Maintaining family traditions during the holidays is a time-honored role of moms. The experience can become stressful, though, when Mom is dealing with cancer, which can be physically and emotionally draining.
To help moms and their families, a brochure has been developed by the Gillette Women’s Cancer Connection and Family Circle magazine offering helpful holiday tips, meal-planning advice and recipe ideas.
Called “When Mom Has Cancer: Help & Hope for the Holidays,” the brochure offers tips for maintaining traditions.
“Family traditions might have to change a little this year to accommodate how Mom is feeling, but open communication and a little flexibility can help make the holidays more enjoyable for everyone,” said Dr. Ann Partridge, breast cancer specialist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
One stress-reducing tip for Mom is to set realistic expectations by choosing to carry out just a couple of traditional things, instead of a large list. Family members are encouraged to do the decorating, be flexible and give Mom a gift coupon book promising to complete chores for her. To get a copy of the brochure, visit www.gillettecancerconnect.org.
Risky flame retardants
They’ve been used in hair dryers, TVs, computers, sofas and mattresses, and now they may be accumulating in you. You can’t taste, see or smell the chemicals in flame retardants, known as PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), but they’re showing up in the lakes, wildlife, and house and office dust as environmental contaminants, said Tom McDonald, a toxicologist with the California Environmental Protection Agency.
A health alert in the December issue of Health magazine discusses the dangers behind PBDEs, which are quickly building up in animal and human tissue in North America, and what you can do to protect yourself before they cause bodily harm. When buying products, shop for natural (down or wool) rather than synthetic items. Products from Japan are a good bet because the chemical has been phased out of that country’s products in the last 10 years. Several manufacturers are avoiding PBDEs in their products as well, including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Sony.
Yoga clinical trials
Yoga is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and for good reason, notes a story in the December Harvard Health Letter. These stretching and breathing exercises have been found to reduce stress and lower blood pressure while increasing your muscle strength and flexibility. Some people suggest that yoga may have more extensive health benefits, but until now little has been done to study yoga’s effects.
Now the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (a division of the National Institutes of Health) is filling the void by sponsoring clinical trials of yoga in relation to multiple sclerosis, back pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and insomnia. For more information on the trials, log on to www.nccam.nih.gov/clinicaltrials/yoga.
Recalls, safety alerts
Recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts on food and health products are almost a daily occurrence, but you may not hear about them in the newspapers or on television. To protect yourself, make regular visits to the recall and safety alert Web site of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html. Here you’ll find the most significant warnings of the last 60 days, based on the degree of health risk and extent of distribution.
