Thursday, December 27, 2007
In this part were going to take a look at how you can quit smoking using nicotine gum.
Nicotine gum
Nicotine gum is identical to a chewing gum. Like a chewing gum, it should not be swallowed down the throat. It has to be used as prescribed by the physician or as written on the label. Overdosage should be avoided. The gum should be chewed slowly until a slight taste of Nicotine is felt in mouth. Once you taste Nictoine or a slight tingling taste, stop chewing. You might be tempted to chew more and feel the taste more. But you should keep the gum on the side of the mouth, between the cheek and either of the upper or lower jaw. Once the tingling taste fades away, again start chewing it. Repeat the process or about half an hour. Remember, you should stop chewing as soon as u feel the nicotine tingling taste.
The dosage varies from smoker to smoker. A chain smoker (more then 25 cigarettes a day) should start from 4 mg gum. About 25 gums should be chewed initially. If you are not a chain smoker, try with 2 mg gum. 25 gums per day is good to start with. Lesser gums you use better it is for you. Gradually start reducing the number of gums. If you are using 4 mg gums, try switching to 2 mg. The idea is to reduce the nicotine taken every day. If you feel like chewing something, try the normal chewing gum or try one without or little sugar. Any other harmless thing can also be tried. Avoid taking coffee immediately before or after chewing the gum.
Chewing can lead to minor ulcers or jaw ache or even upset stomach. If chest pain or breathing difficulty are felt, immediately spit out the gum and rush to the nearest doctor. If you are already taking some other medicine, do consult your doctor before starting the gum. Never ever take a cigarette, not even a puff, while on the gum. Overdose of nicotine may cause serious health issue. Women who are pregnant or planning to be one should not take the Nicotine gum.In any ciricumstances, anyone who plans to quit smoking, should first talk to his/her physician. The gums don't require any special storage conditions. Dry cool place are good enough. Don't try to mix anything in the gum or dip gum into any liquid before putting it into mouth.
The day you don't feel like taking this gums, you have quitted the deadly habit of smoking cigarettes.
(The author is neither a physician or an expert on the subject. Do consult your physician before starting the Nicotine Gums.)
Rob Mellor owns the quit-smoking-expert.com website helping normal people quit smoking in less than 40 minutes. Please visit the site for more information to stop smoking
How You Can Lift The Fog Of Mental Breakdown
Copyright 2006 Christopher Green
Despite major advances in understanding stress, depression and anxiety, most sufferers are still being told four myths about the root cause of their problem.
This raises an important issue: How can you conquer these illnesses if you don't understand the root cause?
Time to bust the myths and reveal the exact cause of these harrowing problems.
The first myth to bust is that a period of serious illness can cause you to become depressed. This could be anything from a nasty virus that confines you to bed for a month or something far more serious such as loss of a limb, cancers, injury, or heart attack for example.
None of these illnesses can cause depression, anxiety or stress. It's easily proven. Because millions of people suffer from serious illnesses every year but only around 20% of them will become stressed, depressed or anxious. If illnesses cause mental breakdown, every person who becomes seriously ill will enter into mental breakdown. They don't.
The same explanation applies to traumatic experience. This could be death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce or moving house for example. Again, every single one of us will experience traumatic times such as these. Yet not everybody enters into a mental illness, even those who have suffered extreme trauma. Therefore, traumatic experience cannot be the root cause.
Next up is genetics, another frequently given root cause. But it's completely untrue. There is no proven link between genetics and these illnesses. In fact, rather than genetics, learned behavior from family members who suffer themselves is the only real link to a family-inherited disposition to stressful illness.
I've saved the most widely accepted myth until last and I'll bet you're familiar with this reason and you may even believe it to be the root cause of your problem. It's the reason given by the medical community and which has spawned a $12 billion drugs industry to combat it. The myth is of course depleted levels of neurotransmitters in the brain – the so-called "chemical imbalance".
Neurotransmitters are "happy chemicals" which help to regulate your moods. So, if levels are low, you feel low. To boost these levels, powerful drugs are prescribed. Yes, they boost levels. But let's ask a question:
Are low levels of neurotransmitters a cause or a symptom?
Well, every human being on earth right now will experience many occasions in their lives when things go wrong and when bad things happen – in short, times when they won't be their usual happy selves.
During these times, their levels of "happy chemicals" will drop, and life will seem a bit of an effort. So, does this mean that everybody on the planet will descend into an episode of stress, depression or anxiety? Obviously not.
And do you just wake up one day and feel anxious or depressed because levels of neurotransmitters have dipped below the critical level? No. Because that would mean you'd wake up one day and feel great because levels have risen above the critical point. You know this just doesn't happen, even after taking antidepressants.
And when you're in the fog of mental turmoil, you also experience physical pain, you cannot sleep or you sleep too much and the feeling of overwhelming exhaustion is also present. But if a chemical imbalance in your brain is at the root, how come you experience physical pain in your legs, arms, and more commonly, your back?
You can see that this is too simple an explanation. This is borne out by the fact that 70% of people who take antidepressants will descend into second and even third episodes of mental breakdown if they stop taking the drugs. This is because antidepressants treat ONE of the SYMPTOMS of mental illness – depleted levels of neurotransmitters.
So what, exactly, is at the root cause of mental breakdown? It's all down to flawed modes of thinking. Because the only difference between people who experience an episode of mental trauma and those who don't is because of flawed perceptions and explanations repeatedly performed by sufferers.
The following example describes this more clearly:
Two people suffer the death of a parent. One is absolutely distraught and finds it very difficult to cope and descends into a depressive episode. The other, although sad at the loss, is coping and doesn't descend into depression. The only difference lies IN THE WAY THEY MAKE SENSE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THEM. The actual event has no meaning by itself. The meanings only lie within the minds of the individuals affected.
To beat anxiety, stress and depression, you need to learn the powerful and effective modes of thinking used by people who don't become stressed, depressed or anxious no matter what happens to them. Once learned, you will come out of the fog permanently.
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Chris Green is the author of "Conquering Stress", a special program which will show you how to conquer stress, depression and anxiety without taking powerful drugs. For a free e-course please click here => http://www.conqueringstress.com
Making Sense of Medicare Part D – Drug Plan Formularies
Copyright 2006 Jeremy Cockerill
One of the most difficult portions of the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan to navigate is the various drug plans' formularies. Selection of a plan is based on what drugs you are on and which plans provide the best coverage for your selected drugs. In order to select the optimal plan for themselves, it is critical that Medicare-eligible individuals understand how these formularies work.
What exactly is a formulary?
A formulary is a list of "covered" prescription drugs that the various Medicare prescription drug plans must provide to their enrollees. Some plans restrict prescriptions to those contained on the formulary and others may also provide non-formulary prescriptions depending on the level of coverage selected by the beneficiary. Drugs contained on the formulary are generally those that are determined to be cost effective and medically effective. However, because of the ability of the insurance providers to negotiate their own "deals" with the drug companies under Medicare Part D, without having to pass the savings on to the consumer, formularies often contain the drugs that these insurance companies are able to negotiate the best pricing on.
Basically, the insurance providers that operate the various plans have a Pharmacy & Therapeutics committee that chooses which drugs they will cover on their formulary and which drugs they will not cover. There is a national formulary coverage standard that the insurance providers must follow when creating their formulary under the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. They must provide a certain standard level of drug coverage for particular disease/health condition categories. This means that these plans must cover a certain number of drugs in most disease categories which effect seniors' health. The big mystery for Medicare-eligible individuals to figure out is, will these plans cover the drugs that they have been prescribed by their physician and that they have been taking for some time.
There is one important catch with Medicare Part D that Medicare beneficiaries must be aware of. Once a Medicare Part D beneficiary chooses a plan they are "locked in" to that plan for the year. Now, even though the beneficiary has done all the research to choose the right plan that covers all of their drugs the insurance companies have the ability to switch which drugs are covered under their formulary (with a 60 day warning period).
Now that we know what a formulary is, the next question to ask is "what are the "Tiers" that some of the various plans have in their formularies?"
Most plans that have tiers will have three tiers.
Within a three-tiered formulary, prescription drug products are categorized as Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3. Each Tier is assigned a specific co-payment amount.
What is a co-payment?
A co-payment is a cost-sharing arrangement under which a beneficiary pays a specified dollar amount for a prescription drug. Basically, a co-payment is a fix amount that a beneficiary must pay for each 30-day supply of a drug they buy within a specified Tier.
Tier 1 is the lowest co-payment level and usually contains generic drugs.
Tier 2 is the mid-range co-payment level and usually contains "Preferred" brand name medications.
Tier 3 is the highest co-payment level and usually contains newer, more innovative and expensive brand name medications. There are often specific clinical restrictions established within a plans formulary for a beneficiary to receive these Tier 3 medications (some Tier 2 drugs may also have these restrictions). These restrictions include Quantity Limits, Prior Authorizations and Step Therapy.
What are Quantity Limits (QL), Prior Authorization (PA) and Step Therapy (ST)?
Quantity Limit (QL) means that the insurance company will only pay for a set amount of a particular drug within a given time frame. For example, 10 tablets within a 30 day period. If you want more than that set quantity you are responsible to pay for the product. A good example of where a quantity limit is often implemented is with migraine medications. Exceptions to established quantity or days supply limits may be made if the prescribing physician is able to justify medical necessity.
Prior Authorization is the process of obtaining coverage approval for a particular medication. Without such prior authorization, the medication is not covered. Authorizations are normally issued by nurse reviewers or other authorized personnel at the insurance company who review the doctor's orders and other documentation to ensure that the medication is medically necessary. A set standard or protocol is used to determine whether the medication will be approved or not.
Step Therapy is defined as the practice of beginning drug therapy for a medical condition with the most cost-effective and safest drug therapy and progressing to other more costly or risky therapy, only if necessary. The aims are to control costs and minimize risks. Step Therapy is also called step protocol. Step Therapy may require the beneficiary to use a "first-line" drug before authorization is granted for a more costly "second-line" drug. For example, an individual may be required to try generic ibuprofen as a "first line" drug for arthritis pain before they will be given brand name Celebrex as a "second line" drug.
Due to the complicated formularies within many Medicare Part D plans, it is important that participants in Medicare Part D let their physician know which plan they have signed up for. This way the individual's physician can work within the constraints of the formulary in order to ensure that the beneficiary gets the best and most appropriate therapy that is covered under their plan.
Medicare Part D individuals should also be aware that purchasing medications, which are not covered under their plan's formulary, from a licensed Canadian pharmacy, is an excellent alternative to paying the local U.S. pharmacy price. Many individuals will also benefit greatly by ordering their medications from a Canadian pharmacy once they have reached the gap in coverage, called the "doughnut hole". This gap in coverage occurs at the $2250 annual drug expenditure level and beneficiaries are 100% responsible for their drug costs until they reach $5100 in drug expenditures. For a surprisingly high number of individuals, they may save more by ordering all of their medications from Canada rather than purchasing them through the Medicare program.
Medicare Part D beneficiaries must understand how their plan's formulary works and they also need to keep up to date with any notices of changes to their plan's formulary. Without keeping up to date they may find themselves in a position in which they are unable to get their medication the next time they walk into their pharmacy. With the preceding information a Medicare beneficiary will be better equipped to choose a plan that is best for them. Medicare Part D coverage combined with Canadian pharmacy savings can provide seniors with incredible savings. These individuals should be able to save a lot of money.
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Jeremy Cockerill is a licensed pharmacist and the co-founder and pharmacy manager of UniversalDrugstore.com. Mr. Cockerill graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba with Honors in 1998. Mr. Cockerill is the recipient of the 2005 Manager of the Year award from the Manitoba Customer Contact Association.
http://www.universaldrugstore.com