Putting Ice on Injuries Could Slow Healing

I'm sure you've heard that it's important to put ice on an injury, but new research shows that it might be counterproductive.

Slapping a packet of frozen peas on a black eye or a sprained ankle may prevent it getting better, new research suggests.

For years, people have been told to freeze torn, bruised or sprained muscles to reduce the swelling.

But now for the first time, researchers have found that it could slow down the healing as it prevents the release of a key repair hormone.

This discovery turns the conventional wisdom that swelling must be controlled in order to encourage healing and prevent pain. Read more

Double Chin Exercises

As we get older, a double chin may start to appear, due to genetics, or fat and fluid buildups in fatty cells. Fortunately, there are several ways to lose a double chin

Foods that are high in calories add to the fat that is stored in the chin, worsening the problem. Therefore, eating a diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, whole grain and other foods that are low in fat can help weight loss on the chin area, as well as the other parts of the body.

The most highly recommended method of getting rid of a double chin is by engaging in certain double chin exercises. Exercises like walking, swimming, jogging, cycling and running can help a person lose weight all over the body, including the chin. However, like other spot reduction exercises aimed at reducing the fat mainly on one particular part of the body, double chin exercises are a great way to burning off the fat in the chin area at a faster pace. The most effective double chin exercises focus on the platysma and mentalis muscles and at the same time, they help firm up the throat, jowl area and the neck. Given below are some simple double chin exercises, which you should practice every single day, preferably twice a day: Read more

Natural Remedies for Stretch Marks

If you have recently given birth or lost a lot of weight, you may have stretch marks. Isabelle Simon gives some natural remedies to get rid of them.

Coconut Oil:A Powerful Virus-Destroyer and Antibiotic

Coconut oil is good for your heart and fights viruses and bacteria, too, says Dr. Joseph Mercola.

You've no doubt noticed that for about the last 60 years the majority of health care officials and the media have been telling you saturated fats are bad for your health and lead to a host of negative consequences, like elevated cholesterol, obesity, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Meanwhile during this same 60 years the American levels of heart disease, obesity, elevated serum cholesterol and Alzheimer's have skyrocketed compared to our ancestors, and even compared to modern-day primitive societies using saturated fat as a dietary staple.

Did you know that multiple studies on Pacific Island populations who get 30–60% of their total caloric intact from fully saturated coconut oil have all shown nearly non-existent rates of cardiovascular disease?[1]

Clearly, a lot of confusion and contradictory evidence exists on the subject of saturated fats, even among health care professionals.

But I'm going to tell you something that public health officials and the media aren't telling you. Read more

Leg Cramps: Home Remedies and Treatments

Learn home remedies to treat nighttime leg cramps from pharmacologist Joe Graedon of the popular public radio show The People's Pharmacy.

Are Humans Designed to Live on Grains and Refined Sugar?

Are humans designed to live on grains and refined sugar? No, they make us fatter and sicker, says Mark Sisson.

BITE ME, ADA
We all know by now that type 2 diabetes is an epidemic. We’re seeing words like crisis and runaway all over the news and in the journals. Heart disease rates have been cut in half since the staggering margarine days of the 1980s, but diabetes has swiftly risen to fill that gaping void and meet the challenge of Completely Unnecessary Disease Epidemic.

Here’s my ultra-simple explanation of the entire insulin/blood sugar/type 2 diabetes mess. Big Agra could really care less about you. That’s just business. The pharmaceutical industry is not in it for the love of life. If that were the case, drugs would be much cheaper. The FDA has to think about public health, but it also has to think about treading carefully on the toes of corporate interests, because that’s how it works when you’re the biggest economy in the world.

Print this explanation out, stick it on your fridge, email it to your aunt. And put down the pasta. Read more

Do You Have Symptoms of Vitamin C Deficiency?

An adequate amount of vitamin C can even help with cardiovascular heart disease, says Margaret Durst.

Vitamin C deficiency is thought to be part of the underlying cause of cardiovascular disease. Humans do not have the ability to make vitamin C; they must get it though their diet. Vitamin C is essential to the formation of collagen which is the glue for specialized tissues that hold us together, such as skin, cartilage, tendon, and bone. Vitamin C is also responsible for maintaining strength in the blood vessels. Scurvy is the condition that results when we are deficient in vitamin C. Symptoms of scurvy include poor wound healing, bleeding gums, edema, extreme weakness and “pinpoint” hemorrhages under the skin.

One of the interesting theories on atherosclerosis is that we may have developed the ability to deposit lipoproteins (plaque) along our artery walls to increase our chances of surviving during vitamin C deficient times. In other words, arterial plaque may be what kept us from bleeding to death during long winters when we had less access to foods rich in vitamin C.

Fibrinogen and apoprotein are the two groups of proteins that normally accumulate at injury sites in the arteries to carry out repairs to damaged artery walls. The apoproteins have a natural affinity with fat and become lipoprotein A which can repair damaged or leaky blood vessels. However, this also increases the risk of heart disease by building up deposits on the artery wall. In fact, of all the factors that can be measured, a person’s level of lipoprotein A is the best indicator of risk of arterial plaque. Read more

Can Coconut Oil Reverse Alzheimer's Disease?

A doctor discovered that the ingredient in the drug trial which was showing so much promise was simply MCT oil derived from coconut oil, so he put his patient on coconut oil twice a day with astonishing results.

Dr. Newport learned that the ingredient in the drug trial which was showing so much promise was simply MCT oil derived from coconut oil or palm kernel oil, and that a dose of 20 grams (about 20 ml or 4 teaspoons) was used to produce these results. When MCT oil is metabolized, the ketones which the body creates may, according to the latest research, not only protect against the incidence of Alzheimer’s, but may actually reverse it. Moreover, this is also a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), drug-resistant epilepsy, brittle type I diabetes, and type II (insulin-resistant) diabetes. Read more

Is Semen a Natural Antidepressant for Women?

Scientific American reports that scientists have discovered that human semen acts as a natural antidepressant for women. It's loaded with mood-enhancing chemicals, and "the vagina is an ideal route for drug delivery."

... let’s have a quick look at some of the key ingredients of human semen. In fact, semen has a very complicated chemical profile, containing over 50 different compounds (including hormones, neurotransmitters, endorphins and immunosupressants) each with a special function and occurring in different concentrations within the seminal plasma. Perhaps the most striking of these compounds is the bundle of mood-enhancing chemicals in semen. There is good in this goo. Such anxiolytic chemicals include, but are by no means limited to, cortisol (known to increase affection), estrone (which elevates mood), prolactin (a natural antidepressant), oxytocin (also elevates mood), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (another antidepressant), melatonin (a sleep-inducing agent) and even serotonin (perhaps the most well-known antidepressant neurotransmitter). Read more

Calcium and Vitamin Supplements Reduce Breast cancer Risk

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One thing that women should be aware of is that taking vitamin and calcium supplements may reduce their risk of breast cancer by as much as 40 percent.

Taking vitamin and calcium supplements may reduce women's risk of breast cancer by as much as 40 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"It is not an immediate effect. You don't take a vitamin today and your breast cancer risk is reduced tomorrow," researcher Jaime Matta said. "However, we did see a long-term effect in terms of breast cancer reduction." Read more

How to Make an All-Natural Liver Cleanse

A nutrition consultant and clinical herbalist explains how to create an all-natural liver cleanse tea that benefits the entire digestive tract.