MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'importance'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:15:33 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4976252&cid=t_225309_180_f&fid=38612&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpickthebrain%2FLYVv%2F%7E3%2F2LP3nebrbl8%2F Is our intelligence pretty much fixed at birth? Do star footballers and musicians have some innate talent that the rest of us lack? Is your potential determined by your genes? No, no and no. The idea of a growth mindset is catching on, with books like Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. We’re not limited by what we can do … but by what we think we can do. If you have a fixed mindset, you believe that your abilities are pretty much set in stone. Perhaps you’re great with words, but you struggle with numbers. You can paint, but you can’t carry a tune. You can never get your head round new technology, though you’re great at reading maps. If you have a growth mindset, you believe t... PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4976252 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 06:10:21 +0100 4976252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477815&cid=t_225309_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F15%2Fbest-of-our-blogs-february-15-2011%2F You can come out from your hiding place. Valentine’s Day is officially over! Yes, a surprising amount of our Facebook friends said they hated the holiday. Some found it to be too commercial. Others found it to be lonely for singles. There were also many who thought it was a good excuse to celebrate love. In general, while everyone had their own reasons for loving or hating the holiday, I thought it was a great discussion about love and an opportunity to reflect on the four letter word itself. Our bloggers were no exception. Everyone had their own take on love. One blogger talked about how Valentine’s Day can bring up unexpected pain and sorrow in our lives. Another discussed the various stages of a romantic relationship (a perfect post for couples). A third mentioned the import... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477815 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:53:34 +0100 4477815 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4207527&cid=t_225309_180_f&fid=38612&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpickthebrain%2FLYVv%2F%7E3%2FzVdH8iBjZoo%2F The objective is to keep your space without falling down. Twister is loads of fun, with lots of laughter a near guarantee. 4. Tetris. This highly addictive digital puzzle game is one of the most popular games in the world (and it can be downloaded online for free!). Tetris starts with colored blocks in assorted geometric shapes, falling at a slow pace. The objective is to drop the pieces, fitting them together until there are four rows of neatly lined blocks. When done, the screen will clear and you can continue. As the blocks start dropping faster, it’s up to the player to think quicker. Tetris will show you exactly how fast your mind and fingers can work together. 5. Oregon Trail. This educational computer game is a classic! Oregon Trail is a role playing game where you assume the role... PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4207527 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:40:32 +0100 4207527 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4125311&cid=t_225309_180_f&fid=38612&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fpickthebrain%2FLYVv%2F%7E3%2FLuoAmrE82lU%2F Our bodies weren’t designed for our modern lifestyle. We were never meant to sit behind desks for half our waking hours, nor were we intended to spend more time in a car than on our feet. Most of us don’t get enough fresh air, sunshine and exercise and it’s having a profound impact on our moods, energy levels and health. Worse, it’s a self perpetuating problem. The less you move, the less energy you have to get going. Even if you know from experience that a bit of exercise will make you feel immeasurably better, you probably have a difficult time managing that first step. If you can find a way to incorporate as little as 10 minutes of active movement into your morning routine, you’ll find your days will run smoother and be less stressful. Plus, you’ll have more energy and a mor... PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4125311 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:00:26 +0100 4125311 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4082344&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F19%2Fworking-and-chronic-pain%2F If there is one aspect of chronic pain management that has received more attention than returning to work, I don’t know it! In 1995 when I started working at my current workplace, work was almost a dirty word. I was accused at one time of being a ‘Siberian workcamp’ Commandante because some people thought it was cruel to ‘force’ people with chronic pain into the workplace. Thankfully this attitude has changed over the years, and most people recognise that working when you have chronic pain, while difficult, is achievable and good for health. At the same time, returning to work with pain has never been especially easy and there are numerous issues to work through. Today is the first day I will discuss the practical aspects of returning to work with the current ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4082344 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:37:07 +0100 4082344 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3872755&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F17%2Fvalues-informing-goals%2F Unusually for me, this post is not associated with a piece of published research.  I have been mulling over ways to help people set goals that are really meaningful to them rather than superficial ones that are all too easily forgotten or avoided, and being informed by ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) I’ve been looking at values clarification as one way of tapping in to this.  At the same time as doing this I’ve been doing a little reading around the occupational therapy Kawa model which uses the river metaphor to describe ‘life flow’, or words to that effect. I’m not a strong advocate of descriptive models really, because I am more concerned about models that help to explain or predict phenomena in the world, but at the same time I use metaphors a lo... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3872755 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:35:54 +0100 3872755 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3854570&cid=t_225309_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F10%2Fbest-of-our-blogs-august-10-2010%2F I’m an avid reader who’s been alternating between five to ten very different books lately. Why so many? Well it’s still summer and I’m soaking every bit of it while I can. One that’s been taking much of my attention is The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D. While the title isn’t very sexy, the read is very illuminating. Why? It talks about the comprehensive (what I’ll call) diet plan for someone suffering from anxiety and phobia. One of the topics it covers is negative self-talk. The kind that often exacerbates anxiety and is also described as one of five mind traps in this week’s top post. It also talks about the importance of exercise, meditation and even nutrition. All things that can help ease your anxiety so that yo... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3854570 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:26:12 +0100 3854570 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3776629&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F21%2Faccepting-what-life-throws-at-ya%2F This study sought to look at whether the people who are more prepared to accept and be willing to ‘have undesirable psychological experiences without attempting to control them’, might be functioning better and suffer less. The study involved a group of 144 people referred to an interdisciplinary tertiary pain management centre in the UK.  Before treatment, they completed a set of questionnaires including several about acceptance.  And as usual, a whole bunch of statistical things were carried out on the results.  I won’t be too descriptive about these stats, but basically, multiple regression analyses were carried out to ‘establish the contribution of general psychological acceptance to patient functioning, after the variance contributed by patient background ch... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3776629 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:17:07 +0100 3776629 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3592209&cid=t_225309_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fpatient-tests-ehrs-and-medical-homes-the-price-isnt-right%2F2010.05.24 Healthcare reform is forcing medical students to learn about the financial costs of the tests they order, as well as their clinical importance. Once a taboo topic, it’s being openly taught to students to prepare them for practice. At Harvard, one physician in training duplicated television’s “The Price is Right” to keep his peers guessing at the costs of tests on a patient’s bill. Molly Cooke, FACP, a Regent of the College, encourages doctors to consider the value of the tests they order as they deliver care. (Kaiser Health News, New England Journal of Medicine) The price isn’t right for electronic medical records. Even $44,000 in stimulus money isn’t enough to make doctors jump into using computers. (more…) *This blog post was origin... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3592209 Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:00 +0100 3592209 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3570085&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F17%2Fa-dilemma-act-ing-well-living-well%2F In this study, an intervention in which individuals considered their personal values (in other words, what is important to them, what influences the direction in which they take actions) was carried out, and its influence on tolerance to a cold pressor test was evaluated. Two previous studies have shown that low levels of experiential avoidance and high acceptance are reportedly related to higher pain tolerance, conversely one would expect that high levels of experiential avoidance and low levels of acceptance would be related to lower tolerance to pain.  A couple of definitions here: pain tolerance is about how long a person is prepared to ‘put up with’ pain before attempting to move away from it, as opposed to pain threshold which is the point at which the person identifies ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3570085 Sun, 16 May 2010 19:21:00 +0100 3570085 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3545642&cid=t_225309_160_f&fid=36189&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.skinmdblog.com%2F74%2Fskin-pigmentation-genetics-the-sun-aging%2F Skin pigmentation is caused by the hormone melanin.  It is produced by specialized cells called melanocytes located in the deepest of the skin’s layers. Your genes are partially responsible for the amount of melanin present in your skin’s cells.  Other than that, sun exposure is the primary cause of increased melanin production. There are some medical conditions (mostly hormonal changes) that will cause increased melanin production.  Sometimes the melanin clumps or forms patches.  The appearance of clumps or patches can be distressing.  They are sometimes referred to as age spots. Although getting older may play a role, everyone wants to live a long life.  So, inevitably everyone will get older. What many people hope to do is to minimize the damage that time does to their faces a... Skin MD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3545642 Sat, 08 May 2010 12:40:59 +0100 3545642 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3366452&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F15%2Fmaintaining-change%2F This study by Christiansen, Oettingen, Dahme and Klinger, shows an extension of the motivational approaches based on Motivational Interviewing, integrates it with traditional problem solving, drags in a bit of goal achievement theory and ties it all together in two half hour sessions – and produces a significant change in functional outcome.  How so? Importance and confidence The two important drivers of action seem to be how important an activity is and how confident a person is to achieve it.  In this study, a group of patients was asked to rate the importance and confidence to ‘improve physical capacity’.  They were then asked to list four positive aspects associated with making this change – eg getting in shape, having fun, distraction from pain.  They were ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3366452 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:20:24 +0100 3366452 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2804255&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F09%2F17%2Fgoal-setting-again%2F This post is most definitely an opinion piece, because once again I’m struggling with the practicalities of goal setting with people experiencing chronic pain. There is no doubt at all that goal setting is an integral part of pain management – it’s designed to focus the input, make sure the underlying reasons for using pain management are relevant to the person, and it helps the person monitor their own progress (not to mention help the therapists measure outcomes!). The problems are that goal setting is a really complex activity, and to make goals patient-centred rather than therapist-driven involves time, and great communication skills. Here are some of my observations about what makes goal setting difficult, at least in my experience in pain management: many patients ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2804255 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:27:21 +0100 2804255 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2738036&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F08%2F27%2Fdont-go-to-the-internet-to-get-good-information-about-chronic-pain%2F …it’s true, you know, the quality of the information about chronic pain found on the internet is poor – at least it was when this study was conducted (of course, that was before this blog got started!). ‘In December 2007, there were an estimated 1.3 billion Internet users worldwide with the usage growth increasing by 265% from 2000 to 2007′ – I don’t think that numbers will have decreased since then! Anyway, in this study, Corcoran and colleagues developed a scoring tool to measure the quality of the material they found when searching the internet using the terms ‘chronic pain’, and using the popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. Their scoring was developed from terms from the Health on the Net code, with some modification to im... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2738036 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:30:33 +0100 2738036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424531&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F05%2F21%2Fgoals-or-actions%2F Goals seem to work best when they’re important to the person, and the person has sufficient confidence that they’re going to be achieved. But…’there is many a slip betwixt cup and lip’ – while the goal might be set, actually getting there depends on many things. I wonder whether we can inadvertently slip up when we’re working to help someone set goals by focusing on outcome goals rather than process actions. Let me clarify. Outcome goals are things like ’sleep for 8 hours a night’. That’s what the person wants to achieve – but sleep might be disrupted by a child crying, a storm outside, or even a partner snoring! Sometimes the goal isn’t achievable not for lack of trying but because external factors intervene. Process ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424531 Wed, 20 May 2009 19:25:20 +0100 2424531 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424532&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F05%2F20%2Ftell-me-what-you-want-what-you-really-really-want%2F A theme in almost any reading about health is that treatment should be patient-focused, typically goal-directed and have some sort of measureable impact. Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading about the process of goal setting and motivation, finding that there can be quite some differences between what a therapist sees as a suitable goal for therapy, and what the patient/participant sees as ‘the goal’. Today I thought to ponder the types of goals we might see during pain management treatment. On the one hand, each therapist will identify several areas to target on the basis of clinical reasoning (in my case, using a case formulation). Usually these targets for therapy are derived from the application of theory to the specifics of the person in front of the therapist. ... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424532 Tue, 19 May 2009 19:33:05 +0100 2424532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3416376&cid=t_225309_155_f&fid=38410&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FOncopathology%2F%7E3%2Fhl3n5TlFdMs%2Fimportance-of-tissue-fixation-in-cancer.html “Do you want a quick result, or the right result?”There is always a pressure on the laboratory (and the pathologist) to turn specimens around quickly, so that decisions can be relayed to anxious and expectant patients.Proper specimen handling and preparationhas been under-appreciated by clinicians and pathologists alike.How preanalytical variables such as tissue handing and tissue fixation have the potential to significantly and adversely affect the accurate assessment of therapeutic targets such as ER/Her2neu in tumor specimens.,must be understood properly.Following are the Consensus Recommendations on Estrogen Receptor Testing in Breast Cancer By Immunohistochemistry by Members of the Standardization Ad-Hoc Consensus Committee.As soon as they are available from the operating room, br... Oncopathology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3416376 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:36:00 +0100 3416376 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2233101&cid=t_225309_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FrwoG_8NEgxQ%2F But how do you decide what “important” is? Sometimes the important stuff is nothing but a collection of individually unimportant things. Sometimes I have a hard time not caring about unimportant things. via How to Create Space and When You’re Always in a Rush | Zen Habits . Copyright © 2009 white pebble. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.white-pebble.net so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana Technorati Tags: importance, tasks, zenhabits (Source: white pebble) white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2233101 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:56:43 +0100 2233101 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2170253&cid=t_225309_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F02%2F10%2Fthe-process-of-moving-towards-valued-actions%2F Another in a mini-series on values and actions, stimulated by reading about ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. For many of the people I work with, remaining committed to a set of actions that lead towards a desired goal seems to be a very challenging thing. Often, at a one-month review, I find one group of people who are moving forward consistently, another group who are simply going through the motions because someone else is ‘making’ them do it (eg case managers or family members), and by far the largest group, those who are saying ‘I’d be on my way but …’ - and the ‘but’ can be so many things: my case manager hasn’t fronted up with the money for the course I wanted, so I can’t start my return to work plan I can’t... HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2170253 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:25:38 +0100 2170253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1128841&cid=t_225309_134_f&fid=36049&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FDiabetesNotes%2F%7E3%2F210628376%2F How many times before have I mentioned the importance of sleep and your bodies ability to regulate glucose? A few at least. There is yet further proof to this theory and I have been holding off writing about it due to it being somewhat repetitive, but I have seen it so frequently that I think it is worth another mention. The US team discovered that volunteers who were roused whenever they were about to fall into the deepest sleep developed insulin resistance. This inability of the body to recognize normal insulin signals leads to high blood sugar levels, weight gain and, eventually, even type 2 diabetes. Personally, I have been in trouble from the start. My kids are such horrible sleepers and my hubby and I have not slept through the night in 7 years. Not to mention that a pin drop wakes ... Diabetes Notes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1128841 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:33:21 +0100 1128841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1012468&cid=t_225309_134_f&fid=36049&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FDiabetesNotes%2F%7E3%2F181195890%2F America’s tweens more than doubled their use of type-2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a 166 percent increase. The likely cause: Obesity, which is closely associated with Type 2 diabetes. This is so darn scary! Oh, we have to do something now about this epidemic in our children. Please, I beg you to teach your kids about nutrition and the risks of heart disease and diabetes as well as the complications that go along with them. My kids eat happy Meals just like every other kid but they also understand the importance of fruits, veggies and exercise! Not that they always conform to my wishes but I think of it as laying the groundwork if you will. You know? What do you do to teach your children about the importance of a health... Diabetes Notes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1012468 Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:57:23 +0100 1012468