e Health Counselor

Archive for the ‘Health Tips’ Category

Diabetic diets are necessary first of all for people who suffer from diabetes and obesity. Diabetic diets are useful for people with any type of this disease and even for those who don’t have it at all. For people who have type 1 diabetes diet is just an additional way to control blood sugar level. And it’s an effective way of weight loss for those who suffer from obesity.

There is a strict rule for diabetics with type 1: following meal plan/timing of meals is crucial. Why? Because type 1 diabetes requires making insulin injections. And if you skip a meal there occur a risk of misbalances between the insulin and the food consumption. Doctors also advise not to eat between meals during a diet. This can lead to overeating and all your efforts will be in vain.

The higher level of blood sugar is the stricter diet is recommended. Among the strictest ones are those that allow only 1,000/1,200 and 1,300 calories a day. There are also those that allow 1,800/2,200 and even 2,800 calories a day. But these ones will better fit those people whose blood sugar level is just a bit above the norm. And don’t forget that blood sugar level depends directly on what we eat, how much we eat, and how much sugar our food contains.

Either involuntarily or deliberately, we expose ourselves to many social poisons and hazards. Smoking is the most important of them because of its passive (or ‘secondhand’) adverse effects in human.

When the bad effects of smoking were first discovered, policy-makers imagined that warning people about the dangers of smoking would result in them giving up. An initial decline in smoking rates in the 1960s suggested that these assumptions were correct, but in most countries of the developed world this decline has since slowed, while rates are increasing amongst young women and in many developing countries where tobacco companies have found their new markets. World-wide, there are 1 billion smokers, and 3 million die prematurely each year as a result of their habit. In the USA, it has been estimated that >5 million years of potential life and $90 billion of productivity are lost each year due to smoking.

In reality, there is a complex of systems that interact to cause smokers to initiate and maintain their habit. At the molecular and cellular levels, nicotine acts on the nervous system to create dependence, so that smokers experience unpleasant effects when they attempt to quit. So, even if they know it is harmful, the role of addiction in maintaining the habit is important. Influences at the personal and social level are just as important.

For example, research has shown that many individuals bolster their denial of the harmful effects of smoking by focusing on someone they know personally who smoked until he was very old, went to the pub every day and died peacefully in his bed at home.

Such strong counter-examples help smokers to maintain internal beliefs that comfort them when presented with statistical evidence. Young female smokers are often motivated more by the desire to ‘stay slim’ or ‘look cool’ than to avoid an illness in middle life.

Even if a smoker decides to quit, there are a variety of influences in the wider environment that alter the chances of sustained success, including peer pressure, cigarette advertising, and finding oneself in circumstances where one previously smoked. The tobacco industry works very hard to maintain and expand the smoking habit and its advertising budget is much greater in the society.

The majority of adult smokers say they would like to give up smoking but only 2% of smokers per year manage by will-power alone. The strategies commonly employed to stop smoking and their impacts are shown in and Health professionals can work with the individual smoker to understand his or her beliefs and motivations. Participation in groups has also been shown to be effective. Nicotine replacement therapies can reduce cravings. If intensive support is combined with pharmacological aids, quit rates are significantly improved. Although the absolute quit rates seem modest, smoking cessation interventions are cost-effective and, if widely available, can contribute to reduction in smoking prevalence.

However, action at the societal level, such as bans on tobacco advertising, increasing taxation on tobacco, regulation of the sale of tobacco, making sure all workplaces and public spaces are smoke-free, and placing clear warnings on cigarette packets, may be more effective. Countries that have adopted these policies are being rewarded by falling smoking rates.

Recently a study was done at Norfolk city of UK. The study subject was the residents living there. Two groups were selected- the older age group and the mid-forty group. The study was to identify the person’s lifestyle, behavior, food habit, profession; the inter relationship among these and affects of these factors upon one’s total lifespan. The outcome of the research was very interesting-at least ten to thirteen years of longevity of life is identified among the persons who was maintaining some simple disciplines like at least two hour of aerobic exercise (e.g. walking, cycling) per week, to say “No” to smoking, at least four hundred grams of vegetables in a week, reduction of alcohol consumption to lowest possible limit.

This is a big blow for the health sector. Also it point to the eye of the scientists who are  passing their nights sleepless to discover the way to live few more time than the normal life span. Famous nutritionists around the world are blasting out their throat defining the balanced diet, but still no specific single solution. No instructor is able to say how much amount of exercise is necessary for a particular person to live a healthy life. No doctor is able to say about the amount of alcohol that is not harmful for life. This study shows that the healthy maintenance of lifestyle doesn’t costs much money but has a straight forward affect on life span.

Very few changes in healthy attitude can ensure remarkable big deal in our life- To find out this result scientists went for a study separately. Some positive attitude was taken in account as “Healthy Attitude to Life (HAL)” for 1point each. These are avoidance of smoking, minimal physical activeness, reduced rate of alcohol intake, vegetable and fruits taking habit at least 4 times a day. Age was taken as a concerning point of this study.

Some scored HAL-0 and some scored HAL-4. HAL-0 means none of the healthy attitudes were followed and HAL-4 means all of the healthy attitudes were followed by the study persons. Result showed a very interesting thing. Persons who were in HAL-0 group featured with four times higher death rate during the stipulated study time span then HAL-4 group. Among the death causes most of were due heart diseases. Here it is notable that heart disease is the outcome of imbalanced nutrition. HAL-2 group death rate was double than HAL-0 group.
Now what do you understand form this study? Some simple healthy attitudes to our body may increase the chance of getting long life span by four times higher than usual especially if you consider it even for single disease- heart disease.

Scientists are also giving emphasis on this type of life style in their recent publications regarding the chance of human age increasing issue.

At least 8 hours of sleep per day is essential for anybody to refresh your “Head Quarter”: is a wise saying. But sound sleep can be lethal sometimes if you suffer from sleep apnoea: a type of respiration disorder during sleep. It is now recognized that 2-4% of the middle aged population suffer from recurrent upper airway obstruction during sleep due to ensuing sleep  fragmentation they experience daytime sleepiness, especially in monotonous situations, and this results in a threefold increased risk of road traffic accidents and a nine fold  increased risk of single vehicle accidents.

The problem results from recurrent occlusion of the pharynx during sleep, usually at the level of the soft palate. On inspiration the pressure in the pharynx is sub atmospheric. During wakefulness, upper airway dilating muscles contract actively during each inspiration to preserve airway patency.during sleep, muscle tone declines and the ability of the airway dilating muscles to maintain pharyngeal patency falls. If the obstruction is incomplete, turbulent flow and vibration occur, resulting in snoring. If narrowing progresses to the point of occlusion, sleeping person increases the breathing effort to try to breathe until the increased effort transiently awakens him. Then a series of deep breaths are taken before the person rapidly returns to sleep, snores and becomes apnoeic once more. This recurrent cycle of apnoea, awakening, apnoea, awakening etc. may repeat itself many hundreds of times per night and result in severe sleep fragmentation. The awakenings are associated with surges in blood pressure which may increase the risk of sustained hypertension, coronary events and stroke. The complete narrowing of the upper airway can even lead to sudden respiratory failure resulting to death.

Predisposing factors to the sleep apnoea include being male, which doubles the risk, probably due to a testosterone (male hormone) effect on the upper airway, and obesity, found in about half the people effected, because pharyngeal fat deposits tend to narrow the throat, nasal obstruction can further exacerbate the problem. The condition is often familial, and in these families the maxilla and mandible (bones of the face!) are back-set, narrowing the upper airway. Alcohol and sedatives predispose to snoring and apnoeas by relaxing the upper airway dilating muscles.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is the principal symptom and snoring is virtually universal. The person usually feels that he or she has been asleep all night but wakes unfreshed. Bed partners report loud snoring in all body positions and will often have noticed multiple breathing pause (apnoeas). Difficulties with concentration, impaired work performance, depression, irritability etc. are common features.

Facing this problem? Sleep labs are there for you. They give therapy named Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) through a nasal mask every night at home. Beside this other predisposing factors are also advised to reduce anyway…

Or you can find out any Japanese sleeping club which is providing sound sleep at a rate of $10 per hour, to their clients!

Will it be so expensive in comparison to passing a sleepless night due to apnoea? …

A house wife, aged just above 40, food lover,  Feed lover also. According to her, she is not fatty-but a little bit healthy. Hamburger is very light breakfast. Without milk at morning how can a day be started?! Bread without butter is quite tough to think… sometimes with honey… very small example of her food which she is taking like this for last one decade.
Result- now has come to cardiologist with chest pain.

Result is from uncontrolled, unplanned food intake. So be careful. If you are not careful you have a great danger ahead of you. Chest pain-often an alarm as pain in heart-angina pectoris-leads very likely to heart attack. The number one sudden killer around the world. It means bad fat-cholesterol is making apartments at your blood vessel. Then layer by layer going upward as if they are making skyscrapers to rich the ultimate blockage leading to heart attack. bad fat means the bad cholesterol rich food. Now if you allow going like this, the heart will die, then what about you? So no crispy oily food. Even no delicious spicy Indian dishes which tickle your salivary glands always. To keep yourself green you need to bring change in your diet chart. Egg yolk, beef stake, pork, spicy shrimp, with-skin chicken or duck or turkey, liver, oily bone marrow, a piece of pastry cake, oh! So delicious… so tasty… then so deadly also. Discard these items from your diet chart even from your “thinking to take” limit…

Salty canned food- oh my god! Enough to raise your blood pressure.

O! Now let me inform you that a pure glass of water is the best ever “heart-drink” of the world. No drink can keep your heart so cool whole day, if you take eight glasses whole day, one of which early in the morning in empty stomach, even before brushing your teeth. Now fix your “heart-drink” numbers per day…
In these modern days everything getting mechanized, emitting huge amount of smoke containing rich amount of Carbon-di-Oxide, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide etc.-sufficient to make your heart smoky dull. If needed, you can get out in the street, take a deep breath and have a huge amount of green house gases for absolutely free! Is there any need to pay for smoking?

Hey, no use of oil in food then? Of course yes. Soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil are still there to succulate your taste buds.

No milk or milky product.

Chocolate? No please or very little in a week.

Try to have one glass of sugarless lemonade to cut out some fat cells everyday.
Do you like to have veggie burger instead of ham one? Then you are making your heart green- and you know, The Angel of Death cannot touch the green heart easily…