THE HEALTH DANGERS OF SOFT DRINK

THE HEALTH DANGERS OF SOFT DRINK

The dangers of drinking soft drink cannot be overemphasis because of the damage which it has caused to the body system. They include the following:

1.     Asthma: Sodium benzoate found in sodas is used as a preservative (microbial control) in foods. Sodium preservatives add sodium to the diet and reduce the availability of potassium. Some reported reaction to sodium benzoate includes recurring articarica (rash), asthma and eczema.

2.     Kidney Issues: Colas contain high levels of phosphoric acid which has been linked to kidney stones and the other renal problems and you more likely to get kidney stones If you are male Caucasian.

3.     Sugar Overload: Twenty minutes after drinking a soda, your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver response your liver dumps more sugar into fast.

Forty minute later, caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your blood stream. The adenosine receptors, in your brain are now blocked, preventing dromosiess.

45 minutes later, your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works by the way.

4.     Obesity: The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weights is so strong that researches calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times. And 70% of cardiovascular disease is related to obesity. 42% of breast and colon cancer is diagnosed in obese individuals. 30% of gall bladder surgery is related to obesity.

5.     Dissolves Tooth Enamel: Sugar and acid in soft drinks easily dissolve tooth enamel. When tooth decay reaches the nerve, the root and area at the base of the tooth, they may die and if left untreated an abscess can develop.

6.     Heart Disease: Most soft drinks contain high fructose corn syrup a sweetener that recently comes under considerable strutting. High fructose corn syrup has been associated with an increase risk of metabolic syndrome a condition associated with an elevated risk of both diabetes and heart disease. In 2006, more than one in every four deaths were caused by heart disease, but recently it is more than that.

7.     Reproductive Issues: Soft drink cans are coated with a resin that contains BPAC (biphenyl-A) This is the same cancer causing chemicals found in plastic baby bottles, water bottles, and plastic containers that wreaks havoc on the endocrine system, potentially causing premature puberty and reproductive abnormalities. 99.9% of bottles contain BPA.

8.     Osteoporosis: Soft drinks contain phosphoric acid and a high phosphate diet that has been associated with bone breakdown and an increased risk of osteoporosis. When phosphorus is excreted in the urine, it depriving the bones and the risk of the body of this important mineral. Eight percent of those affected by osteoporosis are women. Twenty percent are men.

9.     Increased risk of Diabetes: Those who drink more soda have an 80% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Note: Canned drinks become dangerous when exposed to the sun.

Sleeping And Aging

More than half of men and women over the age of 65 complain of at least one sleep problem. Many aging people experience insomnia and other sleep disorders on a regular basis.

As we get older, our sleep patterns change. In general, older people sleep less, experience more fragmented sleep, and spend less time in stages 3 & 4 and REM sleep (for example, deep sleep and dream sleep) than younger people. However, regardless of age, good restorative sleep is essential to physical health and emotional well-being.

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What Causes Sleep Problems in Older People?

Several factors may contribute to the inability to sleep well as we get older. Some common causes include:

• Poor sleep habits: Irregular sleep-wake patterns can affect an individual's circadian rhythm and make it hard to maintain a regular sleep schedule. Other sleep hygiene issues, such as consumption of alcohol before bedtime, increased wakeful time in bed, or daytime napping, can also affect a person's ability to sleep.
• Medications: Some drugs may impair a person's ability to fall asleep or stay asleep and may even stimulate wakefulness at night.
• Psychological distress or psychiatric disorders: Aging is characterized by a lot of life events, some positive and some negative. Some elderly people experience psychological problems or psychiatric disorders that will affect the quality and quantity of sleep. For example, life changes such as the death of a loved one, moving from a family home, or physical limitations due to illness can cause significant stress and sleep problems.
• Sleep disorders: Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and REM behavior disorder, may be associated with aging in some cases.
• Retirement: Retirement often leads to a lot of downtime with less daytime activity; this can lead to an irregular sleep-wake schedule and chronic sleep problems.

Emotional and Mental Vitality

Emotional and mental vitality are closely tied to physical vitality-just as your mind has powerful effects on your body, so your physical state affects how you feel and think. Social contact can also make a big difference in how you feel.

Replacing a "lost" activity is a key to staying active and feeling good about yourself. For instance, if you can no longer run, you might try walking, biking, and/or swimming. And if your favorite activity was dancing, you might try something else that combines social and physical activity, such as joining a water aerobics class. Replacing lost activities can help you keep a positive attitude and sense of well-being over time, even if aging and changes in your health mean you can not do all the things you used to do.

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Physical activity. Protect or improve your emotional and cognitive health with regular physical activity. While physical activity produces chemicals in the body that promote emotional well-being, inactivity can make depression, anxiety, and stress worse. Research has been done to link physical activity and the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Adults who are physically active may be less likely to get Alzheimer's disease or dementia than adults who are not physically active.⁴

Social activity. Protect or improve your emotional health by staying in touch with friends, family, and the greater community. Whether physically healthy or ill, people who feel connected to others are more likely to thrive than those who are socially isolated. Volunteering in your community and sharing your wisdom and talents with others is a gratifying and meaningful way to enrich your life. In fact, older adults who regularly volunteer even a small amount of time generally have a greater sense of well-being than those who don't.⁵

Mental activity. Protect or improve your memory and mental sharpness by:

• Challenging your intellect on a daily basis. Read, learn a new musical instrument or language, do crossword puzzles, or play games of strategy with others. Just like an active body, an active brain continues to develop and thrive, while an inactive brain loses its power over time.
• Helping your memory along. Write down dates, names, and other important information that you easily forget. Use routine and repetition. For example, keep daily items such as keys and eyeglasses in a specific place. And when you meet someone new, picture that person while you repeat his or her name out loud to others or to yourself several times to commit it to memory. (No matter what your age, having too much on your mind can keep you from remembering new information. And as you age, it is normal to take longer to retrieve new information from your memory bank.)
• Preventing depression, which is a common yet treatable cause of cognitive decline in older people. In addition to getting regular physical activity and social contact, avoid the depressant effect of alcohol and sedative use, eat healthy meals and snacks, and include meaningful activity in your daily life (such as learning, creating, working, volunteering). If you think you have depression, seek professional help-antidepressant medicine and/or counseling are effective treatments for depression. For more information, see the topic Depression. If you find that a physical condition or disability is making your depressed mood worse, get the medical treatment you need.
• Not smoking. Cigarette smoking may speed mental decline. This connection was identified in a large study comparing smokers and nonsmokers age 65 and over.⁶ If you smoke and would like to stop, see the topic Quitting Smoking.

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Gettind The Nutrition you Need

As you get older, good nutrition plays an increasingly important role in how well you age. Eating a low-salt, low-fat diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber can actually reduce your age-related risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases. By eating a wide variety of foods, you can pretty easily get what your body needs, including:

• Protein, which is needed to maintain and rebuild muscles. You can get low-fat, quality protein from poultry, fish, eggs or egg substitutes, soy, and limited amounts of nuts and low-fat meat and dairy.
• Carbohydrate, which is the body's preferred source of energy. There are two main sources of dietary carbohydrates: simple sugars, such as sucrose (the refined white sugar added to sweets and desserts), fructose (the sugar contained in fruit), and lactose (milk sugar); and complex carbohydrates, which come from vegetables and grains. Unlike refined sugars, fruits contain vitamins and fiber, dairy products contain nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D, and complex carbohydrates contain vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Get most of your carbohydrate calories from vegetables, grains, and fruits. Limit drinks and foods with added sugar. And try to replace fat calories with complex carbohydrates in your diet.
• Fat, which also provides energy. To help keep your blood cholesterol levels low, get most of your limited fat intake from the polyunsaturated fats (as in liquid corn oil or soybean oil) and monounsaturated fats (in olive oil, avocados, and nuts). Limit saturated fats (beef, pork, veal, butter, shortening, and cheese). You can do this by eating these foods less often, having smaller servings, choosing less fatty cuts of meat, and by using stronger tasting cheeses so you can use just a little and still get the cheese flavor. Try to avoid the trans fats (hydrogenated fats) found in stick margarine and in many processed foods such as crackers and cookies. Trans fats are now shown on the nutrition facts labels found on most packaged foods.
• Water, to replace water lost through activity. Be sure to drink plenty of water each day.

As you take a look at your daily diet, remember that as you age:

• Your body's daily energy needs slowly decrease. So you need fewer calories a day than when you were younger. Your doctor or a registered dietitian (RD) can help you calculate your ideal calorie intake.
• Natural hormone changes make your body prone to depositing more body fat (especially around your middle) and less muscle. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and limiting your intake of saturated fat, along with increased activity and muscle strengthening (muscle cells are the major calorie burners in your body), can help you stay at a healthy weight.
• Your bones lose mineral content more rapidly than before, especially if you are a postmenopausal woman, because having less estrogen increases bone loss. As a result, you need to have calcium and vitamin D in your diet to help prevent osteoporosis, and your doctor may recommend you take a calcium and vitamin D supplement.
• Plaque buildup (atherosclerosis) can naturally occur on the inside of the arteries that supply blood to the heart and brain. You can help slow this plaque buildup by eating heart-healthy foods such as lean meats, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. A healthy diet can also help lower cholesterol, high blood pressure, and prevent heart disease and stroke

12 possible Heart Symptoms never to ignore

12 possible heart symptoms never to ignore

Don’t miss these 12 possible warning signs that something

Is amiss with your heart

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of U.S men and women, accounting for 40% of all deaths. That’s more than all forms of cancer combined.

Why is heart disease so deadly? One reason is that many people are slow to seek help when symptoms arise. Yes, someone gripped by sudden chest pain probably knows to call 911. But heart symptoms aren’t always intense or obvious. And they vary from –person to person and according to gender. Because it can be hard to make sense of heart symptoms, doctors warn against ignoring possible warning signs, touching them out, waiting to see if they go away, or being quick to blamed them on heartburn, muscle soreness, or other less serious, noncardiac causes. That’s especially true for men and people over 65, as well as for people with other cardiac risk factors, such as high cholesterol or blood pressure, obesity, smoking, diabetes, or a family history of heart disease.

“The more risk factors you factors you have, the higher the likelihood that a symptom means something is going on with your heart,” says David Frid, MD, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic.

“People often don’t want to admit that they ‘re old enough or sick enough to have heart trouble. Putting off treatment for other medical problems might not be so bad, but a serious heart problem can mean sudden death. It’s better to go in and get it evaluated than to be dead.”

12 Possible Heart Symptoms Never to Ignore

Here are a dozen symptoms that may signal heart trouble.

1.     Anxiety. Heart attack can cause intense anxiety or a fear of death. Heart attack survivors often talk about having experienced a sense of “impending doom.”

2.     Chest discomfort. Pain in the chest is the classic symptom of heart attack, and “the No. 1 symptom that we typically look for,” says Jean C. McSweeney, PhD, RN, associate dean for research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing in little Rock and a pioneer in research on heart symptoms in women. But not all heart attacks cause chest pain, and chest pain can stem from ailments that have nothing to do with the heart.

Heart- related chest pain is often centered under the breastbone, perhaps a little to the left of center. The pain has been likened to “an elephant sitting on the chest,” but it can also be an uncomfortable sensation of pressure, squeezing, or fullness. “It’s not unusual for women to describe the pain as a minor ache,” McSweeney says. “Some women say the pain wasn’t bad enough even to take a Tylenol.”

Women, more so than men, can also experience a burning sensation in their chest, rather than a pressure or pain.

“Sometimes people make the mistake that the pain comes from a stomach problem,” says Nieca Goldberg, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City and another expert on women’s heart symptoms.

3.     Cough. Persistent coughing or wheezing can be symptom of heart failure—a result of fluid accumulation in the lungs. In some cases, people with heart failure cough up bloody phlegm.

4.     Dizziness. Heart attacks can cause lightheadedness and loss of conscious. So can potentially dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities known as arrhythmias.

5.     Fatigue. Especially among women, usual fatigue can occur during a heart attack as well as in the days and weeks leading up to one. And feeling tired all the time may be a symptom of heart failure.

Of course, you can also feel tired or fatigued for other reasons. How can you tell heart-related fatigue from other types of fatigue?

“If you don’t feel well and all the wind is knocked out of your sails, don’t try to figure it out on the Internet or from a book, “says Goldberg. “Wasting time is dangerous.”

6.     Nausea or lack of appetite. It’s not uncommon for people to feel sick to their stomach or throw up during a heart attack. And abdominal swelling associated with heart failure can interfere with appetite.

7.     Pain in other parts of the body. In many heart attacks, pain begins in the chest and spreads to the shoulders, arms, elbows, back, neck, jaw or abdomen. But sometimes there is no chest pain-just pain in these other body areas. The pain might come and go.

Men having a heart attack often feel pain in the left arm. In women, the pain is more likely to be felt in both arms or between the shoulders blades.

8.     Rapid or irregular pulse. Doctors say that there’s nothing worrisome about an occasional skipped heartbeat. But a rapid or irregular pulse-- especially when accompanied by weakness, dizziness, or shortness of breath—can be evidence of a heart attack, heart failure, or an arrhythmia. Left untreated, some arrhythmias can lead to stroke, heart failure, or sudden death.

9.     Shortness of breath. People who feel winded at rest or with minimal exertion might have a pulmonary condition like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). But breathlessness could also indicate a heart attack or heart failure.

“Sometimes people having a heart attack don’t have chest pressure or pain but feel extremely short of breath,” Goldberg says. “It’s like they’ve just run a marathon when they haven’t even moved.” During a heart attack, shortness of breath often accompanies chest discomfort, but it can also occur before or without chest discomfort.

10.                         Sweating. Breaking out in a cold seat is a common symptom of heart attack. “ You might just be sitting in a chair when all of a sudden you are really sweating like you had just worked out,” Frid says.

11.                         Swelling. Heart failure can cause fluid to accumulate in the body. This can cause swelling (often in the feel, ankles legs or abdomen) as well as sudden weight gain and sometimes a loss of appetite.

12.                         Weakness. In the days leading up to a heart attack, as well as during one, some people experience severe, unexplained weakness. “One woman told me it felt like she couldn’t hold a piece of paper between her fingers, “McSweeney says.

The most common vaginal infection

Vaginosis or vaginitis is an inflammation which occurs in the vagina and includes several strains of germ that cause bacterial vaginosis yeast infections and trichomoniasis. Many women mistakenly believe that yeast infections are the most common type of vaginal infection but bacterial vaginosis is the most frequently occurring vaginal infection affecting from 10% to 64% of the population at any given time.
A simple list of symptoms of the most common vaginal infection--bacterial vaginosis. Includes articles that explore other vaginal infections, as well as diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of bacterial vaginosis.