Day: 07/14/2015

To Karl Douglass at Pure Biomed

Karl Douglass
kdouglass@purebiomed.com
Submitted on 2015/07/14 at 11:55 am
Just what I thought … you don’t have the guts to post my reply to your naive and uninformed comments regarding Pure Biomed, LLC. Come out from your coward anonymity and supply information your readers can benefit from.

Dear Mr. Douglass:

You are making a fool of yourself.  And here’s my response to your previous comment (you egomaniacal twit):

Topical pain relief products

#TheHeartProject

The Heart Project//Mental Health Monday

On July 10-15, join the Heart Project for Mental Health Awareness.  Draw the hearts on your wrist that apply to you then photograph it and share it on your wall.  This is to spread awareness, to not hide behind the shame and stigma.  Hashtag it #TheHeartProject.

I want to challenge everyone out there to post a picture of yourself with your hearts! If you don’t suffer from a mental illness that’s ok, just draw a dark blue heart for support!

While there isn’t a specific heart for PTSD, if you suffer from that condition, please feel free to create your own color.  I think I’m a little too old to be drawing on myself (plus, I can’t draw), but here’s my Blue Heart for support. 🙂

(Photo taken 7/11/2015.)

Is Your Medication Causing Nightmares?

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/07/13/is-your-medication-causing-nightmares/

We are all encouraged to get a good night’s sleep. That’s because scientists have found that restful sleep is important for brain function, cardiovascular health and diabetes management.

Nothing interferes with restful sleep like a terrifying nightmare. When someone is chasing you or trying to do you severe harm in a dream, it is hard to wake up refreshed.

Health professionals understand that trauma can leave lasting scars that manifest themselves in recurrent bad dreams. Sometimes counseling can help the unconscious mind deal with such suffering.

What therapy cannot help, however, are drug-induced nightmares. A surprising number of medications can cause really bad dreams.

It is not a side effect that is often mentioned when a prescription is written or filled, so it can be difficult to detect a medication causing nightmares. Nevertheless, this adverse drug reaction can cause a great deal of distress.

Antibiotic Medication Causing Nightmares

One reader related this story:

“I took levofloxacin (Levaquin) for a prostate infection. About two weeks after I started taking it I began to suffer from extreme anxiety and horrific nightmares. I thought I was losing my mind. It never occurred to me that the medication could have been the culprit; my doctor even said that it wasn’t the Levaquin. Searching the Internet proved I was not alone. My time in hell lasted for months.”

Others have reported bad nightmares with this class of antiobiotics (quinolones like levofloxacin or ciprofloxacin) and the official prescribing information warns about insomnia and nightmares.

Beta Blockers and Bad Dreams

Beta blocker heart medicines like metoprolol and propranolol have also been linked to insomnia and ugly dreams:

“Years ago I was started on propranolol to maintain a regular heartbeat. I have had vivid and unpleasant dreams since being on this drug, and occasional really bad nightmares.”

Stop-Smoking Drug Causing Nightmares

The prescribing information for the stop-smoking drug varenicline (Chantix) mentions, “vivid, unusual, strange or abnormal dreams.”

Readers have shared stories like this:

“I started Chantix after many unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking. By night three the vivid dreams had turned into nightmares from which I awoke angry and agitated. I awoke the morning of the fourth day after another nightmare. My partner was snoring, which agitated me to the point where I thought a bullet would certainly solve this problem. The shock of such a thought, which is so far removed from the way I normally feel, scared me.”

Scary Dreams on Statin Drugs

Other people have described sleep problems with cholesterol-lowering drugs:

“My husband takes pravastatin. He has been having nightmares at least three to four times a week. It is getting so bad that I cannot sleep. He has kicked me and hit me in the head. He told me he was fighting a monster.”

There is nothing in the prescribing information for pravastatin (Pravachol) about nightmares, but a related statin medicine, atorvastatin (Lipitor), does carry such a warning.

Even antidepressants such as duloxetine (Cymbalta) and venlafaxine (Effexor) can cause nightmares.

It is time for prescribers and pharmacists to alert their patients to this side effect. Since sleep is important to good health, when drugs cause terrifying dreams that wake people, alternate treatments should be considered.

Why Nightmares Might Actually Be Good For You

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/12/psychology-nightmares-bad_n_7770030.html

As a new video from New York Magazine, “The Good Side of Bad Dreams,” explains, some sleep researchers have proposed that bad dreams serve as a form of emotional release, allowing us to let go of the stresses and anxieties that plague us in our waking lives.

“The things that concern us most when we’re awake continue to mess with us when we’re asleep,” the video explains. “Your unconscious brain takes your abstract fears and turns them into stories in the form of nightmares.”

Here’s how it works: The nightmare essentially takes a fear and turns it into a memory. This is helpful, since memories are easier for the mind to cope with because it represents something that occurred in the past, than “vague anxieties about the world around us,” the video’s narrator says…

Jared Padalecki Surprised With Tribute At Comic-Con For Speaking About Depression

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jared-padalecki-comic-con-tribute-depression_55a3aa6de4b0b8145f72faa6?

This year’s Comic-Con held a special meaning for Jared Padalecki, who was met with a surprise tribute from fans just a few months after opening up about his own depression.

Over 7,000 fans at Sunday’s Comic-Con event lit candles in support of Padalecki’s “Always Keep Fighting” campaign to help raise money for the nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms, an organization that supports people dealing with depression, addiction, self-harm and suicide…