The Beauty Therapy

On September 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid(CMS) announced the details of Medicare Part D Precription Plan. Many people who suffer from chronic depression are disabled and depend upon Medicare for healthcare. This looks like an excellent progam for the disabled. It will be very helpful in covering antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, which are very expensive.

Mark McClellan, the Administer of CMS, announced that organizations offering Medicare prescription drug coverage ?will cover the vast majority of products commonly used.? He added that plans are covering ?88% of drugs used by seniors or those on disability?. More extensive information on formularies will be released during the first week of October.

McClellan urged beneficiaries to concentrate on comparing plans based on their own preferences about premiums, deductibles and other plan design features - and not to focus on the standard benefit required by the Medicare Modernization Act. That is because competition among plan sponsors has yielded an abundance of plans available to most seniors, many of which go beyond the standard minimum.

For example, potential enrollees in every state will be offered at least one plan with an annual deductible less than the $250 level in the standard benefit, and in many cases they can select a plan with no deductible. Many plans have flat drug copays rather than a percentage coinsurance. In addition, MA-PDs in all but nine states are offering some drug coverage through the Medicare drug benefit's coverage gap, which otherwise would require beneficiaries to pay for drugs themselves after reaching a certain level of drug costs.

I know that this information is critical to many of you. Obviously, those of you on Medicare will be receiving detailed information in the coming weeks. I hope that this quick reference to the overall details of the plan is helpful.

For those who suffer from chronic or recurrent depression that does not respond to antidepresants, the U.S. Food Drug Administration(FDA)just approved the first ever long term treatment option for depression: vagus nerve stimulation. You can learn more about this medical breakthrough procedure at http://www.VagusNerveStimulator.com

There is a free newsletter to keep you up-to-date on the latest developments about this unique and effective treatment.

Charles Donovan is founder of the http://www.VagusNerveStimulator.com web site and Bulletin. His book:

Out of the Black Hole: The Patient's Guide to Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Depression

was exhibited at the 2005 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta( 20,000 psychiatrists). He was implanted with the device in the FDA investigation trial on April 4, 2001, The ninety-minute out patient procedure completely changed his life after 20 years of depression and countless antidepressant/antidepressant combinations, including ECT.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is one of those common complaints nobody ever talks about. Studies show that it affects up to 30 % of the UK population. In the USA it rivals the common cold for the major cause of absenteeism in industry. Technically IBS is a functional disorder of the gut where the normal movement of the gut is hurried along or spasms occur. The main symptoms are diarrhoea -constipation - variable bowel habit -alternating diarrhoea and constipation -colicky abdominal pain, often relieved by passing wind or stools - bloating. Less frequently there may also be -heartburn - tiredness - back pain and rumbling in the tummy.

There is no organic cause for IBS but that doesn't mean it is all in the mind. IBS may be worse at times of stress. It is not hereditary but it may run in families perhaps because of a dietary or environmental link. It may be constitutional, meaning you have extra-sensitive gut muscles, or an overreaction to certain foods and chemicals. Women may find IBS worse after a period or after the menopause pointing to a link with oestrogen production. An estimated 25% of IBS cases are triggered by a bout of gastro-enteritis or food poisoning. IBS can be made worse with certain drugs, such as long-term antibiotics, which kill off the normal bacteria in the gut, codeine, laxatives and alcohol. Diagnosis can be a problem because symptoms vary. IBS is a disease of exclusion - in other words if you can rule out all other possibilities IBS is what you are left with.

TREATMENT

Treatment is aimed at alleviating the symptoms and the distress they produce. Reassurance and medical review help the patient to realise that although IBS is life- long it is not life threatening. Life-style changes such as reducing caffeine, alcohol and smoking all help. Diet can help if it's a high fibre one but the overuse of laxatives can make the situation worse. Treatment with connective tissue manipulation helps to reduce the tension around the gut, allowing the normal passage of stools through the system and more normal function to be restored.

http://www.londonphysiocentre.co.uk/irritable-bowel-syndrome.htm

Jacqueline is one of a few UK Physiotherapists combining Connective Tissue Manipulation, Manual Lymph Drainage, the MacKenzie Exercise Regime and Cranio-sacral Therapy in private practice. During the past four years she has successfully treated over 1,000 patients with spinal problems and a further 1,300 patients with other muscular skeletal problems in her Gillingham Physio Centre in Dorset. In order to offer her specialist techniques to a greater number of patients she started the London Physio Centre at 148 Harley Street. A Chartered and State Registered Physiotherapist, Jacqueline qualified at St Thomas's Hospital, London with additional emphasis in the treatment of backs and necks. She spent five years at the Leicester Royal Infirmary gaining experience in all branches of physiotherapy and became Senior Physiotherapist on the Medical Unit. In 1977 she created a private practice at the Leicester Clinic, eventually covering all orthopaedic, spinal and post-op physiotherapy.

Some people may be intimidated by the idea of getting a massage. Perhaps it is out of shyness- the thought of someone massaging your body while being naked is not something everyone is readily open to.

It's actually very simple really and is done all the time. You don't need to worry about anything because as professionals, massage therapists do this for a living and they will not try to intentionally make you feel any discomfort. On the contrary, the role of massage therapists is to reduce stress and improve circulation in your body amongst other benefits.

All your job is, is to lay down and let the massage therapist do their job. Let them focus. It's not wise to start a conversation with them during this process. Simply relax, and allow them to do their job. Feedback is another story though. Massage therapists are open to hearing any feedback you have for them either before or during the massage session.

Try to be helpful to them in ways that will allow them to optimally provide you the best massage experience possible. Try to allow yourself to enjoy the experience as well. Loosen up you body, and allow the massage therapist to work their magic.

Hurry onto the author's web site for good and useful content on massage therapy school insider news before the clock ticks twelve!

http://www.massagetherapistshop.com

Everything that has come to be in this moment is a by-product of everything that has ever been. It?s inescapable. The future begins right here inside you, and it is based on the contributions of every human who has ever lived.

You could not be who you are, were it not for all that has come before you. Like the ocean wave that laps up onto the shore, you are the culmination of many forces meeting, affecting each other, and then moving on.

Wow, isn?t that deep! Perhaps an easier way to say it is at any one time, we only get to see an infinitesimally small portion of anything. So much has gone on to get to each instant it?s incredible! So much so that you get to wonder how we seem to know anything at all with the amazing limitations of our fleeting perception.

Tomorrow, this article will just be one of innumerable influences on your life. Perhaps it will have lasting value to you. Perhaps not. Who we are is a product of accumulated experiences just like that. Based on this, it would appear none of us would really be able to understand another because, on the surface, each of us is composed of moments that the others have not seen.

Yet we all know this is not the case. When someone teaches you a lesson of some sort, you are taking their experience of their moments and running it through the filter of your experience of your moments. Through that, based on a commonality drawn from symbols you can understand, you can then weave the experience into the fabric of your life.

As example, Moby Dick is a story of Captain Ahab?s obsession with a foe. We all can relate to the account of his experience because, in essence, we are ALL experiencing the same story; we?re just getting it through different symbols.

What Melville did was to take the personal story of a man?s obsession ? which exists in the ?unseen? as a universal drive ? and gave it physical character in the form of the written word; the ?seen?. The resulting book holds the history of a life that never was, as told through the mouth of someone who has never been. Still, we embrace the work and praise it for shedding light on areas of our psyche that have been hidden in shadows. Within his creation, we recognize ourselves.

Where did all this come from? Nowhere. Dollars to doughnuts, Melville was just immersed in telling a particular story, the universality of it came as a by-product.

Moby Dick is now something that is part of the psyche of everyone who has ever read it, yet none of us has ever seen the things happening that were described. The unwitnessed, however, has been seen in the mind?s eyes of the readers. And from that comes a bit of a miracle, for as an extension of that imagined experience comes something (seemingly) brand new. Just look at all the books that have been written about Melville and Moby Dick, each offering insights into the piece as well as life itself!

Whatever insights were gained have been around since before any of the books were ever written. If translated into languages that existed before Melville had been born, and read by the people of that time, chances are the universal message would still come through. That?s the unseen Melville worked with, and that?s what we?re working with. In every moment.

A metaphor is defined as ?One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.? Healers, in order to be effective with all whom they are called to affect, understand that each of us are living out a metaphor for the experience of life.

Essentially, we are all experiencing the same thing, only through different metaphors that are determined by genetic, social, geographical, economic, spiritual, (and on and on) influences.

At its root, this is an attitude of inclusion rather than separation. It's knowing that whatever is seen by the other, if subject to a bit of translation, can be seen by you.

Still, it?s not that easy to either attain or maintain. That?s because sometimes the metaphor in front of you is so obscured by the difference in symbols that you?ve learned to embrace that, no, you really can?t ?get it.?

But if you work hard enough at it -- and that means allowing yourself to get in touch with what lives deepest inside of all of us; that we only wish to live -- then you have a universal common-ground from which to begin a healing moment with another being.

Russ Reina shares over 35 years of experience in the healing arts through his web site http://mauihealingartist.com. It is a potent resource for those wishing to deepen their abilities in connection and develop their powers as healers. For a powerful free tool to explore your inner world, please check out his adjunct site http://thestoryofthis.net

(Permission is granted to reprint this article, unedited, provided proper attribution is made and the signature line -- the above resource paragraph -- is kept intact)

Fibromyalgia is a neurological chronic condition that affects the musculoskeletal tissues of the body. The disorder is mostly responsible for inducing discomfort, pain and fatigue in the muscles, ligaments, tendons and in the areas surrounding the joints. People who suffer from fibromyalgia are constantly confronted with intense pain that tends to reoccur on a regular time basis. The pain caused by the disorder is felt deep inside the muscles and in certain points called trigger points. A common feature to all people with fibromyalgia is the location of the pain; to all patients fibromyalgia pain occurs in the same trigger points. Although people with fibromyalgia perceive the pain at different intensities, they claim to permanently feel a different level of pain in their soft muscular tissues.

An interesting aspect of fibromyalgia is that it can be very difficult to detect in some patients. The symptoms of fibromyalgia are common to many other conditions and therefore they can be misleading in establishing the appropriate diagnose. Although some of the symptoms of fibromyalgia may resemble those of rheumatoid arthritis, people with fibromyalgia seem to be in perfect health when they are examined by a physician, revealing no signs of muscular dysfunctions. Basic physical examinations and common laboratory tests usually don?t reveal the presence of fibromyalgia. This is due to the fact that pain, fatigue and discomfort are mentally induced to patients with fibromyalgia, as a consequence of abnormal activity of their nervous system. Although they show no physical abnormalities or dysfunctions, their experienced pain is real!

Abnormal brain activity is considered to be the main cause of fibromyalgia and there are two areas of the brain thought to be involved in the process. A high output of the mesencephalon (the upper region of the brain) accelerates the heart rate, increases blood pressure and raises the body temperature. People with fibromyalgia often experience sudden changes in body temperature and sometimes they sweat abundantly and even have fever. Also, a high activity of the mesencephalon is responsible for difficulties in falling asleep and inconstant sleep patterns. Most people who suffer from fibromyalgia have trouble sleeping and in some cases they even suffer from insomnia. Therefore, the cause for fibromyalgia lack of sleep is thought to be the abnormal activity of the mesencephalon. The permanent fatigue felt throughout the whole body by people with the disorder is amplified by inappropriate sleeping patterns, un-refreshing sleep or insomnia.

Another part of the brain that is considered to be responsible for inducing other fibromyalgia symptoms (anxiety, depression, lack of concentration, poor cognitive abilities, loss of short-term memory and confusion) is the cerebellum. A lower activity of the cerebellum is thought to be the cause of other fibromyalgia symptoms and the majority of people who suffer from the disorder reveal abnormal activity of both cerebellum and mesencephalon.

Fibromyalgia is considered to be a serious condition. Due to the chronic character of fibromyalgia, patients require ongoing treatment and therapy. If left untreated, fibromyalgia can cause other symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pain and swelling, vomiting, internal distress. Many people with fibromyalgia also seem to become depressed as the disorder develops and sometimes they even indulge in suicidal acts. Therefore, it is vital to spot the presence of fibromyalgia in time and appropriate measures must be taken in order to prevent further complications and undesirable effects.

So, if you want more information about fibromyalgia alternative therapy and especially for fibromyalgia treatment, please follow this link http://www.fibromyalgia-info-center.com.