Archive for the ‘Health & Wellness’ category

Facts About Shea Butter

March 10th, 2010

Shea butter has been one of the fastest growing skin treatment products over the last few years. There’s no doubt that your skin feels pretty good after you’ve applied it. Shea butter comes in many different scents which encourages some to continue using it. But the question is, is it any healthier than any other lotions or applications?

Shea butter is an application that has multiple uses, despite most only knowing it as a skin product. There is actually a process that can make it edible to be used in chocolate. Another process allows it to be used for soap. Shea butter can also be made to use in medications. There are 5 different grades of the product, which determines which way it will be used.

When it’s used in medications, it’s normally used to protect or heal the skin in some fashion. It’s used in a variety of products to help fight rashes and eczema, burns, wrinkles and chapped lips. It’s also used in products that help fight ultraviolet rays. One of the worries about Shea butter is that there are few scientific studies on the product other than from the industry itself, so it’s not really know if the health benefits are true or not.

It is a product that has been used in Africa for hundreds of years without many negative effects. When people do have negative effects, it’s usually a mild allergic reaction, such as itchiness or skin breaking out in a rash. This is proof that it’s not for everyone, but there are people who are also allergic to both cocoa butter and aloe vera. Sometimes it depends on the grade of shea butter that’s in a product. Inexpensive products might not use grade A or B shea butter, which means it’s not the most pure or safest grades.

The best thing about shea butter is that it’s a vegetable fat from an African tree known as the “Karite”, which is the name for “Shea”, and it’s considered all natural before processing. It’s very flexible to use, which is what makes it popular. It can retain almost any scent, and you’ll find a lot of homemade products using shea butter, which means it can be purchased almost anywhere. Overall it’s pretty safe for most people to use, but don’t get caught up in believing it’s a panacea for every health issue one might have with their skin.

See More:
How to Make Shea Butter

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Tags: african tree aloe vera dry skin care karite shea butter moisturizer shea butter skin care skin treatment products

Better Skin Through Better Foods and Drinks

March 4th, 2010

At some point everyone has problems with their skin. Many times it’s just a natural progression of growing up and some are just genetic differences that can cause skin difficulties. There are many kinds of treatment, both traditional and alternative. Some of them involve food and drink options and here are a few of them.

Nutritional therapy believes that skin problems can be eradicated by changing how you eat. What happens is you get an assessment of your eating habits, medical history, blood samples and other lab tests as needed. Then you either get a computerized diet profile or additional tests as to the kinds of issues you may have with the foods you are consuming. At this point you’re then given a special diet, the combination of certain types of foods that not only help your skin, but your overall health as well. The diet will contain nutrients that are supposed to help your health such as more Vitamin C, beta carotene, and Vitamin E.

Water therapy believes that most people don’t drink enough water, and thus suffer problems with their skin such as it being too dry or oily, which can cause problems. The recommendation of 64 ounces of water is usually given to help with weight loss, but when it comes to skin care, some practitioners believe that you should be drinking as much water in milliliters as you are in the calories you eat each day. Therefore, if you eat 3,000 calories a day, you should be drinking 101 ounces of water a day.

Eating more fiber is considered crucial for maintaining good skin, with the premise being that a healthy digestive system leads to healthy skin. The recommendation is for most men to eat between 31 to 38 grams of fiber a day, and women to eat between 21 to 25 grams of fiber a day. These numbers are based on healthy weight levels of course, with the belief that most of us tend to eat less than 12 grams of fiber each day. Of course, if that is true, it will take a major change in dietary habits to reach these numbers, and there are many ways to do it, such as increasing the amount of certain fruits and nuts we eat, or whole grains such as brown rice instead of white rice.

Photo credit: www.healthspablog.org

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Tags: Bad Skin Eating Fiber Nutritional therapy Skin Care Water Therapy

Curves: Women Health Chain

February 26th, 2010

In simple terms, Curves is a health chain for women. It offers women the opportunity to work out in a safe environment since it’s a woman’s only health club. It is a place for woman to get healthy on equipment that offers ways to work out without hurting themselves.

I have had two opportunities to walk through a Curves location; once with my mother, and once while trying to find my wife. You won’t see the kind of workout equipment you’re used to seeing in regular gyms. There are no heavy barbells; there is no heavy cardiovascular equipment. In essence, you see a bunch of smaller equipment scattered all over the floor that offers a lot of low impact training. Their slogan is that in 30 minutes, 3 times the week, you can get a complete workout to help you get more fit and live a healthier life.

While there is no doubt that a woman will get some kind of health benefit from going to Curves, there is a lot of controversy as to whether it offers enough of an exercise for all women. It seems that if a woman doesn’t exercise often and goes to Curves it will most likely be beneficial to her. However, some doctors and therapists suggest that the kind of exercise women are getting has more to do with weight training than a cardiovascular workout, and therefore it’s not a complete workout. In other words, if a woman leads a sedentary life and decides it’s time to do something new for herself, Curves is a great place to go.

There are a number of women who advocate for Curves in all the good it’s done for them. The response is that just like almost anything else that one might decide to try, there will always be some success stories from people who literally dedicate themselves to the process. In the case of Curves, it’s been found that those women who get the maximum benefit from the program not only go more than three times a week, but sometimes go twice a day as well. That plus maintaining a proper diet will definitely result in women losing weight and getting into better shape than others. Curves has its place as a workout option for women, even if it’s not considered the ultimate and best choice for optimum health long-term.

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Tags: cardiovascular workout curves helps women weight loss for women weight training women weight loss

Ways to Safely Gain Weight

February 24th, 2010

With all the stories out there about how many of us are getting heavier, it’s interesting to know that there are actually people who have problems gaining weight.

I myself know quite a few people who have gone through their lives being skinnier than what’s considered normal. I see them eating all sorts of things trying to gain weight, and it just doesn’t stick to them. Many of us may be envious of them, wishing we could eat anything we wanted to and not gain weight. But the truth is that people who can’t gain weight can suffer health issues of their own, which means they not only have to try to gain weight, but have to find natural, safe ways to do it; here are a few safe ways to gain weight.

One popular way people try to gain weight is by taking a weight gain supplement. Most of the time when you hear about weight gaining supplements, they are associated with bodybuilders, but individuals looking to gain weight that don’t lift weights, often need or want a weight gainer. Most of these powders have different proteins and fibers that, when mixed with water, can provide a nutritious supplement that helps you gain weight.

Although you often hear that eating fruit is a way to lose weight, there are some fruits that might help you gain weight. Mangoes are considered a fruit that will help you gain weight, along with raisins, dates, figs, and bananas. It’s recommended to add either milk or water when consuming them to help retain the weight.

You might think that foods high in protein, like steak, can help you gain weight, but thats not always true. In the quantities that you would have to eat steak to gain weight, it could end up harming your body more than helping it. Therefore, it’s best to have a combination of things that go well with protein such as carbohydrate foods like potatoes and rice. Something that you can also get away with if you’re underweight is adding gravy in big doses, making sure you use something like vegetable oil in preparing it.

What about herbs and spices, can they put on some pounds? Believe it or not there are a few that are recommended to do just that such as tarragon, dried rosemary, bay leaf, curry powder, and black pepper. Supposedly, putting these on food you eat will help you retain the weight as they make you feel fuller.

If you’re trying to gain weight, stick with the suggestions above and stay away from foods and drinks like twinkies, donuts and soda.

Chinese Food Therapy

February 15th, 2010

Chinese Food Therapy is an ancient process; practitioners believe that a body can be healed by eating certain foods in certain combinations and amounts, instead of taking traditional medicine. It’s controversial because, in general, physicians don’t believe that most diseases can be cured by changing one’s diet. However, there have been several studies which have proven that eating correctly can add to the health of the body, so the basic principles behind Chinese food therapy seem to be sound.

This practice believes that most illnesses come about due to improper eating. Practitioners believe that most people know when they are eating something that does not agree with their body, and if they continue to eat or drink that particular item, they know that they’re doing harm to themselves. That part seems to be true according to most medical studies. Where the problem comes is in the determination of which foods are recommended to treat people and the types of illnesses they’re recommended to treat.

For instance, having someone ingest chili pepper to take care of nosebleeds or dry skin might seem a bit out of touch with what someone else might recommend. However, having someone suggest something like red wine to help stimulate blood circulation has been proven to be an effective treatment. Chinese food therapy tends to address multiple issues with the body and not just one specific issue, therefore it’s a combination of different foods and spices that are believed to help the body achieve overall health, as opposed to addressing only one issue at a time.

It also defines foods based on their yin or yang, something most of us have heard of but don’t know much about. The basic idea behind these two words is to describe foods in terms of their temperatures or nature. For instance, yin describes things towards the cold side whereas yang describes things towards the warm side. The belief is that too much yang will over-stimulate the body, and too much yin can bring on depression and sadness. Modifying these can help bring the body into balance, but also takes into account the seasons of the year to help determine how much modification needs to take place.

All in all, Chinese food therapy is a lot more complicated than it seems on the surface. It’s hard to say in specific terms how much it works towards healing the body if someone has a serious medical issue. However, it does seem to be a legitimate diet that can help a person’s body feel healthier.

See More:

Alkaline Food Therapy
Top 12 Easy Chinese Recipes

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Tags: alleviate nosebleeds Chinese Food Therapy dry skin relief food therapy what is Chinese food therapy yin and yang foods

Bone Health Is Important

February 10th, 2010

Without healthy bones, chiropractors and other medical practitioners might not be able to help you out as much as they could if you had healthy bones. There are some things our bodies need to have strong bones, and there are some things that we can do to help our bones remain strong. Here are three things that can help improve bone health.

1. Calcium is the major component of bones, or at least healthy bones. When people get things such as osteoporosis, it usually means that their bones are losing calcium and therefore becoming more brittle and less strong. As we get older, we tend to eat and drink fewer things that have enough calcium in them. You can take calcium supplements to help you out, but sometimes all it takes is adding certain foods back into your diet. Seafood like salmon and shrimp can help; almonds are a good source of calcium too. Many adults can’t handle milk as easily as they could when they were younger, but if you can then milk is a good calcium source. We all just need to be cognizant of making sure that we can get enough calcium into our bodies.

2. Exercise is very important, although it doesn’t directly impact bones. What it does is build up the muscles around the bones to help give them support and cushion. Weight training does more to help protect the bones and cardiovascular, and the thing is that many people could actually lose weight by doing weight training, even though cardiovascular weight training gets more credit for it’s ability to shed pounds. If you gain weight from weight training don’t worry, muscle weight is definitely preferable to not having good muscular tone at all.

3. Vitamin D is an important element that many of us don’t get enough of. You can get vitamin D from the sun, but most of us really don’t get enough sun because of our busy lives. You can also get vitamin D from supplements and food, here are a few foods that high in vitamin D: seafood (tuna, salmon, shrimp), vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes), and dairy products like (milk, cheese). Check out this resource for Foods Highest in Vitamin D

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Tags: excercise and bone health foods with calcium foods with vitamin D importance of bone health

Milk Thistle

January 28th, 2010

Milk thistle is a herb that’s been given credit for helping a lot of maladies people might have. It’s been used for more than 2,000 years, originally growing in the Mediterranean area, now grown in many areas around the world, including the United States.

Milk thistle goes by many names; some of them are: Bull thistle, heal thistle, holy thistle, kanger, kocakavkas, kuub, lady’s thistle, natursilum, pig leaves, and wild artichoke. The main active ingredient is called silymarin, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and it may help the liver repair itself by growing new cells, as well as protect the liver from toxins.

If one believes everything they’ve read, milk thistle is a cure-all for many things. Here’s a list of some of those things:

Liver diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatitis C
Treatment and prevention of gallstones
Mushroom toxicity (milk thistle is used in many emergency rooms to try to fight mushroom poisoning)
High cholesterol
Used as a post (oral steroid) cycle therapy for body builders
Reducing insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes who also have cirrhosis
Used in many products claiming to reduce the effects of a hangover
Used by individuals withdrawing from opiates
Used by those taking oral steroids
Reducing liver damaging effects of chemotherapeutic drugs
Dyspepsia (upset stomach)
Menopausal symptoms

Milk thistle is one supplement that has had some testing done as far as one of its major uses, that as an agent for fighting cancer. In one particular test, milk thistle was used for around 50 children to see if it would allow them to take greater doses of chemotherapy without side effects. The study, peer-reviewed by the American Cancer Society, showed that milk thistle helped reduce inflammation of the liver as well as removed the need of many to reduce the levels of chemotherapy. They also found that milk thistle didn’t reduce the effects of chemotherapy, and was safe to take.

Milk thistle might not be quite a miracle drug, but it’s one of the more respected herbal alternatives on the market.

See more:
LiverSupport.com Milk Thistle Facts Overview
Drugs.com – Milk Thistle
Milk Thistle & Cancer

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Tags: American Cancer Society chemotherapy cirrhosis Dyspepsia heal thistle hepatitis C holy thistle kanger kocakavkas kuub lady's thistle Liver diseases Milk thistle natursilum pig leaves silymarin ull thistle wild artichoke

Neurofeedback

January 26th, 2010

Depending on who you talk to, neurofeedback is either a legitimate medical procedure that helps people address things such as anxiety, depression, and attention deficit disorders, or a bunch of expensive nonsense that doesn’t do anything except cost people a lot of money.

It borders on the fringe of alternative medicine because it does use electronic equipment to measure brain activity. Electrodes are applied to the scalp and then brainwave frequencies are measured to find patterns, of whoever’s being examined, that need to be altered. Then what the practitioner does is try to teach the recipient new ways of thinking and processing information to change behaviors with the intention of creating positive results. Some call it using your mind to change your brain.

The arguments for neurofeedback are the number of people who say they or their family members, especially children, have been helped to overcome certain behavioral problems and not only find themselves able to overcome learning disabilities, but able to calm down and learn how to interact better with others. Those who argue against it believe it’s nothing more than a placebo that rips people off.

The problem is that there have been no significant studies based on neurofeedback to either support or dispel whether it’s a valid treatment or not. There have been small independent studies that have produced positive reports, but none of them pass the requirements of a closed study. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is about to conduct its first peer-reviewed study to see if it’s a valid procedure or a waste of time.

How exactly does neurofeedback work? It starts off with a questionnaire and an electroencephalograph (EEG) reading. Based on the outcome of the questionnaire, the therapist will place electrodes in certain places on your head after the initial reading and then give you live feedback of things you should try to do to change your brain patterns. They can have you do things such as reciting passages, different kinds of meditation, or even sing a little song.

The entire process can take about 90 minutes, and they usually recommend that people have 20 to 40 sessions. At a minimum of $100 a pop, they can get very expensive very quickly. Some people have tried to purchase their own machines to do the process in their homes, but the machines range from $2000-$3000, and they still need help from a therapist to know where to place electrodes from time to time.

The belief is that if the government study comes back and shows that neurofeedback actually works, it could bring more practitioners into the business and reduced the cost significantly. At that point it might move from the fringe of being alternative medicine into a legitimate medical procedure.

See more:
Neurofeedback Studies and Links
New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD
International Society for Neurofeedback and Research

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Tags: anxiety attention deficit disorders behavioral problems depression Electrodes electroencephalograph (EEG) National Institute of Mental Health neurofeedback

Super Blue Green Algae

January 21st, 2010

Photo Credit: www.ehow.com

Super blue green algae is a supplement whose makers claim can help people lose weight by suppressing the appetite, boosting a person’s immunity, and increasing the energy. Instead, not only does this product probably not work, but it might cause but it might cause some to local problems for some people and probably should be avoided.

I well remember taking super blue-green algae in the mid-1990s. I had a friend who had started taking it and lost a lot of weight. She recommended it to us, and we figured if it works for her it would work for us. It came in a capsule form, with what look like green stuff inside the capsule. That turned out to be very significant, because the main thing my wife and I noticed was that our stools were suddenly dark green all the time, and it felt like we always had to continually be going to the bathroom and working hard to keep ourselves feeling clean. We each took these pills for about three weeks, before finally deciding that this wasn’t for us. Four months after my friend had reached her lowest weight, she gained half of it back, which proved to all of us that this super blue-green algae did not work.

Super Blue Green Algae Pills

As it turns out, the original company, K. C. Laboratories, had already been sued and ordered to stop making the product in 1986 when a judge declared that the therapeutic claims that it been made for the product were invalid. What the company did instead was remarket the claim as a supplement instead. However, the Canadian Health Protection Branch in 1999 stated that products containing blue-green algae might be toxic and harmful to the liver. They did some testing and found that as long as the level of microcystin stayed relatively low, that’s a supplement may not be harmful overall, but click on his some gastrointestinal discomfort and general malaise in some people.

The people marketing this super blue-green algae are now claiming that it can help people overcome Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), but independent testing seems to indicate that those claims are false. Overall, it seems that people who take super blue-green algae receive no medicinal benefits and very little of nutrients by taking these pills. Instead, most physicians will still recommend that a balanced diet and exercise will achieve greater benefits than super blue-green algae could ever hope to provide. However, for anyone who decides to still take it, they should make sure not to give it to children because it could cause dire consequences with their systems because of possible contamination by toxic substances in the algae.

See more:
Blue Green Algae Health Risk
Why Blue Algae Makes Me Tires
Wikipedia Cyanobacteria (Blue Green Algae)

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Tags: Attention Deficit Disorder Canadian Health Protection Branch diet green algae microcystin physicians toxic

Gene Therapy

January 19th, 2010

How Gene Therapy Works

Gene therapy is a scientific process where abnormal genes are replaced by either normal genes or altered genes to try to correct some kind of hereditary problem that a person was born with. In some cases gene therapy has proven to be a wonderful thing, while in others, gene therapy has proven to be more dangerous than anyone could imagine.

As there are more studies done on the body, scientists have found ways to determine which genes in the body cause certain types of diseases. Things such as cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, blindness and cancer are considered as things that are possible to correct with proper gene modification.

In a couple of recent reports, gene therapy is credited with helping one little girl overcome what’s known as “bubble boy” disease (ADA-SCID), which meant that she had the antibodies to protect her from disease initially, but after the reintroduction of stem cells from her bone marrow, which were exposed to an engineered retrovirus, had been injected back into her body, her immune system became populated with functioning T cells, which restored protection to her body and allowed her to be able to go outside and play like any other child.

For another patient who was suffering a progressive loss of vision from a disease known as Leber congenital amaurosis, he had a gene known as RPE65 injected into his retina, after being exposed to a virus known as adeno-associated virus. In less than a week his eyesight started to improve, and he was able to see more light which made it easy for him to be able to walk around in the evenings. He also was suddenly able to see stripes on his clothes, which he hadn’t been able to see for years.

Although these kinds of results, which were dramatic, were expected, even though not as fast, there have been some failures which have resulted in death. Sometimes putting a gene back into someone’s body activates the white blood cells to such a degree that they overwhelm the system and kill the host. It’s for this reason that gene therapy still is considered on the fringe of normal medicine, and is still considered to be in experimental stages. Still, the possibilities are endless for treating all sorts of diseases in the future.

See more:
Gene Therapy Pros & Cons
Gene Therapy Journal
The Ethics of Gene Therapy

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Tags: bubble boy disease cancer cystic fibrosis gene therapy leber congenital amaurosis multiple sclerosis