Lead a Fit and Healthy Life
Archive for June 7, 2011
New Cancer Patients Struggle to Land Appointments With Oncologists
011 months ago
New Cancer Patients Struggle to Land Appointments With Oncologists
How sad is this? You hear you have cancer and you can’t even talk to an ‘expert’. Not sure if this is more of a rural issue but I can only imagine how scary and heartbreaking this is for those families.
For Kate-Madonna Hindes, the only thing more terrifying than having to see an oncologist was the nightmare of landing an appointment. In the two weeks after a routine pap smear showed signs of cervical cancer, Hindes, who is 29 and has already survived cervical cancer once, called nine different cancer centers and specialists. And most of the time, she couldn’t even get a live person on the phone.
“I’ve just heard I might have cancer again, and now it’s in my hands to get hold of somebody,” Hindes said, explaining the frustration of leaving messages, then waiting for a reply. “It’s extremely stressful.”
Eventually, two of the nine centers agreed to bring Hindes in for an initial visit — a dismal 22 percent success rate. And her struggle is typical. According to a study presented Saturday at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, only 22 percent of newly diagnosed cancer patients with private insurance land a first appointment with an oncologist. That number dropped to 17 percent for patients on Medicaid.
Managing Stress
011 months ago
Our body’s old response to modern stress can be dangerous
I have had lots of discussions about this with my doctor over the years. Our bodies are not designed to handle stress the way we have to deal with it in modern day. Consistent and pervasive stress can cause serious issues – physical and mental. Learning how to manage or alleviate stress is really good for overall health — and guess what? EXERCISE helps with that. (You knew I would go there…)
The chemical reaction to stress in the brain is for short-term danger. Frequent stress weakens the system and causes problems.
It’s thought that when the stress system turns on and off, on and off, on and off repeatedly, controls eventually break down, says Nim Tottenham, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA. “You start to get a deregulation of the system.” At first, this tends to make people super reactive to any stressful incident, but sometimes, after too long, their systems may become so overwhelmed that they don’t even respond adequately anymore.
Strength Day WOD
011 months ago
I woke up with a sore throat but I am hoping to keep it at bay so it doesn’t get any worse. Ttoday was a Coach Jerry day, so I had to make it. I have been having some restless sleeping nights lately. Not sure if its because of what I have been eating lately or stress. Either way, it sucks.
One of the girls at CrossFit started Paleo 2 weeks ago and you can already see a huge difference. She has lost 9lbs and said she no longer has heartburn, something she has dealt with for a long time. What better proof does one need than actual real people trying a new approach to eating. She says she feels great too.
Warmup
800m run
5 push ups
10 Pass Thrus
5 push ups
10 good mornings
5 Push ups
10 trunk rotations
5 Push ups
10 arm/hand mobility
Skill
Air squats
WOD
Front Squat 5-5-5-5-5
Five sets of five reps of front squat.
Total: 75 lbs, 95 lbs, 115 lbs, 125 lbs, and 135 lbs
The last set should be done to failure –meaning you can’t lift it for the full 5. I under estimated so while 135 was heavy, it was not failure so I should have gone 5-10lbs heavier. Before I left, I did some general stretching and a few hand stands. I just love handstands!
