Unhealthy Holiday Drinks

With the holiday season beginning in North America, parties and gatherings are sure to be part of your social calendar. You can help minimize empty calories this holiday season with our list of unhealthy drinks to avoid.

Eggnog: Made with milk, cream, sugar, and eggs, eggnog can pack up to 460 calories in an 8-ounce serving - not including added alcohol. Think of it as an indulgent dessert, and limit yourself to one glass during the holidays; sip it slowly to savor the taste.

Other beverages with alcohol: Watch your overall alcohol consumption during the holidays, as its calories can add up after just a few glasses. Be especially aware of beverages that contain added sugars, creams and other unhealthy fats, such as:

How Effective is Brain Training

Is your memory as good as it was twenty years ago? If I had to guess, I'd probably say no. Are you as good at math calculations as you were when you were in school? Again, I'd probably guess at no. A decrease in memory can be a result of many factors including, stress, preoccupation, age, illness or just a busy lifestyle. Is there any way we can change this and get back the skills and memory we had when we were young? Probably not, but many believe that we can improve on them to a noticeable degree with the use of brain training.

Brain training is exactly what the name implies. It's a method of training the brain to make its functions sharper and our memory better. We train it through repetition and challenges. When we were back in school learning math, we wouldn't be training our brains very much if we continued to do nothing more than "two plus two is four" day after day. It would be a challenge the first couple of times, but once it was mastered, it would be repetitive and no longer a challenge to our brain. This is why brain training must be new and challenging to be effective.

How Much Salt is Safe?

Salt is a common seasoning in a normal diet. Many people add it to recipes and use it as seasoning on food. Many people claim that they cannot taste their dinner without adding some seasoning, but cutting back will enable you to discover flavors that you never knew were there.

Most people consume a lot more sodium than is needed and there’s considerable debate about whether this is safe or not. High salt diets have been linked to raise blood pressure (hypertension), one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Excessive salt intake has been linked to other health problems:

Excess calcium loss from bones, increasing the risk of osteoporosis

How Omega-3 Helps the Heart

We've known for years that omega-3 fatty acids are good for the heart. These healthy fats down-regulate inflammation, and may help reduce the risk and symptoms of disorders influenced by inflammation, including heart attack, stroke and several forms of cancer. Now researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have found another action of omega-3s that may help explain why they offer benefits for the heart. The investigators found that the more omega-3 consumed by patients with coronary heart disease, the slower the structures called telomeres at the ends of chromosomes shrank. (Telomeres have been likened to the caps on the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unraveling. In cells, telomeres prevent chromosomes from fusing with one another or rearranging - undesirable changes that could lead to serious diseases.) The more times a cell divides, the shorter telomeres become, a change that makes them a marker of biological age. The California investigators followed about 600 patients with coronary artery disease and measured their blood levels of omega-3s and telomere length at the beginning of the study and again five years later. They found that the higher the blood levels of omega-3s, the slower telomeres shortened, suggesting that the rate of biological aging - as mirrored by telomeres - decreased.

How Is Multiple Sclerosis Classified?

Multiple sclerosis is actually characterized by the disruption of the normal functioning of the peripheral nerve connections of the spinal cord and brain. It is a complex disease which is idiopathic, meaning that its cause remains unknown. This further means that multiple sclerosis is not easily prevented nor cured.

What is considered as compensation is the finding that multiple sclerosis is generally not a lifethreatening disorder. There are existing treatment methods that are able to successfully control the disease's underlying symptoms. It is through these treatment modalities that the development of multiple sclerosis can be slowed and those with complaint are given chances to live active and normal lives.

How is Colon Cancer Diagnosed and Treated?

How is Colon Cancer Diagnosed?

A biopsy of sample tissue taken from a tumour, lesion or other suspicious area may be removed for further examination to establish a diagnosis of colon cancer. Such investigations might include a barium enema, a sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy.

A barium enema involves infusing a chalky substance into the rectum, in order to outline the colon on an X-ray. With a sigmoidocopy, a short flexible tube is inserted for a colonoscopy, which allows the colon to be examined along its entire length Some tissue samples may also be removed for analysis during this procedure. Colon cancer is treated by surgical removal of the tumour, along with a portion of the colon above and below the cancer, to make sure that all of it is removed. The lymphatic tissue that drains the area is also removed and studied for any signs of possible spread.

Otitis Externa

What Is Otitis Externa?

Otitis externa is an inflammatory condition of the external ear and ear auditory canal. Also known as swimmer’s ear, this is a very common condition that causes ear ache. Otitis externa can be caused by bacterial infections or non-bacterial causes like dermatitis, fungi and mechanical trauma. Bacterial infections often develop after swimming in a swimming pool or after manipulating your ears with dirty fingers or objects. Mechanical trauma to the ear can include using cotton swabs and metal ear picks. These cleaning devices actually do more damage than cleaning because it can push earwax further into the ear canal causing blockage of the ear canal. When the ear canal is blocked, fluid in the ear and other debris cannot exit the ear which causes more inflammation and can result in conductive hearing loss.  The bacterial organisms that cause this infection is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus while usual fungal pathogens are Candida albicansand Aspergillus.