May is Mental Health Awareness Month
Wellness is essential to living a full and productive life. We may have different ideas about what wellness means, but it involves a set of skills and strategies prevent the onset or shorten the duration of illness and promote recovery and well-being. It’s about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy.
Wellness is more than absence of disease. It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. And mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. The fact is our overall well-being is tied to the balance that exists between our emotional, physical, spiritual and mental health.
FDA Approves Ilaris for Pediatric Arthritis
The FDA has approved canakinumab (Ilaris, Novartis) for treatment of active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) in patients aged 2 years and older.
Administered as a once-monthly subcutaneous injection, canakinumab is the first interleukin-1 beta (IL-1b) inhibitor approved for SJIA, according to Novartis. Tocilizumab (Actemra, Roche), an IL-6 inhibitor, is also approved for SJIA, but is administered twice a month as an hour-long IV infusion.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring patterns of thinking that lead to self-destructive actions and the beliefs that direct these thoughts, people with mental illness can modify their patterns of thinking to improve coping. CBT is a type of psychotherapy that is different from traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy in that the therapist and the patient will actively work together to help the patient recover from their mental illness.
Banish Pain Partners: Depression & Stress
When pain holds you back, it can really drain your spirit. About 30% of people with chronic pain suffer from depression. It’s natural to occasionally feel stressed, sad, angry, or helpless as you try to deal with pain’s impact on your life, but don’t let your emotions spiral out of control. That will only worsen your pain and further aggravate your mood. Avoid this vicious cycle by taking steps to ease both the physical and emotional impacts of pain.
Get a Handle on Your Emotions
Ever feel like you’re on an emotional roller coaster? Life can bring on a variety of emotions, both positive and negative, that range in intensity from mild to severe. If you don’t have a handle on them, they have a way of getting a handle on you. Try these 5 strategies to keep your emotions in check.
Positive Thinking: Undo Stressful Thoughts
Sometimes the noise from inside our own heads is the biggest stressor of all. But here’s the phrase that can turn things around for you: “My mind is calm.”
Positive thinking and affirmations may be key to stress-free health, according to Dr. Maoshing Ni, author of Second Spring. Affirmations can help offset the soaring levels of stress hormones produced by tens of thousands of other negative thoughts we have on a daily basis.
New Approaches for Wounded Service Members’ Pain Care
U.S. military doctors say the wars are inflicting injuries among the most painful known to medicine. The Army is conducting extensive research with novel therapeutic options for treating pain, such as using complementary drug therapy regimens, multidisciplinary pain management strategies, and even virtual reality to help decrease pain during procedures.
Exercise for Patients with Major Depression
Exercise has been shown to be an effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), both when used alone and in combination with other treatments. There’s now sufficient research data to provide specific guidance on how to prescribe exercise for depressed patients, according to a report in the May Journal of Psychiatric Practice®.
Nerve Stimulation for Severe Depression
For nearly a decade, doctors have used an implanted electronic stimulator to treat severe depression in people who don’t respond to standard antidepressant therapy.
Researchers found that vagus nerve stimulation brings about changes in brain metabolism weeks or even months before patients begin to feel better.
Assessing Pain in Older Adults
Pain intensity number scales do not provide information about pain tolerability, interference with daily activity, or need for treatment and don’t address the uniqueness in each person’s pain experience,” said Herr. “In patients who do not have dementia and are able to communicate verbally, the goal should be to understand how tolerable or manageable the everyday pain really is, but these assessments take time and staff time is short.”
Incomplete HCV Testing Common
Without the second test, for HCV RNA, it remains unclear whether those positive antibody tests represent real evidence of infection, false-positives, or leftover antibodies from a cleared infection, the agency noted.
Complete testing is “critical” to ensure that patients get proper treatment, CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, said in a telephone media briefing.
Our Videos
Learn how to use your diet to reduce your chronic pain. Find out what foods to eat and which ones to avoid in this short video.
Are you suffering from Chronic Pain or Depression. Need someone who understands that will walk beside you on your journey to finding quality of life in spite of your condition. Drop in and let us help! We listen with our hearts!
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Basics
Are you severely fatigued? Does sleep not seem to restore you? Loss of concentration? Check out this video and see if you should talk to your healthcare provider about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Ask the Experts-Multiple Sclerosis
Find out the top questions those diagnosed or suffering with Multiple Sclerosis ask their healthcare provider, then hear the answers along with tips about coping with MS, living a full life in spite of MS and more...
Managing Chronic Pain and Depression
Learn how to deal with this "Terrible Twosome". Managing one or the other is a challenge for anyone at best, but combined they can rob you of life like a thief in the night.
Depression facts, causes, risks and symptoms. A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It interferes with daily life, normal functioning, and causes pain for both the person with the disorder and those who care about him or her.
Living with Fibromyalgia: Fibromyalgia is a common invisible illness characterized by widespread pain. Learn about diagnosing and treating fibromyalgia and the many coping tips. Examines: Fibromyalgia symptoms, treatment and other informational articles.
What is Fibromyalgia? Fibromyalgia symptoms typically include widespread pain and tender points. People who have the loosely defined disorder fibromyalgia typically have widespread pain, and "tender points" throughout the body that hurt when pressure is applied.
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