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Did you know that a little over 2 million Americans suffer from gout symptoms every year? If you want to reduce your chances of suffering from gout for too long, you’ll need to know the signs to look for so you can get immediate treatment and decrease the amount of time it takes for you to recover. After reading the following indicators of gout below, you’ll be equipped to more easily stave off the more debilitating aspects of this arthritic disease.

You’ll probably wake up to the first of several gout symptoms with a jolt. You’ll feel the throbbing of an inflamed joint, and when you peel back the bed sheet to take a look, you’ll see a shiny red joint with skin tightly pulled over it. More than likely, your big toe will be the offender, but other joints can join the party too. Keep an eye on your fingers, wrists, elbows and ankles.

Next, keep tabs on your pain to see if it increases over the next several hours. After a few hours, you may be in excruciating pain and unable to even bear touching the joint.

Gout symptoms can sometimes be disguised as feeling extremely tired or having a slight fever. If you’re tired all the time or have a temperature of 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, along with a swollen joint that’s warm and painful to touch, then you’re having a gout attack.

So, to go over the gout symptoms checklist again, ask yourself the following questions:

- Do you have a shiny red and swollen joint that feels warm and painful?

- Does the pain increase over a few hours time?

- Do you feel slightly feverish or greatly fatigued, in addition to having the painful joint?

If you experience these indicators, get treatment or try gout pain remedies as soon as possible.

Breast cancer is a disease which isn’t very well defined, but there are prominent causes that lead to it. If you show some or all of these symptoms, your risk of getting breast cancer naturally increases. However, it is necessary to add that even with all the symptoms, you might not get the cancer, as a rule. Causes are not a foolproof way of calculating your risks of getting breast cancer, and should never be the only factor in calculating the risks. You can get a car accident if you as much as drive a car, but so many factors come into play that it’s very hard to designate the risks to a single factor, if at all, it can be done. The same goes for breast cancer.

One thing is true and that is the risk for getting breast cancer goes up as you get older. That is something that just cannot be taken out of the equation. It is also said that one has a greater chance of developing it if someone in the family has also been diagnosed which makes one think that genetics may play factor on whether or not you may get it. Race does not really make that much of a difference, but it also depends on who you talk to. Many researchers have said that women who don’t have kids until a later age may have a higher chance, but then that is part of the age factor. Men do get breast cancer as well, but their numbers are not nearly as high as the number of women who get diagnosed.

A hot research topic is trying to determine whether contraceptive and preventive birth control measures increase the risk factor for breast cancer. This topic has been a favorite debating topic among researchers, but nothing can be said about it until more conclusive researches are done.

Alcohol is said to increase the risks considerably, but as it goes, alcohol can increase the risks for any type of cancer. Cutting down the number of alcoholic beverages you consume is a good idea, and if your risk factor is high, total abstinence from alcohol helps.

Weight problems and obesity deteriorate heath, giving rise to various health problems, one of which is an increased risk of developing malignant breast tissues. Fighting this is easy; you just need to exercise a lot more and better, enhancing your general health and keeping breast cancer away. Remember, prevention is better than cure.

Like it’s said, the causes for getting breast cancer can be many and varied, and it’s not possible to understand the key factor that leads to it. However, there is a lot of research going on in this field, and someday, the key might be discovered. With that, we can prevent many women from getting ailed, diagnose lots of others early and save them from the misery of living through the disease, and cure so many others who could have just lost hope.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 22.8 million Americans need help for drug or alcohol abuse. Of those people only a small percent completed rehab successfully. Students took the same survey and of those students, 2.3 million ages 12-17 reported they needed help for drugs or alcohol. Only 8.2% actually got help from a rehab center. Whatever your choice of addiction is, they have one thing in common, low self esteem.

According to Selfesteeminternational.org, recovering addicts and alcoholics indicate that low self esteem is the biggest problem in their lives. They feel alcohol is only a symptom to the alcoholic’s real disease, alcohol or drugs act as a mask. Low self esteem causes and contributes to anxiety, neurosis, defensiveness and ultimately

Selfesteeminternational.org surveyed some 18 year olds who reported using drugs or alcohol heavily. They reported using when they were as young as seven. They indicated feeling alienated by their families, not good enough, anxious, unhappy and overly impulsive. 66% of high school seniors surveyed reported using drugs or alcohol heavily in order to fit in and fill a personal void.

Drugs and alcohol are self destructive behaviors but sometimes the pain is too much to bare and people begin to self medicate through drugs and alcohol. Addicts use their addictions to help them work through to pain of self hate, or so they think. By drinking or using drugs a vicious cycle of more self hatred starts and before you know it, your life is completely out of control. One drink turns into two, two turns in to three and before you know it your life is all about drinking. You family doesn’t want you around, you have spent all your money and lost your job. Your actions only lead to more self hate and disappointment in yourself.

It is difficult to estimate how many people are experiencing low self esteem, but it is safe to say many people suffer from at least one of the symptoms. Maybe you are happy to see someone fail, overly aggressive, do not recognize your own good qualities, or try to please others because you do not know how to say no. There are many reasons why people have low self esteem however, it is not just one isolated incident that causes it. Typically low self esteem is brought on by many years of unpleasant memories and criticism. The criticism can come from anyone, a parent, teacher or society.

One of the most important factors in recovery is acceptance of the disease and being able to identify why you choose to be an addict in the first place. Often it is difficult to address years of low self esteem in a twelve week program. That is why follow up counseling and treatment is recommended. One new treatment that is being recommended is hypnosis. Hypnosis works with the subconscious mind to identify painful memories causing the low self esteem and help the patient work through the memory and develop new self confidence. Hypnosis is done in a safe environment and is chemical free which appeals to many recovering addicts.

Some people feel therapy and counseling is the best and only treatment needed to help recovering addicts. Unfortunately, if this were true all rehab facilities would offer a 100% cure rate. Most can not even offer a 70% cure rate. It is important to have a treatment plan that will help to identify why you started abusing drugs or alcohol in the first place, and this is difficult to do with a counselor. Often addicts have little trust in counselors and are more censored when talking until they get to know the counselor. Since hypnosis works with the subconscious mind, it allows the addict to think and speak openly about low self esteem issues.

Drug and alcohol abuse is a very serious problem, but what is more concerning is the underlying behavior of self hate. Until that issue is dealt with, the thought of alcohol and drug abuse is always there for the addict. There are many ways to help improve self esteem but why not do it in a safe environment and start dealing with the real problem today.

Sleep may be elusive for you. In fact, it may be getting more elusive as time goes by. Perhaps all you need to change is some habits you may have picked up.

Perhaps all you need to change is some habits you may have picked up. Changing habits for good sleep is called sleep hygiene these days. Here are some habits to look at:

*Eliminating caffeine or chocolate. Try this for a few days. The effect of these two on your body can change over time. Taking caffeine or chocolate even in the morning may be able to affect your night-time sleep.

*Prolonged evening exercise. Taking you 30-minute walk at bedtime can keep you from sleeping.

*Sweets. Sugary items eaten close to bedtime may stimulate your system, and make it hard to fall asleep. Natural sugar such as what is in orange juice is no exception.

*Arguments. Instead of getting into arguments in the evening, make an appointment to argue the next day, preferrably not at bedtime!

*Creative projects. Are you working on a creative project late in the day? This can get your creative juices flowing too strongly at bedtime. This could be great for ideas for your project, but bad for sleep. Best to save these for the following day.

Finally, let’s talk about what you SHOULD be doing for good sleep hygiene.

*After supper, do calm things on purpose, in a calm manner.

*If you read near bedtime, read news magazines or other items that have no exciting story line.

*If you want to watch TV or video, watch a documentary rather than a thriller or a whodunit.

Give these practices a try to see whether good sleep hygiene will make a difference for you!