Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Health Tips For You

Watch What Goes Into Your Mouth

MESSAGE IN THE FAMILY TREE

Close on the heels of the news that sugar is addictive comes a second body blow - your bad eating are being passed on to your children through your genes. Researchers at the Baker 101 Heart and Diabetes Institute found that human cells have the ability to "remember' and can replicate the effects of a poor diet on a body for weeks, months, and even generations. According to lead researcher Prof Assam EI-Osta: "We now know that chocolate bar you had this morning can have very acute effects, this is what we refer to as the burden of memory." 'The changes initiated by diet create a kind of ghost that lives within our genes, and that these epigenetic changes remember the effects the study showed that very specific molecular events occur after the consumption of high glucose food causing chemical changes to people's genetic controls. These changes continue beyond the meal itself, and have the ability to alter natural metabolic responses to diet. The good news - the flip is true as well: By having a good diet, you can pass on a healthy epigenome to your children.

Revealing Eyes

TELL-TALE PEEPERS Your eyes are the most important physical feature you have when it comes to how others assess your age and vitality, according to a recent study at University of Tennessee Health Science Center published in Ophthalmology.
• Although the eye area represents only 21 per cent of the total face, study participants spent 46 per cent of the time looking at this region while assessing age.
* The nose attracted about 19.2 per cent of total scrutiny time during age assessment, followed by the forehead (13.3 per cent) and area between eyebrows (10.6 per cent).
* In fatigue assessments, participants spent 44.7 per cent of the time looking at eyes, followed by the nose (18 per cent), forehead (13.7 per cent) and area
between eyebrows (12.3 per cent).

Color Your Moods

BLUE LIGHT FOR THE BLUES It has long been associated with negativity, but according to researchers, the color blue can send self-confidence soaring and boost happiness levels. Researchers from the University of Sussex exposed volunteers to a range of colors and light.

They found that blue and green made male subjects feel happier, while blue, purple and orange did the same for women. It was found that blue and red improved confidence levels among men, while blue and purple were best in this respect for women. The study found that exposure to bright colors in general held out many benefits.

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Health Care Costs - Patient Advocates Can Save You Thousands

You or a family member may have recently had some health care event, such as a hospitalization. Now, over the coming days, the medical bills will arrive at your home. Every medical provider who contributed to your treatment is going to send a bill, and you are the person who bears the financial obligation for payment. If you have health insurance, the insurer may pay a large percentage of your medical bills.

However, an alarmingly large and growing segment of the American population lives each day without health insurance. Insurance experts estimate that over 48 million Americans are living without health insurance. And that number of uninsured persons is expected to increase quickly as the economy worsens and unemployed workers lose their insurance coverage.

When those bills show up after a health care event, a serious financial crisis happens. That patient, or the patient's family, has to figure out a way to pay those medical bills. Those bills can be in the thousands of dollars. For more serious illness and treatment, the bills can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you make mistakes while taking care of these medical bills, you could put yourself in a financial situation from which you could never recover.

Think for a moment how ridiculous the system is for providing medical services. You go to your medical provider for a visit. No one gives you a price list of services. You are not told how much ANYTHING costs while you're being treated. Usually you find out the cost of your medical services when they present the bill to you.

Would you agree to buy groceries like that? Would you get your car repaired with that kind of billing arrangement? Of course not! You wouldn't even bury your dead cat without knowing what it would cost!

But, in medical services, ignorance about billing is the accepted method among most consumers.

Sadly, many of the medical bills are incorrect...sometimes monstrously incorrect. Billing errors happen daily on all levels...Doctor to patient, doctor to coding staff or billing service, billing service to patient.

So, what can be done? How can a regular person...an average American faced with giant medical bills...determine the correct medical charges and get correct medical bills?

Retain a Patient Advocate.

Hardly anyone knows about Patient Advocates. You can be sure that the medical providers and insurance companies will NEVER tell you about them.

Why?

Think about it from an insurance company's viewpoint. If the patient hires a Patient Advocate, and the Advocate does his job, the chances are good that the insurance company will pay more on the patient's claim.

Think about it from the medical provider's viewpoint. If the patient hires a Patient Advocate and the Advocate does his job, the chances are good that the medical provider is going to receive substantially less money for his services.

A Patient Advocate is a person or company that

• Will collect all your bills, claim forms and statements, even if they're in a "shoebox"
• Analyzes the bills
• Submits appeals for incorrect charges
• Negotiates settlements with medical providers

The Patient Advocate can cut hundreds or thousands of dollars out of incorrect bills.

EVERYTHING in a medical bill is negotiable. Don't be the sucker that pays the bills without making sure they are accurate. Medical providers negotiate their bills with insurance companies EVERY DAY. Why should you pay more?

NEGOTIATE!!

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Can Being Overweight Prevent You From Obtaining Health Insurance?

During the past 10 years there has been a dramatic upturn in Obesity and overweight adults in America and as you can imagine it has had a serious cost impact on the U.S. health care system. While many consumers who are denied health insurance coverage for being overweight or rated with a "fat tax" may feel that they are being jilted by the insurance underwriting system. Fair or not treatment for health issues associated with overweight and obese individuals does have significant repercussions on the economy and the overall cost of health care.

The underwriters use a system for determining your height and weight calculations to determine acceptable ranges. The correlation of the two defines a number called the BMI or " body mass index" and gives the underwriters an estimate of body fat. According to the department of human health services a BMI of 30 is considered obese and 25 to 29.9 is overweight. If your BMI is higher than 43 you will not likely qualify for traditional health insurance coverage. If your BMI is between 29-43, a health insurer may choose to offer you health insurance with a rated up premium. If you have pre-existing health issues in relation to your weight, such as diabetes, hypertension or heart disease, a health insurer may deny you coverage altogether, even if your BMI is within range. In addition to the BMI the belly fat or waist circumference is a good indicator of future health problems associated with excess weight such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Overweight inactive individuals with a propensity to store excess stomach fat will eventually experience insulin resistance, and or other heart health issues. When underwriters review an application and see that an applicant has a combination of these pre-existing conditions a red flag is immediately raised regarding the application. Underwriters have certain risk criteria they use when combining your BMI with other risk factors such as smoking, and the health issues previously mentioned that might be exacerbated when combined together.

Certain combinations of these will result in a decline for health coverage. Excess Weight Affect Your Health and Cost of Health care? While many overweight individuals may feel they are being railroaded by the insurers, the conclusion is that between 2 and 7% of all health care cost are associated with overweight and obesity, which resulted from health issues associated with the treatment of the overweight factors such as hypertension, insulin resistance or diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiac conditions, certain forms of cancer, respiratory issues, inactivity, absenteeism from work, mortality cost, and loss of family income from premature death. What You can Do to Obtain Approval For A Health Insurance Policy If you believe you may be overweight and may not qualify for individual or family health coverage, you can take a few precautions prior to submitting a health application. You should find a qualified health insurance broker who offers more than one carrier's products and is knowledgeable about some of the underwriting requirements or is able to research the best plan for you.

You can complete a prescreen application which will allow the broker to communicate with underwriters the issues prior to submitting the application and improve your chances of approval and avoid a potential decline. A decline can really be detrimental to obtaining creditable coverage. You should also review the BMI tables while not all tables are the same this will give you an idea of how close or far you are from current healthy body mass index levels for your height. Lastly consider improving your health for your own benefit by starting some basic exercise like walking 30 minutes a day, educating yourself about nutritious foods, eliminating empty calories like sugar and saturated fats and creating a lifestyle that makes you feel good, makes you productive, make you look great, reverse some health problems altogether and extend your life and most of all affords you quality health insurance.

Chris Beard is a virtual insurance agent providing automated online and tele-service insurance services to protect Florida families with health insurance, HSAs, life insurance, mortgage protection, medicare advantage and temporary health plans.
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Monday, April 27, 2009

The Top 5 Habits For Health

Diseases are a lot like breakups: they are better prevented than cured. That said, when it comes to your body, you really should do everything you can to keep your body healthy.

This doesn't mean, however, that you go around depriving yourself of your pleasures. A steak will always taste tastier than broccoli, but it doesn't mean you can eat steak everyday and not suffer from high levels of bad cholesterol.

The key to keeping yourself healthy without depriving yourself of fun is to keep everything in moderation, and incorporate some healthy habits in your daily life.

Here are the top five habits for healthy living:

1. Drinking Enough Water Properly

Do you know how many liters of water you need to drink EVERYDAY? You answered correctly if you said three liters. It sounds like a lot but it really isn't much when you consider that our body is composed mostly of water. Water is also important for transporting nutrients throughout the body, as well as in keeping your skin hydrated.

How do you drink water? Spread your water drinking throughout the day. Immediately after waking up, drink two cups of water to awaken your body and to clean your bowels. Thereafter, drink half a cup of water every ten minutes. Avoid drinking water 30 minutes before meals and one hour after meals. Drinking too soon before and after a meal will dilute your digestive juices and can cause indigestion.

2. Eating Right

How do you eat right? By not skipping meals. Did you know that skipping meals actually causes your body to cope by slowing its metabolism, i.e., conserving calories by storing fat? Skipping meals also causes food cravings that cause food bingeing later in the day.

3. Eating More Fruits, Veggies And Fiber

Part of eating right is actually eating healthy foods. And by healthy, we mean eating more fiber and more fruits and vegetables. Eating nutrient-filled food ensures that your body gets all the nutrients that it needs. You don't have to turn your back on that medium rare steak, but keep it in moderation.

4. Fasting

Usually associated with food deprivation, the word "fasting" often sends down chills down anyone's spine. As terrifying as it may sound, fasting is actually a natural therapy method that, when done properly, allows the body to expel toxins over a short period of time. The body's digestive system actually has two main functions: (a) absorbing nutrients and (b) expelling waste.

Over time, our body accumulates waste, because our digestive system cannot handle both functions at the same time. Fasting allows our body to heal itself by allowing the body to take a break from the "absorbing" function. It should be stressed, however, that fasting should be done with a specialist's guidance, otherwise, fasting could harm you. You could take a class at one of those naturopathy schools before doing fasting on your own.

5. Supplementing Your Diet

With today's busy lifestyle, sometimes it's next to impossible to get all the necessary nutrients that our body needs everyday. To this end, you should supplement your diet with vitamin supplements.

Visit the website http://www.vitalnutritionals.com for more information on health, nutrition, and vitamin supplements.

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How to Never Get Sick Again

Nobody wants to get sick. However, most of us do get sick. It may be due to several reasons and the ailments may range from common cold to severe diseases like cancers. Now, it is a common phenomenon that, some people get sick more often, while others get sick less often. While you may find it, queer, it is actually the involvement of a number of factors, which are responsible for this phenomenon.

The following are some of these factors, which are responsible for this phenomenon:

1. Immune system

Your immune system is a major factor, which is responsible for deciding the state of your health. If you get ill quite often, then it might be due to a weak immune system. As it is, the immune system of our body has a very important role to play in our lives. Whenever some external particles or microbes enter our body, which can pose a threat to our health, then in that case, the immune system of our body reacts to it. Fever, coughing and sneezing are simple examples of the reaction of our immune system in response to external factors, which pose threat. In order to improve upon the immune system of your body, you should improve upon the intake of foods rich in vitamin C, such as lemon, oranges, tomatoes, and Indian gooseberry, which is one of the richest sources of Vitamin C.

2. Exposure to environmental pollution

If you are working in a highly toxic environment, then you are more likely to get sick. It is therefore; better to take up proper precautionary measures, in order to keep your self in good health. Apart from that, your home could be a breeding ground for dust mites and other microbes. It is therefore, required to keep your house clean, as the dust mites are a major factor for weakening your immune system.

3. Exposure to toxins by way of foods

Apart from all the above factors, another factor, which can prove to be a very important factor in causing sickness, is release of toxins inside your body via food. As it is, it is better, to avoid junk foods, soft drinks as well as other such foods. It is worth noting that, junk foods and soft drinks have little or no nutritional value and quite often are loaded with elements, which are not good for your health. Carbonated drinks release a lot of carbon dioxide inside your body. The higher the carbon dioxide level inside your body, the lower is the effectiveness of your immune system. Therefore, you need to see to it, that you get all the nutrition that your body needs. A balanced diet, along with proper nutrition can be very effective in reducing the chances of toxins.

4. Allergies

A person may suffer from a number of allergies and may never know about it. In most of the cases allergies to several factors remain undetected. This leads to lack of proper health and frequent exposure to sickness.

Apart from all, the above factors, a number of other factors may be involved. The above steps can prove to be quite effective in keeping you in good health.

To read more about Lymphatic System visit Lymphatic System Learn more about Infectious Disease

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Natural Cure For Hemorrhoids - Is There One?

All of the surgical procedures one can employ to remove hemorrhoids can sound incredibly frightening and risky, especially at first. To offset this risk, however, one can employ a natural cure, several of which exist. Most of the natural remedies for hemorrhoids work best for external rather than internal hemorrhoids (the difference between the two kinds of hemorrhoids is that external ones are visible while internal ones are up inside the rectum), although some (such as the ones that involve diet changes) are also effective for internal hemorrhoids, as well.

A natural cure is what is called a "setz bath" - a warm bath that is only for the buttocks. These setz baths should be taken before and after each bowel movement to be most effective. One of the causes of hemorrhoids is that the rectum is tense and tight, which leads to the chafing of the inner rectal wall. This is especially true after the tensing and loosening (repeatedly) during a bowel movement. A setz bath allows the rectum to remain loose and relaxed, preventing further chafing. The best tool for a setz bath is a large bowl that can be easily filled with hot water. The buttocks can then be eased into the hot or warm water and left there. Setz baths, to be effective, should last about ten minutes a piece.

Another natural remedy is to eat a lot of citrus. Citrus contains bioflavonoids, which strengthen the inner walls of the rectal blood vessels. When the inner walls of the blood vessels are strengthened, the existing hemorrhoids are cured and future hemorrhoids are prevented from forming. Bioflavonoids can also be ingested in dietary supplements found at natural health stores. Bioflavonoids cannot be seen as a quick fix for the problem of hemorrhoids, of course. There is no such thing. However, adding bioflavonoid to a diet can have a significant different with regards to the prevention and cure of hemorrhages.

Exercise of all types help to prevent and cure this problem. This, too, can be seen as a natural cure for hemorrhoids. By keeping blood flowing steadily into the rectal blood vessels, keeping the metabolism working properly, and smoothing the digestive process, adding exercise (within reason, given the severity of the condition) can make a world of a difference when it comes to getting rid of hemorrhoids. There are many different ways to get rid of those hemorrhoids, so find the one that works best for you.

Get more great tips about a proven natural cure for hemorrhoids. We offer free tips from the best current, scientific research at our http://www.SimplyCureHemorrhoids.com website today!

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