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Minimizing Effects of Diabetes

Diabetes can present two main categories of problems, in the form of short term ill-effects and longer term harm. Minimizing both areas requires discipline.

Rapid spikes or dips in blood glucose level can result in several unpleasant effects: dizziness, disorientation, muscle weakness, nausea and others. For some diabetics, it’s very difficult to prevent this from happening at some time. But there are practices that can improve the odds.

Regular and careful monitoring is a must. It’s no picnic to endure a finger prick three times a day. For those who simply can’t muster the will, it is worthwhile to look into some of the newer glucose monitoring devices that don’t require it.

Some contain tiny, powerful lasers that create a hole through which blood oozes. They produce only a mild tingling sensation. One recent device senses glucose level through the skin using an infrared beam, requiring no blood sample at all.

The goal is to keep the glucose-insulin balance as close to normal levels as possible. Non-diabetics have a fasting glucose level under about 99 mg/dL. Even after a heavy meal, when glucose may rise to over 200 mg/dL, insulin is released which brings it back down within a couple of hours. That means that keeping the glucose level right isn’t so much achieving a static number as maintaining the correct dynamic balance.

Part of a long-term glucose monitoring strategy should encompass regular physician visits with a quarterly A1C test. Several tests exist to measure blood glucose level at a given time. The A1C test provides a picture averaged over a period of months. The name comes from HbA1c, an abbreviation for glycated hemoglobin.

Hemoglobin molecules in the red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues. The extra glucose in the bloodstream of a diabetic causes that hemoglobin to get glycated. That effect persists and allows an A1C test to measure the accumulated result.

Long term the effects will accumulate, good or bad. Over 10-15 years or longer, many diabetes patients of the past would endure blindness, kidney damage, nerve damage and other ill health effects. That no longer has to be the case. With contemporary understanding of the disease and modern technology it’s possible to reduce the odds of those effects nearly to those without the disease.

Exercise and diet are two key elements for the overwhelming majority of diabetes sufferers to help achieve the right glucose-insulin balance.

Keeping body fat low through proper diet and exercise will help. Body fat plays a role in how the body reacts to glucose levels, as well as affecting hormone production and release. While the mechanisms are still being investigated, many studies show there is a clear correlation between body fat and the severity of diabetes effects, as well.

Proper weight and body fat maintenance will also help keep blood pressure at the right level. Chronic high blood pressure is one of the major elements in increasing the risk of common diabetes problems: heart attack and stroke, eye and nerve damage, and others.

With diligence a diabetic can lead a normal life, one very much like those fortunate enough not to have the condition. A little attention a few times a day can lead to not having to pay too much attention at all.

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Maintain Normal Cholesterol Levels As If Your Life Depended On It

By Paul Rodgers

Normal cholesterol levels are found in over half of Americans. Normal cholesterol levels are usually associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, but not always. Normal cholesterol levels are also necessary in the formation of lipid rafts, such as caveolae and detergent-resistant membrane domains. Reduce high blood pressure and cardiovascular risks by: Losing weight. As a general rule the GOOD cholesterols are good for you and the BAD cholesterols are NOT good for you. If you are overweight, eat an unhealthy diet, or have a family history of high cholesterol, get your levels checked regularly.

Risk factors associated with the influence of a persons blood ratio include; diet, age, weight, gender, genetics, diseases, and lifestyle. Ever since weight-loss programs gained optimal popularity in the market, the word cholesterol gained the negative connotation as the evil fattening wax from the food we eat. People who are overweight have placed themselves in a higher risk category.

The location of the extra weight also impacts whether or not the blood ratio will increase. When the weight is centered around the abdominal area, as opposed to the legs or buttocks, an increased risk exists. Weight loss can also decrease blood cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels.

Weight loss also means that the volume of blood your heart must pump decreases – and less blood flowing through the arteries means less pressure on them. Overweight people tend to have higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels, while physical activity appears to improve them.

As a result, many people with normal cholesterol levels are not identified as having special risks. Healthy men and women with normal cholesterol levels are still at risk for future heart attack if they have elevated levels of CRP. The best way to maintain healthy blood pressure is always through lifestyle, including diet and exercise.

You can’t control your genes or your age, but there are things you can do to prevent or reduce high blood pressure even if you have genes that might make you more likely to have it. Regular aerobic exercise-such as walking, running, bicycling, or swimming laps-can prevent and reduce high blood pressure.

Cooking with sesame oil in place of other edible oils appears to help reduce high blood pressure and lower the amount of medication needed to control hypertension, researchers reported today at the XVth Scientific Meeting of the Inter-American Society of Hypertension.

P. Rodgers specializes in marketing natural health & beauty supplements. dietea4u.com and naturalcholesterolcare.com act as my command ships.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Rodgers

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Welcome To The NEW AND IMPROVED Battling Heart and Stroke

We Have A New Template!

I have been in the midst of converting all of the “Battling For Health” series of blogs with the new Network Wide Template .. and now we have one on this blog!

Hopefully, I can resume to more frequent postings to go along with the template!

If you see any thing kooky, please let me know by way of a comment in this article.

Thank-you and Happy New Year!

HART

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Is it New Year’s Eve Already?

Hey guys, I’ve tried so hard to post here as much as I can but the holidays has finally taken its toll on me and I have given way to it. It is really difficult not to what with everyone around on the holiday mood.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you the heads up that this will be my last post here for year 2007. I reckon I’ll take  a couple of days off from the blogosphere before the big New Year comes.

If I don’t have too much hang-over, I’ll be back to blog here on January1st, 2008.

SO…you guys have a blast in your New Year’s parties.  But I can’t help but say: Go easy on the booze and don’t smoke and eat too much. It’s not good to welcome the year 2008 feeling heavy and bloated. 😉

Have a prosperous New Year!

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Welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED Battling Alzheimer Site!

We Have A New Template!

Welcome to the Battling Alzheimer blog. I have finally updated this blog with the new HART-Empire Network template that I have been installing on all the “Battling For Health” series of sites.

Please feel free to look around and give this template a good test spin, with your comments and rating of existing posts. I have updated a few plugins and have included a super caching plugin that should help speed up the viewing of existing posts and images.

At this time .. I am also excited to announce that a new author will be taking over this blog in 2008 .. and well, I’ll let that writer settle in and provide you with all the necessary introductions and new direction of for this blog .. for those “Battling The Monster: Alzheimer’s Disease”

Until then .. Season’s Greetings from HART-Empire Network and all the best for 2008!

Take care.
HART

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What Is Diabetes?

The word diabetes is common enough. Nearly everyone has heard it and may know someone who has it. But how many know what it is?

Diabetes is a medical condition identified by continual abnormally high levels of glucose in the blood. It is a disease that results when either the body fails to produce adequate insulin or the cells resist using the insulin produced.

In the first case (too low an amount of insulin produced) diabetes is called Type 1. In the second instance, the condition is known as Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 constitutes about 7% of cases, with Type 2 responsible for 90% or more. The disease affects about 7% of the population of the U.S., occurring more frequently among those age 60 or older.

There are other types, such as gestational diabetes that sometimes afflicts pregnant women, and others. But they are much less common and, in some cases, temporary.

Typical symptoms for either type are abnormally frequent urination, produced by the body’s attempt to clear excess glucose by elimination. As a result, unusual thirst is common, compensated for by drinking higher than average amounts.

Type 1 has historically been known as juvenile onset diabetes, since it affected mostly younger people. Similarly, Type 2 was called adult onset diabetes, since it was found mostly in older adults. In Type 1 diabetes, it’s believed that one of the primary factors causing the disease is an autoimmune system malfunction that affects the pancreas. Type 2 may be caused or worsened by obesity and other factors.

Both have genetic components as risk factors. But in either type, and regardless of the cause, the net effect is the same: an inability to clear glucose out of the bloodstream because of inadequate or faulty insulin production or use.

Insulin is the hormone chiefly responsible for regulating the level of glucose in the body. Many foods that contain carbohydrates are broken down by digestion and produce primarily glucose. That glucose is taken up by the body to supply the energy needed for cell repair, muscle movement and a thousand other functions. Insulin helps the glucose make its way into the cells.

When insulin is produced in too low an amount, or the body’s cells resist the intake of glucose by interfering with insulin’s function, diabetes is the result. Since the pancreas produces the overwhelming majority of the body’s insulin, when some condition causes it to malfunction, diabetes can result.

The condition, whether Type 1 or Type 2, is usually chronic. But chronic doesn’t mean that nothing can be done to minimize the effects. With proper diet and what are today relatively simple treatments, diabetes of either type is manageable. And the disease itself comes in a range of degrees. In some cases, the amount of insulin produced or used is only slightly under what’s needed. In other cases, the pancreas produces almost none or the cells resist it strongly.

Since excess glucose left in the bloodstream can lead to a range of complications, diabetes can have a number of follow on effects. But how severe those effects are depends on the severity of the insulin deprivation or resistance.

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All About Multiple Sclerosis

By Robert Groth

Introduction to Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis is known to affect more than 250,000 people world wide and 400,000+ people in the United States of America alone! This disease affects more women than men, and most people show the first signs of this degenerative disease between 20 to 40 years of ages.

A chronic and potentially incapacitating disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects the central nervous system or the brain and spinal cord areas in your body. Believed to be an autoimmune disorder, MS is a condition where the patient’s immune system produces antibodies against their own body.

These antibodies and WBCs (White blood corpuscles) are then directed against proteins in the “myelin” sheath. The myelin sheath is made up of fatty substance that protects the nerve fibers in the spinal cord and brain. This attack usually results in injury and swelling to the myelin sheath and ultimately to the surrounding nerves. The injury leads to scarring or sclerosis in multiple areas of the central immune system, thus damaging the nerve signals and control muscle coordination as well as vision, and strength.

The nature of it is unpredictable and it can vary in severity from person to person. While some people experience only mild illness, it can lead to permanent disability in many others. Treatments for MS can help in modifying the course of this illness while relieving symptoms as well.

Signs and Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis

The signs and symptoms are wide and varied. More often than not, they depend on the area where nerve fibers have been affected. Some of the common symptoms of it include:

– Feeling of weakness or numbness in one or both limbs. The feeling usually starts on one side of the body or begins in the bottom half of the body.
– Full or partial loss of vision, typically starts with one eye at a time accompanied by some pain when making eye movement
– Blurring of vision or experiencing double vision
– A tingling or painful sensation in some parts of the body
– Experience of tremor, inability to walk straight, or lack of proper coordination
– Dizziness
– Fatigue
– Muscle stiffness or spastic movement
– Slurred Speech
– Full or Partial paralysis
– Issues with bowel, bladder or sexual functions
– Forgetfulness/memory loss
– Lack of concentration

There are 3 forms of multiple sclerosis:

* Relapsing-remitting MS: Almost 80% people are affected by this type of MS. There are visible relapses with some amount of recovery in between.

* Secondary progressive MS: Technically secondary progressive MS is a form of progressive MS, but chances of relapse are mainly in early-to-mid stages. There is slow and regular loss of cognitive and physical functions. 50% of those who suffer from relapsing remitting MS develop this type of within 10 years of diagnosis.

* Primary progressive MS: There are no relapses in this type of multiple sclerosis. However, there is loss of cognitive and physical functions over a period of time. About 10% people are affected by this type of it.

© CG Groth Inc 2007

Robert Groth, author and speaker was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1990. Receive more information and a free inspirational daily email on how you can beat multiple sclerosis at www.beatmultiplesclerosis.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Groth

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Schizophrenia and Psychosis Cure

By Christina Sponias

Only a philosopher could discover that the human being is completely absurd since this fact means that humanity is totally crazy. A psychiatrist could not come to that conclusion without being considered crazy.

Only a poet could listen to the inner voice of the unconscious wisdom, recognize her ignorance and feel how horrible it is to live in a place where everyone is crazy.

The cure of schizophrenia and psychosis is the total and absolute respect to the moral principles of goodness. A schizophrenic is someone who is completely dominated by the wild side of his or her conscience.

In case the patient is a murderer, one must learn how to forgive oneself, which is usually impossible to achieve since no one can forgive one’s own faults when they have caused despair and misery.

Schizophrenia is a very serious mental and psychic disease that cannot be cured because the wild side has completely dominated the human conscience. There is no human personality in the psychic sphere. This is why schizophrenics cannot recuperate their human conscience once they lose it.

However, they can learn the meaning of their actions and can regain their humanity if they are willing to endure suffering. Suffering is medicine when it gives the patient the necessary conditions that help one become sensitive.

In case schizophrenic patients are victims of other people’s cruelty, they must learn how to forgive their enemies, which is impossible because their enemies hurt them too much.

Schizophrenia is the result of human craziness, the massive craziness that governs our world, a world where terror, violence, immorality, hypocrisy, poverty and indifference coexist. This is the insane world of the crazy human being!

Psychosis is also the result of the same global insanity…

In fact, schizophrenic and psychotic patients are the biggest victims of violence and indifference.

However, they can regain their mental, psychological and emotional health through dream interpretation, even though the process is very difficult and time-consuming. Everything is difficult when we have to deal with diseases as terrible as schizophrenia and psychosis.

Time and many efforts are required, but the patients can be cured!

This is a miracle!

We can cure these horrible diseases and save the people who are affected by them today, but we must surely focus on craziness prevention from now on!

We must put an end to all the horrors of our lives, so that schizophrenia and psychosis ceases to exist in our population.

Massive psychotherapy is indispensable for humanity if we wish to save the human race and our own planet, since we have almost destroyed all the natural sources, and created an imbalance in the nature of Earth.

Unconditional and unrestricted peace, truth, wisdom, patience, piety and goodness are the cures for schizophrenia and psychosis.

Only when we become organized and everyone will be sensitive instead of being indifferent to the horrors they “don’t have the power to eliminate,” will humanity be characterized by psychological, mental and emotional health.

Prevent Depression and Craziness through the scientific method of Dream Interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by Christina Sponias, a writer who continued Jung’s research in the unknown region of the human psychic sphere.

Learn more at: www.booksirecommend.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christina_Sponias

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Hear Ye, Hear Ye…Women with Osteoarthritis: Osteoporosis Drug Calcitonin May Prevent Osteoarthritis

Indeed good news to women suffering from osteoarthritis.

Initial studies conducted in rats suggested that an existing drug – already known as calcitonin – can help older, post-menopausal women prevent osteoarthritis.

Currently, calcitonin is being used in the treatment of osteoporosis in women.

According to study co-author Morten A. Karsdal, head of pharmacology at Nordic Bioscience (a biotech company that is studying the drug’s prospects as an arthritis treatment):

”Patients “should be hopeful”. It is important to treat both loss of bone and loss of cartilage, the elastic tissue that helps bones tolerate moving against each other.

When bone turnover increases after menopause, due to lower estrogen production, a secondary effect is seen on cartilage, more cartilage is lost.

Ideally, all drugs that may be developed for osteoarthritis will be able to affect both bone and cartilage, as both are in disequilibrium in osteoarthritis.”

BUT we should remember that testing in humans won’t end for another three years — and there’s no guarantee that the drug will work as well in humans as in rats.

Said Dr. J.C. Gallagher, director of the Bone Metabolism Unit at Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska:

Hips and knees can be especially susceptible. For many, pain on exercise is the major problem.

As a result, they stop exercising, and this leads to an increase in body weight which increases the ‘load’ on the joints and worsens the arthritis.

There are numerous treatments to relieve osteoarthritis pain but none to stop the wear and tear on the bone, joints and cartilage.

The form of calcitonin used in this study is the oral form which is off the market. Calcitonin is currently available as a nasal spray and an injection only – forms that haven’t been investigated as possible osteoarthritis treatments.

Suffice to say that the initial findings published in the August issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism still has a long way to go before it passes suitability for human testing.

But then, an estimated 10 percent of Americans, and 80 percent of those over 55 women that are especially vulnerable to osteoarthritis will be wanting to know how this particular line of research goes.

Find more details from CBC.Ca News.

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What Is the Body Mass Index?

The BMI (Body Mass Index) has become a useful tool in managing weight and body fat percentage in the last 20 years. Calculating it requires only simple arithmetic and can be performed by anyone. It’s important because it provides an objective measurement that, combined with the appropriate scale for age and body type, helps someone manage their body weight more scientifically.

Judgments about body weight can easily become clouded by emotionalism. It’s good to be passionate about managing your body, but you need to get a good grounding in facts, first. BMI is an important tool for achieving that goal.

BMI factors in not only your weight, but also your height. Simply divide your weight in kilograms (1 lb = 0.454 kg) by the square of your height in meters. (1 inch = 2.54 cm)

So, for a person 5 ft 7 in (67 inches) tall, who weighs 120 lbs the calculation would look like this:

Height: 67 inches x 2.54 cm/inch = 170.18 cm = 1.7018 m
Height squared: 1.7018 m x 1.7018 m = 2.896 m^2
Weight: 120 lbs x 0.454 kg/lb = 54.48 kg

So, BMI = 54.48 kg / 2.896 m^2 = 18.81

But what does this number mean? The following table lists one commonly accepted classification, using BMI:

Under 18.5 = Underweight
Between 18.5 and 24.99 = Normal
Between 25 and 29.99 = Overweight
Between 30 and 34.99 = Obese (Class 1)
Between 35 and 39.99 = Obese (Class 2)
40 and above = Extreme Obesity

Of course, anyone near the borderline of one classification shouldn’t panic, since these can’t be anything but guidelines. Nevertheless, anyone nearer the higher range should consider the health risks associated with a high BMI. Some of those are: hypertension, increased risk of cardiovascular disease (heart problems) and increased chance of diabetes. Consult a physician for details.

There are limitations on the usefulness of BMI. It doesn’t take into account different body types, athletic conditioning, age, muscle-to-fat ratio and other characteristics. As a result, it can overestimate the risk for stocky athletes and underestimate it for older individuals who have reduced muscle mass. And, gender isn’t taken into account either. Yet women, just as one example, have a naturally larger percentage of body fat than men, on average.

Another measure is useful to couple with BMI: waist circumference. Since, for men and women both (though particularly for men) body fat is stored preferentially around the waist this can be a useful piece of information. For most men around, say, 5 ft 9 inches a waist measurement over 37 inches (94 cm) is substantial, while one over 40 inches (101.6 cm) indicates a health risk. For women approximately 5 ft 7 inches tall, the numbers are 31 inches (78.7 cm) and 35 inches (89 cm), respectively.

Keep in mind that these are averages, but those with substantial waistlines can see the amount of excess fat stored, confirming that the numbers constitute a useful piece of information.

What to do with, or about, those numbers is a different story, of course. No single measurement tells the whole story about weight, body fat and how to manage it. But these represent useful and objective measures when considering any weight loss program.

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Post-Christmas Greetings, Arthritis Diet and the Most Popular Home Remedies for Arthritis

Well, Christmas is over and we are now stressing for the New Year’s party preparation.

So, what did you get aside from the Christmas gifts?

A big hang-over? Due to all the alcohol you had.

Constipation? Indigestion? Due to all that food you ate.

Have you already gotten enough rest and sleep?

Most importantly, how’s your arthritis? Have your symptoms gotten worse?

Well…here are some remedies that might help.

They’re not mine, but from American Chronicle’s Arthritis Cure Secrets – Most Popular Home Remedies for Arthritis:

1. Try a red flannel wrapped gently around painful joint and leave it overnight.
2. A gentle massage with warm live oil as soon as the pain starts is cheap and effective. One of the good home remedies for arthritis.
3. Garlic, juniper, lavender, cajuput, sage, rosemary, thyme, or sassafras. Any one of these oils diluted in the proportions of one part to 10 parts of olive oil and used to massage the painful joint will bring immense relief. One of the well liked home remedies for arthritis.
4. The patient should be given a lukewarm enema for a few days to cleanse the bowels as the first step to prevent arthritis is to relieve constipation.
5. Steam baths and massage once a week are beneficial in the treatment of arthritis.
6. All general cold-water treatments, such as cold baths and cold sprays, should be avoided.
7. An extra supplement of calcium, zinc and vitamin C is often recommended and is worth trying at an early stage.
8. Sea bathing is considered beneficial in the treatment of arthritis.
9. The water should be drunk in the morning with an empty stomach. Fresh juice can also be extracted from potatoes and dilute it with water on 50:50 basis make it the first thing in the morning. One of the well liked home remedies for arthritis.
10. Dandalion is the remedy of choice–its leaf has diuretic quality that increases output from the kidneys, while its root is a mild laxative and liver tonic that enhances bowel movement.
11. Circulation around the joints can be improved through tissue-cleansing properties of essential oils, of Juniper, Cypress and Lemon, whereas oils of lavender, Rosemary and Chamomile have mild analgesic and high anti-inflammatory properties.
12. Take 1-2 capsules of cold liver oil daily, use hot/cold water according to local weather conditions.
13. Take four peeled pieces of garlic, and two grams of Sprague. Powder both and dip in 30 grams of mustard oil and heat slowly. Massage daily with this oil on pains. One of the effective home remedies for arthritis.
14. Take 10 grams of camphor and 200 grams of mustard oil. Mix in a glass bottle and close with a tight cork and keep the bottle in the sun till the camphor dissolves. Massage the affected area daily. One of the best home remedies for arthritis.
15. With feet massage eyesight improves and dryness, swelling and Oil massage should be done at least four times a mouth.
16. The patient suffering from arthritis should not sit idle nor over-exert himself or herself. Immobility may lead to stiffness of joints and over-exertion may be lead to damage of ligaments.
17. Epsom salts (4 TBSP) should be added to bathing water, to reduce inflammation and stiffness of joints.
18. The body should be kept warm at all times. Joints should not be bandaged tightly as this limits movement and interferes with the free circulation of blood.
19. The patient should relax for 30 minutes every night in a tub of warm water in which cupful of sea salt has been mixed.

Most importantly, the said American Chronicle article reminded us of the Arthritis Diet. Indeed, what use are these remedies if your diet is bad for your condition?

These are the highlights of a good arthritis diet:

• The diet of the arthritis patient should be planned along alkaline lines and should include fruits and vegetables for protection, proteins and carbohydrates for energy.
• Red meat and dairy products are destructive.
• A vegetarian diet, or one including fish, with plenty or raw fruit and vegetables can do miracles.
• Cabbage, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, onion, radishes, tomatoes and watercress may be used for raw salad.
• The cooked vegetables may include asparagus, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, celery, brinjal, mushroom, onions, peas, beans, spinach, tomatoes, squash and turnips.

Personally, the above lists are very helpful to me. Hope it helps you as well.

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Battling Cancer asks Readers to be Generous this Holiday Season

If you’ve been following the Too Sexy For My Hair blog, you’ve learned that Lori Miller has lost her battle against cancer this past October. Her husband Cary, however, is urging people to consider donating to charity in Lori’s name this holiday season.

From Too Sexy For My Hair:

Those of you who knew Lori will be well aware that she was beyond compassionate––even in her darkest hour she continually found other people to worry about… the homeless, the poor, the sick, the mentally ill.

Anyway, in honoring my wife’s truly giving spirit, I have decided to keep up with our recent tradition of helping others around the globe via great organizations such as Heifer International, and Kiva.org.

Click on the link for more information on how you can donate in Lori’s name. Please be as generous as you can be this season.

On a related note, check out this video from a cancer patient’s last lecture — “If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.”

Battling Cancer seeks to bring you the latest in cancer news, opinion, resources, and off-beat stories. Don’t miss out — subscribe to our RSS feed!

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Welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED Battling Stress Site

I am currently in the midst of upgrading all the “Battling For Health” sites to the new network template, and happy to say that this BATTLING STRESS blog finally has a new look. Although, I am still testing this template (it’s in beta mode) .. while I am doing this I have removed a few plugins and installed a few more – so, if you see anything screwy or kooky – please drop me a comment about it!

Take care – and, hope you had a Wonderful Christmas!

HART

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Stress at Work – The Cure

Being placed in situations that demand the impossible almost inevitably lead to stress. Unrealistic deadlines to meet useless goals, enforced by unreasonable managers – are an all too common scenario. But individuals who find themselves in such circumstances still have options.

There are a dozen small, stress-relieving exercises that can help ease the symptoms while working toward the long-term cure. Stress produces a number of well-documented physiological effects like muscle tension, shallow breathing and compromised immune system. To combat these, you can take direct action.

Take a few deep breaths, slowly. No need to go into some kind of Zen state, just allow yourself to expand the chest and relieve tension around the center of the body. Stretch the arms and shoulders. Gently work the head from side to side. Flex the calves.

Take a few minutes to work on your mental processes as well. Stress often inhibits the ability to focus or concentrate effectively. It decreases memory retention on needed items because the irritation causes focus to shift to the fact of being angry.

While you’re breathing deeply, close your eyes and meditate for a couple of minutes. Again, that doesn’t require any form of deep relaxation, just a moment to let the external world go. At the same time, you don’t want to focus solely on the anger or stress you’re feeling. Focus on an internal image of something pleasant – a child’s face, the family dog, a great golf swing, anything that works for you.

Now that you’ve tackled the symptoms, go after the roots of the problem.

Many choose to start their own businesses. That choice brings with it a whole new set of challenges, but the overarching benefit is the freedom to meet them. You’ll find yourself working long hours with little recognition. But, even in the absence of large external rewards, the internal rewards – the satisfaction, the feeling of being the ‘commander of your own ship’ – is frequently cited as a major incentive for those who keep trying.

Many others will try to work for positive change within their current organization. Even when those efforts are only partially successful, individuals report that they gain satisfaction from the knowledge that they are not simply accepting their unpleasant fate passively.

You can make efforts to transfer to another job within the organization, or look forward to the day when that unreasonable boss will have moved on. Remember, very few things in any company stay the same for more than six months to a year.

While you’re waiting for better circumstances, focus on the process less than the results. Keep a realistic attitude about what is and what is not within your control. Try not to let the latter matter very much. Seek out the cooperative individuals in the company and don’t burden yourself with trying to change the others.

By all means, let off some steam to trusted friends and family members outside work. At work, stay focused on the task.

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Battling Cancer Wishes you a Merry Christmas!

On behalf of the kind folks at HART Networks (and by that, I mean HART and Gloria) , I want to wish all of you Battling Cancer readers a Merry Christmas! I’ll see you all under the mistletoe — but don’t tell my husband! (Hmm, I seem to be saying that a lot lately).

Best Wishes,

Lesly

Battling Cancer seeks to bring you the latest in cancer news, opinion, resources, and off-beat stories. Don’t miss out — subscribe to our RSS feed!

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Government Covers up Cancer-Causing Toxic Sludge?

Federal officials are being asked to answer why they gave an “all clear status” to a toxic waste dump in Pennsylvania’s Schukill County after a report given at the the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting stated that the number of rare cancer diagnoses in inhabitants living nearby was “statistically improbable.”

The site, a former mine, was used as a dumping ground for paint sludge, solvents, and other potential carcinogens, before being shut down in 1979. Later, the area was classified as a Superfund site by the Environment Protection Agency.

From Wired:

In 2001, the EPA took the sites off the Superfund list, but didn’t fully account for all the waste deposited there. Residents say McAdoo and the government failed to completely clean up and believe pollution caused freakishly high local levels of polycythemia vera, a rare form of cancer characterized by red blood cell overproduction.

In the fall of 2006, state officials asked the ATSDR to study the reported cancer cluster. The ATSDR, who officially state that “site-related contamination poses no public health hazard because there is no evidence of current or past exposures,” contracted Mount Sinai School of Medicine cancer researcher Ronald Hoffman to do the work.

The Agency on Toxic Substances and Disease Registry who commissioned the review later called the “biased and misleading.”

Government agency covering up cancer cases? Sounds like another case of Erin Brockovich — movie-worthy drama, but still frighteningly true. Perhaps the feds might want to consider doing something worthwhile with the toxic slurry.

Battling Cancer seeks to bring you the latest in cancer news, opinion, resources, and off-beat stories. Don’t miss out — subscribe to our RSS feed!

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Welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED Battling Obesity Site

We Have A New Template!

At the moment, you are looking at the beta version of the NEW look for the HART-Empire Network. For 2008, I plan to roll out similar templates to all my sites around the network. For all “Battling For Health” series of blogs, the templates will be quite similar with the same colors and general feel – with, each blog’s uniqueness adding to it’s growth. All readers from any health blog will now be able to quickly jump to another health blog, via the links at the top of the page.

While this template is up and running, it still is in BETA version, and I would be interested in your opinions and suggestions about the useability of this site. There are a few new things being created or in development – and, a few things forgone from the old template. We have a couple of things in this new template that might take an extra second to load, but have installed a plugin to cache these pages and images and the overall experience should be a positive one, and faster!

So .. what do you think?

Other sites currently with this template are:

HART-Empire-Network.com
arthritis.BattlingForHealth.com
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Generally, I hope to roll out this identical template with all the domains and sites of the “Battling For Health” series of blogs.

Take care, Seasons Greetings … and all our best in 2008!

HART

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Weight Loss, Arthritis and Holiday Feasting

Gloria Gamat, from the Battling Arthritis blog wrote an interesting article titled .. Weight Loss, Osteoarthritis and Your Christmas Recipes

Tomorrow night will be Christmas Eve and you most likely have your recipes memorized and the ingredients all bought in preparation for the food you will serve your family on Christmas.

What if there is an arthritis patient in your family? Then you have to put that into consideration when planning your meals for the holiday. Not only arthritis, but what if there is a diabetic or an hypertensive person in the family?

If that is the case then I always recommend cooking healthy foods to be on the safe. Let not be the holidays be an excuse to forget that particular diet you were following in lieu of your condition — diabetes, hypertension, arthritis…etc.

… continued //

It’s a good read . check it out!

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Weight Loss, Osteoarthritis and Your Christmas Recipes

Tomorrow night will be Christmas Eve and you most likely have your recipes memorized and the ingredients all bought in preparation for the food you will serve your family on Christmas.

What if there is an arthritis patient in your family? Then you have to put that into consideration when planning your meals for the holiday. Not only arthritis, but what if there is a diabetic or an hypertensive person in the family?

If that is the case then I always recommend cooking healthy foods to be on the safe side. Let not be the holidays be an excuse to forget that particular diet you were following in lieu of your condition — diabetes, hypertension, arthritis…etc.

One more thing I would like to remind you of: your weight. If you have arthritis, being overweight or obese is not going to help you. Being close to your ideal weight will surely reduce your risk for osteoarthritis. (Read more about the osteoarthritis-weight association from Johns Hopkins.)

Being overweight is a clear risk factor for developing OA. Population-based studies have consistently shown a link between overweight or obesity and knee OA. Estimating prevalence across populations is difficult since definitions for obesity and knee OA vary among investigators.

Data from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES I) indicated that obese women had nearly 4 times the risk of knee OA as compared with non-obese women; for obese men, the risk was nearly 5 times greater. (ref. 6) In a study from Framingham MA, overweight individuals in their thirties who did not have knee OA were at greater risk of later developing the disease. (ref. 7)

Other investigations, which performed repeated x-rays over time also, have found that being overweight significantly increases the risk of developing knee OA. (refs. 8 and 9) It is estimated that persons in the highest quintile of body weight have up to 10 times the risk of knee OA than those in the lowest quintile. (ref. 5)

Case in point: mine. Earlier this year, I weighed a whooping 165 lbs. I am barely 5 ft. tall, so I know that is too far from my ideal weight. When my osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms attacked in mid-August, my weight made it even worse. I changed my eating habits and now I weigh 135 lbs. My OA is better, not only due to my changed diet but also because of the meds, vitamins and other therapies I am taking. The symptoms are less and I don’t suffer as much as I used to.

At 135 lbs., by BMI says I’m still a bit overweight. While I am convinced I need to shed more weight, this holiday season is an odd against that goal. Despite that, I am keeping myself from overeating. I definitely do not want to regain all those pounds I lost.

SO. If you are arthritic like me. remind yourself to eat healthier, not only this holiday season but for all times.

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