From a young age, our parents drill dental hygiene into us on a daily basis. We must brush twice-daily, must attend dental appointments at least twice a year, and avoid sugary food where possible. However, with the increase of hidden sugar, and acid, in our everyday food, it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain healthy teeth and gums.

To help make your next dental visit a more pleasant experience, we’ve identified 10 of many everyday foods that are beneficial for your teeth and gum health.  If you are having trouble to get your kids to eat healthy then these tips may help. Read More

There’s a common misconception that all TV dinners, microwave meals and frozen dinners are unhealthy. Traditionally loaded with salt, fat and sugar, it’s easy to believe they all collectively fall into the same category.  And many can be not good for you and may increase the calories that you may not want.

However, as more and more families become time-poor, the need for nutritious, delicious, affordable and most importantly quick, dinners are on the rise. Therefore, food manufacturers are hearing the call and are delivering those nutritious meals that are needed to sustain a growing family and help with weight loss as well. Below we’ve listed five food combinations that make up delicious frozen meals the entire family will enjoy.

Thai Stir-fry

When you’re looking for a delicious stir fry that has plenty of vegetables and flavor, a Thai stir-fry is a must. Rich in vibrant Thai flavors, they often house plenty of colorful vegetables such as zucchini, broccoli, carrots, cabbage and bell peppers for nutritional value. The best part is, Thai stir fry takes just minutes to cook. Read More

Have you ever come across a friend or family member with a box of tissues, loudly proclaiming they have the flu? There’s a common misconception that a few sneezes, a sore throat and a running nose is a flu. However, this could not be further from the truth.

Within this article we will be outlining the symptoms for each, in order for you to differentiate between the two. That’s not to say both cannot be deadly in the right circumstances, but it can greatly help those who believe they are suffering from either one or the other.

The common cold

The common cold is an infectious viral disease that spreads through close contact with other sufferers, or indirectly through the mouth or nose when you’ve made contact with objects cold sufferers have touched.  Primarily, cold sufferers can experience coughing, a runny nose, sneezing, headaches, fever and a sore throat. If you suffer from other conditions, the risk of catching pneumonia as a result of the common cold is also much higher.

Often, the symptoms of a cold are actually not related to the cold itself, they are related to your body’s response to it. If you have a low or weakened immune system, your immune system is reacting to the infection rather than the infection attacking your body.

Unlike influenza (flu), there is no cure or vaccine for the common cold. You can take preventative measures such as staying away from friends and family suffering from a cold, and by washing your hands and being sanitary. You can also take over-the-counter medication to mask the symptoms, however there’s no evidence to say these actually cure the common cold. You must simply wait it out.

Influenza

Influenza is an often far more serious virus than the common cold, especially in the elderly or those with a weakened immune system. The key is to notice the symptoms and take action. You can either opt for over-the-counter medication if you are in general good health, or see your doctor. If you suffer from other illnesses, seeing a doctor can often be a good idea. This can help prevent further complications.

Symptoms include:

Fatigue – this is generally sudden and excessive. You may feel lethargic and unable to complete simple tasks.

Body aches and chills – your body can ache anywhere, and you can feel cold all of a sudden for no reason.

Cough – a persistent cough is a good indication that you’re coming down with the flu. As soon as you begin to experience shortness of breath, chest tightening, Asthma related symptoms or wheezing, see a doctor. This is especially important if you have asthma or any other chest-related illnesses or conditions. A simple cough as a result of the flu virus can lead to bronchitis and pneumonia.

Sore throat – this is generally as a result of the persistent coughing.

Fever – if your temperate measures 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, you may be suffering from a flu-related fever.

Gastrointestinal symptoms – this could include diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting.

Children can sometimes exhibit different symptoms to adults, such as:

• Refusing to eat or drink
• Irritability
• Minimal interaction
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Rash

Flu vaccines can help prevent the flu, but as there are several strains of the flu, you aren’t guaranteed to be protected against them all. However, you can greatly reduce the risk by ensuring you get your annual flu shot.

Although both the common cold and the flu can often be dealt with in the comfort of your own home, not everyone has the same symptoms or the same severity level. This means it’s essential you see your doctor if:

• You develop chest pain
• You can’t breathe properly
• You are severely dehydrated and are struggling to drink
• You are dizzy
• Your fever is worsening
• Your cough is worsening

Both colds and flus can be life-threatening, depending on the person and situation. It’s important you differentiate between the two, and take appropriate action.  An interesting fact about the common colds is that person will suffer much more when he or she is feeling lonely. This is according to the L.A Times.

Continuing from my last health article on healthy food choices, I wanted to write about a common ingredient in our household and it is salt!  Salt is known to be the most abundant and the important natural resource in the world. Something you would not want to miss in your meals because most of the food would taste unexciting and bland without it. Made of two chemical elements Sodium and Chloride, the salt plays an important role in the normal life of an average person. Salt naturally forms in the ocean, but it is also mined on the land from the mines.

However, salt goes way ahead of just the taste as there are different types of salts with unique properties and distinct benefits for your kitchen and home. Salts work in favor of responsive nerves and control the electrical impulses. Apart from taste and health, there are many ways people like to use salt to improve their live

• Removing stains and odors
• Brightening the laundry
• Preserving food
• To prolong plant life
• Ease out the sort throat
• De-icing driveways and sidewalks
• Acts as a great mouth wash (an alternative to using listerine)

You all must have noticed that salts come in different sizes, shapes, and color. Contradictory to the common belief, not all the commercial salts are same. There are different variety ranging in the taste delivery, texture, and mineral content. In this article, we will highlight the most commonly used salts.

Refined Table Salt

One of the most common types of salt in tabletops and kitchen cabinets is refined table salt. The salt was originally produced from evaporated sea water or salt mines and is characterized by the bleached and fine texture. Whenever you read the word refined, remember that it has been processed which means it has been modified from its original form. Table salt consists of dietary iodine that is important for many health benefits.

Benefits Of Table Salt:

• Full of essential electrolytes
• Maintains hydration and alkaline/acid equilibrium
• Helps the proper functioning of nervous system
• Chloride maintains the normal physiological activities

Harmful Effects Of Table Salts

• Unhealthy for people with kidney problems
• Increases blood pressure
• Not recommended for people with hypertension
• Can be a reason for cardiovascular diseases and strokes

Sea Salt

Sea water is evaporated to get the sea salt and is mostly used by people who have a deficiency of iron, potassium and zinc in their body. The texture of the sea salt is rough and the flakes are bigger in comparison to the normal salt. The sea salt is used by people togged rid of acne and various other skin related problems.

Benefits Of Sea Salt:

• Good For Healthy Skin (tips to fight dry skin)
• Helps in inducing sleep
• Prevents hair loss, muscle cramps and reduces acidity
• Helps in treating rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, osteoarthritis, etc.

Harmful Effects Sea Salt

• Presence of pollutants
• Traces of heavy metals like lead and mercury
• High dosage can put up your blood pressure leading to heart failure and stroke

Kosher Salt

Kosher salt, also known as rock salt, is a type of edible salt with a large grain size made from the salt crystals. This was used originally by the jewish people to take the blood out of the surface of the consumable meat. The coarse texture of the salt makes it perfect element for koshering the meat. Though the table salt and kosher salt are derived from the salt mines or through evaporation of the seas water but they both cannot be taken as same. The difference in both is that the kosher salt is not iodized which makes it a perfect ant-caking agent.

Benefits Of Kosher Salt

• Kosher salt has no additives or preservatives
• Preserves the blood vessels and reduces the chances of heart attacks
• Brings out natural flavour and also decreases the over all cooking time
• Helps in regulating muscle contractions with the help of calcium and minerals

Harmful Effects Of Kosher Salt

– Lack of iodine may lead to thyroid problems

Himalayan Salt

The Himalayan salt which is considered to be the purest from of salt, is derived from the Himalayan ranges. This salt was formed after the deposits of million years of marine fossils and is derived from old sea beds found in certain geographical regions around the world. This salt was used by natives of the Himalayas to keep their meat preserved and was also bartered for various other commodities in return. Presently the Himalayan salt is used for cooking, bathing, and air purification purpose.

Benefits Of The Himalayan Salt

• Improves the blood circulation and prevents Goitre
• Improves the functioning of the respiratory system
• Strengthens the bones and give aids to metabolism functioning
• Helps in increasing hydration and balances the pH to reduce the acid flux in the body

Harmful Effects Of Himalayan Salt

• Presence of Lead and Aluminium which may cause lethal toxicity
• Excessive intake leads to heart diseases, high blood pressure, and water retention

When we talk about selecting a healthy salt for your diet, do not get mistaken with the price. It is always better to use unprocessed salt over refined one because of the lower sodium content and higher essential minerals. Choose a suitable salt that fulfils your needs and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

The most difficult part of trying to eat well and make the healthy choices is that there are so many variables that we need to understand in order to have that happy life.  You have done everything from cutting sugars, carbs and sugar out of your diet still you feel that you’re missing something.  The good news is that you are on the right path but you still need to consume the calories needed for your body to function.  This is my issue because I was felt tired because I cut a lot of foods out of my diet but I didn’t add enough calories to my body.

You have to be careful as well on how much calories you consume in a day.  On average for a lady it is best to stick around 1200 cal per day in order to lose weight but to maintain your weight, it is best to hover around the 1500 cal.

The Surprise – Beware of these Foods

There is one food ingredient that got me by surprise as I thought it was minimal in calorie count and it’s that of peanut butter.  I like to spread it on my toast and it is indeed healthy for us especially for kids, but spreading one slice of toast amounts to 150 cal already.  And usually for the average human and I’m talk about you, we usually have at least two slice of toast right?  So the total amount for this peanut butter toast sandwich is around 300 cal.  I just want you to be aware of this especially for most spreads as they can add the calorie count.

From researching another article I was surprised to see that bread that is considered low-carb has apparently more carbs than your average mixed grain variety of bread.  Another interesting vegetable(*grow your own) or fruit as I’m not sure what category it fits in, is the avocado.  This popular ingredient has increased in popularity over the last couple years.  But did you know one avocado of the average size has over 300 cal ?  And sometimes we make dip in our household and we certainly use more than one avocado.  You can easily increase the calorie count without knowing it when you are putting avocado down your system.

Before I end this article I forgot to mention how much calories the average male need on a daily basis.  In order to maintain your weight as a male it is good to consume around 2500 cal.  And if you’re trying to lose weight, it is best to hover around the 2000 cal mark.  Understand that for both male and female there are so many variables to know and these calorie counts are used for the average person.  If you’re concerned or have question please consult with a specialist or your health physician.

I have several members of my family who suffer from asthma and I noticed that most of them or all of them, or quite overweight. I didn’t really think about it but reading this article online made a bit of sense.

Researchers in California discovered based on recent data that having asthma at a young age has a link to an increase of 50% of being over weight within the next decade of their life.

This stems from data of 2000 students from elementary school in the state of California. This result is quite substantial according to the senior author Dr. Gililand(Preventive Medicine Professor of Keck – Southern California).  A real data study unlike the last article I wrote about a broken heart(which btw I do believe because of stress).

Diagnosis

The interesting component is that kids who had asthma but had access to “Rescued” inhalers had the opposite effect of a lower risk of being obese within the next 10 years. Individuals with asthma have a narrow airway which can commonly be inflamed leading to asthma attacks. Many of the common symptoms are shortness of breath, tightness of the chest and constant coughing. The symptoms are usually triggered by physical activities or irritants/dust/pollution in the air. To be diagnosed with asthma, usually the patient has to go through a physical/laboratory examination (lung monitoring of air flow and measuring intake of air), looking at their medical history data, allergy/blood test and an x-ray of the chest area.

Connections between Weight Gain and Asthma?

The prevalence of asthma and being obese has shot up dramatically in the last decades and many researchers believe there could be a connection. Looking at older research, it was the other way around where obese kids had a very high prevalence of asthma. This means there could be a biological connection. Understand that the study looked that the Association of the two and not necessarily a direct effect and cause situation.

This means that it is possible the connection be that younger asthma patients usually do not spend a lot of time outdoors with their peers leading to having lesser physical activity. This could be the reason of the weight gain because of the symptoms of asthma usually being triggered by irritants in the air and physical activity. Another factor to add is that many of the side effects of the medication that asthma sufferers are prescribed leads to weight gain.

At the national level it has been prevalent that many physicians are seeing the link between obesity and asthma. In many cases, the main reason could be that the inactivity in asthma patients is a leading cause of weight gain in many of the younger individuals. The issue is how does a asthma suffer get their daily or weekly physical activities in? One solution is to understand and learn when your asthma is at its highest risk(seasonal?) in order to find the right timing to exercise. You will need to consult with your health advisor or physician for more information on better time management and developing a schedule system plan.

Here are a few some facts on asthma

• Children who are diagnosed with asthma usually happens before the the age of five.
• Current treatment can make life easier since there is no cure yet.
• It is estimated that they are over 200 million people affected with asthma.
• Most Asthma deaths occur 80% in lower income nation because of the lack of medicine and treatment.

It was a sad day for Star Wars fans when Carrie Fisher passed recently.  Days following her death, her mother Debbie Reynolds whom is a legendary actress also passed away.  Miss Reynolds was 84 years old and many have speculated she died of a broken heart after her loss of her daughter Carrie.  Now is this a real ailment and could she really die from?

If you look at many old Romance novels in history books in the past there has been many tales of people dying of a broken heart but medically is this possible?  If we look at it from a scientific point of view, we need to look at it as stress.

Scientific Answer?

The human body is really resilient and can handle stress really well because we can’t escape stress in our everyday life.  Stress can be caused by many factors such as ink stuck in traffic, paying bills, meeting work deadlines and making sure kids get to school.  The list goes on.  The way our body responds to those stress levels is controlled by a hormone that regulates our bodily functions.  This stress hormone helps us gets through many types of stress especially the high level ones such as losing a loved one.

Now if you look closely at the broken heart issue, it can be very real.  This is considered a serious issue especially if the person grieving is not healthy in the first place or of an older age.  It can increase the intensity in that person if he or she is suffering from other issues especially involving health.  When an individual is under a lot of stress there is a huge release of adrenaline that affects the blood and heart vessels.  It is yet understood very well but the current theory is the surge of adrenaline can cause the muscles of the heart to enlarge.  This makes the heart very inefficient at pumping our blood’s through her vessels.  Because of this, it can cause symptoms similar of having chest pains, asthma and even a cardiovascular attack.

The so-called broken heart syndrome, individuals usually make a full recovery in a couple of weeks.  There has been documentation of patient is dying but this is really rare.  It is serious when the individual is over the age of 50 like in the case of Carrie Fisher’s mother, or has other health issues such as depression or anxiety.  Overall there isn’t really a solid answer but the key is to live a positive life, eat well and exercise!

Sources:

• Princess Leia image
• health.com