Radial Neuropathy: The Wrist-drop Of Saturday Night Palsy
So here s the scenario. It s Saturday night and I ve had a long week. I hit the bars and tip back one or two too many. Stumbling out of the last bar, I find I can t make it past the city park without landing on my nose, so I plop onto a park bench. Slinging an arm over the back of the bench to stabilize myself, I fall into a deep slumber. Now it s Sunday morning and the sun is shining, the birds are singing and I ve got a splitting headache. My arm is where I left it last night, slung over the back of the bench. I haul it back in front of me, but something is wrong. When I try to extend cock up my wrist, it doesn t go anywhere. In fact, it droops downward. Moreover, I can t straighten my drooping fingers, either. As I investigate further, I find that the skin on the back of my hand is numb. What gives. The problem is that I have injured the arm s radial nerve. As a result, the muscles it controls and the skin-sensation it manages are out of commission. On its course from the spinal cord in the neck to the forearm and hand, the radial nerve--a bundle containing many individual nerve-fibers--spirals around the humerus-bone of the upper arm. The nerve is...
The Ten Most Powerful Questions For Your Fulfillment
If not, you may not be asking the right questions. You may be wondering, What could questions have to do with my own fulfillment. I don t want questions, I want answers!. That s a great question. I ve come to believe that the way to find the best answers is to ask the best questions possible. In that way, we shape our answers to fulfill the nature of the question. You may have witnessed politicians both as they run for office and hold press conferences once in office who never seem to answer the actual question asked. That s a frustrating example of what a powerful question can do, and what an answer that isn t connected to the question does to the listener. A good question actually forms a context for our thinking and guides us to consider a new paradigm in how we answer it...if it s a really good question, that is. Bad questions simply maintain the status quo, and in order to find your fulfillment, I don t recommend maintaining things as they always have been. If that was all you wanted in life, you wouldn t be reading this article, now would you. So we must shape our questions, even those we ask ourselves, to expand our personal framework. When we do...
The Day Live Fast Die Young Started To Lose Its Appeal
Somehow the youthful notion of live fast, die young. becomes less appealing as the days go by. Funny that, isn t it. I remember the day well, it all started in May 1997 with a routine or so I thought Doctors appointment in the morning and then the usual rounds of trying to keep clients and staff happy. It was the day of my thirty ninth birthday and so I was looking forward to the celebratory dinner engagement later that evening. I had been feeling slightly run down , a euphemism here for exhausted but had put it down to slightly busy times in the office and so had finally relented to my wife s pleas to go and see the Doc and get everything checked out . Upon my return to the office in mid afternoon, I received a message from one of my colleagues your doctor called and you are to call him back straight away . Ah, get the multivitamins ready and get ready to cut back on the alcohol time I thought but alas not so. I m fine but you re not. I have a hospital bed set aside he gave me the details of the hospital in question and you are to get there straight away. I will see you there shortly. OK, a little bit harsh and to the point I thought. Is there any...
Add - Treatment Through Medication
In this third of a series of articles on ADD we re going to focus on treatments for ADD besides simple nutrition. The most common form of treatment for ADD is through medication. The underlying theory on ADD is that it is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Through certain medications we can correct that imbalance and help a person with ADD to live a normal and productive life. PET scans of patients with ADD who are taking medication for their condition show that there is significant improvement in many cases. Medication that is given to treat ADD is to stimulate the production of two neurotransmitters known as dopamine and norephinephrine. These neurotransmitters are needed to carry a nerve impulse along a neuropathway. When one of these transmitters is under supplied the message is stopped short of it s intended destination. When this happens, whatever function that circuit is assigned to doesn t work properly. Your brain circuits are like a computer circuit. They are either on or off. When a circuit is on it makes something happen, like helping a child concentrate on a math problem or read a passage from a novel. When other circuits are on they...
Encouraging News For Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
For the more than 2.1 million Americans affected by rheumatoid arthritis, there is encouraging news about how antibiotic therapy can be a safe, low-cost way to manage many of the symptoms of the disease. Rheumatoid arthritis causes pain, stiffness, warmth, redness and swelling, affecting many different joints. A recent survey of nearly 200 people with rheumatoid arthritis RA or scleroderma, another disabling rheumatic condition, revealed that by taking antibiotic therapy for their disease, they experienced a number of positive benefits over traditional prescription medications. These patients reported a reduction in pain and improved quality of life, and their overall condition was reported to be less severe. These survey results suggest antibiotics such as minocycline may offer an effective option for patients newly diagnosed or patients who either fail with or cannot tolerate conventional medications commonly prescribed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Minocycline is a low-cost and commonly prescribed antibiotic with minimal side effects. The study was conducted by Harris Interactive. We know that a growing number of RA and other rheumatic...