Category: General Article

Overcoming Depression Naturally With Herbs

There are several herbs that have gained popularity for their benefits to mental health and two of the most powerful and readily available in most places are St. John’s Wort and Schizandra.

St. John’s Wort has been popular worldwide as a remedy for relieving depression by promoting feelings of well-being. This herb is useful for relieving anxiety, stress, and insomnia while naturally boosting mood. St. John’s Wort is so effective because it naturally enhances levels of serotonin in the body; serotonin is the “fell good” hormone that is secreted in during pleasant situations but is often lacking in the brains of those who struggle with depression. Please note that there is new research outlining the importance of avoiding St. John’s Wort if you are taking contraceptives, antidepressants, immunosuppressants (like cyclosporine), anticoagulants, Digoxin, HIV medications, blood thinners, seizure-control medicine, or cancer medications. If you are taking any of these medications, avoid the use of St. John’s Wort for depression to keep drug interactions from occurring.

If you’re feeling let-down because you are currently taking some of these medications or are startled at the long list of possible drugs that will interact with the herb, consider Schizandra.

Schizandra is a berry that has been popular in Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is only now gaining popularity in America. Schizandra is an adaptogenic herb meaning it addresses the body as a whole, not only a certain aspect of the system. We’ve learned through modern medicine that we can focus on a symptom of an illness and treat just one symptom at a time to feel well. For example, if you have the flu you may treat the headache with one medication, nausea with another, and fever with a third. Adaptogens work in the opposite way of this and support the system, not causes of illness.

What does this have to do with depression? By incorporating an adaptogen like Schizandra into your daily routine you’ll help your body maintain balance from your brain to your toes. Adaptogens benefit mood, help to detox the body, increase circulation throughout the body, improve concentration, and can safely replace any product you may take to address each of the issues individually.

Herbs can be so beneficial in the fight to overcome depression naturally. Don’t rely solely on the products found in a pharmacy or one created in a lab. Hippocrates said “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food” and I think this is close to what he meant. Nature provides us with outlets that can improve our quality of life tremendously without negative effects to other parts of our body.

Give yourself the opportunity for your whole body to heal. Stop addressing certain symptoms and support yourself, fully.…

Use Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure to Reduce Hypertension Naturally

These days the problem of hypertension or high blood pressure is a common medical condition. When the pressure is exerted on the walls of the arteries by the pressure of blood at the time of circulation then there is an elevation of systematic pressure and this condition is called high blood pressure. Usually the pressure of our blood is high, when the heart pumps the blood in to the aorta and the pressure decreases gradually when the blood reaches the smaller blood vessels like arteries, capillaries and arterioles.

The upper number in the reading of the pressure indicates systolic pressure and the lower number indicates diastolic pressure. There are various causes for the problem of high blood pressure. Some of the important causes of the high blood pressure are intake of contraceptive pills, physical inactivity, stress and anxiety, intake of tobacco and alcohol, obesity, aging, intake of some other medicines like diet pills, amphetamines, pseudoephedrine, family history and sodium or salt sensitivity.

There are lots of symptoms of high blood pressure. Some of the major symptoms of high BP are restlessness, confusion, fatigue, nose bleeding, headache, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, impaired memory, blurred vision, shortness of breath and pain in the chest.

The problem of hypertension can be cured easily with the help of natural remedies. Some of the important natural remedies to reduce hypertension are given below

1. Person suffering from the problem of hypertension must reduce the intake of salt or sodium and must increase the intake of potassium.

2. You must strictly avoid smoking and alcoholism.

3. Blood pressure can be controlled by taking baked potato.

4. You must strictly follow the routine of doing exercises. It will improve blood circulation, metabolism and it will also check obesity.

5. You can also check your hypertension by walking bare foot on green grass for about half an hour. It improves the circulation of blood.

6. Intake of 2-3 cloves of raw garlic daily is very helpful and effective for treating the problem of high blood pressure.

7. You must take the juice of Indian goose berry mixed with honey daily. This is a proven natural precaution against hypertension.

8. Your BP can be immediately reduced, if you take a juice of half lemon in a glass of water.

9. Intake plenty of water is helpful in reducing the problem of hypertension. It improves the circulation of blood and it is also helpful in checking abnormalities due to pressure.…

Eat Your Way to Reduced Hypertension

Eating our way to reduced hypertension is not a far fetched idea; after all, we are what we eat. Just as there are foods, such as salt, that can make our blood pressure soar there are also foods that have the opposite effect.

The problem is our modern diet which is high in saturated fat and sodium, both of which can elevate our hypertension. These are mainly found in the highly processed foods and snacks that we eat on a daily basis.

The solution is simplicity itself. Reducing the amount of saturated fat and sodium in our diet and increasing the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables we eat can lower our high blood pressure.

Which foods should we eat to reduce our hypertension?

Having skimmed milk on our wholegrain breakfast cereal each day can help lower our high blood pressure by as much as ten percent. Skimmed milk is almost fat free, but high in vitamin D and calcium, both of which are known to lower high blood pressure. Calcium can also be found in sardines, salmon, nuts, and dark green leafy vegetables.

Foods that are rich in magnesium, such as beans and spinach, also help to reduce our hypertension. Other sources of magnesium are figs, grapefruit, whole grains, almonds, and apples.

Bananas, oranges, watermelon and spinach are rich in potassium. Potassium helps our bodies to rid itself of extra fluid. That has two benefits. Firstly, it helps eliminate excess sodium; and, secondly our heart does not need to work as hard both of which help to reduce our hypertension. Eating foods high in dietary fibre, such as whole grains, fruit, and vegetables can significantly reduce our high blood pressure.

Not all fats are bad for our health. Our bodies need some fat. Omega-3 fats, typically found in oily fish such as mackerel and salmon, are known to help reduce our hypertension.

Replacing our high fat, salty snacks with fruits high in magnesium, potassium, or calcium is a healthy way to curb our hunger between meals without raising our blood pressure.

Such is the variety of foods that can help to reduce our hypertension it is easy to construct healthy menu plans when they are combined with fish and lean meat without having to eat the same thing every day. Studies have shown that eating enough of these foods in the right combination can be as effective as medicine for some people. We have a choice: we can continue digging our graves with our teeth or we can eat our way to reduced hypertension.…

How Teenage Depression Affects Teenage Self-Esteem

Teenage depression is a common problem faced by many teenagers. Even if they come from the healthiest environment, due to various hormonal changes in their body result in them feeling extremely low and depressed. If parents do not take it seriously it can result in loss of teenage self-esteem and ultimately teenagers can take extreme steps like committing suicide. It is therefore important to give teenagers lots of love and unquestioned support to help them navigate through this difficult phase of their life. Below are some of the symptoms that can help you recognise if your teenager is suffering teenage depression.

Behavioural Traits: Low teenage self-esteem and teenage depression can manifest themselves in the form of extreme behavioural traits like withdrawal or irritable behaviour and increased violence. They might get upset about the smallest of things and start shouting. Often they might throw things in the house or cause destruction in other ways. In some other cases they might withdraw completely and stop communicating with family members.

Suicidal Tendencies and Self-Harm: Suicidal tendencies and self-harm are both extreme symptoms of teenage depression and low teenage self-esteem. Following are some of the key symptoms of suicidal tendencies or self-harm:· Your teenager starts talking about committing suicide · They start associating with death in a positive manner · Some teenagers also go further by fantasising about death through personal diaries or poems and making comments on social networking sites indicating their thoughts· Others show reckless behaviour like driving too fast, hurting themselves and having lot of accidents· Your teenager might also start withdrawing from best friends and family · They can seek weapons and materials to commit suicide· Self harm can be noticed by cuts or scarring, a tendency to wear a different style of clothing to cover up the marks, or finding sharp objects or plasters in your teen’s room.

These behaviours are very serious and as parents you need to take your child to a doctor or psychiatrist immediately.

Eating Disorders: Another major symptom of teenage depression is eating disorders leading to excessive weight gain or loss. Low teenage self-esteem resulting from appearance, obesity or poor performance at school could lead many teenagers to go to the extreme of either eating too much or too little. If you start noticing these signals, it is worth probing to see if your teenager is suffering from depression.

Teenage depression is one of the major reasons for teenage suicides in recent times. Parents need to be extremely careful and should provide maximum support to their teenagers so that they can navigate through this difficult phase of their life with confidence. In the book “Solving Teenage Problems” over 100 tips are provided to help parents support their teenagers who are suffering from depression or any other teenage problem leading to depression. It is important for parents to use every tool within their means to keep their teenagers happy.…

Effects of Hypertension – Its Allopathic and Naturopathic Treatment

Naturopathic treatment is supposed to offer the best cure possible for hypertension patients. Since the illness is most commonly attributed to the lifestyle disorders, the cure too could be possible by correcting the diet and eating habits. However one must know more about the disease in general before following an adequate therapy.

The course of essential hypertension is variable. The blood pressure tends to get higher as the disease progresses, but often 20years or more may elapse before sustained hypertension causes enough damage to produce symptoms or complications in one or more of the target organs. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, there is an abrupt worsening,or acceleration, of hypertension when blood-pressure levels become exceedingly high, leading rapidly to heart or kidney failure or to brain hemorrhage (malignant hypertension). On the other hand, some patients have mild elevations of blood pressure intermittently throughout life without life without progression and with little or no damage to target organs. Untreated, most hypertensive patients die at an earlier age than healthy individuals: the most frequent causes of death are heart failure, heat attack (myocardial infraction), and stroke.

Treatment

Probably no more than 3 percent of all hypertensive patients can be cured by surgical means – removal of a diseased kidney or a tumor of the adrenal gland, surgical repair of a diseased kidney artery, or coarctation of the aorta. For the others, treatment consists of dietary measures to reduce salt intake and – if the patient is obese–weight. Usually one or more drugs are necessary in addition. There are three categories of drugs used to reduce elevated blood pressure: diuretic agents, which promote the loss of water and salt from the body; vasodilator drugs, which relax and dilate the arterioles and thus decrease the resistance to the flow of blood; and drugs–including ganglionic blockers and beta-adrenergic blockers–that impair the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the rate and force of the heartbeat as well as the tone of the arterioles. In the late 1970s a new class of drugs, which inhibit the action of the enzyme renin, was introduced.

It has been demonstrated that if blood pressure is maintained within normal or nearly normal limits with appropriate medication, the fatal and nonfatal complications of hypertension are significantly reduced, especially when diastolic blood pressure is more than 104mm Hg initially. Because hypertension seldom disappears spontaneously, treatment is a lifelong process. Persuading patients to comply with a treatment program for a lifetime now looms as the largest obstacle to adequate control of hypertension.…

Keep HBP in Check After CKD Diagnosis – Part 2

Your last visit to the doctor proved to be worrisome after finding that you are unable to bring down your blood pressure. Compounding your anxiety was the fact your test results confirmed that you have CKD.

What should you do?

You already know that if you have high blood pressure of hypertension you should test for your glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and a blood test for creatinine to determine if you have a kidney disease. The big question is what you should do if these tests show that you do have CKD.

First you need further tests to determine the type of CKD you have which may include an ultrasound to check any problems in size or blockage; and tests to find out the likelihood of developing heart diseases or if you already have heart problems.

Your doctor will make a treatment plan for you based on your CKD stage and sometimes you may need to see a specialist to help develop your treatment plan. Goals for this plan would include lowering your blood pressure less than 130/80; lower your risk for a heart disease; and keep your kidney disease from getting worse.

A lifestyle change is what you primarily need to make your treatment plan work. Change your eating habits and exercise more. It may sound easier said than done, but that’s what you have to do to keep the disease from getting worse.

Highly recommended dietary changes:

CKD stages 1 -2: doctors may recommend a diet high in fruits, vegetables and dairy. This diet is low in sugar and sodium.

CKD stages 1-4: sodium should not be more than 2,400 mg/daily; cut down on foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats; carbohydrates should only be 50-60% of your daily calories.

CKD stages 3-4: control the amount of protein you eat daily; eat fewer foods rich in phosphorus as high levels of phosphorus may lead to bone disease. This mineral is found in dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt, and cocoa, beer and dark cola products; reduce potassium in your diet.

Aside from your modified diet, you also need to lose weight if you are overweight; exercise 30 minutes daily; and stop drinking and smoking.

You are right in not taking your HBP diagnosis lightly because it does increase risk to major illnesses. However, HBP can be controlled and that’s where your challenge lies. Controlling your HBP is in your hands, and also with the help of your family.…

Use Salt-Free Seasonings To Help Fight Back Against High Blood Pressure

For individuals with health risks related to hypertension, using a salt-free or low-sodium seasonings on their food which should be prepared at home, is extremely important in their efforts to fight back against high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, most of the foods we can purchase from the grocery store and in restaurants are heavily seasoned or preserved with salt, so our culture has developed a chronic issue with having over-salted bodies. The kidneys cannot handle the excessive sodium in our diets, which causes the body to retain sodium (a component of salt). To counteract this, a diet low in sodium is important for its many health benefits, primarily to lower high blood pressure.

The average American consumes about 3,300 mg of sodium per day. This is far too much! Currently, it is suggested that a low-sodium diet restrict its users to 1,500 mg of sodium per day, or less. Adopting a low or reduced sodium diet can help lower high blood pressure, lessen the effects of edema, helps with kidney and heart problems, not to mention countless other health benefits. The Mayo Clinic recommends that healthy adults limit their sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day at the most.

There are many ways to reduce sodium in a diet and here are a few tips to help. Use salt-free seasonings, cook at home, use fresh vegetables but if not available, find “no salt added” canned or frozen vegetables, purchase only fresh fish, poultry and lean meats rather than processed products, are great ways to do this. Additionally, cook pasta, rice and hot cereals without salt while also avoiding the “instant” types of these products as they usually contain additional sodium. Draining and rinsing canned food items like beans, will help remove some of the excess sodium which might need to be repeated two or three times. There are also many websites with recipes and cooking tips, that will not only help us do a better job cooking, but also show us how to find more ways to reduce sodium and how to be more aware of hidden sources of sodium, especially high sodium foods and condiments, many we might not have thought of.

There are many salt-free seasonings on the market these days and doctors encourage their patients with hypertension to utilize them along with additional herbs and spices. Patients needing these types of seasonings can find them readily available at most grocery stores, discount clubs and online. These can drastically reduce our sodium intake in a single meal, while increasing the flavor of the food. This is a simple thing we can all do to make a difference in our health and overall well-being.

It is vital that we all make better choices for our health if we plan to live long, active World Health Organization says that in 2012, one in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure. Since high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart …

What Does a Blood Pressure Reading Mean?

Knowing your blood pressure can keep you ahead of what is happening with your body. There are a lot of debilitating illnesses brought about by a high pressure of blood. Most people do not recognize the symptoms and that is very alarming.

There are four categories when you are doing these readings. There is the normal stage, the pre-hypertension stage, the stage 1 hypertension stage and stage 2 hypertension stage. This will tell you what you need to do.

It is imperative that you get two readings in one sitting, or so according to experts. This is to have accurate measurements. Also, do not have the pressure of your blood measured after working out, after eating or after a long day of work. You may measure a higher level than normal.

You have to measure your systolic and diastolic pressure. If you are using an aneroid monitor, you have to ask an expert to teach you how to find the correct measurement. If you are using a digital one, the gadget will already tell you your diastolic and systolic pressure.

A normal pressure has a systolic rate of below 120 and a diastolic rate of below 80. If this is what you have measured, you are in the right track. You just need to maintain your health by having an active lifestyle and making correct food choices.

If your systolic pressure falls between 120 and 139 and your diastolic pressure falls between 80 and 89, you are already in the pre-hypertension stage. You have to be more careful with what you are eating. If you do not want it to progress to the hypertension stage, you need to eat healthier and incorporate a more active lifestyle.

Stage 1 hypertension has systolic pressure of 140 to 159 and diastolic pressure of 90 to 99. Observe your condition for a half a year and make sure you change your habits. Avoid alcohol, fatty and salty foods and have an active lifestyle. If your measured pressure of blood does not dramatically change after that, you can ask your doctor to prescribe you with some medications.

Stage 2 hypertension is obviously the most severe case. Systolic pressure can go as high as 160or more and diastolic can get as high as 100 or more. In such cases, be sure to have a routinely check up with your doctor. Butt heads and ask for advice on how you can improve your lifestyle. Also, ask for medications to help you in your condition.…

Lower Blood Pressure – How Low Should You Go?

Lower blood pressure… how low is low enough? Surprising new findings show that lower is not always better and that the emphasis on achieving ever-lower levels may be doing us more harm than good.

Over many decades of medical practice hypertension was defined as blood pressure above 140 points systolic over 90 points diastolic. But some years ago, particularly in America, the goal posts shifted. Suddenly, and without much debate, the normal limit was lowered to 130 over 80. Many medical professionals considered any pressure above these figures to be hypertension while others labeled the range from 130/80 to 140/90 “pre-hypertension”.

Virtually overnight, millions more people were diagnosed with hypertension and were walking away from medical exams with prescriptions they wouldn´t have had only a short time earlier. Those with mere “pre-hypertension” weren´t neglected as new drugs were quickly developed for this “dangerous” new condition.

While not everyone applied such strict diagnostic criteria, the general direction was undeniably towards ever-lower blood pressure targets. In other words: the lower the better. Even aging people, whose blood pressure tends to naturally increase over time, were urged to achieve unrealistic readings of 120 over 70 or less. Dr. Oz, Oprah Winfrey´s celebrity physician, famously proclaimed that one of the keys to eternal health and youth was blood pressure of 115 over 75.

But now a major new study has doctors re-evaluating their policies. It reveals that there are no health benefits to be had from blood pressure targets below 140 over 90. In fact, excessively low pressure may even increase deaths from both heart disease and adverse drug reactions.

The meta-analysis by the Cochrane Review covering studies of nearly 30,000 people showed that the lower blood pressure limits were not associated with further reductions in overall mortality or incidence of stroke, heart failure or kidney disease. The findings also apply to high-risk groups such as those with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney impairment.

This is not just a matter of overzealous doctors erring on the side of caution; unrealistic blood pressure targets do real harm. The greatest (but not only) damage is done through over-medicating. It takes big increases in dosage and/or numbers of drugs to close the gap between 140/90 and 130/80.

The heavy costs of over-medicating are paid both financially and in health outcomes. Dr. Argueda, the author of the Cochrane study, states that adverse drug reactions “could negate any potential benefit associated with any achieved lower blood pressure”. It could even increase the number of strokes and heart attacks if pressure gets too low.

Adverse drug reactions and side effects are serious but they are not the only damage resulting from overzealous blood pressure interventions. Untold damage is done by needlessly frightening millions of healthy people and turning them into patients. “A fit and healthy older person can return home from an annual health check as a patient, scared and no longer comfortably aging,” says Michael Oliver, Professor Emeritus of cardiology at the University …

High Blood Pressure Symptoms

As I age, people remind me that I need to look out for certain medical issues. Unfortunately, like a lot of men, I still sometimes think, “Well, I don’t feel any pain, so everything must be working relatively well.” Nobody said that male logic was brilliant logic. Like a lot of guys, I played a lot of sports in High School and had my share of injuries. At that age, it seemed that if there was ever a problem, there was nothing that an Ace bandage and ice couldn’t cure. As a matter of fact, we were such competitive little idiots, we would have bet who had the highest blood pressure or heart rate! Obviously, we weren’t the SMARTEST competitive group of guys….

Of course, as we all age, the goal is to keep your blood pressure low. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can lead to all kinds of issues for your body. The most common problem with long term high blood pressure is that organs can be damaged. This kind of damage can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, aneurysms, bad vision (leading to blindness) and peripheral arterial disease. Obviously, none of these are desirable no matter your age, but as we all age, these become more and more likely if the blood pressure goes on unchecked for years.

And, going unchecked is one of the major problems with Hypertension. It is known as ‘the silent killer’ and it has earned that horrible moniker honestly: people generally have no idea they have it until they’re pressure is measured by a doctor or nurse. There are generally no outstanding symptoms of Hypertension! The victim MAY feel headaches, dizziness, blurred vision or nausea, but the person may easily write that sort of thing off to exhaustion or fatigue… and these days, don’t most of us feel exhausted, tired or stressed?

So, in fighting a disease that really doesn’t present itself in an obvious manner, prevention becomes your best weapon against it. This includes measures like: stopping smoking (if you do), cut down on drinking alcohol, lower salt/sodium intake (salt increases blood pressure), eat nutritious meals that are low in fat, increase your exercise and learn relaxation techniques (like yoga or meditation.)

If you do increase your physical activity, one of the things you might consider is taking supplements that reduce the ‘free radicals’ that occur when you exercise. Those are, essentially, waste products that occur when you expend energy and oxidize red blood cells in your body. The elements that reduce this kind of damage are called ‘Antioxidents’. One of the best naturally occurring antioxidants may, in fact, be Glutathione. Glutathione occurs naturally in the body, but you may benefit your body with an additional dietary supplement of the substance. If you are considering taking on some supplements to combat hypertension, you surely should learn more about Glutathione and Glutathione enhancers like MAXGXL.…