Read the Ingredients in Food, Not Just the Food Label

Eating healthy may take more than just reading the food label.  It's easy for food labels to fool you if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.  The packaging and the wording are precisely constructed.  Here’s an example.  If you're walking through the bread aisle and you see wording on a label such as "heart healthy" or "100% whole wheat," it might be correct, but do yourself a favor...turn to the back and read the ingredients.  Reading the ingredients is more important than reading the label.  If you read the ingredients, not just the label, you will find you will be making better choices.  This is certainly an art that you have to develop over time.  Try to understand what you're doing, take your time, and do it slowly.  It will make a big difference.

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Reactions to Skin Care Products

There are numerous skincare products out there, and many of them are quite effective at what they do. However, they also often have scents or perfumes or dyes; things to make them more likely to be sold and more palatable. When that happens, some people have reactions. If you’re using a new skincare product and you notice you’re getting itchy or red skin, it is probably that product. Try some time without it, see of the symptoms go away. If they do, I would avoid that product. Try to understand what’s in it so you can decrease the problems.

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Pain Medication Overuse

How many medications are too many?  Well, when it comes to pain, it could be just one.  If you're taking medication all the time to relieve pain and you haven't tried other treatments, you may be getting yourself in a situation where you may actually find yourself addicted.  It's very important with pain medication that you use common sense and you try to reduce it in whatever way possible.  Again, it's real important that you don't allow yourself to just take pain medicine for the sake of taking it.  You've got to be very careful and very aware of it.  

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Teen Dating and Safety

First dates can be a real problem and a real stress for teens. Although most of us look back on them fondly, and the awkwardness is more or less joked upon, it is very serious for teenagers as they go through it. One of the things you should tell your teenage daughters, in particular, is that they should not be talked into anything they don’t want and they should have access either to a cell phone or a way to defend themselves if there is a problem. In other words, if there is someone they cannot trust, they have to make sure that there is the ability to get protection, if necessary.

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Breast Involution and Cancer Risk

It is called breast involution. This is a medical term for a natural event in a woman’s life as she ages. The milk producing glands, or lobules of the breast, start to shut down. As it turns out, involution is a critical change in a woman’s body that may have a great deal to do with breast cancer. Since it’s believed that breast cancer originates in the lobules, a reduction in their size and number reduces cancer risks. The Mayo Clinic looked at this and they found that much of this really applies and is quite true.

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Unexplained Weight Loss in Teens

When you see an unexplained weight loss in a teenager you have to think about several things. First of all, you look at their mood. Are they depressed? Are they eating properly? Secondly, is it an intentional thing they’re not telling you about? Are they on a diet? Do they feel they’re overweight and they want to lose weight? Discuss it with them. Beyond that, you have to start thinking about other illnesses. Are there problems associated with it? One other thing…sometimes children go through growth spurts. They may not lose weight, but it looks like they lost weight because they’ve grown up so fast. You’ll also often find that in boys during adolescence.

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Which Is Better, Running or Walking?

The debate is on.  What is better, running or walking?  Well, when it comes to protection against heart disease, several recent studies have found that walking for extended periods of time and with regularity can help.  Twenty to thirty minutes, three times a week can help prevent the long-term damage.  Running can have a similar effect, but for many, it's difficult to sustain a regular running program.  The major advantage of running is that you can tone rapidly while burning calories.  So, which is better?  It really comes down to what you will stick with.  Consistency is the key.  

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Depressed Adults Are Likely to Also Be Smokers

More than 40% of U.S. adults who have depression are also smokers, meaning people need help with both if they want to quit.  According to a U.S. Government survey published, it says that more than half of middle-aged men with depression were also smokers, while half of women under 40 who were depressed also smoked.  About 7% of U.S. adults had depression in the years 2005 through 2012.  Globally, tobacco kills about 5 million people a year and according to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it's a big deal.  On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually, or about 440,000 deaths per year.

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Monitoring Violence on Television

Violence on television. All you have to do is look at television and realize it’s getting worse and worse. One of the most difficult areas as a parent to regulate are the commercials that are on TV. You may have your children watching special shows trying to protect them, but during a sporting event, or any major event where the networks are trying to get a great deal of publicity, it is during those occasions when you will find violent advertisements for movies, or even shows that the networks are carrying.

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A Traumatic Childhood Can Have Long-Term Effects

A traumatic childhood can definitely have a long-term effect.  You hear many stories about people saying they had a traumatic childhood and issues in childhood that lead to problems years down the road.  The fact is it's true.  A traumatic childhood can have an effect.  That's why early counseling is important.  If someone is having issues as a child, developmental issues, or problems at home, it's essential that those things are looked into and that the childhood problems are dealt with on a serious level.  

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Sodium Reduction Plan By The American Medical Association

There are dozens of so-called health initiatives in this country and it seems every day another medical issue is placed in front of the public eye, but some of these projects clearly have more potential impact than others. An example, the American Medical Association announced they plan to begin education programs to help cut the nation’s sodium intake in over the next decade. Now there is good reason, sodium or salt, is a growing problem in this country, and high-sodium foods are everywhere. Especially in pre-processed foods.

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Dealing with Tension Headaches

Do you suffer from headaches? Well, the odds are if you have a headache, you have a tension headache. A tension headache actually is caused by stress on the muscles. It seems to get worse as the day goes on, and that’s usually the case because as the tension builds, the headache can worsen. There are other forms of headache, including migraine headache, which can be extremely difficult to deal with. But, the tension headache, the stress headache, that’s the one that most people complain of when they come to the office. You can take medications for it but facing the underlying problem and examining it the key.

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Gym Class or More Academics?

There is a great divide among educators: Is gym class important or is it more important to have an extra language course, or a computer class, or a math class?  Let's face it, there is a limited amount of time.  We live in a competitive world where people are demanding more and more education, and quicker.  But, according to a report in the British Medical Journal, there may be a middle ground.  In the study, students were randomized to receive their normal three phys ed classes a week or to receive restructured lessons five times a week.  They found exercise clearly takes the day.

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Can Stress Cause Pain?

Can stress cause pain? Well, believe it or not, it can. If you’re a high stress individual, what can happen is the fact that you can tighten up and you can actually put stress on your joints because of the fact that you are so tight. That tightening up actually can cause spasm of the muscles and extra pressure. What doctors often tell people to do is take a deep breath, think of something that’s pleasurable, perhaps sitting on the beach or snowboarding, something you enjoy, and relax. Feel how that muscle relaxation hits your body.

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Pets as a Source of Companionship

Good news if you’re a pet lover or if you’re a person who feels alone and are having a frustrating time finding companionship. According to a new report in the American Family Physicians journal, several medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, are stressing the importance of pets as a source of companionship. This is on the heels of several studies which have actually looked at the psychological advantages of pet ownership. In addition to this, the American Medical Association and leaders in veterinary medicine have begun a dialogue looking at ways to further study advantages of pet ownership.

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Eating More Chocolate Is Associated with Higher Depression Scores

Eating more chocolate is associated with higher depression scores.  Researchers assessed the mood of 931 participants who were not taking antidepressants using a standard depression scale.  They then correlated the results from those with a food survey.  Those who scored very highly, reflecting probable major depression, reported consuming more than twice as much chocolate as those who were negative for depression.  The findings were similar between women and men.  The researchers speculate that depression may stimulate cravings for chocolate as a form of self-medication.  Animal studies suggest that chocolate may have positive mood benefits, however, they cannot rule out the possibility that chocolate actually contributes to the depressed mood, or that both cravings and depressed mood are caused by a third, underlying factor.  The report is in the Archives of Internal Medicine.   

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Sleeping Pills May Become Addicting

The problem with sleeping pills is you can actually become addicted to them.  People who take multiple sleeping pills find that over time, they get used to them and they need them to sleep they need them to get that state of drowsiness, and if they don't take them, they're in a situation where they put themselves behind the eight ball.  It's important that sleeping pills be used for those who need them, but that they be used responsibly and that a physician be monitoring it.

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Diagnosing Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is known as a functional condition.  It's one of these physical conditions that' are very difficult to detect or prove by laboratory tests or by one procedure.  It's diagnosed based on the history or story that a patient tells about what is happening.  Essentially, fibromyalgia is a set of symptoms that happen together.  People are feeling muscle tightness and there are certain tender points.  Your doctor can examine you to see the problem.  Fibromyalgia also affects your sleep and it's often linked with depression.  The key thing to know about fibromyalgia is that the symptoms are quite vague and your physician needs to work with you to see if this truly is the issue.  There are treatments, including antidepressants that can be quite helpful.  There is a bigger lesson from fibromyalgia.  If you have something that is bothering you, don't be afraid to see your doctor.  There could be surprising answers.

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Know the Effects of Herbal Medications

Herbal medications are often promoted as natural, and people see things as natural, and they get all excited. But understand the so-called natural medication still has affects. All of the medications we use pretty much are natural. Digitoxin or Digoxin is a medication that comes from a natural plant. Drugs we use are natural. You need to know what the effects are and what they do long-term in the body.

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Why Do Women Have Reduced Sexual Desire?

If a woman has decreased sexual desire, there could be a number of factors involved.  First of all, when it comes to sexuality for women, there are many factors that are much more complicated than in the case of men.  Does the woman feel like she's in a long-lasting, stable relationship?  Does she feel she's getting the attention she deserves?  Are there pressures that have nothing to do with sexuality that are bothering her?  One of the problems with decreased desire is fatigue.  If a woman feels fatigued and doesn't feel the normal pleasure or happiness, she's actually not going to be interested in sexuality.  Again, it's complex and often needs evaluation.  

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Study Shows Women of Young Children Eat More Calories

Are you having a struggle with weight loss?  Well, now you have someone to blame.  According to a study from the University of Minnesota, mothers of young children were heavier and ate more calories, fatty foods, and sugary drinks than women without children.  In addition, both parents were less active than those of the same age without children.  The study was not a small one.  There were over 1,500 adults with children younger than five and according to the report which is in the journal Pediatrics, mothers in this study with young children had a diet so poor, they'd have to walk three miles a day to not gain a pound. 

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Tips for Relieving Back Pain

When it comes to back pain is the stronger your abdominal musculature is, the better you'll deal with back pain.  The thing about back pain also that's worth mentioning is the fact that when you suffer from back pain, stretching can make it better.  In addition to stretching, doctors find there are other tools we can use to make back pain better.  Obviously, sometimes warm heat is a great weapon to be used in the battle against it and doctors don't use it often enough. 

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Counteracting Loss of Muscle Mass

Whether we want to admit it or not, as we get older, we begin to lose muscle mass. There are certain places it happens the most over time. We can lose muscle mass in places like our arms, shoulders and legs. It is a natural part of the aging process. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news…it is also important that exercise and strength training can somehow defeat this. In other words, the more you exercise, and the more you develop muscles, the more you increase your basic metabolic rate and your ability to burn calories. It will keep you strong and maintain your flexibility.

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What are Trans Fats?

You may have heard how there’s a move around this country to try to permanently eliminate trans fats. But what are trans fats? Well actually, they’re things that we created in our process of developing food. It’s not really a natural form of food, which actually increases the risk of heart disease more than anything else that we can put into our bodies, short of cigarettes. Trans fats actually are best described as products that could sit on the shelf for weeks and weeks and weeks without refrigeration. Many of those products have the trans fats.

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Combination Flu and Bacterial Infections Can Be Very Serious

It's something we don't think about, but it can happen and it can be quite serious.  We’re talking about the combination of flu infection with bacterial infections.  There have been many reported cases where people have died from such a combination.  In fact, with the appearance of H1N1 flu virus there was a concern that this type of infection followed by bacterial pneumonia could occur and become extremely complicated.  Infectious diseases experts see this quite often.  There have been associations of staph aureus with post-influenza infections in the 50’s and 60’s, especially in times of pandemic influenza.

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Seafood Allergies Get Worse Over Time

Seafood allergy is a major problem because as it worsens in someone’s life, the seafood allergy, actually, can become a problem that can be even life-threatening. Now, initially, people who have problems with seafood, actually, suffer difficulties which are more like stomach irritation, diarrhea, vomiting. But as the seafood allergy worsens, and as the symptoms start to get worse, what invariable happens is people start to have hives and even anaphylactic reactions.

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Kids Need Plenty of Sleep

Kids need sleep…plenty of sleep. So, if you’re a parent and your children are up late, get them to bed. They really function better if they sleep well. They’re less irritable and they’re able to perform better in the day. A lot of children don’t want to hear that. They don’t want to hear that they can sleep and take it easy, but the bottom line is they need to. They need their rest, and as parents, you need to control it. Your child will eat better. They will feel better. They will do better if they are getting plenty of sleep.

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Depression During Pregnancy

Both postpartum depression and the baby blues can occur in the mother after she delivers, and many in the medical and non-medical communities are aware of this. But fewer are aware of depression during pregnancy, a problem that can go untreated. The reason it’s not recognized is that some of the obvious symptoms of depression, like tiredness, trouble sleeping, emotional changes and weight gain may occur with pregnancy. One in twenty women experience depression while pregnant.

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Protecting Your Kids on the Internet

You need to be more careful than ever when it comes to protecting your kids on the internet. That’s the word from a new study in the journal Pediatrics. According to the “Growing Up with Media” survey, researchers have found that victimization online is more likely to occur through instant messaging and in chat rooms. 1,600 children were in the study. 15% reported unwanted sexual solicitation in that time, with about 1/4 of those occurring on a social networking site. One-third reported online harassment, that’s a quarter of the incidents occurring on a social networking site. The breakdown of the reported incidents: 43% via instant messaging, 32% in chat rooms. Harassment was more common in instant messaging, 55% of incidents. In case you were wondering, the experts suggest parents should monitor all the time.

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New Research on Interpreting Dreams

Dreams have served as a source of confusion and wonder since people started dreaming.  Scientists have studied them, most famously Dr. Sigmund Freud, and there are thousands of theories out there.  Now, new research is providing insight into how most people interpret dreams.  According to a Carnegie Mellon researcher, people believe that hidden truths present themselves in dreams.  This view is consistent across cultural lines and around the globe.  According to the latest report, 149 university students in the United States, India, and South Korea made exactly that point.  According to the findings, dreams also affect how people act when they are awake.  A survey of Boston, Massachusetts, commuters found that when they dreamed of a plane crash the night before a scheduled air trip, they would be more likely to change their travel plans.  Another key point is people attribute the meaning of dreams when it corresponds to preexisting issues. 

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Research on Brainwave Patterns in Harmonizing Musicians

This is a fascinating study for music lovers.  Scientists reporting in the journal BMC Neuroscience have found that when musicians harmonize, they actually have similar brain patterns.  The researchers looked at electrical activity in the brains of eight pairs of guitarists as they played.  The scientists discovered brainwave similarities within and between the musicians' brains increased as they listened to the beat of a metronome as they prepared to play and also when they actually began playing together. 

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Using Aspirin Safely

It’s been said that if aspirin came out now, the FDA would not approve it, and they’re probably right. There are so many side effects and problems associated with aspirin. It’s difficult to prescribe, and yet, it’s over-the-counter. And here’s the point, aspirin has many protective things that it does, but it also can lead to problems, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. In young people, it can cause Reye’s Syndrome. In other people, we have issues with rebound headaches, because people take too much of it. Remember, aspirin is good, but it needs to be used judiciously.

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Be Aware of Medication Withdrawal Symptoms

Medication withdrawal can be a big problem and we often don’t think about it when we’re dealing with medications. If you’re someone who is taking a prescription drug, and you’re thinking about switching off or talking with your doctor, make sure it’s something that you can take and stop. For instance, people who have high blood pressure are often on antihypertensive medications, blood-pressure drugs. They can take them and they stop taking them, and they don’t realize that the blood pressure can rise dramatically as the blood pressure pill is taken away.

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Americans Are Not as Healthy as Europeans

This clearly is not good news. Americans are not as healthy as Europeans. Americans are more likely than Europeans to be diagnosed and treated for chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The United States was compared with ten European countries and there were some important findings that may help predict problems down the road. Americans are twice as likely to be obese. That’s twice as likely as Europeans. Also, more than 50% of Americans have a smoking history, while it’s only 40% in Europe. Now, there is a potential good side. The United States has better screening than Europe. If diseases are detected earlier, then they can be treated more effectively. The United States spends more on health care than any country in Europe, and that’s a very important point. We need to be more aware of what we’re spending, how we’re using it, and how effectively we can make it to help others.

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Can You Catch a Cold from Being in the Cold?

The temperature has dropped and it’s been down there for a while, so the big question is, does temperature change cause you to catch a cold? Most likely your mother told you it can, but medical studies say there is no effect. Basically, colds are caused by viruses, and the spread of viruses, particularly, the rhino virus. There is one theory that cold weather can suppress your immune system and make you more susceptible to problems, but this is under heavy study. In cold months, when the air is very dry to start with, people turn on their heating systems. That dry air can cause allergic symptoms to be made worse.

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What Is Raynaud’s Disease?

Raynaud's is a problem where we have, in our skin, a difficulty processing cold.  What happens in Raynaud's is actually that the blood flow to the extremities isn't necessarily as good as it should be for a wide variety of reasons.  In cold weather, the skin actually can go from white to red to blue and actually show changes that are dramatic.  These people actually have sensitivity at far warmer temperatures than the average person.

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Infections Occur More Commonly During Winter Due to Close Contact

The principal reason for the increase in the number of infections in winter weather is the fact that people tend to remain indoors in cold weather and, thus, are in very close contact with one another.  Proximity allows the spread of many viruses that cause respiratory infections.  In addition, influenza is even more common in winter because the virus first attacks the Far East in their summer and then spreads westward and reaches the U.S. by winter.  Although it is preferable that one should stay warm, there is little hard evidence to suggest that not wearing a hat or exposure of wet hair to inclement weather increases the risk of infection or, more specifically, pneumonia.  The truth is, the flu and the common cold are both caused by viruses.  People get sick more often in the winter because they're exposed to each other more.

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A Look at Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a very interesting phenomenon and it's a medical-type of treatment plan that is rapidly growing in popularity in the United States.  Homeopathy is very popular and used quite consistently in Europe and throughout the world.  The concept is that you have a medication of a sort that is diluted down dramatically.  Through that dilution, it is then used as a weapon to treat illnesses.

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Dietary Choices and Metabolic Syndrome

It is called the metabolic syndrome; a precursor of all sorts of problems. It can be linked to high blood pressure, and diabetes, and it is definitely having an impact. According to a new report in The American Family Physician, there are certain foods and dietary choices made by women that are associated with a greater risk for the condition. Although the study focuses on females, it’s quite likely this will apply to men as well. According to the report, there are certain foods that jump out. Number one on the list is diet soda. Also, refined grains, processed meats, and fried foods.

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