Category: Health

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You Might Need This ‘Nap Desk’ in Your Life If You Want to Be More Productive

George Constanza was right…about napping during working hours, that is.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to hit the wall in the middle of the workday. I have a TON of energy from about 8 A.M. to about 2 P.M. and then…uh oh…this guy gets a little sleepy, and it’s time for a 30-minute snoozer. Well, it turns out I’m not alone, and maybe I shouldn’t even feel guilty about that mid-day nap!

That’s why you might want to consider picking up this nap desk that allows you to slumber peacefully below your desk so you don’t have to go far to get those ZZZZZZZs in.

The desk comes to us from folks at the architecture and design firm Studio NL in Greece, and it is pretty impressive. The sleeping quarters are snuggled conveniently underneath the desk where a worker slaves away, so you’d be able to just kick off your shoes, put on your sleeping mask, and start counting sheep.

Although we have a hard-working attitude here in the U.S. for which downtime is frowned upon by many, relaxing and refueling are very important to well-being.

But if you’re one of the naysayers who think that napping is bad or counterproductive, many studies have shown that naps can actually make you more productive: they can “increase alertness in the period directly following the nap and may extend alertness a few hours later in the day.”

Sign me up! I’m ready for this! How about you?

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A Man Died of Sepsis After His Dog Licked Him

I routinely let most dogs I encounter lick me as much as they want. Now, after learning about this story, I can say that maybe I need to back off a little bit…

A 63-year-old man in Germany began to feel ill and ultimately died – and the culprit might freak you out a little bit: the man’s dog licked his face. A couple of weeks later, he got a fever, started experiencing muscle pains, and then had trouble breathing. He decided to go to the hospital to find out what was going on and he received some awful news: he had advanced kidney damage and liver dysfunction.

 

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He was admitted to the hospital but things took a turn for the worse. The doctors realized he was suffering from gangrene and that he had a terrible sepsis infection.

Of course correlation is not causation, so how do we know it was the dog licking that did it?

The man’s bloodwork showed that he was infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which is a bacteria usually found in the saliva of cats and dogs.

No treatments worked on the poor man, and he suffered for 16 days as multiple organs failed. Sadly, his family eventually decided to turn off his life support and the man passed away.

This may sound like something that has never happened before or that would never happen again, but there were two other cases of humans contracting Capnocytophaga canimorsus from dogs in 2018 alone. A 58-year-old woman in Wisconsin died after her dog nipped her, and a man, also from Wisconsin, contracted the bacteria after spending time with eight puppies. The man had to have both of his legs amputated and parts of his hands removed because of the infection.

Our advice: if you happen to be bitten by a dog or a cat, wash the area immediately with soap and water, and have a doctor take a look at the wound just to be on the safe side. Yikes…

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Nurse’s Video About Fake Symptoms of Patients Has Twitter in an Uproar

This is pretty good.

A nurse and content creator created a viral video about patients who pretend to be sick. But rather than laugh along with her, Twitter users made an entire hashtag about how wrong she is: #PatientsAreNotFaking.

In Danyelle Rose’s video, a patient (played by Danyelle) coughs and is short of breath. The nurse (also played by Danyelle) dances to the beat of the patient’s strained breathing. The caption: “We know when y’all are faking.”

Twitter users were not happy about the video, which implies that patients regularly fake symptoms just to… Get attention from hospital staff? It’s unclear.

In a world where countless patients — especially women of color — experience harm because doctors and nurses don’t take their symptoms seriously, the video is especially offensive.

Many people immediately replied to Danyelle’s video with stories of not being believed by health professionals.

“I swear this was my labor and delivery nurse at @OUMedicine Children’s hospital when I told her I felt like I needed to push and she said I was ‘overexaggerating’ and 3 min later I had my baby NATURALLY without an epidural like I requested because she felt as if I was ‘FAKING,’” one user wrote.

“I had several white doctors/nurses think I was faking some serious mofo pain, because they assumed I wanted drugs,” another woman, Joy Henderson, wrote. “Turns out I had an ovarian cyst burst. Not a giant emergency, but easily pain worse than childbirth (I have three kids).”

Here are a few more:

The hashtag #PatientsAreNotFaking draws attention to all of these concerns. Because yes, patients are not faking — and it’s dangerous to assume that they are.

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Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates in America Are out of Control

Isn’t that a headline you just love to see?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the sexually transmitted disease rate in the United States continues to rise in 2019. The report that the CDC released in October of this year shows historically high rates of chlamydia and the worst rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in almost 30 years – since 1991.

One of the most alarming statistics in the report concerns congenital syphilis, which has seen a 40% rise since 2017. The condition is potentially fatal and is passed from mother to fetus through the placenta.

This marks the fifth year in a row that sexually transmitted infections have been at an all-time high.

In a press release, the CDC addressed the situation:

“Data suggest that multiple factors are contributing to the overall increase in STDs, including:

Drug use, poverty, stigma, and unstable housing, which can reduce access to STD prevention and care.

Decreased condom use among vulnerable groups, including young people and gay and bisexual men.

Cuts to STD programs at the state and local level – in recent years, more than half of local programs have experienced budget cuts, resulting in clinic closures, reduced screening, staff loss, and reduced patient follow-up and linkage to care services.”

The states with the highest rate of chlamydia infection: Alaska (nearly 800 cases per 100,000 people), Louisiana (742), Mississippi (707), New Mexico (651), and South Carolina (649). The states with the lowest rate of infection are West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, and Maine.

These statistics are pretty frightening, to say the least…

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A Guys Asked If He Was Wrong for Fat-Shaming His Teen Daughter on Her Birthday

I think I know my answer to this question that someone asked on Reddit, but I’ll let you make up your own mind.

A father took to Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” page to ask about how he treated his teenage daughter about her weight. Read the man’s words and then decide how you feel about this situation.

sight

Here is the full post from Reddit:

“This happened a few months ago. I just learned about this subreddit and thought this would be a good place to ask about a point of contention in the family.

My daughter is overweight. Not anything too drastic, but she is around 5’4 and 155 pounds. So she could stand to lose a few pounds. I’ve been concerned about her weight for a long time. None of it has been helped by my also-overweight, enabling wife.

On her 19th birthday, in August, we went on a hike in the state forest. She complained about it literally the entire time. She didn’t like that it was hot, she didn’t like the incline, she didn’t like the mosquitoes. I still encouraged her and pushed on, I think she was satisfied with having exercised at the end of it.

Hiking

But, while we were driving back home, she knew that we would be driving past a Dunkin Donuts. She wanted me to stop so she could get herself a “birthday donut.” I said no. She was upset about it, saying she just wanted a donut and she’d just done this long hike to please me on her birthday. I argued calmly that she didn’t want to undo all the work of the hike by getting a donut. She said the one she wanted is 350 calories (which I doubt is true) and would fit into her day. I pointed out she’d probably be eating cake later. We didn’t stop and she sulked about it on the whole ride back. When we got home, she told her mother, who of course sided with her and went on a rant about how our daughter’s birthday shouldn’t be a time I’m preaching healthy eating.

Donuts

I am trying to protect her health at every turn, when she spends most of her free time with her mother. Am I really the asshole for not wanting to stop and get her a fatty donut after a nice hike?”

People weighed in on the situation and it was pretty clear that basically NO ONE was on this guy’s side.

“You’ve got to be fuckin kidding my man. On her birthday, you forced your daughter into an activity I suspect you knew she would not enjoy, and then denied her a 75 cent treat. Beyond that, you didn’t even pretend you took the hike for time together, or– God forbid– her enjoyment; you made it clear that your focus for this event was getting her to exercise. You’re a huge asshole.”

Angry Man

“This is completely the wrong way to go about helping someone lose weight.. One hike is not going to make a difference in the larger picture of health, but this memory is going to be burned into her brain. Health and weightloss is an ongoing lifestyle change and one doughnut has ZERO impact on her weight.

As someone who spent their teens slightly overweight, it was my relationship WITH food that was the problem, I was an emotional over eater, no matter how much I wanted to slim down. My parents withholding something like a doughnut only drove me to eat in secret and form unhealthy habits. such as binge eating. For teenage girls, their relationship with their body easily becomes a societal reflection of their self worth.

You say she “sulked” in the car home, she was probably filled with lots of shame and self hatred that she was fighting with her dad who clearly views her as fat. If you really want to help your daughter, which you seem to care about, you need to change your tactics.

Depriving her of one doughnut is not the solution, working on life long healthy patterns is. For me, I dropped weight in university when I found an activity I liked to do with friends and learning to cook my own food, so that when I wanted a something tasty, I could make something myself rather than grabbing and downing a bag of chips. You’re not wrong to want your daughter to be healthy, but weightloss is as much about mental health as physical.”

What do you think about this situation? Does the dad have a point or is he WAY off base?

Let us know in the comments!

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15 People Share Small Things You Can Do Today to Start Making a Difference in Your Life

Change can seem very overwhelming, especially when we’re talking about big lifestyle changes.

That’s why this article from AskReddit is so helpful. People offered up small tips that you might want to consider to start improving your life.

Baby steps!

1. Flossing is important.

“Oral hygiene. Gotta be more consistent when it comes to flossing.”

2. Just do it.

“Start doing the “Rule of 5″ If it takes less than 5 minutes to do a task when you see something, and you’re not already mid task, just get it done. You’ll get your chore list cracked out a lot faster if you just clean the counters as you go around the house doing other stuff.”

3. Just a little bit.

“Do something a little bit.

Work out a little bit, so you can be just a bit stronger.

Eat a little more healthy, so you can be a bit healthier.

Always improve on something at least a little bit every day, and in the long run, you’ll be doing great.”

4. Always improving.

“Be actively kind to yourself. What did you do today that was great? Cherish it.

On the other hand, when you’re good at being kind to you(!), take the next step: what did you do today that you want to do differently tomorrow/next time?”

5. Set your goals.

“Start thinking in long-term (say, five years), medium-term (say, a month to six months) and short-term strategies (say, one day to a week).

You can break the long-term plan down into medium-term plans, and the medium-term plans into short-term plans. What do you need to be doing today to get you to where you want to be next week? Next month? Next year? Once you’ve got that in mind — and you get into the habit of taking manageable bites out of your life goals — it becomes a lot easier to achieve what you want.

The advice I always give relates to writing a novel. A novel is 90,000 words, give or take. If you write 250 words a day, every day, you’ll have the first draft of that book you’ve had rattling around inside your head on paper by the end of 2020. If that seems daunting… well, this comment is 210 words long. It took me less than five minutes to type up, and I’m only, what, forty words away from being on target? How many Reddit comments do you write in a day? How many Facebook updates? How many tweets?

A little amount of sustained effort is (usually) the best way to get where you want to be.”

6. Take a walk.

“Go for a walk, even just a short one. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a few years ago and I could barely get out of bed but I forced myself to walk- first to my mailbox, then the end of my street and beyond. It may not seem like much but I promise it can make a huge difference.”

7. Clean it up.

“Donating/throwing out/selling old stuff you no longer use. Also, cleaning out your fridge.”

8. Wake up fresh.

“Do your dishes before you go to bed. Waking up with a clean kitchen is a great feeling.”

9. All in your head.

“Be aware of the narratives we make up in our heads that only cause distress or anger.

An example of what I mean: “My friend hasn’t texted me for 3 days, she must be growing tired of our friendship!” More likely is that your friend is simply busy.”

10. All good tips.

“Allocate time more directly to maintenance of my body and home:

I lost 100 lbs this year. All due to diet. I could be a lot healthier if I added 30 minutes of exercise.

Then there’s my house, after I lost my wife I had a lot of trouble motivating myself to clean and now certain rooms are really needing it. If I could allocate even just an hour a day to it I would eventually be able to get back to regular maintenance rather than feeling helpless every time I open the door to one of those rooms.

Lastly, reading. I desperately want to get back into it and I’ve succeeded a couple times and loved it. But college broke my spirit of habitual reading and I’m not sure how to get it back.”

11. One piece at a time.

“If you’re sitting on a couch, desk chair, or lying down, and you get up to go to the bathroom or kitchen, take something with you. The 2 empty water bottles near your bedside, or the dirty dish on your coffee table. Knock out 2 birds with one stone.”

12. No more soda.

“Drink more water. Less soda.”

13. Very important.

“Stretch.”

14. Nobody’s perfect!

“Realizing you don’t have to be perfect is a good first step. People get shit wrong, we’re fallible!

Also I cannot stress enough how good books are for your brain. Expands your vocabulary, encourages imagination and creative thinking and even if you have problems with reading words, for example if you’re dyslexic, audio books are a thing and for the most part they’re just as good and effective.”

15. Start MOVING.

“Get the fuck out of bed. Stop snoozing. Stop laying there. Just get up, make your bed if that’s your thing, and have a big glass of water. Then move. Yoga, a walk, 20 jumping jacks. Anything. Just move a little bit.”

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A Mom Lost Her Son and Then Donated 500 Ounces of Breast Milk to Babies in Need

A mom whose baby passed away found a way to turn her personal tragedy into a way to help other babies in need.

Sierra Strangfeld lost her unborn son, Samuel, in September after he was diagnosed with a rare condition called Trisomy 18, or Edwards syndrome. Sierra had been excited to breastfeed Samuel, who was her second child. But she never got that chance.

Heartbroken, Sierra decided to donate her breast milk to babies in need.

“I couldn’t save Samuel’s life, but maybe I could save another baby’s life,” she wrote on Facebook.

She pumped for 63 days after Samuel’s birth — until November 13, his due date. That day, she went to the NICU milk banks to make her last donation.

“Pumping is not for the faint of heart,” she admitted. “It’s hard. Mentally and physically. And it’s even harder when you don’t actually have a baby.”

Posted by Sierra Strangfeld on Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Sometimes, she was angry that her milk came in in the first place: “Why did my milk have to come in when I had no baby to feed? Why was I waking up in the middle of the night for this?” But ultimately, she said, it was all worth it, as it felt like the only thing connecting her to Samuel. “I sure hope he’s proud of me! Walking through the hallways of the hospital was just another step in healing. And I know, (because I felt him), that Samuel was there with me.”

In total, Sierra — who describes herself as “not an over supplier by any means” — managed to donate 500 ounces of breast milk. Her original goal was 1000 ounces, but she didn’t produce quite enough milk for that.

Posted by Sierra Strangfeld on Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Sierra also started a nonprofit organization: Smiling For Samuel. Her organization, and her touching story, are raising awareness about Trisomy 18 — and warming hearts everywhere.

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Some People Are Accidentally Poisoning Themselves with Essential Oils

You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the resurgence of alternative medicines and essential oils. People everywhere are touting the ability to cure everything from nausea and headaches to the common cold (and, in some cases, more extreme illnesses) using nothing but plant, root, and herb extracts.

Essential oils are volatile chemical compounds extracted from plant materials via a distillation process that typically involves steaming. They’re used in perfumes, soaps, incense, and aromatherapy aids, along with traditional medicine therapies.

And they are known to have some health benefits when inhaled.

Some.

But it turns out that even natural medicines require some research and training (whaaaaat), lest you poison yourself and those you love – and that goes double if you’re going to engage in the dubious practice of applying the oils to your skin, or ingesting them orally.

People are clearly ignoring that fact, though, because a recent study has shown that essential oil poisonings are becoming more frequent in Europe, the U.S., and in Australia.

The study appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia, and it analyzed data from the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre. They received a total of 4412 calls about essential oil poisoning between July 2014 and June 2018, with 2/3 of the cases involving children under 15.

There was a 16% increase between 2015 and 2018, showing a disturbing trend.

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Essential oils are labeled with a warning that they can “cause severe toxicity when ingested,” and the risks increase as the frequency with which the oils are being used goes, the authors explain.

“Clinical effects include vomiting, central nervous system depression or excitation, and aspiration pneumonitis.”

And it’s even worse for kids: Essential oils can also upset a person’s hormonal balance, a more concerning hazard when dealing with children who haven’t yet entered puberty, or who might be in the midst of it.

There has been at least a few cases of prepubescent boys developing enlarged breasts after applying tea tree and lavender oil to their skin.

It’s important to note that a number of the poisoning cases were due to someone mistaking the bottle for something like cough syrup, but others were due to people ingesting them on purpose.

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When you have a natural 1st aid kit & your a Pilates instructor. ??? . An old injury decided to flare up this morning ?. I was dropped in a ballet performance many moons ago & injured my rotator cuff. But being a dancer you just push through & never really fix it properly. So it annoys me every couple of years. . So panaway and a massage to the rescue and it’s 80% better. Will repeat later then again tonight. . Here’s to synthetic free, chemical free, toxic free pain relief.???????. . #panaway #pain#painfree#injury #massage#naturalremedies #naturalproducts #heal#cleanliving#cleanlivinglovers #momlife#mumlife#yleo#yl#younglivingeo #younglivingessentialoils #wellness#livewell#makegoodchoices #sport#pilates #painmanagement #essentialoils #essentialoilsrock #healthylifestyle #

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“Flow restrictors and child-resistant closures would be desirable, but containers are only required to have such closures when the essential oil volume exceeds 15 milliliters.”

Since 5 milliliters is enough to generate a severe toxicity in the product, these cases and others should serve as a warning for you to make sure properly secure any essential oils in your home.

I don’t know about you, but I would feel pretty bad if something I brought into my house to help my kids feel better ended up hurting them instead.

Just sayin’.

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A Hallucinogenic Party Drug Seems to Help Curb Alcohol Addiction. Who Knew?

Alcohol abuse is a problem that untold amounts of people deal with on a daily basis. But there may be a surprising new tool on its way to help treat this addictive disorder: a hallucinogenic drug.

According to a report in Nature Communications, researchers suggest a single dose of ketamine can help weaken the desire to drink beer. While the drug’s effect was modest, there is still plenty of room for optimism, according to addiction researcher David Epstein.

“If a seemingly small one-time experience in a lab produces any effects that are detectable later in real life, the data are probably pointing toward something important,” explained Epstein, who works for the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore.

Addiction is considered a memory disorder, so finding a way to stop the memories that trigger cravings for beer was a key component of the ketamine study.

“We’re trying to break down those memories to stop that process from happening, and to stop people from relapsing,” said Ravi Das, a co-author of the study and a psychopharmacologist at University College London.

To conduct the study, Das and the research group recruited 90 people who admitted to drinking too much beer. Participants were exposed to pictures of beer, drank one in the lab and rated their cravings, enjoyment of drinking and their desire to drink another one.

The participants returned a few days later and were divided into three groups for further examination. The researchers utilized different methods to test the effect of ketamine and the different triggers and memories associated with drinking beer. Interestingly, the results showed that the people who had their beer memories jogged before receiving ketamine reported both a lower desire and less enjoyment for beer.

Nine months after the study concluded, all 90 participants had cut their beer consumption in half. Surprisingly, that even included those who did not receive a dose of ketamine. Epstein explained that the full-scale reduction could be due to the self-awareness that comes from enrolling in a study.

“Behavior can change for all sorts of reasons that aren’t specific to the experimental treatment,” he said.

While the research on ketamine’s short-term effects on drinking is far from over, the early results are promising. The research group plans on conducting clinical trials on people with drinking problems. In addition, they also want to test other problematic memories, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of course, with any drug, there are concerns about abusing ketamine. But the upside of its ability to weaken the lure for alcohol makes it a worthwhile option to explore.

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A Dentist Was Prosecuted for Extracting a Patient’s Tooth While Riding a Hoverboard

Going to the dentist can be an ordeal, but it helps if you truly trust your dentist to take care of you while you’re in that chair.

One dentist is being prosecuted for betraying that trust – by riding a frickin’ hoverboard during an operation. I mean, what??

Seth Lookhart, a dentist in Alaska, extracted a patient’s tooth while standing on a hoverboard – but don’t just take our word for it. He captured the whole thing on video.

After successfully finishing the extraction, Seth pulled off his gloves, hoverboarded down the hall, and threw his hands in the air victoriously.

Seth sent the video to his friends and family. Three years later, it’s being used as evidence in a criminal case against him.

Seth is facing 43 charges. Aside from the hoverboard operation (which I just cannot get over), he is also being charged with various financial crimes, including a scheme to defraud Alaska Medicaid of $10,000 and diverting over $25,000 from Alaska Dental Arts.

Seth pleaded not guilty to all counts. His defense attorney says that, while he definitely did something wrong, he didn’t commit a crime.

But…this seems illegal. And if it’s not, it should be:

“Should he lose his dental license for a period of time, for forever? Is it a crime?” attorney Paul Stockler told CNN. “He’s not the first person to do something idiotic. I’ve seen things a lot worse and nobody’s ever had criminal charges filed against them. As the law is written, I don’t believe that’s a crime.”

Seth’s patient is not the one who pressed charges. Because she was sedated, she wasn’t even aware of the hoverboard until charges were already pressed and the state of Alaska asked her to confirm that it was her in the video.

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