Month: May 2007

Aspects of Rehabilitation Medicine

For disabled individuals medicine has made remarkable advances, one of which is rehabilitation medicine, which can help individuals to restore their physical, mental and social functioning to their maximum levels. Today rehabilitation medicine is one of the fastest growing areas in medicine. There are many aspects involved in this section of medicine, which makes it a truly unique field.

The Members of a Rehabilitation Team

In rehabilitation medicine a multiprofessional team is often used to get the best results which specialties in education, employment, engineering, housing, social services, nursing, psychology and therapy. Depending on the amount of rehabilitation needed and the patient then the size and layout of the required team will be different. Rehabilitation medicine has its own unique challenges as any medical field does so it is important that individuals work as part of a team.

When Rehabilitation Medicine is Needed

Many forms of disability require rehabilitation medicine for an individual to regain control of their life. Conditions can be both congenital and acquired with several aspects of acquired disability being those that have a fluctuating course, a steady deterioration and those with a period of improvement. Rehabilitation medicine focuses on all groups, which makes it unique. Typically, young and elderly patients will be treated by specialist teams while the middle ages are left out, but rehabilitation medicine focuses on all age groups.

The Role of Technology in Rehabilitation Medicine

For people with disabilities independence can be a great thing that is hard to obtain. However, technology is increasingly improving the chances of disabled individuals being able to lead an independent life. Today technology can be adapted for nearly any disabled person so that they can adjust to life better.

Technology started to help disabled people when the government began allocating funds to help pay for electric powdered chairs so that the elderly and those with disabilities to increase their level of independence. Technological advancements are constantly being made as scientist daily link technologies to other areas of life such as mobility, communication and environmental control.

Rehabilitation medicine is truly an exciting specialty for those in the medical field. This aspect of medicine allows doctors to combine both the hospital and the community while helping provide quality of life to a group of people previously neglected in society. Rehabilitation medicine along with technology is now making disabled individuals a part of society, providing them independence and giving them a hope for the future.

Tanning Lamp: Quick Tan, Faster Fading

A tanning lamp produces ultraviolet radiation and it can either be a low pressure or high pressure unit. High pressure units are known as bulbs while low pressure ones are known as lamps ; but, there are many exceptions and, no one is really very set in following these categorizations. However, both types need to have an oxygen free environment within the lamp. In addition, the tanning lamp needs to have a ballast to make power available.

Main Aim

The main aim of using a tanning lamp is to obtain a suntan without need to lie out in the sun and, how good a quality of suntan that can be obtained will depend on the spectrum of the light being generated by the lamp. It is the norm that these devices will produce much more ultraviolet radiations than would normal sunlight and, thus provides users with faster base tans though; the tan may wear off faster and, it does not provide as much protection from the sun as is the case with natural tans.

Tanning lamps may also be used for treating psoriasis, eczema as well as for curing or aging wood used in building violins, guitars as also other musical instruments. They may also be used for water purification as well as sterilizing medical instruments.

However, there are concerns regarding the use of tanning lamps which could cause an increase in the incidence of skin cancer, with young users being most at risk. With artificial tanning becoming more popular, tanning lamps may be a real source of some skin cancers such as basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma that together cause the most malignancies in humans. Since being exposed to ultraviolet radiation or UVR from the sun can cause skin cancer and, these devices mimic sunlight, there is reason to believe that users may be affected adversely and, may be more prone to developing skin cancer as a result of using them.

People that use a tanning lamp may get themselves burnt in a manner similar to sunburn which is closely linked with the three main types of skin cancer. There is every likelihood that people using tanning lamps would be two and a half times more at risk to developing squamous cell carcinoma and, one and a half times more at risk to developing basal cell carcinoma than those not using such artificial means.

It has also been found by researchers that the risk of basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma was higher in youths and, was twenty percent and ten percent higher respectively for youth who used a tanning lamp. The tanning lamp is therefore not a very safe means of obtaining a browner skin color and, should be used with care.