Published on: 15 May 2021
Last Updated on: 02 January 2025
Many leading experts and doctors point out that calcium is one of the most required minerals. Being an essential mineral, scientists and doctors have from time to time have stated how calcium should be consumed. The benefits of calcium are attached to the development of strong and healthy bones and connective tissues.
In addition, calcium is known to help your blood clot, which’s important when you cut yourself. It is worth noting that 99% of the calcium in your body is in your bones and teeth. You may wonder why we need calcium if our bones and teeth are already formed.
The truth is that you lose calcium daily through sweating and other bodily excretions. It cannot be produced by the human body so must be replaced.
Levels of Calcium:
The amount of calcium you need daily changes with age. It actually increases as you get older and helps to keep your body strong and healthy. You can get calcium from the foods you eat. But, you may be surprised at how many people are still in a calcium deficit.
Calcium In Water:
Calcium levels are not the same in all types of water. Hard water generally has significantly higher levels of calcium than soft water. This is because hard water is water that has traveled through rocks and picked up minerals on the way. Soft water doesn’t have the same mineral content.
The interesting thing is that studies into people drinking hard water indicate that this has an array of health benefits. The calcium in this water helps to keep your bones and teeth strong. Other minerals in the water are also beneficial for your health, making hard water a good choice of drinking water.
Of course, calcium is not the only mineral picked up. The water also goes through a treatment plant that removes debris and bacteria by adding other chemicals. This means that, alongside the minerals that are beneficial to you, there will be chemicals that may not be beneficial.
The truth is that research is still ongoing but the chlorine and fluoride added to the water may cause additional health issues. For this reason, many people choose to use water filters and remove all the contaminants, effectively getting pure water.
But, Calcium Water Is Beneficial!
Removing the chemicals also removes the beneficial minerals, including calcium. The good news is that water filters are significantly more advanced than they used to be. They can now remove all the extras in your water and then add specific minerals back in.
This allows you to get the benefits of hard water and calcium in the water, without the potential risks associated with chlorine and fluoride
Of course, if you prefer to drink pure water you can remove all minerals and rely on a supplement to get your calcium. However, if you have hard water it’s a good idea to make the most of it, filter out the chemicals, and enjoy the benefits to your health.
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With the regular electrical activity of the human brain, electrical impulses are coordinately discharged to the nerves, muscles, and the spinal cord. However, seizure disorders may arise when the brain's electrical activity is disrupted.
The most common picture of someone having a seizure is losing consciousness and uncontrollable shaking. Seeing someone with these symptoms could be terrifying, but by knowing more about these conditions, you can recognize, respond, and even provide help and support to the affected individuals.
Understanding Seizures and Seizure Disorders
There are two major types of seizures: epileptic and non-epileptic. Epileptic seizures are unprovoked seizures that happen without a trigger. It’s also commonly called epilepsy.
Factors that may have caused epilepsy include stroke, tumors, and structural abnormalities, among other brain disorders. The condition is called “symptomatic epilepsy.” This condition commonly affects newborn and old individuals.
To manage this condition, a healthcare professional may first prescribe you low-dosage medications like Klonopin. Your doctor may adjust the dosage until your seizures are well controlled. To save on this medication, check out Klonopin Discount Coupon you may use in many pharmacies across the county.
Conversely, non-epileptic seizures are provoked by temporary conditions that irritate the brain. The triggers could vary from a head injury, a reaction to a drug, or an allergy.
Individuals already diagnosed with a seizure disorder are more likely to get seizures if they are sleep-deprived, intoxicated, under excess emotional or physical stress, or if they have suddenly stopped drinking or using sedatives.
Recognizing the Signs of a Seizure
A person about to have a seizure will feel what they call an “aura” or unusual sensations. The symptoms may include butterflies in the stomach, abnormal smells and tastes, déjà vu, jamais vu, and an intense feeling that a seizure is about to happen.
Phases of a Seizure
A seizure has three phases: aura and prodrome (beginning), ictal (middle), and postictal (end). The beginning phase includes the prodrome stage beside the aura. In this phase, an individual about to get a seizure will experience anxiety, mood changes, difficulty sleeping, lightheadedness, and difficulty staying focused.
In the middle phase, also called “ictal,” common signs include memory lapse, confusion, twitching, loss of muscle control, body convulsions, trouble breathing, repeated movements, and racing heart, among other signs.
In the last phase, or “postictal,” the epileptic person would experience fatigue, headache, confusion, lack of consciousness, shame, sore muscles, and thirst, among other experiences.
Responding to Seizures: Dos and Don’ts
It is safe to offer help if you have mastered the guide on responding to the situation and know what to avoid when offering support. Equip yourself with knowledge by reading this guide:
Dos
To help someone with a seizure, here are safe things you can do:
Compose yourself
Set a cushion to support their head
Check if they have an epilepsy card or any identification that can help you with your next steps
Remove any obstructions in the area that can injure them
Lay them on their side
Loosen their collar and other tight clothing
Record how long the convulsions lasted
Place them in a recovery position when the convulsions stopped
Don’ts
These are the things you shouldn't do when helping an epileptic individual:
Do not put anything between their teeth during convulsions
Do not hold down the person
Do not feed them or give them a beverage
Do not leave them
Providing First Aid During a Seizure
You must ensure a safe environment and remove any potential hazards when providing first aid. For instance, if the person is in the middle of the road, you should move them, but if they are in an enclosed space, don’t try to carry them and transfer them to a bed. Just clear the space by removing the furniture away from the person.
As you ease the person to the floor, you can slowly turn them into one side to help them breathe. If the person is wearing glasses, remove them from their face. You should also time the seizure and call an emergency team if it persists after five minutes. A first aid & CPR course teaches an individual how to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies, providing immediate assistance until professional help arrives.
It’s also important to observe them while having seizures so you can give the medical team more information on what happened.
Seeking Medical Attention and Diagnosis
To detect the cause of seizures and diagnose epilepsy, one must undergo evaluations like a neurological exam, blood tests, and genetic testing. To know more about these tests, read the information below:
● Neurological Exam
This evaluation covers testing a person’s motor abilities, behavior, and mental functions, among other areas. This could help your doctor determine what type of epilepsy you may have and diagnose your condition.
● Blood Tests
With blood tests, your doctor can detect if you have infections or genetic conditions that may have caused the seizures.
● Generic Testing
Generic Testing is commonly administered to children to give more information about the condition so doctors can come up with ways to treat it.
Conclusion
Some epileptic individuals feel embarrassed about their conditions, as some still think that epilepsy is contagious or something that makes a person less capable of doing things and thinking on their own. Through this blog, we hope many would promote epilepsy and seizure disorder awareness, debunk misconceptions about this condition, and willingly offer help to individuals with epilepsy.
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We live in a time when our health and the environment are subjects of intense focus. In a world grappling with the complexities of climate change and wellness, how do we strike the balance between taking care of ourselves and the Earth?
One surprisingly simple but effective way is by choosing the right plants for our gardens. Could the secret to a balanced life be right in our own backyards? In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore why native plants are not just a trendy gardening choice but an essential element for fostering personal and ecological well-being.
The Symbiotic Relationship between Native Plants and Local Ecosystems
Native plants have evolved over thousands of years in specific areas, forming complex relationships with local wildlife and insects. Unlike non-native species that are often cultivated for their aesthetic appeal alone, native plants play a crucial role in local ecosystems.
Ecological Benefits of Native Plants
Water Conservation: Native plants are naturally adapted to local rainfall patterns and soil types, requiring less irrigation.
Soil Health: These plants often have deep root systems that hold the soil together, reducing erosion and improving soil structure.
Supporting Local Biodiversity: Native plants provide essential habitats and food sources for local wildlife, including pollinators like bees and butterflies, birds, and other small mammals.
By introducing native plants into your garden, you're actively participating in ecological conservation from the comfort of your home.
The Psychological and Physical Health Benefits of Native Plants
Gardening is therapeutic, but its benefits can be further amplified when incorporating native plants.
Aesthetically Pleasing Environments
Native plants, with their varied forms, colors, and textures, can create a pleasing visual tapestry throughout the year, enhancing psychological well-being.
Encouragement for Outdoor Activity
The appeal and ease of maintenance of a native garden often entices people to spend more time outdoors, encouraging physical activities such as walking and gardening, which are known to improve mental and physical health.
Why Many People Overlook Native Plants
Despite their myriad benefits, native plants are often overlooked for more ornamental, non-native species.
Common Misconceptions
Limited Variety: Many people think native plants offer less variety, which is not true.
Aesthetic Limitations: The misconception that native plants are less attractive than exotic species also discourages people from incorporating them into their gardens.
A Paradigm Shift: How Organizations Are Making a Difference
There are several organizations dedicated to the cause of promoting native plants. One such organization is Garden for Wildlife, which provides extensive resources for homeowners looking to make a difference through informed gardening choices. From articles to plant databases, Garden for Wildlife helps you make knowledgeable decisions on incorporating native plants into your personal spaces.
How to Get Started with Native Plants
Creating a garden of native plants isn't difficult; it just requires some planning and know-how.
Identify Native Plants for Your Area: Research which plants are native to your location. Garden for Wildlife has some great resources for this, including their ZIP code native plant finder.
Planning: Map out your garden, considering the sun and shade patterns.
Planting: Get the plants and plant them according to the specific needs of each species.
Maintenance: Follow appropriate watering, pruning, and care guidelines.
Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Switching to a native plant garden comes with its own challenges, but these can be managed with the right approach.
Knowledge Gap: It can be daunting to start from scratch. Overcome this by researching through credible sources.
Adapting to New Maintenance Practices: Native plants may require different care practices compared to the plants you're accustomed to.
Why Native Plants Are a Game-Changer
As we navigate the complex terrains of health and ecology, it's heartening to know something as simple as choosing the right plants for our gardens can make a difference. By opting for native plants, we are not just making a conscious choice for our well-being but are also contributing to a larger ecological balance. Garden for Wildlife is here to guide you through this rewarding journey. Let's take a step toward a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle today.
Ready to embark on a transformative gardening journey that benefits you and the environment? By following the insights and guidelines in this article, you're not just planting a garden; you're sowing the seeds for a healthier, more sustainable future.
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Any Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner (AGNP), or individual considering moving into this booming area, will probably be aware that it involves more than supporting patients through short term illnesses or meeting their needs in a hospital or nursing home.
As a rule, the older a patient gets, the more likely they are to experience chronic health complications which interfere with their day-to-day tasks. For much of history, such patients were written off, encouraged to take to their beds and be supported entirely by others, doing very little. They often didn’t live very long. But all that changed on account of one remarkable nurse, Dorothea Orem, whose legacy continues to shape the nursing profession today. This article examines her groundbreaking self-care deficit theory and looks at how AGNPs might use it for their nursing career.
Dorothea Orem
Dorothea Orem was born in Baltimore in 1914 and studied nursing in the late 1930s. This was a time when nursing schools were still a new phenomenon and there was a lot of experimental thinking in the nascent profession. Though she spent time on the wards as a staff nurse, she also worked as an administrator and consultant over the course of her career, spending her later years focusing on theory.
A naturally focused and attentive person, she soon began recording observations about the patients she worked with, leading to her self-care deficit theory of nursing, for which she strongly advocated for her entire life. It was theory which, in its early years, transformed the way nurses thought about patients and their duties. It laid the foundations for nursing today.
Universal Self-Care Requisites
Orem’s theory recognizes eight universal self-care requisites, or SCRs. Here, universal refers to things every human needs, regardless of circumstance. Air is needed for respiration. Water is needed to maintain a healthy level of hydration. Food is needed to maintain healthy energy levels and prevent starvation. Elimination or toileting, a polite way of referring to the expulsion of urine and feces from the body, is required too.
In addition to these four things, Orem posits that every patient needs a balance of physical activity and rest. Everyone needs social interaction, but also some alone time. People need to manage their lives to avoid or remove hazards, and, finally, they need to promote normality. This means that they need to achieve and maintain a way of living and relating to the world which is normal for them as individuals and does not involve psychosis.
Health Deviation Self-Care Requisites
When patients are recovering from injury or illness, or living with a chronic illness or disability, they can be described as experiencing a health deviation. This is not pejorative – it simply establishes that they differ from the norm. Health deviations are more common in older demographics, as they have additional self-care requisites.
These requisites include following doctors’ instructions (taking medicine on time), identifying problems caused by their conditions and attending to them effectively (sitting down until a dizzy spell passes), and knowing when and how to seek help from a caregiver or healthcare professional.
It is also important that these patients can understand and accept that their bodies have changed and can adjust psychologically to cope with it.
What Is A Self-Care Deficit?
A self-care deficit occurs when people are no longer able to carry out basic tasks. This can be because a disability makes them physically impossible to perform, or a number of other reasons. For example, some people get so overwhelmed by the way their bodies have changed that they stop trying to live. This doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve sympathy – it is an understandable response to an extreme situation – but it might mean that there is potential for improvement.
For some people, self-care deficits are permanent or are likely to worsen due to progressive illnesses. For others, however, they can be temporary, even in extreme old age. Self-care deficits stemming from a broken arm, for example, will normally dissipate after the arm heals, but this is less likely if the patient has learned to feel helpless in the meantime.
Assessment, Diagnosis, And Implementation
When using Orem’s theory, nurses have three steps to work through. The first is undertaken during the initial assessment of a new patient and involves identifying any self-care deficits. These are not always obvious from looking at a patient and the process may require gentle but persistent questioning. Some people may be embarrassed and hesitant to talk if they are unable to care for themselves.
The second involves full diagnosis of the deficits, including establishing causes. The third step is to draw up a treatment plan based on these diagnoses. In her work, Orem stressed the importance of recognizing that every patient is a unique individual, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this type of planning. In each case, AGNPs will need to work with the patient to establish the most effective way forward.
Five Ways Nurses Can Help
There are five strategies nurses can use to address self-care deficits when establishing patient care plans:
For the most severely incapacitated patients, it may be necessary to perform actions on their behalf, such as washing or dressing them.
Patients struggling mentally or who lack confidence can be guided through actions, ideally to the point of independence.
Patients can be taught new ways of approaching day to day tasks which make them easier to accomplish, such as taking a break to have a shower in the afternoon if it is too hard to find the energy at other times.
AGNPs can focus on the patient’s environment, making it easier for them to carry out self-care activities, such as suggesting kitchen gadgets to reduce the physical effort involved in preparing meals.
Finally, AGNPs can train a family caregiver to provide appropriate support.
These five strategies involve numerous actions, skills, and tools that nurses can use. Patients may need particular assistance with the following tasks.
Helping With Eating
Patients should always be encouraged to do as much for themselves as is reasonably possible. When it comes to eating, nurses should start with encouragement. Many older people lose their appetite and don’t feel motivated to eat, especially when it requires effort. So, an AGNP can point out that they have more energy when they manage to eat regular meals.
If the patient can get food to their mouth by themselves, nurses should resist the temptation to assist, even if they sometimes drop the food. Instead, nurses can reassure them that this is not uncommon and all they need to do is take a little more time. Nurses should also be alert to the possibility of choking issues and arrange X-rays if concerned. If some food proves difficult to eat, they can discuss the possibility of dietary adjustments.
Helping With Toileting
Nurses should reassure patients that, awkward as they may feel, there is nothing to be embarrassed about. The nurse must ensure they can transfer on and off the toilet safely and consider options like raising the height of the seat or installing grab. If there is a risk of falling, AGNPs may suggest bedpans for use when no caregiver is present. If adult diapers are needed, nurses should ensure that patients know how and when to change them (even if they are not soiled) and how to protect their skin against rashes or bruises caused by wearing them. Finally, nurses can also discuss medical options for softening stools or speeding up or slowing down digestive transit.
Helping With Dressing And Grooming
A balance must be struck between helping patients be more independent in dressing and grooming themselves and enabling them to maintain a style or standard of appearance that is natural for them. Some older men prefer to be clean shaven but end up growing beards because it is easier to trim a beard than it is to shave safely and neatly, for example. Some clothing options can be easier to get into than others, depending on a patient’s particular mobility difficulties. Simple devices such as a stick with a hook on the end can make adjusting the back of a garment or doing up a zip much easier. Nurses should pay particular attention to footwear to make sure patients can stand or walk safely.
Reducing Hazards
Whether a nurse is helping a patient to move around and complete self-care tasks in a hospital ward, a care home, or their own home, they must always pay attention to hazard prevention. Hazards can include mess, a layout created without regard for disability, or other people or pets moving around. Nurses can start by ensuring that the patient is aware of the risks and can recognize dangerous situations.
They should discuss simple measures like installing handrails or changing routines to make it easier to keep the area tidy. Nurses can also ensure that the patient can summon help if something goes wrong, by persuading them to install an alarm system or carry a charged mobile phone at all times, for example.
Care With Communication
Often, older patients who have self-care deficits also have difficulty with communication, whether due to physical or cognitive disability. Depending on their lifestyle in recent years, they may also be unfamiliar with modern technologies, but shy about admitting this. It is important for nurses to make sure that when they are addressing issues around essential needs, the patient understand them properly and vice versa.
It can be helpful to use pictures in communication, which are often available in support materials. When meeting a patient in the place they are going to be living, the nurse and patient can explore it together (in stages, if necessary) so both parties can directly identify issues.
Seeing Each Patient As An Individual
An essential tenet of Orem’s theory is that patients must be treated as individuals. This increases the chance that they will stick to treatment plans, as well as directly improving their psychological wellbeing.
Any nurse that’s interested in Orem’s theory and is considering joining this field will be looking into gerontology nurse practitioner programs online. The best courses place a lot of emphasis on adaptability and on learning how to manage different types of patients in different environments. The program at the University of Indianapolis, for example, encourages students to develop the patience and listening skills essential to getting to know patients and making them a part of the process. This communication and relationship building is essential to developing plans which will really benefit patients over the long term. The course at the University of Indianapolis is an eight-semester program designed for working nurses, involving part-time study and an intensive clinical placement.
The Nursing Profession Continues To Benefit
Thanks to Orem and her self-care deficit theory, patients are no longer left to waste away as they begin to struggle with old age. Generations of nurses who have practiced this theory have observed that, even in later life, patients can often improve and regain their self- care abilities with the right support. Advances in assistive technologies continue to make this even easier.
The right support, focused on facilitating and encouraging independence, enables seniors to go on living satisfying lives on their own terms for much longer. Even when they need extensive practical support, giving them more control helps to maintain their morale and ability to navigate the final chapter of their lives. In the process of providing this support, AGNPs also get what they really want; to see their patients thrive, no matter what they must overcome to achieve it.
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Calcium levels are not the same in all types of water. Hard water generally has significantly higher levels of calcium than soft water. This is because hard water is water that has traveled through rocks and picked up minerals on the way. Soft water doesn’t have the same mineral content.
The interesting thing is that studies into people drinking hard water indicate that this has an array of health benefits. The calcium in this water helps to keep your bones and teeth strong. Other minerals in the water are also beneficial for your health, making hard water a good choice of drinking water.
Of course, calcium is not the only mineral picked up. The water also goes through a treatment plant that removes debris and bacteria by adding other chemicals. This means that, alongside the minerals that are beneficial to you, there will be chemicals that may not be beneficial.
The truth is that research is still ongoing but the chlorine and fluoride added to the water may cause additional health issues. For this reason, many people choose to use water filters and remove all the contaminants, effectively getting pure water.
