Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fighting Asthma - Part 2

Fighting Asthma - Part 2
by: Richard Lowe, Jr.

One week my wife had severe asthma and it would not go away. In fact, we had visited our doctor numerous times for adrenalin shots. These helped in the short term (for a day or so) but the asthma just returned again later. Both of us wanted to resolve this condition on a more permanent basis, as it was becoming very difficult to deal with.
We talked to our doctor, a wonderful man named Dr. Frischer, and he directed us to a specialist. Someone who was familiar with the disease and could help us come up with a permanent handling.
I must admit that my wife did not want to go to this specialist. She didn't say why, she just was not comfortable with him. However, I convinced her, and before long we had pulled up to the doctors office, which was in a little hospital in Paramount, California.
The specialist took one look at Claudia and knew that her asthma was terrible. He had Claudia breath into a tube, then tisked to himself when he saw the result. It appeared that Claudia was not getting anywhere near the amount of oxygen that a normal person received. In fact, her lungs were drawing in about a forth of the normal amount of air - it was pretty bad that day. Which meant, of course, it was the perfect day to see the specialist.
The guy did some more tests, then recommended an allergy panel to determine exactly which substance was causing Claudia's condition. He explained that asthma is usually triggered by something, some particle in the air. It could be dust, pollen, cockroach droppings, cat dandruff or any other small particle.
We agreed and the panel was done. The doctor swabbed her arm with about twenty different substances, explaining that they would swell up into little bumps if anything registered. One substance registered strongly - simple dust. It seemed that Claudia's asthma was caused by dust.
While we were there, the specialist increased her Prednisone dosage to 60 milligrams. This is an incredibly high dosage of this drug, but based upon Claudia's poor breathing, the doctor felt it was necessary. If you remember from the previous article (part 1), prednisone has the side effect of making Claudia extremely hostile to our poor cat Baby. Well, during the next few weeks that cat had to be guarded night and day by Al and myself to keep Claudia from killing it.
The result of this trip? We finally realized the link between the environment and Claudia's asthma. We decided to be a little more proactive, and purchased some air filters for the living room and bedroom. These helped control the asthma to a certain extent. The other result? Now Claudia was feeling the other major short term side effect of Prednisone - it's very difficult to stop taking..

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net


RT @MecMec_Smurf15: @ShaBree_Bree16 chill , i got asthma ! Ctfupp

Roaches can cause an asthma attack ... So that's why I stay away from y'all

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Fighting Asthma - Part 1

Fighting Asthma - Part 1
by: Richard Lowe, Jr.

My wife has asthma. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for anyone else to understand what that means and implies. If you have not had to care for someone with asthma, you cannot even begin to comprehend what it is like to deal with this condition. When I mention it to someone and they start telling me what they think, I have to control my feelings ... they do not and cannot understand. I restrain myself because they think they are being helpful. It's the same kind of thing when a single person gives a married couple advice on their union, or someone without kids thinks he knows how to raise them.
So what does it mean when I say my wife has asthma? It means her life is in constant danger. Every single day that she's breathing is a good day - because she survived the night. A week without gasping is a luxury, and a full month without an asthma attack is almost unheard of. What today really means is another day of breathing - it may be a difficult day or a good day, but there is always the knowledge that breathing is the most important thing.
You see, breathing is something that most of us take for granted. We never think about it, never need to be concerned about taking that next breath. Personally, the worst trouble I have had with my own breathing is a bad cold - my nose was stuffed and I had to use my mouth.
My wife, on the other hand, has to think about breathing all of the time. Some days she breaths fine, others are difficult. Breathing problems are in a special class all of their own - it's not like, say, having problems going to the bathroom, a cold or throwing up. These things all are minor compared to not breathing. You see, with breathing problems there is no time to think. You've got just minutes or even seconds to make a decision and get into action.
I discovered my wife had asthma soon after we were married. It was news to her also - she had never had asthma before, although her child had attacks when he was younger. So one day, out of the blue, Claudia came home because she had difficulty breathing ... and I didn't have a clue what to do.
This is a very unusual circumstance for me ... not knowing what to do. I am very intelligent by any measure and I make a strong point at knowing how to handle just about anything in my life. Before this time, no matter what the emergency was, I could and did handle it. Yet here I was with my wife having difficulty breathing. Over the next few days I learned a little bit. One thing I learned real fast is not al doctors are created equal. You see, even though our doctor visits were covered under insurance, our doctor would not accept any insurance. She ran a strictly cash operation. So on top of having a medical crisis we had a financial one - we had to pay the doctor then wait for the insurance company to pay us back. This severely limited our options at a time when we really needed options.
So when Claudia had breathing troubles we rushed over to the doctors office and asked for help. The doctor gave her a shot of adrenalin to correct her breathing. I watched in awe as my wife trembled from an injection of the same stuff they use to start a person's heart if it has stopped. I wondered for a moment if the "cure" was worse than the disease. The wonder soon stopped as Claudia's breathing settled down and she could take a breath without gasping. Her color returned to her normal pink - she had been slightly purple in hue., and the doctor prescribed something called Prednisone.
The next few weeks were not good weeks. You see, I didn't know it at the time, but Prednisone has some side effects. The most important one being that large doses tend to make a person a little bit psychotic. What I'm saying is my normally calm and collected wife became the "She Devil From Hell" ... but not so much to me or my son. No, her frustration was taken out on the cat (Baby).
That poor cat went through hell for those weeks. I had to protect him several times from the wrath of my wife for some new offense ... it appeared to her that the cat was trying to annoy her and make her miserable. I do believe that Baby used up at least two lives during those weeks ... and he only survived because my son and I protected him.
There were several trips to our local doctor during this first year with asthma. We noticed that the disease was not getting better, and our doctors did not really appear to know what they were doing. Their answer was more Prednisone and more adrenaline ... so we decided to see a specialist.

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net


asthma -.- zzzzz

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Random thought but do pigs have asthma????

Having asthma problems again. Going to the doctor monday

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Realizing that the cousins I'm pushing play with are younger than me. Straight gonna up my A game Nekminit *pulls out mums asthma pump*

Morality As A Mental State

Morality As A Mental State
by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION
Moral values, rules, principles, and judgements are often thought of as beliefs or as true beliefs. Those who hold them to be true beliefs also annex to them a warrant or a justification (from the "real world"). Yet, it is far more reasonable to conceive of morality (ethics) as a state of mind, a mental state. It entails belief, but not necessarily true belief, or justification. As a mental state, morality cannot admit the "world" (right and wrong, evidence, goals, or results) into its logical formal definition. The world is never part of the definition of a mental state.
Another way of looking at it, though, is that morality cannot be defined in terms of goals and results - because these goals and results ARE morality itself. Such a definition would be tautological.
There is no guarantee that we know when we are in a certain mental state. Morality is no exception.
An analysis based on the schemata and arguments proposed by Timothy Williamson follows.
Moral Mental State - A Synopsis
Morality is the mental state that comprises a series of attitudes to propositions. There are four classes of moral propositions: "It is wrong to...", "It is right to...", (You should) do this...", "(You should) not do this...". The most common moral state of mind is: one adheres to p. Adhering to p has a non-trivial analysis in the more basic terms of (a component of) believing and (a component of) knowing, to be conceptually and metaphysically analysed later. Its conceptual status is questionable because we need to decompose it to obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for its possession (Peacocke, 1992). It may be a complex (secondary) concept.
See here for a more detailed analysis.
Adhering to proposition p is not merely believing that p and knowing that p but also that something should be so, if and only if p (moral law).
Morality is not a factive attitude. One believes p to be true - but knows p to be contingently true (dependent on epoch, place, and culture). Since knowing is a factive attitude, the truth it relates to is the contingently true nature of moral propositions.
Morality relates objects to moral propositions and it is a mental state (for every p, having a moral mental relation to p is a mental state).
Adhering to p entails believing p (involves the mental state of belief). In other words, one cannot adhere without believing. Being in a moral mental state is both necessary and sufficient for adhering to p. Since no "truth" is involved - there is no non-mental component of adhering to p.
Adhering to p is a conjunction with each of the conjuncts (believing p and knowing p) a necessary condition - and the conjunction is necessary and sufficient for adhering to p.
One doesn't always know if one adheres to p. Many moral rules are generated "on the fly", as a reaction to circumstances and moral dilemmas. It is possible to adhere to p falsely (and behave differently when faced with the harsh test of reality). A sceptic would say that for any moral proposition p - one is in the position to know that one doesn't believe p. Admittedly, it is possible for a moral agent to adhere to p without being in the position to know that one adheres to p, as we illustrated above. One can also fail to adhere to p without knowing that one fails to adhere to p. As Williamson says "transparency (to be in the position to know one's mental state) is false". Naturally, one knows one's mental state better than one knows other people's. There is an observational asymmetry involved. We have non-observational (privileged) access to our mental state and observational access to other people's mental states. Thus, we can say that we know our morality non-observationally (directly) - while we are only able to observe other people's morality.
One believes moral propositions and knows moral propositions. Whether the belief itself is rational or not, is debatable. But the moral mental state strongly imitates rational belief (which relies on reasoning). In other words, the moral mental state masquerades as a factive attitude, though it is not. The confusion arises from the normative nature of knowing and being rational. Normative elements exist in belief attributions, too, but, for some reason, are considered "outside the realm of belief". Belief, for instance, entails the grasping of mental content, its rational processing and manipulation, defeasible reaction to new information.
We will not go here into the distinction offered by Williamson between "believing truly" (not a mental state, according to him) and "believing". Suffice it to say that adhering to p is a mental state, metaphysically speaking - and that "adheres to p" is a (complex or secondary) mental concept. The structure of adheres to p is such that the non-mental concepts are the content clause of the attitude ascription and, thus do not render the concept thus expressed non-mental: adheres to (right and wrong, evidence, goals, or results).
Williamson's Mental State Operator calculus is applied.
Origin is essential when we strive to fully understand the relations between adhering that p and other moral concepts (right, wrong, justified, etc.). To be in the moral state requires the adoption of specific paths, causes, and behaviour modes. Moral justification and moral judgement are such paths.
Knowing, Believing and their Conjunction
We said above that:
"Adhering to p is a conjunction with each of the conjuncts (believing p and knowing p) a necessary condition - and the conjunction is necessary and sufficient for adhering to p."
Williamson suggests that one believes p if and only if one has an attitude to proposition p indiscriminable from knowing p. Another idea is that to believe p is to treat p as if one knew p. Thus, knowing is central to believing though by no means does it account for the entire spectrum of belief (example: someone who chooses to believe in God even though he doesn't know if God exists). Knowledge does determine what is and is not appropriate to believe, though ("standard of appropriateness"). Evidence helps justify belief.
But knowing as a mental state is possible without having a concept of knowing. One can treat propositions in the same way one treats propositions that one knows - even if one lacks concept of knowing. It is possible (and practical) to rely on a proposition as a premise if one has a factive propositional attitude to it. In other words, to treat the proposition as though it is known and then to believe in it.
As Williamson says, "believing is a kind of a botched knowing". Knowledge is the aim of belief, its goal.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and the editor of mental health categories in The Open Directory, Suite101, and searcheurope.com.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

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Antioxidant Vitamins and Zinc Reduce Risk of Vision Loss from Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Antioxidant Vitamins and Zinc Reduce Risk of Vision Loss from Age-Related Macular Degeneration


- Findings from a nationwide clinical trial reported that high levels of antioxidants and zinc significantly reduce the risk of advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and its associated vision loss.
Scientists found that people at high risk of developing advanced stages of AMD, a leading cause of vision loss, lowered their risk by about 25 percent when treated with a high-dose combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and zinc. In the same high risk group -- which includes people with intermediate AMD, or advanced AMD in one eye but not the other eye -- the nutrients reduced the risk of vision loss caused by advanced AMD by about 19 percent. For those study participants who had either no AMD or early AMD, the nutrients did not provide an apparent benefit. The clinical trial -- called the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) -- was sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the Federal government's National Institutes of Health.
"This is an exciting discovery because, for people at high risk for developing advanced AMD, these nutrients are the first effective treatment to slow the progression of the disease," said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NEI. "AMD is a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in Americans 65 years of age and older. Currently, treatment for advanced AMD is quite limited. These nutrients will delay the progression to advanced AMD in people who are at high risk -- those with intermediate AMD in one or both eyes, or those with advanced AMD in one eye already.
"The nutrients are not a cure for AMD, nor will they restore vision already lost from the disease," Dr. Sieving said. "But they will play a key role in helping people at high risk for developing advanced AMD keep their vision."
A common feature of AMD is the presence of drusen, yellow deposits under the retina. Often found in people over age 60, drusen can be seen by an eye care professional during an eye exam in which the pupils are dilated. Drusen by themselves do not usually cause vision loss, but an increase in their size or number increases a person's risk of developing advanced AMD, which can cause serious vision loss.
Advanced AMD can cause serious vision loss. Scientists are unsure about how or why an increase in the size or number of drusen can sometimes lead to advanced AMD, which affects the sharp, central vision required for the "straight ahead" activities, such as reading, driving and recognizing faces of friends.
"Previous studies have suggested that people who have diets rich in green, leafy vegetables have a lower risk of developing AMD," said Frederick Ferris, M.D., director of clinical research at the NEI and chairman of the AREDS. "However, the high levels of nutrients that were evaluated in the AREDS are very difficult to achieve from diet alone.
"Almost two-thirds of AREDS participants chose to take a daily multivitamin in addition to their assigned study treatment," Dr. Ferris said. "The study also showed that, even with a daily multivitamin, people at high risk for developing advanced AMD can lower the risk of vision loss by adding a formulation with the same high levels of antioxidants and zinc used in the study."
Dr. Ferris said some people with intermediate AMD may not wish to take large doses of antioxidant vitamins or zinc medical reasons. "For example, beta-carotene has been shown to increase the risk of lung cancer among smokers," he said. "These people may want to discuss with their primary care doctor the best combination of nutrients for them. With the use of the high levels of zinc, it is important to add appropriate amounts of copper to the diet to prevent copper deficiency."
The AREDS participants reported few side effects from the treatments. About 7.5 percent of participants assigned to the zinc treatments -- compared with five percent who did not have zinc in their assigned treatment -- had urinary tract problems that required hospitalization. Participants in the two groups that took zinc also reported anemia at a slightly higher rate; however, testing of all patients for this disorder showed no difference among treatment groups. Yellowing of the skin, a well-known side effect of large doses of beta-carotene, was reported slightly more often by participants taking antioxidants.
"The AREDS formula is the first demonstrated treatment for people at high risk for developing advanced AMD," Feris said. "Slowing the progression of AMD to its advanced stage will save the vision of many who would otherwise have had serious vision impairment."

About The Author

Courtesy ARA Content, www.ARAcontent.com; e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information, contact Michael Coogan, NEI Information Office, (301) 496-5248, mjc@nei.nih.gov.

VNR and ANR available in English and Spanish by calling 301-496-5248. Photos and other materials available in downloadable, camera-ready format on the NEI website at http://www.nei.nih.gov/amd

The National Eye Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health and is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research. NEI-supported research leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. The NIH is an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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