Tag Archives: Conditions and Diseases

Herbal Help For Healthy Muscles

You’ve been working hard in the garden, in the gym or participating in your favorite sport and your muscles are feeling stiff and achy.  Before you reach for one of the many conventional anti-inflammatory medications on offer, it’s worth taking a minute to consider the problems that you may encounter as a result.  Research suggests that digestive discomfort, digestive ulcers, cardiovascular complications and stroke may be associated with the long term use of conventional anti-inflammatory medication. If this makes for alarming reading, don’t worry.  Nature has provided us with alternative herbal remedies that can deal with muscle aches and pains without the negative side effects.

Arnica Montana is a herb with a traditional use for treating bruises and tissue damage.  It is an excellent remedy, trusted through the ages.  Consider the benefits of using arnica in the form of a gel as opposed to a conventional medication.  It works as well as medication such as ibuprofen but has none of the side effects.  It works quickly, absorbs easily, it is convenient to use and continues to work no matter how long you take it for.  It can be used in the treatment of many conditions – rheumatism, arthritis, sports injuries such as sprains and strains, and lumbago.  

Inflammation is a common symptom in all these conditions, often causing intense pain and incurring further symptoms such as loss of sleep. Inflammation is a useful part of the body’s defence mechanism. However, if the inflammatory response is prolonged it can become a debilitating part of the disease process instead of the healing process. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury causing an increase of blood flow to the tissues of the affected area. The area reddens and becomes painful. Applying arnica sparingly, in the form of a gel, to the affected area and massaging it in gently will help to reduce inflammation and in turn reduce pain.  It should, however, only be used on unbroken skin.

Another herb well known for its beneficial effect on pain caused by inflammation is Devil’s Claw (Harpagophytum).  Basically, it can be used for any condition where there is inflammatory pain.  Taken internally as a tincture, Devil’s Claw reaches all those painful parts from inside. One of the many benefits of this herb is that it rarely causes stomach upsets. Another plus is that it can be used long term – long term is usually necessary with musculoskeletal problems – and does not interfere with conventional medication. The herb is best used for chronic conditions such as repetitive strain injury due to repetitive movement of a single muscle or group of muscles, and fibromyalgia.  It is suitable for all forms of arthritis and has been shown to work well on gout or gouty arthritis.

Magnesium, which is present in foods such as soya, kidney and haricot beans, chickpeas, brazil nuts, sesame seeds, cashews, oats, brown rice, dark green vegetables, figs, dried apricots, bananas and buckwheat, is an excellent supplement for maintaining healthy muscles.

There are 650 muscles in the adult human body.  They work quite hard irrespective of whether we are physically active or not.  If they become injured or tired they make it difficult for us to move about as much as we want to and cause us pain.  Should this be the case, the important thing to remember is that a sprained or strained muscle must be given enough time to heal to allow it to regain full health.  Not to do so will only exacerbate the condition.

Doing twenty minutes of gentle exercise every day will go a long way to keeping your muscles healthy but it is equally important to make sure that relaxation too becomes part of your everyday routine.

Alison Cullen has worked in the health industry since 1987.  Alison lectures & trains on health issues, and is often to be found quoted in health magazines.

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Fish Oil Benefits And Body Cleanse

Grilled salmon is one way to consume oily fish.

Image via Wikipedia

If you are wondering what fish oil benefits are to you for your health, maybe this will help.

Fish oil is made from the tissue of oily fish like salmon, tuna, lake trout, sardines, etc. It contains important omega 3 fatty acids and are believed to help in reducing the chances of a heart attack, coronary heart disease, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. It helps prevent abnormal heart rhythms that aren’t good for the body and can cause cardiac arrest and strokes in people with known cardiovascular disease. It has also been shown to slow the hardening of arteries and lower blood pressure. It also helps with any inflammation you might have and reduce symptoms and pain of arthritis. It doesn’t act as a pain killer thought and you need to use it regularly before you notice any changes. It can also help with anti aging. It slows down the rate at which protective caps on the end of chromosomes shorten, making the lifespan of cells increase. It is also beneficial to pregnant and unborn children. It helps develop a healthier brain, good nervous system, better eye sight, and fewer behavioral problems. Thus we see taking fish oil can do a lot for your health and even the health of your unborn children.

For those wanting to try a body cleanse, there are different types that you can try. There is the herbal supplement one which focuses on swallowing a capsule and focus on milk thistle and adding fiber into your diet. Another one you might try is fasting. This involves removing solid foods completely from your diet for a certain time. One more you can do is the master cleanse or lemonade diet. This diet involves mixing lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper into a drink. You then will drink it for ten days.

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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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Answers to your questions about how to get rid of blackheads

When an adolescent gets an obvious blackhead, generally in an important area, his or her mom is quick to get a needle and an alcohol swab. While successful, that painful cure is surely to encourage a mission on how to get rid of blackheads without going through tons of pain.

Nowadays an adolescent can check on the Internet to see different methods on how to treat those ugly blemishes. Numerous recommended cures do not need you to buy a costly product. One requires you to combine lime juice and salt. While another advises a careful combination of lime juice, oil from almonds and glycerin. Another advises applying a small amount of toothpaste to the skin.

One recommendation should have been advised to a big gang of moms. That recommendation concentrates on readying the affected face to be able to rid of the blackhead’s unsightly contents. It advises to use a hot towel, one that can cover the face for up to ten minutes.

All of the treatments talked about above are created to unblock the pores, eliminate bacteria and then moisturize and give nourishment to the skin. In that case a bunch of random questions that people think about when it comes to the subject of how to get rid of blackheads may have the following inquires:

What kinds of vitamins and minerals are able to nourish the dermis, and what edibles include these ingredients? Does the habit of consuming 8 glasses of water daily help moisturize the epithelial cells? Does working out, so that sweat is made in excess help unblock pores?

By searching for answers to these random questions, people who struggle with how to get rid of blackheads can have an easier time to put a stop to that daunting battle. They can find the proven methods; those that will surely help keep the face free of pimples.