Molecular Imaging Shows Chronic Marijuana Smoking Affects Brain Chemistry

A collaborative study between the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) revealed that chronic marijuana smoking affects the brain chemistry. According to the NIDA, marijuana or cannabis is the mostly used illegal drug in America. As per the study, it was found that there was a decrease in the number of the cannabinoid receptors that are important for mental and physical functions like movement coordination, concentration, pleasure, memory, pain tolerance and appetite.

As a part of the study, 30 chronic daily cannabis smokers were monitored for approximately four weeks. These people were subjected to positron emission tomography (PET) to find the changes in the physiological processes in the body. A radioligand, 18F-FMPEP-d2 is a combination of radioactive fluorine isotope and a neurotransmitter analog which binds with CB1 brain receptors. It was found that the number of cannabis receptors in the cannabis smokers decreased about 20 percent when compared to healthy control subjects with limited exposure to cannabis during their lifetime.

When 14 of the 30 subjects were re-scanned after one month of abstinence, there was an increase in the receptor activity in the areas which were deficient at the beginning of the study. It indicates that the chronic cannabis smoking causes down regulation of CB1 receptors and the damage is reversible with abstinence. The information resulted from the study was found to be useful for the development of novel treatments for cannabis abuse. It also revealed that the decreased receptors in people who abuse cannabis return to normal when they stop smoking the drug.

Factors Affecting Dental Health of the Elderly

As one grows older, many health problems arise because of their weakened body systems. Among the many issues, oral health problems are common in the elderly. Various dental problems such as tooth loss, dental caries, periodontal diseases and so on are seen in senior people. Certain risk factors make them more prone to different kinds of dental issues.

Aging is the primary factor affecting dental health of the elderly. As they age, the gums begin to recede and this may further lead to many other dental problems. However, regular flossing and good oral hygienic practices can lessen the gum recession, thereby promoting healthy gums. Another important thing is that seniors suffer from a common problem, dry mouth. A dry mouth is a condition where the saliva content in the mouth is less. Certain medications may even promote this situation. As saliva in the oral cavity is less, there is less chance to throw away the bacteria and food particles. The deposition of these elements, however, causes plaque or tartar formation that can lead to gum diseases. It is even found that people, especially women, suffering from osteoporosis have a higher risk of periodontal diseases.

Elderly people face limits on insurance and money to afford for dental treatment. Hence, they avoid getting treatment for any dental issues that are already present. Another consideration is that they are unable to go to the dental office and neglect even if they suffer from serious oral problems. In addition, there are also very limited trained dentists who are willing to go to the elderly for checking their dental needs.

In addition to the above factors, poor diet, improper oral hygiene, side effects of medications and recurrent decay around older fillings are found to cause dental issues in the elderly.

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How to Avoid Dental Fear?

People often suffer from anxiety and fear to go to dentist. There may be many reasons for dental fear – fear of pain during treatment, fear about the side effects of local anesthesia, fear of the injection needle, fear of physical closeness with the dentist, etc. With dental fear, people neglect visiting a dentist for dental care, which can lead to long-term serious health problems that may need expensive and lengthy surgery. Hence, it is necessary to avoid dental fear and get the right dental care from the right dentist. Here are some ways how to avoid dental fear.

• Remember that making dental trips is required for a good oral hygiene.
• Ensure that you visit a supportive dentist. Inquire him about the dental procedure required and its complications beforehand so that you can be mentally prepared before the treatment starts.
• The fear of dentist can be avoided by establishing a healthy relationship beforehand. You may feel comfortable during the treatment if you meet and know about the dentist upfront before the treatment. During pre-visits, the dentist may perform some pain-free procedures such as cleaning to boost your confidence and reduce your anxiety.
• Get support and help from family and friends to enhance your self-esteem and courage to undergo the dental treatment. If possible, ask them to recommend a dentist whom they trust.
• Find some distraction techniques which enable you to get away from dental fear. Some dental offices play soothing music during surgeries to relax the patients. However, if possible, you can take your own music to listen while on the dental chair to calm yourself.
• Apart from hypnotherapy, therapy and counseling helps a lot to reduce your dental fear.
• Stay in control when you are on dental chair. Take deep breaths to slow your heartbeat and relax your muscles.
• In order to avoid dental fear in your kid, take him to the dentist from an early age. Choose a right pediatric dentist.

Follow these tips to get out of dental fear and ensure effective dental care from the best dentist.

Tips to Choose Wireless CCTV Security Camera

CCTV security cameras provide safety environments. These are very beneficial for reducing robberies in the surfaces with continuous real time monitoring and recordings. They are very helpful to homes and offices to monitor the people activities. They provide continuous real time monitoring facilities and clarity recordings.

Since, these security cameras are highly important, it becomes essential to know few important features of these cameras to have a better purchase.

Choose wired or wireless CCTV camera: CCTV security cameras are available in the market as wired and wireless devices, both are effective at monitoring and recording activities in the surfaces. But the price ranges are different for wireless devices, they are expensive than wired devices.

Consider the FPS capacity: Choose the right device by considering their Frames Per Second (FPS), always prefer more FPS capacity devices. Generally, the wireless devices take more frames in a second. For example, some devices take at most 30 FPS.

Resolution: Search for the high resolution security cameras because the high resolution cameras provide better clarity recordings and clarity monitoring. Commonly, the 300 lines resolution devices provide normal clarity pictures, but 500 lines resolution devices provide more clarity recording pictures.

Color or black &amp: white These devices are available in both color, black & white monitoring and recordings. Most of the installations use colored monitoring devices to get real time monitoring benefits.

Direct or recording views: CCTV security cameras provide direct views. You can get this direct view with the help of monitors. Recording views are different for different memory capacities.

By following the above tips, you can get the right device for your security needs.

Five Panel Drug Test Kits to Identify Popularly Abused Drugs

National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are the two prestigious organizations which provide the statistics and drug abusing trends among US citizens of different age groups. Their main focus is to eradicate the evil of drug abuse from the society and hence to make a drug free society as early as possible. For that cause they are conducting many studies and researches to find the trends and are also trying to educate the people especially the youth of the nation in order to prevent them from using drugs.

One such research conducted by both of the organizations, individually found the list of five popularly abused drugs in US. The list of NIDA 5 and SAMHSA 5 includes – Marijuana, Cocaine, Amphetamines, Opiates and Phencyclidine or PCP which are hence termed as the most popularly abused as well as most harmful drugs prevailing in the society. Using the data from the research many companies have designed five panel drug test kits with the above mentioned combination. Hence any five panel drug test strip/cup which is made to detect the above mentioned drugs, became so popular as SAMHSA/NIDA 5 panel test kit.

Using five panel drug test kits became one of the most commonly used drug test kits as they are able to detect the popularly abused drugs. These test kits are mainly used at homes schools and workplaces. These kind of test kits became so popular as they are effective in detecting the drug abuse in a short period of time. However, many combinations are available in 5 panel kits, hence it is better to check whether they are the one's from the SAMHSA 5 and NIDA 5 and then to purchase for better results.

Tips to Find Best Restaurants When Traveling

An enjoyable vacation includes everything from getting the perfect accommodation to finding best restaurants and engaging in various entertaining activities. Though you are not aware of the localities of the vacation spot, you can get best restaurants if you do some effort ahead when planning the vacation.

Getting the details of famous restaurants by word of mouth is a very common option. Ask your friends or relatives if they had been to the location earlier. You can also ask the people working at the tourist bureau about their favorite restaurants. Gather related information from public at your hotel, gas stations and shops. Also, by having a look at the newspapers, you can know which facilities are famous in the city. Do not just limit to the major paper. Be sure to check the weeklies and free newspapers. Even fund raising events give you a chance to know such details.

Popular city websites are the other options to find best restaurants. These websites have sections like dining sections and individual restaurants which include reviews. Certain links to the restaurants are also provided over there. You can go to them and read menus and get an idea on the special cuisines they serve. Certain discussion forums for restaurant recommendations are even available on some city websites. It has been considered that websites and smartphone apps are ideal choices to get the details of restaurants at any vacation area. Also, when passing along the new holiday spot, a simple restaurant with enjoying patrons may create a good impression. Don't miss the chance to go into it once and enjoy. It is often suggested that instead of searching for good restaurants after going to the location it is better to research on them much before you reach there.

How Can Website Monitoring Decrease the Website Application Downtime?

Major number of the website failures come from application downtime. Visitors are impatient at high application downtime. Visitors get irritated due to poor application downtime. They are unable to stay longer time on the website facing these inconveniences. Application downtime shows the website's poor performance, so website owners need to focus on their website performance by reducing the application downtime.

Website monitoring programs are very effective at monitoring the website applications, these regular monitoring prevents the website failures while showing results. Monitoring programs monitor all the applications to send the notified things on servers or websites. This is important at updating the website.

Remote website monitoring is helpful to your website updating, it sends the immediate requests on required updates. Monitoring services are also helpful at evaluating the websites security problems, these protect your applications from the viruses and malwares. When the website is virus free it shows the results immediately.

Monitoring services show the reports on website performance on the basis of website downtime and uptime, so the owner of the website can easily develop the further updates of website.

Teach Spanish to Your Kids Using Spanish Songs

Kids show less interest towards languages when compared to Mathematics and other life science. As these subjects are easily connected to our life styles they enjoy learning them. Teachers can also give them a practical learning experience by giving examples from daily life. But when it comes to languages, there is nothing in them which sounds interesting. As the kids feel bored of listening these subjects, they tend to forget them more easily than anything, which shows a negative impact on their academic percentages. So, to avoid such things and make your child more closer to the language and make them show interest towards the languages parents need to take some extra care by helping them with some language learning activities at home.

One such activity which enable the parents to make Spanish interesting is making them listen to Spanish songs. There are few songs in Spanish which are more educative and easy to learn especially for the little toddlers. Teaching Spanish using songs, makes it more innovative and helps the kids to learn it faster. It is one of the interactive, fun and intuitive approach to learn Spanish, say the experts.

The main thing in this activity is we have a general habit of listening to the songs and then repeating them with more ease. Without our notice we tend to learn the song and hence the lyrics. So, including the Spanish terms in the music which the child feels difficult to learn is the best way to make them learn those words with greater ease. Also these songs and lyrics are a bit sticky. Once you learn them, they stay in our mind and they are difficult to forgot. Many studies have also shown that Spanish immersion is the best way to learn Spanish. So, why late, bring some Spanish audio CD's and help your kids to learn the language easily.

Useful Drug Test Kits to Detect Drug Abuse Among Teens

Drug abuse is one of the major concerns of the present society. Especially when it comes to teenagers, the situation is even sick. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in 2011, nearly 22.6% of the school seniors used Marijuana is the past month. Among all the other drugs, marijuana is mostly in use among teens. The availability of marijuana in different forms like the synthetic marijuna, K2, spice and so on made it easy for the teens and school students to go for it. In addition there are few more drugs which are often used by teens and there is an equal concern towards the use of those drugs as well.

Keeping all these in mind, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMSHA which works on improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention conducted a research and found that there are five drugs which are popularly in use. They called them as SAMHSA 5 and mandatory guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing program permit testing of drugs in five different categories. Those five drugs are Marijuana, Cocaine metabolites, Amphetamines, Opiate metabolites, Phencyclidine.

Basing on these many manufactures made drug test kits which can effectively detect SAMSHA five drugs. As they are the most popularly used drugs, the drug test kits which can detect those drugs are effective in finding the drug abuse among teens. Employing a home drug testing policy, which let all the family members to participate makes the teens feel less offended and also tells them that you are against drug testing. Conducting drug test regularly with out any prior notice helps you to detect drug abuse and also makes the teens be conscious about their habits.

Saliva Drug Testing – Best Method for Short-term Drug Detection in Teens

Substance abuse is a common unhealthy habit in teens. However, home drug testing can identify and control teen substance abuse. Urine, saliva and hair drug testing methods are generally used for home drug tests. But, specific methods are used for certain situations.

For instance, in order to detect short-term drug usage in your teen, you can go for saliva drug test.

Saliva drug test detects the recent drug use - drug that is taken in the past 48 hours. Suppose that your teen attended a night party with his friends and if you suspect that he or she abused illicit drugs or alcohol the night, you can conduct saliva drug test. It's so easy to conduct this test. A saliva drug test kit contains a mouth swab that is similar to a toothbrush.

It is kept in the mouth between the lower cheek and gum for about two minutes. The mouth swab has a pad that gets saturated with saliva. The sample from the swab is transferred to the collection vial and is tested for the presence of drugs. Simple saliva drug test strips are available which when dipped in the saliva sample give immediate results.

A characteristic benefit of saliva drug testing is that it is non-invasive. No privacy issues are associated with this method. Unlike in case of urine drug testing, your teen can give the sample in front of you with comfort. Also, your teen has no chance to adulterate the sample as it is collected in your presence. Saliva drug test kits are available in affordable prices.

Also, multi-panel models of saliva test kits are available which can detect multiple drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, opiates, and phencyclidine (PCP) at once.

So, when you suspect your teen for substance abuse, then conduct saliva drug test for short-term drug detection.