Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Low Fat Diet Plan

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

If you want to maintain optimal health, observe a low fat diet plan. You do not need to be obese to maintain a healthy skin and hair, get a good insulation, regulate your body temperature, and enhance the development of hormones and cell membranes in your body. Keeping off excess fat is your way out of diseases of the heart among other body fat related ailments.

Let’s get to the basics of low fats - First you have to know that:

• The typical modern diet is not a low fat diet. You can see why more than 50% of Americans are overweight.
• A low fat diet does not mean a No fat diet - it is limiting your consumption of fats to just a small amount. Avoid trans fats and reduce saturated fats intake, because they raise cholesterol level and increases the risk of heart diseases.
• A low fat diet plan may vary according to diet goals. While many low fat dieters may only need to make a few minor adjustments to reduce their fat intake, others will have to take off a greater percentage of fat from their diet.
• Weight loss is not the only benefit of a low fat diet plan. There are lots more. Limiting your fat consumption should make you enjoy a long term cardiovascular health.

Foods to avoid in a low fat diet plan

Most importantly, avoid trans fat. These initially used to come in form of meat, but the chemical alteration of vegetable oils by industries has included sources like pastries, pies, crackers, cereals, cookies, potato chips muffins, French fries and other oily foods to the list. Avoiding this might mean checking the label of processed foods, and keeping off fried foods.

Hypothyroidism Symptoms

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

When the thyroid gland is unable to produce a satisfactory level of thyroid hormones, hypothyroidism may develop. The hormones produced by the endocrine or thyroid gland are responsible for the regulation of a person’s metabolism; hence, an injury to this gland or an abnormality in its hormone production will directly affect the metabolic rate of the body. Deficient quantities of thyroid hormones can decrease the metabolic rate of a person’s body.

Hypothyroidism is characterized by several signs and symptoms that may lead to serious health risks and severe complications. Due to sluggish metabolic rate, a person suffering from hypothyroidism may experience lack of vigor and drowsiness, chronic physical fatigue, difficulty in withstanding coldness, weight gain despite loss of appetite, severe constipation, and abnormal menstrual cycles in women. Other early symptoms observed in hypothyroid patients are persistent headaches, swelling of the face and muscle cramps, chest pain and difficulty in breathing, enlarged thyroid gland or goiter, dry hair and pale skin, difficulty concentrating, and decreased memory retention. These early symptoms of hypothyroidism are often misconstrued as manifestations of other health disorders such as menopause, stress, or aging.

Failure to undergo proper treatments will aggravate a hypothyroid’s condition. In such case, other symptoms may occur and, over time, develop into serious or even fatal complications. The patient may suffer from memory loss, loss of hearing and eyesight, numbness, severe depression, and incurable mental impairment or dementia. Extreme cases may lead to myxedema coma, a form of hypothyroidism characterized by adverse physiological changes like enlarged tongue, bulging eyes, and swollen face, and behavioral and mental maladies such as delirium, completely suspended feeling or apathy, seizures, and, at the worst, coma.

In addition, children with congenital hypothyroidism have any or all of the following symptoms: jaundice or yellowish skin, rugged breathing, constipation, delayed teething, and loss of appetite. If they remain untreated, lumps may appear beneath their skin due to fatty build-up, making them look swollen and bulging.

Flu Vaccine

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Many people think that flu is nothing more than a cold gone real bad. That is not the truth because unlike common cold, flu is a very serious illness.

In fact, there are some groups of people for whom flu can prove to be fatal. Physicians have confirmed that in recent times the number of flu cases being detected in clinics has gone up. In the face of this it has become clear that flu vaccination is a good thing and should be administered as early as possible.

For example, people over the age of 30 are able to move around and do not suffer much if they are administered the flu vaccine. This is in sharp contrast to younger people (over 30) who do not receive a vaccination and suffer from body pains, high fever, and are often bed ridden for more than a week. The worst part of flu is that you are unable to eat properly thus compounding your weakness.

Without flu vaccination, the patients are likely to feel very bad not only physically but emotional and mentally as well. This condition can last for up to two weeks leaving behind a much-weakened individual. It should be noted that during follow-up these patients were quick to ask as to when they could get their flu shot because no one would want to go through that nightmare experience again.

Seasonal flu can be a very devastating time for someone in good condition. For the elderly or the infirmed, flu can even cause death. There are several categories of people that need to be vaccinated against flu.

Colon Cleansing Naturally

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Nature intended for your colon to eliminate waste material and bacteria and absorb water and mineral salts while maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance. A colon that cannot perform these functions properly, due to impacted fecal matter creates extra toxins that spread across the body through the absorbed fluids.

Many health problems, including abdominal pain, constipation and lack of energy, can be related to an unhealthy bowel caused partly or largely by eating and drinking products that form a lot of built up waste inside the colon. People consume large amounts of toxic substances daily, including caffeine, sugar, white flour, aspartame, microwave-cooked food, hydrogenated fats and deep fried foods, which results in pounds of unwanted matter forming in colon.

To get rid of these unwanted accumulations colon cleansing is a natural and easy way. There are many colon cleaning changes you can introduce to your lifestyle that you can try right away.

To start the colon cleansing process, you must make certain amendments to your diet. Our diet is generally now full of food which has been changed in many ways from what nature intended. Improvements in nutrition often bring adequate results alone, and the colon starts cleansing naturally. To begin colon cleansing, you must take adequate amounts of fiber, 25-30 grams daily, dissolved in water or in food.

Drinking water is essential for a healthy colon. To stimulate the natural peristaltic action, a person should drink half of his or her weight in ounces of pure non-carbonated water. For example, if your weight is 150 pounds, you should drink 75 ounces of water, which is approximately 2 liters. If you drink enough water and consume a sufficient amount of fiber, your colon will restore its function over time.