Here are a few products I’m in love with right now. I hope you find a new product to add to your household or self-care routine. The list may also give you ideas for a surprise for friends, family, or co-workers.

Nature Valley Wafer Bars

Nature Vally Wafer Bars in Peanut Butter Chocolate taste out of this world and have made my weight loss journey easier. My husband also eats them every day, no weight loss journey, they’re that good. They have multiple flavors and at 100 calories per bar, it makes a great breakfast or snack. Your children will love these too!

You can purchase it at Kroger.

Ohio Tea Company

Ohio Tea Company, wow this is a true tea place. If you want it, chances are they will have it in stock. Teas I had not heard of and have bought a few small packs of exotics just to taste. The flavor I’m in love with is the Monks Blend. It’s the perfect drink anytime tea, I’m drinking right now. One page on their site says they have over 400 teas in stock, surely you can find a few blends for you. Makes great gifts!

You can purchase it online at OhioTeaCo.com.

Bach Rescue Pastilles

Bach Rescue Pastilles in Lemon are homeopathic and trusted generations. They have been a lifesaver since my diagnosis of Sjogren’s Syndrome, I have difficulty making saliva and my mouth is always dry. These help to produce saliva and taste great. They are soft round pastilles that come in a yellow round tin and contain 35 pastilles in each tin.

You can purchase it off Amazon.

Stonefire Flat Bread

The flatbreads have made my weight loss journey easy and when you are cramped for the time they’re the perfect match. We create all types of flatbreads for dinner with all types of goodies on them but I also eat them for lunch or dinner. Each flatbread is 100 calories which works for me, I often add peanut butter or honey to one and that fills me up.

You can purchase it at Kroger.

I would like to hear what products you have added to your life lately that you love? Leave me a note in the comment section below.

Melinda

Learning about Osteoporosis happened to me at the tender age of 16 years old. Granny had Osteoporosis and participated in a Clinic Trial to see if Citracal helped over a years time. Unfortunately, Granny didn’t get much help from the study except she now knew she had to take calcium every day. This was the late 1970’s and they knew little about how to treat the illness.

Fast forward to today and look at all the knowledge we have and the RX medications we have for treatments. Participating in a respected Clinical Trial could help you or a loved one. At a minimum, it advances our society.

*One important note about Clinical Trails is you need to know exactly who is the company behind the study, pharmaceuticals? higher education? or to gather information? If you don’t have a relationship with the person who asked you to join, have them send you all the brochures about the study including the treatments or medication being evaluated. 

I have never had a bad experience while participating in Clinical Trials, which were all Mental Health focused. The last thing you want is a scam. 

Let’s talk more about what is Osteoporosis and what its causes are. 

Make no bones about it, World Osteoporosis Day on October 20, is the time to learn about osteoporosis. Celebrate good health and educate yourself and others about the value of taking care of your body and protecting your bones and muscles from disabling and life-threatening fractures.

It’s interesting to note that prior to 1994, osteoporosis wasn’t even considered a major disease. But in 1998, two prominent organizations committed to educating the public about osteoporosis, combined to create the International Osteoporosis Foundation. 

One of the most important events for WOD is checking bone density. Bones that are less dense are more liable to easily break or fracture at sudden movement or during minor falls. These bone density tests are available on WOD all over the world. 

Melinda

References:

National Today

Entirely Health

Thank you for all the great feedback on the Blogger Highlight series, I’ve enjoyed meeting each blogger and sharing their site with you. This week I highlight a new blogger, Ms. C. Loves.

Ms. C. Loves

If music be the food of love, play on✨

In my world, where my life is ever so happening yet my memory is ever so fleeting, I have decided to dedicate some time weekly to preserve those precious moments for my future wrinkly self.

So here, I present to you: my valiant attempt to document all the big and small things in life that capture my heart (cheesy, I know!)—enjoy!

Check out her website for great insight. 

Melinda

Looking for the Light

Did You Know?

1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. That’s one person every 2 minutes in the U.S

The two most common risk factors of breast cancer are being born female and getting older.

In 2022, it is estimated that nearly 44,000 people in the U.S. will die from breast cancer.

These number get my attention!

One of the most important appointments you can keep each year is to get a mammogram.

Fortunately, organization like Susan G. Komen spend each year advocating and educating themselves on the latest research. With them staying in top of the facts, its helps us by getting the latest information.

Know Your Risk

Knowing your family history is lifesaving. Talk to a doctor about your family history and see how that history impacts your risk of breast cancer. You and your doctor can create a personalized plan to monitor for signs of the disease.

Get Screened

For those at average risk, have a mammogram every year starting at age 40. If you have any signs of breast cancer, finding it early and treating it early may save your life.  

Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Living a healthy lifestyle is within your control and may lower your risk of breast cancer. Maintain a healthy weight, limit alcohol intake and exercise regularly. It all matters when it comes to your overall health and risk of disease.

Need Help?

The Komen Breast Care Helpline is a free resource available for every person, including survivors, caregivers, those living with metastatic breast cancer and people who have not yet been touched by breast cancer but have questions about how to better care for themselves. The Helpline specialists and oncology social workers provide emotional support and guidance to resources and Komen’s other Patient Care Center services, such as financial assistance, access to screening and diagnostic services, and patient navigation.

Mark you calendar early every year so you can get an appointment.

Melinda

References:

The first Friday of October is World Smile Day (October 7), a relatively new holiday with a fascinating story. Created by a commercial artist named Harvey Ball, this day came about as a response to his creation of the smiley face. Harvey worried that the commercialization of the symbol would lessen its impact. We can hardly blame him for his estimation; the symbol has been used in many different ways including clothing, comic books, coffee mugs, pins, and more. These little yellow faces are more than just a symbol, they’re a statement about the power of smiling.

HISTORY OF WORLD SMILE DAY

In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist and ad man from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol we’ve all come to know. Popularity for this symbol exploded into the world of popular culture. It’s every artists’ dream for their work to be respected and recreated and few symbols have had quite the legacy that Harvey’s creation has had.

Throughout the years, the smiley face has become one of the most well-known symbols in the world. It has appeared in movies such as ‘Forest Gump’ and used as a motif in the graphic novel, ‘Watchmen.’ It’s so well-known that just by saying “smiley face”, we bet that you can see it in your mind. That recognizable yellow circle with black dots for eyes and a simple curve for a genuine and pure smile. However, the original smiley face had more of an oblong smile, a bit more hand drawn in aesthetic, taking up more space on the face than we see in modern recreations. Because of its overuse, it started to move away from its intent of goodwill and good cheer and he knew something had to be done.

In 1999, World Smile Day became an official holiday in order to regain control. The celebration aspects of the day were simple yet effective: people were to use the day to smile and make small acts of kindness worldwide. Harvey wanted to keep the smile connected to the human being. By doing so, you’d smile and in return, you’d make someone else smile and brighten up their day.

This is a day I can give support to everyday! SMILE!

Melinda

References:

World Smile Day

Thank you for all the great feedback on the Blogger Highlight series, I’ve enjoyed meeting each blogger and sharing their site with you. This week I highlight a new blogger, Mollie Player.

MOLLIE PLAYER

FEATS OF GREAT STRENGTH

 Self-help author and mental health counselor Mollie Player has one goal: to help people accomplish feats of great strength. These feats include: living simply, parenting peacefully, achieving personal goals, overcoming depression and anxiety, maintaining healthy relationships, increasing self-acceptance and, ultimately, achieving inner peace.

You must check out Mollie Player’s site, you won’t be disappointed.

Melinda

Looking for the Light

I can’t of a better day dedicated to educating and advocating for Mental Health. Most of you know I have Treatment Resitant Bipolar Disorder. Taking care of our Mental Health can be as simple as taking my meds every day, reducing stress, and getting enough sleep. Most importantly is to check in with yourself daily, be brutally honest with yourself and your medical team. It took me years to be honest with my doctor because I was Hypomanic and enjoyed the high. Please remember the higher you go, the harder you fall. 

With so much going on, it’s easy to get caught up in the everyday tasks and have little time to self-check our emotional wellbeing.

Whilst the pandemic has, and continues to, take its toll on our mental health, the ability to reconnect through World Mental Health Day 2022 will provide us with an opportunity to re-kindle our efforts to protect and improve mental health.

Many aspects of mental health have been challenged; and already before the pandemic in 2019 an estimated one in eight people globally were living with a mental disorder. At the same time, the services, skills and funding available for mental health remain in short supply, and fall far below what is needed, especially in low and middle income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global crisis for mental health, fueling short- and long-term stresses and undermining the mental health of millions. Estimates put the rise in both anxiety and depressive disorders at more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. At the same time, mental health services have been severely disrupted and the treatment gap for mental health conditions has widened.

World Mental Health Day is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members and contacts in more than 150 countries. This day, each October, thousands of supporters come to celebrate this annual awareness program to bring attention to mental illness and its major effects on peoples’ lives worldwide. In some countries this day is part of an awareness week, such as Mental Health Week in Australia.

We all agree that one of the most important aspects of a ‘good life’ is our overall health. A meaningful definition of health as a ‘healthy state of well‐being’ should address the whole person, ‘the general condition of the body and mind’. Studies show that physical and mental well‐being have a major impact on one another – cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, cardiovascular or respiratory disease should not be viewed in isolation from the possible mental and emotional issues of an individual.

This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day is a critical move forward in drawing attention to the effect of long term illness on patients with major chronic disease and their families, as well as its importance to mental health advocates. Addressing mental health issues will lead to better outcomes, better compliance, and improved quality of life for people who suffer from chronic illnesses. Campaign materials will focus on proven strategies for promoting emotional and mental well‐being while living with long term physical illness, and the role of primary care in improving access for those who suffer from mental health and long term health conditions. A special call to action section has been written by seven international health professionals, intended to show us the way forward.

As we all emerge from the pandemic, it is clear that no nation was ready for the associated mental health crisis and the effect of long COVID. In addition, many health systems are ill-prepared to deal with the physical and mental health challenges faced by their populations. On top of the pandemic, the world is also struggling to cope with effect of the war in Ukraine, the consequential displacement, climate emergency and a cost-of-living crisis, all of which have consequences for the well-being of world citizens.

Rates of people experiencing suicidal ideas are increasing globally and people with lived experiences of mental health, their families and other populations continue to tell us that their mental health well-being is not always at the forefront of governments, those who pay for services or society at large. However, we can all play our part in increasing awareness about what preventive mental health interventions work.

Melinda

References:

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2022

Wikipedia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939461/

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/23019781.world-mental-health-day-awareness/

https://www.wpanet.org/post/world-mental-health-day-10th-october-2022

The trigeminal nerve is the largest of cranial nerves and consists of 12 pairs of nerves that control many functions of the face. Causes of trigeminal neuralgia range from pressure on the nerve, aging, or a disorder that wears away the myelin such as cerebral palsy. Other causes include injury or stroke.

Those with trigeminal neuralgia may experience severe pain in the face and jaw. Even slight stimulation can trigger pain. The pain can be shooting or jabbing. Before an episode begins, some sufferers experience a burning sensation. The pain may be localized or spread and may worsen over time. It can also last a few minutes or days.

While treatments such as surgery or medications may provide relief, the condition is progressive over time.

About Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN)

Before we can celebrate the passing of this special day, we must first understand what trigeminal neuralgia is. TN is a disorder of the fifth cranial nerve (the trigeminal nerve) that causes chronic pain. It comes in two forms: TN1 and TN2. One can be affected by both of these types, but TN2 is typically a progression of TN1. This condition causes extreme and burning pain in the face, excessive salivation, depression, anxiety, and facial or head contortion. This pain can be triggered by routine activities such as brushing your teeth, shaving, or drinking a hot beverage; however, there is not always a trigger. An episode can occur spontaneously. TN may be caused by multiple things, such as multiple sclerosis, tumors, tangled arteries, an injury to the trigeminal nerve, or a blood vessel pressing on that nerve.

Physical and neurological examinations will be used to find a diagnosis, along with a review of patient history. In order to rule out other conditions, doctors may employ MRIs. Once a diagnosis is obtained, treatment consists of surgery, psychotherapy, anticonvulsants, and antidepressants. Doctors also recommend meditation and yoga.

I’m so thankful that research dollars are spent on a rare disease and I’m sure those with the illness are grateful too. 

Melinda

References:

National Today 

https://patientworthy.com/2021/10/14/celebrating-national-trigeminal-neuralgia-awareness-day/