As a Registered Respiratory Therapist and Educator one of the questions I always asked my students was "Why do you want to be a Respiratory Therapist?"  For me it was an easy choice.  I always wanted to be a doctor but hated school. While in high school I was a candy striper and had a crush on one of the Respiratory Therapists and decided I wanted to do what he did.  I loved my job but it did have some downsides.

As women we hit a lot of milestones in our lives but the one most women dread is menopause. We hear a lot of horror stories about mood swings, hot flashes and the pros and cons of hormone replacement. Did you know there's another symptom of menopause that's most often overlooked? It's insomnia. Yes, I'm talking about those nights when you're so tired you can hardly keep your eyes open yet they don't seem to stay shut.

According to the American Heart Association around 650,000 to 1.3 million Americans have a congenital heart defect. Approximately 36,000 babies are born with a heart defect each year. That is one in eight. Many of these children have heart surgery and some receive a heart transplant.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest tasks to ever accomplish. However, as more and more municipalities ban smoking in public places, now is a great time to give it a go for the first (or fiftieth) time.

While smoking is dangerous to you and those around you (and even to those who visit your home, whether you light up in their presence or not), it’s important to realize that smoking is an addiction.  Certain properties in nicotine have addictive qualities, and to be truthful, they are not all bad. Nicotine can help people focus, make them more alert and can soothe frazzled nerves. It’s the other stuff that cigarettes are made up of – the cancer-causing carcinogens – that are so harmful. In short, if nicotine could be bottled or manufactured without the rest of a cigarette’s components, we might all find ourselves racing out to buy some.

Exercising is difficult, at least for me. What's hardest is being motivated and going to a gym with a bunch of people who are usually in better shape than I am and of course I feel they're all staring at me, the short, chubby uncoordinated one in the back who can't quite keep up. I know all it would take is some time and I'd be able to keep up with everyone else in the class but my shyness and lack of self confidence keeps me from going back. I know if I had a physical problem, one that was noticeable to everyone, not just being out of shape I'd have a harder time going to the gym than I do now and of course I'd be inclined to just sit at home and veg. Well, Jackie Warner is about to change that for people with psoriasis.