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The DASH diet emphasizes the right portion sizes, variety of foods and nutrients. Discover how DASH can improve your health and lower your blood pressure. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet is a lifelong approach to healthy eating that's designed to help treat or prevent high blood pressure (hypertension). The DASH diet plan was developed to lower blood pressure without medication in research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The DASH diet encourages you to reduce the sodium in your diet and eat a variety of foods rich in nutrients that help lower blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. By following the DASH diet, you may be able to reduce your blood pressure by a few points in just two weeks. Over time, the top number of your blood pressure (systolic blood pressure) could drop by eight to 14 points, which can make a significant difference in your health risks. Because th...

Learning is an essential part of life. The more you learn, the more you need to learn. As Harry Truman put it, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” Your attitude toward personal growth and self-development through continuous learning is an important factor in how you succeed in life. In this article, I have highlighted some learning goals to help you become a better version of yourself and be more successful.

White rice is often criticized as a nutritionally void source of empty carbs and calories. However, white rice nutrition is considered a staple ingredient in cultures and cuisines all around the world.

Estrogen plays a huge role in body composition. Too much & you'll gain unwanted fat. Not enough & your bones will become brittle. So how do you optimize? When it comes to achieving the body of your dreams, estrogen typically is not high on the list of things to look at. However, what is not known by many folks is the way estrogen can make or break your physique. Intrigued? You should be. By optimizing your estrogen levels as a man, and keeping your testosterone to estrogen1 level ratio in check, you can have your gains and eat it too! If you’ve tried increasing your testosterone naturally, but still feel underwhelmed, then estrogen deserves a serious look. Ready to meet your feminine side? Yeah, we thought so too!

Caffeine, is it bad for health or a useful and safe aid to exercise? Article by James Collier BSc (Hons) RNutr – Contributor in Nutrition A question posed to me frequently is whether caffeine is bad for health or a useful and safe aid to exercise? And this article will attempt to discuss this question. The use of caffeine in sport is topical and over the past 2-3 years there have been a large number of well designed studies examining its use. These have been consolidated into the excellent report in 2003 By Dr Briony Thomas entitled Caffeine and Health: A Review. Despite this review being commission by PG Tips tea (a tea producing subsidiary of Unliver Bestfoods Ltd in the UK), it is both unbiased and informative.Caffeine has mixed reviews in health and sport, so, if I were to conclude this article now, I would say treat caffeine like everything, i.e. moderation is the key. However, I will attempt to summarise the benefits and negative effects and discuss using it to your ad...

Basic hygiene is the best thing you can do, according to a doctor of infectious diseases. As the respiratory illness coronavirus is quickly spreading through its origin country of China, fear is spreading just as quickly over the web and through social media. With five confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US (as of Tuesday, Jan. 28), we wanted to explore how likely it is for Americans -- especially those who have not recently traveled to China -- to contract the new strain of coronavirus, 2019 Novel Coronavirus, aka 2019-nCoV. With the help of Dr. Tom Moorcroft, an osteopathic physician focused on infectious disease, we discuss the current risk of becoming infected with coronavirus, how to protect yourself and how to stay informed. 

A rapidly evolving health story broke in late December when a novel illness originating in Wuhan, China made the news. Reports of the number of infected people swiftly rose, and isolated cases of this new coronavirus — dubbed 2019-nCoV by scientists — have appeared in several countries due to international travel. At this writing, almost 1,300 confirmed cases and over 40 deaths have occurred in China, according to an article in the  New York Times . Fortunately, public health officials in many countries, including the US, have put measures in place to help prevent further spread of the virus. These measures include health screenings at major airports in the US for people traveling from Wuhan. In China, travel restrictions are in effect. With information changing so quickly and every news report about the virus seeming to raise the stakes, you may be wondering how worried you should be. Here’s a primer on what we do — and don’t — know about this virus and what it may ...

As a Registered Dietitian, you may reasonably infer that I believe diet is the most important aspect of health. Although it’s definitely important there is one thing which, in the long term, can impact your health way more than how many burgers you eat or don’t eat. That one thing is: how well you are managing (or not managing) your stress. Now, you may have different triggers, but everyone experiences stress. It’s simply part of living day to day in the modern world, stuff happens! But, how well you are dealing with your stress is what can really make or break your health. I’m not suggesting diet doesn’t play a role. . . after all, I’m a Nutritionist! In fact, as you’ll see below, good nutrition coupled with tailored herbs and supplements can be a tool to help manage the stress monster more effectively.

If you are like me, you may be used to choosing a beauty product based only on how flattering it looks on you. Or maybe picking one based on the one that smells the best – or even because a celebrity endorsed it. After I came across Gillian Deacon’s book,  There’s Lead in Your Lipstick: Toxins in Our Everyday Body Care and How to Avoid Them,  I realized that now is the time to be more cautious of the products we bring into our homes. Now, every time I look at my lipstick-stained lips in the mirror, I wonder if I am feeding lead into my body, or if my purple-painted nails will cause me to develop cancer in 20 years. Nobody knows, but still, it is always good to be on the safer side. Doing a few minutes of research before buying, and a spending a few more minutes at the store to check the ingredients of a product may prove worthwhile.

Even if you’re a CrossFit champ or a marathon maven, getting a regular checkup just makes sense. What doesn’t always make sense is the baffling list of medical terms on the blood test results that are often part of routine exams. Navigating through these terms can lead you down a Google rabbit hole. What the heck is bilirubin? And if you’re all about that bass, could your heart be pumping too many basophils? Apart from the puzzling jargon, the design of bloodwork lab reports is dismal. We’re stuck deciphering highly technical and administrative-looking documents that make tax forms look like an e-card from mom. But have no fear: You can become literate in your blood test results. Our guide isn’t a comprehensive glossary of technical terms, but it’ll give you basic definitions and a better sense of how the information on a typical blood test report is presented and organized, so you can interpret your blood work with more confidence.

Chronic inflammatory diseases are now considered the most significant cause of death worldwide. What is the fastest way to reduce inflammation in the body? Many experts believe the answer is improving your diet, specifically by including a wide variety of anti-inflammatory foods and drinks. Anti-inflammatory drinks — such as teas, coffee and bone broth — have been included in nutrient-dense, traditional diets for centuries. These beverages were, and still are, considered to be tonics that support liver, heart, brain and digestive functions.

Do you know what beverage comes from fruit seeds and in just small amounts has been shown to make incredibly positive impacts on human health? I’m talking about pomegranate juice — that naturally sweet, ruby red liquid that comes from pomegranate seeds and is loaded with impressive pomegranate health benefits just like its source. Pomegranates have been shown to prevent and naturally treat everything from inflammation and high cholesterol to high blood pressure and hyperglycemia. Juice made from pomegranates is an antioxidant powerhouse that’s said to even trump red wine and green tea. With proven anticancer fighting abilities as well as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, it’s no wonder this fruit juice has such a great reputation. Let’s look at how pure and potent 100 percent pomegranate juice, in small amounts, might be much more than a tasty fruit-sourced beverage.

Unlike with other back pain, the aches and stiffness you feel aren't stemming from your spine itself, so you need a unique approach to get rid of middle back pain once and for all. While it's often completely dismissed or just mistaken as upper back pain, middle back pain relates to inflammation surrounding the thoracic region of the spine. Running from the base of your neck to the bottom of your rib cage, the thoracic spine doesn't move very much, explains Russel C. Huang, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon with the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

According to the American Chiropractic Association, back pain is the leading cause of disability in the world. In the United States alone, nearly 80 million working adults experience back pain every year, resulting in more than 264 million days of work missed.

The issue of mental health has increasingly been hitting the headlines. We have been reading more and more articles related to celebrities committing suicide, mass shootings, and the general rate of suicides on the rise. More children are being diagnosed with ADHD, depression, anxiety and pediatric bipolar disorder. Awareness should be higher than ever, so how is the image of declining mental health still allowing society to turn a blind eye? In examining the definition, the history, stigma, and unsuspected symptoms, it is possible to theorize why we turn a blind eye to mental illness.

Candida is the most common fungus in the human body. It’s often found in areas like the mouth, skin, digestive tract, toenails, rectum and vagina . It’s generally harmless, but an overgrowth of this fungus can lead to infection. The candida diet is a strict diet meant to alleviate the symptoms of candida infections. However, its effectiveness is unsupported by scientific evidence. Here’s a beginner’s guide to the candida diet and a sample meal plan.

The impact of food on inflammation is clear—but actually incorporating those foods into your daily life can be easier said than done. Here are 25 foods that are scientifically proven to help fight inflammation, and how I use them in my daily life:

Are you looking for an increase in a sense of calmness and greater mental clarity in your day-to-day life? Many of us are simply stressed out and overwhelmed with so many daily demands. To have just a moment of peace and harmony would really help improve our lives. Sandalwood essential oil helps users to achieve more clarity and calmness due to its extensive therapeutic benefits. This special essential oil doesn’t just have an amazing scent, sandalwood can also have an effect on overall well-being and mental health, along with many other surprising healing properties.

Many of us who want to make a positive impact on the world try to have compassion for other people. But how many of us ever think about directing that compassion toward ourselves? Probably very few. The idea usually brings up thoughts of being self-absorbed or self-centered. But, what makes us less deserving of our compassion than other people? If we want to achieve a higher level of personal development, which includes real happiness and inner peace, then we need to be able to have compassion for all people, and that includes ourselves. “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” — Buddha In this article, I’ll show you how to practice self-compassion meditation, so you can realize happiness and inner peace. I’ll include a self-compassion meditation script with suggestions on how to use it for maximum effectiveness. But before we get into the practice, it would be a good idea to understand what self-compassion is, and its many benefits.

Parents might want to focus less on the scale and instead direct their energy toward providing their children with enough macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Empty calories, like those in ice cream, might add a few pounds here and there, but they will not provide the nutrients a child needs to build a healthy brain, resilient organs and strong bones. So if you have an underweight child, begin by ensuring all calories ingested are nutrient-rich.