Antidepressants Blog

People in pain may well be depressed by their struggle and need treatment for their depression. However, the medicine used against depression have an action against pain which is completely separate from their action in depression. These medicines act by increasing the level in the brain of neurotransmitters, which are used to carry nerve impulses from one cell to another. One of these chemicals, called serotonin or 5-hydroxy-tryptamine, improves the mood. However, the same chemical is the transmitter used by one of the systems by which the brain controls the nerve impulses that arise in the spinal cord and signal injury to the brain. In this way, antidepressants can decrease the incoming signal from cord to brain and improve pain relief. They are used where the narcotics do not work because nerve damage has inactivated the inhibitory mechanisms that are normally activated by narcotics. They are used to treat the pains arising after shingles, which I mentioned earlier. But the effect is weak and these drugs only just pass rigorous tests as analgesics.

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Always ask the waiter to make sure your food is not swimming in butter and oils. Your salads can be dressed with olive oil and lemon. Your vegetables can be steamed or oven-roasted.

Do not eat fried foods such as chips, fried fish and duck in heavy oils. Do not eat the skin of chicken, duck or turkey as the skin contains the most fat.

If eating out in a Thai or Japanese restaurant, make sure you do not eat lots of white rice (carbohydrate). Always choose protein and lots of vegetables on the side to satisfy the hunger and feed the system with antioxidants from the assortment of vegetables.

When choosing a dessert, go for something that is not high in fat and sugar, preferably something with fresh fruit. Once a week, treat yourself to an decadent dessert if you must; but remember that if you do this too often you may notice a tendency for high triglyceride-induced tiredness the next day. All refined sugars, including wine, are classed as refined carbohydrates, which when overused will cause free radical damage leading to acute and chronic diseases. Alternatively, treat yourself to a small chocolate after dinner if you have chosen well with the rest of your meal. A small amount of sugar can be used as a treat, not as filler for a still-empty stomach.

Drink a pot of loose-leaf organic herbal tea after dinner, especially chamomile, peppermint or even my organic herbal teas such as Summer Delight, Petal or Apres. These are all wonderful aids for digestion before bed.

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The female sexual-reproductive system is housed in the pelvis; the major internal organs lie behind and are protected by the pubic bone (pubis symphysis). These organs are situated in close conjunction with the urinary and intestinal tracts, as are the external openings of these three systems.

The ovary, or female gonad, is similar in size and shape to an unshelled almond. The human female has two ovaries, one at the left and one at the right in the pelvic cavity. The ovaries perform two main functions: they produce eggs, or and they manufacture the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone. When a female child is born, her ovaries contain 200,000 to 400,000 follicles holding oocytes, or immature eggs; this number reduces to 100,000 to 200,000 by puberty. The newborn’s ovaries contain all the egg cells she will ever produce. In contrast, once boys reach puberty, their bodies continuously manufacture new sperm. Given that a woman is fertile for approximately 35 years, releasing one egg with each menstrual period 13 times a year, she needs only 450 ova to achieve her maximum reproductive capacity; nature thus provides an overabundance of gamete cells in order to ensure the continuation of the species.

When an individual egg is released at ovulation, it pops out through the surface of the ovary and remains momentarily suspended in the abdominal cavity. It is then, generally, “transferred” to the fingerlike ends of one of the two Fallopian tubes. These tubes are muscular canals, each suspended by a ligament, which extend outward from the uterus a distance of four to six inches. Each Fallopian tube curves around an ovary but is not directly attached to the ovary.

The mechanism by which the egg enters the tube is not fully understood; three theories have been advanced by way of explanation. First, there is the possibility of a chemical affinity, or chemotaxis, between the egg and the entrance of the tube. Secondly, the fringed end of the tube is motile and may engulf the egg in a tentaclelike fashion. Thirdly, the cilia, or tiny hairs, that line the Fallopian tube beat rhythmically in unison, to sweep the egg inward (Cohn, 1974). Once the egg is in the Fallopian tube, it is moved along by the cilia lining the tube and by peristalsis, rhythmic contractions of the tube, in the direction of the uterus. Cases have been reported in the medical literature in which women with only one ovary and one Fallopian tube on the opposite side have nonetheless managed to conceive (Hellman and Pritchard, 1971). In such cases, the expelled egg has migrated from one side of the body cavity to the other, a distance of over six inches.

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