Coronavirus information

Coronavirus information

What to do about upcoming medical appointments

While coronavirus is a new and immediate threat, it’s not the only one. It is still important to take care of any chronic medical problems to prevent them from getting worse. However, talk to your doctor to see if any upcoming appointments can be postponed, handled by Telehealth, or rescheduled. Many doctors are cancelling non-essential appointments. If you have an upcoming appointment, call your doctor’s office to confirm it is still scheduled.

Taking precautions against coronavirus for older adults

People with chronic medical problems, and those over age 65, are at increased risk of getting serious complications from the coronavirus. There is currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease. Taking preventive actions is the best way to avoid contracting the virus.

Preventive measures include:

  • Stay home as much as possible
  • Avoid unnecessary contact with other people, don’t shake hands for example
  • Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated spaces
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (use alcohol-based hand sanitizer w/ at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available)
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
  • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue

The importance of washing your hands

Handwashing is one of the easiest ways you can help prevent illness. It is especially important to wash your hands:

  • Before, during and after preparing food
  • Before and after caring for someone who is sick
  • After using the bathroom
  • After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste

Remember that surfaces, including bathroom fixtures such as toilet handles and sink faucets, can also transmit infection.

Are you washing your hands correctly? Follow these 5 steps for the most effective hand washing technique to prevent the spread of germs.

5 steps to washing your hands correctly

  1. Wet your hands with clean running water, turn off the water and apply soap
  2. Rub your hands together with the soap including the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
  3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds
  4. Rinse your hands well under clean running water
  5. Dry your hands with a clean towel or air dry them

How is it transmitted?

Coronavirus is primarily transmitted by coughing and sneezing by a person infected by the coronavirus. Surfaces touched by someone with the virus may potentially be infected. This is why it is important to wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, and avoid touching your face. In addition, it’s a good idea to avoid shaking hands and minimize your contact with public use surfaces such as lifting the gas pump handle with a paper towel or using your knuckle instead of your finger to turn of light switches.

Is it necessary to wear a facemask?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves against coronavirus. The use of facemasks is recommended for health workers taking care of people in close settings or people who show symptoms of coronavirus to help prevent the spread of disease.

Is it ok to travel?

The CDC recommends avoiding nonessential travel. If you need to travel take basic prevention precautions listed above.

If I feel sick, how do I tell if it’s coronavirus or a different infection?

Coronavirus is related to common cold viruses. Symptoms are sore throat, cough, and fever. Some patients can have vomiting. You cannot tell the difference between coronavirus19 and other, more common viruses based on symptoms. This strain of coronavirus may be more virulent (causes a more severe illness) than most cold viruses.

Coronavirus symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Call your doctor if you develop symptoms and have been in close contact with a person known to have coronavirus or if you recently traveled from an area with widespread cases of coronavirus. Please don’t just walk in to your doctor’s office; they need to prepare for your arrival.

Prolonged vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and joint pains are not prominent features of coronavirus infection. If you have those symptoms in addition to cold symptoms, it’s more likely that you have influenza, or “the flu”. While it is recommended that you stay home if you have cold symptoms during this pandemic, you should call your doctor if you get symptoms that suggest the flu. Adults over age 65 or with other medical problems are at increased risk of complications from the flu. There are medications that reduce the severity of the flu if taken early enough. So you should call your doctor within a day of flu symptoms to see if it would be appropriate for you to get a prescription for antiviral medications.

How to prepare

It’s important to take precautions in advance in case you are required to stay in your home for an extended period of time. General emergency preparedness includes:

  • Have a supply of food staples, bottled water,  and household supplies like laundry detergent and bathroom items
  • Make sure you have at least a 30-day supply of your prescription medications and other health supplies on hand, such as pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes and vitamins

For More Information

We take the safety and well-being of our community, members, and employees very seriously. Given the coronavirus situation is changing daily, we request that you do not visit our office in person.

For the latest up-to-date information on the coronavirus, please visit the CDC website at cdc.gov/covid19.

 

Difference between hypnotherapy and meditation

Difference between hypnotherapy and meditation

Hypnosis and meditation are both trance states that result in similar brain wave patterns. Hypnosis uses the guidance of a therapist, whereas meditation is usually done independently.

Hypnosis is a trance-like state of heightened awareness.  Everyone goes in and out of natural trances many times a day.

If you’ve ever walked or driven somewhere while concentrating so deeply on something else that when you arrived, you couldn’t remember the actual process of driving or walking, then you’ll know what it is to be in a trance.  Hypnosis is such a state brought about with the aid of a hypnotist or hypnotherapist.

Hypnotherapy is therapy conducted whilst the client is under Hypnosis. Hypnotherapy works by inducing a trance-like state within a client during which they are relaxed but fully aware of their surroundings and only concentrating on the hypnotherapist’s voice. It is different from sleep and closer to a relaxed state of wakefulness where breathing and heart-rate slows and brain-waves change.

The client is alert, always exercises choice and control, and is empowered by accessing their own inner resources and healing ability rather than simply obeying a command. Once in a state of hypnosis, under the guidance of the hypnotherapist, the client is able to take control over any involuntary thoughts, behavior or feelings taking place in the sub-conscious, thereby bringing about the changes they want, such as reducing unwanted behaviors or making changes they find hard to make.

As with all things, some people will enter a hypnotic trance more easily than others. But because trance is a natural state, anyone can be hypnotized providing a) they understand what is spoken to them, and b) they consent to the process.

If you feel uncertain or insecure you should spend time with your hypnotherapist first to establish trust and rapport. This will make the process smoother and more comfortable and increase the likelihood of successful therapy.

Although the hypnotherapist is offering suggestions to the unconscious mind, the client will not accept a suggestion that they choose not to.

In hypnotherapy, the client is not under the control of the hypnotherapist. Hypnosis is not something imposed on people, but something they do for themselves. A hypnotherapist simply serves as a facilitator to guide them.

Hypnotherapy is most effective when the client is highly motivated. This is why it is so important that you come to therapy because YOU want to, and not because someone else wants you to.

As with any therapeutic modality some clients will experience great benefits and other less.  But there is now ample scientific evidence that Hypnotherapy can be highly effective in treating many conditions ranging from chronic pain and depression to weight loss.

Meditation is also a state of heightened focus or awareness.  It is a practice during which the mind’s mental activity may be slowed, and deep mental and physical relaxation may occur. The practice is simple but not easy. As with any newly learned skill, patience and persistence are necessary for lasting benefit.

Meditation taps into the innate potential for healing that we all have. It mobilizes and develops our ability for self-awareness and self-compassion as well as compassion for others, helping to improve self-esteem and providing a general feeling of relaxed well-being.

Mindfulness is the capacity to be completely present and attentive. A common definition used is “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”.

Meditation is the formal practice that trains the brain to be focused and present. Meditation has been shown to help manage pain and anxiety, lessen mind-chatter and enhance the natural healing process of the body and mind.

Mindfulness is the moment to moment practice through the day that helps to maintain awareness of being present with all that occurs, good or bad, without judgement. This awareness is empowering and allows one to slow down and live one’s life fully, not just watch it speeding by.

By practicing non-judgment, we can learn to savor what is good in our lives and be more accepting of what isn’t. After all, judgment of a situation doesn’t change what it is. Mindfulness can open us up to the possibilities that exist in each moment of our lives, to experience the fullness and uniqueness of each moment.  Practiced regularly, mindfulness can help us to work more productively and live more harmoniously.

By: Judith Lissing