Quit Smoking

Ditching cigarettes is step one. Tobacco smoke is a major cause of lung damage, increasing the risk of chronic diseases like COPD and lung cancer. If you’ve been thinking about quitting, now’s the time. Try nicotine replacement therapies, join support groups, or speak to a health-care professional to find the best method for you. The sooner you quit, the sooner your lungs begin to heal.

Maintain a Healthy Diet

What you eat can affect your lung health. Incorporate foods rich in antioxidants, like berries, leafy greens, and nuts, to protect lung tissue. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and walnuts also support lung function. On the flip side, cut down on processed foods and high-sodium snacks that can lead to inflammation and reduce lung efficiency. Keep your meals colorful, and your lungs will thank you.

Stay Active

Regular exercise strengthens the muscles around your lungs and boosts respiratory efficiency. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity like walking, swimming, or cycling most days of the week. Even simple actions like taking the stairs instead of the elevator can make a difference. Exercise pumps up your lung capacity and enhances your mood and energy levels.

Avoid Environmental Toxins

Protecting your lungs from pollutants is essential, so limit exposure to allergens by keeping your home clean and using air purifiers. Be aware of outdoor air quality and avoid exercising outdoors when pollution levels are high. Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas that’s present in dirt, poses significant lung health risks and may be lurking in your home. Test your home for radon and mitigate it if levels are high. Small changes in your environment can lead to big benefits for your lungs.

Practice Good Posture and Breathing Techniques

Did you know slouching can compress your lungs and reduce breathing efficiency? Maintain good posture to allow your lungs to expand fully. Additionally, practice deep breathing exercises to strengthen your diaphragm and improve oxygen exchange and blood oxygen levels. Try inhaling deeply through your nose, holding for a few seconds, and exhaling slowly. Incorporate these practices into your daily routine for a lung-friendly lifestyle.

Start implementing these tips for maintaining and improving your lung health today. Take small steps to prioritize your lung care, and you’ll breathe easier tomorrow. Your lungs are worth the effort!

The post 5 Tips for Maintaining and Improving Your Lung Health appeared first on Happy Healthy Hub.

What is Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder?
Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is a form of female sexual dissatisfaction (FSD). Doctors describe it as a persistent lack of sexual desire. It may also involve the absence of sexual fantasies.

Women with HSDD are rarely in the mood for sex. They do not initiate sex with their partners, and they do not seek stimulation for themselves. This lack of desire usually results from relationship problems. Anger, communication problems and trust issues are contributing factors.

What Causes a Lack of Sexual Desire?
Relationship and lifestyle factors obviously affect sexual desire. Sometimes, however, low libido has a medical cause. Depression, medications and menopause are three common medical causes of low female sex drive.

Depression isolates women and causes them to withdraw from sex and other social activities. Many women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder have clinical depression. Their lack of libido may stem from antidepressant medications or from the depression itself.

Antidepressants, birth control pills and other drugs often interfere with libido, sexual arousal and orgasm. This happens when the drugs cause a hormone or chemical imbalance. Since different medications affect women differently, switching to another drug brand or variety may improve sexual desire and treat HSDD problems.

Whether menopause is surgical or natural, it has a tremendous impact to female sexual desire. Menopausal women experience the decline of several important hormones including estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. The decline in libido may be gradual or sudden. Ironically, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can make things worse. Middle-aged women with HSDD should consider whether or not their sexual problems are due to menopause or other causes.

What Are the Treatments for HSDD?
If their lack of sexual desire has a medical basis, women have several treatment options. Hormone therapy, antidepressant medication and Viagra are three possible solutions.

Women who are taking antidepressants or estrogen replacement should consider testosterone therapy. Normally considered a male hormone, testosterone is also central to female sexual functioning. According to one doctor, “no lover and no amount of sexual stimulation can make up for its absence.”

Certain antidepressants cause a serious loss of libido in up to 60 percent of the women who are taking these drugs. The solution is the switch to a medication that is known to have fewer sexual side effects. Alternatively, women can request lower doses of their current medication.

Finally, the little blue pill that has done wonders for men may help with the female sex drive. Studies show that Viagra improves the sexual experience for some menopausal women. However, women must have the desire to engage in sexual activity, and they must be stimulated enough for the pill to work.

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Chemistry Panel and Complete Blood Count

If you watch one of the many medical shows on TV, you may have heard the ER doctors yelling for a CBC. A complete blood count gives your doctor a quick look at your overall blood health. The test measures the number of red and white blood cells and the number, concentration, and quality of your platelets. This is important for the doctor to determine if your blood is fighting an infection, has hematological abnormalities or if you are suffering from an anemia.

At the same time the doctor will run a chemistry panel. This screening will give a good look at the status of your cardiovascular system. It often tests for total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and your total cholesterol to HDL ratio. This screen will also measure your blood glucose, which is important for detecting diabetes and coronary artery disease. As diabetes have been on the rise, this is an important test that can save your life.

The Importance of Testing Your Fibrinogen

Fibrinogen is an important factor to blood clotting. Having your fibrinogen levels checked can help in diagnosing a variety of conditions. If your levels are too high, you could be at risk of heart disease or stroke. Fibrinogen levels rise as a response to tissue inflammatory; these levels can help predict these fatal cases.

The University of Hong Kong Medical Center published a study identifying increased fibrinogen as an independent contributor to peripheral arterial disease. The study, which included 139 men and women with peripheral arterial disease, showed that 80% of the patients with fibrinogen levels above 340mg/dl survived for less than 3 years. With a change in lifestyle, such as losing weight, quitting smoking and proper diet, can help bring increased fibrinogen down to optimal levels and help battle these conditions, making this test an important preventative measure.

What is Homocysteine and Why Test It?

Homocysteine is an amino acid formed during the metabolism of methionine. Physicians associate high levels of homocysteine with an increased risk of heart attack, bone fracture, and impaired cognitive function, the performance of mental functioning. A physicians study followed 14,916 healthy males with no history of heart disease. The study showed those with increased levels were 3 times more likely at risk of heart attack over a 5 year period.

Aside from heart attacks, bone fractures are also common in those with increased homocysteine levels in senior citizens. This amino acid also impairs cognitive function in those between 30-80 years of age when levels are increased. This affects understanding, memory and concentration. There are natural therapies that may assist in optimizing your homocysteine levels, such as folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12, betaine, and lecithin. However, your levels should be tested and your physician should be consulted before starting any vitamin regiment.

Even if you feel fine, have no history of medical problems and believe you are healthy, regular blood testing can help prevent fatal conditions in the future. As diabetes, mental illness, and heart conditions are on the rise, it is more important now than ever to know what is going on in your body and make the changes needed to live a long and healthy life.

John Martin writes for health blogs. If you’re having health problems and want to check your blood work, look into the resources for doing blood work in California.

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Beware of veggy casseroles

You make think that you are eating healthy when you tuck into a plate of green bean casserole or creamed spinach but these seemingly harmless dishes are full of butter, cream and salt and can contain up to 800 calories per serving. Opt for roasted or steamed veggies to keep your diet on track.

Always cook and reheat foods to a safe temperature

When in a rush to get a holiday meal on the table there’s the urge to eyeball when your roast or turkey is done.Visual cues can often times be misleading when it comes to making sure that meat and poultry are fully cooked so be sure to use a meat thermometer to avoid the risk of foodborne illness.

Snack before a holiday party

When headed to a holiday party always grab a healthy snack before you go. Arriving at a party hungry makes you far more likely to overindulge on heavy appetizers like cheese and dips. A handful of almonds before you leave will help keep you appetite in check.

Modify your exercise routine

You make think you need to keep your same exercise schedule during the holidays but with the added pressure of shopping and entertaining, hour long sessions at the gym may not be practical and can leave you wornout. Instead shoot for small amounts of exercise throughout the day, you’ll burn the same calories without burning yourself out.

Leave yourself time to sleep

With all the added stress of the holidays and their demand on your time its easy to start giving up your hours of sleep. Staying up late to finish wrapping gifts may seem like a good idea but lack of sleep can lead to weight gain, a weak immune system and put a damper on your holiday spirit so be sure that you still get 7-8 hours of shut eye every night.

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A new Global Burden of Disease Study published on Thursday found that high blood pressure is the most common risk factor for disease around the globe, with alcohol coming in third and that lower back pain is a greater cause of disability than childbirth.

“We are in transition to a world where disability is the dominant concern as opposed to premature death. The pace of change is such that we are ill prepared to deal with what the burden of disease is now in most places,” said Christopher J. L. Murray, who headed the recent study.

The study is one of the most ambitious of its kind, comprised of nearly 500 researchers spread across 302 institutions and 50 countries. Researchers looked at over 200 different causes of death such as cancer, alcoholism, AIDS even animal bites as well as almost 70 risk factors such as diet and history of abuse that could contribute to illness. THey compared their findings from data gathered in 1990 to the latest data from 2010 to track trends in health over the last two decades.

The top two global killers remained the same over the last twenty years; heart attack and stroke, but there have been a lot of changes as well. Malnutrition dropped from the 11th leading cause of death to the 21st and researchers tracked an increase in deaths caused by lung cancer, diabetes and car accidents.

The study also found that Africa was the only place of the planet where poverty is a major factor in premature death. It is only there where AIDS, malaria, malnutrition and childhood illness remain responsible for 75% of premature deaths.

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UK researchers have developed a cheap test which could detect even low levels of viruses and some cancers. The color of the liquid changes to give a negative or positive result. The designers from the Imperial college London says that the device could lead to more widespread testing for HIV and other diseases in parts of the World allowing a more affordable way for testing.

The prototype needs wider testing, but is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The test can be configured to a unique signature of a disease or virus such as a protein that can be found on the surface of HIV. If the marker is present, it changes the course of a chemical reaction. The color results in blue if the protein marker is there, and red if not. This allows the results to be tested with the naked eye according to researchers.

Professor Molly Stevens spoke with BBC and stated that, “this method should be used when the presences of a target molecule at ultra-low concentration could improve the diagnosis of disease. ”

Clinical trials on a much larger scale need to be done, but the early testing has shown that the presence of markers of HIV and prostate cancer could be detected. Researchers of the product expect their designs will cost 10 times less than the current tests available. This will be important for countries that cannot afford proper testing of HIV. Dr. Roberto de la Rica said, “This test could be significantly cheaper to administer, which could pave the way for more widespread use of HIV testing in poorer parts of the world.”

Signed, Isidori Mtabo

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While removing medical tape from an adult can be seamlessly painless because breakage occurs in the glue, but can cause quite a lot of harm when removing from the skin of newborns, says Jeffrey Karp, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Traditional medical tape has two layers: the sticky one and the nonsticky one hat forms the backing. The adhesive is designed specifically for adults, states Karp, and that newborns need something else specifically for them. Medical tape often needs to be changed on patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. Karp explains that this can create problems with mobility from peeling ht fragile skin. Along with Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bryan Laulicht, of Brigham and Women’s, Karp wanted to solve this problem by designing a tape hat doesn’t damage sensitive skin when it’s removed. The researchers have published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describing their idea for a solution, which hasn’t yet been tested clinically.

They looked to nature for inspiration in the webs of spiders. Spiderwebs have some adhesive regions and others that are not so sticky. Also inspired by Mica, a strong mineral, known for its layers that peel off easily and the feet of Geckos that have patterned surfaces that allow them to stick to walls. These elements aided the researchers in designing a tape with three layers. On top, is the non sticky backing, and a sticky layer clings to the skin, as usual. The middle layer is redesigned with an anti-adhesive coating. The researchers use a laser to etch a pattern into the middle layer so they could control how the adhesive and backing interact.

“By controlling those interactions, we were able to define a regime where the adhesive could secure devices very strongly to the skin, but was very easy to remove,” states Karp.  The concept offers an advantage by providing adhesion and anchoring without causing damage to the skin. The research is very much so preliminary. More than 1.5 million injuries per year nationwide due to medical tape removal. Elderly patients are also susceptible to injuries from harshe adhesives.

Their research was funded by the Phillips Children’s Medical Ventures and National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Institute for Pediatric Innovation.

Signed, Shanika Simmons

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TV execs love making medical dramas. They’re exciting, there’s lots of room for emotional conflict and high stakes, and you can pretty much film the whole thing on one set. Yet, while we all love watching doctors to race to find a cure for some sort of eye-bleeding disease while balancing it with being a working single mother, the truth is that if any of these doctors actually treated you in real life you would very quickly be dead, or at least really miserable. So before you book yourself in with Holby City, Sacred Heart or the diagnostics team at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, consider these facts.

1: They Will Probably Have Terrible Bedside Manner

If you go to a real hospital you will find the staff are trained to be professional, polite and comforting regardless of how they feel about you (and don’t get me wrong here, they do hate you). They might be referring to you as NFN (Normal For Norfolk) behind your back, but to your face you will get only the best in professionalism and sensitivity, whoever you are.

In TV land… not so much. The obvious example here is Dr Gregory House, who goes out of his way to be as offensive as possible to his patients, whether he’s just calling them an idiot, or making jokes that could be construed as racist, sexist, ableist, or just cracking-wise about discovering a patient has been having sex with her father. In general it’s clear he has maybe slightly less sensitivity than the flesh-eating virus that’s crawled up your anus, and nowhere near as much professionalism.

But House isn’t the only doctor who likes insulting his patients. Before he came along we had Dr Perry Cox from Scrubs, whose hobbies included calling his patients stupid, pushing cadavers around so that nobody would ask him to do anything, and then insulting his patients again.

And in both cases, God help you if you should turn up in hospital with some sort of faith! Both doctors will be happy to forget about the weird green mould that seems to be growing on your face to mock you for having beliefs.

2: They Will Bring Their Emotional Baggage to Work

I’m sure you’ve got your problems, and I don’t just mean the terrifying medical conditions I imagined you have in the last entry. You have a personal life, and that doesn’t always go as smoothly as you’d like, whether it’s a relationship on the rocks, family trouble or a debilitating fear of spiders. But like most people when you go to work in the morning you leave those troubles behind. If you work in a sausage factory you don’t make each sausage into the shape of your ex-wife. If you sell people insurance you don’t talk to potential customers about your fear of commitment.

Yet TV doctors don’t ever seem to have got a grip on this. If they’re worrying about whether or not to move in with their boyfriends, or are having trouble being emotionally honest with their parents, you can bet that at some point they’ll end up whining to the patient about it, or worse, seeing the patient’s condition as some sort of metaphor for their own emotional struggles. Which, if you think about it, is actually insanely dangerous.

3: They Aren’t Counsellors, But Gosh Darn It Do They Try!

Doctors aren’t the only ones with their own personal baggage to sort out. The patients will usually  have their own stuff to deal with. It could be emotional or family problems, it could be PTSD from the terrible accident that sent them into hospital in the first place. Whatever the problem it’s bound to be complex, multifaceted and could take years to properly resolve and move on from. That’s just the way life works. Sometimes you may even need to get professional help in the form of counselling or psychotherapy.

You know who won’t be much help though? That medical professional who is treating you for an unrelated problem.

But that won’t stop them from eavesdropping on your conversations with loved ones, giving unasked for advice and generally stopping at nothing to make sure you’ve reached some sort of emotional closure to your narrative arch in the 25 to 45 minutes you spend in the hospital. Can’t they just fix your damn leg and let you go?

Chris Farnell is a freelance writer who works with Locum Jobs. He watches too much TV.

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Millions of people suffer from hearing disabilities, in the US; this affects 34 million individuals, most of who are below the age of retirement.  Whether from growing older, born with this impairment or by accident, it is a health concern that is somewhat overlooked. With the evolution of technology, hearing aids have become more effective, smaller and easier to use. There has however, been the inconvenience of the individuals who are active. Certain sports may be limited, especially ones that may include an element of increased movement and an instance of shock to the hearing aids. This is even more difficult for hearing impaired individuals who enjoy water engagement such as swimming, kayaking, skiing and other wet sports.

A Need For Innovation

Out of those affected by hearing loss today in the US, 10 million wear ear hearing aids with many saying that they are limited in their daily activities, this is according to a survey conducted in 2011 by Applied Research. The survey discloses that hearing aids play a major role in individuals choosing activities in their daily routines and even a rainy day can have an effect on their hearing and the functionality of their hearing aids. Manufacturers around the world have seen the need to further evolve their hearing aids to be more functional and have introduced water resistant hearing aids into the market. These manufacturers have further innovated their designs and have now created not only water resistant but shock and dust resistant hearing aids that are fully waterproof.  The gap in the market was evident, especially after the survey further cemented the need, this new technology will have a significantly positive impact on the lives of active seeking hearing impaired individuals. Refraining from certain activities and sports that enhance the lives of people can not only prove an inconvenience but even a factor in causing deeper afflictions such as depression, anxiety, social isolation, cognitive decline and anger. The Better Hearing institute in the US have also evaluated that adults with hearing impairments are at a greater risk of heart attack, dementia and Alzheimer’s. All of these factors make the need for hearing aids that enhance individuals lives that much more important.

A Positive Impact

The creation of these waterproof, dust proof and shock resistant hearing aids will significantly improve the lives of hearing impaired individuals. Exercise and activity is incredibly important for both body and mind in adults and the elderly and in children, the act of being included in a spots team and excelling, does wonders for self esteem.

Jemma Scott is a freelance writer with an interest in health. Her passion extends to communication logistics such as how to improve communication skills.

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Choosing a health insurance policy for your family is difficult. The terms are complicated, the cost is high, and it can create a financial impact. If you take the time to break the task of choosing a health insurance policy down, working through it can be a much simpler process.
Make a List
Consider the type of health that you are in. How old are you? Do you have a family history of heart disease, cancer, or other life threatening illnesses? At the minimum, it is possible to buy a health plan with a high deductible. While this is not the best coverage available it will at least cover the costs of any catastrophic event that may occur.
State Regulations
Determine how insurance is regulated in your state. Many state websites will have links to health insurance sites. The site will typically offer advice on how to compare different policies and the companies that are allowed to sell health insurance in your area. It will also state which of these companies sell individual health insurance policies.
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act has already started to come into effect, helping many individuals obtain health insurance. It is important to read about the changes that have been made in the health care industry based on these policies. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to impose a lifetime limit on their policies. Additionally, insurance companies must pay for one well health check each year, including the co-pay of the visit. The full act will not be implemented until 2014, but many statutes have already come into effect. It is important to check your rights before purchasing a policy.
Comparison Shop
Perhaps the most important thing to do when purchasing a health insurance policy is to comparison shop. There are several websites that offer online quotes or you may contact a health insurance agent in your area. Remember, each company will offer a number of different policies. It is important to compare the individual policies.
When comparing policies consider what is included in the policy such as surgery, hospital care, doctor’s office visits, ER visits, immunizations, x-rays, mental health care, maternity coverage, dental, eye, well-baby care, prescriptions, and medical tests.
Consider what is not covered by the policy as well. It is important to read through the policy carefully to determine the type of coverage that is being received. If you have any questions it is important to contact an agent from the health insurance company to get the questions answered. This is an extremely important decision that affects the whole family. Taking the time to fully understand the policy and the coverage that is being received is extremely important.

Frank Harrington writes about how to do a health insurance comparison over at InsuranceComparison.net.

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