Drinking and Your Health

There is great debate about what effects drinking has on your health.  One of the warning about alcohol is that it is  metabolized extremely quickly by the body.  Unlike foods, which require time for digestion, alcohol needs no digestion and is quickly absorbed.   
Recently researchers found that women who had as little as one drink a day boosted their risk of cancer of the breast, liver, rectum, throat, mouth, and esophagus.   While other studies show that a drink or two a day can have a possitive affect on heart health.


While the experts disagree on some answers, they do agree that no one who has or had a problem with alcohol dependency should drink.  A friend of mine, who lives in Atlanta, was talking about  Atlanta alcohol rehab and the treatments available with someone who is experiencing difficulties in this area.


Treatment centers for drug and alcohol abuse have made great strides in the last few decades.  Atlanta drug abuse rehab centers in Georgia offers great programs and much needed follow up.  


The subject of addiction has long been of interest to me.  While I have never had any inclination to turn to drugs or alcohol, I do have an addiction that is just as strong.  It is my addiction to food.

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Springtime and the outdoors

Springtime is here and it has come early this year.  I have really been enjoying the flowers outdoors.  My iris plants are in bloom now and I have been enjoying seeing all the flowers.  However, this year I need to decide on some seating for outdoors.  I love the adirondack chairs and have been looking online at Terrabound Solutions.  I like the recycled plastic ones, because they are recycled, they don't have splinters and they are maintenance free.

I have one park bench that Tom had bought, but am debating getting another one.  Ours is wood with wrought iron but I was looking at the adirondack plastic glider online and that sure looks comfortable.

Terrabound has such a good selection of park benches and picnic tables, it is really hard to chose.  They come in a wide range of sizes, shapes, colors, and materials including Thermoplastic coated steel, powder coated steel, aluminum, wood, and recycled plastic.   

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HIFU as a treatment for Prostate Cancer.

Hifu stands for High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound.  This treatment uses sonic energy to treat cancer.  The doctors can use the highly focused beams to better focus on certain areas making this a great choice for many people.


Many doctors are using Hifu to treat prostrate cancer.  Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in males and doctors are making great strides in the treatment of this condition.  Over a quarter of a million men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.


Hifu uses hyperthermia therapy.  Hyperthermia therapy is where heat is used to damage and kill the cancer cells in your body.  The heat in the cells can raise to 90 degrees Celsius in a matter of minutes.  It can also make the harmful cells more sensitive to other cancer treatments, like radiation and chemotherapy.  


This out patient procedure usually last a few hours and has been shown to have less side affects than other cancer treatments currently on the market.  Hifu is a non-invasive or minimally invasive therapy.  Another one of the advantages of using Hifu is it is very precise.  It can be targeted to treat very specific cancer cells.   A few of the limits of this treatment are the high cost and it is limited to cancer that has not spread outside of the prostate.


 There have been promising results in treating prostate cancer with Hifu treatments.

Diet can affect the chances of men getting this disease.  Doctors say you should avoid a high fat diet and eat less in general.  Increase the diversity of foods you eat and of course get plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet each day.  Some specific foods to add to your diet are green tea, garlic, tomatoes, red wine, olive oil, soy, vegetables, and fish.  Limit your red meat consumption.

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Staying Healthy Today

Staying healthy is more important today than ever.  One way I have tried to regain my health is with the Isagenix products.  It has helped me lose weight and the nutrition is great.

Other was are getting plenty of exercise each day.  My main way to get exercise is through walking or swimming.  I find both of those methods both enjoyable and relaxing.

Of course, if you smoke, stop smoking today.  We all know of detrimental smoking is to your health.  You also want to avoid excess drinking also.  One or two drinks a day can help your health, but more that that is bad for your health.

Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.  The fiber and roughage is great and the vitamins are tremendous.  Filling up on them also keeps your appetite down and it is easier to avoid reaching for those bad foods with sugar and empty calories.

Practice stress relievers like exercise, mediation, prayer or accupunture.    Relax and let the little things go.  It is not what you are going through, but how you react to it.

And last of all, have a great day!

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What can you do without the internet?

Guest post of the week by Brittany Booker

The other morning I was at a friend’s house and we were planning to look up some great places in the area to go eat brunch. The only problem was her internet was not working for whatever reason. Of course neither of us had charged our smart phones the night before so we were trying to conserve battery which meant that using our phones to look up places to go was out. We had to just go out on the street and start walking to find a place. It got me thinking about what it would be like to live in today’s times without having access to the internet. These days everyone just assumes that you have a computer and access to the World Wide Web. As it turns out not everyone does have a computer or access to the internet. I decided I was going to try to live a week without it and see how I felt at the end of that week. I own a small business and need small business internet to run my company. I only lasted two days without the internet before I caved.

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Maintaining Weight Loss - Keeping Busy

I have been trying to maintain my weight loss from last year - I lost 48 lbs. last year and then the holidays hit.  I ate and ate and then after they were over I continued to eat.

I have kept off about 35 lbs and have settled down with the overeating and am getting ready to get headed in the right direction again.

I have been keeping busy - working on a lot of sewing projects.

I have also been hosting a weekly craft club - but this has developed into an eating club too - everyone brings something to munch on - an naturally alot of this is sweets and high fat items.

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Lutheran Senior Services in St. Louis

Lutheran Senior Services in St. Louis was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the "Best Places to work".   They strive to improve the quality of care for their residents.  One way they do this is by implementing a program called Electronic medical Records Software.

Using the Optimus EMR^® system for their electronic medical records saves time because the staff does not have to waste time searching for the patient information.  It is all there at their fingertips on the home page when they look at the computer.  They can access real time, up-dates on the residents, census, quality indicators, operational performance data and more.


Lutheran Senior Services utilizes the Optimus EMR system because it is the only automated system for long term care.  This system helps them achieve the goal of quality patient care.

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