Dizziness or Vertigo?

Lately there has been a bout of labyrinthitis going around in our neighborhood which had me wondering about how the real difference between vertigo and dizziness. Real vertigo involves dizziness, but most medical professionals would tell you that it is a specific type of dizziness, something that is suggested by the root of the word vertigo, which is ‘vertere', meaning ‘turn' in Latin.
People who have vertigo as a noticeable shift in the sufferer's relationship with their normal environment. It is often described by those who suffer vertigo as an uncontrollable feeling that the room is spinning, or that the world is whirling, dipping and turning around them. This is different than just be dizzy.
They often describe the condition as a thoroughly unpleasant sensation of moving in or through space whilst they are thoroughly conscious that they are in fact physically immobile or completely still. A good example of this is the child that gets dizzy when he or she merely moves his or her head one pillow.
The basic cause of vertigo is that something has caused a disturbance of the equilibrium or balance of the sufferer, so that in certain situations this imbalance causes them to feel dizziness. Real vertigo causes real suffering including nausea, rapid involuntary eye movements and often vomiting as well. The reason I mention this is because the first time I saw my kid have vertigo I practically thought she was dying.
Whilst they are suffering an attack of vertigo, the individual may interpret the dizziness in one of two different ways, sensing that either they are moving whereas everything else is stationary (known as subjective vertigo), or they may see everything else is moving whilst they are still, which is objective vertigo.
On the one hand, you may feel that you are tilting, rocking or falling through space and that you have no grip on reality, which can often lead to nausea and vomiting, whilst on the other side of the coin, you may feel perfectly still whilst everything hurtles around uncontrollably, in which case, exactly the same ‘end result' may occur!
For the majority of children and adults who suffer vertigo, the condition is not grave or dangerous. Mostly it is just annoying! However it is recommended that if you or your kid suffers dizziness of any form, you should seek a professional medical evaluation of your condition as it may be indicative of something considerably more serious.

Lunch Time and Recycling

Do you or your kids take their lunch to school or work? If so than these simple steps will help save money and also benefit the environment.
This article is about creating lunch with no waste. That means less trash filling up our public waste baskets. The challenge is to create a lunch in which every item included can be eaten or reused. In other words the take out meal that you create must be a masterpiece of recycling. Your goal is to create a lunch that cannot be disposed of in any way.
First off, no more plastic or paper bags allowed to be taken to school or work! You can reuse this lunch pail or lunch sack. You can carry a reusable lunch pail all year. The same lunch pail can also be handed down from kid to kid so you do not have to buy any more plastic. A reusable ice pack can help keep their foods cold and fresh.
There are also two products on the market that are really useful for keeping the amount of plastic we put in landfills down. These are Snack Taxi and Wrap-N-Mat. These are reusable sandwich and snack bags. They are easy to use and really cheap. Just think how much money you would save if you would finally have the chance to stop buying plastic baggies. Zip Lock bags are really expensive!
You can also invest in reusable plastic water bottles…By refilling a child's reusable water bottle in their lunch; you can save $0.50 to $1.00 a day because you don't have to buy pouch drinks or water bottles! For me that means saving about thirty bucks a month per child. So I am saving $120 a month because I have four kids.
To store your child's lunch items during the day, you can buy bulk products to reduce your packaging and expenses. There is no need any more for the individually packaged items that create a large amount of waste and are usually much more expensive. I use plastic reusable containers whenever possible. I train my kids to make sure they bring the container complete with lid home.
Creating environmentally friendly lunches are easier than you think. Teach your children about why they are using the items that they have and explain how saving the environment by eliminating their trash is going to help the planet. Usually it becomes a conversation piece at the lunch table and other children become quite engaged in the topic. The more we educate the children, the more we have made a difference. This is all part of raising more conscientious individuals who are aware of the effect of all of their actions on the environment.