Health
Treating Pain Naturally (1)
Pain is a thief. It can rob you of your livelihood, friends, marriage, happiness and even your personality. If left unattended to, it can steal your days and rights, until the world has become meaningless to you.
One can even become a prisoner of pain, when one begins to manage or endure pains from month to month. Researchers have confined pains into two categories: Recurrent and chronic pain.
Infact chronic pain is a leading cause of lost workdays around the world. For instance, in the United Kingdom, 119 million days are lost to back pain alone according to one study.
Experts believe that pain subsist because it has been seen as a mere smokescreen of arthritis, cancer, or trauma rather than what it’s – a serious consequential health issue in its own right.
The second big reason why pain has remained unabated is that most people find it difficult to get adequate pain relief and most times confine themselves to one or two until the pain gets out of hand.
Before you can give pain the treatment it deserves, you have to understand what’s and why you have it. Normally, pain plays a valuable role in our overall health. Medical experts liken it to an alarm system for the body. When skin cartilage muscle or other tissue is injured, peripheral nerves in the area send a shrieking signal to the spinal card. That is why you pull your hand away from a burning fire.
All pain signals ultimately land in the brain, where they trigger some feelings or memories aimed at protecting your body from further harm.
With chronic pain, however, the alarm continues to ring even when the physical danger has passed- somewhere along the line, maybe near the initial injury, maybe in the spinal card or brain – the alarm system has broke down. What researchers have only recently come to understand is the prolonged exposure to the screaming pain and the damage it does to the body. The truth of the matter is that each time we feel pain, there are changes that occur that tend to amplify our experience of pain. And that is it’s a mistake to ignore or under treat severe pain.
Based on this revelation, it’s important to examine types of pain one by one (a) Headaches can be triggered by all sorts of things – stress, caffeine, alcohol, bright lights and dusty air. (b) Back pain can be caused by shift of discs at the backbone or sitting for too long. (c) fibromyalgia – muscular pain or pain from the skeletal system (d) Osteoarthritis – pains from joints (e) Neuropathy: is usually pain from nerve damage. Often caused by diseases such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer or shingles.
Children also experience pain but differently than adults.
According to research, infants don’t have memory of their pains because they are developing their nervous system, but they actually experience pain more intensely than adults.
Nonetheless, while drugs are important in treating pains, adopting a holistic approach by using herbs and other alternative methods have over the years helped in pain management
Two United States scientists who unraveled the human micro RNA have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the coveted prize for their work on microRNA as their discoveries help explain how complex life emerged on earth and how the human body is made up of a wide variety of different tissues.
MicroRNAs influence how genes – the instructions for life – are controlled inside organisms, including humans.
Every cell in the human body contains the same raw genetic information, locked in our DNA.
However, despite starting with the identical genetic information, the cells of the human body are wildly different in form and function.
The electrical impulses of nerve cells are distinct from the rhythmic beating of heart cells. The metabolic powerhouse that is a liver cell is distinct to a kidney cell, which filters urea out of the blood.
The light-sensing abilities of cells in the retina are different in skillset to white blood cells that produce antibodies to fight infection.
So much variety can arise from the same starting material because of gene expression.
The US scientists were the first to discover microRNAs and how they exerted control on how genes are expressed differently in different tissues.
The medicine and physiology prize winners are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
They said: “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
“It is now known that the human genome codes for over 1,000 microRNAs.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun acting to curb effects of antibiotic pollution.
The new guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for antibiotic manufacturing sheds light on this important but neglected challenge ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) taking place on 26 September 2024.
The emergence and spread of AMR caused by antibiotic pollution could undermine the effectiveness of antibiotics globally, including the medicines produced at the manufacturing sites responsible for the pollution.
Despite high antibiotic pollution levels being widely documented, the issue is largely unregulated and quality assurance criteria typically do not address environmental emissions. In addition, once distributed, there is a lack of information provided to consumers on how to dispose of antibiotics when they are not used, for example, when they expire or when a course is finished but there is still antibiotic left over.
“Pharmaceutical waste from antibiotic manufacturing can facilitate the emergence of new drug-resistant bacteria, which can spread globally and threaten our health. Controlling pollution from antibiotic production contributes to keeping these life-saving medicines effective for everyone,” said Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for AMR ad interim.
Globally, there is a lack of accessible information on the environmental damage caused by manufacturing of medicines.
“The guidance provides an independent and impartial scientific basis for regulators, procurers, inspectors, and industry themselves to include robust antibiotic pollution control in their standards,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO. “Critically, the strong focus on transparency will equip buyers, investors and the general public to make decisions that account for manufacturers’ efforts to control antibiotic pollution.”
In a concerted effort to curb brain drain, the Kebbi State Government has harmonised medical doctors’ salaries to be at par with their colleagues in the federal government’s tertiary health facilities.
Kebbi State Commissioner for Health, Musa Inusa-Isma’il, disclosed this at the handing over of ambulances to the state-owned health facilities at the Ministry of Health in Birnin Kebbi yesterday.
Inusa Isma’il, according to a statement by Ahmed Idris, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, said the essence of the harmonisation was to retain the existing medical doctors and attract more to the services of the state.
According to him, the doctors across the state had already started enjoying the new salaries from August 2024.
He said the release of the vehicles was in fulfilment of Governor Nasir Idris’ promise to uplift health care services in the state.
“His Excellency said I should inform you, the beneficiaries of this gesture, that the vehicle should be strictly used for the intended purpose. It should not be used for anything else.
“If there is no referral case, each of the vehicles must be parked at the hospital by 6 pm. The governor said you should warn your drivers against reckless driving as well as violating the instructions.
“We should also do everything possible to reciprocate the gesture by working according to the terms and conditions attached,” he advised.
The benefiting health facilities included Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi; State Teaching Hospital, Kalgo; General Hospital, Argungu; General Hospital, Yauri; General Hospital, Zuru; and General Hospital, Bunza.
In his speech, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Shehu Koko, recalled that the ambulances were handed over to the ministry last Friday by the governor for the onward handover to the benefiting hospitals.
He observed that the ambulances would go a long way in improving the referral system in the state, adding that delays in reaching the secondary and tertiary facilities would be eliminated.
The permanent secretary attributed the high rate of maternal mortality in the country to delays in getting to the health facilities for proper medical care.
“We believe with the provision of these ambulances, part of the gaps we have in our referral system will be addressed, whereby patients who require secondary healthcare could be easily transported to secondary and tertiary health centres, where they can get such help,” he said.
In a goodwill message, Commissioner for Information and Culture Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed expressed gratitude to the governor for the support he has given to the ministry to excel.
While advising the beneficiaries to use the vehicles judiciously, the commissioner advised that services and maintenance of the vehicles must be prompt to derive the maximum benefits from the vehicles.
The commissioner also highlighted some achievements recorded by the government in the last year, including beautification of the state capital, completion of a multimillion-naira ultramodern state secretariat, road construction, construction and renovation of classrooms and upgrading of some health facilities, among others.