Beautiful People, It's been WAY too long since I been with you last. I missed you all so so much. But it's been a little bit crazy on my side of life. But I'm here to let you guys in on something that I have been dealing with for the past year. This is...
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
How Does Living in a nursing home serve me? A-Fib and ways to stay well.
Hi Everyone,
I am still in Rehab. I spent the day catching up on my blogs.
I believe we create every thing that happens in our lives and so I have been evaluating how living in this nursing home serves me. It appears to me I need to tell a new story. I have received really good care here and they have stopped the constant pain I was having, without pain pills. They have got me getting the tests I need, and for that I am really grateful.
However, how did I end up here in the first place where I am sick and dependent on my kids. I have always been independent and well. I affirm that I am abundantly healthy. My heart is healthy and it slows down on its own., My atrial fibrillation is healed in God's own wonderful way. I am so grateful for all the information I find on the internet. It helps me to know why my doctor is prescribing certain medicines, and what drug choices and surgery choices there are.
Eating a heart healthy diet can benefit you by you not getting things like atrial fibrillation, or stroke. If you already have a-fib it can lessen your symptoms.
I am still in Rehab. I spent the day catching up on my blogs.
I believe we create every thing that happens in our lives and so I have been evaluating how living in this nursing home serves me. It appears to me I need to tell a new story. I have received really good care here and they have stopped the constant pain I was having, without pain pills. They have got me getting the tests I need, and for that I am really grateful.
However, how did I end up here in the first place where I am sick and dependent on my kids. I have always been independent and well. I affirm that I am abundantly healthy. My heart is healthy and it slows down on its own., My atrial fibrillation is healed in God's own wonderful way. I am so grateful for all the information I find on the internet. It helps me to know why my doctor is prescribing certain medicines, and what drug choices and surgery choices there are.
Eating a heart healthy diet can benefit you by you not getting things like atrial fibrillation, or stroke. If you already have a-fib it can lessen your symptoms.
- Stay slim with diet and exercise. The heart does not have to pump as much blood then.
- Eat a heart healthy diet, Follow a plan like the Mediterranean diet. Eat less meat, and diary.
- Cut down on salt. The best way to do that is to cook from scratch, read labels, processed foods and meats are high in fats. Eat more fish. Prepare it steamed wrapped in leak leaves, for instance. Throw away the leak tops when it is done, the leaks give the fish I really nice flavor. I have a steamer that has baskets and I cook my rice in the bottom, vegetables, then my fish on top. It is all done in less than 15 min. and I have only the steamer to clean.
- Go easy on the drinks and beer.
- Eat a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables
- Add tea to your diet a couple times a day it has a lot of antioxidants.
- Go easy on the coffee, energy drinks, chocolate and teas that contain high amounts of caffeine
- Eat lots of whole grains.
- Stay hydrated. If you do not like water plain put some lemon or lime in it. Try and drink at least 8 glasses a day.
- . Learn some meditation and yoga they can help you get rid of stress.
You can live a pretty comfortable life once you learn to manage your A-Fib if you already have it and you can avoid it perhaps if you follow these tips.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Warehousing People Nursing Homes In the USA
Hi All my Friends Out There,
I have not been writing my own blog much I have been in a Rehab center after some falls I had. Rehab is just a glorified name for nursing home. However, they have been very good to me here. I feel hope of finally finding out why I fall. I could own my own neurologist, for the copay's, I have paid. But now they have my pain under control at least for a while and they have set up the tests I need to find some answers. I am very grateful to this place.
I have met some interesting people here. One I call Anna, she is originally from Russia, she grew up there on a farm with 15 sisters and brothers. During the wars she migrated to Argentina, and then to the U.S. "They say she has Alzheimer's disease ." Perhaps she does have Alzheimer's I know she has dementia of some kind however, she is in early stage if she does, most days she can tell me her story. I have spent a lot of time since I have been here with her. She is teaching me Spanish. She enjoys being the teacher and I brag her up about how smart she is, She smiles and says Si.. She is a very smart lady she speaks three languages. She is a good looking woman too, but no one even combs her hair. They seldom dress her, She may have on a pretty sweater and her P.J. bottoms. She cannot handle a lot of noise and she sits all day with nothing to do. They do not try and talk to her or get her to color or listen to music. How sad, this woman who was a seamstress for over 20 years. There is a sewing class here but she is not included. When I ask about it they say she is not able to participate.
There is a man who was an art professor, who is 95 and all he needs is some attention too. My heart goes out to these people. Frankly they have saved my life as I was feeling really sorry for myself and visiting and giving to them has made me aware of how lucky I am to still have all my facilities, so they can't put me in a place like this permanently. I am very grateful to God that I do not have to live here all the time, but if that is what was I hope I would reach out to those less fortunate than me
No doubt most people would prefer to avoid living in a nursing home. But the fact is that many elderly Americans get to a point where they need long-term continuous care. Families live far away or are working so much they have not got time to take care of parents. Besides many need care beyond what the children can give them.
About 1.3 million American seniors now live in nursing homes. 70 percent of them rely on Medicaid to pay the bill, which means they are low-income or have otherwise spent down their assets. Medical care is so high in the U.S. that it does not take long to spend down one's assets. The average cost of a nursing home private room tops $83,000 a year. Adult Foster Care is an alternative to large nursing homes but the cost is much less about $40,000. a year. There are usually 4 or 5 people there and they each have a private room. It is more like a family.
With nursing home costs rising about 4 percent a year and 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, it is clear the future costs to Medicaid will rise significantly. The cost of warehousing people is exhorbant and how sad that our seniors who worked all their lives end up in this situation.
.Sources:
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
How Much Turmeric Can You Take in a Day?
Okay, so lately there has been lot of confusion on how much turmeric one can take in a day and how many times one should take it.
The primary reason for the confusion on “how much” arises from the fact that one can take turmeric (and thus its active ingredient) in so many ways:
Fresh turmeric root
Turmeric dried root powder
Supplement with various % of curcumin present
Fluid extract
Tincture
Now the key difference in each of them is the quantity of curcumin. So how much of these one can take in a day?
I also found that people have different opinion on the dosage of turmeric. Thus, I have relied upon some authetic sources only for the research here.
Here is what I found from various sources.
How much turmeric can I take in a Day?
Rather than using one source, I tried collecting info from multiple reliable sources.
According to University of Maryland Medical Center
The permissible dosages of various forms of turmeric (for adults):
Cut root: 1.5 – 3 g per day
Dried, powdered root: 1 – 3 g per day
Standardized powder (curcumin): 400 – 600 mg, 3 times per day
Fluid extract (1:1) 30 – 90 drops a day
Tincture (1:2): 15 – 30 drops, 4 times per day
Both fluid extracts and Tinctures are not commonly used, so I will concentrate on the rest of the three and what they mean:
Cut root: This is basically fresh turmeric, it will have moisture too in it. Cut root is great to make pickles and adding to salads.
Dried root: This is the most common way of using turmeric. This is how turmeric spice / powder is made – by drying cut root and then making a powder. Drying will cause loss of moisture and maybe of some beneficial aspects of turmeric, but no serious damage is done.
Standardized powder (curcumin): This is basically what we call as supplements. Supplement manufacturers extract curcumin from turmeric and then concentrate it to make standardized powders. These are then sold as turmeric supplements in the market. Based on the brand the concentration may change.Ideal turmeric dosage
According to WebMD:
For upset stomach (dyspepsia): 500 mg of turmeric four times daily.
For osteoarthritis: 500 mg twice daily of a specific turmeric extract (Meriva, Indena); 500 mg four times daily of a non-commercial product has also been used.
For rheumatoid arthritis (RA): 500mg twice daily of a specific formulation of the turmeric constituent, curcumin (BCM-95®, Arjuna Natural Extracts, India), has been used.
The first two are related to normal turmeric powder and the third one – BCM-95®, Arjuna Natural Extracts – with a 95% standardized powder.
As you can see the dosage is within 2g range.
According to Dr Weil:
One can take 400mg – 600 mg supercritical extracts 3 times a day. This of course he is talking about supplements (standardized powder).
Summary of info from the above 3 sources
(WebMd and Dr Weil fall under the range specified by University of Maryland Medical Center, thus dosages by University of Maryland Medical Center represent all the three.
If you are using powder I would like to mention that you can take 1 tsp of powder on a daily basis without any issues. In terms of gms, the figures are mentioned below:
Recommended turmeric dosages
These are very conservative figures and taking upto 4-5 gms per day is also fine.
In terms of tsp – ideal turmeric dosage is thus around 1 tsp per day.
But then why some research study use high dosages?
While researching over dosages I found a very interesting thing and looking back and thinking about it, I am just wondering why a thing so simple and logical did not strike me!
While I was researching over dosages, I came across studies where researchers were giving dosages as high as 8 g per day to patients. This I observed in several studies. But then why University of Maryland Medical Center and others suggest such a small dosage?
The answer may lie in the fact that the dosages are high when we need them i.e. when we are not well. For example, if you have back pain, you may want to take a high dosage for a day or two and get well. But once you do, you come to the normal “preventive” dosage.
Thus, in my opinion there are two kinds of turmeric dosages we can take:
Preventive – which are low and which we can continue for lifetime
Curative – required when we have some issues. For example, some of the studies mentioned high dosages to cancer patients and it makes all the sense to do so as we need quick action here.
So when you are suffering for say arthritis pain and you take large dosages, it acts like a strong painkiller and helps you. This can go on for some time and then one should get back to preventive dosage as soon as our body is back in shape.
Possible side effects – large dosage for long time
There is no side effects when you use turmeric as spice, why? Because the dosage is always limited. But things may be different when you take supplements or large amounts of turmeric powder for a long period of time.
It is important to understand that the side effects occur when you take them for long period of time and not immediately. Thus we can always take curative dosages whenever we require and shift to preventive ones when fine. Also when the preventive dosage limit says 3.0 g per day, I am very sure nothing wrong is going to happen if you take 4.5 g per day. Most of the times the dosages mentioned are on a much safer side.
Typical side effects are related to digestive system – stomach upset, diarrhea, ulcers. The side effects may also vary from person to person too. I was not able to find any “very” serious side effects though except ulcers.
Again, I would not like to create a panic here and thus would like to highlight that turmeric is very very safe, only its high dosage for very long period of time is known to cause issues.
Key take aways
There are indeed some limits of turmeric usage on a daily basis if you are taking a preventive dose. (see details above). Regarding turmeric powder (and not supplements) – you can exceed them to a certain extent with no issues at all.
In case of disorder, a curative dosage can be as high as 8g per day (note – this is not prescribed dosage, but I found this to be highest quantity among all the used dosage in research studies I analyzed).
Turmeric (powder) is very safe to use and side effects only occur when high dosages are taken for long duration of time
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)