MedWorm Tags: autonomic

Panic Disorder

Inside Surgery — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:16:30 +0100

Pathophysiology 1) episodic, unpredictable attacks of intense fear, agitation, and discomfort (especially agoraphobic) 2) onset must occur over a 10 minute period 3) attacks generally occur for < 1 hour 4) exact cause is unknown, but genetic predisposition occurs Signs and Symptoms presence of at least four of the following during attack – 1) tachycardia/palpitations 2) trembling/shaking 3) sweating 4) shortness of breath 5) dizziness 6) chest pain 7) choking sensation chills or hot flushes 9) abdominal pain or diarrhea 10) sense of impending doom or death 11) feelings of anxiety Biochemistry 1) altered autonomic functioning 2) increased noradrenergic discharge from locus ceruleus Inheritance/Epidemiology onset is usually in late adolescence to early adulthood Treatment 1) SSRIs (se...

Self-Awareness - Emotional Intelligence For Personal Growth Part III

Ψ Dare To Dream... — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:12:51 +0100

This is the third in a series of articles on emotional intelligence for personal growth. Self-awareness is one of the most important benefits we get from spending time in a mindful state. The longer we are able to stay mindful, the more we learn about our selves. We come to recognize the ebb and flow of our thoughts, moods, emotions and impulses. We begin to see relationships between our thoughts and feelings and external events.One thing we notice is that our thoughts and feelings often contradict each other. Our emotional selves and our rational selves often have conflicting memories, perspectives, and motivations. On the surface, positive emotions seem helpful, and negative emotions seem to be destructive. There is an old Cherokee folk tale called the "Wolves Within". "An old Grandfat...

Results are in!

Turquoise Gates — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:54:00 +0100

Give to the wind thy fearshope and be undismayedGod hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,Leave to His sovereign swayTo choose and to command;Then shalt thou, wandering, own His way,Far, far above thy thought,His counsel shall appearWhen fully He the work hath wroughtThrough waves and clouds and storms,He gently clears the way;Wait thou His time; so shall this nightSoon end in joyous day.~He Will Lift Up Your Head, Paul Gerhardt, mid 1600sThe long-awaited report from Mayo arrived over the weekend. I pored over it at 10 p.m. last night, when we arrived home from a Sunday evening wedding. What I found was mostly old news, with a few confusing details thrown in. I was diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance related to a hyperadrenergic state. Which basically means that my blood pressure drops w...

10 Ways to Lower Anxiety and Find Empowerment

World of Psychology — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:38:54 +0100

1. Knowledge is power. The more you know about how your brain works the better. So here’s a little neuro-psychology lesson. What you need to know is that the most primitive part of our brains, the inner bit in the middle, is the limbic system, also called the reptilian brain because it’s the oldest most primitive part. Within that is the amygdala. For our purposes it’s enough to know that scientists believe that everything we need to keep ourselves, and therefore our species, alive originates here, including fear in its rawest form. Our frontal lobes are in the newest part of the brain, the neo-cortex. Our ability to judge, to filter out right from wrong, to determine appropriate from inappropriate behavior, real vs. unreal, reasonable vs. unreasonable resides here. It...

Purple people eater

Turquoise Gates — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:31:00 +0100

If I have descended into some alternate universe without realizing it, will someone please pinch me? My doctor's appointment today was encouraging, on the one hand, and a bit intimidating at the same time! I received my "itinerary" at 2:30 this afternoon: yes, at Mayo, medical testing has been streamlined to the point that you feel as though you are checking in to board a flight. First up: a sweat test. According to Mayo's website, this will involve wearing "a disposable bathing suit and an orange powder is applied to the skin. The patient is then placed in a hot room to induce sweating, or until the core temperature reaches 100.8 degrees. The orange powder will turn purple where the patient sweats. In this way, physicians can determine if the patient has abnormal sweating patterns. A smal...

Sense of Pain Numbed in Rare Gene Disorder

Genetics and Health — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:59:48 +0100

Pain is a good thing. The sensation helps us know that bumping our heads on the table edge hurts. Pain tells us when something is wrong in our body, and warns us to do something about it. And in most people, pain comes with tears. Whereas most of us would cry in pain when hurt, children like Avigail Eshet do not feel the pain, or shed a tear. Avigail suffers from a rare genetic disorder that numbs her sense of pain and reaction to temperature. Avigail is in danger of hurting herself from accidents and she would not even feel it. And when the 8-year old girl gets upset or stressed, she produces excess adrenalin that drives her blood pressure and heart rate through the roof. She also suffers from frequent lung infections and pneumonia and has trouble swallowing her food. I wouldn’t even ...

We are the Only Animals that Cry.

The Doctor Weighs In — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:52:02 +0100

By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D We are the Only Animals that Cry. By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D I recently came across a news item about a tearless onion developed by scientists in New Zealand . I, for one, shed many tears over the chopping board, and all because of a substance called the lachrymatory factor. Now, using molecular engineering techniques, the Kiwi scientists silenced the gene that codes for this factor, and voilá – a tearless onion. This got me thinking: this kind of crying is really all reflex, a direct reaction to irritation. It is the same type of reflex that causes our eyes to well up when we are poked in the eye. Another type of tears is the so-called basal tearing, which bathes our eyes every time we blink. Now, these two types of tearing are common to many animals, and the...

Relaxing for your Brain’s Sake

SharpBrains — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:52:18 +0100

What stresses you out ? Whatever it is, how you respond to it may have more consequences than you think. Let me show you how. Recapping from last months article (see Stress and Neural Wreckage: Part of the Brain Plasticity Puzzle)...our bodies are a complex balancing act between systems working full time to keep us alive and well. Any change which threatens this balance can be referred to as stress. Cortisol, a key component of the stress response, does an excellent job of allowing us to adapt to most stressors which last more than a couple of minutes. However, having to endure a high stressor for longer periods than half and hour or so negatively impacts the brain in various ways. Sustained exposure to higher than normal levels of cortisol can result in“neural wreckage” via the prunin...

Sex Survey - Answers from Women

The Diabetes Blog — Thu, 10 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100

Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Lifestyle, Opinion, Products, SupportDiabetes Health surveyed women about the effects of diabetes on your sex life and how you overcome the hurdles. Be forewarned, some parts are R-rated, but that's what you came for, right? Half of the people surveyed say they have difficulty relaxing during sex. Only 19% say that plain awkwardness due to diabetes is more distracting than any physical changes. Dr.Grace Beltran (Amazing Grace) describes the Anatomy of a Female Orgasm quite clearly. She says: sensorial impulses shoot up your spinal cord to special parts of your brain called the sensory cortex and the limbic system (the emotional brain), which is when you experience the euphoria of reaching Mt. Orgasmus. Many diabetes drugs can cause B vit...