Telltale Skin Symptoms You Should Notice

Skin, the body's largest organ, can reveal an awful lot more than just acne and wrinkles. In fact, it can actually reflect serious health issues like diabetes and cancer. Dr. Jeffrey Dover, an eminent dermatology expert associated with the Yale School of Medicine, points out that our skin faithfully mirrors the functioning of our internal organs. Obviously, we would do well to look out for telltale symptoms showing up on the skin so as to take the decision to seek medical help. If, for example, you notice red butterfly-shaped rash appearing on your face, what do you make of it? It may not mean you're necessarily embarrassed. A red, butterfly-shaped rash, typically spread out over the bridge of the nose and cheeks, strongly hints at the autoimmune disease Lupus. According to Dover, in cases of acute systemic Lupus, the rash brings on feelings of weakness, exhaustion and achy joints. Similarly, if otherwise normal-looking skin begins itching all over persistently for apparently no reason, it could be indicative of such conditions as lymphoma, kidney disease, or liver disease, according to Dover.

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Slowing Down The Aging Process

Amazing though it might seem, it's really possible to control, to some extent, how quickly you age, says nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden. According to Bowden, who has produced a number of best-sellers, including his recently released The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer, applying a little forethought, it's possible to keep from ageing before our time. How soon we age depends, to a large extent, on how we treat our bodies - whether or not, like the light switch, we turn on the good genes and turn off the bad ones. Bowden claims that if we fight the four main factors responsible for ageing, it's possible to slow down the ageing process, keeping free of diseases brought on by aging such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. One such factor, which rushes us toward senility, is the presence of free radicals in the body. Free radicals have the ability to damage our DNA and accelerate ageing. While you cannot completely keep off free radicals, you can definitely limit your exposure by, for instance, avoiding cigarettes, trans fats, excessive exposure to the sun, and fruits and vegetables laced with pesticides and herbicides.

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Common Diet Pitfalls

It's not enough to be fervently wishing to launch into a weight loss plan without taking appropriate precautions so you don’t fall prey to these common diet pitfalls. For example, you're not going to shed weight simply by skimping on protein or healthy fat. Many dieters go frugal on foods with sufficient protein and fat content. However, this strategy isn't recommended as an effective way to lose fat. Low calorie diets like toast and jam or a small salad with vinegar are simply not sufficiently filling and the craving for food some time later is motivating enough to binge, which might easily mean extra pounds gained. Instead, a better option is to plan meals and snacks that include more filling items such as eggs, cottage cheese, fish and chicken. Skipping meals, similarly, is also not the best way to lose flab. Starving yourself to the point of desperation almost always undermines your determination to continue with your dietary regimen and pretty soon it might be impossible to fight off the temptation to delve into appetizing delicacies with a vengeance. Diet pitfalls like these can almost always ensure you end up sorrier than when you first started out...

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Finding The Right Motivational Niche For Lifelong Fitness

Most people find it considerably difficult to weather a long-term exercise program and need that extra slice of motivation to keep them from quitting, according to an expert deliberating at the American College of Sports Medicine's 14th-annual Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition. This motivation or "fitness desire" can be extrinsic or intrinsic, depending on the subject. For example, extrinsically, a physician could explain that physical activity can bring down blood pressure. Intrinsically, however, the motivation can come from simply wanting to stay and feel shipshape. The type of motivation, therefore, that a person warms up to is important for determining the kind of physical activity that can be prescribed by a health expert. Further, such a fitness program should also blend in with the individual's lifestyle and physical capabilities. For instance, recreational athlete fitness programs primarily focus on sport in order to keep participants motivated to exercise. Deciding correctly your motivational niche means you're going to stick with your fitness program long enough to give your life that much-needed facelift you desperately miss...

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Exposure To Secondhand Smoke In Children Brings On Adult Emphysema

Colombian researchers found recently that people exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke during childhood were likely to develop emphysema as adults. This hardly comes as surprising because the body can't fully reject the toxic substances that get introduced as a result of harmful inhalations, including secondhand cigarette smoke. It might be informative to note that the best option for anyone already exposed to secondhand smoke, or who has been a previous smoker, is right away beginning the detoxification process to cleanse the body of contamination. Statistics indicate that 50 percent of regular smokers die from their addiction and 400,000 Americans die annually because of tobacco use. Additionally, millions more suffer serious ailments like emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, artery problems, cancers, impotency, and vision problems, amongst others. Smoking parents, in particular, should view with serious concern the uncertain future to which they are exposing their kids as a result of their recklessness.

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Quote of the Day

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa

Step Into Your Running Shoes For A Brighter You

Running might be a smarter pursuit than earlier imagined. Apart from improving cardiovascular fitness and overall physique, it actually might make you brighter, according to scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It appears from experiments that running profoundly impacts the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls learning and memory. Studies conducted on mice showed that those voluntarily engaging in activities like running wheels did, in fact, manage to increase their number of brain cells and performed better at cognitive tests compared to non-exercising mice. Until the late 1990s, neuroscientists held the belief that new brain cells didn't grow after birth. However, that premise stands challenged in the face of mounting evidence suggesting exercise touches off significant physiological and structural changes in the brain conducive to enhanced cognitive functioning. Looks like a perfectly sound reason to get off the couch, slip on your running shoes and jog off to the neighboring park...

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Lifestyle Choices That Run You Down

It's a depressing but intriguing fact of life that people, at times, make lifestyle choices, despite being conscious of the consequences, which ultimately spell their undoing. This rare predilection for self hurt cannot easily be interpreted under the focus of pure logic. However, disastrous lifestyle choices, whereby one can only end up worse off, such as overeating, smoking, drunk driving, sedentary lifestyle, and living with stress, are not altogether impossible to shake off. Why play the villain where your own life is at stake? Admittedly, certain addictions like overeating and smoking are difficult to come out of. Inactive lifestyle can be a result of depression or plain laziness. Drinking and driving does betray a sense of derring-do and crass insensitivity to others' safety on the road on the part of the perpetrator. Stress can be an integral part of your professional or personal life. However, it may be remembered there's almost no obstacle that the human spirit cannot overcome given the right amount of determination and motivation.

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Overcoming Back Pain With Yoga

Ever felt that spiking pain shooting up your spine? Chronic back pain frequently occurs due to incorrect posture, injuries or muscle tension and can potentially degrade the quality of your life, making it imperative to rush to the doctor and seek relief using medication at an alarming frequency. Why not give yoga a try? You can take this proactive approach to stay out of further injury and get relief your current back pain. Yoga, believe it or not, represents a holistic approach that engages the body, mind and spirit, which is likely to give you more control over your life, and your pain as well. It provides you long-term preventive relief through improved posture, breathing techniques, and stress reduction. Feel your mind relax as you float into a calm and meditative state that creates a peaceful environment conducive to lessening your pain. Further, you receive the added advantage of staying free from undesirable side-effects brought on by excessive medication. Not a bad deal really by any account...

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Exercise: An Effective And Natural Way To Break Free Of Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse vastly disrupts circadian rhythms, which can lead to increased alcohol dependence and relapse in abstinent alcoholics. In mammals, circadian timing is regulated by influencers like diet, social interactions, and exercise. A new study looking into the connection between alcohol consumption and wheel-running in hamsters suggests that exercise may prove an effective alternative to bring down alcohol intake in humans. Alcohol abuse is identifiable by routine craving for and consumption of alcohol in order to function normally. This behavior interferes with both the timing and consolidation of daily circadian rhythms - rendering the individual unsure of when to sleep, eat, and mate. Extended alcohol abuse leads to skewed dietary regime, sleep routine as also depleted physical and mental health. Scientists conducting the study observed that alcohol craving in alcohol-naïve hamsters prompted to engage in more wheel-running activity evidenced less alcohol consumption. The results hold out the promise that it may be possible to reduce addiction to alcohol and drugs in humans in future with the help of exercise.

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Quote of the day

Nothing is really over ... until the moment you stop trying.

Storing Produce For Improved Shelf Life

Think you got a good deal on those in-season blueberries, tomatoes or basil? Well, think again, because much of that foodstuff might turn bad before ever making it to the table. Americans discard approximately 14% of the food items they purchase, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, what is worse is that percentage doesn't include leftover food you scrape off your plate. Knowing how long fresh fruits and vegetables last and the best way to store them for maximum shelf life leads to better decision making on how much of a particular food to buy and how soon to consume it in order to minimize waste. This handy guide, compiled from authoritative sources, assures you of extended shelf life for fruit and veggies. Like, for instance, did you know that carrots are best refrigerated in a sealed plastic bag for a maximum period of three weeks? After all, money saved is money earned and, following these smart tips, you do, in actual fact, get a really good deal on the produce you so enthusiastically buy...

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Quote of the Day

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Dealing With People That Annoy You!

More often than not, we constantly find ourselves running into people we would be better off staying away from. These unwelcome encounters might turn nightmarish because these people enter our private space on a regular and necessary basis, rendering these intrusions an inextricable part of daily life. Business associates, fellow colleagues, friends, or even family members and relatives can be a pain in the neck unless we reprogram ourselves to deal with such difficult situations that threaten to destroy almost every fabric of our mortal existence. These meaningful tips address your unenviable plight so you can emerge unscathed by handling these situations with expertise and poise without falling prey to incitements or invectives. For instance, a particularly effective way to handle impossible people is to blankly ignore their nauseating demeanor and continue with business as usual, sending out an unequivocal message that such improper behavior is not the least bit appreciated.

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Quote of the Day

Too may people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. - Malcolm Forbes

Breakfast Determines Body's Response To Other Meals Later In The Day

A new study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), published online March 30 in the International Journal of Obesity, examining the effect of types of food and specific timing of intake on metabolic syndrome, has revealed the very first meal determines how we respond to other meals later in the day. Metabolic syndrome relates to risk factors linked to cardiovascular disease like abdominal obesity, high triglycerides and insulin resistance. Although the study involved looking into metabolic profiles of mice, the implications might hold relevance for humans as well. According to the findings, for example, when the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, they appeared to be able to metabolize carbohydrates most efficiently even though other food types were served to them later in the day. Researchers associated with the study believe that in order for humans to be able to respond to mixed meals across a day, it's important to eat a meal with higher fat content in the morning.

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Quote of the Day

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."
- Les Brown

Binge Drinkers Are Less Likely To Be Healthy

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has fresh data indicating that over half of the deaths, at 79,000 annually, resulting from excessive drinking in the US occurs due to binge drinking. A new study, due to be published in the August 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, has examined the frequency of binge drinking vis-à-vis the drinkers' own perceptions of their overall health status. Findings indicate a significant likelihood of binge drinkers self-reporting suboptimal health status. It may be noted, in this context, that persons reporting lower self-rated health are more at risk of hospitalization and death than persons reporting higher self-reported health. Most binge drinkers reporting high average daily alcohol intake are more likely to binge drink frequently. All this underscores the urgent need for preventive governmental action by way of increasing alcohol-excise taxes, limiting alcohol outlet density, and restricting the days and hours when alcohol is sold.

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Inspirational Quote of the Day

Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what. - Spryte Loriano

The Worst Drinks in America

The past 50 years or so has comprehensively nudged Americans into a serious drinking problem. Iced teas and lemonades have yielded ground to bottles or mixes with ingredients like "high-fructose corn syrup" and "ascorbic acid" figuring prominently on the labels. Plain water is no longer acceptable as a thirst quencher and, instead, artificially flavored and bottled drinks displaying the words "vitamin" or "energy" stamped on their labels are the more favored options. Also, in only the past decade or so, many Americans have abandoned the practice of brewing their own coffee and exhibited more interest in buying obscure items like "mocha latte." As a result of all this beverage evolution, convenience stores and beverage distributorships have morphed into virtual health traps, threatening to drive empty liquid calories down willing gullets till the damage inflicted becomes irreversible. However, it helps to inform yourself on this updated list of worst offenders - the nation's most damaging drinkables - so you can play safe next time you sip up...

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Aging Gracefully With Quality Food Choices

Quit thinking that healthy eating is all about dieting and sacrifice. Eating well is a lifestyle choice that beckons you to enjoy colorful food, lets your creativity take flight in the kitchen, and offers those rare moments spent eating with friends. For seniors, healthy eating can usher the way to enhanced mental alacrity, resistance to maladies, increased vigor, better immune system, quicker recuperation times, and improved management of chronic ailments. As the years wear on, improved nutrition can unlock the gates to a positive disposition and satisfactory emotional well-being. These well-researched health tips help you dust off those cobwebs clouding your body and soul so you come away refreshed and ready, once more, to relish life as you only should. Senior nutrition includes not only correct food choices and eating discipline, but also lifestyle changes that guide you to sweep over feelings of morbidity and depression that may have taken root because of death or divorce and invest fresh hope in life once again...

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New Study Links Insufficient Vitamin D To Severe Asthma Attacks

A new study, over a four-year period, conducted by researchers led by Dr. Augusto A. Litongua, associated with Harvard Medical School in Boston, links vitamin D insufficiency to severe asthma attacks in children. It suggests asthmatic children with relatively low vitamin D levels in their blood may be exposed to higher risk of suffering acute asthma attacks in comparison to those better stocked up on the vitamin. Vitamin D can be synthesized in the skin naturally on exposure to sunlight. However, extended winters and sun avoidance during summer may lead to vitamin D deficiency in many kids. Also, people with darker skin, like African Americans, evidence reduced efficiency in synthesizing vitamin D and are, hence, more at risk than whites. Moreover, overweight children as also adults appear to be more at risk of deficiency since lesser amounts of vitamin D, which is stored in body fat, can enter the bloodstream, where it can stay active.

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Countering Osteoporosis With Calcium-Rich Delicacies

Osteoporosis strikes as a debilitating affliction characterized by weakening of bones and can best be addressed by taking preventive actions. However, in the unfortunate event that you are already diagnosed with osteoporosis, there's hope still. Changing your diet by way of incorporating these calcium-rich foods to your diet is a smart and effective route to getting relief without unduly taxing your pocket. Besides, you have the added incentive of relishing these savory delights that can also potentially reverse a wide variety of conditions linked to osteoporosis. For example, food items like low-fat or non-fat dairy products and almonds can prove effective dietary supplements in preventing, or ameliorating the conditions brought on by, osteoporosis. In fact, exercising correctly and supplementing your diet judiciously count as some of the best ways of lessening the risk of osteoporosis.

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Relief From Back Pain

Is life getting increasingly difficult to deal with that constant back pain gnawing away at almost every moment of your hectic existence? In case you've been weighing the idea of giving up after trying any and every cure that came your way, there's fresh hope yet. Chronic back pain can set in typically because of poor posture, injuries, or muscle tension, and an alternative and more proactive approach is to try yoga. It can potentially arrest further injury and alleviate the discomfort of current back pain. Simply put, yoga helps you reconnect with yourself on the physical as well as mental plane. Your body responds with improved balance, posture and proper alignment, which in turn reduces the pain that's upsetting your lifestyle. The important thing is not to give up but maintain a consistent approach because what you receive in exchange for your efforts is indeed more precious - a fresh lease of life.

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Curbing Alcohol Dependence With Exercise

A new study, which is due to be published in the September 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigating the relationship between alcohol consumption and activity in hamsters, indicates that exercise might turn out as an efficacious alternative for reducing alcohol intake in humans. Alcohol abuse, marked by routine craving for and intake of alcohol and the inability to function normally without it, can upset the timing and consolidation of daily circadian rhythms - leaving the victim confused about when to sleep, eat, and mate. However, researchers found that hamsters induced into exercising more exhibited a reduced craving for alcohol. This suggests a promising and non-pharmacologic treatment option for alcoholism in humans. That apart, consistent exercise routines can also potentially scale down the risk of cardiovascular disease and mood disorders.

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Causes Of Obesity Other Than Food

Many Americans fight a losing battle every day to shed weight even after adhering to healthy diets and fitness programs. Although eating healthy and exercising do prove effective in losing weight for some people, there are several reasons for putting on weight that are quite independent of diet or exercise. Health experts have identified 9 reasons, which have nothing to do with food, responsible for keeping you stuck in a weight-loss plateau. Lack of sleep is one such factor and operates, according to a study by University of Chicago researchers, by decreasing the level of leptin, a hormone signaling your brain you’ve had enough food, and increasing the level of ghrelin, the “hunger” hormone. Depression is another major reason why people gain weight. This unfortunate condition encourages bingeing on “comfort foods” - foods high in sugar and fat - as well as seeking out a more inactive lifestyle.

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Living Afresh With Superfoods

The exacting lifestyle people have to pursue nowadays to maintain an acceptable standard of living often means less attention given to nutrition. These amazing superfoods can assuredly give your body that boost so you can again go about your life with renewed energy. Apples, rich in antioxidants, can well be classed amongst these wonder foods. A single apple, its skin included, can supply almost 20 percent of the recommended daily fiber intake for women. Go ahead and bite into this mouthwatering treat - keeps you off a bunch of life-threatening maladies like cancer, heart disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes and stroke. Although Red Delicious is the most common variety of apples in America, you do get a number of other types also like Jonagold, Gala, Braeburn, Ginger Gold and Honeycrisp. Apples are grown in all 50 states, so keep your eyes peeled for the ones to hit your local farmer's market.

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When Your Headache Needs Extra Attention

Headaches can be quite a bother at the very least. However, you need to learn whether to raise the red flag in some instances because certain headache types are symptomatic of deeper distresses that can potentially derail your life. In most cases, it's possible to get relief by proper rest, quietude and pain relievers. However, if headaches belong to a more sinister variety such as those that follow a head injury or that refuse to lapse even after standard medication, it's necessary to sit up and take notice. Did you know that a sudden headache that hits you like a thunderclap could mean something as disastrous a stroke? Dial 9-1-1 if you suddenly feel overwhelmed by an excruciating pain in the head that doesn't seem to let up. Prompt action in such instances can sometimes spell the difference between life and death and immediate medical attention might be able to avert an impending crisis.

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