Noblewi Health Tips and Advice

Archive for the ‘Q & A Health’ Category

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.

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.

It seems the English ladies were put off because the instructor is Spanish, but they don’t know what they’re missing. The classes are held in a studio with mirrors along one wall, so you can follow what everyone is doing. It’s also a fun way to learn the names of various body parts in Spanish!

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.

Within the muscle – in the connective tissue between muscle fibers, particularly concentrated near small blood vessels, and at the musculotendinous junctions, where muscle connects to tendon are found the free nerve endings of two types of afferent or sensory neurons (nerve cells that carry signals to the spine and brain). The myelinated group III A-delta nerve fibers have faster signal transmission times and therefore signal sharp, localized pain. The unmyelinated group IV C-fibers are slower, they transmit a duller, more generalized ache.

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.

In the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Dr. Mitsuyoshi Urashima and colleagues at Division of Molecular Epidemiology Jikei University School of Medicine Minato-ku in Tokyo Japan gave one group of schoolchildren 1,200 international units per day of vitamin D(3) and another group a placebo to see how vitamin D would prevent seasonal flu.

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.

The one ultimate way to cope with those fears is by getting enough information about the disease and the treatments that will be going through. Knowing the details and what is really going on can give the sense that the patient’s the one who is taking the control, therefore give the patient the sense of safety. Talking to the doctor in charge also will be very helpful as the preparation to undergo the process of healing treatment. Discuss with the doctor things that can make the patient feel more comfortable. When the patient feel relax and comfortable with the treatment s/he receives, s/he can face the treatment with much less anxiety and fear and therefore can focus his/her energy on defeating the disease.

To be sick is to be unwell, mentally and physically. All of us have been physically unwell at one time or other. Some illnesses can be prevented while others are unavoidable.

People, like all life-forms on earth, are made up of cells. Every seven years virtually every cell in the body is replaced, some types of cells having a faster turnover rate than others, which means that over a seven year period several hundred pounds of dead cells must be digested and eliminated. In the environment, there are germs. Germs are either bacteria or viruses. The air we breathe can make us sick, especially if we live in urban areas. Water bearing parasites cause diarrhea and cholera. Even the food we eat to keep us alive can make us ill.

The feeling of being “sick” is really the human body fighting off a tiny, invisible invader: germs. Viruses are like little factory workers. Viruses can enter a cell and cause it to produce more viruses. Bacteria are also a kind of cell. However, bacteria do not usually enter cells. Instead, bacteria eat the matter that cells use or create.

The raw foods diet has recently gained popularity and momentum in the press as high-profile celebrities and chefs have endorsed its benefits. What is raw food diet? Raw food is:

- Organic – no preservatives, pesticides, etc
- Uncooked – not heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit
- Unprocessed – as fresh as possible

Consisting entirely of plant-based foods (fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, sprouts and seaweed) that are eaten raw or cooked at temperatures under 118 degrees, the raw food diet is said to be much more nutritious than the traditional American way of eating. Raw food diet is healthy because the foods you eat as part of the diet contain all the vitamins and minerals of food before that goodness is destroyed when high temperatures are applied during cooking

Following the raw food diet does not require a lot of work, unless you decide to experiment with recipes. There are many recipes available for those who want to try different foods. However, sudden change in your diet can cause some bad detox symptoms that often cause some to go back to their old habits. Going slow, you will have a much better chance at sticking to your new way of eating. After being on the diet for a short time your taste buds will change. You will start to prefer the fresh foods.

Obesity is a term used to describe body weight that is much greater than what is considered healthy. Obesity is a major health threat to humans. It raises the risk of diabetes, which is a life-long disease caused by high levels of sugar in the blood, and a stroke, which is an interruption of blood supply to any part of the brain. Furthermore, obesity also raises a person’s risk of heart disease and kidney disease, gallbladder disease.

In order to fight obesity, it is important to understand how so many people have become obese in this modern day and age. One of the reasons for gaining too much weight and becoming unhealthy is having a bad diet. To discover the causes of obesity you should take a closer look at the food we eat, why we are made to eat it and the contemporary lifestyle that fuels the consumption of these ‘fast foods’. To fight obesity you have to realize that fast food is designed to make you fat so that you need more fast food. It induces cravings because of the chemicals inside it.