Archive for August, 2010

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What is blood sugar?

Before listing out the tips on how to lower Blood Sugar, one must be acquainted with what actually High Blood Sugar means. It is precisely defined as an elevated level of the sugar glucose in blood otherwise phrased as ‘the spillage of glucose into the urine (glucosuria) converting the urine sugary.

Your blood sugar is regulated by your body but it cannot do the job without some help from you. The types of foods you eat play a big part in the level of your blood sugar. Some foods help to lower the levels. Others enter the bloodstream faster, thus raising sugar levels. The pancreas produces insulin and high-gylcemic foods make it have to work harder to produce the insulin your body needs.

The following tips should help you to maintain a normal sugar level and cut down on the threat of developing diabetes.

1) The number one way you can lower your blood sugar is by eating the right foods. The types that are digested slower help to maintain good sugar levels such as fruits – apples, oranges, pears – vegetables such as – peas, zucchini – and grains such as – oatmeal, barley, granola.

Even if you already have diabetes, these foods can help you to keep it under control. Because diabetes, when uncontrolled can cause circulation problems as well as other problems, there should be an ongoing regimen to stay as healthy as possible.

2) Exercise is another way you can control blood sugar levels. If you exercise in the morning before eating this can lower your glucose just about as well as medication. The alternative to medicines to regulate blood sugar can be exercise is it is maintained on a regular basis. Not only is it beneficial in this way but losing weight and keeping a healthy weight can reduce the incidence of diabetes.

3) Eating four to five small meals a day rather than three large meals will also help to lower your blood sugar.

4) Avoid drinking a lot of soft drinks because they are high in sugar and carbohydrates. Many people drink six and eight soft drinks a day. One 12 ounce soft drink contains 11 teaspoons of sugar. This is eventually going to cause a problem.

5) Before taking over the counter drugs always read the ingredients and what effects they may have on you. Many times these types of drugs can cause an increase in blood sugar levels.

6) Find out why your blood sugar levels are high. This can differ from individual to individual and you need to know the specific reasons for your high levels. This can help you to know what to do to lower them. Stress is one situation that can cause higher levels. If your blood sugar level is high due to stress you need to make some changes in your lifestyle.

As well as eating healthy, there are certain foods that you should not eat. Foods such as potatoes, pasta , and foods that are high in carbohydrates should be avoided. Because the body turns carbohydrates to sugar this will add more sugar to your diet. Lowering the intake of carbohydrates will help you to lower your blood sugar. This is not to say you cannot have carbohydrates at all. But you should eat foods that are low in carbohydrates such as chicken, seafood, and turkey. Certain vegetables are also low such as broccoli, asparagus, and greens. Salad ingredients are also another way of getting the vitamins you need while still eating a low carbohydrate diet.

Controlling blood sugar is an art. If you want to be an expert in it, you should know the full details of foods to avoid for diabetes and natural remedies.

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If you’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, how to lower blood sugar is likely one of your first questions. You can do it — starting right now — but it’s both easy and hard.

Why is it easy? Because the steps are simple and uncomplicated.

As to why it’s hard? It means changing our way of life up to this point. How we look at how we eat (the wrong foods) and exercise (not enough).

Never fear, you can do it! High blood sugar ravages your body, but, here are three easy ways to lower your blood sugar and escape the damages that having high blood sugar afflicts on your body.

But First: You’re Not Alone

First, remember that if you have type 2 diabetes, you are not alone — not by a long shot. There are millions of people out there who already have this disease. And people have it in different degrees as well. Some people are just slightly over the edge, while others suffer from brittle diabetes (i.e. uncontrolled diabetes).

You have plenty of company. Some famous people with diabetes include Patti LaBelle, Stephen Furst and Mick Fleetwood, to name three. Diabetes doesn’t discriminate; it strikes people of all races, nations and ages.

Lowering Blood Sugar to a Safe Range

First, what is a safe range? You need to know your fasting blood sugar, and this generally means testing it the first thing in the morning, before you eat. You want the range somewhere between 4.5 to 6.5 mg/dl.

So let’s get down to it — three ways to lower blood sugar and even reverse type 2 diabetes.

First Look at Your Diet

Diet is the first and the most important step you can take to lower your blood sugar. Think about it; ignoring your diet is probably part of why you have type 2 diabetes in the first place. What’s the secret here? It’s what you’ve heard all along; plenty of fresh veggies, lean proteins and healthy fats.

Go Easy on the Carbs

All to many diabetics don’t think about the carbohydrates in “healthy” foods, like fresh fruits and whole grains. yes, you need these as part of a new lifestyle, but caution is necessary. You see, fruits and grains both contain sugar and sugar-like substances.

Oh, and forget about fruit juice; the kind you buy is normally sweetened with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which is terrible for your blood sugar levels.

Get Your Exercise

You knew this was coming, right? Your goal is to get in at least 30 minutes a day. Hmm, can’t do 30 minutes right now? Not to worry, work up to it. We’re talking your health and even your life here!

The higher your current level of blood glucose, the more you need to make exercise a daily affair. Straight out, exercise helps to regulate blood sugar.

You can’t just ignore diabetes and hope it will just go away. You must takes steps — today — to ensure your health for the future

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The term “cholesterol” often comes with a negative connotation in the health world. However, there are actually both good and bad cholesterols, and the good kind can protect you against heart attack and other heart problems. Thankfully, there are methods that you can use to raise this good cholesterol level as well as lower the bad cholesterol.

First, it is important to understand the basics of cholesterol. It is a waxy substance produced by the liver that can also be found in fatty, fried foods. Normally, this product serves as a structural component of cell walls, and it also helps in the processing of vitamin D. However, large amounts of negative cholesterol can actually lead to health problems.

There are two main types of cholesterol, LDL and HDL. LDL, which stands for low density lipoprotein, can be dissolved in the bloodstream rather than just the liver. This means that the waxy material can stick to the inside of your blood vessels. Over time, this can cause your arteries to narrow or harden in a condition called atherosclerosis. LDL puts stress on your heart, and the narrowed arteries are subject to clots. If a clot forms, it can lead to a stroke or heart attack.

HDL cholesterol is made up of high density lipoprotein, so it is only dissolved in the liver. HDL can actually scrape LDL from the walls of the blood vessels and take to the liver for proper processing. Studies have shown that high HDL can prevent heart attack.

In order to best manage your cholesterol, you should raise your HDL, avoid food with LDL, and use your HDL levels to fight away the bad cholesterol. To raise your HDL, you should focus on lean foods like fish, which contains the healthful omega-3 fatty acids. Additionally, exercise and losing weight can also help. You should avoid foods with high levels of saturated fat, a transporter of LDL cholesterol. As a rule of thumb, this means staying away from fatty, fried foods.

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If you strengthen up the immune system you prevent and fight many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. The right kind of food can also help you fight against common things like a cold for example.

Resveratrol is a compound found in red wine. It has antiviral properties and can prevent common affections like a cold. This compound is also being studied in relation to anti- aging medicine.

Another ally for you is garlic. It has been used as an antibiotic for more than a hundred years. You must be careful because the excessive consume of garlic can interfere with some types of medication. It is best you ask your doctor before eating any when you are under treatment. You also need to take care when you want to use any food supplements because they can interact with some medical treatments.

Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in both men and women. That is why you should not take your heart for granted and can try to protect it.

The major factors for heart disease are cholesterol and triglycerides. You can keep them both in normal limits, which do not endanger your health. It is recommended that every person over twenty years in age should have a fasting cholesterol profile once every five years. This is useful because the level of the two substances can be held under control. If you have an underlying health condition, such as diabetes or liver disease, you may need to run the profile more often. This is also necessary for persons over forty years old.

If you have a balanced diet you will not suffer the side effects of the cholesterol lowering medication.

If you have a good menu, you will get all your needing vitamins and minerals but without many calories because they can increase the triglycerides level.

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After a person has a heart attack and comes out of hospital, there is often an immediate period of feeling slightly anxious and upset, when there may be anxieties about another heart attack or whether or not life is going to get ‘back to normal’. This period is then replaced with a less stressful period where life does indeed seem to be becoming less challenging and there is almost an air of optimism about the future.

However, when undertaking research for an ‘ebook’ and talking to the wives and partners of someone who has had a heart attack, and from personal experience, it soon became clear that many people who have had a heart attack do not come out of hospital and have a straightforward recovery process. Often it is far from plain sailing and can seem like rough seas for those on the journey to recovery.

Caught on a Plateau?

Many wives and partners of heart attack survivors relate how they felt that there was a period of immediate recovery, followed by a period that didn’t seem to be leading anywhere; it was as if the survivor was caught on a plateau. They weren’t getting worse, but on the other hand, they didn’t feel like they were getting better.

This period often seems to bring new anxieties. There are fears that the recovery process will never be complete. There are fears that this period could be a precursor to another attack and there is also a sense of frustration over lack of progress. The anxieties and the fears then feed off the frustration and it can be a disheartening time for many, because they feel that they are never going to get better.

Awareness

Somehow being aware that the road to recovery may not be a smooth one can help diffuse the frustration. Sometimes the immediate period after an attack is busy, with cardiac rehabilitation, practical considerations and many medical appointments. It is only after this period that the reality of what happened can sink in and around 1 in 3 people who have had an attack will have some kind of anxiety or depression and this can affect the recovery process.

Being aware of the risk of anxiety or depression and its affect on the recovery process can help you to feel less fearful if recovery is not wholly straightforward. We often assume that someone has a heart attack, gets better, end of story. Yet this is often far from the case and it is only through true understanding of what has happened and the risk of anxiety, depression, stress and so on that we can be equipped with the skills to support someone who has had a heart attack.

If you assume that the heart attack survivor will just come out of hospital and be ‘back to normal’ within weeks, then you will probably be disappointed. If you are realistic, aware and willing to be patient and understanding, then the road ahead may well be less difficult, so you need to simply accept that there may well be setbacks and keep your expectations down to earth. Take each day at a time and don’t expect miracles!

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A lot of respiratory and heart problems can lead to a heart attack. These episodes can be demoralizing and scary, and may leave permanent damage or impairment. Yet a warning can be just the jolt needed to get you to change your eating habits and lifestyle radically, and pay more attention to natural heart remedies because they have many beneficial effects as countless people have discovered.

High cholesterol levels and fatty and plaque deposits, with resultant severe blockages in the system, can cause heart attacks. Other causes can be high blood pressure, the clotting of blood vessels, and blood stickiness caused by platelets clumping together and blocking veins. Thus anyone who has any of these problems should be aware that there are some very useful herbal first aid measures or natural heart remedies available. I have seen them prevent what could probably have been much more serious situations time and again.

The following first aid measures can be used in cases of suspected heart attack or stroke, while waiting for an ambulance:

1. Cayenne tincture should always be the first step. It helps to relieve the heart spasm, partly because it is rich in magnesium. It also stabilizes blood pressure quickly. Always have some tincture at hand – in your handbag, car, or kitchen cupboard. Put one tsp in a glass of warm water and drink as much as possible immediately.

2. Next, take a few drops of lobelia leaf tincture. This will also relax spasms, relieve shock, and balance whatever extremes of the nervous system are being displayed. The patient will usually feel an improvement moments after taking it.

3. Place a drop or two of camphor essential oil over the patient’s heart and under the nose. Camphor is a vasoconstrictor and increases blood pressure quite quickly. It’s a useful item to have at hand for those in a risk category.

For long term treatment:

1. Eat a heart-friendly diet.

2. Use heart herbs such as hawthorne flower, leaf and berry.

3. Quit smoking.

4. Good food, exercise and a generally good lifestyle are essential.

5. Massage oil made with lavender, frankincense, geranium or ylang-ylang would also be useful, and a few drops in the bath would be calming.

Keep these natural heart remedies in mind for the prevention of heart attack.

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If you have heart problems or have the risk factors for developing heart disease, then it’s absolutely essential for you to have a heart healthy diet. Let me share some heart healthy tips for you!

Everyone knows how essential it is to eat a diet that is designed for heart fitness, but many of us aren’t aware that healthy eating CAN be enjoyable and most importantly, how it makes a big difference to the health of our hearts. Poor diet is the main cause of CHD and alarmingly, there is an estimate of up to 30 percent of deaths from this condition is due to poor diets.

This is why; it should all be our personal mission to make our heart healthier! Maintaining a good and nutritious diet is a good place to start. Learning some heart healthy tips, putting it to action like cutting out on bad fats and making some simple changes to your diet will definitely help you keep your heart in good shape. Furthermore, you should make it a habit to include more vegetables and fruits like whole grains and pulses, increasing your vitamins, fiber and minerals intake will do wonders.

Here are the benefits for choosing to switch to a heart healthy diet:

1.Reduce heart strain

2.Maintain a healthy body weight

3.Keep your blood pressure at normal levels

4.Help lower your cholesterol levels

5.Protect you against complications and other conditions like type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Introducing more raw and organic foods into your diet as well as cutting down on saturated fat and salt will be more enjoyable if you look for a wide range of delicious recipes that are great for the heart. Whether it’s a light breakfast or a delicious dessert, there are a great number of things that you can do to make your cooking even healthier:

1.Make use of dried or fresh herbs instead of cooking. This way you’ll get more flavor and aroma to your cooking while staying healthy.

2.Choose polyunsaturated fats over saturated ones, go for omega 3 and 6 rich foods as well as vitamins that are great for the heart.

3.Choose lower fat dairy products like low fat soft cheese, cottage cheese and reduced fat hard cheeses instead of cheddar, cheese spreads and cream cheese.

4.Instead of frying foods, steam, grill or boil them.

These heart healthy tips will help you start on the right track and eat healthy. Enjoy!

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Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in our bodies. It is produced in our liver whenever we need energy sources. It helps our body insulate nerves, produce hormones, make new cells and so on. Utilized in many different ways, it is truly helpful in assisting our bodies to function normally. Cholesterol is not only from our liver but also from the food we eat. Animal- based foods such as red meat, dairy products, and eggs have high contents of cholesterol. Minimal consumption of these foods is recommended because too much cholesterol in our body poses as a heart risk.

Too much cholesterol in our blood stream leads to them building up in our arterial walls and cause atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a condition where the arteries become narrow and the circulation of blood to the heart is slowed down or even blocked. Insufficient blood reaching the heart means that not enough oxygen is being supplied to the heart and this condition may lead to a heart attack.

Most of us have high levels of cholesterol and don’t even know it. High blood cholesterol levels have no warning signals. Although it is one of the primary risk factor for developing cardiovascular diseases that might lead to stroke or a heart attack, people who are diagnosed with this condition don’t feel a thing and usually disregard their condition. Levels of cholesterol that are unhealthy are usually associated with physical inactivity, stress, age, heredity, obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and poor diet.

There are two kinds of cholesterol that we should watch out for, your HDL or “good” cholesterol and your LDL or bad cholesterol. The medical community recommends that a high level of HDL and a low LDL level should be maintained; the higher your HDL and the lower your LD, the less is your risk for heart diseases and the vice versa.

HDL or high-density lipoprotein is often referred to as the “good” cholesterol. HDL helps remove cholesterol on the arterial walls and deposits them in the liver to be eliminated from our body. This process helps in decreasing the risk of atherosclerosis and maintains cholesterol levels within normal range.

LDL or low density lipoprotein is also known as the “bad” cholesterol. Elevated levels of LDL increase our risk of developing coronary heart disease. LDL cause cholesterol to be deposited on your arterial walls which lead to the formation of which, hard substances called plaque or cholesterol plaque. These substances cause the walls of our arteries to harden, thicken and make them narrower which is a condition called atherosclerosis.

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As we have all heard many times, eating a healthy breakfast every morning is critical if you want to start your day off on the right foot. In fact, eating a healthy breakfast is the only thing that has been correlated with sustained weight loss other than exercise. As the weight goes down, cholesterol levels often normalize. In addition, eating a healthy breakfast gives you an opportunity to include many wonderful cholesterol-lowering super foods into your diet. The trick is to know what constitutes a healthy, cholesterol-lowering breakfast.

To start, let’s talk a bit about what you do not want to eat for breakfast if you want to be healthy and lower your cholesterol too.

Most energy and breakfast bars
Most cold cereals including granola
Bagels
Pancakes and waffles
Conventional bacon and sausages
Instant oatmeal
Juice
French toast

You may be surprised that I didn’t add eggs to the above list. Conventional thinking states that you shouldn’t eat eggs because they contain high levels of cholesterol; however, eggs are actually a very healthy food in many ways. Even though eggs contain cholesterol, they raise most people’s cholesterol levels only slightly. Eggs are low in saturated fat and contain a host of other nutrients that are good for you too. You are much better off eating a hard-boiled egg than eating the other foods listed above. Even so, I would still eat no more than two to three eggs per week.

Some of you may also be surprised that I put cold cereals on the list. You may be thinking that the cold cereal you are eating is healthy because it is high in fiber and contains whole grains. Most cold breakfast cereals that have been tested to date raise blood sugar levels significantly. Even if your cereal doesn’t have added sugar, your blood sugar will respond just like it would if you were eating sugar. Why are sugar and other foods that raise blood sugar levels an issue? These types of foods will raise triglycerides which in turn will have some effect on raising total cholesterol levels as well.

If you must eat cold cereal, let me share with you a few tips on how to choose the best option even though I believe eating cooked whole grains is a preferable way to go if you want to eat grains for breakfast because cooked whole grains raise blood sugar levels less in most instances. So if you want to still eat cold cereal, make sure it is high in fiber, low in added sugar, and low in fat.

The other concern with foods that raise blood sugar levels is that they also increase inflammation in the body. Inflammation is now being thought of by some to be one of the root causes of heart disease. In addition, high cholesterol levels may be the result of an increase in inflammation and may possibly have protective benefits in a situation in which the body is inflamed. So what are a few quick, healthy, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering breakfast ideas? See a few suggestions below:

Strawberry Cream: Put about 1 cup of frozen, organic strawberries in a blender, add a tablespoon of whole flax seeds, add ½ cup to 1 cup low-fat yogurt, a small packet of stevia (just under ½ teaspoon powered stevia) and blend. You may need to use a spatula to stir the mixture. NOTE: Stevia can be purchased on-line or at a natural food store in your area. It is an herb that is significantly sweeter than sugar. It does not raise blood sugar levels at all and has zero calories)

Soaked Oats: Put one cup of traditional oats (not instant) in a bowl with nuts, seeds, and a small amount of dried fruit of choice. Pour water into the bowl until it is about ½ inch above the oat mixture. Cover and put in the refrigerator to soak overnight. Serve warm or cold with a cup of fresh blueberries or strawberries on top.

Mustard Sardines on Whole Grain Toast: Put one can of water-packed sardines with bones in a bowl. Mix with 2 tablespoons of mustard, one chopped stalk of celery, and 1 tablespoon chopped onion. Serve on whole grain toast.

There are a number of things that are great about the above recipes from a cholesterol-lowering perspective. Strawberries are high in soluble fiber which is a key to lowering cholesterol. Nuts and seeds contain healthy fats that are thought to raise HDL the “good” cholesterol and lower LDL the “bad” cholesterol. Oats are one of the top cholesterol-lowering super foods as most of you know. Sardines contain those wonderful omega-3 fatty acids as do flax seeds. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential in terms of improving overall heart health and your cholesterol profile.

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In the study of disease we find unknown causes for a lot of diseases. This leaves us to speculate. The question is could there be multiple reasons behind one illness? These 7 reasons could cause poor health, whether that is fatigue, pain, diabetes, heart problems, or acne. They could be the reason behind every known and unknown disease.

When we think of allergies we think of things like peanut or bee sting allergies. These allergies get most of the press because of how dangerous they can be. These allergies can cause an attack and kill. This is an IgE response. It is fast, and deadly.

There is another type of allergy that has a slower response. It is called an IgG allergic response. Because of the slower response rate it is not as commonly known. If we eat something causing an IgG allergic response inflammation builds up in our intestine. The inflammation can then enter our blood stream. This inflammation can cause stomach and bowel diseases, plaguing in the arteries, and even destroy brain cells. Along with a host of problems.

Any joint in the body can decay if there is a misalignment of the joint. This is true with knees, feet, or spine. This misalignment in the spine can cause joints to degenerate and nerves to choke. Causing a decrease in nerve supply to muscles, tissues, or organs. If the nerve supply doesn’t reach cells of an organ, muscle or tissue those cells can’t function at full capacity. This can lead to a diseased state.

Degeneration of joints comes from muscle imbalances, injuries, slight misalignments, and biochemistry. The most common biochemical degeneration comes from diabetes.

Nutritional deficiencies can cause a variety of diseases. These disease ranges from Scurvy that killed many people and can be corrected by vitamin C, to pernicious anemia, caused by a deficiency in vitamin B-12. Pernicious anemia is a one of the causes of ALS.

These nutritional deficiencies many times go unnoticed. They are classified as sub clinical. Someone may show signs and symptoms of a disease. And their blood test is negative for that disease. Could this be a sub clinical nutritional deficiency? Many times nutrition can correct these sub clinical conditions.

. The body has an innate ability to detoxify itself. If this ability is lost, toxins build up in our bodies. The body stores these toxins in tissues, organs, and tries to eliminate it through skin, and hair.

First, we must protect the body from toxins. And since it is impossible to protect ourselves from our environment completely, we must make sure we are eliminating toxins from the body sufficiently.

Heavy metals can build up in the body. These toxins cause neurological disorders, heart problems, autism like symptoms, dementia. Many of the signs and symptoms associated with toxin are unusual and look like other diseases.

This type of pollution is starting to hit the media. Cell phones are the biggest problem. However, computers, cordless phones, florescent lights, batteries, and microwaves can cause health issues. This is most common in those who get sick easily.

This field is highly researched. The research is new and not considered mainstream. This field is very controversial and deserves our attention. Recently, brain tumors are reaching a younger population. This could be correlated directly to the increase of cell phone usage. More research needs to be done on this subject.

We fear normal viral and bacterial infections. Almost every cleaner and soap boasts its antimicrobial effect. There is no need to explain these further.

Another class of infection not so popular is the sub clinical infections. This usually happens when an over growth of normal bacteria and fungus grows on, or in our bodies. These infections cause fatigue and malaise. Our body’s immune system tries to fight this bacterium off, and gets exhausted. Building up the immune system through proper nutrition and lifestyle change will eliminate this type of infection.

Thoughts can cause biochemistry to change. This change can be good or bad. Some stressors can decrease immune system effectiveness. Other thoughts could lead to effecting the endocrine system disrupting hormone regulation. All these responses can decrease health.

Health problem and disease usually do not come from one thing alone. The body’s complex systems can break down in more than one way. Here are 7 causes to illness and disease. By viewing each as a possibility can increase the ability to overcome poor health.

Dr. Kessinger, DC practices in Parker, CO. He maintains a chiropractic clinic that focuses on nutrition, rehabilitation, and manual therapies. He focuses on pain management, fatigue, and weight loss. He treats sport injuries, car accidents, and other work related injuries. He has success with most disc injuries, neuropathies, headaches and sciatica. To get a report on improving balance for skate boarding, or snow boarding visit his web site at [http://www.dr-kessinger.com]

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