Just like an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a cup of Aloe Vera juice a day will keep your health problems, skin problems and hair problems away.
Aloe Vera is full of nutrients. It has magnesium, zinc, potassium and vitamins like A, C, E and B12. Apart from replenishing your body with powerful antioxidants, it helps balance your metabolism, promote oral health, boost immunity, keep blood pressure in control and also support normal circulation of blood. Many have also claimed that it normalized their blood sugar and promoted their heart health.
Aloe Vera is extremely good for your skin. Applying Aloe gel directly to dry skin, skin injuries and skin burns helps in quick healing. You can even consume Aloe and gain the same kind of benefits. It has anti-aging properties that keep you younger forever. Being rich in proteolytic enzymes, Aloe Vera also promotes hair growth.
There are about 400 different types of Aloe. Each one of these has its own chemical composition. You need to know which ones you need to pick if you are making your own Aloe juice. If you are not too sure, it is better to go for one of the branded products that include Aloe extract.
Benefits of Aloe Vera
If you are still not too sure of whether you should go for it or not, here are a few benefits that can give you many reasons to take the right decision:
Aloe Vera has high anti-inflammatory properties that can cure bowel problems. Apart from curing constipation, it also reduces the symptoms of heart reflux, thereby stabilizing the alkaline levels in your body.
If you have rheumatism, arthritis or inflammation in your eyes or ears, having Aloe juice for about two weeks at a stretch, can help you feel better. You can also apply the gel for joint and muscle pains.
If you want to maintain your cholesterol level, Aloe is the way to go. It can also stabilize your metabolic rate, help you burn fat and reduce your lipid levels.
Aloe juice can provide instant relief from mouth ulcers and cold sores. It also reduces plaque formation and gingivitis.
Diabetic patients can consume the juice of this miraculous plant to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
Drinking a glass of water with two teaspoons of fresh Aloe Juice is a great way to cleanse or detoxify your system.
If you often experience redness or irritation in your eyes, you can add in two teaspoons of Aloe Gel to a cup of water and make your own natural eye-wash.
The presence of magnesium lactate, makes this a great antihistamine for those who are suffering from sinus or chest inflammation. It is one of the best natural solutions for bronchitis, flu, coughs, cold, stuffy nose and various other respiratory disorders.
Amino acid deficiencies can be replenished by regular consumption of Aloe Vera juice. It strengthens your self-defense mechanism by boosting up your immune system.
That's not all! Aloe juice can also help you fight cancer too. It's anti-carcinogenic properties stop tumors from growing.
If you find it difficult to extract Aloe Juice all by yourself, you can choose from many ready-made products that are available in the market. Most of these Aloe Vera products are branded and manufactured by reputed manufacturers.
Showing posts with label health insurance florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health insurance florida. Show all posts
Friday, November 10, 2017
Healthy Eating - Four Reasons to Take Probiotics
If you are someone who is interested in maximizing your health, one thing you might be considering is your intake of probiotics. These healthy bacteria live in the stomach and help keep your immune system strong, promote optimal digestion, and keep your entire body working in proper order.
While everyone needs to be consuming a healthy dose of probiotics on a regular basis, there are particular times when you need to increase your dose.
Let's take a closer look at the main times when serving yourself a little extra dose of probiotics is a wise move...
1. When You Are Ill. Because probiotics play a vital role in keeping your immune system in top shape, it is important you focus on consuming these probiotics when you are struggling with your health.
If you are currently ill, an extra dose can give you the power your body needs to fend off whatever it is fighting: helping you get back to optimal health. When you have a common cold or the flu, as well as when you are struggling with a health issue, an additional dose could be helpful.
2. After You Have Completed The Prescribed Antibiotics. While you are sick and need antibiotics, they can be useful. What they won't be good for is your gut health. Antibiotics will kill any harmful bacteria currently residing in your system. However, they will also take out all the "good" bacteria.
Serving yourself an extra dose of probiotics during this time can help bring your gut environment back to optimal, ensuring your immune system stays strong.
3. Before And During Travel. The next time it is a smart move to add a few extra probiotics to your daily menu is before and during travel. Before travel, the goal is to make your immune system as healthy as possible, which will help fend off any viruses present in the area you are going.
During the traveling period, taking the probiotics will help keep your system as healthy as possible, and help you avoid any digestive woes that may occur due to eating foods, not your typical dining choices. If you are all about trying local cuisine when you travel, your taste buds may enjoy this, but your stomach may feel otherwise. Using a probiotic may help prevent unwanted issues from occurring.
4. Throughout Pregnancy. Finally, the last time to make sure a probiotic is present in your life is throughout pregnancy. Keeping your body extra healthy at this point is important, and a good quality probiotic may help to reduce your risk of suffering from birth-related complications such as Gestational diabetes.
As you can see, a probiotic is not something you want to slough off and take lightly. It is a must-have in any diet plan aiming to keep you as healthy as possible.
Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.
For nearly 25 years, Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. Go to http://DrugFreeType2Diabetes.com to learn about some of those secrets.
The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.
While everyone needs to be consuming a healthy dose of probiotics on a regular basis, there are particular times when you need to increase your dose.
Let's take a closer look at the main times when serving yourself a little extra dose of probiotics is a wise move...
1. When You Are Ill. Because probiotics play a vital role in keeping your immune system in top shape, it is important you focus on consuming these probiotics when you are struggling with your health.
If you are currently ill, an extra dose can give you the power your body needs to fend off whatever it is fighting: helping you get back to optimal health. When you have a common cold or the flu, as well as when you are struggling with a health issue, an additional dose could be helpful.
2. After You Have Completed The Prescribed Antibiotics. While you are sick and need antibiotics, they can be useful. What they won't be good for is your gut health. Antibiotics will kill any harmful bacteria currently residing in your system. However, they will also take out all the "good" bacteria.
Serving yourself an extra dose of probiotics during this time can help bring your gut environment back to optimal, ensuring your immune system stays strong.
3. Before And During Travel. The next time it is a smart move to add a few extra probiotics to your daily menu is before and during travel. Before travel, the goal is to make your immune system as healthy as possible, which will help fend off any viruses present in the area you are going.
During the traveling period, taking the probiotics will help keep your system as healthy as possible, and help you avoid any digestive woes that may occur due to eating foods, not your typical dining choices. If you are all about trying local cuisine when you travel, your taste buds may enjoy this, but your stomach may feel otherwise. Using a probiotic may help prevent unwanted issues from occurring.
4. Throughout Pregnancy. Finally, the last time to make sure a probiotic is present in your life is throughout pregnancy. Keeping your body extra healthy at this point is important, and a good quality probiotic may help to reduce your risk of suffering from birth-related complications such as Gestational diabetes.
As you can see, a probiotic is not something you want to slough off and take lightly. It is a must-have in any diet plan aiming to keep you as healthy as possible.
Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.
For nearly 25 years, Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. Go to http://DrugFreeType2Diabetes.com to learn about some of those secrets.
The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
5 Things You Need To Know Before You Sign Up For Home Hemodialysis
As with the majority of treatments for kidney disease and failure, patients have the option to include home hemodialysis as part of their daily regimen. The ability to maintain a life outside of a dialysis center can almost inspiring for some patients, especially those that feel as though their independence is being hindered by their treatments.
However, because hemodialysis is going to be taking place in someone's home, the patient and his/her caregiver (if applicable) will be responsible for maintaining the treatment. This is no small task, and while it does grant a patient a major boost in confidence because they are a part of the process, it does ask a lot of them as well.
Before deciding that home hemodialysis is right for you, consider the following:
1. The history of hemodialysis does lend itself to having a place at a patient's home. Within ten years of hemodialysis being used as a treatment, nearly half of these patients received treatment at home. For a patient considering home treatment, this is good to hear.
2. There will be an initially large amount of anxiety for involved in the process. Remember, many of the patients taking on their hemodialysis at home do not have a background in medicine. Their caregiver, who is usually a spouse, also may not have medical experience, so both of you will experience some level of hesitation and worry about making sure everything goes right so as to not make the patient vulnerable.
3. There is less social interaction experienced by patients who manage their hemodialysis at home. Dialysis centers are set up for the comfort of patients who, at times, must be at the center multiple times a week for hours at a time. It becomes a new normal, however, and patients sitting next to one another become close because they have a common bond. Patients receiving treatment at home may either interact with their caregiver or, if they live alone, possibly no one unless they receive visitors.
4. Per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), "Hemodialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses a machine to filter your blood outside your body." In short, this treatment is necessary for your kidneys to do their job, which is essential to you staying alive. You and/or your caregiver will also need to undergo weeks of training to make sure you can handle treatments at home. There is a major 'if' attached to that because if you and/or your caregiver cannot handle the steps in treatment, then a safe environment cannot guaranteed.
5. The law requires that patients must be notified that they have a choice regarding at-home hemodialysis treatment. They must receive information regarding where they can go to receive training on the process, as well as where they can receive general education on treatment options.
Home hemodialysis can be a fitting way for a patient becoming accustomed to a new way of life to feel as though they still have independence and are not being hindered by their kidney failure. However, this independence does have quite a large amount of responsibility, and it is the job of all parts of the healthcare team, including the patient, to understand this responsibility and choose the treatment option that is optimal for their health.
However, because hemodialysis is going to be taking place in someone's home, the patient and his/her caregiver (if applicable) will be responsible for maintaining the treatment. This is no small task, and while it does grant a patient a major boost in confidence because they are a part of the process, it does ask a lot of them as well.
Before deciding that home hemodialysis is right for you, consider the following:
1. The history of hemodialysis does lend itself to having a place at a patient's home. Within ten years of hemodialysis being used as a treatment, nearly half of these patients received treatment at home. For a patient considering home treatment, this is good to hear.
2. There will be an initially large amount of anxiety for involved in the process. Remember, many of the patients taking on their hemodialysis at home do not have a background in medicine. Their caregiver, who is usually a spouse, also may not have medical experience, so both of you will experience some level of hesitation and worry about making sure everything goes right so as to not make the patient vulnerable.
3. There is less social interaction experienced by patients who manage their hemodialysis at home. Dialysis centers are set up for the comfort of patients who, at times, must be at the center multiple times a week for hours at a time. It becomes a new normal, however, and patients sitting next to one another become close because they have a common bond. Patients receiving treatment at home may either interact with their caregiver or, if they live alone, possibly no one unless they receive visitors.
4. Per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), "Hemodialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses a machine to filter your blood outside your body." In short, this treatment is necessary for your kidneys to do their job, which is essential to you staying alive. You and/or your caregiver will also need to undergo weeks of training to make sure you can handle treatments at home. There is a major 'if' attached to that because if you and/or your caregiver cannot handle the steps in treatment, then a safe environment cannot guaranteed.
5. The law requires that patients must be notified that they have a choice regarding at-home hemodialysis treatment. They must receive information regarding where they can go to receive training on the process, as well as where they can receive general education on treatment options.
Home hemodialysis can be a fitting way for a patient becoming accustomed to a new way of life to feel as though they still have independence and are not being hindered by their kidney failure. However, this independence does have quite a large amount of responsibility, and it is the job of all parts of the healthcare team, including the patient, to understand this responsibility and choose the treatment option that is optimal for their health.
Monday, March 6, 2017
5 Things To Keep In Mind While You're Researching Home Hemodialysis Companies
It's hard not to notice the number of dialysis centers popping up all over many areas of the country. Though these dialysis centers are considered to be specific in providing this life-saving procedure in-house, many of them have taken the term 'in house' very literally by also touting their place as home hemodialysis companies. As the medical landscape changes from day-to-day, so, too, does the idea of undergoing a medical procedure in the comfort of your own home.
There's no doubt that you are already being bombarded by the trials and tribulations of being diagnosed with kidney failure, which is why you need to undergo dialysis. The last thing you need to worry about is how to approach treatment, and for those looking to maintain their lives as normally as possible, having treatments at home sounds fantastic. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when deciding the best course of treatment for you:
1. How is Training Handled? If you're thinking that home dialysis is right for you, you have to think about who exactly will be in charge of running the procedure. Both you and, if applicable, a partner or family member must be trained to handle the materials & machinery involved. When looking for the right dialysis company, find out if they provide training.
2. How Much Does This Cost? Depending on whether you're operating from health insurance or government program, you need to take into account how much treatment will cost. You may find that perhaps holes in your health plan may not cover some costs or that your government-assisted health program covers only so many treatments for a week. Remember that training also costs money, so you'll need to be sure to talk things out with your health plan provider to see what options you have available.
3. Is Your Home Equipped for Home Hemodialysis? This is a bit of a complex question. For starters, you'll need to be sure your house can work with the machinery your treatments will use. You'll also need to see if you have a layout that handles any physical changes you'll need to make to accommodate this machinery. The complexity arises when you consider whether you or your proposed partner are ready to handle treatments. Extended medical care can be very taxing on the person being treated & on those administering treatments. It would be a good idea to ask if any home hemodialysis companies have social workers available to help when times get a little tough.
4. What Else is Offered? in doing your research, find out if these companies provide other services to patients such as disaster response assistance or general educational programs.
5. Always Remember the Risk - Some of the main risks you'll need to be aware of are low blood pressure & infection. The right training helps these be less common, but still keep in mind more severe risks such as air embolisms & blood loss.
There's no doubt that you are already being bombarded by the trials and tribulations of being diagnosed with kidney failure, which is why you need to undergo dialysis. The last thing you need to worry about is how to approach treatment, and for those looking to maintain their lives as normally as possible, having treatments at home sounds fantastic. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when deciding the best course of treatment for you:
1. How is Training Handled? If you're thinking that home dialysis is right for you, you have to think about who exactly will be in charge of running the procedure. Both you and, if applicable, a partner or family member must be trained to handle the materials & machinery involved. When looking for the right dialysis company, find out if they provide training.
2. How Much Does This Cost? Depending on whether you're operating from health insurance or government program, you need to take into account how much treatment will cost. You may find that perhaps holes in your health plan may not cover some costs or that your government-assisted health program covers only so many treatments for a week. Remember that training also costs money, so you'll need to be sure to talk things out with your health plan provider to see what options you have available.
3. Is Your Home Equipped for Home Hemodialysis? This is a bit of a complex question. For starters, you'll need to be sure your house can work with the machinery your treatments will use. You'll also need to see if you have a layout that handles any physical changes you'll need to make to accommodate this machinery. The complexity arises when you consider whether you or your proposed partner are ready to handle treatments. Extended medical care can be very taxing on the person being treated & on those administering treatments. It would be a good idea to ask if any home hemodialysis companies have social workers available to help when times get a little tough.
4. What Else is Offered? in doing your research, find out if these companies provide other services to patients such as disaster response assistance or general educational programs.
5. Always Remember the Risk - Some of the main risks you'll need to be aware of are low blood pressure & infection. The right training helps these be less common, but still keep in mind more severe risks such as air embolisms & blood loss.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Is Aluminium Cookware Toxic To Your Health?
Cookware is for cooking, right? And as long as your food gets cooked, what does it matter whether you've used an iron pan or a scratched Teflon pan?
It might matter much more than you've believed. A growing body of research evidence appears to point to a strong link between aluminium accumulation in the body and Alzheimer's disease - a disabling loss of mental ability that is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States and the 5th leading cause of death among those age 65 and older and also cause of disability and poor health. As per statistics in 2017, more than 5.5 million Americans living with Alzheimer's, an approximately 5.3 million are age 65 and older and estimated 200,000 peoples are below age 65 and have younger-onset Alzheimer's. Almost 2/3 of Americans with Alzheimer's are women.
Is this cause for worry?
We believe it's time to start taking precautions:
Rita Hayworth, not so long ago, made Alzheimer's a household word. A disease that usually occurs at 50 and over, Alzheimer's is characterized by severe forgetfulness initially, leading to a gradual waning of the ability for abstract thinking (including the ability to perform simple calculations, exercise judgement and solve everyday problems.) The person finally becomes severely disoriented to time, person and place. Post-mortems show the brain to be highly shrunken, the brain chambers to be abnormally dilated and a marked reduction in the number of brain cells.
To date, there is no sure care for Alzheimer's. Nor do scientists agree on what causes it, though there are several theories, and research is going on apace to identify the culprits.
It was way back in the mid-1970s that researchers first noted higher-than-normal levels of aluminium in the brains of Alzheimer's victims. The question raised by this discovery was whether this excess aluminium caused the Alzheimer's or the aluminium accumulation was a result of the disease process.
It's a big question. Aluminium, it turns out, is a major player in our lives. It's the third most common element on earth.
Aluminium, like other materials is present in all our bodies, though there's no evidence that it's an essential mineral. We all consume aluminium every day. A small amount of that consumption is due to aluminium that occurs naturally in some foods. But most of our aluminium intake occurs because someone, somewhere, added that aluminium to our food, drink, water, medicine or cosmetics.
And in our kitchens, aluminium pots and pans are widely used in cooking: being cheaper, lighter and easily available, they are preferred by a majority of the population.
But the aluminium in your cookware doesn't stay there. Aluminium is highly prone to pitting corrosion, a localized form of corrosion that occurs due to small impurities in the metal. Says Dr. K.R. Satyanarayan, Head of the department of metallurgy, College of Engineering, Pune, India, "Even anodized aluminium vessels, i.e. those coated with a protective oxide that increases corrosion resistance, are not completely safe: the protective layer wears off with time, and there is no obvious indication to a lay person that this has happened."
The risk of corrosion increases when food is cooked in aluminium vessels over a long time, and over high temperature. The greatest amount of leaching (of aluminium into the food) occurs when acidic food is cooked in aluminium vessels or stored in them. Try the acid test at home and you'll believe!
"Try this at home: Want to see some dramatic evidence of the effect of acid foods on aluminium? Line a container with aluminium foil, place some leftover tomato sauce in it, cover with foil so it touches the food, and leave it in the refrigerator for a week or two. When you take it out, you will probably find holes in the foil where the aluminium has been dissolved by the salt and acid in the food."
Nor is Teflon-coated (non-stick) cookware an automatically safer option. The coating is a layer of PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene), a polymeric material that is highly corrosion-resistant. But when the coating wears off, the underlying aluminium layer is exposed, and the pan becomes prone to all the effects of aluminium leaching.
What exactly are these effects? The Scientists have reported laboratory studies that have shown that aluminium binds to the body's chemical energy, ATP (adenosine tri phosphate) and could thus interfere with the body's energy storage system.
How Aluminium works? Dr. Theodore Kruck, Ph.D., member of a leading team of aluminium-investigating scientists at the University of Toronto, offers his explanation of how aluminium damages nerve cells in the brain, based on research he and his colleagues have conducted:
"All living cells must perform 'house-keeping' to maintain their normal functions. To do this, they read 'recipes,' which are stored in the DNA molecules of their chromosomes. When we extracted the active chromatin (the chemical that contains the DNA molecules in our cells) from the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients, we found aluminium levels in the chromatin that were nine times the normal levels. We believe that this aluminium reacts with the chromatin and makes it 'sticky,' and this prevents the cell from maintaining itself. It's as if someone put glue on some of the pages in the recipe book. If enough pages get stuck, the cell can't get the information necessary for its maintenance and it will slowly die."
Dr. Kruck says, "We have progressed to the point where we now have a smoking gun (aluminium) lying beside a dead body (the Alzheimer's victim). Although we still can't prove conclusively that the bullet came from that gun, we now believe there is very strong circumstantial evidence that aluminium is the murder weapon." Let's look at some of the evidence against the metallic defendant:
Aluminium's Toxic Litany. Several independent lines of investigation have clearly established that aluminium can be highly toxic to our nervous system:
Animal experiments show that injections of aluminium into the brains of cats (animals often used in such experiments because of their tissue's close resemblance to the human variety) will produce memory loss and other behaviours similar to Alzheimer's. And the damage to the cat's brain cells is in the same parts of the brain as in human victims of Alzheimer's. Experiments with rabbits show similar results.
People with kidney failure, can develop "dialysis dementia" - a condition resembling the symptoms displayed by Alzheimer's victims - when aluminium from the water used in the dialysis treatment accumulates in their brains.
Natives of certain regions in Guam and Japan (where there are high levels of aluminium in the soil and water) suffer from an increased frequency of neurological diseases in which their brains develop aluminium-containing lesions similar to those in Alzheimer's victims.
The excess aluminium in the brains of Alzheimer's victims isn't found throughout the organ. The aluminium build-up is in the exact same brain cells that are physically damaged by the disease.
The only way to make a 100 per cent certain diagnosis of Alzheimer's is to examine the brain after death to confirm the presence of nerve fibre "plaques" and "tangles" in the brain cells. Although aluminium occurs naturally in the brain, in Alzheimer's-diseased brains aluminium levels are elevated where these plaques and tangles are found.
Dr. Kruck and his colleagues feel that, while they are still far from having all the answers, the mounting evidence against aluminium justifies some recommendation.
How the risks from aluminium cookware may be minimized?
If an aluminium vessel is to be used for cooking, make sure it's anodized aluminium - but not an old anodized vessel where the protective layer might have worn off.
Never use a high flame when cooking in aluminium. Aluminium is a soft metal; therefore higher temperatures cause greater leaching. The risk is less when water-based food is cooked, in which the temperature does not rise above the maximum of 100 degree C, than if dry cooking like roasting is done, when the temperature rises higher.
As far as possible use a wooden spoon to stir food being cooked in aluminium vessels; the abrasive action of metal spoons or forks will get the aluminium off the vessel and into your food.
Don't cook acidic foods in aluminium - the risk of leaching multiplies greatly.
Salt also reacts with aluminium, so transfer cooked food into a stainless steel container before adding salt. (That goes for vinegar too).
Avoid boiling tea or coffee for long hours in aluminium kettles. American researchers have found 30 times the recommended WHO limits of aluminium in kettles in which water has been boiled for long periods.
Avoid storing cooked food in aluminium vessels or in aluminium foil, especially acidic food.
Avoid scouring soiled aluminium vessels with an abrasive sponge. Instead, use a soft sponge and warm soapy water. It is best to discard very badly burnt vessels.
As a better option consider cast-iron sizzler pans. Made out of an iron-zinc alloy, these pans retain heat and, like non-stick pans, require very little oil. They can be used instead of non-stick pans to make anything from omelettes to dosas. Also available are iron pans, which are ideal for making all kinds of foods. (The iron you may ingest from these pans will probably be beneficial to you, considering those who are iron-deficient).
If you have a malfunctioning kidney, you need to be particularly careful about aluminium ingestion: the kidney is one of the body's prime mechanisms for controlling and guarding against overload of any metal.
Children, particularly infants, are similarly susceptible, because of their immature controlling mechanisms. Don't go overboard with tinned milk powder which comes in aluminium containers.
We 'humans' have got the life a billion years ago. There have been five mass extinctions in earth's history. We are living through the sixth. And now we too are running at a pace to end it all. This time it will be our fault.
The new discoveries and inventions have made our lifestyle full of convenience. But our bodies require work. Just like the sedentary water starts smelling, the sedentary lifestyle has given rise to many chronic diseases like the heart problems, diabetes and hypertension.
Today, the health researchers are suggesting that most of the chronic diseases that have appeared in man's life are due to STRESS. From where it has come. It is the bi-product of our so-called modern lifestyle.
We are standing at the edge of cliff. Immediate actions are required to bring back the healthy days. We must incorporate exercise, balanced diet, sound sleep, and the most importantly happy and positive thoughts to our lifestyle to get rid of all health problems.
I believe "The opposite of great truth is also true."
Day and Night, Work and Rest, Art and Science... they all looks opposite but my viewpoint is they compliment each other.
The more you relax, the more you active. Life is a balance between what we can and what we cannot. Learn to live between effort and surrender.
It might matter much more than you've believed. A growing body of research evidence appears to point to a strong link between aluminium accumulation in the body and Alzheimer's disease - a disabling loss of mental ability that is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States and the 5th leading cause of death among those age 65 and older and also cause of disability and poor health. As per statistics in 2017, more than 5.5 million Americans living with Alzheimer's, an approximately 5.3 million are age 65 and older and estimated 200,000 peoples are below age 65 and have younger-onset Alzheimer's. Almost 2/3 of Americans with Alzheimer's are women.
Is this cause for worry?
We believe it's time to start taking precautions:
Rita Hayworth, not so long ago, made Alzheimer's a household word. A disease that usually occurs at 50 and over, Alzheimer's is characterized by severe forgetfulness initially, leading to a gradual waning of the ability for abstract thinking (including the ability to perform simple calculations, exercise judgement and solve everyday problems.) The person finally becomes severely disoriented to time, person and place. Post-mortems show the brain to be highly shrunken, the brain chambers to be abnormally dilated and a marked reduction in the number of brain cells.
To date, there is no sure care for Alzheimer's. Nor do scientists agree on what causes it, though there are several theories, and research is going on apace to identify the culprits.
It was way back in the mid-1970s that researchers first noted higher-than-normal levels of aluminium in the brains of Alzheimer's victims. The question raised by this discovery was whether this excess aluminium caused the Alzheimer's or the aluminium accumulation was a result of the disease process.
It's a big question. Aluminium, it turns out, is a major player in our lives. It's the third most common element on earth.
Aluminium, like other materials is present in all our bodies, though there's no evidence that it's an essential mineral. We all consume aluminium every day. A small amount of that consumption is due to aluminium that occurs naturally in some foods. But most of our aluminium intake occurs because someone, somewhere, added that aluminium to our food, drink, water, medicine or cosmetics.
And in our kitchens, aluminium pots and pans are widely used in cooking: being cheaper, lighter and easily available, they are preferred by a majority of the population.
But the aluminium in your cookware doesn't stay there. Aluminium is highly prone to pitting corrosion, a localized form of corrosion that occurs due to small impurities in the metal. Says Dr. K.R. Satyanarayan, Head of the department of metallurgy, College of Engineering, Pune, India, "Even anodized aluminium vessels, i.e. those coated with a protective oxide that increases corrosion resistance, are not completely safe: the protective layer wears off with time, and there is no obvious indication to a lay person that this has happened."
The risk of corrosion increases when food is cooked in aluminium vessels over a long time, and over high temperature. The greatest amount of leaching (of aluminium into the food) occurs when acidic food is cooked in aluminium vessels or stored in them. Try the acid test at home and you'll believe!
"Try this at home: Want to see some dramatic evidence of the effect of acid foods on aluminium? Line a container with aluminium foil, place some leftover tomato sauce in it, cover with foil so it touches the food, and leave it in the refrigerator for a week or two. When you take it out, you will probably find holes in the foil where the aluminium has been dissolved by the salt and acid in the food."
Nor is Teflon-coated (non-stick) cookware an automatically safer option. The coating is a layer of PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene), a polymeric material that is highly corrosion-resistant. But when the coating wears off, the underlying aluminium layer is exposed, and the pan becomes prone to all the effects of aluminium leaching.
What exactly are these effects? The Scientists have reported laboratory studies that have shown that aluminium binds to the body's chemical energy, ATP (adenosine tri phosphate) and could thus interfere with the body's energy storage system.
How Aluminium works? Dr. Theodore Kruck, Ph.D., member of a leading team of aluminium-investigating scientists at the University of Toronto, offers his explanation of how aluminium damages nerve cells in the brain, based on research he and his colleagues have conducted:
"All living cells must perform 'house-keeping' to maintain their normal functions. To do this, they read 'recipes,' which are stored in the DNA molecules of their chromosomes. When we extracted the active chromatin (the chemical that contains the DNA molecules in our cells) from the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients, we found aluminium levels in the chromatin that were nine times the normal levels. We believe that this aluminium reacts with the chromatin and makes it 'sticky,' and this prevents the cell from maintaining itself. It's as if someone put glue on some of the pages in the recipe book. If enough pages get stuck, the cell can't get the information necessary for its maintenance and it will slowly die."
Dr. Kruck says, "We have progressed to the point where we now have a smoking gun (aluminium) lying beside a dead body (the Alzheimer's victim). Although we still can't prove conclusively that the bullet came from that gun, we now believe there is very strong circumstantial evidence that aluminium is the murder weapon." Let's look at some of the evidence against the metallic defendant:
Aluminium's Toxic Litany. Several independent lines of investigation have clearly established that aluminium can be highly toxic to our nervous system:
Animal experiments show that injections of aluminium into the brains of cats (animals often used in such experiments because of their tissue's close resemblance to the human variety) will produce memory loss and other behaviours similar to Alzheimer's. And the damage to the cat's brain cells is in the same parts of the brain as in human victims of Alzheimer's. Experiments with rabbits show similar results.
People with kidney failure, can develop "dialysis dementia" - a condition resembling the symptoms displayed by Alzheimer's victims - when aluminium from the water used in the dialysis treatment accumulates in their brains.
Natives of certain regions in Guam and Japan (where there are high levels of aluminium in the soil and water) suffer from an increased frequency of neurological diseases in which their brains develop aluminium-containing lesions similar to those in Alzheimer's victims.
The excess aluminium in the brains of Alzheimer's victims isn't found throughout the organ. The aluminium build-up is in the exact same brain cells that are physically damaged by the disease.
The only way to make a 100 per cent certain diagnosis of Alzheimer's is to examine the brain after death to confirm the presence of nerve fibre "plaques" and "tangles" in the brain cells. Although aluminium occurs naturally in the brain, in Alzheimer's-diseased brains aluminium levels are elevated where these plaques and tangles are found.
Dr. Kruck and his colleagues feel that, while they are still far from having all the answers, the mounting evidence against aluminium justifies some recommendation.
How the risks from aluminium cookware may be minimized?
If an aluminium vessel is to be used for cooking, make sure it's anodized aluminium - but not an old anodized vessel where the protective layer might have worn off.
Never use a high flame when cooking in aluminium. Aluminium is a soft metal; therefore higher temperatures cause greater leaching. The risk is less when water-based food is cooked, in which the temperature does not rise above the maximum of 100 degree C, than if dry cooking like roasting is done, when the temperature rises higher.
As far as possible use a wooden spoon to stir food being cooked in aluminium vessels; the abrasive action of metal spoons or forks will get the aluminium off the vessel and into your food.
Don't cook acidic foods in aluminium - the risk of leaching multiplies greatly.
Salt also reacts with aluminium, so transfer cooked food into a stainless steel container before adding salt. (That goes for vinegar too).
Avoid boiling tea or coffee for long hours in aluminium kettles. American researchers have found 30 times the recommended WHO limits of aluminium in kettles in which water has been boiled for long periods.
Avoid storing cooked food in aluminium vessels or in aluminium foil, especially acidic food.
Avoid scouring soiled aluminium vessels with an abrasive sponge. Instead, use a soft sponge and warm soapy water. It is best to discard very badly burnt vessels.
As a better option consider cast-iron sizzler pans. Made out of an iron-zinc alloy, these pans retain heat and, like non-stick pans, require very little oil. They can be used instead of non-stick pans to make anything from omelettes to dosas. Also available are iron pans, which are ideal for making all kinds of foods. (The iron you may ingest from these pans will probably be beneficial to you, considering those who are iron-deficient).
If you have a malfunctioning kidney, you need to be particularly careful about aluminium ingestion: the kidney is one of the body's prime mechanisms for controlling and guarding against overload of any metal.
Children, particularly infants, are similarly susceptible, because of their immature controlling mechanisms. Don't go overboard with tinned milk powder which comes in aluminium containers.
We 'humans' have got the life a billion years ago. There have been five mass extinctions in earth's history. We are living through the sixth. And now we too are running at a pace to end it all. This time it will be our fault.
The new discoveries and inventions have made our lifestyle full of convenience. But our bodies require work. Just like the sedentary water starts smelling, the sedentary lifestyle has given rise to many chronic diseases like the heart problems, diabetes and hypertension.
Today, the health researchers are suggesting that most of the chronic diseases that have appeared in man's life are due to STRESS. From where it has come. It is the bi-product of our so-called modern lifestyle.
We are standing at the edge of cliff. Immediate actions are required to bring back the healthy days. We must incorporate exercise, balanced diet, sound sleep, and the most importantly happy and positive thoughts to our lifestyle to get rid of all health problems.
I believe "The opposite of great truth is also true."
Day and Night, Work and Rest, Art and Science... they all looks opposite but my viewpoint is they compliment each other.
The more you relax, the more you active. Life is a balance between what we can and what we cannot. Learn to live between effort and surrender.
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