To find the best home remedies for bladder infection, you need to understand what causes bladder infection and how to stop it happening with natural treatments.

What Is Bladder Infection?

The bladder is the place where urine is stored when the kidneys have produced it. Bladder infection is more correctly called urinary tract infection (UTI) and it can be an infection in either the bladder, the kidneys, or the passages that the urine travels along from the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters) and from the bladder when we pass urine (urethra).

Causes Of Bladder Infection

Urinary tract infection is much more common in women than in men. UTI often begins when bacteria, usually originating in the colon, enter the urethra from the outside world. Another form of UTI can be sexually transmitted. UTI can also be caused when tubes are placed in the urethra to control urine flow during and after surgical operations.

Urine itself is sterile and does not contain any bacteria, viruses or fungi. In fact it is believed to have mild anti bacterial properties. However, this is not always enough to protect against infection in the passages, especially where the urine is not flowing fast enough through the system and stagnates in the bladder.

Symptoms Of Bladder Infection

You can guess that you may have a bladder or urinary tract infection if you have a burning sensation when you urinate. You are also likely to have frequent urges to urinate although you may pass very little. In some cases the urine looks cloudy or reddish.

If you also have fever, nausea or constant pain in the lower abdominal area then this is a sign that the infection may have spread to the kidneys and you should see a doctor immediately to prevent possible permanent damage to the kidneys.

Home Remedies For Bladder Infection

One of the most important things to do if you have a UTI is to drink plenty of water. Have one 8 oz glass every 20-30 minutes. Assuming that your kidneys and bladder are functioning correctly and the infection is limited to the urethra, this is often enough to flush out the system. The body’s natural healing process together with the mild anti bacterial properties of urine may be able to deal with the infection by themselves when fresh urine is washing through the system quickly.

However, if you want to give your body a helping hand, cranberry juice is the best known natural remedy for UTI. This has been used for over one hundred years to help people with infections of the bladder and associated passages. It appears to work because proanthocyanins in cranberry juice help to prevent bacteria sticking to the walls of the urinary passages. They can then be washed out more easily by the urine.

You can either eat cranberries, drink juice diluted in water (unsweetened) or buy supplements of cranberry extract from a health food store. Research seems to show that cranberry extract supplements are the most effective.

In the case of sexually transmitted bladder infection both partners will need tests and treatment although often only one partner has symptoms. If the other partner is not treated too, the infection will recur. Medical tests can identify this type of infection.

If the infection spreads to the kidneys it can become very serious, and in some cases this can happen even when the symptoms have been controlled. There is also a risk of recurrence. Therefore you should always see a doctor even if these home remedies for bladder infection seem to have worked for you.

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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.

Tags: bladder infection, fever, health-food store, home remedies, natural remedy, nausea, pain, urinary tract infection

If you have been diagnosed with arthritis, you may be looking for an arthritis remedy. If your arthritis is not a suitable case for surgery right now, if you are hoping to avoid surgery or if you are waiting, you may benefit from various natural remedies that have been successful for other people.

The word arthritis means inflammation of the joints. There are two types of arthritis:

Osteoarthritis – caused by degeneration of the cartilage in the joints. Cartilage cushions the bones and allows joints to move smoothly. When it is worn away, the body tries to compensate for it by laying down extra bone. But this does not have the same properties as cartilage and the result is stiffness and pain. Osteoarthritis usually affects older people although it can develop in a younger person, especially where joints have been damaged by injury. Knees, hips and shoulders are the most commonly affected joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis – this is a very different condition, an auto immune inflammation of the joints. It is caused by a deficiency in the endocrine system and appears to have an inherited genetic component. For most people it comes and goes, often flaring up at times of stress or when the body is weakened by sickness. It may begin at any age. It generally starts by affecting the joints of the fingers and toes, often resulting in distortion which can be permanent.

Arthritis Natural And Home Remedies

There are reports that arthritis can be helped by a number of natural and home remedies.

Raw potato extract is a traditional remedy that has been used for centuries. Wash a medium size potato but do not peel. Be sure it has no green patches. Cut it into thin slices. Lay the slices in a bowl, cover with water and cover the bowl. Leave overnight. Drink the water in the morning.

Copper is believed to strengthen the muscular system, helping to maintain flexibility. You can either take a copper supplement, wear a copper bracelet or drink water that has been standing in copper overnight. However it is important not to have too much copper in the system relative to other minerals, or other problems could develop. So do not take copper to excess.

Calcium supplements can also help some cases of arthritis. If you prefer not to take supplements you can take calcium in dietary form. Black sesame seeds (unhulled) are a good source. You will need to buy them from a health food store because most sesame seeds sold in supermarkets are hulled and are not a good source of calcium. You can grind them and add a little sesame oil to make tahini, or soak them for a couple of hours and sprinkle on bread or cereals.

Glucosamine sulphate is a supplement that can help reduce inflammation and pain in some cases. It is particularly good for less severe arthritis in the knee, and may help to prevent it worsening.

Garlic and turmeric both have anti inflammatory properties and can be included in your diet in generous quantities.

A mono diet of bananas, which are rich in potassium and vitamin B6, can be helpful in treating a flare up of rheumatoid arthritis. Eat only bananas for up to 3 days. Bananas should be ripe, i.e. starting to show brown spots on the skin.

Some foods appear to make arthritis worse and should be avoided. Trigger foods will be different for different people. You may have to cut them all out of your diet for at least 4 days and then reintroduce them one by one to feel the effects. This is a list of common trigger foods:

- sugar
- caffeine
- red meat
- dairy products
- citrus fruits
- corn
- wheat
- salt
- artificial sweeteners and other food additives

Generally it is good to keep the joints moving as much as possible to main flexibility. Mild osteoarthritis especially can be helped by regular practice of gentle forms of yoga and pilates. Be careful not to force your joints beyond a comfortable stretch.

Be sure to see your doctor if you believe you have arthritis and discuss with him or her any natural arthritis remedy that you are considering.

Tags: anti inflammatory, arthritis, dairy products, Food additives, health-food store, home remedies, inflammation, little sesame oil, Natural Arthritis Remedy Solutions, natural remedies, osteoarthritis, pain, rheumatoid arthritis, surgery

The most effective gall stone home remedy is a simple gall bladder flush. Yes simple – not the nicest way to spend a Saturday perhaps but for most people, better than needing surgery somewhere down the line.

First, loosen the stones by drinking an 8 oz glass of apple juice morning and evening for 4-6 weeks. This is a very important step and you should not skip it and try to do the flush right away, it just will not work.

The best kind of apple juice is home made by putting organic apples through a juicer. Next best, buy organic apple juice from a health food store. It must be made from whole apples, not concentrate, with no added sugar or other additives, and not the kind that will keep for months.

Try to eat healthy foods during these 4-6 weeks. In particular, make sure you are getting enough fiber so that your digestive system and bowels are working well. This may mean increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables above the famous ‘5 a day’.

Then you will need to set aside a day when you are home with no commitments. You are going to need to be in or near a bathroom most of the day.

The day before, you will do a short semi-fast. You will not eat any solid food this day. Drink your apple juice in the morning as usual and you can have another glass at lunchtime if you want.

If you have not done a juice fast before, do not worry, it is not as difficult as it may sound. Any time you feel yourself tempted to eat other foods, just remind yourself that it is only for one day and it needs to be done for the sake of your health. A lot of people do juice-only fasts of 1 to 7 days as a regular thing. In fact, there is even a fashion right now of 90 day ‘juice feasting’ where no solid food is eaten for 3 months. So you can do it for just one day, right?

In the evening, before going to bed, drink 8 oz of organic extra virgin olive oil mixed with 4 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice from actual whole lemons. This mixture tastes something like salad dressing. You will probably need about 4 lemons, depending on size and juiciness. Do not use bottled lemon juice.

In the morning (at least 8 hours later) take a fast-acting natural laxative, either epsom salts or 10 oz citrate of magnesia (not milk of magnesia). You should then expect to need the bathroom often for several hours because you are going to have diarrhea.

In with the diarrhea you should find that you pass many little green stones like small peas. These are the gall stones.

Congratulations, you have successfully flushed out your gall bladder!

This process may be helpful for healthy adults but is not recommended for anybody needing medical attention. If you have any health issues consult your doctor before using this gall stone home remedy or other natural remedies.

Tags: diarrhea, food, gall stone, gall stones, health-food store, home remedy, natural remedies, surgery, virgin olive oil

What is the Dietrine carb blocker?

As you know I am a big proponent of using a good diet and exercise to lose weight. There is no such thing as taking a pill to lose weight and even if a pill did the job I am not sure that in the end it makes you any healthier than a classic couch potato.

Most of the time we can just exercise and have a good diet and will lose weight easily that way. Sometimes this does not work though. I get emails every week from people that seem to have trouble losing weight, if they just have two pieces of bread they seem to gain weight easily the next day. I have looked around for a long time for something that would help everyone with this problem.

I have just run across a type of diet supplement known as a carb blocker.

The Dietrine Carb Blocker works with your body’s own natural processes to prevent carbs from being stored as fat. The effective ingredient works by neutralizing the alpha amylase enzyme, effectively limiting the breakdown of carbohydrates into glucose and fat, meaning that your caloric intake can be dramatically decreased, even with carbohydrate-rich foods. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: carb blocker, chemicals, crazy dangerous ephedrine product, dietrine, food, food stores, health-food store, Weight Loss

Vista Magazine is a great source for many alternative medicine info and I always pick up the latest magazine when I am near a health food store. I read through the latest copy and found a great article that talks about the importance of multivitamins.

As you know from some of my past posts I am a firm believer in multivitamins although I do not think that they are in any way a replacement for good healthy whole food.

Ensuring that your family’s nutritional needs are met can be a pot and pan-noisy event. Add to that the challenge of guiding your family through the piles of nutritional information available and you may feel overwhelmed.

Quiet the noise and feel sure that your family’s requirements are satisfied by discovering what there is to know about multivitamins.

We all know that multivitamins are a combination of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) that are essential for general health and well-being. The body is a symphony of chemical reactions, each requiring particular nutrients to occur properly. By ensuring that all of these nutrients are present, the body can function optimally, resulting in feelings of energy, vitality and health.

Are all multivitamins the same?

No. There are more than a dozen multivitamins sold in Canadian stores. Investigate the differences to decide which one is best for you.

There are two main groups: synthetic and whole food multivitamins. Synthetic multivitamins are formed by creating all of the essential vitamins and minerals in a laboratory and combining them into a capsule or tablet. Whole food multivitamins also contain all of the essential vitamins and minerals, but because they are made from concentrates of whole fruits and vegetables, they also contain additional nutrients. Many of these additional nutrients are necessary for the body to be able to absorb the essential vitamins and minerals. For example, vitamin C is more efficiently absorbed in the presence of bioflavonoids, which are naturally present in oranges and other whole foods. By using whole fruit and vegetable concentrates, whole food multivitamins offer a more complete nutritional source, and are more bioavailable (better absorbed by the body).

Some multivitamins contain more than just vitamins and minerals. Today, multivitamins may contain green foods, mushrooms, essential fatty acids and amino acids. All of these nutrients play a part in ensuring that the symphony of reactions in the body is functioning optimally.

Who needs a multivitamin?

Nutrients are essential to every reaction in our body. However, there are some age groups that have greater nutritional needs than others.

Kids and teenagers
Growing bodies are working hard to create new cells while still maintaining energy and health in existing cells. As a result, they are in great need of essential vitamins and minerals. Children, teenagers, athletes and pregnant women’s bodies face these growing nutritional challenges. A multivitamin can offer all of the vitamins and minerals needed to promote healthy growth.

Another area of the body that experiences rapid growth is the immune system. During the invasion of an infectious microbe, the ability of white blood cells to rapidly multiply is drastically affected by nutritional status. Multivitamins have been shown to enhance many aspects of the immune response (Nutrition, Oct. 2001).

Adults
Adults also need multivitamins. In your 20s, ensuring your diet contains lots of vitamins and minerals can correct any nutritional deficiencies you have developed in your teens and reduce your risk of developing long term deficiencies such as osteoporosis. In your 30s, running after the kids and trying to manage a career can cause you to reach for convenience foods which lack essential nutrients. A multivitamin can help address the potential nutrient deficiencies. In your 40s, fine lines start to appear and a desire to focus on anti-aging emerges. The antioxidant power available in a multivitamin can help prevent the aging damage caused by free radicals in the body.

The elderly
As you age, the body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients decreases. This can lead to nutritional deficiencies. The risk of malnutrition increases the risk of infection. Studies have found that multivitamins can reduce the mean annual number of days spent with infection in the elderly (BMJ, July 2005). Daily multivitamin use in the elderly has been recommended by scientific reviews (Clin. Infect. Dis., Dec. 2001).

Now that you know who needs multivitamins I should tell you what I am taking daily and why. I take a fairly good multivitamin (but not one of those expensive ones), a calcium for my teeth and bones (Idon’t drink much milk), a B50 to supplement the B vitamins that are always short in a multivitamin, and an Omega 3-6-9 vitamin for the healthy fish oils.

Tags: Alternative Medicine, chemical reactions, energy, food multivitamins, health-food store, healthy whole food, malnutrition, Microsoft Vista, nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, still maintaining energy, synthetic and whole food multivitamins

Travel exercise, Working out and being healthy when out of town on business can be very difficult. Just ask anyone that does a lot of traveling and you will hear the not so glamorous story or too much fatty restaurant food and no exercise while working in a hotel room in the evening.

I have traveled off and on over the years for work and I still remember how exciting it was to stay in hotels and have the company pay the restaurant food bills but by the time I go home a week later I was not feeling very well. I really took this memory to heart for my trips from then on. Here are a few tips that may help you even with travel exercise even if it is for going on holidays.

Pack workout gear for travel exercise
Before going out of town make sure that you pack some workout clothes, not many just a shirt, shorts and sweats. When I travel I actually bring my running shorts (I am not much of a runner) and then I can workout in the shorts and let them do double duty as swim trunks for after my workout.

Choose accommodation wisely
When booking your hotel you will likely have a few options. I have always booked into one of these business convenient hotels with a small indoor pool, hot tub and basic exercise room. The price is never any different and you still have all you need for exercise. I also make sure there is a basic free breakfast so that I can have a fairly simple breakfast to start the day. I hesitate to write this but one thing you can check is wether your gym or health club has a deal with another one where you are going, if there is a deal and it is more than just a few blocks away it will probably do you much good though. Are you really going to leave the hotel and go very far to workout…don’t take the chance of giving yourself an excuse not to have travel exercise.

Buy portable food
As soon as you get checked into the hotel make sure you find a mall or health food store or gym and buy some protein or energy bars. These bars are the single best way to avoid eating too much food in restaurants and still allow you eat on a better schedule than just breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Exercise a schedule
The best way to get your travel exercise in first of all is to get up a little early in the morning and have a cardio workout. Getting that biking or treadmill time in will force you to get something done in case the day gets away from you later on. Usually when out of town I feel a little out of sorts and this gives me a good time as well to kind of figure out my schedule for the day in my mind. Also when out of town try to set up that morning schedule that you have a light breakfast most days as your business lunches and dinners will likely weigh you down more than they do at the office.

Stay of the road when running
This is a little bit of a tough one. Running is a great form of travel exercise. If you are a runner then you probably do like to run outside in new cities and although that can be a very nice way to get your exercise you should find out about the area beforehand. In most modern cities it is not very far from the downtown to the skids. You do not want to get lost on the bad side of the tracks and at the same time you definitely want to be aware of the traffic and pedestrian flows.

Grab a bottle of water
Flying and staying in hotels is a killer on your skin and body because of the dryness more than anything. Pay attention to the air conditioning and be aware of your fluid intake. It is always easier when you are away to drink more coffee and soda but you really need to drink a lot of water. During those hotel workouts you will probably notice that you are much thirstier than you would be at home so drink up.

Follow these tips and plan how you are going to treat your body out of town and you will feel much better when you get home.

Tags: energy bars, fatty restaurant food, food, health-food store, restaurant food bills, runner, Travel exercise

I have been seeing a lot of ads and products lately containing Hoodia gordonii that acts as an appetite suppressant. Thought I should post what I have found out about Hoodia gordoni so far. Hoodia is a cactus from Africa that is somewhat endangered, mostly because of the excitement over selling a product that helps people lose weight here in the west. The cactus has been used by bushman in Africa for centuries as an appetite suppressant during long walks through the deserts.

A few years back Pfizer, the makers of Viagra were looking at the properties of the hoodia cactus to see if the rumors that it could be used as an appetite suppressant were in fact true, Pfizer decided that there was nothing to it and released the rights to the product, looks like a strike against hoodia. Next Unilver who makes soaps and consumer products picked up the hoodia mantle and have been using it in diet shakes which has in turn spurned a mini hoodia rush in the weight loss industry.

One of the trends that we always see in supplements is that all products try to include the newest popular product. One of the problems these days is that no one really knows what a good dose of hoodia is and in some products that say they have hoodia as one of the ingredients in fact contain no or almost no hoodia.

Does hoodia gordonii work as an appetite suppressant? Leslie Stahl of 60 minutes tried it during an assignment on the product and thought it worked although one person is only anecdotal evidence not real scientific evidence. As far as science is concerned there have been no studies on people and only one study on animals that proved inconclusive.

If you are interested in hoodia after reading this it is probably best to go to a health food store and try to get some almost pure product to try for yourself to see if YOU think that it helps and at least at this point avoid buying products that do two or three things as the confusion will stop you from being able to test the Hoodia gordonii on it’s own merits.

Tags: Africa, consumer products, health-food store, Leslie Stahl, Next Unilver, pfizer, pure product, viagra

Mens Health is a great magazine ofr telling it like it is, sometimes with a liitle to much brovado. I think this article is really worth it to read though for food substitutions that can make a real difference.
If you keep eating the way you always have, you’ll never improve on the body you’ve got. And the prognosis — on the mom diet, at least — isn’t good. Look at your dad. That’s why we’re providing you with 15 sneaky ways to improve your diet. Same foods, better results. And nobody needs to be the wiser. Just think of these food strategies as the cork in your bat, the glue on your glove, your own personal, syringe-wielding East German Olympic swim-team coach. Only difference is, each one is simple, nutritionally sound, and perfectly legal in all 50 states.

1. Whey your options
Add a cup of ricotta cheese to your fruit smoothie. Ricotta is a soft, mild cheese that’s made almost entirely of whey, the liquid that separates from curd during the cheese-making process. Whey contains cysteine, an amino acid that helps produce a cancer-fighting antioxidant called glutathione. When Ohio State University researchers treated prostate cells with whey protein, glutathione levels jumped by 64 percent.

2. See red
Got leftover tuna salad? Stuff it into a red bell pepper instead of sandwiching it between two slabs of Wonder bread. Red peppers and other red-fleshed fruits such as tomatoes, watermelons, and ruby-red grapefruit are high in lycopene, a phytochemical that can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 20 percent. Bake the pepper and you’ll make it even more potent; heat makes lycopene easier for your body to absorb.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Author, Banish iceberg, Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care, brussels, California, cancer, Cancer Care, chemical compound, Cheryl Forberg, colon cancers, Cynthia Sass, David Grotto, director of nutrition education, Evanston, food, food strategies, food substitutions, food tips, Golf, health-food store, heart attack, heart disease, Illinois, Leonard Bjeldanes, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, Ohio State University, oil, Olympic, Olympic swim-team coach, professor of nutritional sciences, prostate cancer, prostate cancers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of California