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Baby powder is unnecessary because of its low absorptive, lubricating and odour covering properties; if you must use it, then first shake it in your hand instead of sprinkling over the body to prevent the baby from inhaling powder that can irritate lungs.
Use of creams and lotions are much safer way to soothe baby's bottom than applying baby powder.
Back surgery for slipped disc can not guarantee relief of chronic back pain. Most cases respond better to non-surgical treatments including exercise, rest, hypnosis, and stress reduction. Back surgeries are also extremely complicated with risk of damage to spinal cord. Avoid it if you can. Seek several opinions before you go ahead with it.
Back pain arises due to excess body weight, poor posture, standing or sitting for long time, sleeping on your stomach, lifting or carrying heavy objects, high heels and psychological stress.
Persistent bad breath that a dentist cannot resolve may be due to diseases of throat, sinus, lung, kidney or liver. Diabetes also makes your breath bad . Do not ignore it or mask it with rinses. See your doctor.
Baggy eyes in the morning are normally due to sleeping on stomach or without a pillow; fatigue and alcohol make it worse. Frequent swelling is often a sign of allergies. Bags under the eyes, mainly hereditary, occur because fluids tends to accumulate where the skin is thinner. Thyroid, kidney and heart disease and use of some medications make baggy eyes appear worse; in most cases resting and sleeping on an elevated pillow is the best you can do.
Make potato your friend. A large baked potato has only 200 calories, is full of vitamins, iron and potassium. Add salsa or low-fat yoghurt for topping. Eat with skin. Avoid other forms of potato such as chips, fries, and hash browns.
Baking soda is an excellent home remedy. Use it for indigestion, deodorising refrigerators (place a box of baking soda, top opened in the refrigerator; after two months, drain it to clean pipes). Learn CPR and Heimlich Manoeuvre. Knowledge of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and the technique to over come food choking is essential to your family 's survival should the need arise. Baking soda and meat tenderisers work wonders on stings from sea creatures. Carry them with you to beaches.
Recently, athletes have begun taking baking soda before events to boost energy (by neutralising muscle acids) but this use is not yet endorsed by scientists.
Ear is not only for listening but also to give you a balancing sense. If you have difficulty balancing your walk, see a doctor, you may have an ear infection or disorder.
It is normal to lose 50 and 150 hairs each day. A new hair begins growth in place within 3 months unless the loss of hair follicle was permanent due to balding. Nothing you can do to slow down hair loss.
Do not apply balms or liniments to broken wounds; also, never apply heat when using balms, etc.
Bananas make ideal food for all ages and are a good source of potassium; choose bananas that are yellow with green tips; they are sweetest when flecked with brown spots. Refrigerate them to prevent further ripening though skin may darken.
Use an occlusive type non-sticking bandage to protect wounds from getting dirty until healing begins; then remove them. White wrinkled skin means too much moisture and time to leave it open to dry out.
Do not mix utensils used for raw and cooked food. Raw food is often highly contaminated with bacteria. Pay special attention when barbecuing.
Don't go barefoot on soil, specially in areas without a good sanitary system. You can easily get infected with hookworms, which penetrate the skin and migrate to the intestine, where they live off blood.
Oils keep skin from drying from lost skin oils when taking a bath; add a little bath oil, limit the bath to 10-15 minutes, do not use very hot water and apply moisturiser as you come out of bath.
Long baths and showers, especially in hot water, age the skin faster and make it dry and sag.
Beans provide as much protein as meat, and are much lower in fat and calories.
Bedbugs live in furniture, especially beds, and floors during the day and emerge at night to feed on humans by sucking blood. They are not known to transmit or cause any disease but their bites cause itching sores that may become infected.
Common in children to 3 yrs ago during the night, the conditions must be checked by a doctor if it persists beyond this age.
Bees are the only insects that leave the stinger behind; don't pull it directly with fingers or tweezers since it squeezes more venom in. Scrape away with a sharp blade held against the skin, then remove the stinger.
Being not sick does not mean being healthy. It means you have a better chance of maintaining good health, if you take care of yourself continually. Unfortunately, you cannot take health for granted. You are only as healthy as your today's habits.
Belching is the noisy return of air swallowed usually as a nervous habit or as a result of eating or drinking too quickly. Belching itself causes more air swallowing making belching more likely. Sometimes, belching helps alleviate discomfort caused by indigestion. During pregnancy, belching briefly helps relieve nausea and heartburn, which disappear after delivery of the baby.
Good belly laughs and coughing worsens an aching back more than running and twisting. Stop being funny.
There is no best diet; requirements and needs change with age. Never believe if someone discovers the best diet for you. Humans are omnivores, eating all types of foods and that's the best advise.
Most red and orange-coloured juices are rich in beta carotene. A glass of carrot juice has twelve times the required daily amount of beta carotene. Identify beta carotene sources. Deep coloured fruits and vegetables are full of beta carotene: orange, mango, sweet potato, yellow and dark green vegetable, carrot, cantaloupe, etc. Mango has the highest content of beta carotene. However, watch out for fruits which have sugar and high calories. Beta carotene is a safe precursor to vitamin A but it also has many of its own beneficial effects. It protects against the ageing effects of sun, the carcinogenic effects of environmental chemicals and the damaging effects of tobacco smoking. You need 5-15 mg of beta carotene per day. As a source of vitamin A, beta carotene is much safer and can be taken in much larger quantities.
Betel chewing causes cancer of mouth and throat; the trend is halted and even reversed if you quit betel chewing and consume large quantities of bright coloured fruits that contain a precursor to vitamin A, beta carotene. Betel chewing damages teeth and gums irreversibly, makes you look ugly and pollutes the environment. Spitting spreads more than colour; many respiratory diseases are transmitted through sputum including tuberculosis, which is on the rise now.
Bile is a greenish fluid that contains bile acids and cholesterol, to assist in the absorption of fat in diet. Bile also contains by-products of liver metabolism. Fibre in diet helps remove all components of bile from body by binding to these and thus not allowing their recirculation. Body must now breakdown cholesterol to produce more bile acids that results in lowered cholesterol levels and reduced chances of forming gall stones.
Birth control measures should be taught to children as early as possible; contrary to popular belief, this does not promote promiscuity. Instead, it helps them understand the need for organised planning.
Mostly of genetic origin but recently known to be caused by environmental factors, most foetuses are aborted spontaneously. Avoid risk of defects by getting genetic counselling, avoiding use of drugs during pregnancy without your doctor's permission.
Aspirin at 300 mg dose acts as anticoagulant, preventing blood from clotting and is useful in preventing temporary loss of consciousness due to reduced circulation to brain.
Blinking reduces when you watch television causing dryness of eyes specially if you wear contact lenses. Blink often and intentionally when watching TV.
Do not get exposed to blood products. Any contact with blood or its products can be dangerous including risk of catching AIDS. Make sure your dentist uses properly sterilised equipment to avoid risk of hepatitis.
Establish own blood donation group. Make a network of relatives and friends to donate blood in emergencies. It can save many lives.
Kidneys do more than just cleanse blood. They activate vitamin D to maintain strong healthy bones, secrete hormones to control blood pressure and stimulate bone marrow to produce red blood cells. If you lose a kidney, extra care and medication may be needed to support its other functions. Kidney failure can lead to a deficiency of potassium, magnesium calcium and vitaminD.
Blow drying hair may cause over-dry and hair susceptible to splitting, it does not cause hair to fall out. Combing or brushing too hard can lead to hair loss. While blow drying, use fingers instead of a comb to move hair around.
Basal metabolism (BMR) is the energy our body expends to conduct its daily business. It is proportional to body surface area and thus to height. Presence of excess body fat does not increase the BMR. BMR is lowest before the menstrual cycle begins and peaks out on the fourteenth day. It is also increased during pregnancy. Exercise increases BMR and it continues high for sometime after ending exercise. People who put on weight are those who consume more calories than the BMR burns out. So, know the factors that keep your BMR high, if you want to lose weight.
Fats are essential to protect body from many environmental effects, diseases and starvation. Men should have about 18% and women around 25% of their body weight as fats; too low or too high a fat content is damaging to health.
Find out if you smell bad from friends or spouse because you are the worst judge of it. Ask the embarrassing question rather than embarrassing strangers.
Body fat comes from proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the food, just from the fat in foods. All excess calories end up as fat deposits in body. So, if you want to loose fat deposits, cut down on all types of calories and exercise to burn fat.
Body mass index (BMI) is body weight in KGs divided twice by the height in metres. BMI values between 20 and 25 are OK, but watch for the direction they are moving; 25-27: you need to increase exercise; 27-32: you're eating too much and face risk of serious disease; over 32: consider adopting the 1,200 calorie per day plan in consultation with your doctor.
Do not try to design your body. No exercise reduces fat from specific body areas. Muscles build upon exercising; burning calories takes away fat indiscriminately from throughout the body. Apple and pear-shaped bodies are of genetic orientation.
"Apple" shaped bodies (fattest in the abdomen) have a greater risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes than those with "pear" shape (fattest in the hips, buttocks and thighs). Apple-shaped women are at higher risk than apple-shaped men.
Improve taste of boiled water by adding a few drops or rose water or kewra to each bottle. (The taste of water comes from dissolved salts and gases; small quantity of aromatic substances enhance flavour of water remarkably.) Boiled water is totally safe for kidneys despite increase in electrolyte concentration. Municipal water has very low electrolytes to begin with and the small increase upon boiling is insignificant.
Weight-bearing exercises that involve the pull of muscles against bone and against gravity stimulate bone renewal and reduce the risk of developing arthritis and hollow bones that fracture easily.
Bones support more than our body structure; they produce blood cells and provide the needed calcium. Loss of bone with age can affect many bodily functions besides weakening the body. Take measures to strengthen bones through calcium supplements.
Boost your memory. Though unavoidable with ageing, nothing helps your perform better at your job and in social life than by having an active memory. Do crosswords, puzzles, card games and other exercises to enhance memory. Seek new stimuli as training programs, social group activities to keep your brain juices running. Even try your grandmother's recipe of almonds to boost memory.
Abnormal looking bowel movements such as unusually coloured ones can be a sign of dysentery, haemorrhoids, stomach or intestine ulcer or jaundice. Do not ignore them.
Boxed breakfast cereals are fast becoming popular; watch-out, most of them are full of sugar. Instead use the cereals prepared freshly.
The common expression "Fish is brain food" comes to us from ancient China and the early Christian era; it re-emerged in the 19th century, though erroneously, when it was discovered that we need phosphorus in brain and fish had a lot of it. Fish is good for the brain because it contains a fatty acid called DHA (also found in breast milk), essential for brain development. And you need it not only in infancy but throughout life.
Skipping breakfast does not help you lose weight; it merely promotes "starve and stuff" syndrome to make you eat high calorie, less nutritious snacks that make you fat. Make breakfast the most nutritious meal of the day. It should contain proteins and carbohydrates (complex) in abundance. Give your body a healthy start. There is no reason to stick to classical breakfast items such as toast, eggs and milk. Eat whatever you like but keep it low in fat. Japanese eat salad and soup for breakfast, Germans prefer cold sausage and Norwegian like smoked fish and break. You can't fault them.
Old wives' tale of nursing mother's diet causing colic, sleeplessness and irritability in infants is just a tale. It is lack of experience of young mothers to handle crying that irritates infants more.
Daughters of the Asian women settled in the West have similar incidence of breast cancer as the Western women, about six times higher than their mothers from the East. The changes in the dietary pattern particularly the increased fat in diet are chiefly responsible for this increased risk of breast cancer.
Examine breasts. Give yourself a breast exam every month after periods. Nothing prevents cancer better than its early detection. Get a mammogram (X-ray of breast) every other year if you are 40-49, every year after that.
Breast-feeding also cures infections in infants as mother's body produces antibodies specific to infection in infants.
Removal of entire breast with surrounding tissue is an obsolete practice to treat breast cancer. Removal of lump followed by chemotherapy is just as effective in most cases.
Breathing difficulties caused by narrowing of the airways. In attacks wheeze, visible struggle for beath to onlookers. In older people, do not confuse with heart disease or bronchitis. Wheezy breathing is often normal in babies and young children; it is not a sign of asthma.
Raw sugar, brown sugar, honey molasses or maple syrup are all sugar except they contain trace minerals as impurities giving them their flavour; they are all equally bad.
Brown bagging or taking your lunch to work makes you eat less, but more nutritiously.
Few people know the correct techniques of brushing teeth. Begin with back teeth and clean them with a circular motion, one tooth at a time, on both sides. Cleaning is needed between teeth and at the base of teeth. Brush first thing in the morning, after each meal and before going to bed. Change brush at least once a month, more frequently if you use a soft brush.
Eating at buffets can be tormenting to weaker souls; try the following assertions: never to go for seconds, begin with fresh fruits and yoghurt, drink two glasses of water and never visit the desert bar. Salads through tempting can be very hazardous from safety and calorie point of view.
Burns can easily get infected if not properly covered; however, not all burns should be covered requiring special care. Always consult your doctor if you are not sure about the seriousness of a burn.
Butter, cream and cream cheese contain no calcium and are a concentrated sources o fat. Avoid them.
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