Monthly Archives: June 2016

Things to Eat After Weight Loss Surgery

It is normal for someone to lose their appetite after they have had bariatric surgery. Usually, this lasts for around six weeks, and is a perfectly normal, and needed, side effect. After you have had bariatric surgery, you will be referred to a dietician who will prescribe you a specialized diet. This will be very light in calories, while at the same time ensuring you still get sufficient nutrition. At first, you will have to eat a fully liquid diet, and you will usually also have to take supplements for your vitamins and minerals, also in liquid form.

What to Eat After Weight Loss Surgery

Your health specialist team, which will include your surgeon, dietician, and nutritionist, will provide you with a range of recipes that you can use to have a healthy, varied, and most of all nutritious diet. These recipes will all be high in protein, which is a needed in order to repair tissue and enable it to grow. Furthermore, when food is high in protein, it is usually also lower in calorie. Hence, this will encourage you to maintain your weight loss and make it sustainable.

You have to get your protein levels exactly right, however. This is something your dietician will work out for you. Usually, you will also be provided with some protein supplements, at least for the first few weeks after your surgery. This will ensure you recover quickly and don’t become malnourished.

What Not to Eat After Weight Loss Surgery

The most important thing to avoid after weight loss surgery is fat. This is true both for the good fats and the bad fats. The reason being is that eating fat can lead to dumping syndrome, which is quite a common side effect in bariatric surgery patients. Even if you don’t experience dumping syndrome, fats make it more difficult for your body to heal. You should also avoid sugar, because it is very hard to digest it. It is likely that you will already have some insulin resistance, if you don’t already have type 2 diabetes, so avoiding sugar is equally important. You can, however, replace it with honey.

How to Eat After Weight Loss Surgery

The final thing to understand is how you can eat after your surgery. For the first two weeks, you will only be able to have fully liquid foods, and they have to be completely clear. Think broth (chicken or beef), sugar free gelatin, or diluted apple juice, for instance. You may not have any carbonated drinks, because these release gas, which can be very painful. Over time, the clear liquids start to get thicker, meaning you can switch to yoghurt, milk, creamed soups, protein shakes, and puddings, sugar free of course.

After two weeks, you can move on to pureed food. These should be small portions that are heavy in protein. In about week five or six, you can start to vary your diet somewhat. This is when you start to include vegetables, fruits, good carbs, good fats, and low fat protein. After six weeks, you will usually regain your regular appetite.

Mental Health and Wellness Advice: Setting Up Your Post-Retirement Plan

Health and wellness, especially when you get older, is as much about easing the stress of your mind as it is easing the stress of your body. Which means that there are certain things that you should pay attention to regarding your post-retirement plans, in order to live those years peacefully.

For example, you want to be sure to have all of the details covered regarding your living situation, your final will, your overall financial arrangement, your vacations, and your medical responsibilities. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to stress and anxiety, so take care of these things first!
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Your Living Situation

If you’re getting older and want some peace of mind about your living situation, then consider calling a few assisted living communities. These are some of the first choices when it comes to quality of life, and the more in contact you are with the companies and the staff, the better of a decision you’ll be able to make when the time comes. It’s extremely stressful to have to find a place to live when you need to, rather than when you’d like to, in terms of arrangements.

Your Will

You’ll hear horror stories about people who wait too long to handle their wills. Documents haven’t been signed. Property issues and finances haven’t been dealt with. That kind of stuff can weigh heavily on your mind if you don’t take care of it early, so for your own health benefits, contact a lawyer and get those legal documents in order as soon as you think about it, rather than later when it’s going to be stressful and possible hurried.

Your Financial Arrangements

If you’ve been on cruise control allowing your finances to just do their thing up until retirement, then now is the time to start paying more attention to them. Find out about your 401k, or your stocks portfolio. Look into all of your bank accounts to see what’s there. Create a budget. That way you’ll know exactly what you have to work with financially.

Your Vacations

And what is retirement, other than an excuse to go on vacation! But it you want to relax your anxiety about where you’re going, when, and if you have the money to do it, make sure to handle all of the potential details you have to handle in advance. Talk to your traveling companions as well, as they’ll want to put some input in.

Your Medical Responsibilities

As you get older, health may become more reliant on medicine and certain gentle exercises. Take care that you have information, vitamins, and medications all in order at all times. You don’t want to run out of anything necessary to your well-being, simply because you weren’t paying attention!

 

Seasonal Allergies or Mold Problems? How to Tell the Difference

If you’ve been sniffling and sneezing lately, you may have attributed the symptoms to seasonal allergies – but are you sure it isn’t something more? Your body’s response to pollen, ragweed, and grasses looks very similar to symptoms caused by indoor mold problems, except that when left unattended, mold allergies can quickly turn into something much worse.

So how can you tell the difference between the two? There are a few approaches you can take to try to differentiate between the very similar symptoms.
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Spotting the Symptoms

The primary symptoms of both seasonal allergies and mold allergies include itchy eyes, sneezing, and a running or stuffy nose. What really sets these apart, however, is that seasonal allergies are restricted to certain times of year, mold allergies can last year round. So if your symptoms consistently start up each year around the same time, and then taper off, you can be fairly certain you suffer from hayfever. But if the symptoms stick around, you may be facing a mold problem.

Seeking The Source

One reason you may not realize you have a mold allergy is because you can’t always see the mold causing the reaction. Recent roof damage, for example, may create invisible leaks, as can internal condensation between your living space and attic. Mold also hides out behind sinks and showers, and in other areas where water may get in, even if you think you’ve taken the proper precautions by running your ventilation fans and keeping your plumbing well maintained.

Children And Mold Allergies

In some ways, your child is like a canary in a coal mine when it comes to mold – they’re more vulnerable to even minor exposures because of their smaller, developing bodies. In addition to itchy eyes and sneezing, your child may experience wheezing and other upper respiratory concerns; mold can also especially irritate children with asthma.

If you’re not sure whether pollen or mold is the culprit, you can try an over the counter allergy medication for a period of time to control the symptoms and then attempt to tape off the medicine as the season changes. If you or your child can’t successfully eliminate allergy medication when outdoor pollen counts are low, it’s time to consult a doctor, as well as possibly a contractor or plumber to help you find any hidden mold.

Long term exposure to particular kinds of mold can be life threatening, contributing to chronic headaches and nosebleeds and can cause poisons called mycotoxins to build up in the body’s fat cells, causing immunodeficiencies and even cancer. They can also cause digestive issues, reproductive issues, and heart problems, with children and the elderly both especially vulnerable to these effects.

Don’t delay if you suspect there may be mold problems in your home, and be sure to see a doctor for proper testing. Your doctor will also be able to help mitigate some of the toxic effects of the mold and provide advice about how to proceed until any mold can be eradicated from your home. For those with severe allergies, it may be necessary to temporarily relocate in order to treat the resultant illnesses, but with time and professional mold removal, life should return to normal in short order.

 

Why You Need To Work More On Your Smile

You may hate it when people tell you to smile, but your smile says a lot about you. Smiles, for one thing, are contagious. You can completely change some else’s day, and your own, simply by smiling.

For people with some dental issues, it can be harder to smile. Plus, as unfair as it may seem, missing and broken teeth may keep you from getting certain jobs, or getting very far in the job you’ve already got. That is why it is important to love your teeth, and to take care of them.
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Fixing Gaps and Crooked Teeth

While some people are lucky enough to have perfectly straight teeth, naturally, not everyone has that luck. Crooked teeth, especially if they are crowded and overlapping, can cause all sorts of pains and problem. And, they leave just one more place for food and bacteria to hide and cause tooth decay.

Whether you suffer from overlaps, overcrowding, or you have gaps in your teeth, braces can help. These days you don’t even have to worry about being called metal mouth because of all of the options, including clear braces.

Fixing Breaks and Missing Teeth

Whether you have lost, or broken a tooth due to an accident or tooth decay, there is help. You don’t have to walk around looking silly with missing or broken teeth. There are also many options for dealing with these issues.

Your dentist can cap your teeth, or they can even help you consider replacements. That can be anywhere from having dentures to getting veneers, or other dental implants. It just depends on how much money you want to spend, and what kind of upkeep you want to deal with.

Dealing With Gum Disease

Gum disease can cause pain, and it can cause tooth loss. If you decide to deal with your gum disease in a drastic way, it may surprise you to know that with no real teeth you have no risk of gum disease, which makes implants an answer.

However, with proper dental care and visits to the dentist, you can simply avoid gum disease and the pain that comes with it. Get your teeth cleaned regularly by your dentist, and if you notice things like receding gumlines, get it checked out quickly.

Making Them Whiter

You can buy teeth whitening products at any store these days, but that doesn’t make them the safest options, and they might not get your teeth as white as your dentist can. You also want to be careful with home whitening products, as they can cause chemical burns to your gums if not used properly.

If you want to keep your teeth white, you may want to watch what you are eating, drinking, and what bad habits you have. Smoking, drinking coffee and tea, and even eating some foods, can cause discoloration to your teeth.

 

Picking The Right Eyewear For You

If you need glasses, it can be a pain deciding what is right for you when it comes to eyewear. There are many choices in frames, lenses, and then you also need to decide if you want glasses, contacts, or both. You also now have the option for surgery, which can correct your sight and make it so that you don’t have to wear glasses or contacts.

When it comes to choosing the right eyewear, there are many options, and many reasons to go with different options. Here is a little guide to help you along in your eyewear search.
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Considering Contacts

Some people consider contacts before they consider any other type of prescription eyewear. They make it look like you just naturally have 20/20 vision, and they even make it so that you can play around with your eye color, if you want to.

Some people opt for contact because of those reasons, while some people avoid them because of the fact that you have to touch your own eye to put them in and get them out. Plus, there is tons of more care that go into being a contact wearer than being someone that just wear glasses.

Lense Options

If contacts aren’t your thing, then you are going to want to get a regular pair of glasses, and with that comes a lense choice. You might think you’d want to pick your frames first, but frame choice somewhat depends on your prescription and what type of lenses you want.

If you have a really high script and just want plain plastic lenses, you’ll want frames that won’t make those thick lenses look too thick. If you need bifocals, you don’t want to get too tiny of frames making your different visual areas too small.

You also want to decide what kinds of coatings you want on your frames. Maybe you need polycarbonate frames so that you can get scratch resistant coating and anti reflective coating, to lessen the amount of glare you get when working on the computer or when driving at night.

Plastic Or Wire Frames?

Here’s where simple fashion sense comes in. Many people opt for wire frames, because they are simple. You can get them fancy or plain. You can get ones that are virtually unbreakable, and you can get ones that have no rims or only half rims.

If you want something more fun and outgoing though, you may want to consider some plastic frames. You can find them in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You just want to make sure that no matter what style frame you pick, it fits your face well. You don’t want frames that are too small on a bigger head, or ones that are too big on a smaller head!

 

Addictions and Bad Habits: Effective Ways To End Them For Good

There are all kinds of different addictions and bad habits. But with all that variation, there are still a consistently small number of ways to deal with them. And the more you understand these methods, the more you can use them to your positive advantage if you ever come across a situation that needs to be resolved.

Five instances of habit and addition removal to consider might be the use of medicine like methadone, habit replacement therapy, shock therapy, the use of social and environmental help, and then just generally working on internal and externally secure reasoning.
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Methadone

Methadone is a synthetic opioid used to treat drug addiction. It’s scientifically and exactly created and distributed in order to help addicts lessen their need and desire for certain types of drugs. Using methadone is a proven way to make this happen, as long as everything is done in small, graduated steps. And therein lies the key to this successful method – small, workable steps. Many other doctor-prescribed drugs can do the same thing in the same way, as long as you talk to a medical professional about it.

Habit Replacement

Another way to end addiction and bad habits for good is by really digging into understanding what habits are in the first place. Find legitimate medical and psychological sources of information, and then see if you can hijack your own personal processes. This isn’t going to be easy – in fact, it may be one of the hardest things you ever do. But if you have a plan, with concrete steps, then you’ll have a much better fighting chance than you might give yourself otherwise.

Shock Therapy

Though many people disagree with it on a moral level, many people have found that going through shock therapy has helped with their addictions, especially when it comes to things like alcohol. Yes, it’s an outdated and potentially dangerous technique, but done correctly, it has a certain type of success rate for a certain type of person. Choose your options wisely, knowing what they entail.

Social and Environmental Help

If an addict or a person with bad habits is given both support from social circles and is given an environment free from the habit or substance, there’s a much greater chance to succeed in breaking the cycle as well. Again, knowledge is power, and people with experience in these matters should be sought out when making decisions.

Secure Reasoning

Ultimately, it’s going to be logic that beats out addictions and bad habits. So, the more you practice secure and logical reasoning, the sooner you can work through all of the different aspects of your issues. It does take time to really unbox feelings and emotions with regard to this method though, so there are no shortcuts to take.

 

Tips for Keeping Your Bedroom Clean and Healthy

Your bedroom is one of the places in which you are most prone. It is where your body spends time healing and recovering from the day as you sleep. And, it’s the place where intimate relationships go on.

These are part of the reasons why you want to keep your bedroom a clean and healthy place. It can help you stay clean and healthy, and help you sleep more soundly at night. So what should you be doing to keep your bedroom worthy of your health?
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Get a New Mattress

Start off with considering how old your mattress is, and what you’ve been doing on it. Unless you’ve had your mattress covered with plastic there may be some scary things that have seeped within, and even shampooing it or spraying it with Febreeze isn’t going to be enough. Also, if your mattress is feeling a little broken down, simply flipping it isn’t going to help.

When it comes to mattress shopping, you have plenty of options, and you can even buy a mattress online. However, if your online mattress purchase is simply to save some money, take a trip to a mattress store and try out the mattresses you are considering before you purchase. You want to make sure you get the right firmness and feel so you can have a restful and comfortable night’s sleep.

Keep Your Sheets Clean

Not only do you want a clean and mildew free mattress, but you also want to be cleaning your sheets on a regular basis. You’ll find that it is best recommended you wash them once a week. However, depending on the season, and what you’re doing in your bed, you may want to wash them more often or less often.

Hot summer days can make you sweat more in bed, which means your sheets will get dirtier quicker. However, in the winter you may be able to get away with washing them a little less. If someone has an accident in your bed you may want to change sheets immediately.

Dealing With Bed Bugs

One of the most annoying things revolving around beds are bed bug infestations. While they are mostly uncommon in the general home, if you stayed at a hotel or motel recently you may have brought some home with you in your luggage. Once bed bugs are in your home, your nightmare has begun.

If you have discovered these little apple seed sized bugs in your bedroom you need to get rid of them post haste. That means getting some bed bug spray, pulling all clothing and sheets that have come into contact with them, and maybe even disposing of your mattress. These bugs feed off human blood, and one sign you have them may be bites or blood streaks on your sheets. Clean sheets and clothing in hot water and dry on high, and if you have to dispose of your mattress, slash it, wrap it in plastic and put a sign on it that says bed bugs.

 

3 Ways To Help Prepare Your Kids For Shots or Vaccinations

Shots and vaccinations are given to children to help protect them from many formerly fatal illnesses and diseases. While many parents understand the importance of getting vaccinations and other shots for the health and welfare of their children, your little ones likely don’t understand why they need to get sometimes painful shots when they visit the doctor. This can make these experiences very hard to cope with, both for your child and for you as the parent. So when you look at your child’s electronic medical record and see that they’re due for some booster shots, try the following tips to help make this process easier on everyone involved.
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Help With Their Fears or Anxieties

If your child is old enough to remember getting shots previously, they may be feeling some fears and anxieties associated with these procedures. However, Dina Roth Port, a contributor to Parents.com, shares that there are some techniques you can employ to help ease your child’s fear of needles and shots. Some of these strategies include telling them the truth about getting shots, not focusing on the possibility of needing shots too much leading up to your doctor appointment, and averting their eyes from the sight of the needle. These three things can all help to take some of the anxiety about getting shots away so they don’t get too worked up about it beforehand.

Provide Distractions To Ease Pain

When the time comes to give the shots, one of the best things you can do for your scared child is to distract them from watching or paying attention to the shot. Ashlee Davis, a contributor to Health.com, recommends for you to find ways to distract your child so they can have their mind taken off the shot when it’s being administered. Some ways she suggests doing this are to blow bubbles, have them cough as the shot is going in, give them a sucker, or let them watch a video. Anything that takes their attention away from the nurse and gives them a small reprieve will make the process of getting the shot a lot easier to handle.

Addressing the Aftermath

Once the pain of the shot is felt, it can be a challenge to get your child calm and relaxed once more. For little babies, the CDC suggests swaddling, skin-to-skin contact or breastfeeding to help ease the pain of the shot. Older children can be helped by reminding them to breathe and offering support if they cry.

Not only can the immediate moments after the shot is given be hard, but some children have other reactions to shots, like fever or pain at the site of the injection. You can help your child feel better from these situations by offering appropriate medication, applying cool compresses, and pushing lots of fluids.

Although getting shots isn’t always a pleasant experience, it’s best for your child’s health to be protected from all possible illnesses. Use the tips mentioned above to make your child’s next doctor appointment a gentler experience for everyone.

 

Natural Ways to Care for Your Face and Skin from Your Own Kitchen

It can be scary to go shopping for makeup and skincare products these days, especially if you are trying to be more health and environmentally conscience. The ingredients in many of these products can be scary for people that care, plus trying to find items that aren’t tested on animals. In the long run you may even end up paying more for better products. It seems like the healthier you try to be, the more money you have to spend.

You can save yourself some money on skincare items, and even some makeup stuff, by using items you may already have in your kitchen. You can even fight acne naturally, but if it’s really bad and persistent, you should visit your dermatologist, as it could be an allergy or something worse. You also may want to be aware of various hydrafacial benefits as it is also one of the choices you have.
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Acne Care

The best thing to have on hand in your home for fighting acne naturally is some tea tree oil. This stuff is great, and it can dry out pimples and help keep them from coming back. You can mix a drop or two into any of your moisturizers or face masks to get the full effect and benefits.

Dealing With Dry Skin

Honey is something that most people already have in their homes, and it is an extremely healing natural food. Honey never spoils, which is pretty cool, and it is great for moisturizing dry skin. You don’t have to worry about bad ingredients or sensitive skin with this excellent natural product.

Treating Oily Skin

One of the best things to use for treating oily skin is nature’s natural astringent, in the form of witch hazel. You can usually find a bottle of this in the same area you find things like rubbing alcohol and peroxide. Just dab some on a cotton ball and rub it around your face anytime oil is getting to you.

Fighting Itchy Skin

Oatmeal should be your go to for itchy skin. It can naturally relieve itching, from dryness or allergies. Use it in the bath tub for your whole body, or create a facial mask with oatmeal and honey to make your face feel fresh, clean, and soft.

Destroying Age Spots

If you have age spots, blemishes, or you’re fighting discoloration on your skin, lemon juice can be your hero. Not only is it a great astringent, and antimicrobial, it can also help bleach out and even your skin tone, and it isn’t harsh like many things you’d buy in the beauty department.

 

You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on skin care items to have healthy and beautiful skin. You can simply use some normal kitchen products to make your skin the soft supple body cover you dream of.

 

5 Things Not To Say to an Insurance Company after a Car Accident

If you have been in an auto accident, you need to make sure that you say and do the right thing afterwards. Saying the wrong thing can not only jeopardize your claim, but it might also allow a claim to be brought against you! Here are five things that you should avoid saying after an accident.

“I believe,” or “I guess…”

Do not guess anything relating to your case. Insurance companies can take this information and use it to limit their payout. They can also use sentences like ‘I guess’ to say that you have agreed with their suggestions about the case, even if you don’t really feel that way.

“It might have,” “I shouldn’t have.” “Guilty” or “I’m sorry about”

These sentences all imply fault or suggest that you did something wrong. Do not try to come up with an explanation for the incident; leave this to the professionals instead. If you say anything that suggests that you may have been at fault, then you might find that the insurance company refuses to pay you.

“I’m uninjured,” or “I’m fine.”

Although you may not feel any pain at that very moment or see any visible injuries at the time of the accident, this does not mean that you are fine. Some injuries take a while to present themselves, so you might start to feel the effects of your crash a few weeks later!

“I’m willing to accept your offer.”

An insurance company is likely to make you a low-ball offer in the first instance, because it is not good business sense for them to make high pay outs. If you accept their first offer, you will not be able to go back and ask for more.

“I do not have an attorney.”

If you admit that you do not have an attorney, the insurance companies will see you as a soft touch. They are likely to try to offer you a low settlement and take advantage of you in other ways. If you have been involved in an accident and you want to make a claim, then get an attorney.

Three Health Care Things You Should Not Try To DIY

You can treat a cold without a visit to the doctor’s office, and save yourself some money since they’ll just tell you to pop a couple ibuprofen and get some sleep. While there are things like this that you can do from home without talking to a doctor of some sort, there are also things that take a visit to a specialist or something in order to get proper care.

You shouldn’t be trying to pull your own teeth as an adult, you can’t vaccinate yourself from diseases, and if you don’t want to have babies or get reproductive cancers, you need to get reproductive care. Here are some medical things that need a doctor (or dentist, or chiropractor) in order to be the healthiest person you can.

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Dental Care

While you can find temporary repair kits for a broken tooth or cavity hole, that is not a permanent solution, and to keep a healthy mouth you’ll need to go to the dentist. You can’t straighten your teeth on your own either, or pull your own wisdom teeth. Keeping wisdom teeth in can cause pain and other issues.

Chiropractic Care

You may not realize that your spine can throw the rest of your system out of whack if it has any misplacements to it. That is why it is important to visit a chiropractor on a regular basis. You shouldn’t be cracking your neck or other body parts on your own, as it can lead to arthritis and other issues.

Reproductive Care

Even if you are a woman that doesn’t take birth control pills or uses the patch, you still need to get regular checkups with a gynecologist. If you are sexually active you are not just at risk of pregnancy, but also sexually transmitted diseases. It’s also important for your doctor to keep an eye out for cancer.

Men need checkups down there as well. Early detection of cancer can mean the difference between life and death.

Vaccinations

You can’t vaccinate yourself at home that takes a visit to the doctor. Vaccinations are important to keep down the spread of diseases, some that have been thought to be gone or some time now. If you don’t believe in vaccines you still want to get regular checkups for early detection of life threatening illnesses.

Get to know more about what you can deal with at home, like cuts and scrapes, and what needs a trip to the doctor, like broken bones. If you simply have a sprained ankle, icing and elevating can make a huge difference and keep you from hobbling into the doctor’s office. But know the signs of breaks and infections to keep yourself safe!

 

Tips For Having A Fit Summer

Even if you didn’t get your beach body before the summer weather arrived, you can still spend your summer months working on the perfectly toned body you’ve always wanted. Plus, summer weather gives you even more opportunities to get fit than any other time of the year.

When it’s nice outside you don’t need to stay indoors for your fitness, and you can even skip the gym for more full body workout options. Instead of spending time cooped up in the gym using a treadmill, get out and actually walk in nature. Not only will it give you some fresh air and let you take in some beauty from nature, but it will also help you get that 15 minutes of sunlight you need every day for your body to get the vitamin D you need for health and vitality.

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Go Swimming

One excellent way to get some fitness in during the summer, and one that will help you stay cool, is to go swimming. Swimming is a full body workout, and it offers a great chance for taking weight off your limbs while getting fitness. This makes it excellent for older people, people with injuries, and people with excess weight that makes it harder for them to get walking.

Take A Hike

Instead of just going for a walk, consider taking a hike for some added fitness. Hiking can put you on rougher and more uneven terrain, which can build your muscles more and get your heartrate up even farrer. It’s a great way to get a full body workout, and get in some sightseeing.

Ride Your Bike

If you have a bike it’s a great way to build muscle and strength in your legs. If you don’t have one, it’s a good piece of equipment to invest in. Instead of simply riding it on even terrain, take it on some more hill ridden paths to get an even more intense workout.

Shop At The Farmer’s Market

Getting a healthy body isn’t just about working out though. It also has a bit to do with what you are eating. Summertime is the perfect time to make some big changes to your diet, while more tasty fruits and vegetables are in season.

Take a walk through your local farmer’s market, or even one in a nearby town. Pick up fresh produce and even fresh farm meat for healthy meal options. Not only will you be eating better, and getting fresher ingredients than you can at the grocery store, but you will also be helping support local farmers and growers.

You can still achieve that beach body even if you didn’t get it before the warm weather arrived. Keep working at it with a nice outdoor fitness routine (which can help you work on your tan as well), and by eating the right, healthy foods.