Category: Health

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Psychologists Say That Baking Improves Your Mood – Here’s Why

A lot of folks out there who innately understand that the act of measuring ingredients, kneading dough, licking spoons, and dropping cookies, cakes, muffins, bread, or all of the above into a hot oven is a quick fix for a bad day, a fight with your spouse, or a general funk that’s proving hard to escape.

But it turns out that there is psychology behind the fact that baking – for yourself or others – possesses a therapeutic element.

Studies have shown that creative practices, like baking and knitting, have the ability to contribute to a person’s overall sense of well-being, a fact that Boston University’s Donna Pincus says  is due to how baking allows “the benefit of allowing people creative expression.”

“There’s a lot of literature for connection between creative expression and overall wellbeing,” Pincus continues. “Whether it’s painting or it’s making music [or baking], there is a stress relief that people get from having some kind of outlet and a way to express themselves.”

Stress, of course, is linked to a variety of mental and physical problems, which means finding ways to cope is an important step in leading a healthy life.

Baking also helps people practice mindfulness, as it allows you to focus on straightforward directions listed in a specific order – the fact that you’re just following along lets your mind grab onto something other than the stress and anxiety that might exist outside the kitchen.

Julie Ohana, a clinical social worker and culinary art therapist, claims that baking helps you practice the “balance of the moment and the bigger picture.” When you’re baking, you’re measuring ingredients and mixing them together, all while imagining how they’ll come together in the end and how someone else might be pleased to enjoy that final product, too.

Which brings us to another psychological benefit – sharing your baked goods with others. Doing something good without expecting anything in return is a proven mood-booster, confirms Pincus.

“You feel like you’ve done something good for the world, which perhaps increases your meaning in life and connection with other people.”

Food can also function as a mode of communication, says psychology and brain science professor Susan Whitbourne.

“It can be helpful for people who have difficulty expressing their feelings in words to show thanks, appreciation, or sympathy with baked goods.”

In a world where it can be hard to find ways to communicate our feelings to others, being able to say it with baked goods (or a quilt, or a cross-stitch) is as easy as it is satisfying.

So get out there and bake, people – it’s good for your body, your mind, your community and your belly, too.

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Drinking Water All Day IS NOT the Best Way to Stay Hydrated — Learn the Best Methods

I’ve heard my fair share of the advice “make sure you drink a lot of water!”

I’m guilty of worrying over whether my nieces and nephews are hydrating well enough, too, especially on these hot summer days. Dehydration causes fatigue, saps endurance, and can interfere with your mood and ability to concentrate.

And while the National Academy of Medicine does recommend adults drink between 91 and 125 fl oz of water every day, guzzling the stuff morning, noon, and night may not be the optimal way to keep hydrated.

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💧 Do you have access to clean drinking water whenever you want? ⠀ ⠀ 📃Last UNICEF report says: 1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water: ⠀ 📌 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed drinking water services ⠀ 📌4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services ⠀ 📌3 billion lack basic handwashing facilities ⠀ 👩🏼‍🏫Next time you think your life sucks remember the above and say thank you for what you have! ⠀ Much love ❤ • • • • • #unicef #un #motivation #appreciate #saythankyou #cleanwater #water #drinkingwater #report #savetheearth #bestlifescenario #travelbloggervibes #africa #children #kids #beirut #baalbek #byblos #lebanon

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Especially, says professor of public health David Nieman, if you’re not drinking it with a meal.

“If you’re drinking water and then, within two hours, your urine output is really high and is clear, that means the water is not staying in well…plain water has a tendency to slip right through the human digestive system when not accompanied by food or nutrients.”

In fact, if you think your clear urine is a sign you’re doing something right, that’s not exactly the case, either, according to the Cleveland Clinic – it’s a sign of “overhydration” in most cases.

A 2015 study found that many kinds of drinks help you rehydrate – some as efficiently as water – and that several different elements come into play when considering how much H2O is absorbed in the process. Their research found that if you ingest water along with animo acids, fats and other minerals, it seems to help the body retain the much needed hydration.

For that reason, orange juice, milk, tea, and sports drinks were all good options when hydration is your goal.

“People who are drinking bottles and bottles of water in between meals and with no food, they’re probably just peeing most of that out,” Neiman confirms.

Also? Drinking too much water can actually be harmful.

“In athletes or people who are exercising for hours, if they’re only drinking water, they can throw out too much sodium in their urine, which leads to an imbalance in the body’s sodium levels,” Nieman adds.

The result can be a potentially deadly condition called “hyponatremia,” and in those cases, sports drinks and other beverages that contain nutrients are a better option.

Even if you’re not an athlete, there are better ways than pounding water all day to keep your body and your brain running at optimal levels. Sipping water prevents an overload in the kidneys and helps your body retain and use the water you’ve drank.

Another good tip is to drink water before, during, and immediately after a meal or snack.

“Drinking water with amino acids or fats or vitamins or minerals helps the body take up more of the water, which is why beverages like milk and fruit juice tend to look pretty good in these hydration studies.”

Some of Neiman’s own research suggests that even eating a banana would be a better way to recover from a workout than drinking a bunch of water.

The long and short seems to be that you can and should keep drinking water, but it’s not a bad idea exercise more discretion in the whens and hows – not so much all at once, and taken with food whenever possible.

“Water is good for you,” Neiman cracks, “but you can drown in it, too.”

Words to live by.

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All Nurses Wish Their Patients Would Stop Doing These 12 Things

When it comes to jobs where serving the public is at the heart of your duties, the pet peeves can really pile up.

Nurses are the unsung heroes of the medical world, and they take more than their fair share of crap – which is why, for the love of god, please stop doing these 12 things immediately.

12. What if it’s a male patient, though?

11. They can’t handle it, and they won’t remember it.

10. Wash your hands, heathens.

9. The internet doesn’t actually know more than your medical staff.

8. It’s like they can smell the chaos.

7. A common misconception.

6. Yeah, even I know you’re supposed to hold your breath.

5. It’s so much less exciting, though!

4. They need eyes on that.

3. I’m pretty sure they’re not sanitary or practical.

2. Seriously everyone needs a break!

1. Understandable.

The more you know!

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If You Have These Tiny Bumps on Your Skin, They’re Called Milia and You Should Leave Them Alone

Listen up, this is important.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and noticed small white bumps on your skin? Have you been tempted to squeeze them? Except then you do, and they don’t anything like normal pimples.

Because they aren’t pimples.

These little irritations are called milium cysts, which, when they’re in a group, are called milia.

Photo Credit: Pexels, Dhyamis Kleber

Healthline says, “Milia occur when keratin becomes trapped beneath the surface of the skin. Keratin is a strong protein that’s typically found in skin tissues, hair, and nail cells.”

But milia are nothing to worry about in most cases – they are more nuisance than something serious. However, if they do appear, don’t pick them! That could cause scarring, especially if you have quite a few. I know, it is tempting, but you do not want to risk it.

How do you get rid of them?

In most cases, milia will go away on its own. And they really are unnoticeable to others unless they are super close to your face, which really isn’t a big deal. But some people may experience milia that can cause slight pain or irritation, in which they should talk to a dermatologist if it worsens. Doctors will use treatments to eliminate them, such as:

  • Deroofing. A sterile needle picks out the contents of the cyst.
  • Topical retinoids. These vitamin A-containing creams help exfoliate your skin.
  • Chemical peels. Chemical peels cause the first layer of skin to peel off, unearthing new skin.
  • Laser ablation: A small laser focuses on the affected areas to remove the cysts.

Prevention

Photo Credit: Pexels, Vitória Santos

The great news is you can prevent these annoying bumps! Healthline shares a few home remedies:

  • Clean and exfoliate the skin. Milia occur under the eyes due to an excess of keratin. Gently exfoliating the area with a warm washcloth may get rid of dead skin cells and help bring trapped keratin to the surface.
  • Steam. Spending some time in your bathroom with the door closed and a hot shower running creates an easy at-home steam treatment for your face.
  • Rose water or manuka honey. Spritz a bit of rose water or use a manuka honey mask on your face. Research has found anti-inflammatory properties in roses and honey.
  • Avoid picking or poking. It may seem counterintuitive, but leaving milia bumps alone helps them heal faster. If you pick milia bumps to the point where they become irritated, infection and scarring become more likely.

So there you go.

But, just to be clear, always go to a doctor if you’re worried about your health. They can help you out better than the internet.

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Scientists Developed a Vaccine That May Finally Solve Cat Allergies

This could potentially be a game-changer.

There’s not a whole lot of in-between out there when you talk to folks about our feline friends. Most people absolutely adore cats…or they despise them. And I’m pretty sure a lot of people use the excuse “I’m allergic” just so they don’t have to deal with cats on any level, whether at a friend’s house, significant other’s, etc.

Well, the people who pull the “allergy card” might not be able to do that for much longer. And on the flip side, people who really love cats and are legitimately allergic to them will be able to play with all the furry buddies they want to! How, you ask? Because scientists have invented a vaccine that can be given to cats to make us humans less allergic to them. Hallelujah!

The vaccine is injected into cats (meaning you don’t even have to take the needle yourself), and it makes them produce less of the allergen that causes people to sneeze uncontrollably around them. The researchers have been working on the project for five years, and they call the vaccine HypoCat.

One of the researchers, Martin Bachmann, said, “We feel the numbers and conclusions are sufficient to drive our investment in further development. This is also reflected by the fact that JACI the Nr 1 allergy journal, published our study. In 2020, more safety and efficacy testing studies will be initiated.”

Bachmann said that once it is released, HypoCat will be affordable for pet owners. According to one of the researchers, the vaccine should be available sometime in 2022. Hooray!

Do you think anti-vaxxers will just have to weigh in on this one as well?

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Take a Look at This Village Designed Specifically for Patients with Severe Dementia

To see someone struggling with dementia is a grueling experience. That’s why places like HammondCare in Cardiff, New South Wales, Australia, are so important and groundbreaking.

The facility that recently opened in Cardiff was designed specifically for patients suffering from severe dementia. It’s laid out like an actual village, complete with houses and shops, and can accommodate 99 residents. The HammondCare village in Cardiff is based on similar villages in Europe, where dementia patients have been found to have a much better quality of life.

HammondCare will be opening a new dementia specific village at Cardiff this August. We are looking to recruit up to 150…

Posted by HammondCare on Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Angela Raguz of Hammond Residential Care says, “There is a growing body of evidence that people living in functioning homes have better outcomes for quality of life, they are less likely to be transferred to hospital inappropriately, and are less likely to have the wrong medications being given.”

Raguz adds, “For people with dementia, it is really important to give them a continuing sense of things they are familiar with. The idea of the built environment is that we design environments that enable a person to see or sense where they would like to go.”

The residents are allowed to live freely, and nurses are on staff 24 hours a day. According to Raguz, it allows patients to have their independence while having on-hand care if needed. Patients have their own small homes with kitchens and living areas, and outside they can visit shops, small parks, and even a hairdresser.

And while it seems like this kind of service would only be reserved for the wealthy, “No one, regardless of their financial circumstances, is excluded from being able to access this type of care. If you don’t have money, it’s not a reason not to call, or to come and have a look. The care is provided to all equally.”

Yesterday, HammondCare welcomed visitors to the Cardiff Open Day. Visitors had the opportunity to explore our…

Posted by HammondCare on Thursday, August 8, 2019

Amen to that. This is a great idea.

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This Teenager’s Lung Collapsed After He Vaped for 18 Months

You see all kinds of people vaping everywhere now, especially younger folks. But it seems like the jury is still out on how harmful e-cigarettes really are. An 18-year-old young man named Chance Ammirata learned this the hard way.

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Guess that word

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Ammirata started vaping when he was 16, and 18 months into his new habit, he started experiencing awful chest pains. He couldn’t even sleep on his left side because it was so painful. One day when he was bowling with friends, Ammirata’s friend made him laugh and his chest hurt so bad he felt like he was having a heart attack.

Ammirata was rushed to the hospital. He said, “Seven surgeons came in, and it’s scary when you see seven surgeons come in, you think they’re going to tell you you have like five days to live.”

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This whole experience is absolutely insane and life changing (disclaimer I don’t always look this bad just when I’m glued to the hospital bed for 8 days) I came into this experience completely negative mad at the world , and scared of how things were gonna turn out after my lung collapsed. But I decided to take this negative and completely find another meaning. I decided that spreading my story could help others not have to go through the same thing as me. One by one reading each message from every single one of you explaining how I was able to CHANGE YOUR MINDSET I was able to help you throw out your juul. Makes you realize enough is enough and that nicotine is rotting our brains and destroying our bodies. It overcame me with emotions. I’ve never been happier to make such a difference. My surgery to get my chest tube removed is scheduled in around 2/3 hours and I’m insanely nervous. But I want to make sure my story is always out there. And that the change doesn’t stop. Every day we need to fight to help not only ourselves but the ones we love put down the nicotine. This epidemic has taken enough. We don’t need more evidence telling us just how bad it is. How many more kids are going to have to get hospitalized for us to stop !? None should be the answer don’t take this with a grain of salt. And keep on pushing yourselves to take control of these cravings. I know it’s hard , and I know it will be a long one/2 weeks of getting over the addiction. But 1/2 weeks is so much more worth it than a lifetime of consequences. #lunglove #stopjuul #revolution #wewillmakeachange #wearenotcontrolled edit: hole* reference to third slide

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Ammirata was informed that doctors had found black spots and a hole in his lung. His collapsed lung was reinflated, and doctors told him that whatever he was smoking caused the black spots. Ammirata has never smoked cigarettes, so he knew that the Juul he had been smoking for a year-and-a-half was the culprit.

Ammirata admits that he never thought his e-cigarette could be so dangerous. He said, “Everyone was doing it,” Chance said, “and the problem was no one was saying they were addicted, just using it occasionally when they were stressed, so it was different from a cigarette.”

The young man wants to use his incident to highlight the dangers of vaping for other people who may be unaware that there are potentially serious side effects. Ammirata said,

“This whole experience is absolutely insane and life changing. I came into this experience completely negative, mad at the world, and scared of how things were gonna turn out after my lung collapsed. But I decided to take this negative and completely find another meaning. I decided that spreading my story could help others not have to go through the same thing as me.”

Ammirata added,

“Juul is really manipulating it like it’s OK, and it’s not and there’s not enough evidence, but I feel like it’s my responsibility as a victim to let people know it isn’t safe. Even if they said I could smoke again, I would never pick up a Juul or anything that has smoke, I’m never going to pick up again.”

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A woman code named “SM” suffers from…

A woman code named “SM” suffers from Urbach-Wieth disease – a condition where the person cannot feel fear. Her identity is guarded for her safety by researchers who are studying her and only 400 people on the planet are known to have this condition.

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Here’s How Much Sex to Have If You Want a Baby

If you wanna have a baby, you gotta have sex. No surprise there, right? But exactly how much sex? About 78 times, according to a 2017 study.

ChannelMum.com, a parenting website, surveyed couples to find out how often they had sex, and for how long, before they got pregnant. They found that it typically took 185 days from the moment that couples decided to conceive to the moment that they got a positive pregnancy test. While in the trying-to-conceive stage, couples had sex about 13 times each month.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The study also yielded some other interesting data. Missionary was the most popular position for baby-making, followed by doggy style and the “eagle” (which is like missionary, but the bottom partner has their legs wide and in the air).

Half of the couples said that they made love a lot more frequently than normal when they were trying to conceive, and 18 percent admitted that sex became a chore rather than a pleasure. Another change is that women tended to initiate more frequently.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

“Far from being an unlucky number, 13 seems to be the lucky number couples need each month to fall pregnant,” said Siobhan Freegard, founder of ChannelMum.com.

“But while trying to conceive can be fun, it is also hard work, stressful and not every couple is lucky enough to get conceive, so while you’re focused on the baby, try to remember about each other too.”

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If Your Child Is a Mouth Breather, It Could Be a Sign of Medical Troubles to Come

There are a lot of mouth breather jokes out there – the funny bit being that people who never learned to breathe out of their noses are odd – and it turns out that there’s actually some science to back that up.

So, if your children spend more time with their mouths open than closed, you might want to start thinking of it as a problem you want to address, rather than no big deal.

In fact, Dr. Anil Rama has some dire warnings about letting mouth breathing go on unchecked.

“Mouth breathing, especially occurring at a young age, changes the development of a person’s face. It makes their face long, chin recessed, nose drop, nostrils flare, teeth crooked, and smile gummy. It also leads to cavities, bad breath, bad sleep, and a miserable personality.”

Well, okay then.

But while it might seem like Rama is being overly harsh, there is evidence – lots of it – to suggest that kids who breath through their mouths most of the time are more likely to struggle in school, cry at night, grow at a slower rate, be moody, and even have larger tonsils than kids who breathe out of their nose.

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C O R R E C T. way to B R E A T H E . Breathing comes so naturally to us that we don’t normally stop and think about how it’s done and whether we’re doing it right or not. But the reality is, being a ‘Nose Breather’ or a ‘Mouth Breather’ will determine how we look, feel and function. (Refer to diagrams). As you can see, the correct way to breathe is through the nose, where this allows the mouth to rest in the correct position for correct jaw and facial developments. Whereas, breathing through your mouth causes recession of the jaw, a longer face, teeth crowding due to lack of palatal seal and incorrect tongue position. So take a moment. Take a breath. Are you a mouth breather or are you a nose breather? Not sure? Come in and have one of our specialist for an assessment. – – – – – – – #smiledentistry #braces #toothalignment #mouthbreather #nosebreather #breathing #takeabreath #orthodontics #teethstraightening #adultbraces #childrenbraces #malocclusions #teethstraightening #straighterteeth #smile #healthy #happy #sleep #breathebetter #dentist #dentaloffice #balmain #balmaindentist #holisticdentist #holistichealth #breathoflife

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As adults, those kids are prone to fatigue, brain fog, and, unfortunately, having a different-looking face.

Basically, using the term “mouth breather” to say that someone seems a bit “off” is accurate (if unkind).

The reason? Breathing through your nose triggers paranasal sinuses that produce nitric oxide, facilitating oxygen circulation throughout the body, helping the lungs absorb oxygen, relaxing muscles, and allowing blood vessels to dilate.

It also has anti-fungal, antiviral, anti-parasitic, and antibacterial properties that boost your immune system and help fight off infections, says Rama.

“Nose breathing is important for cleaning, humidifying, and processing the air for the lungs. It also directly enhances sleep and regulates breathing which helps one remain calm. A lack of nose breathing over time can take a tremendous toll on a person’s mood and mental health….Mouth breathers in general are more irritable, angry, lack patience, are stressed out, forgetful, sleepy, fatigued, and not as happy as they could be.”

If you’re concerned for yourself or a child in your life, talk to a doctor – mouth breathing could be triggered by asthma, allergies, and excessive thumb-sucking and create symptoms like poor behavior, dental issues, lisping, and hoarseness.

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