Pittsburgh Better Times

A Lifestyle Publication for the Pittsburgh Community

What Does an Organic E Liquid Contain?

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Electronic cigarettes have been in the market for more than 10 years, but there are still people who do not know what an organic e juice contains. Moreover, some people, especially those who conceive laws and who should be best informed, believe that the e-juice falls into the category of tobacco products. Moreover, the media puts into circulation unfounded rumors that they contain carcinogenic substances or even antifreeze. If you are accustomed to believing everything the media says, you probably have come to believe that.

If you want to find out what the liquids for the electronic cigarette contains, read this article further and forget what you read in the press, because almost everywhere there are lies that completely ignore the scientific truth.

PG and VG

Electronic cigarette fluids are composed of substances that have strange names. But only the names are weird, because the substances themselves are completely harmless to the body. [Read more…]

Can Online Counseling Help Me with Social Anxiety?

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By Marie Miguel

Social anxiety is one of the most confusing and isolating mental health conditions. You may know that you need treatment but cannot bring yourself to talk to anyone because you just don’t like interacting with anyone, especially strangers. Social anxiety can be tricky, making you feel awkward and shy around people, no matter how nice or welcoming they may be. Sometimes you may feel like everyone is judging you or talking about you. At other times, you may make plans with a friend or family member, but then cancel them at the last minute. You may feel immediate relief that you do not have to go, but then feel guilty for canceling.

What Social Anxiety Is

Social anxiety can creep up on you gradually, or a sudden onset may happen after an experience that makes you feel uncomfortable. For example, you may have been speaking in front of people and made a mistake, causing a few people to laugh, and now you refuse to speak in public or even go out in public. Maybe you were brought up in a home where you were constantly put down, made fun of, or bullied. Social anxiety is a fear of being being judged negatively by others, and feeling inadequate. It is actually the third most common mental health condition in adults, and affects approximately 7% of the population in the U.S. Some of the symptoms include: [Read more…]

North Hills Community Outreach Updates for July

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Below is a list of the latest happenings with North Hills Community Outreach.

NHCO provides HomeMeds screenings for seniors

North Hills Community Outreach offers free HomeMeds medication safety screenings for seniors living in northern Allegheny County, north of the City of Pittsburgh. The screenings help seniors understand their medications, assess whether the medications are working for them, and keep track of medications.

Trained volunteers meet with seniors and review all medications. The screening information is sent to a pharmacist for assessment and follow-up. All seniors age 60 or older are welcome to register.

For more information or to schedule a medication safety screening, contact Cathy at 412-307-0069 extension 3313.

NHCO Garden offers summer opportunities for youth engagement and learning

North Hills Community Outreach is offering opportunities for community youth to get involved in the Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni garden this summer. The garden, located at 119 Davis Avenue in Bellevue, is hosting an AmeriCorps KEYS member, who will create learning opportunities for community youth throughout the summer.

The AmeriCorps KEYS member will work with any youth who volunteer in the garden, as well as mentor student interns who are working at the garden during the summer. The garden provides an opportunity for youth to get outside and learn about organic gardening, healthy foods and the environment.

Youth can:

  • Tour the garden and learn how all food produced goes to families in need through NHCO’s food pantries.
  • Engage in a miniature lesson about gardening, healthy foods or the environment.
  • Volunteer.

NHCO welcomes community groups such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, youth groups, summer camps, sports teams and more.  For details, please contact NHCO Garden Coordinator Alyssa Crawford at aacrawford@nhco.org or (412) 307-0069 extension 3311. For more information about NHCO or the garden, visit nhco.org.  [Read more…]

2018 Dads and Grads Gift Guide

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Since Father’s Day celebrations and graduations are just around the corner, to help prepare you to find the perfect gift for Dad and the grads in your life, we’ve assembled our annual Dads & Grads Day Gift Guide. A special thank you to those of who sent in your gift ideas and suggestions for this occasion.

If you’re looking for a gift idea, our annual gift guide features a wide variety of ideas.

For the Traveller

Lay-N-Go 

Lay-n-Go started as a simple idea…  “There has to be a better way to do this!”  Lay-n-Go was originally developed to tame large toy collections with small pieces.  Now, the brand has solutions for travel, play, cosmetics and tech accessories – they’ve literally thought of everything.

For Her (Great For Summer Travel):

The Lay-n-Go® Cosmo is a patented cosmetic bag that allows you to see all of your essentials at once, and clean up in seconds. No more digging and dumping in a traditional black hole make up bag. 

  • Raised lip keeps make up and brushes from rolling off the counter
  • Machine Washable. Broken eye shadow? Spilled foundation? No problem!
  • Home or away! Do your daily make up routine on a clean dry surface
  • Zippered storage pocket, and a convenient handle
  • Available in different sizes and colors.  Shop here!

For Him (Tech & Travel Father’s Day Gift):

The Lay-n-Go® TRAVELER converts into an easily transportable handled pack, allowing for quick and effortless clean-up of toiletries and bath basics.

  • See all your toiletries at once. Clean up in seconds.
  • No more digging through a traditional dopp kit
  • Raised lip keeps items contained
  • Provides a clean dry surface at home, on the road, or in the gym
  • Machine washable
  • Zippered storage pocket, and convenient handle
  • Available in different sizes and colors.  Shop here!

For the Dad and Grad Who Loves to Read

YOU CAN HAVE IT!: More Than 125 Decadent Diabetes-Friendly Recipes by Devin Alexander

Since leaving her position as the celebrity chef on TV’s The Biggest Loser, Devin has turned her focus to the 1 in 3 Americans that have either type 2 diabetes or are in a state of pre-diabetes. She’s on a mission to help people eat healthier and smarter without sacrifice while championing the fight to reverse the growing number of new diagnoses in North America.

A diabetes-friendly diet isn’t a special diet but a smarter diet… and with 1 in 3 Americans living with diabetes or on the brink of it, it is timelier than ever! [Read more…]

Finding The Best Multivitamin For Your Life

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Vitamins and dietary supplements have grown in popularity in recent years. There are lots of claims for various types of supplements, so it is important to be able to get through all of the fake information to know the facts of what you are putting in your body. One of the best ways to learn about the different available vitamins is to look at different available reviews. Read about Consumer Health Review to see real reviews on the top supplements. In addition to reading reviews, you can follow these tips to learn more about multivitamins and figure out how to make sure you get the nutrients you need!

What Are Multivitamins?

The way our diet is today, we are no longer naturally getting the full range of vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to live long, healthy lives. Instead of taking a lot of different pills to try and make up this deficiency, multivitamins combine many of the most commonly needed vitamins into one or two easy to take pills. These pills can ensure that you get all of the nutrients you need for your health. Some of the most common vitamins included in these supplements are vitamins B, C, D, biotin, potassium, and magnesium.

When starting a new multivitamin, it is important to remember a few things that may cause it to be less effective. Calcium can stop the absorption of some vitamins and minerals, so eating a lot of dairy or taking a calcium supplement in addition to a multivitamin may not actually get you the nutrients you are hoping for. Also, taking too much of vitamins A, D, E, or K can cause you to overdose. This overdose could cause life-threatening symptoms, so it is important to make sure you follow the dosing instructions as strictly as possible. If you are pregnant, it is also important to make sure you are following the dosing instructions, as high doses of these vitamins can cause harm to your unborn baby. [Read more…]

The VR Health Movement

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More movement, less food. This is the mantra of tried and tested advice when it comes to losing weight and gaining a healthy lifestyle. But we all know that this simple instruction is easier said than done.

What if your weight is influenced by the fact that you’re one of the many people who get paid to sit for long hours for a living? A transport driver, a courier, a writer, a receptionist, or maybe an enthusiastic gamer. It is, in fact, this last career choice that could be the key to unlocking your more svelte, inner identity, particularly if you prefer to monitor your body through a virtual, rather than a palpable reality. [Read more…]

Seniors Embrace Technology More Than Ever

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In a very brief span of time, the use of technology by people over the age of 65 has increased and will continue to increase dramatically over the next few years. In a Pew Research Center survey, (2016) fewer than half of seniors ages 80 and up (44%) reported using the internet and just 28% said they had home broadband service. While, for those in the 65-69 age group, 82 percent report internet usage and more than 66 percent had home broadband.

These numbers indicate that the senior tsunami is now hitting the tech world. Providence Point, Pittsburgh’s premier 62+ Life Plan community sees the shift on a daily basis. According to Bob Kocent, Executive Director of the CCRC located in Pittsburgh’s South Hills, “Residents have access to a robust calendar of classes, programs and events. The growing popularity of classes for iPad, iPod and iPhone tutorials is just one piece of evidence to show that technology is becoming routine for seniors.”

The marketing office at Providence Point points out that visitors to the new ‘interactive’ website have grown dramatically as well. “Our new website has seen a big spike in visitors, and our analytics show that it is the savvy senior creating this change. Retirees are looking at our floor plans, watching our videos, and taking our virtual tours,” said Marilyn Walsh, Director of Marketing and Public Relations. [Read more…]

The Best Types of Therapy to Help Deal With Depression

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Chronic depression is hard for many to understand. Even if everything is going well for you, depression can strike at any time and bring you down. You can lose all motivation and be distant from the ones you love. To an outsider, you should just be happy, since it seems like all is well, but it obviously is easier said than done.

There are ways to treat depression and reduce the amount of episodes you have, or recover from them faster. Some may look to an antidepressant to fix a chemical imbalance; some may seek therapy to learn ways to cope. Others tackle depression through a combination of both types of treatment. In this post, we’ll look at some types of therapy that can help with managing depression.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Has someone ever told you that you just need to think more positively? They might have a point. Many who have depression tend to be swarmed by negative thoughts that bring them down. However, one can’t simply change the way they think overnight. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help. A cognitive therapist will teach you ways to change your thinking from negative to positive, and identify things like thought distortions. This can reduce or lower the severity of the depressive episodes you have. [Read more…]

Want to Get Thin So You Can Be Happy?

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Put Happiness First. The Pounds Will Start to Slide Off

By Nancy Bryan, Ph.D.

“I’m so unhappy because I can’t get thin.”

If you believe this, you’re setting yourself up for a tremendous amount of frustration and disappointment. That’s because it simply is not true that being thin will make you, or anybody, happy. From a neurological and biochemical perspective, it would be far more accurate to say “I’m not thin because I’m not happy.” 

Through years of research and personal experience, I have seen that lasting serenity and happiness will curb the desire to overeat, causing pounds to slide off on their own. The real challenge is not to get thin, but to achieve this calm-inducing state.

Doing this may sound daunting, but in fact it boils down to removing the two types of obstacles that stand in the way of achieving this highly desirable state of mind.

The first of these is personal: dissatisfaction is our human nature, courtesy of four million years of evolution.  As Patrick Manning explains in an essay in the little book The Way of Gratitude, “We human beings are hardwired to persistently seek the satisfaction of our needs.…we are strongly disposed to focus our attention on what we lack.”  [Read more…]

2018 Mother’s Day Gift Guide

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Since Mother’s Day is just around the corner, to help prepare you to find the perfect gift for mom, we’ve assembled our annual Mother’s Day Gift Guide. A special thank you to those of who sent in your gift ideas and suggestions for this occasion.

If you’re looking for a gift idea, our annual gift guide features a wide variety of ideas.

For the Fitness Lover

JBL Reflect Fit: The latest addition to the popular JBL Reflect line-up, JBL Reflect Fit Bluetooth headphone features in-ear heart rate monitoring and provides spoken, on-demand heart rate updates with a simple press of the button. It’s also compatible with the most popular fitness apps so athletes can access all of their workout stats in one place. JBL Reflect Fit is designed with IPX-5 sweat proof material and a reflective cable for comfortable and safe workouts. With a battery life of up to 10 hours, athletes can power through multiple workouts before having to recharge. It also features a microphone for crystal clear calls and a vibration alert to let athletes know of incoming calls while at the gym or on-the-go.

UA Sport Wireless Flex: These wireless neckband headphones offer a sleek design, JBL’s Signature Sound and impressive versatility to provide athletes with a secure fit at the gym or on-the-go. The headphones feature bend-and-stay Flex Zones in the neckband so athletes are guaranteed an adjustable fit and all-day comfort. Additionally, when rushing out the door to the gym, the headphones only require a quick five minutes of charging time for one hour of playback. UA Sport Wireless Flex are also engineered with an embedded RunSafe LED feature with three flashing modes for increased visibility and safety in low light conditions – perfect for running at night or before sunrise. [Read more…]