PharmaPassport Health Tips Blog» 6 Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy

6 Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy

Amanda — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:06:56 +0000

Heart disease is preventable, and maintaining a healthy heart will increase your quality of life. There are many everyday things you can do to ensure your heart is working at its best.

1. Don’t Smoke! Smoking is the worst thing you can do for your lungs and heart. If you are having trouble quitting, try eating sunflower seeds and oat straw infusion for a month before you quit. This will reduce your body’s craving for nicotine and strengthen the blood vessels and nerves before the impact of withdrawal.

2. Get More Beta-Carotenes - These reduce your risk of a stroke by 40%. Foods containing beta-carotene are carrots, cabbage, sweet potatoes, spinach, and apricots. Beta-carotene’s lower your cholesterol levels.

3. Embrace Garlic Breath – Garlic has the amazing ability to lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, strengthen the heart muscle, improve the immune system, stabilize blood sugar, and lower risk of stroke.

4. Exercise! The best thing you can do for yourself is to be active daily. Skipping rope is the best for your heart, but even walking and swimming and great exercises for your heart – as long as you are exercising on a regular basis.

5. Show affection - Recent studies have found that people who are lovingly touched everyday have a lower risk of developing heart problems than people who are not touched by others.

6. Be consistent - try not to be inconsistent in your eating habits. On and off dieting, fasting, and binging cause an imbalance in your electrolyte levels which will weaken your heart muscle and eventually lead to heart damage.

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Your Fingernails and Your Health

Amanda — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:52:00 +0000

The state of your fingernails can provide clues about your overall health. Simple things like color and shape can indicate complicated health conditions such as chronic bronchitis. Pay attention to the signs that your nails give you in order to take care of yourself.

Nail Pitting - Tiny indents in the nails are normal for people with psoriasis. These depressions can also result from nail injuries and cause your nails to crumble. Sometimes pitting is associated with things like chronic dermatitis or alopecia areata which causes hair loss.

Nail Curling - Nails that are soft and curl into the shape of spoons could indicate iron deficiency anemia.

Brittle and weak nails - Indicates a lack of vitamin A or an Iron deficiency.

Horizontal Ridges (Beau’s lines) - these deep crevices can indicate circulatory problems, diabetes, or can be caused by an illness such as pneumonia.

Yellow Nails - If you have a yellow discoloration on your nails it could be signs of a respiratory condition. Yellow nails will often grow slowly and thicken. Sometimes, when nails are affected with this condition, they may detach from the nail bed and come off. This is not always a sign of a respiratory illness. Yellow nails are caused when nail growth slows down.

Red Nail bed - At the bottom of the nail is the nail bed. A red nail bed can indicate heart problems.

White Nail bed - A white nail bed can indicate an iron deficiency causing Anemia, or liver problems

White spots - White spots on the nails can indicate a Zinc deficiency.

Darkening Nails - If your nails are becoming darker, you may have insufficient vitamin B12 levels.

Rippling Texture - Rippling of the nail surface can in indicate psoriasis or arthritis.

Clubbed Nails – This occurs when your fingertips become bigger and your nails curve around the fingertips. Low oxygen levels in your blood causes clubbing and can be a sign of lung disease. Clubbing can also be associated with inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease and liver disease.

Hang Nails – The stray pieces of hard skin around your nails can be a sign of a lack of protein, folic acid, or vitamin C.

Loose Nails - a condition know as onycholysis can cause your nails to become loose and detatch from the nail bed. This may also be associated with injury or infection, thyroid disease, drug reactions, reactions to nail hardeners or acrylic nails, or Psoriasis.

High salt intake may put you at risk of cardiovascular disease

Amanda — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:03:00 +0000

The British Medical journal recently published research which observed the notes of 13 studies from the years 1966 – 2008. The study looks at the relationship between salt intake and stroke and cardiovascular disease affecting the heart. According to the research, a high salt intake is definitely associated with an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease, However because of the imprecise measurements of salt intake, these effects are most likely underestimated. The result supports the role of a possibly substantial population reduction in salt intake for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The association was greater in those who consumed a higher amount of salt.

According to Marion Nestle, 80 percent of salt intake comes from processed and ready-made foods, therefore the best way to prevent cardiovascular disease due to high salt intake is to regulate the salt in the food industry. If we want to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, salt levels would need to be reduced throughout the entire board of food production.

One major issue, however, is that because our salt intake from processed foods is so high, the taste of salt depends on how much we eat. If salt levels were reduced in the food industry it would be noticed by consumers.

Considering that over 570,000 Americans die each year due to cardiovascular disease and stroke, the most important concern right now is that we need to educate the public on the issue in order to successfully lower salt intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease. People need to know the danger in eating too much salt, and they need to know how to lower their salt intake. Reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by eating at home. Eating more home-cooked meals is a good place to start if processed foods and restaurant food are the biggest threat for high salt levels.

Top Health Threats For Women

John — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:15:00 +0000

There’s a whole world of possibilities out there. You can pretty much do anything you really set your mind to. Yes, the world is just waiting for you to experience it. However, with endless possibilities there are also endless setbacks.

Many women have experienced struggle with just about everything. Gaining the right to vote, equal status to men. Even today many women are having problems moving up the corporate ladders and running big businesses (although women are now also conquering workplace struggles).

For women there are many different threats to their health. I’m not saying that men don’t have health threats, but today it’s all about the women’s health threats. Some of these threats are hereditary, but others are completely avoidable.

12 Health Risks For Women

1.Heart Disease
2.Cancer
3.Stroke
4.Lung Disease
5.Alzheimer’s Disease
6.Injuries
7.Type 2 Diabetes
8.Flu
9.Kidney Disease
10.Blood Poisoning
11.Hypertension
12.Perinatal Conditions