Some women are nervous about having their teeth cleaned during pregnancy. The fear is that bacteria will enter the bloodstream during the teeth cleaning and affect the baby, perhaps causing premature births or low birth weights.
Cinergy Health with Dr. Margaret Lewin explains that the best plan is to have regular dental care and to practice effective daily oral home care during your pregnancy. This will reduce the bacteria in your mouth. Obviously, the best plan of action is prevention.
At the same time, if a woman plans to get pregnant, she should have all of her dental treatment done before the pregnancy. You shouldn’t be surprised, during pregnancy, if your gums are red and inflamed, and even bleed while brushing when you’re pregnant.
If you are already pregnant, you should only have the necessary dental treatments done. Major dental procedures and elective dental treatments should be postponed until after delivery.
Everyone talks about the importance of eating a balanced diet, but do people know what this actually means? Certainly, if you are unclear, you should speak to your health care professional, to your health plan like Cinergy Health or to a nutritionist.
Keeping a balanced diet definitely starts with eating breakfast. Breakfast gets your day started and helps to jump start your metabolism for the day ahead. Many nutritionists also recommend having five small meals throughout the day rather than having two or three larger meals. This allows you to eat small amounts every few hours to stave off hunger and to eat a balanced diet throughout the day.
These are a few of the suggestions that can set you in the right direction and help you to eat healthier for healthier living!
Every parent wants her child to eat well. It’s easy, however, to talk about all the right foods – and it’s another thing to actually get your child to eat those foods. Here, Cinergy Health offers important tips for dealing with finicky eaters and helping them to eat a balanced diet.
A finicky child might appreciate being part of the menu planning. Ask her to help you select meals and even to prepare them with you. This may inspire a finicky eater to try new things – since they had a hand in creating them. Try to decorate dishes to add fun to the plate. You can make your pancakes look like they have bunny ears with apples or create make ants on a log by putting peanut butter inside a celery stick and raisins on top.
Summertime is a great time for fun and adventure. Many people, forget, however, while they are traveling and having fun, to take care of themselves in the heat. As emergency rooms and health care providers like Cinergy Health can tell you, this leads to an increase in emergency room visits and to more sick people during the summer months.
In order to enjoy the summer, while also caring for your body, take these tips to heart.
- Schedule your physical activities for cooler hours. This even means exploring the theme park, going on the family hike, and more early in the morning or later in the day – not at the heat of the day.
- Wear light, loose, cotton clothing. Always include a protective hat in your summer wardrobe as well.
- Use sunscreen every day with an SPF of 15 or higher. Even on cloudy days, you can get a painful sunburn.
- If you need to work outside, take periodic breaks in a cool area.
Most adults don’t realize how important vaccines could be to their health and well being. Cinergy Health with Dr. Margaret Lewin explains that most adults should get the influenza vaccinations, but there are others, as well, that are important for certain groups.
Meningitis vaccinations, for instance, are important for college students and soldiers who bunk in close quarters. Hepatitis B vaccines are recommended for all sexually active adults, emergency personnel, health care workers and those who work with small children. Young girls and women should look into receiving the new cervical cancer vaccine.
Tdap and MMR are both making a comeback, explains Dr. Lewin from Cinergy Health. These vaccines protect against diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella. Another vaccine to consider is the one for chicken pox. If you didn’t have the chicken pox as a kid, you may experience much worse symptoms as an adult and it can also be very dangerous for pregnant women.
To figure out which vaccines you’ve had and which you haven’t, start with your primary care provider. Your vaccination chart should be in their file. You can then meet with your doctor to discuss a plan of action for the coming season and to make sure that all of your vaccinations are up to date.
Depression is a very real and dangerous issue, particularly for women. Depression actually affects twice as many women as it does men. Certainly, we all get sad sometimes, but depression is much more serious than this. The National Institute of Mental Health, as Cinergy Health explains, has created a checklist of symptoms for depression.
Symptoms include persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest in pleasure, restlessness, loss of appetite or weight gain, decreased energy, thoughts of death, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, persistent physical symptoms that don’t respond to treatment and more.
If you think that you may be depressed, you should seek the help that you need. Don’t be embarrassed to be feeling this way; it is a very real problem and one that affects many women each year.
If you sit at the office for long periods of time, as so many people do today, it’s essential to know what type of chair to purchase and to understand how best to sit in your chair.
While most of us assume that we need to sit in traditional chairs, there are other alternatives that can help create a healthy back. Cinergy Health explains that you might want to look into a kneeling chair, which promotes good posture, or into using an exercise ball! While looking unorthodox, an exercise ball helps to develop your abdominal and back muscles while you sit.
No matter what type of chair you purchase, make sure to move around approximately every half hour. Stand, stretch and walk around for at least one minute every half an hour. This will help your joints, ligaments and muscles to remain looser and will help you to stay comfortable and relaxed.
If you’re heading out on a vacation with the family, make sure to do your homework ahead of time to guarantee a smooth trip. For answers to more specific questions about traveling with children, consult with your health care provider, whether it’s Cinergy Health or others, and get the answers you need.
Before leaving on your trip, make sure to write down your child’s medical information with any medication allergies, health problems and prescriptions he takes. Keep this list with you on your travels to aid you in case your child needs a doctor while you are away.
Bring the contact names and numbers of all doctors that your child sees in case your or a doctor need to contact your pediatrician, allergy specialist, etc. Ask your doctor for recommendations for hospitals in the area where you’ll be traveling so you’ll know where to go, as needed. Finally, make sure to bring along your health insurance cards and check with your insurance company, whether it’s Cinergy Health or another, about coverage out of your area.
CNN recently reported on the effects that obesity has on sexual health. Certainly, Dr. Margaret Lewin from Cinergy Health often blogs and writes about the dangerous consequences of obesity. Here, this article adds one more consequence to the list.
As the article reports, “Unintended pregnancy or abortion were four times higher among obese women under 30 years old than among normal weight women in that age range. The authors reason that this may stem from a lack of effective contraception. Obese women were 70 percent less likely to use the pill, and eight times more likely to use less effective methods, such as withdrawal.”
The article continues to point out many other fascinating correlations between obesity and sexual health.
Central sleep apnea is a rare but frightening illness which causes children to stop breathing during sleep. A couple whose 4 and a half year old daughter has this disorder is starting a foundation to raise awareness and help to find a cure for this nerve-wracking and life threatening ailment.
Margaret Lewin, Medical Director of Cinergy Health, who is interested in this disorder although not directly involved in this particular case, explained the difficulty getting to a diagnosis of central sleep apnea.
“Central sleep apnea is rare as a diagnosis and is not well-known, making it difficult to assess whether the condition is rare.”
Lewin continued to comment that several pediatricians with decades of experience behind them failed to ever recognize this condition in any of their many patients.
“But this has to be terrifying for parents,” Lewin said.