As we continue with this special November series, today’s Hygge Break is
all about inspiring your creativity by trying some of the following:
• Write: Can be a poem, haiku, diary or letters to friends. No reason it
can’t be holiday cards. Since mail will be slow this year, have them ready to
go the day after Thanksgiving
• Make your own holiday cards and gifts.
• Knit, sew, crochet or do something with fiber. Don’t know how to do
any of these but would like to learn, there are lots of videos on line
• Take an art break with paints, pencils, inks, or any medium that speaks
to you. Use the Take a Break Pinterest Board for
lots of art projects.
• Read a good book
• Make a Zen Garden/Rake
a Garden
Other Hygge
Breaks in the series:
Part I: Set the
mood
https://healingwhole.blogspot.com/2021/11/take-hygge-break-part-i-set-mood.html
While the world
is focused on Covid-19 vaccinations, with flu shots running a close second,
there appears to be some confusion about what shots you should get as an adult
and when.
Why
vaccinations are important:
If you received vaccinations as a child, that protection can wear off over
time. Jobs, different health conditions, lifestyle, and/or where you travel can
increase risk for other diseases. Vaccinations not only lowers risk of getting
sick but it also reduces spreading of disease.
What
about side effects?
These are generally mild and go away on their own. Severe side effects are
rare.
Where can I
get vaccinated? More
and more pharmacies are taking on the role of vaccinating their community.
However, health centers, health fairs, hospitals, doctors offices and even
places of work can offer vaccines.
Payment? Some vaccines are given free, such as
the Covid-19. Most state health departments have immunization programs. Check
your state’s immunization program
to determine what the state pays for and where you can be vaccinated. Some primary care providers (PCP) do charge a small administration fee. If that’s an issue, contact your
local health department. Most health insurance plans cover the cost of recommended
vaccines.
How do I
know if I’ve been vaccinated:
Your PCP should have a record of the immunizations
they’ve given you. If you are vaccinated by a pharmacy, make sure they’ll
provide this information to your PCP.
Adult
Immunizations: The CDC
recommends the following for all adults:
All adults
need a seasonal flu
(influenza) vaccine every year. Flu vaccine is especially important
for people with chronic health conditions, pregnant women, and older adults.
Every adult should get a Tdap
vaccine once if they did not receive it as an adolescent to protect against
pertussis (whooping cough), and then a Td (tetanus,
diphtheria) or Tdap booster shot every 10 years. In addition, women should get
the Tdap vaccine each time they are pregnant, preferably at 27 through 36
weeks.
Adults with
COPD, asthma, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions may have
unique vaccine needs. Check out schedules and recommendations for immunizations
if you have one of the following conditions:
Not familiar
with the term? Hygge (pronounce hoo-gha) is Danish word meaning coziness,
well-being and warmth-just what we need to cope with darkening days of November
and December.
So here are
some suggestions to try today:
• Schedule
techno breaks-those times of the day when computers, TVs, phones etc. are
turned off and for all intents and purposes, you are unreachable. Try to
maintain that daily.
• Set the mood
with candles. In direct lighting is key. Avoid overhead lighting as much as
possible.Put cushions on couches and
over stuffed chairs. Pull out throws to enhance the resting experience. Thrift
stores are good places to look for accessories to help create a feeling of
coziness.
• Light a fire
in the fireplace or woodstove. Don’t have one consider making a table top one.
• Create a display of fire and water by placing
floating candles in a large bowl of water.
• Bring
the outside in. Colored leaves, greenery, branches, and stones can be
incorporated in small displays throughout the house. Take branches and put them
in a large vase. String tiny lights on the branches.
Tonight we “fall
back” to standard time. While I welcome the change, as I walk at 7:30 in the
morning and sunrise has been later and later, not everyone feels that way.
The time change
does affect people in different ways. Many report feeling sluggish, tired and
even depressed when the clocks falls back. Those who are subject to seasonal
affective disorder (SAD), find it more noticeable after the time change. However,
the good news is that most people adjust in a day or two.
Below are some
tips to help make the adjustment easier.
Set clocks
before going to bed. This
is a good time to check batteries in smoke and radon detectors as
well as any medically related devices that require batteries. Note that devices
like smart phones and computers will automatically make that change for you.
Take meds
according to the clock.
If you take your medications at 8 am and 8 pm, continue to do so. Use your
phone alarm to alert you. There are few medications that will be adversely
impacted by an hours delay. One exception is pain medications. While easing into the change by waiting 15 minutes, then 30 and so forth
until you’ve adjusted to standard time can be helpful, it may not be appropriate for everyone. If you have questions about your meds,
talk to your medical provider.
Go to bed later
on Saturday with the
idea that you’ll wake up closer to your normal time on Sunday morning.
Stick to
your schedule: Getting
up at the same time and keeping it as normal as possible will help make the
shift a bit easier.
Have a
nighttime ritual to
help ease yourself into sleep.
Avoid long
naps as it will disrupt
your sleep.
If you are
affected by SAD: Living
in the north, SAD is more of an issue than for our southern counterparts.
Symptoms may include: feeling depressed in a seasonal pattern. Tired or low
energy. Loss of interest in activities you normally enjoy. Changes in appetite
or weight gain. Sleeping too much.
If you think
you may be dealing with SAD, consider the following:
-Talk
to your medical provider about how you are feeling
-Light
boxes can be helpful. You’ll typically sit in front of the light box about
20-30 minutes a day. This will result in a chemical
change in your brain that boosts your mood and alleviates symptoms of SAD. It’s
recommended that the light box is used within the first hour after waking up.
Ask your medical provider for tips in selecting a light box.
-Dawn
simulators can help some people. Instead of waking up abruptly with beeping or
loud music, they produce light that gradually increases in intensity just like
the sun. Use full spectrum light simulators as this is the closest to natural
sunlight.
-Go
outside and enjoy the sunlight: While I walk between 4-5 miles a day, last
December I started walking three days a week with a friend. No matter the temps
or the weather, we walked. On the coldest of days we had icicles hanging from
our hats and masks, and on the hottest buggiest days we used fans to keep the mosquitos
at bay. I find I look forward to these walks and it did a lot to get us through
a dark Vermont winter. Definitely recommend a walking partner.
Recently we’ve
been looking at alternative and complementary medicines. Today’s post focuses
on homeopathy.
History of
Homeopathy: Founded by
Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s. Hahnemann believed that if
a patient had an illness, it could be cured by giving a medicine which, if
given to a healthy person, would produce similar symptoms of that same illness
but to a slighter degree. Thus, if a patient was suffering from severe nausea,
he was given a medicine which in a healthy person would provoke mild nausea. By
a process he called ‘proving’, Hahnemann claimed to be able to compile a
selection of appropriate remedies. This led to his famous aphorism, ‘like cures
like’, which is often called the ‘principle of similars’; and he cited Jenner's
use of cowpox vaccination to prevent smallpox as an example….Hahnemann claimed
that homeopathy could cure all or virtually all diseases, his followers
modified these claims in the hope of becoming accepted by orthodox medical
practitioners. A Brief History of Homeopathy
Homeopathic products come from plants, minerals or animals
(such as crushed whole bees). Homeopathic products are often made as sugar
pellets to be placed under the tongue; they may also be in other forms, such as
ointments, gels, drops, creams, and tablets. Treatments are “individualized” or
tailored to each person—it’s common for different people with the same
condition to receive different treatments. Homeopathy uses a different
diagnostic system for assigning treatments to individuals and recognizes
clinical patterns of signs and symptoms that are different from those of
conventional medicine. National Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
What the
Research Says:Some
homeopathic practitioners argue that carrying out randomized controlled trials
is an appropriate activity for orthodox medicine but inappropriate for
homeopathy, where effectiveness should only be judged by patient satisfaction.
That noted, in 2015, the Australian National Health and Medical Research
Council concluded, after a comprehensive
assessment of 1,800 papers, that there
is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for any health condition.
concluded that
homeopathic remedies perform no better than placebos and England’s National
Health System (NHS) will no longer fund homeopathy
There are no
FDA approved products labeled as homeopathic. While products labeled as
homeopathic are generally labeled as highly diluted, some of these products
have been found to contain measurable amounts of active ingredients and
therefore could cause significant patient harm. Additionally, FDA has tested
products that were improperly manufactured, which can cause incorrect dilutions
and increase the potential for contamination. Further, some products labeled as
homeopathic are marketed to treat serious diseases or conditions. See a list of products that the FDA is concerned about.
Why do some
people swear by homeopathy?
While many scientist chalk up homeopathy success stories to the “placebo effect”-
believing a treatment will work-ultimately it may be more about the consultation
than the pills.
Does insurance cover homeopathy? Most insurance carriers do not cover homeopathy. A report in US News in 2020 states that only 11% of the major insurers cover it.
If you want
to try homeopathy:
Before trying anything new, discuss it with your medical provider.
While working
on a spooky path for our community, I came across several items that are easy
to do and look great. The first is floating candles, Harry Potter style, that
look terrific hanging from trees.
The second is a Halloween lantern. Link here for the tutorial and watch the video below for extra tips.
Lots of people
swear by yoga, but what does the research show? What type is best? Does it help
with chronic conditions? Is it easy? Can I do it?
What is
yoga: Rooted in Indian
philosophy, yoga as practiced in the USA tends to emphasize physical postures
(asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation (dyana). There are
various styles of yoga ranging from gentle practices, such as restorative yoga,
to physically demanding ones.
•
Help improve general wellness by relieving stress, supporting good health
habits, and improving mental/emotional health, sleep, and balance.
• Relieve low-back pain and neck pain, and possibly pain
from tension-type headaches and knee osteoarthritis. The American College of
Physicians recommends yoga for first-line treatment of chronic low-back pain
•
Help people who are overweight or obese lose weight.
• Help
people quit smoking.
•
Help people manage anxiety or depressive symptoms associated with difficult
life situations.
•
Relieve menopause symptoms.
•
Help people with chronic diseases manage their symptoms and improve their
quality of life. Conditions that have been helped by a yoga practice include:
cancer; COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), HIV/AIDS, and asthma.
While a lot of
research has been done, subjects (generally
female, white, well-educated and with relatively high incomes), small sample
size and the type of yoga practice, can result in skewed findings. However, it does appear to be helpful for particular
health issues as noted above
Yoga is part
of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which has been heavily researched and been
found to reduce pain, stress, anxiety, and depression; and improve physical
health. There are indications that it boosts the immune system and helps in the
recovery from flu and colds.
If you are not
familiar with MBSR, it was pioneered by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of
Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s. It is an 8 week program, which is
now offered by many hospitals, health centers and other groups. It is generally
covered by insurance. Learn more about MBSR at the UMass Memorial Health Center for Mindfulness.
• MBSR
Yoga of Dr. Lynn Rossy from the University of Missouri’s Wellness program
WHAT IS THE
BEST TYPE OF YOGA FOR PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC CONDITIONS? Before starting any physical exercise
program, check with your medical provider. They may know of free classes, can
help you enroll in an MBSR program, and/or make specific recommendations about
what may be best for you.
