My Take on Anxiety and Medications in the United States of Anxiety

    In the States, anxiety is big on people and big pharma has the solution and it's called anti-anxiety medications or anxiolytics. These are class of drugs commonly used to treat various anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. These medications work by reducing the symptoms of anxiety, such as chronic worrying, tension, disappointments and fear. And you can add your stressors.

     Big Pharma without demonization, came up with several different types of anti-anxiety medications, including benzodiazepines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), and sometimes beta blockers. We are only going to talk about the benzos and SSRIs and SNRIs.

    First, the benzodiazepines commonly used are: Xanax (alprazolam), Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam) 

    Second the SSRIs that are commonly used are: Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine) 

    And third, SNRIs being used are: Effexor (venlafaxine), Cymbalta (duloxetine) 

 

    All these medication are widely used interchangeable by the doctors or psychiatrists to try to address anxiety problems and sometimes with other mental health disorders. Mental health is a component of medical care that doesn't always get the attention it deserves. And as a result, it's important that you take your care seriously and follow up with your doctors when any changes are noted while taking any of these prescribed anxiolytics among others.

This is more important to also note because of all the awful side effects you can experience with these medications.

I hope you find healing through these pharmaceutical therapy. All the best.

Corruption in America and Ghana Question Addressed

 

I was asked recently that if Ghana, my country of birth was corrupt and I started by saying that, there are corruptions in every country around the world, including the United States of America where I now call home. We have seen the scope of corruption on a full display these past three years with the inception if Covid-19.

But the only difference is that, the extend of corruption in the United States has always been relatively mild compared to other countries. And this is because legal frameworks in America to combat corruption, including the laws and its enforcement agencies, including the press are much more effective than that of the other nations.

However, it is important to note that corruption is not unique to any one country including the United States and can occur in any country. But countries that has strong mechanisms in place to identify and prosecute corrupt activities will thrive in the midst of this phenomenon. But don't forget, corruption is as old us humanity itself. We just have to make sure that we have systems in place to help combat them when they arise.

Corruption can thwart the progress of our collective endeavors and developments as a civilization.

Spread anti-corruption vibes wherever you are. 

Almost Two Years Today

 It has been a long time since I visited even my own blog. Sorry to all of you wonderful people who subscribed to this blog even with no updates. My heart -felt apologies. I am trying to come back and start updating again so please stay tuned.

We all know, unless you have just arrived on our rocky planet (Earth) recently that these past two years has been tough and overwhelming to say the least. But it's my hope that you are all doing well now and have been thriving to stay healthy. Whatever you are doing or have been doing that has kept you in motion, please keep it up. Keep up the fight and never ever give up. We begin to die when we give up the fight.

I have been well myself and just in case you were wondering about me during the pandemic these past two years, well, I was in it and at the epicenter of it all. In fact, I was working at two hospitals: one in New York and the other in Connecticut. That means I have seen it all, heard it all and not to sound arrogant, know it all. I just cannot remember it all. But some things will never be forgotten. That is now part of me for life. 

It's our hope that someday, this will all be behind us as we go back to our individual life styles. 

Take everyone and please stay in touch.

Pal Ronnie

Happy New Year!!!

Hi All

A quick post for all:

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”-Ernest Hemingway

Have a wonderful week and let's keep in touch.

Yours Pal,

Ronnie

A Reflection Worth Sharing

MEMORIAL OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE, YEAR I

MATTHEW 17:22-27

Friends, today we celebrate the memorial of Maximilian Kolbe, the great saint of Auschwitz. A prisoner from Fr. Kolbe's barracks escaped, and in retaliation, the Nazi guards picked out ten other prisoners at random for execution. When one of those chosen broke down in tears, protesting that he was the father of a family, Kolbe stepped forward and said "I am a Catholic priest; take me and spare this man." Priests are called "father," because they are life-givers in the spiritual order. Spiritual fathers protect their children; they teach them; they are there for them. At the limit, they even give their lives for them, and that's what we see in today's great saint. Jesus gathered around himself a band of apostles whom he shaped according to his own mind and heart and whom he subsequently sent on mission. Priests, down through the centuries—from Augustine and Aquinas, to Francis Xavier and John Henry Newman, to John Paul II and your own pastor—are the descendants of those first friends and apprentices of the Lord. They have been needed in every age, and they are needed today, for the Kingdom of Heaven must be proclaimed, the poor must be served, God must be worshiped, and the sacraments must be administered. Courtesy: Bishop Robert Barron

77 Louis Pasteur Ave and Back to Business at 41 East Post

Hi All,

It has been a while since I last updated you. Prior to a conference I was going to attend in Boston, I wrote to you promising I was going to keep you posted on how that went. Well, here I am almost a month afterwards but glad to be late than never :). As you can tell by now, mine has been a very busy summer but I am loving every bit of it thus far.

As the topic depicted, 77 LP and that was the venue of this conference I attended and it is where the Harvard Medical School as well as the TH Chan School of Public Health are rightly located. By the way if you have ever had microbiology as a course in college, then you are familiar with Louis Pasteur. This place is a very strategic place on first sight because right where this prestigious medical school is located we have the Brigham and Women Hospital which is the teaching hospital for the HMS, then next to that we have the Boston Children Hospital, and then the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The environment alone was very vibrant and exciting especially during the morning hours when everyone was headed to either work or for classes. I just fell in love with the place. 

Anyway, the conference itself was a delight and mind stimulating which I loved so much about this conference. It was a tremendous opportunity to had been a part of that event. In attendance to this conference were researchers, doctors, other clinicians, nurses, registered dietitians, academics and so forth. That is why with all these minds at work, it was a very wonderful environment to be at. This two days event went by fast and after which I got to spend a day hanging out with my friend and his girl friend in Boston.

Next year the conference is said to feature the deadly chemical compound our palates so much loves called Sugar. Yes, it's a deadly chemical and I know that is too extreme but believe me when I say it is deadly. Anyhow, I am looking forward to it.
While driving around the City of Boston, I saw one of my favorite PT biotech companies, Biogen with ticker symbol (BIIB). I was very excited about it and would have visited the site had it not been off hours. 
So that is that with my experience at 77 LP needless to say I also met some wonderful people and got to establish contact with them and hope to keep in touch.

Now you may ask but what about 41 East Post? That is a place of course in New York unlike the first which is in Boston. The address  41 East Post is where I have been having some great educational and professional hangouts for the last three or so years. However it has been an all new adventure for me this summer and there has been so much to take in hence my exceptionally busy schedule and lack of time to update you. I know and I know, you are about to ask, but when will you not be busy? Well and perhaps when I am in my mortal grave :)

No worries, there will be a time and I am sure about that but for now, man must keep moving as it is a sure sign that he is alive. So in my case, I am very much alive as you can see folks, I move around a lot.

Please keep in touch

Pal Ron

I am a New American -So Help Me God

Hi All,

So yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity and of course the responsibilities of being a United States citizen. It was a remarkable day, the one that will go down in my life as a memorable one.
The date itself will give it away as the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventeenth year of the new millennium (7/7/17).

We had a total of 160 individuals from over 49 different countries around the world. What a joy it was for us new Americans.

I know we all appreciated this opportunity without thoughts of taking it for granted. Millions if not billions of people around the world would love the opportunity to come to this great country and not to mention being citizens so that they can work and have their voices heard as well. And that is something that not very many people have elsewhere on our planet.

Ghanaian-American!

I also was interviewed after the ceremony but I worked last night and possibly missed that in the news.
Nonetheless, it is a lot of responsibilities for all one hundred plus of us who are now officially a part of the American experiment, I mean the democracy. I know it's beyond an experiment since it has been around for almost two and a half centuries. There has never been anything like this in our world.
Indeed, there are challenges here too just like many other countries around the world but as a new American, it is up to me and many others to do our part to keep this experiment in fruition.
Just in case you were wondering, I will not totally forfeit my natural born citizenship from Ghana since Ghana is one of the countries with dual citizenship for Ghanaians who are willing to do so since 2001 and I am willing.

To the ceremony, if I could get up to the podium yesterday to speak, I would have been happy to mention to my fellow new American that, we shouldn't ask what our new country can do for us but what we can contribute to our new country besides paying our taxes to uncle Sam of course. To you historians out there, yes it an excerpt of the inaugural speech by the late John F. Kennedy whose 100th birthday we just celebrated last month or so. That speech is timeless and it is one of the reasons why I have personally decided I would be an American so I can contribute my quota to this great nation. Too many people think abusing the system in America is the only way to sustain livelihood, they are wrong. We must desist from that and do our best to keep building America to a much greater heights. That is the American way and I know most of us the new American understood that granted where we came from. If anything, we won't be a part of the small minority with that kind of mentality. So help us God to see and treat America differently.

Thank you for all your support and keep being awesome you all out there. God bless!

Yours Pal, Ron
The New American :)

What is Fake News?

We all for some time now have heard about fake news, at least since the shocking 2016 election of now President Donald Trump.

Below is a video that will try to talk about what fake news is and possibly its origin. I was asked about this and I thought this five minute video can do justice to the subject.

Have a great day,

Pal Ron

Health Equity

What keep me busy these past two weeks besides my new job. I was very fortunate to attend three conferences/seminars. It was such a blessing being at these events and getting to meet people in their areas of expertise come to share with us their findings in those areas that needs public discourse. By all means if you have the opportunity try to stay active in your specific area of discipline or interest and I can assure you, you will learn more than you think you knew. There is always something new out there that you are always falling behind and through these events you will stay updated and invigorated my friends. 

One of the the seminars I attended was in title "Health Equity" in Westchester. And just as the topic entitles, this seminar was organised to throw lights unto the ugly reality of people who are often marginalized economically and often treated poorly when they seek medical attention. Sometimes they are not treated at all with what they need and other times with little to no dignity. The end result often being, they don't seek help and by the time they do it's too late and they don't make it. So how can we as a society and healthcare providers include and not marginalize these people at the bottom of our social ladder into our care system?. We did role plays and brainstorm solutions into way we can address these issues. It was heart breaking to see the number of family that struggles on daily basis just to make ends means.

The second was on providing care for individuals with cerebral palsy and their family. As you may or may not know, cerebral palsy is a permanent congenital disorder that affect motor function and cause other neurological disorders. It has no cure but can often be managed with physical therapy among others when diagnosed early. So the goal of this seminar was to emphasized and educate the  patient and their families ways to identify this condition at its early stages and where resources are in the community for these families. It is very difficult for families who have a child or family member with this disorder. 

The third conference was at New York University Kimmel Center. This was an almost all day seminar where we heard series of doctors gave presentation on violence and health care disparities in NY. Bottom line is we need a healthcare system with good providers that will be more inclusive of the people who are less fortunate in our inner cities. The commissioner of NYC health department was there among other healthcare officials and other non profit individuals. At the end of the day it was clear that we really need more people to be advocates and I commission you after reading this piece to be on your guard to advocating for people who gets treated poorly by our health care system. 

So that is how I have been spending my extra time off work. And I will also be attending yet another exciting conference coming up in July at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. I will write about that too when I am back. So stay tune.

Have a great weekend. Please feel free to leave me comments and questions below if you have any.

Yours Pal,

Ronnie