You can reduce your chances of getting heart disease by taking these steps:

Know your blood pressure. Your heart moves blood through your body. If it is hard for your heart to do this, your heart works harder, and your blood pressure will rise. People with high blood pressure often have no symptoms, so have your blood pressure checked every 1 to 2 years. If you have high blood pressure , your doctor may suggest you make some lifestyle changes, such as eating less salt (DASH Eating Plan) and exercising more. Your doctor may also prescribe medicine to help lower your blood pressure.

Don’t smoke. If you smoke, try to quit. If you’re having trouble quitting, there are products and programs that can help:

• Nicotine patches and gums
• Support groups
• Programs to help you stop smoking

Get tested for diabetes. People with diabetes have high blood glucose (often called blood sugar). People with high blood sugar often have no symptoms, so have your blood sugar checked regularly. Having diabetes raises your chances of getting heart disease. If you have diabetes, your doctor will decide if you need diabetes pills or insulin shots. Your doctor can also help you make a healthy eating and exercise plan.

Get your cholesterol and triglyceride levels tested. High blood cholesterol can clog your arteries and keep your heart from getting the blood it needs. This can cause a heart attack. Triglycerides are a form of fat in your blood stream. High levels of triglycerides are linked to heart disease in some people. People with high blood cholesterol or high blood triglycerides often have no symptoms, so have your blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels checked regularly. If your cholesterol or triglyceride levels are high, talk to your doctor about what you can do to lower them. You may be able to lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels by eating better and exercising more. Your doctor may prescribe medication to help lower your cholesterol.

Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight raises your risk for heart disease. Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if you are at a healthy weight. Eat a healthy diet and exercise at a moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Start by adding more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to your diet. Take a brisk walk on your lunch break or take the stairs instead of the elevator.

If you drink alcohol, limit it to no more than one drink (one 12 ounce beer, one 5 ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5 ounce shot of hard liquor) a day.

Find healthy ways to cope with stress. Lower your stress level by talking to your friends, exercising, or writing in a journal.

Eczema is an inflammatory skin response. It is chronic and has flare-ups and remissions. It is not contagious. Some eczema may run in families with a history of allergies. There are various types of eczema: some caused by allergies or irritating chemicals, others the result of other medical conditions such as varicose veins. In the early states the condition is characterized by dry, red, itchy skin. An acute attack may produce crusty scales or blisters.

About 10% of Americans suffer from atopic eczema. In 70% of the sufferers the condition runs in the family. Symptoms may clear up after a week or two or may persist for years, resulting in a chronic condition. Treatment may also vary from person to person.

Getting in and out of the bathtub or shower may be a dangerous task for many older adults. A study suggests a third of adults over age 60 have difficulty climbing in and out of the bathtub or shower, and more than 70 percent of those with shower stalls use unsafe features such as the glass door or towel bar for support.

“For older adults, losing the ability to bathe is associated with having falls, fracturing bones, and even being admitted to a nursing home. It is important that we take steps to help to prevent bathing disability before it occurs,” says researcher Susan L. Murphy, ScD, OTR, an occupational therapist at the University of Michigan Medical School’s division of geriatric medicine.

In the study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers videotaped 89 independently bathing adults over 60 as they demonstrated (fully clothed) how they normally get in and out of the shower or tub. The average age was 82 years, and most of the study participants were women.

Researchers examined their movement and noted if the participants had difficulty negotiating the environment or used things like grab bars, towel bars, shower curtains, glass doors, tub seats, or other parts of the tub to assist themselves.

The results showed that a third of the older adults had difficulty getting in or out of the bath. The most common problem was falling or difficulty positioning themselves onto a tub seat or into the bathtub.

About 30 percent of the participants hit the sides of the tub or the bath seat with their legs during the transfer.

Nineteen percent of the participants using a tub used unsafe features, and 70 percent of those with shower stalls used unsafe features.

The biggest problem was using sliding glass doors in shower stalls for stability or balance. More than three-fourths of older adults who had shower stalls used the sliding glass door for assistance.

“This is extremely unsafe because shower doors were not designed to support a person’s weight,” says Murphy. “This problem could be easily remedied by educating older adults not to use the door as a support or possibly replacing it with a shower curtain, which was used only rarely by older adults in this study.”

The second most commonly used unsafe feature was the towel bar, which was used by about half of the participants.

“While bathrooms in senior housing facilities are designed to be safe, we have found that older adults often do not know the difference between a grab bar and a towel bar. They also have unsafe strategies of getting into and out of their shower or tub,” says Murphy. “We think the results from this study demonstrate the need for health care professionals to become involved in helping to prevent bathing disability, instead of just treating people in the hospital after they have had a fall in the bathroom.”

For our customers that want the added benefit of healthy liquid supplements, Ensure drink, Ensure Plus and Boost Plus sold at Disposable Medical Express is here to help. Available in tasty flavors such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, these liquid supplements provide vital vitamins and nutrients. We’ll ship these products to your door so that you never have to go to a store again. We can even ship them to your home automatically every 30 days.

Pelvic Floor Exercises or Kegel exercises are one of the treatments for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The exercises are designed to make your pelvic floor stronger and make you more able to tighten your pelvic floor muscles before pressure increases in your abdomen (example: when you sneeze, cough or laugh).

How do I do the exercise?

Identify the muscles

First you need to find your pelvic floor muscles. Try to tighten your muscles around your vagina and back passage and lift up, as if you’re stopping yourself from passing water and wind at the same time. A quick way of finding the right muscles is by trying to stop the flow of urine when you’re on the toilet. Don’t do this regularly because you may start retaining urine. Once you’ve found the muscles, make sure you relax and empty your bladder completely. You can add resistance to the exercise through gripping a hard object such as a Kegel exerciser.

Contract the muscles correctly

The movement is an upward and inward contraction, not a bearing-down effort. When you first start the exercises, check that you are doing them correctly. Put your hands on your abdomen and buttocks to make sure you can’t feel your belly, thighs, or buttocks moving. Don’t hold your breath. You should be able to hold a conversation at the same time or try counting aloud while you’re doing the exercises. Don’t tighten the tummy, thigh, or buttock muscles because you’ll be exercising the wrong muscle groups.

Fast and slow contractions

You need to train your pelvic floor muscles through repetition, in the same way as you would train a muscle.

Slow contractions:

Slow contractions help to increase the strength of your pelvic floor. They help your muscles to hold back the urine. Lift your pelvic floor muscles to a count of ten. Hold the muscles tight for 10 seconds. You may find at first that you can only hold the contraction for one or two seconds, so concentrate on lifting your muscles and holding the contraction for as long as you can. Gradually increase the time until you reach 10 seconds. Relax your muscles and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat the contractions up to 10 times.

Fast contractions

Fast contractions help your pelvic floor to cope with pressure, for example when you sneeze, cough or laugh. This works the muscles that quickly shut off the flow of urine. Lift your pelvic floor muscles quickly. Hold the contraction for one second. Relax the muscles and rest for one second. Repeat the contractions 10 times.

How do I know they are working?

You can test your muscle strength with the stop-start test. When you urinate, partially empty your bladder and then try to stop the flow of urine. If you can’t stop it completely, slowing it is a good start. Try the test every two weeks or so to see if your muscles are getting stronger. Don’t do the test more often than this.

The pros of pelvic floor exercises

They’re simple, cheap and effective. You can do them when sitting, standing or lying down.

The downside of pelvic floor exercises

You have to keep doing them for the rest of your life. It can take up to 15 weeks before you see any difference. If you haven’t noticed a difference after three months, see your doctor.

Swollen feet, sometimes called edema, is a condition where the muscles in the feet have an excessive fluid buildup. Gravity pulls the fluid to your ankles and feet.

Swelling can be a symptom of a serious problem, a sports injury, pregnancy, heart disease, fluid retention, kidney problems or another condition. If your feet swell chronically see your doctor.

Slight swelling of the lower legs commonly occurs in warm summer months. Slight swelling is more likely to occur if a person has been standing or walking a lot.

Traditional treatment might include any or all of these suggestions:

• Elevate your feet and legs. Place a pillow under your heels, and prop your feet on a chair or high stool. Use a leg wedge to elevate while sleeping.
• Dip your feet into a tub of cold water or sit on the side of the bath with your feet under a cold-water tap. After this put your feet up for a while.
• Reduce your salt intake. Salt causes you to retain water.
• Do not abuse laxatives.
• Take diuretics if prescribed by your doctor. Diuretics increase urination by pulling excess fluid out of your cellular tissues.
• Practice good health habits. Proper nutrition and daily exercise improve the health of your cardiovascular system and your circulation, helping to reduce the tendency of your feet to swell.
• Wear support socks or stockings and well fitting shoes.

Order too many incontinence products at most medical supply stores and you’ll be stuck with them. Not at Disposable Medical Express. We’ll buy products back from you — even if it’s just a few. We don’t want our customers stuck with any unnecessary product. That’s why we’ll buy incontinence supplies back if you order too many. This special offer is available on disposable briefs, disposable diapers and disposable underwear.

Not everyone has all of the warning signs of heart attack. And, sometimes these signs can go away and come back.

Symptoms of a heart attack include:

• Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest
• Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including the arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach
• Other symptoms, such as shortness of breath (feeling like you can’t get enough air), breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea (feeling sick to your stomach), or feeling faint or woozy

Some women have more vague symptoms such as:

• Unusual tiredness
• Trouble sleeping
• Problems breathing
• Indigestion (upset stomach)
• Anxiety (feeling uneasy or worried)

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in all parts of the body. When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, cholesterol can build up on the walls of your arteries and cause blood clots. Cholesterol can clog your arteries and keep your heart from getting the blood it needs. This can cause a heart attack.

There are two types of cholesterol:

• Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is often called the “bad” type of cholesterol because it can clog the arteries that carry blood to your heart. For LDL, lower numbers are better.
• High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is known as “good” cholesterol because it takes the bad cholesterol out of your blood and keeps it from building up in your arteries. For HDL, higher numbers are better.

What do my cholesterol and triglyceride numbers mean?

Total cholesterol level -

• Less than 200 mg/dL is best.
• If your total cholesterol is less than 200 mg/dL then that’s desirable
• If your total cholesterol is 200 - 239 mg/dL then it’s borderline high
• If your total cholesterol is 240 mg/dL and above then it’s high

LDL (bad) cholesterol -

• Less than 100 mg/dL is best.
• 100-129 mg/dL then it’s near optimal/above optimal
• 130-159 mg/dL then it’s borderline high
• 160-189 mg/dL then it’s high
• 190 mg/dL and above then it’s very high

• HDL (good) cholesterol - Higher is better. More than 60 mg/dL is best.
• Triglyceride levels - Lower is better. Less than 150mg/dL is best.

The best in customer service and quality products are what you’ll find at Discount Medical Express. Our reputation — and our incontinence products — depend on serving our customers with the utmost respect and dignity. We carry brand name products such as Tranquility diapers and Nova walkers to ensure that your loved one is cared for the right way. We’ll ship your products to your door quickly and discreetly. We’re here to help.