What is Light Therapy?

In the 1980’s it was discovered that people in the northern hemisphere where showing signs of depression especially during the long winter months. They also discovered that these feelings of depression slowly disappeared as the weather started to get better and the summer months began.

What is light therapy?

To begin with, light therapy is was one of the solutions to the said SAD patients or people experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder. It was said that the effects of slight exposure was similar to the effects of taking anti depressants which meant that the light made the patients happier and lifter feeling of depression.

SAD is a form of depression, which is experienced by 4-6% of the population wherein women are said to experience SAD four times more than men. Common symptoms include lethargy and feelings of sluggishness.

Elite SAD Light Therapy Lamp

SAD light or the use of bright light therapy is one of the cures to alleviate SAD. During this treatment a patient will spend a minimum of 10 minutes facing a bright light therapy lamp. This is usually done during the winter when people are experiencing it the most. Some would even continue the treatment up until springtime arrives.

SAD light therapy works to release the hormone serotonin from the brain. This hormone helps make a person more energetic, alert, and active.

Day Light Sky Light

Nowadays this light therapy is not use solely for the purpose of treating SAD patients but in treating other patients such as those experiencing difficulty in sleeping and is also used to combat Jetlag. Some companies have even installed bright light therapy lamps to their offices for employees on night shift duties to keep them awake all through the night.

 

Are there side effects to light therapy?

Patients undergoing light therapy should also be careful since like some treatments, there may be unwanted side effects. Some side effects of SAD include insomnia, fatigue, headache, and irritability. So if you start to experience these side effects than it may be better to find another treatment besides the SAD light therapy treatment.

Resources

A background and introduction to chronobiology and mood disorders
Chronobiology and mood disorders: background and introduction
Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 2000;25(5):443-5. 
Benjamin Rusak, PhD

Light Therapy: Topic Overview
WebMD Website

Light Therapy for “Winter Blues” 
Mayo Clinic Website
Mayo Clinic Staff

Light Up the Blues: Light Therapy for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
MedicineNet Website
Melissa Stoppler, M.D., Barbara K. Hecht, Ph.D.

What is an Oxygen Bar?

Gone were the days when the word bar was defined as an establishment selling alcoholic drinks. Today you won’t just find liquids at a bar; you just might find an oxygen bar! Yes, an oxygen bar is technically an establishment that sells oxygen with different scents. They say that inhaling this will give anyone a relaxing and rejuvenating experience. Most oxygen bars would use aromatic oils as scents for their oils, but now, some bard use food grade products to provide guests with a wider selection of scents to choose from.

Oxygen Bar Turbo

Your Very Own Personal Oxygen Bar

What is better than getting your very own personal oxygen bar in the comfort of your own home?  So what’s so special about an oxygen bar when you can simply inhale the air around you for oxygen? Here are some of the benefits of inhaling air from a portable oxygen bar:

• Oxygen bars provide 90-99% pure oxygen, free from all types of bacteria, dirt and pollution
• Aromatherapy helps clear the mind, heightens awareness, and even reduces the onset of migraine and headaches
• It helps soothes the mind and stabilizes the nervous system
• Proven to have a special anti aging effect on people
• Helps detoxify blood and strengthen the immune system

Know that you know all the benefits from inhaling air from an oxygen bar, why not get one now?

Personal Oxygen Bar

Buying an oxygen bar

Buying an oxygen bar does not necessarily mean buying a whole bar and getting all the equipment. You can simply get a small portable oxygen bar like the Rejuvenating Oxygen Bar Turbo Oxygen Concentrator by Zadro. It comes with a headset and ear buds and provides the best experience since you can actually listen to music with the product’s ear buds while inhaling oxygen infused with aromatic oils.

This is definitely one of the better personal oxygen bars out in the market!

Benefits of Collagen Dressing

Collagen dressing is a classification of wound dressing obtained from collagen. Its purpose is to help the body in healing. Collagen is familiar to the human body as it is structural proteins commonly found in connective tissues.

When collagen is used to dress the wounds, the body’s collagen supply does not degenerate from strenuous activities of enzymes. In such case, the human body has the needed building materials for damage repair.

Fiberacole Plus Collagen Wound Dressing

How Collagen Dressing Helps

When a wound is given any other dressing except collagen, the body’s natural enzymes, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) will break down the damaged collagen so they will not be utilized for building the frames for growth of new tissues. However, due to the excessive production of the MMPs, which also break down even the healthy collagen, the wound becomes chronic.

Collagen dressings distract the MMPs from breaking down the healthy collagen with the additional collagen from dressings. Thus, the body’s healthy collagens are protected for more important chemical tasks.

Additional Benefits of Collagen Dressings

Collagen Dressing has other benefits. The most significant are:

1. Collagen from dressing absorbs the fluids.
2. It maintains the wound bed moist.
3. It acts as a barrier from external infection.
4. Collagen Dressings do not cling to the new tissues forming from the wounds. Hence, the collagen neither damages the tissue nor leaves behind fragments of fibers when new wound dressing is placed.
5. Using a collagen dressing can also accelerate the creation of fibroblast cells, which are essential in producing collagen and extra-cellular structures. The collagen dressings also draw the existing fibroblasts in the body towards the wound.

Sources of Collagen for Wound Dressings

The sources for collagen vary. But mostly, they are derived from animal sources such as pigs, horses, birds, and cows. The collaged extracted from these sources undergoes a purification process to fit for medical uses. Some forms of collagen dressing are sheets, pastes, ropes, and rectangular blocks. They all have non-stick membranes at the back.

References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9862108

http://www.burnsurgery.org/Modules/BurnWound/rationale/collagen/collagen_dressing.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-collagen-dressing.htm

How Does a Flutter Valve Work?

People who suffer from cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may have difficulty breathing as their lungs cannot function very well. In most cases, the lungs are filled with mucous, which is a principal factor to the breathing problems. One of the solutions to help those patients is the use of a medical device known as the flutter valve.

What is a Flutter Valve?

Also known as Acapella Valve, the flutter valve aids the lungs to function. For one, it removes the air from the chest tube and at the same time, keeps the air out from the lungs. It can also be integrated in a cylinder through which patients breathe out. For those who suffer from phlegm-infected lungs, the acapella valve is also used to suck out the mucus. In cases such as pneumothorax, the flutter valve is enclosed in a plastic, which is used to remove the air from chest cavity.

Some Flutter Valves are designed into a portable device built for patients to breathe through. In this case, the valve attached in a cylinder takes the form of a cone. Inside the valve is a ball.

Acepella Cough Assist

How Does a Flutter Valve Work? 

The flutter valve is a small device, which is usually held by hands and takes the form of a pipe. On one end is a plastic mouthpiece, while on the other is a perforated cover made also of a plastic material. There is also a ball made from stainless-steel inside the cone. It works in three ways:

1. It vibrates the airways and thus, loosens the mucous.
2. It keeps the airways during exhalation, open.
3. To induce mucous removal, the flutter valve creates “mini-coughs”.

To use the acapella flutter, the patient holds it in horizontal on a sitting position. Then, the patient is instructed to breathe in and hold the breath for two or three seconds before exhaling into the flutter. The vibrations in the patient’s airways can be adjusted by making adjustments on the degree in holding the device.

 References:

http://www.cfeducation.ca/en/airway_clearance.aspx

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-flutter-valve.htm

http://www.medicaldepartmentstore.com/flutter-valve-p/21-1530.htm

How Does an External Catheter Work?

There are times when men or women have incontinence problems or have undergone a surgical procedure. At which circumstance, urination can be difficult From time to time, we all excrete wastes including urine. External catheters are a device attached to the genital to collect urine. Catheters vary based on sizes and gender, albeit there are catheters that can be used for men and women.

Mentor Freedom Cath

Types of Catheters

There is a corresponding external catheter for both sexes. These are the male external catheter and female external catheter.

• Male External Catheter. A male external catheter is a sheath in rubber material. It is attached over a penis to empty the urine. Some catheters take the form or shape of a condom, like the Texas catheter. At the tip of the catheter has a tube attached to another tube, which leads to the collection bag. There are also catheters that use Velcro attachments. Others use a special type of tape to fasten the sheath around the penis base. The external catheter for men is attached to a tube made of plastic, which leads to a bag. The bag stores the urine until emptied. Another term for catheters is freedom cath because it enables a man to urinate without the trouble of getting up. Men who suffer from incontinence can seek comfort from using a male external catheter.
• Female external catheter. The catheter used for female takes the form of a tube which is tucked into the opening of urethra, the urethral meatus. Mostly, women use catheters to empty urine especially if they had sedation for surgical operation or to determine the conditions of the bladder through injecting some fluids into it.

Wide Band Self Adhering Catheter

The female catheter has two types of collection bags. One type of a drainage bag is large and which can hang under the bed of the patient for overnight use. The other type is known as the leg bag because it is connected to a leg, which makes the whole device discreet.

References:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-female-catheter.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-external-catheter.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-external-male-catheter.htm