Allergies

Confidence Boosters: Work To Get a Healthy Complexion

There is a difference between looking beautiful and feeling beautiful. But, if the planets aligned, you should be able to figure out how to make those two ideas intersect with each other, all while approaching the concept from a health perspective. In other words, your confidence can relate to your health along with your complexion and skin tone!

If you deal with pigmentation issues, or you get too much sun, or you’re working with acne medicine, or you have allergies to deal with – all of these can lead to you not feeling great about yourself, because you don’t feel like your skin showcases your health or your self-esteem. [Read more…]

How Dirt And Grime In Your Home Can Affect Your Health

You may not think much about your dirty home, aside from it being an occasional eyesore or causing you some mild embarrassment when someone comes over to visit unexpectedly. A messy house is more than just an eyesore, it can cause health issues depending on what kind of mess you have. Even just a little clutter can cause stress.

Grime In Floors And Carpets

When was the last time you scrubbed your kitchen or bathroom floor? If you have tile floors your grout could be harboring some pretty gross stuff. In fact, there could even be some toxic mold in that grout which could cause respiratory issues (including asthma) in the people living in your home. [Read more…]

Determine Your Type of Asthma

Of all the allergies, asthma is perhaps the most common and most inconvenient. It comes in many forms and treatments vary for each type. As such, it is important that you know exactly what kind of asthma you have before you undergo any kind of treatment. Of course, the wisest course would be to consult your doctor. Yet here are some things that you can consider even before you pay your doctor a visit. This information will also be helpful in determining exactly what kind of asthma you have.

In the broadest sense, asthma can be classified into either intermittent asthma or persistent asthma. Other more specific categories would be allergic asthma (caused by external stimuli), intrinsic asthma (not due to allergies), exercise-induced asthma, occupational asthma (triggered at work), and cough-variant asthma (persistent cough). Knowing what triggers your asthma attacks will help greatly in determining your type of asthma. From there, you can work on how to treat and prevent attacks.

Though asthma has been classified into different categories, determining what kind of asthma you have is far from simple. In order to avoid any kind of attack, here are some general tips that can help. Avoid extreme changes in temperature. Furthermore, ensure that your house is clean and free of dust and other possible allergens. As it is January and you probably spend a lot of time indoors, do keep the atmosphere inside as health friendly possible. Use humidifiers if you need to. Make sure there is enough fresh air coming in and have adequate ventilation.

Aloe and Its Healing Properties

Aloe has long been touted as one of Nature’s best for treating different kinds of conditions. From making hair thicker and more beautiful to cleansing our bodies, Aloe’s effects have been testified to by many people. For the benefit of those who are not very familiar with Aloe, it is a green plant with spiky leaves.

Different parts of the plant have different uses. When used for medicinal or health purposes, Aloe comes in different forms. The most common forms of Aloe is the gel (obtained from stripping away the outer covering), the juice (consists of pulped juice), and the bitter principle (bitter yellow liquid from the rind).

Perhaps one of the main uses of Aloe is to deal with digestive problems. It is said to help treat colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and constipation. Most of the time, Aloe juice is used for these problems. The juice is also used to treat ulcers. More so, studies have shown that Aloe juice, when taken orally has a good effect on asthma sufferers as long as they are not taking any corticosteroids. For external use, the gel can be used to soothe burns, wounds, allergies, sunburn, psoriasis, acne, and inflammation.

You can grow Aloe right in your backyard and make use of the gel immediately. For the juice and bitter principle, you may find it easier to visit your local health store. You should also consult your doctor to determine if there is no conflict with other treatments that you may be undergoing.

Indoor Living

January is one of the most looked forward to months, perhaps simply because it is the start of the year. Yet it has some repercussions on our health. January is a time when it can be quite cold, forcing many people in temperate countries to spend much more time indoors than outdoors. Contrary to popular belief, staying indoors may be more harmful to your health than going out. This is because the air indoors may actually be more polluted than what is out there.

How can this happen? In the winter, houses need to be warm and insulated. Windows are most often closed to keep the cold out and the heat in. As a result, there is usually poor ventilation within. The air is not naturally replenished inside. Molds can be a complication as well due to the dampness in the air. To make matters worse, if there is a smoker in the family and he smokes within the house, the air is definitely more polluted.

As such, you should not take the matter of indoor health care lightly. At this time of the year when many people spend a lot of time inside the house, you should take care to ensure that the conditions inside the house contribute to your health and not the contrary. First thing you must consider are activities that pollute the air. Smoking was already mentioned. Avoid smoking within enclosed premises.

Using air fresheners and deodorizers may seem like a good idea but if not used properly, you may contribute to adding allergens inside the house. If you do need to use such products, make sure that there is at least a short period of time wherein you can get fresh air inside.