It’s great to be young and carefree, when you have little responsibility. There’s nothing wrong with having fun and enjoying the company of your friends. Going to the club, drinking socially and even trying out something new isn’t a bad thing; unless it becomes habitual. When you find yourself going to the bar every night and coming home in the wee hours of the morning; not only drunk but smelling like an ashtray; you might want to recheck your lifestyle.
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Archive for March, 2008
Your Nightlife Could Be Endangering Your Health
Treatment Alternatives For Pityriasis Versicolor
If you’re wondering about those uneven patches on your skin, those which appear at the first sign of summer, don’t worry; they may just be a symptom of a skin condition known as pityriasis versicolor. This is an overgrowth of Pityrosporum orbiculare, a variety of yeast fungus which thrives on warm climates, but is relatively harmless and non-contagious. If you perspire a lot or if you have very oily skin, the presence of the patches may be even more profuse than normal. Everyone acquires the fungus at least once in their lives, but fortunately the condition is very much treatable with the appropriate methods.
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Detox Diet and Your Health
Multitudes of people continue to flock towards the trend of detox dieting. Some claim miracles while others see dismal results. However, many medical experts are now coming together in the conclusion that these so-called diets are a waste of time and can even be dangerous to your health.
Detox diets are meant to encourage, and allow your body to cleanse itself of impurities, thus becoming healthier and losing weight. They claim that our bodies need this time of a certain fasting in order to overcome the intake of pollutants, chemicals, additives, and other “bad” things. These are the toxins they believe are being flushed out during the diet.
Some of the most popular of the detox diets are:
The Master Cleanse – Solid foods are not allowed. You live on lemon juice, maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper. This is the basis of the Lemon Detox Diet made popular by stars such as Beyonce. This supposedly has been around since the 1970’s, but due to her success with it this detox diet rapidly gained attention.
Raw Foodism – Uncooked and unprocessed foods are the basis of this diet.
Food Combining – This detox diet is not primarily concerned with what you eat, but the manner in which you eat them. Certain foods are claimed to be best eaten with other specific foods, and vice versa. Food combining is abiding by guidelines of when you should eat what.
While each detox diet seems to have a very legit foundation for its reasoning, leading health experts aren’t so convinced. Each one claims a different explanation as to why and how we need to cleanse our bodies, and differ in their approach to do so. However, our bodies are naturally built to combat these impurities. Our kidneys and liver are the best examples of this, as they work everyday to filter what our body needs and what it doesn’t.
Most detox diets include some benefits, but they are not restricted within the dieting regimen. For instance, if it calls for drinking a lot of water… well that is good. That is something that you should be doing anyways, and of course it is good for the body. Eating fruits and vegetables i.e. common raw foods is another prime example.
Restricting the body to only a handful of foods and sources of nutrients can be detrimental to your health though. Although some very healthy people may be able to endure these detox diets for a period of time, many will experience headaches and malnutrition. The weight lost is typically gained right back.
Some detox diets require that you use a laxative of some kind as a strict part of the diet. Thankfully, this is usually combined with drinking an abundance of liquid. However, it would not be hard to become severely dehydrated from using the laxative consistently. Colon damage can also result from this.
There are many risks associated with detox diets, and you should look closely at what the diet is asking you to do. Speak to your doctor, ask experts online, and do all the research you can do before deciding to embark one of these miracle detox diets.
Get Youthful Skin In Four Easy Steps
Your skin care regimen can be broken down into three or four steps: cleansing, exfoliation, moisturizing, and sun protection. This may be a no-brainer for most people, but there are ways to go about them; doing too little or too much can do more damage than good to your skin. Most of the time the basic methods are the most effective, and when it comes to skin care, this mantra should be able to apply as well.
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What are the Causes of High Cholesterol?
Cholesterol in the blood consists of 3 main components namely low density lipoproteins (LDL), High density lipoproteins (HDL) and Triglycerides. When there are excess levels of cholesterol in the blood then it is known as high cholesterol. Let us see the causes of cholesterol in this article.
What are the causes of high cholesterol?
Inherited risk factors and a high-fat diet are the main causes of high cholesterol. More often, unhealthy levels of cholesterol are linked to physical inactivity, poor diet, being overweight, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, age, stress, sex, heredity and various other causes. Now let us see these causes in detail.
Poor Diet
Foods like saturated fats and transfatty acids are unhealthy and are most likely to increase the LDL level in the blood. Saturated fats are found in animal products such as pork, beef, whole milk, cheeses, ice cream, egg yolk and foods that are made out of these products. Transfatty acids are found in margarines, commercial baked goods and in processed and fried foods. People having high cholesterol must eat a lot of fibers particularly soluble fibers.
Physical Inactivity
Lack of physical exercise is one of the important causes of high cholesterol. On the other hand, regular physical exercise may raise HDL cholesterol levels and lower triglycerides levels.
Being Overweight
Being overweight can increase your LDL cholesterol level modestly. If you are obese and have high LDL cholesterol level then losing weight can help you in lowering the level of LDL. More over weight loss can aid in raising HDL cholesterol levels.
Age and Sex
Prior to menopause, women generally have lower total cholesterol levels than that of men of the same age. However after 50 years of age, women usually have greater total cholesterol levels than men. As men and women age, the blood cholesterol levels would raise until about 60 to 65 years old.
Excessive Alcohol Consumption
Moderate (around 1-2 drinks everyday) alcohol intake raises HDL or good cholesterol level but does not reduce LDL or bad cholesterol level. Doctors are not certain about whether alcohol lowers the risk of heart disease. Heavy intake of alcohol may damage the heart and liver muscle, cause high blood pressure and increase triglyceride levels.
Stress
Several researches show that stress increases the cholesterol levels in the blood over the long span. Stress does this by affecting your habits. For example, some people when they are under stress, console themselves by eating unhealthy foods (fatty foods). The cholesterol and saturated fat in these foods will increase the levels of blood cholesterol.
Heredity
Heredity is one of the uncontrollable factors. Your genes influence the LDL or bad cholesterol level by affecting the speed in which LDL is made and removed from the blood. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a specific form of inherited high cholesterol. It affects 1 in 500 people and often leads to early heart disease. Even if you don’t have such a specific genetic form of high cholesterol, genes play an influencing role in determining LDL cholesterol level.