Some people are motivated to exercise solely for weight loss. In my opinion, this is a mistake. Instead, we should understand that a fitness program has four main goals: lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol levels, eliminating excess body fat, and building or toning muscle tissue. In the process, weight loss may occur. However, it’s just as possible that, as lean muscle mass replaces body fat, there might actually be a net gain in body weight because muscle tissue weighs more than fat. This isn’t a sign that the fitness program has failed. Rather, it’s a successful outcome. Even with a net gain in body weight, you’ll be healthier, trimmer, younger-looking, and more upbeat than ever!
If physical exercise is so beneficial to improving health and quality of life, why don’t more people do it on a regular basis? There are as many reasons as there are inactive people. It puzzles me that someone can know all the health benefits of regular exercise and still choose a sedentary (“couch potato”) lifestyle. Excuses are as numerous as an army of ants. “It’s too hot.” “It’s too cold.” “I don’t have time.” “I don’t have the right shoes/right outfit.” The list goes on and on.
To keep myself motivated, I listen to my body tell me how good it feels to take care of my daily duties. As a result, I keep up with my children better, clean my house better, and garden more energetically. I’m just better at all of my daily activities and can do more before I feel tired. With activities built into my daily life, I no longer have excuses to avoid exercise. To use an additional example, I try to climb stairs instead of using the elevator, realizing that the little things I do will add up over time. Rather than looking for ways to fit activity into my life, I see to it that activities make up my life.
As a nutrition specialist, you will deal with this issue of excuses time and again. One thing I’ve learned is that belittling people for their inactivity or for the way they look will not motivate them to exercise. The best way to get others to adopt and stick to a fitness program is to lead by example. Show that you are in great shape and that exercise keeps you slim, healthy, and positive in your approach to life’s ups and downs. Turn yourself into a walking (or running) advertisement for the active lifestyle you advocate, and you’ll be more likely to motivate others to follow in your footsteps.
In addition to making a visit to the doctor less stressful for patients, the staff needs to offer an educational experience to help patients invest in their own physical well-being. This is done by providing appropriate reading materials (illustrated brochures, booklets, etc.), verbal or written instructions, and demonstrations of how to use medication and health-related supplies and equipment.
The medical assistant plays a key role in this education effort. When this kind of instruction is offered in a calm and friendly manner, patients are likely to leave their appointments with a sense of hope that they can play an active role in the management of their condition. Studies have shown that such empowered patients do not require as many follow-up appointments.
The following article highlights the innovative ways that one hospital in Pennsylvania is utilizing the iPhone to achieve various health care objectives. From accessing patients’ vital stats in real time to publishing potentially life saving medical alerts, the staff at Doylestown Hospital is redefining what it means to be a patient care provider in the digital age. I hope you’ll find this article as inspiring as I did. Thanks…
In my opinion, the ability to maintain positive “human relations” is one of the most important aspects of modern pharmacy. We are fortunate that the public has always viewed pharmacy as an honorable profession. I believe we owe this to our ability to serve our customers well, acting always in their best interests. For one thing, we are much more accessible to the public than any other healthcare professionals. Therefore, patients trust us with their health concerns and feel comfortable confiding even embarrassing problems with us. If we maintain a professional attitude and treat our customers with respect, they’ll return and tell us even more about their conditions, which will help the supervising pharmacist advise them and, in some cases, provide vital information to the attending doctors.
While working in retail, I had many opportunities to practice my interpersonal skills. Remember, when patients come to you, they may already be sick and may have spent time at a doctor’s office that day. By the time they get to the pharmacy, they may have run out of patience. I’ve found that greeting patients with a smile and a pleasant manner puts them at ease. They don’t mind waiting for a prescription if they feel you are taking good care of them. Be sure to explain what information you need from them to make the process go more quickly and why you need it. If there’s a delay or if it takes longer than normal to prepare the prescription, give them updates. For example, you may have to wait for insurance approval, or a suspension might need time to dissolve. Information lets customers feel they are part of the process. When they understand what is going on, they usually remain calm.
Congratulations!! You have a little one on the way. I know you’ve heard time and time again to easy. And take it easy you should. But you should still make sure you continue your healthy habits and exercise is one of them. For some women, participating in an exercise program is not recommended. But for most of us, moderate exercise is fine during pregnancy. Just remember to get your physician’s clearance prior to starting or continuing your exercise program.
When starting an exercise program consider these activities:
Swimming (Any Stroke)
Water Aerobics
Pregnancy Yoga/Aerobic Classes @ your local YMCA
Walking
Elliptical Trainer
Jogging (continue as long as you feel comfortable)
Kegel Exercises
Everyday, Twice per day for 5 minutes:
Increase duration by 5 minutes each month until you reach 30 minutes
Hold contraction for 10-15 seconds and then release
Exercises To Avoid
Bouncing
Jarring (anything that would cause a lot of up and down movement)
Leaping
A sudden change of direction
A risk of abdominal injury
General Info:
Dress comfortably in loose-fitting clothes and wear a supportive bra to protect your breasts.
Drink plenty of water to avoid overheating and dehydration.
Skip your exercises if you’re sick.
Opt for a walk in an air-conditioned mall on hot, humid days.
Above all, listen to your body.
Your developing baby and other internal changes require more oxygen and energy.
Hormones produced during pregnancy cause the ligaments that support your joints to stretch, increasing the risk of injury.
The extra weight and the uneven distribution of your weight shift your center of gravity.
The extra weight also puts stress on joints and muscles in the lower back and pelvic area and makes it easier for you to lose your balance.
Your body is signaling that it’s had enough if you feel:
Fatigue
Dizziness
Heart palpitations (your heart pounding in your chest)
Shortness of breath
Pain in your back or pelvis
And if you can’t talk while you’re exercising, you’re doing it too strenuously.
Limit your exercise if you experience of the following:
Pregnancy-induced high blood pressure
Early contractions
Vaginal bleeding
Premature rupture of your membranes, also known as your water (the fluid in the amniotic sac around the fetus) breaking early
Not only does exercise keep you healthy and physically active during pregnancy, it can also aid in the delivery and recovery process. So keep exercising and reap the rewards.
As a manager, you will be directly involved in organizational and structural development and maintenance. Also, keep in mind that there are a great deal of managers in health care today whose primary role was or remains that of a health care provider. As a result, many of these managers have not had any formal education or training in administration or management. You will come across many nurses, doctors, physical therapists, social workers, and dieticians in management who will look to you for guidance because of the education you are receiving in this program.
Today’s medical information managers are at the heart of the many changes taking place in health care. The manager has to bring together and hold together the human resources, physical facilities, professional expertise, information systems, and other support systems necessary for a health care organization to deliver cost-effective, high-quality care. Therefore, managers must comprehend the complexities of organizational life, structure, behavior, and development, from the Chief Executive Officer to the entry-level file clerk.
Every member of the health care organization is responsible for contributing to the cost effectiveness and quality of that organization’s services. The more you understand about your organization, the more you will be able to contribute to its success as well as your own. I am not suggesting that you attempt to know everything about everything. That goal can be just as inefficient as not knowing anything about anything. What I’m suggesting is that you understand the big picture. As you imagine the type of organization you would like to work for, think about the material in this course that is relevant to you. Strive to grasp the basics and then you can work to expand upon this base of knowledge.
The media reported with great fanfare this week that it really doesn’t matter what type of diet you go on–low fat, low carbs, grapefruit, whatever–the key factor is calories in, calories out. The most recent iteration of this finding is a study by Sacks et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What these studies don’t address is what do we do once we’ve lost the weight? As a world-class yo-yo dieter, I can attest to the fact that losing weight is easy, keeping it off is something altogether different. So I am very pleased to report that I have passed the 18-month mark in my maintenance plan after losing nearly 80 lbs on Jenny Craig. This means that over the last 18 months, I haven’t been more than 3 lbs. over my goal weight.
What has been really helpful to me is participation in the National Weight Control Registry. Part of this is purely psychological. After all, how bad would it be to have to let the NWCR know that they had to take me off their books because I had become chubby once more! Catastrophe! But even better, the NWCR provides lots of clues for maintaining weight loss. Here’s what successful maintainers do:
Eat breakfast every day (78%)
Modify food intake (98%)
Exercise, at least one hour per day (90%)
Weigh at least once per week (75%)
Watch less than 10 hours of TV per week (62%)
Actually, I do all of these things and then some. I weigh myself every morning, and I have strategies in place depending on the outcome. If I’m one pound over my goal, I drop the cheese from my lunch sandwich. Two pounds over, and I drop my afternoon and evening snacks. Usually, this takes care of things in one day. One day is better than looking at weeks or months to get back to where I’m supposed to be. Read the rest of this entry »
Most health care facilities in this country accept responsibility for filing health insurance claims. This is done either in the office, or forms are sent to a billing company that provides medical billing services for a fee. Because of the increasing complexity of medical billing and the increased number of managed care insurance programs, the need for additional skilled medical billing specialists is growing rapidly.
Because billing has become more complex, more training is required than ever before. Untrained personnel can no longer cope with the myriad of programs, regulations, and updates in the field. Likewise, medical facilities cannot operate with the loss of revenue resulting from inaccurate billing and inexperienced personnel. This is especially true since carriers, including and especially the government (Medicare), have consistently cut payment amounts over the last 10 years. It follows that since most health care facilities are dealing with reduced payment revenue, poor billing practices cannot be tolerated.
In addition to the typical doctor’s office situation, there are opportunities with the health insurance carriers, malpractice and liability insurance companies, state, local, and federal government agencies, medical consulting companies, law offices, private insurance billing companies, hospitals, clinics, schools, computer companies specializing in medical software, and self-employed consulting and/or billing companies. The actual duties may vary from position to position, as we discussed earlier, but the basic knowledge needed is the same.
A career in medical billing should be considered for many reasons. First, it represents a good, solid, stable job, with varying salary ranges, depending on such variables as specific duties, geographic region, experience, and the company itself. A medical billing specialist is a respected member of the health care team. And, as is true of all health care careers, you will be able to help people every day. It certainly is a career worth working for!
Everybody wants great abs, but how do you get them?
Here’s a few helpful tips to get you headed in the right direction. Many people do tons of exercises to strengthen the abdominal area but never see any results.
That’s because:
The abdominal muscles are covered by fat layers and the definition of the muscle is therefore covered.
The exercises are done at an intensity that is not great enough to sufficiently tone the muscle.
The exercises chosen are done wrong or do not effectively target the abdominal muscles.
Abdominal fat is primarily stored on top of your abdominal muscle tissue in layers. You can not convert fat into muscle and vice versa. So to transform your stomach into a flat one, you’ll need to burn off those excess fat layers and tone the abdominal muscle underneath.
Here are a few tips:
Eat less salty foods and drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to avoid excess fluid retention.
Begin a resistance training program to increase muscle mass and tone. The more muscle your body has to sustain, the more calories it will burn at rest and with any given activity.
Remain or become physically active to burn off excess calories stored in the body. Consider cardiovascular exercises such as walking, jogging, skating, swimming, basketball, tennis, etc…
Stabilize your blood sugar by eating small meals every 2-3 hours and eating foods with a lower glycemic index such as vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and some fruits.
Do a variety of core exercises to help strengthen and tone the abdominal area in every possible way.
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