Take Control of Your Health: heart disease

Showing posts with label heart disease. Show all posts

Monday, September 2, 2013

Take Control of Your Health…It’s About Time

Frustrated, I shut down my laptop. I couldn’t believe this. I had spent almost three hours searching for non-conventional treatment options for osteoarthritis for my mother, but all in vain.

As soon as I typed in the words “osteoarthritis,” hundreds of websites popped up, all claiming to provide cutting edge information. Some were health information sites and blogs, while others were e-commerce and commercial sites, keen to sell their products. Many government and non-government sites also popped up – all providing a piece of the information with bold claims and disclosures.

My mother had already visited half a dozen doctors to get some relief from the excruciating knee pain and stiffness caused by osteoarthritis. All doctors came back with exactly the same options – continue with the painkillers, get steroid shots, or get knee surgery. Whenever, my mother enquired about other non-conventional options, answers of most of the doctors revolved around the same, “I don’t know. I did not go to the medical school to learn about non-conventional medicine.” Perhaps, they were right. Traditional medical schools do not teach about Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM). Now, we were back to square one, and our only glimmering hope was – “Internet”.

Patients who seek authentic information about their medical problems and non conventional therapies (alternatives to drug therapy) for treatment, often experience disappointment due to the lack of authentic scientific information available on the websites. I said to myself, “people have the right to know what their complete treatment options are.” Only then can they make the best decisions for their own health. Precisely then, the idea for IControlMyHealth was born; to provide people with a 360-degree view of scientifically proven treatment options, both conventional and non-conventional, that are honest, proven, unbiased, and up to date. IControlMyHealth goes a step further and provides head-to-head comparison of conventional and non-conventional approaches, which helps people make better health decisions.

Today, we have our teams of qualified pharmacists, medical writers, and advisory board members who are passionate about serving people. They have been working tirelessly over the past year and doing their part to empower people with reliable information so that they can lead healthier lives. We all work with a single mission, “Reduce suffering and improve health for a better quality of life.”

Over the past one year, our team has extensively researched and authored over 7,500 pages of original content covering Bipolar disorder, Depression, Diabetes, Feeding and Eating Disorders,High cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, Menopause, Mood Disorder, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Pain, and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Our team delves into every therapeutic area, so that we can provide you with comprehensive and complete treatment options – all at one place.

We have also developed a proprietary methodology, in collaboration with renowned experts, to rate and evaluate all non-conventional treatment options so that you don’t have to spend hours researching on the Internet. Furthermore, we constantly brainstorm and develop useful and practically applicable tools and tips so that you can lead a healthier and happier life.

We can’t do all of this alone. I ask you to support and join us in this ambitious mission and cause. There are several ways you can become a part of our endeavor and help us make the world a better place to live:

Like us on Facebook
Join our mailing list
Share your story
Be an inspiration to others by becoming IControlMyHealth Ambassador
Recommend somebody to become IControlMyHealth ambassador
Join our Advisory Board

Last, but not the least, I would love to hear from you. If you have any comments, ideas, or feedback and share our passion of helping patients, please send an email to my attention atinfo@icontrolmyhealth.org.

Let’s make this world a healthier and happier place, together.

Monday, July 29, 2013

How to De-Stress and Achieve True Health with Meditation

“Meditation is the Medication”

Have a hectic lifestyle, ignoring health, became conscious, and joining a gym. If this sequence of events sounds familiar, give a pat on your back. Good job on taking the right step towards better health. But, wait a second, ever thought about your mind?

Without a glitch, you may be managing innumerable number of tasks to balance the frantic lifestyle today. Whilst managing everything one rarely pays any attention to the chaos that builds up inside. On the outside, things may be looking good, but then what is the reason for that lurking stress and anxiety?

Let’s look at the following few situations:

Does being trapped in a traffic jam bother you to the extent that it spoils your mood for rest of the day?
Are you troubled by the way anger controls you, rather than you controlling your anger?
Do you feel tensed and sometimes depressed, due to no major reason at all?

If you answered yes, you are not alone. Today, many of us feel stressed and anxious by the constant pressures of this hectic lifestyle, without realizing how deeply it is affecting us. These daily, seemingly small, events have a dual impact - on your body as well as on your mind. Yes, agreed that life combats us with some situations we have no control over, but we should learn how to respond in these situations. We should learn the art of controlling what’s going on inside - in our mind. It is a well-known fact that the root of many chronic illnesses is in the mind. So by learning to manage your mind, you can reduce the chances of some of the serious chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart problems, stress, anxiety, depression, etc.

The art of attending to your mind is “Meditation.” Although it has been practiced for thousands of years as a part of spiritual and cultural traditions, it now finds way to treat many neurological disorders, stress related conditions, and other diseases. It’s now a Complementary and Alternate Medicine (CAM) therapy suggested by Healthcare Providers (HCPs) all over the world. The 2007 National Health Interview Survey revealed that some 20 million US adults use meditation for health purposes.

The benefits of meditation are manifold. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene. A calm mind, good concentration, clear thinking, improved communication, blossoming of skills and talents, an unshakeable inner strength, healing, the ability to connect with inner source of energy, relaxation, and rejuvenation are all natural results of meditating regularly. The role of meditation in enhancing individual performance, leadership, and productivity is also well documented. In summary, meditation helps you have better emotional, mental, and physical well being. A National Center for Complementary and Alterative Medicine (NCCAM) study suggests that eight weeks of meditation may have an effect on brain function that persists even after someone has stopped meditating.

A will to have a quiet mind, a silent place where you can be at ease, a correct posture with mindfulness are the only essentials for a meditation practice. You can choose any of the different techniques of meditation that you believe will give you maximum results. With the loads of benefits meditation offers, you should resolve today to manifest it as a practice in your daily habits. Just 15 to 30 minutes of this practice would be sufficient if you want to reap the benefits. In today's world, where stress catches on faster than an eye can see or the mind can perceive, meditation is no more a luxury, but a necessity.

Happy meditating!

IControlMyHealth Editorial Team

References

Exploring the Power of Meditation. http://nccam.nih.gov/about/offices/od/2010-06.htm. Accessed July 27, 2013.
Meditation: An Introduction. http://nccam.nih.gov/sites/nccam.nih.gov/files/meditation.pdf. Accessed July 27, 2013.
Meditation Training Program Shows Brain Effects Even Outside a Meditative State. http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/110112. Accessed July 27, 2013.
Meditation. http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/meditation. Accessed July 28, 2013.

- See more at: https://www.icontrolmyhealth.org/health-blog/secrets-to-true-health#sthash.3LJPzTPf.dpuf

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

SMOKING kills your HEART

Last summer a new employee joined our organization. He was young, passionate, focused and one of the most delightful people in our office. One day, he suddenly fainted after having severe pain in his chest. We all were in a state of shock and immediately rushed him to the nearest hospital. After the diagnosis, doctor told us that his LDL cholesterol hovered around 185 mg/dL, and he is at a higher risk of having heart attack. I was dazed to see that at such a young age of 25 years, how a person can have high cholesterol levels and a risk of heart attack!

Later on, I got to know that he was also a regular smoker that put him at a higher risk of having high cholesterol levels and heart attack. Cigarette contains a harmful chemical known as “nicotine” that not only harms your lungs, but also gets absorbed in the bloodstream and is carried throughout your body. It damages the thin lining of blood vessels making them more prone to accumulation of fatty deposits such as LDL cholesterol. This results in buildup of fatty plaque that can harden and narrow the arteries. Further smoking can spark off these plaques to burst, which blocks the artery and finally results in heart attack.

Apart from raising your cholesterol levels, nicotine also stimulates the release of certain chemicals, which can raise your blood pressure. It also reduces the insulin production that further increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. Regular smoking may even cause impotency in men, as it causes blood vessel to constrict, which can result in erectile dysfunction.

Unfortunately, even after high level of awareness about the harmful effects of smoking, people continue to smoke. Not only my friend, but if we look around whether it’s our family, our friends, in office, or in public, it seems like someone or other is lighting up a cigarette.

There are several reasons due to which people start smoking at a young age. For some, it’s a fashion statement, while for others it creates a kind of “looks cool” perception. Besides, peer pressure can be one of the major reasons that can lead a child into this bad habit. Once the child starts experimenting with tobacco, it is very opportune for him or her to wave other peers into smoking as well.

Not only children and teens, but also adults are ambushed in this vicious circle of smoking. In many work places, people try to bond well with their bosses and thus smoke together. They believe that it increases acceptance by adopting such a habit in the office culture.

Stress is part of life and for many smokers cigarettes are their best friends when they are stressed out. A single puff of nicotine reaches the brain within about 10 seconds and elevates the mood. Hence, smokers become addicted to it and lighten up the cigarette to reduce their stress levels.

The health hazards that come along with smoking are definitely not worth it. Why not take a stand, and resolve to quit it. Although it’s a lot easier said than done, to quit smoking one requires lot of willpower and support. Here are the kick-starts, which can help you channelize your efforts: