Santa Barbara

Archive for September, 2010

One of the biggest risks to a child’s health is the unseen and unresolved levels of mold hidden in central air conditioner units. The mold found there, often goes undetected until it’s breached the boundaries of the vent and starts spreading throughout your walls. By then, it’s too late – you have a serious mold problem and it’s in the best interest of your family to vacate your home till the issue is resolved.

What is mold?

Thriving on the very last rung of the food chain, mold thrives on very little and grows rapidly. If you’ve every forgotten to wash a container with food remnants still stuck to the bottom, you’ve been a first-hand witness to mold’s rapid growth rate. Now imagines this in places in your home that you can’t see or have easy-access to! And given the right conditions, mold can and will pop out of thin air just about anywhere. One mold organism can quickly multiply to trillions in less than three weeks simply through their constant production of spores!

Most families find out they have a mold problem when it’s too late, and the number one cause and circulator of mold is your air conditioner. While central air conditioners are a seen as a luxury item, they are also an ideal host for mold. The ductwork and drain-pans provide a perfectly moist and recessed environment for fungal growth.

How mold can harm your child

It’s doubtful that any parent would want their child around mold, but unfortunately most well-intentioned parents think that if they can’t see the problem or its effects, then it can’t be that serious. But mold causes serious health problems, especially for young children who are still developing their immune system. Mold can cause allergies, asthma, hypersensitivity, skin care problems, pneumonia, constant colds and flus, and even the possibility of bleeding lung disease – all of which will damage and weaken your child’s immune system. Letting mold perpetuate in your home is as bad as blowing air over a swamp or through a sewer and right into your home where your children live, sleep, eat and play.

Signs of mold

Wood or fabric discoloration is a big. However, all discoloration is not due to mold. Carpeting near baseboards, for example, can be stained by outdoor pollution entering the house. Stains or soot may be caused by the smoke from burning candles or cigarettes. However, if you suspect mold, then keep a look out for discolored growth and contact a professional immediately. Note that it is difficult to identify mold since not all of the 270 mold types can be detected through smell.

How your child can be at risk

Indoor air quality studies by the World Health Organization show that 60-80% of indoor air quality problems are mold related, and that the most notorious perpetuator of mold is the central air conditioner system lurking in your home, with ducts and vents accessing each corner of your house – making it easy for an invasive attack of mold spores without you ever knowing it.

As mold and bacteria grow on in ducts and drain pans, they are distributed through ducts to your living spaces. This is an ever bigger concern if you’re child is in school or day care. In such populated settings with poor AC environments, its very possible for a sick child to enter the premises and get other kids sick. How does this happen? For example, if a child comes in with the flu, its a very real probability that the virus may get transmitted to the air conditioner unit and remain there till it’s redistributed throughout the room(s). This is one of the number one ways children get sick at a facility, even though they may be in completely different rooms.

If you suspect your child is getting ill at their school, talk to the school’s superintendent and voice your concerns. Public buildings with poor air quality and possible mold/air pollutant problems are identified as “sick buildings”. Make sure you take action because this is a problem that isn’t going to go away on its own.

What you can do

Your best bet for avoiding mold problems in your home, or child’s environment, is to invest in a portable AC. Portable ACs are fast becoming the smart family’s alternative to cooling their home. These mobile room air conditioners offer spot cooling without the hassle of ducts and vents – all glorious havens for mold spores. Most mobile ACs now come with the multiple filters and dual functions, including dehumidifiers to remove excess mold-causing moisture from the area.

Apparently, you have some degree of “exercise reluctance” or you wouldn’t be reading an article on weight loss. Therefore, you need to continue reading to understand how you can learn to banish negative exercise feelings. You are getting in your own way of actually being able to have physical fun! That’s right. You are supposed to enjoy physical movement and activities. Once you learn the secret to having fun while being active, there will be no will power involved in your approach to fitness and exercise.

Weight loss retreats offer a wide variety of activities in a safe, controlled, and well-supervised environment to support your efforts. All too often, doing things alone can result in reverting right back to the same negative stinkin’ thinkin’ pattern that sabotages your efforts time and time again. Whatever it takes to reframe the way you think about finding exercise activities enjoyable will promote both physical and mental health.

The key to making it fun is to first find your “drivers”. That can be as simple as recalling what you were doing the last time you actually participated in physical activities. What were they? Was it in college or high school when you were part of a team? Maybe you danced, bowled, hiked, or maybe you haven’t ever discovered your inner preferences. Maybe you participated in previous activities to meet the requirements of others and never really got in touch with your own driving force for activity.

People who have passion for sports participation, dance arts, or recreational activities have an easier time rekindling the drivers that once compelled them. Just remember the importance of properly conditioning for the specific activity of choice so that you are not a “weekend athlete” at risk for getting injured. Make sure you don’t try to just pick up where you left off in high school, or your activities will be short lived.

Let’s say you prefer the outdoors and enjoy taking drives to get out and unwind. Why not take this on foot or by bicycle to accomplish so much more? You will be surprised at how much distance you can travel just unwinding your mind. The important thing here is that you aren’t minding the exercise one bit. It is just a matter of reframing your thoughts about going on such an outing. Instead of tying a negative anchor to it by thinking of this as “exercise”, think of it as a special time of day that you have allotted yourself. Soon, you will enjoy the exercise aspect and you won’t need “discipline” to make yourself go.

A good choice to accomplish these first steps is by going to a weight loss bootcamp. There you will be in the hands of passionate professionals who can make the love for exercise contagious. While this is the ideal way to go, budget and responsibilities can sometimes eliminate this option at a time when you need it most. So here is my best advice for finding your exercise drivers without a professional environment:

Try not to recruit others who have not yet demonstrated a commitment to being active. When you rely on others to accompany you, make sure that you choose people who are already dedicated so that they can inspire and motivate you for the same. If you make your exercise contingent on someone else joining you, then your changes are greatly reduced. Make the appointment with yourself and see how empowering it is when you actually keep your own self-promises! It builds into rock solid commitment.

What if you are not an outdoor person and cannot remember a single positive exercise experience? Where do you start?

Then it is time to adventure into some exploratory fitness. This way you can learn a lot about what motivates you to continue and what discourages you to quit. In order to take up new activities and feel “driven” to stick to the activities, you will need to find what drives you and use that to build on that driving force that compels human activity. Then, weight loss and weight maintenance become welcome byproducts from doing the activities you enjoy and have fun doing it!

You may have heard this firsthand as part of a conversation at some point in the past when one person remarked about another “Oh, he’s a drug addict” or “she’s an alcoholic” in an accusatory tone. Had they been talking about the same people with almost any other medical problem and said “he’s diabetic” or “she’s got cancer”, however, their tone would probably have been much different — likely more sympathetic.

This is because addiction is generally still not viewed as a disease, unfortunately, but is perceived by many people to be more of a character flaw and/or a lack of willpower. Most addicts themselves beat themselves up daily about the notion that they are too weak to kick their habits. These simple analogies and explanations that follow may help clarify the issue and help a few people understand addicts and the problems they face a little better.

The brain is at the center of life in our bodies and if you consider its most basic function it is to keep us alive and maintain our species by telling us when to eat (by signaling hunger), drink (by signaling thirst), procreate to have offspring, and when to fight or when to flee — presumably to thwart danger. These are several of the most basic and powerful instincts among many that reside in the amygdala and limbic system (the “oldest” evolutionary part of the brain).

Found in the center of the brain, the almond-shaped amygdala is a complex of related nuclei that plays a role in emotionally laden memories, but is most known for being the area responsible for the “fight or flight” response. This is considered a natural defense that every animal uses one of its primary strategies for staying alive. It’s one of the oldest sites in the brain, but we still don’t know everything about it. It contains a huge number of opiate receptor sites which can relate to not only fear, but rage and sexual feelings also. It is believed to be responsible for anxiety disorders in humans also, and anxiety is symptomatic of most mood disorders. Consider it a critical “survival” area of the brain that sends out basic messages of survival instinct that are so powerful that there is no way we can ignore them.

If you were in the desert and had been unable to drink water for days, this area of your brain would be entirely focused on finding water. Your tongue would swell up and the sensation of thirst would be so strong that it would be practically unbearable. Imagine a thirst so powerful that you would resort to drinking your own urine — or anything liquid — to relieve that thirst.

In another scenario if you were a caveman lying around the den with your group and the last animal carcass has been picked clean for days now — it would be time to go hunt. As the group gets a move on you are suffering from a sprained ankle and you really do not want to get up and go. But your brain tells you that you must, or you would be left behind and eventually starve to death. So the brain injects adrenaline and lots of dopamine into your bloodstream to get you up and going, because it knows you don’t have a choice if you want to stay alive. Those two chemicals are also responsible for enabling you to function normally.

Today you are still that same being, but in an evolutionary second society has advanced radically and you are no longer in a cave. You are lying in bed and suffering from depression and anxiety that are so bad you can hardly think about functioning and it’s time to go to work. You really don’t want to get out of bed, but you have missed work for several days and you are about to get fired.

Your brain knows if you get fired you will not be able to provide food for your family (hunt) so it tries to inject adrenaline and dopamine and other hormones and chemicals into your bloodstream to get you motivated just as it did in the cave — but it’s not working. There is just no dopamine to be had (a natural brain opiate) and unfortunately you (or anyone) simply can not function if you are dopamine deficient. You become anxious and begin to sweat. You wonder how people are going to view you, all pale and sweaty and stammering — unable to meet new clients and transact business. You will probably get fired, were that to be the case often enough.

But wait — the brain and specifically the amygdala remembers that if you drink alcohol, you get a surge of dopamine. The brain remembers this and begins to tell you you must have alcohol or essentially you are going to die. Somehow in alcoholics and addicts, this memory and urge gets mixed into the amygdala and messages are transmitted at the survival level. The urge to drink alcohol is comparable to you the scenario above in the desert without water for days. Imagine again how powerful the amygdala truly is. If you were in 100 degree heat dying of thirst with no water for days and were handed a large, ice cold glass of water — could you not drink it? Think about it.

You are dying, so of course you will drink it. You would probably not hesitate to allow someone to cut a limb off your body to have that drink you are so thirsty and you brain is telling with such power you MUST drink that water at all costs. Well, because the message is coming to the alcoholic fro the amygdala, the same degree of intensity is how badly an alcoholic or addict wants their substance. Take a moment to imagine this and you will understand why the relapse level is so high. This should help you understand how, when an addict or alcoholic relapses, that message was so strong it overwhelmed any logical excuse to not have a drink. I am not going to say you can see how it almost isn’t their fault — but that’s the comparable situation. It’s pretty awful, isn’t t?

And so it is with the brain and dopamine (and other neurotransmitters). The brain uses its amazing ability to recall what it needs to keep you surviving, and it mixes up this message and stores it for some reason in the amygdala, where the call to use drugs or drink is powerful enough to be compared to any strong instinct to survive. Your cortex tells you rationally that smelling of alcohol in the morning is not acceptable, but it also tells you how you can cover up that smell. Drink Vodka and chew a lot of gum. But the Vodka is so important to that person because of what’s happening in the brain that he (or she) ends up having a drink no matter what the time is.

I believe that most addicts and alcoholics are people with neurochemical imbalances that require some sort of treatment or they will just continue to relapse, over and over again. If a doctor can diagnose the mood disorder properly, then he can offer a medication to start working on that end of the problem. This is called dual diagnosis and if you or a loved one does have a drinking or drug problem, make CERTAIN that your treatment involves being thoroughly examined for any number of disorders that could be the root cause of addiction.

The message here is that not only is addiction a disease of the brain, but that it is likely linked to other disorders that may help explain where the addiction is originating or how it is being “turned on”. The prospect for being able to lead a healthy more normal life may actually reside in another disorder up to 80 percent of the time, some experts believe. So next time you have a conversation where the addict alcoholic is being condemned on a moral basis, you’ll hopefully agree these are diseases that are just as dangerous as cancer, and as difficult or maybe even more difficult to beat.

A real key to coming out on top of it all, as I feel I have been able to do, is to go get diagnosed to see if you have any disorders, get to a dual diagnosis treatment center and have the disorder treated, and then live at a sober living to pull your life and head together to readjust to this new way of living.

Occupational Therapists are trained to help people with illness or disability learn how to maintain their daily lifestyle. These daily routines help us feel in control of our lives, and illness forces us to change and become more dependent on others. There are ways to modify and adapt so that we can regain a greater sense of mastery over our lives even while undergoing treatment. Remember to first check with your physician to make sure that you receive medical clearance to engage in the following activities.
Here are some suggestions:

1) Take care of yourself by balancing work,rest, play and treatment. You may need to shift priorities and delegate responsibilities to others if able. It’s OK if the house is a little dirty.

2) Fatigue is the greatest side effects suffered after cancer treatment. However, research has found that exercise during treatment can actually counter the fatigue. Exercise improves quality of life, enhances function, and gives one a sense of control. Even starting with 5 minutes of exercise a day can be beneficial. The less you do, the more fatigue you will feel.

3) If you have received a TRAM FLAP reconstruction, putting on shoes and socks may be difficult. Assistive devices such as long shoe horns or stocking aides may make the process easier

4) Peripheral neuropathy is another side effect of chemotherapy regimens. Loss of balance and loss of sensation in the hands and feet is a concern. Take measures to reduce risk of falls by removing area rugs, clear and place non-skid mats in the bathtub, and use nightlights. Larger pens with a wider circumference or with grippers can help to hold a pen when hands are weak.

5) Calm your nerves by using techniques such as deep breathing,meditation, and yoga which assists with lymphatic flow, pain, and are great stress relievers.

6) Conserve your energy by using carts to carry items instead of making several trips to the refrigerator when cooking. Use frozen vegetables instead of fresh to avoid the work of chopping. Sit while you perform tasks. Store items that you need regularly nearby.

7) Try to use both hands as a team rather than relying just on the unaffected arm for daily tasks such as bed making, dishwashing or lifting. If you recently received surgery, it is better to slide objects if possible rather than lifting them.

Finger fitness is important if chemotherapy has caused weakness. Special exercises can help you to maintain or improve the dexterity and strength in your hands.

9) Short rest breaks of 5-10 minutes during every 30-40 minutes of task can help to conserve energy for more enjoyable activities.

10) Velcro is one of the greatest inventions. Find shoes that use Velcro is unable to tie shoelaces.

Maybe you have not noticed, but Cancer, Autism, ADD, and many other diseases that were once rare are spreading rapidly and consuming us like wild fire. From the outside looking in, it just does not seem to make sense. We are a very wealth, industrialized society. And with all the expansions that science has made, one would think that we should have a better handle on these situations.

The statistics are alarming, cancer is the number one killer of children, and number 2 in adults! Women who work in the home have a 55% higher death rate of cancer than women who work outside the home! I don’t know a single person who has not been affected by cancer in some way, and although advancements are being made every day, the fact still remains, there has to be something causing this…THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING MAKING US SICK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Did you know that over 6 million children in America are being treated with drugs for ADD/ADHD? And that does not mean 6 million children have ADD/ADHD. There are many who have yet to be diagnosed. Scarier still, not only are our children sicker than they have ever been, but 50% of child bearing age adults can no longer conceive. If you ask me, it looks like the human race is headed for extinction.

I’m sure that you have all heard the news reports on toxins, but did you really listen to them? Did you take to heart what they had to say? The EPA has determined that toxic air quality in the average home is 3 to 5 times higher than outdoor air, even in the most polluted cities! If you aren’t scared, you should be. All of this is related. There are things that manufacturers of the products we use to care for our children, ourselves, our homes, our pets, don’t want us to know. They don’t want us to know what they are putting in these products, making them TOXIC, all for the sake of profit. And even worse than that, the FDA does not require manufacturers to list these toxic ingredients on their labels because they are not “active” ingredients. Well they are actively killing us! If you ask me, that’s active!

Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, is on over 90% of the products we put on our bodies and in our mouths on a daily basis – INCLUDING BABY SHAMPOO! Now certainly a single, low dose exposure may not harm you, but everyday use over time is going to have a serious impact. Think about this, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, bubble bath, cosmetics, lotions, soap – these are just some of the products we use every day that include chemicals that are killing us, and our children!

Many of the products you use to clean and sanitize your home, your children’s toys, where your family eats, etc. also contain hazardous chemicals, some of which are even hormone disrupters, causing infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. And you do not have to ingest these products for them to be harmful. Chemicals are also absorbed through the skin and the lungs, meaning simply using these products and breathing while doing so is harming you. Did you know that up to two weeks after a substance is used on a surface is can still have chemical toxicity? Chemicals have what is known as a half life, and if you or your child touches that surface, say your baby (like all babies do) puts their mouth on this surface, there is chemical exposure there.

Now, I have thrown a whole bunch of scary info out there in one short article. Bottom line, we need to be aware of what is out there, and what it is doing to our health. Next time you go to the store, ask your self, is this REALLY safe? All of us should be searching for a manufacturer who has our best interest at heart, not their pocket book, and although this sounds like a complete oxymoron, there are manufacturers out there, who do just that.