Articles Tagged: Quality Of Life
As part of a growing health and cost conscious public, we now take more responsibility for our health. More concerned about what we eat, drink and how we exercise, we also bring a questioning approach to health care. We are now forging new relationships with our doctors and we are less likely to sit passively and accept unquestioningly our doctor’s directions. We want second opinions, alternative treatments or medications.
As a person with SCI, you know you will spend more time with doctors and other health care professionals than most people. It is a good idea to know your rights and responsibilities as a patient as well as your doctors rights and responsibilities. Continue Reading »
It could be a traffic jam, or a busy airport. It could be at school or on the job. Wherever your look, you can see signs of stress and tension. Stress is everywhere in our society, and there’s a lot of evidence that it affects our health.
Stress and Spinal Cord Injury
Many people believe that having a spinal cord injury must be extremely stressful. While no one knows this for sure, some recent research is helping us find answers to this question. Continue Reading »
The world we live in – and we ourselves – place a very high value on physical independence. We’re raised on the expectation that we will ultimately take care of ourselves. As toddlers, we learn to dress and feed ourselves, as teens we learn to drive and to think for ourselves and finally, as adults, we assume responsibility for our lives. Hallelujah, we’ve finally grown up. Continue Reading »
So you gained five pounds in the last year; no big deal. It’s probably not enough for anyone to notice. But think about it: What’s five pounds a year? It’s twenty pounds in four years. Fifty pounds in ten years. One hundred pounds in twenty years! Were you planning to be around in twenty years? Imagine carrying 400 Quarter-Pounders around on your back every minute of your life. Yikes! Continue Reading »
For Better and For Worse
No one plans on spinal cord injury. “No one” includes you–the spouse, the family, the person who provides care–as well as the survivor. Yet you’ve been there, all this time. And by now you know that there’s not much out there in the way of support for spouses, friends and family. You say you feel neglected? Continue Reading »
One of the first questions out of your doctor’s mouth is often something like, “How are you feeling?” More than just a conversation starter, your answer to this question can often be one of the best predictors of how healthy you actually are and will be. You see, nobody knows your health better than you and nobody can have a bigger impact on your health than you.
It turns out that many different researchers in many different papers have come to a similar conclusion: people’s self-rated health has a strong relationship to their actual physical health. Most people, it appears, feel healthy. Continue Reading »
Most spinal cord injury survivors who are used to driving a car aren’t too excited about switching to a modified van. “They’re too big. They’re too expensive. They’re not very sporty or fun. They’re too hard to drive.” Sound like you? If so, you may have even more reasons not to switch. Yet, increasing hassles, pain and fatigue may be telling you otherwise.
“I’m Not Ready…” Continue Reading »
Published: August 2, 2005 | Category:
News People affected by paralysis could enjoy more independence, better health and a higher quality of life thanks to an innovative system designed to improve fitness and increase arm strength.
It uses electrical signals to stimulate movement in arm muscles where function has been lost, making it possible to work an arm-exercise machine (similar to an exercise bike but worked by the arms). Continue Reading »
Published: June 18, 2005 | Category:
News 
The Marion Star/James MiWhat does a 43-year-old father do when he is told he has just three to five years to live?
For Brian Vail of Mount Gilead, the answer has been to live for 10 years with the debilitating Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, well beyond the “norm” for his affliction.
ALS has gradually robbed Vail, a 1974 Otterbein graduate, of many activities we take for granted. He is paralyzed from the neck down and has been on a Ventilator living at Bennington Glen, a nursing care center in southern Morrow County, for five years. Continue Reading »
Published: June 18, 2005 | Category:
News BEIJING — In January 2004, Kim Allen suddenly began having trouble turning the key in her car’s ignition. All too quickly, a spreading weakness slurred her speech and limited her ability to walk.
After two failed surgeries, endless trips to the doctor and eight months of steady deterioration, she was diagnosed with the incurable nerve illness known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The doctors told the 49-year-old native of Sioux City, Iowa, that she had no more than 18 months to live. Continue Reading »
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