It’s Back to School Time: How to Get a Fresh Start

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Editorial Board

As the school year begins and schedules start to change you may feel overwhelmed, but don’t let that stop you from keeping your family healthy. We all need to do our part to keep children healthy. While schools are trying to keep junk food out of vending machines, the real opportunity to educate children about a healthy diet begins at home.

The majority of school cafeterias offer unhealthy choices of food. While they may have fruit as an option, they usually feature ice cream and chips making it easy for many children to make the unhealthy selection. What is the best thing you can do as a parent?  Send them to school with a homemade lunch, it is simple, inexpensive and allows you to help your child develop healthy eating habits.

A healthy homemade lunch can consist of many things that you can get at the grocery store. For example, a turkey or ham sandwich, a small bottle of water, a package of string cheese, a bag of baked chips, baby carrots or celery, a piece of fruit, and a small cookie for dessert. You don’t need to use all of these options in one single lunch, instead change the components on a regular basis.

In addition to making sure your child is staying healthy, be sure you don’t forget about your own health! Consider making time for exercising that is within your abilities. Talk to your doctor about what kinds of exercise you can do, and begin to schedule it into your week.

Regular exercise boosts your metabolism and also produces endorphins that help you feel more energized and happy. It is important to stay motivated even when your schedule gets rough and time becomes limited.

Finally, cooking dinner at home will keep you moving, occupied and being responsible for your family’s health. Eating at home will also make it easier to control portions, and what foods you are eating. When we eat out, portions are usually much larger compared with eating at home.

Cooking at home also allows for more time with your family. Spending time together as a family is the most important factor in making sure everyone in your family is happy and healthy. Take advantage of this back to school season as a time to start fresh with eating healthy, exercise, and spending regular time together as a family.

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Our First Issue: September 2010

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Editorial Board

Living with a Disability is an online magazine dedicated to helping you live your life to the fullest.  Our articles cover topics like living with a disability, how to get Social Security Disability, disabling medical conditions, health & wellness issues, and disability news.

This is our first issue, in it we feature Family Matters that are important to everyone, especially people facing a major change in their life.  Our diverse group of writer’s has prepared the following articles for you:

  • How Disabilities Can Change Your Family Life – Change can be good, sometimes change can be exhausting or hard to take.  Get ideas from this article on how to get at peace with the changes you just may need to take to be able to have a happy home life.
  • Working Isn’t the Only Way to Feel Good About Yourself – Everyone needs to live a happy life, and many people get that pleasure from working.  This article will give you several ideas of how you can seek the same type of fulfilling energy from other sources beyond work.
  • Back to School Healthy Eating Tips – It’s back to school season! Take this fresh start for your kids as an opportunity to get a fresh start for your entire family with diet and exercise tips.
  • How to Win Social Security Disability Benefits – This is our kick-off post that is a long list of great articles we have assembled that can help you win your benefits and get your life back on track.  From how to apply all the way through how people are determined to be disabled, this article will help answer your questions about Social Security Disability and SSI.
  • Get a Fresh Start with SSI – You don’t need a work history to win SSI benefits if you are disabled.  Winning SSI and getting Medicaid and a monthly benefits check could help you get a fresh start on life!
  • What Happens in a Disability Hearing – Learn exactly what happens in a disability hearing from a disability lawyer who has represented thousands of claimants in disability hearings.
  • More than ten questions have recently been answered in the Questions & Answers category

Living with a Disability is new publication, but our writers have lots of experience in the areas we are writing about.  We may know what we are talking about, but we still need to hear from you to know that we are meeting your needs.

Please visit our Q&A page to send us your questions, or just post a comment on any individual article page.  We will respond, and we will do our best to answer any questions you send us!  Thanks for reading & sharing your comments with the community of readers.

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What Medical Conditions Will Social Security Consider Disabling?

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Editorial Board

Just about any disease or disorder diagnosed by a doctor can be disabling under Social Security law.  But Social Security has always had a special list of impairments which helps them short-cut the decision making process.  These conditions very significantly restrict the ability to work.

The list below is categorized by body system. If you click on any topic in the list you can read more about that condition.  After you click on a topic listed below you will find questions related to your medical condition that show how Social Security will evaluate the severity of your condition.

Be Compliant With Medical Treatment

Many of the conditions listed below follow Social Security’s “listing of impairments,” but not everything listed below are covered in the listings.  One theme that runs throughout the “listing of impairments” is the requirement of prescribed treatment and compliance with treatment.  This means that Social Security will look at whether a medical condition results in symptoms due to the individual’s failure to “follow doctor’s orders” and may not award benefits if the evidence shows non-compliance.

Social Security will consider some reasons for lack of treatment as acceptable, such as religious objection, the risks associated with certain invasive procedures, and the inability to pay for treatment.  But if access to health care is available, Social Security will regard failure to access the care as unacceptable.  This means that indigent health facilities in the community should be accessed even if they don’t provide the same quality of care provided by providers that were available when the individual had health insurance.  If the condition ultimately causes permanent and irreversible damage, then compliance may no longer be relevant.

List of Major Disabling Medical Conditions (links to our articles by condition)

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Disabling Condition: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Editorial Board

Social Security does not list Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) but when severe, it is similar to MS and can be just as disabling.

  • Do you have short-term memory loss?
  • Do you experience a flu-like condition which doesn’t resolve, i.e. sore throat, tender cervical or axillary lymph nodes, muscle pain, multi-joint pain without joint swelling or redness, headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity, malaise?
  • Even if you rest, do you still awaken with these symptoms?

CFS has been a controversial diagnosis and in 1999 Social Security provided guidance to all their disability decision makers about the disorder.  The condition is diagnosed based on criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  If the diagnostic criteria are found in the medical records, the condition should be considered as a medical impairment and properly evaluated.  The criteria (published in 1994) include 4 or more of the symptoms described above.

In 2009, scientists announced that they have discovered a retrovirus that is likely causing the disorder.  This new discovery will help doctors both diagnose and treat the condition.  Social Security has not yet changed their guidance on how to recognize the disorder.

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