How To Guide

Rannie Turingan

Rannie Turingan is a self taught photographer, freelancing in Toronto. He was passionate about photography since he was a kid, and finally decided to take it up full-time and turn professional, giving up his office job.

Initially he did a lot of concert and promotional photographs but now he concentrates on portrait, editorial and headshot work. Currently he does not have his own studio, but does plan on buying new and better equipment.

‘I like to think that I have a distinctive style that captures people in their own environments. When I shoot portraits of people, I like to keep things as simple and as natural as I can, which really puts people at ease. It totally helps to bring people out of their shells, especially if they don’t normally like having their picture taken,’ he says of his style.

His plans for the future: to have his own studio, publish a book, have some exhibitions and collaborate with other people in a creative manner.

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Photography is a creative field and photographers have many different avenues of earnings.

Most people own cameras whether normal everyday ones or high end ones, and cameras are now found even on mobiles. These cameras may be still ones or video cameras, which even record sound. However, becoming a professional photographer is a different ball game altogether. If you enjoy photography and are enamored of the profession, you can consider becoming a professional photographer with almost unlimited opportunities for work and jobs.

The Work

The work is extremely creative and you need to have determination, skill and perseverance to make it in field of photography. Photographs are used everywhere and so work/jobs are also available in many diverse fields. However, it is hard work and there is a great deal of competition. Till you make a name for yourself or are able to run your own business as a photographer, it may be a wise idea to get a ‘regular’ job and photograph in your free time, till you have built up an impressive portfolio and can get a job.… Read More

Daniela Cott

Daniela Cott lived a rough life on the streets of Argentina: when she was only 13 years old, she started looking through trash cans in Beunos Aires, to salvage stuff that could be changed for money. Her parents had been doing this kind of work ever since they lost their jobs.

One night as she was going through trash cans she was spotted by Marina Gonzalez, the world-renowned necklace designer. Gonzalez convinced her that she had the looks to make it big, befriended her gave her some clothes and took a few photographs which she sent to a talent agent.

She turned from Cinderalla into the princess when she won Elite’s Model Look competition as an outstanding new model, defeating 1,000 other contenders. Of her fairy tale break Daniela says: ‘I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.’ The modeling work hasn’t been easy. I used to say that modeling on a catwalk or posing for photographs couldn’t be very difficult. Now I realize it is difficult, but not as hard as… Read More

Modeling is a full-time career and a very aspired to one as well. Both males and females are to be found in this profession.

Modeling now has become a full-fledged profession and even though there is usually cut-throat competition and often difficult to get a break, it is an extremely well-paying career choice. A person can become a model at any age because the field requires infants, children of all ages, teenagers and people of all ages, including the elderly. This is particularly true of models that are used in print and television advertisements.

The Work

The work can be quite grueling – shooting under hot lights or in extreme temperatures at any time of the day or night. For ramp modeling and live shows, it requires quick changes of clothes, and being on your feet and having to go through umpteen rehearsals. Often a chorographer will be part of the show and you have to learn to move to the music.

It will also require being on hand for clothes fittings and trials. As far as shoots are concerned,… Read More

Ellen

Ellen thought of becoming a dietitian when she spent a day with a schoolmate’s mother who was a dietitian. She also took career counseling before choosing this career. After school she completed a four year undergraduate course and she also got her state registration in place.

When she applied for a graduate post she was recruited in clinical placement. After working in this line, she considers herself a specialist and her work involves taking care of the nutritional needs of patients in the intensive care unit, the ward, outpatient clinics and even their homes.

‘I devise nutrition care plans including artificial nutrition support; this could be anything from feeding via tubes, to patients eating higher calorie foods, to specialized plans for patients who’ve had bowel surgery. I also take measurements including weights, mid-arm circumferences and skinfold thickness. Care plans have to be altered depending on these results and blood results. In my job, I enjoy talking to patients and problem solving – and every day’s different!’ she says about her work.

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A dietician looks after the nutritional needs of healthy and ill people and prescribes diets and foods.

A dietician has a great deal of scope as far as work is concerned. Dietetics is a growing field and if you are interested in food and nutrition you should consider becoming a dietician. A dietician will teach people to live with various illnesses which are food related, including but not limited to weight loss, weight gain, diabetes, thyroid disorders, heart disease, cholesterol, blood pressure, general good health and wellness and more.

The Work

The work is varied and interesting and usually requires one to one contact with people. But it depends a great deal on the place you are working at, because there are so many related fields where one can find jobs. It requires a very thorough knowledge of all kinds of foods and their nutritional contents.

The work may also incorporate creating recipes for the foods (for example sugar free foods for diabetics), so knowledge of cooking is an added advantage. It can also mean making menus for special needs,… Read More

Sue

Sue was diagnosed with diabetes ten years ago. She had a blood sugar level of 385 when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She is a mom, grandma, rancher, spinner and weaver and has her own ranch where she rears sheep, cattle and llamas – sheep and cattle for the meat and sheep and llamas for their fleece. She lives in New Mexico.

Earlier she worked in town as a bookstore clerk, owned and operated a bakery, worked as a hairdresser and had her hands full raising her children.

‘I didn’t even get to start out trying to manage this with diet and exercise alone. I started with a combo pill of metformin and glyburide. Now I am on Lantus and glucophage ER… I exercise using a combination of yoga, stretches and walking mostly for my daily exercises. I also do a tightly controlled food plan,’ she says and advises people to keep testing themselves and also keep a journal.

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Diabetes is no longer a dreaded disease because there are many different medications to control it.

Diabetes can be a lifestyle disease or it can also be inherited. If there is a family history of diabetes, then there are more chances of a person developing diabetes, though it has sometimes been known to skip a generation. However, it is a disease which needs you to take care of yourself, watch your diet, exercise and modify medications or injectables as necessary, and take blood sugar tests regularly if not everyday.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes occurs when the body is unable to enough amounts of insulin to absorb sugar from foods – this may be all forms of sugar, including carbohydrates and not just plain sugar or sweetened foods. It is a disorder of the metabolism.

The body has to produce insulin to use the glucose which comes when food is digested. When diabetes occurs the body does not produce enough insulin, produces no insulin, or has cells that do not respond properly to the insulin the pancreas produces.

The… Read More

Two real-life examples below

Dee

Dee was a professor of teacher education in Michigan when she went into hospital to have tubes surgically inserted into her ears for hearing problems. As she was coming out of anesthesia, she suffered a severe asthma attack for the first time in her life.

This turned out to be ARDS and she spent 29 days in hospital on assisted breathing. When she returned home she had to take 3 liters of oxygen per minute 24/7. She underwent physical, occupational, and speech therapy and also entered a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. It took one year to wean her off the supplementary oxygen and today she leads a relatively normal life.

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Ian Robb

Pastor Ian Robb went in for gall bladder surgery in Ontario – 24 hours later he was back in hospital with severe pain, was admitted and after week diagnosed with ARDS. He spent eight weeks in ICU, underwent a tracheotomy, was treated with thirty different antibiotics and steroids, but still developed sepsis.

He spent almost 5 months in hospital… Read More

Six real-life examples below

Bernie Britton

Bernie Britton has suffered from epilepsy for most of his life. While in many patients seizures can be controlled to a great extent with medications, Bernie’s case was the exception and he would sit down whenever he felt a seizure coming on so that he would hurt himself or others.

He finally got help from the Mayo clinic thanks to a new diagnostic test called SISCOM (subtraction ictal SPECT co-registered to MRI) which could find out where the seizures originated. Britton had two surgeries. In the first electrodes were implanted in his brain to trace the path of his seizures. The second surgery untangled the nerves and blood vessels that proved to be the origin of his seizures. Before the surgeries, Britton was having two to 10 seizures a week, with many more dizzy spells in between – now he has had only four since 2003.

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Melissa Bruesehoff

Melissa Bruesehoff was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was only four years old. She had to lead a very restricted life… Read More

Six real-life examples below

Harper

Harper suffered from migraines and she one after the other on two subsequent days. Even though she went to hospital they only treated her for migraine and sent her back. She thought she would be able to sleep it off. Finally her migraine got really bad again and she went to hospital where it was found that she had had one major and three minor strokes. She was only 33.

She says: ‘My balance is off, I fall down a lot, I lost a lot of peripheral vision, my short term memory is almost non-existent, I forget words and have to “search” for them, I have forgotten what the simplest words mean and/or how to spell them, and I run words together like my brain is working faster than my mouth or my mouth is working faster than my brain.’ She is currently on blood thinners.

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Mark Acevedo

Mark Acevedo, a fire captain in Ventura, California was fighting a wild-lands fire, when his left leg gave out and his speech… Read More

Rosemary Conley

Rosemary Conley often suffered from nausea after eating a meal high in fat, causing her a great deal of distress. In 1986, she was finally diagnosed with gall stones. However, at time gall stone surgery involve making a large incision in the abdomen and removing the gall bladder. This meant a longer stay in hospital and also a longer recovery period.

At that time, as she was busy, she decided to try and manage her symptoms on her own. She reduced the fat in her diet as a result of which she lost weight and looked better. She even translated her experiences into a book, Complete Hip and Thigh Diet.

In 1991 she finally had laparscopic surgery to remove her gall bladder. She has been fine since then and advises people who are suffering from gall stones to go in for surgery while at the same time keeping a check on their diet.

Gall stones sometimes occur in the gall bladder. If you find out or you have symptoms, what can you do about them?

While the gall bladder is a small organ, it can malfunction or cause problems, like other organs. A person can get gall bladder cancer or other diseases, but the commonest problem is that of gall stones, which many people get.

What are gall stones?

Gall stones are actually small or large stones which are made from cholesterol or bilirubin, both of which are present in the bile in the gall bladder. Sometimes the stones may be many small stones a few millimeters in size or grainy like sand. At other times there may be just one or more large stones.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Very often gall stones do not cause any symptom, particularly if they are small. However, if you have pain around the area of liver on the right side of the upper abdomen, the pain radiates into the back or arm, or you have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, an occasional choking sensation in the throat or esophagus,… Read More

Sara Story

Sara Story is not just another interior designer – she is the creator of Sara Story Design which seeks to project her vision in the world of interior design. She was born in Japan and has traveled extensively all over the world which has influenced her designs a great deal.

When she was very young, she remembers driving her mother crazy with her design ideas – one time, she ripped off the carpet of her room to expose the concrete floor underneath.

She completed a degree in psychology from Texas and then moved to San Francisco. She worked for an architectural firm and a toy manufacturer and then left to study further. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of San Diego, and received a degree in Interior Architecture at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

She worked for Victoria Hagan and then handled her first project on her own, merging two apartments which had been completed gutted – the completed project was featured in Interior Design and she has not looked… Read More

Lactose intolerance is a digestive disorder which can cause problems, till it is diagnosed

Lactose intolerance basically refers to a disorder which many people suffer from where they cannot have many milk or dairy products. There is a large percentage of population which has this disorder. Fortunately in advanced countries there are enough products available for those are lactose intolerant and all the dietary information is available on the labels of foods.

What is lactose intolerance?

Lactose intolerance occurs when the body lacks lactase which helps in the digesting on milk and milk products. It may not produce lactase at all or it may produce less lactase and cannot digest the milk sugar (lactose).

Sometimes babies are born with the inability to digest milk. Sometimes people develop lactose intolerance as they grow older. Sometimes this may happen in childhood and other times it may happen in adults.

The types of lactose intolerance

Basically lactose intolerance is only of one type, but there are some people who can digest certain types of dairy while can tolerate no dairy altogether. However, there… Read More

An interior decorator gives the house a put-together look according to the clients’ tastes and the space available.

An interior decorator uses his or her creative abilities, sense of style and aesthetics to make a house look better, maximize the use of space and usually remove clutter. He or she works with many people, contractors, builders, carpenter, and painters, suppliers of upholstery and curtains, lighting fixtures, furniture and accessories to help bring out the personality of the owner in the house.

The Work

The work requires extreme creativity, use of imagination and visualization. Interior decorators usually work on project to project basis and often work on a consultancy basis, but there are large interior decorating firms which usually get big jobs and may specialize in homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, spas, resorts, hospitals or other places.

You have to have a sense of color, aesthetics as well as space, because something which looks good in a shop, may not look good in the home or place you are designing. You have to be able to coordinate looks, styles, colors of wall… Read More

Zoe Bastion

Zoe Bastion is an assistant content producer with BBC and says that she has been lactose intolerant for most of her life. When she looks back, she remembers that every time she used to have cheese she would she would feel gassy and when she used to have milk, she used to get a cough.

When she would eat dairy, she would invariably get diarrhea, but she was finally diagnosed when she was 26. She says that it took her over a year to give up dairy. As she is vegetarian, her normal food comprised cheese, milk, potatoes and bananas and bread, Even now if she eat a pizza, she suffers from stomach cramps and diarrhea.

She went to a nutritionist to get a healthy, lactose free diet. ‘I have been eating a healthy, balanced diet ever since. I eat lots of beans, pulses, tofu, vegetables, fruit, Marmite and soya milk, which is enriched with calcium and B12. I’m a good cook because I’ve had to experiment so I don’t get bored with my food,’ she says. As… Read More

Paula Corrigan

Paula Corrigan is a company manager working in Cumbria. One day, while at work, she was holding a heavy box and turned – immediately she felt a shooting pain from her hip to leg. It was so bad that she had to be off work for a few days. She rested and felt better, but then on and off the pain would flare up.

Her doctor recommended pain killers and physiotherapy, but she did not feel better after all these treatments. Finally she was diagnosed with a slipped disc pressing on her sciatic nerve which was causing so much pain. She was referred to Christopher Gerber, a consultant neurosurgeon at Newcastle General Hospital, who advised her to go in for surgery.

She underwent the microdisketomy and had two large fragments the size of a squashed pea removed from her disk. She is now feeling much better and can walk normally, without the help of a walking stick or a limp.

A slipped disk can be an extremely painful condition as its sufferers will know – it has more treatment options now.

More than 60 to 75 percent people suffer from back pain of one kind or the other. Everybody does not have a slipped disc. But back ache can sometimes become a chronic condition. And a slipped disk is one of reasons of back pain which is persistent.

What is a slipped disk?

The length of the spine is made up of small bones called vertebrae. In between the bones are spinal discs which are made up of tough fibrous tissue which is filled with a jellylike substance to offer a cushioning effect, so that the spine is flexible.

A slipped disk, also called a herniated disk or prolapsed disk, may rupture and the jelly leaks out. This can put pressure on the spinal cord or pinch one or more nerves which can often cause excruciating pain on whichever parts of the body the nerve/s control.

Causes

Sometimes a slipped disk happens with age and when the body is not… Read More

Judi

Judi feels that she had vertigo all her life but did not realize it till 34 years ago. She suffered from vertigo, nausea, lack of concentration and being sick. She had two brain surgeries to relieve constriction of the 8th cranial nerve. After the surgery on the right side, she felt even sicker.

‘I had a neurectomy of the 8th nerve on my right side. This left me with deafness in my right ear as well as loss of vestibular function on that side. My left side had been operated on and was damaged either as a result of the vertigo or the surgery,’ she laments.

She went from doctor to doctor, but found no help. Finally she found a doctor at Mass Eye and Ear who actually listened to her and put her on to a physiotherapist.  Now she is going to a physical therapist at Mass General to undergo neuro-muscular retraining. At the age of 66, she is finally feeling better.