Save Your Breath
By admin on July 21, 2007
Five afflictions of the lungs, and how to avoid them.
Your lungs might not be front and centre on your list of health concerns. But they should be. If your lungs aren’t working properly, neither will the rest of your body. Here’s a look at the problems that can lurk inside your lungs, and how to avoid them.
ASTHMA
What it is: Overly sensitive chemical receptors in the bronchi are activated by allergies, exercise or stress, causing inflammation, muscle contractions and excess mucus.
Key Signs: Breathing trouble, heavy coughing at night, and waking up with shortness of breath.
Strike Back: A recent study showed that taking 1grm of fish oil 20 times a day boosted lung function by 64 percent in people with exercise-induced asthma. Try starting with a 1grn daily dose.
BRONCHITIS
What it is: Bacterial or viral infection of the bron¬chial tubes leading to inflammation, mucus and a painful cough. Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, smoking and occupational hazards can increase your risk of bronchitis.
Key Signs: Greenish mucus and wheezing.
Strike Back: Steam helps clear mucus. Turn on your shower as hot as it can go, close the bathroom door, sit in the steam for 20 minutes.
PNEUMONIA
What it is: An infection caused by an inhaled bacterium, fungus or virus that causes the alveoli to fill with pus and fluid.
Key Signs: Flu-like symptoms along with’ wheezing, rapid breathing and chest pains.
Strike Back: Having your kids vaccinated against pneumonia can lower your risk too.
LUNG CANCER
What it is: Non-small-cell lung cancer spreads at a slower rate than small-cell lung cancer, which is almost always caused by smoking.
Key Signs: A persistent cough, shortness of breath and clubbed fingernails with rounded nail beds.
Strike Back: Sip wine. A study found that one-glass-a-day red-wine drinkers were 13 per cent less likely to develop lung cancer.
PULMONARY HYPERTENSION
What it is: Hypertension narrows the pipelines between your heart and lungs, causing blood-oxygen levels to drop.
Key Signs: Fatigue and shortness of breath are symptoms. It’s dangerous, because doctors often fail to diagnose it.
Strike Back: High levels of the hormone brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) have been linked to greater risk of pulmonary hypertension. If the condition runs in your family, ask your doctor for the BNP test.
Tags:asthma breath breath problems bronchitis lung cancer pneumonia pulmonary hypertension
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How to Handle a Hangover?
By admin on July 14, 2007
Drinking fluids may help with the morning-after misery from getting drunk. Hangovers seem to be the body’s way of reminding us about the hazards of overindulgence. Physiologically, it’s a group effort: Diarrhea, fatigue, headache, nausea, and shaking are the classic symptoms. Sometimes, systolic (the upper number) blood pressure goes up, the heart beats faster than normal, and sweat glands overproduce evidence that the “fight or flight” response is rewed up. Some people become sensitive to light or sound. Others suffer a spinning sensation (vertigo).
The causes are as varied as the symptoms. Alcohol is metabolized into acetaldehyde, a substance that’s toxic at high levels, although concentrations rarely get that high, so that’s not the complete explanation.
Drinking interferes with brain activity during sleep, so a hangover may be a form of sleep deprivation. Alcohol scrambles the hormones that regulate our biological clocks, which may be why a hangover can feel like jet lag, and vice versa. Alcohol can also trigger migraines, so some people may think they’re hung over when it’s really an alcohol-induced migraine they’re suffering.
Hangovers begin after blood alcohol levels start to fall In fact, according to some experts, the worst. Symptoms occur when levels reach zero.
The key ingredient seems to be “drinking to intoxication“; how much you drank to get there is less important. In fact, several studies suggest that light and moderate drinkers are more vulnerable to getting a hangover than heavy drinkers. Yet there’s also seemingly contradictory research showing that people with a family history of alcoholism have worse hangovers. Researchers say some people may end up with drinking problems because they drink in ‘an effort to relieve hangover symptoms.
Dr. Robert Swift, a researcher at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Rhode Island, coauthored one of the few review papers on hangovers in 1998 It’s still one of the most frequently cited sources on the topic. The rundown on hangover remedies that follows is based on that review.
Hair of the dog. Drinking to ease the symptoms of a hangover is sometimes called taking the hair of the dog, or hair of the dog that bit you. The notion is that hangovers are a form of alcohol withdrawal; so a drink or two will ease the withdrawal.
There may be something to it. Both alcohol and short-acting sedatives, such as benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium), interact with GABA. Receptors on brain cells and it’s well documented that some people have withdrawal symptoms from short-acting sedatives as they wear off. Perhaps the brain reacts similarly as blood alcohol levels begin to drop.
Even so, doctors advise against using alcohol as a hangover remedy. “The hair of the dog just perpetuates a cycle, It doesn’t allow you to recover.”
Drink fluids. Alcohol promotes urination because it inhibits the release of vasopressin, a hormone that decreases the volume of urine made by the kidneys. If your hangover includes diarrhea, sweating, or vomiting, you may be even more dehydrated. Although nausea can make it difficult to get anything down, even just a few sips of water might help your hangover.
Get some carbohydrates into your system. Drinking may lower blood sugar levels, so theoretically some of the fatigue and headaches of a hangover may be from a brain working without enough of its main fuel. Moreover, many people forget to eat when they drink, further lowering their blood sugar. Toast and juice is a way to gently nudge levels back to normal.
Avoid darker-colored alcoholic beverages. Experiments have shown that clear liquors, such as vodka and gin, tend to cause hangovers less frequently than dark ones, such as whiskey, red wine, and tequila. The main form of alcohol in alcoholic beverages is ethanol, but the darker liquors contain chemically related compounds (congeners), including methanol. According to the review paper, the same enzymes process ethanol and methanol, but methanol metabolites are especially toxic, so they may cause a worse hangover.
Take a pain reliever but not Tylenol. Aspirin, ibuprofen (brufen, other brands), and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help with the headache and the overall achy feelings. NSAIDs, though, may irritate a stomach already irritated by alcohol. Don’t take acetaminophen. If alcohol is lingering in your system, it may accentuate’ acetaminophen’s toxic effects on the liver.
Drink coffee or tea. Caffeine may not have any special anti-hangover powers, but as a stimulant, it could help with the grogginess. Coffee is a diuretic, though, so it may exacerbate dehydration.
VitaminB6. A study published over 30 years ago found that people had fewer hangover symptoms if they took a total of 1,200 milligrams of vitamin B6 before, during, and just after drinking to get drunk. But it was a small study and doesn’t seem to have been replicated.
So the moral of the story is: Don’t drink and if you do have to drink, do so in moderation!!
Tags:brain activity hangover symptoms hangovers heavy drinkers moderate drinkers sleep deprivation
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Laughter For Health & Happiness
By admin on July 5, 2007
Laughter is by all means an elixir of health and happiness. People with a carefree, gay and cheerful attitude are free from stresses and strains, worries and tensions. Those who take life cheerfully and positively wearing a smile on their faces are more successful. Genuine cheerfulness comes from a sense of humor which helps a man see things in a true perspective and enjoy life truly. Instead of crumbling down under the pressure of tension and negative feelings, we must learn to laugh away our blues and make life a boon worth living.
Laugher is rightly called the best medicine as it relieves not only one who laughs but all those around him too. A healthy sense of humor helps you laugh at the worst situations and above all at yourself, a very positive sign to live a happy life. A sense of humor makes you more acceptable in society. It improves your “face value” and you are welcome everywhere especially at parties, feasts, picnics and social gatherings. Such cheerful, funny persons make these events quite enjoyable for the participants, as they charge the atmosphere there with mirth and laughter. Actually they speed up the spirit of friendship and promote happiness.
Laugh and make others laugh and in the process we get rid of nervousness and depression which adversely affect your physical, as well as mental health. If you learn to relax with a sense of humor you can keep away boredom and fatigue, job pressures and domestic worries. Accept a carefree humorous nature as your disposition. It is proved that laughter enhances hormones which stimulate the heart and acts as a natural pain killer. Laughter removes stress, burns calories and improves one’s digestion and enlivens spirits. Remember, genuine cheerfulness with the humorous disposition is an almost certain index of a happy mind and a pure good heart. If you learn to laugh at yourself it will ease all your tensions and worries. Laughing at yourself is of immense benefit for your puffed up pride.
If one observes the process of laughter “Ho-Ho, Ha-Ha” carefully, one will see that during the course of laughter there is a rhythmic movement of the diaphragm, abdominal muscles and inter-coastal muscles which help to expel the air from the lungs in rhythmic jerks which produces rhythmic vibrations from the vocal cords.
Also, there is a contraction of the throat, palate muscles and facial muscles. There are some pranayam kriyas such as Kapalbhati and Bhastrika which involve such rhythmic contractions of all the groups of muscles involved in laughter.
Scientifically speaking, even when one exhales completely some amount of air called residual air is left. This is more in those suffering from asthma or chronic bronchitis. There are more chances of bacterial infection and less exchange of oxygen if the residual volume is more. Prolonged respiration as in pranayam and some dynamic breathing exercises help to remove residual air which contains more carbon dioxide and replace it with fresh air, which contains more oxygen. This is how deep breathing and laughter help to increase the net supply of oxygen to the body for better functioning.
Dr. Joachim Gardemann of Germany in his health prescription advises his patients to laugh and be merry. He says, “we really have to encourage laughing and being happy. It is one of mankind’s most health promoting resources”. The fact that a lot of things, serious health problems among them, can benefit from a dose of good humor was a major theme in the film, Patch Adam’s in which actor Robin Williams played a doctor who dressed up in a clown’s costume to entertain and help cure sick children.
In India, Dr. K.K. Aggarwal of Heart Care Foundation once said, “If you wait to be happy, you will wait forever. If you are happy now, you will be happy forever. Explaining the therapeutic effect of laughter, Dr. Aggarwal said that laughter releases chemicals like neuropeptides that improve health and have antioxidant properties. Laughter is also the best medicine to tackle life style disorders, including stress, high blood pressure, depression, psychological problems and even heart disease. Also in many ways laughter is like meditation - you not only lose track of time, but you emerge as a more relaxed and carefree person afterwards.
Dr. Fry of U.S.A. describes laughter as “inner jogging” and says that it is good for a person’s cardiovascular system. Laughter has been known to have cured serious illnesses and helped people get over bad phases in their lives. Apart from this, laughter is a good exercise. It gives exercise to our diaphragm and various muscles. It is also responsible for the secretion of certain hormones which are good for our health. Laughter is thus a refreshing act which helps us cope with life. A wonder medicine, laughter can save on medical expenses by strengthening the immune system, which plays a key role in preventing a large number of diseases.
The one benefit everybody gets from laughter is a sense of well being. After 15 minutes of laughter in the morning, you will feel fresh throughout the day. There is no medicine like laughter which gives instant results. You start feeling freshness straightaway. Laughter therapy is ideally suited for today’s stress ridden life style. It can be compared to any form of meditation or relaxation. In these you have to make concerted efforts to completely detach oneself. In laughter, it takes place naturally effortlessly. Hence, laughter therapy is the easiest form of meditation, a form which brings you instant relaxation. It is beneficial to singers and actors. Increased lung capacity, exercise of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles will help to gain better control over speech. It may enhance self confidence and reduce stage fright.
Laughter is an excellent exercise for your facial muscles. It tones up these muscles and improves facial expressions. When you laugh your face becomes red due to an increase in blood supply which nourishes the facial skin and makes it glow. Laughing people look more cheerful and attractive. By squeezing the tear glands through laughter, it moistens the eyes adding a sparkle to them. Laughter exercises the abdominal muscles and helps to improve muscle tone of those with pot bellies. The massage to the digestive tract provided by laughter helps maintain good bowel movements. Good tone of abdominal muscles also prevents constipation by proper evacuation and bowel movements.
Laughter brings people together and improves interpersonal relationships. Laughter has a spiritual dimension as well and if this dimension is added to the knowledge of the people involved in the laughter movement, then it would be more golden than gold. So, keep laughing because you know if you laugh the world will laugh with you and you if you cry you will cry alone. And life is not worth crying. It is worth laughing, worth enjoying. Hence laugh for your life, for your health, for your happiness and for your well being!
Tags:happiness health humor laughter
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25 ways to detox your body
By admin on June 16, 2007
1. Slowly does it
Giving up caffeine, booze and cigarettes at once can put huge amounts of stress on your body. For the first two days, cut them by half, then proceed by cutting numbers gradually.
2. Gut feeling
Spring-clean your digestive tract with a probiotic supplement such as Lactobacillus Acidophilus. Live bacteria help the natural fauna in the intestine to process food more quickly.
3. Fill-up
Detoxing doesn’t mean eating less, it means eating healthy. Get your full complement of vitamins and minerals. Focus on selenium, chromium, magnesium, and vitamins C, E and A. Good sources are oily fish, broccoli and nuts.
4. Shelve the sugar
Too much refined sugar can cause glucose imbalances and may overload your pancreas. Start the day with porridge to slow down sugar absorption, putting less stress on your pancreas.
5. Rub it better
After a hard day at work, swap the temptation of a drink for a relaxing massage with your partner. Mix a few drops of grapefruit and rosemary essential oils (known to help detoxify the liver) into an eggcup of sweet almond oil, close the curtains, strip off, and get rubbing.
6. Every day! Work it
“Exercise releases toxins through sweat, burns toxin-storing body fat, and rewards you with energy and reduced tension,” says Suzannah Olivier, author of The Detox Manual. Aim for 45 minutes’ moderate aerobic exercise every other day: run, swim, row or cycle. Today: run.
7. Hold it in
If you’re still feeling sick after any festive excesses, press the acupoint situated in the middle of the upper side of your forearm, around 10cm above the wrist crease, says Jane Scrivner, author of 48 Hour Detox. Also have a cup of ginger tea, proven to help nausea, and an apple for a slow release of energy.
8. Test your body
Assess the damage. Get your hair and blood tested to determine which vitamins and minerals you’ve been missing out on Then you’ll know what needs fixing.
9. Get skin deep
If other exit points in your body are overloaded with toxins, your skin will start manifesting toxin in the form of eruptions and discoloration. After a hot shower, turn the dial to ice-cold to increase circulation and open the pores of your skin, processing toxins ultra-quickly.
10. Work it! 45-minute cycling
11. Soak it
If you’re frightened of cold showers, have a long, relaxing soak in Epsom salts. Fill a hot bath, add two heaped tablespoons and soak. Do it before bed and you’ll sleep better, waking refreshed and full of energy.
12. Fight the fat
Saturated fat, that is. “The only way to undo the effects of saturated fats is a cholesterol-reducing diet with lads of fruit, veg and oily fish such as salmon and sardines,” says Patrick Holford, author of 100% Health. Conjugated linoleic acid can help clear clogged arteries.
13. 45-minute row
Concentrate on using your body s a whole, so you don’t damage your back.
14. Love your liver
Your liver is key to processing toxins. Take a daily capsule of lipoic acid to help restore glutathione levels, eat lots of broccoli and cabbage and fill up on dark blue fruits such as grapes.
15. Juice up
Liven up stimulant-free drinking sessions with some home-grown creations. Juicing fruit and vegetables gives you all the antioxidant benefits possible. Try this: Juice 100g strawberries, a banana, one tbsp ground almonds and half pint skimmed milk.
16. 45-minute swim
Keep hydrated throughout, and if you’re feeling tired, eat a banana half an hour before.
17. Lick some lime
Too much salt disturbs the fluid balance in your cells and can raise your blood pressure. Intensify natural salt flavors by sprinkling lime on your food instead of reaching for the salt cellar. Get rid of salt residues with celery, which contains bio sodium to keep harmful sodium in solution, not in you.
18. Push some Zzzs
Get regular, good quality sleep to make sure your body has time to heal itself. After your hot bath, change the bulbs in your bedroom to low-wattage, and retire to bed with a cup of hot milk and a good book.
19. Every day! Flush it out
Drink at least two litres of water a day to flush out any toxins and boost your metabolism. If you can’t stand plain water, add a splash of fresh lemon or lime juice. Your pee should be a pale yellow color, even after exercise.
20. Go herbal
If you’re really craving a cup of hot stuff (now you’re not drinking caffeine) have some green tea. “It balances the acid and alkaline in your body and, like salt baths, will rejuvenate you if you’re feeling tired and relax you if you’re stressed,” says naturopath Ko Chohan.
21. Go green
It’s vital for city dwellers to give their bodies regular breaks from car pollution as it places a huge stress on the liver. Set off for a three-hour country walk for a real breath of fresh air.
22. Boost your bowels
To ensure food doesn’t sit around in your stomach fermenting, making life much harder for your liver, keep regular. Eat a bowl of bran with cold milk first thing, go for whole-meal rice, bread and pasta, and above all, drink plenty of water to bulk it up and speed it through.
23. Brush away
Boost your lymph glands and remove impurities by brushing your skin every morning - also leaving your skin smooth and healthy. Brush towards your lymph nodes (in your groin and armpits) using long, firm strokes.
24. Go organic
The Environmental Protection Agency in the US considers 60 per cent of herbicides and 90 per cent of fungicides to be potentially carcinogenic, and says that over a year someone on a non-organic diet eats six kilograms of chemicals. Buy organic fruits and vegetables and concentrate on smell and color.
25. Heal your head
Suddenly cutting out stimulants such as caffeine can result in splitting headaches. Put a few drops of essential oils - such as geranium or lavender - on a pillow and lie down for ten minutes. The pain should fade naturally.
Tags:detox detoxification health health tips healthy life
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How to avoid having tired and aching legs?
By admin on June 10, 2007
- Avoid anything that restricts the circulation of blood in your legs.
- Do not sit for long periods with your legs crossed.
- Exercise your legs and ankles as much as possible.
- Watch your weight, a very heavy body gives burden to the legs that hold it upright.
- If your job requires standing for a long period of time, shift your weight from one foot to the other time and again. If it is possible, always sit on breaks and relax tired feet.
- High-fibre foods can help prevent constipation that could also contribute to varicose veins. Eat as much fibre-filled foods as possible.
- Find time to exercise your legs even when sitting. It can help in the circulation of blood. A simple leg stretching and feet and ankle rotation can relieve soreness and can revive those veins.
- Leg elevation at the end of the day is highly recommended. Prop your feet on a chair or on the wall at home when you watch TV or for a few minutes before you go to sleep.
Tags:aching legs ankles high fibre foods tired legs varicose veins
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Depression Among Youth
By admin on May 17, 2007
Irritable? Withdrawn? Frustrated? Trouble falling asleep? Grade drops? Well, if your child is facing any or all of these problems, he may very well be suffering from depression.
Over the past few years, depression has emerged as a major problem among the youth. It has crept into colleges, the work place, the once happy home; manifesting itself in the form of social malfunction and physical and mental deterioration.
It is estimated that more than 5% of the teenage population suffers from depression. The onset of puberty results in various physical changes, causing stress and many a time leading to depression. Teenage girls especially, are prone to succumbing to major depression in adult life if they undergo a lot of stress during puberty due to hormonal changes, change in body shape etc. The number of adolescent females suffering from depression is twice the number of males.
Excessive irritability, mood swings, change in sleeping and eating patterns, withdrawal from the social scene, boredom, extreme sensitivity, frequent headaches, isolative behavior and lack of interest in doing things that one enjoyed doing earlier are the commonest symptoms of depression. The individual feels worthless, incapable of carrying out even the simplest of chores, loses interest in school work and starts losing out on performance. He may very often try to drown out all negative or suicidal thoughts by taking to drugs or alcohol, but this only makes the depression worse and the vicious cycle continues.
Living in times of early responsibilities has caused the young to take a beating both ends. He copes with studies, managing funds, perhaps social obligations and what not. Reason enough to send him into depression for stretching so, so, so far!
We tend to push our children into doing better than us, because we envision a beautiful life ahead for them… a life much better than ours. But in doing so, we forget that we need to let them develop at their own pace. Today’s youth is maturing at a much faster pace, getting exposure to everything at an earlier age as compared to the past generations. With technological advancement and liberalization, a lot more avenues have opened up for the youth. Yet, with new opportunities, there are new challenges, bringing along with them more stress and tension. The onus lies with the society, to help support these individuals by trying to be more understanding and co-operative. Parents in particular need to understand that instead of rebuking and shunning a depressed or dejected child, they need to embrace them and make them feel loved and honored. Depression is emerging as one of the leading causes of suicide among youth. You surely don’t want your child to land up in a situation where he would be forced to take such an extreme step. Counseling plays a major role in helping in dealing with depression. So, if your child is depressed, consult an expert. Repeated bouts of depression in young age can develop into full blown depression in latter years. Save your child from ruining or ending his life.
Together, with a little effort, you can help your child mature beautifully so that he/she is prepared to take on all challenges, unbroken and undaunted by past mistakes, without losing belief in his own capabilities and assets.
Tags:children depression stress suffering from depression suicidal thoughts suicide teenage youth
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The Health Life of BUTTER
By admin on May 8, 2007
Six thousand years of the yellow stuff you put on toast.
4000 BC: Nomads realise that sour milk shaken on a donkey’s back churns to butter.
1000 BC: Butter’s a bad omen for pagans, but the word derives from the Sanskrit ‘bhutari’, meaning ‘enemy of evil spirits’.
1253: Missionaries in Siberia drink kumiss - mare’s milk served with lumps of floating butter.
1600: In Northern Europe butter is said to prevent kidney and bladder stones.
1800: Butter is considered a privileged possession of the wealthy in England.
1940: War rationing makes butter hard o get. It’s seen as good for strength and energy.
1998: The American Heart Association says butter is a healthier and tastier altervative to margarine.
2003: the Atkins craze paves the way for butter’s comeback.
Tags:butter interesting
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Lemon Aid for Kidneys
By admin on April 29, 2007
While kidney stones sufferers should increase their fluid intake in general, lemon juice in particular could reduce the risk of recurrence. There are several different kinds of kidney stones, and a low level of citrate in the urine increases the risk for two common types: calcium-oxalate and uric-acid stones. If you’ve had one of these kinds of stones, your doctor may prescribe potassium citrate to raise your citrate level.
In addition, or instead, you should eat lemons, which are rich in citrate, or drink lemonade. Citrate binds to calcium in the urine, preventing the formation of crystals that can develop into kidney stones. It also affects the acid-base balance of the urine, which plays a role in stone formation.
Lemons contain almost five times more citrate than oranges. Half a cup of pure lemon juice provides the amount of citrate your doctor is likely to prescribe. In one study, most people with stones who drank eight gasses of lemonade a day (containing 100 ml of reconstituted lemon juice, in total) ended up with normal levels of citrate in their urine after six days. This should help prevent stone recurrence.
If you’re worried about the calories, use a sugar substitute to sweeten your lemonade, or buy artificially sweetened lemonade. Just make sure it contains real lemon juice (or citric acid).
Tags:kidney stones kidneys lemon juice lemonade lemons
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Melt Away Your Cholesterol
By admin on April 24, 2007
CLOG BUSTER. Last year, heart experts managed to do something previously thought almost impossible: using the maximum dosage of cholesterol-lowering medication Crestor a statin, they were able to shrink the fatty clogs blocking heart patients’ arteries by about 7 per cent over 2 years. The finding is significant because it’s always been believed that atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque in the arteries, was irreversible, says author Steven Nissen, MD, haead of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology. In the past, the best you could hope to do with drugs or a healthy lifestyle was slow or stop the gradual narrowing (although an angioplasty or stent can open up blocked arteries).
The new finding raises the possibility that you can actually reverse the plaque accumulation that starts as early as childhood. It also fuels the growing realization that dropping LDL, or bad, cholesterol to levels far below the 100 milligrams per deciliter that’s considered optimal is the best way to prevent heart attacks (the study’s participants reduced theirs from 130 to 61). Current guidelines advise that only people at very high risk of a heart attack aim for an LDL level below 70, but Nissen says it’s possible that someday even those at lower risk will simply shoot for the lowest cholesterol number that’s safely possible.
Tags:blocked arteries cholesterol heart attack heart patients steven nissen
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Artificial Sweeteners: No Substitutes for the Truth
By admin on April 22, 2007
Thank God for modern technology! Sugar may taste nicer but natural is not always better for your health, no matter what the back-to-basics brigade might say.
Below, we bust some common myths about artificial sweeteners.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE BRAIN TUMORS
According to the American Cancer Society, the US FDA and the National Cancer Institute, sweeteners do not cause brain tumour or any other kind of cancer. Sugar substitutes behave in two ways when they are consumed:
- They pass through the body unassimilated, do not enter the bloodstream or travel to essential organs such as the brain; or
- They break down - as in the case of aspartame - into their components (aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol) that are non toxic.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE SEVERE MIGRAINES
Headaches are one of the most common human complaints and can be due to many factors such as stress, disturbed sleep, eyestrain, and physical illnesses. A carefully controlled study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that artificial sweetener consumption and headache/migraine have little link.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN
Artificial sweeteners are either zero calorie or have too few calories to cause any weight gain. Nor do they stimulate appeitite or hunger. If anything, they aid weightloss. If weight gain does happen despite replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners, it’s more likely due to other factors such as sedentary lifestyle, high calorie intake, slow metabolic rate, etc.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE BLOOD SUGAR TO SHOOT UP
Research shows that sweeteners, taken in the recommended amounts, have no short- or long-term effects on blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS
Although there have been complaints of allergy-type symptoms after consuming artificial sweeteners, these anecdotal reports have not been confirmed by any controlled scientific studies.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS AGGRAVATE EPILEPSY
Numerous animal studies have found that artificial sweeteners do not cause or worsen seizures. The Epilepsy Insitute of New York and the Epliepsy Foundation of America have confirmed that sweeteners are safe for use by people with this condition.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS AFFECT VISION
Although scientists know that huge amounts of methanol can affect eyesight, in the tiny quantities that sweeteners are taken, they rarely ever cause such adverse effects. In fact, a glass of tomato juice contains about six times as much methanol as an equal amount of a beverage sweetened with aspartame. And when aspartame is broken down in the gastrointestinal tract, the released methanol is treated in exactly the same way as the methanol derived from other dietary sources.
Myth: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAUSE A BLOOD SUGAR DROP
Your blood glucose levels are dependent more on your overall carbohydrate intake than the milligrams of artificial sweetener - or even the few teaspoons of sugar - that you consume in a day.
Tags:artificial sweeteners aspartame calorie intake myth sugar substitutes
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