Edward Kendall from Mayo Clinic won the 1950 Nobel Prize for his research on the medical use of cortisone. This drug helped in simulating cortisol, an anti-inflammatory hormone released by the adrenal glands.

That and many other steroids, such as prednisone and prednisolone, have since been proven useful in treating an array of conditions. They help to relieve ailments, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

But, steroid use has come at a high price and that price is addiction.

Steroids Dale Guide reports that steroids can aid bodybuilders and athletes in boosting their muscle mass and overall athletic performance. But, as many have realized the hard way, steroids have an inherent risk of addiction, mainly when used for a long time.

There are several concerns that stem from long-term steroid use. These are the medication’s side effects, the imbalance in hormone levels, and withdrawal symptoms.

Steroid withdrawal symptoms occur when a patient attempts to discontinue the drug or decrease his usual dosage abruptly, causing symptoms that mimic other health conditions. In this article, you’ll learn what those symptoms are and how you can overcome the condition.

Steroid Withdrawal Symptoms

These signs will appear after extended steroid treatment has been abruptly stopped.

Abdominal pain

Many steroid users begin to experience intense pain in the stomach region. Others may suffer from a burning sensation throughout the abdomen.

Anxiety

While many individuals report that they suffer from depression, there are those who experience intense anxiety. It arises from changes in hormone levels and HPA.

A decrease in appetite

This is not surprising, given that the majority of steroids work by stimulating an individual’s appetite. When you quit taking steroids, your appetite will decline significantly.

Fatigue

Another common symptom of steroid withdrawal is fatigue. It’s because you are not taking cortisol anymore.

Muscle soreness

Some patients have experienced muscle soreness after discontinuing steroid treatment. We recommend that you purchase some over-the-counter pain relievers to ease the pain.

Physical weakness

It is also not unusual to experience a general sense of malaise. You are likely to feel very weak and achy, but this is just your body’s response to working without the drug that it has been supplied with regularly.

Diarrhea

This is more of an immediate side effect following the discontinuation of steroid use. If you fall prey to this condition, you should consider purchasing Imodium, which can be bought over the counter.

Dizziness

It’s a widespread withdrawal problem from any drug and not just steroids. Luckily, it may wear off in a few weeks or once the drug is out of your system.

Headaches

Some patients start using steroids to treat headaches. Consequently, coming off of the drug may lead to more severe headaches. Some patients may get constant headaches while others experience full-blown migraines.

Joint pain

It is also common for steroid users to feel pain in the joints because of the inadequate cortisol production. It could also stem from the inflammation that comes with the withdrawal process. If you experience joint pain, avoid engaging in rigorous activities as it will only stress your joints further.

See Also: Words of Advice To Keep Your Joints Healthy

What Influences Steroid Withdrawal?

Regardless of the medication that one is taking, some factors can make withdrawal more difficult. The list includes duration, dosage, and individual physiology.

If you’re experiencing steroid withdrawal symptoms, it’s probably because of these factors:

Time Span

As a rule of thumb, the longer the time you take your steroids, the longer it will take for your body to readjust to normal functioning.

Using steroids for up to a month or a year causes your body and brain to rely on the drug exclusively. As a result, it becomes incapable of functioning well in the absence of the drug.

In contrast, an individual who has been using steroids for just a short period will have an easier time discontinuing the drug.

Dosage

Steroids are used in treating a vast range of illnesses. Consequently, the dose that your physician prescribes will rely on the condition he’s treating.

If you choose to take a dosage higher than the one you have been prescribed, you’ll have a harder time withdrawing. Conversely, those on low-maintenance dosages will find it easier to withdraw.

Individual Factors

Withdrawal symptoms will vary considerably from one individual to another. People on high steroid dosages are likely to suffer severe physiological responses. Others get lucky and barely experience any adverse effect.

Just remember that the symptoms you encounter may be entirely different from what another individual will experience.

See Also: The 7 Side Effects of Overtraining Syndrome

Why People Suffer Withdrawal Symptoms Differently

Throughout history, researchers have questioned why some patients experience withdrawal symptoms while others don’t. This all boils down to the production of corticosteroids.

Ideally, this process is facilitated by a feedback mechanism. It involves three parts- the adrenal glands, pituitary gland, and the brain.

Scientifically, the three constitute the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis (HPAA). When you continuously take steroids, it inhibits the HPAA mechanism.

The dose of steroid varies from one patient to another. Usually, taking high doses for a couple of days or small doses for an extended period causes adverse effects on HPAA functioning. Since there will always be a variation in the manner in which individuals take steroids, they can be affected differently.

Tests for Diagnosing Steroid Withdrawal

Given that steroid withdrawal symptoms always vary, health practitioners find it challenging to diagnose this problem. The most recommended technique is a good history and physical evaluation of the patient. The physician will need to pay close attention to the individual’s history of steroid use and treatment.

Other tests that may prove useful are cortisol level, Complete Blood Count (CBC), BUN level, and creatinine level. The cortisol test is for measuring the concentration of cortisol in blood while BUN test determines the amount of urea nitrogen in the blood. CBC, on the other hand, is essential in evaluating an individual’s overall health.

Treating Steroid Withdrawal

You may find this peculiar but the best treatment for steroid withdrawal is to administer a steroid course to the patient. Then, after a short while, your physician will start to reduce the steroid dosage gradually.

This way, your body can start adjusting to its normal functioning, including synthesizing steroids.

However, patients have different reactions. As such, health experts will have to account for the patient’s specific symptoms, type of steroids, as well as the individual’s compliance.

Based on how dependent your body had become to steroids, the withdrawal treatment can last anywhere from a few weeks to one year.

Is Steroid Withdrawal Avoidable?

Yes, there are ways to prevent steroid withdrawal. The best way is to use steroids only for the short-term and in a conservative approach.

Short-term use (although this will differ depending on the type of steroid) is highly unlikely to stimulate steroid withdrawal. However, this condition can be prevented by tapering the dosage with time.

Final Verdict

Steroid withdrawal results from the abrupt discontinuation of steroid treatment. The most common symptoms of this condition include joint pain, muscle soreness, fatigue, and anxiety.

Thankfully, you can avoid steroid withdrawal by ensuring that you take these drugs for just a short period. Also, instead of quitting steroids cold turkey, try to reduce your dosage gradually.

The post Stopping Steroids Abruptly: What You Need To Know About Steroid Withdrawal appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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One question all Instagram engineers hear wherever they go is this:

“What’s your stack?”

Their answer is always the same and it is incredibly simple: Their database is not!

Their database is a milieu of many technologies, their own take on popular relational database management systems that now powers the largest image-based social network in the world. It’s powerful enough to manage over 14 million users and over 40 billion photos (shared till date).

According to the engineers of Instagram, their core principles while choosing their database were pretty straightforward. The list includes:

• Keeping it simple
• Using available resources
• Choosing verified and popular solutions

These criteria made the database creation and management process a lot easier than most people thought. If you don’t believe us, check out their choice of OS and application servers in the next section of our article.

It is time to take it from the top.

Instagram’s choice of OS has kept them alive for long

Instagram used to run on the forever almighty Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (the Natty Narwhal) on Amazon EC2 back in ‘11. Unbelievably enough, the entire workforce of Instagram engineering initially consisted of just three engineers.

The Natty Narwhal has been reliant and powerful enough to run smoothly on EC2. As of 2015, Instagram has 20 team members who take care of Search, Trending, Explore and Data Infrastructure.

With just three engineers and continually evolving needs from the UI end, self-hosting had never been an option for Instagram until Facebook stepped in. Most parts of it are hosted on off-premise, private clouds to keep all private information safe and secure. Most of Instagram’s hosting needs are taken care of by Facebook ever since the big buy in 2012.

When the thoughts about building the Data-gram team began in 2013, there were barely 35 engineers working on mobile applications, database management, and the backend processes.

That is when a handful of engineers at Facebook bridged the gap between the data management processes of Instagram and Facebook. They designed a new data infrastructure that would provide end-to-end impact for a small team and that would fit the engineering structure of Instagram.

Instagram’s database choices have never failed the users

Back when Instagram was functioning alone in the big bad world, the engineering and data teams chose a mix of NoSQL and SQL servers to support the massive growth. Instagram has about 250 million active users today and yet the database is plastic enough to accommodate the steady inflow of massive bulks of data.

In 2011, Instagram undoubtedly used Amazon services and many opensource software solutions to address their data concerns. From data collection to data security, the team used to rely on third-party solutions than creating their own RDBMS. They heavily relied on external services they did not have to build and manage the collected data from different time zones.

We didn’t find remote DBA in the life story of Instagram as of yet, but many other social networking sites and applications have used remote DBAs in their early days to collect, collate, and curate data from millions of users across the globe.

Application servers: Simplicity has always been the beauty

According to a recent post from the Instagram engineering team, their application servers run Django with PostgreSQL. Their server stacks further include Cassandra, which we all know is a plinth for all Facebook products.

Since the integration of Instagram Stories, the engineering team has been working with IG Disk Cache, IG JSON Parser, IGListKitUICollectionView data binding framework for iOSx, and the Rebound Animation Library for Android devices. They have also been using FLEX for iOS devices to make their application and new integrations more cross-platform friendly.

They use Redis to power their main feed. It also powers their session’s system and related app systems regularly. Since Redis data need to fit into available memory, the team runs several quadruple extra large memory instances for it.

They usually run Redis in a master replica setup to save memory and time. This is much faster and spares the server, too. For caching, Instagram still relies on Memcached, like most of the other popular web services and apps. As their number of users and bulk of data grow with time, their Memcached instances also improved.

See Also: Top 11 Instagram Users You Should Follow If You Like Photography And Nature

Regular monitoring services keep the team ahead

Monitoring is a part of the team’s task.

Back in 2011, they started with Munin to graph all the user-end metrics across the system. The same alerted the team if something went amiss.

As of 2015, the team relies more on Python and Python-Munin to write custom plugins for their web service. These plugins can efficiently provide metrics that are not a part of the system level. The list includes photos uploaded by users per minute, sign-ins per minute, and comments on an influencer’s post. Sentry has always been a reliable opensource Django app for reporting Python-related errors in the system.

Their success in the smooth integration of new features lies in the process of testing cross-platform compatibility from the days of conception. They thoroughly check their new filters, video features, and gallery features across multiple devices before the final deadline. They use a plethora of tools from Facebook and services, too. That helps us run these new Instagram features smoothly on almost all devices.

The very need for an application that can work across multiple platforms brings the need for simple yet powerful RDBMS stacks and simple servers. The minimalism of the entire setup, including the data infrastructure at the Instagram back-end, makes it a great app for every device and every operating system.

See Also: 5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Instagram Advertising

The post The Secret Behind Instagram’s Success appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Making any large purchase with your significant other can be a pretty big hurdle. In some cases, it can cause undue stress and tension in a relationship. To avoid that, one of the best things you can do is to compromise.

If you are a couple buying a car, you need to make certain adjustments to make the process go as smoothly as possible.

Below are some of the best tips you can use:

Be upfront

Be upfront with your significant other about what you want and need in a car. This sounds simple but it’s important not to overlook the little things when talking about buying a car with your partner.

Little things could include how you absolutely refuse to buy a red car or how you don’t want to buy a black car because they’re harder to spot at night. They could also include things like how you won’t budge on buying a car with no less than a 5-star safety rating.

Being upfront about the little things will ensure they don’t turn into big things as you’re getting closer to making a decision.

Your partner will appreciate that you’ve been upfront with them and you should encourage them to do the same thing.

Sit down together and write a list of all your needs and wants in a car. List them from most to least important and then come back to that list when choosing a car. Compromise on the least important parts instead of your needs in a car.

It’s better to both agree and compromise than allow one person to give in and have everything. It may not be troublesome now but it could be in the future.

See Also: 5 Important Questions And Tips For Buying A New Car 

Make a budget

Probably the most important factor when buying a car with your SO is making a budget. The second most important factor is sticking to that budget. Your budget should be enough to cover a car with a high safety rating and your basic needs.

It’s always a good idea to look at used vehicles as well when planning your budget, so you can understand the different price points in the market. Always take into consideration depreciation when considering prestige in a new car.

The long haul

If you and your SO are in it for the long haul, which, let’s assume you are since you’re a couple buying a car, it’s important to look into the future. Unfortunately, there’s no crystal ball for this so you’ll just have to use common sense.

Ask your partner where they see themselves in 5 or 10 years.

Does the car fit the bill? Do you intend to have this car for 5 years, 10 years or even 15 years?

Always consider the future when buying anything of great value. If you intend to start a family in the next few years, it may be the right time to buy a family car rather than a small car.

If you’re thinking of getting a dog in the near future, then you’ll need to factor that into your decision when picking out a model.

Make a plan

It’s extremely important to talk to your partner about what he expects after you’ve bought the car.

Who gets to drive it to work every morning? You or your partner? Are you going to carpool? What about the weekends? If you’re going to be doing separate weekend activities, who gets to use the car?

It’s important to talk about these things before you buy a car to determine what kind you really need. If you’ll be buying a one car family, this tip can help avoid arguments in the future.

See Also: What Science Says About The Car You Drive

The post Top Tips In Buying A Car With Your Significant Other appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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