My dad unfortunately had to go through an emergency heart bypass surgery recently. He had mostly followed an average dietary lifestyle all along. In a general medical check-up 1 of the major arteries was found to be 90% clogged.
(photo courtesy : buffalo.edu)
The operation was successful & he recoverd remarkably well, thanks to my mother’s support. But his appetite levels were low, prompting me to advice him certain sprouts beneficial for his situation. Raw sprouts are rich with enzymes and don’t need any digestion. They provide all the nutrients with minimal calories so even with low food intake he can be assured of his body getting all the essential micro nutrients. I was pleased to find him game for them . Here are my 3 recommendations for everyone’s benefit: (more…)
Just saw these ads over at QuitSmokingPainlesslyNow and I had the same sentiment as the writer there: “Can you imagine mums puffing away and the innocent babies, toddlers and children growing up as passive smokers inhaling all the poison? I shuddered at the thought of it.” In fact, I was so astonished to discover that Goofy (yes, the famous Disney dog) actually smokes. Pop over to see that short Disney movie on Goofy’s smoking.
Mums and Mums-to-be shouldn’t smoke at all cost. Contrary to what the ads said, they should feel over-smoke every time they want a puff!They should not put the young ones at peril any time, anywhere.
Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking
Technorati Tags: Marlboro advertisement, cigarette ad, smoking
Christmas is coming soon and what is more appropriate than to do a post giving HOPE to stroke survivors! Basically a Stroke causes brain damaged or more accurately brain cells damaged. Contemporary Medical Science says that there is no way to recover that part of the brain that is damaged. The only hope for recovery is through the process of Physotherapy to train the good part of the brain to take over the function handled by the damaged part.
Research done at MIT by Elli Nedivi assistant professor of Neurobiology shows that the adult brain cells do grow contradicting what used to believe otherwise. In 3D time lapse images, the brain cells pushed out tentative tendrils that grows round neighbouring cells. What it means is that one day it is possible to grow new cells to replace cells damaged by stroke. (See the photo)
Although this is new and the growth detected were of a small scale but the fact that it grows is the amazing thing said Nedivi. Lets pray and hope that as research progresses it won’t be too far a distant future to see big strides in this area and one day stroke survivor can re-grow the damaged part of the brain!
Our team has expanded! Let’s welcome our latest member, Betty Vong.
Betty confessed that she had been leading an unhealthy lifestyle about 3 years ago. Her health was poor and she didn’t like the look of herself. Today, she is fit and healthy and is a fully certified personal trainer as well as a sports massage therapist! Some of the award-winning sportsmen and sportswomen from Singapore have gone under her care. Quite a big change!
We are certain we shall gain from Betty’s knowledge and experience.
Before you even try to stop smoking, tell yourself you are committed to quit smoking. Not “wanting to try”, not “trying” but 100% committed to make quit smoking a success. There is a difference between a “want” and a “commitment”. A “want” is simply a nice-to-have and we basically just shrug our shoulders if we couldn’t have that luxury. A commitment is almost like an oath, we promise ourselves that we will live and breath that something. Unless you commit 100% to stop smoking, the chances of failure is very high.
For things to change first change yourself. I recently attended a money-management seminar that emphasized a lot on the process of “unlearning”. If you have negative thoughts about yourself for being a failure to stop smoking, stop being so hard for yourself. The process of unlearning is tough as we need time and effort to re-condition our minds to think positively about ourselves and everything we do. How we do anything is how we do everything. If you are the type who doesn’t have perseverance and patience, quit smoking will be tough but that doesn’t mean you are doomed to failure. It just means that you need to be conscious about it.
Take a look at yourself … … (more…)
I would like to share about personality changes that can happen to stroke survivors. Personality or behavioral changes are rather difficult for family members and caregivers to understand and get accustomed to. Suddenly that person seems different, for example from a caring nature to apathy!
Apart from depression, which is quite normal for stroke survivors to experience, there are other emotional deficiencies such as frustration out bursts or short temper due to difficulty of speech, memory loss, forgetfulness, and lack of clarity in thoughts. These are all rather frustrating and debilitating to the stroke survivor. Short-term memory loss seems to be associated with people with left-brain stroke. Problem solving ability is sometimes affected and this may give rise to deficiencies in their awareness and ability to do things. They think that they can do things but they really can’t! This was the reason Rock rolled down the stairs twice! She tried to do things independently, but she was not ready for that, but she could not understand that.
Another common problem stroke survivors experience is the lack of (more…)
This impacts all of us directly without exception – Right Now! Today! At this very moment!
Yeah, It’s not just about strokes. Or about what else ‘can’ or ‘might’ happen in the senior most years of ones life. Blame it on “old age”, blame it on anything but abysmal levels of awareness on this issue – generally speaking. And it pains me no-end to see & say that. A ‘stroke’ (or any similar malady involving our circulatory system in any way whatsoever) is like an accident almost fated to happen at some point in the semi-conscious jaunt of a drunken driver; drunk with ignorance. My apologies for the bluntness but what can be more irresponsible than not taking care of our own health & thereby “unintentionally” causing pain to our near & dear ones? besides losing years of quality life, enjoyment, productivity & contribution to others in what could truly be the seasoned prime of one’s life.
That one image showcases the entire story inside of us. It may be happening right now in your body but you don’t know it as yet.
As you can see – this is a schematic of a section of a typical capillary network carrying blood. Only red blood cells are shown for simplicity sake. The blue arrows point in the direction of blood flow. You can see some cells bunched together & sluggishly pushing through in capillary no. 3. But capillary no. 4 is one of the thinnest ones – & hence most susceptible to blockage sooner or later. Alas!
And why do some of these blockages go undiagnosed? (more…)
There are people who are blessed with good health. Yet others are blessed with great families. There will always come a time, when we need to have our families with us.
Caring for an aged mother is not easy task. But if you add to that, an ailing, aged mother; then the load becomes heavy indeed. Care-givers are under a lot of stress everyday. The worse thing about their kind of stress, is that they cannot simply “leave the office” and get away from it all. Even when they go on vacation, they worry. Unless you are a care-giver yourself, it is going to be really hard for you to understand the depth of emotions that care-givers go through. But one of the most trying times of all, is the time when you need to decide to put your ailing, aged parent into a care home.
Many people cannot even bear the thought of doing that. But when the manpower required, the equipment and the level of expertise and intensity of the nursing become too much for the family, care homes are actually a better option. They have the trained professionals, the right environment and most importantly, the required manpower to provide constant care.
This website: BetterCaring.com provides a lot of information to help care-givers. There is a section to help you if you decide to to take care of your aged parent at home. And if you so decide that you need the expertise of a care home, you can read up on residential care there.
In the past, we rely on friends and well-meaning advise from relatives. But with the wealth of resources available to us, care-givers can now tap into the Internet and get more information that ever before. Not only that, information now comes from experts and authoritative sources rather than blindly follow old wives’ tales.
Technorati Tags: care giver, nursing homes, health professionals
