General Articles on Health, Fitness and Anything Under The Sun
Reducing the salt in your diet has been shown to prevent high blood pressure, but a new study shows that it may also prevent heart attack and strokes.
When you’re experiencing heartburn, you just want to get relief as soon as possible. For most consumers, this means heading down to their local pharmacy and picking up some sort of over-the-counter antacid medication to try to soothe the burn.
While antacids are less expensive than alternative drugs, they may not always give you a quick remedy. Some people wind up going through boxes of antacids because their heartburn never goes away for good – just for a few minutes at a time.
Children with diabetes have the same recommended nutritional needs just like anyone else. The only difference is that they need to maintain normal blood sugar levels. In order to control these levels children need to consume a well-balanced diet by eating foods in the correct amounts.
One of biggest challenges parents encounter when they discover that their child has diabetes is changing the way they currently prepare meals. Cooking healthy meals for children with diabetes involves learning how to plan meals and snacks within the guidelines recommended by their physician and dietician.
By Al Sears, MD
Do you like your steak red in the middle? I do. Conventional wisdom says that’s “dangerous,” so let me put your mind at ease. The idea that it’s “healthier” to cook meat until it’s dry and tasteless is not based on scientific fact. Overcooking denatures protein, breaks down vitamins, and removes nutrients.
Many high-temperature cooking methods trigger a chemical change called glycation (the binding of glucose molecules to protein). Glycation is what happens to the proteins in your body as you age, and it’s the same process that turns a turkey’s skin brown and crispy when you cook it.
The result of glycation on meat is a spoiled protein assembly with glycotoxins. As the glycotoxins accumulate in your cells, they send out chemical signals. Your body responds by producing inflammation that can cause arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
You can reduce the number of glycotoxins in your food by cooking it more slowly at a lower heat – in other words, by steaming, stewing, boiling, and poaching instead of frying, broiling, and microwaving. Marinating meat well before you cook it will also lessen glycation.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
There is a group of migraine sufferers who believe a chemical in some foods known as MSG or monosodium glutamate causes their headaches. In fact, they point out occurrences where patients who do not usually have headaches get one after eating foods containing high levels of MSG. On the other hand, however, there are people who say MSG does not seem to trigger a migraine or headache. So, what is the answer to this quandary – does MSG cause headaches?
Currently, there is no decisive answer concerning whether or not MSG causes headaches. While tests have been conducted to discover the true effect of this chemical on migraines, the results have been inconclusive. It seems that MSG does trigger migraines for some patients while it does not trigger migraines in others.
In medical terms, photophobia is the visual sensitivity to light. Literally, the term means fear of light. People who suffer with photophobia will tell you it is the pain lights bring that they fear, not the light itself. For those who experience photophobia, any type or amount of light can bring irritation and discomfort. This light can include natural sunlight and fluorescent lights as well as common incandescent light bulbs. Some photophobics experience discomfort only when the light is extremely bright or direct. In rare cases, all forms of light can cause discomfort and irritation, causing the sufferer to sequester themselves in their homes in a darkened room.
We are used to hearing nutritional facts like: “Avoid eggs; drink eight glasses of water a way”. Nutritional advice such as this has been touted for years – but is it accurate? Read the rest of this entry
Can migraine headaches be linked to certain allergies? While many migraine sufferers do believe certain foods such as cheese, chocolate, red wine, caffeine and monosodium glutamate (MSG) – most commonly found in Chinese food – can trigger an allergic reaction and bring on a migraine; this popular belief isn’t entirely true. Doctors say the phenomenon responsible for these food triggered headaches is more of a bad reaction than an allergy. As we know, each person’s bodily makeup is different, so when some people come in contact with certain foods or even smells, their bodies produce irritating substances. It is these substances that are actually responsible for the headaches, not the foods or smells.
While allergies alone don’t usually cause headaches, there are some exceptions. One of these exceptions is hay fever induced headaches. Hay fever is one of the worst allergies you can suffer from. Hay fever is considered a true allergy in the sense that your body will launch a massive, aggressive immune response to combat the danger it perceives when pollen is inhaled. Other exceptions include headaches caused by allergies to mold, dust and animal dander.
From the very beginning there are many influences that shape healthy child development. Positive interaction from adults is the most important part of your child’s learning process. Children need the stimulation they get from adults so that they can learn and develop their own skills. This input should not be limited to just parents but also include other family members, friends and teachers.
Emotional development comes from your child’s early experiences. Try to develop a sense of trust and security by being affectionate and consistent in your responses towards your child. The calming influence you create helps them to understand their own emotions. If they can achieve this then they will be more confident within themselves. It also helps them to understand the importance of respect in response to others.
More young men are being diagnosed with Prostate cancer, a disease often associated with men in their sixties.
Prostate cancer, a malignant tumor of the prostate gland, is creeping up as the fifth most common cancer in the world.
The current test for prostate cancer, a blood test known as the prostate-specific antigen, is not entirely precise and turns up a significant number of false positives. About a third of prostate cancers are lethal but current tests are not able to identify which of these cancers will cause death. So it is important to known the warning signs.
