Breastfeeding has long been championed by doctors and other health professionals for many reasons, the main reason being that the baby needs the nutrients from the mother’s milk. A recent study has shown that more than benefiting the baby, breastfeeding can actually bring about some good things for the mother as well.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have conducted a study which yielded the following data:
-Breastfeeding can lower the risk of heart attack and other related diseases
-Breastfeeding can lower the risk of stroke.
These benefits might be had if a mother breastfeeds for a year. More than these two major illnesses, however, breastfeeding can also have a positive effect regarding other conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol levels, and high blood pressure. As you may have surmised by now, these conditions are closely related to heart attacks ...
So maybe you’re allergic to shellfish and you can’t eat crab and oysters to help build stronger bones. What else can you eat on a regular basis to avoid bone problems when you advance in years? Here are some more alternatives.
Bok choy
This crunchy green leafy vegetable is very rich in calcium, the main nutrient that helps in bone health. More than that, though, bok choy also contains vitamins and iron, making it a very healthy treat for you. There are many ways to prepare bok choy – your imagination’s the limit!
Bananas
I love this fruit. It is very versatile. You can it eat as it is – just peel and pop into your mouth. You can make desserts. You can make smoothies. ...
To drink or not to drink? That is the question.
I must admit all these new studies about the benefits and negative effects of each and every food and drink I like makes my head spin. They said alcohol is good for your heart but now new findings state that it actually leads to increased risk for cancer. So what should one do? I guess it depends on whether you’re more afraid of a heart attack or getting cancer!
Seriously though, even moderate amounts of alcohol leads to increased cancer risk. According to Oxford University researchers women that drank more than 2 alcoholic beverages a week increases their risk by 2% while those that had 7 to 14 drinks a week increased their cancer ...
So I can have my steak and eat it too! There is still one last food myth that I really want to share with you, though. I don’t know about you, but I like a lot of salt in my food. I have heard so many times that salt is bad for your blood pressure.
True or false?
Myth No. 5: Salt causes high blood pressure and should be avoided
The origin: In the 1940s, a Duke University researcher named Walter Kempner, M.D., became famous for using salt restriction to treat people with high blood pressure. Later, studies confirmed that reducing salt could help reduce hypertension.
What science really shows: Large-scale scientific reviews have determined there's no reason for people with normal blood pressure to restrict their sodium intake. Now, if you already have high blood pressure, ...
My uncle recently had angioplasty done. For those who are not really sure about what this procedure is, it is where the surgeons unclog the arteries through non-surgical methods. I am not exactly sure as to the specifics of the procedure but all I know is that they break up the blood clots and then leave stents in the arteries to keep them open.
Anyhow, the general belief is that angioplasty produces much better results than merely taking medication. This is one reason that my uncle preferred to undergo the procedure. A recent study, however, shows evidence to the contrary. According to a report at
MSN Health:
There are some advantages to artery-opening angioplasty over drug treatment for people with
heart disease, but those advantages disappear within three years, according to the latest report on ...
Are you a woman who is between 50 and 79 years of age? Do you like to sleep a lot? Well, if you are, you might want to examine your sleeping patterns. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reveals that too much sleep can increase the risk of stroke in middle-aged women.
A report by
Reuters states:
The greatest increase in stroke risk — 70 percent — was noted among women who slept 9 hours or more per night, according to their report in the medical journal Stroke.
After following the group for an average of 7.5 years, the researchers found that 1,166 women experienced an ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked. This prevents oxygen from ...
If you find out that you have tachycardia, what are you supposed to do? The obvious answer would be to consult with your doctor and figure out things that you can do in order to treat your condition. One thing is for sure – the treatment options will
depend on the cause of tachycardia.
One common option would be to prescribe medication. These drugs are meant to slow down the heart rate and some of them may have to be taken for life. This, of course, depends on the nature of the tachycardia.
Another option would be to undergo non-surgical procedures. There are several different treatment types that fall under this category, all of which do not require open surgery on the chest. Since the procedures are non-invasive, the patient can normally resume most or all of his or ...
In the last post, we had an introductory look at what tachycardia is. Just to recap very briefly, tachycardia is a general term for conditions wherein the heartbeat of an individual exceeds 100 beats per minute. So what can cause tachycardia?
In their web site, the Mayo Clinic differentiates between people who have heart disease and those who do not. Just because a person has tachycardia does not necessarily mean that he has a heart disorder. This comes as a relief to me because while I am open to the possibility that I may have tachycardia, I really do not want to have any trouble with my heart (who does, anyway?).
Here is
the list that I found at the Mayo Clinic’s site:
• An overactive thyroid or other metabolic imbalance
• Damage or microscopic abnormalities in the muscles of the atria (upper heart chambers)
• Abnormalities ...
The other night, I was alarmed to feel my heart pounding so hard. I was not stressed, I was not physically overexerted. In fact, I had just spent a couple of hours reading in bed and was
feeling totally relaxed. That is why I was quite surprised when my heart just started pounding so hard that it seemed that I could feel my heartbeat all over my body!
This, of course, prompted me to look this symptom up on the Internet. I didn’t really feel any other “scary” symptom so I didn’t think to go to the doctor. Yet what I have found is faintly alarming. I might have tachycardia.
Tachycardia is defined as a condition wherein the heart rate is more than 100 beats per minute. That night, my heart was beating at about 130. ...
