Male medical examination

How to choose your medical examination as a male

There is a lot of people ignore about the importance of medical examination, especially as a male. Actually through a standard medical examination, you will be able to discover your medical problem. Some disease like high blood pressure and cholesterol will cause the heart disease. If you are able to do a regular medical checkup, you will be able to control the disease. The following are some male medical examinations which are important:

Eye Examination

A man who has diabetes, high blood pressure or his family has eye disease history, should check the eye every year. During eye examination, doctor will check glaucoma (intraocular pressure leading to decreased vision), deterioration spots (retinal regeneration) and cataract (lens blur). 

Teeth Examination

A man should at least every year pay a visit to a dental clinic to check teeth age, gums, tongue, oral health and whether has oral cancer. A man who is a smoker should check his teeth more than one time a year.

Blood Pressure Examination

A man who is over the age of 50 years old should check his blood pressure every year. If your family has a history of high blood pressure, heart disease or you have diabetes or over weight, you should do the medical checkup every year.

Cholesterol Examination

A blood examination can check up your cholesterol level in order to help you to examine your chance to have the coronary heart disease. From the age of 20 years old, you should do the examination every year. If your cholesterol level is higher than the normal level (reading between 80/50 and 130/85 is considered as a normal level) or your family history has coronary heart disease, you should always do the medical checkup and get the advice from the doctor regularly.

Colon Examination

The examination will start at the age of 50 years old. If the result is normal, you should only do the examination every three to five years. You should do the examination regularly if your family history has polyps, colon cancer and ulcerative colitis.

Prostate Examination

Prostate Special Antigen test (PSA) examines the protein hide inside the blood. If the result is higher than the normal level, it may indicate that your body has cancer.

Testicular Examination

Doctor advise that every man should self-checking their testicular every month to check whether it is abnormal, but this cannot represent the professional medical checking. Testicular cancer can be easily cured if can found out earlier. A man between the ages of 15 to 35 years old should do the checking every two to three years. Doctor normally will include testicular examination in the normal medical checkup. You may request for the testicular examination if the doctor does not include this checking inside the normal medical checkup. 

Urinary System Examination

Male urinary system will cause inflammation easily. If can found out earlier, it can be cured easily. So a regular examination is a must.

HALF-TRUE Margarine is healthier than butter

Margarine is healthier than butter

Not all margarines are better than butter. Depending on the manufacturing process, some oils that are normally liquid at room temperature are hydrogenated to harden them into block form for cooking or in tub form for spreading.

This process reduces polyunsaturates and increases saturated fats which may increase blood cholesterol and fat levels in much the same way that butter does.

Check labels; they will indicate if the product contains hydrogenated fats. Buy margarines that are labeled unhydrogenated. Substitute olive oil when cooking.

Shisha smoke contains 36 times more nicotine 水烟烟雾含36倍尼古丁

Male is advisable do not overwork

Male is advisable not to work too hard

During middle-age, a man physiological function will decrease which cause the aging problem. Therefore, it is advisable that a man should not overwork to maintain the healthy body in his life.

Do not overwork when tired

People feel tired when they need to restore their energy and strength. It is a normal reaction and also a signal to your body. If you do not act to the signal seriously, it may cause your body overwork and lead to an illness. So when the time you feel that your body is lack of energy, muscle aches, dizziness, retardation, heart palpitation, heart rate and rapid breathing symptoms, you should not continue to work. You should know the importance of work and rest, do not working overnight and do some surprise work.   People should always relax their mind, feel comfortable and do not worry about some trivia. This is important to eliminate the tiredness in order to protect our healthy body.

Do not overwork when sick

The brain, heart, kidney and other organs of our body will meet the aging problem during middle-age. The cell immunity, regeneration capacity and the body’s endocrine function will decrease during this stage. If a man is still ignore the symptoms of headache, fever, cough, tired,  backache, leg pain and other significant illness, he will delay the time of treatment which will cause the illness become more serious. Therefore, when we are ill, we should go to the hospital to have the medical treatment in order to heal the illness immediately. It is important to remember that do not overwork during sick.

Do not hold too hard during toiletry

Hold hard when defecate will cause chronic constipation, hemorrhoids, anal fissure, rectal prolapsed. Besides, it will also cause colorectal cancer. Hold back when urine will cause abdominal pain, even can cause urinary tract infection and nephritis. It is good to develop a habit for a man to defecate regularly and urine when feel to do so.

Do not overwork in the living

Do not overwork when you feel dizzy and headache. It is not good to use strong coffee or tea to stimulate the nerves to avoid causes neurasthenia, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Do not hold back when thirsty

Water is the most important mineral for our body. A middle-age man should develop a habit to drink water regularly, at least six to eight glass of water every day. Thirsty is also one of the signals to indicate that our body is less of water. If we continue to ignore the signal and do not consume the water immediately, it will affect our body healthiness in the long time.

Do not hold back when hungry

Do not simply delay the time of eating. This may cause gastrointestinal contractions, abdominal pain, severe low blood sugar, shaking hands and knees, dizziness and even coma. A person who is always feel hungry and do not eat will cause ulcer disease, gastritis, indigestion and other significant illness.

It is more dangerous to drive a car when get cold than after drunk

Driving during get cold is more dangerous than driving after drinking.

A sneeze during get cold will cause an accident. British scientist study found out that, driving during get cold is more dangerous than driving after drinking alcohol.

One of the British medical surveys shows that cold, especially influenza will affect a person physical activity. It is just like after having 8 liter of alcohol. The survey found out that a person who gets influenza reaction on the images is 57 times longer than a normal person. For a person who having 1 liter of alcohol, the reaction is just 5 to 10 times slower than a normal person.

A well-known China motor vehicle driver training, safety driving behavior expert Fan Li believes that driving needs to pay more attention to focus. A sneeze when get cold will lead to people uncontrollable actions. According to a survey, a normal people sneeze will need 10 to 15 seconds. If a car drove at 50 kilometer every hours, when a sneeze completed the car has been drove till 140 to 200 meter. Normally, when people sneeze they will close their eyes and open up their big mouths. During the sneeze, driver will not be able to look at the road clearly and cannot hear of any sound outside. Both legs and hands, even the brain also cannot function appropriately. This will lead to an accident during driving.

At the same time, a cold will cause fever and lead to the low supply of blood in the brain. This will cause a person to feel sleepy and no energy. A cold also will cause the driver on ranging problem and decreased the color vision disabilities.

Driving after having medicines during the cold is even worst. Based on the German scientist survey indicates that 11% of the accident is caused by the effect after having medicines. British survey shows that a person who is having antihistamine and sedative medicine, the possibility in causing a car accident is five times more than average.  The road traffic safety law indicates that a person who is taking the psychotropic or narcotic medicines is not allowed to drive. This is because the medicines will destroy the central nervous system.

Another research indicates that driving after watching movies will also cause an accident. This is because watching movies will affect the eye vision.

Attention: A male should protect his kidney as a habit since small

A male kidney is as important as a heart. However, a different lifestyle and poor diet will destroy the kidney. This is normally ignored by people. There are a lot of medicines used by people to improve their health of the kidney. The important thing is to change their lifestyle and diet in order to protect the kidney.

Like to drink alcohol

If you have the kidney disease and still love to drink alcohol uncontrolled, it will cause the deposition of uric acid renal obstruction which will result to kidney failure.

The solution: during the blood checking, if you found out that your kidney got some problem, this will indicate that your kidney may destroy. Urine examination will be a faster and easier way to know about your kidney healthiness. So it is advisable to do the urine examination regularly.

Do not like to drink water

Most of the man do not like to drink water and even do not think that it is important. This may cause significant harm to the body if less of water. Our body metabolic waste mainly is handled by liver and kidney. The kidney is only 1% of our body weight but have to accept the body quarter of cardiac output. There will be one to two liter of blood pass through the kidney. Therefore, the kidney has to accept much more waste compare to the other part of the organs. The kidney is an important mediator responsible in control our body water and electrolyte balance, metabolic the waste from our physical activity and output from the urine. During this process, our body needs a lot of water to help the metabolism.

The solution: Drink lots of water as a habit can help to dilute the urine and help it to excrete rapidly. It will help to prevent stone. It will also dilute the urine during having too much salt.

Inappropriate having vegetables and fruits

This is a general concept to have more vegetables and fruits to improve our health. Vegetables and fruits have a lot of potassium which will help in lower the high pressure naturally. However, for the chronic renal dysfunction patient, long time of consumption will destroy their kidney. This is also not good for the people who has poor kidney. The potassium will burden the kidney function during metabolism.

The solution: the patient who has chronic renal dysfunction should pay more attention on the diet during consumption of vegetables and fruits in order to protect the kidney. They should avoid having strong vegetables and fruits juice, hot pot sup and vegetables soup. They should choose to have appropriate and light meal every day.

The West Meets the East: Using Science to Prove Chinese Medicine

The debated between East and West about the Chinese medication to prove the logical method of the treatment in science.

Chinese medicine has been used over 5,000 years in healing the illness of people, especially in Asia country like China. However, western scientific is in debate to proof the logical method of Chinese medicine. They are interested to know the effective method of Chinese medicine in science to heal the patients. There are a lot of research studies explain the effectiveness of Chinese medicine.

The most arguable between East and West medicine is the acupuncture medical treatment. There have no complete conclusion in research studies about the acupuncture medical treatment in science. However, the research indicates that the use of meridians in acupuncture is an effective medical treatment. Scientists believe that the treatment of acupuncture is harmless, but there still need further investigation to analyze the effectiveness.

Another arguable between East and West medicine is the herbal medicines used by the traditional Chinese medical treatment. There are a lot of different Chinese herbal medicines just a few that has been used in pharmaceutical medications in healing the patients. There are some herbal like Chinese wormwood, ephedra ad artemisinin has been used in Western medicines, which is obtained from the idea of Chinese medicine. 

There is an agreement between East and West about the Chinese medical treatment. They are agreeing that the Chinese medical treatment is safe in healing. Although there have no research studies to prove the logical method of Chinese medical treatment in science, the Chinese medical treatment is still not detrimental to the health since the day of the treatment. The Chinese medicine is lack of proper research and analysis but it is not mean that the Chinese medicine is not effective.

Since the Chinese medication is a debated discussion in western society, there still need some research studies in understanding the logical method of the Chinese medication. However, it is believed that the Chinese medication is work effectiveness in healing the patients. Therefore, there are some people looking for the holistic health will continue to use the Chinese medication.

The Stronger of Hand Grip Strength, The Longer of Human life 手握力越大 寿命越长

Traditional Chinese Medicine theory believes that people hand grip strength is related closely with liver healthy.  中医理论认为，人手的握力与肝经有重要关系。

A funny phenomenon discovers that everyone in this world, no matter he or she is rich, poor, a beggar or a nobility, when they first come to this world, they are holding their fist. However, when the time they leave this world, they will open their hands.      先讲一个有趣的现象。天下的人无论富贵贫贱，出生和死去的时候都有一个共同的象，就是都是攥着拳头来的，撒开手去的。

十二地支我们大家都知道，“子丑寅卯……”，这里有一个前后顺序。

“子”字是小孩子刚出生时的大头形象，上面是一个大脑袋，底下是一个小身体。小孩子出生后，人们观察到小孩子出生时手的一个共同的象，就是都是把大手指攥在四指里，这就是“丑”字的古代象形。道教里管把大拇指攥在四指当中的握法叫做握固法。

Why every baby in this world is holding their fist when they gave birth.  A Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory, “Huang Di Nei Jing”《黄帝内经》, said that the livers will determine the soul of a person. If the liver is stronger, a person body will be healthy. This can be described as an oil lamp. The lamp is brighter if the oil is full enough. A baby who is just gave birth, the skull is not stronger. It is believed that the skull is the place of a person soul out and in. A baby holds the fist means that he or she is holding the soul.  Taoism believed that the root of ring finger is related to the liver. Therefore, when the baby holds the hand, the thumb is pinch on the root of the ring finger.  This is why every baby will hold their fist as they need to hold their soul to ensure the health of the liver. 那么为什么小孩子一出生都这样握拳呢?《黄帝内经》里五脏与五神的对应关系中，肝所对应的神明是魂。中医认为，肝气特别足的话，人的魂就特别足。就好比油灯一样，假如油特别足，光亮就会特别亮，这个光亮就是神明。小孩子刚出生的时候头顶的囟(xìn)门未合，而囟门被认为是魂出入之所，所以小孩子出生时的握固法就是在固住魂。道家认为，无名指的指根处为肝的风窍，所以握固法为大拇指掐在无名指的指根处，小孩子刚出生时这么握得非常紧，这是因为人出生时肝气特别足，同时要固住魂魄。

When people die, they will open their hands. This means that they free their soul out from their hand. Their liver is getting weak and they could not hold their hand anymore.  人死的时候也有一个共同的象，就是撒手而去。这个象暗示给我们一个重要道理，人在死亡的瞬间，肝魂散掉了，两只手再也固不住了，一撒手，握力和肝气都随魂而去了。

In conclusion, a person gave birth and dead is related to the liver. Liver is very important in Traditional Chinese Medicines.  这么说来，人的出生和人的死亡都和肝气的生发之机有着很大的关系。肝在中医里面属于厥阴之性，有生发的能力和条达之性，同时这个生发也一定要能够收敛得住。所以中医在描述肝的木性的时候，取“曲直”两个字，“曲”就是它的收敛性，“直”就是它的条达性。所以中国传统文化看待事物的方法是很辨证的。

If we want to be longevity, we must always exercise our grip on hand. 如果我们要想长寿，应该经常锻炼手的握力。

Knocking the Ten Fingers十指相敲法

Knocking the fingers is another good exercise. When we are using our fingers to knock each finger, it will improve our fingers flexibility. It is also good for our liver and brain. A girl who is always feels cold on hand and feet should always practice this exercise. It can improve our circulation through the hand till the feet. 十指相敲法是种很好的锻炼方法，就是让我们双手的十指相对，互相敲击。这种方法很锻炼手指上的井穴，既锻炼了手的灵活性，也练了肝气，对我们大脑的养生也十分有好处。手脚冰凉的女孩儿一定要经常十指相敲，这样，血脉可以通到四肢末梢。

Rubbing Walnut揉核桃法

We should exercise our fingers every day. On the past, the elders got a good exercise for the fingers. They use two pieces of walnuts on the hand to rub it. This method will help to exercise every finger. It is just like “Tai Chi”, “太极” in Chinese when we are using the walnuts in the hands to do exercises. 日常生活中我们没事时要多活动手指。过去老人们有个很好的锻炼方法——揉核桃，就是把两个核桃放在手心里，揉来揉去的，这种方法可以很好地活动到每根手指，而且核桃在手心当中正好形成了一个太极之象，所以也叫做太极球。

Your Children Are Fat!

The CDC is saying that the "belly fat" of US Children has grown by over 65% since 1999 . Supposedly, Belly fat is more dangerous for health than overall weight gain, because there is a much closer link between visceral fat (the fat around your internal organs) and serious diseases.
From the study:


•In 1999 10.5% of children/teens had too much belly fat
•In 2004 17.4% of boys had too much belly fat
•In 2004 17.8% of girls had too much belly fat


How about now? 2011?
We just love typing the words "belly fat." Anyway, your children are fat. And it's not just your children. Apparently, fat belly kids is a somewhat international phenomenon.
Hey, at least if everyone's kid is the fat kid, teasing will be evenly distributed. We suggest limiting the amount of fast food your child eats to none, but hey, like that's going to happen, right?

Reference: Belly Fat Of US Children Grew By Over 65% Since 1999 [MedicalNewsToday.com]

Cardiovascular disease 心血管疾病

Pregnant diet alters baby's DNA 孕妇饮食能改变宝宝的DNA

Ten types of patients should not drink milk 十类病人不宜喝牛奶

Your diet is your "doctor" 食物中的"医生"

Discipline lifestyle is the most healthy 纪律的生活方式是最健康的

Sudden pain of tooth may be a sign of coronary heart disease 突发牙痛可能是冠心病的征兆

Old folks are happy with 3 types of unrecalled "三忘"老人很快乐

Looking for a Plan to Ultimate Weight Loss? Try the 30-Day Boot Camp

The boot camp is one of the ways to help a person to lose weight in a natural and effective way.

One day you walked by the road side or in the park, suddenly heard that got a child spoke loudly about a big fat lady or a gentleman. You may curious that is the child spoke about you or other people. It may be a joke for a little kid, but it has getting the attention from you. So you may think that are you look fat. 

Sometimes a little joke as mentioned above will affect people emotion and reduce the confidence. However, it should be a way of motivation for a person to find a way to adjust their weight. There are many way of losing weight. One may find out that having some medicines will be a good choice. Others may think that having fitness gyms will be more effective. To save cost, one may choose a natural way to just having a regular exercise but it needs more time and patient to maintain.

Another way to lose weight is try the boot camp. It will be a quick and effective way to help a person to lose weight in a month. The boot camp of 30 days program will have a professional advisor helps you to control your diet and reduce your weight with a proper system. Some might think that it is impossible to lose weight in a month. However, you will never believe that it will work out as you desired.

The boot camp will design a program in a fun and effective way. So a person will not feel boring and stressful during the program. A person will feel interesting and thus helps to lose the weight quickly. Since the boot camp is work outdoors, one will feel refreshing and it is more natural compare to the indoors fitness centre.

There are professional advisors who have experience and knowledge help you during the program in the boot camp. They will design some healthy and diet food for your breakfast, lunch and dinner. They will prepare some healthy and natural exercises to help your body circulation. The attendance in these 30 days is very important. Missing one of the days during the program may reduce the result desired. Therefore, a person must be patient and take care of the diet. People are advised to never give out in the middle of the program. People can find the advisors if they got any problem during the program.

People may think that this is just 30 days program. However, you will benefit from these 30 days in your whole life. After the boot camp, people may aware of the bad habit in their living. They will start to have some healthy food and exercise regularly to have a healthy living. This will help to maintain your weight and having a perfect living in your life.

People who are willing to lose weight may start to look for a suitable 30 days boot camp program. This is one of the better and effective ways to help a person to lose weight. Experience it and you will never feel regret.

Cleanse Yourself and do Body Detox for better Health

Detoxification can be simple and complicated depends of the method that you choose. The important thing is it will help to improve a healthy lifestyle.

Nowadays, people are reluctant to cook at home because there are so many choices of food outside. Especially most of the children and office staff choose to have fast-food and processed food as it is easier and faster to fill up their hungry stomach. As a result of having this type of food for a long time, people start aware that it is unhealthy to have this type of food overtime because there are a lot of preservatives in this food.

People become more awareness of the food intake. As a result, detoxification becomes popular among the people for better health. Detoxification is a process of eliminate toxic substances from the body. It is a treatment using diets, herbs and other methods to detox the dirt from the body, especially for alcohol and drug dependence. 

Thinking to clean up your body? The following are a few tips for healthy and natural detoxification.

One of a natural detoxification is go for a non-toxic lifestyle. People need to have natural food and drink a lot of water instead of having the preservative foods and drinks. Besides, people should have exercise regularly to keep the body healthy. At the same time, try to have a detox diet like having some light food to clean up the body. It will help to relieve body allergies, digestive problems and having good looking skin.

Having a detox diet, one must have light food and take some fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. It is important to avoid having chocolates, coffee, yeast, alcohol and other heavy food, which will ruin the detox program.

Carefully and wisely plan for the detox program. It is suggested to start your detoxification during weekend. It is because you can have a good rest during non-working day and clean up your body by having light food at home. During weekday, people are hardly to detox as they may have coffee or heavy food during working days. But it is not mean that you will need to starve yourself.

Another way of detoxification is exercise outdoors. It is a natural and healthy way to let the fresh air helps circulate your lung and body. It is good for some people walk by the seashore if they are living near to the sea. People should always try to schedule their activity so that they can have time for exercises regularly. Some people prefer to exercise indoors may choose to have yoga or gymnasium class. No matter which type of exercises you choose to have, the important thing is it will help to keep your body healthy and looks younger.

People may choose to have spa for detoxification. It will take a shower and brushing up your skin to help remove the dirt from outside and inside the skin. While doing the spa, rubbing the skin will improve the circulation of the body and shed off the dead skin layer.

It is important to have a regular bowel movement. People must have more fiber food, tea and other herbs. It will help in bowel movement to reduce the possibility of toxins remain inside the body.

People should always think positive. Having a healthy mind will create a healthy body. A person who is always happy will always healthy. A person who is always think negative will feel sad and unsatisfied with everything. It will add toxins to the body.

Try the detoxification. It is our responsibility to take care of ourselves in this busy and polluted world today. You should have a balanced diet and exercise to keep your body healthy. Detoxification can be as simple as you just need to have an exercise regularly to improve body circulation and wipe off the negative thinking. It can be quite difficult if you are taking a detox diet program to remove the toxins inside the body. Whatever method that you like to do, just remember to clean yourself and do body detox for healthy lifestyle.

Prostate Diseases

Prostate Diseases

The prostate is a gland. It helps make semen, the fluid that contains sperm. The prostate surrounds the tube that carries urine away from the bladder and out of the body. A young man's prostate is about the size of a walnut. It slowly grows larger with age. If it gets too large, it can cause problems. This is very common after age 50. The older men get, the more likely they are to have prostate trouble.

Some common problems are

• Prostatitis - an infection, usually caused by bacteria
• Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH - an enlarged prostate, which may cause dribbling after urination or a need to go often, especially at night
• Prostate cancer - a common cancer that responds best to treatment when detected early

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Want to live longer? 想长寿？女人要热，男人要冷

Natural Household & Skin Care

Secrets about Sun Protection Indexes

Secrets about Sun Protection Indexes

Understand the Sun Protection Indexes to choose for a suitable and correct sun block product during summer time.

The summer time is coming! Everyone will want to know which type of sun block products that suit the different needs of different people. The important thing is correctly read the contents of the labels and the instructions on that product before buy it. So we must first understand the different sun protection indexes to choose for a suitable product.


Firstly, let us understand the ultraviolet (UV rays) before we go into detail on the indexes. UV rays are the arch criminals involved in sunburn and suntan. The middle range UV rays (UVB) will cause skin redness, peeling, sunburn and skin aging. The more serious effect from UVB can cause skin cancer if it goes deeply into the dermal layers of the skin. The sun protection indexes normally will be showed on the sun block products labels, which refer to the protection against UVB and UVA.


The sun protection indexes are known as SPF, PA, IPD, PPD and PFA. However, only SPF and PA are commonly used.


SPF
SPF is an abbreviation of Sun Protection Factor. It is an international recognized protection standard against UVB. SPF is followed by a number to represent the power of sun block. The higher number of the SPF means the stronger power of the sun block against UVB. It will go as high as SPF50 and even higher as SPF50+. Normally, SPF30 is enough and suitable for the normal users because it can block as much as 97% of the UVB under the sun.


PA
PA is the abbreviation of Protection Grade of UVA. It is an index proposed by the Ministry of Health in Japan. It appears as PA+, PA++ or PA+++. The more plus following PA represents the stronger power of the sun block protection against UVA.


IPD&PPD 
IPD and PPD are the UVA protection grade used in Europe. IPD is an abbreviation of Immediate Pigment Darkening. PPD is an abbreviation of Persistent Pigment Darkening. They are referring to the ratio of protection level against UVA of the skin with and without sun block.  The sun block with IPD10 means that the skin will be protected by delayed 150 minutes instead of 15 minutes to let the UVA go into the skin. So it will take 10 times protection and delay the time of UVA affect the skin.


Nowadays, the sun block products may be classified as chemical or physical. The commercially products may provide only the chemical protection, physical protection or the mixture of the both protection.


Physical sunscreen products are the best among the other. It is good for hypersensitive skin, AD akin and even babies. Although it is stable and unlikely to deteriorate, the cream is too thick and creamy. It will make the skin appear white. So it is not commonly used, especially for the people who is oily skin, mixed skin or have acne problem.


Chemical sunscreen products use structural quality neutralization strategy to produce a range of derivative compounds. Although it is quite risky for the hypersensitive skin, AD skin and babies, it is not oily. After using it, the skin will feel comfortable and remain clear. So it is commonly used among the people, especially the oily skin an acne problem people.


A proper and better sun block product must have understandable and correct information labelled by the manufacturer. Other than the sun protection indexes, the date of manufacture and the expiration date also important to be labelled on the products. Hopefully the above information will help everyone in choosing a suitable sun block to have a good and healthy looking during summer.

Eat the rainbow!

Eat the rainbow!

Want to get a meal time antioxidant hit that tastes as good as it looks?

Red  Guava, watermelon, tomatoes, red grapefruit and red capsicum contain lycopene, which protects white blood cells so your body can fight infections.

Orange  Apricots, papaya, pumpkin, carrots and oranges all contain carotenoids. This ingredient aids cell function by mopping up the toxins.

Green  Broccoli, bok choy, lettuce, cabbage and spinach are packed with phytochemicals, lutein and folate. These antioxidants scoot around your body healing damaged cells. You could even say they’re your body’s mini medical team!

Purple  Eggplants, prunes, figs and blueberries are loaded with more lutein and zeaxanthin which will help relax your blood vessels and make it easier on your heart.

White or Yellow  Onions, potatoes and bananas contain potassium, an anti-inflammatory that’ll help you say goodbye to pesky aches and pains.

10 FACTS ABOUT WOMEN'S HEALTH

Smoking rates among men tend to be 10 times higher than women. However, due to recent aggressive tobacco marketing campaigns aimed at women, tobacco use among younger females in developing countries is rising rapidly. Women generally have less success in quitting the habit, have more relapses than men, and nicotine replacement therapy may be less effective among women.

Women and girls continue to face gender-based vulnerabilities that require urgent attention - especially in sub-Saharan Africa where 80% of all women living with HIV are located. Improving women and girls access to antiretroviral therapy, HIV and testing and a range of care, treatment and support services (such as screening for cervical cancer or CD4 count diagnoses) requires specific targets and benchmarks for women and girls.

Between 15% and 71% of women around the world have suffered physical or sexual violence committed by an intimate male partner at some point in their lives. The abuse cuts across all social and economic backgrounds. Violence has serious health consequences for women, from injuries to unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, depression and chronic diseases.

Some studies show that up to 1 in 5 women reports being sexually abused before the age of 15.

Even though early marriage is on the decline, an estimated 100 million girls will marry before their 18th birthday over the next 10 years. This is one third of the adolescent girls in developing countries (excluding China). Young married girls often lack knowledge about sex and the risks of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.

About 14 million adolescent girls become mothers every year. More than 90% of these very young mothers live in developing countries.

Every day, 1600 women and more than 10 000 newborns die from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Almost 99% of maternal and 90% of neonatal mortalities occur in the developing world.

Insecticide treated nets (ITNs) reduce malaria cases in pregnant women and their children. When women earn an income, they are more likely than men to buy the nets for their households. However, use of the nets is often linked to sleeping patterns that sometimes preclude actual use by women.

In most countries women tend to be in charge of cooking. When they cook over open fires or traditional stoves, they breathe in a mix of hundreds of pollutants on a daily basis. This indoor smoke is responsible for half a million of the 1.3 million annual deaths due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among women worldwide. In comparison, only about 12% of COPD deaths among men each year are related to indoor smoke. During pregnancy, exposure of the developing embryo to such harmful pollutants may cause low birth weight or even stillbirth.

Once thought to occur mainly in wealthier countries, the health impacts of cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, depression and other mental, neurological and substance abuse (MNS) disorders are increasingly felt by women globally. In fact, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) account for 80% of deaths among adult women in high-income countries; 25% of deaths among adult women in low-income countries are attributable to NCD.

Reference from : World Health Organization

Know about your child

Your child's health includes physical, mental and social well-being. Most parents know the basics of keeping children healthy, like offering them healthy foods, making sure they get enough sleep and exercise and insuring their safety.

It is also significant for children to get regular checkups with their health care provider. These visits are a chance to check your child's development. They are also a good time to catch or prevent problems.

Other than checkups, school-age children should be seen for
• Significant weight gain or loss
• Sleep problems or change in behavior
• Fever higher than 102
• Rashes or skin infections
• Frequent sore throats
• Breathing problems
Your child is no longer a baby! The beginning of school reminds parents that their child is growing up.

Children grow and mature at very different rates. It's hard to say what "normal" is. There can be big differences in height, weight and build among healthy children. Diet, exercise and genes are all factors. Some children begin puberty or are close to it before they are teenagers.

Children start to become more independent from their parents. They may rebel. They also look outward – to their friends, who are usually of the same sex. Peer approval becomes very important. Your child may try new behaviors to be part of "the group." This can also be the time that parents or teachers recognize learning disabilities or behavioral problems in children. These problems can get worse as time goes on, so it is important to get help early.

Meditation as great as drugs for depression

Drugs like selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are effective treatments for the scourge of major depression, but what about the many patients who are reluctant to stay on the medication indefinitely, risking serious relapses? A new Canadian study suggests that a novel alternative – a form of meditation – actually does as good a job in preventing such relapses as the drugs.

Evidence suggests that major-depression patients will often discontinue their medication far too soon. Team at Ontarios teaches patients to regulate their emotions, monitor possible relapse triggers and adopt lifestyle changes that help maintain mood balance.

Participants in the study, published in Archives of General Psychiatry were all treated with antidepressants until their symptoms went into remission. The 84 subjects were then divided into three groups: one that stayed on the drugs, one that took placebos and one that stopped taking the drugs and received MBCT. Relapse rates after 18 months for patients in the MBCT group did not differ from patients on antidepressants, both being in the 30% range, compared to a 70% relapse rate for those on placebos.

Said Dr. Zindel Segal, lead author of the study:

For that sizeable group of patients who are unwilling or unable to tolerate maintenance antidepressant treatment, MBCT offers equal protection.

Reference:  National Post