Vitamin Supplements and Crohn’s Disease Patients

Crohn’s Disease is and IBD—Inflammatory Bowel Disease—that mainly affects the small intestine. It causes both chronic pain and diarrhea and is similar to ulcerative colitis, which causes ulcers in the intestinal lining. Crohn’s Disease affects both men and women and can show up in children of in later adulthood. No one is quite sure what causes Crohn’s Disease, but there are a variety of treatment options.

One of the main symptoms of Crohn’s Disease is vitamin D deficiency, because it is not absorbed regularly into the body due to the active inflammation in the intestines. Vitamin D is necessary to help regulate the amount of calcium in the body. You normally get vitamin D through the foods that you eat and the sun, which causes you to absorb vitamin D through the skin. However, for Crohn’s Disease patients, vitamin D supplement may need to be taken.

If you don’t get enough vitamin D in your system, osteomalacia is the result. Osteomalacia is a condition in which your bones are weaker than they should be. In children, this can cause rickets and in all age groups, osteomalacia means that you can very easily fracture your bones. If you add vitamin D supplements to your diet and spend more time in the sun, you should be able to get the levels of vitamin D your body needs to prevent this from happening.

Vitamin D supplements are usually not classified as drugs and can therefore be purchased over the counter at a pharmacy or health food supply store. However, just because they are not technically drugs doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use precaution when taking these supplements. First, ask a doctor if it is safe for you to take vitamin D supplements. Because of your Crohn’s Disease, you are probably taking other daily medications. Sometimes, a supplement can interact to cause side effects or decrease the potency. You should also ask your doctor how much you should be taking every day. Too much vitamin D leads to overdose or vitamin poisoning, which can lead to problems with your kidneys and liver. It is best to only take the recommended amount.

Crohn’s Disease may a difficult medical condition with which to live, but little things like vitamin D supplements can make life easier. Talk to your doctor today to learn how to make vitamin D supplements a part of your daily life routine to help battle Crohn’s Disease.

The Missing Ingredient for Good Health

Vitamin D Supplements

Vitamin D supplements can help to replenish the amount of vitamin D, which is a group of fat soluble vitamins, in your body if you aren’t getting enough during a normal day. The two major forms of vitamin D are D2 and D3. Some of these are produced when you are exposed to sunlight, which means that sunlight might be an important part of your vitamin D health.

The importance that Vitamin D supplements would play in your life relates to the way that several of your organs function. Vitamin D in general helps to regulate the calcium and the phosphorus levels in your blood. This happens because the Vitamin D actually promotes the way that the calcium and phosphorus are absorbed from the food into your intestines. It also helps the calcium be reabsorbed in your kidneys.

Another important factor that Vitamin D supplements would play in your body is that the Vitamin D is going to promote your bone formation, and the mineralization of the skeletal system. It also plays a big role in promoting the immune system and a big role in anti-tumor activity.

There are many forms of Vitamin D that can be found in the D supplements. The fact remains that the most important D vitamins that your body needs are D2 and D3. D2 is produced from fungus and from plant sources, and is not produced by the body. D3 is produced from animal sources, and it can be made in your skin when the right particles in your skin react with the ultraviolet light that comes from the sun.

Both kinds of Vitamin D are important in most mammals in order to create a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body. If you feel that you aren’t getting enough Vitamin D in your diet, a good thing to do would be to consult your doctor or a nutritionist and see what kind of vitamin supplements might help you in the long run. Remember that like with any kind of Vitamin, getting the right amounts of Vitamin D can be tricky and is very important. You don’t want too much, and you certainly don’t want too little. It might be hard for you to get just the right amount of Vitamin D, but this is where supplements can come in handy because they can help to regulate the amount of D that your body is getting each day. As long as you are sure to do this correctly, you are going to benefit from it.

The Missing Ingredient for Good Health

A Healthy Diet while Traveling

Sticking to a healthy diet while traveling can be one of the most difficult things to do in your life. However, if you learn how to make smart choices, a healthy diet is really not that difficult. This is probably not the best time in which to start a healthy diet, but if you are currently making healthy choices in your foods already, modifying your diet slightly to accommodate travel is not as it first may seem.

If you are traveling my airplane, a healthy diet may have to include airplane food, which can often be poor for your healthy, depending on the selection. When you book your flight, ask about your food options ask if a vegetarian dish is available. Vegatarian dishes are sometimes more nutritional in this case, but it really depends on what they will be serving. If you can, eat a larger meal before your flight so that you don’t have to eat the entire meal that is served to feel full.

When driving or taking a bus, you may be tempted to stop at fast food restaurants and eat the foods found there. Avoid this whenever possible! If you’re on vacation, you may wish to splurge a tiny bit, but having fast food more than one during a week can really be bad for your health. If you must, choose the healthiest options available, like chicken breasts and diet soda.

Also, remember that you can take your own food when traveling. Carrying a loaf of whole-wheat bread or pita wraps, some lean lunchmeat, and low-fat cheese in a cooler is a great way to avoid high-fat and high-cholesterol junk food meals. These are much better choices and you’ll save a lot of money as well. Call ahead to ask if there will be a refrigerator in your hotel room.

Lastly, make smart choices when you eat out. If you choose salads or pasta get the dressing on the side and ask about low-carb options. In fact, many places print these dieting options directly in the menu for the health-conscious people. Control your portions by ordering lunch menu sizes or splitting the meal in have and getting a doggie bag, and you’ll be well on your way to healthy eating, even away from home.

Yes, eating healthy foods when you travel can be a challenge. However, your health is worth it. When you eat good foods, you will also fight illnesses that you are likely to encounter when traveling and be more alert so that you can enjoy your trip.

Save Hundreds of Dollars on Your Next Vacation!

Nutritional Health in Sports

Nutritional health is very important. The nutrients that we take in are practically the reasons why we are healthy or why we are not. It could also be a grid to determine if we can eventually become sports superstars or not. Nutritional health may be the main reason why you are tall, strong and have the skills to be good in sports. This is also vital for having a strong mind and a healthy body because of the fact that these nutrients fuel almost all bodily functions.

In reality, many people fail to achieve a high level of nutritional health. Some reasons why they are not adequately nourished is because of their lack of information. Some people do not even know that what they are eating is bad for them. Some food also lack nutritional facts that they should have on their labels. And some just do not care at all.

People also have this misconception that what is tasty is good for your health. It is really hard to resist unhealthy food because of their availability on the market. Media also advertise more on unhealthy junk foods rather than healthy ones. Unhealthy food may be a reason for us to be fat. If you want to keep healthy, you must first get rid of unwanted fats and be fit as possible.

Some athletes also have low nutritional levels because of certain factors. One is poor understanding of sports nutrition principles. They think that eating many will make the healthy.

Nutritional requirements also differ among people depending on their training program and personal characteristics like age, sex and body type. Their failure to recognize these may also cause malnourishment as they may take too much or less of their nutrients required.

Some athletes also diet too much compromising their nutritional needs. Their lack of knowledge on nutritional facts also contributes to it. Their lack of time and opportunity to eat and the tendency to skip meals is also one reason. Overeating is also a factor of malnourishment because you might eat and take in a lot of fats and unwanted chemicals that may be unhealthy.

The sports nutritional health can be broken down into the foundation of what food is basically made of namely proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We should get optimum amounts of these types for more energy and more muscle gains. You can only lose more than one pound of fat per week if you exercise properly and eat the right food instead of starving yourself. Starving will only bring you malnourishment.

If you are losing fat quickly by starving yourself, over dieting and doing too much exercise, you may be at a risk of slowing down your metabolism and your body might start using the glucose found in your muscles as a source for energy. That is why losing weight bit by bit for a long period of time instead of losing weight quickly is much more preferable.

There are toxins found in our fatty tissues and when we loose fat, these toxins are released back into our body. Losing too much fat in a short period of time means that you are releasing more amounts of toxins into the body causing us to be sick.

On your diet, try to avoid eating food with too much saturated fat because they are bad fats and will make you gain more weight. What you should do is to ingest unsaturated fats of the good fat because it will help you lose weight.

By eating good oils like deep-water fish oil, flax seed oil and linseed oils, you are actually aiding yourself as it rids your body of fatty deposits helping you lose more fat. This weight loss program actually takes a lot of time so only take measurements every two months to give you a better look on how your are progressing on keeping fit and sexy and how much fat you are actually losing.

I discourage you on taking those commercial diets because they will only set you up for failure and disappointment. These diets make you lose fat so quickly that when you try to start eating again more than you did while on diet, you will gain weight very fast. You should look for a way to lose weight in a slow and realistic rate.

Here are some tips: First is to stay away from white sugar and all other natural sweetener. You should also stay away from simple sugars and take in slowly digested complex carbohydrates. Eat food high in fiber in order to detoxify. And lastly, exercise. The right combination of exercise and nutrients will give you a high level of sports nutritional health.

Links for further reading:
Free book about supplement company secrets
Free book about fat loss and muscle buinding recipes

Can Delicious Snacks Actually Be Good For You?

Remember sneaking into the kitchen when you were young to steal a snack when mom was not looking? Well, those days might be over if ex-bodybuilding champion Carolyn Hansen gets her way. She has come up with a set of 100 snack recipes that will have mothers everywhere positively encouraging their children to dig in.

The reason? The ingredients. No sugar, flour, or butter to be found in these recipes - just raw healthy foods that Hansen likes to call living. No cooking either, which makes preparation a snap. All a mom need be proficient with in the kitchen to keep her kids satisfied is a blender. That's the conclusion Carolyn Hansen reaches in her book 100 Healthy Raw Snacks And Treats.

At first glance you might be tempted to think that snacks prepared without sugar and butter might taste like the experimental designs that mom came up with in your youth when she ran low on those items and could not get to the store. If you share the same memories of those bold snack alternatives that I do you might be quick to dismiss the idea of a tasty snack that foregoes the ingredients that we know contribute to chronic disease in later life. Too much sugar and butter in the diet are prime causes of obsesity, diabetes, and coronary disease.

Carolyn Hansen knew this when she went into her kitchen years ago to find alternatives to the snacks she found so difficult to remove from her diet. As a competiting bodybuilder she was determined to find a way to keep herself from ruining her progress in the gym by binging on unhealthy snacks when her willpower wore down.

At first the going was difficult. It turns out that there are a lot of things to take into account when you begin throwing out the staple ingredients of recipes thousands of years old. There were a lot of missteps along the way. But Carolyn perservered, and in the end she came up with snacks that she could share with her bodybuilder friends. Snacks that you can share with your family and friends and know that you are contributing to the maintenance of their health, not only today but for years to come.

So, if you want to get your hands on recipes for snacks and treats that you will not need to feel guilty about eating the next time you have a craving for something delicious, be sure to check out Carolyn Hansen's book 100 Healthy Raw Snacks And Treats, where she shows you how to take control of your blender and churn out mouth-watering snacks that will have the kids in your neighborhood lined up around the block for a sample.

Free book of 20 healthy raw snacks and treats

(This blog post has been made in co-operation with 100 Healthy Raw Snacks and Treats)

Natural Sports Nutrition: Diet for Champions

They say that great artists are made, not born. The same could also be said for athletes. Of course, genetics plays a large part in differentiating a mere athlete from a sports champion, but to be able to attain that legendary status in the Hall of Fame, an aspiring sportsman must go through the strictest of diets that will help shape and strengthen the physique.

By drinking sufficient amounts of water and consuming a balanced diet, the body can generate a lot of energy which will greatly help in boosting for top athletic performance.

What are the factors to be considered in designing a complete and healthy natural sports nutrition program?

1. Hydration

Obviously, the most important thing in natural sports nutrition is water. The significance of water can never be discounted because the human body is composed of sixty percent of it, and every bodily function cannot work without water. The good old eight-cups-of-water-a-day recommendation is essential because the body must replace the water it eliminates, like sweat and urine.

Here are some helpful reminders to maintain proper hydration:
-Instead of slugging humongous amounts of water in infrequent sittings, drink small portions in frequent durations.
-Cold beverages aid the body in cooling down body temperature, therefore cutting down the amount of sweating.
-One should drink 2-3 cups of water for every pound that the body losses after exercising.

2. Sources of Fuel

A balanced diet is another must for natural sports nutrition. Athletes must acquire the perfect combination of calories that can be consumed from protein, carbohydrates and fats, which are great sources of energy.

Carbohydrates are the most important fuel source, which can be found in foods such as breads, pastas, rice, fruits, veggies and cereals. These foods can supply the body about seventy percent of the needed daily calories. Carbs provide the body the power and endurance it needs for short-duration activities that involve maximum level of intensity. This fuel comes from the energy given by sugar and starches that the body converts.

Here are strategies to maximize the potential of carbs:
-Start loading up on carbs at least several days before prior to the competition.
-Carbs should be consumed in greater amounts in the duration of activities that lasts more than one hour to fend off the onset of fatigue.

Another imperative factor in natural sports nutrition is proteins. Athletes should eat lots of dairy, eggs, meats, fish and chicken, along with nuts and beans. Protein supplies as much as fifteen percent of calories in the body. To determine the amount of protein needed by an athlete, the following factors should be considered: his fitness level, the type of exercise along with its duration and intensity, and his overall carb and calorie intake.

The last fuel source that is important for natural sports nutrition is fats. There are two kinds: saturated and unsaturated. Although it is a significant component in nutrition, the intake of fats should be strictly monitored. Too much consumption of fats may lead to major health problems such as cancer and heart disease.

The road to sports excellence is not easy. Along with fostering courage and determination, athletes have to follow the strict regimen brought on by natural sports nutrition. But all of these will be worth the trouble once victory is achieved.

Links for further reading:
Free book about supplement companies
Free book about fat loss and muscle building recipes

Some All Natural Remedies for Children

If your child shows signs of a mild illness, there are some all natural things you can do to ease their symptoms.

For a mild cold, keep him hydrated because the increase in fluids will break up the mucus causing the congestion. Saline nasal drops and a cool mist humidifier can also help clear nasal congestion. For young children who don’t know how to blow their noses, use a bulb syringe to help clear out that mucus.

For fever, use wet cloths on the forehead or under the arms to bring down the temperature. You can also place your child in a lukewarm bath; not cold enough to send them into chills but not hot enough to scald their skin.

What You Don’t Know Can Kill You: Health Insurance Limitations

Health insurance often requires a mountain of paperwork that has a lot of fine print. Unfortunately, this means that few people read their plans thoroughly nor do they fully understand what their plan covers or does not cover. Here are some common limitations in health insurance coverage that you should know.

Some of the most shocking health insurance limitations are found in the the fine print holes in the insurance policy. For instance, many people have found that their health insurance did not cover a routine or necessary medical procedure because they did not receive an authorization code prior to the procedure or the hospital did not correctly fill out the paperwork. Your medical claim can be denied simply because the hospital used odd codes for your treatment. While any claims denied by the insurance company can be disputed, this process is not only tedious, but time-consuming and draining, especially for someone who is already ill. There is also little success in winning disputed claims, which makes this option rather limiting.

Another surprising health insurance limitation happens more often than people realize. Imagine this situation: you are diagnosed with a medical condition and need an operation. You research surgeons and hospitals within your plan. You understand your plan’s coverage of hospital care. You have your operation and then you find a massive medical bill in the mail. Apparently your health insurance did not cover the anesthesiologist or other specialists that may have consulted in your operation. Thus, you have to pay these specialists for their services, even though you were under the impression that your plan would cover these costs associated with the surgery. Such a bill can be in the thousands of dollars, and there is little you can do to dispute the charges. The only way to avoid these charges is to make sure that you ask before the operation who will be involved and ensure that they are covered in your health insurance plans.

Other limitations are put on a number of treatments. For instance, you may need physical therapy or visits to a psychiatrist. Many health insurance plans will put a limit on the number of covered visits for such medical treatment. Without realizing it, you may surpass the maximum visits allowed by your health insurance and end up racking up huge bills.

Many people think that buying health insurance will cover them medically, but this is only correct to a point. When securing insurance, you should read through your health insurance package carefully, and when you are about to undergo any expensive medical procedure, be sure to consult your health insurance plan first.

Links for further reading:
Free book about health insurances

Nutrition For The Elderly

Nutrition and healthy eating for the elderly depends upon several factors. The bodies of the elderly have undergone a number of changes. Bones and muscles have given way to fat because of the inactive condition of hormones.

Several factors have an effect of the health and well being of the elderly. Here is some nutritional information that will be of great help to you irrespective of your age.

Water

The body's water content decreases as its becomes older, which is reason why the elderly often suffer from dehydration. The elderly should bear this point in mind and regularly drink at least an ounce of water for every 2.2 pounds of body weight.

Protein

Protein is essential for the elderly. They need it to maintain a healthy immune system and to prevent muscles from wasting away. At the same time, they do not need that much of energy. Foods such as eggs, chicken, meat, and fish, which are low-fat sources of proteins, are very much essential for the elderly.

Carbohydrates and Fiber

The entire body obtains its energy from carbohydrates. Bread, pasta, cereals, and other grains are rich in carbohydrates. You can prevent constipation by taking a diet that is rich in water and fiber.

Fat

The diet of older people should be low in fat, not fat free. You can limit your fat intake by including lean meat and low-fat diary products. As far as possible, do not fry your food in oil.

Iron

Iron deficiency is common among elderly people who do not eat much. Such people should eat plenty of breakfast cereal or red meat.

Zinc

Elderly bodies find it difficult to assimilate zinc. You should take fish, poultry, and meat in order to satisfy the zinc requirements of your body.

Calcium

Most elderly people hardly get enough of calcium. The elderly require at least 1,500 mg of calcium per day.

Many of the elderly avoid drinking milk out of fear that it might upset their digestive processes. If you are averse to milk, you could use nonfat milk powder instead of milk. You can also obtain the calcium you require from foods such as low-fat cheese, broccoli, and yogurt.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is usually absorbed by an intrinsic factor in the stomach. Many of the elderly suffer from Vitamin B12 deficiency because they suffer from atrophic gastritis, a medical condition characterized by inflammation of the walls of the stomach, growth of bacteria, and lack of the intrinsic factor that is responsible for the absorption of this vitamin into the system.

The elderly need each of the above nutritive elements to keep themselves in a healthy condition. The elderly should be as active as possible and take a good balanced diet. The elderly body may not be what it once used to be; this does not mean you have a reason to neglect it. You should take enough nutrition to enjoy a long and healthy life.

How to Improve Stability and Prevent Falls

Senior And Life Solutions For Health Care And Wellness

How To Make Your Child Eat Healthy

The modern world, with its innumerable fast food joints, can really wreck a child's health and well-being. Due to the growing popularity of fast foods, parents find it very difficult to inculcate healthy eating habits in a child. Foods that are cheap and easily prepared are usually not good for health. In spite of this obvious fact, a child, when given a choice between fast food and healthy food, will invariably choose fast food.

Getting a child to enjoy healthy food is next to impossible, but there is no harm trying. You will have to use your creative powers to the maximum because it is not really that easy to make a child eat healthy food. You could try some of these ways to make your child eat healthy food.

Use Fruits and Vegetables to Make Your Child's Favorite Dishes

You might not be successful in making your children understand the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. But they will surely appreciate you if you make muffins out of apples or bananas or put a generous dose of spinach on their favorite pizza.

Rename Fruits and Vegetables

Children love it when you give funny names to usual fruits and vegetables. For instance, you could call broccoli "trees." Renaming fruits and vegetables thus make them more interesting to eat. Children enjoy eating food that has unusual names.

Experiment with Food

Modify recipes so that you come out with exciting dishes. For instance, you could top broccoli with ranch dressing and celery with peanut butter. Vegetables can be combined in any number of ways to make them taste great. You can even permit your children to select a topping for a vegetable of his or her choice, even if you don't really appreciate your child's taste.

Create Funny Designs

Children enjoy food that looks attractive. Make your dishes look as exciting as possible. Make humorous designs on your plate or pile them up in such a way that they look like animals or human beings. While some people don't like playing with food in this manner, it sometimes helps to make the child eat healthy.

You have just looked at a few ways of making healthy food interesting for your child. Children normally don't like food that is good for their health. But, if you can make healthy foods look and sound as attractive as fast foods, there is every chance that your child will learn to eat and appreciate fruits and vegetables throughout his or her life.

Even The Busiest Parent Can Reduce The Amount Of Refined Sugar In Their Childs Diet

General Holistic Health Tips, vol 4

Try hypnosis. There are many different schools of hypnotherapy, however all center around the idea of using altered states of consciousness to help you find and resolve issues within yourself. The primary goal of hypnosis is to be a short-term therapeutic process that can help the patient to find a deep issue that they have been unable to realize in their conscious mind so that they can begin to find a solution to the problems that they are facing.

Lose weight or stop smoking with hypnosis. There are many programs available that offer assistance to people who want to lose weight or stop smoking, but who have been unable to remove psychological obstacles that are standing in their way. Generally, in only a few sessions, the patient will become receptive to the hypnosis and will begin to see results quickly. It is important to find a reputable program and hypnotherapist who can demonstrate proven results from their techniques.

Banish disease through acupuncture therapy. Acupuncture is a form of Chinese medicine that focuses on freeing energy channels within the body in order to allow for healing and pain relief. Asthma sufferers can find great relief from chronic symptoms through this therapy, as have arthritis sufferers and others dealing with chronic illness. Every therapist will have a different approach, and you might do well to try several therapists to see whose technique works best for you.

If you believe in your body’s ability to heal itself, try osteopathy. Osteopathy is commonly regarded as an excellent way to strengthen the body after an injury, however it is also known as an excellent treatment option for those with headaches, digestive disorders and several other health problems. The intent of an osteotherapist is to correct problems with the skeleton in order to alleviate or prevent illness and injury.

Try a homeopathic approach to ADD. ADD is becoming one of the most commonly issued diagnoses among young children and adolescents today. Unfortunately, the treatment options are limited and most include the use of strong medications with terrible side effects. A better approach might be to treat only the symptoms that are present, and to treat in order to prevent the appearance of new symptoms. Homeopathic treatment includes not only natural medicines, but psychological counseling as well. The goal is to treat the patient, and not the disease. There are many traditional physicians who will work with you to develop a homeopathic treatment plan, and many holistic physicians who specialize in this type of treatment.

Get real allergy relief. If you suffer from allergies, you already know the frustration of treatments that just don’t work. Sure, they may mask symptoms for a while. But, they are not going to provide lasting relief. Homeopathic allergy treatment is different because instead of treating the symptoms, the goal is to strengthen the body to a point where it can resist the allergens that are behind the symptoms. While there are treatments available for the symptoms, a patient can expect to be given medications that make their immune system build upon itself to create a natural defense.

Listen to more music. Sound therapy is becoming commonplace in homes with newborn infants and older adults. There are many benefits of sound therapy including calming and increasing the patients sense over overall well being. Find a soft music that you enjoy, and try playing it at the lowest possible volume in a quiet room. You will find that before too long, if you are quiet and relaxed, that you hear the music as though it were at full volume.

Become familiar with aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is a simple way to change your daily life. Through the use of essential oils, it is possible to get access to wonderful therapeutic results. Aromatherapy has been a popular holistic health topic for thousands of years, and many people will tell you that the promised benefits are completely accurate. For example, consider placing a few drops of Rosemary oil on a cotton ball and dabbing it on your forehead during a headache. Or, consider placing a drop of lavender oil on the light bulbs in your bedroom for enhanced relaxation during sleep. Consult a pharmacist, holistic specialist or a book on essential oils to determine if one or more could help you to improve your well-being.

Visit an aromatherapist. If you are interested in working with a holistic therapist who deals with aromatherapy on a daily basis, consider an aroma massage with an aromatherapist. The therapist will create a custom oil blend for your visit, according to how you are feeling and your emotional state at the time of the visit. Then, they will use a soft massage technique to apply the oils to your body. You should begin to see the benefits immediately, and you should discuss what you should do for the next day or two in order to enhance the effects of the massage and oils even more.

Perform an act of love. Many holistic healers claim that there is no more powerful medicine than love and that simply giving or receiving affection such as a hug can raise the spirits and begin to heal the body. If you are suffering from grief of some sort, love may be all that you need to start healing.

Nourish your soul. Just like the mind and body, the soul also needs nourishment to continue to grow and develop. Your soul is what provides you with energy and vitality. Every one has different soul food, however most find that their soul is nourished by a walk outdoors or spending time with friends and family.

Ask your soul what it needs. If you take the time to listen to your inner voice, your soul will tell you what it needs. It is important to take the time to listen; otherwise you can lose your soul and not be able to find out what it is that you are missing. Just a few moments of quiet each day, and you are bound to learn something that can change your life.

Make your bedroom only for sleep. In today’s busy world, there is a tendency to turn the bedroom into a home office and multipurpose room. This is not recommended, as the bedroom should be instilling a sense of relaxation and restfulness.

Get better sleep. Do your best to avoid stress and exertion within an hour of your bedtime. Consider having a cup of chamomile tea before bed, or using lavender infused oil in order to help induce a sense of relaxation. Try to get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, to maintain healthy sleep habits.

Eliminate the cause of health problems before trying to treat the symptoms. So, for example if you are suffering from indigestion it makes more sense to eliminate the foods that are causing the problem than it does to take medication after the pain starts. Holistic healers are looking to heal the whole body, and therefore it is believed that first you stop doing the things that are harming you, and then you replace those things with nutrients, etc. that are better for you. This can apply to the body, the mind or the soul.

Links for further reading:
Truth About Hypnosis
Free book about hypnosis for newbies
Free book about insomnia and sleep disorders
Women's Fitness Beyond 40 - Holistic Approach

Is Plastic Surgery Right for You?

Cosmetic surgery, which is sometimes known as plastic surgery is a craze that has been sweeping the nation—and the world—for many years. There are both advantages and disadvantages to cosmetic surgery, which you must consider carefully before deciding if it is right for you. Cosmetic surgery can be very successful, but it is not for everyone. Is cosmetic surgery right for you? That is a question that only you, along with a medical professional, can answer.

First, consider the reasons why you are getting cosmetic surgery. In most cases, the main reason simple is to look better, hence the name cosmetic surgery. Many people think that the term plastic surgery implies that you are fake and somehow made of plastic. However, the term really comes from the Greek word meaning to reshape, and it have no connection to the word plastic that means the material. That said, some people believe that plastic surgery gives you an unnatural appearance. This can be true or false, depending on the surgery being done. Plastic surgery can also help to clear up other health problems as well, although this is not as common.

If you are considering plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons, you should first consider how severe your specific problems are. Do you feel embarrassed to interact with other people? Is your appearance causing you to avoid social situations? In these cases, plastic surgery should be able to help you. However, if you are simply worried about small things that have little effect on your daily life, like a bump on your nose, you may be able to save money and not put your health at risk by learning to accept the bump and live with it. On the other hand, if you were in a major accident and your face was disfigured, you might not want to leave your house unless you go through with plastic surgery. Think about the process carefully before deciding. This is different for every person, but consider your options wisely.

Money is another thing you should consider. Most types of plastic surgery are not covered by insurance, which means that you’ll have to pay for them out of pocket. In some cases, some of the costs may be covered, but you will usually have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for plastic surgery. If this isn’t possible for you, plastic surgery may not be the answer.

Finally, it is important to talk to your doctor about the health risks involved. For example, with breast implants, you run the risk of infection or your body rejecting the foreign object and attacking it. This can happen with any kind of plastic surgery where you use inorganic material to improve the shape of your body. If you are truly interested in plastic surgery, it is important to learn about all of the risks before you go through with the procedure.

Get Lean, Sculpted & Younger-looking Face - Naturally Without Surgery

What’s not to Love? The Benefits of Aerobics

There are more benefits of aerobics for your body that you could possibly count. All over the world today, people are talking about new and better ways to work out, because all over the world the health rates of people are falling into very dangerous territories. That means that doctors and other health care professionals have been talking about the benefits of aerobics for some time. You too can cash in on this get kind of exercise.

There are simply too many benefits of aerobics to mention quickly. However, there are a few that stick out as very important. For instance, the best way that you can make sure you are living a healthy life is to get your heart rate pumping, and the absolute best way to get your heart rate going is to find something that you can do like aerobics, that requires constant movement without any resting In order to be really and truly healthy, you have to be able to have a constant movement and to get your heart rate going for a length of time. Allowing your hear to keep going a higher rate than resting for a set amount of time is one of the best ways to get healthy, because this delivers blood and oxygen to each part of your body at an even faster rate.

There are also many more benefits of aerobics that you might not have even realized. Besides for making your heart and lungs strong, aerobics makes all of your muscles stronger because you have to keep them moving for longer periods of time without stopping. This means that no matter what part of your body you are concentrating your aerobics on working, you’re going to find that you are getting stronger and stronger as time goes on.

You should talk to a doctor if you are interested in getting a full list of the benefits of aerobics, but know right away that there are many. Before you begin an aerobics routine, however, you should be sure that you are talking to your doctor, because there are some people who need to work their way up to a full fledge routine because of other health issues. Be sure that you have the green light from your doctor so you can get started on getting the benefits of aerobics straight to yourself! You will never feel so healthy as when you are working out and taking care of yourself, and getting into an aerobics routine is the best way for you to accomplish this.

Workout Without Working Out

Eating Healthy On A Budget

Do you feel that the price of healthy food is just too high for your budget? Here are a few tips to help you purchase healthy food well within your budget.

Shop Alone

You might have noticed that if you go shopping for food with your children and, sometimes, your spouse, you end up buying a lot of junk food. Shop alone to prevent this. In addition, make sure that you are the only one in the family to purchase food.

Avoid Soft Drinks

Instead of purchasing soft drinks, purchase milk. You can enjoy your favorite fizzy drinks on special occasions and, even then, buy the smallest package available to save money and prevent weight gain. Adults and children alike require milk and other dairy products daily. Dairy products give you the calcium that you need to get strong teeth and bones.

Buy Fruits in Their Season

During their respective seasons, purchase fruits in large quantity and freeze whatever is left over. Wash the fruit, discard any spoilt pieces, dry the fruit, and freeze it in huge plastic zipper bags. You can use the frozen extras when the season has come to an end.

Purchase Plenty of Beans and Meat

Eating plenty of beans and meat is absolutely necessary for the protein they contain. Lean meat is expensive while fatty meats are inexpensive. You can purchase canned beans to get a lot of protein at low cost.

Beans can also serve as a substitute for meat. They come in a number of varieties and you can make a delicious bean dish in a crock pot so that it will be ready for consumption by the time you return home from work.

According to the USDA, you should eat at least four servings of beans per week. If eating too many beans gives you gas problems, try this method: wash the beans, cover them with water, boil the water along with the beans, drain off the water, and then refill the pot.

Include Fish in Your Diet

If you reside in one of the coastal towns, you could make fish a major part of your diet. Catch fish in rivers or lakes. This will ensure that you get plenty of fish free of charge and also have some fun.

Use Peanut Butter

Using peanut butter does not strain your budget in the least. Moreover, almost everybody loves peanut butter. Instead of wrecking your body with hot dogs, you could eat peanut butter sandwiches. You don't have to put peanut butter in the fridge, and the larger jars can last for weeks.

Eat Water-rich Foods

Eating water-rich foods, such as salads, watermelon, as well as gelatin without sugar, is very beneficial to health.

You cannot make mistakes about eating healthy food. You don't even have to spend extra on healthy food. You will discover that you don't have to spend a large amount of money on gaining that healthy, slim body you have always longed for.

Links for further reading:
Free book about family budget
A Simple, Step-by-step System For Shopping, Cooking & Eating The Worlds Healthiest Foods

Nine Facts About Fiber

Looking for a diet that is high on octane, then you will happy to know that fiber is exactly the thing you need. People do not take this nutrient seriously even though research shows that it is powerful.

Here are nine important facts about fiber that will help you to fuel your health.

1. Fiber is a natural fighter of diseases. Diet that is rich in fiber helps in the prevention of colon cancer and diseases of the heart. Fiber also helps in the elimination of cholesterol by the action of binding it to the digestive tract. Fiber also helps in stopping constipation.

2. Fiber also helps in cooling of the body when it is over-heated. High fiber foods usually take longer to chew, thereby longer to digest and hence make you feel satisfied for a longer period of time.

3. The content of fiber in popular foods is very less. If you are used to depending on popular food then it is time to start increasing your fiber content.

4. Grains have the most content of fiber. The best sources of fiber are concentrated grain products and whole grains.

5. It is essential for kids to have fiber. Children older than two years should necessarily include fiber in their diet as they are the most receptive towards fiber in fruits, fortified breakfast cereals and vegetables.

6. More the intake of fiber more is the intake of water. For fiber to move through the digestive tracts a lot of water is needed. When a diet rich in fiber is consumed a minimum of eight glasses per day are required per day.

7. The health benefits of fiber are not lost during cooking. While cooking fruits and vegetables there is no need to worry about losing the fiber content. The fiber found in these fruits and vegetables isn't only in the skin.

8. Fiber must not be taken beyond a certain limit. A person must take more than 50 gms per day as this may lead to diarrhea and bloating and also interferes with the absorption of other minerals.

9. It is not hard to get the required amount of fiber content in your diet, even though the mis-conception is that, it is hard to get enough fiber into the diet. To get the right amount all you need to do is to eat the right kind of foods.

When you are determined to achieve a healthy lifestyle, eating fiber is something you do not want to miss as it serves more than one different purposes, most of which have been covered above.

Merrills Natural Health Daily Fiber Non-Diet Plan

Dear Diary

When you’re trying to lose weight, one of the smartest and easiest steps you can take is to keep a food diary. A food diary is just like what it sounds—a notebook in which you record your daily food intake. You can track of a number of things in your food diary or you can keep it simple, but in either case, this is a great way in which to help yourself stick to a weight loss plan.

There are a number of pieces of information you can record in your food diary. First, consider just listing your daily menu. This will help you actually see what you eat on any given day and notice patterns of unhealthy eating that you never considered before. Some like to also record calories, protein, fiber, fat, and other nutrients. Portion size may be recorded as well. If you truly want to use diary format, you can also list the reasons you’re eating other than hunger, the cravings you experience, and your feelings about your diet on any given day. It’s your diary, so do what is right for you.

When you start a food diary, keep in mind that you don’t have to keep a traditional journal by the bed with a lock and key. You can use whatever kind of recording and writing tools you like best. For some people, the traditional journal or just a plain notebook works fine. You can also keep a food diary on your computer. Simply open up a word processing program and keep the icon on your desktop. Others like to use Excel or other data entry programs, which help quiet a lot when it comes to adding totals at the end of the day. Yu can keep your food diary on a laptop or palm pilot, or slip a notebook into your bag during the day—whatever works best for your lifestyle.

Remember to update your food diary very day and review it at the end of each week in order to track your progress. You may wish to note in your diary when you hit certain weight loss goals or when you gain weight in order to look for causes. You can show your diary to professionals to make sure that you are staying healthy as well. Food diaries work great for many people, so you should consider starting one today in order to lose the most weight possible.

Weight Loss Transformation - Audio Coaching Program!!!

Kinds of Vitamins: A General Overview

There are many different kinds of vitamins that can help your body. These vitamins, along with the essential minerals, which can also be called micronutrients, are things that your body needs, in small amounts, which promote good biochemical reactions within your body and within your cells. They make you grow right, help you digest your food, make you more mentally alert and more mentally sound, help you to be resistant to infectious diseases, and help your body to use carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Also, vitamins and minerals are catalysts in your body, which speed up or initiate chemical reactions. The difference between the vitamins and the proteins you get from food is that you don’t burn up the vitamins, so you can’t use them for energy.

Because your body does not make most vitamins and minerals directly, you have to get them from food sources or from vitamin supplements. If you aren’t getting enough of a certain vitamin or mineral for a long period of time you can get a specific disease or condition. This will usually be fixed when the vitamin or mineral is re supplied to your body.

Basically, there are 13 vitamins. Four of them are fat-soluble and nine of them are going to be water soluble. The ones that are fat-soluble can be stored in your body fat and also stored in certain organs such as your liver. The water-soluble vitamins do not get stored in your body in large amounts.

The vitamins that are fat soluble, which means that you can store them in your body for a long time, include A, D, E and K. These dissolve in lipids and require bile in order to be absorbed. They are also stored in tissues, and if you have too many of them they can be toxic to you.

The water-soluble vitamins are going to be C and eight of the B vitamins. These are thiamine, which is B1, Riboflavin, which is B2, niacin, pyridoxine, which is B6, pantothenic acid, which is B5, vitamin B12, biotin and folic acid. These dissolve in water, so if you are cooking or washing, the vitamins might actually be washed out of the food. They are easily absorbed and excreted, and are not stored very much or often in your tissues. These vitamins are seldom going to reach toxic levels.

All of these vitamins are found in food, but if you aren’t able to get the food that you need in order to get the vitamins, you are going to have to turn to nutritional supplements to make sure that you are getting all of the vitamins and minerals that your body is going to need.

The Missing Ingredient for Good Health

History of Supplements

Vitamins and nutritional supplements have been around for quite some time. They represent a multi-billion dollar business for each year, and each year the business simply gets bigger. Their success is due in part to the fact that people have been constantly searching for ways to get themselves more healthy and more in control of their lives for some time. Many people all over the world now rely on vitamin and nutritional supplements taken daily in order to get the vitamins and minerals that they need to get in their lives.

Even though people have been turning to vitamins and mineral supplements for a long time, they have become more and more popular since 1994, which is when Congress voted to change the Food and Drug Administrations regulations of nutritional supplements. Since then, the industry has boomed, meaning that every mall and store in America has vitamins and minerals pretty much at anyone’s disposal. People all over are looking towards self-medicating with vitamins and minerals in order to be healthy. The good thing about it is that they are trying to be healthy. Some problems might arise when people realize that they don’t know a lot about vitamins and minerals, and without a doctor to prescribe them, it might not be as easy to be healthy as they at first thought.

When taken correctly, and when taken by the right people at the right time in their lives, there can be a lot of benefit to vitamins and minerals being taken as supplements. As long as people don’t overdo it, there is really no harm in taking the vitamins that are needed for good body growth and for good cell growth.

However, even today there are arguments within the medical community about whether or not vitamin supplements are really important and whether or not people should be taking them for their health. The fact of the matter is that they contain things that are good for our bodies, but these things might be already coming from somewhere, so having too much of them might actually be harmful. This is where the speculations lie about whether or not they are good for you.

In order to really know if vitamin and mineral supplements are going to benefit your family, you should check with your local doctor. He or she will be able to give you the information that you need to make educated conclusions about the usefulness of vitamins and minerals for you.

Links for further reading:
Free book about supplement company secrets
The Missing Ingredient for Good Health

Government Regulation

It is often hard to see how the government can regulate what we do and do not do. In the world of what we put into our bodies, there are several things that come into play. First of all, the government can regulate what we put into our bodies if these are things that are deemed illegal substances. Some of the substances that are regulated might be more harmful than others, and indeed some of the substances that are not regulated by the government might be more harmful than the ones that are. However it is hard to draw the line when it comes to government regulations regarding things such as vitamin and mineral supplements.

Usually, a government in most countries in the world can regulate things that we put into our bodies that are labeled drugs. Because most of the vitamin and mineral supplements that we can get to put into our bodies are labeled simply under the food category, they can get away with not being regulated by governments.

What this means for you is that you are not going to be able to rely on the government when it comes to making sure that the nutritional supplements you are putting into your body are safe. When it comes to most drugs, you can know that the government has tested them and has deemed them safe for you to consume. However, when supplements and vitamins are labeled food, this means that the manufacturer of them is responsible for how safe they are. This means that you are going to have to put your trust and faith in the company that made the supplements to make sure that it is safe for you to take.

The fact remains that when a supplement is sold, there really is no regulation that says that it has to have been tested and been proven to be safe, or even useful. It also means that if there are illnesses or injuries that result from taking certain supplements, the manufacturers are not responsible for telling the public the details.

What it means for you is that when you are deciding to use vitamin and mineral supplements, it is up to you to make sure that you are using them correctly. You have to take responsibility to make sure that what you are putting into your body is safe, because no one else is going to do it for you. If you have any questions about what kinds of supplements that you should be taking, you should consult your doctor and create a plan for your best possible nutritional information.

Links for further reading:
Free book about health insurances and health savings accounts
Free Government Grants

General Holistic Health Tips, Vol 3

Pay attention to your colors. Although you may have stopped paying attention to color as a young child, there is definitely some benefit to examining what colors you tend to use, enjoy and prefer. Color is directly associated with body energy and emotions. Sometimes, you may feel out of balance and not realize that it is the colors surrounding you that are impacting your mind-body balance. For example, if you tend to wear a lot of red or to surround yourself with red, you may be over-stimulating your emotions. However, if you frequently feel tired or listless you might want to add more red to your wardrobe.

Consider color therapy. Try changing the colors in your wardrobe to better suit your emotional needs during any particular time in your life. For example, if you feel that you are in need of a personal change, or that you need to build your self-esteem, consider wearing more purple, as this color is known for its connection with self-healing. If you are stressed, try wearing light blue. Green is a great color to add when you feel like you have recently made a personal accomplishment, since it is a color known for renewing effects.

Try magnets for pain relief. Magnetic therapy is becoming a very popular method for treating chronic pain and conditions that cause chronic pain. Magnets are shown to increase blood flow through the body by as much as a third. This increased circulation is a great way to alleviate pain.

Use magnets when recovering from an injury. Studies have shown that applying magnets to an injury will help to increase the healing rate because the magnets correct the polarity of the body cells and increase the overall health of the area where they are applied. Healing will be faster, and pain will be less when you apply magnets.

Try bioenergenic therapy when you are feeling depressed or tired. Bioenergetics is an alternative therapy that includes a combination of different techniques used together to help your body fight off illnesses, depression and other conditions. Practitioners observe the patient and form a treatment plan that works to correct things like breathing patterns and stress levels in order to begin identifying and alleviating problems that the patient is experiencing. This therapy combines biofeedback with talk and touch therapy, acupuncture and nutritional counseling in a specific way determined by each individual patient.

Play an active role. If you have decided to see a holistic practitioner, one of the things that you need to realize when you get started is that this is not the passive medicine that you may have experienced in the past. The practitioners are there to guide you as the patient, however you will need to make a significant effort and work with your practitioner to determine the best treatments for you and to increase the effectiveness of the treatments. Many patients find that taking an active role in treatment makes the effects more immediate and tangible.

Consider a whole body detoxification program. The environment, stress and even the foods that we eat can affect every cell in the human body negatively. Sometimes, the body just needs a break so that it can effectively remove harmful chemicals and byproducts that reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and to function at its peak. A whole body cleanse will give you the ability to remove toxins from your intestine, organs and even your skin. Consider working with a holistic physician to see if a detoxification program could help you.

Focus on the dance of life. Life is ever-changing and ever adapting. Sometimes we all get bogged down in our day to day and forget to take time out for ourselves. It is beneficial to take at least some time each day to work on personal growth and healing. Spending time working on personal growth in some way will make you more aware of the ups and downs of your life and give you tools for dealing with whatever comes your way throughout your life.

Try what ails you to relieve the symptoms. Homeopathic medicine practitioners believe that a symptom is little more than the body’s defense against stress. Therefore, they take the approach that finding a substance that behaves in the same way that the body does – that substance can be used to fight off the ailment or infection. Take a walk through a health food, or nutritional supplement store, and you are bound to see a homeopathic remedy for many common health problems.

Try a natural caffeine detox. If you have been promising to give up coffee, or to cut down, you might need to actually remove the effects of caffeine from your system with a detoxification process that includes chamomile. This extract helps to calm you while washing caffeine from your system. You can use chamomile tea, or a specially developed compound designed to detoxify the body.

Consider chiropractic medicine. If you are currently experiencing back pain, chances are that the damage has already been done. Chiropractors are specially trained to manipulate the body in a way that frees nerves and muscles to function correctly, thereby reducing pain in the body immediately. It is important to work with a Doctor of Chiropractic, who has attended college and Chiropractic College.

Try chiropractic for more than just your back. Even if you are experiencing an illness or injury somewhere other than in your back, there is a chance that a Chiropractor will be able to alleviate some of your symptoms. In general, holistic chiropractors believe that most illnesses are a result of nerve impingements somewhere in the body. By carefully manipulating the spine, these nerves can be released and symptoms or even the illness itself will fade. Consider scheduling a consultation with a chiropractor today. The visit will generally include an examination, discussion of your symptoms and possibly an adjustment to see if you experience immediate relief.

Consider working with a holistic athletic trainer. If you are an athlete, you might benefit from the experience of working with a holistic trainer who focuses not only on injury recovery, but also on performance analysis, counseling and injury prevention. Through the holistic approach, your mental and physical needs will be addressed and you can improve your performance significantly as a result.

Try Kinesiology to improve your well being. Kinesiology is a holistic approach to traditional biofeedback therapy, where the body is studied in order to determine the source of potential and current problems. Through monitoring of your body, your Kinesiologist will determine a course of alternative treatments that will help you to perform to the best of your capabilities.

Add some fun to your inner work with transpersonal art therapy. Through the practice, you will create artwork and accomplish personal transformations as your work progresses. Don’t worry, no previous experience or talent is required, and this type of counseling can be very effective even for young children.

(More tips coming next week...)

Links for further reading:
Free book about massage therapy
Free book about body detox
Women's Fitness Beyond 40 - Holistic Approach

Anxiety Disorders and Depression

Anxiety disorders is an umbrella category that covers a number of disorders, such as panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, specific phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, all of these medical conditions can lead to even more health problems and emotional problems, so you may need treatment in a number of areas. One medical condition that may develop is depression. While many people carelessly use the term depression to describe an intense sadness, depression is more than just a day or being upset about something. Depression can truly stop your from living your life. If you are worried that you may be developing depression in addition to other medical conditions surrounding anxiety disorders, see your doctor immediately.

There are a number of symptoms associated with depression that you may experience. Some clues to you that depression may e a problem include loss of appetite, increase in appetites, having no sexual energy, muscle aches and pains, inability to concentrate, feeling afraid or confused, being easily angered, not caring about things you used to love, not being about to pinpoint why you feel sad, hating yourself, and thinking about death often. If you are experiencing three or more of these symptoms on a daily basis, you should see your doctor and talk to him or her about depression right away.

Depression can also lead to thoughts of suicide in the worst-case scenario. If you have thought about killing yourself, even one, you should get help right away. Tell someone you love or call 9-1-1 or a local hotline for support. If you cannot do these things, drive to the local emergency room of a hospital near you, go to your doctor or therapist’s office, or, at the very least, go to a public place. Give yourself some time to think about things before making any decisions.

Remember, depression is a real medical illness. Over 20 million Americas suffer from depression at some point another, and it can affect any age, gender, race, religion, or ethnicity. You can find great treatments to help you with your depression, from medication that inhibits certain receptors in the brain to therapy to help you talk about the things that are making your depressed.

In the end, it is simply important to realize that you can feel better and there is help. Having depression is nothing to be ashamed about, and modern medicine makes it possible for you to overcome your depression and your anxiety disorders in order to live a healthy life.

How to Put a Stop to OCD

Healthy Lunches with Style

Lunch is an important meal in your day, so don’t skip it, even if you are tempted to do so. Many people believe that eating a big breakfast means that lunch is unnecessary, but that’s simply not the case. When you don’t eat lunch, you are more likely to snack during the day on unhealthy foods or overeat at suppertime. Your body also becomes depleted of nutrients when you skip lunch, so it s better for you to always eat lunch, even if it means making a bit of extra free time available in your day. However, there are ways in which you can ensure that your lunch is fairly healthy, no matter what your specific needs.

If you are at work or school over lunchtime, you can save lots of money by carrying a lunch rather than grabbing lunch from a fast food restaurant or other food source. Your own meals will also be more nutritious and, in many cases, tastier. If you are not a morning person, packing a lunch doesn’t mean that you have to wake up earlier to prepare this. Simply pack it the night before. Many food choices can help you to pack a lunch that will be the envy of your coworkers.

You can also consider stopping at a supermarket and picking up frozen diet meals for lunch as well. These meals are usually low in fat and high in nutrition and come in enough varieties for you to have a different lunch every day of the year. This option is sometimes a bit more expensive than making and packing your own lunch, but it can still be fairly inexpensive. Remember to look at the packaging to determine the best frozen meals for you. Some are not made for those looking for a healthy diet, and although they may taste good, they will be full of preservatives and calories.

You can also stock your desk at work with healthy lunch choices in order to save time. Lots of foods come in non-perishable varieties, which can easily fit into your desk and be microwaved with water when it comes time to eat lunch. Try soups, pretzels, crackers with peanut butter, cereal bars, or instant oatmeal for lunchtime at the office.

When you have to eat out, such as if you are meeting an associate or client for lunch, make healthy food choices. Avoid skipping lunch altogether just to have a meeting. Instead, see if your company will chip in to pay for the client’s meal. Usually, companies are more than happy to reimburse you or provide a company credit card or tab information. Good choices for lunch include light meals, like wraps, sandwiches with wheat bread and light on the spreads, salads with light dressing, and fruit. Avoid fast food, pizza, and bulky meals, like pasta for lunch, unless you plan to b very active during the afternoon at work.

What to Eat, How Much to Eat, When to Eat It, How to Cook It and Exactly What to Shop For.

Eating Healthy for Your Heart

Your heart is one of the most important organs in the body, and the foods you put into your mouth effect how your heart operates. If you want your heart to be strong and able to pump blood as well as possible all over your body, it is important for you to eat a healthy diet. Heart-healthy foods are readily available in the supermarket, so choose some that work for your personal likes and you should be able to help prevent heart disease in your own body.

Cholesterol is the most important thing when it comes to eating heart-healthy foods. There are both good cholesterols and bad cholesterols. Good cholesterols are called HDL, and their job in the body is to take excess bad cholesterol (LDL) to the liver, where it can be broken down and then will leave the body. LDL is actually not needed by your body at all from foods. Our bodies make enough of this kind of cholesterol on its own. It is the LDL cholesterol that hurts our hearts, not the HDL cholesterol, which actually helps our hearts be reducing the amount of LDL cholesterol in the body.

LDL stands for low-density lipoproteins. Because this substance has a low density, it does not flow through the blood stream as readily as it should. The red blood cells easily release the LDL cholesterol and it sticks to the walls of your blood vessels, especially in the arteries leading to your heart. This is bad for a number of reasons.

First, when the LDL cholesterol builds up on your arteries, it reduces the amount of blood that can fit through at a time, since the artery becomes smaller. That means your heart has to pump harder and faster in order to allow the same amount of blood to flow through your body. Over time, this makes your heart tired and not as strong. In the worst-case scenario, the blood vessel becomes so built up with LDL cholesterol that your artery could close completely. When this happens, your heart essentially panics because it is not getting the blood it needs and it starts beating rapidly to try to pump the blood. This causes a heart attack.

You can also have a heart attack from LDL cholesterol build up if a piece of the build-up, called plaque, breaks off and floats down the blood stream. When it reaches a smaller part of the blood vessel, it will get stuck and block the blood, which again causes a heart attack. If the piece of plaque travels to the brain instead of the heart, it will cause a blockage in this area of the body, which in turn causes a stroke. Therefore, it is simply important to cut out of your diet the foods high in cholesterol so that you can prevent heart disease and other problems in the body.

Links for further reading:
Free book about cholesterol
Safe, Natural Secrets for High Cholesterol

Why You Need Protein

When learning about healthy eating, one of the most important nutrients is protein. Of course, all nutrients are crucial for our bodies to be as healthy as possible, but without protein in our diets every single day, our bodies will not be as strong as they should be. Protein can be found in a number of food sources, so if you’re interested in eating a healthier diet, you should consider learning more about protein.

We need to eat foods rich in protein every day because, unlike some other nutrients, it cannot be stored in the body. That means that if you eat more protein than necessary, your body will simply cause it to pass through your system. Therefore, you really can’t eat too much protein! However, because protein cannot be stored in the body problems may arise surrounding this nutrient as well. If you don’t get enough protein on any given day, your body has no back-up plan for producing protein on its own or using reserved protein from previous days. Therefore, protein is very important to consider when you are planning your meals.

Essentially, protein builds muscles, which is why you will see bodybuilders especially concerned with protein. When you lift weights to work out, you body makes tiny tears in the muscles. Proteins are then used to repair these healthy tears in the body, building the muscle slightly bigger with every workout. Even if you do not work out, your body’s muscle deteriorates, as you body needs the energy. Muscle provides energy, just like fat. Having protein in the body helps you to rebuild any muscle lost.

Protein also helps a person’s body in other ways, mainly with the maintenance of hormones. Hormones in the body do a number of things, such as regulate organ function, account for stimulation, create metabolism, and affect mood. Proteins are used in the making of some of these different hormones, so if you go more than a day or two without eating foods rich in proteins, your entire body will suffer.

How can you make sure that you re getting enough proteins? Simply put, look for foods with protein as a key component on the label. Some great foods to consider include chicken, beef, pork, eggs, and fish, although vegetarians can also get proteins into their diets by eating nuts, beans, soy products, and a variety of other foods. You should have some of these foods in your diet every single day to ensure that you are providing your body with the proteins it needs to stay healthy.

How Much Protein? The Truth about Protein.

Joining the Perfect Gym

If you want to lose weight, you need plenty of diet to make sure that you’re burning fat and building muscle. One of the best ways to do this is to join a gym. Gyms come in all shapes and sizes, and there may be a number of gyms in your area. Joining a gym can be expensive, so it is important that you careful consider all of the gyms near to your home in order to pick the very best one possible to meet you weight loss and exercise needs on a daily basis.

The first things you should consider when you are looking at gyms are the trainers. If you’ll be taking a class or working with a personal trainer, you’ll want to be sure that you’re working with someone who is experienced and will teach you the best habits possible. Unfortunately, there are no set qualifications for trainers in the United States, so you should check out gyms that do require training programs of their trainers.

You should also look at the equipment available for your use and the hours the gym is open. A gym that only has one treadmill may not be the best choice, since you may find yourself standing in line for equipment during peak hours. You also may find that your exercise schedule is disrupted if the gym is open odd or short hours. It is very important to find a place that will allow you to have a great workout at a time of day that is convenient for you.

Cleanliness should also be of concern. All gyms should provide a tour of their facilities at the very least, or a free trial to check out the gym’s space on your own. If a gym is dirty, you could be susceptible to illnesses as they spread among members at the gym. They should provide a cleaning crew to make sure that the locker rooms are clean, as well as provide antibacterial products to wipe down the machines after workouts. Organization is important too—you don’t want to be tripping over weights that are ling on the floor or feel cramped in a sweating high-volume area.

Lastly, you should check out prices. Some gym memberships are by the year while others charge your credit card or send you an invoice every month. Do what works for you. You may end up spending hundreds or thousands of collars on your gym membership, so it is important to find the gym that best suits your needs. Look at the ones closest to your home, but also consider those a bit farther away if they seem better to join.

Links for further reading:
Josh Hillis Platinum Coaching Club
Free book about the perfect rep
Free book about fat loss
Workout Without Working Out - Subliminal Health & Fitness Videos

The Importance of Healthy Eating

Have you ever heard the saying you are what you eat? In some sense, this is true, because if you eat unhealthy foods you are prone to be an unhealthy person. The foods we ingest are extremely important to our ability to grow, maintain function, and prevent illness. Therefore, if you value your health, you should learn as much about healthy eating as possible.

Healthy eating is important from the day we are born. As a child, we grow quite rapidly and this is due in part to the foods we eat. Foods all contain nutrients that provide us not only with fuel to live our daily lives, but also with the very substances that build our bones, muscles, and organ tissues. Not getting enough of one nutrient or another can cause a variety of problems, including stunting our growth. For mothers who are nursing, nutrition is important because breast milk contains the nutrients a child needs to grow and develop properly. Upon growing older, these nutrients are then found in food, but don’t think that healthy eating isn’t important for growth after you’ve gone through puberty. Cells continuous break down and rebuild, so healthy eating for growth continues to be important until the day we die.

Maintaining function is also not important without healthy eating. In out daily lives, we use energy to think, walk, talk, breathe, and perform any other action. The energy it takes our body to do these things comes from two places: fat reserves in the body or our daily food intake. If you don’t eat healthy foods, you will find that you are storing more fat that necessary or that you aren’t getting enough and you feel sluggish or weak. Along with energy-providing nutrients, like fats and carbohydrates, we also need the right nutrients to allow our organs to do their jobs. Hormones and other substances in the body make sure that everything is working properly. If you don’t eat the right nutrients, your body cannot produce these hormones and, as a result, cannot function properly.

Lastly, healthy eating is important in order to prevent illness. When we do not get the right nutrients, or body’s natural defense system against diseases weakens, allowing viruses and bacteria to attack the body. It’s like a well-trained army—if the army doesn’t have enough to eat, it will not do well in battle. Without healthy foods and plenty of water, our bodies simply could not operate on a day-to-day basis. Learning how to eat healthy foods is therefore and important lesson, and one which we should begin learning as children.

Links to further reading:

Free book about fat loss recipes
Healthy Super Foods