Encouraging Health

www.RealAge.com has these great tips:

If you have type 2 diabetes, you live with a lot of rules — but here’s a fun one you may have missed: Relax more.

Sure, you need to think twice about what you eat, get more exercise, and take your meds. But getting a handle on stress can help lower blood sugar, too. Here’s one relaxation strategy that appears to do the trick.

Biofeedback Does It
“Relax!” If you’ve ever had someone shout that at you, you know it’s sometimes easier said than done. Despite your best efforts, you may have trouble dialing it down.

But there’s a training technique that can help you: biofeedback. It helps you learn how your body reacts to stress — typically by employing some kind of sensor tool that monitors muscle tension or skin temperature — so you can head stress off at the pass.

Body Benefits
Once you’ve learned the technique, it’s yours for life. And it works. People with type 2 diabetes who had 10 sessions of biofeedback and relaxation therapy not only lowered their blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c (what’s that?), but also these levels remained lowered 3 months later. Bonus: Problems with depression and anxiety dropped, too.

blood sugar, relaxing, biofeedback

blood sugar, relaxing, biofeedback

From www.cnn.com:

Dr. Jerome Groopman knew he needed to break up with his doctor.

Five years ago, when he started seeing his internist, everything was fine. But Groopman says that in time, the internist became more popular — and hence more busy and harried — right when Groopman needed him most.

“I have a strong family history of high cholesterol and heart disease. Every male in my family has had a [heart attack] in his 50s and 60s,” he says. “I was moving into middle age, and I just didn’t feel that my doctor was looking at me as an individual, and taking those factors into account.”

But Groopman — a physician and author of four books about doctors and patients — found it difficult to leave his internist of five years. “It sounds strange, but I didn’t want to insult him.”

Groopman is not alone. “I really think it’s a fear of the unknown,” says Robin DiMatteo, a researcher at the University of California at Riverside who’s studied doctor-patient communication. “But if the doctor isn’t supporting your healing or health, you should go.”

Here are five ways to know when it’s time to think about leaving your doctor, and the best way to do it.

Read the rest by clicking above.

physician, changing dr’s

physician, changing dr’s

From www.msnbc.com health:

Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military report.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since the 102 suicides in 1991.

The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 26 years, from last year’s high of 17.3 per 100,000 to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Last year, “Iraq was the most common deployment location for both (suicides) and attempts,� the report said.

The 99 suicides included 28 soldiers deployed to the two wars and 71 who weren’t. About twice as many women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide as did women not sent to war, the report said.

Preliminary numbers for the first half of this year indicate the number of suicides could decline across the service in 2007 but increase among troops serving in the wars, officials said.

Click above to read the factors for suicide.

military suicides

military suicides

From www.msnbc.com diet and fitness:

You battle to get healthy when you’re sick, diligently arming yourself with medication, surgeries and doctors’ visits in the war against disease. But, for many, there’s another unexpected fight — a battle against health insurance companies who may refuse to pay for crucial treatment or may even drop you entirely.

When it comes to health insurance, what you don’t know can hurt you, so the best time to make sure you’re really covered is before you become ill. Taking some simple measures now can help prevent problems later.

To find out what you need to know about your health insurance but probably don’t, MSNBC.com turned to two experts.

Rhonda Orin is the managing partner of the Washington, D.C., law office of Anderson, Kill & Olick, P.C. and represents policyholders in disputes with health insurance companies. She is also the author of “Making Them Pay.�

William Shernoff is the senior partner of Shernoff Bidart Darras, a Claremont, Calif.-based law firm that represents insurance policyholders. He’s the author of three books, including “Payment Refused.�

Click above to read the hints.

insurance companies, denial, appeal

insurance companies, denial, appeal

From www.cnn.com Health:

The number of U.S. men with undiagnosed diabetes has fallen dramatically in the past three decades, with blacks and Hispanics no longer any more likely to unknowingly have the disease than whites, a study found.

The research, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracked all diabetes in U.S. men during three periods starting in 1976 and ending in 2002.

The study was based on data from U.S. government health surveys. Blood tests conducted in conjunction with the surveys permitted the tracking of undiagnosed diabetes cases.

While 48 percent of men with diabetes were unaware they had it during the period from 1976 to 1980, the figure fell to 22 percent during the period from 1999 to 2002, the study found.

Diabetes is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.

RAND Corp. researcher James Smith, who conducted the study, said public health education efforts encouraging minorities to get tested for diabetes have virtually wiped out ethnic disparities among U.S. men with undiagnosed diabetes.

While 65 percent of Hispanic men with diabetes were undiagnosed during the 1976 to 1980 period, the rate fell to 21 percent by the 1999 to 2002 period, the study found. For black men with diabetes, undiagnosed cases fell from 45 percent in a period from 1988 to 1994 to 24 percent in the most recent period.

To read more, click about.

diabetes, mens health

diabetes, mens health

From www.msnbc.com diet and fitness:

Quit complaining — it may make you feel worse
Venting to friends about problems is unhelpful and unhealthy, experts say

When confronted with a problem, Ashley Merydith has a routine for dealing with it: She talks about it. Incessantly. To anyone who will listen.

“‘So he did this, and then I said this, and then he texted me this,’� says Merydith, 23, describing the intricacies of a venting session. “It’s basically rehashing every conversation.�

Her goal is to get it off her chest and feel better about the issue. But often, Merydith finds that venting about her problems has the exact opposite effect. “It makes you more amped up about the problem,� says Merydith, of Charlotte, N.C.

Voicing your frustrations is a natural way of dealing with them — but watch out for when a conversation dissolves into a bitch session. Talking your problems to death can make you feel even worse.

A recent study found that teenage girls who vented to each other about their problems, from boy trouble to social slights, were more likely to develop depression and anxiety — and the same is likely true for adult women, says Amanda Rose, the author of the study.

“There’s a definite belief in our culture that talking about our problems makes you feel better,â€? says Rose, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, whose research was published in the July issue of Developmental Psychology. “That’s true in moderation. … It only becomes risky when it becomes excessive.â€?

Read more by clicking above.

positive outlook, mental health

positive outlook, mental health

From www.msnbc.com, diet and fitness:

An experimental vaccine against multiple sclerosis appears to be safe and may produce beneficial changes in patients’ brains and immune systems, Canadian researchers reported on Monday.

Some patients appeared to have fewer immune cells attacking their nerves, a hallmark of MS, the researchers report in the Archives of Neurology. They also appeared to have fewer lesions in their brains.

The study was designed only to show that the vaccine was safe, and it is safe enough to continue phase 2 trials, which begin to look at whether it works, the researchers said.

Read the rest by clicking above.

MS, vaccine

MS, vaccine

From www.webmd.com:

WebMD Feature from “Women’s Health” MagazineBy the Editors of Women’s Health

Sanity-saving strategies you can use right now

1. Work Pressures
Change your schedule.
When most people get in to work, they check their e-mail and voice mail. Save it for later. Spend your first hour, when you’re the sharpest, on creative and strategic thinking. While you’re at it, break down your day into specific tasks, rather than trying to juggle everything. Studies now show that a 50-minute task takes four times as long if you juggle too many tasks at once. “Are you a starter of all and finisher of none?” asks Julie Morgenstern, author of Making Work Work. If you can, pick one day a week to leave 30 minutes earlier than usual. “It feels like corporate suicide,” Morgenstern says, but allowing yourself that early exit will keep you on deadline and make you hyperfocused to complete jobs more efficiently.

2. Personal Pressures
Change the habit, not the world.
Destressing isn’t about eliminating all of your stresses; it’s about getting control of them, one at a time. To do that, you should make micro-adjustments in your life, not big ones that eventually add more stress, says Stan Goldberg, Ph.D., author of Ready To Learn. “What’s important is whatever [changes you make to your routine] need to be small enough so that there is a minimal amount of difference between what you’ve been doing and what you now do,” Dr. Goldberg says. If you’re working on being prompt, get to every appointment—not just to work—5 minutes earlier than normal. Successful change is permanent, not dramatic.

3. Self Care
Eat the antistress diet.
When you’re in stress mode, your insides produce more chemical reactions than Marie Curie’s lab—you experience surges of the hormone cortisol and sugar levels that spike and plummet, which can leave you feeling under pressure and sluggish. Counteract those reactions with the right foods, says Elizabeth Somer, R.D., author of The Food & Mood Cookbook. For breakfast, avoid sugary cereals or breakfast bars and eat whole-grain cereal and a piece of fruit. Then pop a vitamin with at least 500 milligrams (mg) of calcium and 250 mg of magnesium. Magnesium, which is flushed out when stress rushes in, helps regulate those cortisol levels. For a snack, the crunch of veggie sticks or carrots helps release a clenched jaw and the tension headache you can get as a result of stress. Before bed, go with a light carbohydrate-rich snack, like toast and jam, to quicken the release of the feel-good hormone serotonin, which will help you sleep better.

Read more by clicking above.

stress busters

stress busters

From www.RealAge.com:

You may be getting ahead on your to-do list by scheduling every minute of every day, but your health could pay a price.

Death rates from heart disease are higher in cultures where people tend to walk fast, talk fast, work fast, and live by the clock compared to death rates in more laid-back locales. Here’s how to slow down your fast-paced world.

Sprinting and Such
Does your entire day feel like a sprint to the finish line the second you head out the door? There’s nothing wrong with working hard, especially if you feel upbeat and invigorated by it. But if you have a hard-driving, competitive, “Type A” personality and tend to feel angry or hostile as you strive to scratch “just one more” item off your to-do list, it’s time to reprioritize. Look at the list. Redefine success by doing only what you need to, want to, and can do comfortably.

Tuning Down
Still find yourself run ragged at the end of each day? Treat yourself to a little decompression time in the evening.

Paint pictures. Listen to music. Or just let yourself eat dinner without watching TV or talking on the phone or paying attention to the pressing thoughts in your head urging you to hurry up so you can move on to the next item on your list.

Just stop . . . breathe . . . and smell the roses.

fast lane, heart disease

fast lane, heart disease

From www.realage.com:

You’ll find protein, fiber, and folate in beans, as well as these surprising health helpers: antioxidants.

The darkest-colored beans have the most. Top antioxidant content, in order: black, red, brown, yellow, and white. Get colorful with beans by making this Roasted Corn, Black Bean, and Mango Salad.

Roasted Corn, Black Bean, and Mango Salad*
You can make this simple, fresh salad up to 8 hours ahead of time.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups corn kernels (from 3 ears)
1 large ripe mango (about 1 pound), peeled and diced
1 15-ounce or 19-ounce can black beans, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 small canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, drained and chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer the corn mixture to a large bowl. Stir in mango, beans, onion, bell pepper, lime juice, chipotle, cilantro, cumin, and salt.

Nutrition Information (per half-cup serving): 125 calories; 2 g fat (0 g sat, 1 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 26 g carbohydrate; 4 g protein; 4 g fiber; 245 mg sodium; 223 mg potassium.

Nutrition bonus: vitamin C (70% daily value), fiber (18% daily value).

*Recipe reprinted with permission from EatingWell.

dark beans, antioxidants, fiber, folate

dark beans, antioxidants, fiber, folate