In an extremely rare case of allergic reactions from a seemingly harmless substance that is taken by millions of people every day for minor aches and pains including headaches, muscle aches and more, ibuprofen, the verdict in a case for a girl who’s family claims she went blind from taking Motrin, a Johnson and Johnson product, has come back in favor of the maker because they said the blindness cannot be directly attributed to the ibuprofen.

The girls parents argue that the girl’s blindness, which resulted from severe chemical burns from a reaction to the ibuprofen-based product, was directly due to the rare allergic reaction, and argued that Johnson and Johnson should put a warning on the label that there could be a severe reaction in certain people.  While I usually side with the plaintiffs in cases like this, the girl’s extremely rare condition is one that is so rare that it cannot be added to a label, since even doctors didn’t know about the correlation, and if they were to add warnings about every single possible scenario, they might as well make the bottle a lot bigger. 

At least the case has brought some national attention to the case and the potential for extreme allergic reactions, if nothing else, and perhaps parents giving their children ibuprofen or children’s Motrin as was the case here, can be aware that if there were a severe reaction, they know what it could be from in the many variables that arise when parents and doctors are trying to figure out what triggered an allergic response that is so obviously severe. 

Fortunately, there are also herbal painkillers for natural pain relief that work very well as anti inflammatories in the body, which helps mitigate pain, and also natural ingredients that help dull the pain receptors and promote the various chemicals in the body that make pain duller and not so apparent to the human mind. 

Since I just wrote about a new homeopathic treatment for HPV warts, an increasing problem especially amongst women, which is a sexually spread disease, I thought it best to take a minute to discuss what exactly homeopathy is, and why it is a little different than just herbal medicine, naturopathy and other alternative methods of treatment.

Homeopathy is the practice of using minute (pronounced my-noot) doses of certain nutrients, vitamins, or even minerals, dosed often, and sometimes as a solution or sometimes as a pill that is to be slowly dissolved under the tongue.  It is through the consistent release of these tiny doses, and the fact that it is slowly absorbed into the blood stream that this sort of treatment supposedly works, and it supposedly is supposed to be a sort of vaccine if I could compare it to something else that is well known, because it is supposed to produce the very symptoms it has caused in the first place, making the body fend off these symptoms itself. 

It is, of course, as every other method that is non-FDA approved and non medical in nature, controversial in some circles, but many folks have sworn by it for treating things from sexual dysfunction to acne.  Homeopathy is recognized as an alternative medicine treatment though, which is a good thing that it is at least recognized as a form of medicine. 

Critics claim that any effects felt by homeopathically administered treatments are merely placebo, but that doesn’t refute the fact that this is a form of medicine many have sworn by since the 1800’s when it was first introduced by a gentleman by the name of Samuel Hahnemann.  You can guess that since the start of the word homeopathy means “one” or “singular” such as in homosexual where one sex likes the same sex in an intimate manner, it means that you are treating the problem by creating a solution that is supposed to trigger the exact same response in the body, making the body fend the problem off itself. 

There is a brand spanking new natural, homeopathic treatment available to ease the symptoms of the HPV virus, which is the human papilloma virus that has been in the news so much lately because of the vaccine that is given to many young girls now called Gardisil, which has unfortunately resulted in some suspected linked illnesses and even deaths in those that have had the vaccine. 

The alarming thing is that HPV is thought to cause or lead to cervical cancer in women, at least certain strains are, so the stopping of the virus is a vital part of study but unfortunately science has not come up with a “cure”, only a vaccine that is controversial at best so far.

But there is a way you can at least relieve the symptoms of HPV, which is genital warts, an embarrassing mass, or series of little masses, called warts, that appear in the vaginal area on women and on the penis and perhaps even around the penis on men.  HPV is especially prevalent and even more important to stop in women because they are susceptible to cervical cancer if it goes untreated, however, as I said, it can really only be monitored, not really treated, and the relief can be had on the warts that crop up through this homeopathic remedy (read about it here - natural treatments for HPV warts).

Since HPV infects a very high percentage of the female population, there are many women searching for natural ways to treat the genital warts they get when they pop up, so natural remedies have become more popular for warts over the years, and women are encouraged to get pap smears every year to clear them for any precancerous or cancerous activity that may show up on the slides that contain cervical tissue to make sure there is no cancer activity going on. 

As a woman, I know how important it is to get annual checkups, but I also know that since there is no “cure” once you already have HPV, there are many women at least looking to relieve the wart problem so that they don’t have the embarrassing masses that can even get uncomfortable if left untreated. 

The onset of female maturation, called puberty, is occurring in American girls at younger ages than it ever used to.  There are three phases of puberty.  It starts with breast budding then pubic hair growth and then menstruation begins.
For reasons not yet medically explained, girls are beginning breast development at ages as young as 8 years old.  Some theories offered by pediatricians and endocrinologists suspect environmental chemicals play a role.  However, the only concrete scientific data to date relates the early breast development to the obesity epidemic.
There is an ever increasing gap between the phase of breast development and the onset of menstruation.  The average time between breast buds and menstruation has grown to almost 3 years.  There is no certainty as to why this gap has grown.  The onset of menstruation has become at a younger age continuously over the last few decades.  The younger age for starting menstruation is explained by many researchers a result of us eating better and being healthier. 
The average age for first menstruation has declined by one month per decade for the last 30 years.  The average age for this occurrence is 12.5 for Caucasian females, 12.06 for black females and 12.09 for Latino females.
Early menstruation has been linked as a risk factor for developing breast cancer.  No one is certain how early breast development will effect the health of American girls in the future.  The Breast Cancer Fund has financed a report in August of 2007 entitled ” The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls” to try to determine how environmental factors play a part in this disease.
Some theories posed by evnironmental activists point to hormones in food, pesticides and pthalates in plastics as the reasons for the early puberty.  Theories cited by social scientists look in a different direction.  They look to lifestyles, such as fatherless households and excessive stimulating effects of sexually explicit television shows.
The subject is worth questioning and investigating to determine if early puberty will have a negative effect on the future health of the now young female U.S. population.

Green tea has long been touted for it’s bevy of health benefits, from increased energy and stamina, to fat burning and appetite cutting for dieters, to antioxidant benefits against cancer causing agents and free radicals, to heart health.  The heart disease one is what we are going to talk about today, because there is now evidence that shows that consistent green tea consumption may actually dramatically lower one’s risk of heart disease.

Green tea is actually a tasty tea, but only if you doctor it up a bit - but that’s just my opinion.  It’s popularity has increased dramatically just over the past few years as news of it’s health benefits made it a great choice over coffee and other caffeinated beverages for a quick energy boost.  You even see green tea beverages now in coffee shops for sale - even at Starbucks and other chains of the like since they want to cash in on the green tea craze.

The thing that makes green tea beneficial as a heart disease measure of prevention is the fact that active compounds in the tea help the blood vessels relax, which in turn is a good thing for the heart and for circulation of blood throughout the body.  Because of this it may also be an excellent prevention food for strokes as well.

Drinkers of green tea have been identified as those with less mortality rates for heart disease and better overall health, so at any rate, you should drink green tea as often as you can.  You could even heat it up and drink it iced with a bit of sweetener as a nice little sweet drink on a hot day if you don’t like it hot.