Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says
Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says |
- Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says
- Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says
- Why Older Adults Are Happier
- Personal Development: 5 Playfully Crazy Tips That Can Unleash Your Creative Potential and Boost Your Creativity
- The Simplify Your Day Challenge in June
- There is no one to have compassion, no one to have compassion for
- Meditation reduces PTSD symptoms in nurses
| Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says Posted: 31 May 2013 01:01 PM PDT
Allergy medications may help you get through the spring and summer months, but it's important to know that the drugs could affect your ability to drive, the Food and Drug Administration is reminding consumers today (May 29). These medications, which contain antihistamines, can sometimes cause drowsiness and slower reaction times, the FDA said. Consumers should read the drug facts label on their medication to see whether drowsiness is a side effect. If an allergy medication causes drowsiness, people need to be cautious about deciding to drive or operate machinery, the FDA says. People should avoid using alcohol, sedatives (sleep medications) and tranquilizers when taking allergy medication because these substances may increase drowsiness. [See Will Allergies Be Worse in 2013?] Those who switch to a new antihistamine drug should not assume they can take the same dose as they did with the older drug, the FDA says. Different allergy medications may be dosed differently, and people may need to alter the dose they take. People should not take more than the recommended dose. "If the correct dosage isn't providing you the relief you expect, don't simply keep taking more and more of that product," FDA pharmacist Ayana Rowley said in a statement. Instead, people should consult a health care professional, Rowley said. Allergy sufferers should be aware that some allergy medications take longer to work than others. In addition, the drowsiness you feel after taking the medication may last some time, including into the next day, the FDA said. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on LiveScience. MORE FROM LiveScience.com
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| Allergy Meds Can Pose Driving Hazard, FDA Says Posted: 31 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT
Allergy medications may help you get through the spring and summer months, but it's important to know that the drugs could affect your ability to drive, the Food and Drug Administration is reminding consumers today (May 29). These medications, which contain antihistamines, can sometimes cause drowsiness and slower reaction times, the FDA said. Consumers should read the drug facts label on their medication to see whether drowsiness is a side effect. If an allergy medication causes drowsiness, people need to be cautious about deciding to drive or operate machinery, the FDA says. People should avoid using alcohol, sedatives (sleep medications) and tranquilizers when taking allergy medication because these substances may increase drowsiness. [See Will Allergies Be Worse in 2013?] Those who switch to a new antihistamine drug should not assume they can take the same dose as they did with the older drug, the FDA says. Different allergy medications may be dosed differently, and people may need to alter the dose they take. People should not take more than the recommended dose. "If the correct dosage isn't providing you the relief you expect, don't simply keep taking more and more of that product," FDA pharmacist Ayana Rowley said in a statement. Instead, people should consult a health care professional, Rowley said. Allergy sufferers should be aware that some allergy medications take longer to work than others. In addition, the drowsiness you feel after taking the medication may last some time, including into the next day, the FDA said. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on LiveScience. MORE FROM LiveScience.com
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| Posted: 31 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT
WASHINGTON — People tend to get happier as they age, and a new study could explain why: Older adults may be better able to deal with negative emotions like anger and anxiety. In the study, older adults were less likely than younger adults to feel angry and anxious in their everyday lives, as well as when they were asked to perform a stressful task. In addition, older adults scored higher on a test designed to measure how well participants accept their negative emotions. The researchers call this trait "acceptance," or a tendency to be in touch with rather than avoid negative emotions. The results may explain a paradox that's been seen in many other studies: Despite declines in physical and mental health, older adults are happier than young or middle-age adults. [5 Reasons Aging Is Awesome] Younger people could take advantage of the findings to experience more happiness well before they grow old, said study researcher Iris Mauss, a psychologist and assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "Acceptance is good for anyone," Mauss said. "It just seems to be the case that older people use it more than younger people. They're sort of wise to it." The study involved 340 adults ages 21 to 73 who rated their anger and anxiety levels each day over a two-week period, and before and after they were required to give an on-camera speech with little time to prepare. Participants also rated statements to gauge their level of emotional acceptance, such as "I tell myself I shouldn't be feeling the way that I'm feeling," and "I think some of my emotions are bad or inappropriate and I shouldn't feel them." (Participants who said that these statements were "very often true" would be considered to have lower acceptance.) The researchers don't know why the ability to accept negative emotions gets better with age. But one idea is that, as people grow old, they experience more life events that are out of their control, such as disease and the death of loved ones. With more of these life experiences, people may learn that it is futile to try to control such events, and that there are things that they need to accept, Mauss said. The study was presented here at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science on May 24. It was published in the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND,Facebook & Google+. Originally published on LiveScience. MORE FROM LiveScience.com
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| Posted: 31 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT  Do you ever feel like you're stuck on autopilot and not tapping into your creative side? You're so entrenched in your daily routine that hours and hours can pass without ever fully engaging your brain in a more expanded way. Being stuck on autopilot can be helpful and gets the job done - when the job is boring and repetitive, but what happens when you need to be creative? Getting those creative juices flowing when you're stuck in a repetitive rut can be difficult. You need to create a looser environment with no distractions to allow yourself to slip into creative flow. Yep, if you want to get your creative juices flowing you need to loosen the tight grip of your schedule and your thinking by shaking up your routine. Here are 5 playfully crazy tips to get your creative juices flowing.     Read More @ Source | ||
| The Simplify Your Day Challenge in June Posted: 31 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT By Leo BabautaAre you up for a 30-day challenge that will make your days simpler, more focused, less stressful? Starting tomorrow (June 1), my Sea Change Program members are tackling the Simplify Your Day Challenge, and I'm inviting you to join us. The challenge will be tracked through with Lift, the excellent habit-tracking app on the iPhone … and Lift is now offering early access to the new web version of the app, for Sea Change members. The Simplify Your Day Challenge is to say "No" to one thing per day. What kinds of things should you say "No" to? Well, not to the important stuff! Instead, say "No" to:
You don't have to say "No" to all of those every day. In fact, during the challenge, I'll ask you to focus on a different area each week. You should do this habit first thing each day, as you start your work day. For some of you, that's almost immediately after waking (when you open your computer to check email). For others, that's when you arrive at the office. Whenever you start, make this habit your first action, every day. If you get good at saying "No" to these things, at least once per day, your day will become simpler. Why? Because you'll have time for the important things — your most important work, creative work, time for exercise and eating healthy and meditating, time for loved ones and for yourself. The PlanSo what's the plan for the challenge?
It's simple, but you have to commit to the full month if you really want to see it work. I think it'll be an amazing challenge, and I hope you'll join us. Read More @ Source | ||
| There is no one to have compassion, no one to have compassion for Posted: 30 May 2013 10:00 PM PDT
And the etymology of compassion — "[to be] with suffering" — has also been cited as a reason for rejecting the notion of self-compassion, because that's taken to suggest that we be with the suffering of others. But it can be misleading to insist that the etymology of a word defines or exhausts its present meaning. Sure, com- means with and passion means suffering. But we can be with (our own) suffering. And in any event dictionaries are necessarily a simplification of how language is actually used, and it's not always the case that definitions correspond to reality. Having said that, though, the Oxford English dictionary actually has an entry for self-compassion, which should lay the dictionary argument to rest:
As you'll see, the term self-compassion goes back at least to 1654. I've also found an example of the term from 1677, where it appears in Richard Allestree's The Art of Contentment:
The argument that's put forward in support of the compassion being inherently directed at others seems to rest on the assumption that the self is a unified and unitary thing, that therefore cannot relate to itself. But common-sense and experience show that we do in fact relate to ourselves all the time. We can have anger toward ourselves; we can have love toward ourselves. We can have hatred toward ourselves; we can have compassion toward ourselves. An awareness of neuroscience helps us here as well. The human mind is not a unified entity. The brain has evolved in fits and starts, and isn't "designed" like a building that's been planned from the ground up, but is more like an old house that's had extensions built over the years. So the brain functions as a set of modules with different functions, and they relate to each other. They have to communicate with each other. So one part of the brain may be generating feelings of anxiety, while another may be offering reassurance and comfort. One part of us is experiencing pain; another part is experiencing compassion toward that pain. And this brings up a deeper level of understanding of suffering and compassion: the experience of stress arises, and yet it's not right to say that there is a self who experiences that suffering, although it's also incorrect to say that there's no self to experience that suffering! Because the human brain is not a unified entity, the human mind is not a unified entity, and so there is no unified "self" to experience suffering. Suffering is experienced. That's all. Who experiences the suffering? Well, as soon as we ask that question we have assumed that there is a "who" doing the experiencing. And the Buddha was encouraging us to drop that assumption: "Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering." The Buddha also made a very interesting statement in talking about how he, as an enlightened being, didn't think in terms of there being a thing that is experienced or a person who does the experiencing:
So if we apply that to suffering, then there is an experiencing of suffering, but we should drop the notion that "I" am suffering. There's just the experiencing, with no thought of "a self." And in responding to suffering, there's similarly a response, without any assumption that there is a self to do any responding, or other selves to respond to. There's simply a perception of suffering, and a spontaneous response of compassion. Now it doesn't matter whether this suffering is experienced "internally" or whether it's experienced "externally." There's just this perception of suffering, and the spontaneous response of compassion.  If you like my articles and want to support what I do, click here to buy my books, guided meditation CDs, and MP3s.
So it doesn't matter whether the suffering that we're responding to is "our" suffering or the suffering of another. The suffering is experienced, and compassion arises. If suffering arises externally or internally, the most fitting response is compassion. In fact, to single out "our" suffering as not capable of being responded to with compassion, or not worthy of being responded to with compassion, is an example of the very obsession with self that the Buddha was encouraging us to abandon. The Diamond Sutra took this idea, which is implicit in the Buddha's teachings (he really didn't like talking about "being and non-being") and ran with it:
Ironically, it's only through dropping the notion of self and other, through dropping the notion of "beings," that we can be truly compassionate. When we truly realize that there is no one to have compassion, no one to have compassion for, then stable unconditioned compassion can arise. So in a sense, there is no one to have compassion, no one to have compassion for. Yet suffering arises, and so does compassion, and when we're awakened we'll finally drop this troubling obsession about who is experiencing pain and who has compassion. It all simply happens, and that's enough. Read More @ Source | ||
| Meditation reduces PTSD symptoms in nurses Posted: 30 May 2013 05:00 PM PDT
More than 7 million adults nationwide are diagnosed with PTSD in a typical year, according to background information for the study, which is scheduled for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. PTSD patients have high levels of corticotrophin-releasing hormone and unusually low levels of cortisol, both of which regulate the body's response to stress. Although levels of cortisol typically rise in response to pressure, PTSD patients have abnormally low levels of cortisol… Read the original article » Read More @ Source |
A couple of times people have contacted me saying that self-compassion is not possible. Both times they've quoted dictionary definitions that present compassion as something that's inherently directed toward others. For example:
Nurse.com: Practicing a form of meditation and stretching can help relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and normalize stress hormone levels, according to a study of nurses.| You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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