It’s well known that insomnia is a troubling problem. Not being able to sleep can cause a host of other health problems, such as depression, anxiety, accidents due to fatigue, inability to fight off infections, and even a decrease in ability to regain health if already ill. Therefore, studying what may cause insomnia in different patient groups is quite important.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center studied 823 people who had cancer, looking at their sleeping patterns and how well they were able to sleep. What they found was that there was three times the difficulty sleeping among those with cancer than among people who don’t have cancer. Thirty seven percent of the patients reported having symptoms of insomnia, while 43% had insomnia syndrome.

Age played a role as well; younger people with cancer had a harder time than older ones. In addition, those with lung and breast cancers had the worst time sleeping. Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The data was gathered by assessing questionnaires that were completed by the patients. They were completed after the first two sessions of chemotherapy.

It’s not surprising to learn that people with cancer may have trouble sleeping. What needs to be done now is to find ways to help them, because someone battling a serious disease needs all the resources he or she can gather, and you need sleep for that.

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Insomnia Common with Chemotherapy

I am excited to announce that Zestra is hosting a giveaway with Blisstree to offer readers the opportunity to try out this new product for free.  Zestra uses natural botanical oils and is applied to a woman’s body to increase sensitivity with a fabulous warming sensation called the Zestra Rush.  Clinical trials have shown that women using Zestra have had a significant increase in their level of sexual satisfaction when asked to quantify their experience before and after using the product on a linear scale from 1 to 10.

If you are curious about Zestra and interested in taking steps to increase your sexual well-being, this is a chance for you to try something new.  Zestra is giving 25 Blisstree readers a free package that includes two packets of the product.  In order to enter the giveaway all you have to do is send an email to zestraforblisstree@gmail.com and say that you would like to experience the Zestra Rush.  The first 25 readers to send an email will win!

If you want to learn more about Zestra or how to order the product, please visit their website at www.zestra.com.  You can also leave comments here if you have any questions and we can have a professional answer them!

Thank you to Zestra for offering Blisstree readers this wonderful opportunity!

Image: sxc.hu

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Experience the Zestra Rush Giveaway

According to the website E-Cigarettes Choice ,

While cigarettes emit about 4,000 identifiable chemicals as they are smoked and 69 are known to cause cancer, e-cigarettes contain less than 10 to 20 chemicals on average, depending on the brand or strength purchased.  No more tar blackening your lungs and no more carcinogens.

But the FDA says:

The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines. These tests indicate that these products contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.

The FDA also reports that these cigarettes contain nicotine, which is addictive. The use of the electronic cigarettes may be easier as they aren’t actually a burning substance and this can add to the addictive traits.

What exactly is an e-cigarette?

They are battery-operated devices that generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. The electronic cigarette turns nicotine and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

False advertising?

The e-cigarette site claims that by using their e-cigarettes, you become a non-smoker:

With more and more people that quit smoking, more and more people hound those of us who do smoke to stop.  After purchasing the e-cigarette, you can finally tell your friends and family who have been badgering you for years that you have instantly become a non-smoker.  No more stinky clothes, hair, vehicles, or homes and you don’t have to worry about your family being exposed to the some 69 carcinogens that are in real cigarette smoke.  No more feeling guilty about exposing yourself and everyone you care about to a harmful habit.

If that’s the truth, what the heck are you doing with that thing? Either you’re smoking or your not. It’s like being a little bit pregnant – you are, or you aren’t.

~~~~

Image: Newscom.com

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E-Cigarettes Not Safe Option

IMG: sxc.hu

Many, myself included believe that a person cannot get breast cancer until they are adults, as we can see this is not always the case. Her family has decided to make a website chronicling her battle with the beast. Already she’s had a mastectomy to remove a 2 inch tumor from her left breast. Thankfully they caught this now. According to reports she kept getting an itch and couldn’t figure out why her left breast was getting the irritation. This should wake all of us parents up to any unusual knots or bumps in our children.

Fifth-grader Hannah Powell-Auslam felt a constant itch in her left breast. She wasn’t sure what was causing the irritation, so she went and asked her mom about it. When Carrie Auslam immediately discovered a hard mass in her daughter’s breast, she took her to the hospital as a precautionary measure.

Hopefully we’ll hear reports that she’s recovered and the cancer is completely gone.

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10 Year old Breast Cancer Victim

DeLuise made millions laugh in such films as Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, and The Cannonball Run. He was “surrounded by family when he died in a Santa Monica, California, hospital Monday.”

Image: Bauer-Griffin

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Dom DeLuise Dead at 75

Elizabeth Edwards' new book will be released May 8

My mind moved with my body in tow through the distance of two rooms, to the open doorway of the bedroom where my mother used to sleep. The bed was empty and I heard my father through the bathroom door. He was retching. It was an awful sound, low and monotone, and I sobbed there, like a baby, on the hallway floor because life was supposed to be different for us.  

(My father tells me now he did not throw up. He was brushing his teeth and sometimes when he brushes his tongue he gags himself and makes that horrible retching sound. I’d rather believe the news of Mom’s death made him sick to his stomach because it’s more endearing that way. But, whatever.)

As idiotic as it sounds, when I read the reports of Elizabeth Edward’s interview on Oprah (scheduled for Thursday), and how she spoke about her husband’s affair, I understood when she said her reaction to her husband’s confession was to cry, scream and vomit. It brought me back to that day, when my mother died and my father threw up, because life had changed forever and ever.

And sometimes you just don’t want it to change. 

John Edwards broke my heart, too. He was supposed to be my president. I had chosen him before 2004, before he played second fiddle to John Kerry. And I was a bigger supporter when he ran again in 2008. I read a story in the New York Times magazine how he would serve as a champion to the underprivileged because, though he is insanely wealthy now, he hails from a humble background. I saw visions of Robert Kennedy in him. He was my candidate; (although my son was determined Obama would win). When Edwards withdrew just before Super Tuesday, so did I, temporarily.

I respected his love for his wife. And she won me over by being solid and loyal. There is no denying he is the more attractive of the two, but he seemed to look beyond that. And when the rumors began to circulate that John was having an affair, I refused to believe them because the John I know is good and honest and loves his wife with a passion – his cancer-survivor wife. The one who hid the lump in her breast as Kerry gave his concession speech to the world.

I don’t blame her for sticking with him, for trying to hold tight to that life she knew before the affair. But life is changed forever for her, like it changed more than a decade ago when her oldest son tragically died, and again in 2004, when she discovered she had breast cancer. Life rarely goes as expected. It sends you to great highs and treacherous lows. How one manages to hold on during those times and keep her sanity says a lot about a person.

I think that must be the value of being Resilient.

Photo, Barnes & Noble

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In Defense of Elizabeth Edwards

The following evidence is known as “anecdotal” which means it will affect some people, but not others, according to Kelly O’Connor, R.D., L.D.N.

Citrus fruits, tomatoes, while full of healthy vitamin C are also full of acid. This can irritate conditions such as urinary incontinence and over-active bladder. Spicy foods can do the same thing, so watch the jalapenos.

Water is good because it flushes bacteria out of your system. Alkaline foods like pears or bananas are goodbecause the balance an overly acidic system. Broccoli is good and is considered a cancer-fighter. Other members of the cruciferous family including brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, and cauliflower may help, too. Eat ‘em up. Good stuff.

Yogurt with acidophilus helps to fight toxins in the bladder and look for plain rather than flavored, because sugar is no hero to your bladder. It promotes the growth of bacteris and can lead to urinary tract infections. Artificial sweeteners aren’t a good substitute, because they are like acidic or spicy foods, they can increase the symptoms of overactive bladder.

Cranberry juice. Everyone knows this one, right? But just how does Cranberry promote better urinary tract health?  It’s the hippuric acid, which keeps bacteria off of the walls of the urethra.

Coffee, alcohol, and cigarettes. None of these are good. The coffee and alcohol act as a diuretic, flushing out the good stuff. Smoking cigarettes increases your risk of bladder cancer - it doubles it. If you smoke, please quit.

For more information, please click here to read the entire article.

Image credit: All Posters.com

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Happiness Is A Healthy Bladder

The good news for fans of the 70s star is that this latest complication appears to have nothing to do with her cancer diagnosis.

Image credit: splashnewsonline.com.

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Farrah Fawcett Hospitalized

There are reminders of her everywhere, pushing out from mounds of pansies in my garden or in passages of a thick Pat Conroy novel. At times I can feel her with an intensity that startles me. Browsing hosta in a garden shop or scraping wallpaper from the bathroom walls, I am doing what she did. I am becoming her.

Nine months after her death, on what would have been her 58th birthday, I held her ashes in the palm of my hand, giving her up to the wind of the sea islands. The dust flew into the sky and down into the quiet waters of the marsh. There was no ceremony, no preacher hugging the family Bible, no sermon echoing in the open breeze. Just my family, what was left of us, bruised and worn raw.

We had scattered her ashes off the edge of my parents’ property on Dataw Island, South Carolina. They had purchased the land the year my mother got sick, with plans to retire early and spend their days tending to the native plants, fishing off the pier, maybe teaching at the local community college. Here, my mother would heal from the surgeries and treatments. Here, she would be healthy.

But the cancer came back. Or maybe it never left her body, lying dormant until we fooled ourselves into thinking that life would be normal again. Cancer does that. It hides in the back of the mind, breathes a chill against your shoulder so you never completely forget.

On a quiet spring morning just before daybreak, the same month ground was to have been broken for their home on Dataw, my mother passed away. The birds still called into the sunrise, the car engine still turned over, people on the street still walked and breathed and made small talk, all unaware that everything had changed. My mother was dead.

I was the only one of my family who remembered that Easter night a year before she died, when we sat at the dinner table and dreamed of their move. The house plans were almost final, there were appliance books and paint decks spread across the table. My mother said once they moved to Dataw, they would never move again. And when she died, she wanted to be cremated and her ashes scattered into the water at high tide, just below the twisted oak in their backyard that leaned over the marsh’s edge.

I have often been asked if I miss having a gravesite to visit, a plot of grass on which to drop to my knees and connect with what remains of her six feet below. At the very least, don’t I feel obligated to visit the property where her ashes were scattered, a place that now holds the house of a stranger, someone who never will know the secrets of that sprawling live oak out back?

I stand now, my feet bathed in the gently swaying waters of the Gulf Coast, hundreds of miles and many years from where my mother’s ashes flew. She is with me. She is the water, riding currents across this mighty earth. She is the air I breathe, the wind that tangles my hair. I have felt her during my child’s birth, in the still nights rocking my son to sleep, with my grandmother who since spiraled into the darkness of dementia. I speak to her in the quiet of my car and in the vast space between earth and stars.

There is no comfort in losing a mother, just the raw burn when memories rub against the mind. I choose to visit her here, in the static of my senses – for this is as close to heaven that I know.

(photo, Flickr, debaird)

JWJourney

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For My Mother On Her Birthday

If you haven’t seen The Last Lecture, a man’s last words to his family, and humanity, after he received a grim diagnosis of terminal cancer, you should watch it right now, here.

Won’t you watch it with me tonight? We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Bring tissues.

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He Lived! He Lived!