By Remy Vixamar

Some people tend to confuse treatment with cure. Treatment refers to a set of measures applied to a person suffering from a disease in order to reduce or relieve symptoms, prevent complications, or to restore to health (healing). That is, although it may lead to cure, treatment is not necessarily a cure, which reverses the illnesses completely and permanently.

Most of the time, treatment is done to improve the patient’s life and prevent complications of the disease. In case of AIDS for example, treatments slow the damage caused by the HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) and helps the patient live longer. In other medical conditions such as asthma, appropriate treatment can help the patient to live a lifetime with the disease. Some treatments, in the other hands, if followed as prescribed, can lead to complete healing; chemotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer in situ for instance.

Today, various forms of treatment are available. As medical science progresses, new forms of treatment emerge every day. However, depending on their objective, all these treatments are grouped into the following categories:

Active treatments – also called curative treatments, is the use of therapeutic principles to eradicate the illness completely. They may include medical treatment, involve taking of drugs; surgical treatment consisting of physical intervention on tissues by incision and suture; and technique treatment, methods of treatment using radiotherapy or interventional radiology to treat patient.

Palliative treatment – this is a form of treatment consist of all steps taken to prevent or relieve pain of a serious illness. It is mostly used in patients approaching death to allow them to live the rest of their life in less pain possible. That is, the purpose of palliative treatment is to prolong the patient’s life without compromising the quality of his life. In the US, palliative treatment is used in painful conditions when there is no hope of recovery, such as terminal cancer. Intraspinal morphine, helping to overcome severe pain, is a form of palliative treatment.

Preventive treatment – preventive treatment aims at preventing disease outbreak. They consist of all measures taken to prevent infection or development of disease. This can be done by vaccination, eliminating a risk factor (quit smoking to lower lung cancer risk, lower high cholesterol to decrease heart attack risk). Although very important, preventive treatment is the most neglected therapy in the world. Most people are interested in their health when it is impaired or too deteriorated to regain it. Using condoms during sexual intercourse to prevent AIDS, smoking cessation to reduce risks of lung cancer are two forms of preventive treatments.

Symptomatic treatment – Symptomatic treatment aimed at relieving symptoms of a disease without attacking the causes or the nature of the disease. It is often used in viral diseases such as flu (influenza). Some forms of asymptomatic treatment include analgesics for pain relief; anti-depressants and anxiolytics, to treat symptoms of depression; antiasthenics to fight against fatigue, which could be caused by another medical condition. However, there are diseases which, although curable, are accompanied by severe pain. In such circumstances, some doctors may decide to use both curative and symptomatic treatment

By Gregory Shepard

Can identity thieves be using your medical records and health insurance information to get medical treatment and prescription drugs? Do people use your information to submit false bills to insurance companies? You bet they do and that’s why millions of people worldwide have been victims of medical identity theft.

Medical identity theft occurs when your medical records or health insurance records are used by someone else to obtain medical related services. This could be the worst type of identity theft because it can affect you in so many ways. If someone steals your medical insurance number and goes to a doctor or hospital and receives services, possibly even surgery, you can have some huge problems. It can also mean that your private medical information that should be confidential, may now be public.

Whenever someone uses your identity to get treatment, this becomes a part of your medical history which will contain information that is inaccurate, possibly leading to improper treatments. That information could be a different blood type, misleading test results, allergies or perhaps even a diagnosis of an illness such as HIV. This can result in adverse reactions to medications or getting the wrong blood type in a transfusion. There are enough errors that occur in medical treatments already without making the problems worse through bad information.

Now that your medical history has been altered, the effects on your insurance coverage and premiums are also in jeopardy. You may have unpaid insurance bills from services you didn’t receive. Usually medical insurance does not pay for all of the charges leaving you responsible for the unpaid deductibles and co-payments. Your insurance benefits can reach their limits so when you do need medical care you will find that you are no longer insured. Not having health insurance can be a big problem anyway, especially for the elderly and people who have chronic health conditions.

Other issues could be credit problems and legal issues. Suppose someone receiving treatment using your information is found under the influence of illegal drugs, that may bring the police to your home or business. You can be denied employment because your credit rating has been damaged from the inaccurate information that now appears in your medical history. The HIPPA laws make it very difficult for you to get access to medical information. Just like other types of identity theft that everyone can fall victim to, you can count on a long battle to restore your identity by yourself.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to protect their own personal medical information. Identity theft cannot be completely prevented and with the rising costs of medical treatment along with the economic downturn, I only see this problem getting worse. This is just another reason why it’s necessary to have a plan in place that works quickly to minimize the damage and restore your identity.

By Damian Sofsian

Obesity is a chronic medical problem and has to be treated accordingly. The treatment cannot be generalized as every person responds differently to treatments and hence a medical treatment that fits one’s specific requirement has to be proposed by the medical practitioner.

Because of the alarming proportions this disease has assumed, there are several treatment strategies that governmental and non-government organizations have established. Medical professionals use these broad guidelines to estimate the risk associated with the individual’s state and accordingly evolve a course of treatment.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obese individuals. Medical Care for Obese Patients is also an organization that provides information on accommodating such patients independent of their treatment.

Weight loss programs have to be chosen deliberately after looking at various angles, as it is important to prevent the individual from reverting to the original state. It is also important to ensure that such obese individuals do not get depressed on considering the magnitude of their weight management programs.
On failure of diet restrictions and lifestyle changes in reducing obesity, individuals seek other medical treatments such as prescription medications, supplements, and behavioral strategy psychotherapy.
Surgery is also an option for many obese individuals unable to manage their weights by mere weight management schedules. Various types of procedures under bariatric surgery are carried out to help these individuals. Some of the surgical procedures that have become quite popular are vertical banded gastroplasty, scopinaro procedure, and gastric bypass surgery.

Physicians determine the specific treatment for obesity based on age, overall health, and medical history of the individual. Tolerance, expectation, and preference of the individual are also taken into consideration before programming their weight loss schedule. It is advisable to check the body mass index of the person and if found to be more than the expected range, corrective measures should be accordingly taken.