The Power of Relationships

"The relationship between a person and  another is the most powerful therapeutic tool there is!"

Why is it some people are able to heal, progress rapidly and/or make amazing life style changes; and some people can't or don't? It is often due to the strength/existence of their personal and clinical RELATIONSHIPS- Carl Rogers (famous phsychologist who developed the foundation for Western Education System).

I am going to tell you the THREE qualities that you can develop which have the ability to transform a regular relationship into a therapeutic one too (this means it has the capacity to treat, prevent or manage disease)!

(I think this applies to clinical relationships AS WELL AS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS)

1. Respect
2. Genuineness (trustworthy)
3. Empathy

  RESPECT: what exactly is this? this is accepting someone as they are without being judgmental.  It's looking at someone as an individual and as a valued member of society and YOUR life.

GENUINENESS: this is the ability to be YOURSELF in a relationship despite your role (i.e. mother, wife, friend, employee...).  Also, added by me, I feel it is having a true and honest interest on their behalf.  You really want the best for that person... regardless how reckless, obnoxious, wonderful they are!

EMPATHY: This one is really important to distinguish from sympathy.  To have empathetic qualities you gain the ability to "APPRECIATE" that person's experiences.  THE ACTIONS associated with empathy include: LISTENING to total communication which include their gestures, feelings AND words.

Remember when dealing with your loved ones, peers, coleugues, and co-workers that YOUR RELATIONSHIP with them is scientifically proven to be ONE of the BEST defenses against disease, or disease progression, and/or healing from disease (and for your own "warm fuzzies").

Certain phrases can have a calming effect, no MATTER HOW STRESSED THEY ARE: these statements are those which ACKNOWLEDGE fears, feelings & concerns - this allows someone to feel "heard and validated."

 So think twice before damaging your relationships, because there is more at stake than meets the eye!!!

Love, Kim :)

Medication: To Take or Not to Take!

So, I feellike this debate rages on and on and on and on, including with myself. To give you a bit of background, before I started PA school I was very fearful of medication in general.  I actually had many long "thinking-periods" where I actually wondered if being a PA was a good choice for me.  I felt this way because I almost felt that there were very few good reasons to take medications and had learned much about a lot of big Pharm conspiracy theories (which many are often true).  But, after much reflection, some prayer regarding the subject and ultimately starting school and now in my third pharm class I have come to, I think a solid bit of advice to the world regarding medication:

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH"

What I mean by this, to try and put it short, is that many medications truly are little miracles, BUT you must recognize that they are not the type of miracle that occurs without consequences.  When deciding to take medications, please use the mindset of pro's and con's. I will ASSURE YOU that often the pro's of medication outweigh the con's, and make sure that when you take these medications you are not ignorant of their side effects.  

I usually would fully support a combination of health care including: EXERCISE, WATER INTAKE, SLEEP, HEALTHY EATING (which is a whole other post), and MEDICATION. You can truly get optimal results when combining all forms of treatment.  Do not rely solely on medication, and think of it as a "no-effort" quick-fix to your problems, because if you do this, you WILL develop other problems that did not exist before.  Be wary of medication, be smart about them, but most of all do not fear them... just be cautious and realize many of them are truly miraculous, but not without some side effects.  You are not above the side effects of medication, but if you do weigh pro's vs. con's and couple it with LIFESTYLE CHANGES, I really think you will NOT REGRET YOUR MEDICATION USAGE!

I plan on doing a medication spotlight once a week on commonly used medications so stay tuned!

as always, Love Kim

READ THIS BEFORE YOU DIE....!!!

So IF I could tell you that if you could do ONE thing that has the capacity to decrease aging, improve ALL of your health in pretty much EVERY way, decrease your chances of  cancer and EVERY other illness blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

Do you think this is even possible?  Could such a thing exist and us know about it?  How about you sit for a second before I give you the answer and try to think if this is a joke or not.


















I will now reveal the answer to this question,    ........
                                             

                                               EXERCISE!!!!
I know so simple right!  But, in my classes and over the last little while, I have notices a theme, and according to my professor Coleen, there is only ONE thing that has been scientifically proven consistently EVERY single time, that has shown time and time again to be your best defense vs. disease states of all forms.

I like to look at this example as analogous to the Children of Israel (I know this is a stretch).  The Children of Israel were traveling in the wilderness for 40 years, they were close to the promised land, they asked the king of another land if they could pass through because it was a short-cut and this king denied their request, so they had to go the long way, which was slow and hard, and it let to a lot of complaining and murmuring. The Lord sent poisonous serpents, and they bit them.  Then Moses prayed to the Lord and asked the Lord what they should do to be healed, so the Lord told Moses to make a brass serpent and place it on a staff and whoever looked upon it would be healed.   But, it is so interesting to note that there were many of them who refused to look upon the staff, because it just seemed far too simple. 

BTW if you have ever seen the symbol of MEDICINE IT IS A STAFF WITH A SERPENT WRAPPED AROUND IT, THAT STORY  OF MOSES IS ITS FOUNDATION!

Maybe my analogy is far off base, but I think it has some merit, that being; we have been told soooo many times how good exercise is for us, but yet so many of us (including myself) just refuse to do it, or expend vast amounts of money and energy into other possibly fruitless, or far lesser things.  Now this does not mean that if you DO exercise you will never be sick, but it definitely reduces most ailments a lot.  So are you ignoring solid counsel, hoping for an easy fix/miracle to come around? 

It is recommended to eventually work up to 30 minutes of exercise 5-6 times a week, preferably cardio, but women do not forget the power of weight training & toning (that's a whole other topic!).

Hope you enjoyed my reiteration of profound wisdom that we all know and have heard over and over again!

Publish Post

Is your Doctor Wacky???

Have you ever wondered "Is my doctor wacky?" when you go into a physical and the doctro starts telling you to puff out your cheeks, stick out your tounge, shrug your shoulders, blink your eyes etc... It doesn't make any sense.  I am going to tell you that each one of those movements really does have a lot of information and value and here's why?

 

When your doctor asks you to smell, or asks about your "smelling ability" he is actually testing your Olfactory Nerve.  If you were to have a decrease in smell or loss of smell, this could indicate an abnormality in this nerve.

When your Doctor looks inside your eyes with that "little light instrument" called a fundoscope he is actually looking at the Optic nerve which leaves the back of your eye.  When he tests your visual acuity (i.e. read the eye chart E F P D....) he is also evaluating the optic nerve.  If you were to loose vision in a certain area of your eye this can indicate which side of the optic nerve there is a problem. For example if you loose your vision in only your right eye, he would deduce that a problem might exist in the Right optic nerve and NOT the left optic nerve.  It gets a lot more complicated from here, but it's fun to learn.

When your doctor makes you follow his finger while he draws an "H" in the air and eventually puts his finger between your eyes so you are then cross-eyed, he is testing THREE nerves.  Each one of the these nerves innervates different muscles in your eyes and therefore are responsible for certain movements.  For example if you look to the right, one of your eyes might be able to go much further to the right than the other, this can indicate either weakness of that specific muscle or a problem with the nerve innervating that muscle.  I think it's funny because many of us have a hard time going "cross-eyed" and this indicated weak eye muscles (usually not a nerve problem).  Soooo in yoga there is something called "eye-exercises" in order to keep these muscles strong.  Check it out!

When your doctor asks you to open your mouth, and touches your face with cotton balls, this is not for pure enjoyment, it is actually to locate different sensation patterns on your face.  If you were to have less or no feeling on your left forehead compared to your right forehead, the doctor could deduce that there is an abnormality in a branch of the Trigeminal nerve (which innervates your entire face via 6 branches). The facial nerve also innervates the muscles that help you open your mouth, if you can't open your mouth..... nerve problem??? maybe
.

When your doctor asks you to puff out your cheeks, raise your eyebrows, frown, smile... he is actually testing different branches of the Facial nerve.  If you notice sometimes people can smile higher on one side than the other, this could indicate less innervation on that side.  Each facial action test each area of the facial nerve, so look to see if things are the same on both sides of your face.  If you had a problem with certain branches you might not be able to lift your right eyebrow, but you can your left.

I think this one is self-explanatory - your vestibulocochlear nerve tests your hearing, but when and if your Dr. tickles your ear canal with cotton, he is also testing a reflex to make sure this nerve has sensation and not only "hearing" function.

Have you ever wondered why the Dr asks you to say AHHHHHH, it is not to see if you can speak, he is actually looking at the funky peach drop from the top of your mouth called the uvula.  He is looking to see if it RISES (look in the mirror and see it rise) because if it doesn't or only half of it does, this indicates a nerve problem with the glossopharyngeal, vagus nerve!

A simple shrug of your shoulders tells the doctor if your Spinal Accessory nerve is intact...

Last but not least, when the doctor tells you to stick out your tongue he is actually testing the strength of your hypoglossal nerve.  Sometimes people might be able to stick out their tongue but it might go to one side, this indicates that the other side is not working or weak etc...

So I hope this was fun for you so next time your Wacky doctor plays "head, shoulders, knees and toes" you can be happy to do it!
smell, watch, cross-eyes, open your mouth, tickle-tickle your face, raise your eyebrows, puff out your cheeks, smile, frown, tickle-tickle your ear, AHHHHHHH, shoulder shrug, stick out your tongue... YOU'VE JUST TESTED ALL TEN OF THE CRANIAL NERVES!!! good job!

Pregnant!!! MY SISTER.... not me!

So some good news on my side of the family, my sister Sara is Pregnant!!!! This will be the first grand-baby for my parents!!!  This is so exciting, I can't wait to have a little neice/nephew in January.  I know Sara & Cody are going to be great parents and I can't wait to me the little peanut!


Kim :)

CYSTITIS!!!

.... Better known as bladder infection.  I bet you can guess what my lecture was about today!

I decided to write a little bit about this because there are 150 million cases worldwide each year and Women are 30X more likely to get a bladder infection than men.

I have known many who suffer form this and it is extremely painful, so some info!

Some risk factors include,  first; the use of spermacide (with the ingredient nonoxynol-9- AVOID THIS) and secondly FAILURE TO EMPTY THE BLADDER, i.e. holding your urine for long periods of time.  This is extremely important, when you have to go to the bathroom, GO!  Thirdly, dehydration.  It is extremely important that you drink plenty of WATER so as to keep your urine at a dilute concentration. 

Some ways to avoid getting cystitis include: going to the bathroom regularly, good hygiene, POST-SEX voiding, hydration and .... STRAIGHT UP CRANBERRY JUICE (none of the 15% sweetened stuff, 100% pure).

Something to think about too if they are recurrent, is to consider doing a cleanse which would reset your natural flora.  I often would suggest things like all-natural cleanses using pure fruit and vegetable juices after you use antibiotics, so as to reset the flora of your gut and pelvis, because antibiotics are necessary to kill the "bad guys" but also kills the "good guys."  So consider past antibiotic history, if you get recurrent bladder infections.

Also note that it is important to treat bladder infections IMMEDIATELY as they can travel to your kidneys and turn into a medical emergency.

Hope this is informative!  If you have children this can be a concern so be aware!

TTYS, Kim

Water vs. Gatorade (or some-other electrolyte drink)

So.... I figured I would share some more of what I am learning every second of every day, maybe it's not interesting to anyone but me, but maybe not.  I am going to try to apply real-life scenarios that are applicable to you and I vs. just telling you the science behind everything.

So, have you ever wondered why athletes who overexert themselves have often passed out or even died after "cooling down" or drinking water after an "extreme (I mean a very hard)" work-out?

To start at the beginning your plasma salt concentration is mediated by two main processes: 1. antidiuretic hormone release (from the pituitary gland) and 2. THIRST.  It is absolutely essential that we drink enough fluid, so we can maintain the volume of our cells (in particular our brain - 85% water). The status of your hydration is accurately measured and managed by SALT concentrations.  When an individual/athlete exercises vigorously they sweat, and sweat has salt in it (if you lick your sweat it tastes salty- mmmmmm!). So when you loose lots and lots of salt, it throws your water balance off, and because salt is what keeps water in the blood stream, when salt leaves (via sweat),the water goes into your tissues; In particular your BRAIN. your brain SWELLS!

so to get to the first question; if you were to replenish your fluids with water (which does not have any electrolytes/salt...) you would only increase the swelling of the brain. Your body needs a drink that has electrolytes in it such as salt and others...which would pull the fluid OUT of your brain, back into your blood and eventually you PEE!

So, normally I ALWAYS advocate for people to drink MORE water because we are all walking around with a brain functioning at 75% instead of 100% because most of us are all dehydrated. BUT in the case of extreme workouts, especially if you are sweating a lot and especially if you are doing them consistently, I advocate for GATORADE or a good all-natural alternative coconut water (which is naturally high in electrolytes, without added sugar).

(don't go crazy thinking your brain is swelling every time you work out, just be concious of extreme workouts such as Bikram Yoga etc... that cause excessive sweating) & DON'T GO EATING A LOT OF SALT, BECAUSE EXCESS SALT CAUSES A HOST OF PROBLEMS, JUST STICK TO H2O AND GATORADE ETC...

BTW this is WHY Gatorade was invented in Florida for their football team!  Because they were passing out too much!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

I just wanted to shout out to all the fathers out there "Happy fathers day!" in particular my father - Stephen R. Mahoney.  

May dad has always been so special to me.  I am grateful for his kindness and love, and for everything he's taught me.  I think what I've learned most from him is the value of hard work. But, along with that also the value of enjoying life and having fun weather it be by camping, BBQ's, boating, or mowing the lawn!  I just have always felt such a great amount of gratitude for my dad's support, and his ability to always be someone I can talk to and communicate with, without feelings of inadequacy. I am always so impressed with a father's ability to work everyday for his family and to give up so much of himself to support his children.  I feel like mothers get a lot of the credit, but fathers deserve a lot too.  I have always felt that fathers have a very special ability to give to their kids and at the same time keep awesome humor which lightens up each day and makes it exciting!

So dad I love you and thanks for being such a great dad!  I love you lots and always will

Love, Kim

Power of Gratitude/Appreciation/Positivity

So I wanted to share with you some incredible "scientific" findings that I am learning about, that in my opinion coincide sooooo well with church doctrine that I have been taught since I was born.

To make long story short, the heart has been scientifically proven to have it's own nervous system that surrounds it (i.e. it has in essence it's own brain). It has been shown that there are more neurologic pathways that leave FROM the heart and travel TO the brain, than there are opposite pathways. For so long science and medicine has convinced itself that the brain is entirely in charge of everything that goes on in the body, but as it turns out the heart has its own functioning body and in essence can tell and send commands/signals to the brain. So what this means for us is that the term "listen with your heart" "lead with your heart" or the description of the Holy Ghost in which it starts as a "warm feeling in your hear and spreads to the rest of the body" is entirely accurate scientifically! Something really interesting to note is that heart transplant patients do not have any neurologic connections to their brain, because surgeons do not, at this point in time, know how to reconnect the heart with the brain, so once the new heart is successfully "hooked up" via it's valves, surgeons pretty much wait for the heart to "self-initiate" and start pumping due to it's own (sometimes with a little help from paddles).

To take this one step further... if you were to take a stressful situation or a very saddening experience and illicit feelings of gratitude or happiness (due to a remembered scenario or situation from past) and then breath in for 5 out for 5 you can change your brain wave patterns via controlling your heart rate to a point of maximal functioning. What this means is that when we are upset, frustrated, depressed, sad our brain functioning decreases drastically, but by simply taking a couple minutes and sitting still, and breathing in and out, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY focusing on something positive/something you're grateful for, within just a few minutes you can dramatically change your brain cortical functioning to a very optimal level.

I learned this in class because we actually used software to demonstrate the principle which was hooked up to our pulses. IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE; that the stressful situation itself was not eliminated or changed, it was purely our response to the stimulus that was changed and actually started in our HEART and our heart was able to manipulate our cognitive functioning.

So remember WE ARE NEVER VICTIMS OF OUR EMOTIONAL SITUATIONS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR SERIOUSNESS, we DO have the capacity to train our minds and bodies to respond in a more positive manner and essentially, perform in the best way possible, given our situations. I do not want to make light of anyone's stress, as stress can be very difficult to handle, but please consider the idea of POSITIVITY & GRATITUDE, BECAUSE OUR PROPHET TRULY KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT, WHEN HE SUGGESTS THAT WE BE "MORE GRATEFUL."

this science is called Heartmath, website www.heartmath.org

Nathan & Sara Visit in April 2010

So I realize how long it has been since I posted anything, so I thought I would post a few pictures of when Jakes brother Nathan and his sister Sara came to visit in April. I loved having them visit, they were so much fun. Most of the pictures are compliments of aspiring photographer Sara. We went to alcatraz and the beach. When we were getting cupcakes with our good friends Bekah & Kyle & Nate and Sara we saw Merideth from one of our favorite shows "The Office." One of our favorite activities was taking Nate and Sara (and Bekah & Kyle) to eat at the Sushi Boat, where we all sat around a bar like setting that had the sushi chef in the middle with a river flowing around the small sushi kitchen. On the river were miniature boats with plates of sushi, each plate with different kinds. The price is based on the kind of plate that you choose. It was such a fun experience and Sara especially loved it!

There is nothing funner for us than when people come to visit, so please come visit beautiful San Francisco!

Love Kim!

Mom visits!

Sorry this has been such a long time since we have posted, sometimes I think we forget that we have a blog, but I am posting a few fun pictures of when my mom came to visit in the beginning of May. It was great to have her out to see us, she was able to come one week after she graduated from nursing school (AMAZING!). We had a
blast. We went to the Japanese Tea Gardens, and drove around in little yellow cars all over the city. I took her to my favorite asian cuisine and we went to a great french bakery. All in all a great trip, and it sure was fun having her visit! It is always sad to see my family go when they go, but we'll see each other soon!

Kim