Navigating Healthcare: A Guide to Modern Medicine and Wellness

Healthy Lifestyle

Is Sugar Addictive?

Is Sugar AddictiveOf sugar, New York Knicks basketball player Derrick Rose says, “Everyone’s got their poison; mine’s sugar.” Perhaps calling sugar a ‘poison’ is a bit strong, but the truth is that sugar—particularly the processed stuff—is not very good for you. In fact, many healthcare professionals and nutritionists now are actually calling sugar an addictive substance. If you look up the term ‘addictive’ in a thesaurus, similar words are ‘habit-forming,’ ‘obsessive,’ and yes, even ‘enslaving.’ But how addictive is sugar, really? Following are some important daily health tips about the potential addictive qualities of sugar that will help you decide for yourself how much sugar is too much.

The Secret to Happiness

The Secret to HappinessMaking other people happy, doing what you love, money, freedom, falling in love, living a healthier life—these are just a handful of the answers you’ll get if you ask the question, “What is the secret to happiness?” But, seriously, what is happiness’ secret? If you were able to ask happiness if it had a secret, what do you think it would say? This mystical inquest doubtless has been at the forefront of human pursuit since the beginning of time. So has anyone ever really come up with an answer for this question? That is, has anyone come up with a real, concrete, and more important, a demonstrable solution to this seemingly unanswerable query? If you were to explore just what translates into the state of ‘happiness,’ where would that exploration take you? Let’s take a look.

Good carbs vs. bad carbs

What Is a Healthy Diet?

Most Americans get very little nutrition in their daily diets. According to the President’s Council on Fitness, the typical American diet exceeds the recommended intake limits in four categories, including fats and added sugars, sodium, saturated fats, and refined grains. It also reports that most Americans eat less than the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and 90% of all Americans eat more sodium than what is recommended for a healthy diet. However, perhaps what is most shocking is that the average calorie consumption has increased by 600 calories per day in the past four decades! If one of your goals this year is to eat a healthier diet, here are some tips for living a healthy life that will help you make better decisions every day from here on out so that you can look forward to a long and healthy future.

Cosmetic Dentistry for Teens whitening

Health Benefits of Smiling

Perhaps Louis Armstrong sang it best in the song “When You’re Smiling”

When you’re smilin’, when you’re smilin’,

The whole world smiles with you.

When you’re laughin’, when you’re laughin,’

The sun comes shinin’ through.

It’s hard not to smile back when a friend, or even a total stranger, flashes you a smile on the street.

That’s because smiling is infectious.

And today’s daily health tip is that smiling is good for your health!  Well fancy that.

healthy breakfast ideas

You Are What You Eat

There’s an old saying that “you are what you eat”, if that is true, you want to put the most healthful foods into your body to ensure that you stay in optimum health.  Your diet plan should be diverse, with a wide variety of nutrients and healthful substances, and, of course, you want your meals and snacks to be tasty as well.  That’s a tall order isn’t it?  But, if you follow the Government guidelines and select your meals from each of the major food groups, your reward will be good health the rest of your life.

Common Daily Health Tips

Daily Health Tips exerciseThe internet is chock full of helpful hints on how to take care of yourself.  You could follow the advice of celebrities on how to stay healthy and fit, or, why not rely on healthy and natural products instead of high-priced products with potentially harmful ingredients which may not get the desired result in the long run?  Always bear in mind, that as good as a celebrity looks, that person no doubt has a chef on hand to prepare their meals, a professional makeup artist and hair stylist, as well as a personal trainer to help maintain their fitness routine.  You can’t compete with a celebrity, so why not just be YOU and benefit from some of these helpful daily health tips to let YOU put your best face forward and keep your body up to par.

Health Risks of Processed Foods

Risks of Processed FoodsEvery time you turn around the headlines are screaming about another food recall.  E-coli, listeria, e-coli and avian flu issues have us rethinking where we dine or what we put into our grocery carts and into our mouths.  The Chipotle e-coli issues leave us less likely to be craving Mexican food at that establishment, even though they are cleared of contamination issues and back in business again.  We may want to eat healthy by eating more produce, but then we worry about listeria-contaminated lettuce or consuming supposedly “pre-washed produce” like bagged coleslaw or lettuce, only to find a large manufacturer like Dole is sweeping them off the shelves in a massive recall.  Even a treat like ice cream was contaminated with listeria causing Blue Bell, a manufacturer established way back in 1907, to halt production of this frozen treat while they determined the source of contamination.  The avian flu has us scrambling to find organic eggs or just doing without eggs altogether.

Healthy Eating Habits for College Students

Healthy Eating for College StudentsCollege life is a dramatic change from the comfy convenience of living at home.  Even if you were involved in athletics or had a part-time job, chances are you had three nourishing meals, a clean bed and your laundry done on a regular basis.  You got your homework done before the weekend so you had free time.  Unless you continue to live at home while attending college, you are in for a rude awakening.

Big adjustments

The biggest adjustment might be living away from home for the first time, and, in general, dormitory life and sharing a room with strangers.  Even if you shared a room with a sibling, it’s just not the same.  Strangers coming and going all the time, and their friends as well, and so on.  Sometimes you need to get away from it all and the library may become your sanctuary – that’s a good place to go to catch up on your studies and chill out a bit.

Healthy Habits for Elementary School Kids

Healthy Habits for Elementary School KidsNothing saps your energy and keeps you from feeling your best like a head cold, no matter what the time of year.  Colds can come at any time, and flu season typically runs from October through May, peaking in February.  You must be proactive to help your kids understand how to develop healthy habits.

As soon as your child is old enough to understand that “germs are not our friend”, you should encourage your child to do the following:

Swimming Is a Low Intensity Workout

Swimming is the most amazing workout ever. Not only can swimming burn more fat than just about every other exercise there is (short of climbing Everest) because it combines weight-training/muscle building with an effective cardio workout. It’s also an enjoyable workout that keeps you from sweating yourself silly. Plus, it’s oh-so-easy on the joints! And swimming does all this in a nice, pleasant low-intensity workout! You just can’t say that about any other workout. Think about it. When you go to the gym and get on one of those sweaty machines like a treadmill, you walk, walk, walk… and when you get off, not only have you spent all that time doing the same repetitive movements looking at the same walls, but you’ve also sweated yourself to a disgusting, smelly mess… and you’re in the same place you were when you started! But, when you swim, you’re gliding along in that beautiful, silky water and, instead of sweating, you actually come out feeling cooler than when you went in! Now that’s a great workout! Here are some of the health benefits and other reasons to choose a low-intensity swimming workout over any other type of workout.