Monthly Archives: February 2011

Why Does Constipation Happen?

Constipation is defined as  irregular, infrequent, or difficult bowel evacuation. Here, being infrequent is defined as <3 times per week, while difficulty is defined as straining more than 25% of the time (for a 15- minute session, that means about 4 minutes of pure straining). These things are bad because they eventually result in certain acute or chronic symptoms that one would only get constipation relief when the bowel movements go back to normal.

To understand why constipation happens, it is important to categorize it into either problems with stool consistency or problems with the defecation behavior itself. That’s because one person may experience constipation due to regular production of hard stools, while another person may experience it even if the produced stools are soft.

Problems with the Stool

Hard stools are most commonly due to dietary problems. And a person produces them because of two things: too little water, or too much fiber.  To understand this, it should be noted that stools take their final form inside the large intestine. Here, any remaining water in the undigested food is absorbed (about 500 mL). So if the person has taken too little water, then the resulting stool becomes too dehydrated, making it hard. As for fiber, they give bulk to our stool. If a person takes too much of it, without a proportionate increase in water intake, it produces stools that are too bulky, making it difficult to push them out.

Problems with Defecation Behavior
As for problems with the defecation behavior itself, the causes are protean. However, they can be divided as those involving the colon or rectum itself (obstructions, colon diseases, rectal prolapse, etc), those involving medication abuse (narcotics, iron supplements, certain antacids, etc), and those in connection with systemic diseases (hypothyroidism, spinal cord injuries, diabetic neuropathy, etc). All of these causes either prevent the intestine from contracting properly, or block the outlet where the stool passes.

What Now?

Thankfully, when constipation does happen, a person has many constipation remedies to choose from. These range from increased fluid intake to biofeedback therapy. All these constipation remedies will work, but depending on how they address the root cause of the problem. Knowing exactly what the problem is therefore, the key to relieving this condition.

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What Probiotics Can Do For Your Body

Inside our body lies a storage for millions of bacteria. Some are deemed harmful while there are those which our body cannot function without. Such is the case for certain strains of bacterias that rewards our body with innumerable benefits ranging from the body’s digestion to building immunity defenses. With the known benefits of this healthy bacteria a growing number of scientists and medical experts are giving much of their time and expertise to harnessing this bacteria’s full potential. To consolidate this growing information and create awareness of these incredible bacterial strains probiotics.org has been created.

These legions of good bacteria are more popularly known as probiotics. Taking their place in our intestinal linings, they are our body’s foremost defense against a bevy of parasites and pathogens that threaten our body’s stability. Scientific research has also evidenced a wealth of other pertinent health benefits that we acquire from a steady stream of these friendly bacteria in our body.

Prevention and Control of Diarrhea

The primary symptom of a weakened digestive system is that of diarrhea, characterized by a higher than normal presence of unwanted parasites in our body. When left untreated, diarrhea could result in severe dehydration and at its worst, death. As these good bacteria fight off these parasites, an ideal level of bacterial substances is retained in our body thereby preventing diarrhea from happening. In addition, most health experts recommends dosage of these friendly bacterias to patients already suffering from diarrhea to help bring it to a halt.

Similarly, they also help alleviate the risks of diarrhea for those who are taking diarrhea inducing antibiotics. Antibiotics, though meant to eliminate these parasites, do so without discrimination and when we subject our body to a string of antibiotics, even the good bacterias are significantly reduced, destabilizing the body, resulting in LBM or loose bowel movement..

Strengthened Immunity Builders

Scientists and gastroenterelogists have also give much credence to the positive effects of these good bacterias towards our immunity. By producing substances that fends off the harmful pathogens in our intestinal pathways, they significantly reduce the risks for the most common types of ailments and illnesses. Similarly, sufficient levels of probiotics helps reduce the appearance of allergies especially for children and pregnant mothers.

Infection Prevention

In earlier times, before the advent of antiseptics, fermented dairy products were used by our ancestors to prevent infections. As these beneficial bacterias strengthen our body’s defense mechanisms, they also help our body heal and fend off infections as well as wound inflammations.

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Benefits Of Rebounder Workouts

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Simple exercise like running, walking, and jogging do an excellent job of increasing a person’s blood circulation. The unfortunate side effect of these kinds of exercise is the effect they have on the joints, hips and knees. Rebounder workouts offer all of the normal benefits associated with aerobic exercises and basically eliminate any sort of damage done to muscles and joints just like yoga mats. A rebounder is normally about three to nine inches in total diameter, and it is basically a mini-trampoline. Anybody who is health conscious about their body really needs to own a rebounder. One of the most important benefits provided by a rebounder is increasing lymph circulation within one’s body.

Bouncing around on a rebounder could increase the flow in a person’s lymph by as much as 30 percent. The lymph found in the human body has a simple goal of refreshing and detoxing the human body. This piece of the human body is essential for the organs in the body to operate properly. A rebounder will tone up the body, and get rid of flabby thighs and jiggling stomachs. The needak rebounder will also tone up the muscles and burn excess fat. Standard exercises such as hopping, running, walking, and dancing can easily be performed using a rebounder. The greatest benefit that comes along with doing these exercises on a rebounder is the fact that it is soft and bouncy allowing for no straining of the body’s joints.

This proves to be an excellent benefit especially for people with a bit of age under their belt. Older people using a rebounder works wonders for them because as people age their body cannot withstand the intense impacts that come along with normal exercise like running or jogging. Older people can use a rebounder to receive the entire benefits younger people can using the soft touch from a rebounder. It is easy to obtain a complete full body workout using a rebounder with old people. The immune system in the human body absolutely needs to be in top shape to allow for defense against diseases.

When a person is bouncing on a rebounder they will experience a significant amount of what is called G-force. This strong force actually affects all of the cells in the human body. The immune cells in the body that are self-propelled end up becoming up to five times as active as opposed to when they are sitting still. Strangely enough these are also the cells that fight against viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells as well. This is proof that doing exercises on a rebounder will definitely add strength to a person’s immunity.

Mike has been blogging about health fitness and other topics for 5 years. Currently he is a staff writter for home of the needak rebounder.

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A Closer Look at Depression in Men

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Under the bravado and macho exterior of our male population lies a hidden truth, that men too fall prey to bouts of depression. This mental health problem affects an average of 1 in every 7 American men, yet this problem has remained to be unrecognized and unaccepted in the realm of male machismo. But with the revelations in light of Heath Ledger’s death, Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide, along with a long list of depressed celebrities, depression has become an open problem and a source of great concern.

Depression in fact affects both men and women at any given age, though how they respond and manifest this disorder may differ as men often exhibit the physical symptoms of depression while women delve on the emotional aspects. Recent depression news revealed that 40% of middle aged men are suffering from depression, significantly higher than women who are pegged at only 25%. Depression in men is also harder to recognize as men are not prone to be expressive of their emotions and as such it is essential that we learn to diagnose these depression symptoms to help the men that we love recognize and seek immediate help to counter this disorder.

Depression in men, especially when left undetected, can lead to a string of other social and health problems ranging from loss of work, to divorce, as well as cardiovascular problems and suicide. As a matter of fact, 80% of all recorded suicides are men and most likely caused by undiagnosed depression.

Identifying Male Depression

Men and women exhibits depression in a highly different manner, while men resort to acting out their moods, women turns to verbal outbursts. According to the latest research, the most common signs of depression in our Adam population includes increased anger and irritability, reduced ego, constant blaming of others, paranoia, restlessness, compulsive behaviors, insomnia, feelings of self disgust, becomes overly conscious and controlling, turns to alcohol and substance abuse for temporary relief and violent behavior.

Overcoming Depression

As men are more likely to deny that they have a severe mental condition, it can prove to be much more difficult and complex to diagnose and treat, experts say that it take 3 health professionals to cure 1 depressed man. Medical experts also agree that men do not respond well to traditional anti depressants and medication of which may even lead to more serious depression issues. Most experts suggests regular exercise, healthy diet and a strong social support system to help ease the treatment and recovery process for depressed men.

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