Living with migraines can be difficult. However, learning to understand the symptoms of an oncoming migraine can mean the difference between hours and days of pain. Thankfully, the symptoms of a migraine are easy to detect and even easier if you have frequent migraines. Here are a few tips for recognizing and treating an oncoming migraine.

Symptoms to Look For

The exact symptoms you have will vary, but over time you will learn exactly what to look for. The most common symptoms of an oncoming migraine include nausea, sensitivity to bright lights and noise, and vision problems. However, it’s important to note that migraines occur in phases: prodrome, aura, attack and postdrome. The symptoms of the prodrome phase can start as early as one to two days before the attack. Prodrome symptoms include: constipation, depression, diarrhea, food cravings, hyperactivity, irritability and neck stiffness. The second phase, aura, is rarely experienced by migraine sufferers, but those that do experience this phase may experience visual phenomena, vision loss, pins and needles in the arms or legs and speech or language problems. Once the attack starts, many people experience pain on one side of the head. It may start off as a slight pain, but if left untreated it can last up to 72 hours. The last phase is the postdrome phase, which usually involves feeling drained. Read the rest of this article →

When the economy is down those in need feel the effects more than others. Those that depend on charity may be turned away due to shortage of supplies. This year, food pantries across America are struggling to feed those in need. Not only has the number of people in need grown due to a rise in unemployment, but fewer people are able to donate this year. Thankfully, there are things you can do. Here are just a few ways to help local food pantries.

Take Advantage of Sales

One great way to help local food pantries is search sales papers for the best deals. Obviously, you want to shop for non-perishable items, such as canned food, that can be stored for long periods of time. Grocery stores often have sales on these items and you can purchase them by the case. For example, you may find a case of canned beans for $12 one week and a case of canned corn for $8 the next week.
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There are a number of men and women fighting for our country and what we stand for who won’t make it home this holiday season. They won’t have the pleasure of seeing their friends and family or sitting down to their favorite meal. That’s why we should give back to them this holiday season. Whether you help a solider directly or send much needed supplies, there are a number of ways to remember the troops this holiday season.

Adopt a Soldier

One great way to help soldiers this holiday season is to adopt one. While this may sound strange, the process is actually quite beautiful and heartwarming. The idea behind adopting a soldier is to not only offer friendship through letters or emails, but to supply him with what he may need or want this holiday season. The concept of getting to bond with a soldier who may not have family at home is quite possibly one of the best things you can do to boost moral in our troops. There are a number of organizations that offer this service and some even allow you to adopt a soldier from your area.
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If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself constantly rushing around trying to fit lots of things into the day and never quite feeling that there’s enough time. I think the key here is time management – something that doesn’t come easily to me, I must admit – so that’s why for this blog I’ve decided to speak to a number of health experts to get some tips. I’m going to take a look at how to manage your work life better so that you feel less stressed, and I’m also going to look at how to fit more time in your day for fitness, a healthy diet and meditation.

Work

I like to think that I’m pretty organised, but I do sometimes get overwhelmed at work when I’ve got lots of things to do at once. I asked business coach Catherine Billam for some advice on how to be better at multi-tasking and, interestingly, she claims that it’s “a very inefficient way of using the brain.” She adds: “Doing two tasks at once can reduce your performance by up to 50 per cent, and constant emailing or text messaging reduces intelligence by an average of 10 points on an IQ test.” Yikes! That puts my IQ down by several numbers.

Instead of trying to juggle lots of tasks, Catherine advises cutting your day into chunks and focusing on one type of activity at a time. “Have separate chunks of time for admin, phone calls, meetings, emails, dealing with today’s emergencies, planning, creative thinking and writing,” she says.

Catherine also suggests being clever in the way that you plan your day. “Do the most difficult tasks when you have the most energy and the routine tasks when you have the least energy,” she says.

“Most people are at their brightest early in the morning, so do your hardest creative tasks and decision-making then. If dealing with admin or emails is routine, do that when you have less energy. Most people have a dip in the middle of the afternoon. Do routine tasks then.” I’ve always wondered what to do during the dreaded 3pm slump – now I know!

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The holidays are supposed to be about family, and about appreciating all of life’s blessings. However, it seems that, more than happiness and enjoyment, the holidays equate to stress for a lot of people. Do you look at your loved ones during the holiday season and see nothing but crowded malls and bank drafts? Do you sometimes wish you could switch places with your kids and forget all about the holiday shopping madness? Don’t worry, you are not alone. Luckily, there are ways to counter the hectic pace and frenetic planning associated with checking all those items off your Christmas list. Here are five tips for reducing holiday shopping stress. Read the rest of this article →