Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

Las Vegas, Nevada and Washington D.C. (PRWEB) February 25, 2015

According to the National Domestic Abuse Hotline, each year 1.5 million high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner. Only one-third of those victims seek help. Dating violence is the verbal, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse of a partner. Teen victims of dating violence pose a higher risk of substance abuse, eating disorders as well as a risk of future abuse (National Domestic Abuse Hotline, 2015). To address this serious problem, The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and AlertID have joined forces to raise awareness and offer warning signs, advice for parents, and resources for victims.

The National Crime Prevention Council, (Home to McGruff the Crime Dog®) is the nonprofit leader in crime prevention. “We need to start early in teaching young people strategies to recognize healthy dating relationships,” said Ann M. Harkins, NCPC President and CEO. “Prevention is key to protecting our children and making sure they never feel the sting of domestic abuse.”

AlertID, your neighborhood safety network, encourages families to be proactive about their safety and that of their children. According to AlertID founder, Keli Wilson, “We work hard every day to get critical information to our members to help protect their families. We encourage every parent to take a few minutes to review these important tips and talk to their teens about this serious issue.”

Please review the following warning signs, tips and resources about Teen Dating Violence.

Your child may exhibit some or all of the following dating violence warning signs:

    Makes excuses and apologizes for his or her partner’s behaviors
    Often has unexplained injuries, such as bruises or body pain
    Isolates him or herself from family and friends and only deals with his or her partner
    The dating partner frequently texts or calls demanding to know where and with whom he or she has been
    Is frequently upset or depressed but is unwilling to discuss the cause

Advice for Parents:

    Be a good example: Displaying positive and healthy relationships will model what an appropriate and respectful relationship with a significant other looks like.
    Teach your children to trust their judgment: Having an open conversation about dating violence, physical and verbal abuse is important in preparing your child to know how to safely and properly avoid abusive relationships. Discuss with your child characteristics of a healthy and respectful relationship.
    Create an open environment: Your child should know that they can come to you in times of need for support – not criticism or judgment. Maintaining a neutral position may help your teen to open up about their partner, so try listening and not immediately jumping to conclusions. Assure your child that if he or she ever finds him or herself in a violent relationship that he or she is not to blame.

Resources:

National Domestic Violence Hotline: Dating Abuse Helpline offers real-time, one-on-one support from peer advocates. Text “loveis” to 22522 or Call 1-866-331-9474.

Loveisrespect:

http://ift.tt/XYtE4B: A website that aims to educate individuals on what it’s like to be in an abusive relationship and the importance of being able to identify healthy relationships.

Parent Help Guide to Start the Conversation with Your Teen: http://ift.tt/1sHWPgS

About AlertID

AlertID®, Your neighborhood safety network, is free to use and helps protect families and neighborhoods. AlertID’s mission is to help people live safely by providing a secure way to receive trusted public safety alerts and share information with family members and neighbors. AlertID uses technology to help citizens and federal, state and local authorities share information about crime, sex offenders, natural disasters, missing children and severe weather that can threaten public safety. AlertID is accessible to members online as well as by email and mobile app. For more information visit http://www.AlertID.com

About The National Crime Prevention Council

The National Crime Prevention Council is the nonprofit leader in crime prevention. For more than 30 years, our symbol of safety, McGruff the Crime Dog®, has delivered easy-to-use crime prevention tips to millions of adults, teens, and children. Law enforcement agencies nationwide rely on our expertise to make an impact on personal safety and crime every day. For more information on how NCPC can be a public safety expert for you or how to “Take A Bite Out Of Crime®,” visit http://www.ncpc.org.

Sources:

http://ift.tt/XYtE4B : Loveisrespect is a project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline

http://ift.tt/1I3N5pm (Teen Dating Violence Month)

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Working Your Way Through Life With Anxiety Problems

It’s hard for anyone to understand the challenges of anxiety unless they’ve lived through them. What seems simple to them might seem impossible to you. Your anxiety is not your fault, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. Read on to find advice that will help you manage your anxiety and work through its challenges.

A useful technique to manage anxiety about an event, or condition is to deliberately exaggerate, the outcome beyond all reason. Relate your concerns out loud to a friend, but describe the outcome you fear with as much emotion, and dramatic detail as you possibly can. When you are done, do it again. While it seems odd, research has shown that deliberately exaggerating the consequences that you fear, will often desensitize you to the trigger, helping you experience the absurdity of it all. This can allow you to place your concerns in a more realistic light.

When you are on anxiety medication, never stop taking it without talking to your doctor. Even if you feel like you are better, you still cannot just stop. Some of these medications can make you very ill and can even be deadly if you just stop all of a sudden.

Learn to say no. Overextending yourself can quickly drain your reserves and leave your mind racing as you try to live up to your commitments. Your refusal to put more on your plate than you can manage may cause disappointment for someone, but your mental health and well-being are most important.

Do not feel embarrassed or ashamed to seek professional help if your anxiety has become something that you cannot effectively deal with on your own. It will help you to talk to a doctor and let those feelings out. They will then, be able to prescribe you something that can help you, if that is what is needed.

If you are experiencing problems shutting down those negative thoughts during bedtime, write down your feelings in a journal. Spending just a few minutes writing what’s bothering you onto paper may help you release them and let you sleep without worrying about them. Write as often as you’d like or need, but at least once nightly.

Living with anxiety can be more difficult than others imagine. That’s why it’s crucial for you to learn ways to manage your anxiety. This article has given you a number of suggestions on dealing with anxiety on both a short-term and long-term basis. Now you have the tools to live an anxiety-free life.

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Caffeine and Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease that has long plagued patients around the world; yet despite the history and prevalence of the condition, it continues to mystify doctors, researchers and patients. One mystery is the correlation between diabetes and caffeine.

Medical experts believe that caffeine poses a higher risk for contracting diabetes, and increases the dangers for those who already have the disease. There are substances in coffee, for example, that can have negative effects on the body’s metabolism, presenting health dangers to diabetics and non-diabetics alike. On the other hand, researchers in Japan claim that people who drink caffeine may be reducing their risk of developing diabetes. A study conducted on participants who took caffeine in the form of oolong, black or green teas showed that drinking at lease three cups or more every day could reduce their risk of developing diabetes by 33 percent. Despite these findings, modern medical research suggests that it’s still better to avoid caffeine if you want to reduce your risk or developing diabetes or control an existing condition.

Research conducted at a respected university medical centre suggested that drinking caffeine with meals would result in an increase in insulin and glucose levels in participants with Type 2 diabetes. Insulin is a naturally-occurring component in the body that converts glucose into energy. A person with diabetes who drinks caffeine with a meal may suffer from a hindered metabolism. Participants who fasted during the study showed no significant changes in their insulin or glucose levels.

Diabetes patients know that it’s important to lower blood glucose levels. Healthy levels can easily be maintained by eating the right foods and exercising regularly. Now, these new medical findings suggest that reducing or eliminating caffeine is another way to control diabetes.

Caffeine has a direct negative effect on insulin levels. As you know, diabetes is the inability to control sugar levels in the blood. In some cases, the body doesn’t produce enough insulin. In other cases, the body produces a hormone that resists insulin.

A chemical called alloxan is a known cause of diabetes. This theory was proven in lab tests where mice fed with alloxan developed diabetes. Alloxan is a free radical generator that not only poisons our insulin-creating cells, but can also cause aging and disease. Alloxan causes damage to the pancreas, including pancreatic cancer. Caffeine causes the natural creation of alloxan in the body, therefore increasing the chance of developing diabetes, or making an existing condition worse.

Even though the consumption of caffeine can contribute to many health concerns and diseases, people around the world continue to thrive on it. Caffeine is present in tea, coffee, soft drinks, chocolate and many diet and energy supplements. People who drink several cups of coffee, tea or soft drinks on a daily basis are taking in massive doses of harmful alloxan. Even decaffeinated beverages contain some caffeine and, therefore, certain levels of alloxan. Everyone should limit their caffeine intakes, particularly those at risk of, or suffering from, diabetes.

Caffeine intake used to be a health issue reserved for older patients. Now, younger people are facing the same dangers. The soft drink industry is, sadly, marketing “power drinks” with dangerously high levels of caffeine to consumers in the age 15-21 demographic. Some juices and even bottled waters are infused with caffeine, and even respected tea manufacturers are producing “high-powered” teas that are packed with caffeine.

If you are interested in preventing the onset of diabetes, consider lowering your caffeine intake. If you already suffer with the disease, speak with your doctor about the correlation between caffeine and diabetes. For your good health, take steps to reduce caffeine. For optimal health, eliminate it from your diet altogether.

Columnist Phillip Blunzon contributes articles to a variety of popular online magazines, on health education and health questions topics.

Click here to get your own unique version of this article from the diabetes Articles Submissions Service

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Chase The Tension Away With These Helpful Tips For Managing Stress

If stress has invaded your life, taken over and removed all joy and happiness from the things you once loved, then it is time to take charge and deal with those issues. Stress can be managed and eliminated from your life if you know what to look for and how to handle it. This article will give you some tips on doing just that.

Try reading a book to relieve some of your pent up stress. Losing yourself in another world, perhaps one of fantasy or sci-fi or a romance, can be a great way for your mind to go on autopilot for a bit. You’ll be able to focus on the world inside the book, rather than whatever is stressing you out.

Think about the feelings you get when you are calm if you feel stressed. Imagine that you are taking a hot shower, or watch as a huge wave of relaxation comes over your body and washes your stress away. Another great way to wash away the stress is to let your imagination take you to a calm soothing place while taking long deep breaths.

One great tip for relieving stress is clearly know and define your priorities in life, as they will help you stay focused on what must be accomplished. When you lose sight of your goals and priorities, you will become unfocused, confused, and go off track, which will easily result in stress.

Sip on tea to help calm yourself. Chamomile tea is known for its calming effect, but there are also other teas that can calm you as well. Try a cup of passionflower, catnip, kava kava, or skullcap. Steep these herbs for about 10 minutes and you will get the full effects of their calming powers.

Identify the main sources of stress in your life, and then find ways to either completely eliminate it or reduce it as much as possible. For example, if one of your friends is always finding ways to get you stressed out, try to be less active in that friendship. When you eliminate stressful situations, your health and your life will improve.

To reduce stress, try cutting out caffeine from your diet. Switch from regular coffee to decaf and try to drink, either caffeine-free sodas or an alternative drink. If you’re used to drinking a lot of caffeine, ween yourself off slowly so that you don’t get a withdrawal headache. This should help to reduce your stress levels.

Hopefully you have seen a few ways that you can realistically deal with the stress in your life. Make a real effort to apply the tips fond here; you can seek out the cause of your stress and deal with it!

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US Immigration Statistics

The United States allowed more legal immigrants from 1991 to 2000, between ten and eleven million, than in any previous decade.  By comparison, the highest previous decade was the 1900s, when 8.8 million people arrived, increasing the total US population by one percent every year.  Specifically, nearly 15% of Americans were foreign-born in 1910, while in 1999, only about 10% were foreign-born.

 

Immigrants accounted for 4.7 percent of the US population in 1970 and it rose to 6.2 percent in 1980, As of 2010, a quarter of the residents of the United States under 18 are immigrants or are children of immigrants. According to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2008, eight percent of all babies born in the US belonged to illegal immigrant parents.

 

Legal Immigration to the US

 

250,000 in the 1930s

2.5 million in the 1950s

4.5 million in the 1970s

7.3 million in the 1980s

10 million in the 1990s.

 

Since 2000, legal immigrants to the US number approximately 1,000,000 per year, of whom about 600,000 who already are in the US change their status.  Legal immigrants to the US now are at their highest level ever, at just over 37,000,000.  Illegal immigration may account to 1,500,000 per year with  at least 700,000 illegal immigrants arriving every year. From 1990 to 2000, immigration led to a 57.4% increase in foreign born population.

 

Immigration Estimates for the Future

 

The Census Bureau further estimates the US population will grow from 281 million in 2000 to 397 million in 2050 with immigration, but only to 328 million with no immigration.  Additionally, a new report from the Pew Research Center projects that by 2050, 47% of the population will consist of non-Hispanic whites, down from the 2005 figure of 67%.  In 1960, there were 85% non-Hispanic whites. The report also foresees the Hispanic population rising from 14% in 2005 to 29% by 2050.  Whereas the Asian population is expected to more than triple by 2050.  Overall, the population of the US is due to rise from 296 million in 2005 to 438 million in 2050, with 82% of the increase because of immigrants.

 

In 35 of Americas 50 largest cities, non-Hispanic whites were at the last census or are predicted to be in the minority.  In California alone, non-Hispanic whites who were 80% of the state’s population in 1970 came down to 42.3% in 2008.

 

Immigrants mostly settle in seven states, California, New York, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois, that comprises about 44% of the US population on the whole.  The combined total population of immigrants in these seven states is 70% of the total foreign-born population as of 2000.  If the present birth rate and immigration rate is to remain the same for another 70 to 80 years, the US population would double to a staggering 600 million approximately.  The Census Bureau’s estimates predict that there will be one billion Americans in 2100, compared to one million people in 1700 and 5.2 million in 1800.

US Citizenship is not legal advice site, but it’s a place for all immigration related issues. Where in you can fill the forms on either immigrant visa (Green Card Renewal, US Citizenship, Passport many more) online. We will make sure your form is 100% error free, before you submit to USCIS. Please visit my blogs http://ift.tt/1r3uJvM and http://ift.tt/Y0ucOv.

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FirstLine Lets San Francisco Order a Doctor to Their Door, Eliminating the In-Office Wait

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 23, 2015

Today, FirstLine, the healthcare startup with a mission of reinventing the primary care system, announced its new on-demand house call service, which will allow users to order a doctor to their home or office for an in-person consultation. The service is available immediately within the San Francisco city limits and is the first full stack on-demand healthcare service of its type, giving users the option for virtual or in-person consultations based on need.

FirstLine launched its app in beta in late 2014 with a focus on building a telemedicine solution. The app, which is officially out of beta today and is already being used by thousands, allows users to video chat or text message with a healthcare professional to secure a diagnosis and prescription if needed, eliminating the need for a visit to the doctor’s office in most cases.

“Telemedicine really has been game-changing for healthcare professionals and patients alike. And for many, a virtual consultation is perfect. In certain cases though a patient really does need to see a doctor in-person, whether that’s due to the need for a physical examination or the legal restrictions of prescribing certain drugs without a face-to-face consult,” said Bryan O’Connell, Co-founder and CEO of FirstLine. “We built FirstLine as a solution to this. You can order a car, food, a housekeeper and more through apps, you should be able to deal with your health that way too.”

FirstLine users pay a one-time initiation fee of $ 25 and a monthly membership fee of $ 15 which includes access to phone, video-chat or text message consultations with doctors and physician assistants. This is often less expensive than traditional co-pays and the utilization of physician assistants helps the company keep the costs down for users. The service is available on-demand daily between 8am – 10pm local time, with typical response times of less than thirty seconds.

For users that request a visit from a doctor to their home or office though FirstLine’s on-demand house call service, there is a charge of $ 199 and wait time of about an hour. FirstLine plans to reduce the fee to less than $ 100 for most consultations as it scales. FirstLine can also provide documentation for users that would like to seek reimbursement from their insurance companies, and the healthcare professional can often bring a prescription to the user with an in-person visit, eliminating a pharmacy visit.

Typical medical issues treated by FirstLine include respiratory complaints (i.e. flu and a sore throat), stomach issues (i.e. food poisoning and constipation), STD treatment, travel medication, women’s health (i.e. yeast infection and UTI), skin issues (i.e. rash and shingles), allergies, sports injuries, and other minor inconveniences. FirstLine is not meant for serious issues that require an emergency room visit, but for minor to moderate issues that can be dealt with through a simple physician consultation.

FirstLine’s doctors are all hand-vetted by the team. Like other on-demand companies, the doctors choose their own schedules and work on their own terms. Many come from the emergency room, which is a very high-stress environment, and are parents that value the ability to work from home.

“I was excited when Bryan and his team first contacted me to take part in the beta for FirstLine. I’ve watched the telemedicine industry grow over the last few years, and had wanted to get involved, but hadn’t quite found the right fit,” said Sylvia Marx, a Physician Assistant with over 14 years of experience in the ER. “The FirstLine model is ideal for healthcare professionals, like myself, who have some bandwidth and want to get involved with either virtual or in-person consults. So many cases out there don’t require a patient to go down to a doctor’s office or urgent care, so I believe FirstLine and its technology is truly paving the way for the future of the healthcare system.”

FirstLine’s on-demand house call service will be available throughout the Bay Area in the coming months. The company has plans to rollout its telemedicine service in other states including Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania, with a plan to hit over 50% of the United States population within a year. FirstLine is also working on getting “in-network” with several insurance providers, which will help to significantly reduce costs moving forward. For more information, please visit http://ift.tt/1Ga2Hou.

About FirstLine

FirstLine is a healthcare service with a mission of reinventing the primary care system. The company’s iOS app allows users to video chat or text message with a healthcare professional to secure a diagnosis and prescription, eliminating the need for a visit to the doctor’s office. If a diagnosis cannot be made through video or text, FirstLine enables patients to request an in-person consultation through its on-demand house call service, eliminating the need for an office visit. FirstLine has offices in Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA, and was founded by Bryan O’Connell, Cama Garcia-Lock and Hugo Troche in 2014. The company is backed by e.ventures and Great Oaks Venture Capital. To learn more, please visit http://ift.tt/1Ga2Hou.

Contact

press(at)firstlineapp.com

415-275-0189

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