Relieve the tension: Experts offer tips to battle holiday stress

Shopping, decorating, cooking, wrapping gifts, visiting with family and friends, traveling — while many find joy in the activities of the holiday season, others find themselves overwhelmed by the obligations.

Experts say the most important part of handling holiday stress is preparing for it. Understanding that the season will bring additional tasks and interrupt the normal daily flow helps curb stress levels.

“The first thing I tell people is that you have to be aware that the holidays are always stress inducing,” said Jim Sendelbach, a Conyers-based therapist.

“We have to be aware that our schedule and routines change frequently and radically.”

People should approach the holidays with realistic expectations, said Dr. Gretchen Collins, medical director for the Gwinnett, Rockdale and Newton Community Service Board, a public health agency which provides mental health, developmental disabilities and addictive diseases services.

Ignore the bombardment of perfect-looking, happy families at the holidays presented by media and advertisers, she said. Most families are average people, with both strengths and foibles.

“I let clients know that during the holiday season there are generally going to be increased stressors, and that is due to, No. 1, to increased expectations,” she said. “It can set us up for stress and disappointment.”

Another source of holiday stress is increased stimulation such as parties and family get-togethers. People struggle to have good relationships with those whom they haven’t interacted well with in the past, Collins said.

She recommended that those who feel stressed at the holidays follow their normal schedules, attending work regularly. When special events do occur, limit participation.

“What I tell them to do is try and keep life as routine as possible,” said Collins.

Collins also cautioned against excessive eating and drinking. Limit alcohol, get proper nutrition and get plenty of rest, she said.

Also, keep expectations reasonable.

“If you didn’t get along with grandma last year, you probably won’t get along with grandma this year,” Collins said.

Both Collins and Sendelbach said exercise reduces stress levels.

Take a 10-minute walk. Or stretch your hands over your head and take deep breaths. The goal is to increase circulation, which sends more oxygen to the brain, decreasing stress and allowing for clearer thinking.

Sendelbach said you can even take refuge in that most private of places — the restroom.

“Take a bathroom break, whether you need it or not,” he said.

To seek professional mental health services or for a referral, call the Gwinnett, Rockdale and Newton Community Service Board in Rockdale at 770-918-6677 or in Newton at 770-787-3977.

Source http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/headlines/Relieve_the_tension_Experts_offer_tips_to_battle_holiday_stress_107840989.html

Sound Sleep Tips For Good Health

Sleep is vital need of body and is essential for every individual. At least seven to nine hours of sound sleep will determine the mood for the whole day. If one doesn't get good sleep at night, he or she will feel sleepy all day long and might even lead to depression over a period of time.

In this fast-paced world where people run ahead of time to achieve their preset goals, it has become very difficult to have a sound sleep at night. Here are a few sound sleep tips that will help in getting a good sleep. Most of these bedtime tips or suggestions were tested and found to have helped the people in achieving the desired rest and sleep.

Sound Sleep Tips

1.Don't take a long nap during the day; this may make it more difficult to fall asleep at night.

2.Eat at regular intervals during the daytime. Avoid heavy meals at night.

3.Quit smoking, at least try not to smoke at least an hour before going to bed.

4.Take a warm bath before going to bed; or else listen to some soothing music or read books. You can also meditate for a few minutes to get good sleep.

5.Do not simply lie on bed when you don't get sleep. Get up from the bed, go to the living room and spend some time either watching TV or reading books until you feel sleepy.

6.Keep your bedroom dark and quiet.

7.If you are filled with worries, you may find it difficult to sleep. Ensure that these worries are set aside. What you can do is after having dinner, spend around 30 minutes to dwell your problems. Instead of just thinking over it, try to write down the problems in a sheet of paper and the possible solutions to tackle those problems. Set aside the paper and forget about that for the rest of the night.

8.Avoid thinking too much before bedtime. 80% of insomnia is due to a "mental" imbalance. Watching violent shows on TV or reading violent books might cause restless sleep.

9.Sleep to be slim; the women who slept only five hours a night were a third more likely to experience major weight gain, defined as an increase of 15 kilograms or more, and 15 per cent more likely to become obese, compared with women who slept seven hours.

10.Avoid excessive mental stimulation before bedtime. Caffeine, Nicotine are stimulants and should be avoided particularly during bedtime. Coffee, cola, tea, chocolate, and various medications may interfere with sleep and should be discontinued at least four hours before bedtime. Alcohol is a depressant and may help you fall asleep, but the subsequent metabolism that clears it from your body when you are sleeping causes a withdrawal syndrome. This withdrawal causes awakenings and is often associated with nightmares and sweats.

Try to practice these simple sound sleep tips to have a good and qualitative sleep which will help you wake up with fresh energy the next day.

Source  http://living.oneindia.in/health/wellbeing/2010/sound-sleep-tips-111110.html

Eight Survival Tips if You’re Lost at Sea

One spring afternoon in 1943, Louie Zamperini came crashing out of the sky in his WWII-era bomber plane and landed in the Pacific Ocean. He remained there for 47 days, floating at sea in a life raft. Author Laura Hillenbrand traces Zamperini’s story in Unbroken, which follows his life through to his miraculous rescue (read our excerpt here.) Should you find yourself similarly inconvenienced at sea, we asked two survival experts for their tips on how to brave the odds. For best results, print this before you embark.

Remain Calm. Really.
“Fear is pretty disabling. If you’re afraid of something, your temptation is to turn away from it—to look away from it, whether it’s an emotional situation or a physical thing. Think about your own life. … As soon as you turn away from reality you become less competent. Survivors are people who are comfortable with reality and its uncertainties.” —Clint Willis, editor of Adrenaline Books, which has published 30 anthologies on rescue and survival.

Memorize the Fearsome Five
“The threats to survival are known by the pneumonic ‘Fearsome Five:’ food, fluids, fitness, Fahrenheit, and fatigue.” —Dr. Michael Jacobs, marine first aid expert and co -author of A Comprehensive Guide to Marine Medicine

Combat the Wind
“It’s super-important to get some wind shelter. Get something between you and the wind, whether it’s a jacket or a tree or a piece of tent.” —Willis

Assess Your Ailments
“It can be a triage situation, where you say, ‘What do I have to do right now?’ You check out your physical health. ‘Am I bleeding a lot? Am I cold? What do I do about that?’ It’s the same thing as first aid stuff. You deal with the most pressing stuff and then you move on. …[D]on’t try to do everything at once.” —Willis

Invest in Electronics
“If I found myself unexpectedly in a life raft, I would want to have an EPIRB, an electronic position indicator beacon. That works off a signal that’s picked up by satellite that’s transmitted to a rescue coordination center. If you ask me, what’s the signal most important device, I would want a rescue beacon.” —Jacobs

But If You Didn’t Buy the Beacon…
“There are about a hundred things you can do with duct tape. Having duct tape can help you repair a raft [or] a canopy, [or] you can create shelter—a whole host of things. And mirrors are very useful for signaling a boat or aircraft in the area.” —Jacobs

Don’t Be a Baby—Or a Control Freak
“The control freaks and the babies die. The ones who need to know what’s going on right now, or at least pretend they do, so they can control the situation—they probably die first. Then the babies die next, because they’re the ones saying, ‘I can’t deal with this! I’m going to wait for somebody to save me.’” —Willis

Be Glad It’s Not the ’60s
“The odds of being lost at sea for a sustained period of time now are really much more remote. Life rafts have very advanced signaling devices and portable water makers. You still need to have your wits about you and be prepared to survive on your own for a couple of days, but it probably won’t be a couple of weeks.”

Source  http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/11/eight-survival-tips-if-youre-lost-at-sea.html

Tips for Pregnant Women with Holiday Due Dates

In the rush of the holiday season, most people worry about on-time delivery of important gifts and packages for friends and loved ones. But for a pregnant woman due around the holidays, there’s an added worry about when her baby will arrive.

Around the holidays, many pregnant women experience pressure from family or their healthcare providers to “schedule” their baby’s birthday around festivities and travel plans. Lamaze warns that scheduling a baby’s delivery without a compelling medical reason can put the baby at risk.

“Few doctors want to be pacing the halls on Thanksgiving or Christmas, waiting for a mother to deliver,” said Marilyn Curl, CNM, MSN, LCCE, FACCE and president of Lamaze International. “So it’s not uncommon to see a surge of women with normal pregnancies being told that there might be an issue and that they should consider scheduling the delivery, coincidentally, right before a holiday.”

Healthcare professionals aren’t the only ones who may try to rush the arrival of babies. Families often can feel stressed about the uncertainty of the baby’s arrival and feel it may compromise the celebration of holidays. Some women also fear that their preferred healthcare provider won’t be available and will agree to a scheduled early delivery to guarantee that their provider will be there for the birth.

“I really understand that pressure. You build a relationship with your care provider over the course of a pregnancy. Plus, you build up expectations about your holiday celebration. So it seems like ‘no big deal’ just to get the birth over with,” said Sue Galyen, RN, MSN, HCHI, LCCE, FACCE, a Lamaze childbirth educator from Brownsburg, IN. “But it’s so hard to think that a scheduled delivery, whether through induction or cesarean, was worth it when either the mother or baby experiences a complication as a result.”

One complication of scheduling the baby’s birthday is that often, the baby is delivered just a little too early. A growing body of research[1] shows that giving a baby those last few weeks or days inside the uterus can be crucial to the baby's health. Babies born even a “little” early face risks including breastfeeding difficulties, learning and behavioral problems, breathing problems, increased chance of time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and risk of death.

“I’ve had so many students with due dates around the holidays and it’s amazing how many of them ended up with more complications than they bargained for because of the medical intervention,” said Galyen.

Women can play a key part in driving down avoidable prematurity. ”Red flags” that might signal that a mother is being pressured into an unnecessarily early delivery include:

* The care provider suggests that the baby is too big and will be easier to deliver “a little early”
* The suggestion is made that the care provider won’t be available for a holiday delivery or will be “booked up”
* The timing of the delivery is centered on travel and celebration schedules
* Holiday stress is driving feelings of wanting to get the pregnancy “over with”

Avoiding unnecessary medical inductions is part of Lamaze International’s Six Healthy Birth Practices. Based on recommendations by the World Health Organization and backed by extensive research that supports a woman’s natural ability to give birth, these practices are:

· Let labor begin on its own

· Walk, move around and change positions throughout labor

· Bring a loved one, friend or doula for continuous support

· Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary

· Avoid giving birth on your back and follow your body's urges to push

· Keep mother and baby together; it's best for mother, baby and breastfeeding

Inducing labor without a compelling medical reason is one of many routine interventions that has not proven a medical benefit to mothers and babies and can impose harm. Other common routine interventions include continuous fetal monitoring, coached pushing, being positioned on your back during labor, requiring repeat cesarean surgeries for women with a prior cesarean and separating mothers and babies after birth.

To learn more about the Lamaze Six Healthy Birth Practices, please enroll in a Lamaze childbirth education class and visit www.lamaze.org/healthybirthpractices.

Source  http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Women_s_Health_260/Tips_for_Pregnant_Women_with_Holiday_Due_Dates.shtml

7 Tips for Picking a Medicare Part D Plan

Beginning next week, Medicare Part D beneficiaries will have the opportunity to switch to a new prescription plan. Choosing a plan that covers your medications for a lower cost could save you hundreds of dollars in 2011. About 2.6 million beneficiaries enrolled in prescription drug plans will see a premium increase of at least $10 per month if they stay in their current plan. Current beneficiaries can choose a new Medicare Part D plan between November 15 and December 31. Here are some important factors to consider when choosing among the Part D plans in your area:

Compare premiums. The average monthly Part D premium will be $40.72 in 2011 if beneficiaries remain in their current plan, which is up 10 percent from $36.90 in 2010, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Average premiums vary considerably by location, ranging from $29.01 per month in New Mexico to $46.51 per month in Idaho and Utah. "We have seen plans that have had pretty substantial increases in premiums over the years," says Jack Hoadley, a health policy analyst at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. "What may have been the cheapest plan for you three or four years ago when you first signed up may not be good for you now." For the first time, in 2011 there will additional premium increases for high-income retirees. Part D enrollees with annual incomes above $85,000 ($170,000 for couples) will have a monthly adjustment automatically deducted from their Social Security check. If that amount is more than the amount you receive from Social Security, you will get a bill from Medicare.

Evaluate cost-sharing provisions. Premiums aren't the only prices you need to evaluate when choosing a Part D plan. Include the deductible or amount you must pay before your coverage begins in your calculations. Also consider the copayments or coinsurance you will need to pay for covered drugs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has an online tool that allows potential and existing Medicare beneficiaries to enter the drugs they expect to take next year and compare expected out-of-pocket costs under various local plans.

Scrutinize the formulary. Each Part D plan has a list of covered drugs called the formulary. Most Medicare drug plans separate the covered medications into tiers, each of which has a different out-of-pocket cost. "Many plans are changing the amount they change for prescription drugs and adding and subtracting drugs from their formula," says Juliette Cubanski, a policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Even if you are happy with the coverage you have, it's important to know that your coverage might be changing between 2010 and 2011." If you are considering changing medications in the coming year, make sure a plan covers the potential new prescriptions as well.

Find out what authorizations are required. Some prescription drug plans require you to jump through a few hoops before your medication will be covered. A Part D plan may require prior authorization before paying for a drug, which means you or your doctor must contact the drug plan before you can fill certain prescriptions. "It's really important to look at whether a plan imposes certain utilization restrictions such as prior authorization that can affect a beneficiary's access to the medicines that they take," says Cubanski. Some plans also limit how much of a medication you can buy at a time and may require you to try one or more similar lower-cost drugs before they will cover the prescribed drug.

Get ready for more gap coverage. Most Medicare drug plans have a coverage gap called the "donut hole". The coverage gap begins after an enrollee incurs $2,840 in total drug spending and lasts until catastrophic coverage kicks in after an enrollee has spent $4,550 out-of-pocket. Beneficiaries who reach the coverage gap in 2011 will see lower costs this year as a result of changes made by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Brand-name drugs purchased in the gap will be discounted by 50 percent in 2011 and plans will pay 7 percent of the cost for generic drugs in the gap. "If you are using brand-name drugs and reach the coverage gap, you are going to pay only about half the cost that you did last year for those same brand name drugs," says Hoadley. However, nearly three-quarters of plans will offer little or no gap coverage beyond what is now required by law, KFF found.

Some plans will be eliminated. New regulations aimed at getting rid of plans that are duplicative or with low enrollment have resulted in fewer Part D plans being offered next year. A record low of 1,109 prescription drug plans will be offered nationwide next year, down 30 percent from the 1,576 plans in 2010, KFF found. But you're still likely to have a wide variety of plans to choose from in your area. The average Medicare beneficiary will have a choice of 33 prescription drug plans in 2011. If your current plan will be eliminated in 2011, you will be automatically assigned to another plan with the same provider unless you choose a new one on your own.

Watch out for late enrollment penalties. It's best to sign up for Medicare Part D when you reach age 65 or lose your employer-sponsored prescription drug coverage. Those who delay their start date or go without prescription drug coverage for 63 days or more in a row will have to pay a late enrollment penalty. "It's an incentive so that people don't wait until they are really sick and then buy in," says Elizabeth Hargrave, a senior research scientist at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. "The longer you wait, the more your penalty will be once you are finally enrolled." The late enrollment penalty will be calculated in 2011 by multiplying 1 percent of the national base beneficiary premium ($32.34 in 2011) times the number of full months that you were eligible for but didn't join a Medicare drug plan. The final amount is added to your monthly premium for as long as your participate in any Medicare drug plan. For example, if you became eligible for Medicare Part D on May 15, 2006, but didn't sign up until 43 months later on Jan. 1, 2010, you will be charged a monthly penalty of $13.90 in 2011. The penalty amount could increase in future years as the national base beneficiary premium amount used in the calculation rises.

Source  http://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2010/11/08/7-tips-for-picking-a-medicare-part-d-plan.html

Snow Health offers sleep tips

The Wellness Center at Snow Health Center has displayed a large black panel advocating the benefits of a good night’s sleep. Posted on the panel are resource brochures and tips for a consistent night’s sleep.
One piece of information missing is learning how to balance sleep with the rollercoaster of being a college student.

Balancing sleep with school, work and friends is a decision some college students have to make on a daily basis. This can be seen as a problem with no solution, because each factor is interdependent on the other for success. Too often, students are forced to choose an activity at the expense of sleep.

Business management major Keith Blackwell admits to choosing fun and school over sleep too much, and it’s a habit he needs to break. Sleep in college, where he sleeps about seven to eight hours a day, is easier than sleep high school, when he woke up at 6 a.m.

“If I choose fun over sleep, I lose sleep, but that’s the sacrifice I have to make,” Blackwell, 22, said. “If I choose study over sleep, I’ll change the time I want to get up. If I do have to wake up early, I need to get my rest or I won’t function throughout the day.”

Few people are satisfied with less than six hours of sleep. According to the Wellness Center’s panel, consistency is as important as enough rest. If a person sleeps two hours earlier or two hours later than usual, it results in the same quality of sleep if they’ve slept less than six hours.

Some of the Wellness Center panel’s tips for consistent sleep are to expose oneself to bright light in the morning and to not take late afternoon or early evening naps. Another helpful tip is not to alter the weekend sleep schedule by more than two hours from the weekday sleep schedule.

“It depends on what time I have to wake up,” Blackwell said. ‘If I have to get up at 8 a.m., I won’t even go out because it’s pointless. It would be bad the next day. If I have to go to school at 9 a.m., I go to bed around 12 a.m.”
Consistent sleep for a college student can be further complicated by an unpredictable roommate. To control sleep with a roommate, the Wellness Center’s panel says to set ground rules with the roommate by understanding what factors impact the roommate’s sleep and to express your own thoughts. The ground rules should be based on friends visiting the room, lights out and quiet hours.

It took Blackwell about a week to get used to his roommate being awake while he was trying to sleep when he lived in Putnam Hall.

“Talk to your roommate in a friendly manner,” Blackwell said. “Tell him, like I did, to stay as quiet as possible. Come to an agreement, and you should be fine. Or buy some earplugs.”

One student, electronic media and film major Joseph Ratke, has had hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid), which has set off insomnia since he was 8-years-old. He gets about 3-6 hours of sleep at night.

“I’ve been staying up until 3-4 a.m. in the morning and getting up for school since I was 8-years-old, so it’s old habits for me,” Ratke, 18, said. “I am a night person anyway, and I try to take later classes.”

According to the Wellness Center’s panel, if sleep does not occur within 10-15 minutes, do something relaxing, like reading, drawing or studying.

“I never fall asleep within 15 minutes,” Ratke said. “It takes me 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep. I just lie in my bed and think about things. I have done stuff that’s relaxing, but it’s still the same thing, so I don’t even waste my time.”

Many of the panel’s tips would not be helpful to people unless they know their own limits or usual sleep times. One of the tips for consistent sleep is to go to bed and wake up every day within one hour of the person’s usual sleep and wake-up time.

“It’s different for different people,” Ratke said. “It depends on your body clock. It depends on how much sleep you need to regenerate yourself.”

Source  http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/article/2010/11/snow_health_offers_sleep_tips

Quit Smoking Tips: Sure-shot Suggestions

Smoking is injurious to health. This is the statutory tag which anyone can find on the cigarette packet. It is not clearly described what kinds of injury are caused when anyone smokes. Even a school student can find how smoking affects the human lungs. Everyone knows that the physicians advise the patients to give up smoking. The patients suffering from diabetic, blood pressure, nervous, digestive and cardiac ailment should not touch a single cigarette. Smoking of cigarettes, it is now established, can turn one into a patient with ailment of cancer.

Injuries caused by smoking are much more. The smokers do not know how their near and dear ones become serious victims as they are forced to inhale the smokes of burnt tobacco passively. It is said that effect on the passive smokers is more harmful. Millions of smokers have been attacking the environment with unfathomable volume of smokes everyday, and the environment gets polluted more and more.

One important thing is that, despite all that have been stated above, none of the governments have the guts to order the cigarette companies to stop producing cigarettes. Quit smoking tips are to be followed against this spectrum.

Most of the smokers do not believe that they can quit smoking. Some of them hold the view that they will quit this habit gradually. This will not produce any effective result as these smokers do not want to distant them from regular contact of the effect of nicotine. Some others want to tell that they know the ill-effects of smoking cigarettes and that they will quit smoking very soon. This is a promise left to be considered sometime in the uncertain future. Promises of this kind are hardly kept.

The best way to address this problem is motivation. The smokers can be motivated externally and internally. It is possible to organize and run serious and continuous campaign against smoking cigarettes. Campaign against smoking must be turned into a tremendous social movement with active participation and patronage of governments, non-government organizations, offline and online printing media and general health workers. This campaign can create constant pressure on the people who hesitate to take final decision in favor of giving up this bad habit.

Lastly, the smokers can motivate them in this respect and quit smoking immediately. This is definitely the best way to quit smoking.

For more information, visit: http://www.quitsmokingpillcoupons.com/

Source  http://www.marketpressrelease.com/Quit-Smoking-Tips-Sure-shot-Suggestions-1288783020.html