I woke up in the
middle of the night with my head pounding and throbbing. It was like someone
was taking their hands and squeezing my head. The pain wouldn’t go away. I sat
up all night waiting for the pain to go away, all the while I was getting
hotter and hotter but I didn’t have a temperature.  Something was defiantly
wrong. Sitting there and trying to deal with the pain brought me to tears. I’ve
never felt this way before. What was wrong with my head? My family rushed me to
the emergency room. I later found out that what I was experiencing was a
migraine.
Over
30 million people suffer from migraines, according to WebMD. Neurologychannel.com,
a medical reference website, states that 75% of migraine sufferers are women.
“Migraines most commonly affect teenage
girls; 25% of the populations of migraine sufferers are teenage girls,” says
Anne Albers, a nurse practitioner in the Division of Pediatric Neurology at
Children’s Hospital at Washington University,
According
to the National Institutes of Health and Mayo Clinic, a migraine may be caused
by imbalances in brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. This leads to the
blood vessel dilating, according to Albers. Doctors have no idea what exactly
causes the blood vessels to dilate.
“There’s
lots of research going on as to why this happens,” says Albers. “Researchers
believe that the calcium channel receptors [which regulate the flow of calcium
ions across the membrane in all cells] have something to do with [migranes] and
that some blood vessels are more susceptible to these spasms, which would
explain why migraines can run in the family.”
“Even
though migraines appear to be such a mystery, there are treatment options,
which depend on the individual and what that individual’s migraines are like,” adds
Albers.
Medications
called triptans can stop that spasm right away. Anti-Inflammatory medications,
like Ibuprofen and Naproxen, also help. So that the blood vessel isn’t
irritated, anti-depressants are usually prescribed.
Which
medication is effective also depends on what triggers the migraines. Everyone
is different. The easiest way to identify the triggers is to keep a journal,
say experts. Doing this you can identify what happens when a headache starts.
“Lots of things can trigger a migraine.
For some people its food or chemicals in certain foods, even food coloring can
be a trigger. One little girl gets them from blue kool-aid, another little boy
from hot dogs. My son gets them from popcorn at the movies if he puts butter on
it. Lots of people get them from not eating well, not sleeping well, and not
drinking a lot of fluids.” Albers tells SciJourner.
How
do you know if your headache is a migraine? “If you start having headaches with
other symptoms besides mild sensitivity to light,” says Albers. “Or if you have
a family history, for sure go see your doctor. Or if you wake up in the morning
with them, and if you’re starting to get them everyday and they wake you up in
the middle of the night. That’s when you should be concerned. Go see the doctor
and find out whether or not you have migraines.”
Last Updated (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:05)
We
won the World Series and we won the Super Bowl. Our mayor would even say we have the best-tasting tap water
in the nation, but he probably won’t tell you we’re number one for Chlamydia.
Chlamydia
is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the City
of St. Louis in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Chlamydia
is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). It is an infection acquired by sexual
contact. Chlamydia is the silent STD—you can have it and not necessarily show
any symptoms. Early symptoms, if they appear, are abnormal discharge from the
vagina or penis and pain on urination. These appear within one to three weeks
after infection and are usually quite mild, according to the St. Louis
Examiner.
According
the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the St. Louis Region
reported 5,294 cases of Chlamydia in 2008. Around 70% of those cases involved women
infected with chlamydia.
Around 56% of the
overall reported chlamydia cases are in the African-American community, the
white community accounts for only 10% and 34% are “other” or unknown races.
Although
St. Louis is number one in chlamydia, there are also other STDs to be aware of:
aids, genital warts, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, pubic lice or crabs, and
virginities hepatitis.
Those
are a lot of different types of diseases that you can come in contact while
engaging in anything sexual. Most of these STDs come with symptoms, but some
don’t, so you could be living with one and not even know it. It’s always best
to go to the doctor if you are engaging in any sexual activity, just to be safe. If you are engaging in sexual activities you can be safe if you
use condoms; or you can even practice abstinence.
Last Updated (Thursday, 29 July 2010 12:37)
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When the patrons at T-Doggs start talking about
addiction, it’s not the old favorites that you hear mentioned. Instead, they’re speaking of tattoos,
the growing fad that just won’t stop.
T-Doggs is a piercing and tattoo parlor
north of St. Louis. Tony, the
owner and tattoo artist, tells SciJourner that some of their patrons have over 50
tattoos; and they are not stopping there.
“I
feel a release during the tattooing process,” claims Tandalya. “While I’m
getting tattooed, I’m already looking to see what tattoo I’m going to get
next.”
Natalie,
a University of Missouri-St. Louis college student, claims she felt a rush
after each tattoo experience.
What
is this rush or release that they are referring to? According to MedicineNet.com, an online healthcare media
publishing company, when the body is experiencing tremendous pain, it naturally
releases endorphins, pain-relieving proteins, into the bloodstream. Once
endorphins are released, they bind to opiate receptors in the brain.
This
arrangement causes the person to feel less pain. In addition to suppressing the pain, endorphins can make you
feel euphoric. The amount of
endorphins released by the body varies from person to person.
Although
people with multiple tattoos agree that it is addictive, their reasons for the
addiction vary.
Tandalya
has 14 tattoos and says that she uses the tattooing experience as a stress
reliever. Natalie, an UMSL student
with 2 leg tattoos, states that she uses the tattooing process as a way “to
step out of depression”. Tony, who
has full body tattoos, says he got multiple tattoos to balance out the art on
his body. Rosemary attributes her
multiple tattooing, currently 7, as a form of expression that allows her to
rebel in an acceptable manner.
The
tattoo industry is growing with over 15,000 tattoo parlors within the United
States, according to U.S. News and World Report. Tattoo artist are receiving positive
publicity by sporting their talent on popular television shows, like Miami Ink
and LA Ink.
A
2003 Harris Poll report indicated that about 40 million Americans have at least
one tattoo compared to only 10 million Americans in 1936. More recently, a 2006 study by the Pew Research Center found that around 36% of Generation Next (born between the years 1981-1988) and 40% of Generation X (years 1966-1980) have at least one tattoo.
Generation
X and Generation Next are bombarding the tattoo parlors. Wherever there is a gathering,
tattooing is sure to be a conversational piece. Regardless of the tremendous pain that they claim to feel, a
lot of people from this age group end up with multiple tattoos. With this growing fad some are
wondering if tattooing is a true addiction, due to an endorphin rush, or
because they just like it.
The
patrons at T-Dogg all admit that they did feel a rush either during or after
the tattooing process, but the rush isn’t intense enough to make tattooing an
addiction, they say.
Last Updated (Monday, 28 June 2010 13:32)
"Would I do it all over again? You bet, if I thought there was a chance to that it could better Zach's life in someway," says Lori Farmer, mother of 11-year-old Zach. Farmer, like many parents, took up a controversial gluten-free
diet in hopes of improving her son’s behaviors characteristic of autism spectrum disorder. Instead of a cure for
the severe autism that her son was diagnosed with at age four, Farmer says that
she just got an inflated grocery bill and a child unwilling to eat the
tasteless foods on the diet.
Gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diets have been
suggested as a way to alleviate the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Although Lori’s son Zach did not receive any benefit from the diet, other
parents and professionals extol the diet’s effectiveness.
“Countless parents report
that the diet is dramatically beneficial for their child. The most common
comment we hear from parents is that their child ‘came out of the fog’ when we
started the diet,” argues Talk About Curing Autism, a foundation providing support and education for
families affected by autism.
ASD is a neurological, developmental disorder that limits
language development and communication, according to www.mayoclinic.com.
The direct cause of autism is unknown, but particular
genes as well as environmental factors that “trigger” those genes are thought
to be contributing factors, explains the National Autism Association—a
national organization dedicated to autism awareness. This description is in
stark contrast to what was proposed a few decades ago when autism was thought
to be a behavior exhibited in children with unloving and neglectful mothers
(nicknamed “refrigerator mothers”). Research into identifying these genes as well as the environmental
“triggers” is ongoing.
Autism is typically diagnosed in the first three years of
life and affects 1 in 100 children. It is classified as a “spectrum disorder” because individuals experience
the characteristic behaviors to varying degrees, explains the Autism Society
of America, a leading organization of information on autism
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barely, and
casein is a protein found most commonly in dairy products. GFCF diets therefore restrict many
processed foods and popular kids’ foods like ice cream and bread.
Gluten and casein are proteins that are broken down in
the body into other substances, called by-products, which are found in high
levels in the urine of children with autism. The thought is that these
by-products are leaking from the intestines into the blood and then getting
into the general circulation, which in turn is producing many of the behavioral
symptoms of autism, reports Healing Thresholds, a free research-based
website directed at families impacted by autism.
“Hypothetically, this difference in processing [gluten
and casein] may exacerbate autistic symptoms,” according to www.webmd.com.
However, many physicians are not convinced that the
diet works. Available research data do not support the use of a casein-free,
gluten-free, or GFCF diets as a primary treatment for individuals with ASDs, says
a study published in 2010 in Pediatrics —the official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Parents may feel differently. Of 3,593 parents
surveyed, 69% indicated that their
child’s behaviors associated with autism “got better” after strictly adhering
to the GFCF diet, according to a parent questionnaire conducted in 2009 by the Autism
Research Institute— an institute
for the promotion of autism research.
“Eliminating all sources of
gluten and casein is so hard that conducting randomized clinical trials in
children may prove to be very difficult,” warns www.webmd.com.
“I have read articles and
have talked to doctors that feel the diet does benefit people with autism. but
what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another.” states Farmer.
Last Updated (Thursday, 24 June 2010 22:33)
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Health and Medicine
Written by Ariel Stavri, SciJourn Reporter | 
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