It is Visible if You are Looking for It!!

A lot has happened since I last posted. I visited my doctor and she was very pleased with the progress I have made. Ive been watching episodes of the TV series called "Heavy" on Netflix and getting ideas. I can feel my body getting stronger and I want to begin to push it a little more, but I also want to follow my physical therapists parameters. And Ive had my eyes opened with a new chart that I made.



Since I dont have cable-TV anymore I am not "up" on what is current in that scene, but I found the TV series called "Heavy" about obese people who go to a facility for thirty days to be rebooted. I have watched all of the Texas episodes and then the episode where they revisited the Texas people about six months later to see how they are doing. It seems to me that the camera eye view is almost totally focused on the exercise, with only a small percentage of attention on the food -- yet the affects of eating wrong show up instantly in weight gain for the participants. This view point is totally the opposite of my own focus.... so far. (It is easier to film actions like exercise, than it is to document people eating salad. LOL)



They seem to be on about a 1200 calorie a day diet of protein (fish) and vegetables (salad plus a few green beans) from what I can see. They do not go into the details of the food. But they sure go into the details of the exercise experience. At first as I watched I wondered about the people. I wondered why so many were crying and complaining. I wondered why this was so hard for them. Then it began to dawn on me that they are going through huge withdrawals and are initially under a lot of stress.



They are having carbohydrate withdrawals, family and friend withdrawals, and are also being forced to use their unfit pain wracked bodies in ways they never would have (or could have) done on their own. They are in a completely unfamiliar environment and suddenly every bit of bad behavior that they have depended on in the past to get them out of "bad situations" comes out to play. After the first week, though, things usually begin to settle down some, and their eyes begin to open up to the new possibilities for their lives. I think it is awesome and extremely tough to do. My hat is off to these many successful participants who put their lives on the air for us to observe... and to learn from. From what I have seen, nearly all of them are successful -- not absolutely all.



One thing I noticed is that even with their success they often still look like obese people when they are done -- but they have changed. If you were to meet them on the street and know nothing about them, you might only see that they are obese, but a few of them lost nearly a hundred pounds -- that gives you an idea of where they started. One man who weighed over four hundred pounds when he started had ankles that were nearly purple with lack of circulation. One of his legs had a "weeping" wound which is a spot where the skin has simply opened up and liquid seeps out, so he was not allowed to go in the pool until he got his doctors OK.



Later on, it shows where he has lost at least a hundred pounds (I dont recall the exact specifics) and looks a lot smaller and younger and happier.... but his legs still look purple. Another man had a "lymphodema" surgically removed and he is able to walk a lot better. I guess the reason that these physical conditions have stuck in my mind is because in my journey I wanted to reverse my pre-diabetic state which, technically, happened, but I am not without the disease, yet, and if I falter it will come back like a raging lion. I think the participants were brave and the trainers are awesome.



Ive been thinking about what my "weight loss goal" should be. The thought of choosing a number makes me a little crazy and does not work for me as a "goal." I cannot simply use "lose weight" as a goal either. I have tripped myself up in the past with that one. Once I lost a few pounds the goal would be met and I would wander off in another direction. I am comfortable with "continuing to lose weight." I feel able to continue (with the Lords help) on the path and not wander off. One of the ladies in the TV series said something about "perseverance and grace." and that has really struck me as being motivational for me. Id like to have those two in front of my face for a while to remind me, and help me stay on track. With my perseverance and Gods grace I shall continue to lose weight.



I also want to speed it up a little so Im beginning to focus on the exercise. Ive made up an activities chart for me to keep track of my daily activities. My physical therapist has told me that I can do "three minutes" of one exercise and then in a little while do "five minutes" of another one and continue doing this throughout the day. That way I dont have one gargantuan block of exercise to do all at once -- which can be completely overwhelming to me. Im more likely to simply sidestep the issue if it looks too hard (overwhelming) for me, but I can do a few minutes here and there, repeatedly throughout the day. Which is the reason for the chart.



Today was day one, and at the end of the day, I had not done any exercise. I would not have noticed that except that the chart has made me aware of the truth. So on day one, I noticed what I was not doing. For tomorrow I want to have some check marks under a few activities that I have done so I shall start earlier in the day to do a few of the "little minutes of activity." They are important and I need to incorporate them into my daily life. I shall begin the exercise again, in the morning.



I shared what I have been doing with a friend and she wants copies of my charts. I am pleased that she likes them and wants them... but Ive got enough experience to know that she may or may not actually use them. Ive tried to help people in the past with things they said they wanted, but many (I believe, most) people are not willing to actually adapt it to their own lives. I did the same things for years. Ive bought many pieces of "weight loss" equipment, but they dont do a thing for the body that does not get on them. In my defense I must say that the equipment is not actually made for people who are completely unfit and outrageously obese -- or, at least, that is what I thought. My physical therapist has taught me to pay attention to the fingers poking into my body (points of pain) and to make adjustments for them. Change something to stop the irritation but keep going. She says that to make improvements I need to get tired, but irritation only makes things worse.



One of the things the successful participants of "Heavy" have mentioned a few times is how much more agile they are now. Id love to have some of my former agility back. I can see it happening with the PT that I have been doing. If I persevere and depend on Gods grace, my agility, balance, and strength will improve. I wont be twenty-two again, but I can improve. Id like to improve and see where I might go with it. With my perseverance and Gods grace I shall continue to lose weight and increase agility and strength.



Ill be checking up on me with my chart, so Id better be alert and get active! Dont laugh... I think it might work!!



Be back soon,

Marcia

Social Media Does It Really Change Patient Behavior

Thanks to the technologic allure of iPhones replacing stethoscopes, apps substituting for doctors and electronic information substituting for having to actually talk to patients, the thoroughly modern Disease Management Care Blog is all about medical-social media. 

Think Facebook for the flu.  Twitter for tinnitus. Egads, listen to the typical consultant, pundit or futurist and its easy to believe that were on the verge of a silicon-based health care revolution

But then reality intrudes and some skeptic somewhere always asks about the bang for the buck, the juice for the squeeze, the return for the investment. Its a good question.

For something of an answer, consider the results appearing in a recently published randomized clinical trial.  The actual condition in question is going unmentioned for now, so that the DMCB can better focus on the issue of patient engagement

Over a 4 month period, "at risk persons" were recruited for a clinical research trial with on-line ads (Facebook banners, Craigslist, for example) as well as announcements in community settings and venues.  Once persons met the usual inclusion criteria and had a unique Facebook account, they were randomly assigned to one of two treatment arms.

One treatment arm used a closed Facebook group to coach persons about their at risk condition.  The other treatment arm similarly used Facebook to coach persons about general health improvement.  Lay "Peer Leaders," who were given a three hour training session on "epidemiology of the condition or general health subjects and ways of using Facebook to discuss health and stigmatizing topics," were assigned to lead the groups.

Peer Leaders attempted to reach out to their assigned group persons with messaging, chats and wall posts.  Once the link was established, the relationship in the intervention group included communication about prevention and treatment of the condition. At the end of 1, 2 and three months of the study, participants completed a variety of surveys.

Results?

57 individuals were in the control general health group and 55 were in the condition coaching group.  According to the surveys, intervention patients were ultimately statistically significantly more likely to agree to condition testing (44%) than the control patients (20%).  Because there were few participants, the modest decrease in actual tests or risk behaviors were not statistically meaningful.

The DMCBs take:

While this was a small study, this is the first time that the DMCB has seen reasonable proof that social media by itself can move the behavior needle.  On the other hand, this did not result in a patient engagement stampede toward better care or hard clinical outcomes.  A majority of participants (56%) did not appear to benefit.  Nonetheless, the results do support the inclusion of Facebook-style closed group social media in the suite of population health management services.

That being said, the condition at risk was HIV and study population was men who have sex with men ("MSMs").  It doesnt necessarily follow that what would work in this community of persons would necessarily be transferrable to other conditions, such as diabetes.  The DMCB doesnt think thats really true and finds it credible that 112 persons with diabetes or hypertension would probably achieve the same kind of results (A1c testing or home blood pressure monitoring) in a similarly tailored Facebook closed group.

Heres the study.

Let the research continue!

Baby It Can Jealousy Since Age 6 Months

Health for human | Jealousy is generally owned by an adult or child who is still little impact on siblings. In fact it turns out this jealousy has been there since 6 months old baby.

One study conducted by researchers from Texas Tech University found that babies aged 6 months have been able to express an early form of jealousy. One of them is the baby will react negatively when her mother care for another person even with a doll.

The study, led by Dr. Sybil is analyzing the activity of the infant brain. Known babies aged 6 months will show a unique response when this baby must compete for her attention. These results reveal that jealousy may have become a basic feature of the biological one.

"Babies are usually often feel jealous when her mother holding or carrying a baby or other children," says Tanya Remer Altmann pediatrician, editor of The Wonder Years: Helping Your Baby and Young Child Successfully Negotiate the Major Developmental Milestones, quoted from Babycenter, Monday (02.01.2012).

Dr. Altman said the baby usually gets all the attention from the mother. So if there are other people who suddenly share their concerns with him then he will issue the expression seemed to say Hey, thats my mother, ".

The positive side of the jealousy which is owned by this means the baby shows he really knows who he wants attention. Usually jealousy is also seen when parents leave the room or anxious to see a stranger coming into the same room with him.

Health at work could it work better

How often have you or your colleagues been off work sick in the last year?

Most of us will have been off at some point for one reason or another - be it with the kind of cold or mild flu that lays us low for a day or two.

Thankfully much less common is the need for long-term sickness absence. And an article in the Telegraph recently shows that, while not as common as the odd day or two off ill here and there, its still a pretty considerable expense - with long term sickness absence being estimated at a whopping £3.1 billion yearly cost to the private sector.

However, the picture isnt quite as bad as it may seem at first sight. Sickness absence as a whole is less than it has been at times in the past. According to this release by the UK Press Association, 178 million working days were lost to sickness in 1993 compared to 131 million in 2011, this is based on official figres from the National office for Statistics.

There are various means by which businesses can help to minimise sickness absence generally - these can include some measures such as the following

• providing an employee assistance program
• promoting health and wellbeing within the organisation
• draw up and put into practice an occupational health scheme
• provide private healthcare insurance for staff

For more info on sickness absence management, check out the CIPD website (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development) - and theres also some good online resources from the Health & Safety Executive and the governments Business Link site.

Body Back Fat After Diet it Causes

Actively while being on a diet, someone willing to drastically change his lifestyle so that weight can be lost more quickly. But once managed to get into shape, many people who eventually gain weight back. Here are the reasons why your diet to fail. 

1. Extreme Weight Loss in Short Time
 Most diets fail because implementing dietary patterns change drastically from day-to-day habits. Generally, this diet allows eating only cabbage soup, milkshakes, fruit or cookies diet. How to diet like this may result in a slimmer body in no time. But humans will not survive if the rest of his life just eating these foods. As a result after the stop applying extreme diet, you went back to old eating patterns. As a result, the body fat again exceeded even before the diet.

2. No Post-Diet Plan 
After successfully losing weight until the desired number, most people do not think about the next plan. So what happens is that the old diet re-run. And the weight back up quickly due to decreased drastically slow the metabolism system. For that, you must have principles to continue to maintain a healthy lifestyle even though weight is ideal.

3. Social Life 
People who are in a diet program is generally difficult to mingle in the social life of such festivities. Or a dinner at a restaurant usually provides delicious food high in calories. Due to restrict food intake into the body, most people who are dieting can not have a good social life and ultimately led to the desire to eat excessively because they feel stressed.

How to Overcome It
Live the diet with focus and slowly. Always learn new ways to manage your diet is healthy but not boring to be able to take a long time.In addition, make a target to lose weight slowly which is about half to one kg per week so that your metabolism working properly.  Lastly, consume healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, protein, and unsaturated fatty acids.