National Public Gardens Day

Private Home Health Care is being cautious but we are feeling like we may be out of the woods for getting any more snow.

Trees are budding, some have colorful leaves, others are green.  Every stage of nature is coming back to life.

We love it and we think it’s a great day to talk about public gardens.  It’s National Public Gardens Day and blooming has begun.

Visiting a public garden is full of goodness.  It’s relaxing, gives you fresh air and beautiful plants to see.  It can also lower your blood pressure and change your mood.

You and I have so many choices too.

If you like to visit the city you can go to the Boston Public Gardens.  Lovely trees and plants await you and you can even get a ride on the Swan Boats.

Travel to Wellesley and you’ll find The Garden at Elm Bank, part of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 

• For $10 you can visit open fields and meadows, streams, wooded areas and formal gardens. 

Cape Cod and Falmouth and visit the Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary.  

• It has 65 varieties of holly trees you can find on a self-guided tour.

Acton has the Acton Arboretum and Framingham has a wildflower garden with more than 1,000 native plants called Garden in the Woods.

You can also find public gardens on the north shore of Boston.  Check out this link:: https://thetrustees.org/content/north-shore-gardens/

There are so many public gardens to entertain you.  Depending on where you live or how far you want to travel the options are endless.

We hope that as the warm weather comes, you will be able to visit a public garden or two.  Public gardens are a true gift.

Sleep Apnea (OSA)

How are you sleeping?  Are you a “good” snorer?  How do you feel when you wake up?  Still tired?

Answering yes to these questions could mean that you have Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA.

There are three different types of sleep apnea.  OSA is the most common form.  

Sleep apnea can become a serious medical condition.  You actually start and stop breathing several times when you sleep.

OSA is all about the relaxing of the muscles at the back or your throat.

Your airway narrows and you can’t get enough air in your lungs.  This lowers your blood oxygen.  

Next your brain takes note and wakes you up.  If this happens 5 to 30 times in an hour this can give you a very bad night’s sleep.

What makes this condition so difficult is that it can make you super tired and make it hard to get through your day.

You can get hypertension, a form of high blood pressure that would need to be managed.

Taking medicines and having surgery can be more difficult and it could be harder to regulate your insulin, leading to Type 2 diabetes.

Sleep apnea can be a scary diagnosis as you can see.  

It’s important to work with your medical professional if you need to make any changes in your life.  Losing weight, drinking less, quitting smoking or checking on a narrowing of your airway.

Private Home Health Care understands the difficulty of not getting enough sleep from snoring.  Medical professionals are key to diagnosing and helping to manage sleep apnea.

Therapeutic Massages

A massage.  Soothing, gentle, relaxing.  The perfect ending to a stressful week.

Have you ever had a massage?  How about a therapeutic massage?

A therapeutic massage is a very specialized type of massage.  Depending on how you are feeling it could be right for you.

A professionally trained therapeutic massage therapist is someone who works with the soft tissues of your body.

You would get treated in a hospital or clinical setting most likely. 

The therapist works on manipulating the soft tissues like your muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia.

In case you are wondering, your fascia is a sheath of stringy connective tissue that surrounds every part of your body.

If your fascia is tight you can imagine how tight all your other muscles and tendons would be.

The massages are relaxing but they focus on your current health issues.  It could be a deep-tissue massage or a Swedish massage.

You may have a chronic health issue or it could be acute.  These types of massages can be very helpful to manage the pain from both. 

A therapeutic massage can help with the discomfort, it can increase your range of motion, and promote healing.

Private Home Health Care knows that therapeutic massages can work well with other treatments for pain.  Be sure to check in with your medical professional to see if it might be right for you.

World Mahjong Day

Get ready.  April 30 is World Mahjong Day.  

Have you ever played?  Do you know where it came from and how you play?

We have heard that it’s a lot of fun once you understand the game.  It can even be addicting.

The game started in China, word has it in the 1800’s.   It involves four players and 144 tiles with symbols on them.

It has four ways it can become a special game.

It’s a social game since it needs four players.

It’s strategic because you have to make decisions about your tiles.

It’s dynamic since you can steal tiles from fellow players.

It’s satisfying once you learn the game.  You use your brain.

Each of the 144 tiles have symbols and each represents something different.

There are bamboos, characters, dots, dragons and winds.  Each has a particular role in the game.

One important thing to note is that there are three versions of Mahjong and the rules for using the tiles can be different for each.

The versions are Chinese, Japanese and American.

To win you need to get four sets of tiles and one pair of identical tiles.  That is a winning hand!

It may sound complicated but there are so many people that play it that it must be a game you can learn.  

Check YouTube for how to play as a beginner and then find a beginner group to get started.  You may not be able to stop once you start!

Private Home Health Care loves games that involve fun and strategy!  Mahjong sounds like just that kind of game!

Arbor Day

Today is Arbor Day, a day to nurture and plant trees and our landscapes.

The day started back in 1874 with prizes offered for the state that planted the most trees.  Nebraska earned the rewards that year.

According to the US government, 22 million trees were planted and 285,000 acres of land were reforested.

For those of us living in the suburbs we have many trees around us.  All different types, evergreen and deciduous.  

During spring there are beautiful buds that suddenly appear, last a little while then give way to green leaves.

What’s important for each of us is to pay attention to the trees around us. They help our environment and for many provide lovely shade in the summer.

Every last Friday in April on Arbor Day is a day to nurture our trees and if you have an opportunity to plant trees in your area.

In honor of America’s 250th anniversary there is also an initiative around our forests.  It is called Forests250.

It is about educating, collaborating, celebrating and investing in our forests.  Here is a link if you’d like more information:  https://www.forests250.org/

Private Home Health Care loves walks in nature.  This Arbor Day when we have a walk we will pay special attention to the different trees in our midst.

Stages of Aging

How old are you now?  Have you ever thought about what stage of life you are in?

That’s what we find ourselves thinking about today.   

We found some information about the different stages of life for each stage and we’d like to share it today. 

If you’ve lived life for a while, you’ve been through the emerging adulthood years of 18 to 29 and the young and middle adulthood years of 30-45.

Hopefully you have fond memories from that time in your life.

The middle to late adulthood of ages 40-65 can bring changes to your appearance and your health with some concerns starting to arrive.

Your age starts to accelerate a bit once you hit age 66 and more to come by the end of this stage of age 89. This is post retirement to an older adult timeframe.

There is a huge difference in aging patterns and different experiences for each of you.  You may find more freedom in retirement years and you might even see positive changes and well-being.

Well, now you probably know the definition of ages 90 and above right?  The label is very old.

How do you feel about that?  Does it ring true or do you have a different opinion?

Your lifestyle, along with your genes, can contribute to your aging process.  Exercising and healthy eating habits contribute as well.

In addition, watching your alcohol intake and either never smoking or getting over smoking is also a big factor.

So many stages in a life.  Do you agree with this assessment?

Private Home Health Care appreciates all the stages of life.  We believe in individual experiences for each person.  Our hope is that each person feels fulfilled and happy at whatever stage they are in.

Photo by Pixabay

Boston Marathon Day

The world’s oldest marathon has begun. 

The Boston Marathon started in 1897 and continues as a major marathon to this day.

Can you imagine running this race?  You would be running for 26 miles and 385 yards.

Runners start in the town of Hopkinton and end in Boston’s Back Bay near the Boston Library.

The first winner was John J. McDermott who ran 24.5 miles in a bit less than 3 hours.  It wasn’t until 1927 that the race increased to the current distance.

You needed to be a man to run the race until 1972 when the first women were allowed. In 1975 the first wheelchair races began.

This year there are 24,362 men and women running the Boston Marathon.  Most will finish which is an amazing accomplishment.

People from all over the world have won the race.  In the most recent years, Kenyans and Ethiopians have dominated.

There is a lot of preparation for the 130th marathon race.  The Boston Athletic Association is responsible for the event each year and does an unbelievable job. 

Private Home Health Care is blown away by the ability to run continuously for 26 miles.  Kudos to everyone who finishes, whatever time it takes.

Refresh Your Goals

Did you set health and wellness goals at the beginning of the year?  How is that going?

This weekend is a chance to review your goals and to refresh or make changes 

Setting goals has been around for quite a long time.  Look at Benjamin Franklin for example.

Mr. Franklin had 13 virtues, splitting his life into 13 different goals for his life.  His goals included food and drink, avoiding extremes and watching your spending.

You may have had goals to lose weight or exercise more frequently.  Getting on a budget could have been another goal.  

Do you want to learn a new skill, make new friends or get in touch with old friends to be more social?

You can make goals at any age.  They can be big or small.  Whatever you decided on take some time this weekend to check in and see how you are doing.

Having to reassess and change or refresh goals is not a bad thing.  

Overreaching can make you feel overwhelmed.  It’s all in your hands and there is no judgement so don’t judge yourself.

Private Home Health Care understands that when goals are set it doesn’t mean that you have to stick with everything.  Have a check in this weekend and don’t be afraid to go a different route.

Not Just Tax Day

Today is April 15th.  A day known for the due date to submit your Federal and State taxes.  You may owe money or if you are lucky you get some money back.

April 15 is also important for another reason.  It is Jackie Robinson Day.

Every April 15, the number 42 is worn by all players, coaches and umpires in major league baseball.

Jackie Robinson probably doesn’t need much introduction.  Everyone who follows baseball knows that he was the first Black player to play in the American Leagues.

This was on April 15, 1947 and his prowess and skills shone during his career. He played for the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956.

Jackie led the National league in stolen bases, he won the batting championship, was named Rookie of the Year and was the National League MVP.  What a career.

Life was not without trials however as he ran into players that didn’t want to play with a Black man, fans threw bottles and insults at him opposing pitchers sent pitches towards his head.

Prior to baseball and after his career he was an activist for equal rights for Black people.

It started in the US Army with refusing to sit at the back of the military bus.  He also became involved with the NAACP and he even appeared with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unfortunately he died at the young age of 53.  His life in baseball and in civil rights are a part of his amazing and inspiring story.

Private Home Health Care honors Jackie Robinson on this day.

A Space Mission to Remember

What an exciting time for space exploration.  After more than half a century, astronauts successfully went to the moon, and then some!

Artemis II and its 4 person crew left Earth on April 1.  They traveled out of the atmosphere and the farthest than a human has ever been.

Can you imagine getting into a space craft and rocketing up to space, out of Earth’s atmosphere and to the other side of the moon??

What a feat for NASA and the four astronauts, Reid Weisman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen.

These four human beings did a lunar flyby, 252,756 miles from Earth.  They were also 4,067 miles above the lunar surface, the closest they got.

What they saw was unimaginable to us but thanks to them there are photographs to share so that everyone can enjoy the view.

We cannot imagine the courage and bravery to take on such a journey.  They had all been astronauts for a while.  To be chosen for this trip must have been a huge honor.

Private Home Health Care was watching intently on Friday night, April 10 as the crew re-entered our world.  

They faced extreme heat and incredible speed on reentry and thanks for amazing minds at NASA they sustained it all.

It was even said that the landing place just off the coast of San Diego was just about a bullseye.  Another magnificent feat.

Seeing all the divers and people helping retrieve the astronauts and then seeing them going up to the helicopters was a wonderful site.

Congratulations to everyone involved and we will see what comes next!