New Hope for Cocaine Withdrawal

Scientists have found that one reason cocaine addicts find it so hard to kick their drug habit, even after prolonged abstention, is that the craving for cocaine does not diminish but actually intensifies throughout the first 60 days after use of the drug is stopped. This obviously presents the addict with an enormous potential for relapse.

Through ground-breaking research, scientists have discovered what they believe will lead to relief for addicts through the development of medications able to decrease the risk of relapse, and improve the addict's chances for recovery from this powerfully addictive drug. The breakthrough project used rats in the trials, and enabled lead investigator Marina E. Wolf, Ph.D., who is Professor and Chair of Neuroscience at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, to determine that after prolonged periods of forced abstinence from cocaine self-administration there was a marked increase in the number, and a distinct change in the composition, of newly formed proteins, called AMPA glutamate receptors, in the area of the brain that is known to be responsible for a person's feelings of motivation and reward.

She and her investigators noted that the new, and more plentiful, receptors were actually providing stronger stimulation to that part of the brain than normal receptors do. Because of their number and the area of the brain they were active in, they, in effect, were causing a sort of rebirth and, in fact, an intensification of those cocaine-related cues; those cocaine related memories of people, places and things that are found to haunt the reformed addict long after abstinence from the drug.

Dr. Wolf and her investigators were able to block these receptors and were able to substantially decrease the intensified cue-induced drug craving in the rat model. This is what leads the scientists to the belief that medications can be developed to block the same receptors, and thus the continuing drug cravings, in humans without interfering with the normal AMPA receptors, which are important for normal brain functions such as learning and memory.

This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and was published in the May 25, 2008 issue of the journal Nature.

By Jody Cross

10 Tips to Maintain Health and Beauty

Beauty, health, and nutrition are all integrated. If you eat a balanced diet you will be able to maintain your physique and glowing beauty externally and good health internally. A balanced diet is one that provides all the nutrients you need, the right amount of proteins, carbohydrates, and fat.

To achieve goals you need to ensure a good balance in your diet, introduce variety into your meals, and practice moderation. The basis of nutrition lies in your height, weight, dimensions, and your daily energy needs. Once you know this you can compute what your daily calorific needs are and set goals for weight maintenance, gain, or loss. By regulating your diet you can be active as well as happy.

You must:

Eat sensibly. Include a variety of foods in your diet such that the 40 nutrients that are required by your body are present. Make use of a food pyramid and calorie chart to prepare tasty and nutritious meals. Follow the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" issued each year.

Eat plenty of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. They will supply you with essential vitamins, minerals, and protection from several diseases.

Maintain your weight at a healthy level. Successful weight management is one of the golden keys to good health. By doing is you will lower considerably the risk of many diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and osteoporosis.

Learn self control, eat moderate portions. The secret lies in eating everything but in small portions. Don't give way to gluttony or greed.

Make a time-table for your meals and how many calories will be in each meal. Never fast, starve yourself, or skip a meal. Eat when your body demands sustenance but not huge quantities.

Practice moderation. Good health does not lie in eliminating carbohydrates or fats. Include all your favorite foods but balance them with the rest of your diet. If you indulge your taste buds by eating pizza one day, then try and do so at lunch time, never eat pizza late at night. Ask for low fat cheese and healthy toppings. Eat just enough to satisfy your craving not all 12 slices. Get a few friends to share you sin. The days you indulge, eat sensibly the rest of the day—salads and fruits will help you make up for the binge.

Be sure your meals each day include all the food groups.

Plan to exercise every day. Either walk or take up aerobics, dancercise, or join a gym. Exercise will not just burn calories but put a glow into your skin, tone your muscles, and strengthen your bones. Exercise also removes accumulated toxins from your body.

Maintain a dairy in which you record your goals, and what you eat each day. Review your week objectively and create a table that shows at a glance what you did right and what you did wrong. This will help keep you on the right track.

Celebrate each victory. Give yourself a present or take yourself out every time you achieve a goal.

By eating healthy, one can live a complete and rounded life without diseases, reduce stress greatly, look and feel great, be happy from within and without, age well, produce healthy progeny, and live life to the fullest.

Related Health Blog: http://mingxin2009.k2free.com/

By Paul Wilson