Health – Page 3

How to Keep your Family Fit and Frugal at the Same Time

October 25, 2012 by Painter Mommy 1 Comment

Guest Post by Brett

Nowadays, many families struggle with the balance between living a healthy life and saving money. Not all have the luxury of an expensive gym membership or the ability to buy pricey organic foods. Instead, parents often have to make do with the limited resources at hand. However, just because your family is on a budget, doesn’t mean you can’t stay healthy at the same time. The following are several tips on how to keep your family both fit and frugal:

Pick the Right Exercises

Each member in your family will have their likes and dislikes when it comes to exercise and sports. However, there’s no need to invest in machines or expensive equipment in order to get a workout. Instead, look for activities such as running or swimming that can be done with little or no investment. Other alternatives are soccer or basketball, which require minimal equipment in order to get started. Finding low-cost, yet fun sports can be a great way to get your family moving about without spending too much.

Change How You Cook

Fitness is not just about exercise and moving around; the food you eat also plays a major role in staying healthy. While healthy cooking is a broad topic, there are a number of general tips to keep in mind when planning a meal for the family. Common tips include buying food in season, and only purchasing ingredients that you’ll need, not what you want. In addition, try to make meals for your family as often as you can, as this will cut down on costs and unwanted calories incurred from eating out.

Be Creative

When it comes to getting the entire family up and moving, you’ll need to devise a creative way to include both the adults and the kids. Instead of boring the children with walks or yoga sessions, look for activities that engage both parties. For example, swimming is a great activity that appeals to individuals of all ages. Not only are children able to play in the water, adults can also benefit from a challenging workout. Another way is to add fitness into a chore – by integrating physical activity into chores such as cleaning, you can save time while keeping your home clean and organized.

Adjust your Daily Habits

If you find yourself pressed for time to exercise, try to work around your busy schedule. There are several ways to add more activity to your day without breaking the bank. For example, park further away from your destination to encourage members to walk a further distance. Or opt for a walk in the park, instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV. Changing or adjusting your daily habits can be a great way to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, without investing too much money or time.

Go for Used

If your family is looking to try out a sport, one way to save money is to look for financially friendly options. Buying used or pre-owned equipment can be a smart way to avoid overstretching your budget. For example, if you’re looking for sporting supplies such as a bike or swim gear, then browsing sites such as Craigslist or yard sales can yield substantial savings. In short, there’s no need to strain your wallet with costly equipment, not when there are cheaper options available.

Brett Callan is a writer for Murray Callan Swim Schools, where their Vista swim lessons offer customized support for children throughout San Diego. He loves to enjoy the San Diego weather whenever he can, whether from the beach or at a pool.

Keeping Your Family Healthy all Year Round

September 7, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Between work, school and social activities, keeping a busy family healthy and active throughout the year can be a real challenge. A well-balanced diet, exercise and good habits will go a long way toward helping a family meet this challenge, but seasonal illnesses may still afflict even the healthiest of people.

Common Seasonal Family Illnesses

Most seasonal illnesses occur between the seasons, in the early spring or late autumn, when the changes in temperature and atmosphere make the body more vulnerable to infection. An exception to this is acute bronchitis, which most often occurs during the winter. Acute bronchitis causes inflammation of the bronchi; the medium and large sized airway passages in the lungs. The result of a virus, acute bronchitis symptoms include a severe cough, a great increase in sputum production and other symptoms that are characteristic of an upper respiratory infection.

Seasonal Influenza, commonly known as ‘the flu’, is an infection of the nose, throat and lungs by the influenza virus. There are many types of influenza virus, but the symptoms are generally the same, beginning with a high fever and including body aches, chills, headaches, nausea and vomiting. A dry, hacking cough, usually develops after about five days of illness and often remains for some weeks, even after the other symptoms have subsided.

A cough is a universal symptom of seasonal illnesses, in particular colds, flu and croup. Croup is most common among young children between the ages of three months and six years and features a barking cough accompanied by wheezing and difficulty breathing. Spasmodic croup is usually mild and caused by allergies or a bacterial infection, while viral croup comes with a fever and is more serious. Croup symptoms are often worse at night.

The ‘common cold’ may be caused by any one of hundreds of viruses, though the main symptoms always involve the nose. Nasal congestion and irritation, along with a low-grade fever, are the standard marks of a cold and the illness general runs its course after a week.

Nasal irritation may not always result from infection. During the spring, summer and early fall, when pollen levels are at their highest, inflammation of the nasal passages may be caused by allergic rhinitis or hay fever. When the body comes into contact with the irritant pollen, it results in an allergic reaction, causing sneezing and runny nose, a sore throat, primarily caused by the irritation of sneezing and post-nasal drip, head congestion and watery eyes. Hay fever can develop at any time in life, but most often begins in childhood after repeated exposure to the allergen; sensitivity may run in families.

Prevention and Remedy

Many vitamin and mineral supplements, such as Vitamin C and zinc, have been found to aid in preventing colds and flu, as well as speeding the healing process. Antihistamines, anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and suppressant and expectorant cough syrups may also help with symptoms and promote healing. Vitamins, supplements and medications are all readily available; either in local stores or at discount prices online at Canadian Pharmacy.

Save a Life: Donate Your Umbilical Cord Blood

May 17, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Thanks to advances in medical science – particularly over the last 20 years or so – there are now many lifesaving and symptom controlling treatments available for a whole range of diseases and serious medical conditions that were previously virtually untreatable. Great progress has also been made in the prevention of stroke and heart attacks and the treatment of cancer. Researchers are working all the time to improve these existing methods and are striving to identify new ones.

Blood transfusions are an essential tool used in lifesaving situations, as are organ donations and procedures involving bone marrow transplant. The part that stem cells can play in the treatment of such patients has been found to be invaluable. In view of that fact there is now a way to save lives that is accessible to every mother, via a safe and painless five-minute routine at the time of her baby’s birth? The good news is that the technique of collecting, processing and storing umbilical cord blood now makes it possible for almost every expectant mother to be a lifesaver.

The importance of donating umbilical cord blood

Umbilical cord blood contains un-specialized cells – medical researchers have discovered that, when stimulated, these have the potential to become specialized stem cells with the attributes needed to form healthy body tissue, muscle or new blood cells. Instead of discarding the umbilical cord after birth along with the placenta, scientists established that if they collected the blood, processed, froze and stored it in an umbilical stem cell bank, it could be used later in the treatment of a growing number of serious conditions. Amongst others, these include, leukemia and other cancers. In the future it is hoped that other illnesses can also be treated in this way, including stroke, HIV and AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, to name a few.

A simple way to save a life

Although the process of draining the umbilical cord takes only a few minutes following the birth of the baby, there are a few things for the mother to do earlier in her pregnancy. She needs to check if her hospital works with a specific cord blood bank and to give her permission for the donation, complete a questionnaire about her health and allow a small blood sample to be checked in case of any infection. If all is well, then mom-to-be is set up to save a life when her new baby is born by donating the umbilical cord blood. There should be no concerns about the process to be undergone, and in case of any complication the health and safety of mother and baby is prioritized in all cases.

Donating umbilical cord blood to a public bank

There are two types of cord blood bank – private and public. Private banks store the donation specifically for the donor’s family. Whilst this offers a degree of reassurance in the event of a serious illness developing, there is very little likelihood of this, plus there are substantial fees for the family to pay the bank initially at the time of the donation, and then annually for continuing storage. An umbilical stem cell bank that is public, on the other hand, makes no charge for handling the donation and the cord blood can be made available to those in need of it, as long as it is a good match for the proposed recipient.

The beauty of using a public cord blood bank is that children with life-threatening illnesses, such as lymphoma and Sickle Cell Anemia can access stem cell donations that would otherwise not be available to them.

Stuck in Bed

April 10, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Guest Post written by our friend Solomon Thompson

I have the flu and I must say it sucks. I can’t breathe can hardly even move, the only thing I can do is lay here in bed. I guess I can’t complain too much though because I am actually enjoying the Lifetime Movie network. I didn’t have this channel until recently when a friend of mine talked me into signing up for satellite TV. She just wouldn’t shut up about direct tv brooklyn until I called them a few weeks ago, and honestly right now I am glad I did, it makes me believe that I might actually survive this horrid flu. I’ve never been one to watch TV in bed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this small episode of being bed ridden spoils me and I start planning actual days in bed to enjoy the Lifetime Movie network. I am also getting spoiled on the TLC channel; I mean who knew watching Cake Boss could be so fun? I never did until now. Like I said, I’m getting spoiled with all these wonderful channels.

We All Have Mononucleosis

July 10, 2010 by Painter Mommy 12 Comments

Can you believe it? My children and I have Mononucleosis (other wise known as “mono” or “the kissing disease”). The only thing I ever knew about mono was from kids in high school who had gotten it and missed like a month of school.

For us, it all started back in March when my son, who was around 16 months at the time. Once of the glands under his jaw had gotten extremely swollen and he was very cranky all the time. We took him to the doctor to get checked out. We even had bloodwork done, but somehow they missed the fact that it was mono – kinda frustrating. If I knew, I would’ve done all that I could to prevent it from spreading.

Well, once the summer started back in mid June, my oldest son (6) had gotten very sick with strep throat and then a few weeks later, my daughter (4) got a bad stomach flu. She had some other odd symptoms, so I decided to take her to the doctor to see what was wrong. They wound up doing blood work on her and it came back positive for mono. I then took my other 2 sons to get checked as well and they came back positive for mono as well. Over the course of these past few weeks I picked up a few things myself – first bronchitis, then the stomach flu, and now a sinus infection. I have been very weak and tired and I really think that I have mono as well. And the reason we are all picking up these other random sicknesses is because our immune system is already compromised because of the mono.

So, I have mono and I have 3 children who have it as well. What a summer right? We have been stuck in the house for weeks. Mono is highly contagious so we have not been able to do any of things that we had planned to do over the summer with our friends.

I did a lot of research about mononucleosis in children and I found the same things that it says about older children or adults – there is really nothing that can be done about it than ride it out. Mono is a viral infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. It is spread by saliva and close contact. And how can you avoid that with small children?

According to Google Health, it says that mono can cause a whole myriad of symptoms, but the main one is fatigue and a general sick feeling. Other symptoms include:

Drowsiness
Fever
General discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling
Loss of appetite
Muscle aches or stiffness
Rash
Sore throat
Swollen lymph nodes, especially in the neck and armpit
Swollen spleen

Each of my children has had different symptoms from each other so it has been interesting to watch and definitely not easy to understand.

And since there is no medicine or antibiotic that will kill this sickness, the only thing they suggest is to relieve the symptoms. These are some of the things that will help.

Drink plenty of fluids.
Gargle with warm salt water to ease a sore throat.
Get plenty of rest.
Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain and fever.

The thing that bothers me the most is that you really don’t know how long it will last. It can often last weeks or even months. And it can also be contagious for that entire time as well.

So, there goes our summer! Another crazy trial we have to face…

The thing that I am grateful for though, is that even though we cannot really be around other children right now – my children are able to be with each other and entertain themselves. I am so blessed to have 4 children and even though when sickness comes in our home, it is definitely harder to deal with… I would not want to trade my family for anything in the world.

So, how about you? Have you ever had to deal with mono? What symptoms did you have? How long did it last? I would love to heard from you.