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Archive for October, 2011

The cost of home health care warrants proactive planning and should be weighed against your budget and other anticipated expenses. For a home health aide to visit just 3 times a week to provide in home care, you may have to pay nearly $18,000 a year. It is wise then, to fully understand what is involved in contracting home health services and how it impacts your finances.

To get a full picture of what to expect when engaging a home health care provider, determine the cost your home health services, the public programs for which you are eligible, what payments these programs cover and what private funding options are available. This will greatly simplify identifying what option best meets your budget and in home care needs.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, in 2008, the average cost of hiring a home health care provider in United States is $29 an hour. The cost may vary depending upon where you live, however. Those in Los Angeles, may have to pay $29/hour for a home health aide, but those in San Jose, may need to pay $50/hour for the same in home care.

The table below shows average hourly rates of home healthcare services state-wise.
Average state hourly home health aide rates in USD ($)
(Source: 2008 Cost of Care Survey, Genworth Financial, March 2008 )
Alabama 46.00
Alaska 49.00
Arizona 29.00
Arkansas 21.00
California 36.00
Colorado 27.00
Connecticut 25.00
Delaware 31.00
District of Columbia 20.00
Florida 20.00
Georgia 42.00
Hawaii 32.00
Idaho 25.00
Illinois 30.00
Indiana 21.00
Iowa 28.00
Kansas 22.00
Kentucky 16.00
Louisiana 41.00
Maine 38.00
Massachusetts 28.00
Michigan 26.00
Minnesota 26.00
Mississippi 44.00
Missouri 25.00
Montana 23.00
Nebraska 23.00
Nevada 37.00
New Hampshire 32.00
New Jersey 26.00
New Mexico 23.00
New York 25.00
North Carolina 28.00
North Dakota 24.00
Oklahoma 29.00
Oregon 33.00
Pennsylvania 24.00
Rhode Island 22.00
South Carolina 29.00
South Dakota 20.00
Tennessee 30.00
Texas 28.00
Utah 24.00
Vermont 24.00
Virginia 25.00
Washington 45.00
West Virginia 32.00
Wisconsin 25.00
Wyoming 24.00

What you should know before hiring a caregiver: Read the rest of this entry »

For optimal black hair growth and health, you should develop a week by week regimen of what you will need to do to your hair in order to keep it clean, healthy and growing.

To create a basic hair care regimen, you need to determine the following things:

–DAILY–

1.**Figure out what times of day you need to moisturize and what products work best for your hair. You should have at least one moisturizer for adding moisture AND another moisturizer that specifically says it contains protein or that it is “Anti Breakage”. Alternate between these two moisturizers as needed. I will tell you in another post how to tell if your hair needs more moisture or more protein. Read the rest of this entry »

 

For years you have been eating pulses such as moong, chowli, channa, masur, etc. You probably soak them overnight in water before cooking them the next day. It is a good practice because soaking them in water makes them less gaseous. Interestingly, we Indians have always followed such healthy practices without really knowing why except that we learnt them from our parents. The west has discovered these means only recently!

Soaking is only the beginning. You can take it one step farther once you realise what the mighty pulse contains. It is literally pulsing with energy! It is Nature’s energy treasure chest packed with proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. And the best way to free this healthy treasury is to sprout the pulse. You are already aware that your body needs glucose to make it energetic. When you sprout a pulse, you help it to break down all the treasures it contains into easier-to-digest components. Thus, starch turns into glucose, proteins into amino acids, And since you have already done half the work of breaking it down for your body, it sings with instant energy when fed with this digestible fuel. It’s like the process of refining crude oil into petrol to be used as fuel?energy for your car.

Sprouting enhances the pulsing-with-life-quality of the moong, for example. It destroys or neutralises potentially hazardous acids-e.g. phytic acid – that may otherwise retard the release of vital minerals for your body; it breaks down saturated fats into free-flowing fatty acids; it converts proteins into amino acids that generate hormones and build up your muscle tissues; Read the rest of this entry »

With so many choices out there for dental insurance it can be over whelming trying to pick one. United health care dental insurance is considered by many to be at the top.

With over 26 million customers they have one of the largest bases in the United States for dental coverage. Some would say that with that many customers their customer service must not be that good. The opposite is true. They have so many clients because they do have great customer service. They are considered as being the strongest and most committed health care company in the world, and so you can definitely feel assured and secured when you go with United Health Care dental insurance.

Here is What They Have

The United Health Care dental insurance offers an array of features and services, including a broad offering of consumer oriented health benefit plans and services and practical online tools for consumers and employees.

One reason I like them is their online site is so easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. In just a few clicks you can see what doctors in your area accept their insurance.

With United Health Care you are able to see claims activity for your whole family, check costs for a particular procedure, compare hospitals and physicians, order your prescriptions, get the latest health and wellness tools, and chat live with a nurse.

Of course there are many other companies that you can go through for dental insurance, but the United Health Care organization is without a doubt one of the best. Their programs and services are fantastic and definitely ones that you will consider worth checking out.

Dental insurance is not for everyone. Often times you may just be better of going with a dental plan rather than dental insurance. Dental plans tend to be more affordable and cover very close to what dental insurance would. The down side is many dental plans do not have as wide a network as dental insurance would. If you already have a dentist be sure and check if your doctor is included in the dental plan.

Having the right insurance is very important, and it is essential that you have it before you actually need it, so that you are already prepared and will have nothing to worry about once the time comes when you actually do need the insurance. It is obviously even more important to be protected with insurance when you have a family, so that they are all covered as well. It can be hard to find good dental insurance, but know that there are some great options, such as the United Health Care organization, which has been discussed here.

 

Men and women are into several fad diets nowadays. Other than signing up for fitness club membership, they get into the deal of taking fat burners, weight loss patches and dietary supplements to accelerate results. Nobody gets content with a simple yet effective approach of healthy eating and daily exercising. Knowing that weight loss is not an overnight venture, people can’t seem to realize that fitness goals are only achieved with extra diligence, focus and dedication to undertake cardiovascular routines plus strength training and good nutrition. Fitness industry trends such as kickboxing, Yoga, Pilates, stability ball, circuit training, functional exercise for baby boomers, and one-on-one exercise session are embraced by varying groups of health buffs which have one thing in common: to breathe and live healthy years.

The health industry pursues to join forces with spa clinics. Considering that there are more adult people than teenagers trying to stay fit, the fitness industry trends are leaning towards the expansion of outreach programs and exercise incentives. The more events-for-a-cause done, the longer the fitness club members linger to pursue their workout programs. Offering outreach events that do not demand for membership is a privilege to actually promote health programs to more people. This kind of approach has been proven by some facilities to be effective in magnetizing their members and increasing the number of sign-ups on a consistent mode.

Zooming in to fitness industry trends, it is noticed that health is not only catering to the twentyish crowd but also the mature age. Body sculpting now makes sense as everyone’s aspiration to undertake healthy practices. Some employment agencies and corporate entities have integrated exercise into their incentive programs because of Read the rest of this entry »

What Should My Cirrhosis Diet Plan Look Like?

An important part of your cirrhosis diet plan is to implement a complete abstinence from alcohol. Alcohol simply destroys your liver and will have serious consequences if consumed with cirrhosis.

Your liver has the very important role of converting your food into stored energy that can be used by the body to function properly. When the liver is damaged, it needs to be treated especially well to assume its normal functionality. Part of treating your liver well, is to keep sodium, and simple sugar intake low, and your protein intake high. We’ll get into further detail as to what that means below.

Low Sodium

Your sodium intake typically needs to be regulated and/or restricted with cirrhosis. Unfortunately, this means no salt on your eggs, steak, or ice cream! However, salt is an acquired taste, so, just like any difficult habit it will get easier as time goes on.

The biggest and most difficult hurdle could also be the foods that come pre-packaged with masses of sodium. Foods to be on the lookout for would be your processed meats and cheeses, canned soups, and frozen dinners. Most experts will tell you that 2000 milligrams of sodium per day would be the max you would want to ingest, but always consult your doctor or health professional for the best advice in this regard.

Adequate Protein

Another important aspect of your cirrhosis diet plan will be to ingest an adequate, but not excessive, amount of protein in your diet. Protein is necessary in repairing and maintaining your body tissue, especially your liver!

Many persons dealing with cirrhosis tend to better absorb and use protein from plant and dairy sources rather than from meat and poultry. And, consequently, your diet should reflect that tendency, being comprised of nuts, seeds, yogurt, etc. Large amounts of animal proteins in your diet can lead to a condition called encephalopathy, so your protein intake with cirrhosis should be handled with great caution.

Low Fat

As the largest organ in your body, your liver plays a greatly multi functional role. And, as such, persons dealing with cirrhosis often experience difficulty digesting fat in their diet as well. A good guideline to use for your fat intake would be to try and keep the total calories of fat in your diet to around 25%. And, as a general principle for a healthy diet, and for it’s liver protecting qualities, try to ingest a good portion of that fat from Omega-3 fatty acids, found in food such as salmon, walnuts, and flaxseed oil.

So, What Now?

Now you know what elements of the your cirrhosis diet plan you need to look for, but how do you ensure that you are getting the right nutrition, eating at the right times of the day, and consuming the right foods?

Here are a few basic suggestions:

Eat several smaller portioned meals throughout the day (4 -7), rather than 3 large meals. (much less taxing on your liver) Look for a good multi-vitamin that’s easily soluble, organic, and contains the nutrients your body needs. (to replace those vitamins your liver couldn’t handle) Replace your intake of animal fat and animal protein with some good supplements, such as nutritional bars, shakes, and spirulina. Drink lots of water, get normal rest, and lots of sunshine.

Losing stomach fat and keeping off the calories has nothing to do with your resolution. It has nothing to do with the reduced meat, sausages, cheeses, fat cookies etc. It has nothing to do with deprivation as well. Confused? In simple words, losing belly fat in 2 weeks is all about controlling the physical urges which cause you to go off the diet chart or cheat on the diets and not stay with the easy weight loss goals that you have established for yourself.

To loose belly fat and to keep it off is primarily dependent on the amount of blood sugar levels. More exactly, the easiest way to lose the belly fat in just 2 weeks is only by preventing the low blood sugar levels and making the condition of having good blood sugar.

In brief, the lower the level of blood sugar, the more you yearn for having sweets-or anything which can fill your need. In turn, the more chocolates you eat, the more you remain in a bad condition. In actuality, most of us tend to live in low blood sugar. It is true that the glucose toleration check may not reveal that you are hypoglycemic, but you can well be one.

The way you have set your daily diet plan, the sort of food you have been eating and the total number of times you eat- all of these count as essential factors which in turn contribute for the highs as well as the lows through the entire day. Moreover, regular exercise programs alone aren’t enough to shed weight. Furthermore, sit ups to lose the belly fat don’t work.

Indeed, if you want to shed weight, then you need to check the blood throughout the 24 hour phase. This way you will be able to find out those highs and the lows which produce the hypoglycemic symptoms.

If you can just work on those low levels of blood sugar present in your system, then you will be able to loss the physiological cravings for sweets, caffeine, alcohol, fats and starches. When you are successful in doing so, you will experience more of energy than never before. And the change which takes place will be natural. You will feel much more focused and contented than never earlier.

In reality, 75 percent of why we can’t shed the belly fat and get the 6-pack abs is just physical. The only reason related to the lower amounts of blood sugar is what keeps us craving for more. This in turn leads to putting on extra weight.

When 75 percent of reason is related with the low blood sugar levels in the system, the other 25 percent relates to the psychological behaviors and the underpinnings which are combined with the low blood sugar and keep you remain the same fat.

The energy and vivacity which comes from living with a stable blood sugar is unmatched. It gives you the real delight of weight drop off as well. Just imagine no more of craving, no more crunches and no mood fluctuations and no snoozes in the middle of the day.

 

Summer is here, you are definitely happy that you finally got a respite from biting winds and extreme cold. You should be happy, but with summer come the harsh sunrays which can at times damage skin and hair if you do not take adequate measures to protect them.

Hair is the first to be exposed to the sun rays, therefore, it is necessary that you should take proper precautions for protecting hair from the UV radiation. Sun rays can provide substantial damage to your hair, this damage can be in several forms. Following are the conditions when you will know your hair has been damaged by sun:

Your hair will lose its normal moisture and start appearing dry. Your hair will become brittle if you expose it to the sun at all times. Sweat and grime that the hair tends to collect during summer, can give your body parasites like the lice, etc. You will find your hair getting dandruff; this may happen because your scalp is very dry. You could develop itching and redness on the scalp. If you itch it will lead to hair fall. You hair loses out natural body oils, this can lead to start of hair fall which is difficult to stop. For people who have been out in the sun for a long time can feel hair begin to grey, however this is a slow long term effect of sun rays exposure.

Following are the ways you can gain protection against sun damage:

Cover your head whenever you go out, Read the rest of this entry »

The banana diet is 1 of the best and easiest ways to help boost your weight loss efforts. It appears there are many versions of this diet… and I also have a version of this diet. A lot of the other versions of this diet just seem plain silly and not very practical.

Here’s an easy to use version that will give you slow, steady weight loss. This is not an extreme diet like you may think.

You may think that the banana diet consists of eating just bananas all day. Wrong! Obviously that isn’t very practical or smart. There is just 1 main rule to this diet and another general rule…

Rule #1: Eat 1-2 bananas before each meal… minimum of 3 times a day.

Very simple, huh? Not much to think about. If you eat, you’re going to eat 1-2 bananas before your meal. Practical, easy, healthy, and not much to remember.

Before breakfast, eat 2 bananas. Before lunch, eat 2 bananas. Before dinner, eat 1 banana. So you eat 5 total bananas a day.

Rule #2: Eat whatever you want for meals.

This rule is simple… eat whatever you want, just as long as you eat 2 bananas before breakfast, 2 bananas before lunch, and 1 banana before dinner. Obviously eating healthier than normal would help your weight loss efforts even more, but it’s not 100% necessary.

Bonus Rule: You can replace 1 banana with an apple before breakfast and lunch.

As mentioned, you can replace a banana with an apple before breakfast and lunch. This is to help relieve possible boredom. Nothing more.

I honestly don’t know how much weight you will lose on this or any other diets that use bananas, however you should notice a steady weight loss. It won’t be extremely fast, so if that’s what you’re looking for… forget the banana diet.

Based on its research, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) says that obesity in trucking is rampant. In response to the research, the Associated Press notes that many truckers do not wear seat belts because their stomachs get in the way, about one in four have sleep apnea, and half of all truckers smoke, compared to about one-fifth of all Americans. All of these are risk factors for high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. According to a study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 75% of truckers are overweight, and 25% are obese. Clearly, trucking poses a challenge for a healthy lifestyle. Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a Toronto researcher, claims that truck drivers live ten to fifteen years less than the average North American male, who lives to 76.

The concern for lack of health and fitness among truckers even spawned a reality show on CMT called Trick my Trucker, where the driver gets a makeover and a guide for healthy living. Outside of landing on a reality show, is there anything a trucker can do to battle against a lifestyle that is not conducive to healthy living?

Trucking does not compare to a normal job. A long-haul trucker does not have the option of hitting Gold’s Gym after work every day, and few appear to have taken the advice of Chuck Norris with the purchase of a Total Gym. While there are a handful of drivers who pay attention to their health, the majority are among the unhealthiest eaters on the planet.

There are many reasons for lack of healthy habits on the road. For a National driver, spending three to six weeks living in a truck simply has a way of chipping away resolve. After working 14 hours, it is often difficult to muster the motivation to prepare a healthy meal. Fatigue and stress can highlight the appeal of comfort food in a restaurant. After veering off the path of healthy eating on the road, I can attest to the difficulty of getting back on track. Boredom and loneliness are the perfect scapegoats for an unhealthy meal or snack.

While it may not be possible to regularly get a gym-quality workout on the road, many drivers are taking a creative approach to avoid the dreaded “trucker’s physique”. A Wisconsin driver decided to start a walking routine. Instead of waiting around for his truck to be unloaded, he walked a mile or so into the nearest town. He also advises to park at the back of a truck stop. This forces additional walking in the course of a normal day. Another driver I met stored a fold-up bicycle in his truck. Not only did it give him an enjoyable way to stay fit, it provided added mobility during down time. It obviously worked for him, as he was lean and muscular.

The only limit to finding ways to stay fit on the road is the driver’s creativity. I have seen a driver skipping rope at a truck stop, and another pumping iron on a weight bench beside his truck. I even found a contraption on the Internet called a “Truck Gym”. A metal frame screws into the floor behind the driver’s seat, and a series of resistance bands and adjustable rods, supposedly, affords a total-body workout without getting out of the driver’s seat.

Personally, I carry a set of dumbbells and resistance bands on the road, and I walk as much as I can. I normally prepare my own meals, but I sometimes fall victim to an insatiable craving for the greasy fare of the road. The best advice for any driver is to prepare most meals in the truck, avoid fast foods and buffets, and exercise for at least a few minutes a day. Even Bojangles chicken, my personal weakness, seems a little less appealing when I watch a driver, with belly fat hanging almost to Read the rest of this entry »