Health Touches

When your pregnancy is considered full term, traditionally at 38 to 42 weeks, your doctor or midwife may suggest a procedure called “stripping” or “sweeping” of the membranes to naturally induce labor. This procedure takes just a few moments but can be quite painful, with lots of pressure and pulling sensations from inside your cervix. Most pregnant women are willing to put up with the pain for a few moments if they think they can get their labor started.
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One of the most difficult aspects of psychological (non-physical) violence is that it is so hard to identify. People in psychologically violent relationships tend to see things from the perspective of the abuser (whether that is a spouse, a family member, a co-worker, or a supervisor) because doing so is a key way of coping with the relationship. This means the victim may believe all sorts of things that are not true simply because the abuser has said so.
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When a person at work is having problems, unfortunately these problems may have a negative effect on your job and job performance. When this is the case, it is time to document your interactions and your observations of that person so that you can share this information with the higher ups in your workplace, as necessary.
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People who are angry have a high need for control and an unrealistic set of expectations about the extent of their control. For example, they do not see a real need to control themselves (something that is reasonably within their abilities) and at the same time, they have the idea that if they control other people, they will cause other people to make them happy. They frequently do not really understand the perspectives of other people or that other people may want the same amount of control over things that they are claiming for themselves.
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When a co-worker has a problem with depression, it can frequently become another person’s problem. People with depression have little energy, are likely to procrastinate, passive, and negative. This means if you are excited about a project, they will tell you all the things that will go wrong. If you have a deadline, you are likely to have to wait until the very last minute to get their contribution. If there is a problem, they won’t try to solve it. And being around them can feel like a drag on your own emotions. So, what do you do?
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A number of factors influence the decision to make health care a “Do It Yourself” project. Many people do not have health insurance, which means a visit to the doctor is rarely an option. The Web has a huge amount of information about medical conditions and their symptoms and treatment. And, many formerly prescription drugs have become over the counter, which makes them easily available.
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Have you ever noticed that when you are doing well with something, you tend to get even more motivated about it? When you start a new habit such as eating in a more healthy manner, each day that you do well motivates you the next day to do the same. The same is true for exercise.
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At three in the morning you wake up and brood about it. You feel a cold chill down your spine when the thought occurs to you randomly during the day. You don’t want to think about it. And yet it worries you and eats at you. It makes you wonder what will happen and how long you will be around.
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Many people, including people with diabetes and people who are trying to lose weight, need to avoid eating simple carbohydrates such as sugar, pasta, bread, and potatoes. While a person facing a low carbohydrate life-style may cringe at the thought of giving up these comfort foods, there are some alternatives that make the transition a lot less painful (dare we say, even pleasant?).

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Doctors are highly educated people, having completed four years of college, four years of medical school, and sometimes advanced training for a specialty. Of course, this is a good characteristic because we want highly educated people to be making diagnoses and suggesting treatments.

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In the little number your doctor gives you regarding your cholesterol (total cholesterol) lie measures of the types of cholesterol in your body. One is the HDL “good” cholesterol, one is for LDL “bad” cholesterol, and one is related to triglycerides. Different people have trouble with different types of cholesterol; some people’s HDL is too low, some people have elevated LDL, some people have high triglycerides, and some people have some combination of these situations.
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Neurologist Oliver Sacks cites a case of a man who was struck by lightening and who suddenly had a desire to listen to and play classical music on the piano. The man was in his forties and had never played a musical instrument nor had he previously had any interest in classical music. Nevertheless, he was able to learn how to play piano pretty well and even to compose music.
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One of the most venerable diseases a person can get is gout. Gout has a rich history in literature owing to the fact that for centuries, the only people who could afford to get it were wealthy. The lives of the rich and famous were more likely to get recorded in both history and literature than those of the teeming poor. Famous gout sufferers include Martin Luther, Sir Isaac Newton, and Thomas Jefferson.
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There’s a prescription drug for almost anything that ails you. High blood pressure, sore toe, asthma, diabetes, stomach ulcers, insomnia, strep throat, urinary incontinence, poison ivy are examples of conditions or problems that can be treated with a prescription drug. If you are like a lot of middle-aged to older people, you may have a collection of pills you take every day.
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The virus is a slippery little critter. It’s smaller than bacteria; you have to have an electron microscope just to see it. Not only is it extremely tiny, it is not the least bit susceptible to antibiotics that kill bacteria. It is for this reason that doctors don’t want to use antibiotics when you have a cold; colds are caused by the rhinovirus.
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High blood pressure is a condition that causes no detectable symptoms in the person who has it but which also wreaks havoc on a person’s body. Reducing high blood pressure can increase the quality of a person’s life simply by reducing the chances of getting various types of heart diseases as well as stroke.
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