1 Simple Tip To Help You Stop Biting Nails

Since most suggestions on what to do to quit nail biting don't offer permanent results, here is one tip that you can use to break your nail biting habit permanently.

Get A Clear Visual Picture of Your Fingernails

The vast majority of nail biters have chewed their fingernails for so long, that they can't really image what their hands will look like when they are not bitten-down. However, in order to be successful in quitting nail biting, you need to know exactly what the outcome is going to be. Without that, you will be wandering around wasting precious energy. Just like you can't drive a car looking in the back mirror, you can't accomplish something if you don't know where you are heading.

Take some time and imagine what your hands are going to look like in a well-groomed fashion. How long will they be? Will they extend over the tip of your fingertips? Will the cuticles be in great shape? If you answer these questions clearly and don't have any problems any longer picturing your positive outcome, you are one step further towards your end result. If you have problems to get a clear mental picture, you can as well cut out an image from a magazine or print one out from the internet. This will help you make the vision more real.

Another great way to increase your chances of success is to imagine a scenario in which you have long, beautiful fingernails. This could be when being around your friends, partner or family. Imagine what it's going to feel like when putting your hands flat on the table without any feeling of shame, guilt or embarrassment. Wouldn't it be one less thing to worry about? What would others say about your newly-grown fingernails?

Many people accuse these visualization techniques as silly or ineffective. However, that's because they don't do them properly. In order for them to work, you need to involve your senses: seeing, feeling and hearing. You need to make the process as vivid as possible. That is so effective because the brain can't differentiate between imagining something and actually doing it. It creates Neuro-connections without you actually being in the situation. Many of the world's star athletes use such techniques to win the competition. Even though this may sound a bit hokey, these people have proven it.

Once you have completed the exercise, you should repeat it a few times over the course of the next weeks. You don't grow muscles by going to the gym once.

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The Side-Effects of Nail Biting

Many people today see fingernail biting simply as a bad habit and nothing more. They don't realize the degree to which this habit can influence a person's life. In fact, many nail biters report of the habit gradually affecting one aspect of their life after another, from work to romantic relationships to personal productivity.

Difficulty Accomplishing Every-Day Tasks

After a serious nail chewing session, the hands of the biter frequently hurt for several days. In this time period, even the most mundane tasks can be a hassle. This includes duties such as typing on a personal computer, or tying one's shoe laces. Other routines that are hard to do with short, bitten-down fingernails are collecting pennies or tiny things from a table, opening a key ring, putting jewelry on or opening a necklace.

Mental Effects

Even though frequently overlooked, fingernail biting often has a considerable influence on the mind of the impacted individual. Nail and cuticle pickers are constantly on guard lest somebody captures a peek of their short, torn nails, and they need to consistently make certain that their fingers are hidden. Even every day activities as reaching out to hold a handle when using a subway, handing money over to a cashier as well as shaking hands can certainly produce intense sense of shame. The nail biter's continuous anxiety prevents him or her from relaxing and focusing on a lot more essential issues. Besides, any time they are facing the lack of ability to halt placing their hands in their mouth, fingernail biters usually become troubled, bothered as well as less self-confident.

Social Consequences

Deformed fingernails and red, puffy cuticles look unappealing and often cause the nail biter's close friends, spouse and children, or even fellow workers to shrink back and retain themselves. Despite the fact that some might not explain to the nail biter they have noticed their "little flaw", they will frequently unconsciously, back up from bodily contact. The social consequences can be even more deep in intimate interactions, for instance with a partner. Chewed-off fingernails are usually an instant turnoff, and many individuals don't wish to be caressed by a person with unattractive fingernails. Women of all ages particularly are anticipated by society to have stunning, well-groomed nails, so they may suffer socially even more than males.

Health Risks

Fingernail gnawing not only damages physical look of your nails but may also expose you to a number of health problems. Biting on your nails can damage the cuticles, making all of them prone to fungal infections. Often, these types of infections aren't just distressing but might take a few months to totally recover. Many medical experts even claim that nail picking may result in dental complications through exerting pressure on the teeth's roots.

When left neglected, nail biting can negatively influence a person's life as well as basic happiness. It can have an effect on every area of life, from daily routines all the way to a person's interpersonal life to wellness. Although many individuals view nail chewing simply to be a "bad habit", it really is a severe condition that creates untold struggling in a huge number of lives.

Need Caffeine? Try an Apple Instead of Coffee!

Now I'm sure you are thinking, how can an apple replace coffee when it comes to that boost of energy needed to get through the day? While it may seem like I'm pulling your leg, there is a valid explanation as to why an Apple might be a viable alternative for coffee.

An apple can give a person an energy boost but, not because of caffeine. It is because of this extra pep in your step is the fruit sugars inside the apple. The sugar inside apples gives a rush of energy to a person for a certain amount of time. Once a person's burned through that energy though, they are back to feeling drowsy and tired.

However, some people hate the taste of coffee and find it to be too bitter. If you are one of these people, an apple as a sweeter option, just might do the trick and help you keep your energy up. Just remember that to keep your energy high; you need to eat an apple every so often to get more energy, because unlike coffee and caffeine, a sugar rush does not usually last long.

There are truly little other items available in the market with as much caffeine as coffee. As other options for products with caffeine, try drinking black tea or eating some chocolate get help you get some caffeine into your system if you're certainly decided on not drinking coffee. But with these alternatives there are also side effects. Black tea can taste bland and strange if you have not tried it before, while as for chocolate, it can be fattening especially since you need to consume a lot of if just to get the same amount of caffeine that equals one cup of coffee.

Now if you find that access to fresh apples might be out of your way or you simply do not have the time to buy fruits every other day, you can also just buy some packaged fruit juice from the market which you can keep in stock in your home and office. You can also do one more thing to boost your energy in the morning or afternoon without the bitter taste of coffee. You can buy caffeine powder in bulk online. This ensures you still get your caffeine needs for everyday use by simply adding it into the beverage of your choice. While this gives you the best of both worlds, you need to pay attention to the quantity of caffeine powder that you use because a little can go a long way.

Lots of people love drinking coffee and it has become more of a daily ritual for them. For the rest who find they don't favor the taste of coffee, you can eat apples every day when you're starting to feel drowsy to wake up your senses. Caffeine powder in fruit juices or other beverages is also a convenient option especially if you find that ordinary sugars do not give you that longer energy boost you need.

Scoliosis Bracing - Genetic Information Needed To Evaluate Effectiveness

Idiopathic scoliosis is a lateral deviation of the spine when viewed from the front or back of greater than ten degrees. It primarily develops in adolescent female's ages nine to thirteen. It is standard medical treatment to prescribe a rigid spinal brace if the scoliosis advances to greater than twenty degrees and growth still remains. The thought behind a scoliosis brace is that by using aggressive pressure to the pelvis and ribcage the spine can be held in a straighter position while your child grows which will somehow decrease the chance that your child's scoliosis will advance to a surgical level of greater than 40 degrees.

Statistical data varies greatly in the literature in regards to scoliosis bracing efficacy and type of brace used. The majority of authorities agree that in brace correction should be greater than 50 percent in order to have a better chance of stopping progression of the scoliosis. The normal prescription time for spinal bracing is twenty three hours daily in the brace until your child reaches skeletal maturity which on average is sixteen years of age in females. Generally radiographic measurements of your child's spine are performed every six months to evaluate progression and stability. Since only a smaller percentage of scoliosis curves progress to surgical levels it is difficult to determine bracing success and even harder considering success is defined as not progressing to more than 5 degrees of the pre treatment measurement.

This type of statistical data is quite frustrating because if for instance 60 percent were not genetically predisposed to get worse but yet all 60 percent wore a scoliosis brace the research would demonstrate a much higher percent success rate because none of that group would have the genetic predisposition to reach severe deformity levels. On the other hand if 40 percent were genetically predisposed to progress to severe scoliosis deformity levels and all of them wore the scoliosis brace then the study would demonstrate an extremely low success rate.

The only logical way to determine success from rigid spinal orthosis or other modalities designed to stop progression would be to only perform data collection on those patients who were genetically risk stratified. If a child was predisposed to progression and the brace or treatment prevented it then there would be more reason to believe that scoliosis treatment works. This may seem complicated and somewhat trivial, but this approach would certainly eliminate scoliosis bracing or at least significantly reduce the time requirements for those patients who were at low risk of reaching severe deformity.

By determining genetic risk when performing clinical trials when scoliosis bracing is being evaluated we would be able to isolate specific cases that in fact may or may not have responded to treatment and therefore eliminate a very invasive and psychologically damaging prescription. The current system involves a blanket approach for cases that reach bracing thresholds with growth remaining and tens of thousands of children are likely being prescribed something that doesn't have much of an effect on their condition as originally thought.

Natural Family Planning: Calendar Method

Description 

It is a form of contraceptive methods that don't use chemical or foreign material or devices to prevent pregnancy. The religious beliefs may prevent some individuals from using hormonal or internal contraceptive devices. Others just prefer a more natural method of planning or preventing pregnancy. For most natural family planning methods, the individual's fertile days must be calculated so that she can abstain from intercourse on those days.

Various methods are used to determine the individual's fertile period. 

·The effectiveness of these methods depends on the person's and person's willingness to refrain from sex on the individual's fertile days. 

Failure rates vary from 10% to 20%. 

Natural family planning methods include the rhythm, or calendar method.

Rhythm Method 

It is also known as the calendar method; 

Requires that the couple refrain from intercourse on these days the individual is most likely to conceive based on her menstrual cycle; and 

This fertile period usually lasts from 3 to 4 days before until 3 to 4 days after ovulation.

Advantages 

1. No drugs or devices needed; 

2. It is free; 

3. It may be acceptable to members of religious groups that oppose birth control; 

4. It encourages couples to learn more about how the female body functions; 

5. It encourage communication between partners; and 

6. It can also be used to plan a pregnancy.

Disadvantages

1. It requires meticulous record keeping as well as ability and willingness for the individual to monitor her body changes; 

2. It restricts sexual spontaneity during the person's fertile period; 

3. It requires extended periods of abstinence from intercourse; 

4. It is reliable for individual with regular menstrual cycle; and 

5. It may be unreliable during periods of illness, infection, or stress.

Implications 

1. Teach the person to keep a diary of her menstrual cycle (for six consecutive cycles) to determine when ovulation is most likely to occur; 

2. To calculate her safe periods, tell her to subtract 18 from the shortest cycle and 11 from the longest cycle that she has documented; 

3. For instance, if she had 6 menstrual cycles that lasted 26 to 30 days, her fertile period would be from the 8th day (26 minus 18) to the 19th day (30 minus 11); 

4. To ensure that pregnancy does not occur, she and her partner should abstain from intercourse during days 8 to 19 days of her menstrual cycle; and 

5. During those fertile days, she and her partner may also choose to use contraceptive foam.