Vital Wellness

Doctor recommends other nutrients: vitamin A, selenium, and zinc. These nutrients play important roles in the health of mucous membranes, your body’s internal skin.

Nutrients Chart

If you have healthy mucous membranes, your chances of having signifi­cant allergy problems will be less. The mucous membrane is a layer of cells that secrete the slimy substance we all know and should love, because it contains an array of infection-fighting bio-chemicals. Mucus also shields cells from direct contact with pollen and other allergens, sub­stances that trigger allergies.

This mucus layer protects cells from the damaging effects of air pollu­tion. Studies show that people who are exposed to both air pollution and allergens are more likely to have severe allergic reactions than those exposed only to allergens. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no doubt that antioxidants play an important role in almost every function of the body, but scientists have been zeroing in on antioxidants’ ability to defend against respiratory illnesses, such as allergies and asthma. Researchers found out where very few children suffer with allergies. They surveyed 690 chil­dren between the ages of 7 and 18 and gathered data from questionnaires that were completed by their parents.

The researchers discovered that those who ate fresh foods high in antioxidants, such as grapes, oranges, tomatoes, and nuts, were less likely to have wheezing and other respiratory symptoms. In yet another British study of over 2,500 middle-aged men, those who ate five apples a week had greater lung functioning than those who ate no apples. The researchers believed that healthy compounds found in apples, like anti­oxidants, have allergy-fighting effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Allergies are versatile. They can show up just about anywhere in your body and create an incredible variety of symptoms. They can

Allergic Reaction

affect your nose, eyes, throat, lungs, stomach, skin, and nervous system. They can make you itch, wheeze, and sneeze, make your nose run and your eyes weep, give you a headache or a bellyache, and even bring on fatigue and depression.

Allergy symptoms occur when your body’s immune system overreacts to substances in your environment. Most people can live with a little cat dan­der, dust, or pollen, for example. But people with allergies have immune systems that can react to just about anything that comes along. Read the rest of this entry »

You probably know someone with a drinking problem. In fact, maybe that person is you.

Alcoholic Problem

Problems with alcohol are fairly common in the United States. Two- thirds of all Americans drink and sixty percent are light to moderate drinkers, but up to 10 percent drink excessively.

The lights to moderate drinkers are probably in pretty good health, because is safe and may be beneficial, since it lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. But excessive alcohol consumption is another story. Excessive drinking on a daily basis—more than three drinks for a woman and more than six for a man—increases your risk of cancer and can damage the liver, pancreas, heart, and brain, and also increases the risk of breast cancer in women, says doctor. It can cause vitamin deficiencies resulting in anemia, memory loss, osteoporosis, and night blindness. Although rare in this country, when scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency and pellagra due to niacin deficiency do occur, it’s usually in alcoholics. Read the rest of this entry »

Although millions of free radicals bombard your cells on a daily basis, the fact that it takes as long as it does for them to cause

Fruits

damage or disease is a tribute to the natural free radical—fighting systems with which you were born. These systems are fighting free radicals every moment of every day.

Each system is ingeniously designed to produce an antioxidant, a natu­rally occurring chemical that binds to the free radical (or the oxidant, as it is sometimes called) before it reaches the cells. In doing so, the antioxidant helps preserve your body’s healthy molecules. Read the rest of this entry »