I dread going on
long trips and having to use public transportation. I am one of those people who have to go to the washroom every hour or so to relieve my bladder. I don’t think I have an extreme case of urinary incontinence but there are a lot of women, especially those who have just given birth, who suffer from this condition.
Is there a cure for this?
Yahoo Health presents some suggestions – aside from surgery – that can help with urinary incontinence.
Perform Kegel exercises designed to make your pelvic muscles stronger.
Set a schedule for emptying your bladder, instead of waiting until you have to go. Slowly increase the amount of time between trips to the bathroom.
Maintain a healthy body weight, as excess weight can strain the bladder and surrounding muscles.
Limit or avoid beverages that contain ...
Have you been watching TV lately? Or maybe reading magazines and the proliferation of print ads? If you have been paying any attention, you probably would have noticed the prevalence of ads relating to yoghurt and its health benefits. Yet is yoghurt all that they claim it to be?
Perhaps the most
popular brand that sells yoghurt these days is
Dannon. Their main product is Activia, which is part of the DanActive line of yoghurt products. The selling point is the fact that these products contain probiotics. This highfaluting term simply means that the product contains active microorganisms that are supposed to help boost one’s digestive system. With all the digestive problems that people are experiencing today, it is not a surprise that these products are selling like hotcakes.
Recently, though,
some lawyers filed a suit ...
While we’re on the subject of mental health, I ran across
a blog post detailing the results of a study on the correlation between religious activity and mental health. The study was conducted by Joanna Maselko, Sc.D of Temple University. She says that
“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness.” Interesting, isn’t it?
The results of the study indicate that women who stop their religious activity are three times more likely to suffer from mental problems such as general anxiety and alcohol abuse or dependence. However, the results are not the same for the opposite sex. In fact, for men who have always been religiously active, stopping religious activity would make them less prone to depression and similar problems!
Maselko’s
explanation for this disparity?
“Women are simply more integrated ...
I was on the phone with a close friend the other day when she told me that the doctors put her sister on lithium. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked. I have heard of lithium and its use for mental problems, of course, but I didn’t really know much about it. This sister has bipolar disorder and when I met her, she was on a manic episode. I know how uncontrolled she could be, yet I was thinking whether lithium is indeed the solution. So I looked a little bit more into it and here is what I found.
The
NIH describes lithium as:
The medication used most often to treat bipolar disorder is lithium. Lithium evens out mood swings in both directions—from mania to depression, and depression to mania—so it is used not just for manic attacks ...
Is being perpetually tan high up in your agenda when it comes to looking good? If you live in a country with a temperate climate, do you frequent solariums or artificial tanning centers? If so, you might want to think twice - even thrice - about doing that. According to a team of researchers from Australia, visits to a solarium can cause skin cancer.
Reuters reports specific figures:
Using a solarium to gain a suntan increases the risk of developing skin cancer by 98 percent if you are under the age of 35, with one visit heightening the chance of developing a melanoma by 22 percent.
I would say that 98 percent pretty much guarantees that you will develop skin cancer if you are under 35 and regularly visit a solarium to get that bronze glow! The study does not ...
Doesn’t that just sound perfect? Booze can actually help lengthen your life? Of course, you cannot take out the other part of the equation – exercise. According to a recent study done by Danish researchers., people who exercise regularly and drink moderately have significantly lower risks of getting heart disease.
The researchers say:
Physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of fatal heart disease and all-cause mortality. But neither physical activity alone nor alcohol intake can completely reverse the increased risk associated with physical inactivity and alcohol abstention. Thus, both physical activity and alcohol intake are important to lower the risk of fatal heart disease and all-cause mortality.
Take note that the combination is important – one cannot justify his drinking (without exercise) with this study, sorry.
Then again, this is something that has been known to ...
Yes, you read that correctly. I am advocating taking a break at the start of the year. Why am I saying this? Think about it, you want to start your year fresh and renewed, don’t you? One of the best ways to do this would be to take some time away from your routine life.
This year, I tried to test this theory by going on a week long vacation at the end of December and extended it to the first week of the New Year. Boy, did it feel good! I am the type of person who likes to spend time alone, without too many people. Of course, I understand that not everyone is made this way. So anyway, I went to this isolated place – an island to exact – where there were only a ...
Have you seen the movie “As Good As It Gets?” Remember Jack Nicholson’s character? He was obsessive compulsive and he had a cabinet full of bars of soap, which he used to wash his hands all the time. I have a similar thing – I can’t wash my hands enough, but not to that extent. How much importance do you place in washing your hands?
According to studies, the regular washing of hands can actually help stop the spread of common illnesses such as colds. Just imagine what your hands touch all throughout the day and I am sure you would want to keep on washing them!
What is the best way to wash those germs away? Some prefer the good old soap and water while others prefer to use liquid soaps. Others only use ...
Recently we had an addition to our small team at work. This colleague has long been with the company, but in a different department. Prior to his joining our team, we had been asking our boss to add some sort of health benefit for the people in our team, for the simple reason that our job is easily one of the most stressful in the company.
For quite some time, I had been saying, jokingly, that because of the stress, I have had all sorts of symptoms – cluster headaches, inability to sleep, and hyperacidity. A couple of other team members agreed with me. It was not until this newest member – who lives a very healthy lifestyle and rarely ever gets sick – complained of really bad hyperacidity 2 months into the job that I realized that there really is ...
Roundabouts a year ago, I wrote a post on seasonal affective disorder (SAD). As we are right smack in the middle of winter again, I thought it would be good to take a deeper look into what SAD is all about. After all, not understanding something may very well be akin to digging your own hole. Knowing what SAD is all about can help you deal with it in a more effective manner.
Here are some facts about SAD:
-Symptoms become apparent when the days get shorter and the nights longer.
-Melatonin and serotonin are the hormones that become affected by the variations in the amount of sunlight.
-SAD is clinically diagnosed and is more than a case of winter blues.
-There are different choices for the treatment of SAD. In 2006, the US FDA approved a drug called Wellbutrin XL for treatment of ...
