Disease Prevention Tips

If you’re constantly plagued by colds, coughs, the flu, and other nasty illnesses then life can be very difficult. You might miss work, lose motivation, or even miss out on important life events. Sometimes the exposure to illness is simply because you’re in close quarters with people, because you’re around children, or because you work in a high-risk environment such as a hospital or clinic. Fortunately, there are very simple ways to prevent illnesses and reduce your risk of getting and transmitting any viruses or bacteria.

Wash Your Hands

This standard is by far the easiest, best, and most well-known of the disease prevention tips. That being said it’s also the one that should be repeated the most. Many viruses and bacteria can live for several hours on any surface so just because you’ve left the area does not mean that your hands are clean. You can still contaminate yourself and others with the germs that cause the common cold, the flu, or even nastier bugs like salmonella for hours or, in some cases, days after contact.

Supplements

Taking certain nutritional supplements such as Vitamin C supplements, allicingarlic supplements, zinc lozenges, or others can help to reduce the chance of getting many common diseases or reduce the symptoms after onset. These supplements generally contain concentrated doses of a vitamin or mineral that is necessary for people, but that we may not get in high doses, or may contain elements that increase the activity of the immune system.

Cleaning Your Environment

As was stated before, germs can live on surfaces for a long time. Washing your hands is only half of the battle. In your office space make sure you’re cleaning off your desk, telephone, and keyboard before every use because, even if someone wasn’t using your items, your items may have come into contact in some way with germs from your environment whether from being touched or even someone nearby sneezing.

Sleep

Making sure that you’re getting seven hours of sleep per night can reduce your risk of getting, or keeping, diseases significantly. Sleep is not only the body’s way of resting your muscles and your mind, but it gives your body the time it needs to concentrate on fending off diseases adjusting your immune system, and cleaning various forms of waste out of your body that you normally can’t evacuate.

Exercise

Moderate, but not extreme, exercise can help you fend off sicknesses and even reduce the symptoms of any mild illnesses you may have. Although it’s not entirely certain how maintaining a good exercise regimen helps with immunity, there are several ideas about how it might. Ultimately, whether exercise clears the lungs of bacteria, allows white blood cells to move through the body quickly, or simply allows the body to rise in temperature, it’s known that exercise has proven effective.

To recap, making sure that you’re washing your hands, enhancing your daily nutrition with supplements (odorlessgarlic supplements, Echinacea, and others), cleaning your environment, getting plenty of sleep, and exercising regularly will help you fend off disease and reduce symptoms of diseases.

Keeping Your Asthma Under Control

Asthma can be a difficult, painful, and frightening condition to live with. For many people it causes them to miss out on things that they would normally want to do for fear of complications. While it is important to follow your doctor’s orders in regards to your activities and treatment there are other at home methods of controlling your asthma that you and your doctor may want to explore if you feel that your asthma is getting worse or if it is interfering with your day-to-day life.

Avoid Irritants

Limiting your exposure to various allergens such as pollens, air pollution, and pet dander will reduce the likelihood of any asthma attacks by allowing your airways not to feel like they’re under constant bombardment from pollutants. Also, avoid smoking at all costs. Obviously, smoking is bad for you but chronic smoking will cause your asthma to become significantly worse over time.

Supplements

Some supplements, including certain Allicinplus c garlic supplements may, in fact, reduce some symptoms of asthma. In addition to theses odorlessgarlic supplements there may be some benefits to ingesting beta-carotene, fish oil, and thymus extract in order to control symptoms caused by or exacerbated by asthma.

Get Physical Activity

If it’s difficult for you to get aerobic exercise because of your asthma then speak to your doctor about what might be able to help or what exercises are recommended for you. If you are able to get aerobic exercise or do certain exercises, it may reduce not only cardiovascular disease, but also help you avoid problems with your asthma in the future.

Keep an Asthma Journal

Knowing and seeing patterns regarding when and how your asthma is triggered is extremely important to you and your doctor. Without keeping a journal, you may believe that one of your biggest asthma triggers is something that isn’t present during the majority of your asthma attacks and you may be treated for something unrelated to your actual asthma triggers.

Keep Stress in Check

Many people suffer from other health conditions in addition to asthma, like anxiety or panic. Sometimes, even people without these conditions may become extremely panicked if they are confronted with an asthma attack, and understandably so! But panic frequently causes the body to hyperventilate, which makes it more difficult to breathe, thereby increasing the power of the asthma attack. Having someone talk you through your attack and learning proper breathing exercises can frequently help with controlling asthma attacks and reducing their severity until you can control it with an inhaler, if necessary.

Another way to manage breathing and control asthma attacks is to exploit what is known as the mammalian diving reflex. This reflex is exactly what it sounds like, a reflex caused by diving to help mammals stay under water longer. The best way to activate this reflex in a panic situation is to splash extremely cold water on your face. If you’re hyperventilating, it is advisable not to submerge your face, for obvious reasons. But splashing cold water on your face, just like when a shower suddenly becomes cold, causes a sharp, deep inhale that may alleviate difficult breathing.

As always, keep a close eye on your asthma and work closely with your doctor to adjust your diet, activity, and environmental needs to keep your asthma well controlled.

Minerals Your Body Needs

People say a lot about “vitamins and minerals” but tend to forget to talk about the minerals that a healthy body needs or why people need them. When we talk about “minerals,” we are in fact, talking about true to life minerals. The iron in your body is the same iron in stainless steel; copper in your body is the same as the copper in your pennies. Your body needs small amounts of these minerals to function properly and at optimal levels.

Selenium

Selenium is a mineral found in sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, wheat germ, and any plants or animals that thrive in an environment with a selenium-rich soil. It is an important antioxidant that is necessary to protect your cells from damage and have a healthy heart. This food is only necessary in very, very small doses and generally does not require a supplement to regularly get the recommended amount of selenium in your diet.

Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that is found in abundance in some seafood (like oysters) as well as a variety of beans. It is necessary for three of your five senses to work properly, but is especially abundant in the eyes. It also has properties that, some research has shown, may make it beneficial in the treatment of the symptoms of Parkinson’s, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, and even the common cold.

Iron

Iron is a mineral found largely in protein-dense foods such as red meats, egg yolks, and mollusks. Much of your body’s iron is used as hemoglobin in the blood. This makes sure that your body is utilizing energy effectively and able to restore and repair itself. It also helps in the development of a large amount of the enzymes in the human body, many of which are related to digestion and other metabolic pathways. If you’re eating iron rich foods, it’s best to also eat a large amount of Vitamin C so that the iron can be absorbed well.

Copper

Copper is a mineral found in abundance in mollusks and shelled seafood and a large variety of seeds. A large amount of copper’s job in the body is maintaining and restoring muscle tissue. Because it is largely responsible for the muscle tissue in the body it is also a big factor in keeping your heart healthy, whereby a deficiency can be a major factor in several types of heart disease.

Allicin

Although allicin itself is not a mineral, it is made with a unique mineral: sulfur. This organosulfur compound is found mostly in garlic. Although allicin is not generally necessary for the body’s growth and maintenance, allicingarlic supplements can go a long way in helping your body lose weight, fight off viruses, and kill harmful microbes. Taking an odorlessgarlic supplement can help your body stave off excess free radicals as well, preventing cell damage, and death.

Now you’ll know, when anyone says to “eat your vitamins and minerals,” exactly what minerals they’re talking about.

Three Diet Changes That Can Reduce High Blood Pressure

Although tempting and delicious, fried, salty foods followed up with sugary drinks and desserts can be difficult on more than your waistline. They can quickly wreak havoc on your cardiovascular system by pushing your blood pressure through the roof. The amazing thing about the human body is its resiliency and ability to bounce back. Some of the easiest ways to reduce your blood pressure are simple and quick dietary changes.

Magnesium

Magnesium is one of the most important minerals in the body and necessary for certain functions that every single plant or animal undertakes. Not only does it help with photosynthesis and the development of chlorophyll in plants, it bonds to the ATP of various cells in animal life, providing the necessary energy for even the most basic biological activities. Increasing the amount of magnesium can increase your energy level, increase the ability for your body to distribute oxygen to cells, and even lower blood pressure.

Some magnesium-rich foods include:

Spinach

Kidney beans

Brown rice

Lentils

Allicin

Allicin, a chemical commonly found in garlic, has been found to have antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties in humans. This is primarily because it is the same way that garlic itself wards off unwanted bugs and diseases. Unfortunately, it is also one of the reasons that garlic makes breath smell terrible. Although there have been synthesized or extracted versions of allicin for quite some time it is only recently that an odorlessgarlic supplement has been widely available. Now this amazing nutrient can reduce hardening of the arteries, lower blood pressure, and be an all-around great help to your cardiovascular health without the drawback of bad breath!

Ways to get a healthy dose of allicin:

Garlic

Allicingarlic supplements

Potassium

Potassium is one of the easiest and most delicious minerals to get your recommended daily value of. Potassium, along with the right amount of sodium, allows many of your cells to send signals to one another allowing for proper muscle contraction. It’s no coincidence that a lack of potassium can cause severe cardiovascular problems, as the heart is one of the most active muscles in the body. In addition to reducing your blood pressure, eating potassium can reduce the chances of stroke and kidney stones.

Get your daily potassium in:

Bananas

Apricots

Salmon

Avocados

Along with proper exercise and good sleep habits, a great diet can help to reduce blood pressure and make you feel better overall. The best thing is that, because of the delicious foods listed above, it doesn’t have to taste bland doing it!