Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Causes

When you are afraid, your body activates the “fight or flight” response —a reference to our caveman ancestors facing a tiger. In reaction, your body releases adrenaline, which is responsible for increasing blood pressure and heart rate and increasing glucose to muscles (to allow you to run away quickly in the face of immediate danger). However, once the immediate danger (which may or may not have actually existed) is gone, the body begins a process of shutting down the stress response, and this process involves the release of another hormone known as cortisol.

If your body does not generate enough cortisol to shut down the flight or stress reaction, you may continue to feel the stress effects of the adrenaline. Trauma victims who develop post-traumatic stress disorder often have higher levels of other stimulating hormones (catecholamines) under normal conditions in which the threat of trauma is not present. These same hormones kick in when they are reminded of their trauma.

Physically, your body also increases your heart rate. After a month in this heightened state, with stress hormones elevated, you may develop further physical changes, such as heightened hearing. This cascade of physical changes, one triggering another, suggests that early intervention may be the key to heading off the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

What Is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is among only a few mental disorders that are triggered by a disturbing outside event, quite unlike other psychiatric disorders such as depression.

Many Americans experience individual traumatic events ranging from car and airplane accidents to sexual assault and domestic violence. Other experiences, including those associated with natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes, affect multiple people simultaneously. Dramatic and tragic events, like the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and wars occur, and with media exposure such as we have today, even people not directly involved might be affected. Simply put, PTSD is a state in which you “can’t stop remembering.”

In 1 out of 10 Americans, the traumatic event causes a cascade of psychological and biological changes known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Wars throughout the ages often triggered what some people called “shell shock,” in which returning soldiers were unable to adapt to life after war. Although each successive war brings about renewed attention on this syndrome, it wasn’t until the Vietnam War that PTSD was first identified and given this name. Now, mental health providers such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health care professionals can attempt to understand people’s response to these traumatic events and help them recover from the impact of the trauma.

Although the disorder must be diagnosed by a mental health professional, symptoms of PTSD are clearly defined. To be diagnosed with PTSD, you must have been in a situation in which you were afraid for your safety or your life, or you must have experienced something that made you feel fear, helplessness, or horror.

The worse the trauma, the more likely a person will develop PTSD, and the worse the symptoms. The most severely affected are unable to work, have trouble with relationships, and have great difficulty parenting their children.

Research has shown that PTSD changes the biology of the brain. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography) scans show changes in the way memories are stored in the brain. PTSD is an environmental shock that changes your brain, and scientists do not know if it is reversible.

In the United States, 60% of men and 50% of women experience a traumatic event during their lifetimes. Of those, 8% of men and 20% of women may develop PTSD. A higher proportion of people who are raped develop PTSD than those who suffer any other traumatic event. Because women are much more likely to be raped than men (9% versus less than 1%), this helps explain the higher prevalence of PTSD in women than men.

Some 88% of men and 79% of women with PTSD also have another psychiatric disorder. Nearly half suffer from major depression, 16% from anxiety disorders, and 28% from social phobia. They also are more likely to have risky health behaviors such as alcohol abuse, which affects 52% of men with PTSD and 28% of women, while drug abuse is seen in 35% of men and 27% of women with PTSD.

More than half of all Vietnam veterans, about 1.7 million, have experienced symptoms of PTSD. Although 60% of war veterans with PTSD have had serious medical problems, only 6% of them have a problem due to injury in combat.

African Americans, when they are exposed to trauma, are more likely to develop PTSD than whites.

People who are exposed to the most intense trauma are the most likely to develop PTSD. The higher the degree of exposure to trauma, the more likely you are to develop PTSD. So, if something happens to you more than once or if something occurs to you over a very long period of time, the likelihood of developing PTSD is increased.

Sometimes, people who have heart attacks or cancer develop PTSD.

Refugees (eg, people who have been through war conditions in their native country or fled from conflict) may develop PTSD and often go years without treatment.

New mothers may develop PTSD after an unusually difficult delivery during childbirth. Also, patients who regain partial consciousness during surgery under general anesthesia may be at risk for developing PTSD.

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Source: emedicinehealth

Hair Loss- Homeopathic Remedies

Homeopathic Remedies

Fluoric acid – For brittle hair that falls out in small tufts.

Lycopodium – For premature balding and graying, or hair loss after childbirth. Eczema is often behind the ears.

Kali carbonicum: For dry, thinning hair.

Kali Sulphuricum – For yellow, flaking dandruff, which may be moist or sticky. Hair may fall out, leaving bald spots. Take one tablet twice daily for maximum 2 weeks.

Natrum mur – When hair loss is accompanied by dandruff and white crusts on the scalp. Greasy around the hairline.

Phosphorus – Indicated when hair falls out in handfuls.

Phosphorum acidum: Take 1X every six to eight hours for alopecia stemming from depression.

Selenium – For hair loss on the body and scalp. The scalp feels painful when touched.

Tissue Salts

Take 4 tablets under tongue three times daily.

Calc phos. – For hair loss after a fever.

Kali sulph – When the hair loss is accompanied by dandruff with dry, scaly eruptions.

Nat mur – For hair that is dry and falls out, or for beard hair that falls out.

Silicea – When the hair lacks nourishment, this remedy helps to bring strength and bounce back to the hair.

While homeopathic medicines are considered safe, it is always advisable to consult a competent homeopath before taking any medicine.

This doesn’t constitute any medical advice and NOT meant to diagnose or treat any health condition and/or is NOT a replacement for treatment by a healthcare provider. Please consult your homeopath and learn how homeopathy works and how it is used before using any remedies that homeopathy offers.

Hair Loss: Diet and Hair Growth

Hair is part of the complete biological system of the human body; disturbance in one part of system can cause dysfunction in other parts. To maintain optimum health, it is best to maintain a healthy diet and regular exercise regimen.

Hair growth and thinning is mostly determined by your genes and the way the hair follicles respond to hormones. A very poor diet can cause thinning of hair and speed up the onset of hereditary hair loss. Getting the right nutrients is important to help keep your hair healthy and shiny.

The best way to maintain a healthy vitamin and mineral intake is a good diet. It is not necessary or advisable to go out and buy a bunch of over-the-counter vitamin supplements. It is easy to overdose one with over-the-counter vitamins particularly when taking supplements of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, causing toxicity and adverse reactions. The likelihood of doing this is far less with food; therefore, it is always best to obtain the bulk of your vitamin and mineral requirements from whole foods.

Experts agree that following the Food Guide Pyramid, which is a general eating guide that includes all of the daily food groups, offers a reliable and easy-to-follow plan to guide you through developing a healthy diet. A healthy diet ensures the intake of essential vitamins and minerals that contribute to your health and a healthy head of hair. Regular exercise and stress management are also essential to good health and are important for the prevention and treatment of temporary hair loss. It is suggested to make any change in the diet only after consulting a nutritionist or your health care provider.

Hair Loss: Causes

1. Genetic tendency
2. Nutritional deficiency (Iron, Protein, zinc, etc.)
3. Local factors (Skin diseases like Psoriasis, Lichen Planus, etc.)
4. Hormonal factors (Hyper or hypothyroid, menopause)
5. Systemic disease (Liver disease, kidney failure)
6. After acute ailments (Viral infection, Typhoid)
7. Stress factors (Anxiety, depression)
8. Drugs (Betablockers for hypertension, chemotherapy, anticholesterol drugs, etc.)
9.Unknown factors

Male pattern baldness tends to be genetic in nature and is associated with high levels of circulating testosterone hormone which gets converted to dehydrotestosterone(DHT) which binds the root of the hair follicle, triggering hair loss.

1. Local factors:

Some of the local factors or conditions associated with hair loss are:

(a) Local skin disorders:
Certain local skin ailments are known to lead to hair falling. Local skin infections such as Fungal infection (Tinea capitis), pyoderma, secondary syphilis, etc. Non-infectious conditions such as Dandruff, psoriasis, lichen planus, eczema, etc.

(b) Local exposure to toxins:
Over use or abuse with chemical based shampoos, soaps, lotions are known to produce hair falling.

(c) Scalp carelessness:
Unhygienic measures in scalp care may lead to hair falling. For instance, infrequent head wash, over exposure to harsh sun without protection, exposing the head to industrial fumes, etc.

2. General factors:

(a) Deficient Nutrition:
Overall all deficiency of nutrition may affect the growth and quality of hair. Deficiency of vitamins B Group, Vitamin A, may lead to hair falling. Deficiency in proteins, iron, certain minerals may affect the hair growth, leading to hair falling. Iron deficiency due to a wide range of reasons such as excessive bleeding, restricted intake of iron forms an important cause of hair falling, especially found in females. The deficiency as above may be either due to faulty intake or which may have occurred due to certain systemic disorders such as Mal-assimilation or mal-absorption syndrome. It may occur following any prolonged acute or sub-acute diseases such as Irritable Bowel syndrome.

(b) Hormonal variations:
Certain hormones including androgen, estrogen and progesterone variations during different phases in life may bring about hair falling in excess. Thyroid hormones form another important group of disorders responsible for hair falling in some cases. Menopausal age hence makes one prone to have hair falling. Post pregnancy and child-birth is another example.

(c) Post-acute-ailment:
Certain acute diseases are known to leave behind a weakened vitality leading one to have hair falling. For examples: Pneumonia, viral infections, typhoid, etc.

(d) Medicine and Drug induced:
Certain chemical medicines have known toxicity on the hair roots and growth. Long term use of chemotherapy, cancer medication, steroids, antibiotics, antiepileptic, antihypertensive medications etc. have been observed to produce hair falling in some patients, as per a study at our center. Contraceptive tablets are also known to induce hair falling.

3. Psychological factors:

The mind plays a vital role in maintaining the health in general developing a wide range of disorders, such as hair falling in particular.

Emotional stress is an epidemic condition prevailing in the world today. There is no single emotion, which may be figured out as a victim. In our experience, any and every emotion, which was experienced intensely, may cause a constitutional disorder affecting the physiological functioning of the hair growth.

Some of the examples of emotional stress may be summarized in brief as under: Intense anxiety about any important matter. Sadness or depression in one’s life, which may be arising after marital disharmony or job dissatisfaction or unhappy social structure, etc. Grief due to unexpected events in one’s life such as loss of a family member, loss in business, major set back in life, etc. A long-standing fear and apprehensive habit. And so on. Similarly, certain unhealthy attitudes such as aggressive behavior, violent expressions, hurried and impatient behavior, and like.

To put it in nutshell, the personality type plays a greater role in most cases of hair falling and that should form in turn, the major criterion to decide the correct line of treatment for hair falling.
4. Miscellaneous:

Some lesser common factors are industrial toxins, intoxicated water (with high levels or minerals and metals), local dermal infection, local allergic ailment, etc.

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