What's typically billed as a light, stream-of-consciousness rap between two old friends and colleagues strewn with pop culture references took a surprisingly strange focus Sunday night that made us want to leave early -- but it ended on an intimately somber tone that made us glad we didn't. It was Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier recording their weekly SModcast live at Cobb's Comedy Club.
For the first 15 or 20 minutes, the talk moved along at a clip so swift that you might miss the subject if you paused to dip into your nachos. And then, for the next hour or so, the man whose celebrated filmography includes titles such as Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and the recent Red State joined his buddy and longtime collaborator in fixating on their asses.
Smith was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight in Oakland in 2010 because of his size, an incident that is not only outrageous, it has seemed to take more than a fair toll on his self-esteem. Even if it was just for schtick, which it probably wasn't, Smith made frequent jabs at his body that got increasingly more uncomfortable.
It got to be shocking how long the two lingered on topics such as enemas, hemorrhoids, and anal fissures, which Smith lumped together under the umbrella of "rectal adventures." Stories were punctuated with laughs here and there, but it was far from punchline-driven -- 20, 30, 40 minutes went by, but the two didn't veer from the rear.
With all the ass talk, we were fiddling with the handle of our purse and really considering cutting the night short. Finally, Smith changed the subject to talk about what he said was the most profound thing he's ever had to go through: caring for Scully, his ailing, 14-year-old dog.
It seems everyone except Smith has given up on Scully, who can no longer walk but still can wag a tail of happiness. After the vet told him that he should think about putting her to sleep because everyone has "things to do," Smith said he doesn't have more to do than write, smoke pot, Tweet, and sleep. And he has taken on the messy and immersive challenge of helping Scully live out the remainder of her days as comfortably as possible.
We appreciated hearing about such a personal travail and feel all the more endeared to Smith that he told it. Though a sad note, it was a better one to close the night.
2012年1月31日星期二
2012年1月30日星期一
A brief Remedy To get Hemorrhoids Puffiness
This fix for hemorrhoids is generally very good to lessen the swelling because of the hemorrhoidal inflammation. How can it This is all solid information you are getting here today on the subject of Hemorrhoids Relief. More than anything else, analyze what all the main points are in terms of applicability. It goes without saying that we have no real idea about how this is playing out for you, so we just try to present solid information. If you get too bogged down with the minute details, you can easily get lost in the haze. That is would be the ideal scenario, here, but you will not always have the time to do what is necessary for that to happen. If that describes you, then you know that you need to make the very most of your time. At least until your knowledge is broader, try to determine what directly applies to you if possible. work? The issue that any spinach has across the Hemorrhoids is without a doubt decongestant and really relaxing.
The difficulty with preventing doctors and also self checking out any affliction including a specific thing as innocent as hemorrhoidal inflammation is that you may possibly not are aware that typical pile symptoms could perhaps indicate even more serious health concerns. Not to be able to cause a person concern, but so that you can educate, you ought to know that soreness, swelling and also anal bleeding could perhaps indicate colorectal cancer, polyps, bacterial infections, and fissures. This runs specifically true of anal hemorrhage. All rate of anal bleeding must be immediately discussed using a doctor. While it is actually true in which hemorrhoids could be the most likely root cause of your problems, do not even skip receiving a correct healthcare diagnoses by reason of laziness as well as embarrassment.
Colon many forms of cancer is curable and survivable should caught and also treated throughout its beginning. The in all likelihood exam a medical expert will take advantage of to spot your hemorrhoids is mostly a colonoscopy. This can be used diagnostically for all those conditions on the colon district including hemorrhoidal inflammation and colorectal cancer. It’s one small bendable scope so that your doctor to buy a good view with the overall colon/rectal health and wellbeing. It’s significantly less bad considering that it sounds and the majority of people actually discover preparation before the exam for being much a lot more unpleasant. The groundwork part involves robust laxatives plus a day spent around a bath room.
For the purpose of external models, all you would like is some treatments and you will definitely most almost certainly recover a few weeks. Being rigorous about any hygiene is without a doubt imperative. Use wet toilet report and softly swipe the software off any anus after by eliminating your toxins. Then please take a bath with trouble to rinse out away filth.
For irritated and intensive pain, use ointments that may be snagged which are non-prescription. Also utilize cold compress on the affected area so the veins would definitely somehow dissove and gradually go back to standard.
Heat sitz bath is usually widely known as the hemorrhoidal inflammation home treatment plan. You are capable of doing this means for three times each day and about fifteen minutes per each time. It may get shrinking any inflamed areas.
Thrust it back again: Many families have tried this and for some reason helped. Having said that, you just can’t permanently reduce your hemorrhoid employing this method. After finish supplementing with bath or aided by the toilet, you will use any fingers and attempt to gently touch your hemorrhoid in to where the software belongs. Having said that, don’t touch it which means that hard. Should you be in soreness when this process, then one should stop and also leave the software alone.
The above information was put together with great care because we know the value of accurate and timely material.
The difficulty with preventing doctors and also self checking out any affliction including a specific thing as innocent as hemorrhoidal inflammation is that you may possibly not are aware that typical pile symptoms could perhaps indicate even more serious health concerns. Not to be able to cause a person concern, but so that you can educate, you ought to know that soreness, swelling and also anal bleeding could perhaps indicate colorectal cancer, polyps, bacterial infections, and fissures. This runs specifically true of anal hemorrhage. All rate of anal bleeding must be immediately discussed using a doctor. While it is actually true in which hemorrhoids could be the most likely root cause of your problems, do not even skip receiving a correct healthcare diagnoses by reason of laziness as well as embarrassment.
Colon many forms of cancer is curable and survivable should caught and also treated throughout its beginning. The in all likelihood exam a medical expert will take advantage of to spot your hemorrhoids is mostly a colonoscopy. This can be used diagnostically for all those conditions on the colon district including hemorrhoidal inflammation and colorectal cancer. It’s one small bendable scope so that your doctor to buy a good view with the overall colon/rectal health and wellbeing. It’s significantly less bad considering that it sounds and the majority of people actually discover preparation before the exam for being much a lot more unpleasant. The groundwork part involves robust laxatives plus a day spent around a bath room.
For the purpose of external models, all you would like is some treatments and you will definitely most almost certainly recover a few weeks. Being rigorous about any hygiene is without a doubt imperative. Use wet toilet report and softly swipe the software off any anus after by eliminating your toxins. Then please take a bath with trouble to rinse out away filth.
For irritated and intensive pain, use ointments that may be snagged which are non-prescription. Also utilize cold compress on the affected area so the veins would definitely somehow dissove and gradually go back to standard.
Heat sitz bath is usually widely known as the hemorrhoidal inflammation home treatment plan. You are capable of doing this means for three times each day and about fifteen minutes per each time. It may get shrinking any inflamed areas.
Thrust it back again: Many families have tried this and for some reason helped. Having said that, you just can’t permanently reduce your hemorrhoid employing this method. After finish supplementing with bath or aided by the toilet, you will use any fingers and attempt to gently touch your hemorrhoid in to where the software belongs. Having said that, don’t touch it which means that hard. Should you be in soreness when this process, then one should stop and also leave the software alone.
The above information was put together with great care because we know the value of accurate and timely material.
2012年1月29日星期日
Posts Tagged ‘home remedies for hemorrhoids’
When you experience hemorrhoids can be one of the most distressing experiences you can get due to the irritation, painfulness and often hemorrhage. So is common to search for an effective way to instant solve this sensitive issue. If you want to treat hemorrhoid right away then it would be best to try out natural cures that are easily accessible to anyone because it can be easily done.
To try first the natural remedies is recommended because like all medical treatments can have some side effects in the future. So if you want to try first some natural home remedies for hemorrhoids without worry about side effects in the following paragraph you”ll find some things to try first.
First of all you need to eat more healthy food. Simply changing your diet to one that is high in fiber then it is important that you consider this. One of the main problems that cause hemorrhoids is constipation. And that is because of the pressure that is generated in the rectal area and the blood circulation is affected. Rich fiber food is a good way to overcome the constipation. Another way to fight constipation would be hydration. Is common that when a body does not have enough water the food digestion is not done properly resulting in an irritation of the rectal area.
The use of bioflavonoids is one of the home remedies for hemorrhoids that you can try, witch will reduce the pain and itchiness. These come from citrus fruits, oxerutins and hesperidins. These can be very good in reducing the inflammation of the muscles and hence reducing the discomfort. This is one of the main functions that these components have in healing hemorrhoids.
When you try home remedies for hemorrhoids you should consider to try also herbal treatments. The most popular types of herbal remedies are butcher’s broom and horse chestnut.
This two herbal home remedies for hemorrhoids are for improving the blood circulation of your body. These herbs are coming in capsules or could and sometimes should be applied externally. One thing that people should take note of when using horse chestnut is that it can have some components that people are allergic to so make sure that you’ve read the fine print of these home remedies hemorrhoids before you do anything right away.
Ointments from plants are also good to consider because these have a natural effect on hemorrhoids. These are usually extracted from herbs and are only applied externally on the area that needs to be addressed. The ointments can be very effective in reducing the pain and discomfort almost immediately.
You can make a choice from a wide variety of home remedies and that is why it is important that you do the right research. If you feel that the pain has aggravated then you should consider going to a professional doctor to have them write you a prescription.
To try first the natural remedies is recommended because like all medical treatments can have some side effects in the future. So if you want to try first some natural home remedies for hemorrhoids without worry about side effects in the following paragraph you”ll find some things to try first.
First of all you need to eat more healthy food. Simply changing your diet to one that is high in fiber then it is important that you consider this. One of the main problems that cause hemorrhoids is constipation. And that is because of the pressure that is generated in the rectal area and the blood circulation is affected. Rich fiber food is a good way to overcome the constipation. Another way to fight constipation would be hydration. Is common that when a body does not have enough water the food digestion is not done properly resulting in an irritation of the rectal area.
The use of bioflavonoids is one of the home remedies for hemorrhoids that you can try, witch will reduce the pain and itchiness. These come from citrus fruits, oxerutins and hesperidins. These can be very good in reducing the inflammation of the muscles and hence reducing the discomfort. This is one of the main functions that these components have in healing hemorrhoids.
When you try home remedies for hemorrhoids you should consider to try also herbal treatments. The most popular types of herbal remedies are butcher’s broom and horse chestnut.
This two herbal home remedies for hemorrhoids are for improving the blood circulation of your body. These herbs are coming in capsules or could and sometimes should be applied externally. One thing that people should take note of when using horse chestnut is that it can have some components that people are allergic to so make sure that you’ve read the fine print of these home remedies hemorrhoids before you do anything right away.
Ointments from plants are also good to consider because these have a natural effect on hemorrhoids. These are usually extracted from herbs and are only applied externally on the area that needs to be addressed. The ointments can be very effective in reducing the pain and discomfort almost immediately.
You can make a choice from a wide variety of home remedies and that is why it is important that you do the right research. If you feel that the pain has aggravated then you should consider going to a professional doctor to have them write you a prescription.
2012年1月19日星期四
Their particular Treatment As well as Prevention
Piles, also known as piles, are the dilatation, the particular stretching outside of normal size of radicles of anal veins inside anal channel. In this instance any radicle is the smallest branch of a blood abnormal vein hemorrhoids. Veins are weak compared to arteries because of the thin walls, therefore problematic veins can become drained and turned with any kind of great rear pressure. Veins have one-way valves to avoid back flow. The three anal veins are named appropriately superior, center and substandard rectal problematic veins. Obstructions or perhaps pressure boost in these problematic veins cause piles.
Piles, or perhaps hemorrhoids, appear in two types, bodily and mental. External piles are away from anus and so are skin protected. Their shade may be brown or black. Because anxiety are so loaded in the arschfick area a hemorrhoid is very painful.
The next type, internal hemorrhoids come in the interior from the anal channel, internal to the anus. They may be purple or perhaps red and have a mucous membrane protecting. They are usually uncomplicated. It isn’t uncommon for a person to own both bodily and mental hemorrhoids as well.
Hemorrhoids, any familial ailment, tend to arise among people in a family, may also be blamed on genetics. The only wildlife that get piles are those in which stand on 2 legs. Almost certainly this is as a result of rectal abnormal vein congestion because of the pull of gravity. People who are chronically irregular often have piles problems. Fighting off the urge to move your bowels at your body’s indication can bring about constipation and then piles how to get rid of hemorrhoids.
A high ingestion of beef, chicken, shrimp, hot foods and more lead to piles. The people very least likely to get piles are the types who have an increased percentage of fruit and vegetables and fibrous food within their diet. Some women get hemorrhoids during pregnancy because of the womb compressing the particular rectal problematic veins. Rectal cancer lesions may well bring about piles through preventing blood flow.
With external hemorrhoids any protuberance can be seen and also felt throughout the anus. You will see pain and discomfort inside the anal location. While stressing to discharge a stool the anguish will be even worse.
Early on, internal hemorrhoids cannot be felt. Subsequently, in advancement of the disease, the particular hemorrhoids will certainly protrude being a stool can be expelled and then retreat independently. When the problem worsens the particular protruded hemorrhoids will not likely go back.
Blood loss isn’t uncommon for sometimes type hemorrhoid. However, whenever an internal hemorrhoid is rolled away it could hemorrhage internally, into the rectum. Blood loss occurs in splashes whilst pushing in order to expel a stool. In some cases the particular bleeding may be quite bountiful. With equally types of piles there may be any mucus discharge and it will itch throughout the anus.
Piles, or perhaps hemorrhoids, appear in two types, bodily and mental. External piles are away from anus and so are skin protected. Their shade may be brown or black. Because anxiety are so loaded in the arschfick area a hemorrhoid is very painful.
The next type, internal hemorrhoids come in the interior from the anal channel, internal to the anus. They may be purple or perhaps red and have a mucous membrane protecting. They are usually uncomplicated. It isn’t uncommon for a person to own both bodily and mental hemorrhoids as well.
Hemorrhoids, any familial ailment, tend to arise among people in a family, may also be blamed on genetics. The only wildlife that get piles are those in which stand on 2 legs. Almost certainly this is as a result of rectal abnormal vein congestion because of the pull of gravity. People who are chronically irregular often have piles problems. Fighting off the urge to move your bowels at your body’s indication can bring about constipation and then piles how to get rid of hemorrhoids.
A high ingestion of beef, chicken, shrimp, hot foods and more lead to piles. The people very least likely to get piles are the types who have an increased percentage of fruit and vegetables and fibrous food within their diet. Some women get hemorrhoids during pregnancy because of the womb compressing the particular rectal problematic veins. Rectal cancer lesions may well bring about piles through preventing blood flow.
With external hemorrhoids any protuberance can be seen and also felt throughout the anus. You will see pain and discomfort inside the anal location. While stressing to discharge a stool the anguish will be even worse.
Early on, internal hemorrhoids cannot be felt. Subsequently, in advancement of the disease, the particular hemorrhoids will certainly protrude being a stool can be expelled and then retreat independently. When the problem worsens the particular protruded hemorrhoids will not likely go back.
Blood loss isn’t uncommon for sometimes type hemorrhoid. However, whenever an internal hemorrhoid is rolled away it could hemorrhage internally, into the rectum. Blood loss occurs in splashes whilst pushing in order to expel a stool. In some cases the particular bleeding may be quite bountiful. With equally types of piles there may be any mucus discharge and it will itch throughout the anus.
2012年1月18日星期三
HD Treatment Center Opens in Raleigh
HD Treatment Center which offers a painless and permanent treatment option for patients with hemorrhoidal disease, has opened an office at 4601 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 1D. The center uses direct micro current technology cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to treat internal hemorrhoids and hemorrhoidal disease permanently. The non-surgical, non-invasive procedure is virtually pain-free and requires no anesthesia, no special preparation , no cutting or incision and no downtime – patients may return to their normal activities immediately after it is completed. Patients frequently notice significant relief immediately following treatment and over the next seven to 10 days. Depending on the extent of the hemorrhoidal disease, oftentimes only a single treatment is required. HD Treatment Center’s physicians have more than 50 years combined experience in treating hemorrhoidal disease.
“Treating hemorrhoids and hemorrhoidal disease has historically been a taboo subject for society. We at HD Treatment Center hope to end the silence surrounding this sensitive and private condition, since there is now a quick, virtually painless procedure available to relieve suffering,” said Dr. Larry Fusco, lead physician at HD Treatment Center. “In the past, painful surgery or temporary relief from topical solutions such as wipes, creams, pads and suppositories were among the few treatment options available. The technology available at HD Treatment Center provides a major advance in the way we as doctors treat hemorrhoids, and we can now provide patients immediate relief.”
HD Treatment Center,offers patients with hemorrhoidal disease a permanent and virtually pain-free way to treat their condition by using direct micro current technology cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The non-surgical, non-invasive procedure requires no anesthesia, no special preparation , no cutting or incision and no downtime – patients may return to their normal activities immediately after it is completed. Patients frequently notice significant relief immediately following treatment and over the next seven to 10 days. Depending on the extent of the hemorrhoidal disease, oftentimes only a single treatment is required. Doctors at HD Treatment Center have more than 50 years combined experience in treating hemorrhoidal disease and provide consultations prior to performing procedures that are covered by insurance.
“Treating hemorrhoids and hemorrhoidal disease has historically been a taboo subject for society. We at HD Treatment Center hope to end the silence surrounding this sensitive and private condition, since there is now a quick, virtually painless procedure available to relieve suffering,” said Dr. Larry Fusco, lead physician at HD Treatment Center. “In the past, painful surgery or temporary relief from topical solutions such as wipes, creams, pads and suppositories were among the few treatment options available. The technology available at HD Treatment Center provides a major advance in the way we as doctors treat hemorrhoids, and we can now provide patients immediate relief.”
HD Treatment Center,offers patients with hemorrhoidal disease a permanent and virtually pain-free way to treat their condition by using direct micro current technology cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The non-surgical, non-invasive procedure requires no anesthesia, no special preparation , no cutting or incision and no downtime – patients may return to their normal activities immediately after it is completed. Patients frequently notice significant relief immediately following treatment and over the next seven to 10 days. Depending on the extent of the hemorrhoidal disease, oftentimes only a single treatment is required. Doctors at HD Treatment Center have more than 50 years combined experience in treating hemorrhoidal disease and provide consultations prior to performing procedures that are covered by insurance.
2012年1月17日星期二
Local band seeks to win contest, make it to SXSW
Guitarist Duncan Kissinger said that Hotfox is a band that advocates the importance of utilizing the full buffalo when it is hunted.
“Some people just use it for meat, some use it just for the pelt. Use all of it, not some of it,” Kissinger said.
Even though the band wouldn’t fully reveal what the buffalo is, if the buffalo in question is a metaphor for taking advantage of opportunity, the band does just that.
The local indie-rock band is no stranger to success.
After winning Record Store Day High School Battle of the Bands in April 2010, which landed them a front-page spot on NUVO, an alternative newspaper in Indianapolis, the band recorded an album and was named Bloomington’s best local band that same year.
After releasing their debut album “You, Me, and the Monster,” they shared the stage with several nationally known bands, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s.
But they’re not tired yet.
The band is currently among the top five bands competing in a contest for a spot to perform at South by Southwest Interactive Film and Music Festival in Austin, Texas, this March. The band found out about the contest on Sonicbids and submitted their song “Mountain Tiger.” The band members received an email two weeks ago informing them that they were finalists.
The Sonicbids-Jansport Battle of the Bands contest uses an online voting system to decide which 10 acts will be considered for the final round. Fans of the band are able to vote online once a day through Jan. 19. The top 10 acts will then be judged by a panel, which will announce the winner sometime in February.
“We’ve been playing on a local, slightly regional level for years together, and SXSW is the opportunity for us that is very attainable and would be the boost we need to have new people hear our music,” Kissinger said.
Are they nervous?
“You could say we’re a bunch of nervous nematodes,” Kissinger said.
According to Kissinger, their album “You, Me, and the Monster” has to do with hemorrhoids, or in their words, “pains in the ass.”
Examples of pains include skeletons, dirty dishes, women, drugs, money and paparazzi.
Not all of the band’s songs fall under these categories, though.
“Our song ‘Mountain Tiger’ is about a fight between a fierce tiger and a mean machine ... on a mountain,” sophomore bassist Marcus Tedesco said.
Tedesco met singer and guitarist Oliver Hopkins outside Read Center last year and has been part of the band ever since.
Following the success of their debut album, the band is starting to record a new album this month. The album includes tracks such as “Hay, is that My Horse?” and “Gallop Pasture Sister’s Head.”
“The second album will be a concept record based around the times and adventures of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ It’ll be louder and dustier than record number one,” Hopkins said.
The title of the second album and when it will be out is still unknown.
“Maybe in a few months, maybe a year,” Hopkins said.
“Some people just use it for meat, some use it just for the pelt. Use all of it, not some of it,” Kissinger said.
Even though the band wouldn’t fully reveal what the buffalo is, if the buffalo in question is a metaphor for taking advantage of opportunity, the band does just that.
The local indie-rock band is no stranger to success.
After winning Record Store Day High School Battle of the Bands in April 2010, which landed them a front-page spot on NUVO, an alternative newspaper in Indianapolis, the band recorded an album and was named Bloomington’s best local band that same year.
After releasing their debut album “You, Me, and the Monster,” they shared the stage with several nationally known bands, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s.
But they’re not tired yet.
The band is currently among the top five bands competing in a contest for a spot to perform at South by Southwest Interactive Film and Music Festival in Austin, Texas, this March. The band found out about the contest on Sonicbids and submitted their song “Mountain Tiger.” The band members received an email two weeks ago informing them that they were finalists.
The Sonicbids-Jansport Battle of the Bands contest uses an online voting system to decide which 10 acts will be considered for the final round. Fans of the band are able to vote online once a day through Jan. 19. The top 10 acts will then be judged by a panel, which will announce the winner sometime in February.
“We’ve been playing on a local, slightly regional level for years together, and SXSW is the opportunity for us that is very attainable and would be the boost we need to have new people hear our music,” Kissinger said.
Are they nervous?
“You could say we’re a bunch of nervous nematodes,” Kissinger said.
According to Kissinger, their album “You, Me, and the Monster” has to do with hemorrhoids, or in their words, “pains in the ass.”
Examples of pains include skeletons, dirty dishes, women, drugs, money and paparazzi.
Not all of the band’s songs fall under these categories, though.
“Our song ‘Mountain Tiger’ is about a fight between a fierce tiger and a mean machine ... on a mountain,” sophomore bassist Marcus Tedesco said.
Tedesco met singer and guitarist Oliver Hopkins outside Read Center last year and has been part of the band ever since.
Following the success of their debut album, the band is starting to record a new album this month. The album includes tracks such as “Hay, is that My Horse?” and “Gallop Pasture Sister’s Head.”
“The second album will be a concept record based around the times and adventures of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ It’ll be louder and dustier than record number one,” Hopkins said.
The title of the second album and when it will be out is still unknown.
“Maybe in a few months, maybe a year,” Hopkins said.
2012年1月16日星期一
How to Cure Piles and Hemorrhoids at Home Fast
Many people who have never suffered from piles and hemorrhoids do not know how they can support any person suffering from the same. The piles and hemorrhoids bring about so much pain and discomfort. There are different methods on how to cure piles and hemorrhoids at home fast. Actually, different people have diverse approaches in tackling the different symptoms as well. These simple approaches will definitely not cost much of your money. In fact, some ideas do not need any extra input. They are just basic simple daily routines or behaviors to adapt.
It is also very important to understand how the piles and hemorrhoids come about. This will help you in tackling them effectively. Piles and hemorrhoids are normally occasioned by the intense pressure mounted on the veins in the anus and rectal area. In case you are suffering from constipation, it means that you will have a hard time while in the toilet that will make you stay for a while. The pressure leads to the formation of piles and hemorrhoids. During pregnancy, women are encouraged to have plenty of rest so as to reduce the amount of pressure mounted in the anus and rectal areas. This implicates that curing piles and hemorrhoids should start from home fast since they are just developed from there.
Here is a list of the different ideas that can help in curing piles and hemorrhoids at home fast.
Medical practitioners have always encouraged people to consume large amounts of water. Serious consumption of water will always help in the complete digestion of any food taken and hence do away with constipation.
Always watch your feeding habits. You should actually eat healthy and clean foods so as avoid situations such as diarrhea and constipation.
A domestic habit for curing piles and hemorrhoids is the refrain of staying in the toilet for long periods.
You should also eat supplements that contain high amounts of fiber.
It is also very important to understand how the piles and hemorrhoids come about. This will help you in tackling them effectively. Piles and hemorrhoids are normally occasioned by the intense pressure mounted on the veins in the anus and rectal area. In case you are suffering from constipation, it means that you will have a hard time while in the toilet that will make you stay for a while. The pressure leads to the formation of piles and hemorrhoids. During pregnancy, women are encouraged to have plenty of rest so as to reduce the amount of pressure mounted in the anus and rectal areas. This implicates that curing piles and hemorrhoids should start from home fast since they are just developed from there.
Here is a list of the different ideas that can help in curing piles and hemorrhoids at home fast.
Medical practitioners have always encouraged people to consume large amounts of water. Serious consumption of water will always help in the complete digestion of any food taken and hence do away with constipation.
Always watch your feeding habits. You should actually eat healthy and clean foods so as avoid situations such as diarrhea and constipation.
A domestic habit for curing piles and hemorrhoids is the refrain of staying in the toilet for long periods.
You should also eat supplements that contain high amounts of fiber.
2012年1月15日星期日
Surgical centers presenting new options in health care
When Eric Hutchcroft of rural Elburn learned he would need a hernia operation, the surgeon asked where he wanted to do it.
The doctor explained that he is on the staff of three facilities and could do the surgery at any of the three. Where would Hutchcroft feel more comfortable and convenient?
At Delnor Hospital, a large secular medical complex in Geneva?
At Provena Saint Joseph, a large Catholic medical complex in Elgin?
Or at the Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center, a one-story, 32,000-square-foot facility that looks more like an insurance office and is tucked almost invisibly into an office park along Randall Road in St. Charles?
“I picked the surgery center,” recalls the 40-year-old software developer. “It seemed closer to home, and it seemed like it might have a more personal aspect. I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost in a giant operation.”
When Hutchcroft left the center after the operation, he decided the experience had gone more smoothly than the time he had endured a colonoscopy done by another doctor at a large hospital in the suburbs.
“The waiting time was very minimal,” he said. “The people were very friendly. I would definitely recommend using a surgery center.”
Hutchcroft is one of a growing number of people who have found that getting an operation doesn’t necessarily mean going to a hospital. Nationwide, there are now 5,000 independent surgery centers.
In the Fox Valley, the Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center (nicknamed “VASC”) is one of the oldest and largest of these independent, for-profit centers. It opened in 1987 and in 1997 even added a nine-bed Valley Medical Inn, where patients who need to spend a night or two as an in-patient can stay in bed under the supervision of nurses.
VASC contains seven surgery suites and serves 5,500 to 6,000 patients a year — roughly 20 to 25 operations a day. The center is 60 percent owned by some of the doctors who practice there and 40 percent by a corporation named Symbion, which also owns four hospitals and 75 other surgery centers and clinics.
The newest surgery centers in the area are two clinic-style operations in Elgin that offer more than just surgery.
The Elgin SurgiCare opened last August in an 8,000-square-foot office at the corner of North McLean Boulevard and Todd Farm Drive. It’s part of a chain of seven medical centers and nine MRI/CT/X-ray centers across the Chicago area owned by Chicago physician Dr. Naser Rustom.
The 6,900-square-foot Center for Advanced Medicine and Surgery (also known as Centro Medico del Pueblo) has been under construction for a year and a half in the former Hollywood Video Store at 1460 Larkin Ave. but still hasn’t opened. According to its city building permit, the facility will have nine treatment rooms and seven testing rooms, with about 10 employees. Like VASC and Elgin SurgiCare, it will be open Monday through Saturday. Its owner, who reportedly is a Latino physician based in Chicago, could not be reached for this story.
Some centers offer only surgeries in specific specialty areas, such as Elgin’s Endo Center, which does colonoscopies and minimally invasive gastrointestinal operations; and Elgin’s Valley Surgery Center, which does plastic surgery.
Other such facilities in the area include the Tri-Cities Surgery Center, a joint venture of Delnor Hospital and a group of doctors who do mostly gastrointestinal work; the Center for Surgery in Naperville; and the Algonquin Surgery Center.
In almost every case, surgeries are done by doctors who are not full-time employees of the centers but have their own offices somewhere else. In fact, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Professionals requires that surgeons using surgery centers also have admitting privileges to at least one regular hospital. Many of the centers are owned or co-owned by doctors or groups of doctors.
Elgin SurgiCare Manager Robin Fina said patients are attracted to these centers by three things: lower prices, a less-intimidating atmosphere and greater safety from contagious infections.
Hernia patient Hutchcroft said he didn’t really consider the comparative cost of using a hospital versus the cost of using a surgery center. “The way my insurance works, it would have been about the same cost to me either way,” he said.
But Dr. Anthony Giamberdino, the medical director at VASC, said more and more people do pay attention, and “based on my interviews, our prices are lower in 98 percent of the incidences. So for a patient with a significant co-pay, we can save them money.”
“For Medicare patients, we are 38 percent less expensive than a hospital,” said VASC Administrator Deborah Lee Cook. “The government recognizes that we are more efficient and tries to steer Medicare patients toward surgery centers.”
Giamberdino said the lower prices are possible because surgery centers and clinics don’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries to top-office administrators, don’t have to run a cafeteria and don’t need to run an emergency room. “We’re efficient because we can focus on one thing — surgery.”
The surgery center people also claim their facilities are also less prone to spreading infections.
“Our infection rate is lower because we don’t take sick (with an infection) patients” the way a regular hospital must, VASC Marketing Director Diane Lauterer said.
The type of operations that can be done vary considerably among facilities. And if you’re planning on a heart bypass or brain-tumor removal, you will need a full-fledged hospital.
VASC does only surgery but can do many types of that. At VASC, “it’s easier to say what we cannot do surgically than what we can do,” Giamberdino said. “We don’t do childbirths. We don’t do any procedure that involves a long hospital stay or requires an intensive-care ward. We don’t operate inside chests or skulls. But that leaves a lot that we can do. We have pretty much every surgical specialty represented by the surgeons on our staff.”
Typical operations at VASC include hernia repairs such as Hutchcroft’s, knee and hip replacements, plastic surgery, gynecological and gastrointestinal work, tonsillectomies, and kidney stone and gall stone removal.
“We have done spinal fusions, thyroid surgeries, joint replacements, hysterectomies,” Giamberdino said.
Elgin SurgiCare can do fewer varieties of surgery but is more of a full-scale medical clinic. A full-time certified physician assistant, Mario Astacio, is on hand to examine and perhaps write prescriptions or order tests for someone who walks in off the street with some ailment. A chiropractor, Dr. Houston Brown, works on pain management and has a large room full of exercise equipment to do physical therapy. Parkside Imaging, a sister business in the same building that is also owned by Rustom, has a million-dollar MRI machine plus CT scan, X-ray and ultrasound equipment. Elgin Pharmacy will open a branch in the SurgiCare building soon.
“We’re pretty much a one-stop shop for everything from a chest cold to an auto accident,” Fina said.
When it comes to the operating room, however, Elgin SurgiCare’s scope is more limited than VASC’s. It doesn’t do surgeries that involve fully opening a body cavity, such as Hutchcroft’s traditional-style hernia repair. But if a hernia can be fixed via laparoscopic surgery, that can be done at the SurgiCare. Fina said that using laparoscopes, colonoscopy and other minimally-invasive techniques, Elgin SurgiCare doctors work on such things as shoulders, knees, hemorrhoids, skin, the reproductive organs and the gastrointestinal tract. Even a bad uterus now can be removed laparoscopically.
Astacio said Elgin SurgiCare especially targets Elgin’s large Hispanic population. He said he and the daily staff members speak Spanish as well as English.
In a time when the opening, closing and even ownership of medical facilities is heavily regulated by the state in an effort to avoid expensive duplication of resources, each surgery center must convince the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to grant it a certificate of need. That board voted last month against allowing new hospitals to be built in Huntley and Crystal Lake, but the panel seems easier to convince about the need for small surgery centers and clinics.
Like most surgery centers, he said, VASC is run by medical professionals.
“The best leadership in a health-care organization is people who have done health care,” Giamberdino said. “Our board of directors is made up of physicians. Our administrator is a registered nurse, and our medical director — me — is a physician. We’re not governed by spreadsheets here. The most important thing to us is our patient outcomes, and the people who provide the care are the ones who make the decisions.”
The doctor explained that he is on the staff of three facilities and could do the surgery at any of the three. Where would Hutchcroft feel more comfortable and convenient?
At Delnor Hospital, a large secular medical complex in Geneva?
At Provena Saint Joseph, a large Catholic medical complex in Elgin?
Or at the Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center, a one-story, 32,000-square-foot facility that looks more like an insurance office and is tucked almost invisibly into an office park along Randall Road in St. Charles?
“I picked the surgery center,” recalls the 40-year-old software developer. “It seemed closer to home, and it seemed like it might have a more personal aspect. I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost in a giant operation.”
When Hutchcroft left the center after the operation, he decided the experience had gone more smoothly than the time he had endured a colonoscopy done by another doctor at a large hospital in the suburbs.
“The waiting time was very minimal,” he said. “The people were very friendly. I would definitely recommend using a surgery center.”
Hutchcroft is one of a growing number of people who have found that getting an operation doesn’t necessarily mean going to a hospital. Nationwide, there are now 5,000 independent surgery centers.
In the Fox Valley, the Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center (nicknamed “VASC”) is one of the oldest and largest of these independent, for-profit centers. It opened in 1987 and in 1997 even added a nine-bed Valley Medical Inn, where patients who need to spend a night or two as an in-patient can stay in bed under the supervision of nurses.
VASC contains seven surgery suites and serves 5,500 to 6,000 patients a year — roughly 20 to 25 operations a day. The center is 60 percent owned by some of the doctors who practice there and 40 percent by a corporation named Symbion, which also owns four hospitals and 75 other surgery centers and clinics.
The newest surgery centers in the area are two clinic-style operations in Elgin that offer more than just surgery.
The Elgin SurgiCare opened last August in an 8,000-square-foot office at the corner of North McLean Boulevard and Todd Farm Drive. It’s part of a chain of seven medical centers and nine MRI/CT/X-ray centers across the Chicago area owned by Chicago physician Dr. Naser Rustom.
The 6,900-square-foot Center for Advanced Medicine and Surgery (also known as Centro Medico del Pueblo) has been under construction for a year and a half in the former Hollywood Video Store at 1460 Larkin Ave. but still hasn’t opened. According to its city building permit, the facility will have nine treatment rooms and seven testing rooms, with about 10 employees. Like VASC and Elgin SurgiCare, it will be open Monday through Saturday. Its owner, who reportedly is a Latino physician based in Chicago, could not be reached for this story.
Some centers offer only surgeries in specific specialty areas, such as Elgin’s Endo Center, which does colonoscopies and minimally invasive gastrointestinal operations; and Elgin’s Valley Surgery Center, which does plastic surgery.
Other such facilities in the area include the Tri-Cities Surgery Center, a joint venture of Delnor Hospital and a group of doctors who do mostly gastrointestinal work; the Center for Surgery in Naperville; and the Algonquin Surgery Center.
In almost every case, surgeries are done by doctors who are not full-time employees of the centers but have their own offices somewhere else. In fact, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Professionals requires that surgeons using surgery centers also have admitting privileges to at least one regular hospital. Many of the centers are owned or co-owned by doctors or groups of doctors.
Elgin SurgiCare Manager Robin Fina said patients are attracted to these centers by three things: lower prices, a less-intimidating atmosphere and greater safety from contagious infections.
Hernia patient Hutchcroft said he didn’t really consider the comparative cost of using a hospital versus the cost of using a surgery center. “The way my insurance works, it would have been about the same cost to me either way,” he said.
But Dr. Anthony Giamberdino, the medical director at VASC, said more and more people do pay attention, and “based on my interviews, our prices are lower in 98 percent of the incidences. So for a patient with a significant co-pay, we can save them money.”
“For Medicare patients, we are 38 percent less expensive than a hospital,” said VASC Administrator Deborah Lee Cook. “The government recognizes that we are more efficient and tries to steer Medicare patients toward surgery centers.”
Giamberdino said the lower prices are possible because surgery centers and clinics don’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries to top-office administrators, don’t have to run a cafeteria and don’t need to run an emergency room. “We’re efficient because we can focus on one thing — surgery.”
The surgery center people also claim their facilities are also less prone to spreading infections.
“Our infection rate is lower because we don’t take sick (with an infection) patients” the way a regular hospital must, VASC Marketing Director Diane Lauterer said.
The type of operations that can be done vary considerably among facilities. And if you’re planning on a heart bypass or brain-tumor removal, you will need a full-fledged hospital.
VASC does only surgery but can do many types of that. At VASC, “it’s easier to say what we cannot do surgically than what we can do,” Giamberdino said. “We don’t do childbirths. We don’t do any procedure that involves a long hospital stay or requires an intensive-care ward. We don’t operate inside chests or skulls. But that leaves a lot that we can do. We have pretty much every surgical specialty represented by the surgeons on our staff.”
Typical operations at VASC include hernia repairs such as Hutchcroft’s, knee and hip replacements, plastic surgery, gynecological and gastrointestinal work, tonsillectomies, and kidney stone and gall stone removal.
“We have done spinal fusions, thyroid surgeries, joint replacements, hysterectomies,” Giamberdino said.
Elgin SurgiCare can do fewer varieties of surgery but is more of a full-scale medical clinic. A full-time certified physician assistant, Mario Astacio, is on hand to examine and perhaps write prescriptions or order tests for someone who walks in off the street with some ailment. A chiropractor, Dr. Houston Brown, works on pain management and has a large room full of exercise equipment to do physical therapy. Parkside Imaging, a sister business in the same building that is also owned by Rustom, has a million-dollar MRI machine plus CT scan, X-ray and ultrasound equipment. Elgin Pharmacy will open a branch in the SurgiCare building soon.
“We’re pretty much a one-stop shop for everything from a chest cold to an auto accident,” Fina said.
When it comes to the operating room, however, Elgin SurgiCare’s scope is more limited than VASC’s. It doesn’t do surgeries that involve fully opening a body cavity, such as Hutchcroft’s traditional-style hernia repair. But if a hernia can be fixed via laparoscopic surgery, that can be done at the SurgiCare. Fina said that using laparoscopes, colonoscopy and other minimally-invasive techniques, Elgin SurgiCare doctors work on such things as shoulders, knees, hemorrhoids, skin, the reproductive organs and the gastrointestinal tract. Even a bad uterus now can be removed laparoscopically.
Astacio said Elgin SurgiCare especially targets Elgin’s large Hispanic population. He said he and the daily staff members speak Spanish as well as English.
In a time when the opening, closing and even ownership of medical facilities is heavily regulated by the state in an effort to avoid expensive duplication of resources, each surgery center must convince the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to grant it a certificate of need. That board voted last month against allowing new hospitals to be built in Huntley and Crystal Lake, but the panel seems easier to convince about the need for small surgery centers and clinics.
Like most surgery centers, he said, VASC is run by medical professionals.
“The best leadership in a health-care organization is people who have done health care,” Giamberdino said. “Our board of directors is made up of physicians. Our administrator is a registered nurse, and our medical director — me — is a physician. We’re not governed by spreadsheets here. The most important thing to us is our patient outcomes, and the people who provide the care are the ones who make the decisions.”
2012年1月12日星期四
Everybody is a healthy somebody when you eat these foods
Protect your heart, prevent constipation, block diarrhea, improve lung capacity and cushion joints.
Combat cancer, control blood pressure, save your eyesight, shield against Alzheimer's disease and slow the aging process.
Aid digestion, lower cholesterol, protect your heart, stabilize blood sugar and guard against liver disease.
Battle diabetes, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes, control blood pressure and help keep skin smooth.
Protect your heart, quiet a cough, strengthen bones, control blood pressure and block diarrhea.
Prevent constipation, help hemorrhoids, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and stabilize blood sugar.
Control blood pressure, combat cancer, strengthen bones, protect your heart and aid weight loss.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, stabilize blood sugar, boost memory and prevent constipation.
Strengthen bones, save eyesight, combat cancer, protect your heart and control blood pressure.
Combat cancer, prevent constipation, promote weight loss, protect your heart and help hemorrhoids.
Save eyesight, control blood pressure, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and support the immune system.
Save eyesight, protect your heart, prevent constipation, combat cancer and promote weight loss.
Protect against prostate cancer, combat breast cancer, strengthen bones, banish bruises and guard against heart disease.
Protect your heart, combat cancer, end insomnia, slow the aging process and shield against Alzheimer's disease.
Promote weight loss, protect your heart, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and control blood pressure.
Aid digestion, soothe sore throats, clear sinuses, combat cancer and boost the immune system.
Promote weight loss, help stop strokes, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and control blood pressure.
Protect your heart, boost memory, combat cancer and support the immune system.
Aid digestion, battle diabetes, protect your heart, improve mental health and boost the immune system.
Lower cholesterol, control blood pressure, combat cancer, kill bacteria and fight fungus.
Protect against heart attacks, promote weight loss, help stop strokes, combat prostate cancer and lower cholesterol.
Save eyesight, conquer kidney stones, combat cancer, enhance blood flow and protect your heart.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, help stop strokes, promote weight loss and kill bacteria.
Heal wounds, aid digestion, guard against ulcers, increase energy and fight allergies.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, control blood pressure, smoothe skin and stop scurvy.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, control blood pressure, smoothe the skin and stop scurvy.
Combat cancer, boost memory, regulate thyroid, aid digestion and shield against Alzheimer's disease.
Control blood pressure, lower cholesterol, kill bacteria, combat cancer and strengthen bones.
Lower cholesterol, combat cancer, battle diabetes, prevent constipation and soothe the skin.
Protect your heart, promote weight loss, combat cancer, battle diabetes and smooth the skin.
Reduce the risk of heart attack, combat cancer, kill bacteria, lower cholesterol and fight fungus.
Support your immune system, combat cancer, protect your heart and aid respiration.
Prevent constipation, combat cancer, help stop strokes, aid digestion and help hemorrhoids.
Protect against heart disease, promote weight loss, combat prostate cancer and lower cholesterol but aggravate diverticulitis.
Strengthen bones, relieve colds, aid digestion, dissolve warts and block diarrhea.
Slow the aging process, prevent constipation, boost memory, lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease.
Protect your heart, battle diabetes, conquer kidney stones, combat cancer and help stop strokes.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, boost memory and calm stress.
Save your eyesight, lift moods, combat cancer and strengthen bones.
Protect prostates, combat cancer, lower cholesterol and protect your heart.
Lower cholesterol, combat cancer, boost memory, lift moods and protect against heart disease.
Promote weight loss, combat cancer, conquer kidney stones and smooth the skin.
Protect your prostate, promote weight loss, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes and controls blood pressure.
Combat colon cancer, prevent constipation, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes and improve digestion.
Combat cancer, control blood pressure, save your eyesight, shield against Alzheimer's disease and slow the aging process.
Aid digestion, lower cholesterol, protect your heart, stabilize blood sugar and guard against liver disease.
Battle diabetes, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes, control blood pressure and help keep skin smooth.
Protect your heart, quiet a cough, strengthen bones, control blood pressure and block diarrhea.
Prevent constipation, help hemorrhoids, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and stabilize blood sugar.
Control blood pressure, combat cancer, strengthen bones, protect your heart and aid weight loss.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, stabilize blood sugar, boost memory and prevent constipation.
Strengthen bones, save eyesight, combat cancer, protect your heart and control blood pressure.
Combat cancer, prevent constipation, promote weight loss, protect your heart and help hemorrhoids.
Save eyesight, control blood pressure, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and support the immune system.
Save eyesight, protect your heart, prevent constipation, combat cancer and promote weight loss.
Protect against prostate cancer, combat breast cancer, strengthen bones, banish bruises and guard against heart disease.
Protect your heart, combat cancer, end insomnia, slow the aging process and shield against Alzheimer's disease.
Promote weight loss, protect your heart, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and control blood pressure.
Aid digestion, soothe sore throats, clear sinuses, combat cancer and boost the immune system.
Promote weight loss, help stop strokes, lower cholesterol, combat cancer and control blood pressure.
Protect your heart, boost memory, combat cancer and support the immune system.
Aid digestion, battle diabetes, protect your heart, improve mental health and boost the immune system.
Lower cholesterol, control blood pressure, combat cancer, kill bacteria and fight fungus.
Protect against heart attacks, promote weight loss, help stop strokes, combat prostate cancer and lower cholesterol.
Save eyesight, conquer kidney stones, combat cancer, enhance blood flow and protect your heart.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, help stop strokes, promote weight loss and kill bacteria.
Heal wounds, aid digestion, guard against ulcers, increase energy and fight allergies.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, control blood pressure, smoothe skin and stop scurvy.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, control blood pressure, smoothe the skin and stop scurvy.
Combat cancer, boost memory, regulate thyroid, aid digestion and shield against Alzheimer's disease.
Control blood pressure, lower cholesterol, kill bacteria, combat cancer and strengthen bones.
Lower cholesterol, combat cancer, battle diabetes, prevent constipation and soothe the skin.
Protect your heart, promote weight loss, combat cancer, battle diabetes and smooth the skin.
Reduce the risk of heart attack, combat cancer, kill bacteria, lower cholesterol and fight fungus.
Support your immune system, combat cancer, protect your heart and aid respiration.
Prevent constipation, combat cancer, help stop strokes, aid digestion and help hemorrhoids.
Protect against heart disease, promote weight loss, combat prostate cancer and lower cholesterol but aggravate diverticulitis.
Strengthen bones, relieve colds, aid digestion, dissolve warts and block diarrhea.
Slow the aging process, prevent constipation, boost memory, lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease.
Protect your heart, battle diabetes, conquer kidney stones, combat cancer and help stop strokes.
Combat cancer, protect your heart, boost memory and calm stress.
Save your eyesight, lift moods, combat cancer and strengthen bones.
Protect prostates, combat cancer, lower cholesterol and protect your heart.
Lower cholesterol, combat cancer, boost memory, lift moods and protect against heart disease.
Promote weight loss, combat cancer, conquer kidney stones and smooth the skin.
Protect your prostate, promote weight loss, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes and controls blood pressure.
Combat colon cancer, prevent constipation, lower cholesterol, help stop strokes and improve digestion.
2012年1月11日星期三
Dog meat at Hanukka
A lighthearted fish-out of- water tale in which an innocent abroad finds himself, in turn, puzzling over cultural oddities and being exasperated by them.
One afternoon during an unexpected detour on my way home in Bangkok, I found myself at an open-air market staring at a wire-mesh cage of beige and black cobras in listless heaps. I had been invited along by a friendly shoe repairman who plied his trade at a rickety curbside bench.
He pointed to a fawn-colored specimen. Obligingly, the snakes’ guardian, a mattedhaired young fellow, unlatched the lid, hooked the five-foot reptile with a fire iron, and plucked it out onto a tabletop. Suddenly, he cuffed the snake from behind.
The cobra spluttered, and rearing, spread its collar in warning. He smacked the irate reptile again. He did so, I was later told, to get the snake’s blood up – literally. With adrenalin pumping furiously through its veins, a cobra’s blood is believed to turn its most magically potent.
The fellow then grabbed the hissing animal by the nape and carried it over to an elderly Chinese man, who looped a string of kitchen twine around the snake’s neck and tied the reptile to a vertically mounted aluminum pole. With scalpel in hand, he proceeded to eviscerate the live serpent while carefully collecting its blood in a tumbler.
Adding a drop of honey and two parts whisky, he offered the concoction to me. My friend stood by, smiling benignly.
Snake blood, I learned, is believed to have wondrous curative effects and aphrodisiacal properties. It’s said to heal rheumatism, hemorrhoids, impotence, even lethargy. It’s also lauded as a marvelous pick-me-up, although I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint of heart. I braced myself and gulped it back.
The concoction tasted like certain tonic beverages: part sweet, part piquant. As for the observable curative effects, I cannot much vouch for them, apart from a short adrenalin rush triggered by imbibing the rather unappetizing cocktail.
In Laos, meanwhile, I was offered fried rat. In Vietnam I saw locals slurp turtle meat soup, while downing rice wine from a bottle with a large black scorpion marinating in it. In Cambodia I was present at a wedding feast that included crocodile meat jerky and finely seasoned water beetles.
I’ve sampled a few such treats and turned down most others. But never have I had to invoke religious dietary restrictions as an excuse to pass up on one.
Michael Levy has not been so lucky. One fine day in 2005, the young Jew from Philadelphia arrives in Unicorn Hill Village #3 (so numbered, one presumes, to distinguish it from several other Unicorn Hill villages) in central China for some acclimatization ahead of a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in a nearby city. Almost immediately he is faced with the prospect of offending his hosts at a welcome feast by declining an invitation to munch on a local delicacy: fried millipedes licked off a sugar-coated stick. Levy begs off by explaining he’s a Jew, or rather wo shi youtairen (which translates as “I am a person who is special, too” in Mandarin).
The foreigner’s dietary peculiarities baffle his hosts, and so begin Levy’s adventures, culinary and otherwise, as an English teacher at Guizhou University in Guiyang, the capital of an underdeveloped, ethnically diverse province in southwestern China. Before long, the erstwhile vegetarian who once kept kosher and studied in a Jerusalem yeshiva succumbs to nibbling on pork dumplings and celebrating Hanukka at a restaurant called Dog Meat King, where he samples the trademark dish.
Clearly, “Kosher Chinese,” Levy’s account of his time in China, is not meant to be a treatise on the challenges of keeping kosher in a land where people will gladly eat “anything with four legs but the table” – as well as creatures with no legs (snakes), with two (birds), and with six or more (insects). Rather, the book serves up a lighthearted fish-out-of-water tale, in which an innocent abroad finds himself, in turn, puzzled and exasperated by cultural oddities.
Right from the start, Levy is faced with such routine yet baffling challenges as squat toilets and the scrambling free-for-all that passes for queuing in China (“a Darwinian survival of the angriest,” in his words).
He gleefully mines local idiosyncrasies for their full comic potential. There’s the neighbor who wakes him every morning by meowing Sichuan Opera tunes while banging a gong. There’s the minor official who is shocked to discover that Americans know nothing of Guiyang, even though the city now boasts its own Walmart (in a warehouse right beneath People’s Park with its obligatory Chairman Mao statue). There’s the student who yells his answers at Levy as per the instructions of a popular local “Crazy English” guru who encourages Chinese learners to shout out sentences by way of gaining conversational confidence in the foreign vernacular.
Yet unlike many travel writers and expat authors, Levy doesn’t just treat locals as two-dimensional caricatures whose defining characteristic is their conformity to popular stereotypes. By befriending several locals, from fellow teachers to girls belonging to an impoverished ethnic minority, the Bouyei people, Levy seeks to see the world through their eyes. Inevitably, he rubs up against the contradictions that underpin life in China, where the phrase “with Chinese characteristics” turns familiar concepts – democracy, socialism, freedom – pretty much into their opposite.
China, he notices, is a country where party dogma condemns the material trappings of “soulless” capitalism even as party policy furthers the cause of rampant capitalism. As the nouveau riche of Beijing and Shanghai unabashedly flaunt their wealth, across the country’s vast hinterland hundreds of millions languish in grinding poverty. Frequently, Levy is confronted by the sad realities of moral ambiguity and intellectual stupor in a culture where the idea of meritocracy is the successful accumulation of guanxi: cultivating relationships with people of influence.
At the same time, rote learning in schools stifles creativity and fills students’ heads with suspect ideas. When Levy is asked to teach a graduate course on postmodern American literature, he wonders how his students with their limited English might handle novels by Nabokov, Pynchon and Heller. A fellow teacher is nonplussed by his doubts. “What is there for [the students] to discuss?” she tells the American. “They don’t know anything. You’re the expert, so you should just tell them what to think.”
“The Jewish People’s Secret for Success” is a bestselling self-help title in China.
Written by a former factory worker, it features snapshots of Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, Vladimir Putin and Bill Gates as paragons of Jewish smarts and business acumen. The book’s success has clearly not suffered from its inclusion of the Russian leader and Microsoft’s chairman (one a Russian Orthodox, the other from a Congregationalist background) as members of the tribe.
The Chinese, Levy discovers, admire Jews for their storied business savvy. Whereas in much of the world Jewish success is merely seen by many as proving their avarice and perfidy, in China it’s endorsed as a virtue worth emulating. If there is anti-Semitism in the country, Levy clearly didn’t encounter any. A local bureaucrat even insists to the American Jew that the ultimate sign of China’s superiority over the US will be “[w]hen the Jews begin to immigrate here. [Then] we will know we have won!”
Shortly after he begins to teach at Guizhou University, Levy finds himself appointed honorary chairman of the ad hoc Jewish Friday Night English and Cooking Corner Club, set up by some local teachers and students. On Shabbat eves they gather in a small apartment, where Levy cooks matza ball soup and bakes challa for them.
On Yom Kippur, one of his Chinese friends even joins Levy in his fast as the plump woman is eager to marry her dieting regimen to a spiritual cause. Yet a Chinese woman fasting on Yom Kippur to lose weight, Levy, a self-described agnostic, points out, is “no more or less odd than a white guy from San Francisco lighting incense in his fancy loft apartment and practicing tai chi.” Or an Israeli backpacker seeking sudden Enlightenment at a Vipassana meditation retreat in Dharamsala in the Indian Himalayas, we might add.
Yet despite the implied premise of Levy’s book, which is played up by the cover design’s prominent skullcap with a Chairman Mao print on it, the Jewish element in “Kosher Chinese” is fairly tenuous. It’s more a conceit than an essential part of the narrative. The author’s Jewishness does lend an added dimension to his experiences in China, but it does not really define them. In fact, locals seem to view him far more as a typical American than as a religious minority, if only because of his primarily secular habits.
Equally, at times the book reads like repolished diary entries and its narrative arc doesn’t exactly make for high adventure: Levy teaches, observes, grapples with culture shock, adjusts, makes friends, and gets on the college’s basketball team as its token foreign star. What enlivens this fairly everyday story is the author’s self-deprecating wit (with liberal doses of scatological humor) and his tolerant humanism.
One afternoon during an unexpected detour on my way home in Bangkok, I found myself at an open-air market staring at a wire-mesh cage of beige and black cobras in listless heaps. I had been invited along by a friendly shoe repairman who plied his trade at a rickety curbside bench.
He pointed to a fawn-colored specimen. Obligingly, the snakes’ guardian, a mattedhaired young fellow, unlatched the lid, hooked the five-foot reptile with a fire iron, and plucked it out onto a tabletop. Suddenly, he cuffed the snake from behind.
The cobra spluttered, and rearing, spread its collar in warning. He smacked the irate reptile again. He did so, I was later told, to get the snake’s blood up – literally. With adrenalin pumping furiously through its veins, a cobra’s blood is believed to turn its most magically potent.
The fellow then grabbed the hissing animal by the nape and carried it over to an elderly Chinese man, who looped a string of kitchen twine around the snake’s neck and tied the reptile to a vertically mounted aluminum pole. With scalpel in hand, he proceeded to eviscerate the live serpent while carefully collecting its blood in a tumbler.
Adding a drop of honey and two parts whisky, he offered the concoction to me. My friend stood by, smiling benignly.
Snake blood, I learned, is believed to have wondrous curative effects and aphrodisiacal properties. It’s said to heal rheumatism, hemorrhoids, impotence, even lethargy. It’s also lauded as a marvelous pick-me-up, although I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint of heart. I braced myself and gulped it back.
The concoction tasted like certain tonic beverages: part sweet, part piquant. As for the observable curative effects, I cannot much vouch for them, apart from a short adrenalin rush triggered by imbibing the rather unappetizing cocktail.
In Laos, meanwhile, I was offered fried rat. In Vietnam I saw locals slurp turtle meat soup, while downing rice wine from a bottle with a large black scorpion marinating in it. In Cambodia I was present at a wedding feast that included crocodile meat jerky and finely seasoned water beetles.
I’ve sampled a few such treats and turned down most others. But never have I had to invoke religious dietary restrictions as an excuse to pass up on one.
Michael Levy has not been so lucky. One fine day in 2005, the young Jew from Philadelphia arrives in Unicorn Hill Village #3 (so numbered, one presumes, to distinguish it from several other Unicorn Hill villages) in central China for some acclimatization ahead of a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in a nearby city. Almost immediately he is faced with the prospect of offending his hosts at a welcome feast by declining an invitation to munch on a local delicacy: fried millipedes licked off a sugar-coated stick. Levy begs off by explaining he’s a Jew, or rather wo shi youtairen (which translates as “I am a person who is special, too” in Mandarin).
The foreigner’s dietary peculiarities baffle his hosts, and so begin Levy’s adventures, culinary and otherwise, as an English teacher at Guizhou University in Guiyang, the capital of an underdeveloped, ethnically diverse province in southwestern China. Before long, the erstwhile vegetarian who once kept kosher and studied in a Jerusalem yeshiva succumbs to nibbling on pork dumplings and celebrating Hanukka at a restaurant called Dog Meat King, where he samples the trademark dish.
Clearly, “Kosher Chinese,” Levy’s account of his time in China, is not meant to be a treatise on the challenges of keeping kosher in a land where people will gladly eat “anything with four legs but the table” – as well as creatures with no legs (snakes), with two (birds), and with six or more (insects). Rather, the book serves up a lighthearted fish-out-of-water tale, in which an innocent abroad finds himself, in turn, puzzled and exasperated by cultural oddities.
Right from the start, Levy is faced with such routine yet baffling challenges as squat toilets and the scrambling free-for-all that passes for queuing in China (“a Darwinian survival of the angriest,” in his words).
He gleefully mines local idiosyncrasies for their full comic potential. There’s the neighbor who wakes him every morning by meowing Sichuan Opera tunes while banging a gong. There’s the minor official who is shocked to discover that Americans know nothing of Guiyang, even though the city now boasts its own Walmart (in a warehouse right beneath People’s Park with its obligatory Chairman Mao statue). There’s the student who yells his answers at Levy as per the instructions of a popular local “Crazy English” guru who encourages Chinese learners to shout out sentences by way of gaining conversational confidence in the foreign vernacular.
Yet unlike many travel writers and expat authors, Levy doesn’t just treat locals as two-dimensional caricatures whose defining characteristic is their conformity to popular stereotypes. By befriending several locals, from fellow teachers to girls belonging to an impoverished ethnic minority, the Bouyei people, Levy seeks to see the world through their eyes. Inevitably, he rubs up against the contradictions that underpin life in China, where the phrase “with Chinese characteristics” turns familiar concepts – democracy, socialism, freedom – pretty much into their opposite.
China, he notices, is a country where party dogma condemns the material trappings of “soulless” capitalism even as party policy furthers the cause of rampant capitalism. As the nouveau riche of Beijing and Shanghai unabashedly flaunt their wealth, across the country’s vast hinterland hundreds of millions languish in grinding poverty. Frequently, Levy is confronted by the sad realities of moral ambiguity and intellectual stupor in a culture where the idea of meritocracy is the successful accumulation of guanxi: cultivating relationships with people of influence.
At the same time, rote learning in schools stifles creativity and fills students’ heads with suspect ideas. When Levy is asked to teach a graduate course on postmodern American literature, he wonders how his students with their limited English might handle novels by Nabokov, Pynchon and Heller. A fellow teacher is nonplussed by his doubts. “What is there for [the students] to discuss?” she tells the American. “They don’t know anything. You’re the expert, so you should just tell them what to think.”
“The Jewish People’s Secret for Success” is a bestselling self-help title in China.
Written by a former factory worker, it features snapshots of Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, Vladimir Putin and Bill Gates as paragons of Jewish smarts and business acumen. The book’s success has clearly not suffered from its inclusion of the Russian leader and Microsoft’s chairman (one a Russian Orthodox, the other from a Congregationalist background) as members of the tribe.
The Chinese, Levy discovers, admire Jews for their storied business savvy. Whereas in much of the world Jewish success is merely seen by many as proving their avarice and perfidy, in China it’s endorsed as a virtue worth emulating. If there is anti-Semitism in the country, Levy clearly didn’t encounter any. A local bureaucrat even insists to the American Jew that the ultimate sign of China’s superiority over the US will be “[w]hen the Jews begin to immigrate here. [Then] we will know we have won!”
Shortly after he begins to teach at Guizhou University, Levy finds himself appointed honorary chairman of the ad hoc Jewish Friday Night English and Cooking Corner Club, set up by some local teachers and students. On Shabbat eves they gather in a small apartment, where Levy cooks matza ball soup and bakes challa for them.
On Yom Kippur, one of his Chinese friends even joins Levy in his fast as the plump woman is eager to marry her dieting regimen to a spiritual cause. Yet a Chinese woman fasting on Yom Kippur to lose weight, Levy, a self-described agnostic, points out, is “no more or less odd than a white guy from San Francisco lighting incense in his fancy loft apartment and practicing tai chi.” Or an Israeli backpacker seeking sudden Enlightenment at a Vipassana meditation retreat in Dharamsala in the Indian Himalayas, we might add.
Yet despite the implied premise of Levy’s book, which is played up by the cover design’s prominent skullcap with a Chairman Mao print on it, the Jewish element in “Kosher Chinese” is fairly tenuous. It’s more a conceit than an essential part of the narrative. The author’s Jewishness does lend an added dimension to his experiences in China, but it does not really define them. In fact, locals seem to view him far more as a typical American than as a religious minority, if only because of his primarily secular habits.
Equally, at times the book reads like repolished diary entries and its narrative arc doesn’t exactly make for high adventure: Levy teaches, observes, grapples with culture shock, adjusts, makes friends, and gets on the college’s basketball team as its token foreign star. What enlivens this fairly everyday story is the author’s self-deprecating wit (with liberal doses of scatological humor) and his tolerant humanism.
2012年1月10日星期二
Find Some Way To Alleviate Your Hemorrhoids Discomfort
A particularly irritating case of hemorrhoids can inspire you to quickly set up a doctor’s appointment. The doctor will give you an exam and some advice for treatments. Prescription drugs potentially won't be obligatory. The piece down below will advise you on methods to treat hemorrhoids and get fast relief in your home, rather than having to visit a doctor.
Grape seed oil can help cut the amount of swelling and discomfort that comes with hemorrhoids. The bleeding can be halted as your increased protection attacks illnesses that can have contributed to the accretion of hemorrhoids.
Donut cushions can offer great relief, if you're experiencing haemorrhoids. This type of cushion is shaped like its namesake and offers comfy support that takes some of the pressure off of your haemorrhoids. Sitting on a donut cushion will give you much larger comfort than any other surface.
Abstain from sitting long periods on the can looking for a bowel movement. You are a touch straining all of the time you are sitting there. Wait for peristalsis to start before you try and have a bowel movement. Otherwise, straining will make your haemorrhoids worse.
You've got to avoid spending too much valuable time sitting on your toilet waiting to pass stools. This position can not just give you hemorrhoids, but it may also stop them from healing. Take some time and do not rush to the rest room. Wait for your body to offer you the signs that you are ready.
Squatting down rather than sitting as always will make stools better to pass and reduce pile irritation at the same time. While squatting may feel ungainly initially, it's actually the standard for many cultures and puts far less tax on your back passage.
Were you aware of the fact that you probably have a number of haemorrhoid remedies in your kitchen as you are reading this? Something as straightforward as an ice pack from your refrigerator can provide you with ample relief. Ice packs may be employed to minimize the pain you are experiencing. Ice packs are very good for reducing the swelling that the hemorrhoids cause.
Hemorrhoids are frequently due to the overexertion of sphincter muscles. If you battle with hemorrhoids frequently, it could be possible that some component of your way of life is to blame; give careful attention not to put too much force behind certain routine daily activities.
Seeking pro medical help is one of the strategies to deal with hemorrhoids. Nonetheless in most cases, medical care is not needed in any way. A high-quality diet is vital towards treating hemorrhoids, you can eat healthy items like grains, vegetables and masses of fiber.
Grape seed oil can help cut the amount of swelling and discomfort that comes with hemorrhoids. The bleeding can be halted as your increased protection attacks illnesses that can have contributed to the accretion of hemorrhoids.
Donut cushions can offer great relief, if you're experiencing haemorrhoids. This type of cushion is shaped like its namesake and offers comfy support that takes some of the pressure off of your haemorrhoids. Sitting on a donut cushion will give you much larger comfort than any other surface.
Abstain from sitting long periods on the can looking for a bowel movement. You are a touch straining all of the time you are sitting there. Wait for peristalsis to start before you try and have a bowel movement. Otherwise, straining will make your haemorrhoids worse.
You've got to avoid spending too much valuable time sitting on your toilet waiting to pass stools. This position can not just give you hemorrhoids, but it may also stop them from healing. Take some time and do not rush to the rest room. Wait for your body to offer you the signs that you are ready.
Squatting down rather than sitting as always will make stools better to pass and reduce pile irritation at the same time. While squatting may feel ungainly initially, it's actually the standard for many cultures and puts far less tax on your back passage.
Were you aware of the fact that you probably have a number of haemorrhoid remedies in your kitchen as you are reading this? Something as straightforward as an ice pack from your refrigerator can provide you with ample relief. Ice packs may be employed to minimize the pain you are experiencing. Ice packs are very good for reducing the swelling that the hemorrhoids cause.
Hemorrhoids are frequently due to the overexertion of sphincter muscles. If you battle with hemorrhoids frequently, it could be possible that some component of your way of life is to blame; give careful attention not to put too much force behind certain routine daily activities.
Seeking pro medical help is one of the strategies to deal with hemorrhoids. Nonetheless in most cases, medical care is not needed in any way. A high-quality diet is vital towards treating hemorrhoids, you can eat healthy items like grains, vegetables and masses of fiber.
2012年1月9日星期一
Best Hemorrhoid Treatments The Best Ways to Get Rid of Hemorrhoids
If you suffer from hemorrhoids, are you still trying to figure out the best way to manage the condition? Naturally something like this tends to eat away at you every day that you experience the pain and inconvenience. As you probably know all too well, there are quite a few approaches to the treatment of hemorrhoids, and you have to find the one that’s right for you. We want to discuss approaches to finding the best hemorrhoids treatment that will work for you.
One hemorrhoid remedy that is efficient is acupuncture. Even though it was first started in China, this form of healing with needles has gotten to be a favourite all over the world. Acupuncture heals the body holistically by tapping into energy centers that go all through the body. Hemorrhoids are a kind of inflammation, and acupuncture is often effective at reducing this kind of problem quite quickly. If you want to try this method, you should find someone in your area that is qualified to practice it. Reflexology is an even easier system for healing that has the same principles as acupuncture, but instead of utilizing needles, you use your fingers to press the acupuncture points. This, too, can be very helpful as a hemorrhoids treatment.
One inexpensive natural product that is often a very effective hemorrhoid treatment is psyllium. People often mix it with other drinks and foods, and it comes in powder form, granules, and of course in a capsule form. Psyllium acts like a laxative, and of course there are many reasons why someone would want to take that. The bowel movements associated with psyllium in the system have not been described as difficult or unusual. Very often constipation with hemorrhoids only serves to irritate the condition due to the pressure of straining. The safest approach is to discuss using psyllium, and that is especially important if you’re currently taking prescription medicine.
Getting regular exercise is very important when it comes to treating hemorrhoids. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute to many health problems, including hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids can be directly caused by spending too much time sitting in a chair. The nature of many people’s jobs means that they cannot avoid this. Whatever type of job you may have, you can still begin a regular exercise program. You should avoid straining yourself as with lifting heavy weighs until your hemorrhoids clear up, because this can irritate your condition. Moderate exercise is a great way to treat hemorrhoids.
When you are suffering from hemorrhoids, your main concern is to get rid of this problem any way you can. You may be able to find quick relief from some of the methods we’ve discussed. Your doctor of course can presribe something that should work very well and fast. There is no reason to live with hemorrhoids, as there are so many effective ways they can be treated.
One hemorrhoid remedy that is efficient is acupuncture. Even though it was first started in China, this form of healing with needles has gotten to be a favourite all over the world. Acupuncture heals the body holistically by tapping into energy centers that go all through the body. Hemorrhoids are a kind of inflammation, and acupuncture is often effective at reducing this kind of problem quite quickly. If you want to try this method, you should find someone in your area that is qualified to practice it. Reflexology is an even easier system for healing that has the same principles as acupuncture, but instead of utilizing needles, you use your fingers to press the acupuncture points. This, too, can be very helpful as a hemorrhoids treatment.
One inexpensive natural product that is often a very effective hemorrhoid treatment is psyllium. People often mix it with other drinks and foods, and it comes in powder form, granules, and of course in a capsule form. Psyllium acts like a laxative, and of course there are many reasons why someone would want to take that. The bowel movements associated with psyllium in the system have not been described as difficult or unusual. Very often constipation with hemorrhoids only serves to irritate the condition due to the pressure of straining. The safest approach is to discuss using psyllium, and that is especially important if you’re currently taking prescription medicine.
Getting regular exercise is very important when it comes to treating hemorrhoids. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute to many health problems, including hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids can be directly caused by spending too much time sitting in a chair. The nature of many people’s jobs means that they cannot avoid this. Whatever type of job you may have, you can still begin a regular exercise program. You should avoid straining yourself as with lifting heavy weighs until your hemorrhoids clear up, because this can irritate your condition. Moderate exercise is a great way to treat hemorrhoids.
When you are suffering from hemorrhoids, your main concern is to get rid of this problem any way you can. You may be able to find quick relief from some of the methods we’ve discussed. Your doctor of course can presribe something that should work very well and fast. There is no reason to live with hemorrhoids, as there are so many effective ways they can be treated.
2012年1月8日星期日
Try home remedies to treat painful hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoids are clusters of veins in the lowest part of the rectum and anus that become swollen and distended.
You can have hemorrhoids without any symptoms. But hemorrhoids can also have very unpleasant symptoms — rectal pain, itching, soiling and bleeding. Hemorrhoids are rarely dangerous, however, and there are many treatment options.
Hemorrhoid symptoms can also be caused by other conditions, including anal warts and fissures, Crohn’s disease and (rarely) anal cancer. So if you have persistent bothersome symptoms that you think are caused by hemorrhoids, it’s wise to see your doctor.
There are several helpful home treatments. The first thing you should do is boost the fiber in your diet. Eat high-fiber foods (such as prunes, pears, beans, bran cereals and oatmeal), take a fiber supplement (there are many varieties available in drugstores), or both. Fiber softens stools and makes them easier to pass. This reduces pressure on hemorrhoids, which in turn reduces the risk of bleeding, inflammation and swelling. Make sure to take fiber with plenty of fluids.
Exercise is another important home remedy for hemorrhoids. Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Not only does this have a powerfully positive effect on your health, it also is a great way to stimulate your bowels.
When you feel the urge, go to the bathroom immediately; don’t wait for a more convenient time. Waiting can cause your bowels to back up, leading to increased pressure and straining.
Sitz baths can relieve itching, irritation and muscle spasm. A sitz bath is a warm water bath for the buttocks. Sit in a regular bathtub with a few inches of warm water, or buy a small plastic tub that fits over a toilet seat. Try a 20-minute sitz bath after each bowel movement and an additional two or three times a day. Afterward, gently pat the area dry.
Over-the-counter pain-relief creams can temporarily soothe pain, irritation and itching. Witch hazel wipes (Tucks) are soothing and have no harmful effects. A small ice pack placed against the anal area for a few minutes may also help.
Finally, sitting on cushions rather than hard surfaces can help reduce swelling.
If the treatments I’ve discussed don’t help, talk to your doctor. You may benefit from a simple outpatient procedure to treat hemorrhoids. One procedure involves rubber rings tightened around the hemorrhoid. Other procedures, using lasers or infrared light, heat the hemorrhoids, causing them to shrink. Injecting a chemical into the hemorrhoids also can shrink them. If your symptoms continue despite these measures, you may need minor surgery to remove your hemorrhoids.
Hemorrhoids are among the most common “minor maladies of man.” The good news is that, most of the time, simple home remedies can give you great relief.
You can have hemorrhoids without any symptoms. But hemorrhoids can also have very unpleasant symptoms — rectal pain, itching, soiling and bleeding. Hemorrhoids are rarely dangerous, however, and there are many treatment options.
Hemorrhoid symptoms can also be caused by other conditions, including anal warts and fissures, Crohn’s disease and (rarely) anal cancer. So if you have persistent bothersome symptoms that you think are caused by hemorrhoids, it’s wise to see your doctor.
There are several helpful home treatments. The first thing you should do is boost the fiber in your diet. Eat high-fiber foods (such as prunes, pears, beans, bran cereals and oatmeal), take a fiber supplement (there are many varieties available in drugstores), or both. Fiber softens stools and makes them easier to pass. This reduces pressure on hemorrhoids, which in turn reduces the risk of bleeding, inflammation and swelling. Make sure to take fiber with plenty of fluids.
Exercise is another important home remedy for hemorrhoids. Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Not only does this have a powerfully positive effect on your health, it also is a great way to stimulate your bowels.
When you feel the urge, go to the bathroom immediately; don’t wait for a more convenient time. Waiting can cause your bowels to back up, leading to increased pressure and straining.
Sitz baths can relieve itching, irritation and muscle spasm. A sitz bath is a warm water bath for the buttocks. Sit in a regular bathtub with a few inches of warm water, or buy a small plastic tub that fits over a toilet seat. Try a 20-minute sitz bath after each bowel movement and an additional two or three times a day. Afterward, gently pat the area dry.
Over-the-counter pain-relief creams can temporarily soothe pain, irritation and itching. Witch hazel wipes (Tucks) are soothing and have no harmful effects. A small ice pack placed against the anal area for a few minutes may also help.
Finally, sitting on cushions rather than hard surfaces can help reduce swelling.
If the treatments I’ve discussed don’t help, talk to your doctor. You may benefit from a simple outpatient procedure to treat hemorrhoids. One procedure involves rubber rings tightened around the hemorrhoid. Other procedures, using lasers or infrared light, heat the hemorrhoids, causing them to shrink. Injecting a chemical into the hemorrhoids also can shrink them. If your symptoms continue despite these measures, you may need minor surgery to remove your hemorrhoids.
Hemorrhoids are among the most common “minor maladies of man.” The good news is that, most of the time, simple home remedies can give you great relief.
2012年1月5日星期四
Religious rhetoric mars political effectiveness
Apparently, when God is not overseeing his vast and wonderfully imperfect universe, he is keeping up with American politics.
This week, television evangelist Pat Robertson claimed that God clued him in on the results of the next presidential election.
Curiously, he refused to share the electoral outcome. Robertson also informed his viewers that God is unhappy with President Barack Obama’s agenda, and that the spiritual battle against him “Can only be won by overwhelming prayer.”
These words relate directly to the problems of this country. Just like any other interest group, the radical Christian right has infiltrated the electorate in an effort to push forward its own ignorant agenda, only contributing more to the divisiveness that plagues American politics.
Republicans, in particular, seem to invest themselves in the religious rhetoric.
Just last month, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry released a campaign commercial stating that, “You know that something’s wrong with this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”
He then promised to “End Obama’s war on religion.”
Seriously? The last time I checked, openly celebrating Christmas seemed to be more of a widespread phenomenon rather than a widespread problem, and the government wasn’t capable of preventing anyone from thinking or praying when and where they choose.
If we want to get on the subject of openly celebrating religious holidays, maybe we should count the number of Hanukkah specials aired on television.
Oh, that’s right — there are none.
The founders established the principle of separation of church and state for a reason. The purpose of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” was to create a healthy democracy. Such a democracy should allow the freedom of one’s own thoughts, beliefs and convictions, separate from the government’s collective mentality.
The Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by Congress in 1797, clarifies America’s religious neutrality by stating that, “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
A basic premise of Robertson’s divine inspiration is correct. This country has real problems. Our economy is in turmoil, and it is apparent that our current leaders are incapable of creating a solution.
And as a fiscal conservative, I also hope that Obama is defeated in November. But trading one radical defective ideology in the White House for another is not going to resolve anything.
By all accounts, everyone should participate in our country’s political discourse. But Americans should avoid contributing to ignorant rhetoric. They should make decisions free from any interest groups, including the Christian right.
While Robertson is busy healing people’s hemorrhoids via the television and conversing with God about public policy and Tim Tebow, take time to learn about the issues of the day. Though your religion should mold your politics, it should not be your politics.
If we all keep educated and vote, I think God’s will for America is more likely to manifest itself throughout our great nation — rather than just making a brief appearance on Robertson’s television show.
This week, television evangelist Pat Robertson claimed that God clued him in on the results of the next presidential election.
Curiously, he refused to share the electoral outcome. Robertson also informed his viewers that God is unhappy with President Barack Obama’s agenda, and that the spiritual battle against him “Can only be won by overwhelming prayer.”
These words relate directly to the problems of this country. Just like any other interest group, the radical Christian right has infiltrated the electorate in an effort to push forward its own ignorant agenda, only contributing more to the divisiveness that plagues American politics.
Republicans, in particular, seem to invest themselves in the religious rhetoric.
Just last month, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry released a campaign commercial stating that, “You know that something’s wrong with this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”
He then promised to “End Obama’s war on religion.”
Seriously? The last time I checked, openly celebrating Christmas seemed to be more of a widespread phenomenon rather than a widespread problem, and the government wasn’t capable of preventing anyone from thinking or praying when and where they choose.
If we want to get on the subject of openly celebrating religious holidays, maybe we should count the number of Hanukkah specials aired on television.
Oh, that’s right — there are none.
The founders established the principle of separation of church and state for a reason. The purpose of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” was to create a healthy democracy. Such a democracy should allow the freedom of one’s own thoughts, beliefs and convictions, separate from the government’s collective mentality.
The Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by Congress in 1797, clarifies America’s religious neutrality by stating that, “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
A basic premise of Robertson’s divine inspiration is correct. This country has real problems. Our economy is in turmoil, and it is apparent that our current leaders are incapable of creating a solution.
And as a fiscal conservative, I also hope that Obama is defeated in November. But trading one radical defective ideology in the White House for another is not going to resolve anything.
By all accounts, everyone should participate in our country’s political discourse. But Americans should avoid contributing to ignorant rhetoric. They should make decisions free from any interest groups, including the Christian right.
While Robertson is busy healing people’s hemorrhoids via the television and conversing with God about public policy and Tim Tebow, take time to learn about the issues of the day. Though your religion should mold your politics, it should not be your politics.
If we all keep educated and vote, I think God’s will for America is more likely to manifest itself throughout our great nation — rather than just making a brief appearance on Robertson’s television show.
2012年1月4日星期三
Understanding Thrombosed Hemorrhoids And Learning Ways To Control Them
Thrombosis is basically, the enlargement of a blood clot inside an swollen artery or a vein. If left untreated it may restrict oxygen plus metabolic elements such as lactic acid. This may very well result in dead cells. Thrombosed hemorrhoids are simply put blood vessels inside the rectum or on the anus which are swollen from blood clots. This clotting may cause the blood vessels to swell up to a bulb. If the vein pops then a bleeding hemorrhoid results.
If you suspect that you’ve gotten thrombosed hemorrhoids then you can inspect your anus with the assistance of a looking glass. See if you can spot Try to locate any lumps on your anus, specially lumps which have a blue colour. They would usually be considerably hard whenever you touch hemorrhoid help them. They can also generally inflict extensive pain and itching. Even if you can’t see any lumps on your anus you may just have hemorrhoids anyways. Oftentimes hemorrhoids are not external , they are inside the rectum. Internal hemorrhoids can not be located directly on the anus. They also don’t usually cause pain or itching so therefore they’re ordinarily particularly problematic to confirm.
No matter whether you might have internal or external hemorroids, whether you ought to get them healed straightaway. Thrombosed hemorrhoids in some cases end up being bleeding hemorrhoids. Bleeding hemorrhoids can get infected which might, in turn, lead to blood poisoning which may be deadly. Even though external hemorrhoids are undoubtedly terribly symptomatic, internal hemorrhoids are a lot more unsafe. An external infection is relatively easy to get rid of. An internal infection is considerably more tough to identify and consequently much more tough to get rid of.
There are numerous various types of hemorrhoid treatment that may operate properly on thrombosed hemorrhoids. You may choose an operation or choose from different natural or holistic alternatives. The most essential thing you have to do to get rid of hemorrhoids is always to pay attention to your diet regime. Consuming meals prepared with nourishing foods such as fresh fruits and greens will certainly go a long way toward clearing up your hemorrhoids. In facts about hemorrhoids addition it should help deter hemorrhoids from developing ever again. Other than paying attention to your diet regime ingesting a lot of clean water and regular exercising will assist quite a bit. To manage the itching, pain, inflammation and over all discomfort you can purchase any number of different types of balms and salves. Witch hazel is acclaimed for its capacity to stop pain and itching. You’ll want to keep your anus nice and clean. Use hemorrhoid cure topical antiseptics on it very often.Washing your anus in a sitz bath can not simply help to keep your anus clean it can aid quite a bit with soothing the inflamed location.
If you suspect that you’ve gotten thrombosed hemorrhoids then you can inspect your anus with the assistance of a looking glass. See if you can spot Try to locate any lumps on your anus, specially lumps which have a blue colour. They would usually be considerably hard whenever you touch hemorrhoid help them. They can also generally inflict extensive pain and itching. Even if you can’t see any lumps on your anus you may just have hemorrhoids anyways. Oftentimes hemorrhoids are not external , they are inside the rectum. Internal hemorrhoids can not be located directly on the anus. They also don’t usually cause pain or itching so therefore they’re ordinarily particularly problematic to confirm.
No matter whether you might have internal or external hemorroids, whether you ought to get them healed straightaway. Thrombosed hemorrhoids in some cases end up being bleeding hemorrhoids. Bleeding hemorrhoids can get infected which might, in turn, lead to blood poisoning which may be deadly. Even though external hemorrhoids are undoubtedly terribly symptomatic, internal hemorrhoids are a lot more unsafe. An external infection is relatively easy to get rid of. An internal infection is considerably more tough to identify and consequently much more tough to get rid of.
There are numerous various types of hemorrhoid treatment that may operate properly on thrombosed hemorrhoids. You may choose an operation or choose from different natural or holistic alternatives. The most essential thing you have to do to get rid of hemorrhoids is always to pay attention to your diet regime. Consuming meals prepared with nourishing foods such as fresh fruits and greens will certainly go a long way toward clearing up your hemorrhoids. In facts about hemorrhoids addition it should help deter hemorrhoids from developing ever again. Other than paying attention to your diet regime ingesting a lot of clean water and regular exercising will assist quite a bit. To manage the itching, pain, inflammation and over all discomfort you can purchase any number of different types of balms and salves. Witch hazel is acclaimed for its capacity to stop pain and itching. You’ll want to keep your anus nice and clean. Use hemorrhoid cure topical antiseptics on it very often.Washing your anus in a sitz bath can not simply help to keep your anus clean it can aid quite a bit with soothing the inflamed location.
2012年1月3日星期二
It’s not easy to live with Hemorrhoids
Most often than not, people who have Hemorrhoids do not prefer to tell it to anyone and keep suffering silently. Hemorrhoids not only come with pain and bleeding but are a constant embarrassment to the sufferers. Both Internal hemorrhoids and External Hemorrhoids can be dealt with effectively if right treatment is sought in time.
External Hemorrhoids can be very painful and uncomfortable. The good news is that these types of Hemorrhoids can be treated with easy-to-use home remedies. Here are a few which one must know about:
Sitz Baths – Warm Sitz Baths can relieve pain and inflammation to a great extent. A person just need to dip their body torso in a bucket with hot water for nearly 20 minutes to get maximum benefit from this method. Common salt is recommended to be added to the water.
Topical Ointments and Creams – Various herbal products like ointments and creams are also useful. These may include analgesic creams as well. However one needs to ensure that he/she does not have any sensitivity to such products.
Ice Pack Application – Ice packs or a cold towel can be used to wrap around the Hemorrhoids to get instant relief from pain and swelling.
Application of Warm Water – Clean sponge soaked in lukewarm water if applied directly works well too. Not only is this method easy to do but this is also an effective alternative to Sitz Baths.
Medications for Inflammation – A few non-prescription drugs like ibuprofen and Advil that can help shrink off the Hemorrhoids. These medications can be bought from any nearby pharmacy without the need of a medical prescription.
If one is trying to find suitable Hemorrhoids Home Treatment, he/she can give the above methods a try and can seek relief. It is however very important to identify External Hemorrhoids Symptoms well in time before they turn into Thrombosed External Hemorrhoid.
For all those looking to Cure External Hemorrhoids – they should look for methods to treat them immediately. Besides the symptomatic treatment, one should lay stress on increasing the fluid intake to avoid constipation which is the main reason behind development of Hemorrhoids.
A fiber-rich diet can be helpful for all Hemorrhoids sufferers. Doing sitz baths, warm water soaks, cold compresses or ice application to the affected area can help soothe the area and substantially relieve the pain. Also do not hesitate or feel shy to seek medical help. One person not the only one suffering from this disease - there are millions across the world. And most importantly many get cured every day and lead a normal life thereafter - that is much happier.
If anyone is searching for a cure that can actually work, giving the above methods a try can be worthwhile.
Help for Hemorrhoids is a one-stop information for every aspect of usually less talked about disease, Hemorrhoids. Also called Hemroids or piles, it affects a lot of people across the globe. People tend to shy away from this disease however one has to take it head on to win over it. And it’s curable both with and without surgery.
External Hemorrhoids can be very painful and uncomfortable. The good news is that these types of Hemorrhoids can be treated with easy-to-use home remedies. Here are a few which one must know about:
Sitz Baths – Warm Sitz Baths can relieve pain and inflammation to a great extent. A person just need to dip their body torso in a bucket with hot water for nearly 20 minutes to get maximum benefit from this method. Common salt is recommended to be added to the water.
Topical Ointments and Creams – Various herbal products like ointments and creams are also useful. These may include analgesic creams as well. However one needs to ensure that he/she does not have any sensitivity to such products.
Ice Pack Application – Ice packs or a cold towel can be used to wrap around the Hemorrhoids to get instant relief from pain and swelling.
Application of Warm Water – Clean sponge soaked in lukewarm water if applied directly works well too. Not only is this method easy to do but this is also an effective alternative to Sitz Baths.
Medications for Inflammation – A few non-prescription drugs like ibuprofen and Advil that can help shrink off the Hemorrhoids. These medications can be bought from any nearby pharmacy without the need of a medical prescription.
If one is trying to find suitable Hemorrhoids Home Treatment, he/she can give the above methods a try and can seek relief. It is however very important to identify External Hemorrhoids Symptoms well in time before they turn into Thrombosed External Hemorrhoid.
For all those looking to Cure External Hemorrhoids – they should look for methods to treat them immediately. Besides the symptomatic treatment, one should lay stress on increasing the fluid intake to avoid constipation which is the main reason behind development of Hemorrhoids.
A fiber-rich diet can be helpful for all Hemorrhoids sufferers. Doing sitz baths, warm water soaks, cold compresses or ice application to the affected area can help soothe the area and substantially relieve the pain. Also do not hesitate or feel shy to seek medical help. One person not the only one suffering from this disease - there are millions across the world. And most importantly many get cured every day and lead a normal life thereafter - that is much happier.
If anyone is searching for a cure that can actually work, giving the above methods a try can be worthwhile.
Help for Hemorrhoids is a one-stop information for every aspect of usually less talked about disease, Hemorrhoids. Also called Hemroids or piles, it affects a lot of people across the globe. People tend to shy away from this disease however one has to take it head on to win over it. And it’s curable both with and without surgery.
2012年1月2日星期一
Small-town family physician happy right where he is
Dr. David Hagan, board chairman and immediate past president of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians, has been practicing medicine for 28 years.
Since his residency, he's had a family medicine practice in Gibson City.
On Dec. 15, he spoke to News-Gazette health reporter Debra Pressey about being a doctor in a smaller community, his views on health care reform, and the issues facing patients and doctors.
Here is some of what he had to say.
On being a family physician:
"I take great joy in being a family physician," Hagan says. "I wanted to be a doctor my whole life."
Family medicine physicians treat children and adult patients, and Hagan said he enjoys the variety and long-term relationships with his patients.
"It's the best kind of medicine to practice," he says.
On practicing medicine in a smaller community:
Hagan, 57, went to medical school at the University of Illinois, and did his residency at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio.
A native of Niantic, he chose Gibson City because it was close to his family and his wife's family, he says.
But projections for more doctors establishing their practices in smaller communities in Illinois aren't great: Hagan quotes from a 2010 Illinois physician work force study showing only 1.5 percent of medical residents plan to practice in rural communities.
Hagan says doctors' reservations about practicing in smaller communities are often based on myths, such as: Small-town doctors don't have a private life, don't see any interesting cases and don't have adequate access to technology.
"It's a myth that all you'll see are colds, sore throats and hemorrhoids," he says.
He's got all the access to medical technology he needs in Gibson City, he says, and as for having a personal life, he can walk through the grocery store any time without being approached for medical advice.
"My home phone number is published. I seldom get a phone call after hours," he says. "In 28 years, I've had three occasions when someone's come to the house, and on two occasions I told them to, and had to convince them it was OK."
On health care reform:
Hagan says his state and national organizations support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but speaking strictly for himself, he isn't a fan of this national health care reform legislation.
Here are some of the reasons he gives:
"A health care plan which involves hiring 160,000 IRS agents and the associated bureaucracy that would entail, that's not a health plan. That's something else," he says.
A Congress that won't mandate English as the country's official language shouldn't mandate that everyone purchase health insurance, he says. (Hagan says he believes everyone should have health insurance but he objects to anyone being forced to buy it.)
It doesn't address the Medicare payment shortfall to physicians.
It doesn't adequately address the primary-care workforce shortage and imbalance.
It doesn't address medical professional liability reform.
It doesn't do enough to promote "medical homes" that would provide a regular source of medical care for patients.
It doesn't adequately address quality measures that would reward health care providers for safety improvements.
Does he like anything about the Affordable Care Act?
Hagan acknowledges it does impose some health insurance reforms he agrees were needed, and continues funding for graduate medical education.
On the U.S. adopting a single-payer health plan system:
Hagan says he never wants to be a doctor, a patient or a taxpayer in a single-payer (funded by a single insurance pool) system.
"I don't think the people in Washington can manage something like that without terrible waste," he says.
On how patients can communi- cate better with their doctors:
Hagan says he asks his patients to bring in their medications or put them on a list and bring it in.
Beyond that, he advises: Be honest. Be engaged, and don't be afraid to ask questions.
On the big issues for doctors on the horizon:
Payment reform and too much paperwork.
How much time does he spend on paperwork? "I try not to think about it," he says.
The biggest issue for patients:
"Paying the bills," Hagan says. "That's probably the most common concern I hear in the office."
Since his residency, he's had a family medicine practice in Gibson City.
On Dec. 15, he spoke to News-Gazette health reporter Debra Pressey about being a doctor in a smaller community, his views on health care reform, and the issues facing patients and doctors.
Here is some of what he had to say.
On being a family physician:
"I take great joy in being a family physician," Hagan says. "I wanted to be a doctor my whole life."
Family medicine physicians treat children and adult patients, and Hagan said he enjoys the variety and long-term relationships with his patients.
"It's the best kind of medicine to practice," he says.
On practicing medicine in a smaller community:
Hagan, 57, went to medical school at the University of Illinois, and did his residency at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio.
A native of Niantic, he chose Gibson City because it was close to his family and his wife's family, he says.
But projections for more doctors establishing their practices in smaller communities in Illinois aren't great: Hagan quotes from a 2010 Illinois physician work force study showing only 1.5 percent of medical residents plan to practice in rural communities.
Hagan says doctors' reservations about practicing in smaller communities are often based on myths, such as: Small-town doctors don't have a private life, don't see any interesting cases and don't have adequate access to technology.
"It's a myth that all you'll see are colds, sore throats and hemorrhoids," he says.
He's got all the access to medical technology he needs in Gibson City, he says, and as for having a personal life, he can walk through the grocery store any time without being approached for medical advice.
"My home phone number is published. I seldom get a phone call after hours," he says. "In 28 years, I've had three occasions when someone's come to the house, and on two occasions I told them to, and had to convince them it was OK."
On health care reform:
Hagan says his state and national organizations support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but speaking strictly for himself, he isn't a fan of this national health care reform legislation.
Here are some of the reasons he gives:
"A health care plan which involves hiring 160,000 IRS agents and the associated bureaucracy that would entail, that's not a health plan. That's something else," he says.
A Congress that won't mandate English as the country's official language shouldn't mandate that everyone purchase health insurance, he says. (Hagan says he believes everyone should have health insurance but he objects to anyone being forced to buy it.)
It doesn't address the Medicare payment shortfall to physicians.
It doesn't adequately address the primary-care workforce shortage and imbalance.
It doesn't address medical professional liability reform.
It doesn't do enough to promote "medical homes" that would provide a regular source of medical care for patients.
It doesn't adequately address quality measures that would reward health care providers for safety improvements.
Does he like anything about the Affordable Care Act?
Hagan acknowledges it does impose some health insurance reforms he agrees were needed, and continues funding for graduate medical education.
On the U.S. adopting a single-payer health plan system:
Hagan says he never wants to be a doctor, a patient or a taxpayer in a single-payer (funded by a single insurance pool) system.
"I don't think the people in Washington can manage something like that without terrible waste," he says.
On how patients can communi- cate better with their doctors:
Hagan says he asks his patients to bring in their medications or put them on a list and bring it in.
Beyond that, he advises: Be honest. Be engaged, and don't be afraid to ask questions.
On the big issues for doctors on the horizon:
Payment reform and too much paperwork.
How much time does he spend on paperwork? "I try not to think about it," he says.
The biggest issue for patients:
"Paying the bills," Hagan says. "That's probably the most common concern I hear in the office."
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