health
Keeping your mind and body in check - popular topics in health and medicine to maintain a long and healthy life.
Beating Breast Cancer
My husband was the one who discovered the lump in my breast. I didn't think much of it, I was 28 years old, full of life, and breastfeeding my two-year daughter old led me to believe it was just a clogged milk duct. I went to the doctor to get it checked and to my surprise, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. How could this be, I young and healthy, how could this ever happen to me, I thought. My whole world turned upside down, I was terrified and I automatically assumed I was going to die. I didn't know anything about cancer except becoming bald and weak was the norm for some. I was scared of the possibility of doing any treatment, with the fear of it not working. I was a nervous wreck, I prayed, I cried and reached out for any support I could find. Thankfully I was able to find a support group that helped young women like myself with resources to pay for treatment and living expenses.
By Candy Williams8 years ago in Longevity
Possible Cures for Diabetes and the Causes of Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is not as common as Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes requires insulin substitution shots to replace the hormone that a person with diabetes’ body no longer makes. Islet cells in the pancreas are what normally produce insulin and they also are made up of cells called beta cells, which analyze blood sugar levels that in full-blown diabetics are measured with a glucometer. The immune system turns traitor on islet cells when somebody becomes a diabetic. Beta cells cannot release insulin anymore when diabetes actually manifests itself. Alpha cells produce glucose. In diabetes, only the alpha cells function with glucose. Islet cells are attacked by the body’s immune system, and this makes type 1 diabetes an autoimmune problem.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Which Is Stronger: Muscle or Mentality?
How much can you bench bro? What's your max squat? How about your deadlift PR? We tend to measure strength only by how much we can lift over our heads. I'll admit, it takes a strong individual to be able to go into a gym and lift two to three times their body weight. It takes a even stronger individual to lift themselves up after being knocked down time and time again. It does not matter how many muscles you build or hours you spend at the gym, a strong body can still be weak if it possess a fragile or poor mentality.
By Cory Garner8 years ago in Longevity
Diagnosed with Arthritis at Age 16
I was 15 years old at the time and on a mini vacation in Lake Katrine, NY with my family when I experienced my first flare up. I sat on the couch to watch tv with my grandmother. I remember having my legs crossed for about an hour. When I got up to use the bathroom, my right hip locked up and started to hurt as I took a step with that leg. I limped, but I thought it was probably from having my legs crosses for so long. About a month later, the pain went to my wrists, and then to my right hip a couple weeks later. The pain only increased as the weeks went by. That happened to be the last flare up I had before I was taken to the hospital. My mom was scared and hurt to see me in such excruciating pain. I couldn't even walk to the bathroom by myself.
By Tiffany Ortega-Anton8 years ago in Longevity
Living With Chronic Illness
Living with chronic illness is a constant fear. You don’t know what your body is going to do next, or even what your body is doing now. You don’t understand why it feels like a million time bombs are ticking and you’re just waiting for them to go off.
By Sabrina Bailey8 years ago in Longevity
Am I Going to Die?
Where It All Began... October 27, 2001. That's the day that changed my life forever. When I was five years old, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas stops producing insulin - a hormone essential to the ability to get energy from food. It affects both children and adults suddenly and changes life as they know it forever. It cannot be prevented and there is no cure.
By Jen McBride8 years ago in Longevity
So… There’s Something I Need to Tell You. Top Story - January 2018.
One of the most violent elements within our society is ignorance. It has the capacity to shape generations, to stir cultural prejudice, and to create fear and discrimination at the expense of those without a voice. The rise of HIV and AIDS in the 1970s, at a time when little was understood about this forthcoming pandemic, gave birth to fear and recriminations against the homosexual communities and drug users. These sub-groups were the perfect target into which society could pour their fears and distrust. These communities were seen to be the corrupting influence of acceptable social norms and became the reason for this associated disease, and so stigma towards sufferers began to take root.
By Chris O'Hanlon8 years ago in Longevity
My Life With Autism
Let's get the big question out of the way first: what is autism? For those who don't know, autism is an epidemic that’s been sweeping across the world at a frightening rate, and it’s caused by vaccines. It’s also objectively worse than measles.
By Riley Odell8 years ago in Longevity
What Living With Tourette's Is Really Like
I once had a conversation with one of my friends about my Tourette’s and was surprised that she and her significant other had initially thought that the disorder was limited to vocal tics and had to include profanity. This stereotype is so ingrained in our society that when she saw accurate depictions of the disorder, she thought that they had fabricated information for comedy and drama. Tourette syndrome, often abbreviated to TS, is actually a neurological disorder that causes the Tourettic person to experience irrepressible urges to move their body and make noises that they wouldn’t choose to do otherwise. This urge doesn’t ease until this impulse is fulfilled. These motions and noises are called tics. Tics are the urgency of an itch combined with the necessity of a reflex. Many people describe the feeling as an internal or external force bending them to its will. Others experience a sense of impending doom and feel that disaster will befall them or their loved ones if they fail to perform the tic correctly.
By Mara-James Canfield8 years ago in Longevity
