This year, many people are trying to finally lose that unwanted weight. It’s time to improve your self-worth and body image by shedding those last pounds. It is easier than you think, with these top four ways… some more drastic than others.

The Lap Band

What is it? It’s an “elastic” band that doctors use to tie off a part of your stomach, causing the person to feel much more full after eating a smaller amount of food. It’s also called “Gastric bypass surgery”, and it has really grown in popularity as well as effectiveness over the past 60 years. There was an estimated 220,000 gastric bypass procedures performed in the U.S. in 2008. Remember, it still requires a life-style change. Your doctor will go over points with you to see how you can change your eating habits and lifestyle for the better before, during, and long after your procedure. It has an extremely high success rate, and it may be an option for you to discuss with your doctor.

“No White” Diet

Because white foods tend to be the starchy ones. So, in other words, cut out starchy foods and other unhealthy foods. Especially white sugar, flour, processed foods, etc. You may personally choose not to exclude certain things from your diet like cauliflower or potatoes, but you may experiment with those through trial and error. Typically however, in this diet the participants don’t usually cut out white fruit and other healthy eating options like that. When done properly, this diet has a very high success rate. And it’s easy to stick to, as well, because you do not feel deprived of food. It’s a simple rule to stick to – if it’s white, don’t eat it. In addition, to help you out with your diet, you may also consider some dietary supplements that aim to provide you support in losing weight. One of the best brands that you can find in the market is resurge. This is one of the most trusted dietary supplements in the market.

Yoga

Done for the physical benefits, yoga can work. It makes you feel better about yourself when you take out the time to do this relaxing workout. And yes, it does help you lose weight because it helps you build strength and become more in tune with your body. It’s great to supplement the yoga workout with some cardiovascular workout, too, like running.

The Master Cleanse

Called by many a different name including “The Lemonade Diet” and the “Lemon Detox”, the Master Cleanse is probably the hardest to stick to but the fastest way to lose. Not only will you lose weight if you follow the regime perfectly, but you will also cleanse your body of all those toxins that have built up over the years, and you will experience clearer eyes and skin as well as improved digestion and energy. Check out www.lemondetox.com for more information.

I love pumpkins, Cucurbita pepo. They are delicious, nutritious, and pretty to look at. This is great food with surprising medicinal benefits. I always appreciate an easy to find a natural remedy, not to mention it’s one of my family’s favorite foods. However, I would also recommend hyper male force that is another really safe and effective medication that you can try if you face erectile dysfunction problems. Sometimes I feel like I live in a pumpkin patch.

Part Used: You can use the leaves, fruit, and seeds. Every part of the plant above the ground is edible. The leaves don’t taste nearly as good as the fruit or the seeds but it is still a helpful herb. Like all medicinal foods, pumpkin is best used fresh but canned hard-packed pumpkin and pre-packaged pumpkin seeds work just as well.

Best place to find it: Your grocery store or farmers market. Pumpkin is a seasonal squash that is generally only available in the fall, but most grocery stores keep canned pumpkin in stock all year. If you buy the canned kind, make sure you are buying 100% pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin seeds can often be found all year. This is a good way to get pumpkin seeds during the offseason. These pre-packaged pumpkin seeds are often coated in a large amount of salt. Your pharmacy may also carry pumpkin seed oil.

Benefits: Pumpkins aren’t just for pies and snacks, they have a wide variety of health benefits.

The fruit is a mild laxative.    It is soothing to dry skin.    It is considered good for pimples, spots, and freckles.    The fruit is helpful in healing burns.    The fruit is high in vitamins A and C.    Pumpkin seeds have diuretic properties.    They are high in fiber, zinc, magnesium, and tryptophan.    The seeds are high in Omega 3 fatty acids.    The pumpkin leaves can reduce fever.

Warnings: All foods and herbs have some warnings. Too much or too little of anything can be a bad thing. All modern medicine comes from natural remedies. Never trust a site that does not offer warnings.

Seeds can sometimes give you an upset stomach. Avoid eating large quantities.

Very large doses can sometimes cause erectile dysfunction.

Lithium interacts with pumpkin. Pumpkin can work as a water pill and change how your body metabolizes lithium. Talk to your doctor about how much pumpkin is too much.

How is it taken:

The best way to take pumpkin is to eat it. Work the fruit into your cooking. There is a massive amount of pumpkin recipes; including pies, soups, stews, and snacks. Personally, pumpkin and wild rice soup are a favorite. My kids love “pumpkin milkshakes,” which are essentially canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and sugar blended in a glass of milk.

The seeds are best scooped out straight from the pumpkin. Soak them for an hour or two in a salt solution of five parts water and one part salt. Drain them and mix with some leftover strands, or guts, from the pumpkin and roast in your oven at 300 until golden brown.

If you want to use the leaves to reduce fever, boil a handful of leaves in a large pot of water for 10 minutes. Let cool and sweeten to taste. I recommend honey because it has antiseptic qualities and is a natural sugar. Drink three to four cups a day. This has a bland green flavor and does not taste like pumpkin at all. You may want to mix it with other stronger tasting teas, like mint or ginger, to make it taste better. My kids always liked raspberry tea to cover the taste of medicinal teas.

For healthy skin and burns, I recommend buying a can of hard-packed pumpkin and applying directly to the skin. Smear it on like a mud pack and relax for 20 to 30 minutes. Wash off with a soft cloth. Anything abrasive will only irritate your skin all over again.

Lore and magical uses:

Pumpkins have a female aspect associated with the moon. They are commonly used in practices honoring the moon. Pumpkin is sometimes used to help healing and divination spells.

Remember! I am not a doctor. The information on this page can never substitute your doctor’s advice. If you are thinking of using pumpkin for more than just food please talk to your doctor first. Only your doctor knows you inside and out.

Exercising is beneficial in maintaining your fitness and health; however it is also one of the major causes of injuries to the human body. Among the frequently occurring injury case is hip injuries. Hip injuries can be caused by force or impact from falling, muscle contraction or twisting and stress injuries. These causes will result to hip dislocation, hip fracture and muscle sprain.

Hip injuries can be prevented by practicing the correct workout habits. The first general rule is to warm up before getting down into action. Warm up should be done for five to ten minutes. This habit will stimulate the oxygen in the blood and increases the blood flow to the working hip muscles thus preventing the possibility of exercise injury. Example of easy warm up is doing the star jump – it is a whole body movement warm up. Secondly, do not exercise strenuously. If you have a target to reach i.e. losing a few inches on your hip area, it is advisable to schedule your workouts to avoid strain unto your hip muscles. Excessive repetitive actions on the same spot can cause the muscle to twist or sprain. It is much recommended to exercise on alternate days, or you can opt to work with a proper gym instructor or trainer if you really desire to achieve the target in shorter time duration.

Stretching the muscles is also one of the ways to avoid injuries. The flexibility of the muscle increases by stretching, and this will enhance your exercising experience. You can stretch your hips by rotating your hips and waist clockwise and counter-clockwise repeatedly. During exercising, always make sure to use the right posture or body form to avoid accidents. For example, do not bend one of your knees for too long while standing/exercising because this can affect the hip joint. Some people can experience acute hip pain due to the hip supporting the unbalance body weight pressure. Change the routine in between the exercise so that the pressure unto the muscles is well distributed and not focused on one part only. Do not entirely focus the exercise (at one time) only on the hips; alternate the exercise to toning the other muscles such as the arm or abdomen. Then you can repeat the hips exercise again.

Make sure that you are wearing the appropriate attire to conduct exercise. Avoid wearing tight sweatpants; this can restrict the movement of muscle thus leading to strain injury. Wear attire that is made from lycra or stretchable material. Choosing the right type of shoe is also very important to prevent hip injuries. The structure of the shoe soles can improve your body structure and allows comfortable workouts. Furthermore, the proper workout shoes can distribute the body weight efficiently, therefore the pressures unto a particular muscles or joints are reduced. Choosing the correct equipment is also imperative to avoid injuries while exercising. Make sure the equipment does not cause too much pressure applied unto the hips, it can absorb shocks, and the equipment must be working well 100%. Finally you must take an extra precaution on yourself. Avoid workout accident such as hard fall since the impact can cause bones to fracture. Be aware of the environment and hazards that can cause accident injury to your hips while exercising. You can get more information from reliable article online about exercising while recovering from injuries. There are several sources where you can get strategies and tips to do exercises well despite your condition so you can reach the finish line of recovery.

In the last hundred years, hearing devices have made great improvements. Instead of using large and awkward tools as assistive listening devices, people with hearing loss today have access to small devices that are easily concealed and comfortable. Because of digital technological advancements, hearing devices are more efficient in helping people hear their surroundings. Sonus complete reviews are there to help you choose between all these devices and other effective and useful ways that will help you improve your hearing

What Devices are Available?

There is a slew of hearing devices available to the average consumer today. One of the most commonly used hearing instruments is hearing aid. Hearing aids come in a couple of styles; they can be an analog or digital version. The analog hearing aid functions as an adjustable or programmable device, depending on the desire of the individual who purchases it. Digital hearing aids are programmable and use digital signal processing (DSP) as a means to interpret sound waves. Programmable analog and digital hearing devices use a computer to help make adjustments based on the needs of the patient. Both analog and digital hearing aids vary in price, and it is important to consult with your hearing specialists to find one that suits your personal needs.

Another type of hearing instrument available is the cochlear implant. This hearing device is a more permanent commitment than hearing aids and involves a minor surgical procedure. The part of the implant that lies outside the ear, just behind the ear lobe, contains the microphone, speech processor, and transmitter. The inside portion of the implant, which is located under the skin, contains a group of electrodes used to interpret the sound waves sent from the outer portion of the implant. Cochlear implants are intended for people with severe hearing loss and deafness, helping to interpret sounds and speech patterns better.

With assisted listening devices, people that have hearing loss can enjoy social settings again. These helpful hearing devices single out certain sounds, and the person using the device can ignore other noises. If you are interested in assisted listening devices, you can choose from a wide selection of choices. You can find hearing instruments that use headphones and microphones or you can find some that work independently of other devices. Either way, hearing loss sufferers have a renewed sense of excitement in knowing that they can hear their surroundings again.

Before deciding on hearing devices that will benefit you, it is important to find out how much hearing loss you have actually suffered. Consult with an audiologist and get hearing tests done. Your audiologist can suggest the best assisted-listening devices that will give you the best results for your particular situation. The sense of hearing is so important to many people that finding the best hearing devices to restore that ability can be exciting.

Without correct management, dental practices are inhibited in how much they are able to expand, and their patient clientele may even decrease in number. That’s fairly obvious, but what does it take to manage a dental practice correctly?

There are a number of key points to consider, probably the main one being a competent manager to handle the day-to-day activities. However, if there is not a good organizational structure in place, the practice may fall to pieces – no matter how competent the office manager is.

Let’s take a look at the individual jobs within any given dental practice. (These are jobs that are “worn” no matter if there are individuals assigned to them or not.) There is the dentist, the dental assistant, x-ray technician, office manager, schedule coordinator, account manager and receptionist. (Depending on the practice and it’s particular specialty, there may be more jobs than are listed here.) Each of these positions is key to a smoothly running office. And there are also those emergency dentistry Batavia IL services that are always on-the-go whenever patients need urgent dental care.

What happens if any of these people in an office is not totally sure what they are supposed to be doing? There will be resulting confusion and to the degree that confusion exists the practice will be inhibited in it’s ability to grow. Why? Any sort of confusion will bring about slowed administration and possibly the patient is made to experience this.

Let’s give an example – The schedule coordinator is not aware of the fact that he or she is also responsible for the number of patients that can be scheduled in a day, and that in actual fact part of the job includes the concept of scheduling the maximum number of patients within an hour. Then, the patients being scheduled might be lower than they could be in any given day. Patients may be made to wait longer for their treatment and the practice sort of “cruises along” at a mediocre level in terms of it’s patient base. It couldn’t do otherwise. However, if a schedule coordinator understands that part of the purpose his or her job is to assist in maximizing the number of patients treated in a day the scheduling will likely go much more smoothly with the patients being treated in a more timely fashion. As time goes on, the practice may possibly employ more technical and administrative staff to handle the load – and the practice continues to expand from that point.

On a broader scale, if the Office Manager or Managing Administrator is not aware of what each of the jobs in the office entails, he or she will not know exactly what to do when a confusion arises, may wrongly “correct” the problem and so further confusion is created.

Each job in a dental practice should have distinct definition, purpose and function clearly laid out and the information made available to each staff member so that there is no question of what each person should be doing. On top of this, the manager should be familiar with exactly which person should be doing each job and what each job exactly entails so that he or she can correctly help the staff, and therefore the practice will run smoothly and will allow for growth.

One solution for this is job training manuals for each of the staff, studied and applied by each person in the office as appropriate. When these types of manuals are available and used, practices will inevitably run smoothly and will begin to expand – almost like magic. When a manager is ensuring that the information from the manuals is being used and correctly implemented then each person in the office tends to be more productive – the final result is well-treated patients and an expanding practice. Dental practice management can be made simple.

Relieving spinal nerve pain can take a long time, and it may take the time you can’t afford to take, especially if you have to work to support your family. There are three types of nerve blocks that can take away spinal nerve pain semi-permanently. If you have a degenerative disc disease, or you’ve sustained an injury, or have arthritic changes that have caused you to suffer from discogenic pain, and you don’t have weeks to recover ask spine doctors in texas about one of these nerve blocks.

The first block I will mention is the nerve block is a nerve root block, the second is the joint block, and the last is the radiofrequency nerve block. If you were to have a pinched nerve in the neck it would be called a cervical nerve root block, and if it was in the thoracic region it would be called a thoracic nerve root block, and the same for the lumbar and sacral regions. The same is true with the other nerve blocks I will tell you about; the only difference is the location of the blocks. There is no difference in how they are performed. For anyone of these procedures if the doctor uses conscious sedation for anesthesia you will not be able to drive home, so it is imperative that you bring someone with you the day of the procedure. When you return home from the procedure you will need to take it easy for the first 24 hours and then gradually increase your activities over the next couple of weeks. In all three nerve blocks you may be asked to keep a pain diary to record your level of discomfort if any. You may be asked to bring your pain diary with you to all your follow-up appointments.

Nerve Root Bloc

The nerve root block is the epidural I wrote about in another article. Some doctors give the injection right in their offices, but it is better to give it in an outpatient facility under conscious anesthesia. If conscious anesthesia is given, an IV will be started to keep a vein open for more sedation if needed. The IV line is also beneficial for an emergency route to deliver medications if your blood pressure starts to fall drastically. Most patients don’t have a problem with nerve blocks but there is always a small risk of going into shock.

The epidural anesthetizes the nerve root which is located in the epidural space within the vertebra. To be absolutely sure of the placement the doctor should use a moving x-ray (fluoroscopy) to help guide the needle into the epidural space. (The epidural isn’t always done with fluoroscopy, but it is the most accurate way to ensure needle placement.) During the procedure your heart will be monitored with an EKG, and your blood pressure, and respiratory rate will be recorded throughout the duration also. The doctor will then inject a few drops of contrast medium, which is a dye that will show up on the fluoroscopy screen. When the placement is confirmed, the doctor will inject a mixture of lidocaine and a corticosteroid anti-inflammatory such as cortisone or Depo-Medrol. The block will be injected very slowly into the epidural space. When the nerve root block has been delivered the patient will be in recovery for about 30 minutes. After the recovery phase you will be assisted up to your feet so you can go home.

The nerve root block is indicated if your pain extends farther than what is usual for nerve pain. For example if with a pinched nerve in the neck you were feeling pain, tingling, or numbness that extended past the shoulders and down into the ribs or down the legs this would be an indication of nerve root involvement. If you had a pinched nerve in the lumbar spine and you felt pain, numbness, and tingling down in the back of the knee cap and down to the lower legs, this too is an indication of nerve root pain.

Facet Joint Block

The facet joint block is similar to the nerve root block, but the needle does not target the nerve root specifically. With a facet joint block the doctor inserts a needle into the facet joint. You will be able to see a film about that if you click on my first source. Facet joint blocks are indicated if you are having pain and tenderness in the neck, thoracic region, or in the lower back. You may have persistent pain that radiates from the neck and back to the buttocks and lower extremities.

The bony prominences of the vertebral column are the facet joints, and those surfaces are lined with cartilage, tendons, and muscles. Facet joint pain most often occurs in the neck and lower back. With cervical (neck) facet joint pain you may have referred pain that radiates to the shoulders, and down the arms. With lumbar facet joint pain you may have referred pain that radiates down to the buttock and thighs.

The doctor injects the facet joint with the same kind of injection mentioned above in the nerve root block. The only difference is it is injected into the facet and not further into the epidural space; specifically it is an injection guided by fluoroscopy. The contrast medium confirms the placement of the needle. Then an injection of numbing medicine and corticosteroid is injected slowly into the joint. Once the injection is given there is a recovery phase just as in the first block mentioned.

Radiofrequency Lesioning (Nerve Block)

The radiofrequency lesioning is similar in one way to the other two blocks and that is that you are put under conscious sedation, and the procedure is done with the aid of fluoroscopy. That is where the similarities end; the big difference between radiofrequency and the other two nerve blocks is that two needles are inserted into the nerve roots. There are two needles because there are two nerves that send impulses. The two needles are guided into the facet joint near where the nerves are located. An electrical current is supplied by a radiofrequency machine until the nerve stops sending signals. This procedure may take about an hour. The results are semi-permanent, meaning you will be pain-free for 6 months to a year.

All of the nerve blocks mentioned in this article are treatments for pain only. They are not a cure. With the symptom of pain gone the patient can then get on with his/her life without long periods in rehab or out of work.