You have about 300% as much liver as you need according to Dr. Neha Pathak the Medical Editor at WebMD.com. Currently, only about 4% of liver transplants are done with living donors who give about 40% of their liver to someone in need. This means that you can safely donate up to two-thirds of your liver to another person. The part of your liver that is removed will grow back in about 8 weeks. Dr. Sylvester Black, a liver transplant…..
Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60% of dementia and it’s fatal. 40% with early-onset Alzheimer’s exhibit apathy about their life and condition. Dementia is a nonreversible decline in mental function – it’s an umbrella term under which Alzheimer’s falls. 14 million – the number of American’s expected to have Alzheimer’s by 2050. To be called dementia, the disorder must be severe enough to interfere with daily life according to Constantine George Lyketsos, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer’s…..
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease characterized by progressive mental deterioration and memory loss. (Merrian-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus.) When I read this statement a quote comes to mind. “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!” Walter Scott may not have been thinking of Alzheimer’s when he coined the phrase. Unfortunately, and ironically, this quote seems appropriate for Alzheimer’s, especially when referring to the tangles forming in our brains from the accumulation of dead…..
Mr. Columbus discovered the perfect foods. All you need to do is reach out and take them. What a wonderful set up for you. Christopher finds lucious, ripe fruits dripping with sticky juice, a colorful array of healthy vegetables, prime sources of protein, choice selections of digestible fiber and clear, clean drinkable water. Ummm, my mouth is watering and I’m drooling just thinking about the abundance of choices. I’m not sure how the idea of fast foods and extra-large, sugary…..
‘Marketing information for this decade is in flux.’ This statement is from an article re-posted by a blogger, Nicholas Rossis, titled “How To Market Your Book In 2020.” It describes the changing landscape of book advancement from aggressively promoting immediate upcoming book launches that morph into promoting year-round book presentations. The changing mindset of book promotions reflects that readers, whether by turning pages or placing an earbud in their ear, want to be offered quality, not quantity information. Social media…..
We enter a New Year with a decade attached. Hopes are high and resolutions sharp. Anticipation drips off words and actions. Verbosity and intention our worth. Too much adrenaline may be our curse. Enjoying the feeling sways easy. Focusing attention skews the anticipation. Throttle and measure the pedal of movement. Counter annihilation of anticipation and propel yourself on a true course of achievement.
Hands heavy with dirt, disease, and devilish deed doers touch our lives every day. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, (10/2018) handwashing with soap could protect about 1 out of every 3 young children who get sick with diarrhea and almost 1 out of 5 young children with respiratory infections like pneumonia. Feces (poop) from people or animals is an important source of germs like Salmonella, E.coli 0157, and norovirus that cause diarrhea, and it can…..
Our personal credit cards may be straining after this holiday gift-giving season but according to new research reported on the Nightly Business Report, (12/12/2019) 137 million people face financial hardship in 2019 due to medical debt. An increased number of patients are paying off medical bills with their credit cards. According to CompareCards.com, 33% are in debt due to medical bills. 60% used a credit card because they had no other way to pay 15% owe $1 thousand – $5…..
The hustle and bustle of holiday shopping bring out unique shoppers. The joy of the holidays can be overshadowed by the stress of shopping. Stress often disrupts our sleep pattern and can have a negative impact on our immune system. With this in mind, there are a few holiday shoppers to be aware as you forge ahead to stay healthy and happy this holiday season. There’s bruising Bubba who always barges in front of the line. Who can forget elegant…..
A recent article in American Nurse Today (Nov. 2019 Vol.14 #11 p.6-11) written by Eloise Theisen MSN, AGPCNP-BC, and Eileen Konieczny, RN, BCPA outlines the long history that cannabis has taken for medicine and spiritual use. Currently, 33 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto allow medical cannabis use under specific qualifying conditions, and 11 states (and the District of Columbia) allow adult recreational use. The endocannabinoid system maintains homeostasis which makes it a unique target for medical applications……
Boxing is a competitive sport in which Oscar De La Hoya excels. He retires and enters the International Boxing Hall of Fame holding six boxing titles: Featherweight, Lightweight, Super Lightweight, Welterweight, Super Welterweight, and Middleweight. Oscar gives a television interview with Dan Patrick on “Undeniable” in which he discusses his ability to switch from a fierce-contender fighting attitude inside the boxing ring to a likable guy outside the fighting arena. Competing at the Middleweight level gave Oscar an overreach for…..
This is a busy week full of travel, adventure, and socializing with authors who write about adventure, science fiction, intrigue, suspense, family drama, animal science, and police investigations. I’m honored to be a Finalist in the Readers’ Favorite 2019 International Book Awards Contest with my latest book RIPPLES IN THE GENERATIONS. The award ceremony recognized gifted authors from around the world who received not only prestigious peer reviews but were recognized as credible storytellers in the publishing world. My book…..
Puppies are born with the instinct to make eye contact with humans. Dogs understand the significance of where we look and where we point to relay a command. Dogs learn by watching us. It’s not only what we say but what we do that garners a response from dogs. Just as dogs respond to eye contact our bodies respond to our daily routines. The seasons are changing from summer to autumn and since we’re looking toward the holidays it’s important…..
As a writer, I’m always thinking about words and as a nurse, I’m always thinking about bodies the two ideas seem to go together. Each of these entities has individual parts that contribute to making the whole a better unit yet if we take each part away from the whole the unit rearranges and doesn’t function. Books and bodies, each is a sum of the whole – a person needs to read the signs of their body to determine the…..
Microbiome (mikro . biom) – This medical term has it’s first known use in 1952. It’s the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space. Joshua Lederberg coined the term arguing the importance of microorganisms inhabiting the human body in health and disease. Simply, it’s the bugs that live on or in us. The bacteria, fungi, and viruses that inhabit a particular environment and especially the collection of microorganisms living on our body number about…..
Watching someone communicate using a hand-held telephone is like viewing a magicians’ sleight-of-hand skeletal manipulation – the fingers cradle the phone while the thumbs frantically hop across a neon-lit screen resembling adrenalin-infused high jumpers. My definition of Thumbdriving is the skillful art of using your thumbs repeatedly to tap visual buttons on the smooth surface of a functioning electronic device with the goal of producing a retrievable text message. Young children do it, teenagers do it, adults do it and…..
Just like our bodies are made to move, being healthy is dynamic. When was the last time that you made a health mistake? Did you correct yourself harshly or grant yourself a free pass? Often when we’re trying to achieve our healthiest selves we hold ourselves to a level of perfection that’s impossible to reach. Imagine that you’re a work in progress – you’re not done with yourself!!! Medical literature and research give us some measurable goals to observe along…..
A poem from my life experience. Her desperate voice: Mom, it’s burning Mom, it’s gone Assistance, immediate Life, gutted Repairs, hard Mourn Rebuild Smile Rest
Our neighborhood community garden has a pumpkin patch full of ripe, multi-colored, multi-sized gourds. I marvel at the variety of shapes in this garden yet each different fruit seems to occupy its own distinct place to make the garden a beautiful, restful place. There are small, white gourds with deep ridges lying next to large, deep-yellow colored pumpkins marked with misshaped forms. Long-necked gourds snuggle next to orange, perfectly round pumpkins that resemble artist-shaped displays. Surprisingly, this mismatched arrangement reveals…..
It’s the end of a busy, stressful day your feet are tired and the blood pressure monitor would probably register high enough so that your doctor is concerned. The fatty, salty burger you gobble for lunch is only partially digested because the hectic office environment keeps you jittery all afternoon. Evening commute Interstate bumper-to-bumper traffic jams have cars backed up for ten miles. Your drive home is eventful enough: you don’t need the road construction barriers marking a detour at…..
A Generational Saga My recent book of fiction ‘Ripples in the Generations’ is a generational saga that explores the delicate process of blending the heart-lifting joy of a life-long high school friendship with a soul-searching genetic relationship. Two factions of the Henry family share a common interest; Williams’ indiscretions, yet each is unaware of just how much they have in common. The next generation of William’s family share his DNA, but William has divided his legacy. Even though this novel…..
Why don’t people report abuse? Three basic reasons SOCIAL PROOF – Victims decide about reporting or revealing abuse when they feel safe about the reporting. They do this after they watch to see how others are treated when they report. They then ask themselves. Will I be treated like that when I disclose my abuse? PERPETRATORS – This defines someone who initiates, continues, fulfills or enacts a crime and continues the code of silence. A perpetrator usually has a set…..
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the hereditary material in humans and most other organisms. According to an article published by the National Institute of Health’s U.S. National Library of Medicine, most DNA is located in the cell nucleus where it is called nuclear DNA, but a small amount of DNA is also found in the mitochondria that convert food into energy. DNA bases ‘pair-up’ with each other – A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. …..
Epigenetics piggybacks with CRISPR. The addition of methyl groups (methylation) to our (deoxyribonucleic acid) DNA can change rapidly during the life span of a cell or organism, or it can be essentially permanent once set early in the development of the embryo (Epigenetics). (Encyclopeaedia Britannica Inc., 2018. Web. 29 Jul. 2018) So, what does this mean? It means what you do in your everyday life or what your ancestors were exposed to can ‘tweak’ your DNA (chemical modification). Essentially, the…..
‘Take 2 and call me in the morning.’ Dr. John Whyte Chief Medical Officer at WebMD states that for more than a century aspirin has been considered a wonder drug; treating conditions from heart disease to easing pain. However, medical providers and scientists are gaining a greater understanding of this ‘wonder drug.’ Even though you can purchase this item over the counter (OTC) without a prescription it may not always be safe. Aspirin works by inhibiting the blood from clotting…..
When was the last time you gave something to someone that was good for their health? We all read information about how to keep ourselves healthy – it’s usually while we’re reading through a magazine article in the waiting room of a doctor’s office or when a friend says to us “Ya just gotta read this great article about vitamins.” But do we actually sit down with someone we care for and talk about health issues or share our time…..
You’re in the spotlight every day. A bright light may not be blinding your eyes or beads of sweat forming on your forehead but a glaring spotlight may be shining right in your direction just the same. That heat is the glare of potential illness. Cancer, diabetes, eczema, multiple sclerosis, depression, asthma, psoriasis, deep vein thrombosis, leukemia, lymphoma, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, meningitis, myocardial infarction are just a few of the potential illnesses that are interrogated under the extreme glow…..
Dirty cellphones. That seems to be a popular subject these days. Initial I think about germs that live on the exterior of cellphones that cause disease. We use our cellphones in every facet of our lives including in health care settings both as family members and health medical providers which increase the incidence of the alarming trend of cellphone contamination – according to a recent editorial in American Nurse Today (Vol. 14, No.3) it may be up to 74.4.%. Are…..
‘Having a capacity for adaptive change‘ is Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary definition for malleable. This remolding can be accomplished either by beating with a hammer or intentional pressure from an internal force. However, both of these methods require that the shape being changed is flexible, elastic, fluid, adjustable and adaptable. Gee! That sounds like a shapeshifter. Yet everyone can do it. It simply takes desire, planning, and routine. Sounds easy I know but these 3 steps are the basis of any change,…..
Each likes to design their personal space – a comfy chair, pretty flowers, favorite foods. Often we customize our exercise routine too much and end up with ‘tunnel vision’ when it comes to an expanded viewpoint on alternatives. Some swear by free weights. Others use aerobics. Still, others profess that it’s only truly pure if yoga tops the list. Possibly, the answer lies in a combination of all. The key is to get up and move! Your body has multiple…..