Month: November 2012

Top 3 Treatment Options for Colon Cancer

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The cells in your body follow a regular pattern where they grow, divide and then die in a predictable fashion. When some of these cells start showing irregular patterns in their function that is when they are said to be cancerous. These cancerous cells may develop in your colon without your knowledge.

Colon Cancer has no proper symptoms, but if you notice that you are suffering from massive weight loss, fatigue and loose stool, you should go for a cancer screening. If your doctor says that you are suffering from colon cancer, here are the three types of treatments that are most likely to be recommended by your doctor:

1. Surgery

Surgery is one of the easiest ways to remove the cancerous growth in your colon, but this is usually performed only when the cancer has been detected in the first stage. In this stage, the doctor can easily remove the tumour by performing a colonoscopy. However, if your cancer is detected at a later stage there are two types of procedures that are followed:

• Surgical Resection

In this process the doctor will make a small incision in your abdomen, remove the tumour from your colon and then connect the dissected colon so that it becomes a single unit again.

• Ostomy

This surgery creates a detour for your intestines. Waste in your body travels through the colon and into the rectum, and they are finally discharged through the anus. Ostomy, bypasses the rectum, where the waste moves through the intestine into the abdomen and discharged into a pouch placed outside the body. This pouch may be temporary; to enable the body to heal after the cancerous cells have been removed or it may be permanent in some cases.

2. Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy literally means, chemical therapy, where certain chemicals are administered into your body to prevent the cells from dividing rapidly and to destroy the cells that are cancerous.

Chemotherapy is said to cause hair loss and this is because the good cells that create new hair take a beating when chemicals are used in order to eliminate the bad ones from your system. Chemotherapy is recommended to people suffering from stage 3 and stage 4 of colon cancer.

3. Radiation

You know that radiation is a powerful source of energy that is harmful for the body. You have often heard about harmful radiation from the sun, atomic bombs and even microwave. You are always asked to protect yourself from these. Colon cancer treatment through radiation follows on these lines. The cancerous cells in your colon and exposed to harmful radiations so that they can be destroyed by them. The radiation that you face during your treatment is not good for your body, but this is something that you must take. There are many patients who insist on chemotherapy instead of radiation because of its harmful nature.

These three kinds of colon cancer treatments will be helpful in eliminating the cancerous cells from your body for a full recovery.


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Early Stage Pregnancy Signs & Milestones to Look for in the First Month

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In order to prepare yourself for pregnancy, it is essential that you spend as much time as you can trying to understand what goes on inside your body, from the very first week down to the last.

The first month of your pregnancy is perhaps the most crucial as these weeks will set the tone for your entire 9 months. From the first to the fourth week of pregnancy, your body will be going through an assortment of changes to prepare itself for the task ahead, and by the end of this month, your little one will also begin to take shape and register its first heartbeat.

1st – 2nd Week – The Journey Begins

At this time, your baby is just a tiny speck inside your tummy. As it is quite difficult to deduce the exact moment of conception, your doctor will estimate your due date based on the date of your last menstrual period.

Missing your period is the first sign that you may be pregnant. Once confirmed, it is important to immediately schedule an appointment with your ob-gyn to ensure that all is well with you and your baby.  Your doctor will also be prescribing the necessary vitamins to assist in proper development.

The importance of finding a good doctor at this time cannot be understated. As you will be sharing the entire journey with your doctor, make sure to partner with someone that you trust and are comfortable with.

3rd Week – Anybody Want a Peanut

While you won’t be noticing any physical changes in your body at this time, your baby is already starting to develop and is now a tiny embryo, roughly the size of a small peanut. During this phase, the outer layers covering your fetus will develop into the placenta, while the inner layer becomes the embryo itself.

4th Week – Bring on the Hormones

Now that you have been successfully impregnated, it is important that you pay close attention to your diet. Load up on healthy greens, cooked meat, and fresh produce.

As your baby continues to grow, you will begin to notice a few changes in your body. For one, your belly will start to slowly expand, which can make you feel bloated at times. Your bras will also feel tighter as your breasts get rounder and more tender. Feelings of nausea, faintness, and fatigue may also kick in during the 4th week.

More than the physical changes, the first month of pregnancy will bring a bevy of emotions ranging from fear to excitement. Worries about your job, your health, and your finances are most likely to beset you at this time. While you are still able to move freely, spend this time going over your work situation; talk to your supervisor and give them a heads up about your condition. Now is also the time to re-evaluate your diet and lifestyle. Learn more about what’s good and harmful for your developing baby.

Finally, make sure to go over your plans with your partner and discuss how you want to go about welcoming a new baby into your family.

If you’d like to narrow down the actual moment of conception, then Brenda recommends this pregnancy conception date calculator. You will also find an ancient free gender predictor at DueDateCalculator.org to have some fun with.


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What You Should Know about Outdoor Exercises

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Although you can exercise at the gym or inside your house, it is more fun to do it outside. You can derive more fun walking on the beach than by spending time sweating on a gym treadmill. You can also enjoy jogging, while soaking in the pleasant ambiance of a green park, rather than doing longer sessions of exer-cycling indoors. Here are some of the most popular outdoor exercises that would bring lot of fun with them.

• Take a step at a time – A good way of burning calories is climbing up stairs. You can do this at local stadiums. To avoid spraining your ankle, you must do a warm up exercise just before you climb steps. You can do this by jogging on the ground beside your apartment for about 5-8 minutes. After that, you can do some light stretching and take aim for the stairs.

• Skate your way – Another enjoyable way of doing an outdoor exercise is by inline skating. Inline skating improves your balance and coordination. The lateral skating motion also improves the shape of your hips. Try it out and see for yourself.

• Brisk exercising on the beach – You can always try brisk running on the beach. The coolness of the sand and the gentle breeze of the sea will be add ons to the enjoyment factor. However, before you start running, you must warm-up sufficiently. You can do this by walking on the beach for about five to eight minutes.

If you are looking for a real good challenge, then you can try outdoor plyometrics. A piece of advice though– plyometrics is not for newbies. You must also be free from any injury when you do this exercise. Another thing to remember is that you must always do a warm-up exercise before you indulge in such a session. There are two types of plyometrics, the single leg jump-off and the double leg jump-off. The difference between them is the size of the ledges. It’s up to you which challenge you are ready to face.


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3 Solutions to Top Exercise Excuses

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How long can you get away with silly reasons not to exercise? How many more times can you fool yourself that you love yourself as you are? Wake up and get ready to give up all excuses about not hitting the gym. Check out if these exercise excuses seem to be close to what you keep making.

No Time for the Gym is No Excuse

1. Walk while you talk- One of the trendiest excuses for not exercising is that you don’t have enough time. Maybe there is no time to go to the gym, but there is a lot of time to catch up with some free hand right? Why bank only on the gym? Walking is a good way of exercising. Instead of sitting while talking on the phone, you can start briskly walking while having a long drawn conversation with a buddy.

2. Show time and exercise time – Instead of sitting and waiting impatiently for the TV program to resume, you can go cycle on your excer-bike and do some workouts during commercials. If you are stuck up in a queue and it seems that it is simply not moving forward, then you can do some light stretching while waiting.

3. Burn your pockets and calories too- Visiting a shopping mall? Try some quick exercising even while you shop. Instead of using an elevator, you use the stairs. Climbing the stairs is an effective way of burning some calories. It will allow you to perspire and burns a lot of calories out of your body.

Exercising could never be more enjoyable. Simply pocket in your iPhone with you, put on the headset, and start jogging while you enjoy listening to the music. You can also invite your friends to come along with you for a group exercise in the nearby park. Chatting up and exercising could well go hand in hand. Given that where there is a will, there is a way, don’t let excuses stop you from exercising. Good luck!


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3 Exercise Types for You to Explore

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Given that every separate individual has separate tastes. It is natural for one type of exercise to suit some one while being equally unsuitable for somebody else. Therefore, it is important to know the best exercise that is suitable for you. Check out these three separate types and judge the one apt for your body.

1. Aerobics: Are you a slender person? Although you can’t lift the weights, there are still exercises that are perfectly suited for you. In fact, aerobics is tailor made for you. If you want to enhance the elasticity of your muscles, you can try an aerobics exercise program. This includes stretching, balancing, and breathing exercises that would improve your flexibility, balance, and stamina.

2. Water Sports: Are you in love with water? Would you love exercising in the swimming pool? Then water sports could be an ideals exercising form for you. Swimming wins as a favorite activity without a doubt. However, if you want to see what the world beneath the sea is like, you can always take scuba diving lessons. You can also take up different lessons in water sports like water skiing, canoeing, surfing, and many more. Participating in water sports is a good way of exercising your body. It refreshes you, and can take all the stress out of you.

3. Weight lifting: If you want to develop muscles in your body, you can always do some weight lifting. There are different sets of weights for each type of muscle that you want to grow. The gym instructor will put you on programs that will help you to develop muscles. This is best suited to those with strong bodies and who are confident of handling mass real well.

Working out is beneficial for the body; however, doing exercises that are not fit for you will be harmful. Choose your exercise programs wisely after carefully weighing the body type and a talk with the trainer.


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How to Curb Varicose Vein Pain through Exercise?

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You must have come across blue or purple colored scrawls displayed on the legs, especially on grown-ups. Well, they aren’t weird zigzag lines, they are veins! But if you take a closer look at it, you will realize that it is not similar to the veins on the inside of your wrist or elbow and that you do not see them on yourself at a young age. Why? Because those are grown-up veins termed as varicose veins.

What are Varicose veins?

Varicose veins are usually swollen, twisted veins which is visible to the eye just under the surface of the skin. They generally occur in the leg, but can also end up forming in other parts of your body. Although it is a common condition and normally cause few visible signs and symptoms but it can be curbed with regular moderate rate of exercise but only to the extent until it doesn’t cause you any physical pain.

Some steps are listed below so as to help you prevent the development of new varicose veins:

• Walking

This is the simplest form of exercise that you can take up. The more you walk, the more will be the movement in your legs, which in turn will pump up the flow of blood circulation to your legs. So skip that elevator and opt to walk those stairs which you have been ignoring since long. Also make sure you go for brisk walking instead of hiring a cab to travel short distance.

• Lying exercise

Place an exercise mat and lie on your back and slowly lift one leg from the leg and replace it on the other side. Repeat the same for about three sets of 12 leg lifts. After this, bring the lifted leg on your chest and lower it back to the floor. Continuing this exercise for at least a minute will unblock any clotted blood to start circulating.

• Standing exercise

Get yourself walking on your tiptoes, gradually followed by on your heels. Make sure you place your toes on the step thus allowing your heels to hold back your back and then slowly raise yourself on your tiptoes. Support yourself on the wall if necessary. It is recommended to repeat this for at least 30 times in a day.

• Pedaling

Lie flat on your back on the floor. Then place your hands to your sides and it causes any strain then place them beneath your buttocks. Gradually begin lifting up your legs above from the floor and begin pedaling them just like how you would pedal a bicycle. There will be an increase in the blood circulation, depending upon how much you lift up your legs. Endure this exercise till you can totally feel the blood circulating through your legs.

Some of the ways to prevent varicose veins, according to the Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital is to maintain a healthy diet, avoid crossing your legs, keeping a watch over your weight, cutting down on the usage of high heels and too tight fitting clothes. Do not hesitate to consult vein doctors if the varicose pain becomes too painful and get a timely treatment for the same.


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4 Healthy Foods that Will Help Burn Fat

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The key to effective and healthy weight loss is through diet and exercise. There is no exercise paraphernalia that will alone help you to shed your weight. Today there are many foods that are advantageous to weight loss and that actually help you to burn calories. Aiming weight loss, at 1 to 2 lbs. per week, tends to bring the most success, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bringing variety to your food makes your diet enjoyable.

4 ways in which food burns fat are as follows:-

1. Whole Grains

• Whole grains such as oats, barley, brown rice, wild rice and popcorn retain all nutritious parts of the grain, thus providing more vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber.

• According to MayoClinic.com, fiber-rich foods enhance weight loss, because they take longer to chew, allowing your body time to recognize that you’re no longer hungry, and keep you fuller longer between meals.

• Whole grains also provide carbohydrates which is the main source of energy.

2. Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

• Foods that have higher water content allow you to have a bigger portion with the same calorie content.

• Fruit like grapefruit is about 90 per cent water and provides a mere 39 calories per half. Carrots have 88 per cent water and contain a mere 25 calories per half cup.

• Fruits and vegetables also provide satiating fiber and energizing carbohydrates.

3. Lean Protein

• Lean proteins have a mild impact on your blood sugar, thus they are low-glycaemic.

• Replacing high-glycaemic foods, such as sugary sweets and white bread, with low-glycaemic foods might lift your energy by slowing the release of the hormone insulin in your body, which promotes fat storage instead of burning.
• Lean, protein-rich foods include low-fat dairy products, beans, lentils, fish and skinless, white-meat poultry.

• Beans and lentils are also chock-a-block of fiber.

4. Nuts and Seeds

• Nuts and seeds provide heart-healthy, unsaturated fats and antioxidants, such as calcium and selenium.

• A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants enhances the brain function, which play an important role in energy.

• Fats also supply to your muscles with energy during exercise and enhance ampleness after meals.

• Although eating too much fat can lead to weight gain and lethargy, healthy diets contain 20 to 35 percent fat, according to the American Dietetic Association, mainly from nutritious sources.

Thus in order to burn your fat and to reduce your calorie intake, you must simply go for green tea, whole grain bread, salmon, garlic, onions, broccoli, berries, lean chicken, yoghurt, brown rice and oranges as these have the following:-

• fat burning properties
• is easily introduced into the diet
• is versatile
• is commonly available
• is enjoyable
• is easy to prepare
• is beneficial to your overall health in multiple ways

After these natural methods, sometimes it gets difficult to resist and some people end up resorting diet pills and the likes that are available on sites, such as ecastack-pills.com. The debate if one should take these pills or not is never ending. So, it is recommended that you ask your physician to guide you about this, according to your individual medical history, if these are right for you.


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4 Exercises That Boost Your Energy Levels for the Day

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Have you ever found yourself to be very sluggish, tired at sleepy at times? And all you wish to do is to sleep for long at such a moment? Well, there is a simple and effective solution for this hassle: Exercise! Yes, exercise has enormous benefits and is composed of twofold benefit feature as it not only boosts you body’s fitness level and your mood but also successfully manages to uplift your overall health and well-being in the long run. And one need not spend exorbitant amount of money for the same. There are certain simple bodybuilding exercises which will help you stay fit, at your ease and help you fight fatigue and keep the fat at bay.

1. Burst training workouts

Burst training work out requires shorter duration of time, its intensity is tremendous and the results are very satisfying. It involves a variety of body movements which mimics our everyday activities with regards to sports and recreation. If you wish a quick refreshment for your body then try sprinting for about 60 seconds or walking for two minutes. Fast jump roping for 30-45 seconds or even 45 seconds of mountain climbing followed by a minute of walking rejuvenates your body all over again.

2. Low intensity workouts

If you wish to burn your fat content then it depends upon the intensity used on it. While low intensity exercise like walking or strolling, swimming or light cycling burns a higher percentage of fat from the total calories burned, High intensity exercise like running, heavy swimming or cycling, sprinting etc. helps you burn more calories overall and is vital for good cardiovascular health.

3. Boxing

What is the best form of exercise when you feel frustrated tired and stressed throughout the day? Boxing! Yes, indeed! Boxing helps uplift your energy levels instantly, though you may find it difficult to combat with its immense intensity, but it is efficient to burn calories and to increase lean muscle mass and reduce the rate of injury. Especially for women, the kicks and lower drills help’s to tone their butt and thighs.

4. Circuit training workouts

Don’t wish to follow the monotonous method of workout? No worries, Circuit training is definitely for you then. It helps you alternate between different muscle groups in a different and interesting way. It is not mandatory to make use of equipments for the same. In case of wanting to use the equipment, it comes inexpensive and consists of jump rope, surgical tubing, dumbbells, and jumping jack. Also one could use their own body weight! It is a combination of cardio and strength training exercise which helps in maximum blasting of calories.

While exercise is vital for your mind and body, overdoing it get you in certain health conditions which can be very risky. So it is very crucial to consult your family doctor for the same. Exercise will tone up your body and help you looks and feel better. The energy, stamina and endorphins gained will spread over to other areas of your life and make you feel more controlled over yourself and your life!


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Skin Care Habits You Should Ditch

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We all have a few bad habits that we need to break when it comes to the care of our skin. But we owe it to ourselves give our skin the best care that we can give it, so the first step is admitting that we have a bad habit that is time to nix.

Don’t Skip the Sunscreen

The best prevention for wrinkled skin and age spots is to lather up on sunscreen. Sunscreen is the best defense for your skin no matter what time of year it is (believe it or not, it still matters in the winter). The more you are in the sun, the more often you want to reapply to make sure that your skin is safe against harmful U.V. rays. To save yourself a step in your morning skin-care routine, enlist the help of foundation or moisturizer with an SPF in it, and you can leave the house feeling good about the length you are going to protect your skin.

Go Beyond Your Face

When getting ready to leave the house for the day or getting ready for bed, we clean our face and think we are done. But there are other parts of our body that are just as important as our face that don’t receive the same TLC. Our skin-care routine needs to extend beyond the care of our face to other exposed parts of our body, like our neck are chest, which are just as delicate and sensitive. We need to keep the other parts of our body hydrated and protected from the sun as well. The next time you are going through the process of your cleansing your face, remember clean and moisturize our neck and chest.

Keep Tools Clean

If the tools you use to cleanse your face or apply your make-up aren’t clean, you are not getting the maximum out of your skin-care routine. Just like you wouldn’t touch your face with dirty hands to avoid spreading germs, the same goes for your make-up tools. When you don’t wash your brushes, you end up mixing colors and change the true hue of what they really are. You also run the risk of clogging pores, which will affect the appearance of your skin. If make-up tools are dirty enough, you could cause an infection. About every three weeks or so, take a time out to clean all your make-up brushes. Use a gentle shampoo or product made to clean brushes. Rinse well to get all the dirt and used make-up off, and leave them to dry overnight.

Less Exfoliation the Better

It feels good to exfoliate skin because you know you are getting rid of all the dead skin cells so that pores can breathe, but too much can have a harsh effect on the skin. When you over-exfoliate, you end up disrupting the balance of natural oil production. This will only make skin look worse, which is the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. Cut the exfoliation down to no more than once or twice or twice a week.

Lifestyle Changes

It’s true that people really do need their beauty rest. When you don’t get enough sleep, stress can make skin conditions worse. Sleep is when your body has the chance to repair itself from the day.  Ditch the cigarettes if you smoke as it causes wrinkles and ruins skin tone, and will make you look older than you are.  Drinking alcohol can dehydrate your body and raise inflammatory agents in the blood, affecting the appearance of your skin as well. Now you have no more excuses to skip the gym either. When your body is more active, you are stimulating blood flow, which brings color to skin and minimizes stress levels.

Keep it Simple

Take a serious look at the products you use. It’s a habit to have a different product for each skin concern, or you see something new worth trying every few weeks. Stop the spending- you probably don’t need everything you have. Take a look at each product and what they do. You will find that more than one of your products targets the same skin issues. Even worse, you might be using two products that counteract each other. Ingredients can end up canceling each other out and do nothing or have the opposite affect and cause irritation. Look for products that target more than one skin concern and try spreading the use of different products throughout the day instead of all at once. Before you know it, with a little bit of self-restraint from over-buying and a little bit of research, you’ll start having better skin in no time. 

This article was written by the skin care experts at DorMauri.com.


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Fine Lines and Wrinkles: Are These Two Real Signs of Aging?

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Let’s face it – one of the facts of life is that time passes by without us barely noticing it. To many people, it goes so fast that many times the realization comes a bit late – not too late of course, but late just the same. I’m talking about facial fine lines and wrinkles … the hurting truth about aging. A lot of women – and even men as well, wake up one day and see fine lines where there used to be none. Looking closely in the mirror they see wrinkles, a little here and a little there, in the corner of the eyes (and they are sometimes called “chicken something”; on the side of the nose; in between the eye brows, beside the mouth – smile lines, some people call them, and in the forehead. They simply appear in places they are expected but many times, earlier than expected.

Am I Really Aging Because I Have Fine Lines and Wrinkles?

Conventionally yes, when fine lines and wrinkles appear, it is a sign that the person is aging. However, when they appear or the time they appear, whether the person is in his or her late 30’s, 40’s, or 50’s, differs from individual to individual, and there is a good explanation for this. Health and beauty experts suggest that how people look physically, and we’re specifically talking about facial skin condition, is greatly affected by two factors: genes and lifestyle.

Genes – Some people are just blessed and lucky to have good genes. They are born with clean, clear skin, and they “got it” from their parents who also have clean, clear skin. Some studies show that there are certain groups of people, like many African-Americans who, because of their genes, appears to age slower than others in terms of skin texture, laxity, and tone. Their skins are simply flawless and because of this, most of them look younger than their age.   

Lifestyle – A lot of people age early because of lifestyle practices. This is a fact. When people do not eat healthy food, smoke a lot, drink alcoholic beverages, sleep late and sleep too little, does not practice good hygiene, as sure as the sun rises every morning these people will look old fast! And not only will they look old fast, they will look not-as-good too because of their unhealthy lifestyle. Some people also go to the extremes in their want to look “better”, not knowing that some of the beauty practices they are doing are actually causing them more harm than good. A good example for this is the excessive use of tanning beds and excessive sun bathing. There are people who value so much a nice tan that they set aside their foreknowledge that excessive sun exposure is dangerous as it can cause premature skin aging and skin cancer.

What Can I Do Now?

Blessed be the health and beauty experts, for they have come up with some suggestions on how to deal with skin issues brought about by aging and poor lifestyle practices. So here are some of the recommendations from the experts:

Eat healthy foods. This means avoid fatty foods, load up with fresh fruits and vegetables, and go easy on grease and processed food. Exercise regularly as this keeps your skin supple and flexible. Avoid excessive exposure to the sun and if you can help it, go slow on the tanning equipment. Drink plenty of water, at least 8 glasses per day is ideal. Sleep early as many nights as you can and as many hours as you can. Use sunscreen, preferably with SPF 15 or higher. Apply sunscreen in the morning after your morning beauty routine and before you get out of the house. Lastly, avoid tobacco, alcohol, and drugs like a plague as they do not only make you look ugly, they will kill you eventually because they can cause illnesses.

This guest post is by Siena Lombardi, an expert writer from Edrugstore.MD. Visit Edrugstore.MD and find out more about the dangers of counterfeit medications.


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