Hiccups

How do hiccups happen? Actuallly, hiccups occur when air in the stomach from eating too fast irritating the diaphragm, causing it to spasm. This pulls air very quickly into the lungs, triggering the epihlottis to slam shut and at the same time shakes your vocal cords and create the "hic" sound.

Most of the hiccups only last for few minutes, but some might last for days and weeks. This is a sign of unusual porblem or medical problem.

You might have heard lots of suggestiond for how to get rid of hiccups and u might have tried a few too. Do they work? Holding your breath and countng to 10 is on way some people can get rid of hiccups. Some of the old people might say, drinking from wrong side of a glass of water is the way to cure the hiccup. Putting some sugar under your tougue or getting somebody to scare you and so on.

The above might work and might not too. The best solution from the expert is "put something cold on your neck". Holding two ice cubes, one either side for 10 seconds, interrupts the firing rate of nerves, sending signals to the diaphragm and calming it down.

This is medically work. Try this if you one day have hiccups...

INSOMNIA FACTS (PART II)

Who are the person in high risk of insomnia?

Those who are on medication : -

• cold and asthma preparations.
• High blood pressure
• Medication for depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia.

Besides of the medical conditions, there are certain groups of people which may be at higher risk for developing insomnia:-

• travelers
• shift workers
• elderly
• adolescent or young adult students
• Pregnant lady; and
• Women who are menopause and on menstruation

 Besides of the above there are also other causes of insomnia which are very important :-

• stimulants namely caffeine, cocaine, herbs and nicotine.
• Alcoholics who use alcohol to induce their sleep as a nightcap. Alcohol creates nonrefreshed sleep in the morning.
• A disruptive bed partner with loud snoring or leg movements also may impair cause insomnia to others.
• Insomnia Diagnosis
• If you feel that you have an insomnia, an evaluation will include a physical examination, medical history, and a sleep history. Your sleep patterns, how you feel during the day and etc is very important.

Treatment for Insomnia

Good sleep habits are very important to avoid insomnia. If at the event that initial stage of insomnia will affect your work of the day, few day sleeping pills are essential. Avoid using over-the-counter sleeping pills for insomnia since they may cause side effects and tend to lose their effectiveness over time.

Treatment for chronic insomnia will start from underlying conditions or health problems that cause insomnia. If insomnia persists, your health care provider may suggest behavioral therapy. Techniques such as meditation, relaxation exercises, sleep restriction therapy will be useful.

To be continued with GOOD SLEEP HABITS in Part III.

INSOMNIA FACTS (Part 1)

Insomnia is one of the sleep disorder that easily found in our current lifestyle. There is an estimation of 30%-50% of the general population are affected by normal insomnia whilst 10% have chronic insomnia.


What are the symptoms of insomnia?

The most obvious symptom is persistent of difficulty falling asleep. Others include : -
• Wake up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep wakeup too early in the morning.
• Sleepiness during the day.
• General tiredness.
• Irritability.
• Problems with concentration or memory.

Generally, there are 2 types of insomnia : -
Primary insomnia: This insomnia is not directly associated with any other health condition or problem.

Secondary insomnia: This happens when a person is having sleep problems because of health condition (ie asthma, depression, arthritis, cancer, or heartburn); pain; on-going medication; or alcohol.


What are the causes of insomnia?

i. Uncomfortable room temperature (too hot or too cold)
ii. Excessive or unpleasant noise
iii. Changes in shift work
iv. Jet lag
v. Presence of an acute medical or surgical illness or hospitalization
vi. Feeling of fear, anxiety, stress and depression or emotional or mental tension
vii. Withdrawal from drug, alcohol, sedative, or stimulant medications
viii. High altitude (mountains)

Food against Insomnia (Part 1)

Stress and sweltering temperature can all add up to a lot less shut-eye for you. Turn the tables with the food below to help you sleep easy.

1. Red wine

Drift off to sleep with a glass of res that contains sleepy hormone melatonin. Bear in mind that large quantities of alcohol will prevent REM sleep and will give you morning dog breath.

2. Banana

Excellent source of sleep-inducing chemical tryptophan and B vitamins are easy to digest. Whizzing one in the blender with warm milk and honey to guarantee some zeds.

3. Green Veg

Rich in magnesium, calcium and B vitamins. Dish up some greens with your evening meal - the darker the better. It helps to relieve your jumpy pins and aid sleep.

4. White Bread

A slice of of bread will have off you to dream land in no time. This sure beat the sheep counting. High GI carbs were better than low-GI for shortening sleep onset.

5. Turkey

This bird is rich in the amino acid serotonin, the calming, mood-elevating hormone that's also a key player in inducing sleep.

To be continued...

How to pick and store the fresh fruit and vegetable? (Part 1)

The best-tasting, most nutritious produce is easy to find if you know how to look, touch, smell and shop. Bear in mind that, not all well-shaped fruit or vegetable is all good.


Look : Prime fruits and vegetables are often irregular shaped and blemished.
Touch : Heavy, sturdy fruits and vegetables with taut skin are fresh
Smell : Many fruits can be sniffed for ripeness.
Shop seasonally : For tastier and cheaper food

Grab as different colours for your fruits and vege. Different colour brings the different nutritious.

Below is some examples of how to choose a fresh fruit or vege and how to store it well: -

Broccoli

Find rigid stems with tight floret clusters that are deep green or tinged purple. Do not choose any with yellowing heads which will be more bitter.

Storage : Refrigerate in a plastic bag for up to 1 week

Asparagus

Thin spears are sweet and tender. Buy vibrant green spears with tight and purple-tinged buds.

Storage : Trim the woody ends. Stand the spears in a bit of water in a tall container; cover the tops with a plastic bag. Cook within 3 days.

Artichokes

Seek out deep-green, heavy artichokes, with tightly closed leaves that squeak when pinched together.

Storage : In the fridge for up to 5 days.

Bell peppers

These should have lots of heft for their size, and brightly coloured, wrinkle-free exteriors. The stems should be bright green.

Storage : Refrigerate in the crisper for up to 2 weeks.

Button mushrooms

Find tightly closed, firm caps that are not slimy or riddled with dark, soft spots. If you see the mushroom with open caps, advice is eat them soon.

Storage : Spread them on a flat surface, cover with a damp paper towel and refrigerate for 3 to 5 days

to be continued...

Best Healthy Lifestyle Prolong Your Life

Do you ever think of living longer? Yes, if you are enjoying your life so on and so forth. I would think that, life is in hand and depend on how you operate it. Your daily lifestyle will lead to your life change. I have some suggestion on a healthy lifestyle to add few years to your life, maybe. Give a try on these : -

Lose your weight
Obese or so-called overweight can increase the risk of death by 20 to 40 percent. Reduce your weight and shape off the fat to avoid high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

Exercise
High-intensity cardiovascular exercise—like running for 30 minutes for 5 days a week can prolong your live by 2 to 4 years longer where you might live 1 to 3 years free of heart disease. Running helps to strengthen your heart, muscles and concurrently lower cholesterol. What do you say about exercise, i would say exercise a magic bullet to boost your health.

Consume power food
According to British Medical Journal, a daily handful of dark chocolate and almonds, plus fruits, vegetables, garlic, fish, and even a glass of wine can increase a woman’s life by 4.8 years (6.6 for men). Power foods that rich in antioxidants, omega-3, fiber and etc will reduce your heart disease risk. Take food that is less fat and fewer calories whilst eat more fruits, veggies and whole grains. Mixture of superfood will give more nutrition that consuming it alone. Check out the article on combined sueperfood in here.
http://best-healthy-lifestyle.blogspot.com/2009/09/maximize-antioxidant-superfoods.html

Do you ever think of living longer? Yes, if you are enjoying your life so on and so forth. I would think that, life is in hand and depend on how you operate it. Your daily lifestyle will lead to your life change. I have some suggestion on a healthy lifestyle to add few years to your life, maybe. Give a try on these : -

Quit smoking
Smoking will only help to hurt your body system and will not bring any benefits to you. As such quit smoking is the 1st step to prolong your life. The earlier you quit, the better you are.

Play head games
Have you ever heard that mental exercises can keep your brain cells active and more efficient? A week mental boost is equal to a 7 percent gain in mental sharpness. Play the head games ie. Sukudo, board games & etc to keep your brain think and be sharper with your age.

Sex
Having sex is also will prolong your life. Having sex 2 to 3 times a week can boost your longevity by cutting off your risk for heart disease and stroke. This is because intercourse burns about 200 calories, this is exactly like 30 minutes running. Meantime, it will also lower your blood pressure, boost your immunity, help you to sleep better and release heart-protective hormones.

Our daily lifestyle will help to improve your quality of life and meantime prolong your living : -

• Gum disease is very related to heart disease. Flossing your gum is your one of the best ways to prevent the heart disease too besides of cutting down fats & etc.
• A low dose aspirin a day could boost your body
• Limiting your coffee intake to two cups a day
• Checking blood pressure regularly
• Exercising at least three times a week
• Cutting down working hours to a manageable 40-50 hours a week
• Meditating for 20 minutes every day

By adding all the steps up, you may add another decade of functional life. Now, you should ask, how long do you want to live and do you have a plan to get there? Think and action for your own best healthy lifesyle!

Heart Disease or cardiovascular disease

In most of the women perception, cardiovascular disease mostly affect man. How many of the women aware that actually affect women with the % that not very much lower than men. This is misconception should be taken away. Both women and men should be aware of this silent killer.

The signs & symtoms
Let's talk about the sign and symptoms so that we can easily recognize the signs of heart disease and timely intervention is crucial in increasing the survival rate of heart attack victims.

Chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack. Classic symtoms are tightness in the chest or breathlessness on exertion. Other typical symptoms include :-

• shortness of breath
• indigestion
• nausea, vomiting
• fatigue
• back or neck pain
• pain in one or both arms

If you recognize the abovementioned signs in yourself you must take the initiative to seek doctor advice immediately and have a proper check up. This might be able to avoid a potential heart attack getting worse. Early diagnosis is very crucial.


What should you do?
After knowing about the symtom , you should always ask yourselves what can you do to protect yourselves.

A risk of this heart disease increase dramatically in mid-life due to increasing age, hormonal imbalances , change of body fat distribution, phisical inactivity, hypertension and insulin resistance. Women who has high risk of this heart disease are those who are having heart attack and stroke.

As such the steps as follow is important to protect yourself : -

1. Maintain a healthy lifestyle with a healthy weight
• overweight will bring to a lot of other disease ie. diabetes, hypertension & etc which increase the risk of having heart disease. Weight loss is crucial for maintaining a healthy lifesyle
2. Control you cholestrol levels
3. Don't smoke
• the oxidate damage in a cell, tissue or organ caused reactive oxygen  species such as free radicals and cause the heart disease easily intrude your body 
4. Control your blood pressure
5. Follow a healthy diet
6. Exercise regularly

Healthy lifestyle with the healthy diet and food will help to prevent various type of diseases and cause complication. Check other articles on weight loss, hypertension, superfood and etc for more information.

Anger makes you sick?

I have thought of this question, why people easily get angry, irritated and emotional? Just because of the stress environment we have in this advance technology world? Or there are other specific reasons?

Did you know that your anger might affect the people around you and they are so innocent to be your gas release stone? When you have all these emotional feeling, you might slam your office door in your colleague's face, bang on table, showing your dark face? Or may be you are a fist-clenching tongue biter.

When you blow your lid or bottle it up, your anger takes a toll of your health. Why not take a close look on how and where the anger will hurt and even more importantly how to simmer down safely : -

Your brain
Anger may hampering your memory. The emotion can trigger the release of high levels of cortisol and other stress hormones, which may shrink the brain's memory centers.

Your heart
Harboring hostility can release adrenaline, a stress hormone that spikes blood pressure is linked with stroke and heart disease.

Your immune system
You're pumping out the fight-or-fight hormone epinephrine. Chronically high levels may depress the immune system, making you more prone to infections.

Your eyes
Anger may spark ocular migraines, with visions of light flashes and wiggly lines. Soaring stress hormones may constrict blood vessels in the brain, causing the odd optics.

Your teeth

Repressedire could fuel bruxism, unconcious teeth gnashing that occurs during the day or while you sleep. Grinding can cause facial and jaw pain and, over time, even broken teeth.

Your belly

When we get peeved, the brain releases the neurotransmitters acetylcholine and serotonin, which can reduce blood flow to the belly. The failout may include stomach pain and diarrhea.

What is the general rule of anger management that lead to best healthy lifestyle?
The effective way is chillout when your blood begins to boil. You may take a deep breath, yoga style. repeat a calming word such as slow, or picture a peaceful scene like a sunset. You may also plan a workout or other sanity break daily to control your anger.

Live a healthy lifestyle for a your happiness!

Nail Infection

Finger and toenail infections are caused by the fungus. Toenails are more prone to infection compared to fingernails. An infection may make your nails appear thickened and discoloured. Your nails may also become brittle, the skin adjoining them inflamed or scaly. If left untreated, the infection may eventually destroy your nail.

Primay causes of nail infection

• warm and humid climates cause the fungal growth
• shoe with poor ventilation provide an ideal place for fungal to grow
• frequent hand wash can cause skin at the base of nails become damage
• illness namely diebetes can make a fungal infection start easier

How to look after your nails

• wear 100% cotton socks, change your socks when they are damp from sweat or your feet get wet.
• wear waterproof gloves when carrying out household chores
• wear shoes with good support and a wide toe area for better ventilation
• get your health checked on a regular basis
• keep your nails short
• use separate nail trimmers fro healhty and infected nails to prevent spreading the infection

Your treatment option if your nails infected

• oral medication - anti fungal pills
• nail painting - work is the infection is located towards the end of the nail but not the infection close to the skin

• nail removal - this is the last choice if other treatment not work

Fungal nail infection usually look unpleasant, but it does not cause pain or other uncomforatbale symtoms. Stay clean, and beware of any changes to your nail. Best healthy lifestyle starts from cleanliness... A simple steps of taking care your nail will bring you to another step of healthy lifestyle!