One of the most common complaints from auto accident victims is neck pain. In many cases, this pain results from the head snapping back and forth as a vehicle strikes an object head-on, or as a car is hit from the rear. This injury is called whiplash, and it can cause severe pain and suffering.

Whiplash can mostly be blamed on a sudden and unexpected change in your momentum. Normally, your head balances on your neck. However, if you are subjected to a sudden stop or start, your head can snap forward or backwards before you can adjust to the change in momentum. Because of the weight of your head, your neck is stretched past its normal limits as it tries to stabilize your head.

Because of the traumatic stretching of your neck’s muscles and ligaments, you can suffer from many different symptoms following an auto accident. These include:

• Neck stiffness
• Pain
• Dizziness
• Blurry vision
• Lethargy
• Headaches

In some cases, the nerves in the neck can also be damaged following a car accident. This can lead to problems such as pain in your shoulders and arms. Additionally, you may notice a tingling or numbness down your arms.For minor cases of whiplash, your symptoms may last for a few days and can be handled with ice compressions and anti-inflammatory medication. If your whiplashes lasts longer or causes you severe pain, you can turn to prescription painkillers as well as muscle-relaxing injections. Sometimes, whiplash can cause chronic pain that you may have to learn to manage through therapy.

Frequently, rear-end collisions result when the person behind you is not paying enough attention to the road. If you have suffered from whiplash or other injuries due to another driver’s carelessness, you should hold this person responsible for his or her negligence.

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When you think about epilepsy, you may think of it as a single disorder. However, it is a group of related disorders that are characterized by recurrent seizures. Depending on the type of epilepsy involved, different types of them can occur. Generalized seizures can cause brief losses of consciousness or long periods of unconsciousness. There are sub-categories of generalized disorder for it and they include absence, atonic, myoclonic and generalized tonic-clonic. Medications are prescribed to help treat seizures and other symptoms associated with epilepsy. Surgery can be performed, but is considered a last resort, when less invasive treatments have failed.

There are several known and unknown causes of epilepsy; head trauma being an important known cause of epilepsy and seizures. Although it is commonly accepted that a prior injury can cause epilepsy, there is no agreement on what type or how extensive that injury must be. It is known however, that the risk for generalized seizures and epilepsy increases substantially if there are penetrating or open wounds present.

They can be further subdivided into four categories according to the nature of the medical symptoms: motor, sensory, autonomic and psychological. Motor symptoms can include movements such as stiffening and jerking. This is the type most people associate with epilepsy and is sometimes called generalized tonic-clonic seizures or grand mal epilepsy. This disorder affects most, if not all of the brain at once.

Its symptoms will vary, depending from where in the brain they originate. In most cases, a person with epilepsy will typically have the same type of episode each time. This means that the symptoms will tend to be very similar from episode to episode. However, there are some people who have many different types of epileptic seizures, with varied symptoms each time.

There are effective treatments available for dealing with the medical symptoms of epilepsy and seizure disorders. One treatment is surgical therapy or intervention. With recent advances in diagnostic technology and surgical practices, an increase in the use of surgical treatment for epilepsy has been noted. However, surgery is usually the last option, when medications have been tried and have failed to control symptoms.

There are alternative treatments available for those who don’t want to ingest medications to treat generalized seizures. Biofeedback, diet control and vitamins are just a few treatments currently being used. While several alternative treatments are widely promoted for epilepsy, their effectiveness is mostly unproven. Over a dozen medications are currently on the market and approved to treat epilepsy. As with any medication, each one has benefits and side effects. Different medications are appropriate for different types of epileptic seizure episodes.

 

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You may know how miserable it is to die from Ovarian Cancer or Pheochromocytoma. While that is true, there is good news.

Nutritionists have known for lots of years that diet can help you avoid disease. In fact, it is now thought that about 38% of all cancer is associated with your diet. And it has also been proven that diet can help you avoid cancer.

Nutrients in some food can decrease your chance of cancer. You can also improve your chances of not getting cancer by avoiding some foods. You might have to cut out the Rocky Biscuits and milleens cheese.

The Power of Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits (like Hubbard squash (Cucurbita maxima) and Tangerine) and vegetables are proven to help prevent many cancers including cancer of the lung and colon. Currently, it is unknown if there are any specific nutrients in vegetables and fruit that provide the protection. There have been experiments on some of the nutrients found in fruits and vegetables like beta-carotene. However, isolating these substances from the original source have not been found to prevent cancer. In fact, some by themselves are found to be harmful. So remember – the whole fruit is many times better than some supplement taken from that food.

Current recommendations are to eat at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable with each meal. They can be fresh, canned or dried. But, they should not be fried like chips.

Whole Grains Keep You Moving

Whole grains like sorghum brown rice, cracked wheat and corn on the cob are excellent sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber. These have especially been found to help prevent cancer of the colon. Despite being vital, just using a fiber supplement is not as effective because you need the other nutrients in the whole grain.

Nutritionists think that the high fiber content of the grain helps to keep the stool in the bowel moving right along. This prevents stagnation in the colon. That being said, there is no evidence that laxatives or any colon cleansing regimen is of any help. In fact they have often been shown to be harmful.

Foods to Avoid

Red meat is a proven contributor to cancer especially cancer of the colon and cancer of the prostate. The latest recommendations are that you limit your intake to less than three ounces a day. Cutting it out altogether is even better.

Any food with lots of oil and fat will have a similar effect. All of those corn dogs and corn chips that you have been eating? Well, they may contribute to your chance of getting cancer.

And now another bit of bad news for some of you, alcohol is another culprit. The latest research shows that any alcohol can increase your risk of getting cancer. But, it is especially a big risk if you have more than two drinks a day for men and one for women. Alcohol along with cigarettes contribute to cancer of the mouth, esophagus and larynx.

The Four Rules of Diet

1. Choose most of the foods you eat from plant sources.

2. Limit your intake of high-fat foods, particularly from animal sources.

3. Get moving: Keep your weight in line. Ok. So this one is not directly diet related – but, you should cut down to what you need to keep your weight within reason.

4. Cut back on the alcohol, if you drink at all.

Using these laws of health will dramatically decrease your chances of getting diet related cancer.

Throughout my college days I never really had a problem with being hung over. I tried not to drink too much, and I just used to say to myself “just have a beer with your meal”. I still live by this philosophy today.

This sometimes went out of the window if we had a race on that particular day. After the race we would get the bus back to the school, and of course go out and have a few beers more than we should.

A lot of times we ended up having a party on the night of a race, and once again we would end up drinking more than we thought we had.

The Sunday running session was always a case of “I know I have to get up early for my run so how do I avoid a hangover”?

It was always sleep in until about 7.00 or 7.35 then get up. Once we were dressed we would head off for the locker room and change into our running gear. By about 8.00 we would be out ready for our training session.

Some of the group would still be a little worse for wear in the morning. So firstly before we prepared for our run, we would have a drink of Gatorade or water. Also if you felt alright you would have a bagel to settle your stomach.

Then something strange occurred. By the time you had run about 7 or 8 miles, you no longer felt that you were hung over. How strange that it always happened around this distance.

The amazing thing about this was that by the time you realized that you did not have a hangover; you were over half way home. So you could get back quickly, have a nice shower and prepare for your large breakfast.

What do you think is the single biggest issue today that people have?

I’d say not enough energy. Like time, energy is something most people wish they had more of. Demands on our energy are greater than ever before. A lot is occurring in life that uses up energy. But, just like a poorly insulated house loses energy, so does a poorly functioning body. What can you do? Plenty…

The number one way to increase your energy is to improve your posture.

Modern lifestyles are robbing us of valuable energy. We do repetitive movements or are hunched over a computer for hours. Hours of sitting in front of a computer, driving, talking on cell phones… over-utilizing our minds and under-utilizing our bodies creates a myriad of problems including major stiffness in the body. You can change this simply, easily, and once and for all. The whole idea is really simple… get some random movement to work the kinks out and fire up your human instinct to stretch. You know when you feel really happy and joyous, how your body becomes light and free – there is a way you move around. Do that! Let you body take over. Let it guide you instead of doing something forcefully to it.

Posture is the basis by which you physically do what you do each day. Walking is posture manifesting itself through motion. Show me a person with good posture and I’ll show you a person who moves like a young person. Ultimately youth is posture… all about moving freely and flexibly without pain. With age and technologically-based living come aches and pains, slower movement, and general body stiffness. It’s no fun to hurt all the time, especially if you spend your day in “computer posture,” or your job is physically repetitive in nature. Then you don’t move like you should. But now, when you come home and your neck, shoulders, and back are tight and painful, YOU can do something about it.

• Move in ANY way that you don’t normally. Try it for a minute right now and you’ll see.

Everyone has a unique, innate ability to stretch and keep their body’s structure aligned naturally, without having to rely on health care providers to do it for them. You can learn to make this a conscious act. So, when your body starts to feel uncomfortable, you can properly and effectively move it to release stress and restore correct alignment… yourself!

The truth is that in today’s technological society most people suffer from stiffness and pain brought about by not moving enough and doing repetitive movements when they do move. Sitting in front of computer screens all day… or in a cubicle… or driving… just isn’t what human beings are designed to do. This causes serious problems with posture, flexibility, movement… ultimately impacting your quality of life.

Your head is designed to balance directly on top of your neck. When held forward, for example, muscles must work harder to hold your head up rather than merely balancing it. Energy is consumed unnecessarily. Take a ten-pound weight. Hold it out at arm’s length. How long before your arm gives out? An improperly held head is putting a similar strain on the neck muscles. Many people are exhausted at the end of the day – just from holding their heads up. Holding a telephone between your shoulder and ear with your neck bent to one side is another example. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, if there are habitual postures, poor alignment can become permanent.

Your body assumes the shape of its most common positions. So change the position…

When your body stays in the same position for long periods of time, it takes on that shape. This allows the bones and overall alignment to do more of the work of supporting your body while your muscles do less. The problem is; your body is habitually positioned in a manner that creates poor alignment. This wastes energy. Slouching is a good example.

• Think of having balloons attached to your head and shoulders; gently, not forcefully, lifting you up towards the sky.
• Raise the monitor up on your desk so you are looking level and not down.
• Look up to the sky instead of always looking down.

Remember, good posture means efficient and energy saving movement, just like an athlete. Here’s to the athlete in everybody!

When winter comes we become more conscious of colds and the onset of the flu season – along with increased advertising of various brand name cough and cold medications in capsule or liquid form. It also brings up all those old sayings and wives tales of how to cure or reduce the effects of colds and flu.

And, let’s face it – when your head feels like its full of cotton wool, your nose drips like a faucet and your sinuses feel like they have nails driven into them – we all, at times, succumb to trying anything just to get some alleviation.

So what works and what doesn’t – what cold and flu myths can we believe and what are a complete waste of time?

“An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away”
Well, this isn’t as hoary as it may seem. Red apple skin has more anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects than berries and these may boost the immune system and help protect against flu.

The key here is ‘immune system’ – if we are keeping our bodies at optimal health levels then it is better able to combat the invasion of those nasty respiratory bugs.

The lesson: keep up those two fruits a day as part of good nutrition – and especially encourage the kids to do likewise.

“Surgical Masks”
Yes, they do have some benefit – if worn properly as they help prevent inhalation of expelled droplets when you are around people who carry the infection.

“Only Coughs and Sneezes Spread Disease”
Wrong! The most common way that flu and colds are spread is when hands are in contact with contaminated surfaces and you transfer the bug to your face etc.

Washing hands thoroughly and regularly is advised, especially if a family member has a bug already. It is the rubbing action of washing that removes bugs, more than any anti-bacterial soap. Also, keep the surfaces (kitchen benches etc) clean and disinfected.

Vitamins Can Help reduce the effects of a cold
Most medicos say there is no substantive evidence that taking vitamins will prevent or reduce the effects of a cold. My experience says otherwise – this is something you can test yourself.

However, just taking them when you get a cold isn’t much help – you need to be on a good regular intake for most benefit. See fruits above – that may be the answer

Chicken Soup
Well, this is a lot tastier than many over the counter syrups and probably more effective. Colds attack the upper respiratory tract and this becomes inflamed. Chicken soup possesses anti-inflammatory properties. It may also alleviate throat soreness and possibly prevent the movement of white blood cells that encourage the flow of mucous.

It could be a combination of the heat, the vegies and proteins and the anti-inflammatory properties.

Getting Caught in the Rain will Cause a Cold
No it doesn’t – nor does being stuck in wet clothes. Colds and flu are viral and if the virus is in your system then that’s how you get it. Just being cold and wet does not of itself ‘breed’ the virus.

The best preventative? A well balanced and nutritious diet – incorporating 5 veg and two fruits, plus regular exercise. Plus, if applicable, no tobacco. BTW, flu vaccines do not give you the flu as they do not contain any live virus.