H1N1 Vaccine Safety Concerns For Pregnant Women

Health officials and doctors are debating whether the H1N1 is safe for pregnant women. Also, Women are receiving mixed messages regarding the safety of the vaccine and what they should do to protect themselves from the swine flu.

How did the conflict emerge?

The problem just emerged today Friday when health official announced today that the swine flu vaccine designed specifically for pregnant women will not arrive at the same time as the regular vaccine beginning November.

So What?

The national public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones said in Vancouver, said that “If you’re in the midst of a pandemic, if you do become ill, clearly the risks to yourself and your fetus are tremendous and the vaccine can protect you against this,” He also added ” “At the end of the day, if you’re in the middle of the pandemic, whatever vaccine is available, I would take it to protect myself and my fetus.”

On the other hand, the Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said pregnant women should wait and not take the regular vaccine because it contains adjuvant – an additive that boosts the impact of a vaccine – given the concerns about its safety.

“We are recommending that pregnant women receive the unadjuvanted vaccine and we would expect that that vaccine will be available around the week of Nov. 7, and that’s what we’ve been told by the federal government,” said Dr. Arlene King.

The Federal Government is going to clarify the issue to the public soon, however, doctors are saying that they are going to evaluate the risks and benefits for their patients before giving them any vaccine.

Via Goolge News

7 Ways to Manage Your Stress Naturally

Our life is full of stressful events, almost everyone of us experiences stress every once and a while, and non of us escapes. This post is actually focusing more on how to cope with your stress naturally, but its very important to know that stress is very harmful to your body and brain. A recent study showed that stress may take a toll on the unborn. Women who reported high levels of stress on a life events scale were more likely to experience a spontaneous abortion at 11 weeks or later. So, its necessarily for everyone of us to be familiar with  few techniques to reduce stress. Not matter what your source of stress,  job related, family, friends, or daily hassles, these tips might be helpful for you to cope with your stress effectively.

Motion Creates Emotion: According to many doctors and psychologists, when people are depressed they become less active. This dramatically slows your heart rate and less oxygen travels to your brain. So, if you felt one day that your are stressed out, then walk around your house, or cook a meal you like, this activity would create motion and therefore, would enhance your mood.

Help Others Deal With Their Problems: You are not alone, you are not the only one who is depressed, sad or stressed out. Most people around have similar issues, sometimes they are good at hiding their emotions, but believe me its there. So, how about trying to help these people cope with their problems? This method actually would help you a lot because you will be shocked to learn that many people have worse problems than you have. You will be saying, Oh, my problems is not that bad and I don’t have to worry about it that much.

Laughter is the Best Medicine: I can’t tell you how many times I read articles about the benefits of laughing on your body, mind and life. Every now and then, researchers find a new reason of why laughing is great medicine.

• Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.Laughter boosts the immune system.
• Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
• Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
• Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing.
  Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
• Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Enjoy Mother Nature: You might forget about your stress if you walk in the park, or go for a picnic. Fresh air, green environment, smell of water, sound of waves might reduce your stress and enhance your entire
outlook towards life. Things that seem troubling, soon will become trivial matters.

Meditation and Relaxation: Try Yoga,  or tai-chi. These techniques could seriously reduce your stress and help you cope with it. Its highly recommended that you sign up for a Yoga class if you are depressed, why? Many reasons, in Yoga classes they teach you how to breath and teach you special postures for depression such as bridge pose and camel pose. I personally took a Yoga class last semester, in the beginning I found really hard, but after learning variety of relaxing techniques I bought a Yoga music CD and started practicing Yoga at home. Here is four requirements for achieving the relaxation repose:

1. A quiet place in which distractions and external stimulation are minimized.
2. A passive attitude.
3. A mental device such as focusing your attention on a single thought or world and repeating it over and over.
4. A comfortable position such as sitting in an easy chair.

Another relaxation technique that you may use is called autogenic training. Its a relaxation-promoting form of self-hypnosis involving a series of exercises that induce feelings of heaviness and warmth in the body’s limbs.

Social Support: Research showed that people who perceive a high level of social support may experience less stress and my cope more effectively. Also, people who seek social support reported significantly fewer stress-related physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and shortness of breath. Seeking social support is a wise way to reduce your stress, however, people with HIV cancer  are at lower risk from dying if they get social support. Throughout our lives, friends are an important stress-busing resource. The important point is our perception of social support. If we perceive a high level, we are better able to cope with stress. Research has also found that social support is associated with faster recovery and few medical complications after surgery, lower mortality rates, and less distress in the face of a terminal illness. Your friends at school or work can prevent of eliminate stress significantly, what you have to do is to find a close friend or a relative and open your heart to the problems you have. Be careful, sometimes social support does not reduce stress and benefit health. in fact, it may produce opposite results,  this may occur when the type of support offered may not be what is needed at the moment.

Exercise: Many studies demonstrate that regularly taking part in sustained moderate-level exercise can have significant health-protective benefits. The most commonly advocated type of exercise is aerobic exercise, such as walking, cycling, or running, which elevates the heart rate through sustained activity. But how exactly does exercise help us cope with stress? Norepinephrine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that increase arousal and boost mood, are low n depressed people. Aerobic exercise such as running my counteract depression in part by increasing the serotonin activity in the brain and thus replacing depressions’ state of low arousal. So, running does naturally what antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxildo.

Sources and References:

WebMD.com

http://helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm

Health Psychology – By Richard Straub

Grape Products Are Great For Type 2 Diabetics

According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 7% of the U.S population have type 2 diabetes. Those people are always at higher risk of developing many series health problems such as, cardiovascular disease, blindness, nerve and kidney damage, cancer and limb amputations.

Most doctors advise their diabetic patients to change their diet and participate in physical activities to control their diabetes.

A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that grape products are excellent natural product to alter blood insulin levels in type 2 diabetic patients. Grapes contain an abundance of phytochemicals with antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities, these chemical components of grapes have some protective effects against the metabolic disturbances observed in type 2 diabetics. Also, it have positive benefits in reducing inflammation-related complications of type 2 diabetes, such as cardiovascular disease.

The study has also found that certain fruits such as cherries, has antidiabetic activities.

Via – Nutrition.org

Shortage of cancer doctors increase

According to the U.S today’s article, by 2020 the United States could face a shortage of as many as 4,080 cancer doctors, according to a recent report issued by the American Society for Clinical Oncology. “As of 2007, we were in equilibrium,” says Dr. Dean Bajorin, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and co-chairman of the society’s Workforce Implementation Working Group, which developed the report. “It looks like the demand for services appears comparable to provision of services.”

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