OxyContin

Generic Name: oxycodone (ox i KOE done)

Brand Names: ETH-Oxydose, OxyContin, Oxyfast, OxyIR, Percolone, Roxicodone, Roxicodone Intensol

What is OxyContin?

Learn the signs of RA and how to relieve the pain.

OxyContin is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers. It is similar to morphine.

OxyContin tablets are used to treat moderate to severe pain. The extended-release form of this medication is for around-the-clock treatment of pain. Oxycodone is not for treating pain just after a surgery unless you were already taking oxycodone before the surgery.

OxyContin may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Important information about OxyContin

OxyContin may be habit-forming and should be used only by the person it was prescribed for. OxyContin should never be shared with another person, especially someone who has a history of drug abuse or addiction. Keep the medication in a secure place where others cannot get to it.

Do not drink alcohol while you are taking OxyContin. Dangerous side effects or death can occur when alcohol is combined with a narcotic pain medicine. Check your food and medicine labels to be sure these products do not contain alcohol.

Never take more than your prescribed dose of OxyContin. Tell your doctor if the medicine seems to stop working as well in relieving your pain. OxyContin can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert. Do not stop using OxyContin suddenly, or you could have unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Talk to your doctor about how to avoid withdrawal symptoms when stopping the medication.

The Hot Mama Diaries: How To Feel Your Best Now

A new baby care book offers tips for moms, too.

Besides all the information you’d ever need to raise an infant, The Better Way To Take Care of Your Baby, a new baby care book, offers uplifting and smart style tips for mom, too.

Really, though, let’s just confirm right now that this is the most comprehensive infant encyclopedia on the market. Tons of photos and illustrations alongside the current information of everything from burping to calming your new kiddie make it an essential for a new mom (baby shower gift alert!). It’s organized month by month, with checklists at the beginning and end of each chapter. We like.

Aside from all the baby details by author Robin Elise Weiss, there’s a nice focus on mom, too. “Hot Mama” and “Mama Moment” sidebars dot the chapters, perfectly in tune with what a mother will be going through in that particular month.

Here, a few tips we should all keep in mind and everyone can take advantage of, newborn or not:

* —Patterned shirts can be a real blessing. You can hide all sorts of stains with a good pattern.

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* —Have you had a real dress-up-date yet? Schedule one soon. Even if dressing up is at the bottom of your list, it will lift your spirits and make you feel sexy.

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* —Have your makeup colors redone to give yourself a fashion boost. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of time–some blush and lip gloss can go a long way toward helping you feel a bit more polished. Bring out the full look for special occasions.

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* —Are you still wearing your sweatpants every day to go to the store and run errands? Consider going to a larger department store and asking about a personal shopper. Do not be dissuaded if you’re not the weight you’d like to be or your body is different now; simply work on looking great.

10 Ways to Outsmart Food Cravings

Losing weight and keeping it off require effective management of food cravings that can easily undermine plans to eat healthfully. Use these 10 tips to manage yourself through the crazy maze of cravings:

1. Eat at regular intervals. To avoid becoming overly hungry, don’t go more than five hours without eating.

2. Include protein in each meal to control appetite. Skinless poultry, fish, eggs and low-calorie dairy products are good sources.

3. Stay hydrated with water, since thirst can mask as hunger. Avoid sugared, artificially sweetened and stimulant drinks that trigger cravings.

4. Distract yourself if the impulse to eat is triggered by emotions, especially if you are SAD: sad, angry or depressed. Instead of giving in to the craving, go for a walk. Besides getting you out of the kitchen, the exercise will burn calories.

5. Chew sugarless gum. Chewing satisfies mouth hunger without adding calories.

6. Brush and floss your teeth. Changing the taste in your mouth shifts your perspective, and the craving may simply disappear.

7. Replace refined foods (for example, white flour and sugar) that trigger cravings with whole grains. Whole grains produce a sense of satiety for a longer than refined foods do, and unlike refined foods, whole grains do not trigger cravings.

8. Just say no and then wait. Most cravings begin, crest and recede in minutes. While you’re waiting, review what you have eaten during the day and reassure yourself that your body is well nourished. Willpower is a muscle that strengthens with exercise.

Bust Your Worst Fitness Habits

Some workout habits arise out of laziness, and some are downright dangerous. Check out the worst fitness mistakes you can make and the simple corrections that can help you stay focused.

1) FORM. I can’t say this enough . . . form is your safety net. Once you compromise the way you do the move, you’re no longer getting the greatest benefits from the exercise and you’re seriously increasing your risk of getting hurt. Even if it means lowering the amount of weight you are lifting, follow the correct form for the most outstanding results.

2) OVERTRAINING. I believe in staying motivated, but don’t expect that you’re going to dive right in and pound your body into its best shape ever overnight. Not only will this all-or-nothing attitude cause burnout, but you also risk injury and you will definitely give up on yourself because this is an unreasonable expectation. Instead, you’re going to gradually build up your muscles so they get the most effective, efficient workout possible. If you follow the Best Body Now program, more doesn’t always mean better, faster results. And remember, rest is good for your body. Take days off between training to repair and rebuild, or if you’re training daily, don’t work the same muscle groups back to back.

3) UNDERTRAINING. Once you’re dressed and ready to sweat, commit to giving it your all for the next thirty to sixty minutes. Just going through the motions doesn’t do anything for your body and makes it easy to let boredom creep in. You owe this time to yourself — you deserve it — so make sure you give it your all. As So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Debbie Allen says, “Put on your short stuff and sweat!” I like it!

The Stuff of Yoga: 5 Essentials for the Beginner

A yoga instructor reveals what you really need to get into good form.

So you’ve heard yoga will stretch you out, calm you down, and tone your body, but you’re not sure what you need to start your yoga practice? Read on, but prepare to leave your expectations behind.

First, the only things essential to yoga are your mind and your breath. You don’t even need to be able to move your limbs! But likely you will be moving your limbs. You’ll sign up for a class, drop into a studio, or pop a DVD into the player and follow instruction that has you exploring every range of motion of every joint, stretching your body into new and odd shapes with bizarre and illogical animal names like cow face and half frog. And perhaps you’ll hold yourself in what feels like an unnatural position for an unnatural period of time. Until you shake.

Yes, certain styles of yoga practice are incredibly vigorous. But vigorous or not, the true goal of a yoga practice is to deepen awareness in the present moment—odd, strenuous, or maybe even frustrating as it may be—which requires resisting the temptation to engage with distracting thoughts or emotions. So our essentials list will start with items that help you practice comfortably, safely, with as few unnecessary distractions as possible.

Yoga pants. Don’t show up to the studio in jeans—they won’t do. And it’s not because you’ll be doing splits in your first class. You probably won’t. But have you tried sitting cross-legged in jeans? They restrict your range of motion in the hips; you’ll feel anything but the ease in sukhasana, which translates as easy pose and is simply sitting on the floor with shins crossed and feet under knees.

Self-esteem, Body Image and Weight Issues

Women, let’s change our personal histories by releasing all issues of body image and poor self-esteem. The awesome side effect of this change is weight loss and thin thinking.

Most women are self critical of their bodies and unfortunately critical of other women’s bodies as well. Studies and surveys are not necessary to prove this true. Just think about what you said to yourself as you looked in the mirror this morning. Did you say, ‘you beautiful thing,’ or ‘my face looks fat’? Self criticism leads to poor self-esteem and negative body image that creates weight issues like eating disorders or perpetual yo-yo dieting. If you are unhappy with your body, you may decide to take a drastic dieting measure to lose weight as fast as you can to feel better quickly. The drastic measure is typically not a good plan and you will probably self criticize more harshly when it fails. You may respond to this by eating everything thing in site since you ‘blew the diet’ and the yo-yo cycle starts over.

The ramifications of this negative behavior reach far beyond our bathroom mirrors. It is affecting future women. Studies have shown that young girls start dieting as early as the fourth grade. These girls are listening to the statements women of influence make about their bodies. Does your daughter hear your self criticisms? Does your niece hear you tell yourself that you are going to diet because you look fat? As women, we are helping to perpetuate this issue. This self critical behavior is a choice that we can control. We can make a different choice and change the future for our selves, our daughters, granddaughters and nieces.

3 Tips for Avoiding Weight Gain Over the Holidays

The holidays are a difficult time for those of us who both enjoy eating and worry about our waistlines. Chances are good that if you overindulged a bit at Thanksgiving, you are now looking ahead to the month of December with a wary eye – – only too aware of the minefield of cookie platters, holiday parties, family dinners, and gift baskets that you will have to somehow navigate.

You know from experience that you cannot get through these trying times on willpower alone. So here are three very simple and proven-effective motivational strategies for ending up in your current pant size on January 1st.

Tip 1: Acknowledge That You Probably Can’t Have Just One. According to the laws of physics, bodies in motion tend to stay in motion, unless something acts to stop them. Well, the same thing can be said about human behavior, too – – including eating.

Your actions have a kind of inertia – – once you start doing something, it often takes more self-control to stop than it does to just avoid doing it in the first place. And it gets harder to stop the longer the behavior goes on. So it’s easier to be abstinent if you stop at the first kiss, rather than letting things get hot and heavy. And it’s a lot easier to pass on the potato chips entirely, rather than just eat one or two.

Stopping before you start is an excellent strategy to keep your need for willpower to a minimum. Consider cutting out all between-meal snacking over the holidays. The fewer times you start eating each day, the less you’ll have to worry about stopping.

17 Nutrition and Weight Loss Tips from Gabby Reece

The way that the food world is set up it’s no wonder we are all reaching for too much of the wrong foods. There are days I stop and look around and think to myself “there is nothing to eat”.

Of course this is an exaggeration, but it does feel like you can get the ZAP no matter what food you eat; meaning, that ‘ZAP…wrong’ when you think you are eating healthy.

*How about this yummy protein bar? ZAP!

(Bars can have tons of sugar and ingredients you can’t pronounce)

*How about this frozen food meal that has limited calories? ZAP!

(Frozen meals often contain very little nutritional value and lack vitamins, minerals, and enzymes).

*How about this delicious low calorie drink that is “organic” and better than soda? Zap! (Drinks can contain 35+ grams of sugar that have the capacity to convert to calories in the body). Ow…didn’t even see that one coming.

It can be overwhelming especially if you are trying to do all of this with little time, high stress, demanding taste buds, and for a low price. Want to eat healthier and deal with a few extra pounds? Keep it simple and don’t get sucked into the nutritional black hole!

1. Drink water only.

2. If you love your coffee in the morning enjoy it and be mindful of all the “extras” that can add up the calories.

3. Eat half of what is on your dinner plate.

4. Avoid tons of processed foods (things that can live on the shelf or in a freezer for years and years).

5. Try to prepare your meals and avoid doing too much or any microwaving.

6. Unless you are on the road then stay away from food you can get in your car and out of a window. NO DRIVE THRU!

Top 10 French Lifestyle Tips

In the land of croissants, cheese and wine, how do French people manage to stay healthy and trim? French women have been following Dr. Rougier’s advice for decades and now you can too!

1. Eat fiber every day. Fiber slows down sugars, “soaks up” fat, and cleanses and regulates the digestive track. Where to find the best sources? Raw veggies (in moderation), or two teaspoons of oat or wheat bran mixed into yogurt or applesauce will do the trick.

2. Take vitamins every day! Americans suffer from all sorts of vitamin deficiencies as a result of our culture’s obsession with refined foods. Take back your health with a daily multivitamin taken during a meal.

3. Moderate salt intake. Ah, salt. The flavorful seasoning we love to hate and hate to love. Whatever you do, don’t drive yourself crazy — the “no salt” rule is just not realistic. Just be smart about it: try mixing a little salt into an herb and spice mix (or use an Herbes de Provence mix) to season your food, and never re-salt after cooking.

4. Learn to identify the difference between a good fat and a bad fat. Bad fats are of the saturated variety (think bacon and egg yolks). Good fats are of the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated varieties (like fish, olive oil, nuts, and avocados).

5. Walk, walk, walk. French women don’t belong to “gyms.” They just walk everywhere. Walking is the single best method for regulating metabolism, nervous system and blood sugar level.

6. Remove the “extreme diet” lingo from your vocabulary. They don’t work. Why? Because historically, people don’t stick to them, which creates a yo-yo effect, which paves the way for obesity. The best diet is “rebalancing” the neurodigestive circuits, which ultimately leads to healthy weight loss and achievement of your “ideal weight.”

All You Need to Know About Pillows

“A good laugh and a long sleep,” the old Irish saying goes, “are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” But when restful sleep eludes you, good luck finding anything to laugh about.

If you spend your night tossing and turning, or you wake up less than fully rested, your pillow might not be pulling its weight, according to Keith Overland, DC, former chiropractor to the New York Mets and the US Olympic speed skating team who now practices in Norwalk, Connecticut. He stresses the importance of using pillows to create neutral spine position during sleep. Regardless of your sleep position, he says, “a pillow really needs to fill in the contours under the head and neck.” His advice: Figure out, based on your physique and sleep position, which pillow will depress beneath your head and provide firm support under your neck.

You can find pillows made of just about every material (or every soft material, anyway). Expect to see anything from hypoallergenic memory foam to good old-fashioned goose down inside the pillows at your local sleep store. The latest trend? Grain pillows, like buckwheat, which you’ve certainly seen wrapped around the neck of many weary travelers if you’ve been to an airport lately. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to picking a pillow’s ingredients, Overland says. “People have to look at a pillow that has a material that’s comfortable to them,” he points out. “A lot of it has to do with the way it feels against the body.”

A few of the more common pillow choices:

Water pillows offer customized support: Just fill them with as much water as needed to fit your shape. They’re heavy, though, so be careful not to pull a muscle while moving them during the night.