Tattoos and FHE brothers

I told my FHE brothers that I was once gothic and had an eyebrow ring, tongue rings and a few tattoos. They believed me, only because I hadn't been to FHE (for good reasons) and they thought I was a rebel. They told me that they would be more than willing to burn my off.

As I was surfing through recent health blogs and news stories I came across one on tattoo removal. I became curious and wondered what the process and effects are from getting a tattoo removed.

The U.S. Food And Drug Administration in, April 2006, estimated that over 45 million people in America have a tattoo. According to The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in March 2005, 24% of the general U.S. population has a tattoo and 17% of those who have a tattoo have considered having it removed. There are currently about 307,000,000 people in America. So according to the statistics about 73 million Americans have a tattoo and of that 73 million at least lhaf;fha;ljf want to get their tattoo removed.

Thats a lot of people wanting to get a tattoo removed. What are their options. About.com suggest several ways to get a tattoo removed the first is laser removal, intense pulsed light therapy, dermabrasion(sanding it off, very painful), do-it-yourself creams or you can just use cover-up.

The most effective way is laser removal but its costly, time consuming and most of the time it doesn't completely remove evidence of the tattoo.

The point of this is....don't get a tattoo and if you have one...good luck getting it removed.

First Gynecology visit

I spent two summers working at a gynecology office and so the words Vagina and pap-smear don't bother me. Actually the pap-smear procedure doesn't bother me at all. I've recently encountered a lot of engaged friends who feel otherwise. A lot of them are either scared, nervous and they think the whole procedure is going to be a nightmare, a life altering experience.

I'm here to tell these women that the experience isn't such a big deal. It doesn't matter if the Doctor is male or female or if they do expect you to strip and put on a gown. Yes, they will expect you to do this. They will expect you to do and know other things as well.

Here is a list of things to remember when you go for your first visit to the gynecologist
-Be aware of any problems
You should always see your gynecologist if you experience:
any unusualy and/ or persistent vaginal discharge,
bleeding between periods,
or bleeding after sexual intercourse.

-Know what questions you want to ask
If you have questions about sex or other female questions don't be afraid to ask. It's his job to know and help you.

-Bring your Insurance card and a photo id
Most times they will send you home if you can't certify as a new patient.

-Know your co-payment
It's not the receptionists job, its yours.
-Ask before hand if they need to draw blood
If they plan to draw blood then you'll probably have to fast that morning, so be aware if they need your blood.
-Know your body. Know when and how often you have your period.
Know your past history and be very open with the doctor. In order for him to understand you'll have to share this information.

Its not just the mother who suffers from postpartum depression. An article by CNN recently said that men, fathers, suffer from postpartum depression

A case of the fats

You're always told not to skip breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day. Did anyone ever tell you why?

It seems easy to just starve yourself of calories. How come this dieting tip doesn't work in the long run? Starving yourself simply slows down your metabolism. Skipping meals in the beginning of the day will only sabotage your goal to lose weight because you'll end up binging later on in the day and it slows down your metabolism.

Studies show that eating the majority of your food earlier in the day will help you to lose weight, from www. scienceblog.com, a University of Texas at El Paso researcher says, "morning meals satisfy our hunger better and seem to reduce overindulgence throughout the day, bolstering the importance of breakfast in controlling our weight."

It's not magical, it's practical. Start your day with a substantial breakfast and eat small portions of healthy and satisfying snacks through out the day. www.mayoclinic.com says, "That's why if you try so-called starvation diets, your body compensates by slowing down these bodily processes and conserving calories for survival."

Your metabolism works to digest your food but if you're not sticking food in there then it goes into starvation mode. You're body begins to compensate for all of those times you starved yourself. By starving yourself, you confuse your body and it starts converting those calories into fat.

The best way to lose weight is to regulate your metabolism and the best way to regulate is your metabolism is by exercising and eating frequent but smaller, healthier portions of food.

Autism to me

Rage, OCD habits and were things I never saw in my best friend Mariah. I knew she was autistic but I didn't really know what it meant.

I knew Mariah, my autistic friend, couldn't give me a straight answer. I knew she couldn't hold a real conversation but I didn't know the extent of her problem until I talked to my mother about it. Hannah wet the bed, she became very moody and angry with her family. Scars riddled her body where she would pick at her skin for no reason and sometimes she would smear her own feces all over the wall.

I never saw any of this. I once spent a whole week at camp with her. She also stayed at my house on several occasions. She was also capable of practically taking care of herself. She wasn't retarded, as many of my friends assumed she was.

Although it later became apparent that she had these disabilities, I knew she wasn't mentally challenged or as some of the kids would call her, retarded.

While autistic children tend to have communication and learning disabilities, each case is unique. A child with autism isn't the same as a child with retardation. My experience with autism has shown me that it is the inability of a child to focus on things that fully functioning people consider important.

So often autistic children are focused on insignificant details and tend to have a hard time making decisions about practical matters. Many times autism is identified by the age of three. The most defining sign is the child won't make eye contact with people. According to www.autism-society.org, symptoms of autism are these:

Lack of or delay in spoken language
Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
Little or no eye contact
Lack of interest in peer relationships
Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
Persistent fixation on parts of objects

But with their communication and focusing difficulties there is still room for a good deal of improvement. A lot of autistic children, with help, can come out of their shell.

When I first met Mariah she never talked, she never participated and she couldn't make up her mind. After spending countless hours with her, I saw drastic changes. She would dance at dances, go off and do things adeptly on her own and she even told me to shut up when I got on her nerves.

Each case of autism is very unique. There are exceptions to the things on the list above. Their disabilities and their abilities differ significantly in each autistic child.

I worked with a girl in high school who also had autism but her attitude was far different from that of Mariah's. My friends brother has autism and is able to attend college. Many people consider autism a form of retardation but really it is much different.

Falling asleep a little faster

I can’t sleep when I wear socks to bed. Socks are just a restriction, my feet can't breathe. I've found the reasons why I have problems sleeping at night. There could be many reasons why you aren’t getting a good nights sleep and here are a few that I find have an effect on me.

Use your bed just for sleeping
-Doing your homework, watching movies or playing games in bed makes your body think that your bed is a place where you stay awake. Keep the bed as a just a place to sleep.
-If you eat or exercise just a few hours before bed then your body is wired for that. Try winding down by reading or doing something relaxing a couple hours before bed.

Avoid caffeine in the afternoon
-By bedtime that caffeinated beverage from your afternoon is set in your system and you won’t sleep as quickly as you like.

Don’t take naps after 12 p.m.
-Don’t take late afternoon or evening naps. This makes your body think that you’ve had your bedtime all ready. This will only complicate the falling asleep process.

Stress
-Laying in bed and thinking about all your problems isn’t the best thing to do. Your mind is working at it day rate and therefore sleep will escape your grasp for even longer.

Sometimes is a mixture of all of these things or one. Think about what could be keeping you awake at night and try and find remedies to fix the problem.

old people getting better sleep than the young

It’s not just the sleep of death that men and women have to look forward to as they reach or pass the age of 100.

Accoring to www.sciencedaily.com did a survey of 15,638 over the age of 65. 2,800 people surveyed were over the age of 100 and of those 2,800, 70% of them were more likely to report good nights of sleep compared to the younger ones.

Why are older people sleeping better than the slightly over the top middle aged one’s? While extremely old people seem to be getting a better nights rest, why are college students not?

In a 2005 Sleep in America poll 22% report that it takes 30 minutes or more to fall asleep on most night. While a lot of people have difficulties falling asleep, college students are finding that their lack of sleep is having an effect on their performance as students.

USA today interviewed a psychology professor, Pamel Thacher, who said, "if you use all-nighters, your GPA is slightly lower on average," Thacher says. "Pulling all-nighters compromises your (overall) sleep" and makes it difficult to reach full academic potential.

While some of it is students throwing all nighters, some reasons are more subtle. Eating habits, napping during the day and high stress levels may contribute to these poor sleep habits. Read my next blog to find ways to improve your sleep habits.