Addiction treatment centers can help your family

Every year, alcohol addiction takes away thousands of lives, leaving numerous families in financial and emotional despair. To help patients of this addiction, numerous addiction treatment centers have popped up all around the United States. These centers are highly professional in their services and offer extended care to various patients according to the nature and details of the case. Rehabs and addiction centers have cured thousands of people of their alcohol addiction, giving them a new ray of hope to restart their life.

The initial approach is paramount

Once you narrow down your search to a special center, you need to contact them via phone or email. They will arrange an appointment, which is followed by medical, psychological, and emotional evaluation. Patients are either advised to take admission for prolonged course in the center, or are treated as outpatients. Every rehab and treatment center has their differential approach towards treatments. This includes personal counseling, classroom discussions, and group discussions. There are many treatment centers where alcoholics are made to go though spiritual healing. The patients go through classes on Bible and other religious books to make them understand the value of natural living.

Muscle wasting (sarcopenia) of the upper body cured with salt

It was strange—his change in health. Over the past several months, he had noticed a drastic loss in his physical strength, but only in the upper body. I had known this seventy-seven year old man for years. He had always been robust and, until a few years ago, had competed in Team Penning, a physically demanding rodeo sport demanding stamina, coordination and team work.

In team penning, three mounted riders have to pick three numbered cattle out of a herd of thirty, cut the three loose from the other twenty-seven, and herd them as fast as possible into a pen at the other end of the arena, all the while making sure none of the other twenty-seven cross a foul line. If it takes the team more than ninety seconds, it is automatically disqualified. Team penning requires horse and rider to break into an instant gallop, stop abruptly, and wheel the horse in a tight turn.

As my patient recounted it: You're whippin' and ridin,' stoppin' and startin.' These horses are wide-open galloping and then stoppin' and turning on a dime. The hardest part is staying in the saddle. Every second counts.

In 1997, his team, which included his wife, won the National Team Pin Championship. He continued to compete until he was seventy-two. After that he continued to do very hard outdoor, physical work. His loss of strength was most unexpected.

Lately, I have been waking at 3:30 a.m. from muscle pain, he said. My energy level collapses during the day. It drops suddenly—within minutes—and I have to go home and nap. My upper body is turning to flab. My strength is way down. It is hard for me to lift twenty-five pounds.

The strange part was that the weakness was confined to the upper body with the lower limbs as strong as ever. He was sensitive to the heat and avoided it. He would get a headache within one minute of exposure to the summer sun. He also mentioned some painful blisters in the right side of the scalp.

Muscle wasting is often associated with aging and medical science can do little more than describe it. It is sometimes called sarcopenia, defined as loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength associated with aging. Lack of exercise is thought to be a significant factor in the development of sarcopenia. My patient, however, had continued to exercise faithfully all the while losing muscle mass and strength.