Q: How much exercise do I need each week? 
Heart disease is a leading cause of death in many countries. In the United States alone, it kills one person every 34 seconds. That is a fact, and a scary one at that. But heart disease can be avoided, and there are natural ways that can greatly reduce your risk of acquiring it.
Get moving. Be active, take at least 30 to 45 minutes of your time each day to move your body. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute much to the risk of acquiring heart disease. A few minutes of brisk walk every morning will help a lot. If you can, go to the gym two or three times a week. An alternative to the gym is yoga or tai chi. If you have been inactive for quite some time, get some advice from your doctor about going to the gym.
If you are a smoker, now’s the best time to stop your bad habit. Yes, it is not that easy to kick the habit but with the help of you doctor, you can choose the best method of quitting. If you are a non-smoker, avoid passive smoking.
Your diet must be low in sodium; avoid salty foods. Foods that are full of saturated fats will increase your cholesterol level greatly (and we all know that this is not good for the heart), so avoid them. The best foods to have are grains, vegetables, fruits, and fish. If you can not help but have some meat, then make sure that it is lean meat. If you are overweight, try to lose some of those fats by becoming active; obesity may be controlled with exercise and self-discipline.
Diabetes is linked to heart disease, so you must keep your blood sugar at a normal level. But it is not only your blood sugar level that you should watch out for, you also need to maintain your blood cholesterol and blood pressure at the normal. Again, a healthy diet is the key to this factor.
Heart disease can be avoided the natural way, and you have all the chances in the world to avoid it.
Are you having your second cup of coffee? Could not resist its aroma and the urge for more? Don’t worry, it’s okay because coffee will not give you heart disease or hypertension; it even may do your mind some good. A new study suggests the possible connection between coffee consumption and lower risk of dementia during old age.
A group of Swedish and Danish researchers led by Dr. Miia Kivipelto, associate professor of neurology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, conducted a study that looked into how coffee consumption could affect the mental health of men and women later in their lives. The study, which involved 1,049 participant and spanned 21 years, showed that people who drink two or more cups of coffee everyday are less likely to develop dementia later in life. But Dr. Kivipelto is not yet saying that coffee consumption is a preventative health measure. “This is an observational study,” she said. “We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking up drinking will have a protective effect.”
Several possible reasons why coffee might reduce the risk of dementia later in life were sighted by Dr. Kivipelto and her team: coffee consumption is associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes (which is said to be a factor that could contribute to greater risk of dementia); the antioxidant effect of coffee helps reduce vascular risk factors for dementia. Earlier studies also showed that coffee could possibly reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
In recent years, many studies about the effects of coffee on the human body have been published that suggest that the good effects of coffee on the body could well outweigh the bad effects. But health experts are not that open yet in supporting the idea that consumption of coffee could be a good health practice. In the meantime, just enjoy that second cup of coffee, it could lift you up and help you get through your busy day.
Emotions are part and parcel of being human beings; they come naturally to us because they are important features of our lives. Strong emotions come to us every now and then as reactions to things that happen to us. Often, these emotions are sudden and strong, and it’s as if we do not have control over them. These kinds of intense emotions, if given loose rein, could take over us and could bring forth functional disorders that affect our organs. Happiness, anger, sadness, anxiety and fear are some of the examples of strong emotions that could affect our health.
Doctors explain that when a person is angry his liver works twice as much as when his emotions are at bay because during bouts of anger his liver sends more blood upward. This is the reason why the face of an angry person is flushed; more blood is there than normal and the liver contributed much in sending it there. A person who is always angry and cannot control it has more risks of causing damage to his liver.
Sadness, which could be persistent and strong, could cause one’s energy to slug. It could lead to the weakening of the lungs. Prolonged sadness can lead to melancholy, which causes afflictions of the heart and premature aging.
Experts say that fear and anxiety may cause harm to the kidneys because these emotions can turn the direction of the flow of the water passage in the kidney.
Happiness, though a very positive emotion that can bring up the spirit, also may cause some harm if we allow too much of it and in a drawn-out way. Too much happiness causes the heart to beat faster in an irregular manner. A person who cannot contain too much happiness could also find it difficult to focus and concentrate and become unproductive.
Emotions are essential to human survival, but we should not allow them to control us; we should control them.
