I remember when my wife was pregnant both times we were told by the doctor that she should increase her intake, actually supplement, with Folic Acid. Well there is a study from Australia that seem to show the link between Folic Acid and a reduction in Asthma issues in kids.

But taken later in pregnancy folic acid will actually have the opposite effect.

As you may know the number of kids diagnosed with Asthma has been skyrocketing over recent years and any easily implemented method that a mom can give to reduce health problems is definitely exciting news

Found in its natural form in leafy green vegetables, legumes and some nuts, folic acid is commonly recommended to women trying to conceive to prevent neural defects in the first weeks of pregnancy.

But the Australian study found that women who continue to take folic acid late into pregnancy were 30 percent more likely to give birth to a child which would develop asthma. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Surviving breast cancer is a very difficult in the first place for any woman but the self esteem issues of a masectomy are something that many women find hard to overcome. A study was just released that seems to shed some light on the idea that by taking the steps to improve a persons body through exercise, especially lifting weights will improve self esteem in many breast cancer survivors.

In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift weights, according to a new study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

I keep hearing about the mercury in vaccines and how this may be a health issue or not. At one point people with autistic kids were blaming the mercury in the vaccines for causing autism as well as other health issues but now I believe that this same group is now targeting the vast number of diseases that are being protected against in a single vaccination. As we become better at protecting against more things I guess we need to watch out for the delivery system of these vaccines.

Anyway, I have often wondered about the amount of mercury in vaccines and why this is an issue and in knowing that mercury is poisonous and stays in the system I could not understand why it is being used at all in vaccinations.

Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines and other products since the 1930s. The kind of mercury that is used is called Ethyl mercury from the vaccine preservative thimerosal.  Ethyl mercury leaves the blood 10 times faster than methyl mercury, on which current risk assessments are based. Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter got diagnosed with Asthma last week and it got me thinking about all of the times that she has had colds and been sick over the years. Of course the asthma was an even bigger deal right now with H1N1 hitting the headlines and 5 hour plus lineups here in Calgary Canada for H1N1 flu shots.

Nearly one-third, or 28 percent, of adults and children hospitalized with H1N1, also known as swine flu, have asthma. That’s more than any other chronic condition, according to a recent analysis of cases published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Asthma was the most common underlying medical condition that we saw,” says Seema Jain, M.D., a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jain’s team analyzed 272 people who were hospitalized with swine flu for more than 24 hours between April and June.

Twenty-five percent were admitted to the intensive care unit and 7 percent died. Overall, 29 percent of children and 27 percent of in adults in the study had asthma, while only about 8 percent of the U.S. population has asthma, according to Jain. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a new term for me today but apparently I missed the memo that had to do with a cytokine storm and the flu. Actually the cytokine storm has more to do with health and seemingly healthy people dying of illnesses that their immune system should be able to fight but it is being brought up with the deaths of the H1N1 virus and it first came up with trying to figure out why so many seemingly healthy people died (maybe 100 million) from the H1N1 virus back in 1918.

A cytokine storm is when your body is overwhelmed by it’s fighting of a virus. One of the things that will happen when you get some kind of virus or infection is that your body will fight it with it’s immune system. What will happen is that your body will fight and you will get a fever and then everything is good and your body goes back to normal. During a cytokine storm what will happen is that your body will overfight the virus and in essense your immune system will go into overdrive and this will end up killing you. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember how requiring fast-food chain restaurants to post calorie counts for food items on their menu boards was supposed to help people make better food choices? If the results of the first study to measure the impact of that initiative are any indication, we might want to rethink the premise.

Researchers reporting in the journal Health Affairs yesterday looked at fast-food purchases made in low-income areas of New York City — where a menu-labeling law took effect July 18, 2008 — and, as a control, in nearby Newark, New Jersey, where no such requirement exists. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite eating days of the year. Thanksgiving dinner is now only a couple of days away in Canada and the Turkeys and Hams have already been bought and are waiting to be eaten. This thanksgiving maybe you can be more careful about your eating and well being and I hope that looking at these tip will keep you feeling better the day after as you get to go on your post Thanksgiving day shopping spree.

1. Decide what you are going to eat each day in the morning before you start. Think about 3 meals and 3 snacks. No one says you can’t have a snack, then dinner a while later and then desert a while after that.

2. Get some exercise right after you get out of bed. This will help you focus on your fitness and make you aware of how your body feels that day.
Read the rest of this entry »

You know how awful it feels to have the flu. The shivers, the aches, the runny nose… You can minimize the symptoms and drown yourself in drugs, but you can’t really cure the flu.

With all its potency and technology, modern medicine and holistic medicine alike have yet to find a cure for the disease. All they can do is boost your immunity, diminish your symptoms and let your body take care of it.

The flu is caused by a virus named influenza. Viruses are very illusive creatures – they infect your cells and live inside them. They cannot truly be killed because they are not even alive – they can only exist as long as there are cells providing them with means for reproduction.

This “immortality” is so true that even your body isn’t able to kill the flu. Instead, your white cells kill any infected cells, thus stopping the virus from reproducing. In the meanwhile, other type of cells produce antibodies that link to the virus and stop it from infecting other cells by blocking essential proteins on its surface. Current drugs do the same as these antibodies.

This defense mechanism is why young people often have worse symptoms. Their immune system is far more active and thus their white cell armies flood the respiratory tract, killing all cells in their path. This can lead to death by pneumonia and drowning, the main cause of death by flu.

But you don’t need to worry. If you provide your immune system with the nutrients it needs by eating healthily (orange juice, anyone?) and you rest your body you will soon have recovered. Your body has an incredible capacity for healing; you just need to give it a chance.

So don’t panic when you hear that “you can’t cure the flu”. It may be true, but you can help your body destroying it and you can take measures to minimize symptoms.

The swine flu is about to strike. At the same time, countless people line up for a chance to take the H1N1 vaccine. But do they really need to? What is the problem with the swine flu and who should take the vaccine?

H1N1 is a new strain of virus against which our body has never fought and, thus, has no defenses. This means that the likelihood of serious complications is greater, especially in young people. This is what makes it different from the common flu.

The vaccine was developed using the same technology used to develop a new vaccine for the flu every year. It is as safe as the standard flu vaccine, though with so many people wanting a shot it has quickly shown to be less available.

Most people infected with the swine flu will have no complications at all and need no hospitalization. However, certain groups of people are at increased risk of developing serious complications, and those groups should be the first to take the vaccine.

Children and pregnant women are the first in line. Children have an immature defense system and are the least likely to have ever fought the virus, thus they are the least prepared. Pregnant women not only have a depressed immune system, but they carry the responsibility of two lives instead of one. And because the virus spreads so easily, people who live or work with either of these groups are also recommended to take the vaccine, in order to protect them.

Health care professionals are also recommend to take the vaccine. This is not only to protect themselves (as they will be more exposed to infected people) but, most importantly, to protect their patients.

Finally, young people with chronic conditions, especially mental and respiratory diseases, should also take the vaccine. This is because they already have less defenses or a weakened respiratory track and because they are least likely to prevent or identify the disease in time.

If you belong to any of these groups, then you should take the vaccine. If not, you can wait until supplies are more readily available, because you are very unlikely to suffer any problem resulting from the flu. And if you already had the swine flu, there is no need for the vaccine at all.

The flu is an airborne disease. But this does not mean that viruses are floating around in the air and there is nothing you can do to stop them. In fact, the influenza virus is very fragile and does not survive in the air for long – it needs to land quickly or it will die.

This presents a valuable opportunity to prevent the disease. Why worry about drugs and symptoms if you can avoid the illness completely?

* Avoid touching things that many people touch, such as doors, buses and subways, or the virus will jump to your hands. Most people who have the flu have virus infested hands and anywhere they touch will be contaminated.

* Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, or the virus in your hands will infect you jumping right inside your body.

* Wash your hands frequently. This will not kill the virus; however it will wash it away and leave your hands virus-free. Use simple soap and water (remember that the goal is not to kill the virus) and only use alcohol based scrubs when soap is not available. I hope you are starting to grasp the importance of your hands by now.

* When you cough, cover your mouth with your arm instead of your hand to avoid contemning yourself with your own viruses. If the virus stays in your arm it will not contaminate surfaces, nor will you re-infect yourself. How many times do you touch with your arm in anything as compared to your hands?

* Avoid handshakes and kisses. Kisses are like a rapid way for virus transmission. And handshakes just skip the need for a contaminated surface.

* If you have symptoms, stay at home. This may not help you, but it will help others.

* Use paper tissues and throw them away as soon as you use them. You don’t want virus growing there that will pass to your hands and re-infect you later when you finally decide to throw the tissue away.

* Avoid public spaces, especially crowded spaces where the virus can use the air to jump from person to person before dying.

The most important thing to keep in mind is your hands. Watch them and they will watch for your health.