What is a gastroenterologist and what is their job?

If you have been to a doctor with health problems, and they have told you they are sending you to a gastroenterologist for more tests, you may be wondering what that is and what this type of specialist does.

 

In fact, a gastroenterologist is not as scary as he or she may sound. Here is some information so you know who they are and what one does before you get there.

 

What is a gastroenterologist? — This is a specialist of problems of the digestive system or the GI tract. A doctor with this kind of specialty treats patients who have significant digestive problems, and looks at everything to do with the digestive system to see if the problem can be solved.

 

Everything from simple things like minor digestive problems to more serious things like Irritable Bowel Sydrome (IBS) and cancer is treated.

 

What does a gastroenterologist do? — If you have had digestive or gastrointestinal tract problems that your usual doctor has not been able to treat, he or she will eventually refer you to a gastroenterologist.

 

They will usually start with an examination, and then run a battery of tests to find out what the problem may be. They will look at areas of your body like the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, liver, gallbladder, tongue and rectum with a variety of endoscopic instruments. Instruments designed to find problems a simple examination cannot.

 

If they are not able to see anything, they will then run blood tests to see if anything can be detected that could be causing your digestive problems.

 

A gastroenterologist does not perform surgery. Instead, they diagnose digestive and GI tract problems and recommend specific treatments. If they believe surgery is necessary, they will then refer you on to a surgeon to have that done.

 

Specialist gastroenterologists — Just like any other type of medicine, there are gastroenterologists that specialize in just one area of the digestive system.

 

These might include a gastroenterologist that only looks at Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or another that specializes in gastroesophageal reflux disease.

 

How much training does a gastroenterologist have? — This is one of the more extensively-trained doctors.

 

Not only does someone going into this type of specialization have to have a four-year university degree, they then have to have four years of medical school, three years of a residency in gastroenterology, and then a three year fellowship on top of all that.

 

That means a typical gastroenterologist will have had 14 years of higher and then medical education before they are even allowed to take a certification exam. It is only after passing that exam that they are allowed to call themselves gastroenterologists.

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The Cool Grandmas on the Pot Block

No, CBD Vape Juice isn’t some pharmaceutical euphemism for high-tech, expensive equipment… nor is it something that you drink out of a box, like apple juice. It is, in all of its glory, a liquid form of cannabis extract which has immense medicinal and health benefits. In its liquid form, it is ingested through vape pens: electronic smoking pipes that heat up the contained liquid inside, converting the liquid into an inhalable smoke. Vape pens were first popularized through tobacco in the early 2000s and have now expanded into the evergreen cannabis industry.

 

The medicinal benefits of CBD vape oil are actually enormous: most internet searches and CNBC interviews will give the facts on CBD. Charlotte’s Web, though, is the most popular strain of CBD cannabis due to its media coverage. It was designed specifically by the Stanley brothers in Colorado for the purpose of saving a 12-year-old girl named Charlotte Figi from having severe epileptic seizures. It has extremely high yields of CBD, yet hardly any THC or “Tetrahydrocannabinol” so that this type of cannabis actually doesn’t get you high.

 

CBD Vape Juice doesn’t only stop seizures, but can also help lessen migraines, acne, depression, anxiety, and even reduces pain in cancer patients. There is a whole host of health benefits associated with CBD oil, and there is no cooler way to ingest these benefits than with a vape pen. Some lesser known benefits even include reducing obesity and associated diabetes… decreasing LDL cholesterol (the bad kind- not the good HDL)… it prevents bone disease and otherwise brittle bones… repairs the skin from UV damage and sunspots… and (as one would expect) drastically reduces pain levels.

 

Because CBD blocks pain receptors when ingested, the feeling of pain is drastically reduced. This fact has actually been known since before the times of Queen Victoria in 1859, whose primary neurologist and physician Sir John Russell Reynolds is quoted as saying, “For the relief of certain kinds of pain, I believe, there is no more useful medicine than Cannabis within our reach”. In addition to the British empire, cannabis has been long revered throughout the centuries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.

 

With the recent decriminalization and legalization of cannabis throughout the United States recently, a new resurgence is being birthed with financial and health abundance galore. Couples are getting married and having pot parties instead of wine pairings. Grandmothers and aunts are no longer giving the stink-eye toward something which, no longer illegal or with harsh penalties, can actually help heal their aging bodies and minds. Now, when holidays and birthdays start rolling around the corner, you just might want to consider sending granny a CBD vape pen and some cool shades to go with it! Hopefully, she’ll at least she’ll enjoy the history behind CBD, as we do.

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The Many Health Benefits of Cannabis

The Many Health Benefits of Cannabis

Over the past few years, the legalization of cannabis has been a hotly contested issue, both in political fields and every day life. There are certainly pros and cons to cannabis legale, but one of the main benefits is the fact the marijuana has numerous health benefits that are already being used to treat patients all over the world. Some states, such as Illinois, Michigan, and Florida, to name a few, do not allow cannabis for recreational use, but do allow it as a medical treatment. Skeptical about using marijuana as a natural health treatment? Check out five tried-and-true ways that cannabis can improve health and wellness:

  1. Treating Chronic Pain

This is the most popular use of cannabis in medical users. Cannabis contains CBD, an active chemical that provides soothing properties to brain and body without putting the user in a high state. CBD has been said to ease aching joints and pains, and the fact that it’s possible to use without getting high makes this element of cannabis one of the safest and most effective.

  1. Increasing Lung Capacity

Contrary to popular belief, smoking marijuana does not damage lungs. In fact, there’s a large amount of evidence that states smoking cannabis can actually strengthen lungs. Because the drug itself does not damage lungs or cause cancer, taking the deep inhales necessary to breathe in marijuana smoke actually increases lung capacity. Scientists have examined regular marijuana and tobacco user over a period of many years and found that while the tobacco users had harmed or destroyed their lungs, the cannabis users had actually increased their lung function.

  1. Decreasing Anxiety

This treatment is more dependent on the type of person, but generally a low dose of cannabis can ease feelings of anxiety. While smoking a lot has the stereotype of causing paranoia, partaking in a small amount of marijuana can calm your brain down and make you more focused and less worried.

  1. Slowing down seizures

Those with epilepsy know how crippling having episodes of seizures on a regular basis can be. Many have found that using marijuana has slowed down or completely stopped their seizures, giving them an opportunity to live without fear. Much like the chronic pain treatment element of cannabis, this benefit has a lot to do with the CBD found in marijuana, so even just legalizing CBD oil could help countless people who suffer from epilepsy.

  1. Shrinking tumors

One of the most profound impacts of cannabis is the fact that it can significantly assist in cancer treatment. While smoking marijuana does not help prevent cancer, smoking it post diagnosis can greatly help in shrinking and eliminating cancer-causing cells. However, because of the stigma around marijuana, studies have been limited, and legalizing it could potentially lead to more research and health care treatments. In addition, it is commonly used to ease the pain of those going through chemotherapy and helps re-engage patient’s appetites.

No matter what your stance is on marijuana usage, this plant has had a strong, positive impact on many lives. Still, we haven’t even begun to tap into all the potential health benefits of cannabis, and one way that we can help is to accept and support those who use it for medical reasons.

Want some more info? Check out this awesome documentary:

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Your Options For Arthritis Treatment

When we hear the word ‘arthritis’ we instantly think of joint pain. That’s a correct thought. Arthritis is a disease that damages joints and causes pain that ranges from mild to immobilizing. With well over 100 different forms of arthritis, treatment options abound and no two people will have the same experience with the disease or the available treatment methods. Regardless of what form of arthritis you have or what level of pain or immobility you may have, there is one common thing – food. Everyone must eat and by eating certain foods (or eliminating them from the daily diet) you can help reduce pain and inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory Foods

Arthritis is an inflammatory disease, so if the inflammation is reduced, the pain will be also. Including foods into your daily diet that help fend off inflammation will help to keep painful flare-ups and joint damage to a minimum.

All green leafy vegetables, like kale, collards and spinach help keep inflammation down. Fruits like strawberries, oranges, blueberries and cherries combat inflammation. Cherries help play a very important role in combating the form of arthritis known as gout by keeping the level of uric acid reduce in the blood stream..

Almonds, walnuts, olive oil, tomatoes and fatty fish like salmon and tuna are great for preventing inflammation.

These anti-inflammatory foods provide multi-level treatments for arthritis; these foods prevent and reduce inflammation, they also help to keep weight in check to prevent obesity which can worsen pain and joint damage plus these foods are heart-healthy.

Inflammatory Foods

There are foods that should be included in an arthritis treatment diet plan and there are food which should be eliminated too. Certain foods can cause inflammation in the body and trigger an arthritis flare-up.

Fried foods and bread are two food groups which need to be eliminated from the diet. All sugary beverages should be eliminated as well. These foods and drinks cause inflammation and potential weight gain and offer little nutritional value. Red meat and seafood, especially if you suffer from gout, raise the level of uric acid in the blood stream and should be limited.

Foods for Osteoporosis

As previously mentioned, there are many forms of arthritis and there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan. That includes diet. Foods needed to help combat the ravages of osteoporosis would cause other forms of the disease to worsen, so it’s needful to receive a correct diagnosis and plan a healthy diet based on the diagnosis.

Those who suffer with osteoporosis need to protect their bone health with calcium-rich foods, like low-fat dairy products and green, leafy vegetables. Red meat and shellfish should be eaten a few times each week to prevent bone loss.

To complement the above suggested options, you can also consider using CBD drops to help alleviate many of the painful symptoms of arthritis. The main ingredient in cannabis, called Cannabidiol, has been found to alleviate a lot of the pain caused by arthritis without having any psychoactive effect on the patient as CBD is the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

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Common Sources of Emotional Trauma in Today’s World

Our worlds is a very fast one. In our monotonous routines in the fulfillment of our mundane desires, we forget to take a break and set our priorities straight. We have become so involved in unnecessary things that we have left no room for the ones that are important in our lives. This leads way to stress, anxiety, and emotional and psychological traumas. When we take our eyes off the things, which deserve our attention, unpleasant events take place. In a society like ours, we need to educate ourselves in order to find the best way possible to live our lives otherwise the conditions that prevail are so tough that without the right level of confidence you can’t just survive successfully but will be wiped out altogether.

The trauma, which is related to the emotions of an individual, has a direct effect on the emotional makeup of that person. This not only affects the way the person functions but also deprives him of many primitive sentiments that were once a part of his life. This also happens when an individual loses the ability to interpret and differentiate different emotions. When due to heartbreaks or consistent anxiety, people lose power over the interpretation of various situations they are in, they tend to fall prey to the emotional trauma and can stay that way for as long as they live though some may discover a new way out of it. That totally depend on the individual, extent of trauma and of course the exact causative reason from the ones mentioned above. The causes of this kind of trauma can be extended even more as it is something, which has no definite boundary or no constraints to hold it in.

It might be an event of sexual abuse at a tender age, which acted as a hurdle in complete emotional development of an individual. It might be physical abuse by partner, spouse or in extreme cases even parents, it could be verbal violence for sensitive people, it could be emotional neglect or in many cases extreme exposure to unwanted life situations such as poverty, unemployment, or domestic violence. Many people fall into this when they get back from war and other tough situations. This, in other words, solely depends upon the emotional construction of a person. Some may even not be affected very much by the death of a loved one while others may fall into a deep trauma just at the hands of a small robbery.

All the reasons are equally harmful and damaging if they are effecting a person in a negative way.
It is therefore very important that these people be treated with care and cooperation, as these are more prone to negative thoughts of suicide and self-harm. It is always advisable to get yourself treated if you even see small symptoms of trauma showing in your life. Give yourself time to heal, talk to your trustworthy friends, and if nothing works, seek professional help.

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