CLOSE
Friday, April 26, 2024
Tags Posts tagged with "blood pressure"

blood pressure

by -
0 775

The health benefits of lemon include treatment of throat infections, indigestion, constipation, dental problems, fever, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, obesity, respiratory disorders, cholera and high blood pressure, while it also benefits your hair and skin. Known for its therapeutic property since generations, lemons help to strengthen your immune system, cleanse your stomach, and it is considered a blood purifier.

Lemon juice, especially, has several health benefits associated with it. It is well known as a useful treatment for kidney stones, reducing strokes and lowering body temperature. As a refreshing drink, lemonade helps you to stay calm and cool.

The health benefits of lemon are due to its many nourishing elements like vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin A, vitamin E, folate, niacin thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, copper,  calcium, iron,  magnesium, potassium, zinc, phosphorusand protein. It is a fruit that contains flavonoids, which are composites that contain antioxidant and cancer fighting properties. It helps to prevent diabetes, constipation, high blood pressure, fever, indigestion and many other problems, as well as improving the skin, hair, and teeth. Studies conducted at the American Urological Association highlight the fact that lemonade or lemon juice can eliminate the occurrence of kidney stones by forming urinary citrate, which prevents the formation of crystals.

People use it to make lemonade by mixing lemon juice and water. Many people also use it as a washing agent, because of its ability to remove stains. The scent of lemons can also repel mosquitoes, while drinking lemon juice with olive oil helps to get rid of gall stones. It is well known for its medicinal power and is used in many different ways. As per the results reported in a study by the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, lemon provides protection against inflammatory polyarthritis and arthritis.

Health Benefits Of Lemon

Various health benefits of lemon are explained below:

Treats Indigestion

Lemon juice helps to cure problems related to indigestion and constipation. Add a few drops of lemon on your dish (take care, it does not go well with milk), and it will aid in digestion. It acts as a blood purifier and a cleansing agent, so a good drink after lunch or dinner is fresh lemon soda, which is also called fresh lime soda in many places. The recipe is lemon juice, cold water, soda, salts (common salt or rock salt) and sugar/honey for sweetness. You can also add some mint leaves or crushed fennel seeds for added flavor. Drink this whenever you have a heavy lunch or dinner.

Treats Fever

Lemon juice can treat a person who is suffering from a cold, flu or fever. It helps to break fevers by increasing perspiration.

Dental Care

It is also frequently used in dental care. If fresh lemon juice is applied on the area of a toothache, it can assist in getting rid of the pain. Massaging the juice on the gums can stop gum bleeding, while eliminating the bad odors that can come from various gum diseases and conditions.

Additionally, it can be used in the regular cleansing of your teeth. Keep your eye out for a toothpaste containing lemon as one of the ingredients, or add a drop of its juice onto your normal toothpaste. Some people also rub their teeth with the outer shell (the inner side touching your teeth) of a lemon after removing the juice. But be careful, it can be highly acidic, so if your mouth starts burning, rinse your gums and mouth quickly with water.

Hair Care

Lemon juice has proven itself in the treatment of hair care on a wide scale. The juice applied to the scalp can treat problems like dandruff, hair loss and other problems related to the hair and scalp. If  you apply this juice directly on the hair, it can give your hair a natural shine.

Skin Care

Lemon juice, being a natural antiseptic medicine, can also cure problems related to the skin. The juice can be applied to reduce the pain of sun burns, and it helps to ease the pain from bee stings as well. It is also good for acne and eczema. It acts as an anti-aging remedy and can remove wrinkles and blackheads. Drinking its juice mixed with water and honey brings a healthy glow to the skin, and if you thoroughly search the cosmetic market, you will find some soaps containing this juice, but they aren’t too easy to find!

Cures Burns

Use lemon juice on the site of old burns can help fade the scars, and since lemon is a cooling agent, it reduces the burning sensation on the skin when you currently have an irritating burn.

Internal Bleeding

It has antiseptic and coagulant properties, so it can stop internal bleeding. You can apply lemon juice to a small cotton ball and place it inside your nose to stop nose bleeds.

Promotes Weight Loss

If a person drinks lemon juice mixed with lukewarm water and honey, it can help reduce body weight.

Soothens Respiratory Disorders

Lemon juice assists in relieving respiratory problems and breathing problems, such as its ability to soothe a person suffering from an asthma attack. Being a rich source of vitamin C, it helps in dealing with more long-term respiratory disorders as well.

Treats Cholera

Diseases like cholera and malaria can be treated with lemon juice, because it acts as a blood purifier.

Relaxes Foot

Lemon is an aromatic and antiseptic agent and is useful in foot relaxation. Add some its juice to warm water and dip your feet in the mixture for instant relief and muscle relaxation.

Treats Rheumatism

It is also a diuretic and can treat rheumatism and arthritis. It helps to flush out bacteria and toxins from the body.

Reduces Corns

Lemon juice can dissolve lumps on the skin, so it can be applied at the places where the skin has hardened up, like the soles of feet and the palms of your hands. Drinking it with water can help patients reduce gall stones for the same reasons.

Throat Infections: Lemon is an excellent fruit that fights against problems related to throat infections, due to its well-known antibacterial properties.

Controls Blood Pressure

Drinking lemon juice is helpful for people suffering from heart problems, because it contains potassium. It controls high blood pressure, dizziness, and nausea, because it provides a calming sensation to both the mind and body. It is commonly employed to reduce mental stress and depression.

Lemon has proved to be nature’s boon to everyone who uses it. It provides many valuable solutions to health-related problems, because it contains its own set of antiseptic and natural medications. It also aids in treatment of malaria. A good practice is to eat anywhere from a quarter to a half of a lemon per day to get the maximum benefits from this powerful little fruit!

by -
0 828

Having neither too high nor too low levels of sodium [salt] is optimal for health

HealthDay news image– A controversial new study contends that a low-salt diet could be dangerous for your heart health.

Restricting dietary salt to below 3,000 milligrams a day appears to increase the risk for heart disease similar to that of high blood pressure patients who eat too much salt, said lead researcher Andrew Mente.

“Having neither too high nor too low levels of sodium [salt] is optimal for health,” said Mente, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada.

The American Heart Association is highly critical of Mente’s study. The AHA says the study relies on incorrect estimates of sodium intake, and should not lead anyone to relax concerns over excess salt in the average U.S. diet.

“This is an extremely flawed analysis that doesn’t provide new information, and it should not be used to guide public policy,” said Dr. Elliott Antman, immediate past president of the AHA and an associate dean for clinical and translational research at Harvard Medical School.

“The American Heart Association continues to recommend less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day from all sources,” he said.

Most Americans consume about 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day, more than twice the recommended amount, according to the heart association.

Mente said, based on his analysis, only people with high blood pressure need to worry about reducing salt intake.

He said his study results showed that a low-salt diet increases the risk of heart attack or stroke 26 percent for people without high blood pressure and 34 percent for people with high blood pressure.

For those with high blood pressure, too much dietary salt increases their risk 23 percent, the study said.

On the other hand, a diet with excess salt doesn’t increase the risk at all if blood pressure is normal, the study reported.

“Most of the population eats what they’re supposed to eat, based on the data,” Mente said. “They fall in the middle and that’s actually the sweet spot — the safest range of intake.”

Excess salt increases blood pressure in some people by causing the body to retain water, putting extra strain on the heart, the heart association says.

Mente said a low-salt diet can activate the body’s renin-angiotensin system. This is a hormone process that regulates blood pressure and fluid balance.

“If you attempt to reduce your blood pressure by lowering your sodium, you’re lowering your blood pressure but you’re activating your renin-angiontensin system,” Mente said.

For their analysis, Mente and his colleagues pooled results of four studies that measured salt intake and tracked heart health. Together, the studies involved more than 133,000 people from 49 countries.

Each study used a single, morning urine sample from each person to estimate their regular daily salt intake for extended periods of time, an approach the AHA’s Antman called “deficient.”

People with less than 3,000 milligrams of sodium in their urine were assigned to the low-sodium group, while 7,000 or more milligrams of urinary sodium was considered high-sodium.

Antman said, “They (the study authors) make the assumption that a measurement of urine sodium in a spot fashion like this, at one moment in time, can reliably inform us about what the sodium intake was during the course of the study.”

Antman is concerned that news reports of this study will lead people to make diet choices that could prove disastrous to their heart health.

“Unless we point out the deficiencies with this analysis, there could be a major public health problem,” he said.

The study results were published May 20 in The Lancet.

Sharon Zarabi, a registered dietitian at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said salt has been a part of the human diet for millennia. But, the advent of processed foods has led to its use in larger doses for flavor and as a preservative, she said.

“We treat patients with hypertension [high blood pressure] with the DASH dietary approach, a diet which includes a variety of fruits and vegetables and limits added salt,” Zarabi said. “As most dietary research studies claim ‘everything in moderation,’ try to avoid condiments and processed foods that have more salt than you might expect, such as salad dressings, mustard, cheese, sauces and even bread products.”

Dr. Howard Levite, director of cardiology for Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, said the idea that most people are consuming the right amount of salt is “controversial.” This new analysis does not disprove the need to watch salt intake as a means of warding off heart disease, he added.

“The article raises the possibility that once achieving middle age the current sodium guidelines for an individual may need to be liberalized. But, this in no way detracts from the prevention goals that are the raison d’etre of the established protocols,” Levite said.

SOURCES: Andrew Mente, Ph.D., associate professor, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada; Elliott Antman, M.D., immediate past president, American Heart Association, and associate dean, clinical and translational research, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Sharon Zarabi, R.D., Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Howard Levite, M.D., director, cardiology, Staten Island University Hospital; May 20, 2016, The Lancet

Source: HealthDay

by -
0 639

As important as it is, many people do not know their blood pressure level. One would be going too far to ask if they even know their blood sugar or cholesterol levels.

For us to live long and healthy, doctors recommend that every one, no matter on the person’s age or sex, should know what his or her blood pressure level and number.

They warn that being ignorant of this number increases one’s chance of dying suddenly of stroke, kidney failure and heart diseases.

Consultant Cardiologist, Dr. Segun Akinsanya, likens not knowing one’s blood pressure to “sitting on a bomb comfortably” and warns that such negligent attitude to matters concerning health can lead to sudden death.

According to Akinsanya, lifestyle choices such as smoking, poor diet, heavy alcohol consumption and lack of exercise are factors that can predispose people to high blood pressure and knowing this will help such individuals to make informed lifestyle choices.

He adds that Africans, who are more prone to developing high blood pressure and hypertension, should be more concerned on how to take appropriate steps to prevent and manage high blood pressure.

Akinsanya warns that a major reason why one should be vigilant and monitor one’s high blood pressure is because it has a strong link to kidney and heart failure.

“High blood pressure is the number one cause of heart diseases and cardiovascular deaths. Again, heart disease is the number one cause of death globally, as more people die annually from it than from any other disease. One in every three deaths is from hypertensive heart disease.

“High blood pressure weakens the heart and reduces its functions. When not managed well, it is a deadly condition. It can lead to sudden death and kidney failure. In fact, it is the first cause of organ failure.

“The good news, however, is that it can be managed and controlled for many decades with drugs and lifestyle changes, if only you realise that you have it. But we must know that our wellbeing is in our hands, You don’t control what you don’t know. You don’t prevent what you don’t see as a danger to your health and in this case life,” the medic adds.

It is not just organ failure, a experts also attribute the increasing population of Nigerians developing stroke to the growing cases of undiagnosed, unmanaged hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes.

Consultant Neurosurgeon and stroke care specialist, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, says about 40 per cent of Nigerians are living with factors that can predispose them to developing stroke.

These factors, he says, are high blood pressure, high blood sugar level, smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity

He warns that more young people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are developing and dying of stroke due to the increasing population of hypertensive and diabetic patients.

Ogungbo notes that stroke, a preventable disease, occurs when there is either too much blood in the brain (wet stroke) or when no blood is going into the brain (dry stroke) and it is usually due to unmanaged and undetected hypertension.

“The incidence of hypertension is high in Nigeria. Almost half of patients I see for the first time in clinic for other problems such as back pain have high blood pressure.

“Hypertension is common in black people. We do not know why. It is therefore common in Nigerians and some statistics say over 40 per cent of adults in Nigeria have hypertension.

“Unfortunately, for some reasons, younger people are becoming hypertensive and suffering the consequences, which border on stroke and heart failure.”

Ogungbo says that good preventive measures and management of high blood pressure can check the incidence of stroke, which results in loss of speech, paralysis, urinary incontinence, mental disability, physical disability, blindness, loss of body movement and even death in most cases.

The neurologist says that there is a need for urgent awareness especially among Africans on the fact that stroke can be prevented if hypertension or high blood pressure is detected early.

“Anyone with a pressure consistently above normal has high blood pressure. The cut off for it is above 140/90 mmHg. It does not give any warning and usually no one knows if his or her pressure is high or not until he or she does a test. By the time you have definite symptoms such as headaches, organs like the heart, brain and kidneys may have been damaged.”

To prevent high blood pressure, Ogungbo advises that one must monitor one’s blood pressure and adopt a healthy lifestyle that prevents obesity.

Ogungbo says, “We must take exercise more seriously to shed calories. Fat forms layers in the blood vessels and causes them to become narrow. This increases the work of the heart in pumping blood through the vessels leading to high blood pressure.

“Eat plenty fruits and vegetables. Do not smoke and avoid alcohol. Lose weight. That 20 minutes walk or exercise daily may just save your life.

“If you need medication for blood pressure control, please use it and do not stop because someone tells you to. Hypertension is for life and does not go away. It cannot be cured but can be managed and controlled.”

PUNCH.

by -
0 992

What is Sex? Sex is perceived as taking place between one individual, not being a child that carries XY and another individual, not being a child that carries XX genes. That is to say, sex is deemed to take place between two consenting adults of opposite genders. Sex occurs when the male penis enter the female vagina. Sexual problems Sexual problems in men can be and usually is different from the sexual problems in women. In some occasions, these problems are similar. We will attempt to look at common problems in both genders. Common Sexual Problem in Men Erectile Dysfunction Erectile dysfunction otherwise known as impotence by the public is a persistent inability of the man to get and maintain a penile erection that is sufficient for a sexual intercourse. What makes for an erection and what causes erection to occur? In individual, an erection would normally occur:

Stage 1:

1) At the thought of sex, via fresh imagination or a recall from memory/past experience of sexual encounters.

2) Seeing the actual image of sex. This can be in form of video, pictures or real life sexual scene. The crucial issue is that, the person must receive some data and information into the brain, about sex. With these, a quick succession of events is activated. The hormones, testosterone and others are activated in the blood and other hormones are released to effect the erection.

3) Talk of sex or discussion about sex.

4) Feeling of sex: hearing of sex scenes, smelling, touching-feeling of sex. Note that, the above-mentioned set of events takes place at the level of the brain and mind. With the mind involved, the person imagines having sex as the mental picture of sex is formed in the mind of the individual. This is called conditioning and often occurs in readiness for sex. Then and thereafter the “conditioning”, the organ of penis is “instructed” by the brain to more or less get “ready” and the blood flow is activated to flow and fill those organs designed for sex.

Stage 2:

5) Following the above, the blood flow to the penis will increase considerably in a way similar to filling your garden rubber pipe used for watering the flowers, with the open end of the pipe tied or closed. The penis becomes turgid.

6) With these, the muscles of the penis become firm and pointed in readiness for penetration of vagina. Erection may therefore fail if:

There is problem or blockade with your imagination.
There is problem with sensation of sight, smell, tough and hearing. •There is an abnormality with the production of hormones especially testosterones which can occur in diseases of the pituitary/brain or poor function or absent of the testes (“balls”). The hormone testosterone may also not function properly to hit the appropriate sex target even if the hormones are present as in some other situations. Testosterone along with other hormones controls the stages of sex.
When there is a disease that affects the blood flow to the penis such as diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure and stroke, erection may fail.
You cannot get erection if you don’t have a penis.

© Copyright 2015 - 9jahealth. A Cyborg Business