Steps to Add Years to Your Life

Adding years to your life seems to be such a challenging task to do. Some may see it as something difficult to achieve. But one must also realize that small changes in one’s daily lifestyle may contribute to add years to life. Diet is just but one aspect of it. Here are some other simple and easy steps that you can try out in order to add years into your life.

Eat more salads.

Eating more green, leafy vegetable salads can do a lot in increasing your life expectancy in case you decide to include it into your daily diet. Raw, green salads are more effective since further processing may diminish the nutrients that they contain. Eating even a cup of green salad a day can be enough to extend your life expectancy by two years, according ti Italian researchers. Make sure that you don’t forget to add a bit of dressing since the fat content in it can help boost the body’s absorption of certain nutrients found in your salad.

Add nuts into your diet.

Nuts have long been known to provide several health benefits. A regular diet of nuts which may include walnuts, almonds, pecans and peanuts can help increase your life expectancy by about three years. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day may do the trick.

Have more friends.

People yearn for the company of friends most of the time. But who would have known that they can also help extend your life expectancy by about seven years? It seems to be true according to an Australian study of people aging 70 years old and older. Researchers found out that those who come into contact with the largest network of friends also seem to have a longer lease on life. The company and the friendship seem to help add years into life. The earlier the network of friends is built, the better its effect on adding more fruitful years to your life.

Have a positive outlook.

Keeping a positive mind not only helps make life easier to cope up with, it can also help add years to your life. A Yale study composed of senior adults showed that those with a more positive outlook on aging lived seven years longer than those who dread the days of deteriorating health brought by aging. A simple change of outlook in life can help a lot in determining if you live well into your age or not.

Weird Body Quirks And Their Solutions

Sometimes our bodies react so strangely to things. But as with everything, there is an explanation for these common but weird reactions – and solutions too.

Brain freeze

I’ve always liked the term brain freeze. It’s kind of cool actually – I sometimes wait for someone’s forehead to turn blue whenever they get a brain freeze. No such luck. It’s because it’s just the nerves at the roof of the mouth reacting to something cold you ate, and triggering the blood vessels in front of your head to constrict. For quick relief from this "frozen treat headache", press your tongue to the roof of your mouth to warm it up.

Excessive sweating

Excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis is a fairly common problem, and it happens (even) to healthy people. It usually occurs in the face, palms, soles, and armpits. Treatment usually includes aluminum chloride, antiperspirants, prescription antiperspirants, iontophoresis, Botox injections, oral medications, or surgery.

Vertigo

Vertigo is the sensation that the room is moving when it’s not. It can be caused by an inner ear inflammation, or decreased blood flow to the brain, vertigo can last for minutes, even hours. To distinguish vertigo from dizziness, there should be a feeling of motion. Other symptoms of vertigo include nausea or vomiting, sweating, and unusual eye movements. Treatment for vertigo depends on the cause.

Pins and needles

The pins and needles feeling when your arm goes to sleep is caused by lack of movement of constant pressure on that body part, leaving cells unable to transmit messages to the brain. The cure is very simple – move. Chronic pins and needles may be a sign of a more serious underlying condition. If this is the case, see your doctor.

Hiccups

Hiccups are an uncontrollable contraction of the diaphragm. It is usually caused by eating to fast, drinking too much alcohol, or swallowing air. Hiccups usually go away on their own. To hasten hiccups away, try holding your breath, quickly drinking water, or breathing in a bag.

Source: WebMD

Understanding Lupus

Lupus is an autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation, pain, swelling and tissue damage occurring throughout the body. It is primarily caused by the body’s immune system trying to attack its own tissues instead of attacking foreign bodies like bacteria and viruses. Lupus can affect many parts of the body including the joints, heart, lungs, kidneys and even blood cells.

Lupus Cause

Just like many other types of autoimmune diseases, medical experts have yet to discover what causes lupus. Many experts believe that the cause may be attributed to both genetics and the environment. They believe that an individual can inherit a predisposition to developing lupus. But it may take coming into contact with a so-called trigger from the environment such as a type of medication or a virus that may lead to lupus.

Lupus Symptoms

Lupus may affect different people in different ways. There are no general signs and symptoms that affect all lupus patients. Whatever signs and symptoms that show may depend on what part of the body the disease may be affecting. Symptoms can range from fever, fatigue, joint pain, weight loss or gain, skin lesions, mouth sores, chest pain and even memory loss. These symptoms may develop either suddenly or in a gradual manner. They can also either be mild or severe depending on the extent of the problem.

Lupus Treatment

Treatment for lupus would depend on the symptoms as well as what part of the body the disease might be affecting. It is important that individuals suffering from lupus should talk with their doctors to determine what type of treatment would be effective for their case. The level of the treatment would also depend on how aggressive the signs and the symptoms of lupus show in different individuals.

Some of the possible medications that may be provided would include Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs or NSAID’s, corticosteroids and antimalarial drugs which have been known to prevent flare ups of the disease in some people. An important thing that doctors also consider when giving treatment for lupus on certain individuals is the potential side effects that they might bring. Corticosteriods and antimalarial drugs are known to cause certain side effects.

Genes That May Affect Your Health

The human body is quite unique and interesting, so much that scientists still has a lot to learn about it. And what some scientists have discovered is that certain physical characteristics may be able to help tell about the health conditions in certain people. Here are some of them.

Length of Fingers

According to a study made in 2008, women with index fingers that are shorter than their ring fingers may be two times more at risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knees. This characteristic is known to occur predominantly in men. In the case of women, they tend to have lower levels of estrogen which may be seen to play a role in the development of osteoarthritis.

Earlobe Wrinkles

Another physical characteristic that may also predict one’s health concerns wrinkles found on the earlobes. Medical experts have discovered that linear wrinkles found in the earlobe may be able to predict the likelihood of cardiovascular conditions. People with creases in one earlobe may be 33 percent more at risk of heart attacks or other cardiac conditions.

Having wrinkles in both earlobes increases the risk by 77 percent. Although doctors are not exactly sure why this happens, they believe that it is due to the loss of the skins elastic fibers that may be causing the crease as well as may play a role in the hardening of the arteries.

Small Calves

A French study made recently has found a relationship between stroke risk and a woman’s calf size. The study suggests that women with calf sizes that are 13 inches or less are more likely to develop carotid plaques which are known risk factors for stroke. Experts believe that larger calves contain subcutaneous fat that may help pull fatty acids from the bloodstream and then store them where they are less likely to become risk factors for stroke.

Arm Length

Shorter arms may also affect one’s health. Another study suggests that people with shorter arm spans 1.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. A possible reason might be that certain nutritional and other associated deficits during the critical growing years may have brought about the shorter arm spans in people. This might also affect the cognitive processes and latter decline in life.