For some people, a visit to see the doctor can be overwhelming. But with the rise in the cost of healthcare, it is very important to be prepared ahead of time. This is even more important if you have diabetes. In this article I share seven important tips that will help you reap more benefits out of a visit to your healthcare provider.
TIP NUMBER ONE- TAKE ALONG RECORD OF YOUR SUGARS
It is very easy to keep a record of your sugars. You do not need fancy computer software. All you need is a small memo notebook. You can get this at any office supply or drug store. What you need to do is to divide the page into at least two columns. The first column is for the date and time that you check your blood sugars. The second column is to a record of your blood sugar levels. In my e-book, I show a way to check your sugars once a day. Over the period of a week you be able to trend of how your blood sugars are running.
TIP NUMBER TWO- TAKE ALONG YOUR GLUCOMETER
I like to look at the blood sugar readings on my patients’ glucometers. A number of the new generation glucometers provide a lot of valuable information. For instance some machines average the sugars over say a 14-30 day period. Others may average the blood sugars before and after meals. This is a great teaching tool for diabetic patients. It allows them to see how their blood sugars affects their overall health and wellbeing.
TIP NUMBER THREE- PREPARE TO TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES AND SOCKS
Foot care is very important. It helps to prevent foot infections, which could lead to other complications. I insist on looking at the feet of all my diabetic patients at least every 2-3 months. Why? It is important to make sure that you have sensation on the bottom of your feet. Your physician can perform a very simple test called a fine filament test on your feet. If you do not feel the filament being pressed on the bottom of your feet, you may be developing a complication called diabetic neuropathy. This is when the nerves are damaged and you can no longer feel your feet. The danger is that you could step on a nail for instance and not know because you could not feel it. Diabetic neuropathy is one of the leading reasons why diabetics suffer amputations. So make sure that your doctor performs this test on your feet every three months.
TIP NUMBER FOUR- ALWAYS CARRY A SNACK
Has this ever happened to you? You are at the doctor’s office and the wait time is longer than you planned. But you had taken your medications earlier on in the day. Next you begin to experience the ‘bottoming out’ sensation as your sugars take a nose-dive. Next thing you know it you’re being carted into a waiting ambulance to the emergency room! I advise my patients to carry around a piece of ‘hard candy’. I also like glucerna meal replacement bars. So always be sure to take a snack along with you wherever you go.
TIP NUMBER FIVE- IF YOUR APPOINTMENT IS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING THEN DO NOT EAT BREAKFAST.
Take advantage of an early morning appointment with your doctor and arrive ‘fasting’. Nowadays, a lot of healthcare providers may perform blood tests in their offices. Your doctor may check your blood sugar, A1C and lipid profile.
TIP NUMBER SIX- TAKE ALONG A JOURNAL
Living powerfully with diabetes requires that you do things a little differently than the crowd. Keeping a journal or a diary is one of those things. A lot of times, a journal is for your personal use. However at times it may help your physician to detect why your sugars may be running high or low. For example, you keep a record of what you eat write what you eat, and you notice some foods that make your blood sugars go up. This gives you a good idea of knowing what foods to reduce or take out of your diet completely. You may find out that stress affects your blood sugars. Some people may prefer to journal and record their blood sugars in the same book. Decide what works for you and just do it.
TIP NUMBER SEVEN- BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE
Treating type 2 diabetes can be challenging. So be prepared for change. Diabetes is a disease that can get worse over time. As time goes on it may get harder to control your blood sugars. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin in the body. Over time, it gets worn out and is no longer able to produce enough insulin. For example you’ve been on a medication for a long time. Until your blood sugars are well controlled. All of a sudden your blood sugars start running high. Your doctor may decide to add another medication or even insulin. Always realize that your doctor has your best interest at heart. I know that there are a lot of skeptics out there about the pharmaceutical industry. Research is being conducted to develop new drugs, which may help preserve the function of the pancreas. There are a few diabetics out there who are able to control their blood sugars with diet and exercise.
So to reduce the potential complications of type 2 diabetes it is important to follow your doctor’s advice. In order to follow their advice, you will need to be able to make the best use of time when you have a scheduled visit.
There are plenty of people who would like to find dentists for help nowadays. One of the reasons is that there are different types of services that people can get from the dentists.
One of the various services that people can get now would be dental implants. This type of service refers to the installation of a ‘root’ device in your mouth so as to set up a tooth in your mouth.
In the usual case, the dental implants are made of titanium because this type of material is quite durable and many dentists have agreed that this type of material is very suitable to be used in the environment like the teeth.
Nowadays, the technology as well as the skills necessary for the dental implants is very sophisticated. Therefore, a lot of clients would like to trust this service. With proper implants, people would usually be able to have the new teeth which look like the natural ones. It is because the teeth would be planted within the jawbones and this would be similar to the growth of natural teeth.
However, there would still be slight different between the natural teeth and the implanted teeth. Therefore, you will sometimes find a bt uncomfortable when you try to eat some food which is hard. But in the normal and daily case, you would not feel that there is big difference between the new and the natural teeth.
When you want to find information related to dental implants, you probably want to find information related to the price of the services. In fact, there is no fixed payment or service charge standard for dental implants. The service charge is usually based on the expertise of the dentist and also the type of teeth that you want to plant. If you want specific type or material of root, the charge might also be adjusted so as to allow the dentists to ensure that the cost of the additional requests can be covered.
If you are willing to search for information before you try to use denial services, you should learn more about how this type of implant works before you try to hire the service. This can help you check whether the dentists have done the correct procedures for the service that he provides to you and this would certainly protect your consumer right. Therefore, you should not mind spending the time and effort to do information search.
If you are looking for ways that will help make your hair longer and even thicker, then you need to continue reading this article to find out more. Here are five of the most popularly used hair growing tips.
Keep It Clean – The best of all the tips is to keep both your hair and your scalp clean. Dirt and oil are known to clog the follicle pores, which reduces the delivery of nutrition to the shaft and root. In the same way, residue from various hair products will damage and prohibit proper blood circulation, stripping the hair of its vitamins and hydration.
Be Careful of the Products You Use – There are many persons who like the squeaky-clean feeling they get when they use certain brands of shampoos and conditioners; however, this is not good, as harsh chemicals damage your hair follicles and will prevent your hair from growing. As such, you should use growing products that are formulated to enhance the health of your scalp and follicles. These products usually cost more; however, their active ingredients are known to work.
Be Careful of How You Style – Styling methods that can prevent hair growth include chemical treatments such as coloring and relaxing, excessive brushing and combing and excessive heat. Actually, over-styling is the primary cause of damage to the hair follicles, particularly for persons over the age of forty. One of the best tips is that you should be mindful of how you style your hair. Cut back on the amount of chemical and heat that you put in your hair, and you should also refrain from catching up your hair too tightly.
Vitamins – It is true that vitamins enhance our overall health, and they also help with hair growth. Hair growing vitamins have been formulated to offer nutrients, amino acids and minerals that may be lacking in your diet, but is essential for hair growth. Vitamins A, E B-12, Biotin and Niacin are known to enhance hair growth, and to add thickness body and sheen to your locks. Omega 3 helps to add strength, Keratin production and elasticity to your hair.
Hair Growing Products – For those who are looking to grow their hair longer, or to prevent hair loss or thinning of the hair, there are hair growing products that can help you. Look for shampoos and conditioners that contain Trichogen, as this ingredient helps with growth, thinning and loss.
What is it and why do we need it? Folic acid is one of the B vitamins. It is water-soluble and naturally occurs in foods such as beans, yeast, mushrooms, orange juice, tomato juice and green leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, lettuce, okra, asparagus. Some fruits also high in this vitamin are bananas, melons and lemons.
Federal law has required that folic acid be added to cold cereal, flour, bread, pasta, cookies and crackers since the late 1980s when it became a federal law. It is often used in combination with other B vitamins.
We need it in our daily diets to treat liver disease (alcoholism and kidney dialysis), ulcerative colitis and to prevent conditions such as anemia and the inability of the bowel to absorb nutrients properly. Alcohol consumption can prevent the body from properly absorbing this vitamin. You can prevent or reverse this deficiency by eating a diet high in the foods listed above.
This vitamin can also be used to prevent colon cancer or cervical cancer, stroke and heart disease. High homocysteine levels appear to make for a high risk of heart disease. This vitamin can be used to reduce high levels of the chemical homocysteine in our blood and therefore, prevent some of these heart problems.
This vitamin has a myriad of other uses for conditions including, vitiligo (a skin disease) restless leg syndrome, sleep problems, depression, muscle pain, memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, hearing loss, eye diseases such as macular degeneration, osteoporosis and AIDS.
There are medications that have harmful side effects such as lometrexol and methotrexate; folic acid helps reduce the side effects of those medications as well as treating a disease called Fragile-X syndrome. Some dentists recommend applying folic acid directly to the gums when gum infection is present.
Women of child bearing age who are pregnant or may become pregnant should be very sure to take this vitamin to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida and to prevent miscarriage and neural tube defects. This vitamin has a part in producing the genetic material called DNA as well as the proper development of the human body.
Additionally, a study has shown that men can actually lower their risk of having sperm abnormalities by consuming levels of this important vitamin in doses of over 700 mcg daily.
From pregnancy to old age we cannot do without folic acid and its many health benefits. From preventing birth defects to aiding in conditions in the elderly it is essential.
In this article I identify 3 of the most common forms of anxiety (including social anxiety, performance anxiety, and choice anxiety), as well as 5 of the most common causes of anxiety (including genes, health, psychology, history, and environment).
Anxiety disorders affect between 13-18% of the general population, but the truth is we all experience different forms of anxiety throughout our lives. An anxious mental state is often defined by feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness, or dread. It is often future-oriented, meaning that our anxieties are directed toward possible threats or negative experiences that haven’t yet happened.
In the real world, most of us experience anxiety in varying degrees depending on the situation. It isn’t always a bad thing, as some anxiety can motivate us to re-plan or re-think a situation before acting. However, excessive anxiety can be crippling to a point where we can’t decide, we don’t take action, or we mess up when the event finally comes.
DIFFERENT FORMS OF ANXIETY
Anxiety can come in many different forms depending on what it is that triggers our feelings of fear, worry, or dread. These three types of anxiety are often the most common types discussed in modern psychology research, but there are probably other types of anxiety that don’t fit so neatly in these categories (specific phobias, existential anxiety, death anxiety, etc.) Nevertheless, these are the types of anxiety I will be referring to in this post:
– Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is a fear or worry about social situations. We may feel uncomfortable or avoid environments that involve large groups of people (like school, work, public speeches, high school reunions, etc.) or we may even feel uncomfortable or avoid certain kinds of 1-to-1 interactions (like job interviews, dating, interacting with a stranger for the first time, or meeting a celebrity).
Most people feel some kind of anxiety in these situations but it varies greatly from person to person. Some people may feel more comfortable in groups, while others feel more comfortable during 1-to-1 interactions. Some people may feel more comfortable talking to familiar faces, while others feel more comfortable meeting someone for the first time. It really depends on the environment and the person.
– Performance Anxiety
Unlike social anxiety, performance anxiety is a fear or worry about performances, such as a student taking a final exam at school, or a musician performing on stage, or an athlete playing at a big sports game. We worry that we won’t do our best, or that we will mess up or lose, and that anxiety can actually inhibit us from performing to our maximum capacity (or even performing at all, for example due to too much “stage fright”).
Instead of focusing on what we need to get done to succeed, we become more focused on all the ways things that may go wrong. This can sometimes become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our thoughts make us more uncomfortable and ill prepared, and then those thoughts lead to actions that reinforce our previous conceptions.
– Choice Anxiety
Choice anxiety is an anxiety rooted in uncertainty when making decisions. The truth is that none of us can act or make a decision with full knowledge of what the consequences will be; the universe is just too complex, and our minds aren’t capable of completely understanding it. Due to this, we often feel anxiety when making a big decision in our life, because we don’t know if we will make the best possible choice.
Some common big decisions we need to make throughout our lives include: what college to go to, what career to pursue, who to date/marry, where to live, what kind of car to drive, etc.
We make decisions everyday and we have to face the “opportunity costs” from choosing one option over another. Some research suggests that the more options we have to choose from, the more difficult it is to make a decision. They claim that having more options leads to a higher “opportunity cost” (theoretically: the more we have to choose from, the more we miss out on), and when this opportunity cost becomes too big we can often suffer from paralysis by analysis. Paralysis by analysis inhibits us from making ANY decision because we are so lost on what the right course of action is.
I’m sure that you’ve experienced these kinds of anxieties through your life to varying degrees. That’s good. A lot of our anxiety can be healthy and natural. However, when it starts interfering with how we want to live our lives, then it can become a problem that we need to deal with. The first step toward dealing with this problem is identifying some of the potential causes of our anxiety, then we can determine what are the best ways to treat it.
THE MOST COMMON CAUSES OF ANXIETY
There are a lot of factors that can contribute to our anxiety (and our mental health more generally). In this section, I am going to discuss some of the most common causes of anxiety, and also some potential treatment options for each one. However, it’s important to remember that because our anxiety can be due to such a wide array of different variables, it is often better to integrate several treatment options simultaneously.
– Genes
Certain gene variants may be associated with greater levels of anxiety. We all have a different biological make-up, and sometimes individuals may experience increased levels of anxiety for no other reason but that it is embedded in their genetic code. These genes essentially cause chemical imbalances in the brain that leader to your anxiety.
Treatment options: If your anxiety is driven by your biology it may be possible to get prescribed medication from a professional psychiatrist. Beware, however, that many of these medications can have negative side effects (you may go through several different medications before finding one that works best – a good psychiatrist will help you through this process). Also beware that if your anxiety is caused by other factors than medication will only serve as a quick fix, but it won’t solve the deeper issues in your life. You may need to supplement your medication with other treatments.
– Health
Anxiety can also be caused due to physical inactivity and poor diet. When we don’t treat our bodies right then that can often have an effect on our mental states.
Treatment options: If you don’t already take good care of your body, you’d probably be surprised of just how much less stressed and anxious you’d be if you started taking better care of your health. Try doing little things like replacing soda with water, eating less cake, going for a jog several times a week, or being more mindful of what you eat, and you’ll begin to feel better both physically and mentally.
– Psychology (our thoughts and beliefs)
Many psychologists believe that our thoughts and beliefs are some of the biggest contributors to our mood and anxiety. When we look at our lives from a certain perspective or worldview, we may become more anxious than if we reframed our perspective to something different and more productive. One simple example: If you go into a date or a job interview believing that “I’m not good enough,” then you set yourself up to have an anxiety-driven experience. However, if you reframed your perspective, and instead you saw yourself coming from a place of strength or value, then you would probably be less likely to be as anxious.
Treatment options: It’s important to be mindful of the thoughts and beliefs that drive our mood and behavior. If we discover that our thoughts inhibit us from acting appropriately, then it may be appropriate to adjust those beliefs or replace them with something new. For more on this approach you can check out ” Social Anxiety and CBT.”
– History
Our personal history and past experiences can also lead to more anxiety in the future. If we have a poor track record of job interviews or dates, then we may think we are inherently incapable of succeeding in these domains of life.
Early psychologists theorized that our self-esteem could be calculated by taking our successes and subtracting them with our failures. The more we succeed, the greater our self-esteem. While this theory definitely doesn’t depict the full picture of self-esteem, it does provide insight into one factor that can influence our self-perception.
Treatment options: It’s important to not let past failures dictate our self-esteem or anxiety about a situation, but when we start accumulating successes it can often become easier to keep ourselves motivated to overcome obstacles in the future. Keep this in mind, reflect on success for inspiration, and you can begin to turn your history around.
– Environment
It is also likely that our anxiety is caused by a novel or unfamiliar environment. Anxiety can often be a rational response to an unknown environment because we never quite know what will happen or what risks or at stake. Our anxiety therefore signals to us that we are in danger, and often times this can rightfully inhibit us from taking part in behavior that we may sense as too risky.
Of course, there are also some environments that we may fear irrationally. We may understand that it is a lot safer to take a plane than drive a car, but our anxiety remains persistent despite understanding the risks at stake.
Treatment options: One way to treat these irrational anxieties is through something known as exposure therapy. Basically, we gradually expose ourselves to these environments until we become more and more comfortable with them. This kind of therapy largely makes up the “behavioral” component in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. I also elaborate on this more in ” Social Anxiety and CBT.”
These are some of the most common causes of anxiety that I know of, although I’m sure there may be other causes that don’t necessarily fit in any of these categories. As you can also probably tell by now, there is a good chance that your anxiety is a combination of one or more of these factors. What makes you “you” – and what determines your thoughts and mood – is a very complex and interconnected process. But hopefully by reading through some of these causes you now have a greater understanding of what may be the driving forces behind your anxiety.
It has been repeated over and over: smoking kills. In the United States, there are over 20 million people, both men and women, who smoke, and they put themselves at a significant risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Smoking, including passive or second-hand smoking, is one of the leading causes of cancer, such as lung and throat. These two have very poor prognosis. In fact, lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths.
The good thing is you have plenty of ways on how to quit smoking. One of the novel but effective ideas is through hypnosis.
Why You Can’t Quit Smoking
Quitting smoking is not easy, especially if you are already used to it. For one, nicotine, one of the toxic substances in cigarettes, may have already altered your brain chemistry. Your brain considers nicotine to be part of your need. Thus, if its level is low, your body seeks cigarettes.
There are also much deeper reasons. You could be battling anxiety or depression. Cigarette smoking helps calm the nerves and sometimes creates a sense of euphoria or a joyful mood. Smoking may also be your way of dealing with a trauma or fear. It is your own defense mechanism.
How Hypnosis Can Help
Hypnosis and smoking have a very interesting relationship. Hypnosis has the ability to get into the root cause of your smoking by tapping into your subconscious mind.
Indeed, the mind has two divisions. One is the conscious mind, and the other is the subconscious. The former is the one you use on a daily basis, while the latter remains hidden. However, it stores plenty of repressed memories, those that you want to force back into your mind so you do not remember them.
The main purpose of hypnosis is for you to get into these memories-the trauma, guilt, and fear-that cause you to feel anxious, depressed, and stressed. Then with the use of subliminal messages, you are taught how to face them and deal with these issues immediately. Until you can find resolution to the deep-seated causes, you will never learn how to quit smoking by hypnosis.
Some of the subliminal messages or affirmations you can use are the following:
Self Hypnosis for Smoking
Usually, when you want to go on with hypnosis to quit smoking, you rely on the help of hypnotherapists. But their services can be very expensive, forcing you to spend thousands of dollars. The next best step is to do self hypnosis.
Self hypnosis is no longer that difficult since you already have a lot of materials to use, from self hypnosis video to self hypnosis tapes and mp3s. There are also plenty of guidelines you can follow to make sure you succeed in self hypnosis.
Drug abuse and alcoholism are due to interconnected factors. It includes genetics, our social environment, our emotional health and how we were raised by our parents. Those who have a history or family members that are heavy drinkers are more likely to be a heavy alcohol drinker compared to a person raised without too much alcohol in their family. There are some people who tend to abuse themselves with alcohol and drugs like cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, hashish, heroin and many more. It gives them temporary relief and temporary solution to whatever problems they have.
Other people divert on using drugs and consuming too much alcohol just to escape boredom, peer pressure, family problems, presence of fear and too many problems that they cannot face. The terrible news is, once they are hooked into drinking excessive alcohol and taking too many illegal drugs, they become addicted to the substance. Alcohol and drug addiction becomes a crucial factor why some people experiences mental disorder or mental illness because they tend to develop hallucinations and other forms of behavioral problems. This situation is properly treated with the help of some professionals like Utah mental health, Utah marriage counselors, Utah therapy and Utah family therapy.
People drink alcohol and use illegal drugs more often to forget problems, for pleasure and other stressor such as work and pressure from friends. As time goes by that a certain individual use drugs and drinks too much alcohol, the dosage as they take those increases. The negative effect is that once they stop taking drugs even on a single day, they do not only get sick, but they develop mental problems. Thus, in order to sustain their alcohol and drug addiction, even the worst criminal activity is not an issue to them. There are immense possibilities that they engage themselves in criminal activities like prostitution, robbery, drug dealing, drug pushing and other forms of criminal activities.
Alcohol and drug addiction have negative and harmful side effects. The most affected is the physiological and psychological aspects of the life of the person involved in these negative activities.
Physiological effects include an increase in heart rate, increase in blood pressure, irregular breathing, sudden weight loss or weigh gain, brain damage, lung diseases and the worst are AIDS that can be acquired by sharing syringes with other people that have AIDS.
Psychological effects include restlessness and depression, anxiety, cravings for illegal drugs, hallucinations and many more. It causes a certain individual to be aloof and feel left alone while in fact, it is them who went away to their families and friends.
Almost all that are addicted to alcohol and illegal drugs lose their jobs. This is because they no longer have the ability to think properly. They do not act and behave normally just like before. They do not only develop the feeling of aloofness but also they feel left out by the whole world. They will lose so many things including their marriage, their income, their homes, their properties and even their relationship with their family and friends. Those people that are drug dependent become malnourished, have suicidal tendencies, overdose themselves and have more possibilities to have AIDS or any other sexually transmitted diseases.
The family is the basic unit in society. Parents must be responsible enough in raising their kids. Parents should teach their children about healthy life that is away from alcoholism and drug abuse. Most people who become drug dependent are those that came from broken families or problematic families. Strong family ties must be developed and observed so that whenever there are problems, our children will not look into alcohol and drugs as an escape goat to those problems. There are also private groups and organizations today that are willing to help out those people that are ready to follow the right path to a new life.
In summary, one of the biggest obstacles in recovery from alcohol and drug abuse is denial of the person involved. The desire to drink alcohol and the desire to use drugs are so strong that sometimes, a person still rationalize his drinking or use of drugs. The person involved must accept the reality and be honest that they undoubtedly have a problem. There are so many professionals that can help them with any problem that they have just like Utah marriage counselors and Utah therapists.
Approach anxiety is a common phenomenon, it occurs when we want to initiate a conversation with a new person but don’t because of fear or worry. Often times these fears and worries stem from our belief system and perspective. But once we learn how to “reframe” these situations – by looking at them from a new perspective – we can better motivate ourselves to act in more life-enhancing ways.
It’s natural for many people to feel anxiety when first meeting someone new: a girl at a bar, a potential employer, a friend of a friend, or some stranger in public.
Sometimes it’s harder to approach someone or initiate a conversation than it is to actually carry out the conversation once it has already started.
This kind of social anxiety is known as approach anxiety.
It occurs whenever we want to meet someone new but are too worried or afraid to do it. Often it stems from our belief system:
*We think that we aren’t good enough or worthy of the person’s time.
*We think that we will do something stupid and embarrass ourselves.
*We think that we will be rejected as a person.
*We think about what other people will think.
These are some of the most common causes of approach anxiety, but there are probably others too. I believe that we can learn to better manage most anxieties by using a technique called reframing. Reframing (also known as “cognitive restructuring”) is a popular tool in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) where an individual investigates their belief system and replaces unhelpful beliefs with more life-enhancing beliefs.
Here are some reframes I have found helpful for managing approach anxiety:
YOUR PRESENCE IS A GIFT.
As I mentioned before, one of the key causes of approach anxiety is that we feel like we aren’t worthy of someone’s attention. We may find ourselves thinking or saying things like:
“Why should they want to talk to me?”
“That person is way out of my league.”
We can begin to reframe these thought patterns by focusing more on how we add value to our relationships. Then we can begin thinking more productively:
“Of course someone should want to hang out with me – I’m smart, funny, and a loyal friend.”
The key is to identify your strengths and positive attributes, then recognize that you are a person that people should want to meet and get to know better.
Because if you don’t believe you are a person worth getting to know, it’s going to be tough for you to actively approach new people. But when you believe you are a person worth knowing, you’ll feel more free to initiate conversations. You believe that anytime you interact with someone you are offering value to them: your time, your attention, your energy, etc. So when a person rejects you, it’s their loss, not yours.
This kind of reframe can help eliminate a lot of the baggage when it comes to approaching new people. We often feel as though we have to “prove ourselves,” and when we get rejected it hurts because we feel like the person has denied us as a human being. But if we have self-esteem and we understand the value we offer to others, we realize that when a person “rejects us” they are the one’s missing out.
The most common symptoms of back pain may be continuous or may occur only in certain positions. The pain may be aggravated by coughing, sneezing, bending, twisting, or straining during a bowel movement. The pain may occur in only one spot or may spread to other areas, most commonly extending down the buttocks and at times into the back of the legs. Chronic back pain symptoms may include splinting muscle spasm, antalgic (bent) posture, muscle weakness, inability to stand on heels or toes or difficulty in rising from a sitting or lying position. Whatever chronic back pain symptoms you may be exhibiting, the following exercises for lower back pain will strengthen your back and alleviate your pain long term.
1. Lie flat on the floor in a relaxed position. Bring your right knee toward your chest, clasping your hands around your knee. Pull your right knee toward your chest firmly and, at the same time, forcefully straighten your left leg, and hold for three to five seconds. Then relax and repeat at least five times. Repeat the same procedure with your opposite leg.
2. Lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor and your arms at your sides with your palms down. Tighten the muscles of your lower abdomen and buttocks so as to flatten your low back. Slowly raise your low back and buttocks from the floor and hold for five seconds. Relax and repeat this procedure for at least five times.
3. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, your hands at your sides and your palms down. Tighten the muscles of your abdomen and buttocks as if you are pushing your lower back flat against the floor. Hold for five seconds, relax and repeat a minimum of five times.
4. Lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet on the floor, with your arms at your sides. Bring both knees to your chest, clasping your hands around both knees and pulling firmly towards your chest. Hold for five seconds, relax, and repeat at least five times.
5. If your chronic back pain symptoms are so severe that you are unable to lay on the floor, another set of exercises for lower back pain can be performed from a chair. Sit on the edge of a chair with your knees separated slightly and your feet flat on the floor. Keeping your back straight, bend forward and place your right forearm on your right thigh. Extend your left arm up toward the ceiling, and, while exhaling, turn and look up at your left hand. Hold for three breaths, and repeat to the other side for a minimum of five times each side. Next, increase the stretch, bend forward to place your right hand along the outside of your left foot and repeat the same exercise as above.
6. Lie on your back with your hips and knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Roll your knees from side to side, but do not roll far enough to cause back pain. Perform this exercise as long as it remains comfortable to you and relieves tight, sore, chronic back pain symptoms.
These are just a handful of exercises for lower back pain. Long term, consistent application of these exercises will strengthen your back and eliminate chronic back pain symptoms. Other things you can do in addition to the exercises for lower back pain are to sleep on a firm mattress and place a pillow under your knees when you are lying on your back. If you are lying on your side, place a pillow between your knees. Lose weight if you are overweight, as this puts less strain on your back and muscles. To reduce the strain put on your back, don’t push with your arms when you move a heavy object. Turn around and push backwards so your legs take the strain. Bend your knees and hips and keep your back straight when you lift a heavy object. To prevent any chronic back pain symptoms avoid lifting heavy objects higher than your waist or altogether. Hold packages you carry close to your body, with your arms bent. Bend your knees when you bend over and try and sit up straight while seated.
If you follow these tips in addition to performing the exercises for lower back pain, you should be able to eliminate your chronic back pain symptoms and live a productive, pain free life.
There have been numerous studies looking at the connection between acne and peanuts. First, though, let’s cover how acne forms for those of you who may not know:
There’s a bacteria that lives on your skin called Propionibacterium acnes. The bacteria basically feeds off your sebum, which is an oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands in your skin. If your body makes too much sebum (your skin becomes too oily), these bacteria grow rapidly and your body must react by bringing in white blood cells to get rid of the bacteria. It’s your own body’s reaction which causes the inflammation that can lead to the red bumps, pain, and pus formation.
Many acne treatments, therefore, claim to help reduce oily skin (sebum) through various means (although most of them are ineffective). That is probably why peanuts are known to contribute to acne breakouts, because peanuts contain androgen hormones which can increase sebum production and oily skin.
Some of the studies regarding peanuts and acne have found that eating peanuts creates acne breakouts, while other studies have found no connections. Most of the studies were not actually done specifically to determine the connection between acne and peanuts, but rather between acne and a variety of foods such as chocolate, milk, cola, peanuts, and others.
What we do know, however, from many anecdotes is that some people do tend to have serious acne breakouts a few days after eating peanuts and that when they stopped eating peanuts, the acne went away. So it seems that, for some people at least, either an allergy to peanuts or a hormonal imbalance causes acne breakouts when they eat peanuts.
The theory behind peanuts contributing to acne breakouts is that peanuts (and milk too) contain androgen hormones which cause your body to create more oil (sebum). This excess oil along with clogged pores can contribute to acne breakouts. It’s important to note that peanuts are not the cause of acne, but they may just make your existing acne problem much worse.
That’s why we recommend anyone who is suffering from acne breakouts avoid peanuts for at least 30 days and see if it makes a difference.
We also recommend eliminating milk from your diet as there are strong connections between milk and acne, due to the hormones found in milk. For me personally, when I stopped eating peanut butter, cut milk out of my diet, and started eating more fresh fruits and vegetables for the fiber and antioxidants, my acne cleared up rather quickly.
BLS is abbreviated as basic life support. BLS is a level of medical care which is used for the patients till the total specialized medical care is administrated. This technique is provided for the victims suffering with emergency illnesses during the pre-hospital stage and this technique helps in saving the life of a patient very effectively. These white hat techniques are very helpful for treating the patients suffering from cardiac arrest, choking or drowning patients etc. the BLS certification is very essential for the first responders like law enforcement officers, fire fighters, child care providers, security guards etc. These techniques are frequently used by the emergency medical technicians during the emergency conditions.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is very important technique in BLS. This CPR technique is used for treating the cardiac arrest patients. If a CPR is provided for a patient instantly after a cardiac arrest, it helps in increasing the survival rate of the patient. For providing BLS services, BLS certification should be gained by the person. This certification is very helpful for the EMT’s, nurses and all the medical professionals. Some medical courses like paramedic, respiratory therapy etc has made this certification mandatory. A normal person out from the medical field can also master the BLS classes and gain certificate. The American Heart Association and American Red Cross will help out all the aspirants for BLS Certification by providing all the locations of where the BLS training is conducted.
For gaining a BLS certificate one should follow few instructions. Some of the instructions are:
The BLS protocols designed by the American Heart Organization of United States can be utilized by the lay people, Basic Emergency Medical Technicians, certified responders and all the medical professionals. The city is enhanced with the best training institutes for BLS courses. The people of the city can enhance these training classes efficiently as all the organizations who are providing these training sessions are embedded with the best technicians. These institutions facilitate their students with both the theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The exams for gaining the BLS certification are also conducted by these organizations itself. BLS certification has become a very important aspect in saving the lives of the patients in pre-hospital stage.