Category Archives: Medicine

Internal Medicine Doctor Sub-Specialties

An internal medicine doctor may specialize in one of many subcategories. Here are some examples.

Internal medicine doctors are those who take care of adult patients. Their study focuses on one or several portions of the human body. The term -internal medicine- came from a German word meaning a physician who combines research with patient care. These physicians are extremely well trained in diagnostics, treatment and prevention of illnesses, so much that they often serve as consultants to others in the medical field. Within this classification of doctors, there are thirteen subspecialties which require an additional one to three years of education. They are:

1) Cardiologist: In the specialty of cardiology, a practitioner would care for all that is related to a person’s heart and pulmonary system. Heart disease and stroke are some of the most prevalent killers in today’s world, so the expertise of these docs is widely sought after.

2) Sports medicine: Whether injuries are from running, tennis, football, soccer, or any other malady that occurs due to physical fitness regimes, these practitioners are adept at health care for weekend warriors and professional athletes.

3) Adolescent Medicine: Adolescents may not be considered to be fully grown adults, but many of their bodies have reached physical maturity. When a teen has outgrown the pediatrician’s office, he or she may seek health care from this brand of internist.

4) Allergist: Allergies and immune issues are taken care of by this category of doctor. Allergy testing and immune response require precision and skill in diagnosing proper steps and treatments to alleviate symptoms.

5) Geriatrics: With the aging of our population, many elderly people need the skill of an internist within the geriatric classification.

6) Gastroenterology: The intestinal tract and colon are kept healthy or treated when problems occur by this group of internist physicians.

7) Infection disease: Illnesses aren’t always so easy to treat due to today’s super-bugs and antibiotic resistant strains of disease. Internists can help contain these contagious infectious strains.

8) Hematologists: These physicians study the blood and take care of diseases and conditions which are related to it.

9) Rheumatology: Arthritis affects many people in the form of swollen and painful joints. Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis sufferers often seek help from these internal medicine specialists as needed.

10) Pulmonologist: The lungs can be afflicted with everything from chronic asthma to emphysema. These specialists can help their patients to breathe more easily.

11) Oncologists: Cancer specialists help with the diagnosis and treatment of cancerous development in nearly every body part. Chemotherapy and radiation are the normal courses of treatments to shrink tumors and destroy cancer cells.

12) Kidney Specialists: These internists are called Nephrologists. The kidneys must be kept well functioning in order to clear away toxins from a body. When kidneys shut down, the body goes into deep distress.

13) Endocrinology: Diabetes has risen sharply in the United States due to a variety of reasons including unhealthy diets, lifestyle and stress. Endocrinologists treat diabetics and those with glandular disorders.

Internal medicine doctors can offer their broad and deep range of knowledge in all of the above subcategories. Patients and other health care providers often come to them for answers.

It’s very important to know the areas that a internal medicine doctordoctor specializes in an event that a health problem comes up as it relates to that specific physician.For more information, visit http://www.angieslist.com

Fake & Unqualified Doctors Practicing Medicine

Need for Medical Verification

It is a much stated truism that nothing is sacred. However, it still comes as a shock to learn just how low people will stoop to make a buck or even plenty of bucks.

This piece is motivated by several recent news reports of people practicing medicine when they have absolutely no qualifications or training. These unqualified, untrained and unscrupulous persons are literally playing with peoples lives.

One sort of assumed that these criminal quacks were restricted to plying their unlicensed and illegal trade in the shady backstreets of our towns and cities. No more it seems. For these dangerous practitioners of medicine in their long white coats are striding the bright and shiny corridors of private hospitals.

A year old, and ongoing background screening and qualification, check launched by the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) has found quacks with fake degrees and false licences operating in many well-known hospitals in the city. They are handing out medical advice and prescriptions with all the aplomb of the real doctors.

These unqualified doctors are not stray and small in number. The Medical Council of India estimates, that in just the Delhi region alone, there are about 40,000 fake doctors. Now compare that number with 45,000 (DMC database), which is the number of genuine registered doctors. It is enough to make one sick at the thought of such a huge number of quacks operating with impunity and without conscience.

It is not a happy situation and one that looks like it will be with us for quite a while. Fortunately The Indian Medical Council and The Delhi Medical Council are aware of the problem and its numerous areas of impact. They are also doing everything possible to rectify the situation.

A Bitter Pill To Swallow The whole quack doctors and forged medical degrees state of affairs has a very real and unpleasant spill-over effect. Many of these doctors have been practicing for years and could very well be your trusted, friendly neighbourhood general physician. It leads one to be really, really nervous about our next doctors visit for a check-up.

After all, how do you and I tell the difference between a real and a fake medical certificate hanging in the consultation room? Who do we talk to if we want to confirm, if the doctor who is treating us, is really a doctor? Do we call up the Indian Medical Association? Should we be suspicious about a person, who has been medicating our illnesses and attending our pains and aches for ever so many years? Would it be a good thing to carry out background screening of our doctors? Can we ever be sure that the doctor treating us is not a fake one and is in fact a quack?

Read More: http://www.authbridge.com/resource-center/industry-updates.html

How Aerospace Medicine in George Keeps Air Travelers in Top Shape

Aimed at treating those people who are involved in some way with the space and aviation fields, aerospace medicine is a sub-specialty of preventive or occupational medicine. Its main focus is to improve health, safety and ultimately job performance, while preventing illnesses and other medical problems for those who are part of the air and space travel industry. It also focuses on civilian air travelers and any conditions they might have while in the air. With providers who focus on these types of issues, aerospace medicine is an area of health care that can keep its employees as well as the rest of the world safe and in top condition.

Aerospace medicine in Georgia is no less focused on keeping those in its care healthy than any other state. The highly focused field employs doctors throughout the state who treat air crews and pilots for the conditions to which these patients are susceptible. Also called aviation medicine, this specialized field employs physicians who are normally referred to as flight surgeons or aviation medical examiners, depending on the doctors area of specialty.

Some types of conditions treated by these practitioners are radiation exposure, micro gravity afflictions and hypoxic conditions that happen when the body is deprived of oxygen. These types of ailments can be frequent causes of physical problems in aerospace medicine. In Georgia, healthcare givers are quite knowledgeable in the afflictions that are suffered by patients in this medical field.

Those employed in the air or space travel fields who are considering relocating to Georgia need not worry about any health issues related to their jobs. Aerospace medicine in Georgia is not lacking in facilities, schooling or doctors available to treat patients. Anyone considering a career in Georgia’s branches of this industry can rest assured their medical needs will be cared for by top physicians.

Georgia is also a place for doctors interested in practicing aerospace medicine, with a field that is on the cutting edge of medical technology and science. Georgia can make an inviting state for schooling, as well as treatment. The state offers a relatively mild climate, with an popular environment for most who travel there. Healthcare employees, as well as air travel employees, are both bound to find a comfortable atmosphere in which to work.

Aerospace medicine physicians face daily challenges across the spectrum that cover concerns with astronaut life support issues to ear problems with air travelers. It is a specialized field, and Georgia is a practical location for doctors who want to specialize in it.

Alternative Medicine and It’s Use in Natural Pain Management

Chronic Pain conditions are a growing problem in the United States. And while the debate still rages about whether or not chronic pain should be managed as a separate condition or just a symptom of another problem it is clear that pain management has become a booming segment of the healthcare industry.

Consequently, the use of pharmaceutical drugs for pain control has also reached an all time high. Drugs like Oxicontin, Vicodin and methadone, are front page news in causing America’s latest drug crisis, as a result, the use of cocaine and heroin have also reached levels not seen in this country in 30 years.

Due to the economic and scientific phenomena of the pharmaceutical revolution of the 20th century, thousands of years of knowledge were suddenly abandoned. Herbal medicine has safely and effectively treated pain for millennia, and is for safer than the synthesized, processed medications that today’s doctors seem to be all too willing to hand out like so much candy.

In the realm of alternative medicine, there are many forms of natural pain management that are in fact, the basis of where many of our oh-so-popular pharmaceutical drugs come from.

Codeine and morphine are opium derivatives that may be effective but are also highly addictive, and even aspirin is a derivative of willow bark. Many other plants have been used in natural pain management since antiquity, such as lavender and chamomile for minor pain issues and these plants have the added benefit of also assisting with the emotional component of pain such as anxiety and difficulty sleeping. Plants like henbane and mandrake are so effective that they are even used very effectively during labor to ease the pain of childbirth.

Some wonderful and powerful herbal medicine can also be found in the spice cabinet. Spices like turmeric, and ginger are two of the most powerful anti- inflammatories on the planet. These plants are natural COX-2 inhibitors; they are the alternative medicine answer to the popular pharmaceutical drugs Celebrex and Vioxx. In the middle east, India and all over Asia where the diets are rich in spices like turmeric, and ginger and cayenne, where life is also far less convenient then our own, people have a far less occurrence of arthritis and chronic back pain, and continue to work very labor intensive jobs such as farming and agriculture work even into their 90’s.

There has always been an accepted school of thought in allopathic medicine that it is acceptable to injure one part of the body to heal another, thus even common over the counter NSAID pain relievers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, can cause long term damage, acetaminophen to the liver and ibuprofen to the kidneys, in natural pain management many plants, roots, barks, and other herbs not only antistetic in nature but they are also anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic as well, and herbal medicine is gentler on the system and is more synergistic with the body allowing for greater absorption of the necessary constitutes.

So you see that alternative medicine goes beyond the typically accepted ideal of treating just the symptoms and goes farther to treat many of the underlying causes as well as some of the other components involved in chronic pain conditions.

Ayurvedic Cure For Good Health And Soul

Ayurvedic herbal medicines can be safely used as an additional therapy to the modern treatment of different types of cancer. Treatment is three-pronged:- (i) reducing the tumor size (ii) preventing or stopping the spread of tumor cells via the blood and lymph ducts and (iii) directly treating the affected tissues. This treatment also reduces the side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

According to the basic principles of Ayurveda, the human body consists of seven different, distinct tissues:- Rasa, Rakta, Mansa, Meda, Asthi, Majja and Shukra. The tissues which are affected due to any specific type of cancer can be directly treated with Ayurvedic medicines, and this forms the third approach to cancer treatment.

This is, thus, a short overview of the Ayurvedic approach to cancer treatment. The main advantage is that the above mentioned principles of cancer treatment can be applied to any type or form of cancer, and treatment can be tailor-made as per the specific requirements of each individual patient. This treatment can definitely improve the overall outcome and survival rates in cancer.

Long-term complications of diabetes include diseases related to the eyes, nerves, kidneys, heart, brain, intestines, sexual organs, skin and feet. Ayurvedic medicines are very effective in preventing or significantly reducing symptoms related to these complications, and are useful in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Ayurvedic medicines used specially for this are: Tapyadi Loha, Kaishor Guggulu, Agni Tundi Rasa, Vish Tinduk Vati, Kanchnaar Guggulu, Trayodashang Guggulu, Ekanga Veer Rasa, Vaat Gajankush Rasa and Amalaki (Emblica officinalis).

Thus, Ayurvedic medicines are useful both for reducing blood sugar and for treating long-term complications. These medicines can be used independently or as additional therapy to modern medicines. Ayurvedic treatment can significantly reduce the morbidity (severity of disease) and mortality (death rate) associated with diabetes mellitus.

When you meet any Ayurvedician, checkout the certification and ask for the degree-registration number. An ayurvedic doctor must be registered with a local as well as national board of Ayurveda (The Department of AYUSH, Government of India). A typical ayurvedician is capable of checking the pulse (naadi-in ayurveda) and should be able to evaluate the doshas involved in disease. Once the root cause is detected, an Ayurvedician should have the knowledge of pacifying the disease (doshas) without causing any harm to other bodily systems. The use of herbs, therapies and different components in Ayurveda is very important as it is based on the condition and degree of disease and diseased.

Unlike modern medicines and treatments, Ayurveda does not have a common treatment for the same disease occurred in two different individuals. Ayurvedician should be able to distinguish different signs and symptoms and must think about patient’s prakriti (natural characteristics) depending upon which, the treatment, diet and other regimen can be decided.

Apart from these herbal medicines, you should follow a proper diet for diabetes. It is very important to maintain a proper weight. Excessive intake of fats disturbs the normal function of the body. It blocks the circulation of blood and thus supplies fewer amounts of nutrients to different parts of the body. It affects the production of insulin, which helps in converting sugar into glucose. Once the body does not generate required amount of insulin, sugar directly enters the blood stream. The presence of sugar in the blood stream spikes the blood pressure. This all create complicated conditions and thus provoking several other health issues.