AU Blogspot

              
             Thanks to Javier Belmont for permission to use this Photo.

While working as a pharmacy technician, you will see that most muscle relaxants and hormones are available only as prescription (or legend) drugs.  A few years ago, I was working at a retail store late on a Friday evening.  A person walked slowly up to the pharmacy counter and asked me to sell him some carisoprodol (a muscle relaxant).  Being pretty naïve, I asked for his name so I could pull up his refills on the computer.  He replied, “I don’t have a prescription.”  After I informed him that carisoprodol required a prescription, he left the pharmacy.  Without a valid prescription I could neither provide the man with carisoprodol nor appropriately assess his intentions for use.  

Be aware that, even though many muscle relaxants are not controlled substances, they do have the potential for being abused.  You can perform a valuable service by assisting the pharmacist in monitoring the quantity and frequency of refills your customers purchase.  If you notice a possible abuse situation, notify the pharmacist.  If it’s a case of the original prescription being no longer adequate, it may be time for the patient’s doctor to try a higher dose or another medication altogether. 

Tina Boyd Stacy
Pharmacy Technology Instructor
Ashworth University

Photo courtesy of Jo Guldi

It is truly alarming the number of people around the world who are overweight these days, and it is really no wonder. After all, we as a people have become so lazy and so dependent on sugary, fatty foods and beverages. There are also other reasons why people are overweight however, such as to control their emotions or make themselves feel better. Emotional eating is perhaps one of the most dangerous problems in terms of your weight, especially if you live a very emotional or hectic life.

Sometimes the strongest longings for food happen when you are at your weakest point emotionally. If you are sad or lonely, angry or depressed, you may notice that you begin craving certain foods, perhaps some of which you never even really considered before. Eating as a way to suppress your feelings, such as stress, anxiety, boredom and even confusion, can really sabotage your weight loss efforts. The good news is that if you are someone who is prone to emotional eating, there are things that you can do to get over these habits and get back to eating healthy and looking and feeling your very best.

Find the Problem

It is important that you take the time to try and determine the actual root cause of your emotional eating. Sure you know that you are eating as a way to help yourself deal through the tough times, but there must be a more significant underlying cause. Major live events such as unemployment and health problems, for instance, may have triggered the onset of your emotional eating problem and this is what you are going to have to deal with.

Also know that there are certain foods which seem to have particularly addictive qualities. These are the foods that most people tend to crave when they are down or upset, and which you should be especially careful with. This includes chocolate and candy, and when you eat these foods what happens is that your body releases trace amounts of mood hormones which is why the foods seem like a sort of reward, because you think that they are making you feel better. They may help temporarily to relieve the feelings of tension or stress that you are experiencing, but even just a few moments after you eat them you will feel even worse than you did to begin with. (more…)

 
              Thanks to ryun nwar for permission to use this Photo.

In today’s society, being grossly overweight to obese and living an unhealthy lifestyle has become status quo. It’s almost acceptable with most people generally apathetic about it. But if people don’t change their unhealthy lifestyles, the consequences will cause them to pay dearly for it in more ways than they ever imagined.

Let me start out by asking a very serious question: If all these popular weight loss diets, books and programs being marketed over the years have really been effective, why have the number of people engaged in unhealthy lifestyles and becoming overweight to obese exploded to over 65% of the total population?” (USSG). (more…)

At the risk of turning this into a food blog (it’s my third foodie post in a row), I can’t resist talking about a recent study from Mr. F’s previous employer, Nestle. According to Nestle researcher Sunil Kochhar, people who crave a daily chocolate fix have a different set of gut bacteria than people who don’t. Your next question might be…there are actually people who don’t crave chocolate? Well, I’m one of them, but my reasons probably have nothing to do with bacteria and a lot to do with taste aversion. When Mr. F worked for Nestle, we somehow ended up with quite a bit of chocolate around the house.

I am living testament to the fact that one can, in fact, overindulge in chocolate. I do like the occasional chocolate, especially in baked goods like our family’s favorite Black Forest Cake pictured above, but my preference runs to white chocolate, which wasn’t around much during the formation of my taste aversion.

Anyway, back to bacteria. It took the Nestle researchers a year to find 11 people who didn’t crave chocolate. The chocolate lovers turned out to be different in a number of ways, including lower levels of “bad”cholesterol or LDL. Hey, there’s a good excuse for eating chocolate!

The researchers argue that their results indicate a predisposition to eating chocolate. Without seeing their original study (due out Friday), it’s hard to tell how they back up this claim. It looks more like a correlation to me. True, we could be predisposed to eat certain things (Mr. F is quite fond of the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan  in Amarillo, but I’ll pass on that). On the other hand, I suspect that eating chocolate on a daily basis could have an impact on one’s bacteria (among other things).

The researchers only observed their participants over 5 days, during which time they either ate chocolate or a placebo (and what would that be????). Seems to me that 5 days isn’t very long in the world of readjusting your bacteria. Dieters need about a year before their bacterial populations approach the distributions of people with healthy weight.

Still, I have to admit that it’s probably a lot of fun to do research on chocolate eating…

Dr. Laura Freberg
Creator of Laura’s Psychology Blog
AU Contributing Blogger

*Since receiving her Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA, Dr. Laura Freberg has earned a reputation for being one of the leading educational minds in the psychology field.  She’s the author of numerous well respected textbooks and currently serves as a Professor of Psychology at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA.  Dr. Freberg has been incredibly gracious in offering to share her insights with the AU student community and we are thrilled to have her as a member of our contributing bloggers’ network.  Visit Laura’s great website and Laura’s Psychology Blog to learn more about her life and work.  Thanks Dr. Freberg!

Alcohol does not discriminate against any sect of society, including the rich and famous. The abuse of alcohol is a serious concern, and, despite massive initiatives to educate the citizenry of its ill effects, the abuse of alcohol remains prevalent among young and old alike. Alcohol can not only be detrimental to your mental and physical health, but it can also have unfavorable effects on your bank account. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed some online resources to help you build a greater understanding of your alcohol use and its impact on your general health. While these tests are not intended to provide a diagnosis for a medical problem, they can provide you with a better self-awareness. The tests and calculators below can help you gain an understanding of how alcohol impacts your life. These resources are completely free and anonymous.

• The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
• Alcohol–The Quick Quiz Questionnaire
• Alcohol–Spending Calculator
• Blood Alcohol Calculator

Doug Simpson
Contributing Blogger
Ashworth University