Health and Fitness Tips

Four Healthy Weight Loss Tips

2008-11-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

1. Use your common sense: Humans are blessed with common sense for one single reason: they need to use it every now and then. Many times people don’t use their common sense at all when making certain vital choices of their lives, and that doesn’t surprise me. We often opt for the easy way and that often winds up being the latest fad diet.
I should know, I’ve gone on crazy diets in the past but have finally started listening to my brain and not my taste buds.
Always use your common sense, whether you are eating out or cooking meals at home. Let’s face it, we all know that 3 slices of pizza have way more calories than 1. If you listen to your brain you will go for 1 slice, but if you listen to your taste buds you’ll be hitting 3 slices and triple the amount of calories.
Think about each of your activity and how it will affect your body weight. Think whether your activities are taking you nearer to your weight loss goal or further from it?
You are doing some type of a fitness workout 3-4 times a week. Correct? If not–start.

2. Find healthy alternatives to your favorite foods: One of the reasons why fad diets fail is that they don’t provide enough nutrition to your body. You should first think about proving nutrition to your body and then about dieting.
For instance, suppose that you are not overweight and you don’t need to diet; even then, should you be eating all those junk and processed foods? No at all, because they add nothing to your body’s nutrition level.
On the other hand, they harm your body all the more, or make you gain weight. You should replace unhealthy foods with their healthy substitutes.
As an example, you should always drink water instead of soda or fizzy drinks. While soda or fizzy drinks will make you fatter, water will help you lose weight by burning your calories.
How about a handful of grapes instead of a piece of cake? If you find that you really don’t want to give up all your food pleasures - then cut down your portion sizes.
Only have 1 cookie, instead of your usual 1/2 bag. Purchase some snacks in the new 100 calorie packs and save them for when you want a snack but don’t want to blow your whole diet.
If you love ice cream try some of the new slow churned types that have 1/2 the calories of regular ice cream. Or even better yet try some fat free or sugar free ice cream. Or fruit sorbet or 100% juice ice bars. They are cooling and low in calories.
3. Don’t skip your exercises: No matter what your body weight is, you should never want to skip your exercises. It is one thing to skip exercise for one day during the week; it is totally a different thing to avoid exercises altogether.
Remember that if you rely only on diet, you can never expect to lose weight fast. A combination of exercise and diet is the best ways to lose weight quickly but healthily!
Exercising will also help to shape your body and help you have lean muscle which will replace your fat. Lean muscle is smaller than fat (so your thinner) and it takes more calories upkeep, so you burn more calories every day.
Lean muscle doesn’t make you look like you have bulked up, but instead is long and lean giving you a body that looks wonderful in almost any clothing style.
4. Join weight loss support groups. From time to time, when you are following your weight loss program, you will feel depressed and frustrated and would want to give it up all.
This is very common and this is the time when you need someone to lift up your spirits. Who can support you better than your peers?
You can join weight loss forums online for free. These forums consist of two types of members: people who are struggling to lose weight just like you, and people who have successfully made it to the slim figure.
These people understand all your needs and requirements. They understand that you would like to have a bowl of chocolate soup instead of that damn old carrot. They understand that you would like to have soft drinks instead of plain water.
And remember that someone who understands you well would be able to support your weight loss goals properly!
And lastly - expect to slip up once in a while. It’s natural, we all do it. Just remember that you shouldn’t give it all up because you ate something very fattening or didn’t workout out for a week or two.
Just get back on track as soon as you can, so that your weight does not go back to where it was, or even worse - higher. The quicker you pick yourself up the less damage control you have to do.
Good Luck!

POLLUTION

2008-11-20T21:59:00.000-08:00

Pollution is killing many millions of people world wide.

There is no doubt about the sickening effects between heart disease and fine air-pollution particles that permeate large, industrial metropolitan areas.

After studying three dozen cities and nearly 66,000 post-menopausal women, scientists found the women in the worst-polluted cities had a 76 percent greater chance of dying from heart ailments than those in the least-polluted cities.

"What we want to make clear is that air pollution isn't just an environmentalist's issue, or a matter of decreased visibility," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a University of Washington physician and lead author of the study, appearing in today's New England Journal of Medicine. "It's impacting our health right now."

This confirms, with a rigorous methodology, that small particulates at levels considerably lower than the EPA standards, and levels lower than we see in major cities, are associated with significant cardiovascular events and deaths.

The new report uses data collected by the Women's Health Initiative, a long-term national health study that focuses on strategies for preventing heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer and fracture in post-menopausal women.

Because of the large study size, the scientists were able to eliminate factors, such as physical activity and weight that might otherwise have explained the dramatic increase in heart disease for women who lived near high pollution cities

Epidemiologists and health officials confirm it shows a stronger-than-expected relationship and is more definitive than previous research linking fine particle air pollution and heart problems,

Fine particles, often appearing as smoke or haze, are emitted by a variety of sources, from power plants, diesel trucks and bus, industrial factories, fires and automobile brakes, exhaust. They are defined by their small size, being 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter, dust. Because they are so small, fine particles can bore deep into the lungs and bloodstream but chemicals can also be absorbed through the skin.

Such small particles are so difficult to detect that reliable, widespread monitoring didn't begin until about 2000, but concern among researchers and public health officials has grown steadily since. While scientists ponder the tiny particles themselves for the next hundred years the public continues to get sick and die.

Cardiovascular risks are far greater near sites with high levels of fine-particle pollution than those with cleaner air.

Who is to blame?

The love affair with the car must end because the freedom owning a car represents is pure delusion. Never mind the killing over oil unless it hits home, but this new study does hit home. Owning a car hurts far more then it benefits because the related oil and pollution are killing millions worldwide.

Politicians fill their pockets with high automobile tax dollars while ignoring the combined results of congested traffic and factory pollutions.

Politicians will not and can not stop their love affair with the cars related tax dollars that they earn off car buying tax, fuel tax and all other oil, tires, parts tax.

Dealing with pollution

Avoid walking or jogging on heavy traffic polluted roads.
Vote with your feet, move away from polluted cities.
Don’t buy a car or at least avoid buying a gas guzzling type.
Take public transportation and if none is available demand it from the politicians who robbed you of it to start with.

Healthy Food Means Less Acne Problems

2008-11-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Eating junk food, chocolate and drinking carbonated drinks will increase the likelihood of an acne breakout

you should drink a lot of water. Most people are dehydrated and don’t realize it. Minimally, you should drink eight glasses of water a day. In addition, drink naturally sweetened fruit juices. Eat foods that are lower in fat. They are easier to digest and process. You’ll have fewer toxins develop because your body won’t struggle so much to digest the food.

Lower Blood Sugar

2008-11-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

Knowing that you are diabetic you take measures to ensure that you maintain a healthy lifestyle and monitor your blood sugar levels. You know that having a too high or too low blood sugar can be dangerous and that you normally have a tendency to have low blood sugar.

Every year people suffering from diabetes can and do enter a coma because they are not correctly monitoring their sugar levels. Since you are prone to low blood sugar levels, you should take the time to learn about the symptoms and to watch for them.

The symptoms of low blood sugar usually occur suddenly and you may experience pale, moist and sweaty skin; start to shake; become irritable; need to urinate frequently or you may suddenly become very thirsty.

In addition to watching for the symptoms, you need to listen to your own body. Problems with low blood sugar levels can be increased by changing to your system such as not eating at the designated times, being more active than usual or even taking too much medication.

Being diabetic means that you must constantly watch your blood sugar levels. Having a blood sugar level that is too low can be deadly if you lose consciousness and go into a coma.

When it comes to low blood sugar, one of the fastest ways to quickly increase your sugar level is to have a glass or orange juice or a few ounces of regular soda. This is only a temporary measure when it comes to bringing your blood sugar levels up. Once you have experience a low blood sugar episode, and you have gotten temporary relief from a drink, you should immediately eat a proper meal and figure out what happened.

You, more than anyone else in the entire world, will and can be your own best weapon against this disease. It is up to you to monitor your blood sugar levels, to take your medication, to eat properly and on time, to exercise and to work closely with your doctor to control you diabetes.

Understanding what you need to do is the first step to controlling your diabetes. Read informational pamphlets and books to get more information. You can also go to the internet and learn more about your condition and how to better regular your blood sugar levels.

Learn everything you can about diabetes and about low and high blood sugar levels. The more information you have about this, the better equipped you will be to handle an emergency situation.

And, who knows, you might be the one person available who knows the symptoms of a diabetic comma and may be able to help someone else who may be experiencing an episode of low blood sugar.

High Blood Sugar

2008-11-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

What is high blood sugar? You have probably about this and you figure that it probably has something to do with eating too much sugar. Notching on donuts for breakfast, having a latte at your morning coffee break, nibbling on a few cookies after lunch, with another latte at the after coffee break and all this topped off with ice cream after dinner. Of course you have high blood sugar. But, while this type of diet is not good for you, it might not have anything to do with a long-term problem with high blood sugar.

If you are diabetic you know what it can mean to you if you have blood sugar levels. When you were diagnosed, the doctor provided you with several pamphlets and brochures that told you everything you needed to know about being diabetic and the problems with low or high blood sugar levels.

Learning the symptoms of high blood sugar was very important because you had to ensure that you would receive immediate treatment if a problem should arise. You know that there are several symptoms that can alert you to the possibility that your blood sugar levels are too high. These symptoms may include become drowsy, difficulty breathing, nausea, excessive thirst and flushed skin. In addition, you make sure that your family, friends and coworkers also know the symptoms.

Many people who experience an episode of high blood sugar do not recognize the symptoms when they come up one at a time. You are busy working at the office and you feel a bit tired in the afternoon and you are experiencing some nausea. Thinking nothing of it because you did not sleep well last night and everyone is coming down with some of virus-you ignore the initial symptoms. You start drinking more as you are working and before you know it your blood sugar levels are very high and you need to take immediate action.

Sometimes, if you are not paying enough attention you may have to call upon someone else to help you get your blood sugar levels back to normal. This might even include having someone else give you an injection of insulin. Having other people know what to do immediately when you can not communicate can save your life.

Remember that it is up to you to monitor your blood sugar levels throughout the day and to pay attention to the little signals that your body is giving you. Having a high blood sugar level can and will cause problems, but with careful monitoring of your diet and frequent testing of your blood glucose levels you can avoid potential problems and pitfalls.

Take care of yourself every single day because this how to monitor your blood sugar levels-one day at a time.

Acne Solution

2008-09-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

Million of people suffer from acne breakouts young and old. If your doctor has you on topical or oral treatment and it is not working try other ways to cure the breakouts.

For example: Topical retinoids (Retin-A, Differin and Tazorac, for example)are helpful for mild to severe acne especially when they are used early on combining with hormonal antibiotics,or benzoyl peroxide treatments. When you discontinue the antibiotics you can maintain clear skin with retinoids. Another way to treat your acne is with laser light. The doctor applies a chemical called aminole-v-vulinic acid and then exposed to a sunlump called Clearlight. You need two to four treatments to kill bacteria and keep skin clear for 5 months or up to 2 years.

Over the counter products aren't strong enough to treat severe acne. Try using a product with 10% benzoyl peroxide plus another product with 2% percent salicylic acid. Keep a daily routine faithfully and if your skin doesn't improve see your dermatologist.

Mina Dimakis-Lev http://www.BeautyImagebyMina.com

About Acne, itsTypes & Symptoms

What is Acne?

Acne is a chronic disorder of the hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Some of the characteristics of acne include black heads, pimples, cysts, infected abscesses, and rarely scarring. Acne usually occurs during adolescence in both men and women. To be more specific, acne starts during puberty and tends to get worse for people with oily skin. Acne badly affects teenage boys. Only mild to moderate forms of acne occur in middle-aged women. Acne can be seen most commonly on the face. The other places where it can occur include the neck, chest, back, shoulders, scalp, and upper arms and legs. Most forms of acne are the result of heredity and hormonal problems and has nothing to do with a harmful diet or poor hygiene.

Types of acne

Acne starts in a similar way for all but can take different forms and can react in a unique way according to the body conditions of the individual. A basic lesion called the comedo is the begining of acne. The comedo is an enlarged hair follicle plugged with oil and bacteria residing under the surface of your skin, that waits for the right conditions to grow into an inflamed lesion. Whenever the skin produces more oil, the bacteria grows within the swollen follicle. The surrounding skin becomes increasingly inflamed as your white blood cells fight against the intruders. Two main types of acne include non-inflammatory acne and inflammatory acne.

Non-inflammatory acne

Closed comedo:

If the plugged follicle stays below the surface of the skin, the lesion is called a closed comedo. This usually appears on the skin as small, whitish bumps. This condition is otherwise called as whitehead.

Open comedo :

If the plug enlarges and pushes through the surface of the skin, the lesion is called an open comedo. The dark appearance of the plug is not due to dirt, but due to the buildup of melanin, the pigmentation element of the skin. This condition is otherwise called as blackhead.

Inflammatory acne

Papule:

This appears on the skin as a small, firm pink bump. The papules are tender in nature and are often considered an intermediary step between non-inflammatory and clearly inflammatory lesions.

Pustule:

These are small round lesions that are inflamed and contain visible pus, which appear red at the base with a yellowish or whitish center. Pustules do not contain a large amount of bacteria. The inflammation is caused by chemical irritation from sebum components such as fatty free acids.

Cyst:

These are large pus-filled lesions that are usually present deep within the skin. The cysts are very painful lesions, as they are inflamed. Cysts form as a result of the contents of a comedo spilling over the surrounding skin and due to the response of the local immune system in producing pus. The cysts often leave deep scars.

Acne conglobata:

This is a rare but serious form of inflammatory acne that develops primarily on the back, buttocks, and chest. In addition, to the presence of pustules and cysts, there may be severe bacterial infection.

Symptoms

The common symptoms of acne include persistent, recurrent red spots or swellings on the skin known as pimples. The pimples become inflamed and get filled with pus. The pimples usually occur on the face, chest, shoulders, neck, or upper portion of the back. Some of the other symptoms include dark spots with open pores at the center, which are known as blackheads, bulged spots under the skin without openings, which are known as whiteheads, and red swellings or lumps filled with pus, which are known as pustules. The pustules can develop from blackheads or whiteheads. Inflamed fluid-filled lumps under the skin known as cysts are also a symptom of acne. These cysts can become as large as an inch across.

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Whats The Real Cause Of Acne?

2008-09-23T00:16:00.000-07:00

Acne occurs when your body contains more toxics than your kidneys and bowels can remove. (Your kidneys and bowels are the two primary channels of elimination that your body expel toxics and waste products through.)

These toxics can be the accumulation of fat stored chemicals the liver can not wash out or there may be a problem with fat digestion, fat accumulation, food allergy, or even the accumulation of hormones that your body produces.

Once these toxics build up, your kidneys and bowels can get overloaded and clogged up, causing it to not function properly. When that happens some of the load will be dumped onto your liver. One of your liver's main roles is to metabolize pile up fat into usable energy for your body.

This means, your liver will be doing some of your kidney's work. So now, your liver gets overloaded and it too will not work at full capacity.

What happens when your bowels, kidneys, and liver gets overloaded?

When that happen your body will expel toxins through your lungs and skin (your secondary channels of elimination). And this is when acne occurs. This is when your skin starts to breakout.

But whatever the toxic source is that's causing this problem, acne is a sign that your bowels and kidneys are overloaded with toxins, waste products, or hormones.

It is a sign that your liver is growing weaker in its detoxification abilities (and it will continue to grow weaker if you do not do what it takes to get rid of the toxics in your body).

So if you think that acne is your only problem, think again, your liver, kidneys, and bowels are getting weaker every time you breakout.

Houa Yang is the author of "The Definite Guide To Acne Free Skin." It reveals the same method he personally used himself to get rid of acne in 3 days and stop it from ever coming back for the past 4 years...without any prescription drugs or acne medications! For more info visit: http://www.howtogetridofacne.com

2008-09-03T02:47:00.000-07:00

"Health is Wealth"

It is well known sentence “Health is Wealth”. It is also said that health is a situation of total bodily, mental and common well-being and not just the lack of disease or sickness. The meaning of health was rationalized in the 1986 WHO “Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion” to articulate that health is a “source for everyday life, not the object of alive”. It is also stated that health is an optimistic idea highlighting social and individual resources, as well as bodily abilities. Following steps can guide a person that how to keep himself healthy wealthy and wise.

Physical Fitness

There are a number of ways to be fit and healthy. For example, physical fitness contains great importance for a man to keep him fit and healthy. Physical fitness is high-quality bodily health and physical health is the consequence of normal exercise, proper diet and proper nourishment. A man should take proper rest for physical revival. A number of other points are also there to guide the people to keep them healthy. Height is one of them. Height is also a main point that helps a man to keep him healthy. A sturdy pointer of the health of populations is height. Height is usually increased by improving nourishment and health concern. Health is also prejudiced by the average of living and excellence of life. Heredity is also a main factor in people’s height. The knowledge of human enlargement, its controllers, and its insinuations is known as Auxology.

Mental Health

Mental health consults a human character’s exciting and psychosomatic well being. Most of the doctors and scientists prefer mental health first. A great doctor and scientist Merriam-Webster describes mental health as “A condition of emotional and mental well-being in which a person is capable to use his or her cognitive and exciting abilities, function in civilization, and meet the normal demands of everyday life.” In accordance with the WHO (World Health Organization), there is no one “representative” description of mental health. Educational differences, prejudiced estimations, and competing expert theories all have an effect on how “mental health” is definite. In universal, most specialists have the same opinion that “mental health” and “mental illness” are not opposites. In other words, the nonattendance of familiar mental disarray is not of necessity a sign of mental health. One way to suppose about mental health is by looking at how efficiently and productively a person purposes. Feeling able and experienced; being capable to grip normal levels of pressure, maintain pleasing relations, and lead an autonomous life; and being capable to “bounce back,” or get better from hard conditions, are all symbols of mental health.

About Health

If you want to know more about health, there are a number of magazines and books on health available in the market. A number of web sites are also providing information about health. A person can contact with an online doctor or physician to take advises about health.

Time management tips

2008-07-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

time management - how to be more productive.the modern life bring us tools that can save us a lot of time, but we need to do many things! actually too many things!it is quiet difficult to handle all of our tasks and be relax and productive.so if we want to achieve a goal we have to concede other tasks.i am going to make it simple by looking it from the biggest time stealers and from that decide what is more important in life for us.here are the biggest time stealers.1. sickness, illness.2. problems.3. lost things.4. handling other people tasks.5. going too deep into details.6. learning new material.7. stubbornness, arguments8. doing something that you don't know how.so if you avoid those things you are in a good direction, and you can start working on your important tasks. so in time you will get progress. now i will say a paradox - doing less is doing morethe more you trying to obligate for one day you will get less productivityand fulfill less, so let start with obligate 3 subjects and 1 major task.you need to get habits that you practice and get used to themwithout thinking. after a while you will be more productive automatically.
1. write everyday your main task and subjects you are going to handle.as i said not too many.2. use tools to remind you things, events. don't put too much in your head. write then immediately not later.3. use tools to remember for you all that you need to recover later.again write them immediately to your saver tool, do not delay it you might forget it and loose time to recover them.4. do not hide anything! you will forget where you hide it.5. if you can buy help or anything that save time do it.6. do it right the first time, try to complete the job as it possible.7. do not neglect things, they become like a time bombsmall saving in time become a big loss of time.8. do not try to save time in the road or by passing the law.9. do not argue 10. give everything a quality time that it needs to accomplish.11. keep it simple - plan, Focus, act
there is another prospective to look on your time spending.we must understand that at the end of the day, week, month, year you want to be happy and success not one instead of the other.i list the major time consumers from us (not organized in any order.)1. study2. thinking3. wife, husband, children's, family4. work, business, partners5. fun and sport and hobby, meditation, readings, television, etc.6. repairs and maintenance, financial maintenance of a household 7. transportation8. projects for future9. sleep 10. other home tasks.you have to recognize that none of them will give up your attention it is like balance if you take from one side you loose the balance and you will pay for it in another way.a person can divide it's attention to maximum of 10 others in order to give everyone enough attention he require.

25 things you should have learned by the time you have reached middle age

2008-04-16T03:42:00.000-07:00

1. If you're too open-minded, your brains will fall out.
2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often.
3.Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.
5. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically, provides a nice contrast to the real world.
25. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

Most Astonishing Health Disaster of the 20th Century

2008-04-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

For over 100 years conventional medicine has seized control of the US health care system and as a result we have over 800,000 people who are killed by interacting with this system. It is likely that over 50 million Americans have died prematurely from this abuse.

Heart ills not to blame for women's poor sex life

2008-04-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A woman's satisfaction with her sex life appears to have very little to do with the health of her heart and circulation, according to a new analysis of data from the Women's Health Initiative.
"In women this particular aspect of sexual function, which is decreased sexual satisfaction, did not predict cardiovascular disease," Dr. Jennifer S. McCall-Hosenfeld, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
In men, erectile dysfunction is a red flag for undiagnosed heart disease, McCall-Hosenfeld of Boston University Medical Center and her colleagues note in the American Journal of Medicine. Given that the same mechanism regulates pelvic blood flow in both men and women, they write, it is conceivable that sexual problems in women could also be a marker for poor heart health.
To investigate, the researchers analyzed data from 46,525 women 50 to 79 years old who were participating in the WHI study and who were sexually active. Seventy-seven percent said they were satisfied with the sexual activity they engaged in.
Over the 7.8-year follow-up period, there was no association between sexual dissatisfaction and the risk of having a heart attack or stroke, or developing high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, chest pain, or heart failure.
However, the women who had reported being unsatisfied with their sex life were slightly but significantly more likely at the study's outset to have peripheral arterial disease, or poor circulation in their legs and feet. "It's hard to know what to make of that in the context of largely otherwise negative findings," McCall-Hosenfeld said.
However, the findings do make it clear that easily measurable aspects of women's sexual function are probably not markers for cardiovascular health as they are in men, she added.
"It may simply be that women and men are just different," the researcher said. "It may be that vascular function just doesn't play that big a role in sexual satisfaction."
SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, April 2008.

15 Effective Stress Banishing Tips

2008-03-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

Stress is a reality for most of us from time to time, and it has even been suggested that a little is in fact normal, and can improve our performance.

However, when it becomes something more permanent, instead of protecting us, it can eventually make us more vulnerable to health problems, including headaches, high blood pressure, and even heart disease.
Here are 15 simple yet effective ways to deal with stress, before it escalates out of control:
#1 Breathe deeply

Merely focusing on your breathing may seem a little too easy, but it really does work. Deep breathing helps to ease tension, causing you to feel more relaxed almost instantly.

Try closing your eyes and inhale slowly through your nose, hold the breath for a few seconds, then exhale slowly. Visualizing a relaxing scene, such as watching a beautiful sunset, or walking on the beach, can also add to the feeling of calm.
#2 Count to 10

Reacting negatively to situations which stress you will only serve to make you feel worse. Instead, take a few moments to step back and count to 10, gather your thoughts, take a few deep breaths, and then carry on.
#3 Mini massage

With the thumb of one hand, massage the palm of the other hand by making small circles, working every area of the palm and fingers also. Switch and do the other hand. This is surprisingly very relaxing!
#4 Stretch

Stretching can be a very simple and effective way of de-stressing.

* Move your head from one side to the other, and also up and down.
* Shrug your shoulders up toward your ears, and then relax.
* Bring your arms high above your head and reach alternately toward the sky, then drop your arms and reach toward the floor.
* Try the “child pose.” Kneel down on the floor, sit back on your heels, then lean your body forward, putting your forehead on the floor with your arms alongside your legs, palms up. Hold there for a few moments, concentrating on your breathing.

#5 Pressure points

Putting pressure on specific points on the body can help ease away the stress:

* Scalp soother - place your thumbs behind your ears while spreading your fingers on top of your head. Move your scalp back and forth slightly by making circles with your fingertips for 15-20 seconds.
* Easy on the eyes - close your eyes and place your ring fingers directly under your eyebrows, near the bridge of your nose. Slowly increase the pressure for 5-10 seconds, then gently release. Repeat 2-3 times.
* Sinus pressure relief - place your fingertips at the bridge of your nose. Slowly slide your fingers down your nose and across the top of your cheekbones to the outside of your eyes.
* Shoulder tension relief - reach one arm across the front of your body to your opposite shoulder. Using a circular motion, press firmly on the muscle above your shoulder blade. Repeat on the other side.
* Neck tension relief - on the back of the neck slightly below the base of the skull, about half an inch to the left or right of the spine.

#6 Write it down

If you tend to worry continually, restrict yourself to a half hour each day when you allow yourself to think about worrying matters. During this time you can write down your concerns, and evaluate them.

However, throughout the rest of the day say to yourself, “I’ll think about that later.” This will help reduce the amount of time you spend each day worrying unnecessarily.
#7 Just say “NO!”

Are work commitments getting too much for you? If they are, remember there’s no shame in saying no to your boss, friends or family. You don’t have to, nor can you, please everyone - so don’t try!
#8 Get enough sleep

Lack of sleep is a big contributor to how we feel, and react, and it can also have detrimental effects of our overall health. While most of us experience a few sleepless nights from time to time, chronic sleep loss can be a major problem, contributing to a number of health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and depression.

* Try to create a regular schedule by going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, including weekends.
* Get optimum sleep every night – an average of 8 hours is recommended.
* Aim for sleep in one continuous block, if possible. This way your body receives better mental recovery, as it is allowed to reach a deeper sleep cycle.

#9 Smile…even if you don’t mean it!

Smiling instantly gives you a lift, making you feel more relaxed and happy, and helping to relieve some of the stressful tension.

So, if you want to reduce stress, anxiety, and muscular tension, just smile. But, remember a smirk doesn’t count, you need use your mouth, cheeks and eyes for the full effect!
#10 Laugh at yourself, or others!

It has been said that a hearty laugh is like internal body exercise. It also helps to improve our quality of life by reducing stress, elevating our mood, connecting us with others, and generally making us feel better.

So, bring laughter into your life whenever possible. Make it your aim to see the funny side to life, rather than getting stressed about things that come your way!

Check out this hilarious animal video from YouTube.
#11 Enjoy your surroundings

When you feel stress levels rising, focus on something positive. Take time to get up and look out of the window, look for something natural to captive your imagination, for example the green trees, a nearby river, or the blue sky.

Better still, go outside to enjoy the fresh air, some breathing space, and a little time to reflect on your current situation.
#12 Listen to music

Crank up your ipod with whatever makes you feel happy; maybe it’s classical, gospel or even something upbeat. Just make sure you’ve got a good selection to suit every mood and circumstance!
#13 Talk to friends

They say, “A problem shared, is a problem halved,” and there’s much wisdom in that saying!

Sharing our troubles helps us to gain perspective on the situation, and friends have a great way of making us feel cared for. Often our problem may not be as bad as we think, and a friend can point this out to us!
#14 Eat healthy foods

It’s vital to eat well everyday. A healthy diet is a major factor in achieving a healthy mind and body.

* Start each day with a healthy breakfast - think of your body as a car, it doesn’t run well on empty, does it? It’s the same for your body. Choose a high fibre cereal, such as porridge, or wholegrain bread, with fresh fruit, and low fat yoghurt, or milk.
* Regular meals and snacks are extremely important - this will ensure that your body has a steady energy supply, helping to maintain your blood glucose levels, which in turn will help control feelings of stress.
* Choose high fibre carbohydrates at each meal - this will provide the fuel your bodies needs, and also provide a source of B vitamins, which are beneficial for nerve and brain cells.
* Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables - they contain essential antioxidant vitamins, and other nutrients, which help to counter free radical damage, thought to be heightened during times of stress. Choose a range of brightly coloured fruits and vegetables for maximum benefit.

#15 Make time to exercise

Regular exercise is very effective in helping to manage stress by releasing endorphins which elevate our mood, and also giving us an energy boost. If you exercise outside you will have the added benefit of natural surroundings to further trigger your relaxation responses.

Try to find an activity you enjoy such as walking, jogging, swimming, playing tennis, or go all out and try rock climbing, or scuba diving!
Finally

When you feel stressful thoughts coming on, ask yourself, “Are these negative thoughts helping me in any way?” This is a good way of re-focusing your mind on what is really important.

Try making time just for you to relax and unwind on a daily basis. Can you set aside at least 30 minutes, where you do something enjoyable on your own? Perhaps listen to your favourite cd, take a relaxing bath, or read a book. This should be a time when you have no interruptions - think of it as recharging your batteries!

Best wishes!

Did you enjoy this article? Please be kind enough to share it - ShareThis

Health Tip: If Your Child is a Vegetarian

2008-03-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

(HealthDay News) -- If your child is a vegetarian, it's important to make sure that he or she eats a varied, balanced and healthy diet.

Here are some guidelines, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

For children up to age 1, breast milk or a fortified, soy formula should be the primary source of nutrition.
Do not limit dietary fat for children younger than age 2.
Young children should drink plenty of milk or a fortified substitute to make sure they get enough calcium, protein, vitamin D and riboflavin.
Give your child a vitamin B12 supplement if no animal products are eaten.
Make sure your child gets plenty of iron from foods such as spinach, raisins, iron-fortified cereals and whole grains, prunes and prune juice
- 71% of users found this article helpful.

How can Herbal Remedies Help Women with Hair Loss?

2008-03-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Compared to men, hair loss can be more disturbing for women. Since the way a person looks is very important, female hair loss is not generally accepted, they usually find way to treat it or prevent it.

As part of the women’s beauty, these women must have healthy and thick hair. Healthy hair support women to stop from worrying about hair loss, and prevent hair loss.

You can use herbal remedies like provillus with your hair loss. With provillus for women you can prevent unwanted hair loss and it will help your hair to be healthy, and full of shine. This herbal remedy specifically formulated for the specific hair loss problems that women experience. Provillus supports hair re-growth and also keeps the hair full-bodied and healthy by supplying enough nutrients.
In the United States female Pattern Baldness (FPB) affects 1 out of every 4 women. For women as for men, hair loss can happen. Time and again, menopause is the most common time for female to suffer from hair loss.
Both men and women can suffer hair loss but the order and appearance of this hair loss happens differently. What can herbal; remedy does for the women’s hair loss? There are some benefits that you can get from hair loss treatment, like it helps prevent hair loss rejuvenates hair follicles and with this, there is no prescription needed.

There are different causes of hair loss. Medications that you are using with your illnesses can cause hair loss but as soon as the illness is treated, hair with grow back again. Using chemicals in your hair such as bleaching and hair dye can cause hair loss, so it is best to stop using chemicals that can damage your hair. There is also another cause of hair loss which is called alopecia, this is hereditary thinning of hair and it usually happens to women.

The hormone imbalances are one of the causes of women hair loss. Thinning hair can happen when you are having under active and over active thyroid gland. This type of female hair loss usually helps when thyroid disease is treated. In women child birth may also result in unexpected hair loss. After pregnancy it is common for many women to notice hair loss, as soon as they gave birth. It’s also cause by hormone.

This day and age, you do not have to let hair loss get your confidence away from you, since there are plenty of ways to gain back that beautiful hair you once had. With the use of herbal remedies, you can gain healthy hair. Just make sure to find the right herbal remedy for you. You can do a bit of research, check on the ingredients and how it works to assure if it can help you fight hair loss.

Eliza Maledevic Ayson
http://www.primeherbal.com/hair_loss

Symptoms Of Mesothelioma

2008-03-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

The early symptoms of mesothelioma can be varied and can mimic many other diseases. Only your personal physician can review your symptoms and can differentiate between a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma versus a less serious diagnosis.

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer, in which cancer cells are found in the pleura, the sac lining the chest, in the peritoneum, the lining of the abdominal cavity, or in the pericardium, the lining around the heart. Once the cancerous cells begin to invade the body and crowd out the healthy cells, then many of the early symptoms of mesothelioma begin to appear.

Because of the long period of time between the exposure to asbestos and the development of symptoms of mesothelioma it can be very difficult for even the most experienced physician to diagnose mesothelioma. The challenge for your physician is that the early symptoms of mesothelioma are generally non-specific and this may lead to a delay in diagnosis. The early symptoms are so general and non-specific that they could be attributed to numerous common diseases, such as pneumonia.

Some patients with pleural mesothelioma, the most common type of mesothelioma, may present to their personal physician with a persistent cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, weight loss, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the neck or face, a change in the voice, such as the development of a raspy voice, fever, night sweats or perhaps something as simple as just not feeling well. Initial work up by a physician might include a chest x-ray as well as a complete physical exam. However, it is equally as important to remember that some patients may show no symptoms of mesothelioma at all.

Peritoneal mesothelioma, one of the less common types of mesothelioma, may present with early symptoms such as loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, bloating or abdominal pain. This type of mesothelioma begins in the abdomen and can progress from the abdomen to other parts of the body. If the mesothelioma cancer has invade other areas outside of the abdomen, the patient can also present with difficulty breathing or chest pain demonstrating that the chest region may already be involved. Peritoneal mesothelioma patients like those with pleural mesothelioma can be very difficult to diagnose.

The least common type of mesothelioma is pericardial mesothelioma. In this type of mesothelioma cancerous cells invade the sac lining the outside of the heart and can metastasize, or spread, from there. The earliest symptoms of mesothelioma involving the pericardium include chest pain, palpitations or what is commonly described as feeling like the heart is racing, shortness of breath, and a persistent cough.

Since we know that most patients diagnosed with mesothelioma do not begin to show symptoms until decades after exposure, it is critical that a diagnosis be made as quickly as possible after symptoms appear. Tell your physician if you suspect that you were ever exposed to asbestos. This would include either working directly in an area where you might have been exposed to asbestos dust or even if you were the person handling the clothing or laundry of a family member that might have been exposed. This knowledge will allow your physician to have a more complete picture when evaluating your situation.

Symptoms of mesothelioma are symptoms that can easily be mistaken for symptoms of a less-threatening disease. Seek out a competent physician, one who will listen closely to your history and will complete a physical exam and screening based on your symptoms and your history. Listen to your body…symptoms of mesothelioma are ones that deserve to be taken seriously and deserve to be checked out completely are symptoms that can easily be mistaken for symptoms of a less-threatening disease. Seek out a competent physician, one who will listen closely to your history and will complete a physical exam and screening based on your symptoms and your history. Listen to your body…symptoms of mesothelioma are ones that deserve to be taken seriously and deserve to be checked out completely

Mesothelioma - Information

2008-03-05T10:05:00.001-08:00

According to The National Cancer Institute malignant mesothelioma types are a rare form of cancer in which malignant cells are found in the sac lining the chest called the pleura, in the lining of the abdominal cavity called the peritoneum or in the lining around the heart, called the pericardium.

The lining of the chest, the abdominal cavity and the heart is called the mesothelium which is where the name “mesothelioma” comes from.

Malignant mesothelioma is also known as “asbestos cancer” because approximately 75% of all mesothelioma patients have a known exposure to asbestos. Because tumors of the mesothelium are rarely benign or non-cancerous, malignant or cancerous mesothelioma is usually referred to by the shorter name of "mesothelioma".

Even with all of the recent history of mesothelioma and its proliferation throughout the news media and the spawning of numerous legal issues, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare cancer; even though new cases have certainly increased in the past 20 years. Every year in the United States approximately 2,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed. Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women and the risk of occurrence increases with age, but this disease can certainly appear at any age and can appear in either men or women.

Because so many of the symptoms of mesothelioma are very similar to those of other conditions, including lung cancer, it can be quite challenging to diagnosis mesothelioma. Also, once malignant mesothelioma takes hold it can be a very aggressive disease and so early diagnosis and treatment of is critical.

Although a small number of people who of have contracted mesothelioma have never been found to have been exposed to asbestos, approximately 75% of mesothelioma cases have actually been linked to some level of asbestos exposure. Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for eventually being diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Most incidence of mesothelioma stems from people who have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. One of the biggest challenges with this rare disease is that this cancer may not even begin to demonstrate symptoms until 20, 30, 40 or even 50 or years after the first exposure to asbestos.

Although malignant mesothelioma is rare, it is a serious, deadly disease. But with the ever emerging new treatments for cancer, there is hope for patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma

Pancreas Cancer: What Are The Symptoms Of Pancreas Cancer?

2008-03-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Pancreatic (or pancreas) cancer is a type of cancer that affects the body through the pancreatic gland. It typically takes the form of a malignant tumor in the pancreas, which then creates problems throughout the rest of the body. The problem is that many of the symptoms of pancreas cancer, also resemble symptoms found in other diseases, and other forms of cancer. The symptoms of pancreas cancer, especially in the early stages are fairly cut and dry.

One of the symptoms of pancreas cancer resembles a strong stomach ache, or in some cases appendicitis. The pain begins in the upper part of the stomach, and slowly changes its location. Some sufferers who have experienced this symptom of pancreas cancer have described it as a sharp pain in their chest, or the upper part of their stomach or torso. The pain sometimes shoots around the body to the back as well. Those who has suffered through this symptom of pancreas cancer have also found that when they move their body forward, or rest their weight on their knees, the pain disappears. This symptom of pancreas cancer have led many to mis-diagnosis their condition. They believe they are suffering from a sprained back, or indigestion, and try to fix the problem with over the counter medications, rather than seek medical attention.

Another one of the symptoms of pancreas cancer that are sometimes diagnosed as something else, are a loss of appetite and an increase in weight loss. In the early stages of pancreas cancer, an individual might notice that they suddenly lose their appetite, or cannot eat the same amount of food as they previously did. They may also notice that their clothes are hanging looser on their bodies, or that they’ve suddenly gone down a few sizes. Some attribute the weight loss to the fact that they aren’t eating very often, and ignore the implications. These symptoms of pancreas cancer are symptoms of a multitude of other diseases. If this is their only symptom, the doctor might check for the other diseases before ever considering pancreas cancer. Some individuals do not seek medical attention at all for these symptoms, instead ignoring the problem.

One symptom of pancreas cancer that occurs once the disease has spread, is the appearance of jaundice. Jaundice is a yellow color that appears on the body, most notably on the face and torso. The skin doesn’t become a bright, flaming yellow but just a slightly sallow greenish-yellow tone. Once the jaundice appears, it’s a sign that the tumor has grown much larger, and it turn has blocked the common bile duct inside the pancreas. Other symptoms of pancreas cancer include depression, and the sudden appearance of a large number of blood clots.

The problem with all of these symptoms of pancreas cancer are that they can all be signs of another type of disease. Many people wait until it is too late too late to seek medical attention, and by then, its too late for the doctors to do anything to help, except to treat the symptoms

Pancreas Cancer: What You Need To Know About Pancreas Cancer

2008-03-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Pancreas cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer striking individuals across the world. While the United States has a high prevalence of individuals who are diagnosed with pancreas cancer every year, the amount of diagnoses in Europe are almost double that. In one year alone, the United States sees over 30,000 cases of pancreas cancer, while in Europe that number is over 60,000. Sadly enough, the long term prognosis for those diagnosed with pancreas cancer are extremely poor. Most individuals pass away within five years of the initial diagnosis.

Pancreas cancer is a difficult diagnosis to live with for most individuals. Not only is the cancer not treatable for many, but their chances at a future are very slim. While most are given an outlook of 3-5 years, many more pass away long before that amount of time has passed. The problem is that the disease isn’t something regularly checked for, except in the cases where people have a family history of this type of cancer. For everyone else, they are seldom checked for pancreas cancer, unless the symptoms have already presented.

The other problem is that many of the symptoms can be related to another disease. Some individuals experience a change in appetite, and an extreme weight loss, which can be attributed to many other diseases. An individual who presents with these types of symptoms, and have no history of pancreas cancer, are likely to be tested for a variety of other diseases before cancer is even mentioned. Still many others are tested for other forms of cancer that run in their family, long before the pancreas is examined. By the time doctors check for pancreas cancer, the disease is usually full blown and no longer treatable.

Doctors are quick to point out that a diagnosis of pancreas cancer is not a death wish. In fact, many individuals have gone on to live far beyond that initial diagnosis. The difference between those who continue to live a healthy life, and those who succumb to the disease, are often a matter of personal attitude. There are those who refuse to believe that a diagnosis of pancreas cancer is a death sentence, and then there are those who simple wait for the end to come, and give up all hope in the early stages.

Pancreas cancer is in fact a disease with a poor chance of recovery. In general, even the chances of remission, or when the cancer stops moving for a short period of time, are rare and only happen in a small number of cases. Still, there are a number of individuals who do not give up hope, and who continue to keep fighting, even when the pancreas cancer begins to take over their body. These people continue to attend their children’s school functions, continue to work, and continue to spend time with their families. They hold onto that hope right up until the very end.

Pancreas cancer is a serious disease, with little chance of recovery, but it is not a death sentence.

Acid Reflux And Foods To Avoid

2008-02-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

If you have been afflicted with any symptoms of the acid reflux condition for some time now, you will do well to think in terms of acid reflux and foods to avoid. If you are diagnosed with the acid reflux condition, it doesn't matter whether you show certain symptoms or not. Management of your condition will mean permanent changes to your diet. You should have a consultation with your doctor about dietary changes that will have long term consequences. Study those foods that bother you. As are all fingers of the hand dissimilar, same goes for people .The foods that affect some people in a certain way may not affect other people in the same way.

A list of certain foods, which you may need to avoid in your acid reflux condition are given below:

Fried and fatty foods Spicy foods Onions Citrus fruits Alcoholic drinks Coffee Chocolate Peppermint and spearmint Caffeinated drinks Tomato-based products

If you are not sure which foods and beverages trigger your acid reflux condition, begin by maintaining a diary. Whenever you feel irritation or trouble related to your acid reflux condition, write down what you have been eating. Keep the notes on your fridge or in some other place handy. you can then compile a list of those specific foods that affect your acid reflux condition adversely through your own research. Avoid caffeine-based drinks. caffeine can be found in coffee and tea as well as in certain sodas. It is advisable to read the text on food tins and food bottle labels carefully and make a note of their ingredients, before making the decision to purchase such food bottles and tins. Consuming caffeine can cause enhanced gastric acid secretion and thus lead to acid reflux. You need to avoid regular or decaffeinated coffee, all forms of alcohol (except in small dosages), and all forms of tea as well.

Studies have shown that coffee has a tendency to irritate the esophagus. It has also been proven that not only caffeine, but even other ingredients found in coffee beans are the culprits that aggravate the acid reflux condition. Therefore, coffee, no matter how it is prepared, can be a strong enemy of your health, if you are afflicted with the acid reflux condition. Therefore the fact remains that you need to avoid coffee completely. So, coffee is one of the important predisposing factors when you think in terms of acid reflux and foods to avoid.

Acid Reflux Foods

2008-02-24T06:18:00.000-08:00

Acid reflux is a condition/disease in which excessive hydrochloric acid is produced by parietal cells and released into the stomach and this excess acid backs up from the stomach and enters into the lower half of the esophagus. The stomach is a vital organ of the human body.

In the stomach lining, there are parietal cells, which secrete hydrochloric acid required for the digestion of food in the stomach. There are other epithelial cells in the lining of the stomach known as mucus cells that produce mucus. This mucus protects the stomach lining from contact with this hydrochloric acid. The lining of the esophagus is not so much protected as is the stomach's and thus the cells lining the inside of the esophagus are irritated by the acid, although mucus also lines the esophagal walls.
At the junction of the stomach and the esophagus there is a band of muscles. This band of muscles is known as the lower esophagal sphincter. It acts like a valve. Normally, it contracts and prevents gas, food, and acid in the stomach from backing up (refluxing) into the esophagus. In the case of the acid reflux condition/disease, this sphincter relaxes and the gas and acid in the stomach back up (reflux) into the esophagus This reflux of stomach acid into the lower half of the esophagus causes inflammation of the lining of the esophagus as the acid irritates this lining. This condition is also known as esophagitis.

Symptoms of acid reflux Heartburn is the main condition. It is the most profound symptom. Even though it has nothing to do with the heart, it is a burning sensation at the sternum or breastbone as it is also called.

There is pain in the upper abdomen and chest , an acid taste in the mouth, a sick feeling, inflation of the stomach and a burning sensation when you consume hot drinks. The above mentioned symptoms come and go and tend to get worse after a meal. All these symptoms are fairly common.

Some uncommon symptoms can also occur. This makes the diagnosis pretty difficult. These uncommon symptoms include persistent cough, particularly at night .This is due to irritation of the windpipe by the refluxed acid. Asthma symptoms can sometimes occur due to acid reflux. Sometimes a sensation akin to severe chest pain may occur, one that is normally mistaken by the patient as that for a heart attack.

Tests to diagnose acid reflux Tests are conducted, if the patient does not show any specific typical symptoms. Many people are diagnosed with 'probable acid reflux' when they have common symptoms and the symptoms are eased with treatment. Tests become necessary, if the patient has severe symptoms or when these symptoms do not improve with treatment or are not typical of acid reflux.

A test to check the acidity level inside the esophagus may be done, if the diagnosis is not clear.

Alternative tests to rule out heart disease such as chest x-rays and ECG may be conducted, if the symptoms are not clear.

Endoscopy is the usual test. A thin flexible tube that has a telescope (known as an endoscope) is gradually passed down into the stomach through the esophagus cavity. This allows the medical practitioner to look inside the stomach. In case acid reflux is present, the lower part of the esophagus lining looks red and swollen. However, the absence of this redness and swelling still does not rule out acid reflux completely, as some people are very sensitive to hydrochloric acid and can have other symptoms of acid reflux, with little or no inflammation to view.

Complications of acid reflux disease

Cancer: Your risk of developing cancer of the esophagus is slightly increased, if you have long-term acid reflux, as compared to the normal risk. Barrett's oesophagus: In this condition, the cells that line the lower esophagus undergo changes. These cells then become more prone than usual to become malignant, ultimately leading to cancer.

So, it is hoped that the above article about the acid reflux condition/disease may have helped you to have a much better understanding about its various aspects.

Health Insurance Helps Heal Your Finances

2008-02-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

Health insurance seems to suggest that it is something that keeps you healthy. After all, it contains the word health, which means absence of disease or illness. It contains the word insurance, which means an assurance or guarantee. However, it doesn't quite work that way. Health insurance is designed to help you financially after you become sick or injured. This insurance can assist with expenses due to routine medical care, sudden illness, or accidents.

Routine or preventive medical care is an important aspect of health insurance. It may sound contradictory to visit the doctor when you are not sick. There are two ways that this helps. When you visit the doctor without being sick, the doctor knows what all your normal readings should be, and can compare them when you are really ill. The other reason is that the doctor may discover a problem that you haven't detected yet, and cure it quickly. Health insurance tends to cover this type of visit, because it keeps you healthy and reduces the costs of the health insurance company.

A sudden illness can cause more costs than simply medical costs. There may be missed work and wages, prescription drugs, hiring child care while you are ill, and more. Health insurance works to defray these costs for you. The amount paid by your particular health insurance depends on your plan, but expect to receive reimbursements for hospital stays, medications, and possibly some of the non-medical costs. Non-medical costs such as child care, rental cars, and other unexpected expenses might require a special addition to your health insurance policy.

The dreaded serious accident can put a huge strain on family finances without health insurance. If one or both salary earners are incapacitated for a while, there is loss of wages, ambulance expense, emergency room expense, drugs, nursing, and maybe at-home care. If you have really comprehensive health insurance, your plan might cover up to 100% of these expenses after you have paid a given amount out of pocket.

Health insurance is a necessity. Even a moderate medical expense can cause financial hardship for many people. Look at your finances carefully and compare various insurance plans. Determine how much you are willing to pay per incident, and what kind of monthly premiums are available. Analyze your doctor visits and medical bills from the previous year and use that as a starting point. Health insurance is more than just a life saver. It can save your finances too.

Medical Insurance News:

MEDICAL INSURANCE CONTRACTOR (6 month contract)
Bayt.com | Jobs in UAE - MEDICAL INSURANCE CONTRACTOR (6 month contract) Job Description: Responsibilities * To administer company medical insurance scheme by * Adding and removing scheme joiners and leavers * Administering claims ...

Massachusetts Health Insurers Question Minimum Requirements Under State's Health Care Law
EUR¦ insurance to comply with the state's new health insurance law, because the minimum threshold set for Massachusetts employers to avoid an assessment is too low, the Boston Globe reports.

Medical Insurance Is Used More By Unhealthy People

2008-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Medical insurance cannot prevent illness or disease, but it does help to reimburse you for the costs incurred by these health problems. In return for your fixed monthly payments, the medical insurance company agrees to pay your future medical bills. The amount paid toward each bill by the medical insurance company varies by several factors. The primary factors that influence how much your medical insurance pays towards your medical bills include the premiums, the type of policy, and the deductible.

One of the main dilemmas faced by most medical insurance companies is that it is the unhealthy people that tend to buy it and use it. Certain healthy people see insurance as an unnecessary cost. The healthy people may prefer to pay a few hundred dollars for a couple of doctor visits each year, rather than paying that amount each month for a medical insurance policy. These so-called healthy people are gambling with their health, because a sudden accident or illness could strike at any time. Then it is too late to obtain reasonable medical insurance.

Benefits that are paid to you from your medical insurance policy are influenced by how much per month you pay to the insurance company. Your willingness to pay higher premiums generally means the medical insurance company is willing to pay higher benefits when you submit claims. Policies with higher monthly premiums tend to cover more illnesses and other specific health related problems. Therefore insurance customers willing to pay higher monthly premiums can expect to regain some of their medical insurance investment through higher claim payments.

The type of medical insurance policy you take out also determines the frequency and also how much you are paid for your health claims. Basic policies may cover a strict list of medical procedures and illnesses. More expensive medical insurance programs offer wider coverage for illnesses and medical procedures. Some policies cover additional things such as vision and dental problems, which are often not available from the lower priced policies. Medical insurance covering a spouse, dependents, or a whole family costs much more than an individual policy, but is likely much cheaper than insuring each person individually.

The medical insurance deductible is another factor that determines how much your health benefits pay you after you make a claim. The deductible is the amount that you pay out of your own pocket before the medical insurance takes effect. Choosing a large deductible means that your monthly premiums will be less, but you will pay much more of your own money in order to make use of your medical insurance. Conversely, a small deductible can often be met by a single doctor or emergency room visit, although the resulting premiums will be higher.

There are many factors that influence the medical benefits paid out by insurance companies. A good insurance agent will balance your insurance needs as well as your budget to create a medical insurance plan that is right for you.

Medical Insurance News:

Having Health Insurance Increases Odds of Detecting Cancer Early, Study Shows (InteliHealth)
(The New York Times News Service) -- Cancer death rates have been dropping since 1991 with better screening and treatment -- but people without health insurance are apparently not benefiting from those trends, according to a new national study...

Expatriate International Medical Insurance For US
Expatriate health care insurance is something that you need to think about long and hard before you move overseas. A large number of individuals travel overseas every year on holiday and find themselves falling in love with their ...

HCC Insurance Holdings at NYSSA 12th Annual Insurance Conference . - Insurance News Net (press release)

Simple Steps For Being Healthy Always

2008-02-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

1. Be a Weekday vegetarian, weekend carnivore
Vegetarians typically suffer fewer degenerative diseases and cancers than their carnivore cousins. It's been approximated that a third of all cancer patients developed their disease as a result of insufficient whole plant fibre in their diets. Nevertheless , you don't have to give up meat entirely to enjoy longevity - limiting your intake or eating meat only on weekends is a perfectly balanced and healthy approach.

2. Stay alive: Stop eating dead foods
Ever question what Wonder Bread is really made of, or how many miles that head of limp lettuce has traveled? There's nothing like fresh, whole, organic foods to maintain your health and well-being. Farm-fresh produce and meats go directly from the source to your table, allowing little time in between for nutrients to be lost. Many foods at your supermarket have been picked or slaughtered weeks or even months before they make it onto the shelf. These items are preserved by nitrogen or additional artificial means, making them seem fresh. Moreover, foods treated with pesticides and artificial fertilizers have lower nutritional value than foods grown organically.

3. Ginger Snaps you back
Best known in the West for its antinausea properties, ginger has probably been in the longest continuous use of any botanical remedy in the world. The Chinese use it for both medicinal and culinary purposes, frequently in cooking seafood, since it acts as a detoxifier to prevent seafood poisoning. Besides its popular application for digestive distress, ginger has been detected to contain geraniol, which may be a potent cancer fighter. It likewise possesses anti-inflammatory properties that facilitate pain relief, prevent blood clots, and inhibit the onset of migraine headaches. Since ancient times, Chinese physicians have regularly consumed ginger tea to keep their vitality fired up.

4. Brown rice for a good long life
White rice begins as brown rice. When the outer coating of rice bran is hulled off, however, not a lot of nutrients remain. A thousand years ago, Chinese physicians found that eating only refined white rice, devoid of the B vitamins in the bran, led to beriberi, a deficiency in thiamine (B1). Modern research has identified a wealth of nutrients in the bran coating of brown rice. It is remarkably good in lowering high blood sugar and so serves as an excellent food for diabetics. Rice bran contains more than 70 antioxidants, including the well-known age fighters vitamin E, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), coenzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10), proanthocyanidins, and inositol hexaphosphate (IP6). It is no wonder that rural farmers in Asia, who eat brown rice because white rice is too expensive, live longer and develop fewer health problems than their city-dwelling counterparts, who eat mostly white rice.

5. Eat your sea vegetables
Seaweed and marine algae are vegetables from the sea that have long been considered to possess powers to prolong life, prevent disease, and impart beauty and health. Common types of seaweed include nori (sushi), kombu, kelp, dulce, and Irish moss. Containing more calcium than milk, more iron than beef, and more protein than eggs, seaweed is also a rich source of micronutrients. Traditionally, its healing properties are said to include shrinking goiters, dissolving tumors and cysts, detoxifying large metals, reducing water retention, and aiding in weight loss. So eat your sea vegetables! They have more concentrated nutrition than vegetables grown on land.

6. Open sesame! is the password to the treasure
The most common oil consumed by Chinese centenarians, sesame oil is enjoyed for its refined, nutty flavour but possesses therapeutic properties as well. Chinese medicine lists sesame as a kidney and liver tonic, a blood builder, and a bowel protector and regulator. Sesame is rich in phytic acid, an antioxidant that may prevent cancer. The oil of one kind , lignan sesamin, was found to drastically reduce cholesterol levels in the liver and bloodstream of rats. To enhance flavours and improve health, sprinkle sesame seeds and oil in your food regularly.

7. The ultimate longevity food
In Asia, mushrooms are favoured for both their taste and their therapeutic value. Chinese legend is filled with stories of those who discovered the 1,000-year-old mushroom and became immortal. An underground stalactite cave museum outside of Kungming, China, displays a reishi or ganoderma mushroom that measures 4 feet in diameter and is estimated to be approximately 800 years old! There are more than 100,000 varieties of mushrooms, about 700 of them edible. Many mushrooms, particularly shiitake, maitake, reishi, and wood ear, have superb anti-aging properties. Based on the type, they may contain polysaccharides, sterols, coumarin, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that boost immune function, lower bad cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, and protect the person from virus and cancer. And you don't have to dig for them in the mountains any longer -- they're readily available in your local health or specialty food store.

8. Sea salt for essential minerals
Before we were born, we spent nine months in a bath of amniotic fluid resembling the primordial saltwater from which life arose. No wonder the human body contains fluids closely resembling the composition of the ocean. Sea salt contains nearly 60 trace minerals essential for the formation of vitamins, enzymes, and proteins that keep our bodies going. Salt helps in general detoxification, and its alkaline quality helps balance the overly acidic pH environments that breed degenerative and cancerous conditions.

Common table salt, however, is refined to nothing but sodium chloride and is devoid of all other essential minerals. I suggest using only unrefined sea salt such as that found in the salt beds of Brittany, which has a slightly grey hue. Of course, salt is to be used only in moderation, especially for those with hypertension. It is also crucial to balance salt intake with potassium to assure proper nerve and muscle function; potassium-rich foods include leafy vegetables, soy, whole grains, potatoes, bananas, and most fruits.

9. You eat naturally - does your food?
Conventional meat, poultry and dairy products contain high amounts of pesticides, hormones and antibiotic drugs that are harmful to your health. Add the risk that your meat comes from diseased creatures raised in stressful, inhumane conditions, and you have a good case for converting to vegetarianism. Commercial feed for animals is full of growth-stimulating hormones, colouring agents, pesticides and drugs. And that's not all -- of the 140,000 tons of poultry condemned annually as unfit to eat, mainly due to cancer, a considerable amount is processed into animal feed! More than 40 per cent of antibiotics produced in the United States is used as animal-feed additives. The ecological result, after we urinate and defecate the antibiotics, is the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains that can sicken or kill us. Whenever possible, buy only organic and free-range animals for your health, peace of mind and well-being.

10. Sugar's side effects aren't so sweet
The typical North American consumes nearly 240 pounds of sugar per year. Most of the excess sugar is stored as fat in your body, which elevates cancer risk and can suppress your immune function. When study subjects were given sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for many hours afterward. This held true for a variety of types of sugar, including fructose, glucose, honey and orange juice. In an additional study, rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer compared to rats on a normal diet. To live long, draw sweetness from other aspects of your life.

Obesity

2008-01-28T05:51:00.000-08:00

Obesity is bad news for both body and mind. Not only can it make a person feel tired and uncomfortable, but carrying extra weight puts extra stress on the body, especially the bones and joints of the legs. Other medical problems like asthma, high blood pressure or cholesterol, sleep apnea or even depression can also affect an overweight person.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

2008-01-23T04:04:00.000-08:00

Laughter really may be the best medicine, according to research presented to the American College of Cardiology. Laughing appears to boost your blood flow and researchers say it may reduce your risk of developing heart disease

* Laughing is thought to help you to fight off illnesses by boosting your immune system. It increases the amount of immunoglobulins, natural killer cells and T cells in the body, which fight infection and tumours.4,5,6,7
* Laughing reduces pain. Children watching comedy films relax more and tolerate pain more easily.8,9 In fact, humorous videos are being used in anaesthetic rooms at Manchester Children's Hospital.10 And an American nurse has found that telling jokes to her patients before she administers a painful treatment reduces their discomfort.11
* Laughing reduces allergic responses, including hay fever symptoms.12,13,14
* Laughing lifts your mood - even if you have to force yourself to laugh.15
* Laughing reduces the effect of stress by lowering stress hormone levels.16
* Laughing helps keeps diabetes under control. It may help to control spikes in blood sugar levels after a meal, reducing the chances of diabetic complications. In one study, people who watched a funny video during dinner had lower blood sugar levels after the meal compared to the people who watched a lecture video.17

Make time to laugh

The researchers suggest that we should try to laugh more. In the same way that we try to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and climb the stairs instead of taking the lift, perhaps we need to make time to have a good laugh.

Why Bill Gates (Microsoft) is so successful

2008-01-23T03:55:00.000-08:00

LISTEN: Be a good listener! Everyone will have their opinions as to why and how Bill Gates (Microsoft) is so successful and so wealthy as such a young age. But, none of us really know except Bill Gates himself. My guess is that one of the reasons Bill Gates is so successful is that he is a very good listener. He has always said that he likes to surround himself with smart and creative people. Ideas cannot be copyrighted, and he has LISTENED to the people with the great ideas from all those people who surround him...and the rest is history! He and Paul Allen could not have put the Microsoft giant together all by themselves at such a young age without help! And, that help came in the form of ideas from very smart and creative people. If you're going to get ideas, it's important that you LISTEN!

By: Jerry Aragon

Vitamins

2008-01-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Vitamins, like minerals, are an essential part of the function and health of the body system. While many vitamins serve individual purposes, the more common way for vitamins to function properly is as cofactors to or in partnership with other vitamins, minerals, nutrients and other substances in the body such as enzymes. Some of the most important processes in the body are the result of Vitamins partnering with each other to achieve certain affects, processes or functions.

Two of the most essential and most powerful vitamin partnerships are the group of eight vitamins that make up the nutritional powerhouse that is collectively known as the Vitamin B complex and the group of three vitamins that are known as the antioxidant vitamins. In addition to these, there are varieties of other combinations of vitamins that serve essential purposes within the body thus preserving health and enhancing function.

The vitamins that make up the Vitamin B complex include Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine), Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid or simply Folate), Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) and Biotin (Vitamin H).

The degree to which the Vitamin B complex affects bodily function and health, as well as the function and health of the mind in terms of cognitive processes and emotional balance and stability is nothing but amazing. The Vitamin B complex is at work in and is essential to every major system of the body and is a part of almost every important function and process.

The group of vitamins that is known as the antioxidant group is made up of Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Vitamin A. Each of these vitamins are powerful agents on their own, serving individual essential purposes in the body. But they are their most powerful and useful when they combine their strengths thus serving as antioxidants. They function to rid the body of the cell and tissue damaging free radicals that have been associated with a variety of degenerative processes and diseases including the effects of the basic aging process and the declining abilities of the mind. Some studies have suggested connections between free radicals and such infirmities as heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Free radicals are destabilized molecules, created when a weakened molecule splits and leaves the free radical without one of the electrons it needs. Weakened molecules can result from the body's natural metabolic processes as well as from environmental contaminants such as pollution. The free radicals attack other molecules in the effort to take the electron that it is missing. This damages the attacked molecule, making it a free radical too. When enough free radicals emerge in a cell, it can cause cellular damage, which, as more free radicals continue to be produces, can cause tissue damage. Antioxidants bring these free radicals under control by giving them the electron that they need, bringing to an end their aggressive behavior against other molecules. Because of this, antioxidants are sometimes even coined as the Fountain of Youth of the New Age.

Nutritional supplements can ensure that your body has enough of the nutrients it needs to support these important partnerships. Attention to nutrition is one of the most important things you can do for the overall health of mind and body.

About the author:
Charlene J. Nuble 2005. For up to date links and information about Vitamins, please go to: http://vitamins.besthe althlink.net/ or for updated links and information on all health related topics, go to: http://www.besthealthlink.n et/

Skin Care

2007-12-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

Healthy, beautiful, smooth skin is something many people yearn and strive for. We are all born with gorgeous skin, but as we age it often becomes necessary to put forth a little extra effort to maintain a glowing complexion. Fortunately, there are many skin care products available for all ages and skin types. Choosing the right products can go a long way towards great skin, while choosing the wrong ones can often cause complexion problems.

The first thing you should consider when searching for the right products is your skin type. Everyone has a particular skin type -- dry, oily or combination. Dry and oily skin types are easy enough to recognize. Dry skin often suffers from flaky patches and sometimes sensitivity, while oily skin is often shiny and acne prone. Combination skin is often oily on the T-zone, which is the forehead, nose and chin, with dryness on the rest of the face. There are no set rules for skin types though. For example, some people suffer from dryness and breakouts, or skin that is oily and sensitive at the same time.

Your age has a lot to do with the products you should consider using. A teen suffering from acne, for example, would need different products than a 40-year old with adult acne. Young skin may benefit from a benzoyl peroxide cream to fight pimples, while older skin would do better with a retinol treatment to fight both pimples and wrinkles at the same time. No matter what age you are, you should develop a basic skin care routine that is followed daily. This normally will include cleanser, toner and moisturizer or acne cream depending on your skin type. Exfoliation is important also, but not recommended for every day. Night creams can work well for aging or dry skin. Once or twice a month, many people use a nurturing clay mask or microdermabrasion treatment to deep clean and clarify the skin.

Skin care products are available from hundreds of different companies at many different price ranges. There are drugstore and discount store products that are affordable and effective for all kinds of skin care needs.

Exercising with Health Issues

2007-12-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Everyday the news announces another research study that proves the benefits of exercise for people ages 0 to one hundred. Most people know of the importance of exercise and some even make an effort to fit it in their daily lives. But what about people who deal with a chronic health problem that limits their ability to exercise? Should those people simply give up on exercise altogether? Doctors and research studies both answer this with an emphatic negative. Exercise still remains one of the most powerful drugs available without a prescription, even for individuals who cannot be active in a traditional activity or manner. Medical professionals encourage those with chronic health issues to find appropriate physical activity that can be done at least three times weekly. For some people, though, this can be not only challenging but overwhelming. Simply the thought of forcing a less-than-whole body into exercise can be very unappealing. Fortunately there are many gentler fitness options available today than ever before and nearly all of them can be adjusted to meet the personal needs of the individual. Many of these exercises can even be done within the privacy of the home; so homebound exercisers can still be active.

Water Aerobics

This is one of the most highly recommended options for people with arthritis and other joint and connective tissue disorders. Water supports the body and takes the majority of the stress off the joints. Muscles are able to devote more effort to exercising since they are not called on to support the skeleton. The water provides resistance for the body to work against without causing friction or pain. While intense water aerobic classes can seriously raise your heart rate, it’s best to start out at a lower level and gradually increase your activity as you feel comfortable with it. Water aerobics classes are available at gyms and recreation centers across the country, and typically do not cost much money. Most classes do use some kind of accessories to increase calorie burn. If you are fortunate enough to have your own pool at home, invest in some water accessories and then have your own private class at home! Try to spend at least thirty minutes in the pool initially and aim for about three times per week.

Pilates

Originally developed by a man who was an invalid himself, the Pilates method focuses on building strength in the muscles and in particular conditioning the “powerhouse” or abdominal muscles to provide better support for the spine. The method is named after its founder, Joseph Pilates, who spent the first thirteen years or so as a weak, sickly child until he discovered exercise. By age 15 Pilates was healthy and strong, and he continued to promote his method throughout Europe and the United States. Even now, in the twenty-first century, the Pilates method is still making a difference in the lives of people dealing with chronic illness and weakness. Pilates classes can be found in almost all cities and you may want to watch a class before choosing to commit to anything. If you prefer the privacy of your own home, there are dozens of videos and DVDs available from qualified instructors that you can use to strengthen and condition your body. The method requires few props so there’s no major investment of money. In the beginning, start with 15-20 minutes of work and gradually increase the time as you feel able.

Hatha Yoga

Developed over five thousand years ago in northern India, yoga has evolved over the years from a highly religious activity to a strengthening method that can be as spiritual or non-spiritual as you prefer. Yoga is an exceptionally flexible program – if there’s a pose you don’t feel comfortable doing, simply skip it and move to the next one. It is your program and you can adjust it to meet your level of skill and strength. Some days you may not feel comfortable enough to do some poses while other days it may be simple. Yoga does not demand that you complete every pose perfectly or match your instructor’s stance exactly. If you choose to find a class in your area, be aware that many studios offer yoga classes for students who need a gentler pace. Try to view a class before deciding to sign up. The video and DVD market for yoga has exploded within the past few years and you can find almost anything and everything. The best way to begin a home program is to purchase a beginner’s workout on video or DVD and begin using it three times a week or as often as you feel capable. Gradually increase your time and skill level as your body grows stronger.

Living with health issues does not mean that you have to allow your body to grow weak. Investigate one of these safe and gentle options today, and you could be on your way to a stronger, healthier body tomorrow.

Skin Care Acne

2007-12-19T04:26:00.000-08:00

Most people who have reached or passed adolescence have suffered at least slightly from the unsightliness and irritation of acne. A few lucky people seem rarely or never to be touched by this problem. For the majority, acne is something that they have to deal with, perhaps mainly as teens, perhaps at least off and on throughout their lives. And for some people, acne is a terrible invader, always there, always irritating, always ugly, always on their minds, always interfering with their self-confidence and personal relationships.

Acne is caused when the hair follicles in our skin get blocked. No one knows precisely why these blockages occur, nor why they are more severe in some people than in others, even in different members of the same family. It also is not known why acne commonly first occurs after puberty, although the sebaceous glands grow considerably at this time, which could be a factor. The oil produced by hair follicles, called sebum, is normally beneficial because it helps prevent the skin from drying and limits skin infections. But when sebum can’t drain, it builds up and actually becomes a culture medium for bacteria.

As pimples develop, the skin may become inflamed. This inflammation may last for a time even after a pimple bursts or heals (you shouldn’t squeeze pimples, because squeezing can lead to more severe skin infections). In severe cases, scarring may take place, caused by imperfections in the inflammatory response to infection. It is not known why some people are more susceptible to acne scarring than others. Fortunately, most acne spots and inflammation heal over time, but the healing process can take months.

What is Mesothelioma - What You Need to Know.

2007-12-14T23:40:00.000-08:00

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant (cancerous) cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body's internal organs. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles. How common is mesothelioma? Although reported incidence rates have increased in the past 20 years, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare cancer. About 2,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the United States each year. Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women and risk increases with age, but this disease can appear in either men or women at any age.

Mesothelioma
What is mesheliomota? Mesothelioma (cancer of the mesothelium) is a disease in which cells of the mesothelium become abnormal and divide without control or order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs. Cancer cells can also metastasize (spread) from their original site to other parts of the body. Most cases of mesothelioma begin in the pleura or peritoneum.

What is the mesothelium? The mesothelium is a membrane that covers and protects most of the internal organs of the body. It is composed of two layers of cells: One layer immediately surrounds the organ; the other forms a sac around it. The mesothelium produces a lubricating fluid that is released between these layers, allowing moving organs (such as the beating heart and the expanding and contracting lungs) to glide easily against adjacent structures.

The mesothelium has different names, depending on its location in the body. The peritoneum is the mesothelial tissue that covers most of the organs in the abdominal cavity. The pleura is the membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the wall of the chest cavity. The pericardium covers and protects the heart. The mesothelial tissue surrounding the male internal reproductive organs is called the tunica vaginalis testis. The tunica serosa uteri covers the internal reproductive organs in women.

Mesothelioma Symptoms
What are the symptoms of mesothelioma? Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleura are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma. Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and abdominal pain and swelling due to a buildup of fluid in the abdomen. Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.

These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions. It is important to see a doctor about any of these symptoms. Only a doctor can make a diagnosis.

Mesothelioma Diagnosis
How is mesothelioma diagnosed? Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. Diagnosis begins with a review of the patient's medical history, including any history of asbestos exposure. A complete physical examination may be performed, including x-rays of the chest or abdomen and lung function tests. A CT (or CAT) scan or an MRI may also be useful. A CT scan is a series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body created by a computer linked to an x-ray machine. In an MRI, a powerful magnet linked to a computer is used to make detailed pictures of areas inside the body. These pictures are viewed on a monitor and can also be printed.

A biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma. In a biopsy, a surgeon or a medical oncologist (a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating cancer) removes a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope by a pathologist. A biopsy may be done in different ways, depending on where the abnormal area is located. If the cancer is in the chest, the doctor may perform a thoracoscopy. In this procedure, the doctor makes a small cut through the chest wall and puts a thin, lighted tube called a thoracoscope into the chest between two ribs. Thoracoscopy allows the doctor to look inside the chest and obtain tissue samples. If the cancer is in the abdomen, the doctor may perform a peritoneoscopy. To obtain tissue for examination, the doctor makes a small opening in the abdomen and inserts a special instrument called a peritoneoscope into the abdominal cavity. If these procedures do not yield enough tissue, more extensive diagnostic surgery may be necessary.

If the diagnosis is mesothelioma, the doctor will want to learn the stage (or extent) of the disease. Staging involves more tests in a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to which parts of the body. Knowing the stage of the disease helps the doctor plan treatment.

Mesothelioma is described as localized if the cancer is found only on the membrane surface where it originated. It is classified as advanced if it has spread beyond the original membrane surface to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, lungs, chest wall, or abdominal organs.

How is mesothelioma treated? Treatment for mesothelioma depends on the location of the cancer, the stage of the disease, and the patient's age and general health. Standard treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Sometimes, these treatments are combined.

Surgery is a common treatment for mesothelioma. The doctor may remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen and some of the tissue around it. For cancer of the pleura (pleural mesothelioma), a lung may be removed in an operation called a pneumonectomy. Sometimes part of the diaphragm, the muscle below the lungs that helps with breathing, is also removed.

Radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, involves the use of high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy affects the cancer cells only in the treated area. The radiation may come from a machine (external radiation) or from putting materials that produce radiation through thin plastic tubes into the area where the cancer cells are found (internal radiation therapy).

Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. Most drugs used to treat mesothelioma are given by injection into a vein (intravenous, or IV). Doctors are also studying the effectiveness of putting chemotherapy directly into the chest or abdomen (intracavitary chemotherapy).

To relieve symptoms and control pain, the doctor may use a needle or a thin tube to drain fluid that has built up in the chest or abdomen. The procedure for removing fluid from the chest is called thoracentesis. Removal of fluid from the abdomen is called paracentesis. Drugs may be given through a tube in the chest to prevent more fluid from accumulating. Radiation therapy and surgery may also be helpful in relieving symptoms.

Plants for Health

2007-12-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

The medicinal herb bed at Plants For A Future's Cornwall site.

Our health depends on plants:

* for food,
* for medicines,
* for creating a healthy environment.

Food
We need to eat plants to stay healthy. Fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses (peas and beans), tubers (eg potatoes), and nuts are all plants. There is strong evidence to show that we are naturally plant eating animals, and evolved from tree dwelling apes who ate mostly fruits, leaves, and sometimes nuts. Our guts are long - like that of herbivores, which are designed to digest vegetation. The guts of carnivores are short to enable them to expel decomposing meat residues quickly. Meat is full of toxins from the animal at the time of death, and these toxins can be absorbed into the blood, contributing to all sorts of disorders, including headaches, arthritis, cancer and heart disease. Because we do not have a digestive system designed to cope with meat, our health will suffer if we eat it.

And apart from mothers' milk for babies, dairy products are not a natural food for us. Milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc cause many problems including eczema, asthma, allergies of all kinds, hayfever, digestive disorders, arteriosclerosis and osteoporosis (a disease where bones loose their calcium, become brittle and break easily). Yet doctors often tell us to drink plenty of milk to prevent osteoporosis. But cow's milk is difficult to digest and generates a lot of mucus in the body. Its calcium is neither balanced nor easily available, and milk actually helps to create osteoporosis. This problem can be prevented by plants, ie relying on green vegetables, pulses and nuts which are much better sources of calcium (and magnesium - which is needed for calcium utilisation).

Taking adequate exercise is also important.

There is ample medical evidence to demonstrate that there is nothing that we need in our diet that cannot be obtained from plants (excluding vitamin D - which we get from sunshine). Even vitamin B12, originally thought to be present only in animal products - especially in the liver- is also available from certain lactic fermented foods like sauerkraut; possibly certain seaweeds; spirulina, a blue-green alga; and our own guts (if they are healthy and have not been abused with antibiotics).

Medicines
One can use a healthy well balanced diet based on natural plant foods both to:

1. Maintain good health and prevent diseases;
2. Treat diseases.

This use of food is called Dietary Therapy. Fresh wholefoods, eaten as close to their natural state as possible, are very effective in allowing the body to heal itself from the diseases of modern civilisation.

Processed foods and animal products, together with a lifestyle divorced from nature, are the prime causes of many diseases. But health can be gently restored using natural wholefoods and healing herbs.

Many herbs also have important medicinal qualities - and provided one does not play around with poisonous plants - they are totally free of harmful side effects - unlike the modern drug industry.

At Plants For A Future, we are growing and making available a wide variety of food plants, including herbs, perennial vegetables, fruit bearing shrubs and trees, nut trees, edible tubers, legumes and perennial cereals - together with information about them.

The use of herbal remedies, and the incorporation of these beneficial foods into the diet will help to promote health, especially if it is part of a well balanced wholefood regime with a minimum of processed foods and animal products.

Creating a Healthy Environment
Plants help to promote health in more ways than just food and medicine. Plants - especially trees and shrubs - improve the quality of the environment in many ways. They:-

* clean and oxygenate the air;
* remove carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas);
* bind the soil and prevent its erosion;
* help control the water cycle, (encourage normal rainfall, help prevent floods and droughts);
* moderate temperature extremes.

In this way they improve the climate. Last, but not least, their greenness and vitality is very pleasant and adds an unmeassureable quality to the environment.

At PFAF we are trying, more than anything, to improve the environment. We emphasise perennials because these involved far less soil disturbance and are therefore more beneficial. We hope that by making the plants and the information available, more people will be encouraged to adopt a more environmentally aware lifestyle and to live more in harmony with nature. As our diet is improved and we rely more on natural foods, and as we improve our own environment by growing plants - especially trees and shrubs - then our health can only benefit.

Arthritis

2007-12-13T23:46:00.000-08:00

One of the most common ailments of the population of aging Americans is arthritis; yet with all the information on arthritis, we have yet to discover a cure. Could is possibly be because the cure lies in the food we eat and the daily exercise regimen that we find so hard to implement?

Information on arthritis exists in every venue in America; if you go to the bookstore, there is a massive amount of literature on arthritis and arthritis cures. Look on the internet, and you find even more information. Yet, more of the population than ever before suffers from this malady, so what is happening?

When you examine all the research and information available, there are some consistent elements that always appear: exercise and diet. This information is consistent with the changes in lifestyle and diet that have occurred over the last 50 or so years, and maybe bears more scrutiny.

The processed foods we eat in huge quantities today, are missing the antioxidants and vitamins that our food of less than a century ago, contained in every meal. Is there a direct connection to the lack of antioxidants and the increasing occurrence of arthritis?

Information On Arthritis Is Abundant
Information on arthritis as I stated earlier, is abundant. We should be able to take this information and apply it to our personal lives, and expect some improvement; yet quite often this doesn’t happen. Why? Because our desire for improved health is not greater than our desire for dessert, or canned food and we therefore do not alter our diets.
The pain and inflammation that is a result of an arthritic condition can be very painful and debilitating; the medicine that we can take is sometimes toxic. This information on arthritis alone, should motivate us to make improvements in our diet and exercise habits.

PRYCENA® WEIGHT LOSS ACCELERATOR

2007-12-13T02:31:00.000-08:00

Prycena Shake is anatural product that can help you reach your weight-loss goals. It works as an appetite suppressant while burning fat and calories. Prycena has no side-effects, is drug-free, and contains no ephedra or caffeine.

Prycena Thermal Action contains a unique combination of chromium picolinate, green tea, and guarana. It provides a thermogenic effect to help the body burn fat, and is designed to jump start your weight-loss.

AVATRIM: GREEN TEA FOR FAT BURNING
Avatrim ingredients are clinically proven to help you lose weight. Avatrims advanced ephedrine free formula is powered by a revolutionary blend of green tea and other potent thermogenic compounds clinically proven to increase the body's metabolic rate and energy expenditure to help promote reductions in weight and body fat* This boost to the metabolism promotes a more active healthier lifestyle while trimming down the weight.

DIETRINE CARB BLOCKER
Dietrine Carb Blocker is an exclusive formulation of research-supported botanical ingredients designed to Block Carbohydrates, Control Carb Cravings, Boost Energy levels and Block Fats from your body. Dietrine Carb Blocker with Phase 2®, an exclusive, all-natural nutritional ingredient extracted from white kidney beans, "neutralizes" the digestive enzyme alpha amylase before it can convert starch into glucose and then fat. Essentially, it allows the carbohydrates to pass through the system with less caloric intake.

HOODIA GORDONII
Hoodia is currently the most publicized and talked about natural weight loss product in America . It has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, ABC, NBC Today, BBC, CNN, in Oprah's “O” Magazine and in other major electronic and print media. Hoodia Gordonii is an all-natural appetite suppressant, which has no known adverse side-effects. As a traditional food of the San people for over 100,000 years, Hoodia has a long history of helping control hunger and thirst in the harsh desert environment.

LEPTIN CONTROL PACK™
Burn Fat With Better Thyroid And Leptin Function! Leptin Control Pack™ provides the ultimate nutritional support for enhanced thyroid and leptin function. Helps to reduce cravings, improve energy, and get your metabolism into gear. Also supports cardiovascular health, combating fatigue, mood, and blood sugar. Take one packet at each meal and notice the difference.

YERBA DIET
Yerba Diet is a thermogenic weightloss formula created by Dr Weil, M.D. It is designed to naturally assist the body in burning more calories by efficiently using stored body fat for energy. It also works as an appetite suppressant and an energy booster so you feel less hungry a have more energy. Yerba Diet is Ephedra free and will help you lose weight, increase your energy and feel great.

Watch what you eat during Holiday

2007-11-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

The holidays and food are synonymous. Turkey. Dressing. Cranberry sauce. Sweet potatoes. Mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pie.

Unfortunately, an entire day of feasting can result in more than just a full stomach or a case of heartburn. It can trigger gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Gastroesophageal reflux is a backflow of acid into the esophagus. Everyone experiences this intense feeling at some point, usually as heartburn, but its persistence may be a sign of GERD. That's especially true during the holidays.

"The holiday season can be very difficult, as almost all of us tend to overeat," said Joseph White, M.D., an HSC-COM associate professor of internal medicine and director of the gastrointestinal motility lab at Scott & White Hospital. "It's a guarantee that if you already suffer from GERD, problems are going to be worse for the holidays."

Recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicate about seven million people suffer from GERD, with incidences increasing dramatically after age 40. It is treatable through lifestyle modification and over-the-counter and prescription medications.

"The best tip is to not overeat," said Donald Rawls, M.D., HSC-COM assistant professor of internal medicine and chief of the sections of nutrition and GI endoscopy with Scott & White Hospital. "Big, fatty meals are likely to aggravate the symptoms in someone with reflux. Other foods that can be a problem during the holidays are chocolate, peppermint and spearmint.

On a daily basis, Dr. Rawls recommends to eat smaller meals, avoid excess alcohol (no more than two drinks for men and one drink for women), and stay away from acidic foods like citric juices (orange, grapefruit) and tomatoes. Those with nighttime symptoms should elevate their head 4-6 inches from the bed and avoid eating and drinking within two hours of bedtime.

Mild, infrequent symptoms can be managed with an over-the-counter antacid like Maalox or Mylanta, but other medications like Zantac, Tagament and Pepcid AC will be more effective when taken regularly, Dr. Rawls said. Prilosec OTC is the most potent non-prescription medication and should be taken daily on an empty stomach, usually before breakfast.

"If a person already has a tendency to experience GERD symptoms, the best bet is to take these medications prior to the holiday meal to prevent problems before they start," Dr. White said.

People experiencing GERD symptoms several times a week should visit their physician. Further study may be warranted, and regular use of a prescription acid inhibitor may be necessary, Dr. White said.

For those with diabetes, the holiday months can add additional stress, inches to our waistline and, unfortunately, high blood sugars.

Managing diabetes during these hectic times may seem impossible, but remembering the basics of meal planning and the importance of staying active will enable you to sail your way through the new year, said Rachel Villarreal, R.D., L.D., health educator in the Diabetes Education Program in the HSC-Coastal Bend Health Education Center at Corpus Christi.

To start, watch portion sizes. Do not skip your favorite foods; instead, limit your portions and stay within your allowable servings. Identifying holiday foods that contain carbohydrates can help you better manage blood sugars. Some holiday foods that can affect blood sugar levels are dressing (stuffing), rolls, sweet potatoes, corn, tamales and seasonal desserts.

Next, maintain consistency, which is vital to maintaining desirable blood sugars, Ms. Villarreal said. Eat your meals generally at the same time each day. If a holiday dinner will be delayed, have a small snack at the time of your normal meal to avoid low blood sugar levels and prevent overeating.

The holidays also are a perfect time to exercise while doing things that you and your family enjoy. Stroll around the neighborhood and admire the decorations. Organize a family outdoor game like touch football or tag to keep things fun. Anything that will get you moving is well worth the effort to maintain your blood sugar levels within target range, Ms. Villarreal said.

Above all, don't forget to monitor your blood sugar daily. It may prove handy to increase your blood sugar monitoring during the holiday season, and such a proactive approach will keep your blood sugar levels on target.

"Healthy living does not have to be a battle during the holidays," Ms. Villarreal said. "By remembering to follow your basic plan of watching your portion size, maintaining consistency, staying active and monitoring your blood sugars levels, you can have a healthy holiday season."