Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Grand Rounds is Up
Friday, June 10, 2011
Auto-suggestion cures
http://www.toenail-fungus.com
Thursday, June 9, 2011
How To Claim Your Alone Time

How do you let your partner know that you need alone time?
Chronic illness is a demanding intrusion. It can determine when you and your partner can go to a movie, what you can eat, and even when you can be intimate. At the same time, illness can force intimacy in areas where it may not be wanted -- discussion of bodily functions, acts of physical caretaking like dressing or washing, exposing helplessness.
The experiences of the ill and well partner are different. Both may feel sadness and anger - at the illness and at each other. But the experiences that provoke strong feelings can be different. And both may need a break from each other in order to simply be quiet or to re-energize or to not feel obligated or dependent.
How do you take a break from your partner without wounding him or her? How do you claim your alone time without without giving the impression that you are rejecting your partner?
For some couples this may be easy. They may have even built alone time into their weekly routines. For others, especially where communication is more labored, taking alone time can be more fraught.
Richard and I both require lots of alone time. That is our nature and it was part of our relationship before chronic pain entered our picture. So now, if one of us closes the door or walks out of the room, the other is not wounded or offended. Sometimes we will say to each other, "Time for alone time."
Do you need alone time? How do you communicate this to your partner?
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The natural way to protect against E coli.
Some natural plants and herbs may provide some protection against E coli, such as garlic, cinnoman, cloves, and rose petal oil.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Grand Rounds is Up
Also - PFAM (Patients for a Moment), a collection of posts write by patents aobut their experiences is up at Getting Closer to Myself.
Health of Older Couples is Linked to Each Other
Physical and emotional health of older couples linked for better or worse, study finds
A study of older married couples that gives new meaning to the matrimonial adage “for better or worse” finds that spouses have a much greater impact on their partner’s health than previously known.
The study, published in the current issue of the American Psychological Association’s journal Health Psychology, finds strong associations between the physical and emotional health of older married couples – and provides important new information on the psychological toll of physical limitations in old age.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia and Pennsylvania State University tracked the emotional and physical histories of more than 1,700 older couples over a 15-year period, using data from a major U.S. survey. Participants ranged in age from 76 to 90 and many had been married for more than 40 years.
In individuals and couples, the researchers found a strong relationship between “depressive symptoms” (unhappiness, loneliness and restlessness) and “functional limitations” – the physical inability to perform such basic tasks as climbing stairs, picking up objects, cooking and shopping. While previous studies have linked physical and emotional health in individuals, this is the first study to show the phenomenon in couples.
“This study shows how important marital relationships can be in determining old age health,” says lead author Prof. Christiane Hoppmann of UBC’s Dept. of Psychology. “In addition, we show that many of the associations between functional limitations and depressive symptoms that have previously been found in individuals are in fact related to spouses.”
The researchers found that spouses’ depressive symptoms waxed and waned closely with those of their partners. Functional limitations in one spouse was not only associated with their own depressive symptoms but also with depressive symptoms in the other spouse. Increases in depressive symptoms in one spouse were also associated with greater functional limitations in both spouses.
“When people are depressed, they tend to want to stay at home – but that causes a spouse to stay home more too,” says Hoppmann. “That’s a problem, because when older adults stop being active – going for walks, socializing, shopping – they risk losing that functional ability. It’s that old saying, ‘use it or lose it.’”
“These findings help to illuminate the often vicious cycle between depressive symptoms and our physical abilities,” Hoppmann adds, noting that associations remained after controlling for individual (age, education, cognition) and spousal covariates (marriage duration, number of children) and did not differ between women and men.
Surprisingly, the researchers found that the relationship between depressive symptoms were slightly stronger in couples than some individuals, suggesting that a spouse’s physical or emotional health can have a greater impact on their partner’s health than their own in some cases.
“Being married for a long time is a very specific situation, it really ties your lives together,” says Hoppmann, whose previous research has explored happiness in older couples. “These findings show just how interdependent, emotionally and physically, long-term couples can become.”
Hoppmann says the findings point towards a greater need for holistic healthcare approaches. “This interdependence suggests that we cannot simply focus on individual patients, while disregarding the major impacts their illnesses can have on the people in their lives,” she says, noting studies have shown caregivers to be at a greater risk for mental and physical health problems.
The researchers – which include Anita Hibbert, a graduate student in UBC’s Dept. of Psychology, and Prof. Denis Gerstorf of Pennsylvania State University – say further studies are required to determine whether these spousal associations are specific to long-term married couples and whether they generalize to aging Baby Boomers who enter old age with more diverse relationship histories, including divorces and remarriages.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Which supplements to buy.
I choose Omega 3 fish oil, each tablet contains 1000mg, but more importantly 300 mg of active EPA/DHA. You can take two per day. This will improve cardiac health, so protect you heart function, maintains normal vision and brain function. I bought this from Holland and barrett, however it may be cheaper to buy online from a reputable health food store.
I also take Odourless garlic oil 1000mg, this is high strength so I take one per day, to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels, and may protect against some cancers. Garlic is known to help many other conditions as well.
Vitamin D3 10ug. Please note the strength. This is a new one that I have added to my list. We get so little sunlight these days, and we need this vitamin to improve our immune system. I take one a day of this vitamin.
Finally vitamin C, my favorite 500-1000mg per day, slow release. Vitamin c in higher doses has shown to help many conditions including heart health, and protection against cancer. It can support the body's defences against all kinds of bugs and illnesses such as flu.
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