Here are three easy New Year’s Resolutions for 2012.  They work for all age groups

1.  Give yourself permission to relax
We all enjoy our lives more if we aren’t exhausted. Moments Count! Take a moment to  enjoy a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate or some other healthy drink. Sip slowly, Savor the Moment! Extra moments can be spent by putting up your feet for a while. Enjoy your favorite magazine article or book.

Indulge Yourself

2. Indulge Yourself
So you’re craving a cookie or chocolate? Indulge your craving and have A “really good cookie” or one piece of quality chocolate. Just don’t eat the whole box.
Studies have shown that severely depriving yourself of indulgences (like chocolate or french fries) will almost always lead to binge eating down the road. So allow yourself some treats in moderation, and even it out with a smart food choice, like a piece of fruit. You’ll be happier and most likely, it will lead to smarter diet choices.

3. Catch Up on Sleep
Allow yourself to sleep in…or go to bed early… or take an extended nap.
Lack of sleep has been linked to anything from disease to, moodiness, and childhood obesity. Resolve to squeeze in a few more hours of sleep a week ­ your body will thank you!

Every moment we have in life is precious. None of us know just how many moments we have left on the planet.
So cherish the ones that you have!

Click here to read 7 more easy New Year’s Resolutions

Source:  http://life.familyeducation.com
Click here to read some New year’s Resolutions for Seniors

Tips on dealing with menopause with the extra added holiday stress.

If you’ve stepped outside at all since mid-October, you’re well aware that it’s coming. The holiday season—the tornado of wish lists, baking, family reunions, and house cleaning, with a 90% chance of stressor thunderstorms. You may find yourself building a mental bomb shelter to avoid the incoming ribbon, tempting cuisine, and raucous of silver bells. If you’re experiencing menopause concurrently with the holidays, highs could be in the low 100s, and emotional lows could come in high frequency.You can now safely emerge from your bomb shelter, keeping these tips for survival close at hand. Above all, remember to BREATHE.

Reaching out is IN

Holidays bring families and friends together. Tensions rise with pressures to clean the house, make meals, and buy gifts. This year, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Any little thing a family member can contribute helps, whether it’s decorating cookies or curling ribbon. Furthermore, take this family reunion as an opportunity to talk with your mother or daughter about your experience with PM&M. Busting open the conversation about menopause is a way to learn from your mother and prepare your daughter. Reaching out is IN. Suffering in silence is OUT.

Exercise

Take notes with reminders to relax

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Generic Lipitor – known as Atorvastatin
Lipitor, the top-selling drug of all time, has made Pfizer more than $81 billion in sales since launching in 1997, according to IMS Health. At its peak, more than 11 million Americans took it, says Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions, another health-care data firm. Yet once the drug’s patent runs out Nov. 30, most patients are expected to switch to less expensive generic versions.

Off-patent Lipitor should give Pfizer $3.8 billion in world-wide sales next year, estimates Credit Suisse analyst Catherine Arnold. That’s a far cry from the $13 billion that the drug made at its peak. Yet it would still be one of the company’s top five selling products.

During the 180 days, Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages the benefits for 60 million Americans, will send brand-name Lipitor at generic prices to the million-plus customers in its mail-order program. Another pharmacy benefit manager, Catalyst Rx, has told pharmacists that brand-name Lipitor will function as the generic during the six months, with a generic’s $10 co-pay and a price that could end up being $12.50 less than a generic would cost.

“We could expect not to have as extreme an attrition of the brand,” said David Simmons, who runs Pfizer’s established products business. “We’re still going to have a cliff, but we’re going to” still get significant revenue from Lipitor.

Lipitor goes generic

To stem the exodus, Pfizer has partnered with Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy in Flint, Mich., to mail Lipitor to patients who order the pills directly through the pharmacy. Diplomat would bill the patients’ health plans. Those that have contracted with Pfizer would pay about a generic price for Lipitor, while plans that didn’t would pay a higher price.

Source:  wsj.com

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(CBS News)

Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, will lose its patent protection on Wednesday.

That’s a big change for Pfizer, the company that made $11 billion on the the cholesterol-fighting drug last year – and for the 19 million people worldwide that take statin drugs.

But should people make the switch to the less expensive generic versions that are sure to hit the market or stay with the prescription brand Lipitor?

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist, said on “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” said she’s been talking with her patients about making the switch to generic Lipitor – known as atorvastatin – for a month.

She explained, “These are really hard times economically for people, and they can’t afford their medication. Lipitor has been a very powerful drug in terms of lowering cholesterol and lowering risk for heart disease. Now patients can have it at a cheaper price and also reduce their risk for heart disease.”

The drug will have the same active ingredient, but will have filler ingredients different from the brand Lipitor, Goldberg said.

She explained, “It will have the same cholesterol lowering capacity. What will be different are the fillers. So instead of being oblong and white, the pill could be round or yellow, pink or green. … It’s just about the look of the drug, that’s why it’s important for people to carry a list of their medications. You can’t go by the color and say to your doctor, ‘I’m on the pink pill.’”

However, Goldberg advised patients still confer with their doctor before making the switch.

“I think it’s very important for patients to ask their doctors about which statin is right for them,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON-AFP) – The first shoes with built-in GPS devices — to help track down dementia-suffering seniors who wander off and get lost — are set to hit the US market this month, the manufacturer says.

GTX Corp said the first batch of 3,000 pairs of shoes has been shipped to the footwear firm Aetrex Worldwide, two years after plans were announced to develop the product.

The shoes will sell at around $300 a pair and buyers will be able to set up a monitoring service to locate “wandering” seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services who was an adviser on the project, said the shoes are likely to save lives and avoid embarrassing and costly incidents with the elderly.

“It’s especially important for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s who are at the highest risk,” Carle told AFP.

“They might be living in their home but they’re confused. They go for a walk and they can get lost for days.”

Carle said studies indicate more than five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, a number expected to quadruple in the coming years. He said 60 percent of sufferers will wander and become lost and up to half of those lost who are not found within 24 hours may die, from dehydration, exposure or injury.

Other devices such as bracelets or pendants can provide similar protection but seniors often reject these.

“The primary reason is that paranoia is a manifestation of the disease,” Carle said. “If you put something on someone with Alzeheimer’s that they don’t recognize, they remove it. If it’s a wristwatch and it’s not their wristwatch, they will take it off. So you have to hide it.”

The GPS system, which is implanted in the heel of what appears to be a normal walking shoe, allows family members or carers to monitor the wearer and to set up a “geofence” that would trigger an alert if the person strays beyond a certain area.

The shoes are being developed by GTX Corp., which makes miniaturized Global Positioning Satellite tracking and location-transmitting technology, and Aetrex. They received certification from the Federal Communications Commission this year for the system.

The makers say the market for such shoes is growing, given the soaring costs of Alzheimer’s.

“This is a significant milestone for both companies and while the $604 billion worldwide cost of dementia has become and will continue to be a significant fiscal challenge, the under $300 GPS enabled shoes will ease the enormous physical and emotional burden borne by Alzheimer’s victims, caregivers and their geographically distant family members,” said Patrick Bertagna, chief executive of GTX Corp.

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SOURCE:  boston.com

Quitting smoking is not easy, but you can do it. To have the best chance of quitting and staying quit, you need to know what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help. You’ll find this information below.

PDF Link to the Guide to Quitting Smoking

What do I need to know about quitting?

The US Surgeon General has said, “Smoking cessation (stopping smoking) represents the single most important step that smokers can take to enhance the length and quality of their lives.”

Quitting smoking is not easy, but you can do it. To have the best chance of quitting and staying quit, you need to know what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help. You’ll find this information here.
Why is it so hard to quit smoking?

Mark Twain said, “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.” Maybe you’ve tried to quit, too. Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine.
Nicotine

Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically dependent on and emotionally addicted to nicotine. The physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit. The emotional and mental dependence (addiction) make it hard to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Studies have shown that smokers must deal with both the physical and mental dependence to quit and stay quit.
How nicotine gets in, where it goes, and how long it stays

When you inhale smoke, nicotine is carried deep into your lungs. There it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout your body. Nicotine affects many parts of the body, including your heart and blood vessels, your hormones, the way your body uses food (your metabolism), and your brain. In fact, nicotine inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body through a vein (intravenously or IV). Nicotine can be found in breast milk and even in mucus from the cervix of a female smoker. During pregnancy, nicotine freely crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.

Different factors affect how long it takes the body to remove nicotine and its by-products. In most cases, regular smokers will still have nicotine or its by-products, such as cotinine, in their bodies for about 3 to 4 days after stopping.
How nicotine hooks smokers

Nicotine causes pleasant feelings and distracts the smoker from unpleasant feelings. This makes the smoker want to smoke again. Nicotine also acts as a kind of depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. Smokers tend to increase the number of cigarettes they smoke as the nervous system adapts to nicotine. This, in turn, increases the amount of nicotine in the smoker’s blood.

After a while, the smoker develops a tolerance to the drug. Tolerance means that it takes more nicotine to get the same effect that the smoker used to get from smaller amounts. This leads to an increase in smoking over time. The smoker reaches a certain nicotine level and then keeps smoking to keep the level of nicotine within a comfortable range.

When a person finishes a cigarette, the nicotine level in the body starts to drop, going lower and lower. The pleasant feelings wear off, and the smoker notices wanting a smoke. If smoking is postponed, the smoker may start to feel irritated and edgy. Usually it doesn’t reach the point of real withdrawal symptoms, but the smoker gets more uncomfortable over time. At some point, the person smokes a cigarette, the pleasant feelings return, and the cycle continues.
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can lead quitters back to smoking

When smokers try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body reacts to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the smoker is faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Both the physical and mental factors must be addressed for the quitting process to work.

Those who have smoked regularly for a few weeks or longer, and suddenly stop using tobacco or greatly reduce the amount smoked, will have withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms usually start within a few hours of the last cigarette and peak about 2 to 3 days later when most of the nicotine and its by-products are out of the body. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to up to several weeks. They will get better every day that you stay smoke-free.

Withdrawal symptoms can include any of the following:

Dizziness (which may only last 1 to 2 days after quitting)
Depression
Feelings of frustration, impatience, and anger
Anxiety
Irritability
Sleep disturbances, including having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, and having bad dreams or even nightmares
Trouble concentrating
Restlessness or boredom
Headaches
Tiredness
Increased appetite
Weight gain
Constipation and gas
Cough, dry mouth, sore throat, and nasal drip
Chest tightness
Slower heart rate

These symptoms can lead the smoker to start smoking cigarettes again to boost blood levels of nicotine back to a level where there are no symptoms.

SOURCE:  cancer.org

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