Small strides you should take for your heart fro CNN

Let's face it – life is busy. You've got calls to make, e-mails to send and meetings to get to. But what about appointments with yourself that you've been meaning to make?

"As I say to many of my patients, if you don't find time for exercise, you will have to find time for disease," Dr. Nanette Wenger tells CNN. She's a spokesperson for the American Heart Association (AHA) and a cardiologist at the Emory University School of Medicine.

February is American Heart Month, when the AHA and other organizations hope to spread awareness about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle. The statistics haven't changed: Cardiovascular disease is still the leading killer of men and women in the United States and worldwide.

"The key to reducing this threat is prevention, and among the major preventive interventions– smoking cessation, control of cholesterol, control of blood pressure, control of weight and physical activity– physical activity can often be the cornerstone," Wenger said.

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Drug Combo Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells from Medical News Today

Combining gemcitabine with MRK003, an experimental drug, triggers a chain of events leading to pancreatic cancer cell death, researchers from Cambridge reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The researchers explained that when the two drugs are combined, the effect of each one is multiplied, thus intensifying the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells.

Professor David Tuveson, from the Cambridge Research Institute, UK, and team demonstrated in animal studies that MRK003, an experimental medication, when combined with chemotherapy medication gemcitabine, set off a domino effect which ultimately destroyed the malignant cells.

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How Negative Thoughts Affect Everything in Our Life from Huffington Post

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It seems that throughout life, even as we grew up, we heard from our friends and family comments like "If you think bad thoughts, then you'll jinx it" or "If you think the worst, then you'll make it happen." It seems that in clinical research, these sayings actually have a name... and that name is "nocebo effect."

In medicine, when we talk about the "nocebo effect," what we are referring to is the concept that adverse health or clinical events can be produced or influenced by negative expectations. These effects are a direct result of the psychosocial context or therapeutic environment and its impact on a person's mind and body.

It can be produced by various factors, including verbal cues and past experiences. So, if someone has had prior unsuccessful or negative therapeutic experiences or was provided information in a negative light, it may mediate an undesirable outcome to the therapy.

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So You Think You Want to Lose Weight? Trust Me: You Don't! from Huffington Post

Whenever a client expresses to me that they want to lose weight, I always say to them, "No, you don't -- what you really want is to thin out the layer of fat that is sitting on top of your muscle, and add more muscle to your body."

Yes, all that. Let me explain.

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The Expanding Role of the Nurse Educator from Nurse Together

A Clinical Nurse Educator is a registered professional nurse with an advanced education, including advanced clinical and educational training coupled with many years of expertise in a healthcare specialty. Nurse educators serve in a variety of roles that often range from nursing college dean to a clinical trainer for a medical device or pharmaceutical company.

A combination of clinical expertise and a passion for teaching are two of the core skills that strengthen the nursing workforce while providing peer mentorship. These specialized skill sets help to set apart the nurse educator from the rest of the clinical team.

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The Physiology of Willpower: Where Does Discipline Come From? From Huffington Post

Willpower is the key to much that's good in life. Willpower is what makes us save for the future rather than splurge now. It helps us to keep our heads down, studying and working when we really don't feel like it, to earn that degree or promotion. Willpower allows us to say no to that tempting cigarette, extra dessert, or second glass of whiskey -- and to hop on the treadmill. And, of course, failures of self-control can sabotage all those goals.

So it's no wonder that psychological scientists have been studying willpower for decades, trying to figure out who is disciplined under what circumstances -- and why. What exactly is going on in the mind's cognitive machinery -- and the brain's neurons -- when we successfully summon our will -- or when we say, oh the hell with it?

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Surviving Modern Healthcare: The Power of Positive Thinking from Nurse Together

It has been said that what calls us to action in our lives is our desire, but the only way to achieve our goals is to hold a true belief in ourselves that we can do it. Eleanor Roosevelt said “If you believe you can do it you are right, and if you believe you cannot do it you are also right.” The choice to achieve then becomes ours, however, it will only be accomplished through the power of positive thinking and the belief we can do it.

Science is only now beginning to unlock the secrets of the power of the mind and the effects on the body that ultimately affect behavior. Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the effects of the mind on the immune system, both positive and negative. Nurses have always realized this power through our holistic approach to healthcare and our emotional and spiritual support of our patient. You, perhaps, have seen patients that survived terminal or tremendously grim situations that survived by holding on to their positive thoughts and the belief that they can overcome.

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