Recognizing Migraine Headaches

Migraine headaches are not a problem for as many people as you think. Now, we’re not saying migraine headaches are not a big problem; they are. But, many people who have tension headaches and other types of headaches say they have migraines. One of the ways you can tell if you have migraine is you get a strange sense, or an aura, a feeling that the headache is about to start. That’s classic for a migraine; something like bright lights or a strange smell. Secondly, the pain is only relieved if you get into a quite area…into a room. Then it starts to relax and reduce. That’s one of the ways we deal with it as well.

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Children in Auto Accidents

If you have been involved in auto accidents with the kids, even a minor accident, you want to hear the results of this study. According to doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, children involved in motor vehicle crashes may show signs of Acute Stress Disorder, even if they experienced only minor cuts and scratches. The study has far reaching implications. Each year, more than 1.5 million children in the United States are involved in accidents. According to the researchers, almost 25, that’s one out of four children hospitalized with injuries, as well as their parents, are known to experience Acute Stress Disorder, or ASD syndrome; such as re-experiencing the trauma through intrusive thoughts or images and sleep difficulties. Children most likely to exhibit such symptoms were those injured in the crash and those that received medical care.

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Contact Lenses and Eye Infections

Contact lenses are great, but they can also lead to infection.  If you are someone who uses contact lenses, understand that they are great for your eyes, but you've got to make sure you wash your hands before you put your contact lenses in.  In addition, you want to make sure you clean or purify the contact lens.  You don't want to be in a situation where you actually are putting an infectious agent in your eye, because when you get an infection in the eye it's very difficult to treat.  It can become a serious issue if it's not taken quite seriously. 

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Solitude and Thinking Too Much

Solitude can be a very good thing.  The most important thing about solitude is trying to figure out whether being alone is helpful or not.  Being alone can be very good for you as long as you have the approach that as you are alone, you do what you can to minimize the overall damage that can occur from too much thinking.  By that, we mean it's good to think and evaluate your life, but too much thinking without interaction, in time, can cause problems.  Studies have shown we're better off trying to deal with other people and work in that way.

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Dealing with Sinus Drainage

For people who suffer from sinus issues, one of the biggest problems is sinus drainage.  The sinus drainage is something that you can't ignore.  Sinus drainage is what causes, in many cases, a lot of coughing and a lot of the frustrating buildup.  When you have that, that sinus frustration is one of the things that actually gets people to be in a situation where they demand treatment.  If you have sinus drainage, you also have to talk to your doctor about whether or not there's a sinusitis or another issue at hand. 

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Relaxation Techniques Can Protect Against Stress

There is no doubt that stress plays a major role in all of our lives.  Stress can actually have a major impact and our body's reaction to it is not necessarily always a bad thing.  If you think about our development as a species, we use stress and the 'fight or flight' response to ward off predators to stay alive.  Of course, when the predators are a fear of losing a job or failing a test of some sort, that same mechanism of dealing with stress can be a problem.  That's why relaxation techniques like meditation can help.  According to a report in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, meditation might help protect college students against stress and improve their ability to learn.  It makes sense and during the formal study, students who meditated showed positive results on brain studies including greater breadth of planning, thinking, and perception of the environment.  

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Kids Cheating at School or Sports

It is a problem that’s occurred for years. Children do tend to cheat on occasion. We try to give them the proper signs so that there’s not that much pressure on them in school, and also to teach them that when they’re in school or in a sports setting, they should play by the rules. If you come across a child that’s cheating, you need to explain to them why it’s occurring. There has to be some sort of discipline or punishment associated with it so it doesn’t happen again; because that type of behavior in a larger setting in human life can become a greater problem.

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Ragweed and Oral Allergy Syndrome

It is called oral allergy syndrome and there is an obvious culprit that starts to bloom in mid-August. It’s every year, and even though we’re far away from it in December, it happens again and again. It’s called ragweed. There are 36 million people who suffer from ragweed allergy, but a significant percentage of these sufferers also have what used to be called pollen food syndrome. It’s now known as oral allergies syndrome. It’s due to a cross reactivity between ragweed and similar proteins that are found in various fresh fruits and vegetables. The classic symptoms include itchiness, tingling, or swelling of the mouth. It can also affect the tongue and the throat. One of the keys is that it happens immediately after eating fresh fruit, vegetables and other foods. Some of the common foods interacting with ragweed are banana, cucumber, zucchini, and melon.

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Cholesterol Measurement and Heart Disease

There is no doubt that heart disease is a known killer and we have been aware that controlling cholesterol is a major way to reduce the chances of problems, but cholesterol is not the only way we measure these things.  At the very minimum, doctors order a lipid panel which includes studies like LDL, or bad cholesterol, triglyceride, and HDL, or good cholesterol.  If necessary, we can break it down more.  All of this is because as we have studied the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease, we have found there is more to watch than a simple test.  You may or may not need many of these specific tests based on your own past medical history and family history, but it can make a difference.  It's very important that you understand that cholesterol measurement, and the various fractionated areas of cholesterol, are important to look into because they can help provide a window into your overall health. 

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Women Feel the Stress of Household Duties and Work

According to a report in the British Food Journal, three-quarters of British women still do most of the household food shopping and cooking. The study can be duplicated here in the United States where food shopping and other household duties are part of the everyday demands, and this is the case whether a woman has a full-time job or not.  It brings up a growing health issue for women.  Many women feel tremendous stress trying to do multiple jobs and ultimately feeling that they are not succeeding.  They believe they’re not doing anything quite well.  The bottom line is women need to have realistic goals and understand that many jobs, especially things you do at home, are almost never successfully completed.  It is important to keep things in perspective and not to be too tough on yourself.  From a psychological standpoint, and a standpoint of dealing with stress, these issues are important and really need to be looked at.

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Relax About Potty Training

It is a cause of major concern for many parents. Potty training. They’re wondering, ‘Will my child really be able to use the toilet like other children?’ Calm down, your child will learn to use the bathroom. But many people are so fearful that it won’t happen at the pace they want it to or in the style they want it to. The bottom line is you have to be calm and realize that these are things that will occur at an appropriate level. If you want to talk to your doctor about counseling, you can, but children, in their own due time, all go to the potty.

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Active Video Games Could Contribute to Kids’ Physical Fitness

Playing active video games could contribute to physical fitness.  A group of 23 children had their energy exertion measured while they watched television, walked on a treadmill, and played two active video games.  This report is in the journal Pediatrics and it was done at the University of Oklahoma and also done in the U.K.  What they found that playing active games at a high skill level was similar to moderate intensive walking.  The authors suggested that for children who spent a lot of time playing video games, active video games could be a valuable means of promoting activity.  However, an accompanying review article finds there have been no large, quality, or especially high quality, studies on the effects of these types of games on children's health.  The caution should be that we shouldn't leap to conclude that they're positive influences.  

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Risks Associated with Exercising

Most believe that there’s no better way to stay in shape and have a high energy level than exercising on a regular basis.  The best way to stay away from chronic health problems that put you in the hospital is to exercise, but there are also risks to staying in shape.  One of the biggest risks is that people try to cram exercise into an already packed week.  As a result, they find themselves pushing too hard without a proper warm-up and they try to do too much in a short period of time.

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Caffeine In Moderation Is Okay

Is caffeine good for you?  The answer is quite simple.  In moderation, there doesn't appear to be any problems with caffeine.  It's like anything else.  When you overdo it, when you have too much caffeine or too much of a stimulant, it can affect your mood, it can cause headaches as a result of rebound, and it can also cause some systemic problems that researchers are looking at more and more.  But, again, in moderation, coffee is fine, tea is fine, sodas are fine.  You just have to be careful.  Physicians do worry about a lot of these stimulant products such as 5-Hour Energy drinks and other ones because you have to very careful about those sudden boosts.  

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A Look at Bipolar Disorder

It is called bipolar illness and the bipolar means up and down.  That's clearly what happens.  When people are bipolar, they can go from severe depression to incredible exuberance and exhilaration.  It is the movement back and forth that can cause problems and perhaps be extremely dangerous.  When people are really up, they feel like they're all powerful, but when they go down, they can be totally depressed.  One of the problems is if you have someone who is depressed and they rapidly gain energy, sometimes they act on it and they can cause harm to themselves. 

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The Stress Hormone Cortisol Can Affect Your Health

At the turn of the 19th century, a book was written by a physician trained at that time with the best medical knowledge it could offer.  A key part of the book was a concept; it was a concept that happiness and the ability to give to others and live in harmony could lead to a long and healthy life.  At the time, they did not know about hormones like Cortisol, the stress hormone, but as we look at the complex relationship between our brain and our body, it's becoming abundantly clear that the words written over a hundred years ago are true.  We definitely do not thrive under negative energy and stress and excessive Cortisol levels can raise blood pressure and add increasing levels of anxiety.  Long-term wear and tear can clearly take its toll and we can measure a direct relationship between hormone release and cardiac changes.  The doctors of that day used physical exams and observations to make their conclusions, and it worked in many cases.

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A Look at Elbow Pain

There are all sorts of elbow pain, but one of the classic forms is called lateral epicondylitis.  When you are talking about lateral epicondylitis, you're essentially talking about pain on the outside of the elbow.  That pain can be very annoying.  It can cause irritation and it's often associated with playing tennis and sports where you actually are moving and twisting at the elbow.  That extra strain can cause problems.  One of the best treatments for it is ice to the area because you are decreasing the inflammation.

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The Male Y Chromosome May Be Disappearing

There's new information, at least theoretically, that the male Y chromosome could be disappearing.  This work was done at Penn State.  It's in the journal PLoS Genetics.  Researchers say there is a dramatic loss of genes from the human Y chromosome and it could eventually lead to its complete disappearance over the next million years or so.  While some genes seem to be essential, like those for sperm development, most have been lost and the researchers say that they found evidence that many are on a track to disappear as well.  If this happens, researchers say a new pair of chromosomes will likely start down the path of becoming X and Y sex chromosomes.  It's pretty fascinating how you can actually see mutations occur, but this is essentially how the world has developed; changes and development.  With those differences came different people.  

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Dog Bites

A dog's bark may be worse than its bite, but then again, a bite can also be bad.  Being attacked by a dog can be a terrifying experience.  It can leave a victim with serious, even life-threatening injuries.  Every year in the United States, about 1 in 775 people seek emergency care for dog bites.  Most victims are boys between the ages of 5 and 9.  In children younger than 10, bites are usually around the head and neck because the child's head and neck is near the large dog's mouth.  

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Migraine Headaches

There are many types of headaches out there and one of the most difficult ones for many physicians to diagnose is the migraine headache. Now the migraine headache…that’s straightforward; that is with the aura, the flashing of lights, the strange smell. The kind of headache you get when you have to fall asleep for relief, that kind of migraine headache is not that difficult to deal with. But there are others that are not quite classic, and they’re the ones that are tough.

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Learn to Accept Defeat to Enjoy Winning

Accepting defeat can be very difficult, but it’s very important to learn how to accept defeat. One of the best ways you learn how to accept defeat is by losing, and that’s okay. Part of the problem we have in our society now is many children are not allowed to lose. They’re always put on winning teams. They’re always put in situations where they will succeed. That isn’t necessarily the best thing. Losing makes the fact that you win every now and then seem far more enjoyable. It’s through that path that you get a great deal success.

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Working Mothers Deal with Many Pressures

Working moms have to deal with a lot of issues and one of them is trying to stay in condition while they're trying to work and deal with the other pressures.  There is a psychological, an emotional, and a physical component with working and all of those things need to be considered.  One of the biggest strides you can take as a woman who is working is to understand that you don't have to be perfect.  You try to do the best you can, but realize that you are undertaking quite a few stresses all at once and you can only do the best you can to deal with it and not be overwhelmed.  

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Eating a Healthy Diet During Pregnancy

The best diet during pregnancy is one that is actually high in fruits and vegetables. What doctors often suggest you do is you talk to your obstetrician/gynecologist to discuss the best foods during pregnancy, but one of the things that physicians look at, essentially, is trying to get people to have a balanced diet. You don’t want to eat too much or too little, and you want to make sure that you have the proper components of fruits and vegetables. You want to avoid things that are high in fat, in excess. Again, it’s moderation that is the key.

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Fast-Food Restaurants Contribute to America’s Weight Problem

Fast-food restaurant.  For most Americans, you can't live without them, but can you live with them?  They dot the landscape of our country, city after city, but with a nation on the run, with countless single parents, or couples trying to split time between work and the demands of a heavy family schedule, those fast-food restaurants can offer a quick and often cheap, filling meal.  Fast-food restaurants are not entirely to blame for our nation’s growing weight problem.  Many offer healthy options, but studies show that most of us turn them down because of other reasons.  As a result, we are facing obesity as an issue.  The combination of lack of exercise and high fat foods is causing us to be obese.  The long-term problems of obesity are great.  They include heart disease and diabetes.  The bottom line here is we have to do whatever we can to control obesity.

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Ovarian Cancer Statistics

It isn’t talked about as much as other forms of cancer, but ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all gynecologic cancers. One in 57 women develop ovarian cancer and there have been several studies which have shown it runs in families. The major problem with ovarian cancer is it is usually found in the advanced stages. By that point, the disease is very difficult to treat and the chance of five-year survival is about 20%. Sadly, 75% of women are diagnosed at this advanced stage. When ovarian cancer is detected early, before it is spread beyond the ovaries, more than 90% of women will survive longer than 5 years. Unfortunately, the symptoms of ovarian cancer are very vague. Feeling bloated, a sensation of being full even after eating just a small amount of food, low back pain, and fatigue are all signs, but obviously, they can mean other things as well.

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Men and Women Need to Be Studied Independently

We know that men and women are very different, but this becomes extremely clear when we look at diseases or the differences in the way certain drugs work in men and women.  This is why it's so important that men and women continue to be studied independently.  In the past, men were almost exclusively studied and women were treated based on the information acquired from studying men.  But it did not take long to realize that problems like heart attack had very different symptoms in men and women and also treatments were not cookie-cutter.  As funds were reduced to conduct important studies, it is important to study both sexes and gather important independent information.  

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