Healthy Life

13 Healthy Habits to Improve Your Life

Disregard them, and you may well be taking a big gamble with your mental and emotional well-being.

By Dulce Zamora
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

There are 13 ways to boost your chances of living a happy, healthy life. More can be added to this list, but, for simplicity's sake, we'll stick with this typically unlucky number.

Instead of bringing misfortune, however, the 13 habits promise a life of vigor and vivacity. There are, of course, no guarantees, but many of the practices mentioned here have been published in scientific journals. Disregard them, and you may well be taking a big gamble with your mental and emotional well-being.

Healthy Habit No. 1: Eat Breakfast Every Morning

Breakfast eaters are champions of good health. Research shows people who have a morning meal tend to take in more vitamins and minerals, and less fat and cholesterol. The result is often a leaner body, lower cholesterol count, and less chance of overeating.

"That one act [of eating breakfast] seems to make a difference in people's overall weight," says Melinda Johnson, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She says breakfast can hold off hunger pangs until lunchtime and make high-calorie vending machine options less enticing.

Not only that, researchers at the 2003 American Heart Association conference reported that breakfast eaters are significantly less likely to be obese and get diabetes compared with nonbreakfast eaters.

Another study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition showed that people who consumed breakfast cereal every day reported feeling better both physically and mentally than those who rarely ate cereal in the morning.

For kids, breakfast appears to enhance alertness, attention, and performance on standardized achievement tests, reports the ADA.

To get the full benefits of breakfast, the Mayo Clinic recommends a meal with carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of fat. They say that because no single food gives you all of the nutrients you need, eating a variety of foods is essential to good health.

Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good; many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning. They include not having enough time and not feeling hungry. For these people, Johnson suggests tailoring breakfast to the day.

"When I'm getting ready in the morning, I don't really want to take the time to eat breakfast because that would mean sacrificing sleep," says Johnson. "So I bring my breakfast with me, and I know I have an hour when I'm reading emails in the office when I can eat it. By that time, I'm hungry because I've been up for almost a couple of hours."

Healthy Habit No. 2: Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet

The AHA recommends a serving of fish two times per week.

Besides being a good source of protein and a food relatively low in the bad type of dietary fat called saturated fat, fish has omega-3 fatty acids -- which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Healthy Habit No. 2: Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet continued...

Fatty fish such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon, are rich in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Foods such as tofu, soybeans, canola, walnuts, flaxseed, and their oils contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which convert to omega-3 in the body. Even though the benefits of ALA are controversial, the AHA still recommends foods containing it as part of a healthy diet.

In addition to their heart-health benefits, there is some evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may also soothe an overactive immune system, says Johnson. Even though this benefit is still being studied, she says there appears to be a link between getting more omega-3s in your diet and reducing allergies, asthma, eczema, and autoimmune disorders.

Healthy Habit No. 3: Get Enough Sleep

"Your body has to have enough time to rest," says Michael Fleming, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Otherwise, he says you may find yourself feeling cranky and tired.

This may sound like common sense, but according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), more than two-thirds of older adults suffer from sleep problems and many American adults don't get the minimum amount of shuteye needed to stay alert.

Sleep is vital to good health and to mental and emotional well-being. The NSF reports that people who don't get enough slumber are more likely than others to develop psychiatric problems and to use health care services. Plus, sleep deprivation can negatively affect memory, learning, and logical reasoning.

Not enough ZZZs can also be hazardous. More than one-half of adult drivers -- some 100 million people -- say they have driven drowsy in the past year, according to NSF polls. About one out of five of these drivers -- 32 million people -- say they've fallen asleep while driving.

Each year drowsy driving causes more than 100,000 car crashes, 1,500 deaths, and tens of thousands of injuries, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NSF recommends taking a 15 to 20 minute nap. Because it takes about 30 minutes for the caffeine to work, taking a nap while you wait for the caffeine to kick in can help restore alertness.

To avoid the pitfalls of insufficient sleep, make sure to get at least seven to 10 hours of slumber each night. Kids need more sleep, depending on their age.

Healthy Habit No. 4: Make Social Connections

Volunteer. Go to church. Join a club. Whatever you do, do it with people. Communal activities are good for your physical and mental health, according to a study published in the March/April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior.

It makes sense, says C. David Jenkins, PhD, author of Building Better Health: A Handbook of Behavioral Change. He says social ties have many benefits, including:

• Providing information. You may think for instance your frequent nosebleeds, coughing, and sneezing episodes are trivial, but when a close friend or relative hears of it, he or she may encourage you to go to a doctor. If the symptoms turn out to be a serious condition, the social tie could have saved your life.
• Instrumental help. Friends and family can provide physical support in time of need. They may help with cooking, cleaning, running errands, doing grocery shopping, and driving to the doctor's office.
• Emotional support. Sharing a problem with a trusted person can help alleviate an internal burden. "It's a load off your chest," says Jenkins.
• Offering a sense of belonging. This feeling not only helps reinforce a person's identity, it also assists in preventing and overcoming depression and anxiety.

Community ties also help improve mental functioning, says Fleming. Group activities can help keep the mind active and maintain desirable levels of serotonin -- the brain chemical associated with mood. "Lack of social interaction will [decrease] serotonin levels," says Fleming.

Healthy Habit No. 5: Exercise for Better Health

We already know that physical activity has a bounty of benefits, which makes it so puzzling why so many people just don't do it. According to the CDC, more than 60% of Americans do not get regular exercise.

In case you needed an incentive, here is a review of the advantages of exercise, per the National Cancer Institute:

• Helps control weight
• Maintains healthy bones, muscles, and joints
• Reduces risk of developing high blood pressure and diabetes
• Promotes psychological well-being
• Reduces risk of death from heart disease
• Reduces risk of premature death

Studies have also shown a link between exercise and a reduced risk of certain cancers.

Besides its long-term effects, moving your body has immediate benefits, says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise. The short-term results of exercise include helping people to think and move better, manage stress, improve mood, and get an energy boost.

The excuses that people often give to not exercise are the precise reasons to exercise, says Bryant. People who say they are too tired or don't have time to workout don't realize that exercise gives people more energy and allows them to be more productive with the rest of their time.

Healthy Habit No. 6: Practice Good Dental Hygiene

Flossing your teeth every day could add 6.4 years to your life, according to Michael Roizen, MD, author of RealAge. In his book, Roizen lists flossing as one of the most important daily activities -- along with exercise and quitting smoking -- that could extend life span.

Roizen's calculation may raise some eyebrows, but the idea that oral health is connected to overall health isn't far-fetched.

The mouth, after all, is an integral part of the body. "Teeth have a blood supply, and that blood supply comes from the heart," says Richard Price, DMD, consumer advisor for the American Dental Association (ADA).

Researchers suspect that the bacteria that produce dental plaque enter the bloodstream. They say these bacteria are somehow associated with the inflammation that occurs with plaque that blocks blood vessels and causes heart disease.

Other researchers have found links between oral bacteria and stroke, diabetes, and the birth of preterm babies and those that have low birth weight.

In addition to preventing disease, flossing and brushing can help keep your pearly whites intact for more than just cosmetic reasons. Teeth help you chew food, speak properly, and smile -- which, according to Price, can help you keep your dignity.

Healthy Habit No. 7: Take Up a Hobby

Look up the word "hobby" in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and you will find the definition as "a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation."

Since they are relaxing activities, hobbies are usually enjoyable. Some people find joy in craftwork, bird watching, sports, going to flea markets, walking in the park, or playing cards.

The joy may help people live healthier and recover better from illness. For one thing, taking part in hobbies can burn calories, more so than just sitting in front of the TV.

In a study of people who had undergone surgery, Jenkins found that people who were involved in hobbies before their operation had better recovery six months later, compared with people who did not have hobbies.

The participants with hobbies tended to have more drive and interest in things and other people, says Jenkins. "It was a more active orientation to life."

Healthy Habit No. 8: Protect Your Skin

Our skin starts to age as soon as we are born and, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), the best way to protect it and look younger is to stay out of the sun.

The sun has harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays that can cause wrinkles, dryness, and age spots. Overexposure can cause sunburn, skin texture changes, dilated blood vessels, and skin cancers.

Avoiding the sun, however, is not always ideal or practical. To reduce the risk of skin damage, the AAD offers the following tips:

• Always wear sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher.
• Don a hat with a brim and wear other protective clothing.
• Don't deliberately sunbathe.
• Try to avoid sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Healthy Habit No. 9: Snack the Healthy Way

The ADA recommends five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day as part of a healthy diet. These plant foods can do many things to boost good health, including:

• Reduce the risk of some cancers
• Beat the signs of aging
• Improve memory
• Promote heart health
• Enhance the immune system

One way to incorporate fruits and veggies into your diet is to have them as snacks. "If you can do one thing [to improve your health], concentrate on getting fruits and veggies," says Johnson. "They are low in calories and high in nutrients."

She says baby carrots and cut-up produce make tasty, convenient munchies. Other healthful snacks include low-fat yogurt and nuts (in moderation).

The best time to snack is when you are hungry between meals, says Johnson. But beware: Cravings could easily be mistaken for hunger cues, especially for people who are dieting.

Healthy Habit No. 10: Drink Water and Eat Dairy

Water and milk are essential fluids for good health, but they can also help with shedding pounds. The body needs water to keep properly hydrated and individuals vary widely in how much water they need. Joints need it to stay in motion, and vital organs such as the heart, brain, kidney, and liver need it to work properly.

If you don't get enough water, the body goes into emergency mode, and clings to every single water molecule it can find, reports the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center. The stored molecules appear as extra weight. The weight is only released once the body gets enough water.

The calcium in dairy, on the other hand, is known to be important for strong bones and teeth. Studies have also shown it can help prevent high blood pressure, kidney stones, heart disease, and colon cancer.

In the weight loss arena, three 8-ounce glasses of low-fat or fat-free milk appear to encourage body fat loss while maintaining muscle mass, according to the ADA. The dairy consumption must be part of a balanced reduced-calorie meal plan.

Healthy Habit No. 11: Drink Tea

"Decaffeinated tea is better," says Fleming, noting that the caffeinated variety can be dehydrating, and sugary drinks can lead to weight gain.

There is some evidence that tea may help in improving memory, and preventing cavities, cancer, and heart disease. Fleming says, though, that the overall research is still inconclusive.

"There may well be some beneficial effects of tea, particularly the potential antioxidant effect, but we don't have great data on that right now that is that specific."

However, there's no doubt that a cool iced tea can be a refreshing treat during hot days. Try flavoring your tea with juices, fruits, cinnamon sticks, ginger, and other condiments.

Healthy Habit No. 12: Take a Daily Walk

We already mentioned the merits of exercise in habit No. 5. Now, here's a tip on how to incorporate physical activity into your daily life: WALK.

We're not talking about taking the time out of your busy schedule to work out -- that's important, too -- but infusing life- and limb-saving movement into your waking hours.

"Just move. Pace during phone calls, while you're brushing your teeth, while watching your son's soccer game," says Bryant, noting that every 20 steps a person takes is 1 calorie burned.

An eight-year study of 13,000 people also showed that people who walked 30 minutes daily had a significantly reduced chance of premature death compared with those who rarely exercised, reports the American Council on Exercise.

And there are plenty of opportunities to move those legs:

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Walk to the store.
• Window shop at the mall.
• Leave your desk and visit your co-worker instead of sending him an email.
• Walk and talk with friends instead of meeting for a meal.

Healthy Habit No. 13: Plan

There is, perhaps, no better word in the English language to better illustrate how you can incorporate healthy habits into your everyday life.
"A little planning goes a long way," says Johnson. "Eating healthy never happens by accident."
For the most part, neither do good fitness, skin protection, healthy teeth, weight loss, and social ties. Many of these habits take effort that need to be scheduled into busy lives.
To eat healthy, for example, it would help to set aside time to draft a menu, make a grocery list, go to the store, prepare meals, and pack breakfast and lunch.

Source:  http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/13-healthy-habits-to-improve-your-life?page=6

Top 15 Healthiest Fruits For Human

This is the top 15 fruits that i found to be very important and fruitful for Human Body:

1. Apples - 1 medium apple (80 calories, 0 g fat): An apple's 3 g of fiber help you meet your fiber goal of 20 g to 30 g daily. High-fiber diets can lower heart disease risk;
2. Apricots - 3 apricots (51 calories, 0 g fat): A good source of beta-carotene (which is converted to vitamin A by the body), providing the equivalent of 35% of the RDA for vitamin A;
3. Bananas - 1 medium (105 calories, 0 g fat): Bananas are a great source of potassium, which plays a key role in heart health and muscle function. Plus each one has 2 g of fiber;
4. Blackberries - 1 cup (74 calories, 0 g fat): This fruit boasts a whopping 10 g of fiber in a single cup;
5. Blueberries - 1 cup (81 calories, 0 g fat): Blueberries help prevent and treat bladder infections by making it hard for bacteria to stick to urinary tract walls;
6. Cherries - 1 cup (84 calories, 1 g fat): A good source of perillyl alcohol, which helps prevent cancer in animals. Heart-protective anthocyanins give cherries their color;
7. Grapefruits - 1/2 fruit (39 calories, 0 g fat): A good source of vitamin C and a compound called naringenin, which helps suppress tumors in animals;
8. Kiwi - 1 medium (46 calories, 0 g fat): Just one little fruit packs a mean vitamin-C punch (74 mg) and an impressive 2.8 g fiber;
9. Mangoes - 1 mango (135 calories, 1 g fat): A single mango has enough beta-carotene to cover your RDA for vitamin A while racking up 57 mg of vitamin C;
10. Oranges fruits- 1 orange (61 calories, 0 g fat): One orange provides an impressive 50 mg to 70 mg of vitamin C, 40 mcg of folic acid and 52 mg of calcium;

11. Papayas - 1 cup, cubed (55 calories, 0 g fat): Loaded with vitamin C (86 mg per cup), a healthy dose of fiber (2.5 g) and a sprinkling of beta-carotene and calcium;
12. Purple grapes - 1 small (113 calories, 9 g fat):Offer three heart-guarding compounds: flavonoids, anthocyanins and resveratrol (green grapes are not rich in them);
13. Prunes - 1/3 cup, stewed (87 calories, 0 g fat): Prunes' famed laxative effect is no mystery: There are 5 g of fiber (both soluble and insoluble) in just 1/3 cup;
14. Raspberries - 1 cup (60 calories, 0 g fat): Teeming with 8 g of fiber per cup, they also boast vitamin C, ellagic acid and anthocyanins;
15. Strawberries - 1 cup, sliced (50 calories, 0 g fat): Strawberries have high levels of ellagic acid and anthocyanins, and are rich in vitamin C (95 mg per cup) and fiber (3.8 g per cup).
source : http://healthtreatments.blogspot.com/2007/06/top-15-healthiest-fruits-for-human.html

There is no miraculous cure in disease Lie _'s nutrition guidance of three major diet

There is no miraculous cure in disease Lie _'s nutrition guidance of three major diet “ Because eat the corn & rdquo in hypertension that American Indian have not had; , & ldquo; The sweet potato can absorb internal moisture, fat and toxin & rdquo; , & ldquo; Black Auricularia can replace aspirin & rdquo; … … & ldquo spreading far and wide on the net; Keep in good health and pass & rdquo; ,Especially praise highly several kinds of healthy food, and point out so long as eats more a certain food, can prevent a certain disease corresponded to. Does the food really have such magical results? The expert says, the miraculous cure does not exist in any disease, keep fit the key to the body is good eating habit & mdash; — Omnivorous and non- excessive.
1.Does the corn include most lecithin?
The statement spreads:
The corn is known as & ldquo in the world; Gold crop & rdquo; . Primitive Americans, American Indian have no hypertension, have no arteriosclerosis, eat the result of the corn. Contain a large amount of lecithin, inferior oil acid, grain alcohol, Vitamin E in the corn, a lot of people eat the lecithin now, just hope for arteriosclerosis. In fact, include most lecithin in the corn, cheap.
Expert's view:
The corn is the coarse fibre, no matter corn or tender corn, are all very good cereal food. The corn is cheaper than the price of the rice, it is convenient to plant, especially under the excessive great background that finely melt of urban people's food for the moment, recommend eating the corn and is needed.
2.Do pumpkin, bitter gourd prevent diabetes?
The statement spreads:
The pumpkin can stimulate vitamin cells, insulin emerges. Take the intersection of people and getting difficult diabetes of pumpkin often. Bitter gourd although bitter, secrete insulinogenic material, take the intersection of people and getting difficult diabetes of bitter gourd often.
So, the pumpkin, bitter gourd must be often eaten.
Expert's view:
The pathogenic factor of diabetes includes life style of heredity inclining and long-term,etc., this is a kind of comprehensive supersession disease, because a few kinds of food influence it to have illness coming on if it is only impossible.
The plant chemicals of flavonoids,etc. contained inside the bitter gourd have certain function of fat of blood of regulation, but can't lower candies. The pumpkin has certain advantages on preventing, this is because the soluble fiber among them helps to control blood glucose, but pumpkin carbohydrate of itself content too very high, to eat, one should reduce intaking amount of rice while being corresponding.
3.Does the claret resist aging?
The statement spreads:
The claret can lower blood pressure, lower the fat of blood. Contain & ldquo on red grape peel; Reverse alcohol & rdquo; ,Can resist aging, anti-oxidant, often drink heart disease, and can prevent the heart from stopping fighting suddenly. So the claret is sold abroad very well. White grape has not reversed alcohol, you drink in vain.
Expert's view:
It is very correct that grape seed and grape peel have anti-oxidant function resisting aging. It is beneficial health too to drink some wine appropriately. The wine made out is better than the wine concocting out, can drink some appropriately, but can't drink more on one hand, on the other hand will even vary with each individual. Red wine plays a certain role in softening the blood vessel, lowering the fat of blood and lowering blood pressure, but in the warm stomach respect of blood circulation promoting, than only yellow wine.
source :http://www.flixya.com/blog/3460779/There-is-no-miraculous-cure-in-disease-Lie-_s-nutrition-guidance-of-three-major-diet-

New Diet Craze: I Gross You Out So Much That You Quit Eating Crappy, Disgusting Fast Food!

We’ve all heard the horror stories about gross, nasty things found in the food at some of the most popular fast food joints in the world – fried mice, hair, severed finger in chili, condoms, chemicals, and many more – some are actually myths, but many of them are 100% true! I figured I’d take advantage of these disgusting tales of food filth, and introduce my new “Grossed Out Food Diet”! Ok…So, it’s not a real diet, but at least it may help to persuade you from eating these unhealthy fast food choices next time you get a craving.

These are a list of food horror stories that have either been verified to be true, or at least had a lawsuit filed against the restaurant by the victim, so prepare to be grossed out! Next time you get a craving for some McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, or Burger King, just remember this post and proceed with caution!

1. In 1995 a man in Alabama was dining at McDonalds when he found a condom in his burger. No word on whether it was a used condom or not, but does it really matter?!?

2. An Ohio man found skin, apparently from part of a thumb, in his sandwich at Arbys back in 2004.

3. In 2003 a man was enjoying a three-piece combo from Popeye’s Chicken, and as he took a bite out of his chicken, he noticed that a mouse had apparently lodged itself between the skin and the meat of the chicken. This restaurant had been cited for rodent infestations in the past – why wasn’t this place shutdown!

4. Clam chowder gone bad! A woman eating a bowl of clam chowder in 2002 at a McCormick and Smicks’s seafood restaurant in Southern California found a condom in her chowder, which she originally mistook for calamari, but soon after noticed that it was something else rubbery. She sued the restaurant and won an undisclosed settlement amount.

5. Employees at an Oregon Jack in the Box decided to “amuse themselves” one day by adding a variety of disgusting things to customers’ burgers, including acid, soap, phlegm, hair, and staples.

6. In 2000 a woman purchased a box of chicken wings at a local McDonalds only to find that one of the chicken pieces was actually a chicken’s head! FYI: Deep fried chicken head is not on the McDonalds menu.

7. A firefighter in Virginia Beach found two used bandages in his quarter pounder from McDonalds. I imagine that this happens more often than most people think.

8. A man in Tennessee allegedly bit down on a hypodermic needle while eating a Big Mac from McDonalds (this one is not confirmed to be true, but it’s scary to think about nonetheless).

9. A 50-year-old man in Houston contracted a disease called cysticercosis caused by employees using poor hygiene, such as not washing their hands after going to the bathroom, at a local restaurant. His food was contaminated with tapeworm eggs which nearly killed him. The tapeworm larvae spread to his brain and caused him to pass out and not wake up for eight days. Apparently, he was the fourth patient treated for the disease in that area within the past few months back in 2007.

10. Check out this disgusting Burger King in Florida that just leaves their hamburger buns outside for the pigeons to eat!

11. A 2003/2004 study conducted in Durban, South Africa (a popular tourist town) concluded that 20,000 food outlets, including popular fast food joints, in the area inspected by the City Health Department failed to meet minimum health requirements. Health officials found hair, insects, cigarettes, weevils and fingernails in the food at these places. Senior official at the City Health Department, Umar Singh, said “We have found foreign objects coming into contact with food, including insects, weevils and cockroaches. We have also found unsanitary conditions, the smoking of tobacco products, defective fume-extraction units and a lack of protective clothing for the staff.”

12. A 2009 video shows an employee at Dominos doing some very disgusting things to a couple of sub sandwiches. Needless to say, the employee was immediately fired after the big-wigs at Domino’s saw the video on the Internet.

Top 10 Healthy Drinks That Can Help You Lose Weight

When it comes to weight loss, substituting healthy drinks for those sugary sodas and energy drinks can have a drastic effect on your weight loss goals. Most people don’t realize how many calories they take in each day from drinks alone. For instance, a caffe mocha with all the fixings can pack in over 500 calories! So as you can see, switching to healthier drinks and ditching the “junk drinks” will greatly reduce your daily caloric intake and in return start shredding those unwanted pounds. Check out this list of the top 10 healthy drinks that can help you reach your weight loss goals…

1. Vegetable Juice

   Vegetable juice is every bit as nutritious as fruit juice but with about half the calories. Most vegetable juices are also rich in fiber which can help make you feel full and in turn eat less.
   

2. Fruit Smoothies

   Mix-up a delicious batch of smoothies using your favorite fruits and a little bit of skim milk. Do not consume smoothies with added sugar, whipped cream, honey, or other sweeteners that can add hundreds of calories – in other words, don’t eat smoothies from your favorite local restaurant or ice-cream shop and think that you’re eating healthy because you’re not!
   

3. Fruit Juice

   Fruit juices have loads of vitamins and nutrients, but it’s important to make sure that there’s no added sugar…sorry Sunny D and Tang! Also remember that the pulpier, the better. Fruit juice with lots of pulp contains added fiber that can help you feel more full and eat less.
   

4. Black Coffee

   Coffee has plenty of positive health benefits and best of all, it contains no calories! Black coffee is rich in antioxidants that can help boost your mood, improve concentration, reduce the risk of diabetes and cancer, as well as many other benefits. Keep you coffee consumption at 4 cups or less per day – as with anything, moderation is the key.
   

5. Green Tea

   Like coffee, green tea has a plethora of positive health benefits and contains plenty of helpful antioxidants. It also helps to boost your metabolism if consumed on a daily basis, which can help to speed up your body’s fat-burning mechanism – as much as a 40% increase in some cases!
   
   

6. Milk

   The calcium in Low-fat or skim milk can help contribute to the breakdown of fat cells in your body. Too much milk, though, can pack on the pounds because it does contain a lot of calories, so stick to 3-4 small servings per day in order to benefit from milk’s weight loss benefits.
   
   

7. Protein Drinks

   Protein drinks, such as from powders or pre-mixed varieties, can have a great effect on your weight loss regiment, because lean muscle is very efficient at burning fat. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more fat your body will burn. Protein is a big part of this equation, because it’s the building block of muscle growth.
   
   

8. Fiber Drinks

   There’s many fiber-rich drinks on the market today, and they can be a great tool for any weight loss program. Fiber helps to make your body feel full, and it also has plenty of other positive health benefits as well.
   

9. Apple Cider Vinegar

   Sounds a little gross, and it may be too gross for some people to try, but apple cider vinegar is a sort-of “old school” health drink that was very popular in the ’70s as a weight loss tool. Although there aren’t any scientific studies that actually prove it works, many fitness gurus swear by it, saying that it greatly boosts your metabolism if taken regularly…Hey, it’s worth a try! Here’s a recipe to make your own apple cider vinegar.
   

10. Ice Water

    Probably the most powerful weight loss tool at your disposal, and also the cheapest, is plain old ice water (who’d a thunk!). Drinking plenty of water is great for your body because it helps you feel full, boosts your metabolism, and it contains zero calories. Furthermore, some studies suggest that drinking just two extra glasses of ice water per day can help boost your metabolism by as much as 30%. This equates to about 5 pounds of fat loss per year!

Know of any other “miracle” weight loss health drinks? Post them in the comments section, or if you liked this article, please bookmark it below. Thanks!

Good Humor, Good Health

David S. Sobel MD, Robert Ornstein PhD

 

"The arrival of a good clown exercises more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than twenty asses laden with drugs."

- Thomas Sydenham, 17th century physician

When was the last time you laughed really hard - a hearty, sidesplitting belly laugh that suddenly grabbed you and sent you reeling out of control? Or you laughed so hard that you forgot what triggered it, leaving you laughing without reason? Modern science is beginning to confirm that this kind of laughter is not only enjoyable, it's also health-promoting. Laughter is an invigorating tonic that heightens and brightens mood, gently releasing us from tensions and social constraints. Humor offers a valuable perspective on ourselves and our world. What strikes us as funny is usually triggered by a mismatch between what we expect and what we see.
Laughter is an affirmation of our humanness, a face-saving way to express our anxieties, fears, and other hidden emotions to others. It breaks the ice, builds trust, and draws us together into a common state of well-being. Entertainer Victor Borge once quipped, "Humor is the shortest distance between two people."
Humor may be one of our best antidotes to stressful situations. When confronted with a threatening situation, animals have two choices: they can flee, or they can fight. We humans have a third alternative: to laugh. By seeing the humor in a stressful situation, we may be able to change our response to the threat. Humor allows us to distance ourselves and replace paralyzing feelings of anxiety with mirth. When we laugh, we simply cannot be worrying deeply at the same time.
What the Research Shows
Laughter is called "inner jogging." A robust laugh gives the muscles of your face, shoulders, diaphragm, and abdomen a good workout, and sometimes even your arms and legs. Heart rate and blood pressure temporarily rise, breathing becomes faster and deeper, and oxygen surges throughout your bloodstream.
Your muscles go limp and your blood pressure may fall, leaving you in a mellow euphoria. A good laugh can burn up as many calories per hour as brisk walking. During a good hearty laugh your brain orchestrates hormonal rushes that rouse you to a high-level alertness and numb pain. Researchers speculate that laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the brain's opiates. This may account for the pain relief that accompanies laughter.
Norman Cousins claimed to nurse himself back to health from a crippling arthritic condition, in part with old tapes of "Candid Camera" television program and Marx Brothers movies. He claimed that ten minutes of belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give him at least two hours of pain-free sleep.
In controlled studies, humor has been shown to lower pain thresholds, reduce stress and even boost immune system function.
In one study, people listening to twenty minutes of Lily Tomlin joking about the telephone company were far less sensitive to pain than those who listened to an academic lecture. The Tomlin tape also blocked pain as effectively as a standard relaxation tape-and you know which one was more fun.
People who use humor a lot are less likely to get upset when faced with negative events. In another study, students had to solve increasingly tricky math problems, becoming highly stressed in the process. Afterwards, they could listen to relaxation tapes, watch an exploration film on the Icelandic River, or see a funny "Candid Camera" scene. The relaxation and funny tapes both reduced stress. But humor only worked for people used to laughing a lot. Laughter needs to be a regular part of your life to get its full benefit.

Hyperactivity

Hyperactivity

© Dr Jacob Teitelbaum MD

One of the side effects of our modern environment and diet has been an increase in illnesses such as autism and hyperactivity. It is important to recognize that these do not have a single cause but are rather the common endpoint for many different problems. When we understand these problems, it makes it easier to develop effective treatment strategies. I would like to begin with pregnancy, as nutritional and hormonal deficiencies in the mother can increase the risk of hyperactivity and learning disabilities in the child. Although this information may not help with your child now, looking for and treating these problems may prevent hyperactivity and other problems in the children that you will have in the future.
The three key areas to be aware of to prevent these problems in pregnancy are hypothyroidism and iodine and fish oil deficiencies. Unfortunately, hypothyroidism is dramatically under diagnosed in the United States. Even the using current lab guidelines, only one quarter of the 26 million Americans, mostly women, who are hypothyroid are receiving adequate care. Sadly, most doctors, and even the lab forms themselves have not updated to the new guidelines that were developed by the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinology almost three years ago. In addition, I believe that many people have an underactive thyroid – even if the tests are normal using the new lab guidelines. Also, some doctors are not aware that even in a hypothyroid patient who is on optimal levels of thyroid hormone, the dose needs to be increased by 30-60 percent during pregnancy to maintain normal thyroid levels as your blood volume increases. The effects of missing an underactive thyroid can be devastating to a pregnancy.
To give you some idea of the scope of the problem, the effect of not treating hypothyroidism results in over 4600 miscarriages/yr after 15 weeks of pregnancy-with countless more before. An astounding six percent of miscarriages are associated with hypothyroidism and undiagnosed hypothyroidism is also associated with infertility. In moderate to severely hypothyroid mothers, the baby was also over 6 times as likely to die soon after being born.
If they survive these problems, children born to hypothyroid mothers have a lower IQ by an average of 7 points. They are also almost 4 times as likely to have an IQ under 85 and over twice as likely to have learning difficulties resulting in their having to repeat a grade. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy, which can contribute to an underactive thyroid and is once again becoming more prevalent in the United States since iodine was removed from flour, has also been found to be much more common in mothers of children with hyperactivity. Fish oil deficiency, which along with low magnesium and zinc are the most critical deficiencies during pregnancy, may also impair proper brain development in the child. As you can see, a gram of prevention can be worth a pound of cure!
Having discussed what can be done to prevent attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, let’s look at the many factors which may contribute to these problems and how to treat them. This may eliminate or lower the need for Ritalin which, although sometimes helpful, is not necessarily the preferred approach to treatment. It important to remember however, that the underlying problems may vary from child to child. As is the case with adults, magnesium deficiency is critical with 95% of hyperactive children been found to have low levels. Magnesium deficiency is characterized by excessive fidgeting, anxious restlessness, psychomotor instability, and learning disabilities --even the presence of a normal IQ. In one study, supplementing the children with 200 mg of magnesium daily for six months resulted in significant improvement. Calcium, which is another mineral related to magnesium, is also often deficient in hyperactivity and supplementation may also result in improvement. 1 cup of milk supplies 400 mg of calcium and can be helpful if the child does not have milk allergies. Milk allergies should be suspected, however, in children that had frequent ear infections. Other nutrient deficiencies are also important. Iron deficiency was found in 82% of hyperactive children and one study found that supplementing these children with iron was helpful. The ferritin blood test for iron should be kept at a level of over 40. Zinc deficiency is also common in these children. Because of this, I would consider supplementing with magnesium 200 mg daily, calcium, zinc, and iron.
Another important area to explore in these children is the role of allergies and sensitivities to foods and food additives. Because the offending agent or agents may vary dramatically from child to child, the approach that I recommend is an elimination diet. This can be difficult to get the child to do, but given a somewhat controlled environment and the right amount of bribery it is possible. In the elimination diet, almost all of the foods and food additives normally eaten by the child are eliminated for five to seven days. If a marked improvement is seen by the end of that time, food allergies are likely. It is important to remember that symptoms may initially worsen as the offending foods or food additives are eliminated, so pick a time that you can stick with the diet for the full five to seven days. As you reintroduce different foods and food additives, you’ll be able to tell which foods are the offending agents. In addition, using an allergy desensitization technique based on acupressure called NAET, a child can be tested for multiple food sensitivities and have them eliminated in 30 to 40 simple sessions. For more information see www.NAET.com. Before we conclude, I would also like to add one more critical point.
Unfortunately, our schools today often try to make each child fit into the same mold. That your child is “a round and not a square peg” so to speak does not necessarily make them a bad child. Nonetheless, the teachers will often try to intimidate both the child and you and eventually convince the child that they are bad or inadequate. Unfortunately, the child will often then live up to that expectation. To be honest, when I was a child back in grade school, I found much of what was being taught to be boring and irrelevant. Spacing out and fidgeting was a very reasonable response. You’ll often find that when your child does not respond to your or the teacher’s instructions, it is because they’re doing something that is more interesting to them. Although this may be distracting to the adult, it is often a reasonable action on the child’s part. Even though your child’s teacher may read you the riot act, do not reinforce the misconception that the child is given that they are bad. In fact, it is often a good idea for you to run interference between the child and the teacher and to recognize with the child that perhaps what they are being taught is boring. Instead of teaching the child of that they are bad, take the approach of teaching them to adapt to a system that doesn’t always make sense. To be honest, you may find that you often do the same at your job. In fact this is the basis for the Dilbert comic strip. By giving the child understanding and letting them know that they are indeed good children who simply learn differently and that they are not “defective” , you’ll be better able to strike a compromise that may prevent some of the more disruptive behavior. When it feels appropriate, I encourage you to become the child’s advocate—even if this is done secretly between you and your child. This is appropriate as many of the hyperactive children and adults that I know are actually wonderful and more creative than their peers. They simply need to be taught differently and respected for who they are.