Alzheimer's Disease - How to Improve Your Chances of Fighting It
With the rise of degenerative diseases, increasing numbers of people are concerned with getting Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Yet there is reason to believe that we don’t have to succumb to any of these degenerative diseases.
There are steps everyone can take to diminish the chance of losing their memory and improving mental health. These steps are fairly simple, but very strict. No more eating whatever we want, whenever we want. But if it results in better mental health for the rest of our lives, it is worth it.
Free Radicals Attacking Our Health
Our entire body depends on the strength of our cells to maintain good health. Free radicals attack the healthy cells, chipping away at our cells until our defenses are lowered to the point that we are susceptible to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s, many cancers, heart disease, diabetes, arthriti strokes and more.
Normally antioxidants would fight the free radicals and keep our cells healthy. Unfortunately, with our poor diets, nutrient deficient vegetables and fruits, increased stress and pollution, our bodies no longer produce the antioxidants necessary to fight the free radicals.
We Need More Antioxidants
How can we increase the antioxidants to keep our cells healthy and allow our bodies to fight disease? The first is to make sure we are getting the vitamins and minerals we need to produce the antioxidants.
Secondly, we need to remove as many of the things from our surroundings and our diets that delete antioxidants from our system. This includes fluoride, mercury, and things like herbicides and pesticides. Pollution is another factor, but if you live in an area with a lot of air pollution, moving might not be an alternative.
Enemies to Our Health
Items that have mercury include silver fillings, vaccinations, cookware, flu shots, aluminum, and public drinking water. When certain of these are combined, the effect is even more devastating for your brain.
Fluoride combined with aluminum causes dramatic destruction of brain cells. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) increases aluminum absorption. Unfortunately, MSG is added to most processed foods and is often not found on the label.
Here is another bad combination: Tea and lemon. Citric acid increases the absorption of aluminum into your system. Tea contains very high levels of aluminum. Since citrus fruits are high in citric acid, adding lemon to your tea actually increases the amount of aluminum absorbed into your body
Processed Foods – No Good
If you want to decrease your chances of getting Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases, decrease the amount of processed foods you eat and increase the amount of whole, natural foods.
What’s the matter with processed foods? They contain large amounts of excitotoxins which increases free radical production. And the more free radicals you have in your system, the more your cells can be damaged and the larger the chances are you will open your system up to disease. Processed foods are definitely not good.
Sugar – Increasing Our Chance of Disease
It is also important to decrease the amount of sugar you consume, or cut it out of your diet completely.
What does sugar do? It dramatically increases your metabolism, and high metabolism is the major source of free radicals. It also works with certain proteins to fight the enzymes that repair DNA damage caused by free radicals. Sugar is definitely not good.
Fasting – Great for Fighting Disease
People who eat a high calorie diet each day have a greater chance of getting Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Fasting one day a week can do wonders for protecting your brain, but if you have any health problem check with your doctor before beginning any fast.
Conclusion
What does your body need to fight disease? You need a nutritious, low calorie diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables (more vegetables than fruits), omega-3 supplements, low amounts of carbohydrates (one slice of whole wheat bread a day), no sugar (or in small amounts), steer clear of fluoride, mercury, and aluminum, and try to fast one day a week.
Carol Stack has written numerous articles about health related subjects. She lives with her husband, three children, and various cats and dogs in the United States. Carol and her sister Barbara have started a site that focuses on improving your health and offers healthy recipes that are simple and easy to prepare. Visit the site at http://www.healthyrecipesandmore.com
Cleanse The Body, Rejuvenate The Mind - Detox Naturally
Are toxins poisons? Maybe not, but they are poisonous - let me explain.
Most of us live surrounded by a huge number of pollutants, just consider air pollution in today's big cities and towns. I remember sailing a yacht just off the coast and looking back at a city of 250,000 inhabitants and was struck by the brown layer in the atmosphere that lay over the town. You would not have recognised this layer had you been walking through the streets of the town but there it was nevertheless.
The pollutants are minute, almost invisible microbes able to penetrate our bodies through the pores of our skin and are sucked into our lungs as we breathe. If germs can enter your body through very small openings, how much more the exposure where viruses can easily enter?
So what happens when the body is overloaded with pollutants? Well, it’s not as simple as just getting sick. Symptoms and effects will vary depending upon the pollutants and the extent to the exposure. For example, mind processing can be significantly affected. Pollutants block or slow down the delivery of needed nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body. And since the brain is the major consumer of oxygen, it is easily affected. Have you noticed that after doing a hard-hitting mental work, you feel very exhausted even when you were just seated for hours? It is because the brain can sometimes override the whole body. So when there are lots of toxins in you, your mind becomes sluggish too.
And most of the time, it’s tough to protect ourselves from viruses and illness because our bodies are already having to battle pollutants before beginning to tackle illness. It is possible that people living and working in cities are more susceptible to disease because of this fact. So, we need to take care of our body and help it function better. We need to detoxify. Detoxification helps the rejuvenation of the mind as much as it cleanses the body.
The safest way to detoxify is having it the natural way - through proper diet. In this process of cleansing, you reduce your intake of junk foods. This means that you must avoid products that obstruct your filtering system. These products are fats, alcohol, caffeine, and food additives. While you stay away from these foods, you replace them with easy to digest fruits and vegetables. They are not only rich in vitamins, but they supplement the body with energy boosting nutrients. Surely, they are clean, given that they are prepared freshly and cleanly. The fibers in fruits and vegetables toss the toxins out.
It would be easy to lose a sense of balance over which foods to avoid in order to reduce levels of toxin in the body. For example, you could consider the toxins that foods attract when they grow and before you know it your own sense of paranoia about toxins and the need to rid your body of them becomes unbalanced. Don't avoid an occasional intake of junk food or alcohol for example, just be aware of the need to balance that intake with fruit and vegetables or other de-toxifiers.
In detoxification, fasting for a short period of time will catalyze the process. Of course this should be done under the supervision of your nutritionist or doctor. During the process, solid foods are avoided. Your intake is solely made of fruit juice and herbal teas. Research shows that fasting decreases the stress on the digestive system. By emptying the stomach, toxins are also flushed out of the body. And the liquids that you take ensure important levels of hydration which essential at all times. And remember such action should not be taken unless under the supervision of your doctor or medical practitioner.
In addition to fruit juices, some supplements are recommended for safety. To name a few are the fermented soybeans and algae powder. Fermented soy beans support the colon function and help produce the good intestinal bacteria which are major proponents of the inner cleansing process. In parallel, the algae powder gives you the feeling of being full. It supplies ample protein to ease the fatigue that some people experience during fasting.
On the whole, detoxification helps to redress the balance in our bodies particularly when we have been bombarded by toxins in our busy daily lives. Undertake detoxification in moderation under the supervision of your doctor or medical auctioneer and you will reap the benefits of a healthier body less prone to illness and disease.
Jem Meades at ultimatedailyhealth.com discusses a wide range of common health issues every week. Understanding your health will increase your confidence and ability to tackle any health issues you or your family experience.
Plan your way to healthy weight loss success
Science tells us that if you are obese you are at a complete risk for multiple
health diseases. So, if there is any time to lose weight it is now. If you want
to live as long as you can, you need to lose weight. You need to start to set goals
first.
But what should be your long-term goal? And what short-term goals should you set
to help you get there? You have a better chance of attaining your goals if you make
sure that the weight loss plans that you will use are sensible and reasonable right
at the beginning.
Here are some guidelines from the experts in choosing weight loss plans and goals.
1. Be realistic
Most people’s long-term weight loss plans are more ambitious than they have to be.
For example, if you weigh 185 pounds and your long-term plan is to weigh 120, even
if you have not weighed 120 since you were 16 and now you are 45, that is not a realistic
weight loss goal.
Your body mass index or BMI is a good indicator of whether or not you need to shed of
pounds. The ideal BMI range, according to the national Institutes of Health, is between
19 and 24.9. If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9, you are considered overweight. Any number
above 30 is in the obesity range.
From this point of view, you will need a sensible weight loss plan that will correspond
to the required BMI based on your height, because this is the primary factor that will
affect your BMI.
2. Set appropriate objectives
Using a weight loss plan just for vanity’s sake is psychologically less helpful than
losing weight to improve health.
You have made a big step forward if you decide to undergo a weight loss plan that includes
exercise and eating right so that you will feel better and have more energy to do something
positive in your life.
3. Focus on doing, not losing
Rather than saying that you are going to lose a pound this week, say how much you are going
to exercise this week. This would definitely make up of a sensible weight loss plan.
Keep in mind that your weight within a span of a week is not completely in your control, but
your behavior is.
4. Build bit by bit
Short-term weight loss plans should not be “pie-in-the-sky.” This means that when you have
never exercised at all, your best weight loss plan for this week should be based on finding
three different one-mile routes that you can walk next week.
5. Keep up the self-encouragement
An all-or-nothing attitude only sets you up to fail. Learn to evaluate your efforts fairly
and objectively. If you fall short of some goals, just look ahead to next week. You do not
need to have a perfect record.
After all, self-encouragement should definitely be a part of your weight loss plans. Otherwise,
you will just fail in the end.
6. Use measurable measures
Saying that you are going to be more positive this week or that you are going to really get
serious this week is not a goal that you can measure and should not be a part of your weight
loss plan.
This is another reason why you should incorporate exercise on your weight loss plan and focus
on it. You should be able to count up the minutes of exercise in order to be successful in your plan.
You need to set goals if you are going to lose weight. If you are overweight you need to lose
weight because of the effects it has on your health. So sit down and write your goals down, so
by the end of the year you are more healthy and at the weight that you want.