Health Studies

In the following article, we explain the various suggestions that will help you get the most positive outcome from your cosmetic surgery and ensure that the experience is effective and pleasant, keeping in mind that your health comes first.

1. Prepare your thoughts and mind

Mental preparation is vital to an effective cosmetic surgery. You may look and may feel different following the process. For a lot of patients, this may have a positive influence on many aspects of your life such as; self-image, confidence, and social interaction. Family and friends may ask questions regarding your revived appearance and you want to learn how you are going to tackle these and just how much information you’d like to discuss. It’s essential to be mentally and emotionally ready for explaining yourself to different people and what this can mean in your daily life.

2. Do your research

Having cosmetic surgery should be an educated thought out A lot of folks are not aware that there’s a difference between a cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon.

Many physicians have various methods of doing things and a few specialise in specific kinds of procedures. Prices can often differ between experts. Ensure that you are armed with the details before surgery and select a surgeon that makes you feel comfortable, confident and excited about the positive potential of your upcoming operation.

3. Schedule operation when you are healthy

To give your body the best chance of healing properly, try to schedule operation whenever you’re in optimum health. This can allow you to heal quicker, give your immune system the best possibility of a quick recovery and return to normal life as soon as possible.

Bear in mind some surgeries take a period of time to recover from, downtime or limited action then so schedule your operation when you’re in a position to have a rest from work along with your typical responsibilities. Recovery time will vary on the type of surgery, for example a breast lift may require more downtime than thigh liposuction though it may require more long-term exercise and rehabilitation.

4. Increase your vitamin and protein consumption

Protein was demonstrated to assist recovery and is essential in constructing new blood vessels and mending scars, mend damaged tissue and improve cell generation for wound repair. Premium excellent sources of protein include fish, poultry, beans or lean cuts of beef. It’s also important to make sure that you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals to help in successful healing. Ensuring that your body has sufficient fundamental components like vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc can assist rehydrate your path to healing.

5. Stay hydrated

On average it’s strongly recommended you drink between six to eight glasses of water every day, but this is particularly important before an operation, to help cleanse and moisturise your body. As fluid intake could be reduced daily prior to a few surgeries, keeping high fluid levels in the lead up to operation might help. To prevent complications during operation, make certain you don’t drink anything after midnight the night before your operation unless advised differently by your physician.

6. Avoid alcohol, smoking and specific medicines

Even though you might feel like celebrating your operation with some drinks with friends, then it’s strictly advisable to not consume alcohol for 72 hours prior to or after the operation. Most physicians will recommend avoiding alcohol for a week ahead of post operation to attain optimum outcomes.

While smoking isn’t recommended, should you smoke, then try to abstain for at least fourteen days before and after your process. Smoking decreases the ability of your body to recover wounds due to reduces oxygen circulation. Many prescription and common drugs are best avoided around the time of operation in order to prevent any complications or even counterproductive outcomes. Aspirin ought to be avoided as it’s a blood thinner and may encourage bleeding during the operation. If you’re on any necessary medications, talk to your physician to learn the most suitable plan of action.

7. Construct a solid post-surgery support community

Recovery after cosmetic surgery can be rough. You might be unable to resume normal activities for a little while. So it’s important you get a solid network of family and friends that can supply you psychological support, in addition to helping you with sensitive matters like driving, family activities, physical activity and other general entertainment. Ensuring you’re comfortable and well cared for will boost a complete and quick recovery and increase the positive possibility of your plastic surgery experience.

8. Have realistic expectations and ensure you are sure

It is important to have realistic expectations going into almost any cosmetic operation. Invasive operations may leave a scar, though there are lots of choices to help minimise scarring, but have you considered a non-invasive alternative? For example, a vaginoplasty can be a huge procedure that you may not be confident about, so you could perhaps consider laser vaginal tightening as an alternative. The results of every procedure differ and outcomes are usually determined by the individual patient, age, skin type and individual conditions.

Your physician must equip you with all the information regarding your process, including any complications or risks which may occur so that you may be completely prepared for any result.

Health is the core of our everyday lives and should be a priority. Without good health, we would not be in a position to do anything. Taking care of chores, work and children would be hopeless if we fought with health issues all the time. Among the most common excuses, people cite for not being in great shape relates to not having the time or the ability to do everything it requires to be wholesome. This is very true of working professionals, being healthy is a bit of strategic business advice as healthy workers are more productive and happy.

1. Eat Properly

Many employees struggle to eat healthily and have the weak willpower to overcome temptations. You don’t have to totally forget about junk food: simply restrict its ingestion and consume moderately. What’s more, listen to everything you eat to your most important meals. Eat a great, filling breakfast in the morning. Lunch on fruits and salads, and prevent unhealthy, greasy meals. As much as you can, avoid eating lunch in your workplace. Leaving the workplace for some time will block you from overeating and supply you with a brief break. Avoid indulging in day snacks, like chips and lollies, as which will spell problem. Additionally, keep a healthful eating program in the evenings. Snack on healthy choices, including fruits, nuts, granola bars or healthful smoothies, which will keep you feeling fulfilled without providing you the lethargic feeling you get from eating crap food.

2. Limit your Caffeine Consumption

Lots of office dwellers can find it absolutely impossible to get through their day without consuming coffee. This is fine so long as you exercise moderation. Try to suppress your caffeine intake to a single cup of coffee daily to protect against a caffeine crash later daily. Additionally, you may omit the utilisation of cream and sugar in your coffee, and reduce those calories.

3. Maintain Decent Posture

Maintaining good posture daily demands conscious effort. Most workers, that use computers stare at their display for hours and gradually get drawn to it. This implies that they stretch forwards, which places pressure on the throat and the backbone. This may be averted with the support of specific desk exercises. The very popular one involves chin retractions – or creating a bogus double chin to encourage both the neck and upper back.

4. Take Breaks

We constantly need to complete our job so we can escape the office in time. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you ought to sit in your workstation for hours at a stretch, not let yourself a rest. You might believe that taking a rest will squander your own time, however taking a rest can really be productive.

Not taking a rest from work can make you emotionally lethargic, and lessen your imagination. Make it a point to escape from the desk every now and again for a couple of minutes. The point is to have a break; rejuvenate, and be effective.

5. Keep Your Desk Tidy and Organised

It’s very important to maintain your workstation tidy and clean. Up it five minutes before leaving for the day so you go back to some neat work space the morning after. Keep sanitising wipes in easy reach, and use them to wash the outside of your desk regularly.

6. Be Sterile

Becoming sterile goes a very long way in keeping you healthy. You are able to take the needed steps on the job also. Keep a bottle of hand sanitiser on your desk. When at the office, it might not always be possible to venture away from your desk to wash your hands. Therefore instant hand sanitiser is a great way to quickly get rid of germs.

7. Avoid Mingling With Ill Workers.

This is common sense but nevertheless significant. Avoid contact with workers, who could be ill or show symptoms of communicable disease. Clean your hands if you have been on their workstation. Additionally, let office administration understand about the ill worker if they are not already aware. If you are ill, it is ideal to stay home and recover so you don’t wind up spreading the disease to other people.

8. Learn How to Deal With Stress.

The majority of us lead busy lives that may get to us from time to time. Juggling several functions and duties on a daily basis can leave us tired, which is ordinary. After all, we are only human. But, we could make it easier on ourselves by learning how to deal with anxiety. You may constantly be stressed about work and other things such as trying to sell the property and doing no agent property sale for the first time. A fantastic way to beat stress? Do things. This may consist of spending time with friends or family, watching films, reading books and visiting the gym or even the spa. The concept is to relax your mind by taking care yourself and achieving a healthy equilibrium.

Remaining in great shape demands effort. Pass on the above tips as health solutions for your business. Fantastic health and fitness cannot be achieved immediately, which explains why it’s very important to incorporate particular habits into your everyday routine.

Fast Facts

• Welding fumes cause pneumonia that could hospitalize 40-50 welders every year
• An average of 2 welders die every year
• An average of 9 welders suffer from asthma-related problems each year
• Harmful compounds such as Chromium oxide(Cr₂O₃) and nickel oxide (NiO) are found in Stainless steel fumes
• Welding Fume is carcinogenic to humans

Understanding the problem

Every industry has its risks and dangerous, with operators of the largest cranes facing risks associated with falls and anxiety and the welding industry facing other internal health risks such as those that will be discussed below. Harmful gases and very fine particles are carried off when the smoke given off by the welding and hot cutting process. These fumes can cause serious health problems when inhaled. Dangerous gases such as nitrous oxide (N₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), argon (Ar), helium (He) and ozone (O₃) are present in the fume.

Respiratory problems, vibration issues, ear problems and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are the four of the leading work-related health hazards in welding. Here are some of the usual health conditions suffered by welders and how to manage the risks involved:

Respiratory illnesses

• Pneumonia– Welders are very prone to lung diseases that can lead to severe and sometimes fatal pneumonia. While modern antibiotics can usually take care of the infection, an average of 40-50 cases still results to hospitalization every year. Of these cases, around 2 will be fatal
• Work-related asthma–Around 9 workers suffer severe asthma annually that they are able to claim benefits. A recent study by HSE determined that welding fume could not be conclusively proven to cause asthma. HSE still advises welders to defend themselves and minimize the welding fumes by setting it to the lowest possible settings.
• Cancers– Welding fume has been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. This classification includes all welding fume although it is primarily associated with stainless steel welding
• Metal fume fever – Many welders suffered from temporaty flu like symptoms after welding, particularly at the start of a working week. Myths like drinking milk before welding prevents you getting metal fume fever are simply not true
• Irritation of throat and lungs – Dryness of the throat, tickling coughing or a tight chest are the common effects of fine particles in welding fume and gases such as Ozone when TIG welding stainless steels and aluminium. Severe contact to ozone can cause lung fluids.
• Temporarily reduced lung function – Although the effects are not permanent, the overall lung capacity and peak flow are affected by prolonged exposure to welding fume. Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) can help you address the problem of fume if other preventative measures do not reduce it below the workplace exposure limit (WEL). Follow our RPE checklist to ensure you are giving your workers the correct protection:

1. Disposable face masks can provide adequate protection for short jobs. Just like reusable respirators, these should be fit tested on each individual as one type of mask does not fit all
2. Monthly inspection should be done monthly and records kept up to date.
3. Though expensive, battery powered filtering welding helmets are the most cost-effective option for the long term protection of the welders.

Hand-arm vibration

Grinding and needle scaling tasks that are closely associated with the welding process also come with risks, in terms of hand-arm vibration. This is different to the crane industry with the vibration from operating frannas in that welding sees constant vibration day in day out. It is required by The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 to ensure that all risks are controlled, proper instruction and training should be provided to employees, and the actions being taken to deal with them.

An Exposure Limit Value (ELV) and an Exposure Action Value (EAV are included in the regulations, and are based on a combination of the vibration at the grip points on the equipment and the time spent gripping it.

Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) and vibration-related Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) disability can be prevented by compliance to with these regulations. Health surveillance can easily identify any issues early on especially when some employees may develop early signs and symptoms of HAVS and CTS even at low exposures. Proper precaution can minimize the problem. Though HAVS can be prevented, it is incurable.

HSE requires the compliance to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), which states that specific cases of HAVS and vibration-related CTS cases must be reported.

Noise

With the exception of TIG-Welding, electric arc welding and making welded mesh panels can cause harmful levels of noise. The project areas as well as many other tasks that welders take on are also particularly noisy. This list gives you a good idea of the noise levels related with different tasks within the welding process:

• TIG – up to 75 dB(A)
• Manual Metal Arc (MMA) – 85-95 dB(A)
• Metal Inert Gas(MIG) – 95-102 dB(A)
• Plasma cutting (hand-held up to 100A, cutting up to 25mm only – 98-105 dB(A)
• Flame gouging – 95 dB(A)
• Flame cutting – up to 100 dB(A)
• Air arc gouging – 100-115 dB(A)
• Deslagging/chipping – 105 dB(A)
• Grinding – 95-105 dB(A)

Eliminating the noisy process altogether is the best way to manage the problem. Take for instance, by buying customized size material from supplier, you no longer have to cut the material needed once on site, though this may not always be feasible. Engineering controls, regular substitution, training and work scheduling and providing personal protective equipment (PPE) are the next best options.

Ear muffs, ear plugs or other hearing protection should be selected on the following criteria:

1. It can noise exposure
2. Comfortable to wear
3. Suitability for the activity and working environment

If proper equipment is provided, it is vital your workers are given appropriate training to ensure they wear their protection in the correct way and at all required times.

Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD)

The manual handling carried out by welders in creating anything from metal welding such as wire furniture, that are repeated regularly or involve twisting and turning into awkward postures can be dangerous.

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 regulates that proper equipment should be used to consider the health risks and safety of workers. This includes manual handling risks. Using the right tool will reduce the chances of:

• Personal suffering caused by musculoskeletal disorders
• Financial burden of sickness absence and increased insurance premiums
• Reduced productivity
• Restricting earning potential of employees unable to return to the same type of work

Health and Safety within the welding industry has improved considerably over the years, although it would be fair to say there is still a lot to improve on.

Most of us deal with psychological or mental struggles at one time or another in our own lives. When it’s stress in the work, situational depression or nervousness, or full-on psychological illness, it will help to take the time to refocus and gain perspective. A tool you can use to help take your mind off things could be appropriate in your pocket right now and attached to a telephone… a camera. A camera can be a powerful tool even if it is just a phone camera and some simple photo editing apps.

It’s been shown time and again that imagination and art treatment are invaluable tools for psychological wellness. Photography is just one such tool you can use without visiting art college or being professionally educated. Modern technology offers easy-to-use options such as a number of automatic modes on point-and-shoot cameras, digital SLRs, and even camera phones can take great quality photos these days. Now anyone can shoot photos, and only by taking a photograph, you’re taking a little time to stop and study your surroundings through a fresh lens. This moment may be the moment that affects your daily life out of a negative to a positive, at least provides you with a temporary distraction and serene. You don’t have to be the best wedding photographer around, but maybe do some research and visit the popular wedding photo locations Melbourne and hold your own mini photo shoot for yourself, whether it is photographing a friend, an adorable pet or just the surrounding scenery.

Below are a few basic methods of getting the creative juices flowing:

Observe and take in the surroundings. Look around you, where you will be, from the bedroom into your office to a subway station. Use descriptive words as you observe the things around you, the delicate orange light of sunset coming through the blinds twisted white and black wires snaking across the ground. It might appear strange, but this really is a great approach to begin seeing art in everyday life. You will surprise yourself with the amazing little details your pickup but would usually miss just walking by.

Close your eyes. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but by focusing on what you hear and smell, you can detect new subjects to picture all about you, a fragrant flower, buzzing bees, or even a kid playing in the playground, or perhaps chirpy birds flapping in the trees above. Increase the health of all your senses by immersing yourself in the environment that you are in.

Decide on a colour (or shape). And look around especially for that colour. Maybe pick a color that’s prominent in your living area, which means it is possible to print any decent photographs and hang them on your walls. Creating a colour scheme or theme can create a cohesive look and truly create art. Surrounding yourself with your artwork will be able to help you feel good and motivate you to create more, therefore, print your photographs in creative ways and proudly display them. You can find fast printing Melbourne to instantly display your photographs, additionally, get creative with large format printing and produce something special.

Bring along a prop. Simply take a product on you, particularly something you relate to as calming or reassuring, and picture it in various places and manners. Don’t forget to change the angle and light of your shots to keep them clean.

Do not concentrate on the final product. While it’s wonderful to wind up with photographs you are able to enjoy and feel proud of, it’s really the procedure for shooting the photograph rather than the result that’s therapeutic. Going out of the house and to a location is a big step, as well as thinking and critically analysing the backdrop to your photos.

Stop and breathe. If you’re feeling stressed or stuck, place your camera aside and focus only on breathing for 10 minutes, then search around and begin again from a new and balanced location. You will see things which you missed only moments before. Your location may be too crowded or busy, it can be hard to pick a focus, so relocate to a quieter area where you can concentrate and fixate on your goals. Breathing is great for your health will refresh your cluttered mind.

By picking up a camera and using any or all these basic instruments and methods, you aren’t only being creative and present, but you’re in fact practising mindfulness, which reduces stress and helps make you balanced and prepared to undertake the remainder of your daily life. Photography can aid in bringing psychological health and happiness to your life and is a great hobby to take up. Displaying your photographs will remind you of the good times and further stimulate good mental health.

Driverless cars are coming.

The technological imperative is powerful; if we have the technology, we need to use it. The economic imperative is even more powerful as many businesses see big dollar signs. Governments would like to be somewhat cautious, but they do not want to get left behind. We’re told driverless cars will be much safer, because human error causes over 90 percent of crashes. Human-operated cars affect health in three major ways; all negatively. How might driverless automobiles be better?

First, car crashes kills around 1.25 million individuals globally, 1,200 of whom were Australian, in 2015. The claims that driverless cars will kill fewer people are plausible, but unproven. Safety improvements will depend on the technology in the cars, which is currently being tested and developed. Safety also depends upon how the surrounding environments are engineered or re-engineered to keep things and people from getting in the way of driverless cars.

Secondly, automobiles kill people by creating contamination. Cars with internal combustion engines produce gases and particulates, which cause lung disease. Motor vehicles are also among the largest source of carbon dioxide worldwide, which causes climate change.

Third, automobiles kill people because we sit while we drive, reducing healthier modes of transportation like biking, walking, as well as taking public transportation. Public transportation is a healthy mode of travel because people generally have to cycle or walk, from and between channels and stops.

Small physical activity and too much sitting collectively contributes to the chronic diseases which kill many people on the planet. These diseases are usually heart ailments, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. Driverless cars will do nothing to reduce the effects of automobiles on chronic diseases unless they are introduced in a manner that reduces the time people spend sitting in cars. More than 90 percent of the negative health impacts of automobiles result from the Effects on physical activity, sitting, and chronic illness. For instance, modeling found that if 10 percent of motorised transport in Melbourne was changed to biking or walking, improvements in disability-adjusted life-years for each 100,000 individuals (an indicator of amount and quality of life) would be -34 (worse) for road trauma (mainly because cyclists may not be protected from automobiles), +2 for lung ailments, and +708 for the mix of heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. Models for five different cities (Boston, Copenhagen, Delhi, London and Sao Paulo) supported the identical conclusion. Virtually all of the health impacts of automobiles are due to increasing dangers for quite common chronic diseases. Therefore it won’t matter whether people are sitting in driverless or people-driven cars.

Among the consequences of those findings is that the people planning for driverless cars should explicitly consider the health consequences of driverless cars. Injuries from crashes and air pollution are routinely considered in transport planning, but affects on physical activity and chronic diseases aren’t. Transportation planning goals and methods need to integrate chronic disease impacts generally, but particularly when planning a significant disruption like adapting driverless cars. Ideally, public health professionals will be in the table as questions are asked and conclusions are made.

The driverless future depends mostly on who’s making decisions about driverless automobiles, what accessories they will include such as 4wd bull bars or added on 4wd equipment, however, the results are likely to vary across states with different policies and car designs.

For example, will these companies custom design their cars, with the interior having a choice of fabric or leather car seats, or by adding a few extras, such as a car seat heater for comfort? The majority of the discussion so far has been about the technology’s ability to maintain driverless cars from running into each other and people on the roads — not the luxuries of the car.

The largest health impacts are likely to be based on how cities are changed to adapt driverless cars. It is apparent that designing cities to be ideal for “car 1.0” has been a long-term catastrophe for health and ecological sustainability. Roads designed to meet transportation goals of moving as many cars as quickly as possible are dangerous and unpleasant for pedestrians and cyclists.

Suburban-style improvements are based on the premise that people will drive anywhere they go. But building low-density home, the separation of homes from jobs and stores, and disconnected street networks inflict auto dependency. Urban design and land use policies which make these environments have become common worldwide and have been demonstrated to have numerous physical (chronic diseases), psychological (stress), and societal (isolation) health issues. People are just starting to brainstorm how cities can change for “car 2.0”. The range in dreams is enormous, with both massive implications for health. I’ve heard of two contrasting visions that could have very different health consequences. One vision assumes that driverless cars are considered as part of a wider concept of urban mobility that focuses on moving people rather than cars. The emphasis will be on active modes, with greatly improved accessibility to public transportation and corporate-owned shared driverless cars utilized as supplements to another (fitter) modes. There could be fewer cars, which are in use the majority of the time, so the demand for parking would be radically reduced. Think about what can be done with the enormous amounts of land now used for parking. Sidewalks could be enlarged, protected bicycle trails could be added to a lot of streets, and linear parks could be created.

However, we can waste the chance so that automobile 2.0 merely proceeds the errors and negative health and environmental effects that automobile 1.0 has been delivering for the past century. The critical difference lies in who’s making the decisions and what the standards for success are. Public health professionals should be one of the decision-makers, since the consequences are too important to leave to engineers and company leaders. The primary criteria should deal with how to use driverless car technology to make people’s lives better and make our cities healthier, more livable, more sustainable, and not to maximise profits.

Barrier Breakers, a mental health emergency agency, held an art showcase over the weekend in which featured works by the agency’s powerful art therapy program for viewers dealing with many different mental health issues.

In 2016 Barrier Breakers obtained a grant from Keith Chenhall that enabled the bureau to present some pieces of artwork in the Cunningham Dax set in Traralgon. Starting with the screen, and with additional funding and assistance in the Latrobe Valley trust, Barrier Breakers managed to start its own art therapy program for many individuals in the area, to assist both individuals experiencing with mental health issues and carers from within the mental health industry.

Whist the Barrier Breakers art program was expected to run for one school term, the program was incredibly successful and gained enough funding, letting the program continue for another three school terms to continue assisting with students who needed the program most. The art program reached out to many regional artists, providing an invaluable way of support and treatment for many in the area.

The Barrier Breakers art expedition showcased the awesome results of this successful program, while both exhibiting the brilliant work of local artists within custom showcases, whilst continually increasing awareness of mental health problems faced by our younger students, neighborhood community, and overall society.

Barrier Breakers intends to keep the art program to promote emotional health and ease the talents of local artists, not only benefiting the students but also the local community who need it most.

A recent study of over 10,000 students discovered that only a one-hour visit to any art museum changed the way they felt and thought, which in result triggered many empathetic emotions amongst the students. Pupils who visited a museum not only revealed increased critical thinking skills, they also exhibited greater compassion towards how people lived before and expressed greater tolerance towards people different than themselves.

Millions of individuals deal with chronic health conditions and the stress, anxiety, and depression that accompanies individuals on a daily basis.

In The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature, researchers examined and reported on the findings of over 100 studies done on the effects of art on physical and psychological health. They discovered that no only art exhibitions triggered positive feelings. It was also reported that music and visual arts influenced individuals in these positive ways:

– Art let patients forget about their illness or mental health issues for some time, permitting them to concentrate on positive life experiences and reflect positively on what is in front of them.

– Creating art allowed them to keep the identity of whom they were before they got ill.

– Creative pursuits gave them a feeling of achievement.

– Art helped them express their feelings.

– Art reduced stress by lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

– By viewing professional art work at any exhibition gave the students a sense of creativity and a sense of foundation, allowing them to think about the positive effects art has on the mind, feelings, and memory.

Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University College London, found that only the act of viewing art gives mental pleasure and ease, similar to falling in love. Brain scans revealed that studying works of art activate a surge of dopamine in exactly the exact same part of the brain that registers intimate love.

It is hoped that with additional support from the neighborhood, Barrier Breakers can continue to foster the art program to help achieve the lives of a lot more people experiencing mental health difficulties as well as the carers of the business.

There’s currently growing scientific research to show that our environment affects our physical and psychological health in various ways. The association between our environment and our well-being is vital.

For instance, it’s suggested that looking at a gorgeous view ends in a dash of endorphins which consequently contributes to a sense of peacefulness and well-being, or even looking into second storey extension ideas may bring a sense of purpose and pleasure in knowing you will create a whole new space for memories. By paying attention to this location and space to us, we all can feel much better. Thus, living in a wholesome home can do much more than enhance our mood, it may influence our immune system and physical wellbeing as well.

As per a recent poll completed by Houzz, a well-designed kitchen may alter how you live and encourage a healthy lifestyle. It was discovered that more individuals are invited to bake and cook in the home, together with fewer takeaways being arranged in. Not only is it great for physical health but it’s fantastic for mental health as well. A well thought out kitchen not only fosters an interest in home cooking but also motivates children to get involved. This leads to more quality, family time.

Living in a cold, draughty, damp, poorly lit and badly constructed home not only feels gloomy, but it might make you less likely to care for it and invite your friends and family around. This reduces opportunities for social interaction, which may result in additional feelings of isolation and depression. Your recently improved dwelling can affect not just how you feel separately but the way you interact with other individuals. A serene, well-designed and organized home will motivate you to invite friends through which will improve the social side of your health and well-being.

Air Quality and Health

A correctly renovated house will most probably be ‘airtight’. But, it will also be well ventilated. Residing in a well-ventilated, moist free home contributes to better health all around.

The atmosphere inside an older house could be affected by damp, mildew and condensation. This is particularly true when we block vents up and close windows to maintain draughts at bay. This usually means that moisture-laden air cannot escape, which contributes to the creation of damp and mold. Moisture can quickly develop in a badly ventilated house from showers, kettles, bubbling pots and pans as well as our very own breath. Damp manifests in moist stains, mold growth and frequently a musty odor. If left untreated, it could lead to the corrosion of internal endings and lead to health issues, particularly in very young and older people and people with respiratory conditions like asthma. Domestic plumbing services can attend to leaks which can see the increase of mould or damp from growing in your home.

For optimal health, new air should always be flowing through our houses to replace rancid, moisture-laden atmosphere. Condensation, which can be exacerbated by poor insulating material, poor windows and insufficient heating, will be a thing of the past should you opt to retrofit your house.

Why renovate?

Renovate to Get a Custom Lifestyle:

Although one of the principal reasons why many individuals renovate is to raise the resale value of a house, there are different reasons as well. You might want to renovate your house due to a changing lifestyle, for example, additional space to accommodate a growing family via a home extension, or just to bring a feeling of spaciousness.

Maybe you’ve got a need to get a space with a particular function, such as an office or games room. Perhaps the chef in the household has determined that it is time to redesign the kitchen. If you like to entertain, then you may want to add an outdoor living area, like decks, lounges and patios. This increases the liveable area your house provides, which makes it leap in value. Whatever your distinct motivation, shifting your existing home to match your changing tastes and needs is a whole lot simpler than moving.

Reduce Maintenance and Utility Prices:

Other benefits of remodelling a house would be to achieve lower maintenance and utility expenses. Home repair prices often increase a fair amount when maintenance is postponed or ignored too long, but by beginning an improvement job when an issue first arises can save you from extra expenses. Replacing windows, doors or getting gas fitters to update what you have is going to provide greater safety and a greater degree of energy efficiency. When you replace obsolete and inadequate insulation using newer and more effective materials, your energy savings will be substantial over time. The inclusion of a sunroom can lower energy consumption and reduce the operating cost of your home.

Remodelling is a great way for homeowners to add greater functionality and attractiveness to a property whilst raising its value. By selecting the most appropriate job to improve your living area, a substantial part of the expenditure may be passed on to prospective owners in the kind of increased property values. However, the greatest reason you need to choose any home renovation job would be the pleasure you and your family get from living in an updated residence.

There is a good reason your dreams of a relaxing holiday often include the ocean, or why many men and women think of retiring to the beach in a coastal style house. There is a feeling of wonder, calm, and serenity that comes from living around the water, or just by being around it. While the tourism sector and Florida snowbirds have known this forever, there is now research to verify that living near the ocean might actually enhance mental health. Using Wellington, New Zealand, the metropolitan capital as its case study, researchers from Michigan State University evaluated residents who lived in areas with views of either blue or green spaces. Coastal residents saw the Tasman Sea or the Pacific Ocean while inland ones were near parks or woods.

Some people who lived near the water reported psychological distress, however many other research studies have looked at the correlation between health and coastal living and have discovered that an uptick in mental health among individuals who live by the water, whether at beach houses or just a few miles away from the ocean. But Michigan State says it is the first to show an affirmative link between the two based on visibility of water out of an individual’s home.

The original intent of this research was to ascertain the impact of nature on depression and anxiety, especially in urban areas where there is less natural beauty. It is well recognized that having bodies of water or swaths of green area boosts physical and social action. And that being close to nature has a known stress-reducing effect, being in an open place and not around large mass amounts of people. Using Data in the New Zealand Health Survey, the investigators could compare mental-health data to where folks live. What they found is that there was no substantial advantage for people living close green areas, but there was for individuals who lived by the water in coastal homes. When they broke down demographics by age, gender and personal income, there continues to be an improvement in mental health among individuals as they researched them closer to the sea.

There are, of course, notable limitations to such a study, which the authors detail in length in their newspaper. For one, they notice that the blue spaces in Wellington are a much better representation of natural beauty than the town’s green ones, which are largely parks and sports fields. Moreover, would the very same results be true of other bodies of water, which aren’t oceans?

Still, the researchers assert that such findings might help identify some tangible ways to help treat mental illness, stress, and anxiety. In April, the World Bank and the World Health Organization held a meeting about how to make an international agenda for mental health, calling it a crucial issue on par with where HIV/AIDS had been 20 years back. They are ready to make important investments. The Authors of this study suggest that, if it is true that blue spaces encourage higher psychological well being, then communities could, as an instance, invest in more affordable housing near the water and effectively the ocean.

Or, if living with views of the water is not feasible, may we suggest beach holidays in a luxurious beach house, with beach style furniture — possibly could be covered by medical insurance? Either way, we know that the ocean is truly a wonderful place, as the open serenity, and the peacefulness of the water really does improve, relieve, and soothe stress and anxiety, and overall your health’s well being.

Singles, doubles, or against a backboard by yourself, tennis is a good activity that can keep you in shape if you are age 5 or 95. It keeps your cardiovascular and muscular system in top shape even as you get older. Additionally, you cannot beat a tactical mental game, which lets you enjoy the atmosphere of the outdoors – and with the tennis is close sight for us Melbournians we all sure are excited to start swinging the racquet. Below are some reasons why tennis is such a great sport for your bodies health.

Improved anaerobic and aerobic health

Tennis aids in the growth of numerous capillaries and capillary beds inside the muscles so that your muscles may get a better blood supply and circulation. This aids your muscles perform at a higher level and exhaustion in a slower rate. Additionally, it assists in maintaining cardiovascular health, allowing the muscles to use oxygen at a much better way and supply quick energy spurts for explosive energy and rapid, reactive motions.

Running, swinging, attaining, pivoting — tennis can be a real workout with the ideal opponent. It is a mid-afternoon game, and you can burn plenty of calories since you are always on the move. Singles tennis can burn between 400-600 calories an hour. That is not bad for a recreational game that is both fun and can be played by just about anybody. However, when running for long periods of time make sure to be wearing protective shoes. There are some great stores that sell tennis shoes in Melbourne if you are ready for some summer tennis action after watching the Australian Open.

Enhances bone health

Playing tennis is not great for your muscles; it has a beneficial effect on your bones also. Exercising regularly can improve your peak bone mass and may slow down the rate of bone mass reduction with time. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), bone mass peaks around age 30 and starts to decline after that. You can optimize your bone mass before that era through exercise, and continuing to exercise after 30 can slow the rate of bone loss. The NIH names tennis among the weight-bearing activities ideal for building strong bones.

Enhances flexibility, coordination and balance

Tennis demands the cooperation of the entire body. The feet maneuver you in the ideal place, the arms and hands position the racquet to create contact with the ball, and the chest and legs provide the capacity to send the ball flying across the net. These factors come together each time you hit the ball, and every shot takes flexibility, balance and coordination. Flexibility is fantastic since it can offer you a wider array of movement, help prevent injuries and also reduce muscle strain. Make sure you buy proper equipment from a tennis store to support your body during physical endurance.

Boosts brain power

Tennis requires the mind to be creative, and it entails planning, strategic thinking, agility and the coordination of different areas of the body. So the more you play tennis, the better and more powerful the neural links related to those kinds of actions become, and the better you become at them. Along with enhancing neural connections and growing new neurons, studies indicate that exercises that require plenty of thinking — like tennis — may actually improve brain function in ways that assist memory, learning, social skills and behaviour.

Improves discipline and social skills

Tennis makes you more educated because the skills necessary to master the sport take patience, commitment and time. That’s a whole lot of time spent practicing and focusing on getting better. Tennis will help you in attaining a better level of socialisation as you must interact with unique players.

Our feet drag us through thousands of steps daily. Yet we cram them into pointy pumps, pound them on the sidewalk, and frequently tend to them last in regards to self-care. Even if you’re known among your friends as having dainty Cinderella feet, or the tall woman who jokingly refers to her toes as skis, foot health is crucial. Find out more about the appropriate bottoms, hygiene, and other lifestyle options to give your feet the support they have been giving you.

10 simple ways to treat your feet right and pain-free:

1. Do not wear too-tight shoes.

2. Do not share shoes.

3. Do not share pedicure utensils with your pals.

4. Do not conceal discolored nails with polish. Let them breathe and treat the underlying matter.

5. Do not shave calluses.

6. Do not perform “DIY operation” on an ingrown nail.

7. Do try the Legs-Up-the-Wall yoga pose after a long day or a tough workout.

8. Do give yourself a foot massage or reserve a reflexology session.

9. Do roll a tennis ball below your feet.

10. Do soothe irritation with a vinegar foot soak.

If you are wondering if socks in bed is fine, as a hygiene item or for general foot health, here is the answer to your burning question: Yes, it is OK to wear socks to bed! However, keep in mind that cold tootsies might be an indicator of an inherent condition.

Perfect shoe fit

•    The ball of your foot should fit comfortably in the widest aspect of the shoe.
•    You need to have sufficient depth so that your feet do not rub the tops.
•    Stand up with the shoes on and ensure you’ve got a half inch (about the width of your finger) between your longest toe and the front part of the shoe.
•    Walk around in the shoes and be sure that you don’t experience any slipping or rubbing. If you are wondering about current footwear trends, fabric kickers, such as cotton slip-ons or canvas sneakers, are fine. Just do not wear them for jogging, hiking, or actions that require foot protection.
• In terms of the minimalist running shoe trend, you don’t want to switch too quickly. These shoes are supposed to mimic barefoot running by inviting a forefoot strike (the front part of the foot hitting the floor first) instead of the heel strike that built-up or cushioned shoes promote. A recent research indicates this foot attack change can make some runners more effective, but transitioning too quickly from conventional to minimalist shoes could lead to calf or shin pain.

Things to do

•    Do not ditch your regular shoes.
•    Go for a couple of short runs per week in minimalist shoes and find out how you adapt.
•    Boost your use of minimalist sneakers with time.
•    Wear your heels like they are worth millions — sparingly

The “good shoes” checklist:

• Replace your running shoes every 300 miles.
• Nice shoes or boots can normally be fixed, but watch for cracking on the top part, softening in the bottoms, and harm to toe boxes.
• Check heels for the exact concerns, in addition to for vulnerable nails, a sign you will need a new heel lift.
• Check sandals for broken or loose straps.
• Fix, recycle, or throw out when appropriate.

Maintaining foot hygiene

Bear in mind, treating the symptom is not going to fix the underlying cause. Rough and thickened skin round the foot comes as a consequence of poor shoe fit. In regards to callus removal, keep it simple and avoid gadgets. For extreme cases, visit the podiatrist or use podiatry instruments.

What about the unavoidable blisters?

If you are a runner, a gym rat, or you want to purchase new shoes (who does not?) you are probably no stranger to the blister. To stop ingrown toenails, cut nails straight across with pedicure instruments. However, don’t round the edges. For those who get a painful ingrown nail, then do not perform “DIY operation” on it — leave this to the professionals.

How can you get rid of foot odor?

Bathing daily and taking the time to wash the skin between your feet afterwards will help stop odor, and fungal and bacterial infections like athlete’s foot.

Entrepreneurs should always have an eye on their company’s financial health, but it is also important to remain in shape yourself. When you have got investors breathing down your neck and aims to strike, that is not always simple though. There is plenty of help out there for busy people looking to stay fit, from the clinically medical to the profoundly religious, to hiring a business coach to manage your busy business. However, you don’t have to call a star nutritionist or a witch doctor just yet — there is some basic measures you can take to keep your mind and body a fighting match.

You are what you eat

If you have got a lot on, it’s easy to shun healthy choices. So a busy person or business owner will typically grab snacks, cake, anything that is quick, simple, processed and you’ll be able to consume quickly so that you can continue. Rather, keep your energy levels up and cravings at bay by eating a High-protein breakfast, grazing on seeds, nuts and fruits and drinking a lot of water. Soup can be a fantastic lunch choice, as it contains both food and water. Whatever you do, do not try to get by on coffee alone. Try to get some real food in your system rather than running on adrenaline, which a whole lot of business people do. It is mainly caffeine uppers and downers and that can be, in the long term, very harmful to your endocrine system, your adrenal gland can crash. A good deal of people in business can burn out because they keep pushing and their body gives way.

Keep on moving

Some people just can not get enough exercise, but on a cold rainy morning it can be tempting to hit the snooze button as opposed to wear your running shoes. Finding ways to fit it into your day is essential, though. Entrepreneurs are driven individuals who need to have an entrepreneurial kind challenge, which requires them to be fit. Needing to be in shape for an upcoming task can be a great source of motivation. As for the kind of work outs you should be doing, match your exercise with the strength of your job. If you’re in a really intense work period then do something like interval training, or even just going outside and running quickly between lampposts and walking for a little. It trains your body to deal with an extreme period of putting your body under plenty of stress and then learning how to recuperate from it.

Learn how to rest

Take some time to allow your body and head recharge. And if you are too busy to rest, perhaps consider some business coaching programs to lighten your load a little.

Get checked out

Nobody enjoys visiting the physician’s and it is especially easy to put It off in the event you’ve got a busy lifestyle, but ignoring signs of illness can have serious consequences. We can list lots of health issues that executives could have, but they will not know they have high blood pressure or high cholesterol unless they have it quantified.

Be happy

Emotional well-being is important. Some entrepreneurs tend to take on these bad habits of anxiety and worry, which can have very damaging effects on your energy and your health. It’s a genuine cognitive drain also, both emotionally and physically. Even really successful small business owners, there is always a fear of “oh I am not good enough”. I would certainly say pay attention and do everything you can to change those habits until they take a grip and take their toll. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that there is no point in working every of the day if it means ignoring your wellbeing. Running a business is among the most fun and energetic things anybody can do if you look after yourself.

With summer approaching fast, and with the heat rising in Australia, we are continuing to place our health at risk by neglecting to get our skin regularly checked for skin cancer. New Australian federal research shows 71 percent of Australians have not had a professional skin checks in the past year, and 39 percent of Australians have not had a professional skin care placing them at higher risk of dying from skin cancer. The Australian Government has now implements the TAL Spot Checker survey scheme, which found that while 71 percent of Australians recorded sun safety as extremely important, 26 percent found it somewhat important and 3 percent not that important, choosing to sunbake in the boiling heat with no skin protection, or better known as slip, slop, slap!

A total of 20 percent of Australians during the survey did not know how frequently they ought to obtain their skin checked by a local doctor or skin specialist. Sally Phillips, the TAL general director of health services, says we should get our skin checked at least once a year. One in four respondents in the poll of 1000 Australians said they had been too busy to receive their skin checked and 15 percent said they had not gotten it done because they did not want to invest the money. This is despite several services offering bulk billing services. At the 18-29 year-old age bracket 54 percent of respondents had never had their skin checked by a skin doctor.

A new set of pop up skin care clinics will be set up by TAL, Australia’s largest life insurance carrier, this summer at a few of the country’s most iconic places — Bondi Beach in Sydney, Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, Federation Square in Melbourne, Henley Beach in Adelaide and City Beach in Perth. TAL general director of health services Sally Phillips said Australians should obtain their skin checked once a year, this service will also allow for mole removal for people who need it most, and are worried their skin may be depleting at a fast rate.

More than 2000 people per day are treated for skin cancer in Australia, that is 750,000 each year. This amount would be significantly lower if people took simple steps to protect themselves, like committing to a regular expert skin check annually to assist in early detection. One in four respondents in the poll of 1000 Australians said they had been too busy to receive their skin checked.

Self-checking is a excellent first step in early detection of skin cancer, but we urge Australians to receive a professional check each year, and according to the Cancer Council Australia, two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some kind of skin cancer before they are 70. Nearly 14,000 people are expected to be diagnosed this year based on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Craig Sinclair, chair of the Cancer Council’s public health committee said not every Australian had to receive their skin checked once a year. “The significant thing is really for all people to take responsibility and keep an eye out for stains changing in shape, color or size and see a physician if something seems suspicious,” Mr Sinclair said.

“We don’t recommend people have yearly skin checks with their GP unless they’re somebody who’s at particularly higher risk. They may be somebody with a family history of skin cancer, somebody who has already had skin cancers removed or has a large number of moles on their skin or a lot of freckles.

“It should really be about self-surveillance and educating yourself about what to be aware of.”

For the animals

Preventing the exploitation of animals is only one of many reasons people choose to become vegan, but for most it remains the crucial element in their decision. Having emotional attachments with animals may form part of the reason, while many believe that all sentient creatures have a right to liberty and life. Specifics aside, avoiding animal products is among the most obvious ways it’s possible to take a stand against animal cruelty and animal exploitation everywhere.

For Your Wellbeing

A growing number of people are turning into a vegan diet for the health benefits: increased energy, younger looking skin and eternal youth are merely a few of the claims from passionate plant eaters. Eternal youth may be a bit of a stretch, but there are certainly many scientifically proven advantages to vegan living when compared to the typical western diet.

Well-planned plant-based diets are full of iron, protein, calcium and other essential minerals and vitamins. The plant-based sources of those nutrients are normally low in saturated fat, high in fibre and packed with antioxidants, helping mitigate some of the contemporary world’s biggest health problems like obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Think about how high protein vegan foods can benefit your health and wellbeing.

For the environment

From recycling our household garbage to riding to work, we are all aware of approaches to live a greener life. Among the very best things someone can do to reduce their carbon footprint is to prevent all animal products. This goes far beyond the issue of cow flatulence.

Why is milk and meat so bad for the environment?

The production of meat and other animal products puts a huge strain on the environment – from plants and water needed to feed the animals, to the transportation and other processes involved from farm to fork. The vast quantity of grain feed necessary for meat production is a substantial contributor to deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction. In Brazil, the equivalent of 5.6 million acres is used to grow soya beans for animals in the continent. This property contributes to growing world malnutrition by forcing impoverished populations to grow cash crops for animal feed, instead of food for themselves. On the other hand, substantially lower amounts of crops and water have to maintain a vegan diet, which makes the switch to veganism among the easiest, most pleasurable and best ways to lessen our impact on the environment.

For people

Like veganism is the sustainable alternative when it comes to looking after our world, plant-based dwelling can be a more sustainable way of feeding your family. A plant-based diet requires just one third of the land required to support a meat and dairy diet. With rising international food and water insecurity because of plethora of environmental and socio-economic troubles, there has never been a better time to embrace a more sustainable way of living. Avoiding animal products isn’t just among the easiest ways a person can reduce the strain on food in addition to other resources, it is the easiest way to take a stand against ineffective food systems that disproportionately affects the poorest people around the world. And with the ease of access by having fruit and vegetables delivered, there really is no excuse not to.

It is time to ask ourselves: if it’s currently possible to live a life that entails delicious food and beverage, delivers better health, leaves a smaller carbon footprint and avoids killing other animals – then, why don’t we?

Fitbits are the largest fitness tracker available right now. And nothing compares to hitting 10,000 steps. Does everyone agree? The Fitbit is a fitness tracker, perfect for people who maintain busy life styles. Could you imagine everyone in the office wearing one? Talk about team management in the office! Here are some simple reasons why wearing a Fitbit helps your health in many different ways.

1. Nothing feels better than attaining your measure goal. When your wrist begins vibrating, it is (nearly) like you won the lottery. Being able to see what you have achieved is a fantastic feeling, especially if you are trying to achieve certain health and exercise goals.
2. You will sleep more. Wearing the Fitbit can get tiring, after all, you try to beat your step count day in and day out. This is a great device for people who have trouble sleeping – you won’t have trouble whist wearing the Fitbit.
3. You literally never take it off; never. The new Fitsbits are waterproof, meaning you can shower with it!
4. The Fitbit is great, as its “friendly” contest keeps you moving. The fact you can challenge friends and family on who gets the maximum steps is the very best and worst thing to happen, particularly if you are aggressive or competitive. You will walk around your house like a madman merely to find those last 200 steps to bet or achieve your Fitbit goal.
5. If you do take it off and forget to wear it, life is over. That’s thousands of measures. So many floors; gone. Make sure to wear it everyday to keep count of the steps you take!
6. You are more aware, especially if you are a busy bee. This Fitbit acts like a project management system; basically meaning it keeps track of your fitness, while you work away busily each and every day. Seeing stats of how many calories you are burning, how much action you are getting, your quality of sleep every night, how much activity your buddies are getting, really opens your eyes to the amount of exercise you are getting; and if it is not enough!
7. You do not need to remember to log workouts, this matter somehow knows what sort of workout you do and monitors that also. It is such a clever health gadget, especially when we are all really busy and forget to push the workout button! Luckily for us, the Fitbit does it for us.
8. Eight-hour workdays go so much quicker. Taking two, five-minute breaks and walking round the building, up and down the staircase, or perhaps around the block not only adds measures, but gets you away from a computer and gives you more energy and concentrate on work, and benefits your health is so many ways.
9. With this Fitbit, you get more from your workouts. You can see if your heartbeat was in fat burn, cardio or summit mode, so you can see if you are pushing yourself hard enough, or if you will need to change things up.
10. It is a one stop shop. Once the device is purchase, all you have to do is download your Fitbit app where you use Bluetooth to pair devices so you are able to monitor your water consumption, what you eat, your workouts, sleep, heart rate, weight, distance traveled, and much, much more. Rather than going between apps to remain on top of your exercise regime, it is all in one place. The Fitbit is convenient, and easy to use, and will benefit your health in many ways.

On a construction site where countless men climb over the skeleton of a construction 14 stories tall, just a few are prepared to scale the swaying 250-foot-high tower crane where Willie Steinberg sits, surveying everything.

For six months Steinberg was working here, hanging iron high above Fifth Avenue by placing massive columns throughout the place to teams of men standing on an open scaffolding that will eventually come to be a new King County office building.

Just one miscalculation and thousands of pounds of steel can plummet, killing employees, halting multimillion-dollar projects. Nevertheless, Steinberg, like most crane operators, functions without any device to tell him just how much weight he’s lifting, or precisely where his hook has shrunk. It’s all done based on texture, expertise and the say-so of a person on the ground below, radioing instructions.

People who believe the toughest aspect of his day is simply scaling the narrow ladder don’t have a clue, he explains. The mental strain of the occupation is ‘like being in all-day surgery’.

Public perception was on Steinberg’s mind since a tower crane collapsed at a construction site in downtown Bellevue, damaging several buildings and killing the resident of a nearby apartment building. A state investigation into the accident is continuing and has yet to determine a cause.

The operator of the Bellevue crane miraculously suffered only minor injuries, but his commitment to the task has been called into question because of his history of drug-related convictions.

Like many countries, Washington requires no special permit to operate a crane or slab scissors, no timetable for crane inspections without any regulations for replacing worn cables. Nor are there rules for the duration of time an operator may work before taking a compulsory break.

Steinberg’s crane, for instance, was built in 1984. He’s got no idea if its welds are checked since. Considering these truths, Chris Barron, a crane maintenance contractor for Jorgensen Forge, said that crane operators can do little more than create a cursory glance over their machines prior to lifting the tower and turning the ignition key. State inspections of the cranes are not required in Washington.

In his chair, high over the city, Steinberg cannot even see all the effects of his conclusions. He swings a lot of steel over work sites with only a vague idea of who’s underneath him or where they are standing. Everything is dependent on messages from the sign man below.

When the winds whip to dangerous speeds Steinberg shuts the crane off but stays in his perch. It takes a half-hour to descend the steel construction so he sits and waits, this is also through lunch and coffee breaks, relieving himself in a plastic bottle or paper bag if necessary, and carrying down the waste at night. He begins work at daylight and finishes after dark.

After graduating high school in West Seattle, he spent four decades as a roofer and warehouse employee, waiting to join Operating Engineers Local 302. His father, a surveyor, helped him into the industry. Initially, he worked on the ground, but was climbing cranes the first chance he got, working as an oiler to clean, lubricate and maintain the giant, steel machines. He would fill in when operators had a break, learning on the job, mainly by observation and practice.

On his first job, a 28-story construction in downtown Seattle, winds whipped around 85 mph and Steinberg sat in his cab, petrified. He’d never even been on the ground in gales such as that, let alone so high in the air. Old-timers had cautioned against descending in these weather, insisting it was safer to remain in the enclosed controller house. But Steinberg, grasping the vibration tower like a bug on a wall, didn’t care.

He has since worked through the Nisqually Quake and in jobs across Seattle, at condos and office buildings, the new federal courthouse, Safeco Field and Microsoft.

Crane operators are the sought after elites in building, with specialized knowledge and commensurate pay. They are easily able to earn six-figure incomes. But the pressure is severe. Though convinced after 15 years at work, Steinberg is never comfortable. The concentration he has to maintain is intense, the possible risk great. Stress is a constant.

At home in North Bend, Steinberg’s wife, Lynn, normally pushes away all thoughts about her husband’s job. She has never been close to his crane at work and when word came the week of the accident at Bellevue, she could not look at the TV news footage without getting queasy.

For the couple’s 11-year-old son, David, the effect was worse. Unable to sleep, he begged his father to stay home the following day. Steinberg demurred, he had been in the Seattle job website, as normal, by 6 a.m. the following morning as it is not a job but a lifestyle choice for him.

Although the mental strain is higher for crane workers than it is for those working in an IT service company, just as Steinberg has shown, you need to have a passion and love for the steel masterpieces in order for them not to completely cripple your mental health.

Many people take drugs. From our morning coffee to our evening wine, to the occasional line or puff for a good moment. Illicit drug use is an experience the vast majority of people undertake, and it is unproblematic. It is common amongst wealthy, university educated, business and privileged individuals.

The paper-thin line that separates legal and illegal substances is as confounding as it’s unkind; the legislation deems convicted illegal drug users criminals, therefore we treat them as such. We use demeaning labels, such as ‘junkie’ and ‘deadbeat addicts’, to separate them from the ‘finer’ people who take drugs.

Applying criminal penalties to individuals who have and use drugs causes much more harm than it prevents it. It makes criminals of people that aren’t, leads to the stigmatisation of people using medication, and creates barriers to treatment and rehabilitation. Our government won’t reshape policy to respond to evidence and data, outcries from alcohol and drug experts, and needless drug-related deaths. So what’s the basis of our drug policy?

What Needs To Change

In Victoria alone, there were four previous amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 since 2010. Each change claimed to decrease or stop drug-related injuries locally. And yet there is no evidence that these interventions have been effective at reducing drug-related injuries.

Australia’s drug policy is flawed and outdated, and it’s dragging people who use drugs down with it. Drug use can be safer through regular dosages, transparent labelling and no contaminants. Drug use can be as positive as possible by decriminalising and de-stigmatising men and women who use drugs, instead addressing the drivers of problematic drug use. Drug use could be more ethical by taking drug profits from organised crime and funneling them into services such as schools and health care and promoting personal responsibility among people who use drugs. Drug use could be more honest if we provide drug and health instruction that educates the uses and harms of use of the drug.

The proof indicates that Australians love consuming drugs and getting off drugs is not necessarily an easy task; since 2014 we have experienced some of the highest percentages of recreational drug users on earth. At the exact same time, arrests are steadily climbing for the last decade to over 90,000 arrests per year. About two-thirds of those, over 60,000 arrests annually, are for cannabis usage.

The war on drugs is one fought with guns, jails, and awful deaths. It seeps into our daily lives with harmful truths and polluted products. However, what can the people do to fight that?

The Issue With “Coming Out” As A Drug User

A growing trend to ‘come out’ openly as a person who uses drugs is problematic as it suggests that there’s somewhere to ‘hide’ drug use in the first instance. A ‘normal’ person may hide their drug prices behind Wickr usernames and opt for delivery to their own homes, rather than having to conduct deals out in the open. Whereas street-based medication purchases and use are a phenomenon of poor and marginalised peoples’ lack of housing and lifestyle privilege.

Public admissions of drug use are an entitlement afforded to few and are often said after the actuality. Lists regularly circulate showcasing successful men and women who have used illicit drugs, suggesting mutual exclusivity, implying it’s not normal to succeed and also use drugs.

There is the uncertainty of challenging the stigma of drug use with personal declarations, but with little control over how that information is used, and possibly, against you. Honest admissions of drug use can create a lasting impact on a more controlled scale. Sincere discussions, at the right time, together with members of your loved ones, friendship circle, and drug treatment centres provide opportunities to conquer long-held misconceptions about illegal substances and the effects they’ve had on your life.

Using drugs is as varied as it is common, which is part of what makes the stigma of usage so harmful. Individuals that choose to use drugs, particularly if they are poor or have a disability, should not need to give justification for their use. Remedial advantages, enjoyment, and pleasure are well-documented side-effects of personal drug use, however harmful drug use is never encouraged.

The legalisation of same-sex union in certain US states has been connected with a fall in the amount of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens that attempted to commit suicide, according to a new study.

The study, printed in JAMA Pediatrics (Journal of the American Medical Association), looked into the suicide efforts of sexual minority children in 47 states in the United States. It discovered that out of the 32 states that allowed the same-sex union, there was a seven percent decrease in suicide attempts. We estimated that, annually, same-sex union policies are associated with over 134,000 fewer adolescents attempting to commit suicide.

Julia Raifman, among the writers of the study, stated that the LGBTI community has its own set of health issues, which is “especially true” for teens. A number of the particular “health disparities” include depression, substance abuse, and sexually-transmitted diseases.

She told JAMA that lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers are almost five times as likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

In the event that you or anyone you know needs assistance:

• Lifeline on 13 11 14
• Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
• MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978
• Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
• Past Blue on 1300 22 46 36
• Headspace on 1800 650 890

The information researchers looked at was enormous. It spanned almost 763,000 pupils, 231,000 of whom were diagnosed as a sexual minority.

In the United States, as it is here in Australia, suicide is among the top causes of death among young men and women. According to the journal, almost three out of ten homosexual, bisexual and lesbian teens (aged between 15 and 24) had attempted suicide in 2015, compared to six percent of heterosexual students. For example, the link between depression and gay men is high as the stigma around sexuality remains.

But why is this?

According to the study, it is all about the stigma attached. In other words, denying same-sex couples the right to marry sends a message which they don’t deserve the very same rights as other couples.

The research showed policies preventing same-sex union constitute a type of structural stigma since they tag sexual minorities as distinct and refuse them legal, fiscal, health, and other advantages which are connected with the union.

Media attention and enhanced visibility of sexual minorities, which is connected with an increased social support network often accompany the advocacy for the legalisation of same-sex unions. The study said that same-sex union contributed to the greater acceptance of sexual minorities, which subsequently resulted in a larger feeling of self-worth.

This improved social support, such as a coming out support group, could translate into enhanced peer and behavioural approval of sexual minorities that have been proven to be associated with enhanced mental health.

By comparison, denying same-sex couples the right to marry could have a negative effect on households, as it might result in rejection. The study also discovered that resources dedicated to pushing for the same-sex union by the LGBTI community might be better spent on serving the mental health needs of community members.

Is it the exact same in Australia?

There is no comparison available, as unlike the USA, marriage laws have been dependent on the Commonwealth Government. So states cannot do it alone. (The ACT attempted to legalise it in 2013, but it had been overturned by the High Court, which ascertained that the land could not create its own marriage laws.)

It was found via the Australian National University that LGBTI individuals are not likely to endure any long-term consequences because of their sexual orientation. Dr. Richard Burns analyzed 5,000 individuals over eight years old and discovered that sexual orientation was not a risk factor for long-term emotional health issues.

Childhood sexual trauma, risky health behaviours, smoking, and a lack of positive reinforcement and negative social interactions pose more of a threat to a person’s psychological health than their sexual orientation.

Dr. Burns declared that LGBTI individuals are a lot more likely to encounter those risk factors than heterosexual individuals but stated sexual orientation itself did not pose a threat. Considering all the research we found that there is not any distinct psychological health risk for individuals who have a homosexual or bisexual orientation.

The recommendations from the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating can assist you to select foods for good health and to decrease your risk of chronic health issues.

If you’re carrying excess weight, then the Australian Dietary Guidelines may also help you lose weight when you combine it with some of our great health tip and make appropriate lifestyle changes. The guidelines encourage readers towards meals which are high in nutrients but lower in kilojoules. These options are nutrient dense but less energy compact and beneficial for both attaining and maintaining a wholesome weight.

People wanting to eliminate weight will also find that this Information is helpful for preparing meals and snacks. Observing the recommended variety of portions in the Five Food Groups and preventing the optional foods will create a slow but healthful weight loss for most people. But many people, especially younger guys and individuals who are taller than ordinary or more energetic, may need extra portions of the five food groups. Even simple things, such as choosing healthier options when ordering meals. Here are the main points!

Eating often

It is vital for weight loss control and particularly weight reduction, to recognise and act on the feedback that your body provides you, around when and how much you want to consume. However in addition, it is important to aim to get a normal eating routine of meals, or snacks and mid-afternoon meals.

A planned routine of eating is much more likely to contain the recommended variety of servings in the five food groups. A spontaneous, unstructured eating routine is much more inclined to include too many optional foods that means a lot of saturated fat, added sugars, additional salt and kilojoules at the cost of fiber and nutrients that are important.

Do not skip breakfast?

Breakfast skippers are more likely to be enticed by unplanned optional choices throughout the morning and big serves at another snack or meal. Just consider how yummy these big baked cakes seem at morning tea if you have missed breakfast!

Individuals who regularly consume a breakfast containing wholegrain bread or cereal, low fat milk or yoghurt and perhaps some fruit or veggies are a lot more likely to be eating well and get rid of fat than people who skip breakfast.

Eat with other individuals not TV

We also understand that people who consume with other people and consume at the dining table, are more inclined to eat often and eat well than people who consume independently or in front of the TV. Dining with others leads to a tendency to add more foods from the five food groups. As an instance, people frequently report that they cannot be bothered cooking veggies only for themselves.

Television watching is related to ingesting more optional options like take-away or fast foods and fewer foods in the five food groups. Additionally, it makes it far more challenging to recognise and react to our body’s signs about desire and satiety.

Fantastic meal preparation and making healthy decisions can occasionally be difficult but a few helpful ideas may make it simpler. Remember while sometimes more convenient, a well prepared, balanced meal is a much healthier alternative.

As soon as you know which the healthier options in the grocery store are, shopping may actually get simpler, faster and more economical.

• Organize snacks and meals for the week and be certain you get all you’ll need.
• Compose a list and keep it up.
• Do not shop when you are hungry so you’re not as tempted by unplanned alternatives.
• Focus on purchasing foods in the Five Food Groups and restrict optional foods.
• Utilize your tag reading abilities to work out what are the best options and search for these whenever you go shopping.

Planning is the key to healthy eating based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines when adhering to a budget so make sure you spend the majority of your cash on the Five Food Groups. Consider at great lengths about why you’re purchasing optional Foods and just how much you actually must purchase. This is particularly important if you’re attempting to shed weight, since in the event that you don’t purchase it and take it home, it is a lot easier to stick with your objectives.

Eight Hamilton schools and daycares were found to have too much lead in their drinking water through testing of individual taps in 2016. Eric Mathews, the city’s director of safe water, stated that it’s definitely a concern that has to be dealt with. Mathews said he’s thankful for provincial guidelines that need schools and child-care centers to flush pipes daily or weekly – based on the time of buildings – and test for lead concentrations in drinking water. Kids are a vulnerable population to lead exposure.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Elementary School had lead levels in drinking water over five times greater than the provincial standard of 10 parts per billion, showed evaluation results from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change acquired by the Toronto Star. The east Mountain school failed three drinking water tests of individual taps during an appliance repair service and air conditioning installation in July, 2016 – among them after the system was flushed.

Pat Daly, seat of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, is confident the 2017 results will show marked improvement. In St. Kateri, they shifted significant sections of pipes, piping and joints to the satisfaction of the public health department. As required, they are being flushed on a cycle every day and will stay so for a couple of decades.

In total, two from Hamilton’s 56 Catholic colleges failed lead tests. The other was St. Martin of Tours Catholic Elementary School in Stoney Creek, which had a standing water test above the provincial standard in July. Two from Hamilton’s 108 public colleges also were found to have too much lead in their drinking water.

École Élémentaire Michaëlle Jean in Binbrook had lead levels over double the brink while Queensdale Elementary School on the central Mountain failed a test after the machine was flushed. Reputation samples are more likely to reveal lead since they’re taken while the plumbing has not been used for at least six hours. A flushed sample is after the water has run for at least five minutes and then left unused for approximately 30 minutes.

Clearly we take the health and security of our students very seriously. Stacey Zucker, associate director of support services in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, said that they make sure they follow up and follow the regulations. She says the issue was dealt with at both colleges.

One Hamilton daycare is using bottled water while the emergency plumber handles the piping and hot water service repairs in one of its locations after status- and flushed-water tests demonstrated excessive lead levels. Today’s Family Early Learning and Child Care is having a filter in its Delta Adventure Camp website to wash fruit and toys. Kids do not drink the tap water in the camp, which is situated at Delta United Church in 47 Ottawa St. S.

CEO Marni Flaherty commented that they were completely on top of it. According to Flaherty, come up with recommendations and they will follow them. Over the last two decades, over 640 schools and daycares provincewide were found to have too much lead in their drinking water for both heating and cooling through yearly tests demanded by the 2007 provincial laws.

This is an important concern because lead is a toxic metal that especially affects fetuses and young children. Even low levels of exposure could lead to problems with intellectual development. The amount of failed tests is only expected to get worse as new rules about how samples are collected started coming into force in July.

Facility executives should always make sure that the elements in their buildings’ plumbing systems meet the local plumbing code requirements. However, with the increased concern over lead in drinking water, it may be helpful to know the sources of lead contamination and the particular demands of the various laws, regulations, and criteria associated with plumbing and lead systems.

Lead is a hazardous contaminant commonly found in plumbing systems of older houses and buildings with blocked plumbing and drains or a burst pipe. Occasionally newer buildings may also have a lead issue. There are 3 main resources:

• Lead service lines linking the building plumbing systems into the public water supply system, which most often occur in buildings constructed before 1950
• Lead solder used in aluminum piping systems, which mainly occurred before 1986
• Lead-containing brass or galvanized pipes and fittings that are not certified to the NSF/ANSI 61: Drinking Water System Components-Health Effects standard

Additionally, products that don’t comply with the “lead-free” content demands of the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), effective January 1, 2014, could also serve as a source of lead.

As a college student, you hear plenty of mixed messages. Partying is fun, but studying is essential. You have a final tomorrow morning, but your hot neighbor is hosting a beer pong tournament. Whether you like a refined glass of red from a vineyard in the Yarra Valley Australia or are happy to chug the cheapest box wine you can find, we all know there’s several negative connotations around drinking. But, fear not,  there may actually be some positives! Alcohol consumption may prime particular brain regions to learn and remember better, a new study from the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin finds.

The common view that drinking Is bad for memory and learning is not wrong according to neurobiologist Hitoshi Morikawa, but it highlights just one side of what ethanol ingestion does to the mind.

Typically, conversations surrounding memory and learning are focused on conscious memory, but Moriwaka’s results published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience found that while the capacity of short-term memory like an acquaintances name or the a definition of a phrase is diminished, alcohol may enhance subconscious ability to learn.

Morikawa’s study, discovered that multiple exposures to ethanol enhances the plasticity of synapses in a crucial area in the mind. It is supportive of current literature in neuroscience that purports an emerging consensus  that alcohol and drug addiction is basically a learning and memory disorder.

When we consume alcohol (or inject heroin, or take coke, or drop methamphetamines), our subconscious is changing, learning how to increase consumption. However, it does not stop there. We become more receptive to forming subsconscious memories and customs concerning music, food, even people and social conditions.

In a significant sense, Morikawa proposes that alcoholics are not hooked on the experience of relief or pleasure they get from drinking alcohol; they’re hooked on the constellation of behavioral, environmental and physiological cues which are reinforced when alcohol triggers the release of dopamine in the brain.

“People commonly think of dopamine as a happy transmitter, or a pleasure transmitter, but more accurately it’s a learning transmitter,” says Morikawa. “It strengthens those synapses that are active when dopamine is released.”

Alcohol, in this version, is the enabler. It hijacks the dopaminergic system, and it tells our mind that what we are doing at the moment is rewarding (and thus worth repeating).

One of the things we learn is that drinking alcohol is rewarding. We also learn that going into the pub, chatting with friends, eating certain foods and listening to certain sorts of songs are rewarding. The more frequently we do these things while drinking (and the dopamine which gets released) the more “potentiated” the several synapses become and the more we crave the set of associations and experiences that orbit around the alcohol usage.

Morikawa’s long-term hope is that by understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of addiction better, he can create anti-addiction drugs which would weaken, rather than strengthen, the important synapses. And if he can do that, he would have the ability to erase the subconscious memory of dependence.

Essentially, he is trying to de-wire these learned associations, but this comes with a risk as these drugs could be misused as a brain controlling substance, but with the right guidance these drugs would remove the controlling elements of addictive drugs

However, we do not have to tell you there is no worse feeling than rolling into course really hungover with your mind totally fried and your stomach in a dangerously fragile state. And to be perfectly honest, hangovers kind of make you dumber.

A 2013 study conducted from Keele University found hangovers impair the ability to think clearly and do simple arithmetic. The analysis also found hangovers slow response time; a hungover individual in their 20s has the identical response time as someone in their 40s.

But given both sides of the research we tend to favour the positive factors!

We’re here to give you a bit of great information about alcohol as the academic year begins: When consumed in moderation, alcohol can actually improve your academic performance, so it might be time to find a tutor who is willing to shout a few rounds.

Here’s why you should not hate yourself for ducking by Happy Hour prior to a study session at the library.

1. Alcohol can enhance your creativity.

A hangover may leave you unable to consider a lot of anything, but a drink or two could be just what you will need to get the creative juices flowing.

One University of Illinois study polled 40 guys on their Study habits and discovered a guy was more inventive when he had a blood alcohol content of about .075.

As for real memory capability, participants’ memories were marginally better when they had not had anything to drink.

What you can take away from this: If you have a creative writing task to complete, sinking a few before seeing your English tutor to brainstorm ideas could help! But just a small bit of it. Do not get really drunk whilst studying, text somebody you shouldn’t, fail your test and blame it on us.

2. Alcohol can make you smarter.

As if giving you a spark of inspiration wasn’t sufficient, moderate alcohol consumption may also keep your mind sharp as time passes.

Another study conducted on alcohol in 2011 discovered ethanol helps the nerves in your brain “[protect] against the development of dementia in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.”

Remember, though, it’s about moderation. Binge drinking is not great for your brain at all, in any shape or form.

3. Alcohol may even help you overcome that annoying cold.

Ever noticed you seem to get sick in the most inconvenient times ever? Like when you’ve got an exam right around the corner? Well, whiskey works wonders, especially for those who have a sore throat.

Whether your spent too much time yelling at that super loud Frat party last weekend or you feel a cold coming on, try adding a spoonful of whiskey into a cup of warm water and gargling with it to numb your throat a little. If you would like more of a soothing quality, add a teaspoon of honey into the mix.

Want something on the cooler side that is also packed with Vitamin C? Consider mixing up a whiskey cherry smoothie.

What are you waiting for? Grab your best Yarra Valley wine, finest Irish whiskey or best German beer and begin studying! A few drinks could be the difference between you be an A grade student compared to a B grade student!

Chris Bosh, one of the leading players in the N.B.A., has never ever caused trouble for his group, on or off the court. He has actually won 2 N.B.A. titles and been selected for the All-Star game an astounding 11 times. The Miami Heat, nevertheless, do not desire him to step on the court for them this season, or maybe ever again, asking him to hang up his basketball jerseys for good.

In one of the strangest and complicated standoffs in sports history, Bosh and the Heat are locked in a disagreement over whether he ought to be deemed medically fit to play after dealing with serious illness. With training camp scheduled to begin today, Bosh states he is ready to go, the Heat says he is not.

Bosh’s last 2 seasons have been derailed by blood clots. Bosh has suggested that he has worked with a personal physician to develop treatments that would permit him to play.

Bosh is owed about $76 million over the next 3 seasons regardless of whether he plays or not. So if the team is, in fact, keeping an eye out for Bosh’s welfare, it suggests an exception to what is possibly a more typical practice of pro sports franchises: pushing sports stars to play despite medical concerns.

The Heat announced their conclusion, mentioning a medical examination, after Bosh’s recent emergence from a self-imposed cocoon of silence to wage a public battle with the team’s medical personnel. Bosh has actually done numerous interviews with Undisturbed– his former colleague LeBron James’s digital platform for professional athletes– in which he has looked to make his case.

People with blood clots usually take blood-thinning medication, which is most likely one of the most daunting obstacles for Bosh. Athletes who are on blood slimmers are advised to avoid contact sports because of an increased possibility of internal bleeding and other problems. Even an elbow to the ribs might cause significant damage, stated Dr. David Forsh, the chief of orthopaedic trauma at the Icahn School of Medication at Mount Sinai in Manhattan.

Bosh experienced his very first known clotting issue in February 2015. He had cramps, convulsions and shortness of breath, although he attempted to conceal his symptoms, he stated. Bosh remembered one specific circumstance when he was in pain up until 3 or 4 in the early morning and the Heat were scheduled to deal with the Dallas Mavericks the next day. Bosh played because the Heat was already short-handed.

Bosh talked about the life of an athlete in his podcast, referring to the ‘one thing about athletes’ being that they neglect discomfort, or attempt to disregard pain, which he thinks is one of the worst things athletes can do.

Bosh was ultimately hospitalized, and tests exposed that an embolism in his calf had moved to his lungs, triggering a lung embolism– an issue that can be deadly. Bosh had surgery and invested nine days in a medical facility. He lost 20 to 25 pounds, he said, and missed out on the last 30 games of the 2014-15 seasons, giving his custom basketball uniforms a long rest.

Bosh has actually never openly articulated his specific course of treatment; however he most likely took blood-thinning drugs. He appeared in a TV commercial for one such medication, Xarelto.

Bosh was cleared by the Heat to return for the 2015-16 season openers. He played well through the first half of the season, averaging 19.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game prior to the All-Star break. But a couple of days prior to the All-Star basketball game, he woke up with a sore calf. He was quickly found to have had a recurrence of blood clots. He met several medical professionals, who informed him that his season was over and that his career was most likely ended as well, he thought.

Bosh also alluded to the stress between himself and the Heat’s medical personnel.

It has mostly remained a one-sided public tussle. The Heat, aside from erratic declarations, have not spoken in detail about Bosh’s medical circumstance, nor have team authorities said exactly what liability, if any, the franchise may have if something were to happen to Bosh on the court.

The Heat declined to comment when asked for this article. The players’ union have not returned a call looking for comment as of yet.

Samantha Brennan, a viewpoint teacher at Western University in London, Ontario, teaches a class on sports ethics that discuss the function of group physicians and the conflicts of interest that can arise– namely, clearing athletes to go back to the court, track or field before they are ready.

So what happens if an athlete, fully aware of the medical risks, demands to continue to play? Does the team have a moral duty to watch out for the athlete’s wellness? For the most parts, Brennan stated, threat taking is delegated, it is typically up to the discretion of the player. The challenge with lots of professional athletes, she said, is that they have actually invested a lot of themselves in their careers from an early age that it can cloud their judgment.

Eventually, Brennan mentioned that a professional athlete is an employee, and group authorities have the power to do what they want.

Dr. Jack Ansell, a teacher of medication at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine on Long Island, stated that he knew of a number of professional athletes who had handled blood-clot problems by taking blood thinners in between games.

Ansell, a member and former chairman of the medical and clinical advisory board of the National Embolism Alliance, has actually not examined Bosh and has no specific knowledge of his case. However Ansell said he believed that Bosh would need long-lasting blood-thinning treatment to prevent repeating embolisms. The difficult schedule of the N.B.A. would make intermittent treatment a challenge.

Rebekah Bradford Plath, a speed skater who completed at the 2010 Winter Olympics, developed a pulmonary embolism in 2012. While still on blood-thinning treatment, she resumed training. The risks were relatively minimal. Long-track speed skating is a non-contact sport, although falls do happen; Bradford Plath wore a helmet.

Last year, after having surgical treatment on her knee, Bradford Plath had a recurrence of blood clotting even though she was taking blood thinners at the time. After her doctor increased the dosage, she stated, the clot cleared.

Bradford Plath, who still takes blood thinners when she travels on planes, continues to train with an eye on the 2018 Winter season Olympics.

When you think about the word ‘plus size’ or ‘plus size clothes’, what gender automatically comes into your mind? Is it a male or female? I am going to guess that the majority of you had a picture of a plus sized woman in your mind, am I correct? Well, in fact you are not alone, a large proportion of the population thought the same as you and many wonder if that means they need to order more womens shoes. It seems that men are being forgotten when it comes to ‘plus size’ advertising, and you may be wondering if they are just living it up in some lavish Lorne accommodation. You may see the occasional plus size guy in a movie, but when do you actually see the larger guy shown in admirable television advertisements and seen as fashionable? And why isn’t the term ‘plus size’ used for these guys? A study was undertaken to seek the answer.

So when is a male classified as ‘plus-size’?

This a very puzzling question. To be honest, there is no real clear-cut answer to this question. No real distinction between men and women. Many suggest that the answer is that a male is considered as plus sized when his weight exceeds the average weight of the male population.

According to the CDCP (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the average waist measurements of American males is currently 39.7 inches, which equates to a pant size ranging between 38 and 40. By using this information, an informed conclusion could be that a male can be classified as ‘plus size’ when his waist size exceeds the average of 38 to 40 inches. In saying this, men are actually portrayed as being ‘larger’ when they are actually quite close to the average size of the countries male population.

Why the lack of ‘big bro’s’ modelling?

Contrary to what many believe, there are larger men in the fashion industry who are considered to be ‘plus-size’. They are just in very small numbers.

Why you ask. This has everything to do with the very limited ranges available to larger models to dress plus size including having to buy more womens high heels. If you compare the extensive range of plus size women’s clothing compared to male large size clothing, there is a very large differential. There are many plus size woman models who are releasing their own clothing lines, for lingerie, sleepwear and everyday clothing as compared to the very limited variety offered to larger men. Not to mention, men’s plus size clothes only get advertised when there are new clothing lines, which is a downside to the men’s large size clothing industry.