Healthpratical Tips:10 Healthy Habits for a Longer Life

December 22, 2008

Here are some practical habits we can acquire to be healthy. Try this list and share it with a friend.

1.) Eat six small meals a day. Most nutritionists recommend that we eat six small meals a day. For example, you can have a light breakfast at 7 a.m., light snack (a banana or an apple) at 10 a.m., lunch at 12 noon, snack at 4 p.m., dinner at 7p.m., and bedtime snack (tea and cookies) at 9 p.m. This schedule will help reduce sudden surges in your blood sugar. It will also prevent you from overeating because of hunger. It’s easier for the digestion, too, and can prevent stomach ulcers from missed meals. Eat several times a day, but just a little. A banana or an apple can be considered a snack already.

2.) Drink 10 glasses of water. Doctors have to tell patients again and again the importance of drinking enough water a day. But it seems many patients, especially women, don’t listen. Drinking water can prevent kidney infections, kidney stones, migraine headaches, and constipation. My wife, who only drinks three to four glasses of water a day, learned a painful lesson. She developed severe back pains from kidney stones. Now, she drinks a whole lot more. And did you know that water can prevent wrinkles and make your skin soft and glowing? Drink water for beauty, health, and long life. It’s the best advice, so take it.

3.) Rest at least eight hours a day. Sleeping and resting is the best way to boost your energies. If you feel tired, take a 15-minute rest to replenish your strength. At night, try to go for eight hours of sleep. If you can’t sleep, just lying in bed and thinking happy thoughts can relax your mind and body, too. It’s not as good as sleep, but it’s the next best thing.

4.) Climb one to two flights of stairs. Exercise for your health. Moderate exercise has been proven to prevent diabetes and obesity, and reduce arthritis. If your office is just on the second or third floor, use the stairs. It’s good for your heart and your joints. It also helps you get some exercise in between your work. As you grow older, try to avoid high-impact exercises like basketball and badminton. Swimming, taichi, walking, and climbing stairs are gentler for the body.

5.) Live a clean life. By “clean” living, we mean not just physically clean. We should also try to avoid unhealthy behavior like smoking, drinking alcohol, using illicit drugs, engaging in risky sex, and gorging on fatty foods. Smoking kills. Alcohol destroys brain cells. You may have tried them, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. So why continue the habit? Avoid risky habits and prolong your life.

6.) Be a veggie and fruit lover. You are what you eat. And the healthiest foods out there are vegetables and fruits. Green leafy vegetables, such as cabbage, pechay, kangkong, camote tops (talbos), and spinach, contain so many vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant chemicals. Vegetables can prevent heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, bowel problems, irritable bowel syndrome, various bowel cancers, and kidney stones. Eat veggies every day.

For the healthiest fruits, we have bananas, apples, carrots, tomatoes, and citrus fruits. Bananas are rich in potassium, vitamin B6. and folic acid. Likewise, tomatoes have high amounts of antioxidants, including lycopene. Citrus fruits like suha (pomelo) and dalandan are teeming with healthy vitamin C.

7.) Laugh 15 minutes a day. Laughter is, indeed, the best medicine. A study from the University of California Irvine College of Medicine reports that after watching a funny video, the viewers’ mood improved dramatically. Depression and anger dropped by 98 percent, fatigue fell by 87 percent, and tension was reduced by 61 percent.

What happens inside our body when we laugh? The level of stress hormones, called cortisol, decreases, and the good hormones, called endorphins, increase. Endorphins are natural substances in the body that make you happy and boost your immune system.

8.) Be enthusiastic about your work. Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Try to find ways to enjoy your line of work. A nurse’s job can be messy and tiring, but at least you are caring for someone. A secretary’s job may be just about setting appointments, but without her diligence, the boss would never be as successful. Be creative. Think long-term. What does your job really mean to you? An enthusiastic attitude can make a difference.

9.) Have a lifetime partner. Statistics show that married persons live longer than single persons. If you have someone to share your burdens with, it will lessen your stress. Single persons living alone may have no one to attend to them in case of an emergency. To compensate for the lack of social support, single persons can acquire a circle of close relatives and friends.

10.) Share your blessings. In President Bill Clinton’s book Giving, he explains the whys and the hows of giving. Give big or give small, and the benefits will come back to you. Similarly, Prof. Peggy Thoits’ study at the Vanderbilt University showed that people who volunteered and helped others had higher levels of happiness, self-esteem, and better physical health. If you want to receive P2,000 worth of health and happiness, try donating P2,000 to your favorite charity. Helping the poor and the sick will surely give you a different high. It may not make you live longer, but it can surely make life worth living.

Source: http://philstar.com

Tips to Stay Healthy For the Holidays

December 6, 2008

‘Tips for the season to beat sickness (not to mention tiredness, stress, or other holiday downers). Fortunately, you can stay well and have a good time even if everyone else is falling apart.

Follow these 5 tips to boost your body’s defenses:

1. Fend off germs. Family gatherings, airports and travel stops, shopping malls, even the library during finals week — they’re all places germs like to mingle. So protect yourself: Get a flu vaccine and wash your hands a lot. The holidays are all about sharing, but some things you’ll want to keep to yourself: forks, spoons, and drinking utensils. People can be contagious before they know they’re sick, so even just a sip from someone’s drink puts his or her germs in your body.

1. Eat healthy and be merry. Holiday foods can be high in calories and low on the nutrition you need to battle germs and boost energy. Make it a priority to eat five or more fruits and vegetables a day (choose the whole fruit instead of juice so you feel full longer and avoid added sugar). Carry an apple or a bag of baby carrots so you always have a healthy snack available. And don’t give your exercise routine a holiday. Exercise gives you energy in addition to burning calories.

1. Chill. “Can I afford it?” “Will it be perfect?” Even things we look forward to, like parties or gifts, can come with worries attached. If you feel stressed out, stop what you’re doing for just a moment. Take five deep breaths — all-the-way-down-to-your-belly deep. Concentrate on each breath as you inhale and exhale. Walk over to a window and look out at the sky. Then go back to what you were doing, realizing that holiday drama will happen. Just hope it leaves you with some great stories to tell.

1. Beat the blues. Holiday depression doesn’t just happen in songs. For some people, it’s seasonal, brought on by shorter days, longer nights, and colder weather. Other people are going through difficult life events like a breakup or a move. If you feel down, go outside, even if it’s cold where you live. Sunlight and exercise are great mood lifters. Try a seasonal activity to put you in the holiday spirit, like ice skating or neighborhood carol singing. And don’t hesitate to talk to someone you trust, like a parent or teacher, about how you’re feeling.

1. Get some Z’s. Getting 8½ to 9 hours of sleep a night during the holidays can help strengthen your immune system, give you more energy, and make you less vulnerable to stress.

One of the top things to do for your health is to get out and have fun. Forget about the tough stuff for a while (except for your safety, of course — be sure someone knows where you are and watch out for drunk drivers).

Laugh and enjoy yourself — the holidays only come once a year.

Treat Your Gout with this 6 Relief Suggestions

November 30, 2008

The most common symptom of gout, which afflicts about three-quarters of gout sufferers, is excruciating pain in the joint at the base of the big toe. However, joints in other parts of the body including the feet, hands, wrists, knees, shoulders, and elbows are fair game for gout attacks. Joints can become so swollen and inflamed that the patient develops a fever and chills.

Gout comes on very suddenly, produces severe pain, and usually lasts three to five days if untreated. However, flare-ups frequently recur and last even longer.

There are several conditions that can result in gout, but the primary cause is an abnormally high level of uric acid in the blood, either from the body’s producing too much or from the body’s not excreting it properly. Gout is more common in men than in women, possibly because the female body eliminates uric acid more efficiently. The disease often strikes middle-aged males, especially men who are overweight and drink too much alcohol. But healthy people can develop gout, too. For instance, allowing yourself to become severely dehydrated may trigger an attack.

Although gout produces brutal pain, it is rarely life-threatening. However, the condition requires proper diagnosis and treatment by a doctor, who can rule out other causes of joint pain and prescribe effective medications. Once you’ve seen your physician, however, there are a few things you should do on your own.

1. Don’t put any weight on the joint. This usually means staying off your feet as much as possible until the episode subsides. Any pressure you put on the joint will increase the pain and possibly damage the area further.

2. Keep the joint elevated. Let gravity help reduce inflammation by slowing the rush of blood to the gout inflicted joint.

3. Immobilize the joint. The less you move the joint, the better it will feel. Simply lying still will help, though you may want to build a splint for the injured joint. Ask your doctor how, or consult a first-aid guide.

4. Take a nonprescription anti-inflammatory. Inflammation causes swelling, which worsens pain. Both ibuprofen and aspirin are anti-inflammatories, but when taken at low levels, aspirin may actually make the pain worse, so reach for the ibuprofen when treating gout.

5. Avoid icing or heating the area. Unlike other types of pain, gout doesn’t respond well to heat or ice therapy.

6. Wear comfortable shoes. For gout sufferers, styles that offer a lot of room for the toes are the best choice.

Loud noise is Unhealthy

October 24, 2008

Makis Tsapogas, a professor of surgery and adviser to the World Health Organization, explains that “Noise is one of life’s great stressors. When you’re exposed to loud noises, your blood vessels constrict and less blood flows to the organs.”

The woman behind the launching of United Kingdom’s Right to Peace and Quiet campaign, Valerie Gibson, even compares noise to passive smoking. She said, “People aren’t aware that noise is affecting them, but their health deteriorates.”

Dutch researchers also found out that people living on noisy streets suffer more high blood pressure than those in quieter areas. According to them, noise can cause people to get angry more easily, and provoke depression and organic diseases particularly when under stressful situations. Younger people are more at risk. It was reported that mothers who lived near airports bore more premature and underweight babies.

The researchers also agree that noise from traffic, night clubs, building firms, lively restaurants, discos and even background music – is enough to make some people’s muscles tense, their pupils dilate, their heartbeat increase, their arteries constrict and their blood cholesterol and adrenalin levels rise. Too much exposure to noise can also cause deafness.

But are there ways of coping with this environmental nuisance? Jenny Colebourne, director of the healing center in central Athens, suggest a therapy which deepens concentration: meditation.

Also, we can simply relax and concentrate on other more pleasant activities.

HEALTHPRACTICAL:The bittersweet facts about diabetes

September 11, 2008

One can never too young – or too paranoid – to take preventive measures against diabetes mellitus. With our fast-paced lifestyle anchored on modern technology, the temptation to eat a less-than-healthy diet and lead a sedentary lifestyle is simply too great. Factor in stress, smoking and drinking, and the worst-case scenario becomes a real possibility. Keep in mind that the risk to develop diabetes increases significantly if the disease runs in your family.

More than 150 million people in the world suffer from diabetes mellitus; by 2025, experts predicts this number to double to 300 million, with the greatest increase expected to come from developing countries such as the Philippines. About 4 million Filipinos are estimated to have diabetes mellitus, a figure that is almost certainly an underestimate because many cases remain undetected. Untreated or uncontrolled, diabetes can lead to a heart attack, stroke, blindness, amputations, kidney problems, and even death.

Leading a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight or obese, eating an unhealthy diet, a family history of the disease – if any of these apply to you, you may be at risk. If your pee trips to the toilet are becoming more frequent, if you are constantly hungry or thirsty or feel like your hands and feet are being pricked by needles, you may already have the first confirm the diagnosis through a fasting blood sugar (FBS) determination and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).

So far, we’ve been talking about only one of several types of diabetes mellitus. There is also type 1 diabetes mellitus which usually develops in childhood and often requires lifetime insulin therapy, and gestational diabetes which develops during pregnancy and disappears after delivery. But type 2 diabetes mellitus is by far the most common.

Although there is no cure yet for diabetes, the disease is highly preventable. Simple but positive lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, are scientifically proven to prevent diabetes. In fact, for individuals with mildly elevated blood sugar levels- what doctors call pre-diabetics such simple lifestyle changes can prevent pre-diabetes from progressing to full-blown diabetes.

The range of treatment options for diabetes is now much broader than what was available two or three decades ago, thanks to robust research. There are a variety of oral anti-diabetes medications that target different organ systems, all of which work lower blood sugar levels. These include vildagliptin, which belongs to a new class of blood sugar-lowering medicines called DPP-4 inhibitors. Insulin therapy has gone beyond conventional disposable insulin injections, with the development of the insulin pen that holds multiple replaceable insulin cartridges and the insulin pump, a delivery device about the size of a deck of cards that can be worn on a narrow, flexible plastic tubing that ends with a needle inserted just under the skin, it can be set to administer a steady trickle of insulin pump can be programmed to release higher doses of insulin at meals and at times when blood glucose is expected to spike.

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HeathPractical’s Tip About Migraine, Begone

Having a migraine headache can be the worst feeling in the world.The cause of migraine is unknown. The condition may result from a series of reactions in the central nervous system caused by changes in the body or in the environment. There is often a family history of the disorder, suggesting that migraine sufferers may inherit sensitivity to triggers that produce inflammation in the blood vessels and nerves around the brain, causing pain.

Migraine pain is often described as throbbing or pulsating pain that is intensified by routine physical activity, coughing, straining, or lowering the head. The headache is often so severe that it interferes with daily activity and may awaken the person. The attack is debilitating, and migraine sufferers are often left feeling tired and weak once the headache has passed. Sensitivity to light; noise, even movement can cause a migraine headache to increase in pain. If you have ever had a migraine, you know it can leave you irritated and, at times, debilitated for as long as it lasts.

Everytime we feel the pain in our head, we usually take a painkiller, wait for the hurt to go away and that’s it. That is the routine for most migraine sufferers But the pills most commonly used can lead to “rebound” headaches. A new study suggests that an antiseizure drug can reduce the frequency of – and in some cases, prevent migraines without that nasty rebound.

In a trial that took place at numerous medical centers across the United States and Canada, a total of 468 patients took the drug, called topiramate, or a placebo for six and a half months. Those getting 100 mg of topiramate a day experienced roughly half as many monthly migraines per month.

Migraines are caused by hyperactive brain signals overwhelming nerve endings, topiramate seems to calm the signals. Researchers believe topiramate can stabilize brain activity so migraines don’t return, meaning patients might not have to take the medicine indefinitely, says Jan Brandes, a neurologist at the Nashville Neuroscience Group. The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the use of the drug before year’s end.