Allergies are triggered by one’s immune response overreacting to otherwise harmless things like pollen, dust mites, mold, and pet dander. Your body reacts to allergens by generating substances such as histamines. These compounds are responsible for typical allergy symptoms like sneezing and itching eyes. As a result, allergies can harm your entire quality of life. The good thing is that there are drugs available to assist you in getting relief. Any hospital or pharmacy will have pills, sprays, and other treatments that can help with the basic symptoms of allergies. However, it is critical to recognize that medications are only beneficial if used appropriately. (1)

Treating Symptoms Instead Of Core Causes

While certain solutions may be able to alleviate some of your symptoms, the recovery is only temporary until the underlying cause is addressed. For example, if you take a decongestant for a blocked nose or perhaps an antihistamine for a runny nose, you may breathe more freely, but the comfort will only last as long as the dosage. Also, if you have persistent allergies yet are using a cold medication, you may only get temporary relief from your symptoms. The best way is to seek a diagnosis from an allergy specialist in an allergy and asthma San Antonio center and build a personalized treatment plan.

Taking Medications Only After Symptoms Appear

Allergy victims frequently wait until they experience symptoms before taking allergy medicine. If you recognize what medication has previously worked for you, don’t put it off. Begin using it before the season begins. To predict when your allergies will flare up again, keep an eye on the pollen count and obtain updates from internet resources. It is vital to know that as the weather warms, pollens and molds get released into the air, and your symptoms can most probably start soon after.

Taking Medications In The Morning

When suffering from allergies, you may notice that your symptoms worsen early in the morning. So, instead of taking medications before you awaken, take them before bed. You may put early morning symptoms in check this way. Also, before starting any new medications, check with your doctor to see what they advise.

Wasting Money on Over-The-Counter Prescriptions

When allergy victims feel miserable, they often visit the pharmacy and experiment with medications like antihistamines, nasal sprays, and eye drops. However, it’s not always a wise or economical choice to treat their symptoms. Instead, it’s best to visit an allergist who can identify your allergies clearly and develop an action plan for them.

Eating Things That Trigger Allergies And Make Them Worse

Some individuals with pollen allergies may have an itchy mouth or throat after eating particular fresh fruits and vegetables. This is known as oral allergy syndrome. The allergic cross-reaction begins quickly after eating the triggering food. It occurs due to the immune system recognizing a resemblance between proteins in some pollens and those in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and spices. For instance, a person allergic to birch pollen may have oral allergy symptoms following consuming apples, carrots, peaches, almonds, or hazelnuts. During allergy season, peeling, cooking, or ignoring the food entirely may help alleviate symptoms. (2)

You should opt to see your doctor if you require assistance managing your allergies. They may recommend you to an allergy expert in an allergy and asthma San Antonio center who can create a customized treatment plan for you.

Becoming a nurse isn’t easy. Becoming a certified nurse takes years of education and several hundreds of hours’ worth of clinical experience. The good news is that there’s plenty of job security since it’s an in-demand profession. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing jobs are expected to grow by 9% by 2030, with over 276,000 new openings.

However, nursing can be a tough job for any entrant. And the coronavirus pandemic is a testament to this fact. Shortage of nursing staff, an increase in patients’ healthcare needs, and workplace safety can make the job pretty daunting for any new nurse. So if you’ve just landed your first nursing job and are stressed out, we can understand why. But relax! We know what you may be going through. And to help you out, here are a few tips that can help you in your initial days as a frontline medical worker.

Prioritize self-care

Your job is to take care of patients, but not at the cost of your well-being. While it is good to show enthusiasm for your new job, don’t forget to prioritize yourself. Practice self-care to stay sane and healthy. Find hobbies you enjoy and habits that keep you healthy and make them a part of your routine. These could be anything from knitting to booking a relaxing day at the spa to relax your mind, body, and soul.

Continue learning

Wit- did you honestly think you’re done after being a Registered Nurse? Wrong! Nursing is a profession that requiraes you to constantly update your medical know-how and skills. So start thinking about educational opportunities now. Higher education can help you advance your career and unlock more exciting opportunities. You could enroll in an online degree in nursing to upskill yourself. Taking the online route helps you create a flexible learning schedule around your new job and achieve a better work-life balance. This also brings us to the next tip on this list.

Create a work-life balance

Understaffing compels some healthcare facilities to make their nurses work multiple shifts. While you may not have much liberty to choose your working hours in the beginning, creating a work-life balance is essential to remain healthy and productive at work. If you overwork yourself, you’ll be burned out and falter on the job. Burned-out nurses are prone to making medical errors and compromising patients’ health, which can be fatal in some cases.

So, learn to draw healthy boundaries between personal and professional life. Use planners, time management apps, and alarms to sort out activities and tasks. Choose your work hours carefully and avoid burdening yourself with too much work. It is important to say ‘no’ sometimes.

Pay attention and learn

Establishing an excellent communication level with your mentor or nurse manager is ideal. Regardless of whether you like the person or not, you need to pay attention. Without taking time to ensure you and your mentor are on the same page, you won’t be able to learn more or enhance your skillset.

Observation is essential, so don’t hold back on gazing upon things that make you curious or if you don’t understand something. Hold productive meetings with your senior nurse and discuss any problems you may face related to treatment, work, or life. Your mentor/nurse manager can further assist in tackling the challenges you may experience. It would help to take notes in a notepad s that you can review them later. Asking questions will clear your ambiguities and prevent you from making mistakes.

Ask questions

As a new nurse, it is essential that you formally express your questions to seek clarity. So don’t shy away. Instead, be confident. If you are uncertain about delivering a particular treatment, ask senior nurses for help. If you have uncertainties regarding protocols and work policies, seek clarity by asking about them.

Be nice to patients

It is easy to become frustrated and angry with so much work. Negative attributes can easily affect your work ethic. It can bring your overall performance down and impact the way patients perceive you.   The lack of positive energy you give off won’t make you feel any better either. So lose the negative energy and smile when you’re with patients.

Your patients are most likely in pain. Therefore, you must empathize with their state and show compassion. By being friendly to your patients, you can make work easier for yourself while also ensuring they have a pleasant stay at the hospital. It will positively impact patients’ overall satisfaction levels and improve recovery outcomes.

Organize your tasks  

Being an efficient nurse is more challenging than being a disorganized one. And if you don’t organize yourself, you’ll have a hard time getting any work done on your shift. So, learn how to prioritize and organize your work-related tasks.

Creating a to-do list, or having a template for your nursing report, can help you streamline your productivity and efficiency. It can help you deliver better patient care on time, especially when working in the ER. Set your tasks according to what’s most important, and do it first.

Work on your relationship with your colleagues

Every healthcare faculty operates as a team- or at least that’s how it should run. The entire medical team works in sync to provide the best medical care to patients. Your tasks are just as important as anyone else’s, and despite the size of the tasks, seeking aid from peers can be helpful for patients in the long run.

So, work on building good professional relationships with other healthcare workers. Discover what challenges your peers have gone through and get insights about how they overcame their problems and challenges. Use this information to improve team dynamics and provide patients with better care.

Work on your mental health

Working in healthcare can be stressful, especially for new entrants. You may experience a considerable amount of mental stress during the experience. Don’t let this stress affect your work and your health. A mentally exhausted nurse of little use to patients and healthcare teams. So if you feel you need help, seek professional help by meeting a mental health professional. It will help you preserve your mental well-being on the job.

Conclusion

Practicing the tips mentioned above can make work and life more manageable for you as a new nurse. Remember that your goal as a nurse should be improving patient care outcomes. While it may seem overwhelming at first, take things one day at a time. Use technology to your advantage and make your work more straightforward. Incorporate good habits to stay mentally and physically healthy. If you’re struggling to cope, get help from a support system of friends, family, and coworkers.

Sexual health is an important part of your relationships and overall wellbeing, both physical and psychological. Performance issues can negatively impact how you relate to your spouse and can also harm your self-confidence. Premature ejaculation is a common sexual performance issue that affects many men. Much like being unable to sustain an erection, these types of sexual ailments can be embarrassing to suffer from and seek assistance with.

Luckily, there are ways to deal with performance issues such as premature ejaculation. When considering various treatments it’s important to properly research possible cures such as Zoloft. Is Sertraline (Zoloft) safe to use for Premature ejaculation? Dr. Laurence Levine from Promescent explains how this drug, typically meant to treat anxiety, can help with premature ejaculation.

Signs Of Premature Ejaculation

In the general sense, premature ejaculation is defined as achieving climax a few moments after penetration with a romantic partner. A few moments are commonly meant to be roughly a minute or less. Premature ejaculation can occur randomly due to several outside causes such as stress or your overall emotional state. While at the time off-putting in many situations, it is not a permanent condition. However, if this occurs frequently, this is a health condition that requires your attention. Other signs include.

• Ejaculation after a minute or less of sexual contact in most if not all of your sexual encounters.
• You are unable to hold or delay orgasm in any situation.
• Physiological and emotional issues such as stress, shame about your performance, and avoiding romantic encounters (even when wanted) to avoid the associated distress that it causes to your emotional state.

Notably long-term premature ejaculation is classified as two different types depending on the nature of the condition. Primary (or lifelong) premature ejaculation is defined as a lifelong condition that you have had since childhood and secondary (or acquired) has an outside medical cause and is a recent occurrence. The type of premature ejaculation you have depends entirely on the root causes.

Causes of Premature Ejaculation

This condition can have several causes, including physical, emotional, and psychological. Depending on the nature of your condition, the types of effective treatment can vary and in some cases, multiple treatment methods may be needed to treat various associated symptoms. The most common causes of premature ejaculation include.

• Stress: an overwhelming amount of stress can negatively impact your sexual performance and stamina. High-stress levels cause chemical releases in the brain that can reduce your ability to perform sexually or at the levels you are used to. Stress can have emotional and mental triggers and, depending on what is causing your stress, treatments can be varied in terms of application.
• A Reduction In Male Hormones: current studies have shown that suffering from premature ejaculation could be linked to a reduction in several common male hormones. However, studies are still ongoing to see why and how low hormone levels and ejaculation issues could be linked.
• Erectile Dysfunction: premature ejaculation can be an associated condition due to other problems with your overall sexual health. ED is often related to issues with blood flow and associated cardiovascular ailments such as high blood pressure. Erectile dysfunction also can cause reduced mood, inability to sexually perform, a reduction in libido, and a general reduced interest in sex due to a lack of ability to maintain an erection for an extended period.
• Relationship Problems: another common cause of early ejaculation is relationship concerns. In some cases, this is relatively minor, such as the excitement of a new romantic partner or simple performance anxiety for any number of reasons. However, long-term relationship issues such as a lack of trust or openness can lead to sexual issues as well and should be dealt with honestly and with professional help when needed.
• Psychological Issues: mental health plays a vital role in your overall quality of life and this includes sexual performance. If you have psychological issues such as depression, low self-image, shame related to sexual encounters, sexual encounters early in life, or other issues related to sexual abuse or assault, these could impact your sexual performance and stamina.
• Other Biological Causes: other causes of premature ejaculation can include physical or biological issues that can impact sexual performance but may not necessarily cause other issues in your daily life. These can include your overall hormone levels, general brain chemistry, and inherited traits.

How This Impacts Your Life

Sexual performance issues are often the target of cruel humor and snide remarks but are serious health issues that should be treated accordingly. The inability to last during a sexual encounter makes it unsatisfying for both parties and being unable to satisfy your romantic partner can be a cause of emotional and psychological stress. In addition to the harm it causes your relationships. It can also impact how you approach relationships entirely and lead to issues such as lowered self-esteem and even depression. Many people avoid relationships entirely due to reduced sexual performance, feeling they cannot properly satisfy a partner or provide the physical support they need. With proper medical assistance, this does not have to be the case.

Final Thoughts

If you have been living with premature ejaculation, you should know there are treatment methods that can help you. Often, the first step is reaching out to a medical professional for advice about how to best treat your condition. While sexual health issues are often seen as embarrassing to talk about, you should not force yourself to just live with it. This is a health concern like any other and a medical professional can help you live a fuller life.

Breast implants change the appearance of your breasts. The procedure gives your breasts a desired beautiful look and you can enjoy the implants for your entire lifetime. However, you might consider explant surgery in the future to remove the implants. It is then a good idea to understand what will happen after removing the implants.

What do I expect after explant surgery?

For most patients, breasts don’t return to their pre-augmentation state after explant surgery. That’s because the implant replacements stretch your skin and the weight of the implants causes a degree of sagging. 

Other factors such as weight gain or pregnancy will also cause variation in your breast size and shape after explant surgery. For instance, if you gain weight since the initial breast augmentation surgery, your breast volume will increase more than before the implant.

Luckily, with an experienced surgeon, you can be sure that you’ll still have natural-looking breasts. After the explant surgery, you need adequate recovery time. Although the time varies, this can last between a few days to a few weeks.

During recovery, avoid lifting heavy stuff or similar strenuous activities. Unfortunately, you might experience some potential aesthetic issues after the surgery. Also, it’s normal to experience soreness, bruising, and sensitivity in the first few weeks post-surgery. Breast procedures such as breast reduction can resolve these problems. (1)

When to consider breast implant removal

Before getting your breast implant removed, it’s essential to consider the reasons for considering the procedure.

Such reasons include:

1. Changing activity levels.

If you have been increasing your cardio workouts, you can consider removing your implants to achieve a lean, toned physique.

2. Keeping up with trends.

You might consider removing or downsizing your implants to match current trends.

3. Physical illness or discomfort.

You can seek breast implant removal if your implants feel painful or problematic. Also, if you experience implant illness, you can seek medical attention to remove the implants.

4. Return to a more natural look.

Sometimes, breast implants make you have an overly round, artificial look. To achieve a natural look, you’ll have to seek implant removal or replace them with ones that suit you.

Is breast lifting necessary after implant removal?

Doctors recommend combining breast implant removal with a breast lift to reshape your breast contours and remove excess skin from the implant-related stretching. The procedure gives your tighter breasts a younger look.

What procedures will improve breast appearance after implant removal?

Usually, your breast appearance will be affected by implant removal. But with the proper techniques, you can reverse the effects. The procedures will restore your breast’s natural look, revive your breast volume and shape, and restore your nipple positioning.

Such procedures include fat transfer. This aims to take fat from other body parts and insert it into your breasts. It will restore the volume and shape of your breasts. (2)

Conclusion

Change is inevitable, and circumstances may force you to change your looks through explant surgery. That is why it’s normal to consider breast removal surgery. Regardless of the reason, you’ll want to know what to expect after your explant surgery.

I believe everyone loves being hugged, and there’s a good reason for that. A good hug can feel warm and soothing. It can make you feel cared for and loved. But did you know that hugging can be therapeutic too? It’s been proven that hugging can contribute to your health and make you feel happier.

In this article, we’ll explain what hug therapy is and what the most common health benefits of hugging are. So, without further ado, let’s jump right in.

What Is Hug Therapy?

Hug therapy involves hugging to help a person effectively respond to and manage different emotional experiences and provide emotional support and comfort to them. Studies have shown that hugging can greatly benefit people that suffer from anxiety, depression, or stress and struggle with loneliness. It’s also worth mentioning that hugging therapy can benefit both adults and children.

The benefits of hugging can be attributed to the power of touch. Touch is one of the ways we interact with other people. For example, we hug our friends and family, shake our colleagues’ hands, and high-five children. 

Every person feels the need and a desire to be hugged or touched regardless of their age. And there’s a good reason for that. Namely, when someone hugs you or cuddles you, this makes you feel good and also strengthens the social and emotional bond you have with that person while decreasing symptoms of anxiety. The reason for this is that when you engage in cuddling, hugging, or any other pleasant touch, your brain releases oxytocin, which is one of the four feel-good hormones and is also known as the “love hormone” or “cuddle hormone.”

6 Health Benefits Of Hugging

1. Hugging May Improve Your Heart Health

In one study, participants were divided into two groups. In the first group, romantic partners had to hold hands for over 10 minutes while watching a romantic video, followed by a 20-second hug. The second group included couples who were asked to rest quietly for 10 minutes and 20 seconds.

After being exposed to a stressful situation, participants in the first group demonstrated lower diastolic and systolic blood pressure compared with the second group (1).

2. Hugging Can Reduce Stress

Give them a hug when a loved one is feeling down or going through a rough time in life. 

Science has shown that giving another person your support by touching them can decrease their stress. Moreover, it can even reduce your stress levels.

In one study, which included twenty romantic couples, men received electric shocks. During the electric shocks, each female participant held her partner’s arm. 

The results of the study showed that there was decreased activity in the parts of each woman’s brain related to stress and more activity in those parts related to rewards of maternal behavior (2). So, when you hug someone to support or comfort them, these parts of your brain may react similarly.

3. Hugging May Help Relieve Pain

One study has found that therapeutic touch can be effective in reducing pain in people with fibromyalgia syndrome. Namely, all of the participants in the study had this condition and received 6 therapeutic touch treatments. The participants reported a considerable decrease in pain and substantial improvement in quality of life (3).

4. Hugging May Help Keep You Healthier

Due to the stress-reducing effects of touch, hugging might also protect you against illness.

One study, which included 404 healthy adults, has found that perceived social support protects against the increase in infection risk, while hugging has stress-buffering effects. Additionally, those participants who got infected but received more frequent hugs and greater support had less severe symptoms compared with those participants who had no support at all or had little support. These results suggest that social support may be effectively conveyed through hugging (4).

5. Hugging Helps Reduce Existential Concerns In People With Low Self-Esteem

One study, which investigated the effect of touch on existential concerns in individuals with low-self esteem, found that a brief touch on the shoulder decreased anxiety symptoms in individuals who had death concerns. It also led to more social connectedness after participants were reminded of death (5).

6. Hugging Helps You Interact With Others

Verbal communication is not the only way we can interact with others. We can interact with one another through touch too.

One study found that a stranger could communicate different emotions to another person by touching various parts of their body. Some of the feelings they could express were happiness, sadness, love, sympathy, gratitude, disgust, anger, and fear (6).

Frequently Asked Questions

How Does Hug Therapy Work To Reduce Anxiety?

As we already said, your brain releases the feel-good hormone oxytocin when you cuddle, hug, or touch someone. This hormone plays an important role in reducing the levels of cortisol – a hormone that helps regulate the response of your body to stress. Oxytocin also helps induce relaxation and has anxiolytic-like effects.

Can Hug Therapy Help Reduce Depression?

One study, which included 20 adolescents with depression, found that hug therapy alone couldn’t reduce depression in the participants (7).

How Long Does A Hug Have To Last To Have Therapeutic Effects?

This question may be a little bit difficult to answer. If you try to find the answer on the internet, what you’ll most likely end up finding is 20 seconds. However, there’s limited research to confirm this.

Since hugging does have a therapeutic effect on our minds and bodies, as it encourages the release of the hormone oxytocin, we may conclude that a hug should last until each person feels the effects of this hormone.

What Happens When You Hug Someone For 20 Seconds?

When you hug a loved one or another person for 20 seconds, your brain releases oxytocin, which is known as the feel-good hormone. 

Oxytocin has been shown to decrease stress and have anxiolytic-like effects. It’s also been shown to have an essential role in social interactions, such as parent-infant bonding.

What Are The 3 Types Of Hugs?

1. The Warm Bear Hug

The warm bear hug is the type of embrace you give your brother or sister. It’s also the type of hug you give your friend when you haven’t seen them for a long period of time.

The warm bear hug makes you feel comforted, cared for, and content, and it’s reserved for those who mean the most to you.

2. Side Hug

This is when two people hug each other by putting their arms around the other person’s shoulder or waist. This is the type of hug you give acquaintances, i.e., people you’re not close to, rather than family or friends.

3. One-Sided Hug

In this type of hug, you’re facing another person, and one of you is giving a hug, and the other person is receiving it. The person receiving the hug usually keeps their arms by their side, while the person giving a hug is hugging them tightly.

The one-sided hug indicates emotional support.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Hugs?

Every person craves physical touch. But, when you don’t get as many hugs as you need or you’re used to, this leads to a condition known as touch starvation.

Touch starvation, also known as skin hunger or touch deprivation, has been a common issue many have been facing over the last two and a half years due to the social distancing caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Touch starvation can have various effects on your body. When you’re deprived of touch, you can become stressed and even develop symptoms of anxiety or depression. When you’re under stress, your body produces the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause your blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate to increase, which, in turn, can negatively affect your digestive and immune systems. All of these things can also affect your sleep quality and lead to an increased risk of infections.

How Can Self-Hugging Therapy Benefit You?

As we already said, hugging provides comfort. When a parent, friend, partner, or relative hugs you, this can help you feel closer to them. Hugging can also make you feel happier and cared for and give you a sense of fulfillment.

Getting a hug from a loved one can make you feel better fast. But what should you do if you’re on your own and need someone to hug you? The answer is pretty easy – hug yourself.

I know self-hugging might sound weird, but it’s a great and easy way to comfort and make yourself feel better. In fact, it’s believed that self-hugging, also known as havening, can benefit you in the following ways:

• It can make you feel secure, safe, comforted, and less alone.
• It can help reduce your pain.
• It can increase feelings of love toward yourself.
• It can boost your mood.