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Telehealth: What’s
If you’re somebody who fails to make sleep a priority or who struggles to fall into a deep slumber at the end of the day, there are a few ways experts recommend you can make it easier on yourself:
• Start examining your habits before bedtime. Don’t nap late in the afternoon, and avoid nicotine, caffeine, and large meals late at night.
• Although exercise is good for destressing and tiring yourself out, it’s best to do it earlier in the day, as late-night workouts could potentially wind you up.
• Before bed, avoid bright lights, including those from screens like your phone or TV.
• Lower the temperature in your bedroom to around 68 degrees.
• Take a warm bath or shower. Once you get out of the warm water, the drop in body temperature will make you feel sleepy.
• Read or listen to soothing music before bed in lieu of watching TV or scrolling through your phone.
• When it’s time to finally turn out the lights, try earplugs or white noise, such as a fan, to drown out any background sounds. Avoid inconsistent noise, such as that from a TV or radio, which can disrupt your sleep.
• If the pressure to fall asleep stresses you out, turn your alarm clock the other way to avoid looking at it.
However, if you know that 20 minutes have gone by and you can’t fall asleep, don’t force yourself— get up and do something relaxing. Stress about sleep can make this situation even worse.
Remember that occasional insomnia is normal and something most people experience from time to time. But if it happens three nights a week for more than a month, it is considered chronic insomnia. In this situation, talk with your doctor about ways you might be able to alleviate your sleeplessness.
Telehealth? What’s That?
By Dylan Roche
It’s not always easy to get out to visit a doctor. Sometimes it’s because of a patient’s condition, whereas in other cases, it might be because of hectic schedules. Whatever the reason, advances in modern technology have made it so that you don’t have to be physically right there with your doctor to receive medical care.
This new trend—known as telehealth—is changing the way patients get treatment, doctors interact with other doctors, pharmacists fill prescriptions, and other aspects of the health industry. Think of it as telecommuting but for all your medical needs.
It’s a broad term that can be applied in many different scenarios, but its general definition, according to the Mayo Clinic, is the use of communication technology, whether from a computer or smartphone, to access health-related services from a remote location. This could include counseling, dentistry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, or even management of a chronic disease.
The American Hospital Association explains that the popularity of telehealth has grown significantly over the past few years, and that more than half of the hospitals in the United States are using telehealth in one form or another. When a doctor checks in on patients following an in-person visit or consults a specialist via video conferencing, that’s considered telehealth. In other scenarios, surgeons can even use robot technology to perform surgery from a remote site.
Use of telehealth makes care much more manageable, especially for people with limited mobility, people with tight schedules, or people who live in rural areas far from hospitals. Even people who live in developed communities will sometimes have trouble traveling long distances to see specialists for complex conditions, and telehealth makes it possible for them to have a virtual appointment.
Then there are cases in which a patient wears a monitoring bracelet from home and a doctor or nurse can measure their blood pressure, heart rate, or other stats from a distance. Patients can also access test results, request prescription refills, or even order medication.
Of course, telehealth does have its drawbacks, mainly that essential information from a person’s medical history might not be available if they are using a web-based health service, or a diagnosis might not be as accurate as it would with an in-person interview. Furthermore, some services might not be covered by insurance.
Telehealth also faces other obstacles before it reaches its full potential. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which supports telehealth projects across the country, acknowledges that information security, patient privacy, licensing, insurance reimbursement, and liability concerns are all issues that need to be addressed. Visit the CDC online at www. cdc.gov to access more resources about the legal side of telehealth as it develops.
