Alzheimer’s Disease: Mysteries and Possibilities
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a condition in which the concept of loss is central—the loss of one’s memories, independence, the ability to recognize loved ones, and the loss of dignity. Often referred to as “the long goodbye,” AD is the most common typ… Read more »
Are Your Air and Water Safe? How Air and Water Quality Affect Health
The quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink is essential to our overall well-being, our economic prosperity, and the environment. Clean air and water play an important role in maintaining our health, and contaminants in either one or bot… Read more »
Ayurvedic Medicine: Ancient Foundations of Health Care
Ayurvedic medicine is a highly sophisticated religion, philosophy, and system of medicine that has been practiced in India for over 2,500 years. As with other forms of complementary and alternative medicine, it focuses on the whole individual and one… Read more »
Botanicals, Herbs, and Herbalism
While modern medicine has produced many scientific advances, one of the most important “advances” in health and medicine has been the recognition of the value of herbs and herbalism. After all, nature and plants have been an essential part of everyda… Read more »
Centenarians: Keys to Longevity
Living to be 100 years old was once considered a rare occurrence, but with advancements in medicine and lifestyle changes, living to be 100 is not so improbable today. As a group, there are more centenarians worldwide than ever before, with the large… Read more »
Chronic Pain: An Integrative Approach to Effective Pain Management
Pain interferes with the enjoyment of life. It makes it difficult to work, socialize with friends and family, sleep, and accomplish activities of daily living. It may reduce productivity and create financial hardships in terms of lost work and high m… Read more »
Cultural Competence in Health Care
The culturally diverse health care populations in the United States provide health care professionals with tremendous opportunities to bridge cultural gaps, incorporate new treatments and disease prevention strategies into their practices, and learn… Read more »
Current Issues in Nutrition
Our diet has a profound impact on our health and well-being as well as the health of the environment, yet many of us are not aware of where our food originated or how it was produced. We eat toxic, irradiated, or genetically altered foods, and we eat… Read more »
Diabetes in Pregnancy
Diabetes during pregnancy can provide a special challenge to the patient and her healthcare providers. The effects of poorly controlled blood glucose levels can result in life-threatening effects for both the mother and the fetus.
Effective and Empowering Communication
Communication is how people exchange information, opinions, and ideas and it links all human beings together. Intimate, complex, and necessary for our very survival, communication can profoundly affect our overall health and wellness. Today, communic… Read more »
Ethical Foundations in Healthcare
Healthcare professionals face ethical dilemmas every day of their professional lives. Ethical decision-making is an important part of the care they provide to their patients and clients. A sound understanding of key ethical issues helps healthcare pr… Read more »
Food and Mood: What’s the Connection?
“You are what you eat!” How often have most of us heard this phrase? While it may be a common saying, it remains a very true one for many good reasons. Food has the ability to affect our bodies and minds in profound ways. It can influence how we feel… Read more »
HIPAA and Patient Privacy
Personal health information is protected under federal law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides for the protection and security of personal health information. Both healthcare professionals and consumers must unde… Read more »
Human Health and Climate Change—Is There a Connection?
Numerous independent researchers and scientists all across the world know that Earth is warming and human activity is the primary cause. How much climate change we will experience in the future is dependent on the choices we all make as global citize… Read more »
International Women’s Health – Challenges and Opportunities
While women have a longer life expectancy than men in most every country, they don’t necessarily get to enjoy healthier lives. Millions of women suffer from health issues each year throughout the world—health issues that would not affect them if they… Read more »
Is Your Home Hazardous to Your Health?
While most of us consider our home a place of safety, the products we use every day and the communities in which we live can be causing our health to suffer. Common everyday items and medications can prove toxic to ourselves, our families, our pets,… Read more »
Legal Issues in Healthcare
Healthcare professionals today are acutely aware of the need to understand the legal environment in which they practice. Ever-shrinking resources, shorter lengths of stay, high-acuity patients, availability of more complex information, diverse patien… Read more »
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Health Issues
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning individuals—often referred to under the umbrella acronym LGBTQ—are becoming more visible and acknowledged in societies both in the United States and throughout the world. Yet, because of the discri… Read more »
Meditation for Health and Energy
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all grounded in the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. The regular practice of meditation not only calms and helps focus the mind, it is also an effective pr… Read more »
Music and the Brain
Most of what we know about music and the brain has been discovered in the last 20 years. Music is universal across all cultures and, like other arts, is a function of specific social and cultural influences. Listening to or playing music can provide… Read more »
Music Therapy and Alzheimer’s Disease
Music therapy influences an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being and is especially exciting as a modality that can improve the quality of life for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The type of therapy used in in… Read more »
Music Therapy for End of Life Care
Music therapy for end-of-life care involves playing music on a variety of instruments, singing, listening to music, and performing music based on the patient’s preferences. The goal is to enhance the person’s quality of life by relieving or easing a… Read more »
Music Therapy: Inspiring Health and Wellness
Music therapy is an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. At a time when people are increasingly turning to holistic methods… Read more »
Oral Health: Beautiful Smiles for Life
Oral health can affect virtually every other aspect of our health. Good oral health can not only prevent disease in the mouth but it can also prevent many chronic diseases. Good oral health is more than “pretty teeth” and affects our ability to speak… Read more »
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
When individuals experience a traumatic, terrifying, life-changing event or series of events, with a real or threatened risk of death, they may experience a variety of symptoms known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although this condition h… Read more »
Psychology of Stress
Events, people, and circumstances fill our normal daily lives along with a certain amount of stress. Some of us experience psychological effects from this stress, while others seem to be unaffected or even thrive when challenged. Why do we react diff… Read more »
Self-Care for Health and Well-Being
Caring for yourself is one of the most important things you can do for yourself, and it is also one of the easiest things to forget to do or put aside in favor of tending to others. Good self-care involves small self-care habits that, when done regul… Read more »
Social Media and Healthcare
Social media has many characteristics and has become part of the very fabric of today’s society. It can be immediate, irreverent, and incredibly powerful. The use of social media in all areas of life, especially health care, is growing exponentially…. Read more »
Sound Healing: Vibrational Therapy
Sound healing is the process by which participants play or listen to live or recorded sounds in order to have a positive healing experience. Those experiencing sound healing may feel healing on a physical, emotional, energetic, and/or spiritual level… Read more »
The Global Health Impacts of Overpopulation
The term “overpopulation” is not a common topic of conversation between citizens or among politicians. Yet, overpopulation is now considered to be the biggest threat to the future of the planet. Because the world’s population is growing at an alarmin… Read more »
Women’s Health Issues
Women represent over half of the global population. Despite this, women and their health issues have traditionally been neglected both nationally and globally. Although this is slowly changing, many of the health issues facing women today do not rece… Read more »
Women’s Mental Health and Wellness
Good mental health is as important as physical and spiritual health and research continues to show how closely mental, physical, and spiritual health are connected. A healthy mental state allows us to enjoy life, good physical health, helps us cope w… Read more »
Workplace Violence in Healthcare
Workplace violence is an increasing problem in organizations today and is especially challenging in the healthcare industry. Considered a human rights issue, workplace violence affects the dignity of millions of people worldwide and is a major source… Read more »