Having a serious illness like cancer, heart disease, or ALS can be very lonely, and no one should try to bear it alone. First, it isn’t practical to hide something that serious from friends and family without them noticing that something is troubling you. Second, acting like everything is okay when it’s not, requires energy you need for treatment and recovery.

However, sharing a difficult diagnosis with
loved ones makes it more real, which can be a huge challenge when still coming
to terms with the diagnosis yourself.

Get the Right
Diagnosis 

Misdiagnosis happens, so make sure you get a
second opinion. Until then, keep the news within your inner circle. You might
consider sparing the kids until you get confirmation. 

Tell Your Nearest and
Dearest First

Once you have the right diagnosis, talk to your
closest family members and friends. Leave your neighbors, childhood friends,
and coworkers out of it for now. 

It’s best to do it in person, if possible. If
you’re not feeling up to the task, ask your spouse, sibling, or any other close
family member to share the news on your behalf; follow up personally when
ready. 

Ask them to keep the news confidential, at least
for now. You don’t want to be ‘outed’ in a heartfelt social media post before
you talk to the people outside your inner circle. 

Tell the Kids

The desire to shield your kids from the news is
natural. However, the kids probably already know something is wrong. Decide how
much to tell them depending on their ages and emotional maturity. 

Tell Friends and
Acquaintances

Not everyone deserves to know about your
illness. You don’t need to and probably shouldn’t post about it on social
media. Proceed with caution and use your judgment. 

If you’re not ready for the world to know about
your health condition, only tell friends and acquaintances who’ve proven their
ability to keep secrets in the past.

Tell Your Coworkers

There’s a reason why your coworkers should be
among the last people to learn about your diagnosis. Although you should be
protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, unethical employers and
coworkers could find a way to make you regret sharing your health condition
with them.

First, do some research. Find out how similar situations were handled in the past, and talk to a lawyer if needed. Second, depending on company policy, talk to your boss or HR department; it’s not good for them to hear it from your coworkers. Lastly, talk to a few trusted coworkers who will support you on this journey. 

Sharing a difficult diagnosis with your loved ones gives them the chance to support you in your treatment and recovery. Use the above guidelines to help decide when, who, and how to share your important health issues.

The post How to Disclose a Difficult Diagnosis to Your Loved Ones appeared first on Lifestyle.

It’s early in the New Year, and people are crowding the gyms to get in shape. If you’re one of them, chances are your body is hurting all over! 

Usually, when pain occurs in one part of the body, it’s easy to pinpoint the cause. But generalized aches and pains are another story and are much harder to diagnose. 

When your whole body hurts, the cause could be anything from the flu to fibromyalgia. It doesn’t help that these aches tend to be dull and persistent instead of sharp and short-lived.

In most cases, body aches and pains are harmless and resolve on their own without treatment. However, sometimes they’re the result of an underlying illness. 

What Causes Generalized Aches and Pain?

Flu or a Bad Cold

Soreness could be a sign that you’re coming down with something like the flu or a bad cold. The prostaglandins that your immune system releases to fight the infection are responsible for the achiness you feel and other symptoms like fever. Pain relievers stop the production of prostaglandins. 

Poor Posture

Most people have poor posture; they slump over when sitting and hunch their shoulders when walking. Over time this leads to incorrect alignment of the pelvis, and a curved lower back, which causes back pain and muscle tension. The pain usually goes away if you improve your posture and stretch or workout more often. 

Stress, Anxiety and Depression

Many people who suffer from generalized body aches have no physical condition that accounts for their symptoms. In such cases, the cause may be psychological. 

Stress can weaken your immunity and cause inflammation leading to mysterious soreness. Similarly, anxiety disorders can lead to pain, muscle tension, and headaches. 

Depending on the severity, you can treat this pain with relaxation techniques, therapy, or medication. 

Dehydration

Water is necessary to keep your body functioning optimally. When you’re dehydrated, essential bodily functions become more taxing, which can leave you feeling sore all over. Thankfully, you can relieve this kind of pain by drinking six to eight glasses of water daily. 

Lack of quality sleep 

Your body requires sleep for rest and recovery. Lack of sleep can make you feel sluggish and sore. The obvious solution is to get more sleep. However, if you struggle with insomnia or any other condition that keeps you up at night, talk to your doctor about it.

Serious Medical Conditions

Body aches can point to an underlying medical condition such as mono, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, pneumonia, arthritis, and various autoimmune disorders. If the pain or soreness refuses to go away on its own, disrupts your daily life, or is accompanied by other symptoms such as shortness of breath, weakness, or fever, see your doctor. 

Generalized body aches and pain can be annoying at their mildest, and a sign of a severe medical condition at their worst. 

Most of the time, all you need is a tall glass of water, some pain relievers, and a good night’s sleep. However, don’t wait to seek medical attention if the pain is accompanied by other symptoms and persists after you’ve tried your home remedies. 

The post When Your Whole Body Hurts appeared first on Lifestyle.

So, you kicked off the New Year with a great resistance workout and left the gym beaming with pride, but now your muscles are so stiff and sore that it hurts to even walk. Should you give your body a break or grind through the pain and keep going, forcing your body to adjust to your new exercise routine?

There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on the intensity and duration of the pain.

How Bad Is the Pain?

There are two main types of muscle soreness associated with intense resistance training: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and Rhabdomyolysis.

DOMS – the Annoying Pain

DOMS is caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. Although that sounds kind of bad, it’s actually part of the muscle building process. The amount of damage varies depending on the intensity, duration and type of exercise.

The soreness starts as early as 12 hours after an intense workout and can last several days. However, the worst pain occurs about 48 hours after the workout when you’re first starting out. Your body gets acclimated in a few days and the pain goes away.

Rhabdomyolysis – the Dangerous Pain

The second and more serious type of muscle soreness is called rhabdomyolysis. It occurs when a direct or indirect muscle injury causes the death of muscle fibers, releasing toxic substances into the bloodstream. This can lead to kidney failure if the kidneys are unable to remove these wastes from the body.

Rhabdomyolysis can happen to anyone, from beginners to pros. Its symptoms are muscle pain, weakness, problems with urination, brown or dark red urine, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and vomiting. If you experience these symptoms after a particularly tough workout, rush to the ER immediately.

Bottom line, if you’re only experiencing mild soreness that makes walking up the stairs uncomfortable, or when stretching your arms or legs in a certain way, it’s perfectly okay to continue your workouts. In fact, it’s likely that the pain will decrease significantly after you’ve been exercising for a few minutes and your muscles are warm and filled with blood. However, don’t push yourself as hard as you did the previous day; go lighter.

If the pain is bad enough that you think you might have sprained something, take a day off. However, keep in mind that a day can easily turn into a couple of days or week. Get back to your workouts as soon as the pain reaches manageable levels. Push yourself but in a healthy way.

How Long Have You Been Sore?

Other than the intensity of the pain, you should also consider the duration. DOMS should be gone within 3 to 7 days without any form of therapy. If the soreness lasts longer than this and your workout performance declines noticeably, your body may be trying to tell you that it’s time to chill out.

Take a day or two off and increase your protein intake to speed up muscle recovery. Alternatively, you can change your workout to give the sore muscles time to heal. If you have overworked your abs and arms, give them a break and focus on your legs for a couple of workouts – but remember to give your legs at least one day off between workouts as you should never work the same muscle group two days in a row (the exception to this rule might be abs; it’d be wise to seek advice from your personal trainer).

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness happens to everyone; most times you can push through the pain and discomfort. However, if the pain is too intense or lasts longer than a week, it would be wise to take a break and seek medical attention.

Always remember that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. We were built to move! So, do what you need to do to be healthy and well, and don’t let pain keep you on the sidelines indefinitely (unless it’s an injury) because your body will start to deteriorate, which is much worse for your life and health in the long run.

(Photo credit courtesy of Trainer Academy https://traineracademy.org/) 

The post Still Sore From Your Last Workout? Take a Break or Keep Going? appeared first on Lifestyle.

Eight in ten Americans look for medical information on the Internet. We just can’t help ourselves.

Unfortunately, surfing through pages and pages of information on all of the diseases that you might possibly have only increases worry and anxiety. This is why many doctors don’t recommend Googling your symptoms.

However, sometimes the temptation is too strong and you just can’t wait until your next doctor’s appointment. Here are some tips on how to research your symptoms online without increasing your anxiety.

Don’t Use Search Engines Or Message Boards

The most natural thing to do when looking for medical information online is to use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type in your symptoms. Unfortunately, this just increases your risk of running into inaccurate information.

A better way to do it, is to go to a reputable website, such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Centers for Disease Control, and use the search bar on the site to find reliable and accurate information. Remember to bookmark these websites to find them easily when you need them.

Also, please stay away from message boards. Just because someone has similar symptoms doesn’t mean that your symptoms have the same cause.

Be Specific

Vague search terms lead to scary results, so be as specific as possible and enter as many symptoms as you can. Thankfully, this is what symptom checkers are for. Some sites like Mayo Clinic, DocResponse and Family Doctor, offer free symptom checkers that make it so much easier for you to give specific information about your symptoms.

However, researchers from Harvard Medical School have found that online symptom checkers are inconsistent and inaccurate, so don’t rely on them for diagnosis. Only about 34% of the users receive an accurate diagnosis. You still need to see a doctor for an accurate diagnosis.

Look for Solutions

Instead of entering a vague symptom into the search bar, look for the solution. For example, instead of looking up “fatigue”, look up “how to relieve fatigue.” Solutions are much less worrisome than symptoms and are less likely to send you into full blown panic mode.

And even when you think you’ve finally found the solution you’ve been searching for, please don’t spend your hard earned money on any tests or remedies before getting a proper diagnosis from a qualified medical practitioner. As always, stick to reputable websites when researching solutions and question every alternative remedy you come across to make sure it’s the real deal.

See a Doctor

“Dr. Google” is not a replacement for a qualified medical practitioner. You still need to see a doctor for a proper diagnosis (I think we’ve made our point by now).

When you do, don’t start the session by regurgitating all the information you found online. Listen first and be open to being wrong. Hear what he or she has to say and ask any question that are on your mind; write your questions on a piece of paper ahead of time so you don’t forget them in the pressure of the moment.

The best time to search for medical information online is after you have seen a doctor and received a proper diagnosis. This way, you know exactly what you’re looking for and won’t get sucked into the dark, scary rabbit hole of the Internet.

The post The Right Way to Search for Medical Information on the Internet appeared first on Lifestyle.