JOURNAL
The remedy for a great night's sleep may be hiding in your kitchen.
The remedy for a great night's sleep may be hiding in your kitchen.
If you are experiencing sleepless nights, you are not alone. According to the CDC, more folks are having difficulty sleeping, which may affect your health. Sleeplessness has been linked to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. As noted by Kaiser Permanente, there are tricks to a better night’s sleep, and they may be hiding in your kitchen.
Easy tips on how to stay active while working from home. via Kaiser Permanente
Here are some tips that can help:
If possible, work at a standing desk. If you don’t have one available to use at home, try standing more throughout the day — for example, when you’re eating lunch, talking on the phone, or teleconferencing.
Even if you can’t go far, getting up and walk around a bit every hour. Consider setting the alarm to remind yourself to move regularly during the workday. Just taking the time to walk through each room of your home can help.
At night, instead of sinking into the couch to watch television, use an exercise ball to get some extra movement in for the day.
Give yourself credit for the steps you take during the day. If you set realistic goals, wearing an activity tracker to measure your progress might make sense. If you start standing and moving around your home more, you’ll see your activity level rise.
Women's Heart Health - Heart attack symptoms and the ways to care for yourself
Cardiovascular diseases claim the lives of women every 80 seconds (AHA, 2020). While most of us are familiar with the iconic red dress, that symbolizes the American Heart Association’s, Go Red For Women Campaign. Not all of us are familiar with the statistic that doctors may be more likely to dismiss heart attack symptoms as not heart-related in women younger than 55. Researchers interviewed close to 3,000 individuals, both women, and men and found that 53 percent of women said their provider didn’t think their symptoms were heart-related, compared with 35 percent of men. (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018). This is because sixty-two percent of women present with more than three non-chest pain symptoms, compared to 54.8 percent of men. Because of this, 53 percent of women said their healthcare provider, misinterpreted or ignored young women who need care (Healthline, 2020). Additionally, women delay seeking care for symptoms such as dizziness or shortness of breath. In a small study conducted on women, ages 30 to 55, the most common reason why women delayed seeking care is that they had trouble recognizing the symptoms of a heart attack (Sing, 2015). If women experience three-non-chest pain symptoms of a heart attack, what are all of the warning signs?
Coronavirus and the ways you can protect yourself while traveling
As coronavirus claims more lives in China and the virus spreads to new continents, airline travelers are growing more concerned about catching the virus while in flight. Americans currently face a low risk of becoming infected by the coronavirus. However, the CDC has issued statements confirming that this is a severe public health threat. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. While that sounds dangerous, they are a common virus that causes symptoms such as a runny nose, headache, cough, and sore throat. In 2019, a new strain of coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China. While this strain has not previously been identified in humans, most people will get infected with a coronavirus at some time in their life. While this is a rapidly changing situation, it is providing an excellent opportunity to reflect on healthy habits individuals should practice while traveling by plane.
Chronic Knee Pain and the RICE formula
At some point in one’s life, knee pain will affect you or someone you love and being informed in ways to avoid injury is the best steps to prevent chronic knee pain. Knee injury doesn’t just occur from a slip or fall, the swelling or pain could be a result of a childhood knee trauma, an injury from playing sports in high school that occasionally flares up, a ruptured ligament or torn cartilage, or a medical condition including arthritis, gout, and infections.
The knee is the biggest joint in the body, which assists with sitting, standing, lifting, walking, running, and jumping. However, it also contains lots of mechanisms such as tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones that can tear, crack, dislocate, and swell.
A study conducted by the Osteo Arthritis Society International in 2013, found that 79% of the respondents reported chronic knee pain is one of the most significant factors in reduced productivity at work, and 14% reported having to take off 1 or more days of work in 12 months. Another noteworthy result from the study was that the respondents reported to take more days off from work due to being unpresentable for the work environment, where either they were limping or had to use an assisted devise. While knee pain is painful, it may go away with simple treatment. Let’s look at some of the strategies for preventing or alleviating chronic knee pain.
Breathe Deeply - A quick guide to being prepared during an emergency
On a recent vacation, our family had to quickly evacuate a summer vacation home due to a fast-growing wildfire and to be honest, I panicked. Not only were we just starting to get comfortable, but we also had dinner cooking on the BBQ, and all our suitcases unpacked. So, with that being said, I thought I would write a quick article on what to do during an emergency.
Every single year, thousands of people deal with emergencies in their home, and they deal with these emergencies alone or far from home. Whether it’s heart attacks or seizures, falling down or a fast -growing wildfire, you can find yourself in an emergency at any time. The only thing to do is to stay calm during an emergency as much as possible. Let’s take a look at some tips to help you to remain as calm as possible during an emergency.
The Common Symptoms of Leaky Gut Syndrome
“Leaky gut syndrome” is the name given to a common health phenomenon that has yet to be declared an official illness or condition. Even though it isn’t considered to be a health condition in its own right, some health experts argue that sufferers of certain long-term conditions, including multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome, are likely to experience its symptoms.
Do you want to learn more about leaky gut syndrome and what exactly its symptoms and possible cures are? If so, read on to find out more!
Income Inequality and its Impact on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
Income inequality continues to rise throughout the country. This issue is perhaps best summed up by the phrase; the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
Too many people at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder are deprived of good working wages. In comparison, the wealthiest people in the country continue to make more and more money. While the prominent executives are taking home huge bonuses, the people down at the bottom are struggling to get by on minimum wage.
Naturally, this creates a troubling situation in the U.S. Income inequality has significant implications on the lives of millions of people. In this post, we look to explore some of the critical areas that are most impacted by the growing income inequality.
An increase in ACEs
ACEs are adverse childhood experiences, which primarily refers to any stressful or damaging events that happen during childhood, thus can affect health and development across the life course (Halfon, Larson, Son, Lu, & Bethell, 2017). Unfortunately, this can include domestic violence, children being abandoned by parents, a parent being imprisoned, or growing up in an uncertain home environment that’s plagued by arguments or drug abuse problems.
Getting Fit – It’s Never Too Late to Start
If there’s one thing we all know, it’s that regular exercise is good for our health, and that a sedentary lifestyle can have a negative effect on our physical wellbeing. National guidelines suggest that the average adult should partake in a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes vigorous exercise per week[1]in order to maintain a healthy body. Until recently, it’s been believed that this level of exercise needs to be relatively consistent throughout your life in order to reap the benefits and reduce the risk of death. A new study, however, suggests that actually, it’s never too late to start.
Why Starting Later is Still Beneficial
The study, carried out at the National Cancer Institute and published in JAMA Network Open, examined people’s exercise patterns and subsequent death records, recording the correlation between an active lifestyle and age and cause of death[2]. Researchers looked at data from 315,059 Americans between the ages of 50 and 71 who had completed questionnaires rating their activity level in the 1990s. The study then tracked who had died and why, up until the end of 2011, taking into account other factors such as age, sex, whether they smoked, their diet, and so on[3]. Of those examined, over 71,000 had died – 22,000 of heart disease, and 16,000 of cancer[4]. Of those examined, 56% claimed they had remained consistently active throughout their lives, 30% stated their exercise levels had declined, and 13% said they started getting fit in later life[5].
Of course, those who consistently exercised had a lower risk of death when compared to those who didn’t exercise at all (around 42% less chance of dying from heart disease, and 14% less chance of dying from cancer[6]). What the researchers found really interesting, however, is that those who started getting fit in later life had a similar result (43% less likely to die from heart disease, and 16% less chance of dying from cancer). That means that even if you’ve not been active in your early life, it’s not too late to start – you can reap the benefits! Dr. Pedro Saint-Maurice, lead author of the study, explained, “if you maintain an active lifestyle or participate in some sort of exercise […] you can reduce your risk of dying. If you are not active and you get to your 40-50s and you decide to become active, you can still enjoy these benefits”[7].
Beyond Traditional Meat Production: Is Lab-Grown Meat the Way Forward?
Discussions of healthy, sustainable eating are becoming more and more frequent in current times. The consumption of meat is a big part of that, and it’s not all that surprising when you release just how much animal product, we consume each and every year. The average American consumes a huge 7,000 animals in their lifetime[1], and the equivalent of 800 hamburgers per year[2]. There are campaigns and programs in place to try to reduce this, of course. Meat-free Mondaysare increasingly popular, and the number of people identifying as vegan in the US has risen by a massive 600% in the last three years[3]. But what if there was another way? Companies such as Memphis Meats and Just say that there is another way. A better, cleaner way, but a way that still allows us to enjoy meat products. How? By growing meat in the laboratory.
Sustainable Meat
A spokesman from Memphis Meats explained that “Americans spend roughly $90 billion per year – just on chicken. But while poultry products are delicious and satisfying, the process by which they are made is not. It involves environmental degradation, animal welfare concerns, and public health risks”[4]. Lab grown meat aims to overcome those fewer appealing characters of meat eating. The meat itself is grown from animal cells rather than the actual animal. The cells can even be taken from feathers, so the animal is not harmed in any way, and the meat is not grown into a whole animal, but merely pieces of meat[5]. This process makes use of technology that, while not new, is only now beginning to be used for the production of meat, and it aims to take away the negatives of traditional meat farming. Californian based company Just aims for its products to be cheaper, healthier, and more popular than traditional meat[6], but there are some things standing in their way at the moment.