health
Keeping your mind and body in check - popular topics in health and medicine to maintain a long and healthy life.
Am I Going to Die?
Where It All Began... October 27, 2001. That's the day that changed my life forever. When I was five years old, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas stops producing insulin - a hormone essential to the ability to get energy from food. It affects both children and adults suddenly and changes life as they know it forever. It cannot be prevented and there is no cure.
By Jen McBride8 years ago in Longevity
So… There’s Something I Need to Tell You. Top Story - January 2018.
One of the most violent elements within our society is ignorance. It has the capacity to shape generations, to stir cultural prejudice, and to create fear and discrimination at the expense of those without a voice. The rise of HIV and AIDS in the 1970s, at a time when little was understood about this forthcoming pandemic, gave birth to fear and recriminations against the homosexual communities and drug users. These sub-groups were the perfect target into which society could pour their fears and distrust. These communities were seen to be the corrupting influence of acceptable social norms and became the reason for this associated disease, and so stigma towards sufferers began to take root.
By Chris O'Hanlon8 years ago in Longevity
My Life With Autism
Let's get the big question out of the way first: what is autism? For those who don't know, autism is an epidemic that’s been sweeping across the world at a frightening rate, and it’s caused by vaccines. It’s also objectively worse than measles.
By Riley Odell8 years ago in Longevity
What Living With Tourette's Is Really Like
I once had a conversation with one of my friends about my Tourette’s and was surprised that she and her significant other had initially thought that the disorder was limited to vocal tics and had to include profanity. This stereotype is so ingrained in our society that when she saw accurate depictions of the disorder, she thought that they had fabricated information for comedy and drama. Tourette syndrome, often abbreviated to TS, is actually a neurological disorder that causes the Tourettic person to experience irrepressible urges to move their body and make noises that they wouldn’t choose to do otherwise. This urge doesn’t ease until this impulse is fulfilled. These motions and noises are called tics. Tics are the urgency of an itch combined with the necessity of a reflex. Many people describe the feeling as an internal or external force bending them to its will. Others experience a sense of impending doom and feel that disaster will befall them or their loved ones if they fail to perform the tic correctly.
By Mara-James Canfield8 years ago in Longevity
A Surgery Tale
The date was March 14, 2017, early morning. Location: Royal Inland hospital Kamloops BC. The busy waiting room was filled with unfamiliar faces of older adults who gave the impression that they really did not want to be here. The people all let off the aura of uneasiness and sorrow as they sat in their uncomfortable seats suctioned to their cell phones on which they scrolled through with uninterest. I was out of place here, I was the only younger kid sitting in this small waiting room with all these adults and doctors. I could not think straight that day, I could not focus on anything even if I tried. I was nervous, ridiculously so as I fiddled with the sides of my torn up fingers. My eyes observed everything in the room while we waited, The sick older gentlemen coughing into his tissue while his wife comforted him or the woman who glared at everyone and everything that she could. They all looked tired and upset and that definitely did not make us feel any better sitting there.
By Samwise Last8 years ago in Longevity
We Are Alive Too!
To the people that do not understand. When a person is suffering from a condition such as an autoimmune disorder, it is easy to label them as lazy. Laziness is defined as; disinclined to activity or exertion: not energetic or vigorous. Well as you can see this would be the correct label except we are not disinclined, we want to go places and have fun and even go to work on a regular basis (for those who can not). Basically, we are stuck in a body that refuses to work, all your energy is put into moving your body and not at a pace that is considered anywhere near fast. Morning activities wear you down, believe it or not, for a man or woman that has one of the many autoimmune disorders out there, just taking a shower can make you fatigued and uncoordinated. Simple tasks like laundry, dishes, walking the dog, and making a bed sometimes seem like you are Sisyphus, always pushing that boulder up hill and never making progress, but instead of being bound to hell, we are bound to a broken body.
By Emma Crane8 years ago in Longevity
Healthy
I always hear things like “go hiking…” or “go rock climbing…” or “go on a bike ride…” or “go for a run…” “…because it’s good exercise.” But why can’t I go because it’s enjoyable and because I want to? Shouldn’t that be the motivation for doing these things; because you want to? Why is it always about whether or not it makes you thin?
By Dallas Flemming8 years ago in Longevity
How I Got Perfect Diabetes
My 11:56 PM reading was 128 and I lowered my basal rate to .850. My 3:31 AM reading was 174. My 3:57 AM reading was 132. I nailed it. Tonight, I see if I can sleep until 7 AM. My seven-day average is 168, my fourteen-day average is 166, and my thirty-day average is 179 as of 6:48 AM. I now have to write these up in my journal. I nailed perfect middle of the night averages. I have had type 1 diabetes for seven years. Insulin, if anything, prolongs your lifespan. The insulin pump works on Humalog, one of the faster acting insulin types which start working in ten minutes. Insulin helps the human body regulate metabolism. It breaks down food into sugar. Without insulin as a hormone secreted by the pancreas, the human body can die easily. Insulin gets around inside the human body by causing organs to change metabolism. In normal humans, insulin is secreted to breakdown glucose.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Some Secrets Revealed
I can’t claim to know what life after a stroke or brain injury is like because I do know it is different for everyone. What I do know for sure is that it changes the person you once were; some things are better, but others are or can be worse. Initially, my biggest challenge was cognitive then mental exhaustion followed by physical. In fact, I just proved that my mental challenge is still with me: playing a game with an adult and a child almost caused me to give up because my brain was literally hurting, but, like when I was getting rehabilitation therapy, I kept going till our little tower collapsed; thank God for that, or I think I would’ve collapsed in front of my mentees.
By Martina R. Gallegos8 years ago in Longevity
Hypothyroidism
An illness like hypothyroidism causes extreme menstrual cycles, which go on forever. This is because the thyroid regulates hormones that cause menstruation. Your hair falls out, your nails get brittle, and you feel tired a lot. Patients know the tired feeling as brain fog. Your brain gets exhausted; you can barely function. Hypothyroidism only gets better with replacement thyroid hormone. You can take Armor, which is natural and based on desiccated pig hormone, or you can take levothyroxine, which is synthetic, man-made, and ultra good for your body. Hypothyroidism causes lack of focus. Sometimes some people are at their wit’s end with that and drink a lot coffee to survive the exhaustion, which is something I did in my twenties when I had bad thyroid problems.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
