Posts Tagged ‘Epidemic’

The Power Of Colors During Stress Management

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about stress to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from stress experts.

Association of Stress and Colors

Stress has become interwoven note people’s lives that most have accepted it as a natural part of life. Meanwhile, for some others, intrinsic has become rather of an epidemic. There are several reasons why people develop stress and while you cannot control where it is drawing near from, you can always exhibit proper stress management techniques to combat their effects in your life.

Recent research studies have shown the link between personality traits and impact of stress in one’s life. This has prompted researchers to look into what other factors could induce the way people view stress in their life. A just out color system is just one of the results to this ongoing research effort. But how true is it that color can actually impact your ability to cope with stress more effectively?

Color Therapy

The idea of using color as a stress management procedure is indeed new and offers a another interesting approach in battling stress in one’s life. Indeed, the little choices of color that must would refer to as trivial can actually impact your ability to handle or awning with stress.

This is not just a myth as this claim has been well supported with scientific evidence and study. Color therapy though is not yet officially accepted as a legitimate approach to stress management but is still largely accurate as a complementary or alternative approach to healing. One reason for this is that colors affect your five basic senses to deliver a holistic impact to one’s health condition. Therefore, you need to choose the colors you surround yourself with thoroughly to facilitate in enjoying stress relief results.

Calming Effects of Color

Different colors have been known to close an overall calming effect due to its ability to elicit psychological and emotional responses in the body. There are several colors there are but for this purpose, you will learn about the results of basic colors when it comes to your personal stress management efforts:

* Red This color creates a stimulating and exciting effect into your system, which is therefore not recommended if you are looking to achieve effective stress management. However, it is ideal for awakening if you had recently suffered from an emotional slump.

* Blue This color is known to create a calming and soothing effect such that it is ideal for use in stress management. Surround yourself with this color to facilitate in creating a cooling and pacific effect to both mind and body.

* Green This color inspires a restful experience such that it is really effective in overcoming anxiety as you can enjoy more emotional harmony.

* Yellow This color inspires a cheerful and sunny attitude, double that it is recommended for stress relief due to its ability to put you into a positive state.

* Snowy This color symbolizes clarity, and that is a particular quality that you need to have or develop in times of stress.

* Orange This single too, like red, is not ideal for relieving stress and must therefore be avoided. On the other hand, honest helps to provide a burst of energy whenever you are feeling down.

Final Recommendations

Now that you know what the altered meanings of color is, you can now make a better choice about which colors to surround yourself with ( and which colors to avoid ) if you want to enjoy benefits of proper stress management. Whether it be in your choice of clothes, or in the prevailing colors of your surroundings, it is important to know that you can now have subjection over these elements and use them to your advantage.
Now you can understand why there’s a growing interest in stress. When people start looking for more information about stress, you’ll be in a position to meet their needs.

How Serious Is Swine Flu?

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

The United Kingdom has become the latest country to confirm cases of the swine flu. At the same time, the World Health Organization has raised its alert level from 3 to 4. With 150 people already killed in Mexico, the WHO revealed that the influenza virus has the sustainability for human-to-human transmission and can cause community level outbreaks.

One can recall a similar outbreak known as bird flu which was more risky than H1N1 virus. According to Professor Neil Ferguson of the World Health Organization, H1N1 is nothing when compared to other similar outbreaks such as SARS or the 1918 Spanish flu.

According to the professor, the evidence is clear that the United Kingdom is headed for a swine influenza pandemic in the coming months. However, it would be difficult to determine the extent of the epidemic since this is usually the time of the year when flu is prominent in the United Kingdom.

It is likewise almost sure that if the H1N1 outbreak disappears in the coming weeks, there might still be an outbreak of the virus in the autumn. If the situation indeed transforms into an epidemic, then 30% – 40% of the general population might become susceptible to infection. Professor Ferguson believes that any outbreak might become longer since the summer season in the United Kingdom is fast approaching.

On the other hand, Sir Liam Donaldson, who is concurrent Chief Medical Officer for England, believes that this new strain of H1N1 virus is something which people has natural immunity and has not received any vaccination yet. For this reason, one becomes susceptible to infection and spread to other people.
However, there is no sufficient information about the virus yet and H1N1 is still a subject of studies by major laboratories in the world. Once there is sufficient information about the virus, only then can it be possible to make improved predictions about individuals who are at higher risk and likely to have serious complications.

At present, the situation in Mexico is creating confusion and it is hard to make a firm a conclusion about what is likely to happen. In any case, there is a need to be ready for any untoward incidents that may happen.

Professor John Oxford, meanwhile, believes that the H1N1 outbreak is not as alarming as the H5N1 bird flu virus. He believes that the country can provide the basic H1N1 immunity for the population. The outbreaks outside of Mexico have not resulted to deaths which is an indication that the virus is not that aggressive.

Aside from that, the summer months is fast approaching so it is less probable for the H1N1 virus to cause an outbreak as well. In any case, the United Kingdom has enough antiviral medicines to treat half of the population.

With this in mind, there is no cause for worry about the H1N1 virus, as it appears that it would cause an outbreak that would be felt all over the world and increase mortality rates.

The outbreak of H1N1 began in Mexico City and as of today has resulted to the death of 42 people and more than 800 confirmed cases of swine flu infection. Although it has now spread in 22 countries, it is believed that this new virus outbreak would not be result to a pandemic and is milder than similar virus infections.

The Latest Killer Flu: Swine Flu And You

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The Center for Disease Control has probably had some very wild times this past decade. First SARS, then the bird fle, and now today’s potential epidemic is the swine flu. First manifesting itself in Mexico this past April, this new and terrible strain of Type A H1N1 influenza is one of those things that every microbiologist and health care professional is afraid of.

The reason for that fear is pretty simple. Like the bird flu, this particular strain crossed species. Specifically, it crossed over from the swine population, a species that has an in-built resistance to it, to the human population, a population that does not. If this spreads and becomes a full blown epidemic, the swine flu may reach the heights of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed fifty to a hundred million people worldwide and devastated the post-World War I generation.

The CDC has stepped up its alert levels and some governments have instituted quarantine procedures, but still more and more cases are emerging across the world. Mexico City has most of the fatalities though, with most other cases outside of city being less severe in symptoms. However, this is just a month into the outbreak and anything can still happen. With the continuing spread of the disease, let’s talk about how this affects you.

Let’s be honest here, after all that I’ve just said, there’s actually no real reason to panic. Actually, we shouldn’t panic. That’s because panic just confuses people and to deal effectively with something of this magnitude, being confused is not the state of mind you want to be in. What you really need to be is to be aware and knowledgeable about what you’re dealing with. This and quick ddecisive action is what got the world through SARS and the bird flu, and it most likely will help us make sure that the swine flu isn’t the one that kills us all.

The swine flu is pretty much like your normal human flu. It has all the same infection vectors, all the same symptoms, and all the same treatments. It’s all just heightened by a factor of two, mostly because humans haven’t any natural resistance to the disease. If you want to avoid getting infected do all the same things that you’d do to avoid getting the flu: wash your hands regularly, take your vitamins, and avoid sick people.

If you somehow get sick, it’s not the time to run around like a headless chicken. You immediately isolate yourself so you won’t infect others and observe your symptoms, all of the while taking your regular flu medicine. Note that even if it is called swine flu, it’s still a virus and antiviral drugs are pretty effective in putting a dent in the symptoms you may experience and help your immune system kick the infection out.

It your symptoms persist despite your efforts, you better start calling for a doctor. Don’t worry if it really is the swine flu – the CDC has recommended the use of antiviral inhibitors that help stop the reproduction of the disease and the sickness is definitely treatable.

Let’s all just remember that the swine flu maybe deadly, but it’s still just a disease. And the only things you need to have to beat a disease is being smart and being careful. With all the noise that the media brings up about it, that fact may get lost in the shuffle. Remember it and it may just save your life.