Jakoter Health Organizer

Have you ever been to the emergency room and needed help right away? Did they ask you a million seemingly easy questions? Questions usually you could answer, if you were feeling okay that is. If you were in acute pain like a ruptured appendix answering the question how much pain are you in is enough but then the nurse ask what medicines are you on, what surgeries have you had, what is your doctors name. Imagine if you were in a car accident or you where having an allergic reaction, questions get difficult to answer.

One way to be sure to safegaurd yourself in these situations is to have all of your facts prepared ahead of time and with you on a key chain. Sounds so simple and it is. Simply fill in the blanks and carry!

Patient Assistance has a goal of helping the over 100 million Americans who either can not afford their medications or who are struggling to afford them. That number seems to high to be true… Please visit their site for all the details.

Okay it is time to give someone a gift, but what? If you are looking for a truly meaningful gift then look at a charitable gift. This Holiday my husband and I received an unexpected wonderful gift that opened my eyes to a whole new way of giving. This present was a gift card to be redeemed as a donation to the charity of our choice. How cool is this?  Picking from a list of over one hundred charities was really exciting. It was uplifting and inspiring to receive this present. Holding on to this card and thinking about it was half the fun, redeeming the present was the other half.

It put a smile on my husband face and cheer into my heart. I know the secret to gifting (give the gift that helps others).
With this idea in mind, of giving a charitable gift, I went looking for other such organizations and I found Global Giving. Here, Global giving connects donors with community-based projects that need support. This is a great giving gift as well.

How about doing something everyday? With GoodSearch all you have to do is decide on your charity and everytime you search money will be donated to that charity. You can even shop at GoodSearch were up to 37% of the proceeds will go to your selection. Who knew this could be so easy.

More Gift Card Options

Tis Best

Gifting with pleasure! Enjoy!

One way to be healthy is to know your prescription drugs. Drug3k not only lets you know a great deal about your medication it also lets you speak your opinion about a medication you have taken. So here’s a great tool to help us all get healthy and organized!

Have you thought, I do not really want to start a medication before knowing all there is to know? Or maybe you are on a medication and you wonder why you are feeling the way you do? Could it be the medication? Could it be a couple medications combined? With Drug3k you can find some answers.

Find your medication under the first letter of the prescription and you will get a detailed listing of what the prescription drug is used for, notes on the medication, how to store the medication, what to do in case of an overdose, how to use the medication, any side effects, precautions, what to do with a missed dose and drug interactions.

If that is not enough then there are also photos (some prescription drugs) and a place for you to place your opinion! Wow, a place to say what you feel about a prescription drug.

Please let us know what you think about this site-we love feed back!

This helpful resource is not as much about dieting as it is a tool for weight management. I found this website to be very helpful for guiding anyone who needs to track their weight or nutritional needs. Try this resource for your healthy eating needs and please let me know what you think.

Weight-By-Date can be used on your computer or hand held pda-hopefully in a iPhone application soon! Listed below are just some of the great features and you can try it for FREE!

• A unique calendar that helps you lose weight.
• Statistics, weight loss projections, and rewards.
• Progress charts for weight loss motivation.
• An easy-to-use food diary that simplifies your diet.
• A database of over 40,000 foods.
• A meal planner that works with any diet.
• A way to organize your recipes.
• A way to set limits for each nutrient in your diet.
• An easy-to-use exercise journal.
• A database of over 130 exercises and activities.
• The ability to plan your workouts.
• A body measurements journal.
• Diet, health and fitness tools and calculators.
• Links to your favorite diet and weight loss sites.

Diabetes Health - Informational Sites

If you are newly diagnosed or have been living with diabetes for some time, these are the sites to go to for great information, resources and products.

Visit the Diabetes Mall, your source for the latest in diabetes information, technology, and resources, plus diabetes books, test strips, and products at discount.

Tu Diabetes - A Community for People Touched by Diabetes.
tudiabetes.com

JDRF- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation - Dedicated to finding a cure!

jdrf.org

American Diabetes Association

diabetes.org

Information for parents, school personnel, and kids.

Juvenile Diabetes Support for Parents of Diabetic Children: Help your family live a normal life with child diabetes - Diabetes information & Support Forums.

MedicTag

Put all your health information on one flash drive for quick retrieval in an emergency.

I want to share a great resource for all caregivers. No one should be on a caregiving journey alone when there are resources like this available. Strength for Caring is wonderful resource for caregivers. Please take the time to, see how they can help you by finding resources that you need, chat with someone going through the same things you are and much more.

The Johnson & Johnson Caregiver Initiative is a pioneer in the emerging field of family caregiver support and StrengthForCaring.com (SFC) is the cornerstone of this important program. SFC is a comprehensive website designed to provide family caregivers with a broad range of expert content and information, an emerging on-line community, daily inspiration, and much needed support.

The Caregiver Initiative will launch new programs in the coming months. We are proud to work with other caregiving organizations across America to support the more than 54 million family caregivers who provide care for their loved ones each and every day.

SFC contains four main sections:

* Just for Caregivers - Find ways to take care of yourself while you are caring for others.

• learn how to decrease stress

• stop feeling guilty

• find ways to balance mind, body, work and family

* Caring for Others - Tips for daily care and information about health conditions.

• find information about caring for your loved one’s specific health condition

• learn how to communicate with healthcare professionals

• get practical caregiving tips for safety and daily care

* Connecting Caregivers - Share stories and find support.

• post a message

• ask for advice

• talk to other caregivers on our message boards

* Resource Center - Find caregiver news, books and brochures about caregiving, links to other sites, and more.

• research housing options for your loved one

• read articles about money and insurance

• find multicultural caregiving resources

Combine Physical and Mental Exercise for Brain Health: Interview with Dr. Kramer
Copyright © 2008 SharpBrains

Dr. Arthur Kramer is a Professor in the University of Illinois Department of Psychology, the Campus Neuroscience Program, the Beckman Institute, and the Director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at the University of Illinois.

I am honored to interview him today about recent brain research findings focused on how to maintain a healthy, strong brain.

Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Dr. Kramer, thank you for your time. Let’s start by trying to clarify some existing misconceptions and controversies. Based on what we know today, and your recent Nature piece (Note: referenced below), what are the 2-3 key lifestyle habits would you suggest to a person who wants to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms and improve overall brain health?

Dr. Kramer (DK): First, Be Active. Do physical exercise. Aerobic exercise, 30 to 60 minutes per day 3 days per week, has been shown to have an impact in a variety of experiments. And you don’t need to do something strenuous: even walking has shown that effect. There are many open questions in terms of specific types of exercise, duration, magnitude of effect…but, as we wrote in our recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience article, there is little doubt that leading a sedentary life is bad for our cognitive health. Cardiovascular exercise seems to have a positive effect.

Second, Maintain Lifelong Intellectual Engagement. There is abundant prospective observational research showing that doing more mentally stimulating activities reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Let me add, given all media hype, that no “brain game” in particular has been shown to have a long-term impact on Alzheimer’s or the maintenance of cognition across extended periods of time. It is too early for that-and consumers should be aware of that fact. It is true that some companies are being more science-based than others but, in my view, the consumer-oriented field is growing faster than the research is.

Ideally, combine both physical and mental stimulation along with social interactions. Why not take a good walk with friends to discuss a book? We lead very busy lives, so the more integrated and interesting activities are, the more likely we will do them.

AF: Great concept: a walking book club! Now, part of the confusion we observe is due to the search of “magic solutions” that work for everyone and everything. We prefer to talk about several pillars of brain health, and different priorities for different individuals. Can you elaborate on what interventions seem to have a positive effect on specific cognitive abilities and individuals?

DK: Perhaps one day we will be able to recommend specific interventions for individuals based on genetic testing, for example, but we don’t have a clue today. We are only beginning to understand how the environment interacts with our genome.

But I agree on the premise that there probably won’t be a general solution that solves all cognitive problems, but we need a multitude of approaches. And we can’t forget, for example, the cognitive benefits from smoking cessation, sleep, pharmacological interventions, nutrition, social engagement.

Physical exercise tends to have rather broad effects on different forms of perception and cognition, as seen in the Colcombe and Kramer, 2003, meta-analysis published in Psychological Science (Note: referenced below).

Cognitive training also works for a multitude of perceptual and cognitive domains - but has shown little transfer beyond trained tasks.

No single type of intervention is sufficient. Today there is no clear research on how those different lifestyle factors may interact. The National Institute on Aging is starting to sponsor research to address precisely that.

AF: To wrap up, what’s in your mind the best way to explain the relative benefits of physical vs. cognitive exercise? From a fundamental point of view, it seems clear that physical exercise can help enhance neurogenesis (Note: the creation of new neurons), yet learning/ cognitive exercise contributes to the survival of those neurons by strengthening synapses, so I see more how those two “pillars” are complimentary than “one or the other”.

DK: I agree. Given what we know today I would recommend both intellectual engagement and physical exercise. However, we do know, from a multitude of animal studies, that physical exercise has a multitude of effects on brains beyond neurogenesis, including increases in various neurotransmitters, nerve grown factors, and angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels).

AF: Dr. Kramer, many thanks for your time.

DK: You are welcome.

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Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of SharpBrains.com, which reviews resources for brain health and offers brain teasers and mind teasers. SharpBrains has been recognized by Scientific American Mind, Newsweek, The New York Times, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Education and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute. You can learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/

Be Healthy With Organic Food

Today’s society is vigilant towards consciousness for health and people are constantly searching for factors that are able to give them an edge for achieving to be healthy. We all know that healthy diet, constant physical activity regime, and sufficient rest have profound impact upon our entire vitality. Subsequently, there are an overwhelming number of groups who swear that organic food is extremely beneficial for the overall health of individuals.

How Are Organic Foods Produced?
Produced in organic farms, these foods are grown under stern supervision and guidelines and are packaged and grown without using any pesticides, man-made fertilizers, preservatives, artificial colorings and other chemicals. Non-organic products are subjected to various chemicals, which are usually not thoroughly studied so that their effects over the consumers’ body can be understood and contemplated. These chemicals may be linked to anything from some types of cancer to food allergies.

Benefits Of Consuming Organic Food
One of the main advantages of consuming organic food is that these food products are not at all subjected to any unreliable substances. Dairy and meat products prepared under organic principles are also free from any form of chemicals. Non-organic agricultural farmers usually subject the livestock to various chemical supplements designed for speeding their weight and growth. Further, cows in the dairies are given chemicals for increasing their milk productivity.

As per the guidelines for organic foods, the livestock is reared without using any antibiotics or growth hormones and are not genetically modified in any way. The benefits of organic foods are that the livestock are given only organic feed which is free from chemicals and supplements.

Another advantage of consuming organic food is its friendliness to the environment. The non-organic foods are treated through chemicals, which are responsible to change the landscape and contaminate the surrounding ground and water supplies. The ground in which organic food is grown experiences no changes. Making commitment towards using organic foods will make you healthy as the benefits of organic foods lie in enjoying natural whole foods free of chemicals.

As the benefits of organic foods are long lasting and varied to the environment, the decision for going organic is responsible and a healthy one.

In several countries, the producers of organic foods need to get an organic certification so that they can advertise their food products as organic. Chemical free food products are not able to cure any existing illness but are believed to reduce the risks of intoxication of the body, thereby leading to lesser health related problems. The market of organic foods has been fast developing, as the customers are becoming increasingly health conscious and aware about the after effects of pesticides and chemical fertilizers used in crops on their health.

Virtually, everyone may agree that organic vegetables, fruits, fish and meats are preferred to non-organic foods grown with insecticides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers. At present, non-organic food growers are allowed to make use of more than 1000 chemicals upon their crops, which may heavily lead to soil erosion because of over-farming to the dangerous toxics running off into drinking water.

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Please visit the following websites for more information:
http://www.organicfoodguides.com
http://www.herbalsupplementstips.com

Medical Information Organizing

Medical information organizing sounds agonizing! Well, really it is not as anguishing as it sounds. Just follow these steps and you will be well on your way to having your health organized in case of an emergency.

•  If possible grab an already made health organizer or flash drive to save time.

•  Once you do have your health organized, make the most of it!

o Make copies of your medication list and bring it with you to your appointments.

o Bring your questions to your healthcare visits.

o Keep your organizer/flash drive updated.

•  Take time to make yourself safe if something should happen.

Medical information you should keep organized.

Important Information – If you do just one thing do this page! Take it with you if you need to go to the emergency room or an acute care center.
Write/type your name, date of birth, health conditions, allergies, surgeries, medications and person to contact in an emergency and any other important information, so that if needed there is a one-page overview of yourself or loved one. Put anything you feel is important in…ANYTHING!!!

Medication – Write/type a list of the medications you are taking, what dose, when you take them and what you take the medication for for. The start date of the medication is also helpful.

Insurance Information – Write/type down your insurance company’s phone number, your group or policy number, address, and anything else pertinent to your insurance. If you have supplemental insurance that should be included as well.

Emergency Numbers – Write/type your important phone numbers, i.e. ICE (in case of emergency) Keep these updated!

Family History - Filling this out might be tedious, but once it is recorded, you will always have it for future reference. Make sure that you keep it updated.

Major Events - A major event can be a broken bone, surgery, or a trip to the urgent care center for any reason. Write/type your major events for easy reference.

Immunizations - Keep track of your last flu, tetanus and all immunizations. Your doctor’s office should still have records.

Appointments – Keep a running list of your appointments, (date, who, why and the results).

Questions & Answers - You know how everyone is telling you what to ask? Now give yourself a place to write/type it out before you get to your appointment. Make sure you get your answers. Write/type these out for reference as well.

Notes - Remember to date your notes.

Feel Charts - These can be headaches records, long illnesses, pain, moods, or even food charts. Remember to date your charts!

Blood Work - Diagnostic Test Results You can ask your healthcare provider for a copy! Highlight dates and anything unusual. The doctor’s office should still have a copy, but it is useful if you are referred to another office to have your own copy. Type the place and information in your flash drive if you are using one and/or place the hard copy results in your health organizer.

Remember this is your information, recorded your way, so that you can understand it.

September is National Preparedness Month sponsored by U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Ready Campaign, please visit ready.gov. Be prepared with your health as well as everything else in your life!