I have struggled my whole life with being overweight. I have tried all kinds of diets and exercise to no avail. I have to admit that I love food. I am not one of those people who eat to live. I definitely live to eat. The only thing that I hadn’t tried in the past was the use of appetite suppressing drugs.

I did a little bit of research on the plant, Hoodia Gordonii. It is a totally natural plant that resembles a cactus. The insides of the plant are supposed to suppress your appetite. I figured it couldn’t hurt and decided to give it a try.

The first couple of weeks, while taking the Hoodia supplement, I noticed a big change in my appetite, but not so much in the weight department. Not to be discouraged, I decided that, results or not, I would give it a full three months. I was not to be disappointed in the results after all.

Using Hoodia, I lost more weight in those first three months than I ever did while on a diet. The greatest thing about it is that I don’t feel like I am starving or cheating myself because I can eat what I want and my body tells me when I am full.

As an orthodontist, I am constantly checking out new products that come on the market.  The reality is that half of all children these days need to have braces to straighten their teeth.  Because of this very high percentage, technology is always coming up with something better in the world of braces.

I was pleased with the discovery of the Invisalign brand of braces.  What this entails is a series of clear retainers that are only removed for eating.  No one needs to know that the person is even wearing them.  I thought this would do a lot for those whose self esteem has been affected because of the need for braces.

As with all new technology, there are some downfalls to these new style braces.  The first is the price.  Quite a few people will not be able to afford the Invisalign braces as they are at least twice as expensive as regular braces.  The second is that patients with an underbite or overbite will see no benefit to using these braces.

My son just turned fourteen.  Now, this has been quite a change as he wants to be treated as an adult, not just a kid.  Perhaps the biggest change we have seen is that he has started noticing girls and he is trying to get his personal hygiene and grooming up to a new standard.

Besides shaving every couple of days, and getting frequent hair cuts, he has been actively trying to get rid of his acne.  Just like many kids his age, he has some pimples on his face, and he has tried many skin cleansers, but has has little luck.

I decided to help him out by finding some acne treatment alternatives to the cleansers he has been using.  We tried using Vitamin B5, which helps control oil production in the skin, but unfortunately it did not eliminate his acne, it only reduced it.

While at the drug store the other day, we did find Vilantae, which promises to eliminate acne by controlling the oil production more than vitamins can.  Also, the side effects are negligible compared to prescription acne medication.

We are going to give Vilantae a shot and see if it works - from what I have read online, it should work out good for him.

Now, if you or a loved one may need some long term care, prepare beforehand.  Sadly if you look at many blogs, you will see that the price of extended health care can easily wipe out your retirement savings, reducing your standard of life to living in poverty.

But there are precautions you can take to minimize the effects of any long term care on your finances.  Perhaps the easiest and most effective is to get an insurance policy that covers any long term health care.

In fact there are many types of long term care insurance packages available from your insurance broker.  Just like life insurance, you need the long term care insurance before you need to use it - otherwise you will not qualify.

For those of you out there that doubt that they will ever need it, consider this:  nearly three out of four Americans will need some form of long term care in their lifetime.

Do yourself and you family a favor - get some insurance to cover any long term medical care - everyone will appreciate it.

My grandmother is getting old.  In fact, she is almost 83 and has been living on her own for a long time.  But, as we get older, it can be harder to take care of yourself.  She recently had an accident that resulted in a broken hip, so we have offered to allow her to come stay with us.

Her limited mobility will make it hard for her to use our stairs, so we have been looking to install stair chair lifts in our home - one to go upstairs, the other to go down.  Checking out the prices for the lifts online, I was a little concerned about the amount of money that we would have to sink into these lifts - there must be a cheaper option.

One of our friends suggested that we could maybe find a used stair lift online that would fit out needs.  After a quick search, we did manage to find a used Bruno stair lift that would fit out needs.  We also changed our mind to just getting one lift - Grandma doesn’t really need to go into the basement.

The delivery date of the lift is scheduled for next week.  I think we are going to be helping grandma pack this week - she has already given her notice for the end of the month.

Being an employer with many employees, you are in a position to hire and fire staff.  Though I don’t quite care for the firing part, it is a necessary part of the success of my business.

This past week it came to my attention that one of our writers was having big issues.  Usually his work has been good, though he has only been with us for two months.  Lately though, he has had a lot of spelling problems.  Because our work requires precision, we needed to have a talk with him.

He was a little nervous when he entered my office.  Not that I look too scary (at least I don’t think so), but not too many new people have made it to my office.  I sat him down and explained to him our problem with our work.  I asked if there were any problems in his life or with his work.  He said that things were going fine.  An idea popped into my head that I said out loud:

"Maybe you are dyslexic."

We contacted a firm that specialized in dyslexia tests and ordered one promptly after we found that he had dyslexic symptoms.

While we are waiting for the test in the mail, we have reassigned him to another department.  I am sure that we will figure this out - we might just have to send him for some special training - I am sure he will overcome this challenge.

As some of you know, I have two children, that are two and four.  For their regular checkups, they go to our family doctor.  But, sometimes when they are really sick, it is good to get a specialists’ opinion.

For those of you that don’t know, a doctor that specializes in children is called a pediatrician.  There are a few noticeable differences between a regular doctor and a pediatrician:  they are more familiar with conditions affecting children and they (usually) are very good with children.

Now you might ask, how do you go about finding a good pediatrician?  Probably the easiest way is to ask your family doctor who they would recommend.  Another good way is to ask your friends that have children who they would recommend, or who they have experience dealing with.  We went about it another way:  we took our son William to Emergency at the hospital nearest to us and they admitted him to pediatrics.  We asked the doctor that was examining him if he accepted patients: and he did.

If none of the above methods work for you, you can always check in the yellow pages.  In fact, that is how my sister found a pediatrician in Ridgefield when she moved there.