Positive Options for Health

**How to Help Your Child Live an Active, Healthy Life**A straightforward simple guide for parents. Written especially for parents, this book is a comprehensive guide to a better understanding of childhood asthma. Only parents and the immediate family know the intense anxiety and pain they experience when their child suffers from breathlessness, or wakes up in the middle of the night with a severe attack of asthma. Written in a warm, reassuring tone, the author explains the causes of asthma in children, discusses what goes wrong inside the lungs, and reviews the various diagnostic procedures and treatment options available, including advances in safe medication. Most important, the book discusses the critical role parents can play in preventing and managing asthma attacks:* Creating a safe, allergen-free environment* Recognizing advance warning signs* Pre-empting attacks* Reducing the intensity of attacks* Ensuring safe and minimal medication* Enhancing body immunity and tolerance to allergens* Helping the child to help himself This edition for the US market includes the latest updates in the field and a new chapter on alternative treatments for asthma in children.

The diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be devastating. It's important to note, though, that while COPD is debilitating, it is not a death sentence. With proper disease management, people with COPD can expect to live a full and happy life. While there are no magic pills or quick fixes, there are many things COPD sufferers can do to have more energy, less shortness of breath, and an overall better quality of life despite breathlessness or use of home oxygen. This comprehensive guide helps people in any stage of COPD learn to work with their physical limitations rather than against them. Compassionate and clearly written, it covers every aspect of the disease, including the psychological and emotional issues that go along with having COPD, medications and physical therapy, identifying triggers and warning signs, creating an action plan for worsening symptoms, techniques to make breathing easier, working with healthcare providers, and much more.

This book contains information on an increasingly common autoimmune disorder. Also called "sticky blood" and Hughes Syndrome, APS makes one's blood clot too easily, creating high risk of stroke, thrombosis, and premature heart attack. It is also implicated in many other health problems including repeated miscarriages, neurological problems, early dementia and migraines. It is often associated with lupus, and mimics the symptoms of other diseases, including MS. Symptoms include; migraines and headaches, recurrent miscarriage, memory loss, slurred speech, blood clots, poor circulation, muscle pain and cramps, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, epilepsy, strokes, thrombosis and a form of angina. Because of lack of knowledge of APS in the medical establishment, sufferers are often misdiagnosed with MS or other more life-threatening conditions. This book helps the reader identify the symptoms and provides important information on diagnosis and treatment of APS. It contains many moving stories, explaining how people eventually got a diagnosis, their symptoms, the impact of APS on their lives and whether or not treatment has worked. Written in collaboration with Dr. Graham Hughes, the major researcher of APS in the UK, this book provides a clearly written informative look at an important but little-known disease.

Positive Options for Colorectal Cancer offers readers everything they need to know about understanding and dealing with colorectal cancer. It presents detailed information in a clear and concise manner from a well-known advocate and author who is a personal survivor of Stage III colorectal cancer for more than 20 years. Chapters present information on prevention techniques, warning signs, and screening tests including the latest on virtual colonoscopy and how to find and talk honestly with the right doctor. It offers tips on treatment options including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation in addition to advice for life after colorectal cancer and how to find support and resources for the colorectal cancer patient.

An ostomy is an opening on the abdomen created by a surgeon to allow waste material to be expelled. The operation is performed as a lifesaving measure when the body's normal system for expelling waste no longer functions. With practical guidelines and emotional support for ostomy patients and their families, this book addresses all aspects of postoperative care as well as such sensitive issues as social situations and sexual intimacy.

The TMJ Healing Plan will teach readers to relieve their pain through simple retraining of tongue use, posture, and exercise techniques. Through this 10-step process endorsed by physical therapists, dentists, and head-and-neck-pain specialists, TMJ pain can be eliminated. Temporo mandibular joint disorders are shockingly common, effecting 1 in 25 people. From dental splints ($450) to surgery ($100,000+), sufferers have invested enormous amounts of time and energy to alleviate their pain. Cynthia Peterson provides tips on posture, placement of your tongue, and simple exercises that will reduce, relieve and eliminate TMJ problems. She first describes the temporo mandibular joint, the amount of work it does, why it can be stressed, and how it is related to your neck, back and head. There is then a discussion of various conditions that stem from TMJ dysfunction. Then the 10 steps to healing begin: Use and Abuse of Your Jaw: How to Lighten the Load, The Power of Posture: Learn to Sit and Sleep Well, Tongue Training: Swallow Correctly, Teeth Apart, Breathing Well, How to Care for Your Muscles, The Benefits of Stress Reduction and Aerobic Exercise, Eating and Drinking Well, Special Exercises for the Neck, Medical Care and Problem Solving. Each section is illustrated with photos and/or line drawings to help the reader better understand the musculature and achieve success with the postures, positions and exercises. There is a substantial resource section at the end of the book.

Irritable bowel syndrome is characterized by bloating, abdominal pain, and altered bowel habits. This hard-to-handle problem affects nearly all facets of an individual's life, but because many patients find it difficult to discuss their bowel problems with their doctors, they often suffer in silence. Although there is no cure for the disorder, there are ways to significantly ease and even prevent its symptoms. This book's effective self-help solutions let patients take control of IBS. First, an introduction to the condition spells out its causes and symptoms and helps readers determine if they actually have IBS. The book then focuses on five key strategies: maintaining proper eating habits, stress management, dietary supplements, alternative therapies such as yoga and acupuncture, and the use of appropriate prescription medications. Accessible and clearly written, the book is punctuated with case histories, up-to-the-minute research, and advice on working with a physician.

Sjögren's (pronounced "show-grins") syndrome, the most common autoimmune disease after rheumatoid arthritis, can affect both sexes and all races and strike any age from children to the elderly. In Sjögren's Syndrome, the body's immune system attacks its own moisture-producing glands. This book, written by a woman who has Sjögren's, presents and evaluates a full range of treatment options, conventional and alternative, providing unbiased assessments of their possible benefits and side-effects. Author Sue Dyson discusses everything from how Sjögren's affects the body to exercise, pregnancy, and relationships.