Having lived with the good doctor Ryan Shephard for a number of years now I feel as though I know as much about emergency services as he does, well perhaps not quite as much. What I do know about however is that a shift in ER is intense and filled with arrested patients, blood and gore, cuts and grazes, worried family members, tears, tantrums and catastrophes. What I also know is that the men and women who work there each and every day deserve medals. I was chatting with Ryan last month about how he and the others find ways to relax and so he did a little bit of covert digging for me and here is what he found out.

Cooking

Many of his colleagues told him that the most relaxing thing that they could do was to cook a recipe on their day off. This seems very strange given that cooking is potentially one of the most stressful things that I do, but each to their own of course. The men and women who spoke about their love for cooking said that they would usually pick a complicated dish to complete which requires a lot of their time and energy in order to make it just right.

Boxing

An overwhelming number of the staff at the ER where Ryan works told him that they love nothing more than finishing a shift and then going to the gym to box holes in the punchbag. I can imagine that over the course of a shift there must be an awful lot of pent up aggression so to go and destroy a punchbag afterwards does appear to something that is completely normal.

Meditation

I knew that Ryan relied quite heavily on meditation to make sure that he was in a good headspace for his upcoming shift and to be honest I always assumed that the majority of hospital workers would be exactly the same. Somewhat surprisingly there were a very low number of staff who said that meditation helped them to unwind. There were still some who said that meditation helped them however and that some even took advantage of the odd quiet moment in the hospital during their shift to take some much needed quiet time.

Musical Instruments

The number of staff at the hospital who play musical instruments is incredible and I had no idea that medicine and music were so aligned. The majority of those who can play a musical instrument said that this was the way in which they chilled out at the end of a busy day. I guess if you consider things like dexterity and the fact that to play a musical instrument you need to be good with your hands, much like working in medicine. One of the doctors even charges some of the residents for lessons!

Do you know any medical staff, how do they like to unwind at the end of a long and stressful day? Let us know in the comments.

I moved to Arizona this time last year and on my first day we met our closest neighbors Roger Olade and his beautiful family. Over the last year I have grown quite close to Roger and it is fascinating to see what doctors are like away from the hospital. Dr. Olade specializes in internal medicine her in Arizona, although he can turn his hand to quite a number of medical branches, he even helped me to take action against my back when I was in terrible pain with a muscle injury. Not many of us have the chance to see the real person behind the medial gown, so I thought that I’d offer an insight based on my experience.

Emotional

We all think about doctors as being almost robotic in the way that they treat patients, viewing them in the same way that an electrician would view a fuse box, with absolute pragmatism and zero emotion. This however is not the case and what many doctors do is to push the emotions to one side whilst they carry out their duty. The problem with this is that those emotions must be dealt with at some time or another and I have had lengthy chats with Roger about this and how he often struggles with the emotional pressure that he is under.

Studious

I innocently thought that when doctors had completed medical school that their studies were over, but this is simply not the case. In fact I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Roger in his study in the wee small hours, and when I have asked him why he still studies, he tells me that he has to. The reason for this is that there are always new and exciting treatments in how we deal with diseases and disorders and doctors must stay on top of this new information in order to help their patients as much as possible.

Fatigue

We all know that doctors must work very long hours but what many of us don’t see is the impact that these long hours have on our medical professionals. I have spoken to Roger on a number of occasions where he has barely even known what day of the week that it is. Of course he is always rearing to go when he is at work and fatigue rarely affects him then, but when he comes home after work I see the other side of him, the side that is tried beyond belief. Worse still, Roger will often talk to me about how during these bouts of extreme fatigue, he often struggles to actually get to sleep because his brain is so wired because of what has gone on at the hospital.

Doctors are very well respected and they certainly should be, especially when you realize what goes on once they have clocked out and go home, truly remarkable human beings.

If you are looking to fix your smile and re-arrange crooked teeth then you will have a couple of options in front of you. Speaking to your dentist about this subject will see them offer you one of three options in most cases which are veneers, Invisalign or something similar or alternatively dental braces. It is the latter option which we are going to focus on today, metal braces. To give us some more insight on this I spoke with super dentist Kami Hoss, who has offered this treatment to thousands throughout his career, in order to find out what the pros and cons are of this kind of treatment.

Pros

Lets’ get started with the positives about this kind of treatment in terms of giving you the smile that you have always wanted.

It Works – The best thing that anyone can say about dental braces is that they actually work and they have helped hundreds of thousands of people over the years to get the smile that they wanted and to rearrange their teeth.

Cheaper – When we compare the three options that you will be offered in terms of sorting out your teeth, dental braces are far and away the cheapest of the three options.

All Ages – The notion that only children’s teeth can be affected by braces is wrong and they can be used on patients of all ages and still have a great effect on adults. Use on children will brig about much faster results but that is not to say that it cannot work on adults because it certainly does.

Cons

This is a fantastic treatment which can help you out but there are some aspects of the treatment which not everybody loves, let’s take a look.

Unsightly – From an aesthetics point of view there are many who do not like the idea of having these metal braces adorning their teeth and it can put a lot of people off this kind of treatment.

Painful – Dental braces can cause you some pain especially when the teeth begin to slowly move into new positions. The pain is never intense but more of a slow ache which many people complain about. Furthermore you may ave some pain with the ends of the wire, which can occasionally catch the inside of the mouth, and sometimes it will even cut it.

Slow –  In comparison to the other options that you have in front of you the dental braces option is certainly the slowest. For many people who want an instant fix this is an option which is unlikely to be for you as it does require some patience. Over the course of your treatment the dentist will seek to move the brackets in order to move your teeth into better places, and this is why the process can be lengthy.

And there you have it, the pros and cons of using dental braces, would you use them?

To be able to enjoy the great things in life we need to be healthy. The healthier we feel both physically and emotionally the better the chance we have a great outlook on life.

Since our good health applies to both our physical and emotional, we need to do things that improve the health of each. Here are a list of things that might seem common, but that the average person often neglects or forgets regarding its power to keep us healthy. These tips are offered as a reminder by medical experts like Ian Weisberg and are things that each of us can do to improve our good health and lead a fuller life.

Go on Vacation

More and more, people are skipping vacations because they feel that the only distract and take time away from work. Only a few decades ago the opposite feelings were prominent. People thought that vacations were a necessity because they took us away from the rigors of work and allowed us to reset our brains, and our bodies.

This approach to vacation was a proper one. Vacation plays an important role for each of us. It allows us to bond with our families, to have fun and interesting times, and two explore new cultures and people. Passing up a vacation in order to continue working can have negative health effects on you.

The body needs to get away from stressful situations and the vacation is the ideal situation for that to occur. When your vacation time is coming around, don’t pass on it, instead plan a fun-filled several weeks away at a location where you can think about nothing but having fun and enjoying your life.

Don’t Take Things Too Seriously

These days it seems as if everything is Vital. If you watch the news, sports, current events, and just about anything else, you would think that we are at the end of times and nothing can save us. The reality is that the new cycle has lengthened to 24 hours and we are constantly bombarded with stories of doom and gloom.

You might not have noticed that in spite of all of the talk about World War 3, and other doomsday scenarios, they never seemed to happen. Instead of the news outlets just continue to report and we continue to watch. And that’s we watch you become more stressed out about our futures. The solution is simple, turn away from the constant news and don’t take things so seriously. The past is shown that things have a way of working themselves out for the best.

Start a Family

One of the most important elements of a good healthy life is having a family and those around you love who can share this life with you. This of course starts with a spouse who is dedicated and compliments your strengths and weaknesses.

Connecting with another person in this type of bond enriches your life and get you to be more happy and calm. When you have children, you add to your happiness create little reasons for you to become a better person. Children push you, challenge you, make you angry oh, and also make you understand what life is all about. As they grow, you grow along with them and knowledge and experience and life comes full circle.

Last year I decide to start off a new healthy living routine which I was in desperate need of after spending quite a few months not exactly looking after my body. I consulted the help of my good friend Girish Kumar Navani, some who I have known for a very long time and someone who is an expert in health and in weight loss. The tips which Guirish Kumar Navani shared with me were incredibly helpful and they aided me in achieving my weight loss goals. If we are all being honest with ourselves then we would confess that we all know how to lose weight, we just need some handy tips to help us out, and here is what Girish has to say.

Sunday

Sunday is a very important day when it comes to editing because this is the day that you should go and do your shopping and then prepare for the week ahead. Preparation is always key when you are trying to lose weight because if you haven’t properly prepared, you end up eating convenience food when you are hungry, which is usually unhealthy. And so a Sunday should involve a good breakfast ahead of your supermarket trip -shopping on an empty stomach is a bad idea. Once you have been to the supermarket you should spend your afternoon cooking for the week and preparing veg and salad for the week. The time that you spend on Sunday will help you throughout the week.

Snacking

Snacking has a reputation as a negative activity but as Girish often tells me this is a myth and snacking is actually widely encouraged. The key is of course what you snack on and that is why you should always have a ready supply of nuts, fruit and prepared salad such as cucumber and carrot sticks. Healthy snacking can be a great way for you to stave off hunger until it is time to eat and it will help you with your weight loss goals.

Sleeping

Getting a solid 8 hours of sleep each night is essential when you are trying to lose weight and it is during these hours that your body works hard on digesting and using food, as well as repairing cells, all of which are vital in weight loss. If you aren’t sleeping well then this will impact your weight loss.

Water

Not all aspects of a healthy lifestyle are difficult and one of the easy fixes which you need to be focussed on is drinking water. Drinking water not only helps you body to burn off foods quicker, it can also help you to be less hungry. In many cases where we think we are hungry we are in fact thirsty and so drinking a good amount of water each day can reduce how hungry we feel. The recommended amount is 2-3 liters for women and 3-4 liters for men.