January 25th, 2011 by admin in Better Health Network, Health Tips
Tags: A Good Death, Advance Directives, Death and Dying, Death Of A Loved One, Dr. Barbara Okun, Dr. Joseph Nowinski, End-Of-Life Planning, End-Of-Life Preferences, End-Of-Life Wishes, Facing Death, Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Loved Ones' Wishes, Plans For Living, Psychology, Saying Goodbye To Loved Ones, Terminal Illness, When A Loved One Dies
No Comments »
This is a guest post by Dr. Barbara Okun and Dr. Joseph Nowinski.
***********
End-Of-Life Planning Makes It Easier To Say Goodbye
Saying goodbye as the end of life approaches can be difficult, even for those with a gift for words. In a moving account in a recent issue of The New Yorker, writer Joyce Carol Oates describes the last week of her 49-year marriage, as her husband was dying from complications of pneumonia. Like A Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s poignant memoir of her husband’s sudden death and its aftermath, Oates’ essay highlights the need for each of us to think about death and dying — and discuss them with loved ones — long before they become a likelihood.
In our work with individuals and families facing death, we have seen too many people miss the opportunity to say goodbye because they avoid what feels like a scary or taboo topic: What do I want to happen when I die? Beginning this discussion early, preferably while you are in good health, can help pave the way for a “good death.” In our new book, Saying Goodbye: How Families Can Find Renewal Through Loss, we offer a guide to help individuals facing a terminal illness and their families navigate the realities of death and dying. Planning ahead is essential. Here are some suggestions for doing that:
Choose your team. Identify support people and specialists (legal, medical, financial, religious) you can count on to advocate for you and help you make decisions. Designate these people to act for you by signing advance medical directives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
January 22nd, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Activity Level, American Diet, Breakfast Calories, Counting Calories, Diet and Weight, Dr. Toni Brayer, Everything Health, Food and Nutrition, Healthy Diet, Hidden Calories, Nutrition Journal, Obesity, Overweight, Starbucks, Total Caloric Intake, Weight Management
2 Comments »
Haven’t we all learned that breakfast should be our biggest meal? “Start the day with ‘fuel’ and you can burn it off as the day goes on.” “Eat a big breakfast and you’ll eat fewer calories all day long.”
This advice is probably not true, and in fact a new study published in the January 17th issue Nutrition Journal shows that people ate the same at lunch and dinner regardless of what they had at breakfast. If a person ate 1,000 calories at breakfast (which is easy to do with bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and juice), he or she had a total increase in calories eaten throughout the day by 1,000 calories.
This doesn’t mean we should be skipping breakfast. The problem may be what we historically think of as an “American” breakfast. It might have worked for the farmer in the past or the laborer hauling lumber, but it’s just too many calories for our current level of activity. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
January 21st, 2011 by DavedeBronkart in Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Active Healthcare Participant, Becoming A Savvy Healthcare Consumer, Besty Lehman, Boston Globe, Chemotherapy Overdose, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dave deBronkart, e-Patient Dave, e-Patients.net, Empowered Patients, General Medicine, Health-Savvy Patients, Healthcare Improvement, Hospital Deaths, Institute of Medicine, Medical Error Prevention, Medical Error Reduction, Medicare Deaths, Oncology, Participatory Medicine, Partners In Health, Patient Empowerment, Patient Participation, Patient-Doctor Partnership, Patients As Healthcare Partners, Personal Challenges, Quality Improvement, Realistic Medicine, Responsibility in Healthcare, Responsible Patients, Team-Based Patient Care, Teamwork In Medicine, U.S. Inspector General
No Comments »
There are several stages in becoming an empowered, engaged, activated patient — a capable, responsible partner in getting good care for yourself, your family, whoever you’re caring for. One ingredient is to know what to expect, so you can tell when things seem right and when they don’t.
Researching a project today, I came across an article* published in 2006: “Key Learning from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s 10-Year Patient Safety Journey.” This table shows the attitude you’ll find in an organization that has realized the challenges of medicine and is dealing with them realistically:
“Errors are everywhere.” “Great care in a high-risk environment.” What kind of attitude is that? It’s accurate.
This work began after the death of Boston Globe health columnist Betsy Lehman. Long-time Bostonians will recall that she was killed in 1994 by an accidental overdose of chemo at Dana-Farber. It shocked us to realize that a savvy patient like her, in one of the best places in the world, could be killed by such an accident. But she was.
Five years later the Institute of Medicine’s report “To Err is Human” documented that such errors are in fact common — 44,000 to 98,000 a year. It hasn’t gotten better: Last November the U.S. Inspector General released new findings that 15,000 Medicare patients are killed in U.S. hospitals every month. That’s one every three minutes. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
January 21st, 2011 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Health Tips, News
Tags: 3-D, 3-D Gaming Devices, 3DS, Binocular Vision, Children's Eyesight, Damaged Eyesight, Dr. Glenn Laffel, Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Eye Health, Kristina Tarczy-Hornoch, Los Angeles Children's Hospital, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, Nintendo, Ophthalmology, Optometry, Pediatrics, Pizaazz, Video Games and Health, Vision Development, Vision Development Institute, Wall Street Journal
No Comments »
Last week, Nintendo became the latest consumer electronics maker to warn that kids shouldn’t use their three-dimensional image-based gaming devices because they may have a negative impact on development of the human visual system.
The warning came just a month before the company’s much anticipated release of the 3DS, which is just such a device that features a 3.5-inch screen which can create 3-D images without the need for special glasses. The 3DS is Nintendo’s most anticipated new product since it released the iconic Wii gaming device in 2006.
Sony’s PlayStation3, a similar product that requires glasses to create the 3-D effect, already carries a similar warning, as do 3-D TV sets made by Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic.
Nintendo’s warning applies to kids that are six years old or younger. The Japanese company advised parents to block access to the game machine’s 3-D mode for these kids, while adding that it was okay for them to use the 3DS in 2-D mode. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
January 20th, 2011 by PJSkerrett in Better Health Network, Health Tips
Tags: American Academy of Pediatrics, Bug Buster, CDC, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, Children's Health, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Heart Letter, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Havard Health Publications, Head Lice, Head Louse, Human Hair, Lindane, Malathion, Natroba, Nit Comb, Nix, Over-The-Counter Insecticide, Parasites, Pediculus Humanus Capitis, Permethrin, PJ Skerrett, Public Health, Pyrethrins, Rid, School and Health, Spinosad, Tips For Parents
No Comments »
Good news for parents, teachers, pediatricians, and others engaged in the ongoing battle against lice: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a new treatment for head lice in children age four and older. Called Natroba, it’s a liquid that is rubbed into the hair and allowed to sit for 10 minutes before being rinsed off. Natroba is a useful addition to the anti-lice arsenal, since some head lice have become resistant to permethrin and pyrethrins, the active ingredients in over-the-counter anti-lice products such as Nix and Rid.
Head lice are tiny insects that go by the big name Pediculus humanus capitis. They thrive in the warm tangle of human hair, feeding off blood in the scalp and breeding with abandon. A female lays eggs called nits that she attaches to strands of hair. Nits hatch after about eight days, become adults in another week or so, feed for awhile, then begin to make more lice.
CDC photo of the stages of the life of a head louse, with a penny for size comparison.
What To Do
First off, here’s what not to do: Don’t shave your or your child’s head, or coat it with petroleum jelly or mayonnaise or anything else designed to “suffocate” the parasite. You’ll probably end up with greasy, smelly, lice-infested hair.
Current guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics call for the use of an over-the-counter product containing permethrin or pyrethrins as a first salvo against head lice. Shampoos and rinses made with these substances are generally effective. Most treatments for head lice need to be used twice, seven to 10 days apart, along with combing wet hair with a fine-toothed nit comb. Some lice are resistant to pyrethrin and permethrin. Stronger prescription drugs, such as malathion and lindane, also work but aren’t as safe for humans. That’s where Natroba comes in. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
