July 2008

They say that stress is the curse our living in modern times. Everyone seems to suffers from stress including our your children. The same goes when you start tearing your hair out with all the frustration, grief, anxiety, and yes, stress. It's a state of mental conditioning that is like taking that bitter pill down your throat, causing you to lose your sense of self, and worse your sanity. Just thinking about it can drive anyone off the edge.They also said that the proactive ones are already living off the edge.

There are several ways to manage stress, and eventually remove it out of your life :

1. Acknowledge Stress Is Good
Make stress your friend! Based on the body's natural "fight or flight" response, that burst of energy will enhance your performance at the right moment. I've yet to see a top sportsman totally relaxed before a big competition. Use stress wisely to push yourself that little bit harder when it counts most.

2. Avoid Stress Sneezers
Stressed people sneeze stress germs indiscriminately and before you know it, you are infected too! Protect yourself by recognizing stress in others and limiting your contact with them. Or if you've got the inclination, play stress doctor and teach them how to better manage themselves.

3. Learn From The Best
When people around are losing their head, who keeps calm? What are they doing differently? What is their attitude? What language do they use? Are they trained and experienced? Figure it out from afar or sit them down for a chat. Learn from the best stress managers and copy what they do.

4. Practice Socially Acceptable Heavy Breathing
This is something I've learned from a gym instructor: You can trick your body into relaxing by using heavy breathing. Breathe in slowly for a count of 7 then breathe out for a count of 11. Repeat the 7-11 breathing until your heart rate slows down, your sweaty palms dry off and things start to feel more normal.

5. Give Stressy Thoughts The Red Light
It is possible to tangle yourself up in a stress knot all by yourself. "If this happens, then that might happen and then we're all up the creek!" Most of these things never happen, so why waste all that energy worrying needlessly? Give stress thought-trains the red light and stop them in their tracks. Okay so it might go wrong - how likely is that, and what can you do to prevent it?

6. Know Your Trigger Points And Hot Spots
Presentations, interviews, meetings, giving difficult feedback, tight deadlines. My heart rate is cranking up just writing these down!Make your own list of stress trigger points or hot spots. Be specific. Is it only presentations to a certain audience that get you worked up? Does one project cause more stress than another? Did you drink too much coffee?
Knowing what causes you stress is powerful information, as you can take action to make it less stressful. Do you need to learn some new skills? Do you need extra resources? Do you need to switch to decaf?

7. Burn The Candle At One End
Lack of sleep, poor diet and no exercise wreaks havoc on our body and mind. Kind of obvious, but worth mentioning as it's often ignored as a stress management technique. Listen to your mother and don't burn the candle at both ends!So having stress can be a total drag, but that should not hinder us to find the inner peace of mind that we have wanted for a long time. In any case, one could always go to the Bahamas and bask under the summer sun.

8.Express Your Love To Your Loved Ones
Express your feelings, affections, friendship and passion to people whom you love. They will most likely reciprocate your actions. Try not to keep pent up anger of frustrations, this is bad for your health. Instead find ways of expressing them in a way that will not cause more injury or hurt to anyone.

9.Exercise
Physical exercise develops and maintains physical fitness and overall health.Exercise helps to strengthen muscles and the cardiovascular system.Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent diseases of affluence such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.Exerise also improves mental health and helps prevent depression.

10. Do Random Acts of Kindness.
You don't have to do a John Rockefeller and blow your savings to charity. Little acts of kindness matters the most.Giving to the less fortunate will enable you to be aware of your strength and ability to improve the life of others.Many stressed our professionals spend months and even years away from their work to do volunteer works and found great satisfaction and meaning to their lives.They came back fully refreshed and energise for the next phase of their lives.

These are the few simple things you can do everyday to be happy. And always remember the quote from Abraham Lincoln, he says that, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

About the Author: Paul Hata is active in various social and community programs aimed at providing equal access to education,health and jobs to all.Paul has over 10 years experience in managing a multi-million dollar advertising company.Paul can be reached at EarlyPlanet.com

July 2008

1 - 31
Hemochromatosis Awareness Month
Iron Disorders Institute
2722 Wade Hampton Boulevard, Suite A
Greenville, SC 29615
(888) 565-4766
(864) 292-1175
info@irondisorders.org
www.irondisorders.org

1 - 31
International Group B Strep Awareness Month
Group B Strep International
11 El Dorado Court
Pomona, CA 91766
(909) 620-7214
(909) 620-5557 Fax
info@gbs-intl.org
www.groupbstrepinternational.org

1 - 31
Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month
Arthritis Foundation
1330 West Peachtree Street, Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30309
404-965-7528 Voice
404-872-8694 FAX
Help@arthritis.org
www.arthritis.org

1 - 31
UV Safety Month
American Academy of Ophtalmology
P.O. Box 7424
San Francisco, CA 94120-7424
(415) 447-0213
(415) 561-8533 Fax
eyemd@aao.org
www.aao.org/eyemd

July 2008

Osteoarthritis, the most common type of joint inflammation, can be caused by several factors. Some people inherit defective cartilage or are born with abnormalities of the spine that place more stress and weight on one of their joints, causing back pain and spine inflammation.

Others have gained weight and developed the disease as a result of the increased pressure. Knee and hip osteoarthritis are especially prevalent in overweight individuals. Injuries contribute to the development of this disease in athletes and young people, and the knees and spine are commonly affected areas in this case.

Joint overuse increases the risk of developing the disease too, particularly in the hand and knee regions. Despite the reason, the Arthritis Foundation says there are things you can do to ease the pain and slow the progression of this disease, which afflicts nearly 21 million Americans.

Your doctor can diagnose you with osteoarthritis based on your description of symptoms, the location of pain, a regular physical exam, X-rays, blood tests, or joint aspiration (removing joint fluid). Next, treatment options can be discussed. Doctors typically recommend a physical therapy regimen involving muscle strengthening exercises because muscles also act as a cushion for the body, medications, analgesic creams, hot and cold compresses, removal of joint fluid, surgery, injection of medications into the joint, use of supportive devices such as crutches or canes, and weight control.

It can be disappointing to learn that your weight has caused osteoarthritis and that you now need to lose some weight to take the burden off your joints, even though you're suffering pain in your knees, hips, spine or shoulders. Despite how mentally difficult it may be to get started, your body will begin to feel a bit better as you exercise.

Mentally, you will feel better about yourself and more in control. Little by little, you will find that you have increased mobility and more ease at doing day-to-day activities.

Low impact exercises, such as swimming, biking or walking, are recommended. For people with knee pain, strengthening exercises with light weights for the quadriceps are encouraged.

Range-of-motion flexibility exercises that include stretching are very common in physical therapy sessions. Forget about aerobics or jogging, and avoid overdoing it.

If your joints hurt excessively more than 2 hours later, then you've pushed yourself too hard. Before and after exercising you can try heat/cold packs to reduce redness or pain. Braces, rest breaks, decreasing your speed or duration and reducing your weight can modify the level of intensity to give you the ideal workout.

Exercising is so important for people with osteoarthritis. The temptation is to just withdraw from physical activity to avoid the pain, but the Arthritis Foundation recommends looking up a center near you to engage in group exercise classes for greater physical and emotional strength.

Your doctor can refer you to a physical therapist or suggest an exercise plan as well. Some people like having a personal trainer to supervise them. After you work out, monitor your health for unusual or persistent fatigue, increased weakness and sharp chronic pain more than an hour later, increased swelling or decreased range of motion.

About the Author: Mike Selvon owns a number of niche portal. Please visit our portal for more great information on osteoarthritis, and leave a comment at our arthritis treatment blog.

No Matter the Doctor, Black Diabetics Fare Worse Than White Counterparts Study found doctors with patients of both races still showed disparities in outcomes

July 2008

HealthDay News

New research shows that black patients with diabetes tend to fare worse than white patients do, even if they see the same doctor.

In other words, the gap can't be explained by saying particular doctors tend to give substandard care. Racial disparities in diabetes care appear to be more the result of systemic issues, according to a study in the June 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"It wasn't so much that black patients weren't receiving care from lower-quality providers," said study author Dr. Thomas D. Sequist, a primary-care physician at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. "Amongst all providers, black patients received lower quality care, even if white patients went to the same doctors."

"There have been some other studies that have shown just as much as who you are predicts what kind of care you get [race, income, gender], where you get care oftentimes is just as important or more important," Sequist continued.

Sequist and his co-authors wanted to see how far down the health-care system chain disparities went. Did it extend only to the hospital level, with some hospitals caring mostly for black patients providing lower quality care? Did the breakdown occur with individual physicians? Or was the problem even broader in scope?

This study looked at 90 primary-care physicians, each caring for at least five black and at least five white adult patients with type 2 diabetes. The physicians and patients were located at 13 different outpatient sites. In all, the study involved 4,556 white adults and 2,258 black adults being cared for at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

White patients were more likely to achieve control of several key indicators of diabetes control: 47 percent of whites had control of hemoglobin A1c levels (an over-time measure of blood sugar levels) versus only 39 percent of blacks; 57 percent of whites had LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels in check, compared with 45 percent of blacks; and 30 percent of whites had their blood pressure in normal zones compared with 24 percent of blacks.

Socio-demographic factors, such as patient income and insurance explained some of the difference, in the order of about 20 percent to 30 percent, Sequist said. In other words, certain types of patients tended to cluster within certain providers.

Other diseases and conditions such as obesity or heart disease explained virtually none of the difference.

"Then you're still left with this big chunk of difference, and the question is why," Sequist said.

As it turned out, medication prescription rates tended to be lower among blacks, which might account for some of the discrepancy.

But the study was unable to explain why that might be. "We get all our data from charts and electronic medical records, so we don't have details about what discussions might have happened between physicians and patients that might have led to that lower rate," Sequist said. "Was counseling less effective among African-Americans? Were there differences in their ability to afford these medications and, if so, did the case provider decide not to order them? We don't have those types of differences."

"It's difficult to elucidate what exactly is the cause," pointed out Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes center at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. "It's important to be aware of these disparities, and the issue will be to find out how to reduce them."

Sequist was also the lead author on a May 2008 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that found that 88 percent of primary-care clinicians agree that racial disparities in health care are a problem, but only 40 percent felt the disparities existed in their own patient populations.

That means the solution needs to begin at home. Sequist is conducting a randomized trial to see if such measures as cultural-competence training, community tours so physicians will know more about disease management outside of the 20-minute office visit (for instance, exercise and diet options in the neighborhood), and performance feedbacks.

"From our organization's perspective, the solution meant that we had to implement programs that affected all of our doctors, not a program that identified 10 to 20 lower-performing physicians and do some sort of boot-camp, quality-improvement strategy," Sequist said. "Instead, we decided to try and increase awareness amongst all physicians, and try to provide tools to deliver better diabetes care to minority patients amongst all our physicians."