Choosing Accessible Showers

If you have a family member who is handicapped and confined to a wheelchair, you will no doubt need to install an accessible shower. There are numerous styles of handicap showers, but as a general rule, an accessible shower is designed so that the person can enter the shower without the need to get out of their wheelchair. Sometimes referred to as a roll in shower, this style of shower enclosure can provide a handicapped person with a great deal of independence and safety, as compared to other shower styles. However, the term "accessible shower" is also sometimes used to describe any shower that is designed for easy access by a handicapped or elderly individual, even if they are not confined to a wheelchair. For this reason, it is extremely important that you understand the specific features of a shower before you purchase it, to make sure it meets your exact needs.

Important Features to Look for in Accessible Showers

Just as with other handicap showers, you'll want to make sure that there are no sharp edges or glass surfaces that could cause injury if a person slips, falls, or bumps into anything with a wheelchair or their body. The shower must also be designed so that there are no ledges or uneven surfaces on the bottom of the shower that would prevent a wheelchair from rolling freely. Shower pan enclosures that are lower than the entrance of the shower should be avoided, as they can be dangerous or even impossible to negotiate in a wheelchair. They should also be large enough so that the wheelchair can be easily maneuvered in and out of the shower enclosure.

How to Choose an Accessible Shower

In addition to looking for safety and accessibility features, you will need to decide whether to get a commercially manufactured shower or to try and adapt an existing shower to suit a person's needs. In most cases, a commercially manufactured shower is the best solution, as standard showers are often difficult to adapt for wheelchair access. Commercially available shower models are often surprisingly affordable, especially as compared to what you might need to spend to properly adapt an existing shower. These showers are usually mass produced, so that they can be supplied to nursing homes, retirement communities, hospitals and other care centers, so manufacturers can often keep costs affordable. You will find highly accessorized showers in addition to simpler "bare bones" models. In many cases, a simpler shower is the best choice. Not only are they less expensive, but they can give you the opportunity to install features such as grab bars and other features in the location that would work best for your bathroom. Additionally, in the case of an accessible shower, fewer features is often preferable to more, since accessories can cause problems when trying to maneuver a wheelchair. Some accessible showers, especially those which are also designed for those who are not wheelchair-bound, have features such as towel bars and soap racks that could just get in the way when a person is in a wheelchair. Installing only the features that are truly needed by the handicapped person for comfortable and convenient showering is often the best approach.

For more information on an ADA accessible shower or ADA grab bars contact an accessibility expert at BarrierFree.org

What Will Happen to Me If I Don't Exercise?

Proper exercise to the human body is absolutely critical. Most people do not really realize its importance as the time aspect between inactivity and functional decline is so long that the connection is often not linked.

If we do nothing to prevent it we lose precious muscle tissue at the rate of around 5 pounds every decade of our adult life. This rate doubles after the age of fifty and as the result we become weaker and lose our flexibility. Our strength is of vital importance as we get older and many people think they can just stop using their muscles and all will be well.

Hand in hand with loss of muscle are several other problems. One is the decrease in the metabolism (the body's engine) which results in increased body fat. This is a primary risk factor in disease particularly the 'big three' heart disease, cancer and diabetes along with many others. The effects on one's bones though are not so obvious from not doing enough muscle building and maintaining activity.

Your muscles are attached to bones and if you do not use your muscles your bones do not get the muscles pulling on them keeping them strong. The solution - proper exercise. This means low force, high intensity strength training is the only safe and productive means of addressing both loss of muscle and bone mass.

Many of the activities that have been recommended as appropriate exercise by so-called "experts" will do little to nothing to help anyone restore and rebuild lost muscle and bone mass. Repetitive type recreational activities such as walking, jogging, cycling or swimming will not build strong muscles and some of these activities will cause degenerative joint and spinal conditions that may not show for years.

This can mean a person will be forced to become less physically active much earlier in their life that they otherwise would. These conditions can even reduce a person's ability to perform proper strength training exercise further accelerating their loss of muscular strength and functional ability at a time when they need it most.

As 8 out of 10 adults do not perform proper exercise they rationalize it by making excuses about being 'too busy' and not having enough time or being unable to afford a gym membership. But it is easier to budget for some workout clothing and a gym membership or a wheelchair and a nurse?

The amount of exercise time necessary to significantly improve ones health and physical condition is far less each week than what most people have been led to believe. Just 2-3 sessions of around 40 minutes each week is all that is needed if done correctly. For something so important there are few people, if any, who can not schedule the small outlay of time each week

It is each of our responsibility to make sure we can take care of ourselves for as much of our life span as possible. We should not need to go into a nursing home and have to have someone else dress, feed and bathe us because we no longer possess the necessary strength and functional ability to take care of ourselves.

Other people like family, friends and our communities should not have to pick up the tab for this so make it your mission to keep yourself strong and fit so it never happens to you. Make proper exercise one of your highest priorities.

Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body, regaining lost vitality and improving the quality of your life? Download my free ebook "I've Found the Fountain of Youth - Let Me Show You Too!" http://www.over50looking30.com

Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who in her nearly 30 years of fitness and bodybuilding competition experience she has helped thousands of people start their journey towards losing weight, becoming strong, fit and youthful at any age.

Sign up for her free newsletter on Weight Loss Tips http://FitnessWeightloss.com and get her free report "Discover 'Secrets' That Most People Will Never Know About To Really Lose Weight".

Motorized Wheelchair Or Scooter For The Disabled - What to Choose?

Motorized wheel chairs and handicap scooters are made to make life easier for people with disabilities. They are both helping them to move around the house, go outdoors and visit favorite places. With them even going to shopping on their own is not an impossible task anymore. It would be the best to have both of them. However, if you have to choose between motorized wheelchair and handicap scooter, here are a several tips that can help you to make a decision.

You should always first discuss this matter with a doctor who is following condition of the disabled person. You will probably find the right answer there.

A very important thing that can help you to decide is a control issue. Motorized wheelchairs are controlled by a joystick and a set of buttons that are easily adjustable. On the other hand, handicap scooters are almost like a bicycle. Therefore, depending on body strength and ability to manipulate the controls, that can help you to determine which one is the right one for you.

Also, depending on the lifestyle of the disabled person, you can make a decision between these two. So, if the person is traveling and driving a lot, you should keep in mind that a handicap scooter can be disassembled into pieces and stored into a car's trunk, and for motorized wheelchairs, you need a mini-van for a transport. In some cases you will need a specialized van to transport a power wheelchair.

And for the end, scooters for the disabled are more affordable then motorized wheelchairs, without the add-ons that you may require.

If you want to find out more about Motorized Wheel Chair come and visit us at http://www.motorized-wheel-chair.org

The Easiest Way to Improve Your Health

Everyone knows they couldn't survive without water. However did you also know that the easiest way to improve your health is to drink more water? Many people live in a constant state of dehydration according to many health experts including the Arizona Health Department. They say that a sedentary person in a moderate climate should drink no less than sixty-four ounces or eight large glasses of water a day. Since most of us do not live a sedentary lifestyle, we often need to drink more than this baseline number. However, because of other drink choices such as coffee, many people do not get the amount of water their bodies need, and their health suffers as a result. Here are some of the benefits the proper amount of water can give your body.

Pregnant women know all about water retention. I experienced this phenomenon in my third trimester. Basically, water retention means your body is dehydrated and thus it retains the fluids you do drink as an emergency measure. This causes you to swell, mainly in your legs and feet, but sometimes also in your arms, hands, and face. The solution? Drinking more water so your body won't be in an emergency state and will lose the excess fluid. "The goal is to keep lots of fluid flowing through your body."

Most people know that sweat is your body's way of releasing water to cool off. But did you know that water also plays an important role in your bloodstream? The blood, which is the first to lose water when you start to get dehydrated, uses water to transport oxygen (if you'll remember water is made up of oxygen molecules) to your cells. Water is further used to break down protein and carbohydrates and maintain muscle tone, both important functions when you are considering weight loss. This explains why you must drink more water to lose weight - water "burns" fat by breaking down the proteins and carbs more efficiently.

Lots of women know that water is good for the skin and complexion. But do you know why? In "Reverse Aging", Dr. Sang Whang explains that, "the aging process is basically the accumulation of acidic wastes built up within the body...The body tries its best to get rid of these acidic wastes through urine and perspiration. Unfortunately, our lifestyle, diet and environment prevent our body to get rid of all the wastes that it generates. Gradually, these leftover acidic wastes accumulate somewhere within our body. Since acid coagulates blood, the blood circulation near the waste areas becomes poor, causing all kinds of degenerative diseases to develop."

For more information on the importance of water please visit http://www.centralbasin.org/