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Continuing Education for Dentists

Saturday, July 28, 2012
Dentists are profoundly some of the most intelligent and well sought after people you'll meet in your lifetime. Because of their love for their patients' health and productivity, dentists strive to put their luxuries aside and opt for continuing education to better serve their patients and to instill unto themselves better knowledge of practice and expanded knowledge about new dental procedures and methodologies.
Enrolling in continuing education courses will not only help the dentist grasp new information, but also new patients as well. When a dentist passes the board exam, he/she is still considered a hatchling in the field. Only in practice can a dentist hone his/her skills in general dentistry. A dentist will also be more eligible in becoming in non-practice areas like policy-making and health research.
Dentists also cannot practice other specialized branches of dentistry like orthodontics, periodontal dentistry, TMJ dentistry and restorative dentistry without undergoing additional years of training via full-time post-graduate studies. This is the reason why a lot of seasoned dentists have only set up clinic in their late twenties or early thirties.
There are a lot of universities around the world that admit dentists, oral hygienists and dental technicians who wish to pursue post-graduate and doctorate studies. It is imperative to verify the authenticity of a dental school by verifying its course offerings with its purported affiliates. The usual cost per credit hour ranges from $30-$40, but may still go higher, especially if the course-offer comes from a reputable or Ivy League university.
As an alternative, the dental practitioner may also opt to read medical journals or join non-profit organizations that offer free-but-exclusive articles on specialized dental practice. The internet has been a goldmine for information on specialized areas dentistry. Be warned though, that some sites offer uncited information that may detriment the preferred types of operations and may ruin your credits if you subscribe to the wrong information database.

Estate Planning - Living Wills and Durable Powers of Attorney For Health and Finance

Monday, July 23, 2012
Estate planning frequently involves more than just having a Will. Living wills as well as durable powers of attorney for health care and finance protect your estate in case your are incapacitated, but not deceased.
A living will permits you to express your wishes regarding resuscitation and life maintaining measures in the event you later become incapable of communicating your desires. It can help you try to avoid what some believe to be an undignified existence by allowing you to decline medical treatment, food, and water if these things are "artificially" keeping you alive. The choice is yours to make and physicians will honor your wishes if the proper documents are submitted.
A durable power of attorney for health care, on the other hand, allows you to appoint another person to make decisions for you regarding your medical care in the event you cannot. This power is broader than the living will. It, too, covers situations where you may be terminally ill and need resuscitation or other life maintaining measures to stay alive. Your agent, or attorney-in-fact, can decline these treatments if you give them that power. It also applies to situations where a health care decision is required but you cannot make that decision yourself (i.e., you are unconscious as a result of injury). Your agent could authorize or decline medical treatment on your behalf.
A durable power of attorney for finance allows you to appoint another person to make decisions for you regarding your real and personal property. This power is broad and covers situations where you are terminally ill or unconscious as a result of injury, but still living. Your agent, or attorney-in-fact, can manage your financial affairs as you so wish.
If you decide to create either a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care and/or finance, you will need to consider several things before you complete the documents. You will have to provide the name and contact information for the individual(s) that you nominate to make decisions for you in the event that you cannot make them.
Be sure to inform the person you nominate of your wishes. You can permit or refuse to permit donation of your organs for transplant. You can also permit or refuse to permit donation of your body for scientific or educational purposes. Some people wish to spend their last days at home rather than in a hospital. Some people wish to nominate one person to act as their attorney-in-fact for health care and another for their finance. You can express your wishes regarding these issues in these documents. Finally, you can express your wishes about funeral arrangements.

Caring For Health

Monday, July 16, 2012
The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet in terms of morbidity and mortality rates, we rank 39th in the world. Among the facts contributing to this miserable statistic -- thousands of people die each year due to potentially preventable in-hospital errors, and infections such as MRSA (a virulent type of staph infection) are rampant in hospitals.
I have been a registered nurse for 34 years, caring for health on medical floors; in the emergency room; in pediatrics; substance abuse; and psychiatry. Unfortunately, the above statistics are never far from my mind.
From the outset, I was responsible for patients suffering from a variety of illnesses at the same time. I began to ask myself, "What could this person have done in order to have prevented the disease from progressing to this point?"
I didn't have to look far for the answer -- I was confronted with the evidence on a daily basis. Patients who looked positively at life tended to get healthy more quickly than did patients who seemed depressed or unmotivated. I saw a clear relationship between mind and body, mind and health.
I began to research the connection between emotional, spiritual, and physical health. My studies opened up a new universe of thought outside of the world of allopathic medicine. The result -- I fairly flew to get the education I felt I needed in the areas of holistic and energy medicine.
My new set of skills, however, left me facing a drastic dichotomy -- I was now better able than ever to care for my patients, but within a system at odds with the very core of my expanded approach.
There was a point in which I thought about leaving the traditional hospital setting, where I had spent most of my professional life, but a gentle voice from within spoke to me and said, 'Look around, look and see all the suffering right here in your own backyard. Start right here,' so I did.
While the hospital experience can be overwhelming and frustrating, I continue to resist the urge to leave, quietly, yet persistently stretching the boundaries of protocol and introducing more holistic/alternative health care wherever, and whenever, I can.
With my attitude and practice focused on prevention, I have watched (and continue to watch) our government throw money at a wretched and broken system in which prevention has little or no place and the actual cause of illness is rarely addressed.
Health care professionals are quite literally 'ill named' - they are not caring for health, but more often for symptoms, disease, illness and death And, more often than not, this is not their fault. I share my profession with many dedicated individuals trapped within a system where they just can't win.
"Those who think they have no time for healthy habits will sooner or later have to find time for illness," ~ Edward Stanley 1823-1893 Unfortunately, within the confines of our present system, many patients still have little choice.

Herbs for Health - The Herbal Remedies Hidden in Your Spice Cabinet

Thursday, July 12, 2012
Most people don't realize the incredible therapeutic (healing) qualities of herbs. That's a shame because their therapeutic benefits can enhance our lives and benefit our health fairly dramatically. This lack of knowledge and understanding makes herbs an underutilized -- and under-appreciated -- resource that most of us have literally at our finger tips, hiding in our spice cabinets.
The fact is, many if not most of our culinary herbs also have medicinal qualities. Here are just a few you may want to explore.
Savory seed herbs such as anise, cumin, fennel, fenugreek and caraway are known as "carminatives," which means they help normalize the digestive system and peristalsis to prevent, eliminate or relieve gas. These particular herbs are also anti-spasmodic, which means they help muscles that are spasm-ing, or cramping to relax. So, if someone is suffering from a stomach virus, for example, brewing up an herbal tea of several of these seed herbs, and a touch of honey, would help stop the stomach spasms as well as cut down on any gas. (Note: While other anti-spasmodic herbs are usually used instead, those same antispasmodic culinary herbs could be used for muscle spasms elsewhere, say from PMS, or leg cramps.)
Other herbs such as peppermint, licorice, cinnamon, ginger or thyme could be added to the brew both for the their own carminative effects, as well as to enhance the flavor. (And don't forget that honey!)
Peppermint, in fact, is a wonderful alternative to popular antacids. Anytime you find yourself lamenting, "Oh, I ate too much," or feel bloated and uncomfortable as a result of what you've eaten, peppermint can calm all that down in 20-30 minutes. Some people keep a bottle of therapeutic-grade peppermint essential oil on hand and just dot a drop or two on their abdomens when needed. Or they keep peppermint tea from the grocery on hand -- Celestial Seasonings is a popular brand -- and brew up some herbal tea, or an "infusion" in herbspeak. (If you use antacids daily, this is not your best choice, although there are herbs and dietary changes that can help.)
Ginger is excellent to have on hand for another reason. In addition to its carminative effects, it's useful for nausea, whether from morning sickness, motion sickness, stomach flu, etc. It's available in so many forms you can have it with you anywhere -- dried (in spice jars in your grocery), fresh root (in some markets), fresh finely chopped ginger in jars (refrigerated section of your market), crystallized or candied ginger (usually available around Christmas in most groceries, but any time of the year from spice merchants and others online), and even ginger ale (canned as a beverage), though it's important in the latter case to make sure real ginger is being used, not ginger flavor. So it's possible to have ginger both at home and when you travel.
Cayenne is such an extremely valuable though surprising herb that most people should make an effort to cook with it more. It's helpful for the heart and the entire circulatory system, and helps normalize blood pressure (though it will unlikely perform these therapeutic activities at recipe doses), and it's also an anti-inflammatory. That means it will help reduce inflammation internally (always a good thing because our S.A.D. - Standard American Diet - causes so much internal inflammation). But it's good to use externally as well. Here are two important uses.
First, you can make a liniment to apply externally to bruises and sprains and any pains you have (pain = inflammation). If applied soon enough after the bump or trauma, you can prevent the bruise or sprain, or at least seriously lesson it.
It's easy to make, too: Buy a glass (not plastic) bottle of organic apple cider vinegar. I'd suggest buying a quart and using it all, but you can make less if you like. Pour the vinegar into a non-reactive (glass or stainless steel) pan, and for a quart of liniment, add a rounded tablespoon of dried, powdered cayenne (from the grocery spice department). Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. You can then either leave the cayenne in the linament, or filter your new herbal remedy through a coffee filter or multiple layers of cheese cloth. Rebottle and label clearly (IMPORTANT!). This will keep nearly forever, and any time you've got a bruise or sprain happening, or other pain -- arthritis, for example -- give the liniment a try. Obviously, you will not want to use this on broken skin!!
To use, rub on the traumatized area with your hands. Or moisten a sterile gauze pad or natural fiber cloth and leave on the site a few minutes -- but only until the skin underneath starts to warm and approaches the uncomfortable stage. That's an indication that the liniment is bringing blood to the surface, exactly what helps heal.
The second external use is going to surprise and maybe shock you. Since cayenne is a hemostat, meaning it stops bleeding, you can apply it to cuts. Yes, it smarts -- butonly for a second and then the pain goes away faster than otherwise would, and the cut also seems to heal more quickly. Try it yourself on a paper cut, after reminding yourself that they often hurt for days, and see how quickly the paper cut stops hurting and actually heals. Or apply to a small kitchen cut. If it doesn't stop the bleeding immediately, reapply a time or two.
As a matter of educational interest, cayenne also stops internal bleeding, and can be given in case of shock (a bit of cayenne in a glass of water). Obviously, these are extremely serious conditions requiring immediate medical attention, but in true life-threatening emergencies, they might help save a life until medical help arrives.
A final remedy that you'll want to have handy in the kitchen but is not itself usually considered a kitchen spice is therapeutic grade lavender essential oil. It performs better for most people than aloe vera or ice cubes or any other "home remedy" for minor kitchen (or workshop) burns. An immediate drop -- that's all it takes -- on the site usually stops the pain in under a minute, and also usually prevents blisters. Slightly worse kitchen burns might require a second application in a few minutes. Try it -- again, with a high quality therapeutic, not health food store, essential oil -- and you'll never be without again.
There are so many more ways herbs can help, so many more things to learn and know about their use. Perhaps this will spark your interest.

Redefining Education for Global Opportunities

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Addressing resistance to change
Why don't we get the best out of people? It's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies - far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity - are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences.
Children should be encouraged to answer boldly and not be afraid of being wrong, because if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. If you're not prepared to be wrong, by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong.
Our education system is outdated and is based on a hierarchy wherein most useful subjects for a job are considered to be the most important and academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence because the universities designed the system in their image. The modern educational system vastly underestimates the power of the human imagination.
More people, which highlights the importance of two points that need to be focused on- technology and its transformation effect on work. Suddenly, degrees are no guarantee for attaining a job. You need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It's a process of academic inflation. It indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won't serve us.
The honest truth is that no-one really likes change because it involves moving from a position of comfort and stepping into place which is unknown. As spectators we like to sit on the fence and applaud good ideas but refuse to change ourselves. Instead we think we can ride it out and somehow it won't affect us. We like to argue and always focus on the negatives, pushing for decisions to be made and then criticising them. We tend to see change as an opportunity to learn and grow.
We have all experienced behaviour like this ourselves, it's a natural human reaction. It's a little easier to see it in others than ourselves but never the less, once you can recognise it, you can change it.
Governmental agencies and organizations that support and promote quality education for all children must move beyond traditional models to help children develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are relevant to their lives and that can lift them out of poverty. Mastery of the basic primary school curriculum is not the best means for improving life chances and alleviating poverty in developing countries, that model is broken. It is time to seek out the interventions that lead to the greatest social and economic impact for the poor.
The 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a "culture of inquiry". In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and graduated. Today we must see learners in a new context:
First - we must maintain student interest by helping them see how what they are learning prepares them for life in the real world.
Second - we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning.
Third - we must be flexible in how we teach.
Fourth - we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside the formal school day.
The classroom is expanded to include the greater community. Students are self-directed, and work both independently and interdependently. The curriculum and instruction are designed to challenge all students, and provides for differentiation.
The curriculum is not textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and integrated. Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves, but students learn them through their research and application in their projects. Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many resources.
Knowledge is not memorization of facts and figures, but is constructed through research and application, and connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and passions. The skills and content become relevant and needed as students require this information to complete their projects. The content and basic skills are applied within the context of the curriculum, and are not ends in themselves.
Assessment moves from regurgitation of memorized facts and disconnected processes to demonstration of understanding through application in a variety of contexts. Real-world audiences are an important part of the assessment process, as is self-assessment.
My thoughts are that in order to create change in education all stakeholders must be on board. One of the main obstacles as I see it is the enormous resistance to change among educators, policy makers, industry leaders, parents, and even many students. There have been many movements to create change in our educational system, all fraught with conflict. Some of the current efforts are trying to create change without actually changing - they are trying to take attributes of the 21st century and force fit them into the 19th and 20th century ways of designing and delivering education. It won't work!
We must realize, and our students must understand, that we cannot move toward a vision of the future until we understand the socio-historical context of where we are now. Where are we? What events led us to be where we are? How can this inform our development of a vision for the future and how we want to get there?
A clear articulation of the purpose of education for the 21st century is the place to begin. Creating a vision of where we want to go requires us to ask the question - why? What is the purpose of education? What do we need to do to accomplish that purpose?
I believe that when many parents and educators are introduced to the paradigm of education in the 21st century that it is so foreign to them that they automatically reject it - automatically and angrily! We are attempting to create a huge change in our society. Our task is to change the way people think about education. I think about previous efforts to create change across our entire society. Many movements have grown and succeeded in creating change in how people think.
Phases in the management of resistance to change
PHASE 1: Determine the preparedness and receptiveness for change. Preparedness and receptiveness are determined by the existence of a culture for change and how change has been managed in the past.
PHASE 2: Identify the sources of resistance. Sources can be classified as individual, formal groups or resistance coalitions.
PHASE 3: Determine the nature of resistance. Three categories can be distinguished: passive, active and aggressive resistance.
PHASE 4: Diagnose the reasons for resistance. Reasons include manifestations that are based on the individual, social structure or the environment (culture).
PHASE 5: Select, develop and implement specific resistance management strategies aimed at each separate source of resistance. Strategies include: negotiation, co-option, provision of information, training, convincing and awarding.
PHASE 6: Evaluate the successfulness of the attempt to manage resistance to change. If the attempt is successful, manage it, if unsuccessful, return to Phase 1.
Phase 1: Determine the preparedness and receptiveness for change
The level of preparedness and receptiveness of the school for change depends on a number of factors. They are the history of change and change management practices used in the school; the degree with which staff is aware of the reasons for change and whether they understand and accept it; the degree in which change reconciles with aims, objectives and practices in the school; and the degree in which the school encourages and supports creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Phase 2: Identify the sources of resistance
Even if a school is diagnosed as being prepared and receptive for change, some kind of resistance will still exist. It is therefore important to identify the factors influencing resistance to change, such as a lack of communication and information, a lack of support, ``senseless'' change, power struggles and increase in workload.
Phase 3: Determine the nature of resistance
The nature of resistance depends on the particular culture of a school. It could take the form of passive resistance, active resistance or aggressive resistance.
Phase 4: Diagnose the reasons for resistance
The reasons for resistance to change occur on three levels, namely the individual, social and environmental level.
Phase 5: Select, develop and implement specific resistance
Management strategies aimed at each separate source of resistance only when the sources, reasons and nature of resistance are known, decisions on strategies to manage change can be made. The following strategies may be used: education and communication; participation, facilitation, manipulation and force; change in the nature of reward for co-operation; the design of co ownership by means of participative management; and the phasing out of previous customs, practices and objectives and the learning of new ones that can serve change.
Phase 6: Evaluate the successfulness of the attempt to manage Resistance to change
There are certain criteria that can be used to determine the success of management intervention of resistance to change. School-based management is therefore not a fad or a cosmetic change, but an enduring phenomenon whereby each school may renew its management and its members in a responsible way.
Summary
Moral purpose, defined as making a difference in the lives of students, is a crucial motivator for addressing in the lives of students, is a critical motivator for addressing the sustained task of complex reform. Passion and higher order purpose are required because the effort needed is gargantuan and must be worth doing.
Moral purpose will not add up if left at the individual level.
Reducing the gap between high and low performers at all levels (classroom, school, district, state) is the key to system breakthroughs.
Focussing on gap reduction is the moral responsibility of all educators. They must then understand the bigger picture and reach out beyond themselves to work with others.
Ultimately, a tri-level solution will be necessary (school district state).
Reducing the gap in educational attainment is part and parcel of societal development in which greater social cohesion, developmental health and economic performance are at stake.
Mobilising the untapped moral purpose of the public in alliance with governments and educators is one of the greatest alliances to the cause that we could make.
Adaptive change stimulates resistance because it challenges people's habits, beliefs, and values. It asks them to take a loss, experience uncertainty, and even express disloyalty to people and cultures. Because adaptive change asks people to question and perhaps refine aspects of their identity, it also challenges their sense of competence. That's a lot to ask. No wonder people resist.
The test for the twenty first century - a test for large scale, sustainable reform - Is whether districts and states can become more sophisticated complex systems that can actually contribute to the development and fostering of new learning which is marked by the engagement and energy of the vast majority of educators and students as they obtain results never before accomplished. We need, in other words, very different districts and states than now exist.

Learn What Is The Best Fish Oil For Health

Sunday, July 8, 2012
The best fish oil for health are those fish oil supplements and capsules that are made from deep sea fish that thrive in cold Ocean waters.
These types of fish tend to have higher concentrations of health enhancing omega 3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA.
These types of fish should be your first choice when purchasing pure, highly concentrated fish oil supplements.
Some of the best areas for deep sea fish are: certain waters of Alaska, some areas off the coast of Norway, and the cold waters off the Southern coast of New Zealand.
The species will vary, of course. In Alaska, there are some excellent choices such as Salmon. In New Zealand, a species called the Hoki is naturally very high in Omega 3 fatty acids and comes from some of the cleanest waters in the world.
These are just a couple examples of some of the best fish oil for health.
Even if the fish you use as part of fish oil supplements comes from a pristine water source, you absolutely must purchase a product that has been molecularly distilled if you want pure, highly concentrated fish oil.
Molecular distillation is a process by which heavy metals and other contaminants and impurities are separates from the health enhancing fish oil.
The fact of the matter is even if the waters are clean, nature also creates its own pollutants, which means that you have to stick to molecularly distilled products to avoid consuming any fish oil that could harm your health.
Therefore, the best fish oil for health needs to be: 1) molecularly distilled and 2) be produced from a species of fish that is naturally high in EPA and DHA.
Not all fish oils are equally high in these two important omega 3 fatty acids.
Recent studies are showing that DHA is actually more important for health than EPA, so make sure you read the labels carefully to see what the DHA and EPA breakdown is. A quality product will give you the breakdown. The ones you have to be cautious about are the supplements that just tell you the total amount of Omega 3 fatty acids without telling you the DHA and EPA breakdown.
As evidence continues to mount about the numerous health benefits of pure, highly concentrated fish oil -- cardiovascular improvement, brain boosting, pain relieving, inflammation fighting -- to name just a few, it becomes more important for people to educate themselves on what makes a good fish oil supplement from a lousy or mediocre one.