Corticosteroids: What I Learned from Prednisone
If wellness equals homeostasis, then illness may be considered a loss or breakdown of homeostasis. Illness can be mild and require little or no intervention; sometimes the body will heal itself. At other times, though, illness can be a breakdown in the whole system. Sometimes, when something goes wrong, the brain loses the ability to fix itself or its extension, the body. To treat the illness, there are many drugs: some placebo-like and some are very potent, with enormous healing properties. Some drugs are homeopathic; they come from the earth in the form of herbs and have been used effectively to heal mild and annoying symptoms for hundreds of years. There are also beyond these, new and potent drugs that come from pharmaceutical laboratories. Some of these drugs have great healing power, but carry with them a double-edged sword, a healing edge and a destructive edge. It is one of these drugs, prednisone, that I wish to discuss in this paper. Physicians have prescribed prednisone to many of their patients who have life-threatening conditions. To illustrate, here is a quote from internationally known flutist and television commentator on the arts, Eugenia Zuckerman, who was diagnosed with an immunopathic lung disease.
"I can breathe! In less than twenty-four hours I am practicing the flute with the kind of breath control I've been missing for months. And all it took was one day and sixty milligrams of prednisone! ...I feel a little shaky and weird, but I can play the flute! But now it is three days later. It is the middle of the night. I'm squinting into the mirror in the bathroom. Only seventy-two hours into my prednisone therapy and my face is definitely spreading. I'm already turning into a pumpkin." (2). I understand what Eugenia Zuckerman meant. I was also on prednisone.
Corticosteroids (9) are wonderful-terrible-wonderful drugs. They make you crazy. (I was in psychotherapy.) They increase your appetite and increase your weight. (I was always hungry.) They put your nervous system on high alert. (I was nervous and frightened, my hands were shaky, and one eyelid twitched.) They produce edema. (My face and ankles swelled.) They cause insomnia, (I stayed up most of the night watching old movies on television.) Moreover, they give you the "gift" of boundless energy.
The popular saying “practice makes perfect” has been used for many years encouraging younger generations to strive for success in whatever area they wish to excel in. Success is something everybody in society strides for but some do not know how it is achieved. However, there are many people throughout history who are known for achieving success in many areas. Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author and speaker, identifies these people as being outliers. Gladwell identifies the word “outlier” in his story Outliers as “a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.” Although Malcolm Gladwell does not establish credibility for himself in his novel, his targeted audience of a younger inexperienced generation feel the need to be informed by his detailed theories about becoming successful and eventually becoming an outlier. Although the reality of becoming successful can depend on instances one can not control, Gladwell tells his readers there is a great portion they can control through his theory, the 10,000 hour rule. He does this by using well presented logical persuasive appeals and interesting rhetorical devices such as: onomatopeias, exposition, and argumentation.
Malcolm Gladwell demonstrates use of figurative language including repition and exemplum, along with ethos and pathos current in the 10,000 hour rule; however, his credibility of his sources and knowledge is not present. He makes use of successful people who have impacted the world in analyzing their previous lives and how they had obtained 10,000 hours of practice. Outliers affects the audience to make them feel more knowledgable and aware of the characteristics of success, inlcuding a more relatable and understanding concept established by figurative language. Gladwell provides an ambition, or goal, for young people to achieve success in future generations. Outliers is a very inspiring novel that maintains many aspects of practice through the 10,000 hour rule, and will transform how society views success in many other generations.
on the road to secession. Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to Missouri from Virginia
Through chronological ordering and well known knowledge, Walter Ehrlich presented information on the Dred Scott vs. John F.A. Sanford case. In the well structured document “Dred Scott in History” by Walter Ehrlich the comprehension of the numerous delays and controversial issues compared to the document’s importance to history in sparking the Civil War. The structure and importance were kept well supported in the document written by Walter Ehrlich.
Although drugs are used in an illegal aspect for the most part, there are accounts of medical research to prove the positive effects on some patients with long-term diseas...
The famous spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "Homeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Homeopathy is the latest, most refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently” (Malik). However, Homeopathy is only one of the many natural forms of treatment that patients are utilizing in an effort to avoid conventional medicine. A clinic practice model that combines conventional medicine with Naturopathic, Complementary and other forms of alternative medicine all in one setting, is the new health paradigm called Integrative Medicine. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by costly and sometimes violent conventional medicine, I am going to explain the movement towards
Mae-Wan, Ho. Genetic engineering : dream or nightmare? : turning the tide on the brave new world of bad science and big business. New York : Continuum, 2000.
“Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart… To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty… and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted.” - Benjamin Franklin. As you can see, the Abolition Movement and the Dred Scott Decision had a huge impact on the outcome and events of the civil war.
Homeopathy is natural form of medicine that has been around for over two hundred years. Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”.“We should imitate nature...a drug with power to provoke another, artificial disease, as similar as possible, and the former disease will be cured: fight like with like.” (Hahnerman) Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”. This means to give a substance that will elicit a healing response. Over the past couple of years, it has been discovered that conventional medicine has serious side effects which can harm a person’s health. Homeopathy was found to be a solution to this problem and can have many positive effects on a person’s health and their lifestyle.
Although steroids have many negative effects, they have many needed medical purposes. Androgens have many legitimate medical uses, such as the use for treatment of hypogonadal men to compensate for the lack of endogenous production. Anabolic steroids are also helpful for the treatment of certain adolescent diseases, some types of anemias, and for a relatively rare form of edema. Other clinical uses focus on the tissue building and anti-catabolic effects, such as in the treatment of burn victims, AIDS, or HIV positive patients, or patients malnourished from disease or old age (Bellino 1).
The main part of a physical therapist’s (PT) job is to help their patients return to full activity. Most of the time they work with patients who are recovering from surgery, which can be both athletes and nonathletes. They help the patients relearn how to walk and run if they had surgery on their leg, or to write if they have surgery on their hand or arm. PTs work closely with surgeons for rehabilitation both before and after to strengthen muscles and regain full movement. They examine and determine each patient’s needs and set goals for the patient. The PT monitors the patient’s progress throughout their recovery and changes the patient’s plan if necessary.
Steroids have been widely used and spread in the early 70‘s for many other reasons rather than medical purposes. Steroids can be classified to sex steroids, corticosteroids and anabolic steroids. They all three have been a used in the medical aid in different kind of dysfunction and illness. For example, I had a friend that had terrifying medical issues in the vertebral spinal lower back, she ended up having a disease because her spine was too weak and was not developing as it should have.
During workdays, physical therapists meet with their patients and discuss their goals. To achieve them, the physical therapists work with the patients and create plans that map out routines of exercise and stretches. Every time a patient returns to the office, the physical therapists examine and observe how they are progressing and determine how to help them even more (O*NET Online). They then begin to modify the old plans and find better ways for the patient to make a full recovery (O*NET Online). They also converse with the patient and their families to inform them of how to make the recovery go smoothly and quickly. The outcome of this treatment is that people who were injured or ill would recuperate and uphold a healthy life. Physical therapists use their knowledge of human biology to know how to challenge the patients with precaution and achieve a successful recovery (America’s Top 300 Jobs: A Complete Career Handbook). The physical therapists have to work with the patient to understand each other and their ideas. Also, physical therapists tend to talk with other physicians, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, and physical therapists to find the best path to being healthy (Ameri...
There are many ways to categorize illness and disease; one of the most common is chronic illness. Many chronic illnesses have been related to altered health maintenance hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are associated with diet and stress, deficient in exercise, tobacco use, and obesity (Craven 2009). Some researchers define the chronic illness as diseases which have long duration and generally slow development (WHO 2013); it usually takes 6 month or longer than 6 month, and often for the person's life. It has a sluggish onset and eras of reduction for vanishing the symptoms and exacerbation for reappear the symptoms. Some of chronic illness can be directly life-threatening. Others remain over time and need intensive management, such as diabetes, so chronic illness affects physical, emotional, logical, occupational, social, or spiritual functioning. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, all of these diseases are the cause of mortality in the world, representing 63% of all deaths. So a chronic illness can be stressful and may change the way a person l...
A physical therapist does a lot of things to help patients get back to what they normally do day to day before an injury. They do this by coming up with plans that helps to reduce pains and help restore movements and make goals for patients. They help by having a hands-on approach and being able to help with exercises and stretches they also massage muscles to help manipulate them to move. They also use different technology to help with anything that deals with the movement or that would restrict movement such as ultrasounds and electrotherapy.