American Institute of Health Care Professionals, Inc.

Stress Management: An Inexpensive Necessary Modality for Nurses from Nurse Together

2012-01-31T11:27:00.001-08:00

Most nurses, as most people, often pay little or no attention to the cumulative effects that chronic daily stress has on their bodies, which materially affects their ability to care for themselves and, in turn, relate to and care for their patients, until it is too late.

Chronic daily stress also creates a significant threat to the emotional health of nursing staff, and since the degree to which a nurse is emotionally healthy affects the extent to which he or she can meet job expectations, hospital administrators, as well as the individual, must find modalities to manage these threats. Doing nothing will lead to increased insurance premiums for health insurance, workersʻ compensation insurance and general liability insurance, all of which materially affect the “bottom line” for the hospital, and greatly impact the “quality of life” of the nurse.

For the full article please go here.

Health Care Articles Blog

2012-01-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

Please visit our new "Health Care Articles" BLOG

access

You are invited to submit your articles for consideration to be published.
Please send inquiries to: info@aihcp.org

5 Tips to Give Yourself a Break! from Huffington Post

2012-01-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

There's a great lyric from the movie "Once" that goes like this: "... you have suffered enough and warred with yourself. It's time that you won." If you're up to something, your own business, raising kids or just about any pursuit, you'll be better off if you can stay positive and give yourself a break.

"Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones over the long term ... Moreover, they're not sprinters; they're more like marathon runners, in it for the long haul." ("Creating Sustainable Performance," Harvard Business Review, January-February 2012, Gretchen Spreitzer, Christine Porath)

Don't you want to be your own "happy employee"?

For the full article please go here.

The Pros and Cons of Continuing Education from Nurse Together

2012-01-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

As Registered Nurses or Licensed Practical Nurses, fulfilling continuing education credits or units (CEU) is a requirement for the profession—it is necessary for relicensing. In certain states we are required to fulfill a certain number of CEUs every two years. Obtaining an education credit can be accomplished by reading a journal, attending a seminar, watching a video—any of these would relate to the practice of nursing. Completing CEU’s sounds like a wonderful idea, however, some members of the nursing profession disagree. After all, competence has been demonstrated by the proof of licensure and associated renewal, so mandating further credit hours seems redundant. To fully examine the debate: “Should Continuing Education be Mandatory?” consider the following pro versus con arguments:

For the full article please go here.

Boldly Going Where No Capsule Has Gone Before from H and HN

2012-01-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

OK, so many of my get-rich-quick schemes haven't been what you would call blockbusters. My closest friends, family and even financial adviser scoffed several years ago when I came up with the idea for a new delicacy: Tuna on a Stick. Go ahead, laugh, but have you ever been to the Taste of Chicago? They sell everything on a stick at that exhibition of gluttony, so why not tuna? I had a grand vision of franchising all over Chicago, eventually expanding the menu to mackerel, red snapper, even Mahi Mahi (wouldn't you know it, a few years later when the Minnesota Twins' new ballpark Target Field opened, the concession stands boasted "Walleye Skewer" and "Pork Chop on a Stick").

More recently, I had the idea of creating a giant wiper blade that could descend from the top of a skyscraper to swoosh away the rain. Attach a hose or some sort of spraying mechanism and it also negates the need to have workers dangle hundreds of feet above the sidewalk with sponges and squeegees.

For the full article please go here.

Age-Related Memory Loss More Common in Men from Health.com

2012-01-30T09:45:00.001-08:00

WEDNESDAY, January 25, 2012 — Men in their 70s and 80s may be more likely than women of the same age to develop the memory loss and cognitive problems that often herald Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.

In the study, which appears in the journal Neurology, Mayo Clinic researchers examined 1,450 elderly people in Minnesota every 15 months for an average of three and a half years. During that time, 7.2% of the men and 5.7% of the women developed the mental-function problems known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), with or without any accompanying memory loss.

The findings surprised the researchers because previous studies have suggested that more women than men ultimately go on to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of full-blown dementia. The fact that men appear to have higher rates of MCI but lower rates of dementia may hold important clues for preventing or delaying cognitive decline, the researchers suggest.

For the full article please go here.

7 Reasons Working Too Much Is Bad For Your Health from Huffington Post

2012-01-30T07:57:00.001-08:00

If you're the last one to leave the office, or constantly picking up an extra shift, you may see the benefits in that paycheck, but all those extra hours are also affecting your health.

A study released this week found that workers clocking at least 11 hours a day have a higher risk of depression than people working a standard seven- or eight-hour day. And that finding joins a host of others suggesting a link between clocking long hours and serious health problems.

Luckily, the weekend offers us a two-day respite from the stresses of all those long days. Below, we've compiled some of the ways working too much hurts your health, as well as a few of our favorite ways to

For the full article please go here.

Benefits of Becoming a Health and Wellness Nurse Coach from Nurse Together

2012-01-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

The amount of dedication provided by nurses is amazing. We are always there for our patients, sometimes going above and beyond our call of duty because we enjoy what we do, and find an amazing gratification from our work as a nurse.

What if you could take the benefits of nursing up a notch by using a more direct approach in helping our clients to live healthier lifestyles?

Many nurses are turning to health and wellness coaching in various fields, such as patient education and disease management. For people who wish to have a more personal contact with the options available to their circumstances, as well as those aiming to effectively manage various life changes, health and wellness nurse coaches are the next logical step in their search for better health and wellbeing.

For the full article please go here.

5 Health Tests You Need to Ace This Year from Yahoo News

2012-01-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

No matter how fit you are, you can't change health risk factors like your genes, your family history, your race, or your age. Other aspects of your lifestyle count, too, including how you manage stress and your eating habits. The best way to safeguard your long-term health is to catch troublesome issues early, so ask your doctor about adding these screenings to your calendar.

BLOOD PRESSURE
There are no early symptoms of high BP (hypertension), but the longer it goes unnoticed--and untreated--the more damage occurs to your heart and blood vessels, upping your chances of a heart attack or stroke. With every birthday your risk goes up. Your favorite foods also play a role, with salt, saturated fats, and too much alcohol being top aggravators. Certain medicines can also raise BP.

For the full article please go here.

Working Long Hours Doubles Depression Odds from Health.com

2012-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY, January 25, 2012 (Health.com) — Working long hours appears to substantially increase a person’s risk of becoming depressed, regardless of how stressful the actual work is, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.

The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.

For the full article please go here.

5 Surprising Reasons to Drink Water from Yahoo News

2012-01-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

Of all the food and beverage choices you face every day, what's calorie-free, virtually cost-free, and, oh yes, essential to keeping you alive? Plain ol' water. But those aren't the only reasons to drink it.

"Water drives basic body performance," says Beth Reardon, director of nutrition for Duke Integrative Medicine, part of the Duke University Health System. "All of the systems in the body require water for proper functioning, and so do 90 percent of all chemical reactions in the body."

Here are the top five reasons to quench your thirst with water.

For the full article please go here.

Cut Your Risk of Diabetes from Huffington Post

2012-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Do you eat the typical American diet, high in soft drinks (including diet soda), white flour, French fries and processed meats like cold cuts and hot dogs?

Eating that way can increase your risk of developing diabetes by 300 percent.

Are you carrying around extra weight? That raises the risk of getting diabetes a lot. A woman who is mildly obese -- for example, weighing 190 at 5'6" tall -- has a 55 percent chance of getting diabetes. A man who is mildly obese, for instance, who weighs 225 pounds and is 6 feet tall -- has a 57 percent chance of developing diabetes.

This can be prevented, and I will share with you the exciting research on nutrition and foods that can help prevent and reverse diabetes in a moment. But first, a closer look at the problem.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses Coping with Daily Stress: 10 Strategies from Nurse Together

2012-01-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

In an ideal world, the nurse would arrive to work well rested, would have all of her personal affairs intact so as not to interfere with her work, and she would never need to go out for a smoke break. She would have an ideal body weight with a healthy and consistent diet. The nurse in the ideal world would always have the opportunity to take a lunch break, would be successfully climbing the career ladder, would not need to take prescriptions to help with mood, sleep or stress, and would endure a whole shift without any physical pain. In this imaginary utopia, nurses would watch out for each other and would always be there to assist one another, they would encourage each other routinely, and they would also be immune to being scoffed at, ignored or demeaned by any other healthcare worker.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses, Take the Stress and Expense Out of Fitness from Nurse Together

2012-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

NurseTogether.com has partnered with Tanya Stroh Training Solutions to bring you NurseTogether.GetInShapeForFREE.net, a brand new fitness and exercise website that features our national “6 Week Shape UP Challenge for Nurses.” This complete fitness program was created and designed by certified personal trainer and fitness expert Tanya Stroh with her Sequential Progression approach to fitness. The website is completely FREE and available to nurses who have the desire to be fit and healthy. Tanya's philosophy has always been that a fit and healthy lifestyle is a process that you build upon; that is why her approach to exercise is so effective. Her clients have successfully improved and achieved their health and fitness goals because of this approach. And now with NurseTogether.GetInShapeForFREE.net, so can YOU! Log on everyday to get your brand new fitness routine and your daily ‘fitness facts videos!’

For the full article please go here.

In denial: Why we’re still stressed

2012-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

Stress in America, the American Psychological Association’s annual survey, came out last week.

The results were not particularly shocking. Large numbers of Americans are stressed out. Many, extremely so. And far too many are failing to take adequate action to alleviate the stress in their lives.

All of which led my editors to wonder: If we recognize the negative health implications of high stress levels - heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and depression, among others - then why are so many of us doing such a poor job at managing it?

The answer, according to the experts I consulted, may be a sort of willful blindness known as the “optimism bias.”

For the full article please go here.

Insomnia In The U.S. Is Still A Pressing Public Health Problem, Study Shows from Huffington Post

2012-01-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Sleep is a major problem for many Americans, according to a new report that acts as a kind of "state-of-insomnia" in the U.S. The review, published online Thursday night by the medical journal The Lancet, finds that nearly a quarter of adults are unhappy with their sleep patterns, while up to 10 percent meet the criteria for full-fledged insomnia -- putting them at a greater risk for depression, hypertension and diabetes.

"Insomnia has traditionally been trivialized," paper co-author Charles Morin, Ph.D, a sleep researcher and professor at the Universite Laval in Quebec City, told HuffPost. "Now that we know a little bit more about its long-term consequences, it's getting a bit more attention."

More attention, maybe, but experts agree that insomnia remains a pressing public health problem.

To better assess just how pressing it is, researchers studied several scientific databases, synthesizing findings from major original studies, meta-analyses and systemic reviews from the last five or so years.

For the full article please go here.

5 Intriguing Facts About Intuitive Eating From Huffington Post

2012-01-20T07:47:00.000-08:00

For the full article please go here. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Evelyn Tribole, one of the co-authors of Intuitive Eating. For professionals who work with eating issues, she is like a rock star. Evelyn and her co-author, Elyse Resch, were among the first authors to provide a clear alternative to dieting. They wrote a compelling book to help people understand why it is important to throw away the fad diet books and stop obsessively stepping on the scale. The approach is compassionate and healing. It has been a lifesaver for men and women around the world who struggle with their eating, weight and body image.

In a nutshell, intuitive eating has taught people how to plug back into their bodies. It's using your natural, internal wisdom to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. As we all know, this is much easier said than done. Yet, people who have learned intuitive eating skills will attest to the fact that it can be done.

In Cardiovascular Disease, Is It The Alcohol Or Polyphenols In Red Wine That Benefits Patients? from Medical News Today

2012-01-19T09:13:00.001-08:00

Observational epidemiologic studies relating wine and alcohol to health all suffer from the fact that they, of necessity, compare people who prefer certain beverages, but not the beverages themselves. While there have been many intervention trials in animals, randomized trials in humans are less common. Randomized crossover trials, in which each subject receives all interventions in sequence, can be especially important as they tend to avoid baseline differences among subjects and can detect effects of different interventions with smaller numbers of subjects.

This study by Chiva-Blanch G et al, just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 67 male volunteers in Spain who were considered to be at "high-risk" of cardiovascular disease on the basis of increased BMI, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, or other risk factors. About one half of the individuals were taking ACE inhibitors, statins, aspirin, and/or oral hypoglycemic drugs, so the results of this study may be especially relevant for patients in the real world.

For the full article please go here.

Food For Memory: 5 Foods That Age Your Brain from Huffington Post

2012-01-18T07:56:00.001-08:00

A healthy diet is about more than keeping yourself fit and free of heart disease, wrinkles and impotence (yes, all are related to food!). It's about preserving your memory, too.

For instance, eating high amounts of saturated fat -- more than four grams in an hour -- can raise the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood, which can stick to your arteries, and, even worse, turn on inflammatory genes that result in those wrinkles, poor organic quality, and you got it, that gunk in your brain that makes your memory be less than it is now.

The same arterial plaque buildup from this saturated fat -- we call it a food felon -- that leads to heart disease is a major culprit for vascular dementia -- when the brain neurons become inflamed or don't get enough oxygen and blood flow. Inflammation and lack of oxygen (resulting from that donut or sugary soda) result in accelerated memory loss.

This gives serious meaning to the phrase "eating to forget."

For the full article please go here.

Gossip Could Lower Stress And Prevent Exploitation, Study Suggests from Huffington Post

2012-01-18T07:52:00.001-08:00

Gossip may not be as evil as society makes it out to be, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that gossiping can actually lower stress, stop exploitation of others and police others' bad behavior.

The study included four experiments, all of which included a game with a cheater who hoarded points.

Researchers found that when people in the study saw someone acting badly, their heart rates increased. But researchers found that it helped their heart rates when they were able to share what they witnessed with someone else, particularly to warn them of the potential exploitation.

For the full article please go here.

How Three Top Yoga Masters Find Balance, Both On and Off the Mat from Huffington Post

2012-01-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

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The other day in yoga class I was pretty pleased with my bound triangle pose when the teacher suggested we scooch our back foot forward and then raise the front leg into the air. I pushed my leg closer and found what I thought was my balancing point, but let's just say trying to lift my other leg was a very humbling experience.

Balance has always been my strong suit, so I wasn't totally surprised by the negative, self-judging commentary that quickly ran through my mind. What was unexpected was how long it stayed in there -- quite a few hours, I'm reluctant to admit -- until I was finally able to disconnect my awkward center of gravity from my self-worth.

I know that living our yoga both on and off the mat is challenging. After all, I based my entire novel around that idea. But my recent self-flagellation got me to wondering how more adept yoga masters triumph over such trials -- and if they even have them in the first place.

For the full article please go here.

The Experts’ Guide to a Healthier You from Health.com

2012-01-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

By Jamie Beckman
From Health magazine

So you’ve resolved to kick your healthy living up a notch in the new year. Good for you!

Where to start? "It’s a combination of lifestyle habits that makes the difference," says Susan Love, MD, president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. So we polled top docs for totally doable tricks that offer big benefits.

For the full article please go here.

Destress your life in 10 easy steps from CNN

2012-01-17T08:12:00.001-08:00

(CNN) -- The gloomy days of January can be the most miserable and stressful of the year, but it doesn't have to be this way. If you follow this ten step guide to destressing your life, then the next few weeks just might become the most serene and fulfilling ones of the year.

One step should be carried out on each of the next 10 days. They're based on the ideas found in the international best-seller "Mindfulness: An Eight Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World."

The book uses a program based on mindfulness meditation developed by us at Oxford University in the United Kingdom to relieve anxiety, stress, exhaustion and depression. Mindfulness has proved in some clinical trials to be at least as effective as drugs or counseling for dealing with these conditions.

So what is this mindfulness?

For the full article please go here.

Cancer Treatment With Minor Side Effects from Science Daily

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2012) — Side effects are currently the biggest problem with any cancer treatment. A Norwegian biotech company is drawing closer to the goal of creating a treatment which kills only cancer cells, leaving other cells unaffected.

It is not difficult to find a drug that destroys cancer cells. The problem lies in the fact that a drug's active substances kill not only diseased cells but also other cells in the body. This is why the side effects accompanying traditional cancer treatment are often so severe.

Trying to eliminate side effects

The dream of any cancer researcher is to come up with a medication that works solely against a cancerous tumour -- without adversely affecting the rest of the body.

For the full article please go here.

7 Steps to Make Healthy Living a Lifetime Habit from Huffington Post

2012-01-16T07:47:00.001-08:00

1. Accept the need to change.

You must take responsibility for your present condition and understand that you are not a victim of your past but claim the power to shape your future. No matter what may have held you back (late-night snacking, cocktails after work, no time to exercise, depression, emotional eating, fatigue, poor eating habits or sugar addiction) you still have the power today to change the choices you make for your future. If you want a different outcome then you must accept that what you've been doing up until now is not working, so you must make a change. The only person that can change your life is you.

2. Make the essential connection to honor your mind, body and spirit as a whole.

You are a whole person that consists of mind, body and spirit going through life, craving to feel balanced. If areas in your life such as career, relationships, finances, creativity, home cooking, spirituality, joy, social life, home environment, education, health and physical activity are off-balance then your body will respond. You must learn to listen to your body and take the time necessary to reclaim your balance. If you keep going on auto-pilot, ignoring the signals that your body gives you, then you'll end up sacrificing your health and happiness. Some of those stress and off-balance signals are headaches, migraines, poor digestion, constipation, anxiety, depression, increase appetite, loss of appetite... and the list goes on. Discover the problem -- don't ignore it, or it will develop into a bigger health problem. When you take care of yourself first you will be stronger and more capable of taking care of everyone else.

For the full article please go here.

It's Time to End Our Obsession With Positive Thinking from Huffington Post

2012-01-16T07:45:00.001-08:00

"Don't worry, be happy."

This well-meaning piece of advice was the chorus of a popular 80s song by Bobby McFerrin. It also probably represents the general philosophical attitude of western society in terms of how to maximize our quality of life.

There is a wonderful intuitiveness to such advice. Worry and other negative thoughts cause negative emotions, which are not pleasant. Conversely, happiness and thinking positively feel good. Easy choice, right?

"Think positively" and "the power of positive thinking" have become trademark slogans in our society. From self-help magazine articles to motivational speakers to friends and family, it has become folklore wisdom -- fill your mind with positivity and you shall reap the mental health benefits.

For the full article please go here.

Coffee Drinkers At Reduced Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes from Medical News Today

2012-01-13T08:39:00.001-08:00

Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery in a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Ling Zheng, Kun Huang and colleagues explain that previous studies show that coffee drinkers are at a lower risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90-95 percent of diabetes cases in the world. Those studies show that people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily have a 50 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. And every additional cup of coffee brings another decrease in risk of almost 7 percent. Scientists have implicated the misfolding of a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in causing Type 2 diabetes, and some are seeking ways to block that process. Zheng and Huang decided to see if coffee's beneficial effects might be due to substances that block hIAPP.

For the full article please go here.

10 Techniques to Increase Motivation and Willpower from Huffington Post

2012-01-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

For many of us, the New Year represents a time to reflect upon and resolve to follow through with healthy changes we want (and need) to make. In the beginning, keeping up with a new exercise or eating plan, for example, generally comes pretty easily. Motivation and willpower are high -- quite evident by the packed gyms we see every January. But after a few weeks, motivation tends to lag and willpower runs dry, and we revert to our former, less-healthy ways. For most people, it's not intuitively obvious what to do to preserve our resolutions and reach our goals, but cognitive behavior therapy (a form of psychotherapy that targets maladaptive and unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviors) can help boost our ability to stay on track (and get back on track when we lapse).

This blog will be the first in a series designed to teach you specific cognitive (thinking) and behavioral skills that will help you increase your motivation and willpower whenever it begins to lag. I will use dieting and healthy eating (and weight loss maintenance) as the major example, but the techniques I will describe may be applied to other goals as well: sticking to a budget, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption and becoming organized, to name a few common ones. Below you will find a list of essential skills. I will describe how to implement them throughout this series.

For the full article please go here.

7 Steps to Make Healthy Living a Lifetime Habit from Huffington Post

2012-01-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

Reduce Costs by Increasing Value to the Patient from H and HN

2012-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

By Jeffrey D. Selberg January 12, 2012

Encouraging healthier behaviors, respecting patients' time, coordinating care, promoting smart shopping and reforming payment systems — all will provide better value to the patient and lower costs.

An all-too-familiar institutional response, when facing the challenge of reducing health care costs, is to reduce health care benefits. But that approach entails limiting access to care, lowering health quality, and increasing out-of-pocket costs for patients — all of which run contrary to better health and better care at a lower cost.

A better way — and one that aligns with patient-centered care — is increasing value to the patient. We can do that by reducing waste and rewarding quality.
The Scope of the Waste Problem

Noriaki Kano, the renowned expert on quality management known for his leadership on customer satisfaction, identified six categories of waste in health care that are especially relevant: delay, rework (performing the same task a second time), overproduction, movement (unnecessary transportation of people, products or information), defects, and waste of spirit and skill.

For the full article please go here.

Cancer Deaths - Enormous Drop Over Last 20 Years, USA fro Medical News Today

2012-01-12T09:49:00.001-08:00

Over the last twenty years, more than one million deaths from cancer have been avoided, researchers reported in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Death rates for the most common cancers, including colon, breast, prostate and lung cancers have been dropping steadily year after year. However, some rarer cancers, such has kidney, thyroid, liver and pancreas cancers have seen death rates and total incidences rise.

In its annual report, titled "Cancer Statistics 2012", plus an accompanying article "Cancer Facts & Figures 2012", the authors estimate how many new cancer diagnoses and cancer deaths there will be this year in the USA.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses, Be Stress Free in 10 Seconds from Nurse Together

2012-01-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

The term stress refers to any demands either physical or emotional placed on the body. It is the body’s normal mechanism to kick up our metabolism and energy to meet the body’s demands. It readies us for the emotional and physical challenges we face throughout our lives. Some degree of stress is an advantage that peaks our performance by heightening awareness and stimulating the body. Then why is stress so bad for us? As nurses, you all know the answer to that question, and you see the effects of stress every day in the work you do and the patients you care for that are victims of prolonged stress that has led to disease. You also work in incredibly stressful environments, not only because of the responsibility you have to your patients, but also the pressures of the modern healthcare environment. In order for you to stay healthy, you need to control your stress.

In reality, stress for the most part is an unrealized fear. Most of what we worry about and are stressed about never comes to bear but we worry about it anyway. I love this quote from Marcus Aurelius:

For the full article please go here.

What Your Looks Say About Your Health from Health.com

2012-01-11T08:57:00.001-08:00

Good looks, good health?

By Karen Pallarito

Good health often is reflected in an attractive, youthful appearance. So you might be tempted to blame aging and stress for facial lines, unsightly fingernails, or hair loss when, in fact, these flaws can signal underlying health issues, says integrative medicine specialist Molly M. Roberts, MD, of the Institute for Health & Healing, in San Francisco, and president of the American Holistic Medical Association.

"It'll start by whispering, then it'll start talking, and, if you don't pay attention, it'll start yelling and shouting, and then you've got an illness,” she says.

Here are 15 physical signs that trouble may be lurking beneath the skin's surface.

For the full article please go here.

Type 1 Diabetes Reversed With Stem Cells From Cord Blood from Medical News Today

2012-01-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

Stem cells from cord blood "re-educated" the immune system T cells of people with type 1 diabetes so their pancreas started producing insulin again, thereby reducing the amount of insulin they needed to inject. These are the findings of a study led by Dr Yong Zhao, from University of Illinois at Chicago that were published online on Tuesday in the open access journal BMC Medicine.

Type 1 diabetes develops when the body's own immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing islet beta cells in the pancreas. As a result, the body can't make insulin, causing blood glucose to reach dangerous levels and damage all the organs in the body.

For the full article please go here.

The Neuroscience Of Optimism from Huffington Post

2012-01-11T07:29:00.001-08:00

By Christoph W. Kon

Ask a bride before walking down the aisle “How likely are you to get divorced?” and most will respond “Not a chance!” Tell her that the average divorce rate is close to 50 percent, and ask again. Would she change her mind? Unlikely. Even law students who have learned everything about the legal aspects of divorce, including its likelihood, state that their own chances of getting divorced are basically nil. How can we explain this?

Psychologists have documented human optimism for decades. They have learned that people generally overestimate their likelihood of experiencing positive events, such as winning the lottery, and underestimate their likelihood of experiencing negative events, such as being involved in an accident or suffering from cancer. Informing people about their statistical likelihood of experiencing negative events, such as divorce, is surprisingly ineffective at altering their optimistic predictions, and highlighting previously unknown risk factors for diseases fails to engender realistic perceptions of medical vulnerability. How can people maintain their rose-colored views of the future in the face of reality? Which neural processes are involved in people’s optimistic predictions?

For the full article please go here.

7 Heart-Healthy Foods from Health.com

2012-01-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

The heart smart diet

From Health magazine

"Certain key foods can dramatically reduce your heart disease risk," says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Add these superfoods today for a healthier heart.

For the full article please go here.

Americans hit the brakes on health care spending from MSNBC

2012-01-10T08:11:00.001-08:00

U.S. healthcare spending barely rose in 2010 from record-low recession levels, as high unemployment and the loss of private health insurance forced many Americans to delay or forego medical treatment, government officials said on Monday.

Spending edged up 3.9 percent, bringing the total size of the U.S. healthcare system to $2.6 trillion, or $8,402 per person, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, and published in the journal Health Affairs.

Growth in 2010 was only a slim 0.1 percentage point higher than the 3.8 percent recorded in 2009, which was the lowest rate recorded in half a century. Per capita health spending in the United States is still the highest worldwide.

"It's absolutely clear what's going on," said William Galston of the Brookings Institution. "People's budgets have been hard-hit, and even if they have 20 percent co-pays from their insurance companies, that 20 percent may still be too much."

For the full article please go here.

Has Yoga Lost Its Soul? Part I: Selling Out and Innovating from Huffington Post

2012-01-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

From the Mountain to Wall Street

Gone are the days of the loin clothed yogi meditating alone on a mountaintop, unless of course said loin cloth is made of wickable polyester blend, fits your body like a glove and retails for $100 a pop and the yogi in question has worldwide appearances and a DVD series purchasable on Amazon.com. Oh, and don't forget to check their Twitter feed.

In the ancient tradition of yoga, a teacher's modest living requirements were provided by their students. "Some may offer the teacher a bag of rice, a small bowl of sugar, some clothes, a place to rest, whatever one's capacity was," said Sister Sukanya of the spiritual organization Brahma Kumaris. "The teacher just shares the knowledge with the students... there was no commercial interest involved, the only interest was the transferring of knowledge."

For the full article please go here.

Pain Management in the Elderly: 7 Things to Consider from Nurse Together

2012-01-09T10:48:00.001-08:00

Improved management of chronic pain can significantly reduce disability in older adults, according to an issue of the What's Hot newsletter from The Gerontological Society of America.

Pain in aging adults has historically been poorly reported, recognized and managed. There has been a lack of identifying pain as a real problem in the elderly, particularly in long term care facilities and patients with Alzheimer's or other dementias.

We know how pain can affect us in our daily activities: A terrible headache or backache will limit our activity, decrease our concentration, and affect our mood. We can take an over the counter or prescription medication, use heat or ice, and reduce or resolve the pain, and go on with our day.

For the full article please go here.

Junk Food: The Bane of Health and Health Providers By John W. Bluford from Hospitals and Health News

2012-01-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

Editor's note: John Bluford, president and CEO of Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Mo. and immediate past chairman of the American Hospital Association, is guest blogging today.

When you journey to the safety net hospitals and clinics that serve some of the neediest Americans, you will invariably find yourself in the heart of the urban core.

Nearby you will see establishments such as liquor stores, convenience stores and fast food restaurants. But more significant is what you typically will not see: grocery stores that offer a wide variety of healthy foods at affordable prices.

This is certainly the case at the urban core campus of Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, MO., where I am the president and CEO. TMC is one of the most crucial safety net hospitals in the Kansas City area, providing services to more than 56,000 medical home patients with chronic diseases like diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension and obesity.

For the full article please go here.

Visualizing wellness for 2012 from CNN

2012-01-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- The last time you went to the doctor's office, you probably got some numbers representing your pulse, blood pressure, maybe even cholesterol and weight. But what does that really mean for you?

Alexander Tsiaras, founder of theVisualMD, wants you to be able to see the processes that are making you as healthy or as sick as you are and act on that knowledge. TheVisualMD has detailed, colorful libraries that visualize aspects of sickness and health based on real medical data, and it is now presenting a new tool for breaking bad habits in 2012.

The new program, which launched this week, is called "The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness." Each rule is accompanied by a slew of videos, visualizations and interactive graphics. More components of wellness rules will be rolled out every Monday over the next several months until April 9.

For the full article please go here.

5 Ways You Waste Time and How to Stop from Huffington Post

2012-01-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

When surveyed, the most popular subject on which HG life coaching clients wanted coaching was time management. So I am dedicating today's blog to helping you stop squandering your time and feeling out of control about it. We live in an age where you can't possibly get everything done. It's time to accept that. But, I still want you to get a lot of dreams accomplished and feel great about what you do with your days. It's important to face the fact that time is the currency of life and it's sacred. You cannot accomplish everything, but you can accomplish a lot of what is important to you with awareness, smart thinking and good promises. Now, read on for five ways you waste time and how to stop.

For the full article please go here.

Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs Expected in 2012 via Yahoo News

2012-01-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

Bionic limbs, a smart mouthguard to monitor athletes for concussions, and genetically modified mosquitoes designed to reduce disease are among the Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012 selected by a panel of Cleveland Clinic doctors and scientists during its annual Medical Innovation Summit.

Here’s a look at the amazing therapies and game-changing technologies expected to dramatically reshape healthcare—and save lives—this year:

For the full article please go here.

Small Business: Doctors going broke via Yahoo News

2012-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.

"A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues," said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.

Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors' lack of business acumen is also to blame.

For the full article please go here.

Vietnam surgery removes tumor twice man's weight from CNN

2012-01-06T07:49:00.001-08:00

(CNN) -- A Vietnamese man is recovering in the intensive care unit Friday, a day after surgery that completely removed from his right leg a tumor twice his body weight, according to the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The growing tumor had rendered the patient, Nguyen Duy Hai, virtually immobile until his surgery.

The excised tumor weighed 180 pounds (82 kilos), according to the hospital, a bit less than the 200 pounds (90 kilos) estimated before surgery.

Hai, 31, of Da Lat City, has Von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis, said Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon, chief executive officer of FV Hospital, where the 12-hour procedure was performed.

For the full article please go here.

12 Nutrition Swaps for 2012 from Huffington Post

2012-01-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

It's a new year, and plenty of us are resolving to lose weight, exercise more and eat less. I'd like to propose a resolution makeover... Don't just aim to eat less and deprive yourself, instead upgrade what you are currently eating to give your body the wholesome, energizing foods it needs. Below are 12 small diet swaps you can do that will add up to a big payoff for weight loss and optimal health...

For the full article please go here

When eating healthy turns obsessive from CNN

2012-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

In a vegan café in New York City, Nisha Moodley pushes a glass crusted with the remnants of a berry-açai-almond milk smoothie across the table and begins listing the foods she excised from her diet six years ago.

"Factory-farmed meats; hormone-laden dairy; conventional non-organic fruits and vegetables; anything hydrogenated; anything microwaved," the slender 32-year-old health coach says. "I would not eat irradiated food; charred or blackened foods; artificial coloring, flavoring, or sweetener; MSG; white rice; sugar; table salt; or anything canned.

Back then, a typical breakfast for Moodley consisted of buckwheat mixed with seaweed, raw cacao powder, flax oil, and flax seeds. Lunch was usually homemade brown rice with lentils, fresh vegetables, and kale, followed by a mid-afternoon snack of homemade flax-seed-and-buckwheat crackers. And for dinner, a salad with garbanzo beans, avocado, carrots, beets, and mushrooms.

Moodley initially adopted this diet to address recurring bad digestion. But her commitment to healthy eating -- something to be commended, ordinarily -- turned into an obsession that took over her life. "I was terrified of food that didn't fit within my idea of what was healthy," Moodley says. "I was terrified of cancer, of dying."

For the full article please go here.

Jumpstart Weight Loss Resolutions With Yoga from Huffington Post

2012-01-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

Every year, one of the top New Year's resolutions is to lose weight -- and for a good reason. According to the CDC, two out of every three Americans are overweight or obese. We're in the midst of an obesity epidemic and the numbers are increasing worldwide. Many of us are affected by this epidemic, either personally or through our families or friends.

Studies show that successful weight management depends on a healthy lifestyle. The conventional prescription for achieving and maintaining your best weight is still the healthiest -- through lifestyle education, eating a healthful, balanced diet, cutting calories and 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity daily.

For the full article please go here.

6 Things Patients Can Do to Improve Health Care from Huffington Post

2012-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

It seems that the majority of people agree that the health care delivery system in this country is badly broken and in need of revamping. I must admit I am extremely dismayed at the huge numbers of people who point a quick finger at "money hungry" doctors as the main reason that the system is failing. Until you have run a medical practice and have paid the expenses necessary to run it, that opinion is baseless and dangerous.

While we can all agree that there are "bad apples" in every line of work, the "bad apples" in medicine simply are not the reason that we are in the crisis we find ourselves in. This is a gross oversimplification of a complex issue and one that is extraordinarily unfair to the dedicated physicians that serve the public. However, I will also say that physicians have every right to earn a great living and, just like everybody else in a capitalist system, deserve to be paid commensurate with their expertise, commitment and drive to succeed in their field.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses and Stress: Does It Affect Your Skin, Hair, Nails and More? from Nurse Together

2012-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

A nurse recently asked me, “I’m under so much stress and I noticed changes in my hair, skin and nails. Is there any connection?” The answer is a big, fat yes.

One reason for poor hair, skin and nail health is due to the over secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. When it’s over secreted, it will look to replenish itself by borrowing components from our estrogen stores. Estrogen is a hormone which keeps us youthful so when stores become depleted, we age faster. (You know how someone “looks like they’ve had a hard life?” That’s the physical effects of over secreted stress hormones).

For the full article please go here.

7 Myths of Online Learning from Nurse Together

2012-01-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

I am a proud RN and (many years ago) attended a traditional classroom program to earn my nursing degree! In 2007, I graduated the University of Phoenix's online program with my MBA. I can attest to the many myths regarding online or distance education, and can affirm the FACT that these are simply myths.

For the full article please go here.

Should Doctors Be ‘Parsimonious’ About Health Care? From Kaiser Health Care News

2012-01-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

A major medical group issued ethical guidelines on Monday that take the provocative position of urging doctors to consider cost-effectiveness when deciding how to treat their patients.

The American College of Physicians, the second-largest U.S. doctors’ group after the American Medical Association, included the recommendation in the latest version of its ethics manual, which provides guidance for some 132,000 internists nationwide.

“The cost of health care in the United States is twice that of any other industrialized countries and we are not providing care to as many people as they do in other places, and we don’t even have as good outcomes,” said Dr. Virginia Hood, president of the group. “So given that, we really have to look at ways of doing things better.”

For the full article please go here.

Calories Trump Protein For Weight Loss from NPR

2012-01-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

When it comes to keeping off fat, protein sounds to some like a magic bullet.

For decades, people have been making the case that eating a lot more of it, as in the Atkins diet, or lots less of it, will change the body's metabolism, spurring weight loss.

But alas, it ain't so easy.

No matter how much or how little protein ate, volunteers on a high-calorie diet all gained weight, concludes a study published in the latest issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The people on the low-protein diet did gain fewer pounds: about 6 pounds over eight weeks compared to about 13 pounds for those on a diet with a normal protein and 14 pounds for the high-protein plan.

For the full article please go here.

Immune-Boosting Superfoods For Cold And Flu Season from Huffington Post

2012-01-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

First that nasty cold knocked out the IT department, then your desk-mate started sniffling. At this time of year, there seems to be a perpetual virus going around the office. One way to help? Load up on superfoods that give your immune system a fighting chance, but don't wait until you're already feeling under the weather. Studies show that infection-fighting nutrients like zinc, selenium and beta-glucans work better before symptoms start, so load up on healthful foods now to keep your body's defense system strong throughout the season.

For the full article please go here.

20 Fitness Trends For 2012 from Huffington Post

2012-01-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

It's 2012, you've made your resolution and got that new gym membership. Now what? A survey of 2,600 fitness professionals conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine ranked the top 20 fitness trends for the coming year. But before you roll your eyes, consider that the latest picks aren't just about what's faddish or in fashion -- selections are often based on new research in the field of sports medicine, as well as slow-growing business trends. In other words: many of these areas of consumer fitness are here to stay.

"We really wanted to answer the question for both the consumer and the health fitness professional," explains Walter R. Thompson, the Regents' Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, who has been the lead author of the survey since its inception six years ago. "What should they make an investment in?"

For the full article please go here.

5 reasons EHRs need to 'grow up' from HealthCareITNews.com

2012-01-03T07:36:00.001-08:00

With Medicare's push toward shared savings and accountable care organizations, healthcare business models are getting more complex, said Shahid Shah, software IT analyst and author of the blog The Healthcare IT Guy. And according to him, the industry needs software to implement these new models.

“Due to the new intricacies of organizational connections between different providers, standardization of workflows on existing EHRs won’t really be possible," Shah says. "Most EHRs are not up to the task of handling the complexities of newly shared accountability and what I call ‘patient team’ business models, so we need EHRs to become more social, more collaborative, and far more integrated than they are now, EHRs need to grow up from the adolescence of basic electronic typewriters and chart storage systems to mature real-time care coordination and collaboration platforms.”

Shah gives us five more reasons EHRs need to “grow up.”

For the full article please go here.

Top 10 Food Label Tricks to Avoid in 2012 from Huffington Post

2012-01-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

After overindulging during the holidays, many of us have resolved to eat a healthier diet in the new year. But doing so means choosing the right foods, and too often misleading food labels prompt us to purchase items that we think are good for us but really aren't. Here are 10 common labeling tricks to be aware of as you beef up your diet in 2012.

For the full article please go here.

The Most Controversial Health Stories of 2011 from Health.com

2012-01-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

By Amanda MacMillan

If there's one thing you can say about 2011 from a health point of view, it's that it wasn't boring!

From killer vitamins to Charlie Sheen's excesses to scientists flip-flopping on the dangers of cell phones and salt, our heads are spinning as we sort through the headlines.

Here are our picks for the year's most buzz-worthy stories—share yours on facebook.com/heal

For the full article please go here.

5 Ways Poor Dental Care Makes You Sick from Yahoo News

2011-12-29T08:39:00.001-08:00

Even if you brush your teeth daily, you may still have dangerous bacteria growing inside your mouth. Not only could that lead to periodontitis (an advanced form of gum disease that comes with symptoms such as bleeding when you brush and gum pain), but studies also find a link between poor oral hygiene and major health issues. Here are some ways that missing the mark on oral care could harm your heath.

1. It may hurt your heart.
People with gum disease are almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease compared to those don't have periodontitis. Researchers aren't exactly sure of why this might be, but one theory is that harmful bacteria from your mouth enters your blood stream and attaches to fatty plaques in your heart's blood vessels, leading to inflammation and upping your risk of clots that can trigger heart attacks.

For the full article please go here.

Resolving to eat healthy foods in 2012 from USA Today

2011-12-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

New Year's resolutions to eat better are often rife with dietary deprivation. Vowing to avoid sweets at all costs, giving snacks the boot and swearing off burgers and fries can quickly derail your commitment to good nutrition. I see it happen all the time.

Why not take a more positive approach to changing eating habits for the better in 2012 and beyond? Instead of concentrating on what you can't eat, plan your eating pattern to include more nutrient-rich choices.

I reached out to my colleagues, some of the country's top health experts, and here's what they recommend you put on the menu in 2012 and every year.

For the full article please go here.

Regaining Weight Bad For The Health from Medical News Today

2011-12-29T07:47:00.001-08:00

Recent research has shown that even after dieting and losing weight, the body tends to try its best to regain the lost fat stores. Holiday times tend to be tough for those trying to stay trim, and New Year resolutions often don't stick.

Perhaps an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition will provide some extra incentive. The study shows that older women who lose weight tend to gain it back again as fat not muscle.

Barbara Nicklas, Ph.D., a gerontologist at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest Baptist and principal investigator for the study put it rather frankly :

For the full article please go here.

Nutrients May Stop Brain Shrinkage Linked To Alzheimer's from Medical News Today

2011-12-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

A study of elderly people finds that those whose diets were high in certain essential nutrients were less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer's disease and more likely to score better on tests of mental performance. The researchers published a paper on how they came to these findings in the 28 December online issue of Neurology.

The paper's first author is Dr Gene Bowman from the Departments of Neurology and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. He and his colleagues describe three sets of findings:

For the full article please go here.

The Secrets to a Super-Happy Winter from Health.com

2011-12-28T07:25:00.001-08:00

By Leslie Barrie

Freezing temps? Check. Gray skies? Check. Crabby mood? Check again. But not for long! It may be gloomy outside, but your outlook doesn’t have to be.

"There are simple things you can do to stay positive," says Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and author of The How of Happiness. "It’s important to keep your mood up because it can help you avoid everything from gaining extra pounds to feeling lethargic." Try these techniques to stay sunny all winter long—no trip to the Bahamas required!

For the full article please go here.

MRI Scans Better For Suspected Heart Disease Patients from Medical News Today

2011-12-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

In recent years, imaging techniques such as the most commonly used single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), have gradually replaced exercise treadmill tests for diagnosing heart disease. Now a five-year trial of over 750 heart disease patients conducted by the University of Leeds in the UK suggests that a more modern scanning method based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is better for diagnosing coronary heart disease than SPECT and should be more widely adopted.

The findings could change the way patients with suspected heart disease are tested, not least because the MRI approach, called multiparametric cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), does not involve invasive procedures or ionizing radiation.

In a paper published online on 23 December in The Lancet, lead author Dr John Greenwood, senior lecturer and consultant cardiologist at Leeds, and colleagues, conclude that CMR is superior to SPECT, which varies in accuracy and exposes patients to ionizing radiation. They conclude that CMR should form part of all evidence-based clinical management guidelines for the diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD).

For the full article please go here.

Tests for biomarker may diagnose heart attack within hours from CNN

2011-12-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

One of the most common reasons people go to the emergency room is for serious chest pains. Time is crucial when someone is having a heart attack. If doctors don't make a diagnosis quickly, it can mean the difference between life and death.

Now, there may be a new tool to help ER doctors make a quicker diagnosis. A new highly sensitive test can detect troponin, a protein in the muscle tissue, according to new research in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). According to cardiologists, the higher the levels of troponin, the more likely it is a person will have a heart attack. If tropin isn't present, the likelihood of a heart attack is much smaller.

Researchers say this new test could also help physicians monitor patients who present with chest pains but no heart attack symptoms in the hours after being admitted to the hospital.

"Early identification of individuals at high and intermediate risk for myocardial ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle) is crucial because they benefit the most from early and aggressive treatment," said the study's authors.

For the full article please go here.

What Makes Anesthetics Work from Science Daily

2011-12-28T06:10:00.001-08:00

ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2011) — Physicians use inhalation anesthetics in a way that is incredibly safe for patients, but very little is known about the intricacies of how these drugs actually work in children and adults. Now, researchers have uncovered what cells respond to anesthesia in an organism known as the C. elegans, according to a new study from the Seattle Children's Research Institute. C. elegans is a transparent roundworm used often in research. The study, "Optical reversal of halothane-induced immobility in C. elegans," is published in the December 20, 2011 issue of Current Biology.

For the full article please go here.

The Goldilocks Principle of Stress: Too Little Is Almost As Bad as Too Much

2011-12-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

A life free of stress and adversity sounds blissful. But, in fact, the happiest and healthiest people are those who have had at least some early exposure to negative experiences, according to a new research review.

Despite the popular notion, stress isn’t all bad. In fact, low to moderate amounts of stress are necessary for healthy growth. What’s harmful is large doses of uncontrollable stress — experiencing a natural disaster, for instance, or living in extreme poverty — particularly in early life. Also harmful, it turns out, is having experienced no stress at all.

The new review adds weight to a growing body of evidence that most brain systems function like muscles: they are strengthened through exposure to gradually increasing loads at the appropriate stages of development, but they will wither without exercise and get injured if they are suddenly overloaded without prior training. The stress system is a prime example.

For the full article please go here.

Nurse's Path to Stress Prevention: Straight Talk, Simple Tips from Nurse Together

2011-12-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Deadlines. The daily commute. Work is stressful as it is. But for healthcare professionals, the word 'stress' takes on a whole new meaning. On top of the everyday demands of your job, the profound responsibility of caring for your patients coupled with managing the needs of their loved ones, can take its toll on your mental and physical well-being. Over time, day-to-day stress factors can add up, leaving you feeling anxious, fatigued and overwhelmed. Understanding how stress works is the first step toward regaining control and ensuring a positive work environment.

Stress: What Causes It?

Stress is a normal biological reaction to events or situations that happen every day. Linked to the natural “fight or flight” response that occurs when your body perceives danger, stressful situations trigger the release of certain hormones that increase your heart rate, heighten awareness and cause a temporary surge of energy.

For the full article please go here.

The 6 Best Foods for Winter from Yahoo News

2011-12-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

It’s the first snow of the season, and it’s so heavy and wet that it clogs your snowblower. You have two choices. Option 1: Shove your arm between the augers and remove the blockage. The downside: You’ll lose your arm in the process, and having it reattached will probably bankrupt you. Option 2: Turn off the machine, grab a broom stick, and chip at the blockage until it crumbles.

You might be thinking, “What kind of lunatic would choose option 1?” Well, lunatics like the American people. The U.S. spends more than $2 trillion on health care each year, with much of that cash going toward the treatment of obesity-related complications like heart disease and diabetes. We’re fixing our health problems retroactively, with medication and surgery, even though we could prevent most of them by making smarter choices about what we eat.

There’s no better time to put this notion to the test than the winter months. Winter is not necessarily conducive to good health; the season conjures up images of calorie-loaded comfort foods, fireside naps, and runny noses. Read on for six everyday foods that will keep you healthy and strong from December to March and beyond, compliments of the all-new Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide, which includes thousands of smart swaps that can help you shave 20 pounds or more in just 6 weeks.

For the full article please go here.

Medicare: Who Said That? From Kaiser Health News

2011-12-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

In the past year, Medicare politics and policies have grabbed headlines, with politicians from both sides of the aisle talking about “saving Medicare,” “protecting beneficiaries,” “improving quality of care,” and “curbing fraud and abuse.” But a longer look at the program’s history shows that many of these ideas have been a part of the Medicare discourse since its earliest days, beginning even before the program was signed into law.

To test your knowledge of who has said what about Medicare, Kaiser Health News gathered the following 15 quotations. For each quote, you will have multiple-choice answers and, when you are done, you can check your work against a detailed answer key. Good luck!

For the full article please go here.

New powerful painkiller has abuse experts worried from MSNBC

2011-12-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK — Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of a highly abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.

The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them — Zogenix of San Diego — plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.

If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone. Existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.

Critics say they are especially worried about Zohydro, a timed-release drug meant for managing moderate to severe pain, because abusers could crush it to release an intense, immediate high.

"I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin," said April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse. "We just don't need this on the market."

For the full article please go here.

The Critical Need for Continuing Education from Nurse Together

2011-12-26T11:06:00.000-08:00

In writing my book and preparing educational courses for nurses, I have devoted much study to critical thinking and its application to nursing. While critical thinking is a very large subject with many parts, one component stands out in our world of evolving technology, mass communication and frequent research updates; accurate information.

In our initial training, we were exposed to the most up-to-date information available. This was the frequently cited reason for always having to purchase the newest edition of text books. We dutifully studied and were tested on information that would allow us to practice state of the art nursing. Later, we were tested on this same information to earn our license. After all of this training and testing, we were set free to be nurses. Having graduated from my nurses training in 1973, there was no continuing education requirement for my state at that time.

For the full article please go here.

Berwick: How Health Care Can Trim a Trillion in Costs from H and HN

2011-12-26T09:15:00.001-08:00

During recently departed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Don Berwick's return to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's National Forum in Orlando earlier this month, I saw him speak twice — once during a keynote address for all Forum attendees, and during a small press briefing.

During both appearances, Berwick hammered home the pressure the health care industry faces to curb health care spending — and how those ends can be accomplished in tandem with improvements to quality. To be sure, Berwick isn't the first health care expert to link reduced costs with quality improvements, but he believes the system, using principles of the Lean and quality improvement movements, could stand to trim a staggering $1 trillion — or what he estimates as roughly a third of overall U.S. health costs.

For the full article please go here.

What Will 2012 Bring? from H and HN

2011-12-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

As we head into the holiday break, the editors and staff at H&HN Daily would like to say "Thanks." We launched Daily back in February and since then our subscriber base as continued to grow and the feedback from you, the readers, has been tremendous. Daily has become an integral part of the H&HN brand. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and we have some exciting things planned for 2012:

On Jan. 4, we'll introduce a new monthly column, "ICD-10 In Real Time." In partnership with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, three leading CIOs will share their experiences of getting their institutions ready for the mammoth transition to ICD-10. The column will appear on the first Wednesday of every month.
Our series on cost containment strategies — Fiscal Fitness — will continue to build. Podcasts and blogs will provide in-depth analysis on how hospitals are taking inefficiencies out of the system.
There will be even more integration between H&HNDaily and the print magazine. For instance, web-extra podcasts with people profiled in the magazine's Interview and Extra Mile departments.

For the full article please go here.

Improving Cancer Care Via Patient Empowerment And System Transformation from Medical News Today

2011-12-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

Physicians can use medical records to track the quality of cancer care and determine whether their patients are receiving the right treatments at the right time. Yet the patient is the only one who ultimately can evaluate the quality of his or her experience while receiving treatment.

In "Quality Measurement and System Change of Cancer Care Delivery," published in the Regenstrief Conference supplement to the December 2011 issue of the journal Medical Care, investigators from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine explore current cancer care quality measurement and discuss new ways to empower patients and promote system transformation to improve quality of care.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease in the United States. However, the federal government and health care quality organizations have fewer reporting requirements for quality of cancer care than for treatment of many other diseases.

For the full article please go here.

Readied To Donate Organs, 21-Year-Old Emerges From Coma from Yahoo

2011-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Sam Schmid, an Arizona college student believed to be brain dead and poised to be an organ donor, miraculously recovered just hours before doctors were considering taking him off life support.

Schmid, a junior and business major at the University of Arizona, was critically wounded in an Oct. 19 car accident in Tucson, which took the life of his friend and roommate.

The 21-year-old's brain injuries were so severe that the local hospital could not treat him. He was airlifted to the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Phoenix, where specialists performed surgery for a life-threatening aneurysm.

As hospital officials began palliative care and broached the subject of organ donation with his family, Schmid began to respond, holding up two fingers on command. Today he is walking with the aid of a walker, and his speech, although slow, has improved.

Doctors say he will likely have a complete recovery. He even hopes to get a day pass from the hospital to celebrate the holidays with his large extended family.

"Nobody could ever give me a better Christmas present than this -- ever, ever, ever," said his mother, Susan Regan, who is vice-president of the insurance company Lovitt-Touche.

For the full article please go here.

Wal-Mart Pulls Formula After Baby's Death from National Public Radio

2011-12-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

Wal-Mart has pulled a batch of powdered infant formula from its stores nationwide after a newborn Missouri boy who was given the formula became gravely ill with a suspected bacterial infection and died after being taken off life support, the retailer said Wednesday.

No government recall had been ordered for the 12.5-ounce cans of Enfamil Newborn powder with the lot number ZP1K7G. Manufacturer Mead Johnson Nutrition said its records showed the lot tested negative for the bacterium before it was shipped.

But Wal-Mart spokeswoman Dianna Gee said the company decided to pull the lot "out of an abundance of caution" while health officials investigate Sunday's death of 10-day-old Avery Cornett. The product could go back on shelves depending on the outcome of the investigation, but customers who bought the cans have the option of returning them for a refund or exchange, Gee said.

For the full article please go here.

Encouraging Loved One To Lose Weight Could Be Best Gift This Christmas from Medical News Today

2011-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Encouraging an overweight partner or close friend to shed some pounds could be your best gift to them this Christmas. Yet a recent UK poll finds that while most people worry that an excessive waistline might be affecting their loved one's health, a considerable number shy away from raising the matter with them.

The International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk (ICCR), an academic organization based at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, commissioned the poll to highlight the risk of being overweight, particularly around the waist.

Carrying too much fat around the waist raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, coronorary heart disease, and stroke.

For the full article please go here.

Winter holidays are peak time for heart attacks from USA Today

2011-12-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

It's the grimmest of holiday statistics: Heart-attack deaths peak on three days of the year, and one of them is Christmas. The other two are the day after Christmas and New Year's Day.

Salt and alcohol can raise blood pressure, fatty foods can boost cholesterol and even one rich meal can adversely affect blood vessels.

Salt and alcohol can raise blood pressure, fatty foods can boost cholesterol and even one rich meal can adversely affect blood vessels.

Talk about your lump of coal.

And it gets worse. The holiday peak is just part of a larger, well-established pattern: More people die of heart attacks in winter than at any other time of year. In other words: It's truly the season to know your risks — and reduce them, if you can. But first, it may help to ponder why these days are so deadly.

For the full article please go here.

Do you really want to know what your doc is writing about you? from MSNBC

2011-12-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

By Kimberly Hayes Taylor

Have you ever been tempted to sneak a peek at those notes your doctor is scribbling about you? If you have, you’re like most patients, new Harvard research shows.

But chances are, your doctor would rather you keep your nose out of his notes. A poll of 100 primary care doctors nationwide conducted by Truth On Call for msnbc.com found that 68 percent of physicians have written something in a patient's chart they wouldn't want that person to see.

For the full article please go here.

Bombast, Negativity … and Yet … from H and HN

2011-12-19T10:43:00.001-08:00

If I had to sum up 2011 in one word, that word would be "peeved." You can probably think of more colorful words but, for this space, that'll do.

From all those folks on the other side of the globe who got so fed up with the bullying and the oppression and generally being treated like crap that they finally chased the despots out of their gilded fortresses to the Tea Partyers and Occupy Wall Streeters here at home who want to throw our own bums out but can't agree on which of those bums ought to be first down the gangplank, 2011 has been a banner year for aggravation, exasperation and just plain bad moods.

I don't know about you, but it hasn't been 365 days of unadulterated bliss for me either. My buying power isn't all that powerful and my life savings ought to be put on life support. Not only that, but my Chicago Cubs — well, let's not even go there, OK?

For the full article please go here.

Are Antibiotics Making Us Fat? from Yahoo News

2011-12-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Farmers have long used antibiotics to fatten up livestock—and now there’s growing evidence that these drugs may have the same effect on people. What’s more, instead of being miracle cures, there’s now scary speculation that antibiotics could be jeopardizing our health by making us more prone to lifestyle diseases, from type 2 diabetes to heart attacks and fatal strokes. If that sounds far-fetched, consider this: States with the highest rates of antibiotic prescriptions also rank as the least healthy, Wired magazine reported on November 25.

When the nonprofit research group Extending the Cure recently mapped antibiotic prescriptions by state, it found the heaviest use (measured per 1,000 people) in the eastern half of the US, particularly West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama, all of which comprise the so-called Stroke Belt, due to the high rate of stroke fatalities. According to CDC data, Wired adds, these states (and to a lesser extent, much of the eastern US) also have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart attacks, compared to the western US. While these correlations don’t prove that antibiotic overuse triggers these diseases, studies suggest that it could drive up obesity by changing how our stomachs work. Here’s a look at the findings.

For the full article please go here.

What was I just saying? 9 reasons you can't focus from MSNBC

2011-12-19T09:06:00.001-08:00

You walk into a restaurant to meet a friend and remember you were supposed to meet somewhere else. You leave your boss's office and, quick as that, forget the deadline she gave you for a new project. You had your keys in your hand, you were just holding them, and now they're gone — again. What's going on? Here, nine possibilities for why your mind is wandering, and expert advice on how to get your concentration back.

For the full article please go here.

Two dead in Louisiana after unclean water used in neti pots from CNN

2011-12-19T08:48:00.001-08:00

Louisiana health officials are warning residents not to use nonsterilized tap water in neti pots after the deaths of two people who exposed their brains to a deadly amoeba while flushing out their nasal passages.

The amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, can be found in lakes and ponds as well as in contaminated lukewarm tap water. The organism doesn't pose a threat when ingested, but if it becomes lodged in a person's nose it can end up in the brain and cause an infection.

The infection, lethal in 95% of cases, triggers an array of symptoms that resemble those of bacterial meningitis, including vomiting, headaches and sleepiness. As it progresses, it can cause changes in a person’s behavior and lead to confusion and hallucinations. It usually causes death within one to 12 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the full article please go here.

Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs May Reduce Mortality for Influenza Patients from Science Daily

2011-12-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) — Statins, traditionally known as cholesterol-lowering drugs, may reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza, according to a new study released online by The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

It is the first published observational study to evaluate the relationship between statin use and mortality in hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection, according to Vanderbilt's William Schaffner, M.D., professor and chair of Preventive Medicine.

"We may be able to combine statins with antiviral drugs to provide better treatment for patients seriously ill with influenza," said Schaffner, who co-authored the study led by Meredith Vandermeer, MPH, of the Oregon Public Health Division.

For the full article please go here.

Top 10 medical innovations of 2011 from Time Magazine.

2011-12-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

It's not quite human cloning, but it's close. Researchers reported using a variation of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) — the same technique that created Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned, from a skin cell of a ewe — on human cells. SCNT involves replacing the genetic material of an egg cell with the DNA from a mature cell (a skin cell, for example). The egg is then stimulated to divide, and if it develops fully, produces a genetically identical clone of the animal from which the mature cell was taken.

For the full article please go here.

Ohio first state to use Direct messaging across state lines from HealthIT.com

2011-12-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

COLUMBUS, OH – Ohio is the first state in the nation to successfully send and receive health information across state lines, using Direct secure messaging, through its statewide health information exchange, CliniSync, according to the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP). The OHIP, a Medicity client, is the state-designated HIE for Ohio.

Medicity announced Friday that it has helped OHIP to conduct live messages between one physician's office in Lima, Ohio and another in Biloxi, Miss. Mississippi's state-designated HIE, the Mississippi Health Information Network (MS-HIN), is also a Medicity client. The partnership also performed live instances of Direct messaging within the state of Ohio.

For the full article please go here.

Get Fit: 10 Ways to Get Your Fitness Game Plan Going for the New Year (Or Anytime)! From Huffington Post

2011-12-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

Are you thinking about it yet? You probably will be soon... once all the eggnog wears off and your holiday hangover starts to give you pangs of guilt.

But fear not. Here are 20 ways to get you started up or back on track to a healthier, fitter lifestyle. Take two Alka-Seltzers and read on:

For the full article please go here.

Get Headaches? Smart Ways to Deal from Health.com

2011-12-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

By Winnie Yu Scherer

Sometimes you know exactly what's causing that pounding in your skull. Other times, you're blindsided. Headaches—whether debilitating migraines or less-painful-but-still-annoying tension headaches—are often set off or made worse by a key trigger, says Brian Grosberg, MD, director of the Inpatient Headache Program at Montefiore Headache Center in New York City.

Here, the seven most common pain provokers, and how to head off the hurt. (See your doctor if these DIY fixes don't do the trick; for those plagued by headaches, prescription meds may help.) 

For the full article please go here.

Experimental Magnetic Pulses May Help Heal A Brain After Stroke from NPR

2011-12-15T09:08:00.001-08:00

A little brain stimulation seems to speed up recovery from a stroke.

This isn't the sort of brain stimulation you get from conversation. It's done using an electromagnetic coil placed against the scalp.

Researchers think the treatment encourages brain cells to form new connections, allowing the brain to rewire itself to compensate for damage caused by a stroke.

The latest evidence that stimulation works comes from Italy, where researchers treated patients with a condition called hemispatial neglect. It's a common problem in stroke patients that leaves them unable to see or recognize anything on one side of their body, even though their eyes work just fine.

For the full article please go here.

In Third-Degree Burn Treatment, Hydrogel Helps Grow New, Scar-Free Skin from Science Daily

2011-12-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2011) — Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue.

In the Dec. 12-16 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reported their promising results from mouse tissue tests. The new treatment has not yet been tested on human patients. But the researchers say the procedure, which promotes the formation of new blood vessels and skin, including hair follicles, could lead to greatly improved healing for injured soldiers, home fire victims and other people with third-degree burns.

For the full article please go here.

Holiday Stress: 6 Ways To Deal With Difficult Family Members During The Holidays from Huffington Post

2011-12-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

George Burns once said: "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." So that would explain why the holidays are so stressful. Those dear relatives who live in San Francisco suddenly are lingering in front of your refrigerator in Cincinnati, Ohio and you have to figure out a socially acceptable way of setting the table together, resisting the urge to re-expose the childhood wounds that you've learned to protect.

Here are a few tips I use in interacting with those family members who tend to wake my grumpy inner child, triggering an ugly tantrum right about the time Santa shows up with his loot.

1. Repeat: It's Not About Me

You think it's about you when your brother calls you a "selfish, lazy, son of a something," but actually it's not. He may point his finger at you and say, "You. I'm talking about you." But he's really not. He is seeing something that has nothing to do with who you are.

For the full article please go here.

Try alternative remedies if heartburn hits during holidays from USAtoday

2011-12-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

If you have GERD — a common condition that causes symptoms from acid indigestion to chest pain severe enough to be mistaken for heart attack — you've probably tried conventional treatments, such as over-the-counter or prescription acid-reducing medications.

But you may not know about alternative treatments for gastroesophageal reflux disease. Here are three options. Santa spoiler alert: One treatment will have you stepping away from the holiday cookies.

•Take melatonin. Mention this natural hormone and most people think "sleep aid." But research reported in the April 2011 Journal of Pharmacology shows melatonin reduces stomach acid but doesn't block it, as many GERD medicines do, notes Mark Stengler, a naturopathic medical doctor and author of books on integrative medicine. That matters because "you need stomach acid for normal digestion" and "to prevent bad bacteria," he explains. For his adult GERD patients, Stengler prescribes 3 to 6 milligrams of melatonin daily at bedtime; it is not recommended for children and pregnant women.

For the full article please go here.

Cancer Vaccine Significantly Reduces Tumor Size from Medical News Today

2011-12-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

An experimental cancer vaccine has been found to reduce tumor size by an average of 80%, researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Georgia reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their animal experiment, mouse models that mimic most human pancreatic and breast cancer cases had dramatic reductions in tumor size - even among those that had not responded to standard treatments.

Tumors that share the same distinct carbohydrate signature may be especially treatable with this new vaccine, say the authors. This includes various cancers such as colorectal, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and some others.

Co-senior author Geert-Jan Boons, wrote:

For the full article please go here.

Researchers Design Alzheimer’s Antibodies: Surprisingly Simple Method to Target Harmful Proteins from Science Daily

2011-12-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2011) — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to design antibodies aimed at combating disease. The surprisingly simple process was used to make antibodies that neutralize the harmful protein particles that lead to Alzheimer's disease.

The process, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could be used as a tool to understand complex disease pathology and develop new antibody-based drugs in the future.

For the full article please go here.

Big providers compare notes on product usage from HealthIT.com

2011-12-13T07:38:00.001-08:00

ST. LOUIS, MO – The Healthcare Transformation Group (HTG), a collaborative of Geisinger Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic and Mercy, is seeking to spur efficiency and safety by performing data analysis to determine specific product lines the group has in common.

Earlier this year, the HTG hosted a summit with its top 20 suppliers to discuss how to move the healthcare industry forward with GS1 Standards adoption. Each supplier shared their plans and timeline toward adoption, and asked what product lines or manufacturing divisions they should focus on first in the adoption of standards in healthcare.  

For the full article please go here.

A Health Care System Tailor-Made For Patients from H and H Networks

2011-12-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Incorporating patient perspectives into the design of health care delivery was one of the major themes of the recently concluded Institute for Healthcare Improvement 2011 National Forum in Orlando. The meeting marked the first time patients were on the IHI faculty, and session after session featured patients and advocates describing their firsthand experiences to an audience of hospital administrators and clinicians.

Of course, excellent patient care has always been the desired end result in health care — the hard part is delivering on that promise, and an emerging school of thought suggests that listening to patients is an essential part of achieving excellent outcomes. During a press briefing at IHI, Gary Kaplan, M.D., chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, noted that his system puts patients at the top of its care "pyramid," and emphasizes listening to their stories as one way of meeting that goal.

"We asked [patients], how did it feel lying on stretcher outside the operating room?" Kaplan said.

For the full article please go here.

Stress Early in Pregnancy Linked to Fewer Baby Boys via Yahoo News

2011-12-09T10:46:00.001-08:00

THURSDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- A stressful early pregnancy could lower a woman's odds for delivering a boy and raise her risk for premature delivery, a new study suggests.

The findings from an investigation of how the stress of a major 2005 earthquake affected pregnant women in Chile suggest that pregnancy can be impacted by exposure to stress itself rather than the factors that often accompany or cause stress, such as poverty, the researchers said.

The investigators analyzed the birth certificates of all the babies born in Chile between 2004 and 2006, which was more than 200,000 per year. The birth records provided information about the babies and their mothers, including how close the mothers lived to the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake.

Reporting in the Dec. 8 issue of Human Reproduction, the study authors found that exposure to the earthquake during the third month of pregnancy reduced the ratio of male to female births.

For the full article please go here.

How 10 million dollars can spark Health Care innovations from CNN

2011-12-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

Dr. Peter Diamandis wants you to be the CEO of your own health care.

You should be able to make decisions based on technology that analyzes your body and gives you personalized feedback and treatment recommendations, he says. And Diamandis wants to speed the development of that technology along by offering prizes for the people who can make it happen.

Diamandis is the founder and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, which offers $10 million prizes for various technological feats.

In October, he announced the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco, which is a challenge to sequence 100 genomes of centenarians quickly, cheaply and accurately.

Such sequencing is getting more accurate and inexpensive all the time. And data collected from sequencing specific groups of people – those who have had specific diseases, for instance – will help scientists gain a better understanding of those conditions and how to treat them.

For the full article please go here.

American Institute of Health Care Professionals, Inc.

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