Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/healthca/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/UltimateTagWarrior/ultimate-tag-warrior-core.php on line 1390

Smoking kills. Yes, of course that statement doesn’t need any re-clarification, but ask any smoker and he will tell you in detail about the numerous difficulties of trying to quit smoking. These start from the urges and cravings for the smoke to problems in concentration and lack of productivity at work. This is why E-Cigarette or electronic cigarettes are something that you must consider whether it is you or your close someone who is trying to quit smoking.

The problem starts with the fact that there is a raging debate about the beneficial effects of electronic cigarettes and it is believed by many to be harmful for your heart, doing little good than bad. Well, recent extensive studies and research has shown that they are completely safe and has no harmful effect on the heart. Still don’t believe this suggestion? Here are 3 reasons to stop worrying and start believing this result –

1. The Survey Is An Extensive One

Yes, right, that a survey can never be theoretically all encompassing reflecting cent percentage of the populace but at the same time in practice, an extensively done survey with a wide range of carefully selected sample subjects is the nearest you can reach to a statistical surety. This is why the survey which takes into account a reliable number of subjects, all of whom were made to sue the electronic cigarette, makes it a perfectly setup scenario.

The fact that the survey was done on people who were made to use the electronic cigarette and were monitored for problems right before and after the usage makes it perfectly clear that the harms from using the same are absent. Scientists and doctors have mentioned that there is a slight possibility that electronic cigarettes come with short term harm for some, but the same is extremely negligible to be taken into account.

2. Millions Of People Are Using Electronic Cigarettes

There are more than a million people all over the globe who are using the electronic cigarettes an alternative path to quitting smoking and reaping the benefits out of the same. The reports of problems or health hazards due to smoking an electronic cigarette are next to null and the rare instances can be safely categorized as cases of allergy, unadvised consumption or unregulated consumption of the same. Remember that no remedy is good if you overdo it and the same hold of the concept of electronic cigarettes.

3. Laboratory Analysis

There have been numerous analyses of the electronic cigarettes in the laboratory and it has been seen that it is free from any remote presence of carcinogenic substances which might be meddling with your health. The trace amount of whatever harmful substance might be there in an e-cigarette is negligible. The amount you accumulate from smoking an e-cigarette continuously for six to eight months is the same as one single conventional cigarette.

It is recommended that you start using the electronic cigarette or gift it to a loved one at the earliest and bunk any worries that you might have.

Tags:  

Road trips and unhealthy food go hand-in-hand indeed. After all what more is there to do when travelling? Sitting in a closed vehicle, your arm will invariably stretch towards the open pack of chips. Aerated drinks, sodas and take-away are what follows next. You don’t even realize how much junk food you have in your system by the time you reach your destination.

Junk food is certainly more convenient and may sound much easier to carry while travelling. But what we don’t realize is how we run after convenience without really looking its nutritional value. If you try to find the nutritional value of burgers, wafers and other junk food, you probably won’t find any! These foods, although seem very appetizing but on the contrary are extremely unhealthy.

If this is what you consume throughout your trip, chances are you won’t even be able to enjoy as much as you hope for. Wonder Why? The extra sugar, starch and preservatives present in junk food makes you grouchy, fatigued and may even leave you with a stomach ache. To avoid these situations, you just need to make little changes in your pre-trip shopping list and then you’re set to travel, the healthy way!

Since there are not many places giving importance to healthy, it’s the best to pack your own meals and snacks from home. This way you know you are consuming the best material which has wholesome nutritional value. Healthy means fruits and lots of veggies and thus when you are going out, take these with you. Fruits like apple, banana, orange and kiwi are quite filling, easy to eat and very good for body and so they make great snacks of travelling. For veggies, you can boil them, chop and carry in zip-lock pouches or take them with you in a salad form. Consuming the daily requirements of veggies will keep you healthy and regulate your body functions properly!

Another great way to fulfil your nutritional requirement when on the go is nuts. Nuts give you energy, contain essential fatty acids like Omega-3 and reduce the level of cholesterol in your body. Being high on fibre, they are a part of a balanced diet and also keep blood pressure under control. Having almonds and few cashews daily will yield positive effects on your health. If you want to carry some sweet snacks on the trip with you, invest in granola bars! Since these are rich source of fibre, nuts and cereal, it will make you feel fuller for a long time.

Water is another important element that you need to have when travelling. Never forget to carry water with you. Also take yogurt, juice, and water rich foods like cucumber

If you are going to a place like a movie or airport where home-made food cannot be carried, you must not get tempted and eat only healthy and nutritional food. Tofu-wraps, salads and other low-calorie food can be ordered. Japanese cuisine is an excellent option to explore as it’s known for its low-calorie nutritional content.

Just stay determined, and soon you won’t even feel like looking at the junk food anymore. The first step may be the hardest, but once you are on the path, nothing will be able to stray you!

Tags:  

There is a relation between your diet and how your body reacts to cancer. You already know that lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on the way your body reacts to cancer. Sudden rise in the number of cancer patients has been encouraging cancer cure research that has come up with an interesting relationship between your diet and cancer.

The researches show that different kinds of foods have different reactions to cancers – some can help your body fight cancer and keep it at bay, while others can increase cancer risk. But following a good and healthy diet will ensure that you are not a cancer victim. Here are 3 healthy diet tips that will help you fight cancer.

1. Consume More Plant Based Products

Research has shown that most of the vegetables, fruits and whole grains have cancer-fighting nutrients. Plant products have more fiber, less fat and these help protect your immune system against cancer. Have a diet that includes of vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, carrot, spinach. Also include whole grains like sprouts, beans, nuts and grains; along with citrus fruits and berries.

You should see that you do not remove the phytochemicals from these foods. The lesser these are cooked or mixed with other ingredients and altered from their natural form and colour, the better they are. Try not to consume too much of processed food. For example, instead of having canned orange juice, have an orange.

2. Have Large Amount Of Fiber

A good diet to fight cancer will consist of a large amount of fiber. Fiber is that part of the food that your body doesn’t digest. It is the roughage your body needs to aid digestion. Fiber ensures that your digestive tract is working smoothly and that no cancerous compound can accumulate in it.

You can get your daily dose of fiber from fruits, leafy vegetables. Also, brown bread and rice can give you fiber. It is best to avoid white bread and rice, as these do not give your body the required amount of fiber.

3. Cut Down On Your Intake Of Meat

A healthy diet for fighting cancer does not include eating meat. Research shows that people who do not eat meat are 50% less likely to have cancer than those that have meat.

Meat doesn’t have any nutrient that helps fight cancer. It doesn’t provide you and fiber and causes increase in weight. It contains high amounts of saturated fat that can be a reason for cancer.

This, however, doesn’t mean that you need to become a vegetarian. Have meat but in moderate amount. The amount of meat you consume should not exceed fifteen percent of your total calorie intake in a day. Lean meat like chicken, turkey instead of red meat and beef are better options than meats like sausage, salami and other processed meats.

Your immune system fights cells that cause cancer and so, you will have to keep it healthy. Eat well, eat a healthy diet and fight cancer.

Tags:  

Are you pregnant? Then it is the time to review your diet plan. During pregnancy you ought to be careful with what you eat as your choices affect your and yet to be born child’s health. You got to say ‘NO’ to food that is harmful for you no matter how appealing they are to your taste buds! Here is a list of food items that must be out of your diet plan for coming nine months:

1. Cheese: Unpasteurized cheese like blue cheese, brie, camembert and feta must be completely avoided. It is best to stay away from soft cheese.

2. Fish: Fish with high mercury content must be completely avoided as it may lead to brain damage of the unborn baby. Some other side-effects can be lower IQ, decreased memory or attention span or other developmental delays. Fishes with high mercury content are King Makerel, shark and Tilefish.

3. Raw meat: Exclude sushi, shellfish, uncooked poultry and beef as they have the risk of coliform bacteria, salmonella and toxoplasmosis. These bacteria pose a great health risk for pregnant women.

4. Deli meat: Deli meat like hot dogs are generally contaminated with listeria bacteria that poses a great risk of miscarriage. Have it only if it is steaming hot to evade the risk, otherwise avoid it.

5. Raw eggs: Raw eggs generally contain salmonella which must be avoided. You find this in mayonnaise, Caesar salad dressing, custard and ice creams. You may even find raw eggs in unpasteurized cheese, so all these items must be completely avoided.

Now that you know which food items you need to avoid, don’t forget to include loads of proteins and carbohydrates to your diet. You can get these in plenty isn poultry, cereals, vegetables and fruits.

Tags:  

Prevention is better than cure but have you ever wondered, what is the one and only pre requisite for prevention? Yes, it is the knowledge. This is why it is important that you are up to date with the possible complications that might occur after undergoing an orthopedic surgery. This will not only ensure that you are better equipped to tackle it in the unfortunate circumstance that it crops up, it also means that you can take precaution measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen in the first place. Here are the 3 most common complications that you need to know about:

1. Failure Of The Whole Operation Itself

There is a subtle yet important difference between orthopedic operations and other operations that you usually hear about. While other operations are usually conclusive in nature, an orthopedic operation is more of structural procedures where the tissues that support the structure, along with the muscles need to align themselves properly post the operation in order for it to be successful. This results in failures in the operated area itself or generation of problems in otherwise fit areas.

There are possibilities that after the orthopedic operation, you might face a case where an otherwise rebuilt ligament collapses or fractures are healed in an undesired manner.

2. Infection In The Operated Region

Take any operations that you usually hear of (or even if you font hear of them that usually) and you will see that infections happen to be one of the most common post operation complication. With the case of orthopedic operations this risk is aggravated as more often than not, in order for the surgery to be successful it is required that a foreign object is introduced into the system.

While the doctors usually take extreme care to ensure that no infection spreads from these foreign objects, the chance of one can’t be negated completely. It is recommended that you keep out a keen eye for signs of a spreading infection which will ensure early cure of the same if it surfaces.

3. Blood Clotting

Blood clotting is a unique problem that only patients of orthopedic surgeries face. This is owing to the fact that blood tends to clot in those regions of the body which are either stagnant for an elongated period of time or are exposed to inflammatory chemicals which accelerate the process of blood clotting. This is why it is important that you identify signs of blood clot as early as possible and find a solution to the same.

Remember that if you ignore blood clots for too long, they can travel up your blood vessels and clog other important vessels and organs of the body. Visit a physician regularly to minimize these threats to a basic minimum.

Taking care to ensure that your loved ones are not suffering from any of these three prevalent forms of post-surgery complications will ensure a faster recovery for them. This is why you should choose nothing but the best when it comes to orthopedic surgeries. Savannah Orthopedics is a reliable name you can trust in this matter.

Tags:  

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.

Tags:  

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.

Tags:  

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.

Tags:  

You may not have time to sort and analyze the food that you eat. Surveys have revealed that most people today are choosing the food that they eat based on the taste, and not on the nutrients that it contains. Does it mean that if the food tastes good, it is equally good? Well, no! Even though you must have believed that some foods are particularly healthy, they are not so in reality. Here are three such foods such have been cleverly marketed as healthy. However, the truth is just the opposite.

• Glossy Granola – Most probably you think that granola bars are good, because they are always featured in the movies and advertisements as a mountaineer’s choice of snack. However, granola bars are dipped in sugary syrups, accompanied by some nuts and artificial ingredients. Apart from that, there is nothing in terms of nutrients that you can get from granola bars.

• Quickie tea – Tea is of course good, but is instant tea as good? You gain a lot of antioxidants when drinking brewed tea; however, instant tea is not the same as brewed tea. Instant tea contains added sugar. Research suggests that instant tea or bottled tea contains fewer antioxidants than brewed tea.

• Fruity promises – You might think that fruit flavored snacks are healthy because they contain fruits. You might see on the label that it contains vitals vitamins—but this is just as far as the advertisements propagate. You can see that the first ingredient listed is a fruit; however, this is only boiled down juices that are concentrated with sugar and lacks the nutrients that a real fruit contains. Furthermore, flavored snacks contain a lot of artificial additives and preservatives that can be harmful to your health.

Try and avoid these to the extent you can. Keep your food simple and try going in for natural stuff that are actually as good as they appear to be! Real fruits and veggies are the best options in terms of the healthy quotient. Never give them up for any of these popular foods.

Tags:  

Starvation is a common problem that nags a number of people at the present age. Have you always thought that starvation would rarely be a possibility with you? Well, you would not be more wrong. Here is a brief glance into the symptoms and reasons that bring about starvation.

When does starvation occur?

Starvation occurs when the body lacks the nutrients it needs for maintaining life. When you are starving, the body actually suffers. This alone explains why you can’t do heavy work whenever you are starving. In case you are starving, the body has no choice but to use its stored glucose and fat to gain energy. It eventually metabolizes your muscle and organs in order to get the needed nutrients. However, with your body using up the nutrients from even your muscles, you eventually feel weaker.

Why can’t you exercise if you starve?

It is obvious that you cannot simply exercise if your body is weak. Exercising would need energy. Given that your body is starving and the essential nutrients from the muscles are being used up, can you maintain your exercise routine? You would get tired within the first few minutes of even hitting the gym. In case you experience any of the symptoms for starvation outlined below, stop exercising and go in for a diet that incorporates energy boosters like oatmeal, crackers made from wheat and the like. Eating these in the right measure will help you regain the energy required for exercising.

Symptoms indicating starvation

There are several symptoms that indicate your body is starving that include dizziness, weight loss and an inefficient immune system. If you are suffering from either of these, it is advised that you consult your doctor.

Reasons for starvation

Starvation may occur because of an eating disorder called anorexia nervosa. People who have anorexia nervosa (usually women) are paranoid about getting fat. You might feel that you are hungry, but if you have anorexia nervosa, you might simply restrain from eating – merely to avoid getting fat.

An end note

One thing to bear in mind is that you can never maintain an effective exercise routine if you are starving. If you do not take proper meals your gymming schedule is bound to get upset. Starvation may also cause you to be irritable. Be on guard and keep taking healthy food at intervals. This is the easiest way to avoid chances of starvation.

Tags: