Health Solutions Live » Disease Prevention
Influenza Fact and Fiction
With cold and flu season quickly approaching, here is a helpful fact and fiction on the Flu virus. 1. The seasonal flu is annoying but harmless. FALSE – the flu is anything but harmless. According to WebMD, the seasonal flu hospitalizes 200,000 people in the United States every year. Of those, it kills about 36,000. For comparison, that is close to the number of women killed by breast cancer each year, and more than twice the number … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cold and Flu, Cold and Flu, Disease Prevention
Health Benefits from Quitting Smoking
The health benefits from quitting smoking begin as early as 20 minutes from the time a smoker has had their last cigarette. It is never too late to quit and in fact, the earlier a smoker makes this important decision, the sooner their health (and wallet) can benefit. Quitting smoking is an arduous task and there exists several methods for going about the process. There is no guaranteed method for quitting and the existing methods have … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease Prevention, Smoking Cessation, Smoking Cessation
Vitamin B6 Connected to Lower Risk of Lung Cancer
According to a new study, higher blood levels of vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine both seem to decrease lung cancer risk in smokers and nonsmokers. “We found that vitamin B6 and methionine are strongly associated with reducing lung cancer risk in people who never smoked, those who quit, and current smokers,” states researcher Paul Brennan, PhD, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. Whether the link is cause and effect, he … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease Prevention, Smoking Cessation
Useful relaxation techniques to help you reduce stress
While experts say that some stress is good for you (since it can sharpen the mind and the senses,) too much stress is bad for your mental and physical health. At the same time, relaxation can do wonders to regain balance in your life — and could even decrease some of the health risks linked to stress. What follows are 10 on-the-spot techniques you can use anytime and almost anywhere to decrease the tension in your … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease Prevention, Fitness, Mental Health
5 common misconceptions about pain and pain relief
The things you don’t know about pain and pain relief can hurt you. Huge leaps have been achieved in the understanding of pain and its treatment throughout the last decade. Pain that was once considered untreatable is now manageable. Medical evidence shows that many beliefs about pain and pain relief are no true. Here is what experts in this field say you should know about 5 of the most common pain relief myths: Pain relief misconception 1: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease Prevention, Pain Relief
How rage affects your heart
If you knew that repeated anger may increase your risk of heart disease significantly, would you still blow off steam by shouting and breaking things during an argument or getting furious if traffic comes to a dead stop while on your way to an important meeting? It’s time for hot heads to pay heed: increasingly, the negative, irritable, raging and intimidating personality type concerns heart researchers and doctors alike. “You’re talking about people who seem to experience high levels of anger very frequently,” states Laura Kubzansky, PhD, MPH, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in Cambridge, MA, who has evaluated the role of stress and emotions on cardiovascular disease. The key word here is “high” levels. Moderate levels of anger might not be the problem, according to Kubzansky. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Disease Prevention
Potassium and Heart Health
Potassium is a simple mineral with an essential function: helping your heart beat. About a hundred thousand times per day, potassium helps trigger your heart’s squeeze of blood through your body. If you currently suffer from high blood pressure, heart failure, or heart rhythm problems, consuming enough potassium is extremely important. And even though potassium and cholesterol are not directly linked, eating a diet rich in this mineral may lower your cholesterol as well. Potassium: Abundant and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult nutrition, Diet, Heart Disease
Healthy Habits That Prevent Cold and Flu Viruses
As your infants grow up, and grow past the “everything must go in my mouth” stage, you can begin to teach them habits that will help protect them from germs such as cold and flu viruses. When to start? The earlier the better. Laura A. Jana, MD, a pediatrician in Omaha, Neb. And co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn and Food Fights, states that it is much easier to introduce healthy hygiene habits when children … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cold and Flu, Disease Prevention
Taking walks can help deal with a common cold.
In order to keep colds at a distance in the coldest months of the year, exercising may just be the key. David Nieman, a spokesperson for the American College of Sports Medicine, states that it has been shown in studies that people who do at least 45 minutes of exercise four or more days a week take 25 to 50 percent less time off work due to being sick. In a news release from the sports medicine … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cold and Flu, Disease Prevention, Fitness
Even minimal smoking can damage young adult’s arteries.
Smoking only one cigarette can stiffen the arteries of young adults by about 25 percent, states a new study. The harder a persons arteries, the higher their propensity for stroke or heart disease, says Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou, a specialist on internal and vascular medicine at McGill University Health Center in Montreal. She assessed arterial stiffness in both smokers and non-smokers, from ages 18 to 30, at rest and after exercising. To set up a base measurement, the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fitness, Heart Disease, Smoking Cessation