The following blog posts have the category Health
Blog Home | View all blog categories
June is a special month dedicated to raising awareness about Alzheimer's disease and promoting brain health. Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month serves as a crucial period for educating the public, supporting those affected, and fostering research and advocacy efforts. Understanding Alzheimer's disease, its impact, and ways to support brain health is essential for everyone.
Winter is the time of year when those creepy, crawly cold and flu germs come out of hiding in search of a warm place to snuggle up and reproduce. On just about every public surface - and harboring on cell phones and computer keypads among many other places in our homes - they prey on adults and especially love finding their way onto children who just can't seem to keep their fingers out of their mouths and noses.
It's true that hearing loss comes with age, in fact, a reported up to 50% of those over 75 are affected. However, the World Health Organization reports that approximately 17% of teenagers and 19% of people in their 20s have signs of hearing loss, and much is likely noise-induced, especially in this digital day and age.
As many of those over 40 know, eyesight seems to get worse every year thereafter, resulting in a hearty sprinkling of reading glasses around the house. When you think about it, we rarely think about our ocular health unless our eyes are giving us problems.
Continue Reading...
Holidays have a bad rap when it comes to the fattening, unhealthy foods that generally accompany them, not to mention the extra boozing and grazing that occurs at many of the seasonal parties. But not all holiday foods can be blamed for packing on the pounds. Some elements of our traditional holiday feast even have "superfood" qualities.
'Tis the season for fresh, locally-grown leafy greens. As one of the first seeds to hit the dirt in the early spring, these hearty plants are now hitting the shelves in abundance. High in antioxidants, the benefits of adding more greens to your diet seem endless, with studies touting a number of health benefits, including cancer prevention, stronger bones, brain health, better vision, and healthier skin, among many others.
Few of us in Missouri are immune to occasionally losing an hour to mindless scrolling on our phones and devices. After all, it's the nature of social media and the internet: an endless series of rabbit holes full of breaking news, TikTok videos, shopping, and Insta updates we didn't know we needed. But, for some, those technological time warps aren't just occasional, they're a daily, or even hourly, preoccupation. When does an innocuous pastime become a problematic addiction? And what do we do about it?
In a world full of visible dangers, the last thing anyone in Missouri wants to think about is the invisible ones. But they're there and, believe it or not, many of them may be lurking inside your home. According to the CDC, each year,approximately 430 people in the U.S. die from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning and more than 50,000 are treated for it.Mold is prevalent in an estimated 70 percent of American homes. And the EPA and Surgeon General attribute more than 21,000 annual deaths from lung cancer in the U.S. to radon exposure.
Nobody likes to go to the doctor, especially when they aren't sick. But preventative healthcare is a huge piece of the long, healthy, and happy life puzzle. Annual wellness exams often include a general screening, vitals check, labs, and maintenance for chronic health conditions. In fact, it isn't uncommon that these annual exams identify early-stage diseases like cancer, concerning blood pressure and cholesterol levels, thyroid dysfunction, and a host of other common deficiencies and abnormalities. And, since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated 100 percent coverage for preventative care, there's no excuse for missing your annual physical.
Continue Reading...
Anymore, it's an expectation: New Year's Day rolls around and a laundry list of resolutions lies before us. Gym membership and self-help book sales skyrocket. The revelry of the holidays gives way to Dry January, "clean" meal planning, and the next best diet. Entrepreneurs recommit to the hustle. A growth mindset is on the tip of everyone's tongue. It seems that everyone is looking to fix, improve, and ascend the latter of some self-determined actualization or another.
Little in life is as important as healthful, restful sleep, and lots of it. But little in life seems to evade American adults as pervasively. Insufficient sleep, health, lifestyleimpacts nearly two-thirds of Americans. And, according to a recent study by the CDC, one in three adults doesn't get enough sleep on a regular basis.
It's an invisible facet of the aging process, but more critically linked to maintaining health, functionality, and autonomy than perhaps all else: brain health. From infancy to adulthood, the brain is in a constant state of growth, forming more than a million new neural connections every second in the earliest years of life and achieving 90 percent of its adult volume by age 6.
There's no getting around the fact that many jobs require desk time, and for many people, that means eight-plus hours a day just sitting. In an ideal world, a life complete with regular yoga practice, chiropractic adjustments, strength training, constitutionals, ideal nutrition, and relaxing massages might be the obvious solution. But few can support such luxuries. Still, adjustments must be made to the sedentary necessities of the grind if it's to continue, well, grinding. Here are a few simple solutions to the desk debacle:
It's one of those things that's overlooked until it's absolutely necessary: a first aid kit. Whether you're relaxing at home, navigating five-o-clock traffic, or summer adventuring in your new RV, having a simple first aid kit can mean the difference between an inconvenience and an emergency.
Winter is almost over and trees are budding with the first signs that spring is in the air. A crocus pops its sweet purple plumes through the last ice crystals and we heave a collective sigh of relief that, with the winter chills, the myriad of mucus-producing viruses is finally leaving the building. And then, for many, that first fatal sneeze. Spring, in all her verdant glory, has ushered back in seasonal allergies and the snotty noses and congestion we hoped not to revisit until the fall. For many of us in Missouri, seasonal allergies aren't just a nuisance, they prevent outdoor recreation, socialization, yard maintenance, and a host of other activities that make summer, well, summer.
The pandemic changed many things for many Americans, from how we work to how we socialize. One potentially positive shift is that it accelerated the already growing field of telehealth. Suddenly it became easier and made more sense to see your doctor online for basic ailments and routine check-ins. But is telehealth all it's cracked up to be? Here are some common questions you may have about telehealth:
Pets often become more like family members, and in the case of dogs (and the occasional cat), we tend to take them wherever we go. But before you pack up Fido for a summer road trip, it's important to think about how to keep your beloved pet safe when temperatures are extreme.
Continue Reading...
Heat-related illnesses are serious business. When left untreated, the symptoms of heat exhaustion can turn into heatstroke, which is life-threatening. During the prime summer months, this can be a big problem and one that can creep up on you, since the signs and symptoms of heatstroke can often look like something else. With normal summer temperatures slowly increasing around the globe, it's even more important to understand how heatstroke occurs and how you can prevent it.
Most Americans don't worry about how much water they use. But life depends on having enough clean, fresh water and this precious resource is becoming more scarce every single year.
Continue Reading...
Many Americans struggle with depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during the winter months. This year, it's been especially hard to stay mentally and physically healthy. When the pandemic has forced many of us to stay cooped up inside our houses, it just gets easier and easier to not get out of your pajamas or venture beyond your front door. But if you want to get back to a healthier lifestyle in the new year, getting outside is one great way to start improving your social life, physical health, and state of mind.
Continue Reading...
It's safe to say that, at this point, everyone around the globe is tired of the pandemic. So much so that there's now an official name for it: pandemic fatigue. Unfortunately, the end of this difficult episode unknown, which means we're going to have to live with the constraints of pandemic life and all of its negative impacts for much longer than we would like.
Taking care of elderly parents? Here's how to keep them safe and stay sane. Having the opportunity to spend time with and give back to your elderly parents can be an unexpected gift. But as rewarding as it is, it can also be exhausting, frustrating, and dispiriting at times. Here are some ways to stay sane and enjoy time with your loved ones while you still have them.
A few short months ago, many of us, and around the world, quickly learned that we were not prepared for an emergency. And while it didn't turn out to be the type of emergency we thought it was; there was really no need to buy all that toilet paper. It reminded us that we are not invincible, and that we really should have an emergency plan and supplies in place. If you haven't already put together your own emergency plan and supplies, it's not too late. Take the following steps to make sure your family is prepared.
This fall, we're heading into an unknown future with the COVID-19 virus. While some schools are doing their best to re-open, other schools and some parents have decided it's best for kids to stay home, at least for now. As adults, we know how to social distance, wash our hands, and do whatever we can to minimize our risk of infection, but these practices are harder to enforce with kids and teens. Whether or not your kids are going back to school in the fall, here are some things you can do to keep them healthy.
Continue Reading...
While the summer of COVID-19 continues, many Americans are looking for ways to get their recreation and vacation fixes without putting themselves at risk. Having a good old-fashioned day at the beach is a great option. Whether you're trying to minimize the risks of the virus or a jellyfish sting, make sure to follow these guidelines during your excursion to stay safe and protected.
Continue Reading...
Most of our health insurance companies and policies now offer telemedicine or telehealth appointments with doctors. Ambetter is just our latest company to offer convenient 24-hour access to in-network Ambetter providers for medical advice, a diagnosis or a prescription by phone or video. Ambetter's providers will evaluate your symptom
Continue Reading...
Summer in Missouri is almost here and, unfortunately, the global pandemic we've been faced with is still here too. While most of the country, and the world for that matter, are reopening, fears of a resurgence still linger, and we are faced with the unknown. Around the nation, everything from festivals to summer camps have been cancelled, vacation plans have changed, and we're all wondering if summer will even feel like summer at all.
As the end of the year approaches, it's a good time to take inventory, reflect on the past, and make plans for future goals. You might consider your relationships, professional life, health, financial situation, or all of the above. Don't forget to also take stock of your insurance coverage and make necessary adjustments based on things that have changed over the past year. Here are some of the most important areas to consider:
Continue Reading...
Most of the modern world is plugged in these days to smartphones, ipads and laptops, among other things. And many of us complete the loop by coaxing earbuds into our ears, turning up the sound to shut the world out, even just for a minute. But this practice, along with the increased amount of dangerous noise present in the modern world, is causing epidemic levels of early hearing loss in children, adults and teens. Read on to find out what you can do:
Continue Reading...
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Powered By: Confluency Solutions
