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Relaxation to the Rescue

Are you trying to eat better, quit smoking, or foster other good-for-you habits? It's not that hard to make healthy changes for a day or two. However, it's much harder to stick with the changes for weeks and months. Stress and tension can interfere with your best intentions and cause you to give in to food cravings, smoking urges, or other familiar habits.

The Road to Relaxation
Relaxation can rescue you from stress so that you don't backtrack on your healthy behaviors. To help you relax on a deeper level, these techniques may help:

  • Breathing exercises
  • Yoga
  • Meditation
  • Progressive muscle relaxation

Taming Tension
You can learn yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and other relaxation methods from a class or book. Here's one exercise to try now

  • Sit or lie compfortably in a quiet place. Close your eyes.
  • Imagine you are in a peaceful place, perhaps lying on a warm beach or grassy hilltop watching the clouds float by.
  • Put one hand on your stomach and focus on your breathing.
  • Breathe slowly and deeply. As you inhale, feel your stomach rise. As you exhale, feel it sink.
  • Continue breathing slowly for 10 minutes.

 

7 Ways to Lose Weight

Everyday ways you haven't heard of — and they work!
Remember to always check with your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise program.  

1. Put the kettle on. Drinking green tea (which is also known for its powerful cancer-fighting compounds) may help you burn more calories by inducing slight changes in metabolism, according to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

2. Choose cereal. Eating cold cereal with skim milk for breakfast and as a replacement for lunch or dinner can help jump-start your diet, according to a Purdue University study released last fall. The men and women in the study, who all ate Special K, lost an average of six pounds in two weeks.

3. Consider peanut butter. Foods rich in monounsaturated fats (including nuts, peanut butter, olive and canola oils and avocados) can help you lose weight, according to a study conducted at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. Researchers studied 101 overweight people who were divided into two groups. One group was put on a low fat diet that got about 20 percent of its calories from fat; the other followed a diet that got 35 percent of its calories from fat, mostly the monounsaturated kind. While both groups of women lost an average of 11 pounds in the first year, only those on the so-called "peanut butter" diet were able to keep the weight off for 18 months or longer.

4. Keep sipping. Experts say you should drink enough water to equal half of your body weight in ounces. If you weigh 160 pounds, aim to drink 80 ounces a day. One way to keep tabs: Drink fluids with each meal and keep a water bottle with you at other times so you remember to drink, suggests Kimberly Glenn, M.S., R.D., L.D., a registered dietitian at North side Hospital in Atlanta. Drinking adequate water will help keep you from mistaking thirst for hunger, which is a common pitfall.

5. Prioritize your workouts. Make your workouts an important part of your everyday life.

6. Pump up the volume. Foods with high water or fiber content tend to fill you up faster, according to researchers at Penn State University. The idea here is that you'll eat less of (and it'll take longer to eat) a spinach omelet versus a plate of scrambled eggs.

7. Reach for dairy. Low fat dairy products can be among the best weight-loss staples, according to researchers at Purdue University who studied a group of women for two years. Those who met the recommended dietary intake (RDI) for calcium (1,000 mg) and ate less than 1,900 calories a day lost an average of six pounds, while women who consumed the same amount of calories but less calcium actually ended up gaining weight. Researchers speculate that calcium may help promote the breakdown of the body's fat stores.

The better you take care of yourself the better you life wil be.  You can take care of yourself by eating right and exercising regularly

 

Stopping smoking will not only have a positive affect on your health but it can also lower the cost of the Welfare Fund Medical Plan.

Immediate and long term effects of quitting smoking:

Within 20 minutes after you smoke that last cigarette, your body begins a series of changes that continue for years.
  • 20 Minutes After QuittingImage
    Your heart rate drops.
  • 12 hours After Quitting
    Carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
  • 2 Weeks to 3 Months After Quitting
    Your heart attack risk begins to drop.
    Your lung function begins to improve.
  • 1 to 9 Months After Quitting
    Your Coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
  • 1 Year After Quitting
    Your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
  • 5 Years After Quitting
    Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker's 5-15 years after quitting.
  • 10 Years After Quitting
    Your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smoker's.
    Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases.15 Years After Quitting
    Your risk of coronary heart disease is back to that of a nonsmoker's. Need more convincing?
Compared to smokers, your…
  • Stroke risk is reduced to that of a person who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking.
  • Cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus risks are halved 5 years after quitting.
  • Cancer of the larynx risk is reduced after quitting.Coronary heart disease risk is cut by half 1 year after quitting and is nearly the same as someone who never smoked 15 yearsafter quitting.
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk of death is reduced after you quit.
  • Lung cancer risk drops by as much as half 10 years after quitting.
  • Ulcer risk drops after quitting.
  • Bladder cancer risk is halved a few years after quitting.
  • Peripheral artery disease goes down after quitting.
  • Cervical cancer risk is reduced a few years after quitting.
  • Low birth weight baby risk drops to normal if you quit before pregnancy or during your first trimester.
If you are interested in quitting smoking, under express-scripts coverage, prescribed smoking cessation drugs are covered.  Remember your health is your responsibility.  Smoking is detrimental to your health and that of the members of your families (vie second hand smoke).  If members of your family smoke encourage them to stop.  A healthy family is a happy family.  You cannot put a price on good health.  If you need more information regarding smoking cessation drugs, call your doctor or the benefit funds office.

ImageHow Patients are Diagnosed with Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma diagnosis typically begins with a sufferer’s visit to the doctor complaining of chronic chest pain. The pain is caused as a result of a buildup of fluid inside the pleural space; this is called pleural effusion and is the most common presenting symptom of malignant mesothelioma.

Preliminary mesothelioma detection can be achieved through a chest imagery scan (CT scan, x-ray); however, mesothelioma is often misdiagnosed as viral pneumonia at this stage because of certain symptomatic similarities between the two. The only way to definitely verify a suspected case is through a biopsy.

A biopsy is a relatively minor procedure (dependent on the location of the tumor) during which a small section of suspect tissue is removed. The removed section is examined by a histopathologist, an expert in the study of diseased tissue. Hisopathological examination can confirm a case of malignant mesothelioma while also typing and staging it. Understanding the type and stage can help doctors suggest the best form of treatment.