Tag: medication

Loss is part of life. We all suffer from it at some point and in some way. Death and divorce are among the most obvious, but we also can experience loss of hope, approval, aspirations, friendship, social standing and trust, among many other examples.

Like the ensuing grief it brings, loss is unique to the person who is experiencing it, and is handled differently by everyone. There is no right or wrong to the method or timing involved. Since loss is inevitable and part of the fabric of life, the key is coping and eventual acceptance.

Poor sleep not only makes us grumpy, hungry and lethargic, it can be deadly. A study by researchers in Australia showed that being awake for 18 hours produced an impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration of .05, and .10 after 24 hours. In most states, .08 is considered legally drunk. Consider that roughly 86% of Americans commute by automobile to and from work, according to 2013 U.S. Census Data, and you realize that's a lot of people on the road potentially impaired from poor sleep.

"My dear family, after four long years of battling this illness, I just can’t take it any more…" So begins the note I left for my family before attempting suicide on July 24, 2004. In my fight against depression, I had tried 23 different medications, electroconvulsive (shock) therapy on 20 occasions, transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and many other conventional programs related to the treatment of clinical depressions. I also had tried alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, kinesiology, and self-improvement courses. But on that day in July 2004, I had completely lost hope that I could recover.

Patient engagement is being touted as the blockbuster drug of the century.   The facts are clear—the more you get a patient involved in monitoring their own health the better the outcome will likely be.

One of the most effective ways to increase patient engagement is with a personal health record (PHR).  PHRs provide many benefits to those who use them, but like one’s credit rating, just having a record is not enough. It is important that people keep up on monitoring them, too.

Over a period of eight weeks, our son went from a sweet boy who liked to give hugs and kisses to one who yelled at us in anguish, hit us, and spit in our faces. We would later learn that the children in his preschool continually spit in his face, hit him as he tried to crawl away, and on one occasion, pushed his face into the water of a kiddie pool.

Middle-aged adults with recently diagnosed heart disease may be less sexually active than their healthier peers, a recent U.K. study suggests.

Researchers analyzed survey data from about 3,000 men and 3,700 women aged 50 and older, including 376 men and 279 women with heart disease.

Among heart disease patients diagnosed less than four years before the survey, both men and women were much less likely to report having any sex in the past year than their counterparts without heart problems.