Sunday 25 October 2020

How to select the right product for you

Exacerbates: Sagittarius and Aquarius Suns when it's being snide. Allies with: Scorpio and Pisces Suns by giving them discriminating taste. Thwarts: Aries and Libra Suns with an overwhelming fear of failure. Mentors: Taurus and Virgo Suns by streamlining their approach. Is anyone's guess with: Gemini and Leo Suns because it makes them caustic. Sometimes good because these two signs know how to deliver a well-timed quip, sometimes bad when they don't take responsibility for the feelings they hurt. Opposes: Cancer Suns. Other physical factors also play important roles. For antidepressant supplements and tweaks to the Healthy Brain Diet, exercise and other physical factors that are specific to depression, be sure to read Appendix D, The Physical Side of Depression, As with anxiety, for some people depression is mainly physical--a weakened brain suffering from inadequate nutrition or a toxic load--and physical healing and strengthening is needed. For others psychological work to heal and strengthen the self is what's most needed. For most, both are optimal for healing. Holistic Healing for Cognitive Decline A tidal wave is coming. The rise of cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's, and other dementias is just beginning. While Alzheimer's was relatively rare a hundred years ago, currently one in three seniors currently dies with some form of dementia. Soon, half of all eighty-five-year-olds will have Alzheimer's. What approach seems like the best fit for your loved one (and what is the evidence supporting that approach)? These questions will guide you to choices that can be tailored to your specific needs, and to options that may not be immediately apparent. Unfortunately, many people arrive at the crossroad of choosing treatment in a panic, through a crisis or emergency--she just got suspended at work or school;

Frantic, people often grab for the first option they hear, and often the most restrictive option they hear about (usually rehab), because it feels safest. In other words, when it feels like an emergency (and it might be), setting is often the only thing people consider. But even if rehab is the best setting for a person, approach and intensity matter at least as much. Entering treatment is a big decision that deserves more than a gut reaction. This article will help you and your loved one make a decision based on information and reason. After narrowing down treatment settings, intensity, and approaches, you'll want to find out about the training and qualifications of the people providing the treatment, their capacity to work with co-occurring disorders like anxiety or depression, their strategies for including the family, and how they would work with your loved one's goals. We will explain the right questions to ask. You see others as mean-spirited. When Saturn is opposite your Sun sign, you don't connect to its energy naturally, and you find yourself being tested until you do. Your big test is to be kind. This isn't going to go over well with people who delight in bursting others' bubbles. Ironically, they will see you as spoiling their fun. Nevertheless, your good example prevails upon them to behave more compassionately--or at least feel a little ashamed when they gloat over somebody else's misfortunes. SATURN IN AQUARIUS People never seem to think you care. It's bewildering, considering all the causes you sign up for and the hours you put in. Nobody works as tirelessly as you to effect real and meaningful social change. Since most people can now expect to live to eighty-five, that gives you a fifty-fifty chance of developing Alzheimer's. Women get Alzheimer's at twice the rate of men (two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women). African-Americans have double the rate of whites and Latinos have about one and half times this rate.

If there was a cure or a drug to prevent this, it wouldn't be so scary. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's is the only major disease for which there is currently no cure, no treatment and medically approved way to slow its progression. As an article in the journal Neurology put it, Despite great scientific efforts to find treatments for Alzheimer's disease, only 5 medications are marketed, with limited beneficial effects on symptoms, on a limited number of patients, without modification of the disease course. The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease doubles every 5 years, reaching an alarming rate of 50% in those aged 85 or older. Wait, it gets worse. A recent meta-analysis of ten studies involving over 2,700 patients showed that the two main classes of drugs currently being used to treat Alzheimer's actually hasten cognitive decline. We will also help you think through the costs associated with different treatment options, as well as a variety of self-help resources. The Power of a Good Assessment The first step to good treatment is a good assessment. The qualifications and approach of the person doing the assessment impact the recommendations they will make. For the person who comes to an assessment with a nightly habit of four big scotches: a nurse might suggest rehab, a psychiatrist might suggest detox, an internist might give the person a Valium, a psychologist might refer him to a physician and an intensive outpatient program, and a counselor might suggest AA meetings. Between two assessors recommending rehab, one might prioritize psychiatric sophistication and willingness to use medications, while another might ignore or even reject those considerations. Ask the person doing the assessment about her preferred approach or treatment philosophy, as it will surely influence her recommendations. Fortunately, there has been a strong push over the last forty years to standardize assessment procedures, resulting in new conceptual frameworks for assessing people's problems. Perhaps foremost among the new assessment standards is the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), developed by A. Thomas McLellan at the University of Pennsylvania. Yet somehow they remain unconvinced that you mean it, and suspicious that you're not truly one of them. Saturn is in domicile in Aquarius, an extremely intellectual sign. You are systematic and unerringly logical, and your matter-of-fact way of putting things gives you the bedside manner of a Vulcan.

You have this way of coming across as . This may have made you the object of ridicule when you were young, and that feeling of not belonging has trailed you ever since. People often mistake Aquarius for a rebellious sign. It's actually quite focused on building consensus--it's just that the consensus doesn't fully embrace Aquarius back. There's just something about the Aquarian energy that rubs them the wrong way. Thankfully, time is kind to you. You may start out feeling like you'll never fit in only to discover over the years that your outsider status becomes the very thing people treasure and respect most. The study's authors report that those receiving the cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine had a significantly greater annual rate of decline than those not taking any medication. As pointed out before, pharmaceutical companies have spent billions of dollars trying to find the magic bullet for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's. Hundreds of clinical trials have been run in this effort to discover the next patentable, blockbuster drug. The failure rate has been total. Nothing has been successful. Science follows the money as surely as flowers follow the sun. When the economic model rests on creating drugs that can be patented, this shapes the entire field. Without research dollars to support it, science doesn't grow in the direction of natural, non-patentable nutrients, even when these show great promise. What if Mother Nature has already provided what we need to heal the brain? What if nature's bounty of plants and nutrients could stimulate the innate intelligence of the body to do what these drugs are supposed to do? This standardized interview for professionals led the field to assess people in multiple life areas as a way to understand the extent to which their substance use affects them. The ASI assesses substance use (frequency of use, quantities, types of substances, direct effects of these substances), but it also explores family and relationships, job and household functioning, legal issues, health issues, and more. This helps clinicians develop a fuller picture of the person in front of them, compelling them to go beyond alcoholic or addict in their conclusions.

This broader understanding of the person and his life helps point toward how much treatment he needs and in what setting. ASAM and the Patient Placement Criteria One of the leading organizations concerned with assessment and treatment placement issues is the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The ASAM system uses what it calls Patient Placement Criteria (PPC), a standardized matrix to collect information in six life dimensions. A thorough assessment will cover all six. Acute intoxication and/or withdrawal potential--Or, what is the current state of this person physiologically speaking: how much of a substance is he or she using (in general and right this moment) and is there the presence of intoxication and/or potential for physical withdrawal? This is critical in determining the need for detoxification procedures to avert medical crises. Aquarius Saturn . Burdens: Aquarius Suns by making them too abstract. Exacerbates: Capricorn and Pisces Suns when it does a disconnect. Allies with: Aries and Sagittarius Suns by making them au courant. Thwarts: Taurus and Scorpio Suns when it's too austere. Mentors: Gemini and Libra Suns by getting them to take care of unfinished business and tie up loose ends. Is anyone's guess with: Cancer and Virgo Suns because it believes that all people are created equal. Sometimes good because it won't let the egomaniacs hog all the attention, sometimes bad because it won't praise anyone for being outstanding for fear of others being overlooked. The result is that nobody feels special. Opposes: Leo Suns. After all, the body has far, far greater wisdom to heal itself than any drug company. Luckily, there are a few nonprofit centers doing research along more holistic lines, both in the U. One of these is the Buck Institute for Aging in California.

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