Health Benefits of Banana

There is no week that we do not have banana supply in our kitchen. It is one of our favorite snacks here in our house. I think it is not just our family’s favorite but a favorite of most people regardless of race. Banana has lots of varieties to choose from thus you will never get bored with it.

Aside from its yummy taste, we can get health benefits out of eating banana. One of my Aunts went to see their family doctor because she felt numbness on one side of her body. And, it was found out that she’s lack of potassium. What is her doctor’s first question to her as he seen my Aunt’s laboratory result? Her doctor asked her if she loves to eat banana or not. Why? Banana is rich in potassium. She was expecting to be given a prescription for her to buy a pill thus she laughingly told us her story while she’s on the way to the market to buy different varieties of banana and some potassium rich food.

If you do not want clogs on your arteries due to Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) or commonly called bad cholesterol, banana is the answer as well. Researchers found out that unripe dried bananas could help a lot in lowering bad cholesterol, the primary cause of cardiovascular diseases. A separate research found out as well that eating 3-6 servings of potassium-rich foods like banana everyday could lower blood pressure thus preventing strokes. Now, I have an excuse why I am not contented of just 1 serving of banana. Wink.

If you are not fond of eating banana, you are missing something. So, go! Eat one now.

Be Determined to Get Rid of Belly Fat

Getting rid of belly fat is not easy but we need to be persistent. I myself am striving to flatten my stomach. I take time to exercise almost every day for health reason but not to shape up. I noticed that as we are getting older, we are prone to accumulate fat in our stomach. Of course, lifestyle, especially diet and physical activities matters a lot too.

Though I take time to move and stretch my body for health reason, I never take time to exercise my abdominal area since I undergo appendicitis operation way back my early twenties. My work now just requires me to sit on the chair most of the time. I could say that those factors counted a lot plus the fact that I am not getting any younger.

People at work just laugh at me as I told them that I want to get rid of my belly fat because as for them I am still in good shape compared to them, and it is not noticeable yet. Why? When is the right time to get rid of it, if my visceral fats could choke my internal organs and I am suffering from an illness because of it?

Nowadays, that there are lots of yummy foods coming out in the market to satisfy our cravings plus the automation that do not require us to be physically involved at work, we all have the tendency to harbor unwanted belly fat. Most people do not change their lifestyle or even have a temperance of what they eat until their doctor declares it to them.

As for other people who are not health conscious, for them having belly fat is a sign of prosperity not knowing that it is a signal that you need to be more cautious with your health. High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are just some of the outcomes of harboring belly fat because of high cholesterol level, particularly bad cholesterol. Cancer is the worst disease we could acquire in harboring belly fat that why we need to be determined to get rid of it.

How to Show Love to Your Heart and Blood Vessels

As the saying goes: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” We could also say that: “Tell me what is your lifestyle and I will help you determine your health.” Diet, physical activities, and presence or absence of vices are some of the factors that help determine your physical health. If you practice healthy lifestyle and has a positive outlook in life from your early age, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other illnesses due to unhealthy lifestyle will not befriend you for sure.

Doctors try their best to give the best cholesterol treatment to their patients to help the functioning of heart and blood vessels to be maintained on its normal level but it should be accompanied with cooperation of patients to change their lifestyle as well. But, some people made their maintenance medication an excuse to eat food they want with their crooked reasoning.

Following healthy lifestyle since younger years will make your blood vessels  as if  like express highway roads for your blood to flow well carrying nutrients and essential things to millions of cells in your body. But, unhealthy diet, especially those rich in trans fats and cholesterol, accompanied by lack of exercise plus too much alcohol intake along with smoking addiction, definitely your blood vessels that are as wide as express highways will be as narrow as 2-way road because of accumulated waste materials called “bad” cholesterol or low density lipoproteins (LDL) that cling to the blood vessels.

Whether our blood vessels are narrow or wide our Red Blood Cells need to produce same amount of nutrients to the millions of cells in our body that need not to be delayed or else our body will not function well. In order for the Red Blood Cells to compensate for the narrow blood vessels, heart need to pump faster for the blood to flow faster as well through the narrow blood vessels. Consistent too much  workload for the heart and too much pressure to the blood vessels could result to Coronary Artery Disease, stroke and other health problems.

Maintenance medication for hypertension and high cholesterol level help stretch your blood vessels for the blood to flow well without much pressure. While following healthy lifestyle help you sweep away the accumulated bad cholesterol that cling to the blood vessels.

What you can do aside from following healthy lifestyle? Better have a regular check up of blood pressure and your lipid level with Lipid Profile test on the laboratory. Lipid profile is composed of 5 tests namely Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol level test, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol level test and Very Low Density Lipoprotein Level Test.

Know Something About Dementia

Online backup helps a lot especially if you want to backup files from different computers into one and have access to it anytime and anywhere as long as you have internet access. Speaking of memory backup, hope it would be that easy to have backup for our human memory too like what we do with our files.

Lots of elderly and adult people nowadays suffers from dementia. They suffer from brain disorder that affects not just the memory function of the brain but language, attention, problem solving, and lose in ability to control their emotions too. Thus, affecting not just the cognitive aspect but their social and occupational aspects as well.

Stroke, traumatic brain injury, infections such as meningitis and encephalitis, hydrocephalus, seizures, and excessive alcohol intake or alcoholism  are factors that could cause dementia. Experts says that risk factors for dementia are family history, presence of vascular risk factors, educational level and advanced age. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) are the two most common forms of dementia.

How can we let people who suffer from dementia, like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), feel that we love and care for them? Why not recite to them their favorite memory verses or sing their favorite songs and hymns or tell their favorite stories while they were still on their best of health? These might be small things to do but it will help them calm down.

Know More About Chelation Therapy

Have you heard about chelation therapy? It uses EDTA to cleanse the arteries and veins for better blood circulation. As a Medical Technologist, I’ve known EDTA as one of the anticoagulating agents for the blood samples that we collect for laboratory examinations that needs an anticoagulated blood like whole blood and plasma.

The great benefits of EDTA chelation is not just for the cardiovascular system but on different organs of the body as well. It gives great hope to lots of people because it treats various illnesses. Since it promotes good circulation, it promotes good blood flow resulting to great amount supply of oxygen and nutrient to all parts of the body as our body demands it.

Aside from cardiovascular diseases like arteriosclerosis, hypertension, stroke and its common precursor the high blood cholesterol level, oral chelation is also best for those who are suffering from various diseases. Some of it are diabetes, gangrene, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, Macular Degeneration and glaucoma (eyes), Peyronie’s Disease and erectile dysfunction (male sexual organ). It could even help with simple problems like age spots and hair loss.

Chelation therapy, particularly oral chelation, is a great alternative of cleansing your body from toxic substances that causes illnesses. It is not absorbed by the body, it just acts as sweeper of toxic substances that blocks your veins and arteries. So, why go for a medication that is just good for one particular health problem if you have a great alternative of irradicating the precursor of almost all your illnesses? Better talk to your doctor about this healthy alternative.

Why it is Healthier to Consume Raw Potatoes than Cooked One

Consuming raw potatoes have more health benefits than cooked one. Because of its high content of potassium, sulphur, phosphorus, and chlorine, undiluted raw potato juice is proven to be effective in clearing up skin blemishes. However, you can get this potato benefits only if you consume potato as raw food because these powerful minerals are converted to inorganic atoms when potatoes are cooked. And, the best way to consume it raw is by taking it as juice. Fresh raw undiluted potato-carrot juice is so nutritious. A cup or two of potato-carrot juice a day is a great help to health problems like skin blemishes and high blood pressure.

Potatoes may help fight against high blood pressure, prevent heart attack, protect against stroke, prevent kidney damage due to high blood pressure, controls appetite and could protect you from certain cancers due to its potassium and vitamin C content. You could get all these benefits when you consume raw potato as juice or just steam the potato.

Potato is still healthy to be consumed as baked, boiled and mashed one but its healthy effects is much lesser than consuming it raw and the easily digestable sugars in raw potatoes are converted to starches upon cooking. Potatoes are not good to be consumed as chips and fries because of acrylamide formation. Please checkout Acrylamide, what is it? for more info.

I got some small facts about potato, did you know that combination of cooked meat and potatoes strengthen the solanin poison of the potato? Solanin is an alkaloid poison that is predominant in potatoes too green in color. I’ve been given an info too that potato is not good for those who are suffering from venereal but I do not know yet its significance behind. And, did you know that consuming sweet potato is much more beneficial compared to Irish potato? Sweet potatoes has one-third more carbohydrates, three times more calcium, twice more sodium and silicon, and more than four times chlorine than Irish potatoes.

If you have not tried drinking potato-carrot juice yet now is the right time to do it. Remember, you could get the full health benefits of potato if you consume it raw.

Health Benefits of Garlic

Health Benefits of Garlic

A simple clove of garlic, minced garlic, garlic sauce, garlic oil, garlic butter, roasted garlic for your garlic recipes like garlic chicken, garlic bread, garlic pizza, garlic potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes and other garlic recipes are so healthy for your  health.

Garlic is considered miracle food by the herbalists and naturopaths because aside from its culinary uses it is beneficial to our health and has medicinal properties.

Allium sativum L. or garlic as we commonly call it, has good reputation not just on our taste buds but in our health in general. And, because of the said reputation, we consider garlic an important component in nutrition for those who are following a healthy lifestyle.

Did you know that garlic has lots of minerals that is good for our body and some of it are iodine, selenium, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc and potassium? It has vitamins A, B and C too.

Its pungent flavor made it to be a fundamental component in many dishes and it can be eaten either raw or cooked. Garlic cloves or minced garlic is often paired up with onion and tomato in sauteing. Garlic stems are often used in stir frying and its leaves is cooked as vegetable, but just in small amount, like leaks and onion leaves. Garlic sauce, garlic oil, garlic butter, roasted garlic for your garlic recipes like garlic chicken, garlic bread, garlic pizza, garlic potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes are some of garlic products we usually enjoy with garlic.

When cloves of garlic is cut or minced or crushed, sulfur compounds like allicin, ajoene, vinyl dithin and D-allyl mecaptocysteine were released. These compounds are considered as anti-carcinogenic and anti-atherosclerotic. Thiosulfonates are phytochemicals or antioxidant components we can get from garlic that are known to reduce the risk of heart disease and has anti-cancer effect. Allicin is responsible of its pungent taste and smell and is thought to be accountable of most of garlic’s therapeutic attribution.

In several studies it has been shown that the compounds in garlic are good for the heart and it offers us a protection against stroke: it lowers blood pressure, beats down cholesterol production in the liver, lessens LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and raises HDL (good cholesterol) in the blood. It also decelerates hardening of the arteries and maintain its tensility. The recommended daily dose of fresh garlic is about 4g, equivalent to 1-2 small garlic cloves.

Garlic could also inhibit blood clotting and increase the rate at which blood clots are broken down, but at least ten garlic cloves a day-may have to be eaten before any effect is noticed.

Garlic helps us also fight infections because of its antiviral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. It is a good expectorant and is also good in asthma, common colds, arthritis and a good remedy for dozens of other complaints. It has impressive antioxidant effect that protects us against harmful “free radicals”. And, it has even been suspected that garlic help regulate blood sugar level. Indeed, garlic can be considered a wonder drug.

Though it is considered a miracle food, and whether you admit it or not garlic sauce, garlic oil, garlic butter, roasted garlic for your garlic recipes like garlic chicken, garlic bread, garlic pizza, garlic potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes are so irresistible but we have to take it in MODERATION for it is also known in causing halitosis and pungent ‘garlicy’ smell of the sweat. Too much eating of garlic, especially if it is taken raw, may cause irritation to our digestive tract.

Beans- broad based nutrient rich food

Beans- broad based nutrient rich food

Are you fond of beans? Did you know that beans are broad based nutrient rich food? They are good source of protein, starch, fibers, phytochemicals, folic acid, vitamin B6, and magnesium. Combination of beans and grains forms a complete protein. Beans help reduce total cholesterol, bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels, stabilize blood sugar in people with diabetes, and reduce the risk of many cancers.

Beans contain two potentially effective cancer fighting phytochemicals- phytate and protease inhibitors. Protease inhibitors may block cancer-causing agents from gaining a position and base in your cells. Phytates grab carcinogens and escorts it out of the body before it has a chance to do its job.

Folic acid and vitamin B6 in beans help lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that is an intermediate product in an important metabolic process called the methylation cycle. Elevated blood levels of homocysteine are found in between 20 to 40 percent of patients with heart disease. A high homocysteine blood level is an independent risk factor for heart attack, stroke, or peripheral vascular disease.
In pregnant women, deficiency of folate can cause life threatening holes in the spine or skull of the baby. And, among all women, folate deficiency may set the stage for cervical cancer. A study showed that women who had clear deficiencies in folate were approximately three times more likely to have cervical dysplasia than women who did not.

Almost all beans are good source of soluble fiber but black beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, kidney beans and lima beans are fiber champs, containing 6-8 grams of fiber in a half cup serving. Beans are rich source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. Researchers concluded that bean may very well lower cholesterol and triglycerides as effectively as many medications. And, the high fiber content of beans prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making beans a good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance, or hypoglycemia.