Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), according to an article in WebMD (5/2018), isn’t our grandparents’ arthritis. This form of arthritis is based in our autoimmune system. Inflammation is the driving force behind many major disorders and rheumatoid arthritis is only one of them. In a publication by the Arthritis Foundation (Vol.10, Issue 2), RA Today – The theory is that when a person is genetically predisposed to develop RA, and when the inflammation from that disease flares, the increased inflammation is equivalent…..
You pick up your car keys, open the car door, put your coffee into the cup holder and start the ignition after checking your mirrors and securing the seat belt. According to an article in WebMD (June 2017), when you text while driving, your eyes are off of the road for 5 seconds. Since 97.5 % of drivers don’t drive well when they’re on the phone, these statistics indicate that anyone who is texting while driving a car is…..
Can leaders, ingrained in the digital age, acquire the appropriate social graces? Social graces, according to (Artful Thinkers, 8/2017) current articles is a collection of skills that we use to politely interact in social situations. These graces congeal into etiquette that is universally accepted as proper protocol within our culture. In other words, it’s hearing what isn’t said. Using these intangible skills are invaluable in building long-term, profitable relationships. So important are these social graces that they intermingle with the…..
The issue of violence is a glaring item in news articles today. As I research the topic I am often lead back to the item of “parent-child” bonding. Someone said to me, “All incarcerations include a story of the interruption of parent-child bonding early in the child’s life.” Even though this statement seems intense, there is a hidden kernel of truth traveling throughout the words. A parenting enhancement program called The Family Thriving Program (FTP) uses a re-framing approach to…..
A collection of feelings, thoughts, and memories is formed by our interactions with our extended family, co-workers, and social acquaintances. This collection, this Lines of Listening, is our story of our life from our perspective. These lines may be weak and barely visible in our mental reasoning. They may pass through our life as a far-off, delicate whisper. However, at times they may be intense and offer a strong, intense influence on every action in our life and be at the…..
The best way to leave a lasting impression is to make eye contact. “Secrets to Making Non-Awkward Eye Contact” The Muse – Tools & Skills – 2018 Lily Zhang – Career Development Specialist at MIT. Obviously, this is something we all understand but it’s satisfying to know that the professionals who work in the field also verify our hunches. The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus (2007) defines the EYE as an organ of sight, a faculty of discrimination; something having an…..
“Doctors who partner with (AI) artificial intelligence as a decision-making aid will see their healing powers expand more than they have in the past 100 years” (Men’s Health, p. 42, May 2018). Mr. Greg Corrado, Ph.D. was making a TedMed presentation about artificial intelligence this past year when he stunned his audience of medical professionals. Well, Dr. Corrado should know the field well since he is a principal scientist at Google AI and an expert in machine learning. He went…..
Like Social Security, Social Health affects everyone in some way. According to Michael Jones, PhD, RN, MSN, MBA, “social health is expressed when each individual is able to put into practice the information he or she has been provided by their healthcare provider.” This idea is burdened when 9 out of 10 of us struggle with understanding our health information, (The Mississippi RN – Summer 2018). Within this context, the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control) definition of social determinates of…..
Our human brains are a centralized mass of nerve tissue and supporting structures used as the center for thoughts and nervous system control. (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2007). It is an incredible piece of living machinery. According to an article in WebMD (June 2018), our brains can store more information than the Library of Congress and process it faster than a computer. Believe this truth – the better you treat your brain, the harder it will work for you. So,…..
A recent report issued from DW – a News and Current Affairs source from Germany, indicates that there is truth in the statement that your lifestyle can influence your cancer risk. The number of cancers related to lifestyles has multiplied in the past 10 years. The Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration states that lung cancer leads the way in this trend. Bowel cancer brings up a close second with 1.7 million being diagnosed in 2016. There is also an…..
Anna Jarvis of West Virginia (History.com5.2018) in 1868 developed the Mother’s Friendship Day. This group of mothers organized to work with soldiers, both union and confederate, to help bring about reconciliation after the civil war. In 1908, Anna Jarvis’s daughter, Anna Reeves Jarvis initiated a letter-writing campaign to have Mother’s Day become an official holiday. In 1910 West Virginia became the first state to recognize the holiday. By 1914 Mother’s Day became an official U.S. holiday. However, the idea of…..
Located inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the Office of Women’s Health (OWH). This agency recommends that everyone check out the Surgeon General’s Office (SGO) to examine the Family Health Portrait. This program was established in 2016 and is successful in developing individual, web-based programs for generational families who want to track and predict their health risk and assist them in making screening and treatment decisions about their health and the future conditions of their yet-unborn…..
A recent article by Michelle Crouch (Reader’s Digest – May ’18) indicates that over 440,000 American die every year from medical errors and infections contracted in area hospitals. So, how do we as patients head off this statistic? Take charge of your care: ask questions, take notes and have someone be a health advocate on your behalf. As Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., former senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore states: you are…..
I heard this phrase the other day – “selling our attention.” Initially, I dismissed it as just another generic part of a conversation. Then I realized that the term was being repeated in my mind. One of those annoying things that unconsciously repeat and repeat in your brain for no apparent reason. Well, since I’m a medical person and tend to look at most issues from a health point of view, I decided to follow the workings of my brain…..
A young woman sent a gift to one of her girlfriends. It wasn’t elaborate or expensive or elegant. It was just an item that caught her eye when she was shopping for something else. The small item was almost an afterthought. She dropped it into her large shopping bag where it fell to the bottom and was hidden in the crease. In the glee of unpacking her newly purchased treasures, she forgot about the tiny item and absentmindedly threw it…..
We have all been there. Enjoying the full wonders of nature as the earth, temperature, wind and solar system all cooperate to present the ideal environment for us to enjoy the full benefits of nature. We shed our heavy coats, get rid of our wool scarves, hide our gloves, put away our snow boots and leave our insulated pants and socks in the drawer. Our energy level seems to rise to a fever pitch – mimicking the bursting sap of…..
When you meet someone their first impression is formed within 3-5 seconds. It’s up to you to determine what molds that impression. Defining yourself is the mark that remains after your first meeting is concluded. What activities do you perform on a regular basis to define yourself? What does someone else see in the first 3-5 seconds of meeting you? Obviously, if you are devoting your time and energy toward positive activities, then the impression will be favorable. Just the…..
Attending my Local Author Showcase proved to be an excellent networking opportunity. I was among a multitude of local authors invited to this professional “meet and greet” affair. The guest speaker was Robyn Carr who offered valuable insights into successful writing, editing, publishing, and marketing. It was quickly obvious that the networking among the assembled talent at this presentation resembled the activity within an active beehive. The local library that sponsored this public event was funded by state, national and…..
Maybe where a person lives determines their health status. Maybe where a person lives influences the factors that cause disease? In the book “Social Determinates of Health – A Comparative Approach” Alan Davidson states “the extent to which something poses a risk to us depends on our level of susceptibility or our resilience.” Maybe our health depends on the combination of where we live and the choices that we make. Leah Curtin, RN, ScD(h) FAAN in her article in American…..
You have followed your dream. You have reached the pinnacle of your career. Only the most prominent people get to sit in the front row seats. You are on view for everyone to see and acknowledge your accomplishments. You are obviously a “doer.” However, there is always a flip side to front row seats. Remember that the rest of the audience is sitting behind you. They are watching you and listening to you. They expect you to lead the way,…..
The month of March is a good time to check-in to see how New Year’s Resolutions are progressing. Everyone has had a few weeks to work out some kinks in their firmness and dedication. There has been time to refine a schedule and determine a routine so that we all should now be fairly well set into a regular cycle of activity. So, how are things going? Obviously, there have been a few bumps and detours along the path with…..
The penniless widow sat in her dark, dingy apartment shivering. Her few resources include a well-worn shawl, home-made candles, her favorite rocking chair, companion books and an unused wooden match. Most of her elderly friends are unable to climb the wooden stairs to her second-floor lodgings. A knock at the door startles her and pierces the silence of the secluded room. “Martha, why are you sitting here in the dark. If you would just light the candle, the room would…..
As an RN with 35 years of hands-on experience, I publish with a focus on health and wellness. This posting will have a slightly different twist. I will talk about IPV: intimate partner violence. This describes anyone who experiences violence at the hands of a spouse or partner. An article in American Nurse Today (March 2017) describes this issue as having serious health consequences. Since IPV is physical or sexual violence or stalking and psychological aggression, including coercive acts, by…..
I was overly hungry this particular afternoon. The busy day offering little opportunity for normal meal times. My blood sugar level must have been low because not only was I dreaming of something hot and steamy but also quick and juicy. The vision of a popular food chain that specializes in cooking chicken to perfection immediately popped into my brain. Having previously eaten at this restaurant, I knew that there was one item on the menu which stood out as…..
In a publication of Web MD (Nov/Dec 2017), a review of facts indicate healthy choices made during our regular daily routine help us to remain more vigorous and tend to assist us in aging more gracefully. Your odds of living longer are increased by 50% if you have a strong social network. Volunteering decreases your blood pressure by 40%. Students who spend more than 5 hours a day using their smartphones have symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Swapping saturated fats…..
Fingerprints are generally described as: impressions forming a pattern made by pressing the tip of a finger on a surface taken for the purpose of identification, (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus). We are familiar with the physical prints used to determine identification. Such information is gathered when public agencies determine someone’s true persona or we need to prove our own identity. Forensic marks, small pieces of nature that we interact with in our daily lives, also leave a trail for others’…..
Patents are an official documents conferring a right or privilege. This document secures to the inventor a term of years exclusive rights to the invention. According to a report by PHARMA there are a number of prescription drug patents set to expire in 2018. The National Pharmaceutical Services, the FDA’s Orange Book, Drugs.com, and The Center for Biosimilars lists over 26 nationally known brand name medications that are targeted to “go off patent” in 2018. As we all know, there…..
Pentimento – the Italian word meaning “repeat or change your mind.” It’s appropriate for this time of year. This idea suggests that you leave your stumbles for other to see – not for the achievement of perfection but for the creation of something better. The artist Anwar Matisse used this idea in his drawings until a satisfactory design developed. By practicing re-solution (to resolve yourself), drawing over or retracing our past lives as Matisse did with his art, we begin…..
The key seems to be finding just the right greeting for just the right person or occasion. Happiness, friendship, peace, good will, joy, giving, blessings, gifts and tradition are just a few of the more popular words that tend to be associated with well-wishing at this time of year. Instead of trying to sort through and match up all of these glittery, joyful sentiments, I decided to send all of them out to everyone for my HOLIDAY WISHES!!!
The cycle flows just like the Colorado. A google search (12-2017) of the term circadian reveals a definition of: a cycle 24 hours long with fluctuations in biological and psychological processes. This cycle systematically varies over the course of each day. Research by Frank A.J.L. Scheer, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham & Woman’s Hospital in Boston suggests that metabolism is based on this cycle. The process of…..