The Menacing Mathematics of Multiple Meds

By Gary Craig

There's something scary about drugs that concerns a growing number of physicians and should wobble the knees of every patient on the planet. It's obvious to any mathematician but somehow has escaped the general scrutiny of the health industry.

It has to do with combining meds.

Ever since I can remember I have been fed the perception that drugs are governmentally evaluated and thus are safe if taken under the guidance of competent physicians. However, even if we accept the presumed safety for the ingestion of one drug, we must ask ourselves how might that safety change if we take multiple drugs?

For safety assurances, proper testing should be done for every drug combination we are advised to take. If we take Prozac and Tylenol, for example, we should be presented with all the possible benefits and consequences before allowing these two foreign substances to mix with the chemicals our bodies already create. Same thing goes for combining Paxil with Viagra or Interferon with Lipitor.

The list of possible problems here is monstrously long because there are a b'zillion drugs and mega b'zillions of combinations. Nonetheless, I've never seen or heard of any studies that test any of these combinations ... have you?

Thus, if you take two drugs, the odds of their combination having been adequately tested for safety are skimpy at best. But if you take 3 or more drugs the danger possibilities multiply even faster.

Here's how the mathematics work: If you take 3 drugs then adequate safety testing of the various combinations require 7 separate tests. If you take 4 drugs the combinations require 25 separate tests. If you take 5 drugs it amounts to 121 tests. If you take 10 drugs the number of required safety tests total 362,881.

The conclusion here should be obvious. Namely, there is questionable safety testing if you take 2 drugs and nominal, if any, safety testing if you take 3. Beyond that you are clearly into the land of, "I have no idea what these combinations of drugs will do."

To me, this tosses our dedicated docs into a tenuous position. They have patients with problems who aren't willing to exercise, eat right, do EFT for emotional issues or much of anything else to help their own health. Instead, the patients hope the physicians will produce a magic pill (or pills) to make their problems go away.

I have met many patients who are on several drugs and take some drugs to counteract the effects of other drugs. As a non-physician I look at this with a shudder. These folks are being fed chemical cocktails with little or no safety testing behind the combinations. Maybe I need some help with my perceptions here but, to me, they are playing drug roulette.

I don't know if lawyers have picked up on the simple, but compelling, math here. But I do know that I wouldn't want to be a doctor in court facing these clear facts.

In the 15+ years I have been involved in the health field, I have had the good fortune to count many physicians as my personal friends. With few exceptions, they agree that it is our lifestyles, diets and emotional stresses that cause most of our health problems ... and ... the vast majority of these problems would vanish if people would live common sense lives. Yet patients repeatedly abuse their bodies and ask for more and more "miracle drugs" as the convenient solution. I don't envy the docs at all as I often hear them complain that this is a highway to NobodyWinsVille.

Maybe what we really need are good salespeople to persuade folks to take care of themselves. I suspect that, if truly persuasive, they would do more good than the ocean of drugs at our disposal.

Love, Gary

PS: The Free EFT Get Started Package can help any newcomer learn the valuable EFT process. If you want to save time and dive right in, get our low cost DVD Library.

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Wisdom Teeth , also referred as the third set of molars, are the last set of teeth in the mouth to grow, which normally happens around the ages of 17 - 25. There have been a lot of controversies and myths on wisdom teeth and their extraction. If the teeth do not cause any harm or pain, they are normally fine to stay in place. If they present a bad position or cause you a lot of pain or discomfort, they will need to be removed.

The major danger with wisdom teeth is they have the risk of becoming impacted and need to be extracted. Sometimes they can be pulled, although in most cases they need to be chipped out by a qualified surgeon. When the time comes to have your wisdom teeth extracted, you will need to go to an oral surgeon and have a consultation first.

The consultation generally involved taking a sets of x-rays that will let the surgeon know about the severity your wisdom teeth are. He will reviews the results with you, take a look in your mouth, then tell you what options you have. If he is going to pull or cut out your teeth, you will have the option of using local anaesthesia or going with intravenous sedation. An IV sedation is the preferred way to have wisdom teeth extracted, as you will be so relaxed you will not know what is going on. If you decide to just use local anaesthesia, which is numbing, you will be fully aware of the procedure. You will also hear the popping and cracking involved, which can make you feel quite uncomfortable.

The ease of the extraction process is guided by the shape, size, and the formation of the wisdom teeth. If the root tips have managed to wrap themselves around the bone, the removal process can be very time consuming and quite painful. Once the extractions have been completed, there is normally little to no swelling involved. Your dentist will prescribe you some pain medicine, which you should use as soon as you arrive home. If you are going to use IV sedation, you will need to someone to accompany you, as you will not be able to drive home.

Once the removal of your wisdom teeth is done, your dentist will advise you on what you need to do to ensure the proper healing of your gums and mouth. Normally, he will give you information to go over, to make sure that you experience no problems in the healing process. Someone will need to be with you for the first 24 hours, to make sure that you ok. You will not be able to eat certain foods for the first 48 hours, which is to be expected. Once you get your wisdom teeth removed through - you will notice a big improvement in your mouth - and your health.

Author Resource:- Sam Kern has also published a number articles on Cosmetic Dentistry. Recently published article : Restorative dentistry.

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Wisdom Teeth - Should You Have Them Removed?

When the words 'wisdom teeth' are mentioned, the most common thought is about having them removed. Why is this? Wisdom teeth are also referred to as third molars. This set of molars will start to come through in late adolesence or early adulthood, if they develop at all. As humans have evolved, there is less room in the mouth for these teeth to come in normally, although there are people who are able to keep them. You may not even know you have wisdom teeth developing until a dental visit shows them on an x-ray.

For those who do not have the room for the teeth to come in properly, they either come through the skin partially, or grow in sideways - this is called impaction. You may or may not feel pain from impaction; it depends on how the tooth is coming in. Sideways growing teeth can push on your other permanent molars and cause quite a bit of pain. Another common issue is infection or abscesses. Sometimes, only one or two teeth may come in, with the tooth then coming in direct contact with the opposite gum. This is why most dentists will recommend that you have your wisdom teeth removed, even if you aren't having any complications with them currently.

The best time for removal is in your late teens or early twenties. The older you get, the more difficult the wisdom teeth become to remove. This is due to the roots of the teeth hardening as the teeth mature, making removal more difficult with more complications likely. Some of these complications can include permanent nerve damage and problems during the healing process (dry socket). Dry socket is where the healing starts normally, then a blood clot does not form. This leads to a lot of pain, which can encompass the entire side of your face. Your dentist can give you the best advice on a recovery program to avoid healing complications.

Wisdom tooth removal is more than a simple tooth pull, especially when the teeth are impacted. The procedure is often done under general anesthesia. The gum is opened up and the tooth is removed in sections. Sometimes bone will have to be removed as well, depending on the severity of the problem.

Recovery will take several days to a week, depending on any complications or your age at the time of removal. Expect to feel pain in the extraction area and you will likely be prescribed pain medication. You will also experience significant facial swelling. This will make it difficult to open your mouth completely, so eating and speaking will be hindered for several days. A liquid or soft food diet is recommended for about 7 days, then you will be able to introduce other foods as the healing progresses. Stitches will be required and your dentist may opt for either those that need removal, or dissolving stitches.

At your next dental appointment for you or your teenagers, ask to have an x-ray done to see if there are wisdom teeth coming in. Then you can discuss with your dentist the best treatment options for you or your children. Remember, the earlier the removal, the faster the recovery and the lower the risk of complications.

Michael Russell Your Independent Dental guide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

Wisdom Tooth Facts

At around the age of 17, wisdom teeth either erupt—or try to, or fail entirely to erupt—in the back of your mouth. Because of the lack of room in the jaw for the large, sharp wisdom teeth, the dental community often encourages them to be removed. But why should you? Do your teeth need all that space? Or is there more to it than that?

When wisdom teeth come into your mouth fully, and not crooked, they’re usually harmless, and serve their purpose of being grinders. But it’s often the case that a tooth will only erupt halfway, leaving the pierced gum area around it susceptible to food and bacteria which can leak down inside and cause infection—not to mention bad breath. These infections aren’t small matters, although they do begin that way. If left untreated, they can cause trismus, the inability to fully open the mouth, and keep spreading until they reach as far as the neck.

Even if a tooth does come out correctly, it’s far enough back in the mouth for it to be difficult to reach to clean with a toothbrush and impossible to floss without unhinging your jaw.

However, most wisdom tooth-related problems are caused by the tooth failing to emerge fully from the gum—these teeth, called ‘impacted teeth’, can tilt outwards abnormally, crowding the teeth around them and causing pain and irritation of the gums. Such crowding can create a slow-working domino effect, causing other teeth to become crooked. After that, they can only be returned to their original positions with braces.

Cysts can form around the impacted tooth, affecting the bones and expanding the jaw. If they grow large enough, they can fracture the jaw. Sometimes, although not often, cysts can harbor cancerous tumors.

There are many kinds of impaction—mesial, when the tooth is angled toward the front of the mouth; vertical, towards the bottom; horizontal, when a tooth is on its side; and distal, when it angles toward the back of the mouth. There’s more: bony impaction is when the tooth hasn’t even made it to the gum, but is still stuck behind in the jawbone. Soft tissue impaction describes when the tooth does make it through the bone, but fails to make the final jump through the gum tissue.

But why go through with having these teeth, which are signals that one has come-of-age in some cultures, removed now? Surgery certainly isn’t something to which many of us look forward. Unless it’s pressing—like, say, a brain transplant—we tend to put it off. But it’s best to remove the cause before it becomes a problem, which is why, although the thought of removing these third molars isn’t enticing, you should have them out before they can cause discomfort and infection in your mouth. Even if you do manage to avoid these effects for awhile, the bone surrounding the tooth becomes denser as you age, and once you pass forty the tooth becomes more difficult to remove. So what are you waiting for? A few days of pain can save you years of headache.

Fashun Smith is a freelance writer and consumer advocate for http://www.CheckMyDentist.com, helping visitors locate a Dentist Atlanta and all over the United States.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fashun_Smith