Category Archives: Q & A Health

Natural ways to quit smoking

If you’re addicted to smoking and have ever tried to quit, the chances are that you didn’t succeed the first time. Or the second. Or the third. As a matter of fact, on average, it takes five to seven times of trying to quit before you’re successful. The brain’s addiction to the nicotine in tobacco products combined with human frailty are a formidable opponent. It is your strength of will that ultimately will win the battle.

If you are one of those rare people that are intensely stubborn and strong-willed, then perhaps quitting “cold turkey” is right for you. Nothing could be more natural than just stopping the habit! But the term “cold turkey” comes from the comparison of the looks of a cold, raw turkey to the sweating, goosebumps, and hollowed-out feeling you get when your body is suddenly deprived of the thing it’s addicted to. Most of us haven’t got the self-control to go through that. Instead, there are several natural methods you can try to help the brain cope with the loss of the nicotine as well as increase your willpower.

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Lose Weight with Dance as exercise

I’ve lost 28lbs in the last six months or so, and I’m looking – and feeling great, but there are some bits that need firming up, particularly around the stomach and waist area. Swimming is helping with all over toning, but it’s not addressing the midsection, so when I saw an advert for belly dancing classes, run by our local council, I decided to give it a go.

I live in a small village on the Costa Blanca, with a fairly large expat population. I assumed the class would be full of expats, as I couldn’t imagine the locals going in for something as sensual as belly dancing. How wrong can you be? There’s another English girl, and the rest of the class are Spanish, ranging in age from about 20 years old to around 60. At 57, I’m the second eldest in the class.

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Fitness Basic: Why muscles get sore

Our muscles give us sensations of pain when they are damaged and during their recovery period. Such muscle damage can occur from a number of causes that might be divided into four categories: acute onset muscle soreness (AOMS), delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle cramping and muscle trauma (injury/wounding).

Muscles are composed of multiple muscle cells or fibers, the number of fibers being dependent on location and purpose of the muscle. While the number of muscle fibers in a particular muscle varies little between people, within each fiber may be a highly variable number of myofibrils parallel to each other. The more work the muscle cell is put to, the more myofibrils it will construct, as it is within these myofibrils that the contraction and release resulting in muscle function occurs.

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Vitamin D as effective as vaccine in preventing flu

Taking high doses of vitamin D3 supplements in winter helps reduce risk of acquiring seasonal flu in winter, a new Japanese trial demonstrated.

The trial results, reported in the March 10, 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show that children given vitamin D(3) supplement were 42 percent less likely to get infected with seasonal flu than those who were given a placebo.

The efficacy is remarkable as it may be comparable to that of flu vaccine, which is generally low because the virus used to construct the vaccine is likely different from the circulating one.

Deficiency of Vitamin D, which is synthesized after human skin is exposed to sunlight or UV rays, has been associated with increased risk of seasonal flu and swine flu as well. However, most of such studies were epidemiological or observational.

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How to Cope with Cancer Illness

Each individual reacts differently when the news that they are diagnosed by cancer is broken to them. However, shock and fear are two reactions that are shared by all the cancer patients first they know about their disease. Cancer is not a light disease you can just ignore and cure easily. Death is always threatening them. Therefore, it is totally understandable if cancer patients are having difficult time coping their illness.

One of the reasons why cancer becomes such a frightening word to patients is because they already imagine the painful and tiring treatment they will have to go through. The painful surgeries and complicated treatments with side effects can let the patient’s mental down at once. Then other issues such as financial support and employment may add to the patient’s stress.

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