Paul' Web Logs: May 2017

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Sunflowers II

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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

A Visual Guide to Understanding Stroke WebMD

A Visual Guide

To Understanding

STROKE

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What Is a Stroke?

Stroke is a medical emergency and a leading cause of death in the U.S. It occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts or, more commonly, when a blockage develops. Without treatment, cells in the brain quickly begin to die. The result can be serious disability or death. If a loved one is having stroke symptoms, seek emergency medical attention without delay.

Stroke Symptoms

Signs of a stroke may include:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the body, especially on one side.
Sudden vision changes in one or both eyes, or difficulty swallowing.
Sudden, severe headache with unknown cause.
Sudden problems with dizziness, walking, or balance.
Sudden confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding others.
Call 911 immediately if you notice any of these symptoms.

Stroke Test: Talk, Wave, Smile

The F.A.S.T. test helps spot symptoms of stroke. It stands for:

Face. Ask for a smile. Does one side droop?
Arms. When raised, does one side drift down?
Speech. Can the person repeat a simple sentence? Does he or she have trouble or slur words?
Time. Time is critical. Call 911 immediately if any symptoms are present.

Stroke: Time = Brain Damage

Every second counts when seeking treatment for a stroke. When deprived of oxygen, brain cells begin dying within minutes. There are clot-busting drugs that can curb brain damage, but they need to be used within three hours -- up to 4.5 hours in some people -- of the initial stroke symptoms. Once brain tissue has died, the body parts controlled by that area won't work properly. This is why stroke is a top cause of long-term disability.

Diagnosing a Stroke

When someone with stroke symptoms arrives in the ER, the first step is to determine which type of stroke is occurring. There are two main types and they are not treated the same way. A CT scan can help doctors determine whether the symptoms are coming from a blocked blood vessel or a bleeding vessel. Additional tests may also be used to find the location of a blood clot or bleeding within the brain.

Ischemic Stroke

The most common type of stroke is known as an ischemic stroke. Nearly nine out of 10 strokes fall into this category. The culprit is a blood clot that obstructs a blood vessel inside the brain. The clot may develop on the spot or travel through the blood from elsewhere in the body.

Hemorrhagic Stroke

Hemorrhagic strokes are less common but far more likely to be fatal. They occur when a weakened blood vessel in the brain bursts. The result is bleeding inside the brain that can be difficult to stop.

'Mini-Stroke' (TIA)

A transient ischemic attack, often called a "mini-stroke," is more like a close call. Blood flow is temporarily impaired to part of the brain, causing symptoms similar to an actual stroke. When the blood flows again, the symptoms disappear. A TIA is a warning sign that a stroke may happen soon. It's critical to seek emergency medical help if you think you've had a TIA. There are therapies to reduce the risk of stroke.

What Causes a Stroke

A common cause of stroke is atherosclerosis -- hardening of the arteries. Plaque made of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances builds up in the arteries, leaving less space for blood to flow. A blood clot may lodge in this narrow space and cause an ischemic stroke. Atherosclerosis also makes it easier for a clot to form. Hemorrhagic strokes often result from uncontrolled high blood pressure that causes a weakened artery to burst.

Risk Factors: Chronic Conditions

Certain chronic conditions increase your risk of stroke.
These include:

High blood pressure

High cholesterol

Diabetes

Obesity

Taking steps to control these conditions may reduce your risk.

Risk Factors: Behaviors

Certain behaviors also increase the risk of stroke:

Smoking

Getting too little exercise

Heavy use of alcohol

Risk Factors: Diet

A poor diet may increase the risk for stroke in a few significant ways. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish may help lower stroke risk.

Risk Factors You Can't Control
Some stroke risk factors are beyond your control, such as getting older or having a family history of strokes. Gender plays a role, too, with men being more likely to have a stroke. However, more stroke deaths occur in women. Finally, race is an important risk factor. African-Americans, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives are at greater risk compared to people of other ethnicities.

Stroke: Emergency Treatment

For an ischemic stroke, emergency treatment focuses on medicine to restore blood flow. A clot-busting drug is highly effective at dissolving clots and minimizing long-term damage, but it must be as soon as possible, within three -- or much as 4.5 hours for some people -- of the initial stroke symptoms Hemorrhagic strokes are more difficult to manage. Treatment usually involves attempting to control high blood pressure, bleeding, and brain swelling.

Stroke: Long-Term Damage

Whether a stroke causes long-term damage depends on its severity and how quickly treatment stabilizes the brain. The type of damage depends on where in the brain the stroke occurs. Common problems after a stroke include numbness and/or weakness in the arms or legs, difficulty walking, vision problems, trouble swallowing, and problems with speech and comprehension. These problems can be permanent, but many people regain most of their abilities.

Stroke Rehab: Speech Therapy

Rehabilitation is the centerpiece of the stroke recovery process. It helps patients regain lost skills and learn to compensate for damage that can't be undone. The goal is to help restore as much independence as possible. For people who have trouble speaking, speech and language therapy is essential. A speech therapist can also help patients who have trouble swallowing.

Stroke Rehab: Physical Therapy

Muscle weakness, as well as balance problems, are very common after a stroke. This can interfere with walking and other daily activities. Physical therapy is an effective way to regain strength, balance, and coordination. For fine motor skills, such as using a knife and fork, writing, and buttoning a shirt, occupational therapy can help.

Stroke Rehab: Talk Therapy

It's common for stroke survivors and their loved ones to experience a wide range of intense emotions, such as fear, anger, worry, and grief. A psychologist or mental health counselor can provide strategies for coping with these emotions. A therapist can also watch for signs of depression, which frequently strikes people who are recovering from a stroke.

Stroke Prevention: Lifestyle

People who have had a stroke or TIA can take steps to prevent a recurrence:

Quit smoking.

Exercise and maintain a healthy weight.

Limit alcohol and salt intake.

Eat a healthier diet with more veggies, fish, and whole grains.

Stroke Prevention: Medications

For people with a high risk of stroke, doctors often recommend medications to lower this risk. Anti-platelet drugs, including aspirin, keep platelets in the blood from sticking together and forming clots. Anti-clotting drugs, such as warfarin, may be needed to help ward off stroke in some patients. Finally, if you have high blood pressure, your doctor will prescribe medication to lower it.

Stroke Prevention: Surgery

In some cases, a stroke results from a narrowed carotid artery -- the blood vessels that travel up each side of the neck to bring blood to the brain. People who have had a mild stroke or TIA due to this problem may benefit from surgery known as carotid endarterectomy. This procedure removes plaque from the lining of the carotid arteries and can help prevent additional strokes.

Stroke Prevention: Balloon and Stent

Doctors can also treat a clogged carotid artery without major surgery in some cases. The procedure, called angioplasty, involves temporarily inserting a catheter into the artery and inflating a tiny balloon to widen the area that is narrowed by plaque. A metal tube, called a stent, can be inserted and left in place to keep the artery open.

Life After a Stroke

Many people who have a stroke regain the ability to take care of themselves if they follow their rehabilitation plan. Those who get clot-busting drugs soon enough may recover completely. And those who experience disability can often learn to function independently through therapy. It has been shown that 3% to 4% of all patients that experience a stroke will subsequently experience a second stroke.

Take the first step and see what could be causing your symptoms.

Then learn about possible next steps.

http://symptoms.webmd.com/default.htm#introView

Monday, May 29, 2017

Sunflowers 🌻 I

Psychological Tricks Restaurants🍴Use so You Spend More💰

11 Psychological Tricks

Restaurants Use

To Make You Spend More Money

Business Insider, Jul. 29, 2016

When you head to a restaurant, you might have your heart - or stomach - set on a particular dish. Or, you might be a little more open to suggestion. That's the opportunity menu engineers and consultants are looking for.

Behind the scenes, before you're even thinking of dinner, they put careful thought into the way you choose what foods you eat. 😲

Here are 11 of the sneakiest psychological tricks restaurants use to make you spend more money:

💲💲
1. They don’t use Dollar Signs
A dollar sign is one of the top things restaurants should avoid including on a menu, because it immediately reminds the customers that they’re spending money. According to research from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, guests given a menu without dollar signs spent significantly more than those who received a menu with them. Even if the prices were written out with words instead of numbers, such as “ten dollars,” guests spent less money because it still triggered the negative feelings associated with paying.

2. They are Tricky with their Numbers
Menu designers recognize that prices that end in 9, such as $9.99, tend to signify value, but not quality. In addition, prices that end in .95 instead of .99 are more effective, because they feel “friendlier” to customers. Most restaurants just leave the price without any cents at all, because it makes their menu cleaner, simpler, and to the point.

3. They use Extremely Descriptive Language
Research from Cornell University revealed that items described in a more beautiful way are more appealing to and popular with customers. According to further research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, descriptive menu labels raised sales by 27%, compared to food items without descriptors.
On an NBC “Today” show interview, menu engineer Greg Rapp poses an example of Maryland Style Crab Cakes. They are described as “made by hand, with sweet jumbo crab meat, a touch of mayonnaise, our secret blend of seasonings, and golden cracker crumbs for a rich, tender crab cake.” This brings the ultimate sensory experience to the reader, and the descriptive labeling will make customers more likely to be satisfied at the end of the meal. Interestingly, brand names in menu descriptions also help sales, which is why chain restaurants such as T.G.I. Friday’s use Jack Daniel’s sauce or Minute Maid orange juice on their menus. The more adjectives, the better.

4. They Connect Food to Family
Customers are especially drawn to names of relatives, such as parents and grandparents, on menus. For example, people are more likely to buy Grandma’s warm, homemade cookies or Aunt Margo’s famous potato salad. It also can add a hint of nostalgia.

5. They use Ethnic Food Terms to Make their Food seem more Authentic
According to Oxford experimental psychologist Charles Spence, an ethnic or geographic label, such as an Italian name, draws a person’s attention toward a certain feature in a dish and brings out certain flavors and textures.

6. They Visually Highlight Things
When foods are bolded, listed in a colored or fancier font, accompanied with photographs, or singled out in a box, they look far more special than the other dishes. However, high-end restaurants tend to avoid this strategy, because it can make them look tacky.

7. They use Expensive Items to Draw you to the Cheaper items
According to Rapp, restaurants use extremely expensive foods as decoys. “You probably won’t buy it, but you’ll find something a little cheaper and it’ll look more reasonable,” he says. According to William Poundstone, author of “Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It),” in a New York Magazine interview, “The main role of that $115 platter — the only three-digit thing on the menu — is to make everything else near it look like a relative bargain.”

8. They Offer Foods in Two Portion Sizes

This strategy is called bracketing. The customer has no idea how much smaller the small portion is, so they assume it’s the best value price because it costs less. What they don’t realize is that the restaurant wanted to sell the smaller portion at the lower price all along, and simply used the bigger portion with the higher price as comparison.

9. They Analyze your Reading Patterns
Restaurants consider scanpaths, which are a series of eye fixations that can be studied to see how people read certain things.
According to a Korean research study, a third of participants are likely to order the first item to which their attention is drawn. As a result, restaurants will put the most profitable items in the upper-right corner, because it is where people’s eyes go first. This strategy is based on the primacy effect, which means people remember the items at the beginning of a list better. Another reason this works is that seeing a really expensive dish at first glance will make the rest of the menu appear reasonably priced in comparison.
Restaurants put the most focus on their main servings. According to a Cornell research study on eye movements on restaurant menus, most customers quickly scan the entire menu like a book, but focus the remainder of their attention on the entrees.

10. They Limit your Choices
Through features such as “try all” samplers, tapas, or fixed menus, restaurants remove the heavy responsibility people feel when choosing what to eat. It is much more effective for restaurants to limit their selection. Apparently, the optimum number of menu items is six items per category in fast-food restaurants, and seven to 10 items per category in fine dining establishments.

11. They set the Mood to Spend
And finally, a little reading music: According to psychology research from the University of Leicester, playing classical music in restaurants encourages diners to spend more, because it makes them feel more affluent. Meanwhile, less sophisticated pop music caused people to spend 10% less on their meals.