Testing It Up

In a previous post, we shared with you how U.S. health officials have expressed that not everyone who develops swine flu is coming in to receive appropriate treatment. We have given our opinion that this may be due to the fact that the symptoms for common colds and the flu, as well as seasonal flu and swine flu, can be rather similar, and this probably has led to some people just dismissing symptoms as something else.

In order to help people discern exactly when they are only afflicted with colds and when they already have the flu, we would like to share a few tips. This knowledge is critical, as flu, when left undiagnosed and untreated, can be fatal.

If you are coming down with the flu, you will most probably feel lousy, and it will come as a surprise. One moment you seem okay, and then you can just wake up one morning and instead of feeling refreshed, you will feel sore and achy all over. You may experience sore throat, headache and fever, and they will come all at once.

Colds will not hit you in the same way. It will most probably come gradually, and the general symptoms will be runny or stuffy nose.

Another indication that the reason you are feeling so lousy is already the flu would be the onset of fever. While colds can also bring about fever, it is not a common symptom. The flu, on the other hand, will most likely be accompanied by fever of 100-102 degrees or higher.

If and when you realize you have the flu, how can you tell that it may be swine flu? We have always mentioned that swine flu and seasonal flu share the same symptoms. However, those who develop swine flu may also experience stomach-related problems such as vomiting and diarrhea over and above the common flu symptoms.

Health officials in the United States can probably take a cue from what is being done in Europe in as far as the distribution and administration of swine flu vaccine is concerned.

In London, for instance, one will not see long, snaking lines of frustrated and disappointed people waiting to be vaccinated against swine flu. Doctor’s offices are not inundated with calls for vaccine. There are also no issues regarding seeming injustice as to who gets to get swine flu first. In North America, people have complained about the fact that bigwigs such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup were able to acquire swine flu vaccine while community clinics still waited for vaccines to arrive. In Canada, professional hockey and basketball players were administered with swine flu vaccine before children.

European countries employed an approach that is the exact opposite of the free-for-all system being practiced in North America. Instead of announcing the availability of vaccines and launching campaigns to encourage people to get them, some European countries have decided to adopt a by-invitation system. Health officials in Britain, for instance, made a list of those who are to be prioritized for vaccination, and these identified citizens were sent notices. These include pregnant women, health workers, and people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cancer and AIDS.

Probably due to the fact that the cases of swine flu in European countries are not as widespread as those in the United States – Britain reportedly has an estimated 600,000 flu cases against the millions of cases in the United States – some Europeans have been relatively indifferent and unconcerned. There are those who have received notices to come in for shots who have opted to ignore these notices.

But then again, what works for one may not necessarily work for another. Whether this system will work in the United States cannot be assured at this time, although it does seem like the European system is more effective in reaching those who ought to be reached.

Noriko Sakai a pop star turned actress is facing an 18 month jail term for drug possession and use but could be sentenced to as many as 10 years in prison for the offense. She’s plead guilty to the charges stemming from an incident where the star was caught by police with about .008 of a gram of methamphetamines. Known for her wholesome pop star image the star is now dealing with a great deal of media and public attention for her drug use. Over 6,000 people showed up to attempt to get one of the twenty gallery seats available in the first days of the trial at the Tokyo District Court.

The incident began with her husband being apprehended for inhalation and passion of the drug in a men’s room stall. During his arrest the actress refused to allow search of her purse and a drug test at the scene. Initially the media portrayed her as the misfortunate wife of a drug user but quickly turned aggressive when it came out (when police found the drugs in her home) that she was also a user.  The actress, who’d gone missing for a time after her husband’s arrest, later turned herself in to the authorities.

The actress blamed her husband for her beginning use 4 years ago and has made a point of saying she want to get off the drugs and divorce her husband before going on with her life.

Vitamin B12, chemically known as cobalamine, is an essential B-Vitamin utilized in order to create a better sleep-wake pattern in a lot of individuals. It is also said to be very important in the nervous system’s red blood formation. Moreover, vitamin B12 is important as a means to enhance the functions of folic acid in the body. Once the body is deficient of this B-Vitamin, all its functions will be affected.

There are causes linked to B-Vitamin deficiency. For one, a person may get the deficiency due to restricted diets. For another, it may also be a result of inborn error in body metabolism. Others may acquire the deficiency from lifestyle factors especially seen in vegans. This is due to the fact that Vitamin B12 is not present in most vegetables. In other instances, the deficiency may be a result of liver and pancreatic damage as well as Crohn’s disease.

One may also be able to determine Vitamin B12 deficiency. Early manifestations include loss of appetite, diarrhea and numbness of the hands and feet. Sleep, cognitive and coordination disturbances may also be experienced by patients. At the worst, it may result to breast cancer.

For full version of this article, please visit “Vitamin B12 Deficiency: Causes, Signs and Symptoms“.

In a previous post, we talked about taking care of one’s heart and the latest screening tests that one can keep in mind. We also talked about Coronary Calcium Scores. This time, we will be talking about the Carotid Artery Ultrasound.

The Carotid Artery Ultrasound makes use of ultrasound as well as sophisticated software to measure the occurrence of thickening in the inner walls of the carotid arteries, which supply oxygen-rich blood to the brain. Such an occurrence is a sign of early onset of atherosclerosis. Risk levels were determined based on percentile ranking among patients belonging to the same age group; those who belong to 75th percentile – meaning 75% of his or her peers have less arterial thickening – will most probably have a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke.

As in coronary calcium scores, the carotid artery ultrasound is recommended for people who are at immediate risk for heart disease based on the traditional risk factors. Both of these tests are reportedly recommended by the Society of Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) for men over the age of 45 and women over the age of 55.

The good thing about the carotid artery ultrasound, which might be attractive to some patients, is that it is painless and non-invasive. It can be easily performed right at the doctor’s office and does not expose the patient to radiation.

This test, however, does not have the ability to provide information about the heart, since it is only looking at the arteries in the neck. The accuracy of the test is also highly dependent upon the skills of the operator, who should be updated regarding current guidelines and protocols.

As always, we encourage readers who are interested in this or any other screenings to talk to their respective physicians.

One of the best ways to learn is to learn from our various life experiences. On various posts, we have shared stories that many may have learned from, regardless of whether these stories are inspiring or sad and disheartening. Quite a number of these stories had something to do with drugs and drug testing.

Most of these stories, however, involve celebrities and their latest misadventures and mishaps. While this may prove interesting to some of us, most of us are not exactly celebrities and will not be able to relate to some of these experiences.

We at TestCountry recognize the fact that the best source of these stories are our readers, and it is for this reason that we would like to encourage you to share your drug testing stories with us. In gratitude to those who will share their interesting stories, we will be giving away $200 grocery rebate cards to those whose stories will catch our attention the most.

You can share you own experiences by posting a comment to this article. From among these stories, we will choose 3 winners to receive $200 grocery rebate certificates, which can be used in any store in the United States. Only readers aged 18 years and above are eligible to participate and post their stories.

You will have about a month to share your stories, as we will be choosing our three winners on December 4. Readers who send in their stories are requested to indicate their real and valid e-mail addresses, as we will send the information on how to claim prizes through email. We would like to assure you that your e-mail addresses will not be published.

So, share your stories now, help someone learn from what you have gone through, and get a chance to win a $200 grocery certificate!

Andre Agassi has admitted in his new autobiography that in the past he used drugs and even lied when he failed a drug test during his career. When a drug test came back positive from the Association of Tennis Players in 1997 the tennis star wrote a note alleging that a former assistant often spiked his soda with methamphetamine and that he (Agassi) had unwittingly ingested one of these spikes sodas. The lie worked and he went on to continue his career.  While Agassi’s assistant is said to have regularly spiked his drinks like this by the star the drug was in his system due to his own use.

The lie came as a result of Agassi’s fear of losing the status he’d gained as a tennis player. The resulting guilt may have played a part in what would turn out to be the player’s worst year where he failed to get the title, and missed both Wimbledon and the French and Australian Opens.  His playing that year brought him to the low level of 141 at one point in the year. Slim, the assistant that Agassi blamed for his allegedly false positive that year was the source of Agassi’s first use of the drug according to the book.

Over-the-counter medications are said to come with prescriptions. However, there are instances when some people abuse the utilization of these prescription drugs. Most of these abused drugs are not even essential in curing a condition. With this, more harmful effects including fatalities are recorded.

In the records for year 2005, marijuana is said to be the most abused drug in the country. It comprised nearly 34% of the abused prescription drugs. Cocaine and ecstasy, OxyCotin and Vicodin are also included in the top four. Researches further showed that the prevalence of the abuse arouse from the so-called pill popping parties where teenagers predominantly participate.

While most of the blame is pointed to local scenarios, the Internet has its own role to play in the proliferation of these abuses. This venue opened an opportunity to see falsified information about the use of these drugs. Teenagers, being unaware of the truth, are often victimized by these schemes. This should be put to a stop at this point to avoid increasing the 4.5 million teenagers affected by prescription drug abuse in the country.

For full version of this article, please visit “Most Popular Prescription Drugs Abused in USA“.

All this vaccine talk for the past couple of weeks or so has definitely led to mixed opinions and emotions. Should you or shouldn’t you get vaccinated? And if you do, will there be a vaccine available for you? And how sure are you that what you will be doing will help you or only cause you more problems down the line?

The issue about vaccines has been going on for quite some time, way before the swine flu pandemic even came to being. There has been talk that vaccination in children eventually led to autism or other major health issues. This has actually brought the advantages of vaccines to question — are vaccines defeating the very purpose they were created to serve?

A feature on MedPage Today tells of a study that seems to discount the relationship between vaccination and health problems. Researchers went through the electronic medical records of Northern California Kaiser Permanente, focusing their search on the records of children who were diagnosed with an inborn error of metabolism from 1990 until 2007, remaining in the system until the age of three.

An analysis was also made of emergency room visits as well as hospitalizations of children until the age of 18 who had an inborn error of metabolism, who also received at least one vaccine at some point.

In both cases, researchers reportedly did not find a clear-cut connection between the administration of vaccine and health problems. Although researchers were quick to clarify that these were preliminary findings, the results were still touted as “very reassuring”.

The results simply affirmed further the fact that despite the side effects that vaccines may have on some people, the positive effects still far outweigh the negative effects.

That is, of course, if the vaccine gets administered in time. Going back to the ongoing swine flu pandemic, reports are saying that it seems that the flu is overtaking the arrival of the vaccines. We certainly hope that more doses arrive when they are needed the most.

Our friend is very kind to allow us to share her story with you, despite the fact that if and when she does read this, she will most definitely be overcome with great sadness. Still, it is only by sharing this story that she might be able to help other people escape the same fate. We will, however, respect both privacy and memory by keeping their identities to ourselves.

Sisters will always be sisters, no matter how far they may be from each other. And it is that bond of sisterly love that brought an alarming situation to the fore – albeit a tad bit too late.

They lived on practically opposite ends of the world; one stayed home, preferring to live with the security of familiarity. The other’s love for adventure and all things new and exciting brought her to various places, each one different from the other. With this scenario, one would think that the sister who stayed home will remain safe and secure.

This was not the case. Unfortunately, there simply are things that are beyond people’s control – and one of that is how the people around you live their lives.

A couple of streets from where the sister who chose home over adventure lived is a rather reclusive young man who very rarely left his house, and only did so under the cover of darkness. What people did not know was that this house was being used as a makeshift meth lab.

One rainy afternoon, the sister who stayed home was coming off work. What she did not know was that there was violence blooming in the lonely house two streets away. She rarely took the car as the walk home did her a lot of good, and as she was passing by, the recluse emerged from his hideaway; there was, however, a man who lay in wait behind the bushes.

A shot rang out, but did not make its mark. Blonde curls suddenly hit the pavement, and as she lay there dying, her sister from halfway across the globe felt a sudden pain that she cannot explain. She called her sister’s house – but, of course, there was only the machine to take her call. When the phone rang in her humid apartment the day after – the news she dreaded to hear came. And it was all because of meth.

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This is only the first of the several real stories about drugs, drug abuse and drug testing that we will be featuring in the site. We also encourage readers to share their stories. We are coming up with special prizes for those who would like to share. Check us out again for details.