Daily Archives: October 31, 2009
Cold Prevention In The Cold Months With Aromatherapy
One of the most rigorously studied aspects of aromatherapy is the ability of essential oils to support immune function. Many oils have proven antibacterial and antiviral action, while also having the ability to improve the action of our immune systems. The prevention and treatment of infectious illness is where many natural health professionals believe aroma-therapeutics will really shine, and might bring essential oils out of their niche and into mainstream medical use. The oils and the practices to keep your children and family (or for professionals, your co-workers and clients) illness-free during the so-called cold and flu season. Here’s a look at the science, the practices, the oils, and some easy-to-make recipes for the home practitioner.
Why Are Essential Oils Such Effective Antimicrobial Medicines?
For the uninitiated, essential oils are the volatile aromatic compounds distilled from plants. In this way, they just happen to be a particular form of herbal medicine, just any other medicinal plant extract. At the same time, they’re quite unique in terms of their health effects: Firstly, they are easily absorbed by our bodies, getting into the nooks-and-crannies of our physiology — some other forms of herbal medicine are difficult to absorb, and require extensive preparation, which is really already done by the person who has distilled the essential oil. Second, in terms of infectious illness, essential oils can do for us EXACTLY the same thing they do for plants: prevent infection from bacteria, viruses and fungus. An excellent analogy would be extracting particular antioxidants from a plant and ingesting this for capturing oxidative radicals in our bodies — the antioxidant serves precisely the same function for the plant.
Scientific Research: Antimicrobial … Immune-stimulant Actions of Essential Oils
For the treatment and prevention of infectious illness, essential oils are used for two purposes: the general strengthening of the immune system and the direct eradication of viruses. A great many peer-reviewed research papers have been produced showing the efficacy of essential oils for both purposes. Using the database of the National Institute of Health (www.pubmed.gov) one can review the data by searching for terms such as ‘essential oil virus’ (currently producing 93 results) or ‘essential oil immune’ (producing 143 results) and the like. Essential oils have been shown to actually increase the power of lymphocytes and increase the speed at which the immune system produces antibodies to eliminate an infection. And of course many essential oils are highly-regarded antibacterial agents (we all know about Tea Tree and Oregano), and a few of them have been shown to destroy viruses directly (Laurus Nobilis was shown to eradicate the virus causing SARS, and very recently Tea Tree was shown to be effective against the Swine Flu virus).
Cold and Flu Prevention At Home and In The Workplace
Therapists recommend two methods of using essential oils for immune system support and protection from infectious illness: inhalation through diffusion, and topical application via massage and baths. Diffusion is a excellent means if using the oils in the workplace or other clinical settings, as the method is truly passive — just breathing the air imparts the therapeutic properties of the oils. All the methods discussed are also appropriate if one has already contracted an illness, and can be of greatest help in the first stages of infection.
Essential Oil Diffusion: Disinfecting the Air While Supporting Immune Function
Diffusing essential oils into your environment provides three primary benefits: First, the oils are directly eliminating microbes in the air, thus reducing the concentration of live pathogens you may be inhaling or touching at any time and reducing the load on your immune system. Second, most essential oils, and particularly the strong anti-microbial ones, have an uplifting effect on the psyche. Many practitioners consider the mind-body link crucial to overall health, and specifically to an effective immune system. Finally, inhalation of essential oils is thought by aroma-therapy professionals to be THE most effective means of bolstering immune system function. Because the respiratory system is often the route of infection, inhalation is the best means to implement the cellular changes essential oils can create (one result of essential oil contact is a change in the electrical potential of cell walls, making it more difficult for pathogens to get inside the cells).
The Right Diffuser For The Job
One means to do both is using a professional-grade essential oil diffuser. For all these purposes, a high-quality nebulizing diffuser is the best choice, capable of making the highest concentration of essential oil in the air in your environment. Other diffusers will make a nice aroma for sure, but the cold-air (as opposed to ‘ultrasonic’) nebulizer will make a fine mist of pure essential oils, and is easily adjusted to suit the size of your environment. A nebulizer should only be used for a few minutes every hour; essential oils are very potent, and one should never feel overwhelmed by their aromas. By using a diffuser coupled with a timer, you can cycle the diffuser ON for 10 minutes, then OFF for 50 throughout the day and night. This method also conserves the oils to keep costs to a minimum.
Topical Application: Massages and Baths
Essential oils are also very effective when topically applied — they readily pass through the skin and into the bloodstream. For this purpose, very simple blends of essential oils and carrier oils can be made. A carrier oil is just any “fixed” oil (one that does not easily evaporate) like Jojoba, Olive, Almond and the like. The dilutions are as follows: for application to the feet, use ten percent total essential oils in carrier, for other parts of the body and for a bath oil, use five percent. A soak in a warm tub, with your oil formula mixed in is an absolutely lovely way to gain all the benefits of the oils: they’re absorbing into the skin and evaporating from the surface for inhalation. For blending: a one-percent concentration is equal to eight drops of essential oil per fluid ounce of carrier oil — from there you can multiply up to whatever volume of blend you’d like to make. For children, cut these concentrations by half, for children under 7, in half again, and under 4 half again. Do not topically apply essential oils to children under two without consulting a professional or highly-knowledgeable practitioner for precise instructions.
Therapeutic Immune-Stimulating Massage
Simple massage can be performed one or two times daily to the most receptive areas of the body. The feet are reputed to be highly receptive for all aroma-therapeutic treatments, including immune-support. Simply massage both feet thoroughly with the mixture; if you have access to a reflexology chart, you can focus extra attention to the respiratory and lymph systems. Of course, these are the important areas of the body to massage directly as well: the chest, the neck, the armpits, and being careful about sensitivity (dilute further if necessary) the sinuses and temples, and the groin area.
Choosing The Essential Oils
The list of antimicrobial and immune-supportive oils is lengthy; here we’ll narrow it down as much as possible to those that are also highly regarded as specifically antiviral as well. Melissa — also called “lemon balm” may be the most versatile, all-around immune-supportive essential oil. It is well-known to make cells resistant to viral infection, and its aroma is one that has statistically significant antidepressant properties. It is thought to potentate the effects of other oils, and because of its very high potency, can be used in very small percentages in relation to other oils. Tea Tree is the most widely studied of the antibacterial and antiviral oils, and the only essential oil thus far shown to specifically eradicate H1N1 influenza. Bay Laurel — or “laurus nobilis” has been shown to have direct action against against a highly infectious virus causing severe respiratory ailments. Narrow-leaf Eucalyptus has both antiviral and proven immune-modulating actions. There are several other important oils worth mentioning: Lavender (great for children), Hyssop, Thyme, and Rosemary Verbenone.
Mixing any three of these oils will create an effective synergy (it appears that the more chemically-complex essential oils have greater antiviral action, and blending this way replicates this). A specific formula may be made like this: 1 milliliter each of Bay Laurel, Eucalyptus, and Lavender, plus 8 drops of Melissa. This recipe can be used directly in a diffuser, or blended in a carrier oil as above. In one ounce of carrier, this would make a 10% concentration (for foot use), in 2 ounces of carrier for application to the rest of the body and as a bath oil. Continue diluting the recipe as necessary for children depending on their age. Essential oils are highly potent, so don’t be afraid of really diluted them down for use by children (in fact, this should be the rule!).
Essential Oils: A Simple Means to Vibrant Health
Regular use throughout the Fall and Winter months is an excellent way of supporting immune function and providing antimicrobial protection for your whole family, co-workers or clients and customers. The oils work in so many ways: through disinfection, immune system stimulation, and supporting overall well-being which then strengthens our immunity to infectious illness. They’re easy to use, have scientific backing for their efficacy, and even provide a doorway to tapping into the vast medicinal potential of aroma-medicine. These wonderful features really make them worth a try!
For more resources on how to use essential oils and aromatherapy, visit the Ananda Apothecary.
categories: aromatherapy,essential oils,illness,disease,alternative medicine,alternative health,natural health,natural wellness,massage,travel,family,children,women,health
How to Increase Muscle Mass Fast
Almost everybody wants to have some muscles with the exception of sumo wrestlers. If you want to achieve muscles the fastest way, then you need to strictly follow a very effective muscle building routine and remain faithful to it. Set your goals and really push yourself in realizing them.
In addition to the usual fitness equipment, there are some products that have surfaced that claim to help you increase your muscle mass in less time. But you need to be wary with these products if you so decide to include them in your routine. Bear in mind that not all you hear and see are true, especially if they promise quick results.
You have heard of protein bars and shakes that are supposedly designed to help you gain muscle mass, right? Well, some of them do deliver expected results. Some of them do not. The same can be said on other fitness products. When you want to try out any product to get you the muscles you desire, it is prudent that you seek expert opinion first.
But still, nothing compares to building muscles the old fashioned way.You have to carry some weights, stick to your exercise routines, and really watch what you eat. You might be in some pain but as what the old saying says, no pain, no gain.
Speaking of diet, you can help gain more muscle mass by greatly reducing or eliminating your saturated fats intake. You need to feast on essential fats since they really take good care of your body. Take out some fatty items from your menu like French fries, burgers, and hotdogs.
You can also increase your muscle mass by taking in essential vitamins and minerals. Your body will need them provide you with an energy boost when you do your workout routines. Also, give your body adequate rest. Overworking your muscles hamper the development of your muscles and making them more prone to fatigue. It would be better if you can sleep at least six hours everyday.
There is always no substitute for hard work. You have to understand that muscle building is a long process and that there are no fast and easy solutions to get what you want. You have to work for it. It might take you a lot of time, but if you persevere and stay true to your course, then all your effort will be worthwhile.
Read more here: how to increase muscle mass fast
categories: body building,Fitness,Health,muscle,muscle building
Consider Toric Contact Lenses If You Have Astigmatism
Toric contact lenses arose out of a need that could not be addressed by regular contact lenses. For many years after they were introduced, contact lenses could easily fix nearsightedness and farsightedness but could do nothing for astigmatism. Through careful crafting of contact lenses, it became possible to change where light rays focused on the retina and return the eye to 20/20 vision. Astigmatism is different and posed a special problem that was not solvable by the technology of the that time, forcing people with astigmatism to continue wearing glasses. Toric contact lenses ultimately solved that problem.
Vision problems normally occur because the eyes focus light rays incorrectly in relation to the retina. Nearsightedness causes light rays to focus in front of the retina, while farsightedness causes light rays to focus behind it.
Astigmatism is a different problem altogether. Astigmatism means that the cornea, lens or the eyeball as a whole is oddly shaped compared to a normal eye. The physical distortion is small and undetectable by others, but small differences in the eye produce a large effect for your vision. Light rays end up scattering in many different directions–not just ahead of, behind, or on the retina. Blurred vision is the unfortunate result of this distortion.
The scattering of light that occurs in astigmatism is what makes it more difficult to produce contact lenses to fix the problem. Toric contact lenses solve this problem by combining different shapes in order to focus light properly. Regular contact lenses are shaped like half a sphere, but toric lenses combine a spherical surface with a donut shaped (toroidal) one. This unique shape solves the light scattering problem.
Toric contact lenses are made using the same materials as other contact lenses, despite their different shape. They can be soft, rigid gas permeable (RGP), or hard. But unlike other contact lenses, toric lenses cannot be allowed to rotate around the surface of the eye. Rather, the toric lens shape must remain firmly in place so it can correctly prevent light from scattering.
Toric contact lenses can also be designed to address more than one vision problem at the same time, such as astigmatism and farsightedness. This flexibility makes toric contact lenses more difficult to manufacture correctly, and eye exams and fitting can be more complicated.
Toric lenses may be more expensive as a result. For people who only have a mild astigmatism the extra expense might be avoided by using regular contact lenses. The cornea will to some extent conform to the shape of the lens and minimize light scattering. Toric lenses may not be necessary at all for mild astigmatism, but only your eye care doctor can say for sure after administering an exam.
People who end up needing toric contact lenses, can choose from a variety of options. You can purchase single or multifocal lenses. You can also find toric lenses in all the same types as regular lenses–disposable, single day wear, weekly wear, monthly wear, and extended wear.
If you are suffering from astigmatism and want to leave your glasses behind, then consider choosing from a range of toric contact lenses that fit your budget and lifestyle needs.
Looking to find the best deal on toric contact lenses? Visit mytoriccontactlenses.com and find the best toric lenses for you.
categories: toric contact lenses, toric lenses, contact lenses, eyewear, vision care
Menopause And Hair Loss Is Not A Myth
Are you one of the many people who doesn’t know that menopause and hair loss is real and quite common? There is nothing to be ashamed of because most believe this is a problem that mostly affects men. However, hair loss is very common in women.
Although it is not as common for women’s hair to fall out, when it happens, it leaves them feeling stressed and quite depressed about it.
Regardless of that, their problem is quite different from the pattern baldness that affects males. Male pattern baldness causes men to lose their hair in specific ways, often leading to the horseshoe that remains after all falls out.
Women-pattern baldness is typically the thinning of the hair on the top of the scalp. For many, it can get quite thin, leaving women feeling very insecure and trying different hairstyles to conceal the problem. Unfortunately, they usually opt for styles which can further damage hair follicles, leading to more thinning.
Do you know any women who are going through menopause and hair loss? It is a trying time for them. Not only are they having to deal with the hormonal changes that come with menopause, they are also dealing with an embarrassing and emotionally crushing problem.
Up until recently, women had no real choice in treating their hair. They only had perms, ponies and teasing which would help them conceal their problem. Fortunately, all this has changed and women have the option of choosing between topical solutions and oral medications that are prescribed by the doctor. The truth is, they work. In the worst case scenario, the medications will at least maintain the remaining hair from falling out. The bottom line is that now something can be done about menopause and hair loss that will help with regrowth and maintenance.
Read more here: Menopause And Hair Loss Is Not A Myth
categories: balding,Beauty,hair loss
How To Lose Weight Fast Naturally And Effectively
Would you like to lose a few pounds? Most people would. Some would like to lose only a couple, some maybe a lot more. Wherever you lie on the spectrum, you’re not alone. It is no secret that more and more people are slowly but surely getting fatter and fatter.
I don’t know about you, but I’d pay a lot for a magic pill that I could take before bedtime, and wake up the next day looking like a runway super model.
Unfortunately, they don’t exist. Otherwise everybody would be skinny. Of course, there are many diets and programs that claim to help you lose weight quick in a short amount of time. But do they really work?
One issue is that if you lose too quickly, it usually comes back. And it brings more with it. I’m sure you’ve had this happen, like most of us. And each time it just seems to get harder and harder.
Another issue with this is that many times it’s not healthy, both in the short term and the long term. Short term problems can be dehydration and chemical imbalances. Long term problems can be actually losing muscle mass instead of fat. You lose weight, but you still have dangerous fat.
So what are we left with if we really do want to lose weight fast? Most people are starting to realize the most effective way to rapid weight loss is through increasing your metabolism. When your metabolism is high enough, you can start to burn fat twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
How do you get to this level? By eating foods and doing exercises that support a naturally high metabolism. Good carbohydrates, good, natural fats found in fish, vegetables, and nuts, and lean protein.
Some really good exercises are those that build up your lean muscle mass. Low weight, high repetition exercises that work your large muscle groups. Legs, back, hips, thighs, core.
By doing the right exercises, and eating the right foods, your body will naturally revert to that sexy, slim shape that you were meant to have. And you’ll never have to worry about dieting again.
Read more at how to lose weight fast naturally and effectively
categories: diet,exercise,fat loss,Fitness,low carb diet,weight loss
Dementia Managing
Part of the problem in finding drugs which may be effective for dementia is that our ideas about what constitutes dementia have been undergoing radical change in recent years. It had been traditional to distinguish between Alzheimer’s dementia, or senile dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (SDAT) and multi-infarct dementia (MID), which is theoretically caused by small strokes which insidiously pick off brain tissue to the point where an individual’s cognitive function is compromised.
It was originally thought that MID accounted for 60%+ of the dementias. Accordingly, early attempts to treat the dementias concentrated on the multi-infarct dementias. The initial hypothesis was that these multiple small strokes were being caused by a process of hardening of the arteries, sometimes called arteriosclerosis and sometimes atherosclerosis (although these terms refer to two quite different disorders) which impaired blood supply to the brain. The logical treatment, therefore, for this condition was to attempt to dilate blood vessels. This led to the use of a wide number of vasodilating drugs such as hydralazine.
It is quite rare now for such drugs to be used for this purpose. Arguably, if anything, such treatment may have made the condition somewhat worse in that a potential effect of vasodilators is the reduction of blood pressure and reducing blood pressure would mean that the brain would be less perfused with blood, as one of the functions of blood pressure in the first instance is to provide the propulsive force to send blood up against the force of gravity to perfuse the brain.
Stage 2
More recent attempts to treat the dementias have proceeded on the basis that Alzheimer’s dementia is the commonest form of dementia. For many years, the term Alzheimer’s dementia was reserved for dementias that came on before the age of 65 (for this reason it was also called persenile dementia), which were not obviously caused by strokes. It was conceded that there was another dementia that was like Alzheimer’s dementia, which appeared to come on after the age of 65 but this was thought to be less common. Distinctions on the basis of age have now collapsed and both dementias of the Alzheimer type are now called senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. The amalgamation of these two groups led to an awareness that Alzheimer’s-type dementia is the commonest form. The primary therapeutic focus in the field, therefore, has been on an attempt to reverse the deficits which are supposed to be present in SDAT.
In particular, it has been held that in Alzheimer’s, there is a dysfunction of cholinergic pathways in the brain, for which there are both historical and clinical reason. Historically, when early work in psychopharmacology began, there were only four known neurotransmitters – noradrenaline, 5-HT, dopamine and acetylcholine (ACh). Noradrenaline quickly became the neurotransmitter involved in depression and mood disorders. Dopamine was known to be involved in Parkinson’s disease, and, when it became clear that neuroleptics acted on it, schizophrenia, after which the psychoses in general came to be seen as disorders of dopamine neurotransmission. For the most part, 5-HT was associated with either depression or anxiety. This left ACh without a function. It seemed convenient to parcel it out to the dementias.
There was, in addition, some clinical evidence in favour of an association between the cholinergic system and dementia. Part of the reason for this claim can be seen in a number of the chapters of this blog, in which drugs with anticholinergic effects have been noted as potentially causing amnesia or confusion (see The Management of Side Effects & Side Effects of Antidepressants articles).
Stage 3
In the last 5 years, a number of other dementias have been described. A distinction has been drawn between cortical and subcortical dementias. The cortex of the brain is the area responsible for higher cognitive functions, such as speaking, reading, planning and executing actions, etc In the cortical dementias, memory is usually the function most noticeably affected but those who are affected also have problems with planning even simple functions such as dressing and they typically cannot read, draw or execute any complex tasks. Alzheimer’s and MID are cortical dementias. There are also subcortical parts to the brain which are common to humans and other mammals. They involve a number of what are termed midbrain and brainstem structures.
Read more at dementia managing
categories: depression,education,family,Fitness,food,Health,help,internet,mental,psychology,recreation,sickness
