Keep yourself Updated with Disease Information

You've seen the stories time and again: Exercise to prevent coronary artery disease. Eat better to reduce your risk of coronary heart disease. Stop smoking to stop heart disease. Lower your cholesterol to lower your odds of developing cardiovascular disease. Coronary artery disease? Coronary heart disease? Heart disease? Cardiovascular disease? What are all these things? And what's the difference, anyway?

Perhaps you've been bombarded so often with warnings and advice about your heart that you simply don't pay attention anymore. Or you don't know what these conditions mean or exactly how destructive they can be to your health. Understanding the various terms and how they're often used, sometimes even incorrectly, can help you sort through the morass. And if you know more about the various types of cardiovascular disease, and the havoc they can wreak on your body, you may be more inclined to take steps to prevent them. You'll also know more about the ways all of the different manifestations of cardiovascular disease interact to affect your health, and you'll learn how you can best control your risks.

First, consider cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is a broad, all-encompassing term. It's not a single condition or disorder in itself. Rather, it's a collection of diseases and conditions. In fact, some types of cardiovascular disease can even cause other types of cardiovascular disease. To get technical, cardiovascular disease refers to any disorder in any of the various parts of your cardiovascular system, which is made up of your heart and the blood vessels throughout your body. http://healthcareatm.com/

Sugar- Sour Effects on Health

White Sugar is a staple in many homes for cooking and baking as well as a standard ingredient in many of the foods we consume. Refined sugar, as it is also called, is not only added to sweets, it is it also added in many of the foods people eat daily. You may be surprised to learn that refined sugar is included in bread, ketchup, mayonnaise, peanut butter and other foods that we do not consider to be sweets. Since it’s in so many foods, you may wonder how bad it can really be. We eat it every day. There is controversy surrounding exactly how bad sugar is on the body. There is research for and against the sweetener. Some claim sugar has a number of negative effects on the body. Among the charges against sugar are that it causes obesity and diabetes, is addictive, makes kids hyper and it suppresses the immune system.

So, does sugar cause all these ill effects on the body? Sugar is most definitely a contributing factor in obesity. Sugar does not cause diabetes; the precise cause of diabetes is unclear, but there are a number of factors, including genetics that interfere with the normal production and utilization of insulin. A healthy diet is important to a person’s overall health and wellbeing, so reducing your intake of processed foods and eating more whole foods is beneficial, with some sugar now and then. Get in the habit of reading the labels on any processed foods you buy, like cereal or energy bars. If sugar is among the top three ingredients, you are looking at a product that has high sugar content. The American Heart Association recommends that you limit your intake of sugar to no more than six teaspoons a day if you are a woman and nine teaspoons if you’re a man. http://healthcareatm.com/

You Are What You Eat

The human body is very complex and requires more than 40 types of nutrients so as to enable your day to day activities and lead a healthy living. However there is no single food item, either natural or manmade, that can provide all these nutrients in the right amount. Hence, it becomes imperative for for you to follow healthy eating habits and depend on different types of food items to meet your nutritional requirements.

One of the most widely given advice both by modern health care specialists and people of older generations is to have a variety of food items all in moderation. This would help to balance the nutritional requirements. Since the nutrients have to be harnessed from a wide variety of food items, it becomes necessary to include a wide variety of food products as part of the daily menu and this is very important if you want to follow healthy eating habits. Cultivating healthy eating habits also means that you do not become dependent on one type of food item as this could lead to accumulating excessive calories or nutrients of one particular type. http://healthcareatm.com/

Know ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that robs children of their ability to focus and pay attention. Kids with ADHD are fidgety and easily distracted. This makes it difficult to stay “on task,” whether it’s listening to a teacher or finishing a chore. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates 3% to 5% of kids have ADHD, but some experts believe that figure could be as high as 10%.

ADHD Symptoms: 

The child with ADHD who is inattentive will have 6 or more of the following symptoms:

·         Has difficulty following instructions

·         Has difficulty keeping attention on work or play activities at school and at home

·         Loses things needed for activities at school and at home

·         Appears not to listen

·         Doesn't pay close attention to details

·         Seems disorganized

·         Has trouble with tasks that require planning ahead

·         Forgets things

·         Is easily distracted

The child with ADHD who is hyperactive/impulsive will have at least 6 of the following symptoms:

·         Fidgety

·         Runs or climbs inappropriately

·         Can't play quietly

·         Blurts out answers

·         Interrupts people

·         Can't stay in seat

·         Talks too much

·         Is always on the go

·         Has trouble waiting his or her turn

Without treatment, ADHD can affect a child’s development socially and academically. The inability to focus often leads to poor performance in school. Kids who interrupt or cut in line may have trouble making and keeping friends. These setbacks can lead to low self-esteem and risky behaviors. ADHD also increases the risk of childhood depression and anxiety disorders.  http://healthcareatm.com/

Laughter really is the Best Medicine

There was a recent review in a medical journal that provides a scientific overview of the benefits of laughing regularly. Laughter and science? Yes, strange but true. So, what are some of the documented medical benefits of “laughter therapy”?

1. Muscle Relaxation – After a period of laughter, muscle relaxation has been reported to last up to 45 minutes. You laugh. Your muscles relax. It’s that simple.

2. Anxiety Relief - College students who listened to a humorous tape during a stressful experiment decreased their self-reported anxiety in a controlled study. And what’s more, those with the greatest sense of humor enjoyed the greatest anxiety-relieving effect.

3. Strengthening the Immune System – A group of subjects was given a funny movie to watch. After watching the comedic film, their blood was analyzed for certain stress-related markers. The researchers who conducted the study found that there was a significant drop in cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone that can cause your immune system to become compromised.

4. Funny Exercise – Laughter basically provokes the same physiological changes in our bodies that exercise does. You see, while we laugh, our heart rate rises, our breathing quickens and our oxygen intake increases. That’s a very similar reaction to what happens when we exercise.

The authors of this review concluded that the current research on laughter is encouraging and that more research should be conducted – to better understand how and under what circumstances laughter can be most beneficial. http://healthcareatm.com/