Lifestyle changes are not always easy to make, but they can have a big impact on depression. Lifestyle changes that can be very effective.

Center for disease and control

The normal ups and downs of life mean that everyone feels sad or has “the blues” from time to time. But if emptiness and despair have taken hold of your life and won’t go away, you may have depression. Depression makes it tough to function and enjoy life like you once did. Just getting through the day can be overwhelming. But no matter how hopeless you feel, you can get better. Understanding the signs, symptoms, causes, and treatment of depression is the first step to overcoming the problem.

Depression and suicide

Depression is a major risk factor for suicide. The deep despair and hopelessness that goes along with depression can make suicide feel like the only way to escape the pain. Thoughts of death or suicide are a serious symptom of depression, so take any suicidal talk or behavior seriously. It’s not just a warning sign that the person is thinking about suicide: it’s a cry for help.

Warning signs of suicide include:

If you think a friend or family member is considering suicide, express your concern and seek professional help immediately. Talking openly about suicidal thoughts and feelings can save a life!

“A stent is placed in an artery as part of a procedure called percutaneous (per-ku-TA-ne-us) coronary intervention (PCI), sometimes referred to as coronary angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee). PCI restores blood flow through narrow or blocked arteries. A stent helps support the inner wall of the artery in the months or years after PCI.”

Go to striveforgoodhealth.com and learn about stents; a common savor in minor cardiac surgery for post blockages removed and to remain open.  Learn more about what a stent is!

A stent is a wire mesh tube that is used to help hold open an artery. To simple understanding this concept think of a plumber or a mechanic. With a plumber sometimes they have to replace a certain area of a pipe that connects the water or like a mechanic replacing a certain area of piping (like the muffler piping connected infront of the muffler than can either can be replaced or just welded with piece of piping welded just to save money. Well a stent opens the artery that was clogged and its put in that place to reinforce that area of the artery to remain open to allow blood to get to that heart from that coronary artery and it will stay there life to keep the artery permanently patent to prevent the blockage from happening again with the synthetic mesh piece. Description Stents are used to hold open diseased coronary arteries (these arteries supply blood to the heart), as well as diseased arteries of the peripheral vascular system (PVS). Peripheral means away from the heart the PVS is the arteries that supply blood to the rest of the body (again away from the heart all the way down to the hands and feet). There are variety of stents currently available. For a surgeon to find out if you even need one, first usually a angiogram is performed and this is a catheter simply from the femerol artery or from your arm to the coronary arteries. If the MD sees you show a blockage 80% or more an angioplasty is performed which is a balloon at the end of this catheter that blows up and decompresses to give the effect like punching gloves. The balloon inflates and deflates over and over again till the blockage breaks open free and then a stent is put in that area to help keep it open permanently (patent). Some stents have been compressed onto the outside of an angioplasty balloon catheter and delivered by inflating the balloon in the desired location. Other stents are “self- expanding” spring-loaded devices, which expand automatically upon deployment. Stents remain in arteries permanently. The tissue lining the arteries actually grows over the metal mesh to cover the inner lumen of the stent. Stent procedures have become very common like tonsillectomies were in childhood. Stents are sometimes used as an alternative to coronary artery bypass surgery, if the patient is a candidate. Stents are often used in combination with balloon angioplasty. One leads to the other depending on what the angioplasty displays for the surgeon on the T.V. in when they are doing the procedure and if the come up to a blockage high enough to perform the angioplasty followed with a stent it will be done. Stents are used in cases of “restenosis”, which refers to the re-closing of arteries after balloon angioplasty. In carefully selected patients, the use of stents can dramatically reduce restenosis following balloon angioplasty or other catheter-based procedures. Stents are used frequently to hold open the arteries that have been damaged, torn, or dissected by balloon angioplasty or other catheter-based procedures. Like plumber or mechanic, get it. Stents allow angioplasty to be done in patients with severe and long-segment obstruction of coronary arteries. As soon as the I initial part of the block is widened, a stent is place, which holds it open allowing further opening to proceed. Stents have also allowed angioplasty to be performed in patients with blocks of multiple vessels, and in multiple blocks in a single artery. Risks Risks include the standard risks of an interventional, catheter-based procedure, which should be specifically discussed with your doctor. Lesions treated with stents can “restenosis” (re- narrow with in weeks to months after the procedure) similar to restenosis associated with angioplasty. This is why patients after having a stent put in they are on a medication for example like Plavix for life to prevent this occurrence from happening. It is a anti platelet medication, meaning it doesn’t allow clotting to happen in the stent so blockage doesn’t reoccur through clotting. Many new technologies are being tested to reduce the problem of restenosis. These technologies include coating and coverings for the stent, new materials, and radiation. These new technologies are primarily experimental at this point and will reach soon to the market if not already. Technology allows the medical field to continuously expand and this will be replaced at one point but isn’t yet. Just give it time. At one point we had no CABG (coronary artery bypass) but now the stent in certain cases is replaced by angiograms to further expanding to angioplasties and stents furthering allowing the surgery to take place 1x hopefully if the patient is compliant in diet, exercise, and following the doctors orders with meds, activity and follow up visits (which are so vital).   A lot is up to the patient in caring or themselves to prevent having this take place again. Follow up Instructions Your doctor will recommend blood thinning medications following your stent procedure. These agents are usually given for one month post procedure along with aspirin and then continued indefinitely. Your doctor may also prescribe antibiotics for a period of time after the stent procedure, to be taken anytime you have a medical or dental procedure. Preventing infection. MRI tests should not be done for at least eight weeks without your doctor’s approval. Metal detectors do not present a problem. Stents appear to be safe in the long-term; there are no long-term complications associated with a permanent stent.

“When young men and women do marry, they typically smoke less, drink less, and use illegal drugs less. For example, single men drink almost twice as much as married men of the same age. In a recent national survey, one out of four young single men (ages 19 to 26) say their drinking causes them problems at work or problems with aggression, compared to about one in seven married guys the same age.”

Maggie Gallagher serves as Director of the Marriage Program at Institute for American Values and co-authored The Case for Marriage with Linda J. Waite

“The perception that this outbreak is an African problem is troubling. Many Americans have been vocal online about their belief that the U.S. should shut down its borders until the outbreak is under control and others have expressed their fear about people coming from that area of the world.  Certainly, the physicians who deal with global epidemics are not worried about the potential for a problem here in America.”

Dr. Manny Alvarez serves as Fox News Channel’s Senior Managing Editor for Health News.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is the human disease caused by the Ebola virus. Symptoms typically start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pains, and headaches. Typically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point, some people begin to have bleeding problems.^[1]

The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal (commonly monkeys or fruit bats).^[1] Spread through the air has not been documented in the natural environment.^[2] Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. In order to make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, cholera and other viral hemorrhagic fevers are first excluded. Blood samples may then be tested for viral antibodies, viral RNA, or the virus itself to confirm the diagnosis.^[1]

Prevention includes decreasing the spread of disease from infected monkeys and pigs to humans. This may be done by checking such animals for infection and killing and properly disposing of the bodies if the disease is discovered. Properly cooking meat and wearing protective clothing when handling meat may also be helpful, as are wearing protective clothing and washing hands when around a person with the disease. Samples of bodily fluids and tissues from people with the disease should be handled with special caution.^[1]

There is no specific treatment for the disease; efforts to help persons who are infected include giving either oral rehydration therapy (slightly sweet and salty water to drink) or intravenous fluids.^[1] The disease has high mortality rate: often killing between 50% and 90% of those infected with the virus

A Nigerian nurse who treated a man with Ebola is now dead and five others are sick with one of the world’s most virulent diseases, authorities said Wednesday as the death toll rose to at least 932 people in four West African countries.

The growing number of cases in Lagos, a megacity of some 21 million people, comes as authorities acknowledge they did not treat Patrick Sawyer as an Ebola patient and isolate him for the first 24 hours after his arrival in Nigeria last month. Sawyer, a 40-year-old American of Liberian descent with a wife and three young daughters in Minnesota, was traveling on a business flight to Nigeria when he fell ill.

Ben Webster, a Red Cross disaster response manager in London, said it is “critically important” that people displaying symptoms are identified quickly.

“It’s impossible to say whether this specific situation could have been avoided, but there is certainly more likelihood of travelers coming from an Ebola-affected country in the region and authorities need to be aware, even if the infrastructure and situation is challenging.”

In Saudi Arabia officials say a man who was being tested for the Ebola virus has died. The 40-year-old returned on Sunday from Sierra Leone, where at least 286 people have died from Ebola, and was then hospitalized in Jiddah after showing symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever.

There have now been at least 1,711 cases of Ebola this year, which has no proven vaccine or treatment, according to new figures released Wednesday by the World Health Organization. More than 932 people have died in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria as of Aug. 4, WHO said. In announcing the new deaths, WHO noted in particular that “community resistance remains high” in Liberia. Many fearful family members are refusing to bring sick relatives to isolation centers, preferring to treat them at home and pray for their survival as no proven cure or treatment exists for Ebola.

The difficulties in quarantining sick people are complicating efforts to stop Ebola’s spread.

Fear of the unknown is what creates a culture of fear and prejudice surrounding a health crisis – much like outbreaks of other diseases we’ve seen in countries around the world.

It would be doing the medical community, who are working so diligently to find a solution — as well as the world at large — a disservice to let the same sort of ignorance and misinformation cloud the Ebola crisis.

The perception that this outbreak is an African problem is troubling. Many Americans have been vocal online about their belief that the U.S. should shut down its borders until the outbreak is under control and others have expressed their fear about people coming from that area of the world.

“There has even been noticeably fewer international flights to these countries, leading to lower revenues and financial inflows,” the World Bank said this week.

a multitude of independent voices to relay all kinds of misinformation about the virus on social media. It’s actions like these that are putting America in harm’s way.

Panic is what has caused many people in African villages to have limited access to health care workers who can help contain this outbreak.

We don’t want a panic to make Americans lose sight of what is important. Let’s keep using our technology and science to help find a cure for Ebola and continue to help our brothers and sisters in Africa.

This is why it’s more important than ever to make as much information about screening and outcomes as we can available to the American public.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”

Lao Tzu