Did you know that hiking is the fourth most popular outdoor activity in the U.S. and that it lowers your risk of heart disease, strengthens your core, improves your blood pressure, and more?

Most hikers also use a trekking pole for various reasons, so if you’re interested in a hiking staff and want to learn more, keep reading.

Increased Stability

The ground is unpredictable when taking a hike, so using a walking stick can help keep your balance. Regardless of the type of terrain, you are in, from crossing water to narrow ridgelines, a trekking pole allows you to brace yourself and remain steady rather than falling.

Reduced Impact on Lower Body

Lower body pain is a big issue when hiking down a trail. When you go downhill, you can experience pain in your knees and joints. The hiking staff absorbs some of the shocks your joints take and relieves both pressure and pain. Mountain terrain isn’t the only terrain on which hiking sticks are useful; in fact, you can experience joint pain even on level terrain.

Eased Ascents

When hiking uphill, the trekking pole allows your upper body to help out your lower body to ascend. The poles allow you to push off the ground and ease the work of your legs. The poles can also help keep you from hunching over, which allows your lungs to expand fully.

The poles will also prevent your hands from swelling if you are hiking in high elevations. If you are hiking with your arms at your side as your rise in elevation, the circulation in your fingers, hands, and wrists decreases and causes swelling.

Steady Pace

Since the walking stick increases your efficiency and level of comfort, you can establish a steady pace rather than stopping to catch your breath or increase blood flow to your hands. Establishing a consistent rhythm can also increase your speed, but this is more common on flat terrain than on a mountainous one.

Evaluate Hazards

Whether hiking in the summer or the winter, a trekking pole can help evaluate hazards. For example, you can use them to determine how deep water is before attempting to cross, and you can use them to test the thickness of the ice to see if it is safe to walk on.

Protect Against Animals

When hiking, you are in the home of wild animals, so it’s vital to stay aware of your surroundings. Even if you try your hardest to avoid all animals, some might still attempt to approach. If this happens, you can bang your tickets together or against a tree, or you can wave them to make yourself look larger and scare the animal away.

Start Hiking With a Trekking Pole Today

Now that you’ve learned several reasons why you should get a trekking pole, it’s time to buy one and get outside for a hike. Using a trekking pole can lessen the impact your body feels and use it for protection.

If you enjoyed this post and want to read similar ones, check out the rest of our blog.

 

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 5.8 million people lived with Alzheimer’s as of last year. Alzheimer’s affects the brains of people and is characterized by progressive degeneration of specific parts of the brain. Experts are still trying to zero in on specific causes of Alzheimer’s disease, but clinical studies have cited several environmental and lifestyle factors that can increase an individual’s susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease.

However, older people have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, representing about one in nine persons aged 65 and above. Symptoms can range from very mild brain disturbances and sleeplessness to other serious conditions like hallucinations and paranoia, which come with the progress of the disease. These might come new to you if you have to care for a relative with Alzheimer’s all of a sudden. But you’re not alone. Here are three keys to managing Alzheimer’s disease.

1. Educate yourself on the illness.

Living with an Alzheimer’s patient can be frustrating, and if you’re new to all the disorientation and memory loss, it can be more frustrating for you. Generally, neurodegenerative diseases may affect each patient differently, and you may see clinical symptoms which can be hard to pin down to one underlying cause of Alzheimer’s. The same applies to Alzheimer’s treatment options. The best way to gain a hold of yourself in managing a patient is to opt for continuous and further research.

Specific areas to consider for your research can include common behavioral symptoms of Alzheimer’s patients or behavior changes over short periods of time. Beyond all the Alzheimer’s treatment solutions, the one thing many patients need is empathy. Getting earlier access to further studies can help you understand some of the behavior problems and empathize with the new changes.

2. Know the right medications and supplements for treatment.

Patients may require critical care from therapy and overall wellness professionals, who may put patients on routine checkups and new treatment appointments. However, if you’re the main caregiver, you’re equally essential in administering medication at home. Therefore, it pays to understand drug and supplement use for Alzheimer’s patients. Supplements like VitaRx can provide the vitamin and other essential nutrients to sustain the mental health conditions and overall health of a sufferer. However, prioritizing the medical advice and instructions from pharmacists can be a good idea.

Also, ensure to only use drugs approved by health experts with extensive experience. As a caregiver, if you must provide any drug to a patient, ensure to perform a thorough drug evaluation. First, check drug labels for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certification. Several types of drugs exist on the market today for Alzheimer’s. But choosing an option based on the drug’s clinical benefit can impact your Alzheimer’s patient’s health.

3. Seek help when needed.

Supporting a family member living with Alzheimer’s disease is no easy task. Having to administer drugs and provide primary care on a daily basis can affect your lifestyle choices. The good news is you don’t have to do it alone. About 16 million Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers exist in the United States, so finding a caregiver to help with the daily duties can be a good idea. In today’s digital world, you can find online caregivers who can provide counseling and therapy sessions to Alzheimer’s patients in the comfort of their homes. This can be a convenient option compared to moving your patient to the hospital every time for their appointments.

All in all, managing Alzheimer’s can be stressful for both the patient and the caregiver. Although the disease may have no cure, creating a support system for a patient can significantly help manage Alzheimer’s disease.

Pass the hors d’ oeuvres and pop the bubbly—it’s almost time to ring in the new year! After indulging in delicious treats and cocktails for the better part of a month, you may be thinking your New Year’s resolution to commit to healthy eating is moot. Not true. You can detoxify your body post-holiday reveling, and get ready to start the new year with some healthy habits.

Best Way to Reset Your Body After the Holidays

You wake up January 1st after a night of lively New Year’s wassailing and the only thought in your otherwise throbbing head is, “Must fix hangover.” You are in desperate need of a cleanse to flush out those alcohol toxins and replenish essential vitamins and minerals. Drinking plenty of water is certainly a smart move, but a cleanse can kick hydration into high gear and speed up your hangover recovery.

Clear out the bad stuff and help your body get ready to start off the New Year right.

Maintaining Your Health Throughout the Year

Once you’ve detoxed your body of the last remnants of sugar cookies and eggnog, you can forge ahead with next steps toward a happier, healthier you. Here are 5 habits to start right away that can keep you in optimal health all year long:

1. Hydrate.

Water is a mainstay for so many of our body’s important functions. Here are just a few of the countless ways water is our friend:

• Removes toxins
• Regulates body temperature
• Supports cognitive function
• Aids digestion
• Promotes nutrient absorption

2. Stay active.

You don’t have to commit to an intense, 5 days-a-week program. There is a range of activities—hiking, yoga, swimming—to keep you moving. Choose ones that best align with your preferences, lifestyle, current physical shape and goals. Regular movement can help you maintain flexibility and mobility, assist in better-quality sleep and boost mental health.

3. Rest.

As important as it is to stay active, it’s just as important to get rest. Giving your body the opportunity to recover is necessary to replenish energy and avoid injury from overuse.

In addition, sleep is essential to your physical and mental health. Good-quality sleep is linked to improved concentration, better dietary habits, stronger immune function and lower risk of depression.

4. Smile.

There’s a well-known correlation between happiness and good health. But what about times when you’re not happy? Smile anyway. Following the “fake it ‘til you make it” philosophy, smiling, even when you’re not particularly feeling it, can still activate the part of the brain associated with happiness.

5. Detox.

Even if you follow an enviable health regimen, your body can still reap the benefits of a cleanse. You can choose one that targets a specific area of the body, or a full-body one that removes impurities throughout.

Cleanses support multiple habits that make up a healthy routine. Short-term or periodic use of a cleanse eliminates toxins from your body, which can lead to better brain function, more restful sleep, improved mood and so much more.

Committing to healthy living is easy. Sticking with it is infinitely harder. Fortunately, an effective cleanse can not only detox your body from the effects of unhealthy habits, it can also support you as you build and maintain new, healthier habits. Cheers to you in 2022!

What is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a group of six naturally-occurring minerals. Asbestos is largely used in construction to make roofs, floors, piping, cement sheets, brakes, shingles, and insulating machine covers. A high tensile strength coupled with anti-corrosive properties and heat and electricity resistance, make the material useful as well as deadly.

Asbestos is dangerous only when it disintegrates into fine fibers and dust particles, which when inhaled or ingested can accumulate and build up along the linings of the body organs. Since these minuscule fibers are non-degradable, they become permanently trapped and irritate the surrounding tissues, nerves, and organs and lead to numerous life-threatening health disorders.

Long-term asbestos exposure can, therefore, be extremely harmful if safety measures aren’t observed. Some occupations like construction, engineering, farming, furniture, and metalwork carry a greater risk of asbestos exposure. The key here is awareness and observance of the safety protocols when working with asbestos.

Diseases Caused by Asbestos Exposure:

To inform you about the various diseases that can be caused by asbestos exposure, we’ve compiled the following list of the common asbestos-related diseases.

Mesothelioma:

Perhaps the deadliest but a rare disease caused from asbestos exposure is mesothelioma — a cancer that attacks the mesothelial cells present in the protective linings surrounding various body organs like the lungs, heart, abdomen, or even the brain. If detected earlier on, patients have a significant chance of recovery with mesothelioma treatment, but if the disease has progressed beyond a certain stage, recovery can be tricky if not impossible.

Mesothelioma develops in 4 stages, each worse than the one before it. Like all other cancers, mutations in the healthy mesothelial cancer forms the tumor which then metastasizes.

The mass that forms, due to excessive cell division of the bad cells, is called a tumor. Initially, the tumor remains restricted to its point of origin, but with time, it grows and spreads to other organs and tissues.

Stage 4 is where the cancer becomes terminal and chances of survival drop significantly.

Symptoms: Initially, the signs of mesothelioma indicate common cold, and the cancer, therefore, goes unnoticed. The patient will experience a persistent cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath. But as the cancer progresses, the symptoms become far more intense. The patients come down with a fever, experience night sweats, ascites, bloating, swollen hands and feet, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and difficulty in breathing even when performing mundane everyday tasks.

Cancers of The Digestive system:

Recent studies and researches demonstrate a strong link between asbestos ingestion and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. The accumulation of asbestos fibers and particles triggers mutations in the stomach, colon, kidney, liver, and even in the bile duct.

Collectively, these cancers account for more than 286,480 cases annually, of which over 147,090 are fatal. Asbestos is a leading cause of the gastrointestinal tract cancers along with smoking and alcohol. When ingested or inhaled, the particles can build up in the tract, leading to an inflammatory response in the surrounding tissues.

Symptoms: During the earlier stages, symptoms are mild and may involve indigestion, stomach discomfort, nausea, heartburn, and a loss of appetite. At more advanced stages, though, the patients experience sudden weight loss, bloody stools, vomiting, bloating, development of ascites within the abdomen, trouble swallowing or breathing, and swollen limbs due to excess fluid retention.

In case of liver cancer, the skin can take on a yellowish tint which can be a sign of excessive bile production. The standard treatment option for most patients is surgery.

Effusions:

Effusion or ‘water build-up’ that occurs in the membranous coverings of various body organs is a common consequence of asbestos exposure. Organs of the body like the heart, abdomen, and lungs are surrounded by a double layer of connective tissue called the pericardium, peritoneum, and pleura, respectively. Their function is to protect the critical organs and hold them in place. Small amounts of fluid are present between the two layers to provide for lubrication, moisture, and to prevent friction.

The fluid buildup can increase if a foreign substance, like asbestos, disrupts the body systems. The increased fluid secreted then fills up the two connective linings. As the effusion gradually grows in size it exerts pressure on the surrounding organs, presses against nerves, and blocks capillary and vessel pathways.

If left undetected, the consequences can often be deadly. For instance, pericardial effusion can compress the heart to the point of cardiac tamponade. Similarly, by obstructing breathing, pleural effusions can prevent oxygen from reaching the body’s extremities and cause organs to die.

Symptoms: Symptoms vary depending on the type of effusion.

• Pleural: Patients experience phases of sharp chest pain, chronic dry cough, shortness of breath, labored breathing, and orthopnea.
• Pericardial: Swollen hands and feet, pain in the left side of the chest and left upper arm, dyspnea, chest fullness, lightheadedness, palpitations, and anxiety.
• Peritoneal: Loss of appetite, sudden weight gain, nausea, vomiting, ascites, swollen ankles and feet, fatigue, indigestion, constipation, and back pain.

Atelectasis:

Another asbestos-associated disorder is atelectasis that affects the respiratory system. The condition can lead to the lungs collapsing due to their inability to fill up. To understand how deadly this disease is, first, you have to understand how respiration occurs.

The air we breathe in through the nose passes through a cartilaginous tube called the trachea, which divides into separate pipes called the bronchi. The air in the bronchi enters the lungs and goes into further branch-like structures called bronchioles, which eventually end up at the minuscule bag-like structures called alveoli or air sacs.

The alveoli are responsible for the gaseous exchange in the lungs: the air is purified, and carbon dioxide is converted into oxygen. The air-sacs are lined with a layer of surfactant for the sake of lubrication. Inhalation of foreign bodies, like asbestos molecules, can cause the alveoli to become blocked and their volume goes down while the mucus secretion increases.

Depending on the cause of blockage, there are two types of atelectasis:

• Obstructive: Also called resorptive atelectasis occurs when foreign particles physically block the airways, forming a mucus plug. This prevents gaseous exchange within the alveoli, subsequently causing the lungs to collapse.
• Non-obstructive: It occurs when something pushes or compresses the lungs internally. This exertion that interferes with alveoli’s functioning can be due to the buildup of scar tissue, fibrosis, or even an effusion.

Symptoms: The intensity of the symptoms for atelectasis depends on the severity of the disease. Symptoms are milder when only one lung is affected, but extremely aggressive when both are affected. Patients may experience sharp chest pain, shallow coughing, and shortness of breath when walking or talking.

As the condition worsens patients experience fast and shallow breathing and can only breathe when sitting in an upright position. Patients may also report palpitations, fast heart rate, and cyanosis – a condition that makes the skin appear bluish-purple caused by a lack of oxygen supply to body organs and extremities.

The Takeaway:

Inhaling or ingesting asbestos can harm you in more ways than one. While the exposure cannot be eliminated completely, prevention and precaution can certainly minimize the risks involved in asbestos exposure. Wearing a mask, covering your hands with gloves, and spending less time in areas with higher asbestos presence, are small habits that will keep you safe.