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5 Tips to Help Your Diabetes
There are about 29 million people in the United States who suffer from type 2 diabetes, an illness that is becoming increasingly common and is also highly preventable. With lifestyle changes, diabetes can be managed and prevented.
Aim for a healthy weight
When you have extra weight, this can cause an increase in blood sugar. Maintaining a healthy weight can keep your blood sugar at more normal levels and better overall health.
Exercise
Exercise is very important when it comes to managing or preventing type 2 diabetes. Regular exercise can help lower weight, lower stress levels, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride. Even just by adding in walks into your day can make a difference. Aim for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least four times a week.
Diet
Having a healthy diet is a lifestyle change, and that can be hard for people.
Keep carbs in check, they tend to affect your blood sugar the most. Know how many carbohydrates are in the food you’re eating to keep them at the level you need to be for managing your blood sugar.
Avoid processed sugar. Sugar in the form of sucrose or high fructose corn syrup can spike blood sugar rapidly. For people with diabetes, it is especially dangerous.
Be on top of your schedule
Diabetes requires an everyday awareness as well as a schedule when it comes to medication and insulin. If you have trouble remembering to take your medication or test yourself regularly, try setting reminders on your phone or keep a calendar near by. Consistency can make all the difference.
Try acupuncture
Neuropathy is one result of diabetes, acupuncture can help reduce this nerve pain by boosting the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain reliever. Acupuncture has almost no side effects and is a great complementary option to reducing chronic pain.
http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/guide/natural-remedies-type-2-diabetes
3 Tips for Ovary Health
There are a number of complications that can happen to a woman’s ovaries over her lifetime. Ovarian cysts commonly occur and can go away without treatment, while more serious problems like ovarian cancer require extensive treatment. The best way to treat these conditions is with preventative care. Below are tips to fit into your daily routine for better ovary health.
1) Healthy Foods
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition involving the imbalance of sex hormones, have a higher risk of ovarian cancer and obesity. Because of this, it is even more important that those with PCOS have a healthy diet.
Foods to consider into your diet:
Lean Proteins: Limiting saturated fats can help decrease the body’s inflammation and lower the chance of ovarian cancer. Good sources of lean proteins include fish, chicken, lentils, beans and eggs.
Fruits and Vegetables: Fruits and vegetables are never a bad choice to include more of into your diet. They are packed with vitamins and antioxidants to help strengthen your body’s immune system and fight disease. Tomatoes and onions can especially help prevent ovarian cancer.
Nuts and Seeds: Healthy fats are important for ovary health. The unsaturated fats in nuts and seeds can provide omega-3 fats that can reduce inflammation and help decrease your cancer risk.
2) Exercise
Women who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. Along with a healthy diet, it is important to have regular exercise to maintain health. Exercise is thought to help the body’s immune system, which in turn can help prevent obesity and ovarian cancer. Starting off with moderate exercise that includes taking a walk most days or light jogging can even be impactful on lowering your risk.
3) Herbs
Chinese Herbs:
Cinnamon and rehmannia is a common combination of herbs that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat ovarian cysts. These herbs can be found out at health stores as well as be ordered online.
Brassica vegetable extract:
Brassica vegetable extract is a natural antioxidant that can help prevent disease such as cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Brassica vegetables include kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. These vegetables contain glucosinolates, which work as an anti-carcinogen, helping to decrease the risk of cancer. You can find brassica vegetable extract in your local health food store.
Along with these lifestyle guidelines, consider acupuncture for preventative treatment as well as managing an existing problem to help get you back on the road to better health.
Acupuncture and Ovarian Health
Acupuncture has proven helpful in strengthening the body’s immune system, as well as reducing symptoms of cancer treatment. Because acupuncture treats the whole body, it can help increase immune strength that can fight against disease like ovarian cancer and polycystic ovary syndrome. By using acupuncture points, acupuncture is able to release blockages that may be preventing the body from its natural flow.
For those going through cancer treatment for ovarian cancer, acupuncture can act as an important alternative to help with symptoms of treatment. Acupuncture has been known to help nausea caused by chemotherapy and reduce overall pain. Cancer treatment involving chemotherapy and other drugs can have many side effects; acupuncture works to counterbalance these symptoms with almost no side effects or pain.
Although ovarian cysts can sometimes go away on their own, other times they require extra treatment to be resolved. Ovarian cysts can be caused by a number of factors including an imbalance of hormones. Acupuncture works by bringing the body back to balance, regulating blood supply and hormone levels.
If you are battling with ovarian complications or looking for preventative care, consider acupuncture as an alternative safe treatment option.
Recipe for Autumn Balance
Recipe for Autumn Balance
Below is a recipe to bring your body to balance in autumn. These foods will strengthen your immune system as your body becomes more susceptible to illness with the changing weather.
Butternut Squash Soup
1 large butternut squash
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 stalk of celery
boiled chicken meat
salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg
If you have a blender, blend the squash until smooth for a puree-style soup. If not, you can chop up the squash instead.
Begin by chopping up all ingredients and boiling the squash in a large pot. After the squash is mostly cooked, add the vegetables and chicken to the pot. Simmer the soup for a few minutes. When the soup is done, add spices as desired.
Butternut squash soup is not too difficult to make and contains nutrients like vitamin A to help protect your body from the upcoming flu and cold season.
Sources:
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/medicinal-cuisine.htm
5 Steps to Improve Your Hearing
Many of us have already experienced or will experience some amount of hearing loss. This can be due to aging or noise-induced factors. Exposure to loud sound over time can permanently damage the ears and result in hearing loss.
If you find yourself struggling with hearing and feeling the need to turn up the TV or your music louder, you may be experiencing hearing loss. Here are five steps to improve your hearing and prevent further damage.
1. Wear protection: If you know you will be around loud noise and won’t be able to avoid it, like at a large event or while using power tools, wear ear plugs. You can find ear plugs at most grocery stores and they can severely protect your ears from damaging loud noise.
2. Limits: To keep volumes at a moderate level on devices or stereos, consider adding a volume limit. Most devices have a feature where you can set a maximum volume. This way, you won’t be able to turn your volume up to the actual maximum.
3. Give yourself a break: Research has shown that being in a quieter setting can train your ears to better focus on the quiet sounds and increase overall hearing. Try to take even just ten minutes a day and go somewhere secluded where there is not a lot of external noise and disruption.
4. Foods: These foods have been shown to improve hearing and prevent hearing loss.
Salmon and other fish: The omega 3 fats and Vitamin D found in Salmon and other like foods have been shown to strengthen the blood vessels in the ear’s sensory system, which then can improve hearing. Research has shown that adults who eat fish twice a week reduced their risk of age-related hearing loss by 42 percent.
Spinach, asparagus, beans, broccoli: These foods are high in antioxidants and folic acid. Antioxidants can help lower the risk of hearing loss by reducing free radicals in your body that can damage the nerve tissue in the ears.
Dark chocolate, oysters, cashews: Foods high in zinc like dark chocolate, oysters and nuts can improve your body’s resistance to age-related hearing loss.
5. Acupuncture: A study conducted by the College of Oriental Medicine in South Korea measured the effects of acupuncture on patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss and found that half of the patients showed improvement in hearing after acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture points can stimulate the strength in the auditory cortex to the brain, thus increasing the brain’s ability to react to auditory stimuli.
Learn how to be aware of the symptoms of hearing loss including difficulty understanding what people say, having to raise the volume higher and muffled sounds. If you think you are suffering from hearing loss, try these tips and contact an acupuncturist today.
Sources:
https://audicus.com/you-hear-what-you-eat-5-foods-that-can-prevent-hearing-loss-and-hearing-aids/
http://www.everythingzoomer.com/12-tips-for-better-hearing/#.VT_XA2RVhHw
http://www.howtogetbigforearms.com/health/how-to-improve-your-hearing-top-10-ways
http://www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/530-acupunctureceushearinglosskorea
http://www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/720-mrihearing
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/basics/symptoms/con-20027684
Women’s Health Issues
Here is a good summary of women’s health issues that was compiled by acufinder.com.
Everyone wants to be healthy in order to enjoy a sense of well-being and have the best quality of life possible. Oriental medicine has always addressed the special needs of women throughout their lives. Women are more susceptible than men to certain health conditions, which can make it more challenging to achieve optimal health. Fortunately, many health issues women face respond extremely well to acupuncture treatments.
Several conditions that impact women more frequently than men include:
Depression:
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states that women are twice as likely to experience depression as men and one in eight will contend with major depression during their lifetime. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is the most commonly reported mental health problem among women.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS):
Four times as many women as men develop chronic fatigue syndrome. CFS sufferers may feel tired for more than six months, experience reduced memory, insomnia or a wide range of other symptoms, including but not limited to, headaches, flu-like symptoms and chronic pain. Oriental medicine can help relieve many of your symptoms because it is exceptional for relieving aches and pains, helping to avoid getting sick as often, recovering more quickly, and improving vitality and stamina.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS):
Women are 2-6 times more likely to develop IBS. Acupuncture points can help relieve IBS symptoms, according to researchers from the University of York in the U.K., who found that integrating acupuncture into a treatment plan led to less severe symptoms.
Autoimmune Diseases:
According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), about 75 percent of autoimmune diseases occur in women. As a group, these diseases make up the fourth-largest cause of health related disability among American women.
Some specific autoimmune diseases that affect women disproportionately more than men include:
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS): Nearly half a million Americans have multiple sclerosis, and of that group two-thirds are women. According to the American Academy of Neurology, women with MS are nearly 1.5 times more likely to carry the gene associated with the disease, and are more likely to transfer the gene to female offspring.
- Lupus: Ninety percent of all lupus patients are female. Lupus has no known cause, though it is believed it may be hereditary, and may also be triggered by stress, environmental toxins, sunlight, exposure to fluorescent light, and some medications.
- Celiac Disease: An autoimmune disorder that affects the digestive system due to an adverse reaction to gluten, 60 to 70 percent of celiac disease patients are women.
Read More about acupuncture and Oriental Medicine for women’s health!