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January 2023

Health

Gastritis Specialist Singapore: How do I know if my Gastritis is Serious?

Gastritis is a condition that occurs when the lining of the stomach becomes inflamed or irritated. The condition can be caused by a number of things, including infection, stress, or certain medications.

Some people with gastritis may experience no symptoms at all, while others may have abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or bloating. Treatment for gastritis is necessary to prevent the condition from progressing and causing more serious problems, such as ulcers.

To diagnose your condition, your gastritis specialist in Singapore may recommend that you have a colonoscopy to check the inside lining of your stomach. See how it’s done and what to expect on this page: https://andrea-digestive-clinic.com/gastroscopy/.

How can I even know if my Gastritis is Serious?

As mentioned above, some people do not even realize they have gastritis because they experience no symptoms. However, there are some key signs and symptoms that can indicate that the condition is serious and should be treated by a doctor. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, make an appointment to see your gastritis specialist in Singapore:

  • Abdominal pain
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Bloating
  • Loss of appetite
  • Weight loss
  • Blood in vomit or stool
  • Black or tarry stools
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Chest pain
  • Unexpected rapid heart rate
  • Persistent fever

When should I see a Gastritis Specialist about Gastritis?

Gastritis can sound so scary, but the good news is that most cases of gastritis can be treated. If you are diagnosed with gastritis, it is important to follow your doctor’s instructions carefully. In most cases, you will need to take medication to help heal the stomach lining and reduce inflammation.

However, there are some cases of gastritis that are more serious and require more intensive treatment. Get to see your gastritis specialist if you still experience stomach discomfort after taking OTC drugs, especially aspirin, or after taking your prescription medications.

You must also see a doctor for gastritis if your stool appears black, you vomit blood, or notice bloodstains in your stool. A timely appointment with a gastritis specialist in Singapore could just be what you need to discover the cause of your gastritis and to start on the necessary treatment.

What are the Treatment Options for a serious case of Gastritis?

Gastritis is usually diagnosed with a physical examination and by reviewing your medical history. Your gastritis specialist may also order some diagnostic tests, such as blood tests or a stool test.

Once you have been diagnosed, the next step is to determine the cause of your gastritis and to treat it accordingly. If the cause is an infection, you will likely be prescribed antibiotics. If your gastritis is caused by stress or medication, you may need to change your diet or adjust your medication.

In more serious cases, where the patient is not responding to medication or dietary changes, surgery may be necessary to remove the part of the stomach affected by gastritis. To get a complete gastritis treatment, it is prudent that you find a gastritis specialist that will create a comprehensive treatment plan for you. Here are six simple questions to ask when choosing a gastritis specialist.

  • What are your qualifications? It is important that you select a doctor who is qualified to treat gastritis. Ask the doctor about their training and experience in treating gastritis.
  • What is your experience in treating gastritis? Gastritis isn’t a rare condition, but some doctors may not have a lot of experience treating it. Ask the doctor how often they treat gastritis and what types of cases they typically see. It would help if the doctor has experience with your specific type of gastritis.
  • What are the risks and possible side effects of the treatments you recommend? All treatments come with some risks and side effects. Be sure to ask the doctor about the risks and side effects of any gastritis treatments they recommend. A good doctor will tell you about all the risks and side effects associated with each treatment.
  • What is your policy on follow-up care? Gastritis can be a chronic condition, so it’s important to find a doctor who is willing to provide follow-up care. Ask the doctor how often they want to see you for follow-up appointments and what their policy is on missed appointments.
  • What are your office hours? Find a doctor whose office hours are convenient for you. If you work during the day, you might want to find a doctor who has evening or weekend office hours.
  • What is your fee schedule? Not all doctors accept insurance. Find out how much the doctor charges for services and whether they accept your insurance.

If you have gastritis, it is important to find a gastritis specialist who can create a comprehensive treatment plan for you. By asking the right questions, you can be sure that you are getting the best gastritis treatment possible.

How can I prevent a recurrence of Gastritis?

While gastritis can be a chronic condition, there are things you can do to help prevent a recurrence. Here are some lifestyle changes that can help you prevent a recurrence of gastritis:

  • Drink plenty of water. Drinking plenty of water can help improve your digestion and keep your stomach healthy. It would be best if you drank filtered or bottled water.
  • Exercise regularly. Exercise helps improve your overall health and can help reduce stress, which can aggravate gastritis. It would be best if you aimed for the recommended at least 30 minutes of exercise per day.
  • Avoid smoking and alcohol. Smoking and alcohol can irritate your stomach and aggravate gastritis. If you have gastritis, it is best to avoid these substances.
  • Take care of your gut bacteria. A healthy gut microbiome is important for good digestion and can help reduce the risk of gastritis. Eat plenty of probiotic-rich foods and take a probiotic supplement if needed.

The Bottom Line

There is a lot you need to know about gastritis, and finding the right doctor is an important part of treatment. By asking the right questions, you can be sure that you are getting the best care possible. If you are dealing with a serious case of gastritis, it is important to find a doctor who has experience treating your condition. Make sure to ask about the risks and side effects associated with each treatment.

Andrea’s Digestive Clinic: Colon, Liver, Gallbladder, GERD/Acid Reflux Specialist

#21-11/12 Royal Square At Novena, 101 Irrawaddy Road Singapore 329565

+65 6264 2836

Andrea Digestive Clinic – Gastroenterologist in Singapore

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News

How to make and keep your new year’s resolution on track in 2023

You’ve probably seen the memes and heard the jokes about New Year resolutions. It’s true to a great extent. Making promises to ourselves is easy, but keeping them is difficult. So then, are we doomed to disappointment? Or is there a way we can actually use new year resolutions to make our lives better for good?

In this blog, we share our best tips for making those resolutions stick to help you grow into a better person.

Set just one New Year’s resolution.

Write down your most important and urgent goal.

When you only have one resolution, you’ll find that it’s easier to stick with your plan because no other distractions or things are competing for your attention. You won’t get side-tracked even when other things come up. Also, if something comes up in life (like work or family responsibilities), it’ll be much easier for you to adjust your plans so that all the pieces still fit together into a cohesive whole rather than having multiple things going at once.

An online life coach in Australia can help you with the necessary support and guidance if you are looking for help in creating a life vision and choosing a goal that serves you.

Keep it small, tangible, and measurable.

Don’t try to do too much at once. Keep it small and tangible so that you can accomplish it without feeling overwhelmed by its magnitude. You don’t have to be the best person in the world, and you don’t have to do it all.

In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport suggests attaching ‘lead metrics’ with a goal. So if your goal is to write a book, a lead metric would be the number of words you should aim to write every day to meet the goal at a given deadline.

Rather than assessing your goals by the final outcome, you can proactively predict how things are moving ahead with the help of lead metrics.

Visualise the desired outcome.

If there’s a particular skill or attribute that you’d like to develop or improve in yourself, visualise what it will look like after you achieve it. Visualisation is a powerful technique used to manifest the desired outcome by placing yourself in a future scenario and getting familiar with how it makes you feel.

A life coach in Australia can help you with a guided visualisation exercise so you can get into the habit of doing it on your own.

Build a keystone habit to help you develop your daily routine.

In his New York Times best-seller, Habit, Charles Duhigg talks about the importance of a keystone habit and its ripple effect in creating a new lifestyle.

A keystone habit leads to other habits. For example, if you wake up early every day, it’s easier for you to go to bed early as well. It would also lead you to an early dinner, which, in turn, would have you shut off from work at a given time any evening. If you meditate every day, it becomes easier for you to get into the habit of exercising regularly or eating healthier food options.

Create an accountability system.

Let’s be honest. You may not find the support you need from your friends or family. But it’s not all their fault. They have other things going on for themselves and may not relate to your goals. It’s completely ok.

What you need, though, is an accountability system. If you have a parent, a friend, or a significant other, you can be accountable to, that’d be great. But if you can always try online forums and offline meet-ups with others who have similar goals as yours, that’s not working out. You can schedule time with them to make sure you’re doing what you said you would. You can meet up on certain days at the gym or after work every week and keep each other motivated.

Make sure you have some people in your corner to hype you up.

Schedule time for your goal.

It’s not working out because it’s not getting done.

It’s important to schedule time every day or week, even if it’s just 10 minutes at a time. Setting aside an hour or two every single day is going to be a lot more beneficial than scheduling it all on one day each week.

Use a journal to keep track of your progress and stay motivated.

Use a journal as a tool. Write down your progress. Write down how far you’ve come and how much progress you have made in meeting your goals. This will inspire you to keep going and not give up!

Don’t forget about gratitude.

It’s easy to forget about gratitude in the hustle of our routines, but thinking about things you’re grateful for can make an enormous difference in how you feel.

Gratitude has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, improve mental health, increase positive emotions such as joy and love, increase resilience against trauma or tragedy (like the death of a loved one), boost self-esteem and self-worth, and enhance relationships with others.

To sum up…

In terms of new year’s resolutions, keeping things simple and organized is the most important thing. You can go from “doer” to “master of your life” when you set goals, tackle them with intention and build on the success of each one.

If you are feeling stuck or lost and the coming year has started feeling like just another year, consider seeking help. Working with an online life coach gives you the sounding board you need to sift through the multitude of feelings, biases, and challenges that are a vital part of starting anything new.

Schedule a free session with Quality Mind’s certified life coaches to get the best tools you need to level up your 2023.

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Health

How can a life coach help you achieve a stronger, healthier mindset?

Have you ever felt that the outside world was overwhelming? Like the walls are closing in, and there’s no way out?

Life can be challenging, and sometimes it’s hard to see past all the things not going as you wanted. That’s where a life coach steps in.

What is life coaching?

Life coaching involves helping someone find their answers by asking questions, actively listening, mirroring, and creating a safe space. It’s about exploring the things that matter the most to you by facilitating your conversation with your inner, authentic self.

Life coaching can help with the following:

  • Identifying core values.
  • Taking cognisance of the behavioural patterns.
  • Goal setting and achievement.
  • Creating clarity around what’s important to you in your life.
  • Focusing on your strengths instead of weaknesses.
  • Building confidence and self-esteem.

A life coach isn’t merely there to tell you what needs to be done. They help you by reflecting objectively along the way so that you can make your own choices with confidence and power!

Who is a good life coach?

Any life coach worth his salt must encourage you to explore your feelings and thoughts without any judgment. This, in turn, gives you a greater understanding of yourself and why you think or feel the way you do.

Mindfulness coaching with a life coach in Melbourne can help you focus on the positive aspects of your life instead of only harping on the negative ones. It can be done through journaling or other forms of self-expression. Having a coach will make the reflection process that much easier.

Good life coaches often use visualisation techniques that allow clients to see themselves in different situations and the way they react depending on various triggers. These techniques have proven effective in helping people overcome fears and anxieties about specific concerns or circumstances.

Why should you get life coaching?

Life coaching helps you change your mindset by providing a safe space, to be honest with yourself and others whilst empowering you with the tools and encouragement to move forward.

When you’re working with a coach, they’ll help you identify what is holding you back from reaching your goals and then work with you to surmount those impediments. Life coaches can be an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to make changes but feels stuck or unsure about how to do that.

A coach can look at the whole picture, not just what’s happening now. They will also take the time to understand what has happened in the past and where it might have led to this point. They’ll then help you learn from those experiences so that they don’t happen again.

How can a life coach help you achieve a stronger, healthier mindset?

The answer is straightforward. A life coach helps your mindset by providing unbiased feedback, support, and accountability.

Helps you assess your current state

Sometimes just being able to get your inner turmoil out in front of a trustworthy person can be such a relief. Whenever life throws you a curveball, a life coach can help you assess your mindset and recalibrate it to your advantage. A life coach will ask you questions to draw out your current fears or assumptions. This will help you develop self-awareness.

Helps you find your values and set goals accordingly

A lot of the distress that we feel in life is because we set goals without having any awareness of our values. A life coach helps you identify your values through various exercises and methodologies. Mindfulness coaching is one of them. It can help you realise your goals by providing clarity and direction. A coach will help you to make sense of the tangled web of responsibilities that come with achieving your goals. They’ll be able to give you the guidance and support needed to get unstuck.

Gives you an objective and unbiased view

Sometimes we need someone else’s perspective to see things clearly, and our friends and peers may not want to upset us by speaking the truth. They may even deliver the truth rather harshly, much to the detriment of your mental health. A life coach is trained to be as unbiased and objective as possible. Apart from providing support and accountability, a coach will give you objective feedback about your progress toward your goals. It just needs to be constructive if you’re struggling with self-doubt.

Keeps you focussed on your goal

You may already be working towards your goals and dreams. But negative thought patterns, childhood traumas, and self-deprecating behaviours may keep you from staying on track. You may have yet to consider how a life coach near you can help you achieve them. A life coach will let you bounce ideas and views without judgment. They’ll ask questions and help you set out the next steps you need to take. But that isn’t all; they’ll also support you and hold you accountable for the milestones you set out to achieve.

Summing it up

Mindfulness is a way to train your mind to focus on the present moment rather than worrying about the past or future. It lets you become self-aware so that you can make better decisions and become more adept at time management.

At Leigh Stafford life coaching in Melbourne, we offer several mindfulness coaching programs to help people work on a healthy mindset. You can also book a free session if personal development is something that you want to work on in the New Year.

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Health

Old-School Exercises You Shouldn’t Forget

Modern science and technology provide many new and exciting ways to work out and improve fitness. However, human bodies have not changed much over the centuries, and many of the same routines that created attractive figures in years past still work today. Review some old-school exercises that you can do without fancy tech or machines.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics (also known as jump training) is surging in popularity again but has actually been around for almost four decades. Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky developed this type of training as part of his research in sports science.

What is plyometric training good for? Plyometrics combines exercises that increase explosive power and agility, such as jumping, bounding, hopping, and leaping. Routines use a “stretch-shortening cycle” principle to improve muscle strength over time while burning calories and decreasing body fat.

Plyometrics improve an athlete’s power and speed. These exercises can also help reduce the risk of injury due to enhanced neuromuscular coordination through rapid movements.

Jump Rope

There is a reason boxers have not given up jumping rope. The activity is an accessible, versatile, and cost-effective exercise that can provide numerous benefits.

Jumping rope gets your heart rate up and improves cardiovascular health. You’ll tone muscles, burn calories, and improve balance. Furthermore, jumping rope helps with coordination and agility.

Walks

Workouts should not always be about taking your body to the limit. Walking is one of the simplest ways to improve physical and mental well-being. Even the most experienced athletes should implement walking into their daily regimen. Walking has been proven to reduce anxiety, depression, and fatigue while increasing self-esteem and cognitive function.

Studies have also shown that a brisk daily walk can significantly contribute to physical conditioning, lowering your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and risk of developing coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and other serious illnesses. Incorporating regular walks into your lifestyle can provide numerous health benefits and even help enhance performance.

Stomach Vacuums

Stomach vacuums are an incredibly simple yet effective exercise that can strengthen your core and improve posture. They are especially beneficial for those who cannot or do not want to engage in more strenuous physical activities due to limited time or resources. They require no special equipment and can be done anywhere.

Furthermore, the invigorating breathing used during a stomach vacuum session helps to reduce stress and increase energy levels. Although it may take a few tries to get the hang of this exercise, it will provide clear results you can see and feel immediately.

Zercher Squats

Zercher squats are often overlooked in gym routines, but they offer numerous benefits that make them great compliments to regular squat exercises. They are known for forcing the lifter’s body to become stronger and more stable overall since the load is closer to your body.

Zercher squats put less stress on your back and core muscles while engaging your glutes, quads, and hamstrings more effectively than other squat variations. Doing these sets regularly can also help you work on balance, coordination, and stability and build a healthier and stronger core. Most of all, using the Zercher squat variation in your strength training workout can power up your lower-body strength more efficiently by utilizing different angles for activating multiple muscle groups at once.

Pushups

Pushups might be one of the oldest forms of exercise, but that doesn’t mean they are outdated and irrelevant. In fact, pushups are still a fantastic way to build strength and cardio. As a bonus, pushups don’t require special equipment or a lot of time.

You can make your workout more challenging and effective by doing variations on the classic pushup, such as clapping or diamond pushups. Pushups can help increase your heart rate, gain muscle, and improve core stability. Though this routine is simple, it remains one of the best ways to get in shape quickly and easily.

Sometimes you need to just get back to basics to enhance your routine. The next time you think about switching things up, don’t forget these classics that still work.

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