Tag Archives: United States

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

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.

The History Of Native American Medicine Bags

You would think that because it is called a medicine bag that it has actual medicine inside. Well technically, it holds natural elements and healing herbs that are important to the wearer. In Native American culture, these items offer holistic cures and protection both physically as well as spiritually. Can modern medicine do that for you?

Native American medicine bags are not just used by those who claim to possess healing powers. They hold specially chosen items such as herbal plants and stones. Worn by most Indians for personal uses, these bags are a normal part of the Native American culture. The sizes of the bags can vary but are mostly small in size. To maintain personal harmony which consists of the spiritual, physical and the supernatural, many people choose to wear a medicine bag. Throughout life, the needs of an individual change so the contents of a medicine bag will change also. Various herbs and other items of importance to the wearer are placed in the bag. Some of these can be found in nature and the everyday experiences of men. They could be classified into the plant kingdom, animal kingdom, mineral kingdom and the things seen in the world of man.

The appeal of Native American medicine bags has become widespread and it is being used now by non native Indians as a form of protection and a source of power. Not only worn, many people place them wherever they want and even under the pillow while they sleep. These important bags are made of very soft leather.

Healers often use the contents to perform the ritual known as vision quest to enhance the supernatural and spiritual abilities of the wearer. It would then promote an increase in physical strength, agility, skills in fighting as well as healing. The intense spiritual connections and beliefs in the supernatural make Native Americans really interesting and the use of various kinds of herbs in a specialized pouch makes the experience more grounded because for Native Americans, the connection between nature and spirituality are very tightly knit. Every herb or item used responds to a certain kind of spiritual euphoria to attain something unimaginable or to enhance the quality of life of the individual.

Although modern medicine and practical knowledge is available to everyone now days, the allure of the Native American medicine bag is still present. Having a Native Indian medicine bag is something of homage to the beautiful culture as well as hand craftsmanship of the great American Indians of the United States.

First Successful Shipment Of The Hepatitis Ayurvedic Product Kamalahar To A Developed Country

Finally the first shipment of the Ayurvedic product Kamalahar to United States has happened. The product was send to an old lady who has been suffering from viral hepatitis C. Our client said that she did not want to take western medicine and instead wanted to go for alternative medicine as there is no cure for hepatitis C in western medicine.

The way it started was quite interesting. One fine morning Khatore Pharmaceuticals received an email in the customer support email id, requesting about the product that is very good for liver disorders and viral hepatitis C. At that time Khatore Pharmaceuticals had not yet setup the logistics for shipment of the products to USA or for that matter any country outside India. The company was still putting things in place for the online store for shipments of ayurvedic products in India. Till last year, i.e. 2010, the company was only doing direct selling through chemists and stores in eastern part of India. Finally we decided to go online to expand our reach to patients all over India and finally to the people who are suffering from liver disorders in the whole world. But we had thought we might just be focused on India market for some time to come. But after the email and a request from her that she has been suffering from quite some time and does not want
to use the allopathic medicines (in which anyways there is currently no cure for Hepatitis C) we decided to setup the things in a jiffy.

We discussed the options with our client and asked her the various options of shipment and payment. We asked her if there was someone she knows in India who was travelling to USA so that we can ship Kamalahar to him/her and they can take Kamalahar to our client. She said she did not know anybody and would rather have the ayurvedic product Kamalahar shipped to her through courier or post. We were not sure if it will reach her. But we decided to give it a try and shipped Kamalahar to our client through an international courier even though we were not sure if it would reach her.

Finally after a wait of 10 days the shipment arrived at her door step and she has started to take Kamalahar, our best medicine for the treatment of liver disorders such as hepatitis, jaundice, cirrhosis, fatty liver, etc. We also asked her to do undergo liver function tests before she starts taking Kamalahar and after she takes it for two weeks so that we can track her progress and show it to her directly the improvements in her health. We got the reports after two weeks and as expected the report has started showing positive results. We are quite excited as so far we have only served patients in India but with this successful shipment to USA, the whole market of developed world has opened up for us.

I am looking forward to providing Kamalahar to needy people in USA, Canada and all the other countries. In fact if things work out as planned we will look forward to shipping our other Ayurvedic products too. We have started our campaign to reach out to people outside India and started to get query from people outside India. There are many people who suffer from liver disorders in all the countries of the world. Ayurvedic products of Khatore Pharmaceuticals are very cost effective as one bottle of thirty Kamalahar capsules cost less than three dollars. There is one catch that we are trying to figure out how to solve. The catch is currently the shipment cost to countries outside India is way more than the price of Khatore Pharmaceuticals ayurvedic products. But hopefully we will be able to bring it down in due course of time.