Using Hot and Cold Therapy to Relieve Joint Pain - Arthritis Center

Using Hot and Cold Therapy to Relieve Joint Pain - Arthritis Center - Everyday Health: Hot and cold therapy each have their own appropriate uses. You should never apply heat to a joint that is already hot, red, and irritated, for example, nor should you apply cold to a joint that's stiff and not moving well. Remember, heat helps muscles relax; cold helps to minimize inflammation and pain.

CarePages: A Hub for Healing Conversations

CarePages: A Hub for Healing Conversations – CarePages: Broadcasting executive Nance Guilmartin was at her office when she learned that her 62-year-old mother had died without warning of a heart attack. Guilmartin felt unprepared to cope with the loss. 'I looked around,' she recalls, 'and thought, Where’s the guidebook on this?' Some friends said all the wrong things, and, struggling with everything from mourning to finding a home for her mother’s dog, Guilmartin wasn’t quite sure how to ask for help.

Similar feelings arose a decade later, when Guilmartin herself awaited the results of a cancer test. Before her medical scare was over, she had decided to write a book on 'what to say when you don’t know what to say.' Healing Conversations, a collection of stories drawn from Guilmartin’s life and conversations with loved ones and strangers, was published in 2002. A revised edition was published this year. . . .

Being able to determine what people in crisis need (or don’t need) is key to a healing conversation, Guilmartin says. She advises people to shift out of the ping-pong of autopilot conversation in favor of genuine listening and respectful pauses, and to avoid such unhelpful comments as "Oh, you’ll be fine."

"There’s a quality to a healing conversation. It’s not a Hallmark card kind of conversation," Guilmartin says. "It’s a matter of bringing in my ears, my heart, my mind." The same principles apply in person or online, though attention to tone is especially crucial when you're posting on the Web. "Think hard before you write something that might be too much for someone to handle," she says.

How to Write a Will

How to Write a Will – CarePages.com: Many people procrastinate when it comes to creating a will. Find out more about wills, when to consult an attorney, and when to write your own.

New from Right at Home

Simplifying Home Care for Families: The New Right at Home Website:

• Protecting Senior Loved Ones from Health Fraud
• When Should People with Alzheimer's Disease Stop Driving?
• Make Smart Choices for Healthy Restaurant Dining
• Shingles Vaccine is Recommended for Seniors
• Workplaces That Work For You

Paralysed woman: Don’t give up hope for the future

Marini McNeilly, who suffers from a condition known as ‘locked-in syndrome’, is paralysed and can only move her face, head and, very slightly, her fingers. In an interview with The Times newspaper she calls for other suffers not to give up hope, saying: “Hope is the last thing you should lose.” Her comments come in the wake of a legal challenge by Tony Nicklinson, who also suffers from ‘locked-in syndrome’, to force the Director of Public Prosecutions to issue guidance clarifying whether his wife would be prosecuted for murder if she kills him. Christian Institute

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'Locked-in syndrome' man asks court for right to die: statement in full (telegraph.co.uk)

Israeli scientists devise way for disabled to control computers, wheelchairs by sniffing

Israeli scientists devise way for disabled to control computers, wheelchairs by sniffing: The severely disabled, including those 'locked in' to their bodies as a result of accidents or disease, may soon have a new way to communicate and move around. By sniffing in and out through their noses, more than a dozen quadriplegics were able to control computers that allowed them to write and to guide a wheelchair, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

How The Disabilities Act Has Influenced Architecture

How The Disabilities Act Has Influenced Architecture : NPR: Monica Ponce de Leon, dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, is a proponent of something called universal design, which challenges the notion of able versus disabled. Ponce de Leon says universal design encourages architects to think about a wide range of people.

Rationed Healthcare and Assisted Suicide

FRC Blog � Rationed Healthcare and Assisted Suicide: The Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) refused to pay for a drug that would prolong Randy Stroup's life and ease his pain, but would pay for his suicide.

Man tries to donate organs now

Cherokee Tribune - Man tries to donate organs now Gary Phebus, a American with Lou Gherig's disease, has requested to be killed in order to donate his organs.

Trust sorry for elderly 'leaving hospital malnourished'

BBC News - Trust sorry for elderly 'leaving hospital malnourished': Elderly patients were being left hungry because they were unable to eat the food left on their hospital tray. The charity said patients depended on families to both provide the food and feed it to them.

Locked-in man seeks right to die

BBC News - Locked-in man seeks right to die: Tony Nicklinson, 56, wants his wife to be allowed to help him die without the risk of being prosecuted for murder. He communicates by blinking or nodding his head at letters on a board. His lawyers say he is 'fed up with life' and does not wish to spend the next 20 years in this condition.

Obama Sends Senate Berwick Nomination for Medicare

Obama Sends Senate Berwick Nomination for Medicare - BusinessWeek: The President resubmitted Berwick’s nomination to the Senate today. He put Berwick in the job July 7 using a recess appointment, a procedure that lets the president fill positions without Senate confirmation when Congress isn’t in session. The nomination had been stalled since it was submitted in April because of opposition from some Republicans.

Tell us a story

Hospice of Michigan - Stories at Sunset - Contact Us: For our series called Stories at Sunset, that is the request Hospice of Michigan made of hospice nurses, social workers and volunteers. It’s the request we made of people who have lost a loved one. It’s what we said to hospice doctors who can be the bridge between a person writing in pain and the same person enjoying coffee with a friend – at peace.

Man’s life is saved in blink of an eye

Man’s life is saved in blink of an eye | News | The Christian Institute: A paralysed father-of-two was about to have his life support machine turned off when he signalled to doctors that he wanted to live by using eye movements.

Assisted-Suicide advocate makes his book available to libraries free of charge

Assisted-Suicide Blog - Weblog of Derek Humphry, Founder of Hemlock Society Derek Humphry's well-known assisted-suicide manual "Final Exit" will now be distributed free to US public lending libraries upon request.

Dutch Euthanasia laws passed through covert planning.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Dutch Euthanasia laws passed through covert planning. A newly revealed letter explains how Dutch euthanasia advocates worked together to change the Dutch laws by establishing euthanasia protocols in the hospital and by undermining the Dutch euthanasia law and by prosecuting cases that were designed to be struck down by the courts to establish precedents that allowed euthanasia.

Malnutrition of Scottish patients is "euthanasia"

A leading Scottish health campaigner has implored the Scottish Government to urgently address the problem of malnutrition of the elderly and vulnerable in National Health Service hospitals in Scotland. Dr Jean Turner, executive director of Scotland Patients Association, warned that hundreds of patients, especially the elderly, are undernourished and deteriorating in hospital beds because they are not receiving help with feeding. She says that it is "a form of euthanasia." Herald Scotland

Recess Appointment Attacked as 'Expert on Rationing'

With Congress officially on recess, President Obama will on Wednesday use his ability to make recess appointments to name one of his more controversial nominees: Donald Berwick, nominee to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The April nomination of Berwick was in trouble and might not have been able to meet Senate confirmation due to comments Berwick made in the past about rationing health care. Even if Berwick could have been confirmed by the Senate, Democrats have little appetite for another round of fighting about changes to the health care system, Democrats said.

In an interview last year with Biotechnology Healthcare, Berwick said society makes decisions about rationing all the time, and that the "decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly." ABC News

UK comes top on end of life care

The UK has one of the best systems for end of life care, a global study says. The analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit looked at access to services, quality of care and public awareness in 40 countries. It found the UK performed particularly well on issues such as obtaining pain killers and quality of support. BBC

Edinburgh man jailed for trying to kill disabled wife

John Millar claimed he was trying to end his wife's suffering when he attacked Phyllis Millar. The Edinburgh pensioner who admitted attempting to smother his disabled wife with a pillow has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. Mrs Millar, who has multiple sclerosis, denied claims by her husband that she said she wanted to die. BBC

The Ethics of Discontinuing Dialysis

Lewis M. Cohen, MD, examines the true story of two renal nurses at Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, MA) who were investigated for murder in 2001 after a nursing assistant accused them of causing the death of a patient. The patient was a woman in her 60s with multiple comorbidities; she and her family chose to stop her dialysis treatment and continue with palliative care only. The nursing assistant approached the district attorney's office with her allegations, and a full murder investigation was launched. Renal & Urology News

Palliative care lacking in much of the world

Most people who are dying around the world have inadequate or no access to painkillers, hospice and palliative care, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report blamed the cultural taboos surrounding death, government avoidance of the issue, poor public awareness and untrained healthcare workers for the problem, which affects even advanced countries like the United States and Japan. Reuters

Shame on the MS Society

The American Multiple Sclerosis Society issued the following statement regarding "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Available for Federally Funded Research":

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society urges Congress to support the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 (H.R.3 and S.5) at all levels of the legislative process. The legislation would increase the number of approved embryonic stem cell lines that can be used in federally funded research by allowing new lines to be generated from embryos that have been donated for research purposes by people using the services of in vitro fertilization clinics, while establishing important ethical protections.

[Translation: The MS Society was/is just itching to get their hands on stem cells at the cost of human life generated artificially by perverse science.] Mark Pickup

Legal assisted suicide creates 'slippery slope'

Legalizing assisted suicide creates a “slippery slope” that leads to doctors killing patients without their consent, according to an expert. Prof David Jones said that if society agrees that it is in some people’s interests for them to end their own lives, it is difficult to resist the logical conclusion that others should be helped to die even if they have not made such a request. Telegraph

Study finds room for improvement in end-of-life care

At UCLA Medical Center, which prides itself on caring for critically ill patients, a recent study showed room for improvement in the way doctors manage dying patients -- and the findings likely apply to other hospitals as well, the researchers say. While doctors excelled at pain control, they did less well at talking to patients and families about prognosis and goals of care. They were good about ordering comfort care, but not about follow-up to make sure the care was effective. Reuters

Bid on an hour with Chef Duff for Hospice of Michigan

Share an hour with Ace of Cake's ® Chef Duff this September in Grand Rapids, MI. You and 9 of your friends can talk food, recipes and anything else with the Food Network's ® chef celebrity. Signup and bid often to win this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kick back with a cake guru and reality TV star. Hospice of Michigan