Daily Meme's Archives | Page 10 of 13 |

Asthma Inhalers Can Cause Thrush

May 282012

Thrush is a yeast infection in the mouth, on the tongue, and in the throat caused by the candida fungus. Candida fungus is present in the mouth in small amounts – naturally. But when the candida balance is thrown out of kilter – thrush occurs. Asthma inhalers can cause thrush – particularly those that are corticosteroid inhalers. This is because most of the drug ends up in your throat on its way to the lungs. It’s important to use the spacer that comes with the inhaler as this will help reduce the risk of developing thrush. In addition, one should gargle with water and/or brush their teeth after using their inhaler.

asthma inhalers can cause thrush - oral thrush

(Image courtesy of Mayo Clinic)

Thrush doesn’t always look like this. It can look like extreme redness of the mouth, tongue and throat.. The white patches aren’t always as prominent as seen in this picture either. At times, thrush may bleed. Sometimes the thrush will go away on its own but not always. When it doesn’t, an anti-fungal med is given which can be in the form of oral, liquid, or lozenges.

Uses for Store Bakery Containers

Daily Meme's, Thursday Thriftiness

May 242012

I’m horrible when it comes to throwing out containers. I always think there just has to be a use for them at some point – so I save them. One of my favorite saves that I’ve found uses for are store bakery containers like these:

I know – you’re saying the frosting is yucky to have to clean out – but really it isn’t if you run hot water over it and then wash with some good dish detergent. Invert them and they’ are great for holding crayons, fabric, craft projects, fish – Yes, I said fish – take a look:

Throw an Avengers Superheros Party

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

May 082012

The Avengers broke box office records this past weekend in the U.S. bringing in $207.4 million during their 3-day opening. That kind of money talk is almost enough to sway me into getting a mfa degree so that I can start working in the entertainment industry! With this in mind, kids are bound to be asking for their parents to throw an Avengers Superheros Party for their birthday or just because. To help you out, here a few tips and suggestions on how to throw an Avengers Superhero Party courtesy of Ms. Ricky Eisen, Founder and President of Events and Celebrations.

Tipsy Tuesday – Online Backup Services – Pros and Cons

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

May 012012

Backing up your computer, if you value what’s on it such as documents and pictures, should be a top priority of yours. There are several ways to do this yourself or by utilizing an online backup service. As with anything, there are pros and cons of online backup services but I do believe they are well worth it in the long run.

One never knows when the time will come that their computer will crash – and trust me – it will crash – right down to the hard drive. Of course, the power supply can die, motherboards can fry, and disk drives can fail – at the most inopportune time. This, I’ve learned this the hard way.

When one seriously sits down and thinks about the best way to back up their computer – it’s really a no brainer that an online computer backup service is the best for several reasons:

Backing up to CD’s/DVD’s can be expensive if you have a lot of files. Not to mention that these backup medias can be scratched and storing them takes up space.
Flash drives – they are nice if you need something handy, but these too can fail and only have a certain shelf life depending on the brand and the way it’s used.
External hard drives – these too will eventually fail. And what if this fails before your internal hard drive does? Now you’ve got to get another before the internal hard drive decides it’s gonna die. These also require you to place what data you want on it – taking up your time.
In laptops, external hard drives drain the battery.

Is Your Computer Infected by the DNS Changer Malware? Check to Make Sure it’s Not!

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

Apr 242012

After a two year operation called Operation Ghost Click, the FBI arrested six Estonian nationals back in November, and charged them with fraud. These individuals are accused of infecting computers worldwide with malware called DNS Changer. The thieves used the access to direct users to their own servers and manipulate advertising. This created $14 million in illegal income. NASA and government computers were amongst the infected, amongst millions of others.

The problem – the FBI believes approximately 350,000 computers are still infected with this malware with roughly 85,000 being computers in the United States. If yours is one that is infected and you don’t remove the malware – you will lose your internet access come July.

The FBI has created a site where you can check to see if your computer infected. The results will either show an image with a green background if your computer is okay and should a red image appear then you will be directed to information on how to remove the malware.

Check your computer now at http://www.dcwg.org

Tipsy Tuesday – Refill Your Printer Cartridges to Save Lots of Money

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

Apr 172012

I’ve been refilling my printer’s ink cartridges for a long time now. It’s very much a cost saving method compared to purchasing new cartridges every time I run out of ink. I’ve refilled Lexmar, Brother, Epson and HP printer cartridges with complete success. One of the kits I use is the one to the right. One can buy ink for their specific make and model – but since I have more than one printer, I opt for the universal kits.

Some printer companies have come out with cartridges that idealistically, they were hoping one wouldn’t be able to refill; however someone outsmarted the companies and created a special tool, so that the level of ink can be reset once it has been refilled. You can either buy the tool or alternatively, buy a new set of generic refillable cartridges for your printer for very little money (I’ve found them on Ebay) and then refill those cartridges.

I’m forever running out of black ink before any other color is close to running out. Therefore, I always make sure that I have lots of black ink on hand. Not only that, but a lot of the new printers won’t operate if one color is out. This happened with an Epson printer I have – which I refilled and got it humming again, but I didn’t realize that was the reason the darn thing wouldn’t print the first time it happened!

The only drawback I’ve found to refilling the cartridges yourself is that it can be a tad bit messy. Make sure you have paper towels handy. Rubber gloves help save the hands. Of course, you may be a lot more careful and have a lot more patience than I do for this kind of stuff – thus not making such a mess. I can live with the mess I create knowing how much money it saves me.

This is the link to the kit I use – Universal Inkjet Refill Kit Color – 1 kit – $8.58 – A whole lot of bang for the buck 🙂

Add Someone to Your G+ Circles Right from Your Email

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

Apr 102012

I made an amazing discovery that thrilled me to pieces this weekend. You know how you receive an email when someone adds you to one of their G+ circles? The email will ask if you want to add them to your circles. Well, you don’t even have to leave your email to do this – at least not in gmail! That’s right – you can add someone to your G+ Circles right from your email. Take a look:

Artificial Sweeteners Poisoned Me – Could They Be Making You Sick?

Daily Meme's, Medical Monday, Special

Apr 092012

Artificial sweeteners – could they be making you sick? Seriously!!!

Could they be the reason for your muscle aches? Fibromyalgia? Memory loss? Nausea? Vomiting? Headaches? Let me tell you about a 7-yr. journey that I lived a few years ago that I wish I never had.

It all started when I became pregnant for my daughter. I immediately came down with morning sickness that lasted my entire pregnancy. To combat the morning sickness I was told to take ginger. When that didn’t work, several other prescription meds were prescribed at different times throughout the pregnancy. Not one of them worked. For nine months my trash barrel was my best friend. I couldn’t wait to get that baby out of me so the nausea and vomiting would go away.

That day finally came. My daughter arrived and I was never so elated – not because I had given birth to this beautiful healthy baby girl but because the nausea and vomiting would finally be gone. That thinking turned out to be only wishful thinking. I was still nauseated day after day…week after week…month after month with an occasional day of relief. I was still vomiting – but not as often as I did when I was pregnant.

For the next six years I suffered with nausea. I was in and out of the doctor’s office. I had my stomach meds changed several times. I had a gastroscopy, which showed nothing. One doctor did an ultrasound and told me it was my gall bladder causing the grief and it was removed. Not one of these procedures cured my ailments. I was still very miserable. I was beside myself…why was I so sick? I kept asking myself – why can’t the doctors find a cure? It came to the point where I was determined to find the cure myself except I didn’t have a whole lot to work with.

All I had to work with was what I knew aggravated the nausea beyond belief – my beloved diet Pepsi, coffee, and tea. Each time I tried to drink one of these beverages – I couldn’t get passed a few sips. Then one day while grocery shopping, I decided to try a new soda that came out on the market with 1/2 the sugar. My thought was 1/2 the sugar is better than full sugar. It surely wasn’t my diet Pepsi, so I wasn’t all that eager to try it after getting it home, and it just sat there for quite some time.

Then the day came when my daughter was graduating from kindergarten. I actually felt fairly well that morning – something that happened on occasion. Great I thought to myself let’s see if I can sustain this feeling for the day. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to enjoy her graduation. I did, but I did not sustain feeling well for the entire day.

We left the graduation and went home. It wasn’t until after I had been home a 1/2 hour and I started feeling ill again. Why? I didn’t understand – I was just fine a few minutes ago. So I decided to backtrack my day up until then. I began to think about what I had eaten so far that day. I had a half can of that new cola before heading to the graduation. At the graduation, I had a bite – just one bite – of a brownie. I then went home, opened another can of that same soda, and drank half of that. That’s all I had so far – nothing more nothing less.

Thinking about this carefully – the only thing that remotely related to what I already knew aggravated the nausea was the new soda. I began to think – what does that new cola have in it that the diet Pepsi had in it? What do they have in common, if anything? To the can I headed. I read the ingredients on the can – it contained an artificial sweetener. My mind started working – the coffee and tea I loved – I always added Sweet ‘n Low – an artificial sweetener to it, the diet Pepsi contained an artificial sweetener. Now what? Where do I take this information?

On the Internet I went. I searched, searched, and read article after article I could find on artificial sweeteners. I learned the following about artificial sweeteners. Many of them contain aspartame. Aspartame contains phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol (wood alcohol). Well…you know that methanol? That is a poison. Aspartame contains 10% methanol. Methanol enters the small intestine and is absorb by the body. From there, the methanol is metabolized to form formaldehyde (use to embalm bodies) and to formic acid (found in the sting of red ants). The EPA states one should limit 7.8 grams per day in a person’s diet – they consider that safe.

Shockingly, an 8oz. serving of diet soda contains 14 mgs.! And how many cans of diet soda a DAY had I been drinking over the years – like many, many years? WAY too many. There were days when I would have 5 or 6 cans, some days even more. This isn’t including all the coffee I drank too. Considering this poison builds up slowly in one’s body, I was literally being poisoned from the consumption of the soda I drank, right along with any other food products containing artificial sweeteners containing aspartame. In addition, the phenylalanine levels in my body were more than likely much higher than they should be from the combined meds I was taking and the choice of beverage consumption over the years – thus building up and causing nausea as well. This is because phenylalanine is added to diet soda and certain medications.

You ask why was the onset of my issues when I became pregnant? That’s because I must have been one of those pregnant women showing similar symptoms of the disorder described below:

“A (rare) “variant form” of phenylketonuria called hyperphenylalaninemia is caused by the inability to synthesize a coenzyme called biopterin, which can be supplemented. Pregnant women with hyperphenylalaninemia may show similar symptoms of the disorder (high levels of phenylalanine in blood) but these indicators will usually disappear at the end of gestation.” (quoted from wikipedia…very simple detailed definition)

Sadly, my symptoms did not go away at the end of gestation which suggested to me – the levels of phenylalanine in my blood had to have been pretty high for them to continue on and torture me.

Though, through all my research, one article suggested to lay off ALL products containing artificial sweeteners for one month to see if there was any change. At this point I had nothing to lose but everything to gain. Despite how much I loved these beverages and the foods I thought were saving me calories, I had to give them up to see if I’d see a change, because I wanted no more than to feel well again. And GUESS WHAT??

Come the forth week of staying away from all food and drink products containing artificial sweeteners – the nausea was GONE – completely gone. My daughter will be 15 in a few months and I’ve been nausea free since she was 6.5 yrs old. I no longer ingest anything that contains any type of artificial sweetener. NO sucralose, no NutraSweet, no Splenda, no Sweet ‘n Low, no saccharin – not a taste of anything with any kind of artificial sweetener in them…nada!

Artificial Sweeteners Seizure Causing You Say? Absolutely!

Another lesson learned about artificial sweeteners – my son has a seizure disorder caused from a brain hemorrhage. I had started sending Crystal Light with him for lunch when he started adult services. I was receiving incident reports sent home with him day after day saying he had a seizure. I thought the direct support employees didn’t have a clue what they were talking about because I hadn’t seen a seizure for years. Come to find out, the seizures were real and were from him consuming the Crystal Light. After a discussion with his neurologist, I learned that anyone with a seizure disorder should not ingest any artificial sweetener other than sucralose. Guess what? Sucralose isn’t happening either. NO artificial nothing for my kids, knowing what I know now, and what we’ve been through.

If you suffer from ailments like headaches, dizziness, depression, vomiting or nausea, abdominal pain, seizures, vision changes, Fibromyalgia, joint pain, anxiety, or any other unexplained ailment that you can’t seem to get relief from, I highly suggest you looking at your artificial sweetener consumption. One great article to read regarding health effects of artificial sweeteners can be found at medicinenet.com.

If you’re a soda drinker – you may find this article worth reading: Medical Monday – Soda – Cancer Causing? Facts That Might Make You Cringe!

Thrifty Thursday – Ways to Save on Prom Expenses

Thursday Thriftiness

Mar 292012

Prom time is nearing very fast and it tends to be a costly event. Most all teens want to go but it’s not always affordable for all families. That being said, there are ways to save on prom expenses and still make this a very memorable time for your prom-goers. One doesn’t need to buy the most expensive dress, the fanciest shoes, or even have a $100 hairdo. Heck – most of the girl’s take off their shoes before the night is half way through; and I bet the guys lose the ties somewhere along the lines as well. So, how can you save?

Older Entries Newer Entries