells threatening your masculine power is scary enough – but the idea of a doctor shoving a metal tool in there and scraping off those cells could be a nightmare.  A better method actually uses extremely high frequency sound waves to essentially liquify (or cavitate) the cells into getting out of there.  Yay sound.

The word "catheter" actually comes from the ancient Syrian word for "to sit."  The Syrians made the first catheters, which were simply reeds.  Using these reeds to "sit" inside of bodily orifices like plugs, they were a medical tool which could be used to drain out that which should not be in the body any longer.  By inhibiting the body’s ability to close up a wound, and essentially "irrigating" out fluids of some sort, these tubes serve a valuable purpose to medical practice.  However, they can also cause a great deal of suffering to those into whom they are inserted.  After all, catheters have the potential to be very damaging to the people who have them inside their bodies.

A lot of people essentially go to hospitals to get even sicker than they originally were.  And catheters are no exception to this dubious rule.  As a catheter is essentially a foreign object sticking out of (and holding open) a human body, it is pretty much a guaranteed breeding ground for bacteria, as well as a highway by which this bacteria may have easy access to that body.  It has been speculated that of the tens of thousands of deaths due to the "super bugs" (infectious agents which are highly resistant to antibiotics, which breed like rabbits in a hospital setting), a very large number are due to catheters.  In the treatment of urinary catheters, especially, lies the potential for a great deal of infection.  It is in direct, constant contact with bodily waste, after all.

But of course, catheters can be useful, and most likely do save some lives due to their intended "drainage and irrigation" functionality.  Urinary catheterization is useful in the removal of the aforementioned body waste, and can also drain urine from the kidney by percutaneous nephrostomy.  Catheters can also collect fluid, as in cases such as abdominal abscesses.  They can also be used in veins, such as during angiograph, balloon sinuplasty, angioplasty and balloon septostomy.  A catheter can also be introduced into a vein or an artery, and used to measure blood pressure or intracranial pressure.

It is far too true in our society that more often than not, the fanciest, more ridiculously over complicated way to solve a problem is often the most favored manner. Too often, if you did not know better, you would actually think that we were making a concrete effort to inhibit our own effectiveness and progress, by passive aggressively making tons of rules and spending tons of unnecessary time and money on solutions that are of only a moderate level of effective value in combating the problem that they supposedly do. With that being the case, this is the kind of solution that pretty much blows one’s mind, from a standpoint of societal convention.

If you have ever been wounded, you know how nasty a wound can get in a hurry. Puss and bacteria are just parts of the game, especially when you received your injury in a dirty place (such as during a natural disaster, where it may have been hours of filth before you could receive any sort of medical treatment). There is a type of pump which is used to accelerate the healing process and reduce the frequency with which bandages need to be changed – that costs at least $100 a day to rent, and weighs 10 pounds or more (partially because of its batteries). But of course, thanks to an MIT PhD candidate named Danielle Zurovcik, that bit of expensive, heavy nonsense is done with. Her version of the pump costs $3, weighs half a pound, and can be charged up with a hand pump.

This is roughly analogous to a luxury car costing less than $1,000, getting a few thousand miles to the gallon of gasoline, and being small and light enough that you could comfortably carry it around for awhile. In this passive aggressive era, where it seems as if every new medical breakthrough has got to be huge, expensive and unbelievably complicated, this is the kind of innovation that all medicine cries out for more of. What could be next? Are there going to be heart catheters that work just like plumbing augers?

Drugs are more expensive than you can imagine. What you pay at your local pharmacy is just a fraction of the cost of the medication. There are pills that are literally 4,000 dollars a month if they are purchased with cash alone. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry and it’s costing you a fortune. The more sick you are the less money you have and there is no way around that. If you can believe it, there are people who are on over two dozen daily medications and without the help of insurance they wouldn’t be able to afford the drugs they are taking. But just like auto insurance, everyone needs to be covered.

That might be all well and true but that certainly doesn’t ease the pain of the amount that people are paying for prescription drugs, especially seniors on the infamous Medicare Part D program. It’s a program that can save seniors a ton of money on their drugs even though it doesn’t always feel that way. The reason that it often leaves a bad taste in your mouth is because of something those in the business call the donut hole.

The way it works is that for a certain period, and up to a certain dollar amount, Medicare simply pays most of the drug costs, leaving the patient with a fixed co-pay depending on the class of medication they are getting. Once the patient has acquired a certain amount of medication that Medicare has paid for, the tables are turned and the patient is made to pay a larger portion of the medicine costs. Depending on the medicine, this could equate to hundreds of dollars a month and leave those on a fixed income scrambling to pay for them. But without Medicare Part D they would be paying a lot more in the long run.