New Healthcare Devices

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Gadgets are everywhere. Some of us believe that such a big load of electronic gadgets is harmful for human’s health, but it seems disputable. A couple of points in support of gadgets: there are some nice things used by sportsmen and gym-goers. For example, watches that count your heart rate or devices that work with your smartphone and store your vital signs for further consideration and tracking. Some gadgets can measure your movements and activities, your speed, jump height, etc. Not to mention, each person can face a situation when medical aid is needed. It may happen anywhere and anytime, when you are at home or traveling or just walking along the street. You may feel bad, especially if you are not so young or have chronic diseases. A hospital can be far away, but there are some simple medical devices showing your current health status, like a blood pressure monitor. It is worth keeping at hand; probably, it will save your life someday. Commonly, there are plenty of modern gadgets for health and fitness or just for pleasure, like underwater music players.

A wide range of healthcare devices is offered by retailers, including blood pressure monitors, watches with heart rate monitor, bluetooth personal safety alarms and emergency sirens, so you can select the necessary thing which fits you best by its functions or appearance. Anyway, you can learn more about all these devices including those you probably have never heard about…

Natural Remedies For Diabetes – How To Battle Back And Win!

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Diabetes is no doubt a worldwide problem. More and more of the population are experiencing this disease and can actually increase or double for the next decade or so. While aging as one of the risk factors of diabetes cannot be controlled, obesity being another major cause factor of the condition can be reversed as well as prevented. What else? Our never ending love for sweets and sugars are of course a super risk which can be moderated or cut-off.

As previously mentioned, aging as one of the risk factors of diabetes, overweight and high-intake of sugar can be the focus of lowering the risk. Indeed, it can be difficult as you may not be used to it, but it is part of a habit that needs to be moderated and prevented if not ceased. More so, it is better to save yourself early than battling with diabetes for a lifetime.

What could be the problem is our undisciplined diet and lifestyle. Awareness to what you put in your mouth is the basic shield to win the battle of diabetes. Sugars are sometimes hidden in our foods. The term High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is your best enemy at the same time with those processed and artificial sugars. Without a control intake of such can cause a trouble to your triglycerides, cholesterol, digestion, gallbladder, skin and aging process and acid formation.

Fortunately, combining a disciplined lifestyle with balanced diet and exercise is your winsome weapon. Because of this epidemic disease, there is variety of powerful natural minerals, herbs and vitamins which can effectively and safely aid you with a balanced and neutral blood sugar levels. These natural remedies include banana leaf extract, chromium, gymnema sylvestre, biotin and cinnamon. Moreover, if you take those nutrients in your diet is a sure deal to reduce your high blood sugar and control your insulin level, and besides protecting other complications connecting your kidneys and eyes.

Understanding Hormonal imbalance and heavy bleeding

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Menstrual period is a monthly annoyance for women – mood swings, cravings, migraines, and others. From early adolescence to menopausal, women experience a hormone level change which for some have regular periods and irregular to others. But aside from the irregular period, there are also those who encounter heavy flowing or otherwise called as “menorrhagia”.

How can we determine if there is excessive menstrual bleeding and irregular periods or hormonal imbalance?

Normally, menstrual cycle begins from the day 1 up to the day when it comes out the next time. Hence, the average cycle is 28 days although it can be shorter like 21 days or longer like 35 days that can still be considered as normal. In addition, menstruation can last 3 to 5 days while to some lasts 4 to 7 days. However, if your menstruation requires you to change napkins every one hour or shorter than two hours and when it takes you to have a continuous overflow for more than 7 days, you are perhaps have a menorrhagia. Irregular periods on the other hand, affect around 30% of women. Besides, it is determined when your period comes too early than the usual, too late or when you experience bleeding in between periods. Or for others, it is still irregular when periods come twice in every menstrual cycle, heavy bleeding or continuous periods.

Certainly, this kind of women issues are distressing – PMS, heavy bleeding, menopause, hormonal imbalance and irregular periods. But when you are experiencing severe bleeding, it is important to consult a physician and won’t take it for granted. Causes of such conditions differs from one woman to another, these imbalances are oftentimes caused by genetic factors, poor health and diet, long term stress or anxiety, insufficient exercise and the like.

Luckily, there are natural remedies on how to balance the hormones and avoid the symptoms of heavy menstruation, irregular periods and hormonal imbalance. Enough bed rest is advisable as well as maximize iron intake. Indeed, we consider some exercise like yoga and check our diet. During menstrual periods, normally we experience hormonal changes and we can actually prevent the imbalance.

A Silent Killer: The Danger of High Cholesterol

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High cholesterol level is an enormous factor of heart disease. Having a high level of cholesterol can increase one’s risk of developing a heart disease, strokes or heart attacks, which are known to be the top causes of death in the world. For some, they are unaware of the symptoms whereas the others don’t find it as threatening and take it for granted. Most often, people ignore that they have high level of the bad type cholesterol and it is not a good thing.
Indeed, a person won’t be really aware that his cholesterol level is high not until he had a stroke or heart attack because symptoms do not manifests. Thus, one could only determine that his cholesterol level is high when he takes a blood test. Even when symptoms are not apparent, bad type cholesterol is a condition which one has to take seriously as it is very dangerous and deadly.

We always hear the word cholesterol, but do we actually know it and how it can be risky to our health? In every cell in our body, there are fatty substances that are present which is called cholesterol. While only a small amount of fatty substances in the body comes from the food we eat, most of the cholesterol is made up from saturated fats in the liver. It may be true that fats can be a cause of high cholesterol, but the body needs some fats because it is a source of vitamins and energy. Normally, an ideal cholesterol level is 200 mg/dl and below, thus, anything above 240 mg/dl is considered high.

So, what type of fats in our foods should we avoid?

Saturated fats come from dairy foods, meat and butter, once you want to reduce the level of cholesterol in the liver, eat less saturated fat. On one hand, unsaturated fats is the type of fats that is good for the body such as green leafy vegetables, fish oil, olive oil, salmon, mackerel, tuna, and others. Trans fats is another type which is harmful because they are solid fats and may result to increase bad cholesterol present in pastries, cakes, cookies, etcetera.

Having high cholesterol is obviously a critical condition. It is best to check your cholesterol levels regularly as possible and save yourself from developing a heart disease.

Alzheimer Disease Might be Detected With Blood Testing

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A new study has determined that it might be possible to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in a person through a blood test. Scientists have been running their tests based on the DHEA hormone which seems to decrease in the people that have developed the disease.

Through a process that is known as oxidation the scientists were able to encourage the body of those without Alzheimer to produce more DHEA hormones however this was not possible with the patients that did have the disease.

This led the scientists to prove that there was indeed a correlation between the inability of the Alzheimer patients to produce more of the hormone and their cognitive impairment. This was followed by their statement that they have no doubt that by running blood tests on a patient they can diagnose if the disease is present.

Doctors have mentioned that this is a great step in the diagnosis of the disease in its early stages because currently they are only able to give a definite diagnosis on a deceased person by examining their brain tissue. The advancement in this study is the fact that if Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosable through a blood test then other mental conditions will be ruled out when examining a patient.

Researchers also determined that once the disease has been diagnosed – especially in its early stages – they can start therapy and treatment for it. At the same time they can continue to study the evolution of the disease once it’s being treated.

There are over 26 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s all over the world and this number is expected to grow to 106 million in the next 40 years.

Researchers are confident that the blood testing is only the beginning of more to be discovered about the disease.

A must know about von Willebrand Disease

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While most people know of the congenital bleeding Hemophilia disorder, a little of the population are not aware of another type of blood clotting disorder called von Willebrand Disease (VWD). It is a disease which an individual should be conscious and concerned about as hemophilia disease may affect one person out of 10,000 whereas VWD can seriously afflict one individual or more from 100 persons of mixed genders. Such disease is oftentimes caused by severe nose bleeding, easy bruising, gum bleeding, and for female’s overflowing menstruation.

Certainly most people are not aware that they have the disease because it is usually unrecognized or sometimes they ignore it and consider it as normal especially when a parent or a part of their immediate family likewise suffering from the same kind of bleeding. However, a continuous disregard in diagnosis of VWD causing an excessive menstrual period can lead to procedures and tests that are intensively not necessary as those procedures may not be the treatment or solution to the problem.
In this kind of disease, a person having it may either have a low levels of protein in his blood or may have sufficient proteins in the body yet it does not works properly as it expected to be. The protein is what we refer it as von Willebrand factor which certainly assists the clotting of the blood.

Von Willebrand disease is hereditary like hemophilia. Generally, if one of the vessels of our blood are wounded or injured, there is bleeding. Hence platelets or small blood cell fragments clumps jointly to block the hole in the blood vessel in order to cease the bleeding. And so, von Willebrand factor then would serve as a glue so that the platelets would not clump instead it stick to form a clotting of the blood.

VMD has 3 types from mild to serious. Therefore, it is important that when excessive bleeding exists, immediate or early diagnosis and treatment can save you.

High Blood Pressure and Pregnancy: Healthy mom, healthy baby

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It is very difficult when you are carrying a baby in your womb at the same time when your blood pressure is also high. Not only will the mother worry with this kind of condition, hence regardless of when the high blood pressure developed either prior or after the pregnancy – it should not be ignored of.
Definitely, high blood pressure poses several risk factors during pregnancy. These include:

– Reduced flowing of the blood to the placenta, which leads to the reduction of oxygen supply in the baby, thus resulting to the abnormal or irregular growth development of the baby as well as a high risk in low birth weight.

– Abruption of the placenta. This condition means that the lining of the placenta has already separated from the mother’s uterus. Hence, such condition is threatening as it deprives the unborn of nutrients and oxygen as well as causing the mother to bleed heavily.

– Delivery can be premature. It is even better to have an early delivery than a feasible threat to the life of the unborn and the mother as well as with potential complications.

– Eventual cardiovascular disease. After the 20 weeks of pregnancy, a serious condition referred as preeclampsia which is characterized by protein in the urine and high blood pressure, can increase risk factor of cardiovascular disease even though the blood pressure can return to normal after giving birth.

Usually, high blood pressure occurs even prior to pregnancy, while in some instances it is present during the pregnancy which may be chronic and gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. Those are the three types of hypertension which can occur during pregnancy.

It is certainly very important to take special and extraordinary precaution with respect to hypertension to pregnant women as it can danger both herself and the unborn baby. That is why treatment and medication is paramount. However, some medications are not safe for the mother during pregnancy. Though some medications can be safe and others should be avoided like rennin inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and ACE inhibitors.

Anemia and Eating Disorders

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A new research has found that there might be an association between poor eating and the presence of anemia in elder women. Anemia is the condition where there aren’t enough red blood cells or in some other cases, where the amount of aggregation of hemoglobin is under the normal levels. It is of high importance to get anemia treated once it appears because if it’s not then it might induce the lack of oxygen

The leading researchers stated that not consuming enough nutrients is critical to the prevention of anemia and if a person has poor eating habits then the risks of developing the condition are a lot higher. Part of the study showed that when it came to elder women who took vitamins there was still risk of anemia if they didn’t watch their eating habits. Physicians encourage elder people to watch their health closely since there were higher chances of death if they developed anemia.

The scientists examined the figures and data obtained from the study that comprised 72,833 elder women. It was discovered that if an elder woman doesn’t consume one nutrient than the chances of developing anemia rise to 21 percent and in some cases it might be higher than that. If they were not consuming up to three different nutrients, then the risk could climb up to 41 percent.

They also determined that the nutrients that were mostly overlooked by the group were vitamin C, red meat, energy, vitamin B12, and proteins. The analysis obtained was based on 9 years of information.

The scientists that ran the research stated that more testing is needed in order to be more certain of the measures that ought to be taken in order to improve the eating habits in women. An important fact that should not be overlooked is the fact that elder women go through menopause and therefore a closer look should be taken.

Chemicals From Ski Wax Hazardous to Blood

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A novel investigation performed by the Osaka University in Japan discovered that middle aged men and women can actually lower their levels of blood pressure when they listen to music and have a few laughs.

The investigation was performed with a group of almost 80 people whose ages ranged from 40 to 74. There was also another group that was labeled as the control group which didn’t listen to music.

In order to keep track of the changes in the blood pressure, researchers made sure to take the blood pressure before the session would start. They also encouraged the subjects to start singing so they would get in the happy mood of music. Once they went home they were persuaded to keep on listening to more music.

A yoga technique was implemented in the study which is considered to be the yoga of laughter; it was supported with other relaxing techniques that also helped the subjects breathe easier.

The duration of the study was three months which gave the researchers plenty of time to start analyzing and comparing the results that they were obtaining. They were able to see that the blood pressure levels had successfully decreased in the subjects that were part of the laughter group. These results were compared to those obtained from the control group – which didn’t listen to music – which presented no change in their blood pressure levels.

Although the results of this study brings joy the researchers have stated that further testing is needed in order to prove that the results will last for the long term. They added that even though this is preliminary, all people starting from the age of 40 should make it a point to start listening to music more often because at the end it will do more good and no harm.

Chemicals From Ski Wax Hazardous to Blood

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A new research has found evidence that the wax used in the manufacturing of ski equipment can be hazardous to its users; they might be exposed to perfluorochemicals which then gets accumulated in the body. These chemicals commonly known as PCFs can affect the health of a person by endangering them to suffer from liver diseases and cancer just to name a few.

The wax is coveted especially by those skiers that race since it helps them go faster yet they are not aware that the wax can be jeopardizing their good health. During racing season, skiers might be constantly using the wax every week.

The studies showed that actual technicians that worked with wax for the World Cup teams presented elevated perfluorochemicals levels in their blood. In addition it is suspected that these same technicians are going through what is known as biotransformation; this means that perhaps their bodies are generating other chemicals such as PFOA and PFNA.

Researchers have stated that they were already aware of biotransformation in animals but now this study suggests that it can happen in the human body as well.

When the manufacturers of skis are applying the wax they usually iron the area and then scrape it; this process creates dust and fumes. All of these particles are breathed in by the manufacturers which work about 30 hours every week.

An interesting fact is that the companies that make the waxes tend to keep the formulas private due to the fear of somebody else stealing them. In some areas the manufacturers have access to a ventilated area of work but it is said that most manufacturers around the world have to work in closed spaces making matters worse for them.

Another concern regarding the wax is that it is left lying around in the snow where the skiers race and the impact that it might have on the environment is yet to be studied.