Piles Treatment Options

By Heather-Jane Hunter

What are piles? Piles are similar to hemorrhoids, which are inflamed or varicose veins in the anal or rectal area. Piles are areas of tissue in the anal canal that swell due to a variety of reasons (such as stress, overexertion, pregnancy, cancer, smoking, or chronic alcohol use) and cause blood to pool. This then results in a knot of swollen tissue that is sensitive, painful, and often bloody. Piles usually reach the size of a penny in diameter and can resemble grapes in size and shape.

Causes and Symptoms of Piles

The main cause of piles or hemorrhoids is due to constipation. Many systematic disorders causes' piles and many people don't even notice piles until they have pain or bleeding from the rectum. These disorders are usually cirrhosis, prostate enlargement pregnancy and chronic coughing, but others can cause piles as well. Your symptoms only start when infection sets in. so it's important to never ignore bleeding from your anal. This can be the first sign of cancer in that area. So you need to get checked as soon as possible if you are experiencing bleeding from the rectum area. Sometimes people report mucus discharge with the blood from the piles and this is normal. That mucus is what will cause the extreme itching.

Piles Treatment Options

There are normally two piles treatment options; one is self help or home remedies and then of course professional medical help. A combination of medical and behavioral treatments will make up your basic self help options. Some most common forms of self help are:

- By eating foods that are high in fiber is a wonderful affective way to prevent piles from forming. Some of these high fiber foods are bread that is whole grain, brown rice, pasta, fruits, and leafy greens.

- If you want a temporarily relieve then you can use ointments or creams. They will help with the pain and discomfort, but won't eliminate the problem.

- Another good form of piles treatment is by using a squatting toilet rather than a normal one.

If these home medical treatment options won't work and you do require a professional medical treatment you have these following options for piles treatment available:

- You can have a banding procedure done. This is done by placing a elastic band around the piles to cut off the blood flow to the piles. It will die and fall off.

- Another form of piles treatment is called Sclerotherapy. This is an outpatient procedure in which hardening agents are injected into the piles.

- The most common treatment option is a hemorrhoidectomy. This is a surgical procedure for advanced extreme cases of piles that involves surgery to remove them.

These professional piles treatment options are always used if all else fails. Some of these procedures are painful but overall are always affective in treating the problem. If you have tried all other home remedies and failed then it would be wise to seek professional medical help right a way, especially if you are bleeding. Like I mentioned before not all bleeding from the rectum or anal cannel can be linked to piles or hemorrhoids. This can only be determined by a license professional medical doctor.

About the Author:

Heather-Jane Hunter has suffered from serious instances of piles and fully understands the differnet types of Piles Treatment. Learn more about Piles today.

Revealing The Medical Uses of Essential Oils

By Jackie Smith

Aromatherapy in the United States really suffers from an image problem, and a few degreed 'debunkers' are not really helping the matter. Googling 'aromatherapy' returns thousands of results, and in the top 15 are sites belonging to allopathic medical professionals who seem to only have given a cursory glance at the practice, and chalked it up to New Age, feel-good balderdash. Horse manure. Bull -hockey. The trouble with their analysis is that they're based on a very limited investigation, lumping all of aroma medicine in with every claim about the 'softer science' of psycho-emotional aromatherapy healing. The result is that many folks whom may benefit from aroma medicine may not get it, and many physicians investigating alternative medicine modalities may overlook the true potentials of essential oils. What can be done to change aromatherapy's touchy-feely image?

How about we'll start be agreeing on this: That SOME of aromatherapy is in-fact a 'soft science'? That SOME people may feel more relaxed when inhaling Lavender, for example, and some will not? Aromatherapists will not disagree on this point -- they will however put up a defense when the medical applications of essential oils are thrown out with the soft side of 'aroma' therapy. Science IS BACKING UP many of aromatherapy's claims with valid data, even on the 'soft-science' of the practice. Here's a look at the science behind aromatherapy, the holes in arguments of the popular debunkers, and why aroma-medicine has it's place in today's medical practices.

The image problem of aromatherapy has everything to do with the prevailing idea that the practice is all about 'smelling things', whereas the science really about 'things that smell'. Smelling things is very subjective, and may have little medical effect at all (though we'll see that it MAY as well). Aromatherapy is defined as the complete practice of the branch of natural medicine using the volatile liquids distilled from plants. Authors of the hard-science aromatherapy texts available today, professionally-trained aromatherapists (one with a PhD in Chemistry) note that the future of aroma medicine is with the treatment of serious infectious illnesses and cancer treatment. You don't even have to smell them for them to work! Other effects of essential oils also being successfully investigated include speeding wound healing, reducing inflammation, and acting as analgesics.

You can read these research abstracts yourself by Googling 'Pub Med', and searching for 'essential oil' and things like 'cancer' or 'staphylococcus' or 'axiolytic'. You'll find a few studies too that were inconclusive, like inhalation of a certain oil did not change the immune system stress marker researchers use. But there's also another showing that EVERY OTHER marker of stress WAS changed. It may be the study chose the right oil, or the study population was better treated with the selected oil in some studies and not in others (one showed a stress reduction in women from lavender essential oil, but not in men). You'll find a full page of results showing a statistically significant effect on stress from lavender and linalool. Try other combinations of pharmaceutical preparations and see if there are more significant results than that!

So aromatherapists will even cede that there's mix results. While the naysayers use this data to say "aromatherapy doesn't work", the reasonable statement seems to be: "everyone's different. Some people respond and some don't. It may be that they would respond to a different aromatic, or maybe not at all". From Robert T. Carol of skepdic.com: "...I have to conclude that aromatherapy is a mostly a pseudoscientific alternative medical therapy. It is a mixture of folklore, trial and error, anecdote, testimonial, New Age spiritualism and fantasy." Stephen Barrett, M.D. of Quackwatch doesn't really seem to make a point about essential oils, but to just sound disgruntled about the whole idea. Sure, there may be some unsubstantiated claims floating about, but let's play fair. How many deadly drugs have been pulled from the market after drug-manufacturer-paid rigorous scientific investigations claimed them to be "safe and effective"? One chart puts deaths attributed to "properly prescribed and used drugs" between those from alcohol and those from alcohol -- these just above "preventable medical" misshap, and all of these above traffic fatalities. How many died from using essential oils? Can you draw a circle? How about the letter that comes between 'n' and 'p'?

On to the cutting edge of aroma-medicine: The big news is that essential oils, yes very the same used in aromatherapy (this IS the idea we're trying to get across!), are highly effective antibiotics and antivirals. Again, we invite you to search for 'essential oil' and 'mrsa' -- this is the staphylococcus aureus bacteria 'superbug' that has become resistant to commonly available antibiotics (the MR in the name stands for 'methicillin resistant'). You'll find studies showing the efficacy of Tea Tree essential oil in clinical applications, and positive results in the lab using several other oils. And thus far it is thought that these oils have no adverse effects at effective doses.

There's a huge body of data affirming the strong anti-tumorial effects of essential oils. Linalool has been shown to completely destroy certain liver cancers. Frankincense has other powerful anticancer action -- cellular toxicity that's specific to tumors! (One of the great challenges of chemotherapy is killing the cancer cells without killing the rest of the human). Lemongrass too has "promising anticancer activity". Search for yourself and you'll find more pages than you can get through any time soon.

So what makes aromatherapy the bearer of such nonchalant, baseless accusations of lack of efficacy? It may really all lay in the name. Aromatherapy does have a very 'new-age' ring to it. The trick of changing this perception from 'smell good, feel good' to 'potent aromatic medicine' will be presentation of hard data at every opportunity. Educate yourself on these studies and therapeutic use of essential oils in general. Make waves wherever possible for the acceptance of natural medicine in the big leagues of Western medicine. It's up to the users and the therapeutic grade essential oil suppliers to make an effort and bringing about this change in perception. Nearly everyone uses Tea Tree or has experienced 'Vicks Vapor Rub' -- these ARE aromatherapy, and so are all the studies using essential oils in cases of serious illness and disease. Using these examples as a segue can change someone's mind about essential oils and the real medicine of their wonderful aromas.

About the Author:

Visit the website for more on aromatherapy research news, wild French lavender essential oil and more.

Fingertip Eczema

By Moses Wright

Fingertip eczema is the presence of atopic dermatitis or rash on the tips of the fingers. It may affect one, a few, or all the fingers. In some cases, the fingertip eczema affects the fingernails as well as the skin.

Fingertip eczema causes a dry, flaky rash. Often, the skin on the fingertips peels. The dry skin may crack or appear thick and wrinkled.

The skin may become red, cracked, and even bleed. If the fingertip eczema is bleeding, special care needs to be taken to avoid infection. The person should consult a physician for treatment, especially if there are any signs of infection.

Symptoms of fingertip eczema differ from person to person. Some people experience a tingling sensation or tightness of the skin. Some people report discomfort or pain, especially while typing or doing other activities that require the use of the fingertips.

Eczema can be hereditary. Some families have people who are much more prone to forms of eczema than the general population. Sometimes, fingertip eczema is suspected to be a reaction to an allergen like a chemical to which the skin was exposed.

The physician is likely to ask questions about the patients activities and history of rashes when diagnosing fingertip eczema. The physician will examine the rash. The information provided by the patient and examination of the rash are used to diagnose fingertip eczema since there are no tests for this condition.

The doctor might prescribe a topical steroid cream to treat the fingertip eczema. There is no cure for fingertip eczema. The physician may recommend a moisturizer to be used routinely to help prevent flare-ups.

Even after successful treatment, fingertip eczema may recur. People with eczema may have occasional flare-ups throughout their lifetimes. Some physicians recommend keeping the skin well hydrated and moisturized to help prevent flare-ups.

Frequent or prolonged contact with hot water can increase the risk or severity of fingertip eczema. People with fingertip eczema should avoid frequent hand-washing.

About the Author:

We are all living with allerigies of some sort, as research shown 1 in 3 person have an allergy. Do you know which foods cause eczema or what is pink eye? Find out more on our site.