The health and wellness industry has seen amazing advancements and innovations within the first half of 2019, making self-care and alternative health solutions more accessible than ever.

In fact, trends in the health and wellness sector have gained immense mainstream popularity, causing more and more retailers to incorporate these products into their inventory. With that in mind, read on to find out more about the latest health trends.

Dietary supplements

According to a new report by Grand View Research, the dietary supplement industry is projected to reach $194.63 billion by 2025. Rising health awareness among consumers of all age groups has contributed to the growing popularity of dietary supplements and vitamins.

In fact, 75 percent of adults in the United States (170 million) take dietary supplements, according to data from the 2018 CRN report. Since American diets are typically high in calories but low in nutrients, private label vitamins and supplements are needed to fill nutritional gaps.

More people are turning to one-a-day multivitamins to protect against nutritional deficiencies and create a more balanced diet. In addition, taking a daily multivitamin has been associated with weight loss, slower aging, better memory, and reduced risk of disease.

Meanwhile, others are turning to dietary supplements for a wide range of benefits, including improved cognitive function, bone strength, and cardiovascular functioning. In particular, collagen has gained popularity for its anti-aging effects and protection against neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parksinson’s.

Essential oils

Essential oils are becoming an increasingly popular way to boost physical and mental health. In 2017, the global aromatherapy market earned $1.2 billion in revenue, and sales have increased in the United States by 200 percent since 2012. According to a Transparency Market Research report, the industry is expected to grow to $27.49 billion by 2022.

Whether you’re looking to jump on the bandwagon or you’re already a fan, you’ve probably heard of the health benefits associated with essential oils. Different oils are associated with different benefits: for instance, lavender can help with insomnia, while peppermint can help digestion.

For those looking to try essential oils, start with Bulgarian organic lavender essential oil. The oil is produced through extended steam distillation and a proprietary filtration process, making it exceptionally high-quality. In addition, the oil has a superior calming effect, and can help to detoxify and improve blood circulation of the hair and skin.

Plant-based alternatives

According to the Good Food Institute, grocery sales of plant-based foods directly replacing animal products have grown by 31 percent in the past two years, reaching $4.5 billion in 2019. Today, plant-based sales make up 20 percent of the food and beverage expenses of Americans, with beef alternatives accounting for 44 percent.

As a result, more and more start-ups are beginning to think beyond standard plant-based products. For example, Good Catch released plant-based tuna made from lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans. Alongside companies like Wild Type and New Wave Foods, Good Catch plans to deliver a wide range of products that reduce the environmental impact of overfishing.

In addition, brick and mortar restaurants are beginning to offer more plant-based alternatives. Many restaurants are integrating vegan options into their menus to appeal to a wider demographic and diminish the environmental pressure of producing meat.

The health and wellness industry has grown immensely within the first half of 2019, with many new trends gaining mainstream attention from retailers and influencers. Ultimately, following the latest wellness trends can help you find all-natural ways to live a healthier life and take better care of yourself.

 

While a nursing degree opens the door to a traditional nursing career, nurses can do far more than walk the wards. In fact, with further education or specialized training, you could move into whole new roles you didn’t even know existed. Here are six alternative healthcare careers you never thought about. We’ll also discuss the training, certifications or experience necessary to move into these alternative careers that nurses could pursue.

Medical and Health Services Management

If you earn a master’s of nursing and MBA, you can move into management at any healthcare facility. Note that you can complete MBA MSN dual degree programs online, an invaluable option when you’re trying to continue working while attending school. A dual degree like this is often necessary to become the Director of Nursing.

A number of accredited institutions allow you to get your MSN MBA from the comfort of your home, and teach you what you need to know to become a healthcare administrator or healthcare executive. You could then work in nursing homes, doctor’s offices, medical insurance companies, healthcare systems and doctor’s offices as an administrator at any level. You could work to improve their productivity, profitability or quality of care. You may ensure that they’re fully compliant with various regulations and laws they’re bound to obey.

Another great option to consider would be to work in healthcare recruiting. You’ll be able to help healthcare facilities identify and retain nurses and other medical staff. There are programs that allow you to specialize in healthcare administration, human resources development, general management, leadership and organizational consulting.

A related job title is the nurse administrator. A nurse administrator may work as a case manager in home nursing services or assisted living facilities. They may also work in Human Resources, recruiting and hiring nurses.

Clinical Manager

A clinical manager is given authority by physicians to manage the day to day treatments that have been authorized for patients. They may deliver medications, track medical instruments or ensure a physical therapy and pain management regimen is adhered to. They may also oversee all of the personnel in a medical office aside from the physicians. Clinical managers may work in doctor’s offices, hospitals or healthcare systems.

Another position that is related to clinical manager is administrative service manager. In this role, you’re coordinating and planning the support services for patients. This might include physical therapy and home health aide visits for someone who is discharged from the hospital. Or you will coordinate the delivery of public health services. For example, this could include the delivery of medical supplies to a community after a disaster or the rolling out of vaccines in an area with an outbreak.

A bachelor’s degree in nursing is a minimum for this job, so you should consider a master’s degree if you want to be the preferred candidate for the role.

Nurse Practitioner

Many people still can’t make the distinction between a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner, but they both differ significantly in terms of responsibilities and autonomy. A nurse practitioner is a nurse with an advanced degree, but with almost as much authority as a doctor. They can also handle the vast majority of cases that a physician can. Nurse practitioners are in demand by an aging and growing population, partly because of the slow and constrained pipeline for creating new medical doctors.

Nurse practitioners routinely earn more than a hundred thousand dollars a year, and they can often do so with only a master’s degree. Many nurse practitioners work in a complementary role with physicians, but a few are general primary care professionals, often serving in areas where there is a shortage of medical services. A few nurse practitioners earn MBAs so that they’re better able to handle the administrative side of the business.

Nurse Educator

If you are looking for a job outside of the ER, or just want a change of pace, then you should definitely consider becoming a nurse educator. However, note that you will need to earn a master’s degree to become one. This is typically a master’s degree in nursing. Some hold an MBA in addition to an MSN or in place of one. As a nurse educator, you may be asked to provide continuing education for nurses and caregivers for instance. Or they may teach the next generation of nurses. Others may evaluate nurses and caregivers and fill in gaps in their knowledge.

A Legal Nurse Consultant

A legal nurse consultant sits at the intersection of law and medicine. This job typically requires a bachelor’s degree in nursing plus an understanding of the laws they’re working under. They may provide an expert medical opinion to law offices handling personal injury and workers’ compensation cases. They may create timelines and summaries of medical records for insurance companies and law firms working with clients. For example, they can tell insurers and legal professionals whether a condition was pre-existing or due to the person’s injuries.

Quality Improvement Administrator

Healthcare facilities are supposed to deliver the right care on time and in as efficient a manner as possible. However, mistakes happen. These can be costly, life-threatening or both. This is why healthcare facilities and networks have a quality management system, or QMS. A quality improvement administrator may administer the mandatory reporting systems regarding medical mistakes. They may provide training and coaching on new processes to improve quality of care. Or they may provide input on new processes, procedures and techniques so that patient care is faster, cheaper, safer and more effective.

A related role is the risk management administrator. These professionals focus on risk reduction; they may work within quality improvement programs or they may work in clinical documentation. Their job is to identify potential risks, try to identify likely root causes, and mitigate or eliminate them. These issues may be legal or regulatory. Both roles require a least a bachelor’s degree in nursing, while a master’s degree in nursing and/or MBA makes you the ideal candidate.

All these positions have something different to offer, and are perfect whether you want to be close to the action or do some administrative work. Explore the options at your disposal, and consider furthering your education if you’re interested in switching paths.

To read more on topics like this, check out the health category.

It is common for mothers to want to know as much as possible about their developing babies. Discovering your child’s genetic health and chromosomal status, for example, could give you information about certain conditions your child may have. This can help you make informed decisions about your child’s future. You can learn about your baby’s genetic health in the first two trimesters of pregnancy through a test called serum screening. Here’s what to expect from serum screening for Down syndrome.

What Is Serum Screening?

Serum screening, also called the multiple marker test, uses a maternal blood sample in the second trimester of pregnancy to assess the risk of chromosome disorders in the infant. A serum screening has the ability to detect Down syndrome and Edwards syndrome, as well as conditions such as anencephaly and spina bifida. This noninvasive test for Down syndrome works by analyzing the mother’s DNA fragments during pregnancy. Analyzing cell-free DNA sequences can determine whether the infant has more chromosome 21 present than the average baby. This leads to an accurate prediction of whether the fetus has Down syndrome.

During maternal serum screening, the mother gets a single blood test done around 15 to 21 weeks’ gestation. If the mother already received first trimester screening, she may only receive serum screening in the second trimester for open neural tube defects. Serum screening measures biochemical markers in the mother’s blood, including alpha feto-proteins and inhibin A. the levels of these markers are typically different in mothers carrying babies with Down syndrome. Measurable differences, therefore, could point to a chromosomal abnormality.

Serum screening does not provide a definitive Down syndrome diagnosis. Instead, it simply groups mothers into high or low-risk categories based on predictions. Your healthcare provider should receive the results of your serum screening within one week of the blood test. This type of noninvasive prenatal DNA testing is popular in mothers who may have risk factors for Down syndrome, such as advanced maternal age. If the chance for Down syndrome is greater than 1/385 according to the serum screening, it is a positive result. False positive results are possible.

Are There Other Down Syndrome Screening Options?

Mothers have several noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPT) to choose from when trying to screen for Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities, on top of serum screening. The NIPT test you choose depends on your unique needs, concerns, and goals. Here is a breakdown of three noninvasive screening options available to mothers in the second trimester:

 

1. MaterniT ® 21 PLUS. This NIPT test screens for Down syndrome and trisomy 21, as well as other conditions, such as DiGeorge syndrome. Parents can customize their tests according to risk factors.

2. MaterniT® GENOME. This test is a robust option that can give parents information about every chromosome for a more comprehensive view of the baby’s health.

3. informaSeq®. This tests for common trisomies such as Down syndrome but has the option not to reveal information about fetal gender, unlike other NIPT tests.

 

Serum screening has been in use for over 40 years. Only recently, however, noninvasive prenatal screens became available. Serum screening can detect 80-90% of infants with Down syndrome, trisomy 18, and open neural tube defects depending on the test chosen and the stage of pregnancy. Later, a diagnostic test can confirm or deny a positive serum screen. First and second trimester serum screening may be the right NIPT for your family.

Along with various categories of diseases, there are ailments in which the body cells attack its own cell. They are the auto-immune diseases which have varying symptoms like fatigue, achy muscles, low-grade fever, hair loss, rashes, etc. The symptoms get worse at chronic stages. However, if the signs of the diseases aren’t ignored while in acute stages, the effects can be minimized to a bearable extent. Tracking of the changes caused due to any of these suspected diseases should be started from the basic things like indigestion, low immunity, minor skin problems, etc. so that the disease can be diagnosed and to enjoy the benefits of early treatment.

Symptom Tracker serves the purpose of monitoring your daily diet, physical activities like a number of steps, medications, etc. and warns you if you are likely to fall prey to any deficiency that can lead to disease. It also helps you to keep a record of your blood pressure, sugar, platelets counts, etc. and aware you about abnormal fluctuations in your body. It uses the analytic representation of your health records, which makes it easy to decide the right amount of nutrients or physical exercises to be included in order to adjust the major variations in your body.

What is Lupus Erythematosus?

Lupus Erythematosus is one of the autoimmune diseases in which the body targets its own body tissues, causes symptoms related to dermatological, cardiovascular, reproductive system, etc. The antibodies that the body produces to fight the pathogens from outside is mistakenly utilized to attack the own healthy tissues of the body. Two to seven out of every ten thousand are witnessed to suffer from this disease. The main cause of the ailment is still unclear. This is the reason why Lupus is incurable. All you can do it is to endure a lifetime treatment in order to fight with the disease. However, like every other disease if it is found out early, then the worse scenarios can be avoided.

What are the primary symptoms observed in the disease?

As Lupus is caused due to the autoantibodies (antibodies killing its own host tissues), the symptoms can be seen affecting multiple organs at multiple stages of the disease.

• The probability being 70%, lupus can cause skin inflammations at both acute and chronic stages. Thick red scaly patches on the skin are common in patients of discoid lupus. Acute lupus cause rashes to the skin, and subacute lupus cause red patches with different edges. So, the kind of skin inflammation can also help us to be primary decide which type of lupus the patient is suffering from.

• Minor as joint pains and major as rheumatoid arthritis can also be added in the list of symptoms.

• Pericarditis, which is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart, is a common sign of the disease.

• Abnormal hair loss regularly is a common symptom.

• Slow healing of wounds due to low platelets count is common. Children are likely to be suffered from anemia.

• Pain in the chest due to the disturbed outer lining of the heart.

• Numbing of fingers or limbs due to the poor blood circulation of blood throughout the body.

• Lupus can cause a reduction in lungs volume, which can cause problems in normal breathing.

• Patients with lupus often have ‘Dried’ eyes. Medication used for treating the diseases can also cause characters in the eyes.

• The urine may contain blood or excreted protein. However, no pain is left during the excretion.

• Lupus increases the chances of miscarriages. The patient has to go through a lot of endurance if diagnosed during the time of maternity.

How is the disease diagnosed?

When the symptoms in acute stages are carefully examined, the confirmation and the treatment are done accordingly. Some of the indications of the diseases are given below:

• Butterfly rash or the Malar Rash is a prominent symptom.

• Skin is vulnerable to sunlight or the Ultraviolet rays and reacts by causing rashes.

• Due to weaker immunity, joints and muscles get swollen, leading to arthritis.

• Urine has blood or protein that can indicate Lupus as a disease.

• Inflammation of brain tissues called the lupus cerebritis is also a common sight during the examination.

• Due to autoantibodies, abnormally low immunity is observed, which is an indication of the disease. Formation of autoantibodies can be confirmed by performing the ANA (Antinuclear antibodies) test.

• Basic conditions like low blood constituents’ count. Slow healing of the wounds due to platelets or lower WBCs can make the body prone to illness, fever with shivers, etc.

What are the treatment methods?

As the cause that can help in creating an antidote of the diseases is still unclear, this disease remains incurable. However, some treating methods can help to combat the disease and survive the effects.

• As dermatological problems are very a common problem for patients with Lupus Erythematosus, it is advisable to wear sunscreens, SPF 50 should be preferred.

• NSAIDs such as Aspirin, naproxen, etc. are the kinds of mind drugs can be taken to reduce muscle and joint pains.

• Common painkillers can be used to reduce stomach pain, ulcers, etc.

• Plaquenil is effective for restoring immunity or even in joint and muscular pains.

• Cytotoxic drugs are used in chemotherapies are also used in the treatment for lupus with much lower doses. However, they can massively affect the immune system of the body and can lead to depression, especially during pregnancy.

• Plasmapheresis is a common method used to pass the blood through a filtration process and thus removing the antibodies so that it cannot attack the host tissues. This also means the overall immunity of the body is no longer stable.

Such diseases which are technically incurable needs extra care as the only thing that is controllable is its effects. You can track symptoms of Lupus in order to take care for the disease. Proper medication, healthy diet, adequate physical exercises, etc. is something that needs to be work upon. Self- monitoring and regular health check-up is the best solution to problems related to any type of illness.

To read more on topics like this, check out the health category.

Robots before are just in the imagination of human beings but are now turning into a reality. In fact, they are being used in the healthcare industry to perform surgical operations. Surgical robots, with the implementation of deep learning applications are well-known to assist surgeons to make it easier to accomplish.

The Benefits of Surgical Robots in Healthcare

There are multiple reasons why robots are being used in surgical procedures. As an example, robots are often used to assist with difficult surgeries that require a high level of precision, which can be difficult for human surgeons to perform, without risk.

Generally, robots have a higher degree of precision and flexibility than human beings, which makes the robots a great surgical tool. They usually leave smaller incisions and patients often have a shorter recovery period, following surgery, that involved a specially designed surgical robot.

Lastly, surgeries that use robots also prevent blood loss and are less painful for patients. So expect to see and hear about more robots assisting in surgical operations, in the near future.

Surgical Robots Wouldn’t Replace Human Surgeons

As human judgment is extremely important when it comes to making critical, life or death situations and a robot wouldn’t be capable of making the best possible judgments in many circumstances.

Instead, robots work best when they are controlled or assisted by traditional human surgeons, who have plenty of experience under their belts and who are able to make wise, critical decisions to save individuals lives.

Robots are frequently used to perform a wide array of operations such as heart, spine, intestinal and bone surgery with the help of a health professional.

Surgical Robots are Costly

One of the reasons why surgical robots aren’t used in all surgical operations is that the average surgical robot costs between 1-2 million dollars. With the surgical robots used in open surgeries, costing upwards of 2 million dollars.

In order to be able to competently use a new robotic surgical system, most surgeons need to undertake 150 training sessions. However, as more and more surgeons are training to be able to operate robotic surgical systems, in the next decade there should be surgeons being assisted by robots in the next ten years.

Hopefully, you now understand the importance of surgical robots in the health care system and the future of the medical industry.

To read more on topics like this, check out the health category.

Stress, aging and improper hydration are some causes why there are visible fine lines around your eyes, forehead, and lip area. Your laugh lines may actually look good, but wrinkles are signs of aging. While growing old is inevitable, looking old is something you can resolve.

If you’re looking for a way to decrease the size of your skin’s pores and to diminish the signs of fine lines, proper care for your skin and choosing the right skincare products is a must.

1. Apply eye cream each night to diminish the signs of fine lines and wrinkles 

While you may not notice instant results after using an eye cream under your eyes for a single night, if you consistently use a highly rated eye cream for dark circles from a reputable brand, after a few weeks you should notice that your fine lines have diminished significantly.

2. Gently slide ice cubes around your face, to decrease the size of your pores

You can reduce the size of the pores by simply sliding an ice cube around the areas of your face for a few minutes. Just don’t overdo it as this will cause more harm than good to your skin.

3. Use a face cloth or facial sponge and apply lemon juice to your face, to decrease your pores

Another easy way to decrease the size of your face pores is to use a soft face cloth or a facial sponge to apply a few drops of lemon juice to your skin, to visibly decrease the size of your pores. Lemon juice is known to be a natural astringent that minimizes large pores. Alternatively, you can also use pineapple juice in order to achieve the same results.

4. Massage a few drops of olive oil onto your lines and wrinkles

In order to get rid of lines and wrinkles, simply massage a few drops of olive oil onto your lines, before you go to bed each night as olive oil has the power to help diminish the appearance of lines and wrinkles. Just be sure to rinse your face with warm water and a face towel after you’ve massaged the olive oil onto your skin.

5. Consume foods which are rich in vitamin D and vitamin A

Vitamin A and vitamin D can naturally give you more plump, healthy and firm skin. So if you’re looking to reverse the signs of ageing, it’s well worth eating foods which are packed full of vitamin D and vitamin A.

Some examples of foods which contain vitamin D include salmon, tuna, soy milk and egg yolks, while some examples of foods which are packed full of vitamin A include broccoli, carrots, spinach, cod liver oil and spinach. All of which will be easy to incorporate into a healthy diet.

6. Purchase a skin mask which will reduce the size of your pores

There are many skin masks and sheet masks which promise to reduce the size of your pores in just 20 minutes. Although to get noticeable results, you’ll need to use a skin mask or sheet mask at least once a week. Some masks that are known to significantly reduce the size of pores include yoghurt based skin masks and charcoal based skin masks. Both of which are well worth trying!

So if you thought that you had to live with oversized pores or lines and wrinkles, think again as there are multiple ways to diminish the signs of wrinkles, lines and pores.