World Arthritis Day: Easy alternative cures to ease arthritis pain

17

SHARES

 Share on Facebook

 

 Share on Twitter

 

Comment

 

Zee Media Bureau/Udita Madan

​New Delhi: In this day and age of technological advancement and dependence, arthritis is a common problem, especially with people who are 40 years old and above.

Arthritis is a degenerative and painful medical condition marked by inflammation in the joints that can lead to pain and stiffness.

Conventionally, doctors treated arthritis with the use of anti-inflammatory medications as well as painkillers.

Some medications, however, can lead to side-effects and therefore, naturally approaching its treatment is the way to go now. Today, on World Arthritis Day, we'll tell you exactly how you can go about it.

But, before you try these remedies, ensure that you consult your doctor.

1. Acupuncture: An ancient Chinese medical practice in which needles are inserted into specific points on the body, accupuncture is believed to re-route the energies and restore balance. Studies have proven that acupuncture can reduce arthritis pain.

2. Go herbal: There are a lot of herbal supplements on the market that can aid in reducing joint pain. Some herbs that can be used especially for the treatment of arthritis pain include devil’s claw, boswellia, bromelain, stinging nettle, ginkgo and thunder god vine. It is advisable to consult your doctor before going ahead with this option.

3. Shed those extra kilos: Your knees carry more than 50 percent of your body’s weight and therefore, the more you weigh the more your knees will hurt. Extra weight can put lot of pressure on the joints, knees and hips. Therefore, by reducing strain on these joints, you will be able to improve your mobility, prevent any kind of damage to the joints and decrease pain. What better way to do that than losing weight? You'll be doing your body a favour for the long term as well.

4. Massage: Arthritis pain is mostly caused because of stiff joints that can be treated with a stimulating massage. Regular massaging of the joints may help you to reduce stiffness as well as pain and thereby, improve your range of motion. However, it is recommended that you make sure your therapist is well-experienced with working on people suffering from arthritis. 

5. Meditation: Strange as it may sound, meditation is a relaxation technique that can help in reducing arthritis pain by enabling one to cope with it and reducing stress. Several studies have found that meditation helps some people soothe their joints.

6. Turmeric diet: The Indian yellow spice is well known for its anti-inflammatory qualities. The chemical called curcumin helps in reducing arthritis pain. Therefore, do include turmeric in your diet. Having a glass of turmeric milk at night or in the morning is recommended.

7. Hot and cold therapy: Taking long, warm showers in the morning can ease stiffness in the joints. Cold treatments are best used for relieving joint pain. To use this form of treatment, you may wrap a gel pack or a pack of frozen vegetables in a towel and softly place or dab it on the painful joints to enjoy quick relief. 

Read More

Hit the spot! Missionary position? Nah, overdone. Try our selection of handy configurations of carnal knowledge

Missionary position? Nah, overdone. Try our selection of handy configurations of carnal knowledge. All you need is a consenting partner and a sense of adventure.

There’s one big benefit to the positions we’ve chosen: they hit the spot for women. We’ve rated each one’s do-ability as easy, moderate or tricky and the results as sighs, moans or OH-YES, along with instructions on making it work.

A little inversion
You’ll need a low bed, futon or couch for this one, and some cushions or pillows on the floor so she won’t hurt he head.
How: She lies on her back on the bed, then slides off the side so that her head, shoulders and upper back are over the edge and resting on the cushions. You move in and penetrate her, bracing yourself on the edge of the bed or whatever other furniture is available.
Why it works: the position stretches her belly, pulling the lips of her vagina so that yourpenis makes good contact with her clitoris. And her breasts will be close to your face, which is always nice.
Do-ability: tricky.
Results: moans.

End-on
Two pillows and a bed are all you need here.
How: You lie on your back, she on her side, with your squishy bits touching and your heads facing in opposite directions. She slides down onto your erection.
Why it works: Despite your faces being apart, there’s a surprising intimacy to this position. Your partner can move to whatever position stimulates her, while you’ll have an usual amount of pressure on the head of your penis. One warning: not all guys’ penises are flexible enough to achieve this position. Check beforehand.
Do-ability: moderate.
Results: moans to OH-YES.

Rodeo
You need a bed, a pillow and a reasonably fit set of back muscles. Lie on your back on the bed, then slide off until only your upper back on head are on the mattress, with your feet taking your weight on the floor. She straddles you and uses her feet to thrust up and down.
Why it works: She has complete in control of the angle, speed and depth of the thrusts, but also has freedom of movement because she’s supporting her own weight. Your hands are free to stimulate her wherever she likes. Keep your legs braced during her orgasm, as her knees might go wobbly for a while.
Do-ability: easy to moderate.
Results: OH-YES

Wall banger
Sit with your back to the headboard or the wall, with a pillow behind you. She sits on your legs facing you, then bracing herself on your legs, puts her feet on your shoulders and slides forward onto your erection.
Why it works: it’s a very stable position because you’re supporting her weight on your lap, leaving her to use her arms to push onto and off your penis. You’ll both have a good view of your genitals in close contact, which many women find intensely arousing.
Do-ability: moderate
Results: moderate.

The nuzzler
She lies on her tummy, on the bed, with a pillow under her pelvis. You lie between her legs and enter vagina from behind.
Why it works: It’s one of the easiest and most reliable ways to hit the fabled G-spot, that coin-sized bundle of nerves inside the front of the vagina. Her bottom will prevent you from penetrating too deeply and missing it. It takes a while for some women to become used to pressure on the G-spot, but many develop an instant liking for it. You can whisper sweet nothings from behind, hence the name.
Do-ability: easy
Results: OH-YES

X-File
You sit on the bed with your legs open before you knees slightly bent, while she straddles you.
Why it works: many women find bronco-like thrusting less fun than having a penis inside them providing focused pressure while their clitoris is stimulated. You can try holding hands and leaning back, then focus on keeping the base of your penis providing pressure on the clitoris.
Do-ability: easy
Results: moderate to OH-YES.

- (William Smook)

(Picture: Kissing couple from Shutterstock)

 

Read More

প্রাকৃতিক নিয়মে নিরাপদে সহবাস করুন গর্ভনিরোধক ছাড়া।

প্রাকৃতিক নিয়মে নিরাপদে সহবাস করুন গর্ভনিরোধক ছাড়া।

জন্মনিয়ন্ত্রণের জন্য সকলেই গর্ভনিরোধক ট্যাবলেট কিংবা কন্ডোমের উপরই ভরসা করেন৷ কিন্তু, আধুনিক পদ্ধতি ছাড়াই সম্পূর্ণ প্রাকৃতিকভাবেজন্ম নিয়ন্ত্রণ করা যেতে পারে৷ এই সম্পর্কে ধারনা থাকলে চিকিৎসকেরা কাছেও যাওয়ার প্রযোজন পড়ে না৷ মহিলাদের স্বাভাবিক ঋতুচক্র প্রাকৃতিকভাবে নির্ধারিত৷ এতে এমন কিছুদিন রয়েছে, যাকে নিরাপদ দিন বা সেফ পিরিয়ড বলা হয়৷ এই দিনগুলিতে সহবাস করলেও গর্ভধারণের  ঝুঁকি থাকে না৷ সেফ পিরিয়ডের দিনগুলিও প্রকৃতিগতভাবে নির্দিষ্ট৷ এই কারণেই একে প্রাকৃতিক পরিবার পরিকল্পনা বলা যেতেই পারে৷ চিকিৎসকেরা এতে অনেক সময় ক্যালেন্ডার পদ্ধতিও বলে থাকেন৷ এই পদ্ধতি কার্যকর করতে অবশ্যই জানা দরকার ঋতুচক্রের নিরাপদ দিন কোনগুলি৷
এই পদ্ধতির জন্য সবার আগে জানতে হবে মাসিক ঋতুচক্র নিয়মিত হয় কিনা৷ হলে তা কত দিন অন্তর হয়৷ সবচেয়ে কম যত দিন পর পর মাসিক হয়, তা থেকে ১৮ দিন বাদ দিতে হবে৷ পিরিয়ড শুরুর প্রথম দিন থেকে এই দিনটিই হল প্রথম অনিরাপদ দিন৷ আবার সবচেয়ে বেশি যতদিন পরপর পিরিয়ড হয়, তা থেকে ১০ দিন বাদ দিলে মাসিক শুরুর প্রথম দিন থেকে এই দিনটিই হল শেষ অনিরাপদ দিন৷

 

ধরু আপনার পিরিয়ড ২৮ থেকে ২০ দিন অন্তর হয়৷

তবে ২৮-১৮= ১০, অর্থাৎ পিরিয়ড শুরুর পর থেকে প্রায় নয় দিন আপনার জন্য নিরাপদ, এই দিনগুলিতে কোন পদ্ধতি ব্যবহার না করেও সহবাস অনায়াসেই করা সম্ভব৷

 ১০ নম্বর দিন থেকে অনিরাপদ দিন শুরু৷ তাই এই দিন থেকে সহবাসে সংযত হতে হবে৷
৩০ দিন হল দীর্ঘতম মাসিকচক্র৷ তাই ৩০-১০= ২০, অর্থাৎ ২০ নম্বর দিনটিই হল শেষ অনিরাপদ দিন৷ ২১তম দিন থেকে আবার অবাধে সহবাস করা যেতে পারে৷ এতে গর্ভধারণের সম্ভাবনা নেই৷ তবে, এতে ১০ থেকে ২০ দিনের মধ্যে অবাধ সহবাসের ফলে গর্ভধারন হতে পারে৷
এই বিষয়েটি সহজভাবে বোঝালে পিরিয়ড শুরুর প্রথম সাতদিন ও শেষের প্রথম সাতদিন সহবাস করা নিরাপদ৷ তবে, পিরিয়ড নিয়মিত না হলে এই পদ্ধতি কার্যকর হবে না৷ এছাড়াও প্রাকৃতিক জন্মনিয়ন্ত্রণ ৮০ শতাংশ নিরাপদ৷ সাধারণত, পিরিয়ডের হিসেবে গন্ডগোল, অনিরাপদ দিবসে সহবাস, অনুমিত পিরিয়ডের ফলে প্রাকৃতির গর্ভনিরোধকের পদ্ধতি ব্যর্থ হতে পারে৷ তাই, সঠিকভাবে জানতে একবার অন্তত চিকিৎসকেরা পরামর্শ নেওয়া প্রয়োজন৷
আবার কিছু পুরুষের শুক্রাণুর আয়ু বেশি হওয়ায় তারা এতে সাফল্য নাও পেতে পারেন৷ সেক্ষেত্রে অনুরাপদ দিবসে দুই দিন বাড়িয়ে নেওয়া প্রয়োজন৷ একে অনেকে প্রোগ্রামড সেক্স বলে৷ অনেকেই এ বিষয়ে সংশয় পোষণ করেন, কিন্তু একবার এই পদ্ধতিতে অভ্যস্ত হয়ে গেলে এটি অনেক বেশি সহজ ও আরামদায়ক৷ সবচেয়ে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ বিষয় হল এতে কোন পার্শ্ব প্রতিক্রিয়া নেই৷

দীর্ঘস্থায়ী মিলন হোক সবসময়

কিশোরীর স্তন বিশাল বড় হয়ে যাওয়া

আসুন জেনেনি কেন হয় যমজ সন্তান ৷

পুরুষের জন্য জন্মবিরতিকরণ পিল!

গর্ভাবস্থায় নারীর সুস্থতা ও সঠিক পরিচর্যা

 

Read More

Why Your Web Pages Alienate Your Customers

 

Did you know we use five different coping strategies to scan a web page? It's just a simple fact of neuroscience: The human eye is built for scanning on digital screens. But you need your customers to read. You want to build web pages that encourage scanning, but also invite them to commit to reading.

 

There are five different scanning patterns that people use when scanning web pages: F-shaped, Layer cake, Bypassing, Spotted and Commitment. But there are three types of pages that will cause your customers to bounce like rubber balls right off your site. Learn how to avoid them below.

 

3 Web Moves to Avoid

1. Don't Shout: You know those web pages make everything important? They assign no visual hierarchy to pages so that the customer has no idea where to look first. These pages are cluttered with too much content, not enough use of different types and sizes of fonts and no focus. Clean up your pages by working with excellent web designers who understand how to create white space and anchors for the eyes.
   
2. Organize: What's the most important thing you want your customer to know after scanning your page? Where's the call to action? Are you using words your customers know? Organizing information for the reader is the most important thing a web writer does. Too often I read web pages where the lede is so buried, it would take 1,000 archaeologists and Indiana Jones to dig it up. Elevate your main point and lose the rest.
   
3. Prune: The most beautiful spaces in the world understand the balance between too much and too little. Americans are bombarded by 5,000 messages a day. Your job is to help your customers focus.  So prune out unnecessary side bars or calls to action.
 

P.S. You can learn more about the 5 patterns we use to scan pages, as well as how to create fantastic web copy that converts by taking one of Ahava's digital copywriting classes. These workshops are custom designed for your company and take your team from a group of print writers to digital writers who understand organic SEO, how to construct and write powerful web pages and calls to action and how to design content marketing campaigns that convert.

Read More

Why Your Web Pages Alienate Your Customers

 

Did you know we use five different coping strategies to scan a web page? It's just a simple fact of neuroscience: The human eye is built for scanning on digital screens. But you need your customers to read. You want to build web pages that encourage scanning, but also invite them to commit to reading.

 

There are five different scanning patterns that people use when scanning web pages: F-shaped, Layer cake, Bypassing, Spotted and Commitment. But there are three types of pages that will cause your customers to bounce like rubber balls right off your site. Learn how to avoid them below.

 

3 Web Moves to Avoid

1. Don't Shout: You know those web pages make everything important? They assign no visual hierarchy to pages so that the customer has no idea where to look first. These pages are cluttered with too much content, not enough use of different types and sizes of fonts and no focus. Clean up your pages by working with excellent web designers who understand how to create white space and anchors for the eyes.
   
2. Organize: What's the most important thing you want your customer to know after scanning your page? Where's the call to action? Are you using words your customers know? Organizing information for the reader is the most important thing a web writer does. Too often I read web pages where the lede is so buried, it would take 1,000 archaeologists and Indiana Jones to dig it up. Elevate your main point and lose the rest.
   
3. Prune: The most beautiful spaces in the world understand the balance between too much and too little. Americans are bombarded by 5,000 messages a day. Your job is to help your customers focus.  So prune out unnecessary side bars or calls to action.
 

P.S. You can learn more about the 5 patterns we use to scan pages, as well as how to create fantastic web copy that converts by taking one of Ahava's digital copywriting classes. These workshops are custom designed for your company and take your team from a group of print writers to digital writers who understand organic SEO, how to construct and write powerful web pages and calls to action and how to design content marketing campaigns that convert.

Read More

Spring Cleaning Your Marketing Strategy: 6 Practices to Shed

With Daylight Saving Time around the corner, many of us are eagerly awaiting the sense of renewal that comes with spring. Along with decluttering closets and planting flowers, now is also a good time to let go of marketing beliefs and practices that are no longer serving your brand, or anyone else’s brand for that matter.

Freshen Up Your Marketing Strategy by Letting Go of These 6 Practices:

1. Organizing content in a Z-shaped pattern: As users’ online viewing habits are becoming more sophisticated, eye tracking studies show they are scanning pages using five distinct patterns. To make sure your most important content gets the exposure it deserves, chunk it out and make sure you favor the left side of the screen.

2. Thinking your app is a marketing strategy: Digital platform guru Josh Clark says it best, “An app is not a strategy. It’s just an app.” Think of your app as a container that helps you deliver content. You can use it to strengthen brand loyalty by applying content in ways that help meet a specific user need, but an app alone does not a marketing strategy make. Check out thehealthcare app that Aha Media wrote for a client.

3. Cramming too much information above the fold: Gone are the days of building content for users who don’t scroll: we now know that users are spending as much as 66% of their timebelow the fold. Your new challenge is to make sure above the fold content is compelling enough to encourage scrolling down for more.

4. Assuming your mobile users are distracted: With 58% of American adults using smartphones, mobile interactions are just as likely to occur from a user’s couch as they are on the go. With features that desktops don’t have, such as cameras, microphones and GPS, mobile users are not only focused, they have tools to interact with your brand in new and interesting ways.

For example, allowing current customers to augment product reviews with their own pictures adds depth, and affords potential customers a first-hand account of what they can expect from your brand.

5. Overestimating the value of homepage traffic: Given advancements in search behavior and search engine ranking algorithms, users who don’t know your brand are far more likely to find your site from blog or video content than your homepage. Use Google Analytics to learn which pages are drawing the most traffic and optimize them to encourage maximum visibility for your brand.

6. Eliminating extra taps and clicks whenever possible: Today’s users want to engage with brands in a meaningful way. When your website encourages them to breeze through using the least possible number of taps and clicks you’re passing up interactions that can strengthen customer loyalty. In fact if you can hold a user’s attention for just three minutes they are twice as likely to return.

Do this by building your site to encourage touch interactions:

• Building your site to support the ergonomics of using a device with one hand (it’s all about the thumbs!) 
• Sizing touch targets so they’re easy to use
• Adding speech recognition capabilities for important features such as search

Did we miss anything? Share your tips with us in the Comments section.

Read More

What Harvard Knows About Consultants That You Don’t

Researchers at Harvard Business School sought to understand what makes change and transformation efforts successful. Based on research of strategy models at a variety of a global companies*, they found that 70 to 90 percent of internal execution efforts fail. It seems that companies have a hard time getting internal strategy projects completed.

To boil it down, that means seven to nine of your strategic projects are going to fail this year if you try to complete them in-house.

Let's find out why.

 

Outside Eyes Give You the Competitive Edge

According to the report, most internal strategists approach strategic projects in the following manner:

Step #1: Identify an opportunity—not hard to do, when you’re constantly swimming in the sea of your own challenges

Step #2: Attain buy-in from executive leadership—challenging, but possible for most internal strategists

Step #3: Execute on the strategy

Step #3 is where most internal strategists can’t bring it home. It’s not that they are at fault—they are simply too busy with all of their other responsibilities to execute on a new strategy.

Get the Competitive Edge

Too often, we think we can do it all ourselves. We don’t want to get outside help, or look to a consultant for an outside opinion, because we think we know our business better than anybody else. But the truth is, outside consultants often give you the competitive edge. They know your market landscape and can provide expertise on how to solve your unique challenges.

This is true for content and content strategy. Often, we are asked to step-in on a project that someone thought they could write internally. Or a social media or content marketing project has been stalled for months, until clients reach out to us for help with implementation. The best part is we see ourselves as your consultative partners, who can help you think through your strategy AND execute on your behalf.

Don’t let 2015 be the year that goes by with seven to nine failed strategic projects.  Reach out to a strategic partner who will lend a fresh set of eyes and a perspective that will position you for big wins this year.

 

*Kotter, John P. “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Harvard Business Review, January 2007.

Read More

Why You Might Want to Manage Only 1 Social Media Channel

 

Are you spending your time and resources on multiple social media channels?

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, flickr, Instagram and Pinterest?

How much ROI are you getting from each channel?

Do you know? Exactly?

We all make choices about priority. But Web 2.0 has muddied the waters. What if we’re not on every channel? What if our customers can’t find us?

Here’s a better question: What if they don’t care?

If you truly want to be effective in social media, you need to set priorities and discover ROI. In other words, you should act like a pumpkin farmer: You need to make a determination about which social media activities grow you the biggest fruit.

Act Like a Pumpkin Farmer

In the business book, The Pumpkin Plan, A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field, author Mike Michalowicz explains that you must prune your business in the same way a farmer prunes his pumpkin patch. When baby pumpkins grow, the farmer assesses the vine and cuts away certain smaller pumpkins to give the bigger pumpkins the best chance to grow.

Social media strategy is no different. Take a long, analytical look at which tactics are driving your engagement, and therefore your revenue, as well as the tactics that are faltering.

Perhaps you don’t need to create an infographic every week, or post to Instagram four times a month, or create a $10,000 video once a quarter. If that content doesn’t actually do something to drive your revenues, you are simply wasting your time, giving equal sunshine and care to pumpkins that may not grow to true maturity. Then, what will you sell at harvest?

Prune the social media efforts that are not growing fruit. Spend your time mastering one or two channels before moving on to other efforts. It’s your job to convince your executive leadership team that being strategic means using resources in a thoughtful manner to maximize output.

Read More

6 Tips for Engaging Self-Pay Patients

 

Despite The Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate, a recent study shows nearly 1 in 4 people are still uninsured. These findings underscore a growing movement among patients who would rather pay for care only when they need it. What’s surprising is they’re having a hard time finding hospitals willing to work with.

Nine out of 10 consumers consider receiving upfront price estimates nearly as important as receiving an accurate medical diagnosis. Many would-be self-pay patients searching for this information are instead finding chargemaster data, which is inflated many times over to cushion the administrative burden of working with third-party payers.

While implementing a self-pay program isn't easy, some early adopters are taking the plunge. For example, UCLA Health (a client of Aha Media’s) recently launched a cash pricing program. As one of the first academic medical centers in this arena, their program offers cash pricing for more than 50 procedures, with plans for soon adding more.

Accessible Price Information is Key to Engaging Self-Pay Patients

As more hospitals develop similar programs, competition will get stronger. Help your hospital stand out with these tips:

1. Use consumer-friendly language. No one is going to spend a lot of money on something they don’t understand. Help self-pay patients feel confident about their purchase by using simple language to describe:
• The procedure they are paying for
• What services are included and excluded in the listed price
• Your billing process 
  This report from the American Hospital Association offers sample definitions and tips on communicating price transparency information to consumers.
2. Seize your golden opportunity. Make price information available to patients atteachable moments, such as when they are considering an elective procedure. Make it easy to close the deal by linking to your price information on after visit summaries.
3. Get them there in as few clicks as possible. Many patients, millennials in particular, want easy access to pricing information from their mobile device. Interactive features such as an easy to use interface of the human body, like UCLA uses, instead of a list can ensure a positive user experience. Want more mobile engagement strategies? Read 4 Mobile Strategies for Your Business.
4. Know your audience. It’s not enough to report prices for your most common procedures as most states already require this by law. Consider the specific health needs of your self-pay population, keeping in mind that most are likely under 65 years of age. Family planning and childbirth services are a great place to start.
5. Don’t let them bounce. Use your pricing information page to draw potential patients deeper into your site and closer to conversion by strategically linking to relevant clinical program information and online appointment request forms.
6. Give more information than they ask for. Chances are your self-pay patients want to know more ways to save. Add links to cost saving programs and services, such as reduced cost generic prescriptions, clinical trials for new treatments and free patient education programs, from your price information page.

How are you engaging self-pay patients? Tell us about your experiences in our Comments section.

Read More

The 3 Hallmarks of Bad Content

Much has been written about what makes content good. But, what if there were a way to recognize the hallmarks of bad content, so you could plan for better content? 

Besides the obvious, like high bounce rates and lack of conversions on the page, how can you tell when you really need a heavy-duty rewrite of your content?

3 Signs Your Content is Tired

When we evaluate content for rewrites, we look for these three things:

1. Frankenstein content: We’re all familiar with content that has been pulled from so many places—a brochure here, a microsite over there. It no longer reads as a cohesive piece, but instead sounds like something out of a fantasy land where they speak in non-sequiturs and magical spells.
   
   How to avoid: Editing may not be the answer for your content. You may need to dig in and rewrite whole sections, plotting information flow and developing content architectures to ensure pages are consistent.


2. Where does this belong?: Have you ever read a web page and thought, “This is in the wrong place.” It’s almost as if the writer(s) were not sure what to do with that piece of information, but they were sure it belonged somewhere. To the reader, it’s obvious that something is awry because those two odd paragraphs stick out like adults chaperoning a teenage pool party. #awkward, as my 12-year-old would say.
   
   How to avoid: Create strong information architectures and content roadmaps by plotting your personas, identity pillars and messaging points. Think through your different target audiences and what content they need to know to move to the next phase of the buying cycle.


3. Flabby content: This is my personal favorite. Here’s what it sounds like, “We are the best brand for you. Our professionals are the best at what they do, and then we use a lot of really fancy words that don’t mean anything to prove that point without backing it up with any facts.”
   
   How to avoid: You cannot be the best unless you have solid facts or independent qualifications to back up your brand’s superiority.  And maybe your brand isn’t superior. That’s okay—find the things that DO differentiate you in the marketplace and talk about those things. For the right audience, those points will convince them to convert.

What do you think? What are the signs of bad content to you? Please email Ahava your examples.

Read More