SURPRISING HEALTH EXPERTS WHO COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

Think your doctor and your dentist are the only members of your personal health-care team? Don’t overlook the power of these less-expected lifesavers.
 
Your Hairdresser: Secret therapist
There’s some evidence that hairdressers could help prevent skin cancer by catching abnormal lesions. One survey of Houston-area hairdressers, published in the journal Archives of Dermatology, found that 58 percent said they had advised at least one client to get a suspicious mole checked out.

What's more, if you believe in “salon psychology,” then you might not be shocked at this classic statistic: 84 percent of beauty salon frequenters would trust their hairdresser’s advice over a therapist’s. Sure, your hair pro probably lacks a PhD, but there is something mentally soothing about hashing out your problems with this fairly neutral sounding board.
Your Neighbor: Secret cardiologist
She’s offered to start a morning walking club with you—why not say yes? Making a commitment to meet someone for exercise boosts the odds you’ll really do it. Walking with a friend provides soul-satisfying social time too.

Beyond exercise, having close neighbors to chat with can simply make you happier, especially if they’re the chipper sort: One study found that people who live within half a mile of happy friends are themselves 42 percent more likely to be more joyful themselves.
Book Club: Secret brain boosters
Whether you’re giggling over Fifty Shades of Grey or getting philosophical about Anna Karenina, reading a book and then discussing new ideas with friends can cut your risk dementia.

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older adults who did the most mentally stimulating activities, like reading the newspaper or visiting museums, were 47 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who did the least.
Pooch or Kitty: Secret fitness instructors
If there’s a furry, four-legged friend in your house, chances are he’s making you healthier in more ways than one.

Take fitness, for example: One Australian study found that dog owners are 41 percent more likely to meet government recommendations for moderate exercise. And simply hanging around with your pet—especially when you’re stressed or anxious—can soothe frazzled nerves and lower blood pressure, many studies show.
Your Husband or Wife: Secret general physician
Every smile, hug, and “love you” can cut your levels of brain- and body-threatening stress hormones. Ample research shows that happy marriages are known health boosters, so take advantage of your spouse’s curative powers.

Research reported at the American Psychosomatic Society found that people who held their spouse’s hand before speaking in public (typically a stress-inducing event) had half the spike in blood pressure and heart rate as people who didn’t.
The hubs can also be a good workout motivator: One study found that 94 percent of couples committed to a fitness program when they did it together.
And let’s not overlook all the health perks of being physically intimate—a healthy sex life can bolster your immune system, reduce pain, and may even lower the risk of certain cancers.
Co-workers: Secret energy sources
You don’t need us to tell you that clocking long hours in a stressful environment can take a serious toll on your health. But co-workers can make all the difference between a job that helps or harms you.

They can help you cope with stress and provide a crucial outlet for venting and letting off steam. What’s more, they may even make you better at your job. According to Forbes, research shows that “call center employees who took the time to converse with their colleagues, instead of just grinding away, got through calls faster, felt less tension, and earned the same approval ratings as their peers who didn’t schmooze at the office.”
Mom and/or Dad: Secret medical historians
For better or worse, they passed on the genes that could impact your risk of everything from diabetes to heart disease to cancer. But knowing that family history can help you and your doctor make smarter choices about the right timing of certain medical tests, treatments, and procedures.  However, a National Cancer Institute study found that people may not know their background as well as they think they do: People often reported incorrect information about their family of history of cancer to their doctors.

So chat up your parents about the health issues that run in your family, including heart health, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and mental health conditions like depression, and then share that data with your physician.
You may need to start certain tests, like a colonoscopy or mammogram, at an earlier age if colon or breast cancer runs in your family tree, for example. Or if your parents got heart disease early, your doc may take a more aggressive approach to medication if your blood pressure levels start spiking.
(Pictures Courtesy To: Digital Vision/Photodisc/BananaStock/Comstock/iStockphoto/Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock)

HEALTH ......

They aren't trendy, but the myriad health benefits of carrots—from lowering cholesterol to preventing memory loss—are unbeatable.

Lower cholesterol
Carrots contain high amounts of soluble fiber, largely from pectin, which could be the reason they’ve been shown to lower cholesterol.

Participants who ate about a cup of carrots each day for three weeks lowered their blood cholesterol levels, a U.S. government study found.
Reduce risk of cancer
The alphacarotene and bioflavonoids in carrots have been associated with lower risks of cancer, particularly lung cancer.

But stick to those carotenoids rather than beta-carotene supplements, which could be harmful to smokers.
Keep your vision sharp
If your parents told you to eat your carrots for better eyesight, they were on to something. Carrots won’t cure preexisting vision problems, but they can protect against sight issues caused by vitamin A deficiency.

The body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A, says Hans Fisher, PhD, a professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry from Rutgers University, and that's important for healthy eyes. Carrots can prevent cataracts and macular degeneration, as well as night blindness, which keeps eyes from adjusting to the dark.
Stop memory loss
Middle-aged people who ate the lowest amount of root vegetables showed more than three times as much cognitive decline as those who ate the most, according to a Netherlands study.

Researchers concluded that the beta-carotene in the vegetables—especially from carrots—protected the central nervous system against aging. An 18-year Harvard study determined that when men consumed 50 mg supplements of beta-carotene every other day, cognitive decay was delayed for the equivalent of 1 to 1.5 years compared to those who took a placebo.
Prevent diabetes
Carrots contain beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant associated with lower diabetes risk.

In one study, those with the most beta-carotene in their blood had 32 percent lower insulin levels than those with lower levels of beta-carotene.
Bolster your bone health
Carrots also contain small amounts of other vital nutrients such as vitamin C (5 milligrams per 1 cup serving) and calcium (96 milligrams per 1 cup serving).

Many people, especially post-menopausal women, don’t get enough calcium, so while carrots might not contain much, “every little bit helps,” Fisher says.

DRUG, DRUG USE, ABUSE AND ADDICTION (SECOND PART)

How do drugs work in the brain?

Drugs are chemicals. They work in the brain by tapping into the brain’s communication system and interfering with the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. Some drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, can activate neurons because their chemical structure mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter. This similarity in structure “fools” receptors and allows the drugs to lock onto and activate the nerve cells. Although these drugs mimic brain chemicals, they don’t activate nerve cells in the same way as a natural neurotransmitter, and they lead to abnormal messages being transmitted through the network.

Other drugs, such as amphetamine or cocaine, can cause the nerve cells to release abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters or prevent the normal recycling of these brain chemicals. This disruption produces a greatly amplified message, ultimately disrupting communication channels. The difference in effect can be described as the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone.

How do drugs work in the brain to produce pleasure?

Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, cognition, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. The overstimulation of this system, which rewards our natural behaviors, produces the euphoric effects sought by people who abuse drugs and teaches them to repeat the behavior.

How does stimulation of the brain’s pleasure circuit teach us to keep taking drugs?

Our brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activ-ities by associating those activities with pleasure or reward. Whenever this reward circuit is activated, the brain notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered, and teaches us to do it again and again, without thinking about it. Because drugs of abuse stimulate the same circuit, we learn to abuse drugs in the same way.

Why are drugs more addictive than natural rewards?

When some drugs of abuse are taken, they can release 2 to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards do. In some cases, this occurs almost immediately (as when drugs are smoked or injected), and the effects can last much longer than those produced by natural rewards. The resulting effects on the brain’s pleasure circuit dwarfs those produced by naturally rewarding behaviors such as eating and sex. The effect of such a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again and again. This is why scientists sometimes say that drug abuse is something we learn to do very, very well.

What happens to your brain if you keep taking drugs? 

Just as we turn down the volume on a radio that is too loud, the brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine (and other neurotransmitters) by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit of a drug abuser’s brain can become abnor-mally low, and the ability to experience any pleasure is reduced. This is why the abuser eventually feels flat, lifeless, and depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that previously brought them pleasure. Now, they need to take drugs just to try and bring their dopamine function back up to normal. And, they must take larger amounts of the drug than they first did to create the dopamine high—an effect known as tolerance.

How does long-term drug taking affect brain circuits?

We know that the same sort of mechanisms involved in the development of tolerance can eventually lead to profound changes in neurons and brain circuits, with the potential to severely compromise the long-term health of the brain. For example, glutamate is another neurotrans-mitter that influences the reward circuit and the ability to learn. When the optimal concentration of glutamate is altered by drug abuse, the brain attempts to compensate for this change, which can cause impairment in cognitive function. Similarly, long-term drug abuse can trigger adaptations in habit or nonconscious memory systems. Conditioning is one example of this type of learning, whereby environmental cues become associated with the drug experience and can trigger uncontrollable cravings if the individual is later exposed to these cues, even without the drug itself being available. This learned “reflex” is extremely robust and can emerge even after many years of abstinence.

What other brain changes occur with abuse? 

Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse disrupts the way critical brain structures interact to control and inhibit behaviors related to drug abuse. Just as continued abuse may lead to tolerance or the need for higher drug dosages to produce an effect, it may also lead to addiction, which can drive an abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively. Drug addiction erodes a person’s self-control and ability to make sound decisions, while sending intense impulses to take drugs.

What are the medical consequences of drug addiction?

Individuals who suffer from addiction often have one or more accompanying medical issues, including lung and cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, and mental disorders. Imaging scans, chest X-rays, and blood tests show the damaging effects of drug abuse throughout the body. For example, tests show that tobacco smoke causes cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, blood, lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix. In addition, some drugs of abuse, such as inhalants, are toxic to nerve cells and may damage or destroy them either in the brain or the peripheral nervous system. 

Does drug abuse cause mental disorders, or vice versa?

Drug abuse and mental disorders often co-exist. In some cases, mental diseases may precede addiction; in other cases, drug abuse may trigger or exacerbate mental disorders, particularly in individuals with specific vulnerabilities

How can addiction harm other people?

Beyond the harmful consequences for the addicted individual, drug abuse can cause serious health problems for others. Three of the more devastating and troubling consequences of addiction are: 

Negative effects of prenatal drug exposure on infants and children. 

It is likely that some drug-exposed children will need educational support in the classroom to help them overcome what may be subtle deficits in developmental areas such as behavior, attention, and cognition. Ongoing work is investigating whether the effects of prenatal exposure on brain and behavior extend into adolescence to cause developmental problems during that time period.

Negative effects of second-hand smoke. 

Second-hand tobacco smoke, also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a significant source of exposure to a large number of substances known to be hazardous to human health, particularly to children. According to the Surgeon General’s 2006 Report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, involuntary smoking increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in never-smokers by 25–30 percent and 20–30 percent, respectively.

Increased spread of infectious diseases. 

Injection of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine accounts for more than a third of new AIDS cases. Injection drug use is also a major factor in the spread of hepatitis C, a serious, potentially fatal liver disease. Injection drug use is not the only way that drug abuse contributes to the spread of infectious diseases. All drugs of abuse cause some form of intoxication, which interferes with judgment and increases the likelihood of risky sexual behav-iors. This, in turn, contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, and other sexually transmitted diseases.

DRUG,DRUG USE, ABUSE AND ADDICTION (FIRST PART)

Drug and Drug use

A pharmaceutical preparation or a naturally occurring substance used primarily to bring about a change in the existing process or state (physiological, psychological or biochemical) can be called a ‘drug’. 

When drugs are used to treat an illness, prevent a disease and improve health condition, it is termed drug use.

Drug abuse and Addiction

Intake of drugs for reasons other than medical in a manner that affects physical or mental functioning is termed drug abuse.

Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain—they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long lasting, and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs.

Why do people take drugs?

In general, people begin taking drugs for a variety of reasons:

To feel good. 

Most abused drugs produce intense feelings of pleasure. This initial sensation of euphoria is followed by other effects, which differ with the type of drug used. For example, with stimulants such as cocaine, the “high” is followed by feelings of power, self-confidence, and increased energy. In contrast, the euphoria caused by opiates such as heroin is followed by feelings of relaxation and satisfaction. 

To feel better.

Some people who suffer from social anxiety, stress-related disorders, and depression begin abusing drugs in an attempt to lessen feelings of distress. Stress can play a major role in beginning drug use, continuing drug abuse, or relapse in patients recovering from addiction. 

To do better.

The increasing pressure that some individuals feel to chemically enhance or improve their athletic or cognitive performance can similarly play a role in initial experimentation and continued drug abuse. 

Curiosity and “because others are doing it.”

In this respect adolescents are particularly vulnerable because of the strong influence of peer pressure; they are more likely, for example, to engage in “thrilling” and “daring” behaviors.

If taking drugs makes people feel good or better, what’s the problem?

At first, people may perceive what seem to be positive effects with drug use. They also may believe that they can control their use; however, drugs can quickly take over their lives. Consider how a social drinker can become intoxicated, put himself behind a wheel and quickly turn a pleasurable activity into a tragedy for him and others. Over time, if drug use continues, pleasurable activities become less pleasurable, and drug abuse becomes necessary for abusers to simply feel“normal.”Drug abusers reach a point where they seek and take drugs, despite the tremendous problems caused for themselves and their loved ones. Some individuals may start to feel the need to take higher or more frequent doses, even in the early stages of their drug use.

Is continued drug abuse a voluntary behavior?

The initial decision to take drugs is mostly voluntary. However, when drug abuse takes over, a person’s ability to exert self control can become seriously impaired. Brain imaging studies from drug-addicted individuals show physical changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Scientists believe that these changes alter the way the brain works, and may help explain the compulsive and destructive behaviors of addiction.

Why do some people become addicted to drugs, while others do not? 

As with any other disease, vulnerability to addiction differs from person to person. In general, the more risk factors an individual has, the greater the chance that taking drugs will lead to abuse and addiction. “Protective” factors reduce a person’s risk of developing addiction

Which biological factors increase risk of addiction?

Scientists estimate that genetic factors account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person’s vulnerability to addiction, including the effects of environment on gene expression and function. Adolescents and individuals with mental disorders are at greater risk of drug abuse and addiction than the general population.

What environmental factors increase the risk of addiction?

Home and Family

The influence of the home environment is usually most important in childhood. Parents or older family members who abuse alcohol or drugs or who engage in criminal behavior can increase children’s risks of developing their own drug problems.

Peer and School

Friends and acquaintances have the greatest influence during adolescence. Drug-abusing peers can sway even those without risk factors to try drugs for the first time. Academic failure or poor social skills can put a child further at risk for drug abuse.

What other factors increase the risk of addiction?

Early Use

Although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, research shows that the earlier a person begins to use drugs the more likely they are to progress to more serious abuse. This may reflect the harmful effect that drugs can have on the developing brain; it also may result from a constellation of early biological and social vulnerability factors, including genetic susceptibility, mental illness, unstable family relationships, and exposure to physical or sexual abuse. Still, the fact remains that early use is a strong indicator of problems ahead, among them, substance abuse and addiction.

Method of Administration

Smoking a drug or injecting it into a vein increases its addictive potential. Both smoked and injected drugs enter the brain within seconds, producing a powerful rush of pleasure. However, this intense “high” can fade within a few minutes, taking the abuser down to lower, more normal levels. It is a starkly felt contrast, and scientists believe that this low feeling drives individuals to repeated drug abuse in an attempt to recapture the high pleasurable state.