Americans are exploring alternatives to drugs, a new study finds -- and discovering they help.

By Hilary E. MacGregor, Times Staff Writer

Whether meditating before bed or sipping a kava kava nightcap, more than 1.6 million Americans use some form of alternative medicine when they have trouble sleeping.
In analyzing data from 31,000 Americans interviewed for the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that nearly one-fifth of adults reported difficulty sleeping in the last 12 months, and of those, about 5% used complementary and alternative medicine to treat their sleeplessness. The majority of those who tried the therapies said they helped, with nearly half saying they helped "a great deal."

Antibiotics

In 1829, penicillanwas discovered. Since then, Antibacterial soaps and antibiotic treatments, have been used with growing demand. Antibiotics are neat in that they kill live plants, without causing direct damage to the body. Antibiotics kill bacteria to prevent infections and diseases of the body.

The Problem with Antibiotics

Antibiotics have had a significant role in the medical industry, since the discovery of antibiotics. But today, there are regular hand soaps that are antibacterial and doctors prescribe antibiotics too often to their patients. The problem is, is that bacteria mutates and while most of the bacteria is killed, some mutated bacteria survive and end up creating a more resitstant type of bacteria. This creates 'superbugs', or bacteria that can withstand antibiotics.

Immune System Mistakes

With the steady downfall in immune systems of the sociey over the past couple of decades, the autoimmunde disorders have become a growing epidemic. This results in autoimmune disorders. Some common diseases are caused by immune system mistakes. Diabetes is an example.

Do you smoke cigarettes? Are you thinking of quitting smoking? In this article I write about the benefits of stopping smoking, not just for the smokers themselves but also their family and friends.

When people are quite young they do not really think too much about death, well most of them don't anyway. A lot of these young people will start to smoke cigarettes and even though they are warned and read about the dangers of smoking, seem not to care or worry about them. Before they know it they become hooked on these cigarettes and smoking becomes an essential part of their everyday lives, where it is likely to have started merely as a social thing.

The facts are that the lives of people who smoke are likely to end prematurely, this should be reason enough for people to have the courage to start looking into ways of quitting smoking today. There is no point in working hard all of our lives, paying into pension schemes, saving for our retirement, if we are not going to be able to live a long life.

There are many other health related problems of course that can arise from smoking such as the premature birth of a baby. Then their is the issue of passive smoking which reports suggest can have a negative impact on our friends and families health. These people are very important to most of us and therefore why put them at risk aswell?

The cost of a packet of cigarettes is just staggering and the extra money smokers could have in their pockets each month if they were to become non-smokers would be quite substantial. Over a whole year this extra cash could even pay for a family holiday abroad. This is another example of how quitting smoking not only benefits the smoker but how it can als benefit their family.

In relationship terms, a large number of non-smokers find people who smoke a huge turn off. Stopping smoking could increase peoples chances of finding romance.

There are a number of avenues people can take in their quest to giving up smoking, including hypnotherapy. The smoker must truly want to stop and hopefully some of the reasons above could help. I am not trying to suggest that it is going to be easy but smokers owe it to themselves and their friends and families to give it their best shot to quit smoking once and for all.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Hill

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Quit Smoking

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