Posts Tagged ‘Health’

Medical Home Health Care vs. Non-medical Home Health Care…if you are reading this, you are likely among the thousands of caregivers needing help caring for a loved one at home.

What is the difference?

One significant difference is who pays the bill… you or insurance?

With a doctors order and insurance that is accepted by the agency and covers home care, these services are generally covered.

Medical home care provides skilled medical services such as:

Registered Nurse
Physical Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Speech Therapy
Home Health Aid
Medical Social Worker

These medical personnel can only come to your home by an order from the doctor. This can be initiated by a trip to the doctor, a call to the doctor and sometimes a call to a home care agency explaining your difficulty. They can then contact the doctor.

Several questions need to be answered at this point to help you decide what you need.

Is the patient recently home from the hospital?
Is the patient falling at home?
Are you confused about what medications to give the patient?
Is there a significant change in functional ability or decline in activity level recently?
Is the patient frequently going to the ER?

Yes to 2 or more of the above questions may indicate a potential need for medical home health care. Discussing your felt need with your doctor will help you understand the issues and the answers.

You may want to learn how your care is likely affected by how your physical therapist or nurse is paid.

Non-medical home care

If you and your doctor have ruled out the need for medical home care but you still feel you need some help, consider non-medical home care.

Non-medical care means just that. Non medical. These services are often referred to as companion services. Your best bet is to Google “home health assistance” or the like.

You can always call a business and ask if they provide non-medical home care assistance. Beware though, most medical home care company’s WILL provide solely a home health aid but at a ridiculous price.

You may find better rates by hiring a company who provides only non-medical home care assistance. This is what they do best and they generally do it well.

Do your homework and use your phone. Ask the agency how long their workers have been there. Don’t be afraid to pay a little more if you feel you are following your gut. You are depending on these people to give you or your loved one the proper care and respect that they need and deserve.

Marcia Oliver MSPT, CPT is passionate, committed and dedicated to helping you get back into a healthier life. Whether you need help with a transition from rehab to home, how to develop healthier lifestyle habits, helping you lose weight or rehabilitating your total joint replacement, Marcia can help with over 26 years of experience so you win. Her 16 years of home health care physical therapy experience and 10 years of personal training have provided answers to many tough situations.

You’ve Got Goals? We’ve Got Answers! Visit our ever growing site!

http://www.home-health-care-physical-therapy.com/

To decide whether non prescription glasses are bad for your health, you first need to consider which definition of “non prescription glasses” you are using. This particular term is used in two different ways. It can mean “fake” or fashion glasses, which do not have corrective lenses; they are similar to normal sunglasses, except they are not shaded. The second definition of “non prescription glasses” means that they are vision-correcting glasses that were acquired without a prescription.

If you are using the first definition, and want to go shopping for fashion glasses that have no corrective properties, then you will be perfectly fine, as they will not damage your eyes at all. After all, people have worn sunglasses for many years without ill effects, and of course sunglasses may also protect your eyes from damaging ultraviolet rays, depending on which ones you buy. The main danger for people who wear non prescription fashion glasses appears when vanity overrides sanity. It is ill-advised to drive at night or in dull conditions wearing dark sunglasses, and although there is no danger to your eyesight from wearing the glasses, you are at increased risk of having an accident due to decreased visibility.

A little care needs to be taken if you are going to wear the corrective type of non prescription glasses. If the wrong strength of lenses is selected, the result can be eyestrain and associated headaches, and over a period of time this can cause damage to the eyes.

If you suffer from presbyopia – a condition involving the deterioration of eyesight due to aging – you will be more likely to benefit from cheaper non prescription reading glasses. However, it is still important to go to a reputable store, such as a pharmacy, where you will be able to try a wide selection of glasses of differing strengths. Once you have found the optimal strength of lenses, you will be able to pick out a pair in a style of your choosing.

For people younger than 40 years old, and particularly in cases where blurred vision develops rapidly, or is accompanied by other symptoms such as headaches, it is vitally important to see an optician or optometrist in the first instance. There are well documented cases where people have developed vision problems, to find that the underlying cause was a more serious health condition. Eye specialists are trained to spot these problems – though in the vast majority of cases, the cause of the vision defect will be normal and benign.

Some of the possible health conditions that have been noted to affect vision include diabetes, where rapidly changing blood sugar levels can affect the quantity of fluid in the eyes, causing swelling which results in distortion of vision. Another, potentially fatal, condition is extreme hypertension which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Such an underlying problem may be spotted by an optometrist because it can lead to swelling of the optic disk. Even brain tumors have been identified by eye specialists during examinations for the cause of blurred or double vision.

So to answer the question whether non prescription glasses are bad for your health, in general they are not. If you are healthy and are positive you do not have any underlying medical conditions, they will be perfectly fine. However, all cases where there is a sudden change in your eyesight should be investigated by an expert to rule out anything more serious than a vision defect. In general, once you have been prescribed your first pair of corrective glasses, usually fairly early in life for shortsightedness, it is recommended that you see an optician for a retest every two years. If you are over 40 years old, though, and your sight has slowly deteriorated over a long period, then non prescription glasses will be fine, though there is no reason to avoid seeing a specialist if you are concerned about any other accompanying symptoms.

There are many benefits to having a non-chlorine pool and options available to help you do so. When saying a non-chlorine pool a salt treatment pool is also included in that since salt is sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is the raw ingredient that is used to make chlorine. There are many health hazards that should be a deciding factor in making your pool a non-chlorine pool. In a health study from Belgium it was determined that children that swim regularly in public pools with chlorine systems had a higher level of breathing and asthma problems then those who did not.

There have been similar studies done on adults that swim frequently in chlorine system pools as well. These studies have shown a rise in the risk of coronary heart disease as well as bladder and rectal cancer. Chlorine is absorbed into the skin, swallowed, and the vapors are inhaled from the air that surrounds the pool. Some smaller well know issues with a chlorinated pool are the drying and damages to the hair and skin and burning of the eyes. All of these health issues can be avoided by using a chlorine free pool.

You will read many pros and cons about a non-chlorine pool. Ultimately, the choice is yours in which system you choose to use. There is a salt system that is said to be a non-chlorine system but since salt’s chemical name is sodium chloride and sodium chloride is the raw ingredient to make chlorine this is just a smoke screen. You will experience the same problems with a salt system that you would incur in a chlorine pool: the red and burning eyes along with the dry and damaged skin and hair. You also have the choice of a mineral cartridge system. This system uses cartridges that kill bacteria as the water passes through them. In order for the water to be continuously cleaned by this system your pump must remain running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Other options for a non-chlorine pool would be the biaguanide chemicals. These chemicals are very expensive but the do provide a higher quality of water that chlorine systems do. This also can be more time consuming since it has to manually added to the pool. Ozone generators are another non-chlorine pool system choice. These generators kill bacteria by using and ultra violet light. These units are very expensive and use a lot of electricity. They are better suited for a spa or small pool because of their operating costs. Ionizers are a good choice for killing the bacteria in your non-chlorine pool, however they do not sanitize and you will have to use other chemicals to do so.

As you can see, there are many choices available when choosing to switch to a non-chlorine pool. However, they all use chemicals or large amounts of electricity that is harmful to the environment. Natural systems such as the one from Ecosmarte Pools are available on the internet for a healthier and more user-friendly choice in a non-chlorine pool environment.