Stop sleeping on planes

If you’re one of those people who goes to sleep once the jet reaches cruising altitude, you might want to rethink your air travel habits.  There’s a high price for not paying attention to what’s going on.  You could suffer from ear barotrauma.  This happens when you don’t take steps to clear the Eustachian tubes when the outside air pressure doesn’t match the inner pressure.  This mismatch usually occurs on takeoff and landing.  If the tube stays blocked, fluids could build up behind the eardrum causing pain and hearing problems.  Set your cell phone or other device to wake up and prepare.  Flight attendants wake up sleeping people because they want everyone to be ready for landing, but they might overlook you if they’re busy.  Don’t risk hearing damage.  Take care of your own needs.  You don’t want to be distracted by ear pain and muffled hearing once you land.

If you smoke cigarettes, it’s easier to smoke pot

If you smoke cigarettes, you’re 10 times more likely to start smoking pot daily.  Makes sense, right?  The behavioral habits are already strongly established.  The big problem is that this is especially true for kids. About a third of 12 to 17-year olds who smoke cigarettes start smoking pot every day.  Kids, with their immature brains and lack of experience, think that pot is a healthier alternative to tobacco.  It’s less addictive, less harmful with less stigma than cigarettes.  Since pot may lessen the withdrawal from tobacco, people substitute marijuana to eventually stop smoking tobacco.  One of the reasons for the decline in cigarette smoking might be due to the increase in using pot.  Long-term use of marijuana includes memory loss and severe periodontal disease and jawbone loss.  Do what you can to stop smoking anything.

Be realistic.  Let’s face it.  We can’t live without phones.

We’ve heard the research about how unhealthy cell phones are for us.  They might be related to brain cancer.  We know that they interfere with sleep, sense of self-worth, relationships, memory, attention spans for sure.  Creativity, productivity, and problem-solving skills take a real hit.  Using them raises cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone.  Even when we see our cellphone, cortisol increases because of our sense of obligation that it brings.  It’s a tough cycle to break because cellphones cause the release of the body’s reward chemical, dopamine, which is why we spend, at least 4 hours a day on our phones.  Yes, they’re necessary to life as we know it, so what can we do to reduce the damage?  When you can, switch to a laptop or a desktop to reduce your “need”.  Store your phone in a place that’s out of sight.  Don’t let a digital device shorten your life span.

Tina does not want her 19 year old daughter to get married to her boyfriend, who is arrogant.  Tina is happy about corona virus lockdown because it's keeping her daughter from seeing her boyfriend.  How can she influence her daughter and share her feelings without harming their mother/daughter relationship?

Raino has a dog he's owned for 15 years and the dog is at the end of his years, close to dying.  Should he get a dog right away or wait awhile after his dog passes away?

Shelly got into daughter's journal while cleaning her room, read that her daughter is deciding to have sex with her boyfriend.  Shelly wants to have a talk with her daughter about sex, but how can she do this without letting her know that she was snooping in her diary?

Patricia only remembers her parents fighting all the time and it was great when they got a divorce when Patricia was 12 years old.  Patricia is now 32 and her mom is remarrying her father, but Patricia is upset about it, even though her mother says her father has changed and quit drinking for 10 years.  What should Patricia do to handle this?

PPP Loans and Kanye West's company - / Is having and taking care of a dog a good test for being able to handle having a baby?

Anita's husband borrowed $10,000 from her brother without telling her.  She found out but her husband won't tell her what the money is for, and he's having trouble paying back her brother.  How should Anita deal with this?

Wayne's 23 yr old nephew won $ three years ago.  He now has blown through everything and has come to Wayne for a place to stay and start over.  What should Wayne do?

14 year old daughter's friend was diagnosed with cancer. She is now scared and thinks that cancer is contagious. We're trying to teach her otherwise, but she's obsessed with this. Pediatrician recommends a therapist for her.  What else should they do to help their daughter?

What is this strange event about?

Yes, it’s rare and no, the doctors don’t know what causes it and there’s no treatment.  After romance, men experience confusion, they can’t speak, read or write coherently, have severe muscle pain throughout their body, extreme fatigue, itchy eyes, fever and flu-like symptoms for about a week.  It’s so rare that only 50 cases, all involving men, have been confirmed.  The cause of the symptoms might be related to a flood of endorphins, the body’s opioids, that’s released into the bloodstream.  This kind of rare and untreatable condition is certain to cause anxiety and depression as a result of feeling hopeless and helpless.  The impact on relationships is severe.  If you suffer from this condition, be aggressive about pursuing it.  Search the National Institutes of Health to explore possible solutions.

Women get happier after age 85

Hang on ladies.  If you can make it to age 85, you’re likely to be happier.  A survey of 8000 women found that 30% of them were diagnosable with depression.  Why are women so miserable?  Until age 85, we’re responsible for most of the household and care-giving chores.  We’re exhausted from taking care of other people, putting ourselves last and sacrificing for everyone.  Considering this level of exhaustion, it comes as no surprise to learn that the married men from the survey were much happier than the women, but the married women were depressed.  The single, divorced and widowed men were also depressed.  What’s the reason for women finding happiness after 85?  Psychiatrists say that it’s because most of them were widowed.  They enjoyed living alone.  Ladies, it’s time to take care of ourselves first as much as we can.

That one-night stand is forever

Think that one-night stand was just for one night?  It isn’t.  In fact, it’s forever.  63% of women have male DNA living in their brains.  A very small number of women who have this male DNA could’ve gotten it from their male twin that was absorbed during pregnancy, miscarriages, or an older brother transferred by mother’s blood supply.  Scientists believe that most women have these male cells from sexual activity because autopsies of elderly women revealed that some had been carrying male DNA in their brains for more than 50 years.  The research proved that, when introduced into the mouth, the live organisms travel into the nasal passages, inner ear and behind the eyes.  It ends up in your bloodstream where it collects in your brain and spine.  Gives new meaning to “He’s really into you”, doesn’t it?  Make healthy decisions.

Sensory overload affects many of us

You’re in the mall, doing your weekend errands.  You’re handling it pretty well, but suddenly, there’s a blast of music coming from the store you’re passing, and a group of people rush by you, buffeting you with their bags.  You’re panicked.  What’s going on?  You’ve just had an attack of “sensory overload”.  When this happens, lights become too bright, sounds are too loud, you can smell odors more intensely and the slightest touch can feel like an attack.  We began learning about sensory processing disorders from those with autism, but it also occurs with physical and mental health conditions such as anxiety, chronic fatigue, migraines, schizophrenia and fibromyalgia.  If you have these conditions, be careful about over-scheduling yourself.  Going into a sensory intense location when you’re rushed might not end well.  Set yourself up for success.

New research on women and heart disease

Admit it.  We women think we’re kinda in the clear when it comes to heart disease because we have estrogen.  New research says we need to reconsider this thinking.  Apparently, women’s blood vessels experience time and age at different rates than men.  The cascade of heart disease typically starts with high blood pressure.  And the bad news is that we women start to show high blood pressure much earlier than men do.  There’s a reason why high blood pressure is called the silent killer.  The problems it causes aren’t felt until there’s a cardiac event or kidneys fail.  Blood pressure thresholds for women and men need to be changed because women develop high blood pressure earlier.  The way that women’s heart health is evaluated should be upgraded in light of this ongoing research.