Tag: Cigarette Smoking

What You Can do to Lower Your Cholesterol

Experts say that people who are over 20 years of age should pay more attention to their cholesterol level and advise them to do everything they can to lower their levels of bad cholesterol. Despite the so many claims that you can lower your cholesterol level through low cholesterol diet plans, lifestyle changes, and monitored medication, more and more people who suffer from this condition still fail to lower their cholesterol level.

Although it is sometimes hard to stick with the needed requirements to be able to lower your cholesterol levels, it is still possible to get the result that you want by following these easy ways to lower to cholesterol:

1. Make sure you know where you stand by getting your levels checked regularly. Visiting your doctor and getting your cholesterol levels checked regularly is very important to achieving optimum health for good. Since high cholesterol is related to cardiovascular disease, make sure that you know your numbers so you can rearrange your diet and change lifestyle habits as well. Knowing your cholesterol level will also help you decide what kind of diet plan you should follow and if you need medication and treatment already. Knowing your starting point will also help you monitor your progress toward healthy cholesterol levels. If you know your exact cholesterol status then you can also do something to combat it by learning to quit cigarette smoking and excessive eating of high cholesterol foods.

2. Understanding the basics and learning everything you can about the condition. If you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol levels, the first thing to do is to understand the situation fully and acquire more information about the condition. By conducting your own personal research on the condition will also make you knowledgeable about initial lifestyle changes you can do to lessen the problem and you will also have an idea what other treatments options available. Knowing everything about cholesterol, its types, kinds, and health risks will also make you understand that the case is not really hopeless if you are in the right track.

Finding and getting more information about the condition will also make you realize that there are so many things that you can do. You can get more information from a registered dietician, local centers for nutrition, local hospital or public health department, and from a consultation with your attending physician or health care provider.

3. Watch your weight and get rid of extra pounds if needed. Monitoring your weight is one of the best ways to combat high levels of cholesterol. If you think you are overweight for your age and height, then you should be contemplating on slimming down to be able to decrease your high cholesterol level. Since being overweight disrupts a persons normal metabolism of dietary fat, experts say that people who weight more than they should shout start planning on a healthy lifestyle and diet to lose weight safely.

But, before having a drastic change in your diet and lifestyle, make sure that you visit your doctor first to access your overall health. Doing this may prevent further damage especially if you have to undergo certain medications.

4. Get physical, do regular physical activities and exercises more often. The wonders of exercise are indeed very essential in lowering high cholesterol levels. Doing regular physical activities can also help raise the good cholesterol levels and lose weight as well. Theres really no need for high-intensity workouts, regular brisk walking or jogging can help the body boost HDL cholesterol and also beneficial for the heart.

5. Make a commitment and stick to that commitment. The best way to lower cholesterol levels is to be able to develop the discipline to stick to your goal. You can also lower your cholesterol level by acquainting yourself what are the good and the bad fat and its sources, by discovering the wonders of fiber in cutting down cholesterol, by taking in good multivitamins, by freeing yourself from lots of stress, and by exploring and considering treatment options when all else fails.

What Is Chronic Airways Disease and How Can Physiotherapy Help?

What Is Chronic Airways Disease and How Can Physiotherapy Help?

Chronic airways disease is actually a group of diseases. These diseases are also called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Chronic airways disease can cause a major change in the quality of a patient’s life. However, physiotherapy can help.

Diseases included in chronic airways disease are chronic bronchitis and emphysema, for example. Many other diseases that restrict or limit breathing are included. It is most often caused by cigarette smoking, but also can be caused by inhaling other irritants such as those in the workplace. Chronic airways disease is more common among the elderly.

Along with having shortness of breath, the patient is likely to wheeze and cough frequently. He will produce sputum in copious amounts, and sometimes that will be streaked with blood. The lips and fingers can take on a bluish tint because he is not getting enough oxygen, and heart trouble may follow for the same reason.

Physiotherapy can help with chronic airways disease in many ways. One is in breathing retraining. This is just what it sounds like. A physiotherapist works with the patient to teach him ways to breathe that will draw the most air while eliminating the most wheezing. This can be a great help for those with chronic airways disease.

Another method used by physiotherapists for those with chronic airways disease is called clapping and postural drainage. The postural drainage part is done by positioning the body so that the affected lung is above the trachea.

Many people do this at home by lying on a bed and bending the top half of the body over it. The physiotherapist teaches one how to do this so that the lung will drain. Before long, the patient with chronic airways disease will be doing this procedure on his own.

The other part of the help for chronic airways disease patients is called clapping. This is done by cupping the hand and clapping the back to loosen secretions in the chest. It is also called chest percussion. The physiotherapist will do this procedure, and will teach it to a family member or caregiver.

People with chronic airways disease often have a problem with weakening legs. This is because, as they have trouble breathing, they avoid walking or doing physical exercise of any sort. The goal of physiotherapy in this case is to strengthen the legs through treadmill-walking or stationary-cycling. This can only be done, however, if the patient is well enough to start out.

Conditioning the arms of chronic airways disease patients is just as important. Most daily jobs rely heavily on the arms to do the work. Exercises which focus on the arms not only strengthen the muscles of the arms. They also help the patient start breathing better.

Chronic airways disease is a condition that can benefit from physiotherapy. The physiotherapist treating the patient must have specialized knowledge for this type of treatment. Simple methods can be overlooked as modern treatments come to the forefront. Yet, physiotherapy personnel who know this technique can make a big difference in patients’ lives.

Better Your Brain Performance: Stop IQ Deficiency

You may have personally experienced, or just heard from other people, of the mental boost that they get from smoking. Perhaps, for a short period of time such boost may be true, however in the long run, the effect of the tobacco consumption may be more dangerous to your brain than what you have expected. If you want to better your brains well-being, you have to worry about what affects your IQ.

An Addiction Research Center conducted a research regarding the long-term effects of alcohol on an alcoholics brain functioning. As expected, alcohol was found to be associated with mental problems and lower IQ scores. And as an addition to their findings, they also found out that long-term smoking has an effect on decreased brain power.

The results showed that alcohol has more severe effects on the thinking skills of alcoholic men who have been smoking for quite some time already. It has an adverse effect on memory, problem-solving skills and even the IQ of these men.

Among these alcoholic subjects, cigarette smoking was seen to be related to reduced mental functioning. However, even though the cause and effect relationship between smoking and the decreased mental performance was not clearly established, there are still some things which point out to the fact that cigarettes are the cause to such effect. In order to prove this point, more studies will have to be conducted.

Aside from these bad vices, there are still other things which may cause the reduction of your brain power.

Other Short-term Causes for Poor Thinking Performance

According to some more studies, foods which include artificial food coloring and sweeteners may be bad for the brain, more especially if they are consumed in large quantities. Usually, the children are the ones more affected negatively by these artificial flavorings and colorings. Examples of these kinds of foods are colas, white bread and hydrogenated oils.

The hydrogenated oils may cause the clogging of the arteries, and thus may result to heart diseases. Because of the clogs, it would be harder for the blood to flow to the brain. Artificially sweetened foods are unhealthy as well because they can cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels. These fluctuations may cause short-term brain fogging and even diabetes. Thus, it would be wiser for you to stay away from excessive sugar products.

Aside from these foods, other intangible things are believed to cause decrease of brain power. Personal problems such as egotism may be a factor. Because of egotism, a person may limit his ideas into just one view, which is his own. Because of egotism, he becomes settled with just his original thought and he would think that since his thoughts are more important than others then there is no more need to look at the ideas that come from others.

As you may have noticed, the effects of the bad eating habits as well as the personal problems may just be temporary. Thus, if you stop eating all those junk foods and start eating healthy; and likewise stop being so egocentric, then your brain functioning may just return to its normal performance. Fortunately, these factors affect the brain efficiency temporarily; unlike with alcoholism and smoking wherein the effects really do affect the IQ.

However, despite the effects permanence, the fact still remains that you should take care of your brain. You should keep it healthy all the time by doing things beneficial to your mental health. Whether or not the efficiency of your brain is affected temporarily or permanently, the truth is that it is still harmed for a certain period of time. You should know better, your brain performance should always be at its prime.

Tips to Better Your Brain Performance

It may be true that as you get older, your memory also deteriorates. But this does not mean that if you are younger, your brain is not capable of memory deterioration. Aging is just one cause of memory loss, but there are other factors. Thus, if you want to prevent this, you may want to read these tips to a better your brain performance.

1) More Relaxation Period, Better Thinking

If you want to protect your recent memories, you should stay away from stress. Stress can trigger the release of cortisol, a neuro drug which can interfere with the brains performance, especially with handling recent memories. Furthermore, with chronic stress, the part of the brain which handles recent memories may even shrink. If you want to prevent this from happening, you should learn to relax a little and release the tension from your body. You should never let stress overwhelm you.

2) Refrain From Cigarette Smoking

Cigarettes affect the flow of blood in your veins. Because of this, there may be a chance of reduced blood flow to your brain; and reduced blood flow means reduced oxygen. With lesser oxygen to consume, the brain may not function well as expected, hence the memory may be prejudiced.

3) Stay Away from Brain Toxins

As you may know, illegal drugs may cause harm to your brains functioning. However, you should also know that prescription drugs, if misused, may also have the same toxic effect to your brain. Thus, you should always follow the prescription given to you be your doctor, and never self-medicate. This may affect your brains normal performance. Prolonged use of drugs may cause memory loss.

4) Eat Healthy

Your brain functions according to the nutrients that it receives from the food that you eat. Thus, if you are deprived of certain nutrients, then it may have an adverse effect on the functioning of your brain. You most certainly would not want this to happen. Thus, as prevention, you should eat a healthy and balanced diet so that you will absorb all the vitamins and nutrients that your body needs. Also, you should stay away from junk foods.

5) Exercise Your Brain

Find ways to use and improve your thinking skills. Some mentalists propose techniques which are designed to improve mental skills. We all have the potential to possess a good functioning memory, thus it should be something that we can all improve. All we have to do is to find ways and try techniques that can effectively help us develop our potentials.

Most people believe that by engaging themselves into educational activities, they are improving their mental faculties. This is true, and you can try this even at home. Simple activities like crossword puzzles can exercise your brain. This may help your brain functioning to get better, if not, to prevent it from deteriorating easily.

6) Shield Your Brain

There is no point of improving the brain if you cannot protect it physically. You should always protect your head from injuries because trauma may affect the functioning of your brain. Even simple injuries should be avoided, because repeated minor injuries, if accumulated, may cause damage to your brain. Thus, you should try simple prevention, like putting helmets when bicycling, in order for you to avoid situations that may damage your brain functioning.

If you want to be able to think better, your brains health is the key. Thus, you should keep it as healthy as possible and avoid all those factors which may expose you to mental deterioration.