The Importance of a Heart Smart Diet

There are many things that contribute to or undermine the health of your heart. Some factors you can't control, such as your age, sex, race, and family history of heart disease. However, there are plenty that you do have control over, like stopping smoking, reducing stress, losing weight if you're overweight, exercising regularly, and eating a heart-smart diet. If you care about enjoying a healthy life for a long time to come, you need to take action on some of the things that you can control:

Natural Pain Relief for Arthritis

Source:

Dorothy Foltz-Gray, Special to Lifescript

Published December 20, 2010

http://www.lifescript.com/Health/Conditions/Arthritis/Natural_Pain_Relief_for_Arthritis.aspx?utm_campaign=2010-12-20-68642&utm_source=healthy-advantage&utm_medium=email&utm_content=healthy-well-wise_Natural%20Pain%20Relief%20fo&FromNL=1&sc_date=20101220T000000

If you suffer from chronic arthritis, natural therapies can ease inflammation and acheyness. Read on for 10 tips to tame the pain today... 

When you’re wracked with arthritis pain, even the smallest movements can be a challenge. Untreated, discomfort seems to grow by itself, as your body and mind rebel against the hurt. 

“Once pain starts, it’s a bullet train to worry, stress and anxiety,” says Jane Pernotto Ehrman, M.Ed., a behavioral specialist and “mind/body coach” at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Then you end up dumping more of the inflammatory hormone cortisol into the bloodstream, which exacerbates arthritis, she says. 

A whopping 76.2 million Americans suffer from pain; more than half have some form of arthritis, according to the American Pain Foundation.

The right medications can help. But because body and mind are inseparable when it comes to pain, natural therapies like exercise and relaxation also do wonders.

Here are 10 ways to halt the hurt, even before you open your medicine cabinet.

Fruits, Vegetables Slow Kidney Disease Decline in Hypertensive Patients

Source:

Nancy A. Melville

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/733007

November 22, 2010 (Denver, Colorado) — The addition of fruits and vegetables to a diet can help offset acid imbalances and reduce the worsening of kidney disease among patients with hypertension, according to research presented here at Renal Week 2010: American Society of Nephrology 43rd Annual Meeting.

The study of 40 patients with hypertension-related kidney disease showed that the addition of fruits and vegetables over the course of 30 days resulted in significant improvements in the urine parameters of kidney injury.