Tag Archives: happy
Nagging health questions answered on new UK government site
London: Got a nagging question about your health? Are you planning a new fitness regime or are you interested in finding out more about a particular condition and relevant treatment options? If you are looking for reliable, personalised information about your health and lifestyle you can now find it at the new website, NHS Choices www.nhs.uk
Health advice is now the second most searched for subject online so it is no surprise that there is a lot of information of variable quality out there.
NHS Choices is a one-stop shop for all your health information that you can trust and that puts you in charge of decisions about your own health, lifestyle and even treatment options.
See how fit and healthy you are with a quick and easy personal health check and watch short movies from the experts and real people about their experiences of common conditions and treatments. Read honest accounts of how celebrities such as Steve Redgrave, Tricia Goddard, Rosemary Conley and Nik Powell, Richard Bransons co-founder of Virgin Records have overcome their own health problems. You can even become an expert with access to information only previously available to the medical profession.
Get motivated and take inspiration for a healthy life from Live Well, a series of online magazines featuring up to date articles, short movies and celebrity contributions to appeal to different groups such as women, teenagers, men and families.
Get great ideas for healthy eating with recipes from Emma Bunton, Nadine Coyle, Dannii Minogue and Myleene Klass and watch celebrity chefs cook up simple, healthy meals for the whole family and romantic nights in.
Find inspiration for a fitness regime that works for your age and lifestyle. Get active and take the Chelsea FC challenge, try walking your way to fitness and a great pair of legs or read how Olympic sprinter, Linford Christie has managed to stay fit and lean post retirement and post forty.
Learn our how to stay happy and healthy at work and see what the experts have to say about a mid life crisis. Is your urge for a newer model – car or woman due to brain or hormone changes or just bad behaviour.
Should you need to go to hospital NHS Choices gives you the information to make an informed decision about where and when you want to be treated. View ratings on hospital waiting times, cleanliness and readmission figures and for the first time what previous patients have to say about their treatment and experiences via immediate online feedback.
It is even possible for you to make your choice of hospital based upon personal preferences such as travelling times, MRSA incidences and availability of single sex wards.
Background:
1. The NHS Choices website draws on the combined experience and expertise of NHS.uk, NHS Direct, the National Electronic Library for Health, and the Healthcare Commission.
2. NHS Choices can be found at www.nhs.uk The site will continue to evolve and significant extensions are scheduled for later in 2007 and 2008.
3. The site will allow patients to access NHS approved information using a number of features under distinct headings:
Live Well
Information that will help the well to stay fit and assist those who are unwell to manage their condition
Magazine content will reflect the interests and needs of different groups such as teenagers, families and those over 70
Health A-Z
Access to a vast library of approved medical literature, previously only available to clinicians to enable a deeper understanding of conditions & treatment options
Easy to understand multi-media guides on the most common procedures e.g. hip replacement
Detailed guides to living with 20 long-term conditions such as diabetes to help patients manage their condition. Expert opinions from professionals and patients will provide advice and support
Choose Services
Authoritative, comparative data on the standards and availability of services
Searchable comprehensive directories e.g. on hospitals, GPs and care homes
A quality scorecard that will help patients and GPs together to identify the most appropriate clinicians and locations for their treatment
Your Thoughts
Patients will be able to directly comment and feedback on their hospital experience
All comments will be pre-moderated and references to named individuals will be removed
Hospitals will have the opportunity to respond to comments about their services.
Responsbility is key to happiness
London: Responsibility such as marriage and bringing up a family, is just as likely to make you happy as a high-flying career, according to a new study.
Scientists at the City of London University questioned 10,000 adults at 30 and found highly educated and motivated career types were among the most satisfied with their lives. But so were those who had already settled with a partner and had a family.
In the study, the 30-year-olds were asked to rate how satisfied they were with life by choosing a number between zero and ten. The majority agreed with seven or eight.
Analysis of the finds found that young adults took four paths in life – a career, a traditonal family, late start or as part of disadvantaged families.
The most satisfied groups were the traditional family and career-focused people.
A traditional family was typically a married couple who owned their own home. They had one or two children and the man was the main breadwinner. The career types tended to have the most education, worked full-time and also owned their homes. Slow starters, who typically had no long-term partners, no children and did not own a home, were next on the happiness scale.
At the bottom were the disandadvantaged families, who tended to be less well-educated women living in rented accommodation.
Professor Schoon said: ‘Those in traditional families and those opting for a career without children reported the highest levels of satisfaction the least life stress. I was very surprised that traditional families had such good scores and slow starters had such relatively low scores.’
Happiness poll reveals that Briton’s less happy than 50 years ago
London: Briton’s may be better off financiall but they are less happy, according to poll carried out for the BBC.
It found that although Britain is three times richer than it was 50 years ago, the country is not as happy as it was then. In 1957, 52% of the people said they were really happy’ but only 36% said they were, according to the BBC Two TV programme called The Happiness Formula.
In common with the US, the UK is reporting lower levels of personal happiness. A General Social Survey recently found that 34% of Americans were very happy’ in the 1970s. By the end of the 1990s the figure dropped to 30%.
Polls over the last few decades seem to indicate that as soon as average incomes reach about £10,000 annually ($18,000), any further income increases do not bring about more happiness.
It seems there are many countries whose levels of happiness are higher than Britain’s.
When British people were recently asked whether governments should aim more for making a country happier or wealthier, 81% opted for happiness while only 13% opted for wealth. 52% of British people polled believe schools should focus more on teaching children how to achieve happiness in their personal lives.
43% of British people think that where they live is less friendly than it used to be, 22% think it is more friendly.Only 7.7% of 1000 people interviewed thought work fulfillment was the most important contributory factor towards happiness. Most people place relationships as the largest factor, followed by health.