Losing Weight and Staying Healthy

Staying healthy while losing weight is the primary objective of any over weight, or worse obese people to achieve a healthier state of well being. Also, the dilemma of being able to balance the healthy state without compromising the rate of weight loss and vice versa is usually confused as to how it should be done.

Starvation Misconception

 

Chances are, some of weight losers become desperate and try drastic changes for losing weight that they expose themselves to a non nutritive state, leading to malnutrition, and complications arising from skipping meals such as ulcers and nausea. On the other hand, a consciously focused individual on staying healthy may forget that his primary goal is to shed the unwanted fat and exercise vigorously and would find himself not losing those pounds, all because of added muscle mass. Such confusion may eventually cause the individual to lose interest in maintaining and enduring the current healthy practice and resort back to unhealthy lifestyle with a less hassle maintenance.

Overworking The Body

Another misconception regarding staying healthy while losing weight is that it can be done faster with more exercise per day. Though this may hold true, our body can only take as much work before we tire out. Intensifying it abruptly, hoping that the added jolt in workload would hasten the shedding process, may trigger a rebound effect on the brain, for the brain has a survival mechanism that triggers a slow down of metabolism if the body is subjected to a high caloric consumption. Furthermore, complications like muscle injuries and joint sprains may occur as these are subjected to a load without having them adapt to it gradually.

Muscle Atrophy

In addition to the slow down of metabolism as a rebound effect, there is also another detrimental outcome for the body to preserve as m ch energy reserves [read: fat deposits], that instead of burning up the fatty deposits, muscle cells are rather used up instead. This is because protein is easier to synthesize into smaller components for energy sourcing than fat. Also, fat has larger energy content per unit than a protein, therefore allowing the body to efficiently store energy at a greater ratio. Such phenomenon is called muscle atrophy. With Muscle atrophy, a person is then subject to double time in gaining back the lost weight in muscles and at the same time keeping t he fat deposit levels low.

Couple With Exercise

Staying healthy while losing weight requires both a lessened caloric intake calculated and intended to the desired body weight requirement and coupled with adequate exercise. Usually, the first two weeks will have no significant results as the body will still have to adapt and change its metabolic paradigm with the new stressor. After which, significant weight drops would occur from the start of the third week of consistent losing weight. After which, the rate at which the mass sheds off gradually slows down until the desired weight is achieved.

Staying healthy while losing weight takes time to achieve. There are neither shortcuts nor easy way outs for this two to work harmoniously together. For a successful healthy status while losing weight, It is important to understand that the two should be well balanced so that not one of the aspects try to out hunger the other and cause a failure in the desired
objective,

 

 

Bad Breath Causes and How to Avoid Them

Bad breath is not a simple condition that you can easily shrug off and pretend it is not there. Although it does not always cause serious dental and medical conditions, it can bring you more trouble than you expected. Bad breath is a perfect source of embarrassment and a condition that can lose your confidence. All it ever does is come out of your mouth and the whiff causes the people you talk with in proximate distance to cover their noses or back off a bit. Admit it. It is not only embarrassing but disturbing as well. This shameful circumstance can bring you psychologically and emotionally down.

Why bad breath occurs?

The most common cause why bad breath, or medically termed as halitosis, develop is when food particles linger in the mouth. These are trapped in between teeth, debris in the lining of the mouth and on the tongue. There are bacteria that keep themselves busy so as to prevent bad bacteria from forming. However, when you don’t clean your mouth and teeth to get rid of these particles, bad bacteria are immediately attracted causing them to form a community inside. Bad bacteria carry compounds which now cause your breath to smell foul.

The lack of water intake is another cause for bad breath. Dry mouth is where bad bacteria love inhabiting themselves about because of the less moisture for them to keep working on.

Smoking also causes your breath to smell bad. Not only that. It can cause tartar and plaque, another reason why breath smells bad, to build up.

Another reason for bad breath is infections such as tonsillitis, sinusitis, and other similar conditions. Infections carry themselves compounds which are absorbed down the mouth and cause the breath to smell bad. Aside from this, there are certain medical conditions that trigger halitosis such as kidney problems, diabetes, periodontitis, and others.

In addition, a person taking prescription drugs can be candidate as well for suffering from halitosis. There is a wide variety of prescription drugs, which when taken orally, cause breath to smell bad.

How to Avoid Bad Breath

Bad breath can be avoided. One of the things that you can do is to practice regular oral dental hygiene. Brushing and flossing twice a day is a simple but effective way to avoid bad bacteria causing halitosis to form a community inside your mouth.

To clean completely your mouth and breath, mouth wash is also recommended. Since brushing and flossing alone do not completely vacuum your mouth with dirt, the rinse scrapes off any debris left around the lining of the mouth and tongue.

Tongue scraping is also a great way to prevent bacteria from reproducing and breeding grounds for bad bacteria.

Keeping your mouth hydrated by drinking water all throughout the day helps these bacteria busy working; thus, avoiding the breed of bad compounds.

Checking with your physician and dentist is a must once you are plagued with the condition. If bad breath continues even if you practice proper oral dental care, there is something wrong with your medical condition. If this is the case, the right person to diagnose and provide treatment is your physician or medical doctor.

Talking with your dental hygienist is a big step towards curing halitosis and gaining your confidence afterwards. Bad breath is never a simple thing to consider. If you don’t want to be affected by the negative things it comes with, take care of your own hygiene and check regularly with your physician.

Bed Bugs Alert: Know the Bed Bugs Symptoms

Many people these days are unaware of bed bugs symptoms. It is understandable since bed bugs together with some pests have been exterminated during the widespread use of DDT in the United States after World War I.

But because of international travel and immigration, bed bugs symptoms are making a comeback. But people don't detect bed bugs symptoms until someone complains of excessive itching and has oval-shaped insect bite marks which are often mistaken as moquitoes or dust mites bites.

When a household experiences a typical bed bugs symptoms, they don't check their mattresses, beddings, and couch uphosltery for bed bugs. Member of the household just spray gel-type insect spray to kill cockroaches or mosquitoes. But this kind of insect spray does not kill bed bugs, and therefore, furniture and upholstery remain bed bugs infested.

* Bed bugs - symptoms of infestation

How do I know if my home is infested with bed bugs?

A heavily infested home would have an offensive, sweet, musty scent. This odor is released by bed bugs' through their scent glands.

Another bed bugs symptoms to look out for is fecal or excrement stains, egg cases, and shed skins of bed bug nymps in crevices, cracks or holes on the bed or near it. Furniture near the bed should be checked also. Bedroom wallpapers, bed springs and clothings in your dresser, should be examined for these reddish brown excrement stains.

Your living room couch should be checked for these stains, especially if you or any member of your family get bed bugs symptoms such as swollen bites after sitting from your couch. Every place in your house where a person stays more than 30 minutes must be checked for bed bugs.

-- Hiding Places

A thin crack or seams of mattresses are one of the hiding place of bed bugs. Bed bugs wants to live closer to their source of food, which is human blood, so cracks near the bed or around the bedroom and livingroom are the primary places of bed bugs hiding places.

Once you find a bed bug in any parts of your house, the other parts of your house will undoubtedly have bed bugs too.

-- Finding Bed Bugs

Inspect your entire house the moment bed bugs symptoms are detected. Dismantle the bed, check the headboard, inspect the seams of of your mattresses. If you found reddish brown excrement and sheddings of insect skin, it means that your house is infested with bed bugs.

If you detected these bed bugs symptoms, you must tear off your wallpaper too. Chances are that bed bugs have created their bigger colony under the wallpaper. Every wood furniture that you own should be inspected for bed bugs too. They may have bed bugs too because bed bugs prefer wood or cloth as their hiding place rather than plastic or metal.

Empty the contents of your nightstands and examine it inside and out. Tip it over to inspect the crevices, cracks, recesses and corners of the woodwork underneath. Since bed bugs love woods, there is a big chance that they are hiding in there.

-- Some bed bugs facts

Bed bugs bites are often mistaken to mosquitoes or dust mites. So how would you know the bed bugs symptoms? Below are some basic bed bugs bite facts:

    * Bed bugs feed by piercing human skin with its two elongated beaks.
    * One of the beak injects saliva that contains anesthetic to reduce pain to pierced skin and an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting.
    * The other beak sucks the blood.
    * Bed bugs are nocturnal insects. They are very active during the night, especially an hour before the dawn breaks.
    * Bed bugs are oval-shaped and flat, and they can therefore hide in extremely thin cracks which is the reason why their breeding site are very hard to find.
    * An adult bed bug can live eighteen (18) months or longer without feeding and just stay in their hiding or breeding places until a host comes along and satiate their need for blood.
    * Bed bugs are often called the hitchhikers because of their ability to travel long distances by riding on suitcases, luggages and clothings.
    * Female bed bugs lay 300 eggs.
    * After ten (10) days bed bugs nymps are hatched from eggs.