Archive for January, 2010

As winter sets in, we are becoming more prone to infection and fever. It is important that we be extra cautious about what we eat and do this winter. It is mandatory that we follow the winter health tips religiously as certain changes occur in our bodies as the barometers dip. These changes are more pronounced in the temperate zone where the temperatures are in the freezing range.
It is very common to hear parents complaining that their child has yet another runny nose. Others abhor the winter and the allergies they set in. While that may be true, the more important question is, what you can do to prevent in the first place.

Here are some winter health tips to help you brace yourself for the winter:

Strengthen the immune system with a balanced diet. Vegetables and fruits are important all 365 days of theyear.Look for fresh produce and seasonal items, as far as possible. Steam cooks the veggies if you can’t eat them raw due to cold weather. Hot broths and cooked vegetable salads can be a part of a healthy meal. Dry fruits and nuts can be used as a snack. They not only provide energy but are also filled with nutrients. Carbohydrates are needed for energy and strength. So include brown rice, whole wheat bread, rotis or porridge in your meals.

One of the ayurvedic winter health tips is that green tea or herbal tea with or without honey keeps you warm in the mid morning or mid evening. Some spice like pepper, ginger and garlic are believed to give warmth during winter.

Our bodies generate a lot of energy as a protection against the cold weather and chilly nights. Hence one of the most important winter health tips is to stay hydrated. Apart from water, warm soups can be taken during meals or during snack time. Though alcohol can give warmth, don’t go overboard with it. If you must drink alcohol, take it in small quantities occasionally. Don’t use alcohol as a stress buster or to forget your worries.

Exercise is important. It not only burns calories but also keeps you warm and uplifts your mood. You need extra exercise if you have indulged in those tempting hot and high fat comfort foods. An active warm up is essential. The activity needs to be sufficiently energetic and prolonged to ensure that the whole body is warm. The activity can vary from a stretches of the lower limb muscles to a brisk walk or jog for 15 to 20 minutes.

A hot shower is very comforting. Massage of the body has several psychological benefits and is soothing. Finally, dress appropriately. Avoid overheating.

The above winter health tips will ensure that allergies and cold will be kept at bay to help you to remain healthy and trouble free through the winter.



Many of us accept weaker bones as part of aging. While old age may lead to loss of bone density, proper awareness about how to care for your bones can help you keep them healthy even as you age. Our body is constantly replacing old bones with new ones much like any other tissue. However, the body loses more bone tissue than it is able to replace as we become older, leading to weaker bones that are more prone to fractures. Although more women face bone loss than men, both sexes need to be equally aware of how to take care of aging bones to enjoy a healthier life. Another reason why aging is often associated with weaker bones is the fact that our body’s ability to absorb calcium from our diet decreases as we age. The body responds by producing a hormone that makes our bones release calcium into the blood stream, leaving them thinner and weaker. In addition to aging, other factors that contribute to bone loss are:

Excessive Smoking Low Calcium Intake Vitamin D Deficiency Excessive Alcohol Consumption Early Onset of Menopause Family History Physical Inactivity Prolonged Usage of Certain Medication
Caring for Bones Now & Forever Needless to say, we need to start taking care of our bones early on in our adult lives if we want to live our senior years without having to worry about weak bones.

Eat Calcium-Rich Food: The earlier we start eating foods rich in calcium, the better it is for the health of our bones. Consuming three cups of milk everyday is recommended for adults. Besides, foods such as cheese, yogurt, salmon, tofu, sardines, beans, peas, broccoli, and green leafy vegetables like spinach are an excellent source of calcium.

Get Plenty of Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps out bodies in absorbing calcium properly. So, get at least 15-20 minutes of sunlight everyday besides eating foods rich in Vitamin D such as fortified milk & cereals, eggs, cod liver oil, salmon, tuna, mackerel, and cheese.

Stay Fit & Exercise: Among the many other benefits of exercise is that it keeps the bones healthy. Weight bearing exercises like walking, jogging, aerobics, cycling help add bone density and reduce bone loss.

Limit Smoking & Drinking: Excessive use of alcohol can hinder the balance of calcium in the body, which is vital to bone health. Smoking, on the other hand, has long been associated with weaker bone density as it can affect the absorption of calcium and Vitamin D. So, it’s best to quit smoking altogether and limit the consumption of alcohol.

Take Bone Supplements: As there are only a few dietary sources of Vitamin D, our bodies may need to be supplied with the additional Vitamin D it requires through bone supplements. Bone supplements are also a good source of calcium, so consult your physician to see if you need additional calcium.

Strontium Supplements for Bone Health Another mineral that aids healthy bone tissue is strontium. Superior bone supplements come packed with this naturally occurring trace mineral that is believed to help make bones denser and healthier. Strontium supplements like Strontium Bone Matrix can help the body nutritionally support its natural bone building properties. Besides, strontium supplements are also believed to slow down the cells that break down bone tissue. Strontium supplement Strontium Bone Matrix also contains Vitamin K2, which is essential for normal functioning and health of skeletal system. All the ingredients in Strontium Bone Matrix are scientifically supported to nutritionally support your body in promoting bone density & strength, healthy skeletal system, healthy spine, wrists, & hips, and healthy teeth. Clearly, it is never too early to start taking care of your bones.



Insurance policies are aids that came in handy at a time when we are in problem and require the financial services to get us through with the necessary services. People use these insurance policies as a risk coverage tool. One of the popular insurance policies that are taken by people who are conscious about their health is Dental or Orthodontic Insurance.

When it comes to correcting dental abnormalities such as crooked teeth, then only the orthodontist can bring smiles to your faces with straight teeth and facial symmetry. All these will come in as cheap and affordable to you if you have an existing orthodontic insurance plans which are cheap and affordable which will take care of your financial worries as far as orthodontist treatments are concerned.

Finding cheap insurance plans is not always easy. Much effort is needed, to be looking for an affordable and yet suitable orthodontic insurance plan which suits you and your family.

In order to obtain the best results, and yet a cheaper treatment, getting orthodontic treatment at an early age is very much essential. The best time to go for orthodontic treatments are between age five to seven. When most dental insurance policies don’t cover orthodontic treatments as they consider this procedure to be “elective dentistry” and too much of a cosmetic treatment rather than a preventive treatment, you need to get the orthodontic insurance which is cheap but yet are covering for braces as braces are one of the most common type of orthodontic treatments.

You need to pay the monthly payments which is called premium on your insurance. In exchange, your carrier will pay for part of your orthodontic care up to a maximum amount. The maximum amount covered and percentage that your provider pays for will depend upon your orthodontic Insurance plans. Most of the insurance provider companies will pay up to 50% of the orthodontic care costs. Here are some of the steps where one can refer to when looking for the right orthodontist dental professional where you can get align with for the low cost orthodontic insurance.

Step 1
Learn more about orthodontic insurance from words of mouth like relatives and friends whom have orthodontic experiences, get them to share what types of orthodontic insurance they are having now and the goodness of each plan.

Step 2
Go online and find out all the nearby dental clinics which offer this kind of orthodontic treatment in your area. Try to find out how much they generally charge for the procedure. The cost usually ranges between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on the orthodontist you choose and the duration of the treatment.

Step 3
Talk to the dentists and ask if they offer any financing plans, or installments plan for the high cost orthodontist treatments ; Ask also what kind of services are offered and how long does each of the treatment take. Specially ask them how much they charge for the treatments that you wanted. And ask if there are any special promotional rates or promotional package they are offering now. Also ask about their years of business as well as their skills and experiences.

Step 4
Tell them of your condition and expectation, ask for advice and feedback, if they have high confident on providing the service that you required, and can provide some testimonials on some of the similar treatments they have performed for their patients with satisfying results.

Step 5
Before ended the call, try to schedule for a session to meet up the dentist for face to face consultations. Through this appointment, you can tell the cleanliness, infrastructure of the facilities and the service provided by the dental clinics yourself before you decide if this is the dental service @ with its collaborated orthodontic insurance that you would like to undertake.



Discovering first grade reading help can be a frustrating charge. If your child is struggling to learn to read, your first reaction might be to seek out a learning disability association in your area, or to bring your child for learning disability testing, but often this is an overreaction for one so young.

A child with learning disabilities certainly should be required experience learning disability testing, but if your child requires first grade reading help, then they may not have an genuine learning disability at all. Loads of children struggle with first grade reading. Help may be obtainable, but often parents believe that they may have a child with learning disabilities because, even at this early moment in time, they tend to fight with what their peers are finding much easier.

Finding a coach for first grade reading help may be complex and without doubt costly, and other interventions such as occupational or vision therapy cost even more most often, sometimes running into thousands of dollars, all in an endeavor to find first grade reading help for what the parents may suspect is a child with learning disabilities.

In the first grade however, before you run off to find a learning disability association or some other learning disability resource, you must recall that you may not in fact have a child with learning disabilities, you may have a child with a learning delay. Is this the same phenomenon? No, but if you fail to deal with the delay, you will be dealing with a child with learning disabilities before long.

So what can you work out for a child who needs first grade reading help, yet is not necessarily a child with learning disabilities? The suitable thing you can do is to educate the skills they need, and this will cause them to increase their development.

The learning disability association with vision therapy has been well documented and scientifically supported over numerous years, yet children with learning disabilities continue to toil on with deficient or underdeveloped visual skills. And now, because of the worldwide reach of the internet, vision therapy cost reductions permit us to present for parents the training their child involves at a fraction of the cost it once commanded. Cost this against numerous of the learning disabilities association recommended practitioners, and you will understand that there is astonishing value for money, and it is the 20 minutes a day investment that is the chief vision therapy cost!

First grade reading help is not simply doing the same job over and over again. It’s training the skills that the child requires, even if they do not have identifiable learning difficulties. Association with the best vision therapy may cost a little bit of money and time, but you can rise above potential learning disabilities in a child long before they take hold.

If you’re not sure, please do not allow your child go on lacking first grade reading help. Make sure they get all the assistance they need, since it is easier to advance the skills a child requires earlier rather than later, when they are forced to catch up to the rest of the class. Your decision now to impart the best form of first grade reading help may steer you clear of struggling to help a child with learning disabilities later on in life.



Living a healthy lifestyle promotes good health and renders less health problems as one ages. Proper diet and nutrition can lower the risk of diabetes and refraining from consuming large amounts of alcohol can reduce the risk of alcoholism. There are hereditary concerns for diabetes but if one creates a well balanced lifestyle the effects and onset of diabetes can be lessened. Diabetes and alcoholism can cause severe nerve damage also known as neuropathy. This can lead numbing and tingling to the hands and feet resulting in years of pain and discomfort, if treatment for neuropathy is not sought.

Alcohol and diabetes are two causes for such discomfort and two that can be avoided if careful watch and proper nutrition is had.

Cause and Effect

Although the causes for some neuropathy disorders are unknown, peripheral neuropathy can effect and inflame the nerves that cause sensations to the hands legs and feet. When a body experiences nerve damage in the peripheral nerves the effect is numbness, tingling and burning in the hands and feet making everyday life difficult to endure. Daily activities such as walking out to the mailbox or fixing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich are a challenge to those suffering with neuropathy.

If you suffer from neuropathy you are aware of how difficult it is to find lasting relief from the pain that you endure. Doctors have prescribed you one medication after another and nothing seems to work. Thankfully The Neuropathy Treatment Group understands how difficult it is to find lasting relief and have worked to create a formula combining vitamins and Alpha-Lipoic acid to give longer lasting pain relief.

There is Hope

A neuropathy support formula is the hope and offers pain relief for sufferers of neuropathy. This offers a safe way to limit the pain and discomfort that numb feet and tingling feet can cause. With no recorded side effects this cost effective formula can help support and give strength back to nerve damaged or nerve cells.

The Neuropathy Treatment Group formulated one such neuropathy support formula in their F.D.A approved facility and created an amazing product that will help relieve symptoms of neuropathy in feet that is often caused due to diabetic neuropathy.

Treatments such as prescription medications, pain blocking injections, anti seizure medications as well as anti-dependents might leave you feeling out of sorts and come with side effects. A well formulated neuropathy support formula will not leave you feeling drowsy or anxious, but energized and hopeful. Activities that you once gained pleasure from will not have to be a distant memory much longer.



The Bone Health Revolution
by Vivian Goldschmidt

Recently my good friend Chris called to say her mom’s latest Bone scan revealed quite a bit of bone loss since her last test and the doc wanted to put her on osteoporosis meds.

This made Chris uncomfortable and she called to ask what, if anything I knew about these drugs, their efficacy, side effects and possible alternatives. My limited research after my own diagnosis of osteopenia a few years ago–a non-disease created to sell more drugs I’m convinced–led me to believe that the drugs were not a good choice and that there were many things to do first to strengthen bones naturally.

I fumbled through some of that I knew but told Chris I’d get back to her after getting my research updated and together. Meanwhile she found this month’s book.

The author Vivian Goldschmidt, has written a book I wish I’d penned.

Chris was correct, the book is a gold mine of the latest information on osteoporosis, osteopenia, and the drugs big Pharma would have us take to slow down this “disease”. Dirty little secret–osteoporosis is not a disease at all simply a function of aging. It is not inevitable and does not need dangerous drugs to prevent, reverse or slow it down. It can be slowed and reversed using diet, supplements, and exercise.

Did you know that the mean against which our middle aged bones are compared for their “health” is 20 – 29 year old women? As Vivian asked, “Are women expected to keep their bone density unchanged as they grow older?” How can we ever hope to have a “normal” bone density score as compared to women who are at their peak of bone health?

Not to mention that bone density–the characteristic of our bones being tested for–is not the best indicator of healthy bones, bone flexibility and strength is.
Bone loss associated with aging is normal, bone strength and resilience is what we should work towards.

Here are some bullet points Vivian covers in detail in her book:
# Osteoporosis is not a disease but actually it’s the body trying to correct an imbalance. And there’s one simple thing you can do to correct this imbalance.

# Osteoporosis is not inevitable. Anyone can easily prevent and reverse it without taking drugs. Actually, a 2006 report by the Mayo Clinic says that over 37% of women older than 50 don’t meet the true criteria of Osteoporosis and are wrongfully diagnosed! Are you one of them?

# The active ingredient in prescription Osteoporosis drugs (Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva) is a bisphosphonate. That’s just a fancy name for a common ingredient used in laundry detergents, fertilizers, and industrial lubricants. Would you put those in your body?

This is not fear mongering nor is it an anti-pharmaceutical rant. It is comprehensive research presented in lay person’s language. Vivian started on this quest when she was diagnosed was osteoporosis some years ago and given Fosamax by her doctor. Her science background-she has a degree in nutrition from New York University–and scientist’s curiosity drove her to research this so called disease and the “cures” being given liberally by many well-meaning docs.

What she found was shocking and she felt she had to write about it and help other women avoid the potentially life threatening–at the very least quality of life damaging–side effects of Big Pharma’s answer to this “problem.

“According to a recent article by Consumer Affairs (February 2007), Merck, the maker of Fosamax, has put aside $48 million to set up a defense fund for lawsuits related to the debilitating side-effects of Fosamax. Does Merck know something that the general public doesn’t?

Caveat: Vivian does not say that drugs like Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva do not harden bones. They do; it’s their ingredients, their side effects, and what we don’t know that encourages us to look for alternatives. And what we don’t yet know is whether the action of these bone building drugs will actually increase density but limit or prevent new bone formation which is more flexible and therefore less prone to fracture than old brittle bones.

If you have been diagnosed with either osteoporosis or osteopenia I encourage you to buy the book and try natural alternatives before a drug protacol. I can’t recommend this book enough.