7 Interesting Facts about Your Health

Get crushed

Crush garlic before cooking it, suggests the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Heat damages the enzymes in the gloves that prevent blood clots. By crushing it, it minimizes the effect heat may have on it.

Take a scoop

Ice cream may help you get pregnant, thanks to a fat-soluble dairy compound, according to a Harvard School of Public Health Study.

Water log

Are you thirsty or dehydrated? Make use of the water calculator at www.bottledwater.org to check your hydration needs.

Fat attack

A high-fat meal makes it harder for your heart to cope with stress notes a study in in the Journal of Nutrition. Blood pressure can rise after a meal high in saturated fats. So if you have a hectic schedule, pack a healthy lunch.

Main Squeeze

Grapefruit has always been a diet classic; now a study in the Journal of medicinal Food shows how the sweet-and-sour citrus may help weight loss. Citrus keeps insulin levels low, which might help your body burn more fat.

Cancer kicker

Two cups of beans a week cut your risk for colon cancer by 65% says search of the South African Cancer association.

Bye-Bye belly

Another reason to eat breakfast – it may give you flatter abs. Researchers have found that breakfast skippers have bigger tummies than those who regularly have a morning meal.

Health24

Is Teeth Whitening Bad for You?

It seems like every celeb in Hollywood has a set of perfectly white teeth and increasingly, more of your friends and co-workers probably do, too.

Over-the-counter whitening agents abound, with white strips, age-defying chewing gum, paint-on gels, leave-in trays, even brightening toothpaste and mouthwash beckoning to us from store shelves. And while most of these products can instantly boost your confidence, mask your age and help you keep up with the Joneses (or at least the cast of Jersey Shore!), whitening and over-whitening may be damaging to your dental health.

"Tooth whitening can cause tooth sensitivity and that sensitivity is the tooth's warning system that something is wrong," explains Linda C. Niessen, M.D., clinical professor at Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas.

Bleachers describe feeling everything from mild tingling and sensitivity to a cold feeling to burning gums to mind-scrambling "zingers."

And while a sensitive reaction to white strips, for example, is more common among younger people (20s to 30s), people who have erosion or abrasion on their teeth and adults who have periodontal (gum) disease, it can happen to anyone. In fact, 82 percent of Americans experience dental pain and sensitivity at some point in their lives. That's why dentists recommend seeing a dental professional to evaluate the health of your teeth and gums before whitening your teeth, explains Niessen. Still want to whiten? Niessen has a few tips:

1. Go easy - No matter how much you want a bright smile, your teeth should never be whiter than the whites of your eyes.

2. Know what's in your mouth - If you have composite fillings, crowns or veneers that were made to match the original colour of your front teeth, these restorations won't whiten (whitening products can't change the colour of porcelain). So if you whiten your natural teeth, your fillings, crowns or veneers may not match and that's a much bigger fashion faux pas than slightly yellowed natural teeth.

3. Lower your standards - The blinding white teeth that grace magazine covers are often the result of Photoshop or veneers, not tooth whitening. Those standards are impossible to achieve. Our advice: don't chase a mirage.

4. Tailor your whitening experience. Using lower concentration products or decreasing the frequency of the whitening can help alleviate sensitivity and help you achieve results gradually without overdoing it. When using at-home whitening trays, for example, keep them in your mouth for 15 minutes instead of 30, and instead of everyday use, use them once or twice a week. Going the professional route? Ask your dentist for a treatment with a new biocompatible ingredient called NovaMin that can provide immediate sensitivity relief, suggests Nissen. NovaMin reacts with your saliva and the minerals on the tooth's surface to create a barrier that blocks pain.

5. Focus on prevention - If you smoke, stop (not just for your teeth, but for your health, too). Avoid staining foods and beverages (yes that means the java you're sipping right now!). Tea, red wine and blueberries are other offenders. If you've gotta have 'em (and who can resist a daily cup of joe?) brush your teeth immediately after indulging. And see your dentist every six months.

Source: Self Magazine

How Muscle Relaxation Can Be Used to Alleviate Pain

Progressive muscle relaxation eases tension and often alleviates pain.

Pain is the body’s way of telling that something is not quite right. Unfortunately it is not always possible to pin down what exactly is wrong, or what the cause of the pain is. Pain is experienced when certain nerve endings are stimulated to send messages of pain to the brain.

Normally, chronic pain is experienced due to an illness or medical condition, for example arthritis. When pain is localized, for instance a headache, heartburn or toothache, it may be due to temporary ailments. Naturally, injuries also trigger pain.

As a remedy, it was found that progressive muscle relaxation can ease tension and subsequently alleviate pain.

Here is what to do:

1. Sit comfortably in a chair with a straight back, with the body in a 90⁰ relation to the chair. The hands must be in the lap and the feet solid on the floor. All clothes, like belt, tie, and other tight fitting clothes must be loosened. When in a comfortable, relaxed composure, take a deep breath and exhale very slowly.

2. The next step is to extent one of the arms in front of the body. Make a tight fist, and tense the muscles of the hand as hard as possible. Keep and hold this position for a count of 5 whilst concentrating on the tension in the hand.

3. Then, slightly relax the hand for a second or two and tense the muscles again for a count of 5.

4. Now, totally release the tension, relax and take a deep breath and very slowly exhale.

5. The next step is to repeat the sequences in 2-4 for the other hand, then for the arms, shoulders and facial muscles, taking deep breaths between each muscle group until the entire upper body is relaxed.

6. When this is done, the same routine must be followed for the lower body, tensing and relaxing muscles of the stomach, buttocks, legs and feet.

7. With the entire body subjected to the tensing and relaxing of muscles, close the eyes and sit quietly and relaxed for at least 5 minutes. Breathe deeply; concentrate on any word that comes to mind, or a number or even a nice scene.

Just remember, pain that is unusual, very tense and last more than one day, growing steadily worse or is accompanied by fever, vomiting and other symptoms, warrants prompt medical attention.

Jenny Love

How to Feel Good About Your Body and boost Your Self-Esteem

Feeling good about your body is the most important factor behind feeling good about yourself. If you feel good about your body, you will look good and also feel good about your mind. You will even feel good about your personality. Assume you are dressed up for a party, and looking yourself at the mirror you say – “not bad”. This means you look good and you feel like praising yourself.

Feeling good about your body doesn’t require you to be slim and thin. You need to be fit and healthy to feel good about yourself. We all are beautiful within but we are often careless about our body fitness – as a result, we become obese or overweight by following unhealthy lifestyle and eating high calorie food.

Praise yourself

Praising yourself is most important to boost your self-esteem. Always think positive, be positive about what you do, and what you wear. Always get a positive body image. It will make you capable to accept the changing lifestyles.

Exercise and fitness

Regular exercise keeps you fit, changes your appearance and lets you feel good about your body. Exercise also reduces your stress, promotes strength, balance, flexibility and general posture and a general sense of well being. If you have scarcity of time, schedule your fitness program beforehand and commit this with seriousness as you do your business meeting.

Don’t stop eating

Food is a glorious and beautiful part of our life and eating food is one of the wonderful activities. But don’t do anything else while you are eating, since your foods deserve your full attention. However, you should not overeat. It often happens that we overeat while watching TV and eating. So stop watching TV at the time of eating. However, you should follow a healthy and nutritious diet. Avoid junk foods.

Maintain right weight

It is unhealthy to be too thin or too fat. It is also wrong if you are eating less food to become thin or eating more than your body requirement. You should have a balanced diet - eat the amount of food your body needs. You should keep a balance between the food you eat and the calories you use. If you eat more calories than you use, you cannot maintain your weight, and will soon become overweight. For example, you are eating more but spending your time in watching TV, reading storybooks. Then there is a chance of increasing weight. But if you spend your time in playing, skating or if you go for a walk, you will use more calories and that will keep a balance between what you eat and what you use – and you can maintain your body weight.

Friendship – good for your health

Friendship makes your whole life better, as you get support and companionship from good friends. They just not make you happy but also make your life beautiful and healthy. Researches have found that friendship has importance like regular exercise. If you have good friends you will experience less stress, will recover quickly from illness, and will even live longer than people who don’t have good friends.

Acknowledgement: Ezilon.com

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