Herbal News Magazine
All About Herbal Medicine, Alternative Health News and Natural Supplements
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Would You Quit Smoking After Finding Out You Are Ill?
Filed under Alternative & Herbal Health News, Smoking CessationJan 25I read the most fascinating article about people who are diagnosed with a disease that is clearly related to smoking such as COPD, lung cancer, Emphysema and other commonly related diseases. You would think people would quit the habit after finding out they ar diagnosed with one of the top causes of death, but many of them don’t. It’s not quite fifty percent of people who don’t quit but let me tell you it’s darn near that.
Roughly estimated, it’s about 40% of people who are diagnosed with one of these devasatating diseases that still do not quit smoking. This goes to show just how mentally and physically addictive nicotine and tobacco are to the human body. I even have a personal story to tell about this.
Someone close to me in my family was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his late fifties. He never did quit smoking the entire time even when he was going through chemotherapy and all the other various poison therapies he unfortunately had to be on.
Now, I get that when a person is near the end of their life and are in the terminal stages of cancer they should just “do what they want”, but there is always a chance to come back, and smoking carcinogens into your lungs is certainly a good way to hasten the disease along.
He really couldn’t quit. He was that addicted to smoking and figured he still wanted to enjoy the habit even after his cancer took a turn for the worse and he became terminal. Stopping the habit is indeed challenging. I was a smoker in college and had a hard time quitting, even though I had asthma and I never should have picked up the habit in the first place.
My conscious, intelligent mind was telling me to quit, yet my body and mind were also telling me how good it felt to hold that cigarette in my hand, inhale slowly and let the chemicals take control of my mind, giving me that great buzz that cigarettes give you.
It is indeed a huge challenge, but it’s worth it. I’ve been off cigarettes for almost a decade now and feel so much healthier. It’s a shame that so many people, even after diagnosed with life threatening disease, cannot find the willpower to quit – this is a testament to how addictive and dangerous this pastime is.
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Tagged as: cancer, diagnosed, emphysema lung cancer, high, keep smoking, people, percentage, quit, smoking, terminally ill -
Aug 2
I never knew this before, probably because the risk was still deemed to be relatively low, as are other risks during pregnancy that are nonetheless higher because of the fact that the woman is pregnant. What I never knew was that pregnant women were more at risk for strokes.
What could the reason be that carrying a child increases your risk of stroke? Well, aside from the fact that you are undergoing several bodily changes obviously when you are carrying another life inside you, you are also carrying a higher volume of blood.
They say there also is likely less oxygen circulating in your blood as well, which can account for many women saying they get winded much easier when they are pregnant. But the higher volume of blood circulating in the body makes the blood pressure go up, which in turn makes it more likely that a blood vessel can burst.
This basically forces more pressure into the veins and blood vessels that are carrying one’s blood throughout the body. All this pressure carries with it a higher likelihood of breaking or bursting one of the walls through which the blood is coursing.
The problem with pregnancy strokes now is that the risk has grown over fifty percent in the past few years, and the medical community really doesn’t know why. They know that there is generally a higher risk of heart disease and stroke in the general population, but this doesn’t directly account for the higher risk in stroke in just pregnant women.
What pregnant women can do to avoid this sort of catastrophe from interfering with their new motherhood joy is the same thing that most of us other folks do to keep healthy on a daily pasis and prevent strokes.
Light exercise helps keep the blood flowing smoothly. A great omega 3 fatty acid supplement is a must for all people in my opinion. Whether you get this through flax oil or some other vegetarian option of fish oil or krill oil is up to you, however, omega 3 fatty acids have proven to be very effective in heart and circulatory health .
The thought is that they keep the blood from getting “sticky” and thicker, acting as almost a natural blood thinner, so that heart attacks and strokes become much less of a risk. Also eating a low fat diet that is high in roughage (fiber) and watching your cholesterol is vital to maintaining healthy blood flow.
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Jul 24
There is a trend that to be quite frank I wasn’t even aware of until I read the tragic story of a young man who tried this recreational synthetic form of marijuana and ended up dying because of it. The trend is these little packets of “synthetic marijuana” that are sold in convenience stores as potpourri that “isn’t meant for human consumption”.
Well, you know darn well they know it’s being used for off label purposes, because it’s very popular with young people who are looking for a legal high. The makers of this stuff basically can stay a step ahead of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) by changing their formulas when one substance is banned, and putting on their label that it is not meant for people to consume.
Well, kids are still consuming it quite a bit, and reports are coming in that the effects are simply scary, not very pleasant in many cases, and downright deadly in at least one case. A young man and beloved son smoked the stuff and got into a horrible car accident not much later, speeding at very high speeds on a small side street and crashing through a house, dying.
There are reports that people feel totally paranoid, and that they lose touch with reality as well. This could lead to psychotic behavior. The drug, I’m calling it that because that’s what it is, is made with several chemicals that mimic the effects of real marijuana with one rub.
They are MUCH stronger than real marijuana, and much more potent. Therefore, they are much more dangerous. I advise that anyone seeking some fun steer clear of this stuff. It sounds like it could be heartbreak waiting to happen, and could cause some really unfortunate scenarios.
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Multivitamins Misleading You?
Filed under Vitamins & MineralsJul 6When it comes to multivitamins, I’m not a big believer personally. I have a few supplements in my regimen that I take every day, including Vitamin D and krill oil (among others), but I have never been big on taking a multi vitamin.
I pretty much know which nutrients may be lacking most in my diet and routine, so because I know that, and I have knowledge of what foods contain which types of these ingredients, and what I eat most, I know which nutrients I am missing.
I feel like if you take a multivitamin, you may be duplicating efforts in some of the vitamins by what you get in your diet. That’s just me personally, but for some people, perhaps who eat a poor diet or find that multivitamins benefit them, that may not be true at all.
Studies were recently carried out by ConsumerLabs, where tests were run on several multivitamins, including ones that are for children. What they found was interesting, if not a bit disturbing.
First off, they did not find a correlation between the more expensive vitamin supplements and a higher quality. They found, in other words, that the cheaper multivitamins actually performed the same if not better than, the more expensive ones.
They looked at a few factors in these vitamins. They looked to see if they really contained the amount of certain nutrients claimed on their nutrition labels or not.
Many of them contained much less, but some of them contained much more than listed, which could also be a problem if it was a vitamin that can become toxic in the system if it is over consumed.
That is particularly troubling in the children’s formulas, because children’s bodies are still developing, and may be more susceptible to toxicity.
Now, this may seem like it’s a good argument for more government regulation over supplements, but I think that’s wrong. While I think someone should be holding supplements to have what they say they have in them, government oversight could lead to SEVERE restrictions on many of your favorite vitamins and supplements.
It could make a monopoly on the supplement industry, which in the end, really hurts the consumer and may take away several of the best supplements on the market because they simply can’t afford the restrictions and rules put in to place by the usually over stepping government and unrealistic expectations.
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Tagged as: cheap, high, ingredients, labeling, misleading, multi, multivitamins, price, quality, vitamin, vitamins -
Jun 1
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a very serious condition and can lead to a list of other health issues if it is not taken care of. Hypertension is often called the silent disease because people can have it and be asymptomatic and feel fine.
The only way to know is you have high blood pressure is to get it checked. Having your blood pressure checked is easy, inexpensive and painless.
The health problems that high blood pressure can cause are many. Uncontrolled hypertension can cause an enlarged heart or lead to kidney failure. Hypertension, left unchecked and out of control, is the biggest cause of strokes.
There are factors that will predispose you to developing high blood pressure. People who have a higher than average risk of developing high blood pressure are; men, African Americans, smokers, overweight individuals and those who have a family history of hypertension.
Many people think that only highly anxious, nervous types of individuals will develop high blood pressure. This is not true. A very laid back and relaxed type of person can still develop hypertension.
High blood pressure, while it does not have a cure, can be controlled. Treatment will not be just temporary, but rather lifelong. Treatment for hypertension includes smoking cessation, weight loss, if needed, exercise and dietary modifications. Some cases of hypertension call for medication if lifestyle and dietary changes are not enough to control it.
The dietary changes usually restrict cholesterol and fats and increase plant based foods. Another important dietary change to control hypertension includes limiting salt intake. This does not just mean avoiding using the salt shaker but also restricting the intake of processed and canned foods.
Most of our sodium comes from these sources. Making our food “from scratch” without the use of salt, will dramatically reduce your intake of sodium. Follow up care and regular blood pressure checks will be needed throughout life to make sure your hypertension stays under control to maintain your health.
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Tagged as: blood pressure, cessation, control, controlling, high, hypertension, loss, lower, naturally, smoking, weight
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