Skip to content

Archive for January, 2012

Jan 31

Physical Therapy Ranks as ‘Best Job’—Is It for You?

We happily took note when CNNMoney.com recently ranked physical therapy number seven in the top 30 best jobs in America. The survey looked for jobs with excellent pay, job security, manageable stress, helping society and increasing demand.

This isn’t news to us—we’re tireless cheerleaders for this helping profession in the booming healthcare field. Every day, we place physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapy assistants (PTAs) in positions that make a real difference in the lives of people, pay well and offer stellar benefits.

Experts predict that the physical therapy industry will boom in the next 10 years. So why is physical therapy such a hot field? First, let’s look at the populations served by PTs. Baby boomers are getting older and by 2025, the number of people worldwide over 60 is projected to double to almost two billion. The majority of those folks will live in developed countries, like the U.S.

Read more

Leave a comment

Jan 26

Heart disease and women

Heart disease is often thought of as a man’s disease and indeed, it affects millions of men in the United States. But coronary heart disease(CHD) is actually the number-one killer of men AND women in this country—both men and women have heart attacks, but more women who have heart attacks die from them. In fact, one in four women die from heart disease.

Two other types of heart disease primarily affect women, coronary microvascular disease (MVD) and “broken heart syndrome.” These two disorders are not as well understood as CHD, although researchers are learning more with new studies.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at these three types of heart disease, as well as symptoms of a heart attack for women and outlook.

Read more

Leave a comment

Jan 26

Resources that can help you pay for home health care

Caregiving for a loved one is an expensive proposition, but there are hundreds of federal, state and local government programs designed to lend a hand, and sometimes a big one.
You’ll need a computer to do this research—head to your local public library if you don’t have one at home. Start your investigation with these two sites:
www.Benefitscheckup.org – This free site is a service of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), designed to help adults over 55 who need help paying for prescription drugs, health care, utilities and other basic needs. There are over 2,000 federal, state and private benefits programs available to help. But many people don’t know these programs exist or how they can apply.
www.Benefits.gov – In this one site, users can access information on nearly 1,000 government benefit and assistance programs. You’ll need lots of info to get started: your parent’s disability status, income, property owned, veteran status and education level. Use that to fill out the online form and afterwards, you’ll have lists of government programs, supplements and/or services.
Here is a guide to some heavy-hitting programs, agencies and people you should know about.

Read more

Leave a comment

Jan 20

January is Glaucoma Awareness Month

Glaucoma is a “sneak thief of sight” because it is a disease that presents few or no symptoms and once sight is gone, it’s permanent. Shockingly, a person can lose up to 40 percent of his or her vision before noticing, so it’s imperative to screen for this leading cause of preventable blindness.
This month is a prime time to spread the word because January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, which affects more than 2.2 million Americans. It is estimated that about half of those people don’t know they have glaucoma. While the most common forms of this disease affect those in middle age or older, it can hit at any age. Also, it is six to eight times more common in African Americans than Caucasians and is a leading cause of blindness in African American and Latino populations.
The key message of National Glaucoma Awareness Month is for everyone to get annual eye exams to screen for this disease and protect vision.

Read more

Leave a comment

Jan 18

Making the most of your mammogram

Mammograms save lives. But do you know how they work, what they’re looking for, when to get one and how to make the most of your exam? We’ve rounded up all that information for you below, so read on to learn more.

Basically, a mammogram is a low-energy x-ray of breast tissue, with the goal of identifying any early signs of cancer, like characteristic masses and microcalcifications. It both screens for cancer and is used to diagnose it. One of the reasons mammograms are important is because the x-ray can detect cancer at a very early stage—much sooner than it can be felt as a lump in the breast.

This brings us to the use of mammograms as a screening tool—they are the modality of choice along with self breast examination. Breast tissue changes can be detected up to two years before a woman or her doctor can physically feel them in the tissue. Early detection and treatment generally offer greater chances of full remission.

The other use of mammograms is as a diagnostic tool. This usually occurs when a woman or her medical care provider have found a lump or lumps and want them evaluated. Mammograms are also used to follow-up from an abnormal screening mammogram—something in the first one needed further investigation by a radiologist, who reads the results of the x-rays.

 Read more

Leave a comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.