Pharmaceuticals are often the first treatment for a variety of medical disorders. It doesn?t matter if you have digestive disorders, insomnia, chronic migraines, or daily aches and pains, your physician is likely to prescribe you some type of medication. While medications do alleviate symptoms, they do not cure the cause of the pain. Additionally, medications, if necessary, should be used in conjunction with other treatments, and not as a sole treatment option.

Change of diet
Many studies show that diet affects health. It affects health in many ways, including pain levels, inflammation, and disease. Yet, a change of diet is never considered as a treatment option. To stay healthy requires healthy eating. Diets can also affect and cause digestive disorders. Between 2009 and 2010, there were 51 million visits (to physician offices, hospital outpatient and emergency departments) with diseases of the digestive system as the primary diagnosis. A large number of these patients are prescribed medication, but are never offered information about alternative therapies for digestive orders, such as a change in diet.

Daily exercise
Exercise is another key requirement to stay healthy. A large percentage of Americans do not receive the recommended amount of daily exercise. Exercise has shown to reduce chronic pain, improve strength, and encourage people to stay healthy. Exercise also releases dopamine, which is a natural pain reducer. While daily exercise may not prevent disease, it can be an effective part of the treatment process. When exercise is done daily, it can even reduce the number of pharmaceuticals that a person has to take.

Over the counter supplements
With a commonality of unhealthy diets, Americans also do not receive enough of the daily recommended vitamins. Specific dietary restrictions or preferences to certain food items also contribute to vitamin deficiencies. Over the counter supplements, however, can make up for these missing vitamins. These natural remedies can reduce inflammation, increase energy, and balance the body?s natural pain reduction mechanisms. Some vitamins can even promote healthier sleep. An estimated 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have sleep or wakefulness disorder. A lack of sleep also affects pain reduction and adds to disease.

Regular physician visits
Another important key to stay healthy is with regular physician visits. A lot of people only schedule appointments with their physicians when they are feeling ill or when they suffer an injury. Regular appointments, however, are important to overall health. When the physician is able to monitor routine blood work and changes in the body regularly, they can make better diagnoses and treatment recommendations. They can also provide consultation on medical issues that are commonly left untreated. Migraines, for example, remain undiagnosed and undertreated in at least 50% of patients, and less than 50% of migraines patients consult a physician.

Physical therapy
Physical therapy is recommended for pain treatment more than the other options listed, however, it is not used enough. Physical therapy is not only used for the rehabilitation of an injury, it is also used as an educational tool. Sometimes, it is necessary to educate patients on proper lifting and exercise habits. It can also be helpful to strengthen surrounding muscles of an injured area. Physical therapy can be effective in both injury and disease, yet is often under referred.

The pharmaceutical industry is a billion dollar business. When a patient has a medical concern, they are prescribed a medication to relieve the symptoms. Very rarely are they provided with a comprehensive treatment plan that also include dietary changes, daily exercise, physical therapy, regular physician checkups, and over the counter supplements. The combination of all of these points, rather than a simple medication, is usually the best recovery outcome.

The post How to Stay Healthy Despite a Chronic Medical Condition appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.

Until last month you never understood what could possibly be so difficult about falling asleep.
For your entire life, you have aways been able to rest when you want. You get a good night’s rest of a daily basis; if you are tired during the day you simply lay down and take a quick nap. You wake up, in the morning after eight hours of sleep or in the afternoon after a 30 minute nap, refreshed and renewed.
Although you have never had a problem with sleep, however, this last month has been a nightmare for your oldest daughter. As she has slid into a rather desperate situation where she is struggling with migraines, anxiety, and insomnia. And while you initially thought that the answer was to take a nighttime sleeping medicine, that solution has only made the problem worse. In fact, the typical prescriptions that you would have thought would have solved her problems leave her groggy, but unable to sleep, and even more anxious, instead of relaxed.
Do You or a Loved One Struggle with Anxiety or Insomnia?

Many recent studies speak to the fact that a good night’s rest can go a long way toward keeping someone healthy. What do you do, however, if you are plagued by sleepless nights many weeks in a row? For those individuals who do not want to take over the counter or prescription drugs to force them to fall asleep, the best solution may be natural remedies for sleeplessness and holistic migraine treatments. Understanding how the body works, or fails to work, when it does not get enough rest is not a step in solving the problem, for many this knowledge only tends to build the anxiety over being unable to sleep.
It is important for people to understand that there are many natural treatments for conditions like insomnia. Even when the youngest infants appear to have colic, many home remedies are more successful in treating this condition. For many, understanding that insomnia, migraines, and anxiety are real conditions that can be treated. When a sufferer of any of these conditions isolates him or her self, it is difficult to get the help that is needed. Consider some of these known facts about these conditions that can affect every aspect of a person’s life:

• Facts and statistics indicate that depression is three times more common in people with migraine or severe headaches than in people who do not suffer from these two conditions.
• Instead of taking prescription medications to deal with insomnia and other conditions, many individuals find success with natural remedies.
• No parent wants an infant to cry for long periods of time. Unfortunately, babies with colic typically cry more than three hours a day, three days a week, for three weeks or longer.
• Digestive diseases, that can sometimes lead to other health issues, affect 60 to 70 million people.
• Insomnia can keep people from successfully performing at work.
• Nearly 66% of those suffering from anxiety disorders do not get treatment, even though the condition is treatable.
• Getting familiar with all of the available natural treatment options can help you deal with many conditions.






• Averages indicate that between the years 2009 and 2010, there were 51 million visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient, and emergency departments with diseases of the digestive system as the primary diagnosis.






• Some estimates indicate that 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have sleep or wakefulness disorder.
• One night of missed sleep can cause a major disruption. Having insomnia several nights in a row can be debilitating.
• Largely, migraine remains undiagnosed and undertreated in at least 50% of patients.
• Until the 50% of migraine patients who never consult a physician it is difficult to imagine a solution.
• Typically, colic starts a few weeks after birth and usually improves by three months. By four to five months of age, the majority of babies with colic improve.
• In studies, 13% of migraineurs indicate they have one or more attacks a week.
• Over half of migraineurs experience one or more attacks a month.
• No person can function day after day, week after week without sleep. For some people, unfortunately, insomnia and anxiety go hand in hand. Currently, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America, affecting 40 million adults age 18 and older.

The post So You Suffer from Insomnia? appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.