THE BRIGHTEST HUB FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS

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Adverse Effects of Artificial Food Coloring on Children

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Have you noticed your kids losing their minds? Well I am not trying to suggest that you come from a family of the mentally deranged; but if you keep eating junk with all those artificial food coloring, you might be getting there!

Artificial food coloring agents or color additives, are substances that are put in food to offset color loss, have the correct natural color variation, improve the natural occurring colors or simply make the food more visually pleasing.  One thing you have to take note of, the different kinds of artificial food coloring you see in what you eat are NOT very colorful. These color additives have been regulated to ensure that they are safe for consumption. Having that said, many health professionals still believe that in whatever amount they come in, they still pose adverse effects, especially in children. Have you come across the phrase “sugar rush”? Whether you already have or you have not, this phrase describes a child’s behavior after consuming a large quantity of sweets. If you can see your children displaying out of control behavior, and bouncing off the walls, that is what is referred to as “sugar rush”.

The Side Effects of Artificial Food Coloring- No Joke

There has been no proof that artificial food coloring causes attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); nevertheless, a number of research has found a link color additives to hyperactivity in children.  So do not be surprised why are your kids are so revved up. You should know the answer to your question already. Although the existing research on these artificial food coloring is not that comprehensive, but it would still be better to avoid dyed foods and beverages from your diet. Many food selections contain artificial food coloring that can have the harmful effects on your children’s behavior like erratic impulse control, inability to focus and absorb,  and too elevated energy level.  Children are very vulnerable to the effects of dyed foods, especially those with ADHD and ADD. As per Dr. David Schad last 2004, “dyed foods will likely induce what he termed– neurobehavioral toxicity” which is responsible for behavioral problems. There is not a definite conclusion that food dyes definitely causes ADHD but many believe there is a link, especially for parents of children who have ADHD and other behavioral problems. Now, we would be able to say that “we are what we eat”.

It is high time, especially for parents, to ensure that they themselves and their children are eating the right food. You have to start turning away from food with artificial food coloring, fast food and processed food. Take time to cook for your children.  Home-cooked meals are always better. Aside from avoiding these foods, as much as we want to, we will not be able to eat according to the food guide. So it is very important to supplement our diet with good nutrition. Taking vitamins and good nutrition helps the body to ward off the impact of “junky” nutrition. We owe it to ourselves and especially our children, to eliminate as many artificial ingredients in our family’s diet and eat the most natural food possible and supplement with the right vitamins.[ad#afterpost]

List of Flowers You Can Eat and Their Health Benefits

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Moringa oleifera flower
Moringa oleifera flower

Did you know that flowers are not just for beautifying your house and garnishing the food? To add icing to the cake, you can eat flowers as well. People can eat every part of many plants including the flower. Flowers are also used in juices, teas, stir-fry dishes, desserts and the like.

Adding flowers to your food can be a great way to add color and flavor.  Some are spicy, some are herbaceous, and some are floral and fragrant.  You will be surprised with the wide range of taste flowers can offer. The culinary use of edible flowers goes way back, thousands of years ago. These are Greeks, Romans and Chinese, whose cultures use flowers in their traditional cooking.   Most edible flowers are best eaten raw.  Now, before picking up flowers in your garden and add it your dish, just remember that: not every flower is edible and avoid flowers that have been sprayed with insecticides, fungicides and /or herbicides. You just do not want to ingest all those harmful chemicals, do you?

Interesting Facts About Flowers

Adding edible flowers to your diet can rejuvenate your health and palate. These flowers contain a variety of nutrients.  Few varieties of flowers are known to support emotional well-being along with health.  The valerian flowers help to heal anxiety and insomnia. They also aid to heal migraines and tension headaches. Chamomiles are known to calm stress and boost the resistance of the immune system. The rose waters help our liver and digestive function while cooling anger. Begonias provide support to liver health and they eliminate toxins from our body.  Chrysanthemums are well regarded as a great tonic for healing colds and fevers. Wait, it does not end here. There’s more!

List of Flowers You Can Eat and Snippets of Their Health Benefits

Here are some more recommended edible flowers and their health benefits:
Violets decorate a fresh, grass-like flavor to desserts and garnishes. These delicate flowers supply rutin which have been believed to strengthen capillary structure.

Lavenders soothe the nervous system. They can be relished in Herb de Provence spice blend, which exude a savory and complex flavor to soup and potatoes.

Borages are used as tea or ingredients in salads. These beautiful blue beauties have a resemblance of subtle cucumber taste, and are pretty useful in balancing the hormones and helping to fight upper respiratory tract infections such as colds and coughs.

Roses are abundant in antioxidants that aid in the prevention and combating cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Roses are classic flowers that come in a variety of colors wherein each has its own distinct bioactive pigments with white having the least. Roses are well-loved flowers of all time.

Nasturtiums, lemon gem marigolds, and calendula petals provide a bright flamboyant contrast in salads, thus projecting an earthy, peppery flavor. The orange pigment possesses the important anti-cancer compound lycopene while yellow varieties are rich in nutrient called lutein, which is known for protecting our eyesight.

One thing is for certain, growing such flowers you can eat can be an enjoyable indoor project, and at the same time another addition to a healthy diet which provides a bounty of beauty and healthy well-being.

Resource Links:

  1. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8513.html
  2. http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm

The Best Exercises for an Apple Body Shape

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Large waist, big breasts, and a bulky midsection in symmetry to small backside, arms and legs: Does this description suit you? If so, then it looks like you are categorized as an apple-shaped figure. Do not worry, it does not imply that you are doomed to resemble an apple all throughout your life. You are just likely to carry unwanted pounds that you need to shed off.

Do not pull a long face. There are a lot of exercises for people with apple  body shape like you. Here they are:

Groove It!

Aerobics Exercises: Engaging in appropriate exercises is the most effective way to build some muscles and mold that apple body shape. Focus on aerobic training to burn fat especially on your midsection. With at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercises daily, you can set a goal to lose those ugly spare tires on your waist. Plus, you can reduce your health risks by as much as 50 percent when performing aerobic exercises. Sweat it out, baby! While you will never be an hour glass figure, you can become a healthier apple by saying goodbye to your love handles forever!

Shape It Up!

Front Planks- Strengthen and condition your core muscles with abdominal exercises.

  • Start it by lying on your back with a mat on the floor. Put your palms down and position your hands forward. Place your elbows close to your sides right under your shoulders. Then, stretch your legs, grab your toes unto your shins and contract your core muscles.
  • Slowly lift your body off the mat, keep your midsection and legs stiff — your weight should rely on your arms and toes. Do not bend your lower back, raise your hips up nor bend your knees. Just keep your shoulders over your elbows and keep your palms faced down.
  • Breathe deeply and hold the position for five seconds or so. After that, gently lower your body on to the mat while ensuring your torso is stiff and your knees are extended.

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Move That Body!

Crunches- Begin this apple shape busting exercise by resting on your back on a mat, bending your knees, and keeping your feet flat on the floor and positioning your heels 12 to 18 inches from your tailbone.

  • After that, you can place your hands at the back of your head, then keep your shoulder blades together and pull your elbows behind.
  • Exhale and contract your abdomen while flexing your chin a little bit toward your chest, and slowly curl your torso toward your thighs.
  • Place your feet, tailbone and lower back directly on the mat all the time. Curl your whole body up till your upper back is off the mat. Then, hold this position quickly. As you breathe in, slowly lower your body back on to the mat.

At the end of the day, it does not really matter what your body shape is, what is truly important is how healthy you are and how comfortable you are of yourself. These exercise tips are aimed at guiding you to look your best by merely removing any body confidence and self-esteem issues you may be having.[ad#afterpost]

Resource Link:

Beyonce’s Workout Secrets for a Sexy Physique

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Beyonce Knowles
Beyonce Knowles (Wikimedia Image)

Beyonce Knowles is the epitome of a vogue goddess. She is one of the sexiest female celebrities of all time who has a gorgeous body that goes with a phenomenal voice.  She is a recording artist (who started getting famous for her song “Independent Women”), actress and fashion designer.  She has inspired a lot of youth with her success story.  One of the most amazing traits of Beyonce is her untiring drive to succeed with everything she puts her mind to.  All throughout her career, she has kept her curvy figure and she has inspired women like you that you do not need to be super skinny to be sexy.  And so, people are wondering what her secret is to maintaining her voluptuous figure.

Beyonce’s General Rule of Thumb

Use a diet plan that complements your exercise program.   All of your hard work will only go to waste if you have a poor diet. Consult a dietitian for a diet menu that would suit your lifestyle while exercising.  Beyonce says, “I eat a lot of boring things like green vegetables. I do not eat red meat or bread and I do not drink alchohol – I just do not like the taste.” Well, boring things could do you a lot sometimes!  She eats a lot of vegetables every day and her overall diet consists of low-fat, low-carbohydrate and low-calorie intake.

Featuring The Lemonade Diet

She was able to lose weight rapidly when she went on the “Lemonade Diet” to quickly drop 20 pounds for her role as Deena in Dreamgirls.  The lemonade diet, also labeled to as the Master Cleanser, helps ward off the toxins in the body.  You prepare the drink with lemons, purified water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.  This diet is actually more like a fast one because it does not let you crave for any actual food and is only followed for about 10 days only. You drink the lemonade during daytime and drink laxative tea at night.  It’s known to be very effective to lose weight but only temporarily.
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Beyonce’s Insights Into How She Keeps her Sexy Physique

Workout five days per week, change routine regularly.
-Starts off with a bowl of cereal, waiting about 30 minutes to let it digest and then doing a cardio for 30 minutes followed by a  45 minute  of dumbbell workout to keep her body toned, and Beyonce changes her exercise plan from time to time because it helps her not to get bored with the routine.

Do yoga.
– Yoga not only tones her legs and thighs but helps Beyonce relax and meditate, letting her mind rest.

Dancing makes it a whole lot better.
– Dancing is the best exercise, as per Beyonce.  Dancing gives the actress the opportunity to have fun while her body burns calories.

Beyonce’s workout secrets are just like other Hollywood workout secrets.  Eating low-fat, low-calorie and low-carbo diet can give you the best results faster. By eating at most six meals a day, you can fasten your metabolism which would aid you to replace your belly fat with well-toned muscles. Voila!  And just with constant exercise, you can always achieve your goal. What your mind and heart can conceive, your body can surely achieve, just like Beyonce Knowles.[ad#afterpost]

Side Effects of Magnesium Supplements

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Nowadays, loads of supplements are found in the market. Most of them are over the counter so doctor’s prescription is not required This is not a good scenario since many supplements like magnesium supplements are not safe to take at all times because they can cause side effects to our body if we take them wrongly. Magnesium supplements can cause dangerous side effects to our body if we over dose in taking them.  This is the reason why it is highly recommended that a doctor’s guidance is needed when we take mineral supplements like magnesium. In this article we are going to learn the functions of magnesium in the body and the possible side effects of taking magnesium supplements.

Magnesium is the  8th most abundant mineral on Earth and 4th in the  human body. It is  estimated that an average human body has 25 milligrams of magnesium and most of it are found in the bones. It is considered as a crucial mineral in the body for it plays a vital role in maintaining homeostasis or physiological balance. It participates in several chemical reactions needed for normal functioning of the body. It affects the musculoskeletal, neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and immune system of the body.

In the musculoskeletal system, magnesium helps in the  contraction and relaxation of muscles and in the absorption of calcium used in bone development. When there is low amount of magnesium in the body, there will be muscle weakness because the muscles cannot contract properly. At the same time, there will be bone fragility for calcium cannot be absorbed properly in the absence of magnesium. On the other hand, if the body’s magnesium level shoot up abnormally, by taking magnesium supplements for example,  there will be muscle cramps, muscle spasm, and too much bone deposition.

Neurologically, magnesium affects the mental state of a person if the level of it is too high. It  can cause seizure and personality changes if its level is low.

Magnesium also participates in excitation and contraction of the heart. It maintains the smooth regular heart beat by combating any systemic stress.  Thus, if the level is too high it will cause decreased  blood pressure and irregular heart beat. If the level is low, it may cause cardiac spasm.

Magnesium helps in the relaxation of the respiratory system. When magnesium is low, definitely a person will experience breathing difficulty.

Magnesium also boosts the immune system of a person. If there is magnesium deficiency, a person will have a weak immune system and will be at high risk of being infected.

If a person has kidney disease and taking diuretics, it is not recommended for him to take magnesium supplement because it will be difficult for him to excrete excess amount of magnesium leading to  dangerous increased in magnesium concentration in the body.

Moreover, when a person is having heart problems, he must consult his physician first before taking magnesium supplement because it can cause irregular heart beat, cardiac weakness, and dangerous decrease in blood pressure.

Knowing the various side effects of taking magnesium supplements, we need to be cautious in taking them by following the right dosage prescribed by our doctor. Too much magnesium in our body may lead dizziness, flushing, muscle paralysis, troubled breathing, blurred vision, drowsiness and even coma or death.  It is recommended to take not more than 350 mg of magnesium supplement per day. To avoid magnesium deficiency, we should eat foods reach in magnesium such as green leafy vegetables, nuts, fish and meat. If we eat these foods regularly, we may not need to take iron supplements to avoid side effects.[ad#afterpost]

The Meaning of Low Platelet Count in Blood Test Result

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Red_White_Blood_cells
Scanning electron micrograph of blood cells. From left to right: human erythrocyte, activated thrombocyte (platelet), leukocyte. (Wikimedia Image)

Platelets are components of our blood that primarily aid in blood clotting. Blood clotting stops bleeding in cuts or wounds; without it any wound we incur would lead to massive hemorrhaging and eventually death. Platelets are the most numerous component of our blood, though they only account for only twenty percent of our total blood volume. Together with red blood cells and some white blood cells, platelets are formed in the bone marrow by cells called megakaryocytes. However, the platelet itself is not a cell but simply cell fragments. They do however contain proteins on their surface that do a variety of functions to limit bleeding. Some proteins found in platelets allow themselves to stick together and block breaks in blood vessels while other proteins call or attract more platelet fragments to help block the breach. Since platelets are the lightest component of blood, they are shuttered away from the center of blood vessels and instead move along the sides, making their job of sealing breaks in the blood vessel easier.

Thrombocytopenia or low platelet count is a symptom of many diseases. It can be detected by undergoing a complete blood count test. The normal platelet count for humans is in between 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter (µL) of blood. Lower than 150,000 platelets would signify thrombocytopenia while higher than 450,000 platelets means having a high blood platelet count or thrombocytosis. Extremely low platelet counts may lead to bleeding from gums, bruises, rashes, and skin irritation.

There are several meanings of a low platelet count. It could be an enlargement of the spleen. This small organ plays a role in cleaning the blood for old red blood cells, as well as for removing phagocytosed intruders. An enlargement of the spleen may be caused by infections and other factors that would lead platelets to be gravitated towards it, reducing the amount circulating in the blood.[ad#co-1]

A platelet usually has a lifespan of only 10 days. When platelet production is reduced, the amount of platelets available in the blood may run out after 10 days. Platelets are produced in the bone marrow, thus a multitude of diseases such as leukemia, AIDS, and anemia may limit the number of platelets produced. Aside from infections, the production of platelets can be hampered by toxic substances, radiation, and heavy alcohol consumption.

Another meaning of low platelet counts is that the body’s immune system may be consuming platelets. Platelets can be consumed or utilized by the body faster than it can be manufactured. Pregnancy in women lowers platelet counts. Bacterial infections may destroy platelets at a fast rate, lowering their numbers in the blood. Dengue fever causes drop in platelets due to hemorrhaging and the body’s attempt to cope with the disease. Another severe cause of low platelet count is thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura or TTP. It is a condition in which platelets attract one another, forming blood clots. Another condition is Ideophatic thrombocytopenic purpura. In this condition, the antibodies of a person attacks platelets, diminishing their numbers. Some drugs, particularly those used for chemotherapy or those that damage the bone marrow may also deplete platelet counts in the body.

The first step in treating low platelet counts is identifying the root cause. Usually, treatments are at a case to case basis, and if the cause is life threatening, other symptoms may be addressed first before treating low platelet counts. Some herbs like tawa-tawa, papaya leaves and Neem leaves are said to be able to augment the body’s platelet counts, particularly after dengue fever.  A healthy lifestyle is always the first defense against platelet disorders.[ad#afterpost]

Reference

  • Loscalzo, Joseph; Fauci, Anthony S.; Braunwald, Eugene; Dennis L. Kasper; Hauser, Stephen L; Longo, Dan L. (2008). Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. McGraw-Hill Medical