People, who catch cold, can recover quicker, and in some cases even prevent catching cold in the first place, as long as they help their bodies to improve it’s immune system. There are some well-known ways to improve your self-defense system and there are some surprising ways that are less obvious to us. For example, when you inhale a cold virus, it inflames your nasal passages. The inflammation process causes the body to release chemicals, which include histamine. When you have a weak immune system, you are at a higher risk of catching a cold or a virus. Your immune system is responsible for helping you fight off infections; therefore, when your immune system is weak it cannot function properly.

Sleep apnea can have severe effects on your health and has been linked to such problems as heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes. Obstructive sleep apnea involves repeated pauses in breathing that occur when the muscles relax during sleep, causing soft tissue in the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway. A number of clinical trials have shown regular exercise to be strongly linked to heightened immunity, with the emphasis on regular.

Keep reading →

Nutrient deficiencies appear to increase with age. Some colleagues at the University of Iowa looked at over 400 Iowans 79 and older living independently in rural areas and found that 80 percent reported consuming inadequate amounts of four or more nutrients. When declining energy requirements are not matched by decreased caloric intake then total body fat increases. The Atkins diet leaves your body shy on some important nutrients, such as vitamin B, and also is negative for vitamins A, C and D, anti-oxidants that slow the effects of aging and calcium. Once again the lack of exercise has to enter into the equation also.

Nutritional status may be further compromised by other problems in conjunction with the illness, such as trauma, surgery, infection drug therapy which alter nutrient requirements. This makes recovery even more difficult. Another reason we need to keep our immune system healthy and keep an aged body in good health. Elderly individuals should try to strive for a well balanced diet and stay active. Adequate dietary fiber, as opposed to increased use of laxatives, will maintain regular bowel function and not interfere with the digestion and absorption of nutrients, as occurs with laxative use or abuse.

Keep reading →

This is your wakeup call for being prepared going into the fall and any time you are laid up with a cold or flu. Try and set-up a plan for your family, as it can save you a lot of time & money. Those trips to the doctor and/or emergency room, if you deal with older parents, can drain you and your family!

The flu typically arrives later, in November, with the peak season from late December through early March. Odds are you’ll catch a cold soon, if you haven’t already this season. The average American adult catches about two to four a year. During the cold and flu season, step up the hand-washing routine reminders. Since the two illnesses share some similar symptoms, and both come during “cold and flu season,” the two often run together in people’s minds. While there is no way to cure the common cold or the flu, there are several things that you and your family can do to prevent them and stay healthy this season. It takes the immune system about six to eight weeks to respond to vaccination, one of the best times to get the flu vaccine is mid-October to mid-November, before the December-to-March outbreak.

Keep reading →

Nutrition and weight loss are certainly important subjects and ones that you would love to learn all that you can and then jump in and start on your diet so that you can lose the weight you desire. However, I sincerely believe that dieting is not the best approach to losing weight.Knowing everything about proper nutrition is going to help you do what is necessary to lose weight. Nutrition and weight loss are plausible solutions to losing those unwanted pounds. Meditation, visualization and prayer also help. We are in the 21st century and have the luxury of liquid vitamins to keep us healthy. Proper nutrition also helps keep the process of your body functioning normally and the best part is that liquid vitamins can taste good!

Whereas a nutritious diet can rectify underlying causes of diseases and restore one to wholeness of mind and body. Once we realize the connection between a wholesome diet and good health, our food will be our medicine and maintaining good health will be a matter of making the right food choices and leading a healthy lifestyle. Try cutting 500 calories from your diet and burning 500 calories with vigorous exercise every day. The average woman will lose weight on a 1,500-calorie-per-day diet, while men can lose weight on about 1,800 calories per day. Permanent healthy weight loss requires permanent lifestyle changes

Keep reading →

Tap into the power of your immune system to avoid getting sick. You and a friend step into a crowded elevator and immediately notice two people coughing and sneezing up a storm. Within a couple of days you come down with a bad cold and blame it on that elevator ride. Yet your friend, exposed to the same germs at the same time, remains perfectly healthy.

What made the difference? The power of the immune system. The strength of our immune system is what makes the difference between who stays healthy and who doesn’t. The one with the immune system functioning below normal has an increased risk of getting sick. It’s shocking how much your immune system can affect how you feel!

Keep reading →

Who is at risk for getting autoimmune diseases? There are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases and new treatments for autoimmune diseases are being studied all the time and can affect many parts of the body.  Women tend to be affected more often by autoimmune disorders; nearly 79% of autoimmune disease patients in the USA are women.  It is not known why this is the case, although hormone levels have been shown to affect the severity of some autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. These diseases can affect connective tissue in your body (the tissue which binds together body tissues and organs).  Autoimmune diseases can be broadly divided into systemic and organ-specific or localized autoimmune disorders, depending on the principal clinic-pathologic features of each disease.  Autoimmune disorders are diseases caused by the body producing an inappropriate immune response against its own tissues.  Autoimmune disorders fall into two general types: those that damage many organs (systemic autoimmune diseases) and those where only a single organ or tissue is directly damaged by the autoimmune process (localized).

Autoimmune diseases: A group of disorders in which the primary cause is the anti inflammatory reaction caused by the bodies own immune system  attacking tissues.  Autoimmune diseases tend to cluster in families and in individuals (a person with one autoimmune disease is more likely to get another), which indicates that common mechanisms are involved in disease susceptibility.  Autoimmunity is not contagious, but the genes a child inherits from parents can influence whether a child will develop autoimmune conditions.  In autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, pernicious anemia, myasthenia gravis, and Hashimoto's disease, specific cells uncontrollably attack the body's own tissues.  Approximately 75 percent of autoimmune diseases occur in women, most frequently during the childbearing years and do not spread to other people like infections. Women have fatigue, stiffness and weakness when suffering from a autoimmune disease. There is a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases is seen in winter months as people stay indoors and the air is dry, stale & exposure to viruses indoor.

Keep reading →

High quality liquid vitamins and nutritional supplementation is essential to make up the deficit of nutrients in our food. The transition from pill form to liquid vitamins and minerals is taking place and the wave of the future for the health industry and nutritional supplements is liquid vitamins.  These vitamins are digested as they pass through the intestinal tracts, and the step of breaking down the pills is eliminated.  Liquid Vitamins are much better absorbed than pill vitamins while pills are more taxing on your digestive system and much harder to swallow! They also help you achieve better health much faster than pill form. A recent study showed that while 98% of liquid vitamins are absorbed by your body, only 10-20% of pill vitamins are absorbed. Are you starting to see the importance of liquid vitamins and minerals?

When choosing your nutritional supplement, liquid vitamins are definitely the way to go for maximum absorption.  Why should you use a liquid supplement?  Instead of pills, which sometimes don't digest, the liquid is absorbed into the system fully.  The main reason why liquid vitamins are more effective than pills and tablets is due to the nature of their liquid base.  Medical studies have shown that pills and capsules only have a 25%-40% absorption rate at the cellular level, while liquid nutritional products exceed a 90% absorption rate.

Keep reading →

There two main kinds of arthritis, osteo- and rheumatoid, but both are inextricably linked with nutrition. There has been a lot of research that identifies the relationship between arthritis and nutrition. Although progress in the field of arthritis and nutrition is slow, we fully expect to see further justification of these theories as medical science progresses.

Arthritis means inflammation of a joint or joints.  Arthritis is usually caused by what people eat and drink and is becoming very common in people of all ages which will probably affect 90% of people by the age of 60.  Arthritis is a poorly understood condition but some scientists believe that rheumatoid arthritis is the result of a micro-organism or other foreign substance in the body.  Arthritis is the general name for a group of more than 100 diseases and becomes more prevalent as we age.  Arthritis is one of the most common chronic  conditions today, affecting as many as 100 million people worldwide.  Can the foods you eat cause or affect your arthritis?  Diet is a major role player in the onset of arthritis.  There are some scientific reasons to think that the foods you eat could affect certain kinds of arthritis.

Keep reading →

Many of our readers asked for simple nutrition tips for women.  Women today are busier than ever before. Their stress is exacerbated by today's fast paced, pre-packaged, convenience based society and the toxins that come from antibiotics and household cleaners. Iron-deficiency anemia is very common in young women. Women need nutrition and they need to be CLEAN from toxins. Here's a nutrition tip for all women -- berries are your friends.

While women's role in the food chain is essential to produce that all-important resource, food, it paradoxically does not guarantee women even minimum levels of nutrition.  Women are often responsible for producing and preparing food for the household, so their knowledge — or lack thereof — about nutrition can affect the health and nutritional status of the entire family.  Women with adequate stores of iron and other micronutrients are less likely to suffer fatal infections and are more likely to survive bleeding during and after childbirth.  Women in developing countries are also regularly deficient in vitamin A, iodine, and energy.  Women of child-bearing age are recommended to take folic acid supplements and consume a folic-rich diet.  Women are also at higher risk for developing osteoporosis (50 percent of women compared to 25 percent of men are expected to develop it in their lifetimes) and need more calcium and Vitamin D to prevent it.  Studies showed that women with vitamin D insufficiency absorb less than 10 percent of available calcium.

Keep reading →

When a woman is healthy, balancing carbohydrates, fat, and proteins, and eating a variety of fruits and vegetables usually ensure good nutrition. Women with fears of weight gain or with eating disorders may choose to work with a health professional, to ensure that pregnancy does not trigger an eating disorder. Eating healthy salads will help you to control your weight and. there is a wealth of information available today that offers tips for eating well starting from the moment you get early pregnancy symptoms. Healthy eating begins long before conception ever occurs. Try eating starchy snacks, like toast, saltines, cheerios, or other dry cereals when you feel nauseated. Some women find eating dry crackers before rising from bed in the morning helpful for nausea. You'll need to avoid eating or drinking certain things during pregnancy, such as: certain types of fish, such as swordfish, canned tuna, and other fish that may be high in mercury (your doctor can help you decide which fish you can eat)foods that contain raw eggs, such as mousse or Caesar salad raw or undercooked meat and fish processed meats, such as hot dogs and deli meats , unpasteurized cheeses, such as feta, brie, blue, and goat cheese unpasteurized milk, juice, or cider. Try eating frequent, small meals, and avoid greasy foods. At least in the later stages of pregnancy, she needs to consume more energy than usual, but this does not mean eating twice as much. In general, eating a variety of fresh, whole (unprocessed) plant foods has proven hormonally and metabolically favorable compared to eating a monotonous diet based on processed foods.

March of Dimes recommends women consider a supplement of 400 micrograms of folic acid preconceptually to prevent the incidence of neural tube defects. If increased weight gain is recommended, an emphasis should be placed on high-calorie food group items that contain a higher fat and sugar content. Your diet has to include iron as a supplement, because it's recommended requirement cannot be met during pregnancy. Thirty milligrams of ferrous iron is recommended, and iron should be taken on an empty stomach. Calcium supplements, if recommended, should be taken with meals. When the development of major organs begins during early pregnancy, often before a woman starts prenatal care or realizes that she is pregnant, preconception care is recommended for every woman of reproductive age.

Keep reading →