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Health Care

Tips to stay safe during cold-weather months

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With temperatures falling into the 30s this week, people will be turning up the heat to stay warm. But, as the temperature drops, the number of patients treated by the Vanderbilt Regional Burn Center typically increases due to unsafe heating methods that result in injury.

Heating fires account for 36 percent of all residential home fires every year and are the second leading cause of all residential fires following cooking, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. It is estimated that more than 50,000 heating fires occur in the United States each year and result in 150 deaths, 575 injuries and $326 million in property loss.

Blair Summitt, M.D., Interim Medical Director for the Vanderbilt Regional Burn Center, says these fires can cause severe and even fatal injuries to occupants, with alternative sources of heat often to blame for the most tragic injuries.

“While space heaters, fire places and wood-burning stoves can help people warm their homes during the colder months, it is critical that they be used properly,” Summitt said, noting that portable heating devices account for more than 50 percent of home structure fires. “We often see more patients this time of year from preventable tragedies and encourage people to follow strict safety guidelines when heating their homes.”

Summitt offers the following tips to stay safe during the cold-weather months:

· Heating equipment and chimneys should be cleaned and inspected annually.
· Keep anything that can burn away from heating equipment.
· Space heaters should never be plugged into an extension cord or power strip.
· Throughout the year, test smoke detector batteries and always have a fire extinguisher within easy reach.

In the event of a burn injury, Summitt offers these recommendations:

· Flush the burn area with room temperature water.

Don’t apply ice. It can be too harsh for burned skin and cause tissue damage.

· “Folk remedies” such as applying butter do not help the healing process and may increase the risk of infection if the burn is severe.

· Room temperature water alone or a very mild soap can be used to gently clean the area.

· Keep the burned area clean and dry as it heals. The area can be covered with a light bandage if needed. A small amount of an over-the-counter ointment can be applied to keep the bandage from sticking to the skin.

Seek medical treatment when:

· A burn covers a large area, especially if blistering occurs.

· There is extreme pain or loss of sensation.

· Burns occur to the face, eyes, hands or feet.

· A burn involves chemicals or electricity.

· There is smoke inhalation due to fire exposure.

· A burn does not appear to be healing appropriately.

Weight loss diet for man and women

Senior Exercise and Fitness Tips

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As you grow older, an active lifestyle is more important than ever. Regular exercise can help boost energy, maintain your independence, and manage symptoms of illness or pain. Exercise can even reverse some of the symptoms of aging. And not only is exercise good for your body, it’s also good for your mind, mood, and memory. Whether you are generally healthy or are managing an illness, there are plenty of ways to get more active, improve confidence, and boost your fitness

Exercise is the key to healthy aging

If you have an injury, disability, weight problem, or diabetes . . .

Starting or maintaining a regular exercise routine can be a challenge as you get older. You may feel discouraged by illness, ongoing health problems, or concerns about injuries or falls. Or, if you’ve never exercised before, you may not know where to begin. Or perhaps you think you’re too old or frail, or that exercise is boring or simply not for you.

While these may seem like good reasons to slow down and take it easy as you age, they’re actually even better reasons to get moving. Exercise can energize your mood, relieve stress, help you manage symptoms of illness and pain, and improve your overall sense of well-being. In fact, exercise is the key to staying strong, energetic, and healthy as you get older. And it can even be fun, too.

No matter your age or your current physical condition, you can benefit from exercise. Reaping the rewards of exercise doesn’t require strenuous workouts or trips to the gym. It’s about adding more movement and activity to your life, even in small ways. Whether you are generally healthy or are managing an illness—even if you’re housebound—there are many easy ways to get your body moving and improve your health.

5 Myths about Exercise and Older Adults

Myth 1: There’s no point to exercising. I’m going to get old anyway.

Fact: Exercise and strength training helps you look and feel younger and stay active longer. Regular physical activity lowers your risk for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s and dementia, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Myth 2: Elderly people shouldn’t exercise. They should save their strength and rest.

Fact: Research shows that a sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy for the elderly. Inactivity often causes seniors to lose the ability to do things on their own and can lead to more hospitalizations, doctor visits, and use of medicines for illnesses.

Myth 3: Exercise puts me at risk of falling down.

Fact: Regular exercise, by building strength and stamina, prevents loss of bone mass and improves balance, actually reducing your risk of falling.

Myth 4: It’s too late. I’m already too old to start exercising

Fact: You’re never too old to exercise! If you’ve never exercised before, or it’s been a while, start with light walking and other gentle activities.

Myth 5: I’m disabled. I can’t exercise sitting down.

The whole-body benefits of exercise for seniors

As you age, regular exercise is more important than ever to your body and mind.

Physical health benefits of senior exercise and fitness

  • Exercise helps seniors maintain or lose weight. As metabolism naturally slows with age, maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge. Exercise helps increase metabolism and builds muscle mass, helping to burn more calories. When your body reaches a healthy weight, your overall wellness will improve.
  • Exercise reduces the impact of illness and chronic disease. Among the many benefits of exercise for seniors include improved immune function, better heart health and blood pressure, better bone density, and better digestive functioning. Seniors who exercise also have a lowered risk of several chronic conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and colon cancer. Continue reading Senior Exercise and Fitness Tips →
Ask and Answer

I am 24 years old, and I was diagnosed with degenerative joint disease.How quickly does it progress?

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Ask:

I started having extreme pain in my back a few years ago, and I just recently had an MRI and they diagnosed me with degenerative joint disease. How quickly does it progress and what are the treatment options? I am scared and I want to know what to expect short term and long term. I have done some research and it seems like the only treatments are nerve blocker shots and pain pills. Is this something that can be fixed or is it a matter of pain management?

Answer:

Osteoarthritis, sometimes called degenerative joint disease or osteoarthrosis, is the most common form of arthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when cartilage in your joints wears down over time. It can affect any joint in your body, though it most commonly affects joints in your hands, hips, knees and spine. Typically just one joint is affected, but in some cases, several joints are involved .

Osteoarthritis gradually worsens with time, and no cure exists. But treatments can relieve pain and help you remain active.

Since this disease has been diagnosed so early & at such a young age in your case, you might check into the underlying causes first. Treating those may help ease some of the pain you are experiencing.

Osteoarthritis usually affects women over 40, but a few other factors can increase your risk:

Bone deformities. Some people are born with malformed joints or defective cartilage, which can increase the risk of osteoarthritis.

Joint injuries. Injuries, such as those that occur when playing sports or from an accident, may increase the risk of osteoarthritis.

Obesity. Carrying more body weight places more stress on your weight-bearing joints, such as your knees. But obesity has also been linked to an increased risk of osteoarthritis in the hands, as well.

Bone and joint diseases that increase the risk of osteoarthritis include gout, rheumatoid arthritis, Paget’s disease of bone and septic arthritis.
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Treatment options for moderate osteoarthritis :

Continue exercising when possible and resting when you need to. If you’re overweight, continue working to lose weight.

Medications that may be useful for moderate arthritis include:

Acetaminophen. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) can relieve pain, but doesn’t reduce inflammation.  Continue reading I am 24 years old, and I was diagnosed with degenerative joint disease.How quickly does it progress? →

Ask and Answer

What is a sensible workout and diet plan for someone who goes to the gym?

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Ask:

I am in good health, no joint pain, swim and do water exercises. Is that enough and I have fallen off of my diet plan which is 3 meals per day, very little bread, no dessert. Tips for me to get back on? I’m actually growing out of my clothes! I’ve gained 20 more pounds how to lose it?

Answers:

Answer 1:

For long-term health aerobic and resistance exercises are important. However, the most important factor for improved health is a well-balanced healthy diet. The healthiest diet is a whole plant based diet. Former President Bill Clinton has reported that he lost 24 pounds on this diet and also reversed his heart disease. He followed the advice of Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Caldwell Essesltyn, Jr. I lost 90 pounds on the same diet. Dr. Dean Ornish is the most famous advocate for this diet, however, nutritionists have been recommending this diet for several decades and the research supporting it continues to build.

The first thing I would do is eliminate any alcohol, sugar, processed carbs, oil/fat, processed ingredients, and additives (especially aspartame and MSG). You only need ground flax seed in your diet for the Omega-3 essential fatty acids. All other fats are unnecessary and they stimulate appetite and add calories.

Next, I would replace dairy with leafy greens such as collards and kale. Spinach is high in calcium, but it does not release its calcium. Excess dairy and meat is also shown to steal calcium from human bodies because of acidosis caused by animal protein. Leafy greens are high in calcium, iron, and protein. Consuming whole grains (brown rice, quinoa) and legumes (beans, peas, lentils) provide critical protein components. Exposure to sunlight adds vitamin D. If you choose to go pure vegetarian, make sure to supplement vitamin B12 as needed. If you eat meat, it should be in very small quantities and it should be added as flavoring only. Do not supplement your body with whey protein. Casein (and sugar) are known to stimulate the growth of cancer tumors. (Professor T. Colin Campbell “The China Study”)

Drink pure water and eat whole fruit instead of sweets or soda pop. Diet drinks are counter productive because of the artificial sweeteners. Colorful vegetables are important also for a healthy diet. For details, read “Forks Over Knives” or purchase the DVD by the same name. “Eat More, Weigh Less” is another excellent book by Dr. Dean Ornish which explains how to eat a healthy vegetarian diet.

In terms of work outs, I would wait for a week or two until after you start your healthier diet. I’d start with aerobic exercise. Make sure to check with your physician about your aerobic heart rate range. When you exercise, make sure to try and keep your heart rate at the mid-point of this range for 30-40 minutes. Beyond that, the aerobic workout will have negative effects. Exercise aerobically five times per week. Share your exercise plan with your physician so that he or she can approve. I’d make sure to get into an aerobic exercise program for a week or two before moving on to free weight training.

I would then hire a fitness guru at your local club to teach you how to do free weight training. You do not need weight machines unless you want strength in major muscles only. This can be dangerous if done incorrectly. Free weights allow you to exercise small muscles while you are exercising big muscles. Normally, you will exercise your upper body using free weights on the first day. After a day of rest, you will exercise your lower body using free weights (third day). On the fourth day, you will rest. The following day repeats this cycle starting with the upper body. The workout is usually in reps on one muscle group such as 12 at a time with a rest of a minute between. You might do five of these sets of 12 for each muscle groups. I work on five muscle groups in a workout.

A pound of muscle is the energy equivalent to seven pounds of fat. Would you rather have a pound of muscle or a pound of fat?

As you add components, each part must be a permanent lifestyle change if you want permanent fat weight loss.

Finally, I would add stretching or yoga stretching. Done properly, this should be a meditative practice. Eating should eventually be done mindfully.

Expect your weight to plateau as you add each lifestyle change. Your motivation should be how good you feel while on this program. The bathroom scale is never a good choice for feedback because this will fluctuate because of water weight and muscle building.

Answer 2:

Weight loss is not only about losing pounds but it is also about burning fat. Actually burning fat is sometimes more important than losing weight because fat is a major cause for many other health problems (diabetes, high cholesterol etc). When you manage to burn fat you will certainly look and feel much better since fat burning is not an easy process and the satisfaction you will gain is great. Below you can read the most important tips on how to lose belly fat in a fast and yet healthy manner.

1. Small meals Vs 3 main meals

Whenever you want to lose calories or fat fast it is recommended to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day instead of the classic 3 main meals. This is because by eating small meals every couple of hours you force your body spend more energy to digest the food and thus losing calories. As a result your metabolism is also increased and the whole process becomes easier. In addition frequent meals stabilize the insulin levels which in turn enable faster muscle growth.

2. Regular exercise

When it comes to losing belly fat you should understand that exercise plays a prominent role. It is not exactly the same case as with weight loss. When you want to lose weight you can achieve good results through your diet alone but when it comes to losing belly fat a balanced diet can mainly help you stop the fat problem from becoming worse (see also how to burn fat with food). The only solid way to actually start losing belly fat (and fat in general) is through exercise. Regular exercise sessions (30 minutes) at least 5 times per week can actually produce good results. If you want not to get bored easily find a form of exercise that you like and enjoy doing. There is no reason to perform difficult exercises that will eventually make you de-motivated. It is better to start slow and gradually than fast and quit.

3. Learn how to drink water

The importance of water in losing weight is very well known. What many people do not understand is how to utilize water to lose weight and fat. When we say drink at least 6-8 glasses of water per day we do not mean to drink this amount at once or in a very short amount of time. If you do that the only thing you will achieve is to make regular visits to the toilet. Instead you should try and spread this throughout the day. You can start with one glass of water in the morning, as soon as you wake up. Then one glass after 2-3 hours, one more glass with your launch and the rest 4 glasses before, during and after your dinner. By following this pattern you will keep your stomach busy all the time and hunger away. If you want you can even create reminders in your mobile to alert you when its time for your glass of water.

4. Soft drinks, juices, caffeine is not water

One more point to note about water is the following. Many people believe that by drinking fresh juices, soft drinks and coffee, they drink water. This is far from truth. Some of the drinks described above, like coffee, create the opposite effects than water. In particular caffeine products are diuretic and they help the excretion of water from the body. Too much consumption of these drinks can cause dehydration.

5. Sleep, rest and confidence

Trying to lose belly fat can sometimes make you tired, both mentally and physically. You have to overcome a lot of obstacles and deny a lot of temptations to get the results you want in the time frame you want. For this reason you need to work on 3 areas that may not be directly related to weight loss but they can indirectly help you to meet your goals. These have to do with rest, sleep and confidence. It is important that you rest enough hours per day, sleep at least 8 hours and never give up your optimism. There is no need to say more about this other that you have to consider these factors are part of your weight loss efforts.

Hopefully the weight loss tips presented above will help you lose belly fat in a quick and healthy way.