Herbal Remedies in FDA Limbo
Thesis: There needs to be regulation of herbal remedies and dietary supplements from an outside source that is not interested in the monetary benefits
from the herbal market. Although herbal remedies and dietary supplements can be beneficial to many Americans, the United States needs to implement
an administration to analyze, research, and regulate what herbs are in supplements, and their acceptable uses.
Introduction:
Herbal supplements and herbal treatments are nothing new to people looking for a way to enhance their diets or to those trying to find an alternative to traditional drugs. Such supplements include vitamins or minerals already present in the majority of foods. Other treatments are more unusual and stem from ancient Chinese healing or Native American therapies. Often these additional or alternative treatments have a positive effect on the patient. In China, during the early seventies, there were good results reported for treating bronchopneumonia in children. The doctors used herbal medicines, traditional methods of massage along the spinal column, and acupuncture and injections into needling points in conjunction with current antibiotics. This combination of traditional medicine with current medical practices had major improvements over the simple administration of antibiotics since the most recent method of antibiotics did not take into account the problems of a poor functioning cardiovascular system, spasms of the bronchi, and the fact that asthma often continues. The traditional method does have an effect on these symptoms (Risse, 108). However, despite the positive effects, there have been reported instances where men and women hav...
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Each year, people spend billions of dollars on pharmaceutical drugs, but what if there was an option that was cheaper and natural? Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years and shows no sign of stopping. Many are familiar with Aloe Vera, a plant commonly used to treat burns, but it can also be used to speed the healing process of cuts. Herbal remedies have been around for a long time and have saved lives, like little Teddy’s life in No Witchcraft for Sale.
High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because it often has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people don’t know they have it. For most patients, high blood pressure is found when they visit their health care provider or have it checked elsewhere. Because there are no symptoms, people can develop heart disease and kidney problems without knowing they have high blood pressure. Some people may experience: bad headache, mild dizziness, and blurry vision. Traditionally, diagnosis of high blood pressure (BP) has relied on consecutive checks of clinic BP over a 2 to 3 month period, with hypertension confirmed if BP remains persistently raised over 140/90 mmHg. This method of diagnosis has significant limitations because the BP measured for an individual patient in a clinic setting may not reflect their BP in day-to-day life. The main concern is that as a result of the “white coat syndrome”, hypertension may be over-diagnosed when checked in the clinic setting; resulting ...
As many as 73 million Americans have high blood pressure. Of the 1 in every 4 adults wi...
In 2003 The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) was released. Since then, it has become the most widely accepted guidelines for managing hypertension and is the guideline that i...
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
Treatment for the client presenting to the APN diagnosed with hypertension, the first efforts should be focused on education. The patient should be informed of what current JNC 8 guidelines for the diagnosis of hypertension are. This will help the patient identify that he or she in fact has a problem and his blood pressure is abnormal. Further education should also include anticipated progression of the disease and complications from prolonged hypertension to help the patient understand the effects hypertension have on the body and risk of development of end-organ damage. Since hypertension is a silent disease, often void of symptoms, the patient must understand fully the implications of the disease and necessity to control the blood pressure.
Ever since my dad reached his mid-thirties he has had to deal with his high-blood pressure. Not only does my dad have high-blood pressure, but so does my dad’s two brothers and mother. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, “Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. High blood pressure, sometimes called hypertension, happens when this force is too high.” Blood pressure is measured with the use of a gauge, stethoscope, and a blood pressure cuff which is the thing that wraps tight around your arm like a python. When someone is measuring blood pressure they are looking for the systolic pressure which is blood pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood and diastolic pressure which is blood pressure when the heart is at rest between beats. When these two pressure are figured out the numbers are recorded like a fraction with the systolic pressure over top of the diastolic pressure. A normal blood pressure should be 120/80 mm Hg or less, so
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Water takes up a larger percentage of the surface of our Earth than does land. The earth’s oceans are vital aspects to our environment and it is necessary that we take care of them. On another note, global warming is an issue that is having effects on almost all aspects of our environment. Global warming itself means a gradual increase in the temperature of our Earth’s atmosphere over large periods of time. There is evidence that global warming has occurred in the atmosphere, however, now we are beginning to see its effects in the world’s oceans, as well. Though some may not see the connection that it has with the oceans, it has had quite a profound effect on our Earth’s oceans. As I mentioned before, oceans are environments that must maintain each characteristic in order to survive. If one aspect of the ocean becomes altered, it leads to many consequences.
"Oceans." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 May 2014.
Traditional herbal medicine comes from many different areas of the world (Indian, Chinese, African, Western, Native American herbs, Ayurvedic and other indigenous medicines) and in most all of them they are still b...