Prevention
Enjoy Summer Activities without the Pain
Summer is a great time to be outdoors, enjoying the lush green of New England's lakes, forests, and mountains; but the season has its own dangers. Chief among them are heat stroke and sunburn...Do You Suffer from Arthritis? Food Allergies May Be to Blame.
Many people see rheumatoid arthritis as a disease of aging, while others believe it "runs in the family". But often, arthritis symptoms can flare as a result of food allergies....Reiki Can Relieve Pain, Provide Relaxation
Reiki, an energy healing technique that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century and that has become popular worldwide, has proved its worth in relieving pain and providing deep relaxation. This technique allows the practitioner to channel universal life energy from the universe through the practitioner's hands and into the recipient, where it can assist in healing the body and supporting emotional well being....Disabilities
Advances in Prosthetic Devices Offer Increased Freedom for Amputees
Strong but lightweight materials and advances in technology have translated into more comfort and higher function for amputees...Sports Provide a Welcome Outlet for the Disabled
In years past, a serious physical disability meant unemployment, isolation, and inactivity for many thousands of people...The Mysterious Problem of Phantom Pain
When a person loses an arm or a leg, it involves, not only a shock to the physical body, but a tremendous amount of stress on an emotional and psychological basis.Dealing with Complications of Diabetes
Both Type I, or juvenile, diabetes, and type II, or insulin-resistant, diabetes have a plethora of complications...Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - An Unwelcome Side Effect of the Computer Revolution
Carpal tunnel syndrome, once seen primarily in factory and farm workers having to perform repetitive movements in the course of their jobs, has become epidemic in office workers...Tendonitis: Painful and Slow to Heal
Tendons-bands of tough, elastic material that attach your muscles to your bones-supply a flexible connection between the two parts of the body that allows for smooth movement. But while they are tough, tendons are also susceptible to injury and inflammation...A Special Bond between Animals and Disabled Humans
Animals can be mysterious and unpredictable, but more and more animal behaviorists and others who work regularly with our nonhuman fellow beings are finding that many seem to have a special rapport with mentally or physically disabled people.Deaf Education: A Cultural Approach
Years ago, deaf educators used a fairly rigid approach to teaching the deaf to communicate. Sign language was discouraged, even punished at times, and deaf people were expected to learn to lip-read and to speak.Are You Suffering from Foot Drop? Help Is Available.
Foot drop is a seemingly simple symptom that may have complex causes and possibly serious consequences. Weakness or injury in the muscles of the foot, ankles, and toes cause the foot to droop, with the result that it can drag on the ground or catch on steps, resulting in falls and possible injury.A New Generation of Disabled Citizens Are Shaping the Culture
In 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, prohibiting discrimination based on physical or mental disabilities in the workplace, in housing, and in public schools, it was met with a lot of cynicism in some quarters. To opponents it was another expensive affirmative action program that boosted the disabled at the expense of everyone else.Food
Healthy Beverages for Kids Equal Healthy Kids
It's a cultural phenomenon - in school and homes around the country in the past few years, kids have started drinking soda instead of milk and natural juices on a routine basis. Sodas - basically colored, sugared water - have replaced far more nutritional alternatives almost exclusively with some children and teens, contributing not only to an increase in childhood obesity but to a much greater incidence of childhood caries (cavities in teeth). Perhaps even more alarming, teenage girls who opt for sodas instead of milk on a regular basis have been discovered to have sometimes irreversible osteoporosis, a condition in which calcium in the bones has disappeared, leaving bones porous, brittle, and easily broken. Another problem with sodas, from Coke to Mountain Dew, is that many of them contain large amounts of caffeine - way too much, in fact, for the physiology of a small child to handle. (Your kid can't settle down and get to sleep at night? Before you suspect ADHD, think about how much caffeine he or she might be ingesting in the course of a day!)...Backlash in the School Cafeteria: How Health Activists Are Fighting for Healthy Lunches for Schoolchildren
Almost one in five school-aged children is considered obese in the United States. In addition, kids are showing signs of chronic diseases that usually don't appear in human beings until middle age - diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart problems, and gall bladder diseases, diseases that develop largely because of a lifetime of poor eating habits. And school lunches aren't helping...More and More, Scientists Recognize That Foods Can Heal
Folk remedies that used to be written off as old wives' tales are now being acknowledged by scientists and medical doctors as valid, food-based health remedies...Your Morning Cup of Coffee May Have Healing Benefits
Coffee has gotten a bad rap over the years, having been accused of causing high blood pressure, insomnia, ulcers, and a host of other problems. All of this has been contradicted by folk healers for years; early twentieth-century psychic Edgar Cayce recommended black coffee for various ailments, and the beverage has been a popular remedy for Cayce aficionados ever since ...Health Care
Paying with their Lives: The High Cost of No Health Care
Medical advances are making it possible for people to live longer and healthier lives. New diagnostic techniques are catching cancer, heart disease, and other potentially fatal diseases earlier, sometimes with the result that lives are saved which would be lost otherwise; in other instances a disease process can be slowed and symptoms treated to provide a longer life, with greater quality, than would otherwise be possible...Why Universal Health Care Could be a Conservative Republican's Dream
Republicans, conservative Republicans in particular, have been notoriously resistant to the idea of universal health care coverage at least since the days of Harry Truman...Complementary Health Care Becomes Mainstream
Over the past fifteen years, conventional medicine has expanded its borders to encompass complementary health care options including massage therapy, chiropractic, nutritional approaches, and even traditional Asian practices like meditation...A Baby Boomer Looks into an Uncertain Future
A friend of mine lost his father within the past two weeks, after years of emphysema and a long bout with Alzheimer's. His father spent all but the last three months of his life at his home, cared for primarily by his wife and two adult children, until his health declined to the point ...Expansion of Medicare a Great Idea
Before the November 2006 Congressional elections, Nancy Pelosi spoke to a group of senior citizens in Florida, and she brought up the idea of expanding Medicare to cover uninsured citizens between the ages of 55 and 64. She claimed that the expansion would be ...Seniors
Letting Go: When Someone Else Ends up Caring for a Loved One
Dealing with an aging and possibly ailing parent involves a lot of tough decisions: how much time and effort will family members be able to put into the relative's care, what types of medical and personal support will he or she need...A Great Senior Role Model
Senior citizens have to deal with a lot of stereotypes that attempt to define them as weak, helpless, dependent, ailing, and somehow less than competent...Keep Older Volunteers Involved, Active
was doing a little phone calling recently to help update a local non-profit organization's volunteer database, and I began noticing a pattern: a number of older individuals who had once been active in the organization but had dropped out in recent years because they could no longer perform the volunteer activities they had accomplished in the past.